Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Are you insane?!”

“I’m just saying, it could work!”

Ryo rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. “So…your brilliant idea to get our friends to stop teasing us about the possibility of us dating…is to pretend to date? You’ve gotta be kidding!”

Minoru huffed. “We wouldn’t just pretend to date! We’d pretend and then dramatically break up and then they’d never bug us about it again! I’m telling you, it’s a foolproof plan.” As Minoru explained his plan, he started grinning and puffing out his chest, clearly proud of himself for his idea.

Ryo sighed. “They’re gonna be so annoying to us if we pretend to date, man…we’re never gonna hear the end of it…”

“Come on, don’t be like that! They’ll probably get used to it soon and stop making such a big deal out of it.”

Ryo sighed again, hating that Minoru was making him seriously consider the prospect of faking a relationship. Damn Minoru, he was too persuasive and persistent for his own good. “How would we even fake a relationship, anyway?”

Minoru paused for a moment, thinking. “Uh…we just act like we’re in love?” 

“Dude, we gotta be more prepared than that! Also, “act like we’re in love” is super vague! And what are we even gonna say if they find out we’re faking a relationship?!”

Minoru frowned. “Well, do you have any better ideas, Mr. Genius?”

Ryo thought for a while, then slumped, humbled by the realization that Minoru’s plan was still better than anything Ryo could come up with. He grumbled, not wanting to admit that Minoru had a point. 

Minoru smirked. “Didn’t think so.”

“Whatever…let’s just figure out how to make this convincing so we don’t make asses of ourselves in front of our friends.”

“So what do we do?”

Ryo smirked. “Oh, you don’t know about dating? I thought you said all the ladies love you.”

“H-hey! Just because the ladies say they love me doesn’t mean I date the ladies!”

“Sure, sure.”

They stayed silent for a moment before Minoru piped up. “You didn’t answer my question. What do we do?”

“That’s what I’ve been asking you!”

Minoru groaned in frustration before thinking. “Well…couples…hold hands?”

“Brilliant observation there, Einstein.”

“Hey, I’m serious! If we’re gonna make this convincing, we’ll probably have to be closer to each other than usual, right?”

“Well, yeah…” Ryo admitted. 

“So maybe we should…practice beforehand.” 

Ryo raised an eyebrow. “You want us to practice holding hands?”

“Yeah, ‘cause otherwise we’ll look all uncomfortable and unnatural. I mean, even the thought of us holding hands feels weird, right? It’s probably gonna be obvious to everyone if we’ve never even held hands before.”

Ryo sighed. “Okay, I guess I get what you mean.”

Minoru grinned. “Oh, did the great Ryo-senpai just admit that I’m right?”

Ryo frowned. “Shut up man, don’t read too much into it.”

Minoru laughed, “Okay, okay.”

An awkward silence stretched out as they both realized that they had no idea how to start holding hands. Minoru finally broke the silence.

“So…do we just…go for it? Holding hands?”

“I guess…”

They scooted closer to each other, slowly and reluctantly intertwining their fingers. They both felt nervous and slightly uncomfortable, but they were also surprised to feel a little bit happy at the gesture. It felt somewhat comforting somehow. Both boys felt their faces heating up, and neither of them knew what to say, or even if they should say anything. 

Eventually, Minoru braved a look at Ryo, noticing that Ryo was blushing. “Heh, you look like a tomato, Ryo~”

Ryo felt his face heat up even more. “Sh-shut up, man!” He looked at Minoru and retorted, “Hey, you’re blushing too, you hypocrite!”

“What?! No way! You’re just…seeing things ‘cause you’re blushing!”

“That’s not how blushing works, dumbass.”

“Who’s a dumbass?!”

“You.”

“I—!” Minoru accidentally squeezed Ryo’s hand, bringing both of their attention back to their hands and flustering both of them. 

“I forgot we were holding hands…” Minoru sheepishly admitted. 

“Maybe if we just talk normally, it’ll feel more natural?” Ryo suggested. 

Minoru shrugged. “Guess it’s worth a try. Uh…so…how…was your day?”

Ryo laughed. Minoru defensively said, “Hey, I’m trying here! Come on!”

“I know, you’re just so different than usual. It’s like you just ran out of things to talk about.”

“This is harder than I thought it’d be.”

“Told you so,” Ryo said, feeling proud at being proven right. 

Minoru deflated a little, defeated. Ryo noticed and felt a pang of guilt. He gently squeezed Minoru’s hand. 

“Look…I…I’m sorry. I didn’t wanna actually upset you. Truth is, I don’t really know what I’m doing either.”

“Yeah…”

Ryo smiled weakly. “We suck at this, huh?”

Minoru chuckled. “You can say that again…”

A comfortable silence settled over them. 

“I’m doing fine, by the way,” Ryo said.

“Huh?”

“Well, to answer your question earlier. I’m doing fine.” Ryo gave Minoru a small smile. 

Minoru returned the smile. “Yeah? Well, I’m doing fine too.”

——————————————————————————————————————————-

“Okay, if we wanna know what we’re doing, we can study couples! That can give us ideas, right?”

“Like people-watching? Won’t people see us staring at them?”

“You scared, Ryo-senpai~?”

“Don’t be stupid! It would just be awkward if that happened! Plus, what if our friends end up running into us and see us just watching couples? How do we explain that, huh?”

“Okay, you got me there…we could study couples without people watching, though.”

Ryo looked at him incredulously. “Seriously? How?”

“There are a ton of movies about couples, right?”

“Dude, that’s fictional. There’s no way they’re gonna buy it if we act like some cheesy romcom.”

“Hey, don’t knock it ‘till you try it. Watching a few movies won’t kill you, Ryo.”

“I guess…”

The next few hours consisted of Ryo cringing, Minoru laughing at Ryo’s disgust, and both of them making fun of how unrealistic the movies are while cracking up. 

After about 3 or 4 movies (they all started to blur together), Ryo was tired. “Okay, that’s it. If I have to watch one more movie today, I’m gonna die.“

Minoru laughed. “I didn’t know you were such a drama queen, Ryo!”

Ryo glared at him. “Shut up, man,” he mumbled. 

“So, what did we learn? From the movies, I mean.”

“I dunno, it always felt like one moment they didn’t like each other and then they suddenly fell in love in a few days. Seems like a recipe for disaster to me,” Ryo quipped. 

Minoru rolled his eyes. “I meant what did we learn about how the actors pretended to be in love? We’re basically trying to act here.”

Ryo thought for a moment. “Well…they looked at each other all longingly with goo-goo eyes.”

Minoru nodded. “Okay, that’s something. I guess we have to look at each other convincingly like that, huh?”

Minoru tries his best to give Ryo that look. It looks a bit more like he’s giving Ryo puppy-dog eyes, and Ryo begrudgingly admits to himself that it’s endearing.

Minoru quickly realizes that Ryo isn’t trying to look at him like a lovestruck fool, and frowns. “Hey man, what gives?! Why am I the only one practicing this?!”

Ryo shrugs. “I never said I was gonna actually practice it. You just went ahead and did it on your own.”

“Come on, Ryo. Do you want this to be convincing or not?”

Ryo sighed, annoyed that Minoru was actually making a reasonable point. “Fine, fine, I’ll try,” he grumbled as Minoru grinned. 

Ryo tried his best to look at Minoru like a lover would. Unfortunately for him, he felt so awkward and unsure of himself that it looked more like he realized that he left home without locking the door. 

Minoru saw Ryo’s expression and couldn’t keep it together, doubling over in laughter. 

“Quit laughing, it’s not funny!” Ryo protested. 

“You look like you’re in a play and you forgot your lines or something. Is that how you’d look at someone you’re in love with?”

“No…” Ryo grumbled. 

“Exactly.” Minoru thought for a moment. “Maybe pretend you’re looking at something you love in a non-romantic way? Like…what about Kunemon?”

Ryo snorted. “You want me to pretend you’re Kunemon when I look at you?” Ryo pictured Kunemon with Minoru’s face and burst into laughter. 

“Hey, I’m serious! It’s worth a try, right?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll try it.”

Ryo tried looking at Minoru again. It wasn’t exactly a lovey-dovey stare, but Ryo looked genuinely happy. Minoru couldn’t help thinking that he could get used to Ryo looking at him like that. 

Not that he’d ever admit that out loud, obviously.  

Chapter Text

Ryo and Minoru both know that they have to actually convince their friends that they’re dating. 

That doesn’t stop either of them from dreading and overthinking every second of it. Neither of them knows how to break the news to their friends. 

Before they meet up with their friends, they frantically discuss their strategy.

“So do we hold hands or something?” Minoru whisper-shouts.

“How the hell should I know? Do I look like I’ve fake-dated someone before?!”

“Touche. Let’s just…hold hands just in case.” Minoru pauses. “Never thought I’d ever say that sentence.”

“And I never thought I’d pretend to be in a relationship.”

“I don’t need your sass, Ryo!” Minoru hisses. Ryo just rolls his eyes and takes Minoru’s hand. They walk towards their friends, who are already looking at them excitedly. Ryo resists the urge to grimace and forces a smile instead.

Saki grins and waves at the two of them, noticing their intertwined hands. “Hey, lovebirds! You finally got together, huh?”

“Come on, Saki, don’t tease them…Let’s just listen to what they have to say.” Aoi gently chides. She then looks at Minoru and Ryo gently but expectantly, which is almost worse than Saki’s teasing. Everyone in their friend group, all six of them, is looking at the two of them, eagerly waiting to hear what they have to say.

Minoru and Ryo both look at each other for a while, almost begging each other to be the one to break the news. Eventually, Minoru finally relents.

“Yep, it’s true! We’re…dating now,” Minoru says, forcing himself to grin so he won’t cringe.

In a second, their friends go from silent to chaotic. Aoi is congratulating them, Kaito looks mildly amused, and Saki is telling everyone how she “totally called it.” Miu is saying how she never thought they’d ever work up the courage to get together, and Takuma and Shuuji are both looking at the two of them with a betrayed “I’m your best friend, I was supposed to be the first to know” type of look.

When the chaos (slightly) settles down, Saki asks with a twinkle in her eye, “So, who asked out who first?”

Simultaneously, Minoru and Ryo both say, “I did.” They immediately look at each other, bewildered.

Minoru clears his throat and chuckles awkwardly. “You see, we both…planned to ask each other out the same day. We…each said we had something to say to each other, so I said we should say it at the same time, and then we both asked each other out at the same time,” he explains, shocked at how easily the lie rolled off of his tongue. Good save, Minoru, he thinks to himself, mentally patting himself on the back.

As cheesy as Minoru’s explanation was, Ryo couldn’t help but feel impressed at how easily Minoru was able to come up with an excuse for them.

“Awww…” Aoi and Saki both coo, touched by the (completely fake) story.

“So, how did you know you liked each other~?” Saki asks, grinning. 

Ryo cherishes Saki as a friend, but right now, part of him wants to smack her. Why did she have to be so emotionally invested in this fake relationship?

Ryo and Minoru look at each other again as if looking hard enough will magically grant them both mind-reading abilities.

Minoru’s about to speak up again, but Saki cuts him off and says, “Minoru, you’ve been doing a lot of talking, why don’t you let your boyfriend answer first?” She’s grinning at Ryo mischievously, knowing how flustered he’s gonna get. Ryo’s shooting daggers at her, and she looks like she’s about to burst into laughter at any moment.

Ryo wants nothing more than for the ground to swallow him up right about now. Sadly he’s not fortunate enough for that to happen, so he reluctantly says, “I dunno, I just…really liked being around him…” He can already feel his face heating up and he avoids eye contact with anyone.

Ryo feels Minoru wrap his arm around his shoulder as Minoru teasingly says, “Aww, c’mon, no need to be shy, sweetie. ” The pet name makes Ryo want to throw up in his mouth a little. If the huge grin on Minoru’s face is anything to go by, Minoru knows how much the pet name makes Ryo’s skin crawl.

Fine, then, Ryo thinks. Two can play at this game.

Ryo smirks back at Minoru, making sure to use the most sickeningly sweet voice he can manage when he responds, “Thanks, honey. ” He sees Minoru’s eye twitch a little, and it takes all of the self-control Ryo has to not double over in laughter. Miraculously, none of their friends seem to suspect a thing.

Minoru quickly regains his composure, though, and pipes up, “Hey Saki, you never let me explain how I knew I liked Ryo.”

Saki smiles. “Oh, right! Do tell.”

Minoru grins impishly. “Well…I spent all this time teasing Ryo and at some point…I realized that it wasn’t just about teasing him and getting under his skin anymore…” he pauses dramatically, glancing at Ryo while grinning. “At some point…I just wanted any excuse to be around him. Our little bantering sessions were like our love language.” 

As all their friends ooh and aah , Minoru smirks victoriously at Ryo again, and Ryo narrows his eyes, which only makes Minoru’s smirk grow.

Ryo forces another smile and sappily says, “Aww, how sweet, babe .” He makes sure to clearly enunciate the cheesy pet name while smirking at Minoru. Minoru cringes very slightly, just enough for Ryo to take smug satisfaction in it.

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Saki says, snapping Minoru and Ryo out of their covert battle of wills.

“Really?” Ryo manages to say weakly.

“Yeah, I didn’t tease you about it for nothing, y’know. For two people who claimed to not like each other, you sure went out of your way to talk to each other. Especially you, Minoru. You practically latched onto Ryo from the moment you met him during our school trip.”

Minoru looks shocked, with his mouth slightly open, and Ryo could’ve swore he saw a hint of a blush on Minoru’s face. He made a mental note to give Minoru shit about it later before nudging Minoru out of his shock.

Minoru jumps slightly before realizing that he needs to respond to what Saki said. “Oh! Uh, yeah, I guess I had a soft spot for him from the get-go, huh?” He grins sheepishly.

Ryo raises an eyebrow. “You guess ?”

Minoru takes a deep breath before answering, “No, sweetheart , I definitely had a soft spot for you from the get-go.” 

Everyone laughs at Minoru and Ryo’s bantering. 

“Well, it’s good to see neither of you have changed,” Takuma remarks. 

“You think so?” Minoru says, surprised. 

“Yeah, you two look surprisingly natural together. Never thought you’d actually have the guts to ask each other out, though,” Kaito teases. 

“Seriously?” Minoru asks, deflating a little. Ryo can’t help but chuckle at how easy it is to read Minoru sometimes.

“Yes, but you’re happy together now, and that’s what matters,” Shuuji says reassuringly, smiling at them both. Ryo feels a pang of guilt about lying to his best friend, especially when he looks genuinely happy for Ryo’s “relationship” with Minoru, but he knows he has to suck it up. 

“That’s right,” Aoi says warmly.

“Congrats, you two!” Miu proclaims happily.

Minoru and Ryo look around, seeing all their friends look at them with approval. Despite all the awkwardness their little arrangement was causing, it felt oddly comforting to see their friends rally around them to show their support.

Saki pipes up, “So, have you two been on your first date yet?”

Minoru and Ryo share a worried glance. “Uh…no, not yet.”

Once again, it’s chaos as their friends express their shock that they haven’t been on a date yet. Their friends egg them on to go on a proper date and to let them know how it goes. 

Once they’ve all gone their separate ways, Ryo and Minoru talk about how everything went. 

“Did you have to call me sweetheart?” Ryo grumbles, grimacing.

“Huh, that’s interesting, I think I remember you calling me honey!” Minoru fires back.

“Only ‘cause you did it first!”

“Because I did it first? What are you, a grade-schooler?”

Ryo rolls his eyes. “Whatever. So we actually have to go on a date now, huh?”

“Guess so. It was probably gonna happen anyway since we’re fake dating, though.”

Ryo shrugs. “I guess. So what are we gonna do?”

Minoru thinks for a while, then suggests, “We could see a movie?”

“Works for me. What movie?”

“Let’s just pick one when we get there. It’s more fun that way.” Minoru is grinning like he doesn’t have a care in the world. 

Ryo doesn’t feel like debating Minoru right now, so he gives in. “You know what? Fine.”

“Aww, that doesn’t sound very enthusiastic, Ryo-baby~”

“Shut up, man.” Ryo tries to act put out, but he can’t help but smile slightly. 

Of course, Minoru immediately notices and teases him. “Is that a smile I see? Miracles never cease.”

Ryo just chuckles while shaking his head fondly, and Minoru can’t help but laugh too.

“So…does next Friday work?” Ryo asks.

“Sure, it’s a date! A fake date, that is,” Minoru drawls like he just dropped the most brilliant joke of all time.

“I swear, you’re gonna drive me insane.”

Chapter Text

As he sits in the audience waiting for the horror movie to start with a pit of dread in his stomach, Ryo can’t help but wonder: How the hell did I get here? 

He and Minoru met up at the theater, and Ryo was pleasantly surprised that Minoru actually showed up on time. Of course, when he told Minoru that, he was met with a defensive, “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean, huh?!” 

While looking at the movies available to watch, Minoru perked up when he saw that a horror movie was playing. It was something Minoru had been looking forward to watching for months now, so Minoru’s eyes practically lit up when he saw that it was playing. 

Ryo’s stomach dropped. He hated horror. One of his older cousins tricked him into watching The Ring when he was a kid, and the incident scarred him a little. It was also ridiculously easy to startle him, so jumpscares were the bane of his existence. He couldn’t let Minoru know his Achilles heel, so part of him foolishly hoped that Minoru would just forget about the movie, or that maybe he was looking at the poster next to the one for the horror movie.

“We have to go see that one, dude!” Minoru shouted, pointing at the poster for the horror movie excitedly.

Ryo wanted to slump over in defeat. Of course Minoru had to dash his hopes and go straight for the horror movie. He tried covering up his feelings of anxiety and dread by being snarky.

“Ugh, a horror movie? If you want to watch something about people dying, just watch some documentary about a serial killer,” Ryo deadpanned.

“No, you don’t get it! Horror movies aren’t about death, they’re about suspense and the adrenaline rush. It’s an experience, one you can’t just get from watching some lousy documentary at home.”

