Chapter Text
It all started when Juumonji approached him one day in the locker room as he was switching out his cleats for his regular tennis shoes, hair still wet from his after-practice shower.
"Hey, Sena," Juumonji said from behind. "Look over here."
So Sena looked, and was greeted with the soft shuttering noise of Juumonji's smartphone camera pointed directly at him. Sena immediately wrinkled his nose.
"--What was that for? Don't do anything weird with it!"
Juumonji waved off his protests with a grin, tucking his phone into his pocket.
"Thaaanks," He drawled, as if Sena had volunteered. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing."
And Sena had pulled a doubtful face, but Juumonji genuinely seemed casual, rather than playful in that way that signalled an oncoming unpleasant surprise, so he decided to believe him and put it out of his mind.
...Until three weeks later, when Juumonji caught him after practice again on a Saturday, looking much less in high spirits.
"Do you have anything going on after practice tomorrow?" He asked without preamble.
Sena looked up from packing his bag, confused. Sure, sometimes he did hang out with the Ha-Ha Brothers on the weekends these days, but generally it was just an open invitation to the whole team to do an arcade run, not a personal invitation.
"No," he said carefully. "Why?"
"I need your help with something," Juumonji mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Meet me at the station at 9."
"Er--" Sena started, not sure what question he wanted to ask first-- help with what? why him? did he have a choice, here?-- but Juumonji slouched off without waiting for a response, leaving Sena staring behind him.
"...Okay?" Sena mumbled to himself, going back to packing his bag. Well-- he clearly wasn't going to get any answers here, so… it looked like he had plans for Sunday?
An hour later his phone chimed, and he saw that he had a text from Juumonji.
btw, it said. wear something kinda nice.
"...WHAT."
---
He got to the station earlier than he needed to, partly from nerves and partly because he thought, if he REALLY needed to make a case for not going along with-- whatever this thing was that Juumonji needed help with that apparently required wearing something nice-- he might need some time to argue.
However-- he was surprised to see that Juumonji was also early, already leaning against the wall and… looking a little jittery himself, Sena noticed. Oh, god, what were they doing today?
There was a small, old part of himself that kind of wanted to turn tail and run right then, maybe send Juumonji a text that he was sick and couldn't help and he was sorry and he hoped he would be able to find someone else for whatever he needed!!, but a year and a half of football had taught him to suppress that urge almost as second nature, and so instead he made his way up to Juumonji's side.
"Um," he said, and Juumonji startled, apparently having been too deep in thought to notice him-- what exactly were they doing today???-- so he rushed to add, "Sorry! H-here I am. Is this okay?"
"This," meaning his outfit-- he'd decided that "kinda nice" took "formal" off the table, and had gone for "stylish" instead, or as close as he thought he could get to it from stuff he'd picked up across different shopping trips with Suzuna. He had a cool jacket, and jeans that actually fit him okay, and some boots instead of tennis shoes, so that should be something, right? He raised and dropped his arms slightly in demonstration.
Juumonji looked him over, and looked away just as quickly. He coughed a little as he said, "Uhh, yeah, that's fine. C'mon, we're this way."
"Oh-- yeah." Sena followed along after him, sneaking glances as they walked. Juumonji's mood was so weird-- somewhere between anxious, avoidant and defeated. He started to have the thought again, and finally actually voiced it: "Um, Juumonji-kun? Where are we actually going?"
"...There's an indie manga publisher about 20 minutes away," Juumonji said, clearly hedging his answer. "I'm picking up a present for Toga's birthday."
That was in about two weeks, Sena realized, and he nodded-- part of that actually made sense. Still:
"...I don't know anything about manga, though? Er, not like Toganou-kun does…"
And it didn't explain the clothes, though Sena wasn't going to push his luck with getting the whole story just yet.
