Work Text:
Nights without Rosho and Rei are uncommon, and by now Sasara’s almost uncomfortable when it happens.
He’s in a hotel room near the venue he’d just did a show at, laying on the bed and resisting the urge to kick his feet like a schoolgirl with a crush as he opens a video call on his computer. Just because he’s away from home doesn’t mean he can’t call his two favorite people and have them nearby while he rests. After being at 100% volume and energy for hours, Sasara simply finds it nice to be more low-key with Rei and Rosho.
The call connects and there they are; the two faces that represent light and happiness in his mind. Their smiles carry through the screen and make Sasara do the same just based on the pure love he feels from them. Even if they aren’t ready to call it love to each other just yet, he knows what it is. But he won’t rush anything; he’s content to just be as close as he is with his teammates.
“Good evenin’, beloved backstage guests!” Sasara jokingly greets, exerting the last of his energy to give them the greeting they deserve.
“Hey, Sasara.” Rosho chuckles a little, eyes tired but as kind and loving as ever. “How was your show?”
“It was great! Felt a little empty, though.” Sasara admits, taking note of how Rosho slumps into Rei’s side gently, smiling softly when he pulls them against him firmly. Their closeness makes Sasara’s heart flutter with affection; not long ago any contact would have had to have been initiated by him, but now they’re doing it of their own accord. “Y’know, without you.”
“Charming.” Rei comments, only slightly teasing. Sasara’s learned to discern the different amounts of sarcasm in his voice as they talked more and more, and he’s found he likes it when Rei’s being genuine. When he’s not putting on an act, his voice drops its even smoothness and takes on a touch of gravel at its deepest. Maybe once he could’ve passed it off as his above-average (if he did say so himself) people reading skills, but he’s willing to admit now that he just thinks his voice is pretty. It’s also not the only thing about Rei that’s pretty, but if he thinks anymore about that he’ll have to spend a few minutes collecting himself so that he doesn’t blurt out anything stupid in the middle of their conversation.
“That’s me!” Sasara giggles, grinning into his laptop’s camera. “Anywho, what have you two been up to?”
Rosho thinks for a moment. “Nothing much. I spent most of tonight grading papers.”
“Boring.” Sasara drawls teasingly. “You couldn’t have ditched that to come to my show’s afterparty?”
“Where’s the party?” Rosho asks, almost hesitant like they know the answer already. Rei chuckles, like he also knows. Sasara suspects they both do; they know him frighteningly well, after all.
“In my fuckin’ hotel room!” he crows triumphantly, raising his bottle of water like it’s an overflowing glass of beer. It’s like being home with them.
Except if he were home with them, he’d be closer to them, which would be more ideal than being alone in a hotel room clearly made for a couple. It’s the closest hotel to the venue, true, but it’s also considerably expensive. But it’s much too far from the two most important people in the world, so in Sasara’s eyes it kind of sucks.
He’s cold. Rei’s always warm. He misses them so much, despite the fact that he gets to see them on his screen. “…it’s lonely here.”
Rosho smiles comfortingly, eyes conveying their sympathy. “It’s only one more night and you’ll see us in a lil’ under 48 hours.”
“It’s gonna be the longest damn 48 hours of my life!” Sasara whines, standing up and pacing next to his bed. “And I don’t have any friends here, my manager is on a date with some girl she met last time we were at this venue and she’s the only person I really talk to when I’m away, and I’d call Hifumi but she’s working and I don’t feel like visiting her host club because publicity and scandals and shit, but-“
He almost doesn’t notice Rei’s chuckling until he pauses to breathe. “What?”
“Well, doesn’t look like you’re totally alone,” he starts, gesturing vaguely somewhere in front of him, “what are those?”
Sasara turns to his bed and sighs when he realizes what Rei’s seeing; on the pillow are two small plush toys of his teammates. They hadn’t been expensive-compared to his, at least, which he’d taken offense to on behalf of Rei and Rosho-so in a moment of impulse he’d bought them together for company when he couldn’t have the real thing present. Maybe it was childish, bringing those toys around for comfort, but even just sleeping alone has always been hard for him. “…nothin’?”
Rosho smiles a little even as the call’s framerate drops. Stupid hotel wifi. “They’re cute lil’ guys. I’ve seen ‘em around; doesn’t that old friend of yours buy themselves?” That’s Gentaro-they own at least 50 plushes of themself, all of which are used to terrorize their teammates in various ways. Sasara always thought it sounded like something out of one of his routines. “Did you buy one of yourself?”
“Nah,” he admits, hoping he doesn’t look as embarrassed as he feels. “Just…you two…”
Rei raises an eyebrow curiously, and coupled with his trademark smirk Sasara would really rather explode than explain himself right about now. But instead of prying like he expects, the conman only comments “cute.”
