[oneshot] You Found Me

[dreamweavernyx]

Title: You Found Me

Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx )

Pairing: Takanoo

Genre: Fluff

Summary: "Two months ago I made a wish on a shooting star. And then you found me."

Notes: For Saki (shiroikazex ).

Beta-ed by Jess (hotfruits ).

~


Takaki groaned as another stack of papers were dumped on his cluttered desk.

“Quit complaining,” he heard a familiar voice grumble, and he looked up with sore eyes to see the face of his boss.

“If you have time to complain, you should be spending it finishing that stack of data,” said Tanaka Koki dryly, as Takaki’s face creased into a scowl.

“It’s nearly eleven at night! I’m not even paid to work overtime, but even for overtime isn’t this a bit too much?”

A swift motion, and suddenly there was a purple post-it plastered to Takaki’s face. Grumbling, Takaki reached up a hand and peeled it off his forehead.

Hop to it, it read.

Moodily, Takaki crushed the post-it (the sixth such one that day) and chucked it into the wastepaper basket, before turning to the stack of papers. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Koki return to his desk.

“Oh, by the way, I’m going home first. When you’re done remember to turn off the lights and lock up,” he turned back to say, before grabbing his briefcase and walking out the door.

The door slammed shut behind Koki, and Takaki turned back to the papers. The sooner he finished them, the sooner he’d get to go home and sleep.

~

Forty-five minutes later, Takaki walked out of the company building, hands in pockets, a loose end of his scarf blowing in the wind. The snow fluttered down on his brown hair lightly, and his breath billowed out as white smoke as he walked down the white-blanketed sidewalk.

Tonight was Christmas Eve, and almost everybody at the company had made the smart decision to ask for leave weeks before, to have time to spend with their family. Unfortunately, Takaki had forgotten to ask, and had turned up at work today to find nobody else at their cubicles, and a grumpy Koki telling to hurry up and finish his work so he could go home to his own family.

Not that Takaki had anybody waiting for him to come home to spend Christmas with.

His family had been on a flight to Hawaii when their plane crashed, leaving no survivors. Takaki had been working on a major project then, and had therefore been spared an early death. But now, he was left with an empty heart, an empty flat - he’d sold the family house - and no more joy in his life, and at times he found himself wondering if it might have been better if he had been on that flight to Hawaii with the rest of his family.

He’d never have the chance to find out. Instead, he began to throw himself fully into his work. He may have hated the job, but it gave a decent salary. Besides, he didn’t have that many qualifications, and only the Tanaka Company had agreed to hire a high school dropout.

Deep in thought, he reached his flat, and fumbled in his pocket with cold fingers for the front-door key.

He threw his coat on the sofa and looked around the dim flat, only illuminated by the moonlight streaking in from the windows.

“Tadaima,” he said softly, but there was no reply.

Of course. He hadn’t expected one.

He padded to the window, and gazed outside. The stars winked at him from above, and snow fell in a chaotic dance from the sky.

He glanced at his watch.

Ten seconds to midnight.

“Ten seconds to Christmas,” he whispered to nobody in particular, breath fogging up the glass.

The second hand ticked.

Five seconds to midnight.

Suddenly, a silver streak shot across the sky, and Takaki quickly shut his eyes to make a wish.

This year for Christmas, he thought, mind firmly concentrated on the shooting star, I’d like to find some happiness in this desolate life of mine.

The star disappeared behind a distant mountain as Takaki opened his eyes again. At that moment, the wind-up clock in the kitchen rang out, signifying the coming of the new hour.

Zero seconds to midnight.

He could faintly hear yells of “Merry Christmas!” ring out from below. With a small smile on his face, as if making the wish had taken a weight off his chest, he pulled on his pajamas and fell asleep.

~

Christmas was a guaranteed off-day from work, and Takaki reveled in the rare experience of getting up later than six in the morning on a weekday. At nine-thirty, he rolled himself out of bed and onto the floor, using the coldness of the tiles to wake himself up.

