Thread by @annaofaza

this is your fault, @PeaceLilies

#matchablossom (BABIES), #SK8THEINFINITY, cw/tw: offscreen bullying

As soon as Kojiro stepped onto the porch, he knew something was wrong.

Pink and silver balloons wound around the porch, straining to reach the sky, but the house was empty.

The lights were on; he could hear music playing from inside, see cars parked on the street. But there was no laughter, no shrieks, no chattering.

Kojiro frowned, briefly shutting his eyes before ringing the doorbell.

Kaoru's mom answered, eyes brightening when she saw him. "Kojiro! You look so handsome!"

Kojiro blushed; his parents insisted on formal clothes, even though he knew Kaoru since kinfergarten and shared meals when his parents were away.

His mom had even tried to comb his curls into submission with a mix of water and gel.

Kojiro bowed and said his greetings, raising his head up to peek through the door. No one.

"Kaoru's upstairs," she said with a strained smile. "He'll be so happy to see you!"

Kojiro fumbles with his shoes, leaving them on the porch, before trying his best not to run upstairs. The stair rails were /not/ fun to crash into.

Besides, he tried not to look too much at the empty dining room, placemats and dishes and a silver domed platter laid out neatly on the dark wood.

Normally he bursts in without knocking, but this time, he lightly taps and stands back.

"Who is it?" a sulky voice asked.

Kojiro forces a smile on his face. "Who do you think?"

"Kojiro? You came?"

"Of course I did, silly. Your mom makes the best strawberry cake--and I hear it's a special occasion. Besides," he lightly shakes the bulky box, carefully taped, edges creased. "I don't know what I'd do with this thing."

The door creaks open.

Kaoru is dressed in his favorite kimino, hand embroidered with silver butterflies and pink cherry blossoms. His hair's pulled back in a high ponytail, wire glasses set low on his nose, cheeks and eyelids a faint pink.

Kojiro bows exaggerately low, holding out his gift in both hands. "Here it is! I think you'll like it!"

A quick--too quick--smile crosses Kaoru's lips before it vanishes. "You're late."

Kojiro shakes his head, allowing a curl to escape. "Yeah, because Mom attacked me, trying to mess with this perfection. Sooo fussy."

Kaoru rolls his eyes. "I didn't know it ran in the family."

Kojiro mocks pouts. "Me? Fussy? Never!"

Kaoru rolls his eyes again. "Says the person who tied up his PE shirt so it didn't 'envelope my form.'"

"Hey, those shirts are ugly!"

"Not as ugly as your face."

Kojiro grins, mostly in relief. "Aww, you're insulting me? On your birthday?"

"Why not? It's a celebration," Kaoru says, then his eyes dart behind Kojiro.

Kojiro knows what he's looking for. "Fine. All access insult pass. Just for today. Now take your present already."

Kaoru reaches out, then grabs it tightly, as if he's afraid Kojiro will yank it away like some of the boys do during sports. (And more: this is Kaoru's third pair of glasses this year.)

"It's heavy," Kaoru says. "Did you bring me a sack of rice?"

Kojiro laughs. "Disappointed already?"

Kaoru glares at him, then steps backwards to let Kojiro in. "Come on."

They sit right on the floor, Kaoru delicately stripping away the shiny paper, the sloppy bow. (Kojiro rips his open, like an animal, as his mom and Kaoru complain.) His eyes widen, and he covers his mouth with a trembling hand. "You..."

Kojiro sits back, holding his breath. He'd done research and asked around and followed the adults in the store until the manager threatened to kick him out, so he hopes he got this right.

"A calligraphy set...."

"The guy who sold me this tried to get me to take a beginner kit. But I told him my friend was /not/ a beginner."

Kaoru looks at him. "You didn't have to... where did you get the money?"

"Stole it."

"KOJIRO."

"Made some deliveries, swept yards, here and there."

"...This must have taken forever to save up for."

"Not forever." Kojiro shrugs, doing his best to look nonchalant.

"Still..."

"What, you don't like it?"

"What? Of course I do, you idiot. I mean, it's not bad, considering you picked it out."

"Pffff." Kojiro sticks out his tongue, even though he's been told many times he's getting too old to do that. "Happy birthday."

Kaoru sets the box down. "Thank you."

There's a long pause, before he says, very quietly, "No one came, did they?"

Kojiro has to look away.

"I told her no one would," Kaoru mutters.

Kojiro looks down at his feet. He'd seen the invitations, a message in perfect calligraphy strokes, each painstakingly folded into envelopes, and imagines them tossed in a bin, maybe even torn in two, the eay his mom handles the bills.

He wonders what school will be like, if anyone will have the guts to come up with a lame excuse or flat out pretend it never happened. Or worse...

"Hey," he says, "those guys are jerks."

Kaoru raises his chin. "Whatever."

Kojiro knows this well, this mask, /I'm not afraid of the dark./ He knows it as well as the whispers and giggles: /Did you hear he talks to himself? That he's skipped three grades? That his mom's divorced? That he has only one friend?/

He knows Kaoru's different--something that's absolutely taboo.

He knows his own good looks ("half and half" turns into "exotic" as he grows up, fills out, gets more of a tan after a summer vacation--something he learns to loathe and embrace and ignore), sunny smile (always), quick witted quips (nothing of substance) shield him.

(Later, this is a distant memory, "evens out," as his mom would say. Kaoru would get his piercings before Kojiro's tattoos, be famous before Sia de Luce opened its doors, have a crowd of screaming fangirls instead of two rotations on his arm.

But they remember.)

He knows he hasn't done enough. (Sure, he's told people to shut up when he caught it. But that just made them hide it /better./)

(A few days later, he would get suspended from school for a week, knuckles scraped but nothing more. Kaoru sneaks him study notes and Kojiro's favorite K/it K/at bars, and all is well.)

Now, Kojiro leans forward and says, very quietly, "Fuck them."

Kaoru's eyebrows raise. He looks a bit shocked. "You know you're not supposed to..."

"Fuck. Them."

Kaoru covers his face in his hands--and begins to laugh.

After that, they slip down and eat the entire cake by themselves with their fingers, Kaoru's mom half-heartedly scolding them, and race around the neighborhood and play videogames until they fall into a sugar coma in front of the TV.

Kojiro's mom calls before supper, and he hears hushed voices in the kitchen before Kaoru's mom slips in and tells them Kojiro can stay for the night.

They share the same mat, and Kojiro falls asleep with sugary sticky fingers entangled in his.

/the end (and please forgive my misspellings and tense switches lol)

Bonus: Kojiro does his apprenticeship in Italy but makes arrangements to fly back for one day.

He's never missed Kaoru's birthday, ever.

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