Cold Kisses

Ata just couldn’t really bring himself to turn down Kyotaro’s request to go eat fast food at the mall. There wasn’t anything else they could eat and he knew that if he didn’t eat anything he would start to feel hungry. Plus, he felt kinda bad that they hadn’t gone to many dates for quite some time now because he was busy with exams and Student Council stuff, and he happened to be free that Sunday. He just decided that spending time with his boyfriend should be his top priority at that moment. He could handle Maasa lecturing about how it was bad for his health later.

They finished their lunch fairly quick. They couldn’t really talk much with the amount of people that were usually at that mall. They could barely hear each other. It was bad enough for Kyotaro to not even try to nap there.

They decided to walk around and see if they could actually chat somewhere or just find something interesting. The area with food shops was the fullest one as always, so they were able to hear each other at least.

“I want ice cream.” Kyotaro said before yawning.

“We just got out of that hell! Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Ata asked, almost glaring at him.

“I meant there.” He pointed towards an ice cream shop nearby, fairly away from most of the food shops. It was almost empty.

“Oh.”

“You wanna go? It’s actually pretty good.”

“If you say so.” Ata shrugged.

Kyotaro led him there by the hand, making Ata blush at how sudden it was. He looked down hoping Kyotaro wouldn’t see his red cheeks. He still wasn’t very used to doing this sort of stuff in public.

They got their orders pretty quickly, taking a seat beside each other at a small table within the shop. Kyotaro had taken strawberry and vanilla, while Ata got mint and chocolate. He started staring at Ata’s cup after a few minutes.

“Why are you staring?” Ata asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Is mint any good? I’ve never had it before.”

“Well, I like it, at least.” Ata shrugged.

“Can I have some?”

Ata took a while to respond. He was probably going to regret that but he decided to swallow his pride. “Sure.”

Kyotaro took some of it and tried it. He took so long to do anything after that Ata thought he had fallen asleep.

“It’s not bad.” He finally said, almost startling Ata.

“I almost thought you had slept.”

“You didn’t like strawberry when we were kids,right?” Kyotaro asked as he looked at his own cup, completely ignoring what Ata said.

Ata just decided to go along. He knew there wasn’t much use in trying to bring his attention to what he had said. “I’m… Not sure. I guess I didn’t like it but it's not like I hated it.”

“You wanna try some?” He asked, looking at Ata.

Ata took a while to think again. He couldn’t tell if he was planning something or not. It was almost impossible to read his sleepy face.

Finally, he sighed with a light blush. “Fine.”

Ata planned on taking the ice cream himself, but Kyotaro was faster. He took his own spoon and then some strawberry ice cream, then held it in front of Ata’s face.

“Say ‘aah’.” Kyotaro said.

Ata’s cheeks became a lot warmer, almost burning. He looked around to make sure no one was staring at them. Then he hesitantly opened his mouth, then Kyotaro gave him the ice cream.

He had to admit it didn’t taste that bad. It was as artificial as he remembered but not that bad.

His cheeks still burned. Not as much as a few seconds earlier, but still a lot. He then noticed a small smile on Kyotaro’s lips.

“Is something funny?” Ata asked.

“You just look really cute when you’re embarrassed.” He said as he ate some of his own ice cream.

“I’m not cute.” Ata tried to sound angry but just blushed even more, and Kyotaro’s smile widened slightly.

“Yes you are.”

Ata glared at him but then just went back to eating his ice cream.

He calmed down in a few minutes. The embarrassment almost completely gone. But now there was something else he thought he should say.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t go out too much the past few weeks.” Ata said.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Are you sure?”

“I get it that you’re busy because of exams.”

“I still feel bad for it.” Ata refused to look at Kyotaro, instead looking down at the table.

Kyotaro didn’t say anything but then Ata felt a soft kiss on his cheek, Kyotaro’s lips were kinda cold from the ice cream but he still blushed, specially once Kyotaro held his hand.

On any other day he would have told him that they shouldn’t do this in public. But he had realised that it was just Kyotaro’s way of telling him there was no need to worry.

“Love you.” Kyotaro said as he laid his head on Ata’s shoulder while getting back to his ice cream.

Ata just mumbled a “Love you too.” but he knew that Kyotaro had heard him from the low chuckle he heard.