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Their first date (it wasn’t a date) (if it was, it wouldn’t be their first; they’d done this before) (wait, did those count as dates?) was supposed to be simple. Just Eiji and Toga, out on the town, for a night of trouble-making, people-watching, and cola-drinking.
But Toga was still nervous.
That was a reasonable feeling to have, he decided. Sandman and Ayaka’s wedding had only happened one short week ago, yet with each day that’d passed, he learned about another unspoken social rule that he’d violated when he caught Ayaka’s bouquet.
There was the ‘two boys can’t get married’ thing, of course. But that had only been the beginning. There was also the fact that getting married at such a young age apparently led to unhappiness later in life. That the bouquet should’ve wound up in the hands of a woman. That it was rude to propose publicly without discussing it first.
That a ‘proposal’ was a thing in the first place, with context and baggage and weight.
The way everyone had been talking about it, Toga figured he was lucky that Eiji was still willing to be in the same room as him. That he could still wake up every morning and expect Eiji to tiredly slink into the dining room ten minutes late, take the chair next to Toga, and put his head down on the table and close his eyes while telling Toga about how tired he was. That things hadn’t really changed all that much between them.
There were ways things could change between them that Toga wouldn’t mind, if he was honest.
But he’d prefer no change over a bad change. Toga had been enrolled in public school, after all, and while he had no doubt that his education at the castle far surpassed whatever he’d be expected to learn out there, he’d feel better about the social aspect if he knew that Eiji would be by his side. Luna and Leele had promised to be there for him, too, but they were going to be in a different class, so he wouldn’t get to see them as much.
So, he just needed to not mess things up with Eiji before school started. A month ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about that. But now—about an hour before the two of them were supposed to head into the city—Toga felt completely at a loss about how to make it happen.
He needed help.
When Mizuki opened the door to her bedroom, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Hey, Toga,” she said. He must’ve caught her in the middle of something; her arms were full of clothes. “What’s up? Is there a team meeting or something?”
He shook his head. “No. I wanted to ask you for advice about Eiji.”
“Oh,” Mizuki said. The sides of her mouth flicked up into a smile. “In that case, come on in.”
Toga did. Her room was a mess: clothes were strewn all over the place, two open beer cans balanced precariously atop her computer, and a suitcase sat on her bed, with its contents stacked so tall that they stuck out of it to a comical degree.
“Sit anywhere,” Mizuki instructed.
As soon as Toga found the couch (it was under a pile of swimsuits), he sat. “Laundry day?” he asked.
“That was yesterday. Today’s packing day. And I have no clue how much I’ll need to bring for two weeks…” Right. The Okinawa trip. “But that’s a problem for later. What did you want to ask me about?”
“Advice,” Toga repeated. “About Eiji.”
Mizuki raised an eyebrow at him as she leafed through a pile of colorful shirts. “Just general advice? Isn’t there anything specific you’re looking for?”
Toga had to think about that. He looked down and studied his knees as he collected his thoughts. He’d rested his hands on them when he sat, and he couldn’t stop them from fidgeting.
Strange.
“We’re supposed to hang out later,” Toga explained. “Just like we’ve always done.”
“That’s a problem?”
“I hope not,” Toga admitted. “But I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing and mess it up. Everyone’s been telling me that I shouldn’t have asked Eiji to marry me, and I’m worried I’ll cross another line.”
Mizuki paused her folding for a moment to chuckle. “You’re worried about saying the wrong thing to him now?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t think you did your best to scare him off when the two of you first met?”
Toga considered it. “No, I don’t think so.”
For some reason, Mizuki let out a full-bodied laugh at that. “Toga,” she chided, before tossing the shirt in her hand over her shoulder and picking up a new one. “Don’t you remember some of our very first fights together in Gravion? All you did was yell at him.”
Toga frowned. “I don’t think so…”
“No, you’re right. Luna was yelling; you were the one calling him useless and telling him that he sucked at fighting.”
Despite Mizuki’s harsh words, she didn’t falter in her packing. She just let Toga absorb everything she’d said in silence.
And she was right, Toga realized after a minute or so. When Eiji had first shown up, he had been untrained and uncoordinated. And Toga had said that they wouldn’t need him, if he couldn’t fight well.
When Toga looked back on himself, in that moment, he felt like he was looking at an alien.
“I didn’t mean to scare him off, though,” he argued. It sounded weak, even to his own ears.
