Hi! Happy New Years! Here's the short drabble-y sequel-ish writing for 12 Days. It felt too stilted when I tried for a follow-up Christmas one and the same for a longer New Years one… so when it hit me some odd hour in the night, I just typed this short piece up. So hopefully you enjoy it.
Disclaimer : I own nothing but the effort it takes to write this as the characters are all from the mind of Kishimoto-sensei.
He didn't know how it happened, but he realized as he woke up early in that cold winter morning that he had gotten quite used to waking in his lover's arms. The pale sleekly muscled arms curled around him like a band of warmth and safety. (Privately, he thought to himself, he never saw Itachi as a cuddler.) He hadn't really ever thought that aside from Iruka, he'd ever have someone else that he could get that feeling from. Then again, he had forgotten about the boy of his childhood and the affections of then. But he was glad that they had met once again and that his lover had gone through such efforts to find him and reintegrate each other back into their lives.
It had taken the man nearly three months to get an answer from him since that Christmas only a year ago. It felt so much longer. And now, it was seven months later, they were going strong. Mikoto was plotting behind their backs and Tsunade was definitely helping he thought as he recalled the last Christmas he spent with his now very large family. But he was glad.
His blue eyes caught sight of the dimly reflecting band on his hand. The cold clear winter sunlight set off the platinum band well and gave a sharp glint to the iridescent blue and white swirled gem*. He smiled sappily. He felt the arms tighten briefly around him and he turned to face his lover - now fiancé - and watched him wake.
"Morning," he whispered as those dark lidded eyes cleared of sleep. He tilted up just a smidge and kissed the man: warm, wet, and long. He pulled apart and rested his head against Itachi's.
"Happy New Year."
(1) Nothing much to mention, but I figured I'd give them a different type of gem to use for a ring aside from the "traditional;" so mentioned here is titanium drusy. I found out about it at bernadine(.)com. Feel free to imagine how the ring looks like - though I imagined it as something sleek but masculine.
Cheers~