Zach took a deep breath as they stared out at the campus from under the very edge of the library building they had to use as shelter. The rain that patterned angrily down was unpleasant to say the least, but, the sound was beautiful either way. It echoed off of the concrete like a musical symphony, humming varieties of songs to their ears as they clutched their books between determined fingers and shrunk further into the hoodie they had on. It would be an unpleasant walk back to the dorm halfway across campus to say the least, and the pickings of overhanging building structures to use as in-between dry spots were few and far between. How annoying, they thought with a deep sigh, taking out their phone and idling through their contacts to see if they might escape having to go back alone.

Group chats with their required project-mates for some classes were empty, half-excuses made about having to do something important fading between lines in an unsurprising turn of events that made it hard for all of them to get said project done on time. A text from Nagito revealed that he had gone out with Hajime shopping and now the two were currently waiting out the worst of the storm uptown in a coffee shop, a frowny face accompanying the line of ‘we won’t be home for another few hours, sorry’. 

A sigh echoed from their lips, the cold of the water beginning to soak into their bones. Zach scrolled through the list of contacts, squinting for a moment before finally finding the last of the names they had thought would be available to spend some time with them. 

Makoto’s name was decorated with a few flower emojis, their bright petals causing the boy’s messages to pop out more than others. It helped Zach to differentiate the notes between each of their friends, at the very least, and they appreciate emojis for this reason and many others. Their fingers flew against the keys, the tapping of the touchpad echoing similarly to that of the rain cascading down the sides of the library building. 

‘Hey, ur dorm is near the library right?’

Send.

Zach waited, eyes catching a glimpse of a couple walking past, sharing an umbrella and giggling. They shrunk back on the wall, averting their gaze as the paranoid thought of their discussion being about them threatened their inner monologue, but, was soon pushed away with a satisfying ‘ding’ to represent the arrival of a new message. 

‘Yep! I’m there now, do u wanna come over?’

Zach smiled, their thumbs moving before their mind did.

‘Sure! I’m on my way.’

‘Awesome, see u soon! <3’

‘<3’

Makoto’s dorm building was the one most of the older college kids seemed to prefer, the area close enough to the library to provide ample book supplies for the thesis papers they were sure to need to write and the closeness to about five different coffee and campus store stops ensuring their never ending supply of coffee, red bull, and cheap ramen noodles. They had worked hard for that dorm location, most freshmen couldn’t fault them for that. The trip was a single small trek along the sides of the library towards the building and a quick run across an exposed parking lot to get into the safety of the dorm. 

Zach trailed their way through the halls, locating the room they had known to be Makoto’s, and knocked once. Twice...Three times on the wooden frame. The familiar, arid voice of Makoto calling out for just a moment filled their stomach with butterflies, their face heating up even as they heard the latch unlock behind the door. When it swung open to reveal Makoto, comfortable in a pair of pajama pants and an all-too adorable shirt with a bear on it, Zach felt like their heart was going to jump out of their stomach. The way his hair had been mussed up, clearly from moments of laying on his bed and simply not brushing it that day, made them want to reach out and smooth it gently down. To brush it out of the other’s face and press a kiss to the forehead that was revealed to them.

“Zach, hey!” Makoto’s smile was easy on his lips as he side stepped to let the other in, “You’re really soaked, huh?”

“Yeah,” Zach laughed as they shrugged their backpack and jacket off with a deep sigh, “The rain came out of nowhere...Uh, sorry if I woke you up or anything. I didn’t mean to just-”

“What? Oh, no no-!” Makoto blushed and held up one hand, the other reaching back to rub at his neck with a sheepish grin, “I didn’t have classes today, so, I just didn’t bother changing out of my pajamas or anything.”

As if emphasizing his laziness, Makoto yawned and stretched, part of his shirt riding up as his arms lifted the material, showing the pale and soft skin of his stomach. Zach blushed at the sight, a smile forming on their lips as they chuckled and watched while Makoto fell backwards on his bed once they had both arrived in the room. Rolling over, the boy made room for their partner on the sheets, patting the area with a tired smile.

“Sit down with me.”

“What? No its fine I can-”

“Zach,” Makoto sat up a little, hand outstretched with a patient look on his face, “Come on, you need it. I can tell.”

