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The room was quiet except for the scratch of Serizawa’s pencil on paper and Reigen’s impressively guttural snoring from the bed behind him. It wasn’t even that late, the sunset pinking up Serizawa’s bedroom window, but Reigen had gotten bored lounging around while Serizawa did his homework and had conked out as a result, splayed upside down across Serizawa’s bed with his bare foot curl-toed around the edge of the headboard. He was dressed casually, which in Reigen terms meant rather badly. His wardrobe outside of suits was sorely lacking. He was in sweatpants and an undersized athletic jacket zipped up to his chin, the teflon squeaking as his arm shifted in his sleep.
Serizawa was just making a cheatsheet of dates for his history test, a rhythmic and brainless enough task that he found himself fixating on Reigen’s small noises instead. It made a warm little bundle of something sit comfortably in his gut, like the still glowing coals of a fire.
This is mine, he thought.
It was an abstract enough idea not to particularly mean anything, but there was truth in it too. This was his apartment, his room. His desk he was sitting at. All things he spent so long assuming he would never have, things he’d paid for himself with his own work. Reigen spent a lot of time here at Serizawa’s apartment--if anything, it seemed like he hated being alone at his own so he invited himself over to crowd Serizawa’s space instead at every opportunity. Serizawa had never expected him to be such an affectionate boyfriend, but then again maybe it should have been obvious. Reigen liked attention, liked reminders that what they had meant something, even after a steady year of it.
Maybe Serizawa wasn’t so different. He paused his writing, and his free hand drummed quietly on the desk. The warmth in his belly had ignited into a flickering of… something else. Actual heat, and a fair number of nerves as well. He glanced over his shoulder to double check that Reigen was still asleep. His drooling face was pressed into the duvet hard enough to crease blanket lines into his cheek, and that was all the confirmation Serizawa needed.
Very carefully, he opened the desk drawer at his side. It clunked and wheezed a bit. Nobody said it was a good desk… But it did its job, just like Serizawa himself, and so he felt camaraderie with it.
That was why he’d given it such an important secret to hide.
He moved aside some scissors and spare pens from the back corner of the drawer and then dug his fingers under a panel in the bottom. He’d made the panel himself, a secret compartment specially for this. He knew Reigen liked to snoop around his things--not really out of any invasive intent but more just because he was curious and always doing something with his hands--but one should never underestimate the tinkering ingenuity of a garage kit customizer of Serizawa’s skill. He got up under the panel and finally lifted it, setting it gently aside so it only made the smallest clack of a noise, and then he took out the box hidden there.
The fire in his belly licked up into his chest and throat, and he smiled, a wobbly private thing.
It was just a box, small enough for his palm. The lining probably wasn’t real leather. He stroked it with his index finger without thinking, like it was a cute animal he couldn’t help but poke at affectionately. He slid his thumbnail under the lid and considered opening it but almost preferred just to tease himself with the idea.
There was a ring inside the box. He’d looked at the ring often enough, trying to make sure it was perfect from every angle. It was just a band of metal but it was intimidating all the same. He hadn’t actually bought it yet, after all. It was on rental in case Reigen wanted something different--and they’d have to share money to iron out those details anyway--but right at this moment it meant so much more than what it was.
It was kind of crazy. It made Serizawa giddy with how crazy it was.
He would never have imagined he could marry someone. Could he? It was still an unanswered question because he hadn’t asked it yet.
It seemed like every time he might have an opportunity to pop the question he chickened out. Or a perfect moment would come up and he wouldn’t have the ring with him but he’d almost blurt everything out anyway, ready to explain his trepidation and the little secret drawer compartment and all of it, and they’d laugh about it together. But in the end something always held him back. Maybe he was still afraid. Maybe it was just too crazy.
Reigen gave a particularly passionate snort and Serizawa bit his lip to keep from laughing, that giddiness in his chest bubbling up into just an overwhelming joy. He didn’t open the ring box, instead sliding it back into its safe little hiding place and giving it a pat before lowering the fake panel over it again. He readjusted his school supplies and closed the drawer, feeling tingly and light, like he might levitate right out of his chair.
He looked around the room just to make sure he wasn’t actually levitating anything (or anyone). That had been a quirk that had taken some getting used to when he and Reigen first started dating one another.
Which of them had asked the other out, back then? Oddly enough, Serizawa didn’t even remember. It was more like they both reached the absolute limits of their own desperation and just sort of collided into each other fumblingly.
But marrying someone… That was something that needed to be asked.