"That's not what I need you for. Look, I'll tell you when we get there, okay?" Juumonji rubbed at the back of his neck uncomfortably, the question coming out more like a plea than a shut-down. Well-- it wasn't like Juumonji really snapped at him really at all, anymore, but even still, it was out-of-character. What about picking up a volume of a manga or whatever could be making him act like that--?
"...Okay…" Sena agreed, and not too long after that they were silently boarding a train, Juumonji's body language determinedly casual as he leaned back in his seat. He was, Sena noticed, staring very hard in the opposite direction from where Sena was sitting, almost as if he felt a little guilty for dragging him along, which was of course an extremely fun thought.
Trying not to imagine a situation in which Juumonji was dragging him along as some kind of peace offering to a band of enemy delinquents, Sena fiddled with his phone until the robot lady announced the next stop over the train's speakers, and something unrelated clicked in his mind.
"Oh!" He said, and Juumonji startled, and Sena flustered over the weirdness of it for a second before rallying to continue his thought. "If we're going about 20 minutes down this line-- there's that new burger place down that way, right? With all the different kinds of meat."
Juumonji just stared at him for a beat-- he was being SO WEIRD, Sena tried really hard not to notice-- before a look of recognition dawned on his face.
"Oh, yeah. The one that's got like, buffalo and alligator and stuff, right?"
"Yeah! Me and Monta were talking about trying it out the next time we get our allowances." Sena shifted closer to Juumonji on the row of seats, pulling the restaurant's mobile site up on his phone and holding it out for him to see.
Juumonji looked, hanging back a little, apparently still preoccupied with his thoughts, but-- then leaned in when a detail caught his attention.
"You can eat ostrich there? I wanna eat a whole ostrich."
Sena grinned, part humor and part relief. If Juumonji could be distracted from his thoughts by the idea of eating a huge bird, surely whatever was coming couldn't be that bad, right? Right?
"I want to eat the alligator. Do you think it tastes like fish?"
"No way. It's gotta taste like whatever a lizard would taste like."
"Well, lizards and fish are both cold-blooded and lay eggs, don't they?"
"...Damn. That's true. What about birds, though? Lizards and birds are both related to dinosaurs."
"...So like fishy chicken, then…?"
"That's sick."
"I still wanna try it!"
Yeah, it would be fine. Probably.
---
Juumonji clammed up again over the course of the train ride, though, getting up without a word when they reached what was apparently their stop and making it nearly to the door before he remembered to look back to check that Sena was following.
"Sorry," he mumbled, and immediately immersed himself in pulling out his phone to check his maps app as they made their way off the train.
"This way. It's not far." He shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched off in that direction. Sena followed, almost unbearably curious, but just as he was able to let it get the better of him Juumonji came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the sidewalk.
"There it is," he said, eyes fixed on an unassuming building a little further down the block. It looked like the kind where individual businesses rented out floors or offices, and Sena wondered what it was like inside-- how often did people get to actually see inside a manga publishing studio, even if just an indie one?
He looked between the building and Juumonji, who was still just staring at it, and just as he started to ask, "Are we--?", Juumonji grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into a nearby alley.
"Okay," Juumonji said before Sena had time to be more than startled. "Listen. For my last birthday Toga spent two whole months digging around junkyards to find me a part I needed to patch up my bike. Okay?"
Sena nodded politely, baffled out of his mind.
"So, I owe him big time. And this publisher, they're doing this contest thing where if you win, you get an autographed copy of some super-rare one volume manga that Toga's favorite artist did a million years ago. The chick behind Scarlet Samurai Z, you know?"
Juumonji was slowly turning pink, Sena noticed. He nodded again, fascinated.
"Right, so. The contest. Uh. This publisher, it's a, uh, it's a BL magazine. Because I guess that's what this artist lady got her start drawing, all right? And so, uh, the contest."
Sena had never seen Juumonji like this, not even way back at the start of everything when he'd still been terrified by Hiruma. He was rapidly leaving "pink" behind and going fully red, face screwed up in concentration as he tried to find the right words. Finally, he took a deep breath, grabbed Sena by the shoulders, and blurted:
"I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend."