“You do realize horror doesn’t exactly scream ‘romance,’ right, Minoru?”

Minoru stared blankly at him in confusion. “Well, yeah, they’re two completely different genres. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a romance-horror movie before. Maybe someday they’ll make one-”

Ryo resisted the urge to smack his own forehead and groan. “No, I mean when we tell Saki about our “date” and how it was a horror movie, she’s gonna say, ‘Seriously, you picked horror? That is so not romantic!’” he explained, doing his best Saki impression.

“Oh…well, I’m sure we could put some romantic spin on it…like you got scared and I protected you like the hero I am,” Minoru suggested, puffing his chest out with pride.

“Why do I have to be the scared one?”

“‘Cause I’m the hero, duh.”

Ryo shook his head. “Seriously, watching a horror movie is your idea of a good time? You’re unhinged, Minoru.” Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t stop his voice from cracking, something Minoru immediately picked up on.

“Aww, are you scared, Ryo-baby? You could have just told me-”

Ryo glowered at him. “Scared? You wish.”

Minoru smirked. “Okay, prove it, then.”

Ryo sighed. “Fine, I’ll watch your stupid horror movie if it’ll show you how unafraid I am.”

Looking back on it, Ryo realizes that his own pride, particularly when combined with Minoru’s determination to watch this god-awful movie, was his downfall.

The beginning of the movie is simple enough. Surprisingly, it’s pretty boring for a while, with nothing major happening for the first 30 minutes or so. Just as Ryo starts to wonder whether Minoru accidentally led them both to the wrong movie, one of the main characters dies brutally out of nowhere. 

From that point on, everything becomes noticeably more dark and disturbing, and the main characters, who are the family of the girl that just died, start to completely fall apart. The family dynamics are almost soap opera levels of unhealthy. The mom blames herself and lashes out at the son, the son also blames himself and withdraws, and the dad seems to just sit back and do nothing. At times, it feels more like watching a family therapy session than a horror movie.

Unfortunately for Ryo, it soon goes back to being a stereotypical horror movie. There are some jumpscares and some really creepy paranormal stuff, and the music is seriously freaking him out too. Ryo looks over at Minoru, expecting him to be unfazed, only to see that Minoru looks freaked out too.

All it takes is a jumpscare during a particularly intense scene for Minoru to tightly grab onto Ryo’s arm, and in response, Ryo grabs onto Minoru without even thinking. The movie is still terrifying to him (and apparently to Minoru too), but having something to hold onto and knowing he’s not alone is oddly comforting. 

They keep clinging onto each other as the movie continues. The paranormal stuff ends up being part of one big plot twist that Ryo can’t quite wrap his head around. Something about the mom’s late mother being part of a cult that’s targeting the family of protagonists. None of it makes any sense to Ryo. Then the mom points out the evidence of all the paranormal activity only for the dad to call the mom crazy and then immediately get himself killed. Every horror movie has to have someone with no common sense, Ryo thinks as he watches it all play out.

The last twenty or thirty minutes of the movie are downright terrifying, and he and Minoru cling onto each other tighter than ever. When the movie finally ends, they both let out a big sigh of relief, glad to be done with it all.

“That was like a rollercoaster ride from hell,” Ryo remarks as they leave the theater.

Minoru is unusually quiet, which immediately concerns Ryo. Normally, the guy never shuts up, so seeing him so withdrawn feels…wrong.

“Hey, uh…you good?” Ryo asks tentatively.

Nice going, Ryo. You really have a way with words, he thinks to himself while cringing.

Minoru seems startled by Ryo’s question, but he quickly fakes a smile and says, “Yeah, I’m fine, no need to worry about me!” He says it in a way that seems like forced cheerfulness. Ryo notices that it’s different from his usual laid-back nature. Minoru normally makes it look so easy to be carefree and cheerful, but now it looks incredibly strained.

Ryo raises an eyebrow and says, “I’m not stupid, Minoru. I can tell you’ve got something on your mind.”

Minoru sighs in defeat. “Okay, okay, fine. You got me. The truth is…I felt pathetic while watching that movie.”

“Pathetic?”

“Yeah. I’m supposed to be a hero, right? I’m not supposed to freak out over a stupid movie. I’m supposed to be strong and brave. Instead…instead I clung onto you like a total scaredy-cat.” Minoru smiles sadly as he says these self-deprecating comments, and Ryo can’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

He’s terrible at comforting people, but he opens his mouth before he can overthink what he’ll say and go into analysis paralysis mode.

“Why are you being so hard on yourself, huh?”

“Huh?” Minoru echoes weakly.

“You’re acting like you have to be all perfect, yeah? Well, news flash: nobody’s perfect, okay? Just ‘cause you’re scared of a horror movie doesn’t mean you’ve never been brave or heroic before.” Ryo’s voice is softer than usual as he tries to console Minoru.

“You think so?”

“Yeah. By the way, that movie was terrifying. Even I was freaked out. Seriously, I dunno if I’ll ever be able to sleep again.”

Minoru laughs. This time, his laugh seems different from his usual mischievous, boisterous laugh. It’s softer, and it feels…happier, in an almost pure way. Ryo can’t help but think that it suits him. Ryo can’t stop himself from smiling softly as Minoru laughs.

Without realizing it, Ryo ends up staring at Minoru, and as Minoru’s laughter dies down, he notices Ryo. “What, is there something on my face?”

Ryo snaps out of his trance. “Nope! I, uh, just spaced out.”

Minoru just hums in acknowledgment. He thinks for a minute before saying, “Hey, you wanna go do something else? I don’t really feel like telling everyone that our first date was us watching the most disturbing movie of all time.”

Ryo can’t resist the urge to tease Minoru. “Told ya the horror movie was a bad idea.”

Minoru groans. “Dude, shut up!” He elbows Ryo playfully, who chuckles in response.

They end up at an indoor ice skating rink, of all places.

Minoru’s having the time of his life, gliding on the ice like a natural. Ryo, on the other hand, looks like a newborn deer based on the way he’s moving.

Minoru skates up to Ryo, facing him and holding both of his hands out expectantly.

Ryo narrows his eyes. “Oh hell no. I am not grabbing onto your hands while I skate. What am I, a baby?”

“Pretty sure babies can’t skate, Ryo. Most of ‘em can’t even walk.”

“C’mon, you know what I meant! I didn’t mean a literal infant,” Ryo protested.

Minoru just smiles at him. “Look, I’m just offering to help ‘cause I know it’s hard to skate when you’re a beginner.”

“I’ll figure it out myself,” Ryo grumbles.

“Okay, suit yourself,” Minoru answers, smirking. He takes a step back and waits eagerly to see what chaos will unfold.

Ryo tries taking a few shaky steps forward only to fall flat on his face. He tries to get up, but he manages to slip and fall back down every time. It’s so ridiculous that he looks almost like a cartoon character.

Minoru suppresses a laugh, opting instead to skate up to Ryo and hold out his hand to help Ryo up.

Ryo huffs and slowly takes Minoru’s hand. Minoru’s able to pull Ryo back up so he’s standing again.

“Thanks…” Ryo mumbles.

“Oh? Is that…gratitude I hear? Didn’t know you had it in ya, Ryo,” Minoru teases. Ryo frowns in response, and Minoru relents, “Okay, okay, sorry.” He offers his other hand to Ryo and asks, “ Now do you want my help?”

Ryo sighs before reluctantly admitting, “Yes…”

He takes Minoru’s other hand, and Minoru tells Ryo to follow his lead. 

“Are you gonna be okay skating backward like that?” Ryo asks, frantically trying to look past Minoru for any people Minoru might accidentally bump into.

“Sounds like someone cares~” Minoru teases, grinning.

“I…!” Ryo trails off before averting his eyes and grumbling, “I never said I didn’t care…”

Minoru chuckles. “Relax, man. I’m just giving you a hard time. I’ll be fine.”

Of course, when Ryo finally looked back at Minoru, he noticed that someone was about to bump into Minoru.

“Shit! Minoru, look out!”

Just as Ryo warns him, the person bumps into Minoru, making Minoru fall. Ryo catches him in time, but the way he catches Minoru makes it look like Ryo is dipping him. Neither of them has much time to process this, though, because Ryo ends up losing his balance. He tries his best to stay standing, but he ends up falling, causing him and Minoru to both fall on their backs.

Ryo winces before sitting up and checking on Minoru. “Hey, are you okay?!”

Minoru sits there for a moment, processing what just happened before bursting into laughter.

Ryo tries to fight a smile before giving up and laughing along with him. The two of them just sit there for a while, doubled over in laughter and not caring what anyone else thinks. The longer it goes on, the funnier it seems to feel for the two of them.

Eventually, their laughter dies down and they catch their breaths.

Minoru looks over at Ryo with a smirk. “I’ve never heard you laugh like that before. Maybe you do know how to have fun after all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, huh?!” Ryo retorts. Still, his quip is softer than usual and he’s smiling at Minoru.

“It was pretty fun to watch you try to keep holding onto me without falling down.”

“You’re still roasting me?!”

“Yeah. I dunno if you could become a figure skater…don’t quit your day job, Ryo.”

“My ‘day job’ is being a student. I couldn’t quit even if I wanted to, genius.”

Minoru chuckles before scratching the back of his neck and quietly saying, “Uh…by the way, thanks for earlier. Catching me, I mean.”

Ryo’s shocked that Minoru is being so sincere. “It’s whatever, don’t mention it,” he mumbles, unsure how to react to Minoru’s gratitude.

“It’s a shame it didn’t really do much since you fell down immediately after catching me, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”

Ryo rolls his eyes fondly. “Gimme a break, this is my first time skating. Plus, weren’t you the one who said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about me, I won’t bump into anybody’?” He does an exaggerated impersonation of Minoru as he recalls what Minoru said.

“Hey, I don’t sound like that!”

“You sound like that to me.” 

“Guess we’ll agree to disagree, then.” Minoru smiles at him and gets up, offering him a hand again. Ryo takes it, shakily standing back up.

They spend the rest of the time skating side by side to avoid bumping into other people. Ryo freaks out several times about falling over again, which amuses Minoru. Eventually, Ryo manages to skate normally without having to hold onto Minoru for dear life.

Ryo becomes a bit smug when he’s finally able to skate on his own, eager to show off to Minoru that he’s capable of skating without Minoru’s help. “Heh, check it out. I can skate well, I just needed time to practice.”

Minoru can’t help but snicker a bit at how proud Ryo is. Still, he’s happy that he was able to help Ryo. “Not too shabby. Proud of you, Ryo.” He skates over to Ryo.

Ryo smirks. “What are you, my dad?” He notices Minoru holding out his fist and he gives Minoru a fist bump.

“What, I can’t be proud of my boyfriend ?” Minoru teases, grinning. 

“Shut up, man…”

As they’re heading out, Minoru suddenly says, “Oh yeah, we should take a selfie!”

Ryo raises an eyebrow at him. “Why would we do that?”

“You just don’t get it, Ryo-baby,” Minoru drawls. Ryo rolls his eyes at the annoying pet name as Minoru continues, “Couples take dorky selfies all the time. If we wanna make this believable, we should take a few selfies and post ‘em or something.”

Ryo shrugs. “I don’t have social media, but you can go ham with posting ‘em for all I care.”

“Dude, it’s 2024. How do you not have social media? Are you secretly from the past like Miyuki? Maybe you’ve secretly been a caveman this whole time. Tell me, what were the dinosaurs like?” Minoru has a shit-eating grin on his face, clearly having way too much fun riling Ryo up.

Ryo scoffs. “Do you hear yourself right now? You sound like a caricature of Gen Z. Maybe you’re the one who’s in disguise, and you’re actually just a boomer who’s been pretending to fit in with teens.”

“Wow, how’d you know? I’ve just miraculously managed to look like a teenager and stayed in school for decades purely to mess with you,” Minoru says sarcastically.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“Fair enough. Now are we taking this picture or not?”

“Yeah, yeah, just gimme a sec.”

Minoru pulls out his phone. “Okay, c’mere. We have to both be in the frame.”

Minoru wraps his arm around Ryo’s shoulder, using the other to take the selfie. They both look at the picture carefully afterward. 

“Is this convincing enough to pass as a couple’s selfie?” Minoru muses.

“Screw it, let’s take one more,” Ryo says, shrugging.

As Minoru gets ready to take another picture, Ryo realizes that he’s not really sure how he should pose. He thinks about how to make the selfie more convincing, and he gets an idea right as Minoru’s about to take the picture. Before he can second-guess himself, he impulsively kisses Minoru’s cheek.

Minoru looks at him in shock, cheeks slightly flushed. 

Ryo sputters, “Shit, sorry, I…uh, I know you wanted it to look more couple-like and I kinda just acted without thinking…” He feels his cheeks burn and he wants to hide away.

Thankfully, Minoru doesn’t seem too bothered. “Nah, it’s cool, I just…wasn’t expecting that.” Minoru chuckles awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. “Let’s see how the selfie turned out…”

They both look at the picture, eager for an excuse to avoid looking each other in the eye. The selfie looks pretty good, although Minoru’s expression looks slightly surprised by Ryo’s cheek kiss.

They stare at it in silence for a moment before Minoru nods decisively. “That should be convincing enough. I’ll go ahead and post it…” Minoru fiddles with his phone, taking a moment to upload the picture to social media. Ryo thinks he caught a glimpse of Minoru hastily making the picture his phone background but wonders if it was just his imagination.

Ryo clears his throat awkwardly before saying, “Well…this was pretty fun. I’ll see you around?”

Minoru nods. “Yeah, see you around.”

As they part ways, they both can’t help but wonder:

What the hell just happened?

Chapter Text

Ryo gets home from school the next day, exhausted and ready to enjoy some much-needed alone time when his phone rings. He sighs in exasperation, hoping that it was a spam call that he could just block.

No such luck. It’s Saki. He’s exhausted, but he doesn’t want to ignore her, so he takes a deep breath and answers the phone, saying, “What’s up?”

“I saw Minoru post a picture of you two, and it was adorable!”

Ryo huffs. “I am not adorable.”

Saki just laughs. “So, how did the date go?”

“Oh…uh, it was pretty good.”

“Just pretty good? That’s it?”

Ryo sighs. “Okay, fine, fine, it was great. That better?”

“You’re as energetic as ever, aren’t you?”

“Of course, don’t wanna disappoint.”

“So what did you do during the date?” Saki asked.

Ryo had to take a moment to remember everything that happened during his fake date with Minoru. “First, we went to see a movie.”

He could practically hear Saki perk up. “You did more than one thing?! What movie did you see?”

Ryo paused, knowing exactly how Saki was going to react to the movie they saw. “We saw Hereditary …”

The line went silent for a while before Saki finally answered, “You saw Hereditary on a date?”

“Yeah…”

“That is so not romantic! Why would you see a horror movie?”

Ryo chuckled as Saki said exactly what he expected her to say. “I tried saying that to Minoru, but he was just so gung-ho about seeing it that I gave in.”

“Aww, so you saw it because you knew he liked it?”

Not exactly, Ryo thought, but he played along, knowing he needed to sound like he was in love. “Well, yeah…his eyes practically lit up and he seemed so excited when he talked about it. He said he’d been dying to see it.” Technically all true statements, but he conveniently left out the part where he refused until Minoru insinuated that he was scared of horror movies.

“Aww, so you can’t resist it when he smiles, huh?”

When he hears Saki saying that, he thinks back to Minoru’s soft, appreciative smile and laugh when Ryo reassured him after the movie. Then he thinks of how he couldn’t stop laughing with Minoru after they both fell down while ice skating and how fun it was to be with Minoru then.

“Ryo, you still there?”

Ryo snaps out of his thoughts when he hears Saki. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. It’s just that when you said that, I kept thinking of all the times Minoru smiled at me during our date.” Ryo feels his face heating up as soon as those words leave his mouth. It sounds so unbelievably cheesy and worst of all, it was completely true.

“Wow, you’re down bad, Ryo,” Saki teases.

“Wha-?! I am not down bad!”

“You just spaced out because of how much you love Minoru’s smile. That’s, like, the textbook definition of down bad.”

“Why would ‘down bad’ ever be in a textbook?”

“It’s a saying, it’s not like it’s actually in a textbook. But if there was a dictionary entry for it, your picture would be right next to the definition.”

“Shut up!”

Saki laughs before saying, “So we’ve established that you saw an unromantic movie and swooned over Minoru’s smile. Then what?”

Ryo gave up on disputing the “swooning” part, so he answered, “The movie was terrifying, so we decided to go ice skating afterward.”

“Of course it was terrifying, it’s a horror movie! So how did ice skating go?”

“It was fun. Not easy, though. It’s so easy to slip and fall, and I kept falling all the time. Minoru also had the bright idea of skating backward even though I told him not to. Then someone bumped into him, I caught him, and then I fell down and he went down with me.”

“You caught him? So gentlemanly, what a good boyfriend~” Saki coos.

“He was falling towards me so I just did it without thinking. It’s not like I was trying to be a hero like he is.”

“Did you just say that Minoru’s a hero?” He can practically hear Saki grinning.

“No, that’s not what I meant! I meant he wants to be a hero ‘cause he’s so obsessed with heroes, that’s all!”

Saki chuckles. “Oh Ryo, why can’t you just be honest about how you feel?”

“I’m not—well, it’s not like he’s not heroic, I guess he’s pretty brave…” Ryo mumbles.

“Why not tell him that?”

Ryo raises his eyebrows in disbelief. “You want me to tell Minoru that he’s a hero?”

“Yeah. Why do you sound so shocked? You sound like I just asked you to propose to him or something.”

“Because that’s so freakin’ embarrassing…” Ryo groans.

“C’mon, Ryo. I know it’s hard to say, but if you don’t, Minoru might not know how much you appreciate him! You wouldn’t want that, right?”

“No…”

“Then just try saying it to him. I know he jokes around and teases you a lot, but I think that would mean a lot to him.”