“I know that,” Mizuki agreed. “And Eiji does, too. But I think, if there was anything you could say or do to offend him to the point of chasing him off…you would’ve done it already.”
That was little comfort. Toga balled his hands into fists and bit down on his lower lip.
Mizuki glanced up at him before asking her next question. “Earlier. You said ‘everyone’ was telling you that you shouldn’t have asked Eiji to marry you. Who’s ‘everyone’?”
Toga blinked. He thought that one would’ve been obvious. “Everyone,” he repeated. “Luna, Leele, Cecile, Brigitta…”
“But not Eiji?”
Another easy answer. Eiji, all things considered, had taken it in stride. “No,” Toga said. “Not Eiji.”
Mizuki shrugged. “Well, then, I’d say you’re in the clear,” she decided. She flipped the top of her suitcase closed and started to zip it up, poking at the little bits of cloth that stuck out until they were out of her way. “You’ve told him how you feel. Now it’s up to him to respond.”
So Mizuki’s advice was for Toga to wait? “That’s not very helpful,” he told her.
“Yeah, well.” She closed the last inch of her suitcase with an accomplished flourish before crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re the one who came to me for help. I’m not the lucky guy who just married the other Shigure, am I?”
Toga frowned. “You’re right,” he said. “Maybe I should’ve asked Sandman instead.” Then he looked back up at Mizuki. “But you always have great ideas in battle.”
“Oh, stop that. You’ll make me blush.” Mizuki lifted her suitcase from the bed, set it on the ground, and extended the handle.
She looked like she was about to leave—and kick Toga out, too—but before that, she sighed.
“Don’t wait forever. If you don’t want him to slip away, you have to put some effort in, too. Just…listen to what he says.” She smiled at Toga. “You’ll know the right moment.”
That wasn’t very helpful either.
But Toga thanked her, and stopped at his own room after leaving hers. The detour would make him late, but there was something he wanted to pick up first. Once it was secure in his backpack, he set off. Eiji was usually the one who ran late, so there was a chance he wouldn’t even notice Toga’s tardiness.
But when Toga made it to their usual rendezvous point, Eiji was already there.
Toga hiked his backpack up on his shoulders and tried to take Mizuki’s words to heart. If he could offend Eiji badly enough to scare him off, he would’ve done it already.
Still, he couldn’t help himself. “Sorry for being late,” Toga said, as soon as he got close.
Eiji jumped. That was right; Toga had approached him from behind.
But Eiji recovered quickly and turned around to face Toga with a gentle smile. Toga’s heart thumped hard. “You’re right on time,” he said. “I heard that Luna was going to track me down for something, so I skipped out of my room early.”
“I see. We should probably get going, then.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth.”
When Eiji stepped off towards the dock, Toga followed. Eiji was wearing an outfit Toga had never seen before, and the outline around his eyes was a little darker than usual. He smelled nice, too. Kind of like his usual hair product, but sharper.
Toga tightened his hands around the straps of his backpack. He probably shouldn’t comment on any of that. Eiji was bold; if he wanted Toga to notice his appearance, he would’ve told him.
So Toga tried a different approach. Once they were settled onto the boat and en route towards the city, he asked, “Is there anything in particular you wanted to do today?”
Eiji nodded. He was leaning back against the railing, and the sea breeze whipped his hair around his face. “I was thinking of going to the arcade.”
“Arcade?”
“Yeah. There are a bunch in the city. It’s a big building, usually with four or five floors full of games to play. They’ve got Dance Dance Revolution, Taiko, Ongeki, a ton of crane games…” He ran his fingers through his hair to push it back before adding, “I want you to try Street Fighter. I think you’d like it.”
Toga didn’t recognize any of those names, but he wasn’t worried. The first time they’d done something like this, when they’d met up with Eiji’s school friends, they’d gone to karaoke. Toga hadn’t recognized any of the songs there, either, and had been completely lost until Eiji handed him a tambourine. Then he’d been able to keep up perfectly, and the best night of his life had gone on without a hitch.
If Toga got lost again, today, he trusted that Eiji would find him.
It was a thought that seemed to be on Eiji’s mind, too. When the boat finally docked at one of the wharfs, they climbed out and started to make their way towards the bustling city center. Before they made it too far, though, Eiji turned towards Toga and looked him up and down. He pouted for a moment before he offered out a hand, palm up. “Give me your hand,” he said.
Toga blinked, and then let go of one of his backpack’s straps.
“The other one.”
