Chapter Text
It was inevitable - they’d been talking about it for a couple of months already as the end of the lease came closer and closer. OTV had a thing going: they’d switch up houses every year - rent was easier that way and having a little variety helped them all a lot. That was how they’d sometimes have some out-of-OTV members in the house as well, namely Sykkuno. Despite the speculation riddling their online fanbase, it was never going to be a long-term agreement, and everyone involved was well aware of it.
That’s how the first conversation began. Sykkuno and Corpse were cuddled together in Sykkuno’s room, the two of them savouring the time they had together. Even if the three hours distance between them wasn’t all that much, both of them had busy schedules so downtime like this was something they craved.
They lay intertwined around one another, Sykkuno slowly running one hand through Corpse’s curls as the other man ran a hand up and down Sykkuno’s arm. Corpse’s mask had been discarded at the door to his bedroom. Although he really loved the OTV group, Sykkuno was one of the few amongst his newer friends that he trusted with everything.
But hey, that was probably because they were a bit more than just friends.
Laying there with eachother, the conversation had come up naturally, more as a throwaway than anything else.
“So, I’m gonna move out of the OTV house soon,” Sykkuno had said, his free hand raising up slightly to trace imaginary patterns in the air.
Corpse hummed at the statement, signalling him to go on.
“Wanna move in together?”
Sykkuno had initially said it as a joke, it just being a passing thought with the two of them there. He knew first-hand just how long it took for Corpse to open up to people, and he didn’t want to abuse that privilege in any way. Corpse’s privacy and comfort came first and foremost above anything else.
“Hmm, that could be fun,” Corpse replied a second later, humouring the thought.
Grins graced both of their faces as the moment passed and the conversation moved on. That had been that, there wasn’t much more to it.
---------------------
A couple months later, the idea had come up again. This time, Sykkuno had a more concrete grasp of the when’s and the what’s and the if’s of the situation. The OfflineTV members were moving into the new house in the coming weeks, so he was also expected to leave sometime during then. The only problem was that Sykkuno had absolutely no idea where exactly he’d be going. Of course, he could move back in with his family, he really wouldn’t mind that, but he just felt that the entire situation would be a bit backwards. He’d feel bad still living with his parents when he had all the resources to move out of home. Despite his cloudy living arrangements for the near future, one thing he knew for sure was that he didn’t want to live alone.
This time around, it was Corpse who brought it up.
“You’re moving out next week,” he said. The two were in Sykkuno’s room, tidying away the loose items strewn about so that it’d be easier when he’d inevitably have to pack everything up.
“Uh huh,” Sykkuno replied as he moved the growing pile of cat ears he’d been gifted from his desk to a box slowly filling up with assorted knick-knacks.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Not really.”
At that, Corpse stopped from here he was gathering random junk from under Sykkuno’s bed. At the sudden pause, Sykkuno looked up from his own task, giving Corpse an inquisitive look in the process.
“What would you think about actually moving in together?”
Sykkuno paused his tidying at Corpse’s proposition. It wasn’t the first time one of them had brought it up, but previously it had been more jokingly than anything else. But now, Sykkuno could tell that Corpse was serious about it, prompting him to think properly about it too.
All things considered, it was a logical next step. They’d only really known eachother for a couple of months, so some might say they were moving too fast, but the pair knew what was right for them. The way they’d so easily fitted into each other’s lives in such a short amount of time, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, was more than enough to prove the way they were attuned to one another.
But actually moving in together? Anyone else and Sykkuno would have been scared out of his wits at even a mere mention of the idea, but with Corpse, he realised that he wouldn’t really mind. In fact, it was quite the opposite: he’d love to live with him, so that’s exactly how he responded.
“I think that’d be really nice,” he finally replied with a smile.
---------------------
That’s what brought them to where they were now – a week later, and the two of them were hauling the final few boxes into their brand new, shared apartment.
