#like maybe Yuzuri isn't QUITE

[sabraeal]

omgomgomg congrats on 200 followers!!! may I pls request Suzu trying SUPER HARD to take Yuzuri on a perfect date but the universe isn't being very nice to him :') ((Obi and Shirayuki and Ryu may or may not be spying pssst))

On the day Suzu really, finally screws his courage to the sticking-place, he lasts a grand total of an hour (about as much time as it takes Yuzuri to show up in the lab, the scent of warm pastries fresh from Pavilion Street wafting out of the paper bag in her hand) before making an ass of himself.

“Doyouwanttogoouttodinner,” he blurts out, an unstoppable stream of words that leaves her staring at him wide-eyed.

Would it be too much for him to be charming for at least one moment? He’s not even asking for two, he knows that’d be begging belief.

“Sure,” she says after a short pause – clearly the amount of time it took her to parse his incoherent babbling. “Do you want me to tell Shirayuki and Obi too, or –”

“No.” Her eyebrows twitch in surprise at his abruptness, and he amends, “I meant – just us.”

She blinks at him. “Me, you, and Ryuu?”

Suzu follows the sweep of her hand to where the young pharmacist is diligently ignoring them. “No, just you and me. Together. Alone.”

“Oh.” He swears he sees pink on the apples of her cheeks, but by his next blink her face is as clear as it always is. “Sure! Sounds good.”

He stares, just a little. What are the odds? “Oh, great. How about we got to Pavilion Street?”

“Sure thing!” Yuzuri grins at him brightly. “Sounds like a plan!”

She flounces out, leaving Suzu with warm pastries, and Ryuu’s flat stare.

He hands him a sweet roll. “Don’t tell Obi.”

Ryuu doesn’t; Suzu does.

“Huh,” Obi says, frozen on the sill.

“That’s all you can say?” He might be – just slightly – frantic.

“Just.” Obi cocks his head, lifting an inquisitive eyebrow. “Is that what you’re going to wear?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my outfit,” Suzu insists, even hours later. “The brown goes with both the orange and the green.”

“Oh,” Ryuu says softly from his bench. “You do know what those colors are.”

“Of course I do,” he snaps, ignoring the way Obi’s mouth twitches. “I wear this all the time.”

Ryuu’s mouth pulls long. “I just…thought you were colorblind.”

Suzu borrows clothes from Obi. They’re almost the same height, Suzu only a scant inch taller, and though he certainly isn’t quite as – as toned as Obi, he is broader in frame. They almost fit.

(”Can’t I have a cape too?” he whines, looking in the mirror. “You always wear a cape with your coat.”

Obi stares. “No.”)

Yuzuri looks perfect, like she always does. “Oh,” she says, staring at his chest before her gaze swings up to his. “You dressed up?”

This would be a good time to use a smooth line.

“My other clothes are in the laundry,” he says coolly. “…Ryuu spilled acid on them.”

Her eyebrows raise. “All of them?”

This isn’t going well. “Hey,” he tries, striving for casual. “Are you hungry?”

He lets Yuzuri pick out dinner.

He expects she’ll ask him to take her to one of the finer places on Pavilion Street, or at least somewhere they can sit down, but she instead picks street food, choosing far more than either of them could ever eat and making a veritable smorgasbord on top of a blanket she plucks out of her room.

“I thought we might get away from the university,” he says as she lays out the spread over one of the roofs, the trays still steaming in the night air. “But this is nice too, I guess.”

“We don’t get to picnic enough.” She plops down next to a plate of steamed buns, patting the blanket next to her. “C’mon, Suzu. When’s the last time we’ve both got to sit out here, just the two of us?”

He hesitates. She does have a point, even if it’s derailing his plans. His very romantic plans, might he add.

But…it’s been a long time, since it’s been just them two and the stars above Lyrias.

He folds his legs underneath himself, shoulder pressing into hers. “Pass me some of those buns.”

It’s like old times, which – maybe this isn’t what he meant to happen, but it’s still…nice. It’s good to be with her like this, just them and the stones of Lyrias and the stars.

“This is nice,” she sighs, sated. Her head rests on his shoulder, hair tickling his neck. “I love Shirayuki, and Obi, and Ryuu, and – everyone. But I miss this.”

He doesn’t trust his voice, not when she sounds so wistful.

She stiffens at his silence. She pulls back, her face tight with worry. “Don’t you, Suzu?”

Her face is so close to his, the cloud of their breaths intermingling, and – he likes her. He really likes her.

“Yeah,” he breathes, watching her eyes go wide, watching how they drop to his mouth and –

“Oh, Suzu!” she shrieks, which is not the tone he wants to hear those words in. Her hand wraps around the one he’s brought to her cheek. “Your hands are freezing! We should get back inside.”

“Nooo,” he protests softly, but it’s too late. She packs up dinner with terrifying efficiency.

“Come on,” she tells him. “You can at least tuck one of them in my pocket until we get back.”

For a moment, he is about to mention he has his own pockets, thank you, but –

“All right.” He stands, slipping one of his hands through hers, letting her tuck them into the fur-lined pocket of her skirt. “If you insist.”

“How was dinner?” Shirayuki asks, trying so had not to sound expectant. Her stomach is quivering with excitement, ready to hear –

“It was nice.”

Not that. “Nice?” she prompts, sashaying closer to Yuzuri. “Not…intimate?”

Yuzuri give her a dubious stare. “It was just the two of us, so…I guess?” She shrugs. “I don’t know, it was fine.”

Her excitement snuffs out like a candle flame. “Oh.”

“I mean, we sat out under the stars, had some street food. Just like old times.” Yuzuri sighs, annoyed. “I just wish he’d ask me out already.”

Shirayuki coughs. “What?”

“Then at least I could kiss him without feeling, you know, like I was taking advantage of him.”

“Yuzuri…”

The woman turns to face her. “What?”

Shirayuki shakes her head, biting back a laugh. “Yuzuri, I think maybe I need to tell you something….”

(“You need to work on your game,” Obi decides, knife hitting the center of the target. “You need to show her that you’re interested. That’s your problem.”

“Please.” Suzu groans, dragging a hand over his face. “I think you are the last person I need to be getting that advice from.”)