Sore Muscles
Roommate!Choso x f!reader (fluff)
This is my first ever fanfic! Constructive criticism is welcome
How long has he been out there? You think to yourself, looking out the window you see nothing but pitch black, even though it was light out when he left. You check your phone to see the time, it’s now 6:38pm. That’s it, you’re going to go tell him to get his butt inside.
You open the front door and are greeted with the sight of an ongoing blizzard. Wonderful. If only you could have made out that fact from inside the house, you would have at least put on a coat, not the pyjamas and snow boots you were currently sporting.
“Choso! Where are you? Why are you still out here?” You want to guess that he was outside for the better part of an hour—maybe two—shovelling snow off the driveway. Normally that was Yuji’s job, but since he was away for the weekend on a ski trip with Megumi and Nobara, Choso volunteered to do it. Right now that was looking like a bad idea because you knew Choso wouldn’t want to slack on Yuji’s behalf, raging blizzard or not.
You spot him at the end of the driveway trying to clear the snowbank, oblivious to your presence. You reluctantly make your way down the driveway so he can hear you over the harsh wind but he notices you before you can speak.
“What are you doing out here without a coat?” He turns and looks at you with concern, “it’s snowing, you should go back inside.”
“That’s funny cause I was about to tell you the same thing.”
You can tell Choso doesn’t understand what you mean by that by the look on his face, so you clarify, “Choso, you’ve been outside for like two hours now, not to mention the fact that you’re shovelling snow in a blizzard.”
You gesture back to the area Choso has already shovelled, already back to being covered in snow.
“Oh,” He stares at the snow covered driveway, his hard work now erased, “I guess I didn’t realize how long it’s been.”
He looks back at your shivering form now covered in goosebumps and snowflakes, feeling awful that he made you worry about him, “let me put the shovel away and I’ll join you back inside.”
“Ok-kay,” your teeth chattering as you nod back at him.
You make your way back up to the front door and have to force your frozen fingers to bend around the doorknob to twist it open, wincing at the pain in the process. The door finally opens and you exhale in relief at the warmth now surrounding you.
With your boots off and placed to the side, you start making your way to your bedroom to dry your hair from the snow and change into something warm.
Digging through your drawers you find fuzzy pink pj pants with little candy canes on them, with some more digging and you find the matching button up and put them on. You grab your towel from the bathroom and start to pat down the damp spots of your hair until it’s mostly dry.
You hear the front door close so you head to the main area of the house where you see Choso stomping the snow off his boots at the front door. He wouldn’t admit it, but he looked miserable. The snow that clung to him outside is now melting off him dripping into puddles on the floor, his hair and clothes soaked through, and from where you were standing it almost looked like he was shivering.
You didn’t like seeing him like this, so you thought of something that would cheer him up.
“Hey Choso, I was thinking about making some of my special hot chocolate,” that seemed to draw his attention from the puddles on the floor, “you know, to warm up a little.”
He left his coat and boots at the door, not wanting to bring the mess into the house and walked over to where you were standing.
Now that you were inside you could really see how red his nose and cheeks are, not to mention his ears. Heck, you could feel the frigid air coming off of him, “yeah, that sounds nice, but I think I’ll go take a hot shower first.”
“Okay,” you nodded like you agreed he needed one to stop from freezing, “it’ll be ready by the time you get back.” He gave you a small nod and headed down the hallway towards the bathroom.
You start walking over to the kitchen and grab all the ingredients you need for your special hot chocolate and mix them together in a pot on the stove. You call it your “special hot chocolate” but it’s not really all that special, the only somewhat uncommon ingredients being cinnamon and a candy cane.
When it was finished you pulled out two christmas mugs from the cupboard and poured the hot chocolate in, going back and forth between the two to make sure they’re equally full. You walked back towards the living room, mugs in hand, and set them on the coffee table, taking a small sip from yours.
“That looks good.” Choso says entering the room, you turn to face him but are surprised to find that, yes, he has also changed into his pjs, but stopped at socks and pants.
“Uh, Choso I thought you were trying to warm up,” your eyes move from his down to his bare chest and back up again, “why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”
His eyes move to look anywhere but at you, “the shower was too hot and now I’m trying to cool down.”
“You’re practically blue,” you deadpan.
It’s not like you haven’t seen your roommate shirtless before. In the summertime when it got too hot it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, however, it wasn’t summer and you knew him well enough to know when he was lying.
You stare at him until he finally meets your unconvinced stare and sighs, “okay, I will tell you,” he breaks eye contact again, “the shower did warm me up, but it also made me aware of how sore my muscles are from shovelling the snow and my arms were too sore lift above my head to put a shirt on.” He meets your eyes again looking sheepish.
