Entry tags:

arc: brand new endings, char: abe takaya, char: izumi kousuke, char: mizutani fumiki, fandom: ookiku furikabutte, type: fic

[fic] Ookiku Furikabutte: The Sweetest Thing You Did (You Did With Great Resignation)
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Izumi/Mizutani, Abe
Disclaimer: Oofuri is the brainchild of Asa Higuchi.
Continuity: Brand New Endings
Notes: This, being the most self-indulgent piece of writing ever, happens long after anything else that's been posted in this universe. So, things have changed.
And Mizutani wants a puppy.

This was written half and half by me and yukistu, who wanted Mizutani to get the puppy he'd been promised. So the awesome bits are hers. :3 And ficcentricity was kind enough to give us a title.





There was something surprisingly pleasant about being able to travel between his home and university without taking the train, Izumi thought vaguely as he made his way through a side alley leading to his apartment. Moving out of his brother’s somptuous and conveniently cheap apartment had been a worse shock than he’d expected, but now at least he had the luxury of going to school, shopping, or meeting up with friends without having to run after train schedules.
Most importantly, moving had meant gaining a roommate, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way even if he’d been given the choice. "M'home," he said as he slipped inside the unit, locking the door behind him.

"Kousuke, welcome home!"

"And... see you later," he retorted, having almost bumped into Fumiki on his way out.

There'd been a lot of that at the beginning. For weeks after moving in together, the combination of classes, jobs and chores had made it nigh impossible to be in the same place for more than ten minutes before passing out from exhaustion. Three months in, they were getting better at balancing the schedules; yet this was still happening too often for Izumi's tastes. "Where are you going?"

Fumiki raised a hand full of empty bags. "Grocery Shopping. We're out of... pretty much everything."

"Oh? I'll come with you," he said without thinking, the tempting prospect of sprawling around on their bed until dinnertime gone from his mind. He’d been looking forward to resting for the day, but taking a walk together sounded good, even if he had to do the groceries with him.

"You will?" And there was something satisfying about seeing Fumiki beam at him that way.

"Yeah. Lemme put my stuff down and we can go." Having the option of dropping his bag wherever he damn well liked – up to the point where there was no floor space left to walk – made this easier, at least, and they were out the door less than two minutes after Izumi had come home.

"What should we get from the nabe party next week-end?" Fumiki asked, sauntering down the stairs. Izumi followed, without using half as much energy.

The nabe party: some of Fumiki's friends celebrating one of seven well-known excuses (this time seemed to be 'it's Friday') to drink more sake than one should have in a lifetime. Getting invited to tag along despite not knowing any of them had been a pleasant surprise to Izumi, but he'd rather have stayed home for a rare quiet evening.

Despite that, and as tired as he was, there was something highly refreshing about the way shopping for groceries was still a big adventure for Fumiki. To Izumi, three years living alone had put a certain light on the things that had to be done even if he didn't feel like it: dishes and dusting and taking out the trash and spending their Sunday mornings and their change at the automatic laundry. To him, they were chores; but Fumiki was still at the stage where the –largely overrated– option of eating cup ramen everyday seemed like a good idea just because it was there.

If nothing else, it was endearing to watch; every now and then, Izumi enjoyed letting him take the reins and following along.

"Whatever will keep until then, I guess? How many people is it going to be?"

"I dunno, a dozen?" Fumiki jumped down the last three steps and waited for him; Izumi obligingly hurried his pace, but not by much. "We can get dried mushrooms and tofu," Fumiki continued. "Maybe some beef?"

"Okay," he answered, even though feeding other people wasn’t really in the budget. Fumiki's hopeful look, was very hard to resist if it was just something this small. "Let's get some mochi for tonight, too."

It was rare enough for him to suggest a treat for no particular reason –the budget tended to get thin a few days from payday– that Fumiki shot him the kind of smile that could still blind him.

"Real shopping first, though," he chided, but squeezed Fumiki's hand briefly as he walked past.

"Sure," Fumiki said, and Izumi had to marvel that he'd still be getting that excited look if they'd been going out to buy detergent. "Oh, by the way! The nice old lady in 315 told me a shortcut to get to the shops! She said you gain five minutes, easy."

That sounded like a good plan, except that the last time they'd followed her advice, they'd ended up taking three times as long to get to the bus station. But it was early still, and Izumi didn't mind the thought of wandering around the neighborhood for a while. "Lead the way, then."

