Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Teru had said for what felt like an eternity that it wasn't a big deal. He'd done it with a proud smirk on his face when he graduated, then all throughout his vacation, and even as he shoved the last of his boxes into Serizawa's car. He turned to face Reigen, whose expression was difficult to read, but it was one Teru had become rather familiar with lately. "What?" he questioned as Reigen took a few steps towards him. What Teru expected was for him to place a hand on his shoulder, the way he always did when he dropped the conman facade. What he didn't expect, however, was for Reigen to pull him forward and hug him, one hand pressed firmly against his back while the other rested on the nape of his neck, encouraging Teru to sit his chin on Reigen's shoulder. He blinked, utter confusion hazing over his brain before he obliged. It was a much different feeling than the one he got from hugging Mob; that much was certain. He stood there for a moment, wide eyed, before he lifted his hands up hesitantly to rest them on Reigen's back.

"I'm really proud of you," he said, and Teru tried desperately not to pay attention to the way his voice hitched in his throat. Teru nearly felt his feet come off the ground at those words, but he tightened his grip on the back of Reigen's suit and pushed down the energy prickling around him. Reigen laughed, hoarse and breathy, before he went on. "I think I might actually miss having you here all the time to annoy me." The affection dripping into his tone betrayed any attempt at sarcasm on his part.

Teru laughed too, letting his chin fall against Reigen's shoulder. "We're gonna be here to give Serizawa his car back tomorrow, you know," he responded. It struck him, the way it always did, how fortunate he was to have such an odd, perfect little family. He leaned back to beam at Reigen, whose eyes were suspiciously puffy. "And it's not that far by train either, so we'll come around as much as possible. I promise."

Reigen scoffed, nodding. He wasn't the next to speak though, because Serizawa came forward to chime in. "Did you both already say goodbye to Shigeo's family?" he asked, tipping his head towards Mob, who hung back by the car.

Teru couldn't help how his expression lit up. "Yeah. His parents gave us each a gift to congratulate us, but they insisted we're not allowed to open them until we get to our dorm," he said fondly. The truth was, Teru knew exactly what they had given to Mob, because he'd helped put it together, but his gift had been a surprise in itself. He hadn't expected anything from them at all, but it always made him really happy that they went out of their way to include him anyway. The box they'd given to him was a little bit smaller than Mob's, and it sat in the passenger seat of the car. He'd refused to put in the back or throw it in the trunk where he risked it being damaged.

"Yeah, and Ritsu even told us it was going to be boring without Teru around," Mob added, smiling softly.

Teru pretended to wipe a tear away. "I knew your little brother couldn't live without me," he remarked, but it genuinely meant a lot to him to hear Ritsu say something like that. Not that he'd admit it out loud, though.

Serizawa shook his head, amused. "He's right, though. Things are going to be way too quiet around here." He looked a little sad, but he definitely held himself together much better than Reigen did.

Teru sighed. He never realized he could care about people so much. "I told you," he said, catching Serizawa off guard by wrapping his arms around him. It simply wouldn't be fair to leave him out. "We'll visit all the time. And there's breaks, too!" Serizawa took a brief second to return the embrace, albeit a bit awkwardly, but it was nice anyway. Even if he was too tall for Teru to get his head up on his shoulder.

"You'd better! I don't want the only time you ever call me to be when you need bailed out," Reigen commented as Teru and Serizawa broke apart.

Teru snickered, a devious gleam in his eye. "No promises."

Reigen made a face at him, offended, then turned his attention towards Mob. "You too! Get over here," he said, and Mob obliged without a word. When Reigen hugged him, he seemed maybe even a little less prepared for it than Teru had been, his mouth hung open in shock briefly before he got his bearings. "I don't wanna keep you too long - or actually, maybe I do." He chuckled, but the way his brow twitched was telling. "You two should get going though. I'll see you again soon." His voice went uncharacteristically soft.

Mob patted his back with a hum. "See you soon, Reigen," he said, gently pulling away.

Reigen rolled his eyes. "You don't have to be so formal now, you know. It's alright for you to start calling me by my first name," he said, pocketing his hands in an attempt to appear nonchalant.

