#sometimes I feel like nobody but me on here even cares about surgical instruments....

[llycaons]

I feel like all anyone knows about surgical instruments is scalpels...I assure you there are many wondrous different sorts of tools surgeons use...I can list and describe them...

[flydotnet]

Brighter than the Starry Sky

Summary: Kirino wants to show his boyfriend something while they're in Hokkaido.

Fandom: Inazuma Eleven Go Ship: Established RanTaku

Wordcount: 1.5K words

Notes: The stars are beautiful tonight. This was written for my giftee for this year’s Secret Soccer, @elestialgz-scraps! We sadly don’t share a lot of ships, and the one we do didn’t inspire me, so I hope you’re all right with some awkward RanTaku! Considering Kirino is one of your favs, it’s written in his POV. I hope you’ll like it nonetheless! (Btw, you’ve got some nice character tastes, my friend: Tsunami is :ok_hand:). I also happen to suck very hard at Japanese geography (I was already not the best History-Geography major in prep class and I’m not the best at Brazilian and French geographies to begin with), so I’m in doubt concerning Hokkaido and freezing temperatures. I got all my Hokkaido knowledge from Inazuma Eleven and Detective Conan and this was the result I’m afraid. Anyway y’all, happy holidays, and let’s hope for an Inazuma-filled 2020. (TL;DR: get your shit together Level-5).

Event hosted by @inazumasecretsoccer.

AO3 version available here.

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It came to Ranmaru in a frenzy, almost like a spontaneous fire started by a little spark, while he was doing some homework: what about stargazing?

At first, for a couple seconds, it seemed like a bit of a dumb idea: it was cold outside, especially in Hokkaido, the wintery air would bite them, and Takuto would most likely refuse in fear of catching something. It’d be a wise move, even if it bothered him, yet he couldn’t bring himself to hold a grudge against his own boyfriend.

 Yet, there were more reasons to at least ask him about it; in fact, too many of them for Ranmaru to resist. The winter sky was the best to see stars sparkling in the dark, especially in the clearer north, where the lights of Tokyo couldn’t obscure the view, where there were far less luminous pollution, in a place where they (hopefully) wouldn’t be disturbed in the middle of a moment of intimacy. Usually, the group liked to interrupt, so spending some time alone together, far from the rest of the world and society, seemed more than welcome…

After all, what could possibly go wrong? Well, a ton of things, and Takuto would be the first to point every one of these out with surgical precision, but he guessed he’d ignore them until they came up, for once. It wasn’t his kind to be reckless, unlike some of his friends; yet the appeal of the idea he had just had was too strong for him to deny. He supposed playing it risky couldn’t hurt, from time to time…

 To his surprise, Takuto only hesitated for a little bit, most likely the time it took him to calculate the balance between risk and reward. They agreed on an evening, after his piano recital (to nobody’s surprise, he had managed to have his instrument carried all the way north), behind the backs of literally everyone else but the coach. Surely they could benefit from some alone time, couldn’t they? They deserved it, after going through so many events.

This spontaneous idea became real right before his eyes only on the following evening. Yes, it went this fast: one moment he was hesitating even bringing the idea up, the next they were in the snow and the starry darkness of the night, hand in hand, covered in hot clothes and cheeks reddened by the cold and the sudden intimacy of the situation. With a little luck, nobody would disturb them…

 If Ranmaru didn’t know much of Hokkaido, he still spotted a comfortable spot fairly quickly. It was a landscape-viewing site, high in the air, the wind blowing under it and through Takuto’s red silky scarf (and Ranmaru wished he even had half the money to buy him such a good item of clothing, but alas, he was a bit too poor for that, which his boyfriend didn’t hold against him in the slightest). Invaded by a sudden blow of enthusiasm, he brought the both of them with his legs running.

When they arrived, considering the ground was covered in snow, he hesitated to make the both of them sit. Considering Takuto didn’t seem too keen on doing so either, he felt content staying up, fingers enlaced. Needless to say, he hadn’t seen everything through and was just realizing it. Oh well, sometimes, you had to leave yourself to the arms of fortune, didn’t you?

 So here they were, alone together, facing the sparkling starry sky. Despite the coldness of the winter winds and their breath transforming into mist as soon as it met the air, they both felt warm. At least, Ranmaru sure didn’t feel like he was in the middle of a polar-like region, which seemed weird considering it was the opposite way earlier this day, but he wasn’t going to openly complain about it. Sometimes, life was good; right now, life was at its best.

