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The sudden change in temperature made Rinne wake in the night. He sighed and stretched, blinking away sleep so that he could look around the room. He cocked his head seeing the light of the kitchen leaking through the crack of the bedroom door and began shuffling towards the edge of the bed. For a moment, in his groggy daze, he wondered what the Hell was going on and why he had woken up in Niki’s bed. It used to be an occasional occurrence when they were teenagers; innocently comforting each other when things were difficult, specifically for Niki. Sometimes he needed a little extra emotional support, missing the company of his parents and lacking many friends who really understood him. Rinne didn’t mind sharing a bed; they were friends after all and Niki had extended immeasurable generosity to him that he could only dream of repaying.
As they aged they wordlessly agreed that the nights would be their own, gradually slipping away from that type of comfort. There were times however when they would say goodnight and Rinne would lay down on his futon in the main living space, staring up at the ceiling wondering if it would be weird for him to climb into bed after Niki, even just one last time. It was blissfully innocent, there was nothing explicit about it. If Rinne was honest those kinds of feelings weren’t present until recent years - so back then it was strictly romantic, just craving being close to the man that he had started to fall in love with. It was a big contributor to the physical element of his teasing, always grabbing at Niki any chance he got because he missed the closeness. Being close to the chef didn’t inherently make Rinne nervous, it was the context and intention that made all the difference. He was able to carry on in typical Rinne fashion because that’s what was expected of him. It began platonically and by the time Rinne realised Niki was more than a friend to him he had been touching him so long it would be more embarrassingly to just suddenly stop. So he continued like he always did, now and again having to cut his teasing short because of the knot in his chest. Little did he know just how hard Niki had fallen for him too, as they danced around each other hiding behind a false feud.
Last nights confession and first kiss was stuck on replay in Rinne’s mind. He’s pretty sure he even dreamed about it. Again, the intentions and context were very important to his brains malfunction, having been met with the proposal of kissing Niki before but never in such a setting. There were a handful of times when Niki had asked to kiss Rinne out of gratitude only to be shot down playfully - in these instances, Rinne was convinced Niki’s intentions were platonic and probably just exaggerations to show his appreciation. Last night was miles different. Their feelings were out in the open and the realisation that Niki wanted to kiss him because he liked him was fucking crazy. How could anyone blame him for the mess he has become?
The sound of cardboard and plastic rustling from the Kitchen pulled Rinne from his thoughts. It was obvious now that Niki had been woken up by the pain of hunger, forced to leave the comfort of bed to sustain himself. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, in fact it could be considered dangerous if Niki didn’t wake in the night to feed himself. He may need sleep but his illness does not. Rinne was probably the only other person around who understood the severity of the chef’s situation. He could count on one hand the number of times that Niki has been too exhausted that not even his hunger could wake him. This would result in Niki barely being able to lift his head when the morning would come, passing the role of caretaker to Rinne as he would work to bring his partner back from the brink of starvation. It was common for Niki to accept defeat all too quickly when it came to his illness but over the years it had become apparent that his mind is not his own when he’s hungry.
Rinne learned to ignore Niki when he would begin to babble about life being fun while it lasted, that he knew his curse would catch up to him eventually and it was a miracle he lasted this long, etc. The defeatist attitude would subside once even just the scent of something delicious caught him. Delicious being used lightly as Rinne’s dishes were far from restaurant quality. He told himself that it didn’t matter, that it was more important to be able to quickly throw something calorific together so that he could spoon feed Niki back to health. The chef would never care at the time, happily chowing down on whatever was available so long as it was edible. Rinne began to wonder what sort of meal Niki was preparing for himself this late into the night. He figured it wouldn’t be anything intricate as sleep was important and the faster the hunger was defeated the better.
With a yawn, Rinne stood up from the bed and began shuffling towards the door. His shirt bunched up around his hand as he idly scratched at his stomach, shouldering through the doorway and squinting as the light assaulted his eyes. He could just about make out the chef in his element, watching his elbows flare out as he concocted a meal, unaware or unconcerned with the sound of Rinne approaching behind. The signature ponytail was nowhere to be seen, instead Niki’s hair was messily resting around his back and shoulders, hiding the soft skin of his neck. It was a criminal offence in Rinne’s book, especially now that they were a couple; he should have access to his favourite spot at all times.
