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Leo takes out his in-ears and lets them rest on his shoulders. He hates the feeling of the in-ears, but with how loud the venues are, it’s a necessity in order to keep them all together as they perform. 

“Leo-kun, you have a marker stain on your costume,” Arashi comments, and Leo looks down to see a dark blue spot spreading on his knee, underneath which a marker that he was using earlier was left open. 

Leo winces, and looks sheepishly up at Izumi, praying he hasn’t noticed. 

Sadly, he has.

“Leo-kun, you need to be more careful with your costumes,” Izumi says, annoyed. “We haven’t even gone on stage yet.” 

“Actually,” Ritsu points out, “the marker stain is on the blue stripe, so it’s not really that visible.” 

Thank you, Rittsu! 

Izumi frowns. “You just got lucky. You need to be more careful with your belongings.” 

Leo rolls his eyes. “Okay, mom .”

Izumi ignores him. “Kasa-kun, what time are we going on stage?” 

Tsukasa looks up from his phone. “In six minutes,” he says, and then looks down at his screen again. 

“Tsukasa-chan, you’re spending far too much time on that phone,” Arashi says. “What’s keeping you so busy?” 

Tsukasa looks up, his brows furrowed. “I’m just responding to some emails and messages regarding our unit activities.” 

Izumi walks over and plucks the phone cleanly out of Tsukasa’s hands. 

Tsukasa squawks. “Sena-senpai!” 

“Your messages can wait until after the live,” Izumi says. “Let’s get ready. Where’s the stage manager, anyways?” 

Leo watches Izumi fuss over all of them, making sure their outfits are all as perfect as possible. Izumi pointedly looks away from the marker stain on Leo’s knee, and adjusts Leo’s collar and brushes lint off his shoulders. Leo finds how high-strung Izumi gets before a performance to be very entertaining— he resembles a bee flitting about a bushel of flowers. His fingers twitch with the urge to pick up a pen and paper— to write a fast and bouncy tune, maybe layered with brass instruments to give it the boldness and shine he associates with Izumi. 

But the stage manager finally appears, and Leo’s forced to head on stage instead. He really hopes he remembers the melody by the time they’re done performing— it has the potential to be a masterpiece , as is typically the case whenever Izumi sparks inspiration in him. 

Their performance begins with the five of them facing each other in a circle, so as they get arranged on the dark stage, Leo ends up opposite Izumi in their starting formation.  

The opening notes begin to play as the lights begin shining down on them, and Leo begins dancing, letting the notes and rhythm of the music guide his movements. He catches onto some familiar faces in the audience— fans who have been there for Knights since the very beginning— and the smile on his face continues to grow. He loves to perform, and he especially loves to see the smiles on their fans’ faces. 

He catches Tsukasa’s eye, and grins at him. Tsukasa smiles shyly back, and then turns back to the audience with a proud hand over his heart. Leo’s heart warms at seeing his cute kouhai becoming such a formidable member of Knights, shining so brilliantly on stage.

A formation shift⁠— and Leo and Izumi face each other, singing a duet. 

Leo loves to sing with Izumi. On the surface, their voices may not seem very compatible⁠— Leo’s voice is bright, while Izumi’s voice is darker, more soulful, but they work together despite all that⁠— the contrasting edges of their voices blending together into something beautiful. 

Leo looks at Izumi, and Izumi is already looking at him. Izumi likely doesn’t realize it, but there’s something tender⁠ and soft in his eyes as he looks at Leo, and it makes Leo’s insides turn to mush. He forgets he’s on stage for a split second, and is only reminded when the click of his in-ears prompts them to move to the next segment of the song. 

Leo winks at Izumi before he changes position, heading in the opposite direction. 

He faintly hears the squeak of shoes against linoleum, but assumes it’s Tsukasa, who has a tendency to get distracted while watching the audience and missteps. But when Leo twirls back around to face the rest of the group, he sees everyone’s attention intermittently shifting towards Izumi, which makes Leo realize that it was Izumi who messed up. Izumi, who practices like hell and is known for being their most consistent performer, messed up . 

