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Touma rolls in his sleep, and the little light from the street coming through the blinds makes him stir awake. He quickly reaches for his phone and sighs with relief when he sees the time. It’s still only 6:30 am. He still has plenty of time. He rolls onto his side and a smile spreads over his lips. They still have plenty of time. He is tempted to engulf Taichi in a hug, but he quickly discards the idea and decides to get out of bed.
He wants to surprise Taichi, so everything needs to be perfect today. He manages to get changed into his sports clothes in practical darkness, and carefully exits the bedroom. He works quickly but quietly in the kitchen, always attentive to any sounds that could indicate Taichi has woken up. Somehow, he manages to finish before he is discovered. At 8, he receives the special delivery he was waiting for.
Looking at his preparations, Touma feels proud and hopeful. He can’t wait to see Taichi’s face. It’s their first Valentine’s Day living together, after all.
“Tai-chan,” Touma whispers while sitting down on the bed next to his partner. Taichi continues to sleep peacefully, and the sight fills Touma’s heart with joy. Taichi, his beloved Taichi, with whom he has shared so many beautiful moments, who loves him so much. Touma wonders if he’ll ever get used to this feeling, to this reality. He doesn’t mind if he doesn’t. “Hey, Tai-chan,” he repeats, this time leaning down closer to him, placing a hand over Taichi’s arm. He doesn’t want to wake him, but he also wants to wake him. He gently caresses his cheek, basking on his warmth. “Taichi.”
The black-haired man stirs a little, but he doesn’t wake up. Touma wonders what would be the best way to wake him up while still being gentle – because it’s not working – until an idea pops into his mind. Kisses. Millions of sweet pecks rain all over Taichi’s face, and in the middle of that show of affection, he opens his eyes and giggles.
“What are you doing?,” he enquires, while the blond still showers him with love.
“Waking my boyfriend up.” They share a slow kiss and when they separate, Taichi rubs at his sleepy eyes.
“Waking up next to you is the best decision I’ve ever made,” Taichi says, punctuating it with a yawn. The sudden confession sends shivers down Touma’s spine, and he tries to convince himself it’s just the cold weather. Nevertheless, he bends over Taichi, hugging him and relishing the warmth that he radiates.
“I miss when you had long hair and it would stick in weird shapes,” Touma whispers with his head nuzzled on the crook of his boyfriend’s neck.
Taichi rolls his eyes but can’t help feeling his heart swelling in his chest. Yes, they’ve been together as long as that. He traces his broad back, drawing unintelligible shapes until Touma finally gets off him.
“Can I give you my gift now?” Touma smiles at him and the other man can’t help but laugh.
“What time is it?” When Taichi checks the time, he almost curses. “8 o’clock?! How many times have I told you? We don’t have to wake up that early on a weekend, Touma.”
He knows Taichi is reprimanding him, yes, but he can’t help but hear the love that wraps around his name when he says it.
“But I want to spend as much of today as we can together.” The wide smile feels like sunshine on his skin when Touma leans to kiss his bare shoulder. “Can I?”
“Fine.” Taichi groans, but he can’t control the smile that’s dancing on his lips. Touma makes a happy sound and quickly gets up to go to the kitchen and get the presents. Taichi takes the opportunity to get up and open the curtains, letting the light enter the room. Their room.
“Which one do you want first?”
“There’s more than one?” Taichi turns around and sees Touma hiding something behind his back. “We agreed on only one gift each.”
Touma shrugs, smiling.
“Come on. There are only so many days a year where we get to do this.” That makes Taichi laugh and he wonders when he became such a sucker for this big charming idiot that’s his boyfriend.
“Okay. That hand.” Taichi points to Touma’s right arm. He carefully twists his arm and a beautiful bouquet appears from behind his frame. When Touma looks at the other man, he sees a faint blush spreading over his cheeks. He almost gasps at the sight, but he still needs to be focused enough to hold onto the remaining gift. “They are beautiful, Touma.”
“You like them?,” the taller man asks as if it wasn’t clear from his reaction. Taichi walks to him and holds the bouquet with so much care and glee. He leans forward to smell the flowers and smiles at him.
“They smell amazing. Here, try,” he says while raising the bouquet to Touma’s face. However, nothing compares to what he feels seeing the smile of the man he loves.
Taichi tugs on the collar of Touma’s hoodie and he presses his lips against his mouth, flowers gently squished between their bodies. They share a sloppy kiss, warm with the first hours of the day, adorned with the sweet scent of their love and the flowers.
“Taichi, you’re going to make me drop your other present.” Touma laughs against the kiss and the other man reluctantly presses away from him.
“You’re the biggest present I could ever ask for,” he whispers, hands now smoothing where he had crumpled Touma’s hoodie. The blond feels his heart is very close to exploding with love, and doesn’t waste any more time, putting the chocolate box in front of him.
“Aww, you bought me chocolates?” Taichi unwraps the red string that’s tied to the box.
