Chapter Text
With the holidays looming close comes the worst time of the year for Chishiya: December.
December means cold weather, long days with only a few hours of natural light, his birthday, and worst of all: Christmas vacations.
Some years, he’s lucky enough to be invited to join Kuina’s family vacations. Ever since his parents tried to get Kuina back into their lives, everything got better for them and Chishiya—as the young med student who had spent countless hours by Kuina’s side—the invitation tended to get extended to him.
Other years, he gets stuck in the hospital and can avoid any kind of public or social gatherings. That tends to be his favorite plan, even if it means dealing with the Christmas season inside a pediatric ward, which is never easy to do.
But at least it means not seeing his family, which is always a big win for him.
When Chishiya walks in the kitchen in the morning that day, duffel bag already over his shoulder, Niragi is there. Not like he’s surprised, Niragi lives here after all, but their schedules don’t tend to match.
“Morning,” he grunts, still half asleep.
All Niragi offers him is a groan. He looks equally tired and disheveled as Chishiya feels.
“What are your plans?” Chishiya asks, eying the calendar they have attached to their fridge, before opening the door to fetch the milk. “Anything special?”
He turns around to look at Niragi over his shoulder.
Niragi is lounging around, filling a mug with what seems to be his fourth coffee of the day, judging by how empty the jar already is. Or maybe it’s still the night for him. Chishiya is never sure about Niragi's schedule. If he woke up early or has yet to go to bed, it can be either with him.
“Uh?” It’s the coherent answer he receives.
While he’s trying to conjure a coherent tought, Chishiya starts fighting with a kettle, trying to make himself some tea to get ready for his guard at the hospital. Having a conversation with Niragi is the last thing he wants to do right now, he would gladly eat something and fall in bed until the next day and ignore his work.
But, for some reason, he tries to be a civilized roommate these days. For some reason, being civil has been easy since September.
“Christmas is around the corner. What are your plans?” and being civil includes having normal chats with Niragi from time to time. Or trying at least. Not like he's good at having conversations with Niragi.
“Stay here? What are you planning on, kicking me out or something?”
He sips from his stupid mug, one of Karube’s secret friends gifts, so of course it has a sex joke on it. What is kind of ironic, taking into account the kind of people who live in this apartment.
“Does everyone have plans this year?”
“Kuina and Ann are going to a couple vacations. Chota and Tatta have family plans with their moms,” he says, lifting a finger each time he mentions one of their friends. “Karube and Emi are going to her family place this year, you know, with the wedding so close, she wants to spend time with her parents. Usagi is taking Arisu with her and her dad on some trip in the mountain,” Niragi’s face twists into a snarl. Arisu is one of the few people he willingly hangs out with, so there goes his only chance to not spend the holidays alone. “And even if Aguni or Heiya were in town, I would rather shoot my brains off than spend Christmas with them.”
So no one will be around this year.
Usually, at least one of their friends stays around.
Niragi has been invited to multiple family gatherings in the past years. Like the class pet kids take home watch weekend, their friends raffle who gets Niragi so he’s not left alone during big days like Christmas. It’s better than rotting inside his bedroom during the oh-so-joyous festivities. But it seems like he ran out of luck this year.
“What about you?”
“I don’t know, family stuff maybe,” Chishiya’s face reflects Niragi’s expression. Neither of them had good prospects about the holidays then. Family means nothing to people like them. “Fancy meeting with my parents and aunts. Charity event with their friends from the med circle, the usual.”
“So, rich people problem?”
“If I chose to go, yeah,” he grabs the thermos with his tea, his bag, and heads for the door.
“Want me to drive you?”
Niragi's question catches him in the middle of tying the lace of his shoes. He looks over his shoulder to find Niragi behind him in the hallway. In the dim light of the morning, he looks like a ghost.
“Have you slept yet?”
“I can sleep after driving you to the hospital.”
So that’s a no. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Niragi has been awake for more than 24 hours already.
“Thank you, but I’d rather catch the bus than get in the car with your sleep-deprived ass.”
