Archive of Our Own ^beta

Serizawa has lived through a few pivotal moments in life that completely turned everything he knew upside down. First, the day he realized he had powers. Second, the day he decided his powers were too dangerous and decided to live locked up in his room. Third, the day he met Suzuki-san, left his room to join Claw, and effectively became a terrorist. And fourth, the day he met Shigeo-kun, Reigen-san, and joined the Spirits and Such family.

It was an otherwise quiet and unassuming workday afternoon that brought about the fifth.

There had been a couple customers in the morning, but they had no appointments for the afternoon, and there hadn’t been any walk-ins so far. Reigen was keeping himself busy completing invoices and paperwork, while Serizawa was surfing the web on his phone, taking a break from the essay he was writing.

 His scrolling was interrupted by a text from a classmate of his, complaining about yet another attempt from their mother at setting up a blind date.

“Ah, poor Kazuki-san,” Serizawa unintentionally muttered aloud. He got an inquisitive, if rather distracted, hum of interest from Reigen.

“Oh, one of my classmates was complaining that his mother won’t stop trying to set him up on blind dates with women. Even though he’s told her multiple times that he’s into guys.” Serizawa paused, then considered the number of times Reigen had managed to give surprisingly good advice on minimal context. “Ah… he was asking if I had any advice, but my mom’s never tried to set me up with anyone. Do you, um, have any advice I could give him?”

Reigen gave a bark of bitter laughter, eyes still focused on his paperwork. “I wish. Let me know if he figures something out; I’ve given up trying to convince my mom. I should just steal her phone and change my picture in her phone to the dictionary definition of ‘gay’ or something…”

Serizawa, who had looked back down to his phone and started to type a response at the initial denial, shot his head back up to stare in shock.

And this - this is the start of Serizawa’s fifth pivotal moment.

“Wh- you’re gay?!” Serizawa asked, eyes wide and expression slack in surprise.

“... yeah? I thought you knew that,” Reigen responded, slowly raising his head from his paperwork to Serizawa. His expression went from distracted to shuttered in an instant. He tilted his head to one side, posture (intentionally) loose and non-confrontational. “Is that gonna be a problem or anything?”

“No! Of course not! Same!!! I-I mean, I’m gay too!” Serizawa stuttered, heart hammering in his chest, desperately fighting down the start of a flush.

Because the thing is… Serizawa had always thought Reigen was, at the very least, aromantic.

In all his memory, those formed naturally and those gifted by Shigeo (though… he wasn’t all too sure Shigeo knew what flirting looked like, from the frustrated way he’d seen Teru orbit around him), he’d never seen Reigen respond to someone flirting with him. Man or woman, client or pedestrian, someone he’d known for ages or someone he’d just met that day. It didn’t seem to matter; Reigen never acknowledged anything that so much as hinted at romance.

There had been one particularly memorable trip out to drinks when Reigen had suggested a change of location to a newly opened gay bar. Prior to arriving, Serizawa had thought maybe it was Reigen’s way to give a subtle sign, a hint towards his interests. The two of them had been surprisingly popular, amassing more drinks in the first 15 minutes than they could safely consume. 

But Reigen never showed any interest in any of the men who came by. Hadn’t glanced twice at the guys who beckoned from the dance floor. Eventually, Serizawa had started giving away the drinks; Reigen had been drunk halfway through his second glass, and Serizawa was still uncertain of his own tolerance and unwilling to test his limits in public. 

With his increasing drunkenness came an increasingly handsy Reigen (though only ever with Serizawa. When a guy came up to flirt, Reigen just ignored them in favor of trying to climb on Serizawa), and soon the near flood of free drinks shrank to a trickle, and then ended entirely when Serizawa switched them both to water.

All this to say… Serizawa had thought Reigen had no interest in a relationship, and thus had been able to shove his foolhardy crush down where it never had to be acknowledged, because he knew it was an impossibility.

(And god did Serizawa have a hell of a crush. He’d been besotted with Reigen since he first laid eyes on the man. It had ebbed and flowed over time, starting out as unhealthy hero worship when they met, easing into something fond and friendly as they got to know each other, and ramping back up into something radiant and giddy and honest, as he learned to see behind the mask.)

But if Reigen was gay, that meant Serizawa had a chance, small though it might be. And as he watched Reigen’s expression crack open into something sincere and relieved, he realized that he didn’t want to waste that chance. He had decided to live his life courageously, to go after the things he wanted, rather than hiding away from them. And that included taking a chance by asking Reigen out on a date.

Easier said than done, of course.

There was a lot of pressure to get it right, considering Reigen was one of the centerpoints of his life. His boss, his best friend, the only person he felt comfortable asking for advice. If he messed this up - ruined the core of what made his life more than he’d ever dreamed it could be - he wasn’t sure how he’d move forward.

He’d promised himself he’d be more courageous. It was thanks to his courage in standing up to Suzuki that got him where he was today, after all. Somehow, the fear of standing up to his old boss paled in comparison to the potential heartbreak.

So, he needed to do this carefully -  suffice to say, this situation required tact. Tact that Serizawa was sure he did not possess. Tact that Serizawa was certain Reigen had been blessed with. Tact that, Serizawa was hoping, could be learned.

He needed the right knowledge, a plan of action, the support of some friends he’d made along the way. He needed to do this right.

He’d seen enough period dramas and romantic comedies to have some ideas about how people usually confessed their feelings to someone they liked, but putting those ideas into practice was another thing entirely. Reigen didn’t have a flight out of the country to interrupt, and even if he did, such a method didn’t seem very practical.

