Chapter Text
The friendly ringing of a bell that hangs over a cafe door. A chalkboard menu decorated in cursive pinkish-orange words hangs above the register, at the top reads Mokke Delights & Drinks. The smell of freshly baked breads, sugary treats, and autumn in the air. The sun slightly hidden behind airy and white clouds, the wind blowing slightly, chilling the atmosphere. Opening the door, that same wind blows in cooling the heated breads and treats. Hair pushing back, clearing peripheral vision. It’s familiar, and it’s lovely.
Kou loved it all, he loved the cafe like a second home. He especially adored the stage set in the front corner of the cafe. A set of drums, a stand for a guitar and bass on display. He loved the empty and fresh feeling of walking into the cafe on an autumn morning, but he also adores the cafe’s evening atmosphere. The sound of guitars strumming, voices singing, and people cheering, he loved the melody of the evening life cafe. This small college city cafe placed at the end of a shopping strip was his second home, he adored it.
To think he despised it at one point. He hated walking into the cafe, the same faces, new faces, faces he would forget as they walked out of the cafe. Now he’s memorizing faces, he’s learned new faces, he smiles when he sees a familiar one. He admits, he does forget faces, he does forget people, but maybe that’s its own beauty. Seeing someone come and go, never to see them again, he wonders what those people are doing now, even if he doesn’t know who those people are anymore. It’s ok that he doesn’t know, he doesn’t have to.
Things don’t have to change, things can stay the same, he thinks happiness can still be found no matter what. Complacency is its own beauty, but change is beautiful in its own ways. Everything holds beauty, Kou loves that, he loves that everything has its own beauty, he loves walking into this little college city cafe and being able to see that change, that consistency, that beauty.
What he loves the most about it, what he loves most in maybe the whole world, well he’s walking into the cafe right now. A camera around his neck, and a bass guitar case in hand.
It’s been almost a year since the two truly met. Their Sophomores now 19, and it’s Autumn all over again. The second Autumn living in this little college city, the first Autumn he’s happy in this little college city.
Kou doesn’t give him the time to put either thing down, his arms are already around Sousuke and now he’s twirling him around in the air.
“Put me down lame earring!” He’s punching his arm, but somehow still melted into the hug.
“Never. I’ve missed you so much,” Kou says, digging his face into the crook of Sousuke’s shoulder, letting out a small and content sigh.
“I was gone for a week, you couldn’t have missed me that much,” Sousuke, still punching at Kou’s shoulder. Kou finally put him down, but now he’s simply staring at Sousuke with those dumb lovestruck eyes of his.
“Ugh, I’ve missed you too, idiot,” Sousuke rolls his eyes, giving Kou a peck on the cheek, “Now finish your shift, I’ll tell you all about it after,” Sousuke says, pushing Kou over to the register.
“But I don’t want to work! I want to hug you and kiss you and listen to how your trip was!” Kou complains, though he still stands behind the register.
“And you can do all that after you finish your shift, I am not going to be responsible for you getting fired,” Sousuke scolds, “besides, I still have all my things in my car, I need to go put them away at my apartment. You’ll be done working by the time I get back here won’t you?”
“Ugh, yeah, I only have an hour and a half on the clock,” Kou sighs, defeated.
“See? Now shut up and work, you’re honestly so clingy, lame ass traffic safety earring,” Sousuke finishes, picking up his things and leaving the cafe.
==========
Kou and Sousuke are sitting at a nice lunch restaurant. Kou sitting opposite of Sousuke, staring at him like an excited puppy.
“Now tell me all about it! Every single detail! How is Aoi? Akane? Mei? All of them I need to know!” Kou asks.
Sousuke and his old band mates had decided over the summer to have a small reunion the week before the semester began. They decided to meet at a middle point of all their places of living, this meant Sousuke had to fly out for a week, Kou didn’t have Sousuke for a week. To him that is truly devastating, but maybe he’s just overdramatic.
“You’re more excited than I was honestly,” Sousuke laughs, “Well, it was amazing, it was nice just hanging out for the week. We haven’t all been in the same place in almost a year, I’ve missed them all. Especially Mei, but don’t tell her I said that. Mei and Little miss are still broken up since they know they can’t do long distance, but it was so painfully obvious that they still liked each other. Hopefully once Mei graduates they can live close together and finally date again because it’s getting frustrating watching them give those stupid in love glances at each other.”
“Speaking of Little miss popstar, she really has made a name for herself in the big city, I mean she had to wear this stupid sun hat and glasses everywhere we went just so she wouldn’t be bombarded by paparazzi, and even then she was still recognized like five times! It was getting annoying having to run away from so many flashing cameras, honestly paparazzi have no skill when it comes to using camera,”
“Oh! This was really cool! So we went to a few art museums and coincidentally it was one of the museums that had a few of my photography works, but it also had a lot of Mei’s work too, it was nice seeing our work so close together, like even though we aren’t always going to be near each other our work always will, that’s what she said at least, I told her that that was so introspective and cheesy,”
“Fake four-eyes is as nerdy as always, and hotheaded. You’d think after a year he would stop being so quick to anger, but nope, even now he gets mad at any little insult I make towards him. He needs to talk to Amane again, I think that would be funny. He says he and Lemon are still doing really well, but you probably already know that since you work with him. He goes to one of those fancy ivy leagues now and of course he intentionally went to one in the big city. Anywhere Little miss goes, he goes too,”
“We spent a lot of the time together at karaoke bars and museums, places we would go to a lot when we all lived here, it was really nice,” Sousuke finishes.
