Work Text:
Suishinshi has a problem on his hands. A mega big terrible problem. It has to do with his best friend and the strange feeling that’s been causing blood to pulse a little faster than usual through his body, breathe faster and in shorter stretches, and make him feel a little hot.
Which spelled out very not awesome good things for them, their relationship, but mostly Suishinshi since Kiyomaro is perfect and amazing in absolutely every way that Suishinshi can’t even fathom it being a problem because of Kiyomaro. No, it’s all Suishinshi, and always Suishinshi who’s thinking too hard about this.
Only reason this is a problem now is that he’s comparing graded exams with Kiyomaro after the end of class. While Kiyomaro has a nearly perfect score, Suishinshi’s exam is marked up in red and a less than optimal score written on the front. It’s passing, but all it reminds Suishinshi is that he’s fooling himself and that he’s still not considered an adult because he can’t do his finances right.
Who cares! He tells himself, already causing him to crumple his stack of stapled papers into a ball. This is just a required class for his graduation and has nothing to do with his proficiency in magic. Hell, this class doesn’t even matter in the long run because the both of them have a very renowned internship at a magic shop run by one of the most proficient magic users in HISTORY!
“Suishinshi,” Kiyomaro speaks up softly, a smile gracing his lips as he places a hand over Suishinshi’s hand and unravels the balled-up exam. Kiyomaro’s soft hand against his own shitty not-as-soft skin makes Suishinshi’s heart skip a bit of a beat, the flush on his cheeks grow irritatingly more vast. “Don’t do that, we can work on the corrections afterward.”
Suishinshi blinks. Oh. Well, that’d bode well for his grade. “Is it half credit?”
“Yes,” Kiyomaro hums, “So let’s work on it after our shift at Tsurumaru-san’s, okay?”
“Thanks,” Suishinshi mumbles, taking the papers back from Kiyomaro and folding it, trying to smooth out some of it. And then he shoves it into his backpack and nods again at Kiyomaro for confirmation.
Kiyomaro smiles, “Of course, Suishinshi. Don’t beat yourself up about it, though. It was a tricky exam… I was lucky I studied a lot the night before.”
Suishinshi wants to protest that he, in fact, did too, but doesn’t know what else to say beyond that.
Their boss is the owner of a popular, hole-in-the-wall, shop of magic trinkets, tricks, and wonders. Its name was COOL SURPRISES which is extremely lame in hindsight, but ended up being the source of hot gossip around their fellow students.
In their world, magic and weaponry still needed to fight off a force from the future known as the History Revisionist Army. While both bladesmanship and magic were valued, magic had a certain prestige for being honed based on potential from an early age. Most students at their university aspired to get a position at the magic research tower, or intern at any powerful mage’s atelier.
For both Suishinshi and Kiyomaro, the great magician Tsurumaru Kuninaga welcomed them into his shop of delights with open arms. Suishinshi still can’t help but suspect that Kiyomaro somehow got him in by announcing that they’re a package deal. Of course, Suishinshi did that too and extolled all of Kiyomaro’s strengths on his resume rather than his own… They nailed the interview regardless, and when prompted for further feedback, all Tsurumaru had the gall to say is that they’re “interesting” and “surprising”.
They have learned that Tsurumaru works closely with other proficient magic users and fighters. Ookurikara is Tsurumaru’s partner and a master of the sword, rarely in the shop except when he returned to polish his katana. Another man named Shokudaikiri Mitsutada supplied an amount of potions the shop sells, as well as working on commission in the store sometime. Oh, and provided plenty of tasty meals for Tsurumaru and the other staff to eat.
Along with the two of them, Taikogane Sadamune is a part-timer and a close friend of the other employees, popping up to do the selling when Tsurumaru is out of the store. Either way, it ended up being a pretty chill internship— the complete opposite of what he expected to be when they both applied.
They already settle in after classes and lunch alike, immediately hanging up their bags and coats and heading back into the store’s salesfloor. Tsurumaru is at the cash register, humming to himself as he’s checking his phone, then waves over at them enthusiastically. “You kids are always here on time.”
“We have to be,” Suishinshi insists with a raise of his eyebrows, “As proper proteges of you.”
