#yukiness

Ness has watched Valentine's Day come and go countless times before, but not without a passing glance.

He has always loved the holiday, but with no one by his side to celebrate with, what was the point? He wasn't the type to scowl at lovers holding hands on the street, but he'd be lying if he said it didn't make him feel at least a little lonely.

He has dated people in the past, but that's all there was to it—they were just two people dating. It was nothing like the fairytales he read when he was little, where the mage and the princess fall inlove and live happily ever after, the movies where the female lead falls in a bookstore into the arms of a guy, or even the shojou manga he started reading recently where the mc bumps into the male lead on her way to school with toast in her mouth.

It was so... realistic. It made too much sense, it was too easy to explain. There was nothing magical about it. But this year—this year was going to mark the end of Ness's boring, non-magical, and damn near non-existent love life! Wanna know why? Because he was going to find himself a partner who dreams as big as he does, someone who's just like those books and movies he watches, someone with whom he'll have a strong, supernatural, and unexplainable bond with.

Now you might be wondering, "How exactly is Ness going to go about finding a partner five days before Valentine's Day?" By going on blind dates, obviously! Love is blind, afterall~ Operation: "Find My Chosen One Before Valentine's Day" has officially begun!

...You know, Germany is known for a lot of things; some of them being good things and the rest of them being bad things,, but what Germany isn't known for is its dating pool (and how utterly shit it is).

The first date went as follows: he and his date (that he met on a very sketchy dating app) decided to make a reservation for dinner at a well-known restaurant in the city, meet at the train station, then walk together to said restaurant.

Ness spent hours getting ready; combing his soft, fluffy hair, going through his entire wardrobe just to find some suitable clothes, chanting words of encouragement to himself in front of a mirror, etc. This was his first date in a long time, and he wanted it to be super special! And so he put on his nicest white button-up, topped over a pale red sleeveless sweater, with baggy brown jeans and made his way out of his house.

The train didn't take long to arrive at its destination—his date offered to pick him up from his house, but potentially getting kidnapped didn't sound very magical to him... The train hits its last stop, sending a wave of passengers off board including himself. Ah, just on time too-

"You're late." A voice spoke in a monotone yet strict tone.

Was the very warm welcome Ness was greeted with as soon as both his feet were planted off the train.

Ness is met with a tall, chiselled, young man wearing glasses, with his brunette hair combed back, his suit without a wrinkle in sight, and his shoes polished enough to blind someone if they looked at them too long. Now he feels underdressed.

"O-oh, am I? I thought we agreed that we'd meet at 5:00pm?"

"We did, it's 5:01pm. You're late."

"Oh... sorry..(?)"

Ah, so he was that kind of guy.

No no no! It's not right to make assumptions just yet—this is only the first meeting. Maybe he just likes keeping to time! And he was right to some degree, he did technically come late, even if it was only by a minute. He'll just come 30 minutes earlier next time so he won't be late!

"Come on, let's go. You wouldn't want to be late for our reservation, either."

This was it, he was actually going on a date! The path to the mystical realm of love was getting clearer! What long chats were they going to have over dinner? If the date went well, would they go home and watch a movie together? Would they share a plate of spaghetti and accidentally roll the same spaghetti noodle on their fork leading to an accidental spaghetti kiss?! On second thought, that's actually kinda gross. But still, the possibilities were endless!!

So Ness had to ask himself, if there were so many possibilities, so many chances for a romantic moment, so many opportunities for a connection—why hadn't anything happened on this date?

The table was silent, the only noise being made was their utensils tapping on the plate and the sound that surrounded them of other lovers actually having a good time. No long conversations—no conversations at all, actually; no movie date, no spaghetti kiss (thankfully), and no magic. They just ate and went their separate ways.

The next two dates followed suit, with a little less jackassery, sure, but still followed the same formula. Meet up at the train station, walk to the restaurant, silently eat their food, then go home.

Ness had been waiting at the train station for an hour and a half, with the hope that maybe his date was just caught in traffic, but with each minute the hand on his watch ticked, the more certain he got that he had just gotten ghosted. His patience had officially reached its end when he felt the droplets of rain that occasionally fell transitioning into a heavy and unforgiving storm. Ness believed that love was worth dying for, but maybe after he actually met the person.

Out of all the clichés fate could have possibly put him in, did wandering around dejectedly in the rain while searching for shelter have to be the one? Fate was really unfair sometimes. Why was that so? Everyone else had a Valentine, everyone else had a partner to go on cute dinner dates with, everyone else had someone to share an umbrella with, so why didn't he?

