Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuuto likes to think he’s doing well for himself. Top of his class and relatively popular student. His parent’s favorite child too, he’s their only kid but it counts.

Though if his parents find out about this then he’ll instantly be booted to the last spot. See he’s hiding a secret. A significant other. A male significant other.

A boyfriend. Even if said boyfriend doesn’t call them that.

And let it be known that Yuuto has awful, awful taste.

What an asshole, Was a young Yuuto’s thought when he first met him.

Wait- is that asshole sitting in my place?! Comes young Yuuto’s second thought. Followed by an intense anger taking over his feet and making him rush over to punch the lights out of the asshole taking his self proclaimed place.

Let it be known that young Yuuto did not know how to pick and choose his battles wisely.  

Yuuto still winces when he thinks back to that day. Young him was fucking stupid, almost losing his life over a playground swing. He likes to think he’s gotten smarter with age but considering who he's dating? Yeah, definitely not.

Yuuto, still a middle schooler, learned that day two important life lessons. One, Takiishi Chika is a scary jackass. Two, do not fuck with Takiishi Chika.

Yuuto, a couple months into knowing Takiishi, amends lesson one. Takiishi is still one scary jackass but also a very small part of his brain finds him kind of…cute??? Yuuto, absolutely not because he’s any wiser but simply because of trial and error, knows not to say that to his face but it’s true. Yuuto also now regrets their first meeting. It’s embarrassing everytime to remember that he first met his friend because he picked a fight over a playground swing and got his shit rocked. They’re friends, right? Right?

Then somewhere along the way Takiishi-san becomes Chika-kun. And they’re definitely not friends anymore. Not just friends anyways.

Yuuto, now a couple months into their relationship , his heart still flutters when he thinks about it, amends lesson two. While you should absolutely not fuck with Chika, it is perfectly ok to fuck Chika. Or more usually, get fucked by. He even gets to call Chika cute out loud. Now knowing Chika a lot better, sometimes when he thinks back to their first meeting. And he looks into Chika’s dead and bored eyes, shutting his mouth completely closed so as to not let any sign of what he’s thinking out. Because Chika will surely beat him up if he uttered a word and he would honestly deserve it.

It is a ridiculous thought the depths of his not very smart mind came up with. But sometimes, he remembers and he thinks-

I didn’t rizz up Chika because I got my shit rocked, did I?

After that theory pops up, Yuuto would bash his head against the nearest surface. It pops up a lot. His head suffered greatly.

Being in a romantic relationship comes with many challenges. He’s skipping out on some hangouts his classmate invited him to because he’s meeting Chika and lying about it to their faces when they ask. That’s the easy one. 

The whole ‘lying about it to their faces’ part gets a lot harder when it is his parents he’s lying to. He thought he kept the secret hidden well enough. His score never falling and no incidents happening to clue them in. Then at the dinner table, when he’s trying to enjoy his food, his dad mentions him looking happier recently. He was fighting for his goddamn life to make up excuses for why that doesn’t give anything away and not show any reaction that night.

The things he does for Chika, man.

Some of those problems were admittedly his own fault. Yuuto, very freaked out about his first ever relationship, tried being more ‘romantic’ towards Chika. Showering Chika with romantic gifts, which always made Chika’s face sour, subtly of course. And creating new date ideas. It went on for exactly a week until Chika beat the sense back into him. Not literally surprisingly enough, he’s so touched.

After that little period, their relationship went back to normal. Just with kisses and cuddles sometimes.

Aside from the problems he made, there’s also Chika’s…uh- everything.

Now Yuuto loves Chika. He does, really. That’s his boyfriend!  And it is because of that fact, he can say Chika isn’t the most normal. And that’s fine! 

Perfectly fine! 

Extremely attractive in fact! 

It’s just, sometimes, Chika surprises him. He gets used to Chika’s everything eventually.

So when a small pebble, not a rock, he managed to convince Chika to stop using those, hits his window, Yuuto doesn’t even flinch. Instead he gets up from his desk and opens the window. Chika wastes no time climbing up his two story house without any support.

How, how the fuck?, a part of his brain screams. He shuts that part down

Like Rapunzel, a very stupid, even more stupid than the rest, part of his brain sighs dreamily. Probably the part that thought of the theory that he shall not name. He shuts that part down too.

Chika looks around his small room, huffs and hands him a bag wordlessly. There’s a logo on it but he doesn’t recognize it. Yuuto opens it up. To see a jacket sitting inside. Turning it over from the front to the back, Yuuto whistles appreciatively at the design on the back.

This? This was fancy stuff. And more importantly expensive stuff. He tosses it on and twirls a bit experimentally. It clashes horribly against his plain white t-shirt he’s wearing but it looks great.

Chika inspects him, “You look good” he says without a smile but Yuuto can hear it in his voice all the same. Three words. But those very three words coming from this very person makes Yuuto so very happy he could die. Maybe young Yuuto was some sort of genius, for meeting young Chika and letting present Yuuto have this. 

He grins, “Thank you”. 

Then a second. 

“You didn’t steal this, did you?” comes out of his mouth incredulously. It’s a very reasonable concern. He’s seen Chika come back with blood on him before. He’s even helped clean some of it. 

Chika grumbles, that’s very suspiciously not a ‘no’. But he doesn’t even raise a fist. They've gotten so far. He instead flops onto Yuuto’s bed. 

Yuuto lies on top of him and makes up for his little blunder with a lot of cuddling. 

“What’s with the gift?” He asks after Chika’s calm. 

So silently he had to focus to hear, Chika says “Busy tomorrow”

“Oh,” Like explained anything. It didn’t. “What’s with tomorrow?” 

Chika doesn’t reply. But he looks at Yuuto like he’s stupid. Which, fair. But, ouch.

He finds out when his parents surprise him with cake the next day. His birthday cake. He enjoys his birthday, making note to give Chika the best ever birthday when it comes.

Yuuto has a wonderful boyfriend. A bit weird but wonderful all the same. 

Yuuto can’t, however, say the same thing about his boyfriend’s…little pest problem.

“Ignore him,” Chika says, making Yuuto turn away from the very offending pest.

But really, how is he supposed to ignore the guy who calls Yuuto’s boyfriend ‘god’ and follows him everywhere.

And might be Chika’s sugar daddy- Nope, nope. No, stop thinking.

Chapter Text

Now on how to describe Endo Yamato, Yuuto would be using a lot of words, most of which he should probably not say out loud.

Creepy would be a good descriptor. It already comes naturally with Endo, what with his bigger build and tall height making him physically imposing to most. Add in his style of black clothing which only serves to enhance that creepy imagery. He also looks old, much older than 17, his actual age. And if that wasn’t enough, Endo had to get a tattoo, no, multiple tattoos on his chest. They are in a position to be covered by a shirt. Not that he does. No, Endo likes to show off his stupidly muscled chest for some reason.

Fake ass goth, Yuuto mumbles under his breath once upon a while. Seriously, why? Hide your damn tits, man.

Endo smiles eerily at his direction, “What was that?”

Not only does Endo look like a thug, he is a thug. Yuuto ignores the fact that Chika is also a thug, one that likes to get in some nasty trouble quite often, at least he isn’t going around advertising the fact. (He also ignores his own delinquency days, he’s recovered)

This detail about Endo he doesnt get from the man himself. His looks aside, there’s no way Yuuto would have been able to peg Endo as a delinquent, especially after seeing how he acts around Chika. No, this piece of information comes from the mouth of Chika himself.

He doesn’t say it out loud. But he vaguely referred to Endo as his goon of some sort and then promptly told Yuuto to stay far away from him. Yuuto might be dumb but even he can pick up those signs.

Along with the whole thug thing, Yuuto can tell that Endo is strong. It may have been a long time since Yuuto properly got into a fight but it’s like riding a bike, the instincts are still there. They tell him to beware of Endo. But even if he didn’t have that history, it still wouldn’t be hard to tell. It’s in the way Endo stands, it’s in the way he walks. 

Confident, too confident. Like he knows nobody could ever hope to stand in his way. 

Chika is the same way. 

How much of it is real and how much is false bravado, Yuuto can’t tell at first. But that confidence pisses people off, pisses off other delinquents even more. He remembers hating how Chika sat, so sure of himself when he was so out of place, back during their first meeting. If Endo hasn’t been punished for that confidence then he must have been able to back it up.

And there’s also Chika. How Endo is able to brush off any injury Chika gives him. Yuuto remembers his own injuries from the ass kicking a much younger, more inexperienced Chika gave him and how painful they were. And when Chika hits Endo, it’s with a lot more force than usual. 

But Endo brushes it off, on his face a wide smile.

“Are you into S&M” asked a very confused Yuuto after witnessing the two of them interact with each other. His ‘boyfriend’ position, suddenly in great danger. But he will learn and adapt if he had to. 

To which Chika stares at him, then pinches his cheek, “Idiot, stop hanging around him”

“Ow, ow-“  

How Endo treats Chika is another notable point. When Endo talks about Chika, wax poetic about him, more like. He’s never even seen guys talk about their girlfriends in a nearly as romantic way. It’s almost enough to make Yuuto blush. Almost. Then Yuuto remembers it’s his boyfriend that’s Endo’s talking about like that and any possible blush he could have had dies a quick death. 

On the other hand, Chika mostly just ignores Endo’s presence and when he doesn’t, it is only to hit Endo, usually when he’s stepped over Chika’s comfort zone. He acts unbothered enough by Endo that makes Yuuto pretty sure he’s not being harassed. How Chika can hear all those words about him and not even twitch is beyond Yuuto. It’s honestly hard to take Endo seriously after seeing their comedy routine play out in real time.

Then Endo turns his attention onto Yuuto. And he breaks out into a sweat. It happens only rarely, usually when Chika, his usual target, is missing.  Endo’s creepy, he’s established that already, and having that focus be put on solely you? Terrifying. Chika’s poker face is god tier for being able to withstand against that. Unfortunately Yuuto is not as blessed. 

Endo looks at him like one would when you see a pet doing a cool trick, like Yuuto should be put under a microscope and studied, like he wants to cut him open, flesh and bones, to see what’s inside. And he smiles as he’s looking Yuuto in the eye. It’s enough to make Yuuto lock all his doors at night even if he’s pretty sure Endo doesn’t know where he lives.

“You didn’t tell Endo where I live, right Chika?” 

…

“…Why aren’t you answering?”

Despite how Endo acts with Chika, he doesn’t seem to be all that bothered when Yuuto and Chika be all couple’ly. Instead he gets this wide smile on his face, one that's not all too different from what he looks like when Chika gives him any attention. Which…yeah no, he’s not even going to touch on that.

“…threesome?” Yuuto asks meekly after a few meetings with Endo and seeing how Chika didn’t kick him out.

Chika has a great poker face. So when his question is immediately met with repulsion so great it breaks through that poker face. Yeah, he knows he messed up. “Sorry, forget I said that, please”

On one hand, he wants to stand between Endo flirting with his boyfriend, not because there’s any chance of it actually working, no, but because stop flirting with his boyfriend, asshole . Yet he fears if he does, Endo might go through cutting him up. And he doesn’t want to know just how strong Endo is. His self preservation versus his romantic obligations. Neither really winning. Leaving him to stand to the side awkwardly near Chika whenever Endo comes along.

“…I don’t like him” Yuuto confessed to Chika one time, his voice quiet and soft like he’s revealing a horrible, life-ruining secret. It really wasn’t, he gets told. He was being so obvious, it was practically naked.

“Hmph, keep it that way” Yuuto lifts his face from Chika’s chest, looking up to see him looking very pleased. Cute.

There isn’t any ‘getting used to’ when it comes to Endo. Yuuto doesn’t even interact with him much. Usually being able to banish the guy from his mind in day to day life. Then he meets up with Chika and sees a black figure around him, it all comes rushing back. Ah right, that guy.

He tries taking Chika’s advice and ignoring Endo. It’s hard and he’s never truly been able to not hear Endo one sidedly flirting with Chika. It ends with him having to awkwardly suffer Endo’s presence the entire time. At least, he comforts himself, Chika probably had fun. It happens again and again. Becoming routine whenever the three of them do anything together. Endo, as always, never ever bothered by being the third wheel.

He leaves any interaction he and Endo has to Chika to deal with. Well, Chika took on the duty himself more like. Interrupting, violently, whenever Endo tries to pester Yuuto with questions. Which he does a lot. It’s a step above dissecting Yuuto at the very least. And most of his questions are pretty harmless, like asking what his favorite food is, normal ice breaker questions that Yuuto should not be freaked out over. 

It’s just that- He can’t explain it. Endo just has bad vibes. There’s no other reason Yuuto has but that. Atrocious vibes that make him clam his mouth shut whenever Endo starts talking. 

All that to say, Him and Endo, alone? Bad idea, right?

“You’re pretty weird, aren’t you Yuuto-kun?” Endo says when Chika walks out of sight. He almost chastises Endo for being so familiar with him but that would cause him to have to interact with Endo more so he wisely doesn’t. 

It was nearing Valentine's Day and he had wanted to get Chika something for the occasion. There’s also a part of him that wants to get something from Chika back for White day. To have a small, tiny piece of chocolate that means something . But since Chika’s visits are random and spontaneous, he couldn’t get the time to line up properly. Being left with the option to just get him something before the special day. Chika, apparently sensing he was up to something, tagged along. And bringing Endo along with him.

It was impossible to sneak away to buy anything with Chika and Endo watching him like hawks. So he threw away the surprise aspect and just went shopping with Chika to get something he knows he would like. After that, it just became a normal shopping trip. With Endo offering to pay for anything Chika looked at for a second too long. Simp.

Endo was especially off today, staring at the chocolate box Yuuto bought hard. Staring at Chika, eating some of it even harder. The man looked so…confused. So uncharacteristically silent. Less like a thug and more like the teenager he is. 

On how to describe Endo Yamato, now? Yuuto would even use the word shy .

It was enough to make Yuuto lower his guard. So when Chika breaks off from the group, citing a need for a toilet, Yuuto waves him off happily, unaware of the hole he was digging for himself. Then, after it was too late to take anything back, to beg Chika to stay because do not leave me alone with this man, only one of us is coming out alive and it’s not me , he finally remembers that there was someone else with them. The realization hits him like a cold shower in the middle of winter.

“Endo- san,” He empathizes the honorific hard, the only reason he doesn’t just call him Endo is because Yuuto’s parents raised him well. Not well enough to not date a delinquent but it’s something. And because he does not want to unpack whatever Endo was thinking, he follows up with the fakest “Could you repeat that?” he can muster up.

Common sense dictates that this is when the other person shuts up, realizes what they said were dumb and says something like “Oh never mind” then both of them move on with their lives.

Much to his dismay, Endo Yamato does not follow common sense.

He smiles, Yuuto realizes it’s the first time he’s done so since Chika picked out what chocolate he wanted Yuuto to buy, “I said, You’re pretty weird, aren’t you Yuuto-kun ?” Endo sing songs.

“I see” is Yuuto’s own polite non answer. Endo is the weirdo here but he’s not going to say that. And thankfully as if the heavens finally smiled down upon Yuuto after enduring all of his hardships so far, Endo doesn’t continue. 

Instead he’s back to staring. At the damn box. Yuuto stops himself from saying something along the lines of if you’re so jealous, then get him a box yourself! But that would be admitting a lot of things he doesn’t want to admit. Plus it’s not exactly jealousy that he sees in Endo. He’s never seen him jealous.

What he sees in Endo’s eyes is that confusion again. Aimed at the box. Not in a ‘cut it open, organs and all’ type of way. But like a child discovering something new and unfamiliar .

Which-

Oh! Oh . That can’t actually be it.

But Endo stares at the thing in his hands as if it was a wonder of nature. That makes Yuuto honestly feel bad.

That’s actually it.

“You…” And he knows he would regret saying this soon after Chika returns, “You can have some”. That causes Endo to switch his stare to Yuuto. He looks away from the intensity. His face hot, they must’ve been walking for too long. Nevertheless he extends his hand, the one holding the box, towards Endo.

Endo is creepy, looks like a thug, is an actual thug and hopelessly infatuated with Chika who could not care less about him. So it really isn’t a surprise that Endo has never gotten any Valentine’s chocolate before. In fact, it’s so obvious now that he knows. Even if there’s no interest in romance, getting chocolate from his classmates made him feel good, valued. That stuff is important for humans. And Endo not getting any of it? Yeah no wonder Endo is so weird. 

Maybe the guy just needs someone other than Chika. Yuuto loves his boyfriend but he isn’t going to give Endo the acknowledgment he so clearly needs.

He feels the box’s weight lessening, hears the chocolate treats being eaten and those intense eyes staring the side of his face down all the while. But with this new realization, there’s less fear and more pity than anything else. 

Yuuto adds an extra word to his vocabulary of things he would use to describe Endo Yamato. One that he definitely would not say out loud.

…kind of pathetic, honestly.

Endo doesn’t speak. 

Chika gets back, looks at the two of them and at the chocolate smear on Endo’s lips and pulls Yuuto towards him and away from Endo.

He doesn’t get time to get out a thankful “My savior” before Chika drags them both away.

“Wait for me, Takiishi-kun!” 

And as always Chika ignores Endo completely.

So after that the world learns from its mistake and he never has to talk with Endo one on one again.

Hah. As if.

Chapter Text

Lightning does strike twice actually and anybody who tells you otherwise was secretly hoping for your demise at one. 

Yuuto learns this universal truth a week after that incident wherein he finally figured out Endo. Chika was away for some unnamed, frankly vague but definitely delinquent related business. So any contact with Endo was also cut off. 

It was supposed to anyway. Endo should have no reason to bother Yuuto without Chika around. So when one day he gets back home with school, he’s not expecting anything. Maybe the rocks hitting his window hard, enough to break them if they weren’t reinforced, was the warning sign he should’ve taken notice of. But Chika has been doing that forever and he just got used to it. It’s not like anybody else would be throwing rocks at his window. 

Yuuto opens it and looks down. That’s not Chika, he can’t tell who exactly from the darkness but Chika’s colorful hair always shone through. So when all he sees is nothing but black? There was somebody else throwing rocks at his window. Shit.

He prepares to hurl his cola can at the figure until he hears the stuff of nightmares. Endo’s voice. Horrifying, and outside of his house in the middle of the night? Horrifying. He hurls the can with as much force as he can gather.

“Ow-” It hits, “Attacking an injured person is a bit unfair, Yuuto-kun” He lays down his dastardly bait.

And Yuuto is hooked. He looks through the window again, this time with his phone, flashlight flash on, And sure enough, Endo’s face is battered and bruised, pretty badly too. He turns the flash off. Yuuto contemplates everything that went wrong in the universe that lead him to this moment. Then very hesitantly opens his mouth, the words sticking on his tongue and begging not to be released, he lets them out. Four cursed words that make him want to run his head through the ground.

“You can come up.” Yuuto says reluctantly. When Endo doesn’t climb up his house immediately, he almost slams the window close and pretends like Endo didn’t hear him. 

“Mind a little help here, Yuuto-kun?” There’s a small laugh “You don’t expect me to climb up by myself, do you?”

Chika could. Yuuto doesn’t bring it up. Fearing that Endo’s usual behavior will pop up at the mere mention of Chika’s name. 

Yuuto leans from the window, arms stretching wide and hands doing a grabbing motion, “I can pull you up. Can you reach from down there?”

Again, he would like to mention that Endo does not follow common sense. So instead of doing something reasonable, like, say, answering Yuuto’s question, he runs up, jumps, and grabs onto Yuuto’s stretched arms.

Yuuto buckled under the sudden pressure, barely managing to not break his arms and definitely not screaming whatsoever. He pulls Endo up and lets go of him the second he’s on the second floor.

Endo, uncaring of what he just did to Yuuto’s poor, poor arms, takes a look around Yuuto’s room. Yuuto quickly covers the sight with his own body. Unfortunately this led to him being closer to Endo’s own body. And with this better angle, he can see much more clearly the damage done.

It’s bad. Real bad. Like somebody took a bat to his entire body. Bad enough for Yuuto to rush over to his ‘secret’ cabinet drawer. He pulls out the ice pack inside and puts it onto the nastiest looking bruise. 

Endo winces, “Give me a warning at least” 

Yuuto stutters a bit, his hands almost sliding off the ice pack. “Uh- Do you need anything else?” He squeaks out hurriedly.

