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With how widespread Tsukasa’s popularity was throughout Japan, it came as no surprise that people would start speculating on his personal life. Especially about his love life. He was a rapidly growing well known celebrity after all, this was just the natural path that fame led to.
But people speculating on any aspect of his personal life made him incredibly uncomfortable. He should’ve seen it coming, but in all fairness, he hadn’t expected to blow up on such an extreme scale so quickly . Or become famous in the first place. He couldn’t exactly say that one was in his life plan. He expected to go into the boxing industry as a lower level athlete just to earn some extra cash on top of the several other jobs he was already working at the time, but it spiralled out of his control at some point that he had lost track of.
Why were people so interested in celebrities' lives, if you could even call him a celebrity? What was so interesting about it? Tsukasa could never understand the obsession. Perhaps these people were filling a void in their own hearts, a void that craved drama and scandal.
To summarise, the concept of such speculations on his life made Tsukasa immensely uncomfortable. He just wanted to have his own space and privacy without having to worry about the press on his back all the time. There were a lot of things he had to hide that he could not afford for the public to find out about.
Especially his love life.
It’s not that he was ashamed of it, of course not! Not in a million years. He was more than satisfied with the state of the romance aspect of his life right now. He just knew what the public are like about celebrity romance — drama, scandals, and most importantly, focused on heterosexuality.
That was quite literally the exact opposite of what he was.
He’d met Senku roughly a year ago now, and as cliche as it was, it had been love at first sight. He was in love with absolutely everything about his boyfriend, from his cocky self-assured personality, to how handsome he was, and how caring and loving he was beneath his inflated ego. He truly owed so much to Senku.
He just knew how the press would react if they found out that he’s gay, if they knew he has a boyfriend, a boyfriend whom he loves with all his heart. Tsukasa absolutely wants him to stay away from the light of the media. Senku doesn’t need that kind of stress in his life. It was difficult enough for Tsukasa to deal with it himself, he couldn’t imagine how hard it’d be for Senku if the public found out.
But thankfully, they were a good pair when it came to keeping secrets from others. They kept their relationship under wraps, where only their close friends and Senku’s father knew about their relationship. That was good enough for them, as neither of them were big fans of public gestures. They’d really like for it to stay that way for as long as possible.
Tsukasa had an interview today after his match. He had won said match of course, his long running title isn’t for nothing; he was undefeated, a king in the eyes of casual boxing fans and hardcore enthusiasts alike.
The interviews were rough, though— they always were. The journalists were always too pushy and tried to rush him into answers, and really, after a long day like a big fight, he just wanted to get a shower to rid him of the grime and sweat of a hard day of work and get back to his shoddy apartment and in his bed. Though, as of late, he’d found himself heading over to Senku’s apartment more often than not, and cuddling with his boyfriend until he fell asleep after his matches. He felt a lot less lonely now Senku was around.
Fuck. He’d forgotten he was in an interview on live television, and now he was smiling like an idiot while the journalist was asking him questions. There was no way around it, the woman asking immediately caught on, her expression changing to something of flirtatious interest.
“Is there a special someone on your mind, Shishio~?” she teased, and Tsukasa instantly wiped the smile off his face, shaking his head.
“There’s nothing I wish to disclose about my personal love affairs,” he stated simply, leaving it at that, and thankfully, the journalist moved onto her next question.
Tsukasa was utterly exhausted when he trailed himself back to Senku’s apartment. It was rather late at night by this point too, but Byakuya never seemed to mind — he’d basically taken the role of being Tsukasa’s father too at this point. Tsukasa definitely didn’t mind the thought of that. He was incredibly grateful for the man, and he wasn’t sure what he’d do without his support and kindness.
He grabbed the spare key from his jacket pocket and let himself into the apartment, knowing already that Senku would still be up. Closing the front door behind him softly, he took off his shoes and made his way to Senku’s room, knocking on the door carefully and waiting for the usual affirmative hum before he let himself in.
Senku was laid on his bed scrolling through his phone, which came as no surprise; it was one of his two usual positions in his room, either on his bed scrolling mindlessly through whatever he used on his phone, or at his desk on his computer, more often than not doing some sort of scientific research. Tsukasa set his things down by the doorway and sighed, going to lay down beside him and put his arm around him, his head buried in the crook of his neck.
“Rough day?” Senku asked, putting his phone down and hearing the hum of a yes in response. “Yeah, I don’t blame you. That interview was rough.”
Senku always watched his matches from home, silently cheering him on and giving Tsukasa more courage to keep fighting. He would be eternally grateful for the support his boyfriend gave him.
“I just wish people would stop prying into my personal life…” Tsukasa exhaled in defeat, knowing that realistically, that would never happen.