It was pretty late in the afternoon, but summer made the days longer and Izumi figured they had another hour or so of daylight left. If they were lucky, maybe they could get some nice, cheap food for dinner on the way home.

The route they were taking was familiar to Izumi, but not completely. He gave up keeping track of where they were going at the fifth turn, when Fumiki led him through a side road, and just decided to enjoy the good weather and the walk. Still, he couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Of course we are!" Fumiki said cheerfully, bumping shoulders with him.

"Of course we are." He assorted the repetition with a raised eyebrow, which only made Fumiki grin at him and take a step closer, making the back of their hands brush together.

Casual touching in open spaces; another thing that had come with change.

Izumi was almost about to decide that a dark, empty street didn't count as a public place where open displays of affection would be frowned upon when two things happened: Fumiki made him take a turn into a wider, busier street that was not at all their usual shopping place, and his phone started buzzing in his pocket.

By the time he'd fished it out and read the email –his first class of the morning was canceled, probably due to the teacher being even an even lazier bum than the worst of his students– Fumiki had disappeared from his side.

Izumi found him a few seconds later, nose glued to a shop's window. He didn't know if it was the sight of Fumiki cooing against the glass that warned him of things to come, or if it was the bright, cheerful sign sitting on top of the door. Lil's Pet Shop, it said in bright yellow and pink letters.

It was probably the combination of ‘Fumiki’ and ‘pet shop,’ Izumi thought as he made his way to where his boyfriend was crouching and peered over his shoulder.

A small, brown, fuzzy puppy barked up at them, enthusiastically licking at the glass. Izumi managed to make out the pointy ears, the white-furred face, and the curly tail, but all the slobber it had gotten on the glass made it difficult for him to tell what breed it was. ‘Shiba,’ the sign next to it said.
Well.

"Kousuke, isn't he cute?!"

That was a question with a purpose, if ever Izumi had heard one. "I... guess?" he tried, putting as much circumspection in the answer as he could.

It wasn't enough, of course, and the part of him that had always known the ending of every fairy tale before his mother was halfway through the story could already tell where this was leading.

The only viable escape route he could think of was the good old Playing Dumb.

"Don't you think he should get a proper home?"
Though Playing Dumb was hard to achieve with such straightforward questions, Izumi tried anyway, in the hopes of outlasting Fumiki at this.

"I suppose." The expectant silence that met this answer made it clear that pretending not to understand what the real question was, wasn't an option. "You mean a proper home with space inside, easy access to open air, and enough money to feed it properly?"

Izumi had expected Fumiki to back down quickly at that logic, but when his boyfriend made up his mind on something....
"I can take him for walks every day, and dogs like him don't grow too big... See?" Fumiki said quickly, pointing at the bright poster taped to the window. "If we buy him today, we get a sack of dog food for free!"

'He' promptly stood up on its hind legs, and barked. Fumiki abandoned their conversation to coo at the puppy again, allowing Izumi time to scratch the back of his neck and not think of how cute Fumiki was being. Imagining what the puppy could do to their apartment gave him a mild headache.

"And that one sack of food is going to solve all our problems, is it?" He tried not to look at the dog too much. It was bad enough that Fumiki was already smitten; the last thing Izumi needed was to decide that the puppy did look cute.

He'd already fallen for that trait once before, and it had been more than enough.

"But it'll help? We can save money for the sack after that bit by bit, and we won't even notice! I'll let go of cookies? And then again for the next one, right?"

Izumi supposed that he wasn't being firm enough on this, if Fumiki was still trying to wheedle. Then again, Fumiki had learned to push him more lately. Both Fumiki and the dog gave him hopeful looks.

Izumi looked away. Knowing that he would be in no position to say no if Fumiki asked outright put his powers of argumentation to the test.

"What about vet fees?" he asked suddenly –almost desperately– before Fumiki had the time to walk past him on his way to the shop's door. That made him stop, put a slight pout of concentration on his face.

It was enough of an opening. "Anyway, real shopping first, remember," Izumi said, and tugged Fumiki away from the temptation.

With any luck, he'd have forgotten about this by the time they walked home; but just in case, Izumi suddenly wanted to buy lots of heavy, bulky things. Like maybe rice, and huge rolls of toilet paper. Or even a stool if they could carry it, though that might be overkill.

"And then we'll come back?" Fumiki insisted. The dog whined behind the glass.

