Chapter Text
He sighs, running his hands through his hair, tousled and greasy from the lack of attention but his thesis is more important, it needs to be done soon, and he’s so behind he can’t even count the hours that are left.
The words are a jumble together, forming words and sentences that don’t even exist but at this point, he’s just so tired of it all that he lets it go, thankful words even come out of his overworked brain. He promised Jesse that he’ll eat after he’s finished this paragraph but said paragraph never seems to be good enough to finish.
He’s ready to delete the whole file when his phone dings with a notification - a new message from Jesse, and he glances at it, trying to decide if it’s worth looking at or not. When the next message rolls in, he gives up and picks up the phone, unlocking it and swiping at the notification.
ordered you some pizza. figured you’d forget about the food since you haven’t replied in a few hours.
Hokuto sighs again, throwing his phone on the couch, taking off his glasses to rub at his eyes, and Jesse was right. He had forgotten about the food until now, and when he looks at the time, he realizes it’s gotten really late, and he types a quick thanks to Jesse, who proceeds to threaten him with contacting Terasaka, and that’s a thing Hokuto doesn’t want. That would be too much of a distraction.
The thesis stares at him with empty pages, a handful of thousand words, and he knows that he’ll be able to finish it, he just doesn’t feel like it right now, even with the deadline looming over his head. For once, he wants something in his life that is exciting, something to bring him out of the world between pages, websites, and words he’ll never use in his daily life. He craves something to break his usual habits, routine, lifestyle.
He’s ready to curl up into his blankets and call it a day when his door rings, reminding him of the pizza Jesse ordered, and it better be good pizza, even if he’s getting it for free. Last time, he got a weird combination pizza because Jesse thought it sounded interesting, and it caused him to call out of classes for three days. He was not a happy camper back then.
The door buzzes again, and he picks up his glasses before he shuffles over to the door, hugging his outer yukata around him closer, and he sees the top of the head of the delivery man when he takes a quick glance through the peeping hole before he unlocks the door.
He’s half-way done putting on his glasses when he sees the male standing in front of him, and he thinks for a second that his glasses might still be smudged because he can’t see clearly in front of him, the person in front of him too bright. Then, the world refocuses and he finally sees him clearly.
The pizza delivery man is a gorgeous male around his age, slightly shorter than him, blond hair pulled into a small ponytail, eyes round and bright, and he’s holding out the pizza box with equally gorgeous hands, slightly red from the cold air outside, and Hokuto thinks the man might be at the wrong place because he looks way too good to be a simple delivery man? Not that delivery men can’t be gorgeous but this one looks like he’s supposed to walk red carpets, hold golden statues engraved with his name and have his face plastered all over the country’s billboards.
Then, he speaks, reciting the practiced lines from the company, voice bright like his aura, a slight tremble to it, like rain falling gently on the rooftop, and Hokuto is sold.
This is the exciting thing he’s been craving. And with that, he doesn’t mean the crush at first sight situation his heart thinks is happening but the curiosity, the need to know why this stranger is doing this, the sudden urge to do something out of character, start a new page.
He only manages to say thank you to the other though before he has to run back to work but he remembers the small smile he got, albeit a very well-practiced smile, and his heart is doing somersaults without his permission. Next time, he promises himself, he’ll ask him why he’s working as a delivery boy when he’s that gorgeous.
It’s really nothing of his business but he can’t help but find himself way too invested in this stranger, a stranger called Taiga, he finds out from the receipt
He finishes a total of five additional papers that night while snacking on the pizza.
A few days later, he orders again, and to his luck, Taiga is the delivery man again. Hokuto smiles when he sees the blond hair through the peephole, and this time, he got his glasses on properly as he opens.
He greets Taiga with a short hello, getting the usual practiced greeting back, and Hokuto smiles a little at how natural Taiga seems to be delivering the lines, and it only gives him more proof that Taiga should be somewhere else, at a different stage, than here.
“We hope it tastes to your liking!” Taiga exclaims with a smile and Hokuto nods in response before Taiga tilts his head, breaking character for a moment to just stare at the box of pizza he just handed over. “Although, I personally have no idea how it tastes.”
It’s a weird statement to make out of nowhere but Hokuto feels his body straighten, nerves on high alert and he sees this as the perfect chance to strike up a conversation without it being weird.