Kiyomaro smiles, “I hope your day has been well so far, Tsurumaru-san.”
Tsurumaru looks amused, holding back any chuckles of his own, “You mind if I count on you guys for closing today?”
“Count on us!” Suishinshi speaks for both of them, eyes sparkling with determination. In the corner of his eye, he suspects Kiyomaro is smiling and smirking all the same.
Somehow, Tsurumaru noticed that Suishinshi seemed a little… off, for a lack of a better word. It’s true that Suishinshi is less lively and earnest as usual, and maybe Tsurumaru is getting to know him way too well for Suishinshi’s comfort.
“Hey, Minamoto!” Tsurumaru waves over at the other student, “Can ya work on the storage room for me? It’s a huge mess in there and Mitsubou is gonna really get mad at me if he comes into that mess.”
“Sure,” Kiyomaro chirps easily back, placing his duster on the counter behind the cash register. “Just me?”
“Yup, I gotta show your buddy something I want him to do,” Tsurumaru returns, making a pseudo saluting gesture, “So all you need to do is just clean up and organize back there! We got labels for everything, I just uh… Sadabou and I were messing around this morning.”
“Ahaha, okay. I’ll get it taken care of, Tsurumaru-san.” Kiyomaro dips his head and retreats into the backroom, leaving Tsurumaru alone with Suishinshi.
Suishinshi blinks, “W-Why’d you do that?”
“What can I say… Minamoto’s like a brick wall,” Tsurumaru says a little more cryptically than Suishinshi expected to hear. About his best friend, nonetheless. “I wanted to ask what’s your deal, Shin-kun?”
“Quit the nickname,” Suishinshi grouses, biting down on his lip as his eyes wander the store. It’s pretty much in place, thanks to his and Kiyomaro’s efforts, despite the customers looking through them… but, did he really seem that strange? “N-Nothing is going on! It’s fine as normal!”
“Really,” Tsurumaru returns in a teasing and amused tone, “If that was so, my little Shin-kun would’ve been able to give Matsui-san and Kuwana-san plenty of information on that product earlier instead of blanking on it?”
“T-That’s…” Suishinshi frowns. At least that customer seems to be some sort of acquaintance of Tsurumaru’s… but it seems more like Suishinshi is more familiar with their junior in question over anything else. The freshman obsessed with idols and becoming an idol— made Suishinshi wonder why he bothered going to university. Regardless, he still fumbled it. Thinking about how Kiyomaro had to cover for him fills him with some sort of shame.
Tsurumaru raises an eyebrow, jabbing a thumb back in Kiyomaro’s general direction, or maybe he’s suggesting Suishinshi to go in there. But he doesn’t. “Does it have to do with Minamoto there?”
“U… Um,” Suishinshi stammers, but clears his throat, “A-Ahem. No. It has nothing to do with Kiyomaro. He hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s just…”
Tsurumaru snorts at Suishinshi’s attempt to keep up his usual tough guy persona. Both of them knew by now that Tsurumaru is more than familiar with Suishinshi’s true self. “Just..?” Tsurumaru looks at him, eyes squeezing shut into crescents and filled with some of his own mirth. The mirth of an old man, anyway. “Come on, tell me! I’ll have you know that I’m great at keeping secrets. I got all the advice you could need. So what is it? Magic? Er, I know you had a finance exam. I bet I can get Karabou to help with that, though!”
“My grade did suck,” Suishinshi admits with a pout, lowering his voice so his best friend doesn’t hear from the storage room, “The thing is… um, I don’t know. I’ve been feeling weird about Kiyomaro… my chest has been getting all funny. I don’t know if I’m just… jealous, but…”
Tsurumaru fake gasps. “I got it. Time of the month?”
“I’m a guy!” Suishinshi quickly protests with a shrill in his voice.
Tsurumaru shakes his head, “Come on, guys can have periods too.”
Suishinshi doesn’t question that. “Not wrong, but… for me, you got it completely wrong, Tsurumaru Kuninaga!”
“Not surprising that you’re full-naming me,” Tsurumaru returns in a higher pitch with a shrug and a pinch of his nose, “Shouldn’t you treat your boss with more respect?”