Mob glanced down at his feet, and Teru could see the way his aura brightened up and glittered, like stained glass in the sunlight. "I'll remember that," he replied in a quiet voice as he turned towards Serizawa, who knew to expect physical contact this time.

"Reigen's right, you two. It'll be better if you get there before dark," Serizawa pointed out, letting Mob go after only a quick couple seconds. "Besides, we'll still be here tomorrow."

Even if that was true, Teru felt like tomorrow was an eternity away. Nonetheless, he nodded in agreement and grabbed Mob's hand, both as a comfort to himself and to tug him in the car's direction. "Yeah, we really ought to go," Teru said, maybe a tad solemnly, interlocking their fingers. He'd never really expected it to be so difficult just to say goodbye to people, but something like prickling sadness had been settling in his stomach since they'd left Mob's house. Even still, they had managed to do it then, and he knew they'd manage this time as well. As they got in the car and Mob turned the key, Reigen and Serizawa stood by and waved them off, though Reigen's arm was more of a frantic blur than anything. Teru, bemused, waved back at them as they started in the opposite direction. He watched them disappear through the passenger side mirror, and then he looked down at the box Mob's parents had gifted him. His insides might as well have been scraped hollow.

"You shouldn't try to hold everything in, Teru. You can cry if you need to," Mob murmured without taking his eyes off the road. Of course he'd say something like that. Teru was silent. He brushed trembling fingers against the surface of the box, biting the inside of his cheek. A few stray drops landed on the lid, betraying Teru's efforts to stop them, and his breath hitched from the strength it took not to audibly sob. It wasn't that he'd miss seeing everyone every day, even though he knew that he would. They were the only family he'd ever really had, after all. His vision was bleary, so he wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt indignantly. He hiccupped, and covered his face. Mob placed a hand on his knee to ground him, sympathetic.

