Chapter Text
As it turns out, having a girlfriend is the best way to get nuisances off your back.
Unless your girlfriend is one of your nuisances. In which case, Kusuo is forced to cope with the crowd around his desk because despite being psychic, he hasn’t any power when it comes to her. “You guys are back together already?” Kuboyasu asks. “Well, that didn’t take very long.”
Teruhashi glances at Kusuo, a teasing smile already brewing on her lips. What can I say? Someone just adores me.
“You’re pushing your luck,” he replies into her mind.
“I mean, who wouldn’t beg on their knees to have Kokomi back?” Yumehara grins, pulling his girlfriend closer. What on Earth did Teruhashi tell her? He wasn’t on his knees.
You were very close.
Kusuo has to force himself not to roll his eyes. “Now you’re reading my mind?”
Teruhashi lets out a small laugh at her friend, ignoring his retort. “No, it’s not like that.” She dismisses it with a wave of her hands. “It just turned out this way.”
Yumehara giggles. “Well, you were super into him so—“
Before she can finish, Teruhashi yelps and covers her mouth. “That’s enough!”
“Looks like someone adores me, too,” he says, holding back a smile.
You already knew that! She huffs mentally, cheeks flushed crimson.
That he did.
“Well, good for you, pal!” Nendo bellows, once again with an aggressive slap to his back. He seriously needs to stop doing that before Kusuo develops a debilitating back injury. (Which could never happen, obviously, but it’s not like they know that.) “I knew there was somethin’ up with you.”
Everyone, including himself, gives Nendo a look of what would you know?
“No one else noticed? Buddy over here’s been mopin’ around for a while.” Nendo stares into Kusuo’s eyes with what he presumes is supposed to be a solemn expression and places a strong hand on his shoulder. “Sorry about these idiots. Y’know I always got your back.”
Really? Because it sure feels like he might break it instead.
Teruhashi turns to Kusuo, directly in front of his desk. It seems his friends made space for her. Moping?
Nendo was exaggerating. Kusuo doesn’t mope — especially not for Teruhashi of all people. It’s not like he missed her when they were broken up. He does not miss. (Though, he can’t find a more apt description of the ache in his heart when she had been ignoring him.)
“Hm, now that you say that, his face looked a little different than usual,” Kaido mumbles. “Wait, who are you calling an idiot!? Have you seen yourself?”
Kuboyasu sighs from between the pot and the kettle. For an ex-delinquent, he sure has a lot of patience for those two. “Anyways, did you sort it out with the newspaper club?” He cracks his knuckles, the corners of his lips raising. If not, I could definitely help. I’ve been itching for something interesting.
What was he saying about patience?
Teruhashi tucks a piece of hair behind her ear with a bashful smile. Well, to the others it may seem that way. Kusuo knows there’s something sinister behind the curve of her lips. “Oh, I don’t think they’ll bother us anymore.”
Kusuo looks at her, hoping her observant nature would tell her he’s curious.
Nothing Sawakita and the rest of the Kokomins couldn’t fix! All it took was my Angel’s Breath and they were off with pitchforks and torches, she thinks, a satisfied smile on her face. You’re not the only one with powers.
Truly, she is the most terrifying person he knows. Next to himself, of course.
Soon, the crowd around him disperses as each of his nuisances realise they have somewhere to be after school — leaving just the both of them, Teruhashi curling blue hair around her finger. I should ask him… But that’s so embarrassing.
“How is asking me to walk home together embarrassing?” he asks, looking up at her from his seat.
She jumps, eyes widened. “Well, I mean, you can teleport home, so it’s pointless and I know you probably wouldn’t want to be seen with me.” Which I understand, who knows what’ll happen if you’re with me in public! We’ll get bothered the entire way home.
“You’re right, I don’t.” It’s not really her fault she’s that pretty, Kusuo blames the weirdos obsessed with a teenage girl. He’d considered this many times before confessing to her, and he knew he’d have to get used to it eventually, but as long as he’s still in school he’d prefer to keep his life as peaceful as possible. Getting kidnapped once was bad enough.
