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Annoyed. That was what he was currently feeling—annoyed.
Izumi Sena was bubbling with annoyance as the day lagged on to no end. To top it all off—as if that hadn’t been torture enough—a meeting that he so desperately wanted to get away from was prolonged by the most useless things he has ever had to down and listen to. And truth be told, had it not been for his carefully curated public image, he would've already snapped and walked out.
You see, he has never been really fond of many things, and everyone probably knew that. Or rather, he is easily annoyed by the simplest of inconveniences that he ends up feeling utter disdain for anything instead; and justifiably so, if he were to be so bold to say so himself (and he is).
The world was already brimming with so many needless things, and that was already on top of stupidity. How could he not be annoyed?
Stupidity, the loud, and the unnecessary. Three things he disliked the most. How a person could possess all three will be way beyond his ability to think—much less tolerate at least one. And yet, despite it all, as his annoyance slowly dwindles down the moment he leaves the conference room and catches a glimpse of brown hair, and hears the loud cackles of laughter from across the hall, he realizes that perhaps, he can make exceptions for very few and very specific people.
Another loud laugh resonates through the halls, and he feels a wave of migraines coming after him—on second thought, he wants to take that back. He probably can’t make exceptions.
"Senaaa!" He hears the other shout.
There were two thoughts in his mind as the other jogs towards him; one, So～ annoying! Can this guy never tone it down? And two, Just the person I wanted to see—and he meant that, really. No sarcasm whatsoever.
"Morisawa," He greets back—much, much less enthusiastic than the latter. "Please stop yelling in the halls. At this point, people opposite this building—no, Leo's aliens would be able to hear you from thousands of light-years away."
To be clear, Izumi does not believe that aliens are real. Okay—maybe for the sake of what he’d just said, aliens might be real? Of course, for exaggeration purposes and certainly not because he believes that somewhere outside the already crowded-enough earth, extraterrestrial beings are having the time of their lives blowing things up to make rockets. Aliens are only real when it’s convenient.
"Sorry!" There he was again with the unnecessary loud and booming voice. Sometimes Izumi wonders if the guy has swallowed a mic. Hopefully not, ‘cause that would be a problem. "I can't help it, you know! I haven't seen you in so long!"
Izumi stands there, absolutely dumbfounded before he gathers his thoughts to speak again, “What do you mean you haven’t seen me in so long? You just saw me yesterday?”
“Well, yeah! But that was until you were dragged off by someone from your unit. So I didn’t really get to talk to you or anything” Chiaki says, and maybe Izumi needed sleep, but he swore he heard the tiniest hint of dejection in the other’s voice.
I’m losing my marbles, is what Izumi settles for. It was easier to believe that.
“I think that’s a you-problem,” He decides to say, against every rational thing in him that told him otherwise. “I was free the entire afternoon yesterday, you know? Why didn’t you look for me, then?”
“I thought you’d be busy the whole afternoon! I mean, you just got back, I’m sure your unit mates needed you!” Chiaki protests with a laugh. What the hell is wrong with this guy, he thinks. “Heroes don’t disturb their comrades, after all! Who knows what important mission their comrades might be in! I can’t have you break world peace just because I wanted to go karaoke-ing with you!”
Aaaand… Morisawa Chiaki hits the jackpot. Izumi Sena hated the stupid, the loud, the unnecessary, and he hated the heroes just as much.
Hear him out, the first one was kind of self-explanatory. Anyone would find stupid things—stupid people, even, irritating; Loud was just as self-explanatory, he doesn’t have to even try to elaborate on it; The unnecessary wastes his time a lot. He is a model with a really tight schedule after all. His time is gold, why would he ever dream of wanting to throw such a precious thing away? And the last thing that seals the deal, heroes aren’t real.
Heroes were like a false kind of hope and security to Izumi. It was the exact same thing as telling a child that being yourself would be enough to get you by in this big big world, only to realise sooner or later a harsh and painful truth that in fact, no. Life does not work that way. It assures you of something nice to look forward to, only for some other thing in the world—fate, as some may like to call it, robs that reassurance away from you and laughs at your face saying, Ha! You thought!
And that was why happy endings in sentai fiction are by far, the most ridiculous things he has ever had to perceive (apart from whatever questionable thing Chiaki manages to drag him into time and again). In his defence, he wasn’t trying to be a bitter man, it’s just that, how on earth would the hero still be able to defeat the villain when they take longer making a whole speech about justice and whatever hero-y thing instead of kicking ass? Totally unrealistic.
