Archive of Our Own

I.

It clicked with two days left before their second year of highschool began.

Aoi wasn’t sure when Teru actually merged into their friend group. It was sometime between the Severance and the world being rearranged, an event that her memories had officially faded from-- despite the lasting damage that Nene and Akane held. After that event, Teru had seemingly become one of them, dragged places even when he was clearly out of his depth.

Their hangouts were a little less sporadic and forceful on his end, although they’d never been an organized bunch of people. It stressed Akane out, but Aoi still showed up at his door with Nene and an itinerary for the day whenever she pleased.

Today, though, had been planned. It was their last Saturday before school resumed, after all. Teru was starting his last year of highschool, his graduation seemingly around the corner. They needed a good way to destress and mentally prepare, so a fun outing had been necessary. Akane was the one who included Teru in the plans before he’d even been asked, and Aoi and Nene were accustomed to it enough that they didn’t even bat an eye.

The aquarium was nice. Aoi and Akane had always enjoyed going to it, even when their parents talked business and jumbled adult topics above them while they simply tried to gawk at the sharks. It was the first time she’d been in years, and there was no need for her hand to be intertwined in Akane’s, releasing her from shackles that neither of them acknowledged until last year. Nene took photos to show Hanako, but she also enjoyed it for herself, something that she desperately needed after the horrors she’d been through.

They’d paired off for part of the time, but that wasn't unusual. It was strange-- and oddly healing-- to pair off with someone that wasn’t Akane after a lifetime of having a built-in pair. He was still there, merely a room away, but he had his new friend and she had her longtime friend. Their group had changed, and it was entirely for the better.

As fun as the aquarium was, it came to an end, just as all things did. The spring break was just about over, with just one day left to iron uniforms and pack backpacks, and their aquarium voyage had come and gone.

They were all propped on a bench waiting for their bus, falling silent for the first time all day. She was sure that she wasn’t the only one who was absolutely exhausted. They’d gotten to a point where they could happily hangout and simply coexist, sprawled in varying spots in Nene’s living room, but today was not one of those days. It had been a full outing, checking several places off of the list of things Teru needed to see for the first time.

Aoi was crammed between Akane and Nene, all of them squished together in order to fit on the bench. Teru tried to stand and give the rest of them room, but then Akane insisted on him sitting, so he unceremoniously plopped down just to annoy him. They were just like that.

She hadn’t paid it much mind, too consumed in texting her mom back to tell her she didn’t need dinner. Teru and Nene had insisted on getting enough snacks during their various excursions of the day.

Aoi looked up from her phone, messages still open in her lap, to find Nene playing a rhythm game on her right. On her left, Akane and Teru were in some sort of argument.

“I would never do that,” Teru said, crossing his arms as he leaned back.

Akane was turned to properly face Teru, his back to Aoi even on the small bench. If she wasn’t suddenly intently listening to their conversation, she would have complained about it; even if he didn’t like her anymore and knew that he never had, he would still get his back out of her face frantically. It was just how he was.

“You sure would! Just last week-”

Teru swiped the finger in his face out of the way, effectively silencing Akane until he dropped it about three seconds too late.

“I did what just last week?”

Akane took a moment to recover, several puzzle pieces suddenly sliding very firmly into place in Aoi’s mind as she pretended not to listen. Nene was none the wiser, even when she would be absolutely captivated if she realized an ounce of what was occurring.

“You know you stepped on my foot!”

“Excuse me, I have incredible balance.”

Akane barked out a laugh, “Please, you would be an awful dancer.”

Aoi’s eyes widened as she stared at the back of Akane’s head. She’d seen Akane through a lot of things in their lives, but this was absolutely new-- and absolutely insane. It all clicked with just one day left before school started again.

Teru hummed, “Well, I’ve never tried before.”

“That’s for the best.”

“I’m not sure, maybe I need to try it out.”

Aoi couldn’t take it, opening her jaw slowly as she gradually turned her head to Nene, the argument and blatant flirting continuing on her left. She blinked, absolutely baffled by this turn of events that she certainly should have seen earlier. It all made sense, every tease and fake insult that she heard Akane and Teru throw at each other with too-big grins.

She knew they were getting close, but she hadn’t once considered that Akane would like Teru.

Her mouth was still open as her eyes narrowed at Nene, trying to silently ask are you seeing this before she could think better of it. Nene finished her game, looking up casually before freezing at the sight of Aoi in absolute shock. She looked between all three of them, thankfully keeping her mouth shut as she hurried to compute the last few minutes that she’d missed.

