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For a myriad of reasons, Serizawa and Reigen did not often argue. There were so many things they would rather waste their time on than a silly dispute, however, they certainly were not immune to it. Of all of Serizawa’s seemingly infinite patience, there was a limit, Reigen noticed, and he was fearful that he might one day tip it over the edge. As usual, his intuition was right.
Serizawa had been a part of the Spirits and Such family for a little more than a year and a half now, and around three months ago, the two men had realized their feelings for each other. They started to date soon after, becoming more and more intimate with one another as the months passed. It was the middle of winter currently and absolutely freezing outside. Reigen had been spending most nights at Serizawa's house for around a week, although he had on and off gone back to his apartment to grab fresh clothes.
They often slept over at each other’s houses, but lately, Reigen had opted to avoid his own place. Sleeping with his beefy, warm boyfriend every night while it was chilly out was a big plus, especially since his own heater went kaput on him, but it was also nice because he far preferred Serizawa's slightly larger and nicer apartment over his own tiny, dinky one.
He of course also loved getting to spend so much time with Serizawa, who seemed to have greatly enjoyed his company up until now. But today was the day it had begun to go downhill.
From the moment they had woken up, both men were in an extremely crabby mood. It made sense, considering the night before they had stayed up till a rather obscene hour trying to solve a problem with the Spirits and Such website, a task which grew more and more aggravating from the second they began.
“What!? What do you mean the link is still broken you have GOT to be kidding me!” Reigen had obnoxiously yelled this late last night which prompted the neighbors to thump loudly on the wall behind Serizawa's office desk in complaint.
“Hey, babe, you need to be a little quieter, it’s late and people are trying to sleep,” Serizawa hummed this in annoyance while turning the computer to face him. It was about the fifth time they had been through this but the website had failed to update the way they wanted to each time. Serizawa manually went through each page of the website code, copying and pasting to each page the updated code for a link to their new beta forum page. Each time the link had not worked the both of them only became more and more exasperated.
“I swear, Katsuya, if it doesn’t fucking work again I’m going to throw something,” Reigen said. He was making a screwy face and had thrust his usually over-animated hands into his hair, which he was now pulling out of frustration. Serizawa only hummed irritatedly as he clicked away, finally pausing when he had finished again, which was about 10 minutes of painful silence afterward. He inhaled preemptively before turning the screen to face Reigen, who had by then begun squeezing the life out of one of Serizawa's pillows.
“I think. I think I fixed it,” began Serizawa, he hadn’t let out the breath he’d been holding yet, “if it doesn’t work again please can we go to sleep. I don’t want to deal with the stupid thing anymore.”
Reigen felt a pang of guilt in his gut, he was the one who had pushed the man, who had by then been up much past his usual bedtime, into feeling so much irritation; fixing the website wasn’t his job after all, “We are going to sleep after we try it out again, I promise. If it doesn’t work I’m gonna pay someone else to be frustrated with it.” Reigen was relieved to find some of the frustration fade from Serizawa’s face.
He slowly checked through each of the pages to make sure the link was working, surprisingly, it went off without a hitch. The two finally let out the breaths they had been holding in subconsciously and fell straight into bed after, it was about three in the morning; when they awoke around 4 hours later, it wasn’t pretty.
They went through the next day feeling not only tired but cold as well because the heater in the office had been giving them trouble. And so it seemed that the pair could hardly catch a break. When the time for Tome to arrive at the S&S office came, they braced themselves for her many complaints.
“Jeez it feels like the top of Mount Everest in here!” she had exclaimed exasperatedly upon setting her bag down at her desk near the office entrance that afternoon. She had begun to remove her jacket but made the decision to instead rearrange her scarf so it covered a better portion of her face and wrap her arms around herself and shiver dramatically. Reigen, who usually would play along and smile at her antics, simply groaned when he saw this.
“Not in the mood today, kiddo,” he said flatly, tightening his icy hands around his tea mug. He was also wearing his overcoat on top of his suit, as it had gotten unbearably cold in the small space, and he was currently considering whether or not he should also put on his gloves.
