Work Text:
Soft sheets and a morning smell. A rectangle of sunshine on your face, wind flowing smoothly from the window to your skin. You squeeze your eyes and it takes you some strength, emitting a low groan. You have an absurd headache. You blink a few times but your eyelids feel like metal. Your mouth is dry.
Finally, your vision gets clear and you understand.
First off...this isn't my house
Which says a lot, considering your reaction when you roll on your side and see Reigen Arataka. You jump and gasp from surprise.
He was laying on his stomach, his face turning around from you, and his smooth back falling up and down slowly under rays of sunshine. And he's completely naked. His naked butt cheek peeking from the blanket confirms it. That also means something else.
I'm naked, save me
You immediately pull the covers up your breasts, even though Reigen's still sleeping so he couldn't see a thing. Your breathing is heavy but your naked body is stiff from head to toe. You feel yourself burn from embarrassment as you stare at the guy on your side.
I had sex with Reigen Arataka
I had SEX with REIGEN ARATAKA
The situation is unequivocal, it couldn't have happened anything else last night. And slowly, vague memories start to come in your mind again. Your high school reunion party, you and Reigen drinking, you two agitatedly making out in a taxi, and then just this tiny glimpse of him having sex with you while you held his face. Just these four, very evocative pictures and then nothing else. You drank too much.
You squeeze the bridge of your nose between your thumb and index and then sigh. You have to find a way to escape because you can't handle this embarrassment anymore. But you can't just run off without saying anything, making Reigen wake up all alone. It would be an asshole move. So you take a deep breath and extend your hand towards his back. There are long red marks trailing across his skin.
Are those scratches?! Holy shit...
"Reigen...wake up" you whisper as you lightly shake him.
Nothing, Reigen just turns around to face you. He looks like he's having the best sleep of his life.
You rock him more vigorously "Reigen!"
With a jump and a grunt Reigen wakes up.
"What? Oh my God!" he exclaims.
"Good...morning?" you say, cracking a really unsure smile.
"Christ (Y/N), what are you doing in my bed? And why are you naked?!" Reigen scoots a bit away, getting up on his elbows.
"Well, make 2+2!" you shout back, nervous.
Reigen throws hectic glances across the whole room. Your clothes are chaotically thrown everywhere, all spread across the floor. Your bra is hanging off his TV and his pink tie is swinging on a lamp. It looks like the aftermath of a hurricane.
"Did...did we?" Reigen asks, pulling up the covers on himself.
"Yes Reigen, we had sex" you sentence.
"Shit..."
Reigen drags his hand down his face, looking at you through his fingers.
An awkward silence falls between you two, still in the shared bed of Reigen's apartment. It's not the first time you have a one-night stand, and not Reigen's either. But it usually didn't happen with your old high school classmates, so drunk that you don't remember anything. Just a brief flash of Reigen on top of you and your hand caressing his cheek.
"I don't really remember anything from the second half of the school reunion forward" you say, trying to avoid his eyes "we went away together, we wildly made out inside a cab and the second after we were having sex on this very bed"
Reigen frowns and his temples pulsate from pain.
"Yeah, that's what I remember more or less" he replies, scratching his honey-colored head.
He rolls on his other side and looks down the bed. There's his pants, his phone and, not-so surprisingly, an used condom. At least you were protected, but it confirmed furthermore that you two really had sex. Reigen turns back around to face you.
"Oh"
He was taken by surprise by seeing you sitting on the edge of the bed, your back naked but attempting to dress up again. You had your skirt, the one that was unceremoniously thrown on the other side of the bedroom last night.
"Can you uhm...turn around?" you ask, embarrassed as if the question was out of place.
You did see each other naked the night before after all.
Reigen quickly nods "Yeah of course, sorry"
You quickly sneak towards the TV, where your bra was laying undisturbed. You take it and clasp it around your breasts, then you start searching for your high socks. Reigen turns around again after you finish getting dressed.
"Are you leaving already?" he asks.
Was it your imagination or was he disappointed?
"Um yeah...you know" you start hopping on one foot as you try to put on your high heels "work! I'm really late..."
"Oh yeah, work. Cool, cool" Reigen nods, pressing his lips together.
Reigen drops on his back, his hair messy and sprawled across the mattress. He puts one hand on his naked and exposed stomach. As he looks up the ceiling, absent minded, you get completely dressed again. It feels like taking a deep breath after being underwater. You pick up your purse and swing it around your arm. You look at Reigen, still laying down on his bed and unclothed.
"I'm off then! It was a pleasure...for as long as I can remember..."
