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a night in

Summary:

“Say, Naru, won’t this be your second Christmas Eve with Nifuji-kun? Do you have plans?”

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

November 23, 10:02 am.

The work elevators were slower than ever, and Hanako shifted the heavy bundle of files she was carrying to the crook of her other arm with a soft sigh. Just a few more busy weeks to get through before their blessed, blessed New Year’s holiday and some well-deserved time off. And maybe Kabakura would do right by Christmas celebrations again this year too.

(And, well, if he didn’t, she had a stockpile of manga especially recommended by Naru-chan for the occasion. Someone would have some romance this Christmas Eve at least, even if it wasn’t her.)

Though speaking of Narumi and Christmas Eve…

“Say, Naru, won’t this be your second Christmas with Nifuji-kun? Do you have plans?”

When there was no response from the woman waiting next to her, Hanako glanced over. Narumi looked a little less than her usual sparkling self. It was still early in the day, not even lunchtime yet, but her concealer was already wearing away, the dark circles of sleeplessness peeking through. Her hair was tied back, but not quite as neatly as her usual, stray tendrils slipping loose from the clip. Under her blazer, her blouse was looking a little rumpled and suspiciously similar to the one she’d worn the day before. But the most telltale sign of them all: there was a smudge of black ink only partially washed away on the heel of Narumi’s hand.

Apparently the storyboards she’d sworn she was going to finish last weekend hadn’t gotten done after all. Crunch mode Naru-chan was never pretty.

The elevator chimed, the doors sliding open, but Narumi didn’t move to go inside, her gaze a thousand sleepy miles away. Hanako reached over and gently tapped her shoulder; Narumi startled and clutched her own stack of files closer, the distance in her eyes blinking away.

“Are you and Nifuji-kun doing anything for Christmas?” Hanako asked again as they entered and pressed the button for their floor.

“For Christmas?” Narumi paused for a long moment and then shook her head. “It’s too close to winter Comiket, I won’t have time to do anything. And Hana-chan, I had to start all over with my storyboards! I don’t know when I’ll get everything to the printer!”

The elevator chimed softly, stopping to let in another employee before Narumi could describe exactly where her comic had gone so disastrously wrong, but she looked pleadingly over at Hanako for the entire remainder of the ride to their floor and the long walk back to their desks.

It was way too early in the day for beer to sound so good, but…

“Do you have time to go for a drink—” Hanako started as she set the stack of work awaiting her for the rest of the day next to her computer.

“YES.” Narumi’s reply was underscored by the heavy thump of her own bunch of files hitting the desk. “I definitely have time for a drink after work.”

For the rest of the day, Narumi seemed to be wilting a little more each time Hanako glanced over, concealer finally giving way completely by noon and even more tendrils of hair slipping free of the clip by three. Was she going to have company at the bar after all? But miraculously, by the time Hanako had packed up her bag to leave, Narumi was pushing back from her computer with a pleased sigh, the stack of files noticeably diminished from the morning.

“No overtime today?”

I need beer.

One look at Narumi’s face told Hanako all she needed to know about any further work conversation. Drinks it was for the both of them, then!

There was a distinctly wintry chill in the evening air as they left the building, a nice reminder of the holiday soon to come. Narumi was chattering about the problems with her storyboards – “the kiss just looks all wrong!” – but abruptly stopped short as they approached the bookstore around the corner from their usual bar.

“Wait, do you mind if we go in here first?”

Narumi was already turning towards the door, not even waiting for an answer, and Hanako followed her in. Manga could definitely come before beer, and she had a few things she needed to pick up anyway. But before she’d even made it all the way inside, she was stopped dead in the middle of the entrance by Narumi, staring intently at a front display.

“Hana-chan, that’s it!”

It was apparently a stack of battle manga for eleven year olds with a cover that admittedly did look more than a bit promising for the fujoshi crowd – surely the dark-haired one wasn’t actually leaning in for a kiss with the light-haired one, right? – but otherwise didn’t look like something Naru would normally pick up.