No, with so much on the line, Serizawa decided the first step of his plan should be to test the waters and try to figure out if Reigen was receptive to the idea of dating someone in the actual, rather than just theoretical, sense. And the easiest way to do that was with a simple, anonymous note.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Serizawa shifted anxiously in his seat; their first customer of the morning had walked in, leaving Reigen sufficiently distracted for Serizawa to feel safe slipping a fairly generic love note out of his bag, and onto the side-table near the door. Now, the consultation was wrapping up -  and it was only a matter of time until the note was spotted.

“-spread this special, uh, blessed plant food in the dirt, give it more of the holy water once every three days, and leave it in the afternoon sun only, and your plant should make a full recovery. If you run out of holy water, just pour more water in the container; the blessings don’t dilute, so as long as it remains at least 51% holy water when you pour more in, the whole thing becomes holy water.”

Reigen led the customer, a middle-aged man with dark circles under his eyes, towards the door, wrapping up his advice as he pocketed his receipt. 

“Thank you so much for your help, Reigen-san. I don’t know what I’d do without you. The plant was my mother’s - she kept it alive for years and years. I’d just be so devastated if I failed her by killing it.”

“Ah, well… I’m always happy to help,” Reigen assured with a picture perfect smile, though Serizawa could see the way discomfort changed the angle of his shoulders. He started to open the door, pausing mid-motion as he spied the note on the table.

“Oh, I think this might be yours?” Reigen asked, offering the letter to the customer. Shoot, Serizawa hadn’t thought to consider the customer might unwittingly get involved.

The man took it, a bit confused, and quickly read through it, blanching and glancing at Reigen with discomfort as he finished.

“I… uh. I’m flattered? But I’m already married. And you’re a bit young for me.”

Serizawa pressed his face into his palms, curling low over his desk. He desperately hoped no one looked at him.

“Eh? What does that have to do with-” Reigen cut himself off. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s written on that - I thought you brought it with you and left it there. Is it not actually yours?”

“Oh! Thank god, I thought this was going to turn really awkward.” The client laughed, shoulders sloping down in relief. “No, I’ve never seen it before. It, uh, looks like a love letter? It’s signed ‘Secret Admirer’ and everything.”

“Huh… you’re the only person who’s been in today besides myself-" His eyes flicked towards Serizawa as his voice took on a proud, almost smug lilt. "-and my deputy director."

Serizawa sat upright again, desperately trying to put on an appropriately confused expression as the two turned to look at him. He shrugged lightly at them, prompting Reigen to shrug back in return.

“Eh, we do work with the supernatural, maybe a ghost got a crush,” Reigen suggested aloud. He didn’t look very convinced, despite it being his idea, but the customer smiled, starry-eyed. 

“Oh, that would be romantic! A love story that breaks the barriers between life and death. Almost Shakespearian,” he mused.

Reigen coughed lightly (likely trying to smother a laugh), and finished opening the door. “Well, you’ll have to come back another time to find out if I figure out who sent it. Good luck with the plant, and please come back if you need more help. And don’t forget, anyone who returns with our business card gets an automatic 15% off!”

The customer handed the note back to Reigen and said his goodbyes, wandering off into the sunny morning.

Reigen glanced down at the note, reading it over quickly, and Serizawa felt his heart skip a beat as he watched a blush creep over Reigen’s face. Reigen bit his lip in contemplation as his eyes skipped quickly from the note to Serizawa, then back. Oddly though, the blonde shook his head a moment later with a frown and a sigh. 

“Huh, weird. Are you sure you didn’t see anyone bring this in? Human, spirit, or otherwise? Oh! And can you check if this is cursed or anything?” Reigen asked, bringing the note over to Serizawa.

“I-I didn’t see anyone or anything bring it. And it’s not cursed, I don’t see any kind of energy residue on it.”

“Hmm… maybe someone was trying to teleport it with ESP and they got their aim wrong? Does teleportation leave energy residue?”

Serizawa could feel himself sweating as he wracked his brain for both the answer to Reigen’s question and a way to avoid implicating Shimazaki (the only teleporter he knew) as the writer of the love note.

“Ah… I don’t think there was any when Shimazaki teleported things? But I’m sure he’s not the only person capable of teleportation! Um, Teruki-kun knows more espers than I do, these days…maybe he would have a better idea?”

Reigen pulled a face. “I’d rather not involve Teru in something as silly as this. He’ll get invested in figuring out who sent it, and he’s already involved in more activities than I thought humanly possible.” 

Reigen glanced at the page one last time, then folded the note up and stuck it in his pocket.

Later that night, Serizawa would lie awake in bed, wondering what it meant that Reigen hadn’t just thrown the note away.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Well, the first attempt certainly hadn’t gone to plan. Clearly leaving it so anonymous was a mistake. With no addressed recipient or author listed, it was easy for any random person to pick up and misunderstand. 

Clearly what Serizawa needed was for someone to deliver the letter.

With that in mind, he decided to write a new note (specifically addressing it to Reigen this time), found an excuse to talk to Dimple one on one (“You want me to what?! Are you stupid or just dumb?”), and set the stage for his next attempt.

“Yo, Reigen. A friend asked me to give you this,” Dimple greeted blandly, arriving perfectly on time and pulling out the new note Serizawa had entrusted him with. He had kind of hoped Dimple would do it with more panache (and a bit more anonymously. The ghost only knew a handful of people - and counted even fewer as friends), but at least he hadn’t outright said Serizawa’s name.

Reigen eyed Dimple suspiciously, but slowly reached out to take the note. He paused once he had it in hand, as if waiting for a prank to go off. When nothing happened, he quickly unfolded it and read it over.

