Tastes Like Dulce De Leche

by rocky.candi

"Tobio is quite the stickler for maintaining his routine. Every student in the semester-long program knows this, how his attention to personal maintenance rivals his desire to enjoy the experience of studying abroad in Argentina. But today is a special exception, a once-in-a-lifetime derailment. Today is the day he will confess to Shouyou."

Falling in with love Hinata Shouyou is more or less akin to a train driver realizing his steam-powered vehicle has maneuvered off its predetermined tracks towards an almost certain doom–they very well could feel sheer terror at the prospect, truly this is the most reasonable reaction, before the utter thrill of the change sets in. Tobio wakes up, ready to uproot his routine and take command over the metaphorical train running amok in his chest, constricting his heart until it beats in time with Shouyou's breaths.

Tobio is quite the stickler for maintaining his routine. Every student in the semester-long program knows this, how his attention to personal maintenance rivals his desire to enjoy the experience of studying abroad in Argentina. But today is a special exception, a once-in-a-lifetime derailment.

Today is the day he will confess to Shouyou.

Shouyou, that loud, excitable, bottomless pit of energy. Shouyou, who doesn't understand the meaning of slowing down, who becomes instant besties with anyone and everyone, who is endlessly endearing to the point of making Tobio sick.

Tobio might be in love, despite his best efforts.

He gets out of bed and does his stretches, at least that part of the day is kept as normal. He has the whole morning mapped out, leading up to him confessing to Shouyou. Well, if he can work up the nerve.

Tobio slaps himself on the cheeks, forcing himself to focus. He can do this. He can do this! He goes about his morning, all with careful attention to his looks and clothing, making sure his shower runs long with double the scrubbing and that his clothes are properly pressed and ironed.

His roommate, Kei, sleeps in without a care in the world. Sure, Saturdays are their own days away from the classes they all take, but he could still try to make something of the day. But nope, he lays there, content.

Then again, maybe he shouldn't be too rude, Tobio thinks, remembering a few nights ago in this very room that spurred all this ridiculousness. Tobio had stormed home after a study session in the library that had gone wrong in every possible way. His study partner, Shouyou, couldn't focus on the material, despite them having an exam the week after. The orange-haired boy kept brushing off the problems, literally pushing their papers away, and talking to Tobio, asking him questions and commenting on things he had no right to.

"You frown a lot, you're gonna get wrinkles early," he would say, following it up with, "I want to go to a coffee shop and get some facturas!" before ending with, "Have you ever left the campus grounds? I want to explore! I heard there's a lake near here and they do boating! I want to try it!" all with that dumb, dazzling smile and those huge, glowing, attentive eyes.

Does he ever SHUT UP!?

Tobio returned to his room shortly after, huffing, barely able to keep the snarl out of his voice as he ranted for an hour to Kei about every tiny detail that pissed him to hell and back about Shouyou. At the end of sed hour, as Tobio's heart pounded with intensity, Kei fixed him with a bored glare. "King, I think you like him."

Tobio stopped breathing, "huh?"

Kei didn't so much as blink, "it sounds like you like him."

"H– how do you figure that?!"

Kei shrugs, "he's getting under your skin. It doesn't seem like you let many people do that, so my guess is he's a special case."

Tobio gave a high-pitched, shocked whine, "special case my ass, he's just a study partner."

"And you've been complaining about him for the last 73 minutes."

Tobio grinds his teeth, "there isn't… there's no special reason for him to be annoying me, he just is and I want to complain about him. There's nothing deeper beyond it."

"If you say so," Kei says, laying back in his bed with his book, effectively shutting Tobio out for the night.

Tobio paced around their room for yet another hour, muttering to himself about how Kei was wrong, how Shouyou was an annoying little shit, and that there was nothing underneath. He took an angry shower and marched to bed, determined to get the dumbass out of his mind.

He went to his history class the next day and when Shouyou sat next to him, chatting to him about anything and everything, Tobio made the mistake of noticing his heartbeat, as if calling to its lost other half, ever so gently speeding up whenever Shouyou's hand brushed against his own. Tobio chalked it up to residual irritation, but he couldn't explain what happened that afternoon.

