Chapter Text
"You're leaving me again?" Natsumi grumbles, leaning against Fuyuhiko's door frame as he gets ready.
"It's not like it was my idea," Fuyuhiko shrugs, staring at the mirror.
He felt weird not wearing his usual clothes.
But pulling up to a dollar theater in a full on yakuza suit seemed a little over the top, even for him.
So he went with his next best bet: a white button up shirt and black pants.
Close enough to what he was used to to stay comfortable, but different enough as to not raise suspicion.
But as he glared at his reflection in the mirror, he couldn't shake an intrusive thought:
He looked like a fucking waiter.
"Since when does Kazuichi actually like hanging out with you?" Natsumi presses.
"Since when did you become an asshole?" Fuyuhiko taunts, ignoring her question.
"You know what I mean," She rolls her eyes, entering his room. "Sure, you'd go over to his house a couple times a month, but suddenly you're going out two nights in a row to a restaurant and the movies?"
"What's makin' you so fuckin' nosy?" Fuyuhiko narrows his eyes at her.
She couldn't really be onto him already, could she?
Fuyuhiko shook the thought out of his head, taking a deep breath.
No way.
She was just being her usual probing self.
And Fuyuhiko was being his typical paranoid self, it seemed.
"I'm just wondering what made him change his tune, is all." She shrugs, sitting on the edge of Fuyuhiko's bed.
"He made a couple new friends or whatever. So he's dragging me along to make sure he doesn't make a fool of himself." Fuyuhiko was technically telling the truth.
"That's not fair," Natsumi complains. "I don't make you skip dinner every time I make a friend."
"That's because you don't make friends," Fuyuhiko gives a simple retort.
"And I'm proud of it. I don't need friends," Natsumi admits, laying down. "Not when I've got you. But apparently I do now, since you're leaving me all the time."
Just then, Fuyuhiko's phone buzzed, signaling that Kazuichi had arrived at their house.
K: here
"I've gotta go," Fuyuhiko mumbles, pocketing his phone.
"Promise we'll do something this week?" Natsumi begged, flashing her puppy dog eyes at Fuyuhiko. A waste of energy, honestly, since Fuyuhiko probably would've said yes regardless.
"As long as you stop bugging me about skipping dinner again." He agreed, much to her glee.
Fuyuhiko grabbed a black jacket on his way out the door to hide his unfortunate clothing situation. He sure as hell was not going to allow himself to show up at the movies looking like an underpaid butler.
"Woah," Kazuichi reacted, mouth open, when Fuyuhiko opened the passenger door.
"'Tryna swallow a fly?" Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes, climbing into the car. If the words butler or waiter came out of Kazuichi's mouth in the next few seconds, Fuyuhiko vowed to dropkick him on the spot.
"N-no!" Kazuichi stammered, fixing his posture with haste. "You just threw me off. I haven't seen you wear anything but your fancy schmancy suit, in, like, years."
"I have other clothes," Fuyuhiko grumbled pointedly.
"I can see that now!" He gestured towards Fuyuhiko, before cheerily rubbing the back of his neck. "Man, even dressing down is an event for you."
"Just shut up and drive."
"Speaking of," Kazuichi started the car, plastering a grin across his face. "I have a surprise for you."
Fuyuhiko narrowed his eyes in response, not fully trusting Kazuichi's words. More times than not, his so-called surprises resulted in a big headache for the poor yakuza. Then again, so did most things.
"Oh, come on," Kazuichi scratched his cheek, with a pointed sigh. "Don't look at me like that, it's a good surprise. I promise."
When Fuyuhiko didn't budge, Kazuichi shook his head. The guy would benefit a lot from learning to stand up for himself.
"Just watch," he assured, reapplying his toothy grin from earlier. "And before you shrug it off, I worked on this all night, alright-"
"Alright, what is it?" Fuyuhiko finally gave in. What'd you expect? That damn smile had always been the most probable cause of death for the yakuza, anyhow.
And this time, Fuyuhiko didn't regret relenting, because the next thing Kazuichi did was turn on the radio.
And it motherfucking worked.
