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“Suguruuuuu!”
Satoru’s voice is the only warning Suguru gets, before he already crashes into him. Suguru’s stance is firm though, and so he doesn’t so much as wobble, even when Satoru hangs off him like a limp monkey, his face pressed to Suguru’s shoulder, making his cheek scrunch up almost adorably.
“What is it now?” Suguru sighs out, trying for more annoyed than he really is, but Satoru only gives him a blinding grin because they both know it’s just pretence anyway.
He could have shoved Satoru off easily enough and yet he never does.
“I’m bored,” Satoru whines out, sighing deeply for dramatic effect and Suguru rolls his eyes.
“Who would have guessed,” he mutters out, because Suguru feels as if being bored is Satoru’s entire state of being.
“What are you going to do about it?” Satoru wants to know and pokes Suguru in the cheek.
“Why do I have to do something about it? Do something about it yourself.”
“I just did,” Satoru smugly gives back. “I assigned you to do something about it.”
Suguru looks at Satoru as best as he can, pressed together like they are and he hopes that his look gets it across just how unamused he is by this entire thing.
Satoru is wearing his blindfold, because of course he is, he hasn’t taken it off for a single moment in all the time Suguru knows him now, but he can still tell that his eyes must sparkle with mischief.
“You are the worst,” Suguru finally says, making Satoru only grin harder and Suguru reaches out to flick his forehead.
Satoru flinches briefly when Suguru’s fingers get close to his blindfold, but he doesn’t pull away, not like he did during the first few weeks of their acquaintance. By now Satoru trusts him enough to trust that Suguru would never just take the blindfold off himself without permission and warmth floods Suguru, even as he does flick Satoru’s forehead.
“What was that for?” Satoru whines out, but he tightens his grip on Suguru nonetheless when he starts walking again.
“That was for you being a little pest,” Suguru easily gives back and allows himself a smile when Satoru gasps in mock hurt.
“Rude, Suguru, what are you being so rude for?”
“I don’t know, what are you being so annoying for?” Suguru shoots right back, lightly elbowing Satoru in the stomach and he refuses to admit that he misses Satoru’s weight hanging off him when he finally moves away.
“You–want me to go?” Satoru asks, his voice barely audible and it hurts Suguru to hear him like that, though thankfully these moments of insecurity are getting few and far in between.
Shoko and Suguru are trying their damned hardest to show Satoru that he is loved and always welcome, no matter what his Clan previously taught him and it’s starting to pay off.
“Don’t be stupid now, we’re going out for dinner,” Suguru immediately replies and reaches back to take Satoru’s sleeve in his fingers, so he can drag him along better.
“We are?” Satoru cautiously asks and Suguru nods.
“We sure are.”
“To the same place as always?” Satoru continues to ask and he sounds almost disappointed.
Suguru would be offended if he didn’t know that in moments like these, when Satoru is getting bored out of his mind, he needs something new to keep him occupied. Places they go to regularly are not going to cut it.
“Of course not, there’s a new place that opened a few days back, I wanna try that,” Suguru shoots back and not even under threat of torture is he ever going to admit that he keeps track of all the restaurants in the area so that he can always present something new to Satoru.
He’s going to take that secret with him to the grave.
“Oh, there is?” Satoru breathes out, and Suguru is sure that his eyes must sparkle with excitement. At least he hopes they do.
If only Satoru would take off that damn blindfold for once.
“Hey, Satoru, are you ever going to take that blindfold off?” Suguru asks in a spur of the moment and he doesn’t miss how Satoru freezes, however briefly, before he plasters his usual smile back on his face.
“And why would I do that? So you can all be baffled by my beauty?” he wants to know and waggles his eyebrows so exaggeratedly that it’s visible even under the blindfold.
“Too late for that,” Suguru mutters under his breath, because even with the blindfold Satoru is beautiful enough to take Suguru’s breath away.
“I—what—” Satoru stammers and Suguru can feel himself go warm in the face.
