Chapter Text
He’s not sure how it happened. One second, Chifuyu, Takemichi, Angry and Hakkai were sharing lunch in some playground, and the next, they’re watching a few kids get harassed by some pathetic excuses for delinquents.
Now in their last year of high school, with Angry long graduated, being the oldest of their group, it means their Toman days are long behind them. The gang disbanded after what they started referring to as the Baji-incident, though the people who weren’t there still whisper about Bloody Halloween.
Despite that, their fighting spirits never really left them, still ready to burst out at a moment’s notice. Takemichi’s mostly symbolic, of course, but that was neither here nor there. Point being, seeing some lame idiots gang up on a few helpless kids got them all hyped in the face of a potential fight to join.
“Let’s give them a moment,” Hakkai says, leaning back on the bench. “See if they can handle it themselves and if not, we’ll step in.”
Chifuyu nods. “Yeah, I would’ve hated it at that age if some older guys just stepped in without giving me the chance to prove myself.”
“Should it come down to it,” Angry says, “let me take care of it, okay? You guys had a long day in school, so please take a moment to relax.”
Chifuyu starts to protest, but gets silenced by the scowl on Angry’s face. There’s no malice behind it, but it does get the point across. He sags against the bench, too, mirroring Hakkai, and watches the fight unfold.
It’s impressive for a moment, watching one of the younger guys get a punch or two in, but then the older ones take the boy in somewhat of a chokehold. Before they get a chance to gang up on the little kid, Angry is rolling his shoulders and getting up.
He looks back with a frown. “Stay put, you guys. I’ve got this.”
And he goes. Angry swoops in before a single punch is thrown, easily taking on the older guys. From next to Chifuyu, Takemichi sighs. “He’s so cool. I wish I could fight like that. Isn’t he cool, Chifuyu?”
Chifuyu frowns a little and sits up more, watching Angry easily move around the bullies. He is cool, and it’s not like he’s never noticed that before, but somehow, on that day, the sunlight seems to reflect a little more off of blue hair. Not just that, Angry is wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt, putting his arms on full display. Chifuyu loses himself for a moment, watching muscles move under tan skin, flexing with each punch and relaxing again as Angry easily dodges the fists thrown his way.
Apart from a very short-lived crush on Baji, Chifuyu had never found himself in love before. Looking at Angry beating up six guys who dared lay a finger on some small kid from around the neighborhood, he’s not sure how he missed the absolute magnetism of the blue-haired boy.
And well, blame his manga or his enormous addiction to romance, because from that moment on, watching Angry stick up for the little man like some knight in shining armor, Chifuyu is smitten.
Sure, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight—they’d been friends for years—but really, it feels like he is seeing Angry for the very first time, so he allows himself to think of it that way regardless.
Gathering up all of his courage, because damn it, courage is a great plan and Takemichi was just a fool, he makes his way over to where Angry’s fanning his hands, signature scowl back on his face.
“Hey.” Before Chifuyu can think twice about the bold move he’s about to make, he reaches out to grab both of Angry’s bruised fists in his hands. “Lemme help fix you up, huh?”
Dragging off Angry to his house had seemed like a great idea. Truly. There’s a first-aid kit and his parents are almost never home, so he wouldn’t have to explain the crying boy Chifuyu was dragging along, and well, maybe the promise of being alone had played into his decision.
Absolute fool he is, Chifuyu forgot all about the messy eater Peke J is, dragging kibble all over his bedroom floor, and he forgot all about his terrible habit of leaving clothes all over his bed and most of all, he forgot about how incredibly nerve-wracking it is to have a boy over for the first time.
“Yeah… So… room.” Stupid. He cringes at his complete lack of eloquence and rushes over to sweep his clothes off the bed. “Please. Sit… down?”
Angry, frowning down at his fists, obediently does so. It’s strange, the stark contrast between his facial expression and the soft voice he speaks in when he says, “Thank you, Chifuyu.”
“Stay put. I’m gonna grab the… the thing.”