During lunch, Shouyou sat with his table of friends while Tobio sat with Kei and his boyfriend, as well as another student, Kiyoomi. Tobio wasn't listening to what Bokuto was saying, he and Kei were probably planning their next date, when he overheard Shouyou loudly exclaim to Kenma and Atsumu. Tobio picked up something about a nearby rose garden and "I just wanna be swept off my feet!"

Tobio couldn't quite deny how quickly his ears perked up at this, his full attention gearing to hear the rest of the conversation as his clump of rice falls off of his chopsticks.

Atsumu teased, "ya know, I can pick ya up if that's what ya want."

Shouyou scoffed, a wicked gleam in his eye, "stop flirting with me, I know who you like!"

"Yeah, why are you doing that?" Kenma quietly droned, clearly more interested in his game.

"Hmm, flirtin' with the homies helps remind them they're hot shit. Whoever ya want, they better be good enough fer ya," Atsumu declares, a tone of sincerity underneath the playful jab as he stares off towards the Spanish tutor at a different table.

Shouyou beamed at his friends, "I think he is" he muses, as if caught in a dream.

Tobio's stomach lurches, as if about to reject his lunch. His hands clam up and his palms dampen, as if he were feverish. Why does he feel so… jealous?

Oh… Oh no.

Within the day, he begrudgingly went back to Kei and asked him for help. Kei said exactly one phrase to him before shutting himself up in his homework: "have you tried telling him how you feel?"

No, no he did not. But Tobio will fix that straight away! (well, pan away)

And thus, he concocted a plan so romantic, so perfect that Shouyou would see him, really see him, and they could…

Uh. What do boyfriends do? Hug? Hold hands? Kiss?! Aaahhhhhhh

"King."

Tobio snapped out of his panic, his hands fiddling with the lowest button to his silver button-up shirt. His legs had grown stiff from standing in front of the door for the last however long, his anxious memories compressing the air between his limbs and the floor until the smallest bit of energy nearly sparks the charge. Kei's voice cuts through it, a clean knife through his fear.

"What?"

"Take it slow, don't get overwhelmed."

"You're telling me this now?"

"It seems like you need it now. A 'thank you' would suffice," Kei droned in his groggy mumble before settling back into his beauty sleep.

Tobio blinks at his weird, all-knowing roommate and he takes a deep breath. He can do this. HE CAN DO THIS! He grabs his bag and heads out, conscious of the quiet door slam to not further disturb the surprisingly helpful Kei. He walks downstairs and meets Shouyou, ready to go in his brown shorts and teal blue shirt that certainly shouldn't look as good on him as they do.

Simp.

Tobio purposefully steps on his own foot to quiet his mind as he gestures outside, "morning. You ready?"

Shouyou beams excitedly, "yeah! Where are we studying today? You said you had an idea for a new place?"

Tobio nods, "I think you'll like it. Have you had breakfast yet?"

Shouyou's stomach growls, as if on cue. "I had an apple earlier, that's it. I could eat!"

Tobio begins his walk out the double doors of the school building, into the warm sunshine of the morning, "sure, we could stop by somewhere."

"Yay!" Shouyou says, bouncing next to Tobio while the taller boy tries to quiet his heart.

They stroll through the blocks of downtown Buenos Aires; the concrete blocks chipped with wear, the cars passing them with a few centimeters to spare as they cross, and with enough wild dogs to fill a hotel. Shouyou and Tobio talk about their classes and how they've come to like the country, its charms and its drawbacks in tandem, how much they enjoy the liveliness of the city and its residents, contrasted with the quiet comfort of Miyagi.

Tobio turns them onto Libertador, one of the main streets of the city, and they stumble upon their first destination: Cafe Martinez, un lugar para un cafecito.

"COFFEE SHOP?!" Shouyou yells, his stomach growling as if in celebration.

