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Though you wouldn’t expect it from first impressions, Yusuke was a closet romantic.
How could he not be, given his penchant for dramatic declarations, flights of fancy and obsession with the heart? Really, Akira was surprised that it took him this long to realise that about his friend.
Embarrassingly, it took him even longer to realise that Yusuke held affectionate feelings for him. It couldn’t have been more obvious looking back at their friendship. If it weren’t for Ann and Ryuji dragging him to one side to tell him in no uncertain terms that Yusuke was absolutely crushing on him, they would have danced around each other for months.
He really had his friend to thank for getting them together.
Which brought him to the difficult issue of their first proper date.
Yusuke didn’t exactly enjoy traditional dates. He wasn’t exactly one for a romantic meal out or a night at Kichijoji or most other places Akira usually went to with his friends. He would participate in those, but none were his first choice.
“Well, where do you want to go?” Akira asked him one day while he was bored, with nothing more than a tired cat on his belly and fresh off of a shopping trip with Futaba. He and Yusuke called a lot, these days.
“Hmm…” Yusuke hummed over the phone. “Would you care to send me a map? It would perhaps help me choose more easily.”
“Sure, knock yourself out.” With Akira still on the call, he texted Yusuke the map he usually relied on to get around Tokyo (not that it helped much due to it being the first thing that exposed him to the Metaverse).
There was a moment of silence on the line, presumably whilst Yusuke looked over the map. Then, he spoke up. “I haven’t been to the Planetarium in some time. Perhaps we could go there?”
“I don’t think I’ve been there at all! That sounds like a nice little outing,” said Akira. “How about we go next Sunday?”
“That would be perfect. I love you, dear leader.”
Akira smiled. “I love you too.”
The moment that he hung up the call, Futaba started to tease him. “Someone's getting sappy. I swear, you two have been together for, like, two weeks and you’re already acting like a married couple.”
Akira chucked a pillow at her head, which she deftly dodged. “Like you’re much better!” he grumbled. “If I have to hear about how Kana is the coolest person to ever exist one more time-”
***
Arriving at the Planetarium a little late, Akira found that Yusuke was already waiting for him outside, sketchbook and pencil in hand.
“How did you get here so fa–” Akira stopped when he saw just what exactly Yusuke was drawing. “Wait a minute… were you people watching?” Akira asked.
“Something to pass the time,” Yusuke replied, closing the sketchbook and depositing it in his bag. “As for your first question, I caught an earlier train so I could arrive here with plenty of time to spare.”
“Be honest, you only did that so you could people watch,” Akira snorted.
Yusuke placed a hand to his chest, mocking offense. “Alas, you know me too well.”
“Oh shush,” Akira grumbled, fishing out a few hundred yen to pay the entrance fee. “Come on, let’s get in before the next show starts.”
Taking a second to gather himself, Yusuke followed after Akira.
“So, when did you last come here?” Akira asked, checking his ticket to make sure he and Yusuke found the right seats.
Yusuke looked startled. “Pardon?”
“You said you hadn’t been here in some time. Got any good memories from this place? There’s gotta be something cool if you remember it, right? Maybe you could show me!”
“I used to come here with Natsuhiko when Madarame was in his worst moods,” Yusuke explained. “He would show all the constellations and tell me stories about each one. I think it calmed him as much as me.”
“I knew you and Natsuhiko were both students of Madarame.” Akira shuddered, ‘students’ was putting it lightly in Yusuke’s case. “But I never knew you two were that close.”
“He was the last to leave before me. We were all close in some ways, but he stayed the longest.” Yusuke explained. “Like brothers, I suppose.”
“Do you remember any of those stories?” Akira asked after a pause while he looked up at the newly lit stars above them.
Being here was already giving Yusuke ideas for a new composition…
“I remember a few,” he began. “Here’s one about two lovers, separated from one another. Their names were Orehime and Hikoboshi…”
Akira listened intently to Yusuke’s story about the two lovers and their yearly meetings, eventually speaking up to say, “I don’t think I could be apart from you for that long.”
Fondness in his voice, Yusuke replied, “Is that the case?”
Akira shook his head. “No, you’re too important to me, Yusuke.”
For once, Yusuke wasn’t sure what to say in reply.
Eventually, he settled on stateing, "You remind me of these stars, dear leader."
“What?”
“You bring so much light to my life,” Yusuke continued. “I was in a dark place when we met, but being with you makes my world brighter. You are my guiding light in the darkness.”
Akira leaned over to rest his head on Yusuke’s shoulder. “If I’m your guiding light, then you’re mine.”
Briefly, Yusuke was reminded of something Natsuhiko once told him.
Sometimes, when two stars come together, they become bound to each other’s gravity, orbiting around each other indefinitely. We call these Binary Stars.
Maybe he and Akira could continue to rotate around each other, being each other’s guiding lights.
It was a wonderful thought.