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Leo loved everything about Izumi. Ever since the early days of high school, even just the manner in how he carried himself, how hard he worked, or how dedicated he was to Knights and his modeling career made Leo fall in love with him even more with every single day they spent together. Even when they’d practice singing songs that the composer had saved on his iPod, he used to laugh at how bad Izumi used to sound (though he’s much better now); the other would get frustrated and express his anger toward Leo in return, but Leo still loved him. He loved everything about him.
Not a day goes by where he doesn’t tell Izumi that he loves him to the moon and back. Once in the morning, once before leaving for work, once when coming home from work, and once at night. Leo always goes out of his way to tell him that he loves him. Izumi could be cooking dinner in the kitchen when the other’s hands would snake around his waist as he whispers an “I love you” down his neck. They could also be performing on stage as Knights, where Leo would mouth a quick “I love you” to Izumi within a second’s notice.
Leo always tells Izumi how much he loves him, but wonders why he never tells him the same.
“I just don’t say those things often.” The model finishes scrubbing the last plate left in the sink, washing the soap off with water.
“But I tell you I love you all the time! It’s not fair if only I say it!” Leo huffs as he messily scribbles musical notes on freshly printed sheet music.
“Don’t you think it gets repetitive if you say it too much?”
“Not really, not for Sena! I love you too much for that to happen!”
Izumi sighs. He dries his hands and walks over to the couch, sinking into the frame and letting his body take over for a while. His eyes want to shut, though he can’t help but steal a glance at Leo lying on the floor, already having filled three papers of sheet music despite starting only a few minutes ago. It seemed as if nothing could snap him out of the musical trance he had been caught in so that maybe Izumi could steal a kiss while he doesn’t notice. “And if I don’t say it?”
Leo drops his pen and looks up at him. “I’m going to make you say it. You’re gonna tell me how much you love me.”
Izumi raises an eyebrow. “How, exactly?”
A mischievous grin creeps up on Leo’s lips. “I’m just going to keep asking you to say it, every single hour of the day, until you’ve decided you’ve had enough. That’ll finally get you to say it, won’t it?”
“That certainly won’t work,” Izumi musters strength to get up off the couch and drag himself to the bedroom, “I’m going to bed, ask me in my dreams or something.”
A frowning Leo runs after him, but by the time he reached the bedroom, the other had already locked himself in the bathroom. “Sena!”
The model begins to apply eye makeup remover on a cotton pad. “What?”
“You forgot to tell me!” The other puts his body weight on the door, creating a ‘thump’ sound as a result.
“Tell you what?” Izumi slowly begins to remove the makeup near his eyes.
“That you love me!”
He applies oil cleanser to a new pad and cleans the rest of his face. “I can’t hear you.”
“I know you can hear me!” Leo can very obviously hear the shuffling of makeup products coming from inside the bathroom and sighed.
Izumi turned on the sink water tap to drown out Leo’s voice. “I can’t hear you now.”
The composer groaned in annoyance at the other and plopped onto the bed. “I know you did that on purpose, didn’t you!” Leo flips himself around so as to be lying on his back. He could feel his eyes wanting to shut tightly with every second that passed, not having the strength to keep them open any longer. “I’ll make you say it one day, trust me.”
Izumi walks out of the bathroom after having taken off all of his makeup and brushes his teeth to find his lover asleep and sprawled out across the bed. He smiles to himself as he tucks Leo into bed, pulling the covers over him and pressing his lips to his forehead before climbing into the bed from the other side.
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Leo indeed kept to his words. For the past few days, there hadn’t been a single hour that passed where he didn’t pester Izumi to hell and beyond about the declaration of love. He made sure to remind him in the early hours of the morning, even before the sun’s rays had pierced the quiet night sky; he made sure to call him with every free moment that had been spared for him despite the busy workday. Not even the text messages between the two of them had been left out, overflowing with messages such as “I love you”s and “Say it back!!” that spanned for as long as one had scrolled through the chat. Izumi was surprised at how Leo hadn’t faltered once in the five days that he’s been at this.
“Why won’t you say it! I swear, you used to say it to me back then!” Leo whines, almost spilling his coffee on the sheet music he was writing on in the process.
“I only recall saying it once,” Izumi puts down the magazine he had previously been reading back on the coffee table and begins to check the notifications on his phone, awaiting new job application acceptances, “It was that day at the beach.”
He remembered that day clearly— the day of their high school graduation. The composer had dragged him to the beach on the pretext of getting ‘inspiration’ from the gleaming waves and the sand beneath their feet. Little did Izumi know that Leo had secretly written a song just to play for him on that day. Nobody but the two of them would ever witness the raw emotion Leo had poured into his singing and the rhythmic melodies engraved into the music, with the breathtaking scenery of the seaside as accompaniment. The way in which his voice would float over each note, rising during each crescendo and gently falling during the decrescendos never failed to impress the other, who hadn’t even heard of such musical terms before coming to Yumenosaki. The song was still there on the iPod that they shared, and just thinking about it again sent memories flooding back to him. Leo had pulled him into the water, where the ocean’s waves hit knee-length and their clothes began to get soaked as Leo had splashed additional ocean water on him countless times; Izumi hadn’t cared at all in the moment— it was a day where he knew he loved Leo to the very edge of the world and back.
