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“I’m sorry for him.”
“Eh, I’m used to it.”
You might be asking how Kagami Arata got into this situation.
The short answer is “Tendou” and the long answer is also “Tendou”, because they ran into the new boys - the one on TV turns out to be like him in the “not Main Rider kind of” box that Kagami only shared with like 5 others, and the real one got into a fight?
And now they’re getting into a cooking battle and the new boy almost offered to join until Arata gestured wildly not to get involved.
“Is this normal?” The new boy asks. “Like, for other Riders.”
“Oh, no,” Arata says. “It’s normal for us.”
“Oh thank god,” the boy says. “I’m the only one with a god—”
“Oh no there are like 5 of those.”
“What?”
“…Don’t ask,” Arata says. “Tendou’s best friend that isn’t his sisters is the spawn of the devil. He scares me.”
The boy hisses.
“Yeesh,” he says. “So how long is this going to go?”
Arata’s husband is up in the face of the grinning Actual new boy.
Arata sighs.
“I’m just saying,” Arata says, later and when they get home. “This happens nearly every time we meet another Rider. You pick a fight with someone. Or… was there even a point to today?”
“I needed to show that a fox couldn’t equal the Sun,” the one and only (thank god ) Tendou Souji replies.
(It was a tie, the fight and the food.)
Arata groans. That is about the answer he expected but utterly useless to his point. He wants to go home.
He settles for throwing a hotel pillow at Souji. The man catches it.
“Stupid Yumemi,” Arata mutters. “Why are we even here?”
“I’m a guest judge, and you asked to come with me.”
“…Right,” Arata says. He flops down on the bed. “Far be it from me to expect anything safe or sane with you.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You faked your death during the Zi-O year, and that doesn’t register in the top 5 most infuriating things you’ve done.”
“I did try to tell you.”
“Well, you failed.”
Souji sits on the bed next to Kagami, close enough to touch. Arata smiles despite his still-present annoyance, because unfortunately he does still love his husband, even if the man is also the most infuriating man alive.
“Tomorrow will be better,” Souji says. “Is there anything you’d like to do?”
“I don’t even know anymore,” Arata says. “Just please, no more shenanigans with the Kohai.”
“I won’t seek them out again.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry for him.”
Somehow, a different face standing to the side while Souji and the new boy have an utterly incomprehensible conversation is what has Arata laughing.
“Of course,” he says. “I am still the only one. Who has to be the sole handler of one of these men.”
“…Sorry?” The boy says. “There’s other people like Geats?”
Arata holds up his hand.
“Two,” he says. “Maybe a few of the Showas. And Decade has like. A whole team of partners.”
“He does, at that,” The boy says. “Again, sorry Geats is bothering your… husband?”
“Yeah,” Arata says, “Of course he’s here too. He’s a celebrity. Why wouldn’t he also be a guest judge? Still, this is probably Tendou’s fault, so I’m the one who should apologize.”
“It seemed pretty last minute,” the boy says. “I don’t know why he dragged me along here.”
“Probably,” Arata says. “Because he’s also like that.”
He waves in the general direction, and the boy beside him huffs a laugh.
Well, Arata thinks.
At least he isn’t alone, for once.
Leaving the event, they walk close together.
“I truly didn’t expect—”
“Save it, Tendou.”
“Why don’t we go get something to eat?”
“…Fine.”
Tendou Souji takes his hand. Kagami Arata sighs.
Sometimes unfortunately, he wouldn’t want him any other way.