A/N so i am behind my schedule by like three chapters now but Merry Christmas. this one's kinda longer than most of the others so you're welcome i guess. this might just start getting interesting... enjoy and thanks for reading mwah

Yao invited him out to dinner a week later, and Ivan happily agreed. Yao had greeted him with a kiss on the lips and a peck to the cheek, for which Ivan had patiently bent down.

It was a small café that Yao said he'd always wanted to go into.

They had gone inside and enjoyed a dinner together. At one point, Yao grabbed Ivan's hand under the table and smiled at him. Ivan blushed.

He didn't know why Yao liked his hands so much—to Ivan they always seemed rough and awkwardly big. They were callused and his fingers were fat, unlike Yao's soft and slender hands.

"So your sister is applying to schools? Or she already has, more likely, right?"

Ivan nodded.

"Now I forget; was she wanting to apply to University of Washington over here?"

"I… think she did. I haven't heard if she was accepted or not yet."

Yao nodded. "That would be exciting for her, huh? Coming all the way out here for college."

Ivan nodded again.

Ivan had not really noticed anything too strange in Yao's behavior since he had given Ivan the cookies several weeks before, except for the occasional stiffness or disorientation when they met early for coffee or breakfast. He always wondered why this happened, usually when Yao would bring a baggy of cookies. Sometimes it would occur to him to ask Yao, but he would always decide that it was probably best not to.

When they were finished, Yao suggested that they go for a walk; Ivan thought it look a bit cold for a walk, but if Yao wanted to, Ivan thought it would be okay.

As soon as they were out of the café, Yao took one of Ivan's hands and swung their arms between them.

"Do you want to go to the park?"

Ivan shrugged, and Yao pulled him toward whatever park he had had in mind.

They were sort of near Ivan's apartment, though Ivan didn't know how that had happened, when Yao stopped. "Oh, look, a new bookstore. We should go in!" he said, pointing across the street and forgetting all about the park.

"Alright."

Yao led them across the road, and Ivan noticed the dark skies just as he was being pulled through the door.

The shop was small, quaint, and kind of dark. Yao waved amiably to the woman behind the counter and quickly found the cooking section.

"You can look around too, if you want," Yao said when he noticed Ivan lurking at his side as he skimmed the shelves quickly.

"Oh, no, that's fine." Yao looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Really, I'm fine."

"Alright then. These books look really good; I don't think the library has any of these. I might buy one," he said, pulling one of the books off the shelves.

Ivan nodded, looking at the title of the book he had picked up. Ivan wasn't sure what it was, but it was definitely not in English. Which reminded him of the Japanese books he'd been reading that one time. But this didn't even look like Japanese.

"how many languages do you even know?" Ivan asked. He'd honestly been wondering about it for a long time.

"Uh, well, I learned Mandarin as my first language, and Japanese when I was about five. And English about that time too, because school. Then I learned Spanish and French in high school or whatnot, and somewhere along the line I learned German and picked up a bit of Dutch. So that's…" he recounted on his fingers quickly, "like seven. I don't know if I really count Dutch or French as languages I actually know but I'm fluent in Mandarin, Japanese, German and English."

Ivan didn't respond for a moment. "'Somewhere along the line'? You sound like it was an accident. 'Oops, I accidentally know seven languages. My bad.'"

Yao laughed, "No,- I just—I always planned to travel a lot when I was younger."

"Oh." Ivan wondered briefly what young Yao must have been like, going to culinary school and learning all these foreign languages.

"I'm going to buy this one. Then, do you want to keep going to that park?"

"That sounds good."

Yao went to the register and paid, and they went back outside to the open street. The sky had gotten darker, and the winds had picked up, but when Yao didn't seem to notice, Ivan also chose to ignore it.

They were literally just across the street when it started to rain. At first it was light enough for Yao to laugh it off and pull Ivan toward a terrace for shelter. By the time they got under cover, however, the rain had pounded down, and they were soaked clear to the bone. Ivan was wearing a thick coat and even he could feel the chill set on his skin. Yao was not wearing a thick coat, rather a thin red sweater as per usual, and he was drenched, hugging himself tightly. His hair was slicked down to his face and dripping.

"Uh, well this kinda puts a d-d-damper on the ev-vening," Yao said, with a forced and frigid smile.

"Do you want my jacket? Here," Ivan said, shrugging off his coat and draping it over Yao's shoulders.

"Th-thank you," he said, pulling it close around himself. "It d-doesn't look l-l-like it's going to let up. I c-can call Kiku t-to pick us u-up."

"Ah, that will take a while, though. My place is up the street. We could go there to dry off. We'd, uh, probably just have to run."

"Won't you be cold without your coat?"

Ivan shrugged.

