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Yoshiki grasps at the wrapping of a caramel-soaked cookie and thinks he might just die.
“Yo, Yoshiki.”
He can hear Hikaru from the next aisle. He’s been eyeing the kids’ corner; they sure make them cheap throwaway toys differently from when they were little. Well, little-r anyway. Yoshiki contemplates the reality of being on the edge of adulthood to whatever fooling around they’re doing.
“Coming,” he says unenthusiastically.
Hikaru is crouched in the sweets section, a typical place for him to be. Jacket unzipped only halfway awkwardly bunches up around his waist, but still reveals his gakuran.
“Ya know how we’re broke and you always complain about havin’ to cover fer me?”
Hikaru doesn’t look the slightest bit guilty about it. Yoshiki raises an eyebrow.
“Well, I’m aboutta make this a whole lot easier for ya, and we’d also not freeze to death.”
Hikaru lifts up two wrapped biscuits with a scrunch.
“Ya know how I don’t like sweets..” Yoshiki drags.
“Yer not listenin’, man! Not only is it just two things.. in this aisle anyway.. but they melt into yer hot drink! Treat us to a coffee as well and we’re taken care of fer today.”
‘The logic would be truly unshakable if it wasn’t fer the fact that ya tried sellin’ it as a discount for once,’ Yoshiki thinks and extends his hand to take a cookie from Hikaru. Their fingers brush for a millisecond and he tries not to think about how Hikaru’s are palpably warmer.
As he inspects the wrapping, Hikaru continues: “These are western, I think. Those folks have different standards and we don’t get their stuff often, why not give it a shot?”
“And I’m getin’ you.. a coffee as well?” Yoshiki asks, knowing he’s already lost whatever will he could have had to reason with Hikaru.
“Whatever way you’ll have me,” Hikaru winks. Yoshiki scowls.
“Don’t get cocky, or I’m tellin’ yer mama you already blew this month’s allowance.”
“Yooo shiiii kiiiii. Cheer up. Ya’d never deny yer prince charming anything.” His eyes are narrowed, and cheeks ruddy, probably from the cold, despite them having been inside wasting time for the last half an hour.
Yoshiki’s bangs are tossed into his face before he gets to stare any more. Enough of that for one day.
“Shut up before we’re walkin’ off empty handed.”
Yoshiki has honestly not seen these cookies in ages. Winter has passed and he can only guess they dropped in popularity. Became redundant, one might say. Whenever he’s been sent shopping in the following three or so months, he would casually stroll into the candy aisle despite having no interest in anything there. Just.. checking, he would tell himself, sometimes not even sparing a thought to it. But today he’s on an errand for Kaoru, and, well, little kids like sweets. She wants something crazy sour, but it’s still here. The same aisle in Nozomi Supermarket.
Yoshiki has been forgetting to look.
“Yoooo shiiii kiiii,” he can hear just a few meters behind himself.
“Whacha got there? Kaoru wanted these.. coffee suited things?” Hikaru leans down to see whatever Yoshiki’s been up to.
“Man, if yer gonna keep that up, you’re totally gonna crush them, and will have to pay regardless.. Wait, I remember those!” Hikaru beams.
Yoshiki is once again grateful for the hair now actively stinging his eyes.
“Oh yeah, they’re uh, pretty good, ain’t they?” he forces out.
“Ya want to have ‘em now?”
“Man, yer totally about to spill that out with the way yer shaking!” Hikaru yells obnoxiously loudly in his ear, as Yoshiki struggles to keep the balance of one shitty cheap machine made coffee cup upright while pulling out another cup from the machine.
“Yer just standin’ there watchin’ me suffer!” Yoshiki grunts in frustration. His fingertips burn, in contrast to the freezing weather about to smother them outside.
“Besides, it was yer idea to get these cheapass things in those cheapass, thin plastic cups.”
“Nah, I’m takin’ care of yer wallet and makin’ sure the biscuits don’t die to yer fumblin’. And ya really are. Fumblin’,” he finishes off as if he had just produced the brightest assessment in the world. Overly boisterous dumbass with no financial planning-
Yoshiki eases the burn by placing the coffee cups on the floor hygienically before taking a breath to calm down.
“We have it,” he says flatly, “what to do and where to go now, since my fingers remain the only things even remotely warm?”
Hikaru is smacking the baked goods up and down his forearm as he holds them by the edge of the wrapping as if in thought. They are definitely going to break any second now and no written instructions are going to make them useful for Yoshiki’s pained solo endeavor.
“Well,” Hikaru bends down, narrowly missing Yoshiki’s face and then chest and.. and he’s picking up a trashy plastic coffee cup by its edge before straightening himself back up and shoving one of the caramel covered nightmares against Yoshiki’s breast.