Maybe the real reason his chest ached so badly was because he finally found people who'd miss him , too.

~~~

Their dorm room was pretty small, but they didn't need all that much space in the long run anyway. There wasn't much to unpack besides clothes and other basic necessities, which could be done in only an instant if they just did it with telekinesis. Of course, Mob didn't want to do it all the easy way, and Teru didn't mind that as much as he might have in the past. He stood in front of their shared closet, wondering whether or not they would need a couple totes to store anything that didnt fit on the rack. He glanced down at the boxes by his feet, in which most of the clothes still packed up were his, and decided that they probably would. He grabbed one of Mob's hoodies, a blue one with a cactus on the front, from the top of a stack. Teru almost put it away, but the fabric was really soft, and it smelled nice, like Mob's house. He slipped it on over his head instead, smiling to himself. "You wanna take a break for a little while?" he asked, tipping his head back to look at Mob.

Mob turned to face him, glanced at the piles of clothes Teru was surrounded by, then sighed in mock exasperation. "Are you bored already?" He crossed over to Teru and brushed the hair out of his face.

Contented, Teru closed his eyes. He hummed. "Maybe a bit," he admitted, leaning into Mob's chest. "But I really just wanna open those gifts." The little wooden boxes had been sitting on the desk, taunting him, since they'd arrived. More than anything, he wanted to see Mob's reaction to what was inside his, and the anticipation was really starting to get to him.

Mob narrowed his eyes, affectionate, and pressed a kiss to Teru's forehead. "Alright," he replied, breaking away from Teru to pick them up and stare down at them for a moment before sitting on the edge of his bed. "Here." Mob held out the one addressed to Teru, then patted the space beside him. Teru accepted the present thankfully as he took a seat. He bit back a grin as Mob's hand ran along the lid of the box in his lap.

"I think you should go first," Teru insisted, childishly giddy the way he always was when gifts were involved. Maybe the reason was that he'd missed out on simple little rituals like opening presents with family members for so long, but he always got so excited about them.

"Well, I thought maybe you -" Mob lifted his gaze up to meet Teru's poorly concealed delight and snapped his mouth shut. After a brief moment of quiet, he caved. "Fine, fine." Teru's mouth curved upwards with an eagerness that even reflected in the gentle swaying of his aura. He nudged Mob to hurry up and open it, but he seemed immune to Teru's impatience, or possibly even indifferent to it, as he lifted up the lid and sat it aside. Slotted neatly into the box was a book, with "Shigeo" printed neatly on the front in bright, obnoxious lettering.

Teru perched his chin on Mob's shoulder. "I might have helped with it a little," he said as Mob carefully pulled it out of its box.

He cast Teru a glance. "I can tell," he retorted, his tone brimming with warmth. Mob opened the book up to the first page. What greeted him were photos of himself and his family when he was little, definitely no more than four or five. There's one of him and Ritsu in the snow, another of him sitting atop Mr. Kageyama's shoulders, and one more of them all smiling at the camera together at some amusement park. "A scrapbook?" Mob questioned, thumbing idly at the pages before he turned to the next one. More photos, probably from around the same time period as the last ones.

Teru's fingers tapped nervously against the box in his own hands. "Yeah. Your parents asked me if I had any pictures to add to it," he said, glancing off to the side. Realistically, Teru had about as many pictures of Mob as his own family did, just because he found himself constantly taking them. Mob's face was difficult to read, scanning the pages intently. "They were worried it wasn't the most original thing to do."

Teru caught the subtle upturning of Mob's lips. "Funny you'd say that, actually," he replied, casting a glance at Teru through the corner of his eye. There was something almost coy about the way he said it.

That drew Teru to tip his head up and focus his gaze on Mob. "Hm?" He furrowed his brow in confusion, but Mob had looked back down at the scrapbook in his hands as he turned another page.

"Nothing," he scoffed, a fondness settling into his voice. He continued sifting through the pages. "I'll have to thank them later." He was nearing the back of the book, and Teru shifted anxiously in waiting.

He could see that just underneath the next couple were papers of a slightly different size, laminated and clipped neatly together. "There's something kinda special behind all the pictures," Teru said, pressing his hands together on his lap. He clasped his fingers as he watched Mob flip to the first one, a piece of decorative lined paper with little blue stars on each corner. Scrawled on it in neat, curly handwriting, was a note addressed to him from his mother. Mob eyed it with curiosity.

"This is..." He trailed off, running his hand along the edge. In the note, Mrs. Kageyama went on about Mob's growth and how proud she was of the person he had become. He exhaled a breath, but the way it faltered didn't escape Teru.

