#kaitobuki

A second secret santa gift for @taloyo because I had to write for this ship too 

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The party was in full swing. Music and food and laughter filled the house, everyone drinking and eating and just enjoying the party.

It was lightly snowing outside, cold and quiet, a stark contrast to inside the house.

“What are you doing out here?”

Kaito turned to look at his friend Takeshi who was stepping out of the house with a cigarette in his hand. Kei’s house had a strict no smoking rule so Takeshi was taking it outside. “Just wanted to freeze to death, I guess.”

Takeshi snorted, noting the light ice crystals dotting throughout Kaito’s hair. It sparkled a little under the porchlight. “Something on your mind?” His cigarette wasn’t lit and he wasn’t making any movements to pull out a lighter.

Kaito remembered he had left his own lighter at home today. “Not sure, maybe just wanted to appreciate the cold.”

When the days became shorter, with the cold lingering just a little longer day after day, with the end of the year in sight, sometimes winter brought with it a change in feelings.

Kaito preferred the summer a million times over to the winter. He hated the finality it brought every year, the months of nothing but icicles and cold chill every morning, the frost and snow that came every night. The silence it brought. Kaito didn’t like having so much time or quiet to dwell on those thoughts he’d pushed out from the rest of the year.

And the holiday party Kei was throwing was nice and Kaito did enjoy being there, but eventually it would end and he would go home to an empty apartment and he would be alone with his thoughts again.

He had stepped out because he hadn’t wanted to kill the mood of the party. He knew his friends would notice the change in disposition and he didn’t want the cheer to drop because of him.

An ice cold snowball hit him right in the back of his head, derailing his train of thought.