“He just needs to lean over like that in the first panel and it’ll be – Hana-chan, I’m sorry, can we get drinks tomorrow?”

She didn’t have time to answer before Narumi was out the door in a flurry, work mode clearly engaged with no room for idle chitchat. Well, that was that. Time for her backup plan.

 

Hey, wanna grab a drink when you’re done with work?

Naru canceled on me

 

Kabakura’s response came as quickly as she expected.

 

Give me 15 mins

Meet out front?

I’ll be at the usual place

Meet me there

 

Hanako slipped her phone back into her bag with a pleased sigh and headed upstairs towards the women’s section. A nice evening was still in the cards! And if she picked up a few more magazines for inspiration than she originally intended to before she headed out to the bar, no one else needed to know.

 

December 9, 1:47 pm.

Kabakura could see Nifuji getting up from his desk. He couldn’t see the cigarettes in the man’s hand, but there was only one thing he could be doing this time of day: going for his first smoke break of the afternoon.

He should lecture Nifuji. He really should. Kabakura’s hands hadn’t stopped moving across his keyboard since this morning – lunch had been less an actual break and more an opportunity to get some work done without his underlings’ chatter – and he knew the man hadn’t finished the project he’d assigned him this morning. They may still have a few weeks left before the end of the year, but that was no excuse to slack off on work, not with so much left to do.

But a coffee sounded awfully nice right now.

By the time Kabakura got to the breakroom, two cans of coffee in hand, Nifuji was already stubbing out his cigarette, lighter and pack stowed away once more. He was almost proud – a new smoke break speed record from the man – but now he wanted company.

“Oi, Nifuji. Here.”

A comfortable silence fell between them, stretching on for a few minutes and broken only by the occasional clink of a can and a sip. Ah, a much needed moment. It was almost a shame to end it, but all too soon, Kabakura’s coffee was empty. But before he could toss it out and return to the horror of his work desk, Nifuji cut in to his thoughts.

“Hey, Kabakura-san. When did you make reservations for Christmas Eve last year?” The man looked surprisingly pensive – for Nifuji, anyway – as he asked, fiddling with his can tab.

“In June.”

Kabakura had marked it down in his calendar and everything so he wouldn’t forget. Not getting to see Hanako until after New Year’s had been his biggest regret the year before… not least of all because she’d kept texting him progress photos of her new cosplay while he was doing overtime digging through files and making boring chitchat with all the company superiors at New Year’s parties.

“Ah.” There was a long pause while Nifuji downed the last of his coffee. “So if I haven’t made any reservations yet this year…”

“Eh? Not yet? What about Momose?”

Though come to think of it, Kabakura wasn’t entirely sure he’d remembered to make any plans this year himself. Surely he’d ordered a cake, at least?

“She said she’d probably be too busy for anything big, but I thought I should do something.”

What had he ordered lately? There was that figure preorder and the special edition for that one series. And that new book – no, he’d picked that up last week. Had he remembered Christmas reservations?

“It’s too late for a nice restaurant,” – oh, he definitely had not remembered to reserve anything for Hanako – “but you could get a cake. Maybe have a nice night in. Momose would like that, wouldn’t she?”

At that, Nifuji looked thoughtful, like an idea had come into his head. He nodded at Kabakura and turned to leave, empty coffee dropped into the trash and phone in hand typing away.

“And finish typing up that report before you leave today!” There, Kabakura’s duty as supervisor was done. He still wasn’t really ready to go back to his desk – back to the reports that were sure to have piled up even higher while he was gone – but he was ready to clear some more files out of the way and leave before it was too late. As he settled himself back in his chair (Nifuji looking surprisingly intent on his computer a few desks down) in the office, hand poised to grab the report that had definitely turned up in the ten minutes he’d been gone, his phone chimed.

 

Wanna grab a drink later with me and Naru?

Want to stay at mine after?

 

Yes

Actually

Maybe we can just skip the drinks tonight

 

The more Kabakura thought about it, the more a nice evening in on Christmas Eve sounded like a great idea. And if he spent ten minutes looking up bakeries on his work computer before he picked up a new report, no one was rude enough to mention it.

