Archive of Our Own

ACT ZERO — SATORU

Truth to be told, Satoru knew the nature of his feelings from the very first moment. He may look like some arrogant, dumb (or in Shoko’s words, clown,) person, but the exact moment he found himself thinking about his best friend way too much, he knew it wasn’t normal. At first, it was just a crush –a harmless one- it was Getou Suguru, after all. Everyone in Jujutsu High had a crush on him. But as time went by and his feelings didn’t change, it hit him slowly —like a light breeze against his skin, like sweets melting in his mouth, snowflakes turning into water drops on his hand— he liked Getou Suguru. Liked him a lot, actually. It surprised him, how he didn’t figure it out soon enough that it wasn’t a simple or harmless crush, it was serious, and it always has been.

Satoru is in love with his best friend.

And the said best friend is oblivious.

This is what Gojo Satoru is thinking at this moment, as this stupid best friend of his spouts nonsense.

“You’re a little selfish sometimes, Satoru,” Suguru says, not stopping his lazy steps. “There is no problem when it’s you flirting with them, but when it’s my turn you get all worked up and jealous.”

‘Stupid, stupid Suguru’ thinks Satoru, and then, “I’m not jealous of you, idiot.” He lets out. And immediately regrets it when his cheeks warm up and Suguru stops walking. “What—” Suguru begins, but he cuts him before he can end his sentence. “Never mind! You wanted to take me somewhere, remember? The reason we left Shoko alone.” (Not that she was interested in coming, anyways.)

“Oh, yeah!” Suguru said, the confused expression on his face fading away. “There is a new shop down this street. I heard their pastries are quite great, I wanted to take you there so we can test.”

Holy shit. He loves this man so fuckin’ much.

On their way to the shop, Satoru thinks about how they are so… inseparable. You can’t find Suguru without him, nor can you find him without Suguru.

“We’re here.” Suguru says, pointing at the shop in front of them. “Let’s go inside.” He opens the door and ente

rs, followed by Satoru. They walk to a table next to a large window and sit there. After a short amount of time, a waitress comes with a menu on her hands.

“Hello, gentlemen, welcome to our shop!” She places the menu on table, “Please choose what you want to eat.” She then steps back a little, waiting for them to look at the menu.

“What so you think is good? You’re more experienced than I am when it comes to sweets and this stuff.” Suguru asks Satoru who is reading the menu very carefully. Hearing the other man, he rolls his eyes. “C’mon now, Suguru. As if you ever let me eat alone, always coming and stealing my precious sweets.”

“I pay, so it’s not like I’m stealing!” before Satoru can open his mouth he continues, “Whatever. You order.”

“Of course I order! Last time we were supposed to eat ‘sweets’ and what did you order? Black coffee. Black coffee, Suguru! I was forced to drink something that I hate the most! The headache didn’t leave me alone for two days straight!” Satoru said, and after casting another quick glance, turned to the waitress. “An apple pie and orange juice, and ice coffee and fruity pastries for this one here.” The girl smiles and looked at Suguru after writing down in her notebook, “Your boyfriend really has experience, sir. Our fruit flavored pastries are the most popular.”

“What?” The two asked at the same time, a little amused.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Suguru said, looking at Satoru, “He’s my best friend—”

“—the one and only.” Satoru completed his sentence and they pressed their fists together, smiling. The waitress put on an apologetic smile, “I see, I see. It’s very good to see friend like this, though. I’ll be going to make your orders now, enjoy your time,” And left the two alone.

“Boyfriends—pfft!” Suguru said, laughing quietly. “What a joke.”

“…yeah.” Satoru replied, not counting it a ‘joke’ by any mean, but didn’t say anything. He thought about how cruel of a day was today, when Suguru continued.

“Boyfriends, or maybe even best friends can never come close to us,” He said. “We’re something else. We are the strongest—nothing comes to our level.”

“I can’t with him! Not anymore!” Satoru said, hiding his head with his hands. “He’s literally killing me!”

“Yes, you’ve been saying this for fifteen minutes now. Why are we here again?” Nanami asked indifferently. However, Haibara beside him started, “C’mon, Nanami-kun! You can talk to us senpai, we got your back.”

“Thank you Yuu-chan, you’re the best kouhai ever.” Turning to Nanami, he continued, “Kento-chan, only if you were as sweet as Yuu-chan here…”

Nanami rolled his eyes. “He spoils you way too much. You don’t deserve it.”

However, Satoru didn’t pay him any mind, he whined again, “But what should I do!”

“Why don’t you try giving him some hints, Gojo-sanpai? Getou-senpai is smart, he’d understand your feelings soon.”

Haibara said this to make Satoru a little better, but it only caused him to hit his head on the table hard, making a ‘bang’ sound as he did so. “Did you really think I didn’t try…”

He really did try. And Suguru was so oblivious that you could make a show of his obliviousness and Satoru’s misery…

 ACT ONE — 38 DEGREE

Yaga-sensei had gave them a mission. They had to follow a 4th grade curse around Tokyo all day to kill it. It could’ve ended sooner, very sooner, actually, but they were having fun. Couldn’t say the same about the curse though. It didn’t have time to enjoy, already spending all his time and effort into running from them.

