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Brolly and Dante were out for another one of their weekly walks. The cold pinched their cheeks. Usually it was a chance for them to get away from the drama of the apartment. But Brolly felt as though his problems had followed him outside, even with the presence of the level headed Dante, who usually brought him away from his worries with wise words, he didn’t feel at ease. Every step on the frosted ground brought Brolly further away from reality and deeper into his own head.
“I’m sensing a disbalance within you, am I right?” Dante’s voice pulled Brolly out of his thoughts, immediately clearing his head. But Brolly didn’t respond, he only looked away shyly.
“If you don’t get it off your chest, you won’t be able to breathe.” Dante spread his arms wide, mimicking a large breath in. Brolly followed him, inhaling the sharp cold air and feeling it rush through his body, giving him a small boost of confidence. He looked at Dante, who had his eyes shut, but Brolly could tell he was listening carefully.
“It’s Kuromaku..” Brolly didn’t want to elaborate, he hoped that through Dante’s wiseness he would pick up on the underlying message. He only looked at Dante to see if he had a reaction. The king only looked back with one curious eye open, his mouth falling into a small “o” shape instead of his wide grin.
Brolly pressed his lips together, forcing himself to continue.
“He’s just so...calm. So attentive. He’s not cold to me like he is everyone else. He gets me..” Brollies words stumbled out of him and he found himself blushing despite the cold. He tried to pull his scarf up over his cheeks to hide it but Dante had understood the message. His grin had crept back into his face in consideration.
Brolly smiled for a second, allowing himself to feel the relief he thought he earned before gripping his scarf again.
“Just don’t tell anyone, okay? God knows what they’ll do if they find out..”
Dante put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“Sometimes the best thing to do is to tell someone a secret weighing heavy.”
Brolly nodded. He would tell them, when he was ready. Because as of now, Brolly couldn’t even come to terms with his own feelings.
It didn’t take 24 hours before Brolly stepped into the living room and all conversations ceased. Nobody turned to look at him but his presence had shifted the air of the apartment into a tight silence. Waru hid a snicker behind his palm. The hearts gave each other glances from across the room. They were as discreet as brolly was calm. That being not very much. Brolly raised an eyebrow, hesitant to step into the room. Until..
“I know your secret!” Waru suddenly shouted. He pointed an accusatory finger at a shaking Brolly.
“W-what secret?” Brolly stuttered, already fearing the worst.
“About how you’re OH so in LOVEEEE with a certain king.” Waru’s exaggerated words were accompanied by huge mocking gestures. He batted his eyelashes in a scornful way. “WARU!” Romeo condemned. “Love is not something to joke about!”
“And look at poor Brolly!” Felix chimed in. “He’s shaking because of you!”
Brolly tried to retreat back into the corridor. Usually when the tension between the clones got too high he could leave undetected, but now this concerned him. All eyes were on the jack.
He wanted to turn to somebody he usually trusted to help him combat the pressure, but that one person turned out to spill his most private thoughts to the rest of the clones
“Dante, you told them?” He couldn’t hide the burning embarrassment on his face. He was lucky Kuromaku and Fëdor were out so that they couldn’t see the state he was in.
“You said you wouldn’t!”
Dante shook his head and pouted, his eyes still closed in a deep concentration.
“No matter how carefully you choose your words, people will always twist them.”
Brolly thought back to what he said on the streets. He facepalmed internally, realising Dante never explicitly said he would keep quiet.
“Some secrets are heavy because they aren’t yours to tell.” Dante added with a shrug of his shoulders. Brolly was too shocked to say anything.
“So, when are you planning on telling him?” Felix grinned widely, fistbumping Brolly's arm
“I wasn’t..” Brolly didn’t manage to finish his sentence before somebody else spoke over him.
“Do you want us to help? I'm an expert in these types of things, Y’know.” Romeo placed a hand on his chest dramatically.
