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Akito Shinonome usually wanted to make the most of his time and improve on his skills.
But… maybe not today.
“You managed to get these?” Toya Aoyagi marveled, staring at Akito’s newly bought tickets to a nearby carnival that seemed like a children’s absolute dream in the advertisement. “They were a bit pricey compared to the annual festival we usually go to.”
Akito handed him the ticket as he sat on the edge of the bed, a hand on his leg, “I wish I could’ve given An and Kohane some of the tickets… but these tickets were already a rough blow to my budget.” He muttered, and he leaned backwards onto his sheets, “I know recently it’s been rough and I think my blue bear on my bed needs another friend to sleep with.”
Toya laughed, sliding into the spot next to him and planting a kiss on the cheek, “I still have the orange bear you got.”
“You hide it still?”
“I guess not.” Toya said. “My father isn’t too fond of it… but my bear needs another companion as well.”
Akito turned his body and clutched his stuffed animal, handing it to him. “You know… I still remember when we got these.”
Toya smiled. “Could I stay here for the time being?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks, love you.”
Akito would never get used to those words.
The carnival was especially crowded, and colorful lights were absolutely everywhere. Akito Shinonome reminisced the times where he and his sister would eat candied apples under bright red lanterns and a midnight starry sky, without a care in the world— now, he rarely has times like these, and whenever he did… he cherished them deeply.
His gaze set out for Toya Aoyagi, his boyfriend, in the sea of people. There was a lot of games around him— kids trying to happily scoop out fishes from the pond as their parents shared dango together. Akito tried to spot a head of blue hair, but it was really no use. He sighed and took out his phone.
After a few moments, Toya picked up. “Toya.” He looked around. “Where are you?”
“Ah, I can’t really talk right now.” Toya sucked in a breath.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Akito politely brushed his way into the crowd.
“I’m at a game right now. I want adorable cat plushie…”
Akito smiled weakly and emitted a sigh. “Okay. Where?”
“It’s near the cotton candy stand… the ones that serve the apple flavor.”
Akito stopped in the middle of the path, processing the information, before he turned himself to the side— “That’s… like the opposite side of me.”
“Oh. Well…”
“No worries. I’ll be there.”
Akito continued to push through the crowds until it minimally subsided, which gave him some time to realize just how rigged the games were— walls and walls of prizes— but nobody has claimed most of them yet and the festival has been up for a few days already. The walls of stuffed pandas in the stall were almost full except for an empty space in the middle. Akito frowned. How would Toya handle this? He can’t just be wasting his money.
The smell of sickly sweet sugar suddenly wafted in the air after some time, and he found his blue-haired boyfriend trying to shoot darts at balloons. Akito walked over quietly as he watched— Toya threw, and it slid off onto the ground. “Hey.” He slid in next to him.
Toya yelped and looked at him. “S—sorry. I’m trying to get that because…” he trailed off, “It looks like you.”
Akito glanced over to the wall, and saw a cute ginger cat with a sleepy expression on it— its arms splayed out and its belly was on the floor. Akito smiled. “I guess it does look like me. How long have you’ve been trying this for?”
“The one I just threw was my sixth one.”
“Even you can’t do it? It’s rigged.” Akito muttered.
“Maybe you can do it.” Toya offered.
“I could give it a try…” Akito took a dart and blinked, throwing it so it went for one nearing the right, and to his surprise, his balloon popped.
Toya’s eyes sparkled so much, it matched with the constellations raining down on them from the cold sky above. “Aki! You did it!” Toya grasped his hand.
His hands were cold, and Akito’s was warm. They clashed, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. No… not at all, it was the opposite— it filled Akito with so much joy he wanted to kiss him there, but… it felt too sudden. Toya smiled at him before he earned the sleepy orange cat. “I’m keeping this one. I’ll place it next to my bear.”