Endo looks at him. He looks away. It’s not his fault he was fumbling with his words. Chika doesn’t speak much during these. He doesn’t speak much at all. And, ok, maybe he was being a bit presumptuous in shoving things on Endo’s wound. That’s on him.

“I can’t help you if you don’t say anything!” Yuuto jumps in to defend himself and his actions before Endo could say anything about it. 

Endo raises an eyebrow before a smile so plastic it’s actively harming the environment stretches across his face. Yuuto wants to punch it off but holds back, can’t hurt his own patient after all. 

“It’s not that bad. The other guys just played a bit dirty, that’s all”

Wait, so did they actually take a bat to his body? What about Chika? Oh god, Yuuto almost forgot about Chika. They’re probably together, not in that way, that’s Yuuto and Chika, in crime what with Chika letting Endo follow him around. Was Chika involved in the fight too? Did Chika get hit by a bat? He wants to ask but this is Endo he’s talking to. He might avoid the question and start daydreaming about Chika again.

Yuuto does not want to hear that shit while worrying about Chika’s life. He’s texting Chika immediately after Endo leaves. Chika doesn’t check his phone often but it’s worth a shot.

As if Endo read his mind or something, without Yuuto bringing up Chika vocally, Endo does it himself. Maybe that’s just how he is normally. Fucking simp .

“You do this for Chika too?” Endo asks. It’s not really much of a question in Yuuto’s opinion. Because why else would he have a hidden medical drawer? He’s certainly not using it for himself.

That much is proven soon after. Without any prompting or acknowledgement from Yuuto, he continues, “I take care of him after fights too, you know”

And Yuuto just…stares at him. Like really? Endo stares back. Really . Anything he wants to say dissipates. From sheer embarrassment. Second hand embarrassment.

Yuuto didn’t even do anything to warrant this jealous behavior. What the hell dude? You could’ve just been quiet and both of us could have avoided this. And not do this bragging . Do you not have anything better to do? And then Yuuto remembers. No, he actually doesn’t. 

Chika is clearly the only person Endo has. And even if he accepted that Chika won’t love him, it’s another thing to have a part of his role in Chika taken. So now he’s, well, like this. Acting like a kid having his friend taken away. Because that’s what this is to Endo.

Thanks to that train of thought, the embarrassment died a bit. Not completely gone because what . But still. He loses their little staring contest, roughly shoving his head into his hands. Yuuto doesn’t scream but it’s a near thing.

He looks up, Endo still staring, just now with a bit less confidence.

He sighs loudly, “ Sureee…” , he’s not dealing with this in the middle of the night, “whatever you say.”

Endo’s stumped and Yuuto uses that opportunity to ice up a few other big bruises. Going over his tattoos, all sorts of symbols and Yuuto swears he’s seen one of them before, did Endo steal it off the internet, and runs over his entire chest checking for injuries. Endo tries to talk a couple more times, usually something about Chika. But Yuuto cuts him off and stops him from embarrassing himself further by pressing the ice pack harder towards the wound.

After he’s done, Endo’s looking better. Yuuto pats him on the back, tells him “Good luck” for Chika and also for his future love life, honestly. Then sends him on his way.

Endo wordlessly leaves Yuuto’s house.

A pebble, not a rock, hits his window. He checks, a bit cautiously and breathes a sigh of relief. Chika climbs up without his help. That wonderful man he is.

He checks over Chika. Unlike Endo, there’s nothing that might be a bruise. Good, he breathes another sigh. Chika didn’t reply to his text for days so he was worried.

“I’m doing homework right now, sorry” Yuuto says, regretful. But Chika just nods, throwing something at him then lying on his bed. 

He catches it. It being chocolate. Oh .

Yuuto blushes at the implication. And quickly turns away from Chika looking at him. 

It’s hard to do his homework properly with his boyfriend on his bed and being given such a lovely gift but Yuuto manages somehow. When he finishes, he turns to face Chika, face more bored than he usually is. There’s even a slight furrow on his brow. Aw .

Yuuto almost says something dumb like inviting Chika to do homework with him. Yeah no, Chika tried once and never again. Yuuto can’t even fathom how someone messes up that hard. He feels so bad for Chika’s teacher. Does Chika even attend his classes because it didn’t seem so.

He learns from that time and doesn’t say that. Instead he pours all his attention onto Chika to make up for the lack of it before. 

It’s so blissful that when Chika tells him, “He’s been here”, he didn’t register it at first.

Then he does, jumping up in alarm. Who ‘he’ is obvious. Thinking of the worst like Endo’s broken into his room before, because the guy would do that , but then he remembers. 

“Oh, yeah that” Yuuto has honestly been repressing the entire day from his mind. 

There’s nothing about his room that could signal Chika that so Endo probably told him that himself.

Chika runs his fingers through Yuuto’s hair, sighing, “If he does that again, tell me”

Yuuto happily agrees, grateful to never have to worry about that jumpscare again. 

He twirls a lock of Chika’s bright hair with his own finger, moving on to better topics, more mundane and doesn’t have anything to deal with Chika’s simp . Like his hair.

“You must’ve paid a lot for this” He comments. It’s Chika’s most notable feature, that red into orange ombre, a color that must’ve a pain to get. Or so he guess, he’s never dyed his before so he wouldn’t know. All he knows are second hand accounts from his classmates. He’s seen Chika with black hair before but this suits him better.

“Hmm” Chika hums in agreement, “He has his uses sometimes”

Or not . He has stepped on a landline by mistake. Yuuto’s stunned into silence. Endo? Hello? Isn’t this going a bit too far for a guy that doesn’t even like you? This must’ve been expensive with how professional it looks? Huh? Huh???

After that, because Yuuto is a stupid idiot, he looks away from the hair, fearful of the knowledge he now has. Only for the jacket Chika gave him to catch his eye. Another horrible, traitorous thought pops up.

That can’t be. Did Endo-?

Yuuto stares at Endo incredulously, who is too busy fawning over Chika to notice. Chika dragged him out for lunch and Endo followed along.

Chika pushes another piece of chocolate into Yuuto’s hands earlier when they leave his house, causing another blush to blossom on his cheeks.

He carefully does not think about where or, more accurately, who, the chocolate came from.

Should he be happy that Chika is sharing his sugar baby money with him?

Endo does that thing where he offers to buy anything Chika stares at for a second too long. Except now Yuuto’s armed with forbidden knowledge. And knows that he actually might be serious. Like serious serious.

Simp. He thinks on instinct. Sad simp, he amends, looking at how pitiful Endo is.

Chika ignores him completely. Which, ouch . Yeah he’s glad Endo is not actually picking up his boyfriend. But he also feels bad. Really bad.

“…Takiishi-kun is so mean” Endo says, rubbing his wound on his cheek, gained after he pissed Chika off enough for the other to punch him for some reason or other.

Yuuto grumbles and puts a wet tissue on it. They both look at him dumbly. And he realizes what he just did.

“I’m sure Chika-kun likes your gifts…” Yuuto tries to comfort him but even he himself doesn’t believe his words. Chika’s face tightened, offended at such an accusation. Really not helping at all.

But Endo suddenly reaches into his pocket and pulls out …is that chocolate, oh come on . “Really?” He asks, his eyes sparkling. Why does he have that? It must be melted with how hot it is.

Chika looks close to flinging the thing away. Yuuto tries his best, communicating please just go along with it with his eyes. 

Chika grabs it with the tip of his fingers, careful as if it would burn him. And shoves it into his pocket, likely to be thrown away when Yuuto isn’t looking. He does so while glaring at Endo like he’s trying to eye laser the man to death. But Chika doesn’t have eye lasers and Endo lives another miserable day.

Endo on the other hand looks like he had witnessed a revelation, the sparkles turning into full blown stars. Chika quickly pulls Yuuto away, gripping his hand too hard. Punishment for that earlier. Yuuto looks back a bit only to find Endo staring at him like he’s figured out the secret to the universe and Yuuto’s the key. Not dissection but still bad, bad vibes.

Oh no.

 He looks away fast and desperately hopes that was a figment of Yuuto’s imagination.

He doesn’t look back again to check to see if it actually is. He doesn't want to be scarred for life. If Endo looked creepy before with his fake smiles, he looks even worse with a true one.

Maybe Chika was right. Maybe Endo just doesn’t deserve happiness

Chapter Text

What’s that one saying? Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. And Yuuto thinks he hates fish.

Endo getting a morsel of Chika’s attention, no matter how bad it was, was his version of getting fish. Except Endo doesn’t want to get taught how to fish, not like Yuuto wants to teach him considering what the ‘fish’ is in this situation, so he decides to bully someone else into doing it for  him. ‘Someone else’ of course being Yuuto, who had so gracefully offered himself up last time.

I’m being punished for my kindness. 

Endo pesters him now during Yuuto’s hangouts with Chika. He still focuses on Chika most of the time. But now he does more than stare at Yuuto ominously. Endo talks to Yuuto now, well, less talking to and more talking at Yuuto. But it’s more than what he did before. He swears Endo has been showing up more too. In fact, he can’t even pinpoint anytime recently where Chika and him got to go out without Endo around.

With this new development Yuuto also suddenly realises that Endo might have been ignoring him as much as he ignored Endo before. 

This? This he can’t really deal with. Chika, god bless Chika actually, helps the only way he can. By punching Endo when he does speak up. Can one fall harder in love with someone they’re already dating? Because that’s what Yuuto feels.

Yuuto learns to avert his eyes, most of the time anyway. Endo’s sad self is hard to look away from. Like a really slow car crash. Or that one trolley problem. Except switching the lever means the trolley is going to hit Yuuto. And Yuuto values his life much more than he does Endo’s.

And then sometimes, he just thinks . Endo and Chika, despite how much Chika acts otherwise, are close. Enough for Chika to allow Endo to continue to swarm around him. The exact details of their relationship has always been beyond Yuuto. Mostly because he didn’t want to understand.

But for Endo to act like that . Because what? Because Yuuto helps Chika out sometimes. He really doesn't have anyone else, does he?

Then Yuuto thinks harder. He…can’t actually remember Chika ever even mention anybody else in his life. And that’s kind of depressing . Is he a bad boyfriend for not noticing anything sooner? Chika’s style is bold, vibrant, maybe even off putting to some. Not only that, he’s also silent, kind of rude, someone who just radiates an energy of don’t talk to me, fuck off . Just extremely punchable. Yuuto would know. That’s what he did when they met.

And Chika has always been so unbothered by being on his lonesome, that Yuuto just brushed it off. Is it because he always had Endo? 

Endo who looks at Chika’s everything and likes it. Who just endures Chika’ coldness with a smile. Even Yuuto can’t even claim himself to have been so accepting of it at first.

So Yuuto decides to do something. Something he might just regret. But for Chika’s sake, he can’t bring himself not to at least try.

He’s not actually wingman-ing Endo. He’s just-

Just wants Chika’s only other relationship to go well.

That’s what he tells himself as he undertakes the greatest challenge yet in his romantic relationship. Making sure Chika has friends. Or friend, singular. 

Yuuto has the idea of strong-arming Chika into paying attention to Endo like last time. Only briefly. He discards the idea quickly. Chika would catch on fast. Plus it’s only a bandage solution and doesn’t really solve the problem. Chika would likely just go back to not paying Endo any attention when Yuuto’s gone.

He thinks about how his own relationship with Chika went. How it developed was something Yuuto just never really thought hard about. Chika just kept imposing on him and somehow, someway it worked and they just fell into romance. Trying to copy that is impossible. It requires some effort from Chika’s side and effort is something Chika isn’t going to give. Even if he were to flip the roles and have Endo be the ‘Chika’ in the relationship, it wouldn’t be any different from their current dynamic.

Getting Chika to change is hard. He doesn’t think Chika cares to change who he is, or thinks he needs to. And Yuuto does love who he is! A lot! It’s just annoying for this scenario. 

So he has to work with Endo. Great .

Lost and frustrated from thinking about this too much, he’s gotten caught in class coming up with ideas to fix this mess of a relationship, he turns to his last resort. The final card in his arsenal.

The wonderous but oh so treacherous google.

 make friends how

how to get two people together platonic

how to get two people together

how fix the relationship between two people from an outsider perspective

Yuuto bashes his head against the desk. And looks at the screen again. Nope. The words he saw are still there. He huffs. Fine.

It is best to be as honest about your intentions as possible, to clear up any misunderstandings. So says the internet. Or as Yuuto translates it as, be as unsubtle as possible, these idiots need it. 

He repeats it internally again and again. Just to not shrink under the pressure of Chika’s dead eyed stare. It can’t bother him and make him second guess himself if he doesn’t notice it. It’s a good idea, really. Endo is as smiley as usual. Probably even more so because Yuuto seated him next to Chika.

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach ch. Yuuto does not trust Endo to cook even if he has never seen him cooking before. He doesn’t even know how to bring that question up. Er go Yuuto goes with the next best thing. Restaurant food.

He sets up a date with Chika at a place they usually eat at. One he knows Chika likes. And sure enough Endo comes along without any work from Yuuto’s side. Simp . He cuts off any chance of Endo paying by doing it first because come on, seriously, paying for someone else’s date? Even when it means losing most of his allowance for the month.

Chika is ignoring Endo’s presence completely, even with Endo shoving himself closer to Chika’s personal space more than usual. This is normally when Chika punches Endo away. But that would be bad. So Yuuto distracts Chika with food, his favorite menu item, and conversation, strictly between Yuuto and Chika. 

One would think this arrangement is against what Yuuto is trying to do. And they’d be extremely correct. Except looking at Endo, you would think this entire thing is going great. The damn stars are back and he keeps staring at Chika. Like just point blank staring , happily, barely touching his own food. Like he’s never even seen Chika eating before. Except Yuuto’s pretty sure that’s not true and that Endo has known Chika longer than he has. And it would be so sad if that was true.

Maybe it’s how Chika hasn’t hit him away yet? It would be way less sad than the other possible option.

Still Yuuto holds his tongue on any rude comment on how close Endo is. Endo seems very happy and he isn’t going to burst that bubble. God knows Endo clearly needs it.

The date failed hard. For the ‘getting them together platonically’ part. Yuuto had a great lunch date with his boyfriend, plan aside. Endo was there too, he guess.

Yuuto was too passive regarding the whole ordeal. Thinking they could settle everything themselves if he put them in the right scenario. But if that could happen, it probably would have long before.

No, he now knows he has to do some pushing himself.

So second try. Yuuto invites Chika to hang out somewhere he likes so he’ll be more receptive to whatever Yuuto, or Endo for that matter, pulls. A hole in the wall arcade. Predictably, Endo follows.

Yuuto begrudgingly lets Endo exchange his cash for coins through the arcade’s machine. He ran out of money to use thanks to the last idea. All the while Chika focuses on one of the game machines. 

Endo appears by Chika’s side handing a pretty heavy looking bag of coins, how much did he spend, and Chika starts playing immediately. While Endo talks his ear off about one thing or another.

Yuuto slowly grabs some coins from the bag, looking over at Endo to see if he has any reactions but he’s too bothered with Chika. He goes to a machine nearby, close enough to interfere if something goes wrong. He holds the coin in his hand inspectingly. Sugar baby money , what a weird feeling. 

Minutes pass and no punches are thrown. Step one passed and he goes to step two. Yuuto invites Chika to the air hockey table. They play and it’s not an even match. Chika is fast with his reactions and he hits back hard, sending the puck flying back towards Yuuto’s side too fast for him to defend against it. It also doesn’t help Yuuto’s mood that Chika has his own personal cheerleader on the side. He already knows he’s losing Endo, you’re not helping.

The timer for their playtime runs out and it’s a sound defeat for Yuuto. He slips another coin in the machine and Endo cuts in.

“Mind letting me play a bit, Yuuto-kun” He very pointedly says to Yuuto. There’s a weird glint in his eyes as he looks at him but it’s not enough to deter his plans. Yuuto jumps on his sentence before Chika can say anything. Thanks to Endo’s interruption, Yuuto has an easier time excusing himself away.

“Sure! I have to go to the bathroom anyways” And Yuuto leaves Chika to his fate, walking off towards where the bathroom is located.

…Only to turn around once he’s far away enough and hears them start playing, he hides behind a machine and hoping to god or whatever higher power out there that the arcade attendant or any other visitors doesn’t notice the 17 year old creeping behind the ddr machine. 

Endo’s mouth flapping is proof that he’s saying something, Yuuto can’t hear it from over here though. But throughout the match, he talks less and less. Because Chika plays well. Differently from how he did when he played Yuuto. He’s even faster, his arms moving quicker than Yuuto can see, and everytime the puck gets hit back, it slams hard enough that he can hear it from over here. Yuuto was getting babied earlier. And yet Endo manages to keep up with him. 

If Yuuto had any doubts about Endo’s strength then they would be gone now. It’s…actually kind of scary how Endo looks right now. Juxtaposed with his wide smile and the fact that he is this locked in for fucking air hockey. 

The game ends with Chika’s victory yet again, but this time the scores are much more even. Yuuto swears he sees Endo panting afterwards. He quickly comes back, as inconspicuously as he can, before Chika can leave.

Then Chika turns toward him, “Were the bathrooms clean?” 

“Eh? I- sure, kinda?” Yuuto’s been here before and he’s pretty sure they’re usually clean enough for arcade standards. 

Chika leaves. He’s crossing his fingers and praying he’s not going to get caught because of dirty bathrooms of all things.

Suddenly Endo throws his arm over Yuuto’s shoulder. He tries to move away because what the hell man, get off!

Then Endo speaks, his voice still the same cheerfulness as always, his eyes focused on Chika “He’s so competitive sometimes~” he whines. But then his eyes meet Yuuto’s. “What’s your game here?”

And Yuuto stops. Stops struggling from Endo’s lock over his shoulder. Stops looking at Chika who’s walking away, far enough that there’s no way he is able to hear them. Stops to fully focus on Endo.

Still smiling but more sinister. Right. Thug, Yuuto reminds himself. Shit.

Maybe he was being too unsubtle. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just a date. You’re the one who decided to come along” Yuuto can lie his way out of this. He has lied his way into high essay grades before. Compared to his academics, Endo’s sad ass is nothing. Except instead for his average, he’s fearing for his safety here. Thug, dangerous thug , he thinks.

“Oh sure, that’s on me.” Endo agrees “But we both know you’re planning something. Involving Takiishi-kun too. How cruel. Here I thought you loved him” Endo says that last part with a large dose of sarcasm, enough to kill an elephant.

Maybe it’s just provocation but Yuuto’s properly provoked. He swings his fist at Endo's face. Who blocks it with a satisfied smirk.

“Man, who knew you’d be such a brute, Yuuto-kun!” 

Yuuto throws another punch at that. But Endo catches his arm. Pulling close only to headbutt him.

Yuuto wheezes, falling backwards on his back, “Fuck off! I wouldn’t have to do this if you weren’t so dumb!”  

“ Oh?”

Yuuto catches himself from saying more but Endo steps on his chest, fucking up his breathing and causing even more choked wheezing.

“Chika-kun! You and Chika-kun-“ cough “I’m trying to get you together!”

Cough cough

Endo lifts his foot from Yuuto’s chest. Squatting down to meet him.

Yuuto catches his breath, heaving and looking into Endo’s empty eyes.

Then he recalls his own words.

“Platonically! It’s a platonic thing-Platonic getting together!” He quickly corrects himself. Endo only raises a singular brow and Yuuto looks away. 

“Getting me and Takiishi-kun together. Platonically” Endo slowly repeats that last word dumbly. Yuuto reddens, it’s not his fault their relationship is so fucked up!

Then Endo smiles, grins more like. And laughter comes out. Even throwing his whole head back laughing.

“ Hah- You’re a total weirdo, Yuuto-kun” Endo says in between the maniac laughing. “But sure, let’s-“ His smile grows wider and he lets out a little giggle, “get me and Takiishi-kun together platonically ”

“Uh sirs-“ 

They both snap their heads to the sound. Finding the arcade attendant standing there.

“Y- you two have to leave….” The attendant’s voice grows quieter at the end, pointing them towards the door.

They got kicked out. Yuuto bangs his head into his hands. Except his head had just gotten hit with Endo’s own hard head and it hurts.

“Ow ow-“

“Careful there, Yuuto-kun~” Endo, who on the other hand walked away with no injuries whatsoever, pokes at his chest, the one he stepped on. Agitating the pain even further.

Yuuto slaps the hand away, “Fuck off” which Endo replys with a soft hearted giggle.

When is Chika coming back? 