“I know,” Senku lowered his voice and ran his fingers through Tsukasa’s hair slowly, “don’t think about that right now. Get some rest. You did good out there today.”
Tsukasa melted at the praise, humming a satisfied little noise before closing his eyes, finding himself drifting off to sleep not even moments later.
Thankfully, it was a weekend, and it was his rest day from matches and training, which meant that he didn’t have to worry about getting up early. He could stay in bed and enjoy some well deserved relaxation after an incredibly long week.
But of course, Tsukasa could never actually have peace, apparently. He finally started to stir from his sleep at about noon, having slept for a good 12 hours, waking up feeling not exactly refreshed, but at least well rested. Senku was already awake next to him, just mindlessly scrolling through his phone once more, and Tsukasa took the opportunity to lean over and sleepily kiss his cheek, smiling at the reaction of surprise he got out of his boyfriend.
“Good morning, Senku,” he muttered softly, smiling up at him innocently in a plea for forgiveness.
“It’s afternoon, but I’m glad you slept well, at least,” he resumed to scrolling his phone after that, and Tsukasa leaned a little closer, curious to what he was doing, considering that he’d usually put his phone down once Tsukasa was awake and talking, noticing he was reading an article of some sort.
“What’s that?”
“The media is in flames over your interview yesterday,” Senku informed him as if it was the most casual thing in the world.
“ What ?” Tsukasa quickly sat up, feeling the anxiety already make itself at home in the pit of his stomach. “Why?”
“When that journalist asked you if you had anyone on your mind, people took how you responded as if you were hiding something from the press, I guess?” Senku shrugged, surprisingly okay with this whole situation despite how it involved him.
“That wasn’t the intention, and now I’m never going to hear the end of it—“
“Tsukasa,” came Senku’s voice— when did he get so close to him? “You’re thinking too much again. Just breathe for a minute. It’s gonna be fine. They’re not gonna find out.”
Tsukasa did his best to listen to the advice given to him, processing those words and spending the next few minutes taking deep breaths until his anxiety wasn’t clawing at his throat and was instead more of a hum in his brain and the pit of his stomach, more manageable.
The slowly fading feeling reminded him that he would do anything for this man.
“Thank you,” Tsukasa breathed out quietly after calming down. Senku just smiled in response, ruffling his hair and leaning against him a little bit.
“Things are gonna be fine, just clear it up if they bring it up again, yeah?” Senku tried to offer his advice, even if it wasn’t exactly the best, considering his lack of experience with the media. He was just a highschool scientist, afterall.
“I’ll do that,” Tsukasa managed a smile, going to wrap his boyfriend up in a cuddle, taking pride in how flustered the other got despite his lack of attempts to move away.
For now, this was his rest day. He didn’t have to worry, he could afford to take things slow. He could just lay in bed with Senku and not have a care in the world about what anyone else thought about them.
Of course they asked about it in his next interview. He wasn’t really sure why he was expecting that maybe they would avoid it despite how it’s been a hot topic lately.
This time, it was a TV appearance on a popular daytime show, his manager telling him it was obligatory despite his reluctance — something about becoming more relevant amongst the general public. Good for revenue, or something like that. Money things that Tsukasa really wished he didn’t have to pay attention to.
“So, Shishio, tell us! Is what everyone’s saying true?” the presenter started out, the welcoming smile on their face seeming more sinister, and also so incredibly fake that Tsukasa wondered if he was just smart enough to notice or the public were dumb enough to not, “is there a special someone you’re seeing?”
Tsukasa was at least prepared for the question this time: Don’t answer straight away, don’t take too long. Get straight to the point, but don’t be too serious about it. He had this in the bag.
“There isn’t anyone I’m seeing right now, unfortunately all my time is taken up by my training,” he said lightheartedly and gave a smile, fooling the public into believing his carefully constructed lie.
They fell for it of course, with some playful teasing being exchanged before the interview continued just as expected.
All according to plan. Thank god.
Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten too comfortable.
For some stupid reason, he failed to remember how the press didn’t care about privacy. He thought that maybe, he could get away with bringing Senku to one of his matches, just this once. He disguised himself upon entering the arena regardless, bringing Senku with him without anyone noticing the two of them slip inside. Of course, he couldn’t bring Senku any further with him when they reached his changing room, so they sneaked a kiss in before he was to head off to prepare for his match and for Senku to head to his seat, but then they heard the distinct click of a camera, enough to shock them away from each other, before hearing footsteps quickly running away before being able to catch a glance of who it was.
They slowly turned to each other, and shared the same look.
“Fuck.”
Tsukasa didn’t perform well in his match, to nobody’s surprise. He still won — he had to keep up the facade that it was all going good —, but his anxiety was making him so sick he felt like he would throw up at any point. Everyone noticed him falter, noticed his mistakes, hearing the confused murmur amongst the audience of why he wasn’t up to scratch.
