Work Text:
1.
Seth Lowell would rather die than use pet names.
Throughout the entirety of their relationship, he’s never used them. Not even once. He’s never really explained the reason for it but it wasn’t that difficult to garner a guess or two, especially when one could see his face visibly scrunch up when the leads in a romance movie start using cheesy pet names on each other. Not that his boyfriends mind, of course; they do plenty to compensate for his lack of using them.
Lighter, for example, rarely calls them using their names. Instead, he physically taps them on the shoulder to get their attention or resorts to using “sweetheart” for Harumasa or “kitten” for Seth. Harumasa, on the other hand, will call them their names, petnames, and more. He likes getting their attention by whining their names multiple times, or pestering them by repeating “cutie”, “kitty” and “baby” (plus “babe”, by extension). Occasionally, he’ll say something stupid like “you’re the skibidis to my toilet” and he immediately gets two exasperated glares in return.
But, you know, they’re not going to shy away from dreaming. While they do respect Seth’s aversion to using pet names, they still find themselves imagining them rolling off his tongue. There’s the unspoken shared fantasy between them that entails how his voice would sound while saying “darling” and how his lips would wrap around the syllables of “my love”.
And sometimes, just sometimes, their wishful thinking gets the better of them and they start acting like fools.
Today is one of those times. Harumasa slipped out of their shared bed in clumsy fashion, untangling himself from Lighter’s embrace and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He trudges towards the living room, knowing full well that Seth is already up and cooking breakfast. He just about makes it to the couch when he hears his junior’s voice from the kitchen…
“–so cute. Hi there, baby.”
… and promptly trips over nothing.
A loud thump echoes around their apartment as he barely manages to catch himself before faceplanting the ground, and he immediately sputters curses when the dull pain numbs his palms.
Seth’s head pokes out of the kitchen, ears pointed up in alert and tail swishing anxiously behind his back. He raises an eyebrow when he spots Harumasa on the floor. “Senior?”
“Ow, shit, fuck–”
“Did you just fall?”
“I’m fine!”
“Let me check–”
“I’m fine, Seth.” Harumasa insists, cutting his junior off before he starts worrying too much about him. In an attempt to change the topic, he sheepishly asks, “just… who were you talking to?”
Seth stares at him like he’s the one acting weird. “Your… cat?”
As if on cue, Harumasa’s pet cat weaves in the space between his junior’s legs, nonchalantly walking away. He watches it the entire time with a petulant pout on his face.
Oh, so the cat can get pet names but not them, huh?
-
2.
The next time, it happens to Lighter. He’s walking into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and he finds Seth there looking up at the open pantry and mumbling to himself. This isn't really a rare sight since the thiren spontaneously cleans and cooks a lot of the time, so the boxer pays him no mind and starts thinking about his regular trip to the Outer Ring next Friday.
Ever since they all moved into Harumasa's apartment in the city, they've alternated between visiting Seth's family and the Outer Ring on the weekends. Of course, Lighter still goes to the Outer Ring by himself throughout the week both to carry out errands and his Champion duties, but it's different when his boyfriends are coming along to meet up with his… family. Yeah, he would never actually say it out loud, but the Sons of Calydon are basically family to him; hence, these regular trips mean a lot to him.
Lighter leans against the wall as he takes small sips from his glass, and he hears Seth mutter, "hmm, eggs…”
Should he call Piper to pick them up? Or would Seth want to practice riding his bike again, especially now that he's been assigned a PubSec motorcycle? Harumasa complained last time about his junior going too slow, but he could always ride with Lighter instead. Hell, maybe one day, the boxer could even convince the thiren to race him.
“Flour…"
Hm, did Lucy ask him to pick anything up recently? He should check the group chat later. Or now, before it slips his mind entirely. But, just as he's reaching into his pocket to grab his phone, he hears…
“Honey?”
… and Lighter's train of thought instantly comes to a halt.