Niragi looks at him for a moment, blinking behind his glasses.
“Sure.” Niragi says, walking away from the entry and back to his room. “Get some milk on your way back!”
Before he can complain about how it’s not his turn for groceries, Niragi slams the door to his room closed and disappears.
Whatever.
He’s already running late if he wants to catch the bus, so he rushes outside for a long day.
The ride is calm and not too busy in the early morning. Chishiya spends it listening to a podcast, leaning against a window and counting down the stops until he arrives at the right one.
The university hospital is already busting with activity and peace the last few minutes Chishiya has between getting down from the bus and arriving at the dressing room. As soon as he’s in there, there’s a knock on the door, and when Chishiya opens it, he finds his mentor waiting for him.
“Chishiya,” Doctor Niyata looks tense and worried, and that’s not a good thing to face first thing in the morning, not when his shift has not even started yet. But she looks at him like something terrible is about to happen. Nothing gets past his mentor, she’s as stoic as it can get, so this must be bad. “Your mother is here.”
Of course that’s it.
No one in this hospital is stupid enough to not be terrified of a Chishiya playing them a visit. It’s never good news when his family arrives to a place.
“Where is she?”
“I lent her my office so she could talk to you. She requests your presence.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
“Good luck, kid,” she says, offering him a reassuring smile. “Come find me when you’re done, we’ll do the usual checkup round.”
She closes the door behind her, leaving Chishiya to change into his scrubs and get lost in his thoughts.
His mother's presence is never a good thing, but it is the lesser of two evils.
At least, it’s not his father, she’s slightly easier to talk to.
It takes him another five minutes to get changed and head for the pediatric guard where Dr. Niyata's office is. He knocks on the door and waits for his mother to give him permission to enter.
“Come in,” her voice says from the other side of the door, and Chishiya takes a deep breath before following suit.
Juri Chishiya waits for him like she owns the place, looking at the endless rows of drawings hanging from the walls, indifferent and cold, like the gifts are offending her personally.
“I never liked the pediatric guard,” she says. “Kids, as a whole.”
He knows she spent plenty of time making sure Chishiya knew about her disdain for kids, always treating her own son like a little adult instead of a child.
“Mother, you wanted to see me?”
She turns around to face him.
She looks perfect, as she always does. Three-piece’ suit, perfect makeup, not one hair out of place. She’s the live image of control and perfection. And she observes her son like she’s just watching the dirt under her shoes, lips pursed in a scowl when she notices that his hair is still white and his scrubs are wrinkled.
His mother crosses her arms in front of her chest, fingers tapping against her arm in a strange rhythm as she observes him. In the hospital uniform, she can’t complain about Chishiya’s choice of clothing. She doesn’t know he came here after throwing a hoodie over his pajamas, and she’ll never know, but she can still complain about everything else.
“Doctor Niyata told me you lost your first patient.”
Such an opener for this talk.
The words stab him all the way through the chest, sharp and unexpected. His parents don’t keep up with Chishiya patients. They couldn’t care less as long as he performs well.
Maybe a non-successful operation put him under their radar. Maybe it’s just his mother attempting to break the ice and start a conversation.
“Yes, mother.”
“Did you pay your respects to the family?”
“They asked me to attend the funeral,” he says, trying to sound more grounded than he really feels. “I, of course, indulged.”
She tilts her head to the side, searching for a lie, and finds nothing.
“You’ll get used to it soon enough, I hope. It wouldn’t be good if you don’t.”
“Of course, Mother.”
“It’s a necessary step for everyone in this field,” coming from someone else, for an outside perspective, it could have sounded like words of comfort. But coming from his mother, Chishiya knows it’s just a mocking gesture.
And I told you so for not going down the road she suggested for him.
He chose a path where people die under his hands more often than not, and it’s his fault.
“You cried?”
“No.”
He doesn’t tell him about how he doesn’t even remember making it back home.
“Good.”
He doesn’t tell her about Niragi’s hand lingering over his back as dirt covered a grave.
