Work Text:
much to tsukasa’s dismay, snow has finally started to fall.
the temperature outside had dropped so low that when going outside, snow seemed to pour at a relentless pace, covering the streets in white as it continued to build, more and more as the days went on. even tsukasa’s heater struggled to keep his room at a bearable temperature, causing tsukasa to resign himself to parading around the house with a blanket wrapped around himself, letting his slippers thump against the fluff loudly because his floors were ice-cold.
however, this was nothing compared to this morning, when tsukasa woke up to the blinding morning sun, its light too bright even through closed eyes. he groans, mumbling something to himself while trying to cover his eyes, until he notices his bed particularly colder than usual. he'd woken up to feel the outrageously harsh bite of the cold from the comfort of his own bed, a shiver racking through his spine despite of the mountain of blankets already over his body.
now that he thinks about it, the rest of his limbs feel icy too, and he panics for a brief second, remembering the increase in snowfall over the course of last week. through the sleepy haze, he could already feel the cold overwhelming him. it was nothing he wasn’t used to from winter, but it felt strangely colder than usual, as if the snow had gotten into his room and engulfed it whole.
his eyes snap open, squinting at the light. it takes a few seconds to take in his surroundings. the windows whose curtains never seem to block out the sun fully — its light from the morning sun glinting on the snow, the snow blanketing almost everything in sight, including his porch—
his porch was filled to the brim with snow.
tsukasa rubs his eyes and opens them again, rather horrified.
— there’s still snow all over his porch.
so much snow, in fact, that he wasn’t even sure he could open the door. from its hill-like shape, he had to be snowed in. to be fair, he did know that there was an incoming snowstorm. he had heard it while saki was watching the morning news the day prior, and acknowledged this while barely awake. indeed, he did know that there was a snowstorm coming soon, but at the time, he had failed to fully register what that meant.
it had started off completely normal. the days before were colder, indeed, but they had multiple heaters sitting around in storage, making heating up much easier once they were situated in the rooms of their house.
“hey, pick up the phone!” saki’s voice rings as she passes by, startling him out of his horror. “the noise is driving me insane.”
tsukasa’s head whips to the phone on his desk. it buzzes in his hands again before he immediately picks up the call.
“tsukasa-kun, you finally picked up! i’ve called to tell you that i’ve come to—”
“i’m snowed in!” he immediately panics, the caller’s words flying over his head. “my porch is filled with snow!”
“well, the news did foretell a snowstorm,” rui laughs over the phone, as if this was any laughing matter for the panicking tsukasa. “however, i must invite you to look down.”
tsukasa’s head peeks out of his window to see rui ambling forward, his hands tucked into pockets, alongside a jacket worn loosely, his reminders of always buttoning up in the winter completely disregarded, much to his annoyance. an accompanying chill has settles with his head out in the cold.
“rui, i told you, i’m snowed in! you can’t come in!”
rui looks up at tsukasa amiably from his phone, the mess of purple spun white from the sun. “if only you’d let me finish my sentence earlier,” he shakes his head, with the subtle downward pull of his lower lip. “i’ve come to rescue you!”
“you’re going to shovel hours worth of snow off my porch?” tsukasa retorts, his voice echoing through to rui from his phone. “..and anyway, rare for you to be awake earlier than me.” he finishes, tilting his head down with a glare to reinforce his point. except, rui’s carrying a giant armful of snow.
“wait, what are you—!*”* tsukasa freezes, a split second before rui flings the pile upwards in his direction.
the snow is piercingly cold, sliding over his knees and down the front of his legs. he jumps back from the impact, gasping as the snow melts and icy trails of water soak through his slippers. he shakes his legs furiously, the remaining snow flying off skin in seconds. “rui! what are you doing!?” he chokes out after a pause, momentarily stunned at his antics.
rui’s hand is to his mouth, barely stifling a laugh as the rest of the snow melts away.
tsukasa stares at him, suddenly wishing the snow hadn’t melted so quickly.
moving very slowly, very deliberately, tsukasa makes his way towards his doorstep, practically inching there as he makes his move. his fingers, already freezing, feel like blocks of ice now, but tsukasa doesn’t care. he’s out for revenge.
he peers through his peephole, waiting with his hand on the doorknob..
rui’s eyes finally open as his last laughs fade away. he looks up, and he pauses comically, probably wondering where tsukasa had gone off to, and that was the expression tsukasa had been waiting for.
