Work Text:
"Oi, Friendly McExtrovert, cut the sap and get back to the hearts. You're gonna make me barf."
Yuki's voice snaps Kazunari out of his daze, and he realises he'd started drawing triangles on the design sheet. Heat rises to his cheeks as he gives a sheepish laugh and decides to just hide that layer. "Sorry Yukki~ I'll concentrate properly now, I prommy."
Yuki rolls his eyes, going back to his own paper next to Kazunari's laptop. With Valentine's Day coming up, they had decided to hold a small fan event with original Valentine's Card designs that contained a message and signature from someone in the company. It wouldn't be the first time they'd held an event like this, so they knew what kind of turnout to expect, but coming up with original Valentine's Cards was... well, about as hard as Kazunari thought it would be, but he said he was going to and so he IS. Yuki was working on a personal project, but Kazunari had asked for him there as the resident cute expert, and he didn't want to waste his time by-
...Ah, he's zoning out again. How long? Probably not that long if Yuki's not noticed. He brings his tablet pen back to the screen, creating a new layer to draw hearts on, and is promptly stuck once he's filled them in. So far he'd just done a generic design of 'Happy Valentine's Day!' with lots of hearts to get him in the zone, but he had no idea what to change, add, or delete to get something both new and fitting for it. He starts hiding and un-hiding layers, changing colour values, editing the size and flipping the canvas, but- nothing. For a moment, he considers going with the triangle layer anyway (it would be original) (probably?), but he's unsure how to feel about that design then being handed out to just anyone - even if Misumi himself had always handed them out freely, Kazunari's only ever given them to Misumi.
"Are you blocked again?" Ah, damn it, he was hoping that looking busy would prevent Yuki from noticing. Not that that's a good idea, he's supposed to be helping, but... anyway.
"Ahaha... a bit ☆ My usual methods aren't really working for me rn."
Yuki puts his own pen down to turn his attention fully to Kazunari, who keeps his eyes on the screen. "Usual methods for design in general, or for romantic stuff? You make friend cards for people at your University, right?"
Kazunari nods. "Yep. And, like, 'love' stuff can be a fun thing to incorporate into design anyway. It's just, now... I guess," he fidgets with the pen in his hand, spinning it around a bit, "having a specific person I love is, uh, kind of preventing me from thinking about it objectively?"
Yuki hums, unconvinced. "And you've never had this problem before? Never tried making romantic designs while you have a crush on someone?"
Kazunari laughs a bit. "No, I have. But crushes are different from being in love. And even if I was still in my crush phase of liking Sumi, it'd still be the first time I liked somebody that I, like..." He waves his free hand around a bit, "Know know, you know?"
He glances at Yuki out of the corner of his eye to gauge his reaction. Yuki nods. "Yeah, I can understand that."
Kazunari turns back to his screen. "So even though I've used crushes as inspiration for romantic designs before, it still ended up being... not generic, but not particularly specific either. And, um..." he feels his face turn red again. "I don't think I'll be satisfied until I've designed a Sumi-specific card anyway."
He hears Yuki sigh and start picking up his things, and turns to look at him in surprise. Yuki stands up and glaces down at him. "I'm going to ask around to see if anyone has design ideas. While I'm doing that, get it out of your system, okay?"
He starts walking to the door, and, after a second, Kazunari smiles and calls after him. "Thanks, Yukki!"
Yuki starts to say something, then stops, and instead says "...Yeah, you're welcome. ...Be done by tomorrow." With that, he leaves the room.
Kazunari cracks his knuckles and opens a new canvas, ideas already taking shape in his mind. He wouldn't need until tomorrow.
∆∆∆
In the end, Kazunari had designed and brought to reality his card for Misumi by the time it was lights out in the dorm, and had been able to design cards for the event over the next few days thanks to Sakuya's suggestion that he make four designs, one for each troupe.
The event had gone pretty well - Kazunari was a bit worried, since he and Misumi had already announced on the company blog that they're both taken (though they didn't say it's by each other), but thankfully most of the fans seemed understanding, and Misumi had found a nice solution of 'jump into a role whenever it's brought up' ("Misumi may be taken, bUT I, CAPTAIN SKY-"). It ended up spreading to other members, and eventually turned into a relaxed kind of etude that everyone seemed to enjoy, even if certain members jokingly complained about 'working overtime'. All in all, it was a very fun day.
Currently, Kazunari was making his way to Misumi's room, knowing that Kumon had agreed to sleeping somewhere else for the night. He had the card and a box of handmade triangular chocolates - the latter wasn't a present for Misumi, but rather half of what they had made together the day before (with Omi and Tsuzuru supervising, of course), and they planned to eat them together today.
When he enters the room, he finds Misumi mumbling to himself while pacing in a triangle, only noticing Kazunari when his path leads him to face the door again. Instantly, his face lights up, and there's barely enough time for Kazunari to close the door before Misumi leaps forward to hug him, being mindful of what Kazunari's carrying.
"Kazuuuuu~! Happy Valentine's Day! I love you!" His words come out in one breath, like he's been holding it in all day, and Kazunari laughs as he returns the hug as best he can.