And like an angel answering his prayers, Chika finally walks out of the arcade. And just scans the two of them. Endo cries out an excited “Takiishi-kun!” which of course goes unnoticed. Yuuto jumps into Chika’s arms and is carried away. 

Behind them, Endo mouths a Remember~ . Like swiggly line and all. Yuuto’s almost impressed he managed to verbalize that out loud.

“But sure, let’s-“ hah- “get me and Takiishi-kun together platonically”

Why did he agree?

Chapter Text

This time Yuuto is able to differentiate the rock hitting his window from the pebbles Chika uses. Because Chika cares about him and his windows, except for those first few times.

It’s for Chika , he chants and opens his window, knowingly allowing the damn leech into his home. Cursing himself to his vampire overlord. He doesn’t get his blood sucked luckily.

No, no. Instead Endo’s the one bleeding out. On Yuuto’s own floor. 

“It’s not my blood” Endo mentions a little too late when Yuuto’s already panicking running through his drawer, looking for something to help with that. He hates that the reassurance makes him actually stop.

He stops then moves a little further away from Endo. Who laughs as Yuuto does, “You’re scared of a little blood? Weren’t you the one swinging at me the other day?” As if those two were at all comparable.

“Yeah with my fists. You were apparently fighting with knives !” Yuuto pulls out a wet tissue to start cleaning up the mess on Endo’s shirt. And then grabs another one. And another. Jesus Christ, there was so much blood.

“They brought the knives. They just slipped” 

“ Slipped?” He makes a point to rub extra hard at the largest blood splat. There’s no way a simple slip could’ve caused all this.

“Most of the blood was already there before I came. They were extra aggressive with their victims beforehand” Endo shrugs, uncaring of the apparent violent nature of those he was fighting

“And you were fighting them?” Even young Yuuto, as impulsive as he was, wouldn’t dare to. Again, Yuuto is reminded, Endo is no follower of common sense 

“They were annoying Takiishi-kun- hmph!“ Endo grunts when Yuuto presses against one spot extra hard, accidentally.

“ What? ” 

“I dealt with them before they could do anything to him. Calm down” Endo reassures him, and he scoffs, his gaze darkening and in a deeper tone he says, “As if I would let them touch Takiishi-kun.”

Fucking Creepy . Especially combined with the blood. But-

Yuuto lightens his grip while cleaning, his heart beating a bit calmer despite the threat he’s just heard uttered. It’s actually a bit silly how he calmed down after hearing that.

“Right,” he knows Endo means it with all his heart, especially when it comes to Chika “Thanks. Are you injured anywhere else?” He offers his help. Yuuto stopped getting into fights a long time ago. He’s inexperienced, he has so much more else to worry about and he’s not sure that he could do anything against people with knives of all things. This is really the only thing he can do.

And Endo stares. He does that a lot. But this feels more- well.

Just more. More than Yuuto can describe. More than Endo himself understands. More than the bounds of their current relationship. And more than Chika.

Yuuto’s afraid that he has a head issue but Endo’s quick to snap back with “They…almost had a bat with them…” said hesitantly. It was clearly bad if it caused Endo to be so different from usual. There’s even a color other than black on him. The color of a faint red on his face. It doesn't even look that bad. The man really needs more color in his closet. But it’s a blood stain most likely. So Yuuto rubs at it extra hard.

Yuuto sighs. It should surprise him but at this point, after the knives point, it doesn’t. He leaves the cleaning to Endo, gets up and grabs an ice pack. “Where?” Thanks to Endo’s black clothing, it’s hard to tell.

There’s a pause and Endo looks as if he won’t tell for a brief moment. Yuuto raises the pack up threateningly, as if their arcade incident didn’t destroy all of Yuuto’s street cred in Endo’s eyes.

“My legs….and the back of my head” Endo confesses and Yuuto curses. Dirty but on brand for these mysterious attackers. 

“Do you feel anything wrong?” How does one actually treat a head injury anyways? Something like common sense tells Yuuto it’s not by shoving an ice pack towards it.

“No.” This Endo says more surely, “The guy was a coward and swung super lightly” He laughs at the memory weakly, like the guy’s hesitance didn’t save him from a world of hurt. 

Yuuto doesn’t mention it. It’s a good thing Endo can laugh about it. Probably. And the guy deserves the mocking too, bringing weapons like that. Instead he grabs some pills, painkillers, and helps Endo swallow them with water.

He cleans more, asking Endo a few more questions about his current state only to have them left unanswered. Endo had passed out. He’s still scared of the possibility of head injury but takes Endo at his word about it not being serious.

He keeps cleaning up the rest of the blood. Bandages up his legs and makes a reminder to ask about those when he wakes up. Continually checking Endo’s heartbeat during it all, feeling the thump thump thump with his hands.

Yuuto sends Chika a text informing him of the situation, and lies on his bed. He’s tired. He didn’t get his blood sucked but it sure felt like it. 

With a slight glance over to Endo’s to make sure his still breathing, Yuuto falls asleep.

A lot of mangas his classmate reads talk about bonds being formed through fighting. And maybe they have some truth to them. Although in his case, there was less fighting and more one sided beatdown. But the point is there’s something about absolutely getting wrecked by a guy that just changes your relationship with him.

He’s talking about Endo, of course. He’s been haunting Yuuto ever since Yuuto realized just how sad he was. 

And the ‘change in relationship’ somehow means Yuuto was being perfectly calm when the first thing he sees upon waking up is Endo’s face. To defend his own sanity, he was half awake and convinced this was some sort of sleep paralysis demon he conjured up. 

Then Endo moves his hand in front of Yuuto’s face. Yuuto bites down. And down. Until he draws blood. The metallic flavor sticking to his tongue and waking him quicker than caffeine ever could. 

“Wha-“ Endo covers his mouth mid scream, shaking his bloodied finger at Yuuto.

“Wouldn’t want your parents to worry.” Endo warns and it’s enough for Yuuto to stop screaming. Waiting out for the sounds of footsteps climbing up the stairs because of the noise. Only to not hear anything, not just on the stairs, on the first floor too. He’s confused then it hits. It’s a Sunday and they’re away. Liar . Lying liar who lies.

Endo only laughs at his betrayal. Before getting off Yuuto’s bed. 

“So,” Endo begins, “that plan of your’s”

Seriously ?

“Seriously? Now?” Endo’s look tells him yes seriously and yes now . It’s hard for Yuuto to ignore Endo’s injuries. Though it looks better,  thanks to his sleep and the new lack of blood. He might have overreacted last night. 

Endo notices where Yuuto’s looking, “You don’t have to look at my body like that” he adds with a grin, clearly too happy with the innuendo he’s made. 

Yuuto throws a blanket over him, “There”

“Fine. Now your plan? To get me and Takiishi-kun together. Platonically” Endo stresses the last word, not letting Yuuto forget his fumble of words. 

“Shut it” Yuuto gets up to leave this humiliation but Endo holds him back by his arm. 

“No, no. Let’s hear this plan of your’s” Endo seems amused, “To get-“ Yuuto jabs at his side, stop that and Endo gets the hint finally , “To…make us… friends ” he amends.

Yuuto pulls out a notebook and tosses it to Endo. Catching it and starts reading as Yuuto awaits his judgment. Endo’s silent as he scans everything. 

Yuuto’s aware that what he has written isn’t the most articulate. Or make the most sense. Sure enough, Endo finishes and looks at Yuuto with his eyebrow raised and a weak smile on his face.

“Seriously?” Yes, Endo seriously, “Did you get these from the internet or something?” 

Yuuto’s sudden interest in the wall behind Endo was a telling answer. Another laugh at his expense. 

“How did you two-“ get together, no bad wording, horrendous wording “become friends in the first place? That’d help” He finally asks the question that’s been on his mind. And to move the topic away from Yuuto’s questionable advice sources.

Endo blinks. The question couldn’t be that hard to answer but Endo doesn’t say a word. Then he tilts his head, a bit childishly, and looks at Yuuto like he’s questioning his intelligence. Again.

“I thought this whole plan of your’s was to make that happen in the first place. Getting us together?” Endo adds the last sentence to poke at Yuuto.

“ Back together” Yuuto really doesn’t see what Endo’s so hung up on, “Make you two friends again ”

Endo blinks again and much more slowly, “You think we’re friends.” 

Which what . Yuuto doesn’t know what to say to that. They weren’t friends? No, there’s no way they weren’t. Chika wouldn’t let him be around constantly otherwise. So what would cause Endo to say that? Is it just Endo’s mindset? Did he not think they were friends? When he keeps sugar daddy-ing for Chika? Oh god, it was this bad? Yuuto clearly underestimated what he has gotten himself into. 

“I mean-“ How does he even explain this? Why did Endo act that way with someone he apparently wasn’t even friends with? Christ. Maybe he needed to be even less subtle before. Maybe google was right.

“You two looked like friends” Yuuto says dumbly, what else could he say about their relationship. Especially when, according to Endo, he had been misunderstanding it all this time. Endo is so wrong, Yuuto would argue. Even more wrong than a flat earther.

At first when he saw Chika being crowded by some tall goth, he was concerned. There was a slight thought of is he being bullied? until Yuuto remembered that this was Chika he was talking about, and could kick any bullies’s ass. Endo’s attitude towards was off putting and annoying but Chika didn’t punch him away immediately so Yuuto just assumed this was how their relationship was. They just worked like that. And Yuuto had just accepted it. 

They looked like friends. Yuuto doesn’t have any other proof than that but he never thought it was needed. It’s that simple. Chika and Endo were hanging around together and that’s it. They just looked like friends.

“It’s…not that complicated…” But Endo’s so silent that Yuuto feels like he needs to add something. But he can’t. Yuuto has eyes and he can see. And he sees them looking like friends. That’s all the facts he has.

“Huh” A silent second pass. Then softly “Sure”

“ Sure?” Yuuto repeats confused, a question stuck on his tongue. There’s something so wrong about that ‘sure’ that makes Yuuto feel like he’s missing something. Despite Endo clearly being the one who missed everything. 

“Sure!” A smile is back on Endo’s face. This time he says it more resolutely. Yuuto definitely missed something. He doesn’t push it this time. Fine, let Endo be his mysterious self. At least he seems to be better. Yuuto doesn’t know if he’s convinced Endo but his mind has changed about something. For better or worse.

Endo lifts himself from his place, heading towards the window and opening it. Yuuto jumps from his spot on the bed when he realizes Endo’s not just smelling the fresh, ok, kind of polluted, air and instead pushing himself out from the window.

“Hey- Stop!” He grabs onto Endo’s shirt, stopping him from jumping out of Yuuto’s window, in broad daylight no less. “What the hell? What was that for?”

“I have to leave, Yuuto-kun” Endo points out as if that was reason enough for him to jump out of Yuuto’s window, on the second floor.

“Go through the door!” Wait wrong thing to say, “I mean- don’t leave!”

“You aren’t chasing me off, Yuuto-kun?” To which Yuuto scoffs. Yeah as if.

“You’d drop dead if I did” Ok, maybe Yuuto’s exaggerating some things here. He looks a lot better without all the blood. And according to Endo’s story, the people fighting him were the ones to be worried about. But still. Knives and bats. Just because he looked fine didn’t mean he was fine. There’s no way Yuuto’s letting him go on his own but in this state.

“Just stay” Yuuto says finitely when he sees Endo blatantly looking for a chance to run off, “I’ll make you some breakfast” he offers and hook line sinker.

The way to a man’s heart truly is his stomach.

Yuuto isn’t the best chef so he keeps it simple. Toast and fried eggs. Seasoned with whatever they had in the pantry. A very slapped together meal. 

But Endo devours it like a man starving. Must’ve used all his energy during the fight. Yuuto tosses another eggs onto the pan when he sees Endo’s eyes practically begging for seconds.

It’s domestic enough to calm him down from, well- everything going on earlier. But he has to breach a question, “So….about the whole plan-”

Endo snickers, it’s a lot less menacing than his usual laughing, combined with the bread crumbs stuck to his cheek, “You don’t have to worry your pretty little head about it anymore, Yuuto-kun”

“No-?” Did that mean their relationship was fine? Just needed some talking to? Or wait- did this mean they were breaking up-

A full blown snort this time, the corners of his eyes curl up, “What did I just say? Plus-“ he grabs something from his pocket, a notebook, Yuuto’s planning notebook, the bastard still had it? “-it’s not like these would’ve worked” He waves the thing. Food must’ve truly breached the way to his cold, Chika-shaped heart because instead of keeping it, he throws it back to Yuuto without much prompting from his side.

“Oh and-“ Endo raises a finger to his mouth, “let’s not tell Takiishi-kun anything, ok? And I won’t spill about your little plan.” Which is a fair trade. If only-

Yuuto’s mouth twitches, “About that….”

Chapter Text

“Chika-kun” Yuuto says excitedly. Chika looks over to him and that’s the opening he needs to crawl over and sit himself on Chika’s lap.

He isn’t pushed away and that’s enough fuel for his confidence.

“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”

“…Huh?” comes Chika’s slow reply, his tone incredulous and his glare directed at Yuuto, daring Yuuto to give up whatever game he’s on. He doesn’t budge. Yuuto should probably be more afraid of Chika, mister my number one hobby is fighting people, but he thinks he should have boyfriend privileges to say stupid things. More importantly Chika hasn’t answered him.

“Well? Would you?”

Chika scowls. Yuuto is abruptly pulled closer, he braces for a fist that doesn’t come.

“If you were a worm, you’d be squished easily” Yuuto gasps insulted but Chika shushes him with a finger, continuing, “So I’d have to keep you in those glass containers. Like a pet.”

Chika is much too calm, talking about something like this, to be normal. But that itself is normal when it comes to Chika. No, Yuuto is not going to worry about the implications of that. He’s more focused on the pet part.

“So you would keep me around?” Yuuto takes great satisfaction in the way Chika switches from calm to a careful expression of nothing, a completely fake and fabricated one. Got him.

Yuuto giggles a little too hard. Earning him being pushed away by Chika.

“I’d love you if you were a worm, too” He deserved the punch he got for that one.

“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”

“I’d step on you and you’d die,” Yuuto replied bluntly. Then to add some much needed seasoning on the verbal wound, he adds “I wouldn’t feel anything either”

His mouth moved faster than his brain did. He then actually imagined it. Tiny worm Endo or maybe a really tall one. Probably still always around Chika. It’s a silly sight in his mind, Chika being followed by a black, because it has to be colored black, worm Endo. He’d be less talkative as a worm too. So that’s one thing worm Endo has over his human counterpart.

Endo, the human one who unfortunately can speak, sighs dramatically, falling back a bit and putting his hand over his chest, “So rude, Yuuto-kun. I bet you would make a pretty ugly worm.”

“You’re a pretty ugly worm!”

Endo ignores his incredibly clever reply when Chika walks in, making Endo perk up. Yuuto can see what’s going to happen before it does. Endo opens his large mouth, “Would you still love me if I was a worm?”.

Chika’s reaction was entirely predictable and Yuuto fully supports the punch Chika throws right after.

Chapter Text

It starts like this. 

A boy who was tired after a day of too much action. The blood upon his hands had dried and the adrenaline inside his blood had died. His opponents have long left, leaving him the sole victor. A boy who was too tired to walk anymore. A boy who stopped by the playground nearby and sat by the swings to catch his breath. 

But Yuuto doesn’t know that. Long after that day, after he matured a bit, he would be too embarrassed to even think about that day. He would never hear the other side of the story. So for him, it’s a little different. For him-

It starts like this. 

A boy who decided to skip school because he could, because he wanted to see what would happen. It’s a type of idea that only a kid could come up with, new to the world and unafraid. But he was one at the time so he saw nothing wrong with it. Now Yuuto would freak out about how dangerous it could be. But that conclusion requires life experience. Experience that he had yet to have.

A boy who walked and walked, marveling at how surprisingly ordinary it all was. There was absolutely nothing interesting at all to see. And that in itself was interesting to his kid brain. He walked and walked, a thrill in every step. 

But that boy was just that, a boy. And there wasn’t much for a boy that young to do in the middle of the day. Not wanting to go back just yet, the boy followed a familiar route to the playground near his home.

There he would be beaten up. He would run home bitter, having tasted his first proper defeat, the first time he’s been denied. Learning two very important life lessons.

It really should’ve ended there. He didn’t even know the other’s name.

But it didn’t.

Chika shows up by his house the next night. There’s a sharp edge to his blank expression. His lips are curved a bit lower than usual. He’s…angry, maybe, Yuuto is doing a lot of guess work here. It’s hard to tell what Chika is feeling most of the time. It always is. From when they met and now, Yuuto has gotten a bit better at differentiating his expression but this one is hard to solve. It’s one of the many ways Chika is so annoying. It’s one of the many ways Chika is so charming. 

If he is then Yuuto can guess why, it probably has to do with the text he sent him two nights ago. Vaguely telling him what happened. Endo tried to delete it after Yuuto told him about it. But between the two of them fumbling around with all the controls without knowing how to, Chika had already seen the text signaled by the icon of his profile picture. The memory of how Chika reacted last time Endo popped up by his window resurfaces, but to be fair he did tell Chika this time.

“That guy,” Chika is barely inside Yuuto’s room when he begins talking, the mention of the other unfamiliar on his tongue, most words are, “he was bothering you.”

“N-“ Yuuto’s lie is quickly stopped by the narrowing of Chika’s eyes, “…yeah. But it’s fine! We uh- figured it out” he says, sounding unsure even to himself.

There wasn’t much ‘figuring it out’ to be done. More stumbling awkwardly to the finish line accidentally. But it didn’t go horribly. Sure, there was the fight in the arcade but it only happened once. A true feat, between Endo’s bothersome personality and Yuuto’s own hotheaded nature. Even if something did go catastrophically wrong like it should’ve with the two of them involved though, he would still stand by what he said. Because more than anything, Yuuto just doesn’t want to fuck up their relationship somehow. With Endo’s confused You think we’re friends still lingering in the back of his mind. After all the effort he’s put into helping with it. Efforts that failed and handed him a beatdown but still.

Chika stops talking, his voice shut off. He communicates, not with his mouth, but with his eyes, they narrow, his pupils grow sharper. Those blades staring deep into Yuuto’s eyes, likely searching for some last remnants of sanity. He’s going to be searching for a long time. Endo is dangerous, it’s one of his defining features. You shouldn’t be getting close to someone like that and you certainly shouldn’t want to cover for them. Maybe this is Chika’s way of telling him that. 

But against whatever warning Chika is throwing his way, his mind goes in the opposite direction. Yuuto has a vivid flashback to Endo scarfing down slightly overcooked eggs and toast, crumbs sticking to his cheek. To Endo with a chocolate smear near his lips. 

Sure, Yuuto knows Endo is dangerous. He’s known by the very way he walks and talks. He even still has an injury on his forehead to serve as solid proof to the fact. And he certainly doesn’t like the guy. But it is real hard to reconcile that fact with the image of Endo in his mind, who’s just sad . A teenager as tall as that has no business being so pitiful.

Chika must have read his thoughts on his face, sighing tiredly and pinching his cheek. “Idiot,” he sounds both incredibly done and reluctantly impressed.

“I mean- you seem to trust him” Yuuto hopes so anyways. 

It’s an innocent statement by itself, just an observation he made. But if Chika doesn’t deny it, then that would mean Endo is wrong. It’d be undeniable evidence that Endo is wrong. Proving that Endo’s misunderstanding really was just that. An unfortunate product of Chika’s bad communication skills. It is easy for Chika to say nothing, so easy that he often does. But as much as he seems to hate talking, he hates annoyance just as much. If Endo really was just extra weight he carries then he would object to the very suggestion of anything more, if not audibly then reacting physically. 

Yuuto holds his breath. Staring directly into Chika’s eyes. Maybe too hard. Perhaps even revealing his greater intentions. But Chika’s dark eyes soften, looking away. Not saying a thing. But not denying anything either, not even a single odd, irritated twitch. No sign pointing to his disagreement with Yuuto’s assessment. Yuuto finally catches his breath. Thank god.

Chika lets out a breath. Akin to a laugh for him. His mouth going back to a perfectly straight line. So simple, and yet it means the world to Yuuto. Endo’s an idiot, a total fool, Yuuto decides right then and there. This is how Takiishi Chika shows his affection. He doesn’t exactly smile or laugh, not easily. But he lets you near. Near enough to witness moments of calm like this. And doesn’t push you away. It’s awkward but it’s just how Chika works. Endo really should know better by now. If Chika is who he likes.

