During the past year, Tatsuya had gotten really busy with his duties as Meijin Kawaguchi, and meanwhile Allan had his own obligations that kept them from working together all the time. It was a little regrettable, but they were still doing what they loved, both of them doing their best to spread the love for Gunpla. They got to see each other all they wanted on their time off, and having a home to come to after work with someone waiting had its sides.

Originally Allan had always wanted to get up at the same time as Tatsuya in the morning to make breakfast for them both. Sometimes, one of them had to leave very early though, and since it was often Tatsuya heading off earlier to catch a flight or a train to an event somewhere, he wanted to be considerate and let Allan sleep. At first Allan had insisted on getting up, but he eventually had agreed to a compromise, since it seemed Tatsuya felt a little guilty about it. On such an occasion, Allan now settled for preparing food for the morning on the night before.

For these early mornings when Tatsuya had to leave first, though, he had picked up a habit that Allan really didn't mind at all. A kiss, and three small words that made Allan feel like the luckiest man alive.

Tatsuya's most common approach was to kiss him gently - on the forehead or on the lips - before getting up from the bed, and whisper the words, although sometimes he waited till he had gotten up and had his clothes on before returning to the bedroom one more time before heading out. Either way, Allan loved it. He especially loved how different it could be; sometimes Tatsuya was full of confidence when saying it; sometimes his words were proud, and sometimes it was a mere whisper, so quiet and almost embarrassed, to the point where Allan just wanted to grab him and drag him back to bed and never let go.

He had to admit he tended to wake up when Tatsuya's alarm went off, but since Tatsuya would rather have him sleep, he stayed in bed and waited, pretending to sleep. Sometimes he plain let Tatsuya believe he slept through it; sometimes he whispered the words back, just to see what the reaction was. The reactions varied, but usually there was that beautiful smile that would have Allan smiling to himself for the rest of the day.

This morning he didn't remember waking up at all, which was a shame. It was a cold morning anyway, and the bed felt nice and warm. He didn't have to get up just yet, although there was a persistent sound from his side telling him otherwise. The phone, he realized as he picked it up - it was only half past five in the morning though and this wasn't his alarm. Rather, it was a call, and it hit Allan's half-asleep brain that this was Tatsuya's ring tone. He was quite awake all of a sudden and answered the call a second later.

"Sorry, I was asleep," he said, a little worried all of a sudden. The worried feeling wasn't at all helped by the fact that Tatsuya's face on the small screen looked so upset, and even a little bit despaired. "Tatsuya?! Are you okay? Everything fine? You didn't forget anything important here did you? Doubt I can get it to you in time, but I can..."

Tatsuya looked so adorably miserable at that moment that Allan wished he could've just ran over to the airport on that instant. "I," Tatsuya mumbled. "I did forget something important." He lowered his voice and held the phone closer, like that would bring him closer to Allan. "I didn't kiss you this morning."

Allan stared at the phone for a second and breathed out in relief. Tatsuya was fine, and that was such a silly thing to worry about. "Oh," he replied with a smile. "Don't worry about it. You must've been in a hurry, and I didn't wake up either, so it's perfectly okay. I don't mind, you can kiss me all you want when you come home the day after tomorrow."

"No, it's not okay!" Tatsuya cut in, appearing somehow gloomy. "If I don't kiss you and tell you I love you before leaving, my trip is going to be a disaster. Remember the Okayama one last summer? I forgot back then, and then we had to cut the event short because of the storm. And that event in Saitama, where I was late due to traffic?" Allan blinked, slowly figuring out what was wrong. Tatsuya wasn't the superstitious type, but this?

"Look," Tatsuya took a deep breath and stared at the phone, all determined. "I have only a few minutes before I need to be through the gate to catch my flight. So, hold the phone closer to your face. Now." Allan nodded slightly and did as told, although he had serious trouble keeping a wide smile off of his face as Tatsuya held his own phone closer to his face and quickly kissed Allan's image on the screen. "I love you," he whispered, in one of those awfully embarrassed tones Allan adored.

"I love you too," Allan replied with the happiest smile. "It'll be fine! Now get on your flight and have a great event!"

Tatsuya quickly composed himself, although there was a hint of a blush on his cheeks. "I'll make it up to you in a few days. I'll call you in the evening. Got to go now!" He ended the call, and Allan stared at the phone for a good few minutes afterwards. He had lived in Japan long enough to be used to the fact that people here had the weirdest superstitions sometimes, although he really didn't remember Tatsuya being the type to believe in anything supernatural.

This was, however, the most adorable superstition ever, and Allan couldn't wipe the smile off of his face as he put his phone down. He certainly didn't mind if this was what Tatsuya wanted to believe.