Leo stops writing and leans back on his chair. “Graduation day.. I miss those times! It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, though..”
“At least we can focus on our careers now, no?” Catching a glimpse at a new notification that had popped up on his phone, Izumi sighs in relief as one of the modeling agencies in Italy that he’d applied for was agreeing to take him under their wing.
“Yeah– Hey, was that a distraction?!” Leo accompanied Izumi on the living room couch and linked arms with him, laying his head on his shoulder. “I still haven’t forgotten about my promise. You still have to tell me you love me.”
Izumi rested his head on Leo’s. “We literally stopped talking about it for only thirty seconds or so, but if you want it to be one, then sure.”
“Meanie..” Leo pouts. There was no way that Leo could actually be mad at the other, though, given their current position. It was relaxing for the both of them, to quietly melt in the embrace of the other after a day’s worth of tiring work and demanding schedules. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence, however; usually Leo would be at home early, and Izumi would get home when the other was already sound asleep, so mundane moments like these were cherished deeply. Leo wanted to fall asleep in this state, but the heaps of coffee he had drank a while back was keeping him wide awake.
Izumi notices Leo hadn’t been pestering him for an awfully long period of time. “Have you finally given up?” He nudges his arm a little to check if he was awake, earning a poke at his side in return.
“No, I’m never giving up! I’m just comfortable. You’re forever obligated to tell me you love me every single day.” Leo takes his hand into his, calloused fingers intertwining with soft, slender ones.
“What happened to the hand lotion I told you to use? The more you compose, the more the pen hurts your hand.” He gently strokes Leo’s thumb with his own, gliding over every rough part of his hand and not loving him any less with each brush of his thumb.
“Ah, that! I kinda forgot to keep applying it at some point..”
Izumi temporarily puts his phone down solely to flick Leo’s forehead. “Take care of yourself more, will you.. Oh right, how’s your sleep schedule doing?” He gently lifts the other’s chin to observe any signs of sleep deprivation, their faces mere centimeters from each other. He could immediately pick up the disturbingly sweet scent of coffee lingering on his breath, a reflection of Leo’s mediocre lifestyle. He sighs when he sees small circles under his eyes. Whenever Izumi comes home from work, he always finds Leo asleep on the floor of the bedroom with the sheet music as his blanket and the cold ground as his pillow; the model would constantly have to pick him up and properly put him in bed, additionally cleaning up the mess Leo had made on the floor with his work.
“Leo-kun..”
It was almost as if Leo knew exactly what Izumi was disappointed about without having to put it in words. “I’m okay. You don’t need to worry about me, Sena.” He gave Izumi's hand a little squeeze.
His smile is bright, almost void of all pain and suffering that could ever exist within his lifetime.
Izumi wouldn’t admit it to his face, but Leo does take up a significant portion of his day-to-day thoughts— from stressing over if he locked the door to the apartment room to pondering over how much sleep he most likely got that night. He knows how dedicated he is to composing and music in general, and also knows how much of his health Leo sacrifices for his passions. The other never fails to notice the glimmer in Leo’s eyes every time he’s immersed in a melody. He wants to preserve that glimmer, a flame to never be put out.
Sooner than later, he closes the distance between their lips. The kiss is short, but it’s fulfilling, and Izumi can feel all of his pent up feelings, a mix of frustration (affectionate) and love come up and explode like sparkling fireworks at this very moment; he can feel the tension in his body disappear the longer he kissed his lover. He can almost taste the musician’s coffee on his own lips now, coffee too sweet to even be considered such.
Leo is taken aback initially; he didn’t expect Izumi to kiss him without any prior warning, but it’s not like Leo doesn’t do the same every other day. Melting into the kiss, he holds Izumi's face with his free hand and pulls him closer. He doesn't want to let go of Izumi either; he feels all of his most cherished memories with him all come back to him in this moment, not wanting to ever forget about even the most trivial one, for each moment he spent with him was worth more than any song he could ever write in his entire lifetime.
The model pulls away after a few seconds. “There isn’t a day where I ever stop worrying about you.”
It was at this moment that Leo realized that Izumi didn’t need to express his love to him in words. His love lied in the simple reminders to Leo to make sure to brush his hair in the mornings, to eat something healthy for lunch, or to even get a proper eight hours of sleep for at least one night. He knew Izumi wasn’t the best at reciprocating his feelings toward someone well with words, and it’s once in a while that he initiates physical touch first, but he sure as hell knows how to look after someone well and truly cares for people, though it isn’t very obvious at times.
Leo loved that about him. He loved everything about him.