Yuuto laughs, swayed on by Chika’s, the burning nerves inside him extinguished with every laugh. 

“Idiot,” Chika says again, this time more fond than anything. He leans forwards towards Yuuto and then pulls away, leaving a spot of wetness on his forehead. 

“ Oh ” Yuuto whispers, excitement threatening to overtake him. Oh , indeed. “Are you staying-?” Yuuto leaves the implication up in the air.

But Chika shakes his head. Oh. Yuuto can’t help but sigh. He presses one last searing goodbye kiss to Chika’s lips and sees him off, watching as his bright red figure disappears into the black night.  The disappointment doesn’t last long and Yuuto catches himself smiling throughout the rest of the night and onto the next morning.

He would bump into that boy in the playground again and again. He would fight that boy again and again. He doesn’t win. He never does. Never will. And he would come out of it every time with too many injuries to count.

Why Chika kept fighting him was a question Yuuto would think about afterwards. To young Yuuto the answer was simple, who wouldn’t defend against somebody attacking them when they just wanted to enjoy the playground. Though now he knows there is no reason for Chika to even be at that very playground. Chika lived far away. He could’ve gone anyway else. But no, he walked back there everyday.

It would keep going that way until one day. One day where he was held up at school and would get to the playground later than usual. So, in his absence, somebody else would stumble upon that boy. And like him, they would take issue with that boy being there. Unlike him however they were slightly more successful in fighting that boy.

Oh, they would still lose. But that boy would come out of the fight more injured. Add in him having to walk all the way here, the boy was so exhausted, he’d collapsed. Right on Yuuto’s swing too.

Young Yuuto would walk onto that scene. Of that annoying boy bruised and looking dead on his swing. Panic was the first thing that passed his mind. Followed by quick action and burying the body- Holy shit, the boy’s still breathing. Abort. Abort

Going on a date, or the idea of it, still brings a fluttery feeling to Yuuto’s stomach. He’s on cloud high as he leaves his house, putting on the jacket Chika gave him, no he will not think about who bought it , and never quite coming down as he walks to the meeting spot they agreed on. Praying to every single higher power that Endo isn’t third wheeling this time. He feels for the guy but he also wants moments alone, with Chika.

Good things don’t last or so the saying goes. So he arrives, waits there a bit and gets knocked from the sky all the way to the bottoms of the earth when he sees Chika. Chika is, by himself, a lovely sight and Yuuto is fighting anybody who says otherwise. But today he was sporting some cuts on his arms, torn parts to his clothes and who knows how many other injuries hiding behind them.

He doesn’t scream. He quickly checks that nobody is around, to be a witness or to finish the job they did on Chika. There isn’t. Then and only then does he scream.

Chika grumbles then jabs his side for the loud noise. Not caring at all about his current state. He’s too calm actually. Too comfortable too. Yuuto takes it as sign that Chika won the scuffle he got into and there won’t be anybody coming after them to continue to fight. Yuuto sighs, throwing his jacket on Chika to cover everything. Now at least they won’t be getting any weird looks. Just because they’re away from sight doesn’t mean they’re away from existence.

They don’t start the date. Yuuto drags an unresponsive Chika all the way to the nearest pharmacy instead. Leaving him to wander through the store while Yuuto grabs some bandaids. And because Yuuto wanted to be a little mean as payback for the jump scare Chika gave him earlier, he picks up the Hello Kitty bandaids from the bunch then some cotton. He goes to check out and as he does, Chika appears from behind him, putting some chocolate and a single chips bag on the counter. He laughs it off to the cashier who’s understandably freaked out. It’s not helped by Chika who just stands there, not even a comment on the bandaids Yuuto chose. Both of Chika’s snacks are bought with Yuuto's money. 

They hide in a little alleyway as Yuuto covers up all the cuts.  The Hello Kitty clashes horribly with Chika’s stone cold face.  It’s enough to make Yuuto smile and not worry about how he got the injury in the first place.

Worrying much about Chika is something Yuuto learned not to do early into knowing him. Chika likes fighting. Has since they first met. It’s an unchangeable fact about Takiishi Chika. This is just a thing that brings Chika comfort. Just like now. There’s a serene, calm expression on his face as Yuuto patches him up. Not exactly content or satisfied. Yuuto doesn’t think his love for fighting is so easily sated. But he’s in his element, like this. And it hasn’t ever gone too far before. So Yuuto trusts him to know what he’s doing.

Plus, Yuuto supposes, there’s Endo to act as backup too. It brings him the tiniest feeling of consolation. Up until he remembers Endo was in this exact situation, using up Yuuto’s supplies, a few nights ago. They have each other , he tries, third time’s the charm and it’s some silver lining at least. 

Chika is a much better patient than Endo ever was. Yes, Yuuto is biased, how did you know. He’s more quiet, not a word from him even as Yuuto presses the cotton swabbing up the blood hard. Less rowdy too, but then again Chika doesn’t have a weird thing against Yuuto for stealing his crush. The observation is an obvious one, I mean look at them . But after the unfortunate events that happened recently. Yuuto has found that he really missed this. 

Chika is much rougher than Endo. Endo has height over him, he’s bigger too. And there’s the tattoos. But he always has that smile, a sleazy smile that does nothing for Yuuto but he can see how it might make him less intimidating to other people. Chika has none of that, Yuuto’s grateful for it, he really can’t handle an Endo-like smile on Chika’s face, stuff of actual nightmares. For all that he is smaller, Chika had his serious presence and bitchy face to make up for it. Very effectively at that.

Lesson one, after all, is that Takiishi Chika is a scary jackass.

Ah, but-

Yuuto pats Chika over, making sure he hadn’t miss anything. Indeed he had not. He’s gotten good at this, at patching up Chika but he’s not happy with the thought.  He then grabs onto Chika’s arm. Smiling widely when Chika stumbles a bit from the added weight and turns to look at him, “Just keeping you balanced” The cheeky little lie heavy on his tongue.

Chika swats down Yuuto’s hold, lie busted. Only to swiftly cover Yuuto’s hand with his own. Yuuto’s smile grows smaller but brighter. Chika’s hand runs hot, no wonder considering the adrenaline that must be running through him from earlier. The new warmth is enough to make up for the warmth his jacket should’ve gave him. He grabs back, intertwining their fingers tight together and they walk away off to begin their delayed date.

Sure, sure. Lesson one is important stuff but this . This is what Yuuto likes. This is the thing that brings Yuuto comfort. This is Takiishi Chika. And Yuuto likes him very much. So , so very much.

He patches up the boy. Shoddily and clumsily, wasting a lot of stuff. But to this child, he couldn’t tell that. He’s stratified with what he did, pats himself on the back. Kicks the others he had found lying there for good measure. That’s his target!

He runs off before any of them could wake up.

Chapter Text

Chika doesn’t smile a lot. One could even argue that he doesn’t smile at all. That he is as cold and unfeeling as stone. That he is nothing more than a living statue. He certainly has the face for it.

But Yuuto would argue against such claims. Especially the one about Chika being unfeeling. He has personal stakes in that particular race so perhaps he might be a tiny bit biased. 

Yet isn’t it rude to say that stuff about someone just because they’re on the quiet side? Rudeness is the point of such a statement, Yuuto has only heard it from the people Chika fights. It’s meant to be trash talk after all, meant to bother. Not that it seem to bother Chika. Still whenever Yuuto hears it, he makes sure to accidentally knock into the guys who said that shit. 

Not that he needs to. Chika usually takes good care of them himself, not because of the comments, again he’s not bothered, but because they picked the fight first. They deserved it, they barked first, unsolicited mind you, and Chika just had better bite.

The claim about Chika not ever smiling is also completely false. Sure, he doesn’t do it normally. And yes, he has a lack of reaction to most things. But Yuuto does have factual evidence that Chika can smile.

The first time he saw it, Yuuto couldn’t believe his eyes. He thought he was dreaming, or well, was still dreaming.

It was a spring day’s morning. Birds singing, flowers blooming. That kind of stuff. Not that he noticed. Pollen was the first thing he noticed upon waking up. Pollen stuck in his nose, making it puffy and hard to breath clearly. It wakes Yuuto up well, driving away any remaining sleepiness and pulling up with crankiness in its place. 

The second thing he noticed, felt would be a better word actually, was the heavy lump on his side. Yuuto yawns and turns over. Opening his eyes sluggishly Oh wait no, he just referred to his boyfriend as a lump.

With knowledge of Chika lying next to him, Yuuto attempts to move away but no dice. It’s after that when Yuuto realizes Chika is holding onto him. Nay, they were in a relationship right? So Yuuto can be forgiven if he were to use something with more romantic intonation. Chika was hugging him. 

Yuuto slumps down, head hitting his pillow again. Looks over, Chika’s still asleep despite his movements. Yuuto groans. Here comes one of the greatest dilemmas of Yuuto’s short life. 

Wake up Chika and regain his ability to move, preferably to the bathroom since Yuuto feels a dried spot of drool on his cheek that he definitely didn’t do to himself, cute but also gross . 

Or succumb to his destined role as Chika’s forever cuddle toy. Heaven. Actual heaven on earth. It’s a lazy weekend too, so it’s not like he has anything else to do. Plus sleeping people doesn’t have to suffer with their pollen allergies.

A truly horrible position to be in. Actually, wasn't there a famous Chinese story somewhat like this?

Yuuto contemplates his choice with great consideration. Then looks at Chika’s sleeping face. It’s soft and serene. It always is even when he was awake and aware, Yuuto rarely sees any other expression. But this is different, isn’t it? There’s some trust in Yuuto being allowed to see this, even subconsciously, no?

He relaxes against his soft mattress, turning over his entire body face Chika and that sleeping face. Adorable . His mind is made. He resigns to fate’s designs. 

 Falling asleep again is hard. So Yuuto settles for watching Chika sleep instead. There’s just something about the way Chika’s chest move up and down in a rhythm that is just nice .

 He basks in the moment. This small quiet moment between the two of them, even if one is unconscious.

 It’s the first time Chika stayed overnight, now that he thinks about it. Chika never really offered and he didn’t either. He had simply not seen any reason to, it only increased the risk of getting caught. But that isn’t a worry right now with his parents away. 

And now Yuuto can see the reason to it. This is…really nice actually. 

He breathes in, softly and quietly so as to not trigger Chika’s senses. Then slowly puts his arms around Chika. Who’s breathing is still steady, not a sign of waking. He breathes out. 

No, wait, wrong, there is some change to Chika. He blinks, disbelieving of what he is seeing. But it is still there. He blinks again, still hasn’t disappeared. 

Chika’s lips are curved upwards, his usual straight line crooked. There’s a small, tiny even, smile upon Chika’s face. And Yuuto has no doubts that there is a bigger one on his own. 

He has an even harder time falling asleep after that. And Chika would wake up to the sight of him smiling like a maniac and hugging him so tight. It earns him a punch to the stomach but Yuuto thinks that sight was worth the cost.

Yuuto would never see something like that again. And he’s fine with that. He doesn’t need to. 

Though that isn’t exactly the last time he would see Chika smile. The times after that were less domestic. More bloody. 

It would also be the first time he hears about Umemiya.

They were walking just about anywhere Yuuto could think over, visiting every place that caught Yuuto’s interest. Chika didn’t care all that much but the fact he was following along was enough for Yuuto. 

It was night and Yuuto wanted to go far away to experience new things. He did consider Chika’s entire presence might be a problem for the local thugs who came out to play at night. So he kept them both close to the populated areas.

Until he didn’t. They get jumped by some guys. Chika cleans out the trash. Situation sucks but it goes as normally and as well as it can be. Yuuto stands to the side, letting Chika handle them by himself and jumping in when they try to sneak up on him. 

One of the guys, who Yuuto is pretty sure is at least 18 which jesus christ, get a life, gets knocked down and pushed aside. Not that it stops him from running his mouth even when defeated. It’s normal trash talk that Yuuto tunes out. Then he gets too familiar with Chika.

“Furin was truly doomed between you and Umemiya. But at least his little gang isn’t hiding away like cowar-“ Yuuto kicks him on the head, whatever he was saying cuts off by him blacking out. Just because Yuuto didn’t understand what was being said doesn’t mean he’s letting Chika slander slide.

But there’s something about that guy’s tone, how spiteful the ‘you’ was said. He’s familiar with Chika, Yuuto realizes. And with that realization, he starts noticing other things that were off with this entire fight.

The guys jumping them don’t look like locals, not like the ones Yuuto saw loitering around and giving them stink eyes earlier. And they’re vicious, more personal when fighting Chika, too much for it to be a random attack on some guy annoying them.

They know Chika. Yuuto leans forward, trying to catch a glimpse of Chika’s face in the night. Maybe it’s the dark but he doesn’t think Chika is any different from usual. Chika doesn’t know them. Or he doesn’t care enough to remember. It’s not mutual. Whatever ‘it’ is. 

That’s so like Chika, he thinks with too much fondness. But it is still a problem. There’s that other name too. ‘Umemiya’, from what little context Yuuto has it’s crystal clear these guys aren’t on the same side as him. The mysterious ‘Umemiya’ who’s apparently on the same level as Chika, at least to these guys.

And ‘Furin’. Yuuto runs the name through his head. There’s a vague feeling he has about it, he has heard it before, he’s sure of that, just can’t figure out where. Is it the name of a gang? That seems to be what the guy is insinuating. But Yuuto can’t imagine Chika in a gang. He just has that lone wolf vibe down to a T. Yuuto has called Endo Chika’s goon before but he never meant it seriously.

Well, best way to find out is from the source.

Chika knocks the final guy out with a knee to the gut. He falls down with a grunt. Yuuto slowly approaches, keeping his eyes on the fallen men, making sure none of them goes second phase. Luckily they’re goons and not soul bosses.

He reaches Chika, stepping loud enough for Chika to hear him coming. Chika turns to him, his eyes bored, his head tilted. 

“You ok?” Yuuto asks though the answer is apparent. There are bruises on Chika but it’s much better than the others around them. 

Chika lets Yuuto examine him, allowing him to answer his own question then starts walking away wordlessly, leaving Yuuto to chase after him. 

When they’re far enough away from the wreckage, Yuuto pops the question, “Those guy looked like they know you”

Chika turns his head towards Yuuto, enough to know he heard him but nothing else. Seems like Chika is as clueless as he is.

“They mentioned something about ‘Furin’ and ‘Umemiya’ ?” Yuuto prods and that actually rang a bell for Chika. 

He blinks, that’s the best response one could get, and hums, “Ah” 

Yuuto waits for more. He doesn’t get it. Instead of saying more, there’s a brief flash of something on his face. Ominous. Ominous as fuck.

Yuuto waits for more, now with much sweatier palms. Chika finally notices him, huffing and telling him not to worry about it. Yuuto does worry about it. What the fuck.

He opens his mouth, then closes it. There’s- Well he wouldn’t call a smile exactly but the ghost of one on Chika’s lips. And like a ghost, it disappears before Yuuto can truly comprehend it.

If the source doesn’t work, ask the internet. He finds Furin real quick. It’s the name of an all male high school in Makochi. That doesn’t seem right, he thought. Why would he know the name of some school that far away? But it’s the only thing that comes up.       

Umemiya doesn’t provide anything either. Considering that it’s somebody’s name, Yuuto didn’t expect it to. It would be more of a surprise if it did since Yuuto’s very sure that Chika doesn’t know any celebrities who could have showed up.

Take two. If the source doesn’t work, ask the closest thing to the source, minus Yuuto himself. Which means Endo.

Without any way to contact Endo himself, Yuuto has to bank on him following Chika around to meet him. Which has Yuuto himself following Chika more. If Chika notices his increased presence, he doesn’t show it.

After a couple failed attempts, Endo finally shows up at one of their dates. All Yuuto has to do is wait for Chika to split off from the group and have his time alone with Endo.

Chika does leave and the second he leaves from view, Endo snaps his neck towards him. Ah, guess he was being too transparent about his intentions.

“Yes, Yuuto-kun?” Endo asks with a wry smile.

“What do you know about Furin?” Yuuto gets straight to the point. No point in pretending. Being cryptic was Endo’s game and Yuuto won’t even try to play.

Endo blinks, his smile strains on his face, “ Oh ? How do you know that name?”

See? Cryptic. “It’s a school, not a secret. Now answer the question”

There’s a pause, he coughs very pointedly, don’t you dare lie your way out of this one .

“Right, of course. Furin is…a no good school” Endo finishes with a smirk, a very mean one, not directed at Yuuto but damn does Yuuto feel bad for whoever it is. “A school where only delinquents gather and fight. You’ve probably heard some rumors”

Yuuto racks his brain. That does seem possible. Yuuto remembers all sorts of horror stories about places like that when he was younger. Though all they did was excite young Yuuto, crazy bastard.

“Or it was” A large frown overtakes the smirk on Endo’s face. It’s a bit over exaggerated but there’s real displeasure there too. Endo sighs, “Nowadays Furin changed, they’re just goody two shoes. You probably just met some graduates from before that. Oh don’t look at me like that, it was obvious what happened”

Right, this isn’t the type of thing Chika would share so Yuuto would have to have gotten it from elsewhere. Ignoring Endo’s talent in guesswork, there was something else in that statement.

“Is Chika-kun a Furin student?” It never came up before, the topic of their schools. Although Yuuto has worn his uniform around Chika before so he could easily find his school out. He doesn’t remember Chika ever doing the same. And Furin, the Furin of the past, sounded like a paradise for Chika. A place of chaos and violence, things Chika thrived on. Maybe even somewhere he could be sated. Plus that would explain a lot about his horrendous education. Pity the teacher who had to deal with him though.

“We both were” Endo answers easily. Although …Yuuto waits to see if Endo was going to correct himself but nope. 

“ Were?”  

“…You didn’t know?”

“No! Of course I didn’t!” He was pitying nobody apparently because they don’t exist. 

“Please tell me you weren’t expelled” Yuuto can totally see that happening. Chika is a role model for problem students. Violent habits, bad grades, colored hair, he checks every point on the list. Endo isn’t much better. He misses the colored hair mark but checks for tattoos and violence. Bad grades too because there’s no way he’s any better.

“We… dropped out” Endo says with great hesitation. That is- better . Better than the worst case scenario so basically better than nothing. But better . Yuuto can work with better. Convincing Chika to go back to school might be hard though. Yuuto suppose he can provide for him, he has recently been looking for part time jobs.

Wait a minute- Yuuto looks at Endo, suspicious. How does Endo have the money to suga- pay for Chika all the time. He suspected him to be doing some crimes or something but even that was too much for Endo, so Yuuto settled on Endo having a job. But without an education? Chika dropping out is believable. But Endo has to be smarter than that, right? Unless- Oh. Oh god. Suddenly a revelation appeared. 

There is a way for him to have the needed money to fund Chika. A reason why Endo could confidently drop out without fearing any repercussions. Endo’s a rich kid. A fucking trust fund baby.

Is that it? Is that his tragic backstory? Oh my god, is that the reason he fell so hard for Chika? Because he’s the only person who treated him normally or something like that, like in those romance stories. Wait no, the guy usually gets the girl, or guy in this situation, in those and there’s no way in hell Yuuto is letting that happen. What even is Yuuto’s role in this fucking Shoujo manga then? Second male lead?

Yuuto refuses . He refuses on principle. Nope. No way. Not going to happen. Absolutely not. He’s main love interest at least .

Banishing… that from his mind, there is something else he needed to know.

“I also heard something else from those guys. Someone named Umemiya?” To that Endo just smiles, not the usual one.  This is twinged with nostalgia and…another thing Yuuto can’t pinpoint, yet he feels like he has seen it somewhere before.

“That guy…” Endo pauses, looking like he’s trying to find the right words to say. To make Endo speechless for even a little bit, what kind of person is that Umemiya? “I guess you can call him the reason why Furin changed” he finally settles on.

“Oh,” Yuuto says out of politeness. What else can he say? All of that doesn’t help him that much. Endo’s going far off track. Yuuto isn’t interested in some school’s wacky political history, “what’s his relationship with Chika-kun then? They don’t sound like they get along”

If the old Furin sounded like a place fitted for Chika then the new one was the exact opposite. Chika isn’t exactly the nicest person, to put it lightly. And categorizing him as a goody two shoes was impossible, and the perfect way to ask for a punch to the face. Maybe that change was why he left? Because he didn’t like it anymore? It isn’t the best reasoning, still a very dumb move in Yuuto’s opinion but it’s better than nothing. He really needs to talk to Chika about getting secondary education after this.

