Chapter Text
jagi: did you make it to the airport yet?
Sion is standing in line at the bag check when he gets the first message. Smiles when it pops up on his phone. It hasn’t even been a second before a second one follows. And then a third.
jagi: and you have your passport right
jagi: and your boarding pass!!!!!
And then a fourth:
jagi: if you miss your flight i’ll really kill you
Sion huffs out a laugh and opens Discord. Changes his keyboard to romanji and starts typing.
sionie: checking in my suitcase rn
sionie: what are you so worried for!!
jagi: you didnt answer me for like 10 minutes
sionie : it was 2 minutes
Sion looks down at his phone and slowly inches further and further in line, his suitcase trailing behind him. It’s 6 AM on a Monday morning and yet it's decently packed. People are traveling for the holidays, it being close to New Years and all.
The family behind him has two young kids babbling together at full volume. But it’s not the worst thing in the world.
jagi: ur so annoying
jagi: im not even gonna kiss you when u get here
sionie: really?
jagi: yes!!!!!
sionie: :(
jagi: go cry about it
sionie: :’(((((
jagi: but seriously if you miss your flight i’ll really kill you
jagi: im so serious
jagi: i spent all last night deep cleaning
jagi: i had to bribe the kids to keep it clean
jagi: ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ
sionie: ahhhhh
sionie: im not gonna miss it
sionie: you have no faith in me
jagi: im just saying
jagi: /srs no kisses if you miss that plane
sionie: okay okay okay
Sion makes it to the front of the line, handing his bag and boarding pass over. A little nervous that his suitcase will weigh too much when they put it on the scale - Riku had demanded that he bring all the snacks and goodies that he thought looked delicious when Sion showed them to him over the years, and Sion, of course, had no choice but to bring everything he could fit.
You can just wear my clothes! His boyfriend had said over VC. Don’t bring anything but snacks! And he had caved because Riku is incorrigible and Sion can never just say no to him.
It ends up weighing just fine, thankfully. The last thing he wants to do is shell out any more money, not after having to save up for this whole trip over the past few months in the first place. Sion shoulders his backpack and moves on to security.
His phone buzzes. Again.
Of course.
jagi: the flight isnt delayed right?
If it wasn’t a little bit endearing, Sion would probably be rolling his eyes at his boyfriend’s worry. It’s been like this for the past couple of weeks: is your passport updated? Nothing is expired, right? Print out your boarding pass at home in case something goes wrong at the airport! No, print it three times! If that plane crashes, I’m suing Korean Air. Sion, I’m being serious! If you die, I’ll kill you!
So, yeah. It’s been a long month of this, though Sion can’t really blame him. It’s not every day your boyfriend flies to your country to see you for the first time. And Riku is a worrier by nature - he looked up so many statistics about airplane crashes, to the point where he gave himself nightmares about Sion’s plane falling out of the sky.
Maybe you should just take a boat, Riku had said.
But then Sion had reminded him about the Titanic, and that idea was quickly scrapped.
sionie: riku
sionie: everything is fine
sionie: stop worrying
jagi: ugh i knowwwww
jagi: but
jagi: i just want to see your stupid face
jagi: in real life
jagi: run into your big beefy arms
sionie: i dont have beefy arms
jagi: well a man can dream cant he
jagi: youre so tall and strong and handsome (❤⩊❤)
sionie: riku..
jagi: (*¯ ³¯*)♡
sionie: stop being cute
jagi: never ^_^
Riku is a nice distraction from the chaos of the airport. He’s herded into the security area, and although the TSA line moves relatively quickly, all things considering, Sion still isn’t the biggest fan of the Incheon airport. Even if today is going by suspiciously smoothly.
He dutifully gives them his name, age, where he’s going. Takes off his shoes and gets X-rayed by security. If they’re weirded out by the sheer number of packets of instant coffee in his carry on, they don’t say anything about it. Sion is sure that Japan has great coffee, but his favorite brand is his favorite for a reason…
He gets through after a bit of poking and prodding and waiting and waiting. They give him back his stuff.
He’s finally in the goddamn terminal.
sionie: made it through
sionie: gonna see your cute face soon
sionie: let me get coffee and then we can call?
jagi: you’re addicted to americanos
sionie: :(
jagi: ugh
jagi: dont give me that face
And so Sion finally gets his first coffee of the day, which is long overdue, because he was running a few minutes behind when he was leaving his apartment and he was certain that Riku would’ve skinned him alive if he missed his flight because his old-ass Keurig took too long to brew him a cup. There’s a nearby Paris Baguette - relatively empty, thank god - so he heads in there and orders an iced americano. He would get something sweet for Riku but it’d probably be stale by the time he touched down at the Haneda airport. Not to mention the fact that he’s bringing a whole suitcase of sweets with him.
So.
He finally gets his americano and it tastes like fucking heaven after the chaos of waking up at 3 AM to get here on time. He had to take both a taxi and the AREX, all while keeping his worrywart of a boyfriend updated on his every move. Yes, I’m awake. Yes, my stuff is packed. Yes, I’m at the station. Everything is right on time. So he sips his coffee down as he makes his way to his gate, double checking the flight tracker for delays. It’s still scheduled on time, thank god.
Sion lets out a relieved sigh as he finally gets to sit down at his gate, along with a crowd of businessmen and families and a surprising amount of elderly people. He puts in his Airpods before going to Discord and pressing the call button.
Riku answers immediately, of course, his face lighting up the screen. Puffy face from not enough sleep but looking wide eyed at the camera. Sion doesn’t even look at his own face in the upper right-hand corner of his phone screen, but he’s sure that he doesn’t look great - a little frazzled and tired, eye bags making an appearance on his face.
Not that Riku cares about any of that, though. “Aww,” he coos right into Sion’s ears, voice croaking and disused from sleep, sly grin on his face. “You look so handsome today, Sion-ssi.”
And the panic of the early morning melts away at the mere sound of his boyfriend’s voice. Sion cracks a smile. There’s his Riku, sleepy and cute, bedhead going in every which direction. Looking oddly ethereal even through his phone’s crappy camera. It sets his mind at ease even though his body is exhausted and on alert from the chaos of the airport.
“Ah, you. You’re such a flirt.” Sion watches the way Riku yawns. Like a kitten. Cute.
Riku laughs. A low, wonderful sound. Sion’s grin is widening, and he can’t even help it, because he’ll be hearing this for real in just a couple of hours. It sets his heart racing in his chest, the idea of feeling the rumble of Riku’s laugh under his hands as he wraps him into a hug. His lips curling around the sound. Loud and crystal clear and real.
“And you love it, don’t you,” Riku accuses. “I’m your favorite.”
Sion clicks his tongue. “You already knew that. Don’t act so smug.”
He’s joking, of course, and of course Riku already knows that. Looks smug as all hell, like he knows just how much Sion really loves it. Loves him. Because he does. Love him, that is.
“Too late,” Riku hums. “It’s kind of already my life’s crowning achievement.”
And Sion just grins. “You’re hopeless,” he says.
Because he is - they both are. Hopelessly in love, hopeless for each other. It’s the biggest reason why what’s happening today has had them both so anxious over the past few months. It’s hard to not be nervous that the meeting you’ve built up in your head over the past six years won’t pan out like you want it to. No matter how much they trust each other, trust their relationship.
Riku just smiles. Sweet as molasses. “I’m yours.”
And, well. Sion’s not arguing with that.
It’s weird. He knows he should feel anxious, but he weirdly doesn’t. Because despite the fact that they’ll be meeting today, they spend the next hour talking about rather mundane and inconsequential things. Riku tells him that Yushi, his roommate, attempted to cook takoyaki last night and failed miserably. Sion tells him about how his new project at work is going. They’ve both been pulling long hours at their respective jobs - Riku as a daycare worker and Sion as a salaryman at a small consulting firm - so this is all long overdue. The vacation days he’s accumulated are finally being put to use, Riku’s apartment is ready for him to come over, they have an itinerary for how they’ll spend the next two weeks. Sion expected himself to be tense about this whole thing. Scared, anxious. But he instead feels like he’s on his way home.
Isn’t that weird? They’ve never even met before. But the thought of wrapping Riku up in his arms certainly makes it feel like he’s coming home.
“Ah, they’re boarding,” Sion tells him when it’s announced over the intercom, in the middle of him recounting some crazy shit the new intern said to him on Friday. He watches his phone screen as Riku’s eyes widen. “I’ll be there in two hours, yeah? Don’t fall asleep until I get there.”
“I’m wide awake,” Riku says. And then he yawns. “Waiting for you.”