When Tome saw that Reigen was being serious she made an annoyed face and instead turned her attention to Serizawa, who was sitting on the couch reading one of his school books and trying desperately not to nod off. She came over to sit next to him and he gave her a tired smile before going back to trying to concentrate. She let her expression warp into a little bit more of a grimace before crossing her arms and turning to face the wall in relative defeat.
“Well you two are just oodles of fun,” she said, her annoyed tone carrying throughout the whole office. It garnered no response, which she expected, so she stood and walked back to her desk, pulling out her schoolwork reluctantly. It was when she began to rhythmically tap her pen on her desk that Reigen finally broke.
“Tome. Please. Stop,” by this time in the early evening he had a splitting headache, he wasn’t sure what from, but he was sure it was annoying. The constant tap tap tap coming from the corner of the room certainly was not helping. He heard Serizawa snort and let out a groan he had been asleep. He watched the man set down his book, stretch his arms high up in the air, and stand, wobbling a bit as he rose. He then gave Reigen an unexpectedly pleading look and jerked his head a few times in the direction of the back room. Reigen knew this was a bad sign.
They both received a rather scathing look from Tome as they shut the door. Serizawa made his way over to the middle of the room and immediately leaned his weight fully into the massage table, furrowing his brow. It was a little warmer in this room but Reigen could tell he was still miserable.
“What did you have to talk about that needed to be in a separate room, Katsuya?” Reigen said, trying not to sound irate.
“Well, I know that we have another job today in about an hour but. I feel bad. It’s so cold here and on top of that I got horrible sleep last night, you know. Of the sleep I did get,” the agitation in Serizawa's voice was edging on something else Reigen couldn’t quite place. He narrowed his eyes.
“I got horrible sleep last night too,” Reigen began tentatively, “I don’t want to seem insensitive but it’s just one more job and then we can go home. It sounds like it’ll be an easy one too,” he saw Serizawa’s expression darken, but he continued on in spite of it, he instantly regretted this decision, “look, I’m sorry, but sometimes you’re just going to have bad days at work, you can’t up and quit right before the end of the day. I mean, what’s a couple more measly hours, we deal with this sort of thing all the time, I thought you would have gotten more used to it by now.” the disbelief in Serizawa's expression deepened and his mouth came slightly ajar, but he shut it again quickly and huffed through his nose, storming out of the room just as quickly as he had come in. When the door slammed shut Reigen winced.
Reigen dreaded having to rework their work dynamic from boss-employee to something different entirely. He had been working on a way to rearrange it now that they were dating, but every time he had tried he just went blank. They had only begun to date recently, so he figured it would take a bit of time for him to adjust, but his inadequacy really shined in moments like this when he wasn’t feeling in tip-top shape. It wasn’t fair to Serizawa, and Reigen knew this; Serizawa was not only his romantic partner but his business partner too, they should both have equal say in work matters.
I need to apologize. Shit, thought Reigen turning to face the door apprehensively. Not only that, but he also needed to have an actual discussion with Serizawa about the subject. But he dreaded that too. Everything about his life just had to be so...complicated, but that was his own fault, of course. He really hated how insensitive he could be.
He left the small room with sweat dripping down the nape of his neck even though it was still unbearably cold in the larger room. He looked around to see if he could spot Serizawa, and he did in seconds. He was talking to Tome who no longer looked annoyed but relieved that at least someone was giving her the time of day.
“Yeah and I mean it’s totally not cool to have to go back in the middle of the week after a break I mean. Who does that?” she was going on about something school-related, Reigen figured. He saw Serizawa spot him out of the corner of his eye and quickly look away again, his brow creasing in what reigen could tell was deep annoyance.
Tome raised her brows when Serizawa didn’t reply to her and turned her head Reigen’s way, her expression falling into a rather flat one when their eyes made contact.
“Oh so you finally decided to come back out and help set up for the next client, huh,” she berated, “what am I going to do with you two,” she stood and stretched out her arms in front of her, cracking her knuckles as she did. She made her way over to reigen’s desk area and began to rearrange a few items while the two men stood there stoically, refusing to make eye contact. Reigen was the first to make a move this time.
