Work Text:
Tsukishima was just finishing one of his college assignments in the employees room at the museum when his supervisor came in.
“Tsukishima-san, the last tour group of the day is waiting for you at the entrance”
Kei nodded and got up from his desk, mindlessly straightening his shirt with his hands and fixing up the credential hanging from his neck as he walked. The museum was almost empty, and his dress shoes resonated in the marble floors and against the glass showcases of the exhibits.
“This group is in Japanese, right?” he asked his supervisor.
“Yes, the English one didn’t fill the quotas so we moved them for tomorrow afternoon”
That was good. Whenever English-speaking groups came into the museum, they were much more interested in the interactive parts than the history ones. Which was fair, Tsukishima couldn't blame them. The Sendai Science Museum had so many interesting things to see in the science building that dinosaur bones and fossils ended up looking plain in comparison.
As he approached the entrance, he checked his watch. If this tour went smoothly and without too many questions, he could go home early and start to cook something for when Tobio arrived. His serious expression faltered into a smile. Tobio, his stupid, dense and V-League volleyball player boyfriend of almost four years (four fucking years!), who was traveling all the way from Tokyo to spend a week with him after his last tournament.
Distance had been harder than they expected. With Tobio playing with the Adlers in Tokyo and Kei finishing his degree in archeology and working on Sendai, they had almost two hours on train separating each other. Kei had been almost sure the distance would be the end of the fresh relationship they had started during their third year when they graduated. But Tobio, stubborn, single minded Tobio, had proved Kei wrong. They texted each other all day, every day. They spent hours on facetime, just accompanying the other on their routine as they went on with their own.
Two hours wasn’t much, but with Tobio’s hectic schedule as an athlete and Kei juggling college and his job, traveling to see the other was actually an event. One that Kei might or might not have marked on his calendar and phone every time one of them bought the train tickets.
Tobio just made Kei so happy. Teenage Kei would vomit.
He shaked his head and forced himself to stop thinking about the near future when Tobio would finally be back next to him. He had to work and the visitors didn’t pay enough to see his disgustingly in-love expression.
Kei stopped at the entrance of the exhibit, clearing his throat to greet the visitors when his eyes roamed the group and his heart skipped a beat.
Tobio was there.
Tobio, who should be still at least one hour away sitting on a train, was standing there in the middle of two families with excited children and a young couple. He was wearing a black face mask to cover his face from possible fans recognizing him, but Kei knew it was him. Those deep blue eyes, the straight line of his back, the ugly-ass haircut he had gotten a year into their relationship and that had almost caused Kei to break up with him.
He would recognize him anywhere. But that didn’t explain why he was here.
The rest of the visitors had already gotten aware of Kei’s presence and had turned to him. Right, work.
“Welcome to the Prehistoric Exhibit” Kei said trying to not look at his boyfriend “My name is Tsukishima Kei and I’ll be your guide here. Before we go in I’ll have to ask you to refrain from touching anything and to stay behind the catenaries all the time”
The small kids in the group nodded excitedly. Tobio had the audacity to nod too.
Kei gritted his teeth “Great, now follow me”
He guided the group into the first room of the exhibit. Kei felt Tobio’s eyes as daggers on his back, but there was no way he would be able to approach his boyfriend to ask him what the hell was he doing here, so he would have to wait until the tour was over. He glanced over behind him (making a pointed effort in not looking at Tobio) and instead he focused on the few kids in the group. One was a boy who was carrying a plushie like it was his lifeline, and the other two seemed to be siblings, an older sister that clearly didn’t want to be there, and a younger girl who was practically bouncing on her feet. Kei smiled a bit. He didn’t like kids, but he was fond of the ones who were as interested in dinosaurs as he was back then.
“Dinosaurs first appeared on Earth about 230 million years ago, during a time in Earth's history called the Mesozoic Era, which is often called ‘The Age of Dinosaurs’. They evolved from earlier reptiles, but with evolutive differences that ended in the about one thousand to one thousand and two hundred known species today”
“Known species?” Tobio asks, and Kei has to remind himself they are in the presence of strangers who won’t leave him good reviews if he snaps at a visitor.
“Some studies suggest there could have been over ten thousand species of dinosaurs, but most of them haven't been discovered yet, because fossilization is rare and many fossils are still buried or may never be found” Kei turned back to look at Tobio, who just nodded after the explanation.
