Title: Just Getting Started
Rating: R18
Description: Yata was pretty sure things were completely normal between him and Saruhiko after they'd worked everything out - or, at least, as normal as things could be with them.
Fushimi didn't have any expectations about his feelings for Misaki being answered - why should he, when the odds were against him, and he'd never needed any of that, anyway?
They'd hung out tons of times before. This shouldn't be any different... right?
Crossposts: |
This was written as a Secret Santa gift for , who left some beautiful prompts. Thank you, Sam!
Also, thank you to , who read the fic over for me and pointed out where it had issues. You're the best!
It started out pretty normal.
"You're off next Thursday, right?" Yata leaned against the wall outside of the Homra bar, skateboard under his right arm while his left was held up, the glowing holographic screen from his PDA displaying the tiny figure of his conversation partner in front of him. "Come over Wednesday night."
That was a common request. He'd made it dozens of times in the months after they'd resolved things, initially with a kind of uncertain awkwardness but with increasing confidence in the months that followed. They went for meals, played co-op at Yata's apartment until late into the night, walked around aimlessly while just chatting about various things, and even once went to a festival together (minus the yukata). There was nothing unusual about this time.
Saruhiko's voice drifted back to him, across the connection. "Any reason in particular?"
"There's this new movie out that looks pretty good – Bandou's lending me his entertainment account." Which he could access from his gaming console, conveniently enough. "I'll make dinner, and we'll watch it together. How about it?"
"Fine. I'll message you on Wednesday when I'm off."
The easy response had a smile spreading on Yata's face, the usual little kick of anticipation hitting at the same time. "Right. Yeah." He cleared his throat, more out of habit than anything. "See you then."
"See you." The call disconnected.
He was still grinning when he lowered his wrist, pushing off the wall and heading for the entrance to the bar. Things weren't the same between the two of them as they had been before, and that was fine – they'd both changed, and there were a lot of things – painful things – that made going back to that time impossible. Yata favored looking forward, and he kind of thought after everything, that was how Saruhiko felt as well. They couldn't erase the past, but they could build a future.
Anyway, right now it was better than he'd expected. Yata paused for a beat with his hand on the door, considering the stir of anxious excitement that seemed to reverberate through his chest and stomach. Lately, it was like this when he made plans with Saruhiko – more so when they met, and even sometimes just thinking about him (which he did a lot of these days, for whatever reason). His heart kicked up, skin prickling and stomach knotting with a kind of thrill he couldn't explain. It was sort of similar to the feeling from middle school, when his thoughts were all tied up with Saruhiko and nothing else in his world could matter quite as much as the two of them, together. But it wasn't... exactly like that, either. There was a restless edge to it all, like his whole body was holding its breath.
So yeah, weird – but also good. He couldn't really complain.
Still, that was no reason to stand around outside like an idiot. Yata pulled open the door and stepped through, looking up with an enthusiastic, "Yo!" for whoever happened to be in there. Which was apparently just Bandou, Eric, Anna, and of course Kusanagi behind the bar.