“Bastard.” Sasara mumbles as a half-assed retort. “I can and will waterlog this thing with milk,” he threatens, picking up the mini-Rei and gripping it tightly.
“Why not…water?” Rosho asks, clearly not acquainted with the stupid story Sasara’s referencing. That’ll be a fun explanation. “Actually, don’t tell me. I can think of a million crude jokes about that one.”
Okay. Letting them believe that is somehow less embarrassing than telling them about the milk cat. “Yeah. Uh, they just make it easier to sleep. Plus they were cheap and bundled together, so, um-“ He doesn’t get why he’s so tongue-tied; they both know much more embarrassing things about him. It might be because it concerns them, but maybe he’s just not ready to admit verbally that he’s so dependent on them both.
Eager to change the subject, Sasara asks Rosho about some of their students, pushing all the embarrassment and intense emotions out of his mind.
——
“It’s a little late for spring cleaning, don’tcha think? I’m all for springin’ into summer head-first but you oughta be careful not to fall-“
“Will you shut up?” Rosho asks, exasperated at this point. “I just don’t have anythin’ better to do, and this place is a mess.”
“We have a million better things to do!” Sasara whines, sinking dramatically into Rei’s lap as older summer-y music plays from Rosho’s old speaker. They were always one for more retro equipment. “It’s not battle season yet, you’re done with school, and it’s perfect weather…”
“It’s hot. ” Rosho corrects him, combing through their closet and taking out various vests and shirts that don’t fit them anymore. “I’d much rather do a little work in the comfort of my air conditioning than roast out in the sun.”
“They’ve got a point.” Rei puts in, adjusting the nearby desk fan to be blowing on him and Sasara, which admittedly is nice.
“Maybe if you both didn’t wear all that hot-ass clothing you wouldn’t roast!” Sasara pouts, but shuts up and just watches Rosho go through old boxes of their stuff. They haven’t really had time to do a real cleaning for a while because of exams and the battle season and just life in general, so they figure there’s no time like the present. They haven’t really found anything of note; old watches, clothes, some pictures of them and Hideki. Maybe they should visit their brother and his son, Kaito, soon. Hideki only met Sasara briefly back when they were teens, and neither of them know Rei yet-
Rosho stops themself. Are they really considering the age-old relationship step of introducing the boyfriend/s to the family? Obviously their parents are out of the question, seeing as they haven’t spoken to their mother since they moved out and their father is overseas and still as distant as he’s been since he divorced their mother. But Hideki is a good man who knows about Rosho’s gender and sexuality, and had even suspected they had feelings for Sasara from the beginning.
The bigger fish to fry here is the fact that Rosho isn’t even dating them. They’re eternally stuck in Weird Relationship Limbo (the term coined by Kuko) where they’d toss around affection like it was nothing, but there was something preventing any of the three of them from outright admitting any strictly romantic feelings. For Rosho, it’s already kind of hard to express themself, but to confess that they feel so deeply? It’d be a nightmare. Especially because, despite everything, they’re still not totally sure their feelings are reciprocated.
“What’s that?” Sasara asks, interrupting Rosho’s thoughts. Still a bit absentminded, they glance at the box by their feet and pull out their old ukulele. It’s been gathering dust since they became a teacher, left without time to practice the instrument.
“I tried playin’ a little after we broke up…I wanted hobbies to distract myself. I got to be pretty okay.” they explain, coughing slightly as they try and clean off the dust. “Gave it up when I started workin’, but I reckon I wouldn’t be too bad if I tried playin’ it now.”
“I never knew that about ya.” Sasara grins, looking at Rosho with a more genuine, soft expression than they think they’ve ever seen on him. Rei seems indifferent, but he is looking at them in interest. Suddenly they feel very exposed, even though this new information isn’t particularly embarrassing.
Maybe they just care that much about their teammates’ opinions.
“Yeah…I didn’t tell ya ‘cause us breaking up was still a touchy subject, and I didn’t wanna…” Rosho considers how to say what they’re thinking. “make it seem like I’d moved on too fast? ‘Cause I didn’t.”
“Gotcha.” Sasara replies, and the room descends into awkward silence. Rosho hasn’t opened up much about what they did during the period of their split, and Sasara never has either. Neither of them want to pry too deeply, and Rosho doesn’t really need to know anything anyways. What matters is that they’re back together now.
“You gonna play for us?” Rei asks, winking at Rosho from behind his sunglasses. Rosho blushes in reply, turning the ukulele in their hands anxiously. They still have stage fright, and even though they’d just be performing for him and Sasara it somehow makes the anxiety worse.
