Work Text:
Long university days have been draining Naoya recently so as he walks through their apartment door, he takes his coat off and drops his bag ready to sink into his bed for a while. A sight pulls his attention from his bedroom; the sight of his boyfriend sat on the couch staring at the blank wall in silence. He freezes, unsure of how to approach the situation until making the executive decision to take a calm approach towards him to see if he wakes up from his stupor. Approaching Kota, he sees no recognition on his face that he realises that Naoya has returned from university so he crouches down and gently strokes his arm while calling out, “Kota.”
Kota jumps at the mention of his name, with his face showing fear that only grows when he spots that Naoya is in front of him. He scrambles off the couch and scampers away into the bathroom citing the excuse of needing to wash his face, leaving Naoya in shock and deep in confusion on what has happened to lead his boyfriend to react in such a way from his presence. Deciding to leave him to freshen up, Naoya goes into the kitchen to start cooking when he sees that Kota cooked a meal for the two of them. His heart warms at the thought that his sweet boyfriend surprised him with not just a meal but his favourite foods, the smile on his face growing impossibly brighter at the thought of his Kota preparing this surprise for him after such a long day.
Just as soon as Naoya finishes setting the table with all the food reheated, Kota returns with his hair a little wet and sticking to his forehead, in one of Naoya’s hoodies that makes him look like a cuddly bear. He settles into his chair as Naoya brings them both a glass of water and they start to eat.
Seeing that Kota seems more comfortable while he is eating, Naoya decides to talk to ease his curiosity as he asks, “How was your day? I know you had the afternoon free; did you do anything fun?” Kota looks up and as he makes eye contact with Naoya, he quickly looks wherever Naoya isn’t. He nods while putting a fake smile on his face, one that Naoya hasn’t seen since his boyfriend got more comfortable being his true self around him.
“I had a good day, but I didn’t really do a lot with my afternoon just some cleaning the apartment and getting work done,” remarked Kota while he occasionally looked over at Naoya almost as if to see if he caught something. What the something he may catch, Naoya didn’t know but this led him to pay closer attention to him.
To keep him more comfortable, Naoya didn’t mention his scepticality of the answer he was given. It was blatantly obvious that something was wrong with his boyfriend and he didn’t want to upset him further when it seemed that Kota didn’t want to speak about it. The best option was to let Kota come to him of his own volition after he works out whatever it is that is upsetting him. The only thing that Naoya could do is tell him, “I’m glad that you had a good day then, maybe we could watch a movie, your pick, and then do something together tomorrow?” Kota responds with a nod and they both go back to eating their dinner in silence while being deep in thought.
After cleaning up, they both settle onto the couch as Kota puts on his choice of movie. Naoya quickly pops off the couch to turn the lights off and the movie starts with them both cuddled under a blanket. The thing that Naoya notices as they watch the movie is the distance that Kota has put between them and is leaning away from him. The prior confusion hits him again as his thoughts starts jumbling and swirling as he worries for his boyfriend. Respecting his boundaries, Naoya keeps his distance and tries to pay attention to the movie but his brain keeps going back to thinking about the man he loves that is sitting just a cushion away from him.
Eventually, the movie ends and Kota quickly jumps off the sofa, turns the lights on and darts off to the bathroom to get ready for bed, leaving Naoya stumbling over his words to make sense of his boyfriend’s behaviour. He rises and settles the apartment and leaves towards the bathroom to wash up ready for bed after collecting his pajamas, seeing Kota sitting on his phone staring intently at the screen. After cleaning up, he enters the bedroom to find Kota sleeping with his penguin plush, Rui, in his arms, making Naoya smile at the cute sight that makes him endeared no matter how many times he has seen it. He pulls the duvet further up and decides to not give him a kiss goodnight after the aversion to touch his lover showcased earlier. Quietly, Naoya slipped into his bed and closed his eyes, feelings his thoughts continue to swirl in his head as he tries to calm them down so he can finally sleep after the long day he had. Focusing on relaxing his body, he finally falls asleep.