Pink eyes narrowed as she looked at Aoi, completely unaware of what was happening. Aoi turned back to Akane, jaw still open, and then back at Nene as if to motion and say look at this!

Nene’s jaw was the next to drop, never far behind when it came to anything involving romance. Aoi nodded excessively, only then realizing that Nene was absolutely the worst person to tell such a secret to.

Akane liked Teru.

Holy shit, Akane really liked Teru.

Six months ago, once the dust of the inane events of the supernatural had settled, Aoi and Akane sat on her bed and talked for three hours. He apologized, earnestly, for the years of confessions and burdens he put on her. She apologized for hiding so much away. They both realized that he never even liked her in the first place and merely took their parent’s comments of them ‘getting married someday’ to heart and misplaced his affection for romantic love.

Ever since, everything was better. Aoi knew that there were ghosts and her right hand never did regain feeling entirely, and Akane could never stray far from his ancient-looking pocket watch, but at least the two of them were better. She’d never been closer to him, and there was no pressure when he was at her side. It made her really, really happy.

That being said, she’d never seen Akane truly like anyone. For so long he was so caught up focusing on her, incidentally trapping them both, that he never got to experience a real crush. Somehow, it was as if the possibility had simply slipped her mind.

It was right in front of her.

Blue eyes suddenly settled on her as she processed the information, watching Akane inhale to make some smart remark back to Teru. Aoi looked right at Teru, raising her eyebrows in his narrowed gaze.

“What’s going on over there?”

Akane’s words died on his tongue as he turned to face them, realizing just how close his back had gotten to Aoi and mumbling an apology before he got swept away. Nene’s eyes were still wide, and even though Aoi had already wiped the shock off of her face, Teru clearly saw some of the reaction.

She lifted her phone, messages still open from when she’d been texting her mom, and shrugged, “Drama. You wouldn’t get it.”

Nene’s eyes were still as wide as could be. Aoi definitely shouldn’t have told her. Her focus was quickly stolen as Akane adjusted to properly face her, his forehead wrinkling as she stared into brown eyes. She’d absolutely caught him, and she couldn’t believe it didn’t happen sooner.

The bus pulled up before any more questions could be asked. Aoi and Akane continued staring at each other as the others stood, Akane trying to figure out what was happening and Aoi trying to tell him she’d learned his secret. She couldn’t believe Akane liked someone, and that it was Teru of all people-- in hindsight, it made so much sense, but the idea was still baffling.

She broke eye contact to stand, leaving Akane stranded on a ledge of confusion. They all got on the bus, pairing off the same way they tended to and incidentally separating Akane and Aoi.

The moment they were in their seats Nene looked at Aoi with wide eyes, gesturing to Teru and Akane, but Aoi simply nodded and pursed her lips tight. They couldn’t talk about it, not now.

Did Teru like Akane in return?

She honestly wasn’t sure. Despite months of getting close with Teru and multiple acknowledgements of how they both hid their emotions, she couldn’t get a good read on such a unique thing. She’d gotten good at understanding him, even when his reactions were small and hidden away, but this was entirely new territory. Her and Teru both got confessed to on the daily by random people that they didn’t know, which made her fear for his perception of crushes at all-- his perception of a lot of things was more than a little screwed up, already.

Nene leaned on her shoulder and shut her eyes, the day hitting them all. Even the row behind them was silent, although she hoped that wasn’t her doing. She hadn’t been that obvious, even if she knew Akane was dissecting her actions in his brain. He simply knew her too well.

Teru was the first to get off, with Nene following just two stops after. Akane took her seat quickly, falling beside Aoi and going limp in the seat.

He was tired, too. She stifled a yawn, waiting until the bus began moving to speak. Once Nene was no more than a blur on the street, hands tucked beneath her jacket due to the stubborn spring cold, she finally turned to Akane.

He was her dearest friend, and finally, that was a fact that she was sure would never change. She could tell him anything, and he knew her better than anyone in the world. They’d seen the nastiest sides of each other and still fell asleep on the same couch when they were meant to be doing homework.

Aoi had never, ever seen him have a real crush, though.

His eyes found hers instantly, clearly waiting for her to talk even though he hadn’t pushed her. He couldn’t be too stressed, then.

“You like Teru.”

She had a few guesses as to how he would react, but no certainties. She didn’t expect his eyes to go as wide as saucers, leaning away from her as if she was going to spread the thought to him.

“What?” He said, loud enough to get stares from the other occupants of the bus. “No- no I do not.”

Her lips curved upward into a smile, eyebrows going up at the blatant lie.

“Really?” She asked, unimpressed.

“You think I like the President? Are you out of your mind?”

Her smile grew.