“I, uh, could try?” Rosho manages to reply pathetically. “I can’t promise it’ll be any good, but…”
Slowly, carefully, Rosho plucks an older song out on the strings, focusing on playing and not acknowledging the two pairs of eyes watching them. It’s one of the first things they learned to play, so they’re surprised they retained all of it. Eventually, it becomes more comfortable and they even find themself quietly singing as well.
A few minutes pass before they finish and both men instantly applaud, wearing matching smiles and Sasara jumps up to tackle Rosho in a hug. “Rosho, that was amazin’! Yer voice, it’s so pretty, and ya fingered that thing like a champ!”
Pointedly ignoring the unfortunate turn of phrase in the second half of the compliment, Rosho nudges Sasara off of them (only because of the heat) and stands up to look at Rei. “Not bad, teach. Beautiful, actually, ya nearly moved me to tears.”
Rosho blushes again, not used to all the praise. They don’t know how to accept all the compliments, waving them off and averting their eyes in embarrassment. “I-I didn’t expect you to like it so much.”
“We’d like anythin’ ya did.” Rei points out, and strangely enough it makes sense to Rosho. They’ve both always supported them other through the good, the bad, and the frankly stupid decisions all the same. And I always wanna support them, too.
It’s a weird train of thought to go down. Rosho pushes them out of their mind and opens another box.
——
Rei may be a shady conman who does business in the night, but that’s not really the time of day he likes best.
It’s been a long day of making deals and the like, so he’s relieved to get home. Which is back to Rosho’s apartment, actually-it’s just easy to call it home now. Which isn’t what Rei expected, not at all, but it’s comfortable. Warm. Easily helps him forget why he got close to these two in the first place.
As time goes on, he finds himself wanting to permanently forget.
“I’m home.” Rei calls to the seemingly empty apartment, stepping inside and making his way over to the window to smoke. As he slides it open and lights his cigarette he takes the time to think, watching as the sun dips behind the clouds. He’s learned to slow down and start to appreciate things he hasn’t thought about in a long time, like the sunset. Or physical contact. That was one he went without for a long time; at first because after she died and Ichiro left with his brothers he didn’t have anyone who would be affectionate with him, and after a while he’d just gotten too comfortable with solitude to allow it.
But then there was them. An arm slung casually over one of their shoulders was how it started, but now they would lean into him on late nights and Sasara had even hugged him once, which sent him into a downward spiral ending with a night at Ramuda’s, who’d knocked some sense back into him and convinced him to accept that the affection was genuine. Now, he almost found himself reveling in the closeness, something he never would have truly let himself feel not long ago.
Rei sighs, exhaling smoke into the gradually darkening sky. His emotions are all out of whack and he’s been out of sorts for weeks. It’s not like him to be so unsure and confused, but Sasara and Rosho have changed him a lot. And logically he knows that if Otome catches wind of anything she could break them apart for good, but Rei finds himself vowing to never let that happen. He’s got people he trusts for the first time in forever. He’s not letting them go.
I won’t lose someone I love ever again.
The thought kind of hits him all at once; yeah, he loves them, doesn’t he? They’ve all danced around the word, terrified of what being together could bring, but Rei’s sick of having the universe dictate them. He’d give up Otome and the clones and the true mic in a heartbeat for his teammates.
“Thinkin’ hard or hardly thinkin’?” A voice chimes in his thoughts. Rei turns to see Sasara and Rosho behind him-he’d been so deep in his own head that he hadn’t heard them come in. “Woah, pretty.”
Like him, Rei thinks, but doesn’t say. It’s too close to that line in the sand that they refuse to cross. “I like sunsets. Artistic and all that crap.”
“Didn’t expect that one.” Rosho comments lightly, standing at Rei’s side and pressing into him, hesitant at first but slowly adjusting. Sasara mirrors them, much more confident. It’s serene.
The three watch in silence as the sky is painted in various hues, a million poems and sentiments and confessions of pure devotion and love rushing through Rei’s mind like a stream.
He could say it. It’d be so simple to just admit it, because he is in love with them and he’s pretty sure they feel the same. But something holds him back. It’s always fucking something that shuts him up.
But he’s also just content to enjoy the moment. He’s found he loves sharing the smaller moments with them, whether it’s swapping anecdotes from their youth, or talking about disastrous exes, or times like these where they just bask in the presence of each other, no words necessary.
Rei’s the first to speak, something possessing him to tell Rosho and Sasara one small story. “I met my wife when I was 23.”
Both of them turn to look at him, attention fully captured. “We got married when I was 25, and she died when I was 33. She was a genius. She was beautiful, and she cared fully for everyone she met.”
“I’m so sorry, Rei…” Rosho whispers, squeezing his hand for comfort. “She sounded wonderful.”
