Bokeh
Title: Bokeh
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, romance, fluff
Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody regarding the actual boys D: But in this case, Kame belongs to bluebirdsongs and Jin is mine.
Summary: Jin, being Jin, ruins his own romantic plans when there is an unexpected change in weather.
A/N: This is a birthday present for my super lovely wonderful RP partner ♥ Our Akame have a somewhat complicated AU ’verse, but this doesn’t really touch on it. All you need to know for this is in notes under the cut c: This is also a remix of one of my old fics.
You can read it either here on AO3 if you'd prefer.
Or
Notes: And then I realise a ton of notes is quite irrelevant to the content :D; All you need to know is that they’re preparing for moving to New York to live and work in a month. And just for general interest they’re engaged and about to have their two year anniversary /sparkles
Tori ♥ I really really hope you’re going to like this as much as I was excited when I had the idea. I’d been writing something entirely different, but the conversations they’ve been having recently led me back to this.. And as we’ve discussed it before and shared a similar opinion, I wanted to make it right. I know you liked the original, so I hope you’ll like it adapted to our boys, too. I left a few of the original lines in that really fitted them. (Also.. Went back and read your original comment, and you pointed out some things that seemed unique behaviour for Jin. Hoping now it’ll just be ‘lol d'aww Jin <3’ :’D)
Happy Birthday, and thank you so so so much for being such an awesome friend and a Kame we don’t know how we deserve ♥
As lead-ups to moving out went, this hadn't been a particularly traumatic one. With moving house pushing the top five in every reputable (or not so much) list of modern day stresses, uprooting and moving their lives not just to a new home but to a new country has been a remarkably gentle process, disregarding Jin's occasional preparatory anxiety attacks at the thought of being on a plane.
"..and what if it's the kind of place where everyone that lives in the building has meetings?"
Warm and lethargic from the inside out between a glass of wine - red, a wonderfully smooth hint of cherry on the back of his tongue, and at a price that would make Jin scared to hold the bottle - and being effectively smothered by every inch of his lover, Kame couldn't really care less. Don't go if you don't want to, is what he thinks, I won't let anyone make you feel uncomfortable, but all that comes out is sleepy little sigh.
There may have been a time in Kame's years when the idea of spending endless nights sprawled out on the couch, settled and secure and discussing everything mundane about life, was drastically unappealing. But with Jin's fingers lazily curling into his hair and all of his senses fully engulfed in a deep, dimly lit warmth, he can't ever think why. It's perfectly mundane, it's their mundane; It's heart-pounding excitement and promise, but disguised in a form so un-intimidating that Kame had only realised once it was too late that settling down suited him a lot better than he could have imagined.
"Kazu," Jin continues to whine softly, urgency only just managing to cling on to his voice. "What if they have meetings? If I didn't go would they be mad with us? I'll go if I have to, if they'd think badly of you otherwise, but.. I don't know what to wear to something like that. Are you supposed to go all formal, or are they just casual things..?"
Having decided in Kame's lack of response that yes, their building would have residents meetings that his lack of attendance to would throw them into disrepute, Jin starts to feel tense and uncomfortably solid on top of Kame. Kame finds just enough space between their bodies to try and angle his waist away from Jin's elbow, but Jin has one of those either side of him, and they're equally as sharp. Kame grunts.
"Even if there is, you don't have to worry about it for a few weeks yet. I'll find out when we get there, and if you don't want to then I'll make our excuses." Kame eventually coordinates his sluggish thoughts into a coherent sentence, and is immediately rewarded for the effort when Jin somehow seems to soften up again. Those long fingers resume their slow path through his hair, and Kame has to force his eyes open when he feels himself starting to slip away into the deep.
Had it not been for Jin's impromptu decorating sessions during one of Kame's late night absences ('It's a surprise for when you get home' was all Jin would tell Kame, still sitting in his office at nearly 9pm and wondering with slight apprehension what exactly Jin could be doing that required a warning phone call) Kame would have been denied the pleasure of seeing Jin's content expression - affectionate, soft, warm, and all dulled by sleep. As it is a couple of candles and fairy lights strewn rather haphazardly around the walls only highlight a minimum of their features, but it's enough.
Kame's apartment had been so regimented once he'd comfortably settled in. Everything highly stylized and in it's proper place; nothing on display that he wouldn't be happy, with professional prowess, to show the world. By the time of the appearance of Jin's favoured choice of atmospheric lighting, however, Kame had only seen what Jin had wanted him to see. The small tin containers - 100 tea lights for 70 yen - and tape holding the cords to the wall were just part of their home now.