Brolly covered his face in frustration and shame. His actual nightmare scenario had come to life. The type of dream where you wake up in a cold sweat while clutching your chest. He begged himself to wake up. To find himself in his sleeping bag with the rest of the clones having no idea about his infatuation. But that moment never came. The other clones would never let him forget this, especially Waru, who had been laughing at the consequences of his own havoc.
“I don’t want any of your guys’ help!” His voice was quiet but it was filled with helplessness. Brolly felt every single eye in the room burn into him. The atmosphere had shifted. Everyone was silent.
“I..” he couldn’t speak anymore. He sat down on the sofa, his long teal hair cascading over his shoulders and covering the sides of his face. “I didn’t want you guys to find out. I knew you’d just stick your nose in my business and ruin everything again.” Brolly gripped his knees with shaky hands, feeling the swell of embarrassment in his throat, threatening to make him cry in front of all of them.
He heard Waru take a breath, as if he was about to say something, but Spade promptly clamped his hand over his mouth to shut him up. Gabriel shuffled over on the floor to rest his chin on Brolly’s lap. Brolly looked up at him through cloudy eyes and smiled weakly.
“We’re sorry, Brolly. We shouldn’t have been so forward.” Felix sat beside him gently on the sofa and moved a lock of hair so his face was more clear. “Can we still help in any way?”
Brolly looked at Felix. Romeo and Dante lingered behind him. Even Waru had fallen silent.
“Well..I had an idea. But..I don’t know if it’ll work.”
Felix almost jumped in his seat upon hearing this, but instantaneously calmed himself down in the presence of a fragile brolly.
“I wanted to go to a restaurant..just..the two of us.” Brolly's voice fell into a whisper by the last word, but he was smiling giddily. Felix attentively listened as Romeo pulled up a map app on his phone.
“A nice one, the one just around the corner that serves Italian food.”
“This one?” Romeo gave his phone to Brolly, the menu already pulled up.
Brolly nodded, but his jaw fell when he saw the prices of the food.
“H-HOW MUCH?!” He defeatedly gave Romeo’s phone back and held his head in his hands.
“We wouldn’t even be able to afford starters…oh god..why did I think this would ever work..” Brolly could feel himself spiralling, his head filling with clouds as he played with the fabric of his scarf.
“Life is 10% of what happens to you, and 90% of how you react to it.” Dante spoke up.
Felix nodded. “Dante is right, let’s make the most of what we have!” His enthusiasm turned to uncertainty when he came to a dead end thinking of new solutions.
“Why can't we do it here?” Gabriel asked, tilting his head at the group, immediately sparking them with a new energy.
“RIGHT!” Felix sprung up from the sofa. “We’ve only got a few hours to make this the most perfect evening ever!” He squeezed Brolly's shoulder and smiled. Brolly reciprocated.
“I’m already imagining the layout.” Romeo gushed as he scanned the room.
“Good food is the foundation of happiness.” Dante piped up, getting out of his beanbag for once.
Waru grinned sadistically, already thinking of ways to mess with the couple. He tried to sneak off but spade grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
“If you do anything to ruin this evening you won’t forget it.”
Spade carried him down the corridor and threw him forcefully into the tiny bathroom he had declared his kingdom. Waru stumbled over the endless amount of toiletries littering the floor that he refused to clean up, earning a deep chuckle from Spade. Before he could escape through the door, Spade slammed it shut in his face, blocking it from the outside.
Brolly tried to make his way to the kitchen but Felix caught wind and sat him back down on the sofa.
“We’ll take care of everything, just relax!”
“But..”
“Trust us.” Felix tried to reassure him with a smile but Brolly wasn’t feeling the weight of the situation lift off his shoulders. If anything, the idea of the rest of the clones setting up what should’ve been an ideal evening made him sink deeper into the sofa with a worried groan. If anything went wrong he wouldn’t be able to show his face around Kuromaku ever again. Not like he was doing much of that right now. He avoided his eye, jumped back at every touch they shared. It was a miracle Kuromaku hadn’t figured it out yet.
