#raishiteru

Makishima finished kicking off his shoes and followed Toudou into the house towards the kitchen, flicking on lights and hauling a bag of groceries from their run to the store. Makishima’s family were all out for the night and so Toudou had suggested that after a busy day together, they should make some hot cocoa and relax. Makishima was fine with cocoa but he hadn’t expected the mile long grocery list.

“I thought we were making cocoa, not a production. Do we really need all this?” he asked, eyeing the full shopping bag.

“Maki-chan, this will be the best hot cocoa that you’ve ever tasted in your entire life and to do that I need certain ingredients,“ Toudou explained and started emptying the bag onto the kitchen counter and lining up stuff.

“I’m still not sure if I should have let you the house in the house in the first place,” Makishima sighed, standing in the door and watching his rival and friend slowly transform the kitchen from clean to chaos.

But Toudou laughed his usual laugh, and Makishima was left to mutter under his breath about annoying friends coming over, and making messes. It was early December and the biking season was finished for the year but that didn’t mean that Toudou left Makishima alone. Absolutely not. If anything his texting increased since they couldn’t see each other as often without races to attend.

A few days back, Toudou had texted him moaning about how it had been three weeks (!) since he’d seen Makishima and couldn’t he come over to hang out and he would bring his bike so they could bike together, weather permitting and he definitely had room so he couldn’t say no right?

Makishima had dragged his feet a little because final exams were coming up soon and he needed to be ready for them but Toudou had offered to study with him if he wanted, so he had agreed in the end. Privately, he’d missed racing with Toudou and the time they spent together after each competition but he wasn’t going to admit that to anyone. It was bad enough with Kinjou and Tadokorocchi occasionally teasing him, he didn’t need to give anyone more ammo.

“Trust me, this cocoa will knock your socks off,” Toudou promised.

Makishima glanced down at his bare feet and shrugged. “Fine. Amaze me.”

“I will! But we have to do this the right way. So first, pick your mug.”

Makishima started dully at him.

“Why do I need to pick a mug? Just grab one for me from the cupboard right next to you.”

“Aesthetics. We’re starting from the beginning! I’d suggest something deep blue or green, strong colors but relaxing. Then get over here because you’re my cooking assistant,” Toudou bossed him around.

“Why am I the assistant in my own kitchen? That seems very backwards.”

“Because I’m the one who knows what we’re making of course,” Toudou said smugly. “Let’s start with the milk!”

In the end, Makishima obediently followed whatever instructions Toudou gave him even if it seemed silly. He wasn’t used to sharing the kitchen with someone and two of them kept bumping into each other, grabbing each other’s utensils and apologizing over and over. Toudoud’s recipe was extravagant, using ice cream, vanilla, chocolate chips, whipped cream and cinnamon in the cocoa. So much for powdered mix from a can. But eventually they managed to make two beautiful mugs of cocoa that satisfied even Toudou’s incredibly high standards.

“Done!” Toudou yelled, looking very pleased with himself and the two mugs on the counter. “Does that look amazing or what?”

“It looks very… fancy. Good job with the whipped cream,” Makishima praised him. Toudou had spent a good five minutes trying to make a pattern or something with the whipped cream before topping it with chocolate chips and cocoa powder. Add in the ice cream and vanilla in the cocoa already and Makishima was half certain that his heart would stop working after two sips.

“You always have to think about presentation when you serve food. People appreciate the effort and style that goes into proper plating,” Toudou explained.

“I guess so.” Makishima shrugged. “Even though it tastes the same.”

Toudou sighed dramatically. “Fine. Everyone but you appreciates it Maki-chan. Here, enjoy.”

Makishima grabbed his mug and took a sip and was given about one second to think before Toudou started pestering him.

“Well?? Did you like it? It was great right? It had to be great because I made it!”

It was actually very good but great wasn’t a word that Makishima used very often, let alone when praising anyone so he settled for “It’s much better than anything I could make myself,” which was true and more than enough to boost Toudou’s ego through the roof.

Toudou beamed and started in on how he and his sister had come up with the recipe and how they’d messed with it until it had worked and so on and so forth. Makishima only half listened and headed over to the couch in the living room to sit and Toudou trailed after him with his own mug.

“And that’s how we finally figured out the adding vanilla has to happen after you heat it up. It took it a lot of trial and error.” Toudou finished. “I’m think really more of a tea person but I like making this a lot too.”

“Yeah but will you be able to fit into your bike shorts after drinking this all winter?” Makishima teased.

“Yes, thank you. I’ll be fine since I don’t eat ice cream every other day,” Toudou ribbed back and Makishima laughed a little at his exaggeration.  

