Me? Finally uploading stuff from AO3 because I'd forgotten about it for so long? More likely than you think. As always, you can find me over on AO3 under the same username, and I'm over on tumblr under Silent-Silver-Slip.
"Someone thought we were dating again today," Izuna announces as he enters the apartment, shutting it behind.
He receives no answer except a loud demanding yowl from Gecko, who rubs himself furiously against Izuna's legs, a tripping hazard that has Izuna almost stumbling up the step and almost faceplanting. "Did no one love you today?" Izuna croons, running a hand down the cat's back.
Gecko complains loudly at this treatment, and gets louder when Izuna straightens and heads further into the apartment.
"Haruki has been fed," his husband calls from the other room. "Don't let him make you think otherwise."
"His name's Gecko," Izuna shouts back, the same argument they've been having for near three years, ever since they adopted the one-eyed cat from the shelter. The shelter hadn't named the cat, but Izuna had upon immediately seeing the cat as he stared at a small lizard on the wall for hours.
Of course, his husband had refused the name entirely and has called the cat Haruki ever since, ignoring Izuna's argument for Gecko. Now the cat responds to both names and neither of them have won, which is rather fitting for them in all honesty.
Izuna nudges Gecko away, who yowls in displeasure, and flees to the top of the cat tree. Shaking his head, he enters the dining room and finds his husband sitting at the table, frowning at his laptop. As always, red stripes decorate his arms, lines curving and wrapping around the muscles. His fingers are black like they've been dipped in ink, and the ends of his hair have taken up a bluish tinge. He must have been using a fair bit of magic today if his markings are so prevalent.
"Husband," Izuna drawls, drooping himself over the back of Tobirama's chair. "How have you been? Did you miss me?"
Tobirama swats at him, mouse moving over the screen, before he leans back, wisps of hair getting into Izuna's mouth—which is disgusting and he'd bet that Tobirama absolutely did it on purpose because his partner is an asshole.
"I missed you like one misses a swamp when they've fallen in mud," is the answer he gets, and Izuna has to bite down on his lip to keep himself from laughing. "I didn't even notice you were gone."
Leaning forward a bit more, Izuna forces his husband to curve forward, ever so slightly, just enough to be uncomfortable. "This marriage was a mistake," he complains as Tobirama begins to type on the computer, ignoring him for the work he should have left behind when he finished for the day.
Tobirama hums, before saving the document and closing it. "Actually, this marriage was an accident," he corrects.
"What's the difference?"
"One has some measure of intent involved," his husband replies. "Our marriage was definitely an accident."
With a frown, Izuna thinks about that. "You got me there," he says, straightening as his back aches from the position. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if our brothers had actually used their first names rather than their surnames."
"Then they'd be married and we'd have more problems than we currently do," Tobirama says, deadpan and Izuna cackles.
He steals the laptop off the table and dances away. "You got dinner figured yet?"
Tobirama scowls at him. "You know I'm awful at cooking. I got takeout."
One day, Izuna's sure, it won't be amusing to know that Tobirama—genius, prodigy, beloved by the science world—can't cook well, but today's not that day. He laughs, placing the laptop on a side table and plugging the charger in. Tobirama can grab it from there tomorrow before work, but for now, it's their evening to enjoy.
"What takeout?"
"Thai, our normal, though I got an additional dish of red duck curry so you can take it to lunch tomorrow. You have your third years, yes?"
"You're a godsend," Izuna says, more than grateful. He loves his third years, but they're all completely certain that they're right and refuse to listen to his gentle corrections on their final project. It's doing Izuna's head in and has been doing so for months. At this point in time, he's more than willing to let them explode something just to prove a point.
It probably goes against university policies, but it's probably well deserved and surely no one can be too mad at him?
If Tobirama didn't get fired for the last time he broke the lab by accidentally calling a dinosaur back to lie rather than the griffin who'd wanted to teach Magic After Death after they'd died, then surely Izuna won't get fired if his students accidentally explode a classroom or two.
"Don't do it," Tobirama says, breaking Izuna out of his thoughts. He looks up, just in time to be handed two plates that he puts down on the table while his partner gets out the takeaway Thai containers that have been tucked away in the fridge.
Izuna squints as he gets out two empty glasses, passing them to Tobirama who fills them with water by flicking his fingers. The blue in his hair climbs further towards his scalp, darker than it'd been before. "How do you know what I'm thinking of? Did you get telepathy magic when I wasn't looking?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Tobirama says, rolling his eyes. "I don't have telepathy magic, Tōka has it."
Snapping his fingers, Izuna gestures at the containers all spread out in front of him, heating them up with a careful application of fire magic. He breathes out smoke, wisps of it rising towards the ceiling.
"And she's fucking terrifying." Izuna says, returning back to the conversation. He has too many memories of Tōka's bloodthirsty grin as she absolutely decimates him in family game night. He's fairly certain she doesn't even use her magic, just relies on being herself—and that's way more scary than anything else.
With a light hum, Tobirama scoops some Pad Thai onto his plate. "Well," he says fondly, "her best friend growing up has always been Mito."
"That just makes things worse," Izuna complains, before stuffing some food into his mouth. It's the right kind of hot, both spicey and hot enough that he's breathing out smoke without his magic.
Tobirama smiles, eyes crinkling, and- and sometimes Izuna forgets, briefly, just how lucky he is to be with his partner. So few people get to see Tobirama like this, content and smiling, frowning over the prawns even though they get prawns every time.
Swallowing, Izuna nudges Tobirama under the table with his foot. When his partner meets his gaze, Izuna smiles. "I love you."
Immediately, Tobirama's face gentles, features easing, and the shadows crawling up his hands seem to ease. He's surprisingly earnest, and he always is, when he says, "I love you too."
Then, after a pause, he adds with a frown, "Also why are people at work thinking we're dating yet again? Didn't we make it clear that we were married?"
Izuna laughs. Trust Tobirama to remember the conversation, ages later. "Don't ask me," he says with a loose shrug. "Then again, I suppose people don't usually get married when they're just platonic life partners."
"Bah." Tobirama's nose crinkles. "People are just dumb."
"You always say that. You think everyone's dumb."
Tobirama blinks at him, bearing such a strong resemblance to Gecko that Izuna has to bite his cheek to keep himself from laughing. "You're not," Tobirama says, poking at a prawn with an irritated stare.
"Aww." Izuna raises a hand to his chest. "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
His husband grunts, not even looking up from his food, even though he nudges one of the containers closer to Izuna. "Don't get used to it," he says and Izuna just laughs.