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Kazutora never imagined he could be this... blissful.
When he was young, he always thought he would live with everything he had, rampage all his life, burning all his energy and the world around him, and then one day he would simply run out of energy and disappear from sight. He could never quite imagine himself passing the age of 18.
Now, his life was rather boring. He didn't go on rampages with Keisuke anymore, nor did he get in petty gang fights with other teenagers who were just as broken and rebellious as himself. Some people might wonder how he could trade that adrenaline rush he used to feel everyday when using violence to solve all his problems for giving baths and grooming dogs on his working days.
Honestly, that kind of lifestyle could get tiring really quickly. Someday, just like his younger self thought, he would crash and burn like a wild truck on fire, and it wouldn't be pretty. He preferred how his life was going right now, with calm days spent with his loved ones, a steady job that he actually liked a lot and some much needed mental stability.
He even had a routine now. Something steady that kept him grounded to Earth. It was easy, once he and Chifuyu moved in together, to get used to each other and have a comfortable coexistence. Both of them knew to respect each others boundaries and took their time to get used to living together, falling into a routine naturally.
Sometimes he couldn't believe it. When he was having a particularly bad day, he would just lay in bed and think it was all a dream, that someone like him, who just hurt others and broke everything he touched and always messed things up and just knew how to ruin things and never did anything right, could ever get to live a normal happy life. That he really didn't deserve it. How could Chifuyu ever love someone as messed up as himself? It sounded impossible to warp his head around it.
But he would never be alone on these days. Chifuyu kept at his side no matter what, reassuring him that he did deserve to be happy and have peace, that he wasn't some evil broken unsalvageable person like he thought he might be. Peke-J, the old cat she was, would curl up and purr at his side, as if saying she was there for him. Keisuke, whenever he caught wind of it, would crash in their apartment and say silly stuff until Kazutora didn't feel like he was suffocating on air and could breath alright again.
He was grateful for them, more than anything. They were his best friends in the world, always there for him when he needed, and he would do anything for them as well if it meant they would be happy and safe.
♡
Kazutora's morning routine starts before Chifuyu's alarm could even go off. Ever since he went to juvie, all those years ago, he got in the habit of waking up early. He wouldn't consider himself to be a morning person tho, even if he appreciated the quietness of this time of the day.
He spends the first minutes of the day in the best way he could think of: snuggling in bed and basking in the warmth of Chifuyu's arms around him, the covers thrown off of his body as always, Peke-J sleeping peacefully around his ankles.
He loved to take his time in bed, just doing nothing at all. His mind would be calm, no thoughts swirling madly around, and he felt content. After laying there for as long as he felt he needed, usual just a couple of minutes of laziness, he opens his eyes and look at his boyfriend's cute sleeping face.
Chifuyu is really pretty. To Kazutora, he's the prettiest person he ever met. Seeing his face first thing in the morning always left his heart feeling warm and gave him butterflies, no matter how many times he did it. He started to smile looking at Chifuyu's open mouth, little snores coming out of it. His hair was a mess, sticking around every angle possible (it made Kazutora want to pet it, tangle his fingers on it and see if it was as fluffy as it looked).
Eventually Kazutora untangles himself from Chifuyu's arms and gets up, stretching, ready to start his day. Peke-J accompanies him, rubbing herself in between his legs while he walks to the bathroom to start his matinal hygiene, making him crouch down to give her a gentle good morning pet on the head.
Once that's out of the way, he goes to the kitchen and fills her bowl with cat food, recieving a mewl that sounds like a "thank you" to him. While Peke-J eats her breakfast, Kazutora prepares something for him and Chifuyu to eat.
He was never good at cooking. When he moved in, he once tried to prepare a surprise dinner for them and almost burnt the whole building down. After that he was sort of banned from using the kitchen without supervision, which was pretty fair if they wanted to still have somewhere to live in. The exception to that was making breakfast. Making simples things for them to eat in the morning could be almost relaxing in a way, and after some pratice Kazutora was kind of good at it.
He made tamagoyaki and used some ingredients that were left over from the night before to do some tuna mayo onigiris as well. After preparing tea for himself and coffee for Chifuyu, he went to wake his boyfriend up for them to eat together.
Chifuyu always gave his everything at the pet shop, even being a bit of a workaholic at times, so he always could use some extra sleep. And he was whiny right after waking up as well, so there was that.
"Come on Chifuyu..." Kazutora whispers, shaking the other gently.
"Hm... just five more minutes 'Tora..." Chifuyu whines, the sound coming muffled from hiding his face in his pillow.
And Kazutora was a weak, weak man when it came to Chifuyu's wishes, so he always lets him have his extra sleep.