About the white flowers he bought for his mother and shared with a stranger.
About the drive home taking longer than it should. About the turns and detours Niragi drove them through to avoid going back to a silent house after the funeral.
He swallows all those truths, just for him to know.
He’ll get used to it.
He has to.
“What are you doing here, Mother?”
“Am I not allowed to visit my son?”
“We both know that you wouldn’t be here without further intentions, Mother.”
She wouldn’t lose her time for him, not now, not ever.
“Are you coming with us this year, Shuntaro?” she finally asks.
She leans against doctor Niyata’s desk, sitting on the edge of the table. Her nails now tap rhythmically over the surface.
“It’s been what? Two years since you last attended?”
“Yes, mother.”
“And you think that’s normal behavior?”
The answer burns on the tip of his tongue, but he shoves his hands inside his pockets and squares his shoulders, swallowing the venom he wants to spit on her face.
“No.”
“Then, you’ll join us this year, Shuntaro?”
There’s not a once of warmth in her voice.
It’s not about missing his company. It’s not about wanting him there with them out of the love they hold for him.
It’s about Chishiya being there when the photographs make it to the front page. About the heir of the Chishiya empire being there with his beloved parents and family.
It’s about public image, not about him.
His mother knows what people would say if he keeps missing this kind of event.
He looks at the woman who was supposed to raise him and thinks of Kuina’s mother, warm and gentle even in sickness. He thinks of Tatta’s mother, laughing as she shared embarrassing tales of her child. He thinks of Niragi’s mother, who never got to know who her son really was but loved him nevertheless.
Chishiya thinks of those women and looks at his cold and stoic mother and how she only wants him for ploy.
“I’ll go with one condition,” he says before he can help it. Because, sadly, he still needs their money. He still needs to finish his residence and build something for himself before his parents can demolish it. He can stand on his own yet. But he can play too. He can demand, if he doesn’t have what everyone else gets for granted in a parent, he’ll at least try to demand and fight for scraps.
“Now you’re playing the condition card?”
“Mother.”
“Fine,” she waves him off like it’s nothing, leaning against the table. “What do you want now?”
Now.
Like he’s always asking for favors.
He didn’t ask for his career and apartment, and for his life, he never asked for anything. Chishiya only held up his hands palm up to his parents and waited for them to choose what future to place on them.
“I want to take someone with me.”
“That’s it?” she asks, eyebrow arched. A smile tugs the corner of her lip, condescending and prideful. “That’s all it takes? You could have said it sooner, Shuntaro. Who is it? That friend of yours? The shop attendant?”
“No, Mother, it’s not Kuina.”
“Who then?”
He hates those who look at him.
He hates that look, like she knows that Chishiya doesn’t have more people. That he’s lonely and sealed from the world. Like she’s testing him to lie, waiting for the façade to drop.
She thinks that Chishiya doesn’t really have anyone important enough to use as a bargaining chip. He can see her plotting her own son's demise. She must think that this is all Chishiya’s master plan to skip one more year. She thinks that Chishiya said it with the idea of his mother saying no to his condition.
And he hates it.
He hates her for being right, for still being able to read him so well when he barely knows Chishiya.
She doesn’t know about homemade meals and being offered to drive him around just so he doesn’t have to deal with the overwhelming feeling of a busy bus.
“My boyfriend.”
Chishiya has been avoiding the elephant in the room for two days already. Niragi and he talk to each other in the casual way they always do, they share a space and a home and meals, and Chishiya still can’t find the way to drop the question. Today he woke up with the deadline knocking on his door in the shape of an email from his mother.
So maybe this is the time, now that they’re locked together inside Chishiya’s bathroom.
Niragi is busy trying to fix the black roots that are starting to show between Chishiya’s white, fried hair. Chishiya sits on the cold tiles of his bathroom, scrolling mindlessly on his phone while Niragi hums to some English rock song. He’s behind him, using the toilet as a chair and parting his hair into sections.
