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The birds by Shigeo’s house were never this loud. He knew that Teru was up on the sixth floor and it got warm up here, but to have the windows open overnight was to invite an early morning wake-up call. Their singing sounded nice, he supposed. Shigeo would have appreciated them more if he and Teru hadn’t been up so late playing videogames.
Shigeo huffed, throwing one of his arms over his eyes to block out the stream of sunlight creeping towards him. It felt much too early.
Warm toes pressed into his calf and Shigeo lifted his wrist to peep at his boyfriend. Teru shifted, stiffening in a stretch before flopping back onto the mattress. He squirmed around to his front and blinked at the headboard with unfocused eyes.
Shigeo tried to greet him, but all that made it out of his mouth was a garbled “Hmuh”.
Teru looked over, his eyes clearing. Then with no warning whatsoever he popped up to his knees and grinned down at Shigeo.
“Good morning!” Teru chirped.
Shigeo’s heart stuttered. Teru was… Teru was really pretty. His hair was a mess and he had lines on his skin from the pillow, but that was okay. Hanazawa Teruki was human, just like the rest of them. Shigeo liked seeing that. Teru’s face was all scrunched up and happy, sunlight streaking across his nose and highlighting his eyelashes.
Letting his arm fall back over his head and onto his pillow, Shigeo stared.
“Good morning, Teru,” he mumbled. His face felt a little hot.
Teru leaned over him, somehow wide awake already. Shigeo had never been a morning person. Probably never would be.
“Did you sleep well? I can let you go back to sleep if you want? You still look pretty tired-“
Teru made so much noise.
Shigeo reached up and tugged his chatty boyfriend down into a hug. Teru’s words were lost in the softness of the pillow.
“You’re loud,” Shigeo said, closing his eyes. His hand raked through Teru’s bleached hair. “Shush.”
The bed shook with Teruki’s laughter. He turned his head to push his nose into Shigeo’s neck, breathless.
A soft smile pulled at Shigeo’s lips. This was nice. He liked being close to Teru. It felt warm and safe and comfortable. Teru made him feel like himself, like anything he did or said would be okay, even if he didn’t necessarily do it or say it well. That kind of acceptance and support was what helped bring easy smiles to his face these days. Helped sooth him when the tears came. And boy had they come. Shigeo had cried more in the past year than he thought he had in his whole life combined. (Except perhaps when he was a baby, but no one could remember those times.) Expressing his emotions more had come with its own unique brand of struggles. While he wasn’t blowing anything up anymore, Shigeo spent a lot of time navigating some very complicated feelings.
Like his feelings for Tsubomi.
He had liked her. Quite a bit, in fact. However, the longer he spent thinking about it, the more he came to realize that maybe it hadn’t been Tsubomi herself that he had been infatuated with. He liked the idea of her. Of someone being close and accepting of him and his powers. His strangeness. Shigeo thought Tsubomi was beautiful, and they had been friends for such a long time. It made sense that she was the one he had chosen to think of.
Tsubomi didn’t feel the same way and that was alright. She said that they didn’t really know each other anymore. It hurt, but she wasn’t wrong. The only things he knew about her were what she had told him when they were small.
Shigeo’s affection for Teruki was different. It was based on mutual respect and admiration. It was built on shared experience and understanding. They’d seen each other at their absolute worst and only ended up liking each other more.
“Did you fall back to sleep?” There was something giddy in Teru’s tone. How the esper had so much energy in the mornings was beyond Shigeo.
When the only response was a vague hum, Teru lifted his head slightly.
“Hm? Are you sleeping, Shigeo? Because I'm hungry. Very hungry. We should have breakfast and I want pancakes.”
Shigeo squinted up at Teru’s overly bright outline. The sun needed to tone it down a bit. Or a lot.
“You’re always hungry,” he said fondly. It maybe wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but it was the truth.
Teru leaned back on his elbow, smacking himself in the chest with his free hand. His face twisted in mock offense. Shigeo had learned enough about his expressions to know when he was actually hurt. He was not.
“I resent that. I am a growing boy. I need sustenance!”
“That’s debatable,” Shigeo found himself saying without thinking. “The growing part.”
Well. Teru had had a few inches on him up till recently. Now they were nearly the same height again.
Teruki’s face fell slack into a mixture of shock and wonder.
“Excuse me? Excuse me are you making fun of me? Because I won’t have it!” Teru gasped, his words completely opposing his tone. He was delighted.