“Right? It does sound like that, doesn’t it. Too bad you’re wrong.” Cryptic bastard strikes again. “Umemiya probably hates his guts, you’re right on that. But on Takiishi-kun’s side…” Endo’s eyes darken, he lets out an exhausted sigh, “I can’t say the same”

“What?” What does that even mean?

“Ah, I guess you can consider Takiishi-kun’s relationship with him similar to your’s” Endo finishes his thoughts with a sour grin. Infinitely bitter about it, whatever it is. It’s a better look on his face than his usual wide smiles. More real and more human.

Yuuto blinks, slowly, “Endo. I’m dating him.”

The grin falls off comically fast, “Not like that. That’s so-” Endo’s face does a weird twist as if he’s imagining that scenario in his head, “Gross. I mean-”

He stutters some more, murmuring incoherent words to himself. Yuuto, unwilling to let this chance for payback go, pounces, “What did you mean then?”

“He- He’s-” Endo doesn’t stay tongue tied for long. There’s a fog over his eyes for a moment and in the next his voice is firm. “He’s someone Chika let into his world.”

He speaks with finality but it’s filled with so much jealousy. So bitter. Yuuto’s gut twists. He can read between the lines, can hear what's not being said. 

And I wasn’t.

Yuuto regrets Endo’s earlier comparison between him and this Umemiya. 

“Right, uh- thanks”

Endo looks at him, bitterbitterbitter Yuuto thinks, there isn’t any of it in his eyes now and he prays to god that it’s a good sign, “No problem, Yuuto-kun”

Yuuto doesn’t dare ask anything else. Not even mentioning how that still didn’t explain Umemiya’s and Chika’s relationship. He can’t bring himself to. Not now. Maybe not ever. The ghost of a smile on Chika’s lips now feels more sinister.

He puts a pin on keeping Endo and Chika together and reminds himself to check back on that more often.

He buys Endo some food from the street vendors later on, watching as his face freezes when he’s given it. Chika stares needles onto the back of his head. Yuuto doesn’t stop. God knows, Endo needs it.

After that Yuuto would’ve liked to never hear about Umemiya again. If only to not have to see that bitterness on Endo ever again. They aren’t schoolmates anymore so there can’t be many chances to run into each other.

Chapter Text

Yuuto has a problem, a terrible problem. His grades have been slipping.

It’s been a slow descent. Not noticeable enough for his teachers or parents to worry about. But now the term’s finals are coming up. And Yuuto realized he didn’t understand any of the material.

As a middle schooler, Yuuto never worried about his frankly abysmal grades, too preoccupied with kicking ass and getting his ass kicked to care about a red number on a piece of  paper.

As a high schooler, Yuuto now knows the horror of adult life and job searching and the importance of college. Pouring all the time he previously spent fighting into studying. It worked, uh, mostly. 

Until now.

Whatever time he had left is also poured into studying, that includes the time he spends with Chika. When he finally finds free time to hang out, he may have complained a lot about it to Chika. 

His boyfriend absorbs it like a sponge. It’s nice to be able to vent. He doesn’t say anything back but he doesn’t stop Yuuto either. It’s not like there’s much for Chika to relate to, he doesn’t have to take any exams because he isn’t even in school, Yuuto really needs to find a way to convince him otherwise about that, and Chika’s lack of worries during exam season is almost enviable to the point of Yuuto daydreaming about dropping out as well. Then Yuuto remembers Chika has the safety net of a sugar daddy and he doesn't.

They part and Yuuto is back to the hell of studying. 

Days later, he gets a call from Chika telling him to go to the nearest library.

“Eh?”

“Go” Chika repeats, “Bring your backpack too”

Yuuto briefly entertains the idea of Chika tutoring him. A very attractive fantasy to be sure. Except he’s trying to get his grades up and distinctly not trying to plummet them straight to hell. Thank you very much.

He’s half right on that account.

At worst, he thinks, it’ll be nice to relax a bit. A day out with Chika, he hasn’t had one in a while.

He was wrong. Dead wrong. His mortal mind could not comprehend the actual worst case scenario.

“Stop glaring at me so hard, Yuuto-kun. People are staring”

Pretty sure they’re staring at Endo rather than at Yuuto. He was totally out of place in the library. Especially standing next to Yuuto of all people. He hears people whispering. He’s half tempted to scream bloody murder and yell out how Endo kidnapped him and was going to steal his kidneys. He’s sure that they would believe him, because just look at Endo.

But Chika called him out here. Who, according to Endo, called him out too. Who, most notably, isn’t here right now.

He checks his phone again. Right after Yuuto’s keyboard smash, caused by Endo’s sudden appearance, is a read followed by a thumbs up.

He grits his teeth and lets himself be dragged by Endo into hell.

Dante was wrong, hell isn’t divided into seven different circles but formed by a table near some bookshelves. Yuuto knew he couldn’t trust that hack fanfic author.

Endo leaves him there, to regret his decision to come and stay, and returns with math books.

He blinks. Looking at the cover, they seem to be advanced. The type of questions that Yuuto leaves blank at every test, not even daring to attempt them. He blinks again, Endo has flipped to a certain page and hands him a piece of test paper, his pencil case and calculator.

When Yuuto doesn’t take it, Endo raise a brow, “Come on, I need to know your current level”

Silence. The other brow raises and Endo’s mouth parts open a little, “Takiishi-kun did tell you why we’re here, right?”

No, he did not. Endo reads it off his expression, making ah sounds. A grin forms on his face, “Well, I’m going to be your tutor, of course”

Yuuto copies Endo’s previous expression, brows raised to the ceiling and mouth gaping. “Huh”

“You should call me Endo-sensei~”

“Huhhh?”

Endo stays as Endo-san, no matter what Yuuto won’t budge. It’s an insult to every actual teacher he had, an insult to every teacher that exists. 

Unfortunately the tutor part is very much true. It’d be a waste to come all the way just to leave. 

Yuuto does all the questions Endo gave him and hands them back.

Endo looks at the paper for a while, then looks back up at him, “You got everything wrong”

Yeah, that was expected. But that didn’t mean Yuuto wanted to hear it said out loud, and by Endo of all people.

“You’re wrong” Yuuto says just to be contrary. It can’t be that bad.

“No, it’s definitely you” Endo taps his finger on another book. Yuuto looks at the words on the page. They’re…the same questions he just did. Just with the answer underneath.

He looks at the answer in the book, then back at his, back to the book. Oh, it wasn’t that bad, it was worse.

Yuuto winces. He’s wrong. Really fucking wrong. He didn’t even get a single step right. There was a good reason he always avoided these complex questions after all.

Endo pulls out another book from the pile. And another piece of paper too. Endo looks at him expectantly, Yuuto flinches and slowly takes them from his hand.

It probably can’t get worse.

“Only five wrong this time”

“Shut it” Yuuto grumbles. But looking at the answer book and comparing it with his own work, he did indeed get five of the test questions wrong. Out of seven.

He bashes his head against the hard wooden table. Fuck. Mostly because of Endo. But also because he might get really bad grades this time. He swears he didn’t have this problem in class.

“Don’t dirty the paper with your blood, they deduct points for that”

“Shut. It” Yuuto grits through his teeth.

“Sure, sure. Now if you’re done with your moping, do these they should be much easier”

Wait- “Should be?”

“According to the cover, yeah. These two were easy too but you failed so who knows”

Pause. Rewind. Easy? Yuuto gasps, this bastard can’t be serious. Endo looks at Yuuto weirdly for his noise but Yuuto thinks it’s deserved. Because Easy? Where does this guy get the nerve to judge Yuuto for his math when he’s the one who dropped out.

“Easy- I’d like to see you do better!” 

Yuuto has a problem, a terrible problem. He’s gone blind. He’s going mad. He’s high. Any of those would be preferable.

Anything would be better than the reality in front of him.

“What the fuck…” 

He scans the entire thing again, he tries to find some mistake, some crack that will prove he’s being deceived. But the answers match up perfectly.

“You- you…must have seen the answers already..” Yuuto says more to himself than anything and even he finds it hard to believe. But Endo managed to pick it up.

Endo grins, pleased as a cat, despite being accused of cheating, “Then you’re free to pick another question”

He sounds confident. Too confident. Aren’t liars supposed to have tells, be more scared when they get caught. Is he actually-

No, Yuuto throws the thought straight out. Dumb. Endo is a slimy thug, he reminds himself, bad vibes all around. He’s just good at lying. This is all a bluff, all bark.

“Evil” Yuuto decides, “Pure evil” 

“That’s rude” Endo doesn’t deny it. He can’t. Evil. 

“Now that’s done, do the questions, Yuuto-kun. Or-“ Endo smiles, it’s a wicked thing, “-do you still doubt Endo-sensei?”

Yuuto has never picked up a pen so fast. Stop laughing, Endo.

“I’m dying. I died” Yuuto croaks, “Send my will to Chika-kun. Tell him i love him”

“Don’t be so dramatic”

“Bleh-“ He sticks out his tongue. Hypocrite.

“Takiishi-kun might actually be mad at me if you died” Endo shifts a bit, “Get up, you got five right this time”

“I only got half right…My grades…” Yuuto groans, he’s going to die, like actually, his parents are going to kill him, he might kill himself before that. 

There’s a tap on his arm, cold. The sudden preasure of coolness against his warm body shocks him up and he sees the face of the devil, Endo, that bastard. He’s holding a can to Yuuto’s face, that must have been what he felt earlier.

“Rest up, I think I understand what you’re struggling with now”

Does he actually? Yuuto has never been able to tutor anyone despite his teacher and classmates asking for it. Then again, Endo is somehow a genius at math. Urgh, the thought still upsets him. Rich, hot and smart. Evil. The world is so unfair. And he still couldn’t bag Chika. Yuuto’s even more touched now that Chika chose him, he didn’t think that was possible.

He takes Endo’s drink, opens it, sniffs it like he could smell the drugs Endo could've hid inside and takes a small sip. Followed by a bigger sip. Until the contents of the can are all emptied into his stomach. Oh god, he’s thirsty, how long has it been?

Endo is silent as he drinks, only speaking up after Yuuto’s done. “Good? We’re continuing”

Yuuto whines but takes the paper Endo’s given him. “There’s still more? Hey wait-“ Yuuto rubs his eyes, “This is physics!”

Endo tilts his head, questioning, like he doesn’t quite comprehend the problem, “Yes? Takiishi-kun said you were struggling with every subject except literature”

Chika, what did you sign him up to? The sudden realization of the bigger picture of his current situation hits him, Yuuto doesn’t survive the impact. May his soul rest in peace. Far, far away from Endo.

“I’m dying. I died” Yuuto croaks, “Send my will to Chika-kun. Tell him i-”

And yet something revives him. A thought creeping in without his consent, shocking him back to this cruel life with its implication. He wants to say it’s not impossible but the impossible have already been proven to be possible today.

How would Endo be able to tutor him in every subject if he was only good at math? Unless-

“You-“ Yuuto points at Endo with a shaking finger, it can’t be, tell him it’s not true, banish this devil from his sight and mind, please “What’s your grades? In everything. Placement too.”

“Oh? It’s been a while” Endo makes a thinking motion that Yuuto might actually believe if it wasn’t for the evil smirk he has on his face. Bastard. Endo hm’s before, finally, “Top of the school, ninety eight percent average”

“Evil”

“Your Endo-sensei is very smart~”

“Evil!”

“You should be proud to be taught by such a genius”

“Evil!!!”

“——“

Yuuto covers his ears, he refuses to continue to be subjected to this- this absolute slander of logic. Furin probably has less standards…He could have gotten first by everyone else doing horribly, Chika certainly does, but the questions earlier prove Endo is clearly, and he hates to use this word, smart.

Then why-

He waits until Endo has stopped talking and lifts his hand away from his ears, “…why did you drop out then?”

Endo doesn’t say anything for a while, the smirk is wiped from his face and any mirth from teasing Yuuto is gone with it, “…who says I didn’t get into another school?”

Yuuto almost backtracks entirely but Endo laughs, “Ha-, I didn’t, you’re right, School would’ve taken my time away from Takiishi-kun”

Insane. Completely insane. He sounds truthful too. Yuuto knew Endo was smitten with Chika but christ all mighty, “Are you not worried about the future?-“ 

Yuuto cuts himself off. Rich kid. Right. Duh. But the question had already been said and he can’t take it back.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I have a job already so I don’t have to worry about that”

“Seriously?”

“Super serious”

“Who would hire you? I’d be calling the police if I saw you. I honestly thought you were a criminal or something”

“Aha…Well, I guess you aren’t completely off..”

What. What. 

Yuuto has his hands near his ears again, mimicking his earlier actions, “I didn’t just hear that” Thank god for willful ignorance. Wait a second, is Chika involved in that-

 Nope, no, stop thinking. Willful ignorance is king. He’s innocent, he swears, officer.

The conversation drifts off from there, whatever reservation Yuuto had about the tutoring gone. Endo decides that they should focus on math that day if Yuuto is tired of doing practice tests. 

And he hates to admit it but Endo is actually good at tutoring. Scarily good. A genius even, as he referred to himself earlier. By the time the sun starts setting, the people leave causing the library to be emptier, Yuuto does five more sets of questions and he only gets one wrong. 

He tears up when Endo hands him his paper back, with four out of the five being marked with a green pen. 

“Thank you” Ah, it feels really weird to say that to Endo of all people. 

Endo waves him off, “Go thank Takiishi-kun. You free next Saturday?”

Yuuto agrees and goes home with lighter shoulders. He flips open his notebook and actually understands what he’s written. He sends Chika a couple of thank you’s and hearts, gets a thumb ups back.

He pauses, before opening his and Endo’s chat and sends him one ‘thanks’ text. After a couple of seconds, his message has a small read under it. 

Chapter Text

Takiishi disappears often. Yamato usually finds him quickly. Follow the scent of gasoline, the smoke and Takiishi will be there. Simple as that. 

But there won’t be any flames. 

Takiishi. Takiishi. Please. What can I do to please you?

Those all died the day they left Furin. The day he left Umemiya behind. Never lighting up again. Since then nothing ever seemed to excite Takiishi anymore.

Umemiya. Umemiya. You’re so fucking lucky. I’m so jealous. You’re like me. You bother him too. But you actually affect him. He looks at you. Hah-

Yamato understands intimately. The difference between him and Umemiya. Strength. Strength that can rival Takiishi. That can draw out his passion where Yamato can’t. That disappoints Takiishi when they leave Furin.

Since then it was as if they returned to before Furin. When Yamato tried anything and everything to entertain Takiishi and absolutely nothing worked, when it felt like Takiishi will never truly burn like how Yamato knows he was meant to.

But he now knows that’s not true. Because now he knows Umemiya exists. Takiishi knows Umemiya exists and he, in turn, exists in Takiishi’s world. 

So Yamato waits and plans. Takiishi goes back to picking fights with people much older than him, to fighting in the most dangerous places. Just as he did on that first day. They don’t compare up to Umemiya, they don’t help Takiishi ignite like Umemiya. And perhaps nobody else would do so again.

I don’t want that. 

The answer to Takiishi’s boredom is Umemiya. So Yamato just needs them to clash again. And yet while Takiishi reverts, Umemiya changes. And with him, Furin changes. Or Bofurin, as it’s called now. Protectors of the town, as he hears. 

It doesn’t matter. Some of Noroshi become resentful of the change, ‘he's ruining the school’ becomes a common sentiment amongst the few of them who came from Furin but Yamato couldn’t care less. He has no attachment to the place and its reputation, he simply followed Takiishi. It even draws a small laugh out of him, because the idea is so ridiculous. But Umemiya he does care about, for Takiishi’s sake. 

And Umemiya has gotten weak.

How dare you? You who got a spot in his world. And you just stopped, just left? How fucking dare you-

The plan shifts from getting them to fight again to getting the old Umemiya back. No, not just that. The old Umemiya was equal to Takiishi. Yamato can create one who’s stronger. Somebody who could force those flames to burn.

So he waits. Filling up the time with odd jobs to earn money, make connections and keep the Noroshi together. For all that they have some small resemblance to Takiishi, they can’t possibly compare. Really, who could? But they have a grudge with Furin, he should call it Bofurin now, and he’s sure he could use that, he needs the numbers. Plus, they’re a good distraction on the days where Takiishi becomes impossible to find.

Then Bofurin grows from Umemiya and his four friends to the entire school and it’s like everything before never even happened, like this was how it was supposed to be. Yamato’s half tempted to pop up again just to spook them, to spook Umemiya. Because how dare he. And he could, it would be so easy, especially when they’re all so weak. 

But he holds himself back with gritted teeth. Bofurin is unstable right now, the town doesn’t trust them, it had only been a year before where the very same school laid waste to the place after all, and Umemiya’s dream is barely alive. It needs to grow bigger. Only then will threatening it make Umemiya burn bright enough for Takiishi to consume.

So he waits. Going through the mundanity of life and watching as Takiishi’s fire grows smaller and smaller. He fears it flickering out.

No. NO! One day- Just not now. Please…Wait for me.

Then-

He learns of ‘Yuuto’.

At first, it was just another number on Takiishi’s phone. Not even named. Just as all others on there were. Just like his own number. But Yamato notices. First was the new regular ‘ping’ that sounds from Takiishi’s phone every so often, he never checks them though so Yamato wrote it off. 

Then there were the increase in disappearances, he manages to track them to some town far off. That’s when he starts paying more attention. Why would Takiishi go there? When he used to never bother with trains. No matter how hard Yamato tries, he can’t find anything interesting about the town. Sure, there were gangs and the like but so did everywhere else and nothing was notable about it.

Then, finally, there was a flower. Yamato catches Takiishi coming back from the trains, nothing off about his demeanor or face. But in his hand. Was a fucking red rose. His palms were slightly reddened, so they were clearly used to hit something but that was completely overshadowed by the dried blood on his fingers. Pricked by a rose thorn. Despite that Takiishi, the Takiishi who hates annoying and bothersome things, was still holding onto it. 

And he learns.

Takiishi has a boyfriend. 

Takiishi Chika has a boyfriend.

Yamato tags along after the next time he catches Takiishi leaving and that leads him to meeting the mysterious boyfriend. They’re going on a date. Takiishi, on a date. Yamato tightens his grip.

“Nice to meet you, Yuuto-kun!”

Yuuto sputters at the unexpected casualness. He spouts out some bullshit about not knowing the other’s last name and only knowing his first. A lie, he scoured every information source he had when he figured out Takiishi’s boyfriend’s first name. Finding out his last name was easy.

Because of that he knows too much about the person in front of him. Average person, average parents, average school, average life. There must be something he’s missing. Because he doesn’t know how someone like this interested Takiishi enough to date him. He doesn’t even know how they met in the first place, with how far away they live.

Yuuto. Yuuto. What are you hiding? What about you is so interesting to him?

He doesn’t understand it. Yamato pokes and prods, pushing the limits as far as he could. And it’s not very far, not with Takiishi watching. He’s protective. Wasn’t that a thought. A horrible realisation. That sets off a chain of Why, why- 

Yuuto offers his last name but something something about We’re going to be great friends anyways, that Yuuto clearly doesn’t buy but doesn’t deny, and Yamato goes back to using ‘Yuuto-kun’.

It pisses the other off. As does Yamato’s entire presence but nothing comes of it. He is ignored. And he gets front view seat to their dates. Actual, normal dates. Which-

Yuuto. Yuuto. Why you? What about you is so special?

Eventually, finally, something shifts and Yuuto starts acting off. Stops ignoring Yamato. And he thought finally, now let’s see what about you-

 “I’m trying to get you together!”

Huh.

A pause. A blush. “Platonically!”

Huh?

For some odd reason Yuuto has gotten the idea that Yamato and Takiishi are friends in his head. It’s so dumb that Yamato wants to snap. Wants to hurt something, preferably the one who said it in the first place, except Takiishi might kill him for that. Doesn’t that sound amazing. Doesn’t that sound horrible. It’s so dumb but it creates ideas in his head. Hope. Fickle, for there is no way that could possibly be true and Yuuto must surely be blind. And Yuuto’s reason for thinking something that stupid, for unleashing these thoughts?

“You two looked like friends” 

So fucking dumb. So fucking weird. He can do nothing but agree and laugh it off. How do you answer that? What could he have said? To an idiot like that. 

Or was it he who’s the idiot?

Yuuto. Yuuto. What do you know? How can you tell? Do you just understand him better than me? Is that why you’re special?