A few hours later, they heard keys fiddling with the lock on the other side of the door and scrambled into position. Kuromaku opened the door gently. Fëdor trailed behind him, holding a shopping bag of ingredients Felix had frantically texted him to buy.
Spade stood attentively outside the door to the bathroom, guarding it like a cell. He nodded respectfully to Kuromaku as he walked past. Kuro instinctively nodded back, but took note of the weird behaviour.
Felix rushed down the corridor, attempting to take Kuromaku by the arm in a gentlemanly manner but was swiftly shaken off.
“Are you wearing my shirt?” Kuromaku accused, comparing his own identical grey button up and tie to Felix’s attire. It was a little too long for Felix, and he very messily tucked it in, so it looked ridiculous on him.
“There weren’t any other nice shirts in the house.” Felix mumbled, hoping he hadn’t already screwed up Kuromaku's mood, and in turn, the rest of the evening.
Brolly himself had been sitting on the sofa listening to every word and micro sound that Kuromaku made. He needed to decipher the mood he was in and shape himself around that. A small part of him hoped he could still call the whole evening off.
Over the last few hours Romeo tried to teach him certain mannerisms to use around Kuromaku, but Brolly panicked when he couldn’t manage it, so their efforts resorted to Romeo whispering words of encouragement in his ear as Brolly dry heaved panicked breaths.
The sound of Kuromakus' voice made Brolly freeze on the sofa. Romeo had to physically lift him up and push him out into the hallway into Kuromaku's line of sight.
“And why are all the lights off? Are you guys messing with something again?”
“Kuromaku?” Brolly's voice beat Kuromaku off of his trail of accusations. The air throughout the apartment was tight.
Brolly hunched nervously. His head was tilted downwards in a way that would usually make his hair fall over his eyes. But he had tied it up in a low ponytail for tonight. Even his bangs had been clipped to the side, so his pink face wasn’t hidden from view. He played with the soft fabric of Gabriel’s borrowed shirt, refusing to look at kuromaku in the eye. Even in the dim light Kuromaku could see his timid smile, the one Brolly only did when he was being as genuine as he can.
Seeing Brolly not wearing the huge sweater that usually covered his thin frame came as a shock to Kuromaku. He almost appreciated the amount of confidence it took to switch it out for the loose fitting shirt. His heart pumped heavily in his body. He wished he could say something in the moment but his voice seemed to be clogged with some sort of foreign feeling in his throat. He took a miniscule step towards the frozen figure, finally realising that this was something real and not an elaborate prank the clones were playing.
“I will take you two gentlemen to your seats” Felix said in a desperate attempt to hide his smile. He led them to the balcony. The contents of it had been messily displaced into the living room. Kuromaku scowled at the sight, but his face softened when he and Brolly entered the balcony.
The clones had set up a portable heater so it was the same temperature as the house. On top of that, the previously distracting cracks in between the boards and the windows had now let in a pleasant breeze. A small table with a white cloth had been meticulously placed in the centre of it, no doubt it was Fëdor’s from when he used to live alone. A single rose in a vase rested on the table. A candlelight flickered next to it, giving it a dim atmosphere along with the fairy lights they had strung along the edges of the room. A small speaker sat in the corner, playing what could only be described as elevator music on the lowest volume setting.
Brolly nervously took his seat, inspecting Kuromaku's bewildered face for any signs of dissatisfaction. Being less than an arms length away made him feel exposed. Like a spotlight was shining directly onto him, and his every action for the rest of the evening would be criticised to a fault. Felix smiled at the pair, fixing his tie.
“We will bring the drinks out shortly.” And with that, he quietly closed the door behind him.
When he thought he was out of sight from the clubs he celebrated with an obnoxious thumbs up directed towards the other clones, although Brolly saw all of this through the window, and prayed Kuro didn’t see it as well.
