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Touya doesn’t remember much about the moment when he gave up on soulmates.
Just that his father had finished scolding him, confining him to his room, even though his fingers were sore and calloused.
Just that he’d darted out the door under his father’s arm, run to the bathroom and locked himself there before he could be shut into the hell of over-worn sheets of music and pain again.
Just that the second after he set teary eyes upon the mark that’d appeared on his chest, trying to wipe his tears away, just below his collarbone, he let it go.
He remembers the one thing he’d thought of when he first saw it.
They’re too good for me.
The mark isn’t anything so fancy, not at all. Just a little bright red heart that almost seemed to be beating by itself, and he was hit by a wave of…something.
Something that felt like how he’d felt about music before he was dunked head first into it and held there forcibly. Something that felt like passion, something he didn’t have anymore.
It was beautiful, and it felt so full of life - which is why they weren’t for Touya at all.
Someone like that surely deserves someone better than me.
Maybe, in a different world, Touya could be that someone. But not in this one. In this reality, all he is, all he’s allowed to be, is the burnt-out son of a famous musician who, sometimes, can’t even muster up the strength to get out of bed on time.
Sometimes, though, in his weakest moments, when he let himself hope for a better future, he’d be curled up in his bed, looking outside the huge paneled windows in his room at the dark night sky, and pray that maybe he’d find his soulmate, maybe, and that they could fill the hole in his pierced heart.
Touya couldn’t be anything but his father’s son, though, so, dutifully, he’d drag himself out of the covers each and every morning and practice till his fingers nearly bled, and they did a few times, while his classmates were going to each others’ houses and playing and doing nothing but smiling happily every day, with loving parents that never forced them to tears and friends that cared about them.
It didn’t help that he had so much trouble with showing his emotions on his face like other children could, that he tried so hard to convey what he meant but they couldn’t understand.
He thought he’d never be freed from the vicious cycle of waking up, going to school, coming home and playing piano till midnight, and finally going back to bed. From the scoldings and punishments and scathing words that cut a new, deeper wound, each and every time.
Why are you being so lazy?
Stop crying. Other children your age would kill for this opportunity.
It’s not good enough yet. You will stay here until you have committed this piece to memory, until you can play it asleep.
I worked hard, and see where it got me? You just need to do the same.
(Privately, once his father had gone away, Touya would think to himself, Why do you hate me so much? What have I done to you, Father?)
And so, he kept up the same life every day up until his second year of middle school.
Until he met Akito .
…
Touya was walking to the school’s practice room at school like usual when he heard it.
Recently, he’s been coming here instead of going home. Father has been going on more work trips, so he’s not around to scold Touya till his legs are numb from sitting on them, and he’s been nursing a little sprout of rebellion in himself for a bit.
He still practices, but he gives himself a minute to break every time he comes here, and sometimes plays a different piece. It feels liberating, somehow.
Just outside the room, he hears a voice from inside it, and he pauses, hand on the sliding door.
For just a second, he feels terribly irritated. It’s his relaxation time, when he can practice and still be okay.
The feeling is gone the next second, though, when he really listens.
It’s singing something. Touya doesn’t recognise the song. The person’s voice is breaking here and there, and they’re struggling with higher notes, and even though it’s rough and a little scratchy, it sounds wonderful.
Quietly, Touya opens the door and steps into the room. There’s a boy.
He’s turned around, so he doesn’t see Touya.
He has bright orange hair, all messy and wavy and tousled, nothing like Touya’s straight, neatly combed head.
“Ugh! Damn it, I still suck!” The boy breaks off from singing to grunt out in frustration, tinged with desperation. His voice cracks.
Touya’s a little bit taken aback, but something in him compels him to walk further. Suddenly, this boy reminds him of himself.
Over the years, the little mark on his chest has developed some little cracks, and some bandages wrapped around it, and every time another little wound pops up on it, Touya feels terrible for not being there to try and help. He’s comforted by the fact that when one crack appears, it’s given a bandaid in a little bit.
Quickly, he makes up his mind, striding towards the boy quickly, tapping him on the shoulder, and he spins around at lightspeed.
“Wha- oh. Hi there!” The boy straightens up into a smile so blinding it looks almost genuine.
“You sound fine. Do you need help?”
“I- You heard me? I mean, uh, uhm. Ugh…”
The boy goes a shade of red that burns brighter than his hair, looking away from Touya. He groans into his palms.
“...Are you okay?”
“..Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, yeah. You’re that Aoyagi guy.”
