#digimonsecretsanta2017

“Mi! You have to come see this!”

She can hear him shout this plea from the other room, and she narrows her eyes and furrows her eyebrows skeptically.

“See what exactly?” Mimi asks, unsure of whether she should actually do as told or stay put where she’s safe. “You didn’t volunteer to stay with me today to pull a prank on me, did you? Like standing there naked or something?”

“As if you don’t want to see that,” he replies smugly, and she doesn’t even need to face him to know that he’s wearing that lopsided smirk of his, probably with his arms folded across his puffed up chest, because she knows him too well for that.

“Gross,” she mutters under her breath.

He’s headed towards her and is now standing in the door entrance. He’s waving his arms as though to usher her to whatever he wants her witness. “Mi, come on. I’m serious.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll come,” she finally caves. She closes her magazine and put it down on the table and tries to get up from her chair, but Taichi catches the way she winces when she tries to stand. 

He clears his throat before extending his hand to her.

“Give me your hand, Princess.”

She gives him an unamused look. “I told you years ago to not call me that,” she says, but accepts his offer anyways.

He pulls her up with much ease, laying her arm across his shoulders, and when she’s about to hop forward on her one ankle, he surprises her when he slides his one hand down to her mid-back and the other under her knees to lift her up in one fell swoop.

She can’t help but laugh. “Taichi, what are you doing?”

“We need to hurry,” he answers matter-of-factly. “Plus your ankle clearly still hurts, so it’s best if you don’t put too much pressure on it.”

“How thoughtful of you, Sir Knight of the Courageous Poofheads.”

He blinks and then chuckles incredulously yet entertained at the strange—and rather random—nickname because he knows she’s trying to get back at him for the Princess title, while he carries her towards the big window in the living room of the ski lodge they all rented.

Mimi notices how close her face suddenly is to his, and her eyes instinctively trace the strand of brown hair that’s partly covering his ear to the curve of his jawline down to his collarbone, and she can’t help but stare at how smooth his skin looks and...

She slightly shakes her head, as though she’s clearing herself from this sudden flood of troubling thoughts marching through her brain. She’s very much relieved when her attention drifts towards to what he urged her to come see, and a gasp escapes her lips. 

“It’s snowing!”

Taichi smiles, pleased at the fact that the scenery delights her just as he figured it would and he places her down at the window seat before scooting next to her.

“It’s such a beautiful sight,” she says, her eyes lighting up at each snowflake that passes her in a spiral.

“Not as beautiful as the sight of me being naked, though.”

She groans. “Why ruin this moment by planting that visual in my head? Why are you always so–?”

He cuts her off. “Hey, I’m just repeating what you said earlier.”

“You are so annoying,” she finishes. 

His smirk only widens. “The word you meant is endearing,” he utters, and she rolls her eyes pointedly at that.

She turns her focus back on the flurry of snowflakes, letting it calm her mind, and she supposes he has followed her action as silence has descended upon them. She finds herself rather enjoying the fact that they’re both peacefully reveling in the view of this winter landscape. 

“Thank you,” she whispers after a very short while.

“You’re welcome,” he responds, matching her muted volume.

“I love how many snowflakes are falling.”

Taichi nods in agreement at first, but then grins. “Yet they don’t measure up to how much I like you.”

She turns away from him, as an attempt to conceal the blush that’s creeping up on her cheeks, even though she’s fully aware at how cheesy his “compliment” was—really, self?—and then steels herself before meeting his gaze and readying herself to laugh off him being so ridiculous again but stops herself when she sees something shift in his eyes.

He leans forward, and she again notices how close her face suddenly is to his, and she swallows, hard, determinedly ignoring the spike in her heartbeat. 

“I mean it.”

She did not expect that.

And then Taichi’s hand curls around hers, giving it a small squeeze as though to reassure his that he’s truly, honestly being sincere.

She definitely did not expect that.

It’s quiet again, not a soothing quiet like before, it’s a startling quiet instead, like there’s something looming. Something she knows has always been there, but something she knows she doesn’t dare to define yet.