They’re silent except for the music playing from Niragi’s phone, one of his endless playlists. It’s a nice afternoon, it would be if not for the email weighing down Chishiya’s shoulders. Silent but calm, because they don’t need to even speak to each other, and that’s fine. They work well ignoring each other’s presence even when doing each other a favor. They haven’t even fought in a few days, that’s nice.
“Still have no plans for the holidays?”
On the screen of his phone, the date seems to mock him. December 13 is already way too close to Christmas for Chishiya's liking.
“Kyuma called me,” Niragi says. “Told me to join the band for a few days in Nagasaki.”
Fuck.
If he has to call his parents, he knows he’d rather bury himself six feet under.
“And?”
“Told them to fuck off and hire a real sound technician,” he laughs, hands still combing Chishiya’s hair. “I love them, but I spent enough years sleeping on their couch. I didn’t feel like spending Christmas with them.”
Learning how close Niragi actually was with The Sology had been weird. They weren’t just the weird guys who had given Niragi a job, they were the people who had offered him a place to stay at night when going home was out of the picture, and who knows what more. Niragi hadn’t told him about it, not in detail, but Uta and Shitara had yapped a lot about little Niragi the day they visited.
Kyuma is in Suguru terms with Niragi, and that's something not even Kuina does. The man sees Chishiya's roommate as a young and anoying sibbling, and Chishiya is not sure about wanting to know why Niragi was sleeping in the Sology's couch when he was a kid.
“Why? Suddenly interested in my life?”
“Come with me,” he says before he can even think about it or loses the courage to ask.
“Excuse me?”
With Chishiya sitting between his legs, none of them have much room to move, so he stays there, looking at the date blinking on his phone.
“Holidays. Christmas. You have nothing better to do,” he says with a shrug, pushing his phone away so he doesn’t have to see his future blinking on the screen. “Come to Hokkaido with me.”
He looks over his shoulder to face Niragi, and his roommate just shoves him away, making Chishiya’s head turn around so he doesn’t mess up his work.
“Why me?”
“You said it, everyone else is busy this year.”
“Try again,” Niragi laughs. “The truth this time.”
Good point, they know each other far too well.
“Rumors fly fast in hospitals,” Chishiya offers as an explanation. “Nurses or other staff hear it. It spreads like a virus, and between colleges and connections, it reaches everywhere.”
He can’t see Niragi, but he feels his eyes burning at his back, looking at him like Chishiya is crazy. He hears the clatter of Niragi dropping the small plastic bowl, and then Chishiya knows for sure he’s rubbing his temples, letting out a long sigh.
“Your parents know.”
“My parents know," there’s no trying to hide it. Chishiya is not happy about the way his stupid lie during that party spiraled out of control. How somehow, both of them have been using it as an excuse for so many things that now everyone knows.
Everyone knowing doesn’t make it less of a lie, but Chishiya still hates it. He is a liar first and a person later most of the time, but this one is a lie he could live without.
When his father called him demanding information about that supposed boyfriend, Chishiya knew they were doomed. He screamed about how, somehow, even his aunts knew about it before him. They had heard it from a coworker, who had heard it from an anesthetist who had heard it from a nurse who was friends with one of the pediatric guard nurses at the University Hospital.
He could have told her that it wasn’t true, but there wasn’t a way back once his family knew something.
“Tell them we broke up then. That you dumped me or whatever you want,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t give a fuck about what they may think of me.”
“That’s not the problem.”
“Then what?”
“I may, or may not,” because he loses his cool when it comes to his parents, “told them that they either invite my boyfriend for the holidays or I’m not going.”
Chishiya turns around in the exact moment that Niragi’s face drops. He stares at him, eyes wide open behind his stupidly big glasses.
It’s not my fault, he wants to say. He hadn’t expected his mother in the hospital. His mother had no reason to visit him, and yet she had been there.
“You told them what?”
“She came to ask about how I was doing and remind me about the holidays,” he says, resting his weight against the cabinet at his side. “She told me that she wanted me there and the usual, and I really did not want to go, so I told them that they either invited you or they could forget about me.”
He’s met with more silence.