“That sounded a lot like flirting to me.”

Akane’s jaw dropped, “What? Me- no, absolutely not. That’s Minamoto. I could never like that guy, he’s a total prick!”

Aoi knew Akane, and she suddenly realized that the denial wasn’t a total lie. It wasn't a lie at all. If he knew he liked Teru, he wouldn’t be reacting this way-- hell, he would have told her already, she was sure. The final piece of the puzzle snapped into place as she realized that Akane really hadn’t accepted that he liked Teru.

“A total prick who you’re really good friends with.”

His face was red, mouth open as he sighed in disbelief. The bus stopped, and she waved a hand for him to get up.

“I can’t believe you think I like Minamoto, of all people.”

“Do you like someone else, then?” She asked as they walked single-file to the door.

“No! I don’t like anyone!”

She squeezed her hands in her pocket as the cold air hit them, the walk to their apartments thankfully short and easy. It was even shorter than the walk to school.

She stopped in the center of the sidewalk, almost in the way of the bus, as she realized that Teru had taken her place at Akane’s side on the walk home from school. She already knew it, naturally, but she hadn’t thought about it. She’d merely been glad that he had someone to join him on the way home, seeing as she sure as hell wasn’t waiting for him and Teru to stop messing around after student council.

Holy shit, the signs had been there all along, and Akane really liked Teru.

“You walk home from school with him,” she said, shock filling her tone.

He grabbed her arm to pull her off of the curb, “So? That means nothing! I don’t like him, he and I just mess around. He’s an asshole!”

She grinned, leaning away to properly look at him.

“You sure do talk about him a lot. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before today.”

“Eugh! I do not like Minamoto!”

“If you really felt grossed out, you would have said that in the first place.”

It cemented the fact that Akane liked Teru. She could already see it clear as day, as if a light had suddenly been turned on, but Akane was either disgusted or not disgusted. He wasn’t the type of person to wait before saying something like that. She chuckled, nearly soundless, at the accidental confirmation of everything she’d seen today.

Akane looked forward, shoving his hands in his pockets. Even his ears were red.

“I absolutely do not like Minamoto.”

She bumped her shoulder into his, “You really haven’t realized it?”

He groaned, stopping just a few feet before they could walk up to the door of her apartment building, as he looked at the sky. She knew, then and there, that he wasn’t admitting it anytime soon.

He needed to, though. Akane was never good at hiding his emotions; he felt everything so strongly that it would bubble up until it boiled over and made him miserable.

This was difficult, though, considering that she couldn’t tell if Teru at all felt the same way.

Aoi had some digging to do.

“There’s nothing to realize, Ao-Chan,” he said, slightly less argumentative and simply defeated.

She sighed beside him, knocking their shoulders again as she looked up at the same sky. Teru and Nene were probably also looking at it; Nene as she prepared for bed, and Teru as he prepared to exorcise dangerous supernaturals all night.

Of all people for Akane to like, Teru was… a mixed choice.

“I won’t stress you out too much. But, you know, I’m not taking it back.”

He sighed again, shaking his head. She leaned onto her left leg to bump their temples before quickly squeezing his hand and dropping it, heading up the small hill to get to her door, not far from Akane’s.

“Don’t overthink yourself out of sleep. School in just one day!” She shouted.

Luckily, he gave her a smile as he walked to his own door.

“Yeah, yeah. Good night!”

“Night!” She said, as if they wouldn’t wave at each other before she shut her curtains tonight.

She almost felt a little bad for stressing him out; she knew him, and she knew he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it. At the very least, she could hope that she would wake up to a text of him panicking because he liked Teru.

Teru had become one of their closest friends. It started with their downright hostile dynamic in student council, which she later found out was because of their supernatural and exorcist statuses. They were forced together during the chaos, and somewhere along the way, the jabs became fake and trust was formed. It only made sense that Aoi was the next to get to know him, and Nene came with her, even knowing him before that because of her friendship with his brother.

She trusted Teru. The two of them were two sides of the same coin, fake smiles and very real yet gentle rejections something that they could bond over. After the supernatural events, they made a habit of finding each other’s eyes when their shared performances grew just a little too annoying.

Aoi was the only one who’d decided she would call him by his given name. The rest of their group did it with each other, and it was evident Teru had become a part of them. He was awkward in ways most people didn’t see when it came to genuinity; he didn’t know how to ask people to hangout or what to do when he found himself in their apartments. She’d decided she would call him Teru and proceeded to do so, even though she knew he wouldn’t reciprocate unless directly told to do so.

