Chapter Text
Today was the day, Sunday. Hyoma had been profusely texting Reo non-stop since the moment he left Brew Lock that Thursday. Today was a slight exception, because this time Reo had been looped into a FaceTime as Hyoma got ready.
“Is the hair too much? Should I just wear it down? Ugh Reo I don’t know what to do!” Reo sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Man you’re overthinking it, you’ll look good no matter what you do.” Hyoma groaned. Damn reo and his niceness.
“That’s no help! Reo I’ve never been this stressed over a guy before!” Reo’s expression turns sincere as he looks at his friend through the screen.
“I can tell, but if he’s anything like you tell me about, he won’t give a fuck about how your hair looks because he likes you.” Reo says softly, reassuring his friend. “Hm, but hair up.” Hyoma scoffs and ties his hair.
“See was that so hard? Damn.”
———
Rensuke sat nervously at one of the booths at the cafe, checking the time every 30 seconds at the latest. He was early, but that didn’t stop his nerves. Rensuke’s sisters had helped him pick out his outfit for today, according to them his fashion sense ’couldn’t be trusted’ whatever that meant. For him they had chosen simple jeans under a striped short sleeve button up. Not his usual outfit, but he trusted his sisters more than himself with this kind of thing.
“You look nice, when’s he getting here?” Isagi says as he takes the seat across from him for his break. Rensuke put down his phone and faced his friend.
“We’re meeting at one, so he should be here soon. Do I look okay?” He asked as he picked his hands up to adjust his hair.
“You look just fine.” Isagi says to him as he prevents Rensuke’s hands from messing up his hair. “I’m sure the date is going to go great.” Rensuke sighs.
“Thanks, man.” Before he could say anymore, the bell of the opening door rang and Rensuke immediately whips his head to see who it is, and to his delight, it was Hyoma. Isagi took Hyoma’s entrance as his cue to leave and left Rensuke to enjoy his date.
Hyoma was breathtaking. Despite his simple outfit he was beautiful, and his hair . When he thought about it, Rensuke couldn’t recall ever seeing Hyoma with his hair up before. He surely would have remembered if he had because the ponytail was holding Rensuke in a chokehold. Stop looking at his neck, stop looking at his..beautiful.. porcelain.. neck..
“Hi, I didn’t keep you waiting long did I?” Hyoma says to him as he approaches, tossing his ponytail to the side. Was he really going out with this guy? Rensuke thought as he swallowed his nerves . He’s so perfect.. how did I get this lucky?
“N-no! You didn’t keeping me waiting long at all… you look really nice.” Rensuke says as he stands up and adjusts his clothes nervously. Hyoma smiles softly and examines the boy in front of him.
“You don’t look too bad yourself big guy, I like the outfit.” He says endearingly, softly punching Rensuke’s side. The taller laughs softly and straightens his posture, now slightly more confident in his appearance.
“Oh thanks, my sisters picked it out for me,me. I’m not very talented in the fashion department.” Hyoma smiles.
“Well I think they did a great job, you look handsome.” He smirks, instinctively moving to tuck his hair behind his ear despite the fact it’s still tied up. Cute.
“Wanna get outta here? We still have the rest of our date to get to, plus I can literally feel my coworkers staring at us and I’d rather they not.” Rensuke ends his sentence glaring over at Raichi who was looming from behind the counter.
The two of them leave the cafe as Rensuke leads the way through downtown.
“You still haven’t told me where we’re going Ren, should I be worried?” Rensuke smiled and laughed at Hyoma’s remark.
“We’re going somewhere you’ll like… I hope.”
——
“We’re here!” Rensuke exclaimed with pride as they stopped at a little hole in the wall book shop. He remembered how hyoma always seemed to be reading something while drinking his mocha, so he thought this would be the perfect place to take him.
“..Oh!”
Uh oh. That’s not a good noise.
“..what’s wrong? I thought you liked books. We can go somewhere else-“ Hyoma stops him.
“No, no I do, which is why I work here… but we can still go in!” Rensuke’s heart sinks. He thought he’d been so thoughtful to take him somewhere catered to his interests, and he could maybe learn more about him and buy him a new book or two, but boy did his plan backfire.
“Oh my god I feel so stupid. We don’t have to go in it’s fine I’m sorry I took you here.” Hyoma shakes his hands in protest, assuring the other that it’s fine, and leads him into the shop.
“Have you been here before?” Hyoma asked as he opened the door and walked them in.
“No, actually. I’ve just seen good reviews for it and it looked like a cozy date spot in pictures.” Hyoma nodded as he scanned the store for his coworkers, unable to fully pay attention to his wonderful date without knowing which of his judgy coworkers were looking. A glimpse of long silky black hair is all he needs to see before he rolls his eyes and tries to disappear in the bookshelves.
“Oh wow Chigiri, coming in on your day off? And who’s this?” Hyoma sighs, although it’s better than Otoya, he would’ve preferred Barou over the nosy Aryu.
“Whatever, Aryu. I’m just stopping by to grab a book.” His coworker looks the two of them down judgmentally but shrugs.
