Work Text:
Kohane had already gotten the bulk of her physical essay draft completed, so she let it rest from her mind and instead geared her focus towards her laptop to work on the song she'd been composing for the past few weeks. With one earbud in, it was difficult to hear anything else but the music while she shuffled at her desk in her own bubble. Covering her mouth as she yawned, she diligently skimmed over lyrics, FL Studio visuals, and resisted the urge to rub her then-bespectacled eyes.
The sounds of An in the bathroom with the hairdryer humming a few older songs to herself were the only others that occurred to Kohane. Every little hint of her partner's presence scattered about their room—and throughout their apartment, really—was all too familiar and still filled Kohane's chest with not only content but the will to continue creating. She smiled, lowering the volume a little bit, although it did nothing to help the way her tired eyes would begin to close as the day's hour weighed on them.
The main melody was sweet, with a slight swing that gave the impresssion of walking along a street with someone. The noise of nostalgia grew and changed every year and Kohane never could help but find herself oftentimes reminiscing as she cherishes the present, always leading herself back to composing, as one does, for an outlet. In spite of this, she grew sleepier and sleepier still, desperately fighting it and flushing with a deep embarassment as she nearly nodded off, reinvigorating herself with her fluster and continuing to translate her thoughts into song.
She fidgeted with her shoulder-length blonde hair as she rested her chin on her forearm and murmured some self-commentary, noting verbally what she found fit most and what should belong somewhere else, be that within this song or a new one entirely. Her fingers paused during a long thought and she failed to register the abrupt end of her work-in-progress.
The hairdryer stopped, too, leaving the faint, faint melody of An's soft humming reverberating from the bathroom. For a moment, Kohane noticed it and its unfamiliarity, yet before she knew it, her face was in her elbow on the desk, glasses pushing up against her face and pressing on her arm.
"Kohane! I'm done," An said happily with a relieved sigh as she walked out of the bathroom with laundry-to-be in her arms. "Wanna go to— Oh." She quieted, having noticed her partner dozed off on her desk.
Guess you already did. She tossed her previous clothes off to the side into the hamper and headed over to Kohane, gently swishing her soft hair out from between she jaws of her laptop and shutting it, then lifting up her head carefully to remove her glasses, tucking one of its arms into her shirt and scooping up its owner from her rolling chair.
"…An-chan…" For a second, she did a double-take, unsure whether or not she was awake, considering her habit of saying her name in her sleep. "Mm… You're back." Ah. Well, she was awake now.
"Uh-huh. You are too," An joked, placing her on their bed and shrouding her in the covers, placing her glasses next to their phones on the bedside table. "You can go back to sleep."
Kohane rubbed her eyes, having realized her glasses were off due to the slight blur of An's face—although, her amber eyes were still strikingly bright. "Can you… Charge my computer for me?" she groggily asked.
Her warm smile, too, withstood the blur. "Yeah, I'll go do that."
"And, ah," Kohane added, blushing, "please don't open it…"
"I won't, sweetie."
"Thank you." An began to pull away, but Kohane tugged her gently back in by the collar of her shirt and gave her a quick kiss.
"Hehe, Kohaneee…" An playfully complained, blushing.
"Come join me soon, okay?"
She leaned down more and kissed Kohane's forehead, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I will."
Kohane hummed softly and nodded, shutting her eyes again.
After plugging in Kohane's charger to the laptop, An made her way back to bed with her, wrapping her arms around her and nuzzling her chin into her hair.
"Mm… Could you hum what you were humming earlier again, An-chan?" Kohane asked, peeking an eye open.
"Eh, really? I can barely remember it, since I just made that on the spot…"
She shrugged and, with a bit of tired effort, reached over her to unplug and grab her phone. "Please?" An quickly relented, letting out a lighthearted sigh.
She opened an app to record the audio and urged her on enthusiastically, lying on her chest as she listened to her voice. An's heart beat against her collarbones as she let her melody keep her awake, softly breathing in tandem with every four-count of her soothing pulse. She reached up with her free hand and intertwined their fingers, stroked the back of her palm with a thumb, nuzzling her neck—An flushed and her voice trembled as she felt Kohane's lips perk up into a smile against her skin.
