Work Text:
It was a cold winter day in Minato City, but the streets were as lively as ever; nothing too bad that an extra layer of clothing can’t solve.
In that particular morning, Ojiro was sitting in the living room of their shared flat, reading a book — which he had already forgotten the title of — while the radio was quietly humming in the background. What piqued his interest was the news about the meteor shower, which is going to happen tonight. He remembered how much they loved watching the stars at night when they were kids… Bet Kazuki would love watching the meteor shower with him.
He closed and put down the book on the coffee table, then stood up from the couch, walked to the study and entered the room.
“Kazuki, we’re going out.” he said it bluntly.
Kazuki looked up to him from his computer with a confused look and blinked at him. “Huh?”
“We’re going out. Like… for a date.” Ojiro added while looking away a bit, a slight blush creeping up his neck.
“Oh… Oh!” he turned with his whole body to him now. “Where are we going?”
“I uh… don’t know yet. We’ll see where it goes, I think.”
“Hm, that sounds like a solid plan.” Kazuki said it with a smile, hinted sarcasm in his tone. “I'll finish this in a few minutes and we can go, alright?”
Ojiro nodded and left Kazuki to his work. He went back to the book and put it back on the shelf to the rest. Taking a direction to the kitchen, he was greeted by plates and utensils sitting in the sink, waiting for someone to clean them. With a sigh he took a look to the fridge, where there was their chore board. Yes, today is his turn to do the dishes. At least he has something to do until Kazuki wraps up his work.
After the dishes were done and plants watered, Ojiro noticed that his partner still didn't leave the room. He was staring at the door, he didn't forget, did he?
He entered the study once again, Kazuki still typing on the keyboard, and judging from the different window, he started a new task.
“Kazuki.” Ojiro said it with a stern voice from the door.
The typing stopped and Kazuki turned around. “Oh, hi- Right- I'll be done in a minute-”
“No.” he stepped away from the door and walked up to him.
“Eh? No? What d-”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was picked up from his chair by Ojiro, who put him over his shoulders and carried him out of the room, leaving the pc behind with the lines of codes.
Kazuki sighed, accepting his fate. “I could get up by myself too.”
“If it were up to you, we would never leave.” he muttered as he put him down at the closet.
“That’s not true! …Maybe it would’ve taken another few minutes.” he replied while he was putting on a knitted sweater and his coat. Ojiro put on a thick pullover and a black coat, with a purple scarf — which he got from Kazuki, because it reminded him of the penguin that he uses as his profile picture.
After both of them got ready and got their shoes too, they double checked if they had everything with them. After the last time, when they got lost and separated at a mall, of course Ojiro left his phone at home, so it took Kazuki at least 10-15 minutes to find him. They wouldn’t go there the next Black Friday, that’s for sure.
They left their not too big, but cozy home and took the elevator to get down. They wanted to get a place as high as possible, so they could watch the city from their window. And well, getting to the roof is faster that way, if they wanted to watch the stars.
“Ugh… It’s colder than I expected” Kazuki stated as they stepped outside, the cold hitting them suddenly. “I hope it will get a bit warmer later”
“It’s still rather early, so…” Ojiro said as he headed towards a cafe with him.
“So… Are we just going to randomly walk around the city today, or do you have something in mind?” Kazuki asked, trying to hide his curiosity in his voice.
“Ah…” he paused a bit, thinking how they actually should spend the day. “There are some places where I’d like to go.”
“Would you like to share them with me?”
“...No.” Kazuki only added a small ‘fine’ as they walked next to each other.
As they were walking, Ojiro noticed that Kazuki was either putting his hands deep in his pockets, or rubbing his hands together to warm them up.
“Are your hands that cold…?” he asked him with a bit of worry.
“Yeah, but I’ll be fine...” Kazuki looked up to him with a small smile on his face.
He watched his hands for a bit longer, then offered his own hand to him, averting his gaze as he blushed a bit. Kazuki happily took his hand and interlocked their fingers. To this act Ojiro hid his face more in his scarf to conceal his embarrassment, but it was very obvious to the other.
“...You know, I love how warm your hands are.” Kazuki smiled to himself as he leaned his head to Ojiro’s shoulder. He just watched him a bit before replying.
“Is that so…?”
“Yes. It’s comforting… and it feels nice” he rubbed his head to his shoulders, just like a cat.
From this close faintly, but he could smell the scent of his shampoo, it was that new one he bought recently. Vanilla and lavender. He loves it when Kazuki lets him wash his hair; he always seems so relaxed when he does it. He tends to look stressed because of something work related, it fills him with joy that he can ease it a bit. Now he can take a longer break from those horrible coding and data programs that occupy most of his time nowadays. He even forgets to eat when he’s that deep into a task.