He goes back to the kitchen and washes the dishes, the light drizzle outside tapping at the window being the only background noise other then his humming of some random song he heard on the radio.
He pets Peke-J some more and enters their bedroom again, now determined to wake Chifuyu up. Kazutora starts to stroke his boyfriend's hair and smiles once he sees the other opening his eyes and squinting them at him. "Ready to wake up now?"
"Yeah, yeah..." Chifuyu yawns while stretching his arms above his head, Kazutora's crumpled shirt he had stolen weeks ago to wear as his pajamas stretching with him. "I'm awake now." He states, sounding very much not awake at all.
"Of course you are." Kazutora agrees in a slightly ironic tone, but with a fondness to it that's hard to miss.
Chifuyu grabs Kazutora's free hand, the one that's not caressing his hair, and pulls him in for a good morning kiss. Even with some morning breath, Kazutora thinks it tastes sweet, just a soft peck of their lips that makes him sigh lovingly.
After that Chifuyu actually gets up to wash his face and brush his teeth before joining Kazutora at the table, letting out a chuckle when he sees the mugs he chose for the day. It was the matching ones Keisuke made them some time ago, with two terribly drawn cats and hearts that were completed by the other. It looked like the kind of thing a preschooler might have done, and they loved it.
They eat together while making small talk, mainly Chifuyu telling him what needed to be done at the pet shop that day. It was Friday, so they closed a bit earlier, and Kazutora tried to remember which movie would be passing on the tv by the time they got home.
Getting dressed for the day, they both put on their usual clothes, Kazutora with one of his many turtlenecks to cover up his tattoo and Chifuyu with a casual business suit, that he let Kazutora adjust the tie of. After making sure that Peke-J's litter box was clean and that her food and water bowls were full, they leave the apartment together to walk to the pet shop.
It's not a long distance, barely ten minutes on foot, and Kazutora likes to look at his surroundings while going, seeing the city start to wake up and the sky get clearer, the drizzle from before having stopped. It's peaceful at this time of the day, without the frantic agglomeration of workers going around or the car traffic polluting the air.
At half past eight they are ready to open the shop, Keisuke having just arrived on the brink of being late and as energetic as always. The excuse of the day was that he had to stop on the way to help some lady because her dog had escaped and he chased it down for three blocks. Chifuyu just rolls his eyes and tells him to put his uniform and Kazutora hides a laugh behind his hands.
The pet shop isn't very busy, but it's not empty either. There's a steady amount of clients coming in but not enough to overwhelm them. Kazutora usually sticks to taking care of the pets and stocking things on the shelfs, Keisuke being more charismatic to deal with the clients and Chifuyu, as the manager, running the logistics of everything.
The three of them made a good team, since highschool they just seemed to work very well together, as if they were meant to become friends all along. Though it wasn't always like this, in the beggining things were expectedly awkward because of the whole trying-to-kill-Mikey-and-stabbing-his-best-friend-in-the-back situation.
That was a long, long time ago and they have all made up and become friends after that, alongside Kazutora going to therapy (that was way overdue) and start to maintain actually healthy relationships with other people.
He was still not very good at dealing with social interactions (hence why he tends to avoid strangers if he can and leaves Keisuke to it), but at least he could hold a conversation without thinking of resorting to violence or that they were out to get him. It's progress!
The day goes on like usual: the old lady from the corner of the street being one of their first clients and buying her weekly stock of food for her cats (and filling Keisuke in the gossip about her neighbors), some kids entering just to see which dogs were up to adoption that day and play with them, a teenager looking for toys for their new pet.
When it's their lunch break, Keisuke seems more energetic than before, if that was even possible. "Finally! Now let's get some peyoung yakisoba, I'm starving!"
"I bet you've been waiting the whole week for this." Kazutora teases him. At first, when the three of them started to work together, Keisuke always wanted do get yakisoba. And don't get Kazutora wrong, he likes peyoung yakisoba as much as the next guy, but no one should eat it everyday for lunch.
So, he and Chifuyu made a deal with Keisuke, that every Friday they would go to his favorite yakisoba stand, as long as he didn't eat any for the rest of the week's lunch. It was a bit worrying how much yakisoba Keisuke used to eat before this agreement, so it was a relief when he actually followed it, surely his sodium levels were thanking them.
They walk together to get there, thankfully it wasn't too far from the pet shop and they didn't have to waste too much time. When they are eating and talking about some new manga that Keisuke started to read, Kazutora feels like if he closed his eyes it would be like they were back in highschool, just being dumb teenagers messing aroung, and the thought makes him smile between the noodles.
