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Suguru wakes up disgruntled on the couch. His neck hurts, his arm is asleep and he’s vaguely cold, because Satoru acts as if his room is a bigger fridge, and none of these things help to make him feel better. He just wanted to take a quick break as he waited for Satoru to come back but clearly his body had different plans.
And clearly Satoru doesn’t care for him at all, because Suguru hears the shower running which means Satoru must have walked right past him.
“Great,” Suguru mutters as he shakes his arm in hopes to bring feeling back to it. “Just great.”
He rolls his head around too, trying to soften his neck up again and his mood takes another hit when hair tumbles over his face.
“Fucking great,” he hisses, his hair wild and unbound and it’s just serving to annoy Suguru even more. He is very certain that he had it all tied up when he laid down, though, so the hair tie should still be around somewhere.
He fishes around the couch cushions and lets out a triumphant grunt when he finds it, quickly putting his hair back into its usual bun. He immediately feels better, but then a new problem rears its head.
Suguru really has to pee. The shower is still running, though and Suguru knows Satoru well enough that this could take forever, though he has no chance to gauge the time.
He’s not going to wait for Satoru to finish his luxury spa day, though, so he’ll just have to be quick about it; it’s not even as if he’s going to see anything since Satoru will be safely behind the shower curtain and he probably won’t even notice him.
Suguru ignores the thoughts that a stark naked Satoru will be right there and instead slips into the bathroom. He’ll be in and out, no problem at all. Suguru doesn’t even make it to the toilet before Satoru turns off the water though and just a second later the shower curtain is being pulled to the side, meaning Suguru comes face to face with Satoru.
Who immediately screams as if he is being murdered before he yanks the shower curtain back, effectively hiding behind it.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Satoru screeches but Suguru is too dumbstruck to reply.
Satoru is all lanky limbs and smooth, white skin, that much Suguru knows. What he doesn’t know is what that black spot on his chest is.
“What’s that on your chest?” he eventually gets out, his mind still racing.
“What’s what–Suguru! That really doesn’t matter right now, what the hell are you doing in here?”
“I need to pee.”
“Then go to your own fucking room, oh my god,” Satoru groans out but Suguru is still stuck on that dark spot he saw.
“Satoru, what is that on your chest?” he asks again and he has half a mind to reach out and tear the shower curtain away, so he can inspect it for himself.
“It’s a tattoo, what else would it be,” Satoru snaps out and Suguru’s hand instinctively moves to his own hip bone.
Satoru having a tattoo shouldn’t be quite so surprising and Suguru isn’t sure why he’s having such difficulties wrapping his head around it.
“Could you please just leave already?”
“What’s the motive?” Suguru finds himself asking, the mere second of the ink flashing on Satoru’s chest replaying in his mind over and over again.
“That’s none of your goddamn business, Suguru, get the hell out of here!”
“I–alright, alright, I’ll be in my room then, I guess,” he mutters and turns around on his heels to practically flee back to his own room.
He had been looking forward to spending the evening together with Satoru but now he’s no longer sure if he even wants that; he needs to know that kind of motive Satoru deems important enough to permanently ink on his skin.
Satoru’s attention easily gets snatched up by all kinds of things and it’s hard to imagine that something piqued his interest enough for something like this. Suguru would have thought that Satoru would hate anything permanent on himself but clearly he has been wrong about that. Suguru isn’t one too judge, not with his own tattoo, and it’s not even like he is in any position to judge Satoru anyway, because it’s not as if Suguru had told him about his own tattoo either.
It’s just–
The need to know what’s marking Satoru permanently now burns in his mind.
“Fuck,” Suguru whispers as he finally uses the bathroom and his feelings only get more complex when he spots his own tattoo again.
It’s nothing fancy, just the outline of a lollipop, but it means so much to him that it almost feels as if he’s going to choke every time he sees it.
Satoru would probably laugh at him for it, if he even remembers at all and Suguru really is in no rush to have him make fun of this, not when meeting Satoru for the first time is still such an important memory for Suguru.
To this day Suguru still remembers the painfully surprised look on Satoru’s face when he’d offered him that lollipop, the careful way he reached out for it as if Suguru would snatch it away right before he could take it and then the absolutely delighted smile when Satoru got to taste it for the first time.
Suguru no longer remembers what kind of flavour it was and sometimes he chides himself for not paying better attention back then but they had been nine and they weren’t formally introduced either so it’s not really a surprise that he doesn’t remember.