Soon they reached the coffee shop and walked in, the warmth inside was pleasant. Ojiro ordered two hot chocolates to go and looked around a bit. It wasn’t too big, and it was surprisingly rather empty too. At least it’s not loud or anything.
When the barista was done with their orders, Ojiro handed one of the cups to Kazuki. “Here, this will warm you up.”
With a smile he took the cup. “Thanks, you’re sweet.” He gave a small peck on his cheek, and it took Ojiro everything to not die then and there.
Leaving the cafe they wandered a bit while they were drinking their own hot drinks, warming them up inside.
“You know… this is nice,” Kazuki started. “It's been a while since we've been out like this.”
“If it was warmer, we could go out more… But we can do something at home too, if you'd like to.”
“Oh?” he looked up to Ojiro. “Got something in your mind?”
“Mmm… Maybe we could bake something together. Last week I found some recipes that I'd like to try out, they didn't seem hard. Or… watching films. You mentioned there are some that you wanted to see for a long time. And we can put pillows and blankets on the couch, to make it more cozy…” he mumbled the last part, as he drank more from his hot chocolate.
“What if… we bake and watch the films?”
A small smile appeared on Ojiro's face. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”
Both of them slowly finished the hot chocolate and threw the empty cups into the trash. Their next destination was the ice rink.
The rink was rather big; some families, friends and couples were having fun on the ice, but there was still plenty of space, so no one was bothering anyone.
“I don't even know when was the last time, when we were skating… probably when we were kids.” Kazuki was lacing up his rented skates with Ojiro.
“Something like that, yeah.” he finished lacing up his own and stood up a bit wobbly. Maybe this was a bad idea.
He waited for Kazuki to get ready too and they both stepped on the ice. Few seconds later Ojiro almost fell over, but he caught the railings in time. Yeah, this was a bad idea. But it's a bit too late to go back now, so he either figures out how to skate again, or just stays close to the railings, like those little kids who never skated before. The second sounded much more embarrassing, so he decided on the other. Just the question is how to do that, without falling on his ass every 5 seconds.
As if he was a mindreader, Kazuki slid to him with no issue. How. “Need a hand?” he was grinning at him.
“...Yes, please.” he said while still holding the railings.
He held out his hand to him with a much more friendlier smile than previously. “Just hold onto me, alright? I won’t let you fall, I promise.”
Ojiro took his hands, the warmth in his chest was returning again. He carefully skated to him and held him. “Now what-”
“First, it helps if you don’t act like a newborn deer.” to this all he got was an eye roll from the other. “Bend your knees a bit. …And stop staring at the ice that much or I might get jealous.” now he got a blush as a response too, but at least he wasn’t looking down anymore. “Good, now put your feet in a “V” shape and push them outward, like this.” Kazuki pushed himself away a bit, and awkwardly, but Ojiro followed him.
This went for a bit, slowly guiding him until he got confident enough to let go of him — but not his hand, at least not yet. A bit by bit, but he started to enjoy skating with him, they even started to glide on the ice with a bit more speed. After a while Kazuki stopped holding his hand and went a bit in front of him, but still stayed close to him. He couldn’t hide his smile as he watched Kazuki gracefully slide on the ice.
“I love it when you smile. It looks good on you” he was looking at him with a soft expression.
The compliment caught him off guard, but he smiled at him a bit brighter. “I'll try to smile more often, then”
They were skating for a long time, sometimes side by side, other times Kazuki went ahead and did some spinnings too. It was… fun. Being so carefree with him and just enjoying whatever they do together. And it was nice, seeing his partner happy too.
A couple of children almost slid into Kazuki, but he avoided them in time… Instead he crashed into Ojiro, who tried to catch him in hopes to stop him, but both of them fell on the ice, with Kazuki ending up on top of him.
Kazuki was just staring at him for a few seconds, then he burst out laughing. “Well, it seems like you ended up falling because of me. Sorry dear.” he gave a small kiss on his nose and carefully stood up from him, then helped the blushing Ojiro to get up too.
“It’s- it’s okay. Do you want to stay longer…?”
“Mmm, I think we can leave” he was holding his hand and slid off the rink with him. “But this was fun! We should come here again when we can.” they both sat down on a bench to take off their skates and put back on their own shoes.
“Do I have to drag you away from work again?”
“... Depends. Now, do you have anything else planned for today?”
Ojiro just nodded as he took Kazuki’s hand and left the ice rink with him. They mostly walked in silence, just enjoying the company of the others. Kazuki leaned onto him every now and then which earned him a smile from the other. After a while they reached the next stop: the winter market.
The whole market was pretty big, several stands with many things to buy. There were sellers who had clothes, some had decorations, you could even buy food from others.
