#koviah writes

—and then feels the soft weight of a towel drop over his head.

Toge makes a soft, startled noise, head tilting slightly into the touch. The warmth blooming in his chest has nothing to do with the tea anymore.

Yuuta’s hands follow a second later, gently tousling and drying his hair, fingers combing through the damp strands with ease.

“We don’t want you getting sick,” Yuuta murmurs, voice low and fond as he works.

The fingers scratching at his scalp feel divine. “Tsuna mayo,” Toge mumbles, the words muffled more by the towel.

Yuuta laughs quietly behind him. “Just because you’re a linguistics major doesn’t mean you can just create your own language, y’know.”

“Okaka, Yuuta,” Toge replies with exaggerated sincerity, lips quirking upward as he lifts the cup again.

Toge held a watering can, diligently hydrating each plant. Beside him, Yuuta chatted cheerfully, keeping him company. Bees buzzed amongst the blossoms, and the fragrance of the flowers saturated the air.

As they approached a patch of azaleas, Yuuta became captivated by the flow of Toge’s blonde hair that he lost awareness of his surroundings. Distracted, he tripped over one of the large stones that bordered the garden, literally falling head over heels.

Toge instinctively reached out to steady him. Though his fingers managed to graze Yuuta's arm, in his eagerness to prevent the fall Toge had overcompensated, and the two of them tumbled onto the grass together. In the chaos, the watering can he had been carrying got knocked over, splashing its contents and soaking them both.

Yuuta’s first instinct was to make sure Toge was alright, and without thinking he reached up to brush a strand of Toge’s hair that had fallen over his eyes. Was that a bruise?… no, just some dirt.

Toge lay flat on his back, his blonde hair matted to his forehead from the water, a pout on his lips– but the sparkle in his eyes betrayed his amusement. Yuuta, regardless of seeing this, began to push himself up, his mouth parting, ready to flood Toge with apologies.

However, the slick, wet grass had other plans for them. As Toge propped himself up on his elbows, Yuuta's hand slid out from beneath him just as his feet had prior. And, in a serendipitous turn of events, their lips met in a soft, albeit jostling, unexpected kiss.

They pulled back, and just lay there, slightly dazed, trying to understand what just happened.

It would be so easy to get up and laugh it off like it shouldn’t have happened, but it was also easy to remember the stolen looks, brief excuses to touch, the many all-nighter movie nights where they woke up entangled in each other's limbs, there were so many ways, and-

“Can I…” Yuuta swallowed hard. “Can I just...?”

Yuuta slid his fingers down Toge’s face, finding their way to the nape of his neck. Caught up in the moment, he angles his head, and sees a myriad of emotions play out on Yuuta’s expressive face; nervousness, anticipation, hopes, and desire, all reflecting what he felt stirring inside.

“Yuuta…” Toge murmurs, He means yes. He means please. He means if you don’t kiss me now I might not make it.

With no more hesitation, both close the distance, meeting each other halfway.

It’s a soft, tentative brush of lips at first; slow and exploratory, as if they’re testing the waters. But as the initial jitters melt away, the kiss deepens, becoming more hungry.

Yuuta's tongue slips into Toge's wanting mouth, and hands begin to wander, transforming soft gasps into fervent moans.

There’s an overwhelming weight between them - shadows of the past, unsaid words, emotions that make the kiss almost too much for both to bear. Toge can only manage by grounding himself, winding his fingers through Yuuta’s hair, and pulling him in until no space remains between them.

Toge throws his head back, desperately trying to draw a breath, but this only invites Yuuta to press warm, damp lips to the curve of Toge’s throat.

Toge couldn’t care less about the flowers they were tending to before, the mud staining their clothes, or the fact that it’s also definitely in their hair, and especially not the fact that they were expected to show up at the dining hall any minute now.

It may have been just a kiss, but for Toge it was everything.

~~~~

They kiss a lot after that. Toge finds himself irresistibly drawn to the very curve of Yuuta’s lips, captivated whenever he speaks regardless of occasional stutters or fleeting thoughts. Whether pinned against walls, groaning into each other's mouths, or quietly enjoying a shared moment, their kisses speak volumes. They warm each other against winter’s chill, and bask under the scorching embrace of summers’ last days.

Toge constantly fumbles for a way to express what he feels, but instead finds eloquence in a hundred different kinds of kisses, and the soft strokes of his fingers on warm skin. He only hopes that it’s possible to convey the unspoken depths of his heart in every lingering moment in the shadows that was their challenging lives.

It’s enough, Toge reassures himself. They can figure out the rest later, together.

-- -- -- • -- -- -- • -- -- -- • -- -- --

It's the memories of their time together that keep him going through his darkest moments, as he finds himself gagged and guarded in what he assumes is a cellar on the Inumaki Estate.