That might have been the best gift Kazuichi could have given him. Souda must have spent all night trying to fix it.
Fuyuhiko even let a teensy tiny smile slip onto his lips, conveying his appreciation, even with his lack of proper emotional expression.
He hoped Kazuichi noticed.
Because there it was, the end of unsettlingly silent car rides that (almost) always ended in disaster or mental torment on Fuyuhiko's end.
The remainder of the ride to the movie theater was further proof of that fact--- he got to sit back, relax, and stare out the window, while mildly decent music played in the background.
"Do you even know what movie we're here to see?" Fuyuhiko brought the crucial point to Kazuichi's attention as they walked towards the building, not having high hopes for the matter.
"Well… no," Kazuichi admitted, slightly embarrassed. Which was fine and all until he tried to justify it. "Sonia set it all up, so it's probably just some romance movie, or something."
Fuyuhiko visibly blinked. "You don't really know Sonia, do you?"
If Nagito and Hajime had been in charge, maybe, but Sonia and Gundham? No way.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kazuichi mumbling, shrugging off the comment.
And then, just as they were about to enter the building, Kazuichi stopped dead in his tracks, as his face fell into a panic.
"Fuyuhiko." Kazuichi acted as though the answer to his next question determined the fate of the world. "What's the date?"
"The 16th."
The day after the horror movie of the season came out.
"No, no, no, no, " Kazuichi sporadically murmured, grabbing onto Fuyuhiko's arm, attempting to pull him back to the parking lot. "It's not too late, we can still leave before-"
Of course, Fuyuhiko realized upon seeing his overly dramatic reaction. Kazuichi was still terrified of lame-ass scary movies.
"Leaving so soon?" Nagito's voice cut into the conversation, as he and Hajime approached.
"Ah! What? Nooo, I didn't say anything about leaving! Everything's fine!" Kazuichi tried to play it off, nervous laughter galore, but he wasn't fooling anyone.
Hajime, seemingly uninterested or unaware of Kazuichi's odd behavior, trudged ahead. "Sonia and Gundham are already here, we should head inside."
Based on Nagito's facial expressions, he decided interrogating Kazuichi about this was not the hill he wanted to die on, so instead, he perked up, grabbed onto Hajime's arm, and with a way too innocent grin agreed.
So Fuyuhiko shrugged, and followed suit, dragging the distressed Kazuichi, who was flashing serious "HELP ME" eyes, in behind him.
Even from the entrance, the movie theater was bigger than Fuyuhiko expected it to be. But the stench of sweat and buttery popcorn reminded him of the shotty dollar theaters he was used to, so at least he had that.
"Over here!" Sonia greeted, waving her hand in the air, motioning the group towards her and Gundham.
"Sonia! It's good to see you!" Kazuichi's face lit up upon seeing her, as if all of his earlier fear was stripped away.
A fact that didn't sit right with Fuyuhiko, for whatever reason.
"Come forth, if you dare, and purchase the tickets to Hell!" Gundham's voice boomed throughout the lobby.
Fuyuhiko could've sworn he heard Kazuichi gulp in response.
"He's right. Let's go buy our tickets." The yakuza nodded, and began making his way towards the ticket booth.
"Not so fast!" Kazuichi cuts him off, pulling out his wallet with a cheesy grin. "I'm paying."
Fuyuhiko squinted. They never paid for each other's shit. "That's unnecessary."
To that, Kazuichi frowned, and shook his head, causing his haphazard braid to fling across his face. He looked ridiculous.
"Come on, Fu." He insisted. Fuyuhiko wasn't usually one for nicknames but… he didn't mind it as much when they were coming out of Kazuichi's mouth. He would let it slide, this time.
Then, "It's what boyfriends do."
And… oh. Right. They were acting.
Fuyuhiko had almost forgotten.
He made a mental note to pay Kazuichi back later.
"...Fine," he allowed, dropping his skepticism, but not his guard. He could feel someone's eyes on him. Fuyuhiko had never been a fan of staring.
But seconds later, a ticket was in his hands, and it was definitely too late to turn back. So Fuyuhiko swallowed his pride, and, followed by 5 nuisances, headed towards the theater.