First things first, they bought something to eat, even though Kazuki said he wasn’t hungry, he would feel bad knowing that he only had breakfast the whole day. Especially that they weren’t just sitting at home doing mostly nothing, but spent the day so far walking around and ice skating. While eating, they were discussing some trivial matters, like what they should cook tomorrow, the chore board, and that they won’t have any walking space in the flat if Ojiro kept bringing home plants. Kazuki talked about some of his recent work, what tasks he got, what task was interrupted . He wasn’t angry about it or anything, he finished some earlier in advance, so he will have more free time later.
After they ate, they were slowly walking next to each other and looking around stalls, if they could find something interesting.
Suddenly, Ojiro stopped and let go of Kazuki's hand. “Wait here, I'll be right back.” and then he quickly walked away into the crowd, leaving Kazuki behind with a confused look. Maybe he saw something?
He listened to him and waited at the same spot where he left him, resisting the urge to do some work on his phone. Today was about them , not about work . A small sigh left his mouth as he was inspecting his surroundings, hoping to find something that could occupy his mind. Waiting without having anything to do was the worst.
After a few, horribly long minutes, Ojiro finally returned with something big in his hands.
“I… got this for you. I thought you might like it.” he handed Kazuki a plush, which resembled a very chubby cat.
With a big smile Kazuki took the cat and hugged it close. “Thank you… I love it.” he buried his face into the fluffiness.
They continued their stroll at the market, sun was slowly disappearing at the horizon, the air became colder too. And Ojiro could see that the chilly air was bothering Kazuki once again. He stopped him, removed his scarf and wrapped it around Kazuki's neck.
“This will keep you warm.” he said as he fixed the scarf, trying to ignore the fact how cute he looked with his scarf on him.
“You won't be cold?” he looked up to him, the purple scarf hiding almost half of his face.
Ojiro just shook his head. “I'll be fine, don't worry.”
“I hope so, you better not catch a cold because of this.” Kazuki huffed “Even though I don't mind taking care of you. But you should stay healthy still.”
He just smiled at him as they walked together hand-in-hand, slowly reaching the end of the market. The walk back home was uneventful, Kazuki stayed close to Ojiro to steal some heat from him.
They reached their block and went inside, in the elevator Ojiro pushed the top floor button, to which Kazuki looked at him with a curious look.
“Why are we going up there?”
”Secret.” that's all he said as he leaned to the side of the elevator while they were going up.
“Alright then, keep your secrets.”
When they reached the last floor, Ojiro told him to wait there as he went back down to their floor. He unlocked their door, walked in and turned on the lights. He took two old pillows and a warm blanket from their room and quickly went back to him, as he didn't want to leave him alone for too long.
By the look on his face, Kazuki probably guessed what his plan was. They stepped out to the roof, Ojiro put down the pillows for both of them and threw the blanket on both of them as they sat down, close to each other. Kazuki, still hugging the cat, leaned into him and rested his head on his shoulder to watch the starry sky with him.
“This was a fantastic day… Thank you Ojiro.”
“And it's not over yet.” Kazuki looked at him questioningly. “Just watch.” he motioned to the sky with his head.
After a few minutes a shooting star passed the sky. Then soon after another, and more followed. They caught the meteor shower right in time. Kazuki was watching the event with big bright eyes, just like when they first saw something like this in their childhood. He didn't know how long they were there, just watching them in peace and quiet, but he didn't really care about it. All that mattered was that Kazuki was with him, and they were enjoying this moment together. As they were sitting there, the sky slowly became cloudy, and snow started to fall.
Ojiro picked up the pillows and blanket and went back inside with Kazuki. They stepped into the elevator and went down to their floor. Opening the door — since Ojiro forgot to lock it back after leaving to the roof — Kazuki made a relaxed sound.
“Ahh, finally inside…” he kicked off his shoes and walked to the closet with his plush. Ojiro soon followed him, removing his coat and putting it back in.
“So… Do you want anything else for today?” Kazuki asked him after he put away his coat and scarf too.
“Well… We can spend the rest of the time baking and watching something, as mentioned before.”
“Do you have the recipes somewhere?”
He nodded as he went into the kitchen. Kazuki put the kitty down on the couch and followed him. Ojiro took out a book which was filled with recipes either printed out or cut out from magazines. He started flipping it over then stopped at a page that said “Strawberry Shortbread Cookies”
He put down the book and put everything they need on the counter; powdered sugar, salted butter, vanilla extract, flour, strawberry jam, and since they don't have any fresh lemons, dried lemon zest. He took out the stand mixer from the cupboard while Kazuki sat up on the counter next to him. First, he measured the powdered sugar and put it in the mixer with the lemon zest and mixed them together. He took the butter, cut it into small cubes and added it into the sugar with the vanilla too. While they were mixing he measured the flour in a bowl and then slowly added it to the mixture. After it formed a dough, he took the bowl, covered it and put it in the refrigerator.