Teruhashi avoids his eyes, gaze sinking into the ground. I guess it can’t be helped. “Then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Saiki.”
Right as she turns for the door, he gets up. “Where are you going?”
“Home?” Her head tilts further as he holds out his hand.
“I think you’re forgetting something.” Still confused, she doesn’t make a move, just glances at his hand, then his face. He continues, “Didn’t you want to walk back together?”
“I thought you didn’t want to.”
“I said I didn’t want to be seen with you,” he answers. Must he seriously do this himself? “I never said anything about the walking home part.” Hesitant, he reaches for her hand. Her thoughts explode into incoherent noises as their fingers intertwine. It’s not the first time he’s held her hand by any means, but this time feels… different. They aren’t running from anything or hiding from her brother.
“What are you doing?! We’re at school!” she exclaims, but does not let go.
He’s far too lazy to explain (or maybe he finds it cute how flustered she is), so he simply drags her through the classroom door. A few students still linger in the corridor, but none make a fuss about them despite the clear act of affection, something that would gross him out if he’d witnessed it. Teruhashi’s head whips around, scanning each of their faces. What? No one’s even noticing, it’s like they don’t see us! What did you–
“You’re not the only one with powers,” he parrots her words from before. “We’re invisible. When I’m in contact with someone and use this ability, it works on both of us.”
Is this why I could never find you after school?!
Whoops. Probably shouldn’t have played this card so early on in their relationship.
“Are you going to sulk about it or do you want to walk home?” he asks, tightening his grip, hoping it might convince her to drop the subject. “We only have ten minutes.”
Fine, but you owe me a lot more dates to make up for it, she huffs mentally.
Gladly, he thinks, then almost shudders. Did he really just think that? He sounds like the way his father thinks when his mother – well, does anything, really.
But as he listens to Teruhashi’s cheerful internal humming at how his hands are so warm (he’s pretty sure that’s because he can quite literally conjure fire from them), and at how he held her hands out of desire and not necessity (he’d argue this is necessary, given she’d be upset otherwise), the way his father acts begins to make sense.
After several minutes, he asks, “Why are you so happy?”
Well, it feels like we’re a real couple or something!
“But we are,” he replies. Did he not make that clear in his confession?
I know, it’s just… This is my first real relationship and I’ve always wanted to walk home from school with my boyfriend – ugh, this is so embarrassing!
Kusuo knew that despite her beauty, she’d never dated anyone before him, and that at heart, she’s still a teenage girl, but he can’t help but find that annoyingly cute. Of course she’d want to do something as cliche as walk home with her high-school boyfriend. “You find the weirdest things embarrassing.”
She looks at him, pouting. You try telling me then! What did you want to do with your future partner?
“Nothing,” he answers honestly. “By that I mean I didn’t think I’d ever want to be in a relationship.”
That makes sense… Teruhashi nods slowly, facing forwards. They’ve fortunately reached the intersection by their houses without running into Toritsuka. They’re most likely visible now, so good thing their neighbourhood is a quiet one, there’s no one to watch their bodies slowly appear. I always assumed he was just shy but I guess he really just wasn’t into me…
“I’m not sure about that,” he cuts in. “I don’t know when I started liking you. Does that matter?”
She shakes her head, letting go of his hand. He doesn’t know why his immediate reaction was to reach for hers again, but he pulls himself together and lets it drop to his side. “What matters is that you do now,” she says with a smile. After all, I am Teruhashi Kokomi. There’s no one on this Earth that can resist me!
Before, he’d have no problem protesting that, believing himself to be the single exception. Now, he has no evidence to prove otherwise.
“Your house is that way, right?” Does that mean this is over? “Thank you for walking me home. I’ll see you at school tomorrow!” So he can go home now. Why doesn’t he want to?
And then, as if something possessed him, he asks, “Can I come over?”
That’s how Kusuo winds up in her bedroom, comfortably seated on the floor.