He does—of course—remember the fluffy white hair and the piercing blue eyes; those are hard to forget and it had been quite the shock to meet Satoru again, here at the school.
Satoru doesn’t seem to remember him at all—and again, why would he—and so Suguru has never said anything.
He still thinks often about how lonely Satoru had seemed, standing at the edge of the playground, simply watching the kids as if joining them to play wasn’t even an option for him. And with what Suguru knows about his childhood and his family now, that might as well be the case.
Suguru lets his head drop onto the backrest of the couch, covering his face with his hands.
It had felt like the most natural thing in the world, getting a tattoo of the lollipop, if only to remember that precious first smile he had ever gotten from Satoru.
Suguru is so incredibly fucked, it’s not even funny anymore, because just the memory has his heart beating fast in his chest. Satoru smiles a lot at him these days, so he should be used to it by now, but it steals his breath away every time, just like it did that very first time.
Suguru is still caught up in that memory when the door to his room flies open and Satoru barges in.
He takes one look at Suguru on the couch, before he comes over and kicks his legs.
“Scoot over, asshole, letting me lay down is the least you can do right now.”
Suguru bites his tongue, swallowing the urge to apologise down but he does scoot over, just like Satoru demanded. Satoru doesn’t waste any time and flops himself down, his head neatly placed in Suguru’s lap and Suguru can’t help but to immediately sink his fingers into Satoru’s wispy hair.
“You do not simply barge into my bathroom unannounced,” Satoru says, staring up at Suguru, who playfully tugs at a strand.
“Didn’t know you were suddenly big on personal space,” Suguru teases, because if anyone, it’s Satoru who regularly disregards any kind of personal bubble when it comes to Suguru.
“I’m not,” Satoru huffs out and when he worries his lower lip with his teeth before he goes on, Suguru knows that this really bothers him. “I just–”
“You can just say that you don’t want me to see your tattoo, I’m not going to be mad about that,” Suguru interrupts him when it seems as if Satoru has problems finishing his thought.
“No, you’re just going to be disappointed and that’s so much worse,” he whines out and Suguru chuckles.
“I’m not going to be disappointed either, dummy. I can’t deny I’m curious, but it’s not as if you have to tell me.” He hesitates briefly before he goes on. “It’s not as if I told you about mine, either, so I really can’t judge you.”
“Yours?” Satoru yells out, shooting up and twisting around to stare at Suguru in betrayal. “You got a tattoo and didn’t tell me?”
“Yes? Same as you, it seems like,” he teases Satoru and immediately he feels better about this whole situation because he just knows that Satoru is going to be so much more bothered by this.
“That’s so mean, Suguru, how could you?” Satoru whines and flops back down again, burying his face in Suguru’s thigh. “Are you going to tell me?”
He sounds completely dejected and Suguru’s heart aches just at his tone but he will not be swayed.
“Are you going to tell me?” he shoots back and knows he has his answer when Satoru sighs.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier,” Satoru says after a moment of silence. “I was just startled.”
“It’s fine,” Suguru replies, getting back to carding his fingers through Satoru’s hair. “I’m not mad.”
“Good,” Satoru breathes out and goes completely lax.
Suguru enjoys their proximity for a while, letting Satoru rest and doing exactly what he wanted to do all evening: spending time with Satoru.
At least until he remembers something.
“Wait, I’ve got something for you,” Suguru says, scratching Satoru’s scalp and then leaning over the side of the couch to get his bag.
“Stop moving,” Satoru whines, like a disgruntled cat but he falls silent and goes cross-eyed when Suguru holds a bag of lollipops in his face.
“They re-stocked your favourite. I got you a bag, but I guess if you don’t want it, I can just bring it back,” he teases, because he damn well knows that Satoru is going to want it.
“No! Give it here,” Satoru immediately rushes out, clutching the bag to his chest before he takes out one of the lollipops and sticks it in his mouth.
“How are these your favourite, anyway? They are more on the sour side, aren’t they? You prefer your candy teeth-rottingly sweet.”
Something pensive passes over Satoru’s face, even as he sucks on the lollipop and when he looks up to Suguru, he seems determined.
It immediately puts Suguru on edge.
“What?” he quietly asks when Satoru still stays quiet and his stomach falls when Satoru looks away from him again.
“They are my favourite because this flavour was the first thing you ever gave to me,” Satoru mutters. still avoiding his gaze.
Suguru goes completely still.
“I knew you wouldn’t remember,” Satoru breathes out, turning his face away from Suguru again which is what finally jolts Suguru into action.