“Mmm… It needs to chill for an hour now.” Ojiro said it while putting away everything that they don’t need anymore.
“Mhmmm… What a nice housewife you are.” this made Ojiro almost drop the sugar container.
“W-what??-” he looked at him flabbergasted with a heavy blush.
“Don’t worry, I was just joking. It was just nice to see you having fun in the kitchen, that’s all.” Kazuki hopped off the counter.
“You could’ve just said that instead…” he muttered as he put the sugar back into the cupboard, next to the flour. “What should we do for 1 hour?”
“Mmm…” Kazuki had the urge to say that he could finish some tasks in that time, but… Those can wait until tomorrow. “I’ll go and save my files and then I take a shower.”
“Alright. I’ll try to find some films then… and make the couch too.”
Kazuki left to the study and after a few minutes, he came back from the room, and went to the bathroom. Ojiro put away the pillows and blanket he brought outside, and gathered some clean ones and carried them to the couch. He pulled out the couch and arranged them on it nicely. He sat down in front of the TV and looked at the DVDs, which Kazuki burnt some films that they should watch. Only some of them were familiar to him, those were the ones that Kazuki mentioned previously that he wanted to see. He put the disc in the DVD player and checked if everything was alright with a file. It already happened once that they got a film and something… very different was on it. Luckily, this time it was indeed the one that Kazuki wrote on it. He stood up from there and went to the windows to close the curtains, so the outside lights won’t annoy them while watching the films. When he finished with everything, Kazuki left the bathroom in his pajamas, so it was his time to shower.
He usually didn’t spend too much time in the shower, — unlike Kazuki, who sometimes disappeared in there for almost an hour — except for when he washed his hair too. It wasn’t too different this time either, except that he stayed under the hot water for a bit more, enjoying the pleasant warmth. Turning off the water, drying himself with his towel and changing into a grey sweatpants and t-shirt, he went back to Kazuki, who was sitting already on the couch with that big cat plush. He almost, just almost , felt a bit jealous because of it.
“Want me to help finish the cookies?”
“Oh, sure!” Kazuki put down the plush and got up from the couch.
In the kitchen, Ojiro turned on the oven, took the dough out of the fridge, started to shape tablespoon sized balls with him and put them on a tray with parchment paper. With a spoon, he pressed in the center of each ball so he could put the jam in it. Looked at Kazuki’s tray and saw that he was trying to draw something in it.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to shape a cat.”
”Of course.”
“It’s harder than I thought… But at least they will look cute~”
He just shook his head with a smile as he turned back to his own tray to finish the rest. After they filled them with jam, Ojiro put them in the oven to bake.
“Oh! We should make something to drink with them.” Kazuki suggested.
“What would you like to have?”
“Hmm… We can make hot cocoa. I think we have some whipped cream and mini marshmallows too.” he went to the fridge and put the milk and the whipped cream on the counter. He tried to get the cocoa powder from the cupboard, but even on tiptoe he couldn’t reach it, so Ojiro helped him and put it down. “Why do you have to put that on the top shelf anyway?”
“Because there isn’t any more space on the lower ones. Because someone has to keep buying new mugs.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he said while trying to find his favourite one from the bunch of other mugs on the shelves.
“Whatever you say.” he replied as he just took a mug randomly.
Kazuki prepared it for the both of them, meanwhile Ojiro washed the rest of the bowls and spoons they used for the cookies. Kazuki took his time with them, carefully putting each marshmallow on top of the whipped cream, he even sprinkled some cinnamon on them too.
When the 13 minutes passed, he removed the trays from the oven and put them down to let the cookies cool a bit. But they looked… a bit flatter than Ojiro expected. Looking at the recipe again, he found out why. He was supposed to preheat the oven after he formed and filled them with jam, and put them back in the fridge for another 15 minutes.
“Hmm? You seem a bit disappointed.”
“Ah, I just messed it up a bit, that’s why they are so flat…”
“And so? We’re going to eat them anyway” Kazuki just shrugged. “And I don’t think it matters much, if it still tastes great, no?”
“Well… I suppose you’re right.”
After they cooled down enough, he put them on a plate and brought them to the living room, while Kazuki had the two mugs.
Carefully putting everything down on the couch, they settled down comfortably. Ojiro started the movie, Kazuki leaned into him while holding his mug.
“Thank you… Today was very fun.” he rubbed his head against him and gave a small kiss on his cheek.
“I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself today.” Ojiro planted a kiss on his head and then watched the film with Kazuki.