"...Eh?"
He couldn't have heard that right.
Juumonji ducked his head in defeat.
"I need you," he repeated slowly, "to pretend to be my boyfriend."
"...EHHH??"
"Look, I know it's stupid!" Juumonji snapped, red-faced. "But I really owe Toga, okay?! The stupid contest is this "cutest boyfriend" thing where people send in pictures and I didn't know they'd actually want to meet whoever won but they want to do this whole interview thing and they won't just let me pick up the manga without you because I could've just gotten whoever's picture off of Instagram or whatever."
Sena felt his face heat up, enough that he could probably give Juumonji a run for his money. A-- cutest boyfriend contest? And Juumonji had--
"You used my picture?"
He-- didn't think he was bad-looking, exactly, but "cutest"? Really?
Juumonji mistook his meaning, however, and ducked his head again.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know I'd have to actually drag you into it; I thought they'd just mail it--"
"No, no," Sena interrupted. "I mean-- you picked me?"
Juumonji looked up at him, equally confused and defensive.
"Yeah? Who else would I use?"
...Which was a good point-- their team wasn't exactly full of "cute" types, and Sena couldn't imagine that many of Juumonji's friends off-team fit the mold either, but--
"But-- me??"
Juumonji actually frowned at him, some of his nervous energy fading as he studied Sena's expression.
"...You won, didn't you?"
Oh.
"Oh," Sena said, and then, "Eh?", and then "What?!", because somewhere in trying to understand that Juumonji had chosen to send in a picture of him for the contest in the first place, he'd totally failed to process that they'd won.
"Well, whatever!" Juumonji said, frustrated, finally letting go of Sena's shoulders to rub at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Look. Will you do it?"
"E-eh-- I mean--" Sena stumbled over his words, still just trying to wrap his mind around the situation. He-- what? Juumonji had-- what?? They'd won???? WHAT????
Juumonji shifted his gaze away, cheeks still flushed pink. Already sounding resigned, he mumbled, "I could really use your help."
And, oh. There was something solid to grab onto.
"...O-okay."
---
"Ooh! And here are the contest winners!"
They were greeted cheerfully and immediately upon making their way into the publisher's office, faces turning toward them from computer desks at the announcement made by a friendly-looking woman who honestly didn't look much older than Sena and Juumonji themselves. It was a small space, a little crowded, but she breezed up to them and added:
"We can use my office! Hello, it's very nice to meet you; I'm Nakamura Reiko and I'm the contest organizer! I'll be interviewing you today. You must be Toganou-kun, right? And this is the boyfriend, our lucky winner!"
Her energy reminded Sena a lot of Suzuna as she addressed first Juumonji and then Sena himself. He shot Juumonji a slightly panicked look at the false name and Juumonji determinedly didn't look at him, instead dipping into a slight bow and murmuring, "Nice to meet you."
"Y-yes, nice to meet you, I'm, um, Anezaki Sena," Sena flustered, bowing more deeply. "Th-thank you for choosing me?!"
Reiko laughed, flipping a hand dismissively.
"Of course! You blew the competition out of the water. Thank you for supporting Harmony!" Which, Sena gathered, was the name of the magazine. He nodded nervously as Reiko led them back to a cozy well-lit room with a loveseat sitting across from a desk. She gestured for them to sit down and turned to get her desk chair out from behind the desk, and as she did Juumonji shot a hand out to tug Sena closer to him by the shoulder as they sat on the loveseat.
Oh. Right. Sena twisted his fingers together in his lap and tried to ignore the warmth of Juumonji's leg pressing against his as Reiko fished out a small notepad, some papers and a pen and took a seat across from them in her desk chair.
Obliviously, Reiko twirled her pen as she started to lay out the plan for the contest coverage in the next issue of Harmony.