It's only the misaimed brush of a fingertip to his ear that alerts Kame to the fact his thoughts have been drifting, but when he glances back up at Jin, Jin looks as though his mind is just as far away - probably still on what he should wear to the meeting he's mentally preparing to go to as soon as they move from the couch. Kame hopes not, tilts his head slightly to get Jin's absently wandering fingers back on track.
"Hmm," Jin smiles drowsily as he redoubles the action in apology for slipping, what's left of his attention fully focused on his lover's placated expression. Kame purrs his satisfaction as long fingers rake through his hair; sometimes, he thinks, he'd willingly go through the hellishly long days at work for the rest of his life if it meant coming home to this.
"Either way, I can't wait for us to move~" Jin says, hushed, and Kame involuntarily presses closer. It may not be a particularly leading conversation, but the soothing lilt to Jin's words, hot against the shell of his ear, stirs the first little flickers of arousal in the younger man.
"Me neither.." Kame responds sleepily, back arching, his whole body slowly burning like the sips of wine down through his chest in anticipation of what would be the perfect, blissfully numbing end to the evening.
The way Kame's body shifts to fill out the gap between them has Jin's smile widening, mumbling something about time and work and the scent of wine as he leans to meet Kame's throat with parted lips.
"..sweetie?" Kame ventures with sleep hazed confusion when the gentle touches stop all too abruptly. Jin's head is raised, eyes squinting almost shut and his nose wrinkled in full concentration. "..Jin, is there a problem~?"
"Let me up, let me up" is Jin's reply after a pause, hands suddenly urgent and seeking out leverage. Finding Kame's shoulder first, Jin grips and pushes, Kame now fully awake and yelping at the violent disruption. Kame's fighting a losing battle in clinging to Jin to try and maintain his position sprawled underneath him, and he can't think what on earth he's suddenly noticed that requires such urgent attention.
"Jiiin," Kame whines as Jin's hands, knees and elbows seem to all manage to dig into him at once as he works on freeing himself from the sinking couch cushions, "Jin, it's cold without you~" he continues, rolling onto his front and burying into the cushions in an attempt to savour the remaining warmth.
When there's no response, Kame pouts. Suddenly relieved of Jin's weight pressing down on him, not only is there a chill he hadn't previously been aware of, but he feels like he could float right up from the couch if he doesn't hold on tight enough. Life was much easier with Jin to keep him firmly grounded.
"I think it's snowing."
Oh. No wonder he'd been so unceremoniously dumped. Huffing, Kame squints at the small blossoms of frost on the window; the dim lighting leads him to think that Jin is more than likely mistaken when all he sees is the usual view beyond the balcony wall - neon tinted darkness, the indistinct outlines of neighbouring buildings. "Snowing..?"
How Jin could have even noticed is beyond him, the blinds drawn good as shut and Jin's black framed glasses still on the nightstand where he‘d left them three nights ago. Jin is so sensitive to the cold; Kame briefly entertains the thought that his lover can sense the onset of snowfall.
"It's nice to know you were paying your loving fiancé so much attention that you could notice one flake of snow going past an inch of window."
Standing at the window with the blinds cord tangled around his fingers, Jin grins stupidly. "My loving fiancé was falling asleep. And other things."
Kame frowns.
"And snow." Jin adds blithely.
"Ugh." Kame uncurls his cramped limbs and stretches out to take up as much of the couch as possible. Kame doesn't have much against snow, other than it's tendency to cause delays and inconvenience in his professional life, but he's a lot more partial to long lazy evenings in Jin's arms than trudging through slush with numb toes and potentially ruined boots.
Far more focused on the task at hand than the younger man's mock brooding, Jin parts the blinds and works his head through the gap. The window chills his forehead in seconds, but he barely notices past his excitement at seeing white catching the view below. It's tempting to step out onto the balcony to take a proper look below; the streetlights would show if people had ventured out, if Jin was too late to claim the night as his own.
"It's.." Jin starts, but finds nor sees reason to wrack his brain in search of a word to express his excitement as a flurry of snow blows past.
"..snowing?" Kame offers drowsily.