At the walk back to the shop it starts to rain lightly again, and Keisuke has the brilliant idea to race and see who could get there first. Chifuyu was about to say how stupid it was, but Kazutora and Keisuke had already started to run, making him go after them and scream to slow down before they slipped on the wet sidewalk.
They both laugh at that, but stop once they had to make a sudden turn and Keisuke ended slipping, holding on the closest thing to him to try to regain his balance, except it was Kazutora's shirt and so he dragged him down as well, both ending sprawled in a puddle on the floor, almost at the door of their destination.
Chifuyu, the cheeky bastard, laughs so hard at them that he enters the shop with tears on his eyes. Kazutora can't find in himself to be mad at it, since the sight of Chifuyu's genuine smile and the sound of his laugher makes him feel on cloud 9. He wouldn't mind embarrassing himself if he got to hear it every time.
Before Kazutora gets to change his wet clothes, he gets a client to attend. Said client being a shiba inu with a mischievous glint in his eyes. After half an hour, the dog is clean and Kazutora's clothes are wetter than before and he's pretty sure he's got dog shampoo on his hair.
He gives the dog back to it's owner, a young lady that seemed to be talking with Keisuke about dating advice of all things, and lets him deal with the payment while Kazutora goes to the back to finally get changed. Passing Chifuyu on the way, he takes one look at Kazutora and gives him a smile while saying "You look like a mess."
"A cute one at least?"
"Yeah, a cute one covered in dog hair." Kazutora will take what he can get, small victories.
When they are close to the end of their shift, Takemichi enters the store to buy some more stuff for his "son". He won't stop talking about his wife, Hina, and their dog, Pochacco, and how cute they were and "look at this pic I took of them sleeping, it's my cellphone wallpaper now!"
Kazutora can't help but smile along with him. He's truly happy his friend seems to be having the life of his dreams. Takemichi more than deserves it after everything he'd done to help him and all of toman.
Their last client of the day is Senju. After her best friend adopted a dog, she decided she wanted a pet as well and got a white cat who she named Kitty and she spoiled her rotten. Whenever some new cat toy would come up, Chifuyu sent her a message knowing she would want to buy it.
After promising to send them pictures of her cat, she went home, leaving them to close the shop for the day. Keisuke cleaned the floor and was out on his way to have dinner with his mom and catch up. Chifuyu usually spent more time than necessary checking if everything was ok, but it was still raining outside and Kazutora just wanted to go home already, so he went without much of a fuss this time.
Peke-J greets them at the door. Luckily they kept an umbrella at the pet shop in case they needed it at times like these, so they weren't wet to the bone. They take of their shoes and get inside, Kazutora appreaciating the feeling of being home. For a long time, he never felt like he had somewhere to belong, to get back at after a long day and relax. There was no place that felt like home. Then, Chifuyu came along and changed that.
"Go get a shower, I'll make us some dinner." Chifuyu says, and steps into the kitchen, not waiting for a response. Kazutora just hums in agreement and does just that.
He likes to take hot showers. The ones which leave his skin a reddish color afterwards and his muscles relaxed. Kazutora takes his time with his hair routine, making sure to wash it thoroughly, and enjoys the feeling of the water washing away his worrys.
He puts some pajamas and leaves the wet towel on his shoulders after rubbing it on his hair. For good measure, he shakes his head like a dog, droplets of water getting everywhere.
His socked feet don't make any noise as he walks up to Chifuyu, seeing that their food is almost ready. Kazutora feels his chest full as he looks at his boyfriend. He hugs him from behind, propping his chin on the shorter's shoulder and feeling his soft scent.
Chifuyu just turns his head a bit and kisses him on the cheek, then turns again and supervises their food to make sure it won't burn. Kazutora burries his face in Chifuyu's soft hair and waits.
Once their food is ready and Chifuyu has turned off the heat, Kazutora pulls him away from the stove and closer to himself, turning him around and readjusting his arms around the other's waist.
He sways them back and forth slowly, following the rhythm in his head. He feels Chifuyu's arms around his neck as he starts to sway alongside him.
"What are you doing?" Chifuyu asks lazily, tucking a strand of Kazutora's long hair behind his ears to look him in the eyes.
Kazutora grins and kisses his nose before answering. "Dancing with you. It's romantic, right?"
Chifuyu hums and closes his eyes, letting him take the lead. "You know I got two left feet when it comes to dancing."
"Don't worry, I got two right feet, so it cancels out."
Chifuyu lets a soft chuckle at that and lays his head on Kazutora's shoulder to start humming with him. Kazutora grins wider. They dance around the kitchen, Kazutora even manages to convince Chifuyu to do a twirl before hugging him close again.