"So, as stated in the contest terms, all photos from the contest and today will only be published in the physical version of Harmony, so you don't have to worry about your picture being splashed across the internet! Ours is a small publication regardless, and we're also going to be using aliases rather than real names for the profile we write about the two of you, so I don't think there's much concern about becoming overnight celebrities." She grinned and winked at them, and Sena wanted to sink through the floor.
Oh, god. "Small publication" or not, REAL PEOPLE were going to see a picture of him as the winner of a cutest boyfriend contest. He couldn't believe that after everything that had happened to him since joining the American football club-- including the Death March, waking up in the zoo after a night of accidental drinking, impersonating a famous football urban legend from an American high school, and just generally existing in the vicinity of Hiruma Youichi for a year and a half-- there were STILL new things being added to the running for "the weirdest thing that ever happened to Kobayakawa Sena."
"So!" Reiko continued, again unaware of his inner turmoil. "If you two agree to the terms, you can just sign here and we'll get started with the interview!"
Sena looked to Juumonji, who grunted affirmatively and reached for the clipboard and pen Reiko offered them. He signed-- "Toganou Kazuki," Sena noted, and that was good for him to know since Juumonji-- Kazuki-- was supposed to be his boyfriend-- and passed the clipboard to Sena, who signed "Anezaki Sena" in turn. He offered the clipboard back to Reiko with bent shoulders, silently congratulating himself for not instinctively starting to write his real name instead.
"Great! So, let's get started. How long have the two of you been together?"
Sena immediately looked to Juumonji again, and then could have kicked himself-- why would he need to double-check everything his boyfriend was going to say about their relationship?-- but was a little gratified to see that Juumonji looked out of his depth as well, a slight flush creeping its way back up his neck.
"Uhh, six months or so," Juumonji said, and then shot him a look. "Right?"
Sena nodded vigorously. "Y-yes, six months."
"Ooh, so right on that tipping point into long-term, and in high school, even!" Reiko tittered, taking notes. She shot them a grin. "Is it serious?"
Completely breaking the charade, Sena and Juumonji looked toward each other in utter panic, the steady low-level blush on both of their faces abruptly igniting. Reiko burst out laughing, and waved the question away with one hand.
"You don't have to answer that! It looks like that's a talk you haven't had yet, hmm?"
Sena nodded silently, staring at his lap with his face burning, internally thanking whatever spirits of deception were looking over he and Juumonji that their reaction had looked natural in context. Juumonji looked away toward the wall, mumbling something inaudible that Reiko laughed off.
"We'll move on, then. So, Toganou-kun, what do you like best about Anezaki-kun?"
"About Sena?" Juumonji looked startled, but this time when he looked in Sena's direction, it was in consideration rather than panic. His face was still flushed, though, and Sena's heart, bewilderingly, beat a little faster at being looked at that way, with that expression, even though Juumonji was certainly just going to make something up about this pretend character of Anezaki Sena--
Juumonji looked back toward Reiko, not quite meeting her eyes, and nodded as he said, "He's brave."
"Brave?" Reiko prompted, making a note. Sena stared at Juumonji-- brave…? That was sweet, but it's not like anyone was going to buy it, his picture was going to be right there--
"Yeah. He's small, I mean, look at him," Juumonji said, and Sena nodded, okay, that part tracked, "but he's always willing to put himself on the frontline for us no matter what the stakes are. Uh, me and our friends, I mean. And whoever else needs it."
"Ooh, strong answer," Reiko hummed, scribbling away before looking up at Sena. "And Anezaki-kun?"
"...Huh?" Sena said, tearing his eyes away from Juumonji, feeling a little dazed. That… had been a real answer, hadn't it? The "frontlines" stuff and everything; he was talking about football. Juumonji thought he was brave?
"What do you like best about Toganou-kun?" Reiko clarified, smiling at him patiently.