Though, now that he thinks about it, he’s probably being hypocritical about this whole “I-hate-heroes” agenda because it wasn’t real. He is a Knight who promises to protect princesses. Or maybe he wasn’t a hypocrite, and he might’ve just gotten too used to whatever bull Tenshouin says about idols being some sort of glorious hope to their fans… which also isn’t wrong in a sense, but the possibility of him being wrong and a hypocrite doesn’t matter now.
The moral of the whole story is that Chiaki Morisawa is all things Izumi Sena would undoubtedly, and so surely dislike in a heartbeat. And yet, despite such certainty, Izumi does not hate Chiaki at all. Well, there were times when he’d wish the guy would stop yelling in conversation as if he wasn’t just sitting right beside him, but other than that, he could never get himself to dislike Chiaki.
The guy was like some kind of pest that wormed its way to his heart and no matter how hard Izumi tried, the guy would never leave. Rather, the guy refused to leave. Not that Izumi was complaining anyway (technically, he is). He’s just there; carved in some special place, feeling all homey.
Okay, but in all fairness, it’s not like Izumi did try to get rid of him—or even attempted to.
Because, well, he’ll be caught dead in a ditch wearing last year’s designer collection first before anyone would be able to get him to say it out loud, but Izumi liked being around Chiaki—no, he was really fond of being around the guy that Izumi would rather try to sit down and watch seventy volumes of Chiaki’s favourite sentai shows and have him spoil every single cool scene every other two seconds than to sit through three hours of a business meeting he could choose not to pay attention to.
Yeah, he’s really lost his marbles.
Izumi lets out a sigh, “It’s still early.” He starts, nodding towards the sky outside the windows. “Your pick, let’s do whatever you want. Oh—it’s not because I missed you because I asked, so don’t get ahead of yourself.”
That was a lie.
Chiaki lets out such a boisterous laugh that Izumi wonders if it was even humanly possible, but he doesn’t mind it anyway. On the contrary, he likes Chiaki’s laugh, as loud as it may be.
“Then we’re spending time because I asked you out on a date, right?!” Chiaki does not even wait for Izumi’s answer, and tugs at his arm. Another laugh resounds from Chiaki, “Ryusei Red and the Wishing Knight! Off to preserve peace!”
“That makes no sense?” Izumi comments, all the while being dragged off by Chiaki to who knows where honestly. “Isn’t that your unit’s job?”
“Uh-huh!” The other replies enthusiastically before stopping in his tracks, realisation dawning on him. “Wait… does that make you the new member of Ryuseitai?! You like blue, right? Uh… actually, that’ll be a problem, since Kanata’s already Ryusei Blue! Oh! You could be Ryusei Silver! …But that won’t do, I think blue suits you better…”
Izumi hears that same dejection from moments ago and decides to pat Chiaki on the back. Just this once (he says every single time, then does it again another). “You could be an honorary knight. I mean, it’s not like you can’t look the part.”
“Uh…! Sena, this is a hard decision to make. I love you, but I can’t leave Ryuseitai! I’m a hero, y’know! I don’t think knights do hero things?” Chiaki protests. Case in point; the stupid, the unnecessary, and heroes.
“Hah? No one said anything about you leaving Ryuseitai?” Izumi pinches the bridge of his nose, and lets out a heavy sigh, before taking Chiaki’s hand. “You know what? Let’s just go. I remember you said you wanted this new figurine, right? We can start from the shopping district.”
Izumi Sena does not like many things, and somehow, Chiaki Morisawa effortlessly manages to tick off an entire list to fit in Izumi’s “things and people that will make me pull my hair out” criteria. But even then, he’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t love Chiaki to… infinity and beyond. Or whatever heroes were supposed to say.
“You know, I’d go to karaoke with you as long as you want to,” Sena mumbles under his breath, but loud enough for Chiaki to hear.
“Huh? So, you wanna go karaoke-ing?” Chiaki asks.
“No, I meant, even if it disrupted world peace, I’d still go karaoke-ing with you, as long as you want to.” Izumi’s face was probably brighter than the red of a tomato, but god forbid anyone points that out.
“I’d have to fight you then if you wanna disrupt peace, you know?” Chiaki chuckles softly, “But I’ll still love you… Hey, that’s something married couples do!”
Izumi stares at him, for a second, and then two, before letting out an annoyed groan, and then walking away.
“Sena! Wait up! Don’t leave me?!” Chiaki catches up to the fuming model, interlacing his fingers with his once more. With a grin on Chiaki’s face, he says to him, “I missed you, Sena.”
“I know.” And the feeling was very, very much mutual.
Perhaps, Izumi could love things he disliked as much as he loved Chiaki, as long as it was Chiaki.