notes: somewhere in september, i started thinking about doing this 25 days christmas challenge. most of it was written in november and i still got a bunch of unfinished chapters (or ones I haven't even started yet), but uhm yeah. here we go

set about a year after legion mate events, in the winter before the last two eps. while the main ship for this fic is aichi/kai/ren (including each variation), there are several other ships as well

characters: [Aichi, Kai], Misaki, Naoki, Shingo

Aichi wants to know if he loves the person Kai is, or the person he sees in Kai? He also wants to know what's the difference between them.

"Ishida, put your hands somewhere else. Now."

"Didn't you pay attention during class? There are many ways to learn something, Shingo. That's one of them."

"I know but does that have to include touching ME?"

Aichi hesitates, when Shingo slaps Naoki's hand away. "Guys, I think you should calm down."

"So you agree with me, Sendou-kun? Ishida is way too intrusive."

"Uhm, Shingo-kun, that's not what I meant-"

"Told ya. Of cause Aichi agrees with me."

"Naoki-kun, I-"

He sighs as he gets interrupted by Shingo once again. They're in the club room, building a model for biology, to 'cement what they learned into their brain' as their teacher puts it. Because it's easier to do that by involving different senses: listening, speaking, seeing, smelling and of cause, touching.

Though not even Aichi understands why that suddenly includes having to touch each other.

"Aren't you playing Vanguard today?" Misaki shuts the door behind herself and looks at Aichi, taking the wise decision to not interrupt Naoki and Shingo. Aichi rubs the back of his neck.

"Ah, well, we thought we could finish this project before you come, but that didn't work out."

She shrugs and sits down next to Aichi. Making a model for the protein biosynthesis is harder than it sounds. It doesn't help that Shingo wants to include every single detail to make it more 'scientifically accurate' and Naoki keeps suggesting ways to make the model more interesting ("As much as I hate to break this to you, Naoki-kun, but we can't add explosion to our homework."). To make everything worse, they argue about the most minor things, like whether Guanin or Adenin should be green.

Aichi feels like his only job in this group is to keep the other two from killing each other. Needless to say, he really enjoys doing this project with his friends. Despite everything, he knows the other two do as well.

"Kourin's busy this week and if we're not doing any club activities, there's no need to stay here, huh?" Misaki says. "Because there's this new café in the mall Yuri told me about and I think we could check it out."

There's nothing to argue about. Sooner than they realize, they're on their way to the mall and Aichi's phone vibrates in his pocket, which is weird. It's not that he has few friends, it's that only a few of them regularly text him. Since two of them are with him now and Miwa is at work, he can only think of one person.

[Where are you?]

15:17

[on the way to the mall. is something wrong kai-kun?]

15:18

He types as he walks, but careful not to bump into anyone. When he's done, he shoves the phone back into his pocket. Misaki occasionally comments on what Naoki says and Aichi laughs more than just a few times, as they talk about casual things. Shortly before they arrive at the mall, Aichi gets his phone out to make sure he didn't miss any message.

Although it says Kai was online just a few minutes ago, there's no response to his message. Ah well, whatever. He'd say something if it was important.

But well, sometimes, Aichi wishes Kai was a bit more, uhm, considering. A little more careful about the things he says and the things he does. He wishes Kai would speak more quiet, with less force in his voice. When he leaves, Aichi wants him to stop slamming the door shut and when he plays Vanguard, Aichi wants him to look at his opponent and not just simply at his cards.

Not that he actually minds. He accepts Kai, of cause he does, but now that they're dating, he wishes Kai would act more. Well, he doesn't know.

The shop Misaki takes them to is more crowded than he expected. They sit down and she orders a coffee for herself and three times hot chocolate for the boys. Just when they get their drinks, Aichi's phone vibrates again.

[Meet me at the fountain next to the mall. I've something to say]

15:41

"Uhm, guys, I think I need to excuse myself for a moment."

"Is everything all right? Did something happen?" Naoki looks very worried. Aichi shakes his head.

"No, it's okay. Kai just wants to meet up with me."

"Oh," Naoki turns to Shingo and makes a face. "Boyfriend things," he says and Shingo responds with a meaningful look. Aichi tilts his head. But when he opens his mouth, Misaki interrupts him.

"Don't forget your drink and don't worry, I'll pay. Just go ahead." She thrusts the cup with hot chocolate into his hand. Aichi nods.

The fountain is inside the building, so it doesn't take him much time to get there. Kai's already there. Still in his school uniform and with his arms crossed, he looks like he always does and Aichi wonders if he'll ever change. When he spots Aichi, his frown fades briefly and he looks at the cup in Aichi's hands.

When Kai frowns again, it almost bothers him.

Funny, right? Because Kai always does and hey, why does it bother Aichi anyway. He didn't mind before, but maybe now, he wishes Kai would smile more often. Just a little bit more often would help, really. Just because we're dating now doesn't mean I can make him the way I want him to be, he keeps telling himself. That's how he is and I accept him.

"What's that?"

"Hot chocolate from the new café here. Want to try?"

Kai shrugs, but takes the cup Aichi hands to him. When he takes a sip and shows no intention whatsoever to give the it back, Aichi regrets that he left the café so hurriedly and didn't take the time to take a sip himself. It has smelled really nice.

See, that kind of bothers him, too. But he doesn't tell Kai to give the cup back.

Wordlessly, he sits down on the small bench next to Kai. The other takes a second long sip from the cup. Then, as if he can hear Aichi's thoughts, he hands it back to Aichi.

"Tastes good."

"Hmm," Aichi agrees, pretending he knows how it tastes. Just to cover the fact that he doesn't, he lifts the cup to his lips and drinks some of the hot liquid. Which is indeed still really hot. He flinches and quickly lowers the cup. Unsurprisingly, he spills some of it on himself.

Kai raises an eyebrow , but doesn't say anything, so Aichi decides to do the same. It's a game two can play. It's not like he's the one who said he wants to tell the other something, so yeah.

Aichi just looks at Kai expectantly for a minute or two while the older stares ahead of them. Then Kai turns back to him and he frowns again. He places two fingers on the corner of his lips.

"You've got chocolate there."

"Oh, really," with the back of his hand, Aichi wipes it away. "Better?"

Frowning, Kai looks at him intently and his face is getting closer and closer to Aichi's. There are so many people around them and surely some of them have noticed them, sitting so uncomfortably close next to each other, with their faces even closer to each other. Does Kai even realize?

"Uhm," Aichi tries, backing away a little, "so what is the thing you wanted to tell me?"

For a moment, it looks like Kai wants to move his face even closer to Aichi. Lifting his right hand, it comes closer and closer to Aichi's face until -

Kai wipes something off Aichi's face with his sleeve. "There was still some chocolate on your cheek." He finally backs away and Aichi takes a deep breath.

"So?"

"Ah, about that." Kai pauses and frowns again.

For a split of a second, Aichi wants to tell him to stop doing that all the time, but the urge fades away quickly. He's way more curious to find out what Kai wants to tell him. Maybe it's something important. Maybe it's something embarrassing. Whatever it is, he doesn't want to say something wrong and risk that Kai might not tell him about it.

It's a good chance to learn more about Kai after all.

"I just wanted to know if you already got something for Ren's birthday."

There might be different ways to learn something. He's sure there is thrice as much he still has to learn about Kai.