He’s an incredibly stupid fool. When Chifuyu is safely hiding away in the bathroom, he’s sure to point at himself in the mirror and whisper, “You loser ass coward baby. Get it together.” He slaps at his face a little. “This is Angry! You know Angry! He is a friend! Be normal!” Shooting his reflection another warning glare, he grabs the first-aid kit and makes his way back to where Angry is waiting.
He can do this!
He cannot do this.
Angry, instead of staying put, has found his way to the window where Peke J is napping, softly stroking the cat’s little head. When Chifuyu walks in, he looks up and grimaces. “I’m sorry. You told me to stay put… He’s too sweet, though.”
“Yeah.” Chifuyu smiles, and like the absolute embarrassment he is, finds himself fucking up completely when he adds, “you sure are.”
“Huh?” Angry frowns a little, but Chifuyu cannot find it in himself to speak again, so they stare at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time. Angry, most likely an angel, eventually points to the first-aid kit and asks, “Do you… Can you…”
Chifuyu looks from Angry to the kit he’s holding, nodding his head along and cursing himself the entire time while he walks up to Angry, pointing him to his bed again.
Vowing to never speak again, Chifuyu wordlessly takes Angry’s hands and carefully goes about cleaning the cuts. He keeps his eyes firmly focused on what he’s doing, sure that if he looked up now, he would die. A sad death, next to Angry, like the sad, stupid teenager he is.
“You’re so gentle…” says the softest voice Chifuyu is sure he’s ever heard, and okay, maybe he does look up then, which is a mistake, because Angry isn’t frowning. He isn’t exactly smiling, it’s more of a neutral expression, but it’s the prettiest Chifuyu’s ever seen him look. It’s a completely unbiased opinion, not tainted by hormones or years of reading the sappiest stories he could get his hands on at all, should anyone ask.
He finds himself completely frozen under Angry’s gaze, and in the smoothest way he can think of, decides to steer the conversation in a different direction. “D’you have a girlfriend, Angry?”
Wonderful, really. Chifuyu can feel himself go pale and sort of wishes he could get up, change his name, move countries and for good measure, maybe move planets, too.
Before Angry can either answer or murder him on the spot, he jumps up from the bed to hold up his hands. “I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” After that charming little outburst, Chifuyu squeezes his eyes shut and begs to be woken up from the nightmare he’s currently in.
Instead of violence, something Chifuyu thinks he would have deserved, Angry softly asks, “are you okay?” And once Chifuyu opens his eyes, can see that he is looking at him with a somewhat worried expression. “You sort of… flipped out on me a little there, Chifuyu.”
He makes a mental note to never tell Baji or Mikey or Takemichi or anyone of this day, before answering, “I’m sorry… I’m being stupid. It’s… I don’t know why I’m being like this, we’ve been friends for ages. I’m sorry.” Plopping down next to Angry, he puts his head in his hands. “Can we just… Pretend this never happened and play video games or something?”
“Please, don’t apologize.” Is that a snicker coming from Angry? Chifuyu lifts his head to glare up at him. “It’s… Fine? We can play video games, if you want… But I’m not sure my fingers are gonna be nimble enough.” To emphasize that point, Angry wiggles his fingers in front of Chifuyu’s face, nudging him a little with his shoulder.
“Right.”
Another incredibly awkward silence. Chifuyu is just about to get up so he can throw himself out the window when Angry speaks up again. “Hey, so I heard that bruises heal quicker when someone kisses them.”
Before Chifuyu can really process what Angry just said, two fists are raised and held up to his face. “Huh?”
“Chifuyu…”
“What are you…” Feeling more stupid than he’s ever felt, Chifuyu keeps staring at the hands Angry is holding up. He’s sure he was just spoken to, but words don’t really seem to process.
“Chifuyu.” Angry just waves his hands a little.
“I really don’t know what you…”
“Chifuyu. Kiss it better.”
With a frown, Chifuyu looks down at Angry’s hands, and yeah. Complete gay panic. He’s not entirely sure how long he stays like that, but once he does unfreeze, Angry is still holding up his hands, patiently awaiting the end of Chifuyu’s stupid, little crisis.
