Chapter Text
“Shuichi, are you close?”
“Yes, I’m almost there.”
“Well could you hurry it up a little?”
“Please don’t rush me, Kaito…”
“But I finished ages ago!”
“I just need a little more–”
After so much pain and frustration, Shuichi could finally see the end approaching. He inhaled sharply and held his breath, hands shaking as he pressed that final button, and felt instant relief.
A whole college semester’s worth of anxiety and tension, melting away with a simple green checkmark and a ‘Submission Successful, Thank You.’
His end of term paper was finally completed and sent in; a long winded thesis statement, twenty-thousand-and-some words of meticulously conducted research, scientific analysis, and legal jargon, all compiled into one hopefully compelling commentary on criminal psychology versus the human condition.
“It’s done,” Shuichi exhaled shakily.
He checked the time. He just narrowly got in before the final due date, as he’d wanted to take every extra minute he could to be thorough and make sure there were no mistakes in his work.
“Alright! No take backs, right?” Kaito prompted, looking over the other’s shoulder at the submission screen.
“Right, no take backs,” Shuichi mumbled back, with distinctly less enthusiasm than his friend. What if there was a typo he missed? What if his conclusion wasn’t strong enough? What if his whole hypothesis didn’t even make any sense, and his professor hated it, and he got a failing grade, and he couldn’t retake the course, and his GPA would be ruined and then he’d have to drop out of college, and his uncle would be so–
“Shuichi!”
Shuichi felt a strong hand clap his back, hard enough to make him lurch forward with a gasp. His hands tightened to secure his laptop before it could slide right off his lap and onto the floor.
“You were making that face again. Where your jaw clenches, and your eyebrows furrow up, and you look like you’re overthinking every single little thing? Yeah, that one. Take it from me, and stop thinking so much! You’ll be less stressed out that way.”
Shuichi smiled timidly, knowing Kaito probably hadn’t meant to insult himself like that, and while he didn’t think that advice was very helpful, he still appreciated the sentiment. Stop thinking so much. That was easier said than done.
He closed his laptop gently and moved it off to the side, turning around so he could face Kaito better. He pulled one leg up onto the couch and tugged his ankle in towards his lap for comfort.
“What else should I think about, then?”
Kaito grinned widely. It looked like he’d been waiting for an opportunity to bring this up. He braced his hands on the back of the sofa and leapt over, bounding onto the cushions and making Shuichi bounce along with the landing force of his weight.
Shuichi soon found himself being tugged in by the shoulders, and he was too close not to feel awkward, trying not to breathe too hard, his breath probably smelled like old coffee, and god forbid there was a bit of crust in his eye, or an eyelash on his cheek, but Kaito wasn’t looking at any of that anyway. He never looked at those trivial details. He just looked at Shuichi.
“It’s officially summer vacation now! We’re totally free! And what’s the perfect way to spend a summer vacation?”
“Uh… find a sunny spot in the house and do some light reading?”
He was already fairly certain that wasn’t what Kaito was thinking, but it was the correct answer as far as he was concerned.
“Definitely not! Alright, I’ll give you a hint. Just picture it; the open road, windows rolled down, the wind through our hair, radio blasting, screaming lyrics to the sky, not a care in the world… and our destination? Wherever our hearts take us.”
Shuichi smiled. That was quite a bit more than a few hints. It didn’t take an ultimate detective to put together those pieces.
“That must be… a road trip?” he asked with a small, inquisitive shrug of his shoulders. There was little room for doubt regarding his answer, but his voice still lilted with caution, the detective ever questioning his own judgment.
“Better. A road trip with my best bro. A bro’ad trip!”
Shuichi would regard that as the same thing, but there was no need to argue semantics with Kaito right now.
He certainly wasn’t a stranger to long drives and winding roads. When his thoughts were the most disorganized and chaotic, Shuichi found that a quiet, midnight drive could be a calming and effective way to get them all in order. Things always seemed much clearer after that.
But a road trip, just for the sake of… having fun? He’d never considered that, before.
“Where would we be going?” he asked, not entirely sold on the idea yet.
“Shuichi, Shuichi…” he shook his head in disapproval, “you are so young and naive. It’s not about where we’re going!! It’s about the journey, and the memories we’ll make along the way. It’s about love, and friendship, and… and okay, it’s my grandparents’ 70th wedding anniversary and I need to visit them. It’s next Friday. Say you’ll come with me… please?”
Well. It was quite the pitch. How could he say no to that?
“Okay, Kaito. Let’s do it.”
