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The holiday season was one of those times that drove Yukio to distraction. The company he contracted for as a computer programmer was closed until January, there was no fun in hacking into a system without someone to notice (and his friend and fellow hacker Ian was busy with his own found family), he had a gig lined up for New Years Eve but that was several days away yet, and besides, he'd already worked out his set for that. He'd found and commented on a number of Youtube shorts and Tiktoks about his "DJ Santa" show…

Of course, thinking about the show got him thinking about the afterparty, and that got him thinking about Holland. He couldn't help it; it had been an amazing night with him. Yukio felt the color rise in his cheeks as he happily recalled the events of that evening, and the subsequent texts and messages and pictures they shared. Some of them even clean. He hoped against hope that he could see Holland again, that what had happened wasn't just the heat of the moment. But that didn't answer the question of what to do with his time in the interim. Yeah, he could keep texting the small man, but he didn't want to make a pest of himself. But he wanted more; he wanted it all. He wanted Holland.

He sat alone in his apartment and sighed.

What else was there for him to do except go out and collect sound in the park?

So the DJ found himself wandering through the main park in town in his favorite vintage aviator hat, goggles lowered over his eyes, with his phone out and his sound-collecting earbuds in, monitoring what he was recording. He used to use a rig with a parabolic mic and a recording deck tucked into a backpack, but he got stopped too often by the cops wondering what the hell he was doing, so he switched to his phone; the quality of the samples wasn't that bad, and whatever he didn't like he could tweak on his setup back at his apartment. And he actually liked collecting sounds in the winter – the snow dampened the interference and gave him a more pure sound.

He was focusing on recording the sound of a bird in one of the trees when a familiar flash of pink hair out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Yukio's heart skipped a beat – was that Holland? Quickly he dashed off a text: in the trees, come find me. He then popped out an earbud and waited where he was for a reply.

more than i wish i was wearing wink Yukio replied to Holland's text, catching the double meaning and tapping the words and emoji out with a small sly smile almost as soon as he got the message. A cheeky reply, but that was what half their texts back and forth were. green turtleneck sweater, black puffy vest, jeans, flight helmet He hoped that was enough description for Holland to find him.

In the meantime, he waited where he was standing, losing himself in thought. The past few days felt like a dream, a really good one – an epic holiday show where the surprise of him being "DJ Santa" was actually kept, Holland, an epic afterparty, Holland, slipping off to a more private place at the afterparty with Holland… Yukio felt the color rise in his face at that last, the sly little smile staying firmly in place. He couldn't believe that being with another man would have been that completely amazing, but it was, and so much more. And he wanted it to continue to be amazing. With Holland. He couldn't get the young man out of his mind; he really and genuinely hoped Holland felt about him as more than just a fling in the bathroom at a nightclub.

Looking up at the sky through the trees, he contemplated his other life too, as a Moon Knight. Would he have to come clean about that at some point?

Lost in thought, Yukio didn't hear the quiet footsteps sneaking up on him from behind through the snow. The sudden sensation of someone's arms around his waist startled him out of his reverie with a slight jump and almost made him drop his phone and do a parkour move to get out of whoever's grasp it was. And if Holland's sweetly smiling face hadn't appeared from around him a split second later, the DJ would have bolted.

He couldn't let that show, though. That would break the "magic," his stoic, cool persona, and possibly hurt or alarm Holland. Looking down at the small man's wide teal eyes and sweet mouth, he knew he could never allow any harm to come to him.

"Hey," he said instead, reaching around to maintain physical contact with Holland as he came around to look Yukio in the face. "Found me indeed. What are you doing out here, playing PoGo or something?" The DJ didn't know much about games – he didn't have time for games beyond his hacker exploits.

"Ah, okay. How many husbandos do you need?" Yukio raised an eyebrow. Wasn't he a good-enough husbando – no, he couldn't allow himself to think like that, at least not yet, not until he knew for sure how Holland felt about him. Even though it was a silly term, husbando, not even real Japanese. Also, he wasn't a fictional character from some anime or manga.

