Gift Box

AN: Happy Holidays! Here's a fic set in NLTSA universe, written back in August.
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Kaito twisted pieces of a puzzle box around in his hands as Takumi did assigned reading on the living room couch. It was Takumi’s favorite spot since Kaito and Saguru moved in together, a much plusher replacement for Kaito’s old one that had been slowly falling to disrepair for years. The steady tick of the bookshelf clock and the occasional flip of pages were the only sounds at the moment, and while normally Kaito would be soothed by the peacefulness, he couldn’t reach that calm today.

He slipped a segment of wood free, testing panels for which one would budge next, mostly on automatic. Kaito’s real attention was on Takumi and the way Kaito’s heart beat a bit too quickly for sitting calmly in their living room. “I was thinking,” Kaito said.

“Mm?” Takumi turned a page. “About what?”

“About life.” Kaito twisted a carving. “How we’ve settled here. The future.” A careful glide of fingers along a seam and one of the three hidden compartments in this box slid open. Empty of course because he hadn’t put anything in it yet. “Whether Saguru’d say yes if I asked him to marry me,” Kaito said as nonchalant as possible, heart beating too fast as he waited for Takumi’s response.

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