Ryo thinks about all the times Minoru’s face has lit up when he talks about the heroes he loves and how many times he’s said he wants to be like them. He also thinks about how many heroic things Minoru did when they were in the parallel universe. He thinks about the lengths Minoru went to protect Falcomon, his partner. 

He thinks about how Minoru always seemed to be the first person to come running if Ryo ever needed a helping hand. He recalls when he first saw Minoru in the school and how Minoru suddenly came running when he heard Ryo screaming over seeing Kunemon. He remembers when Minoru found him fighting enemies on his own in the sewer and immediately ran over to help him out. He remembers when he saw that ghost and how Minoru was the first one to come running when he screamed.

Of course, Ryo also remembers how Minoru reacted when Ryo was having nervous breakdowns. How Minoru never knew exactly what to say and kept a slight distance because of that, but always seemed to be keeping an eye on Ryo. He also remembers how Minoru panicked when Ryo ran off on his own, yelling for Ryo to come back, and how he was one of the people who rushed forward to save him from the fog. Minoru truly was heroic.

He takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll try to tell him.” Part of him dreads the idea of having that conversation with Minoru, but he decides that he can just blame Saki if Minoru teases him. He’ll just tell Minoru that Saki was the one who suggested the idea for him to tell Minoru he’s a hero. He decides to tell Saki, saying, “But just so you know, if anything goes wrong, I’m blaming it on you.”

Saki just laughs. “That’s fine, I don’t really care. Just try to tell him how you feel. Actually, why don’t you go ahead and tell him now?”

Ryo groans, and Saki laughs again. “It’ll be okay, Ryo. You got this, I believe in you!”

“Thanks…” Ryo says weakly before they say their goodbyes to each other and hang up.

He stares at his phone, clicking on Minoru’s contact. He hesitates for a moment, then hastily clicks the number before he can chicken out.

Minoru hears his phone ringing and quickly checks it, expecting it to be Takuma. Instead, he’s shocked to see that Ryo is calling him. He thinks about the last time they saw each other, how Ryo gently kissed his cheek, and how it gave Minoru a funny feeling in his stomach, but not in a bad way. He wonders if Ryo is calling him to talk about it, and the idea makes Minoru anxious. Still, he answers, wanting to hear Ryo out.

“Hey,” he says as he answers the phone.

“Hey…” Ryo echoes.

There’s a brief pause before Minoru asks, “So, uh…why’d you call me?”

“Oh, right. Look, before I say anything, just know that this is all Saki’s idea and that I’m just doing it so we can be a better fake couple or whatever.”

“Okay…” Minoru replies, confused.

He hears Ryo take a deep breath and say, “I just…wanted to say that I, uh…I think you’re…heroic.” He practically whispers the last part, and Minoru would tease the shit out of him if he weren’t so shocked.

“What?” He asks, wondering if he heard Ryo correctly.

He hears Ryo groan in exasperation. “I said you’re heroic…”

His heart skips a beat, but he still can’t believe what he’s hearing. “Did Saki want you to prank me or something?”

“No! No, I just accidentally said something about how I wanted to be a hero like you, and I meant be a hero like you want to be, but she told me to tell you about how I feel or whatever.”

Minoru furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “So…you think I want to be a hero or that I am a hero?”

“Yes,” Ryo quickly replies.

Now Minoru’s even more perplexed. “That wasn’t a yes or no question, Ryo…”

“It’s just…originally, I meant that you want to be a hero, but then Saki misunderstood what I said and thought I thought you were heroic…” Minoru’s heart sinks, but he’s not surprised. He doesn’t really consider himself heroic, either. But then Ryo continues, “But the more I thought about it, I realized that maybe you are pretty heroic after all…”

Minoru perks up. “What? Really?”

Ryo mumbles, “Well, yeah…you got into so many dangerous situations just to save the people you care about, and you were always eager to want to save Miyuki and the world when we were in the parallel world.”

Minoru’s quick to brush those aside, saying, “Yeah, but so was everyone, including you. You don’t have to start praising me,” he says, chuckling awkwardly.

He hears Ryo take a deep breath again. “Yeah, but…”

“But?”

“It’s just…you’ve saved my ass a lot, y’know?” Ryo mumbles.

Minoru feels his heart skip a beat again and tries to ignore how flattered and happy he feels to hear that. “I did?”

“Yeah. You would always come running if you ever heard me scream, even when it was about Kunemon or some random ghost. Of course, then you would immediately tease me, so you’re more of an asshole hero, but…yeah.”

Minoru chuckles a bit when Ryo tries to backpedal and call him an “asshole hero,” but he’s surprised about Ryo seeing him as heroic. He always assumed Ryo saw him as his obnoxious frenemy, not as someone heroic. Minoru suddenly feels vulnerable and panics, wanting the conversation to go back to their usual lighthearted banter. He deflects by joking, “Aw, do you want me to be your knight in shining armor or something?”

He hears Ryo sigh in frustration. “I’m serious, okay? Quit poking fun at me.”

Minoru realizes that Ryo is also taking a big risk by being vulnerable and that he needs to do the same. He reluctantly says, “Sorry. Thanks…I actually appreciate you saying that, to be honest. Calling me heroic, I mean.”

“It’s nothing, don’t mention it…”

Minoru smirks. “What if I do mention it?”

“Seriously, don’t.”

Minoru chuckles. “Okay, okay, I won’t.” He thinks he hears Ryo quietly chuckling but he can’t quite tell. “So, was there anything else you wanted to tell me, or…?”

“Fishing for compliments, are we?” Ryo teases.

“N-no! I was just curious, that’s all.”

He hears Ryo laugh quietly. “I’m just messing with you, don’t worry. No, that’s all I wanted to say.”

“Gotcha…there’s actually something I need to tell you…”

“Yeah?”

Minoru takes a deep breath. “So, you know how I posted that selfie we took onto my social media accounts?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I forgot that my mom follows some of those accounts…”

Ryo groans. “Oh my god, Minoru…”

“She won’t stop bugging me about meeting you! You have to help me out, man, please!”

“You’re killing me, Minoru…”

“Please?” Minoru asks again, softer this time.

He hears Ryo grumbling before he finally concedes, “Fine…”

Minoru lights up. “Thanks so much, Ryo, you’re the best! I’ll check with my mom to see when she wants to have you come over.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome…guess I’ll see you around, then?”

“Yeah, see you soon.”

“Cool. Later.”

After hanging up, Minoru can’t stop thinking about what Ryo said. He’s not used to hearing anyone call him a hero, but hearing it from Ryo of all people makes it feel even better. Minoru never knew that what he did in the parallel world meant so much to Ryo, and knowing it now made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Considering how snarky and closed-off Ryo normally is, it also makes Minoru pleasantly surprised that Ryo opened up to him about this. 

Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t fight the smile that spread across his face when he thought about it.

Chapter Text

Minoru hears his phone buzz and looks down to see that Takuma has texted him.

[ main man takuma ]: How are things going for you?

[ me ]: fine ig. yknow how it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ main man takuma ]: Everything okay with you and Ryo? I was pretty surprised to find out that you two were dating.

Minoru deflates. Of course Takuma, his best friend, would know something was fishy. As Minoru’s best friend, it was hard for Minoru to ever fool him. Sometimes it felt like Takuma was some kind of mind reader, seeing through any fake smiles Minoru tried to force whenever he felt down. He thinks for a moment before replying.

[ me ]: rly? u were surprised?

He sees the “...” bubble for a while before finally getting Takuma’s response.

[ main man takuma ]: Well, I was mostly surprised that you didn’t say anything about liking him sooner yknow? One minute you swore you didn’t like him and then suddenly you’re dating

[ main man takuma ]: Which is totally cool! Honestly, I had a feeling you liked each other but I never thought you’d actually admit it to each other

Minoru’s jaw drops. Takuma thought he and Ryo were crushing on each other before they started pretending to date? He resisted the urge to deny ever liking Ryo, but remembers that it would seem out of character for him to deny formerly liking his “boyfriend.” He sighs, furrowing his brow as he tries to figure out the perfect response.

[ me ]: how’d you know we liked each other?

Minoru can’t resist his need to figure out Takuma’s line of reasoning. Why was he so sure that Minoru and Ryo were crushing on each other? Unsurprisingly, Takuma takes his time responding and the “...” bubble keeps disappearing and reappearing as Takuma changes his answer.

[ main man takuma ]: I dunno, you two just seem so invested in each other, if that makes sense. You’ve always gone out of your way to tease Ryo, and after a while, it became clear that the teasing wasn’t malicious. You’ve teased him a lot more than you’ve teased anyone else, and you kinda seem to light up whenever he’s around. Plus, for all your teasing, you’ll immediately help him out whenever he needs it.

Minoru just stares at the response in disbelief, his eyes widened and his mouth agape. He’s mortified as he realizes that he can’t refute a single point that Takuma just made. He shakes his head, reasoning that Takuma just made the wrong conclusion. His relationship was Ryo was just…complicated. Nothing about it was quite like any other friendship he’d had. They just had their own little dynamic where they bantered but both of them quietly cared about each other. Admittedly, Minoru did want Ryo’s approval more than anyone else’s, but Ryo was brave and heroic in his own way, so of course Minoru would admire him. Besides, Minoru had only ever liked girls. Takuma just came to the wrong conclusion , Minoru reassures himself.

[ me ]: okay so we’ve established that i liked ryo but how did you know ryo liked me?

[ main man takuma ]: He was pretty good at hiding it whenever he talked to you, but the way he looks at you is different from how he looks at everyone else. It wasn’t always that way, but at some point, that changed. He’d quickly give you this adoring look whenever you smiled or laughed but weren’t looking at him. He’s a lot more energetic when you’re around, and he blushes a lot when you’re around.

Minoru’s heart skips a beat as he reads the text. Ryo looks at him adoringly? He tries to picture someone as snarky and grumpy as Ryo with an “adoring” look on his face but can’t imagine it. Maybe Takuma was just seeing things, or Ryo was actually just looking at someone or something else. Like Kunemon or something that reminds him of his mom, not his frenemy that he definitely doesn’t have a crush on.

Minoru figures that he probably isn’t even Ryo’s type. He tries to imagine Ryo’s type and pictures someone mature and calm like Takuma or Shuuji, not someone goofy and playful like Minoru. The realization feels like a punch to the gut, probably because it feeds his own insecurities. 

He imagines what life will be like after he and Ryo end their fake relationship, knowing that Ryo will have no trouble finding a real relationship. Ryo is loyal, funny, brave, clever…the list goes on. Ryo is tough and intimidating at first glance, but he has a soft and sweet side that he occasionally lets slip. Ryo gets scared easily, but he’s able to push through those fears and do what he needs to do. He can’t help thinking that anyone would be lucky to have a partner like Ryo. Part of him dreads how Ryo being in a relationship with someone else might make less time for Ryo’s friendship with Minoru.

Minoru remembers he still has to respond to Takuma, so he reaches for his phone.

[ me ]: damn i guess we were pretty obvious huh

[ main man takuma ]: There’s nothing wrong with being obvious! As long as things are working out between you both that’s what matters :)

Minoru realizes something about Takuma talking about “obviously crushing” on someone and grins mischievously as a brilliant idea suddenly hits him.

[ me ]: but i think we both know that i’m not the only one who’s obvious

[ main man takuma ]: Right, we’ve both decided that Ryo is obvious too.

Minoru chuckles as the point goes right over Takuma’s head.

[ me ]: someone BESIDES me and ryo

[ main man takuma ]: ???

[ me ]: you >:)

There’s a bit of a pause before Minoru gets another message.

[ main man takuma ]: Me? What are you talking about?

[ me ]: takuma. don’t play dumb, it’s obvious you’re pining for kaito

An even longer pause stretches out as Minoru waits for a response. He wonders if Takuma will actually admit it or if he’ll just keep pretending to be oblivious. After what seems like ages, he finally gets a reply:

[ main man takuma ]: Is it really that obvious?

[ me ]: idk man it is to me but maybe not to everyone else

[ main man takuma ]: You don’t think Kaito knows, do you?

[ me ]: nah, he’s painfully oblivious. pretty sure he’s into you too, by the way.

[ main man takuma ]: You really think so?

[ me ]: yeah, he seems more attached to you than anyone else in our group (except miu ofc)

[ main man takuma ]: Huh.

Suddenly, Minoru gets another brilliant idea. He types furiously, eager to share his plan with Takuma.

[ me ]: why don’t you and kaito go on a double date with me and ryo?

[ main man takuma ]: WHAT

Minoru bursts into a fit of giggles as he reads Takuma’s uncharacteristically flustered reply.

[ me ]: you don’t have to tell him it’s a date, you can just say you need to keep an eye on me to make sure i don’t fuck up my relationship with ryo or something

[ main man takuma ]: Would Kaito actually believe something like that…?

[ me ]: only one way to find out 😈 go ask him!!!

Several minutes pass with no response. Minoru grins as he tried to envision how Takuma’s conversation with Kaito was going. Would Kaito go along with the ridiculous excuse? Regardless of what Kaito decided to do, Minoru was sure Kaito would have several dry and sassy remarks for Takuma. He sees his screen light up as he receives another text from Takuma:

[ main man takuma ]: He said he’ll go with me.

[ me ]: great! you go takuma, go get your man 🥳🥳

[ main man takuma ]: He’s not my man, Minoru…

[ me ]: but he will be! he’s ur future bf…your…e-bae (eventual bae)

[ main man takuma ]: Do people still say “bae”?

[ me ]: takuma ur missing the point!! this is ur chance!!

[ main man takuma ]: But he doesn’t know this is a date…isn’t it kinda messed up to trick him into going on a date with me?

Minoru sat there, stumped for a moment. Takuma had a legitimate point. He thought for a bit longer before typing:

[ me ]: if it goes well it can be a date but if not it can be a platonic thing

[ me ]: you just gotta gauge how kaito is feeling! i believe in u bro 😁

[ main man takuma ]: Thanks, I’ll try to believe in myself too 😅

Minoru grins excitedly, eager to see how things will play out between Takuma and Kaito. He reaches to text Ryo to let him know about the plan. He cringes a bit when he looks at the name he saved Ryo’s contact information under to make it the fake relationship seem more believable. 

[ me ]: guess what

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: do i even want to know.

[ me ]: takuma and kaito are going on a double date with us 😁

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: TAKUMA AND KAITO ARE DATING NOW??? miracles never cease 

[ me ]: welllll they’re not dating yet

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: tf do you mean double date then

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: wait i never even agreed to go on a second date! you can’t just voluntell me to go on a second date with you!! 

Minoru chuckles, smiling fondly before responding:

[ me ]: will u go on another date with me my beloved ryo-baby…my darling senpai… 🥺🥺

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: if you type that emoji again i’m gonna puke

[ me ]: aw ryo don’t be like that 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: i hate you.

[ me ]: no u don’t ❤️

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: ugh fine i’ll go on another date with you

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: but why is it a double date if takuma and kaito aren’t together?? i swear you’re not making any sense

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: do they even think it’s a date or did you trick them into going on a date

[ me ]: welllllll

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: oh my god minoru.

[ me ]: they’re totally into each other, i’m just giving them a little push!

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: jfc minoru

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: they do seem into each other but that doesn’t mean you should just play cupid

[ me ]: i’m just being a good wingman like a best friend should!

[ me ]: oh you think they’re into each other too? i’m not the only one?

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: well duh. when one of them is looking away, the other will look longingly with this sappy look in their eyes

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: like the look we had to practice where i pretended you were kunemon

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: i’m changing your name in my phone to kuneminorumon

[ me ]: nooooo!! 😨

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: too late >:)

[ me ]: i can’t believe my precious senpai has BETRAYED MEEEEEE

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: dude you’re so dramatic

[ me ]: and u love it. i bet ur smiling rn 😁

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: i am not smiling

[ me ]: sorry ryo ur not beating the smiling allegations lol

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: fuck you man

[ me ]: love u too ❤️

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: so we’re doing this double date huh? what are we doing?

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: i’m assuming we’re not having the double date while meeting your mom right? right????

[ me ]: lol no we’re not having a double date while meeting my mom

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: ok good just wanted to check. what are we doing then

[ me ]: uhhhhh

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: you’re kidding

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: minoru why do you not have a plan. this was your idea for crying out loud

[ me ]: i was rolling with the punches!! i’ll figure it out, just trust the process!

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: what process. is there even a process

[ me ]: i’ll figure it out 

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: dude…

[ me ]: i will!

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: for the sake of my sanity i’m just gonna believe you

[ ryo-baby ❤️😍]: see you soon i guess??

[ me ]: yeah see you soon! it’s gonna be great you’ll see 😁😁

Ryo waits outside for everyone to arrive. It’s a beautiful day, and the area that Minoru found for them to have a picnic is beautiful. He begrudgingly admits to himself that maybe Minoru’s “trust the process” mindset wasn’t entirely flawed.

Ryo sees Takuma and Kaito approaching and waves at them.

“Hi, Ryo. I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Takuma says with a warm smile.

“Nah, I just got here not too long ago,” Ryo reassures him.

“Hey,” Kaito greets Ryo with a small smile before furrowing his brow. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

Hearing Minoru referred to as his boyfriend still felt a bit strange, but it was gradually beginning to feel more and more normal for Ryo as the days went by. Ryo shrugs. “Great question, wish I knew the answer. Who knows where he is right now.”

“Actually, it looks like he’s finally here,” Takuma says, pointing out Minoru’s approaching figure.

Minoru runs up to the group. “Sorry! I got lost on the way here!” 

“Jeez, you should make sure you know where you’re going beforehand! It’s not cool to keep us waiting…” Ryo grumbles.

“Sounds like your boyfriend was worried about you, Minoru,” Kaito drawls with a smirk.

Ryo’s face heats up. “Wha—I never said that!”

Minoru grins and drapes an arm over Ryo’s shoulders. “Aww, sweetheart~ You don’t need to be shy, you can tell me if you’re worried. Try to be more honest about your feelings~”

“Ugh…” Ryo groans.

