Leo shoved his hands into the oversized hoodie he had on, shivering and instinctively walking closer to Takumi. He would have grabbed at Takumi’s hand if there wasn’t such bad wind out to freeze them both and settled instead for trying to tap into some of Takumi’s natural body heat.
“That looks cute on you,” Takumi hummed, leaning in and taking Leo’s arm. While he himself was always so embarrassed about PDA, Takumi knew Leo- the hopeless romantic of the two- was probably swooning over such a small gesture. That love languages quiz had been worth it.
“Shut up,” Leo buried his chin into the neck of the hoodie, trying in vain to hide the brightness of his cheeks, “I’m only wearing it because you’re a fatty-”
“Hey!” Takumi pushed Leo with his weight, “don’t be an ass. That’s just an excuse so you can wear something of mine. I thought you were the one who liked this cutesy shit.”
“Not when you’re teasing me about it-”
“I wasn’t teasing! I... actually like seeing you wear that,” Takumi muttered, turning his head away from Leo. He pulled the other closer, hiding his face in his own new jacket. While he’d have to wait for a new hoodie to be ordered in an extra larger size, Takumi had found a windbreaker at about the right size to keep him covered in the fall weather.
Nohr was strange about festivals. While Hoshido seemed to have a festival for every event, be it the changing of seasons or the delicate blooming of the sakura trees, Nohr was much more reserved in its events. Takumi assumed it was because the environment was colder here, both in weather and culture, but Leo had disproven that. Sure there were places in Nohr that struggled from economic hardship and thus seemed more cruel than the jovial nature of Hoshido, but that just made the strength of the community that much stronger.
And all their festivals seemed to take place from the start of fall to the end of spring. Now was the harvest festival, a time when those who had the resources and know-how to farm were pooling their resources together, trading and purchasing the foods they lacked to better carry each other into the winter.
Well, historically, that was what this harvest festival was about. Now it was a fair put on by their local college in a similar vein to all those historical reenactments one of the clubs went on about. To Takumi and Leo, it was an excuse to stock up on fresh produce for cheap and indulge their shared love of fall treats.
“Look, cider!” Takumi immediately pulled Leo to a stall selling apples of all varieties, his eyes lighting up at the sight of a steaming metal vat, “I wonder if they’ll spike it for us. Can you imagine how much better this would be tipsy?”
“You turn into an eating machine when you’re drunk,” Leo said softly, “So no, I don’t think that’s a great idea. You’ll be whining for days about how embarrassed you were about acting that way in public.”
“Yeah but... at the moment it’d be nice,” Takumi pouted, peering at what else was offered. Pies and candied apples were among the larger things, with small baked treats like turnovers and dumplings offering a smaller snack. For Takumi, who was determined to get one thing from every stall, the dumplings were calling his name.
“Don’t they look so good?” Takumi asked, watching as caramel was drizzled on top of the mini pie, his stomach rumbling softly, “I’m so glad I skipped lunch for this.”
“Hey, don’t do that,” Leo slapped lightly at Takumi’s side, reaching back to grab his wallet, “Now you’re just going to stuff yourself twice as bad and get sick.”
“Ok, mom,” Takumi rolled his eyes, eagerly stepping up once the line moved, “can I please get a dumpling with caramel and two hot ciders?”
“I thought you wanted to wait for cocoa,” Leo asked, flipping through his change, “less now means you get to buy more later.”
“I can get cocoa too,” Takumi said with a huff, “I brought my own money, you don’t have to pay for everything.”
“Well I want to,” Leo hummed, getting the total from the stand worker and hanging him cash, “at least for some of these things. You have to get that new sweatshirt, remember?”
“Oh yeah...”
A few minutes later, the boys sat down at a picnic table, arms full of sweets and treats they had grabbed from as many stalls as they could handle. Takumi had finished his cider and now held a large mug of cocoa, accompanied by a funnel cake, the dumpling from earlier, and a pumpkin pie baked into a mini pumpkin.
“Don’t start drooling,” Leo poked, watching as Takumi eyed over his food in an attempt to pick something to dig into first.
“I’m going to smack you,” Takumi muttered, eventually pulling the dumpling closer to him, “and don’t touch my funnel cake. I bought that with my money, so hands off.”
“Rude,” Leo rolled his eyes as Takumi stuck his tongue out, instead digging into his own mini pumpkin pie. The flavors were warm and sweet, reminding him of Camilla’s home cooking and the veritable feast she’d be making for their next fall holiday.
“Do you want to come to my family’s house during fall break?” Leo asked, trying to ignore the caramel droplet stuck at the corner of Takumi’s lips, “Camilla makes a nice feast for the Nohrian tradition of Thanksgiving. I’m sure you’d enjoy yourself there.”
Takumi paused, taking a moment to wipe at his mouth before looking anywhere but at Leo, “Um... I mean... that sounds nice and all. Wouldn’t it be weird with me not being part of your family?”
“No, that’s the whole point of these things,” Leo waved his hand, “besides since father died, we’ve just been the four of us. Niles has been coming since the year after that and Camilla just had Selena and Beruka over. I think Elise is going to try and bring half her class so that may be an issue, but... my boyfriend should be able to come without issue, alright?”
Takumi was flustered by that, dipping his head to hide his eyes behind his bangs, “why do I feel like this is a big decision?”
“For some people, it is,” Leo shrugged, “the whole ‘meeting the family’ thing. I’d really like you to come if that helps you make up your mind.”
“Leo you’re making this so hard for no reason,” Takumi teased, kicking at his leg under the table.
“So that’s a no?”
“It’s a yes,” Takumi said, grabbing his funnel cake, “now stop bothering me. We still have three more stalls to hit and I may get another one of those dumplings.”