“Okay then at least have this.” You pick up a blanket from the couch and toss it to him.
You both sit down on the couch starting to get comfy, and decide to put on a Christmas movie.
Around 30 minutes in you finish your hot chocolate and set the empty mug down on the table and glance over to see an almost full one. You find that strange since Choso loves anything chocolate, especially your own hot chocolate recipe.
You turn towards Choso noticing how tense his face is, “not craving hot chocolate tonight?” when he looks over at you, his face loosens in a strange way, like he’s trying not to look tense.
“It’s not that, it’s just. . .” he gives you a guilt-ridden look, “. . . I think I injured myself, my muscles are aching.”
Your bottom lip stuck out at his words but you felt a flash of warmth in your chest, it was rare to see Choso like this, cute, almost. You did want to help him though, you didn’t like him being in pain, even if it was his own actions that got him here.
“Lie down on your stomach, I think I have something that will help.” As Choso starts to lie down you quickly make your way to the bathroom cabinet, sifting through bottles until you pull out a dark blue glass bottle with a purple label.
You make your way back into the living room to find Choso lying down on his stomach, blanket tossed aside exposing his bare back, it seems like he figured out what you were planning.
“I’m back,” you pull the cap of the bottle and start to pour the contents into your palm, a lotion with a milky consistency, the scent gently wafts into your nose.
“Lavender?” Choso rolls onto his side to look for your confirmation.
“Yeah, I thought it would be relaxing for you, and your muscles.” You set the bottle down on the table and start to rub the lotion between your palms. “Okay, roll back onto your stomach, I’m gonna massage the pain out of your muscles.” you shoot him a determined look.
“I think that’s oversimplifying it a bit.” He has a subtle look of concern but rolls back onto his stomach regardless.
Once you figure he’s comfortable enough you get to work, applying a gentle pressure to his shoulders, kneading out the strained tissue. You start working your way down his back, flattening your palms on his shoulderblades making circular movements, feeling all the muscles underneath.
You pause to put more lotion on your hands then turn back to resume around his lower back, applying more pressure now, not much, just enough to work the tendons underneath his skin.
As your hands make their way back up you notice a slight knot on the base of his neck, but with the way you're standing next to him it’s hard to maneuver to get the right angle to massage it out, unless, “. . . Choso?”
He’s been silent this entire time you start to think he fell asleep but then he responds with a soft “hmm?”
“I feel a knot right here,” you put light pressure on it to show him, “but I think the only way I can get to it is if I. . .” you trail off not quite knowing how to word your thoughts.
Choso picks up on your awkward motions, “I think I get what you mean. You can, I’m okay with it.” he closes his eyes again, waiting for you to continue.
“Okay.” You say more to yourself than to him.
Now with his approval, you swing your leg over him to the other side using your knee for support, and shift so now both knees are on the couch either side of Choso, straddling him.
You take a breath and focus your attention back to the knot at the base of his neck, using the heel of your hand to apply a firm pressure, starting with circular motions and moving into slow strokes. You still feel the knot, so you apply a bit more pressure and Choso moans.
His eyes shoot open clearly not meaning to make a sound, let alone one that sounded so. . . “I’m—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
You see his cheeks turn a light pink and you press a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “Choso, it’s okay, it’s a massage after all, it’s supposed to feel good.” He seems to calm down a little at that. “In fact, feel free to make all the noise you want, it lets me know I’m doing a good job.” That made his face turn a deeper shade of pink.
“O–okay.” he mumbles trying to relax.
The movie you put on plays in the background while you massage Choso. You’ve already finished his arms and are going back to his shoulders and neck, apply more lotion as you work, more for the moisture and scent as you’ve already done most of the hard part working out knots and reaching the deep tissue.
Your fingers glide across Choso’s upper neck, reaching his scalp, then they start to descend to his mid back when you hear a sound. You thought it came from the TV so you reach over to grab the remote and turn down the volume, turning back to Choso you hear it again. You can’t make out what it is so you mute the TV and wait a moment, that’s when you hear it, snoring. Choso’s snoring and it’s the softest, cutest snore you think you’ve ever heard.
A grin spreads across your face, mentally patting yourself on the back for a job well done. Now you want to get into a more comfortable position but you're trapped with his arms pressing against your legs, essentially holding them in place on his body.
You worry moving will wake him up so you ignore the feeling of your legs falling asleep and continue to watch the movie and listen to Choso snoring. After all, there’s worse positions to spend the night in.