Minoru’s grin widens as he realizes a way to fluster Ryo even more. “But you are pretty cute when you’re blushing, so I don’t completely mind it when you’re shy like this.”

Sure enough, Ryo blushes even more and starts sputtering, “Wha—?! You—! D-don’t mess with me!”

Minoru just chuckles and quickly kisses Ryo on the cheek, and Ryo tries to ignore the weird fluttery feeling he gets as he feels Minoru’s lips on his cheek. This only feels weird because you’re not actually dating, this is just part of the fake relationship, don’t think about it too much, he tells himself. 

“He does have a point, Minoru. It’s not great to keep your boyfriend waiting,” Takuma says.

Minoru deflates a little. “Aw, not you too, Takuma!” He looks apologetic before sheepishly saying, “Okay, I’m really sorry for running late. I was really excited for today but I just didn’t plan it out well enough…”

Takuma smiles at him gently. “It’s okay, Minoru. Just try to plan more next time. You don’t wanna keep Ryo waiting.”

Minoru smiles weakly. “Yeah, I’ll work on that.”

Ryo feels a pang of guilt, wondering if he was too harsh with Minoru. He silently squeezes Minoru’s hand.

Minoru jumps slightly, startled. He glances at their hands before looking back at Ryo. Ryo gives him a concerned look, silently apologizing for giving Minoru a hard time. Minoru gives him a gentle smile, squeezing Ryo’s hand back. Ryo returns the gentle smile.

“Yo, lovebirds. You wanna help us set up?” Kaito calls out, snapping Ryo and Minoru out of their trance.

“Hey, Kaito!” Takuma yelps, embarrassed by Kaito’s bluntness.

“Shit! Sorry, got carried away. Yeah, I brought the food,” Ryo says, letting go of Minoru’s hand and immediately missing the warm, comforting contact. He tries to hide his disappointment by bringing out the food he made for everyone. 

As the picnic is all set up and everyone sits down to eat, they open the containers of food Ryo brought.

“Wow, it looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it!” Takuma gushes.

Minoru puffs out his chest with pride. “Yeah, my boyfriend’s the best,” he brags, grinning triumphantly.

Ryo rolls his eyes fondly, secretly flattered by Minoru’s pride. “You’re acting like you made all the food.”

Minoru looks at Ryo with a smirk on his face. “What, I can’t be proud of my talented, hardworking boyfriend?” he drawls. Ryo has no clue how Minoru can say such cheesy things without any shame or embarrassment. Just listening to Minoru’s smug gushing is making Ryo embarrassed.

“Shut up…” Ryo mumbles.

“Aww, is that a blush I see? You’re too cute, Ryo~” Minoru coos teasingly.

“I told you, I’m not cute!”

Minoru leans in and whispers to Ryo, “Everything’s going according to plan. Those two are chatting it up thanks to our bickering.” Ryo looks over at Takuma and sure enough, the two of them are talking and laughing. Takuma is excitedly going off about something, and Kaito is listening to him with a fond smile. 

Ryo nods and whispers back, “So we’ll just only focus on each other so they have to talk to each other?”

“Exactly,” Minoru whispers. Ryo nods in acknowledgment, and the two of them stop whispering and begin talking normally again.

“Hey, Ryo,” Minoru says, trying to get Ryo’s attention. Ryo looks over at him only to see Minoru holding out a bite of food for him. “Say aah,” he says with an impish grin, moving the food closer to Ryo’s mouth. 

“Oh my god, you’re so cheesy,” Ryo says, rolling his eyes with a smile. He opens his mouth and allows Minoru to feed him the bite of food like a stereotypical lovey-dovey boyfriend. 

“How is it?” Minoru asks in an exaggeratedly sweet way.

“You’re acting like you’re the one who cooked the food and you’re asking for my opinion or something,” Ryo says dryly. 

Minoru just laughs before teasing, “Oh, so you wanna feed me, Ryo~? Why didn’t you say so sooner, I’d be glad to let you feed me.”

“That’s not what I said.”

Minoru pretends to pout. “Aw, c’mon, Ryo! You don’t wanna let me try what you made?”

“You can just eat it yourself, you know,” Ryo points out. Minoru gives him puppy-dog eyes, looking at him pleadingly. Ryo’s not used to seeing Minoru use this kind of expression, and even though Minoru’s just doing it to mess with him, Ryo feels a protective urge toward him. The urge confuses him. Since when does he want to protect the guy who looks for every opportunity to get on his nerves? Still, the longer he looks at Minoru’s pathetic expression, the more he begins to waver. He finally caves, saying, “Okay, fine, fine. I’ll feed you, for crying out loud.”

Minoru perks up and grins. Ryo gets a piece of food while grumbling, “What are you, a baby bird? Sheesh…”

“The kemonogami are supposed to represent our inner selves or whatever, and Falcomon’s my partner, so maybe it’s just part of my nature,” he drawls.

Ryo just raises an eyebrow before muttering, “Whatever…” He looks around, seeing if anyone is looking at him before quickly feeding Minoru. He averts his eyes, fiddling with one of his sleeves as he gruffly asks, “Well…how is it?”

Minoru chews, appearing to be carefully contemplating his answer before swallowing his food and answering, “Heh, not too shabby! Didn’t know you had it in you, Ryo!”

“I helped cook while we were in the parallel universe! How are you surprised?!”

Minoru shrugs with a grin. “I dunno, you just keep amazing me, Ryo-baby~”

Ryo tries to fight a smile from spreading across his face. He desperately tries to remind himself that Minoru is just doing this to keep up appearances and that he doesn’t actually mean what he’s saying. Still, some silly part of himself can’t help but want to jump for joy at Minoru’s sweet words. 

“You’re trying not to smile, aren’t you?” Minoru says teasingly.

“Wha—?! Of course not!” Ryo sputtered, avoiding eye contact with Minoru.

“C’mooon, you can show me! It won’t kill you to smile in front of me, you know!” Minoru retorts playfully. Without thinking, he scoots closer to Ryo and uses his hands to guide Ryo’s face to look at him. Ryo’s eyes widen and his mouth falls open slightly in shock. Minoru then realizes what he’s doing. His hands are cupping Ryo’s face, and they’re sitting close to each other. Their faces are fairly close to each other. Both of them stay like that for a moment, frozen and unsure of what to do. The situation suddenly feels very intimate, and the two of them feel their hearts pounding. 

Neither of them can bring themselves to break eye contact until Ryo accidentally glances at Minoru’s lips. Minoru looks a bit surprised and a blush creeps across his face. Ryo feels mortified and starts wishing the ground would swallow him up. But then he notices Minoru’s gaze drift down to Ryo’s lips and he’s hanging in suspense, wondering what Minoru will do. Minoru looks back up at Ryo with an unusually soft expression on his face, almost as if silently asking for permission. Ryo finds his eyes wandering back to Minoru’s lips, noticing how soft they look. He’s never kissed anyone, but he can’t stop himself from wondering for the first time how Minoru’s lips would feel against his own. They both slowly, tentatively begin moving closer to each other, as if some unseen force is magnetically pulling them closer. Ryo feels his hands instinctively reach out and cup Minoru’s face as they both start closing their eyes. Their lips are about a hair apart from each other when they both suddenly hear a loud honking noise. A split second later, a goose charges into Ryo.

Ryo jumps back, startled. “What the hell?!” he shrieks. The goose just honks and starts charging at him again. Ryo lets out a startled yelp and runs away at full speed as the goose chases him.

Normally, Minoru would love every second of something like that happening to Ryo and he’d laugh until his sides hurt. But Minoru can’t stop thinking about what had just happened between him and Ryo. He had actually wanted to kiss Ryo, and it seemed like Ryo wanted to kiss him back. How the hell did he go from bantering with Ryo and wanting to get on his nerves to wanting to kiss and hold him? It didn’t make any sense. It’s not like he actually likes Ryo, after all. He just likes to rile Ryo up and joke around with him.

So why was he feeling so flustered over what just happened, and disappointed that they never actually kissed?

Minoru’s brain keeps replaying what happened over and over again, thinking about the way Ryo looked at him, the way Ryo slowly leaned in and cupped his face so gently as the distance between them grew smaller. He thinks about how much softer and more tender Ryo acted compared to his usual rough and snarky demeanor, and he finds himself wanting to see Ryo look at him like that more often. He starts to feel something strange and unfamiliar, something that feels like fondness, comfort, and uncertainty all at once. The feeling hits him like a tidal wave, overwhelming him and drowning him with its intensity. 

He shakes his head, trying to snap himself out of his thoughts. Surely it just felt exciting because it was a new experience. Minoru had never kissed anyone before, so the idea of kissing someone, even someone he had no feelings for, made him feel happy. That has to be the reason behind these sudden strange thoughts and feelings he’s experiencing. Minoru keeps repeating this to himself and pushing any other explanation from his mind. 

Minoru tries to distract himself by looking around. Ryo is still being chased by the goose, but there seems to be a bit more distance between them now. Takuma and Kaito are watching and chuckling. Their hands accidentally touch, and they both go quiet and look away from each other, but neither of them pulls their hand away. Slowly, Kaito works up the courage to interlock his fingers with Takuma’s. Takuma starts smiling uncontrollably, and Kaito has a soft smile on his face. Neither of them is ready to talk about it yet, but their fingers remain intertwined.

Ryo eventually manages to get away from the goose and slowly returns back to the group, completely winded and trying to catch his breath. He practically collapses as he sits back down to join everyone else. Takuma and Kaito look at him with concern.

“Are you okay, Ryo?” Takuma asks hesitantly.

Ryo, who’s still panting, just nods and gives him a thumbs up.

Minoru feels a pang of worry when he sees how exhausted Ryo is. He remembers his fake relationship with Ryo and quickly thinks of a solution. The solution is painfully cheesy but plausible. He puts on his charade of the lovey-dovey boyfriend and softly says to Ryo, “Hey, you can lay your head on my lap if you wanna…”

Ryo looks softly surprised but appreciative. “Sure, thanks…” he pants before resting his head on Minoru’s lap. Ryo’s still trying to catch his breath, but he seems to relax a bit. Minoru finds himself gently playing with Ryo’s hair and immediately rationalizes that any good fake boyfriend would do the same to look convincing.

Ryo practically melts as Minoru plays with his hair, sighing contentedly. The combination of his exhaustion and the relaxing feelings he’s having make Ryo fight to keep his eyes open. Minoru can’t help but chuckle at the sight, finding the whole thing oddly endearing. 

Takuma suddenly says, “Kaito and I should probably get going…”

Minoru looks over at him in shock. “You’re heading back?”

“Yeah, we have to take care of something, right, Kaito?”

Kaito looks a bit confused but replies, “Oh, uh…right. We have to go do…that thing we had planned later today.”

Takuma smiles apologetically at Minoru and says, “Yeah, sorry, but we’d better get going.”

Minoru nods, still slightly confused. “Okay, see you later…”

As the two of them walk away, Minoru’s attention shifts back to Ryo. “You feeling any better, Ryo?”

Ryo looks up at Minoru, answering, “Yeah, a little…damn, that goose just wouldn’t leave me alone…what’d I do to that stupid goose to piss it off so much?”

Minoru chuckles. “Who knows.”

Ryo groans. “I know I have to get off of your lap, but it’s so comfy…ugh, this sucks.”

Minoru pauses for a second, scratching the back of his neck before saying, “I mean, I guess you don’t have to get up now…”

Ryo looks up at him, puzzled. “But nobody’s around, so what’s the point? Isn’t it kinda weird for me to be on your lap like this if we’re not dating?”

Minoru shrugs. “Maybe, but you look pretty worn out, so you probably shouldn’t rush yourself to get back up.”

Ryo thinks for a moment before humming in agreement. “Yeah, I guess you have a point there.”

They stay like that for a while, trying to ignore all the thoughts and feelings flooding through their minds. Neither of them wants to dwell too long on why they’ve become more comfortable showing each other affection like this or how this will affect their friendship once they end this fake relationship. They just stay there in comfortable silence as they try to enjoy the moment before it ends.

Even after they’ve said their goodbyes later that day and they’ve gone home, both of them can’t help but think about how real their fake date felt.

Chapter Text

Ryo takes a deep breath, slightly shocked that things have come to this point. He never thought he’d be introduced to Minoru’s mother as Minoru’s “boyfriend,” yet here he is, waiting outside Minoru’s door. Ryo takes another deep breath, surprised at how nervous he is. Even if his relationship with Minoru isn’t real, he doesn’t want to make a complete ass of himself, and he has no idea what Minoru’s mother is like. Ryo isn’t exactly a social butterfly either, so meeting new people always fills him with some dread.

Ryo steels his nerves before finally knocking on the door. He hears footsteps before seeing a fairly short middle-aged brunette woman open the door. The woman’s eyes light up. “You must be Ryo!” she chirps.

“Yeah, that’s me…” Ryo says, scratching the back of his neck and giving her a weak smile.

The woman pulls him into a hug, and Ryo stiffens in shock before awkwardly hugging her back. “Minoru has told me so much about you! It’s so great to finally meet you!” She pulls away and beams. “Thank you for making my son so happy.”

Before Ryo can respond, Minoru rushes to the door. “Mom!” he whines in embarrassment.

Minoru’s mother gently chides her son, saying, “Minoru, come greet your boyfriend!”

“Oh, uh, my bad…” Minoru says sheepishly. He looks over at Ryo, smiling shyly at him. “Hey, Ryo…”

Ryo gives him a little wave, smiling softly. “Hey.”

“You’re being so quiet, Minoru! That’s not like you, especially when you told me so many good things about him!”

Minoru blushes. “Mom!” he hisses.

Minoru’s mother just smiles innocently at him. “What? He’s your boyfriend, isn’t he? Why are you acting so shy and embarrassed all of a sudden?”

Ryo smirks, teasing, “Oh, he just has a hard time being honest with his feelings sometimes. He can be a little shy when it comes to romance.”

Minoru frowns at him, opening his mouth to protest before his mother cuts him off. “Oh, is that so? My little Minoru has always been so confident and outgoing that I’m a little surprised to hear that, but I suppose everyone can be a little shy sometimes.”

“Come on, guys…” Minoru whines.

His mother just smiles at him and ruffles his hair. “Sorry, sweetie. We’re just giving you a hard time. We both love you.”

Minoru’s mother says the last part so casually, and she turns away before she can see Minoru and Ryo look at each other in shock. She turns back around, gesturing for the boys to follow her while saying, “Come on in! Welcome!”

“Thanks…” Ryo mumbles, giving her a small smile.

“You’re more than welcome!” 

Ryo sees that Minoru’s mother is about to resume preparing dinner, and he speaks up. “Hey, I can help out with dinner.”

Minoru’s mother laughs and shakes her head. “Don’t be silly, you’re our guest!”

“Seriously, I don’t mind. I’ll probably feel bad if I don’t help out, actually.”

Minoru’s mother relents. “Well, if you insist, you can help out. But don’t feel like you have to. If you get tired of it, feel free to just relax.”

Ryo smiles. “Got it, thanks.”

“Well, I’m not gonna be the only one who just sits here while everyone is making dinner. Count me in too,” Minoru says with a grin, joining his mother and Ryo in preparing dinner.

“So nice of you to join us,” Ryo drawls with a playful smirk.

Minoru chuckles. “Shut up, man…”

The time seems to fly by as the three of them prepare dinner together. Minoru and Ryo bicker and banter, and Ryo notices that Minoru is struggling to peel a potato using a knife. 

He walks up to Minoru and says, “Lemme see that.”

Minoru tilts his head. “Huh? Why?”

“You seem to be having a hard time peeling this, so let me show you how to do it.”

“Who says I need your help? I can figure it out!” Minoru protests.

“Okay, show me what you got,” Ryo challenges.

Minoru gulps before repeatedly trying and failing to peel the potato with the knife. He sighs in exasperation, slumping over in defeat. “Fine, show me how to peel the potato,” Minoru mumbles.

Ryo smirks, satisfied to have won the argument, but decides not to give Minoru a hard time for once. Instead, he holds his hands out for Minoru to give him the potato and knife. When Minoru reluctantly hands them over, Ryo says, “Okay, watch carefully so you can see what I’m doing.” Ryo makes a small cut in the skin of the potato and then slowly rotates the potato while gently pressing the knife against the skin of the potato. “Basically that’s all you have to do.” Ryo hands the knife and potato back to Minoru. “Now try again.”

Minoru stares at the knife and potato for a moment before trying to imitate what Ryo did. He applies too much pressure to the knife and ends up taking chunks out of the potato instead of gracefully peeling it like Ryo did. He tries repeatedly to peel the potato properly and becomes increasingly frustrated and discouraged when he keeps failing. He smiles sadly before saying, “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this. You’re like a natural but I just can’t seem to figure it out.” He forces out a laugh.

Ryo can tell that Minoru is beating himself up over his mistakes. “Hey, no need to be so hard on yourself,” he says gently, putting a hand on Minoru’s shoulder. He gets an idea that may make the process easier for Minoru to understand, but it’s embarrassing. He reluctantly suggests, “This might sound weird, but it might be easier if I, uh, guide your hands. As in, I…use my hands to show your hands the proper movements.” 

Minoru seems a bit surprised, his eyes widened, but he nods. “Okay, we can try that.”

Ryo takes a deep breath, moving closer to Minoru so he can take Minoru’s hands. He desperately tries to ignore how soft Minoru’s hands feel, reminding himself, this is just to show him how peeling works, that’s all there is to it. He gently presses the knife against the potato like he did before, moving Minoru’s other hand to rotate the potato. He does this for a while, and his mind wanders, thinking about how it almost feels like he’s hugging Minoru from behind. He thinks about how strangely comforting it feels to be near Minoru like this and tries to stop himself from wishing he could actually just hold Minoru from behind. By the time he snaps out of his train of thoughts, he realizes he’s almost peeled the entire potato. He reluctantly lets go of Minoru’s hands, already missing their warmth. “That’s how you do it…” he mumbles, suddenly unable to look Minoru in the eye. 