That stuns Suishinshi into silence, and he starts to shift and fidget with his sleeves. “Sorry, Tsurumaru-san…” He coughs into his sleeve, “Anyway, I… can agree that I think it’s jealousy. Do we have something that gets rid of it?”
“Gosh, I’m more about funny tricks and the occasional love potion,” Tsurumaru scratches the back of his neck, “Man, should I mix something up for you? I haven’t made my own potion in a hot second! That’s usually Mitsubou’s job!”
Suishinshi’s eye twitches, “Is… is there a reason that’s the case? Like a difference in potion proficiency?”
“No, no,” Tsurumaru insists, “I’m really good and awesome at what I do. Which is everything. Because I own this place. And did I mention I’m the best at it?”
This makes Suishinshi doubt him more.
“I got a plan, so just trust me. Okay?” Tsurumaru shrugs, already stepping back to saunter over to the storage room where Kiyomaro is tidying up. Suishinshi realizes that it's probably not a good idea to trust him. He shuffles awkwardly, preparing himself for whatever mayhem’s to come.
“Minamoto, how far did you get?” Tsurumaru calls loudly, coming inside without waiting for a response, “Can you fetch me some things? I need to make a potion!”
“Potion?” Kiyomaro raises an eyebrow, “I didn’t hear the store bell ring or anything… Did a customer request it?”
“Nah, Sadabou texted me that his brother wanted one.” Tsurumaru doesn’t clarify further, but using Taikogane’s brother as an excuse was… an unsettling thought. If it’s the weird pink guy with glasses from their finance class… ugh, he wants to be done with that class soon.
“What kind?” Kiyomaro hums back, and Suishinshi steps closer to the storage room, a grumble leaving his lips upon realizing that Tsurumaru is blocking the way.
“Y’know. The usual. I’ll give you all a lesson while I’m at it,” Tsurumaru sticks his head in, his torso shaking from the doorway. Suishinshi politely looks away from the display, mind getting occupied with the likes of whatever nefarious plans Tsurumaru had in mind.
“I’ll carry the cauldron over, so we can switch places as you pick out which ingredients you need.” Kiyomaro returns earnestly. Tsurumaru hums in affirmation.
Suishinshi darts over as Kiyomaro emerges from the storage room, “I’ll help you too, Kiyomaro!” He grunts, taking the other side of the cauldron. Kiyomaro smiles, and the two of them work together to drag it over to the main floor.
“Ah, do you think he’s undoing all my work?” Kiyomaro asks as they place the cauldron on the table next to the register. “Well, I expected it…”
Suishinshi fumes at the thought. How could he just go around and undo all of Kiyomaro’s perfect and precise work like that? He needs to give Tsurumaru a piece of his mind, especially after all this nonsense he’s putting him through. “We’ll make it all nice afterward,” Suishinshi affirms.
“Got it!” Tsurumaru sings as he returns to the sales floor, carrying an abundance of odd ingredients Suishinshi doesn’t recall even seeing for himself in his arms. He stacks them around the cauldron, whistling to himself as they’re placed around the black cauldron. Tsurumaru then snaps his fingers. “Well, let’s get started!”
Suishinshi looks up hesitantly, opening his mouth to protest. Tsurumaru sends him a wink.
No!
Kiyomaro asks again first, “This doesn’t look like the usual. What kind of potion is this again?”
“Some sort of enhancement potion,” Tsurumaru grins, “it helps amp up someone’s feelings when they need a pick-me-up! Want to try it out for me, Minamoto?”
Kiyomaro blinks, and while Suishinshi shakes his head very swiftly and mouths at his friend to not do it, Kiyomaro ignores Suishinshi’s desperate gestures. “I don’t mind testing it out?”
“Great! Knew I can count on ya,” Tsurumaru grins as he starts slamming ingredients into the cauldron, expecting both of them to learn from his swift actions. The downsides of trying to learn from a genius, probably. “Hey, Suishinshi! Get me a pitcher of water!”