—he opens the door with full force.
the action sends rui into the snow with its sheer force and sends more snow flying in a frenzy, some even pouring into tsukasa’s house while most of it goes towards rui’s direction. tsukasa hears that he had let out a yelp, but the snow on his knees had all the mercy frozen out of him a minute ago.
“that was your way of ‘rescuing me’?” tsukasa grumbles, begrudgingly pulling rui to his feet. the perpetrator stares at him, wide-eyed and covered in snow. as he manages to stagger onto his feet, tsukasa struggling to keep down his own laughter. what he didn’t notice however, was that rui wasn’t defenceless.
he flings more snow in tsukasa’s direction.
tsukasa can hear the soft impact of the snow slamming into the side of his arm, followed by it crumbling apart in an instant. he doesn’t even register it for a moment, stunned into silence by the audacity — but he swiftly bends over anyway and begins to roll a large lump of snow, the gears slowly turning back into service in his head. rui backs away, but a large slab of snow engulfs him, courtesy of tsukasa.
shaking it off quickly, he picks up another ball of snow, patting it firmly into his glove, and flings it back, while tsukasa just retaliates by making his snowballs even bigger.
the resulting snowball fight is brutal. the snow flooding into the home has piled up to their shins, causing neither of them to be able to run, and thus their strategy instead involves a lot more of scuffling and pushing each other over, with the aim of flinging snow anywhere onto the other person’s body, albeit blindly. by the end of their shenanigans, tsukasa’s sides hurt from laughing and he’s more snow than person, while rui not too far from him and laughing all the same.
he isn’t much better, tsukasa realises as he turns to check on him, his hair dark purple and soaked with melted snow, his clothes also completely soaked.
he collapses onto the snow, and rui follows suit seconds after. tsukasa should be freezing, his pajamas drenched from the snow, but instead, he feels oddly warm. it would definitely be the hypothermia setting in, the logical part of his brain tells him.
he sneaks a glance at the faint, carefree smile on rui’s face, and the inevitable warmth blooms in tsukasa’s chest. he notes the way rui’s cheeks look the pink from the cold, and how the small cloud of his breath lingers between them, briefly mixing with his own.
the longer they lay there, the more snowflakes find home in the bits of rui’s hair that stick out. some fall and decide to stick along his jacket. tsukasa isn’t quite sure what it is about the moment, but he finds his breath catching in his throat. a stray snowflake lands on his own eyelashes, finally making him blink.
with whatever that moment was having been broken, tsukasa turns away and turns his attention back to the sky above them. no matter how much time they’ve spent with one another, there’s always something the tiniest bit strange, although not in a bad way, about being the sole person rui is focusing on in that very moment.
clearing his throat, tsukasa turns back and his hands go to rui’s shoulders, brushing the snow from them. the bitter, wet cold on his fingertips serve as a reminder to himself to not do something so reckless again.
“..how long have you even been outside in the cold like this? i know i’ve given you gloves to wear, but that doesn’t mean you can stay outside in the snow like that, you know,” he chides away, shaking his head as more snow falls off of rui. “what’s going to happen if you get sick?”
“and tsukasa-kun would take care of me if i got sick, right?” he sings, the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice teasing although he’s sure in his claim — it stirs something in tsukasa’s chest.
“it wouldn’t happen in the first place if you’d listen to me,” tsukasa huffs, ignoring the feeling that gives him. “and seriously rui, you’re going to freeze if you don’t zip up your jacket!”
“but tsukasa-kun, we’re both still in the snow,” he laughs softly. it’s gentle enough to send another zap of electricity through tsukasa’s veins.
“then let’s get up,” tsukasa replies, unmoving, lingering, because heʼs not quite ready to go yet.
rui looks at him, his eyes fond with emotion, and he probably doesnʼt even know he’s looking at him that way. he watches as snow falls onto rui’s cheek, melting upon contact.
on impulse, he takes his thumb and gently wipes it away.
rui’s eyes go wide in surprise, and it’s too late for tsukasa to retract his hand because his thumb is already halfway down his cheek.
“..there was snow on your face,” he attempts to explain, accompanied by an unfortunate stumble over his words and a voice crack halfway through. he pulls his hand away before he even waits for rui’s response, convinced the hypothermia has already started to mess with his rationality.
on the other hand, rui lays completely frozen until tsukasa gets up, wordlessly watching him dust snow off of his clothes. it leaves an odd absence in the space where his thumb once was. he smiles eventually, although a bit too knowingly for tsukasa’s comfort as he also stands up, following his patting action to get the rest of the snow off his pants.
“come in,” tsukasa beckons rui toward his door. “it’s warmer inside.”
rui follows without hesitation.