"We'll... see," he answered, firmly steering him to the market area. "Didn't you want a watermelon?"

"I'd like a puppy more...?"

"For dinner? I don't think we have the right kind of sauce."

It took Fumiki too much energy to express his disgust at the idea of eating the adorable little puppy –that was still looking at them from behind his window– to resist physically at the same time. By the time he'd noticed, they were well into the fruit and vegetables aisle of the closest supermarket, where Izumi was hoping that the lure of watermelon would overcome any memory of slobbery four-legged beasts.

"Kousukeee!" was the disappointed whine. Izumi turned his back on his boyfriend to examine a watermelon, trying to steel himself against that kind of argument.

"Why don't we talk about this later?" he interrupted, giving Fumiki's hand a quick squeeze before handing him one of the fruits and turning his attention to another rack of produce. "We should finish shopping before dark, or we might never find our way home."

And then there was that pout again. This wasn't going as planned. Not that the plan had been any more sophisticated than 'run while you can', but this was still not a desirable result.

The thing was, Fumiki's attention had always been easily distracted, and it wasn't hard to forget that he tended to cling to the things he really wanted, even when he knew that he couldn't, or shouldn't have them.

The parallel would have been amusing if it wasn't so pathetic.

They did get the watermelon in the end, and the beef and the mochi and even delicious oden from a surprisingly cheap stall, but it was clear that Fumiki's enthusiasm for shopping had completely deflated. When they headed home, Izumi was barely even pleased to see that the shop was closed.

---

The problem was, Izumi decided three days later, that Fumiki was being an adult over this. If he'd whined, if he'd argued, if he'd been childish in any way, resisting would have been easy enough.

Instead, he was facing Fumiki's efforts to hide his disappointment.

He'd been chipper and lively at the party, was balancing chores, classes and work with surprising efficiency, and hadn't broached the subject again. But Izumi had caught him glancing wistfully at dog food ads on their minuscule TV screen, and being considerably less dynamic when he didn't think he was being watched.

He hadn't even pulled the "but you said I could have one" argument, which would have been the ultimate trump card. Even if the conversation from that night hadn't been burned in Izumi's brain, he couldn't have helped remembering that what he'd said had boiled down to yes, yes, yes, anything you want as long as you keep me.

Not his proudest hour, and Abe had figured out enough about that night that he'd never stop laughing.

Which might have been why Izumi felt more amused than sorry to hear Fumiki, who he was sure had been talking to Mihashi, breathe an astounded "you got a kitten?" in the phone receiver.

Now if only he could stop feeling guilty about depriving his own boyfriend of a pet... If Abe had buckled to Mihashi's request to keep a kitten (and he figured that Abe hadn't put up much of a fight in the first place), then Fumiki was probably going to be more disappointed that he wouldn't.

It might not have been the most constructive action to take, but Izumi locked himself in the bathroom for an early shower as soon as Fumiki put the phone down several minutes later.

He had a lot of reasons to not want a dog in their unit, and he'd listed them down in his head before, but he also knew that logic wouldn't be able to dent Fumiki's want. Trying to discourage Fumiki was becoming more and more of an unwanted job by the day, especially with the guy being all mature like that. He didn’t even have the option to start listing the reasons why getting a pet was a Bad Idea, since that would have been Opening The Topic when they were obviously not talking about it anymore.

Meanwhile, Fumiki made his own points in silence, by keeping the flat clean even when it wasn't his turn, handling all his responsibilities without a word of complaint and taking an active interest in managing their finances.

Some information about the newly acquired Haru-chan did filter down to Izumi in a discreet, anecdotic way, but his attempts to subtly bounce back on them fell miserably.

In the end, when he called a well-known number barely a week after the first encounter, it felt like the inevitable.

"Hey, do you have some time to spare?"

---

"If I'm here to help you pick something like a commitment ring..." Abe threatened, not even bothering with a greeting.

"How's Haru-chan, Takaya?" Izumi retorted, glaring back. That was a low blow, he figured, because he was probably going to be in the same boat with a dog named Taka-chan or something, and he would probably need Abe's friendship then. Except squabbling was something they did together and really, he thought a little hysterically, Abe could probably use an outlet for his pet-induced hostilities, too.

Unless the cat had already grown on Abe, that is, in which case Izumi thought he was pretty hopeless.

