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“Yoru, why aren’t you wearing your gloves anymore?”
Phoenix and Yoru were both assigned on overnight watch duty at Split. It’s not often they get to work together, so Phoenix enjoys the times he gets to fight alongside Yoru. He thinks their skillage work great together, and he’s definitely not just saying that because they’re dating.
It was a slow night, nothing has happened during the few hours, so they’ve mostly been conversing to pass time; Making sure they’re still focused because the last time they distracted themselves over an argument they almost had a bullet in their heads.
Yoru looked at Phoenix with a raised brow at the sudden question, “They started to tear. I keep forgetting to replace them.” He turned back to watch on sight with the Operator, trying to focus again.
“Your hands look pretty cold. Want me to keep them warm?” Phoenix asked, delicately forming an orb of fire in his hand while wagging his eyebrows. Yoru looked at him again, “Phoenix sometimes I feel like you want me to call you an idiot.”
“Don’t be like that! You don’t have to deny it, your hands aren’t as steady on the trigger since you’re not used to your hands being exposed to the cold anymore. And I know you love it when I hold your hand.” He smiled, watching Yoru’s face turn a shade of red. “I can’t even if I wanted you to, we need to be ready to shoot if someone comes. I can’t let go of the trigger.” “I know,” Phoenix replied, kissing Yoru’s cheek, “I just like to tease you.” Yoru cursed in annoyance making Phoenix sit back and laugh at his reaction.
He listened to Yoru for the rest of the night rant about how nice Split used to be before Kingdom came along, humming in responses to show he was listening. But he was too focused on the question he asked earlier. He wanted to get Yoru new gloves because knowing his boyfriend, he’s probably going to keep forgetting to replace them himself. Sometimes he has to constantly remind Yoru to do certain things, but this time he felt like doing it for him for a change. And he knows exactly who to talk to when they get back.
--
When they landed back, Phoenix shook Yoru’s shoulder to wake him up, getting a hand shoved to his face and a ‘five more minutes’ in response. If there’s one thing about Yoru that Phoenix finds a little irritating, it’s how moody he gets when he doesn’t get hours of sleep or if someone wakes him up. He watched Yoru jump off the pad and drag his feet towards base. Phoenix playfully rolled his eyes. So dramatic.
Since it’s morning, Phoenix knew the person he was looking for would be in the kitchen, so he changed directions until he felt a tug on his sleeve. “Where are you going?” Yoru asked, rubbing eyes. “Our room’s this way dumbass.” “I know, but you go ahead first, there’s something I need to do really quick.” Too tired to ask any further, Yoru shrugged and headed to their room. Phoenix let out a sigh of relief and headed towards the kitchen and saw Cypher and Omen sitting together.
Cypher stopped speaking to Omen and looked over at the source of footsteps entering the room, “Oh, if it isn’t our little star. Burning bright as always I see?”
Phoenix happily waved back, “Hey guys! Omen, I have a favor to ask you.” Omen continued eating his food, “No. First you come and interrupt me and Cypher then now you wanna ask me for a favor?” Not getting the hint, Phoenix sat down at the table. “It’s really important.” “Fine, but make it quick. What do you want?”
Phoenix looked intently in Omen’s eyes, “Omen, I respect a guy who knits. I think that’s pretty cute.” Omen spit out his water, getting it all over the table. “Wait-“ Omen choked, “How did you know that I-“ he whipped his head over to the only person that knew.
Cypher tipped his hat further down to hide his eyes, “Sorry sweetheart. It just slipped out.” Omen looked back at Phoenix, “It helps me focus!” Omen excused, but then snarled. “Oh what do you care.”
“I care! Very much actually. I was wondering if you could teach me how to knit some fingerless gloves.” Omen rested his thumb and pointer finger on his chin, “I’ve never actually tried to knit gloves, but it’s doable. You’re gonna need to measure your fingers.”
Oh shit, how am I gonna measure Yoru’s hand size now without him asking about it?
“How do I do that exactly?”