--
Opening his eyes, Naoya feels his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness of their bedroom as he sees his alarm clock showing it to be 2am. He flips over to his other side to see that Kota is missing from his bed, leaving Naoya confused but reasoning with himself that he must just be in the bathroom. He closes his eyes and just lies in silence, waiting until he looks and sees that it has been 15 minutes. Deciding to go check on his boyfriend, he gets out of his bed and potters out of the bedroom to spot the light is off in the bathroom and is on in the living room and kitchen, but no sign of his snuggly boyfriend. Looking around for his Kota, he still can’t spot him, with no response to him calling out his name. He sits on the couch to try and gather his bearings and think of where Kota may be when he hears a sound that sounds like sniffling. Naoya follows the sound to behind the kitchen counter and spots his boyfriend hidden on the floor
Kota is curled up into himself with his head leaning on the top of his knees as he holds his legs, pulled into a tight ball on the cold kitchen tiles. Naoya spots his breathing turning more rapid by the second and short sniffles coming from his precious boyfriend, spurring him into action. He hurriedly crouched down to the floor, calling his boyfriend’s name and gaining no response. Hesitantly, he places his hand on Kota’s arm and sees his partner freeze, obviously picking up that he wasn’t alone anymore.
“Kota, my love, please look at me,” Naoya tries encouraging Kota and sees his lover take a deep breath and slowly lift his head to make eye contact with Naoya. Kota’s face is red, with his eyes especially red likely from all the crying he must have been doing for who knows how long, evidently from the tear tracks on his face and the more tears that seem to roll down his face after making eye contact with Naoya. This leads Naoya to taking in a short breath to calm himself and keep his focus on how to best help Kota.
“Baby, can you get up off the floor for me? I don’t want you to hurt yourself being sat on these tiles.” This gains Naoya a nod and he helps Kota off the floor, leading him over to the couch. After setting Kota down, Naoya sits on the floor in front of his partner while still holding both his boyfriend’s hands. He moves his head to gain his boyfriend’s focus so he can ask, “You can tell me anything. I promise that I won’t ever judge you and there is no pressure to tell me, I will still support me whether you tell me or not.”
Kota’s eyes widen slightly in almost shock and he states, “I will tell you, it’s just hard and I feel stupid for even being upset when they are right in the first place.” Naoya rubs his thumbs over Kota’s hands as he smiles and nods to encourage Kota to continue.
“I had an actually really bad day, I’m sorry for lying. I was at university and as I was sat at the café, I heard a group of people talking about me and saying that I am way too nice and actually super fake. They said that fake people like me must be hiding something extremely bad to have to fake being nice and mentioned how you deserve better than someone as fake as me. Then they started talking about how unfit we are together and how you should get out of this relationship and as far away from me as fast as you can.” The more words that leave Kota leads to more tears falling down his face, not matter how much Naoya tries to comfort him as he speaks.
The words that Kota says he overheard leaves Naoya reeling with anger at how people could even believe such lies about his boyfriend. Taking breaths to try and calm down so Kota doesn’t misinterpret his anger as towards himself, Naoya looks back into Kota’s eyes smiling to reassure him.
“You are not fake. You are the kindest person I know, you are so considerate to other people. These people obviously haven’t met you as if they actually knew you, they would never even consider these lies to be true. They do not know our relationship and I can promise you from the bottom of my heart, we fit so well together and I am lucky to have you in my life.”
Kota tilts his head and almost grimaces when uttering, “But I am fake though. I never show my true self in public, only to you. They are right, maybe not about us but definitely about me.”
“You being kind and thoughtful towards others is not fake, you have no obligations to show other people what you are not comfortable with showing. You show me this side of you and I am so grateful that you feel comfortable enough with me to let me see you. But you are not hiding anything bad just because you don’t show others different sides to yourself, you are too good of a person to ever act like that. The only person you are not being kind to is yourself, you deserve to give yourself the kindness and thoughtfulness that you grant other people. I love you and I am here for you, thank you for trusting me.”
Kota nods as the tears slowly come to a stop while Naoya moves to hug him, with Kota holding onto him like a lifeline. They stay sat on the couch cuddled up together for a while until Naoya starts to feel Kota leaning more into him as time goes on, seeing Kota’s eyes falling closed.
Seeing his boyfriend falling more asleep as the seconds, Naoya asks, “My Kota, do you want to go back to sleep in bed now?”
He gains a nod in response, leading him to lead his partner to his bed and settle him in as he places Rui in his arms and pulls the duvet over him. He steps away to go over to his bed when he feels a hand on his arm. Looking back to Kota, he sees him holding his arm while he pulls the duvet away next to him as he silently invites him to join him in the bed. Naoya smiles and joins his boyfriend in his bed. Kota visibly relaxes into the bed after Naoya pulls the duvet over himself. Overwhelmed with how cute his boyfriend is, Naoya leans over and presses a kiss to Kota’s head, smiling when he spots how shy and flustered it leaves his precious partner. They both close their eyes and fall asleep, both comforted by the others presence and happy to be together.