Her mouth opens to reply, despite her not even knowing how to, but closes it just as quickly as she hears the door open along with the ruckus that their friends bring back from skiing.

“Will you stay with me again tomorrow?” she finally manages to edge out, softly.

A brisk smile illuminates his features. “As you wish, Princess.”

Outside the weather was feathering into the night through a gentle snowfall. The small snowflakes frosted the edges of the windowpanes, allowing some of the light from streetlamps and large displays of Christmas lights managed to shine through. The small amount of Christmas glow entering through the modest apartment.  

There was some level of romance to snowy nights. The landscape being adorned by pure white snow, or colorful vivid lights to set the awestruck mood. The kind of details that could encourage someone to be intimate or cozy. A perfect setting to walk through the streets outside while sharing cold Eskimo kisses and the warmth of hand holding.

Details, that were completely and utterly meaningless to individuals who had better things to do, deadlines to meet, and expectations to exceed.

All of this and more applied to Koushiro.

With fingers typing steadfast on his keyboard, Koushiro’s eyes focused on the surroundings as wide as his laptop screen. Data was processing at a constant rate, his laptop was juiced to the best of his customizing capabilities, but at moments like this, the laptop specs were pushed to its max.

With a low groan Koushiro knit his brows together yet again as his laptop took a second too long to jump to its next line of code. Honestly. He’d rather be doing this kind of work in his office where he had multiple screens and servers to avoid these minor lagging issues. He technically could have just ran to his office, sat down at a proper desk and put his entire focus and being into this project…if he had foresaw a work emergency in the first place. Or, at the very least, if this had happened earlier in the day.  

Koushiro bit back another groan as he internally told himself to keep calm and continue working. He didn’t have the time to consider what-ifs scenarios no matter how tempting it might be. He had pressure weighing down on his shoulders, the grit of irritation of having his plans completely interrupted and sidetracked. He just wanted to get this done.

With a harsh click of his enter key, Koushiro paused his robotic typing to evaluate the input he just inserted in the code. A series of numbers and algorithms flew on one side of his screen, while the desired output was on the other half. With a stationary gaze that drilled focus to a point as dark as his eyes, Koushiro waited to see if the outcome of his project was fixed or not.

“…uh, Koushiro?” A voice called out to question. It wasn’t strong enough to actually take in Koushiro’s complete and undivided attention, but enough to be coherent, “you done?”

Koushiro tapped along the edge of his keyboard, his fingernail clicking like an unforgiving metronome to a novice musician. His eyes narrowed, but didn’t close, not until the code stopped to an unforgiving halt at the sound of a beep and the red flashing FAILURE flashed over the output side of his screen.

Temperance was Koushiro’s known qualities. But even Buddha had his limits.

“No.” Koushiro held down the backspace key before resuming his rhythmic typing.

Koushiro could recognize a small chuckle, one that tapered off into a good willed, “No worries.” Before another silence. Koushiro hummed in response, limiting his focus back on his computer once again.

He shifted in his seat, moving to be more upright as he tried another method. He sourly missed the lower back support of his office chair. And started feeling another bitter rise of anger at the low height of the coffee table in front of him. Hell, eve the couch cushions that were way too soft to stay firm under his weight. He adjusted himself one more as he took a brief moment to pause to swing out one of his wrists.

“Neh, Koushiro,”

“Ham,” Koushiro hummed out automatically when he recognized his name. Out of habit of being in a similar situation one too many times, he internally knew what to do to stay productive on his task without seeming too heartless to the people around him. He wasn’t completely clueless, he’d learn from when he was ten.

--Except that his laptop lagged again and it bothered him again, and he completely zoned out (save for that tiny detail) once again. Missing whatever else was being said to him.

There was silence again. The kind that, Koushiro knew that he had to give some kind of response to. He didn’t want to have to ask for a repeat, so he just shrugged casually and muttered a small, “Okay.” His go-to response when he forgot to listen in on what someone was telling him while he was working.