Minoru goes quiet for a while, his mouth slightly agape before he laughs awkwardly. “Gotcha…” Minoru’s unusually quiet for a while, but Ryo notices that he seems to be peeling the potatoes correctly now.

Minoru’s mom pipes up, saying, “You two don’t have to be so shy, it’s okay to be affectionate,” reminding Ryo and Minoru that they still need to keep up the facade that they’re in a relationship.

Minoru chuckles. “Right, I’m just not used to acting like this in front of you, mom,” he says, scratching the back of his neck.

“That’s okay. I just want you to know that you don’t have to feel self-conscious.”

Minoru smiles and mumbles, “Thanks, mom.”

His mother returns the smile warmly. “Of course, sweetie. I’m always here for you.”

The three of them sit down to eat dinner together. Minoru’s mother speaks up, asking, “So Ryo, what is it about my son that you like so much?” 

Minoru looks over at his mother, mortified that she decided to immediately cut to the chase. He looks over to Ryo to gauge his reaction. Ryo looks a bit surprised, but seems like he’s trying his best to act natural. He hears Ryo take a deep breath before answering, “He’s…he’s really fun to be around. It’s so easy to just be myself around him, and he appreciates me for who I really am. He makes me laugh, and he’s always been brave and heroic. I know I can count on him to be there for me.”

Ryo’s sincerity shocks Minoru. Clearly Ryo’s done some brushing up on his acting skills, because he’d never be able to say something like that in the past without blushing and stumbling over his words. Even though he knows Ryo’s acting, he can’t help but wish that Ryo’s words were real.

He hears his mother warmly reply, “That’s wonderful. I’m glad my son has been able to make you happy.” 

Ryo gives her a small smile in return. “Yeah, he’s really made me happy…” he mumbles.

“You know, Minoru has been talking about you for quite a while now,” his mother suddenly admits.

Minoru feels his face heating up and resists the urge to go hide in his room.

“Really?” he hears Ryo ask in disbelief.

“It’s true. As soon as he came back from that camping trip, he had a lot to say about his friends, but he wouldn’t stop talking about you. I had a sneaking suspicion he might have had a crush on you, so I’m glad you feel the same way.”

Great, way to make it awkward, mom, Minoru thinks, staring down at his plate as he shovels food in his mouth.

It’s silent for a moment before Minoru hears Ryo say, “...I never knew he felt that way during our camping trip.” Minoru can’t decipher Ryo’s tone, but something about his answer makes Minoru’s stomach feel like it’s doing backflips.

Minoru forces out a laugh and tries his best to sound casual while saying, “Come on mom, I didn’t have a crush on him back then!”

Minoru’s mother just laughs and says, “It’s okay, sweetie. You don’t have to be shy.”

Minoru groans and slumps over in defeat as his mother continues to chuckle. So much for his attempt to save his dignity.

As if that wasn’t bad enough for him, the rest of the night consists of his mother sharing embarrassing stories and childhood photos of him while Ryo laughed. 

Still, he couldn’t help but notice how… natural it all felt. His mother and Ryo were hitting it off like they had known each other for ages. Ryo was fitting into his family perfectly, and Minoru couldn’t help but smile. Something about it filled his chest with warmth.

As Ryo is heading out, his mother bids Ryo farewell and walks away, giving Ryo and Minoru some privacy. The two of them step outside.

“So…that was really something, huh?” Minoru asks, chuckling.

Ryo smiles. “Yeah. Your mom’s pretty cool, y’know.”

“You think so? She really seemed to like you, by the way.”

Ryo grins. “Heh, what can I say? I’m good at being a fake boyfriend. I can be charming when I wanna be.”

“Right…”

“I can! ” Ryo huffs.

Minoru laughs, and Ryo can’t help but join him.

When their laughter dies down, Ryo says, “So…I’ll see you around?”

Minoru smirks. “What, you’re not gonna give your boyfriend a kiss goodnight? For shame.”

Ryo rolls his eyes. “Whatever, man, nobody can see us. It’s not like we actually have to kiss.”

“Sounds like someone’s afraid that he’ll be a bad kisser,” Minoru teases.

“Wha—like I give a shit about your opinion on my kissing abilities! Besides, I’m a great kisser, asshat.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah!”

“Prove it, then,” Minoru drawls with a smirk, knowing that Ryo will blush and chicken out, and Minoru will win their little argument.

“Are you serious? You’re asking to kiss you to prove a point?” Ryo aks incredulously.

“Yeah, so? You’ve never heard of kissing the homies goodnight?”

Ryo just shakes his head while laughing in disbelief. “You know what? Fine.”

Minoru can’t believe that Ryo actually agreed, but before his brain can fully process what’s going on, Ryo’s hands are gently resting on Minoru’s cheeks. He sees Ryo slowly leaning in, and his heart skips a beat. He never thought Ryo would take his little dare seriously, but he finds himself not wanting to stop Ryo. Minoru starts leaning forward as well, meeting Ryo halfway as their lips press together.

Even though it’s just supposed to be a kiss so Ryo can prove a point, Minoru realizes he doesn’t want it to end. Ryo’s lips are soft and warm against his own, and Minoru finds his hands reaching up to rest on Ryo’s shoulders, eager to pull him closer. 

Ryo pulls away, and they both stare at each other for what feels like ages, unsure of what to do next. Suddenly, they both give into their impulses and pull each other back in for another kiss. Neither of them are particularly experienced at kissing, and the kiss is a bit awkward, but something about it just feels so right, like coming back home. It feels strangely comforting, and Minoru can’t get enough. Minoru feels Ryo wrap his arms around him, gently pulling him in closer and making his heart skip a beat. Minoru just smiles into the kiss, relaxing in Ryo’s embrace. He feels Ryo let out a little chuckle and return the smile as they keep kissing softly. The rest of the world seems to fade away, and they can’t help but focus entirely on each other. 

They eventually have to pull apart for air, but they go back in for a few more pecks before they pull away completely. Neither of them can speak for a while, processing everything that just happened.

Finally, Ryo asks, “Was that good enough for you?”

Minoru smirks and says, “I dunno, I can’t decide.”

Ryo just chuckles, rolling his eyes fondly before pulling Minoru in for another brief kiss. Minoru’s head is spinning, and he feels like he’s on cloud nine.

Ryo pulls away again. “There, that’s all you’re getting.”

Minoru shrugs before teasing, “Hm, I guess that wasn’t half bad. You can be reliable sometimes, Ryo-baby.”

“Damn right I can.”

They stand there for a moment, just gazing into each other’s eyes and smiling fondly before realizing what they’re doing and snapping themselves out of it.

“So, I’ll actually see you later, then?” 

Minoru chuckles. “Yeah, see you.” 

As Ryo leaves and Minoru turns around and closes the door, he can’t stop himself from grinning like an idiot.

Chapter Text

For the next few days after meeting Minoru’s mother, Ryo finds himself constantly thinking about how they parted ways that night. His mind drifts back to his impulsive decision to pull Minoru in closer until his lips pressed against Minoru’s. He never expected that kiss to feel so right. From the moment he met Minoru, Minoru had been the thorn in Ryo’s side, the obnoxious jester who wouldn’t leave him alone. But at some point during their time in the parallel universe, Ryo started to grow more attached to him, much to his confusion. During the past year since they’ve returned to their original universe, he’s only grown more attached to Minoru. Neither of them said it outright, but somewhere along the way they started caring enough to show up for each other when one of them was a complete wreck. 

Of course, they showed up with plenty of sass, but they silently showed each other their care through hugs paired with sarcastic remarks or giving each other fondly exasperated looks while supporting each other through rough patches.

Then the whole fake relationship started, and Ryo can’t completely gauge how Minoru is feeling, but he’s feeling fonder toward Minoru than he ever imagined he would. Despite all the chaos that’s happened during their fake relationship, he’s loved experiencing it with Minoru. Because of their unusual situation, it feels like he’s been able to see a side of Minoru that nobody else sees, a side that he never knew existed before their fake relationship. He’s seen Minoru’s soft smiles, the way he blushes, his insecurities, the way he teasingly and playfully tried to help Ryo ice skate, and the time he finally stopped deflecting with humor and bashfully thanked Ryo. 

Ryo remembers when that ruthless goose kept chasing him around and how Minoru let him rest on his lap. Minoru was tender and caring in a way that Ryo didn’t even know Minoru was capable of. He recalls the feeling of Minoru’s fingers gently running through his hair, soothing enough that he could have fallen asleep right there. The part that surprised Ryo most, though, was when Takuma and Kaito left and Minoru quietly offered, without a trace of teasing or sarcasm, for Ryo to keep resting on his lap. He offered to do that even though nobody was around, so the only reason for Minoru to let Ryo keep resting on his lap was a genuine concern for Ryo’s well-being. The sentiment made Ryo feel comforted and cared for in a way he hadn’t felt in years, in a way that he assumed he’d never get to feel again. But despite all Minoru’s teasing, he gave that feeling back to Ryo again without any hesitation. Remembering it all fills Ryo’s heart with warmth, and he can’t help but smile.

Then his mind goes back to the kiss he shared with Minoru. It was so much softer and shyer than anything he would have ever expected from someone like Minoru. Minoru was usually so reckless and careless, but the way he kissed Ryo felt so intentional and careful. Remembering the way he felt Minoru smile into the kiss makes his heart skip a beat. Something about being able to make Minoru smile like that just by kissing him fills Ryo with a sense of happiness, one that he’d rather ignore any potential implications that come with it and simply focus on how good it feels.

His feelings of happiness come to a screeching halt when he suddenly remembers that they’ll have to end all of this soon. They’ll eventually have to stop having these moments, and things will either go back to the way things used to be or worse, it might feel so awkward between them that they start to avoid each other and drift apart. Either way, he’d have to pretend like none of this matters to him and act like he’s completely okay with never being as close with Minoru as he is now.

He knows that someone as confident and charming as Minoru will have no problem finding someone else once their fake relationship is over. He remembers how much Minoru’s talked about wanting to be “popular with the ladies” and he pictures Minoru dating some random girl, sharing all the moments he’s had with Ryo except they’re actually real . The thought feels like a punch to the gut. Ryo doesn’t want to be replaced by some girl. He doesn’t want the memories he made with Minoru to be forgotten and replaced by memories with someone else. He bites his lip to stop it from trembling, trying to distract himself from the painful direction that his thoughts are going in.

Ryo takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He reasons that he can just avoid discussing ending their fake relationship and try to enjoy whatever is going on between them while it lasts.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of his doorbell ringing. He slowly wanders over to the door, curious about why someone rang the doorbell. He hears the doorbell ring again and sighs in exasperation before shouting, “I’ll be there in a sec!”

He opens the door only to be greeted by the sight of Minoru’s face. His heart skips a beat, but he just pretends to be unaffected and bluntly asks, “What are you doing here?”

Minoru just raises an eyebrow before chuckling. “Good to see you too, man,” he replies sarcastically. “I’m here ‘cause I’m bored.”

Ryo looks at Minoru incredulously. “So I’m just a way for you to stop feeling bored?” he deadpans.

Minoru just shrugs. “I guess? Isn’t that what boyfriends are for?”

“I think there’s a little more to boyfriends than that, Minoru…” Ryo says dryly.

Minoru just huffs. “Whatever, do I look like a boyfriend expert?” Ryo opens his mouth to answer before Minoru interjects, “Actually, don’t answer that. But that’s not the point! I, uh…” Minoru suddenly loses his boldness, averting his gaze and scratching the back of his neck anxiously. He slowly looks back up at Ryo before quickly blurting out, “I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date—er, fake date! A fake date!”

Ryo feels himself start smiling, but tries to hide it by pretending to cough. He tries to act cool and unaffected, asking, “Why do you wanna go on a fake date?”

Minoru sighs. “I dunno, man. I guess ‘cause the ones we’ve been on so far have been pretty fun for me.” He’s fidgeting with his sleeves and struggling to look Ryo in the eye before he masks it with humor again. “You can be fun to be around…sometimes,” he teases.

Ryo just rolls his eyes while smiling. “Whatever. So…what did you have in mind?”

“I dunno, I thought we could figure out something together.”

Ryo chuckles, smirking. “Of course you don’t have a plan.”

“Does that bother you?”

Ryo thinks for a moment before looking down and smiling softly. “Not really…”

Minoru grins and takes Ryo’s hand. “Good! Then let’s figure something out. What sounds good to you?”

They end up agreeing to go to an arcade. Minoru sees one of the crane machines and lights up. He looks back at Ryo excitedly, still holding his hand. “We gotta check out that crane machine over there!”

“Huh? Why?”

“It has an action figure that I’ve wanted for ages. C’mon, we gotta go!”

Ryo just lets out a small laugh at Minoru’s enthusiasm. “Okay, okay, sheesh. We can go.”

Minoru beams. “Sweet, thanks! I just gotta try this real quick.” He rushes over to the machine, startling Ryo.

“Dude, slow down, we don’t have to rush! How do you have so much energy…?”

Minoru just laughs. “Take it easy, Ryo! You sound like an old man right now,” he teases.

“Well, you sound like a freakin’ golden retriever. I swear, I’ve never met anyone with as much energy as you in my life.”

Minoru smirks. “Yeah, but you still love me~”

Ryo feels his face heat up and he sputters before finally mumbling, “Shut up…”

Minoru laughs again, squeezing Ryo’s hand. “I’m just teasing, man. You don’t gotta get all shy on me.”

They make it to the crane machine and Minoru uses the point card he has to try it. He furrows his brow and squints in concentration as he focuses intently on the game. He looks at the clear box from different angles, trying to make sure he has the exact location of the action figure. Ryo can’t help but smile in amusement at how seriously Minoru is treating the game. As soon as Minoru pinpoints where the action figure is, he moves the crane to that part of the box before pressing the button that moves the crane down. Minoru watches with bated breath as the crane moves down to where the action figure is, picks it up, barely moves it, and then drops it before it makes it to the box that leads to the other side of the glass box.

“No way, it was so close!” Minoru whines. “But it was close, so I just gotta try again!”

He tries several more times, becoming more and more discouraged each time. He finally slumps over in defeat. “I give up…” he mumbles.

Ryo feels a sudden protective urge toward Minoru. He sighs, frustrated at his heart for having to make everything more complicated. He gently puts his hand on Minoru’s shoulder before telling him, “Y’know, I guess I could give it a try. Since you…y’know… want it that badly.”

Minoru looks at him in disbelief, his eyes wide. “Oh, uh…yeah, sure…” he says, still surprised.

Minoru moves over and Ryo takes his place. Luckily for Ryo, Minoru has managed to get the action figure closer to the goal, so it doesn’t take Ryo too long to figure out where to move the claw. He thinks carefully for a moment, remembering how the claw would always grab onto the figure initially only for the figure to slip out of its grasp. He looks at the figure carefully before noticing some parts of the figure that stick out more than others. He thinks carefully about how wide the claw of the crane is before looking at the parts of the figure that stick out. He slightly adjusts the crane’s position before pressing the button, holding his breath in anticipation. The seconds when the crane moves feel like ages as Ryo waits anxiously. The crane picks up the figure and starts moving it towards the goal. The figure then wobbles and starts to slip slightly, and Ryo tenses up. As the figure slowly gets closer to slipping from the claw’s grasp, the crane keeps moving closer and closer to the goal. Ryo watches like a hawk before the crane finally manages to make it to the goal and drop the action figure into it. 

He lets out a big sigh of relief, relaxing his tensed muscles. He hears Minoru exclaim, “No way! You actually managed to get it!”

Minoru bends down to take the action figure out of the compartment where it’s lying, and as he stands back up, he looks at Ryo adoringly before hugging him tightly. “You have no idea how much I wanted that! You’re the best, dude! Thanks so much!”

Ryo freezes in shock for a moment before returning the hug. When Minoru finishes gushing about getting the action figure, he kisses Ryo’s cheek, lingering for a couple of seconds before pulling away. “Alright, what do you wanna do next?”

Ryo has to stop himself from smiling like an idiot after getting showered with affection by Minoru. His eyes dart around, frantically trying to find something interesting nearby to distract them both from what just happened. He sees some rhythm games and points at them. “Let’s try one of those,” he urges.

Minoru grins back at him. “Sounds good, let’s do it!”

As soon as Minoru turns around, Ryo can’t hold back his urge to smile anymore and he feels his face breaking out into a grin.

“Why did you suggest playing rhythm games if you’re so bad at them?”

Ryo frowns. “I dunno, they’re kinda fun and you seem like the kind of person who’d have zero rhythm!”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?! My rhythm is perfectly good, thank you very much!”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out after you beat my ass at those games every single time,” Ryo deadpanned. 

“Looks like you’re the one with no rhythm, Ryo-baby~” Minoru teased as a huge smirk spread across his face.

“Ugh…” Ryo groaned, not even able to counter what Minoru said. 

Minoru seems to notice something in the distance before turning to Ryo and saying, “Look, there’s a photo booth over there! Seems fun, don’t you think?”

Ryo smiles. “Yeah, I guess it could be pretty fun. Let’s check it out.”

When they enter the photo booth, they notice that it’s fairly small. “Jeez, it’s pretty cramped in here, huh?” Minoru says as they get settled.

“I think that’s pretty normal for photo booths. Have you ever heard of a photo booth with a ton of space?”

Minoru thinks for a moment before replying, “I guess not…”

“Exactly. Now are we gonna do this or what?”

“Wow, someone’s raring to go. I didn’t know you were a photography enthusiast, Ryo-baby~” Minoru teases.