It just-

It makes him-

I’m so fucking jealous. 

A text sent from an unsaved number. Thanks. It is left read.

He doesn’t understand Yuuto at all.

There is a man. Around him is a circle of bodies.. It was a fight and the man had won. Handily at that. There was not more than a scratch on him.

Obiki doesn’t mind the wreckage around him, he walks forward into the circle without fear. It was their fault for starting it. And if anything, such a sight was nostalgic. This happens often after all. 

He waves at the man, “Had fun?”

A snort answers his question, that’s a ‘no’ then. The man, Hashirao, raises his bloody knuckles, Obiki takes it as an invitation to come closer, grabbing a tissue and throwing it over for him to use and wipe.

“How about you?” Hashirao asks without looking up from his hands.

Ah, “Was it that obvious?” He thought he cleaned himself rather well, speckless even. Nobody gave him a second look on his way here after all.

A snicker and smirk upon Hashirao’s lips, “You get this smile on your face when you finish a fight”

“Is that so?” Obiki laughs, carefree. He can’t help it. He’s never felt more free, more happy. 

Though the large number of people lurking around is odd, he’s pretty sure they haven’t started any trouble recently, or at least nothing around here. And then there’s the fact that he heard his previous opponents ask about Hashirao so this must’ve been a targeted attack. If it wasn’t anything they did in particular then…

“Did something happen within the Noroshi?” He’s never been the closest to the gang, partly because he wasn’t ever involved with Furin and partly because Hashirao always shooed him off whenever a meeting occurred. It’s the only possible thing he could think of.

And clearly there is some merit to that, because Hashirao looks thoughtful when he asks.

“You think the others picked a fight with these guys huh? Hm…You might be right. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I heard Banjo going crazy around this area.”

Banjo Kanon, Obiki grimaces at the name, remembering what he’d heard and seen of the guy. Violent and prone to lashing out. Yeah, that would do it. If Banjo was really here and making a mess then no wonder the people he fought wanted to hunt down anybody even slightly related to him and the Noroshi has a reputation, connecting them to Banjo wouldn’t be that hard. Still one thing about that theory strikes him as odd.

Why would Banjo be here?

He’s violent, yes, but the second most notable feature about him is his mood swings. Banjo could go from ecstatic, mad giggling to complete boredom in seconds if nothing’s holding his interest. So something must’ve drawn him here. Problem is Obiki can’t seem to remember any rumors about powerful fighters near here. It’s even why he picked this place for the two of them to get some rest without worrying about things like, for example, anybody trying to take revenge.

Obiki asks the question “Why?” on his mind and Hashirao’s smirk turns sharp enough to draw blood.

“See that’s the most interesting part. Apparently there’s been some sightings of ‘a guy with bright red hair’ around these parts.”

Oh? Their mysterious leader?

The one who leads Noroshi is somebody Obiki has never met. And hears just as much. Who could lead Endo, is something he’s thought about a lot. The Endo who Hashirao actually follows around. A former student at Furin and Noroshi’s strongest fighter. That’s it.

He had asked Hashirao about him once upon a time. But that didn't yield any results.

“You never seen him before? Good for you.”

“Why?”

“The guy’s real bad news. Can’t promise you won’t get hurt. If you ever see a guy with long red hair, run”

“Well-“ Run, huh? “-Guess we better leave then”

There’s a guy loitering around the school. Yuuto doesn’t notice him at first. He hears about him through rumors at school. He usually doesn’t bother, but Chika hasn’t been around lately and Yuuto’s gotten a bit bored so he indulges in his classmates's chats whenever they sought to include him. Thanks to that, he has way too much info about the whole situation.

They say some people started noticing a figure that’s always around when school’s over, staring at everybody and creeping them out. There was a lot of gossip about that. He even heard people trying to get the teachers involved.

Then the guy disappeared. People speculated why, police being called was the top theory they came up with, but it went nowhere without substantial evidence. Eventually everyone moved on. 

Until a few days later when someone spotted the same person picking fights around the streets. Rumors have a way of exaggerating things so Yuuto doubts it’s as bad as they say, he’s even heard those fights devolved into bloody one-sided beatdowns. Ridiculous.

Still it’s enough for the school to give them all a talk about stranger danger. A talk that’s almost boring enough for him to permanently put the strange rumor behind him and move on.

Well, almost.

Unfortunately, Yuuto has the not so great honor to meet the man behind all the rumors. All the talking made him out to be some monster, ready to jump out and attack you the second you step into an alleyway. 

Ha. Yeah no.

Yuuto’s first proper impression of him was him banging furiously on a vending machine. 

Everyone around was avoiding him, not out of any fear, you really don’t fear a guy who’s that mad over a drink getting stuck, but because of the angry noises he was making. This…was the guy in the rumors. See? Ridiculous.

Yuuto would gladly do the same any other time. But this is the nearest vending machine around, with no convenience store close, and he already walked all the way here for a drink. 

Sunk cost fallacy takes its course and he regretfully takes his place in line behind the guy. Making sure to keep a wide berth between them. A passerby gives him an unsubtle side eye. Miss, he already knows this is stupid.

He can’t really see the guy well from behind. But the back shot of him that Yuuto has is enough. He’s punk. The style that is. Yuuto can see how it might have frightened his schoolmates. But it also makes him attacking the innocent vending machine more funny.

“Fuck!” 

The vending machine glass cracks, the Dr Pepper slides down by an inch, the guy starts giggling then it stops and with it, the giggles. 

The guy starts cursing up a storm, lifting his arm to hurt the poor machine even more. Yuuto steps in, grabbing the arm before the guy can actually destroy the thing before Yuuto can get his drink.

Yuuto forgot that people have two arms and this guy uses his other one to smack Yuuto in the stomach. Motherfuck-

He smiles with all the fake grace of a service worker during rush hours, because his parents taught him to have manner goddammit, and holds out his money in offering “I can buy another one for you”

“Hah?” The guy looks like he’s going to give Yuuto another hit but sunk cost fallacy is super effective against him too and he warily steps away.

Yuuto uses the vending machine under great scrutiny, the second Dr Pepper pushes the first down. 

The sound of two bottles hits the bottom of the machine and Yuuto is pushed away. The guy takes both of them, gives him the stink eye, mumbles something under his breath that Yuuto can’t hear at all, but it better be an apology or a thank you, he swear to god. Then walks away.

Rude. Yuuto contemplates just walking away, but, again, it needs to be mentioned, sunk cost’s a bitch. 

At least, at the very least, he finally got his drink.

After that fantastic experience, he laughs off every mention of the guy. How anyone could be afraid of that is beyond him.

Chapter Text

One day, Yuuto sees Chika. It’s a day like any other, really. Except- There’s something off.

Now Chika is cold. It’s one of the easiest things to observe about him, hard to miss the dead eyed stare he has on after all.

Funny coincidence considering his name. Yuuto once even joked about it, to which Chika merely blinked. Proving his point exactly.

Chika isn’t the most emotive, always as still as ice. Or in other words, cold.

His name isn’t entirely off though. Sometimes, Yuuto would see a glimpse of a spark inside of him. Just never a true full on flame.

And one day, there’s a flicker. A glow lighting up his face. He’s…excited, as excited as Chika could be anyways.

And Yuuto smiles, he makes sure to distract Chika from noticing though. That flicker’s probably a good thing, anything that can get him to be less frosty is. Yuuto’ll just ask about it later.

Then nothing. Silence. No calls or messages or anything. A silence that stretches on for a few days. Huh, sucks for Yuuto but it’s nothing new. Chika has his own life and he’s pretty used to the disappearances by now so there's no complaints from him. 

Soon enough he returns as he always does, with a short text sent late into the night, a surprise visit to Yuuto’s room soon after and he slips back into Yuuto’s life as if nothing happened. That’s normal. Everything after that is when it really gets odd.

He’s sick, first of all, catching a cold sometime during the days Yuuto hadn’t seen him. He’s patched up pretty heavily, even needing Yuuto to reapply some of his bandages when he arrives. The extent of the injuries makes Yuuto wince, he knew then and there he would grill Endo for the details about the last couple of days later. Chika is strong, extremely so. So for him to get so hurt is worrying. 

But then again, isn’t that what Chika wants, Yuuto thinks. Isn’t that why he kept picking so many fights? There’s a soft air around him, a relaxed expression upon his face despite the damage. And so Yuuto swallows his questions, all except for one.

“Did you have fun?”

Chika faces him but his eyes somewhere further away, focused on something else, lost within a memory.

“Hm” He nods eventually. He looks happy. A ghost of a smile

With that, the last of Yuuto’s worries disappears. He finished up the bandages and leaves to make some porridge. While he’s at it in the kitchen, he spams Endo’s phone. He might not be worried but he sure is curious.

Endo leaves him on read. Bastard. And so his curiosity is left unsated.

On the bright side, Chika comes over more often after that day. Yuuto likes to think that he’s making up for lost time but it’s Chika so who really knows. Today, when they’re together alone inside of Yuuto’s bedroom, he hovers over everything Yuuto does.

 Not really interacting. But just looking.

Odd again. Not that it never happens. But it was more usually happening to Chika instead of the other way around  with Yuuto being the observer while Chika does whatever it is he does. Maybe it’s not exactly the greatest couple activity, but Yuuto likes looking at Chika and Chika never said anything against it so he kept on doing it. 

Here, Yuuto doesn’t say anything either. Turns out he likes being looked at by Chika as much as he likes looking at Chika. Although Chika probably has a better reason for doing this than his. 

Chika gets a little too close to his face sometimes. He’s not complaining! Having such a flushed face constantly isn’t the greatest experience though, and knowing Chika paying full attention to his red face? Ah, it’s seriously embarrassing.

Yuuto does have some concerns about catching the cold too. But the unadulterated joy of Chika’s face next to his, holy shit stops him. If the cost of experiencing this moment is getting sick then so be it.

Yuuto actually feels a little bad for Chika. He isn’t doing anything interesting right now, busy with trying to skim through his notes and getting distracted by Chika instead. And he’s definitely not nearly as attractive as Chika while he does so. 

“Yuuto”

He snaps to attention when he hears the soft sound of Chika’s voice, his notebook dropping to the floor with a soft thum. His eyes pierce into Chika’s, oh wow he’s really really close, and Chika is quiet. There doesn’t seem to be anything visibly wrong with him.

“Yeah?” Yuuto replies slowly, “Do you need something? Is it the cold? Are you tired? I can-“

Chika grunts, stopping his rambling. Yuuto held his gaze expectantly and waits for him to continue. 

“Shibata Yuuto” 

He’s suddenly frozen for a moment. Huh. Wait. Has he never heard Chika say his full name before? Or even say his first name much? Well, now after hearing it twice in a row, Yuuto can say for certain that he likes it. He likes it a lot.

Yuuto takes in a deep gulp, trying to shove his newfound appreciation for Chika saying his name far from the forefront of his brain, that’s something to be explored at a later date. His eyes try to keep contact with Chika’s yellow ones but it’s hard to with his blank stare so close to his face. 

“….hm? Yes?” 

Chika’s eyes soften, he leans his face away from Yuuto and buries it into his shoulder, mumbling out a muffled “Yuuto.”

He stays perfectly still, afraid to break whatever trance Chika is in. Tries to. He couldn’t only keep that up for long, his body shaking a bit from the nervousness. Despite the movement, Chika’s head stays in its spot on his shoulder. Growing more confident, he shifts to a more comfortable position for the both of them.

They stay like that for the rest of the night.

From then on, Chika starts calling his name often, to call out to him but also sometimes just randomly. It’s both very good for his now discovered liking of it, he really does like it a lot beyond just the novelty of it, and really bad for his heart which has been pumping way too fast to be healthy. Seeing Chika has now become a whole exercise.

Chika’s also been on his phone a lot more. He’s always used it to play miscellaneous games to pass the time. At first Yuuto thought it would be that again. Except he looked one time and caught an undeniable glimpse of a text chat before looking away because he really shouldn’t be looking.

Burdened with this knowledge, he now notices how fast his fingers move, the obvious sign of texting. Whatever he’s typing up, it’s long. Longer than how Yuuto knows Chika usually types to him, short and curt, about one to two words. 

Weird. But good?

It means he’s talking to somebody. And Chika definitely needs to do more of that. If he’s more comfortable with texting then good! Probably.

It could be Endo on the other side but something makes Yuuto doubt it. So he’s left wondering who Chika’s talking to. 

Not that he necessarily needs to know who. Or why, or even what. Chika should get his privacy, especially if it’s a new thing he wants to keep quiet. In fact, he should be allowed that privacy right now as he’s lost within his chat and not have an overly curious boyfriend hovering over his shoulder. Oh god, is he being weird? 

Yuuto increases his pace slightly, not walking too fast to the point where he leaves Chika behind but enough to be ahead where he can’t see the screen. Out of sight and out of mind and all. Except that saying doesn’t extend to the sense of hearing and Yuuto can absolutely still hear Chika typing. 

He even has the typing sound effect on, Yuuto must’ve never noticed because he never typed so much before, and every little click scratches at Yuuto’s brain, practically begging notice me! and nipping for his attention

Yuuto walks faster, taking larger gaps with every step. He’s trying to outrun his own intrusive thoughts but the intrusive thoughts are much faster than he. It’s not like they’re in a new area, they’ve both walked this route many times and this is just to go grab food, Chika wouldn’t get lost. 

Yuuto goes even-

“Yuuto” Chika calls, halting Yuuto in his steps.

“Huh? Oh sorry, was I too fast?”

Chika huffs, fastening his own steps to catch up and sticks to Yuuto’s right side. Only now does he notice how further ahead he was compared to Chiks. When their steps are back in matching rhythm, Chika focuses back on his phone.

They continue in an awkward silence, one that clearly only Yuuto feels. 

It’s okay to ask, right? Chika won’t mind? Because he might tear out his own skin if he doesn’t.

There’s really no way to smoothly segway into it so might as well full send it, “So what’re you chatting about? Seems pretty interesting.” 

“Plant tips.”

Yuuto pauses, “…Excuse me?”

Chika stops his typing, thumb moving before showing Yuuto his phone screen. On the screen was a picture of a cactus, one sent from Chika’s side. The other person, nicknamed with various plant emojis of all things which Yuuto knows for a fact Chika didn’t do himself, replies to it with some advice about pot placement. 

He closes his dropping jaw, “Huh- You’re growing a cactus?” 

Chika nods, “They were the easiest to take care of”

“Oh, uh- neat. It looks great” Yuuto finishes stiffly. Getting over the whole fact that Chika is growing a a whole plant by himself, Yuuto is still having a hard time with that knowledge, it actually kind of fits him. And he seems to be taking the gardening thing pretty seriously if he’s actively looking for and using advice about it. 

Now Yuuto can say for sure that it isn’t Endo on the other side. He wouldn’t be particularly surprised if Endo turns out to be some genius botanist but he will bet his entire life savings that Endo doesn’t use kaomojis like this other user does. And if he does, no he doesn’t.

Chika has a friend. Maybe. Friendly acquaintance at least. To seek out advice from them means their relationship has to be somewhat good. And it seems this friend inspired Chika’s new hobby. A hobby that Chika has taken to.

Good. Gooder than good. Great even. Yuuto supports it wholeheartedly.

After that conversation, Chika shows him new pictures of his cactus from time to time. He looks vaguely proud of himself every time. And so Yuuto giggles and says It looks great every time.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the presence of Endo. It takes some time but soon enough, that ever familiar third wheel comes back around.

“Wow. You look awful” Yuuto comments when he sees him again.

“Thanks” Endo replies in the bluntest tone imaginable, “What gave it away?” And Yuuto makes sure to very pointedly stare right into his multiple bandages. Seems like those two shared the same fate. Albeit Endo actually bothered to wear a face mask for his cold.

What has changed is Chika. His new habit of calling people by name includes Endo too. 

Full name. Endo Yamato. It stops Endo whenever Chika says it and he gets all smiley about it, Yuuto swears he even sees actual sparkles appearing around him. What the hell. Worst part yet, Yuuto can’t even say anything about it because pot, kettle. He wants to argue that he isn’t nearly as obvious about it but that would make him a filthy liar, he’s just not rich enough for the shoujo effects.

Though even with all the strange changes, nothing could’ve prepared Yuuto for Endo abruptly pulling him to the side. 

“You…” Endo avoids his eyes, looking uncharacteristically hesitant, almost like he’s reconsidering whatever he’s going to say, “…Do you remember that incident at the arcade?”

And much to Yuuto’s dismay, he very much does. “Yeah” Getting stepped on is a hard experience to forget. “What about it?”

Endo fiddles with his fingers, “How did you…get over it?”

What. “I- I didn’t-? Actually fuck you for that.” A bit of a delayed reaction but really what else did Endo expect him to say.

“That’s not-“ Endo’s words turn intelligible, he rubs his head and breathes out, “Okay. What if I apologized? How would you feel?”

“You wouldn’t apologize.” Yuuto can’t help but point out the obvious flaw in his hypothetical.

 Endo hisses, “Not the point, Yuuto-kun. Answer the question.”

If God loved him, Chika would jump in from wherever he wandered off to and put an end to this weird conversation by now. God does not love him.

Yuuto thinks about it, what that would be like, it’s a damn unlikely scenario like he said earlier. He doesn’t have a point of reference. He himself sure as hell didn’t apologize for that stuff when he was younger. He’s pretty sure neither he and Chika said anything of the sort after they got close. After a while, he answers, “It depends? I mean I think I would be pretty pissed because you wouldn’t mean it.”

“And if I did?”

“Then prove it? What is this actually about?” Yuuto can’t help but ask. Again Endo wouldn’t apologize. Honestly he would prefer it if Endo started with asking for a friend. 

Endo’s quiet after he asks, deliberating eyeing anywhere but Yuuto’s general direction before he sighs and faces Yuuto, “There’s this guy…” he begins slowly.

“And you fought him?” Yuuto continues, using their conversation as a hint. Endo confirms it. “And now you want to apologize to him.” Yuuto finishes and gets another confirmation.

The pieces start connecting in his head. All those weird questions make sense now. But one thing still strikes him as odd. Why the fuck is Endo asking him for advice? Does he not have anyone else? Oh wait.

No, he doesn’t, Yuuto realises. The only other option is Chika and that isn’t even a real option at all. 

Yuuto gulps, this is more serious than he had thought. “Okay…Well first, it’s going to be pretty hard. I’m saying this from a first hand account, losing to you is not a fun experience so-“

“I lost.”

“-you have to- Excuse you?”

“He won.” Endo says. But that’s not what Yuuto’s paying attention to. 

He’s paying attention to the way Endo sighs out those words wistfully, the way his voice moves up an octave, the dreamy haze that comes over his eyes, the weird intonation with the word ‘he’, the soft note to his usually deep voice, the little lift to the corners of his mouth, the small hair twirl.

It’s both a divine revelation and the start of a curse that’s playing out in front of him. Even he couldn’t miss it. The signs are in neon pink.

Endo has a fucking crush.

Chapter Text

Yuuto can admit that his boyfriend was pretty terrifying. He learned that Chika was a scary jackass on their very first meeting. And Chika has continuously proven to be something of a force of nature, merciless and ruthless towards his enemies.

That being said, Yuuto isn’t afraid of him, not since forever ago. You don’t go out of your way to help someone you’re afraid of and you certainly don’t date them either. He’s still intimidating, but Yuuto won’t run away at first sight of him, in fact Chika has become close to a comforting presence.

Completely unrelated, Yuuto takes one look at Chika and shrieks.

“Ow- ow- Sorry, it’s just-“ Yuuto swats away Chika’s hand poking at his side as retaliation for the noise, “Your hair.”

Those red and yellow ombre locks that only Chika could have possibly pulled off were chopped clean, leaving only red and resembling the short haircut of his youth.

It was a bit ridiculous, but it fit Chika so well. Especially after Yuuto had to endure Chika’s other, and in his opinion much less successful, attempts at styling his hair. Which includes various different lengths and colors staining his pillows whenever Chika came over, pink being the most damning of all, why on earth had Chika thought he could pull off pink he does not know. All of which only served to make Yuuto be more thankful for his current, now previous, look.

The long hair with vibrant colors made Chika look so magnificent, so very striking. And now it was gone.

The very thought of the past look brings a tear to his eyes. 

“Chika-kun-“ Yuuto sniffled.

“Stop,” Chika grunted, pinching at his arm.

