recthething | Recs - Matchablossom Fanfic || SK8 the Infinity

Fandom: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Pairing: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Original Tumblr Post: Link
Dreamwidth Personal Journal: Link

My birthday is next Thursday!!! 🥳🥳🥳 And what's better way to celebrate than talking about the stuff I enjoyed the past year?

First up, Matchablossom!

Kaoru and Kojiro and the whole gang was such a comfort in 2022. I can always count on SK8 to elevate my mood whenever I feel down, esp Matchablossom. 🍵 🌸

Here are some fics that I adored reading in 2022 -

Title: the elements of entropy
Author:

ailurea
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 11,606
Summary:

Kojiro's goal has always been to start his own restaurant, so he makes a plan to skip university and train with chefs all across the world. Kaoru refuses to let him go alone.

(Alternatively: Kojiro and Kaoru—then, now, and forever.)

Title: the skateboarding chef who can't stop thinking about his best friend
Author:

architecture_in_f1ll0ry
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 4,217
Summary:

This week, a mostly-straight man has casual flings while navigating an intriguing relationship with his childhood friend: 26, single, Okinawa.

Inspired by the Sex Diaries series in The Cut.

Title: How Little We Know
Author:

beelligerence
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 13,902
Summary:

Kojiro sighs softly and smiles, mostly to himself, as Kaoru talks. He really doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life wondering ‘what if.’ And he doesn’t want to wait any longer, not when he’s already waited long enough.

“Hey, Kaoru,” Kojiro says, interrupting Kaoru’s current train of thought.

“What do you want, oaf?” Kaoru asks, irritated.

“Will you go out on a date with me?”

Kojiro has spent more than half of his life in love with Kaoru. He’s tired of waiting.

Title: Facade
Author:

bitterheart
Rating: Teen
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 11,964
Summary:

The first time Kojiro hears from Kaoru after the breakup is after six days of radio silence. He's using his clipped professional tone that he usually saves for work phone calls when he says, "I was reviewing our—my calendar, and I realised that we sent an RSVP to your family holiday next week."

"Right." Kojiro turns the burner of the stove off and presses his phone a little harder against his ear. "I'll, uh. Give my parents a call."

"You haven't told them yet, have you." It's not a question, and Kaoru isn't gentle about the way he says it. Kojiro loves him—used to love him for that sort of thing.

Two weeks after breaking up, Kojiro and Kaoru attend a holiday with Kojiro's family and pretend they're still together.

Title: Misfire
Author:

bitterheart
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 10,404
Summary:

Kojiro pauses for a moment, carefully considering what he's about to do. He takes a breath, and sends: Show me how you'd sext.

Kojiro accidentally sends Kaoru a sext meant for someone else. Things get a little out of hand.

Title: The Himbofication of Nanjo Kojiro
Author:

crinklefries
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 30,378
Summary:

The thing about emotional consequences is that they have all of the gut-punch, full body aching of a physical consequence. They are all-encompassing, overwhelming, terrible, and completely inescapable.

In this case, Kojiro could have easily avoided the emotional consequences to his actions if he had just tried.

But he hadn’t—because Nanjo Kojiro is nothing if not a complete fucking idiot. And it was no one’s fault but his own that he had agreed to hook up with his best friend.

* * *

Kaoru comes up with the great, great idea to become friends with benefits. Kojiro listens to him. Now why did you go and do that, Kojiro?

Title: rose and shining dew on every buttercup
Author:

faintneko
Rating: General
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 4,534
Summary:

Kaoru has a little shadow and Kojiro thinks it’s the most hilarious (sweetest) thing to ever happen.

Title: home is an anchor
Author:

Marks
Rating: Teen
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 12,968
Summary:

It had been a long time since Kaoru had properly appreciated Okinawa. Sometimes his clients would come from the mainland, or even overseas, and they always seemed so impressed by things that Kaoru always took for granted. It was like that fake story about frogs staying in gradually boiling water; maybe growing up around it meant that Kaoru could never see what was so great about it.

Or maybe he just needed to take a step back and examine it from a new angle. Perspective was very important for calligraphy, after all, and it was giving him an idea.

Kaoru is stressed out, so he decides to go on vacation, but stay local. Obviously, Kojiro comes along.

Title: it's always been you
Author:

onlydaisy
Rating: Teen
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 22,811
Summary:

Kaoru isn’t in love with Kojiro. He repeats this to himself each morning, when his phone lights up with a ‘good morning’ from Kojiro, an hour later when he shows up outside his door to walk to school and greets him with a tight hug, and then consistently throughout the rest of the day as Kojiro continues to make him suffer.

Kaoru isn’t in love with him, he won’t let himself be.

Or-

Five times Kojiro and Kaoru almost kiss, and one time they do.

Title: the heart is a mirror
Author:

sepulcher
Rating: Teen
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 9,880
Summary:

“Let’s get married,” Kojiro said.

(It was the phenomenon of being so close to something that you lose the details, or knowing something so well and so confidently that you don’t bother to look twice.)

Title: tangled roots, steady waters
Author:

wintersrose616
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Word Count: 7,357
Summary:

“If you behave,” Kaoru drawls, raising an eyebrow, “I will.”

Kojiro’s lips part, an answer of some sort on the tip of his tongue, but before he can say anything, a familiar, metallic voice rings out through the studio.

Your appointment is at 2:30, in half an hour. It’s time to leave.

Both Kaoru and Kojiro freeze before Kaoru sits up, any intention on continuing this path for the afternoon gone, replaced by a mask of smooth, but false, professionalism.

“No—,” Kojiro starts, but Kaoru’s running a hand through his hair, smoothing out tangles as he ignores him.

“Thank you, Carla,” he calls.

“Kaoru— ”

.

As pseudo dads of three rambunctious teenagers on top of their day jobs, they don't often get alone time.

or, five times Joe and Cherry get interrupted, and one night they get to themselves.