Leo glances towards Izumi, and the tips of his ears are red . Not just a pale pretty pink like the color they turn when Leo compliments him too much, but a bright, fiery red. 

And then Leo realizes that this happened right after he winked at Izumi, and Izumi avoiding eye contact with Leo, even when they’re facing each other in the formation, means that it was Leo who did this to him. 

They finish the song with a flourish, and the audience erupts into cheers and applause. 

Leo takes a little extra time to greet the members of the audience, posing for fans and dragging the other members into impromptu photo ops. He poses with Arashi, both of them making matching peace signs, and then he sees Izumi on the opposite end of the stage, greeting the fans on the other side. Leo pats Arashi’s back and bounds over to Izumi, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. 

“Wh⁠a— Leo-kun, be careful!” Izumi adjusts his feet to brace for Leo’s weight on him, and when he looks back at Leo, there’s less than half a foot of space between their faces. 

For a split second, they just look into each other’s eyes, and Leo is mesmerized⁠— a melody sparking in the depths of his mind as he stares into Izumi’s azure eyes. 

Then Izumi, interestingly enough, flushes bright red once again, and shoves Leo away, Leo stumbling but easily finding his footing again. 

When they get off stage, Leo wants to confront Izumi, but Izumi dresses lightning quick and is out the door before Leo even takes his costume off. 

“Today, we’re here with one of the top idol groups in the industry, Knights!” 

Leo waves brightly at the camera. “Hi, everyone!” 

“I’m excited to be here,” Tsukasa says. “We’re all cat lovers.” 

“That’s right,” the interviewer says. “For those of you who missed the title of the video, this is The Kitten Interview, which means we have some special guests!” At that statement, a few of the staff members behind the camera open the gates to let the kittens out, and Leo lets out an excited noise as a grey cat makes its way directly to him. 

“You’re so cute!” Leo says, stroking the kitten behind its ears. 

“Tsukipi really has a way with cats,” Ritsu comments. 

“It’s all because of Little John,” Leo replies, letting the kitten settle on his lap comfortably. “I got my cat training with her and her kittens!” 

Arashi laughs. “You named that band of kittens Nyaitsu, didn’t you?” 

“That’s right!” Leo says proudly. “There’s a kitten named after you, Naru!” 

“There’s one for every member of Knights,” Tsukasa adds. There’s a brown tabby that’s trying to climb up his arm. “Leo-san and I would see them often in Archery Club.” 

“Yumenosaki has lots of stray cats,” Izumi says. He’s gently brushing the fur of a white cat, who is nuzzling into his chest. It’s very adorable, in Leo’s entirely unbiased opinion.

“I understand why you requested kittens over puppies,” the interviewer says, smiling. “You all seem very comfortable with them.” She adjusts the notecards in her hands. “So, to start the interview, how long have you all known each other? You’ve mentioned before that some of you have met before forming Knights.”

“Secchan and Nacchan have known each other the longest,” Ritsu says. 

“That’s right,” Arashi says.”Izumi-chan and I have known each other since we were children. We were both child models!” 

“Naru-kun was nothing like how she is now,” Izumi says. “She was such a bratty kid.” 

“Takes one to know one, Izumi-chan,” Arashi shoots back. “You were just as horrible back then.” 

They continue talking, but an orange tabby makes its way over to Leo, and he gets distracted playing with it and doesn’t process anything being said. He only tunes back in when he hears his name mentioned. 

“Leo-kun and I met during our first year at Yumenosaki,” Izumi is saying. “He wouldn’t stop pestering me to be his friend, until I eventually just gave in.” 

Leo laughs, remembering all the times Izumi ran away at the sight of Leo approaching, and the times he would throw things at him. “And now you can’t imagine your life without me!” 

“That’s true, it’s hard to remember a time when I didn't have you as a pain in my side,” Izumi replies.

“Hey!” Leo exclaims, affronted. He leans down to speak to the cat in his lap. “Hey kitty, go attack Sena for me.” 