Kei guided them in front of a timeline.
“The Mesozoic Era is divided into three main periods. The first one, the Triassic Period, was about two hundred million years ago, and is when the dinosaurs first appeared. They were small and fast, since they shared the land with other reptiles like crocodile-like creatures” he pointed to the left end of the timeline, where the picture showed a bunch of similar-looking dinosaurs at a river bank. They all looked similar to how pop culture represented velociraptors, standing on two feet with short arms and elongated faces.
“After that, came the Jurassic Period, around one hundred and fifty million years ago” he continued, pointing to the middle part of the timeline “It was during this time where the differences between species began to appear, growing characteristic features like horns or cuirasses. This is also when birds evolved from small, feathered dinosaurs” the little girl in the group raised her hand “Yes?”
“Are the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park from this period?” she asked. Kei’s eyes shifted treacherously to look at Tobio, and he could swear he saw his boyfriend smile under his facemask. He shifted his attention back to the girl.
“You ask because of the name, right?” the girl nodded “Good catch. Actually, most of the dinosaurs on those movies, are from the Cretaceous Period” Kei pointed to the right end of the timeline, where an image of big and small dinosaurs in the middle of a green forest filled with different plants was “This was around one hundred million years ago, and it was at the time when the more species existed, both dinosaurs and plants. It ended abruptly because of an asteroid that caused a mass extinction event”
“Then why is the movie called Jurassic Park?” the girl asked.
“Probably because the name was more catchy than ‘Cretaceous Park’, don’t you think?” the girl scrunched up her nose at the name and nodded “However, Brachiosaurus are featured in the movie and those were actually from the Jurassic Period”
“So the movie is wrong?”
“Oh my God, Tsumiki, give him a break” the mother placed her hands on the girl’s shoulder and looked at Kei apologetically “I’m sorry, she really likes dinosaurs”
“It’s no problem at all” Kei looked back at the girl “Yes, the movies are scientifically and historically wrong, but they’re still pretty entertaining, right?”
The girl –Tsukimi, stared up at Kei as if he was the coolest person she had ever met and nodded excitedly. Kei’s lips quirked up in a smile.
Tobio will tease you for this his brain told him.
Shut up, I’m working, he said back.
He guided the group to a vitrine where several fossils were exposed. The kids pressed their greasy little hands on the glass when they got closer, and Kei reminded himself to show some appreciation for the cleaning staff sometime soon.
“These are some fossils from the Cretaceous Period. Fossils are preserved imprints of ancient living things, often plants or animals. When one of this things gets buried on mud, sand or rock, overtime, this medium hardens and the shape of what got trapped inside gets preserved inside”
As Kei spoke, Tobio got closer to the showcase and leaned in a bit to take a closer look. Kei felt himself frown and forced himself to stop doing it. What the hell was Tobio playing? First appearing out of the blue at his workplace, and now mocking him by pretending to be a normal visitor? What an asshole. Tsukishima was going to leave him sleeping outside his apartment door.
They made it to the center of the room, where an entire dinosaur skeleton was built. It was one of the newest additions to the prehistoric exhibit and Kei still wasn’t ready to admit how excited he had been about it.
“This is a stegosaurus, as you can see by the distinctive combination of broad, vertical plates and its tapered tail” Kei said as he pointed at the different parts of the skeleton. “They were one of the most prominent species during the end of the Jurassic Period on what’s now America and Europe. This one in particular is six meters, which is actually small for the species, since they could reach to even nine meters in length. They were slow herbivores, so they often moved in small groups to avoid being attacked”
“The plates on its back were for protection?” the man from the young couple asked.
“Yes. Considering their inability to escape from predators, they evolved good defenses like the plates, their tail and their thick skin”
Kei answered a couple more questions, and as he was about to send the group away, Tobio lifted his hand.
There it is Kei thought now he will ask either something stupid or that I don’t know to mess with me after putting up with all this.
“Yes?”
“Is this skeleton real? You didn’t mention stegosaurus being in what is Japan now” Kei blinked.
It was a normal question. An excellent question, even. Not only because it was information Kei rarely got to share (people tended to always assume that what they see in museums is original), but because it showed that Tobio had been listening. Kei couldn’t help his small smile as he answered looking at him.