There was reply that was spoken out with an upbeat attitude. Something ending in a reassuring smile that was spoken out in good manner. Before Koushiro could illicit out some response, the weight on the couch shifted and the cushion Koushiro was perched on puffed up slightly.

Koushiro was about to glance away from his screen, a part of him even wanted to turn his head away completely to follow the traces of footsteps that were fading. His gut was already in knots over this dilemma in the first place, but having things drift further away from his original plan would definitely backfire in his face.

--Beep!

Koushiro’s computer flashed failure over half of the screen again. While deep set in a frown he checked over his last line of code and saw where he mistyped a command on accident.

His dark eyes burned. With a frustrated groan Koushiro rubbed his eyes slowly before shaking off his emotional flare.

Nothing else mattered right now. He was going to finish this in time. He was going to get this to work done even if he had to claw to a final product by the skin of his bones.

Koushiro’s fingers were still working at a steady pace. The clicks of his keyboard was a constant series of taps that faded into the sounds of the apartment. Even has the blue light from the screen burned into the dark irises of Koushiro’s eyes as he silently absorbed through the content of his program without fail.

With definitive click of his enter key, Koushiro stopped typing as he let his program work through another test. As he watched the results of his work stipulate through the lines of code, Koushiro cleared his throat to try and shake off the scratchiness. His heart thumped each time his program successfully passed a checkpoint that his previous attempts couldn’t. Unable to remain entirely positive, Koushiro clenched his sweaty palms into fists, trying to stop himself from ghost typing along the edge of his keyboard.

--Beep Beep!

A green OK, flashed over the program. Koushiro felt his quickened heartbeat pump out the breath he had been holding as he unclenched his fists. The stony gaze that was fixated on the screen instantly broke as nerves buzzed with relief. His lower back ached, his wrists cramped, and his eyes watered—but finally. He did it.  He completed it. He was finally done!

“Thank goodness...” Koushiro murmured to himself as he rubbed his eyes and stretched out his back. Saving his completed project, he could almost feel himself getting giddy with the grand sense of completion. Koushiro relaxed against the back of the couch, shaking some blood flow into his legs as he shook off any remnants of work stiffness.

In the midst of the bliss that Koushiro was ready to revel in, he noticed the surroundings that he was so keen on ignoring just moments before. The ceiling fan above him had short chains that were impossible for Koushiro to reach.  The television set in front of him that had cheery holiday commercial playing that wasn’t clear on the product it was selling. Details of the small apartment were recognized as quickly as the feeling of utter regret. When Koushiro realized just who’s worn out couch he was sitting on, he chastised himself and shut his laptop closed.

As he pushed his laptop onto the table in front of him, Koushiro saw the curled up figure of his boyfriend. Face smashed onto the armrest with his mouth wide open, the formal button up shirt creasing horribly as he wedged himself in the corner and was snoring softly. Koushiro huffed out a breath, his shoulders drooping out of guilt as he gently shook him awake, “Taichi-san,” He called out quietly.

It took a few more shakes, but Taichi soon yawned as he fluttered his eyes open. He stayed curled up with his hands under his chin until his eyes fully opened and his sight settled on Koushiro. With a dopey smile, Taichi pushed himself up, “Hey,” Taichi broke off in another yawn, “Nnh, all done?”

Koushiro smiled sheepishly in response. The guilt of their ruined plans eating inside of him as he nodded, “Yeah, I just did…Taichi-san I’m…”

“Wait—hold on,” Taichi broke out in a loud yawn, he stretched his arms behind him as far as he could, ending his cat-stretch by sinking closer to Koushiro with the same dopey smile, “What time is it even?”

Koushiro flipped to his watch, “It’s um…close to midnight,” Koushiro felt bad as the time was actually close to being the next day, “Taichi-san I’m really—“

“Mnh, okay,” Taichi shrugged, “Are you hungry? I got food earlier. It’s in the fridge if you want it.”

“Oh, that’s fine but—“

“Ah crap, I was watching one of those holiday movies, but I think it stopped playing…”

“Tai—“

“Whatever. Nothing the Internet can’t fix, right?”