“I thought they would say no, of course, tell me to stay in Tokyo, and complain about me,” like they always do, goes unsaid. “But she just asked me your name to add to the guest list.”
Niragi is still looking at him like Chishiya grew a second head. And well, he gets it, his family is not something they talk about on the daily.
“Your parents invited me to their rich assholes vacations?”
“Well, it seems so.” He should have asked Niragi sooner. Or tell his mother the truth. But his pride is too big for that, and the Chishiyas are far too good with lies and deception. “She just sent me our plane tickets.”
“My plane ticket?”
“For everyone's surprise, they accepted,” he tells him. “They want you there, for some reason they want to meet my boyfriend.”
He cringes at the world and at the idea of Niragi of all people being the one behind it. He’s the least boyfriend material person he has ever met.
“I’m not the kind of person rich people like. You know it, right?”
“Well, yes. They’re going to hate you.”
“And how does that concern me?”
“Let me rephrase it,” Chishiya says. “My parents will hate you, and that’s exactly how I want them to feel.”
“And you’re telling me this because…”
“Because they will loathe you as much as I do, we’re family after all,” Chishiya says, leaning back to rest his hands against the cold floor. He looks stupid, with his hair parted in all directions and his stained dye shirt on. “I’ve done all they tell me. I’m on my way to becoming a big and rich surgeon. I’m honoring the Chishiya’s doctors bloodline. And then, I show up at their fancy Christmas party hanging from the arm of a scumbag idiot who looks straight out of juvie.”
Niragi’s eyebrow arches behind his bangs, and that’s the exact moment Chishiya knows he has him. All that comes now is Niragi playing hard to get.
“What’s for me if I go?”
“You get to spend the holidays at a resort in Hokkaido,” Chishiya says. “All paid by my incredibly kind parents.”
“So I get free food, free vacations, and I make rich people waste their money on me?”
“Yeah, if they want me to go, they’ll have to add you to the bill. The plane tickets are first class. Have you ever traveled first class?”
“I have never set a foot out of Tokyo,” Niragi says with a shrug of his shoulders. “Much less been in a place.”
Sometimes, Chishiya forgets how different their upbringings are.
“Well, you don’t want to discover how it feels like? To have a fancy vacation?”
Niragi hums, fingers tapping against his arm.
“And I just need to pester them?”
“You only have to drive them mad in exchange for a fully paid vacation.” There’s a small pause, and Chishiya’s smile grows wider. “Consider it my birthday present, since you forgot about it.”
Niragi looks at him, those dark eyes focused on Chishiya’s face. Slowly, a smile grows on his face too, matching Chishiya’s one.
“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t care,” he says. “But we got a deal,” but he offers Chishiya his hand. “Sing me in.”
Chishiya doesn’t shake his hand, because it’s covered in bleach, but he does laugh as he turns around so Niragi can finish his work.
“That was easy.”
“You said it, I have nothing better to do with my poor person life.”
They don’t talk about how intimate it feels, so sit on the floor between the other’s legs. To have long fingers combing his hair with care and precision. The elephant in the room gets ignored one more time, and they just keep going.
It’s going to be the most interesting December since Chishiya can remember, that for sure.
One week and three days later, they arrive at Sapporo’s airport early in the afternoon. Chishiya rents a car in his parent’s name and credit card, throws his things in the trunk, and jumps on the passenger seat, leaving the driving to Niragi, who looks one second away from falling asleep on his feet.
Chishiya always hated traveling, especially by plane. It means waking up way too early, and with Niragi's paranoid ass being his companion, they made it to Tokyo airport two hours ahead of time just in case. And Niragi spent the whole flight clinging to his seat until his nails got permanently engraved into the fabric of it, turned green at least three times, and had to knock one of his sleeping pills so he could finish the trip without throwing up.
Weak.
“You know, someday you could pull your license to use,” Niragi complains as he takes the driver's seat. At least he’s awake now, the expensive café he made Chishiya pay for shaking the dizziness from his medication. “I don’t even know where we’re going.”