“What do you mean how do you-“ Omen sighed in frustration, “You can use a soft tape measure. We need to know the circumference of your fingers to determine what general size you are for the number of stitches we need.”
“Gotcha!”
“We can start in a few days. Come to my room then.”
Phoenix returned to his room to see Yoru dead to the world, so he put his palm on the door to quietly close it shut. He was eternally grateful that Yoru was already asleep. Phoenix is so used to sleeping with him at this point that it takes almost hours for him to fall asleep if Yoru’s not in bed with him. Too tired now to figure out how to he was going to measure Yoru’s hand, he changed and got into bed and cuddled close to him, immediately falling asleep. He has a few days to figure it out.
--
A few days had passed, and Phoenix still hasn’t had the right opportunity to get Yoru’s measurements. He hopped off the airship, back from another assignment. He felt the fatigue creep on him, just wanting to go to sleep again, but he meets with Omen tomorrow so he has to get the measurements whether Yoru asks about it or not. Phoenix walked into his room and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Yoru asleep again. He wasn’t even laying properly in bed. Only the top half of his body was on the bed while the back of his knees were against the edge of the it. He looked down and saw that Yoru still had his shoes on, shaking his head in mild annoyance. Phoenix walked over and crouched down to untie his shoes, replaying the memory for the hundredth time in his head:
“Yoru can you please just lace your shoes like a normal person so you don’t have to keep wrapping them around your ankles?”
“It’s a style! It makes my outfit look ten times better.”
“Well I think you should care more about convenience rather than aesthetic. Considering how unbelievably lazy you are. I have to untie them for you because you’re too lazy to do it!”
“I thought you liked doing things for me.”
“Wh- I do! But not if it feeds into your laziness.”
“Maybe you should take this opportunity to learn a thing or two about style. You’re the one over here that wears shoes with Velcro straps on them.”
“And what’s wrong with that exactly?”
Phoenix finished untying Yoru’s shoes and took them off in a swift motion. He hooked his arms below his back and knees, picked him up bridal style, and gently laid him back properly onto the bed.
He can’t even put himself in more comfortable clothes. Phoenix thought, shaking his head. I guess he was just really tired today, can’t blame him for that.
He took off Yoru’s outfit as slow as he could, leaving him in his t-shirt and briefs. Phoenix stepped back and stared for a second. This is it. He whipped his body over to his desk and grabbed the soft tape measure, unraveling it and creeped back to the edge of the bed. He grabbed Yoru’s hand and laid it flat on the mattress and measured his fingers. Nice! Before letting to, he stroked Yoru’s hand a bit, noticing how dry they and scraped they were. He needs to also get him some hand lotion. Phoenix turned around but halted his footsteps when he heard shuffling. “Phoenix?” Yoru asked, propping his elbows on the bed. Phoenix turned back, hiding the tape behind his back. “Were you just..massaging my hands?” “Uhm, yeah! I was.” Yoru flopped his head back onto the pillow, “Well do it again, it felt nice.”
“Of course!”
--
It was the next day, the boys were in Phoenix’s room spending quality time just enjoying each other’s company. Until Yoru started to fidget and get bored. “Let’s go eat somewhere.” Yoru requested, getting up from the bed and tugging Phoenix’s arm.
“Uh, I can’t actually.”
“What do you mean you can’t? What, you got plans without me?”
“Uh, yeah actually. I’m supposed to meet with Omen for something important soon.”
“…Can I come with you?” “You can’t..”
“Why not?!” Yoru’s cute when he’s angry.
“Omen doesn’t want anyone else to be there. He likes to interact with people as little as possible.”
Yoru laid back on the bed, “You’re leaving me on the day we’re supposed to spend time with each other.” “I know, I’m sorry, but I’ll make it up to you! Maybe you can ask Viper to hang out with you today.” Phoenix teased. He knows how much he dislikes Viper. “Fuck you!” Yoru shouted, turning his back towards Phoenix.
“I have to go now. Will you be okay without me for a little while?” “I can do just fine without you!” Yoru responded, trying his best to hide the sadness and disappointment in his voice. Phoenix leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be back.”