Yet, this was Akane; Akane and his big, fragile heart. She’d never known anyone so genuinely caring before, not even Nene. He wouldn’t hesitate to help anyone, and they didn’t even have to ask for it.

As much as she’d grown to trust Teru, she wasn’t sure that she trusted him and all of his issues with Akane’s heart. He’d been through a lot in his life-- was still going through a lot, with damned nightly patrols at the ripe age of eighteen. Considering his emotional inadeptness, he’d never processed any of it, and therefore never worked through his issues. It was well concealed, but as she’d established, she trusted him; if she trusted anyone, she could read them.

He was a mess, no matter how much he hid it, and Akane would try to help him in a heartbeat.

It worried her.

Besides, she had no idea if Teru even liked Akane back, let alone had the capability to spot the very obvious crush he had. She would need to pay close attention.

II.

There was no text from Akane panicking about his crush.

They made it all the way to school, and then to the second week, without him acknowledging that he had a crush at all. He talked to Teru the same way he always did, bantering and grinning and blushing no matter how hard he tried not to. He’d stopped looking at her when Teru was around, well aware that he would find a flat stare in his direction.

She was good at keeping it from Teru, at least. He hadn’t noticed once, not since the first day she realized Akane liked Teru.

Not that he’d accepted it… two weeks later. It was painfully obvious with every passing day.

She kept her thoughts to herself as she listened to Akane complain about student council and how Teru made it absolutely unbearable. She’d heard this story a thousand times, always for a different reason, and always layered with smiles that he simply couldn’t hide. He really was complaining, persistently irritated by Teru-- even though, when he really didn’t dislike someone, he didn’t give them the time of day.

Internally, she couldn’t stop thinking about how obvious his crush was. It was good Nene wasn’t here, seeing as she wouldn’t be able to hold it in. By some miraculous fortune that Aoi didn’t know existed, Nene hadn’t given away that she knew just yet. The school year was busy, but there were still plenty of opportunities, especially when her eyes slid between Akane and Teru like she was watching a show. Luckily, they were too busy absolutely flirting with each other to notice.

“Yeah, we don’t have those problems in the gardening club,” she remarked with a sly smile, opening her locker door.

“Yeah, well, you don’t have Minamoto there to mess everything up.”

She couldn’t believe that Akane still denied his crush. She never noticed just how much he talked about him before, and now, she couldn’t stop noticing it. She’d kept somewhat quiet about it, but she also hadn’t been overt-- for the most part. Akane was never one to bury his feelings down, which was why she expected him to burst at any moment.

He hadn’t.

It was… weird. It was a new type of behavior from Akane, who lived on routines and predictability. Aoi was sure that if she’d lived without ever meeting him, she wouldn’t care at all about routines, but his anxiety had been engraved into her mind. It made his refusal to accept his crush baffling, and she didn’t know how to navigate it. She couldn’t speak with certainty, not until she knew Teru’s feelings.

Unfortunately, she’d made no progress. He smiled a lot around Akane, he seemed chattier than ever, and he was definitely the closest friend he had, but… she didn’t have enough data. She’d never seen Teru have a crush, and she’d hardly seen him have friends. She didn’t want to make guesses that would get Akane hurt.

She’d never expected just how stressful it would be to try and keep Akane’s heart safe from any real damage-- especially after she’d done enough. She no longer felt guilty, well aware of the corner she'd been boxed into, but that pain was undeniable. He deserved nothing but the best.

Akane was about to continue, but he stopped, looking up and down the hallway. Aoi didn’t even have to look over to know what he saw. The way his scowl dropped off of his face into something lighter, happier was undeniable, his eyes softening behind his glasses. His nose crinkled with signs of annoyance, but it was all fake.

She shut her locker and found Minamoto walking through the hallway behind it, sticking out of the crowd like a strike of lightning.

Interesting.

There was a smile on his face, too. It was clumsy and dorky, his teeth showing, the way that they never did when he smiled for the leeches around them. His lips leaned too high on one side as if the smile was unpracticed, never seeing the light of the day. No, that smile was reserved just for Akane, and Aoi was willing to bet it got more and more practice lately.

“Speak of the devil,” Akane said, his scowl returning.

Aoi stared at the back of his head, red hair shining in the light from the window, and prayed he would feel her gaze. After seven consecutive seconds, it became clear that he knew she was looking and was simply ignoring it. She could’ve jumped in the conversation, but they were simply too endearing for her to interrupt this morning.

“Have fun, I’m going to class,” she said, kicking Akane’s ankle.

“Morning, Akane-San,” Minamoto said, his eyebrows tugging in just the slightest bit.

She tossed up a hand gently behind her, all of the acknowledgement that he needed. She couldn’t handle the painfully obvious flirting, not this morning.