“Brolly?”
He felt his chest tighten.
“Your collar is up.”
Brolly frantically tried to pat his collar down, trying not to make even more of a fool of himself than he already has. Gabriel’s shirts didn’t have the plastic inside the collar to keep it stiff, so it just bent in awkward ways under Brolly's shaking hands.
“Here, let me.” Kuromaku reached across the table. Brolly reluctantly put his hands down as Kuromaku fiddled dangerously close to his neck. His thumb brushed up against Brolly’s cheek, and he felt himself melt against Kuromaku’s hand. It was warm. Unusually so. Did Kuromaku also feel the heat rush to his fingertips the way Brolly did when he was in his presence? Brolly could’ve sworn he felt his hand purposely press itself against Brolly's jaw before retracting again. He felt cold where Kuromaku’s touch lingered.
“Brolly…what is this..?” Kuromaku placed his hands gently on the table. His tone shifted into the one it always did when he was around him. The one of comfort, one that radiated warmth. It wasn’t disgusted, just surprised. But even then, Brolly felt his chest tightening. Feeling as though he was under interrogation.
He couldn’t bring himself to speak, let alone look Kuro in the eyes. He was so used to his hair hiding him. He felt vulnerable. The familiar cloud of doubt fogged his head up, Kuromaku almost reached out over the table again to settle him but the door swung open with a huge magnitude of force, startling the two inside.
Dante wondered in. Their kitchen towel with mysterious stains slung over one arm and a bottle of wine was gripped in the other. Brolly smiled as he felt the cloud of doubt escape his mind like it always did when Dante was around. If it wasn’t for him, he probably wouldn’t be sitting with Kuromaku across from him right now. His initial frustration had now settled into thankfulness. Dante just being in the same room as them gave him the confidence he needed. He sat up straight as Dante fiddled with the cork of the bottle.
He pulled it once. The cork didn't budge.
Once more, this time using his full strength. Dante probably hasn't done this much physical labour since...ever. He grunted with every pull. Kuromaku just put an elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand, glancing over to Brolly with an expression that read as “I’m not amused”. Brolly grinned anxiously, letting out a nervous chuckle as he squeezed his hands under the table as some sort of attempt to comfort himself. He could still feel himself sliding down his chair, the confidence that Dante provided him slipping away by the second. He tried to signal to Dante to stop but he was too hyper focused on getting the cork out of the bottle. Kuromaku also turned his attention back to Dante, although he was focused on the shirt he adorned. Like Felix's, it also belonged to Kuromaku, although it was somehow more messy than Felix, one half was untucked, and every effort to open the bottle folded a new crease into the fabric.
With one final pull, the cork sprung out of the glass bottle, erupting with a pop. Both the clubs instinctively covered their heads, but relaxed when they heard the rushing of liquid against glass. Dante began pouring the red liquid into both of their glasses as if nothing had happened, smiling exhaustedly
“Thank you Dante, you can leave it on the table.” Kuromaku politely requested, only saying this so that a comment about his shirt wouldn’t slip out. Dante complied and put both his hands behind his back. He shared the last few words of wisdom before leaving the balcony;
“The best wines are the ones we share.”
The two were left in silence again, the only sound filling the air being the music coming from the speaker in the corner of the room. But the volume made it feel so far away, as if it wasn’t meant for the pair. Brolly sank further into his chair, hoping he would eventually end up under the table so he didn't have to look at Kurmaku's face again.
“Italian Chianti wine.” Kuromaku spoke up, easing the silence between them. “I picked it out myself. It’s dry and smoky but still…within our budget.”
“Y-you picked it out?”
“Fëdor got a text from Felix with a shopping list while we were out. Only after we finished reading it Felix sent another text saying “Dont tell Kuro.”” his face was straight, brolly couldn’t tell if it was because of his nature or because he was unamused by the whole situation.