“You made me rent a manual car, Niragi. I don’t know how to drive this thing.”
Niragi rolls his eyes at him, of course, the rich boy can only drive automatic.
“You drive, and I give indications.” Chishiya tucks his legs under his body and turns on the car heater. They just arrived in the north, and he’s already freezing. “Follow that taxi out of the airport and get on the highway.”
“If you get us lost in the middle of the mountains, I’m cannibalizing you.”
“I’m the one here who knows how to cut a body, Niragi,” Chishiya says, fingers tapping against his leg. “Be a good boyfriend and drive me around, okay?”
Niragi rolls his eyes but keeps his focus on the road. His hands go for the radio, and he turns on a random station, like he can’t spend more than a minute in silence with his thoughts.
Chishiya only interrupts the music to give indications, and Niragi complains about how late Chishiya is to indicate the turns and about the ride being longer than he expected.
It takes almost ninety minutes for Chishiya to point to a small road that leads up a mountain and into a giant set of iron gates that open on their own and allow Niragi to keep going up the road until the resort appears in front of them.
“You said we were spending the holidays in a resort,” Niragi says, looking at the building.
“Yes?”
“Chishiya, this is not a resort. This is a fucking mansion.”
“Well, it’s a private resort.”
They’re in front of a three-story house with a wraparound porch and a whole forest as a backyard. This is not the fancy hotel Niragi was expecting. This is out of a horror film. He’s about to step inside The Shining.
And Chishiya hasn’t told him yet about the private access to the lake beach, even if that one is more useful in summer.
“Your parents rented this thing?”
“You know they’re rich.”
But it seems he was overlooking how rich a whole family of doctors can be. Yes, the Chishiya family owns a private hospital, but there are things that still shock him to this day. Things too big for a guy who had two part-time jobs at sixteen to understand.
There’s a second fence in front of them that opens after a few minutes of Chishiya messing with his phone, and Niragi drives the car under a half roof, next to two other cars. Only that those scream luxury, and he is too tempted to pull off his keys and do some damage, but maybe he should leave that for when the vacations are over.
Stab some tires, break some windows, steal all their toiletries.
After all, Chishiya told him that he’s allowed to be on his worst behavior.
“Think of it like this: no one else will bother us, only my family and the friends they invite over.”
“That doesn’t make it better, I’m locked here with a bunch of Chishiyas.”
“Five to be exact,” he says. “My parents, my two aunts, and me.”
“Are all Chishiya’s short and annoying?”
“Yes.”
Chishiya shrugs and steps out of the car, pretty content inside his warm bundle of layers. He doesn’t like the cold, so he prepared for it. Niragi, on the other side, is wrapped in his ratty leather jacket, shivering to the bone as they walk to the trunk to get their bags.
When he turns around to face him, Niragi’s nose is red, and so are his ears. Chishiya raises his arms with a sigh. He blows warm air into his hands and tries to cover the stupid amount of metal that lines Niragi’s ears with his gloved hands.
“You should take those off before you freeze to death, by the way,” he tells him, ignoring Niragi's complaints. “Your tongue will fall off.”
“How would I piss off your family then?”
“Believe me, they’ll hate you at first sight, talking or not.”
Because Niragi is good at playing his part.
Instead of his usual lazy clothes—that would also work to piss his parents off—he’s dressed in the same way he used to do for college parties or when Kuina chose his outfit. Ripped jeans, a band t-shirt, smuggled eyeliner, and a leather jacket that does nothing to conceal the cold wind. He’s taking this too seriously, and Chishiya finds it hilarious and almost cute. Once the teacher’s pet, always the teacher’s pet, trying to get the best grades at annoyance.
“I’m fine.”
“Sure thing, Rudolph.”
He can feel how cold the metal is under his hands, even through his gloves. The line of rings that cover Niragi’s ears is freezing, the skin around them starting to get red. He moves his thumbs to press against the sides of Niragi’s nose, trying to keep some warmth there too.