“Katsuya,” he said in a hushed tone, inching closer to the man whose brow continued to wrinkle more and more as he did, “look. I shouldn’t have said what I said back there. I was being. Well, I don’t know...you know...” why was he having so much trouble spitting this out? It wasn’t like the concept of an apology was that foreign to him, and yet he stood there, playing with his fingers foolishly, looking like an idiot. Serizawa finally let himself look at Reigen’s pleading face, but surprisingly to Reigen, his expression did not lighten.
“Whatever. It’s fine, let's just get back to work,” his tone was absolutely scalding, and it made reigen subconsciously shrink as though he was a frightened bird. He had really messed up this time.
They continued to prepare for the client in frigid silence, Serizawa made the tea as usual but offered none to Reigen. Tome took notice of this and made as though she was trying to throw a snarky remark toward Reigen, but as soon as she saw his downcast, jittery expression, she bit her tongue and continued with her work.
“It ran off with my spare keys you see! And my cabinets have been completely rifled through!” Their client was an older man with wild gray hair. His eyes were almost completely covered by his bushy eyebrows, and although they couldn’t really see them they knew that they were wide with exasperation. He had raised his cane up to Reigen’s nose after he stood to come over to the client’s side of the desk. Reigen stood there rigid, his mouth ajar and brow crinkled in offense.
This old geezer, how did he even get up those stairs, thought Reigen, who remembered a much more young and timid voice from the phone call about this client the other day. He finally got his bearings and pushed the end of the cane out of his face with one finger rather repulsed, “I see you’ve been having some difficulty with this spirit,” he walked back over to his side of the desk, “we would definitely be willing to help you in finding out more about it.” this was said with some reluctance, but as long as he made money off this old man any job was worth it.
Serizawa had his head turned away from the scene until then and sighed loudly when he noticed reigen pull out his pricing sheet. The two men had a split second of painful eye contact before going back to ignoring one another, meanwhile Tome, and Dimple who had recently appeared and was in his usual spot atop her head, both made irritated looks toward each other.
“Has it been like this since you got here?” asked Dimple caustically. Tome sighed rather dramatically.
“A-yup,” she said in a muted tone, garnering the attention of Serizawa. He softened his expression slightly and looked off to the side remorsefully, “as I said before. Oodles of fun these two.” she sighed again and let her head lol to one side, rolling her eyes along with the movement.
The group was out the door in the freezing cold before they knew what hit them. Reigen had preemptively locked up the office since he knew Serizawa was feeling under the weather. He knew that he still had to actually apologize to him, but as each minute passed that task seemed to grow insurmountably harder to tackle.
The client’s apartment was surprisingly only about a ten-minute walk from the office. Even more surprising was the spryness of the old gray-haired man as he made his way down the sidewalk with purpose.
“Get out of my way!” he said, waving his cane at a group of middle schoolers who were loitering on the corner of where he had been intending to turn. The group, who looked puzzled, parted for him and giggled as the spirits and such crew passed them by. Tome kept her head down, usually, she was delighted to be seen with her two friends when they let her tag along on a job, but right now their energy was a hard one to want to be around.
“If it wasn’t for my concern for you two and that blonde idiot I would have jet by now,” said Dimple; he had become far more irritated at the two men since they left the office, as they had continued to refuse to even look at one another. Reigen had bumped into Serizawa's shoulder a few times which would usually garner an affectionate, “oops, watch out, Taka,” or something along those lines, but today, it made Serizawa stare daggers in Reigen’s direction, to which Reigen would respond with an indignant huff.
“Yeah I get it,” said Tome, “if I’d have known I was gonna be on a job with three cranky old men today I would have just gone home too,” she had her arms crossed and jutted her jaw out in agitation, hoping to get at least one of their attention. When she didn’t, she rolled her eyes in defeat, trailing behind them silently once again.
They arrived at the client’s apartment after what seemed like hours, in actuality it had been about 9 minutes in the freezing, continually darker air. They all shoved their way into the small entryway, meeting a much cleaner space than they had imagined before. Reigen squeezed himself out of the group, shoes in hand, peering around the fluorescently lit apartment as if trying to find something invisible; Serizawa, who usually took this as a cue to sense out auras, hummed indifferently as Reigen continued to make a fool of himself.
Reigen noted after a few minutes that Serizawa was going to be of no help to him, so he went through the spaces in the apartment that the old man had highlighted before. He was going to have to bullshit this one, wasn’t he.