"Oh-- oh, right. What I like best about-- Kazuki-kun…" He trailed off, too distracted by the question itself to congratulate himself for remembering to use Juumonji's given name, or to get embarrassed about how intimate it felt in the context of their cover story. Juumonji, who was definitely a delinquent, but also smart, who Sena had been terrified of for years, but now relied on to protect him, who had helped Sena and all the others climb up and reach the Christmas Bowl in their very first year together…
"...Kazuki-kun has… changed a lot, since we've known each other," he said, slowly. "Um-- I don't know if it was on purpose, really, but… I think that's really impressive, when someone can choose a goal, and then work their hardest to make it happen, even if it means having to change. I-I really admire that he was able to do that for himself."
He ducked his head as he finished, avoiding Juumonji's gaze. It was true-- and not even necessarily something that should have been embarrassing to say-- so he didn't know precisely why it felt like he had said too much; why his heart with still beating fast with having shared it.
Reiko nodded her approval at his answer, looking between them. "Sounds like there's some history there! Which leads us to the next question-- how did you two meet?"
Sena did his best to only wince internally, and hoped that Juumonji had a good story up his sleeve for that one. Their real story definitely couldn't be spun as a romance, so there was no choice but to lie--
But, while Juumonji was quiet for maybe a beat longer than felt natural, his voice was steady as he answered.
"...I used to pick on him. In middle school."
Sena did a double-take, and Reiko perked up in interest, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I was… Like Sena said, I've done a lot of changing things, recently. I used to look down on people a lot, you know, for being small or lame or… just because I could, really." Juumonji lowered his gaze to where his hands were linked, elbows braced on his knees, but he didn't stop his story. "But then some bullshit happened, and-- I sort of realized that the people that were really strong, you know, the people that were really worth something, were the ones that didn't need to look down on people to feel proud. 'Cause they had other stuff to be proud of, even with assholes like me trying to beat them down."
After a beat, he half-turned toward Sena, meeting his startled gaze evenly.
"I don't know if I ever really apologized to you for all that."
Sena took a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. He and Juumonji had never really-- talked, like this. He'd seen the changes in Juumonji, obviously, and had admired them like he'd just admitted, but… hearing Juumonji's side of it, the thoughts that had driven that change, and that-- Juumonji seemed to be implying, sort of, that maybe he thought Sena was one of those people, who had something to be proud of…
His voice was a little weak when he responded, "It's fine-- ...Kazuki-kun. ...I didn't realize… you felt that way."
Juumonji shrugged, cutting his gaze away again.
"Yeah, well. Took me long enough."
Sena chased his gaze, leaning forward, his leg pressing a little more firmly to Juumonji's beside him. He knew-- they were in the middle of an interview, that Reiko was watching them with keen interest, but this felt… important.
"Do you-- feel better now? After everything."
He hoped that Juumonji would sense, somehow, what "everything" meant, when Sena couldn't say any of it openly. Everything: he and Juumonji becoming sort-of friends, becoming a part of something bigger than themselves, Juumonji working so hard with his closest friends to improve himself, and dedicating himself with such intensity to something new, becoming champions with the rest of the Devil Bats-- surely, surely Juumonji had something to feel proud of now, too.
Juumonji's initial look of surprise warmed over into a small, satisfied smile as he read between the lines in Sena's words. It suited him, Sena noticed, more used to seeing Juumonji's wide grins when goofing off with his friends or more dangerous smiles on the football field.
"Yeah," Juumonji said simply, answering Sena's question and the real question beneath it. "I do."
"Well," Reiko intervened, smiling as they both turned their attention back to her, expressions almost guilty for interrupting the flow of the interview, "It certainly sounds like you've both done an impressive amount of self-reflection, especially for your ages! I'm not surprised that you make a good couple."
"Th-thank you," Sena flustered, and Juumonji grunted a vague acknowledgement. At least-- they seemed to be pulling this off?
"Mmh! Well, for our last question! This is for both of you: if your boyfriend was going to treat you to a romantic trip, where would you want to go?"