Ryo just laughs while rolling his eyes. “Man, shut up…” 

He presses the button for the pictures to start, and the machine counts down so they both have time to pose. Ryo opts for a small smile with a peace sign while Minoru makes a funny face. Ryo can’t help but burst into laughter as he sees Minoru’s facial expression. The camera then goes off, taking the first picture. As the camera gets ready to take the next picture, Minoru puts two fingers behind Ryo’s head so it looks like Ryo has bunny ears. The photo is taken just as Ryo notices what Minoru is doing. 

Ryo turns to face Minoru, ready to scold him before he notices that Minoru is facing him too, and the tight proximity of the photo booth means that their faces are close to each other. Ryo faintly registers a flash going off but doesn’t stop looking at Minoru.

Minoru breaks the silence. “Can…can I kiss you?” he asks tentatively. Ryo just nods before they both quickly lean in to kiss each other. The flash goes off as the final picture is taken, but neither of them notice.

Ryo melts into the kiss, feeling his heart pound as he and Minoru pull each other closer. He moves one of his hands to rest on the back of Minoru’s head, running his fingers through Minoru’s hair as they keep kissing. Minoru responds by holding Ryo a bit tighter, as one of Minoru’s arms wraps itself around Ryo’s waist while the other is draped across his shoulders.

Ryo can’t help but notice how slowly and gently Minoru’s lips are moving against his own. Again, he can’t help but think how Minoru’s kissing seems to differ from almost everything else Minoru does, but Ryo is completely content with the difference. He can’t help thinking that he could get used to Minoru’s kisses.

That thought startles Ryo, and he pulls away from the kiss suddenly, realizing that he’s getting too attached to Minoru again. “The pictures should be ready by now, so I’m gonna grab ‘em!” he squeaks. 

Minoru looks a bit dazed after Ryo pulls away, staring ahead blankly with his eyes slowly opening back up. “Oh…uh, right. The pictures…” Minoru mumbles. Ryo can’t tell if he’s having wishful thinking or if there was a trace of disappointment in Minoru’s tone.

Ryo quickly grabs the pictures, hastily giving one to Minoru. He looks at the pictures before seeing that one of the pictures is of him and Minoru sharing a tender kiss. His face heats up as he looks at the picture and remembers what just happened between the two of them.

The walk back to Ryo’s house is quiet as the two of them silently process everything that just happened. Ryo’s overwhelmed with the thoughts flooding through his mind. Why does he like kissing Minoru so much? Why does Minoru seem to be fine with kissing him? Why do they both keep showing each other so much affection even when nobody they know is around?

Minoru seems to be into girls, so Ryo thinks that maybe he just likes kissing or being affectionate in general. It stings a bit to think about the possibility that Minoru would be perfectly fine doing this with someone else. It makes Ryo feel like he’s the only one who cares, like he’s a silly kid with a stupid crush—

Ryo’s chain of thoughts abruptly stops and his face flushes as he realizes what he just thought. 

No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. No way in hell does he have a crush on Minoru. There has to be some other explanation. The situation is so confusing that it’s making his feelings toward Minoru complicated. The last thing he needs to do is fall for someone who will never feel the same way, especially when they’re temporarily pretending to date and will have to end things soon. 

He tries to convince himself over and over again that he doesn’t have a crush on Minoru. The idea of crushing on Minoru simultaneously fills him with excitement and dread, and it makes him feel uncomfortably vulnerable, so he pushes the possibility of falling for Minoru out of his mind. 

He’s startled out of his thoughts by Minoru grabbing his hand. “We’re back at your place, so you probably should stop walking,” Minoru jokes weakly.   

“Right,” Ryo manages to reply. 

He’s about to walk to his door when he hears Minoru call out, “Hey, Ryo…”

Ryo reluctantly turns to look at Minoru. “Yeah?”

“Why did you get distant all of a sudden? Did I make you uncomfortable earlier?” Minoru asks, his voice tinged with shame. 

“No! No, it’s not that…” Ryo trails off. 

“Then why?”

Ryo takes a deep breath and pauses, carefully considering how to respond. He eventually asks, “Minoru…what are we gonna do when we have to end this whole fake relationship thing?”

Minoru looks back at him in confusion. “Huh? Why do you ask that?”

Ryo shrugs, looking away. “I mean…are we still gonna be friends?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t—”

“Because now things are different between us. We’ve opened up to each other way more and we’re all affectionate with each other. But when that ends, won’t it be awkward to just go back to how things used to be? Especially if you start dating someone, it’ll be awkward to keep remembering our fake relationship whenever we see each other.” Ryo takes a deep breath. Admitting all of these fears and being completely vulnerable feels like nails on a chalkboard to him. 

He finally continues, “What if whenever you see me, you just feel…regret? Or shame, or embarrassment, or something like that? The more affectionate and vulnerable we get with each other, the more likely that we’ll avoid each other later when this is all over. So when we…y’know, kissed earlier, I realized that I was getting too used to the way things are now, but that’ll just make things feel weirder when this whole thing ends,” Ryo cringes as he hears his voice crack slightly while talking. He takes another deep breath as he waits for Minoru to respond.

“You’re…gonna avoid me when this ends?” Ryo hears Minoru ask, his voice sounding heartbroken.

“No, that’s…that’s not what I…” Ryo tries to come up with a response, but he’s at a loss for words.

“Then why would you assume I’d avoid you?” Minoru asks, still sounding hurt.

Ryo opens his mouth to say I don’t know , but he knows that’s a lie. He knows damn well why he’s so quick to assume the worst.

He bites the bullet and says the uncomfortable truth, knowing that it’s what Minoru deserves. “I’m worried I’ll end up caring more than you do. That you’ll move on quickly like nothing happened, wonder why you ever did something like this with me, and feel uncomfortable whenever you see me because it’ll remind you of how things used to be…” Part of him wants to cringe because he sounds like a damn soap opera character, but it’s genuinely how he feels and Minoru needs to know the truth.

Minoru is silent for several seconds before firmly embracing Ryo. “You’re still so hard on yourself, you know that? Do you seriously think I’d spend all this time with you, or even suggest the idea of pretending to date you in the first place, if I didn’t care about you? Do you really think I could just forget all about you and avoid you? After everything we’ve been through? After you almost died in the parallel universe when you thought nobody cared? Ryo, I can’t just replace you! I care about you, dumbass! When are you going to realize that?!” Minoru’s voice wavers, sounding like he’s getting choked up.

Ryo just hugs Minoru back. He’s feeling so many things at once: pain from his assumptions that he’ll be replaced, relief and comfort from Minoru’s reassurance that he’s irreplaceable, and uncertainty and anxiety about his own emotions. All those intense emotions flood his senses and make him feel like he’s drowning, but holding Minoru and knowing that Minoru is here with him in spite of it all keeps him afloat. He feels his eyes start to sting and he hugs Minoru tighter, taking deep, shaky breaths in an attempt to calm himself down.

Minoru seems to realize that Ryo is trying not to fall apart because he stops talking and just keeps holding Ryo for a while. He eventually breaks the silence by mumbling, “I’m not going anywhere, okay?” Ryo just nods silently, too choked up to speak.

They keep silently embracing for several minutes. Ryo starts to realize that if his goal is to avoid getting attached to Minoru, he’s completely fucked. It helps to know that Minoru cares enough to stay by his side, but that’s also part of the problem. Knowing that Minoru feels that way and that he let his guard down enough to admit it to Ryo just makes Ryo feel even more comfortable with Minoru, which in turn makes him dread the idea of ending their fake relationship even more.

Then Ryo finally puts the pieces together: he’s faking a relationship with Minoru but he’s having very real feelings and never wants the fake relationship to end. And then he’s forced to acknowledge what he should have realized a while ago:

He’s falling for Minoru.

Chapter Text

When Minoru wakes up, he’s disappointed to realize that he’s just as lethargic as he was the day before. He puts his head in his hands, taking a deep breath as he tries to ignore the pain in his chest. Still, he can’t stop himself from dwelling on what happened to him yesterday.

He was supposed to see his father yesterday evening to watch a basketball game together. He had been looking forward to it for weeks since he didn’t see his father often. It was on his mind all day yesterday at school, and he kept anxiously looking at the clock, waiting impatiently for school to end so he could go home and see his dad. He’d even excitedly rambled about it to Ryo between classes, and despite Ryo’s usual snarky attitude, he just listened attentively and refrained from teasing Minoru.

When he got home that afternoon, he waited on pins and needles until the time his father was supposed to come pick him up finally came around. He kept looking outside the window eagerly for his father’s car to pull into the driveway. After five minutes went by, he was getting antsy but rationalized that there could have been traffic. Then fifteen more minutes went by and Minoru started to get worried. What if something bad happened to him? He started catastrophizing, worrying that his father might have gotten in a bad car accident. 

After another ten minutes went by, his mother approached him with an apologetic look and explained that his father was working late and wouldn’t be able to see him. Minoru felt his heart sink as the news hit him like a punch to the gut. Still, he didn’t want his mother to worry, so he forced a smile and said that he understood. He reassured his mother that he was fine, and she reluctantly walked away with a concerned look on his face.

Later that night, he heard his mother angrily talking on the phone with his father. He only heard bits and pieces of what she was saying, but he heard enough to understand that his mother was scolding his father for missing the game. He felt a pang of guilt as he realized that they were arguing because of him. 

His train of thoughts became increasingly critical toward himself: It’s my fault that they’re arguing. Why did I care so much about that stupid game anyway? If I never brought up the game and got so excited over it, they wouldn’t be arguing like this right now. A hero wouldn’t be like this. A hero is supposed to make things better and make everyone happy. Instead, I did the opposite and created more problems for everyone else in my family. Why am I always like this? All I ever do is screw up. I’ve never been a hero, and I’ll never become one either.

At some point during his harsh inner monologue, he felt his cheeks becoming wet and realized that he was crying. Great, I can’t even be honest with myself without crying. God, I’m so pathetic. He tried to be as quiet as possible so he wouldn’t make the argument between his parents worse, and thankfully they didn’t seem to hear him. The intense emotions he was experiencing eventually wore him out and he fell asleep.

Minoru’s quieter than usual at school, using his energy to try and keep himself together. After his first class is over, Ryo approaches him with a grin. “Hey, how’d things go yesterday with your dad?”

It was an innocent question, but Minoru can’t help but wince slightly. He forces a smile and answers, “Oh, uh…it was good! Lots of fun, yeah.” He awkwardly laughs but it sounds strained.

Ryo’s eyes soften. “You good, Minoru?”

Minoru jumps slightly, worried that his sadness might be obvious. “Yeah! Of course I’m good, no need to worry about me!” Saying those words makes his heart ache even more for reasons he can’t quite understand, and he feels his lip quiver.

Ryo’s eyes widen slightly as worry begins to creep into his tone. “Minoru—”

Minoru panics when he sees Ryo’s reaction so he hurriedly says, “Whoops, I’d better get going or else I’ll be late!” He dashes off, and he hears Ryo calling out to him but he pretends not to hear. He takes deep breaths and tries to distract himself from his feelings of sadness.

Minoru slumps over when he finally gets home, exhausted. He’s about to head to his room when he hears his phone ringing. He takes out his phone and sees Ryo’s name lit up on the screen. He gulps, hesitating for a moment before deciding to answer. “Hello?”

“Hey. Just wanted to check on you since you seemed off today.” Ryo’s voice is softer than usual, a sharp contrast from his usual gruff tone. 

Minoru tries to sound cheerful again, but his voice is even weaker than it was at school. “Come on, man, I told you I’m fine!”

“Minoru, I’m not stupid, you know. I can tell something’s up.”

Ryo’s words are as blunt as always, but his voice is gentle. Minoru takes a shaky breath before admitting, “Okay, fine, maybe I am feeling a little down…” He pauses before sheepishly asking, “Was it that obvious?”

“It was to me, but I dunno if it was to anyone else. Probably wasn’t, since the main reason I could tell was ‘cause know each other so well.” 

Minoru just lets out a little hum of acknowledgement, unsure of what to say.

“Dude, you’re freakin’ me out, you’re never this quiet. Where are you?”

“I just got home…wait, why are you asking?”

“I’m coming over. Be there in a few minutes.”

“You don’t have to do that, I can take care of myself, y’know,” Minoru protests.

“No shit I don’t have to, you think I don’t know that? I’m doing this because I want to. And yeah, obviously I know you can take care of yourself, but if you can be there for me when I feel like shit I can do the same for you. Be there soon.”

Minoru hears the call end and realizes that Ryo ended the call before Minoru could argue. He sighs and flops over on the couch. On the one hand, being comforted sounds kind of nice, but he’s also going to have to open up about the parts of himself that he’s ashamed of. He’ll have to show the parts of himself that make him feel weak, pathetic, and worthless, and he has no idea how Ryo will react to them.

He’s lost in thought for a while before he hears someone walk into his house. He sits up and sees Ryo walking in and locking the door behind him. “Dude, you didn’t even close the door all the way. You gotta be more careful, you could’ve gotten yourself in danger.”

Minoru smiles weakly. “What are you, my mom?”

Ryo rolls his eyes but smiles, walking toward Minoru and sitting on the couch beside him. “So…you wanna tell me what’s going on?”

Minoru takes a deep breath and looks down. “You know how I wouldn’t shut up about getting to see my dad yesterday?”

“Yeah…”

“He never came. I kept waiting and waiting, assuming that maybe traffic was bad or something happened but I found out that he was just working late.” Minoru forced out a weak chuckle. “God, is that pathetic or what? I barely see the guy but I expected him to actually show up like some kind of idi—”

He’s cut off by Ryo hugging him. “You’re being way too hard on yourself. Cut it out,” Ryo mumbles.

Minoru tenses up in shock for a moment before relaxing and returning the embrace. “I just…” He takes a shaky breath before continuing. “Why does this keep happening? And then to make things worse, I heard my mom arguing with my dad over the phone later on.” He tightens his hold on Ryo slightly. “You know, I want to become a hero, but heroes are supposed to solve problems, aren’t they? But look at me. All I ever do is cause problems. What good is that?” He tries to make his tone sound casual, like he isn’t that bothered, but his voice cracks as he explains how useless he feels.

Ryo hugs him a bit tighter. “That’s not true and you know it. Look, I know you’re sad right now and I can’t really blame you for that. But do you actually think you only cause problems? We couldn’t have gotten out of that parallel universe without you, you know.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you were the one who always encouraged us to keep going. When everyone else wanted to be cautious, including me, you were determined to do whatever it took to save the world. Without you, we probably would have played it too safe. And honestly? Things would’ve been way more depressing without you around.” He feels Ryo gently rubbing his back as they keep hugging, and it makes him feel at ease.

“Really?” Minoru asks, shocked at Ryo’s words.

“Yeah. That surprise you?”

“Kinda. I assumed you were mostly annoyed with me.”

“At first I was. But then shit happened, and I got to know you better, and things changed, y’know?”

Minoru let out a hoarse chuckle. “You’re as eloquent as ever, Ryo-baby~”

Ryo couldn’t help but laugh along with him, managing to wheeze through laughs, “I will push you off this couch.”

“You say that, but you’re still holding me close,” Minoru points out, grinning smugly.

“Man, shut up…” Ryo mumbles, but he keeps holding Minoru as his laughter dies down.

They sit together in silence for a while, continuing to embrace each other. Minoru notices that Ryo’s embrace is firm but not uncomfortably so, and Ryo feels warm. All he can hear is the sound of him and Ryo breathing, and for once, he doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence.

Eventually, Ryo quietly asks, “Feeling any better?”

“A little.”

“Yeah? Anything you think would make things…even more better?”

Minoru thinks for a moment. “Watching something funny might be nice.”

“Oh yeah? You have anything in mind?”

“There’s this one movie that’s supposed to be pretty good. It’s a dark comedy…”

“This isn’t gonna be like that one horror movie we watched together, is it?” Ryo asks suspiciously.

Minoru chuckles. “No, it’s supposed to be pretty tame. It apparently pokes fun at those uber-fancy restaurants that rich people go to.”

“Huh, that might actually be interesting.”

“Right? It sounded kinda cool to me.”

“Fuck it, let’s watch it, then. Where’s the remote?”

“Uh…” Minoru looks around before spotting it sitting on a table. He reluctantly pulls away from Ryo’s embrace to go get it. He grabs the remote, sits on the couch, and turns on the TV. He finds and starts the movie quickly but finds himself wanting to hug Ryo again. Without meaning to, he ends up staring at Ryo longingly. Much to his chagrin, Ryo notices and smirks.

“What? Can’t get enough of me?”

“Pfft, you wish.”

Ryo raises an eyebrow. “Why are you staring at me, then?”

Minoru feels his face heat up as he debates telling Ryo the truth.

“Hello, Earth to Minoru? Everything okay?”

Minoru panics and blurts out, “I wanna keep hugging you.”

Neither of them say anything for a moment, both frozen in shock. The carpet is starting to look fascinating to Minoru. Finally, Ryo says, “That’s why you were staring?”

“Yeah…” Minoru mumbles, continuing to avoid eye contact. Suddenly, he feels Ryo’s arms wrap back around him and he returns the embrace, relaxing and sighing happily.

“You mind if we…lay down while hugging?” Ryo tentatively asks. 

“Sure, that’s fine,” Minoru mumbles.

Ryo lays down on his back and Minoru lays his head on Ryo’s chest. He feels Ryo’s chest rise and fall and hears the gentle yet consistent sound of his heartbeat. He’s surprised by how cozy and relaxing the whole thing feels. It shouldn’t feel so familiar, but for some reason, it does.

He tries his best to focus on the movie, but he feels so relaxed in Ryo’s arms that he begins to feel sleepy. At some point, Ryo starts gently playing with Minoru’s hair, which only makes him feel more comfortable. He nuzzles into Ryo’s chest and hears a quiet chuckle in response. He feels Ryo give him a small kiss on the top of the head, and the tender gesture makes him smile. 

Minoru feels his eyelids get heavier and heavier until he drifts off to sleep in Ryo’s arms.

When he wakes up, he hears Ryo quietly tease him, saying, “Morning, sleeping beauty.”

Minoru yawns before groggily asking, “How long was I asleep?”

