Notes: So I'm here starting up a little five-chapter mini-arc for the holidays...! I wanted to post some side stories before this, but I ran out of time, ahaha. I'll just save those for later!

This chapter hasn't been betaed yet because my lovely beta is having some internet issues, so any errors or general crappiness is my fault alone!

I have posting schedule for this mini-arc at the end of the chapter. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, happy holidays to those who celebrate something else this time of year, and a wonderful day to everyone in general!

Waiting for Rainbows
Chapter 11: On a carpet of snow, still clean and pure

The bitter cold of winter generally wasn't very kind to the residents of Kibougaoka; the aging buildings usually didn't have the best insulation, and space heaters could only go so far. The koban, being the most recently renovated building in town, subsequently saw an uptick in visitors popping in for a friendly chat while taking a moment to warm up before resuming their daily errands.

With the quickly approaching holidays, many people also brought by gifts as thanks for the officers' work over the past year—largely sweets and other snacks. There were too many for Hinata and Kirigiri to reasonably consume by themselves, so they ended up placed on a table for other visitors to help themselves to.

"Are all of these from Andoh's place?" Kuzuryu asked with thinly-veiled disgust as he shuffled through the offerings to check what had been added by the visitor that just left.

"People supporting local businesses is a good thing," was Hinata's diplomatic response as he finished up with the form he was signing. When he looked up, he saw Kuzuryu opening a pack of madeleines and popping one in his mouth. "Wait, you're eating them anyway!"

Kuzuryu shrugged as he walked back over to the desk; his sweet tooth apparently trumped whatever personal feelings he might harbor for the one who baked them, and Hinata couldn't help but smile fondly.

"Is it good, then?" he asked when the yakuza had settled back in the chair across his desk.

Kuzuryu swallowed, then grinned at him. "Why don't you see for yourself?" he said, holding up another madeleine.

Hinata's heart stuttered a bit in his chest when the small cake was pressed against his lips, but he hesitated only a moment before opening his mouth to accept it. Even if anyone was watching, being fed was probably innocent enough.

But the way Kuzuryu's fingers lingered at Hinata's lower lip definitely was not. Hinata stilled, entranced by the look in Kuzuryu's eyes as his boyfriend tried unsuccessfully to fight down a blush. Hinata took half a second to glance out the window, confirming that no other visitors were about to step in, that Kirigiri wasn't about to return from lunch, before placing a light peck at Kuzuryu's fingertips.

Kuzuryu pulled his hand back then, his cheeks reddening further; Hinata could never get enough of how easily the yakuza blushed. He grinned as Kuzuryu turned away to hide his embarrassment.

"So how was it?"

"Huh?"

"The madeleine."

"Oh." Hinata had honestly forgotten all about the pastry Kuzuryu fed him. "I wasn't paying attention to that, you were too distracting."

Kuzuryu turned back to glower at him, and Hinata couldn't help but laugh. Gosh, he wanted nothing more in that moment than to lean over and kiss those flushed cheeks... but no, he wouldn't dare kiss another man in the koban. Kiss a yakuza in the koban. He had already done that once, weeks earlier, and he wasn't going to push his luck again.

It was hard for the two of them to find the time or the place to really act like a couple; Hinata was relatively well-known as an officer in the area, and being seen dating another man wasn't likely to reflect well on the police force, yakuza or no. He didn't want to feel self-conscious about being with Kuzuryu—his feelings were nothing to be ashamed of—but being in the flush of their relationship's honeymoon phase, the air feeling so nakedly electric between them, Hinata was much more comfortable going on dates further from the city center, where he'd be less likely to be recognized.

Besides that, during the day-to-day minutiae, they were content to simply stay in one another's presence, though it was sometimes difficult to fight the desire for physical contact. Kuzuryu would spend several hours of the day hanging out in the koban with Hinata, which wasn't all that different from before, really, except they would occasionally let their arms brush together atop the desk, just the slightest curl of pinky and ring fingers together, inconspicuous enough that they could casually pull apart without notice if someone else came in.

Which was becoming all the more frequent with the steady stream of holiday visitors. Hinata reflexively sat back in his chair as the doorknob turned, even though he hadn't given in to the urge to touch his boyfriend (really!), and focused his attention back on paperwork.

The cold burst of air from the open door cut through the warmth of the koban like a knife. "Sorry to intrude," Pekoyama muttered as she shut the door behind her.

