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It takes a little convincing at first. A lot, actually, if Sakura was willing to admit it. Eventually, though, when Nirei’s grip is warm around his wrist and his eyes are squeezed shut and he’s going on and on about how the autumn promotional price is ending soon, no one else is able to go with him, and he really wants to get it, please, Sakura-san…Sakura goes.
When they arrive at the store, Sakura stares blankly at the menu and regards the options as if they were written in English. Nirei rattles off his order from memory instantly, a jumble of words that’s practically incomprehensible to Sakura. Sakura stares at the menu, squinting at the fancy names, and almost spins on his heel to leave right then and there. Before he can even seriously consider it, though, there’s a shock of warmth on his side.
Nirei’s there, pressing shoulder-to-shoulder and arm-to-arm with Sakura, to look at the menu. He’s muttering quickly to himself, eyes roving across the entire surface, enraptured in whatever he’s doing. Sakura is far too taken aback to react accordingly, and by the time he does, Nirei’s finger is already stopping beneath one line of words that looks no different from the rest.
“This one,” he says confidently. “I think you’d like this one, Sakura-san!”
Really, who would have the strength to decline?
Afterwards, they end up on a breeze-cooled bench with their toasty-warm prizes. Sakura is bent forward, his wary gaze focused solely on the drink radiating heat between his palms. Nirei is leaned back, head tilted upwards and eyes shut in bliss, one hand folded over the edge of the bench and the other holding his cup as he drinks from it.
When Sakura carefully takes the straw between his lips and drinks, the warm burst of sweet sugar on his tongue that follows is borderline addictive. He swallows before the taste even fully registers, licking his lips for trace amounts of the taste left, and snatches the straw between his teeth again.
His next sip contains the strength equivalent to an industrial-grade vacuum. He sucks up multiple boba pearls that feel slippery on his tongue and taste slightly different from the drink. In his haste to chase after that first hit of sugar, he nearly swallows them whole and barely avoids choking.
When he sinks his teeth into one, its soft surface gives way a little but holds near-firm with delightful chewiness. As he bites them apart, they bloom into an entirely different flavour of sugary flavour that melts into the lingering residues of the drink.
Instinctively, without realising it, Sakura makes a long, drawn-out noise of satisfaction that rumbles in the back of his throat. He thinks this might be the best drink he’s ever had in his life.
Nirei giggles beside him, reminding him that he’s not alone. He blushes instantly, feeling his face warm with the rush of blood flow to the surface.
“Try it with some of the syrup,” Nirei gestures, tapping his finger against the surface of Sakura’s cup. Sakura squints closer and, like he said, there’s streaks of glistening amber half-dissipated into the liquid.
Clumsily, a little unfamiliarly, he clasps the straw between his index finger and thumb to scrape the syrup off. When he drinks from it again, the sweet richness of the varying flavours is much more enhanced. He draws more of the drink into his mouth through the straw, teeth catching on boba pearls as he licks up every trace of the delicious syrup.
Sakura only slows down when the cup is at one-third capacity, sighing in content. The warm drink settles comfortably in his stomach, heating him up from the inside. It keeps him from shivering in the autumn wind.
Nirei finishes his drink as he chugs the rest of it. He hops onto his feet, sucking up the last of his boba pearls and chewing happily. Sakura follows him and stands up, drinking up the rest of his own.
“Say, Sakura-san,” Nirei begins as he pauses in the middle of the pavement. Sakura turns to him, instantly curious at the unreadable expression on his face.
“Have you ever stepped on a crunchy leaf?”
Sakura squints. He half-thinks Nirei is making a poor attempt at some sort of joke, maybe, but there’s no telltale twitch of his mouth or crinkle beside his eyes. “What?”
“You know,” Nirei shrugs, a bit hesitant. “Going around stepping on crunchy leaves on the pavement. Stuff like that.”
Sakura brow furrows in bewilderment. “Why would I do that?”