“We’ve got it, thank you very much.” ‘His grin is too wide to be innocent.. whatever he’s guilty of,’ Yoshiki thinks before he shoves that thought aside. A bead of sweat rolls down his throat despite being so very cold.
“Pick yers up and there we go, for a bench or somethin’.”
“It’s not exactly coffee season now though,” Hikaru furrows his brow as they wait in line for checkout.
“No worries, we can have ‘em just like that.” Yoshiki isn’t sure why he’d so readily offer they buy them. Nostalgia? What’s there to be nostalgic about with something weeks before his best friend’s death-
“Ha haa.. I guess it’s only right I pay fer them, if I remember right, the last time I didn’t and just leeched off of ya,” Hikaru rubs at his neck sheepishly.
“..That wasn’t really you, nah? Ya don’t have to worry about it, I have errands to run anyway.” Yoshiki considers Hikaru’s still uncomfortable looking expression.
“Plus ya helped me choose what to get Kaoru for her candy experiments. Thanks fer that.” The line moves dramatically as a grandma with way too much on her shopping list manages to stuff her purchase into her bag and limp off and off balance.
“Yeah man, anytime,” Hikaru mumbles absentmindedly as he stares into the cleared out distance before lightly slapping Yoshiki’s shoulder.
“Oh! I’ve got it! Wait here a bit, will ya?” he asks before storming off to Yoshiki’s quiet “I’m stuck in this line anyway.”
After a few (and fewer on Yoshiki’s side) pleasantries exchanged with the cashier, and barely finishing packing up his purchase, Hikaru spawns back at Yoshiki’s side.
“Look what I got,” Hikaru excitedly waves his arm in the direction of a nearby cooling vending machine while lifting up two bottles by their caps. The designs are adorned by cartoonishly drawn characters surrounded by little flowers and fruits.
“These’re super cute, ain’t they?” Hikaru beams. “I know ya don’t really like coffee or sweet things, but this is still coffee like the cookies want and it has fruit flavors! I know ya like those more than chocolate and such.”
“Fruits are good fer ya,” Yoshiki justifies, nose scrunched up in insecurity.
“Right! And I made sure to get our favorites!” Hikaru beams as he shoves the strawberry flavored coffee in front of Yoshiki’s eyes.
Yoshiki’s heart swells.
A pang of silence.
They’re standing outside of the supermarket faced with their freshly purchased items.
“This, uh,” Yoshiki searches for the right words while fighting not to crack up, “it doesn’t work cuz it wouldn’t work just because it’s coffee, but it would work, even if just a bit, if the beverage was hot. Which it isn’t.”
“Aw, even if it’s scorchin’ outside?” Hikaru looks awfully disappointed, not even stopping to be worried about his misjudgment of the wonders of physics. ‘Cute,’ Yoshiki’s brain supplies before being drowned out.
“Even if it’s scorchin’ outside.”
“The drink’s too cold,” Hikaru deadpans.
“Yup.”
“Well, no matter, let’s go find a bench!” Hikaru exclaims, spirits as renewed. They walk off from Nozomi Supermarket.
The bench in question is cold and looks like something has been spilt on it.
“Well, better than nothing’,” Hikaru mutters before unceremoniously dropping the surprisingly unbroken cookie and his coffee on the bench before crouching down beside it and waving his arms in affect.
“Look, Yoshiki, I got ya a table and everythin’. We can fine dine,” he yapps on with a smirk.
Yoshiki sighs before carefully placing his own items down and getting on Hikaru’s level.
In a minute, and after an embarrassing amount of struggle and “I wish I had scissors on me right now,”s, the circular manifestations of overly sweet caramel are freed from their constraints and placed over the quickly cooling coffees.
“Just.. on the top of the cup, and it’s supposed to melt in?” Yoshiki questions.
“Yup,” says Hikaru with the full confidence of someone who didn’t pay for any of the nonsense happening, “give it time.”
Having checked the progress a bunch of times, and not finding that many results, the boys give up on the melting process and decide to take on the task of actually trying the snacks.
“Huh, weird,” notes Hikaru as he lifts off the slowly leaking cookie and presses the cup to his lips. Yoshiki watches.
“Man! This really ain’t much, I sorta regret getting the coffee unflavored and all. This didn’t do much.” He makes a face, begrudgingly lifting the cup up once more. Yoshiki chuckles.
“Hey, what about yers? Ya enjoy the bitterness more than ya would if it had worked, right?”
“Hmm,” Yoshiki regards his coffee, “it’s sweet enough to me, and the cookie is actually somehow fallin’ apart.”