I’ll go out and wander around randomly today, he thought to himself, as he pulled out clothes from his closet.

Ten minutes later, he had finished styling his hair and changing up, and with a ham sandwich clamped firmly in his mouth, left his flat.

There were little children everywhere on the streets today, laughing, playing, singing. Takaki smiled gently at them as he walked past, boots making crunching noises on the snow.

He walked past a pastry shop, beyond which was a narrow alley. His eyes threw a sidelong glance at the dark alley, and suddenly he stopped short.

There was a boy slumped against the grimy wall, a pale boy who looked to be around Takaki’s age. He looked too skinny to be healthy, and the thin shirt he was wearing definitely was not enough for the harsh cold of winter.

Takaki had always had a soft heart, and he’d lost count of how many times he ended up bringing injured animals home to recuperate. Now, this was not a starving cat or a bird with a broken leg, but Takaki still felt the same compulsion to help anyway.

“Hey,” he murmured gently, patting the boy’s shoulder, “you alright? You’ll need a jacket for the cold, you know.”

The boy groaned, and his eyes cracked open.

“S’okay,” he mumbled, “after a while you get so frozen you don’t notice.”

Takaki frowned.

“Don’t you have anywhere to stay? Food to eat?”

“I stay here,” was the answer, “but couple of days ago someone stole my cardboard box so I only have this newspaper left. Occasionally the chef of that pastry shop throws out leftovers, so I eat those.”

Tutting, Takaki gently pulled the boy to his feet, before draping his trench coat over the boy’s skinny frame.

“I’m getting you something proper to eat,” he said firmly, steering the boy to a nearby café, “and then I want to know why exactly you’re on the streets. I don’t remember seeing you before.”

Three cups of green tea and a butter cake later, there was slightly more color in the thin boy’s cheeks.

“Thanks,” he said shyly after he finished.

“No problem,” replied Takaki, “what’s your name? I’m Takaki Yuya.”

“Kei,” whispered the boy, “Yama-wait, no, Inoo Kei.”

“Yama-what?”

Inoo flinched.

“I…um, used to be Yamashita Kei.”

Frowning, Takaki reached for the teapot and refilled Inoo’s cup with more tea as Inoo quietly and hesitantly explained under Takaki’s questioning gaze.

He had been Yamashita Kei, first and only son of the Yamashita family, who owned the biggest shipping business in Saitama. He had never acted like a proper rich man’s son, preferring to sneak away to the stables to see the horses, or spend all day in his room drawing buildings, rather than consort with other rich children or learn fencing like he was meant to.

He had graduated from high school as the valedictorian, but instead of stopping education to help his father with the shipping business, he had insisted on enrolling in university to study architecture.

His parents wouldn’t have minded if it had been a subject that would benefit their business, like economics, but architecture in their eyes was useless to them, and so they put their foot down. Inoo had insisted, because he hadn’t wanted to lead the shipping business, but instead set up his own architectural company.

His mother had declared him a ‘disgrace to the family’ and he had promptly been disowned.

The last good thing they had done for him was give him the surname ‘Inoo’. It had been the surname of the wife of his mother’s estranged brother, who she declared was another disgrace to the family, and therefore it was fitting for him to have the same surname. Thus, his name had been legally changed from Yamashita Kei to Inoo Kei, and thereafter he was kicked out of his house.

Alone and lost, with only some money in his wallet, he had gone as far as his money would allow, and ended up in Tokyo, living on the streets.

Inoo reached for his tea and took another sip as the story slowly sank in, and finally Takaki leaned back in his chair and looked at Inoo.

“I guess,” he said slowly, “if you prefer it to living on the streets, you can stay with me. My flat’s big enough, and I have an empty guest room.”

Inoo’s black eyes lit up with hope.

“May I?” he whispered, unbelieving.

“Why not?” grinned Takaki, and Inoo smiled widely.

“Thank you!”