It’s not a new declaration or anything - in fact, it’s far from it. And yet Sion’s heart clenches in his chest anyhow. He’s used to the familiar yearning he feels when Riku says something cute or sweet or even ridiculously funny and Sion is overcome with the overwhelming urge to hold him in his arms. He’s seeing him so soon, and yet he still doesn’t feel like he is. Like his brain hasn’t processed that Riku isn’t an indiscernible amount of distance and time away, but just one flight that’s been paid for for months. So close that he can taste it. He knows Riku’s brand of lip balm because Sion uses the same one. Wonders, not for the first time, if it’ll taste better on him. Something cloyingly sweet.
“Yeah, wait for me,” Sion agrees, grinning, because he can’t help it. “I’ll see you soon, okay? Really. I’ll see you so, so soon.”
“‘Kay,” Riku hums. His lips stretch back into a sly smile. “If your plane crashes, I’ll-”
“Kill me, I know, you’ve told me,” Sion laughs. They call for his boarding number and he stands up. “Stay awake! I love you, okay?”
Riku’s cheeks are pink as they always are whenever Sion says it. Unusually shy when the affection gets so blatant. He’s still smiling; a coy little thing. “I’ll be there,” he says. “I love you, too.”
Sion presses his lips to his phone camera. Making a loud, obnoxious MWAH! sound that startles the people standing around him. He relishes in the way Riku’s ears grow red when he pulls away.
Soon, he thinks as he gets on the plane. Soon, soon, soon-
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
“570,000 won?” Riku asks over voice call. “How much is that in yen?”
Sion has to do the conversion in his head, which isn’t always the easiest. “It’s, uh…” He says. “60,000 something, I think. Not the worst, right?”
Apparently not. Riku makes a wounded noise. “Then let me pay half, at least! 60,000!”
It’s a few months out, but they’ve decided on Sion flying out for New Years. It’s a big thing in Japan, and apparently Riku is under the impression that it’ll give them good luck as a couple if they start the year together. Not that Sion is complaining about it, it’s just a little funny, is all. Riku’s not the superstitious type and yet he was so adamant on this.
“I saved the money, Riku, I don’t want you to pay,” Sion tells him. “I got that bonus, remember?”
“But you’re supposed to spend bonuses on important things!” Riku argues. “Like your car down payments, or student loans, or-”
“You’re an important thing,” Sion says. “You’re more important to me than anything else.”
And Riku makes a hmph sound before going quiet. Sion bites his lip.
It’s not like there’s an aggressive economic disparity between them, but Sion certainly makes more with his salary than Riku does, never mind the fact that Tokyo is a much more expensive city to live in. Sion is living with his college-aged brother in a reasonably priced flat in Gangnam; Riku and Yushi are having to pay Shinjuku rent. So it’s not like Sion is hurting for cash. He just needed a few months of overtime and he’s made enough to book a round trip on Korean Air.
“But-” Riku whines. “But I’ll feel bad.”
And Sion knows maybe it would be more fair if he asked Riku for money, but Sion is literally staying in his home for two weeks, free of charge. He had half-expected Riku to ask him to book a hotel when they started planning this whole thing, but no, apparently his bed is big enough to fit the both of them. And that, Riku insists, is all that matters.
For someone who worries so much, Riku tends to act simple-minded about big things. Namely when it comes to Sion. Although that delusion goes both ways.
So Sion just shakes his head, even though Riku can’t see him. “You’re gonna make me food and house me, jagi. That’s all I need from you.”
And Riku knows it’s a lost cause, because somehow Sion is the more stubborn one out of the two of them, despite Riku’s penchant for dramatics. So you can hear the pout in Riku’s voice. “You’re the worst,” he says. “You’re being mean.”
He’s not being entirely serious. They’ve talked about the expenses of the trip, and Riku has already tentatively agreed that Sion will cover more things, as he can afford it. But he wouldn’t be the Maeda Riku that Sion knows and loves if he wasn’t a little bit of a brat about the whole thing. Sion has always been outrageously fond of the way his boyfriend gets so insistent that things between them have to be balanced. It’s sweet.
So Sion just smiles. “I know.”
Money aside, it’s kind of surreal to be looking at the Korean Air website open on his laptop screen. He’ll be gone the last week of December, into the first week of January. All he has to do is buy a ticket. They’ve been talking about this for years, seriously considering it for months, ever since Riku’s birthday in June. It’s September now.
But now it’s time to actually buy them. It’s real.
Ever since meeting in a Japanese-Korean learning Discord server in college, he and Riku are still together all these years later, 28 and 27 years old respectively. It took years of Sion grinding internships and low level entry jobs to land a gig where he’s able to save up to go to Japan. This has been years in the making, and as Sion hovers over the 572,000 won round trip to Japan, he’s overcome with a new kind of nervousness.
He was never fully convinced that he and Riku would ever meet, not when they first DMed each other, and not even when they actually started dating a few years ago. Not since Sion was a 22-year-old business major with an interest in learning Japanese and Riku was a 21-year-old education major trying to learn Korean. It’s been so long that Sion can hardly imagine a time in his life where Riku wasn’t one message or call away. He can’t imagine a life without Riku at all.
“But you’re sure about this, right?” Sion asks, even though he knows . It never hurts to just double check. “I’m gonna buy them right now. All it’ll take is one click.”
“Pretty sure it’d require at least two or three,” Riku says. Voice snarky. Sion wishes, not for the first time, that they were face-to-face - wishes that he could watch Riku’s micro-expressions change, wishes he could see the furrow of his brow with clarity instead of 720p on Discord.
So Sion sighs. “Riku.” All he ever has to do is use that disapproving tone and Riku comes crumbling down like a house of cards.
Case in point:
“Don’t ask stupid questions!” Riku says. “Of course I’m sure about it! I’ve been in love with you for six years, how could I ever say no? I’ve been dreaming about this since college, Sion.”
And it’s not that Riku isn’t sincere, because he is. Sometimes even more so than Sion. But it’s still nice to be reassured, even after all this time, because under Riku’s mask of brattiness and teasing and penchant for pouting, the love between them goes both ways. Sometimes Sion just wants to hear it.
So despite himself, Sion smiles. “Well if you’re sure…”
“Are you sure?” Riku asks. “You don’t sound very sure. I bet you secretly hate me.”
Sion knows that Riku is just trying to rile him up. And maybe normally it would work. Mostly because he loves nothing more than to express grand love confessions and sweet talk his boyfriend all day, and his boyfriend loves being sweet talked to. But all he does is chuckle. Clicks on the ticket.
“Okay, I’m buying it,” he says. “Don’t be a brat.”
“‘Kay,” Riku hums, surprisingly subdued. Sion can imagine his face in his mind, expression content with his eyes closed. He’s probably curled up with his phone to his ear, in bed, as he often does when they call late at night. On the rare times Sion is blessed with a video call of a sleepy Riku, he’s usually all small and sated like a cat. Cute and a little feisty. Sion’s favorite.
Sion goes to the checkout menu. He puts in all of his credit card information diligently and checks all the boxes asking him to agree to refund terms and agreements. The trip is three months away, but he can’t imagine any reason he’d not want to go on this flight. Even if Riku broke up with him tomorrow, he’d still go anyway. Two weeks off is two weeks off - spending them in Japan, especially, doesn’t hurt.
“Got ‘em,” Sion says when he gets the congratulatory message that his tickets have been purchased. His email chimes with a notification. “December 23rd, Riku. That’s when I get to see you.”
“Ah,” Riku says on the other side of the line. His voice is small and tiny. “You’re sure?”
Sion closes his laptop and smiles. “I’m positive,” he says. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”
Riku doesn’t say anything for a moment, which isn’t weird. Sion knows that this is an emotional moment for both of them. Because despite all the gifts and packages and letters they’ve sent back and forth in a mix of both of their languages, this is the thing that makes it feel tangible. Them finally meeting. Their fingers interlaced. Human contact.
“God,” Riku says, eventually. His voice is watery. “You’re gonna be so annoying, I bet.”
Sion laughs. Holds his phone close and lays down against his pillows. “I will be,” he promises. “Just for you.”
There’s not much between them that hasn’t been said a million times over, not when all they usually have is their words and each other’s pixelated faces over phone screens. But Sion is filled with an indescribable feeling of joy, of certainty, of excitement. Riku in his arms. The thought sets his heart racing.
“Promise me,” Riku says. In a bit of a mumble. “Promise me that you’ll be there when I pick you up, and that you’ll catch me when I run into your arms.”
Sion grins. “I promise,” he says. “I’ll catch you no matter what.”
Riku giggles. Sleepy, a little bit delirious. “Don’t be silly,” he says. “I already know that you will.”