He stood and crossed over to the bed, sitting at the edge and leaning over to smoosh some sloppy kisses into the side of Reigen’s face. Reigen grumbled in sleepy protest and batted a hand at his chest lamely. Serizawa just smiled into the hair hanging over his ear.
“Time for me to go?” Reigen mumbled, waking up but not opening his eyes yet. He frowned, displeased by these wake up kisses.
“No,” Serizawa said. “I just wanted to kiss you.”
I want you to stay.
It was still hard to say things like that sometimes. Maybe that’s why Serizawa wasn’t quite ready. Not quite yet.
But Reigen made a hmmm of understanding and shifted onto his back, smacking his mouth in an almost yawn and refusing to open his eyes after all. Serizawa planted a kiss squarely on his forehead and Reigen’s next hmmm was content.
I want this to be mine forever.
~
Serizawa could tell this client was important, because Reigen’s hands were swinging around at top speed.
“I, Reigen Arataka, will accept this job, with the help of my co-president, Serizawa Katsuya. Together we are the twin rising stars of the paranormal world.”
Serizawa gave a meek little wave from where he was preparing tea. They had been rising stars for almost two years. You’d think they’d just be stars by now...
The very dapper gentleman sitting in the client chair removed a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at his long forehead.
“Thank you, Reigen-sensei… We pre-discussed my payment over the phone, and I intend to adhere to that.”
The greedy glint in Reigen’s eye was powerful enough to shine even through his customer service smile. “You are too kind, Yamazaki-san.”
Poor naive Yamazaki-san just sort of nodded, clearly not adept enough to truly absorb Reigen’s Reigen-ness. He rang his handkerchief in his hands, the white of it contrasting with the clean black of his suit.
“I run a high-end specialty shop for weddings,” he said. “That’s where the haunting is taking place, in my store.”
There was a loud clattering as Serizawa almost dropped the tea tray he was preparing.
“Alright there?” Reigen asked him.
“Y-yes, I’m fine,” Serizawa yelped. “My wrist wobbled suddenly.”
A wedding shop? Surely this had to be a sign of some sort… Or at the very least, an excellent opportunity.
Reigen had already masterfully snapped Yamazaki’s attention back to him and his spiel. Serizawa was only half listening at this point, as he offered their client his tea and then set the other two cups on his and Reigen’s respective desks.
A wedding shop would be great conversation fodder, a way to test Reigen’s feelings about the subject. If it went well… it could even be the perfect segue for asking The Question. Serizawa had grown to trust his instincts much more these days, and right now his heart was floundering in his ribcage from how very right this felt. This was it. The more he thought about it, the more it made perfect sense, right? One shouldn’t dismiss a sign from the universe. Maybe he could get Reigen out to dinner after the job, after discussions, and then…
And then…
Serizawa ducked his head, worrying that his face might be turning red in his flustered excitement.
A week from now, he could very well be engaged.
But he was getting ahead of himself with that sort of thought. Would Reigen even say yes?
Maybe that was why it had taken so long for him to ask… A part of him thought Reigen would say yes, of course. He wouldn’t even consider it otherwise. But there was still a small but insistent part of him that honestly didn’t know. A part of him that doubted this could possibly be real.
A part that still remembered what a useless person Serizawa Katsuya used to be, before all the things he had now.
“Right, Katsuya?” Reigen said, and Serizawa jumped a little. He hadn’t been paying attention, but he gave a little nod and Reigen used that to amplify whatever bonus programs he was trying to sell this guy.
Everything would be fine. Serizawa just had to be careful not to get too ahead of himself.
Even so, for the rest of the day all he could think about was that ring box, burning a hole in his desk drawer, waiting so impatiently for Reigen’s answer. There were even moments before he could rein himself back where he imagined that ring on Reigen’s finger, how it might look as he moved his hand or held his cup of tea. It made his heart heavy and light at the same time.
~
The wedding shop was small but opulent, specializing in Western styles of suits and dresses and acoutremon that all probably cost more than Spirits and Such made in weeks. The main room was almost a perfect square, encircled by hanging garments and a variety of mannequins wearing the rest. These mannequins were part of Yamazaki-san’s problem, he’d explained. Late at night when he was filling his ledgers, music would play from a record player in the corner and the heads of the mannequins had a habit of ripping off and flinging themselves across the room. Among other things.
It was a pretty standard haunting, in other words. Serizawa sensed the residue of spiritual energy the moment they walked into the room.
He was still only half paying attention, though. The ring box hiding in his pocket occupied a little too much of his mind.