Toga obliged. “Why?” he asked.
“Because.” Eiji closed his hand around Toga’s and let it fall between them before continuing towards the city. “You always wander off on me.”
Guilty as charged. “Sorry about that,” Toga said. “I don’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“Yeah, I know.” Then Eiji flashed Toga with a blinding smile. “But I want to make sure you don’t get mugged on our first date.”
Toga’s own feet were suddenly obstacles for him to trip over. “Date?” he squeaked. Was he really that lucky?
“Well, we’re a little too young to get married,” Eiji explained. “But that just means we have more time for a trial run!”
Toga grinned.
He didn’t realize how tight he was squeezing Eiji’s hand until he could feel the other boy’s pulse racing against his palm.
The arcade was a little bit like the amusement park they’d visited, Toga thought. It was busy, there were a million flashing lights, and the sound of other people’s joy was the loudest thing he could hear.
Eiji didn’t bother asking whether Toga had any preference on where to start. He pulled Toga up a few flights of stairs by their clasped hands until they were on the building’s fourth floor, which was packed to the brim with what he described as “rhythm games.” Then he led Toga towards one of the few free machines, introduced it as “Dance Dance Revolution,” and explained how it worked.
As Mizuki had recommended, Toga listened to what Eiji was saying. He was a little worried—he still didn’t know any of the song options—but from the way Eiji described it, he wouldn’t have to. As long as he could keep time and step on the right pads, he’d be alright.
And, to Toga’s surprise, the game was even simpler than that. He found he didn’t need to rely on the balance bar; as long as he kept his own center of gravity stable, he could manage all of the quick movements needed to tap each of the control pads in time with the beat. Once he slipped into a focused state of mind, he didn’t even have to think. He could match all the targets flawlessly as soon as they came in.
Eiji, on the other hand, was struggling a little more. He leaned heavily on the bar. It let him mostly keep up, but at one point he tripped over his own feet, and would’ve fallen flat on his face if Toga hadn’t darted over to catch him by the shoulders.
“Maybe you’re too tall for this game?” Toga suggested, as Eiji righted himself. He had five centimeters on Toga, after all. Maybe that was why he fell over so often?
Eiji gripped Toga’s forearms as he stood up straight. “Nah, I’m just the right height,” he declared proudly, despite the flush on his cheeks. It might’ve been from the physical exertion; Toga was probably a little pink too. “In fact, I meant to do that!”
“You did?”
“Yup! It’s part of street-smarts lesson number two,” Eiji explained. His eyes shone as he smirked. “Don’t let yourself get so easily distracted!”
Toga was halfway through protesting—he already knew to not let himself get distracted; he’d been trained his whole life for battle—when Eiji pushed up on his toes and pressed his lips to Toga’s forehead, before jumping right back into the game.
If Toga had been pink before, he must’ve been beet-red now.
The game kept blasting music until the song had ended, but Toga didn’t hear any of it. For some reason, no matter how much he willed himself to move, his feet were stuck, planting him firmly on the ground.
He still earned a higher score than Eiji, in the end.
That trend continued with each new game they played. Eiji took the time to explain the inner workings of a new machine to Toga, and after only a few seconds of playing together, Toga managed to double, triple, quadruple the points Eiji had earned and leave him so far behind that whether or not he finished the game out, he always won. Eiji got a little worked up each time, but he didn’t seem to actually get mad—Toga could never forget what that looked like—so it was probably alright.
Eiji eventually got his moment to shine, too. Once Toga had thoroughly beaten him at every rhythm and fighting game they could get their hands on, they descended to the first floor: crane games. “These aren’t competitive,” Eiji said, as he demonstrated how the machine worked. “Just for fun.”
“Weren’t they all for fun?”
Eiji gave Toga a flat look. “You’re only saying that because you won them all,” he grumbled. “This one isn’t for a score. You either win a prize, or you don’t.”
And, like he’d timed it down to the second, Eiji chose that moment to press the machine’s big red button. The claw descended from the top of the machine, opened, and neatly grabbed a stuffed t-rex plush toy, which it then moved to deposit into the exit chute.
After Eiji had fished the toy out of the machine, he spun around and presented it to Toga with a proud smile on his face. “For you,” he said.
Toga blinked. “But you won it.”
“Yeah, and I want you to have it. It’s a gift.”
A gift.
Eiji made it look so easy; like it wasn’t even a decision. Like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to reach past his own prickly exterior and offer Toga kindness.