"Coffee and breakfast, idiot," Tobio says, a bit too fondly for his taste. He opens the door and beckons the excited boy to run ahead of him, allowing Tobio a private moment to smile at his dumbass, adorable crush. The shop has silver, shining floor tiles, lighting up the rest of the display cases filled with facturas. The hanging overhead lights glow on the chalkboard menu, proudly displaying staples such as un cafe con leche, un submarino, un te, and many types of pastries. Alfajores, canoncitos de dulce de leche, bolas de fraile, vigilantes, and more medialunas than Tobio could count.

Shouyou went straight to the shop worker and, as best as he could, he ordered two cafecitos con leche with a side of medialunas con jamon y queso, as well as a few alfajores for good measure. Tobio walked up behind him as the worker calculated the total and smoothly snaked his hand under Shouyou's arm to get at the register before he could. Shouyou leaped out of the way, his eyes bugging out in shock by Tobio's movement.

Tobio frowned at him, "what?"

Shouyou blinked and returned to a seemingly normal stance, "so forward, Kageyama-kun~" he teases.

Tobio's cheeks heat as he puts his card back into his wallet, "I invited you out, don't be weird about it."

"Ah! Ohhhh, is this a date?"

"NO!" Tobio sputters harshly.

Shouyou's eyes crinkle with joy and an evil amount of playful teasing, "sure, it's not like you took me out to breakfast and paid for it or anything like that. Totally not a date."

Tobio doesn't have much of a comeback for that one other than just grumbling to himself and looking away from the beaming Shouyou. The worker hands them their food and Tobio begrudgingly points to a private table, just for them. Shouyou, the bastard, skips over and holds out a chair for Tobio, the bright, beautiful smile painted high on his cheeks.

Tobio has half a mind to dump his alfajor all over him and leave. His heart has the audacity to happily beat for the cute gesture. CUTE. God, Tobio hates feelings. Why this? WHY HIM?

Tobio plops their food onto the table and slides into the seat that Shouyou holds out for him; the orange-haired dumbass politely sliding it to the table before taking the chair opposite to his. He rummages through the facturas, pulling out the identical meals and settling them for Tobio with a neatly folded napkin on the side.

The two boys put their hands together, routinely thanking for the meal before diving into their medialunas. The smell of jamon is faint, but very good, especially under the melting queso. The first thing Tobio notices when he bites in is the dough, the flaky pastry surprisingly a lot sweeter than he had anticipated–it compliments the ham and cheese much more than he thought it would. He briefly forgets the date, the objective of the morning, and just enjoys his breakfast.

Clearly he isn't the only one, Shouyou chows down on his medialuna, the two of them completely silent for a few minutes until the worker brings them their tazitas with cafe con leche. Tobio grabs his taza and, remembering the goal, raises it to Shouyou. The orange-haired boy gets the message and, with a grin, holds his tazita up to Tobio's and clinks loudly. Tobio doesn't try to restrain his fond smile as they cheer for their desayuno.

Once breakfast is mostly done with the last two alfajores in the to-go bag, they leave the shop. Shouyou hops around Tobio, his boundless energy not bothering to quell itself around him, "where to now? Is it close? Where is it? What is it? You still haven't told me where we're going!"

Tobio briefly regrets buying him coffee. He motions to the main road and beckons him to follow, "this way, it's a few blocks away. I had an idea for our midterm project."

Shouyou follows next to him, his shoulder 'accidentally' brushing against Tobio's just a few too many times to be considered truly accidental, "okay! What is it?"

"You'll find out when we get there, don't be impatient!"

"Uwaa, why are you keeping it a secret?!"

"I am not! I want you to see it with your own eyes!"

"What if I'm too busy looking at something else?" Shouyou coos, his eyes fixating on the blank space between Tobio's eyes.

Tobio grabs Shouyou's fiery hair in an effort to distract from his blushing cheeks, "shut up, shut UP!"

Eventually, somehow, they move forward. Tobio leads the way, trying his best to push down the swelling of his heart and the heat in his cheeks. The sunshine dances warmly on their shoulders as they walk down Libertador; the noisy, honking cars keep them company. They walk past stands with reality magazines, bouquets of lowers, and assorted fruits, both whole and cut up into shapes–Tobio considers stopping and getting Shouyou a bouquet, but thinks better of it, given where they're headed towards.