"Fuck yes," comes Jin's awed whisper, as though he's never seen snow before, and Kame's vaguely aware of a warm tingle creeping and spreading throughout his chest. "Kazu.." It takes a considerable amount of willpower for Jin to tear himself away from the window, eyes wide and desperately hopeful. It's not as though this will be the last snowfall they'll see this winter - anything but, really. Snow soon becomes a hindrance, chilling them to the bone and bringing the world to constant, inconvenient standstills. Jin's never been one for focusing on the practical things in life, though. This is the first snow of the year, and he needs it to be his.
Kame can tell just from looking at Jin's earnest expression that there's no way their evening is going to continue as it had been until so unexpectedly postponed. Oh, Jin, Kame thinks exasperatedly, needily pressing deeper into the warm couch cushions, I love you so much.
"We're going out there, aren't we?" he asks sullenly, rhetorically. Not having seen the snowfall for himself, Kame can only assume that the neighbourhood must be engulfed in a blizzard for Jin to be bouncing on his heels the way he is. Jin's response is to nearly pull the blinds off the wall in his enthusiasm to both look out to check this was just as exciting as it had been five seconds ago and to tear through the apartment to grab his shoes and get going, and Kame shivers at the thought of even venturing as far as the hallway. He's never quite understood Jin's fascination with something so unpleasantly cold.
"You're not going out there like that."
Kame's voice is gently reprimanding, but admonishing nonetheless as he unfurls a thick silver flecked scarf. Jin's jaw tightens as he struggles not to whine his displeasure at being meticulously wrapped up; It's not that he dislikes the attention - quite the opposite - but..
"I don't need a scarf. We only need to go out there quickly. Snow is supposed to be cold~" Try as he might there's an unmissable whine to Jin's tone, and he starts to squirm as Kame's gloved hands reach to continue pulling and tucking. It's hard to be ignorant to Jin's protests, but developing partial immunity is a valuable skill. "Kazu, no~ I want to feel the snow," Jin continues, looking ever more exasperated when Kame digs a pair of gloves from his pocket, holding them out to Jin with a stern look.
"Jin, don't be mad with me. I don't want you to get sick."
"I didn't get sick last year." Jin huffs, although in honesty he can't remember if that's true. Trying to maintain any form of perturbed expression is no easy task when he's nose to neck with Kame, arms tight around his waist to make him feel more grounded and less likely to die as the elevator carries them ten horrible possibly fatal floors down. "How am I going to get sick from spending five minutes in the snow?"
Kame is thankful when the elevator stills and Jin's willingness to get out into the snow replaces his demanding curiousity.
The snow, when Jin takes his first tentative step, amounts to no more than the dismal crunch of gravel beneath his foot. Kame glances apprehensively from the shallow grey footsteps in Jin's wake to the stretch of untouched (and undoubtedly equally as disappointing) snow before them and waits. He knows what Jin had been expecting; Childish will defying the logics of nature, he knows that Jin had been expecting to charge out into ankle deep snow despite the insubstantial amount falling from the sky.
"Sorry, sweetheart~" Kame smiles as though the pitiful snowfall is in someway his responsibility, giving Jin a soft pat on the back. Jin turns to him, "What for?", and grins, capturing Kame's gloved hand in his own and tugging. "This is perfect. It's all ours~"
Watching the usually inactive Jin speeding (or his own equivalent to speeding; more a shuffle, at a slightly faster pace than he moves around the apartment at) this way and that across the street claiming the freshly powdered snow as his own has Kame smiling, broad and stretched and crinkling the corners of his eyes. The times they've spent together are all equally as precious to him, but perhaps the longer he and Jin's lives are lived as one the more he comes to appreciate the finer details of their relationship.
Ten feet further down the road, Jin is happily oblivious to Kame's musing, content kicking around the snow under the orange glow of streetlights. Kame has the overwhelming urge to tell Jin how much he loves him. Jin just wants to take him by the hand and never have to experience another perfect moment without him.
When Jin's beloved stretch of powder-coated road has finally been trampled into the ground, Kame suggests that they go back inside. Jin considers protesting, dragging his feet through the slush as he approaches their building, but seeing just how cold Kame looks makes him a lot more compliant to the idea.
"Maybe there'll be more snow tomorrow. Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow and it'll have been snowing all night." Jin says hopefully, working an arm snugly between Kame's ribs and elbow. Falling against Jin's side, Kame grunts softly in response.
"And delay all the trains, freeze the lock on my car, hold up the mail.."