“Not that long, actually. Maybe 20 or 30 minutes?”

Minoru nods slowly. “Oh.” He hears the TV and sees that the movie is still playing. “Anything important happen yet?”

Ryo reaches for the remote and pauses the movie. “I mean, nothing super important has happened yet, but there were a few funny parts. A little while ago the chef gave some bullshit monologue about how bread is basically for poor people to convince the customers that they were too special to eat bread. Then he gave them this “breadless bread plate” where there were just a few little sauces on the side and nothing else, and most of them didn’t even seem to realize that he was making fun of them. Oh, and this snobby food critic talked about how one of the sauces wasn’t good enough or whatever but the chef overheard her and sent out a huge bowl of the sauce to give to her,” Ryo explained, chuckling. “The most recent thing that happened is that the chef gave the customers another one of his little monologues where he told them about his traumatic childhood before giving them the next course. Looks like things are gradually getting darker to show that something’s off about this whole thing. Really, I feel like it’s been suspicious since they had to go to a secluded island just to eat dinner, though…these customers are kinda dumb.”

Ryo runs his fingers through Minoru’s hair as he softly explains the plot of the movie. Minoru smiles, comforted by Ryo’s presence and amused by his rambling. “Huh, sounds like things are getting interesting…”

“Mhm.”

They keep watching it, and Ryo seems enraptured by the movie, but Minoru is distracted by the feeling of Ryo holding him. Something about the fact that it’s Ryo in particular who’s holding him makes his heart skip a beat. Ryo is normally so guarded and serious, so being treated so gently by him feels so…sweet. Not only that, but the fact that Ryo went out of his way to come over and make sure he was doing okay after what happened yesterday made Minoru feel cared for in a way he never expected. Ryo’s tendency to hide his feelings makes it hard for Minoru to tell if he cares as much as Minoru does, but his actions today in spite of his discomfort expressing his own emotions show Minoru how much he cares. Thinking about it all puts a small smile on Minoru’s face.

Ryo, who’s been laughing at the movie a few times, seems to notice Minoru’s uncharacteristic silence and quietly asks, “You good? You’re being pretty quiet.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just…” Minoru thinks for a moment, not sure how to put what he’s feeling into words. “I was thinking about how I’m actually pretty glad you’re here.”

Ryo chuckles. “You’re actually pretty glad? You make it sound like you normally don’t like being around me,” he teases.

Minoru gives him a playful nudge. “Shut up, you know what I mean. I’m not used to being distracted by how much I like being around you.”

“Distracted by how much you like being around me? Geez, you sure know how to flatter a guy. Didn’t know you had it in ya, Minoru.” Ryo’s tone was still teasing, but it sounded a bit bashful now.

“Yeah, well, I’m full of surprises.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Ryo pauses before continuing, “So…what made you get lost in thought  about how much you can’t get enough of me?”

Minoru lets out a small laugh before answering, “God, this is gonna sound so lame…” He takes a deep breath, feeling his face heat up before explaining, “I just couldn’t help but think how happy I am that you came over to see me today. Sometimes I’ll worry that I’m a little too much for you and maybe I just annoy you, but now I understand that you really do care, and I can’t explain how much that means to me. I know neither of us like talking about our feelings or anything, but…the fact that you’re even willing to try to comfort me means a lot to me.” By the time he’s done talking, his face feels like it’s on fire and he groans in embarrassment before hiding his face in Ryo’s chest. It’s not like him to be so vulnerable and sincere, especially with Ryo of all people.

There’s a moment of silence as Ryo takes in Minoru’s words, and it seems to last for ages as Minoru anxiously waits to see how he’ll react. Finally, Minoru hears Ryo tentatively ask, “You’re…you’re not messing with me, are you?”

Minoru looks up at him and frowns. “Hey, of course not! Just ‘cause I like to joke around and stuff doesn’t mean I’d joke around about something like this!”

Ryo holds up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I get it! No need to get defensive, I just wanted to check.”

Minoru slowly lays his head back down on Ryo’s chest. “Yeah, I meant it. You can laugh or make fun of me if you want, but I’m not messing around this time.”

“I’m not gonna make fun of you, Minoru, I’m not heartless. I just…wasn’t expecting that from you. I didn’t know that what I’m doing right now meant so much to you.” He pauses, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “I guess I didn’t really think about how you’d react when I talked to you over the phone. I just didn’t wanna leave you alone, y’know? I’m not just gonna sit around and do nothing when I can tell that you’re going through it. You try so hard to cheer everyone else up and be the hero who saves the day that you deserve to have someone be there for you too. And I guess…I wanna be that person for you.”

Minoru feels his heart skip a beat and looks up at Ryo. He sees Ryo blushing and can’t resist teasing him to try and lighten the mood. “Heh, you look like a tomato, Ryo-baby~”

Ryo’s eyes widen and his mouth opens in an almost cartoonish expression of shock. “Wha—?! I do not, and I’m trying to have a heart-to-heart with you!” He whips his head around to glare at Minoru before exclaiming, “Hey, what the hell?! You’re blushing too, so stop being a hypocrite!”

Minoru’s eyes widen and he feels his cheeks with his hands only to find that they feel like they’re on fire. Still, he stubbornly protests, “I do not! You’re just seeing things ‘cause you’re blushing!”

“That’s not how blushing works, dumbass!” Ryo quickly retorts.

Minoru can’t stop himself from smiling in amusement at their bantering, and he bursts into uproarious laughter.

Ryo looks at him in confusion for a while, but Minoru’s laughter proves to be contagious and soon he doubles over laughing too. They both laugh until they’re struggling to catch their breath. Minoru looks at Ryo after their laughter has died down and sees Ryo smiling at him. Ryo’s smile is warm and genuine, and Minoru realizes that he doesn’t get to see Ryo smile like this often. Still, he can’t help thinking that he could get used to seeing Ryo like this. Ryo’s smile fills him with a sense of warmth and comfort that he can’t quite explain, but he never wants the feeling to end. 

Without thinking, he hastily leans forward and kisses Ryo.

Minoru doesn’t know why Ryo’s smile compelled him to kiss him, and he wonders if he should pull away and apologize before he feels Ryo melt into the kiss, gently cupping Minoru’s face. 

Ryo’s kisses feel so comforting to him somehow. He never would have expected to feel this way at the start of his fake relationship with Ryo, and he wonders what changed to make him feel this way now. At some point he became more and more attached to Ryo, and then he found himself wanting to be closer and more affectionate with Ryo. 

Their fake relationship started out as an attempt to get their friends to stop annoying them, but now things have become complicated because Minoru’s realizing how much he’s gotten used to dating Ryo. He’s realizing that he doesn’t want to go back to the way things used to be. He doesn’t want to stop holding Ryo, he doesn’t want to stop being vulnerable with him, he doesn’t want to stop going on their silly little dates, and he doesn’t want to stop kissing him.

The kicker is that when Minoru thinks about someone else doing any of those things with Ryo, his heart aches. The idea of someone else being affectionate with Ryo makes Minoru feel like the wind has been knocked out of him. It hurts in a way he’s never quite felt before. He realizes that he doesn’t ever want their fake relationship to end. If he has to stop being with Ryo like this and he sees Ryo acting like this with someone else, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to act unbothered. And of course, someone as perceptive as Ryo will notice that something’s up, and then he’ll find out that Minoru’s hung up over a relationship that was never even real to begin with, and then things will be incredibly awkward between them. He finds himself wondering if this is what Ryo was talking about when they were walking home from the arcade.

Minoru tries to stop himself from getting caught up in his thoughts and tries focusing on the kiss instead. Ryo’s still using one hand to cradle Minoru’s face gently, but his other arm is wrapped around his waist now. Minoru decides to wrap his arms around Ryo’s neck, and he feels Ryo’s arm move from Minoru’s face down to his waist, bringing him closer. He notices how warm and soft Ryo’s lips feel against his own and how slowly and tenderly they seem to move as they kiss. 

Minoru starts absentmindedly running his fingers through Ryo’s hair as they kiss, noticing how soft Ryo’s hair feels. Ryo responds by letting out a content sigh and holding Minoru a bit tighter. As he keeps playing with Ryo’s hair, he accidentally moves Ryo’s headband, which slips off Ryo’s forehead and causes both boys to pull away from the kiss.

Minoru starts laughing at the mishap until he gets a good look at Ryo’s face and feels his heart speed up. Ryo’s bangs are in his face and his face is slightly flushed after the kiss, and Minoru is shocked to find himself wondering if Ryo always looked this handsome. He feels his face heat up at the realization and shakes his head, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. Thankfully, Ryo is too busy cursing and trying to fix his hair that he doesn’t seem to notice. 

Ryo stays with Minoru until the sun starts to set, then they say their goodbyes and Minoru wants to kick himself when he finds himself wanting to kiss Ryo again as a goodnight kiss. He’s able to resist the urge, much to his relief, but he can’t stop mulling it all over once Ryo’s gone. What does it mean that he doesn’t want this fake relationship to end? Does it mean he’s crushing on Ryo? He considers the possibility and realizes that his recent thoughts and actions line up with that explanation. His urges to kiss Ryo, his enjoyment of Ryo’s cuddles, his thoughts that Ryo looks handsome, and most of all, his dread toward the idea that someone else might come along and snatch Ryo up. 

He puts his head in his hands, groaning in embarrassment. Of course he had to go and catch feelings for Ryo of all people, and during a fake relationship no less. How is he going to explain himself when Ryo inevitably notices that Minoru is acting different than usual?

He tries to snap himself out of it, reminding himself that things are going well for him now. He reasons that he can just enjoy the fake relationship while it lasts so he doesn’t have any regrets, try to act naturally, and avoid mentioning the eventual end of their fake relationship.

Yeah, he reassures himself, if I do that then everything will turn out fine. 

What’s the worst that could happen?

Chapter Text

Minoru stares at his ceiling, unable to sleep. So much has changed recently, and he can’t stop thinking about it all. He’s kissed Ryo three times now, and he’s realized that he’s crushing on Ryo. He’s still trying to get adjusted to the latter. After knowing Ryo for so long and going through so much together, it feels somewhat intimidating for his feelings toward Ryo to change. He can’t help but worry how this will affect his friendship with Ryo. Will it make things awkward for him? What will he do if Ryo finds out?

He groans in frustration, pressing his face into his pillow. Lying around here doing nothing while his brain refuses to shut up is getting on his nerves. He sits up, stretching before he gets up and walks to the kitchen.

Minoru sits down at the table, unsure of what to do. He sighs, wondering why he got up if he’s going to just sit around and do nothing. He absentmindedly looks out the window to his backyard. He walks over to the door to his backyard and opens it, heading outside. He looks up at the sky and his eyes widen.

The sky is filled with countless stars, and the sky is clearer than usual. It’s a breathtaking sight. Without thinking, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and calls Ryo. The phone rings a few times before Ryo picks up.

“What?” Ryo grumbles, his voice sounding raspy.

Minoru winces. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“Of course you did, do you have any idea what time it is?” Ryo snaps.

Minoru feels a pang of guilt. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have just called you in the middle of the night. Sorry for, uh, bothering you. You can go back to sleep.”

He hears Ryo take a deep breath. “No, I should be sorry for snapping at you like that…it’s not an emergency, is it?” Worry begins to creep into Ryo’s voice as he seems to wake up and start thinking about why Minoru might be calling at this hour. “Is everything okay? Are you safe? Oh god, you’re not dying, are you?”

Minoru laughs. “No, I’m fine. I’m just…I’ve had a hard time sleeping and I just walked outside and I saw how pretty the stars are and I guess I just…wanted to tell you.” He realizes how silly it sounds as soon as the words come out of his mouth and begins to feel self-conscious.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Um…do you want to come over and see them?”

Ryo is silent for a moment before incredulously asking, “You want me to come over right now, in the middle of the night, to see the stars?” He teasingly adds, “I can see them if I look outside, y’know, I don’t have to come over to your place.”

Minoru laughs awkwardly. “Yeah, actually…I just wanted you to see them with me. Like, I want you to be here. I dunno why.” Minoru immediately starts second-guessing what he says. I want you to be here, I dunno why? He cringes, feeling tempted to hide away in his room and never face Ryo again.

“Hmm…well, okay. I’m already up now, guess I might as well come over.”

“You sure? I don’t wanna ruin your sleep…”

“It’s a little late for that, Minoru,” Ryo teases before adding, “Seriously though, I don’t mind.”

Minoru lets out a sigh of relief. “Okay, as long as you’re cool with it.”

“I am. See you in 5?”

“Yeah, see you.”

About five minutes later, Minoru’s phone buzzes. He looks at it and sees a text from Ryo that reads:

[ ryo-baby (♡ ˘ω˘)]: i’m here. waiting outside cause i didn’t wanna knock and possibly wake up your mom or something

Minoru smiles at how considerate Ryo is. He can’t help but wonder if he’d think about that if their roles were reversed. He walks to the front door and opens it quietly. He sees Ryo standing at the door and gives him a small smile. “Hey,” he says softly.

“Hey yourself. Didn’t know you had an indoor voice,” Ryo says with a smirk.

Minoru smiles, rolling his eyes fondly. “Just ‘cause I’m actually energetic doesn’t mean I’m never quiet.”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh, right. Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night.” 

Minoru gives him a playful nudge, and Ryo chuckles. “C’mon, let’s go see the stars,” Minoru whispers excitedly, taking Ryo’s hand. He grabs a blanket on the way to the back door before walking outside. 

He’s so excited about going outside that he doesn’t notice Ryo smiling fondly at his enthusiasm.

Minoru lays the blanket out on the grass before lying down on the blanket. He looks over at Ryo with a grin, eagerly patting the spot next to him to gesture for Ryo to join him. Ryo smiles and lays down next to Minoru.

Minoru holds his arm out, hoping Ryo will take it as an invitation to come over and cuddle him. Ryo just stares at him blankly in confusion. “What? What are you doing?”

Minoru gives him puppy-dog eyes. Ryo raises an eyebrow, perplexed. “Look, that’s a cute expression you’re giving me but I still don’t know what you want from me.”

Minoru grins. “You think I’m cute?”

“Wha—no! That’s not what I said!”

“Ryo-baby thinks I’m cute~” Minoru teases in a singsong voice.

“What are you, seven? Cut it out with the playground taunts.”

“Is that embarrassment I’m sensing from you, Ryo-baby?”

“No!” Ryo protests. “Look, are you gonna tell me why you’re holding out your arm and giving me a look or not? I’m not a mind reader, y’know.”

Minoru sighs, running his hands through his hair anxiously. “I dunno, I guess I was just wondering if you wanted to…y’know…”

Ryo gives him an annoyed look. “I don’t know, actually. That’s why I asked you.”

Minoru groans. “I was wondering if you wanted to cuddle, okay? Y’know…’cause it’s pretty cold out here. There, I said it.”

A pregnant pause stretches out, and the silence is killing Minoru. He’s starting to wish the ground would swallow him up before Ryo says, “You’re not messing with me, are you?”

“No! Dude, I know I like to give you a hard time but I’m not evil , okay?”

“Okay, okay, just wanted to check. ‘Cause honestly, I wouldn’t mind…taking you up on that offer.”’

“What are you waiting for, then? Get your butt over here.”

Ryo chuckles, scooting over toward Minoru and laying beside him, wrapping his arms around Minoru. Minoru lets out a contented sigh once he feels Ryo’s arms wrap around him and he returns Ryo’s embrace.

“Look up at the stars. Aren’t they beautiful?”

Ryo looks up. Sure enough, the sky is filled with more stars than he’s seen in ages. “Wow, no kidding…” He looks over at Minoru, whose face is lit up with excitement. He can’t stop himself from smiling fondly, and without thinking, he ruffles Minoru’s hair.

Minoru’s attention snaps to Ryo. He looks up at Ryo and frowns playfully. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Do I look like a dog to you or something?”

Ryo smirks. “You know, you’re fluffy, energetic, playful, friendly…maybe you are a dog. Have you been a golden retriever in disguise this whole time?” He runs his fingers through Minoru’s hair, and Minoru can’t help but smile, relaxed by the touch. Ryo grins. “See, you even like having your head scratched.”

“First of all, you’re not scratching my head, you’re running your fingers through my hair. There’s a big difference. Second, if I’m a dog, you’re a cat. You’re grumpy, you like being by yourself most of the time, but you’re loving toward the people you trust.”

Ryo snorts. “ Loving? That’s a strong word, don’t you think? Have you felt loved by me?” 

Minoru feels his face heating up. He has felt loved by Ryo, but he doesn’t want to just casually admit it. “Uh…” he trails off, unsure of what to say.

Ryo smiles warmly. “Relax, I’m just giving you a hard time.”

“Geez, don’t put me on the spot like that!” Minoru laughs.

“What can I say? I had to return the favor after you’ve done it to me so many times,” Ryo teases.

“Shut up, man…”

Their laughter dies down and they lay there in silence for a while before Minoru blurts out, “What are we gonna do when this is over?” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he wants to smack himself in the face. This was one of the few things he was trying not to say, and now he went and said it, and it was too late to take it back.

Ryo’s smile fades, and he looks like he’s deep in thought for a while before he mumbles, “I don’t know…I haven’t really thought about it.” He looks over at Minoru, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Why do you ask?”

Minoru shrugs. “I dunno…”

An awkward silence stretches between them before Ryo tentatively asks, “Did you wanna…end things? Do that dramatic breakup or whatever?”

“No!” Minoru quickly says, and Ryo looks shocked at how quickly and adamantly Minoru declined. Minoru quickly follows up with, “I mean, it’s not like we have to end things now.”

“Then why did you bring it up?”

Minoru shrugs again. “It’s just…kinda hard to picture things after this. We’ve been closer than ever lately and then we’ll go back to the way things were. I guess I’ll kinda…miss it.” He wants so badly to say I’ll miss you , I’ll miss these moments because they were with you. 