~

Soon enough, spring arrived in Tokyo. Looking at Takaki’s flat, one could see a few changes. The kitchen was no longer constantly messy - Inoo took care of domestic tasks, having learnt from the servants back in Saitama - and the guest room was now clean and bright.

Every day after work, Takaki did not need to stop by fast-food joints for dinner any more. Instead, he would head straight home.

“Tadaima,” he’d call, kicking off his shoes and putting his house slippers on.

“Okaeri,” the reply would come, and he’d shuffle into the kitchen to see dinner waiting for him.

He and Inoo had quickly warmed up to each other, and sometimes Takaki would good-naturedly tease Inoo about his domesticity.

“You’re acting just like a wife,” he’d say, and Inoo would pout at him, crossing his arms huffily.

Takaki would laugh, and reach out to pat Inoo’s hair gently. It was moments like these that he found himself gradually enjoying.

Life was slowly looking up at last for Takaki.

~

One day, Inoo staggered out of his room sleepily, his hair a big, poofy afro-like mess. Takaki gave him one look and began snickering, something that Inoo did not appreciate.

“Stop it,” he whined grumpily, “I got caught in the rain last night and ended up going to bed with wet hair.”

Takaki didn’t stop snickering, and Inoo sniffled moodily. Suddenly, a hairbrush was thrown down in front of Takaki, and he jumped in his seat, startled.

“Fix it for me then,” huffed Inoo, plopping down on the seat next to Takaki, “after all, you spend so much time doing your own hair you must be quite good at it.”

Takaki was indeed skilled in the ways of the hairbrush, and soon Inoo’s hair had regained normalcy.

“Thanks,” said Inoo happily, before rising from the chair and picking up the hairbrush, “you know, with skills like yours, you should go work in a hair salon!”

Those words rang in Takaki’s head as he shut the door and headed for work.

Before, he had never really thought about changing his job. When he first started working, he’d chosen an office job because it was what his father approved of, not what he truly wanted to do.

But what about now? asked a little voice in his mind.

The closest he had to family was Inoo, who didn’t particularly care what job he had; his boss was an awful man who loved to torture him; and he hated the damn job anyway.

“You should go work in a hair salon!” Inoo’s words repeated themselves in his mind.

And for the first time, Takaki found himself contemplating a job change.

~

A couple of days later, Takaki reached home at five in the evening.

“You’re abnormally early,” observed Inoo, looking up from where he was mending a hole in a pair of khakis. “Did something happen?”

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s go out for dinner today, shall we?”

Dinner turned out to be a simple affair at a nearby ramen shop, but time flew by as the pair of them laughed and talked over their noodles, and by the time they left the shop the sky was already dark.

They headed to a nearby park, and sat side by side on a wooden bench.

“So, why were you so early today?”

Takaki grinned ruefully.

“I quit my job at Tanaka Company.”

“What?!”

“Well, I wasn’t happy there,” sais Takaki shrugging, “and I got accepted at this classy salon as a hairdresser. The salary there is better, and I think I’ll enjoy myself more.”

“Well,” sighed Inoo, “anything that floats your boat.”

Takaki nodded, and silence fell.

“The sky’s clear tonight,” Inoo breathed quietly, “you can see the stars so well.”

“Hm.”

They sat in companionable silence. Takaki suddenly felt words tumbling out of his mouth, without a conscious thought.

“You know, on Christmas Eve I made a wish on a shooting star…and up till now I’m not sure if it’s come true yet.’

Inoo laughed softly.

“Wishes don’t have to come true immediately, you know. When I first left Saitama, I saw a shooting star, and I made a wish.”

“Has it come true?” Takaki asked.

“Yes,” whispered Inoo, smiling, “I wished for safety and acceptance, a place where I can feel like I belong. And two months later, you found me.”

~

“Takaki, hurry up!”

A disgruntled Takaki shuffled out of his room, adjusting the sleeves of his twilight-grey yukata.