“But your hair-“

“I think you look great as always, Takiishi-kun! Even if you’re feeling a bit lazy to grab the extensions.” Endo cheerfully butts in without input, the compliment flying over Chika as always.

“Shush- wait.” Yuuto shoots up at Endo, “Extensions!?”

Endo leaned slightly away from Yuuto’s face being so close up, “Yes? Did you not…?” He slowly trails off, backing more and more away. Yuuto does not chase after him.

“Extensions!?” Yuuto repeats again with more panic in his voice, pointing directly at Chika with his question.

Chika looks straight back unflinching, blinks, “Stupid” He concludes plainly.

“I- I swear I’ve seen it grow! And dyed!” 

“Takiishi-kun over there has a lot of them in different lengths and colors.” Endo quickly shoots down his denial of reality.

Yuuto slams his head into his hands with a loud groan. He swears it felt real when he ran his fingers through Chika’s hand but no way was he going to confess that in front of Endo. 

“Isn’t that type of thing expensive?” Yuuto questions instead.

His words brings out no reactions out of Chika. Which he would have taken as a no if not for the choked noise that Endo makes and then very poorly tries to hide. He turns his face slowly towards the other and is met with a pained smile. 

A tight grip places itself on his right shoulder, “Let’s not talk about that, Yuuto-kun.”

“…Okay?”

Later, Yuuto would search up the price of hair extensions because he was bored.

Much later, Yuuto finds himself patting Endo’s back comfortingly,“I’m so sorry.”

He never thought he would say something like that to Endo. But the guy deserves it. Yuuto isn’t a heartless monster. And that type of financial damage is felt psychically.

Endo narrows his eyes at him with thinly veiled suspicion, “What do you mean, Yuuto-kun?” 

Not even Endo’s usual cryptic routine phases him or diminishes his sympathy. So he simply pats his back again, “I’m so sorry.”

Chapter Text

Endo has a fucking crush. 

That sentence alone shouldn’t be much cause for concern. In fact, for the entire duration of Yuuto knowing him, Endo always had a crush. 

Endo has a fucking crush on a guy who isn’t named Takiishi Chika.

That sentence is. That sentence is single handedly destroying everything Yuuto knows about Endo.

Everything he knows involuntarily, might he add.

Endo Yamato is a simp for Chika, he didn’t want to know this and he certainly doesn’t like it, but that’s just the facts. It’s just Endo’s basic setting, something that can’t really be changed. 

Endo developing a crush on another guy? Inconceivable, impossible even. Except evidently not. 

Because during the few days that Endo’s been gone from Yuuto’s plane of existence, he apparently fought somebody, got his ass handed to him and lost then somewhere along the way fell for that very person who whooped his ass. 

Yuuto’s very concerned when exactly the ‘falling in love’ part happened in that sequence of events. Before or after the fight. Reviewing through Endo’s many interactions with Chika, it’s very plausible that Endo might just be a masochist. It is also equally likely that Endo’s the type of person to fight his crush, like pigtail pulling taken to the extremes. 

Either way, Endo lost. Lost badly, seeing the state of his body right now. How on earth is he supposed to come back from that impression?

Then Yuuto unfortunately remembers his own start with Chika and the fact that you absolutely can come back from that, see Yuuto himself. Well, if Endo was looking for tips, Yuuto doesn’t have any, he doesn’t know how he and Chika are dating after that diasterous first meeting either.

This other guy…Yuuto doesn’t know whether he should thank him or fear him. What even are Endo’s standards? It’s not something Yuuto has ever thought about before but Chika meeting those unknown standards probably doesn't mean good things for this guy.

Yuuto takes in a big breath, trying to forget about Endo’s little crush and focus on the topic at hand…which is helping Endo with that crush. Ah fuck.

“Ok,” Yuuto tries to sound as calm as possible, “what exactly are you apologizing for then?” Knowing that would be helpful.

Endo doesn’t answer, the way his mouth thins into a straight line is an answer by itself. So nothing good even by Endo’s standards if he can’t even say it. Great, just great.

Yuuto stops him before he tries lying his way out, “Fine, then what do you think he feels about you right now?” If the answer isn’t an intense urge to throttle then that guy is clearly much more patient than Yuuto.

That gets a smile from Endo, even a little laugh, Yuuto didn’t even do anything, he’s just that down bad. “He doesn’t hate me” Endo says, the bar is in hell, “He even promised to meet me again.”

Oh that’s…way better than what Yuuto was expecting. The bar is barely avoiding touching hell. Yuuto just has to make sure of one thing. “Did he specify why?” This could be a coordinated jumping for all he knows.

“Hey, what’s with that look? It’s obvious what you’re thinking about. It’s not that. I wanted to see him again so he said we will.” Endo snarks, but he can’t hide the way his voice turns soft at the end.

“Oh.” That’s actually pretty nice, “Good for you.” 

Endo rolls his eyes, “Yes, yes. Now the question?”

It takes Yuuto a second to remember what Endo was talking about, the question that started off this conversation. How does Endo apologize?

“Well, since you don’t want to tell me what happened, I can’t really be specific. Do you actually want to apologize?”

And Endo is silent. Yuuto sighs, “Then don’t. You’re way worse when you’re lying, trust me. Just…be honest.” If Endo was anything like how he was around Chika then he’ll be fine. That behavior could be charming, if Yuuto squints hard enough.

“Geez, thanks, Yuuto-kun, I would have never thought of that.” 

“I’m being serious here. Look-“ Yuuto lets out a deep breath, slightly unable to believe he was going to lay this all out, closing his eyes so he doesn’t have to look at Endo while saying this, “He apparently likes you enough to agree to a meet up. And since he already threw a few punches your way then he’s aware of how you’re like. Lying to his face would just be an insult so don’t sweat it. If you really want to make it up to him then do it through actions, you’re good at that.” 

Yuuto remembers the various times Endo paid for Chika, the concern and protectiveness. Hell, even the tutoring for Yuuto was at Chika’s request. 

Really good at that, he amends inwardly.

Endo doesn’t say anything in response. Which Yuuto takes a sign to open his eyes. And he sees Endo not even paying attention to him, instead contemplating something in his mind.

“Huh.” Endo finally speaks after a while, his pupils coming back into focus as he stares at Yuuto. “…I’ll consider it.” 

Endo moves from the corner he pulled Yuuto into, his eyes shifting towards the distance, “We should go find Takiishi-kun, he probably got lost.”

And with that, he starts walking off. Leaving Yuuto to trail after him.

“One more thing.” Yuuto calls out. Endo turns back to him, one eyebrow raised and question left unsaid.

“Has he ever seen you around Chika?” 

“Yes. Why?” Endo replies shortly, clearly not seeing where he was going with this.

Images of Endo around Chika, pining and kind of pathetic, flashes through his mind. Yuuto winces in a sort of misplaced sympathy. That is a hard impression to recover from.

“Nothing.” He’s so fucking doomed. “Good luck.” Endo is going to need it.

Endo eyes him suspiciously before seemingly deciding that he doesn’t want to know and they go find Chika.

Perhaps it was a sense of nosiness, a desire to learn what had happened over those few days or maybe he was just left that baffled by the conversation with Endo that prompts Yuuto into blurting out to Chika when they are alone.

“Has he been acting weird to you?”

Yuuto wasn’t really expecting an actual answer to his question so it’s a surprise when Chika nods back.

“Annoying” Chika comments in what Yuuto thinks is agreement. That’s also shocking, seeing as Chika rarely pays attention to things unrelated to him.

Then again if Endo’s behavior changed then that would affect Chika quite a lot. 

Still Yuuto doesn’t actually think it’s that bad. Actually now that he isn’t in the situation, he sees Endo’s earlier behavior in a new light.

The nervousness to make a good impression, to the point that he would ask Yuuto for help, the uncharacteristic softness and the general Shoujo vibe.

It’s…quite frankly embarrassing, but in a good way. An earnest puppy love, a foolhardy yet charming schoolyard crush. And completely incompatible with Endo’s entire image that the clashing of the two makes Yuuto doubt his own memory. It’s even-

Cute.

The thought makes Yuuto burst into giggles. Endo, cute. Yeah, no. Yet he turns it over and over in his head and that thought doesn’t change, he tries to smother his stupid grin in his fist but the laughter simply doesn’t stop. Endo, cute. Man, love must truly be the greatest force in the universe if it managed to put those two words together. Endo, cute. Pft-

Chika looks at him weirdly and Yuuto shoos away his worries with his free hand.

“Ha- It’s nothing. Aha- I’m fine-“

Yuuto catches his breath, cutting off the laughter that threatens to spill from his mouth. Though Chika doesn’t look impressed. 

Yuuto doesn’t dare let out another word of reassurance, that would give the laughter an opening to escape. He waved it off instead. There was no way he was even going to attempt explaining that train of thought.

Annoying, Chika had called it. Yuuto wonders if Chika knows about Endo’s crush. It had to have happened around the same time Chika was away, right? So Chika was probably involved. Though whether Chika is aware is another question.

It’s not like Endo acts any differently than how he usually is around Chika. It would be more of a surprise if that part of him went away. 

How would Chika react knowing Endo treated someone like how he is treated? Would he be jealous? Yuuto snorts at his own thought. A jealous Chika, now that’s a real impossibility, he can’t even begin to imagine what that would look like.

Chika finds a lot of things annoying to be fair. And while Yuuto never wants to be cornered by Endo alone again, twice is more than enough, thank you, on the whole it’s not all that bad.

“I think he’s doing better.” Yuuto comments, eyeing Endo’s figure standing away from them as he buys something from a vendor. Endo just felt lighter, more energy in his steps and more cheer on his face. Or maybe it was just his own mind making it up. Well, whatever it is, it made for an oddly nice sight. Nice enough to bring the tiniest smile on his face.

“...annoying” Chika repeats from beside him, sounding more like a mumble. Yuuto blinks, his focus taken away from Endo’s back. Usually Chika’s annoyance is more of a passive thing, not worth a second comment. The question of ‘Is it really so bad?’ forms on his tongue. But a slight pain on his cheek, making him turn over and realise Chika is standing right in his face and pinching his cheek makes him forget his words.

“Eh? Chika-“

Admittedly Yuuto was to blame for what happened next.

After that day, he just. Started to wonder about things. Things about Endo.

The guy didn’t act any differently after that conversation as far as Yuuto can tell. Part of him wants to ask Chika about it again but his own embarrassment at the prospect stops him from trying.

Thoughts about the whole thing cloud up his mind for days afterwards. It doesn’t help that he has no outlet for it, no one to talk to about it. Sure, there’s Chika but again, embarrassing. 

He swears he isn’t this nosy usually. But- It’s just- That sight of Endo-

It’s just concern, he tells himself. He probably shouldn’t be concerned for Endo of all people, the guy is more than able to take care of himself. 

Then again, it’s fighting and looking intimidating that Endo’s good at. Not really relationships. The only frame of reference Yuuto has for that is Endo’s relationship with Chika. And that’s not really… “You think we’re friends” floats back to the front of his mind, he doesn’t think he needs to explain that one.

Plus he kinda owes it to Endo for the tutoring. Yuuto gets good grades, Endo gets a love life. Fair trade, right?

It’s just concern, he tells himself again. 

And out of that concern, he musters enough courage to ask.

“So how’s that going?” 

“Excuse you?” Endo immediately replies back. And Yuuto is suddenly hit with the feeling that it may not have been the best idea to call Endo so early in the morning to bring this up. 

Pushing past his better instincts, Yuuto continues, “The c- c-“, Yuuto pushes the words but being on spot saps all his courage. Something about having Endo actually listening just makes actually saying it hard. “c“

Endo makes a noise that sounds like an irritated yawn, “Did you just call to ruin my sleep or something?”

“…It’s not that early.” Yuuto argues meekly.

“Maybe not for you. But some of us need sleep.” Endo groans back.

Yuuto almost snaps back a response but his eyes catches the clock on the top of his phone screen and oh it’s actually pretty late. Not a completely unreasonable time for a call like Endo’s making it out to be but still late enough that Yuuto’s usually snoozing by now.

Not that Yuuto isn’t used to pulling all nighters, but school hasn’t been busy lately so he’s been getting pretty good sleep until recently. His mind’s been occupied with- Well- this. 

Not that he’s admitting that to Endo, or anybody for that matter.

“The crush!” Yuuto squeals, wanting to move his thoughts onto another topic, only to cover his mouth quickly after. Luckily for him, he hears nothing else which means he hadn’t accidentally woken up his parents.

Actually, he doesn’t hear anything from Endo’s side either. For a second, he’s worried that Endo ended the call except when he sees the phone screen and it’s still on call.

Yuuto is silent as he holds his breath, waiting for an answer. Precious seconds pass by and Endo finally says, “You want to know?” Suspicion clear in his tone

Yuuto tries to speak but no words come out of his mouth. All of his earlier confidence escapes him. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t bother. Endo has given him an easy out. 

All Yuuto has to do is say no, apologize for calling him and maybe go sleep off his insanity.

He does not.

“Yes, I do.” Yuuto says and he’s surprised by how easy it was to say.

It’s just concern.

“Hm, how nosy, Yuuto-kun.” Any trace of suspicion replaced a more casual tone.

Yuuto stutters, caught off guard by a such simple tease. He was having a serious moment there Endo! 

Endo laughs, leaving no doubt that he heard Yuuto slip up, the noise echoes quietly off Yuuto’s room, “Well then you’ll be glad to know that it’s going well.”

The affection creeps into Endo’s voice again and Yuuto can practically see Endo’s smile in his head through the speakers of his phone. Yet the image doesn’t infuriate him like it usually does. Instead his lips quirk upwards, that’s good news. He was a bit worried about Endo’s people skills but it seems like Endo had a hang on it.

“Yeah?” He prods.

“Yeah, he’s just so-” Endo launches into a rant of his mysterious crush and their few ‘dates’,“He insisted they were just hangouts”, Endo sighs wistfully though any doubt that Endo was disappointed by this quickly evaporates when Endo giggles and continues, “He got so red when I even mentioned it.”, in between a couple dozen praises for the guy which even got Yuuto’s cheeks to be lightly dusted by the end of it. 

And Yuuto listens to all of it, adding in a hum of agreement when necessary but otherwise just letting Endo talk. And boy does Endo talk. Yuuto barely notices the time passing by, he doesn’t think Endo does either, not with the way the sleepiness in his voice slowly disappears throughout the call. It seems like Endo needed someone to gush to, Yuuto understands.

“-Shame we can’t go out often.” Endo muses out loud.

“Oh, why can’t you?” 

Yuuto thought it was an innocent question. Evidently by the small pause that follows on the other end, it wasn’t.

“He’s a bit shy.” Endo quickly tries to hide it. Yuuto doesn’t call on it or the lie Yuuto’s pretty sure he’s being fed. Because he can’t imagine Endo’s crush being shy in any way considering the other crush of Endo that Yuuto knows. That or Endo has a diverse taste. He makes a noise to let Endo know he’s listening and it seems to be enough to spur Endo on. 

“Plus, don’t really have many options thanks to the tattoos.” Ah, this Yuuto believes. Chika already attracts a few weird looks thanks to his hair, it gets worse when Chika wears something that leaves his shoulders bare. Thanks to that, Yuuto has been getting a lot better at finding places that don’t mind tattoos. “He’s pretty busy since he’s still a student and-” 

“Unlike you?” Yuuto can’t help but interrupt, muffling a snort with his hand, good on Crush Guy to get his basic education done.

Endo coughs very pointedly, “Let’s hope his grades are unlike yours too.”

Yuuto wisely shuts his mouth from replying to that and lets Endo continue, “-plus his friends…don’t like me very much. And I’m not really allowed to be around his area”

Something tells Yuuto what they feel is a lot more intense than mere dislike. Yuuto supposes it makes sense when he remembers that Endo met this guy by fighting him in the first place and through his extremely extensive knowledge of Endo’s fighting, i.e, the one time Yuuto lost to him after like ten seconds, he can tell Endo likely wasn’t holding back any punches.  That and the general bad vibes coming off him. 

The second part gives him some pause though, “Is he apart of a gang or something?” Because there’s no way a mere group of friends can ban someone from an area.

Endo doesn’t answer immediately, as if deciding how much he should reveal then very casually says “Or something.”

Yuuto clicks his tongue, cryptic as ever. But lets Endo carry on with it, by now he expects Endo to know how to take care of himself. So he diverts the conversation back to the crush, “That’s a surprise. By how you’ve been talking about him, I’d expected him to be the kind of person to feed stray cats in alleys or something.”

That comment gets a choked laugh out of Endo, “Right? I can totally see that. He’s honestly a bit of a cat himself. The type to curl up to you but hiss when you try to pet it. I’m half tempted to just throw him at one just to see what happens but cats just scratch me whenever I try to go near.”

Yeah, Yuuto can empathize with that. He’s been nicked a few too many times by a feline to not be a little afraid of them. He’s been getting better, at least he doesn’t recoil from the sight of them now. Mostly thanks to some trips to some-

“Have you tried cat cafes? The cats there are trained to be friendly to customers, I actually liked going to them to get used to cats.”

“Tattoos, remember?” Endo sounds amused as he reminds Yuuto.

Yuuto thinks it’s impossible to forget, not with how many there are. “I know a place that doesn’t mind it, it’s near my area,” he says instead. It’s a small shop with a quaint atmosphere and good food, the homey type he’d typically overlook on the road home from school. But Yuuto wanted to take Chika to one so he scoured for a place that won’t cause a fuss about his appearance and he found it, with the result of his search being a full 6 minute stare down between Chika and a calico. 

Endo makes a non committed ‘Mmn’ noise.

“You can even bring your crush there. You know, as a date. Make him less scared of you, there’s nothing as non threatening as a cat cafe.” Yuuto points out and by the subtle intake of breath over the phone he knows Endo’s interest has been piqued.

Yuuto smiles, sharpened by the joy of petty victories, “I’ll send you the location?”

“Fine” Endo grumbles, “…thanks.”

That phone call left Yuuto completely exhausted by next morning, forcing him to power through the school day with coffee. Conceding that Endo, just maybe, had a point and he really shouldn’t have called so late.

On the positive side, the conversation did actually help and Yuuto’s mind was no longer hung up on it.

Really his thoughts about the situation should’ve ended there.

Except Endo keeps texting him afterwards, mostly to ask about details about the cafe, use Yututo as a soundboard for planning the date and gush about his crush.

Thanks to that, the whole thing never really leaves his mind. It’s not all that bad, plus Endo doesn’t send him any messages during school hours. 

He tells Endo to keep it simple, just a nice day with nice food and some extremely nice cats, and vetoes away some of his other, wilder ideas. No, Endo you should not bring a whole ass bouquet. Didn’t you say he was shy?!

It’s on the weekend when Endo decides to finally take out his crush. Yuuto knows this, Endo mentioned it between texts. He doesn’t think much of it as he goes through his day to day, remaining just barely on the surface of his mind.

It’s on the very same weekend when Yuuto’s walking back home from a grocery run. And as he walks, he is suddenly hyper aware that in a few minutes Endo will be on his date just a couple steps away. 

And something about that knowledge makes him stop in his tracks. Yuuto stares at the direction where the cat cafe is located, the sight hidden by a couple buildings. Something overtakes his feet and he gets carried away. He steps and steps. Yuuto would say he doesn’t know where he was going except Yuuto has always been a poor liar.

It’s nothing. He’s not worried about Endo. He’s just…making sure the cafe was as good as he remembered. That’s it. He doesn’t want to be responsible for giving a bad recommendation, that’s all to it.  

He’ll just go visit, a quick in and out before Endo even gets there. 

The cute little store comes into view and Yuuto’s heart stops.

There was Endo, scrolling through his phone. Suddenly he looks up, his eyes widen with surprise before a smile blooms on his face, Yuuto follows his line of sight and sees a boy, what was that hair, standing a bit away on the road. The boy points at Endo, saying something loudly but Yuuto can’t make it out through the rest of the noise on the street. Endo merely smiles brightly, walking towards the boy with wide arms which he narrowly avoids. They talk, in a much quieter manner this time, before going into the cafe.

Yuuto stares at the empty space they left behind, before quickly ducking into the coffee stand that was next to the cafe.

When he situates onto the little folding chair that was left in the front, Yuuto lets out the breath he was subconsciously holding.

He breathes in again and lets that out too. Then slams his head into hands with a groan. Fuck. 

“Uh- kid?”