“I completely forgot I have to get one for myself as well.” Akito admitted as they strolled through the stands— farther away was the ferris wheel and a rollercoaster that blared warm lights into the carnival games— it felt so good just being here, and he dinly wondered if he should try and convince Toya to go onto one of them.
“There’s a stand just a bit a way that gives the same thing, but blue.” Toya offered. “And the minigame is fishing rubber ducks out of a swirling pond.”
“That sounds… hard.” Akito sighed as they made it to the game— Toya was right, simply just bright blue water with cute yellow ducks bobbing in it.
“I think you’ll do good, considering what you did back then…” Toya squeezed his hand encouragingly before slipping it away and watching him grab a hook.
Akito held in his breath as he fished out some ducks, and turned them over, “…Nothing.”
“No winning ones?”
“I’ll get it on the next one. Come on.” Akito nodded fiercely.
On his third set, he was losing hope— fishing out a second duck, he asked quickly, “Can you do this last one?”
“Eh?” Toya glanced at him with surprisement. “Sure, I can try.”
Toya, just in the nick of time, hooked up a duck coming from the current.
Akito flipped all three over,
Aha!
“Was that yours?” Akito grinned. One of the ducks had a winning number under it.
Toya laughed weakly as Akito grabbed a cute cat plush, which had one eye open, its ears flopped down. The tail wrapped around its body. “I think so. It looks like me.”
“Yeah. It’s cute, like you.” Akito patted its head. He turned to Toya’s growing red face, “You wanna grab a bite?”
Toya clutched at his orange cat. “Hm… dango sounds good right now.”
With a gentle grasp of hands, they went to one of the food stalls and ended up ordering two skewers of chewy, slightly sweet goodness— colorful rice spheres covered in a sort of sticky sweetened sauce, it was warm and comfy as they made their way to the edges of the festival, where a vacant bench laid as they sat down and ate their snack.
After a moment of silence, Akito leaned his head onto Toya’s shoulder and gently took his hand, staring at it. “You having fun?” He asked quietly.
Toya leaned back and let out a sigh of relief— a sound of peace, content, and finalization— “I was having fun just being near you, Aki.” He whispered.
The ginger fell silent, the loving words affecting his face as it heated up and he felt his heartbeat race. He took another bite of his dango. “I’m glad I met you.”
Toya squeezed his hand as they sat in glimmering quietness once more— Akito sat up straight, glancing at his surroundings until he heard some cheers from the faraway rollercoaster that sped away in a curve. Akito grinned suddenly. “Do you wanna do that?”
“Do what?” Toya asked, then he fell silent, “Ah. The rollercoaster?”
Akito nodded. “I mean, it’s fine if you don’t wanna. I know you’re not the biggest fan of heights.”
Toya considered it as he ate the rest of his dango. “I want to get over that fear today.”
“So— so you’ll do it with me?” Akito asked, stunned.
“Yeah.” Toya smiled, getting up and turning back to him with gleaming grey eyes, a sweet tone to his face as he said, “Come on, lets go!”
Akito sat there as he took in Toya’s pretty face. He wondered what he ever did to deserve him.
He sighed contentedly.
“Alright, let’s go.”
The sight of the rollercoaster whipping by them and the delightful screams up in the air made Toya Aoyagi’s grip around his boyfriend’s hand tighten.
Heights were never really his strong suit— when him and the others of VIVID BAD SQUAD went out camping and Toya had climbed a tree to look at the stars, he was still shaken trying to get down using the minimal amounts of branches.
“It’s safe. Look, there's that belt there and a metal thing that holds your legs down.” Akito pointed out as a batch of people loaded into the rollercoaster. Toya examined the ride. “You’ve got me, too.”
“I think I’ll be okay, then.” Toya took in a breath.
“Look, don’t force yourself to do anything—“
“No, Akito I want to.” Toya insisted, glancing at him. “Let’s go.”
They ended up in line, putting their cute cat plushies into their bag before they reached the front unexpectedly quickly. Toya’s breath hitched as his eyes trailed from the start to the tracks of the rollercoaster, rising into the air and dropping. Toya swallowed as he got in and buckled himself, pulling the metal bar onto his lap as Akito sat down next to him. They placed their bags down.