They could get it right at the first, or the few times it had decreased his speed to turn, but since it wasn’t hurting anyone and they wanted to jog a little, they let the thing ‘enjoy’ his last moments a bit.

“Hey, Suguru?” Satoru suddenly said.

“Yeah?”

“Who do you think can reach the end of the street sooner?” He asked.

They both stopped at their tracks, the curse long forgotten. “The loser calls Yaga-sensei and tells him to pick us up. Deal?” Suguru answered, “Deal!”

“1, 2, 3…”

“Start!”

Both of them started to run. The street was quiet and empty of people, only the sound of their feet on the asphalt could be heard. The curse was stunned—it didn’t understand they’re racing, and thought they’re running after him with full speed.

Just as they were half of a meter away from the end line, where the curse was currently standing, a low, inhuman voice started talking. “Stay where you are, or, or I’ll, kill this, human.”

Lifting their head, they were faced with the curse standing near a teenage boy with headphones on, putting its hand on his neck. The boy moved a little and couldn’t help but feel something on his neck although he couldn’t see.

“Who won?” Satoru asked.

“I did,” The other boy replied.

“No, I did. I reached here a second sooner.”

“Your six eyes have some serious problems, or those sunglasses are making you not see me.”

“My six eyes are okay and I can see clearly! You—”

“I, said, do not, come… closer.” The inhuman voice cut in again and this time, they actually turned their head to look at it with annoyed expressions. Satoru frowned, “We were having fun. Weren’t we?”

“We definitely were.” Suguru replied.

“…yet you had to interrupt like this… guess we can’t hesitate any longer.”

The curse held back the boy’s neck a little tighter. “S—top. I’ll. Kill, this hu—”

Before it could finish his threat, its head was cut. Satoru turned to look at the teenage boy, still standing there and not even sensing a thing, and sighed. “It was just getting fun, I guess we have to head back now… We can’t have fun anymore! Why!”

Suguru took a glance at the vanishing curse and turned indifferently, “We’re the strongest, remember? Curses stronger than us are pretty rare.” Satoru hummed in agreement. “Who’s gonna call Yaga-sensi now?”

“Guess we have to take a cab.”

“Mn.”

Finding a taxi wasn’t hard, they just had to walk to the main street and there was already plenty of cars waiting. As they opened the door of a random one and sat in, Satoru took of his glasses and told the driver their destination.

“Satoru?” Suguru asked after a moment.

“What is it?”

“Are you hot?”

Satoru chocked on his own saliva. “Are you asking me,” He repeated carefully, “If I am hot? Do you think I am?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a hot day, you’re even sweating.” The other boy answered innocently.

“…” Satoru was silent for a long moment. And then said, “But I think you’re hot.”

The other boy looked at him like he had said something especially dumb. “Duh, of course. It’s 38 degree outside, I think we should ask the driver to turn on the AC.”

ACT TWO — FAVORITE TYPE

So, Satoru could manage everything. He had everything –including his emotions for his best friend– under control. That’s till Suguru knocks on his door and he opens it. Satoru looks at the uninvited guest and moves away so he can enter the room. He watched as he sat on the bed, while he himself leaned towards the wall, waiting.

“Hey,” Suguru said. “Are you awake?”

“No, I open doors in my sleep. And, that’s a question you have to ask before knocking at my door at 1 in the morning.” Satoru answered, but the black haired man didn’t pay him any attention, and looked at Satoru’s sheets. “So you were watching shows again.”

“…” Silence. And then, “What?”

“And you thought you can hide the laptop under your sheets. I can see its light, y’know,” he replied matter of factly.

“Whatever! It’s a good show. Do you want to watch?”

“Sure, wanna see what it is that keeps you up.”

They sat on Satoru’s bed, the laptop in front of them while Satoru clicked on the resume icon. It was a comedy, thus every now and then the room was filled with quite laughter and giggles. Suguru had to admit—it really was a good show. “Why do you watch so many of these shows?” he asked, genuinely curious. Without looking away from the screen, Satoru answered, “It’s easy to watch people like this.”

Suguru waited for him to continue.

“Cameras… they don’t –can’t– record curses. So even with my six eyes, there is nothing to see.” He explained, “It’s fun to see people without cursed energy everywhere and actually seeing them.”

Suguru looked at his blue, focused on screen eyes and nodded. “I see.”

They watched about five more episodes, and if it wasn’t for them being too sleepy they would’ve continued. When Suguru stood up to go back to his room to sleep, Satoru suddenly remembered. “Suguru?” the boy in question turned around to face him and waited.

“Why did you come here at the first place?”

“Ah, I totally forgot,” Suguru yawned and then looked at Satoru, right in the eyes. “Satoru, what’s your type?”

...silence.

“…Huh.” Satoru said with a blank expression on his face, not knowing where did the sudden question come from. “Why do you ask?” he tried again, thanking all the gods watching above them that the blush on his face couldn’t be seen in the darkness.

“Rei-chan asked me on a date. She said something about a double date if I had any friend who was interested and I thought I should ask if you are or not. I won’t go without you though, it’s too much trouble and I’d be bored.” Suguru answered, not noticing the rolling of Satoru’s eyes.

“When is the date? And when did she ask? I’m sure she didn’t do it tonight.”

“She asked a week ago, but I forgot to bring it up. The date though, is… tomorrow.”