Abe gave him a look that clearly said, 'I won't talk about the rings if you won't talk about the cat,' which Izumi agreed to equally silently, despite the absence of any actual ‘ring’, although getting the damn dog felt like an even deeper commitment than any piece of jewelry could symbolize.

"What am I here for?" Abe asked after ten minutes of what seemed like aimless wandering – but wasn't really, since Izumi had looked up the map and found out that if it hadn't been for the insane twists their neighbour had told Fumiki to take, the pet (and all the other but momentarily less important) shop was indeed a lot closer than the street where they did most of their shopping.

"Heavy lifting," Izumi said glumly, and pointed at the guilty window (behind which he was certain that the puppy still bounced), already visible in the distance.

"Ah," Abe said, and, a minute later, "Ah." There was a hint of sympathy in his voice. Abe, Izumi thought, was a genuine friend. Or at least understood where he was coming from, which might be a little better.

"Let me guess. The Shiba?" Abe said as they came closer to the dreaded store, pointing at the hyperactive puppy. Izumi nodded but didn't ask how Abe knew. It just figured that Fumiki would choose the liveliest of the bunch, anyway.

"So... you need me here for moral support."

"Didn't you hear me? I need you to help me carry the stuff that comes with the puppy." Izumi paused, braced himself before pushing the door to the place open (which opened with a tinkle and a dozen dogs barking at the same time). "I won't call it Taka-chan if you do?"

"Like he'd let you do that," Abe said, rolling his eyes as he followed suit, into a universe packed with cats, dogs, rats, birds, gerbils, assorted reptiles, and cooing middle school girls. "Huh."

"You've been in one of these before, right?" Izumi asked, sidling closer to Abe. In a place like this, there was safety in numbers. "For the cat."

"The cat came from the street," Abe said, neatly sidestepping a cluster of girls who were following the rounds of a large fish in a nearby aquarium. "Tajima picked it up, but he's not allowed pets in his apartment. Anyway, he spends most of his time with us these days." There was a layer of irritation under the bland tone that was hard to ignore.

"Shouldn't he be training instead?" Izumi looked away from a staring contest with a bored lizard to search for a free shop assistant, who would give them what they'd come for and send them on their way as soon as possible. "From what I hear..."

"The slump's in his head. It has nothing to do with his training." And that was the end of it. It was none of their business why Tajima's batting had become uneven, and they had other things to worry about.

“Can I help you?”

Salvation came unexpectedly, in the shape of a polite greeting from a petite woman who did not look unlike some of the smallest birds in the shop.

"Yes, please," Izumi replied politely but with little warmth. "I'd like that puppy over there," he gestured.

"Ah! The Shiba, yes."

"It gets free items, right? Has the puppy gotten shots yet, and will it have papers?" Abe asked, reading from a sign on the counter. Izumi shot him a mildly grateful look -- Abe negotiating might give the store clerk (and all the high school girls around them) the wrong idea, but at least it saved him from some pain.

It went smoothly. The puppy was taken out of its cage, a bag of cheap food was presented to them along with an assortment of toys they were assured was necessary for the dog's development, and it seemed like there was nothing standing between Izumi and reluctant dog-ownership when the clerk looked at a slip of paper and made the polite, professional equivalent of a horrified face.

"Is something wrong?" Abe asked, having completely taken charge while Izumi was stuck in his stupor.

She looked at him, glanced at Izumi apologetically – yup, definitely the wrong idea – and said "I'm terribly sorry, but it seems we've been asked to hold on to this puppy for another customer for a few more days."

That was... good, right? If the dog wasn't available, then Izumi could go back home and tell Fumiki he'd tried. Or even not tell him anything at all, but at least stop feeling guilty about the whole issue.

Izumi was almost ready to declare the trip a complete victory when Abe, curse him, raised an eyebrow and asked if they could know the name of said 'other customer'.

"I'm afraid that's private information," she said, still looking apologetic.

Abe gave him a look that he returned with a blank stare before sighing.

"Is it Mizutani Fumiki?" The lady gave a startled nod.

If there was something Abe was good for, Izumi thought, it was his persistence. Maybe. Still, this development didn't particularly please him, though it did mean he could still get the dog if he (or Abe) could somehow convince the clerk to hand the puppy over to them.

"We're getting it for him," Abe explained. "As a gift."

"Because he's been wanting it for a while already," Izumi couldn't help but add, completely ignoring the woman's mildly doubtful look.