His face went a little green as he read, and he looked back up at Dimple with horror.

“Look, you’re fun to hang out with and fight with and all. But, uh. You’re not really my type? I like guys who are more… alive.”

Serizawa suddenly, desperately, felt like screaming.

Dimple’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in disgust, reflecting Reigen’s horror back at him for a moment, before he started loudly and convincingly dry heaving.

“Hell no! I would rather spend a year living in a high school toilet than date you! Screw it, delivering that was not worth the favor, I’m out of here!”

Serizawa and Reigen watched as Dimple fled the building like the hounds of the underworld were chasing him.

“Haaa, must have been a prank aimed at both of us, then. At least I’m not gonna have any awkward fallout from a failed confession. That would be horrible,” Reigen mused. “Though, I am curious who put him up to it.”

Serizawa stood and excused himself to make some tea. He wasn’t sure what kind of expression he was making, but he was certain it wouldn’t help anything.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

None of this was going how Serizawa wanted, and he was forced to acknowledge it was because he’d been so indirect. He still thought writing a letter was a promising option; it gave Serizawa the time and space to figure out everything he wanted to say, write it down, and deliver it to Reigen in a way that would prevent him from flubbing his words in anxiety.

But if he wanted to know how Reigen would react to knowing Serizawa liked him, then he needed to let the blond know that Serizawa specifically was the one who liked him. Plus, with how frustrated Serizawa got at Reigen’s constant need to deflect and be indirect with his emotions, it was a bit hypocritical for Serizawa to do the same now.

It took Serizawa longer than he would have liked to decide on a final message. His first attempts were nearly illegible from how frequently he crossed out words or wrote over them, even sometimes ripping the page by accident from the force of his anxiety. He hadn’t realized how much more stressful it would be, to know that he would be putting his name on this one.

After looking up advice online, his next few attempts turned out better… depending on how you looked at it. They were full of flowery descriptions and prose - borderline poetry and stolen snippets written by other people. In short, they didn’t sound like Serizawa, and he ultimately discarded them. Reigen had a hard enough time accepting sincere emotions on a normal day; if Serizawa confessed with someone else’s words, it was unlikely he’d ever believe him.

It wasn’t until nearly a month and two and a half pads of paper later that Serizawa finally had a message he was happy with. It was complimentary but honest; aware of Reigen’s flaws but admiring of his strengths. He even addressed it to Reigen, to make it clear beyond doubt who it was intended for.

He wrote out the final draft in his best penmanship, stuffed it into a pink envelope, and shoved it into his bag to take to work. It took another two days for him to work up the courage to actually remove it from his bag at work. But once he did, it was just his luck that Reigen immediately noticed.

“Ooooh, what’s that? Someone slip you a love letter in class last night?” Reigen asked, voice playful.

“N-no, I-. Uh.” Serizawa swallowed hard, but forced himself to stand and walk over to Reigen’s desk. The blond’s posture straightened in confusion, head tilting to one side as Serizawa suddenly bowed and presented the letter to him.

“Please read this!” Serizawa winced at the volume of his own voice but didn’t otherwise move in the silence that followed - no matter how tempted he was to look up at Reigen’s expression.

Eventually, there was a quiet breath, and the letter was plucked from his hands. More silence, and this time Serizawa wasn’t able to stop himself from straightening, examining Reigen’s expression for any hint of his reaction.

An expression which was once again shuttered to bland nothingness. No flush of excitement or happiness, no paling of anxiety or disgust. You couldn’t even say he was bored, so complete was his lack of visible emotion. Not exactly an auspicious start. 

Finally reaching the end just as Serizawa’s nerves were about to give out, Reigen re-folded the paper and looked up at Serizawa - the smile he usually used on customers affixing itself to his face.

“Well, it’s definitely well-written. The message is fully thought out, and it’s clear you and the recipient are close enough that it probably won’t be a huge surprise to whoever it is.” What? That sounded more like a grade on a paper than a response to a confession. “I think you should go for it!”

Serizawa tugged lightly at his fingers. “S-sorry, I d-don’t… understand?”

“You wanted me to proof-read this for you, yeah? Nice job on the realism of putting my name at the top, by the way. Makes it easy to get into the mindset of whoever you're actually writing it to. You did a great job with the whole thing! Not to mention the-”

Was… was this Reigen’s attempt at rejecting Serizawa without making it awkward? Plausible deniability of his intentions or something? It had to be, right? He couldn’t actually be this willfully dense.

“-of course. I’ve certainly never received a confession this nice before. And I’ve received plenty! Or, I did in middle school and high school. Ha, less now as an adult, but that’s pretty normal, right? I mean-”

It…was a rejection, right? Serizawa genuinely couldn’t tell.

“-anyway. You’ll have to let me know how they respond! Who is it, anyway? Someone from your class? Not a client of ours, I’m pretty sure. Someone from Claw? I didn’t think you were still in contact with any of them, besides those Super 5 guys. It’s not that Shimazaki guy, right? Because he kinda seemed like a creep. Oh, is it-”

“N-no, it’s not a classmate or anyone from Claw.” Serizawa finally interrupted, deciding that he’d rather have a rejection that acknowledged his feelings than a rejection that spared him the embarrassment of rejection. “I wrote it for you.”

“Yeah, to have me proof-read, I know.” It was honestly kind of insulting, the way that Reigen rolled his eyes as if Serizawa was the one missing the obvious. “I’m asking about who you’re actually going to confess to.”