"Then we wont have to go to work." Jin quips brightly, fighting to remove his gloves, scarf already abandoned in sad, tidy little heap by the door. He appreciates Kame's concern (wouldn't deny that it makes his heart flutter, if asked), but Jin's mind is already in the midst of a plan to sneak out tomorrow morning, un-gloved and with nothing to prevent him from getting his hands on the snow. "We can spend the day together. In bed, or under the kotatsu~ I could make ramen. Or okayu.."
Preoccupied with brushing muddy ice from their shoes before lining them up just so, Kame's enthusiasm is a distractedly mute, "Sounds good.."
Work or no work, they'll still wake up together. Those first few blurry moments are one of the best parts of the day; hot, sticky skin and a blissful ignorance to anything beyond Kame’s limbs splayed across Jin, soft snores against his shoulder and sleep-soft kisses drawing them back into the real world.
"Doesn't that sound nice, Kazu?"
Strong arms encircle the younger man and he lets out a surprised yelp, squirming weakly in Jin's hold as his feet briefly leave the floor. Turning in Jin's arms once he's been returned to firm ground, Kame finds him looking slightly bemused.
"Yes, it does~ Just don't let yourself get disappointed. ..and warn me next time you're going to do that." he adds quickly upon noticing Jin giving him the same look he gives large pieces of furniture when trying to decide on a method of moving them.
"Mou~" Jin pouts, tightening his arms around Kame in a gentle squeeze. For no more than a heartbeat Jin's lips press to Kame's forehead, and he quickly deems him too cold before releasing him. "Go get comfortable, I'll make some coffee." he says with a playful air of authority. Kame smiles and gives Jin a gentle shove towards the kitchen.
Kame still remembers the first few days of his home no longer being his own. Where his apartment had previously appeared sparse and perhaps even somewhat unlived in, within moments of arriving Jin had made his presence well known. Not purposely, because Jin had grown accustomed to filling the empty space slowly, cautiously. It was the smaller details - Jin's photo frames joining Kame's own on the sideboard, two toothbrushes, slightly larger clothing covering his own on the bedroom floor- that had made Kame so aware of the irreversible changes being made to his life, Jin following and eventually relaxing into the space far more gradually than his belongings.
"You do want coffee, right?" Jin's voice reaches him from the kitchen, and Kame bites back a smile. It was a long time ago that he found Jin's presence in the apartment anything but comforting.
A heavy lidded smile greets Kame as he steps through to the kitchen and approaches Jin, the elder man's earlier exertion coupled with the apartment's warmth already catching up with him. "Coffee?" Jin asks again, although he doesn't doubt that Kame heard him the first time.
When he rests his chin on Jin's shoulder, Kame inhales and wonders how the scent of a cold, still night can cling to his lover the way it does. His hair, Kame already knows, will be his own shampoo and peroxide, but he never finds out if that assumption is right. Long fingers curl under his chin, tangle ever so gently into his hair, and Kame can't help but smile as he's drawn into a lazy kiss.
"You're cold," Jin murmurs, pressing his nose to Kame's cheek as if to prove a point. The first hints of stubble graze the younger man's skin as Jin takes their close proximity as an opportunity to nuzzle against him, and Kame couldn't enjoy the sensation more if he tried. "Cold people need coffee." Jin reiterates, dropping a kiss to the bridge of Kame's nose, grazing the bump with his lower lip before adding a nod for enthusiasm.
At this distance, the fairy lights messily trailing the walls cast a light too dim for Jin to notice the subtle change in Kame's expression, but the chilled fingers closing around his wrist is more than enough to capture his attention. "Jin," Kame almost urges, his smile soft and making him giddy as the excitement of their first winter together in the apartment had done. "Let's go to bed."
Eyes widening minutely, Jin's gaze darts to the soft glow of the decorations as though he hopes they will divulge to him the perfectly seductive follow up to the younger man's words. After a moment, then another, with no such luck, Jin draws his lips into a tight line, both he and Kame silently questioning his lack of response.
"..so you don't want coffee?"
Kame's gently teasing way of dissolving into giggles against Jin's shoulder answers his question. Jin smiles as a small hand searches for his own, playfully creeping over his ribs before their fingers entwine. "I think I'll pass for now~"
They kiss again, and then Kame is pulling at him with more insistence. Outside the snow has dwindled to fleeting specks of icy rain, but Jin doesn't have a single word of complaint.