And so it’s decided. Slated as a promise. Sion will be coming home to Riku, and Riku will welcome him with open arms.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
“Does this look bad?” Riku asks for the millionth time as he sticks a new coat-beanie combination on. He spins in a whole 360 for Yushi to get the whole picture. “Am I cute? Does this make me look good? Do you think it’d make him want to kiss me?”
Yushi, to his credit, is at least able to hide his disdain. He’s wearing a strained look on his face. “So you woke me up at 6 AM,” he drawls, “for this.”
Riku pouts. “I don’t want him to think I’m ugly.”
Yushi, curled up on the couch, sticks his head into a throw pillow and ignores him. Great.
(Okay. So maybe Riku is freaking out. Just a teeny, tiny bit.)
He knows that Sion has seen him a thousand times. They video call and send each other pictures throughout their days and Riku makes a point to take a million selfies everyday just so he can get a string of heart emojis back from Sion in reply. But somehow this is different.
This is Sion in real life. Sion, who is handsome and goes to the gym and is tall and has wide shoulders. Sion, who Riku knows gets asked out by his female colleagues, who had no shortage of suitors before they started dating, who would regularly get hit on by the other people in that stupid language learning Discord server. And that wasn’t even because of his face, it was because of how kind he was. Riku still isn’t always sure that he deserves a boyfriend as loving and as kind as Sion is. But he does know that as long as Sion is his, he’s keeping him. Sion is Riku’s and no one else’s, and it’s going to stay that way.
So Riku has to look cute so Sion loves him forever and ever.
And Riku knows that he’s handsome, too, is the thing. He gets hit on by both men and women in spades when he goes out to clubs and bars. But all he’s wanted over the past six years is to be attractive to Sion, wanting Sion to want him. And Sion does, he knows that too. It’s the most obvious thing in the world to anyone who has talked to Sion for longer than five minutes. But what if, you know? What if Riku can never live up to the image Sion has of him in his head?
It’s only natural to be worried. Riku can’t even remember if Sion has ever seen his entire body at once. There’s only so much he can see through pictures and videos and shitty Discord calls.
“I really don’t think you need to be worried,” Yushi tells him after watching a long battle of self-inflicted pain play out on Riku’s face. “Honestly. He’s obsessed with you. He’ll probably pass out when he sees how cute you are.”
It’s not often that Riku’s dramatics can make Yushi be so sincere, not when he’s been immune to them for so long, so Riku snaps out of his spiraling and stares at his best friend with wide, shiny eyes.
“You think I’m cute?”
Yushi just frowns and throws the pillow he’s holding right at Riku’s head. “Don’t be stupid.”
It cheers him up, at least, because Yushi is never anything but honest, even when he doesn’t want to be. And he has a point, at least, that Sion is obsessed with him. Because he is. It used to freak Riku out, sometimes, to be loved so thoroughly, but now it just makes him insufferably giddy. Much to everyone else’s disdain.
So Riku stops spiraling - mostly - and gets back to the task at hand.
His best friend is absolutely no help in the fashion department, but Riku at least knows what suits him. He puts on jeans and an oversized sweater and throws a giant puffer coat over top of everything else, because Sion thinks he looks cute in it. He decides to wear a hat that his boyfriend got him a few years ago, a baseball cap for the Kia Tigers. It’d probably make him happy, right? Riku hopes so. He’s never been a particularly big fan of baseball, but Sion is, so he tries his best to at least understand.
He checks the time on his phone. He should be leaving for the airport any second now. So Riku shoulders his bag and toes on his shoes in the genkan. Puts a scarf on for good measure.
“The kids are coming over for dinner!” He reminds Yushi. “I’ll bring something home! Don’t try to cook!”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Yushi agrees. “Have fun on your date, Kuri. We’ll kill him if he’s an old man.”
Riku laughs. Flings the door open.
“Don’t call my boyfriend old!”
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
It’s Riku’s 27th birthday when he asks the question.
All in all, it’s been a long day full of celebrations. Yushi and Ryo had taken the initiative to invite all his friends over for a party, while Sakuya was, of course, in charge of getting all of his favorite sweets. It was nice. Everyone was loud, the party was festive, and Riku feels well-celebrated.
But once it’s over, he can’t help but feel like there was someone missing. As he always does.
So he’s unusually anxious to talk to Sion once everyone has filed out of his apartment. The kids handle the clean up, shooing him away to go off and call his boyfriend, albeit not without some good-natured teasing (“tell Sion-san that we’ll mail him some cake!”). So Riku does. He runs off to his bedroom and falls onto his bed and presses the call button on Discord. Sion picks up immediately like he’s been waiting. He probably was.
“Hi, birthday boy,” Sion says. You can hear the smile in his voice. “Did you have fun?”
It’s not unusual, his tone nor his question, not in the grand scheme of things. After all, this is the sixth birthday Riku is celebrating without Sion being physically by his side. It’s the second one since they’ve started properly dating. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, there are tears welling up in Riku’s eyes at the soft coo of Sion’s voice. Wishing, not for the first time, that his boyfriend could at least hold him in his arms.
Sion is always the first one to wish him a happy birthday. Is always the first one to text him and leave a voice memo of him singing. No matter what deadlines he has at work, despite whether or not he should be asleep. He’s always the first one in Riku’s life to show his love, has always been his first for everything.
So even though it makes him feel a little pathetic, Riku sniffles. “Sion,” he says. Then in Korean: “hyung.”
And he doesn’t know if Sion understands, entirely, what he means. What he’s asking for. But of course he comforts him anyway.
“What’s wrong, jagi?” Sion asks. “Did something happen at the party?”
He’s so gentle. Sion’s so gentle and patient, sometimes to the point where it scares him when he’s not doing well. How could anyone have an endless well of patience, let alone someone who’s dating Riku? Riku, who lives his life with the mission to make everyone else’s more chaotic? Riku, who as far as he’s aware, isn’t even worthy of all of Sion’s love?
Fuck.
“No, I just-” Riku says, voice watery. “I just missed you. A lot. I missed you a lot.”
It’s not anything new. Riku would happily sit on his phone and talk to his boyfriend twenty four hours a day if he could. His favorite thing in the world is to listen to Sion’s voice soothe him to sleep, the deep timbre of it. But his heart is clenching, feeling like it’s going to burst, and Riku just doesn't know what to do.
How do you soothe the hundreds of miles between them? There’s only so much their voices and pixelated video calls can do. Riku wants Sion to hold him. He wants him so, so badly.
“Oh, Riku,” Sion says. “I missed you too.”
He sounds apologetic, even though he has nothing to be sorry for. Riku’s heart clenches in his chest.
“It’s not fair,” he says, miserable, unable to stop himself from crying. Tears stream down Riku’s cheeks. “I wanted you here with me.”
He’s being petulant, he knows; childish. But god, it’s been like this for years with no end in sight. They’re only a two hour flight away from each other, but neither of them have the time nor the money to just commit to anything. It’s been six years of this, and Riku doesn’t know how he’s supposed to just go on like this forever and ever and ever.
Because it’s not enough, sometimes. What they have. Too much distance, too much discrepancy in their schedules, not enough contact. Riku talks to Sion for hours every single day and yet it’s never enough. He wants Sion to hold him in his arms. He wants Sion to kiss him goodnight. He wants Sion in every possible way he can have him.
And it should be enough, really. Because Riku has someone who loves him, who tells him that he’s lovely, who sends him hoodies drenched in his cologne in the mail. But it’s never enough, and it never has been, and it’s always days like today where Riku feels his resolve breaking. Because how could he ever feel satisfied when Sion is an entire country away? Separated by an ocean? Only two hours by plane but still so, so far?
(But he could never live without Sion, distance or not. So therein lies the dilemma.)
“I’m sorry, honey,” Sion coos. “Hyung’s sorry. I wish I was there with you. I wish I could’ve woken you up this morning with a kiss. I wish I could be there for you every single day.”
It almost makes it worse, to know how much Sion loves him. To know how much Sion yearns for the same things as him. Because no matter what happens, it’s not enough. Not while they’re in two different countries, living in two completely different worlds.
Riku feels guilty. A little ashamed. A little embarrassed. He purses his lips.
“I just-“ He tries. “I don’t know. Everyone is happy. Laughing. But you’re not there, and you’re the only thing missing, and it hurts because all I want is you-”
“I know,” Sion says. “I know, it hurts me too-”
“I just wanna be with you, really, more than anything,” Riku says, and the tears are welling up so much in his eyes that his vision goes blurry. “Sometimes I just wanna quit everything and run to you and live in your pocket and I dunno, crawl into your skin-”
Sion laughs. “Riku,” he says. “God, you’re so cute.”
“This is what I mean!” Riku cries. “You say things like that and I can’t even kiss you! It’s so unfair!”
And, look. He knows he’s being unreasonable.