The rain was pouring down harder now, but Yao agreed that they should go to Ivan's apartment.

"Okay, just follow me I guess." Ivan grabbed Yao's hand and started running. Yao struggled to clutch onto the coat, and Ivan's shirt was soaked the instant they left their shelter.

They stumbled their way up the street, and when they reached the entrance to Ivan's apartment, they collapsed in a puddle right outside his door.

Yao was breathing rather hard and shivering, and Ivan's hair was wetted down to his forehead, with his scarf dripping heavily onto the floor.

Yao took a moment to catch his breath, and glanced over at Ivan, who was looking at him, and they couldn't help but laugh.

"You look like a drown rat!" Yao said, tousling Ivan's hair.

"You should take a look at yourself, then," Ivan shot back. "Let's go inside and get dried off, then." Ivan stood and helped Yao up, and rummaged in the pocket of the coat the other wore for his keys.

Unlocking the door, it suddenly dawned on him just how messy his place was.

"Um… actually, could you wait here for a moment?" Ivan asked as he glanced sheepishly back at yao.

"Oh. Sure," Yao shrugged.

"Thanks, it'll only take a second," Ivan said as he quickly stepped inside, shutting the door behind him so Yao couldn't see inside.

Ivan went to work quickly, not wanting to leave Yao outside for long. He picked up piles of clothes and plates and shoved them to the side, stacking dishes in the sink and throwing clothes into his room. He put boxes of food away, and bemoaned not being able to clean up any more.

He went back to the door and pulled it open. "Come in; I'm sorry for making you wait."

Yao nodded that off and came in, shaking slightly, and Ivan motioned for him to take a seat on the couch.

"Do you want some tea?"

"That would be nice. A towel also, maybe."

"Oh, yeah, of course." Ivan went about filling the kettle and putting it on the stove before going into his bathroom to get him a towel.

"Here," Ivan said when he handed him the towel. "What kind of tea do you want? I have Earl Grey and Nestle green tea."

"Heh, the green tea would be good. You don't think I could have some dry clothes, do you?"

"Oh," Ivan said. Yeah, he probably should've thought of that. "Yeah, sure. I don't think any of my clothes will really fit you… is that okay?"

"Of course it was okay—Yao was probably freezing.

Ivan went to his room and dug through his drawers for something small enough. The smallest thing he had was a dark blue t-shirt. He grabbed a clean pair of boxers and sweats and went back to the living room.

"The bathroom is right there," he said as he set the clothes down beside Yao on the couch.

Yao was toweling his hair off, and when he put the towel down, Ivan realized that Yao had undone his pony tail. His hair fell around his face and Ivan couldn't help but swallow. He had never seen Yao's hair down before.

"Thank you!" Yao took the clothes and went to the bathroom.

Ivan sat on the couch for a moment to collect himself. It was rather pathetic of him to be so taken aback or whatever just because Yao's hair was down. It wasn't as if he thought that Yao's hair was just perpetually up in his pony tail holder, he just wasn't expecting it to be quite so attractive. The kettle started screeching just then though, so he jumped to his feet and quickly took it off the stove top.

He poured some water into a mug and plopped a tea bag into it. Yao came out of the bathroom a moment later, clad in Ivan's shirt, which went down to his mid-thigh, and Ivan's sweats, which barely clung to his hips even after he pulled the drawstring tight.

"Your tea is done."

"Ah, thank you," Yao said, taking the mug. "It doesn't look like the rain's letting up any time soon. Do you have any movies we can watch?"

"Oh, I suppose I have Netflix on my computer."

"What! We should watch Ponyo, then!"

Ivan didn't know what that was. "Okay."

Ivan went about making himself a cup of tea, too, and changing his clothes after logging his laptop into Netflix. Yao found whatever movie he had had in mind.

When Ivan returned, Yao had found his closet of blankets already and was making a nest on the couch. Seeing Ivan, he grabbed his mug off the coffee table and sat down. Ivan grabbed his mug also and joined him. Yao grinned and folded his legs under himself and pull Ivan's arm over his shoulders, pulling blankets up over the two of them. He put the laptop on Ivan's legs and sipped from his mug.

"This is pretty much my favorite movie ever," Yao said.

Ivan smiled. Yao sounded excited to show Ivan the movie.

Yao pressed play and snuggled in closer.

Ivan was surprised that the movie was a cartoon at first, but when he thought about it he decided it was actually pretty predictable of Yao—the man might be almost thirty years old but he still had a soft spot—a very, very large soft spot—for cute things.

Yao obviously got very into the move, 'aw'ing at cute parts and gasping at others, reacting as if he'd never seen it before though he'd obviously watched it many times.

