Oneshots With Uramichi Oniisan

Drop The Facade ❤🥺

Is it 1:30 in the morning right now? It sure is. Am I still going to write this in its entirity? You absolutely bet I'm going to.

Edit: Finishing this at 3 in the morning. No regrets. ✌

~~~

As he waved a final goodbye to the last leaving child from the TV studio, Uramichi could hardly ignore the aching in his face. The smile he had plastered on all day was trembling ever so slightly, like a bridge on unstable supports. And with the pain relief that was the children's high energy distracting him now gone, Uramichi fought to keep the smile on with every last bit of his might.

"Good job, Uramichi!" the director called to him as he passed by- Uramichi had done this so many days now that he occasionally experienced deja vu just doing it again- and Uramichi tried not to speedwalk away out of desperation to be alone so he could drop the smile.

"Thank you so much!" he called back, his voice even straining slightly, but thankfully the doors were not far. 

As soon as he came into the hallway, the smile disappeared in an instant, replaced by a solemn frown. He let out a soft, low groan as he massaged his jaw, walking down the hall towards his dressing room. He had hoped that smiling as much as he had to for his job would make smiling become easier overtime... like muscle building. However, his facial muscles appeared more stubborn than most, and he was yet again let down by the reality of life.

The very thought brought a sour expression over his face, accompanied by a darkened shadow over his eyes.

He was about to round the corner, but he had to force himself to a halt when he nearly collided with another figure turning the corner from the other direction. You let out a little yelp as you nearly ran into Uramichi's chest. "Oh! Uramichi, I'm so sorry. I got lost in my thoughts when I should've been focusing on looking around."

Uramichi wore a smile again- it had come up against his own free will- and he responded good naturedly, "It's okay! I was lost in my thoughts too."

You met his tired brown eyes with your curious gaze. "What sorts of thoughts?" you asked him.

Uramichi's smile twitched. "Just about the pains of unwisely getting your hopes up only for reality to crush them as soon as it can after," he answered darkly.

Your expression softened to a little worried frown. "Uramichi..." you murmured.

"Hmm?" he responded, his smile not moving more than an inch since he had first nearly ran into you.

"Are... How are you feeling?"

The question shouldn't have caught him off guard, but it managed to anyways. Uramichi's expression dropped to genuine shock before he slowly crafted his smile up onto his face again. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

You frowned a bit more. "If you don't mind me asking, Uramichi... 'Fine' as in everything going fairly neutrally well, or 'fine' as in trying to respond in the most socially acceptable way...?" Uramichi nearly choked.

"'Fine' as in..." Uramichi trailed off, no real response coming to mind. The two of you stood there, silent as you awaited his continued response. It did not come. Your expression became more worried, eyebrows furrowed slightly now. A bead of sweat formed on Uramichi's temple. "Y/N, I'm alright," he assured you gently, his smile softening out a bit, but it wasn't enough for you to buy it.

The truth was Uramichi had been on your mind all day.

You had seen how he looked coming in the door this morning; his eyes dark and his expression numb. You had observed the way he seemed to move as if he was acting only on muscle memory to navigate the building. And then you had seen his expression completely do a 180 shift when he went on stage. You understood why he did it- heck, you weren't innocent of it either- but when he forced on a smile this much, it worried you a lot.

"Y/N?" Uramichi's voice pulled you from your thoughts. "Is something wrong?" You eyed his body language. It was stiff, trembling and... sad. And yet his expression plastered on something else.

You couldn't take it any longer.

"Y/N-?" he had begun again, only for his voice to leave his body half way through your name as he gasped. You had come up to him and wrapped your arms around his chest, hugging him close. Uramichi didn't dare breathe for a moment, then slowly, his breathing cautiously returned as he looked slightly down to see you.

"I'm sorry to see you in pain..." you murmured, and he was unable to see your face with your head down. "It's okay to let the facade go if you need a break..." To his own surprise even, Uramichi felt his fake smile melt away. The muscles in his face gratefully relaxed into a blank look, then his eyes lowered to look at you again.

You were a bit surprised to feel him wrap his arms around you too, pulling you in close. Your head rested against his strong chest, and you felt your heart beat faster as you now could hear the gentle thrum of his heart too. Heat rose to your face.

Uramichi felt the muscles in his body relax, some of which he hadn't even realized were tensed to begin with. He let out a soft, content sigh as he briefly closed his eyes. This feels kind of nice... he thought, although his expression would intially imply much the opposite from the frown he now had.

However, you personally didn't mind his frown. Of course you wanted to see him happy, but his frowns were far better to you than the fake smiles he put up. Glancing up at him, you caught the sort of distant softness that had come to his eyes. You felt your heart pound a little more noticably in your chest. You closed your eyes for a moment, savoring the nice moment in the quiet of the empty halls.

"Thank you..." Uramichi's voice muttered near your ear, sending shivers down your spine. You hadn't realized he had lowered his head so close.

"O-Of course..." you answered, giving him a tiny affectionate squeeze. "I care about you a lot, Uramichi. And I'm here for you whenever you need it." You hesitated before more uncertainly adding, "We all are." Uramichi chuckled, and you lifted your head from his chest to meet his eyes. "What?" you asked, confused as to what you had said that made him laugh. 

You froze.

He wore a smile again, but this time it was different. It was soft, genuine. And just like that, it was gone again in an instant. "You just sounded so uncertain about that," Uramichi remarked, slowly letting you go.

You pulled back in an embarrassed fluster. "I-I didn't mean to!" Uramichi laughed again. "We're all here for you, I promise."

Uramichi's eyes met yours. "I appreciate it," he admitted.

"Hey, Uramichi, Y/N." Both of you jolted and spun towards the voice. One of the staff members was approaching you two and you felt a wave of relief that you both had released the hug when you did. "We're locking up the building now, so you two better get home."

"Okay," Uramichi replied.

"Right," you added.

As the both of you walked in silence out the doors of the building, Uramichi looked at you. "See you tomorrow then?"

You smiled at him. "Yeah. Work won't take a break for either of us." As Uramichi's expression soured immediately, you let out an unexpected hearty laugh that brought a smile to Uramichi's face.

Seperating to go your own ways, neither of you quite stopped thinking about the other all the way back home.