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«Ahh… It’s nice to go out together like this once in a while.»
With his palms firmly planted on the grass behind him, Kento was looking at the blue sky above them. He breathed in the refreshing late spring air, filled with the smell of flowers, and marvelled at how pretty the clouds were, drawing fantastical images with their round, vaporous shapes. It was when he took a moment to observe the beauty of the things around him, like he was doing now, that he believed he was catching a glimpse of what it had to be like to see the world through Touma’s eyes, finding wonder and inspiration where nobody else could notice it.
«It’s a good day for a picnic, isn’t it?» Touma followed his example, gazing up; as he did so, Kento couldn’t help but glance back at him, suddenly losing any interest in the clouds.
«That’s true,» he said, tracing Touma’s profile with his eyes. He already had every line committed to memory, and yet he was never tired of taking in the sight of Touma’s face. That was his personal source of inspiration. «But mostly I’m just grateful that we get to spend some time together.»
Touma laughed. «What do you mean? We’re together almost all day, every day!»
«Yeah, but it’s always so busy!» Kento complained with a fake groan. «There’s taking care of the book-store, book-reading events with the kids, and even when we close up and go home you spend most of your free time writing like a man possessed to finish the manuscript before the deadline.»
With adorable worried eyes, Touma turned towards Kento, searching his expression for any sign of annoyance. «Are you tired of it?»
«Not at all. I love it.» Kento made sure to flash a genuine smile at his friend, earning a sigh of relief from him. He immediately switched to a playful pout, however. «There are times when you even leave me alone at night to stay up at your desk, though, it’s a bit lonely!»
«You’re asleep! What does it matter if I’m writing?»
«It’s lonely to go to sleep alone!»
«But I come to bed with you as soon as I’m done, and we always wake up together. You’re really clingy, aren’t you?»
Oh, Touma loved to teasingly point out how clingy Kento was. As if he wasn’t just the same, always pulling Kento close to him whenever he got the chance.
«That’s right, I’m clingy.» Kento threw himself towards Touma, wrapping his arms around him in an almost constrictive hug. «I’m a lonely rabbit, you need to give me attention.»
«A lonely rabbit?» Touma’s grin was so wide that he was squinting. «Then I’ll be your cute rabbit wife, so you’ll never be lonely.»
Kento arched his brow, intrigued and baffled at the same time. «Wait, you’re my wife now? I thought you said I’m the wife. Your beautiful goddess, was it?»
«But that was a different matter!» Touma waved a hand in front of himself. «Although, I mean… we’re both men, so I guess we’re both each other’s wives, aren’t we?»
Kento laughed so hard that he let go of Touma and doubled over.
«Wouldn’t it make more sense to say that we’re each other’s husbands, if we’re both men?» he pointed out, gasping for air.
But instead of explaining his reasoning, Touma crossed his arms and tipped his nose up, faking offence. «You’re not as lonely as you say, then, Mr Rabbit, if you’re refusing such a cute rabbit wife! I’ll have you know that every rabbit in the forest has asked for my paw in marriage!»
«No, no, Ms Rabbit, please.» Kento did his best to sound serious, despite the laughter he was suffocating. He placed his hands on Touma’s leg, bowing his head with humble reverence. «Please, be my wife. You are the prettiest bunny I’ve ever seen.»
«And what else do you like about me?» Touma insisted, twirling a lock of his own hair around his index finger.
«Ahh, um…» Kento lunged forwards to lay his upper body on Touma’s lap, taking it as a chance to snuggle closer. «Your fur is so soft, I adore it.»
«And?»
«And your carrot soup is the best, I could eat it every day!»
«Aaand?»
«And…» Kento shifted so that he was on his back now, looking up at Touma. Touma tried to refrain from meeting his gaze, but he failed; it was endearing how he was unable to fully bite back the smile that was blossoming on his lips. «I love running in the fields together. I want to hop around with you for the rest of my life.»
As a pleasant surprise, Touma’s cheeks became dusted with pink. He was the one who had begun that whole story about Mr and Ms Rabbit, why was he getting shy, all of a sudden? Kento gazed fondly at him as he sputtered for a moment while trying to speak, before breaking in a nervous giggle. Ah, he was so cute… Kento suddenly felt that his playful confession might have been more sincere than he believed at first.