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, romance, fluff
Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody regarding the actual boys D: But in this case, Kame belongs to bluebirdsongs and Jin is mine.
Summary: Jin, being Jin, ruins his own romantic plans when there is an unexpected change in weather.
A/N: This is a birthday present for my super lovely wonderful RP partner ♥ Our Akame have a somewhat complicated AU ’verse, but this doesn’t really touch on it. All you need to know for this is in notes under the cut c: This is also a remix of one of my old fics.
You can read it either here on AO3 if you'd prefer.
Or
Notes: And then I realise a ton of notes is quite irrelevant to the content :D; All you need to know is that they’re preparing for moving to New York to live and work in a month. And just for general interest they’re engaged and about to have their two year anniversary /sparkles
Tori ♥ I really really hope you’re going to like this as much as I was excited when I had the idea. I’d been writing something entirely different, but the conversations they’ve been having recently led me back to this.. And as we’ve discussed it before and shared a similar opinion, I wanted to make it right. I know you liked the original, so I hope you’ll like it adapted to our boys, too. I left a few of the original lines in that really fitted them. (Also.. Went back and read your original comment, and you pointed out some things that seemed unique behaviour for Jin. Hoping now it’ll just be ‘lol d'aww Jin <3’ :’D)
Happy Birthday, and thank you so so so much for being such an awesome friend and a Kame we don’t know how we deserve ♥
As lead-ups to moving out went, this hadn't been a particularly traumatic one. With moving house pushing the top five in every reputable (or not so much) list of modern day stresses, uprooting and moving their lives not just to a new home but to a new country has been a remarkably gentle process, disregarding Jin's occasional preparatory anxiety attacks at the thought of being on a plane.
"..and what if it's the kind of place where everyone that lives in the building has meetings?"
Warm and lethargic from the inside out between a glass of wine - red, a wonderfully smooth hint of cherry on the back of his tongue, and at a price that would make Jin scared to hold the bottle - and being effectively smothered by every inch of his lover, Kame couldn't really care less. Don't go if you don't want to, is what he thinks, I won't let anyone make you feel uncomfortable, but all that comes out is sleepy little sigh.
There may have been a time in Kame's years when the idea of spending endless nights sprawled out on the couch, settled and secure and discussing everything mundane about life, was drastically unappealing. But with Jin's fingers lazily curling into his hair and all of his senses fully engulfed in a deep, dimly lit warmth, he can't ever think why. It's perfectly mundane, it's their mundane; It's heart-pounding excitement and promise, but disguised in a form so un-intimidating that Kame had only realised once it was too late that settling down suited him a lot better than he could have imagined.
"Kazu," Jin continues to whine softly, urgency only just managing to cling on to his voice. "What if they have meetings? If I didn't go would they be mad with us? I'll go if I have to, if they'd think badly of you otherwise, but.. I don't know what to wear to something like that. Are you supposed to go all formal, or are they just casual things..?"
Having decided in Kame's lack of response that yes, their building would have residents meetings that his lack of attendance to would throw them into disrepute, Jin starts to feel tense and uncomfortably solid on top of Kame. Kame finds just enough space between their bodies to try and angle his waist away from Jin's elbow, but Jin has one of those either side of him, and they're equally as sharp. Kame grunts.
"Even if there is, you don't have to worry about it for a few weeks yet. I'll find out when we get there, and if you don't want to then I'll make our excuses." Kame eventually coordinates his sluggish thoughts into a coherent sentence, and is immediately rewarded for the effort when Jin somehow seems to soften up again. Those long fingers resume their slow path through his hair, and Kame has to force his eyes open when he feels himself starting to slip away into the deep.
Had it not been for Jin's impromptu decorating sessions during one of Kame's late night absences ('It's a surprise for when you get home' was all Jin would tell Kame, still sitting in his office at nearly 9pm and wondering with slight apprehension what exactly Jin could be doing that required a warning phone call) Kame would have been denied the pleasure of seeing Jin's content expression - affectionate, soft, warm, and all dulled by sleep. As it is a couple of candles and fairy lights strewn rather haphazardly around the walls only highlight a minimum of their features, but it's enough.
Kame's apartment had been so regimented once he'd comfortably settled in. Everything highly stylized and in it's proper place; nothing on display that he wouldn't be happy, with professional prowess, to show the world. By the time of the appearance of Jin's favoured choice of atmospheric lighting, however, Kame had only seen what Jin had wanted him to see. The small tin containers - 100 tea lights for 70 yen - and tape holding the cords to the wall were just part of their home now.