Well, shit.

Even right now, as a girl clings to his side every five minute, he doesn’t know why did he agree to this. “Fuck,” he murmured under his breath and moved a little to avoid contact with the girl. He couldn’t even remember her name—or more accurately, he didn’t pay attention to her when she said it. Instead, he looked up at Suguru and the other girl beside him and sighed. He looked stunning, with his long, black hair pulled into a pony tail and Satoru’s black T-shirt. He looked so good and it was Satoru’s own fault for dressing him up like this. In his defense, if he had to share his best friend-crush with others, he’d made sure that he was prepared and looked damn good—all those girl had to see just how beautiful his best friend was.

Right. Girls.

Gojo Satoru, the gayest man alive (probably), was on a double date with a girl.

And his crush was sitting right in front of him.

Great. Couldn’t be better.

“What school do you guys go to?” Suguru’s date asked.

“A private school,” Suguru answered. “It’s no fun, they’re too strict and the uniform is horrible. I like yours better.”

(Right, says the guy who got his uniform customized, Satoru thought to himself, rolling his eyes internally.)

“That’s cool! But I really want to see you two in your uniforms… you probably look even hotter!” The girl (who was supposed to be Satoru’s date) said, giggling, and was answered by Suguru. “I can help you with that, if you could wait for a moment,” he picked up his phone and after a few taps and scrolling for a moment, finally found what he was looking for and lifted up his phone so they could see the screen he showed them.

It was a photo of Satoru—taken on one of their ‘missions’ when Satoru insisted on him taking photo of him cause he looked good. It was him, his black sunglasses nowhere to be found, and the blue of his eyes was matched with the sky behind him.

“Oh! Gojo-kun is so handsome!” let out the girl next to him, “And that’s a good uniform, what’s wrong with it?” Suguru just laughed while Satoru frowned a little, “When did you take that?”

The other boy answered with a shrug. “You told me to take and send it to Nanami. Remember?” Satoru did remember, but the photo wasn’t something so good like this—he had made funny faces that made Nanami mad. This one, however, was taken when he wasn’t looking at the camera nor paying attention to it... there was more to this matter, obviously, but he let it go when he heard Suguru’s date.

“Getou-kun! You have so many photos of Gojo-kun here!”

“Yeah, he’s my best friend after all” was Suguru’s answer.

After some casual conversation between the four of them, the girl beside Satoru spoke. “Gojo-kun?” Satoru turned his head. “Why are you wearing sunglasses? We’re inside a café, and it’s already dark outside.”

He smiled and took off his glasses. The two girls gasped at the stunning blue of his eyes. Satisfied with their reaction, Satoru put the glasses back on. “If I didn’t, how could I be responsible for the amount of lives taken because of my beauty?~” he said with a playful tone, so they knew he was (mostly) joking.

Suguru rolled his eyes, “nonsense. His eyes are pretty sensitive, if he looks at light for too long it’d hurt.” The other two hummed. (Nice save, thought Satoru. It’s exactly like this, but it isn’t the light. It’s the curses.)

“You two are so close!” one of them said suddenly. Suguru smiled at her, making her continue, “But Getou-kun looks like the more talkative of you.” Suguru laughed at this and put his hand (read: large hands. Very large hands that Satoru wanted to hold with his own) on hers. “You’d be surprised then, about how much he talks every day. Actually, he’s good at flirting, but he goes all quiet when it gets serious. Although, you can say that I’m better at the whole ‘dating’ thing than him.”

Oh? Satoru raises a brow, is this a declaration of war? He said nothing though, with just a look at Suguru’s eyes and the little smirk on his face, he knew it was.

Well, he wasn’t going to lose.

He turned to make eye contact with his ‘date’. “He’s right about this—I can’t find my words when I’m faced with someone like you.” The girl blushed and Satoru continued, “And, for your information—I’m way more good looking than Suguru in my uniform. He doesn’t even wear his uniform pants.” (Which wasn’t true. But he couldn’t explain why their uniforms were different and make them interested in Jujutsu High.)

“What does he wear then?” asked the other one curiously. Satoru searched in his phone for a while and then showed them a photo of Suguru in his uniform, wearing those ridiculous pants. Satoru’s date giggled, “I didn’t know you’re interested in these pants!” Suguru looked at Satoru and then to his date, “Did you know? Satoru sits so weirdly—I even have a photo of it here, take a look,” and so, the game of ‘Who Is The More Ridiculous One’ continued, to the point that the two forgot they were supposed to pay attention to their dates.

“He can’t cook, or even bake. There was a time he wanted to bake a cake and used salt! Instead of sugar!”

“Yes, he captured a mouse and called him ‘brother’.”

“That’s not fair! I was drunk, don’t listen to him!”

The two girls exchanged a glance. They were on a date with two five years old kids, it felt like they were their mothers. One of them wanted to say something when Satoru’s phone made a sound. He casually checked it and his expression changed. Seeing this, Suguru stopped with his tease and looked at him carefully, waiting for an explanation.

“Curse, about twenty meters from here” was the only thing Suguru said, but it was enough to make Suguru stand up immediately.

“Getou-kun? Gojo-kun? Is everything okay?” Suguru’s date asked.

