Work Text:
It was early in the morning when Yata’s alarm went off, startling the young boy.
He was confused as he stared at his PDA, screen lit up as it sat on top of a table across the room. The confusion only lasted a few seconds in his head, still hazy from sleep, and his eyes widened upon realizing why he’d set the alarm off at such an early hour. Fumbling with the sheets wrapped around his body, Yata hurriedly got up to turn off the offensive tune, afraid it would wake up anyone else besides him in the house. His heart was racing inside his chest and he looked around his bedroom, searching for Saruhiko’s form only a few feet away from him. The younger of the two seemed to shift a bit in his sleep and Yata felt a cold shiver run through his body. Fortunately, it only took a few seconds for Saruhiko to stop moving and since his breathing was still heavy, Yata could safely assume the other was still asleep.
Sighing in relief, Yata brought a hand to his chest and tried to calm his breathing. Everything’s fine, he assured himself. Saruhiko was asleep and there wasn’t any noise coming from his siblings’ bedroom, so those two shouldn’t have woken up either.
Careful not to startle his sleeping friend, Yata tiptoed over to the door of his bedroom, closing it slowly behind him as he headed for the kitchen. There were some rays of sunlight already coming from outside, even though it was only a little bit over five in the morning.
Yata yawned sluggishly and stopped near the window to rub his eyes a little. It was Saruhiko’s 13th birthday and he’d planned to make him early breakfast so they could enjoy it together before they had to leave for school. He hadn’t been able to find anything more fitting to give the other boy after looking for a few days and coming back empty handed each time, so it was his mother’s suggestion to surprise his friend with a breakfast cooked by him.
He didn’t waste time in putting his hands to work and half an hour later, Yata looked at his creation with a smug smile. It wasn’t as fancy as he had originally planned - he’d also been up earlier than usual the previous morning in order to learn how to do everything with his mother, but there were a few things that he’d forgotten since then and had to experiment a bit on his own. Yata hoped Saruhiko would like it anyway.
With the breakfast he’d cooked placed on top a tray, Yata took off the apron he’d been wearing and looked up at the clock hung close to the fridge. It was almost six in the morning, so with the tray in his hands he made his way back to his bedroom, wishing himself luck in the process.
Upon entering the compartment, Yata silently padded over to where Saruhiko was sleeping, careful not to wake the younger of the two. There were also tiny bits of sunlight shinning faintly through his bedroom’s window and Yata could see the other boy huddled up under the covers of the spare futon they’d set together the previous night next to his bed, eyes closed and a peaceful expression spread over his features. Yata kneeled next to the futon and set the tray on the floor to his right.
This is it, he thought, and shook Saruhiko’s shoulder lightly, heart hammering against his ribs. But he didn’t get any sort of reaction. He shook him harder. Saruhiko didn’t even stir.
Yata frowned. He tried one more time, but Saruhiko still didn’t give any signs of being awake. He was starting to get irritated at that point, until one sudden thought crossed his mind.
What if-?
Yata felt the corners of his mouth twist upwards as he pulled the covers off the younger boy’s grasp and pressed his fingers into Saruhiko’s sides, the latter jumping violently with a loud yelp.
“Misaki!”
At that, Yata giggled. His movements didn’t stop as Saruhiko struggled beneath him, body contorting as his fingers wiggled all over and travelled the slender boy’s sides up and down in a repetitive pace. He heard Saruhiko mumble a very low “S-stop!” and it was visible that he was trying to hide his laughter as one of his hands shot up to cover his mouth while the other tried to pry Yata off him, failing miserably as Yata grinned widely and tickled him harder with his fingers.
Yata found it amusing to watch Saruhiko’s usual bland expression twist as the latter let a few muffled whimpers of laughter leave his lips. He wished he got to hear Saruhiko laughing more often.
After a couple of minutes, the redhead let out a delighted laugh and withdrew his hands, poking Saruhiko in the stomach jokingly. Saruhiko was breathing heavily next to him, one of his hands still covering his mouth as the last waves of laughter left his lips. It didn’t take long for him to find his glasses and put them on, checking his PDA before looking up at Yata with an almost murderous intent in his eyes.
“What was that?”
Yata was still smiling, unaffected by the other boy’s glare. “I just wanted to wake you up!” he answered, as if it had been obvious.
“At six in the morning? Classes only begin at eight thirty, idiot.”
Yata gestured towards the tray sitting on the floor next to him and Saruhiko’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“It’s your birthday, I just wanted to wake you up so I could give you your present.” He took the tray in his hands and placed it on top of the other boy’s legs with a “Happy birthday Saruhiko!” bubbling out of his lips contentedly.
Looking up expectantly at Saruhiko’s expression, Yata thought he could make up a lone tear rolling down the latter’s cheek, but it was still somewhat dark inside his bedroom and Saruhiko’s face was turned against the faint light coming from the window so he figured it must’ve been his mind playing tricks on him.
Waking Saruhiko up with tickles on his birthday became something of a habit. Yata always invited him over on his birthday, waking up extra early every time to surprise his friend with breakfast and rouse him to life with smiles and laughter. Saruhiko managed to get him back sometimes, but it was a fun tradition that Yata didn’t want to let go of, coming up to the top bunk of their apartment discreetly on Saruhiko’s 16th birthday, which resulted in a mess of tingled limbs and boisterous laughter that exhausted the two teenagers after a couple of minutes and ended with both of them sleeping a few more hours cuddled up together in Saruhiko’s bed.
On Saruhiko’s 17th birthday, however, Yata lingered by the foot of their bunk bed with a shade of darkness in his usually bright hazel eyes. Their apartment felt empty and somber without its other resident, who had left about a month prior, betraying Homra and abandoning everything they’d done up to that point in their lives.
