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For a few minutes now he’d been awake, watching Serizawa sleep beside him, studying the soft orange rays playing over the man's face, and he shifted just a little closer until that sweet, charming, kind mouth was a hair's breadth from his own. He held back, not wanting to ruin this moment, wanting to hold onto it, stopped in between the pounding beat of his heart forever. Full of want, breathless for drowning in it, he barely caught himself before he pressed a kiss to the parted lips. Serizawa deserved to sleep as long as he was able. Those gentle hands had been full of Reigen’s unraveling self for weeks and rather than push him away the esper had held him closer, flooding color and meaning and purpose back into his world, loving him with an honest intensity he'd never known before. Things were brighter with Serizawa, easier, easy.
Which is what made this so hard.
Tears stung Reigen’s eyes as he thought of the money he'd set aside for a new apartment. It was terrifying, being so loved, and while he wanted to believe things would continue as they were, he knew better than to place his trust in it. This could very well mark the beginning of the end and that thought alone spilled the fear in his eyes down his face. Suddenly desperate for any contact he let his forehead rest against Serizawa’s own, winding his fingers slowly into the shirt he slept in, trying to fall back into the calm of before.
Sunlight woke him and he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the back of one hand, smiling when he noticed slack fingers tangled in his shirt. He let his palm fall gently onto the auburn hair, carding his fingers through it, carefully so as not to wake him. Sleep had come so hard for Reigen for so long and it was only now that the dark shadows under his eyes were fading. He leaned closer, wrestling with want for his attention and giving him just a few more minutes, frowning when he noticed tear tracks on his cheeks. Serizawa shifted his thumb to smudge them away, heart stuttering with this show of vulnerability. Lost in the heady warmth of Reigen pressed against his body he wanted nothing more than to press his lips to that clever, generous, smart mouth. Wished he could kiss away all his insecurities and replace them with the full feeling of love he felt for him every day. Wished he could explain in words what this meant to him, how the possibilities spread out infinitely, unmapped, when they were together, how he wanted to spend eternity exploring them.
Everything in his life became so clear and easy to understand when Reigen lifted his eyes to meet his, when he walked into the room, when his expressive hands painted his vision in the air. If he could only find the right way to explain to this man the emotion he inspired in him.
He'd never been good with words but never had he wanted to protect anything more.
Which was why he could guess what had upset him. It related strongly to his own fears: that Reigen would start to distance himself out of a misplaced sense of guilt and obligation. Serizawa knew he had money set aside for an apartment and hadn't yet developed the courage to approach him about it. Serizawa wanted this more than anything and the idea that it could be ending closed his throat and made his pulse race. This time he couldn't stop himself and wrapped Reigen up in his arms, pulling him close, shutting his eyes against the emotion hitting him from all sides while crushing their lips together out of desperation. Reigen hummed sleepily, coming awake gradually to kiss him back before mumbling,
“Wha’s wrong?”
“I want you to stay.” Softly, serious, an echo of what Serizawa had said to him the very first day. Pushing a hand through his hair, Reigen covered his eyes with one palm, trying unsuccessfully to stem the tears. He didn't want this offer if it was based on sympathy and didn't know why he couldn't stop thinking that's what it was. Serizawa moved tense fingers, dropping a kiss on each tightly closed lid, brushing his thumb along the bone of his cheek and Reigen shuddered under his touch, the softness making it that much more electric. “I want to wake up next to you like this every morning.” Murmured into sleep-warm skin as he moved, featherlight, along his jaw and Reigen couldn't help the noise he made.
Serizawa caught the sound, something like a laugh and a sob, as he pressed kiss after gentle kiss against Reigen’s mouth, his forehead, under his chin, not stopping until he responded in kind. Broad hands ran under the oversized shirt, smoothing over pale skin, trailing warmth in their wake, enough to raise that hectic flush in his face, leave his eyes half lidded and unfocused, cunning words caught somewhere between. It was powerful, to have this effect on a person, on someone you loved so deeply.
“Will you?” He gave Reigen a few seconds to come back from wherever he’d gone, blinking slowly, lips parted as he breathed,
“what?”
“Stay.” Reigen drew forward and Serizawa’s heart fluttered in his chest as he caught his mouth once more, neatly, chaste, and so quietly answered:
“Yes.”