Peke-J meows as she enters the room and rubs herself between their legs, as if wanting to participate. Kazutora ends up tripping on her and almost falls, but he uses his hands to support him against the wall, trapping Chifuyu, whose hold on Kazutora's neck got tighter once he thought they would fall, in the middle. It looks like a parody of a kabedon scene one could see in these shoujo mangas Chifuyu loves, and the irony was not lost on them.
They make eye contact, still a bit startled, and start to laugh freely, Chifuyu hitting his head gently against Kazutora's chest, his shoulders shaking.
After calming down, they just stand there hugging each other. Kazutora loves to look at Chifuyu's blue eyes, they are always full of emotion and have such a pretty color too. His own eyes move to Chifuyu's lips and back.
He brings his hands to Chifuyu's face and cups his cheeks, feeling the other press into his touch. Both close their eyes as their lips meet in the middle, kissing slow and soft and tender, infinitely tender.
When they part their lips again, Kazutora's lets out a sigh, full of affection. He keeps his hands on Chifuyu's face, holding it there as if it was the most precious thing in the whole world and, to Kazutora, it really was.
"Let's eat before the food gets cold." Chifuyu mutters and Kazutora nods. They kiss one, two, three more times, quick pecks in succession before actually separating themselves and going to eat.
The food tasted like heaven, as always. Chifuyu's food was delicious, and Kazutora makes sure to tell him that. Chifuyu waved his compliments off every time, but he could see he looked pleased and proud of himself afterwards.
"There's still cake in the fridge, I think." Kazutora remembered. Chifuyu's eyes sparkled with interest, his sweet tooth making itself known.
It was a bit past Kazutora's birthday, but they had bought more than one cake so it lasted during the week. Kazutora took the last slices of the strawberry shortcake and gave one to Chifuyu, keeping the other to himself.
They wash the dishes together, talking with each other about what they would do with their off time. Kazutora proposes to watch a movie and cuddle together. Chifuyu pretends to think hard before answering, but it was obvious he would accept it, since he loved to snuggle with his boyfriend in the couch.
And they do just that, scrolling through channels to find something they would like to see, Kazutora propped in the couch cushions and Chifuyu on his lap, both being enveloped by a blanket. Peke-J also sat with them, purring at Kazutora's side and enjoying the warmth.
Once Chifuyu finds a channel that was playing some cheesy romcom he settles the remote down and sinks into Kazutora. They both watch it, laughing and making fun at some of the more exaggerated scenes, but it's an enjoyable cliche and in the end Chifuyu even got some tears at the corners of his eyes.
After that Chifuyu goes take a bath and Kazutora makes the bed for them to sleep. It wasn't even that late, but they were both tired from the week's work and decided to call it a night early.
Chifuyu comes out of their bathroom wearing only his boxers and Kazutora's old shirt, that is too long for him. He rubs the towel on his wet hair and then throws it to the ground, to be caught later when they were going to do the laundry. Kazutora can't help but stare at him, finding his boyfriend's sleepy expression extremely cute.
Kazutora was already laying on the bed, under the covers, so he raises them, inviting Chifuyu to join him. The younger wiggles himself between Kazutora's arms and pratically melts. Peke-J jumps in with them, getting comfortable at their feet.
It's raining outside again. The sound of the water against the window creating a nice atmosfere. Kazutora treads his fingers in Chifuyu's hair, massaging it. It smells nice with the new shampoo they bought, a soft scent of artificial strawberrys. Kazutora feels like if he burries his face in there, all the problems in the world would disappear and the buzz in his head would quiet down and it would be just him and Chifuyu and nothing else. It's a nice thought.
"Good night, Kazutora. I love you." Chifuyu whispers, looking at him with his droopy blue eyes and a relaxed smile in his face. Kazutora thinks his chest is about to burst with feeling, a little overwhelmed with how much simple words could make him feel.
"Good night, Chifuyu. I love you too." He replies softly, Chifuyu's name rolling of his tongue like a prayer. Kazutora pulls him closer and kisses him gently, making Chifuyu hum in contentment.
He strokes his boyfriend's hair until his breathing evens out and Kazutora can hear the little snores coming out of his mouth. Their legs are tangled with each other under the blankets, locked together. Kazutora's hands move to secure Chifuyu against his chest, rubbing up and down his back in a comforting pattern until Kazutora can fall asleep too.
It's a blissful life.
Sure, he doesn't get all the adrenaline and eventful days of his youth, but he thinks that's ok. Kazutora wouldn't trade the life he has now for anything in the world.
And Kazutora is happy. His friends are happy and everything seems to be alright, so he's really, truly happy. He's lucky he's got a place to call home and someone to hold in his arms once the night falls. Even if he sometimes feels like he doesn't deserve it, he will enjoy the life he managed to build for himself to the fullest.
It's a good day.