Touya’s face falls a little. He doesn’t really like his last name all that much, not with the baggage that comes with it. He lowers his hand to his side.
“Yes-”
“Uh, your name’s Touya, right? Sorry, I’m not the best with names…”
The boy chuckles a bit, sheepishly, as if everyone remembers Touya’s actual name, and not just his last name.
As if he’s not the first person Touya’s met, outside of the Tenmas, who aren’t adults and actually bothered to learn it.
The guy seems to be struggling with Touya’s question, but finally, after a minute of contemplation, he sighs.
“I probably shouldn’t be wasting your time, but since you offered, I’ll take you up on it.”
“That’s good. Thank you for letting me help. I have nothing else to do, so I’m bored.”
That’s not really true; Touya does have other things to do, like practicing, but…
He goes over to the piano in the corner, cracking his knuckles, ready to play, but the boy waves him over.
“C’mon, let’s sing together.”
“Huh?”
“Aoyagi, get over here. Let’s sing.”
“Touya is fine. Are you sure…?”
“Yes, I’m sure, dude!”
“If you say so. Actually, I never asked for your name. What is it?”
“Shino- Akito. Akito.”
Touya feels a smile creeping up on his face. What’s up with him today?
“Thanks, Akito.”
“What for?”
“Heh.”
“Whatever, man. Do you know this one?”
“I know Beethoven.”
“What? Okay, dude. I thought you seemed sheltered when you were spacing out in class. Here, let me put the good stuff on.”
“Okay.”
And that was how they ended up spending the whole afternoon watching street music videos and listening to rock.
Surprisingly, Touya liked it.
(He especially liked the way Akito’s eyes lit up as they turned towards the people in the videos - beautiful, emerald-esque in colour and so deep he could lose himself staring at them for too long.)
It was the first time in a long, long, time where he felt really, really happy.
…
After the first time Touya met Akito in that practice room, they just kept bumping into each other, again and again and again, and they clicked , somehow, when nobody else could understand Touya’s struggle to express himself and when nobody took Akito seriously.
Eventually, as Touya’s father started to become less of a presence in his life and he could start exploring by himself what life really had to offer, he and Akito became inseparable, practically sharing one soul.
Back then, Touya didn’t talk to people. He just did his work, studied hard, aced his tests, came home with stellar grades and report cards abandoned after a simple, barely acknowledging grunt from his father, before he went back to practicing.
Life was a single, monotonous cycle for Touya, and then, suddenly, the cycle broke off. Sometimes, Touya likens it to being trapped in a cage for his whole life, seeing other birds flying free, and then one day, finding the key to his cage, letting him free.
Usually, though, he dismisses the thought as quick as it comes.
Akito was, is , so much more than a key. They were each other’s other half, and once they found each other, they couldn’t go without one another ever again.
(Touya found that after that one meeting, he could never live without Akito ever again. He liked it that way, though, instead of finding it terrifying.)
Akito’s smile always lights up Touya’s world, no matter how bright it becomes.
Eventually, though, they graduated, and hand in hand, they eagerly looked towards the next step.
They continued on into high school, after that, which Touya found was much, much more difficult than middle school.
He had to talk to people - he couldn’t skip out on events anymore, because his father was rarely there to coerce the teachers to let him take the day off to practice.
For the second time in his life, Touya had to try to form relationships that would last, with people that weren’t introduced to him, but people he had to introduce himself to.
It didn’t help that he wasn’t in the same class with Akito their first year, either. Usually, the other boy was the one who would help Touya out with his social interactions, since for reasons he’d eventually opened up about, he was incredibly good at putting on a completely different personality.
If Touya was struggling to tell someone something? Akito would be right next to him, vaguely alluding to it, and helping Touya to say it himself.
Someone was making him uncomfortable? Akito would be standing between them, a sweet, almost too sweet smile on his face, talking the other person into backing off.
Initially, because of this, Touya had assumed that Akito was just much better at dealing with people than him, that he was good at talking, that he liked it.
He wasn’t completely right.
He’d come to find, over the years, that Akito was actually much quieter and calmer than he’d let on, always content to just lie again Touya’s shoulder and hum tunes with him, not saying too much.
One day, when he was walking home with Akito, Touya realised just how wrong he’d been.
Akito has never liked to talk a lot, and only became proficient at it because of his family and the way he was raised.
It had been hard to get it out of him, and Touya never pushed, but he’d eventually come to find out more about Akito’s home life.