“It takes way too much effort to worry that about my diet. I’m healthy and I eat carbs before racing. That should be enough.”

“Well it’s okay for now since it’s off season but you should probably be more thoughtful once we start racing again. Do you want to lose because you didn’t eat a good breakfast or something?” Toudou half scolded him, putting his hands on hips and Makishima waved him off, slouching further down on the couch.

“Don’t worry about me, I plan on crushing you in every race this year,” Makishima challenged him and Toudou grinned, his smile sharper than usual. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

But then he relaxed into the couch and grabbed his cocoa. “I suppose I might lose a race or two if you’re in as good a shape as you were this summer,” he said softly.

Makishima felt his face heat up and he stared into his cup, hoping that Toudou wasn’t looking at him. “Well, I’ll have to train pretty hard if I want to beat you in every race.”

“Heh, you’re not just saying to flatter me are you?” Toudou asked him.

“What?” Makishima asked incredulously.

“What?” replied Toudou, sounding confused.

“Are you seriously saying that? Makishima demanded. “I have to wear myself out just to match you and you still beat me in half of our races last year, your school won the last IH this summer, every time I race you, you’re so much stronger than before, even Kinjou would probably lose to you in a pure climbing race. You’re absolutely incredible, beyond any other climber I’ve met.”

Toudou stared at him, his cocoa forgotten in his hands, clearly stunned by what he’d just heard and Makishima sat there bewildered. Toudou bragged about himself all the time, why did hearing it from him surprise him?

“You’re an incredible cyclist. Everyone knows that,” Makishima explained again. “Including you right?”

“Yeah. I know. But..” Now it was Toudou who was avoiding his gaze. “Well… it’s completely different hearing it from you,” he mumbled and Makishima couldn’t figure out what to say next. What was Toudou talking about? Different how?

They sat there in silence, sipping their drinks, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Makishima wished that it was light out and warmer, that way they could just spend time biking together. Biking with Toudou was easy, spending time with him was hard for too many different reasons. But he liked spending time with him so that had to be worth something.

But then Toudou cleared his throat and Makishima turned his attention back to the room.

“Uh, so, I was wondering, do you have any plans for winter break?” Toudou asked.

“I’m spending Christmas with my friends. And my parents like to have the family together for New Years, it’s a thing for them. My brother will be back to visit too so I want to be around for that. But otherwise, I suppose I don’t really have any plans. Why?” Makishima asked back.

Toudou was quiet for a moment but then he nodded. “Okay. Well, um I was wondering if, would you- do you want to come and hang out over the break?”

Makishima froze in his seat and felt his brain stutter to a halt. Toudou didn’t want to spend Christmas with him did he?

“Y-you don’t have any plans then?” he managed to say, hoping to distract Toudou until he could get his brain under control.

“I’m spending Christmas in Yokohama with my friends but nothing afterwards. Unless you count working your butt off at the inn plans. Because their will be plenty of that.”

“Are you trying to put me to work too?” Makishima asked.

Toudou laughed. “No, but you’re free to help me with whatever I get stuck with. It will be fun. Even without biking, there’s stuff to do. We can check out the town, I’ll show you our hot springs, you can watch me fold towels, we’ll find something to do. And I’ll cook for you too, there a few recipes of mine I want you to try. Will you come?”

Makishima didn’t answer immediately. This was something new, something nerve wracking. He and Toudou had spent time together outside of biking but this was more than just a weekend. This was a few days and at his house in Hakone, far outside of Makishima’s usual comfort zone. He couldn’t help the nervous thought that ran through his head. ‘What if this is a huge mistake and we can’t get along without biking between us?’

But when he turned back to face him, he could see that Toudou was smiling again, a softer hopeful one and Makishima could feel his own face starting to heat up again, and his stomach quivered. As far as he was concerned this was a huge overreaction, but he couldn’t stop it and Toudou was looking straight at him and it was impossible to avoid him or his request and quite frankly, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to.

“Alright. I’ll go. I’m sure my parents will give me permission so, yes,” he agreed.

Toudou lit up like a Christmas tree and he thumped Makishima on the back.

You won’t regret it Maki-chan. I promise!”

“I hope not,” Makishima said softly but Toudou was far too happy to hear him.

“Where’s your phone? I’m putting in your calendar so you won’t forget.” Toudou held out his hand to him expectantly.

“How could I forget?” Makishima snapped. “You’re going to text me about a million times reminding me between now and the 26th, I know it.”

But Toudou wouldn’t let up so Makishima gave in and handed him his phone and watched as he punched in a notice on the calendar before tossing him back his phone.

“It’ll be the best after Christmas party you’ve ever had.” Toudou said confidently.