He bends down, contorts himself until he can press his forehead against Satoru’s temple and he can feel the faint tremor that goes through Satoru.
“I could never remember what kind of flavour I gave to you. I should have paid more attention back then, honestly,” he whispers and nearly sustains brain damage when Satoru whips his head around and their foreheads smash together.
“You remember?” There’s an urgency to his voice that Suguru can emphasise with so he is quick to nod.
“Of course I remember. You seemed so happy when I gave that to you.”
“That’s what you remember? Not my hair or my eyes? That’s usually what clues people in.”
“Well, that helped to identify you when I saw you again, but really, those features weren’t the most striking ones about you.”
“What was then?” Satoru wants to know and Suguru smiles softly at him.
“Your loneliness,” he starts with because that was what caught his attention in the first place. “And then that joy on your face when you tasted the lollipop.”
“So you pitied me,” Satoru grumbles out and Suguru goes back to carding his fingers through Satoru’s hair.
“I didn’t pity you,” he corrects him. “You made me sad and I thought it wasn’t right that someone could look so sad at a playground.”
“My handlers wouldn’t let me interact with any other kids, because of the bounty on my head,” Satoru remembers. “So I wasn’t ever allowed to talk to anyone. I still don’t know how you made it to me.”
“I–” Suguru starts and he can feel himself blush at the memory. “I might have kicked one of your handles in the shin to let me talk to you,” he admits and Satoru blinks at him, once, twice, before he bursts out laughing.
“Oh, that is so good, and also deserved,” he chuckles out and Suguru joins him.
“You were so guarded, though. I had never met another kid who was so unwilling to talk to me.”
Satoru shrugs before he talks.
“Usually kids only approached me for two things: gaining a favour with my family or gaining a favour with me. I wasn’t used to someone simply giving me something.”
“Yeah, that was painfully obvious,” Suguru mutters. Then a new thought occurs to him. “How did you recognise me, anyway? I was a pretty scrawny, small kid.”
Satoru points at his eyes in explanation and Suguru momentarily feels dumb before he remembers that Satoru is always immensely pleased when Suguru forgets about his abilities for a moment. Of course the Six Eyes would tell Satoru everything he would need to know about a person.
“But that’s not it, actually,” Satoru says. “I recognised you because of your eyes. They are–kind,” he settles on and when a faint blush settles high on his cheekbones, Suguru gets the distinct impression that ‘kind’ isn’t quite what Satoru was going for.
Satoru still has his head in Suguru’s lap, still allows Suguru to play with his hair as if Suguru has all the right to it, and he still remembers their first meeting; well enough even to remember the exact flavour of the lollipop and declare it his favourite one.
Suguru thinks it’s time he takes a leap of faith.
“I have a tattoo of a lollipop,” Suguru tells Satoru who blinks at him with unabashed surprise. “On my hip bone.”
His heart is already beating painfully fast in his chest, because admitting that he has a memory of their very first meeting tattooed on his body surely must clue Satoru in on what it means to him–what he means to him–but when Satoru bursts out laughing his heart falls right into his stomach.
It must show on his face, too, because Satoru tries to stifle his laughter as he reaches up with one hand to clumsily pat Suguru’s face.
“No, no, don’t look like that,” he tries to console him. “It’s just funny because–”
Satoru breaks off there and instead pushes his shirt up. Suguru’s gaze is fixed on every inch of skin that is being revealed but when his eyes fall on the tattoo on Satoru’s chest, right over his heart, the breath gets knocked out of him.
It’s a tattoo of a lollipop.
“You can’t be serious,” Suguru breathes out and now Satoru’s laughter makes more sense.
“I’m serious when I say that you’re my one and only,” Satoru says and Suguru can no longer hold himself back, he simply has to reach out and put his hand right over the tattoo.
“You’re my one and only, too, in case that wasn’t clear,” Suguru breathes out, because he knows he doesn’t say it as often as Satoru, but there is no trace of insecurity or doubt on Satoru’s face.
“I know,” he simply says and reaches out to thread their fingers together. “So,” he then says and Suguru knows that something very Satoru is going to come out of his mouth next. “When do I get to see yours?” His voice alone is suggestive enough but Satoru being Satoru pairs it off with an exaggerated eye-brow waggle that makes Suguru laugh again.
“Maybe when you barge in on me showering,” Suguru teases him but he leans down to kiss the pout right off Satoru’s face. “I’ll show you,” he promises then and is met with the same delighted smile that made him remember Satoru for all these years.
And he hopes it will accompany him through his life for so many more years to come.