“Ten more seconds wouldn’t have killed you,” he said dryly.

“But it’s my first natsumatsuri, so I want to have as much time as possible to have fun and enjoy myself,” whined Inoo, causing Takaki to roll his eyes.

“It’s still early. Trust me.”

Grabbing his keys and keitai, he took hold of the sleeve of Inoo’s light brown yukata and dragged him out the door.

They ended up reaching the festival venue before it became too crowded, and Takaki found himself trailing behind Inoo as the lanky boy ran from stall to stall, eyes alight in wonder. Evidently, an entire childhood deprived of natsumatsuri meant a lot to catch up to.

He watched as Inoo tried unsuccessfully to fish out a fish from the tank - his fifth attempt.

“I’ll do that for you,” he cut in after Inoo had been informed of his seventh failure by the stall owner. Taking the small net, he reached into the tank. Soon enough, he had caught three red fish and two white ones, which the stall owner handed to him in a plastic bag.

“Here,” he passed the bag to Inoo, “you can name them.”

Inoo’s face lit up.

“I can name them anything I want to?”

Takaki shrugged.

“They’re yours, go ahead.”

“Then…this red one with the black spot on its head will be Hikaru, that red one with the long fins will be Kou-chan, and the small red one will be Dai-chan.”

“…Who?”

Inoo smiled wistfully.

“My old friends from Saitama,” he said wistfully.

Not wishing to delve into what would probably be a painful topic for Inoo, Takaki glanced at the white fish instead.

“What about the white ones?”

“That’s us,” Inoo laughed, “the silvery one’s you and the other one’s me.”

“Eh?!”

By the time night had fallen, they had stuffed themselves with yakisoba and takoyaki and now, each holding a chocolate banana, they headed to a small hill to watch the fireworks.

As the first fiery flower exploded into existence in the dark sky, Takaki breathed out slowly, taking a bite of his banana.

“It’s pretty,” whispered Inoo, leaning against him, the bag of fish held loosely in one hand.

Firework after spectacular firework coloured the sky. Finally, as the golden sparks of the last firework faded and fell away, Takaki turned to Inoo.

“Let’s go home,” he murmured, but there was no reply. Instead, there was a weight pressing on his shoulder. Inoo, it seemed, had fallen asleep.

Sighing, Takaki hooked the bag of fish on one pinky, and awkwardly lifted the - admittedly very light - boy onto his back to begin the walk home.

~

It was only around October when Takaki finally realized the significance of his reactions around Inoo.

Recently, every time the boy smiled, his heart would flutter; each time he sulked or pouted he would definitely give in; and when the boy was sleeping he had to resist the urge to just lean forward and press his lips against those…

It was only on an evening filled with leaves of red and gold flame dancing on the wind when he truly realized what this meant.

He was slowly falling for the skinny boy with the sparkling black eyes and the smile that could melt even a heart of stone.

He was falling for Inoo.

And he didn’t know if the other felt the same way.

~

Inoo plopped down next to Takaki on the couch, and pressed the button on the remote control to make the DVD go into the player.

“Lord of the Rings?” laughed Takaki, glancing at the cover, “I thought you didn’t like scary movies!”

“But apparently this one’s really epic,” said Inoo defensively, “so I want to watch.”

Takaki shrugged, and reached for the bag of chips as the opening began to play.

It was Halloween night, and instead of going around getting candy, Inoo had decided to stay at home and watch a movie.

“Frodo, you idiot,” Inoo howled at the screen, chucking pieces of popcorn at the hobbit’s face, “don’t put that ring on, stupid!”

Unfortunately, Frodo couldn’t hear him and put the ring on anyway, and Inoo groaned and buried his face in Takaki’s shoulder.

“It’s only a movie,” laughed Takaki, patting Inoo’s head, and Inoo pulled away and pouted.

Silence fell as the two became engrossed in the movie, only punctuated by the crunching of chips and popcorn.