“I said, at this point we’re already convinced you're ugly anyway,” Suguru says, a little bit louder than necessary due to his embarrassment and it’s enough to distract Satoru because he puffs up his cheeks.
“You wish,” he gives back, but readily follows along when Suguru goes on, leading him outside of the school.
Suguru really wished sometimes that Satoru was just a little less beautiful, a little less as lovable as he is, because surely one of these days he’s going to choke on all his feelings for the other boy and he doesn’t even need to know the color of his eyes for that.
~*~*~
Satoru is slumped over his desk, his head pillowed on his arms and Suguru can tell that he’s fast asleep by the steady rise and fall of his chest. Satoru is never that still when he’s awake. He’s beautiful like this and Suguru finds himself reaching out for him without conscious thought.
He wonders if Satoru’s hair is as soft as it looks and he’s dying to find out.
The tips of his fingers are not even close to their intended goal when someone clears their throat at the door, making Suguru startle.
He whips his head around and sends an accusing glare at Shoko.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demands to know, a pointed look at the still sleeping Satoru and Suguru can feel himself blanch when the implications hit him.
“I wasn’t going to take his blindfold off,” he hisses, careful to keep his voice low enough so that Satoru doesn’t wake up.
“Weren’t you,” Shoko gives back though she thankfully matches her voice to his.
“I was just trying to—” he cuts himself off, because admitting that he wanted to card his fingers through Satoru’s hair might just be as incriminating as the other thing.
“Ah,” Shoko breathes out, giving him a way too knowing look and Suguru can feel his face burn. “I guess that’s alright then.”
“Thanks for your blessing,” Suguru bites out sarcastically and Shoko rolls her eyes before she sits down next to him.
“He’s beat, huh?” she wants to know because it doesn’t happen every day that Satoru sleeps this soundly outside of any of their rooms.
“He tried to beat a game last night,” Suguru sighs out, and he feels the sleep deprivation hot on his heels as well because of course all of that was taking place in his room. It took Satoru almost until 4am until he beat the last level and he wasn’t all that quiet about it, either.
“Of course he did,” Shoko sighs out as she fondly shakes her head.
They are both way too enamoured with this boy who doesn’t even trust them enough to take his blindfold off around them.
“Do you think he’s ever going to really trust us?” Suguru can’t help but to wonder and he only sees Shoko shrug from the corner of his eyes because he can’t bring himself to take his eyes off Satoru.
“I’m not sure that’s the issue,” she gives back, mimicking Satoru’s position, though she continues to stare at Suguru.
“What do you mean?”
“The Six Eyes–they are rumoured to be all-knowing, all-seeing; what if he does it to lessen the strain on himself? To block out some of the information that must always assault him?”
Suguru never considered this before if he’s being honest, mostly because Satoru doesn’t ever give him a chance to do anything but think of him as invincible and all-powerful.
He never even asked Satoru why he never takes the blindfold off in the first place and Suguru feels almost sick with shame.
Suguru nods, hoping to hide his own feelings from Shoko but she only gives him a knowing look.
“Boys,” she mutters and then closes her eyes as well, giving Suguru the privacy to deal with his thoughts in peace.
~*~*~
They are in Suguru’s room, Suguru sitting on the floor in front of his bed while Satoru is sprawled out over the bed, when Suguru speaks.
“Satoru.”
“Mh?” Satoru hums out, clearly on the verge of falling asleep again and in all honesty, that should be enough to show Suguru just how much he trusts him. Satoru falls asleep around him almost regularly, has never warned him not to take off Satoru’s blindfold in the process, and surely that must mean something.
Maybe Shoko is right, like always.
“Why do you never take off your blindfold?” Suguru asks, the need to know burning inside of him and he feels how Satoru goes completely still on the bed.
“What brought this on?” he finally asks, clearly trying to play for time and Suguru twists around until he can look at Satoru.