Shigeo’s eyes widened in alarm at the sudden amount of mischief flashing in his boyfriend’s eyes. Oh, he was in trouble. Flushed with a strange combination of fear and glee, he scrambled to get off the bed. He didn’t make it. Arms wrapped around his middle and hauled him backwards. Shigeo dropped back to the mattress in a tangle of twisted pajamas and blankets.
Teru pinned him. Playfully. Gently, always gently enough that Shigeo could get away if he really wanted. Shigeo rarely needed that escape.
Kisses rained down on his face, his nose, his cheeks, his forehead. Teru’s fingers prodded his sides, tickling. Shigeo raised his arms in a half-hearted shield, turning his face away from the barrage. It did very little.
There was something rising in him. Something sweet and warm and fluttering. It bubbled through him, uncontrollable. The two boys froze when it escaped him in a sound.
The thing about repressing one’s emotions for so long was that certain things that were once commonplace became foreign. Shigeo’s laugh, for one. He had not heard the sound of his own laughter in so many years that it had become something he did not recognize. His voice had changed somewhere in the middle of it all, and his laughter was this new, strange creature. It was too sudden, too loud, too abrasive for it to be completely comfortable.
It would burst from him at times, sometimes unexpectedly, and surprise him. It didn’t sound anything like what he remembered. Nothing like the high pitched, childish laughter he could hear on his parents’ old family tapes.
That was no reason to stop laughing, though. Shigeo just figured it was something that he would get used to in time. He didn’t love that, but he didn’t hate it either.
Now the sound that had just come out of him was… not that.
Teru looked like he’d won the lottery.
“Did you just giggle?”
Shigeo blushed, unsure if he should be embarrassed or not. He had. Something that had not happened in so long that he’d forgotten he could do it at all. But there was something about it that was familiar. It had felt good and light and freeing, and the sound wasn’t quite as jarring as his new normal laughter. It had been much more similar to the distant memories of laughing with Ritsu when they were so, so small and everything was funny.
It was good to know that the sound of his happiness hadn’t changed entirely. That there was a part that still sounded like the self he remembered.
Teru was waiting, letting him sort through his emotions patiently. Sometimes a new reaction or expression required a processing period. Shigeo didn’t really need one this time.
“Yes. It was good. I liked it.” He grinned up at Teru, reveling in his discovery.
Teru’s eyes shown, crinkling at the corners. He dipped his head to touch his nose to Shigeo’s.
“Me too.”
And then he was moving again. Tickling, pressing kiss after kiss to Shigeo’s ears, his palms, his shoulder. Shigeo protested weakly, not meaning a word of it. He twisted around, trying to bat Teru’s hand away from his side. He succeeded in getting Teru to move it away, but only for it to relocate to his neck.
Shigeo squeaked at the touch, jerking sideways on the bed and nearly dislodging Teru entirely. Teru laughed triumphantly and chased after him when Shigeo started reaching for a pillow. It was tugged from his grip before he could use it for either offense or defense.
“That’s cheating!” Teru chastised.
He then proceeded to smack his captive boyfriend with it.
“Then you’re cheating!”
Shigeo was giggling again. It spilled from him in waves, fizzing in his belly and making his heart float. This was nice. He could let himself have this. A world of joy and love and playfulness. He had struggled so much to get to this point, but oh… oh this was worth it.
He attempted to roll away from the offending pillow, but Teru dropped down and grabbed him in a hug from behind, his fingers snaking up under his nightshirt and touching bare skin. Teru’s lips pressed soft to the back of his neck, and wow, this was a lot- Too much? It was hard to tell, he was still so airy and free.
“Wait, wait Teru-“ he gasped, turning to look back at his boyfriend.
Teruki let him go at once, a more serious look stealing over his face.
“Sorry! Sorry, was that too far?”
Shigeo took a moment, brushing a hand over the comforter before facing Teru. Teru was watching his with wide, apologetic eyes. The sun was splashed all over his front again. Teru was very, very cute.
“Um, no… I just wanted to do this…” He leaned in, eyelids sliding closed. Shigeo could feel Teruki’s sigh of relief. The moment stretched, and Shigeo felt the mattress dip as Teru leaned in as well.
And then Shigeo opened his eyes and booped Teru on the nose with his finger.
“I think I want pancakes too,” he said, hopping off the bed with a light thump. He padded across to the door, then glanced back.
Teru was frozen, round eyes locked on where Shigeo had been. They flickered up to him by the door, disbelieving. Teru stammered, sitting up and looking as flustered as Shigeo had ever seen him. He slapped his hands down on the bed, face beet red.
“Kageyama Shigeo, you TEASE!”
