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Adjusting the lens and focusing on the pair of birds sitting on the branch together.
The background of the sky peeking through the holes from the leaves, and the soft light from the sun are enough to make it a nice photo.
The sound of a soft click causes them to quickly flutter away, luckily the photo is intact but that doesn’t make the displeased look on Fyodor’s face fade away.
This one is bad as well.
Without checking the picture, he deletes it from the photo gallery. He sighs, letting the camera hang off his neck.
Yet another unsuccessful photoshoot. This photographer’s block has lasted for months now.
How is he supposed to find a new subject matter? Birds are always his inspiration but they seem to be lacking more now.
Nature isn’t appealing…
He glances over at the kids and their parents walking past him.
Neither is taking pictures of people…
He should be taking pictures and being proud of them.
The cherry blossom season is here after all, yet he doesn't feel content about continuously using the subject matter over and over again.
So repetitive…
He turns away from the trees, with another failed attempt. He’ll just come back tomorrow for hopefully better results while beginning to walk out of the park.
Fyodor doesn’t realise someone’s running towards him at full speed, as he is way too distracted looking at the ground and the other person is too busy rushing that he doesn’t see Fyodor approaching him.
“Oh fuck—!”
Luckily for Fyodor, he had a height advantage, he could hold his ground, as for whoever he bumped into, falls to the ground with a groan.
“Shit! Sorry about that,” he says to Fyodor, his eyes meet with his camera, “fuck, I hope I didn’t do anything to your camera.”
Fyodor freezes upon staring at the redhead he bumps into, with a pair of the most breathtaking blue eyes looking back at him.
He loses himself a while in a daze, captivated by his eyes.
The other gets up from the ground and stares at him, “Uh… you okay?”
No response.
“I didn’t do anything… right…?” He asks, yet not getting another response out of Fyodor, “Hello—”
“You’re gorgeous…”
The redhead blinks a few times, “Uh… What?”
Fyodor flinches. He doesn’t realise he has said it out loud for him to hear and tries to quickly hide it. “Did I say something?”
“You didn’t? Must’ve been my imagination then…” he mumbles back, as the sound of a ringtone interrupts their small conversation.
“Hello? I know—I was just going to be there—the fuck? Like hell! You better not or I will fucking kill you, you piece of shit!”
Fyodor stands there, a little stunned by how the stranger he just called ‘gorgeous’ a few seconds ago screams at his phone and watches him stride off, kind enough to wave goodbye to him.
He slumps his shoulders, relaxing to find himself getting away with it.
At least no one heard…
- - -
“HAHAHA! No. No. That’s not our Fyodor Dostoyevsky! Our Dos-kun would—never—!” Nikolai bursts out laughing again, his head on the table and hand bashing the table.
Fyodor’s hand twitches holding the cup in his hand.
“I think that’s enough laughing, Kolya. You’re disturbing the customers…” he replies back, taking a sip to hide the urge of how much regretted telling him (more like force it out of him because of his bright red face when entering the cafe).
Sigma tries to look on the bright side but it is more of a way to not stir something more between Fyodor and Nikolai.
“At least you won’t have to see them again, Fyodor-san.”
He smiles, “Thank you, Sigma-kun.”
“You really just called him ‘gorgeous’ like that?! Straight forward as always, Dos-kun! As expected!” Nikolai rambles on still laughing like no tomorrow.
Fyodor places his coffee on its plate and gives him a dark smile.
“Kolya, if you don’t shut your mouth I will personally drag you out of the cafe myself.”
Nikolai dramatically leans back with his hand over his forehead, “Oh no~! Dos-kun’s scary when he’s embarrassed~!”
Sigma throws Nikolai out of the picture for Fyodor, changing the topic once again, “Fyodor-san, did you have any luck with finding inspiration?”
“Ah, no, not yet,” Fyodor replies discontentedly.
Nikolai snickers, “I bet that redhead was—”
And the next thing they all know, they get kicked out of the cafe.
- - -
Fyodor flicks through his photos, the lamppost beside him and the light dimming over to his camera while sitting in the same park he was before but instead, it is late at night, probably midnight by now. It has been a while since the last time he checked the time.
What is he lacking?
“It’s you again?”
He lifts his head away from the camera and meets with a familiar shade of blue eyes. He will have to mind his words now, after what happened this morning he won’t accidentally blurt something he isn’t supposed to say.