"♪——~~… That was it."
"Thank you, An-chan." She let go of her hand and caressed her face with a thumb as she kissed her again.
Reciprocating, An found one hand gently cupping her waist, letting the other rest on her shoulder. "Anything for you…"
Kohane grinned against her lips before pressing them together again and putting her phone to the side, fitting her other arm beneath An's back and beginning to repeatedly spoil her lips with kisses.
"Kohane," An laughed, wrapping both arms around her waist and hugging her tighter, softly breathing as Kohane's thumb continued tracing along her cheek and jaw and her other hand moved to thread through her long, black hair that faded to blue.
"Your voice is so pretty, An-chan."
She began sitting herself up, softly saying, "I can say the same for yours."
Kohane's brown, tired eyes were still so full of love as her thumb brushed An's lip then chin, and she leaned in to kiss her again.
"You're never quenched, are you?"
"Are you, An-chan?"
"Pshh, no."
They both giggled before quickly resuming, Kohane grounding her arm atop the pillow An sat on as her hands gently gripped at the back of her shirt. Carefully, then, she leaned in a little bit more and parted her lips. An let out a brief, shaky laugh before hugging Kohane closer, letting her heart succumb to the feeling of their mouths pressed together.
As they pulled away, Kohane leaned in again while An glanced aside to her phone. "Hey, y'know, you're still recording…"
"Eh?—" Kohane blushed, pulling away and looking at it. "Ah, I'm sorry…"
"I can… Stop it for you," An said, her hand hesitating to pull away from Kohane to grab it.
She momentarily bit her tongue before she said, "…No, um, I actually, think I'll… Keep it."
"O-Oh." Her partner blinked. "What?"
Kohane's face filled with an ever-more vivid pink. "Unless you want me… To delete it…"
"Um. Nnnnnno, it's… Alright…" An slowly admitted, nervously grinning; Kohane chewed on her inner cheek as she tore her sight away from the running recording to look at her partner. "You're really keeping it?"
"I-I… Don't see why not, especially since you don't mind. It'll be a nice memento."
"Memento? Of what?"
She replied with nothing but a gentle, slightly dazed smile and leaned in again, tenderly licking the seam of her mouth and sliding her tongue back inside. An softly sighed into the kiss and slid her hands up to Kohane's head to cradle her skull as she gently encased her neck in her arms.
"We really should be sleeping… You were out out when I came back," An softly said as she pecked Kohane's top lip, gladly disregarding her own words as Kohane deepened the kiss again. "Mm…"
Kohane, as much as she could, listened intently to An's breathing. Every hitch, sigh—any small noise her ears could have possibly picked up, really—she listened, absorbed herself in it…
When they came up for breath and all that connected their lips was a thin string of saliva, Kohane thought. "This is my lullaby."
An didn't question it. She only laughed—god, she laughed—and, pulling her back in, blissfully continued to kiss Kohane. Gearing away from her lips, Kohane trailed her mouth down An's jaw and chin to her neck, gently pressing her tongue to her skin… Gradually, she peppered her whole neck with gentle bites, kisses then pecks…
"It feels… So good to kiss you, Kohane… And, to be kissed by you… You know. Even after so long, that really hasn't changed. I hope it stays that way."
…
"Kohane?"
She blinked, and gently lifting up her completely zonked face, snickered. "Kohane…" She kissed her forehead sweetly and sighed. "Yeah, rest… You were working really hard today and you still did all that…" She stared at her phone and picked it up to end the voice memo, sneaking in a soft, "I love you," into the mic before stopping it and putting it to the side to charge.
She gently shifted them comfortably beneath the covers and breathed in the scent of Kohane's shampoo. "Can you still hear me…? Mm, maybe not. Goodnight, Kohane."
With a struggle, she nuzzled into An's chest and hugged her. "Mmm… I love you... Night… An-chan…."