"But," she said, lowering her voice for the gossip Izumi was sure she was not allowed to spread, "it seemed like he was having some difficulty getting the idea accepted at home?"

"Oh, did it?" Izumi retorted.

She seemed to miss the sarcasm entirely; Abe, more familiar with it, just gave him a Look. It lasted a split second, and spoke volumes all the same. It said: looks like he's got you coming and going. It asked: how sore a loser are you? It claimed: the only reason I'm not snickering out loud right now is that I don't want you to blow up and make Mizutani crash with us, too. "He's the difficulty at home," Abe said, pointing a thumb at Izumi.

She couldn't mask a surprised look, and glanced back and forth between them before visibly deciding that she didn't want to know what the arrangement was between the three of them. The giggling schoolgirls, on the other hand, seemed to be eager to share their opinions on the question. Loudly.

It made him miss Abe’s temper, the one that had scared off journalists and all kinds of stalkers in high school. And while Abe was hardly a model of serenity, he had gotten better at anger management.

And then there was always the option of just giving it up and telling Fumiki that he could get the damn dog, but part of him refused to leave the store without the very thing that had made the past week difficult for him.

"Do you think," one of the girls stage-whispered, "That the three of them share the same bed?"

"I'm not part of it," Abe informed them before Izumi could explode, deftly taking the paper from the clerk's hand and reading it over. "Not that it's any of your business." The look he sent their way and how the girls retreated almost made Izumi proud.

"Do you think he can get the dog?" he added, cocking his head in Izumi's direction. "Don't worry, it'll end up with the other customer, anyway. It's a surprise."

"I'd need some kind of evidence..." she tried, obviously torn between providing the best service in these circumstances and getting rid of them.

Izumi sighed and reached for his wallet, mildly thankful that he'd taken the time to do all the paperwork right after moving: the health insurance card he showed her bore the same address as the paper Abe was still holding.

She gave in with visible relief, but, unsure of who to talk to now that Abe had proven himself able to make a crowd of girls scatter with one look, she decided to announce this to the dog. It had been sleeping peacefully on the counter while its future was being decided, and raised drowsy eyes at her as she scratched under his chin. "Well, Kou-chan, it looks like you're going home after all!"

It yipped at the name, and Izumi was filled with cold dread.

"I thought stores didn't usually name their pets," Abe said, always the helpful one. He wasn't laughing, though. Everything about him said it: his tone, his face, his body language, all concurred to say this is me, not laughing.

It also said and it's taking me a great deal of effort, let me tell you, but Izumi chose to ignore that part for the time being.

"Oh! Well, Mizutani-san visits this one a lot, and he always calls him by the name," she explained brightly, with a fond expression that all mothers tended to get around Fumiki. "I felt that he'd get Kou-chan eventually, so I didn't mind too much," she ended, though Izumi got the feeling that she was throwing out a white lie to make him feel guilty about not wanting a pet.

"Visits a lot?" he echoed instead, rubbing the dog between its ears. It nipped at his fingers playfully. He thought he heard a snort from Abe, and was tempted to elbow him.

"Oh, yes! Every day for the past week!"

The past week... ever since they’d first seen the place? Izumi was suddenly very happy he'd decided to get the dog, even though it was getting pretty obvious that he'd been well and truly manipulated over the whole issue. He'd have to talk to Fumiki about that, but in the meantime...

"Has he come today yet?" he asked, half to know and half to distract himself from the number of banknotes he was pulling out of his wallet – it was a good thing he'd been saving up for Takami's birthday present, although now his 'ungrateful little brother' status was not likely to get upgraded for a while.

"I don't think so," she said, a thought apparently coming to her mind. "Er, what should we tell him when..."

"He won't come," Izumi said. "Not today." If this was going to be a surprise, Fumiki couldn't learn about it at the shop, so he'd have to find a way to... "What are you doing?" This to Abe, who was putting a dog collar in a hideous shade of green on the counter.

"My present to your family on this momentous occasion," Abe answered in a perfectly serious voice, not even looking at him. And to the cashier: "Is it possible to get it engraved?"

"I'll kill you with my thumbs," Izumi hissed, sadly not low enough not to be overheard by the cashier, who looked between them with some uncertainty, but caught herself admirably.

"Engraving can be done for an extra fee, but at this time... I'm afraid you'd have to pick it up tomorrow."