Brolly squeezed his arms and looked to the side. It seemed that no matter how much effort everybody put in, something was bound to go wrong. What kind of surprise means the person in question has to plan it?
“Why wasn’t he supposed to tell me? What’s happening?”
Brolly's lips quivered.
“I..just wanted to have a restaurant evening together. Just the two of us.” He looked to the side, ashamed to think that this would ever work. “But then the others found out and wanted to get involved. And you found out. And..god, I look ridiculous like this, don’t I? This was stupid, I’m sorry.” Brolly got up, his chair squeaking across the tiles behind him. His eyes were screwed shut, and he was already lifting a hand up to take the clip out of his hair.
“Brolly, wait!” Kuromaku gently touched the sleeve of Gabriel’s shirt, stopping brolly in his tracks.
“This isn’t stupid. It’s.." Kuromaku smiled for the first time this evening. “I can see you put a lot of effort into it.”
His hand guided Brolly to sit back down.
“And you don’t look ridiculous. I think the colour suits you. Plus, I like seeing your face when you aren’t hiding behind your hair.”
Brolly finally looked at Kuromaku's face, and felt a smile creeping onto his own.
“If anything, I’m the one who looks ridiculous, you dressed up and made an effort, while I’m wearing the same thing I always do.” He chuckled quietly, reigniting that small flame within Brolly.
“But I like how professional you look when you dress up like this.”
Kuro shrugged his shoulders. “If only I did something special for the occasion.”
Brolly got an idea. He reached for the flower in the vase and cut the head from the stem with his fingernails. He then unclipped the front of his hair, letting it fall in front of his face. He felt in his element again. Like he could finally communicate as long as there was something separating him and the person in front of him. He appreciated Romeo's efforts to dress him up, but that was Romeo's idea of a more put-together brolly. With his hair falling in front of his face, he felt in control again. He felt safe.
Brolly slowly reached over the small table and clipped the rose to Kuromaku's shirt pocket, quickly sitting back down when he started to feel Kuromaku's own body heat on his. A blush creeped onto both of their faces. Kuromaku ran his hands over the soft petals and smiled.
“To us.” He held his cup of wine in the air, Brolly copied him, clinking their glasses together before they both took a sip. Brolly was indifferent to the taste, but Kuromaku let it swirl in his mouth. Smacking his lips after he finally swallowed it. It was admirable how refined his taste palette was. Brolly didn’t even realise how intensely he had been watching the king, with his chin nestled deep into his palm, until Kuromaku raised an eyebrow. Brolly panicked and shoved his hands in between his legs.
The door opened once more, Felix entered with two plates of spaghetti. As he set them down, Brolly noticed the arrangement of meatballs and a bay leaf in the shape of the clubs’ symbol. Brolly cringed at how hard they tried.
“Freshly cooked.” Felix beamed as he rocked on his feet, but Brolly turned to him slowly, a worried breath escaping him.
“You mean..you guys cooked this?” His mind couldn’t help but wonder to the soup they “cooked”, or the pasta they made after that.
“Romeo and Gabriel were the ones who cooked it. Don’t worry, Waru is safely...not in the kitchen.” Felix assured, scratching the back of his head. He bent down to whisper in Brolly's ear. “I told you, it's all sorted out. You got this.” he stood back up, winking discreetly to brolly without Kuromaku seeing. Brolly could do nothing but throw him back a strained grin. “Bone apple tea!” He felt without another word.
Brolly watched Kuromaku eat his food carefully. He picked at it before picking up some spaghetti with his fork and eating it, chewing it slowly until he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Romeos a good chef.” Kuromaku praised, delightfully going in for another mouthful. Brolly breathed a small sigh of relief and also began eating.
“You could say he's a...connoisseur?” They both chuckled at Romeo's ego. A day that had seemed so stressful to Brolly back then had become nothing but a happy memory in Kuromaku's presence. He wanted to frame the way Kuromaku looked when he was laughing, but instead looked out the window to avoid his gaze.