“Ah, you too. What brings you here?”
The redhead has a bag of what seems to be groceries on his left arm, “Could say the same thing about you too.”
Fyodor smiles, “I think it was me who asked you first.”
He notices how his brow twitches.
“I was heading home… Are you going to answer my question now?” He asks him back, taking a step closer to him.
“I stay here quite often at night.”
The redhead sits beside him and crosses his arms, refusing to make eye contact with him.
“It seems like more than just night, you’re here every day.”
Fyodor’s lips piqued in interest, “Oh? How do you know that?”
“I pass the park all the time, it’s hard not to notice you all the time.”
There is a tinge of pink on his cheeks as he hears Chuuya say that, feeling happy to hear that for some reason.
“I guess I do lose track of time…”
“Anyway, you’re always here but you always seem sad or annoyed all the time.”
Fyodor looks over to the redhead, “Is it obvious?”
He snorts and rolls his eyes, “Fuck yeah, even the kids that want to ask you to take a picture are too scared to ask.”
“Oh.”
The redhead eyes his camera. “Can I see them?” He asks.
“Huh? See what?” Fyodor asks, confused.
He laughed lightheartedly, “Your pictures, dumbass.”
Fyodor stares down at his camera and looks back up to him, “You want to see them? I don’t really like showing them…”
“I’m not going to judge or anything.”
He averts his eyes, “That’s not exactly what I’m mostly afraid of…”
“What? Like delete them or something accidentally? I’m not taking the camera away from you, I just want to look at them.”
He contemplates that he’s never shown Nikolai or Sigma his photographs, but in his mind telling him to show them to this stranger he’s only met.
“Sure…”
The redhead grins, “Took you long enough.”
He shifts himself closer to the Russian and leans over him casually, “Woah, not bad but why are they all birds?”
“I like birds…”
“I’m getting a feeling that it isn't just that.”
Fyodor sighs, is he this predictable or is this redhead just good with guessing?
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“Geez, okay.”
Sleep is catching up to him and decides to cut it short between them. Even if there is a lingering feeling that he wants to keep talking to him. “Don’t you think you should be going now?”
“Hm… probably.”
“Why stay?”
He shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know. You just seemed interesting enough to talk to,” he stands up from his seat. “Hope you get inspired soon.”
Fyodor sees him begin to walk off and he stands up from his seat. “Excuse me!”
He turns around, “Yeah? What’s up?”
He catches up to him. Too bad that he isn’t good with sports or any physical activity that he’s already out of breath. “I—uh.” He couldn’t think straight right now, “thank you but I was wondering… what was your name?”
“I mean you haven’t introduced yourself either…”
Right. He forgot about that. “Fyodor… you can call me Fyodor.”
He smiles back at him, as the wind blows gently over them with his orange strands following the direction of the wind. “Chuuya is fine,” he says back.
Chuuya…
“It’s nice to meet you, Chuuya-san,” Fyodor returns his smile, “I hope we meet again.”
Chuuya laughs, shoving his hands into his pockets, “Yeah, let me know if you ever find your next bird to take a picture of.”
“Will do.”
Watching Chuuya disappear into the distance, Fyodor starts walking in the opposite direction and heads home himself. He’s content with how this day ends, it isn’t as bad as he thought.
I guess birds after all do bring hope with them…
- - -
“You found him again?” Sigma asks, taking a sip of his glass of water.
They were all sitting at a new cafe location after being blacklisted from the other place.
Fyodor nods his head, “Yeah, his name is Chuuya.”
“Oh~ Chuuya-kun? I must see for myself and see what he’s like to make our Dos-kun fall in love with him~” Nikolai goes back to his antics by teasing him.
Fyodor grips the handle of the coffee. “Unless you want to get us kicked out again, Kolya, I would shut your mouth if I were you.”
“Oh, sorry Dos-kun, it slipped my mind that you were here.”
Sigma lightly slaps Nikolai on the shoulder and looks back to Fyodor, “But you have gotten inspiration haven’t you, Fyodor-san?”
“Yes, it’s slowly coming back.”
“See, it was definitely the redhead Chuuya-kun who saved our Dos-kun~!”
“Nikolai…” Sigma mumbles over to him.
Fyodor lets himself ignore and finishes up his cup of coffee. He slides money to his friends and gets up from his seat.
“Leaving already, Fyodor-san?”
