Work Text:
He had been up late last night due to patrol, and luckily since there weren't any disturbances, Shouta judged that it would be safe for him to leave early for the night. Unfortunately, he seemed to forget the pile of essays sitting on his desk that needed to be graded...for the past month, so he sighed and grabbed a pen to start grading.
Why do I always assign them stuff I never get to grading, he thought to himself.
As Shouta was stuck staring at Mineta’s completely illogical essay on how women with bigger, ahem, body parts made for better heroes (Shouta thought it was a new low, even for Mineta), he heard a key unlock the front door of his apartment.
It wasn't completely Shouta’s apartment, heavens, he wished he could afford the rent, as it was Yamada who was his roommate. Speaking of who, just quietly walked into the apartment and shut the door behind him. Shouta could hear the small sounds Yamada was making trying to silence them as best as he could thinking that Shouta was sleeping. After fumbling with his shoes and putting away his keys, Yamada walked towards his own bedroom, but saw a light from Shouta’s own room.
“Shouta? Are you still awake?” Yamaha knocked gently on Shouta’s door.
Shouts gruffed in response, which allowed Yamada to open his door.
“I thought patrol ended for you hours ago, why are you--” he paused to see Shouta scribbling notes on papers, “Oh, grading papers, huh? Well I received an email from Principle Nezu that there will be a teacher meeting tomorrow after school, something about reevaluating students, okay?” Implying that Shouta would need to stay after school.
Shouta sighed in annoyance, he hated staying after school for meetings. It seemed to him that he could be using that time anything else than awkwardly sitting in a room full of people he only knew generally.
After that, Yamada left to seek the paradise of his own bed and promptly fell asleep. Shouta stayed up for another 30 minutes, and seeing that he had finished grading more than half of the essays, was satisfied enough to crawl into his own messy bed and fell asleep.
Shouta rubbed his eyes gently as he began to wake up to the smell of eggs and rice.
Shouta never really did have an appetite. Yamada at first was appalled by his lack of nutritious food, and so he offered to cook everything. Shouta really couldn't refuse, and hey, the food wasn't half bad, so Shouta ate, and Yamada continued to cook.
On his way to the bathroom, Shouta heard the sound of the morning channel on the radio, the same channel that played every morning. Yamada was humming along with the music, and if Shouta could guess, Yamada was also dancing.
There wasn't anything unusual or out of place, as it was every other morning. Repetitive mornings with Yamada were not boring at all, and Shouta came to appreciate these calm days.
After brushing his teeth, Shouta shuffled into the kitchen island where breakfast and a cup of coffee was laid before him. Yamada put the dirty pan into the sink and joined Shouta for breakfast.
“Hey, hey, I don't have to go to the radio station tonight! They're doing some upgrades with the equipment so there's no recording,” Hamada said in between bites.
Shouta looked up from his plate to see Yamada smiling expectantly, but doesn't say a word.
“So I was thinking, we should go out tonight! Drinks on me?”
There were about a million reasons why Shouta didn't want to go out that night for drinks, Nemuri would hear of it and invite herself, Mic wasting money on ridiculous drinks, it was too loud with sweaty bodies littering the floor, but Shouta brought up the most logical reason.
“It's Tuesday, we can't risk being hungover for school tomorrow.”
Yamada slapped his forehead and groaned. “Aw, I forgot about that… I guess we could just hang out in the living room and watch some TV then.”
Shouta grunted in approval, and the two continued eating their breakfast before leaving for work.
It was a warm and peaceful afternoon, and Shouta was grateful that none of his students caused any trouble. It really helped with the fact that he kept yawning in between classes, being exhausted from staying up later than he usually would. As soon as school was over, he headed straight to the teacher’s lounge for a cup of coffee. There, Nemuri caught Shouta yawning again and asked, “Up late again?”
Shouta grumbled an excuse, hoping that would satisfy her enough to leave him alone. It wasn't as if Shouta disliked Nemuri, he just disliked the fact that she was too curious and hyperactive. Under her guise of being a dominant femme, Shouta could see that she was always studying and judging the people around her, which led Shouta to be cautious around her.
Being so lost in thought, Shouta almost didn't hear Yamada walking up to them, and soon found hands grabbing his shoulders from behind.
“Yeah! Shouta’s was up last night grading some papers he assigned last month! Nemuri, scold him! He won't listen to me but someone’s gotta make him fix his procrastination problem!” he beamed at her.
Suddenly, Nemuri started laughing. Shouta and Yamada looked at each other worryingly.
“Sorry, sorry. It's just that it's so strange to know that you two are friends. Honestly, just by looking at you two, most people would've guessed that you're total strangers!” she giggled some more, “I mean, Yamada is so loud and colorful, but you, Shouta, you're so dark and quiet. Hmmm, how would I say it? Oh, it's like your two sides of the same coin!”