He could always tell. It seemed to be an ability Makoto had, though for what reason Zach couldn’t answer. It hung like a third eye in the front of his brain, a constant warmth radiating like sun across his smiling face as he waiting patiently for the other to join hands with him. Zach did, eventually, fingers reaching out to touch at Makoto’s own with a slow hesitance. Makoto’s fingers were warmer compared to Zach’s, kept warm by the inside heater and blankets he had been piled under while they were out in the rain running in hopes of getting less wet than they already were. Wet...that was what Zach was worried about. They were wet and cold. They would ruin the other’s bed if they agreed.

But it was too late, Makoto had already dragged them into bed with him. Zach felt their side hit the mattress with a solid whump of pressure, the suddenness of the fall making them yelp in shock as they landed. Makoto’s laugh bubbled up against their side, a beacon of light in the white noise of stress. Zach re-adjusted themselves, smiling awkwardly back as a chuckle of their own hiccuped against their mouth. The feeling of the stress that had permeated their existence since college had started began to dissipate as Makoto moved them both around, adjusting so that their bodies pressed against one another, legs entwining atop the warm covers. Zach felt their hands move on their own, fingers running along Makoto’s waist, gripping it close. In return, Makoto’s hands went to their back, dragging his fingers down their clothed spine and causing a shiver to rake itself down their spine. 

“You’re so stressed,” Makoto groaned at the other in his bed with a wry smile on his lips as he let his fingers trail against the other’s back, “Any more and you’ll just turn to stone with it all.”

“Hell yeah,” Zach mumbled as they pressed their face into Makoto’s warm collar, their eyes shutting as the feeling of their boyfriend caressing their body enhanced their muscles unwinding, “Life as a statue sounds better than finals at this point, so, just make sure I get turned in a great pose.”

Makoto laughed again, giving a gentle tug to Zach’s hair before burying his whole face in it.

The two sat like that for a while, bodies entwined against each other. There was no noise except the patterning of the rain on the windows just overhead, the sound almost romantic as it played in the backdrop of their shared time. Soft words were whispered, usually sweet nonsense to one another or thoughts they both had but couldn’t be bothered to allow serious conversation for. Jokes spoke offered chuffs of laughter. They paused to listen to the sound of others yelling from the outside as they ran through the rain. Zach felt life fade away around them, a cloud of comfort overwhelming their senses with feelings of warm. Feelings of safety as their fingers found the soft skin underneath Makoto’s  shirt, touching it with teasing grip after grip.

Makoto wiggled underneath the touch. Zach could feel him draw a deep, unexpected breath. Their eyes opened up, looking down at the soft, exposed collar bone before them as a wicked idea formed carefully in the base of their mind. They tried their best to hide their grin as they sighed almost dramatically, fingers touching and pawing at the other’s sides before sliding up further and further. Each inch made Makoto squirm underneath them, the boy’s fingers clutching tighter and tighter at the other’s body with every movement. Zach couldn’t help the chuckle that broke their lips, Makoto whining as he too bit back a smile.

“Zaach,” Makoto whined from over them, “What the fu-hhh-ck do you think you’re doing?”

It was said teasingly, but interrupted when Zach’s lips found the other’s soft skin. They began kissing their way around the other’s neck, lips tracing the veins they could see and knew were there. 

“Kissing you.” Was the simple answer, smile wry as Makoto’s breath indicated he had huffed about the words returned.

“You-You know what I mean.”

They did, but, they didn’t quite respond. Instead they took their time to continue kissing Makoto’s exposed neck, biting in spots against the collar bone that they knew would make him squirm. He squirmed and more, gasping in shock and then letting out adorable little whines as Zach let their tongue run along the marks they had just made to sooth them. Their hands pulled Makoto close, their own breath picking up as their mouthing became more and more desperate, more and more needy. 

Fingers came around to tug at the fabric of Zach’s shirt, moving it back and forth with a desperate attempt to convey something. Worry blossomed in the other’s heart as they pulled away, eyebrows knit together with worry. Makoto’s face was warm, reddened with shock and intensity. It was an adorable look on him, for sure, but less adorable when Zach wasn’t sure of the intentions of making them separate. Had they done something wrong? Was this the wrong time? The thoughts blossomed like worry across their face.

“Uh,” Zach tried to find their voice, “Did I do….something wrong or…?”

“No!” Makoto yelled a little too fast, biting his lip before shaking his head, “No...No it wasn’t that it’s more...I wanted to do this before we got too far.”