A clumsy smile curls on your face. You feel pathetic. Reigen lays on his side, blanket partly covering his torso.
"Alright uhm.. wanna stay in touch thes-"
"Bye bye!"
A whirl and you speed off, sprinting towards his apartment door. You close it behind yourself as you sigh in relief. That was stressful. As you climb down the stairs of Reigen's apartment complex, you search for your phone in your purse. You type a number and make a call, feeling the hot screen of the cell pressing on your ear.
"Hi, can we meet up at the café? I did something last night..."
---
Walking through a crowd full of people while wearing a party dress on a Sunday morning is an experience you won't ever repeat. Sunday mornings are for families and friends, they're lazy. And here you are, still with your party clothes, too sexy and too over the top for a sleepy Seasoning City. Every tap of your heels is a call for attention, and passerby's do look at you a bit curiously. You finally reach your hang-out spot, a little café inside Seasoning City's main plaza. Your best friend is already here.
As soon as Yuko sees you, a grin splatters on her pretty face.
"Walk of shame!" she exclaims, putting her arms up cheerfully.
You roll your eyes "Please just shut up"
You drag your chair under the table and you drop on it ungraciously, with a tired face.
"The waiter is on his way to bring you some coffee, it's on me" Yuko reassures you.
"Thanks, I need it" you sigh, resting your head on the palm of your hand.
"I leave a party early for once and you get in trouble" Yuko smiles, as she takes out a fresh packet of cigarettes from her bag.
Yuko is your best friend since high school, she was present yesterday night at the high school reunion. You spent the whole night together, until she had an emergency and left early. At that moment you and Reigen met and linked. Yuko hands you a stick of tobacco, and you accept it happily. You put the orange filter between your lips and take out a lighter from your purse. When the small tongue of fire touches the tip of the cigarette, it lights up in a magmatic color. You inhale deeply and blow smoke from your nostrils, your eyes closed.
"It wasn't all that..." you grunt, trying to avoid Yuko's gaze through the cloud of smoke that separates you.
Yuko, with a sly smile, protrudes forward. Her long and silky black hair swing from side to side.
"C'mon, who's the lucky guy?"
You shake your head, pressing your lips together. Then, your coffee arrives and the waiter puts it in front of you on the table. You immediately take it and bring it towards your lips. You sip the hot beverage and close your eyes.
"C'mooon (Y/N)! You know you can tell me anything!"
With the cup still between your lips, you talk.
"Regenartaka..." you mumble in a low tone.
"What? I didn't hear you"
"Reigen Arataka"
You hear an audible gasp, which makes you jump and spill coffee on the corner of your lips. You put the cup down and are immediately met with a shocked Yuko, her mouth wide open before slapping a hand on it.
"There's no way!"
"But apparently yes, Yuko, I had sex with Reigen Arataka"
"It's unbelievable! THAT Reigen Arataka?"
"How many times do I have to repeat it?!"
Yuko slides her hand down her mouth to reveal an amused but at the same time dumbfounded smile, still beautiful as always.
"I remember him so well in high school! He was in our class and always by himself, with that side part haircut. And he was always blabbering about how he would have become a successful entrepreneur in the future, or a graphic designer at least. What is he up to now?"
"He works privately as an exorcist, or at least this is what he told me" you answer, putting the cigarette back in your mouth.
"Really? Does he have any psychic powers?"
"I don't know, he didn't show me anything like that"
"But he did show you something else!" Yuko adds with a wink.
"For fucks sake, Yuko!"
You take another hit as she graciously but mischievously does the same.
"I think I saw him yesterday at the party, but I wasn't sure that it was him. Tall, grey jacket, pink tie..."
"Yeah, it was him" you confirm.
"Oh my God, so he changed a lot! Who would have thought about it, he became really cute...still a bit weird tho"
You smile a bit "Well yeah, he's original. And he's not shy like he was in high school, he became really talkative! I even found him kind of charismatic"
"Oh, and since he's so talkative, what did you say to each other this morning in bed?"
You force an embarrassed and fake smile "Basically nothing, I left as soon as I could"
Yuko's eyes widen "(Y/N)! You didn't leave him to wake up all alone, didn't you?"
"No!" you raise your hands in front of you "Not like that, I woke him up before leaving so he could realize the situation"
"And then you escaped at your first chance and with the first excuse that popped in your mind"
"Yeah, I said that I had to go to work"
"On a Sunday morning?"
"Oh shit it's Sunday..."
You pinch your nose and squeeze your eyes from guilt, obviously Reigen didn't believe such a poor excuse.
"C'mon, it's not nice to run away after spending the night with someone" Yuko says, almost in a motherly tone.