It was evening, and the shop was closed for the exorcism of course. He and Reigen just sort of hung around waiting for something to happen, admiring the workmanship of the products. It was all a little fancy for Serizawa’s taste. He probably wouldn’t even try to shop here if he and Reigen had a wedding. If that was a thing that could happen.
Right smack dab in the middle of the room was a mannequin in an ornate white wedding dress complete with veil, but the veil was sagging somewhat over the shoulders because the mannequin’s head had fallen off and now rested on the floor between her feet.
Reigen canted a sharp hip and picked up the head in both hands like it was a basketball. It was such a simple gesture, but sometimes it struck Serizawa how he was the only one to see a gesture of Reigen’s, when they were alone together on jobs or on decidedly not-jobs. There was a private triumph in getting to file away Reigen’s little quirks that others missed out on, day to day.
I love you so much, Arataka. You know that, right?
“You know,” said Reigen, casually turning the mannequin head around in his hands. “I always thought I’d never get married.”
An earlier version of Serizawa would have jumped out of his skin at that.
“... Yeah?” he said instead.
He couldn’t see Reigen’s face, but he knew him well enough to understand that this nonchalant tone was carefully deliberate. “My parents tried to set me up a couple times with some nice girls,” he said. He turned the head toward him as if meeting its vacant gaze. “That was before the whole ‘not interested in girls’ thing got out, of course. Not that we’ve ever really talked about that… But they’ve at least gotten the hint now.”
“You didn’t think you’d get married because you’re gay?” Serizawa asked, matching his casualness because he knew that was the best space to offer when Reigen had these moments of not-quite vulnerability.
Reigen gave a little laugh. “No. I’m just rambling. I thought I wouldn’t get married because I couldn’t imagine ever being a partner like that. Somebody who could make someone happy for that long. It seemed impossible.”
Serizawa hmmed with vague disapproval.
“But that’s not what I’m talking about either,” Reigen said. “I’m going about this all wrong…”
Before he could elaborate, the mannequin head flew out of his hands and beamed him in the face. It was like it had leapt forward for an impromptu kiss that nearly cracked his nose open.
Reigen spluttered and stumbled backward, the head doing a sort of somersault and coming to hover above them both, rising higher and higher towards the ceiling. Spiritual energy was suddenly alight all around, boiling the room in pink and red and orange auras, oozing out of the dresses and jewelry.
“Arataka!” Serizawa had instinctively rushed to catch Reigen, who was clutching his nose and grumbling to himself.
“I guess we found our ghost,” Reigen said nasally, and a tittering noise like distant laughter surrounded them.
The ornate white dress in the center of the room glowed so brightly with supernatural aura that it was almost more purple than white now, its hems billowing in a phantom wind. It removed itself from its stand and then settled onto the air as if forming itself to an invisible body, the fabric extending as a body seemed to grow inside of it. From the bodice, a strange bulbous shape began to emerge through the collar behind the veil, cracking and congealing until the veil fell over a skeletal face, the lace sinking into empty eye sockets. The frilly, flower-circled sleeves grew arms as thin as bone and encased in a greenish, glowing flesh.
The spirit’s mouth opened and it let loose a horrible shrieking laugh, lower jaw jangling.
Music began to play, the old record player spinning into life, and the shop erupted into chaos. The heads of every mannequin ripped from their bodies with horrible crunching and wrenching noises and began to bob up and down, spinning in a cluttered circle around the edges of the room. Clothing levitated and threw itself back and forth, sleeves and pant legs swinging as if dancing without bodies until all at once they were filled with bodies, same as the dress. So many skeletal, glowing green party guests.
A skeleton in a black suit and top hat suddenly shouldered its way between Serizawa and Reigen and grabbed Serizawa’s hands, leading him into a frenetic waltz to the off-kilter music.
“O-oi!” said Serizawa, completely flummoxed. The spirit wasn’t quite attacking him, but its aura didn’t feel friendly either. It stared at him with its empty eyes, its bony fingers clamping onto Serizawa’s hands with deceptive strength as it wheeled Serizawa away across the room.
“Katsuya!” Reigen yelped, and then he was suddenly in the arms of the ghost in the white dress, her jaw wobbling as she cackled in his face.
Serizawa couldn’t get his hands free, but he mustered his psychic power anyway. The ghostly groom seemed unimpressed, staring at him headon. Its jaw fell open and it spoke in a voice that made Serizawa’s blood run cold.
