#I was suspicious that it might've been this week but :O!!

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

GHOSTS PREMIERED AND NOBODY TOLD ME!!!

[s4kasaki]

hello! 👉👈 may i ask for ritsu and mao w/ a rlly affectionate s/o hcs? thank you ♡

Another insanely cute request, omgawd. nays serving~☆ I'm so late on posting so I'm working on all my request tonight and tmr!

♡︎ — mao and ritsu with an affectionate s/o!

‣ tws / cws: none !

‣ reader: gender-neutral - they/them.

‣ author's note: it's kinda funny, bc Mao.. and Ritsu .. yk?.. not funny? oka... (╥﹏╥)

☆ — RITSU.

Usually, he’s the over-affectionate one. He doesn't know what it feels like to be doted on since he's always been the one doing the doting and half the time it's unintentional. ( unless you count mao's constant attention to him bc he randomly slept EVERYWHERE back then. )

He was technically like an oversized cat, giving you unwanted affection & attention whenever he felt like it. Or whenever he wasn't sleeping on you. And In health-wise, probably a koala with how much he sleeps. His way of affection was sleeping with you.

At first, he was... Neutral— not suspicious, not shocked of anything. But he did make some remark about how you’re acting as if you're that silly old man he calls his brother again.

“Hmm. Why are you acting like that older brother of mines all of a sudden?”

He does accept your love and never-ending tenderness like no other, he seeks it sometimes really.. especially when he's feeling a bit needier than ordinary. So please do give him kisses on the cheek while he snoozes! \(^ヮ^)/ he definitely can feel them, he can sense when you're hovering over him sometimes, it takes a lot of willpower for him not to pull a soft smile in his "sleep". But he smiles anyway, he's been that way before you two even got together, how could he not though? You love him so much he feels confounded!

May it be a sight for sore eyes, nonetheless, you often have a very annoyed Izuhog telling you two to get a room. And you can't blame him, neither can Tsukasa, Arashi or... Leo. You're too sweet.. even for them! While Izumi may not admit that.

oh, he does enjoy napping with you, it's kinda funny because you as well began to use napping together as a way of affection to fit in his persona, and he couldn't be any more happier.

Yawn. “Ritsu. Let's take a comfy nap together! You'd like that, right? alright! I've gotten pretty overworked from all the work I've been finishing for weeks... so it would be nice to rest with my sleepy-head of a soulmate...♥︎”

it was all a bunch of teases to spit whenever affection was thrown. napping with you, what better way to fall asleep than with you, his beloved: by his side? nuzzled up against his body placing many kisses on his cheek as you two sleep soundly? he thinks you’re beautiful even as you sleep— you aren't ashamed to admit that you do enjoy watching him sleep for a bit before you drift off yourself.

He might even wake up a little bit after you drift to sleep, which is to say he wasn't entirely sleeping and might've felt you staring at him while he begins to rest.

“Keep this between the two of us, okay?...”

as he approaches down onto you and leaves an Everlasting kiss on your plum, sleeping lips that he'd hope to hear the same amount of love, care, and doting from, as he does every day. Before drifting to sleep in your sweet embrace.

☆ — MAO.

TO BE HONEST, he's just as affectionate as you are. He loves spending time with you as much as he can. If he had a love language, it would be showering you affectionately as much as he can but in a cool-ish boyfriend way, because he has a tight schedule full of talk shows.

But when he's free, or when he skips his job to be with you finally... Love is all that flows in the house.

Giving him an overwhelming amount of love is like giving a dog... AN OVERFILLED BOWL OF DOG FOOD. He’s overexcited like he's high on sugar and sugar alone.

“Ah! What's the occasion!? ^O^”

“Oh, shush!”

He loves how your affection matches up with each other! You two share the same amount of love for one another as if you two are going on at it like a war of who's the most affectionate in the relationship, speaking of which? It sort of is a war. You two go on and on complementing each other, giving each other gifts, kisses, and hugs. Everything! He's fond of having a little playful competitiveness in a relationship.