He sat up straight and brushed his fingertips over Mob's arm. "It was her idea. She said it's easier to say all the nice things that maybe you don't always get to when you can revise as much as you want," Teru explained. Mob turned the page to see a note from Mr. Kageyama as well. Teru felt that nervous energy crawling up his spine again, but he swallowed it. "Your parents were adamant about me writing one too, even though I'm not really -"

Mob cut him off with a stare. "You are," he said plainly, and Teru nodded.

"...Right." He went quiet for a few seconds. "Sorry."

Mob hummed, mostly concentrated on reading what was in front of him. The next note was from Ritsu, who had struggled almost as much as Teru to find words to say, much to Teru's amusement. He remembered being asked to look over it, albeit begrudgingly, and he wasn't mean enough to poke fun at Ritsu for his awkwardness at the time (even if the thought did cross his mind). You're one of the top students in the country but you can't figure out how to tell your brother that you care about him, he'd thought. I'm almost impressed.

Teru's note came last, and he could feel himself trying not to tap his fingers against his legs. He leaned away a bit, just enough that he couldn't quite read the words. Maybe if he tried hard enough, he could trick himself into believing someone else had written them. He turned his gaze upwards to see Mob smiling, his eyes crinkling at the corners. It was shamelessly loving in a way Teru had never really gotten used to. He wanted to bury his reddened face into the hoodie he had on, but instead he pressed it into the fabric of Mob's shirt.

He expected something along the lines of "thank you," or even a bit of teasing at how sappy Teru managed to make it, but that never came. What Teru actually heard was yet another page turn. He furrowed his brow in confusion. "There are more?" Mob asked before Teru had the opportunity to question it himself.

"Wh - No?" He lifted his head to see what Mob was reading. His own handwriting stared back at him, a bit messier than usual, like he'd been frustrated or tense, and he knew exactly what it was. He could see himself at his desk late at night, one hand knotting into his hair as he scrawled out whatever came to mind before he inevitably scrapped it all. It was one of the first versions of his note that he had written, and beneath it he caught a glimpse of even more of them. "Wait, how did those...?" Realization set in. "Oh I'm going to kill your brother!" Ritsu must have found them when he came over to ask Teru for help on his own note. He felt betrayed, and after he'd been so nice to Ritsu about his fumbling attempt at sincerity. Teru shot an arm out to snatch the scrapbook from Mob, but Mob was quicker. He lifted it over his head, grinning as Teru clambered to reach upwards.

Mob leaned back, placing his other hand against Teru's shoulder to hold him back. "Be nice!" he teased, and the way he laughed would have melted Teru completely if he weren't already busy panicking.

He pulled his legs onto the bed so he could push himself up onto his knees. "Shigeo, please don't look at those!" Teru pleaded, just barely unable to grab the book before his body lifted up off the bed entirely. A soft, gleaming purple aura coiled around his frame and swept him up, warm and gentle. It probably would have been a pleasant sensation under different circumstances, but the waves of psychic energy lapping at his skin did little to make him feel any better. Only more trapped. He flexed his fingers feebly in an attempt to make Mob pity him, if just a little bit.

Mob held the book close to his chest, a simper adorning his lips. "Why not?" he asked before looking back down at the scribbly ramblings Teru had jotted down before he'd tried to cast the papers aside. His expression lit up as he continued, "Oh, this is adorable."

But Teru knew it wouldn't stay adorable for long. There were plenty of reasons he'd thrown those pages away - or tried to, at least. His entire body was jittery, dread sinking into the pit of his stomach like an anchor. Mob looked at the next one, and Teru covered his face with his hands helplessly. "I'm being seriou -"

Mob's expression dropped, and something about his aura changed, almost instantaneously. It went cold as it shifted around Teru, causing goosebumps to rise up along his arms and nearly suffocating him in whatever emotion had come over him. "Teruki," Mob said after far too long, suddenly uncomfortably sedated in his tone. He let Teru back down, meeting his eyes with so much intensity that Teru had to look away.

"Y-yeah?" he stammered, feeling sick.

Mob grimaced. He looked over the words yet again, written in quick, nervous strokes that became borderline unreadable the further down each page he got. "Do you... really think all this?" His voice came out in a whisper, full of concern.

Teru fidgeted where he sat, wringing his hands together on his lap. It was a habit he wished he hadn't picked up over the years. "I -" He brought himself to face Mob, and there was no way he could bring himself to lie. He sighed. "Yes."