 Yuuto whips back around, meeting the worried eyes of the man running the stand. It’s then that he gets the abrupt realisation that he must look insane. Yuuto nervously giggles and puts on his best normal person smile, “Sorry, sorry, rough day. Can I get a-“

Yuuto looks marginally less crazy sitting there staring at the cat cafe next door with a drink in hand, he certainly feels less crazy now that there’s caffeine in his veins. 

Still he doesn’t turn back and go home. 

The spot where he’s sitting has a good view of the windows of the cat cafe, specifically the window by which Endo and his little date sat. They haven’t caught him yet. Not with a table of two teenagers in front of him blocking him and Endo seemingly too caught up with his date to even care.

He’s actually pretty glad he doesn’t have direct sight of them or else he might be panicking more. That doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying not to have a clear view of everything. 

Yuuto distantly wonders when those two teens would leave, his eyes dropping down to their drinks to find them still mostly full even as the ice within has mostly melted, dripping down from their table. Ah they must be having a long conversation. Except Yuuto realises they aren’t making a sound, they aren’t even looking at each other.

They’re looking next door, towards the cafe and that very special window.

no.

Yuuto’s eyes jump up to their hair, one bleached yellow, not the type a student would typically wear. Not if they weren’t a troublemaker, a delinquent even. He remembers the weird dual colors of Endo’s crush. 

No.

The brown haired kid, is that an eyepatch, turns towards his companion and says something that Yuuto can’t catch. The blond kid turns back, mouth gaping and face full with shock. He yells much louder than the other, “You think Endo was-“

God dammit.

The blonde suddenly cuts off, turning towards the owner, bowing and apologizing for the sudden noise. After the owner reassures him, he faces his friend again, talking less loud but still enough that Yuuto can hear, “You think Endo’s the one he was talking about?”

“His friends…don’t like me very much.”

Yuuto takes in a breath. Take a large sip of his coffee. And walks towards their table.

They don’t even notice him walking towards them, too focused on the window. Yuuto taps the blonde’s shoulder. That gets their attention and they turn around. Yuuto gives them a small, disarming smile, “Are you two spying on someone? Someones perhaps?”

Chapter Text

Oh they had a really nice view, Yuuto thinks. From here, it’s easy to make out both figures and the shade makes it easy to hide. 

The two teens had graciously allowed him to push his seat over to their table. And though they seem cautious of him, they were polite enough to introduce themselves.

If the gang theory holds true then at least Yuuto can safely say these are the nicest gang members he’s ever met. 

“So the guy with the white hair is your friend?” Man, what was it with Endo and men with dual colored hair?  Maybe that was Endo’s type.

Brown hair, Suo, nods, an impeccable polite smile on his face, Yuuto realizes he hasn’t seen the kid drop it at all, “Yes, he is. And I’m assuming Endo is your’s.”

Yuuto chokes, “That’s not-! I- We’re just-“ And Yuuto stops. What would he call their relationship? There’s no way he’s going to explain the weird way they met thanks to Chika to strangers. Not to mention people who might have fought both, Yuuto still remembers how injured Chika was when he came back. 

Calling them friends would be a lie, wouldn’t it? Yuuto doesn’t feel that they’re that close. But they aren’t not close either, Yuuto reluctantly admits that, with the texts, Endo has become the person he speaks to the most outside of family. And helping Endo with the date must count for something on the relationship meter. 

“-Acquaintances. We’re acquaintances.” Yuuto settles for. Even that word feels wrong, too distant for the only other person who knows about his and Chika’s relationship. 

Still with that ever polite smile, Suo inclines his head in a nod, not questioning Yuuto’s statement. Good, Yuuto didn’t want to explain why exactly a simple ‘acquaintance’ was so invested in Endo’s date to the point of spying on him.

“If I may, we truly didn’t expect Endo to be here. We just noticed our classmate looking skittish these past few days and were worried for his sake.” Suo says with Nirei nodding along, and his eye pin down Yuuto like a dart on a board, gauging Yuuto’s reaction. Except the boy is going to be disappointed because Yuuto has no idea what the appropriate reaction here is. 

He sneaks a glance at the cafe next door, watching the taller figure which he knows to be Endo excitedly waving his hands around. He seems to be happy, which is enough for Yuuto to hold off on cursing his entire bloodline for putting him in this situation until after the date.

“I see. To be honest, I didn’t expect to see him here either. I thought it was supposed to be later.” Yuuto reveals, feeling obligated to share.

 Did they change the schedule without telling Yuuto? Had Endo just gotten there early? No, then why would the other guy also be there at that moment? Unless- Yuuto’s mind replays the sight of Endo meeting his date, the slight surprise that was briefly on Endo’s face. Unless they both came early only to run into each other. 

Ah, what the hell, now that he thought about it that sounds strangely plausible. What sort of shoujo manga is this?

“Oh?” Suo’s sharp voice cuts through his thoughts, “Forgive me if I’m being too presumptuous but you sound like you knew about this.” 

“Ah well, yeah?” Yuuto hesitantly says. 

Suo lightly shakes his head, “Oh no, no, I mean nothing by it. I guess I’m still a bit shocked. This seemed out of character for our friend over there to entertain such an invite. Especially at a place like that ”

Even Nirei nods lightly at that. Yuuto tries his best to hide his confusion while sneaking glances at the next door establishment. As if it would somehow change if he looked at it hard enough. But nope, the same familiar cafe that he passes by almost everyday. There’s even a cute little cat sign on the wall. Absolutely nothing about the place would warrant the odd suspicion Yuuto hears in the boy’s tone.

“You mean a cat cafe?” Yuuto decides to voice his question. Was the adorable shop some sort of front for the yakuza or something, because that’s how they’re acting like.

Nirei jumps in. “It’s just not the type of place that Endo seems like he’d frequent, you know? So we thought something was up.” 

And yeah Yuuto could maybe believe that. Endo’s whole vibe is all very emo. 

If only he hadn’t spent so much time watching Endo ruin his own vibe by being…well Endo. Annoying and a bit too much of a simp. 

But he’s Chika’s friend. 

No, even beyond that, Yuuto supposes he hadn’t minded Endo’s presence even without Chika. That he enjoyed the phone conversation with Endo.

Yuuto tries to look at Endo and see the scary bulky guy with tattoos covering his body and an unnerving smile, remember the day they first met when he saw Chika getting followed by some creepy thug.

Instead he sees Endo’s lost face when Yuuto offered him chocolate, remembers Chika abruptly pushing Endo away when he got too close in his personal space and Endo cheerfully laughing it off. Endo being all shy over planning this very date.

Nirei’s eyes are shaky but resolute as they focus upon Yuuto, “Shibata-san, we just want to make sure Sakura will be safe. If you know anything about what Endo is planning-“

Oh. But they don’t know about all that, do they? Yuuto briefly wonders what happened to warrant this reaction but he knows this isn’t the right time for that. 

Because suddenly he isn’t at all worried about Suo’s piercing stare. Suddenly he knows the exact appropriate reaction here. Right now he just needs to soothe these kids’ concerns about their friend.

They might truly be the nicest gang members he’s ever met .

Yuuto lets a small genuine smile bloom on his face, “Yeah, you’re right. This isn’t Endo’s usual hangout. But you don’t have to worry about any ulterior motives. I actually recommended the place to him.” He explains.

Unsurprisingly, that gets a reaction. Nirei’s eyes widen and Suo’s smile grows sharper.  

“What? Then why did Endo-“

“He wanted a good location for his date so I gave him one.” It was because Yuuto thought the cafe would be extremely non threatening enough to cancel out any bad will from Endo’s crush. Ironically it ended up doing the opposite.

“So you don’t have to worry-“ “His what!? ”

Yuuto blinks dumbly, taking in Nirei’s open gaping mouth and Suo’s suddenly widened eye and realizes his words didn’t land how he wanted them to.

“Shibata-san, what you do you mean by date? ” Suo jumps in.

“I- You know- When you like a guy and want to hang out-“

“Shibata- san , are you implying that their meeting is romantic?”

“That’s-“ Yuuto scrambles for the words to say, the right ones that will stop these two from storming over there like they seem to want to. “-kinda?”

Wrong answer. Fuck, fuck, backtrack, backtrack immediately. “I mean- Ok yes, Endo definitely has some hots for your friend. But it’s not requited on the other end, I don’t think. The whole thing over there is more like a casual hang out. I just called it a date as a jab at Endo.” Yuuto rushes out.

Second’s times the charm and Endo is no longer in any danger of being jumped. On the other hand, Yuuto might have just redirected the danger towards himself with the way he’s being stared at.

“You think Endo has some sort of… crush on Sakura?” Nirei stammers, spitting out the word like a curse. 

“Shibata-san, you might be mistaken.” Suo argues.

…

Yuuto desperately blocks out images of Endo’s shoujo nonsense at the mere hint of a mention about his crush, “No, I’m very sure of that.”

The two boys share a look at his reply. And Yuuto is reminded about how Endo and his crush (Sakura, was it) met. Or simply what he knows about their meeting.

Endo, for some reason or another, got into a fight with him and his gang, lost and fell in love then started regularly talking to the kid. 

Okay, now that he put it like that, Yuuto could see how unbelievable it sounds to an outsider. Not to mention how Endo likely roughed up their friend so they wouldn’t have the best impression of him. 

“Endo can be a bit weird. But I assure his feelings are genuine. He wouldn’t harm your friend. If he wanted to, he wouldn’t have gone so far.” Yuuto tilts his head, pointing Nirei and Suo over to where the aforementioned couple were sitting, “Besides, they’re having fun, aren’t they?” 

Over by the window, Endo is holding up a tuxedo cat at Sakura’s face and though the boy leans away from it, it feels more like bashfulness than discomfort. In fact, there’s a garden of rosy blushes blooming on Sakura’s face.

Huh, Endo might be more successful in this whole dating endeavor than Yuuto originally thought .

Yuuto turns back to his table and can tell his words were heard. Suo looks contemplative and Nirei’s posture is relaxed, the blonde even pulling out a notebook from out of nowhere and scribbling.

“Endo’s dangerous.” Suo says, locking in on Yuuto with his one uncovered eye.

At the same time, the tuxedo cat Endo picked up decided to rebel against its human overlord and tries to scratch out Endo’s face.

“Pft-“ Yuuto slaps his hand over his mouth, trying fruitlessly to muffle his snorts. He swiftly turns away, much to his own regret, and faces Suo’s own amused face and Nirei’s shocked expression.

Focus. Focus!

“Ahaha- Ahem-“ Yuuto coughs into his fist like that would somehow delete the last few seconds from existence. “I’m not going to discount that. Yeah, Endo’s dangerous. But your friend seems like he can handle him. Worst case scenario, they have a fall out, all Endo’s going to do is mope around. And that’s going to be more of my problem than yours.” 

“If you don’t trust me then that’s fine. If you’re that worried, go ask your friend about it.” 

Having said that, Yuuto looks away and back towards the cat cafe again, a bit embarrassed by his own speech. Endo has survived the feline revolt, mostly unscathed from what Yuuto can see, and the dastardly kitty now held in his date’s hands. Yuuto can practically hear Endo proclaiming his eternal gratitude towards the boy.

“…You’re right” Nirei slowly says. When Yuuto returns his gaze to him, the blonde boy seemed resolved.

Suo chuckles at his friend before slightly bowing towards Yuuto, “Thank you for the advice, Shibata-senpai. I hope we didn’t take up much of your time.”

Senpai? Yuuto thinks but doesn’t question it, shaking his head at Suo’s remark, “Don’t worry about it. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I should probably head home. Will you two be staying?”

They throw a glance at the cat cafe and Yuuto already knows what their answer will be. “Then let me pay for some food. I saw a few on the menu earlier. I’ve been told time passes faster on a full stomach.”

“Ah- You don’t have to-“

“Don’t worry about it. I wasted a bit of your time too. Plus I’m your senior. Let me.”

Suo smiles, “Well, if you don’t mind.”

Yuuto takes them to the stand and lets them pick what they want off the menu before leaving. Throwing one last glance at Endo as he does. Who’s having a great time. Yuuto guess he was worried over nothing.

Yuuto returns home, answering his parents question about what took him so long and throws the groceries in the fridge.

Once he’s free a little later, he sends Endo a text asking how the date went.

It takes a while for Endo to respond.

>He had fun!

>The cats liked him too (Like sees like??)

His final message appeared a couple minutes after the first two.

>thanks

Chapter Text

The bell had already rang and the class session was in motion when the classroom's doors opened, Yuuto feels a brief pity for the guy who’s about to get scolded by the teacher for being late only to realize that he doesn’t recognize the figure who just entered at all. 

The teacher coughs, dropping the chalk he was holding, “Right, I almost forgot, say hello to your new classmate kids.” And with that information drop, the class forsakes any pretending to be civilized and dissolves into whispers.

Seriously, late on his first day?

 He seems like trouble.

But he’s so hot! 

Seriously? Seems a bit creepy to me.

Sucks to be him, Yuuto thought, his class was too bored with nothing to do this early into the year and the teacher basically just tossed him in as fish bait for.

To his credit, the guy doesn’t seem fazed by the thirty something pair of eyes staring at him, he instead gives the class a slow wave and a cheery smile, “Endo Yamato. Nice to meet you”

The teacher points him to his seat and the class continues, though the rest of the class aren’t paying attention to the lecture, too busy with analyzing their new classmate.

Yuuto can’t deny he was a bit curious about Endo as well. He just has a bit more shame. There’s something about Endo that screams danger, something that flickers on Yuuto’s delinquent switch that he kept off for so long.

But Yuuto guess he shouldn’t judge. He’d be a bit of a hypocrite. Whatever Endo’s whole deal is, it can’t possibly be much worse than Yuuto’s own troubled past.

There’s a brief wonder on whether Yuuto should talk to Endo but the swarm of students lining up at Endo’s desk after the recess bell rings makes his choice for him. They’ll end up talking before long anyways and Yuuto hopes the excitement around the new student dies down by then.

It does. Endo Yamato becomes just another face in the class and life moves on.

That doesn’t mean people stop crowding around him though. Endo Yamato is popular, a real people’s person. Blending smooth charisma with genuine helpfulness that makes him well-liked around not just the class but the entire school. 

And, to Yuuto’s dismay, he’s smart. Really smart. Yuuto loses his top of the class title by the time midterms rolls around. 

“Congrats, Endo-kun” Yuuto suppose it was a long time coming considering he never placed much importance in his studies until last year. Yet some small part of him is still envious of how easy Endo made it look.

Endo never seemed all that studious or concentrated during class, able to answer any question the teachers threw at him but never going out of his way to raise his hand. Always seen spending his time with others during recess.

Let it be a lesson for Yuuto to never judge a book by its cover and all that. 

Endo laughs, unaware of Yuuto’s thoughts, “You did well too, Shibata-kun! You’ll do better for the finals, I’m sure!”

Yuuto lets out a small laugh, a bit infected by Endo’s positivity, letting his envy dissipate, “I hope so.”

Endo places first again. Yuuto congratulates him, putting on good showmanship. 

And then runs home to whine about it to Chika. 

What? Don’t judge him. Yuuto needs emotional support to get through these trying times.

“It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. I’m happy for him, I really am.”

“Mn”

“But it’s normal to feel bad because something you worked towards didn’t happen, right? Right?”

“Mn”

“I should be glad he didn’t turn out to be some trouble maker like I thought. It’s just-“ Yuuto buries himself into Chika’s shoulder, “Urgh-“

And, because Yuuto is cursed, a day after he said that, during his walk home from staying late at school, Yuuto turns a corner and gets a guy flung at him.

Yuuto hurriedly dodged out of the way, leaving the guy to crash onto the floor with a groan. Yuuto’s legs are ready to run away except his eyes can’t turn away fast enough. He catches the sight of his school’s uniform amongst the crowded movements in the alley and that causes him to pause in his movements, leaving enough time for the guy on the floor to get up and scream out, “Oi! He brought friends!”

Enraged eyes turn and stare Yuuto down. He prepares to book it but he’s held in place, the guy on the floor holding onto his foot with a manic grin. Yuuto stomps on his hand hard, freeing his own foot but it’s far too late to get out. 

Fists and kicks quickly descend upon him. Some land but they’re not enough to keep him down. Yuuto weaves across the bodies, using their numbers against them and getting them to knock each other out. 

He focuses on surviving more than attacking, well aware that his lack of active fighting means he can’t hold out for long. Praying that whatever other group hurries it up and takes care of it all for him.

Except as Yuuto maneuvers around the battle, he slowly realises that the crowd wasn’t two groups having a gang battle. They’re all one group. Then who-

The familiar school uniforms flashes through his vision. This time, Yuuto can clearly make out the figure and curses. It’s Endo.

More bodies are flung all around the place. From where Yuuto’s standing, he can see that Endo’s the one they’re all attacking. He moves to the center of the chaos, where Endo’s standing, if only to get some support from the reason he got involved in the first place.

But to his surprise, Endo’s doing fine. More than fine. He’s winning.

“Oh?” Endo’s eyes widen when he sees Yuuto punch somebody sneaking behind him before returning his focus on the enemies in front of him. “Not that I don’t appreciate the help but shouldn’t you be at home by now?”

“This. Is your fault.” Yuuto snarls back with all the justified rage of somebody who got pulled into a fight they did not want to be in. If it turns out Endo got jumped on his way home or something like that, Yuuto’ll apologize afterwards. But for now, he directs his rage at the enemy.

There were a lot of guys trying to get Endo. Despite that, the battle did not take long.

“Well, thanks for the help, Shibata-kun.” Endo says, wiping the blood off his fingers slowly with an easy smile. 

“Right, uh- no problem…they won’t come for revenge right?” Yuuto asks, distancing himself from the pile of bodies warily.

Endo throws the fallen men a quick look, “Them? No way, I’ll deal with them myself.” And then back to Yuuto with a dazzling smile, “So? What did you need? I didn’t take you for the heroic type”

Creepy and definitely sounds like something Yuuto doesn’t want to be involved with, so he wisely turns away. “You’re right. They didn’t let me escape. It’s nothing, don’t mention it.”

“Oh? But you weren’t half bad.” Yuuto makes a face at that, one which definitely didn’t go unnoticed. Endo was the one doing the work, Yuuto mostly flailed around and took shots when he could. Endo laughs, “I’m being honest! I didn’t expect it seeing how you usually are.”

“I just didn’t want to get hurt. This is a one off for me. Really, please don’t mention it.” 

Endo’s pupils sharpens, his mouth straightens into a line “Huh. You looked like you had fun though. Seems like you really needed it.”

…

Yuuto really wanted to deny that. But his words get stuck on his tongue.

He had been a bit stressed after the exams. And it's a lie to say knocking out a few guys didn’t feel good. Especially after so long.

Hearing his silence, Endo’s cold, intense gaze melts away and an easy going smile reappears on his face, “Ha, I get it. I get it. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” He pats Yuuto’s shoulders, “This area is too peaceful sometimes. No wonder you’re so pent up. If you want a fight, you’d have to look elsewhere. Say-“

This is sounding too much like a recruitment pitch for Yuuto’s liking, so he shuts it down. “Good thing, I’m not looking for trouble then.” Yuuto cuts in before he can continue, sliding Endo’s hand off him.

Endo looks him in the eye and Yuuto briefly catches a shadow of disappointment before Endo turns away, “Ah. Guess I misjudged you.” Endo walks away, his hand waving goodbye and a smile still on his face, “I won’t speak of this. Get home safe.”

“Uh!” Endo pauses at his scream, looking back towards Yuuto, “Make sure to get that iced! The uniform will hide most of it but just to be sure-!” 

Endo stares at him blankly, eventually shaking his head, “Worry about yourself. You’re way worse than I am.”

That incident didn’t affect Yuuto’s relationship with Endo much. He already knew Endo was a troublemaker and now he realised Endo caught onto him the same way. They behaved roughly the same afterwards.

Which is why when one day, Endo pulls him to the side abruptly, it caught Yuuto off guard.

Endo’s eyes drills holes into Yuuto’s figure with a strange intensity. His usual eternal good mood replaced by…displeasure? confusion?

“Shibata-kun.”

Yuuto struggles weakly against Endo’s grip, avoiding the other’s hard eyes. He doesn’t recall anything to cause this. “…Yes?” 

“You seem to know a friend of mine.”

“I…do?” Yuuto hadn’t gotten into any fight after what happened with Endo. Or perhaps Endo was talking about someone from Yuuto’s wild middle school years?

“Does the name Takiishi Chika ring any bells?”

“Eh?”