--
“No!” Omen growled. “You need to put the needle into the first stitch, then take the working yarn and wrap this needle around and pull it through so that it’s joined in the round.”
Phoenix gave a look of exasperation and hung his head in defeat. “This is really hard! Your instructions are really confusing!” “No, they aren’t. You just don’t know how to listen.” “I am listening!”
The two continued to bicker, briefly forgetting their main objective until Cypher put down his knitting needles and interrupted the two, “Honey, your instructions are a little confusing for a beginner like Phoenix. Go through it with him step by step.” Omen deflated, unhappy that Cypher defended Phoenix but not him. “Fine. I’ll do the first part for you but you better be paying attention.” He deadpanned. Phoenix rapidly nodded his head watching attentively. “Are you sure these are the right measurements?” Omen asked while showing him a step. “They seem a bit too small for you.” Phoenix rubbed the back of his neck, “It’s actually Yoru’s. His are too old so I’m gonna make these for him.”
Omen rubbed his temples, “You dumbass, Yoru can’t wear these kinds of gloves during combat for obvious reasons!” Phoenix slightly tilted his head and widened his eyes at the same time. “Ohh, shit you’re right, huh? Well, might as well finish them anyway! I think he’d appreciate them regardless.” Phoenix sheepishly smiled. Omen shook his head in disbelief, “I swear sometimes I don’t know what goes through your head, but at least you have heart.”
After a few (re)attempts, Phoenix managed to knit a pair of fingerless gloves. They were a mix variety of blues just like Yoru’s old leather ones, but with some subtle splits that Phoenix hopes he doesn’t notice. He can at least say he tried his best.
He thanked Omen and Cypher and walked back to his room, clutching the gloves securely in his hand. When he entered the room, Yoru was curled under the blanket napping. Phoenix sighed, wondering how Yoru can spend so much of his day just sleeping. He wishes he would interact with the other agents when he isn’t around. Yoru always insists that he doesn’t need to be friends with anyone else, as long as he has him, which is sweet and all but he still wants Yoru to get along with everyone else. It also doesn’t help that Yoru is constantly talking shit about most of the agents. Phoenix softly shook Yoru awake a few times, finally earning a grunt in reply. He fluttered his eyes open then furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance. “What the hell Phoenix you know I hate it when you wake me up like that.” “I know,” Phoenix rolled his eyes. “but come on sit up, I wanna show you something.” Yoru did what he was told, reluctantly. “You know I hate surprises too, what is it?”
The boy pulled out the fingerless gloves revealing them in his palms to Yoru. “I made you these! Omen helped teach me how to knit them. But then he kinda yelled at me and said that these aren’t fit for combat, which he’s right. So you can wear these when you’re not on assignments, so that your other ones won’t tear as fast. If you want to, of course. Tomorrow let’s make up for our lost time today and go get your old gloves replaced and get you lotion treatment. Your hands look like they’re going to split and bleed. You need to take proper care of yourself. I can’t always be able to myself you know?” Phoenix rambled on.
Yoru took the gloves from Phoenix as he kept rambling, stroking them with his thumbs, feeling the soft material against his fingers. His eyes sparkled for a split second then immediately changed his expression when he looked up. “You really thought I could wear these on assignments? Also there are some splits here.”
Phoenix collapsed onto the bed next to Yoru, one leg flat and the other bent, “Jeez you could’ve just been nice and not mention that part at least.” He sighed closing his eyes, hours of knitting making him tired. Phoenix was resting his eyes, so he wasn’t able to see Yoru biting the corner of his lip, chuckling to himself and trying on the gloves to feel them fit snugly over his hands.
The two were assigned on a mission together again. They finished the last of the clones with just enough time to spare to defuse. Phoenix watched Yoru defuse, still on alert to protect him just in case. He looked down at Yoru's hands, noticing a bit of the knitted gloves sticking out from under his replaced gloves. "Are you wearing both gloves right now, Yoru?"
"..Maybe."