Mob's expression was hard to read, but there was something along the lines of hurt edging into his features. He reached out and touched Teru's jittering hands, a steady, solid presence. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" he asked, tracing Teru's knuckles with his thumb.

Teru exhaled, the breath leaving his lungs in a slow, anxious puff. That was a difficult question to answer, and he didn't care to, in all honesty. But Mob was staring at him, incomprehensibly patient and caring as he urged Teru's hands to stop trembling. Teru chose to focus on them instead of Mob's face. "I guess I just... didn't know how," he admitted, a wry smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Honesty was hard, and vulnerability was harder; that much had never really changed. But he was trying.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mob's other hand sit the scrapbook down. Then he lifted it up to cup Teru's cheek, tilting his head up to look back at him. "Teru, this..." He paused, closed his eyes, and then met Teru's once again. " I'm not something you have to earn."

Teru set his jaw, silent. He wanted really badly to believe that, and he knew Mob would never mislead him - not on purpose anyway. Still, he knew better than anyone the person he was before Mob came around, maybe the person he still was underneath, and he didn't like that version of himself. He didn't like being someone who had hurt Mob. "But, I..." I never did anything to deserve someone like you.

Mob's fingers combed back into Teru's hair. "You're plenty good for me," he murmured, sympathetic, sincere.

Teru nearly melted into Mob's palm, but something held him from it. He shook his head. "But I could be better," he said, and Mob leaned forward. Any other time, Teru probably would have met him in the middle. This time, however, he simply watched, brow creased, as Mob let go of Teru's hand to cradle his face with both of his own.

"Aren't you tired?"

The question caught Teru by surprise. He didn't really understand. "What?" he managed, taken aback.

Mob smiled, maybe a little bit somberly. "Forcing yourself to be the best all the time must be really exhausting," he explained, their knees bumping as he scooted closer. He tipped his forehead onto Teru's. "Don't you think you deserve a break?"

Teru's arms were restless, shaky, as he brought them up to wrap around Mob's torso. He gripped Mob's shirt. "I don't - I..." He wasn't sure what he wanted to say, or if he wanted to say anything at all.

Maybe he was tired. Incredibly tired.

Mob didn't seem to mind, shifting his arms around Teru to rub his back reassuringly. "I know, Teru," he whispered, tracing little patterns into the fabric of the hoodie he was wearing. The problem was that Teru didn't know, and that made him wonder when he'd become the unobservant one of the two. When had Mob started to understand how Teru felt better than even he did himself? Choosing not to think too hard about it, he ducked his head down into the crook of Mob's neck. He wanted desperately to lose himself in the warmth and safety of just being held, yet he couldn't shake the thought that this kept on happening to him. Teru always managed to worry Mob somehow, and every single time he'd find himself relying so heavily on him for support. Mob tipped his head down on top of Teru's, as if sensing the way he couldn't seem to relax. "You don't have to try so hard, you know. And you don't have to be afraid that you aren't doing enough. I like you just like this." He kissed Teru's hair. "Especially like this."

The both of them were silent for a bit, simply taking in each other's presence, before Teru replied. "I guess I don't get why," he said. It frustrated him, the fact that he couldn't see what was so good about this part of himself. It wasn't for a lack of trying, either; he wanted to understand. But most of the time he teetered on the edge of total arrogance and crippling self loathing. The voice in the back of his mind was mean and persistent and - well, kind of an asshole. It spoke to him the way he used to speak to others, with enough condescension to make him grind his teeth. Though he supposed he probably deserved that, a taste of his own medicine.

"Because," Mob started, his palm resting on the nape of Teru's neck. "I just like you , and when you don't... well, then I guess I just have to fill in the gaps." He smiled, earnest and soft, when Teru lifted his head up to look at him. Perhaps those words weren't incredibly profound or life changing, and perhaps they were pretty simple at the end of the day, but they were honest, and kind, and good. Even if on their own they didn't fix everything, Teru believed them. He smiled back. Mob never ceased to amaze him.

He realized then that his shoulders had been tensed up, and he let them slacken. They didn't feel as heavy as they'd been earlier. "I love you," he said, pulling his hands forward to place them over Mob's arms and give him a quick peck on the lips.

Mob hummed, his lashes fluttering as he closed his eyes for that brief moment. "I love you too," he responded in the whisper of a voice he always used when he said that, like it was sacred, strictly for Teru to hear. Then his gaze flitted towards the present Teru had sat down beside him, untouched. He reached out to pick it up. "You still haven't opened yours."