Once he reached his destination he held Niki in place with a hand at his hip, the other moving up to brush silver strands of hair over one shoulder. Now Niki’s hair fell naturally into its usual place, exposing his neck and a few wonderful little moles. Rinne was unable to resist sleepily placing soft kisses over each one, feeling Niki shiver ever so slightly on impact, humming around a mouthful of food.
“Rinne-kun?”
Well who else would it be, Rinne thought to himself. He paused his kissing at Niki’s shoulder, smirking against his skin. “Mm no actually, there’s no Rinne-kun here.” He continued on his path, lips brushing against skin until they rested against Niki’s earlobe. “I’m your sleep paralysis demon~”
“Don’t say that, that’s scary!” Niki flinched feeling the warmth from his boyfriend’s lazy whisper, his shoulders instinctively tensing upwards to protect himself. He tried to shrug the taller man off, avoiding turning his head too much for fear that his flustered face would be seen, only adding fuel to the fire that was Rinne Amagi. Unfortunately for Niki his ears had also burned up. He felt teeth against his skin as his boyfriend grinned, which only made the warmth spread.
“Ya don’t seem too scared, Nikikyun~”
But he was, in a way. He was scared of the effect that this man could have on him, especially now that everything was in the open between them. It was only last night that they finally confessed and made things real, so Niki’s head and heart were still riding on that high. They had a lot of catching up to do when it came to expressing their true feelings but there was also a bowl of food that still had to be eaten before that was a priority. Niki stuffed some sweets in his mouth, shaking his head.
“Mm too hungry to be scared. Quit being a demon for a minute so I can finish eating.”
Rinne hummed in defeat, wrapping his arms around Niki’s waist tightly. For a second he contemplated preventing the hungry chef from finishing his snack, figuring that it would be more entertaining watching him squirm around trying to escape his grasp. It wouldn’t be the best time to push Niki’s buttons though, so Rinne settled with continuing his assault of kisses which hopefully were just the right amount of distracting.
Their dynamic as a duo was mostly the same, not much had to change just because they were suddenly a couple. The younger man was still mostly unbothered by the onslaught of physical affection, doing his best to focus on filling his stomach but admittedly struggling with the feeling of Rinne’s lips against his skin. It wasn’t that he disliked it - quite the opposite, but because the sensation was still so new it lit a fire in his belly. His body was really going through a plethora of emotions, he could feel the heaviness of exhaustion creeping up on him even with the energy he was getting from the food. He sighed through his nose, swallowing one last handful before setting the empty bowl into the sink to begin washing. It was a habit of his to wash up as he went, being something his father drilled into him. He was taught of the multiple benefits it brought; being more hygienic, allowing more space for preparation and easier access to ingredients. There was a bitter sweetness to remembering his childhood before his parents left to the point where he wasn’t that fond of talking about it, even to Rinne. Whenever he did mention it he would convince himself that it didn’t matter, that he understood why they had to leave him and that was just how life was. Truthfully, it left a lonesome hole inside of him that has taken this long to fill.
Suddenly Niki noticed the cool of his T-shirt flowing freely at his back, having not realised that Rinne had moved away from embracing him. Maybe he had been lost in thought and was spending too many minutes washing up, causing Rinne to get bored and go back to bed? Niki hurriedly set the bowl on the drying rack, flicking water from his hands as he spun around to look-
“Kyahaha, gotcha!”
Rinne had indeed grown bored watching Niki scrub the same spot on his bowl for a whole minute and decided to hurry things along. He figured that it wouldn’t take long before his boyfriend noticed the absence of arms wrapped around his waist and counted on his haste in discovering why. Rinne only took half a step backwards, remaining as close as possible so that when Niki turned around he had nowhere to go. It was easy to grab him when he was caught off guard, arms returning to wrap tightly around his waist. Rinne pulled Niki close, adjusting them so that Niki’s back pressed against the counter. The shorter looked up to see one smug motherfucker staring back, all too easily impressed with himself. Sometimes it was the simplest things that got Rinne Amagi excited, especially when it came to torturing his new boyfriend. His head was filled with endless possibilities; new ways to give Niki Hell. Sometimes, to the chef’s dismay, it felt like Heaven.