Yata let himself sink to the floor, hugging his arms as he fought a sob from leaving his trembling lips. He was stronger than this, he could survive this. He didn’t care about that idiot at all. He was just a traitor, there’s no way Yata would cry over him. Not again, anyway.
Why am I lying to myself?
It was only a matter of seconds before he let a strangled sob rock his body, feeling weak and vulnerable as the sunlight shone on him from above.
Everything was still there, all the memories and all the warmth, closed up in some cursed place inside his mind that had been tormenting him ever since his best friend had left him, betrayed him.
He tried to fight them too, of course he did, but he was tired of holding everything inside of him, all the confusion, all the doubt and all the tears. So he let the memories of previous years run through him, chill him to his very core and haunt him like he was the sole purpose of their existence. And suddenly he found himself overflowing, and it was hard to breathe and everything inside of him ached, ached so deeply like someone had stabbed his insides.
The memories poured out of him and washed him away like sea foam.
It was still there, the sound of Saruhiko’s unrestrained laughter bubbling out of him in waves and echoing through the walls as Yata’s fingers wiggled over his torso mercilessly. It was still there, Saruhiko’s content expression as Yata wished him a happy birthday and they ate breakfast together, sharing warmth, at peace with themselves like they were in their own world.
Everything was still there, and it was killing him.
Yata had been pondering over that silly tickling tradition for days before Saruhiko’s 21st birthday. He wasn’t sure if he should continue it, but the two of them had gotten so close again over the months following the incident with the greens that he felt like he would be betraying their relationship if he didn’t.
It was eight in the morning, 7th of November, and Yata stared at Saruhiko’s sleeping form next to him intently, still weighing his options as the other’s eyes were closed nonchalantly, arms tightly wrapped around his torso.
I could just go get breakfast and forget about it. That would be the mature thing to do, he thought to himself. But a small part of his brain shouted at him to do it. Despite everything that had happened between them in the past years, this was still Saruhiko. Saruhiko, who must’ve spent his birthdays on his own, closed in the dorm room he had for himself in Scepter 4 and huddled up under the sheets. Yata smiled, regret wavering in his eyes as he thought of how dumb they’d been. He had practically kept the stupid tradition up for 4 years. Sure, it’d also been about 4 years since he had last tried, but why shouldn’t he give it another shot?
Determined, Yata nodded to himself and decided to just go for it, so he sat down on Saruhiko’s middle, tickling him lightly. “Rise and shine!” Yata called out loudly, to which Saruhiko just grumbled sluggishly and tried to push him off, mumbling an irritated “Too early. Go away.”
Yata grinned slightly and let his hands travel over Saruhiko’s upper body, scratching at his ribs, digging into his sides and spidering over his stomach.
“Stop it, Misaki.” Saruhiko’s eyes finally flew open and let out a strangled sound as Yata hit a particularly sensitive spot on his left side, body squirming underneath him. He was already laughing and Yata’s mouth hurt from smiling so widely.
This was what he’d been looking for, after all.
“M-Misaki!”
Saruhiko seemed to be just as ticklish as he was when they were kids, Yata mused, remembering the first time he’d tried to surprise his blue haired partner, all those years ago. A lot of time had already passed and while they’d been kids back then, now they were both different, they had both gone through a lot of changes in their lives. And they were finally together again.
Saruhiko’s hands were trying to pry Yata off him, but after struggling for a few minutes Yata was able to hold him down, grabbing the other’s wrists with his right hand to prevent him from getting away. Panicked giggles filled the room.
“Good morning Saruhiko.” Yata’s grin grew and Saruhiko whined in protest. “I think I owe you this to make up for all these years you’ve spent your birthday without having me around.”
“Oh no, it’s fine. You don’t have to." Saruhiko looked at him with that content expression Yata missed so much and the redhead felt his heart beat faster in his chest.
“Oh, I really do.” Saruhiko tugged at his hands but Yata moved his free hand from his chest to his neck, making Saruhiko laugh loudly once more. He kept it up for a good while, enjoying the way the other’s body squirmed beneath him, basking in the heat of Saruhiko’s smile and the random bursts of laughter that filled the air around them. And everything was too blinding, too warm and familiar, and his eyes hurt as he felt water pool over them. His grip on Saruhiko’s wrists weakened and he stopped tickling him, so the former took his chance to free himself, eyes widening in confusion as he noticed Yata’s tears escaping from his eyes and leaving wet trails in his cheeks.
It was embarrassing to be crying after everything that happened, so Yata looked away at the thought and brought a hand up to swipe over his face quickly.
He shouldn’t be crying, there wasn’t a reason for him to. Not anymore.
The air around them was silent now, and there was a small glimmer of sunlight coming from the window next to Saruhiko’s bed. That felt familiar, somehow.
In front of him, Yata could sense Saruhiko adjusting himself and seating up with his back against the head of the bed. When he finally looked up at him, the latter’s eyes wavered, and Saruhiko brought a cold hand to the back of Yata’s neck, tugging him closer until they were hugging, holding each other tightly because they were still scared despite everything.
Yata smiled into his partner’s neck, even though there were still a few stray tears caught up in his eyes. After a while of them sitting in bed like that, bodies pressed close together, Saruhiko murmured a soft, barely audible, “Thank you.” into Yata’s hair.
Trying to ignore the rush of emotions bursting through him, Yata pulled away. He moved his hands to Saruhiko’s stomach, giving him one last poke before climbing off of him.
“Happy birthday, Saruhiko.”
Saruhiko’s response was a content whimper.