“Taichi-san!” Koushiro fussed his eyes closed as he yelled. He didn’t like to yell over others, but sometimes it was just impossible to get through to Taichi otherwise.

Thankfully it worked, and instead of Taichi ranting off on another topic he paused for a moment before tentatively whispering, “Yeah?” As he turned to face Koushiro. Taichi’s back was slouched against the couch as he silently waited for Koushiro.  

Koushiro sighed, Taichi’s eyes were entirely too open and warm for the regret Koushiro was feeling at the moment, “I, um,” he rubbed the underside of his eyes before taking a big breath, “I’m sorry, for all of this. For ruining this evening, it’s—“

“Koushiro,” Taichi interrupted with an easy-going smile, “You didn’t ruin anything. It’s fine. You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“No, yes I do,” Koushiro held up a finger, “I was the one that said we should do something. I was the ones who made plans for tonight. I called to make reservations for that new restaurant that was next to the street that’s covered with all of those lights.”

“Yeah but—“

“But then, I completely ignored you because of that work email I got. And—I did think that I’d be able to settle that issue really quickly. But I was completely wrong about that as it ended up being a much bigger issue that I anticipated. I shouldn’t have rushed this project in the first place, but either way, I let work impede on personal matters again.”

Taichi scoffed, he propped his arm against the sofa and leaned his head against his arm, “Mhm,” Taichi hummed. His expression unchanging as he let Koushiro ramble on.

“Really, I should have known better! Because I was trying to finish it so quickly, I wound up omitting a crucial component of the program that prevented it from working like how it was supposed to. I didn’t realize I forgot to add that part in until trying out every other possibility first.”

“I see.”

“But because of my misstep, I wasted the entire evening. It’s not right or fair of me to ask you to keep tonight free, only to wind up being busy myself. Or to keep telling you to wait around when the restaurant and shops began to close. And I’m just—“Koushiro stopped, seething within the depths of his eyes before deflating completely, “I’m sorry. I really am. I’ll…I’ll make it up to you I promise.”

Koushiro knew that personal relationships were just as important as work. Having the ability to find someone who you enjoyed and cared for so much was a rarity. A treasure that was worth keeping and maintaining throughout the years.

There was no one else like Taichi. It was a friendship that Koushiro was grateful for, and as challenging as it was to change their dynamic from platonic to romantic, it was one that Koushiro was happy to take on. With how busy the both of them were on a day to day basis, Koushiro just wanted to take some time to spend with Taichi…but it didn’t matter how good his reasons were if he never actually followed through with his intended plans.

Taichi’s smile seemed to grow as Koushiro stopped apologizing. Koushiro sat in silence as he saw the corners of Taichi’s eyes crinkle as he broke out into a soft laugh, chuckling louder as his lips broke into a grin. Koushiro, taken aback by Taichi’s sudden giggling fit, frowned, “What. Why are you laughing?”

“Take a wild guess,” Taichi whistled through his teeth. His chuckling tapered to an end, but he was still grinning from ear to ear, “Come on Koushiro, you’re making this into a way bigger deal than it is. Its work. I understand that you have to deal with stuff when things go wrong. It’s okay, you don’t have to feel so bad about it.”

“But tonight’s plans…” Koushiro trailed off, “It would have been nice, and you would have really liked it.”

Taichi shrugged “Eh, things happen, it’s not your fault,” the cheeky grin was still plastered on Taichi’s face as the depths of his eyes twinkled, “Besides, seeing you get so worked up about date plans and showing me a good time? Oh. Shoot, I like that more than actually going out tonight.”  

“Wha-what?”

“You loooooove me,” Taichi exaggerated, “You want to take me out on fancy dinners and cliché romantic walks.”

“I—I made these plans based off of some suggestions I got!”  

“You’re even asking other people for love advice! Aww, Koushiro you’re so sweet!”

“No! Not like that!”

