Chapter Text
As he did every morning, Katsuya put the water on the electric kettle to heat while Taka pulled up the blinds and opened the window behind his desk. The cold morning air crept into the office and managed to make it shiver for a moment. In a little while, Taka had some house calls scheduled from regular clients who were starting to get too old to come all the way to the office. The two of them were already starting to hover in their forties, but Taka's charm seemed intact.
It was strange to think about the passage of time. Katsuya had spent almost twelve years locked in his room, in the absolute monotony of a day that never seemed to begin or end. And taking away his years with Claw, the next ten, getting up every morning to come to work.
Katsuya found a certain peace in his everyday. In waking up every morning with Taka curled up against his chest; in brushing his teeth while his soulmate wrestled with the hot water; in slipping into his suit and, with methodical gestures, tying the knot of his tie. Even the moments when the distorted screeching took over his mind were more bearable knowing that they would not last forever. Just a few minutes, a few hours or a few days until he was back in the office or at home, next to Taka.
Maybe someone would have found his life boring but Katsuya didn't need big adventures to feel that every minute was worth it. Ten years had been enough to collect many days to remember: the day they had finally decided to live together officially, the new office, the dozen trips, the graduation ceremonies of Shigeo and Teru. And Shou and Ritsu's a year later. The weekends at the beach. Discovering that Taka didn't know how to swim or ride a bike. The shouting, the laughter, the walks under the stars. The strange cases. The visits every year-end to Mount Shipwreck. Trying every new restaurant that opened in the neighborhood. The day Taka managed to burn down the kitchen. Or when Shigeo called too drunk begging to be picked up. The many times Taka had ended up taking the car in his pajamas, rolled up in his bathrobe and with his hair in disarray because one of the kids needed him in the wee hours of the morning.
There were so many that it would have been impossible to remember them all. The corkboard in the office was full of photos immortalizing a dozen of those moments.
Katsuya couldn't help but trace one of the older photos with his finger. Shigeo was in the center, Taka on one side and Katsuya on the other, the dark circles under his eyes pronounced after getting almost no sleep the night before. His nervous smile looked like an exact copy of Shigeo's. Taka had insisted on taking it. Katsuya hardly recognized himself in that anxious wreck. He still didn't quite understand how anyone could have ever believed that Taka had any kind of psychic power. Katsuya didn't even remember at what point Taka had stopped pretending to be something he wasn't but the poster still hung on the wall like a memento of the past.
Katsuya couldn't help but smile every time he saw it. Taka would have been no more than twenty-five when that picture had been taken. Arataka Reigen, the best psychic of the twenty-first century in all his glory. He was just a kid.
"I don't know why you insist on keeping it there." Taka leaned his arm against his shoulder and stared at the poster. "Everyone already knows that the psychic in Spirits and Such is you."
"Call it nostalgia, but I like that picture." Katsuya looked at it for one last moment before serving them tea. "I've always been curious what it would have been like to meet you back then."
Sometimes, Katsuya had let himself imagine what their lives could have been like without a defective bond but frustration over the lost years never led to anything good. It was stupid to not appreciate everything he had in his life because of a "what if" that led them nowhere.
"I don't think you would have liked me too much back then. Without Mob, I don't think I would have changed much from the cynic who was only capable of thinking of himself. I couldn't even stand myself."
Katsuya bit his tongue and held back the sarcastic remark. As if at some point, Taka had been a simple person to deal with. It was almost better not to get into that discussion. The Arataka in that picture was the same one who had given a completely lost Shigeo a chance. Katsuya was sure he wouldn't have wanted him any less than the man who had reached out to him amidst the ruins of the city. Katsuya had always known who Arataka was. It wasn't as if Taka had ever really had secrets from him when he could hear his song.