Chapter Text
When Serizawa woke up, Reigen was already out of bed. He spent a moment blinking himself awake and looking around the room before realizing Reigen was on the balcony having a smoke. He was already dressed, only missing his suit jacket, tie, and shoes. As soon as Serizawa started to shift to sit up, Reigen looked through the open sliding door.
“Mornin, Katsuya.”
“Morning. Have you been awake for long?”
Reigen stubbed out his cigarette and took a step to stand inside the doorway. “Nah, just a few minutes.”
“Oh. Okay.” He shuffled out of bed and started looking for his clothes. There was an odd sort of quiet in the air, too early for traffic noises and conversation. It was comfortable, mostly, but still had a bit of nervous happy energy as it was the first time they had actually spent the night together.
Once he was dressed he found Reigen scrolling through his phone in the kitchen. “So, um, do you cook breakfast or do I? I don’t actually know the, uh, etiquette for this kind of thing.”
Reigen looked confused, then surprised, then put on his carefully neutral nice face all in the blink of an eye. “How about we just go out instead? It’s too early to go to work and there’s a diner that serves good coffee nearby.”
Serizawa still wasn’t very good at interpreting faces and Reigen’s rapid expressions were especially difficult, so he agreed and forgot about it.
The next time he stayed over, they slept in too late to have breakfast before work. The next two times after that they went to the diner again. It wasn’t until the fifth time waking up in Reigen’s apartment that Serizawa figured it out.
Reigen was still asleep for once when Serizawa woke up. It was a little too early, so Serizawa got up as quietly as he could to relieve himself and put his pants back on. They never did establish the etiquette of who makes the morning after breakfast but it would be nice of him to do it, right? Wasn’t cooking meals for your lover a good boyfriend thing to do? Serizawa nodded to himself and made his way to the fridge to see what there was to work with.
The answer was not much. Reigen had a few beers, a questionably old box of take-out, and half a jar of pickled veggies. The cupboard wasn’t any better, only holding a ripped bag of rice and some instant ramen. Did Arataka forget to go shopping lately? Or-
“Katsuya?” Serizawa jumped, nearly slamming the cupboard shut in surprise. He hadn’t heard Reigen get up but somehow he was standing at the front of the kitchen.
“Arataka! Please don’t scare me like that!”
Reigen smiled a little. “I didn’t realize you were so absorbed in thought. If you’re hungry, put a shirt on and I’ll take you to the diner.”
Serizawa glanced back at the (thankfully unbroken) cupboard. “Ah, well, I was going to cook breakfast but, um, there isn’t much here… We could go shopping, maybe? Since theres no work today anyway we have the time.”
The look that flashed across Reigen’s face reminded Serizawa of bad smells but was again quickly replaced with something more neutral. “Nah, I don’t need to go shopping. Lets just go out.”
“But, Arataka, you really do need groceries. How will you cook lunch?”
This time Reigen’s face settled on what Serizawa could only describe as grumpy. He crossed his arms and turned slightly toward the door. “Fine. I’ll admit it. I… can’t cook.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t cook! Thats why we never have breakfast here, alright?” His fingers were drumming against his arms anxiously.
Serizawa put his hands up in front of him. “Wait, wait, thats okay! I didn’t mean any harm, I just worry. I mean, I’m not the best cook but I can do it for you, if you want?”
Reigen studied Serizawa’s face for a moment, then sighed dramatically. “Alright. But you have to keep coming over so the food won’t go bad, then.”
Serizawa smiled. “That works for me.”
They got dressed and headed to the nearby grocery store. Serizawa picked out more vegetables both fresh and pickled, a new bag of rice, ingredients for soup, and fresh fish. On their way back home something occurred to him.
“Arataka, if you never cook, what do you usually have for breakfast?”
Reigen waved a hand around vaguely. “You know. Coffee and cigarettes.”
Serizawa stopped in his tracks. “Wh- Arataka!”
“What??”