Work Text:
It’s the small things that make you happy, you know? Like the feeling of the cold breeze in your hair, tussling your locks with a gentle hand like a mother, or the taste of home cooked food that was filled with love and soul, melting into your taste buds in an explosion of flavour.
It’s feeling the sun on you, their rays caressing you gently until Uki scolds you about being careful under the sun all while applying aloe vera along the junction of your neck and where your arms meet your shoulder. You laugh it off, but soon hiss at the sting of the sunburn, as Uki laughs in the background, smug.
You don’t really want to admit it’s that because of the clouds back home that you never experienced the burn of the sun. You think you like it, because at least you could feel it.
It’s the enjoyment of coming home and collapsing into a warm home, a worn couch from the people sitting on it as they welcome you with open arms. Sonny laughs at your disheveled state as the television keeps playing, connected to someone’s phone showing one of the member’s streams.
You doze off soon after, head in a warm lap and legs thrown across the sofa’s edge, and you feel very much content.
It’s also Vox bantering with you, though he doesn’t keep up the act for long and instead says your name with incredible fondness as he talks highly of you. You do not care to admit that it makes you smile and tear up slightly.
There are many large things that make you happy, too.
Like how every member of your group keeps growing, hitting milestone after milestone with you cheering them on, seeing their growth and happiness. You also cheer on the other members, but there is something special about your own group finding their space and getting even more comfortable.
You still care deeply about all of them though, so you don’t think it matters much.
Large things, like unarchived karaokes and unforgettable collabs with people you admire, now playing with you personally as you try to stop yourself from fanboying.
Sykkuno posts about it a few days later, and you fail to hold in a screech when you see yourself in the thumbnail.
Things like your favourite danmei getting published into an english translation, finally being able to get your hands on crafted paper and covers, the smell of newly bound books always so wistful and memorable to you.
Some of these things are small to others. Maybe they would brush off things you consider large, like danmei publishers and content creators.
But you hold them near and dear to your heart, so you don’t bother, and frankly you don’t care.
They are large, momentous occasions and things to you, so you treat them as such.
But what truly makes you happy are the small things.
You admit you’ve never really noticed them. Being stuck in a world of dreary skies and even more dreadful people, life was sad and stuck in the middle of grey clouds. You did not bother with ‘inconsequential’ things, as you went on with your work.
You see them now though. The way the sunlight and trees reflect on bodies of water, painting swirls of greens and yellows onto the still water, the way your friends laugh and the edges of their eyes crinkle, how they comfort you during bad days and hold you through nightmares and bad memories.
How the sun always rises, never failing and steady, how your bed creaks when you get off of it and how Uki always needs a cup of coffee before he truly wakes up.
Small things, like how Yugo’s headphones are always a given with him, or how you notice things of yours missing and find them hiding away in Alban’s room, shaking your head fondly as you leave them there instead. How Sonny’s voice impressions are as good as ever, improving each time he does them.
The way your voice cracks sometimes trying to hit notes you cannot reach, or the scent of new pages as you bury your head in books and novels, the way frosting always seems so light and fluffy to you.
It is the way Reimu and Enna stay up with you geeking over BL and danmei, arranging watch parties and watching donghuas together, sometimes simping over the ones you like. It's also somehow the way you and Enna bond over self-hatred, which is an unconventional way to bond but hey, if it works it works.
It is the way that Niji EN members are kind and caring, and while you do not know some of them well you know you would like to, and the way they arrange to watch movies and series together as you wheeze in the background about Vox’s indignation at Petra’s failure to watch shows that are truly good.
It is the way all of you balk at Shu’s horrible food tweets, about how coffee is a broth, and how Alban joins in about pickle soup and you think you’ve kind of had enough, but you still stay and exclaim in disgust.
It’s the way Mysta cackles whenever he causes something chaotic to happen, and the way Luca never fails to brings smiles to everyone’s faces at his stupid pranks.
His pranks do make you wheeze.
It’s the way you join in Finana’s more often than not lewd shenanigans, and chant along with Pomu in her gremlin voice and join Elira playing games you’ve never heard of.
It’s the way you always see Shoto in your twitter timeline, caring to reply, be it good or not. Sometimes you truly don’t understand what goes on in that boy’s head, seriously.
And it’s the way you unwind, settling in bed and sipping a warm cup of tea. You fall asleep and dreams come sweep you off your feet and when you wake you breathe in the air, and do everything all over again and it’s beautiful like that.
The small things, while they are near unnoticeable, give life to your own, bringing soul and love and everything you ever needed.
They make you happy. Truly happy.
You never thought you would make it here, but yet you are.
So you embrace it, and enjoy the small things along with the large.