The reason he never told Touya his last name, for at least half a year before Touya had come to his house and finally read the nameplate, was because of who his father was.
Akito’s father was never particularly soft, or kind. As an artist with two kids and a wife, he’d been struggling for most of his life to make ends meet, burning out his fire and passion in the process and also becoming somewhat famous as an artist in his own right, but apparently, he’d realised that he no longer wanted art at all.
Still, he kept going. He did his best to be a good father, and Akito has always recounted him as being so, up until the first time his sister told him she wanted to follow in his footsteps and go to art school.
“That’s when he snapped. He yelled at her for three hours, criticised her art for three more, talked her down on her passion for another two, and ripped her to shreds for the last one.”
(“After that day, he stopped talking to us as much. He withdrew himself, and suddenly, we had our mom, and because Ena didn’t give up, each and every time she tried, he’d bring her down again. She kept getting back up by herself every time, but one day, she didn’t come out of her room, and it turned to two, and then a week, and then three, and she stopped going to school for months, and I had to bang on her door and beg and scream and cry for hours on multiple days before she finally came out and told me to shut up and she’d go to fucking school if I left her the fuck alone for the rest of my life, because I was being a bother.”
“I didn't even care. She’s always said things she never meant. I started crying more because I was so damn happy she would finally get back up again and we'd go back to normal, but we never really did. She stopped talking to me, too. After that, Mom went back to her job, too, so most days after school, it was just me and a sister that left her room when I was asleep and never looked me in the eye.”
“You know, we were close. Every time something little happened, like me scrapin’ my knee or some other corny shit, I’d run to Ena, and she’d kiss me on the forehead and pick me up and put bandaids on me and tell me it’d be okay and that she loved me and that stuff.”
“She always promised me she’d love me forever and she’d always tell me so, but the last time she said that to me was four weeks before it happened. After that, even up ‘till now, she’s never even come out of her room to see me, not even when I was still playing soccer.”
“I know she watched my games, because she’d force Dad to come to my school and tape them for her, and she’d yell at him about being the worst person in the world until his eardrums broke, and he’d grunt and shake his head and say okay and she’d watch them until I would find her precious pencils in the trash because she broke them trying to rewind the tapes.”
“She never talked to me, though. I nearly forgot what my own sister sounded like because our father broke her to the point she stopped leaving the house because she had to work on her art, and still it was never good enough.”
“From around that time on, I basically raised myself, and I had to make sure Ena didn’t accidentally starve herself or die of thirst or some shit like that, and ‘cause I promised Momoi-san that I’d take care of her, so I had to learn how to talk to people.”
Touya had tried to comfort him, because Akito had had the most bittersweet expression on his face at that second, but Akito wouldn’t let him.
“It was okay, I guess. I won’t say I’m over it, ‘cuz I’m not, but it’s better now. She came back to me, kinda, eventually. On the bright side, I can work retail now.” )
After that, they never talk about his issues again, for the most part, up until a bit after the day that Touya finally cracked under the pressure again.
…
“...You won’t…perform anymore? What are you talking about, dude?”
“You know you’re shit with jokes, so stop messing around already.”
Akito’s voice is shaking, a nervous smile rising onto his lips. Touya looks at the floor. He can’t bear to look at Akito right now.
He doesn’t deserve him. Akito is so much better than him, and he can make his dream come true. Touya will just hinder him. He just joined him to spite his father, anyways. He doesn’t have the passion. Akito deserves better.
“...This isn’t a joke, Akito.”
“Hey, what’s wrong, Touya? Did your old man say something to you again? You know he’s full of shit.”
Once again, Akito’s hit the nail on the head. He’s too perceptive, maybe from a lifetime of trying to figure out how people work so as to not get hurt.
“....”
Touya braces himself.
“This is my…own decision. Our kind of music doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a bunch of kids making some noise on a street.”
The words physically hurt him to choke out, like even they know the consequences of coming out.
Touya looks up just to take a peek, and Akito’s smile has fallen. The mask is on the ground, and Touya has just stepped on it.
“Are you being serious right now?”
“You’re the one who told me I wasn’t good at making jokes.”
“That’s going way too far.”
“What do you mean, our music has no meaning? Try saying that again, to my face! I’m not going to take that, not even from you, Touya!”
“What the hell are you gonna do if you quit now, anyways?! Go crawling back to that piece of shit and let him dictate your life again after saying to me how much you hated it? How is that any more meaningful?!”