Abe made an annoyed face, and abandoned the idea.

Izumi could have kissed her.

---

"Hey," he told Fumiki's voice mail five minutes later, balancing all the bags in one hand, "it's me. Can you come home as soon as you get this? I need to talk to you."

"Not suspicious at all," Abe commented, still trying to find a way to carry the dog in his arms that wouldn't make people's head turn to beam at the cuteness.

Izumi suspected it was a lost battle. "It doesn't matter as long as he comes, right?" he threw back.

Abe smirked at him. "This dog business must really be bothering you if you’ve gotten this desperate to get him off."

He was going to hurt Abe after he got the puppy home. Hurt him dead. "Not as much as the cat you got," he muttered, "And the large puppy that came with it."

"My suffering is pretty straightforward, though." Fumiki’s puppy was enthusiastically trying to lick Abe's face -- he turned it around to face it outwards, but ended up having a little girl try to pet it. The expression on his face at all the attention made Izumi consider taking the long route home, nevermind all the baggage he had with him. In the end, he chose the shortest path back to their apartment to make sure to get there before Fumiki did.

"Stop-- Kou-chan!"

Also so he could hurt Abe.

"Stop calling it that," he complained. "It sounds weird coming from you."

Considering his armful of dog, Abe did a remarkable job of shrugging. "What else am I supposed to call it? It's his name."

And it was likely to remain so, if Fumiki had already gotten attached to it so much. Which was still better than him calling Izumi that, but Abe would never let him live this down.

Unless Izumi's hunch was true.

"So," he asked as they turned the last street corner, "why 'Haru', anyway?"

Abe's expression abruptly turned a little sour; the puppy barked at him and snuggled against his chest.

"The news had Haruna on," he muttered. "You know how those two are fans of his."

"Ah, I see," Izumi said. And then he chuckled, because they weren't anywhere near high school girls this time, and nothing was really stopping him from doing so. Fortunately, he'd never been affected by Abe's glare and merely ignored it. "Thought so. Does it bother you when Mihashi coos over the cat?"

"He doesn't 'coo' at it," Abe bit out. "Tajima does."

"Ah." Not that it changed much, if Tajima was spending that much time with them. "How many toys have they bought already?" Izumi was regretting having picked the heavy lifting over carrying the dog; two floors without a lift didn't seem like much until you were carrying several kilos of food and assorted items. Taunting Abe was a good distraction. "Last I heard, they were reaching the dozen, but that was three days ago."

"I'm not counting. It's their money, their business. If they want to waste it all on..." He stopped. Talking, walking (Izumi almost bumped into him), breathing.

"Get a move on. This stuff is kind of heavy, if you haven't noticed."

"Izumi." Abe's tone was clipped, the kind that would once have made the entire Nishiura team back away quietly. "Your dog just peed on me."

---

Setting up was a little easier than he had first expected: he put anything smaller than his foot on higher ground and dumped the dog food under the kitchen sink. As he'd thought, space was going to be a problem eventually, but he really didn't want to think about it that at the moment. He let the dog sniff around and deliberately didn't feed it, so Fumiki could do the honors when he got back.

"I’m home!" Right on cue, his boyfriend came home just as Izumi managed to get the dog to nap in a corner.

"Fumiki," he said, striding forward to greet him (and conveniently block Fumiki's view of the dog). "Hey."

"Hi!" Fumiki greeted brightly, dropping a kiss at the corner of his lips. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I have a few questions for you." Izumi didn't budge from his place when the other man made a move to step into the room. Fumiki stopped and blinked at him.

"Kousuke?"

Almost cute enough. "Have you been to that pet store we saw lately?"

"Erm. Yeah, a… few times," Fumiki answered, still blinking.

"I see. You really want that dog, don’t you."

"… Why’re you asking?"

He ignored the careful question and the small, hopeful look Fumiki was giving him and plowed on. "If, and I mean if we were to go back today, would it still be there?"

There it was, that sheepish, mildly embarrassed look, like he'd caught Fumiki with his hand in the cookie jar, only this time it was a pet store that had just cost Izumi a lot of money. Not that money was the issue, but still.

"Ehehehe..." He scratched the back of his head; if the situation had been different, Izumi would have been tempted to ruffle his hair. "Actually, I… uh, I had the dog reserved for the week in case you changed your mind?"

He knew when he was caught, at least. Which was good, because how awkward would it have been if he'd tried to deny it?