“See you later!” Akane shouted after her. Her hand in the air worked as a response to that, too.

That smile Teru had given him was certainly something. She didn’t see that smile, Nene didn’t see that smile-- hell, she doubted he even looked at his own brother like that. She suddenly felt a little better about the odds of Teru liking Akane. Unfortunately, that didn't take away the complications of Teru as a person.

With school starting again, she’d been around him even more than usual. Their shared glances had come back, saved for the moments when everyone else around them put them on their pedestals and treated them like the aliens that they might really be.

It was a shame that the thought of him liking Akane back almost made her frown. She didn’t want that for either of them, not when they had such a good friendship going, but that didn’t change Teru’s lifestyle. He didn’t even know what he was doing when he graduated; he was dreading it, actually, a fact she’d only heard when he was slumped over in the middle of the night during exams.

They could probably be a good couple, if they liked each other back.

Teru’s life didn’t come without cost, though. She saw it written on his face when he thought no one was looking. Hell, his mom died. He took care of his siblings. He patrolled the streets every damn night and somehow didn’t have eyebags. She didn’t understand how he did it without going crazy, and that in itself was a testament to how normal it was to him. She and Akane’s parents weren’t without flaws, but it was nothing like Teru’s life.

She was worried about it. Unfortunately, she couldn’t exactly give him a shovel talk without confronting him about Akane’s crush, which would be entirely out of line. Nene said that she was overthinking it, but the moment Aoi really went into it, she took the words back.

Class began, and Aoi rid her mind of it. She focused on literature, a subject that she’d never particularly enjoyed, and stopped worrying about her best friend for a moment. She wouldn’t let it consume her, but that didn’t mean that her concern wasn’t real. The chances of Teru liking Akane back had raised, but that came with problems of its own.

She knew better than to let it consume her, at the very least. There was no slippery slope when she and Akane had already been there and back.

It was free from her mind until lunch, as she saw with Akane, Nene, and Lemon the way she had for years.

“So, Aoi, you and Minamoto-Senpai sure have gotten close.”

Aoi slid her gaze up to Lemon, leaning over the lunch table as he raised his eyebrows lazily. He was simply talking to talk, something that she couldn’t stand. If it was anyone else, she wouldn’t give it the time of day.

It was funny that he was asking her about this and not Akane. It was probably for the best.

“Don’t you know, he likes someone. Don’t be stupid,” she flicked his forehead, effectively getting him to lean away.

“Huh?”

“You’re just bored, Yamabuki,” Nene rolled her eyes.

Aoi slid her gaze over to Akane, who’s question had been lost in Nene’s words but was heard all the same. She raised her eyebrows at his eagerness.

“That’s what he always says when people confess to him. Duh.”

She watched Akane decompress, Nene’s eyes widening as she realized the same thing. She giggled, her hand immediately going over her mouth before she stuffed it with more food. Akane looked at her quickly and back at Aoi, his eyes widening for a whole new reason.

“What is happening?” Lemon asked, but his mind had already moved on, not noticing the suspiciousness of all three of them.

Akane was staring at Aoi because he realized that Nene knew something, while she remained staring at him because gosh was he obvious. Her eyebrows were still up, chin leaned on her hand. Neither of them budged.

“Don’t question it,” Nene answered meekly, the hint of a giggle still in her voice.

Conveniently, lunch ended. It allowed Aoi to break eye contact, looking back at Lemon as he looked between the three of them.

“And, really, Lemon, a man?”

For him of all people to indirectly question her about Teru was laughable. Three years ago, before things had gotten worse and then better, he was the first one she ever confessed that she liked girls to. It had been an awful day; Akane hadn’t left her alone until she ignored him, which always hurt him, and then he’d coincidentally gone home sick. At the age of fourteen, she’d felt like that was all her fault. Lemon found her, and she simply spilled it out as her reasoning for not liking Akane back.

She swore him to secrecy by threatening to spill all of his secrets-- and a bunch of fake ones-- to the school, but it wasn’t even needed. He’d kept a hand on her shoulder and told her that it was all okay. At a time when she couldn’t confide in her best friend, she’d been able to talk to him.

It meant that he, of all people, knew that she wasn’t going to fall for Teru Minamoto.

“I thought it’d be funny,” he smiled, as careless as ever.

Aoi rolled her eyes and did him the pleasure of turning away. Akane was waiting, staring at Nene, who couldn’t stop giggling. Her hand was over her mouth, but it was a horrible attempt.

They’d made it two weeks without him finding out that she knew. That counted for something.