Touya knows Akito has the same habit as his sister - when he feels something strongly, he blurts things out that he doesn’t mean. Still, it hurts. Is this how Akito feels every time his sister screams at him?
Touya’s expression hardens. He has to force it to.
Akito’s gripping onto his wrist, more desperate than anything.
“...Let go of me.” He snatches his hand back, rubbing it, and turning around.
“Get back over here! We’re not done talking, Touya!”
He runs back to Touya, trying to grab him, and in the heat of the moment, Touya clasps up his fist and hits him. Right in the face.
Immediately, he’s overcome with something. A lifetime of using his hands for instruments has given him strong upper arms, and he just used those to hurt Akito.
The next words flow out of his throat faster than he can catch them, the adrenaline flooding his brain.
“Don’t you think it’s about time you grew up and stopped chasing after some tiny event that nobody outside of this town has ever heard of?”
Touya watches in real-time as Akito’s face contorts into the most terrifying expression he’s ever seen in his life, rivaling his father’s a hundred times over.
He doesn’t notice Akito balling up his fists, shaking them by his sides all the while.
“...Why, you!”
In a second, Touya hears it, the sound of something striking against his cheek.
The next, he feels it. The blood rushes to his face, but the sting is nothing compared to the pit in his stomach.
Akito’s knuckles are white as the shorter boy snarls at him.
“Fine, then, leave! And never show your pathetic face around here ever again!”
Touya decides not to grace that with a response. Akito has every right to be angry at him in the moment, but once he cools down, he’ll realise it’s for the better.
Bringing his hand to the side of his face, Touya walks away, and he leaves Akito behind.
(If it’s better this way, Touya thinks as he makes his way home, then why do I feel like this is a terrible mistake?)
…
After the worst conversation Touya has ever had in his life, he’d gone home and took a shower, leaving the bruise to turn a dark purple colour, and in the midst of drying himself off, Touya had looked down at his chest.
The mark was still there, just below his collarbone. Instead of the usual, fiery colour it was supposed to be, to Touya’s horror, it was the most faded he’d ever seen it.
What used to be a brightly burning red shade had withered down to a sad, greyish-pink tone, filled with so many cracks it looked like it could just split down the middle with one wrong move, and worst of all, completely still, refusing to beat with life. Almost defeated .
It’s…it will be fine. It’ll be okay, right? Every time they get down, they always get better. But…usually, it’s never this bad. I…
Looking over it, bringing a calloused fingertip to the heart, Touya made soft circles on his own skin.
I hate to let myself think this. I shouldn’t be.
…It feels a little better to know someone else, out there, is feeling the same kind of misery I am.
Somehow, it brings him a little comfort to know that even someone like his soulmate, who clearly has the fire for life that Touya doesn’t ( not anymore , his brain unhelpfully supplies), can feel like he does.
Who are you?
…
The week after they’ve properly apologised to each other and addressed Touya’s concerns and fear, things settle back down.
At least, everyone else seems to think so.
Touya can’t really explain it, but something’s wrong with Akito. He’s not the same.
He’s acting the same as usual. Nothing is strange with that.
It just feels off, somehow.
Touya has never been the confrontational type, though, so he patiently waits.
And waits.
And waits.
And waits , until it’s been three weeks and the spark in Akito’s eyes is still dull and exhausted.
And still, Touya, the coward he is, waits, hoping for the issue to just go away.
Waits until the day during practice at Weekend Garage where Shiraishi is playfully teasing Akito, and he’s talking with Azusawa about music theory, and Akito hits the breaking point.
She says something, something that doesn’t seem to fly over Akito’s head like the rest of her teasing, and he pauses.
Not just pauses. He goes completely still. Stops stirring his drink, stops talking, just lets himself go completely slack, and wears an expression so unlike Akito that Touya has to rub his eyes to check that it’s the same boy he’s been attached at the hip to since middle school.
It’s weary, and tired, and completely dead.
Unlike Akito, who probably would have started yelling at Shiraishi, he just picks up his bag, leaves a few coins for the coffee on the counter, and runs out.
She stares at the money and the empty seat like someone just told her that someone ran over her cat.
Then, she looks towards Touya, who’s completely frozen stiff.
“...He knows Dad gives us shit for free, right? Did I tick him off that badly…?”
“An-chan, I don’t think it’s your fault. He takes that kind of stuff just fine usually, right?”
“Yeah, he does. Hey, Touya, what’s up with him?”
“...I…I’ll go find him.”