"I love you too, Sumi~! It feels like I've not seen you at all today!"
Misumi whines against his neck. "I know! It was really fun, but I really really just want to be alone with you right now."
"I do too, Sumi! Ah, but you've gotta let go so I can give you your card!" Misumi pulls back slowly, and Kazunari leads them both to sit on the sofa before putting his triangle chocolate box on the table and holding the card out. "Here!"
When he takes it, Misumi lets out an excited gasp, trying to smile even wider than he was before to show just how much he loves it. The card's silhouette was a heart, but sharper - specifically, the shape was made by taking an upside down triangle and putting two smaller triangles on top. The front then uses this shape as a cat's head instead, smaller triangles drawn in the top ones to make ears, a heart-shaped nose, whiskers that reach the edge of the card to create more triangles, and slightly scrunched up eyes to match the smile it had. Unintentionally, the colour used for the background was similar to Kazunari's hair, but he'd only noticed after Yuki pointed it out - the intention was to make it yellow, Misumi's favourite colour, but plain bright yellow doesn't always look great, so he'd changed the values a bit.
Misumi runs his hand over it, admiring the design while enjoying the feel of the indents made from Kazunari's glitter pen, and Kazunari giggles. "Do you like it?" He's only teasing, of course - Misumi's body language is very obvious, but very intentional, too, so really, he's already answered the question.
Still, he looks up at Kazunari. "Yep~ Kazu's designs are always as pretty as him!"
Kazunari flushes. "Wow, really~? Because I was actually trying to make it as cute as Sumi!"
Misumi giggles, and his hand runs over one of the open edges of the card, reminding him he still needs to look inside. It opens upwards, the top saying "You're Purrrrrrrfect!" (which makes Misumi giggle again), and the bottom saying;
"Happy Valentine's Day, Sumi! You make me so happy everyday that I don't even know where to begin saying how much I love you, but one of the things that made me fall for you in the first place is how honest I can be around you, so I know you'll fully believe me when I say I love you more than I've loved anything before!"
Misumi closes his eyes for a few seconds after reading it, taking it in, then carefully places it on the table before engulfing his boyfriend in another hug. Kazunari squeezes back, stating like that for a few seconds while Misumi tries to say something. Eventually, he gets out "I love Kazu the most too! So, I..." he pulls away, holding Kazunari's shoulders lightly and staring him square in the face. "I don't have a proper- a physical present for you, but! I want to be more more honest with you, so I'm going to do a... speech! Um, you can record it if you want!"
Kazunari considers it for a moment, before shaking his head. "No problem, Sumi! I'll remember everything you say, right down to the pacing!" This gets another giggle from Misumi, relaxing him a bit, and Kazunari wants to let him know that he doesn't need to tell him anything that's hard to say, that he doesn't need to do anything special for today at all. But he can tell Misumi wants to do it anyway, so instead he asks "Do you need to get a script to read off?"
Misumi shakes his head, taking a deep breath in, then out. "If I wrote it down, I'd end up erasing some parts, which makes it not honest honest. And...
Being honest isn't something I thought was an issue for me until I came here. It took a while before I told you all about my life, but until then I thought it was just that I wasn't telling you, not that it'd be hard or scary to say. But I think it's good that I'm a bit worried doing it, because it means I found more people important enough for me to be worried. When I first came here, I didn't have a problem being myself, because I was used to how people reacted to it, but Kazu... you didn't. You were always nice to me, and it felt nice, but it was so different that I felt like any day you'd see something that made you change your mind.
But you didn't. Even when you're being completely honest, you're so so nice to me, and to everyone, because even if you felt like you were being fake before it's obvious you naturally have a lot of love for everyone because you're a lovely person! So my fear eventually looped back close to the beginning, where, even if it's still a little scary, I can get through it by thinking of you and how kind you are. I didn't- I didn't think I'd be able to be myself and be surrounded by people I love who also love me, but I am, and you're the one who's helped me get used to it the most! And that's one of the reasons why I love you so so much!"
Misumi takes a few more deep breaths, and, once he's sure he's done, Kazunari shoots forward to wrap his arms around his boyfriend, practically climbing on top of him to get as physically close as possible. He almost feels like crying at how wonderful it is that Misumi feels as safe and loved with him as he does with Misumi, how he'd also never imagined he'd get a life like this for such similar, yet such different reasons, how Misumi's arms around his body feel more like a fact of life than a conscious action.
All he can get out is "I love you, I love you, I love you," and Misumi responds the same, saying it into each others bodies, and Kazunari knows some people would say they've overdone the phrase by this point, but he knows the truth is that it would take an infinite amount of lifetimes before he's even nearly gotten them all out, and if he's wasting them on Sumi, then he's not wasting them at all.
Misumi lays down on the sofa at some point, Kazunari on top of him, neither currently having anything to say that the other doesn't already know. Then, Misumi gasps, and Kazunari looks up.
"What is it~?"
"We haven't eaten the triangle chocolates yet!"
Kazunari laughs, sitting up properly to look at the clock. It's only about 8PM. "Let's get to it, then! There's still plenty more we can do before the days over!"