“I thought it was a trust thing, at first,” Suguru admits, “but that can’t be because you sleep here more often than you do in your own room. Hell, just yesterday you showered here and don’t think I don’t know that you never bother to lock the door. So what is it, Satoru?”
“It’s not about me trusting you,” Satoru whispers after a moment.
“But it is about trust?” Suguru asks to clarify and watches how Satoru presses his lips together.
Suguru thinks that he pushed too hard when nothing else is forthcoming and he’s about to apologise when Satoru turns on his side, curling towards Suguru.
“Thank you for asking,” he whispers, a small almost sad smile playing around his mouth. “Everyone else normally assumes.”
Suguru feels indignation rise inside of him on Satoru’s behalf even though until Shoko talked to him he was just the same as everyone else.
“Sorry for not asking sooner,” he replies, resting his head on the bed, close to Satoru’s.
“Nah, you’re fine,” Satoru callously gives back as if it doesn’t mean anything to him even though just from this Suguru can tell that it does.
“Still,” Suguru insists. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to either. I don’t want to pressure you.”
“Pressure me,” Satoru laughs out, briefly turning his head into the bedding, trying to hide his smile, no doubt. “No one ever thought they could pressure me, what with me being the strongest and all.”
“You’re still human, though, and every human can be pressured,” Suguru gives back because he hates how the assumption that Satoru is the strongest takes away his humanity at every turn.
“And that’s why you’re my favourite,” Satoru mutters. “It’s just–I’m afraid to find out how much you trust me,” he then goes on, his voice barely above a whisper and Suguru frowns, because that is not even a question.
“I trust you with my life,” he immediately gives back and Satoru huffs.
“Yeah, because you kind of have to during a mission.”
“I trust you with my life outside of missions, too. Satoru, there is not a person on this planet I trust more than you.”
It’s too close to an admission Suguru isn’t sure he’s ready for but when Satoru curls even closer so that the can lightly rest their foreheads together, Suguru thinks it might just be okay if it’s Satoru.
“You’d kind of have to, if I ever were to take this off,” he mutters lightly tapping his blindfold.
“Why?” Suguru asks, because he still doesn’t understand.
“The Six-Eyes see everything. Everything. If I take them off I would know all about you, including your weakness. I would know how to take you down, how to destroy you with just a glance.”
“So?” Suguru asks and it must take Satoru by surprise because he sits up.
“So? Suguru, one glance is enough to know how to kill you!”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t,” Suguru gives back, because he knows that Satoru would never do anything to hurt him.
“Of course I wouldn’t, but I would still know!”
“Satoru,” Suguru says, properly sitting up himself. “I trust you with my life, on and off the battlefield. What does it matter if you know my weakness when you’re never going to use it against me?”
“How can you just–” Satoru trails off there, clearly lost for words and it makes Suguru smile, because that certainly is a first.
“Because I trust you,” he reiterates and he’s going to tell Satoru this as often as he needs to hear it until he believes.
“If I take this off, there’s no taking it back,” Satoru warns him as if that could change Suguru’s mind.
“Good,” Suguru replies. “It’s okay, as long as it’s you.”
He spots the beginnings of a blush on Satoru’s cheeks as he reaches up, touching his hands to the blindfold.
“Fine, but this is on you. If you end up hating me, I want you to remember that this is on you.”
“I’m never going to hate you,” Suguru replies, entirely sure about that and then he watches how Satoru takes off the blindfold in his presence for the first time.
“Last chance,” Satoru mutters, keeping his eyes stubbornly close for the moment and Suguru can’t even be mad about it, because it gives him time to study Satoru’s face.
He already knew that Satoru is pretty, not even the blindfold could hide that, but he’s startled to find just how pretty he really is. And he still hasn’t even opened his eyes.
“Satoru,” Suguru mildly says and it must be answer enough because Satoru’s eyes flutter open.
They are a stunning shade of blue and Suguru feels as if he’s drowning in them, completely pinned by that gaze on him. He hopes he can look at Satoru like this for the rest of his life.