“Another drink?” Brolly looked back to see Kuromaku holding the wine bottle in one hand and his face resting in the other. His glass was already refilled, the lip of the bottle hovered over Brolly’s. He nodded, and the red liquid quickly filled his cup.
They sipped it quietly. A warmth enveloped Brolly's body. He couldn’t tell if it was from the heater behind him, the presence of kuromaku or the liquor. As he put his glass down he noticed Kuromaku was still looking at him from across the table flaunting a wide smile. A pink blush crept up both of their cheeks when their eyes met, they both turned their heads to the window to avoid each other's gaze, the city lights perpetuating from the dark city skyline caught on the glass. It created a beautiful shimmering effect across the entire balcony like the sun reflecting on a rippling lake. Nothing needed to be said. Brolly could see the side of Kuromaku that no one else could, and Kuro could read Brolly like a book. He was intricate and complicated, like the classic novels that Kuromaku read. It took effort and a real depth to understand him for what he really was, but Kuromaku managed it. Although he was still fragile like the old paper pages that kuromaku had to tenderly touch to flip them.
“If we were in a restaurant we wouldn’t have gotten this view.” Kuromaku sighed, refilling Brolly's glass again.
“It's beautiful.” Brolly agreed.
“So..” Kuromaku almost whispered, taking another sip. “You did this all for me?”
Brolly squeezed out a nervous hum, fighting the urge to cover his reddening face with his hands. “With some help, yeah.” Brolly whispered.
“...Why?” Kuro placed the almost empty bottle on the table. The buzz within brolly from the wine pushed him to say something, anything that would hint to Kuromaku about his true intentions.
He looked at the king as he sipped his wine, hoping he could become tipsy enough that it would roll out of him naturally. Different versions of the same confession flashed through his mind, but none of them seemed quite right. A movement in the window to the apartment caught his eye and beat him off his train of thought. All the clones had their faces pressed up to the glass, their excited breaths fogging up the window. Even Fëdor watched over their shoulders curiously.
Brolly froze, the liquid sloshing at the sides of the glass in his hand. He felt the pressure of the spotlight again. His confession would be watched over by who knows how many pairs of eyes. Undoubtedly it would be ridiculed if something went wrong. He shrank back into his chair, avoiding the gaze of his friends and allowing himself to spiral into his own hysteria.
But then he saw a new movement from the corner of his eye. Spade had stepped in front of the clones and the glass, crossing his arms with authority and pushing anyone who got to close. Even through the barrier, Brolly could hear his voice thundering over the protests from the other clones ordering them to step away. Spade turned around and closed the curtains, bathing the pair in a deep red from the lights that shone through the fabric, finally blocking Kuromaku and Brolly to the outside world once more.
By now, Brolly's wine only made him giggly with a pink blush and a slight dizziness in his head instead of the confidence he so desperately needed in that moment.
Kuromaku placed his hand on Brolly’s, his warmth embracing him.
“I’m listening.”
Brolly's hand twitched out of tension from under Kuromaku’s, but Kuromaku just squeezed it. Brolly smiled timidly again, the same way he did when Kuromaku saw him in the corridor for the first time, but tried to hide it by taking another sip of his wine. He couldn’t say anything. The words caught in his throat in a net made from his own insecurity. Kuromaku couldn’t let him struggle. He lifted up Brolly's hand and pressed his lips to it. Not exactly a kiss. Just a stamp of affection. And maybe a gesture made in hope that Brolly now understood he was seen. The only sound that came from him was a small flustered squeak. He didn’t pull his hand away, he longed to be touched by Kuromaku’s lips again, but couldn’t bring himself to move.
“If you can't tell me..how about you show me?” Kuromaku stood up, towering over Brolly while still holding his hand. The jack tried to look away but he was pulled up by a strong hand. Kuromaku walked over to the speaker and turned the volume up just a bit for it to be noticeable.