“Tough luck,” whines Hikaru. After a beat of silence he opts for staring into Yoshiki’s soul.
“Say, Yoshiki,” and goosebumps form on Yoshiki’s skin in the easy anticipation, “won’t ya let me try yers for how it is?”
Hikaru has the hesitation of someone who knows they’re going to get what they want. One could assume it’s only natural for friends to share food and drink, but something about this makes Yoshiki inexplicably nervous. Something about Hikaru being so sure. He’s a spoiled brat like that, but only for Yoshiki, which somehow makes him warmer than the coffee he just took a sip from. ‘He only does this for me,’ he thinks deliriously. ‘What a bliss, I could not say no even if it’s an uneven deal. He might’ve already gulped down the majority of his, but this isn’t about damn coffee.’
Tossing his head downwards gently to get his curtains working, Yoshiki manages an almost inaudible “nn” before handing his cup and remains of a cookie over to Hikaru.
“Ya can take mine as well,” Hikaru purrs. What the hell.
Yoshiki wordlessly takes the cup from Hikaru’s hand and deliberately presses his lips to where Hikaru’s were just a moment ago.
Hikaru’s eyes turn into slits, but he says nothing.
The bench is a different one from the one Yoshiki remembers, this one being under the cooling shadow of a large tree, which is still comfortably close to the sidewalk.
“Man, I hope yer groceries don’t die since we’re here. I tried my best,” Hikaru sighs as he sinks down on the bench, waving himself with a hand, the two bottles carelessly placed down next to him.
“Nah,” says Yoshiki, placing his bag from the other side, ”it’s just sweets anyway, and they mostly can’t be melted, exactly.”
They’re both sitting in silence for a while.
“And anyway, thanks for yer picks,” adds Yoshiki. “Let’s have these I guess.”
…
Hikaru holds his cookie outside of the tree’s branches’ reach while Yoshiki opens the bottles.
“Look, Yoshiki! It’s meltin’!” Hikaru shouts happily like a kid unwrapping his birthday presents.
“It really is,” Yoshiki says, in toned down shock himself. The summer sun did the impossible with those stubborn things.
“Here, lemme melt yers too!”
It’s like a dream observing the cookies placed on the bottles’ openings and have the caramel flowing freely into the drink below. Yoshiki’s chest aches. Stupid cookies..
Hikaru is currently stuffing his into his mouth and caring nothing about the crumbs he’s covered in. Yoshiki is probably not doing much better himself though, because as he reaches for the bottle beside himself, he can feel a thumb sweeping on his cheek.
“Got a little there,” Hikaru laughs, and it sounds like countless little bells.
“Alright!” says Hikaru as he stands up and brushes the crumbs off his pants.
“I guess it’s gotten fairly late, how about we get goin’ before mama worries ‘bout us?”
“Um, yeah.” Yoshiki marvels at Hikaru’s ability to dissipate any and all tension present, ever.
Hikaru helpfully picks up the trash and throws it into a nearby trashcan. He’s staring off into the sunset when Yoshiki approaches him.
“Man, it sure is cold,” Hikaru laughs, eyes glued to a non-specific place in the sky. A shiver runs down Yoshiki’s spine.
They begin walking home, Yoshiki preoccupied with the thought of Hikaru’s much warmer hands. The coffee sure didn’t help.
Hikaru had once again picked up the trash himself, and is now patiently waiting for Yoshiki to get his bag.
“Anywhere else ya hafta go?” he grins happily.
“Nah, Kaoru just wanted these and that was supposed to be it fer today.”
A pause.
“Well, thanks for buying these for me, they’re better than I remember.” Hikaru taps his chin in thought. “Actually, this is my first time havin’ ‘em, and you’ve made it special for me,” he smiles warmly.
Something in Yoshiki’s gut twists. Pleasant at first, then a pang of guilt. ‘What’s he bein’ so nice to me for?’
“Thank ya for thinkin’ of the coffee. While it was still sweet, I liked it.”
Yoshiki stares on the almost melting, hot concrete under his feet. In his sandals, it’s almost too close to his bare toes.
“I’m glad ya did.”
Something tugs at where Yoshiki’s fingers are hooked into the handles of his shopping bag, and he feels a bit of the weight lift off.. alongside something maybe too warm.
When he lifts his head, Hikaru is looking off in the direction of their town, going “w-well, let’s get goin’ then! I’m sure this must be heavy for ya!”
Staring back at their interlocked fingers, interlocked over a bag with maybe three packages of sweets and nothing more, Yoshiki selfishly adds:
“..It was a bit heavy. Let’s go, yeah.”