This is probably one of Tsurumaru’s love potions. The definition of love potion is too broad, ranging from those of a more… sinful sort and those of the more innocent but just as troublesome sort. Despite knowing that this is a terrible idea and reminding himself that Shokudaikiri is the mixologist and not Tsurumaru, the responsible bone in Suishinshi’s body pushes him to go grab the water as requested instead.
And now something will happen to Kiyomaro. Maybe that’s why Kiyomaro agreed so readily, since the alternative would be Suishinshi trying it out… and well, Suishinshi shudders to think about what could happen with that.
He moves swiftly, slipping into the other door to enter Shokudaikiri’s prized kitchen. It’s spotless, a large difference from the rest of the shop, and it’s quick and painless to fill up the pitcher on the counter with tap water and carry it on back.
There’s a notable scent wafting in the air, a suggestive hint of rose and… chocolate? Do those go together? Suishinshi narrows his gaze. He sure hopes this isn’t one of those aphrodisiacs… he’d die…He makes a face, his nose wrinkling as he approaches with the water. “How much?” He asks, holding it tightly and lifting it up to be poured down.
“Half of it, I guess?” Tsurumaru shrugs, “See, my potions are kinda more on feeling than anything else…”
“That’s an interesting approach,” Kiyomaro takes it easy with a small laugh, “Guess there’s no harm in experimenting. These usually last off pretty quickly.”
“I’m pretty awesome so I’m able to undo anything too drastic,” Tsurumaru adds triumphantly, gesturing for Suishinshi to start pouring the water.
And so Suishinshi does, although anxiety bubbles in his chest with dread. The water dilutes the pre-existing mixture in the iron cauldron, also lessening the concentrated scents filling the air.
Tsurumaru pauses to summon a wooden spoon with a twirl of his finger, rocking it around in his hand before committing it to stir the mixture and incorporate everything properly.
Rather than goopy and too thick to drink, the water thins it out enough to be comfortably consumed. Still suspicious. He knows he should've watched closely for the ingredients Tsurumaru is using, but knowing his teacher… it's probably everything and anything. Maybe it's about the magic itself.
“Think we're done,” Tsurumaru sings, grinning as he scoops up a bit of the potion and holds it up to Kiyomaro’s face for him to sample. “Mind giving it a try?”
Kiyomaro blinks, but nods in agreement. “Sure,” He says, leaning in.
Suishinshi looks, watching the slow motion Kiyomaro delicately makes. The flutter of his eyelashes. The curvature of his lips.
Suishinshi feels like his mouth is going dry. He swallows a gulp, the strange feeling searing in his chest again. A tumult of those feelings he inaccurately pinpointed to Tsurumaru. That sort of thing isn't so easy to describe, he realizes with how his chest tightens. it doesn't burn like would happen after something too spicy in his throat. It's a symptom of whatever mental ailment this is.
Jealousy? Admiration?
Ugh. He doesn't want to think about the third thing.
Kiyomaro takes a sip of the concoction, humming at the taste. “Not bad. Would I need to drink the whole thing to get the effect?”
Tsurumaru shifts to meet Suishinshi with a furtive gaze. “Yeah, I'd say so.”
“Isn't this enough?” Suishinshi asks gruffly with a cross of his arms. “It tastes fine.”
“Ah ah ah,” Tsurumaru shakes his head with a shrug. “What are we gonna do with you, Suishinshi? Potionomics rule number 1 is that taste doesn't matter! It’s like medicine! The worse it tastes, the better it works!”
“Is that really…” Suishinshi starts to protest, knowing he's actively working against Tsurumaru's plan right now.
“I think good tasting things can be just as effective, especially considering how subjective taste can be…” Kiyomaro smiles with a shrug of his shoulders. “I'd have to test out an entire portion.”
“Ya hear him,” Tsurumaru grins cheekily, reaching for a flask. It floats to his hand seamlessly, and so does the vaguely pink liquid as it floats into the glass. “And voila! Take it in one gulp, but don't swallow too fast.”
“Kind of contradictory… well, bottoms up,” Kiyomaro lets out a wry chuckle, but downs it elegantly. Suishinshi stares way too hard at Kiyomaro's neck and how the potion goes down his throat. Wow. The throat bob… he looks way too hard at it.
