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The air smelled like snow and Kuroo let his hand brush against Tsukishima’s, wondering if it would be alright for him to take it.
They were walking through a brightly illuminated street, illuminated by the Christmas lights and the moon and the stars. When Kuroo had invited Tsukishima to visit him in Tokyo, he had not thought that Tsukishima would really come. He had said it late at night, after they had already spent hours with sending messages back and forth and he had said it more jokingly – even though it had been completely serious and heartfelt. But then Tsukishima had said that he would love to and Kuroo had never been more surprised and happy at the same time.
And now they were walking side by side as Kuroo showed him around, their shoulders bumping against each other occasionally. Kuroo tried his best to keep his eyes forward, but sometimes, sometimes the urge to risk a glance at Tsukishima got too strong. His ears and nose were red from the cold, his breath condensed to a cloud of white fog when he exhaled.
He didn’t say a lot, so Kuroo tried to fill the empty space, he talked about this and that, about the buildings they passed, about volleyball practice and school. Sometimes Tsukishima hummed in response, sometimes he nodded, sometimes he gave him a short reply.
He wondered if Tsukishima maybe wasn’t enjoying himself.
When they texted, Tsukishima was rarely this quiet. Sometimes he initiated a conversation by asking him for blocking advice, sometimes he just started talking about something that had annoyed him during practice. Or he just started by asking Kuroo about what he was doing at the moment. He was never short on a witty or sharp remark, and his sarcasm was one of the things Kuroo liked the most about him.
He had looked forward to spending the weekend with him. Maybe he had just read too much into their conversations, maybe all the signs he had read as interest from Tsukishima hadn’t been meant like that after all.
“Hey, Tsukki, I’ve been wondering for a while already, but are you having a good time right now?” he asked and exhaled.
Tsukishima stopped and looked at him. “I am.”
Kuroo bit his lip. “It’s just, you’ve been so quiet all the time today. I don’t know I was starting to get a bit worried.”
“I was listening to you,” he started to rub his thumb over his index finger. Kuroo wondered what he was thinking about. “I liked hearing your voice in person. It’s nice and relaxing. That’s all.”
Tsukishima was looking at his fingers. The tips of his ears were redder than before.
“Is that so?” Kuroo let out a hum as he felt relief spread in his chest. He tried his best to suppress the large grin that wanted to creep its way onto his face, he bit his lip and looked to the side. Relief turned into warm and bright happiness.
The air smelled like snow and Kuroo’s heart was pounding in his chest as he reached for Tsukishima’s hand. Tsukishima looked at him, looked at their hands and then to the side. His hand was cold and Kuroo was sure that when he had picked him up from the train, Tsukishima had been wearing gloves, but he might have been wrong about that.
“What do you want to do tonight? If you already spent hours in a train just to come and visit me, I want to make sure the journey was worth it.”
Tsukishima rubbed his thumb over the side of Kuroo’s hand.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been to Tokyo besides for volleyball.”
“Is there something in particular you would like to see?” Kuroo asked and squeezed Tsukishima’s hand.
Tsukishima took a while to reply. “I haven’t thought about that yet.”
Kuroo let out a short laugh. “We can just continue walking like this until we have an idea for something better to do.”
He didn’t mind that, he was glad he got to spend time with Tsukishima and he was glad he got to hold his hand. And judging by the small smile on Tsukishima’s lips as they walked, he realised that Tsukishima didn’t seem to mind either.
The air smelled like snow and into the cold night, the first snowflakes started to fall.
“How pretty,” Kuroo said. He wasn’t sure himself if he was talking about the snow or Tsukishima.
“It is,” Tsukishima said. Their fingers were still intertwined. “You know, no matter what we end up doing, I already think the journey was worth it.”
Even though it was winter, even though it was snowing, Kuroo started to feel warm. He felt his face heat up, he felt the warmth spread all throughout his chest. It was like the air was electric, and his heart was racing.
A snowflake landed on Tsukishima’s nose.
He stretched out his free hand, wanted to wipe it away. But before he could, it had already molten. His hand still in the air, he noticed how long Tsukishima’s lashes were. And carefully, he placed his hand on his cheek, gently caressing the soft skin.
Tsukishima blinked. Kuroo’s heart was still racing.
Slowly, he moved closer, closer until he was just a breath away from his face. And then, soft and brief like a breath of air, he brushed his lips over Tsukishima’s.