A few more blocks and they arrive to El Rosedal, the famous rose garden in the middle of the capital, complete with a private lake, a museum, and a merry-go-round. The wide expanse of grass and trees, held by the perimeter of a biking path usually occupied by horse-drawn carriages, stretches for several blocks. The roses grow arranged in long, neatly organized rows forming a semi-circle around the South end of the lake, with tiny labels at the roots describing their type. Around the park lie wooden benches for on-lookers to sit on and tall, winding trees for shade. The flowers, despite them coming a few weeks after spring began, bloom wide and beautifully, filling the air with a sweet, light scent.

Shouyou's face lit up, his eyes widening in shock and glee, his lips upturning in excitement, he turned to Tobio and for once, he couldn't find the words.

Tobio, despite himself, smiled at him, "come on, dumbass," he says, shoving Shouyou forward.

The smaller boy recovers and exclaims, "wow! It's even more beautiful than the travel pictures showed! How did you know I wanted to come here?"

Tobio shrugged, "just a hunch."

"And our midterm? What's your idea?"

"I was thinking this could work for either South American History or Argentinian Culture, we can pick which one to work on, but there's plenty of options for us here. I figured being here would help us decide what to do and start working?"

Once nearly at the outermost row of roses, Shouyou turns to Tobio, "sounds good to me! What are you leaning towards?"

Tobio considers this, "I think we can do more for the History class than the culture class? I mean, culture is a lot more than one rose garden, I feel like we could do something else for that class."

"What if we did a presentation on cuisine? We could look at meals and customs, as well as special, culturally important dishes."

Tobio fixed Shouyou with a calculated frown, "you just want an excuse to eat more facturas, don't you?"

Shouyou grins at Tobio, "don't you?!"

Tobio rolls his eyes, "I wouldn't mind," he admits as they walk through. Shouyou stops at every other bud to sniff, his nose wrinkling with every brush of pollen he receives. Tobio brings his phone out to take pictures of his surroundings, an unhelpful amount of them turning out to star Shouyou–his nose deep into a richly-colored vibrant red rose, a joyful smile on his lips, his cheeks pink with joy, his eyes crinkling in pure delight.

How could Tobio not take a picture of him?! He should consider himself lucky he can even look at anything else, given the sight in front of him.

Oh… I like him. I like him… a lot. I like him so much.

Tobio drops his bag and steels himself, the words balancing precariously on the tip of his tongue, ready to leap off into freedom. Shouyou jolts at the sound, his fingertips gently caressing one pink rose's petals, causing golden specks to shine under the sunbeam. He retracts his fingers and walks to Tobio, a question perching on his lips, "do you… want me to carry the alfaj–"

"I like you, Hinata."

Shouyou freezes for a moment, the eternity bundled in that one second cascading, crumbling, collapsing itself over Tobio. Shouyou regains life, his eyebrows shoot up and his lips fall, about to speak when Tobio presses forward. "I really like you, I think you're a dumbass with the worst study habits I've ever seen and you're so clueless sometimes,"

"Eh?! Hey!"

"But you… it's… you're so… kind and caring, I don't even know how you did this," he gestures to himself, as if his own crush is somehow Shouyou's fault, "but I can't stop thinking about you. Your giant smile, your ridiculous hair, your stupid cheeks? I just… want to pinch them and hold you and… be with you all the time."

Tobio takes a breath and finishes, while his body still has life, "I really like you, Hinata. Please be my boyfriend!" He yells in a bow before his heart caves in, other passersby giving them judgemental looks–not that Tobio cares. His face overheats and his body hums with electricity, filled with static ready to shock. He did it. He confessed.

Shouyou takes a few moments to recover before bursting into laughter, his happy cackle drawing even more stares to them. Tobio perks his head up in confusion to see Shouyou clutching his sides, "uhh? Hinat–"

"I can't believe you beat me! Hah! I was going to confess on the paddle boat!"