“Oh, we forgot about our curfew, and our teacher texted Satoru! We have to go or else we’re in a big trouble.” Suguru answered, “Goodbye, Rei-chan!” after waving at the girl, he left. Following him, Satoru took off his glasses and winked at the girl (he didn’t ask her name, dammit), “It was such a pleasure to talk to someone as beautiful as you!” and before the girl could manage to blush, he was gone.

Dealing with the curse –a 4th grade one– was a piece of cake. Any weaker Jujutsu Sorcerer could do the work, but since they were nearby Yaga decided to give it to them. Soon, they were on their way back to school.

“If I knew that was the case, I would’ve told them to wait for us…” Suguru said, breaking the comfortable silence around them. Satoru looked him in disbelief, “What was so fun about them? It was so boring!”

“Them being ‘boring’ didn’t stop you from having your fun, did it? Save them some face.”

He rolled his eyes in response and added, “I had fun but it was because you, not any of them. The girl beside me was clinging to me every five minutes, it was so—”

The other boy didn’t let him finish the sentence, “Okay, okay. You’re right.”

“Hey! Why do you say it like I’m not?!”

Suguru ignored him and as the two entered the school building, continued, “The show was interesting. Is there more episodes?”

“Hold on,” Satoru said, stopping on his track.  “Getou Suguru wants to watch the show? How rare of you!”

“Shut up,” he shoved his hand on Satoru’s mouth to shut him up. “Is there more?”

“Mmh, the’ ish’” He answered, his voice muffled because of the force of Getou’s hand on his mouth. Realizing this, Suguru removed his hand and after that he repeated, “Yes, there is. Are you coming to watch with me?”

“Yeah, I’ll go change and will be there in five,” he said and opened the door of his room. Satoru’s was right next to his, so he too went to his room and changed into something more comfortable.

When the door opened again, Satoru was already on his bed, his laptop open on the white sheets. The dark haired boy sat beside him and as he was playing the episode he began, “Satoru?”

“Yes?”

“You didn’t tell me what your type is.”

“Huh, that. Well, it’s strong, tall, with dark hair and pierced ears.”

“hmm…” Suguru hummed. “She looks a lot like me.”

Hearing this, Satoru hit his head on a wall mentally, but he didn’t change his expression as he replied, “Yes, I wonder why.”

ACT THREE — FEVER

Their movie nights continued. Every night, around 11 – 12, Suguru would knock on his door and enter the room to watch another episode. Soon, the show they were watching ended but to Satoru’s surprise, Suguru suggested they start another one. They already were best friends —they understood each other more than anyone— but these movies, these late hours at night, somehow made them even closer. Now they had another thing to talk about when they were on missions or during classes.

“I don’t even know what you two are talking about anymore,” Shoko sighed, looking at them with her usual tired expression. “You always seemed to have your own weird language, but it’s even weirder now.”

“Maybe if you watched West World you would know,” Satoru replied. Shoko rolled her eyes, “I don’t have time to watch stupid lame shows.” The other two boys gasped. “The disrespect!” was Suguru’s reply. Hearing him, Shoko turned to face him. “Wait. You’re watching them with him?”

“Yes?”

“Weren’t you complaining about the amount of time he spent on these –may I quote you– ‘ridiculous shows’? I remember you two fighting over it.”

“Well,” Suguru said, “People change. I changed my mind, and let me tell you, his taste is really something. Maybe you should start watching with us?”

“No, I refuse to spend more time with you. What if your stupidity is infectious?” She said, and she seemed to remember something afterwards. “Oh, Haibara was looking for the two of you.”

“Haibara?” Satoru repeated, puzzled. “What did he say?”

“I don’t know, he didn’t tell me. But go to him? He wanted to tell you something and he was pretty excited about it, too.”

Suguru smiled. “When was he not excited?”

Satoru hummed in agreement, but Shoko continued, “I know, but he really was excited. He even dragged Nanami.”

“Thank you, Shoko!” Satoru hurriedly replied at the mention of Nanami, never losing a chance to tease his poor kouhai. He grabbed a loaf of bread, “We’ll definitely talk to him. Now let’s eat, I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving,” Suguru murmured before taking a sip from his coffee. Whether Satoru heard that or not was unknown, because he didn’t show any reaction at all.

The thing Haibara wanted to tell them turned out to be an invitation to his birthday party.

“Getou-senpai! Gojo-senpai!” the boy chirped, happy to finally finding them. “I was looking for you!”

Suguru smiled and ruffled his inky black hair. “Hello, Haibara-kun.”

“What did you want to tell us? Shoko told me you’re pretty excited about it,” Satoru asked.

“Ah, that! My dad wanted me to invite my friends to my birthday party! Even Kento-kun is coming!” Haibara replied, turning his head to Nanami who was standing behind him, avoiding eye contact with his senpais (or just Satoru.)

“That’s great, Haibara-kun,” Suguru replied with a small smile. “We’ll be happy to come.”

Haibara smiled brightly at this and turned to Satoru and waited for his answer. “Gojo-senpai? You’ll come too, right?”

Well, even if he didn’t want to (that he wanted), he wouldn’t say no to Haibara’s puppy eyes and sunny smile. Thus, he put his hand around the shorter boy’s shoulders and smiled, “didn’t he say we’ll come?”