“N-no, I wrote it for you. Like, w-with you in mi-” 

Unfortunately for Serizawa, the rest of his sentence was cut off as a woman, carrying a screaming child in each arm, abruptly kicked open the front door and bustled her way in. She made her way to the couches, dropped the children and collapsed onto the couch herself with an exhausted groan.

(The children were still screaming. Serizawa couldn’t quite make out the words, but he was pretty sure there were some cuss words in there. The children looked like they couldn’t be older than eight or nine, who was teaching kids this young language like that?)

Reigen was stuck staring at the - likely broken - door for another few seconds, before he drew his game face back on, waving Serizawa toward the kitchen to make some tea.

“Hello Ma’am! How can we at Spirits & Such help you today?”

Serizawa returned with the tea in time to hear the wrap up of the story - someone had set fire to the boys’ toy box, and they were insisting it was one of their new toys.

It took the rest of the afternoon and evening, and a visit to three other locations, but it eventually turned out that it was not any of the toys that were haunted, but the toy box itself. The creator’s spirit had been haunting their family line, but the ghost’s last decedent had died the previous week. With a lack of anyone of significance to haunt, the ghost had begun haunting (and destroying) their creations.

Reigen and Serizawa had finally cornered the ghost in the middle of torching another toy chest, and Serizawa now found himself sitting on the curb outside the final house, waiting for Reigen to finish calling a cab to come take them back to the office. 

With a sigh and a quiet click of plastic, Reigen dropped down to sit on the curb next to Serizawa. He was wearing his jacket again, likely as protection against the chill bite of the sun setting, despite its burnt edges and smell of burnt fabric. He’d attempted to use it to smother the fire, only to realize a supernatural fire wasn’t so easy to put out. At least they had walked away relatively unscathed; the scrapes would heal quickly enough.

“Man, I’m wiped. The taxi should be here in 15 minutes or so, thankfully.” Reigen said, shoving his phone into his pocket, pausing as the motion caused a crinkling sound in his jacket. He shoved a hand into the outer pocket, and pulled out a folded, somewhat burnt piece of paper.

Reigen offered the page to Serizawa, expression sheepish. “Ha, whoops. Good thing this wasn’t the actual final copy of your note, it got kind of ruined. I forgot I had it on me.”

Serizawa accepted it, his earlier resolve for a definitive answer faded in the face of exhaustion and uncertainty.

From the corner of his eye, he watched as Reigen fidgeted with the burnt edge of a sleeve, before flopping back to lay flat on his back in the grass.

“I really do hope it works out for you, you know. You’re a great guy… whoever that note is for must be pretty amazing to have caught your attention.” Reigen said, eyes fixed on the first twinkling stars above them. He had an odd kind of smile on his face - something genuine, but tinged with melancholy. 

Serizawa considered both the note in his hand and Reigen on the ground. Dirtied and burnt from a hard day, speaking indirectly in an effort to be more honest than normal. Well intentioned, but ultimately missing something.The similarities were almost poetic.

He pressed the note into Reigen’s hand, ignoring the way it caused the blond to startle, and then leaned back until he rested his weight on his elbows, staring up at the stars instead of Reigen. “I think I’d like you to keep it, actually. “

He could feel Reigen’s confused gaze on him, but he stared steadfastly upwards instead; he didn’t have the courage to confess again tonight, but he’d found his resolve at least.

With a quiet huff, Reigen returned his attention to the sky, and they lay there side by side until their ride came to take them home.

“-and then he asked me who the note was actually for, since he was assuming I wanted him to proofread it.” 

Serizawa recounted his confession failures to his classmates the next week, despite how embarrassing the admittance was. It was clear that his own intuition was lacking on this front, and he was hoping to crowdsource some new options.

“Oh you poor man… this Reigen-san must be very dense.” Yuka-san sighed, patting Serizawa on the shoulder. 

“He’s normally very perceptive!” Serizawa tried to defend. “He’s just… he has a hard time believing people could genuinely like him, I think.”

The middle-aged woman tutted and sighed commiseratingly.

“Just say a bunch of pick-up lines until he gets the picture,” Akira-kun suggested. “They’re a classic for a reason.”

“Oh sure, because Serizawa-kun can definitely get through more than one or two pick-up lines without turning into a tomato,” Yuji-kun scoffed. “Nah, man. You and your guy have a couple friends in common, right? Just get someone else to say it for you. You won’t have to worry about getting tongue-tied on the words, and maybe he’ll believe it more if it comes from an unbiased third-party.” 

So, that was Serizawa’s plan A and plan B for the week. Were pick-up lines embarrassingly direct? Yes. But hopefully direct enough to work.

He spent a week looking up the best pick-up lines Mobbit and Mobter could offer, then waited until the next quiet workday afternoon to launch his first offensive maneuver. 

“I’m not currently an organ donor, but I’d love to give you my heart.”

Reigen froze in place, hunched over a filing cabinet that he was in the process of re-organizing. Slowly, he raised his head, gracing Serizawa with a look of utter bewilderment.

“You remind me of a magnet, because you sure are attracting me over here,” Serizawa tried next, already feeling a flush creeping over his face. 

“Are you… testing out pick-up lines on me?” Reigen asked, “Because you really shouldn’t just start blurting out lines like those at people. It’s very confusing. And kind of awkward.”

“N-no, I… um, I-I’m not testing them out,” Serizawa sputtered, because he wasn’t - he was trying to use them to pick up Reigen. “B-but are you a time traveler? Because I see you in my future.”

Reigen drifted over to Serizawa. “... you are definitely testing them on me, that’s a pick up line. And not a very good one, the first two were better.”