Ryo’s face falls, and he mumbles, “Yeah…I’ll miss it too.” Minoru notices the look of sadness in Ryo’s eyes and wonders what it means. Could he possibly…feel the same? The possibility makes Minoru’s heart skip a beat, but he tries not to dwell on it too long. He rationalizes that Ryo probably doesn’t feel the same and that Ryo might feel sad for some other reason. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up only to get his heart broken.

Minoru squeezes Ryo gently and says, “Well, we don’t have to worry about it right now! Let’s just look at how nice the stars are.”

Ryo just nods. “Yeah. Yeah…let’s just look at the stars.”

Neither of them says anything for a while. Neither of them knows what to say, and both of them feel saddened at the reminder that this will have to end eventually.

Minoru holds Ryo tighter. “I’m never gonna get tired of spending time with you, y’know?” he whispers.

Ryo holds Minoru tighter in response, but he mumbles, “Yeah, but before too long you’ll probably find a girlfriend and we won’t be as close as we are now…”

Minoru wants so badly to shake him and shout, I don’t want a girlfriend anymore, I only want to be with you. Instead, he says, “I’m not in a hurry to find a girlfriend. I still have plenty of time.”

Ryo raises an eyebrow. “Huh? Didn’t you always make a fuss about getting a girlfriend someday?”

“That was in the past, I’ve matured and become a wiser person now,” Minoru says playfully, hoping to lighten the mood. He beams when he hears Ryo chuckling. “Besides…I dunno if I’ll ever have as much fun with them as I’ve had with you.”

He sees Ryo try and fail to stop himself from smiling and then bury his face in Minoru’s neck to try and hide his smile. “Shut up…” he hears Ryo mumble. 

He feels Ryo’s face against his neck and notices that Ryo’s face feels hot. He grins and teases, “Are you blushing, Ryo?”

“No…” Ryo mumbles, refusing to move and show his face.

“Really? ‘Cause your face feels hot against my neck.”

Ryo lets out an embarrassed whine and says, “You’re just imagining things…”

Minoru kisses the top of Ryo’s head and feels Ryo’s face get hotter against his neck. He chuckles and then hears Ryo protest, “Don’t laugh!”

“It’s a little hard to take you seriously when you’re hiding your face by burrowing into my neck.”

Ryo doesn’t say anything and just grumbles.

Minoru smirks before saying, “You’re adorable, Ryo-baby~”

He feels Ryo’s face get hotter again, which makes his smile grow. Ryo whines, “Shut up, man…” but he hugs Minoru tighter.

Minoru can’t stop himself from smiling adoringly. He made sure to sound obnoxious when he called Ryo “adorable,” but he completely meant it. It was incredibly endearing to be the only one to fully see Ryo’s softer side like this. 

He feels Ryo softly nuzzle into his neck, and he kisses the top of Ryo’s head again. He starts rubbing Ryo’s back absentmindedly and hears Ryo sigh contentedly in response. 

Minoru feels himself getting drowsier, yawning as he keeps holding Ryo. “Y’know…earlier when you said I’d probably get a girlfriend soon…I couldn’t help but think that you’d probably find someone before I do…”

“Huh? You’re not pulling my leg, are you?’ Ryo asks incredulously.

“Nope.” He yawns again before explaining, “You’re just so…cool sometimes. Even if something freaks you out, you’ll face up to it bravely. You really changed when we were in that parallel universe. I never thought you’d turn out all heroic like you are now when we first arrived in the parallel universe. But you are, and you opened up to us, and you ended up being pretty reliable…so anyone would be lucky to be with you.” His eyelids are feeling heavier by the second, and his drowsiness is making him more sincere than he’s ever been around Ryo.

“Wow, uh…I had no clue you saw me that way…thanks, Minoru,” Ryo bashfully responds.

Minoru just quietly hums in acknowledgment, too tired to respond verbally. 

Ryo notices how quiet Minoru is being and slowly moves his face out of Minoru’s neck. He sees Minoru falling asleep and smiles. Minoru looks almost angelic as he drifts off to sleep. Minoru looks so much more peaceful than usual, and Ryo can’t help but think he looks cute.

He lays down beside Minoru, staying close to him so their arms are still around each other. After about a minute or so, he hears Minoru quietly snoring and he smiles in amusement. He looks back up at the stars, deciding he can just look at them until Minoru wakes up. Before he knows it, his eyes are falling shut and he’s drifting off to sleep.

A few days later, Minoru is sitting in class. Bored with the lecture, he looks around the room absentmindedly. He can’t help but notice that one of his classmates looks dejected. She’s a nice girl, but she’s shy and has trouble speaking up for herself. Minoru’s hero instincts kick in, and after class, he walks over to her.

“Hey, you doing alright?”

She jumps slightly, startled. “Huh?”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to sneak up on you,” Minoru says sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. “You just kinda seemed…down today.”

Her eyes widen slightly, and she looks down in shame. “Oh…I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“C’mon, you don’t have to be ashamed. You don’t have to talk to me about it if you don’t wanna, but you don’t have to look all guilty just for feeling down.”

She gives him a weak smile. “Okay, fine, I’m not having a great day. If you want, we could talk about this somewhere a little more private.”

He smiles back at her. “Sounds good.”

They head over to a fairly secluded area. Other students can be seen in the distance, but none of them are within earshot.

“So what’s up?”

The girl sighs. “It’s…my dog. I’ve had him since I was a little girl, and I remember when he was just a puppy. We had so many good memories together, and he was my best friend.” Her voice begins to quiver as she tries to hold back tears. “But we had to put him down yesterday. I just miss him so much…” By the time she finishes talking, her lip is quivering uncontrollably and she’s tearing up while sniffling.

Minoru gives her a sympathetic look and puts his hand on her shoulder. “Wow, that sounds so awful…I’m sorry for your loss.”

She starts crying harder and without warning, she hugs Minoru tightly. Minoru stiffens for a moment at the unexpected contact before relaxing and hugging her back, knowing that she needs to be comforted. It feels a bit awkward for him to be hugging her like this since he’s not particularly close with her, but he keeps holding her as she cries.

Ryo trudges out of the classroom, exhausted after a long day of school. He walks through the hallways, down the stairs, and out the door, ready to leave school and head home for the day. But just as he’s about to head home, he sees something that feels like a punch to the gut.

He sees Minoru hugging another girl. Not only that, Minoru seems to have been hugging her for some time and doesn’t seem to be letting go anytime soon. 

The worst part about it all is that Ryo knew this was coming sooner or later. Of course Minoru would want to be with a girl instead of him, and of course a pretty girl would fall for someone as charming as Minoru. And even though he knew this was coming, some naive part of him couldn’t help but hope that maybe, somehow, he and Minoru would end up together. But just as he had expected, someone else caught Minoru’s attention instead.

Ryo’s heart stings, and he has to take deep breaths and bite his lip. Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together. He walks away as quickly and quietly as he can, trying to avoid drawing any attention to himself.

He makes it about halfway into his walk home in a daze before it fully hits him. His eyes start to sting and his vision blurs as he starts to tear up. He has to take more deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Just a few more minutes. Just keep it together for a few more minutes.

The remaining minutes before he gets home seem to stretch on for an eternity. When he finally gets home, he hurriedly closes the door, takes off his shoes, puts his things down, and rushes to his room. When he’s finally in the privacy of his own room, he finally lets out a choked sob as tears fall down his cheeks. 

As he lets it all out, he only remembers thinking one thing:

God, I’m such an idiot.

Chapter Text

Minoru stares anxiously at the screen of his phone. He’s texted Ryo more than once, and he hasn’t heard back from Ryo in several days. He squirms in his seat anxiously, wondering what possibly could have gone wrong. He tries to recall everything he’s ever said to Ryo, looking frantically for something to pinpoint as the explanation for Ryo’s strange behavior.

Unfortunately, not only is Ryo not responding to Minoru’s texts, he’s been avoiding Minoru in person too. Minoru feels sick to his stomach just thinking about it. He wishes Ryo would just tell him what he did wrong so he can apologize and fix it and they can go back to talking to each other again.

He’s seen Ryo act moody and temperamental, but never this avoidant or silent, and he has no idea what to do about it, and he hates it.

He absolutely hates it.

He sighs before hastily dialing Takuma’s number and calling him.

“Takuma! You gotta help me out, man!”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down! What’s going on, Minoru?”

“Ryo won’t talk to me and I have no clue why!”

“Seriously? Did you say something that might have made him mad at you?”

Minoru whines. “I dunno, that’s the problem! I’ve thought about it over and over again and I can’t think of anything I’ve said or done that might make him act like this!”

“Huh…” Takuma muses. “That’s weird…and you’ve tried talking to him about it?”

“Of course I have!”

“Yeah, that makes sense…maybe you need to confront him in person.”

“In person?” Minoru echoes weakly.

“Yeah. It’s easier for him to ignore you over text, right? Maybe if you make your case to him in person he’ll hear you out?”

Minoru nods slowly, processing what Takuma is saying. “Okay…Yeah, I guess I could try that…” He sighs again, feeling more uncertain than ever.

He can practically hear Takuma smiling over the phone. “You’ve got this Minoru. I know you can do it. I believe in you.”

Minoru musters a weak smile. “Thanks, Takuma. I’ll see you around, then.”

Ryo sighs and puts his head in his hands as he reads over Minoru’s recent texts to him.

[ kuneminorumon ❤️ ]: ryo? is everything okay? youve been pretty distant lately

[ kuneminorumon ❤️ ]: did i say something that upset you? whatever it is i said im sorry i just wanna make things right

[ kuneminorumon ❤️ ]: ryo pls just say something even if u never wanna talk to me again just tell me whats going on

He feels his lip quivering and bites it. How is he supposed to explain how he’s feeling to Minoru? He can’t just casually waltz up to Minoru and say, “Hey, Minoru. You know why I’ve been avoiding you? It’s because I’m super in love with you and seeing you in someone else’s arms made me wanna jump off a cliff. I know you don’t feel the same way and you’re probably not even into guys, and hell, this could completely ruin things between us, but I just thought I should let you know.”

Ryo groans. Why did things have to be so complicated? Why did he have to go and fall in love with Minoru?

It hurts him so badly to have to push Minoru away. He’s tried his hardest to avoid seeing Minoru in person so he doesn’t have to see Minoru looking like a kicked puppy. He knows he won’t be able to avoid Minoru if he actually sees Minoru looking sad.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts when he gets a text from Takuma.

[ Takuma ]: Is everything okay between you and Minoru? He seems upset lately.

Ryo groans again. How the hell is he going to explain this to Takuma? He frowns, thinking carefully for a while before replying.

[ me ]: yeah, it’s just…complicated.

[ Takuma ]: Complicated? How come?

Ryo drums his fingers anxiously as he tries to explain everything in a way that doesn’t sound completely ridiculous.

[ me ]: i think i might actually be falling in love with minoru but i don’t know if he feels the same and it terrifies me

He types the words out quickly and hits send before he can overthink things. He’s blushing furiously the whole time, feeling incredibly vulnerable after sharing his feelings with someone else.

[ Takuma ]: Isn’t falling in love the whole point of dating?

Ryo grumbles. Explaining the purpose of dating to Takuma wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

[ me ]: ideally yes, but sometimes people just date casually or to see how things work between them

[ Takuma ]: Oh, I think I get it now. So you don’t know if Minoru actually feels the same or if he’s just testing the waters? You’re worried that you’re the only one who cares and he’ll end up deciding that you’re not his type?

Ryo winces. Takuma’s assessment of the situation was uncomfortably accurate.

[ me ]: something like that, yeah

[ Takuma ]: I think I can understand why that would be worrying you a lot, but I don’t think Minoru would be so eager to keep in touch with you if you were right. I think he cares about you more than you think.

Ryo reads and re-reads Takuma’s text, letting his words sink in. Part of him sees what Takuma is saying, but there’s still a part of him that worries, what if he’s wrong? What if I’m the only one who cares and I ruin everything?

[ me ]: thanks takuma, i appreciate that and i’ll keep it in mind

About a week later, the school day ends and Aoi apologetically asks Ryo if he can run an errand for her. She explains that one of the teachers wanted her to return something to the supply closet but she’s in a hurry. He agrees and her face lights up.

Now he’s looking for the supply closet in question. It takes him a while, but he finally finds it. He opens the door and looks around for where he should put the item. Then he turns around and jumps when he comes face-to-face with Minoru.

“Ryo?!”

“Minoru?!”

“What are you—“

Before Minoru can finish his sentence, they hear the door lock. Then Kaito flatly says, “Talk to each other and we’ll unlock the door.”

“Seriously?! You gotta be kidding! How’d you even get the keys?!”

“Sorry,” he hears Shuuji say sheepishly.

“What?! Shuuji, you traitor!” Ryo snaps.

“Ryo…”

Ryo winces as he hears Minoru call out to him. He slowly turns back around to face Minoru. The kicked puppy expression that he’s tried so hard to avoid is staring him in the face, and it stings.

“Why do you keep avoiding me? It felt like everything was fine and then out of nowhere you just stopped talking to me…did I do something wrong?”

Ryo gulps, unsure of how to explain himself. “No, it…it wasn’t your fault, Minoru…”

“Then why have you been so distant? I don’t get it at all!”

“Minoru, I think we should end our fake relationship.”

“Seriously, that’s what this is all about?! You couldn’t have just told me that, you had to keep your distance and make me worry?!”

Ryo looks down. “It’s…it’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Minoru asks, sounding completely perplexed.

“I didn’t wanna have to tell you this…the whole reason I kept it to myself is because I didn’t wanna ruin our friendship or freak you out or anything but since I was so distant and made you worry, I feel like you have the right to know…” Ryo pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing. “When we started this whole fake dating thing, I didn’t expect things to end up like this…”

“End up like what?”

“With me getting all…attached to you. We’ve been friends for a while, but now I feel like I’ve gotten even closer to you. I know that once this whole fake dating thing ends, we’ll never be this close again, and someone else will get to be closer to you instead, and that just kills me. At some point during this fake relationship, I started wanting to make all my happiest memories…with you.”

He pauses, not sure how to explain himself.

“So…you just wanna be closer to me than anyone else?” Minoru asks, still sounding puzzled.

“Well, yeah, but…that’s not the whole story. I also…when we started getting all…affectionate and stuff, I realized that I actually…” He gulps before continuing. “Liked it. A lot. I liked it too much. And it made me worry since I know you…like girls, but I tried to ignore those worries and act like everything was fine. But then I saw you last week, and you were holding some girl in your arms, and it just reminded me that things would never really last between us, and it…really hurt. So I freaked out and started avoiding you because I was afraid that I’d be reminded of you holding that girl and then I’d be all hurt and if you asked why, I’d have to admit that I’m in love with you.” He blurts out the last part and covers his mouth in horror as soon as he realizes what he’s admitted.

They both stand there in silence for a while as they process what Ryo just said. Ryo eventually braces a look at Minoru, and he sees that Minoru’s eyes are wide and his mouth is hanging open in shock, and there’s a faint blush on his cheeks.

Minoru finally speaks up, faintly saying, “You…you’re in love with me?”

“Yeah…” Ryo mumbles, scratching the back of his neck and averting his eyes.

Suddenly, he feels Minoru’s arms wrap around him tightly in a firm embrace. Ryo’s almost knocked over backward by the force of Minoru’s hug.

“I feel the same…” Minoru murmurs as he hugs Ryo.

Ryo’s heart skips a beat. “Wait, what? You do? I thought you liked girls…”

“I do, but I guess I’m also into guys, ‘cause I’m, y’know…in love with you too.”

Ryo can’t stop himself from grinning like an idiot as he returns Minoru’s embrace. “God, I never thought you’d feel the same…”

“Seriously? After I came up with so many lousy excuses to kiss you or cuddle up to you?” Minoru asks in disbelief while chuckling. “You’re pretty oblivious, Ryo-baby~”

“I am not! Besides, I came up with dumb excuses to kiss you too, so who’s the oblivious one now?”

“You are.”

“Wha—?! That’s not what you’re supposed to say!”

They’re both laughing uncontrollably now, still hugging as they both crack up.

When their laughter finally dies down, Minoru sighs happily and gives Ryo a little squeeze. “Don’t scare me like that ever again, okay?”

Ryo hugs him tighter. “I won’t. I’m sorry, Minoru.”

“It’s okay. Just talk to me next time. I don’t bite…most of the time.” He pauses before saying, “So…I guess we’re actually dating now, huh?”

Ryo smiles. “I guess so.”

Minoru hums happily. “Good~ I was having too much fun as your fake boyfriend to just stop dating you.”

Ryo chuckles. “Yeah? Me too. It’s been fun, and I’m glad it’s real now.”

They pull away slightly to look at each other lovingly. Ryo cups Minoru’s face as he looks into Minoru’s eyes.

“You know…you have nice eyes,” Ryo mumbles.

Minoru blushes slightly and chuckles. “What’s with you all of a sudden? It’s not like you to be so straightforward.”

Ryo smirks. “What, I can’t compliment my boyfriend? My real boyfriend?”

Minoru’s blush deepens and he whispers, “I never said you couldn’t compliment me…you’re just…never mind.”

Ryo grins. “Don’t like it when the shoe’s on the other foot, huh?”

Minoru smiles and nudges him playfully. “Shut up, man…”

“Make me.”

Minoru grins. “Challenge accepted.”

He feels Minoru cupping his face, and then they both lean in until they’re kissing softly. It’s so comforting for him to know that his feelings for Minoru are returned, and that he can hold Minoru without having to worry about whether Minoru cares as much as he does or whether Minoru will still be here tomorrow.

When they pull away, Minoru asks, “So…you wanna troll ‘em all by being obnoxiously lovey-dovey like we did when we fake-dated?”

Ryo grins. “Duh. What else are we gonna do?”

Minoru grins back at him and grabs his hand. “C’mon. Let’s make ‘em cringe as much as we can.”

Ryo smiles as he takes Minoru’s hand. He can’t imagine ever having this much fun with anyone else.