“Well, do you sense anything, Mr. Reigen?” asked the old man in an antagonizing tone, Reigen could already tell that this geezer hated him.
“I think that I’m sensing something coming from your pantry,” Reigen drew out the sentence to make himself seem a bit more credible, “Tome, would you come here and help me out with your flashlight?”
Tome made her way over reluctantly, pulling out a large flashlight from her school bag and turning it on as Reigen slowly opened the pantry. In an instant reigen knew that this wasn’t a spirit, because the moment Tome’s light shined in the back corner of the pantry, out shot two rather large mice. Reigen yelped and hopped back toward the kitchen island, Tome made a similar movement as she shouted, “MICE,” loudly, prompting Serizawa to snap to attention. All while this was happening, Dimple was laughing at the group raucously.
In only a few moments, the two mice were suspended in the air by Serizawa's purplish aura. It spat and sparked a little more than usual, which Reigen knew meant the man was worked up. The old man, who seemed unperturbed by this, was waving his cane around at the mice and scolding them as if they were his grandchildren.
“Now you listen here, you two shouldn’t be messing with the food in my pantry, don’t I feed the two of you enough!” He plucked them both out of the air and they nibbled his fingers affectionately. The office crew looked around at each other bewildered for a brief instant, momentarily forgetting their spat, and then, as though nothing had happened that surprised him, Reigen stood tall and cleared his throat theatrically.
“A-hem! Of course, I knew all along that it was your missing pet mice! I sensed no aura coming from any place in this building! Inside or out,” Reigen wasn’t lying fully, he vaguely remembered the caller for this client mentioning missing pets, he just hadn’t expected them to be mice. Nor had he expected that they were the culprit. He was more than a little annoyed at this because it meant he wasn’t going to get paid well in all likelihood. It had also been a ridiculous reason to extend their office hours so late into the evening, which only made him feel more guilty about Serizawa.
“Right, right,” the old man gave Reigen a tired once over and then he walked to the side of the living room where a large habitat stood on a side table. He placed the mice inside gently and closed the top, turning around again and raising his cane in Reigen’s direction. Reigen gulped audibly, man I hate that cane , he thought.
“While I appreciate you locating my missing pets, that still doesn’t explain the disappearance of my keys,” the old man said, lowering his cane again with a grunt.
“Oh, do you mean these?” Reigen heard Tome ask from the far corner of the living room a little past a small loveseat. She came over to where the old man was standing and jangled them in front of him. He gasped a little and held out his hand for her to deposit them into.
“Wherever did you find these, young lady?” He asked.
“They were wedged behind the couch a bit,” she responded rather proudly, “I always make sure to be thorough when I’m on a job! That’s the Spirits and Such way!” She crossed her arms and beamed at Reigen, who suddenly felt extremely guilty for the way he had been treating her. He managed to smile back at her at least a little, which she deemed acceptable.
The old man seemed to finally be satisfied. To reigen’s surprise, he paid them their fee with a little on top. He didn’t reveal too much in terms of emotion, however it seemed he was extremely grateful for the return of his two pets. And so the three humans and the spirit left the tiny apartment after a brief goodbye from its sole inhabitant.
Reigen was fiddling with his money pouch as Serizawa, Tome, and Dimple said their goodbyes to one another. They were all speaking so amiably, he wondered if their tone would stay the same after he entered the mix. He kept one of the thousand yen bills that the client had given him on top of the fee and thrust it toward Tome after he approached the group.
“What’s this for, Reigen?” She said suspiciously before making a move to take the bill from the man’s hand, “trying to bribe me or something?” Of course she would think that.
“Bribe you for what, doing your job well? Just take the damn thing before I change my mind.” She took it from him with glee and stared at it happily for a moment before shoving it into her pocket rather unceremoniously.
“Sometimes I forget that you can be nice, old man.” Said tome fixing her school bag and taking a few steps back out of their space. Serizawa eyed Reigen curiously during all of this. Reigen noticed this after a moment and turned his gaze slightly toward the taller man. When they briefly made eye contact, Serizawa swiveled his head quickly to the side, looking off into the distance, disgruntled again. Dimple floated along with tome as she continued to walk backward and nodded briefly to both of the men, then nestled himself back into his favorite spot atop her head.