Not wanting to keep the patient boy next to him waiting any longer, Chifuyu carefully takes the bruised hands and presses a kiss to each of them, blushing up to his roots the moment his lips make contact with Angry’s skin.
To make absolutely sure they’re on the same page, because Chifuyu is not about to fuck up having a boy in his room (Baji, Kazutora and Takemichi, for the record, do not count) and then fuck up a friendship, too, he asks, “no homo?”
Angry groans at that, pulling his hands back, and yeah, Chifuyu has definitely managed to fuck up very spectacularly. “You need to stop hanging around Baji, Chifuyu.” Angry sighs, before turning to Chifuyu and raising an eyebrow. “Yes homo.”
And really, Chifuyu cannot be upset in the slightest that he will probably never live this down. Not when Angry smiles the first of many smiles after that.
It’s like something straight out of a movie, when a few days later, Angry is waiting for Chifuyu after school. He had graduated two years ago, and while the age difference is something Chifuyu never considered, it feels a little exciting, maybe, to have a scowling, older guy waiting on him. He looks so cool, too, leaning against the gate with a heavily printed jacket.
He feels his heart swell and blood rush to his cheeks as Angry notices him and gives a small wave. Takemichi and Hakkai, the most annoying friends in the universe, are shoving him around a little, wolf whistling.
At least the two idiots have the common sense to keep walking as Chifuyu stops in front of Angry, smiling shyly. “Hey.”
“Hey, Chifuyu.” He is still frowning, but Chifuyu notices the corner of his mouth twitch up a little. “Are you busy right now?”
“Not at all,” he breathes out, flushing when Angry takes a hold of his hand to drag him along.
It’s the first of many dates, and for the record, he is sure to confirm that they are indeed dates and not friendly hangouts.
Angry holds his hand over the table of some restaurant. On another day, they bump shoulders when Angry is explaining some math issue Chifuyu is struggling over.
The highlight of their little dates comes after a month, when they are saying their goodbyes at the door. Angry seems to hesitate for a moment before he quietly says, “I really like you, Chifuyu, and I think I want to be more than your friend.”
For a moment, all he can do is stare at Angry with wide eyes. When he starts to fidget a bit, looking unsure and slightly panicked, Chifuyu is reminded that he actually needs to say something. “I really like you, too,” he manages, swallowing thickly.
It’s not exactly the romantic confession of a lifetime, but it’s fine, because Angry smiles at him a little. It’s enough to have Chifuyu flushing, heart racing against his ribcage.
That day, for the first time, they hug, and while Chifuyu was sort of expecting their first kiss, too, he’s glad when Angry only presses a soft kiss to his cheek. It’s for the best, because a real kiss might’ve ended him right then and there, heart still beating way too fast after their little confession.
Chifuyu is sure that being in love with Angry is the best thing he’s ever experienced and will ever experience. Surely, nothing can beat holding hands with Angry, and sharing food with Angry, and laying on the floor reading manga with Angry.
He’s more than happy to get caught up in the thrills of young love with his new boyfriend. So happy, in fact, that Chifuyu sort of forgets the fact that after a month, they have yet to kiss.
Maybe Angry is the type to want to take things slow and really, Chifuyu is okay with that.
Until he isn’t.
They’re laying on the floor, Chifuyu with his head on Angry’s stomach. His boyfriend is playing some sort of flashy game on his phone with one hand and using the other to gently pet Chifuyu’s hair. And while it’s very nice like that, it’s getting harder and harder to stay focused on the manga he’s been trying to read for the past half hour.
“Hey, Angry?” Chifuyu keeps his attention on his book, feigning casualness. “How do you feel about kissing? In general.”
At the sound of a curse, he looks up just in time to see Angry drop his phone on his own face and scramble to pick it up, blushing red. Not for the first time, Chifuyu is lost in how incredibly adorable Angry is.
