Chapter Text
After repeated hangouts with Kaido, Saiki felt that maybe his luck had changed. No weird happenstances happened for a few days, and both Nendo and Kaido were pleasant to be around for the most part, his irritation only usually stemming from annoying tests or other classmates being louder than usual. It seemed that, finally, he was getting a break from the craziness of his daily life.
Of course, this luck didn't last for long and Kusuo turned out to be very, very wrong when the following week from his first hangout with Kaido he was dragged into a nearby classroom at random during the lunch break. He had just been walking around, having skipped out on eating his bento his mother had prepared in order to wander around the fairly empty halls when his arm was latched onto and yanked sharply until he stumbled into a dark, abandoned classroom.
"Saiki," A voice crooned and Kusuo's nose wrinkled almost instantly. He knew that tone. "Why have you been avoiding me?"
Almost light magic, a few candles flickered on. Well, less magic and more nimble fingers that set down the plastic toy candles after flicking their switches to turn them on. They provided enough light that Saiki's suspicions were confirmed and he frowned at the sight of a pouting Toritsuka Reita. Kusuo sighed audibly, only serving to make Toritsuka whine loud and clear.
"Oh, c'mon! The last time I tried to hang out with you you ran away without even looking at me! It kind of hurt!" The purple-haired boy lay across the desk covered in flickering lights before him, staring up at Kusuo with wide eyes. Saiki wrinkled his nose, faintly remembering Reita's rough hands clasping his wrist last week when he was in the middle of another hypersensitive fit, the same day Nendo took him to his favorite cafe downtown.
"Whatever, to make up for it you're going to help me practice tarot spreads today!" Kusuo was broken out of his reminiscing at that, and he scoffed loud and clear at the suggestion. Toritsuka didn't seem very deterred, however, a grin fixated on his face and a disastrous gleam in his eyes. "Nope! No matter how much you complain you're not getting out of it this time! I need your help with this, because theres no way I can practice otherwise!"
Before Kusuo knew it he was being dragged around again, forced to sit down in an uncomfortable school chair directly across from Toritsuka. He watched as four desks were pushed together to make a table, candles scattered about in the corners of the makeshift surface. What was curious, however, was Toritsuka pulling out what seemed to be a deck of very well kept tarot cards, his hands holding them almost delicately.
He had never seen these cards before, not even in Reita's cluttered room when he had visited months ago, and with how careful the purple hair boy was handling them they seemed to be more precious than anything else Toritsuka had been given.
"These were actually given to me at the temple, and they hold a lot of spiritual power," Reita explained, catching Kusuo's attention as he set them on the table before them. "Apparently they used to belong to my mom."
Another surprise. Bringing something so precious to Toritsuka to school was risky, and it must mean he really trusted Saiki. A gift from his mother and given power by his home? It was practically tied to Reita as a part of him, a part of his history. Saiki felt almost touched he was seeing the cards at all.
Toritsuka's hands hovered over the deck as he grinned at Saiki, and a sudden wave of apprehension struck the black haired boy. "So chicks will definitely dig this sort of thing, right? Especially if my mom was into it. Plus I can make easy money off guys who want readings too!"
Thought too soon, Saiki abruptly stood, relishing in Reita's yelp as he then scrambled to speak.
"No don't go! There's no way I'm asking Nendo or Hairo for help with this stuff they'd end up ruining my cards, and Aren would kick my ass if I told Kaido bad news because of the direction of the cards! Aren would think I'm making it up to scare him!" Toritsuka rambled, and Saiki paused at that.
He wasn't entirely wrong, Aren was protective of Kaido, who tended to overthink anything when given negative ideas, and Aren was also an overthinker himself. Nendo would most certainly try to eat the cards or play games with them, disrespectful of spirituality even unintentionally. Hairo would try to be supportive, but he was also the type to go to extremes and that might not bode well for a tarot spread. If the cards were special to Toritsuka, which Kusuo was still on the fence about, he wouldn't want them to be disrespected or ruined in any way.
With a resigned sigh, Kusuo sat back down. Reita seemed genuinely relieved at this.
"Thanks, Saiki," He murmured, plucking up the deck before him and humming. "Now, I'm going to do some basic spreads, and then we can try you asking a question about your future and do a three-card spread for that!"
Kusuo shrugged, which seemed to be enough of a response for Reita who started the shuffle the cards right off the bat. He hummed as he worked, staring at Saiki intently.
"Tell me when, and I'll stop shuffling!"
Kusuo waited for a beat, two, watching the cards as they flicked and shifted before tapping his foot once and nodding. Instantly, Reita stopped, his breath held taught in his throat as he carefully set the deck down. Keeping the cards face down, he slipped the first card off the deck, placing it directly in front of him, the second one lying horizontally on top of the first, the third resting to the left of the first, and the last one to its right.
Silence enveloped the room, and a sudden weight that hadn't been there before felt heavy on Kusuo's shoulders. With a careful sigh, Reita flipped the cards over one by one, surprise flitting across his face and then concern.
"Well uh, thats not what I was expecting when I did a love spread!" Toritsuka coughed out a hesitant laugh and instantly Kusuo shot him a glare. The purple-haired male's hands shot up in a moment of surrender, grin nervous and crooked on his face. "Sorry, sorry! I couldn't resist! Plus its good practice for me if a girl wants me to do one for her!"
Saiki sighed, and somehow Toritsuka took this as the initiative to explain the cards, pointing at the first one he had set down with a more genuine smile as he explained.