“Oh,” Satoru breathes out, and he’s clearly just as surprised as Suguru is, though Suguru couldn’t for the life of him figure out what is taking Satoru this off guard.
“There you are,” Suguru says with a smile and he hopes he manages to hide how flustered Satoru’s gaze leaves him.
“You’re in love with me,” Satoru blurts out and Suguru’s eyes widen in surprise.
The Six-Eyes see everything Satoru had said, Suguru remembers. Clearly that means more than just physical things.
“I mean–I’m sorry, see this is why I–fuck,” Satoru goes on, rambling as if his life depends on it and Suguru chuckles.
“Why are you apologising? If you see it, it must be true, right?”
“But this isn’t your weakness, this is not what you agreed to, fuck, I should have just left the stupid blindfold on and never said a word.”
As if to prove his point, he slips the blindfold back on, clearly operating under the childish belief that he could take everything back if he returned to the original state and Suguru watches him fondly.
“You’re staring at me,” Satoru accuses him after a moment of silence and Suguru laughs.
“I sure am,” he agrees and leans in, his hands reaching up to slide the blindfold back off. “I would much rather stare at your eyes though.”
Satoru only blinks at him, though his eyes go wide when Suguru cups his cheek in his hand.
“So it wasn’t just about me trusting you,” he muses, because if Satoru can see everything regarding a person, then he must want to protect himself from the thoughts and feelings concerning him as well. It would only be natural to try and avoid knowing everyone’s feelings about oneself.
“It wasn’t just about you trusting me,” Satoru mutters, though he does lean his head into Suguru’s hand. “Sorry. I should have said.”
“Maybe,” Suguru agrees, but in the end it doesn’t really matter. “But I would have confessed anyway,” he then admits, because having Satoru trust him enough to do this–no matter how he spun it around–already means the world to him.
“So it’s true then?” Satoru asks as if his Eyes would lie to him and Suguru leans in to brush a kiss over the corner of his mouth.
“It’s true.” He slightly tilts his head. “I don’t have the Six-Eyes, though.”
It barely takes Satoru a second to understand what Suguru means because his eyes light up and he claims Suguru’s lips in a kiss.
“Of course I’m in love with you, too,” Satoru breathes out, with barely enough space between them. “I wouldn’t do this with just anyone.”
“I should hope not,” Suguru teases, stealing another kiss for himself before Satoru can give something back and then they lose themselves in this for a while.
At least until Suguru remembers something he’d rather do.
“Hey, come here,” he mutters, toppling them over on the bed, so they are laying face to face, rearranging Satoru to his liking until he fits perfectly into his arms.
“And now what?” Satoru asks and Suguru gives him a cheeky grin.
“And now we lay here,” he decides, keeping eye contact with Satoru all the time and his eyes really do have an amazing colour.
“Suguru,” Satoru whines out when he realises what Suguru is up to. “I should have never taken that stupid thing off.”
“Yeah, you shouldn’t have,” Suguru gives back, leaning in to flutter a kiss over the corner of Satoru’s eyes, contradicting his words immediately.
“You just love me for my pretty eyes,” Satoru pouts when Suguru won’t stop and Suguru moves to pepper kisses over the entirety of his face.
“I love you for your bratty personality and annoying self, and your stupidly soft white hair,” he corrects him, because it should be more than obvious that he has been in love with Satoru for a long, long while now. “The pretty eyes are just a bonus.”
“You’re so mean to me,” Satoru complains but he falls silent surprisingly fast when Suguru kisses apologies into his skin.
That’s something to remember, Suguru thinks.
“Aren’t I always,” Suguru asks with a smile and he knows Satoru understands him when he sighs out, pressing closer to him.
“Yeah, you are,” he breathes out, sounding much too happy about it and Suguru falls a little bit more in love with him when he sees how his eyes crinkle as he laughs.
There’s much to learn about Satoru’s face now, and Suguru intends to study it intently. With his eyes, his fingers and–of course–his lips.