“Alright! This is going to be super stellar!” Kaito cheered, bringing the other into a very sudden and very crushing hug, accidentally cracking Shuichi’s back in the process. Several pops were heard in his spine, but thankfully, they were anything but painful. Shuichi inhaled sharply before sighing in relief. He spent so long hunched over studying and typing away, the adjustment of his stiff joints actually felt pretty good.
He relaxed and loosely wrapped his arms around Kaito, hugging him back, letting his face rest in the crook of his friend’s shoulder. He smelled vaguely of pine, and strongly of sweat, masked by an excess of spray-on deodorant; and although the scent wasn’t necessarily pleasant it was still comforting and familiar. Embracing Kaito always made him feel grounded and secure. He held onto him so tightly, it was hard to imagine any force in the world being strong enough to pry him away. The world could end right now. They might just survive it.
He let the other embrace him for as long as he wanted, only letting go once he felt the other start to untangle himself and stand up from the couch.
“I already have a map drawn up for us– ah hell, where did I put it again? Be right back, don’t go anywhere, yeah?”
Shuichi stifled a laugh into the palm of his hand and nodded. Where would he go, anyway? He lived here, after all, and it was already way past dark.
He watched as Kaito left the room and returned with a small stack of papers, unfolding the top one from a little square into a large map. He sat back down and held it open in front of Shuichi, starting to point out every little attraction and waypoint, each one of them marked by a shiny gold star. He had some brochures to go along with some of the tourist sites, which he presented to Shuichi as well.
“It’s going to take us about five days to get there… including plenty of down time for rest and training, of course! I marked out all the places I think we should visit along the way…”
“Sorry– training?” Shuichi interrupted, eyes flickering across the stickered map, then back up to Kaito, “...on a road trip?”
“Well, yeah! You gotta keep your body in shape and exercise every single day, it’s important! Your muscles won’t wait around for you, buddy. And then you’ll lose all those sick gains.”
Kaito put his hand on Shuichi’s bicep and squeezed, making the latter’s cheeks flush with color.
“I ah– wouldn’t call these s-sick gains,” Shuichi stammered out in embarrassment. For god’s sake, Kaito could practically wrap his entire hand around his arm, he wasn’t exactly muscular. But he guessed he had been getting stronger recently. Just a little.
“Oh yeah, and we have to leave tomorrow morning, so let’s get packing, okay?”
“Tomorrow? Seriously? Gah… okay,” he sighed, discontented with Kaito’s lack of planning ahead. He really would have appreciated more time to prepare for the trip, but if it was only a few days, he supposed he could throw everything together quickly enough.
“Don’t worry about it! Throwing clothes into a suitcase is easy. It’ll take like, what, an hour tops?”
“It’s going to take longer than that. I’m going to make a checklist.”
Kaito punched him in the arm, playfully, yet with enough force to bruise. Right in the sick gains. Shuichi winced.
“That’s my sidekick!” he cheered, and Shuichi felt his heart skip a beat at the nickname.
Soon the two had gone their separate ways in the apartment, both determined to pack up everything they needed in a single night, along with any other necessary preparations. Kaito made a playlist for car karaoke. Shuichi started making an assortment of snacks for the road, before Kaito promptly told him they could rely on drive-throughs and roadside diners for food.
Shuichi tried to explain how unhealthy that was, only to be told that it was just part of the road trip experience, and he should embrace the grease.
Still, a bit of fruit and a granola bar wouldn’t hurt.
While retrieving items from his closet to pack in his suitcase, Shuichi came across a certain hoodie; magenta, adorning the NASA logo, and undoubtedly a size or two too big.
It was Kaito’s, but it had been in his possession for quite some time since it was lent to him last month, and he’d worn it a few extra times since then. Kaito never asked for it back, and never said anything if he saw Shuichi wearing it. He had so many just like it, anyway.
It was the warmest hoodie Shuichi had in his closet. Even as he held it in his hands now, it seemed to radiate warmth and comfort, like Kaito’s skin was so searing that the heat remained locked within its fibers, infinitely cozy, never cooling down. Shuichi smiled as he carefully folded it up and put it right on top of his neatly packed pile of clothing, smoothing it out so there wasn’t a single wrinkle in the fabric. He zipped the suitcase shut.
Five days alone with Kaito Momota.
Five chances to finally reveal the burning confession that’s been aching away in his heart since the day they became friends.
Five days to tell his roommate, and his best friend, the whole and absolute, unfiltered truth.
That he was completely fucking in love with him.