It's only the misaimed brush of a fingertip to his ear that alerts Kame to the fact his thoughts have been drifting, but when he glances back up at Jin, Jin looks as though his mind is just as far away - probably still on what he should wear to the meeting he's mentally preparing to go to as soon as they move from the couch. Kame hopes not, tilts his head slightly to get Jin's absently wandering fingers back on track.
"Hmm," Jin smiles drowsily as he redoubles the action in apology for slipping, what's left of his attention fully focused on his lover's placated expression. Kame purrs his satisfaction as long fingers rake through his hair; sometimes, he thinks, he'd willingly go through the hellishly long days at work for the rest of his life if it meant coming home to this.
"Either way, I can't wait for us to move~" Jin says, hushed, and Kame involuntarily presses closer. It may not be a particularly leading conversation, but the soothing lilt to Jin's words, hot against the shell of his ear, stirs the first little flickers of arousal in the younger man.
"Me neither.." Kame responds sleepily, back arching, his whole body slowly burning like the sips of wine down through his chest in anticipation of what would be the perfect, blissfully numbing end to the evening.
The way Kame's body shifts to fill out the gap between them has Jin's smile widening, mumbling something about time and work and the scent of wine as he leans to meet Kame's throat with parted lips.
"..sweetie?" Kame ventures with sleep hazed confusion when the gentle touches stop all too abruptly. Jin's head is raised, eyes squinting almost shut and his nose wrinkled in full concentration. "..Jin, is there a problem~?"
"Let me up, let me up" is Jin's reply after a pause, hands suddenly urgent and seeking out leverage. Finding Kame's shoulder first, Jin grips and pushes, Kame now fully awake and yelping at the violent disruption. Kame's fighting a losing battle in clinging to Jin to try and maintain his position sprawled underneath him, and he can't think what on earth he's suddenly noticed that requires such urgent attention.
"Jiiin," Kame whines as Jin's hands, knees and elbows seem to all manage to dig into him at once as he works on freeing himself from the sinking couch cushions, "Jin, it's cold without you~" he continues, rolling onto his front and burying into the cushions in an attempt to savour the remaining warmth.
When there's no response, Kame pouts. Suddenly relieved of Jin's weight pressing down on him, not only is there a chill he hadn't previously been aware of, but he feels like he could float right up from the couch if he doesn't hold on tight enough. Life was much easier with Jin to keep him firmly grounded.
"I think it's snowing."
Oh. No wonder he'd been so unceremoniously dumped. Huffing, Kame squints at the small blossoms of frost on the window; the dim lighting leads him to think that Jin is more than likely mistaken when all he sees is the usual view beyond the balcony wall - neon tinted darkness, the indistinct outlines of neighbouring buildings. "Snowing..?"
How Jin could have even noticed is beyond him, the blinds drawn good as shut and Jin's black framed glasses still on the nightstand where he‘d left them three nights ago. Jin is so sensitive to the cold; Kame briefly entertains the thought that his lover can sense the onset of snowfall.
"It's nice to know you were paying your loving fiancé so much attention that you could notice one flake of snow going past an inch of window."
Standing at the window with the blinds cord tangled around his fingers, Jin grins stupidly. "My loving fiancé was falling asleep. And other things."
Kame frowns.
"And snow." Jin adds blithely.
"Ugh." Kame uncurls his cramped limbs and stretches out to take up as much of the couch as possible. Kame doesn't have much against snow, other than it's tendency to cause delays and inconvenience in his professional life, but he's a lot more partial to long lazy evenings in Jin's arms than trudging through slush with numb toes and potentially ruined boots.
Far more focused on the task at hand than the younger man's mock brooding, Jin parts the blinds and works his head through the gap. The window chills his forehead in seconds, but he barely notices past his excitement at seeing white catching the view below. It's tempting to step out onto the balcony to take a proper look below; the streetlights would show if people had ventured out, if Jin was too late to claim the night as his own.
"It's.." Jin starts, but finds nor sees reason to wrack his brain in search of a word to express his excitement as a flurry of snow blows past.
"..snowing?" Kame offers drowsily.
