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Yuri steps out of the bathroom, hair tie between his teeth while he gathers his hair into a low ponytail.
Byleth glances up at him from his spot in bed, his pillow stuffed behind his head and the blankets up to his chest, and smiles, his thumbs stilling on his Switch. "Hi. Missed you."
Yuri raises an eyebrow, shooting a pointed glance at his hands. "Oh yeah? Elliott isn't good enough company for you?"
This time the Switch goes face down on his chest—after he hits pause—and he sits up, affronted. "I wasn't talking to Elliott!" Yuri's eyebrow stays up. "I was fishing. I want to catch all the legendary fish this time."
Finally, Yuri benches the eyebrow, replacing it with a coy smile. He sinks into the bed and cuddles up close, his head pillowed on Byleth's shoulder. "Alright, I believe you. Any luck so far?"
He sighs into Yuri's hair, an arm wrapping around him and holding him closer. "I've only caught the angler so far, again."
Yuri presses a kiss to his arm, peeking up at him. "You'll get them all eventually," he murmurs, slowly kissing a path up his neck to his jaw. "For now, why don't we have a little fun?"
Byleth raises an eyebrow, then immediately flushes when he catches on. "I, um... It's the perfect conditions to reel in the glacierfish..."
Yuri sighs loudly and flops back onto his own pillow, even though the smile on his face so clearly belies his annoyance. "Fine. But my hand will make a poor replacement, I'm afraid."
His eyes widen when Byleth presses a kiss to his cheek. Now it's his turn to flush.
"I love you. It's only from six to eight in-game, so if I don't catch it—" Byleth trails off but his meaning is clear—the blush on his face can't mean anything else.
"You're cute," Yuri teases, just to watch the blush spread down his throat and, Yuri knows, across his chest and dusting his shoulders. "Go ahead."
He kisses him properly this time, sweet and earnest, just long enough to leave Yuri wanting, and then he pulls away and unpauses his game. So Yuri sits up, beats his own pillow into submission behind his head, and watches over Byleth's shoulder, quietly hoping that he catches it.
After such a long day, all Yuri wants to do is take a hot shower and cuddle up next to his boyfriend. Maybe Byleth will cook dinner tonight—do they still have the ingredients for that pasta he wanted to make? He'll have to check...
His key slots into the door and turns easily, and it swings open.
"Oh, fuck off," Byleth mutters quietly from the couch.
Yuri blinks. "Nice to see you too."
The door closes behind him and Byleth jumps up and turns, tossing his Switch on the couch and moving to greet him. "Not you! Please don't fuck off, I love you, welcome home."
Yuri can't help but smile. He toes his shoes off and meets him halfway, pressing up to kiss him and winding his arms around his waist. Byleth's hands rest on his arms, just above his elbows, and when Yuri pulls away he tugs him back, just close enough to leave another kiss on his forehead.
"Who were you talking to?" he asks, still grinning.
Byleth glances at his abandoned Switch on his equally abandoned blanket; it's open to his Animal Crossing inventory, his little avatar tapping its foot impatiently. "I was trying to catch a shark and I accidentally hit A too soon."
"That is so sad," Yuri deadpans, and Byleth wrinkles his nose at him. It's then that he notices the aroma. He sniffs, raising an eyebrow at him. "What is that?"
Byleth releases him in favor of heading into the kitchen to peek into a pan on the stove. "You remember that pasta recipe you showed me a few weeks ago?"
Oh, Yuri loves this man. Adores. Cherishes. He could weep. Is he being dramatic? Maybe, but he thinks it's warranted.
He comes up behind Byleth and hugs him. He's warm from the couch, and he smells nice, like he showered—he must've, Yuri thinks, because he smells distinctly like the bodywash Yuri likes.
Byleth continues, a hand unconsciously drifting down to lace with one of Yuri's, "We still had the stuff for it and I didn't want it to go bad, so I figured I'd cook it up for us."
Almost on instinct, he takes Yuri's hand and brings it to his mouth to kiss it. He's glad his face is hidden against Byleth's back because it makes him blush like a virgin, like a schoolgirl.
"Sound good?" he asks, peeking over his shoulder to look at him.
Yuri pushes his face away and buries his own further into his shirt, breathes in that stupid bodywash, and mumbles, "Yeah. Sounds great."
He showers quickly, and when they finally sit down on the couch to eat, cuddled up close under Byleth's blanket, he holds his rapidly cooling bowl of pasta with both hands and watches with a stupid grin on his face while he shows off his Animal Crossing aquarium and explains to him through mouthfuls of food that he's only missing one fish, and how he needs to catch it before the end of the month or it'll be gone until next year, and—
"I love you."
Byleth stops dead in the middle of his sentence and looks up, sucking a noodle into his mouth and then smiling, soft and pretty and private. "I love you too."
He presses a kiss to Yuri's mouth, warm and tasting like dinner and home and comfort, and then he goes back to explaining the ins-and-outs of Animal Crossing. Yuri sighs happily and tucks in himself.