That was true. He hadn't opened his, so he took it carefully and sat it down atop his legs. After looking down at it for a few brief seconds, he pulled the lid off the top. His name stared back at him. Teruki . It wasn't as obnoxiously colorful as Mob's had been, but it was just tacky-looking enough that he could guess who decorated the cover. "Oh..." He went silent. The scrapbook was thinner than Mob's, most likely because they were bound to have fewer photos of Teru to display inside it, but not actually much smaller otherwise. He pulled it from the box and opened it.

The first page showed pictures Teru hadn't even known were ever taken. They were from not long after the incident with the Scars, if he had to guess. His hair was still short, and even more amusingly, so was Mob. They must have been taken by one of the Kageyamas. He scoffed, almost embarrassed by the look of utter longing and admiration on his face in one of them, complimented nicely by the look of annoyance on Ritsu's. The scrapbook seemed to flow in order, with pages dedicated to specific trips or events he'd tagged along for, his favorite being the one with photos Reigen or Serizawa must have gotten from their time at the onsen.

"Now you know why they thought it might be a little unoriginal," Mob remarked, leaning over to see everything. He laughed at a picture of Teru's pouting face, his nose a bright red and snow clinging to the tips of his hair. Ritsu and Mob were in the background, grinning triumphantly. "But they said they didn't think you'd ever had something like - A-Are you crying again?" Concern ebbed into his features as he outstretched a hand to touch Teru's shoulder.

Teru was crying again, tears spilling over the pages and dripping down the plastic covers on the pictures. A shuddering breath escaped his lungs, burning as it rose up his throat. It was difficult to pinpoint everything swirling around inside of him, to put a name to every emotion he felt. He knew not all of it was bad; if anything most of it was just so overwhelmingly good that his chest might have broken open from the effort it took to contain it all. Teru hated crying. It was messy and pathetic, and it always left him with a headache that lasted until he managed to sleep it off. Before that day he couldn't even remember the last time he had let himself cry at all. Maybe he'd needed to. He sniffed, vision blurring as he shook his head.

"Shigeo," Teru murmured. "Can you do me a favor?" He wiped his eyes and Mob nodded, silent. Teru levelled him with a serious stare. "Tell me we're always gonna be like this."

Mob blinked, thoughtful. "Together, you mean?" His expression gave nothing away. Teru hummed.

"Yeah."

After a moment or two, Mob said, "I think we will be." There was a finality in his tone, a kind of certainty that put Teru much more at ease.

He let himself breathe. "You know, I think about it a lot," he admitted wistfully, using the hem of his shirt to wipe stray tears from the pages of the scrapbook. "What comes after this, I mean. Like - Like getting our own place and where and -" He realized too late that he was looking way too far ahead, and he covered his face with his hands.

As embarrassing as it was to admit, he always had it in the back of his mind, their future. Teru had decided long before they'd even started dating in middle school that he wanted to marry Mob one day, and he'd do it in an instant if he ever got the opportunity. That thought only made his ears burn hotter, though. Teru laughed awkwardly into his palms. "Sorry, I know that's silly!" he added, his voice too loud, and a note too high.

Mob pulled his hands away from his face, gentle, grinning like Teru never saw him. "It's not silly," he said, a hint of mirth beneath the affection. "I think about that stuff too."

Teru pursed his lips. He doubted Mob could match him in the excruciating level of detail he often went to in his head about it, internally picking out paint and furniture and houseplants like the lovesick idiot that he was. "I think we should live kinda close to our families," Teru replied. It didn't quite feel natural to use the word "our," because doing so acknowledged that Teru had one of his own outside of Mob, something he'd never done out loud before. The word tasted strange on his tongue. Sweet, but strange. "Closer than we are now, at least."

Mob's eyes practically glittered with excitement (Teru couldn't tell if he was imagining it or if his powers had something to do with it), and his cheeks were just a little bit rosy. "Definitely," he agreed, and Teru decided that based on the way Mob's bangs started to billow upwards before falling back over his forehead, his powers were probably to blame. Mob took his hands, and a pleasant surge of warmth travelled from tips of his fingers all the way down to his feet. "We could get a cat," he went on, lacing their fingers together.

Teru was allergic to cats. He nodded, hopeless. "I'll get you a cat."

Mob looked thoughtful for the briefest of moments, maybe even a little bit distant, before he responded. "A white one," he said quietly, and Teru made a mental note of that.