"Fuck yes," comes Jin's awed whisper, as though he's never seen snow before, and Kame's vaguely aware of a warm tingle creeping and spreading throughout his chest. "Kazu.." It takes a considerable amount of willpower for Jin to tear himself away from the window, eyes wide and desperately hopeful. It's not as though this will be the last snowfall they'll see this winter - anything but, really. Snow soon becomes a hindrance, chilling them to the bone and bringing the world to constant, inconvenient standstills. Jin's never been one for focusing on the practical things in life, though. This is the first snow of the year, and he needs it to be his.
Kame can tell just from looking at Jin's earnest expression that there's no way their evening is going to continue as it had been until so unexpectedly postponed. Oh, Jin, Kame thinks exasperatedly, needily pressing deeper into the warm couch cushions, I love you so much.
"We're going out there, aren't we?" he asks sullenly, rhetorically. Not having seen the snowfall for himself, Kame can only assume that the neighbourhood must be engulfed in a blizzard for Jin to be bouncing on his heels the way he is. Jin's response is to nearly pull the blinds off the wall in his enthusiasm to both look out to check this was just as exciting as it had been five seconds ago and to tear through the apartment to grab his shoes and get going, and Kame shivers at the thought of even venturing as far as the hallway. He's never quite understood Jin's fascination with something so unpleasantly cold.
"You're not going out there like that."
Kame's voice is gently reprimanding, but admonishing nonetheless as he unfurls a thick silver flecked scarf. Jin's jaw tightens as he struggles not to whine his displeasure at being meticulously wrapped up; It's not that he dislikes the attention - quite the opposite - but..
"I don't need a scarf. We only need to go out there quickly. Snow is supposed to be cold~" Try as he might there's an unmissable whine to Jin's tone, and he starts to squirm as Kame's gloved hands reach to continue pulling and tucking. It's hard to be ignorant to Jin's protests, but developing partial immunity is a valuable skill. "Kazu, no~ I want to feel the snow," Jin continues, looking ever more exasperated when Kame digs a pair of gloves from his pocket, holding them out to Jin with a stern look.
"Jin, don't be mad with me. I don't want you to get sick."
"I didn't get sick last year." Jin huffs, although in honesty he can't remember if that's true. Trying to maintain any form of perturbed expression is no easy task when he's nose to neck with Kame, arms tight around his waist to make him feel more grounded and less likely to die as the elevator carries them ten horrible possibly fatal floors down. "How am I going to get sick from spending five minutes in the snow?"
Kame is thankful when the elevator stills and Jin's willingness to get out into the snow replaces his demanding curiousity.
The snow, when Jin takes his first tentative step, amounts to no more than the dismal crunch of gravel beneath his foot. Kame glances apprehensively from the shallow grey footsteps in Jin's wake to the stretch of untouched (and undoubtedly equally as disappointing) snow before them and waits. He knows what Jin had been expecting; Childish will defying the logics of nature, he knows that Jin had been expecting to charge out into ankle deep snow despite the insubstantial amount falling from the sky.
"Sorry, sweetheart~" Kame smiles as though the pitiful snowfall is in someway his responsibility, giving Jin a soft pat on the back. Jin turns to him, "What for?", and grins, capturing Kame's gloved hand in his own and tugging. "This is perfect. It's all ours~"
Watching the usually inactive Jin speeding (or his own equivalent to speeding; more a shuffle, at a slightly faster pace than he moves around the apartment at) this way and that across the street claiming the freshly powdered snow as his own has Kame smiling, broad and stretched and crinkling the corners of his eyes. The times they've spent together are all equally as precious to him, but perhaps the longer he and Jin's lives are lived as one the more he comes to appreciate the finer details of their relationship.
Ten feet further down the road, Jin is happily oblivious to Kame's musing, content kicking around the snow under the orange glow of streetlights. Kame has the overwhelming urge to tell Jin how much he loves him. Jin just wants to take him by the hand and never have to experience another perfect moment without him.
When Jin's beloved stretch of powder-coated road has finally been trampled into the ground, Kame suggests that they go back inside. Jin considers protesting, dragging his feet through the slush as he approaches their building, but seeing just how cold Kame looks makes him a lot more compliant to the idea.
"Maybe there'll be more snow tomorrow. Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow and it'll have been snowing all night." Jin says hopefully, working an arm snugly between Kame's ribs and elbow. Falling against Jin's side, Kame grunts softly in response.
"And delay all the trains, freeze the lock on my car, hold up the mail.."