Serizawa’s eyes drifted to the wall, and he started tapping a staccato beat onto the surface of his desk in a desperate attempt to maintain his composure. He struggled, for a moment, to remember the next line, then quickly blurted out: “Are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile.”

Now Reigen was the one to look away, red and sweaty and obviously flustered. He cleared his voice loudly, then forced a chuckle. “Haha, very funny. Are you feeling ok? Your face looks pretty red… maybe you’ve got a fever.”

Reigen reached out to test Serizawa’s temperature, but the esper caught hold of the hand instead, clutching it like a lifeline. “I-I’m fine. Um. Y-you must be a magician. B-because any t-time I look at you, e-everyone else disappears.”

The two men stared at each other, matching blushes crawling across their cheeks and up their ears.

“Mhm, yup! Totally fine!” Reigen repeated, voice pitched high as he tugged his hand free to cover his face, hiding his expression from Serizawa. “Listen, I’m gonna, uh, go in the other room. And I’ll be right back. Ok? Ok.”

Without waiting for an answer, Reigen quickly shuffled off to the massage room. Serizawa collapsed forward against his desk with a groan, shoving his face into his hands as he tried to calm himself down. God, that had been embarrassing. And it didn’t really seem to be getting him anywhere besides mutual embarrassment! 

As he sighed to himself, resolving to wait patiently for Reigen to return and then apologize for his forwardness, he realized he could just barely make out the sound of Reigen talking. 

“-mised not to call during club, I’m sorry. But I think Serizawa got himself possessed or something. He’s acting… not like himself. Do you have any time to stop by today? Thank you, I really appreciate it. I can take you out for ramen after if you’d like? You sure? I’ll owe you another time, then. See you in a bit.”

Whoops. He really must have overdone it, if Reigen decided the only possible explanation was that Serizawa was possessed. This was going to be embarrassing to explain to Shigeo-kun.

Reigen stopped talking, and things were quiet for a minute before he stepped back into the room, the very picture of nonchalance.

“S-sorry if that was a bit, um. Much. I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable, and I promise I’m not possessed. Or sick.” Serizawa said, fidgeting with his pen. He frowned as he accidentally made a line of ink on thumb, then licked a finger and tried to rub it off before it could stain his skin.

“What? Me, uncomfortable? Pft, don’t be silly!” Reigen denied, absently waving the thought off. “By the way, totally unrelated to anything from today, one of the kids called and asked if they could stop by. That’ll be fun, right? I’m gonna go wait outside for them to come, but you should stay in here. And uh. Not go anywhere.”

Reigen paused, an uncomfortable smile on his face. Serizawa raised an eyebrow in askance. 

“Not because I think you’d run away and try to possess another body or anything!” Reigen assured, “That would be silly, because clearly you’re Serizawa and not a spirit possessing him! But because it would, uh… be a shame to not say hi? Yes, that. Great conversation! Be back in a bit!”

And out the door Reigen went, leaving Serizawa to once again plaster his face against his desk in mortification. He was never trusting Akira-kun’s advice ever again. 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

There was a knock at the door before it opened and Shigeo-kun walked inside. Reigen hovered just outside the door, looking uncertainly between Shigeo, the door, and Serizawa himself.

Shigeo looked Serizawa over carefully, expression calm. “I’m pretty sure he’s not possessed, Shishou. But you should probably stay out there anyway, just to be safe.”

“What? Wait, I’m not gonna let you just wander in by yourself and-” 

Shigeo firmly closed the door on Reigen with a final glance back, then walked over to stand in front of Serizawa.

“Shishou said you were acting weird, so he thought you were possessed. But you’re clearly not. Is everything ok, Serizawa-san?”

Serizawa, face still buried in his hands, peeked through his fingers at the younger esper. “I’m fine. Incredibly embarrassed right now, but fine. I was trying to let Reigen know I liked him… and it didn’t really work?”

“Oh. I had a feeling you might like him, but I wasn’t sure. I’m… guessing you already tried just saying it normally?”

“I wrote him a confession note spelling everything out, hand delivered it to him and everything. But he decided I was just asking him to proof-read it, even though I kept trying to tell him it was for him.”

“Shishou can be very determined at believing something that’s factually incorrect,” Shigeo acknowledged.

“Yeah…” Serizawa drawled with a sigh. Shigeo watched him for a long, assessing moment, and Serizawa shifted to rest his chin on one hand.

“Would you like me to talk to him?” Shigeo offered eventually. “I don’t know that he’ll believe me any better, but it probably wouldn’t hurt?”

Serizawa was incredibly tempted… but it felt kind of cowardly to ask a high schooler to ask his crush out for him. What happened to living life courageously?

“Thank you very much for the offer… but I think it’s probably better that I find a way to do it myself,” Serizawa conceded. 

Shigeo hummed approvingly, before lightly patting Serizawa on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Serizawa-san. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I’ll be rooting for you!”

“-and then he opened the door to let Reigen in again. Reigen pestered us for ages, asking for an explanation, but Shigeo-kun just started asking if we’d had any interesting cases lately and eventually he gave up.”

Serizawa had decided it was time to try asking alternate sources for advice. As such, he was just finishing catching Ritsu, Teru, and Shigeo up to speed on the situation.

“Man, you have the worst luck,” Teru consoled. “You even picked some good lines! And it’s not that out of character! I mean… I don’t think you’ve ever flirted with anyone in front of us before, much less used a pickup line. But still!”

“I’m proud of you for trying! You’re doing your best, and that’s the important thing,” Shigeo assured. “What are you going to try next?”