With that, Touya rises from his seat and then practically sprints out the door, nearly breaking an arm in the process from how hard he swings it open.
Where could he have gone?
Not SEKAI, he’d have to talk to one of them. It’s Saturday, so school isn’t open today. There are too many people at the record shop on the weekend, and he just ate, so no cafes either.
Maybe his house?
Almost as if on cue, his phone starts ringing violently in his pocket, and Touya pulls it out to decline it, because Akito takes priority over anything else, but it’s Ena.
Without hesitation, he accepts it.
“Ena-san?”
“ Hey, aibou-kun. What’s up with him? He ran right through the entryway and locked the door to his room. I was trying to stop him, but he told me to piss off.”
“I don’t know either. I’m coming over right now to talk to him, so please wait for me.”
“...Huh. Got it, then. Door’s unlocked. Hurry up before someone robs us or something.”
Even as she makes the joke, her tone is filled with nothing but concern.
After she hangs up on him, Touya runs . He goes so fast he’s probably exhausted all his energy for a lifetime, but he manages to get to the Shinonomes’ house in about eight minutes, and he quickly walks in, waving to Ena as she moves to lock the door, and he hurriedly walks to Akito’s door.
He knocks.
No response.
He knocks again.
“Go away.”
He knocks one more time.
Suddenly, the door swings open so hard it almost crashes into the wall, and there’s Akito.
His eyes are red and puffy, and there are fresh tears rolling off his cheeks when he opens it.
“Ena, I told you to leave me the fuck alone , why can’t you fucking just-”
Akito looks up at him, halfway through his sentence, voice cracking, green eyes widening.
“...Touya?”
“...Akito, are you okay?”
“Go away, Touya. You deserve better.”
He nearly closes the door in Touya’s face, but Touya reaches for Akito’s arm.
“Akito, I want to help you. Something’s clearly not right.”
“Yeah, and you don’t need to. Go home.”
“Not until I make sure that you’re alright.”
“I’ll be fine, Touya.”
“No, you won’t be.”
“You’re wasting your time.”
“I’m not.”
“...Fine.”
Akito tugs him into his room, and Touya feels a sense of relief wash over him.
He’s letting me help him.
Touya sits down on the floor as Akito shuffles over to plop down on his bed.
It’s quiet for a few minutes, before Touya gently pushes.
“Akito?”
“...Mmph.” Akito’s face is buried into a pillow. Touya resists the urge to shake him for answers.
“ Akito .”
“...Fine, okay, uh, give me a second, I’m not good at explaining things.”
Touya nods patiently as Akito fumbles over his words.
“S-so, you remember that night, right?”
How could Touya ever forget? The guilt from that day is engraved into Touya’s entire being.
“I’m sorry-”
“No, don’t say sorry to me, I’m not gonna take it. It’s my fault for getting so angry at you when you needed support instead, so I’m sorry, but we’ve gone over this already.”
“After you went, I kinda just stood there for a while and then walked home, I guess? I don’t really remember.”
Akito fiddles with his fingers, looking away from Touya as he opens his mouth.
“When I did, though, I took my shoes off and stuff, and then Ena nearly knocked me over because she was running out the front door, something about Asahina-san going missing, and it was the first time in weeks that she’s come out of her room while I’m awake, and she didn’t even look at me and I know she had some kind of emergency but Mom and Dad weren’t home and I was just standing there in the hall like an idiot ‘cause I was by myself and I think something broke in me, because I started cryin’ like a baby and I just kept thinking, I’m all alone now , and I’m happy n’ all, that we’re good again, but I guess it just feels like you’re gonna up and leave me again ‘cause I’m not good enough-”
Akito cuts himself off, voice trailing quieter and quieter as he curls into himself.
“I…Akito, I can promise you I won’t leave.”
“You tried to.”
“It was because I thought I wasn’t good enough for you, Akito. Never the other way.”
“...Hey, partner.”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why would someone like you want to stay with someone like me ?”
Touya’s suddenly overwhelmed with the thought of what his partner’s been going through, been carrying on his shoulders for all this time. For once, there are countless things he wants to say running through his head.
I’m not going to run away again.
I won’t leave you again.
I never want to leave you alone ever again, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for leaving the first time.
I don’t want to see you hurting.
What comes out of his mouth, in the end, is something completely different than any of those.
Touya’s pretty sure he’s crying himself, but so is Akito, and he wraps his arms around the fire that’s kept him warm for so long; the one that’s about to go out, and he has to rekindle. He’ll do it as many times as he has to, forever.