It's delicious.
"So, what am I watching you do, exactly?"
Byleth finishes chewing before he answers. "I'm trying to catch the Liege of the Lake. Again."
Yuri tucks his legs up on the couch, sitting sideways against the arm with an elbow propped up on the back and the side of his head against his palm. "What's the Liege of the Lake?"
The controller goes on the table, but the car on the television keeps driving—one of the guys in the back is sitting on top of the car with his feet on the seat, but none of the other guys seem to mind—and Byleth turns to him to explain properly, his bowl of popcorn migrating to the cushion between them. While he talks, Yuri filches a handful and holds it close to his chest.
"So there's this place called the Vesperpool, right, and if you spend the night at the campsite there, there's a chance that Gladio will ask if you want to try and catch this legendary fish called the Liege of the Lake. The last time he asked I didn't have the right lure but now I do and I also maxed out Noctis's fishing and I think I can pull it off this time."
Yuri thoughtfully munches on his popcorn, then says, "Alright. Who's Gladio."
He grins and shakes his head, turning back to the screen. "The one with the tattoos."
"Ah," Yuri muses. "The hot one."
He laughs. "Yes, the hot one."
"...And who's Noctis?"
With another fond laugh, Byleth waves him off and picks up the controller again right as the car pulls over to the side of the road and everyone gets out, complaining about the weather.
"This is Noctis," he answers, twirling the joystick and making his character spin in a circle. "Now, let's see if I can't..."
He trails off, leading the group up a short hill to a glowing rock and selecting the camp option. One of the guys—blond, Yuri doesn't know his name—makes a comment about camping in the rain, and then the scene fades to the next morning.
Gladio walks into frame and Byleth goes, "Aha!" quietly to himself, grinning a little. "First try," he boasts, turning to Yuri.
"Congratulations," he responds, which makes Byleth stick his tongue out at him. He turns his attention back to the TV, where Noctis is running through the grass down to a dilapidated fishing dock. "I've, like, never seen you go fishing in real life," Yuri muses, rubbing his buttery fingers on his sweatpants. "Doesn't your dad fish?"
"He and my sister," he answers. "I used to go a lot when I was younger, actually, but then I got a job and I met you and—" He shrugs a shoulder. "My life changed a lot. I just... fell out of it, I guess."
Yuri raises a brow. "This is the first I'm hearing of this. Do they still go fishing?"
Byleth nods, squinting a little as he picks out his lure and fishing line. "As far as I know, they go a couple times a month."
"Oh," Yuri replies, watching the screen as Noctis tosses his lure into the lake.
A little red line appears at the top, along with some stealth music in the background, as Byleth tugs the lure back towards himself. He's gone quiet, leaning forward over his crossed legs just a little. The line grows longer and longer until the music jumps into action and Byleth lets out a breath. Yuri watches the struggle, the constant back and forth, his eyes darting to the screen when the fish—a massive fish—jumps into the air, and darting to Byleth when he mumbles, "C'mon, c'mon Noct—"
Yuri sort of loses track of time. Between the music and the little shaking line of tension at the bottom of the screen and Noctis's friends constantly shouting suggestions from behind him—"Turn the rod towards the fish!" "Ease up on the reeling!"—and Byleth humming the music to himself and biting his lip, he finds himself leaning closer to the screen, a leg folded under him and his elbows on his knees, hands steepled in front of his mouth.
He's watching the stamina bar at the top—low now, but when his gaze flicks to the durability bar in the bottom corner he finds it just as low.
Byleth is being extra careful—waiting longer to reel, reeling in shorter bursts, sucking in his breath when the controller starts vibrating in his hands. The fish grows closer and closer, until Yuri can see it clearly under the water, and then Noctis goes, "Ready to grab it?" and Gladio jumps into the water with a splash and Byleth gasps, turning to him slack-jawed, wide-eyed and laughing.
"You did it!" Yuri exclaims.
"I did it," Byleth echoes, dropping the controller and running his hands through his hair. He glances back up at the screen and laughs into his hands, doing a little dance in his seat that makes Yuri melt just a tiny bit. "I can't believe it..."
Both of them watch as Gladio and Noctis haul the fish onto the dock—it really is massive; the entire length of Gladio's torso—and drop it in favor of congratulating him.
"Nice work," Yuri compliments, and Byleth flushes a little even though he's smiling.
"It must seem pretty silly to get so excited about a video game," he says. "Thanks for indulging me."
Yuri scoots closer, wrapping an arm around him and tugging him close enough to press a kiss to his cheek. He leaves a little bit of a shine behind—the remnants of his lip gloss—but he doesn't wipe it away. "It's a little silly," he responds, which makes Byleth look at him. "But I'm glad you shared it with me anyway. It was fun."
Somehow, he smiles even wider. "I love you."
Yuri tucks himself close, lifting Byleth's arm to put it around his shoulders, and replies, "I know."