“You know I’ve been holding back on the romantic gestures because I thought that it’d too much. But now, pffft,” Taichi stuck his tongue out before his snapping his fingers and winking, “I’m not going to hold back anymore. I’m talking PDA, grand romantic gestures—you know what. I was going to buy you one of high tech thermos bottles for Christmas. But now? Forget that. I’m going to buy a star and name it after you—No wait!” Taichi clapped his hands together, “I’m going to buy you a calendar and fill it with all of our firsts!”

“What?!” Koushiro’s cheeks reddened as Taichi snickered.

“The first time we met, the first time you let me hold your laptop,” as Koushiro’s blush deepened, Taichi inched closer and closer, “when we confessed to each other, oh—can’t forget when we first held hands and kissed!”

“Now who’s making a big deal out of nothing?” Koushiro near cried, “We were just going to go out to eat and some window shopping! Stop saying such embarrassing things!”

“But it’s so much fun!” Taichi exclaimed, giggling as he practically crawled on top of Koushiro, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I shower you with affection and appreciation too!”

“Hey—get off!”

“Nooope!”

Koushiro tried pushing on Taichi’s shoulders, but with pressuring giggles and over exaggerated kissing noises, Taichi’s weight won out. He pushed Koushiro down onto the couch, wrapping his arms around Koushiro’s waist as he laid down fully over him. Taichi couldn’t help but feel a streak of victory as he saw the prominent blush over Koushiro’s face. Sometimes, Koushiro had an air of indifference and stoicism around him. But when it was just the two of them and Koushiro was completely unguarded and full of character, Taichi couldn’t help but feel a plethora of happiness.

Koushiro knew the soft side grin on Taichi’s face all too well, “You enjoying this?” Koushiro mumbled without any bite or drawback.

“I always enjoy being with you,” Taichi was a breath’s distance away, his nose grazing Koushiro’s, “Doesn’t matter if it’s at some couple’s retreat or just us wasting time at home.”

“…Yeah,” Koushiro whispered, staring back at Taichi’s loving gaze and feeling the warmth trickle down all the way to his quickening heartbeat, “Me too.”

“Good!” Taichi rubbed their noses together, “So, you’re going to stop feeling bad about us not going out tonight?”

Koushiro pressed his lips together, “…Fine,” he leaned into Taichi’s touch, “But I do want to make it up to you still.”

Taichi rolled his eyes, “Fine,” he compromised, “It’s not that late yet, why don’t we just make the most out of tonight.”

Koushiro found himself catching Taichi’s smile, “What do you want to do then?”

“You find the movie I was watching earlier, I’ll reheat the food?”

“Really. That’s all you want.”

“Well we’ll be cuddling and stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Well,” Taichi dragged out the syllable before clicking off into a smile, “You’re trying to make it up to me right? You can figure that part out.”

With a slight scoff, Koushiro shook his head slightly, “Fine.”

Taichi got up first, helping Koushiro sit back up before trotting off into the kitchen. As he heard the press of the fridge being opened and the microwave being utilized, Koushiro took his time finding some movie that’d be enjoyable for the both of them to watch while finding the stray blanket Taichi kept in the living room for nights such as these.

“Ready?” Taichi asked when he came back in the room, plopping down on the couch as he placed two plate on the table in front of them.

Koushiro draped the blanket over them, and simply leaned against Taichi’s touch the second he felt an arm wrap around him, “Yeah.”

It was easy to feel relaxed as they sprawled out on the couch. It wasn’t the image that Koushiro had set out to achieve when he first settled on plans. But as movie continued and the hour got late, Koushiro found himself settling in the warm proximity of their intimacy.

Closeness, it was something that was made abundantly clear since they were stubby little kids with little insight as to what would happen between them. Koushiro didn’t exactly expect for his relationship with Taichi to become this personal. But during moments like this, each and every moment that connected them deeper felt so natural, that Koushiro couldn’t picture his life turning out any other way. Whenever Koushiro thought about that, he wanted to showcase this and more. To somehow let Taichi know just how Koushiro enjoyed spending time with him by making feel as special as Koushiro felt with him.

Taichi nuzzled against Koushiro’s neck and would place random kisses. With a soft smile, Koushiro leaned back into Taichi’s touch, snuggling up against him before turning around to meet him in the middle.