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It was a cool, crisp winter morning when Arisu's life drastically fell apart.
It had all started normally.
Valentine's Day was always a day Arisu tried to avoid. There was no reason for him to celebrate, and he would always buy discounted chocolate after the fact. His neighbour Kuina had stopped by one afternoon, looked over Arisu's drab apartment and just sighed.
"Arisu, I've known you for how long and you STILL haven't decorated this place? Let alone for Valentines Day? It's practically a billboard for single desperation here!"
Arisu always laughed her off and pushed her politely out the door at this, but it always had bugged him that he was so alone here in this apartment. He wasn't BITTER, it certainly wasn't that. He just…was waiting for the right moment, yes, that was it. Someone to stop him in his tracks and make everything up to that moment worth it.
It so happened that the moment came…unexpectedly. Kuina and her roommate Usagi, essentially his best friends and guiding lights at this point, had not stopped going on about these gourmet chocolate covered strawberries from a fancy bakery. Arisu liked chocolate as much as the next person, hence his tradition of buying discounted Valentine's candy, but something about this piqued his interest. Whatever it was drove him halfway across the city, into the bakery that smelled suspiciously like flowers, and out with a box of the biggest and fanciest strawberries he had ever bought. One was covered in white chocolate with dark chocolate stripes, another was milk chocolate ganache; they were big and ripe and beautiful. The sun was shining down, and birds chriped in the trees. Only something by divine intervention could ruin-
He tripped.
Arisu tumbled to the ground, but found himself caught- caught in someone's arms? He only saw a pristine white jacket, then a flash of silvery blonde hair, and…oh. One of the prettiest men he'd ever seen. A thoughtful face, well dressed, he had the appearence of someone educated and was just…beautiful to look at.
Arisu realised he was staring. He shook himself a little and registered very quickly that he had basically thrown himself on top of this other man in his fall. The strawberries, miraculously, had fallen into his hands without any harm to the box. Arisu jumped up, going red in the face. "I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going, I-"
"It's alright." The stranger looked at Arisu up and down with a curious stare as he got up. "You're not hurt, right?"
"No…" Arisu held in the thought of you broke my fall well enough, and collected himself. "I should be going." He ran off in the other direction completely; only later when he arrived home did he realise two things. He had taken an extremely complicated way home…and he had left the strawberries with that stranger.
Chishiya had been internally screaming for five hours now. All he did was try a shortcut home and what happens? The most adorable man just FALLS into his arms and leaves him with chocolate covered strawberries. On Valentine's Day no less? Didn't leave his name, didn't leave any info, just blushed and dashed off. It was like Cupid had shot his arrow down and pierced his heart, and now he had some infatuation with a mysterious man.
Chishiya must find him, somehow.
He had paced his living room enough to put a track in the carpet, but still wasn't quite sure where to start. How one tracks down a stranger without the use of commonplace cameras was still a mystery, but Chishiya was determined. He WOULD find him. His train of thought was interupted by his stomach growling; he had not eaten enough today and the only thing in his line of sight to the kitchen, past the chair he had thrown his hoodie and chocolates-
The chocolates.
Chishiya dashed to the chair and inspected the box more carefully. He knew this bakery well, he often stopped by for a canelé if he had had a hard day at the hospital. He also knew the cashier well enough to be able to get dirt on who bought these. He was not above extortion to get what he wanted, and what he wanted was that endearing and clumsy stranger. He grabbed his hoodie and marched straight for the door without a second thought.
Arisu felt defeated. He somehow had returned home within an hours time, but now it was close to seven o'clock and he had no strawberries, a sore knee and broken pride. It wasn't like him to get worked up over things like this, but there was no use crying over dropped chocolate. There was nothing to it but to move on; yet a steady knock at the door shocked himself out of his feelings. Arisu, confused as to who would be at his door this late, opened it to find…a blonde man, with a Cheshire smile on his face.
"Arisu."
"Y-yes?" Arisu took a slight step backward into the apartment. "Wait…you're who I bumped into this afternoon?"
"Yes." he replied. "I'm Chishiya."
"Hi…" Arisu was completely lost for words. The man before him was just as, if not more beautiful than before, but everything about this situation was completely absurd. "How did you-huh?"
"For you."
Chishiya produced a small bouquet of roses from behind him (how he picked them up on a speed walk across the city would never be answered). Arisu took them carefully, looked them over and quizzically looked at Chishiya.
"How did you find where I live? Or who I am?"
"Easy." Chishiya said. "Bribery."
Arisu was stunned.
"And it's really not hard to find out a lot of personal information on someone with the help of search engines." Chishiya continued, casual as if nothing he said sounded insane. "Your credit score could use some help by the way, I know a guy for that."
Arisu chose to ignore this. "Riiight…so you chose to track me down, find my address, and give me…flowers?"
Chishiya scuffed his foot on the carpet, looking very innocent for having done all of said things. "Not just that…I wanted to see if you'd come to dinner with me."
"Din-wait wait wait." Arisu felt as though he had been hit by a bomb. "Listen, you should probably come inside, my neighbours are nosy as hell. I want to talk to you about this."
As soon as Chishiya was inside the doorframe, Arisu locked the door and turned to him. "Listen-"
"This is where you live?" Chishiya's voice was soft, not in pity but in surprise.
"Yes?" Arisu paused whatever he was going to say and defensively asked, "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing." said Chishiya honestly. "I'm just surprised that someone that doesn't even seem to celebrate Valentine's Day went to an exclusive bakery for chocolate covered strawberries."
Arisu had nothing to say to this at first; never had he been so thouroughly called out by a stranger in his own apartment. "Well…I guess you're right. I usually wait until tomorrow to buy cheap chocolate. I guess I wanted to branch out or something."
Chishiya let out something between a scoff and a giggle.
"I took a shortcut home and an angel fell into my lap. You think YOU branched out."
Arisu let out a full-belly laugh at this. "Angel? You picked the WORST person to be your angel this Valentine's Day, I couldn't even get my own strawberries home."
"No." Chishiya said quietly. "You gave them to me. Isn't that more special?"
A pregnant pause filled the room. Arisu shut his mouth to look less like a fish, and thought about what Chishiya just said. More special? It was an accident, at best! And yet…Arisu looked at Chishiya, who was off in a corner of the room looking at a piece of art on the wall. Something softened in Arisu's heart; was this the most insane way to meet someone? Absolutely. But it couldn't be all bad…right? He made a mental note to text Kuina his location, turned to Chishiya, and said,
"You said something about dinner? I…wouldn't be opposed."
Chishiya jumped slightly, but smiled even bigger than before. "I'm glad. I know this lovely place not far from here, right next to an art museum."
Arisu felt a warmth settle in his chest, as he walked up and took his hand. "It's-well, it's nice to meet you, Chishiya."
Chishiya smiled and took Arisu's hand, interweaving their fingers and squeezing gently. "Nice to meet you too."