Chapter Text
The holidays; a time of joy and laughter. Magic in the air.
Well, that was how most people would describe it. Hiroto sure didn’t want to describe it that way. He preferred being alone with his phone. Maybe with some bubble gum for old times sake.
To him, holidays meant forced days spent back at the Kira Mansion. He had to fake caring a tiny bit about extended family he saw even less than his own old man. The only one that deserved a tiny bit of care was his cousin Shuugo, anyway. Hiroto made sure he didn’t know that, though. The only care he would show was not ignoring his cousin as much as the other family members whose names he could never recall.
Normally, Hiroto would skip the holidays altogether. Living in an apartment far away was a pretty good excuse. Making it into that fancy university was the best thing to happen to him. He disliked the studying part, but moving out was great. With Tatsuya as his room- and classmate he never felt lonely either. He hadn’t told him that, but sometimes he got the feeling that the redhead was aware of his attachment.
The weirdest side-effect of moving out was that his old man almost became bearable. Tolerable, even. On a good day he would exchange weird videos on Inatok with him. He didn’t send those because he cared or some shit like that. He wanted a piece of the Inatok fame, duh. Hiroto was not impressed or jealous of the old man’s fame on there at all, though! He could easily beat that if he tried. Five million followers, his ass, hmpf. Those were clearly all alts of Tatsuya if he had Inatok in the first place.
Despite all that, Hiroto wasn’t enjoying the forced visit. He vastly preferred a screen between him and his ‘family’. And to top it off, Tatsuya had insisted on staying until Hiroto’s birthday! So, an extended visit. Great, fantastic, amazing.
Hiroto sighed in defeat and flopped down on his old couch. He pulled out his phone to scroll. He wasn’t able to do so during breakfast earlier with Sister. Tatsuya had taken that moment to announce their extended visit. Sister informed staff and the Old Man right away. The redhead left no room for Hiroto to protest at all.
At least back in his own old room Hiroto had some time to gather his thoughts. Quietly without any distractions. Just him and his phone. There was no goal in mind, but simply scrolling was enough.
Hiroto lost track of the amount of memes and videos he watched, but he was in the middle of a funny cat video when a notification interrupted his scrolling. LINE’s icon popped up in the middle of his screen. He rolled his eyes and opened the message.
‘Hi,
Hiroto, where are you? You left before tea time and I didn’t have the chance to go and find you. Please reply soon.
Greetings, Tatsuya’
Hiroto snorted. Really, why did his texts always sound like an e-mail? No matter how many times he pointed that out, Tatsuya stubbornly held onto his way of texting. Both of them were (almost) 21 yet Tatsuya used his phone like a boomer already. Hiroto would show him how texting was done.
‘Room.’
The reply to that was almost instant. As if Tatsuya had a message ready to go.
‘Hi,
Noted. Stay there.
Greetings, Tatsuya’
Hiroto let out another snort that escaped as some sort of half-laugh. He sent a thumbs-up emoji in the chat and returned to simply scrolling. Tatsuya would take at least a few more minutes. It’d be fine.
…
Hm, he was sure he heard some movement in the halls. Nah, probably the maids. Just one more meme would be fine. Those cat memes were pretty good. The Devil who sent him those wasn’t gonna hear that, though. They never told each other that, it’d be weird.
“What’s that?”
Hiroto almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice behind him.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed. He barely managed to save his phone from a meeting with the floor.
He whirled around, as far as the couch allowed, and met bright green eyes he knew all too well.
Oh, of course. Hiroto’s face definitely did not attempt to match with the other’s hair at all.
“Tatsuya,” Hiroto lamely followed up. The only reply he got was a raised eyebrow. Tatsuya kept staring at him with those eyes of his.
That gaze made him want to run. Hiroto swallowed and decided to follow that feeling with another follow-up. “Holy shit, because I have to go shi-”
Tatsuya’s hand on his shoulder stopped Hiroto in his tracks. Dammit, escape thwarted. This short hesitation gave Tatsuya an opening to climb over the couch. A bit excessive, but whatever. He had the most experience chasing him after all so maybe the dramatics worked. With a dramatic sigh Hiroto sat back down. He turned to the other. “What do you want?”
“I asked you a question,” Tatsuya began. His eyes sparkled with amusement; as if Hiroto’s struggling something was funny.
Hiroto averted his gaze. A question…? Shit, he didn’t hear, but it was too late to back down. He was holding his phone so Tatsuya’s question probably had to do with that. It was a solid conclusion. He unlocked his phone with one swipe. The meme from earlier was still opened. With a large grin on his face he handed Tatsuya his phone. “This.”