He managed to brush it off as – “You said I owed you a date. This counts, doesn’t it?” – but it still puzzles him why he’d said what he said. Sure, he can admit for certain he likes her now, but he can’t seriously like her so much he refused to go home? Feelings are so much more effort than they’re worth. Because of them, he’s here once again, enveloped in the overwhelming sweet scent of her perfume and the colour pink.
Teruhashi returns with a glass of water for him, setting it on the low table. Her head is swimming with so many thoughts he can’t even pick out one to make fun of, and he can’t even blame her. What on Earth did he think he was doing? The last time he was here, they almost –
“So, um, while you’re here, do you want to work on homework together?” she asks, sitting next to him.
He nods, even though he already finished the work at school by using his thoughtography. Homework is as much of a bore to him as it is to any regular student. Why would he waste his time doing it when there’s so many mystery shows and bad anime he could be watching while eating coffee jelly?
Teruhashi pulls out a stack of books from her bag – textbooks, exercise books, but none catch his eye more than a pink diary in the middle of the pile, what looks like a slip of paper in between its pages. He takes his books out too, reverting them back one day so the assigned pages are empty. It’ll be annoying to redo the work, but it’s better than Teruhashi realising he’s only here to be with her. “You write about me in there, right?” he questions, pointing at the diary. “Since when?”
Her face flushes red, recalling the many, many things she has written about him. He could use his X-ray vision to read through it himself, but he’s not cruel. “A long time. It’s not just about you, obviously,” she answers, clicking a pen. “Why ask? You know I’ve liked you for ages.” Which is literally mortifying every time I think about it…
Kusuo reaches for the diary, drawing out the slip of paper. Distantly, he hears a pen drop and Teruhashi exclaiming, “Saiki, what are you–?!”
He was right – it wasn’t a piece of paper at all. It’s their photobooth picture, the one he kept in a book on his shelf. He was afraid of his mother finding it, but most of all, himself. He knew he should’ve thrown it away then, yet he didn’t, just shoved it into the pages like she had. They’re a lot more similar than he remembers.
Before, he was convinced these feelings were recent, a byproduct of hanging out with her for their pretend relationship. But these pictures were evidence against that fact he so vehemently assured himself of.
“This was my first time taking a photobooth picture,” she says softly. “I thought it was so cute I took one with Chiyo and Imu when we went out a while later.”
“After the mixer date?”
“Yeah! It’s above my desk over there if you – wait, you knew about the mixer date?”
He can’t exactly tell her he was in the room next to hers, so he lies. “You were just thinking about it.”
“Oh, I guess you’re right,” she replies. “Anyway, those guys were so obnoxious. They totally ignored Chiyo the entire time, and then guess what?” He looks at her, prompting her to continue. She returns to her animated gestures, completely forgetting about the open book below her. “They left and never came back! So we decided to just go have lunch and saw a photobooth on the way.” I just realised I’m rambling too much… I told him we were going to do homework…
“It’s fine,” he says. It’s more than just fine – he quite likes hearing her talk like this. Kusuo has always thought her voice was pretty since it’s the one thing about her he could appreciate properly despite his powers. Everyone else could bear witness to Teruhashi’s beauty, but he could only hear it. He’d found himself picking out her voice in crowds, although it was usually her fretting about her image. He’d never tell her, but he doesn’t think she has to worry about being perfect, as it seemed to come naturally.
(Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that what made her perfect to him is everything that she is, both the side that strives for flawlessness, and the side that only he sees.)
“I always wondered where they went after that,” is what he catches onto by the time he realises he’s zoning out. “I could’ve sworn they were deciding who would ask me out.”
It’s terrifying how good her intuition is. “And? You would’ve said yes?”
“Of course not! I was thinking about you the whole time–” She blinks, a flush creeping onto her cheeks. “I mean, I still liked you. So I wasn’t interested in any of them.”
He knows that already. But for some reason, it feels nice to hear it coming from her. Not nice enough that he won’t tease her about it, though. “You weren’t thinking about me the whole time. You admitted you were having fun.”
“How do you know that?” she asks. Unless… he was there?!
Less than ten minutes and his lie fell through. Good grief. “I was helping them out. They weren’t doing great on their own.”
