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When Akihiko awakens, it’s with the first rays of sunshine seeping in through the crack of his curtains and the sweet song of the morning birds’ chirps filling his ears.
His eyes are still heavy with sleep. Reluctant, Akihiko keeps them closed and hopes to be lulled back to dreamland, but before that can happen, he feels the strong curl of something around his waist, dragging him back to consciousness.
Akihiko rests a hand over the offending limb. There’s a soft nuzzle to the back of his neck, followed by a husky whisper. “Don’t go…”
Despite himself, Akihiko’s cheeks warm. He wriggles until he manages to turn around, coming face-to-face with Suo’s sleepy gaze, who is already looking at him.
Even after a night’s rest, Suo looks annoyingly put together. His silk pyjamas are soft to the touch and his auburn hair is only the slightest bit mussed up, falling over his eyes. When Akihiko meets his gaze, his lips quirk up into a handsome smile that sends butterflies erupting in Akihiko’s stomach. “Good morning.”
“Hi,” Akihiko mumbles back. His hands rise to clutch onto Suo’s sleep shirt, tugging him imperceptibly closer. At the same time, Suo’s hands loop around his waist properly, and he presses a kiss to the top of Akihiko’s head.
Akihiko still doesn’t know how to get used to… this. It’s a side to Suo that no one else has seen—so clingy and affectionate, with all his defenses melted into a puddle of nothing. He tentatively cards his fingers through Suo’s bangs, straightening them, and feels his heart twist when Suo just leans into the touch with his eyes shut.
It’s an irrevocable display of trust. Akihiko isn’t sure if he’s strong enough to carry its weight, though he is nothing but determined to.
They stay like that for a few more minutes, snuggled close together, with Suo’s steady heartbeat against Akihiko’s chest. It’s way past Suo’s usual time to get out of bed. Akihiko knows he has a morning routine, and that he always meditates with the sunrise, but for some reason, he throws all habit to the wind when he stays over at the Nirei household.
Not that Akihiko will complain.
Eventually, Akihiko feels the urge to pee overtake the urge to stay in bed, and he makes a move to get up. He doesn’t manage very far before Suo is dragging him back with an insistent huff, caging him with his ridiculously strong grip.
“Suo-san,” Akihiko laughs tiredly, “let me up. I have to use the bathroom.”
“No you don’t,” Suo argues. As if that even makes sense. How would he know better? His eye remains stubbornly closed, doing a terrible job of pretending to sleep. “Stay here.”
“It’ll just be a minute. I’ll come back after.”
Suo cracks open his eye, looking thoroughly unconvinced. He’s pouting like a child that got candy taken away from them, and Akihiko thumbs over his jutted lips, shaking his head fondly. If he stares at him for too long, his resolve will weaken, and he’ll end up giving in.
So he plants a kiss on Suo’s nose, and in the brief second that Suo is distracted enough, Akihiko slips from his hold. Laughing at Suo’s answering groan of defeat, he hurries over to the bathroom. He did promise that it’ll only be a moment.
When Akihiko returns, Suo has sat up slightly, his back resting on a few propped up pillows and looking like he was waiting for him to come back. He opens his arms in invitation, and Akihiko crawls into them without hesitation.
They always fit so perfectly. Akihiko rests his head in the crook of Suo’s neck as their legs tangle together. He trails his lips down Suo’s jawline, brief kisses that never linger too long, and he smiles when Suo fails to seem unaffected, shuddering slightly.
“You’re so mean, Nire-kun,” Suo sighs, hugging him closer. “Leaving me cold and alone on a harsh winter morning…”
“It’s the middle of spring,” Akihiko feels the need to point out.
“Semantics.”
“It’s not semantics, it’s factual. We even went on a hanami date— eek!” Akihiko squirms when Suo pokes a finger into his sides. He can feel the grin Suo smothers into his hair, prompting Akihiko to look up with a light glare. “Now who’s being mean?”
“Not me,” Suo replies. His eye and smile sparkle with innocence, and if this was a year ago, Akihiko might’ve been fooled. But not anymore.
Akihiko rolls over until he’s laying on top of Suo instead. The back of his shirt rides up a bit, exposing his skin to Suo’s cold fingers—he’s always cold (like an ice cube, Sakura complained once), but Akihiko has gotten used to it, and even come to expect it.
It’s easier to see him like this too. Akihiko’s eyes trail over the expanse of Suo’s neck, the slope of his nose and jaw, the deep colour of his eye… When he brushes Suo’s bangs to the side again, Suo arches an eyebrow, asking, “What are you staring so hard at?”
“You,” Akihiko answers without missing a beat. He only feels a little embarrassed about his honesty afterwards when Suo chuckles, but the slight colouring of his cheeks is a sight that makes it all worth it.
Akihiko doesn’t know how to express his gratitude properly in a way that’ll do it justice. He recalls the night they got together—was it over a year ago already? Time flies—and Suo’s hesitation when Akihiko took his hand, stumbling over his confession and unable to look Suo in the eye. Even after the first few months of dating, Suo never initiated any contact, only waiting for Akihiko to do so before he returned it with twice as much intensity. He was a perfect gentleman, all things considered, but he treated Akihiko more like a museum display—like he didn’t think he was allowed to touch Akihiko in the first place.
But now they’re here, Suo holding onto him with a pleased smile on his face and an ease Akihiko knows he doesn’t exude when others are around. It makes him feel terribly special, after all they’ve been through.
“You’re thinking too much,” Suo murmurs, smoothing out the wrinkle between Akihiko’s eyebrows with a gentle thumb. His lips quirk into a mischievous smile. “Is it also about me?”
Akihiko bites down on his tongue and refuses to answer. But he supposes his silence is an answer in itself. That sets Suo off again, who buries his giggles into Akihiko’s hair, and Akihiko just sighs, cuddling closer.
They only pull apart when Akihiko’s alarm goes off. He forgot he set it last night, but now that it’s ringing, he recalls that they have weekend plans with some of their friends. He stretches an arm out, reaching for his phone, all while Suo watches him with a laid-back smile.
“I think they’re pushing the time back a little bit,” Akihiko says after a quick skim of his messages. “Sakura-san forgot to grab his coat.”
“So we can stay here longer?”
“No, we should start getting ready too. They’re meeting at the station in about an hour.” Akihiko sets his phone back down. “Come on!”
Suo starts making a reluctant pout again, but before he can even think about using his handsome face to lure Akihiko back to bed, Akihiko grabs his wrists and pulls him up insistently. They’re not going to be late! He won’t allow Suo’s conniving little plans to be the reason he is, at least!
(That has certainly happened one too many times. Akihiko has yet to live it down.)