Honey? Honey? God, that pet name sounds stupidly sweet coming from his boyfriend's lips, so much so that it makes him giddy. Before Lighter can stop himself, he's walking up to the thiren and wrapping his arms around his waist. He clears his throat and asks, “yes?”
“Huh?” Seth looks over his shoulder, smiling when their eyes meet. “Oh, Lighter. Did you need something?”
At this, the boxer falters. “Were you… calling me?”
“Uh… no?" The other man's eyebrows furrow in confusion (cute!). "But now that you’re here, come look over the grocery list. I don’t know if I missed anything.”
Lighter glances down at Seth's hands and notices a small notepad, already filled with scribbled writing. “Oh.”
Seth goes over the list one by one, and Lighter spends the next fifteen minutes calming down the warmth in his cheeks whenever the word "honey" is said.
-
3.
The third time, it's Harumasa that misunderstands. The worst part? He can't even defend himself, because it truly was stupid and he really should've known.
They're currently at the dinner table, eating one of Seth's homecooked meals. It's a common occurence, happens every other day or so, and it's a win-win for Harumasa and Lighter. One, their boyfriend stops holing himself up in the precinct to work overtime into the dead of night. Two, everyone's home at a reasonable time and they can actually do something like watch a movie together before bed. Three, they get a damn good dinner out of it.
So good, in fact, that they've already scarfed it down and are going through dessert. Now, Seth doesn't bake a lot, but he does stop by the coffee shop in Lumina Square fairly frequently and picks out random pastries for them to try. This time, it's some kind of tart that's definitely a bit too sour and not sweet enough, but Harumasa has no serious complaints.
That is, until his junior taps him on the shoulder to get his attention. He turns to the side, meeting Seth's eye, watches the thiren's mouth fall open to speak in his peripheral vision, and…
"Sugar, please."
Harumasa's heart skips a beat in his chest and he just barely manages to put his spoon down. Okay, that came out of nowhere. That pet name isn't too bad; it's definitely a start. Also, it's a little old fashioned, but he can learn to love it. Besides, it clearly had an effect on him… but maybe that's just because everything his junior does has an effect on him.
So, the archer simply flutters his eyelashes and drawls, "please what~"
"Uh…" Seth raises an eyebrow and gestures to the condiment tray on the other end of the table. "The sugar? Pass it?"
Oh.
Forget about making it to one hundred. Harumasa is gonna spontaneously explode right now at the ripe age of twenty-three; whether out of frustration or embarrassment, he doesn't know yet. Across the table, Lighter coughs into his hand to stifle his laugh, which makes this entire situation ten times worse.
And he wants to get it all over with, so he begrudgingly reaches over to grab the sugar jar, and shoves it in Seth's direction while grumbling, "you don't even like sweets."
"Just because I don't normally like them doesn't mean I can't eat them… right?" He almost feels bad when his junior looks so lost. Keyword: almost.
"Whatever!" Harumasa huffs and gets up from his seat, storming off.
Seth stares after him, worried. "What's up with senior? He's been acting weird recently…"
Lighter simply shrugs.
-
4.
Lighter doesn't know when he fell asleep, but he stirs awake to the sound of someone shuffling into the living room and walking around where he is on the couch.
Fingers tread through his hair, and he relaxes into its touch. He hears a low rumbling noise and oh, that's Seth and his purring, alright. The hand moves away, and he almost considers chasing after it until he hears something that makes him freeze.
“Hey there, cutie."
Oh. Has he been calling them pet names while they're asleep? Is he too shy to do it while they're awake? That's so… adorable.
"How have you been? Good? That's nice! Have you been getting enough water recently?"
Lighter resists the urge to smile, to nod, to do anything.
"How about sunlight? I hope you've been getting enough of that, too. Even for you, it's important not to stay cooped up inside for too long. That's why I move you every so often!"