“Do you love me, Katsuya?” it asked, and Serizawa knew that voice very well. It was the voice of Suzuki Touichirou, and he could almost picture his piercing blue eyes in those empty sockets. “Won’t you stay by my side forever, like a loyal dog? Sign yourself over to me. Be mine.”
Serizawa’s half-formed psychic attack froze, the groom’s horrible grip on his hands for some reason causing a spike of real fear to run through him now. Trapped… Forever… Hadn’t Serizawa so easily assumed that would be his life, at the side of his president? He’d assumed that was all that he could have.
Permanency could be quite insidious, after all.
Out of an instinct that was much more desperate than he would like to admit, Serizawa kneed the groom in its bone thin torso. Its spine snapped like a twig and its legs and pelvis (expensive dress pants included) fell to the ground in a heap. The upper torso remained, levitating as if nothing had happened, the groom's hands still clamped onto Serizawa’s. Its jaw fell open and jangled as it laughed, mismatched teeth clattering.
Serizawa now pulled out of the waltz into a sort of dance of his own, the kind of frantic dance of somebody trying to get a spider off their shirt. He even made some yelping noises as he hopped around, arms swinging, trying to fling off the remains of the skeleton, but it just kept glued to him.
Forever forever!
Reigen was not faring much better from the glimpses Serizawa caught beyond his own drama. The bride didn't have his hands but instead clung to his shirtsleeves as he tried to back away into a corner, her dirty clawlike nails tearing Reigen's suit. Her face was horribly close to his, whispering something into his panicked expression.
Finally Serizawa awoke from his terror and remembered he was an esper dammit. He mustered his aura to give the groom a powerful shove and it finally not only fell off of Serizawa's arms but also disintegrated into oblivion, successfully exorcised. The last part of it Serizawa saw were those eye sockets, still focused on him, still not quite the cruel gaze of Suzuki but lacking none of the intensity… Then it was gone, the suit slumping to the floor and the top hat spinning.
There were too many spirits dancing around the room now. Serizawa had to shove them out of the way to get to Reigen. This was too much… His heart was still high in his throat from the skeleton’s words… they needed to regroup. He exorcised the bride tormenting Reigen, then grabbed his boyfriend by the wrist and sprinted for the back of the store.
Without thinking, he opened an old wardrobe and dove inside. Confined spaces always helped him calm down, helped him think… He shut the door behind them with his aura and they both hunkered down amidst some cheaper and damaged garments hanging from a single rack.
His heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. He was breathing heavily.
It was dark, but he could sense Reigen's very specific life energy across from him, the subtle presence that even a non esper had, and it soothed him little by little.
"Are you alright?" Reigen asked, his voice the barest squeak. It sounded like he ought to be the one receiving that question.
“Yes,” said Serizawa. “I think so.”
“Great. Perfect. What now?”
Serizawa blindly felt for Reigen’s hand and took it in his, squeezing firmly. It was a bit clammy.
“What was that spirit saying to you?” Serizawa asked quietly.
“... Just nonsense,” said Reigen.
Serizawa filed this away to bring up later. It was the sort of thing that needed to be talked about, however much neither of them wanted to do it.
He focused a small amount of his aura on their hands and produced a small psychic glow to illuminate their hiding space, flickering up to their faces like a tiny purple fire. He did this mostly to see Reigen’s face and to smile for him, hopefully comfortingly.
Instead, the first thing he noticed was a box on the floor of the wardrobe between them.
Small, leather bound, fit for a palm… For a split second he panicked until he realized it was a different color than the ring box in his own pocket. His was a ruddy brown, this one was black…
Reigen panicked instead. He whipped his hand out of Serizawa’s and scrambled for the box, as if hoping to somehow hide it with his body at the last minute.
“Oh hey, what do you know. I just kinda… dropped something… don’t worry about it,” Reigen was rambling, not even full thoughts so much as a sort of verbal diarrhea. “I got scratched up, she must have slit a hole in my pocket or… or something.”
Serizawa just. Stared at him.
Reigen finally sat back on his heels again, the little box cupped in both of his hands like a bird, a wide-eyed and somewhat pale look on his face.
“I…” Reigen said. He swallowed and then his shoulders sagged in defeat and he silently opened the box facing Serizawa. There was a ring inside, a simple golden band. It looked like it would be perfect for Serizawa’s finger. Trust Reigen to do his research. “It’s from a sister jeweler to this shop,” he said, much more quietly now. “When we got today’s client I just… I don’t know, it seemed perfect. Instead of a traditional payment, I managed to convince him to give me a steep discount for a ring. For you.”