Nene ran off to get to class immediately, wishing them luck and still failing to stifle her giggles. Aoi was pulled into the stairwell, busier than any of them would like considering the conversation. She smiled innocently, looking between her two best friends.

“You told Nene?” Akane whisper-shouted.

“She found out when I did,” she cringed. “I wouldn’t have if I could choose now.”

“Yeah, no shit! That’s Nene!”

“Well, it seems like there’s nothing to tell, according to you.”

“It’s Nene!” He reiterated.

Aoi cringed, a laugh slipping out. He wasn’t wrong. There was always something to tell when it came to Nene. She still felt that it was fair for her to tell her in the moment, considering just how shocked she’d been, but she also understood it was a mistake. It was too late now.

Akane paced in front of her. He was actually stressed.

Maybe he was getting closer to admitting that he had feelings for Teru.

“You know who Nene is prone to telling things to?” He pulled off his glasses, cleaning them. It was a nervous tick.

“Hanako?”

“Minamoto’s brother!”

Aoi cringed. Again.

“I wouldn’t have told her if I could change it. But it’s too late now. Do you accept that you like him?”

“I don’t like him!”

A passing student looked at them, earning a harsh look from Aoi and leading Akane to press his face in his hands. The moment she walked over to properly comfort him he straightened, acting like it wasn’t bothering him at all.

“I don’t believe you,” she said matter-of-factly.

He huffed.

She gave him a meek smile, “I swore Nene to secrecy.”

He frowned.

“I really think you like him.”

“We need to get to class.”

“That’s not a total denial.”

“Class!” He began walking away, faster than she could keep up.

Aoi stared after him, wishing that she could do something more than pester him. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something she could handle in gentle nudges in the right direction, not when Akane absolutely refused to accept it. It was so painfully obvious to everyone except for him and Teru.

She leaned against the stairwell, narrowing her eyes at the red head of hair disappearing into the crowd. It was miraculous that no one else had noticed Akane’s crush. Maybe they were so used to his constant confessions, or maybe they still couldn’t imagine him liking anybody new; the fact that Teru was a man probably shielded them from the assumption, just a little.

Whatever it was, she was grateful. He was getting worse at denying it.

“Why are you standing here?”

Aoi didn’t startle, simply sliding her gaze over to Teru in the busy hallway. He was leaning on the stairwell several steps above her.

“I’m thinking.”

He smiled, a simple quirk of his lips to the left; so different from the smile he gave Akane just earlier in the day.

“As your student council president, I think you should be thinking on your way to class.”

“Oh, shut up.”

III.

Aoi kicked her feet at the hightop table, thankful that she hadn't worn sandals. Teru was grabbing them both drinks, having officially been out enough for her to trust whatever he grabbed. Akane still didn’t, but that was because Teru purposefully chose obscene options to annoy him.

It felt too significant to ignore anymore.

She’d invited Teru out for a small outing on a Sunday, free from the pressure to let Nene and Akane tag along. She and Teru had never intentionally gone out on their own before, but she didn’t mind it. It was a long time coming, and this morning she simply happened to wake up with a craving for pancakes and a curiosity about Teru.

Luckily, he didn’t mind spontaneity. Two hours after texting him they’d both walked through the doors, in which she slipped into conversation immediately. Teru was still a little awkward in all the places people never saw, so she knew when to start talking away before it could happen.

She did want to hangout with him. They didn’t see each other much at school, despite their seemingly constant shared glances. Teru still didn’t initiate plans with anyone other than Akane, so she needed to be the one to plan it.

However, she also had some questions.

Despite the continuous passage of time, she was still unclear on if Teru liked Akane. She was starting to heavily suspect it, but there were no guarantees. He was too much of an outlier, even if nobody else in the world saw it. Akane still hadn’t admitted his own feelings, a feat that was getting concerning at this point, so she’d moved on to her second biggest worry.

Teru liking Akane back wasn’t the only thing she was left pondering, after all.

He sat down with the drinks, two simple cups for them both. In lieu of a thank you, Aoi looked up at him, a thin smile on her lips.

“Have you ever gone to therapy?”

Teru didn’t fumble. He was too well trained-- seriously, how nauseating was that concept?-- for that. He didn’t flinch or frown, merely looking up at her with a look that gently asked why the hell she was asking such an odd thing out of the blue.

“No?” He looked around awkwardly and entirely intentionally as he sat down across from her.

Figured.

She hummed, “I have. Just a few times. I didn’t talk at all, refusing, because I was so mad that my parents sent me. By the fourth session I figured out how to stop going; I told my therapist that I knew my dad was having an affair. When my mom found out, she pulled me right out.”

