A/N: Disclaimer: I don't actually celebrate Valentine's Day myself, I do like the discounted chocolates afterwards though haha. In case of confusion, Ryu is Akihito mentally referring to Asami and Asami is me directly referring to the man in person. If you take Asami as face value it will seem OOC but I headcannon him as being completely shameless and will do overly romantic things purely for Akihito's reaction (Aki knows this).
Akihito really just wanted the day to be over. It wasn't because it was Valentine's Day today. No, he didn't celebrate the holiday and always got exasperated over the fuss surrounding the day. Unfortunately he was stuck on a photoshoot with multiple models who apparently did celebrate the day. And of course one of them just had to be Emi. Who also happened to have gotten dumped yesterday. So the normally hard to work with model was now being impossible. The other four models really weren't helping matters. Two had boyfriends and were gleefully bragging over their plans for the evening while the other two were alternating between consoling Emi and exclaiming over their apparent jealousy of the other two. The director for the shoot had booked in a surprising amount of time for such a small photoshoot and now Akihito could see why. Clearly he had some idea this might happen but even he was starting to look a little exasperated. The photographer was standing in the middle of the set with his camera in hand watching while the managers and director tried to get the models to focus again.
He sighed and honestly felt about ready to throw in the towel. Not that he could. He wasn't so unprofessional but damn it, he was so tempted. He was looking forward to tonight and wanted the minutes to go faster. He had broached with Ryu a few days ago that he didn't really want to do anything for Valentine's Day even though it was their first one together. The man had agreed suspiciously easily but then mentioned that he already had a booking at Annisa for that evening. Which was fine. No doubt Anita would go crazy over the flowers and candles even more than she normally did but it would still be a nice evening. After the day he's had so far, Akihito was looking forward to sitting back with a nice glass of champagne and the amazing food. Better yet, they wouldn't be effected by the busyness of the evening, tucked away in Ryu's favourite little private balcony. He would even let his soulmate spoil him a little with the fancy wines and lots of desert.
Akihito was pulled from his day dream about luscious deserts by a commotion at the door. He turned to see a delivery man being ushered in with a huge bouquet of red roses and large box of what must be chocolates. The two models with boyfriends immediately started arguing over whose boyfriend it was and he couldn't help rolling his eyes. No doubt the one who won that little competition would be lording it over the others for the rest of the shoot. He turned his back on the man and started fiddling with his camera.
"A delivery for Takaba Akihito?"
Eh? Akihito swung around in surprise to see one of the standby makeup artists directing the man over to himself. All the models had gone dead silent behind him. In fact the entire studio had gone quiet. The delivery man approached looking amused.
"Takaba Akihito?"
"Yeah, that's me." He replied weakly. He could feel his cheeks starting to heat up already.
"A delivery for ninety-nine red roses and the biggest box of wine filled chocolates we have from one A.R."
Akihito automatically accepted the bouquet. It was so big he had to hold it in both hands with his camera strap across his shoulder and it filled the circle of his arms. The delivery man paused, unsure what to do with the chocolates until the makeup artist approached and accepted it on his behalf. Akihito stared down at the roses still in shock.
"But we agreed we weren't doing anything for today…" He trailed off, still staring at the flowers and raised his head as he heard the delivery man chuckle. He gave him a pleading look and the man clapped him on the back and wished him luck before seeing himself out.
Akihito looked around in desperation and felt his face go completely red as he noticed everyone's stares. There was a mixture of amusement and jealousy in the expressions. The director huffed out a laugh and told them all to take a break while Akihito dealt with his delivery.
"Where did you want these?"
The photographer looked back up at the makeup artist who was now grinning at him. "Uhh… Somewhere where everyone can help themselves?"
"You sure?" She looked surprised.
"Yeah. There's no way I could eat all those on my own." He raised his voice so the rest of the room could hear him. "Please help yourself to the chocolates."
Ignoring the calls of thanks, Akihito made his way to the corner of the studio, putting his camera down and tried to move the bundle of roses into one arm so he could take out his phone. He struggled with it for a bit before he was finally able to secure the bouquet. There was way too many. What the hell was he supposed to do with ninety-nine roses? He dialled his soulmate and held the phone up to his ear.
"Good afternoon kitten."
"Asami! You bastard! What they hell is this? I thought we agreed we weren't doing anything for today?"
"Reverting back to surnames Akihito? I take it you got the delivery then?" The man sounded downright smug. Far too self-satisfied for Akihito's liking.
"What the hell do I do with this many flowers? And delivering them to my shoot? Are you trying to embarrass me?"
"You can do what you wish with the roses, they are yours after all. I thought it was quite a good statement of ownership, don't you?"
Akihito hissed into the phone. "You jerk! This is so embarrassing."
"Did you get my present this morning?" He sounded so god damn happy with himself.