“I’m not sure… and I’m also not sure this is still a good idea. What if he isn’t getting it because he just- doesn’t think of me as a romantic prospect?”

Ritsu grimaced but offered his two cents. “The guy is disgustingly head over heels for you. He’s just an incredibly dense idiot.”

Shigeo shot Ritsu a disappointed frown, then turned to smile reassuringly back at Serizawa.“I think you should keep trying. It’s not like he’s said no, right? You’ll regret it if you give up, and it turns out to just be a misunderstanding.”

“That’s true.” Serizawa hummed.

Teru suddenly straightened, sitting at attention. “Oh, I know! You should sing him a love song! That’s the newest fad at my school.” 

“I can’t even get through pickup lines without him thinking I’m possessed - how would I manage to sing a love song?!” Serizawa protested, throwing his hands in the air. He flinched when his aura flared with the abrupt motion, and a few items on display in the room rose a couple inches in the air. Thankfully, they settled back down safely onto their perches.

“You could offer him an ‘extra ticket’ to an event he’d be interested in. Isn’t that how people usually ask each other out?” Ritsu mused. “Even if he doesn’t figure it out, as long as he goes with you, it’s still basically an unofficial date.”

“We do stuff outside of work together all the time, though. I mean, we’re friends, not just co-workers. What if he doesn’t realize I’m asking as a date instead of a normal hang-out?” Serizawa asked. Ritsu only shrugged in response.

“I suppose the next question is: is the asking part of asking him out the most important,” Teru suggested. “If you go out on a few dates, he’ll probably figure it out, right?”

“Maybe?”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Going out on a possibly-unofficial date ended up being the best suggestion any of them were able to come up with, so it ended up being what Serizawa decided to go with a few weekends later. 

It was lucky that there was a local orchestra putting on a show that month; tickets were cheap and plentiful. Even better, one of the cellists was the older sibling of a cousin of a sibling of one of his classmates, and he had genuinely been able to snag a couple of free tickets.

Asking Reigen to go with him was surprisingly unstressful, compared to the previous attempts. Though, maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising; as Serizawa noted, it wasn’t that different from their norm.

(“Hey Reigen, there’s another community concert going on this weekend. Apparently it’s an orchestra this time. One of my classmates knows someone in the group, so I was able to get a couple free tickets. Would you like to go with me?”

“Sure! Saturday like normal? Is it a 2pm or a 7pm timeslot?”

“7pm. Dinner before?”

“Sounds good!”)

The day-of was much more nerve-wracking. Even if Reigen didn’t know it was a date, Serizawa wanted it to be one. He wore a nicer outfit than he would normally bother with, chose a nicer restaurant than they usually went to. He even dared to get a red carnation to give to Reigen.

He knocked on Reigen’s door, flower clenched in an incredibly sweaty hand.

It seemed only fitting that his mouth go incredibly dry, when the door opened to Reigen in a fitted vest he’d never seen before, hair swooped to one side in a way that made him look boyishly handsome.

“Come in, sorry, I’m running a little late!” Reigen pulled Serizawa inside, and then darted back to his bedroom, calling behind, “Teru called with a question about something shifty his landlord is doing, and I spent some time going over his lease with him. Took longer than I thought!”

Serizawa swallowed hard. “N-no worries! Did everything, uh, work out ok?”

“Won’t know for sure until he hears back, but I think it should go fine,” Reigen said, reappearing in the doorway and patting at his pockets. “Ok, I think I’ve got everything… do you still have the tickets, or did you already give me one? If you gave it to me, I might have lost it already. You look really nice, by the way. Are we meeting anyone else there?”

“A-ah, no, I didn’t give you the ticket yet. And we’re not meeting anyone there - or, not intentionally. I guess some of my classmates might have had the same idea?” He really hoped not, he’d warned them he was going to be bringing Reigen as a sort-of date. “You, um… you look really nice. I-I got you a flower?”

Serizawa held the carnation out, drawing Reigen back over to him from where he’d turned to futz with his hair in the reflection of his microwave. Reigen delicately accepted the flower, gently drawing a finger under one of the lower petals as his face darkened to a soft pink.

“O-oh, it’s gorgeous… thank you.” Reigen chewed on his lip, staring at the carnation thoughtfully. “I don’t have a vase handy, but it should be ok for the night in a normal cup with water. I’ll just need a minute to set it up.”

Serizawa watched as Reigen pulled a glass from the cabinet and a pair of scissors from a drawer. The glass went under the sink, filled half-way with water. The scissors were used to cut off a chunk of stem at an angle, so the remainder started at a sharp 45 degrees.

Reigen gently placed the carnation in the water, fluffing gently at its leaves. He bent down to check something through the glass and seemed satisfied with whatever he saw. Pushing the glass a bit further from the edge of the counter, he returned to where Serizawa was standing.

“Sorry, I didn’t get you anything.” He glanced back at the flower, something soft in his expression. “I- … I really do appreciate it - the flower is lovely. Was there a sale or something? Oh, you know you don’t have to bring a housewarming gift when you’re just hanging out with a friend, right?”

“I didn’t get it with the expectation of something in return,” Serizawa denied, pulling at a loose thread on the hem of his sleeve. “I just- wanted to give you something nice.”

He glanced up to see Reigen staring at him, something analytical and weighted in his warm gaze.

The moment stretched like a taut rubber band for an endless moment… before a sudden, sharp melody broke the silence, startling them both into action.

Reigen’s hand dived for his pocket, and he pulled out his phone, silencing the alarm that was playing. “Ah, that startled me; I forgot I set an al- the alarm! We gotta go, we’re already late!”