«Very well, Mr Rabbit,» Touma finally said. «I’ll be your wife.»
His sheepish smile was befitting of a flattered Ms Rabbit, but Kento was sure it was genuine.
«Can I kiss you, then?» he asked, suddenly eager to pull Touma close.
«I don’t know, do rabbits kiss each o—» Touma tried to tease, but Kento didn’t even let him finish: he grabbed his face and dragged him down, meeting him halfway to join their lips.
They left the park when the sun was setting. It took longer than it should have to get home, because they kept turning around to watch the stunning colours that the sky behind them was offering. Not that they were in a hurry, anyway: they had no plans for that night, other than relaxing together until it was time to go to sleep.
«Let’s go to a place where we can watch the sunset, next time,» Kento suggested, seeing that Touma was lingering for the fifth time with his eyes up towards the clouds. «The trees are covering the view here.»
Touma turned to look at him with the childish grin that Kento loved so much. «Yeah!»
Once at home, Kento wanted nothing more than to tackle Touma, throw him on the sofa and cuddle with him for an hour or two, but he did the responsible thing and took care of tidying up the kitchen, which was still in the state they had left it in after preparing the food they ate for dinner in the park. Touma tried to help, but Kento shooed him away, telling him to go ahead and take a shower first (showering together would have been nicer, in all truth, but Kento wanted Touma to take it easy during a rare occasion like this, a day with no deadlines in sight; allowing him to relax under the jet of warm water without having to worry about the kitchen was Kento’s way of spoiling him a little).
It was still hard to believe they were living together. It had all happened so suddenly and yet so naturally, with Touma inviting Kento to share his apartment as soon as they both decided to leave the Sword of Logos. They were going to work together at the book-store, and Kento had been staying at the Northen Base up until that moment, so he didn’t have any other place to live – it only made sense to move in together, right? Thus there they were, spending their daily lives side by side. Thinking about it this way, they did look a bit like a married couple…
Kento smiled to himself.
Touma’s fantasy had no limits, whenever they were chatting or joking around he always came up with some fun little story they were suddenly the protagonists of: that day it had been rabbits, but it could be anything, from courageous knights to curious frogs, from hard-working farmers from the Edo period to tickle monsters or, even worse, hat-stealing monsters. Every time something new came up, Kento laughed with delight, and never refused to play along. One detail he had noticed, however, was that lately more and more of these characters appeared to be… married. It surely didn’t mean anything (they had always been playing roles of any kind, be it friends, siblings, lovers, or rivals), but it warmed Kento’s heart nonetheless.
A couple of weeks before Touma had even used an old-fashioned expression like “goddess” to refer to him as his wife, before going on to explain that he meant it as a way to call him beautiful. Now Kento jokingly brought up that term when he wanted to see Touma blush with embarrassment, while Touma brought it up when he wanted to make Kento laugh (despite the fact that he was capable of making Kento laugh by saying almost anything); and yet the truth was that, somehow, Kento had grown attached to that word – or rather, he had grown attached to hearing it coming from Touma.
It wasn’t like he was thinking about marriage seriously. They had other things to worry about, and to be fair he didn’t really feel the need to change their relationship, or put a different name to it, or sign some documents to make it official. Not now, at least.
He did want to continue on every day like this, though: waking up next to Touma, going to work with him, reading his manuscripts and giving him advice, bringing him tea or coffee, grocery shopping together, cooking side by side, eating at the same table, going to sleep in the same bed. Sharing their love for stories was a dream come true, and being able to hug or kiss Touma whenever he felt like it was the best gift he could ever hope for.
He truly wanted to hop around with him for the rest of his life. Like Mr and Ms Rabbit.
When Touma came out of the bathroom, he looked happy and reinvigorated.
«Put on your pyjamas and wait for me in the bedroom, I’ll be right back,» Kento said with a grin, before he went to take a shower himself.
He washed himself quickly, so anxious to go back to his lover that he was completely immune to the temptation to linger any longer than necessary, and as soon as he was done he joined Touma, as promised. He dived onto the mattress, hugging Touma’s waist and burying his face in his side with a satisfied sigh.