Nikolai whispers loud enough for Fyodor to hear, “Probably going off to see the little redhead again.”
The dark-haired man coughs a little in his hand with a small blush on his cheeks. “Absolutely not.”
“Mmm, right…” Nikolai replies, totally not buying it, “have fun, and make sure to let us know if you ever get that kiss.”
Fyodor turns away and exits the cafe without saying anything else.
I cannot be so predictable… right?
- - -
Arriving at the park, Fyodor’s eyes notice a familiar bed of ginger hair sitting on the same bench they first met.
Chuuya’s eyes meet with his and watch him approach him. “You took your time getting here.”
“Sorry, did I make you wait for too long?”
He waves his hand dismissively, “Nah, I only got here a few minutes ago. Kinda got held back by an annoying fish so I thought I would be late.”
Fyodor sits beside him and is confused about what he means by ‘annoying fish’, “Fish? Do you have a pet fish, Chuuya-san?”
“Yeah. You can say that.”
What does he mean by that?
Chuuya furrows his brows, “By the way, stop calling me ‘Chuuya-san’ every time we see each other. Last time I checked, I said you can call me Chuuya.”
“Ah, but I don’t remember you saying I couldn’t until now.”
“Then I’m telling you now, idiot,” Chuuya huffs, crossing his arms with a small pout on his lips.
Fyodor chuckles.
He’s cute…
His mind stops.
His eyes lowered to the footpath and his cheeks reddening.
Did I just call him cute?
There must be something wrong with me. No, he is cute but still, why is it getting hotter? It was only 16 degrees today…
“Fyodor? Are you good?” Chuuya asks, breaking him out of his train of thoughts.
He looks back at him, “I’m fine. Sorry about that. Did you ask something?”
“I asked if you found something to take photos of.”
“I’m getting there.”
Chuuya eyes him closely, “Why don’t you take pictures of people? That could be a good starting point?”
“I don’t like taking pictures of people…”
“Huh? You don’t?”
Fyodor shakes his head, “I’m not sure, I don’t tend to like pictures of people flooding my camera storage.”
The redhead rolls his eyes and puts his hand out, waiting for something to be placed onto his hand but Fyodor looks at his palm and back at him.
“What is it?”
“Give me your camera.”
“Why?”
“Stop asking fucking questions! Just give me it, I won’t do anything bad to it,” Chuuya replies softly.
He hesitantly passed the camera to him.
The redhead smiles, getting used to holding the camera and points the lens to Fyodor.
“What are you—?”
Click.
Chuuya pulls the camera away from his eyes and laughs. “I captured a good photo for you, Fyodor. Look!”
He shows the photo he has just taken now of Fyodor’s face, surprised but did capture his soft features and the lighting was nice.
Chuuya takes Fyodor’s silence as a success, “See, doesn't it look nicer than the birds?” He asks.
“I guess you do make a fair point…” he murmurs.
He hands the camera back to Fyodor, who seems relieved and his posture isn’t as tense, “Can I ask why you don’t like people taking your camera away?”
“Ah that. Was that bothering you, Chuuya-san?”
Chuuya frowns, “No, I was just curious, that's all.”
His face says everything and Fyodor couldn’t help but feel a warm feeling resurfacing in his chest again by Chuuya’s concern for him.
“I was interested in photography when I was in high school. It was my passion and it still is… vaguely but back then, we had a photography club. Though there was always something wrong with me being there with them.”
“They were probably jealous at how beautiful your pictures are, Fyodor,” Chuuya replies fondly.
“I appreciate you saying that Chuuya but…” a sad smile forms on his lips, “one day, they decided it would be a good idea to steal my camera and erase all the photos I had taken over the years.”
Chuuya’s expression immediately changes.
“They meant a lot to me but somehow that spark is something that’s been dying out slowly over the years. As you can see why I’m here so frequently. I slowly developed a hatred towards people, as to why I don’t take pictures of them, or myself.”
“You… you’re fucking kidding me right?”
Fyodor doesn’t notice that Chuuya is standing up from his seat.
“Chuuya—?”
“What the fuck? Who the hell did that?”
“Chuuya—it’s really fine. It’s all in the past now, don’t worry and please calm down.”
The anger in his eyes burns but he listens to Fyodor anyways and takes a seat back.
“What did you do after that happened…? Like, when you found out?” Chuuya asks in a quiet tone.