Ivan only half paid attention to the movie, carefully watching the cute faces that Yao made out of the corner of his eye.

As the movie ended, Yao stretched from where he was perched, halfway onto Ivan's lap. Ivan was mindlessly running his fingers through his silky hair.

"That was a cute movie, huh?" he asked, moving the laptop to the coffee table and laying down so his head was pillowed on Ivan's thigh.

"It was okay."

"'Okay'? Ponyo is a classic. It is not merely 'okay'!"

"Aren't those kinds of shows for kids?"

Yao gasped theatrically at this, pressing a hand to his chest for dramatic effect. "Oh but Ivan, are we not all children, here," he said, pointing to Ivan's heart like in those dramatic moments that only happen in movies.

Ivan rolled his eyes and Yao snickered, but his hand didn't move from Ivan's chest. He leaned up and kissed Ivan and before Ivan even knew what was happening, Yao was sitting in his lip, hand combing through Ivan's short hair.

Yao took Ivan's hands and placed them on his own shoulders and lower back, and Ivan let out an undignified sound when Yao moved to deepen the kiss. Yao's tongue licked along Ivan's lower lip and he opened his mouth, allowing Yao to take control.

Yao rearranged himself so he straddled Ivan's hips and moved a hand to cup Ivan's jaw. Ivan's eyes closed against his will, and he tried to keep any more embarrassing sounds to himself.

Yao was a really good kisser.

Only a moment later, Yao pulled back to take a breath. Ivan found himself subconsciously following Yao's lip back before he could catch himself. Yao smiled, and then that smile was being pressed down Ivan's jaw and behind his ear. Ivan closed his eyes again, and he felt his face grow hot. Yao's hand found the top of Ivan's turtle neck that he had put on, pushing it down and out of the way.

"Wait, I-." Ivan tried to grab Yao's wrist and stop him from doing that, but it was too late.

"What are these?"

Ivan took Yao's hand away from his collar and looked away, fixing the collar consciously and quickly. He averted his eyes from Yao.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I should have asked first," Yao moved off of Ivan and onto the couch beside him.

Ivan didn't know what to say. The scars were from a time of his life that he didn't give much thought to any more, and they hadn't exactly been at the forefront of his mind as Yao kissed him, but now he couldn't believe he'd let Yao move his collar aside with no fuss.

Should he tell Yao, since he'd asked? It was like Yao could read his mind.

"You don't have to tell me. Uh, I'll make us more tea." Yao got up and did just that, and Ivan watched him leave guiltily, and as he heard Yao fumbling with the tea pot, he fumbled with his turtle neck nervously. He could still feel Yao's lips on his neck. He licked his lips and tasted chapstick that was not his own.

Fuck. He didn't want to let the stupid marks on his neck from when he was fifteen stop him from kissing Yao more. He wanted to kiss him all the time.

Yao came back, with mugs of tea and a cautiously curious expression.

Ivan accepted his tea and Yao sat down. Ivan sensed that he was disappointed with how that kiss had ended, but also quietly concerned.

He took a sip, and the two of them stared blankly forward at the coffee table in awkward silence. This was not how either of them had planned the evening to end up (not that Ivan had really had any expectations; Yao however had planned something a little hotter than just hot tea).

Ivan knew Yao wanted to ask something. He wanted to say something to break the silence.

At that moment, though, Yao turned to Ivan. "Can I show you something?" he asked. Ivan furrowed his brow, confused, but nodded anyway.

Yao set his tea on the table and stood up. Before he knew it, Yao was pulling his shirt up and off. Ivan's eyes were wide; he really didn't know what was happening.

Yao saw his confusion as soon as his shirt was all the way over his head and smiled. "No, no," he laughed. "Look," he said, turning around to show Ivan his back. There was a long, dark scar stretching from his left shoulder blade down and toward his spine, stopping just an inch or so short.

Ivan's brow was furrowed in confusion—who did this to Yao? Why was he showing this to Ivan?

Yao turned back around and sat, still shirtless and apparently not minding too much. "So, it seems like we both have our secrets, huh? Don't feel bad for not telling me yours."

Ivan swallowed. Of course he knew there were things Yao didn't tell him yet. Just off the top of his head he could think of quite a list; like why he never graduated from culinary school, or why he didn't talk about his family in much detail. Why was Kiku so protective of him? Thinking even further back to the day Ivan first spoke to him, Ivan realized he never ever got an explanation as to who that guy had been, the one who had flagged him down on the street.

This all passed through Ivan's mind in a moment. Yao, apparently, didn't like his silence.

"Not that I don't want to tell you eventually."

Ivan nodded. He knew that Yao was indirectly telling Ivan that he too, eventually, would be expected to tell his secrets then.

"Well, do you want to watch another movie?"