Sion works hard. At his job, at home. He works hard and he's criminally underappreciated at work, and as long as Riku has known him, he’s worked thankless job after thankless job. He knows that he’s asking for too much, by being petulant, by whining. They operate in the only way they can, in the only way they know how, and even this should be enough, because it’s everything that Sion can give him. He knows that he’s being unreasonable. He knows that it could never happen, not now, not any time soon-
“You want me to come to you?” Sion asks. His voice is still outrageously patient and kind, low and soothing. “You want to meet?”
And Riku doesn’t really know what to say to that.
Because of course he does, fucking obviously. He wants to meet and he wants to bury his face in Sion’s collarbone and make a home for himself there. He wants all of his aching, bruising thoughts to have a proper outlet, wants to kiss his dumb, stupid boyfriend; wants to kiss him until Sion understands his desperation. He wants it more than anything else, and he would probably throw his life away for the opportunity for Sion to hug him just once if he was ever just given the chance.
But alas:
“Of course I do,” Riku says, and he knows he sounds bitter. “But we can’t. We’re too busy.”
Sion inhales-exhales on the other side of the line, and Riku shrinks into himself, feeling bad. He doesn’t mean to take any of this out on Sion. He didn’t really mean to say any of this at all.
“But maybe we could?” Sion says, slowly; cautious. “We could try.”
And Riku closes his eyes. Tears still running down his face. He’s such an idiot.
“But we can’t,” he says again, not knowing what to do besides apologize. “Sorry, I’m just being stupid. I know that you don’t have time or anything, I know I shouldn’t even put that on you, I’m-”
“I mean, I could,” Sion says, and it completely stops Riku in his tracks. “Or, well, not now. But soon. I could save up.”
And Riku’s fuming, traitorous heart, roars the pumping of his blood in his ears. Every thought in his head comes to an abrupt, screeching halt.
His voice is tiny, microscopic: “what do you mean?”
“I mean, jagi,” Sion says. “Is that we could meet. Maybe over the holidays? What about that? It gives me a few months to save up. Enough for me to get a flight, probably.”
And… and…
Riku stares down at his phone.
“What?” He asks, and it sounds like an echo of his own voice, because this doesn’t really feel real. Because how could it be real? Him and Sion meeting? “What are you talking about? The holidays are your busiest season.”
“I have vacation days,” is what Sion says. “A lot of them.”
And Riku wonders, not for the first time, if Sion is merely a figment of his imagination.
Because it’s one thing to have an online boyfriend who loves you and sends you selfies of him in the clothes you buy him. And it’s one thing to be in love with a handsome Korean man who has been the top person in your Discord inbox for six years now. But while they’ve talked about meeting, obviously, and both yearned for it, it’s never been a serious thing. It’s never been anything tangible, anything real, not as long as they have known each other.
It’s too good to be true.
“What are you talking about?” Riku’s voice goes shrill. “You can’t just- there’s no time to- we aren’t-“
“Yah, Riku, do you not want to meet me or something?” Sion asks. You can hear the grin in his voice. “I have the- you know, the resources. We could do it. Unless you don’t want to-“
“Shut up!” Riku shrieks, because now he’s crying properly. “Shut your mouth right now, you’re the worst-“
“Riku-“
“Shut up, I hate you-“
“Is everything okay in here?” Ryo asks, poking his head in. “You’re, uh, screaming.”
Riku turns and hisses at his little cousin standing in the doorway of his room. “I’m going through something, leave me alone.”
“But Sion-san-“
“He’s fine!”
So with a huff and a roll of his eyes, Ryo leaves. And Riku turns back to his phone, feeling a little betrayed and very incredulous and most of all, beyond terrified.
Terrified that none of this is real. Terrified that this has just been one long dream, a dream where Sion is his, a dream where they don’t even get to touch. Like one day he’ll wake up all alone. Like one day Sion won’t answer his calls. Like one day it’ll be like nothing ever even happened at all.
He’s terrified out of his mind. Doesn’t even know what to say.
“Riku, I’m being serious,” Sion says gently. As slow and easy and sweet as molasses. “I want to see you. And with this job - with my pay - I finally can. Not now. But soon. And if you don’t want to, if you’re not ready-”
“Of course I’m ready,” Riku whispers. “I’ve been ready for six years.”
Sion sucks in a breath on the other side of the line. His voice is so gentle that Riku can feel the rumble of it in his bones.
“Then let’s do it, yeah? Let me come see you?”
Maybe it’s the simple nature of the declaration, how simply he says it. Because Sion has never been a simple person - no, he’s usually edging on the side of too much, too loud, too evasive. He likes grand gestures, likes heartfelt things, likes leaving Riku long letters and wordy love confessions and mildly expensive gifts. But the simple question - let’s do it, yeah? - is what makes Riku realize that he’s being genuine.
Sion’s serious. He wants to meet him. He wants to be with him for real.
“Oh,” Riku says, a little dumbly. “You really mean it.”
And Sion is laughing, because he’s a terrible boyfriend. Loud and annoying and so, so Sion. “Riku. Of course I do. God, you know I’ve never wanted anything more.”
It’s the truth, which Riku knows. Sion has always been honest to a fault. To everyone, but especially to him. He’s horrible at keeping secrets. Can’t plan a surprise to save his life. But he’s always so sweet about it, so genuine, and Riku doesn’t even know what to do with himself.
“I thought-” Riku mumbles. “I thought you were too busy.”
“I can make time,” Sion promises. “I have vacation days. Seriously. I can put in some overtime, I can use my bonus, I have savings-”
“Savings are for your car!” Riku whines. “Not for me!”
“What’s the use of a car in Seoul, Riku, honestly,” Sion chuckles. “A flight and hotel wouldn’t be too much, either. I can see you for New Year’s. Wouldn’t you like that?”
Riku purses his lips. Because he would, in fact, like that. He would like that a lot.
“You won’t need a hotel,” is all he can say in response. “My bed is big enough for both of us.”
Sion hums. A gentle, low sound. So familiar that Riku can feel the vibrations of it against his cheek as his phone speaker thrums against his skin. He can imagine Sion’s face. Probably smug. Maybe his ears are red. He gets embarrassed when Riku is forward about certain things, intimacy included. Especially the phone sex, which is never either of their proudest moments, but that’s what happens when you’ve been online dating for two years.
“Okay, so I won’t get a hotel,” Sion says. “But I’ll get a plane and I’ll fly to you. Okay?”
And you can always trust someone like Sion to make something so complicated into something so simple and easy, just as he always does. Riku is in love with him, and Sion is his favorite person in the world, and his heart is thumping at the mere idea of seeing that handsome face in person.
Riku curls up in bed. He smiles. Says into his phone: “okay.”
Sion lets out a relieved sigh, and Riku can’t help his giggle. Happy birthday to him. Sion will make him the most spoiled boy in the world, at this rate - who else’s boyfriend would be willing to cross oceans just to spend New Year’s with them? Who else would be willing to clock in overtime just to be able to give Riku a hug?
No one. Absolutely no one else. There never will be anyone else. Riku is sure of that.
“Six months,” Sion says. “Six months and you’re all mine.”
Riku laughs, this time. Full of joy, full of excitement, full of anticipation. He can’t believe this is his life.
“That,” he warns, “better be a promise.”
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
When Riku had said Haneda would be busy, Sion hadn’t properly understood just what he meant by that.
The terminal is packed. People are coming and going everywhere for the holidays. Sion has to follow the flow of the crowd to the bag carousels, and even though he’s been studying Japanese for well over six years, the immediate immersion sends his head spinning. Flights are announced over the intercom in Japanese, Mandarin, English, meanwhile his brain scrambles to translate it all back into Korean.
He recognizes a few people from the flight and distantly trails after them, mostly out of fear that his Japanese comprehension isn’t as good as he thinks it is and that he’ll read the signs wrong. He only remembers to send a text to Riku once he’s waiting for his bag to come out.
sionie: im here
sionie: waiting for my suitcase
jagi: JRHDGGFUYIFBGUHDHF my taxi is taking forever ill be there soon AHH AHHH AHHH AHHHHHHH
jagi: (＞﹏＜)
sionie: aww
sionie: take your time it’s busy here
jagi: what terminal!!!!
sionie : 2
jagi: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
jagi: ON MY WAY TO KISS MY BOYFRIEND ε===(っ≧ω≦)っ
The suitcases finally start coming out after a few minutes of waiting. Sion’s is bright blue and obnoxiously large, so he’s not exactly worried about missing it. Daeyoung had given it to him for his birthday, much to his disdain. So you can see Riku hyung!
Do you want him to see me or my bag? Sion had huffed.
Though it comes in handy during times like these, he can admit. He’ll send his younger brother a grateful text later.