“No, this is actually an exact replica from a real one. I said, this species is rarely found in Japan, and the real bones are too valuable to send across an ocean to have in the open like this”
Since no one else raised his hand, Kei thanked them all for their visit and allowed them to walk freely. Tobio stayed in his place, and as soon as Kei was sure that no one was really paying them any mind, he walked up to him.
“What are you doing here?” Kei asked “You said your train would get here at seven”
“I wanted to surprise you” Tobio said, not even stunted by the lack of greeting “But then I realized you would be at work”
He slowly brought their hands together, brushing their fingers in a silent ask for permission. Kei sighed and intertwined their fingers, giving Tobio’s hand a tight squeeze. He had missed Tobio so much.
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here ” Kei said.
Tobio looked around them for a moment, letting his eyes linger on all the different things in the exhibit, until his eyes landed back on Kei. He loved those eyes.
“It’s just something I realized when I was on the station wondering what I should do until you got out of work” Tobio’s free hand moved to grab onto Kei’s, holding Kei’s long and bonny fingers in between his sturdy ones. His palms were warm “You always go to my games”
Kei frowned.
“Yes? What about it?”
“It’s my job”
“Okay…? I don’t think I get what you’re trying to say, King. You come to my games too”
“Not always”
“That’s because you are part of a pro team, you don’t control your schedule like I do”
“I know! I know! It’s just—” Tobio rubbed his eyes, clearly annoyed about not being able to get his point across “I play volleyball. I like volleyball. And you make yourself part of that side of my life going to my games. You do volleyball too, but what you actually like is this ” Tobio moved his arms to cover the entire room around them “And I realized I don’t ever form part of this side of your life. But I want to”
“So you just… came to see how I work?” Kei tried very hard not to let emotion slip into his voice.
“I guess?” Tobio fixed his mask “It was nice to hear you talk about all this stuff. I… I think I understand better why you said you enjoy watching me play”
Kei looked back at his boyfriend, his stupidly sweet boyfriend who was able to make him feel like fireworks were setting off on his chest with such a small gesture. Since when did Kei wear his heart on his sleeve like this?
“Are you upset?” Tobio asked, and Kei had to give his teenage self credit for learning how to keep his expression unreadable, because there was no way Tobio wasn’t able to see just how much Kei was feeling right now.
“No, no, I—” Kei squeezed Tobio’s hand “I think I get it. It’s a nice gesture. Unnecessary, but nice”
Tobio huffed out a laugh. He could probably see right through Kei’s words: unnecessary (I never thought you’d do something like this for me) but nice (I love you. Thank you. I love you).
“This is all actually pretty interesting, actually” Tobio said, in a rare sight of letting Kei slip away without teasing him “Beats rewatching Jurassic Park for the hundredth time, at least”
“Fuck off” Kei laught, feeling the common playful ease between him and Tobio settle. He squeezed Tobio’s hand one more time before he let go “Go wait at the entrance for a bit. I’ll go grab my stuff and we can go home”
Home. Kei liked that. They had two different apartments in two different cities that they both called home. If Kei was more cheesy, he would say that home was anywhere where they could be together.
Kei went back to the employees room and grabbed his bag, putting on his coat before he went back to the entrance. Tobio was there, eyeing the souvenir store before he spotted him.
“What do you want to eat?” Kei asked as they walked out.
“I’m not sure, but I’m really hungry. I haven’t eaten since I left Tokyo”
They stopped at the street in front of the museum, the public lighting flickering awake as the sun set in the sky. Kei turned to Tobio, stupid, dense and sweet Tobio who felt the desire to be in every aspect of his life, and finally allowed himself to act like a boyfriend who just saw his boyfriend for the first time in four months. Kei pulled Tobio by his hand so they were face to face, and pulled the facemask down before leaning in and kissing Tobio for the first time in four months.
Tobio made a surprised sound against his mouth before wrapping his arms around Kei's waist and kissing him back. Even through the layers of fabric, Kei could feel the tight grip Tobio had on him, and it made his chest flutter.
“I missed you” Kei whispered against Tobio’s mouth, as a secret held between them through cities and the millimeters between them now.
“I missed you too” Tobio said, leaning in to steal one more peck from Kei, as the greedy king he was. Kei giggled and pulled Tobio’s mask back up with his hand, running his fingers through his hair before pulling apart.
“Let’s go. We can pick up food on the way home”