Work Text:
“What do you think of Yokawa College?”
Yaku glanced up at his laptop, distracted from his textbook. Lev was there, on an active Skype call. He was doing that lip-bite thing he did whenever he was thinking about something.
“It’s alright,” he said, with a shrug. “I dunno, I’ve never really been there.”
“But it’s close to your school, right?” he pressed.
“Yeah, it’s like 20 minutes away. Why?”
More of Lev’s lower lip disappeared between his teeth. “I was thinking about going there next year.”
Yaku raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“What for?”
A bit of tension eased in his face, and Lev smiled shyly at him through the computer screen. “Early childhood education.”
Yaku grinned. Of course Lev would want to study something like that. “Do they have a good program for that there?”
Lev glanced down, presumably at his own notes. They were having a Skype study date, five hundred kilometres apart. “Yeah, they do.”
“It should be pretty easy to get in there, too,” he said, leaning his elbow on his chair’s armrest. “It’s not too prestigious. I’m actually kind of surprised they have something like your program there... seems a bit too small, you know?”
He hummed, his eyes not coming up from his notes. Yaku watched him for a moment, drinking in the sight of his boyfriend, before returning his gaze to his horribly dull biology textbook.
“If I got in,” Lev said suddenly, “Would you want to live together?”
Yaku looked up again, uneasily. Swallowing down a knot that had suddenly formed in his throat, he said, “Um... yeah, sure, I guess?”
Lev beamed at him, and returned to his notes with vigor. But Yaku couldn’t make himself focus on the words in front of him now: his mind was suddenly full of the ones Lev had just spoken.
“Why do you want to go to Yokawa anyways?”
Yaku instantly regretted the words once he said them. Although he couldn’t see Lev’s face through the phone, he could imagine it: shocked, confused, and hurt. “Do you not want me to?” he asked, timidly.
“It’s not that, it’s just...” Yaku let out a sigh and raked a hand through his hair. “I looked it up, and there are better schools in Tokyo with your program.”
Lev scoffed quietly. “I can’t get into those.”
“Yeah, you can! You’re smart, Lev: you get As and Bs.”
“I get Bs, Yaku.”
He sighed. “I was just curious, why you wanted to aim for Yokawa when there’s better schools nearer to you.”
“Well, why did you move all the way to Osaka?” he asked accusingly.
“Because I wanted to distance myself from my parents as much as possible,” he answered, instantly and without hesitation. “But you should stay at home, if you can. I would if I were you; your family is amazing. Wouldn’t you miss them, if you moved here?”
Lev’s tone softened. “Yeah...”
“I just... I wanna make sure you’re doing this for the right reasons, Lev. Be honest. Why are you aiming for Yokawa?”
He was silent for a moment. When he spoke, it was little more than a murmur. “I want to be with you.”
That was not the right reason. “Lev...”
“I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later, Yaku. Bye. I love you.”
Yaku didn’t even get a chance to say “I love you too” before he heard the dial tone.
“Shibayama told me about the scholarship offer,” Yaku said, as soon as Lev’s face appeared on his computer screen. The Skype call had been ringing for a good 20 seconds before he picked up; usually, at this time of day, it was instantaneous.
“...Hi, Yaku,” he said, frowning.
“They told me that you got an offer from Kinbashi University, to play volleyball there,” he continued on. “That they offered you a full ride. And I looked it up, and they have a early childhood education program there, too.”
“Yaku -- “
“No, Lev, listen to me! You can live with your family, you can go to university for free, and you can keep playing volleyball. Yokawa doesn’t even have a volleyball team!!”
“Why don’t you want to live with me?” Lev blurted out.
With a cold shock, Yaku realized for the first time since the call started, that there were tears in his boyfriend’s eyes.
“It’s really obvious that you don’t want to, Yaku,” he continued, sniffling. “You can just say it, okay? If the idea of living with me is so repellant to you.”
“It’s not that!” he protested.
He shook his head violently in dismissal. “It is! When I first said it... you were so...! You don’t want to live with me.”
“I do. I do want to live with you. But...” Yaku swallowed a knot in his throat. “You can’t throw your life away just so we can live together for a few years.”
“It’s my life to throw away,” he said petulantly. He raised a hand to swipe at his eyes, smearing the tears onto his cheek ineffectively. Lev let out a long, shaky breath. “I just... I miss you, Yaku. I can’t... Holidays are so far apart. I miss being able to touch you.”
“I miss you too,” Yaku said, feeling a burn beginning to form at the back of his eyes. “So much.”
Silence passed between them for a moment, as Lev wiped away his tears and Yaku tried to prevent his from spilling out.
Yaku was the first one to break the silence. “I’ll move back to Tokyo when I graduate in two years, back to you, back to your family, back to our friends... It’s just two years, Lev.”
“It’s been two years so far,” he grumbled. “And it sucks.”
“Halfway there?” he offered weakly. Lev just frowned at him.
But, then his frown melted a little. “And when you move back here... can we move in together?”
Yaku nodded firmly. “Yeah.”
“Promise?” The frown returned. “You... kinda didn’t look too excited about it when I first asked.”
He took a deep, bracing breath. “I wasn’t,” Yaku said, honestly. “But... I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it would be... nice. Really nice.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Lev agreed softly, smiling a bit. “I... I just miss you, Yaku.”
“I miss you too.” Yaku grinned a little. “Hey, what are your plans this weekend? Because... I’m totally free. Do you want some company?”
Lev’s face lit up. “Yes!”
“Cool. I’ll leave on the first train after class on Friday.”
“Wait, wait,” Lev said hastily, “Can I come over to yours? Because... y’know... I miss you.” His eyebrows raised up and down at the stressed word.
“God, no,” Yaku said, shaking his head. “I wanna chat to your mom. I miss her.” After a beat of Lev pouting at him, Yaku’s smirk melted into a softer smile. “Also you. I also miss you.”
“I’ll tell Mama to leave the house for a few hours on Sunday,” he suggested.
“That would be a great idea.”