“You can borrow mine.” + matchablossom? 💞
wait here have a very tiny 5+1 fic
sidenote: kojiro is trans but i hate deadnaming skjfh so his name is gonna be written like [kojiro] when he's identifying as a girl
[Kojiro] looked up, eyes widening hopefully when she saw the small handful of blocks held towards her. Probably just enough to finish her tower.
The boy who was holding them was a lot paler than she was, with pink hair that curled around his ears and big clunky glasses. [Kojiro] blinked.
The boy nodded, lifting his free hand to fix his glasses when they slid down his nose, and she grinned. "Why don't we both use them? Then we could make a really big tower!"
The boy squinted down at the blocks in his hand, before turning to look at the rest of his blocks spread out on the floor in front of him and then to [Kojiro's] very impressive tower that she'd spent half of playtime building.
"Ahhhh." [Kojiro] whined under her breath, lifting her bag onto her desk and digging through it. She shoved aside the spare shirt she left in there for hanging out with Kaoru after school, and ran her fingers over the bottom of her bag, whining again when she still couldn't find her pencil case.
"What's wrong with you?" Kaoru hissed from his desk, shooting her a weird look. He hadn't cut his hair in a year so he'd started tying half of it up to keep it out of his face, the thick rimmed glasses he'd worn throughout their pre-primary days replaced with thin gold rims that brought out the amber in his eyes. Kaoru was really pretty, even when he was scowling at her like that.
"I think I left my pencil case at home, and now I don't have a pencil." She whispered back, screwing up her face in dismay before digging through her bag a third time.
A sudden hard tap to her arm made her jump, turning to see a mechanical pencil held out by a pale hand. Kaoru was raising his eyebrow at her expectantly, and [Kojiro] valiantly ignored the odd thump in her chest.
"Just borrow mine for today, idiot."
"That's it, it needs to go."
Kaoru looked up from where he'd been practicing his balance on his new skateboard, and found [Kojiro] standing a few meters away, one foot on her own board while the other kept her balanced on the concrete, holding up a strand of curly green hair with a frustrated expression.
She generally tried to keep hair tied back in a bun, but it was fighting it's way out of the green scrunchie and winning spectacularly, the loose strands falling around her face in a messy tangle.
Kaoru snorted and nodded in agreement. "It needs to go."
"Crap I don't have scissors!" [Kojiro] cursed, after looking through all of the drawers and cupboards in the bathroom. Kaoru hummed in thought, and lifted his school bag onto the sink, the zip echoing oddly in the bathroom.
"You can borrow mine." He decided, slipping them out of his pencil case and holding them out, fingers wrapped around the bladed end so he wouldn't hurt her by accident. She grinned, the sight sending a shiver of warmth down Kaoru's spine, and took them from him with hands gentler than most expected.
A few minutes later, while Kaoru was slicing the scissors through a section of [Kojiro's] hair, the tile already littered with curls of dark green, he heard her take in a shaky breath.
"I'm pretty sure I'm a boy."
Kaoru paused, scissors still half-open for a beat, and then closed them down with a loud shnipt. "Okay."
Kaoru nodded, looking up to meet wine-dark eyes in the mirror and swallowing down the surge of feeling in his chest when he saw that her- his? -eyes were glassy. "Yeah. You're still an idiot though, who decides to cut their hair when they don't even own scissors?"
A wet laugh. "We can't all be prepared for the apocalypse like you are."
Kaoru fiddled with his lip ring, running his tongue over the smooth metal as he anxiously checked the clock. They were going to be late for school, and while school wasn't exactly his favourite place to be, he hated being late.
And Kojiro knew that, so Kaoru didn't even bother trying to dampen his glare when he best friend came stomping into the room with only his school pants and binder on.
"It doesn't fit!" He hissed, shaking the white button up shirt in his hand and throwing it at his bag in annoyance. Kaoru furrowed his eyebrows and took a moment to inspect his best friend - for platonic uniform-fitting reasons of course.
Since figuring out his gender, Kojiro had started working out almost obsessively, constantly adjusting his diet and wearing baggier clothes. He'd gotten taller slowly, and was now a few tiny centimeters taller than Kaoru, where he'd previously only been up to his nose.
Running his gaze over Kojiro's upper body, and back towards the shirt he'd been wearing for the past year, the pieces clicked into place.
"Of course it doesn't, you've been wearing that size since before you started your whole macho health kick." Kaoru rolled his eyes, standing up from where he'd been waiting on his bed and heading to his wardrobe.