Toga took the t-rex plush into his arms and cradled it close to his chest. It had a goofy, lopsided smile, and red spikes along its back.
It was the cutest thing Toga had ever seen. “Thank you, Eiji,” he said in earnest. Then he looked back up to the other boy. “Can I win you something, too?”
Eiji blinked in surprise, and then laughed. “Sure, if you want to.”
Toga definitely wanted to. He stepped to the next machine over, which held a teal snapping turtle plush as its prize, swiped his card, and then mimicked what he’d seen Eiji do just moments before. When he pressed the red button, the claw descended and closed around the turtle’s belly.
Toga grinned. He’d done it! He watched the claw lift the turtle up towards the top of the machine…
…and immediately drop it right back where it’d been.
Toga frowned. “I think this one’s broken,” he said, as he turned to Eiji.
But instead of agreeing, Eiji held back an obvious laugh. Toga forced himself to remember lesson number two; to stay present in the moment and not get distracted. “It’s working fine,” Eiji explained. “Exactly the way it’s supposed to, actually. The machines are rigged, so that you don’t win every time.”
“Really? Why?”
“So it’s more exciting, when you do win.” Eiji shrugged. “They’d lose money if they gave out prizes every single time, too.”
That made sense, but Toga was still curious. “But you got it on the first try.”
“Sure did.”
“So what’s your strategy?”
Eiji laughed again. “There is no strategy,” he said. “I just got lucky.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Eiji elbowed Toga. “Come on, man. You can’t let me look cool at this one thing?”
Toga blinked. Eiji thought he didn’t look cool? Eiji? Eiji was the epitome of ‘cool’; he blended into their laid-back surroundings seamlessly. Toga was the one who stuck out like a sore thumb, with his unsettled sense of fashion and complete obliviousness towards how any of these games actually worked. “But you are cool,” he argued. Then he glanced back at the machine. “I want to try again.”
“Heh, knock yourself out.”
Toga bent down and swiped his card. The game reactivated, and once again, he maneuvered the claw into a position that looked like it’d be suited to pick up the turtle plush. But when he pressed the red button, he got the same result. The claw picked up the turtle for a moment, but dropped it before it could carry it to the exit chute. On his next try, it happened again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
A dozen tries later, Eiji leaned in to help. He slung an arm across Toga’s shoulders and pointed to the turtle. “You might want to try a little to the left?” he suggested. “Maybe you can get it to catch the lip of the shell.”
Toga listened. But he still got the same result.
After thirty attempts, he was starting to get frustrated with himself. He would’ve gladly traded his victories at all of the other games if it meant he got to win this one. “I think it really might be broken,” he said again.
Eiji snickered. He was leaning almost his whole body weight onto Toga, now, and that was probably the only thing keeping Toga sane. “It’s okay if you can’t get it,” he said. “You’ve put a lot of heart into trying.”
But trying wasn’t good enough. Toga hadn’t been raised to try; he’d been raised to succeed. And if he didn’t succeed, wouldn’t Eiji be disappointed in him?
Eiji chose that moment to shift his weight. His arm around Toga tightened, pulling them closer.
Wait. What?
What the hell had Toga been thinking?
He blinked a few times, and took a second to return to his surroundings. He listened to whatever pop song was playing over the arcade’s speaker system and clashing with the sounds of all the machines. He watched the reflection of some flashing lights in the crane game’s plexiglass surroundings. He felt—really felt—Eiji’s presence near him. Where their sides were pressed together, Toga took in his own slight sweatiness; each time he breathed in, he noted the scent of Eiji’s hair gel.
This wasn’t combat. Their lives weren’t in danger. He didn’t need to succeed.
Eiji had been the one to prove to Toga that having heart was just as important as anything else. It was why Toga had requested Eiji pilot the Geo Mirage; it was invaluable.
So maybe Eiji wouldn’t be disappointed. Maybe that sentiment could apply to Toga, too.
Toga must’ve taken a while to come back to himself. “You good, dude?” Eiji eventually asked, with a poke at Toga’s side. “Still with me?”
When he was sure, Toga nodded. He blinked a few more times to clear his head before he said, “Yeah.” With a smile he hoped looked apologetic, he tore his gaze away from the crane machine and met Eiji’s eyes. The other boy was close. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to win this, though.”
Eiji looked unbothered. “That’s alright.”
“But I want to give you something.”