Tobio blinks, "you… WHAT?"

Shouyou wipes away a tear and points to the lake, a rainbow of rental paddle boats lined up neatly on the left side. Some couples already paddle slowly around the lake, the boat giving them privacy out of the water. Well, except for the ducks. "That was my whole idea!"

Tobio rises, his face wrinkling into a mixture of disbelief, indignation, and the need to win. "YOUR idea?! I'm the one who took you here! This was MY plan!"

"Yeah, today! I've wanted to bring you here since we started the study abroad program! I've had the idea in my head for the last few months now! It was MY plan to bring you here and confess out on the lake!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know?! You never asked me!"

"Yes I did!"

"No?! You didn't?!"

Shouyou huffs, a miniature divot forming in between his eyebrows, "I've asked you to study with me on the weekends since we started and you never wanted to! You always said I should learn to study on my own!"

"Because I wanted you to learn some habits without me so you could pass your classes! Those were supposed to be dates?!"

"Yeah! It was obvious!"

"No it wasn't?!" Tobio roars, completely ignoring the obvious. "It's not like you said we would study here!" He gestures to the rose garden, now filled with guests actively avoiding them.

"I never said it would be the library either! You just assumed!" Shouyou points out, triumphantly, like that was even a marginally good point.

"You didn't indicate that I should 'assume' otherwise," Tobio tosses back, giving extra emphasis on 'assume' just to be a baby before he finally realizes the true meaning of Shouyou's confession. "Wait…you like me?"

Shouyou slaps his forehead. "Yes, Kageyama-kun, I like you. Do you want me to put it in writing for you to keep?"

Tobio rolls his eyes before slowing down, a melancholy thought melting and dripping hot wax over his insides, "you're telling me we could've been dating this whole time?"

Shouyou's triumph diminishes into hints of sadness, "I… maybe? I don't know, I kinda thought you didn't like me at all until this week. Would you even have said yes to me before?"

Tobio thinks back, remembering the deeply-interwoven roots of irritation he had for his classmate and how they transformed into love only this week. Rather–Tobio fully sees–how he interpreted them as love this week, he could have changed at any time if he realized it sooner. That means… "yes, I would have, for you."

"For me?"

Tobio nods, "just you, I think."

Shouyou bites his lip and steps closer to him, extending his arms just before touching him, "can I hug you?"

Tobio pulls him in; Shouyou wrapping his arms around Tobio's middle, squeezing tightly, as if sending his apology through the layers of his clothes. Tobio runs his fingers through Shouyou's hair, holding him tight to his chest, his heart pounding with love, so much love.

"I'm sorry it took me so long, but I'm here now. I'm here," Tobio whispers into Shouyou's ear.

He feels Shouyou's lips quirk up, "took you long enough," he teases as he moves his head to face Tobio's. Their breaths meet each other, their eyes pouring in, briefly stopping time and allowing the rest of the world to fall away. Shouyou does the quickest check to Tobio's lips before cautiously leaning in.

Tobio wouldn't be Tobio if he let Shouyou take all the credit, now would he? Tobio presses forward, stealing Shouyou's gentle lips, kissing him deeply, delicatly, with so much affection. Shouyou tastes like dulce de leche from desayuno, sweetened coffee on rainy days, and the first drop of fresh orange juice. His lips plush and soft against his own, moving sweetly in this dance that only they can do, together.

Shouyou's hands fold themselves into Tobio's shirt, holding him tightly, as if he will disintegrate at a moment's notice. He whines against Tobio's lips, begging him for more, more, everything that Tobio can give him.

Tobio obliges by nipping at his lip, his fingers wringing through Shouyou's hair, tugging gently at the strands. He kisses Shouyou until he forgets to breathe, both boys pulling away for a short eternity before colliding once more. The two of them stay together until they realize the hour has fallen away, that time moves forward despite their best efforts.

Together, hands clasped, they make their way through the garden, marveling at the beauty of nature and each other. The roses will keep this moment in their petals and their pollen, the love between these two boys forever ingrained in their buds and the space between their roots.