“Yeah don’t press your luck, kiddo,” Reigen said quietly. He simply wanted to reward her for doing a good job, but he didn't think he deserved a comment like that after the way he had been acting tonight. She waved to them and turned around, happily trotting off to her next destination. Reigen wished he could be as carefree.
He stood there in the cold for a moment after they saw her round a faraway corner, not wanting to face Serizawa, however, Serizawa simply began walking in the other direction before reigen could fully get his bearings. Surprised, he did an about-face and quickly caught up to his partner; he could see the quick puffs of his breath as they walked silently in the direction of their train station, but could not for the life of him figure out the expression that lingered on his face.
Even though Serizawa had given him no signal that he didn’t want reigen to accompany him back home, he still felt wholly unwanted. Not a word had passed between them since before they left the office for the job, and it was beginning to worry him. He knew, of course, that Serizawa was still upset with him, and for good reason, he had been an ass. However, that didn’t stop him from feeling anxious about the next words they would exchange. Would he really be capable of pulling off an effective apology after all the time that had passed? He truly didn’t know.
When the two men were only a few minutes away from the apartment, Reigen caught Serizawa's eye for a moment. He looked less angry now than he had before, but what the anger was replaced with had an entirely different flavor. He felt his gut drop again, Serizawa looked as though he might be ready to cry at any moment. Reigen began to feel nauseous as they climbed the several flights of stairs leading up to the third floor. When they arrived at the landing and finally stopped at where Serizawa's apartment was, Reigen felt as though he might pass out.
Surprisingly, Serizawa opened up the door and let Reigen in first, when they had both shuffled in they began to hang their belongings on the wall hooks. Serizawa was taking his time hanging up his things and appeared to be deep in thought, so Reigen gave him some space and moved out of the entryway quietly. It was when Serizawa had finally shut the door that he snapped.
“Reigen. Look at me,” he said flatly, Reigen, who had just finished taking off his suit jacket next to the couch, froze, there it is , he thought. He then hesitantly turned around to face Serizawa; he noticed the tiredness that lingered on his face, the way his eyes were reddening. Reigen understood that being angry was not something that came easy to him, “I don’t...understand.”
Reigen was a little confused, “don’t understand what?” He said this as delicately as he could, looking just off to the side of Serizawa's rather intense glare.
Serizawa’s brow wrinkled a little more and he linked his hands together, his knuckles becoming quickly white from how hard he was gripping. He looked to the side for a brief moment, obviously trying to put his thoughts together, then looked back to Reigen and sighed in agitation, “I don’t understand why you can’t be more empathetic! There. I said it.” There was a slight spark around his entire body, Reigen could see his aura was beginning to flare, not a dangerous amount, but Reigen knew how serious it meant Serizawa was being.
He hadn’t not been expecting a statement like that, in fact, he was surprised by how unsurprised it made him feel. Rather than shock, it made him feel somewhat empty and extremely guilty. How could he not be more empathetic, not just now, today in this situation, but all the time? This was the first time he had pushed Serizawa over the edge, but he remembered several times before now that he had begun to wear thin his patience. It wasn’t like he could help just being himself, but this wasn’t about Reigen being himself, it was about him being selfish. And ignorant. And apathetic. And so many more things.
He opened his mouth to speak but Serizawa beat him to it, “Lately you’ve been so hard to get through to, I don’t know what’s going on but you have to talk to me. You need to.” he was speaking in a demanding tone, but there was still that something behind it that reigen had yet to place, “I’m not just mad about this afternoon, although I really do want you to apologize for that, I’m upset that there is something you won’t tell me!” there was a bit of wetness building up in his eyes, and it made Reigen’s chest feel tighter.
“I...” he started, not really knowing where he was going, “I’m sorry.”
Serizawa, who stood in the entryway still, scoffed, “You’re sorry. That’s it?”
Reigen, who had been twiddling his thumbs subconsciously, bit his lip and took a deep breath before continuing, “No...i’m sorry. I just...i’m having...” he saw Serizawa look at him expectantly, come on, just spit it out already , “I’ve just been having...such a hard time figuring things out. You know. Between us.”