"You're right it's just...I was really uncomfortable and I felt like leaving"
Yuko closes her eyes and nods, then she takes a last hit from her cigarette before crushing it against an ashtray.
"I understand, it must have been awkward for you to wake up next to someone you barely know"
You nod and put down the cigarette on the ashtray too. The taste of coffee and cigarette mixes harmonically in your tongue, making the last remnants of alcool disappear from your mind and mouth.
"Well, tell me, how was sex? Is he good?"
You scratch your head "I must confess that I don't remember anything"
"What?! Zero?"
"Yeah, too drunk"
Yuko's gaze gets really serious, her icy eyes get thin as she frowns.
"Hey, he didn't take advantage of you, right?"
You immediately raise two hands forward "No, no no no! He was also drunk, but I clearly remember me giving him consent, I really wanted him"
Yeah, you wanted him so bad last night it was surprising even for you.
Yuko relaxes and sighs "Thank God, but please be careful"
"You know...I was the one who asked to sleep together"
An instinctive laugh erupts from Yuko "What? You making the first move? You must have been reeeally fucked up"
You asking Reigen to have sex was your last clear memory. You just laid down your last drink and in a matter of minutes everything became confused.
———
The school gym was greatly decorated for the high school reunion party. On the small stage a rock band was performing for just a bunch of yen. The dance floor was full of ex-high schoolers who danced together and tables were full of alcohol. It was a very western party, but nothing distasteful. However you wouldn't have thought that out of all your ex classmates and ex students of your same year, you would have ended up with Reigen Arataka. Yuko had to go away for an emergency and you felt the urge to smoke a cigarette, but your packet was empty and so you asked to the first person you saw smoking outside the gym. You didn't even recognize him in the beginning. It was dark outside and you also never interacted with him after graduation. And physically he became taller, with harder features, dressed differently, smoking a cigarette with his grey jacket hanging from his shoulder.
Reigen Arataka became a man.
After recognizing each other as former classmates, he offered you a cigarette, you smoked together, then you got some drinks inside the gym, and then you were outside again for a cigarette, and then again inside the gym to drink. Back and forth between drinking and smoking and chatting. Reigen was talkative, charismatic, even tho a bit clumsy. He was really charming in the way he gestured, talked, used his eyes. Despite all the self-confidence he radiated, you could feel his leg bouncing up and down under the table you claimed inside the gym. At some point, he turned around to look at all the hundreds of guests.
"Everyone's dancing" you said, looking at all the old year-mates romping on the dancefloor.
"Yeah, but I'm not a good dancer" Reigen replied, looking at you a bit mortified.
"Oh, me neither, I hate dancing"
You lowered you last drink on your shared table, sighing. You were really dizzy, and your feet hurt. But you liked staying with Reigen, and you didn't want to leave yet. Reigen's face was flushed red from alcohol, his pink tie loosened and his grey jacket unbottoned.
Reigen plunged into his seat "I would rather swallow a lit cigarette than dancing"
His sarcasm surprised you so much that you chocked on your drink and started laughing hysterically. Reigen, completely in his fumes and fascinated by your laugh, started laughing too. Then, you say something way too brave.
"My God you're so funny, I could just fuck you right now"
Immediately after you said that, you smacked your hand on your mouth with a loud slap. Reigen was so taken by surprise that his eyes basically popped out of his skull as he choked on his beer. You were petrified. You quickly got up, your breath heavy.
"I'm so sorry! That was so inappropriate of me, I don't know what go into-"
"Okay, let's do it"
"Wait what?"
Reigen got up too, a bit wobbly. Your vision was cranky too.
"I said that I'm okay with ehm...fucking. My house is just a few blocks away and we could call a cab. If you want to, of course"
You stayed a few more seconds just staring at each other, shocked by your sudden decision. There was a slight sexual tension building up during the night, and you caught that, but neither of you would have thought about actually ending up sleeping together.
"I'm down with that, let's go have sex" you said. And it sounded horrible.
"Great! Cool, very cool"
"But hurry up!"
"Yeah, okay!"
The second after, you and Reigen started running across the gym between guests and tables. Reigen used one hand to hold yours and the other to call a cab as you two were speeding away. There was no need to run tho.
Some minutes after you were sprawled all over him inside the backseat of a taxi, as he laid under you and held you close by your hips and made out with you. The rearview window reflected the eyes of a terrified driver. At Reigen's apartment you two went at it on his bed, and next thing you knew you woke up naked by his side.
———
"Now that I think about it Hana-chan told me that yesterday she saw you and another guy running away together hand in hand, I just didn't think that it was Reigen"
"Well, now you know"
"Don't you want to take this thing to a deeper level?"