Inoo shrieked in fright as the Fellowship fought Saruman’s minions in the forest, and didn’t dare to look up from Takaki’s shoulder until Takaki patted his back gently.

“It’s over, you can look up now,” he said softly, secretly missing the warmth as Inoo raised his head and pulled away.

Inoo sighed, and snuggled against Takaki as the movie continued.

“M’sleepy,” he mumbled, stifling a yawn.

“Well, stay awake for the movie, and after that you can go to sleep, hm?”

“B-but what if I get nightmares?”

“You should’ve thought of that before choosing this movie,” sighed Takaki.

Inoo huffed, but his only response was to snuggle even closer as another fight scene played out on screen.

Finally, the closing credits began to roll, and Takaki stretched before trying to get off the couch. Unfortunately, a weight pressing on his shoulder prevented him from doing so, and he looked down to see Inoo already fast asleep.

“You missed the best part of the movie,” Takaki said to Inoo’s sleeping form, before sighing.

Gently, he picked Inoo up bridal-style, and carried him to his bed.

“Oyasumi,” he murmured at the door, looking back once at Inoo’s sleeping profile, before padding out to go to his own room.

He never noticed Inoo’s mouth crease into an unconscious smile at the sound of his voice.

~

“Ne, Takaki, what does it feel like to be in love?”

Takaki looked up from a catalogue of hair styles.

“In love?”

“Yeah.”

Takaki leaned back in his chair and thought for a while.

“I guess…when you’re in love,” he said eventually, “you’ll always want that person to be happy. Their smile makes you feel like smiling along, their tears make you feel like the worst person alive, and when you hold hands your heart will flutter for no reason.”

Inoo was pensive for a moment.

“I think,” he said hesitantly, “I may be in love.”

Takaki’s eyebrow rose. Sure, Inoo had recently begun volunteering at an animal shelter where he had quite a few female co-workers, but he didn’t think Inoo would fall for one of them that soon.

Somehow, he felt slightly disappointed.

Pushing aside the bitter feeling in his throat, he spoke up.

“In love? Does the other person know?”

Inoo shook his head.

“I’m too shy…to tell them how I truly feel.”

“Oh, Inoo,” sighed Takaki, a smile playing around his lips, “I’m sure they won’t reject you. You’re very easy to love, you know.”

After all, I fell for you, he continued silently.

Inoo’s face lit up.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Just gather up the courage and confess to them.”

The smile bestowed on him was enough to make his heart skip a beat.

~

Inoo spent the week staring into space around the flat, looking pensive.

“I’m thinking about what to say,” he told Takaki one day when given a What-the-heck-are-you-doing look, complete with raised eyebrow.

One night, he ended up dragging Takaki out into the park after dinner. The last of the autumn leaves lay dried and curling on the grass and sidewalk, as the two of them sat down on a bench.

“Well,” said Takaki, “have you gathered enough courage to confess to that person yet?”

“…Oh. About that…”

“I fully support you,” Takaki grinned, giving Inoo a thumbs-up, “in your quest to find love!”

Inoo blinked at Takaki, dumbfounded.

“Eh?”

“Aww, come on! That’s what friends are for, right?”

Inoo’s smile at that moment seemed slightly forced, but Takaki didn’t notice it.

“Yeah,” he said softly, “after all, we’re friends.”

Takaki never saw the bitter smile on Inoo’s face as he turned away.

~

The next morning, the house was eerily silent.

“…Inoo?” Takaki called, pushing open Inoo’s door.

The room was empty, the bed tidy. On the bed lay a single sheet of notepaper.

I’m leaving for a while to sort out my thoughts. I’ll be back soon.

Frowning, Takaki folded up the paper, when he noticed the wastepaper bin in the corner of the room, filled with crumpled sheets of paper. Curiosity got the better of him, and he pulled out all the crumpled papers.