“Oh, so you know why they left?” Why does she want to know so bad? “Imu was super mad at them, but they insisted they didn’t know what she was talking about.”
Okay, so maybe lying to his girlfriend is probably not the best thing to do. His eyes dart around the room, to the photo in his hands, to his empty book on the table. “I may or may not have disliked the way they spoke about you.”
“Wait, it was your fault?!”
“They made you sound like a trophy. What else was I supposed to do?”
She bursts into laughter (and he has to ignore how warm and fuzzy it makes him feel). My boyfriend is so cute!
“I wouldn’t call myself cute,” he says. Kusuo is many things, but the word used to describe small animals and children wouldn’t be one of those things. (He’s rather okay with the other one she used – boyfriend – though.) “Just do your work.”
Teruhashi giggles, leaning closer. “You’re blushing.”
“No I’m not.” Does she realise how close they are?
“You definitely are!” Clearly, it does not affect her as much as it does him. At least, she’s too preoccupied with the fact that he’s blushing – err, not blushing, to notice.
“I am not.” He wants to tell her to back away, but their proximity doesn’t bother him as much as it should. He’s kind of curious how close she’ll get before realising.
It doesn’t take long before she pauses mere inches away. Every one of his senses is consumed by her, the world disappearing in the face of Teruhashi Kokomi. They’ve been close before, but it’s never felt so intoxicating. She’s poked and prodded at his cheeks believing it to be a dream, and yet that didn’t feel nearly as warm as her soft breathing right now.
Kusuo just makes out her thoughts in the haze of his own. His heart is beating so fast… Can I…
Teruhashi leans forward, that sweet scent overwhelming him again. He thought it was just an air-freshener, spraying some artificial strawberry mist into her bedroom. Of course, nothing can ever be that simple when it comes to her. As a defense mechanism, he shuts his eyes (and maybe wets his lips).
Before he can say anything, her hand is cupping his face and she plants a chaste kiss on his cheek. Huh. Not where he thought it’d be. Hesitant, his eyes open to a girl, face red with embarrassment as she backs away. Voice meek, she mumbles, “I… thought you might not like it if I… um…” It didn’t take long before her thoughts came rushing into his head. I should’ve asked first! Isn’t that assault?! Will I be arrested? No, won’t he just disintegrate me on the spot?
On instinct, his hand raises to his cheek like he’d been slapped across the face. Instead of a stinging burn and a crimson mark to prove it, something else lingers where she’d kissed him, warm and bright and probably equally as red. She had kissed him. And she considered his feelings when she did. And it felt really nice.
“Um! You can go now. Lots of… um, psychic stuff to be doing, I’m sure.” I don’t know what came over me…! That’s… that’s not something the perfect pretty girl should do. What if he hated it? Oh my god, did he hate it?
He did not. Oddly enough, he did not hate it.
“You missed,” he says.
Teruhashi blinks. A rather tame expression given her thoughts sound like a jumble of words and a vague screaming in the background. “I—I thought you wouldn’t like it. Would you?”
“Probably not. Would you?”
He half-expects her to turn red, but she doesn’t. She thinks honestly about it, and though he can hear her ruminations, he waits patiently for the verdict. “I don’t know. Should I know?” she asks. “I mean, I thought I did. It just… it feels a bit fast.”
“That’s fine with me.” He doesn’t really see any point in kissing if she doesn’t like it. There’s plenty of other things he’d prefer doing to show he lov—err, likes her. Most of all, he’s grateful she understands him. “Kissing can wait.”
She beams at him, something he never thought he’d find so endearing. Maybe it’s because he knows her smile, this one, is reserved for himself. Unfiltered, real and just as pretty as it would be to anyone else. Unfortunately for them, it’s his. He doesn’t feel that bad. “You’re not a bad boyfriend, you know?”
“I’d sure hope so. I’ve been practicing for a couple months now.” To be fair, he was trying to be then, but he supposes his subconscious had other plans.
“So… will you admit you were definitely blushing?”
“Sorry, I think I have some psychic things to be doing at home.”