             

 

December 19, 5:09 pm.

Want to come over? (*゚▽゚*)

 

The chime of Narumi’s phone woke her up from a doze, and she squinted blearily at Hirotaka’s text message. Did she want to come over? Everything she needed to work on that day was done and she did really want to see Hirotaka, but…

Narumi glanced down at the ancient t-shirt she was wearing, stained with years of splattered ink and bleach and god only knew what else, and thought hard for a moment. To put on a bra or not to put on a bra?

 

Why don’t you come over here, Hirotaka?

( ^ω^ ) ( ^ω^ ) ( ^ω^ )

I’ll be there soon!

 

Narumi put her phone back down next to her with a contented sigh. Her table was a bit of a mess, discarded energy drink cans piled up next to her stash of pens and her drawing tablet long lost underneath it all, but Hirotaka wouldn’t mind if she didn’t straighten it up right away for him. And she wouldn’t have to brave the trains on a Saturday night to see him – a win/win all around as far as she was concerned. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Narumi thought that she might mind Hirotaka coming over to her messy apartment a little more if she weren’t so tired, but... she wanted to see him no matter what state her apartment was in.

(Though she did pull a sweater on just before he rang the buzzer. Just in case.)

“I brought beer,” Hirotaka greeted her, large grocery bag in hand as she opened the door. “Wanna watch some tv?”

“You’re the best.”

Soon the sound of the tv turned into a pleasant background hum as Narumi leaned against Hirotaka, beer long since abandoned to her now even messier table and her eyes drifting shut. He was so warm… and he smelled nice, so comfortably Hirotaka-ish…

When Narumi woke, she was no longer pressed against her warm boyfriend, but she was tucked under a blanket, head nestled into a pillow. And she could smell cooking from her kitchen and hear the distant sound of a familiar voice on speaker phone.

“—after you finish frying the meat, nii-chan,” hummed a voice that sounded a bit like Nao, but it was interrupted by a pained yelp from someone who was definitely Hirotaka. Narumi smothered a sleepy chuckle and snuggled deeper into her pillow. She’d let Hirotaka finish what he was doing…

When Narumi woke again, it was to the sight of Hirotaka placing two bowls of fried rice on her now-cleared table. His right thumb was newly bandaged, and there was just the faintest hint of scorched food in the air, but as she sat up and took in the food, it looked surprisingly edible, considering who’d made it.  Fresh drinks, fried rice, and… hang on…

“Hirotaka, is that fried chicken?”

He cleared his throat, looking away from her, but Narumi could still see the tips of his ears go bright red. Her hands itched for her phone to take the photo she knew she would love to show Hana-chan later, but Hirotaka stood between her and it and she couldn’t disturb him now.

“Nao told me about a restaurant near his place and since you’ll be too busy to do anything on Christmas Eve, I thought we could do something tonight instead.”

“Hirotaka!!”

Narumi could feel tears starting to well up as Hirotaka finished setting the table, his cheeks dusted with a blush now too. She looked like such a mess, her hair was all tangled, there was definitely a bra lying on the floor outside the bathroom where she’d dropped it after work two days ago and forgot to pick it up, but he was still here—

“Hand me my phone, I need to get a picture of this! Hirotaka making dinner!”

“After that, can we eat? I’m starving.”

(The rice was a little too fried and the chicken was a little too cold, but she would never breathe a word to Hirotaka. Not yet, anyway.)

 

 

December 24, 7:34 pm.

Merry Christmas! (╹◡╹)

Hirotaka, I need help!!!

I forgot about this one last thing!

MY HAND IS FALLING OFF

PLEASE

I’ll be there in half an hour. ( ^ω^ )

[picture of a Christmas cake]

Notes:

Narumi being too busy with winter Comiket to do anything with Hirotaka on Christmas Eve comes from the manga (vol 4 of the English version).

Happy Yuletide, lacksley! I hope this is a nice treat for you!