Niragi stares at him and blinks slowly. Between them, white puffs of air emerge from their lips, and, after what feels like a year, Niragi takes his eyes away.
“Let’s get inside.” Chishiya’s hands fall back to his sides. He buries them deep into his pockets, but Niragi stops him from doing so.
He reaches for Chishiya’s arm, grabbing him and making him turn around again.
“Wait!”
Niragi looks shy all of a sudden.
Or maybe it doesn’t, Chishiya can’t tell if the redness of his cheeks is him blushing or due to the cold.
“What should I call you in front of your parents?”
“Is that the big question?”
“It’s important!”
They’re faking something. The least they can do is make it believable. They haven’t really planned anything, they don't need too. They know each other enough to pull it off. They’re not strangers as much as they like to pretend they are, so they can pull this off without a problem. The only thing they agreed on, is saying that they started dating around a year ago, so it seems suitable for Chishiya to want to introduce him to his parents. What is convenient, because Chishiya stayed in Tokyo last year during the holydays, sayinf that he had work to attend at the hospital. It's easier to twist the truth into I wanted to spend our first Christmas as a couple together.
“If you’re planning to call me pookie, I’m dropping your ass in the snow and letting you freeze.”
Niragi rolls his eyes and smiles at him. His fingers curl tighter around Chishiya’s wrist, preventing him from getting away. “I was thinking about Shuntaro.”
He stays still for a moment. Even after all those years, they barely use each other's names. They’ve always been Chishiya and Niragi, nothing less, nothing more.
“Should I call you Suguru then?” He volleys back because he’s not going to answer any questions if he can avoid it.
He can see how Niragi’s face falls for a moment, maybe because he’s not used to his own name. It sounds weird, hearing it out loud now that he thinks about it. He can only remember Kuina using it a few times in the past years.
Chishiya is more used to being Shuntaro, with his parents and all, but Niragi is just Niragi most of the time. He can count with one hand the people who have called him Suguru, it feels raw and intimate and weird.
He always introduces himself as just Niragi, and he has been Niragi Suguru for a few years. Way less than he was the person he buried next to his mother, the name feels almost strange in someone else's tongue, especially Chishiya’s, especially when not even his mom knew him as Suguru.
“What will your parents hate more?”
“I don’t know, it’s the first time I bring someone home, it’s not like he has an active dating life. Niragi is a weird and fake exception to the norm. “But you’d better call me Shuntaro, or five different heads will turn in your direction when you call me.”
“That’s a good point.”
“So… first-name basis?”
“Sure,” but he can hear the hesitation in Niragi’s voice. “Suguru and Shuntaro.”
Chishiya ignores the twist in his stomach when he realizes that their names do actually sound nice together. He pushes the thought to the back of his head and starts walking to the door.
He hands Niragi their bags so he can fumble with the keys, and the door opens to reveal a big hall, with a crystal chandelier hanging over their heads.
“Close your mouth before you catch flies.”
“In the middle of December?”
Chishiya kicks him and kicks off his shoes. The floor is warm, and he welcomes the sensation of feeling his toes again.
“Leave the bags there. Let’s get introductions done first.”
And he offers Niragi his hand, palm up, wriggling his fingers like little worms.
Disgusting.
But Niragi leaves his boots next to Chishiya's shoes, intertwines their fingers, and follows Chishiya to the end of the hall.
The place opens to the biggest living room Niragi has ever seen, with high ceilings and enormous windows.
Chatting to each other on the couch, Chishiya’s parents turn their heads around when they notice them at the door and silently get up to walk to them. They stand, and Niragi could found funny how he's taller than both of them, if it wasn't for how rigid Chishiya goes at his side.
“Mother, father,” Chishiya says. Niragi doesn’t know if he notices how his shoulders tense, but he gives Chishiya's hand a squeeze. “We’re here.”
Yasuharu and Juri Chishiya look at them like two falcons about to rip a small mouse to shreds. When his eyes land on the woman, it feels almost uncanny how similar she looks to Chishiya. She is like an older version of his roommate, just more mature and refined. Or maybe more dry, like they had sucked the life out of her.