The cat does not move. It only nuzzles deeper into his thighs. 

The rest of the members just laugh at him, and even the interviewer lets out a chuckle. 

“Don’t get fooled by how much they argue, they’re both good friends,” Ritsu says. “We tease them all the time about being an old married couple.” 

Leo laughs, playing along. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Izumi— whose ears are once again painted that peculiar shade of red, even as he rolls his eyes and denies Ritsu’s statement.

Leo watches the lone yellow bag make its way around the baggage carousel for the sixth time, his eyes glazing over. 

“If they lost our luggage, I’m going to be so annoyed,” Izumi says beside him, clearly growing more and more frustrated. 

“Calm down, Sena,” Leo says. “You already have so many clothes, what’s the problem if a few go missing?” 

Izumi rolls his eyes. “Just because you wear the same thing week after week doesn’t mean everybody does,” he replies.

“Um, excuse me,” someone speaks timidly in Japanese. Leo and Izumi turn around to see a girl who looks to be about fifteen. Her mom appears to be standing a little further away, watching them closely. “Are you Tsukinaga Leo and Sena Izumi of Knights?” 

Leo grins, and he senses Izumi standing up a little straighter. “Yes, we are! Are you a fan?”

“Yes,” she answers, her voice pitched higher. “Would you be able to sign this for me?” She pulls out a small poster from her bag— an older group picture of Knights from when Leo was still the leader. 

“Oh, you must be a long-time fan,” Leo says appreciatively. “Of course we can sign it!” He gently takes the poster from her trembling hands. “Sena, you have a marker, right?” He’s referring to the markers Izumi keeps on hand for when inspiration strikes Leo, because Leo will never remember to carry them around himself. 

“Yeah,” Izumi says, pulling out a black marker from his carry-on. 

Leo takes the marker from Izumi. “Sena, let me use your back to sign this.” 

Izumi tilts his head, puzzled, but then he seems to understand what Leo means and turns around. “Don’t let the marker bleed through,” he says. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo replies. He lays the poster flat on Izumi’s back and signs it, writing a small note of gratitude for sticking with Knights for so long. He can feel Izumi’s attempt at staying still, taking shallow breaths so he doesn’t move too much while Leo signs the poster. 

“Your turn, Sena!” Leo hands the poster and marker to Izumi, and turns around for Izumi to sign the poster on his back.

Izumi is careful with his writing, and Leo feels the graceful swirls of the pen across his back. He just barely holds back a shiver at the feeling. 

“Here you go,” Izumi says, handing the poster to the girl. “Thank you for being a fan, and for staying by us for so long.” 

“Of course!” The girl squeaks. “Thank you so much!” She bows once, and then runs off to meet her mother. 

“It’s nice to get recognized outside Japan,” remarks Izumi.  

“It is— wait look, our bags finally showed up!” Leo points towards the carousel, where two black suitcases are rounding the corner. They’re both tied with the same navy blue ribbon that Izumi bought to distinguish their bags from others while traveling. 

(When they were going suitcase shopping, Leo initially picked out a bright red suitcase, but Izumi took one look at the suitcase and flatly said, “Absolutely not.” 

“Why not?” Leo whined. 

“Do you know what the airport workers put these suitcases through? One trip and it’s not even going to be red anymore.” 

Leo sighed. “ Fine .” Izumi was right, of course. The whole reason they were even going suitcase shopping was because their suitcase wheels wouldn’t roll anymore after the constant abuse their luggage went through. 

He does, however, note that Izumi didn’t say no because of how bright it was, but merely for practical reasons, which meant that maybe he can get Izumi to budge on some of their apartment decor choices.) 

Izumi walks over and picks up both his and Leo’s suitcases from the carousel. 

“Why is your bag so light?” Izumi asks, carrying the suitcases back to where Leo is standing. “You definitely had more clothes in here on our way to Japan.” 