Hey, he gets plenty of sunlight as is. The Outer Ring's heat is brutal. But, then again, Seth has mentioned something about good sunlight and bad sunlight before. Whatever the difference may be, Lighter trusts his boyfriend so he doesn't question it.
"Hm, you don't look so good. I should give you some fertilizer sometime.
Now that catches him off guard. Fertilizer? Has Seth lost his mind?
Lighter sits up abruptly, looking in the direction he heard Seth from. There, in one corner of the living room, his beautiful boyfriend is standing by their shelf of flora and smiling so fondly… at a potted petunia sitting in his hands.
He was talking to a plant that entire time. Oh, he feels stupid.
"Oh, Lighter." Seth perks up, putting the pot down. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"
"No—well, yeah, but…" Lighter pouts, deciding this is a conversation for another day. "Ugh. Just… don't worry about it. I'm going back to sleep."
The last thing he hears before he dozes off is the thiren's worried voice saying, "if… if you say so."
-
+1.
Seth Lowell would rather die than use petnames, but he’s not dumb.
He knows his boyfriends love using pet names, and love being called them. He can see the way Lighter blushes whenever Harumasa coos at him and calls him "baby", can see the way Harumasa squirms whenever Lighter tucks a lock of hair behind his ear and mutters "sweetheart…". It only makes sense that they'd want to hear them from him too, and he eventually realizes that they want it so much that they've begun hearing things.
Keyword: eventually. And by eventually, he means he woke up in the middle of the night with the recent strange incidents in mind and the sudden realization that his boyfriends misunderstood him. Multiple times, at that! God, they're so stupid (and he loves them for it).
Well, that explains why Lighter randomly goes quiet around him and why Harumasa has been so jumpy. All this over a couple of pet names? He's flattered, truly. And, considering it gets them blushing and tripping over themselves, it certainly wouldn't hurt to try.
That's how he ends up here, standing in front of a mirror, cheeks red and hands shaking as he tries to get through a list of pet names that took one Inter-knot search and immediately falters on the first one.
"B—ba…"
Come on, it's just a simple word. He's gone through worse. And yet… yet…
"Ba… by."
Okay, nope, he can't do this—and it's only been one word! He feels so, so stupid. Utterly ridiculous. He might throw himself off the window the more he keeps going, and he's not sure if half-human cat thirens can survive falling twenty-three floors.
Maybe… he's not approaching this the right way. The whole reason he struggles with pet names in the first place is because he can't help but cringe at the connotations they're attached to. But it's not like all pet names started off that way. In fact, half of the time, Lighter and Harumasa only misunderstood him because he was using words that both had normal meanings and could be used as pet names.
What if he found regular words and just… used those as his special pet names for them?
Immediately, he gets to work. He sets his phone down on the bed, list of regular pet names forgotten, and starts pacing around the room muttering things that he thought would work. His starting point is simple: senior. He definitely doesn't have to keep calling Harumasa that, especially outside of work, but it does feel comfortable and simple. Maybe he's fine with it since it's technically a title.
That makes Lighter's pet name easy. Harumasa's pet name, on the other hand, takes a bit longer to conceptualize. All of his work titles feel too stuffy, or awkward. In that sense, he went back to his original line of thinking: inanimate objects. He just had to find one that he thought would suit his senior just right—and he does.
He tests the way the new pet names feel in his mouth, tests how they sound rolling off his tongue. Not too long, a little awkward but that can be chalked up to his own nervousness. It doesn't take long for him to realize that he doesn't entirely hate these, and that he could actually see himself using them more after a couple more tries. But, before he can properly practice, he jumps as he hears footsteps shuffling into the aparment.
"We're home, kitty!" Harumasa calls out, his voice getting louder and closer with each word. Shit, he thought they were going undercover! Did the mission end that quickly?
Then, the bedroom doorknob rattles. Once, twice, and then a pause. Instead of a third rattle, Lighter's voice spills through the gap under the door. "Huh. It's locked. Seth, sweetheart, are you in there?"
