An overdue KRK fic for Becky

[ciircee]

A long, long, LONG overdue present for Becky. I love you so much more than this suggests.



I'd Give You Everything

Christmas presents were easy, Kagami thought. He got Tadokoro brandy and Misaki got wine, Yumiko got rum and Hiyori got cookbooks in foreign languages. Juka got something cute from some cute, pink, mascot store at the mall and Gon got a charm for the bracelet that Daisuke had got her when he could no longer buy her hats. Renge got fancy chocolates, his father got a baseball game. Jiiya got a memory of Tsurugi, whatever Kagami could call to mind—good or bad and Tsurugi got sake at his marker.

Presents were easy…providing it wasn't a present meant for Tendou.

Whose birthday was right before Christmas anyway.

Kagami let his forehead rest on the shop window with a dull thump. "I give up," he told his reflection, his breath fogging on the glass.

"You can do it, onii-san!" Juka said, putting her arm though his. "Onii-chan is expecting you to do your best, not to be good at getting him something."

Kagami groaned and dropped his chin to his chest. "I really thought he'd like that shirt," he muttered. "It had no sleeves and foil print and everything."

"He would have liked it fine if it hadn't said he was looking for a new sugar daddy," Juka told him. "I'm going to get some takoyaki to refuel us, okay? You find a seat!"

Looking around for a seat, Kagami instead spotted a pet shop. The rolling balls of fur in the window drew him over. The puppies were irresistibly cute and he went inside and poked his fingers through the sides of the cage to be licked and snuffled. "You guys are cute," he told them. But they also weren't right for Tendou. They'd shed on his furniture, poop on his lawn, and require the open sort of love and affection that Tendou had a hard time giving.

He moved on to the kittens and they were cute, too. "You guys and Tendou would get along like a bunch of cats in a sack," Kagami muttered. He could picture the staring contests, the aloofness, the tails in the air and the raised hackles. He'd get clawed for petting somebody he was sure. "Sorry."

There were spiders and snakes and fish. "Nope, not you guys," Kagami told them. Hiyori already had a bird and Tendou didn't seem to care about it one way or the other. The turtles gave Kagami pause. They were so ugly they were kind of cute, unassuming but still interactive. He could picture Tendou carrying it around in a bowl of water like his morning tofu. "He'd cook you and eat you," Kagami said in despair.

"Probably," Juka chirped. She held out a takoyaki on a toothpick. "Want some?"


After a full day spent at the mall, Kagami was dragging by the time he reached home. He was full of terrible food-court food, footsore, and his brain felt like so much pudding. He still didn't have a clue what to get Tendou. He kicked his door shut behind him, flopped down on his couch, and screamed into his sofa cushion until he felt better.

"Welcome home," Tendou's voice floated out from his tiny kitchen. He sounded warm and comfortable and happy. "Did you have a good day with Juka?"

Kagami rolled over. "I should just get a dog collar with a tag that has my name and your phone number on it. If found please call," he muttered. And then, "Hi, Tendou."

Tendou drifted serenely into his line of sight. "That's not the sort of present you could give me in front of my sisters," he said, disapproving and yet so very amused.

Kagami threw a couch pillow at him.


"He'll like anything you get him," Hiyori said.

"He'll like that I got him something," Kagami corrected, parking her bike in front of the bistro for her. "That's entirely different from liking what I got him."

"Does it matter?" Hiyori asked.

Kagami sighed. "Yeah."


"Shishou is hard to shop for," Renge said.

Her fast ball nearly put a hole through his hand. Kagami took his glove off and shook it out before pitching the ball back to her. "Tell me about it."

"There are too many things that are perfect for him," she went on, throwing him another fast ball.

Kagami threw her a curve in retaliation. "You're getting better at this," he said as she missed it completely and had to chase it down. "But you've got a long way to go."

She nearly took his head off with another fastball, but Kagami grinned and sent it back to her. Six feet over her head.


