Chapter Text
It’s been a week since the beginning of your friendship and fake dating relationship with Saiki and a week since Teruhashi vowed to either break you and Saiki up inconspicuously or make your school life a living hell. It astounded you to see the lengths the girl went to try and make you look bad to other people, but Saiki was always there to somehow save the day.
~Monday-two days after the festival~
You woke up a few minutes late from when you were supposed to wake up, which caused you to hurry and get out of the house to get to school. You sped around to get your bag and shoes together to get out the door, and when you did, you were greeted with a familiar, stoic face waiting behind the front door.
“Oh! Good morning, Saiki?” You were surprised, not expecting him at your front door.
As you make your way to the pink-haired boy, you close and lock the door behind you. Saiki nods, steps closer to you, and puts a finger on your arm.
‘You’re late.’
You hear his voice ring through your head in a deadpan tone as he looks at you through his eyebrows. “In my defense, I didn’t know you’d be waiting for me.” You roll your eyes before continuing. “Are you planning on making this a habit? Acting like a real boyfriend, waiting for your girlfriend to get out of the house to walk to school together, huh?” You wiggle your eyebrows at Saiki while you teasingly bump his shoulders with yours.
All Saiki does is roll his eyes at you before turning around to walk away. You chuckle to yourself and trail behind him as you make your way to school.
“Let me guess.” You turn your head to look at Saiki, who gives you a slight nod before looking away to indicate that he is listening. “You only came to talk about the game plan so we can act accordingly in front of Teruhashi?” Saiki nods, and you reciprocate with a nod of your own.
You found yourself hoping that Saiki wouldn’t mind walking with you even after Teruhashi’s surrender.
Over the weekend, you probably thought more about the pink-haired boy smiling and his failed attempts to hide that smile than you would like to admit.
'I mean, after this is over, I wouldn’t mind just talking to Saiki and walking with him to school like normal friends.' You think to yourself as you look at Saiki, until an idea comes to you.
“Hey.” You smiled toothily. “ How about we exchange numbers?”. Saiki looks at you quizzically.
‘Is that really a good idea?’ The boy muses to himself, his brow furrowed. Saiki pauses for a second before handing you his phone, which is already set to the phone app.
‘It’d be better for us to exchange numbers anyway. It's just so that we can talk more about what to do with Teruhashi. Nothing more.’ Saiki thinks to himself, seamlessly making excuses as to why he would need your phone number.
This surprised you. Although you weren’t incredibly familiar with Saiki, you were aware of his stubbornness and aversion when it came to socializing.
“Great!” You take his phone into your hand and begin to dial your phone number and dial his number on yours. Just as you were about to give it back to him, you paused. You peek at Saiki and decide to take a second longer before giving it back.
Saiki quickly recognizes your drawn out time on his phone. He tries to snatch it back from you, but you quickly turn around to hide his phone. “Wait ! Wait, give me one more second.” Saiki rolls his eyes, and just as he is about to say something, you return to him with an innocent smile and hand him back his phone. “Here you go.”
Saiki looks at you suspiciously and looks through his contacts to see if you tampered with anything.
‘ Y/N <3.’
He shoots you a deadpan look, obviously indicating he wants an explanation.
“Don’t you think this is another opportunity to kill one bird with two stones?” You smirked confidently as you wave your phone to him, showing it to say, ‘Kusuo <3’.
‘You mean two birds with one stone.’ He mentally face-palmed.
Saiki stared at you, unimpressed, and put his phone away before continuing to walk. You playfully scoffed and continued alongside him, letting the atmosphere fall into a comforting silence all the way to school.
Thankfully, this saved Saiki some peace of mind until Nendo and Kaido swarmed his seat. You laughed as you swiftly made your way to yours.
Although the first half of the school day went on with no trouble, Teruhashi having yet to make a move on you made you feel worried.
~Lunch time~
The school bell rang to signify the beginning of lunch time. Although you had no prior plans for lunch, you decided that it’d be a perfect opportunity for you and Saiki to devise a plan. That was, until Teruhashi also decided this was the perfect time to approach you.
Just as you were going to make your way to Saiki, Teruhashi appeared in front of you.