Serizawa’s eyes narrowed a bit, “Reigen, what are you talking about.” Reigen finally recognized the inflection behind Serizawa’s serious tone, it was confusion.
“I know that we’ve been dating for almost three months now, and I've been really happy, I love the way you make me feel. I love spending time with you, getting to know you more intimately...but I don’t know how to...”
“How to what, Reigen?” there was a gentler inflection in Serizawa's voice now.
“I don’t know how to separate our personal and professional relationship.”
Serizawa’s brow unknit itself a considerable amount, “Is...Is that what this is about?” he took a couple of steps toward Reigen who shifted his position on the back of the couch uncomfortably.
“Yeah...” Reigen responded, “every time I’m in the office with you I feel like...like I can only be your coworker...or something to that equivalent...i don’t know. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about it for so long but it’s hard.”
“You’re such an idiot,” Serizawa laughed this softly into his hand, “you seriously waited this long to talk to me about that?” Reigen felt color and a bit of warmth coming back to his face.
“Well, I told you I tried,” Reigen said rather somberly, his gaze sweeping the floor, “you have to understand that honest communication has never been...one of my strong suits,” he sighed deeply, his grip on the back of the couch tightening.
“So that’s why you’ve been so...distant while we’re at work,” Serizawa said, although he didn’t sound as though he fully believed it.
“Yeah. I’m really, really sorry about earlier, by the way. That was uncalled for and I should have listened to you, no job is worth putting you through unnecessary stress. For that I deeply apologize,” he paused for a moment, considering his next words carefully, “there are a lot of times where I just feel this need to know I am right,”
Serizawa chuckled, “you can say that again. Thank you for apologizing,” he tilted his head a bit, taking another small step toward Reigen, who raised his own head when he noticed. He stared at Serizawa blankly for a moment before continuing, noticing that almost all traces of anger had disappeared from his face.
“Can you help me figure things out? Please?” he said, he could tell that he had a pathetic look on his face but he didn’t care. Serizawa took a few more steps toward him so that he was finally close enough to touch and placed a gentle hand on his forearm.
“Of course I will,” he said softly, “you know we have a lot of time to figure it out, we can take it slow. Problems don’t disappear overnight.”
Reigen moved his left hand and placed it on Serizawa's, which still rested on his arm. He squeezed it a little, which prompted Serizawa to hover a little closer to him.
“Why don’t we start by treating both of them the same. We don’t need to separate them as much as merge them together,” said Serizawa, rubbing his thumb in circles against Reigen’s arm, “if we treat each place as its own individual bubble it’s going to make it harder for us.”
Reigen nodded slowly and brought his gaze up from the floor where it had been lingering again, “you’re so smart, you know that,” he said softly.
“You’re smart too, you can just get a little distracted is all,” laughed Serizawa in a similar tone, “we just need to learn how to communicate better, sound good?”
“Yeah...” Reigen responded, and without waiting he pulled Serizawa in for a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around his chest right under his armpits. This was the easiest place for reigen to hug Serizawa because of their difference in height, but it really was also just his favorite way. Here he could hear Serizawa's steady breathing and heartbeat, and it made him feel safe. Serizawa returned the embrace in full, his arms wrapped around reigen’s back warmly. Reigen was grateful for the attentiveness of his partner, and also for his capacity for forgiveness. He truly was so lucky.
When they parted again it had been a good few minutes and color had fully made its way back into reigen’s face. He smiled at Serizawa who returned the look fondly.
“I’m sorry for giving you the silent treatment earlier,” Serizawa chuckled and began rearranging the various blankets and sweaters that littered the back of the couch, “I didn't really want to yell at you in front of Tome.”
Reigen let out a small laugh and gave Serizawa a sly look, “oh I’m sure she would have found it entertaining,” he swiped at one of the sweaters in Serizawa's arms and quickly shed his dress shirt and tie in favor of it. Serizawa took his discarded clothes and floated them over to the laundry basket and rounded the couch corner, settling into the inviting looking cushions with a long sigh. He looked up towards reigen who was still sitting on the back of the couch and cocked his head a bit.
“It’s really not easy for me to be angry, you know. Especially when it’s with you,” he said softly. Reigen turned his way and gave him an apologetic look before standing and walking over behind Serizawa, who looked up at him curiously.