"Y-yeah!"
"You alright?"
Seth scrambles towards them, weakly responding, "I—I'm fine."
He can hear Harumasa's shit-eating grin through the wood. "What, are you jerking off?"
"Ew, no, senior!" The thiren sputters just as he unlocks the door and swings it wide open, huffing and puffing indignantly at his boyfriends. "See?"
Lighter just raises an eyebrow at him, not in suspicion but in confusion. "Okay, so what were you doing then?"
"Nothing."
"If it's nothing, surely you wouldn't mind if I looked through your phone, right?" Harumasa drawls, and—holy shit, when did he even walk over to the bed? Wait, more importantly, his senior has his phone in his hand!
"Wait—!"
"Oh. This…" his senior's eyes light up like he was just given an entire month off work. Or something. "Don't tell me you've been practicing?"
"Practicing what?" Lighter asks, and Harumasa flashes the phone screen at him. He squints at it, then makes a noise of acknowledgment. "Ah."
Seth is utterly mortified. He wasn't expecting them to find out so soon—his ears droop a little, tail curling between his legs as he whines, "it was supposed to be a surprise…"
Harumasa's voice softens, and he loosely hugs the thiren from behind. "Seth, you know you don't have to force yourself, right?"
"Mh." Lighter nods, patting him on the head and ruffling his hair. "Just 'cause we like it doesn't mean you have to do it."
"I know! And I'm not forcing myself, I just…" Seth trails off, shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "… had to find other ways to do it."
His senior's breath tickles the side of his neck as he mutters, "oh? Like what?"
"…I had to come up with my own pet names for you guys," he admits.
Well, it's now or never. In a brief moment of bravery, Seth turns to Lighter—he doesn't falter, even when the other man takes a step back. Seth snakes one arm around his boyfriend's waist, curling it around his back and pulling him close until their chests are flush against each other's. Then, his other hand grazes Lighter's jawline and tilts his head down so that he's looking him in the eye as he says:
"My champion."
It's almost comical how immediate the effect is. Lighter's face blooms a brilliant red, matching some of the flower babies they've raised together. He averts his gaze, one hand coming up to tug his scarf over his mouth and obscure his face. Seth grins in pure giddiness (Lighter likes his pet name!), pulling the scarf off entirely so he can press a soft kiss to his boyfriend's lips. But he doesn't stop there—he presses another one on the corner of his mouth, then one on his jawline, then another on his neck, and…
Harumasa's arms tighten around his waist—not out of jealousy, no. He does it just to be a little shit. "What's mine?"
Seth looks over his shoulder, staring at the other man, unimpressed. "… senior. Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Come on, you already use that!"
"That's not the pet name." The thiren mumbles in-between his kisses on Lighter's neck, ears twitching when he feels the boxer breathing heavily on them. "I was just calling you that so I can tell you to stop interrupting us."
His senior pouts, but doesn't relent. "Well, what is it then?"
"Wait your turn, oh my god—"
"Just use it!"
And Seth has just about had enough. His tail curls around Harumasa's hips, tilting them both just enough so he can pull him into a searing kiss. He nips at his senior's lips, carefully using his fangs to graze at his bottom lip and sting without drawing blood. The other man gasps, and he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue into his mouth and lazily map out the inside of his mouth until they're both winded and breathless. When they part, he presses their foreheads together and keeps eye contact.
"Be patient," he hisses against Harumasa's lips, "sunflower."
And, just like that, he gets the rare sight of Harumasa actually flustered—blushing and sputtering and trying to run away. If only he knew it was this easy, he'd have done this entire thing way sooner. And it's not just for them being flustered—it's for the genuine smiles on their faces and the way he heard their hearts beat faster ever since he said them.
Maybe he isn't so bad at coming up with personalized pet names, after all. And maybe, just maybe, he'll get used to calling them regular pet names too, if only to make them as happy as this.