"You-!" Akihito cut himself off and hung up the call. He had forgotten about that. Someone had decided to get themselves a present for today. The photographer had woken up to find all of his underwear missing from his draw and some lacy red… thing sitting in the empty space. So his choice had been wear the damn lacy panties or go commando. No doubt Ryu would enjoy it either way. They had been surprisingly comfortable once he got used to the different feeling. Now every time he remembered, a blush would slowly creep up his cheeks. Ryu was totally getting off on the thought of Akihito wearing them under his clothes throughout the day too. It was also probably pay back for him hiding all the man's shirts that one time he wanted to get him into some of his more casual clothes. Still.
Akihito slipped the phone back into his pocket and stared down at the roses in his arms, biting his lip. Statement of ownership huh? Like Akihito wasn't perfectly capable of saying no to any advances by co-workers. Not that any would even try now, which was what Ryu was making sure of. Now what did he do with all the roses? With an inkling of what he could do to get the flowers off his hands, Akihito walked back over to the table where the staff were helping themselves to the chocolates.
"Aw Aki-chan," Akihito winced internally at the chan. Why could be never escape it? "I'm so jealous! That such a romantic Valentines thing! I wish I had someone to send me roses and chocolates too." The model sighed dreamily and one of the others seconded her.
"Ah, my soulmate seems to think it would be funny to embarrass me at work." Akihito gave a small awkward laugh, he could still feel the heat in his cheeks.
"You found your soulmate? Now I'm even more jealous!" A few more nods and echoes of agreement. He sometimes forgot how lucky he actually was to have Ryu, so few people found their soulmates now days. Pushing that thought to the side, Akihito carefully balanced the bouquet in one hand again and pulled two roses from the middle and walked over to offer them to Emi. She looked at him in surprise before slowly reaching out to take them.
"Ah, happy Valentine's Day? Seeing as you've had a pretty bad few days. And it's not like I want to keep these, he just sent them to tease me." He plucked out another and handed it over to the next model and continued until he ran out of people in the studio. He strode to the door and called over his shoulder, "I'll be back in five!"
Akihito ran around the building and handed out the roses to everyone he came across, male and female. Who knew, maybe it would make a guy's day too? Only a few people declined a rose. It was actually really nice to watch as people lit up as he handed out the roses. He got so many smiles and laughs in return it almost made the initial embarrassment worth it. Finally the last few were handed to a child model along with her mother and agent and Akihito dashed off with a wave and a grin. He managed to return to the studio to resume the photoshoot nearly fifteen minutes later.
They immediately continued the shoot and surprisingly the models were exceedingly well behaved. Finally able to fall into a rhythm now that everything was running smoothly, Akihito let himself block out his surroundings and just focused on his shots. The photoshoot ended up wrapping up relatively quickly now that the models weren't all pouty and soon Akihito was standing with the director looking over the photos on his laptop. He became aware of the hushed whispers, giggles and pointed looks in his direction. He didn't think too much on it, assuming it had something to do with the roses everyone was still carrying around. Finally given the all clear that they could wrap up early for today, he turned around and froze on the spot.
Casually leaning against the wall looking all suave in his three piece suit was his soulmate. Akihito's eyes travelled down to what he was holding. It was a single rose. A romantic soulmate rose. Blood red petals that were delicately edged in white. The photographer felt his face heat up once again and didn't miss the smirk Asami sent him at the blush. He rushed forward to quickly put his camera into its travel bag and gathered his things. Picking them up, he made his way slowly over to his soulmate, acutely aware of the eyes following him. Finally coming to a stop in front of the older man, he watched with wide eyes as the rose was proffered.
"Happy Valentine's Day Akihito."
Up close, he could see how the white edging looked almost like lace, as though the red rose was dressed up for the occasion. It was stunning in its simplicity, just the one flower in clear wrap with a small red ribbon. He had seen them before of course, but only in photos or on display. Takato and Kou would exchange the platonic soulmate version, a white rose with red edging. Akihito reached out to carefully take the rose. He stared down at it for a moment, it truly was beautiful, before he looked back up at Asami. The man was looking exceedingly pleased. He reached out to take Akihito by the chin to tilt his head back more as he leaned down for a chaste kiss. The photographer stood rooted to the spot even as Asami pulled back. He suddenly came back to himself when he became aware of the giggling and cooing. He looked around with wide eyes to see his co-workers all smiling at the scene. Akihito blushed even harder than before, grabbed his soulmates hand and pulled him from the studio.
"Oh my god. You're so embarrassing." He hissed at the older man who just chuckled in return. Asami tugged on his hand to get him to slow down now that they had left the studio and intertwined their fingers. Akihito reluctantly slowed his pace and walked side by side with Asami, leaning into him slightly as he stole glances down at the rose in his hand. He knew the man wasn't romantic at all and did things like this purely for Akihito's reactions. But still, it left a warm feeling in his chest.
And that one single rose was perfect.