"All that's happening in here is paperwork," Hinata insisted, but curiosity won out over whatever embarrassment he would have felt from the implication. Pekoyama didn't often enter the building unless she was fetching Kuzuryu for some urgent business, and even that was rare.

"Is something the matter?" Kuzuryu asked, looking about ready to stand from his seat, but Pekoyama stopped him with a shake of her head.

"No, nothing has happened, but..." She trailed off, seeming uncharacteristically hesitant as she wrung her gloved hands together.

Hinata took notice of the action, having never seen the silver-haired woman exhibit such a nervous tic, and deduced that it must be something else. "Are you cold?" he asked.

Pekoyama's hands stilled.

"What, is that it?" Kuzuryu sighed. "Don't force yourself to stand guard outside, it's fucking freezing."

"I apologize," she said quietly, bowing her head slightly.

"There's nothing to apologize for!" Hinata stood up to beckon her inside. "Come on, I'll find you a chair, and you can help yourself to some of those snacks..."

"None of that will be necessary," she said, her tone once again crisp and decisive. "Just the shelter will suffice."

Hinata faltered and glanced back at Kuzuryu, who only shrugged. "All right, then," he said, sitting back down.

The atmosphere in the room was slightly different with Pekoyama there, but it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. Though somewhat oppressive, Hinata considered her more of a supportive presence than anything, and there wasn't the pressure to hide a relationship that she was already aware of, either.

He couldn't say whether Kuzuryu felt the same, though. The yakuza heir had visibly tensed up with Pekoyama present, the set of his jaw firm under her watchful gaze. After a few minutes, Hinata tried reaching over to place a comforting hand on Kuzuryu's arm, only to immediately pull back when the doorknob turned.

Kirigiri walked into the koban, then paused as the door shut behind her. She let her calculating gaze skim over the two men before settling on Pekoyama, then turned back to Hinata with a questioning look.

Oh, right. The two women had never actually met before. "That's Pekoyama," Hinata supplied. "She's, uh..."

"She works for me," Kuzuryu finished when Hinata faltered.

"I see." Kirigiri turned back to Pekoyama, an eyebrow arched. "Let me see the sword."

Hinata felt his heart jump into his throat, shocked that Kirigiri would immediately do what he had never dared, but really, of course she would. He tried not to visibly panic as he looked to Kuzuryu; there was no way she would overlook the hidden katana blade.

But Kuzuryu only shrugged as he turned his attention to fiddling with his phone, and Pekoyama calmly handed over the sheathed sword to the senior officer. Hinata watched nervously as Kirigiri uncovered the sword, inspected it, carefully studied the bamboo... and, apparently satisfied, she returned it to Pekoyama with a nod.

"That's fine." Shedding her heavy winter coat, Kirigiri strode purposefully towards the changing room. "Hinata-kun, you can run out and get some lunch if you want."

"Uh, right..." Hinata watched her disappear into the back, thoroughly confused, and looked to his boyfriend hoping for some sort of explanation. Kuzuryu, however, was still focused on his phone.

Which was the explanation, Hinata found out in the next instant, when his own cellphone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and wordlessly checked the text message.

-Peko only likes to carry the steel one if the situation requires it. Kibougaoka is pretty low-danger, so.

That seemed to make sense... Hinata glanced back up, meeting Kuzuryu's gaze before the yakuza turned away again. So she was carrying a legal practice sword the entire time. That was... encouraging. Or it should have been, but there was still a strange knot of unease in the pit of Hinata's stomach.

It wasn't until later on that Hinata wondered why the steel blade would need to be carried in Kuzuryu's own home.

Hinata could count on one hand the number of people who knew of his relationship with Kuzuryu.

Hanamura had figured it out very early on, which was to be expected, really. Then Naegi had found out a few weeks later by pure dumb luck. Pekoyama... Hinata wasn't sure exactly when she had found out, it had just kind of been accepted as fact from the very start that she did. He suspected that she may have actually witnessed his awkward, bumbling, absolutely humiliating confession, but confirming that as truth would have been even more mortifying, so he never asked.

Hinata honestly didn't know whether to count Kirigiri as a fourth finger, though. She must have had her suspicions—it would be foolish to expect otherwise—but none of her actions over the past month indicated that she knew for sure that they had become an item.

Maybe a romantic relationship was so far removed from Kirigiri's interests that she hadn't even considered it as a possibility, at least where Hinata and Kuzuryu were concerned. Hinata hoped that was the case; it would be so much easier if she didn't know, for her sake and for theirs. But even if it were, he doubted that would last for very long.

