Title: navy
Rating: G
Fandom: Tokyo Xanadu
Relationship: Takahata Shio/Tokisaka Kou
Wordcount: 621
Short summary: Kou and Shio go shopping for a suit jacket for Shio, which he needs for a wedding they'll be attending in a few weeks.
“This color…”
“What is it, Kou?”
Kou pulls out a navy-colored suit jacket from the rack. The rack contains jackets of all the standard popular colors, many shades of gray, brown, and the classic black, but Kou can’t help pull this dark blue one out. It just feels right.
“It reminds me of high school,” Kou explains as he holds the jacket up to Shio’s chest. “You used to wear a navy-colored collared shirt under our black uniform jacket, even though most of us wore T-shirts. And in the summer you wore a navy-ish polo.” Images of Shio from that one year they shared at Morimiya High flit through Kou’s mind. “Now that I think about it, you were always wearing something nicer.”
Shio laughs, a sheepish smile on his face. “Well, it was because of work. Once I grew out of my old clothes I didn’t want to spend money on anything else.”
And look at them now, needing to spend money on suit jackets for a wedding. Kou supposes there is a big difference in income of part-time workers in high school versus full-time adult employees with college degrees. It’s a little easier to go for an expensive purchase now, besides it being a necessity at times, but also…
“Because you were saving the money for books and toys for the orphanage kids.”
“Yeah.”
Well, technically Shio is still saving money for the orphanage kids. Kou may not see the exact amount of yen spent, but he can tell with the ever expanding library at the orphanage they visit every few months. Kou himself gives some yen to the orphanage regularly; the kids are cute and it’s such an important place to Shio. It makes Kou think sometimes, if he were to have…with Shio…
“Kou?”
Kou coughs as he pretends his thoughts hadn’t led him down a dangerous path. Focus, Kou. They are suit jacket shopping. Shio needs a jacket to wear for the wedding they’ll be attending in a few weeks. That’s the goal of today’s excursion. Not to fuel Kou’s imagination…
“You know, navy is a good color on you.” Kou blurts something out, just to break the awkward silence. He smiles sheepishly. “Well, anything blue.”
“Because of my eyes?” Shio laughs. “I think Kazuma told me that once.”
Kou’s grip on the jacket slips slightly, but thankfully he catches himself before the jacket drops completely. 5 years since knowing Shio and 3 years of dating and Kou still finds himself jolted by just how present Kazuma still remains on Shio’s mind. At least Shio rarely speaks of Kazuma with sorrow nowadays, so it’s fine. Just a little awkward.
“Although I don’t know if there is a bad color on you,” Kou continues, glossing over the Kazuma mention. “You’d probably look good in anything.”
Promptly causing a different awkward situation. Shio’s face has turned a little pink as he grabs the jacket. “I guess if you say so,” he says as he slips the jacket on.
Kou sucks in a breath; the jacket looks and fits great on Shio’s body. His mind starts to fill in the rest of the image, transforming Shio’s current shirt to something more formal and white, and putting a bowtie around the collar…
“Anyway, let’s just buy this one.”
As soon as Shio says that, Kou rushes off to find a sales clerk. God, what is with him today? Getting so flustered over a navy suit jacket… Hopefully when they get home and put it away, Kou can put this all away from his mind as well, all these thoughts that are too early to have.
(It works until Towa asks him how shopping went today, and Kou has to admit defeat.)