“You’ve never tasted it?” His question is genuine because you’d think that the ones working at the company would know what their products taste like but apparently, Taiga is different. Part of Hokuto knew that already. Everything about Taiga screams different.
“I’ve never tasted pizza that is not home-made before,” Taiga admits and shrugs, as if it’s not a big deal, as if it’s normal for everyone and Hokuto almost gapes at the other, not believing his ears.
“Well, it’s okay, I mean, I like it, it’s nice?” he knows he’s stuttering, uttering complete bullshit but he’s a bit taken aback by Taiga’s statement that he doesn’t know how to proceed.
“Oh, okay,” Taiga looks slightly bummed at the answer, maybe even disappointed, as if he’d expected Hokuto to talk more about it. He’s not sure but something he’s sure of is the way he wants to keep listening to Taiga’s voice.
That night, when he licks his fingers clean from the sauce and crumbs from the pizza, he submits his finished thesis, dedicating a line to Taiga for giving him the final push to complete his last project in school.
He keeps getting Taiga every time he orders pizza, and he suspects Taiga thinks he’s living on pizza, considering the number of orders he’s done the past weeks. Call him crazy but it might be partly because he keeps getting Taiga to his door as well.
Every time, he gets to know something about the other. He finds out that Taiga is a year older than him, and is only working because his dad told him to get experience since he’s always been homeschooled, which tells Hokuto that Taiga is probably a sheltered, rich child, and it all makes sense. Hokuto doesn’t mind it at all because it’s cute how Taiga gets interested in things Hokuto thought was common knowledge but is newfound insight for Taiga. He gets to know that Taiga loves tomatoes, really loves them, and Hokuto finds it adorable and even says it out loud without thinking, which causes Taiga to turn in a very similar shade of red. The next time he orders pizza, he thinks he screwed it up by calling Taiga adorable since the latter didn’t show up on time for his order but it turned out that he had to take a detour due to maintenance on the road.
He also gets to know that Taiga plays the guitar and that his money he’s making from the job is going toward a new guitar, one he’s been looking at for weeks now. He tells Hokuto how he can actually afford it right now but he wants to work for it, make it special because it’s the first time in his life that he’s doing something for himself. Hokuto finds the way Taiga talking about his passionate interests very captivating, and he collects the small details about Taiga, just like a study book, creating his own little manual about Taiga.
Maybe he keeps Taiga by his doorstep longer for each time he comes with his box of pizza, and maybe he doesn’t care, and he wants to believe that Taiga doesn’t seem to care either. They’ve skipped the usual greetings and practiced words, always jumping straight to new questions, new discoveries, and when Taiga laughs at him, after hearing about the time he accidentally walked into the wrong lecture because his friends told him the wrong classroom, it’s the sound Hokuto wants to get married to. It’s bright, brighter than the sun itself, a reflection of Taiga’s soul, and Hokuto wants to unravel more of it.
“Please enjoy your order,” Taiga says one night, more jokingly than seriously, putting on a facade of a diligent worker, not at all staying overdue with 15 minutes, and his little smirk gives Hokuto butterflies.
He wonders if it’d be too soon to invite the other over, if it’d be weird, or if the past weeks together outside his apartment with a pizza box between them is considered as strangers still. Taiga bids his goodbyes, and when he’s almost at the stairs, Hokuto calls out after him, voice croaking.
“Do you want to eat this pizza together?”
Taiga whips his head around, almost knocking his helmet off his head, blond hair covering his eyes but Hokuto can still see the shocked expression, his own heart beating fast and almost regrets his outburst when Taiga responds in a thrilled tone.
“I’d love to!” Taiga smiles, and everything is well in the world again. Time’s flowing again, the world is turning and Hokuto’s heart does not calm down. Instead, he feels ecstatic that Taiga agreed. “Let me just clock off work, and I’ll be back?”
He could see Taiga stand on his heels, rolling his feet restlessly, eager to leave already, and he nods, so fast he thinks his head might fall off because yes, he wants Taiga to be back.
The next time his doorbell rings, a few minutes later, he jumps off his couch, wiping imaginary dust off himself, suddenly nervous for no reason but also for all the right reasons because Taiga was coming. He feels like he’s back in high school when he tried to ask his crush out but all he did was to stare instead, however, this time will be different. He won’t stare, or he will, but he hopes he’ll be able to hold a decent conversation too.