After saying this, Makoto reached out with a hand, touching Zach’s cheek. Zach leaned into the touch without thinking about it, breathing out with the comfort that the gentle graze provided. Makoto brought his hand forward and, with it, Zach’s face. Zach followed, curious but confused, until their lips met in a gentle lock. The kiss was soft, Makoto’s lips neither dry nor chapped as they moved against their own pair that felt almost inadequate in comparison. If it was an issue, though, Makoto showed no signs of it, for he poured himself into the kiss that was brought forward with the utmost affection. Eyes shut, he worked his lips with Zach’s until one of them, it was hard to remember who, found the courage to part their lips and allow the other’s tongue into it.

The makeout turned messy fast, drool pooling between lips and leaking out slightly as Zach adjusted themselves so that they hovered over Makoto, arms on either side of him. Parting left a gentle string of drool connecting their lips together, each of their faces flushed with a delightful redness that emphasized both their love and skin tones all at once. 

“I just...wanted to kiss you properly first is all, you know?”

They averted their eyes together, the position almost too much as it spoke of something insinuated and initiated all at the same time. 

“Do you…” Zach’s voice was soft, “Want to do anything more than kiss?”

Makoto laughed the nervous, gentle laugh he always did when he was unsure of something. Zach had a fond memory of the first time they had met one another in class, their study group asking questions to which Makoto answered almost easily, math coming to him in a way it didn’t to anyone else in the conglomerate. Despite the answer being right, though, Makoto had been unsure. The laugh he had echoed was soft as he rubbed the back of his head with a nervous unsureness that was fresh in his movements. It was the same laugh as this one. Zach could only hallmark it into the files of the many reasons they loved the man beneath them.

“Depends...on what ‘more than kiss’ is?” Were Makoto’s words, eyebrow raised with a curious challenge.

Zach laughed, leaning down to kiss him again, their lips gentle in their efforts to ease the mood they had both created. “Well,” Zach laughed, “I mean kissing is great too yeah? There’s a lot of spots to kiss? LIke your lips...And your cheeks…”

Their kisses trailed to either cheek, the pecks they placed on them making Makoto chuff out a laugh before they dared to allow their lips lower, lower, lower still….

“Your neck…”

A kiss to his neck.

“Your collar…”

A kiss to the collar bone, each one being peppered and then teasingly bitten with teeth grazing a little to low to be considered kind. Makoto’s body shuddered as Zach felt his hands clutch on their arms, tight in the hopes that it might relieve some of the tension building up between their bodies.

“Your shoulders...and your chest.”

A kiss on the left. A kiss on the right. Lips like fire trailed down to his chest, where Zach found the courage to tug down the already low-rested collar of Makoto’s shirt and press a kiss into the center of his pectoral muscles, tongue flicking out to lick at the skin and causing Makoto to gasp. Fingers found the bed, curling as he bit back a laugh but failed, spluttering out a chortle that made one build up in Zach’s stomach as well. 

“I was trying to be hot!” Zach argued as they removed their lips from the other, a grin managing to meander its way across their face. Makoto was wheezing now, face redder still with the laughing and the ticklish area Zach had inadvertently found.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Makoto apologized, “I wasn’t ready for that!”

Zach collapsed now onto him, their bodies colliding into a pile of warm, bubbly laughter thAt matched the growing pattern of the rain on the shared rooftop above them. Thunder growled somewhere far in the distance of their room, but, it wasn’t able to be heard over their joy. Zach rested their head on top of Makoto’s chest, listening to his heart beat and trying to time their breathing so that it occurred simultaneously. 

Makoto’s hand found its way to Zach’s hair in return, fingers braiding through the strands that it could reach, rubbing circles with the pads of his fingers on the other’s scalp. The massage relieved a pressure that Zach didn’t even know was there, eyes fluttering shut as they relished in the gentle movements of their partner. They took a large breath of air, releasing it with a gentle sigh as they hugged Makoto close again.

“Still want to try ‘more than just kissing’?” Zach wondered curiously, the brief worry that they had, somehow, ruined the moment that wasn’t even quite there to begin with. Makoto smiled down, closing his eyes with a hum.

“Yeah, but, in a bit,” Was the response, warm and patient,”I just...kind of like being like this with you, you know? Calm and...relaxed and stuff...It’s hard enough to get up on rainy days...I like to make sure we’re both okay first.”

“You don’t have to make sure I’m okay…” the mumble echoed from Zach’s lips before they could stop it. 

“Of course I do,” Makoto rebutted without missing a beat, “I love you...after all…”

Zach looked up, Makoto’s eyes warm as the both of them stared on at one another. Blushes heated their faces for a third time that night, but, this time they smiled at each other. Leaning forward, they shared one more kiss before wrapping themselves up in the warmth of one another’s body.