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Izumi blinked twice, very slow. An eager smile and plenty of cheer inviting him to come over to the couch – dim lights, warm covers and a tray of snacks almost working to misdirect his attention from the PILE of horror movies on Mika’s lap.
Okay, so maybe (probably, most likely) he’s misread the situation completely.
Maybe he was a bit too eager about the implications of a ‘home date’ and jumped two, or three, or maybe 10 steps ahead in his daydreams.
But hey, can you really blame a guy for assuming ‘wanna spend the night at my house’ means ‘let’s have sex’ and not ‘let’s do a horror movie marathon’? They’d been dating for 3 months already! Wasn’t this about time for sex?! Wasn’t it??!
He hardly watched movies, let alone horror ones to begin with!!!
“So! What kinda horror do ya like? I got the new Saw movie if ya wanna watch a bit of gore, Heretic if yer more into psychological thrillers, Exhuma if ya want folklore horror, Stopmotion if yer up to watch arthouse horror, the new Alien if ya prefer more action-y movies and Late Night with the Devil if ya want something a bit more popcorn-movie like!”
He blinked again. He had no idea what the hell Mika was talking about. Half of the words that came out of his mouth felt made up (honestly weren’t all words kinda made up if you really think about it?)
He swallowed the small sigh of dejection that was oh so close to leaving his mouth and instead just looked at Mika. At his goofy-ass grin, all excited about sharing his favorites movies from last year with him, wearing cute/lame oversized skeleton pajamas like this was a sleepover between friends and not their first night spent together as boyfriends.
He’d even prepared a whole tray of healthy snacks like cut carrots and nuts for Izumi, probably predicting he’d refuse popcorn…
It was really hard to get mad at that, even if he remained a bit disappointed.
His fault for assuming, he guessed.
At the very least he’d been thoughtful enough to bring some normal pajamas to hide the risqué lingerie he’d definitely prepared for tonight- the original plan to eventually make a sexy reveal and a whole strip-tease thing…
Next time then.
“Izu-chan?” Mika tilted his head, bright happiness diming slightly as Izumi’s prolonged silence apparently prompted worry.
“Emn, I don’t really… watch horror. Or movies in general.” He rolled his eyes slightly, walking over to the couch to sit in the spot Mika had so attentively fixed for him, allowing himself to lean against the inviting warmth of his boyfriend (and getting a small surprised jolt out of him) “I honestly don’t have the slightest idea what any of those words you just said mean, but… I would like to see whatever you like the most.”
He peeked up at Mika’s face – he was blushing a bit, his expression returning to its dazzling brightness. It made him want to smile even if he really didn’t understand a single thing about this-
“Gotcha! Then let’s watch this one!” he said, easily singling out one of the movies, the cover of the box barely revealing anything about its contents to Izumi.
Now sitting up in the couch, Izumi watched patiently as Mika put on the movie – the sudden blast of haunting music filling the silence as the menu came on the screen (along with plenty of indescribable images of blood and screams) making him jolt slightly in place.
Mika returned to his side soon enough, offering him a big toothy grin and a plate of cut veggies as he started the movie.
Feeling just a bit more unsure about the whole thing, Izumi sunk slightly into the couch-
…things were worst than he expected. The atmosphere haunting, the sounds distressing – the shadowy images on the screen making him paranoid about the next jump-scare, the next terror-
“Eek!” he flinched at the prompting of loud strings, eyes shutting close as he absolutely refused to even watch whatever horror was awaiting him-
-suddenly, tender warmth reached for his hand, a small giggle cutting through the tension.
He opened his eyes, trailing down to his hand… Mika’s warm, slightly bigger hand, wrapped comfortingly around his.
As if prompted by it, he looked up – catching a small glance from Mika, who was still giggling a bit. Just low enough not to distract from the movie-
“Didn’t know Izu-chan was one to get scared so easily” he hummed, his thumb rubbing the back of Izumi’s hand tenderly “it’s super cute…”
“I don’t-” A blush creeping up his face, he tried to prove his position by braving a glance at the screen; the dark corners implying the presence of a menace right out of his sight immediately making it fold.
He shifted his hand, desperately lacing his trembling fingers with Mika’s as he hid his face against the other’s shoulder.
“…you just picked a really scary movie is all” he tried to excuse, the warmth from Mika’s body feeling very comforting.
Mika giggled again, his hand squeezing Izumi’s reassuringly.
“…wanna change the movie?”
“N-no, it’s fine. It’s your favorite movie, right?” he mumbled, braving another glance at the screen. At the awful horror of death and blood and fear…
“A’ight, then let’s do this” Mika prompted, suddenly releasing Izumi’s hand
“H-hey!” he tried to complain, but just as he was turning around to do so, Mika was already wrapping his arm around his shoulders, pulling in closer to his chest. His other hand now reaching in to grab Izumi’s trembling hand too.
“Ain’t this better?” Mika whispered, still not wanting to interrupt the movie to much, Izumi guessed. The small drawl of his voice, soft and tingly making his heartbeats ramp up all on their own-
“…w-whatever…” Feeling himself blushing again, he hunched- shrinking his body as much as possible in Mika’s hold; his head coming to rest on his boyfriend’s shoulder as he was tenderly embraced-
The rest of the movie was a horrifying fest of body horror and impossible mind-bending situations that had him jumping and closing his eyes. But at least, it felt more bearable in Mika’s impossibly warm embrace-
Eventually, the trial was over and the lights were turned back on.