Neither of them talked, profiting from the calm and serene silence. Gazing at the sky, then each other, then the sky, was absolutely enough for now. Well, that was what he thought until Takuto was the first to open back the conversation, much to his surprise:

“This is Orion.”

Takuto’s hand showed the way to stars forming, indeed, the double-triangle shape of Orion. Ranmaru, being fairly bad at spotting constellations himself, was already in awe by just being with his special someone in a charming place with no one around to disturb them: this was only making things better from then on. Of course his boyfriend would be knowledgeable there too! Was there a single thing Takuto couldn’t do?

Well, frankly, Ranmaru didn’t know, but also didn’t want to. He was fine thinking his boyfriend could do literally anything as long as he wanted to. It made him stronger. The spark shining in his eyes, lit by the pale light of the full moon smiling upon them, only made it even more beautiful than it was before. At some point, he may have forgotten to look at the stars.

They continued stargazing for a time, Takuto pointing different constellations and explaining the myths behind their names. Sometimes, while they couldn’t per say see some of them, Ranmaru would still get the story of Andromeda, Chiron the centaur, the vase pouring its stars into the sky. It was less the stories themselves that interested him, as he was more focused on the fun Takuto had telling these to him, sometimes humming music that reminded him of the different myths he’d mention.

 The conversation eventually slowed down and came to a halt, right before starting back up.

“I’ve really enjoyed our time so far. Thank you for bringing us here.”

If Ranmaru felt his face burning again, he preferred to hide it behind a laugh.

“Thank you for accepting it in the first place, then. Wouldn’t be the same without you.”

If they didn’t usually dare getting more physical, they went for the kiss this time. It wasn’t exceptional, considering it was the very first, sure; but it’d have been a lie to say it didn’t make him want to live that experience again. They’d have to give it a second shot once their lips wouldn’t be this affected by the cold.

 Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t letting go of their evening, eventually forcing them to abandon the sight-seeing spot and find shelter inside. The inn the team was staying at being quite a long walk from where they had gone, until the wind let out, they had to find a nearer place. It didn’t quite help that, shortly after they finally decided themselves to leave and find a warmer place to stay in, the snow had started falling. Talk about a misfortune! Good things always had an end, he supposed…

As not to get lost, they held onto each other’s hand as they traversed through the early stage of an incoming snowstorm, clinging to the other for some human warmth. Of course something would go wrong, what did he expect? Something always has to go wrong! Ah, well, at least, they’re together, and that does fill him with determination. They’ll find a way out and then drink a nice cup of tea or chocolate, once they’ll have escaped from potential frostbite. Hokkaido truly is a polar region.

 It should have been easy to spot the light of a warm building in the night, but the snow made it much harder than it had any right to be. Most of what they were both seeing was the white of the capricious weather, the darkened browns of the trees, sometimes the stars and the moon breaking through the incoming blizzard. They had gone through much worse than this, Ranmaru recognized that fact every single day with little to no doubt, so it was just a question of time.

They didn’t talk much, only reminding the other not to let go or asking him if he was fine enough to continue without taking a break. Blame it on the oxygen trying to bite them from the inside if they breathed in too much of it and the supplementary effort of walking up to a place they didn’t know the location of.

 To their relief, they eventually found a place with bright yellow windows shining in the dark of the night, warm and welcoming, albeit familiar-looking. To be fair, Ranmaru didn’t care at this point: he just wanted them not to freeze outside. As long as they could stay here until the storm let out, they’d end up perfectly fine. In the short term, that was all that mattered, so they started running towards the lights, still silent aside from their panting.

Once they arrived in front of it, Ranmaru immediately rang the bell next to the door. No time to waste outside, even if he felt his boyfriend get closer to him for more warmth. Perhaps that hadn’t been such a good idea on the side of weather risks and temperatures, but the adrenaline and dopamine of it all lingered even as they waited for some help to come to their side.

 As soon the door opened, Takuto’s hand still in his, Ranmaru immediately remembered why this place seemed so familiar, even in the uncomfortable circumstances they had found themselves in.

And that was Tenma greeting them with a big smile and a very loud “where have you been, guys?!”.