He wants to see the stars in Akito’s eyes glowing as brightly as they can, he wants to see Akito’s soft smiles in the sunset, he wants to lie next to Akito during the long nights and brush away his worries. He’ll do it and more, if only Akito lets him.
“I’m in love with you, Akito.”
Wait, what did I just say?
I’m in love with Akito?
Turning his head so fast Touya thinks Akito might get whiplash, he’s met with teary, lidded green eyes, so beautiful and vast Touya might lose himself in them, and the spark is shining back to life all of a sudden, and-
He’s so beautiful. Worth everything and more.
Oh. I do love him.
Suddenly, it all feels so real , and it all makes sense.
He returns to the real world, and Akito’s frozen.
Ah.
This isn’t a fairytale, Touya realises.
He probably doesn’t have feelings for me like that.
It’s okay. I just want to stay next to him, forever, and it doesn’t matter if we stay friends.
Faintly, Touya thinks he’d grieve over the loss of something more that could be, but as long as he can be with Akito, it doesn’t matter to him how.
“If you don’t feel the same, I-”
There’s a warm hand clasped over his mouth the next second.
He looks to Akito, confused.
To his surprise, Akito has a flush high on his cheeks, pink all over.
“I-I. Touya?”
“Mhm?”
“Shut up for a second, okay?”
“Huh?-”
Akito lunges forward and topples Touya over, pushing the taller boy back onto the bed, and presses his lips onto his.
The kiss itself is wet and messy, and there are still a few droplets left on Akito’s cheeks, and they’re falling onto Touya’s, but Touya doesn’t care.
His hands find the small of Akito’s back, tracing soothing circles into it as Akito’s hands cup his cheeks and pull him closer.
Touya finds he doesn’t really want to stop. Akito doesn’t give him a chance, either.
He reaches out his tongue to explore a little, and Akito’s pulls his closer, and over time, he gets bolder and licks the inside of Akito’s mouth, which is what finally makes them pull apart for breath.
Akito squeaks, gasping for breath, the flush on his cheeks turned almost as bright a colour as his hair.
Touya’s not doing much better, either - his lungs could burst right now, it feels like, and his own face is probably like a tomato.
Still, he wants more, but only if Akito does, too.
“Haah…Akito, can I..?” He motions to the other boy’s collar, and feverishly, Akito nods at him, pawing at it himself, pulling it down and letting himself be turned over by Touya, who takes a breath and dives in, leaving kisses all over his collarbone, until he sees something.
There’s a mark, mirroring exactly where Touya’s is, and it’s a matching little blue heart. Mentally, he gapes at it.
Once they finally break off again, Akito puts his face into his hands, and Touya presses him a kiss to his forehead.
“Akito?”
“...This is so embarrassing, dude…” Akito groans.
“First I start crying like a little kid ‘cause I didn’t want ya to leave me, and the next we’re making out like we’re on fire, and it’s so unfair ‘cause you’re so pretty and- and I…I..”
Akito looks up at him, a hopeful glint in his eyes.
Quietly, he sits on his knees and shuffles a bit.
“I love you too, Touya.”
Touya feels the blood rushing to his ears just as quickly as he notices the heart below Akito’s collarbone changing to a golden colour, and he pulls down his own shirt to look at his own mark, because he has a hunch,
and Akito goes from confused to shell-shocked to joy in a matter of seconds, and Touya has the honour of watching it as his own heart changes and they look at each other and it clicks.
“See? Even fate says I won’t leave, Akito. I want to be with you forever.”
“I don’t wanna hear it from ‘fate’, Touya, I wanna hear it from you.”
“Then, if you’ll have me…?”
“Mhm.”
…
Touya still, to this day, doesn’t quite believe in soulmates, even when he and his beautiful, perfect, boyfriend are living proof, but he likes to think it was them who made it here.
Impulsively, he leans over and gives Akito a peck on the lips.
“I love you.”
“W-wha? Where did that come from, dude, seriously…”
Akito covers his mouth, going a pinkish colour.
“...Love you too.”
Shiraishi slaps Akito on the back hard enough that he doubles over, laughing at him as Azusawa softly scolds her.
“Dude, get a room!”
“An-chan, you honestly can’t be talking..”
“Kohaneeee!! What’s that supposed to mean?”
The girls’ laughter fades into the background as Akito fumbles for Touya’s hand, clasping his around Touya’s, and Touya feels happier than ever.