It still could’ve been Toga’s big victory moment. He had prepared for an emergency like this, after all. All he had to do was reach inside his backpack and pull out the prizes he’d stashed inside before leaving the castle.
But Eiji’s face was really close.
Suddenly, Toga wanted to give Eiji something totally different.
He swallowed. He’d seen people do this before; he could figure it out. He’d listened to Eiji, and this seemed as close to Mizuki’s right moment as he would get.
He leaned in slowly. Eiji’s eyes widened before Toga had shut his. As soon as Eiji’s surprise registered, Toga faltered. Maybe he was wrong? Maybe Eiji didn’t want this?
For a few seconds, they were both frozen in place, sharing exhales and startled looks.
Then: “Well?” Eiji asked, as his eyes searched Toga’s.
Toga’s heart thumped fast and erratically. He could hear the rush of blood inside his ears. This wasn’t the first time tonight his heart had acted up like this; it’d been skipping beats regularly, and choosing the worst moments to race off and leave him behind. Maybe he was dying?
He didn’t want to die tonight.
He didn’t want to die before he got to kiss Eiji.
So he forced his eyes shut and closed the remaining gap between them. He tried to be gentle, but as soon as their lips touched, he wanted more.
He didn’t know what he was doing. But he knew it felt good. He knew he didn’t want it to stop.
So he leaned a little further into Eiji.
There was a beat before Eiji reciprocated, but when he did, he moved a lot more decisively than Toga had. He’d never been shy, which Toga was irreplaceably thankful for when he took the lead and tilted his head to the side so that their noses didn’t mash together.
They’d only kissed twice when Toga got too excited, and raised his hand to cup Eiji’s cheek.
A delayed half-second later, he remembered their first meeting. Toga had done something similar back then, too, and Eiji had chased him off without hesitation. Now, though, Eiji leaned his face into Toga’s palm, and let Toga feel his skin, and all the movement beneath it.
His cheek had a tanned roughness to it, but his hair was soft. It brushed against Toga’s fingers like the tip of a flame licking the air.
And Toga felt warm. So warm.
He didn’t question it. Eiji had a fiery heart, and Toga was closer to it than ever.
Toga got a second chance to whip out his emergency stash about a half-hour later. They’d left the arcade to pick up takeout from a nearby noodle shop, and had already carried their food to a picnic table on the pier when Eiji realized he’d forgotten to ask for a cola. As Eiji whined, and contemplated whether it would be worth the trip back, Toga unzipped his backpack and pulled out the thing he’d meant to give Eiji, when he’d gone ahead and kissed him instead. “Here,” he said.
Eiji looked at Toga like he’d done something way more impressive than offer a cola can. “Wha—when did you buy that?!?” he asked, as he took it and cracked it open.
Toga opened one for himself, too. He took care not to spill any on the t-rex plush, which sat on his lap. “I brought it from the castle,” he explained, as Eiji took his first sip. “The maids wouldn’t buy it until I said we’d drink it all before Sandman gets back, though.”
“Won’t be a problem,” Eiji promised.
Toga smiled. That was what he’d assumed, but it was nice to hear aloud.
After Eiji had downed half of his cola, he joined Toga on his side of the picnic table so that they could sit side-by-side while eating. Toga had wanted to try both the tomato and tonkotsu ramen, and Eiji had been kind enough to humor his indecision. They’d ordered both, and planned to share.
They were both quiet for a bit as they ate. Occasionally, Toga would reach over and swipe some of the noodles and toppings from Eiji’s bowl, and vice versa. Both options were delicious.
But the ramen wasn’t the only thing on Toga’s mind. As he watched the crowds move up and down the wharf, he noticed a surprising trend. “There are a lot of kids our age out tonight,” he observed. “More than I remember seeing before.”
Eiji hummed in agreement as he slurped up some noodles.
“I wonder why.”
“Probably because school starts up again soon,” Eiji said. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Everyone wants to have as much fun as possible before they have to worry about homework.”
School. Toga’s stomach did a flip at the reminder. Despite what he’d heard about the place, it was still a black box in his mind; one he was completely unprepared for. “I see. I guess that applies to us, too.”
“Mhm.”
Toga lifted up some noodles, before setting them back in his bowl.
“Eiji?” he asked, after a few more seconds of quiet thought. “I’m nervous about going to school. Do…do you think I should be?”
He felt Eiji turn to look at him, but didn’t meet his eyes. Instead, he stirred his noodles around a little more.