Ness ponders with a heavy heart as he walks into a bookstore to hide from the ever-pouring rain. The bookstore was warm—lit with orange lights and decorated with plants at almost every corner. He decides to scan the shelves as he continues to think.

Was he the problem? Was he too old-fashioned? Had the fairy tales he read growing up set his standards too high? Maybe love was supposed to be boring—a simple cause and effect between two people that leads them to date each other, maybe that's all it really was. It made sense, it was realistic, it was easy to explain, it was... non-magical.

Ness stops in front of one of the shelves; It was the romance category. It had extra decorations for Valentine's Day, and some of the books were even on sale.

Maybe that's why he couldn't fall inlove. If love really were just another explainable human emotion, then maybe he was destined to be alone forever.

His eyes glossed over to one of the books on the shelf; it was a romantic tragedy. Fate really had funny ways of sending messages.

As he goes to reach for the book that might as well have been labelled "the tragedy of Alexis Ness's love life" with how unsubtle fate was being, he trips on the puddle beneath him, formed by his still very soaked clothes from walking in the rain.

Fate was just messing with him at this point.

He had already made a fool of himself by standing awkwardly in one place for damn near two hours—waiting for someone who was never going to show up, now he was going to be seen tripping on his own puddle and falling face-first onto the floor. Maybe if fate felt even a shred of pity for him, she would do him a favour and topple the shelf over on him.

It was a long fall, almost like he was falling in slow motion. He could've sworn he started to hear trumpets playing, maybe he would grow wings and fly off to wizard heaven or something. He'd have a lot to say to those guys-

"Careful!"

He hears a voice like milk and honey exclaim before finding himself caught mid-fall.

"Are you okay? You were looking kind of out of it then you suddenly fell." The other boy asked as he oh so kindly helped him back up onto his feet, still holding onto the side of his arms to keep him from falling over again.

Ness could only stand and stare like an idiot, still processing the sequence of events. He had just fallen in a bookstore into the arms of a guy—a very handsome guy, at that (who looks an awful lot like a very popular wizard)—after having been ghosted by his date. He swore to never even think about doubting fate ever again.

"Hello? Do you need to go to the hospital??"

"...Huh? Oh! N-no, not at all, I was just spaced out is all."

"Ah, I see... You were staring quite intensely at that book, are you a fan?"

"Hm?" Ness hummed confused as he turned back to look at the book.

"Brokeback Mountain" is a classic romantic tragedy between two homosexual cowboys who were unable to properly and outwardly express their love for each other due to societal pressure.

"Uhm....No, not really, I was just looking. I really like what it's about, though."

"Really?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah! Two people who just can't help but love each other, even while being condemned by the people around them. It makes no sense to keep loving eachother with their current circumstances, yet they still do, even from far away; there's something really magical about that.." he explained with a soft smile on his lips.

"...Magical?"

"Y-yeah! You know, like unexplainable things! Like feelings and stuff.. Sorry, I'm just rambling."

The other boy chuckles, sending a wave of heat to Ness's face in embarrassment.

"Magical... I like that a lot! It's a really good way to describe it it Mr...?"

"Ness, Alexis Ness."

"Well, Ness, I'm Yukimiya, Kenyu Yukimiya."

"Yukimiya? Are you a foreigner?"

"Yeah, I am! I just moved here recently."

"Oh, that's really cool!"

A comfortable silence lingers between them for a moment before Yukimiya speaks up again.

"You know,, I heard that some cinemas are bringing back Brokeback Mountain for Valentine's Day. If you're still up to watch it, I'd be happy to come with."

Ness felt like his eyes were about pop out of his skull. He must've heard him wrong, surely.

"P-pardon?"

"They're bringing back Brokeback Mountain to theatres, would you like to watch it with me?" Yukimiya repeats.

Nope, he was right the first time.

Yukimiya sees Ness's hesitation and takes a step back.

"...Unless you have plans for tomorrow? Thats perfectly fine-"

"NO!!" Ness interrupts louder than instead, "No,,, I don't. I'd love to..!"

Yukimiya blinks a few times from the sudden interruption before smiling.

"Is 4:00pm okay?"

"Yeah, that's good—great—perfect even!!" Ness waffled on.

"Alright then, it's settled. February 14th at 4:00pm," he shifts his weight to his left foot as he turns around to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled one last time before making his way out the door.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

"Yeah....see you tomorrow.." replied weakly.

This is feeling in his chest... is it normal? It's completely unfamiliar to him. It feels warm, fuzzy, and a bit dizzying. It was unexplainable, it felt magical.

BL!mlist