Chapter Text
It was maybe the most awkward briefing he’d attended with Kunikida. The details of the ability were unlike anything that he had expected. He had been hoping it was based on… strong emotions! Their hatred, maybe! As playful as it was, surely Chuuya’s side had true hatred attached to it!
Or maybe it was the person they had spent the most time with. The way they had both been abandoned by their families, unless Chuuya had grown close to someone in the Mafia since Osamu had left, that was an option! They spent all day every day together for years. That had to mean something!
But, no. It was neither of those, nor the nearly dozen other guesses that Osamu had given to Kunikida, hoping for an answer other than…
Soulmates.
Soulmates! The very idea of it made Osamu want to laugh, he had, much to Kunikida’s horror. The existence of soulmates was bad enough, but the implication that he had one, and it was Chuuya Nakahara…
It couldn’t be anyone else.
There was no one else he’d want his soulmate to be. All they had been through…
There was only one option.
And he hated his guts!
And Osamu had promised to tell him the second he found out more details about this ability, especially anything that might have an impact on him.
This? This certainly had an impact! The impact might be Osamu’s head finally smashing into the wall like Chuuya had always offered (threatened).
Oh, he wanted to avoid this conversation so, so badly.
But Kunikida had looked at him, completely bewildered, when he’d (seriously! Kunikida was always asking him to be more serious and then he was, and he was looked at like he was crazy still!?) asked if he wanted to break the news to Chuuya.
Osamu was stuck texting him, and setting up a date to meet with him.
And trying to figure out what the hell to say.
What could make this right? What could make it make sense?
Chuuya…
Osamu tended to avoid thinking of what his feelings might be.
He knew they weren’t fond.
But Chuuya wanted to meet immediately! Wanted to get this case over with.
They met at a cafe not far in between them.
“Chuuya! Have you gotten taller? I saw you right away!” Osamu exclaimed as the Mafia executive approached, clapping his hands together when he was immediately faced with a glare.
Good, if he could just… keep things the way that they always were, maybe this would be… less the worst day of his life.
“Don’t be such a pest, mackerel. You said you had info?” Chuuya kicked his feet up at the table in front of him, two coffees already set down. Osamu smiled a little at the fact that he’d bother to get one for him, but the smile quickly became fake.
“So straight to the point! Don’t you want to spend time with me?” Osamu batted his eyelashes, grinning at Chuuya.
Chuuya glared back. “Not even in your wildest dreams. Spill. Why the hell was it you? Out of everyone in goddamn Yokohama, why you?”
Osamu titled back on his heels, hands in the pockets of his trench coat. “You’ve probably already guessed this much, but just to fill in your little slug brain in case: the ability, it didn’t act randomly. Kunikida was able to get more information out of Hesiod after we captured him. Apparently, with a single touch, he can transfer souls between two bodies who are looking for each other.”
“Yeah, looking to put my fist into your face.” Osamu knew that look in Chuuya’s body, the way his shoulders curled, his head turned enough to hide his expression behind hat and hair. He was angry and upset, that much was true and not surprising at all. However, there was something he was hiding. Something he was masking behind vicious words. “Not that hard to figure that out.”
“Mutually looking for each other. It’s not an ability used for attacks, but… defense and confusion. Two souls… seeking their other half.” Osamu shifted on his feet, looking away from Chuuya. Oh, he was definitely dreading this part. After all, why would Chuuya believe that they were soulmates? Even so, it was a crueler joke than even Osamu felt like telling.
(For himself and for Chuuya.)
“What the fuck are you implying? That we’re some kind of cosmic fucking soulmates?” Chuuya rolled his eyes. “Even if that did exist, how would it be us ?”
“Sounds like it! I mean, if we have to have soulmates, you can’t be completely shocked that it would be the two of us! After all that time together, we have something special—”
“You left Osamu! We could have had shit, but you left! You abandoned me just like everyone fucking else! If that’s what a soulmate is, then I’m glad Hesiod’s fucking ability told me to avoid mine!” Chuuya pulled away from Osamu, holding his hat on his head and starting to storm off.
“I’m sorry!” Osamu called, surprising even himself with the desperation in his voice. “I needed—I needed to leave the Mafia, but it was never meant to be leaving you.”