He spots the monstrosity after most people have already gotten theirs, avoiding other peoples’ eyes as they watch him have to haul his oversized suitcase off the conveyor belt. It’s full with not only snacks for Riku, but gifts for the others as well. Sion isn’t particularly close to Riku’s roommate, but he heard that Yushi is a fan of Korean ramyeon. As well as that, Ryo is an EXO-L, and Sion tracked down some Korean exclusives. He didn’t know what to get for Sakuya, but Riku told him some keychains would be just fine. Considering that he’s only ever spoken to Riku’s cousin and his cousin’s friend briefly over Discord calls, he’s a little nervous about whether or not it’d be weird to give them things, but Riku said they would be touched by it, so…
jagi: IM HERE
jagi: RIGHT OUTSIDE
jagi: IM READY TO SEE THAT HANDSOME FACE
jagi: (≧◡≦) ♡
And Sion doesn’t even know what to say back. So he dials Riku’s phone number and presses it to his ear as he walks out of the terminal, moving a little quicker than usual. Feeling antsy to see his favorite person, ready to hug him, ready to kiss him-
“Where are you?” Sion asks when Riku picks up. Skipping right to the point, this time, because they’re so close to each other and he doesn’t even want to wait another second. “Are you by the cars?”
“‘M standing by a pillar,” Riku says. “Um, lemme move towards the entrance. Can you see me? I’m waving-”
Sion looks around, swiveling his head around to look for a cute Japanese boy that looks like his boyfriend. Sion squints his eyes. “Um-”
“Oh my god, is that you?” Riku is saying, breathless. “You’re wearing my stupid One Piece hoodie?”
Sion perks up. “Yeah! Do you see me? Where-”
And he’s interrupted by a figure streaking towards him at full speed, arms outstretched. All he sees of Riku is the Kia Tigers hat and a face pink from the cold before Riku is leaping at him and jumping into his arms. Sion catches him, of course. Steps back with an oof as his arms are full with his tearful boyfriend. Because Sion can’t even take a breath before Riku is sobbing into his neck.
“Riku-”
“Oh my god, you’re real,” Riku cries. He loops his arms around Sion’s shoulders and clings onto him with gloved hands as Sion presses them together head to toe, holding Riku protectively against him as onlookers give them side eye. “You’re real, I can’t believe it, you’re here-”
“Yah, what in the world are you crying for?” Sion asks, unable to help his laugh. “Baby, I haven’t even taken a look at you yet.”
“I don’t care,” Riku is sobbing into his collarbone, hunching himself into something small so he can fit himself under Sion’s chin. “I got to look at you and you’re so handsome, I’m losing my mind-”
“You’re so silly,” Sion chuckles. Pressing his cheek against the crown of Riku’s head. “Ah, you crybaby. At least let me look at you.”
That only makes Riku cling on even harder, which in all fairness, isn’t something Sion is complaining about. He can’t even describe how it feels to have the rumble of Riku’s voice against his chest, to have an unfamiliar yet warm weight in his arms. The shape of Riku is something he knows abstractly - knows that he’s kind of skinny, knows that he’s made of elegant lines, knows that his waist is tiny. But this is something real. Something he can grow to learn properly. Something tangible.
Sion pulls them a little bit out of the way from the entrance to the terminal, away from people staring them down. Just in case.
“Riku,” Sion says. He takes him by the arms, tries to pry him off. “Let me see your cute face. I literally flew here from a different country.”
“No, it’s embarrassing,” Riku whines. The pout is obvious in his voice when Sion - stronger than him - is able to untangle them, unwind Riku’s arms from around his neck. “You’re so hot, it’s not fair.”
“Honey,” Sion coos. “Come on. Let me see.” And then he’s guiding Riku’s face out of his neck, hand on his jaw, and loses his breath when Riku looks up at him with wide, teary eyes.
Oh. Jesus christ.
Of course he knew his boyfriend was pretty. If the pictures didn’t make it obvious enough, the way he pouts at Sion over video call certainly did. He already knew that Riku was miles out of his league, already knew that he was beyond lucky that someone as gorgeous as Riku gives him the time of day, but holy shit. Those sparkling eyes want him dead, with how round and kittenish and so obviously Riku they are.
Sion stares down at him. Puts a hand on either one of Riku’s cheeks. Squeezes.
He watches Riku’s lips form into a pout with nothing short of reverence.
Holy fucking shit.
“You think I’m ugly, don’t you,” Riku whines, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. “You just realized that you’re too good for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Sion asks, incredulous. “You’re beautiful. I could look at you for hours.”
That kind of flirting is normal for them, and usually a comment like that would earn him a sly comment right back. I am, aren’t I? Or: well, what’s stopping you? But this time, Riku only squirms. Avoids Sion’s eyes. Purses his lips into a pout.
He says nothing. His ears are bright red.
Oh my god, Sion thinks as it dawns on him. Riku’s being shy.
“What in the world happened to my sweet, bratty boyfriend?” Sion wonders out loud, lips widening into a grin. Riku wiggles out of his grasp and turns away with a huff. When Sion tries to meet his eyes again, Riku only insistently looks away. “Why are you so shy, baby? It’s just me.”
“I’m not shy,” Riku grumbles, though he lets Sion pull him back into a hug.
“Yeah, you are,” Sion coos. “You can’t even look me in the eyes.”
“Shut up,” Riku whines. His face burrows back into Sion’s neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And all in all, Sion isn’t complaining about that either.
They stand there for a good while, just rocking back and forth in each other’s hold, unhurried. Ignoring all the people around them, all the stares - who cares that two grown men are hugging each other in the middle of the airport like they’ll die if they separate? Sion certainly doesn’t. Not if it’s Riku.
Riku’s tears dry up, but Sion can’t keep a smug grin off his face. The cutest boy in Japan is in his arms, gripped onto Sion like a leech. Not that Sion is planning on letting him go, nor something he’s upset about, mostly because it’s cute. And Riku has always been cute. But this is something beyond that.
“Should we start heading back to your place?” Sion asks him. The cold is starting to get to him, as well as the exhaustion from the flight. The adrenaline pumping in his veins starts calming down, now that Riku’s in his arms. Now that the chaos of meeting, actually meeting, is over. “We can go somewhere more private, yes? I can give you those kisses you’ve been begging me for?”
“You beg for them too,” Riku complains, though he doesn’t sound very upset. He’s red-faced and pouting when he detaches himself from under Sion’s chin and instead molds himself into Sion’s side. “Don’t act like it’s just me.”
Sion laughs, fixing the cap on Riku’s head. Throws an arm across his shoulders like it’s always belonged there. Starts dragging them towards the line of waiting taxis.
“It’s not just you,” he promises. “Now let’s go home.”
-
Riku doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to be feeling right now.
Thank god Sion is fluent in Japanese, because Riku can’t even tell the driver his goddamn address - Sion recites it to him in perfect pronunciation, the bastard. It’s not his fault that his brain seems to be suffering from major shock, though. Sion’s so handsome that it kind of makes him sick.
Riku watches his boyfriend’s side profile as he stares out the window, looking at Tokyo race past them. They’re still holding hands. Riku is at a loss for what to do.
He does not feel prepared, not in the slightest.
He knew that it’d be emotional, and it was. He knew that seeing Sion for the first time would change his life as he knew it, and it did. He knew that Sion would catch him in his arms. He knew that Sion’s warm body would keep him safe from everything else, everyone’s prying eyes.
But that doesn’t make it any less surreal. It doesn’t make Sion himself any less overwhelming to be around.
Because Riku is, admittedly, a little overwhelmed. Mostly because of his boyfriend’s handsomeness - which may be superficial of him, but it’s not like Riku’s going to lie and say that he isn’t attracted to pretty faces. Sion is taller than he looks in photos. His shoulders are annoyingly wide, taking up so much space. His eyes crinkle when he smiles, a detail his camera doesn’t always quite catch. Seeing him in 4k resolution, crystal-clear quality, is throwing him for a loop. Because yeah, Riku always knew his boyfriend was hot, but he wasn’t prepared for this.
The deep timbre of Sion’s flirty voice. The way his shoulders shake when he laughs. The warmth of his hand in Riku’s. The way he squeezes his fingers. Riku looks away when Sion turns back to him, unable to stop himself from doing so. Sion’s face triggers an odd sort of fight or flight response in him.
“What were you looking at?” Sion asks in Korean. “Were you looking at me?”
Riku huffs. Stares out his own window. “Of course not.”
And it’s not like Riku likes the fact that he can’t even look Sion in the eyes, but he’s intimidated. When was the last time he held hands with such a pretty boy? Let alone a boy who was as kind and patient as Sion?
Never. The answer is never. Sion is the only one, ever, and Riku intends to keep it that way.