"When were you planning to tell me about this?" Izumi asked with a raised eyebrow, still blocking Fumiki's view of the room.

"I thought we could talk about it tonight, maybe?" Wide eyes and pleading tone, and Izumi was sure his resolve would have crackled if it... hadn't been completely destroyed already. "Hey, how do you kn--"

Izumi kissed him, half so he wouldn't have to answer the question just yet and half out of the sinking feeling that there wouldn't be many occasions for that in the near future.

Fumiki looked a little dazed when he pulled away, which was as satisfying as ever.

It seemed like the perfect time to strike. "One more thing. Why Kou-chan?"

There it was again, that guilty look, and then Fumiki gave him a brilliant smile. Izumi had a feeling that he was being played a little here, but it didn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of things. "Oh... Because it reminded me--"

"If you say of me, I'm returning the dog to the shop," he threatened.

"--of how much I always want to snuggle with you," Fumiki explained hastily.

Well. That wasn't so bad, he supposed. He waited a beat for Fumiki to process what he just said, and sighed when his boyfriend's eyes finally lit up in realization.

"Kousuke! YOU MEAN-- You mean--"

Finally, Izumi thought as he raised an eyebrow. The noise that Fumiki made also woke Kou-chan up; Izumi saw the puppy perk up, yawn, and bounded over for affection.

It seemed that the dog was as apt at casual manipulation as his master. Who was torn between showing proper gratitude to his boyfriend and, much more appealing at the moment, fawning over the puppy.

Izumi took a step back, letting him off the hook for the time being.

"Ground rules," he said as Fumiki crouched to scratch the dog's head.

"Hmmm?" From the tone, Izumi could tell Fumiki was already in a place where he could have said 'Abe and I are eloping' and gotten the same answer; he ploughed on regardless.

"He's yours. That means you feed him, you train him and take him on walks, you bring him to the vet."

Another happy, distracted noise.

"And if it ever decides it's a good idea to wake me up by licking my face, I'm giving him to Abe so he can stew him."

"Sure, I... wait, what?" Suddenly paying a lot more attention, Fumiki grabbed the dog and held him protectively to his chest. "Why would Abe want to do that?" The lilt in his voice indicated that he'd meant to say 'even Abe'. They all had a part of them stuck in highschool indefinitely, Izumi knew; it seemed that Fumiki's was the part that believed their former catcher ate kittens for breakfast.

"He helped me carry everything here. They've become friends already."

Fumiki took one glance at his expression and grinned, before bringing Kou-chan's face up to his and starting muttering the kind of nonsense words that people used on babies and small animals.

Izumi was almost certain he heard him say "you'll get a treat for that, whatever you did", but didn't comment. He was, however, very glad that he had already got a kiss in, because no more of that was going to happen, with all the licking the dog was giving Fumiki’s face. Vaguely, he thought that investing in a separate bed for Fumiki might be in order, if he and the dog were going to be sharing the man.

There was something sad about already readying himself to compete for (and maybe lose) Fumiki's affections with a dog, albeit a very cute and energetic one. He'd put up a fight, but....

Izumi rolled his eyes at the mock wrestling Fumiki was having with the puppy. "I wasn't finished, you know. If he damages anything here, you'll replace it. And if you decide you don't want him anymore..."

"No way! I want him!" Fumiki protested, snuggling happily with Kou-chan.

It would have been nice, Izumi reflected, if Fumiki had ever displayed this much determination about him; but he knew how to appreciate what he had.

What he had, right now, was an important point to make.

"That's why I got him," he said, petting Fumiki's hair as if he were the puppy. "But that trick's only going to work once. You know that, right?"

Fumiki must have heard the seriousness in his voice, because be actually looked away from the puppy and at him, biting his lip.

Izumi stared back in terse silence.

"It wasn't!" Fumiki protested weakly. "But Mihashi... Mihashi said that Abe wouldn't even talk about keeping Haru-chan at first, but he changed his mind after thinking about it for a while, so I thought, maybe..."

Izumi could believe that, somehow, but wasn't it worse if Fumiki's wishes had wormed their way under his skin because of a simple hint than if the whole thing had been a carefully planned setup?

Either way, it seemed that he was, without a doubt, doomed.

---

He woke up early the next morning, still tired and bleary from too short a night.

The sun hadn't even risen yet, and there was something dribbling on his face.

That was only the beginning.