There’s a trace of something like melancholy in Nirei’s gaze, so fast Sakura almost misses it, before Nirei grins so wide his eyes squeeze shut. “It’s tradition, Sakura-san! When it’s autumn, you have to buy warm drinks and step on crunchy leaves and do things suited for the season, you know?”
“Really?” Sakura makes an inquisitive sound. Autumn was the same as any other season for him before coming to Makochi, focused on avoiding piercing gazes and picking any fight he could.
“Mhm!” Nirei insists, clasping his fingers around Sakura’s. The warmth from Sakura’s drink persists in his fingers and emphasises the contrast in temperature between Nirei’s cold hand and Sakura’s own. Instinctively, Sakura squeezes Nirei’s hand slightly to transfer some of his own heat.
“Come here, Sakura-san,” Nirei tugs lightly on Sakura’s hands. Obediently, Sakura follows.
There’s an audible crunch below his feet. Sakura blinks down at his shoes, lifting his foot, and finds a crushed leaf beneath his sole. His step seems to have split it perfectly down the middle.
Nirei giggles. He takes a step backward, another crunch sounding audibly from the movement, and pulls Sakura forward. Sakura obeys and steps straight onto a leaf in his path. It’s a bit drier than the previous two, so the sound it makes as it crumbles is twice as sharp and brittle. He tilts his head as he beholds it and can almost taste its crispness like cold autumn air on his tongue. It brings an unfamiliar sort of satisfaction.
When Nirei guides him forward to an area under a tree, golden-brown with fallen leaves littering the pavement, he indulges in the feeling. He crushes leaves beneath his heel and kicks up loose flakes, first hesitantly in bursts of movement and then more confidently as he continues. Nirei mirrors his movements, hands still clasped in his, grinning with flushed cheeks as they spin around like a poor attempt at ballroom dancing.
Eventually, when Nirei bursts into laughter, eyes crinkled in mirth and corners of his mouth curved up, Sakura does too. Nirei’s laughs are loud and carefree, surging from his chest and spilling through his teeth. They cause him to double over and lean so closely into Sakura’s space that the dandelion-yellow curls of his hair brush his chin in a gentle caress.
Sakura, on the other hand, laughs like the sound is centered in the back of his throat. He swallows half the noise before it can escape from sheer instinct, imbued from years of having to police his every act. When a laugh does make it out, he subconsciously holds it between his teeth and tucks it beneath his tongue. As a result, his laughs are soft like wind-blown petals and fall from his lips as softly as evening-gold sunshine.
They dance like that, laughing with unsteady feet amongst the red-brown scattered leaves, until they lose their breaths and have to stop. Nirei clutches onto Sakura’s hands to steady himself as he wheezes in air between laughs. Sakura clutches back, giggles choked and half-hidden but escaping from his throat regardless.
The wind whistles in their ears, a jaunty tune that soars and dips with the rise and fall of their shuddering, laughing shoulders. The cool weather nips at their cheeks and noses, dyeing them a cherry-pink. The leaves whirl around them in mesmerising shades of reds and golds and browns, frolicking in the air with the same enthusiasm they did a moment ago.
“How was it, Sakura-san?” Nirei asks, later, once they’re seated side-by-side on a bench, still gasping for breath from just now.
“How was what?” Sakura echoes, each word punctuated with a puff of breath. There’s sugar coated on the back of his teeth and sweat dampening his shirt and a leaf stuck to the bottom of his shoe. He’s more out of breath than he is after fights.
“Your first proper autumn,” Nirei elaborates, air whistling through his teeth as he inhales and exhales through his grin. He’s smiling so hard his eyes curve like crescent arcs above his freckles, sheer happiness glimmering in the light of his autumn-brown pupils.
Sakura is mesmerised by them for the barest of seconds. His nape burns, enough to scald his skin from the inside out. As he looks away, he’s immensely grateful that his blush isn’t visible from Nirei’s perspective.
“It was…nice.”