A romantic trip…? That was-- impossible to imagine. What would it even look like? An onsen, maybe? That honestly felt more like a team thing than a romantic thing, by that point… Sena looked at Juumonji, dumbfounded, and saw the same bemused expression on his face. Then-- thinking outside of "a romantic trip"...
"Somewhere that it would be fun to go together…?" Sena mused aloud, and was struck by a thought at the same time he saw Juumonji's eyes light up with realization.
"The Super Bowl!" They chimed together, grinning.
And then froze. Oh. That was… maybe a little too honest?
"The Super Bowl…?" Reiko echoed, looking both pleased and puzzled.
"A-ah, I mean, well, we watch American football together," Sena stammered, and Juumonji nodded, both trying not to look caught. That wasn't-- really that weird, right? Not enough for Reiko to try and dig into local American football teams, right--? "It's the biggest game of the year, so--"
Reiko nodded, looking intrigued.
"That's a niche interest for the two of you to share! Was that a coincidence, or did one of you introduce it to the other?"
"...A mutual friend dragged us both into it," Juumonji deadpanned. Sena did his best to disguise a grin, nodding earnestly. That was… stretching the truth a little bit, but it wasn't wrong.
"I see! Is that something that you feel like has helped you come closer together?"
Reiko looked even more pleased as she listened-- maybe it seemed kind of cute, that they had something obscure in common? Trying to think about his and Juumonji's "relationship" from the outside hurt Sena's head a little, but thinking about it, maybe a former delinquent and a-- a him coming together over a shared friend group and uncommon interest really would sound kind of cute. It also really wasn't that far off from the truth, with how honest they'd ended up being with their answers. All of it was true, except that Juumonji didn't really like him-like him, even if he thought that Sena was brave. And he didn't really like-like Juumonji, even if he had proven himself to be surprisingly steady and reliable, and was a hard worker, and really loved his friends, and had that nice smile that really brought out how handsome he was when he wasn't being silly or intense. And…
"Yeah, definitely," Juumonji said, looking to him for confirmation. His cheeks were pink again.
"E-eh? Oh, yeah," Sena agreed thoughtlessly. He was having a hard time remembering the question, preoccupied with noticing how long his list of things he admired about Juumonji was. Well-- Juumonji really was an impressive person, after all, so that wasn't weird. Yeah.
Reiko nodded with a smile, and capped her pen with a flourish.
"How wonderful! Well, that's the last of my questions for you two! Thanks so much for participating. If you don't mind, I'd like to call the photographer in now so we can do a few promotional shots, and I'll grab your prize as well!"
Sena and Juumonji nodded their agreement, and Reiko briefly left them to their own devices. Juumonji immediately buried his face in one hand.
"Oh my god," he said, chuckling. Sena smiled weakly, himself.
"I think we're pulling it off okay… I totally forgot not to mention football at all."
"Me too, but yeah, we've got this. We make a "good couple," apparently," Juumonji said, peeking out from behind his hand to smile at him. It was the nice one. Sena felt his face heat, and just nodded, rubbing the back of his head shyly.
Reiko returned shortly holding a slim manga volume and with a short, polite man, again who looked college-age rather than truly "adult"-- Sena was beginning to wonder if Harmony was more of a passion project that a full-on business-- who was holding a camera.
"Here you are!" She near-sang enthusiastically, offering the volume to Sena. "Could the two of you stand in front of this wall, and we can get a picture of you with your winnings?"
He took it, and shuffled into position with Juumonji. The cover depicted two boys in the rain, watching the viewer with challenging, distant expressions. The artstyle was different-- wispier and more delicate-- but he could recognize some of the same influences in the artist's work for Scarlet Samurai Z. He held the volume in front of him awkwardly with both hands, and then startled as Juumonji slung an arm around his shoulders. Juumonji just shrugged slightly when Sena looked up and back at him, and well, okay, yeah, it made sense.