Toya was silently determined as he faced forward. Akito brushed orange hair out of his face and smiled slightly. “It’s nice when you’re like this.”
Toya glanced at him. “I think I’ll be okay.”
“I know you will.”
The rollercoaster moved slowly, and Toya’s breath was halted.
He looked to the stalls and stands far away, full of warmth and the smell of sweetness. Toya distantly thought it looked serene.
“Hey, by the way.” Akito called out to him.
“Yeah?” Toya glanced.
“It’s starting now.” Akito pointed in front of them.
“What—?” Toya yelped as the rollercoaster soed out furiously, taking a turn that made his shoulder press against Akito, who was currently grinning with delight.
It curved slightly the other way, wind was blowing into his eyes. Toya fell shockingly silent. Small yelps came from him until they slowed as they ascended upwards. His hair was messily plastered across his forehead, eyes wide.
Akito’s breathily laughed, looking over to him with unruly ginger hair, “T—Toya. This is so fun.”
Toya exhaled, shutting his eyes. Instinctively, his hand reached for Akito’s, and they intertwined, Toya’s grasp on him tight and a little anxious. Akito’s gaze softened as they reached the top— “We’ll be fine.”
The rollercoaster tilted downwards. Then, they dropped as Toya’s soul basically left his body as Akito yelled— he wasn’t sure himself if it was fear or excitement. It curved again, and Toya couldn’t even process where they were going anymore— the feeling of the wind whipping across his face was nice, but the leaving of his soul was not.
Toya felt both exhilarated and happy the ride was over. They slowed to the stop and realized that the grip on Akito’s hand was still tight, so he loosened it. “Damn…” Akito mumbled, trying to fix his hair, “That was a good roller coaster. How’d you do?”
“I— I guess it wasn’t that bad.” Toya mumbled as they got off with all of their belongings. Toya’s hair was still out of place after the ride. It felt surreal to be back on the ground again.
They sat down, and Akito smiled at him, “Hey, let me fix your hair.”
Toya glanced at him as Akito’s fingers ran through his dark blue hair, strands going behind his ears. “But you enjoyed it, right?”
Toya pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Yeah. Fireworks are starting soon, right?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Let’s go on the ferris wheel, then. We can watch it from up there.”
“You really wanna?” Akito locked eyes with him.
“It’s a little more calming than the rollercoaster.” Toya laughed.
Still a little winded from their ride, they made their way to the ferris wheel— a rotating circle of colorful small cabins that had see through windows so you could see the amazing view from below. Usually, ferris wheels were a little short— but with the fireworks happening soon, the time limit for cabins to circle around was extended significantly.
They soon got into the cabin, sitting next to each other as they slowly but surely moved up. “This is better.” Toya sighed, leaning his head back.
“Toya, look!” Akito pointed out the window, marveling, “It’s so pretty…”
Toya glanced out and a plethora of red, orange, and yellow lights emitted out from the festival, stars coating the midnight sky… the ferris wheel too emitted some neon colors that tied up the whole experience. Toya pressed his shoulder against Akito’s and smiled gently. “It’s beautiful.”
“I know.” Akito murmured. “I wanna stay here forever.”
Toya took Akito’s chin and gently guided it to him, “Nobody’s gonna see us.”
Akito planted a kiss on his forehead, “Fine, just for a bit.”
He pressed his lips against Toya’s— he slightly sweet dango from before, his lips soft like the apple cotton candy being served in the stalls below them— the back of his head thudding against the cabin walls and he laughed in between kisses. Toya grasped his hand.
And then he heard the boom of fireworks as they bloomed into the air like newly found flowers in the springtime. Toya pulled away as their foreheads touched. “So pretty…” He mumbled.
Akito grinned. “What, me or the fireworks?”
Toya kissed him again,
“Both… but mostly you.”