* love by the moon.

makoto listens as rin rambles on, features softening more and more. his mind is barely more than a haze of rin’s words and the relative peace in the situation, and were rin not sick and eating his soup, makoto thinks about how he’d love to pepper the redhead’s face in kisses. he frowns slightly at rin’s words, but his smile picks up a moment later and as he bumps their foreheads together. ❝ hah, right, how silly of me. ❞ a soft laugh flutters from his lips, and he gently tugs on a strand of hair before speaking again. ❝ hmm mm. i was going to count this as a date regardless, so i’m glad we see eye to eye on that. your saying you’d propose after our third date though ? didn’t know you were that eager to marry me. ❞

kuroo snorts as the walking mountain of blankets makes it’s way into the living room. he picks out some of them as his own, notably the relatively thinner ones compared to the thicker ones closer to the brunette’s body. ( he rarely got cold, so he didn’t terribly mind seeing his blankets wrapped around his roommate ). he hums out his answer, shuffling into the kitchen to make the warm drinks.

❝ here, i got some candy canes too in case you wanna stir it. ❞ kuroo places their cups on the coffee table, a candy cane already melting in his cup ( which had a cat’s face on it, of course ). he sits down next to oikawa, pointedly ignoring the tingle the very idea brought. besides, oikawa and the blankets were warm, and kuroo’s entirely willing to spend the rest of the winter like this. ❝ so, you gonna put on one of those cheesy christmas movies or ? ❞

rin’s just like a child when he’s sick, as makoto has gathered. he waits for rin to inevitably tell him the truth, and his gaze softens as he nods knowingly. ( he’s telling makoto what he already knows, but he’ll cut him some slack this once ). he watches as rin takes a spoonful of the soup, and he raises an eyebrow at his question. ❝ yes ? who do you think cooks haru’s meals half th- ❞ he abruptly stops at rin’s words, mouth hanging opening and eyes wide with surprise. a crimson flush scorches his cheeks, and it takes makoto a minute to remember how to speak again. ❝ wh-what ? rin, you can’t be serious.  ❞

   “   𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺  𝑰𝑺  𝑨  𝑷𝑼𝑵𝑰𝑺𝑯𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻;  𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬  𝑵𝑶𝑻  𝑺𝑼𝑷𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑫  𝑻𝑶  𝑬𝑵𝑱𝑶𝒀  𝑰𝑻.   ”   though  she’s  not  doing  a  very  good  job  of  making  it  appear  as  such.  she’s  long  given  up  on  attempting  to  rid  the  smile  off  her  face.  adjusting  her  grip  on  the  dozens  of  bags  in  her  hands,  she  turns  the  smile  on  𝙝𝙚𝙧  𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣.  he  has  a  heftier  number  of  groceries  to  carry.  (  it  is  a  𝙥𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩,  after  all.  )   “   there’s  still  a  few  more  places  we  need  to  make  stops  at.   ”   

       distinctly,  yet distantly,  tooru feels the prickling of tears in his eyes.   “   hajime,   ”   he starts.   swallows,  when he realises he’s choked up and unprepared and doesn’t actually know what he wants to say,  reaching out for hajime’s hand to fill the silence but missing,  catching his sleeve instead and holding on anyway to the blazer and to any semblance of stability to anchor his shaking hands,  when a tear falls   –       

       and he’s cried at graduations,  at every one of them since he began to understand its meaning,  but this graduation is different.       

       this graduation is different not because it’s a parting of ways,  because it’s never been,  really,  in all the ways that matter,  when he’s kept in touch with everyone he wants to keep in touch with,  and good riddance to the rest,  but because hajime is going his own way,  and for the first time hajime’s way is not also aligned with tooru’s,  and that,  tooru thinks,  is what makes it different.   they’ve never been apart quite like this before,  not since they met when they were children with only houses between them,  and barely meters to cross.       

       soon,  it’d be cities and countries,  and as train rides blur into flights they’d be miles apart,  and tooru.   well,  he’s always been good at not getting what he wants,  and having to deal with it anyway.       

       “   geez,  you don’t have to sound so dramatic,  iwa-chan,  this isn’t goodbye.   ”       

       i won’t let it be goodbye.       

       is it cowardly :  at the end of all this,  to not lay bare his feelings ?   would it make him brave,  he wonders,  at the end of all this,  to confess how he feels ?       

       “   iwa - chan   –   hajime,   ”       

i love you / i’ve always liked you / the past few years were the best / you’re the best ace i could ask for / you’re my best friend / i don’t want to leave you / i’ll miss spending time with you / i have to go / you understand,  don’t you ? / this isn’t goodbye.

       and would it make him cruel to reach out only as his hand would be out of reach ?       

[ to sho-chan ] >> oh a potential safety risk ? that’s a little . . o/////o!  [ to sho-chan ] >> ah spanner-kun is over ? since when ? for how long ?  [ to sho-chan ] >> also love the carpeting ! where’s the plants i bought you though ? i don’t see them anywhere !!!!