It was a sharp contrast from the plants she'd been talking about before they ordered their food and she walked off to sit down. Teru’s eyebrows were raised, likely well aware that she had some sort of goal with this conversation; she almost always did. Only in the last few months did she grow comfortable enough to talk just to talk, but she’d always be a strategic person in one way or another. Today, she wanted to know about Teru’s life, for Akane’s sake.

He settled his chin on his fist, “Sounds like something you’d do.”

“Yeah. Sorry for the massive information dump. I’m sure Akane’s told you about that.”

“About…”

“My dad.”

“Ah,” Teru looked up as if a light shined over him. “I’ve just heard him call him a prick.”

She chuckled, well accustomed to hearing that. Her dad traveled more often than not lately, and she liked it that way. Her mom was well aware of his escapades, probably even more than Aoi knew, but they all pretended to be clueless. Her mom simply drank more than she used to and her dad was too tired to really interact, claiming that work was busy as they both hummed responses to a surefire lie.

Naturally, Akane knew all of it. Even his parents knew that things weren’t right, not that Aoi’s mom would ever admit it. It was embarrassing, but far out of her control.

It made sense that Akane hadn’t spilled it all to Teru. She was thankful, even if she'd gone and done it herself. It was with her goal in mind, which made it worth it. For some odd reason, there was absolutely no shame that came with the knowledge, not to Teru. She wasn’t sure what about him broke the feelings that seemed to persist everywhere else.

“He does do that a lot, huh?” She smiled.

Teru’s smile softened into something almost nauseating, and Aoi prepared to reign in the fishing line in an instant.

“Yeah, he does. I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out, though; exorcists don’t really believe in therapy.”

Oh. There he was, talking about it all on his own. Impressive.

“And I guess you can’t really go to a normal human and say ‘hey, I’ve got all this supernatural trauma,’ can you?”

The skin beneath Teru’s eyes wrinkled slightly, the only hint that he was at all affected by this conversation. They both went quiet as their food was set down in front of them, the waiter looking between them and undoubtedly assuming they were a couple. The thought was laughable.

Once the waiter was gone, Teru inhaled as if choosing his words carefully, “Well, I don’t know about all that. But, yeah. Not much I can do.”

She raised her eyebrows obtrusively, earning the narrowing of his eyes.

“I mean, your life seems rather fucked up.”

“Sounds like we share that, too.”

She smiled through a mouthful of food. Tension was there, undoubtedly, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. She still wanted to know more, though.

“That’s no surprise. I know it’s rude of me to bring it up, but, seriously, I just don’t get how you do it.”

Even last night, there was no telling if he’d gotten more than a few hours of sleep. Him and his siblings seemed wholly unsupervised, with a deceased mom and a dad who she’d heard mentioned maybe once. She wasn’t lying through her teeth, not even a little bit. Teru couldn’t pretend that their lives were on the same level, not at all.

His smile looked a little stiffer as he looked down at his plate.

“It’s just… my life. Honestly, it’s not so bad.”

She almost felt a little bad. She’d done her digging, and Teru was clearly uncomfortable.

“I guess that makes sense.”

It didn’t, not really. People grew used to their circumstances, but that didn’t mean she detested her mom’s wine bottles or her dad’s indented seat on the couch any less. It bothered her to no end, threatening to drive her crazy at times, even if she had to live with it. She didn’t tell anybody because she knew it was abnormal, knew it was taboo, knew that it would make people look at her in all the ways her mom taught her they never should.

Teru really acted like it was fine. As far as she knew, they didn’t even know what his life was like at all, but he acted perfectly normal.

“Did Akane say something?” Teru asked, his lips quirking up slightly, as if he’d figured it out.

Oh.

Wait, oh.

Teru and Akane actually talked about these things?

In a way, that was what she’d been vying for this entire time. She wanted to know how well-managed Teru and all of his baggage was. She wanted to be sure that it wouldn’t be a burden on Akane’s shoulders, one which he absolutely wouldn’t be able to refuse holding.

Teru had the capacity of opening up, though. Apparently. She didn’t know that.

“No, actually,” she said, real surprise in her voice.

“Oh. No worries if he did. I know how you two are.”

“No, he wouldn’t tell me things like that. We know boundaries. Just- well. It seems pretty rough, so, you know… I’m in your corner, too. We all are,” the words slipped out before she could strategically plan them, and she found herself surprised with just how much she truly meant them.

Wasn’t that interesting?

