Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s not unknown to the rest of the Hyotei regulars that Gakuto has something of a sweet tooth. It is by no means as sweet as Jirou’s, and certainly nowhere near to that of Rikkai’s Marui, but when Gakuto wants sweets, he means it.

His latest fixation is a German biscuit called a Speculoos, which his grandparents brought back from their holiday in Berlin. He guards the little packets zealously; he has no choice but to give one up to Jirou, who otherwise threatens to tell Atobe that it was Gakuto who had replaced his expensive Royal Jelly shampoo with pure honey.

Another he loses to Shishido, who demands it as payment for treating Gakuto to Mos Burger the previous week. Gakuto threatens to spit in the packet, but refrains when he notices Choutarou, standing like an overgrown guard dog at Shishido’s elbow.

Thankfully, the rest of his teammates know to leave his precious biscuits alone. Lunch break finds Gakuto up on top of the water tower, his usual haunt, a half eaten bento to his left and his maths homework fluttering in the wind. When Yuushi climbs up to join him, Gakuto has, in the warmth of the midday sun, fallen asleep.

Yuushi, content to sit and watch him for a while, shrugs off his blazer and drapes it over Gakuto’s shoulders. Gakuto may be tough, but he gets cold easily, as evidenced by the goose bumps on his exposed arms where he’d rolled the sleeves of his shirt up. He picks at Gakuto’s discarded bento, fishing out the natto from the rice and piling it into a corner of the box. The egg roll has slightly too much soy sauce for Yuushi’s tastes, but Gakuto likes his salty. Unsurprisingly, he’s left the carrot slices, even though his mother went to the trouble of using the flower cutter that Gakuto loves to hate.

Yuushi’s fiddling with the packet of cigarettes he keeps in his shirt pocket when Gakuto finally wakes up. He glares up at Yuushi through the red curtain of his fringe, as though Yuushi had woken him up on purpose. In retaliation, he leans down to kiss that pouting mouth, smirking when Gakuto whimpers a tiny bit and fists one hand in the front of Yuushi’s shirt.

Gakuto’s mouth tastes sweet, despite his bento consisting mostly of soy. Gakuto’s jacket underneath Yuushi’s hand crunches, and he fishes out the culprit.

“Just how many of these have you eaten today, Gakuto?” He asks, sliding his hand underneath Gakuto’s shirt and stroking the smooth skin he finds there. Gakuto squirms, reaching down to bat at Yuushi’s hand like a kitten with a feather.

“Are you calling me fat?” Gakuto demands, huffing and smacking Yuushi’s hand away. As he moves to sit up, a gust of wind sends the jack flying off the roof of the school building. Yuushi watches it float down to the ground dispassionately, leaning his full weight back on his palms as Gakuto dithers beside him.

“Dear me,” Yuushi comments as his jacket lands in the ornamental fountain outside the entrance. “You owe me a new jacket, Gakuto.”

Gakuto blushes. “Sh-shut up, stupid. It’s your fault for putting it on me in the first place.” He thrusts his own jacket at Yuushi. “Wear mine if you’re so bothered, I have a spare in my locker.”

To his credit, Yuushi does his best. He’s by no means a giant, but Gakuto’s blazer looks comically small on him. Gakuto, clutching his stomach with one hand and wheezing with laughter, takes several photos on his phone before Yuushi wrestles his arms out of the sleeves and pounces on him.

In the end, both of them end up skipping fifth period, and Gakuto shows up to his sixth period Chemistry lesson with a suspiciously crumpled shirt and messy hair. Shishido takes one look at him and balks. Gakuto smirks.

“No” Shishido barks, angrily. “No, I don’t care, I don’t want to know what you’ve been doing.” He moves his stool as far away as possible while Gakuto slides into the one next to him.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Ryou. We can’t all be precious little virgins like you.” He gets a hard shove for that comment, which he returns by sabotaging Shishido’s distilling experiment. Unfortunately, the teacher believes Shishido when he explains with half of one of his eyebrows has been singed off, and Gakuto ends up with detention. Gakuto sulks with Shishido for the rest of the period; Shishido had broken the golden rule of friendship: best friends don’t tell on each other.

