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Touya glares at Hikaru as if Hikaru's done something wrong, which is incredibly unfair. Hikaru hasn't done anything to deserve being glared at. To double check, he looks down at himself. He's wearing shoes, jeans, a hoodie. His fan is sticking out of his hoodie pocket, because he'd been assuming they'd stop somewhere to play a game after the movie they're going to. There aren't any weird stains as far as he can see, and even if there were, it's hardly Touya's place to get all uppity about it, just because he's weird and chose to dress up all fancy for a movie.
"Stop looking at me like that," Hikaru groans, and glares right back.
For all that he likes Touya, he has an uncanny ability to piss Hikaru off.
"I'm not looking at you like anything," Touya says, and then, still glaring, pushes past Hikaru to head down to the trains. They'd met up at the station; there are still a few stops before they get to the shopping mall with the theater. Hikaru kind of hoped they could stop and grab ramen on the way in, but Touya is probably going to fight him on that.
Ugh, it'll be sushi again.
Not that Hikaru hates sushi, but they've gone to sushi the last two times they've gone out. He wants ramen. (And no, getting it yesterday with Yashiro does not count. Touya wasn't there.) But Hikaru, for better or worse, tends to give in when Touya asks for easy things. It's probably the guilt over still not telling him about Sai. Which Hikaru has been thinking about. It's just--how do you even approach a subject like that? It doesn't really help that the one time he tried, the words ended up sticking in his throat and he couldn't say a thing.
He'd avoided Touya for weeks, after.
Touya had been pissed.
The resulting massacre the next time they'd played had been demoralizing, really.
"You're looking at me like you're disappointed! I look fine! This hoodie is new! There aren't even any holes!"
"I'm not looking at you like you're a disappointment," Touya denies, crossing his arms as he comes to a stop on the platform where their train will be pulling up any minute. But then he ruins it by adding, "Do you always have to dress like a child?"
Hikaru can't help it; he raises his voice.
"It's better than dressing like an old man!"
"I'm not dressing like an old man! I'm dressed up, like a normal person!"
"What?" Hikaru yells, startled into it. His mouth falls open. "Dressed--I'm dressed like a normal person! You look like you're going to an interview!"
Touya's face goes red; Hikaru shouldn't get a kick out of it, but he does. He's the only one who can make Touya lose his cool, and it's a skill he cherishes. And cultivates. Often.
It's sort of validating. Touya thinks Hikaru is worth the argument, a sign that he thinks Hikaru is his equal. Hikaru can preen about it all he wants. Not that he preens, just. It's nice. Nobody ever used to believe him if he called Touya his rival, but now it's a well-known enough thing that Mr. Amano did a piece on it for Go Weekly, which was embarrassing but also really cool. Touya called him a skilled player. He said Hikaru was one of the best, that he'd be playing Hikaru for their entire careers and it would be a challenge each game.
So, yeah. Preening. And nobody should judge him, Waya.
Their train comes up, people surging forward to get on. Touya grabs Hikaru's hand and drags him onto the train, and to be polite, lowers his voice when he yells back, "I'm not going on an interview, I'm going on a date, and it's polite to dress nice!"
Hikaru blinks.
He turns left, and then right, and then looks at Touya again.
He blinks again.
"Date? You're going on a date? After our movie? When are you going on a date?"
Hikaru is honestly not sure how he feels about this. Touya doesn't date. It's not that he's not supposed to, it's just--he doesn't, because he's even worse than Hikaru and Hikaru at least finds time to do other things when he can. But--
Neither of them date. They play go.
Go is a full time job; there's no time for dating. There's barely time for ramen and sushi and video games and sometimes going to the movies or comic book stores. They don't date. Touya definitely doesn't date. That's--no. No, that's weird.
Touya bristles, his fingers going white against the train pole he's holding onto as the train starts moving. He speaks through his teeth, because it's rude to talk on the train and people are glancing at them, frowns on their faces, and Hikaru feels a small surge of pride that he is important enough that Touya is disregarding common courtesy to keep arguing with him. Try that, mystery date person.
"I'm going on a date right now, Shindou!"
Hikaru blinks again, and (he will regret this later) says, "What?" with confusion coloring his voice so much that he's sure question marks are popping up next to his head anime-style, to really illustrate the fact that he has no idea what's going on.
It takes another second for the reality of the situation to sink in, helpfully encouraged by the look of sheer mortification that slides over Touya's face.
Oh.
The movie.
The movie is the date.
Touya's date is the movie he's going to with Hikaru.
In hindsight, that makes more sense.
Hikaru blurts, "With me? You and me? Us? We're going on a date? Right now!?"
And okay, he may have said that a little loudly. The old lady sitting down across from him coughs pointedly, and Hikaru flushes and clamps a hand over his mouth. He'd apologize, but that'd involve opening his mouth again. Oh, man, he's the mystery date person. Him, Hikaru.
Since when has this been going on!?
How many dates have they been on!?
Why did Hikaru not know about them!?
Do you really have to dress up like an old man when you're going on a date? Hikaru is pretty sure that you do not, but he also has no experience with dating, re: the earlier monologue on they don't date, they play go. He guesses you are supposed to dress up sort of nice for professional games... but Hikaru, uh, doesn't so much do that.
He's going to be terrible at this.
He wants, more than anything, to turn around and say, Sai, what do I do? and get an answer. Even if Sai's advice would be something terrible, like telling him to wear something requiring white tabi. He makes a face just imagining it. No. He likes his jeans and his sneakers and his hoodies and Touya is just going to have to accept that.
Hikaru blinks again, staring at Touya who has gone tight-lipped and red-faced. He's staring at the window like it's murdered a cat, and Hikaru says, "Uh, does that mean you like me?" And then, because he's not a complete idiot, "Does that mean I like you?"
Oh, wait.
"I mean," and he moves in a little closer to avoid the glare from the old lady across from him, "obviously I like you. I just never thought about it. But it makes sense."
Touya hisses back, even quieter, "How does it make sense if you didn't even know we were dating, Shindou!?" Okay, his voice got louder toward the end there.
Hikaru grins and says, "I think about you all the time."
Touya says, hotly, "That doesn't mean--"
Hikaru interrupts, "I'm not kissing you on the train, but I'll do it after."
Touya sputters, and Hikaru slides his hand into Touya's free one. They'd been holding hands just a few minutes before, when Touya dragged him onto the train. It hadn't occurred to Hikaru to think about how warm Touya's hand is, how soft his fingers are, or how rough the tips are from playing go so often. It does now, like a switch has been flipped.
He wonders if Touya wants to skip the movie and go make out instead.
(The answer to that question is yes.)
(But they still play go after.)