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"What the hell? I used to beat you at this game all the time!" Rin snapped at Gou as his character blasted off the stage.
Gou stuck out her tongue as she made her character strike a victory pose. "Yeah, when we were seven. Now you're too busy training or whatever, so you're out of practice." While she finished off her pose, Kisumi ran his character towards her and swung. She dodged last second with a shriek, smacking his character back in retaliation. "No fair, Kisumi!"
Kisumi laughed from his place on the floor. Haru sat on the edge of the bed with Kisumi leaning against his legs, and his laughter had his hair brushing against Haru's skin in a way that almost made him shiver. "That's what you get for being cocky, Gou."
"As if you haven't been cocky this whole game," Makoto added with a smile, sitting on the other side of the bed with his back against Sousuke, who appeared to be dozing despite the excess shrieking around him.
Haru knew his best friend's strategy the best - play defensive and away from the major clashes until the others brought down their lives or only one or two were left, and then go in for the kill. And while Kisumi was good, he'd lose if he kept being reckless. "Makoto's gonna beat you," Haru warned, addressing the man beneath him.
Kisumi spared him a second of his pout before returning his attention to the screen. "Haru, you're supposed to support me!" His head movement had that pink hair brushing up against his leg again, and Haru forced himself to not bite his lip.
Instead he took a bit of Kisumi’s hair in his hands and tugged at it gently. "I do support you. I also know Makoto's gonna beat you."
"Damn straight," Sousuke muttered behind him, his eyes still closed. Makoto just laughed and gave Haru a look that said Don't tell him my strategy, let me kick your boyfriend's ass. Or maybe that's just how Haru read it.
Haru looked back down to his hand still holding a bit of Kisumi’s hair. It was soft and light, more fashionably messy than unruly, pretty without too much effort, much like Kisumi himself. He almost ran his hands through Kisumi’s hair like he did when they were alone; normally Haru had little qualms about what others around him thought of his actions, but the possibility that Kisumi himself might be uncomfortable made Haru hesitate. Still...
Suddenly Rin made an unattractive gasping noise. Haru glanced up late and only caught the gist of what happened, but it seemed to involve Rin blowing himself up right as Gou came up behind him. They both shot off the stage and like that, there were two players left in the game.
"Bullshit!" Gou cried. "I demand a rematch without Mr. Liability!"
Rin was about to respond when Kisumi yelled, "Wait, how does Makoto still have two lives!?"
Makoto just laughed sympathetically. Haru tugged Kisumi's hair again, adding, "Told you." It was then that Haru remembered that the other day Makoto’s sister had eagerly taught him how to French braid hair. He did want to practice it, and Kisumi’s hair was just long enough for it to work…
“You stay away from me, Tachibana!” Kisumi yelled, jerking his head forward. Haru calmly let his hands keep pace with the movement, waiting until Kisumi was still again before threading the strands of hair together. Kisumi seemed to take a good amount of effort to keep his hair healthy, which made it easy to move along through each weave, but his hair was also soft enough that it wouldn’t stay together for long by itself. Luckily, Gou reached over and handed him a hair clip; Rin was busy laughing at Kisumi’s attempts to get away from Makoto’s approach, but Gou apparently wasn’t distracted enough by the inevitable devastation to not notice what Haru was up to. Haru gave her a small smile before placing the clip between his teeth so he could keep both hands on the braid.
“You won't win by running, Kisumi,” Makoto said in an oddly calm voice.
It sounded like friendly advice, but Haru knew Makoto well enough to know that it was really a challenge. Kisumi may or may not have recognized the statement for what it was, but either way he made the mistake attempting to take Makoto full on. He stopped his running and charged at Makoto, and in less than a minute, Kisumi let out a cry as his character was thrown off the screen. “Makoto, why?!”
Makoto held back his laugh while Sousuke mumbled, “You’re so hot when you beat up Kisumi.”
“Please stop being gross,” Rin called from across the room.
Kisumi, ignoring the bickering, fell back against Haru’s legs with a groan, almost making Haru lose his grip on the end of the braid. “Stop moving,” Haru chided.
It was only then that Kisumi realized that Haru was doing something to his hair. He didn’t try to stop him, just glanced back at Haru while saying, “What are you up to, huh?” Haru ignored him and took the clip from his mouth, snapping it into place so the end of the brain would stay against the side of his head. Haru made another few small adjustments before nodding to himself, satisfied. “Haru, what did you do to my hair?” Kisumi took out his phone and opened up the camera, reversing the image so his face would appear. He angled the camera until he could see the braid fully, and after a moment his face broke into his goofy grin that Haru only caught from the screen. “Aww, Haru!” Kisumi turned and hugged at Haru’s waist, awkwardly reaching over Haru’s legs.
“I don’t know which of you guys is more gross,” Rin groaned.
Haru was sure that his knees digging into Kisumi’s stomach weren’t comfortable, but when his boyfriend didn’t move he just sighed, placing a hand on his head. “Calm down, it’s just a braid,” Haru said as he pushed Kisumi back, ducking his head to the side in case his happiness showed. “You can undo it if you want.”
Kisumi wore it the whole day.