For the moment, at least, they tried to act as if nothing had changed when she was around, and she didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. At the very least, the wary glances occasionally turned in their direction weren't any different than they had been before. Hinata was fairly sure that she would have said something if she had figured it out, so the fact that she hadn't was a good sign.

It had worked out pretty well for over a month, and it wasn't until late that day, as Hinata was preparing to leave for the night, that he had gotten any indication otherwise.

"Do you have any plans for your day off tomorrow, Hinata-kun?" Kirigiri asked idly while tidying up the work area.

"Oh, yeah," Hinata answered as he wrapped his scarf around his neck. "I'll be spending the evening with Kuzuryu, going out to dinner and stuff."

Kirigiri paused in organizing the desk. "With Kuzuryu-kun?"

"Yeah...?" Hinata turned to look back at her, unsure of what to think of the wary expression on her face.

"On Christmas Eve?"

Hinata realized his mistake a too late; he had just admitted that he would be spending the biggest date night of the year with Kuzuryu. He hadn't really been thinking of the implications, considering it not much more than any other Saturday night, but... did it have to imply anything? Wouldn't it be just as feasible that they could be two single guys hanging out together instead of feeling sorry for themselves? "Well, yeah," Hinata replied, trying to play it off as casually as possible. "I guess it is."

Kirigiri didn't respond immediately, staring silently at him while tapping a finger against her chin. "Hmm. I see."

"Is there a problem?" He hoped to god she wasn't going to make it into a problem...

She thought for a moment, tilting her head to the right, then sighed and shook her head. "I suppose I'm more impressed than anything else."

"Impressed?"

Kirigiri hummed vaguely in response as she returned to her deskwork. "Yes, impressed. Are you all right, though?"

Hinata had completely lost the train of conversation. "I... yes? Why wouldn't I be?"

She shook her head again, eyes remaining downcast this time. "Never mind. We'll talk at a later date."

"Okay..." Hinata still didn't understand. And here he had thought he was pretty good at reading his sempai...

He didn't make a move to leave, though, and after a moment Kirigiri glanced up at him again. "You're free to go now. Have a good night, Hinata-kun."

"Uh, right." He backed up to the door awkwardly, not entirely sure if that was the right move to be making, despite being dismissed by Kirigiri. Some sort of change had just occurred, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy. "I'll be leaving now, then."

He saw Kirigiri give a short nod before he turned to open the door. "Have a good time tomorrow. Don't stay out too late."

"Okay. Good night, Sempai." With those parting words, Hinata stepped out the door and into the bitter cold to head home. He closed the door firmly behind him, placing a physical barrier between himself and whatever new workplace dynamic he had just created.

He took a deep breath, willing himself to put that behind him and enjoy the rest of his weekend.

Their dinner on Christmas Eve hadn't been anything particularly special; Hinata had insisted on making the reservations himself, since he wasn't completely comfortable with the strings Kuzuryu would occasionally pull to secure date spots on his family's turf. Kuzuryu insisted that they were all perfectly legal connections, but the fact remained that they were yakuza connections, so surely his boyfriend had to be stretching the truth a little bit there. For Christmas Eve, at least, he wanted to be sure that they were well within the bounds of the law.

"I could get them to move us to a better table," Kuzuryu suggested even as they were seated at the restaurant in Hachioji. He reached over to trace idle shapes on the back of Hinata's hand, grinning wickedly. "A more private table, if you want."

Hinata would be lying if he said that wasn't a little bit tempting, but he stood firm in his decision even as he shifted his hand to twine his fingers with Kuzuryu's, chuckling fondly.

Even though their dinner table was supposedly less than ideal, they were in a good mood after dinner and decided to take a walk along the streets lined with Christmas lights, making a brief stop at Kuzuryu's favorite coffeehouse for some hot chocolate.

They walked leisurely through the shopping district, taking in the lights and store displays, their arms just barely brushing as they walked side-by-side. The cup of cocoa warmed Hinata's bare hands, just as being next to the most important person in the world to him warmed his entire being. Contentedly, he looked around at the sights to sear it all into his memory; in that moment, nothing else mattered. Not the strange half-discussion he had had with Kirigiri the day before, and definitely not the biting chill of winter.

Winter...

"Oh yeah, your birthday is probably coming up soon, right, Kuzuryu?" Hinata tore his gaze from the store displays and grinned down at his boyfriend. "We should do something together. When is it, exactly?"