It’s almost a quarter to seven by the time he’s allowed out of detention. He’s more pissed off that he missed practice more than anything. He bolts out of the room as soon as the supervising teacher lets him, taking the stairs two at a time.

Much to his surprise, Yuushi’s waiting for him when he reaches his locker. Yuushi listens intently and nods along in agreement as Gakuto complains about Shishido, the lines he had to write and how many laps Atobe’s going to make him run as punishment tomorrow. He uses the chilly breeze and rain as an excuse to huddle close to Yuushi under their shared umbrella.

The headlights of passing cars reflect off the wet pavement like exploding stars, Yuushi’s hand is warm where it rests at the small of Gakuto’s back as they walk in comfortable silence. Usually, Wednesday is the day that Gakuto spends the night at Yuushi’s house, with both of his parents away for work, but it’s Yuushi’s grandmother’s birthday today, so Yuushi’s required to play the dutiful grandson.

Gakuto’s house is dark and locked when they reach it, and Gakuto fishes around in his tennis bag until he grabs the leg of the cat charm attached to his house keys. He opens his mouth to say goodbye, when Yuushi’s hands, warm from his gloves, tip Gakuto’s head up as Yuushi bends down to kiss him.

The umbrella lies forgotten on the garden path and Gakuto’s keys slip, unnoticed, out of his hands to fall with a clatter to the ground. Gakuto draws back just enough so that they almost share the same air, hands closing over Yuushi’s wrists as he catches his breath.

“Get out of here, you idiot.” He mutters fondly, bending down to pick up the umbrella and his keys. “You’re late enough as it is.” Yuushi takes the umbrella from him, wiping a stream of water from Gakuto’s cheek with the back of his hand.

It isn’t until much later, when he finally arrives home, that Yuushi finds the little packet of Speculoos in his coat pocket. There’s a post-it note stuck on it, but before he can read it, he’s pounced on by his cousins.

When he gets a moment to himself (locked in the bathroom, rather unromantically), he finally gets to read it.

You’re the only one I’d happily share my sweets with.

- 岳人

It can hardly be called a love-letter, but it makes Yuushi’s stomach tie itself in knots all the same. He fishes his phone out of his pocket to reply.

You’re the only one I’d happily buy sweets for.

- 侑士

Gakuto doesn’t reply to his message, but the next morning, Yuushi opens his desk drawer to find another of the packets of Speculoos on top of his German dictionary. At lunchtime practice, Yuushi grabs Gakuto’s ass in full view of the entire court, including their coach. Gakuto gets laps, and Yuushi is temporarily relegated to picking up balls for the rest of the day.

Jirou wakes up momentarily at the ruckus.

“Heey, Atobe.” He whines, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. “Why is it ok when you grab my ass in public but not when Yuushi does it to Gakuto?” He yawns and falls asleep again before he gets his answer.

Shishido drops his racquet with a clatter and one of Ootori’s Scud Serves smacks right into his face. Atobe shows no sign of reacting, save for the very tips of his ears turning red.

“Nice, buchou.” Taki comments from the bench where he’s fanning himself with Shishido’s racquet cover.

Atobe sighs a sigh of the long-suffering and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Laps!” He roars, suddenly. “All of you! Ten extra for you, Haginosuke.” He turns on Taki who pouts and gets to his feet.

The lot of them set off reluctantly.

“And not a word about ore-sama’s love life!” Atobe yells after them, nudging Jirou with the handle of his tennis racquet.

“Or lack of it.” Yuushi mutters. Gakuto laughs and runs after him, hair flying behind him in the wind. Yuushi slows down the slightest bit, just so he can shamelessly stare at Gakuto’s legs. The sight is well worth the clean up duty he’s saddled with for being slow.

Gakuto doesn’t wait for him after practice; he has to visit his uncle on the other side of town. But he does leave Yuushi his final packet of biscuits inside his locker. There’s another note wrapped around it this time, in German. Yuushi has to wait until he gets home and has his German dictionary before he can read it.