His reply caught Nanami’s attention, and he rolled his eyes. “Why do you always have to act like married couples? It’s annoying.”

“Good point, Kento-kun,” Satoru replied. “We are married. You’re our son.”

“What am I then? Am I a part of family?” Haibara asked, his eyes darting between Satoru and Suguru. “Of course you are,” Suguru said, while Satoru continued, “You’re our favorite son!”

Haibara beamed, and Nanami rolled his eyes in the background.

“Hey, Suguru!” Satoru called as they came back to their rooms. Suguru turned his head and looked at him, “What?”

“Why did you agree to him so quickly? You even made me agree!”

Suguru rolled his eyes. “Just like you said, he’s our son. Isn’t he? Besides,” he paused, “do you have another plan that day?”

“Maybe I do! How would you know?!”

“But do you?” He repeated, waiting for his reply with a brow raised. Satoru huffed, “Okay. You win. But you wouldn’t know about all of my plans!”

“Are you perhaps oblivious to the fact that we basically make our plans together? Everyone else knows.”

Satoru stared at him for a long, long time before replying in a low, amused voice. “Oblivious, huh? Who’s the oblivious one?” Suguru didn’t hear, or if he did, decided to ignore it. Instead, he started, “What’s the problem, anyways? Didn’t you like Haibara?”

“Of course I like him! My precious angel of kouhai!” he continued, “Have you thought about what are you going to give him?” as he finished, they reached their dorm rooms. Suguru opened his door before shrugging. “We can go shopping, can’t we? We’ll find something.” And without waiting for a reply, closed the door on Satoru.

…and that’s how they end up here, in a mall, with girls all over them. Satoru faked a smile, “Ladies, can you please make a way? We have things to do.” When the girls surrounding Suguru didn’t pay him any attention, he huffed in annoyance, grabbed Suguru’s arm and dragged him toward somewhere empty.

“Satoru?” Suguru asked, “What are you doing?”

“We don’t have time to flirt, y’know.”

“Oh,” Suguru stopped following him. “So it’s about this. Again. Why do you have problem with me flirting? You do it all the time!”

Satoru stopped too, and rolled his eyes. “I don’t flirt with anyone I see. Besides, we’re in hurry here?!”

“Whatever.” Suguru replied, and they started walking again, only stopping when something caught their eyes.

An hour later, they were done buying gifts for Haibara—Suguru bought him a mug, accompanied with a tiny puppy doll, while Satoru bought a white T-Shirt with cats on it. They ended up buying things for themselves too. Suguru bought a book he wanted for some time, and Satoru bought sweets (to no one’s surprise) that he ate on the way. These said, they were done with buying. Just as they were walking toward the exit door, Suguru stopped.

“What?”

“Ah, can you wait for me? I’ve gotta buy something.” Suguru said, as he entered the store he’d stopped in front of. Satoru didn’t notice the store, and made his way to exit door, waiting outside of the mall for his friend, with bags in his hand.

Minutes later, when Satoru was bored to death, Suguru finally came with a new, small bag in his hand. The white-haired man eyed the bag and then his friend, “What did you buy?”

“You’ll see.”

“Eh?”

He didn’t push him—it was hot and his mood was a little sour because of the ‘flirting’ incident. Some times later, they arrived at school and went to their separate rooms so they could start dressing—Haibara’s party was going to start about two hours later, and since his dad’s home was a little far from the school, it would take them some time to arrive, not to mention that they were going to pick Nanami up and go there all together—they lived in the same place, after all.

Satoru finished dressing up and was brushing his white hair when the door opened. “Come in,” he said to Suguru (who could it be beside him?) and the other man entered the room with a box in his hand.

“You ready?” Satoru asked, still looking at the mirror and working on his hair.

“Yeah. Here,” Suguru said and showed the box he was holding to Satoru, who had turned to look at him.

“What’s this?” The white-haired boy asked curiously.

“Take it. It’s the thing I bought alone.”

“Huh? You want me to open it?” Satoru asked. “Well, who am I to reject?” he took the box from his friend and opened it.

“What’s this?” he gasped.

“Glasses. I thought you could use it tonight.”

“Glasses… for me?” Satoru looked at the open box in his hands again. There was black sunglasses with round frame in it, the lenses were pitch black, just like the one Satoru usually used, but its shape was somehow cooler and more beautiful. He looked at Suguru, “Thank you. I’ll make sure I show it off to everyone tonight!” and that was exactly what he did.

“Do you like my glasses? Nanami-kun, you see it right? Suguru gave it to me!” Satoru said, clinging to Nanami and bringing his face closer so he could see what he was talking about.

“Yes, I did see. It’s the fifth time you’re showing it.” Nanami said with a roll of his eyes. “Just—go away and bother someone else. Okay?”

Satoru seemed to consider this option for a moment, but then smiled again, “But Nanami-kun! Your reactions are the best~” Nanami frowned at the. “Gojo-san, please don’t.”

“Only if you call me senpai.”

“No,” Nanami replied firmly.

“But I’m older than you! And much better and stronger!”

Nanami looked at him with a tired ‘is this it?’ look in his eyes. In the end, he said again, “No.”