His father reminds Niragi of Arisu's one, a proper businessman, all serious and preppy.
“Shuntaro,” the man says with a nod. “And…”
“Niragi Suguru,” Niragi says, offering the couple a small bow. “It’s a pleasure.”
And a lie.
But he’ll better behave for now if he wants to cause havoc later.
The couple looks at each other and then at their joined hands. If it’s disgust or surprise that Niragi sees on their faces, Niragi can’t tell. He knows how to read his Chishiya, not these two stone statues he has for parents.
His father just looks like he's constantly smelling shit, and his mother could have a stick up her ass with how straight she’s standing. Who wears a suit inside the house?
“Join us?” she says, pointing at the table. There are two glasses of wine and a charcuterie board over it, perfectly placed and centered. “Or do you need something?”
Niragi looks at Chishiya, but he just starts walking to the table.
Okay, questions are not suggestions, it seems.
“How was the flight?”
“It was a calm one,” Chishiya says as they sit down again. “And Suguru’s first time in a plane, right?”
“Yes,” he says, looking from Chishiya to his parents. “Thank you for paying for my ticket by the way.”
Chishiya almost wants to kick him.
Niragi's stupid ass was supposed to be mean and rude, not go into an adult-pleasing mood. Not like it matters a lot, when he can see the disgust behind his mother's face as she looks at him, but Niragi being unable to help the way he’s polite around adults is so stupid.
“Don’t mention it,” his father says, reaching for two more glasses from under the table. “You have never traveled before?”
“I’ve never been outside of Tokyo, sir.”
The man only nods, not really interested at all.
His eyes move from Niragi to Chishiya, and he turns them off when they start asking him about the hospital. He only turns back in when Chishiya squeezes his hand.
“Wine?” the man is asking. Niragi is sure the bottle he’s holding is worth more than his car.
And maybe he could start dropping lore that could piss these people off.
So he leans forward so he can place a hand over the glass, blocking the man from serving him a drink.
“Sorry, I don’t drink,” he says with a smile.
“This is a good wine. You should try it.”
So condescending. Oh, the poor guy who has never tried the joy of true and good alcohol.
Disgusting.
“Father—”
“Let me rephrase it,” Niragi says. He lets go of Chishiya’s hand, resting his elbows over his legs so he can rest his chin against his hands. “I'm on antidepressants. I can't drink.”
He can see the moment the man’s face falls.
He leans back, bottle forgotten. Chishiya’s father doesn’t apologize, but he doesn’t say something else either. He just refills his own glass, and he looks back at his wife.
“Juri?”
She offers him her own glass, and they go back to ignoring Niragi’s presence.
Chishiya looks at him, eyebrow arched, and Niragi just shrugs. He could tell the truth or go with the making-himself-look-even-worse road, but with the way Chishiya’s parents are, this seems enough to annoy them. He could have gone for recovering alcoholic, but that one is a lie he doesn't feel confortable performing.
So Chishiya clears his throat and stands from the couch.
“We’ll go upstairs to unpack,” he says, and he offers his hand to Niragi again. “It’s been a long day, excuse us.”
“We’ll have dinner with the Matsukawas, your father and I,” is all his mother says. “You two can use the kitchen. We’ll be back late.”
Chishiya nods and turns around without saying more.
They make their way back to the entry, grab their bags, and Niragi follows Chishiya upstairs to the door that must be their room.
Chishiya is the first in. He throws his bags around the place and turns around to face Niragi as he closes the door. His roommate leans against it, arms crossed in front of his chest and that annoying smirk back on his face.
“What do you think?”
“About the place? Sick, I could live here,” Niragi says. “About your parents?”
Chishiya looks at him, at the way he shifts to get closer. At the way, his nose is still red from the cold. At the way he approaches and shoves his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.
“Let’s say I have a favorite Chishiya, and it’s not them.”
Chishiya’s head drops back with a laugh, he shoves Niragi away and calls him an idiot.
They’re in for a fun ride.