His voice quavered on the last two words and he swallowed again, looking absolutely miserable.
What was he expecting right now? Did he think Serizawa would refuse him or scold him?
Oh Arataka...
Maybe they both were just idiots.
With his own hands shaking a little, Serizawa simply dug into his own pocket and pulled out the ring box he’d brought as well, turning it to Reigen and opening it in the same fashion with a smile.
Reigen stared at it, utterly disbelieving, and then the corner of his mouth quirked and he gave a huff of a laugh.
“Are you serious,” he said.
“I’m afraid so,” said Serizawa, chuckling a little as well. For a moment they both just huffed small laughs, still tentative, still fragile, but then the laughter grew more comfortable, as if all at once they remembered who they were with. The man they loved. The man they’d been with for so long and knew so well.
“Fuck,” said Reigen.
“Yes. Fuck,” said Serizawa.
“I can’t believe I couldn’t sleep half the night and you might have beat me to the punch anyway.”
Reigen removed the ring intended for Serizawa from its box and held it out pinched between thumb and forefinger in a lame sort of Here ya go gesture. The casualness was belied by the nervousness still hovering in the set of his shoulders.
Serizawa accepted the ring with much more reverence, holding out his palm for it and then staring at it as Reigen plopped it there.
Just a band of metal but so much more.
In some way, Reigen’s feelings were in this ring, whatever those might be.
Serizawa could almost feel them himself, could almost feel Reigen’s anticipation mirroring his own.
He slid the ring onto his finger and flexed his hand. It was strange. He’d never worn rings, really. There was something anticlimactic about it and yet something so deeply right too. This was for him. Just for him.
Somewhere along the line he’d become worthy of it, in Reigen’s eyes.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Reigen admitted. “I’ve been second guessing myself this whole time. I still worry I’m going to hurt you one of these days. Or take advantage of you. Just because of how I am.”
Serizawa smiled, small and lopsided. “I wouldn’t let you,” he said. “Have some faith in me. I’m not that kind of man any more.”
For a short moment, Reigen’s brow seemed to collapse over his eyes, all that worry and self deprecation exposed and vulnerable until he could school it back into normalcy again.
Serizawa reached out the hand wearing the ring and took Reigen’s hand again. “You aren’t that kind of man any more either,” he said with confidence.
I would know.
Reigen traced Serizawa’s fingers with his thumb, holding tight like a lifeline. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I know.”
Without letting go of Reigen’s hand, Serizawa set his ring box on the floor and took out Reigen’s ring. He hadn’t known if it would fit quite right. Now, he idly splayed Reigen’s fingers and slid the ring into place past his knuckle. It fit perfectly. The metal was slightly cold and without thinking about it Serizawa cupped Reigen’s hand in his to warm it up. Reigen watched the whole process with a look of absolute wonder.
“Wait… How long were you putting this off?” Reigen asked.
Ah. Now it was Serizawa’s turn to be exposed.
“I never thought I’d be allowed to have something like this,” Serizawa confessed, giving Reigen’s hands a squeeze.
“Allowed?” Reigen pressed.
It sounded silly out loud, didn’t it? “I guess it’s still hard for me to say something is mine. To believe it.”
Reigen broke into one of his big crooked grins now and Serizawa was vaguely proud to have produced it. “You need to be greedier,” he said. “Of course I’m all yours for the taking.”
“Is that a ‘yes’ then?”
“Well, if you want to be traditional about it… I would say so. Yes, that is.”
Serizawa could barely speak around his own grin, around the bubbling joy in his chest. “Arataka, will you marry me?”
“Only if you’ll marry me, Katsuya.”
“Yes. Of course yes.”
“Damn you, that was too sincere.”
Serizawa closed the distance between them and pressed a kiss to Reigen’s stupid face.
“You make me so happy,” Serizawa said, and Reigen made a jumpy noise at the back of his throat that was part happiness and part a tenderness he was trying very hard not to show. But Serizawa knew it was there anyway. He always did. It was something he loved dearly.
Their kisses were interrupted by the wardrobe doors clattering on their hinges.
“I guess there’s still some things to take care of,” Serizawa said.
Reigen took both of the ring boxes and deposited them in his jacket pockets greedily. “Uninvited guests,” he said, with a glint of absolute glee. “Katsuya, let’s finish them up quick. I’m suddenly a lot more interested in doing something else.”
“Me too.”
It was quite an easy exorcism after that.