"The first card is meant to represent you in the present. Its Death!" The way he said it made Kusuo's stomach flip briefly in concern before Reita hurried to explain. "It's not a bad thing! Death is actually a really good card, and upright it just means the end of cycles! Its a card of change, meaning you're going through a period of change in your love life, be it romantic, platonic or familial!"
He sounded rather excited to explain, Kusuo noted and he watched with careful eyes as Reita pointed to the next card.
"Combined with the second card is where it starts getting kind of weird, I guess? Like right now you're going through a period of change concerning love, and the second card is meant to represent what's blocking you from moving forward in your love life." Toritsuka carefully picked up the second card, holding it up for Kusuo to better see. It was reversed.
"Eight of Swords, when upright it would mean you're not finding love because of imprisonment or entrapment, probably some sort of self-hatred pitfall that you fell into that made you convince you to isolate yourself. But what's weird is that its reversed, which means that the reason you're not finding love because... of self-acceptance? You've accepted some part of yourself, so your romantic love life will fail."
Saiki eyed the card curiously as it was carefully set down once more, watching as Toritsuka frowned. "It only gets more confusing to me from there," The psychic admitted, pointing to the third card. "Because this card is meant to represent issues in the past that will be affecting you in the present."
He pushed the card forward, and surprisingly Saiki found himself leaning forward to look at the card with intrigue.
"Two of Cups, when upright it would mean that you're struggling with love because you've never had a partner before, which is like fair, but instead when reversed it means that the real reason you're not finding love is because of broken communication and tension, which means you're not explaining something to the person of love interest to you and it's causing you both harm."
Ah, so that's what this was about, Saiki noted thoughtfully as he scanned over the first three cards. But then, Toritsuka caught his attention again, his hands flinging to the opposite side of the table where the final card sat. It seemed to almost bask in the light of the candles, menacing and waiting to be mentioned. Kusuo understood the first three cards, but what could possibly be left to realize?
"This card is the worst one." Reita ground out, catching Kusuo by surprise as he groaned. "Like, maybe if it was reversed I'd understand, it's mean you avoided disaster by communicating your feelings, but upright it means there was a sudden upheaval in your future, and someone comes out with broken pride in the end."
Kusuo eyed the card, eyes scanning over the cursive lettering crowding the borders of the card.
"The Tower is the worst for love spreads upright." Reita grumbled, gently plucking up the four cards and slipping them back inside the deck. "Tarot is mostly about intuition and trying to help people by using it as a guide, but I have no idea how to help you." He said it almost apologetically, but Saiki shook his head with a smile.
If anything, it actually helped to see this spread. If tarot really did have supernatural powers, which Saiki was suspicious of but not at all surprised by the idea of considering Reita could see ghosts, then it felt like a sign to Kusuo.
"Maybe that was a bad spread!" Toritsuka crowed, shifting the deck in his nimble fingers and grinning. "How about I start even easier and I do a daily future spread?"
Kusuo felt his lips twitch just the slightest bit, nodding.
It was enough for Reita's face to light up brighter than the candles lying around the mock table.
A few more spreads later and Kusuo realized his time to recharge wandering around empty halls was being cut severely short, but despite it he felt relaxed watching Toritsuka shuffle cards.
Something about it was almost fulfilling in its own way, being able to sit there and watch Reita excitedly ramble about things he was actively passionate about instead of hiding behind a sleazy front.
"Reita?"
Seeming to have broken his concentration, Kusuo watched as Toritsuka fumbled with his cards, dropping a few and yelping as they scattered across the table.
"Christ! You scared the shit outta' me Saiki, you talk so little its weird," The purple-haired boy huffed, Saiki merely humming instead of bothering to respond verbally. He waited patiently as the boy picked up the randomly strewn about cards, practically feeling Reita get more nervous the longer he watched.
"So," The boy hurriedly muttered as he sat up straight and began to neaten the deck in his grasp. "What is it, dude? Must be important for you to talk so suddenly."
Kusuo shrugged as Toritsuka set down the tarot cards fiddling with the top card and flicking it around in his fingers.
"Why do you hide your passions from others?"
Silence, and Reita's nimble and constantly moving hands suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. A forced bark of a laugh escaped the psychic, taking Saiki by surprise when the boy plucked up the deck once again and began to shuffle roughly.
It was such a sudden change from his careful treatment of the cards from earlier that Kusuo had to force himself to stop from reaching out to grab ahold of the other boy's wrist to put him to a stop. Instead, he cringed as he watched the cards push and pull against each other as if upset by treatment.
"Do you want to hang out after school today, Saiki?" Reita asked, purposefully dodging the question without so much as acknowledging it. "I have to help the temple pay respects to the dead, its a weekly thing!"
Kusuo hesitated, watching the other nearly hit himself in his wild shuffling before standing carefully.
Toritsuka finally stopped, freezing as he stared up at him with a strained smile. Kusuo swallowed back the urge to speak, something he usually didn't feel well inside him, much less this strongly in hopes to prod Reita for answers.
Instead, he nodded, and Toritsuka's shoulders slumped in what looked like relief. A sigh escaped the boy.
"Sweet, yeah, that sounds good. It'll probably be more fun with you there, Saiki!"
Kusuo didn't respond this time, mostly because Reita had turned away and was suddenly rushing to pack up. It wasn't until the bell rang warning for the start of class that Kusuo really left, and it wasn't until he sat back in his seat when the second bell went off that he finally spotted Reita shuffling down the hall back to his classroom.