“You still did! Your apologies are shit, after this long! You can’t come prancing back, announcing we’re soulmates, and expecting everything’s going back to the way it was!”
“I don’t want things to go back to the way they were!” Osamu choked. They were drawing in bystanders now, voyeurs to a situation he hardly wanted to have in private. There was no way Chuuya would agree to going somewhere more private with him, now, so he had to do what he could. “That’s why I left. I needed that to stop, or I’d—I’d actually —”
“You still left. You blew up my car and vanished without a single word because your friend died.”
“Because Mori got my friend killed. I blew up your car so you wouldn’t come after me; I needed to disappear. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d asked me not to.” His voice drops, hands shaking more than he normally let them in front of so many people. “I don’t think I would’ve said no. I don’t think—I don’t think I’d make it to now. Another four years as a Mafia executive? After watching my friend and the people he cared about die? Mori’s roofs were awfully high.”
“You should have said something.”
“If I told you I was leaving,” Osamu said softly, forcing himself to focus on Chuuya again. “Would you have come with me?”
Chuuya hesitated before grabbing Osamu’s coat, pulling him in by the lapels. He pulled him down, crashing their lips together.
It was hardly their first kiss, but still Osamu felt his breath whisked away in a way that was maybe more pleasant than the death he consistently sought. He let Chuuya lead, though crowded him against the wall, using his newly regained height to his advantage.
“I don’t know,” he muttered after a long moment, still clinging to Osamu’s coat. “But you’re an ass for not giving me the choice. You left, just like everyone else in my life. You had the chance to tell me why, and you didn’t.”
“But we still found each other.” Osamu smoothed shaking fingers over Chuuya’s vest, catching on each of the buttons. “Maybe Hesiod’s ability really did track down soulmates.”
“Soulmates sounds like a load of shit, and I know you agree with me.” Chuuya rolled his eyes, his hand still tight on his clothes.
“But you still want me!” Oh, Osamu didn’t sound as breathless as he felt! That was a good sign. He’d feel a little ridiculous if he used that tone of voice with Chuuya.
(With Chuuya…)
“I don’t forgive you,” Chuuya spat the words like venom, pushing Osamu back, grabbing back onto his coat at the last moment, his hands holding onto the edge of it. “If you leave me again, I’ll make your death as slow and painful as I possibly can.”
“Again?” Osamu echoed, his voice emptier than he expected. Even after the kiss, he hadn’t expected… anything. Things would go back to normal, despite them both knowing that they still loved each other. That it was mutual.
It was safer to ignore their feelings. It had always been, even when they were on the same side. Embracing the fact that they had feelings now, embracing each other …
It was a recipe for disaster, even in a ceasefire between their organizations.
“I’m not leaving the Port Mafia,” Chuuya said low. “You can’t make me do that even if you begged. I don’t want you back there either. But I—” He tilted his head back, his hat falling off when it banged against the wall. “Fuck! You’re such an ass! You know that?”
“So you’ve said.” Osamu let the grin bloom across his face again, pressing closer to Chuuya, their foreheads only centimeters from each other, their hands clinging to each other like they were the only things keeping them assembled. “But I think you were saying something else! Unless that explicative was a request, but even I must insist that if that’s our next plan, we ought to go somewhere with fewer bystanders and—”
“I want you back, you piece of shit!” His voice dropped low, low enough that most would assume Osamu couldn’t even hear. They both knew better. “I miss you.”
It was a vulnerability he may never admit to again, and Osamu cherished that, brushing his fingers against Chuuya’s cheeks before meeting their lips, soft and slow.
The kiss lingered, holding each other in their arms. Chuuya’s coat fell from his shoulders, holding Osamu close to him, refusing to budge himself.
“I missed you too,” Osamu whispered, “I wanted to leave everything about my old life. Everything except you .”
“Don’t be cheesy,” Chuuya growled. “I don’t need your sap . Don’t say shit like that, prove it.”
Osamu grinned, patting Chuuya’s head and pulling away, smoothing out his coat and holding out Chuuya’s hat.
“Don’t you worry, my little hat rack! My actions always speak louder than my words.”
“I sure fucking hope so.” Chuuya rolled his eyes, snatching the hat and storming off.
Osamu stayed where he was, a rare real smile gracing his lips.