“Why can’t you be like Yuu-kun a little? Ain’t that right, Yuu-kun?” Satoru asked Haibara who was coming their way. He them seemed to remember something, “Oh, Yuu-kun! What do you think about my glasses?”

Haibara looked at his eyes (or rather, looked at his glasses), “It’s cool! And… new! You haven’t used it before, am I right?” Satisfied with the question, Satoru grinned cheekily. “Suguru bought it for me!” hearing this, Haibara’s eyes lit up. He replied excitedly, “He did? It’s so cool!! Use it well, senpai!”

“I will, I will.” He turned to Nanami, “See? That’s the best reaction, you can let him teach you sometimes.”

“But isn’t he your favorite son?”

Satoru’s eyes shone with a teasing light, “Oh? Nanami-kun, are you jealous? There is no need to get jealous, I love both of you!~”

Nanami looked really tired of this shit. He took a deep breath, “Will you please leave me alone, Gojo-senpai?”

Satoru stared at him dumb-founded for a moment—it was the first time Nanami had called him senpai, and it didn’t matter that it was all for the sake of shutting him up. So he grinned, “Of course, senpai will go away now. Anything my precious Nanami-kun asks for!” he really did go away—he wanted to let Suguru know the breaking news about Nanami calling him senpai.

Haibara’s place wasn’t that big or fancy, and he was able to find Suguru with a quick glance at the balcony. With a glass of juice in his hand, he walked toward the balcony’s door and entered it. Soon, the coldness if outside hit his cheeks. “You’re outside?” Satoru asked, looking at Suguru beside him. It wasn’t a very big balcony, it had just enough space for three or four people, and thus there wasn’t much of space between them.

“Yeah, it was getting a little warm inside.”

“Yeah… Oh, Suguru! You have to know this!” Suguru looked at him as he continued, “Nanami called me senpai! Gojo-senpai!”

“He did?”

“He did!” he sighed dramatically, “They grow up so fast…”

“You do realize that they aren’t really our children, right?”

They both laughed at this, and after that neither of them talked. There was a comfortable silence between them when Suguru started talking, “the glasses look good on you. I’m glad I bought them.”

“They do, don’t they?” Satoru grinned sheepishly. He was going to say something else, but was stopped when Suguru’s hand reached his face and took off the glasses.

“What—”

“They look good on you,” Suguru repeated, looking straight into his blue eyes. “But I like your eyes better. They… they’re like the sky.”

Satoru seemed taken aback. After a moment, the only thing he could let out was a helpless ‘oh’, and after that the silence came back again.

A bit later, Suguru put the glasses back on. With his fingers brushing against Satoru’s face he frowned, “Satoru?” Do you have a fever?”

“Huh?”

“Your face is a bit red and hot. Did you catch a cold?”

Satoru looked at him, looking for a hint of amusement in his eyes but he was dead serious—he had mistaken his blush with a… fever.

“No, don’t worry. It’s—it’s probably because it was hot inside,” he managed to say.

“Okay, if you say so.”

“Even my birthday party…” Haibara said after Satoru finished talking. He really didn’t know if he should laugh or cry—and was taken aback when he heard Nanami’s laughter. Satoru huffed. Nanami rarely laughed, and now he had managed to make him laugh. With his own misery.

Nanami didn’t stop laughing to the point that tears could be seen in his eyes, but eventually calmed down. “You really are hopeless. I didn’t except Getou-senpai to be… to be this…” another wave of laughter came, and Satoru, with his head in his hands, completed his sentence: “this clueless, this oblivious. He’s in another level!”

“So, what did you do after that, senpai? My birthday party was last month—did anything else happened?” Haibara asked.

“Oh, you know. After the shirt incident I figured out he isn’t going to notice even if I directly confessed to him. So I just kept flirting—or trying to flirt, at this point.”

“Shirt incident?” Nanami asked curiously, probably looking for more reasons to laugh at Satoru. Upon remembering it, Satoru looked gloomy. “Don’t even mention it.”

ACT FOUR — THE SHIRT INCIDENT

It was a normal night. They went out to do the mission Yaga-sensei had handed them, and currently were on the way back to school.

“Are you coming to my room tonight?” Satoru asked out of nowhere.

“Is the new episode out?”

“Yes, I guess so.”

“Then yes, I’ll be coming.”

“Hmmm…” Satoru thought for a moment, “Maybe we should buy snacks?” without snack it isn’t a movie night.”

“Don’t you have so many of them stored in your room?” Suguru asked, looking at him.

“Oh, didn’t I? Until a certain someone ate it all.”

“Oh?” Suguru raised an eyebrow. “Do I know him?”

Huh, so he was going to play? Bold of him to assume Satoru wouldn’t play along. “And how are you so sure it was a ‘him’? And not a ‘her’?” Suguru smirked in response. “As if anyone would come in that room of yours, let alone girls.”

“Again, that doesn’t stop a certain someone.”

“And who’s that lucky person?”

“You don’t know? He’s a dumb jerk with long black hair and pierced eyes.”

“Woah,” Suguru made a whistle, “This guy sounds pretty familiar. Have I ever met him? He’s cool.”

“Wait a minute,” Satoru said, opening his phone’s front camera and holding it in front of Suguru’s face. Under the dim light of the street lights, the other boy’s face could be seen clearly. Satoru continued, “It’s him, you’ve probably seen him in the mirror.”

