#phinkuro

“-and then Feitan tried to stab the man!” Chrollo finished, his cheeks flushed and eyes bright, reflecting every glimmer of the city lights around them. Phinks nodded his head dumbly, not hearing a single word he said. How could anyone be so beautiful? Christ, what sort of luck did he have to earn a date with someone like Chrollo—

“Phinks?” Chrollo said, in a way that told him he’d repeated himself a couple of times before getting his attention. “Are you okay?”

Clearing his throat, though not the blush on his face, Phinks nodded and looked at the sidewalk beneath his feet. “Uh, yeah,” he said, trying to sound like he’d been listening to everything Chrollo had said for the past hour. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”

Chrollo looked at him puzzledly, his brow furrowing beneath his cute beanie. Phinks wanted to kick himself. Are you okay? Why the fuck would he say something like that? God, it’d been too much to ask for this date to go on without him sticking his foot in his mouth. “Thank you for asking me to spend the day with you,” Chrollo said, smiling sweetly as he took up Phinks’s hand in his own, sending his negative thoughts to a screeching halt. “I was so surprised when you asked me. I’m having a great time.”

Oh, god. His hand. It was so small and warm. Phinks couldn’t stop staring at their joined fingers, his mouth opening and closing unattractively for a few minutes as his brain stuttered and skipped like a scratched cd. “I was uh, happy you said yes,” Phinks admitted, feeling his neck burn. It’d taken hours to psych himself up enough to ask, and when Chrollo had smiled and accepted, well, Phinks nearly wanted to punch through a wall in eagerness.

Chrollo smiled now, so much like then, and tugged him forward by the hand. “Let’s have a good date, okay?” he said, looking around at the city around him curiously. The sky was dark with clouds, but the city was bright at least, various storefronts and restaurants boasting their wares in every enticing way they could. “I’ve never been here before, so let’s explore.”

“Anything you want,” he said, and he meant it. They could get themselves lost and he’d be grateful for every moment he spent holding Chrollo’s hand. Phinks trailed a step behind as Chrollo wandered from store to store, sticking his nose into every little thing that caught his eye. The scent of food was tempting, and Chrollo looked up at him with pleading eyes when he spotted a café with macaroons.

It was everything Phinks had hoped it’d be. They ate, they drank, they talked and wandered and laughed. Chrollo reached for his hand every change he could get, and Phinks reveled in the contact, his cheeks no doubt stained a permanent red at how eager Chrollo seemed to be closer to him. It felt like they walked from one end of the city to the other, until the bright lights faded and the street cleared, the only souls in sight them and the dreary clouds above.

Chrollo’s voice was so calming, and Phinks drifted pleasantly as he talked and talked, the conversation one-sided but carrying itself easily from Chrollo’s eagerness to chat. It was a perfect date, Phinks thought. Perfect, wonderful, and absolutely indicative of the world being a kind and just place. Phinks looked up at the sky and took in a deep breath, savoring the moment.

When the first raindrop hit him on the cheek, Phinks jumped. Phinks opened his eyes and stopped daydreaming, squawking as more came down, cold and wet and completely blind to the date it was about to ruin. “Oh, no!” Chrollo gasped, dropping Phinks’s hand to tug his hood over his head. “It’s really coming down!”

Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit— Phinks’s mind was a constant stream of profanity, his hand so cold now with Chrollo’s gone. “Quick,” he said, tugging Chrollo by the arm towards a nearby bus stop. “We can wait it out under there.” It’d be a shitty way to spend their date, but Phinks, idiot that he was, didn’t have an umbrella. Chrollo yelped as more rain fell, and Phinks held his arm over his date’s head as they ran towards the only shelter in sight.

“That came out of nowhere,” Chrollo grumbled, wringing the water from his jacket the moment they were beneath the rickety roof. The sky opened up and the rain poured down, and though they had been close to bus stop, they still found themselves soaked by the time they ducked under the eave and huddled under the small overhang. Chrollo turned up to smile at Phinks. “Your hair is a mess now.”

Somehow, despite the chilly touch of the rain against his skin, Phinks felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. He reached up a hand to touch his hair, only to find that his carefully gelled look was utterly ruined by the water. Sticky and messy, it held none of its usual smoothness, and given his lack of a mirror or comb, Phinks realized quite suddenly that he was stuck on a rained-out date with ruined hair and a date who was far, far out of his league.

“I am so sorry,” Phinks mumbled, completely mortified. “This is the worst date.” How could he have expected Chrollo to waste an entire day with him and for it to have gone well? This was such a mistake-

Chrollo’s lips were as soft as they looked and Phinks stared with wide, shocked eyes at Chrollo’s closed ones. The kiss was sweet and mind-numbingly earnest, Chrollo’s small hands threading through his messy hair to keep him in place. Phinks floundered, the rain poured, and Chrollo let out the tiniest of sounds when he pulled himself away, staring up at Phinks with lips shiny with gloss that tasted like cherries.

“It looks handsome all messy,” Chrollo whispered, his smile coy and lovely. “And I’m having a wonderful time.”

Phinks was fairly certain he looked like an idiot, but he figured it was alright, since he could die satisfied now that he knew what it felt like to kiss Chrollo. He brought up a hand that only shook a little and cupped his date’s cheek, his heart stuttering a little when Chrollo leaned into his palm. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” Phinks said, because it really, really was, the cold and wet included.