With that, Reigen started shoving Serizawa back towards the front door. Just before he was forced outside, he used his aura to flip the lights off in the kitchen and bedroom and to grab Reigen’s keys off the hook by the door. He handed them to Reigen just as the blond went to re-open the door for them, and a moment later they were on their way down the street.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Dinner and the show were both lovely, and Serizawa found himself forgetting his nerves early on in the evening. It was amazing how effortless things could be when he was with Reigen. Not that things were always so easy, of course; they had their share of arguments and thoughtless actions that drove the other up the wall. But on the whole, they covered each other’s weaknesses and made each other laugh. 

Time spent with Reigen was almost always greater than the sum of its parts. He couldn’t help but be a little disappointed as they neared Reigen’s apartment; he wasn’t ready for the evening to come to a close.

“This was a lot of fun. Thanks for inviting me, Katsuya.”

Serizawa’s next step went wide in surprise, and he tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. He would have faceplanted into the concrete if not for an instinctive application of his powers.

Reigen paused, offering Serizawa a steadying hand. “Whoa! Careful big guy, we don’t need to top the evening off with a trip to the ER. You ok?”

“A-ah, y-yeah, I’m fine. Y-you, uh, you c-called me Katsuya…?”

Reigen’s face did something complicated, and he raised a hand to rub awkwardly at the back of his neck. “Y-yeah, uh, I sure did. Um… should I not have? I thought- I mean, we’re definitely friends at the very least. I mean, you’re my best friend for sure, I guess I don’t know if I’m- is it too much? I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable or-”

“N-no! I-I mean yes! Y-you can call me Katsuya. O-or whatever you like, r-really.” Serizawa stuttered. He wanted to add something smooth, maybe that he preferred Reigen address him as ‘boyfriend’ instead, but thought better of it. Lines hadn’t gone over too well before, and he didn’t want to ruin the evening by accident.

“O-oh! Well- um, good!” He started walking again abruptly, leaving Serizawa to hurry after him. “You can call me Arataka, by the way. In case that wasn’t clear. Or whatever you wanna call me. I’m not too picky.”

“O-ok. Um. Thank you, Arataka.”

Reigen’s shoulders went up, drawing Serizawa’s attention to his reddening ears. “You don’t need to thank me… it’s just a name.”

“Maybe. But it’s your name.” Serizawa knocked their shoulders together.

“I mean… yes?” Reigen looked up at him, confusion evident. “What does that mean?”

Serizawa only shrugged, the tangle of emotions too much to explain in the middle of the street like this.

“-so I mean, it went really well! But I don’t know if it got me any closer to explaining things to Reigen.”

Serizawa was once again explaining his romantic woes to a group of children, though his audience had grown since last time. He’d thought to invite Shou this time and Tome had followed him from work, excited to hear some gossip.

“I think sometimes, it’s the little things adding up that do the most work. Just keep trying. I’m sure you two will figure it out!” Shigeo offered.

“Little things take ages to add up, though,” Teru interjected. “If you want results fast, you need to go big. Some kind of grand gesture to really grab his heart by the strings!”

“If you want a ‘go big or go home’ option, you can always light his house on fire?” Shou suggested. “That’s going big, and removes the option of going home! Worked for me and Ritsu.”

“Wh- that had nothing to do with us getting together!” Ritsu squawked.

“‘Course it did - we went on our first date right after. Took down my dad’s criminal organization and everything.”

“That wasn’t a date!” Ritsu yelled, throwing a pillow from the couch at Shou’s head. Not the most effective ammunition, as Shou didn’t even bother to catch it, simply tilting his head to one side as it sailed past.

“No, if you want something big, you’ve gotta go for a quotable moment. All the best romance movies have them!” Tome declared.

“A… quotable moment?” Serizawa asked, ignoring Ritsu and Shou’s continued squabbling in favor of Tome’s explanation.

“Yeah! The moment in a story where the music swells, and the camera zooms in on a person’s face, and they say something meaningful and romantic and memorable. The kind of line that people take screenshots of and use as reaction images online, or list in their Mobbook bios.”

“Oooh. I already tried that though - kind of at least. I tried giving him three different love letters and used a bunch of pickup lines I found online. None of that worked.”

“This will work way better, trust me! Pickup lines are cheesy, and it’s easy to tell they’re lines. If you pick the right quote, he won’t even know it’s not your own words. And you have to say it. Walk up to him, stare dreamily into his eyes, and say the line, just like they do in the movies.”

“Why are you so invested in him and Reigen getting together?” Ritsu asked, twisting in place to stare suspiciously at Tome from where he was sitting on top of Shou’s back.

“Don’t look at me like that! Serizawa’s a good guy; he deserves to fall in love! …plus, my favorite romcom doesn’t start their new season for another couple months, and I’m bored.”

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Serizawa spent his next couple of free evenings looking up romantic quotes from various movies, trying to find something that matched how he felt about Reigen. Even if he was borrowing someone else’s words, he wanted something that mattered, something that would resonate with Reigen to show how much the blond meant to Serizawa.

He stayed up late Friday night, watching clip after clip of romantic confessions from all manner of movie and tv show, until he fell asleep at his desk. When he woke up Saturday morning (computer now playing the credits to some American movie), he realized he needed to stop putting it off. It didn’t have to be the perfect words - he just needed to say something. 

The more time he spent with Reigen, the more time he wanted to spend with him. And he didn’t want to miss out on any of that time due to wasting it worrying about finding perfection.

