There were, Syuusuke had found, benefits to dating a dentist - and not just dental benefits.
For starters, Eiji always, always had fresh breath. Kissing Eiji was minty-sweet and made Syuusuke's lips tingle, though he wasn't completely sure that had anything to do with minty freshness. Eiji wouldn't even kiss him in the mornings if they hadn't both brushed their teeth, which, while sometimes inconvenient, was an excellent motivator to keep Syuusuke from lazing in bed all day.
Besides that, there was the money. Syuusuke was no gold digger (contrary to popular rumour; some of his stints with Hyoutei in high school had not gone unnoticed), but it was nice to be taken care of. It meant he could focus on his photography as an art, not as a profession, and it meant vacations.
Like this one, to Costa Rica. Syuusuke wasn't as excited about it as he had been about France last year, but exotic was exotic, and Eiji was ecstatic. He hadn't stopped talking since they'd arrived at the airport in Tokyo.
"I can't believe we're actually standing in Costa Rica!" His grip on Syuusuke's arm wasn't quite painful yet. "Well, we're walking, but - Costa Rica!" He did a little hop as they entered the hotel lobby. "Think of how many pictures you can take! There's so much amazing stuff here! Oishi was here a couple years ago for an outreach program, and he said he loved it. They have all kinds of amazing animals and plants and and and beaches! And coral reefs and Oishi got to hold a sloth!"
Syuusuke laughed a little, ignoring the desk clerk's expression as he handed over their keycards. "I remember. He brought back pictures."
"And now we can bring back pictures! Better pictures!" Eiji practically wriggled, pulling Syuusuke along to the elevator. "Come on, we have to drop our luggage off and get out of here! There's way too much to do; we only have a week!"
A week did seem like a dismally short amount of time, when Syuusuke thought about the millions of breathtaking moments he'd want to capture on film. He let himself be dragged to the room and promptly back out again, stopping only to make sure he had a camera and at least three rolls of film on him.
Their first excursion was a small park inundated with birds - they shot from the trees as they passed, scattered through the undergrowth, soared ahead of them down the path and weighed down branches high above. Syuusuke learned to snap a photograph at just the flash of colour; they would sometimes vanish by the time he knew they were there, but he was sure the photos would develop magnificently. They must have been there an hour before one of Eiji's numerous exclamations finally broke through Syuusuke's zen.
"Monkeys!"
Syuusuke turned, camera still to his face, and took several more shots in the direction Eiji was pointing. When he pulled back from the viewfinder, he could see them more clearly - lanky, white-faced monkeys, looping lazily through the trees off the path. They stuck close together, peering, unbothered, at the humans in their midst.
Glancing over at Eiji, Syuusuke opened his mouth to say something and immediately forgot what it was. Eiji was watching them up there in the trees, eyes shining, the biggest, stupidest grin on his face, and something grabbed at Syuusuke's heart a little.
He turned the camera on Eiji and started snapping again. The viewfinder clicked over a series of moments - Eiji's smile trading in for a surprised look, and the second in which his head turned; his eyes, curious, and the smile that blossomed all over again, his eyes crinkling at the corners, when he saw the camera aimed at him.
Who would have thought, Syuusuke mused, that the biggest and brightest sights in Costa Rica would be the ones he'd brought with him from home?
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