“What about Sakura and Natsuhiko? You visited them as well, right?” Kou asks, fully invested in everything Sousuke has to say.
“I did! They live together, which is funny because I vividly remember Sakura saying ‘I would never, for the sake of pride and common sense, live with Natsuhiko’ and now look at them. They live in the countryside, a little bit over the rolling hills, it’s a small cottage, it was cute and well decorated, obviously because of Sakura. Natsuhiko is too much of a dunce to know how to do anything right. He’s weird, you know, he began a fishing company, he's a fisherman now, which I find hilarious, it seems so not him, but also makes perfect sense. Sakura writes books, they’re all really creepy and scary if you ask me, but that’s Sakura so it makes sense.” Sousuke shrugs, spinning a spoon in his latte, while talking.
“Hanako and Daikon legs moved in together recently, how has that disaster been?” Sousuke asks with a laugh.
“Oh, they’ve been a mess, it’s actually really funny to watch, especially since I get to live peacefully by myself now,” Kou begins, he has this sparkle of confidence in his eyes, he feels in his element, “Nene has been complaining to me almost everyday about how much of a slob Amane is, and she says it like she hates it, but then she’s all like, ‘Amane bought me flowers! Amane set up the most romantic date! Amane did this! Amane did that!’ it would be cute if it wasn’t so ridiculous. I mean just the other day Amane ended up sleeping at my apartment because Nene kicked him out for failing to make donuts. She should know to never let him near a kitchen, my apartment has been almost blown up one too many times. But even with all their old marry couple bickering, they’re still madly in love and doing really well for themselves”
“I mean Amane’s gotten the opportunity to begin doing research in an astronomical observatory, which is great for him, I’m still not very sure what that means though. Nene’s the head of the community garden non profit, and she’s been working with a lot of other non profits recently, it’s really admirable,” Kou finishes.
Their conversation leads to other less person related topics. He thinks he can talk to Sousuke forever, the stupidest little details, the most out of context questions, the most random ideas, anything. They almost do, but they decided that sitting at a lunch restaurant all day isn’t the best way to spend their time together, and so they leave, off to the shopping strip, only to window shop.
Sousuke is clung to Kou’s arm as they walk around, talking, laughing, teasing, whatever they could do with each other, which was almost anything.
Sousuke had found something pink and cute and was now running towards it to admire it, Kou was busy admiring him.
Sousuke’s hair was down, it reached a little below his shoulder now, his bangs pinned back with hair clips. Kou likes to think Sousuke began keeping his hair down more often after he began complimenting and doting about it, he’s pretty confident that that was the case. He’s wearing a cropped pink sweater, it shows his belly button piercing, Kou wants to credit that to his doting as well.
He’s also now realizing he’s wearing an off white hoodie with dark brown cargo pants, an outfit Sousuke picked out for him. I guess they both have an imprint of each other. To say he got a little happy when he realized that would be an understatement. To think he and Sousuke have been together for almost a year, to think they barely go anywhere without the other, to think they’ve imprinted so much of their personalities onto the other. Sousuke would call him a pervert for being this excited over something so small.
The sun is beginning to set and so the two are at the rolling hills, leaned upon each other, a small picnic of snacks in front of each other, watching the sun set. Kou knew that if Sousuke wasn’t so lost in the moment he would make a snarky comment about how cheesy and movie typical this was.
Kou turns to look at Sousuke, leaning on his shoulder looking at the sun, his eyes are sparkling and he can see the reflection of the orange and red hues in them. His bangs are lightly falling into his face and Kou can’t help himself when he reflectively pushes them away from his face, Sousuke says nothing. It’s strange, normally Sousuke would be taking a picture at this moment, Kou wants to ask why he isn’t but he withholds the question already knowing what Sousuke’s reason may be.
The way he just knows Sousuke so well makes him giddy, he loves him so much.
He tilts Sousuke’s face towards his, he gives a small smile, Sousuke looks at him inquisitively, his eyebrows raised slightly in that expectant way of his.
His lips connect with Sousuke’s and everything is just as how it should be. He won’t say perfect, Kou doesn’t like perfect, but he does love Sousuke. He loves the familiarity, the change, the consistency, the beauty, he loves Sousuke, he loves him, he loves them.
When they finally part, smiling, and a little red, Kou wants to do nothing more than kiss Sousuke again.
“We’ve been dating and kissing for almost a year now and you still get all red and embarrassed,” Kou teases, sticking his tongue out, an almost perfect copy of Sousuke’s mannerisms.
“I actually hate you,” Sousuke says, embarrassed and trying to hide his face with his sleeve.
“You love me,” Kou continues to tease, and then he sees that oh so familiar glint in Sousuke’s eyes, and he realizes exactly where this is going.
“Hmm, I guess,” Sousuke mocks, Kou groans a little, placing his head on Sousuke’s shoulder.
“You will never let me live that down will you?”
“Never ever.”