“There wasn’t much I could do. My parents weren’t a fan of my photography anyway, they couldn’t tell them off if I begged my entire life.”
The redhead clenches his hands as Fyodor nervously reaches his hand over to his hand and places it on top, assuring him.
“Please don’t feel bad, Chuuya. There was nothing you could do back then, we wouldn’t have met back then.”
He does make a fair point, Chuuya thinks to himself and relaxes from his touch, “Right… sorry…”
“Say… can I take a picture of you, Chuuya?” Fyodor suggests, without thinking about it first.
“Huh? Me?”
He nods his head, “Do you mind?”
“Uh… no, it’s just that I’m not really photogenic—”
Fyodor lifts his camera up and points it to him, “It’s okay, just smile for me, Chuuya.”
“Uh… ok?”
Chuuya gives him a smile like no other.
His heart flutters and his eyes are mesmerised by Chuuya that he forgets what he is doing in the first place.
“Uh… my cheeks are beginning to hurt, Fyodor… are you going to take the picture…?” Chuuya asks, trying to talk through his smile and break character.
Fyodor jumps, “Sorry, Chuuya. I was a little distracted…” he says back, taking the picture and Chuuya massages his cheeks.
“Was it that bad?” He asks.
“No, please don’t misunderstand, Chuuya. I apologise for making you go through that.”
A smile spreads against the redhead’s lips, “Then calling ‘gorgeous’ the other day wasn’t a lie?”
The Russian is at a loss for words and a blush forms back on his cheeks.
“Ah… so you knew all along?”
“You did say it out loud so it wasn’t hard to not miss it but thank you for the compliment,” Chuuya grins with a teasing tone in his voice.
He facepalms, “All this time…”
“I think you’re pretty as well, Fyodor. I mean, the photo says a lot,” he adds.
“Chuuya, please…” he murmurs, too embarrassed to say anything.
Chuuya laughs while Fyodor flicks through the photo he took of Chuuya.
“Would you mind me taking photos of you more often, Chuuya?” He requests out of the blue.
“Me?”
“Who else would I be talking to? Certainly not the birds,” he replies to which Chuuya gives him a small glare but agrees.
“Sure, if that lets you be inspired.”
“Thank you, Chuuya.”
It is Chuuya’s turn to go a little pink on the cheeks and look away from Fyodor’s tender smile.
“Whatever.”
Fyodor chuckles.
Maybe taking pictures of people can be an exception to some…
- - -
A few months pass soon after that.
Chuuya softly snores, peacefully asleep, with no disruptions—
Click.
His eyes twitch while turning around on the bed, facing his back towards the noise and pulling the covers over himself more.
He goes back to snoring—
Click.
“Take another photo and I will kill you and that camera…” he threatens with the softest of voice.
He is too tired to deal with this in the morning.
There is a chuckle on the bed with him.
“Forgive me, you just look breathtaking in bed, solnyshko,” Fyodor says back.
He isn’t ready to open his eyes just yet, he’ll make him suffer a bit more, “Is it the sun or is it the ridiculous amount of hickeys you’ve given me?”
His hand brushes over his cheeks gently.
“Couldn’t it be both?”
“We both know which one you prefer,” Chuuya replies, leaning against his touch and sighing to himself, “what time is it…? Did you even go to sleep?”
He rubs his eyes and looks over at the dark-haired man laying beside him.
“I did. I just woke up a little earlier than you did, Chuuya.”
Chuuya pinches his cheek lightly, “I wouldn’t have woken it if it wasn’t for you, rat.”
“I can’t help taking pictures of you,” Fyodor responds like he had a good reason to wake him in the morning, “how can I make it up to you?”
“Fucking off and letting me sleep would be nice.”
“Oh, I never thought of that, what a nice suggestion, solnyshko.”
The redhead could hear the teasing dripping off from his words and shot him a glare.
“You’re going to sleep on the couch if you keep it up.”
“Noo, don’t do that to me, solnyshko.”
The Russian takes him by the waist and pulls him closer to him while playing a strand of his hair behind him and presses him closer against his chest.
Chuuya frowns but lets him hug him.
One of the things he hates is that he could never say no to Fyodor’s hugs.
He nuzzles his cheek against Chuuya’s bed hair, “How about we go out today?” He asks softly into his ear, “it’s a nice day outside.”
“I see why not…” he mumbles back and shoves Fyodor’s head away from him as it was messing up his already messy hair. “You already woke me up, there’s no point in going back to sleep.”