“I wanted to tell you both ‘cause I didn’t feel like hidin’ shit anymore. I…never got closure from her, so I never really let myself get close with anyone after she passed.” It’s so easy to admit once it starts coming off his chest. “I didn’t want to feel like I was betraying her, because she loved me so much.”
“I’d say that…since she truly loved you, she’d want you to get close to someone again. True love is seeing the person who means everythin’ to you happy and content with themself, yanno?” Sasara comments, a surprisingly wise statement. “I know if she could talk to you now she’d be so proud of the person you are, and I know she could see past the surface bad guy act everyone sees in you. She’d see the real Rei Amayado, just like we do.”
The words pierce his chest.
And for the first time since he lost everything, for the first time since he thought his world was ending, Rei cries.
It’s nearly silent, but he feels his face slowly dampening as Sasara and Rosho both hug him from the side, just holding him as he finally, finally allows himself vulnerability. He can’t speak, letting the quiet sobs escape him as the coolness of the summer night sets in and keeps him grounded.
And maybe, if he lets himself believe, he feels her close, drying his tears like she did in life. But when his vision focuses, he feels his tears actually being wiped from his cheeks, Rosho’s soft eyes looking into his own with all the care in the world, for once not restricted by their glasses. And Sasara is looking up at him too, trying to smile but the effect is diminished by his sad eyes, slightly open.
They’re all looking at each other, truly and unashamedly. It gives him hope.
——
It’s been two weeks. Rei is ready.
He’s written out everything he wants to say to them and even had Ramuda proofread it. Ramuda, to her credit, had said that scripting it was dumb, but Rei was never one to listen to her anyways. He looks over the page one more time before heading into Rosho’s apartment.
“Yo!” Rei greets, clapping Rosho on the back when they greet him in the doorway. It’s a little too awkward for both of them; it has been awkward since that night. But Rei’s hoping it won’t be that way after tonight.
“Hey.” Rosho replies, grinning softly. “Sasara’s already here; I was wondering why he called an ‘official meeting’ so early in the off-season, but whatever floats his boat.”
“That’s Sasara for ya.” Rei comments fondly, and Rosho laughs in agreement . No matter what they are to each other, Sasara will always be their lovable unpredictable leader.
“Alright, team!” Sasara practically yells from the couch. “Let’s go!”
The next hour is mundane discussion and whatever training they can do without mics, which isn’t much, but Sasara also runs some of his newest jokes by them, all with that smile that they’ve come to love and live for. Until he tries to formally end the meeting with a “anyone else wanna say shit?”
“Me.” Rei and Rosho manage to blurt out in sync. Sasara also puts in an “oh, same” before Rosho turns red and offers to let Rei speak first.
And suddenly he blanks. Everything he’d written down, everything Ramuda had bullied him over-it disappears from his mind. But, well. Why use all those words when three will do.
“I love ya.”
And there it is. It feels to all of them like everything has been building up to this, and before he can hit the brakes he’s rambling. “We’ve been carin’ for each other and supportin’ each other and I’ve known I wanna take it this far for a while. But I don’t wanna pressure anyone, so if ya don’t feel the same, nothin’ lost.”
It hangs in the air for a good minute before Rosho sighs. “You beat me.”
Sasara pulls a stack of notecards from under the table, and Rosho miserably holds up a notebook. The former speaks first. “I had this entire thing prepared; hell, I literally called this meeting to confess to y’all.”
“Same boat.” Rosho laments, but they’re giggling a little. It is a pretty dumbass situation for them to get into. “But, yeah. I love you both as well. I was just afraid to express it for a long time.”
“We really are in sync!” Sasara cheers, meanwhile Rei’s still taking it all in. They…really do love him in return. It’s too perfect, and yet he believes it, finally. They’re together. They love each other. He feels like a giddy schoolgirl in love. “I’ve known since that night we spent on Tsutenkaku together, I think? I dunno, feelin’s are weird. But I do know that I am one very in love comedian!”
Rei simply opts to wrap his arms around them both, coat falling off his back and he feels himself smile more genuinely than he ever has before. He knows that this relationship won’t be all perfect, of course, no relationship is. But he won’t let anyone get in their way. Rosho and Sasara are together as the world intended, but Rei never thought that he’d be here with them as they were. He’d always been content to play the cupid, but developing feelings is the best thing to ever happen to him.
They just stay absorbed in each other for a bit, talking animatedly and not sparing any affection now that their love is out in the open. Not long ago Rei wouldn’t have even been able to fathom being in this situation, because of his circumstances and his plans for this team,
After all, Dotsuitare Hompo was always meant to have a very particular dynamic. But, then again, who are they to play by the rules?