Dear Takaki, read one, I don’t know how to say this but-

Another read, When I’m around you, I feel-

Dear Takaki, this may be a little weird but I’m going to say it anyway-

Roses are red, violets are blue-

Please don’t see me any differently after I say this, but-

With shaking hands, Takaki opened up the last sheet of paper.

Dear Takaki, it said simply, I love you.

Kneeling on the floor with sheets of crumpled paper surrounding him, Takaki cried.

~

December came, with snow once again blanketing Tokyo in a dusting of white. Outside, the shops hung lights and gave special discounts as Christmas drew near. In Takaki’s flat, however, the overall atmosphere was drastically different from the cheery one of Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, there was a crisp knock on the door. Opening it, Takaki found himself face-to-face with a young man he recognized vaguely as one of Inoo’s co-volunteers at the animal shelter.

“You’re Takaki Yuya-san, right?”

Dumbfounded, Takaki nodded.

“Thank goodness. Do you know how hard it was to find you?”

“Oh. Um…why are you here?”

“What did you do to Inoo-kun?”

Takaki blinked, confused.

“Eh?”

The man sighed.

“He’s been staying at my place, and he spends the whole day moping and crying and generally being very depressing. He refuses to come back here, so I assume it’s something you did.”

“Where do you live?” asked Takaki, suddenly feeling a surge of some unknown feeling in his heart, “he’s there now, right?”

“No,” the man shook his head, “he went to the park. He mopes there at night, mopes at the shelter in the daytime, and mopes at my place in between.”

“Thanks,” said Takaki hurriedly, shutting the door for a moment to grab his coat and keys, before dashing out the door.

~

It didn’t take long for Takaki to spot a familiar head of black hair sitting alone on a bench.

“Inoo,” he gasped, “there you are!”

Inoo’s head swung around, and his eyes widened at the sight of Takaki running up to him.

“What do you want?” he asked, voice dead and emotionless.

“Listen, I need to tell you something-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Inoo cut in, voice slightly resentful and bitter.

Takaki groaned.

“Look, just hear me out-”

“I said I don’t want to hear it!”

Inoo stood up from the bench, fists clenched.

“Leave me alone. After all, you’re my friend, you need to know that I need my own space.”

He began to walk off, but Takaki’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of the skinny wrist.

“Listen, dammit,” he said firmly, meeting Inoo’s gaze. Inoo flinched, and sagged slightly, allowing Takaki to drag him back down onto the bench.

“One year ago,” began Takaki, “I made a wish on a shooting star.”

Inoo raised an eyebrow.

“How is this relevant?”

“Let me finish, okay? I made a wish on a shooting star. I wished to find happiness in my life. One year on, I think I’ve finally found my happiness.”

“That’s nice,” said Inoo dully, “so what does that have to do with me?”

“Inoo,” sighed Takaki, “you are my happiness. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize, I’m sorry I was such a blockhead before. But I’ve finally realized that you make me happy. Inoo, I love you.”

Inoo stared at Takaki for a moment.

“No way,” he whispered, “it’s a prank, right? Tell me this is a prank. This can’t be happening.”

“I assure you, I’m not joking. I love you, I really do.”

Inoo was still looking at him, shock evident on his face. Takaki decided to do the one thing he thought would get Inoo out of his stupor.

Leaning forward, he pressed his lips gently to Inoo’s for a brief moment.

When he pulled away, Inoo’s cheeks had a dusting of pink on them, and he had tears threatening to form in his eyes.

“Idiot,” he mumbled, punching Takaki weakly, tears rolling down his face.

“But you love me,” Takaki grinned, reaching out to wipe the tear tracks away.

They embraced as the snow fell on their heads. In the sky, fireworks exploded as the clock struck midnight.

“Look,” whispered Inoo suddenly, “a shooting star! Quick, wish for something.”

“There’s no need to,” murmured Takaki, stroking Inoo’s hair as Inoo nestled his face in the crook of Takaki’s neck.

“As long as I have you, there’s nothing else I need to wish for.”