Yamada stiffened but made a loud cackle in response.
“Yeah? I don't see any problem with it. Even if Shouta is kind of like the total opposite of me, I think we go along great!”
Shouta really didn't have anything to say about the situation, feeling the awkwardness settle in after Nemuri and Yamada stopped laughing. Shouta glanced towards Nemuri and saw a little sparkle in her eye, and that's when Shouta knew something was up.
Thankfully, before Shouta could do anything else, Principal Nezu walked in and called everyone over to the meeting room.
Shouta’s mind went blank with boredom as some teachers started talking, but he wasn't really paying attention. He really didn't like meetings, so as to sate his boredom, he looked over to Yamada, who usually would be saying something as he always loved talking, but to Shouta’s surprise, Yamada was quiet and seemed to be deep in thought.
It had been a few hours after the meeting, which had nothing of importance to remember, so the two men lied of the couch watching some mystery documentary while eating some Chinese takeout they'd gotten on the way home. The show wasn't that interesting, but Shouta refrained from moving from his spot because of the tense atmosphere. Yamada wasn't babbling and asking an impossible amount of questions like he normally would when they watched any shows, and Shouta knew it wasn't because Yamada was actually interested in the show because his eyes were too unfocused. Something was wrong.
Long after all the food had been finished and the show had finished (it was now broadcasting an infomercial about a blender), the two men stayed still and quiet. It was the moment Shouta was about to fall asleep when he heard a “Shouta?”
He looked over to Yamada slowly to see him tense. “I was just wondering about what Nemuri said about us… We've known each other for 15 years, and yeah, you're my best friend, but I couldn't stop thinking that she was right. We're complete opposites.”
Shouta continued to stare at Yamada, egging him on for a better explanation.
“Well, normally people usually make friends with all sorts of people, but make best friends with people who are more similar to each other, and then, there's the next level…” Yamada scratched his head and looked down, “I know it's okay to have differences but… Say I'm the heads and you're the tails… I guess what I'm trying to ask is, will we ever see each other?”
Shouta’s mouth was still but his mind was flying everywhere. Confusion filled his brain.
“See? The only thing I see is that we aren't eye to eye. I don't know what you're asking.”
“Well, it's like how Nemuri said it. The heads of a coin is stuck to the tails of a coin, but they'll never see each other. One is always facing down, and the other is always facing up. If we're two sides of the same coin, will we ever see each other?”
Shouta started to get irritated. “Look, it's always been the same for us. Like you said, the coin has two sides, but it's stuck to each other. We've been inseparable ever since we've met, and sure, we may be complete opposites in terms of personality, but we're still friends.”
A long silence wavered through the air.
“It that it? After 15 years of sticking together, are we nothing more than friends?”
Shouta froze as he finally understood what Yamada was asking. 15 years was a long time to know someone, and in those years, Yamada told him everything about his life, and in return, Shouta revealed some parts of his life to him as well.
It started out friendly enough, just simple pleasantries to Yamada bothering everyday, but Shouta allowed it because they were a good match. They did well on partnered activities in school, became partners for a while in the past, and were good roommates.
Yamada came out to Shouta when they were 22. They were at a bar celebrating the fact they both were accepted to a major hero agency, and Yamada was eyeing every pretty little girl that walked by them. By the end of the night, as Shouta was dragging a heavily drunk Yamada back to his apartment, Yamada started crying and confessed that no matter how hard he tried to look at women, they weren't sexually appealing at all, and that's why he never got a girlfriend in high school, despite being popular enough.
They never mentioned it, but the two men knew what occurred that night. It didn't change their relationship at all though, and for that, both Yamada and Shouta were secretly grateful.
But Shouta, on the other hand, never experienced any real love feelings. He had been an awkward, quiet man all his life, and found comfort in the idea that heroes were encouraged not to take on significant others, as it was too dangerous, and so he had used that as an excuse for never getting into a relationship.
Suddenly being asked about his feelings broke Shouta. He didn't know what to do, what to say, or how to act, and so he stayed there stunned in silence.
Yamada read this as making Shouta too uncomfortable, and he started getting up from the couch to leave Shouta alone, until he felt his hand being grabbed.
Panning down, Yamada saw a raging fire in Shouta’s eyes, indicating that Shouta was being serious.
No… I don't know yet. I don’t know whether or not we're just friends, but I do know that you're someone close to me.”
“...Are you sure?”
Shouta grunted in response.
Yamada pulled Shouta up and grasped him into a tight hug, which Shouta shakily reciprocated.
“You do know what I'm asking right? A relationship with me…” Yamada looked into Shouta’s eyes.
“Please, it couldn't be any worse than it is now.”
Yamada started to tear up. Even if Shouta didn't say it outright, he heard him loud and clear, “I trust you.” which gave the final push Yamada needed to finally do something he'd been aching for after so long.
He kissed him.