It was the right answer, as expected, because his eyes were still sparkling. He even had a dopey smile on his face. He had his glasses on, but he still squinted at the screen out of habit. What a nerd.
“So?” Hiroto asked. The other had been staring a little too long at that meme.
“It’s a funny video,” Tatsuya said. He seemed to be carefully choosing his following words. “I don’t understand the second half.”
“Eh, don’t overthink it,” he replied with a shrug. “It isn’t supposed to make sense.”
“…right.”
All that was well, ended well. That was how that saying went, maybe. Hiroto held out his hand for his phone.
…nothing. He frowned and pulled back his arm.
He repeated the motion with a flair. Still… nothing. Tatsuya even opened another app! The reflection in his glasses made that very clear. Rude.
Hiroto huffed. That didn’t bother the other either. Seriously? He didn’t have anything to hide, but this was very annoying. Tatsuya’s sudden frown didn’t help either.
Hiroto swiped for his phone…
…and…
…missed.
Well, he wouldn’t give up yet! After all, even in University his title was still the God Stri-
Hiroto’s breath was caught in his throat. The warm hand on his cheek completely stopped any thoughts swirling in his mind.
The moment was shattered as fast as it appeared. A phone screen, his own phone, was shoved in his face. Tatsuya’s expression was unreadable. “Explain.”
Hiroto blinked a few times to take in the situation. He attempted to move closer to swipe it anyway, but Tatsuya’s hand pushed him back. What… so the position was only to do that? To keep him at a distance? The young adult wasn’t sure why, but that really pissed him off.
He knew. He wasn’t stupid at his age of almost-21. He was very aware of the disappointment he felt and what it meant.
Hiroto grasped Tatsuya’s hand and removed it from his face. He didn’t let go of it yet just to be safe. Whatever was on the screen would decide what he would do next.
He stared at it.
Stared some more.
And…
…stared.
Hiroto looked up at Tatsuya. “The fuck is there to be explained?”
(He purposely threw in the swear to rile the other up.)
Tatsuya’s expression darkened. It was a change that meant the answer was wrong. Nice. It felt like a small victory.
“Your screentime.”
It was Hiroto’s turn to frown. His screentime? What was wrong with that? He looked back at the screen. Maybe 5 hours and counting before lunchtime was a lot, but in his defence the drive to the Mansion was boring. Tatsuya’s driving style was way too careful. Hiroto was secretly very grateful for that, but that’d undermine his point.
Hold on, he hadn’t answered yet. Shit. It had to be fast. The longer he made Tatsuya wait the more he could regret his earlier words.
“So what? It’s fine.” He absolutely nailed it.
Tatsuya sighed. His eyes were searching for some sort of sign. Hiroto forced a blank expression.
“Hiroto…” He swiped to a screen with way too many numbers. The dreaded analytics page. A summary of Hiroto’s decisions. The long times displayed on the screen were difficult to deny. “You have a problem.”
Those facts would be difficult to deny, but when did facts and logic ever stop him? Hiroto would damn well try to fight him on this. He had the ultimate comeback.
“No, you.” He grinned. It was a little childish, but it felt perfect.
Tatsuya let out another sigh, but the sparkle in his eyes returned. That felt like a sign of danger, because it was very unlike himself. A smart-ass answer usually caused annoyance. Not whatever that meant. Hiroto had to brace himself for whatever the redhead would say next.
The other sure took his sweet time. The more he made him wait, the more it felt like Hiroto’s heart jumped in his throat. It was as if he was playing a football match in uni. Tatsuya’s killer smile did nothing to calm down his heartbeat either.
“You’re right,” Tatsuya finally answered. “You’re my problem.”
Tatsuya folded their fingers together after those words. Right. He was still holding down his hand. To be safe. Nothing weird about that. Hiroto did not stare at their interlocked hands either. And if he did, that was very normal too. Of course, that was a hypothetical situation. He was not staring at all!
Tatsuya followed up with something else, but Hiroto nodded and answered on auto-pilot. Since he was definitely not distracted at all. “Sure.”
“Great! Thank you, Hiroto.” Tatsuya smiled that blinding smile again. He unfolded their hands and pushed himself up. “See you at lunch in 10.”
“Sure.”
Tatsuya’s smile widened. There was that twinkle in his green eyes again. He leaned in and placed a kiss on Hiroto’s forehead. With his wide pink eyes Hiroto stared at him until the other completely left the room.
The sound of the door slamming shut snapped Hiroto out of his daze. He shot up and stared in one of the mirrors.
“The fuck did I agree to?!”