“Is that so?” he teased, not sure what kind of reaction he would elicit. Serizawa laughed again, thankfully, and gave him a rather shrewd smile. He knew what Reigen was up to, that much he could tell, but the younger man wanted to push it a little further.
Reigen came around the corner of the couch and noticed Serizawa's affectionate gaze following closely. He carefully began to place himself over Serizawa's legs which were stretched out over most of the couch, and then crawled toward him slowly, his breath picking up a bit, warmth creeping into his cheeks. “Is this okay?” he said when his face was nearly level with Serizawa's. He saw the corners of Serizawa's eyes crinkle a little with his smile and felt his heart skip a little.
“Of course, Arataka,” he raised his hand to cup Reigen’s cheek and pulled him in gently, placing a brief kiss on his lips. Reigen had a hard time believing that he deserved that gentle of a kiss after the events of the day, and that thought must have come through in his expression because Serizawa tilted his head in concern soon after the thought finished its course, “you know I’m not still angry with you, right.”
“I know,” he said tentatively, “I’m just being hard on myself.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” began Serizawa, his left hand inching up into Reigen’s scalp, “I know you’re going to try hard to do better with communication, and I will too,” he ran his hand slowly through Reigen’s hair and stopped at the crown of his head. Reigen felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand and he went rigid, “you need to stop being so hard on yourself, you’ve grown so much since I first met you.” he let his hand slide slowly down the back of the blonde’s head onto his neck and Reigen couldn’t help but let out a rather high pitched noise when his fingers reached its base. He saw the corners of Serizawa's mouth twitch upward a little more and his face immediately flushed with heat. He braced himself for what he knew was coming.
Serizawa slid his hand so that it rested on the side of reigen’s neck, just under his chin, and used the base of his palm to tilt his head to the ceiling; this pulled reigen forward just enough for Serizawa to place a kiss on his collarbone, which he then followed with more kisses that trailed upward. Reigen’s grip on the edge of the couch and Serizawa’s hip intensified a little to make up for the weak feeling that now spread throughout the rest of his body. He quickly adjusted his leg that was squeezed between the back of the couch and Serizawa's thigh forward to accommodate for the man’s quickly intensifying touch. He had run his hand up Reigen’s sweater and placed it on the small of his back, pulling him further in as he made his way back to his lips.
During all of this, Reigen hardly had time to catch his breath, he knew from experience that Serizawa was a very intense lover after an emotional day, but this degree of intensity was unexpected, though not unwelcome. He just didn’t really know how to keep up, there was such an ardent, burning sensation that ran throughout his whole body. It was hard to know what that feeling wanted from him or what it wanted from his partner.
By now he was flush with Serizawa's own body as the older man continued to press kisses to his face. Every once in a while they would stop, panting for a few seconds, then one or the other would press their lips to one of their necks or faces, and they would fall back into the same routine. Each of their hands searched hungrily for the other, Reigen’s pushed far up underneath Serizawa's dress shirt which was quickly becoming damp with sweat, as the well functioning heater only served to heighten both of their body temperatures; meanwhile, Serizawa’s only crept further down Reigen’s hips.
Reigen quivered intensely when he felt one of them slip past his underwear’s waistband and pulled away on instinct, gulping audibly after a few heavy breaths.
“Sorry, too much?” asked Serizawa huskily, moving his hand back to a higher place on Reigen’s torso. Reigen blinked a few times and let his breath even out a little.
“No, I'm just getting a little overstimulated. Give me a minute.” He knew that Serizawa only wanted to make him feel good, he figured that was the reason he was being so forward, but Reigen could only handle so much before he needed a break. He lowered himself back down onto Serizawa, laying his head on his chest and wrapping his arms further around his back. Serizawa ran one of his hands through Reigen’s hair again, caressing his head gently and letting out a contented sigh after a few minutes.
“I love you so much,” Reigen heard Serizawa say, though it sounded kind of far away.
"I love you too," he said weakly. He realized quickly that he was drifting off, it had been a long day, after all, and he was perfectly content here on this particular couch, with this particular person. Before he knew it, his eyes had closed and he was somewhere else, finally feeling more at peace with his place in the world.