He listens to Sion’s recounts of his flight. There was a screaming baby, but he mostly slept through it. No turbulence, somehow, despite the recent snowstorms in both Korea and Japan. He wishes he got to experience a Japanese bento from the airport.
Those are so overpriced, Riku tells him.
Then make me one, Sion asks. Please?
Riku, against his better judgement, doesn’t say no.
They pull up to the apartment sometime around noon. They thank the driver and Sion hauls his suitcase out of the trunk. Riku guides him into the building, into the elevator, and up to the seventh floor. Tries to ignore how his ears burn when Sion smiles at him the second the doors close. His gaze is hungry.
“Don’t,” Riku says weakly. Because he knows that face, has seen it leveled at him a million times through his phone screen. “Wait until we get inside.”
“I didn’t even say anything,” Sion replies. Acting all innocent.
Riku vows to get revenge on him later.
They reach his floor, and Riku beeps in his door code with trembling fingers. Sion’s presence makes him feel small as he stands behind Riku and keeps one hand not-so-politely on his waist. When the door swings open, Riku leads him inside by the wrist.
“This is it,” he mumbles. Sion brings the suitcase in and closes the door behind them. He turns to Riku just to look at him. They stare at each other for a moment.
Sion has a mole on his cheek, which is something Riku already knew but never really got to see clearly. Long eyelashes. Prominent cheekbones. Riku feels the urge to be close to him. Feels the urge to breathe him in, be overwhelmed with Sion’s mere presence, a presence that has suddenly become so frighteningly large.
So Riku steps back into his space. Crowds Sion up against the door.
Sion sucks in a breath. “Riku-yah,” he says. “Can I-”
“Come here,” Riku mumbles, and then he’s pulling Sion to him by the hoodie strings and pressing their lips together.
Riku is ashamed to report that there are, indeed, fireworks when they kiss. Or, at least, mentally there are. Their noses are both ice cold from the outside wind, brushing together as Riku curls his hands over Sion’s shoulders and pulls him in closer. It’s not a spectacular kiss, not compared to every kiss Riku has ever had in his life, but it’s Sion.
It’s Sion, and Sion is everything Riku has ever wanted, the very thing he has orbited around for the past six years, the object of his dreams and affections, the man he’s desperately in love with - the man who’s desperately in love with him-
“Ah,” Sion says when he pulls away, a little breathless. “You’re so cute.”
Riku just whines and chases his lips.
It doesn’t even feel like this is the first time they’ve done this, as Sion guides his mouth open with a nip at his bottom lip, nor as their tongues meet, nor as Sion backs him up against the wall of the genkan and very gently ravishes him. Slow, unhurried, thorough. Riku cranes his neck and breathes in Sion’s cologne, tastes the coffee on his lips, lets his boyfriend pin him to the wall and map every centimeter of his fucking mouth. Sion kisses him like it’s the thing he was made for, like it’s everything the past six years of their lives have been leading up to. And maybe it was. Maybe this is the very thing Riku was created to do.
God, it’s exhilarating. It’s everything Riku has ever dreamed of.
“Hyung,” he whispers, as Sion cradles his jaw with his hand, pressing his lips over Riku’s cheek, over his jaw, ever-so-slightly down his neck.
“Yeah?” Sion coos. “What d’you want, sweet thing?”
It’s not fair. It’s not fair because Riku is normally the suave one out of the two of them, in the moments where they are separated by a screen. Sion tends to get nervous when he’s alone, even when Riku is on the other side of the phone call, even when Riku is aching for him. It takes a lot of work on Riku’s part to get him keyed up - to get him to forget about the distance and just feel good. It usually involves a lot of begging, dropping his voice low, asking for hyung to make him feel good, please.
But this Sion is different - this Sion kisses him like he’s been doing it forever, this Sion holds him like he’s something precious, this Sion draws a whimper out of him just by pressing his lips to the underside of Riku’s jaw.
Riku’s ears burn and he feels like he’s going to melt into a goddamn puddle. “It’s- it’s lunchtime,” he breathes. “Gotta… gotta feed you, and show you around, and-”
“Whatever you want,” Sion promises, making his way back to Riku’s lips and kissing the corner of his mouth. Sweet, insistent. “We can go on a date, yeah? We can go to that museum you’ve been wanting to see.” His hand finds Riku’s hips and squeezes. Kisses him again. And again and again.
“That’s not on the itinerary,” Riku mumbles, a little dizzy-headed as Sion presses a kiss to his forehead. And then to his nose. “That’s not until next week.”
“Ah, who cares about the itinerary?” Sion grins, and it’s a devious little thing. He traces his lips along Riku’s jaw and then says low at his ear: “Let’s do what you want to do. After you show me around. Okay?”
And… yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Sion presses a final kiss to Riku’s lips, short and sweet, and then finally separates them. He gives Riku space to breathe air that isn’t drenched in Sion’s cologne, which is a little more disorienting than he’d like to admit.
Sion steps back and looks around the apartment, like he wasn’t literally just taking Riku apart in the foyer. He toes off his shoes and sends Riku a grin.
“Show me around,” Sion tells him, eyes full of mischievousness. “I want a look at that bed of yours.”
Riku, still a little hazy-minded from their earlier activities, just follows after him helplessly.
In terms of the apartment, there isn’t much to speak of. There’s Yushi’s room, Riku’s room, the kitchen, a single bathroom, and the living room. The kids are sleeping on the couch tonight, after they come up after class. Hopefully they’ll be well behaved, but it’s not like Riku is holding out much hope about it.
He had gone through the trouble of stocking up their fridge, which is meager on a good day, as both Riku and Yushi’s cooking abilities begin and end at the microwave. But Riku had spent last weekend down in Fukui, begging his older sister to teach him how to at least make the world’s easiest yakisoba, and so he now has one (1) single recipe on his belt that involves the stove.
And hey, it’s not like he’s proud of it. But it’s something, at least.
They put Sion’s stuff in Riku’s room, and Sion corners him again with more kisses until Riku shoves him away with a groan and says “go change! You smell like the airport!”. It makes Sion laugh, like he knows the effect he has on him. And he probably does. Riku isn’t a very secretive person.
And so Riku retreats to the kitchen, face burning red, knowing that Sion is changing (shirtless!) right on the other side of his door. He sets out the ingredients for yakisoba. Tries to focus on the recipe his sister texted him instead of his boyfriend’s presence, with varying degrees of luck. He almost cuts his finger off while he’s chopping the cabbage, but what Sion doesn’t know won’t kill him.
“Smells good,” Sion says as he slips into the kitchen while Riku’s stir-frying. Riku turns to him with a sheepish grin. Tries to subtly ogle his boyfriend, who is now dressed in a white t-shirt and jean jacket, which looks criminally good on him.
“You think so?” Riku asks. A little bit coy. Whether or not he’s fishing for compliments is nobody’s business but his own.
“Yeah,” Sion grins. Hugs Riku from behind, buries his face in his hair. “You’re cute. You learned this for me, didn’t you.”
It’s not a question, mostly because Sion already knows the answer. Riku’s inability to cook, after all, is infamous. Riku sends him pictures of dinner every night, which is usually natto and rice and spam, much to Sion’s consistently expressed disapproval. So yakisoba, in comparison, is practically a gourmet meal.
“I didn’t,” Riku says, bottom lip jutting out. Squirming out of Sion’s hold and failing when Sion wraps his arms around his shoulders.
“You did,” Sion teases. “I’m special.”
“To your mom, maybe,” Riku grumbles, and then shrieks when Sion’s fingers find his sides and dig in. “Oi- Sion! Hot oil!”
Sion just laughs, even though he’s a hazard in the kitchen, and lets go of Riku just enough to not cause an accident. Stupid idiot. “You’re normally so sweet to me, what happened?” He asks. Presses a kiss to Riku’s temple. “Have you always been a tsundere?”
“Not a tsundere,” Riku says. Nudges Sion out of the way so he can add pork belly to the pan. “I’m angelic.”
Sion hums, watching him cook. Still plastered along Riku’s back, chin hooked over his shoulder. “Angelic, huh,” he comments. Voice dropping low. “I’m sure you are.”
Riku’s neck burns red and he hunches over the stove, ignoring his boyfriend.
What a nuisance.
Despite Sion’s continuous teasing, the rest of lunch goes smoothly. Riku manages to keep most of the stir fry unburnt. Sion was absolutely zero help the whole time, unless you count clinging onto Riku like a second skin helpful. He serves lunch with a salad mix he bought from the store yesterday, plopping their meal down onto two plates, and hooking his ankles with Sion’s when they sit down across from each other at the tiny dining table.
“Itadakimasu!” Sion cheers with the most stereotypical Japanese accent he can muster.