Unlike Ritsu, he seeks it but he doesn't do it by going up to you and mopping like a cat. It's more like this because he tries to be insanely slick with it and fails half the time:

“Say, you know you said you were gonna drive to the shopping mall today?” reminding you of your forgotten about duties of the day, you can’t forget something so important to yourself. You wished to go yesterday, but the weather was a disastrous mess and locked you inside, there was so way in "hades" you were going out there. That is what Mao said in his head when he blocked the door with a pouty face of disapproval yesterday morning, and it was quite obvious.“Oh? Right! Such a dependable boyfriend you are... Thank you~☆” mwah.

That's his way of seeking your affection, not straightforward, or not even unintentionally. He has a whole plan set for it before he even seeks for it, thinking of what to say to get the right response. Once he gets his compliment/kiss, he's like a new man. It gives him the boost he needs to carry on doing anything! He's smiling way more than he was before, maybe even giving a mischievous smirk

But there are times where he seeks it straightforwardly! When he feels needier and more desperate for it, remember it's what gives him the biggest ego boost of the day. Give him affection at night time and oh God— you have a bundle of sunshine and rainbows, expect to be up late than expected with a bundle of movies playing

It's nearly impossible for him to maintain himself sometimes, but he always returns the affection. This war of devotion will last forever if it's the last thing Mao does!

An everlasting war of loyalty, tenderness, and love declarations. That goes on for days, months, even years. Maybe it'll be forever until you're both married... Who knows? It's all up to you two to decide.

[stargazer-sims]

Journal Entry #13 (part one)

Victor

You guys! Guess where Yuri and I are right now?

It’s our new house! And it’s in Kiyomatsu.

For those of you who don't know, the part of town where Yuri and I currently live is called Wakabamori, and it kind of reminds me of Foundry Cove, the subdivision where I grew up in Willow Creek. It's not a bad neighbourhood. Like, there isn't a high crime rate or anything, and it's not a sketchy trailer park kind of area, but it's also far from being the most ritzy location in town.

Where we're going to live is considerably more upscale. Kiyomatsu is basically where they have all the fancy rentals for vacationers with money, and where a lot of rich people from here live year-round. Yuri's parents, for example, live in Kiyomatsu. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about living in a posh neighbourhood like that, but I think I can probably overcome my discomfort, thanks to the best feature Kiyomatsu offers. It's farther up the mountain than Wakabamori. In fact, it's partially above the snow line.

Let me say that again. Our new home is above the snow line.

I'm seriously freaking out about that, but in a good way. When Yuri showed me a picture yesterday, and I could see ski lifts in the background, I might've cried a little. Ski lifts. Visible from our new back yard.

Seriously, just look at it.

I'm so stoked, I'm losing my mind here.

But, I guess I should try to calm down and tell you how Yuri and I ended up with a gorgeous new home in Kiyomatsu. I'm also losing it a little over that, because I mean... drama. Also, Yuri's mom may have gone up a few places on my official respect-o-meter. I might actually make an effort to like her more after this.

Yesterday, out of the blue, Yuri's mom phoned him and invited him to lunch. Now, for most people, this wouldn't be unusual. Like, me and my mom used to have lunch together all the time when we still lived in the same town, and now that she's here with us for a while, we always eat together. But, Yuri's mother isn't the sort of person who'd make your favourite bacon and tomato sandwiches for you and then spread out a big blanket on the living room floor for an indoor picnic. I doubt if Rei Okamoto has ever done anything fun or spontaneous like that in her entire life.

Not going to lie; I was very suspicious about Mrs. Okamoto's invitation, especially when Yuri told me that his mom specifically said I couldn't come along. Not that I wanted to sit through lunch with Rei Okamoto silently judging me and not-so-silently correcting my table manners, but usually when Yuri's parents command his presence, mine is also required. They hate me, but they're so bound by their traditional values that they can't seem to have a family gathering without the whole extended 'family', which unfortunately now includes me.

My mom got really offended on my behalf when I explained that to her. She thinks Yuri's parents are horrible people, even though she's never met them. Honestly, I hope she never does. Mom and Mrs. Okamoto in the same room would be bad. Like, super extra bad. I'm pretty sure Mom would cause a huge scene, and I would so not want to be around to witness that.

But, in fairness to Mrs. Okamoto, as much as I'd rather not be around her and her critical gaze, I also can't bring myself to think of her as truly terrible. Regardless of how she feels about me, I'm sure she really cares about Yuri, and in my view, that redeems her at least a little bit.