“Nah,” Eiji eventually said. “Homework’s annoying, but it’s not the end of the world.”
Toga kept stirring.
“I’ll be near you, if that helps.”
More than Eiji would ever know. “It does,” Toga said. “And Luna and Leele being in the same school does too, but…”
“But you’re still nervous?”
“Mhm.”
“D’you regret signing up?”
“No,” Toga said. “If I didn’t, I’d be hiking the Alps right now. And that sounds worse.”
Eiji snickered.
Toga hugged his t-rex plush close to his torso with the hand that wasn’t holding his chopsticks and finally looked in Eiji’s direction. It was a good idea; watching the other boy laugh calmed him down.
After a few seconds, though, Eiji recovered. He didn’t turn away from Toga, but began to absentmindedly stir at his own forgotten noodles. “I didn’t know you could even get nervous about something like school,” he admitted.
Toga blinked in surprise. “Really?” he asked. “You know I’m…not very good when it comes to socializing. Especially with new people. I don’t want to make a faux pas in a place with as many people as a school.”
Again, Eiji snickered. “A faux pas? Like asking me to marry you at my sister’s wedding?”
Toga’s heart sank into his stomach.
That was another social rule he’d unknowingly violated, wasn’t it? It seemed like there was no end to the list of blunders he’d made at Ayaka’s wedding. “Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
He was dreading the answer until it actually came. “Guess so,” Eiji said with a casual shrug. “I don’t really get all that wedding stuff either, though. I asked Ayaka, and she doesn’t mind, as long as I can prove I’m worth it.”
“Worth it?”
“Yeah.” Eiji’s tomato ramen must’ve been really interesting; he was studying it intently. “Worth…you. And…how much you trust me. To ask me that.” His face turned the color of his ramen broth, too. “That’s what Ayaka said, anyway.”
That wasn’t right. Toga frowned. “Eiji, I already trust you. You don’t need to prove anything. Sol Gravion—”
“I know about Sol Gravion,” Eiji said. He looked up at Toga, instead of his food, though his smile wasn’t as wide as it could be. “I’m not talking about trust in combat. I’m talking about trust in…something like this. Tonight.”
Toga blinked. “Isn’t it the same thing?”
That earned him a real laugh. It wasn’t intentional, but Toga wasn’t going to complain.
“You’re hopeless,” Eiji said, with an elbow to Toga’s side. “It’s totally different! You think I asked Anya to buy me a new outfit every time I got on the G-Attacker?” When Toga didn’t answer quickly enough, Eiji shook his head. “I guess I didn’t need to worry that much, though. I’d have to really screw things up to make tonight worse than the other times we hung out, and got interrupted by the Zeravire…”
Toga felt like his head was going to explode. Eiji had gotten a new outfit just for tonight? He’d asked Ayaka for advice? He’d been worried?
That meant Toga wasn’t a complete outsider. Eiji felt the same things he’d been feeling, leading up to their date.
Toga wanted to kiss him again.
“You look great,” he said instead. “Mizuki told me to find the right moment to say things like that. I hope this is a better moment than Ayaka’s wedding.”
Eiji laughed again. He shifted closer to Toga on the picnic bench until their thighs touched. Then, he reached out and unwound Toga’s hand from his chopsticks so he could hold it, instead. “Who cares if it’s the right moment? I told you, Ayaka doesn’t mind.” He shifted his weight. “I don’t, either. I’m…I’m glad you asked. And that you found me during the reception, too.”
Toga really wanted to kiss him again.
Finding Eiji during the reception sounded so simple, but it tied Toga’s stomach up in complex knots. It was the first way he’d learned to care for anyone, and it had been Eiji who taught him that.
Eiji, who had come into Toga’s life looking for his lost sister. Eiji, who looked for Toga whenever he was lost, too: when he’d crossed a line in battle, or run away to his old orphanage, or threatened to leave the country. Eiji, who wouldn’t just find Toga at the event horizon, but reach out and pull him back every time.
Toga wanted to give that care back to Eiji more than anything.
He didn’t realize his eyes had started to water until he blinked, and some loose tears ran down his cheeks. He wiped them away with their joined hands. “Thank you, Eiji,” he said. “I’m glad you didn’t let me go away.”
Eiji let out an amused sigh. Toga almost thought he heard fondness in it.
He didn’t second-guess it for too long. “You don’t need to worry,” Eiji promised, as he wrapped Toga up in a hug and pressed a kiss to his temple. “I never will.”