They’d know, soon.
Everyone would know soon.
It didn’t come as a surprise when it was front page news, pasted across every single news website possible the next day.
It hurt. He cancelled training that day and laid in the bed of his cold, worn down apartment, and just wondered what he did to deserve this sort of life.
Tsukasa never wanted fame. He wanted to be a normal functioning member of society, but his path was already paved for him the moment his parents started drinking and fighting and treating him like their personal punching bag. It all truly crumbled to dust when Mirai, sweet, innocent Mirai, who deserved nothing short of the world, was put into a coma, with doctors telling him that she would never recover.
He deserved to be in that state, not her. Mirai was the sweetest person he’d ever had the honour of knowing. He’d never given up on her, and he never would, but every reminder that maybe he was wasting his time trying to save her broke his heart even more.
And now he was probably going to lose his career that was bringing in the right amount of money to pay for her hospital bills. He was going to have to go back to working himself to the bone with several different jobs again on top of his studies, and he really wasn’t sure he could go through that again.
He briefly thinks that maybe it’d be better to just rot here. But, almost like he could sense the dark turn his thoughts were taking, he heard his phone ring and noticed that Senku was calling him.
He picked up the phone.
“I’m guessing you’ve seen it all?” Senku sounded tired, too. It only added to Tsukasa’s ever growing guilt for even dragging him into this situation in the first place.
“I have,” Tsukasa responded after a minute, voice raspy from a terrible night of sleep and lack of use.
“You want to come over?” Senku offered, “it’ll be easier to cope with if there’s someone with you.” While on the outside, it appeared to be just an offer of comfort for the worry of this particular situation, they both silently knew that beneath it was the implication that Senku knew Tsukasa’s mind better than Tsukasa understood it himself, knowing the dark routes his thoughts would take if he was left alone.
“I think I’d like that,” he muttered softly in response.
“Need me to stay on the phone while you walk over?”
“Please.”
After disguising himself once more, he found himself in front of the door to Byakuya and Senku’s apartment shortly after. Senku was there to let him in upon his arrival.
“We’ll deal with whatever the press has to say tomorrow,” was the first thing Senku said as they both made themselves comfy in Senku’s bed, “it doesn’t matter right now. You’re fine. I’m not going anywhere, yeah? I’m right here.”
Senku was one blunt man, but he sure did know the ins and outs of calming Tsukasa’s anxiety. He took it one minute at a time and took his words as a sign to just sit and take deep breaths for a few minutes before his anxiety shoved itself back into his stomach and not his throat, just closing his eyes and pulling Senku closer.
“I’m tired,” he muttered softly.
“I’m not surprised. You’ve been through a lot, baby. You’re allowed to be tired, I promise.” It was only on very rare occasions that Senku actually used any form of pet name, preferring to just stick to actual names because he just felt weird and too stiff to even bother, but in times like this, it would often either get Tsukasa flustered enough or just get him to smile. It did the latter, this time around.
“Thank you.”
He spent the rest of the day asleep, getting some well deserved rest. As anxious as he still was about losing everything he’d come to know, Senku would still be here, and with him, he could be tired for a while, and that was okay.
The press were to be dealt with the next day. Tsukasa wanted it out of the way as soon as possible, wanting to know the fate of his job.
Thankfully, his manager and his trainer had been okay with it. Okay with him having a boyfriend and with him being gay. It was a big relief and a huge weight lifted off his shoulders that they didn’t immediately get rid of him, and felt especially thankful that his manager didn’t shove anything about “romance is a distraction to your career” down his throat.
Now came the time to address the public, and to address the press.
He chose the same daytime show as he had been interviewed on previously, when he was trying to dispel the initial rumours. Ironic, truly.
He was nervous. He was incredibly nervous. He could already feel his anxiety filling up to his throat all over again, but— Senku was there. Senku had offered to come on the show too and help, despite his complete lack of interest in being involved in affairs like this.
Tsukasa would seriously burn the world for this man.
It was a little while before the show was due to go on air, and the two were sitting in the dressing room after getting prepared for the occasion. While they looked presentable enough physically, they were in no way prepared mentally, not even Senku.
Senku had never exactly dealt well in social situations, not at all. Tsukasa didn’t either, but he had learned the hard way how to charm others for his own gain, whereas Senku remained as socially inept as ever. Tsukasa found that endearing about him, at least. But a full TV show? Live, in front of thousands of viewers? It didn’t mix well with either of their anxieties, not at all.
“We’ll be fine,” Tsukasa was the one to comfort Senku this time, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles of his clenched fist. Senku just gave a slight nod.