Leo smiles sheepishly. “Well, I realized once we boarded the flight that I forgot to pack a whole bunch of clothes, so most of them are still in my dorm room.” 

Izumi rolls his eyes and they both set for the exit. “I just hope you have enough clothes left back at the apartment.” 

“Don’t worry, Sena, I’ll just borrow your stuff if I don’t have enough!” 

“ Don’t do that, what the hell,” Izumi says. He walks ahead of Leo, making Leo run to catch up, but he still notices the red tinge to Izumi’s ears. 

Leo finds this new quirk of Izumi’s enthralling . 

He feels a little like a toddler that’s just discovered a new toy, but he’s now realizing how easy it is to fluster Izumi, and he loves it. He takes any opportunity to wink at him, or let a touch linger too long, and like clockwork, Izumi’s ears will turn a beautiful red. It’s mesmerizing, and Leo has written so many compositions over the past week directly as a result of his teasing— the sight of Izumi sparking countless melodies in his mind.

Today, Knights is at an autograph signing event, and Leo and Izumi are unfortunately seated at opposite ends of the long table. 

Leo is clearly too fidgety, if the annoyed glances Tsukasa throws towards him are any indication, but he dutifully signs every item that is brought to him, and plays just enough into the fanservice that the person is left blushing red. 

The line for autographs begins with Leo and ends with Izumi. One of the last people to come up to Leo for autographs has a single question written on the poster she brings to him:

What is your ideal type?

Leo’s pen hovers over the poster, deliberating his answer. He looks up at the girl, and gives her a wink to distract her while he deliberates his answer. He glances over at his fellow members, and when his eyes grace over Izumi, he finds that the answer is actually very simple. He scribbles it down and hands the poster back to the fan, whose eyes widen upon seeing his response. 

There is only one more fan afterwards, so he signs the last poster and then watches the others’ reactions. He didn’t manage to see Tsukasa’s reaction, but he does see Arashi’s and Ritsu’s eyes widening slightly when their eyes roam the poster. He’s most interested in one person, however. 

When the girl gets to Izumi, he glances over the poster, and then— almost as if his eyes were stuttering, his eyes glance back at the upper right corner, where Leo wrote his answer, and then flit towards Leo for just a moment. At the brief eye contact, Izumi looks away immediately, but the look in his eyes reverberates in Leo’s mind— the flustered, almost shy way he looks away and back at the fan. 

Leo watches him smile at the fan, and watches, mesmerized, as his ears blossom that beautiful red while he writes.

They don’t speak with each other on the ride back to the ES building, but Leo feels Izumi’s eyes on him the entire time, making Leo feel like a live wire. 

Leo’s hands are itching to write a new composition, but he’s trying to be a little more responsible and at least find a room to settle down in before he loses himself to the music. (He’s been reported too many times for making a mess in the main areas of the building, so now he’s mostly just trying to keep Tsukasa off his back.) 

He roams the practice room floor of ES, but every room he’s come across so far has either been locked or has people inside it already. 

He’s about to give up and just sit down where he’s standing— when at last a doorknob turns under his fingertips and the room is blessedly empty. The lights, strangely, are still turned on, but Leo disregards that and opens his notebook and grabs a marker, ready to get this masterpiece out of his head and onto paper. 

“Leo-kun, what are you doing here?” 

Leo lifts his head. “Oh, Sena!” 

Izumi stands in the doorway, holding a black practice bag and staring at Leo with his patented “I’m-annoyed-but-I’m-still-a-softie-at-heart” expression. “I reserved this room, how did you get inside?”

“The door was unlocked.” Leo shrugs. “What a stroke of luck that the only open room on this floor was reserved by my beloved Sena!” 

Just as Leo expects, Izumi’s ears flush red. He walks in, avoiding eye contact. “Don’t make a mess,” he says shortly. 

Leo straightens up. “Oh, are you going to practice? Your dancing always gives me so much inspiration!” The paper of the notebook crumples under his knee, and he suddenly remembers what he set out to do in the first place. “But wait, I had another melody I needed to get down first! Wait until I’m done!” 