He wipes his hands on his pants, making sure they’re not drenched in sweat before he opens the door to welcome Taiga inside.
It’s different, way different and it borderline feels wrong because he’s supposed to be the one stepping out of the door, not Taiga stepping inside. The moment their eyes meet when the door is wide open, he smiles and his nervousness disappears. Taiga is there, gorgeous as always, maybe slightly more now that he’s not dressed in the pizza company delivery outfit, and Hokuto has to hold himself back from commenting about how stunning Taiga looks. He’ll save the compliments for later.
Taiga looks around, curiosity evident on his face, as if he’s never been inside an apartment before, and Hokuto figures that it might as well be true, considering what Taiga’s been telling him. His apartment is not the oldest, nor the newest, or biggest, but as a struggling student, it’s sufficient. Hokuto likes it a lot actually.
He offers Taiga some soda, a convenience store-bought soda and it immediately catches Taiga’s attention, the older finding it amazing there’s soda in bottles that taste just as good as the machine he got at home. Hokuto rolls his eyes at Taiga, finding the obvious difference between them a bit intriguing because Taiga is not acting anything like any of the other rich, spoiled, and entitled children he’s encountered before. It’s another point to the endless list of things he finds attractive in Taiga.
He’s divided the pizza already for them, kept it warm on low heat in his small oven while he waited for Taiga, and Taiga looks like a child on Christmas day when they finally sit down on the couch to eat. Then, he watches in silence how Taiga picks up a slice, bringing it to his lips, and Hokuto feels his cheeks heating up as he focuses on Taiga’s lips - how they wrap around the crust, teeth biting into it, ripping off a small piece, sauce staining his lips, tongue flicking out to wipe it away, and it’s all just too enchanting. He doesn’t even notice when Taiga lets out a hum of appreciation. He just keeps staring.
He’s brought back to reality when Taiga pokes him with a slice, staining one of his cheeks in the process.
“Sorry, did you say something?”
“I said: it’s good, it’s surprisingly good,” Taiga pouts at the lack of attention Hokuto’s giving him, still holding the slice his hand by Hokuto’s cheek. “Want a bite?”
Taiga offers his slice and brings it up a bit higher, enough for Hokuto to catch the dripping cheese and slowly make his way upward to the slice. The moment he can taste the first bite of it, he sighs contently, small sounds escaping his lips, his stomach hungrier than he thought, and he chews his bite properly before licking his lips and wiping them with his thumb.
When he looks at Taiga, he sees the older male with the same hollow look he’s seen himself within the mirror lately. The look where you get totally lost in what’s in front of you and that thing is the only thing that matters.
“Do that again,” Taiga breathes out, eyes locked on Hokuto and he raises his eyebrows at Taiga’s request.
“Do what?”
“That thing with your lips again,”
Hokuto is not sure if Taiga means the licking part or the wiping part, so he does both again, and boy, Taiga’s eyes widen, and he sees clearly how Taiga clenches his other fist in his lap tighter, body straightening and eyes even brighter than before.
“Yeah, that’s hot, definitely hot,” Taiga admits, surprising Hokuto with his frankness, a thing he didn’t expect Taiga to possess, not in this way at least. He figures it might be because Taiga is used to get whatever he wants whenever he opens his mouth, and while he might have thought it’d be irritating, he now finds it endearing but only because he’s on the receiving end.
“Do you.. do you want a taste?” he doesn’t recognize himself as he utters the words, hesitantly but firmly, giving Taiga the option to reject him if he’s reading him wrong but Taiga is shining even brighter when he hears those words, nodding shyly, which is a contrast to the previous honesty.
Then, things happen too fast for Hokuto to even recollect them properly. He remembers them both leaning forward, his sauce clad fingers under Taiga’s chin, tilting his head in position, Taiga’s hot breath, and then, there are soft and hungry lips mixed among the acidity and savory from the pizza, and he soon doesn’t know which lips belong to who, or which tongue belongs to who. It’s all a mess but it’s a wonderful mess, so gentle yet passionate and yearning.
They part but Hokuto wastes no time and leans in, licking away the sauce stains from the pizza that Taiga has missed around his mouth, and pizza has never tasted better. The sounds Taiga lets him listen to as he keeps kissing him is better than anything he could have imagined.
The rest of the pizza remains forgotten as they take more important matters in hand, Hokuto wanting to discover if he can get Taiga to forever make those sounds.