"You smell like the ball park," Tendou observed when Kagami got home. "And sweat. Why don't you have a bath while I finish dinner." It was not a request.

Kagami kicked his shoes off messily and left them that way. "Like you smell like roses," he said flippantly, heading for his bathroom. Then he stopped and backtracked. Tendou smelled of spices and rice and simmering heat. "You do smell good," he offered. "Like dinner."

Tendou pushed him off. "Neanderthal," he chided.

There was only one way to respond to that. Kagami put his shoulder into Tendou's stomach and lifted him off his feet.

He ended up alone in his shower with a few new bruises and ribs that ached from laughing as well as Tendou's quick reversals.


The mall on December twentieth was packed full of shoppers, desperate shoppers who didn't want to be last-minute shoppers. Kagami moved among them feeling set apart from them, feeling like a stone in a riverbed. He stopped outside a jewelry store and looked at the watches and pendants and rings.

"Am I really that difficult to shop for?" Tendou asked in his ear.

Kagami didn't look at him. "You're like a sumi-e painting," he said softly. "I don't know what I can give you that isn't just clutter."

When he looked over, Tendou was gone.

"See what I mean?" he sighed to the empty space.


Tendou was waiting for him on the twenty-first, wearing a kimono. "I have something for you," he said.

"It's your birthday," Kagami told him. "You're supposed to be getting presents."

Tendou smiled at him endlessly patient and serene. "I have something for you," he repeated and stepped back from the door.

Kagami shouldered his bag a little higher and followed him through the house to the room with the tatami mat floor. On a low table was a large sheet of rice paper, the ends slightly curled. There was also an inkstone and brushes. "Tendou," Kagami said, looking over at him.

Moving to the table, Tendou gestured for him to sit. When Kagami did, he knelt down beside him, almost behind him, sinking into seiza as graceful and fluid as wax tipping away from a flame. "Like this," Tendou said quietly, lifting the brush and dipping it into the thick, dark ink. He handed the brush to Kagami and put his hand over his, guiding.

A dark line flowed over the right side of the page, a strong sweep with no gentleness.

"Again," Tendou said and guided Kagami's hand into another stroke.

The second line laid against the first, a little lighter but still unyielding.

"Becomes this," Tendou said, drawing Kagami's hand to the ink and back to the paper, a jagged line leading away from the first two.

Kagami leaned back against Tendou and watched a bare plum branch take life on the paper. "I'm in love with you, you know," he said softly into the silence between them.

Tendou's hand stilled, stilling both of their hands, and then moved again, to the ink, to the paper. "It's rather obvious," he said.

The plum branch stretched starkly into the middle of the paper.

"It being obvious doesn't mean that I've ever told you," Kagami said. He set the brush down and Tendou let him. He turned his head to face him. "I'm in love with you."

Tendou smiled, his head ducking slightly. "Yes, you are."

"Do you want your present?" Kagami asked, dragging his bag into his lap, pulling out a square, flat box and holding it out.

Tendou took it with raised eyebrows. "I thought perhaps your confession was your present."

Kagami made a face. "You watch too many romance movies with Juka," he said. "Open it. I think you'll like it."

Eyebrows still up, Tendou put a finger under the tape and loosened it, unwrapping it carefully. The paper fell away and revealed…"Markers?"

"Eight classic colors and washable," Kagami told him, grinning.

Tendou looked down at the package. "…I see."

Kagami reached out and teased the box open and pulled the yellow marker out. He turned to the painting on the table and drew large, fat sun in the left hand corner—scribbling to fill it in. "See?" he asked, tapping the marker against the center.

Tendou took the marker from him. "I see," he said, setting it on the table. He was smiling, his eyes laughing in a way Kagami never saw often enough. "It's a good present. Thank you."

As softly and fleetingly as snow, Kagami touched his face. There was warmth in his hands, warmth in Tendou's skin, only warmth like the sun between them. "You're welcome."