Niki playfully beat his fists against his captor’s chest. There was a fine balance between annoyance and adoration when it came to Rinne’s antics. At times it was difficult to decipher what side persevered but in the current moment the feelings were teetering towards adoration.
Niki continued to play along however, lightheartedly protesting by poking Rinne’s chest. “I can’t even have my snack in peace?”
“Nope! Besides, I think it’s turn for my snack~”
Niki raised an eyebrow, trying not to let the balancing act of emotions fall to the wrong side as he wondered. His stomach was full and his body had begun to settle, now bringing forth the haze of exhaustion that made it hard for him to think. He scrunched up his nose.
“Ehh, are you hungry? Why didn’t you say anything before I cleaned up? Aah, I’m too tired to deal with your idiocy…” His sentence was cut off by a dramatic sigh from Rinne, although he still defaulted to grinning like a hyena, clearly finding Niki’s sleepy confusion adorable.
“Not that kinda snack, Niki. I was thinkin’ something a little more… like this.”
Niki couldn’t help but let out a noise of realisation that was quickly caught in his throat when Rinne smushed their lips together. It was an awkwardly apprehensive kiss, the instigator in the last moment feeling embarrassed despite his words dripping confidence. The realisation that this could be considered only their second kiss hit Rinne like a truck. He knew that he had froze up, stillness in the kiss lasting longer than anticipated. He cursed internally at himself, eyes screwed shut so he didn’t have to see when Niki started to grin, only feeling the curve to his lips.
The more confident of the two found his boyfriend’s duality extremely endearing. There weren’t many things that filled him with more pride than knowing he alone was the one to experience this side of Rinne. He couldn’t help the giddiness bubbling over, giggling into the ‘kiss’. The intention wasn’t to make Rinne pull away self consciously, although that is exactly what happened. He couldn’t even look Niki in the eye, head turned towards the window as a distraction, looking past the slits in the blinds to the glow of streetlights.
Before the embarrassment killed the redhead, Niki grounded him by placing hands at either side of his face, thumbs brushing over warm cheeks. He knew that touch was important to him. As he turned Rinne’s attention back, he gingerly leaned in to place a single sweet kiss. It was more coordinated, more purposeful as Niki felt relaxed in his bliss.
Parting his lips slightly to soften the kiss, Niki wanted to give Rinne the chance to make a comeback in his confidence. The chef seemed to naturally be much better at this, though keeping in mind both lacked prior experience, so much of it was still far from skilful. It didn’t really matter to them, so long as they had each other and were able to eventually settle together. Rinne felt the tension melting away as they kissed - properly this time, lips moving and heads tilting. It was much less frantic than their first kissing session, not as deep or heated, just sweet and slow. Niki couldn’t help but breathe out a few short laughs in between, making Rinne’s heart stop momentarily each time as he tried his best to remain calm, focussing a little too hard on what he was doing. He wanted to be good, for Niki, but worrying too much was just going to have the opposite of his intended effect. He swore that he would get a hold of himself for their next kiss.
They naturally pulled apart after a short while, Niki smoothing out the wrinkles on his flustered boyfriend’s shirt that he had been gripping. He noted the soft glaze to Rinne’s eyes that showed more love than words could ever convey. Niki did his best to show it back because he truly was in love with this hazard of a man and he deserved to know as much. He also wanted to make it known that despite needing a break, it wasn’t for lack of enthusiasm.
“Mm do you think that’s enough for tonight? I don’t want to fall asleep kissing you.”
Rinne feigned offence, pulling an exasperated face. “Hah? Am I that bad at it that I’m boring ya to sleep?”
Truth be told there was an inkling of worry that he was, in fact, a god awful kisser. It was easy to recognise that he wasn’t yet a good kisser but a lot of it was down to his apprehension; the inability to take advantage of his running starts, chickening out as he reaches the hurdle. He could blame it on Niki for being so distractingly beautiful. Yeah, surely that was the real problem?
“Don’t be annoying, Rinne-kun. If you were that bad I’d tell you, wouldn’t I?”