She may not be the greatest at demonstrating affection, and she may not be okay with all of Yuri's life choices, but she's still his mom at the end of the day. She knows how to take care of him, and the times he's really needed her, she's been there.

Like, when Yuri was in the hospital for over a week last winter, she came every day and stayed with him for a few hours so I could get some rest. While he was recovering back at home, she came by to bring us food. Well, she brought me food, and some weird-looking smoothies she'd made for Yuri. She even stayed with him for a whole day so I could still participate in a snowboarding competition I'd signed up for several weeks before he'd even gotten really sick. Of course, the way Mrs. Okamoto put it, she wanted me to get out of the house because I was disrupting the flow of calming energy. She said she wanted to make sure Yuri was looked after properly for a change.

Yuri told me later that he was certain she really didn't mean it, but I hadn't minded too much anyway. I had been feeling pretty restless, so she probably wasn't wrong, and by that point, I'd already figured out what she's like. It was all good in the end because I'd known that, with his mom, Yuri was in the best hands possible other than my own.

I don't think Mr. Okamoto knew that Mrs. Okamoto came to our house, because I'd overheard her telling Yuri not to mention anything to his father. As if Yuri would ever talk to his father voluntarily. Honestly, I think if it weren't for Yuri's dad, maybe his mom could show her real feelings for him a lot more, and I think he'd like that. After all, everyone should have a caring mom in their life, right? I don't know what I'd do without mine.

So, yesterday, when Mrs. Okamoto invited Yuri to lunch, the reason I was worried wasn't because I thought he wouldn't be okay with her. It was because I had no idea what her motivation was.

As it turned out, though, it’s likely that I was worried for nothing.

When Yuri got back from his lunch date with his mother, I was home alone. Mom said she'd wanted to go exploring, and she'd taken my bike for a self-guided tour of our corner of town.

I was in the kitchen, in the process of making avocado onigiri — something Yuri almost never refuses to eat — when I heard the door open. I turned from the counter just in time to see him rushing in. He practically flung himself at me, and it was lucky that I can move fast and that I was ready to catch him, because he literally fell against my chest. He was out of breath, and I wondered if he'd been running, and how far.

"Victor!" he exclaimed. "You'll never guess what happened!"

"I'm wondering if I should be scared to ask," I said.

"No, you definitely should ask. It's... I can't even believe it!"

"Catch your breath first, and then tell me."

"Okay," he said.

He rested his head on my shoulder, and I rubbed his back slowly until his breathing evened out. I said, "What were you doing?"

"Running," he confessed.

"I figured, but since when do you run anywhere if you don’t have to?"

"Since I was so excited that I couldn't wait to tell you what happened at lunch with Mama."

He pulled away from me a little, and I let go of him so we could step back and look at each other. He was grinning, and I don't think I've ever seen him looking so pleased in the entire time we've known each other.

"And?" I said.

"We have a place to live. And it's in Kiyomatsu."

I stared. "What?"

"Isn’t this great news?"

"Yes, but I mean... What...? How...?"

"My uncle," Yuri said. "You remember my uncle, Kazuya Fujimoto?"

"Uncle Kaz from America? Your mom's brother?"

I'd met Uncle Kaz once, when he was here in town visiting his family and friends last year during Harvestfest. Yuri's birthday happens to be on the first day of autumn, and Uncle Kaz decided that he wanted to invite his 'favourite nephew' to an outdoor concert and dinner afterward, to celebrate. For the record, Yuri is his only nephew. Also, I got invited as well, and it was a lot of fun.

Uncle Kaz seemed kind of eccentric, but I really liked him. He lives in America, in the Del Sol Valley, and he's been there for about twenty years. He works in the film industry as a director, and he's apparently kind of famous, although I had to admit I'd never heard of him before we met.

For some reason, Uncle Kaz thought it was funny that I'm from Canada, and he kept asking me random questions about the wilderness and hockey and maple syrup. That's what I remember about him most.

"There could only be one Uncle Kaz," Yuri said.

I laughed. "Very true. So, what about him?"