Tsurumaru is staring at him. Ugh. He's not beating the allegations…
“K-Kiyomaro… are you okay?” Suishinshi asks hesitantly.
Kiyomaro blinks. “I don't really feel anything.”
Tsurumaru raises an eyebrow, “Nothing at all? Geez. Well, I told you that Mitsubou is better at mixing potions… guess I'll go tell Sadabou the sad, sad news.”
And so he does, or at least makes a convincing show of it.
Suishinshi's phone buzzes instead. He doesn’t check it, knowing that it’s probably his boss saying something stupid. Tsurumaru clearly glosses over it, but it seems like Kiyomaro isn’t too interested in it either.
Tsurumaru clears his throat, shuffling around as he waves his finger to move a good amount of the ingredients back (haphazardly) to the storage closet, “Oh, mind cleaning up for me? I need to head out.”
“The storage room too?” Kiyomaro asks again curiously, “Did something come up?”
“Well,” Tsurumaru nods gravely, “I need to run from Karabou.”
“Ookurikara-san is your partner, what would he do to you?” Well, a few theories pop up in his head. As much as they supposedly love each other, Ookurikara shows more disdain than anything. That is certainly part of the person he is, though. “He wouldn’t like you leaving a mess.”
“Hey, I just own the place. You guys are workers for a reason…” Tsurumaru voices his thoughts easily, already slipping out beneath Suishinshi's glare. He turns for a second to grin at the two of them, posing a wink toward Suishinshi in particular, “Mitsubou will probably clean it up later, though. See ya tomorrow guys!”
With that, Tsurumaru decides he is going to hightail it out of the store an hour earlier than he said he would be in for. He zooms out of there while yelling, “as fast as a crane!” Which is a normal thing for prestigious and famous magic users to do.
Kiyomaro laughs, “Tsurumaru-san is always so lively.”
“He’s a respected magician, yet he goes and does something so undignified…” Suishinshi sighs, “What a disappointment from the impressive man he was supposed to be.”
“Doesn’t that show you that not everyone is as they seem?” Kiyomaro asks, phrasing it more like an indirect question rather than one for Suishinshi. He’s a little more talkative now, leading Suishinshi to suspect that the potion is starting to have some sort of effect, although he’s not proficient to identify what.
Well, Suishinshi would pride himself on being a Minamoto Kiyomaro expert. Like, above anyone else. That’s his privilege as Kiyomaro’s best friend, after all. So now it’s itching at him that now he doesn’t even see anything off with Kiyomaro’s behavior, besides being a little more chatty than usual. Even now, he’s trying to impart some sort of observation to Suishinshi. That said, all Suishinshi can do is dumbly nod, letting it marinate in his head. Yeah, what… what the fuck does Kiyomaro mean by that?
Although Suishinshi worries that the imminent dump of thoughts in his head prevents him from actually saying something in a timely manner, his fears are unfounded. Kiyomaro waits, or otherwise goes back to work. “You must be right, Kiyomaro.” Suishinshi manages, cursing himself for not saying anything particularly insightful.
“Hehe, I was just saying,” Kiyomaro shrugs, “I’ll handle the floor if you could clean up after Tsurumaru-san.”
“Affirmative,” Suishinshi returns, already starting to get back to work. Although, now he thinks about it, Kiyomaro’s cheeks are a little redder than usual. It must be his imagination, although he eyes the residue pink concoction remaining in the iron cauldron. Is it okay to put this down the drain? Well, it’s probably going to be too diluted by now to do something significant to the water supply. Not like that time when Tsurumaru poured a crap-ton of red dye down the drain to see if it’ll make everyone else’s water go red.
Ugh. Whatever. Time to just clean up without thinking about anything.
Unfortunately, doing busywork usually meant you were alone with your thoughts. Maybe that’s why Kiyomaro sent him to clean up around the store while Kiyomaro handled the customers. Not much came in, though, which is the usual at this internship. He swears they only work the slowest days, or it’s because people aren’t interested unless they know Tsurumaru is around.