“Would ya really?”
“Yep! My mouth is very important to me so if you were messing it up I’d have to do something about it. You’d have to practise on your pillow, or something. You’re not that bad though but we can practise together tomorrow anyways, okay?”
All Rinne could do was nod, uncontrollable sheepish grin hurting his cheeks. He would have liked to have been able to toss out one last remark but thinking about getting to kiss his boyfriend again excited him into silence. If Niki knew it was this easy to shut Rinne up he would have kissed him long ago. It would have saved him more than a few headaches.
Because Rinne was still holding Niki against the counter the chef had to push himself free. There was a brief resistance before Rinne let go, laughing as the smaller man rolled his eyes and grabbed his hand, leading him to the bedroom. He watched from behind, being dragged along, as Niki’s hair bounced around, eyes dropping to watch the ends flowing against his lower back. Although his T-shirt was oversized, it bunched around his waist and Rinne couldn’t help but continue to drop his gaze…
“You better not be staring at my ass back there!”
“Wha- how the fuck did ya know?”
They crossed the threshold into the bedroom, Niki shaking his head while Rinne’s whole body shook with laughter. He wasn’t aware he was even staring that much, let alone enough for Niki to notice before his eyes even reached their final destination. He guessed that it was more down to his predictability. Being in a relationship wasn’t his gateway to appreciating Niki’s ass, he had done so countless times before and obviously so, searching for a reaction. Typically he was met with a flustered Niki, at times out of agitation and at times out of something that he could never really place. He supposed, now that he was certain of his feelings, that it was embarrassment for being admired by the man he loved. Niki could be quite self conscious in a multitude of ways, one of which being that he didn’t view himself as anything physically special. It wasn’t so much that he thought he was ugly or even unattractive but just that he was, well, just Niki. It was difficult for Rinne to understand how that wasn’t very obviously the most attractive thing somebody could be. Physically, mentally, ethically - everything was beautiful if it was Niki. He was a good person, a talented person and he meant the world to Rinne. It wasn’t a bad thing to be shallow sometimes and appreciate his physique though, right?
“Rinne-kun~ Are you alive? I’d actually prefer you staring at my ass than blankly into space. You look stupid~”
“Hm? Oh, I was just thinkin’ bout how much nicer my ass is than yours. Don’tcha think so?”
He spun around with his hands on his hips, looking over his shoulder and wiggling his truthfully inferior ass in Niki’s direction. The younger man scoffed, pulling back the bedsheets and clambering in to fluff up his pillow. He kept his back to his boyfriend, not even humouring him with his eyes. He could hear whining and soon the exaggerated heavy pattering of feet approaching the bed, making him tense in preparation. Rinne expectedly jumped onto the bed and wrapped himself around Niki making them both fall over to one side, now spooning messily, arms and legs entwined. The little spoon tried his best to grab the sheets, pawing around but unable to find them now that the big spoon was encompassing him. At this point, now that Niki was horizontal, he was so tired that he couldn’t give a shit if he was lying on concrete. He would probably be able to sleep anywhere anyway as long as Rinne was holding him. The thought filled him with such security that he couldn’t help but sigh deeply, grabbing at his boyfriends arms to make sure he held him as tightly as possible. Rinne complied wholeheartedly, nuzzling and blowing hair away from Niki’s neck so that he could plant little kisses. The sensation of it made Niki hum to suppress a laugh, tickled slightly, the sound releasing butterflies in Rinne’s chest. He couldn’t think of anything more perfect to fall asleep to. As he began to drift, he remembered something he’d like to reiterate.
“Niki?”
”Mm?”
”I love ya, y’know?”
Rinne felt resistance against him, loosening his grip so that Niki could moved as he pleased. He watched as the chef turned in the space he had made, snuggling up into his chest, circling fingertips over where his heart would be. Niki smiled, feeling his boyfriends heavy heartbeat and the shakiness in the rise and fall of his chest. The sensation was soothing him so much that he was dangerously close to falling asleep any second. Before he did, he made sure to reciprocate his boyfriend’s feelings, leaning up to kiss his jaw.
”I know. I love you too, Rinne-kun. Now let me sleep~”