#we're back with another small story lads bc i craved one

[goatunderthebridge]

Tendou froze, eyes not moving from the beautiful sight in front of him.

Ushijima was laughing, a feat Tendou would’ve deemed impossible when they had met a couple of months ago. His eyes crinkled at the corners as if resisting the urge to shut completely as he laughed to continue - what, gazing at Tendou’s face? He had a hand clasped to his chest, reverberating laughter that was rich and velvet and made Tendou freeze but his heart pound. It surrounded him, drowning him in such a chocolate soundscape.

Ushijima was surprisingly loud when he laughed, enough so that some of the other customers sitting at tables near them in the small restaurant turned their heads curiously to see what was so funny. A woman in Tendou’s peripheral vision raised her eyebrows at him, scorn crossing her face at the duo. Tendou could ignore it, hell, he knew he could forget it as easily as he knew that the face Ushijima made when laughing would be something he would chase for the rest of his life. And just as that unfurled within him, Ushijima’s laughter died down as quickly as it had started and his face settled back into its resting, blank state.

What never changed, though, was the softness of his gaze on Tendou.

Tendou blinked quickly, looking away, shifting slightly in his seat. He could hear the clink of Ushijima’s glass as he picked it up again from where he had carefully put it down before his laughing fit.

“You’re very funny,” Ushijima says, making Tendou raise his eyes back to the man sitting before him, a blush burning the back of his neck. A tiny voice in the back of his mind chirped that, coupled with his red hair, it made him look even more like a monstrous beast. Now, complete with a long, red mane.

Shut it, he barely echoes back, squishing the thought.

The beat of silence makes Ushijima tilt his head slightly, searching Tendou’s face for… something. Why did he always look at him so softly, like he was some precious thing? It made him want to spring into Ushijima’s lap and kiss him until they both couldn’t breathe as equally as it made him want to recoil within himself and drag himself down into some deep, dark lair to never be seen again.

“Don’t I know it,” Tendou replies, offering a small smile he knew Ushijima was waiting for.

Ushijima nods, satisfied with the comment, and resumes eating. Tendou looks down at his own plate, intestines wriggling inside of him. He wondered how much longer it would take for Ushijima to figure it out, how much of his time he could continue to steal before the man came to his senses and realised what everyone else in his life already had: that Tendou was a monster who deserved to be alone.

Tendou picked at the food before him, less interested in it than watching Ushijima as he ate, focused and purposeful as if there was nothing more important to him than what was occurring at present. Tendou liked that. He rested a chin on his hand as his eyes roamed over Ushijima, committing this next beautiful sight to memory. It was almost unfair how good he looked in a suit.

Ushijima looked at him, eyes glinting as he caught his stare. Tendou would bet that he was daring him to continue, to say his thoughts aloud. He could read it in the way Ushijima tilted his head, asking him as unsubtly as ever.

Tendou smiled but broke the hold first, looking back at his plate. It shouldn't be much longer now until Ushijima realised and broke this off, he knew that, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't try to capture as much of this happiness as possible. It'd be a while until he got it again.

It's almost unfair that monsters don't get happy endings. And it's that thought which rolls around in his mind as Ushijima reaches a hand across the table to hold his own, gently.