You raise a dubious eyebrow.
"What you mean?"
"I mean going out with him"
You shake your head frantically and with determination.
"No, no and absolutely no"
"But why! It looked like you really got along"
Yuko laid her head on the palm of her hand. Her eyes were pleading but yours unmovable.
"I don't feel like going out with any man right now, not after my last relationships"
Men in your life were mediocre. Never violent, but never sweet, always absent and always with so little care. They always left you so coldly and came back as if nothing happened. They used to tell you that you were beautiful but in an insensitive way. You had that feeling, that they only wanted to be with you just because you really were beautiful. It has been that way since high school, and they would often confirm it themselves. Men didn't really love you and weren't kind to you.
"I understand darling...do what you feel like doing, even though this kinda feels like a waste" Yuko sighs.
As she takes out her phone and starts swiping on it mindlessly, your phone rings. It's a notification. You turn it on to find a new text message from an unregistered number.
Reigen: hey (Y/N), this is Reigen. You gave me your number last night, I don't think you remember. I don't want to bother you or be inappropriate, but I found this in my phone gallery and I think you should see it.
A video is attached to Reigen's unexpected text.
And when you open it, your heart sinks in your chest. You lower the volume quickly, but your eyes are fixed on the screen.
This can't be
The video depicts you and Reigen in his bedroom, partly undressed, laughing in satisfaction because of the wonderful idea you two came up with. Then, the virtual you places the phone on the nightstand, and here comes a complete video of the passionate night you spent with Reigen. Obscene sounds, moans and creaking of bed springs force you to mute the video completely.
"Holy fucking shit" you whisper, your eyes horrified.
"What?" Yuko bolts up.
"Nothing! It's nothing!"
But your phone betrays you by accidentally turning the volume up, so that Yuko too can hear the unmistakable sounds of two people going at it.
"Don't tell me that you and Reigen made a-"
"Yes Yuko, for fucks sake, that's a sex tape!"
Exasperated, you plung your head in your crossed arms and smother a scream in your jacket. Yuko on the other hand laughs so much that she has to hold her stomach.
"Don't laugh!"
"It's exhilarating I swear! C'mon, finish the video so you can tell me everything after"
Reluctantly you pick up your phone again and replay the video. It goes on for a while, nothing more than you and Reigen having some really strenuous and perplexingly loud sex, and then collapsing exhausted. But it doesn't end here, because after some minutes you both suggest a second round.
But the second time you have sex is surprisingly sweet for a sex tape. Reigen hovers on top of you but gently, you touch his face, you recognize it as the only image you still remembered from last night. Reigen whispers in your ear that you are beautiful, as he gently rocks in and out of you, and you smile calmly and caress his cheek. Then he finishes again, and he collapses next to you for the second time.
"It's not over yet..." you whisper to yourself, confused.
The last part of the footage is just you and Reigen. You turn your bare back from the camera, and only Reigen's torso and half of his face aren't hidden behind you. Reigen smiles sheepishly and with a finger he strokes your cheek. He fixes a really sweet gaze on you.
"First-year me would be very proud" Reigen murmurs.
"Oh yeah?" you giggle "and why"
"I may have had a little crush on you when we were in high school"
"You don't say! But we barely even talked...why didn't you ever come up to me to talk?"
"Because women scared the shit out of me"
You laugh together. Reigen sneaks an arm behind your exposed back and starts drawing circles on your skin with the tip of his fingers.
"But I wasn't scary"
"In the narrative inside my head, a tiny bit. I mean, you and your friends were really popular and the prettiest in our class. Everyone had a crush on you, you received confessions on a daily basis. I was kind of a loser, I couldn't stand a chance and I thought that we didn't have anything to share"
"It's true, I received a lot of confessions, but every boy liked me just because of my looks and nothing more. For you it's the same, both in high school and right now I guess"
"What you mean?"
"We had sex tonight because you're attracted to me, maybe because you think I'm pretty. That's how things work and it's okay"
Reigen shakes his head "Not at all, I didn't have a crush on you just because you were beautiful"
"You're lying"
"No, listen. I liked you because yeah, I thought you were pretty, but also kind. Between your friends you were the sweetest, the few times we talked you always treated me so gently. And you were so intelligent, I'll always remember your essay about Soseki's Kairo-Ko"
"My essay about Natsume Soseki! You remember that...I can't believe it"
"Of course I remember, I thought it was so personal and brilliant. You have a talent for writing"
"And that's why I'm a time-waster who writes for the exciting Seasoning City newspaper, how talented..."