“Look closer. I only bought the box.” Touma guides him back to sit down on the bed. When the lid comes off, Taichi realises what he means. There are too many chocolates for this to be a store-bought box, and the little paper wrapping that separates them is too big for the size of the chocolates, making them overlap.
“You made this?” Taichi gasps, looking up at his boyfriend. Touma nods. “When did you make this?”
“This morning.”
“What? But it’s perfect!”
“Well, I had some other failed attempts that I had to hide from you.” Touma looks sheepishly at him. “It wasn’t easy eating all that by myself,” he continues, hiding his hands inside the pocket of his hoodie, trying to tug on the material forward. He is sure he has put on some fat after all that.
“There’s nothing left?” Taichi arches his brows.
“…Are these chocolates not enough?”
“No! It’s just… you worked so hard for me… I also wanted to eat your other attempts.”
“Oh,” Touma chuckles, feeling the tension that had begun building up inside him, swiftly vanish. “They weren’t good, don’t worry about missing anything.”
“But they were still made with your love.” Taichi wines, and he’s the closest he has ever been to pouting. Touma can’t believe his eyes. “And I want to eat all your love.” Or his ears.
Touma barely has enough brain cells left to take the box from Taichi’s hands and place it on the nightstand before he is tackling his boyfriend and kissing him with fervour. How can he resist when he says things like that? When he pulls away and starts kissing down his jaw, to his neck, Taichi laughs and the vibrations pull at the nerve endings of his lips, screaming: this is your life now. It’s real.
“Hey, Touma,” Taichi begins saying between fits of laughter and content sighs, “I also have a present for you.”
“You do?” The words fall breathlessly from his lips before they are connected to his brain. Of course he does, they talked about it. “I mean, yes, um, I want my present.” He gets off Taichi and rubs the back of his neck, looking at him expectantly. Taichi sighs and sits up. Will he ever get used to Touma’s shy look? He doesn’t think so, and he certainly hopes for that. He wants to grow old with him and still have the same capacity to notice the little things the love of his life does.
Taichi gets up and leaves the bedroom, finding his work briefcase. Soon enough he comes back to Touma.
“Actually, I also have two gifts, but I’m not letting you choose.” Taichi hands him a beautifully wrapped bag and Touma takes his phone to take a picture of it before opening it. When he does, he retrieves two teddy bears, one black, one beige. “Um… do you like it?” Taichi asks anxiously because Touma isn’t having any reaction. He’s just looking at them, spellbound.
“It’s… it’s us, right? Isn’t it?” Touma finally looks up, a hand over his mouth. Taichi feels a little bit tingly, a little bit weird, like he is having some sort of déjà vu. Like this is exactly how his life was supposed to be.
“Yes, it’s us, but I thought you… I didn’t expect you to notice.”
“How can I not notice?” Touma reaches for Taichi and the black-haired man steps in closer, until he is between Touma’s legs. They embrace each other, Taichi softly caressing his boyfriend’s head. “I love you.”
“There’s still another gift.” Touma nuzzles his face on Taichi’s chest, reluctant to pull away. “And I’m really excited for you to have this one.”
“Yeah?” The words make Touma lean back to look at him. When Taichi nods, he finally lets him go. Taichi reaches once more for his briefcase.
“Close your eyes.” Taichi commands, and when the other man obliges, he places the little present on his lap. “You can open them.”
Touma immediately looks down and snorts.
“No,” he says, and it sounds like a question.
“Yes,” Taichi reassures him.
Touma reaches for the little red and golden omamori like it could break if he’s not gentle enough. It has a little stitched protection for health.
“It’s so…” he begins saying, but Taichi interrupts before he can say anything else.
“Don’t. Yours was so much better. I just… I wanted you to have this.” Taichi folds his arms around himself, embarrassed.
“You made this?”
“Yeah, I know it’s not that great and you can tell from-” Taichi speaks fast, trying to justify himself.
“Are you kidding? I love it.” Touma isn’t looking at him, still focused on the wonder he holds in his hands.
“Well, it’s not that special. It’s not as good as the one you gifted me, for sure.”
“Is this… that… does it also have a protection inside?” Touma finally looks at him, his eyes sparkling more than usual.
“Of course. And you’re not allowed to look inside, it would break the power.” Taichi smiles, finally relaxing and letting his arms fall to his sides.
“But you could tell me?”
“Never.”
“Can I guess?” Touma furrows his eyebrows, a smile still nestled on his face.
“You can, but I don’t think you will be right.” Taichi runs his fingers through his short hair.
“Is it friendship power?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Touma hesitates and looks down, sadness biting at his heart. “We aren’t friends?”
“We are friends. Best friends. And we're also more than that.” The words put back a smile on the blond man’s face.
“Ah. So you were more traditional, I bet you researched what monks write there or something.”
Not at all.
The little paper inside reads “RED STRING POWER”. But that is a secret Taichi plans on keeping until the day he dies.