“Kissing is… great.” Angry, now in possession of his phone again, keeps his glare on the ceiling. “Why?”
Chifuyu frowns at that. It sort of makes the whole situation a little worse and somewhere deep in his soft, teenage heart, insecurity starts to make its presence known. “Oh.” He clicks his tongue, trying to think of the best response. In his mind, he’s got a perfectly eloquent reply to Angry’s question, but of course, it comes out as, “so do you just not wanna kiss me, then?”
Wonderful as always. He could slap himself, but maybe, that’d just make him look more stupid. When he looks at his boyfriend’s face again, he’s surprised to see there’s no longer any hint of anger. He can’t quite place the look, but maybe it’s close to sadness.
“What makes you say that?” Angry nearly whispers. “Of course I… wanna kiss you…”
That’s just confusing. Chifuyu pushes himself up to turn and look at Angry’s face. They both stay silent for a moment, until that becomes unbearable and he can’t stop himself from asking, “So, why haven’t we?”
Angry sits up then, too. He’s frowning a little again. “Well… I tried to kiss you that one time, and then you turned your head away so I… thought you were maybe not interested in that just yet.”
“What?!” Chifuyu digs through his memories and when he can’t find the situation that’s being thrown at him at all, wildly flails his arms around while spluttering a bit. “When?!”
“When we were sitting under that tree?” Angry grabs his arms to stop the flailing. “I leaned in and then you… suddenly looked the other way.”
Oh. He does remember that. Chifuyu considers slapping himself again, because while he does not remember the boy he’s been wanting to kiss for a month now leaning in, he does remember seeing a lot of cute cats that day. Especially the mother cat and her tiny baby while they were sitting there under the tree. “I might have been… distracted by cats.”
They look at each other wide-eyed again, and just when Chifuyu is sure that he’s getting broken up with, Angry lets out a soft laugh and shakes his head. “You’re so cute.” Then, with a small grin, he scoots forward a little. “C’mere, you big dummy.”
Another moment of silence as Chifuyu just stares at him. He should move, he really should, but in the face of getting what he’s been dreaming of for quite some time now, he finds himself a little frozen and maybe, a little more stupid than how he started off the day. Not for the first time since dating Angry, he finds himself saying, “huh?”
Angry, the absolute angel, just shakes his head again and leans forward to grab the sides of Chifuyu’s face. “You’re impossible.” He frowns, before leaning in more and pressing their lips together.
On Chifuyu’s end, having his boyfriend (boyfriend!) kiss him after a month is maybe a bit too much to deal with. He takes a second too long to adjust, because Angry is leaning back again with a frown and that’s surely not what’s meant to happen here. Cursing at himself, he follows him and grabs Angry’s shirt. It’s not the most gentle of kisses when he nearly slams their lips together again, but with Angry letting out a surprised sound against his lips, maybe it’s perfect in a way only they can appreciate.
Gentle pecks in between meetings and hang-outs with the rest of their friends are great, and Chifuyu is sure that they might be his favorite thing in the entire world. But then, one day, Angry presses in a bit more, moves his head to the side, and well, that might be Chifuyu’s new, favorite thing.
He has kissed people before. Kazutora, on a dare, and before that, Baji, on a whim. It’s so much better, though, kissing someone he’s actually in love with.
Of course, they still watch movies, read manga and play video games together, but really, they’re teenagers, so any time they have to spare, they spend tangled around each other on either one of their beds.
Over the course of a couple of months, Chifuyu has learned to keep some of his composure during their make-outs. For every time Angry pulled him in closer, he managed to keep it together a little more. It pays off, months of counting to ten and getting used to wandering hands as they push the boundaries of their unspoken agreement of not taking things too far.
Still, they’re teenagers, barely on the cusp of entering into adulthood, and it’s really hard to keep that agreement in mind when Angry gasps out against his lips when Chifuyu gently tugs on his hair and it’s even harder when Angry digs his thumb into the hollow of Chifuyu’s hip bone, and sure, maybe it doesn’t technically count as ‘taking it slow’ when a hand grabs at the back of his leg to swing it over Angry’s hip, and Chifuyu might actually lose his mind like this.