“Good afternoon, Y/N!” she says in a cheery tone, with a smile as bright as the sun’s rays. You were taken aback by the unexpected greeting and responded awkwardly, suddenly unsure how to interact with her.
“Heyy, Teruhashi, what’s up?” You ask sheepishly, to which Teruhashi cannot help but scoff (mentally, of course).
‘What’s up? WHAT”S UP?! That’s all she can say to me after LYING to my face? Alright, Y/N, I see what’s going on.’
Teruhashi stares at you for a few seconds in silence, as if she’s analyzing you, before finally speaking up.
“Y/N? Can you join me for lunch? I want to talk to you about something.” Knowing what she wants to talk about, you quickly try to come up with excuses as to why you wouldn’t be able to join her.
“Oh, uh, I don’t think I can.” Oh, come on, if you don’t have lunch money, I’ll gladly pay for you!” Teruhashi smirked as your eyes perked up in interest.
‘Easy.’ Teruhashi thinks.
Although you knew what she wanted to discuss and the situation at hand, you just couldn’t easily decline a free lunch. Just as you were ready to leave with her, Saiki pops up behind you and puts a hand on your left shoulder, surprising you and Teruhashi.
‘Tell her you’re having lunch with me.’ Saiki advises
You take a moment to calculate your next words, your eyes glancing from Saiki’s hand to Teruhashi’s eyes. Putting your right hand on Saiki’s, you tell her, “Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot I was gonna have lunch with Saiki!” You pull your face into a slight cringe as you lean back onto Saiki’s chest and gently rub your fingers on his knuckles before taking his hand while for an embrace.
Saiki, as well as Teruhashi, was surprised at your newfound boldness and confidence. Saiki felt slightly flustered in the situation since he didn’t expect you to get comfortable so fast. He clears his throat and reciprocates the hand holding, strongly interlocking your fingers as your hands fall to each other's sides.
You smile innocently at Teruhashi. "But we better go now; this one gets cranky if he doesn’t get his lunch on time.” You joke, and Saiki rolls his eyes.
Teruhashi is completely stunned and unable to answer, so you take the initiative to leave and quickly say goodbye.
Taking your bag, you basically run out the door with Saiki and lead him to the roof, which he quietly follows. During the entire time, you’re still holding hands, and for some reason, Saiki can’t find it in himself to let go.
-
You and Saiki decided it was better to act in simple manners rather than making things more complicated than need be. PDA was one of the things you emphasized and believed to be of utmost importance if Saiki wanted everyone to believe in the relationship. Nothing too extraordinary. Just holding hands, finding any excuse to touch each other endearingly, kisses on the cheek. Okay, maybe that last part went a little too far but it’s all for the sake of the plan. Nothing more, nothing less.
~Wednesday~
It’s lunch time yet again, and instead of waiting around in the classroom, you persuade Saiki to parade your “relationship” around the hallway to get things more mobile.
You two stroll the hallway in a lovey dovey manner—well, as lovey dovey as you can with a guy who is as expressive as a stone statue. Although you and Saiki were able to get hand holding down quite effortlessly, body language and facial expressions proved to be one more hurdle you’d need to overcome with Saiki to sell your relationship.
People walk past you and Saiki, first in astonishment that you two were confidently holding hands in school, but then in confusion when they saw your indifferent faces.
‘Yeah…I don’t think we’re fooling anybody with this.’ You point this out, recognizing Saiki’s lack of expression.
‘I don’t know what you were envisioning with this “plan”.’ Saiki scoffs, ‘Like, what did you think was gonna happen?’ He glances at you expecting an answer as you return the glance.
‘Well, my plan would’ve played out much better if you didn’t look like someone was forcing you to do this. And for your information, the hand holding was selling our relationship until people caught sight of your face.’ You informed, annoyed at Saiki’s lack of effort.
Saiki didn’t respond, but instead continued to walk alongside you which annoyed you even further. You stopped walking and let go of his hand which surprised him.
“You know this is kind of getting annoying.” You scoffed while chuckling insincerely.
Saiki turns to look at you confused and you continue. “Like, hello, I’m coming up with the plans and you’re not saying anything helpful or doing anything helpful.” You get closer to his face. “If I come up with a plan to help the both of us, I atleast expect you to add on to it to help people believe us rather than complaining and making me feel stupid.”