“It’s his house,” Yuri told me. “His vacation house, although he obviously doesn’t use it much.”

“Right, but how exactly are we living in Uncle Kaz’s vacation house? How would he even know we needed a new place to live?”

“This is the best part,” Yuri said, and the only word I could think of to describe his expression was gleeful. “Mama told him. It seems she overheard part of my conversation with Papa about Mrs. Ito asking us to move out.”

“Oh.”

“Evidently, Papa’s been complaining for days about the whole situation. He really wants me to come back and live with them for some reason, but I won’t do that. Mama says he somehow blames you for us getting evicted, even though he knows that’s not true. It’s got nothing to do with you, and—“

“Yuri, it’s okay,” I said. “Of course your dad blames me. He’s looking for more reasons to dislike me, when there really aren’t any. Don’t worry about it. Keep telling me the story.”

“Okay. It seems Mama got frustrated with him, and she was really worried about us, so she called Uncle Kaz to ask about letting us live in his house.”

“And I take it he said yes.”

“He did. Mama said we’re not supposed to tell anyone that she arranged it, though, especially not Papa.”

“No worries there. I’m fine with never talking to your dad again, if I can help it.”

“He’d be furious if he knew,” Yuri said.

“He’s going to figure out we’re living there.”

“Yes, but it’s all right for him to assume that I was the one who asked Uncle Kaz about it. He doesn’t need to know Mama had anything to do with it. He wouldn’t like it if he realized she did all this herself without even consulting him, so we can’t say anything, all right?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “So, is there a catch to this arrangement?”

Yuri frowned, looking confused. “A catch?”

“Yeah. Like, do we just get to live there worry-free, like normal people with normal lives, or are there some sort of unreasonable conditions attached?”

“We have to pay rent,” he said. “And Uncle Kaz will stay there with us whenever he visits, but I think that’s fair, don’t you?”

“That’s it?”

“Were you expecting something else?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess it’s just kind of hard for me to trust your family. Some people don’t believe in letting others have something for nothing.”

“We’re not getting it for nothing. Uncle Kaz is expecting us to pay him the same amount of rent we’ve been paying Mrs. Ito for this place, and of course we have to take care of it for him.”

“But, no ulterior motives. That’s what I meant.”

“None that I can see.”

I was mostly relieved, but still slightly wary. "Do you know when we can move in?"

"Whenever we're ready," Yuri said. "As soon as we're finished packing up all our stuff here. Mama said we can meet the caretaker tomorrow to pick up the keys and have a look around, if we want. She gave me his number, but she said she already arranged for him to meet us there at two o'clock."

"Tomorrow at two. Got it."

“I’m probably not going to be able to sleep tonight,” Yuri said.

“That excited, huh?”

“Yes! Aren’t you?”

I lifted him up and spun him around, and he laughed. It was the most carefree sound I’d ever heard, and it made me so happy that I felt like crying. Yuri never laughs like that, not in the unrestrained way he did in that moment. It was the voice of someone who’d suddenly been unburdened of a crushing amount of stress and fear.

“Seeing how excited you are makes me excited,” I told him. “I’m sure I’ll be interested in the house itself, once I’m totally over how we ended up with it.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’ll take you that long,” he said. “Put me down, and let me show you the photos.”

Yuri was right, of course. The pictures had been the lure for me. He’d passed me his phone, and the two of us curled up on the sofa to look at the images his mother had texted him. While I tried to absorb every detail, Yuri snuggled next to me and began to tell me a story about two boys who found their happy place in a magical mountainside forest where there’s snow all year.

By the time he was done with his specially-made fairytale and I’d scrolled through all the pictures at least a dozen times, I’d resolved to try not to worry about Yuri’s family and their possible motives. Yuri wasn’t worried, after all, and he knows his family a lot better than I do.

I told myself this was going to be good for us. We were going to enjoy our new house and fill it with everything, both tangible and intangible, that would make it ours. We would create a home, and it’d be amazing, and nothing anyone else said or did would change that for us.

I coaxed myself into letting go of my remaining anxiety, saying to myself that it was okay to believe everything would be fine. It was a lot easier to think anticipating, hopeful thoughts about the future after that.