Otherwise, it’s a lot of students from their university looking for some sort of way to get ahead in their classes whether through enhancement vials or some cheating tool. Suishinshi looked down on the idea of cheating, but the “RNG pencil” has seen a lot of renown through their cohort. Especially with Urashima Kotetsu. Ugh. But he’s Kiyomaro’s step brother, so he has to get along with him.
That being said, it seems like Kiyomaro is just as alone with his thoughts as Suishinshi is. That reassures him, and now he’s starting to think that he and Kiyomaro aren’t so far apart after all. The two of them have been sneaking glances at each other more than usual, Suishinshi always feeling like his skin’s burning where Kiyomaro’s gaze would always linger.
Maybe Tsurumaru’s potion has a bit of an effect after all, even with how much abandon he threw to the wind while making that potion. Is that the power of a powerful magician? For anything you mix to be potent?
“Suishinshi,” Kiyomaro breaks the silence once the sun has gone down outside and they’ve already finished most of their closing duties. WIth little sign of customers, this allowed Suishinshi to get everything in order in the storage room, and for Kiyomaro to take care of the register and clerical duties at the front.
“Yeah?” He calls back, shutting off the storage room lights and sliding the door shut behind him. “I finished sorting out the storage room… uh… wait, no. Go ahead, Kiyomaro.”
“Let’s hang out in the park afterward,” Kiyomaro suggests, “It’d be a change of pace.”
He thought they were going to go back to their shared dormitory and work through the wrong answers to the finance exam. Assuming Kiyomaro must be having some trouble focusing because of the potion, Suishinshi agrees.
It doesn’t occur to Suishinshi that he should ask about the potion until it slips from his mouth thoughtlessly. It tumbles out because Suishinshi’s uprightness slips the moment they leave the shop and lock up for the day. “Are there any adverse effects?”
“Not really,” Kiyomaro returns casually, doing that strange thing again where he just stares at Suishinshi with some sort of meaning deeper than just looking at him. It always flusters Suishinshi somewhat, causing him to shrink back into his clothes, to zip up his winter coat and hide his mouth. “I think it’s a love potion after all, though.”
“Why did…” Suishinshi raises an eyebrow. Well, Tsurumaru did say love potions are his specialty. The opposite of what Suishinshi asked for, though. “Why did you sample it, knowing what it was?”
Kiyomaro hums, lightly kicking a pebble with his foot, “I thought it’d give me some courage.”
Courage? “Since it enhanced things?”
“Not quite,” Kiyomaro shrugs, “The makeup of the potion aligns with the love potion recipe. I guess you weren’t familiar?”
Suishinshi feels fucking dumb all the sudden. “No,” He grumbles, but tries to remind himself that he never actually studied potionomics properly.
A playful nudge from Kiyomaro, “It’s okay that you weren’t, Suishinshi. You’ve got a lot on your plate. It's what we’re here to learn, but I think Shokudaikiri-san is probably a better bet as a teacher.”
“I know,” Suishinshi protests weakly, “Anyway… what does a love potion have to do with courage?”
“It sounds a little silly saying it outloud, but it helps my love get stronger. It’s an enhancement potion in the sense that it’ll enhance those pre-existing feelings to something stronger.” Kiyomaro explains it as nicely as he usually does, but that weird churning feeling starts again in Suishinshi’s stomach.
“Pre-existing feelings of love? For what?” Suishinshi asks in a higher-pitched voice than he imagines himself speaking in, “You have a crush on someone, Kiyomaro? Who is it?”
And if you confess to them, will you stop hanging out with me all the time? Will you eventually move out to live with whoever your new partner is, and you’ll realize I’m not all that anyway…
Kiyomaro pauses in his steps, looking over at Suishinshi with furrowed eyebrows. “Oh, Suishinshi…”
Suishinshi stands still, biting down on his lip. “And you didn’t tell me.”
“I’m going to right now,” Kiyomaro sighs softly, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Suishinshi’s torso, wrapping around him gently and it’s almost like he’s enveloping Suishinshi whole.
Kiyomaro always smells nice, Suishinshi’s brain supplies with nothing really helpful to contribute to his understanding of what the hell is happening right now. “Okay,” Suishinshi returns in a whisper, “Do I need to say I’m ready?”
“Well, are you ready?” Kiyomaro chuckles back.