You wait for his response but all he can do is stare into your eyes with his eyebrows furrowing up in confusion. You pause for a second, scoffing and rolling your eyes.
Saiki knows what you’re about to say and sporadically tries to come up with ways to keep you from saying it. Then, he hears a certain someone making their way around the corner.
“You know what, maybe this won't work out, we should end thi-”
Saiki cuts you off.
Not with a scoff or a witty remark, but with a kiss on the cheek.
His lips lay on your cheek for what seems to be an eternity. His hands firmly hold your arms in place as he slightly backs his face away to look at yours.
Your heart is beating and so is his. As if everything around you pauses, you and Saiki stare at each other. His eyes making rounds from your eyes to your lips for reasons Saiki swears is unknown to him. You take notice of this and do the same. With a quivering breath, your face slowly gets closer to his and so does he, eyes disregarding eyes and paying more attention to lips.
Just as you and Saiki were closing the distance you hear a gasp which prompts you to immediately separate from Saiki.
“Oh. MY. GOD! Y/N, Saiki!” Chiyo exclaims, you and Saiki turning your heads to look at an excited Chiyo and a horrified Teruhashi.
“Hi girls...” You say timidly as you try to make some distance between you and Saiki until you get an idea.
You hold Saiki’s hand and take your free hand to caress the shoulder of the hand you’re holding as you get closer to him; basically snuggling up to his side. Saiki, surprisingly, gladly returns the display of affection and presses against your side. Saiki’s eyes look at you with endearment. He wouldn’t be able to tell you if they were sincere or not but all he knew is that he couldn’t help but look at you this way.
“I’d say sorry for walking in on you guys, but we are in the hallway.” Chiyo teases while nudging Teruhashi who tries to laugh it off but is seemingly mortified by what’s infront of her.
“Ha ha, yeaah…”
“But look at you love birds! I’m rooting for you guys!” Chiyo cheers on and Teruhashi’s pained smile drops as she’s dragged away by a giggling Chiyo.
You slowly let go of Saiki’s arm and clear your throat as the girls leave, not knowing what to do. You both stand in silence before you can muster up the courage to look at him but when you do you find him already staring deeply at you.
~Friday- Present time~
Ever since that fateful day, you and Saiki have been working like a well oiled cog machine. Smoothly falling into the role of lovers when necessary and sometimes unknowingly. You hold hands whenever Teruhashi is around and even during lunchtime when devising a plan, but only because Saiki swears it's better than having someone eavesdropping on your conversation.
It’s the end of the week and you and Saiki are walking home together, just like you have been without fail for every day of the week. You two have gotten comfortable with each other now that it has been a week since your first meeting, making it easier for jokes and normal conversations that don’t require the topic of dealing with Teruhashi to take place.
You laugh at a stupid joke you made and Saiki rolls his eyes in amusement which is accompanied by a slight smile. This goes on until you arrive at your home and find yourself saddened that it’s time to part ways with Saiki yet again.
“God, you know,” you turn to him. “You’re actually fun to be around with.” Saiki puts his hand on his chest and acts offended which makes you laugh. “You know what I mean!” He nods his head and chuckles. You both stand together for a little while, not saying anything nor doing anything.
Saiki gazes at you and finds himself moving to hold your hand. Just as his hand brushes yours-
‘I don’t want him to go.’
You surprise yourself with this thought, not even noticing Saiki’s attempt to touch you,
“It’s getting late, you should go home.” You smile shyly, knowing you, another second spent standing with Saiki, you’d invite him in and basically keep him hostage.
Saiki for some reason feels struck down and hesitantly nods his head in agreement and in goodbye. He walks off to the direction of his house and you walk into your home.
It’s cold. It’s quiet.
You close the door behind you, feeling a strange emptiness in the silence that follows. Saiki's departure left a void you didn't anticipate, and you find yourself missing his indifferent presence already.
Little do you know that Saiki, too, is grappling with similar thoughts on his way home. After accidentally peering into your thoughts, Saiki finds himself questioning the direction this relationship is leading to and the nature of his feelings towards you.