We told Mom our news as soon as she got back from her bike ride, and she seemed pretty thrilled about it too. After dinner, Mom got us organized, and we started packing in earnest. Yuri and I decided that we were determined to be in our new house and return Mrs. Ito’s keys for this place to her in a week. If Mom thought that was an unrealistic timeline, she didn’t say anything about it. She threw herself into the task with almost as much enthusiasm as us.

By the time bedtime came around, I found that I couldn’t go to sleep. Yuri, who’d already predicted that he’d be too keyed up, was lying beside me with an open book, but he hadn’t turned a page in several minutes. I guessed he was daydreaming.

Under the covers, I tapped his ankle with my toes. “Hey, cute boy,” I said. “Want to get up and pack some more stuff?”

He rolled over and grabbed me, burying his face in my t-shirt to muffle his laughter, obviously aware that my mom was probably already asleep in the next room.

“That’s the best offer I’ve had all night,” he said.

We filled boxes until, finally, we were too tired to focus, and then we fell asleep in each other’s arms, on the living room floor.

And that’s the tale of how, today at two o'clock in the afternoon, I found myself standing on a small, snowy plateau halfway up the side of my beloved mountain, Yukimatsu, gazing around at one of the most elegant properties I've ever seen. The house isn't super huge and fancy, which is a fact that I'm glad about. It's certainly bigger than our current house, and a lot nicer looking, but it has gorgeous, clean lines and a kind of classic, unpretentious sense about it.

Yuri went inside ahead of me. I wanted to admire the scenery for a few minutes, and marvel at the strange, incredible turn of events that'd brought us here. And I thought about how it’d been Yuri’s mom who made it all happen, and how we had to keep her wonderful gesture of kindness a secret.

I considered Yuri’s parents, and the uncomfortable dynamics that must exist in their household, wondering how Mrs. Okamoto could be in a relationship with someone she couldn’t communicate with. Maybe that’s another reason why they don’t like me. Maybe it’s envy that their son has something they don’t. Yuri and I talk to each other about everything. That’s our strength. We’d never have been able to learn to trust each other as much as we do without that.

I’m not sure how long I was out there, just staring up the mountain and feeling grateful. It must’ve been long enough for Yuri to see the whole interior, though, because he popped through the front door again, calling to me, “I know which room is going to be mine!”

I smiled, absolutely loving how joyful and energetic and well he looked. Maybe this place would be good for us in more ways than I’d expected.

“I guess that leaves the other one for me.”

"Victor, come inside and look!" he said, breathless with pleasure. "You can see your room and everything else, and you won’t be disappointed, I promise. Everything's so beautiful. You're going to love it."

"I can already tell you love it," I teased. "Usually, you're the one telling me to calm down."

"I can't help it," he said. "This is essentially my dream home. It’s so quiet and peaceful here, and we’re far enough from our neighbours that it feels private, but not so far that we’re isolated.”

“Plus, we’re close to the trails,” I said.

“Yes, that too.” He smiled. “This is exactly the sort of thing I always imagined when I thought about moving out of my parents house and living on my own, but it always felt so out of reach. Maybe, if I'd agreed to work for my father's company, I could've done it some day, but..."

"No," I said. "You never would've been happy doing that. If you'd worked for him so you could have your dream home some day, would you have really loved it?"

"No," he said. "I think I might resent it."

"The good news is, you don't even have to think about that now."

"You're right. I don't." He took my face between his hands and kissed me playfully on the tip of my nose. "Because here I am, by some amazing stroke of luck, in a home I already adore, with the person I love most in the world. This is going to be so perfect. I can hardly wait for us to move in."

“Soon. You’ve got to try to be a little patient, at least.”

“I know, but I wish it was moving-in day right now, right this minute.”

"I have an idea," I said.

"What is it?"

"We have the keys now, and your uncle said we could move in any time, right?"

"Yes."

"How would you feel about spending the night here tonight, just to see what it’s like? We could go to the old place and grab a few things, and then come straight back here. What do you think?"

That time, when he kissed me, it was on the mouth. It was an uncommon enough occurrence to have caught me a little by surprise, but I definitely wasn’t complaining. He smelled like peppermint.

“I love you," he said, lips still brushing gently against my skin. "And that idea is brilliant. Let's do it."