A nod.
“I like you more than a friend,” Kiyomaro admits, “I want to do more for you, Suishinshi. I know there’s something that’s troubling you lately…”
Huh?
Wait.
“Wait, me!?” Suishinshi almost shrieks, “C-Can’t you do better than that, Kiyomaro? You’re so amazing and pretty and everything! You’re so nice and smart, you can pull anyone else much better!”
Kiyomaro pouts, “But I’d rather be with you, Suishinshi. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
Suishinshi blinks.Then it starts to click in place, those conflicted feelings of jealousy, a fear that Kiyomaro doesn’t consider him good enough because of his shortcomings, but it seems that even Kiyomaro has his own. Since he needed a love potion to spur him on to make a move… but, Suishinshi isn’t sure if he would’ve done anything once he realized. “M-Me too. Obviously! You’re the best person I know!”
“And you’re the best person I know,” Kiyomaro returns with a bright smile that shines in the moonlight. His hair looks like it glows under the stars, eyes also alit with the same warmth present in his smile. He hugs Suishinshi tighter, sniffing a little too loudly and touching his forehead in the crook of Suishinshi’s shoulder.
“I-Isn’t this where you’re supposed to… um…” Suishinshi starts stammering, “K-Kiss me, right?”
“Unzip your collar first, maybe?” Kiyomaro laughs, snapping his head up to comply with Suishinshi’s request. Suishinshi agrees with Kiyomaro, fingers trembling as they drag the zipper down his face down to his collarbone.
Kiyomaro’s partially gloved hand rubs against Suishinshi’s cheek as Kiyomaro’s breath begins to tickle Suishinshi’s skin with warmth and anticipation alike.
Suishinshi squeezes his eyes shut, preparing himself mentally and leaning up to Kiyomaro.
When Kiyomaro finally kisses him, he accidentally knocks his head into Suishinshi’s forehead.
They stare at each other, gobsmacked by the sudden collision of their heads, but burst out into laughter.
TSURUMARU KUNINAGA (BOSS) [4:12]
you kno i left cuz i’m a good WING man
TSURUMARU KUNINAGA (BOSS) [4:12]
get it????? ok anyway thx see ya tmrw good luck luvrboy
Suishinshi Masahide [9:43]
YOU ARE THE WORST PERSON EVER. HOW DARE YOU FEED KIYOMARO A LOVE POTION WITHOUT HIS CONSENT? PERMISSION TO TEXT OOKURIKARA Y/N
TSURUMARU KUNINAGA (BOSS) [9:44]
wtf i HELPED you kiddo. karabou wouldnt gaf if you told him anyway
Suishinshi Masahide [9:45]
I WOULD HAVE FIGURED IT OUT. IT WORE OFF IF YOU CARE.
Suishinshi Masahide [9:51]
TSURUMARU-SAN IS SO IRRESPONSIBLE AND FED KIYOMARO A LOVE POTION.
OOKURIKARA (BOSS BOYFRIEND) [11:04]
k
TSURUMARU KUNINAGA (BOSS) [11:05]
ok so he kinda gaf he hit me. His loving boyfriend
Suishinshi Masahide [11:06]
YOU SHOULD NOT TALK TO YOUR INTERNS LIKE THIS.
TSURUMARU KUNINAGA (BOSS) [11:06]
pls turn off caps im begging of you. erm anyway see ya tmrw
KIYOMARO ♡♡♡♡♡ [11:08]
Goodnight, Suishinshi. I know we are literally across the room from each other, but it’s nice texting each other good night too. Sleep well.
Suishinshi Masahide [11:08]
GOODNIGHT SLEEP WELL I WILL NOT SLEEP
Suishinshi drops his phone on himself and yelps way too loudly.
“Suishinshi, be careful.” Kiyomaro calls from his side of the room with a laugh, “Do you need me to kiss it better?”
“Shut up and sleep!” Suishinshi returns, huffing as he moves his phone to his nightstand. He turns away from Kiyomaro, feeling the heat on his cheeks.
While the potion wore off, Kiyomaro’s feelings certainly haven’t lessened. Suishinshi hopes this doesn’t become a bigger problem.