They stared at each other with blank faces for a moment, before bursting into a loud laughter.

“Market then?” Suguru asked between his laughter.

“Market.”

Half an hour later, they were back at Satoru’s room. As they placed the newly bought snacks on the mattress of his bed, he asked, “Why is it that it’s always my room? Why not yours?” Suguru, who had just returned from his room after changing into pajamas, shrugged. “’dunno. Yours is better, isn’t it?” and sat on the bed, waiting for Satoru to bring his laptop so they can start watching. With a roll of his eyes, Satoru sat beside him with the laptop in his hands.

“Move aside.”

After Suguru moved a little, he put the laptop between them, and played the movie.

Somewhere between the long episode, Satoru looked up at Suguru. With his long, black hair open and his eyes focused on the screen, he looked somehow unreal under the dim light of Satoru’s laptop. He remembered the sound of his laughter from earlier, and felt his face getting warm and warmer—just like his chest. He stared at him for so long that the other boy actually noticed. Suguru paused the video and turned to him, “Is there something on my face?”

“No? Why?”

“You’re staring at me.”

Satoru coughed—of course he’d notice. He’s a fighter, after all. He’d notice these things. He shrugged and replied, “Is that shirt new? I don’t think I’ve seen you wear it?” hearing this, Suguru looked down at his shirt. “Oh? Yes, you noticed!”

“Hmm.” Satoru hummed as Suguru played the video that was on pause to watch the rest of it, but he couldn’t focus on it any more. Instead, he looked back at his friend. After thinking for a short moment he began, “Suguru?”

“Yes?” the other boy replied without taking his eyes from the screen.

“I really wish I could pull that shirt of yours off.” He said casually, staring at Suguru.

“You really like it that much? I’ll give it to you later.”

“No,” Satoru explained, “I want to pull it off right now.”

“Come on, then what would I wear?”

“That’s the point, Suguru.”

“Wait a minute,” Suguru said, this time actually pausing the video (again) and turning to Satoru to face him. “You like this shirt so much that you don’t have a problem with me being naked and cold?”

Without saying anything, Satoru just stared at him in silence, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on inside that (pretty) head of his. When the man in question quirked a brow, waiting for his reply, he finally said, “Yeah, never mind. You’re right—you’d catch a cold.”

They spent the rest of the night watching movie without another… distraction.

At present, Satoru looked at his two kouhais and sighed. “It’s okay.” This one sentence was enough for Nanami and Haibara to start laughing.

“I can’t believe—I can’t believe it!” Haibara said between his laughter, not even trying to hide it.

“Your match is truly made in heavens. Dumb and dumber.” Nanami said.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough. I wanted some advice from you two…”

“You said you started flirting with him, right?” Haibara began, “How did that go?”

“Huh. What do you think?” Satoru sighed (again). “I touch him a lot more and he…” he shook his head, “oblivious.”

Haibara looked at him again and upon seeing he really was upset, patted him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, senpai! Maybe you should just do it!” Nanami nodded in agreement.

“Maybe I should…” Satoru replied.

Saying it was much, much easier than doing it. He wanted to do it, he really did, but it seemed it never was the right time. And every time he’d tell himself ‘damn the right time’ and wanted to talk about it, something would happen, to the point that he was starting to believe that maybe the universe hated him that much. Like this, another week passed.

Walking out of class, Satoru was thinking about confessing. Should he do it now? Or beside these vending machines? Should he press Suguru to the wall? But Suguru was physically stronger, wasn’t he? List in his thoughts, he didn’t hear the other boy talking, and at the mention of his name he suddenly turned his head.

“—Satoru?” Suguru asked while re-doing his long hair. Satoru just stared as he pulled his long hair into a pony tail, and couldn’t help but notice how fine he looked with his hair open. Or how strong his hands seemed—well, he exactly knew how strong they were, as in he’d seen him punch curses and people alike with his hands before.  He sighed, “You look good with your hair open. Why don’t you try it?”

Suguru looked at him like he had another head attached to his neck or something. “..Satoru? Did anything happen?”

Satoru fixed his glasses. “No? Why do you ask?”

“This week you’ve been acting a little weird is all.”

“Oh? I don’t think so. I’ve always been like this, right?” He said, throwing his hand behind Suguru’s back and pulling the other boy forward with himself. “What were you saying, by the way?”

The other boy sighed. “I was asking if the new episode is out.”

“The new episode? Oh. Yes, it is. Want to watch it tonight?”

“Yup.”

“We go to store then?”

“Of course.”

‘The Store’ was a store near the school that they’d go almost every day to buy junk food and stuff from it. The employees were all familiar with them by now. Every now and then they’d give them a small thing (a pack of gum, or a candy) for their good looks.

Satoru turned to his friend, “You’re gonna buy cheese and ketchup, right?”

“I don’t even like cheese and ketchup, Satoru. What about chili? Or plain?”

Satoru rolled his eyes, “C’mon, plain is for basic bitches. If you get chili and cheese I’ll get your favorite ice cream.” With a hum of agreement from Suguru, he went to ice cream section to pick Suguru’s mint chocolate flavored ice cream.