“Mmk, be glad Otoya isn’t working, he’d be devastated to see you bring your boyfriend here.” He says playfully, grabbing a stack of books to sort through. Hyoma rolls his eyes and drags Rensuke further into the store.
“Just do your job Aryu.” Hyoma beelines to the new arrivals isle and buries himself in embarrassment.
“.. Your coworkers seem fun.” Rensuke breaks the silence. Who was Otoya? Did Rensuke have competition he didn’t know about? Hyoma turns around and rolls his eyes.
“Ugh oh my god. Sorry he’s nosy and a gossip. My coworkers are a handful. At least Otoya isn’t working.” This only made Rensuke worry more. Would this Otoya try to one up him? Is this someone he had to worry about taking the prettiest guy he’s ever seen away from him?
“Uh, who’s Otoya?” Hyoma scoffs.
“One of my coworkers. He flirts with me all the time but he’s a major player.” You could almost hear the distaste in his voice when he spoke, but then he caught a glimpse of Rensuke’s jealous and slightly nervous face and grinned.
“I’m not into to him, don’t worry.” Rensuke tried to hide his immense sense of relief and slight embarrassment as Hyoma read his mind.
“Good to know.”
After a moment, Hyoma quickly turns around and starts scanning through the books again to avoid any awkward silence. “What are you looking for?” Rensuke asks, trying not to only act interested in the comic books a few shelves over. He didn’t want to look childish (even though a lot of comic books have very adult themes, but whatever). Hyoma picks up a book and examines it before putting it back and turning toward his date once more.
“A new book of one of the series I read just came out, but I guess it’s not on shelves yet.” Rensuke nods, trying his best to stay focused on the beautiful boy in front of him and not the ‘ New! Special Edition: Marvel x One Piece! one-shot comic’ he spotted in the corner of his eye. Hyoma notices this and raises his brow.
“Something catch your eye? That’s not me I noticed.” He says lightly, trying to figure out how exactly he can push this guy’s buttons. Rensuke goes red and shakes his hands.
“W-no! I just- I mean, we can leave-“
“Pfft! Hahaha!” Hyoma snorts in laughter. He knew he could already play this guy like a fiddle. Lovingly of course.
“We can look at the comic books.” Hyoma says to Rensuke with a smile across his face as he leads him to the section.
“You like comics?” Rensuke asks as he immediately picks up the special edition comic he was eying up earlier. Hyoma shrugs.
“Not really. My coworkers read them occasionally so I hear them talk about it. Is that what you’re looking for?” Rensuke turns towards the other and holds the comic close.
“Yeah. But I don’t wanna buy something and have to worry about it during our date.” Rensuke sighs and sets the comic back down. Whatever, I’ll come get it later. “Ready to go?” Hyoma glances at the comic once more before looking back at him and nodding.
“I gotta talk to my coworker quick, I’ll meet you out there ‘Kay?” Rensuke nods as leaves the building. What did he have to talk to his coworker about? Are they gonna talk about me? Am I being weird? Rensuke’s head races as he fidgets on his phone waiting for Hyoma to meet him.
back on the inside of the building, Hyoma checks to make sure Rensuke isn’t looking from the window outside. He then grabs the comic Rensuke had his eyes on and takes it to the back of the store.
“Hey Aryu? I’m buying this and I’m leaving it here to pick up on my next shift so don’t sell it ok?” Aryu looks at the comic and raises his eyebrow.
“Aw, you’re already buying gifts for him? How cute.”
“Shut up.” Hyoma rolls his eyes trying to ignore the warmth across his face and leaves the shop. “Alright! Where are we going next?” Rensuke stands up from leaning against the building and smiles.
“Well not knowing is half the fun!” Hyoma sighs but follows behind nonetheless.
The two of them walk side by side as Rensuke checks his phone every so often for directions, careful to not let Hyoma see the location.
“So, what do you do outside of work? Besides visit me, obviously.” Rensuke says, shoving his hands into his pockets so he doesn’t fidget with them out of nervousness. Hyoma goes silent. What did he do? Ever since his injury, he hasn’t really done anything besides work and reading. It’s not like he could play soccer anymore. It had been such a huge part of his life that without it he’d felt so blank and empty inside.
“…sorry, uh- we’re almost there.” Rensuke says breaking the silence, picking up speed in his pace with discomfort. Shit. What am I doing? Hyoma sighs and grabs Rensuke’s hand and stops. He turns around to face Hyoma with a shocked and flustered look on his face. Hyoma’s grip loosened slightly as he looked away.
“No I’m sorry. I’ve been acting all arrogant and interesting when I’m really not. I mean, I know what I look like, but that’s all there really is. I don’t really do much, and I’m kinda rude when I don’t mean to be, I’m closed off and-“ Rensuke cuts off the other and holds his hands close.
“Hey. You’re more than a pretty face Hyoma.”
“You don’t know me.” Hyoma frowns and turns his head away distinctively.
“But I want to.” Rensuke places his hand across Hyoma’s hair softly, placing his hair behind his ear and smiles.
“Come on, we’re almost there.” He nods toward the sidewalk ahead and pulls Hyoma by the hand towards the rest of their date.