«Get dressed, or you’ll catch a cold,» Touma warned him, putting down the book he was reading and petting his hair.
Kento let out a groan of contentment. «Just a moment.»
Enjoying the feeling of Touma’s fingers gently scratching his scalp was pure bliss. He wouldn’t have minded falling asleep just like that, in all honesty, but he didn’t want the day to end so soon, so he found the strength to pull himself up, fish for his pyjamas under the pillow, and wear it.
«What do you want to do?» Touma asked, once Kento was dressed.
«Oh, nothing special,» Kento said. He pulled the sheets away and slid into the bed, sitting right next to Touma, almost uncomfortably close to him. «I just want to enjoy the rest of our date.»
«Hmm, doesn’t a date usually imply going out? We just came back,» Touma wondered, and Kento snickered.
«A date can be whatever we want.» He wrapped his arms around Touma’s waist again, pulling him in to place a kiss on his cheek. «We went out for a picnic first, and now we’re spending the night at home. It’s a date.»
«But… are you sure there’s nothing you wanna do?»
«Do you have anything specific in mind?»
«Uh, I don’t know, I meant like…» Touma blushed slightly (predictably, adorably) at Kento’s jokingly flirtatious smirk, and his gaze wandered around the room. «Reading a book together?»
Kento nuzzled his nose against Touma’s cheek. «Tell me a story.»
«Which one do you want to hear?»
«Make up a new one.»
«What, like this, on the fly?»
«You’re good at that.»
With a small sigh, Touma circled one arm around Kento’s shoulders and pulled him even closer, allowing him to snuggle against his chest. Kento gladly did so.
«Let’s see… I have a feeling that you might like to hear a story about Mr and Ms Rabbit, am I right?»
Kento didn’t need to raise his head and look up at Touma to know that a wide smile was plastered on his face.
«I would love that. Do Mr and Ms Rabbit kiss, though?»
«I’m still not sure bunnies kiss, you know?»
«Oh, they do, they do.» This matter was important enough for Kento to move from the comfortable position he had settled in; he straightened his back, cupped Touma’s face with both hands, and gave him a tender kiss on the lips. «They do it like this, see?» And he kissed him again.
«I don’t know about that.» Touma was giggling, making Kento give in to the urge to shower him with more kisses. «I think it would be more like this.»
And, having said that, Touma cupped Kento’s face in turn, making the tips of their noses touch and rubbing them together.
«Like this?» Kento copied the motion, overjoyed.
«Yes, yes, like this.»
They both did it again, before bursting out laughing in unison.
There were few things that Kento loved more than gazing into each other’s eyes in silence, after having laughed together at something silly and corny. There was a glint, in Touma’s eyes, that made him look even prettier than usual, and that Kento wanted to protect with his life. Hopefully there was no need to, now, but whenever he saw that sparkle of joy he felt like he was ready to grab his sword (even if he didn’t have one anymore) and fight, to be able to see it again and again every day of his life.
«Now, Mr and Ms Rabbit…» Touma began, leaning his back on the pillow propped up against the headboard of the bed, and assuming the pensive gaze he always had on when he was getting lost in his imagination. «Let’s see… After a beautiful wedding with all of their bunny friends, they began their life together… Mr Rabbit followed his bride everywhere, because he was a needy, clingy rabbit. “I’m so lonely without you, Ms Rabbit,” he said. “I need to cuddle every day, or else I’ll die!”»
Kento was snickering under his breath. He laid his head on Touma’s lap, bringing the back of his hand to his own forehead and faking a suffering expression.
«“Don’t worry, Mr Rabbit, you’ll never be lonely again,” she answered. Thus every day Ms Rabbit took her husband with her everywhere she went: they searched for berries to eat and they hopped side by side in the fields, and when they went back to their lair, at night, they huddled together as close as they could, grooming each other before sleep.»
«And kissing,» Kento added. «“I need to kiss you every day, or else I’ll die!”»
«Don’t worry, Mr Rabbit,» Touma replied, gently caressing Kento’s cheek. «You’ll never be lonely again.»