[In thinking too hard about Shindou's cell phone, Akira's eyebrows have drawn tighter and tighter—until they stop tightening. Until they start to pull back, first less harsh, and then more soft. Drunk adults heralding in the New Year. Cousins passing each other by like lily pads, sometimes bumping into each other lazily, mostly just existing together until they no longer need to. Akira purses his lips while he listens, and then Shindou turns off his phone completely. Akira bites his lip, at that. He doesn't know what, exactly, he's trying to keep himself from saying. He just thinks that maybe now isn't the time for it. Shindou's phone is shut off, and Shindou isn't missing out on anything when he chooses to be here with Akira. Shindou has a gift to share with him from now into the next year. While he looks at that box, pristine, picked to be presented to him, Akira feels more beautiful than he did when Shindou called him so. Wildly, he wants to cover his face with his hands.
He twists them tightly in his lap, instead, to the point it hurts a little bit. That's fine.]
I didn't want to keep you from something you wanted to do, [he says, and he's quiet, but his voice is as much of a scrape as it ever is.] But I don't like, either, that this night with your family isn't something to miss. [He means that he's sorry for that, that he's upset on Shindou's behalf.
The bells on Shindou's box have a such a lovely highlight slanted across them, from where Akira sits. He wants to hold it in his hands, but he wants to savor the anticipation of waiting for it, too. And, besides...] I also... I have something to give you, too. I was going to do that after we prayed, tonight. A little after midnight. We won't stay out too much later after that, though. We'll want to come back inside and get warm.
[He's begun worrying at his fingers one by one, moving from one stiff knuckle to the next, his hands sore with anxiety. That's not unusual.]
I had somewhere in particular I wanted you to open yours. We can do it at the same time, if you want.
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He twists them tightly in his lap, instead, to the point it hurts a little bit. That's fine.]
I didn't want to keep you from something you wanted to do, [he says, and he's quiet, but his voice is as much of a scrape as it ever is.] But I don't like, either, that this night with your family isn't something to miss. [He means that he's sorry for that, that he's upset on Shindou's behalf.
The bells on Shindou's box have a such a lovely highlight slanted across them, from where Akira sits. He wants to hold it in his hands, but he wants to savor the anticipation of waiting for it, too. And, besides...] I also... I have something to give you, too. I was going to do that after we prayed, tonight. A little after midnight. We won't stay out too much later after that, though. We'll want to come back inside and get warm.
[He's begun worrying at his fingers one by one, moving from one stiff knuckle to the next, his hands sore with anxiety. That's not unusual.]
I had somewhere in particular I wanted you to open yours. We can do it at the same time, if you want.