Riku rolls his eyes but grins all the same.
It turns out that god can actually be merciful, because the food comes out relatively edible. He probably didn’t season everything as well as he should’ve, and it’s a little too salty in the soy sauce department, but it’s the best thing Riku has ever made by far. Sion certainly isn’t complaining, and he eats like a fucking vacuum.
“Tastes good,” he compliments. Says it so sweetly that Riku doesn’t even comment on the way his boyfriend holds chopsticks, which could probably be considered a hate crime in some countries. “My Riku is so talented, hmm?”
“He is,” Riku agrees sagely. “Your Riku is the best.”
Sion laughs. Squeezes his hand. No, it’s not bad at all.
Cleaning up lands on Sion’s shoulders at his own insistence. He makes Riku sit on the couch as he stands at the sink and hums, wiping plates down. So Riku stares over the back of the sofa at the silhouette of his boyfriend in his home, fitting himself into the space like he’s always belonged there, like it’s second nature. He takes a few photos, just for his own enjoyment. Sion is wearing Yushi’s frilly pink apron which was a gift from Sakuya and Ryo several years back, yet is still something they use all the time.
He makes the thing look tiny. And it strangely looks good on him?
Either way, Riku has a great view.
“Are you too tired to go out?” Riku asks Sion when he joins him on the couch. Sion sprawls out over top of him, laying across his lap. Riku cards a hand through Sion’s hair. “We could go to the museum, but we could also stay here.”
“‘S fine, let’s go out,” Sion says, voice muffled by the couch cushions. “It’s our first date and all.”
Riku smiles. He supposes that’s true.
“We could always wait until tomorrow, though,” he says. “You look kind of…” He struggles for the word in Korean. “Dead?”
“Nooo,” Sion whines. He switches to Japanese. “I’m alive.”
And, well. Riku isn’t here to argue with him.
He goes to change into a date-worthy outfit while Sion curls up with his phone and frantically Googles whatever date spots he wants to take Riku to. It’s kind of touching. No one has ever cared much about the things Riku is interested in, let alone to the extent that Sion does. So he wears an outfit he knows Sion likes on him. Oversized clothes that make him look a little small because his boyfriend has an ape brain who is not-so-secretly obsessed with their miniscule size difference.
“Wear warm clothes!” Sion calls from the other room. “It’s gonna be windy this afternoon!”
Riku grins to himself. Shouts back: “okay!”
He goes back out to the living room and puts a beanie and his trusty scarf on top of his coat, urging Sion to do the same. “You look like a marshmallow,” Sion says with thinly veiled delight. “Should we get couple scarves? Gloves? Hats?”
“Scarves are fine,” Riku says, blushing when Sion reaches over to wrap him up nice and warm in said scarf. “Maybe even shoes if I’m feeling generous.”
“Aw, really?” Sion puts a hand to his heart, eyes shining. “You would do that? For me?”
Riku grins. His boyfriend is so stupidly easy to please. He can’t help but laugh as he pushes Sion out the door.
They hail a taxi to head to the Ghibli Museum, which has been on his bucket list for ages but is a place that Riku has put off going to in order to visit with Sion. The subway would be far more economically friendly, but Sion looks a little dead on his feet, and the last thing Riku wants to do is have to haul his heavy boyfriend around Tokyo.
Sion’s fingers stay laced with Riku’s for the full ride, which isn’t bad either.
They get to Inokashira park with little fanfare, stumbling out of the taxi into the frigid December air. Sion links their arms together in a way that could theoretically come across as platonic. They make their way to the museum cafe because his silly boyfriend is addicted to caffeine, no matter how much he tries to say otherwise. Though Riku doesn’t complain. Just watches with a fond smile as Sion gets his first sip of Japanese matcha and doesn’t even whine that it’s not an iced americano.
“Thank god,” Sion sighs, melting into Riku’s side. “This tastes like heaven.”
Riku laughs. His voice is fond. “You’re an idiot.”
After Sion finishes his drink, they finally head off towards the museum. It’s not very busy on a Monday afternoon, but they’re surrounded by young families and a few tourists. It’s cute. Reminds Riku a lot of his childhood. He points out easter eggs to Sion, who grew up watching Ghibli films, but isn’t as much of a fanatic as Riku is.
“The cat bus!” Riku elbows him. “From Totoro!”
He turns to Sion, who is already looking at him. Expression fond. Lips curved into a smile.
“Yeah,” he grins. “It’s the cat bus.”
And the thing is that Riku has known Sion for six years; has been dating him for two. He knows Sion inside and out, has spent thousands of hours of his life listening to his voice, has spent a thousand more reading his words on his own phone screen. And yet, on their first date, in his home country, that’s when Riku realizes just how hopelessly in love he is with his obnoxiously kind boyfriend, who takes him to his favorite museum after waking up at 3 in the morning. Who pays for their taxis. Who kisses him deeply and hugs him even sweeter.
Riku blinks. He’s standing in the middle of the Ghibli Museum, and it’s like the haze of a dream coming into focus. A memory returning at full force. His life being shown to him in full earnesty.
Sion is smiling at him. Sion is in love with him. Sion came from Korea just to hold him in his arms.
Oh, Riku realizes with startling clarity. So this is what it’s like to be loved.
-
The date is fine, Sion supposes, but being with Riku is much, much better.
Seeing his boyfriend - twenty seven years old physically but mentally about maybe nineteen - overjoyed at the museum sets his tired mind into a happy daze of Riku-Riku-Riku. Which isn’t a new thing, but Sion is too exhausted to form any more complex thoughts and simply lets Riku drag him through the museum, happily watching the growing smile on his boyfriend’s face. And maybe Riku was right, that they should’ve saved their date for tomorrow, but the contentness he feels deep down in his bones is worth all of the exhaustion.
He’d get up at 3 AM every single day of his life if it meant seeing that smile on Riku’s gorgeous face.
Riku oohs and ahhs at each exhibit. He buys a concerning amount of books from the bookstore; for my kids, he says, meaning the daycare. He gets Sion a Totoro to take home with him, and a keychain for both Ryo and Sakuya. Sion has to cap his spending off there, lest they want to only eat fast food on the rest of their dates. Unfortunately for them, the rooftop garden is pretty much dead, it being in the middle of winter and all, but Riku doesn’t seem to mind. He makes Sion pose outside the museum a million times, taking pictures all the meanwhile.
“We need a selfie, not just pictures of me,” Sion tells him, exasperated. He beckons Riku over to him. “Come here, jagi-yah.”
Riku listens with a surprising amount of obedience, jogging over and nestling himself right into Sion’s side like he lives there, pressing his cheek against Sion’s as they snap some pictures. One with silly faces, one with smiles, one where they’re kissing (Sion makes sure no one’s looking at them before he takes that one). He then takes a few of Riku, his boyfriend smiling at him from in front of the camera. Sion immediately sets one as his lock screen. He’ll remember this day until he dies.
He fixes Riku’s scarf so it’s covering most of his face as they stroll idly around the park. It’s freezing out, but Sion is too happy about their hands slotted together to care much about that. They talk about nothing significant - Riku tells him about Mitaka, the part of Tokyo they’re in. They walk around Inokashira pond. It’s beautiful when the cherry blossoms bloom, Riku says.
Guess I’ll have to come back when the cherry blossoms bloom, Sion muses, and watches the blush grow across Riku’s cheeks.
There’s a cafe nearby that sells good food, so they “pick up some sustenance for the kids.” Riku’s words, not Sion’s. Apparently Sakuya is picky about certain things, Ryo less so, meanwhile Yushi will eat anything. They play rock-paper-scissors for the check. Sion wins and passes his card over with a smug smirk.
“You’re the worst,” Riku complains in Korean. Sion laughs at his pout.
All in all, it’s a good first date. A little bit of a short one, but not too bad all things considering. They hop back into a taxi to get back to Riku’s place in Shinjuku, hitting rush hour traffic on their way. Riku snores into Sion’s shoulder, and despite his exhaustion, Sion feels too keyed up to even close his eyes.
It’s a hard thing to put into words. The way that Riku makes him feel.
A lot of it feels like relief. That’s how he would describe it. Because yeah, there’s six years of love for Riku under his belt, but there was also always an ocean between them. So much distance, for an amount of time that was always indefinite up until a couple of months ago. But now Riku is real, in his arms, and Sion is just so beyond relieved. Happy, yes. But mostly relieved.
He’s relieved by Riku’s shy affection, relieved by the warm weight of Riku’s hand in his, relieved by the way Riku sighs against his lips when Sion pulls him into a kiss.
This is all real and it’s all his. Riku is his. Always has been, but now it’s just so fucking real.
(No, it’d be impossible to try and sleep now. He stares at Riku’s pretty face. Studies it until it’s burned into his memory.)