   [  msg  »  taichi  ]   ☆⌒(ゝ。∂)    [  msg  »  taichi  ]   ♥♥♥  !    [  msg  »  taichi  ]   r  u  chi-chan’s  bofhfogoijgij;oijijuh

   she’s  never  attempted  to  delete  messages  before,  but  is  now  faced  with  the  startling  revelation  that  there’s  𝘯𝘰  𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩  𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯  𝘪𝘯  𝘵𝘩𝘦  𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵  𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦.  this,  above  everything  else,  feels  like  the  biggest  offense.

   [  msg  »  taichi  ]   are  you  on  your  way  ?     [  msg  »  taichi  ]   make  some  friends  while  you’re  there  !wwwwwwwwwwwwww    [  msg  »  taichi  ]   ikemen-kun;)  

[   msg  »  chihaya   ]   chihaya,  you...

       deep breaths,  taichi.       

[   msg  »  chihaya   ]   who was that ? [   msg  »  chihaya   ]   please don’t tell me you let a child snatch your phone.

       he starts running,  just in case.       

[   msg  »  chihaya   ]   yeah,  i’m almost th [   msg  »  chihaya   ]   wait what do you mean there [   msg  »  chihaya   ]   chihaya ???????

   ‘‘   ah———  𝗆𝗂𝗒𝖺𝗆𝗎𝗋𝖺,  𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦  𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥  𝘵𝘰  𝘣𝘦  𝘪𝘯  𝘣𝘦𝘥  !   ’’   her  attention  towards  the  soup  she’d  been  heating  is  replaced  for  the  body,  visibly  drained  from  sickness,  that  drags  itself  into  the  kitchen.  𝗌𝗈  𝗆𝗎𝖼𝗁  𝖿𝗈𝗋  𝖻𝖾𝗂𝗇𝗀  𝖺  𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁𝗍𝖿𝗎𝗅  𝖿𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗇𝖽  .  .  .  a  soft  sigh  when  it  all  clicks:   ‘‘   tooru  left  already,  didn’t  he  .  .  .  ?  in  any  case,  is  your  fever  flaring  ?  the  soup  is  almost  done———    ’’   

kuroo watches as the storm rages on outside, watching as white blankets the skyline. having such a strong snowstorm in tokyo was a strange sight, but at least classes were cancelled for the week. but that also meant that most stores were closed and no one in their right mind would go out in the thick of it anyways, so that sucked. what also sucked was him being stuck with his roommate for the better part of this week. ( not that he disliked his roommate, far from it actually ).

❝ oika-a, ❞ kuroo starts, looking around the living room to see if the brunette was in there. ❝ i’m gonna make some hot chocolate, if ya want some. i got marshmallows and everythin’. ❞

       tooru perks up instantly at the mention of hot chocolate,  wading out into the living room wrapped in an obscene amount of blankets,   --   it’s only appropriate for this weather,  he’d insist   --   most of which he would freely admit was not his own.   sorry,  kuro - chan,  your blankets are just so warm ~    he’d flirted,  lashing fluttering slowly as he blinked,  gazing right at tetsurou as he said it.       

   stay  calm,  her  inner-voice-  one  that  perks  up  at  intermediate  times  without  her  explicit  say-so-  commands.  whatever  you  do,  𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵  𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵  𝘵𝘰𝘰  𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺.   “   .  .  .  .  .  yes  .  .   ”   ah.  no  good.  she  can  feel  her  facial  muscles  twitching.  stay  cool,  kei  !    “   does  that  mean  chiyoko-chan’s  ready  to  take  the  next  step  ?   ”   

      HE  DESPERATELY  WISHES  TO  PROTEST  but  it  would  seem  he  is  at  a  standstill .  he  is  after  all  the  younger  of  the  two  therefore  it  would  be  rude  of  him  to  further  object .  not  to  mention  the  heiress  can  be  quite  commanding  when  she  wanted  to  be  despite  her  sweet  appearance .  he  fears  what  would  happen  should  he  cross  her  even  if  it  was  something  so  minor .  so  he  folds . 

      HE  REFRAINS  FROM  SPEAKING  FOR  A  MOMENT ,  taking  time  to  accept  his  defeat .  when  he  speaks  his  tone  is  composed  &  civil  despite  his  own  inner  distress .  ❛    i  must  thank  you  for  your  kind  generosity ,  haru - san .  however  i’d  prefer  to  not  impose  on  you  too  much .  i’ll  order  a  children’s  meal .    ❜

❝ Yes I did Rin, you’re sick. ❞ As if on cue, Rin sneezes, and Makoto gives him a pointed look. ( a quiet i-told-you-so look, because he was too poilte to say it out loud ). He reads his friends motion easily, and doesn’t hesitate in handing the redhead the much needed box of tissues. This isn’t his first rodeo, having two younger siblings and all, so he’s well prepared. At the mention of his container, Makoto offered him a smile as he pushed it closer to his friend. ❝ You bet ! I didn’t know what your favorite was, so I just made you some miso. If you want, I can make you something else ? ❞