Kuzuryu's face screwed into a strange expression, cheeks pinker than usual from the cold, and he opened his mouth to respond, but clamped it shut before uttering a word. After a moment to reconsider his answer, Kuzuryu said, "What makes you think my birthday's coming up?"

Hinata blinked blankly. "Well, isn't it? I mean... your name's Fuyuhiko, so I figured you were born in the winter..."

Kuzuryu rolled his eyes and jabbed his elbow against Hinata's arm, jostling his hot chocolate a bit. "Dumbass. I was born in August. It's still a long ways off."

"Oh..." Hinata considered this as he rubbed his arm. "So why weren't you named Natsuhiko?"

"Mom wanted to save 'natsu' for a daughter," Kuzuryu said, shrugging. "But Dad wanted me named after a season. Family tradition. So they settled on winter because why the fuck not? Wasn't gonna make any sense anyway." He huffed out an airy laugh. "They did end up using 'natsu' for my sister's name, even though she was born in early spring. Didn't use the summer kanji though."

"Ah..." Hinata let his eyes wander back to the Christmas displays nervously, unsure of where to lead the conversation from there, if he was expected to let the subject drop. Even now that they were going out, Kuzuryu still wasn't keen on talking about his sister, so Hinata tried not to bring it up. He definitely didn't want to risk ruining the Christmas mood by stepping on that landmine.

"So what about you?"

"Yes?!" Hinata's attention snapped eagerly back onto his boyfriend, grateful for whatever conversation topic Kuzuryu deemed appropriate.

The yakuza raised a curious eyebrow at Hinata's enthusiasm. "Your birthday. When is it?"

"Oh..." Oh. Right. Hinata should have expected the question to be turned back onto him. He averted his eyes again, laughing bashfully. "Right. My birthday..."

"Spit it out, Hinata."

"Eh, well..." He hummed thoughtfully, trying to appear nonchalant. "It's January 1st."

It took a moment to realize that Kuzuryu had stopped walking, and Hinata turned back to look at him. "What's up?"

Kuzuryu's face screwed into a frown as he stomped back to Hinata's side. "'What's up'?! Hinata, that's fuckin' soon! That's in a week!"

"Ah, well yeah, I guess it is..."

"And that's New Year's! Did you have any intention of telling me?"

Hinata gave a light shrug. "Only if it came up, I guess? I mean, it's not that big of a deal..."

"The fuck it isn't..." Kuzuryu continued muttering obscenities under his breath as he dug out his cell phone and began swiping through the screens with one hand, keeping his hot drink steady with the other. "Shit. Everything's gonna be booked at this point. Gonna hafta pull some strings..."

"Whoa, whoa!" Hinata grabbed the phone from Kuzuryu's hands before he knew he was doing, and instantly regretted it when Kuzuryu's eyes flared dangerously. He easily let his boyfriend snatch the phone right back.

"I've told you not to touch my fucking phone, dumbass!" Kuzuryu hissed.

"I... sorry, yeah. That was dumb." They fell into an awkward silence for a moment as Hinata watched the yakuza heir wipe the fingerprints from his phone. "Um... but you really don't have to do anything for my birthday. It's fine."

Kuzuryu glowered up at him. "When you obviously were going to plan something when you thought my birthday was soon? Pot, meet kettle. I'm taking you somewhere and you better not refuse if you know what's good for you." He glanced away then, and Hinata saw his cheeks redden further, "'Sides... I just wanna, okay? Dumbass..."

Hinata could feel a goofy grin spreading across his face, and he sidled up closer to Kuzuryu, letting their arms press together to share warmth in the winter cold. "All right then. But no funny business, okay? If you're planning something unsavory to get a reservation somewhere, then I want no part of it."

"Duh." Kuzuryu busied himself with the phone again, but not before pushing back against Hinata's side, reciprocating the show of affection. "I have some guys that owe me favors already, so I'm just gonna hit them up and see what I can get."

Notes: I wanted to write some kuzuhina kisses in this chapter but that... didn't happen... *sobs* The boys just insisted on being too sweet and pure!

Fun fact: I wrote the part about Kuzu's sister having "natsu" in her name and being born in early spring before she had a canon name or birthday. Turns out I was correct on both counts. *fistpump*

Okay so the update schedule for the next few chapters!
Chapter 12: December 27
Chapter 13: December 29
Chapter 14: January 1

(yes for real)

After that... we'll have to see. Unlike the others, chapter 15 hasn't been pre-written; I'll try to have it up sometime in January too, but I don't even trust myself to meet my deadlines, so you shouldn't either! :D