Pictures don’t do him justice, not even a little bit. Because Riku is gorgeous. He’s tan and soft and so, so sweet when he laughs, almost to a cloying extent, and Sion doesn’t even know what to do with himself. His nose scrunches up when Sion flirts with him, but he’s always smiling this tiny smile, like he’s secretly pleased. He curls up to Sion’s side like a cat, like the cutest kitten in the world, and he’s so fucking lovely that Sion just wants to, like, eat him. One bite and he’s gone, that type of thing. Wants to put him in his pocket and keep him there forever.
“We’re here, jagi,” Sion mutters to him when they finally arrive back at Riku’s apartment. “Wake up.”
Riku sleepily blinks up at him and yawns. Eyes wide. Soft and tired.
(Ugh. Sion wants to eat him.)
Sion pays the driver and stumbles over his pronunciation when he thanks him, pulling Riku out of the car with him. They jog into the building, trying to escape the cold, right into the elevator. Riku leans heavily into his side as they ride up and up, bags full of goodies hanging from his hand.
“The kids should be here already,” Riku warns. “And they might be a little mean.”
Sion laughs. Mostly because Ryo and Sakuya have always acted well-behaved around him, despite what Riku says on the contrary. “It’ll be just fine.”
And sure enough, they’re accosted by a college-aged boy as soon as they open the door. It’s Ryo, who Sion immediately notices is about the smallest kid in the world. Who latches onto Riku without so much as giving him time to breathe, clinging and talking at a million miles a second.
“Nii-chan!” He cries. “You wouldn’t believe what happened today in class, I was minding my own business when-”
Sion blinks, unable to comprehend much after that. Rapid-fire Japanese, apparently, isn’t his strong suit. Though it’s not his fault that no one he’s talked to in Japanese on Discord ever talked as fast as Ryo can.
“Oi, I just got home,” Riku cuts him off, although he doesn’t even try to pry Ryo off of him. “And Sion-san is here. Say hi.”
Ryo turns to Sion suddenly, as if he only just noticed his presence. There’s a wide smile on his face. Disturbingly angelic. It’s kind of off-putting.
“Oh, Sion hyung!” He greets. Stumbles a bit over the word hyung, but he’s got the spirit. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Sion blushes. “Ah, you don’t have to call me that.”
“He should,” Riku says, pinching Ryo’s cheek. “I’m trying to teach them manners.”
Ryo grins at him with cherubic cheeks, as if he could never dream of a world in which he didn’t have the perfect manners. “I’m very polite.”
“Uh-huh,” Riku says, distracted by taking his shoes off. “And where’s your other half?”
Ryo is still grinning. “Accosting Yushi in the kitchen.”
They’re standing in the kitchen a minute later and Sakuya, it turns out, is indeed doing just that. Although Sion wouldn’t describe it as accosting, but rather looming over Yushi who is protectively holding a croissant to his chest.
“This is mine!” Yushi complains. “Go buy your own!”
“But I’m a broke college student,” Sakuya is whining. “And you’re my elder, you should feed me.”
“I’m hungry-”
“But I’m broke-”
“I brought food,” Riku announces, dropping the takeout bags on the table. “You don’t have to start fiending every time you see bread, Saku.”
Sion watches, amused, as Sakuya turns to Riku with a pout. “He’s not sharing.”
Yushi gasps, offended. “You’re in my home.”
“They’ve been doing this for an hour,” Ryo stage-whispers to Sion. “I think Yushi’s winning, though.”
“I got you a sandwich from that place in Mitaka, so don’t complain,” Riku chides. He floats into the kitchen, hip-checking Yushi out of the way of the utensil drawer. “Say hi to Sion. Be nice.”
“Hi, Sion hyung,” Sakuya bows at him. “It’s an honor to meet you.”
Yushi follows suit, though he doesn’t bow. “Yeah.”
“There’s no need for that,” Sion tells them, ears red. “It’s nice to meet you guys.”
“You’re all Riku-nii talks about,” Ryo tells him. “All the time. For years on end, he’s always showing us pictures and videos.” His voice goes high-pitched. “Isn’t my boyfriend so handsome? Aren’t I so lucky? You’ll never guess what Sion said-”
“That’s not what I sound like,” Riku grumbles. “Don’t listen to them.”
Sion grins. Pulls Riku in by the wrist. “But you kinda do,” he teases. “He got your voice dead-on.”
The kids laugh as Riku swats him away. Opening the takeout bags and taking boxes out. “Shut up.”
“Aw, he’s blushing!” Ryo coos.
“I’ve never seen Riku-nii make that face,” Sakuya comments, sounding vaguely disgusted.
Yushi doesn’t seem particularly moved either way. He’s watching Riku open styrofoam boxes of food with a kind of intensity Sion has never seen before.
So all in all, everyone is pretty much exactly what Riku has described.
Sion helps Riku set the food out, as the kids talk his ear off. He gets the gist of what they’re saying, most of the time, even if it’s kind of too fast for him to really keep up. Despite how long he’s been studying Japanese, Sion can be kind of slow when it comes to conversation with natives. It’s the reason why he and Riku normally text in Japanese and talk verbally in Korean.
There’s no escaping it now, though. Not when he’s surrounded on all sides by excitable Japanese young twenty-somethings.
“Did he cry when he saw you?” Sakuya asks. “We have a bet going. Riku doesn’t know about it.”
“If he cried, I win,” Ryo adds. “And there’s a lot of money in the pot.”
Sion grins. Mimes his lips zipped shut. “Sorry kids, I’m not telling.”
They both are incredibly persuasive pouters - just as effective as their Riku-nii - but Sion manages to stay strong and keep Riku’s secret safe.
(For now.)
Dinner is a surprisingly less chaotic affair. The kids eat diligently, pausing only to recount how their week at school has been. Sion is too tired to add much to the conversation, though he notices that Riku keeps piling food onto his plate like Sion can’t feed himself. It’s cute. Very ahjumma energy of him. And the food is just as good as Riku said it would be, so he has no complaints with filling his stomach right up.
After dinner, he gives everyone their gifts. Yushi seems shy but expresses his thanks with a bow of his head, meanwhile Ryo and Sakuya both fawn over their presents. Ryo’s admiration for Baekhyun, allegedly, is infamous. Sakuya immediately takes out his bag and puts his Dooly keychain on, and Sion suddenly understands what Riku meant when he had said the kid liked keychains. He probably has more keychains than he has bag, at the level he’s at. Their excitement makes him grin, but Sion is too tired to earnestly bask in it, so he excuses himself to shower and get changed for bed.
The warm water on his skin does wonders after traveling between countries, especially since he gets to lather himself in Riku’s body wash - strawberry scented and very, very familiar. He towels himself off and steps into his PJs, an old t-shirt from college and flannel pajama pants that Riku gifted him for Christmas a couple years back.
When he gets back to the living room, everyone is piled on top of each other on the couch, watching the latest episode of My Hero Academia.
“Bedtime?” Riku calls out to him when he notices Sion’s presence.
Sion blushes, cowering a little under everyone's gaze. “Yeah.”
And so the two of them say good night to everyone and head off to bed.
It’s still early, but they’ve both been up since 3 AM, so it’s not hard to turn off the lights and collapse into bed together. Sion sprawls across the sheets and Riku tucks himself into his side, curling up with his face back in Sion’s neck. They mostly just breathe each other in for a while. Hearts beating in sync; slow, steady.
“Today was long, huh,” Riku yawns. “I woke up alone. And now you’re here.”
It’s not everything he wants to say, but Sion knows him well enough to read between the lines: I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe this is real.
“I know,” Sion tells him. He presses a kiss to Riku’s temple. “It’s kind of weird, isn’t it.”
“Not really,” Riku hums. He snuggles in closer. “Just new, I guess. But not weird. It’s good.”
Sion hasn’t been this close to anyone in years. Hasn’t had anyone curled up against his chest, breathing into his collarbones since eons before he and Riku started dating. Not since college, really. Not since he realized with startling clarity that Riku was it for him all those years ago. He can still remember the day he realized that Riku was all he ever wanted, and there’s never been a single person on his mind since then.
So:
“Yeah,” Sion breathes. “It’s good.”
He’s too tired to say much else. Riku presses his chapped lips against Sion’s jaw. Burrows back into his neck and exhales. Sion is floating, a little bit, in his mind. In a haze of Riku and Riku and Riku. A little bit dizzy with it. Sleepy and sated by the mere weight of his boyfriend in his arms.
“I love you,” Riku whispers to him, just before he nods off to sleep. “I’m so happy that you’re here.”
Sion doesn’t remember in vivid detail what he said back, but he remembers what he was thinking. I love you too. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.