"Of course." He hoped hypoallergenic cat breeds with white fur even existed in the first place, otherwise he was destined to succumb to constant itchy eyes and his own hubris. The thought of that almost made him laugh, until he got swept up in the way Mob was staring at him, so unabashedly in love that Teru's heart nearly clambered out of his chest. "What?" was all he could manage, his mouth dry.

Mob's eyes crinkled at the corners in amusement. "I'm just... really lucky," he cooed, burning Teru up. If looks could kill, then Mob's peaceful smile would be the death of him.

Teru tugged lightly on Mob's hand to bring it closer. "Me too," he replied, pressing his lips to the back of it. Mob's aura fizzed at the edges where it touched Teru's. The moment was brief, barely a second long, before he let go. He pulled his hands back to take hold of the book on his lap once again, his fingers tracing the pages. Curiously, he turned to the next one. The pictures were from high school, he could tell that much, but there seemed to be no particular event they centered around. One of them was taken by Tome, who grinned at the camera with an arm slung around Mob's neck, pulling him into the frame. Teru stood beside them, and he appeared to be laughing at something. He didn't remember what the something was, or even that day much at all, but the photo was certainly cute. "Does mine have notes in the back, too?" he wondered aloud, turning his gaze up towards Mob.

Mob nodded. He pointed at the picture Teru had just been looking at. "Mhm, Tome even wrote you one," he said with an almost teasing air about him. "She insisted we let her since she plans to take over Spirits and Such and that means you two are 'basically related.'"

That made Teru bark out a laugh. "She's nice when she wants to be," he mused, tapping the image of Tome a couple times in a way he imagined would probably annoy her.

Mob's eyes followed the motion, a mischievous glint in them. "So are you," he remarked, and Teru detected the tiniest hint of sarcasm, a rare thing to come from Mob.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Teru feigned a hurt expression. "I'm always nice."

Mob tilted his head, almost imperceptibly. "Hmm." He leaned back, a hand over his chin in what appeared to be deep thought. Teru was almost offended by that, but he let Mob gather himself instead of making any comments. Finally, something seemed to click. "Oh yeah, speaking of Tome, she texted me today," Mob added, his hand falling to his side and pressing into the mattress beside him.

Teru pulled his knees close to his body and sat back against the wall. "And how'd that go?" he questioned, idly thumbing through pages of the scrapbook he'd already looked at, avoiding the back end where slightly larger papers poked out at unusual angles. He knew those had to be his notes, and truthfully, he wasn't eager to read them that day. The thought that he might cry again definitely didn't appeal to him, and his eyes were already uncomfortably dry. The notes could wait until morning. "Was it just more gushing about our first day in a dorm or something?" he went on. If so, then he'd be a little upset she never said anything to him - especially considering she was apparently so adamant about contributing a page to his book.

Mob reached into his back pocket and pulled his phone out. "No. She said that she doesn't have any classes for a couple days, and that we should meet up with her to hang out," he explained, turning it on and seemingly scrolling through their messages. "I told her I'd ask if you were up to it once we finished unpacking." He showed Teru the screen, allowing him to see Tome's egregious overuse of the alien head emoji in all of its glory.

He scoffed, taking a look around the room. Boxes littered the floor, and a few were stacked up on a desk haphazardly. Clothes overflowed from the sides of some, creating little piles near the closet where Teru had abandoned them. "Well, we didn't really get much done here, but we're only gonna have the car until tomorrow morning," he reasoned, mostly in an attempt to further put off unpacking and organizing everything.

Based on the face Mob made, he saw right through Teru. It only lasted for a second or two, though, before he started tapping the keyboard on his screen. "That's true," he conceded, pressing enter.

Teru closed the scrapbook and beamed triumphantly. "Her university's only about an hour away, right? Did she have anything specific in mind?" He sat the book down next to him, tipping forward to rest his chin on his knee.

Mob placed his phone in his lap. "She told me there were some pretty good places to eat nearby," he said before his expression fell into the little pout he gave Teru when he wasn't quite satisfied with something. He'd gotten very good at it."But tomorrow we really should get this done." He didn't like leaving things unfinished if he could avoid it (except homework, evidently).

Teru stood up and stretched, leaning backwards until he felt a subtle pop between his shoulder blades. "Tomorrow," Teru echoed in agreement, holding out his hand for Mob to take.

Mob quirked a brow doubtfully, and Teru rolled his eyes in amusement as Mob hesitated to let himself be pulled upwards. "Promise?" Mob questioned, pursing his lips, and in response Teru's aura fanned out like peacock feathers. He made a show of crossing his heart, as theatrical as ever. He'd always had a flair for the dramatic, after all.

"Promise."