“Would you like to dance?”
Brolly's face became a shade of red inconceivable to human perception. He squeaked again. Kuromaku waited patiently for an answer. Brolly looked at the curtain behind him, the only things visible were the blurry silhouettes of the clones. They couldn’t see him.
He quietly nodded and stepped closer to Kuromaku, unsure of where to place his hands. Kuromaku guided him, leading his hands to rest on his shoulders as his own hands settled on Brolly’s waist, his thumbs hooking his belt buckle.
They swayed with the music, with Kuromaku leading the way. A step forward. a step back. Kuromaku stood half a head taller than Brolly, his lips at the height of Brolly’s temple. They didn’t move away from their embrace. With every second that passed they held each other tighter, Brolly’s hands had moved to Kuromaku’s neck as his moved to Brolly’s lower back. Brolly buried his head into Kuromaku’s chest, feeling his heart against his ear. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of old leather bound books. His voluminous hair tickled Kuromaku’s cheek.
“Was there something you wanted to tell me?” The king's voice was soft, almost in tune with the music. Brolly's heart rate picked up, Kuro could definitely feel it against his body but didn’t react. The jack buried his face deeper into the fabric of Kuromaku's shirt and giggled. Maybe from the wine, maybe from the fact that he knew there was no way Kuromaku hadn’t figured out what this was all for.
“You know what I’m going to say.” Brolly chuckled softly into his shirt.
“But I want to hear it from you.”
“I dont wanna say it..”
“How else am I supposed to know?” they both were giggling like teenage girls at this point.
“Okay…” He took one last inhale of Kuromaku's shirt and looked at him, a single strand of hair falling in front of his eyes.
“I.. like you..Kuromaku.” He breathed out, hoping Kuro couldn’t see how red his face was getting. “You’re perfect, I could never be as smart and as calm as you. I love your softness. The way you act around me. I thought I would be scared to tell you but…today has gone so well and…I feel so safe with you.” He was whispering and gripping the fabric of Kuromaku's shirt tighter with every word, forcing the sentences out of himself. It was enough for Kuromaku to hear. But Brolly wasn’t happy. He felt as though this wasn’t enough.
He slid his hands behind Kuromaku's head and stood on his tiptoes to kiss his cheek gently. Pulling away almost instantly out of embarrassment. He saw Kuromaku's face flush pink before he looked away again.
“Tonight went perfect.” Kuromaku's warm hands cupped Brolly's cheeks and slowly pulled him in for a tender kiss. Brolly didn’t have a chance to react. They could taste the wine on each other’s lips and smell it on their breath. Kuromaku's hands stroked Brolly's soft teal hair, tucking it behind his ear to better caress his cheeks, pulling him deeper into the kiss.
They slowly pulled away, Brolly's eyes fluttered open once more, his hands tangled in Kuromaku's hair, but he didn’t want to move them. Neither of them wanted to move from the warm embrace they had found themselves in.
That was until Brolly saw that the corner of the curtain had been lifted up, Romeo and Felix's excited eyes stared back at him. The curtain quickly fell back down again, and Brolly shamefully moved away from Kuromaku, bringing his arms close to his body and stepping away, instinctively reaching for the scarf he no longer had.
Kuromaku's smile fell. “Don’t pay them any attention. They were bound to see it someday.”
Brolly was unconvinced. He played with his sleeves.
“I don’t want to go out there and face them.”
“Then don’t.” Kuromaku lifted Brolly's cheeks with one hand, running his thumb over his smooth skin. “Stay here with me for a little while longer, until you’re ready.
Brolly nodded, holding Kuromaku’s other hand up to his chest and quietly leading him to the floor of the balcony with a timid smile. They both pressed their backs against the brick wall separating them and the apartment, holding each other in a tangle of hands and occasional kisses. Brolly leaned his head on Kuromaku’s shoulder, savouring this rare moment of peace.