Fyodor pecks his nose and smiles at him.
“How kind of you, Chuuya.”
“I know,” the redhead replies, rolling his eyes with a smile of his own.
- - -
As they walked into the park, Chuuya couldn’t help but feel a rush of nostalgia stepping into the premises.
He looks over to Fyodor with his camera, who is busy flicking through photos (probably the ones from this morning that woke him up).
“Oi, are you going to look where you are going, idiot? You’re gonna crash into someone if you don’t.”
His eyes are stuck to the camera, “Hmm, that might be the case but last time I checked, I bumped into solnyshko and that wasn’t that bad.”
“I hope you fall into the fountain, bastard.”
“That isn’t nice, Chuuya.”
Chuuya glances over at the park and looks around their surroundings. It feels all too familiar to him.
“But yeah, it does bring a lot of memories. I still remember you when you called me gorgeous the first time we met,” he replies with a grin.
Fyodor sighs, “Must you always remind me of that, Chuuya?”
“I think that was the last time I heard you call me, of course, I would remind you.”
“But solnyshko is always gorgeous in my eyes, there’s no need to remind yourself.” Chuuya feels a hand snake around his and intertwines fingers with him.
He blushes, “I hate you…”
“I know,” Fyodor replies and looks at the bench they used to sit at together, “Chuuya, let me take a picture of you.”
“Haven’t you taken enough of me today?”
“I’d rather you not answer that question,” Fyodor says back with an unreadable smile on his lips.
Chuuya probably shouldn’t, judging from the look on his face and walks to the bench and sits down, “Just don’t take too long staring.”
“Of course not, Chuuya.”
Fyodor snaps a few pictures and looks at them to check if there’s anything wrong with them.
“They good?” Chuuya asks.
He frowns, “A leaf blew past and is covering your eye…” he mumbles.
“Oh… we can take another one?”
“No, no, let’s go somewhere else to take the picture,” he suggests and Chuuya could already see bad signs showing up purely from Fyodor’s face.
The redhead leans against a lamppost, it is a good pose and Fyodor seems to be satisfied with how it looks.
Just as he is about to take a few pictures, coincidentally at the same time something hits the back of Fyodor’s head.
The picture becomes a blur and Fyodor’s head is throbbing in pain from what is a ball.
“I’m so sorry!” One of the boys exclaimed running over to them. He jumps at the scary expression the Russian is giving me.
Chuuya, holding in his laughter, gives the back the ball, “He’ll be okay, don’t worry about it, just be more careful next time.”
The boy scurries away.
“Are you okay, Fedya?”
“I’m fine…” he replies.
Chuuya looks over to how stiffly the kids were playing now because of Fyodor’s stare.
“Oi, stop scaring them, we can still take a photo,” he says, flicking his forehead.
A red mark surfaces on his head, Fyodor drops his gaze and sighs.
“I guess you’re right.”
The redhead goes back to his original position and Fyodor adjusts the lens a bit.
Click.
He looks at the pictures and frowns.
“Solnyshko, you’re not smiling.”
Chuuya shrugs his shoulders, “You said nothing about smiling.”
“Again.”
He groans and attempts to smile, he thinks his mouth is going to fall off.
A few more photos at the same spot.
“No,” Fyodor says, shaking his head.
Another round of photos.
“No.”
Chuuya feels like his legs are going to fall asleep. How long has he been standing here for?
He thinks it’s about time he asks him what’s going on. “What’s wrong, Fedya? It isn’t like you to be caught up in something like a picture of me.”
Fyodor doesn’t meet his gaze, “I just want it to be perfect that's all…”
“Oh Fedya…” Chuuya coos and walks up to him, caressing his cheeks. “Any photo you take will be perfect.”
“But…”
“Besides, the perfect picture is…”
Chuuya snatches the camera out of Fyodor’s hands.
“What are you doing—?”
The ginger points the camera towards them as Chuuya leans against Fyodor with a bright smile while he stands there all tensed up.
“Smile!”
Fyodor doesn’t have enough time when Chuuya presses the button.
Click.
He hands the camera back to Fyodor.
A clear picture of both of them as they glowed under the sun, the wind gently blowing strands of their hair and their expression captures the main picture.
Chuuya presses a quick kiss on his cheek at his awe expression.
“The perfect picture is when I’m with you, Fedya.”