"Then we wont have to go to work." Jin quips brightly, fighting to remove his gloves, scarf already abandoned in sad, tidy little heap by the door. He appreciates Kame's concern (wouldn't deny that it makes his heart flutter, if asked), but Jin's mind is already in the midst of a plan to sneak out tomorrow morning, un-gloved and with nothing to prevent him from getting his hands on the snow. "We can spend the day together. In bed, or under the kotatsu~ I could make ramen. Or okayu.."
Preoccupied with brushing muddy ice from their shoes before lining them up just so, Kame's enthusiasm is a distractedly mute, "Sounds good.."
Work or no work, they'll still wake up together. Those first few blurry moments are one of the best parts of the day; hot, sticky skin and a blissful ignorance to anything beyond Kame’s limbs splayed across Jin, soft snores against his shoulder and sleep-soft kisses drawing them back into the real world.
"Doesn't that sound nice, Kazu?"
Strong arms encircle the younger man and he lets out a surprised yelp, squirming weakly in Jin's hold as his feet briefly leave the floor. Turning in Jin's arms once he's been returned to firm ground, Kame finds him looking slightly bemused.
"Yes, it does~ Just don't let yourself get disappointed. ..and warn me next time you're going to do that." he adds quickly upon noticing Jin giving him the same look he gives large pieces of furniture when trying to decide on a method of moving them.
"Mou~" Jin pouts, tightening his arms around Kame in a gentle squeeze. For no more than a heartbeat Jin's lips press to Kame's forehead, and he quickly deems him too cold before releasing him. "Go get comfortable, I'll make some coffee." he says with a playful air of authority. Kame smiles and gives Jin a gentle shove towards the kitchen.
Kame still remembers the first few days of his home no longer being his own. Where his apartment had previously appeared sparse and perhaps even somewhat unlived in, within moments of arriving Jin had made his presence well known. Not purposely, because Jin had grown accustomed to filling the empty space slowly, cautiously. It was the smaller details - Jin's photo frames joining Kame's own on the sideboard, two toothbrushes, slightly larger clothing covering his own on the bedroom floor- that had made Kame so aware of the irreversible changes being made to his life, Jin following and eventually relaxing into the space far more gradually than his belongings.
"You do want coffee, right?" Jin's voice reaches him from the kitchen, and Kame bites back a smile. It was a long time ago that he found Jin's presence in the apartment anything but comforting.
A heavy lidded smile greets Kame as he steps through to the kitchen and approaches Jin, the elder man's earlier exertion coupled with the apartment's warmth already catching up with him. "Coffee?" Jin asks again, although he doesn't doubt that Kame heard him the first time.
When he rests his chin on Jin's shoulder, Kame inhales and wonders how the scent of a cold, still night can cling to his lover the way it does. His hair, Kame already knows, will be his own shampoo and peroxide, but he never finds out if that assumption is right. Long fingers curl under his chin, tangle ever so gently into his hair, and Kame can't help but smile as he's drawn into a lazy kiss.
"You're cold," Jin murmurs, pressing his nose to Kame's cheek as if to prove a point. The first hints of stubble graze the younger man's skin as Jin takes their close proximity as an opportunity to nuzzle against him, and Kame couldn't enjoy the sensation more if he tried. "Cold people need coffee." Jin reiterates, dropping a kiss to the bridge of Kame's nose, grazing the bump with his lower lip before adding a nod for enthusiasm.
At this distance, the fairy lights messily trailing the walls cast a light too dim for Jin to notice the subtle change in Kame's expression, but the chilled fingers closing around his wrist is more than enough to capture his attention. "Jin," Kame almost urges, his smile soft and making him giddy as the excitement of their first winter together in the apartment had done. "Let's go to bed."
Eyes widening minutely, Jin's gaze darts to the soft glow of the decorations as though he hopes they will divulge to him the perfectly seductive follow up to the younger man's words. After a moment, then another, with no such luck, Jin draws his lips into a tight line, both he and Kame silently questioning his lack of response.
"..so you don't want coffee?"
Kame's gently teasing way of dissolving into giggles against Jin's shoulder answers his question. Jin smiles as a small hand searches for his own, playfully creeping over his ribs before their fingers entwine. "I think I'll pass for now~"
They kiss again, and then Kame is pulling at him with more insistence. Outside the snow has dwindled to fleeting specks of icy rain, but Jin doesn't have a single word of complaint.