“So annoying,” Izumi says, and Leo just knows that he’s rolling his eyes. 

Leo loses himself to his music, the melody filling his ears as he writes, the metronome of the snare drum tying together the melody from a string quartet and a full, rich chorus. He can hear Izumi’s voice singing this so clearly, his soulful tone giving the song the depth that it needs. 

When he writes in the double bar to end the notation for the music, he realizes that Izumi actually listened to Leo. Leo was so immersed in his music that he didn’t realize Izumi is sitting right beside him, scrolling on his phone while he waits for Leo to finish writing his music. 

At Leo’s lack of movement, Izumi looks up from his phone. “Are you done writing now?”

Leo blinks. “Yeah.” 

With the rays of the setting sun coming in through the windows, and Izumi in his old practice clothes, Leo is vividly taken back to their years in school before Knights, when he and Izumi would spend time in the practice rooms at Yumenosaki late into the evening— Leo composing music and Izumi rehearsing. 

As if he read Leo’s mind, Izumi smiles softly. “This feels a little nostalgic.” 

Leo mirrors his smile. “But this is so much better, don’t you think? We were both under so much pressure back then, but now I’m able to enjoy the time I spend with you in a way I couldn’t back then.” 

Izumi breaks eye contact, looking down at the floor. “You need to stop saying things like that,” he says, his voice wavering. 

“Like what?” Leo asks, cocking his head. He doesn’t think he’s said anything particularly strange. 

Izumi opens and closes his hands in his lap. “I— you— it’s—“ He looks up at Leo then, and Leo is struck dumb. Izumi’s face is flushed a rosy red, his gaze wavering, almost bashful , and Leo has never seen a more beautiful expression. Unwittingly, his hand makes its way towards Izumi’s cheek, tracing the margins of the blush. 

Izumi turns his head away from Leo’s hand. 

“You’re so beautiful, Sena,” Leo says. “Why are you hiding from me?”

Izumi buries his face in his hands. “Shut up,” he says, muffled. Leo resists the urge to laugh at his endearing, silly Sena, and pulls the hands down to expose his face. 

“You’re irresistible,” Leo says, and delights in the way Izumi gets even redder. “I noticed every time your ears would get red, and it makes me want to⁠—” Leo gets on his knees and leans into Izumi, his mouth hovering over Izumi’s ear. He just lightly grazes the shell of his ear with his teeth, and he can feel the shudder that goes through Izumi at the action.

“ Leo-kun ,” Izumi hisses. 

“Yes?” Leo says, placing a soft kiss as the spot just below his earlobe. He leaves a second one just underneath, and then moves further into his neck, letting his mouth rest for just a moment above his carotid artery, feeling the rapid-fast tempo of Izumi’s heartbeat. He looks down, and sees Izumi’s hands are balled into fists in his lap. “You can touch me too, Sena, it’s okay.” 

Hands come up hesitantly to lay on his back, light as butterfly wings⁠— they trace their way to Leo’s front and up to his neck, pulling Leo back from where his face rested in the junction between Izumi’s neck and shoulder. 

Izumi looks at him directly, those azure eyes fixing Leo to the spot⁠— his muscles have suddenly stopped working underneath his gaze. “You⁠— you make me feel like I’ve lost control,” Izumi says, hesitantly. “When you say things like ‘you’re beautiful’, or even when you do something as simple as wink at me, I feel like I’m going crazy.”

Leo laughs, leaning into Izumi. “That’s what you feel when you like someone, stupid!” 

Izumi scowls, holding him back. “You always seem so sure of yourself around me, though. It feels like you’re toying with me.”

“Sena,” Leo says, lower. He takes a gentle hold of Izumi’s hand, entwining his fingers through Izumi’s own, and brings it to his chest⁠, lets him feel the swift allegro of his own heart. 

He hears Izumi’s breath hitch. 

“I’m not toying with you, Sena,” Leo says. “You make me feel crazy too.”