Trying to ground himself at least a little, he tightens his hold on soft, blue hair, and that makes Angry groan against his lips. Chifuyu feels himself flush down to his chest, and just when he’s sure his body temperature can’t rise any more, Angry grabs the back of his leg more tightly, still swung over his hip, and rolls onto his back, pulling Chifuyu along and well, maybe that is his favorite thing now.
“Is this okay?” Angry looks at him with those big eyes, and he’s sure nothing has ever been this okay.
“Fuck,” Chifuyu groans. His brain nearly short-circuits, straddling his boyfriend like this. “Yes. This is okay. Are you okay?” When Angry just nods, that’s his sign to tangle his fingers into soft hair again. Like that, he’s able to tilt Angry’s back a little. It’s the perfect angle and he doesn’t waste any time dragging his tongue against Angry’s lower lip. The reward for his boldness is instant — parting, eager lips let him in, one hand coming up to the back of Chifuyu’s neck and the other scrambling against his lower back, ripping the sweater loose from his jeans and running a hand across the skin there.
Maybe Chifuyu does lose his mind then, feeling Angry’s hand against his bare skin, cursing against his boyfriend’s lips and pressing in more to let their tongues slide against each other. It’s too much and not enough entirely, and just when Chifuyu is about to press his hips down experimentally, the door slams open and a voice interrupts, quite rudely. “Hey, bro, I- What the fuck!”
They both snap their heads around, staring at Smiley with wide eyes. Before either of them has a chance to speak, Smiley is yelling. “What the fuck is this!” He grips at his hair. “Get off him! Chifuyu! My eyes! What the fuck?!”
Chifuyu obeys, of course, scrambling off of Angry under Smiley’s gaze and sitting on the opposite side of the bed. Next to him, the younger brother sits up, too, and sighs. “Smiley, calm down, you’re being—”
“I will not calm down!” Smiley points a finger in their direction. “You didn’t tell me he was coming over!” He takes a few steps forward. “We agreed that you’d tell me, so I wouldn’t walk in on you guys, while he— he takes your innocence!”
“My innocence.”
“Your innocence!” Smiley narrows his eyes. “I’ll kill you for this. You first, Angry. I brought you into this world, and I will take you out of it.”
“Please. You’re being dramatic, Smiley.”
“My own brother!” he continues, still smiling widely. “Traumatizing me! I should’ve eaten you in the womb.”
Chifuyu holds up his hands, feeling the need to help out his poor boyfriend. “Smiley, please, it’s not that bad…”
“You!” He withers a bit under Smiley’s look. The eternal smile was already unnerving, but watching the older twin fix him with a stare of unbridled rage, smile still on his face, is infinitely scarier. “You don’t get to talk to me! I have a psychic twin connection with him, you know! He wasn’t enjoying that!”
“He doesn’t.” Angry sighs. “You don’t. And I did, Chifuyu. Can you please get out, bro?”
The older twin crosses his arms, staying in place and tapping his foot impatiently. “No.” He smiles a little again. “I don’t think I will.”
“Nahoya…” Angry slowly gets up, scowling at his brother. “Don’t make me do this.”
“Souya...” Smiley repeats in a mocking tone, grinning at his brother with clenched teeth. “Try me.”
Chifuyu sighs, letting himself fall back to the bed as the twins break out in a sort-of-good-natured scuffle. It goes on for quite some time, and it gives him the perfect chance to go through his chores and upcoming responsibilities for the week. He leans up a bit after he is sure his plans are, mentally, in order, wondering if he should help his boyfriend out.
Angry just got Smiley into a headlock, and really, it would be tiring to interfere, so Chifuyu drops his head down and spreads his arms out, trying to remember if he forgot about any homework.
At the slam of the door, he pushes himself up on his elbows again, grinning at his boyfriend’s scowl, an expression he’s quickly coming to love, as the other boy makes his way back over to the bed, asking, “so. Where were we?”