Chapter Text
Jakurai arrived home late. He always did. He tried to fit as much work into each day as he could, simply because he knew his own time was so valuable. There was so much to do, so many people to help. He never got home until long after the sun had set.
It didn’t help that tonight, his commute had taken longer than usual. Maybe it negated the “convenience” of a convenience store, but he’d gone to one that was far out of his way. He didn’t want to chance running into a patient and having them see him buying the type of unhealthy pre-prepared dinner that he warned against. It wasn’t often that he did that, but he was particularly tired tonight.
He changed into casual clothes as soon as he got back to his apartment, and settled in to have the tasteless dinner. Normally, he’d pull out his laptop and try to do a little more work before he slept, but, again, he was tired. And a tired, frustrated doctor helped no one. He was always instructing others in self-care, and if he wasn’t following his own advice about healthy eating habits, he could at least try to lead by example in other regards. So he pulled out his phone to check how others had spent their day.
He was only on social media in an official capacity, as the leader of Matenro. The leaders of the divisions were told in no uncertain terms that this was expected of them by the government, to keep public involvement in the battles up. That was fine with him. He’d make the occasional post about practice, or an upcoming battle, or update on the new hospital's progress; sometimes he'd respond to the other divisions’ posts, sometimes he'd interact with fans. He never did anything unprofessional.
It was a little different for his division mates. Hifumi was extremely active, using the same account to post as both a member of Matenro and as a popular host. Professional-grade photography mixed in with selfies and promotions in a stream of advertising that came so fast Jakurai’s head would spin when he looked at it. He seemed to have a separate account for personal posts, but following that would be going beyond using the site for professional matters.
Doppo wasn’t active. He had an account, he followed Jakurai and Hifumi, but otherwise, he didn’t use it. It must’ve been something that Hifumi talked him in to. Had he not been the division leader, Jakurai’s account probably would’ve been much the same.
Although, lately, Jakurai was finding himself going online more and more. Seeing how everyone was doing was nice. Ichiro posted regularly, always pictures of himself and his brothers. Samatoki, though Jakurai knew it was actually Jyuto who ran the account, would post about news from around Yokohama, mostly public works projects and community events. And though he didn’t dare follow Ramuda himself, he did look to see how Gentaro’s work was going, and got a secondhand idea through that. He didn’t have enough time to read any of Gentaro’s writing, of course, but Jakurai liked to support the arts.
The last few nights, he’d even gone to look at Hifumi’s personal page. Only to look. It would be unbecoming of him to do anything more.
Tonight there was a picture of him and Doppo. That was rare. One of Hifumi’s hands held the phone, taking the picture, and the other pushed Doppo’s face into an uneven smile. Doppo looked unamused by the fooling around.
His teammates were so… So… Well. Jakurai certainly thought they were interesting.
It wouldn’t hurt anyone if he saved the picture, would it?
--
“Doppo, look, look! Sensei finally posted that official victory photo of us.” Hifumi dropped onto the couch next to Doppo, pushing his phone in front of him. He leaned against him, shoulder to shoulder. On his phone was a picture of the three members of Matenro, posing in a studio the day after winning their battle with Mad Trigger Crew.
“Oh, it’s pretty nice. You look good,” Doppo said, not minding his partner forcing his way into his personal space. He might get annoyed sometimes, but he never really minded, when it was Hifumi.
Hifumi hummed. “Yeah, but I always look good. I don’t look extra special here or anything. You’re the one who looks great!”
Ducking his head and blushing, Doppo mumbled, “not really… my hair’s a mess, and the circles under my eyes--”
“Nope, nope!” Hifumi cut him off. “You look super handsome and you’re not allowed to deny it. You hair is devilishly ruffled and, like, don’t you know the smoky eye look is in right now?”
Now Doppo ducked towards Hifumi, muffling a laugh in his shoulder. “I don’t think that’s what smoky eye is.”
“Even if it’s not, I'm the handsome professional here, so if I say you look good, it's true. It's my professional opinion.” He said it with the utmost seriousness. “Though sensei probably looks the best in this photo. That's professional Hifumi speaking, not boyfriend Hifumi. Boyfriend Hifumi still likes you the best.”
Doppo leaned against his shoulder. “We're boyfriends now? Weren't we friends with benefits last week?”
“I changed my mind,” Hifumi said as he put his face against Doppo's head. He often arbitrarily decided that they had a different relationship. Doppo didn't care what he called it as long as they were together; they'd talked about it enough when they were younger and they were actually figuring out what they meant to each other. It was more an inside joke than anything, at this point. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to change the subject here. Look at how handsome sensei is.” He pushed his phone further into Doppo's face.
“Hifumi, it's too close, I can't see.” He pushed Hifumi's hand away so that he could actually look. “Yeah, he looks good. Sensei's naturally pretty, isn’t he?”
“Hmm, yeah, he's hot.” He stared at the phone for a second in thought. “I change my mind again. We're friends with benefits now, I wanna get with sensei.”
“We can be boyfriends and you can still get with him. There's open relationships, and… polyamorous stuff.”
“Wait, you're actually okay with that?” Hifumi pulled his head away and looked at Doppo. “I was, uh, joking. Like, not completely joking, but I didn't think you'd, uh… Agree.”
Doppo's face flushed and he started babbling, “w-well, it's okay if it's sensei, right? Like you said, he's hot, and he's nice, and I like him too, and, uh, not that I've thought about it, well, maybe I have, and-- oh no, I've ruined our relationship, haven't I? Because I like someone else. I still like you, I still love you but oh no, you're going to hate me, and that'll be justified, and--”
Hifumi cut him off with a laugh and a peck on the cheek. “I don't hate you. Doppo, I’ll always love you! And, well,” he blushed, too, though hardly as much as Doppo had, “it's okay if it's sensei, right?”
They looked at each other, faces red, both unsure of what to say next. This was… probably something that they needed to talk about.
Hifumi elected to not talk about it right now at all. He scrolled quickly through the feed on his phone. “Oh, look,” he said far louder than he had to, “the Yamadas posted a selfie together. That’s so sweet.”
Doppo wasn’t sure they should just be dropping the subject like that, but he worried he’d already made things awkward enough, so he followed Hifumi’s subject change. “Didn’t they post one yesterday? Why do they need so many pictures of themselves…?”
“Because it’s nice to look back on!” Hifumi typed out a comment on the picture. Probably a complimentary one. “They’re gonna be so happy when they grow up and they’ve got all these pictures together of when they were young. We hardly took any pictures together and I regret it so much. Oh!”
“What?”
“Let’s take a selfie now! No time like the present.” He put an arm around Doppo’s shoulder and held his phone above them, trying to get them both in the camera’s view.
Doppo glowered up at the camera, his hair casting a shadow down over his eyes. “We’re not even doing anything worth remembering.”
“That’s the point,” Hifumi whined. “I want to remember normal days, too. Come on, smile.” He pushed at Doppo’s face, trying to force him to smile, his fingers practically in his mouth. Doppo grunted, and while he didn’t object, he didn’t humour him, either. Hifumi beamed up at the camera and took the picture. “This is so cute,” he said as he showed it off.
It just looked silly to Doppo. “I guess you’re the professional.”
“Yes I am! I’m posting it.” He invited no room for argument, so Doppo didn’t try. He just hummed dubiously. “Don’t worry, nobody looks at my personal,” Hifumi assured him.