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Shirou had always been the type to check his clothes pockets before putting something in the washing machine, but while such a habit once came from paranoia, as he rarely forgot items in his pockets, now it was one of his more prudent habits on the days he was in charge of the laundry as he I was living with someone who often forgot to take things out of his pockets before putting dirty clothes in the hamper.
A selection of objects Shirou had found in his boyfriend's pockets over the past few years included: money, gum, condoms, candy wrappers, pens, buttons, cards, flash drives, and on a memorable occasion the Kenji's cell phone would have suffered from water damage if Shirou had thrown the entire laundry basket into the machine instead of diligently checking item by item.
And that day, like so many before, Shirou found something in one of Kenji's pockets. He stared at the object in question for a few seconds somewhat confused, before setting it aside and going back to the process of checking the rest of the clothes.
A few hours later, shortly after they finished dinner, Kenji got up to go wash the dishes, when Shirou said:
"Wait."
"Huh?" Kenji said.
"I found this in the pocket of one of the coats you put in the hamper."
Shirou said, placing the object on the table and sliding it towards Kenji. The object in question was a photo of Shiro when he was in high school, a photo he was pretty sure he hadn't brought into the apartment.
“Awnn thanks for saving the photo Shiro-san! I would have been so sad if it had been destroyed in the wash.”
"You're welcome. But where did you find this?”
Only then Kenji started to look guilty.
"I kind of asked your mom to send me a copy of your photo from your school album. Please don't be mad at me or her."
Shirou took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I think there's probably nothing wrong with that. But you didn't need to ask her, if you had asked me I would have given it to you."
"Really?"
When am I able to deny you anything you really want? Shirou thought.
"Yes."
"I'll keep that in mind next time."
"Anyway, why did you want this?"
“How could I not want to? You look so cute on it. Just looking at it warms my heart."
"I wasn't cute, I was regular looking."
“No way, you were the cutest boy that ever lived, I literally have the evidence in my hand now. Look! Ugh if I had known you back then I would have had a huge crush on you, and I would have always been around you dreaming of the day Shiro-senpai would notice me. But you wouldn't notice because I'm not ‘your type’ or whatever. And I would accept that and become your friend instead, because you were so nice that being your friend would be better than being nothing. But I would suffer so much spending years and years watching you go from boyfriend to boyfriend waiting for the day you woke up and saw that what you were looking for was in front of you all along."
"I didn't date anyone in high school, and hardly anyone in college."
“But you had crushes, didn't you? And I would be a good friend and listen to you talk about other boys and I would try to help you because I would want you to be happy even if it wasn’t with me, but I would die inside every time.”
Shirou couldn't help but laugh a little. Kenji was ridiculous at times. But he was also adorable, and most importantly he was his, and vice versa.
“I don't know, maybe if I had met you when I was young I would have realized much sooner that the kind of guy I thought I wanted isn't really the kind that would make me happy. Maybe it would have been six months of drama and just happiness from then on.”
“That…that…IS WORSE! Now you're making me envy this other Kenji. It's so unfair. Why can he have you for more twenty years than me?"
"You know this Kenji from this parallel world is something you made up in your head, right?"
"Imaginary or not, I still envy him."
“This is ridiculous, because first of all: he is imaginary. Second: he is imaginary. And third-"
"Let me guess: He's imaginary."
"No, what I was going to say is that you feeling envy of him is irrational because here and now we have everything those imaginary versions of us have, even if it took us a little longer to get here."
"Yes, I think we do." Kenji said sliding his hand to the middle of the table to find Shirou's.
For a moment they just stayed like that, enjoying each other's touch and presence.
"We should wash the dishes soon, it's getting late." Shirou said.
"Okay, let's go" Kenji said getting up, and putting Shirou's photo in his shirt’s pocket, the one closer to his heart.