Izumi uses the hand on Leo’s chest to push him back to the ground and Leo doesn’t know which one of them makes the move, but the next thing he registers is Izumi’s lips on his own, desperate and deep. 

Leo feels a burning deep in his gut, and pulls Izumi into him even closer, as close as is physically possible. He bites at Izumi’s lips, and they open before him, giving Leo the opportunity to explore deeper, to know Izumi on another level he’s never gotten to before. He alternates bites and soothing kisses, pulling as many sounds out of Izumi as possible, each sound giving rise to a new melody in his mind. But for once, Leo is content to let the music flow by. 

He doesn’t want to leave Izumi’s embrace ever again. 

Eventually, the two of them part, heaving for breath. 

“You distracted me,” Izumi says, his voice cracking from disuse. “I came here to practice.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Leo exclaims, sitting up. “You can practice, and I’ll compose! It’ll be just like old times.” 

Izumi smiles at him for a moment, and leans in to give him one last, feather-light kiss before getting up. Leo feels like his bones have turned into jelly, and it takes him far too long to remember anything other than the feeling of Izumi’s lips on his own.

Leo peeks out at the audience from his position backstage, in awe at the size of the crowd. He and Tsukasa worked together to get Knights this gig, but being faced with a crowd of this magnitude makes even Leo feel a twinge of anxiety. 

The group performing currently is singing a song with an explosive, eccentric instrumental, and Leo itches to pick up a pen, feeling suddenly inspired. 

“Leo-kun, I know what you’re thinking— don’t.” A voice speaks behind him, and Leo rolls his eyes and turns to face Izumi. 

“You’re no fun,” Leo pouts. He walks back over to Izumi, who is slightly swaying on his feet.

“Izumi-chan, are you okay?” Arashi asks. “You don’t look well.”

“I’m fine,” Izumi asserts. “I’m just jet-lagged.” 

Leo understands. He and Izumi have been flying back and forth between Italy and Japan, juggling their everyday responsibilities with the preparations for this festival. With it being such a high-profile event, they were all determined to perfect their performance, even at the cost of their sleep schedules. “There’s still plenty of time before we go on,” Leo says. “Rest.” 

He guides Izumi to a seat nearby, and Izumi, unprompted, lays his head on Leo’s shoulder as they both sit down. Leo feels a spark run down his spine at the feeling, but he attempts to stay as still as possible to not disturb Izumi. 

(He sees Arashi, Ritsu, and Tsukasa share a glance with one another, but they wisely don’t say anything.)

Twenty minutes later, Tsukasa points to his wrist as a signal for the time, and Leo gently shakes Izumi awake. “We have to go on soon,” he says quietly. 

“You should have woken me up sooner,” Izumi says, checking the time on his phone. “How are you not jet-lagged?”

Leo laughs. “How can I be tired when I have the energy I get every time I look at you?” 

Leo thrills in the way Izumi’s ears grow red. No matter how many times he spouts cheesy lines like that, it seems to affect Izumi in the same way every time, and Leo may be just a little obsessed.

They all have a brief conversation with the stage manager before they line up in their spots backstage, ready to greet the audience and begin their performance. 

Despite all the preparations leading up to the festival, it still takes Leo completely by surprise to see the sheer number of people in the audience as they walk on stage. They all greet the audience brightly, pausing every few seconds to allow for the translator to speak⁠. 

(Tsukasa delivers his opening greetings in English⁠— much to the audience’s surprise, who likely wasn’t expecting a fluent English speaker.)

Leo slips on his in-ears as they get situated for their performance, and he ends up across Izumi. The openings notes begin to play, and they all start moving, perfectly synchronous. 

Izumi makes eye contact with him as they change formations, and he winks, a playful expression on his face as he moves past. 

Something in Leo’s heart stutters at the sight, an off-beat ba-dump . It throws him off-balance, and he stumbles as he moves to the next position, his face and ears flushing, and he avoids looking directly at Izumi for the rest of the festival. 

Leo suddenly sympathizes with Izumi from their previous performances.