“Listen… If it doesn’t go alright, we’ll still have each other, alright?” While Tsukasa said that, he really couldn’t afford to lose his source of income and tarnish himself in the eyes of a large portion of the population in Japan. He just wanted to calm Senku’s own anxieties down a little bit.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Senku muttered quietly, “you’re such a sap.”
Tsukasa just smiled. Maybe he was, but that's alright. As long as Senku was happy.
They were called on a few minutes later, and they both took a moment to just breathe before exiting the room following the crew to the main set up. The show was currently on an ad break but would be back on soon, so any last finishing touches were made and they were sat on the guest sofa opposite the presenter.
“3… 2… 1… We’re live!”
The presenter made the standard welcome backs and introductions to the topic at hand to the viewers watching all over the country, before shifting the focus to Tsukasa and Senku themselves. They mutually squeezed each other’s hand for reassurance.
“So, Tsukasa,” the presenter jumped in quickly, “what made you decide to hide your relationship from the public?”
Many responses surfaced in his head at that, but he bit his tongue and swallowed them back. He had to be presentable and friendly to the public, despite how he wanted to be hostile, tell them that people needed to get their nose out of other people's business, that he hid it in fear that he would lose his job for something as simple as his sexuality, that celebrities were people too.
“I didn’t deem it as all that important, in all honesty,” he chuckled, so painfully fake, his answer a complete lie, “I can’t say I particularly like the thought of others speculating on my personal life, though.” At least that part was the truth.
The presenter nodded, clearly wanting to get through all the burning questions before their allotted time was up, so they moved onto the next question, “How was it that the two of you met?” They offered a smile at that, but Tsukasa was well versed in seeing the malicious intent behind fake smiles in this industry.
“At school, actually,” Tsukasa said, as somewhat of a reminder to the public that he was indeed still a student, “I’d walked into the wrong classroom after school and he drew me in from there.”
“You make it sound like I’m holding you against your will or something,” Senku teased, speaking for the first time on the show, “He was the one who didn’t walk away.”
“We found we got along well, and you can see how it’s progressed since,” Tsukasa finished.
The two of them were definitely getting uncomfortable with these questions.
“Highschool sweethearts! How cute.” They both internally cringed at that.
The interview continued on for what felt like forever, and then it was finally over. Being able to go back to the dressing room to collect their things was a huge relief.
The second the door was shut behind them, Senku was the first to speak, “Thank fuck that’s over.”
Senku really knew how to brighten up situations with his deadpan humour. Tsukasa laughed at the declaration.
“I agree.”
Tsukasa was honestly ready to sleep for the next week — and thankfully, he didn’t have much to do for the next week, minus attending school and studying for exams. His coach had given him the week off of training, which didn’t matter all too much, as he didn’t have a match for another month or so. He could actually somewhat relax for once.
They both gathered up their things, and Senku waited by the door. “Ready to go?”
Tsukasa nodded, smiling, “Let’s get out of here.”
Now that he had his little support circle of Senku, Byakuya, and Senku’s friends, Tsukasa considered for the first time since this situation started that maybe things would be okay if his career went to shit. There was still the nagging anxiety about keeping up with hospital bills, but knowing he was surrounded by people who would do whatever they could to help out if worse came to worst eased his worries immensely.
He left the room, Senku’s hand in his. Things would be alright.
A month later, Tsukasa’s next match came along. He went back to training and trained as hard as he could, filled with a new motivation to prove to the public he was still more than capable of winning a fight.
Along the way he’d spent a lot of time with Senku, too, whether it be studying together, lazing around in his room, or going to get ramen together (as Senku insisted). He’d practically moved in at this point, and he found himself not even minding.
He had visited Mirai a lot more often, too. Told her stories of recent events, let her know how much he was sure she would love to meet Senku, and how much he’d love to meet her. It still made him sad, sometimes. The slim chance she’d ever come back to be able to meet him hurt, but he had hope that something would change someday.
His return was great, and faith in him amongst the fans was restored, for the most part. Of course there were going to be bigots, Tsukasa was fully aware of this, but it was nice that things were almost back to normal.
Well, back to normal, besides the fact that Senku just rocked up like it was nothing after the match was over to the side of the ring and gestured for Tsukasa to lean down to give him a kiss. And of course, Tsukasa was in no place to deny him.
They pulled away after a moment, and it was suddenly like the whole world disappeared, just the two of them remaining.
“You taste like sweat,” Senku pointed out bluntly. Tsukasa merely laughed.
“You’d think so after a match.” Senku merely rolled his eyes, giving him a smile.
“Meet me outside when you’ve cleaned yourself up, yeah?” He smirked, giving him one last kiss before walking off as if that didn’t just happen in front of a live audience.
Tsukasa was dazed. He knew he looked like an idiot in front of so many people, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care.
He was happy.