With that in mind, he quickly showered and changed into new clothes, setting out for Reigen’s apartment before he had a chance to lose his nerve.

The walk to Reigen’s apartment felt like it took no time at all, and soon he was knocking on the door. There was a moment of quiet, and then it opened, Reigen staring at him with concern from the other side.

“Serizawa? Hey, are you ok? You look really anxious… come on in and I’ll make you some tea.”

Serizawa stepped through the door, letting it close behind him. He grabbed Reigen’s arm before he could head for the kitchen, causing him to turn and look at Serizawa again.

“Arataka, I love you. I love that you tell the stupidest, most obvious lies about pointless things. I love that you keep drinking lemon sours, even though you clearly have a citrus allergy, and then act surprised when you get sick. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your cologne on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. I came here this morning because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Reigen was staring at him, wide-eyed and shellshocked, something dazed and hopeful and confused in his expression.

Serizawa drew his hand up the side of Reigen’s face, tilting his head upwards as he moved closer, until there were scant inches between their mouths. 

“I’ve wasted so much of my life in fear. I don’t want to waste any time that could be spent with you, not anymore. Not ever again.” He leaned forward, intending to seal the statement between their lips, so there could be no misunderstanding of his intentions-

-when suddenly a hand pushed him forcefully away from Reigen, face firetruck red and panting like he’d run a mile.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,” Reigen muttered, taking a couple steps back and snatching his hand back from Serizawa’s chest like it had burned him. 

Reigen was trembling in place, and Serizawa was beginning to wonder if he’d screwed everything up. If maybe he’d been reading things wrong the whole time, and he’d just utterly ruined his friendship with one of the best people he’d ever known.

“Ok. I’m ok. Everything is fine.” Reigen reminded himself, lightly shaking his limbs out to dispel the worst of his tension. He glanced at Serizawa with a soft glare. “You need to warn a guy before you practice lines like that, or you’re gonna give people the wrong idea. I didn’t even know you were planning to audition for something!”

“Wh- practice lines?! Auditioning?!! Where did you even get that idea from?”

“Hey! Don’t take that tone; why else would you be quoting that one movie, uh… ‘When Harry Met Sally’. Like, that was so obviously the big confession scene from the end of the movie, there’s no way it could be anything else. And if it’s not for an audition, then why are you quoting it?!”

“... ok, it might be a quote from a movie, but only because I fell asleep looking up romantic confession scenes for inspiration. Even with that, why do you always pick the weirdest explanations for things instead of accepting the obvious?! I like you! I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks that I like you. The first couple notes, I understood. The last note, that I handed directly to you, you insisted I wanted proofreading help on, even though I kept saying it was only ever intended for you!”

Serizawa ran a hand raggedly through his hair, taking a deep breath to try to recenter himself. Reigen was beginning to look distinctly unsettled again, and he could feel his aura bubbling under his skin. He did not need to add uncontrolled floating to this mixture.

“The pickup lines were, admittedly, out of character. But there was literally nothing else to suggest I was possessed. We didn’t even deal with any curses or spirits that day! … I don’t blame you for not realizing the concert was a date though - I never really said anything about it that day.”

Reigen swallowed hard, arms hugging tight around himself as he glanced around the room. “I… I don’t understand. You can’t like me like that… that’s just not possible.”

Serizawa sighed. “Because no one would like you if they knew the real you? I don’t understand why you always think the real you is so unpalatable to other people. I know you, and that’s why I like you. You’re funny and creative. You can be a bit selfish, but you can also be incredibly sweet. You lie constantly, but it’s almost always about stuff that doesn’t matter or to protect someone else. You’re an incredibly messy eater, but it’s only because you enjoy the food so much.”

He held his hand out in offer to Reigen, palm side up.

“I like spending time with you, just because you’re you. Things aren’t always perfect, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. You don’t have to believe me, but I’d be grateful if you’d give me the chance to prove it to you.”

Reigen walked close, staring up into Serizawa’s eyes with an assessing gaze.

“I… are you su-” Reigen cut himself off with a shake of his head. “If you weren’t sure, you wouldn’t be saying all of this. You aren’t that kind of person.”

Reigen sighed, chewing anxiously on his lip for a moment before continuing. “I- I really like you. Like, a lot. I have for a while, even though I wasn’t planning on saying anything. That’s… why I kept insisting there was a different reason for your actions; I didn’t want to get my hopes up only for them to be crushed if I was reading things wrong.”

He finally reached out, and grabbed Serizawa’s hand, which had dropped to his side with his previous inattention. “I might find it hard to believe that someone could be interested in me like that. But I believe in you, and I trust that you wouldn’t say it if you weren’t sure. So yeah, let’s date or whatever.”

Serizawa couldn’t help but to give a light laugh at that. “‘Let’s date or whatever’? That’s the best line you’ve got?” He asked with a crooked, if very pleased, grin.

“Oh, shut up! It’s early, I haven’t even had any coffee yet,” Reigen complained, lightly smacking at Serizawa’s arm with his free hand.

Serizawa gently tugged him closer, curling his free arm around Reigen’s waist once he was close enough, dropping Reigen’s hand in favor of gently cupping the side of his face. “So… does this mean I can make another attempt at that kiss from earlier?”

Reigen unconsciously licked his lip, his arms creeping around Serizawa’s shoulders. The motion of his mouth drew Serizawa’s eyes, which caused the blond to flush. “I suppose it would be fitting,” Reigen drawled, batting his eyes playfully, “considering the big movie moment we’ve got going on.”

And, well… spending the day making out was certainly a fun way to start on showing Reigen how much Serizawa liked him.