Sitting on his bed, he looked at the ice cream box with a disgusted look. “I still don’t know why do you like this so much. It’s just like eating a damn toothpaste! I have a mint flavored toothpaste, I can lend it to you and you can put it on a chocolate.”

Suguru, already used to this kind of comments, came with a chip in his hand. “You bought it for me anyways and I’m the one eating it, so shut it. Let’s watch already.” He sat beside Satoru, and waited for him to play the video. They watched the show in silence, only the sound of chips cracking under Satoru’s teeth could be heard.

When the male-lead looked at the girl he liked, Suguru couldn’t help but make a comment. “He’s so goddamn obvious. He’s pretty good, too, do you think she’ll date him?” he looked to Satoru, waiting for a response.

“Mm, I don’t know… but I would do it with you. Dating, I mean.” Satoru replied absently.

“What.”

“What.”

It took him a moment to realize what did he just said, and the moment he did his head started making loud alarms, yelling at how stupid he was. Well, though it had a point, it was all done for good now. He couldn’t take it back, could he? Without saying anything, he waited silently for Suguru to say smoothing. After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke. “Did you just… flirt with me?”

“I kinda asked you out, but you can count it as flirting. I’ve been doing it for months, though,” Satoru replied coolly.

“…oh.”

ACT FIVE — SUGURU

Dating his best friend wasn’t something Suguru would think about a lot, but he did sometimes. And it was normal, right? To wonder what your best friend would do on a date, or how holding his hands would be like, how his lips would taste. But then started to feel something in his chest doing backflips whenever Satoru’s blue eyes looked at him, or when he was laughing or just smiling. He tried to ignore it, but it was hard to not notice the change in his feelings. He was not stupid nor oblivious to his own feelings, and acting stupid was pretty hard for a pretty smart person. Besides, the warmth within him wasn’t something he could simply deny.

When he heard Satoru talking about dating him, his brain just stopped functioning for a moment. To be honest, it’d stop functioning whenever Satoru was around.

It looked like his silence was getting a little bit too long, cause Satoru called him nervously.

“Suguru?”

And just this, hearing his name was enough to make his brain work again. “Ah. I didn’t realize you were… flirting.”

Satoru smiled, but there was a little nervousness mixed in it that Suguru could recognize without any effort. “Huh, yes, I figured it out myself.” Suguru smiled helplessly in response, and silence once again filled up Satoru’s dark room.

“So—”

“Do you—”

They both started at the same time. “You go first,” Suguru said. He wasn’t even sure what did he want to say.

“So, do you, um—like me… back?” Satoru asked, not meeting his eyes.

“Like you back.”

“Yes. Like, you know, going on dates? Holding hands? Maybe kissing? Liking back.” The white-haired boy explained, a light blush spreading on his light skin. Suguru took a deep breath. “I think… I do.”

The two of them looked at each other in silence, both of their faces burning. Satoru leaned closer and whispered, “Is this okay?”

Suguru looked into his eyes, lighten up by the long forgotten laptop in the bed, and leaned in to press his lips on Satoru’s.

It was a simple kiss. Satoru’s lips were soft and warm, and they felt so good on his that he didn’t want to move them even an inch. He didn’t care if a kiss was supposed to be more than just a touch of lips or not. After looking a minute or two, he backed and took a deep breath. He eyed Satoru—his face completely red, his eyes meeting his. He looked so beautiful like this, Suguru thought to himself, and then said it out load: “You’re… beautiful like this.”

“Like this?” Satoru asked, and for this, Suguru himself didn’t have a real answer. So instead, he closed the distance between them and whispered against the other boy’s soft lips, “I think I want to kiss you some more.”

FINAL ACT — SATOSUGU

The thing about dating your best friend is that, nothing changes between you. Not that much, at least. Sure, there were kissed now. And hand holding. But overall, it was just like it always has been—them being together. This is what Satoru thinks as they enter the store, with their kouhais accompanying them. He growled, “Again, why are you to following us?” Nanami looked at him, “Count it as a payment for listening to you simping over Getou-senpai.”

“C’mon now! Don’t say it like that!”

Haibara patted Nanami’s back to stop him from answering, “He’s kidding, Gojo-senpai! We’re here to celebrate you finally dating Getou-senpai!” Satoru smiled sheepishly at this and tightened his hold on Suguru’s hand.

“Well, when you put it that way…”

It was the same shop Suguru brought him to that day. They became regulars after their first tome, the pastries were the best and Satoru really liked them. The waitress —her name Aki, they found out later—called them ‘the strongest duo’ just for fun. (of course she had no idea what a nightmare they were for curses). As they sat at a table, he could see the pink-haired woman walking toward them with a smile.

“Oh, is this the strongest duo I see here? I see you’ve brought your friends, too?”

“Aki-chan! They’re our children, we’re having a family time here!” Satoru said, ignoring the way Nanami smacked his forehead in annoyance. Haibara smiled, “Hello miss, we’re not actually their children (Satoru whined in the background, leaning toward Suguru and saying something like ‘they’re abandoning us’), we’re here to celebrate their relationship!”

Aki raised a brow and looked at them, and then to Satoru expectedly. “Last time I checked they were ‘best friends’ or ‘the one and only’?”

Suguru smirked and showed their joint hands. “Well, you can add ‘boyfriends’ to it now.”