“Haha, yer still so jumpy. Was it that scary?” Mika smiled, bringing him a cup of water from the kitchen. Unlike Izumi, he looked like nothing at all had happened, the same cheery demeanor as always-
“…isn’t it scary to you?”
“Yeah, but I’m more used to it. Also, seein’ ya bein’ all cute makes it hard to be scared.” He smiled, offering him the glass of water.
“Oh, shut up.” He hissed, receiving the glass with slightly numb fingers (he’d been squeezing Mika’s hand as hard as humanly possible thorough the whole movie after all) and taking a refreshing sip. Thinking about it “…is your hand alright?”
“Uwa?”
“I… was really gripping it… didn’t it hurt?”
“Oh, yeah.” Mika mumbled as if he’d just realized, giving his hand a small look. It looked just a bit red -maybe possibly coming up with bruises? “I ain’t feel a lot of pain, so I didn’t notice- haha.”
“…sorry”
“Mn? What for? It ain’t hurt. And I was glad to hold hands with Izu-chan~” he purred, sitting on Izumi’s side with big bright eyes.
Heart drumming inside his chest, Izumi avoided the intensity of Mika’s gaze – least he’d end up throwing himself at him to kiss him.
“Ah, but what to do?” Mika suddenly started, prompting him to look back up at him “I went and rented only horror movies… I’d like to show ya somethin’ to help you calm down before bed but…”
“…I’m not a baby” he tried, but Mika only giggled.
“Ya asked me to get you a cup of water because ya didn’t wanna go to the kitchen alone”
“…shut up, don’t throw it at my face” he hissed, stomping on Mika’s foot – playful, not really hard enough to hurt.
Mika just laughed louder.
“Mn, there’s Heretic which I think its more mystery than horror so it might work… or we could watch some vids in our phone or sumthin’. It’s kinda early to go to bed right away…” he was looking up at the ceiling now, as if a good idea might be sticking up there “Dunno. Watcha think?”
He sipped at his glass of water while thinking himself.
Watching cat videos to relax felt rather tempting right now.
But it was true that it was pretty early, and it almost felt like a waste of Mika’s goodwill to not try to watch at least another movie. It wouldn’t be a full marathon but better than nothing right?
“…let’s watch Heretic” he finally decided.
“Uwe? Ya sure?” Mika’s jaw went slack in that ‘especially idiotic and terribly cute’ look he often did.
“Yeah, sure. If its not that scary…” he prefaced, unsure of what Mika’s ‘not so scary’ meant.
“Yeah! It’ll be fine, I think!”
“…so much for confidence” he huffed, giving him a small elbow to the ribs as to prompt him to put on the movie.
The lights dimmed out again – but he still could see the impossibly happy look in Mika’s face as he returned to the couch with him.
…yeah, being scared might be worth it.
…
As Mika said, the second movie wasn’t nearly as scary as the first. At least not in the jump-scare, body-horror way of the first one. It was more of a thriller, and despite tensing in fear, Izumi found himself invested in finding out what would happen next-
Mika seemed particularly happy about Izumi enjoying the movie, and prompted him to voice his opinions about it. Nothing but smiles and encouraging nods no matter how amateurish Izumi’s comments were. He even made him a nice herbal tea to help ease his nerves and prepare him for sleep.
Once they finished the tea, they washed their teeth – Mika seemed ready to offer Izumi some privacy for that, but he adamantly refused. Even if the second movie wasn’t as scary, he wasn’t ready to stay all alone just yet. So, they ended up side by side in front of the bathroom mirror, washing their teeth. Something irresistibly domestic about it.
“Ya can take the bed, Imma use the cou-”
“Absolutely NOT” he cut in, putting his foot down before Mika could even finish his sentence “You are NOT leaving me all alone in an unfamiliar room after showing me the single most horrifying images known to man.”
“Uwa? Em… sorry? I mean, uh… I ain’t really got a futon or anythin’ like that here…”
Izumi frowned a bit but accepted the excuse easily enough. To be fair, he couldn’t expect too much from the apartment of a university student… it was kind of amazing that he even had a TV and a couch in the first place. Knowing his shy weirdo of a boyfriend as much as he did, he’d probably prioritized the ‘movie watching experience’ over any other amenities he might need to invite someone over, his social circle rather small either way.
“Fine then. Guess we’ll have to sleep in bed together then” he let out a conflicted sigh. A small whimpering ‘ueeeh??’ replying to him “Shut it! It’s your fault! So take responsibility and join me in bed you big dummy!”
Mika gulped, unable to fight him…
Lights dimmed out again, they sneaked into a bed too tight for two – legs tangled and breaths brushing. Putting the covers over their head, they both leaned into Izumi’s phone, watching endless compilations of cute cat videos while they waited for sleep to catch them…
It really felt more like a middle-school sleepover than anything else, and seeing Mika’s cheerful smile, Izumi found that maybe that wasn’t so bad after all.
There would plenty more sleepovers to look forward to.