"I don't see how you're a time-waster"
"Well, three years of high school without talking to you kinda make me a time-waster"
Reigen is startled and blushes "I would've loved getting to know you better in high school, but I can do it now at least. It's just a shame that tomorrow we won't remember anything"
"Yeah, I'm too drunk. Tomorrow everything will be foggy"
"I hope that you'll at least remember that I didn't have sex with you just because you're beautiful, tonight"
"It usually works like this for me, men see me as a doll who's only good at fucking"
"Not me, I never saw you that way"
The recording stops, Reigen's phone must have ran out of battery. You lay your phone down on the table, still a bit in shock. But a small smile you didn't even notice you had curls on your face.
"Thank god Reigen didn't become a graphic designer, his website is obscene!" Yuko exclaims, before looking up at you "hey, what you daydreaming about?"
"He remembered my favourite author, and my essays..." you murmur.
Yuko grins, waving a hand in front of your face "Heyyy, Earth to (Y/N)! What happened in the video?"
You snap out of your thoughts, shaking your head slightly.
"No it's just that me and Reigen talked for a while after...copiously having sex" you heat up a bit "and well, he said some really sweet stuff"
Without showing her the video, you cut to the part where you and Reigen have a conversation in bed. After it ends, Yuko has a blessed smile on her face.
"He has a way with words, who would have knew. He really treated you well"
Your phone rings again, another notification.
Reigen: I think we should delete it, it's risky to have intimate videos and none of us was sober.
If you want we can meet up and I can delete it in front of you so that you can be sure that is gone.
"He wants us to meet up so I can see him deleting the video himself. To make me feel safer, he said"
"(Y/N)! You cretin!" Yuko smashes her hands against the table, making you and the other clients of the café jump in surprise "this man is a walking green flag with arms and legs and a pretty face and you want to let him go?!"
"Chill! It's just that I-..."
Yuko calms down, regaining her femme fatale composure "I would really think about it"
You take a deep breath and look at the last segment of the video. The way Reigen looks at you, with his eyes fixed not on your body but on your face. His hand tracing small circles on your naked back with the tip of his fingers. The way he touches you with delicacy with both hands and words. You take another deep and determined breath.
(Y/N): come at my place at 3 PM. This is my address.
You text him your address and put your phone in stand-by. Yuko looks at you with a peaceful smile. You reciprocate it.
At 3 PM your doorbell rings. You quickly check yourself out in the mirror, fixing your hair before opening the front door. Behind it, Reigen Arataka looks embarrassed and is holding a small bouquet of flowers.
"Hey" he says, paper crinkling under his fingers.
Your face is a bit startled "Oh! Flowers?"
"Uhm, yeah. For you"
He holds them out with an awkwardness that didn't absolutely belong to the self confident guy that was holding you in his arms last night. You find it adorable.
"Thanks" you chuckle "you're sweet. Even though we are here to delete an erotic video"
"There are no good or bad occasions to buy flowers" Reigen says, then he curses himself for sounding too cheesy.
You smile as you look at him taking out his phone from his pocket. He turns it on in front of you, then opens the gallery and accidentally starts playing the video. Awkwardly sexual sounds start reverberating from the speakers.
"Please close it" you say, embarrassed.
"Yeah sorry"
His nevrotic fingers miss the stop button, they're also sweaty so the touch screen doesn't work. You feel like exploding from shame when a fragment of Reigen asking you consent for the 15th time and you begging him to just fuck the shit out of you plays.
"Turn it off I don't wanna see it!" you yelp, covering your eyes behind your hands.
"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!"
Reigen finally stops the video, and drags it with his finger towards a small trash can icon. Deleted forever.
"Thank goodness" you whisper, and both of you sigh in relief.
You exchange some glances, you behind the flowers he gifted you. It's an awkwardness you imagine you two would have had if you were still in high school.
"We could go out to dinner tonight to celebrate" you say after a while.
"What? Celebrating?" Reigen asks, surprised and curious.
"Yeah to celebrate the uh...the cancellation of our sex tape. Oh god I mean...listen, would you take me out on a date?"
Reigen feels himself catching fire, his face quickly becomes a blushing mess. He adjusts his tie knot.
"I would be happy to, because I want to have a clear memory of you" he answers.
You smile at each other.
"Good" you say.
"Then see you tonight to celebrate the deletion of our sex tape" a couple of seconds and then Reigen shakes his head "no shit I mean, for our date"
You burst out laughing and hold his flowers against your chest, Reigen looks at you. He remembers something about last night. He forgot to tell you that in high school he also crushed on your laugh.