Coughing a bit to get himself back in the conversation, he looked down at Holland, fighting the urge to take off the smaller man's knit beanie and ruffle his brown curls, or worse, drop to his knees so he was below Holland's height. He somehow got the impression that he'd end up getting kicked in the balls or punched out if he did that. And then where would he be? Without one Holland, that was where. That was no place Yukio wanted to be.

"Yeah, we could totally hang out. I'm just sound-hunting today, recording sounds on my phone that I can import into my mixing software and tweak the s**t out of for use in songs. And to answer your question, yeah, I'm working on new music. I have some ideas for mixes that should really score with my listeners," he geeked. "I want to try them out and if they go over well, I plan on using them for my set opening for Ummet Ozcan next year."

Yukio nearly puffed out his chest in pride at scoring that gig. It was one hell of a coup.

"So yeah, if you're okay with following me around while I record stuff, I'd enjoy the company…" The smile that crossed his lips was genuine.

Despite the cold and snow on the ground, Yukio could have melted into a puddle at the sight of that grin. "Waifus too, huh? Sounds like quite the game." Now that was a Japanese word he knew too well. He didn't figure Holland for a weeaboo, though, just a guy who enjoyed hunting waifus and husbandos in games. For one, he didn't throw around pseudo Japanese like it was popcorn, and for another, he hadn't tried to talk Japanese at Yukio.

"I look for all kinds of sounds. City sounds, birds, nature, you name it. There are a lot of things making interesting sounds here. So I just wander around the park with the mic open and record everything, then pick out the ones I want to keep and use when I get home to my computer. My phone picks up stuff pretty well, but sometimes I plug in a separate mic, just to make it different." All the while he was talking, Yukio was glancing between the park and Holland. There was just something so irresistibly cute about him, so enthusiastic and bright, the DJ was finding it hard to focus on anything else.

Then Holland brought up The Song, the one he'd put together for the small man, and the color rose in Yukio's face. "Yeah, that was me. I sometimes put my own voice in my mixes, you know, for effect." There was no denying the effect Holland had on him – hell, he'd written a song about him before he even really knew him. Should he tell him? Maybe not yet…. Not until he was sure of how Holland felt about him.

Yukio looked at Holland, trepidacious golden-yellow eyes meeting wide expectant teal. "I… I was thinking about… how hope and longing are kind of intertwined, you know? Like you want something, or someone, and you don't know if what you're feeling is what they're feeling, and it builds and hope builds and… it made me feel kind of… like I knew what I wanted to achieve with the song, but I don't know if I succeeded or not, so I guess hope and longing were what I was feeling… you know?"

His voice was low and soft as he spoke. He wasn't sure if he himself even knew what he'd been thinking about, besides Holland. And the things he was thinking about Holland… it was more than just want, though there was certainly plenty of that in his mind. 'Tingly' was a word the small pink-fringed man had used to describe what he was feeling, and that was an apt descriptor for how Yukio was feeling. Like the world had fallen away and there were just the two of them there, each waiting for the other to say or do something to confirm their feelings. One of them had to go first.

"I, um… I was thinking about you."

There, he'd said it. The look on Yukio's face was brave and hopeful and filled with want all at once. Now he waited, letting out the breath he'd been holding as it was all out in the open now, hoping against hope Holland didn't laugh in his face and call him a fool.

To say that Yukio was a bundle of emotions over Holland's words would be an understatement. He didn't know what to feel first: joy, relief, yearning… Dropping his phone, he dropped to his knees in the snow in front of Holland, looking slightly up at him, and he snorted a soft laugh; the height difference between them really was rather comical. But he didn't care.

"I want to be around you more too," he said softly, taking off his little round shades and looking into Holland's eyes. "You're already more than just inspiration for a song to me. Though you should understand, I don't write songs for just anyone. I only write songs for those who really affect me in profound ways… like you have." Reaching out, he took the smaller man's hands in his. "I want to feel you against me, I want you to steal my clothes and my hats, I want to be with you. Like all the time. Or as much as we can be." Yukio thought again of his alternate life as a Moon Knight; would that get in the way? He hoped not.

A warm, genuine smile crossed his face. "You've totally made my day, Holland. My life. I… really didn't know what to expect, you know? But you showed me. And I want to keep learning. I never want to stop learning from you."