Kojiro mocked him quietly before grumbling about how unhelpful he was, while Kaoru flipped through the shirts he had hung up and pulled free a shirt he'd bought in the next size up, just in case.
"Here, you can borrow mine until you get a new one."
He honestly had just been intending to be helpful, knowing that sometimes clothes came with an extra internal struggle for his best friend, but he couldn't really deny that the sight of Kojiro in his shirt was a nice one.
Waiting in an airport was probably one of Kaoru's least favourite activities, a bunch of strangers with no apparent care for personal space bustling around him, all loud voices and rattling suitcases.
He glared behind his sunglasses, hands buried in the pocket of a hoodie that wasn't his, and fiddled with the CARLA prototype around his wrist.
A sudden tug at his hair had him spinning around, venom on his lips before he saw green hair and a teasing grin.
"Kojiro! You don't go startling people, you- you gorilla!" He hissed, unsure if his heart was pounding out of fright or exhilaration at seeing him again.
Kojiro laughed, and the world around them went quiet and still as Kaoru stared. It had been a year, maybe more, since he'd last seen Kojiro, and having him there in front of him in the flesh was rather confronting.
He'd somehow gotten taller, skin a shade darker from the italian sun, and held himself with a confidence Kaoru hadn't seen since the last time they skated at S together.
But everything else was the same. Brown eyes that turned to wine in the right lighting, jaw squared and dimpled with acne scars, smile big and warm and so so familiar.
"Gorilla, huh?" He teased, voice clear and deeper in person than through a speaker.
"That's what you are." Kaoru sniffed, glancing down at the suitcase in Kojiro's hand and wondering how many things he'd left behind at his school in Italy. Kojiro was a terrible packer, and had refused to video call Kaoru to make sure he had everything, which Kaoru knew he would regret.
He leaned on the doorframe of his guest bedroom, watching smugly as Kojiro dug through his suitcase, muttering to himself about the last place he'd seen his shampoo.
"This is why I told you to video call me, stupid."
Kojiro rolled his eyes, a familiar expression that made Kaoru's heart ache and ran a hand down his face. "I swear I put it in there!"
Finally Kaoru took pity on him and sighed. "You can borrow mine while you're here, and the next time you're packing to visit you can remember this and video call me."
"By the time I start packing it's the middle of the night here."
"You need sleep too princess, don't think I haven't noticed those bags under your eyes."
Kaoru waved a hand, fighting back a smile at Kojiro's concern. "Oh just go shower, you're starting to stink up my apartment."
Kojiro wasn't a stranger to Kaoru's anxiety attacks, after so many years of sharing a life with him, the steps were almost second-nature.
1. Pressure - (He pulled Kaoru close, chest-to-chest, and squeezed just this side of too tight.)
2. Counting - (It took some coaxing but eventually Kaoru was muttering the numbers along with Kojiro as he counted down from 100.)
3. Time - (Slowly, Kojiro unwrapped his arms and followed him out of the bedroom, ready to sit with Kaoru while he found something to do with his hands until he felt steadier.)
Kojiro wasn't sure what triggered it, if there even was a singular trigger, but he sat on the couch patiently and watched while Kaoru reorganised the bookshelf, quietly reading out the titles to CARLA so she could keep an inventory.
There was a book about Italy, one Kojiro had no memory of buying, and he felt his chest warm when he realised Kaoru must have bought it when he went away for school.
After nearly half an hour, Kaoru stood up, dressed in sleep shorts that stopped at mid-thigh and one of Kojiro's shirts, showing off the goosebumps prickling along his legs and arms. He always got really cold after anxiety attacks.
"Bed time?" Kojiro asked, willing to wait if Kaoru needed another activity. Instead, he nodded, rubbing a hand over his face while holding his other hand out towards him.
Smiling gently, Kojiro stood up and slipped his hand into Kaoru's, squeezing softly while running his thumb over his knuckles.
Once they were back in bed, he let Kaoru settle first, listening to him mutter and rub at his forearms before he finally cursed the apartments lack of heat - nevermind the fact that it was summer, and normally Kaoru hated when the aircon was on at night.
Seeing the opportunity, Kojiro snickered and opened his arms. "Here, you can borrow mine."
It was hard to see properly in the dark, but he could make out Kaoru's face as he turned to look at him, confused and annoyed before he realised what Kojiro meant.
"You're insufferable." Kaoru grumbled, but was quick to roll into his embrace, back pressed to his chest while hair immediately invaded Kojiro's mouth.
2087
dededos
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