Reiko nodded her approval and they took a few shots, trying different angles and slightly different expressions-- Sena's nervous smiling grimace didn't change much, but Juumonji needed some coaxing to brighten up a little, which Sena didn't blame him for. It was a little hard not to focus on the fact that other people, real people!!, were going to see the pictures and think that he and Juumonji were… dating. In love. "Serious," like Reiko had said. It was hard to imagine, but with Juumonji's arm around his shoulders, and thinking about the story they'd kind of come up with together today and about what they'd look like in the pictures, it also sort of… wasn't?
Reiko took a moment to page through the shots the photographer had gotten on his camera and nodded, pleased.
"Okay, these look good!" She announced. "Could we get one more pose?"
Juumonji and Sena looked to each other, shrugged, and nodded.
"Great!" Reiko grinned. "How about a smooch?"
Sena, briefly, didn't think he heard her correctly, and then Juumonji nearly teleported away from him, snatching his arm away from where it had been circling Sena's shoulders as if he were on fire. Which, as the words sank in, might not have been that much of a hyperbole.
Reiko, again, burst out laughing, but did cast a puzzled glance between the two of them.
"Just a peck is fine, nothing spicy! You're high schoolers, after all, and we're a strictly PG-13 magazine. Even a snuggle would be okay, if that's okay with you."
"E-eh-- well--" Sena looked desperately between Reiko and Juumonji, who also looked dangerously close to spontaneously combusting. But, more importantly-- that puzzled look on Reiko's face…
Sena felt a bizarre sense of deja-vu, back from his days when "Eyeshield 21" was a true secret identity and he'd ended up in about 333 different situations that would've been impossible to explain to someone else, as he turned fully toward Juumonji and heard his mouth say, "Th-that's fine, right? Kazuki-kun??"
The question seemed to jog Juumonji's memory that they were putting on an act, here, and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he mumbled, "Y-yeah, I-- I mean, yeah, I guess. Sorry. Just surprised."
"That's fine!" Reiko chirped, still looking between the two of them with a puzzled smile. "Whatever you're comfortable with."
Sena put the manga volume down gently on the couch as Juumonji slinked back over to him. As Sena turned back his way, he reminded himself fiercely that this had to look like a natural kiss, not like two boys that didn't actually like each other tolerating a peck for a picture because they were scamming a small-time manga publisher out of a contest prize (oh god, that is what they were doing, wasn't it?), it had to look like they'd kissed before, or, well, like Sena had kissed anyone at all before, really, hopefully he'd just be able to follow Juumonji's lead, and it was just a small one anyway--
And then Juumonji was reaching toward him, and Sena went up on his toes and kissed him, and it wasn't until he felt Juumonji draw in a whisper-soft gasp that he realized Juumonji had been going for a hug instead.
He only had an instant to stew in agony over how mortifying that was before his finely-honed "dig yourself deeper" Eyeshield 21 instincts kicked in and he pressed closer to Juumonji to hide the small distance the other boy had reflexively retreated, raising a hand and placing it against Juumonji's cheek as a cue to hold still for the few, decade-long seconds it took for the camera to sound its shutter a few times.
He dropped down onto his heels, covering his face with that hand, as Reiko said, "There, that should be fine!" with a laugh. Oh god. She'd laughed. They must have looked ridiculous. He'd probably screwed up his face like he'd told himself not to, and his lips had probably been puckered like a fish, and he'd GRABBED Juumonji's FACE, and he could still feel the ridges of Juumonji's scar on his fingers and that was really distracting, somehow?
Juumonji's hands were still where they'd fallen on his waist during the kiss, awkwardly correcting from the initial attempt at a hug, he realized. He peeked up at him from between his fingers to see Juumonji staring at him, red and dumbfounded. He opened his mouth to apologize before he could think better of it, but Juumonji saved him by finally dropping his hands and stepping away with an awkward cough, looking away. He didn't look mad, Sena noticed with relief, just-- embarrassed. Maybe a little confused. That was… understandable.