After Corpse had brought it up, the pair had abandoned their cleaning efforts for a bit and instead sat down to have a proper conversation. They’d each laid out what they wanted, what they were comfortable with, and just discussed how exactly they’d go about it. Sykkuno had come out of that conversation feeling more content with the whole moving situation than he had in weeks.
Yet now that they were finally actually doing it, Sykkuno couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about it all. Of course he didn’t regret the decision, moving in with Corpse was like a literal dream come true, but that didn’t stop the jitters building up within him.
He wasn’t nervous about living with someone, he’d been living with a whole group of people for the last couple of months. It was the fact that he’d be living with the man he loved, sharing the same space, just existing together. And hey, he knew that he was out of practice with that kind of intimacy, and that in itself heightened his anxiety, but the fact that he’d be doing all this with Corpse? That’s what made his breath unsteady and his heart beat a little faster.
Corpse, despite his completely different living experience prior to moving in, was in a similar situation himself. He’d been living on his own for more than half a decade now, after he’d hurried himself out of his childhood home as soon as he could. People, those who hadn’t made the effort to really get to know him, would ask “ doesn’t it get lonely?”
What they didn’t understand was that he craved being alone. Yet somehow over the past few months, alone had formed a new meaning for him – it meant alone with Sykkuno. So now that they were actually moving in together, he couldn’t help the emotions buzzing around within him, equal parts excitement and restlessness.
“A-All done!” Sykkuno exclaimed as he grabbed the final box from the back of the van. Corpse gave him a warm smile in lieu of a reply, gently grazing his upper arm in a show of affection as he went over to the back of the vehicle to close it. Anyone else and they’d have missed his smile altogether, but the mask obscuring the majority of Corpse’s face had long ceased to be a hindrance to the two of them. Sykkuno could read him like an open book, the crinkle by his visible eye more than enough for him to recognise that he was smiling.
Despite his actions, Corpse hadn’t overlooked the obvious stutter in Sykkuno’s words. Was he nervous as well? Corpse knew first-hand of Sykkuno’s tendency to overthink everything, and so far, it seemed like that was exactly what he was doing.
The two of them moved in sync back to their new apartment, hopefully for the last time that day. All that hauling around had tired them both out. He looked over and caught Sykkuno placed his box down in one of the few empty spaces on their living room floor. Corpse again noticed an absent look in his eyes, one that had been plaguing Sykkuno for the past few hours.
“Sykkuno,” he called out. He moved towards the other man.
Corpse’s voice seemed to break Sykkuno out of his trance. “Uh, yeah?”
“You alright?” Corpse had situated himself behind Sykkuno. Gently, he reached out, wrapping his arms around the older man’s torso. Sykkuno seemingly melted into the contact, letting out a deep breath in the process.
“Yeah I’m fine Corpse. Just a bit overwhelmed and nervous about this whole thing,” Sykkuno replied, finally voicing his anxieties. And yeah , Corpse could relate on that front, but above all, he knew that this was going to be a change for the better.
Sykkuno, in all his nerve-ridden glory, shared a similar sentiment.
“But I’m also super excited about it,” he continued.
Corpse hummed, tightening his grip on Sykkuno in response. The two stood there swaying for a moment, just taking in the fact that they were really there: in their own home, with eachother.
Corpse ducked his head down, resting it on Sykkuno’s shoulder. “I love you,” he whispered.
Sykkuno grinned to himself at the proclamation. He twisted slightly to the left, with that being all he need to do before Corpse got the message. They met halfway, both leaning in with giddy smiles on their faces.
Their first kiss in their new home – god, so much was happening that afternoon. Their lips moved together smoothly, fitting together like they were meant to be. Sure, they’d kissed thousands of times before, but this moment made the experience seem brand new. The warmth the new place, their new place, brought had Sykkuno wanting to bask in the moment for as long as possible.
“I love you too,” he whispered back, leaning his forehead against Corpse’s.
He closed his eyes, and Corpse did the same. The last rays of sunlight filtered in through the open blinds, showering the room in a golden glow. Sykkuno and Corpse stood in the centre, surrounded by a maze of boxes and bags, but the happiest either had been in a long time.