"I think this one and this one," Reiko was telling the photographer, looking over his shoulder as he paged through shots on the camera's digital display. She looked up to the two of them and added, "Do you want to see?"
If kissing Juumonji was one thing, looking at physical evidence of him kissing Juumonji was a totally other, Boss-Fight-sized thing, but Sena felt like it would come across as a little unnatural for him to have no opinion, so he nodded and crossed to Reiko's side and hoped beyond hope that he didn't look TOO stupid in any of the pictures.
The first one was-- okay. They both looked nervous, and Juumonji was bordering on surly, but Juumonji's arm looked natural around his shoulder and they didn't look like the subjects of a ransom photo, like Sena had feared. The second one--
He wondered wildly if there were any risks to blushing too much in too short a period of time, like, could you dehydrate, or develop heat stroke, or even just a regular stroke, or a heart attack? The second one-- his hand was on Juumonji's cheek, and Juumonji's were on his waist, and his own eyes were closed, but Juumonji's…
It was a trick of timing, Sena was sure, it was just catching the moment Juumonji's brain had caught up with what Sena was doing and he'd decided to close his eyes and lean into the kiss, but Juumonji's eyes were half-lidded and… gazing at him, almost, his expression…
'Tender,' was the label that Sena's brain wanted to apply, but that word and "Juumonji Kazuki" didn't belong in the same sentence together, so, it was a just a coincidence. A trick of the timing, again.
But it was a good photo.
"Y-yeah, those look good," he mumbled, and didn't look at Juumonji.
From there, there was a round of thank you's, to Juumonji and Sena for participating in the contest and to Reiko and Harmony for choosing them as the winner, and Reiko made them promise to pick up the next issue of Harmony so they could see the profile she was writing on them, and eventually they finally, finally were able to make their way out the door.
They were both silent until they were part-way down the block, where they wordlessly ducked into the alleyway that Juumonji had first revealed the plan in and chorused, "I'm so sorry," and then, "Huh?"
Sena, a first-class apologizer, beat Juumonji to the punch with explaining.
"I-I mean, I-- f-for the kiss…"
Juumonji stared at him, and then looked away, pink.
"It's not your fault they asked for something weird. You were just doing what I asked you to, anyway."
That was-- true, but--
"I didn't notice it was supposed to just be a hug and then mmphh--"
Juumonji actually covered his mouth, flustered.
"Look, just drop it, it's fine! We don't have to talk about it!"
Sena nodded silently, abashed. That was-- a good plan, probably. Yeah.
Letting Sena go to shove his hands in his pocket instead, Juumonji mumbled, "...Did it look okay?"
"Huh?" Sena said, and then, "Oh-- y-yeah. It was… a good picture."
Juumonji nodded, awkward, and they were both silent for a moment, avoiding each other's eyes until Juumonji finally clicked his tongue and said forcefully, "Ugh! Toga had better be grateful for all this. If anything he owes me again, now!"
He started off back toward the train station, and Sena dogged after him with a sigh. That had been-- really embarrassing. And stressful. And confusing-- he thought of Juumonji calling him brave, and saying that he had things to be proud of, and the feeling of smooth skin turning into scar tissue under his fingers, and Juumonji's half-lidded eyes in the photo-- but... it wasn't the worst thing in the long list of weird things that had happened to him.
"Hey," Juumonji said suddenly as they walked. "Thanks for today. Uh. You didn't have to do any of that."
"Oh-- it was nothing," Sena said, his stand-by response, a little surprised by the acknowledgement.
"Yeah, well," Juumonji said, and then, overly-casual, "Hey, do you want to try out that burger place? While we're here."
Sena opened his mouth to say that he didn't have the money, but Juumonji glanced over at him and added, deliberately, "My treat."
"Oh," Sena said, and then, "Sure!", and there was the blushing again, but it didn't feel like a heat stroke this time. Juumonji shot him a crooked grin, sidelong, and added, "I'll get you that gator."
As Sena laughed, he thought, yeah. Definitely not the worst.