She didn’t think Teru was capable of realizing his own emotions; maybe, just maybe, she judged too harshly. Akane told her she was prone to doing so, and she knew he was right, but her judgments were usually correct. Teru had been through a lot, and he clearly hadn’t worked through any of it. It only made sense that he was a mess. He’d even denied the idea that he had any sort of supernatural trauma, which was downright laughable. If he didn’t even know he had issues, then he wasn’t good for Akane.

If he’d talked about it with Akane, though… Aoi looked up at Teru’s slightly wrinkled forehead, trying to dissect the hidden meaning behind her words.

“All genuine, I promise,” she smiled.

He chuckled, “Well, thank you, I suppose.”

Her other question slipped back into her mind. She’d intended to make it more subtle, had a whole plan for how she’d lead him into it, but she suddenly didn’t care. He was her friend, after all.

“One more thing. Are you gay?”

It was fun catching people like Teru off guard; it was so rare, so when it happened, it was a treat. She had her own goals of never being caught off guard in any way that mattered, but that didn’t make her any less ambitious when it came to others.

His eyes widened and his mouth opened as a laugh escaped.

Aoi didn’t hesitate raising her eyebrows high, chin pointing downward at the belief system that a laugh following such a question usually indicated. Teru was horribly off balance, so she was able to see the range of expressions crossing his face as he realized the assumption that his laugh led her to believe; she knew that he wasn’t homophobic, but, messing with him was fun.

“Sorry,” he coughed, “That was really sudden.”

She shrugged, “You just kinda give off that vibe.”

He leaned forward slightly, eyes widening again as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nobody else would agree with her; almost nobody else actually knew him, either. She’d never really questioned it before realizing Akane’s crush, but the idea made a lot of sense.

“How?” He asked, genuinely incredulous.

She took a bite of food before she could forget about it, making him wait until she was finished chewing enough to continue. She waved her fork in the air, waiting to explain.

“I can just see it. From knowing you, and all. No one at school would agree, but no one else really knows you, either. They wouldn’t think I’m a lesbian, yet here we are.”

With a brother like Kou Minamoto, it was easy to forget that Teru was from an incredibly traditional family. These weren’t conversations he had, especially considering his lack of real friends. Aoi truly understood his shock, which was why she’d initially planned to gently turn into this conversation, but plans were always subject to change.

Teru nodded once, his chin slowly raising and going back down as he remembered to take a bite of his own food. His forehead was wrinkled as if he was processing the information.

A smile grew on her face, “You did know that, right?”

“Not a clue.”

Aoi laughed, a real genuine laugh that made the occupants of the table beside them look over with curiosity.

“Teru, I’ve talked about girls when you’re around. Multiple times. Plenty of times.”

The slightest bit of color spread over his cheeks, “I think a few jokes may have flown over my head.”

She put a hand to her mouth as she laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. In hindsight, she could see that making a lot of sense. Besides, it's not like she ever told him, but she simply expected it to be enough of a fact that he figured it out with time.

“I can’t believe you,” she shook her head, recovering. “Anyways, you still haven’t answered the question.”

He laughed, eyes crinkling and indicating that it was real. The awkwardness was slipping away, and Aoi no longer felt like she would have to call Nene and complain the moment they parted ways. She had sprung a lot on him, she supposed.

“I’ve never really thought about it, honestly.”

“Ever? With all the people that confess to you on the daily?”

She accidentally kicked his foot under the table and immediately crossed one leg over the other, cringing to apologize without interrupting him. He smiled.

“Well, they don’t mean anything to me. That’s just an annoyance regardless. It’s expected that I’ll find someone someday in order to continue the family line, but that’s all the romance I’ve ever expected to have in my life.”

Something gross and acidic twisted in Aoi’s stomach, the nauseating concept said so plainly that nobody batted an eye. She frowned, wishing that she could simply convince Teru to stop being an exorcist forever. It all sounded so miserable. His picture of romance being summed down to procreating in a likely loveless marriage made her food unappetizing.

If he did like Akane and his problems didn’t suffocate the both of them, Akane could actually be really good for him.

“Do you hear how horrible that sounds?”

He huffed a laugh, but it was as fake as could be. He probably didn’t.

“It doesn’t really matter, either way.”

She sighed, “Of course it matters. This is why I asked if you’ve ever been to therapy. That’s insane.”

It was his turn to sigh, opening his mouth with a mask of steel blocking any real expression he might have worn. She could tell he was going to brush off his own issues again, and she simply didn’t want to hear it. She opened her mouth and beat him to it.

“But, still, have you ever found a guy pretty?”

His face froze, shoulders collapsing from his proper posture as if he simply couldn’t believe her.

“I don’t really look at those types of things.”

“Have you ever found a girl pretty?”

She wasn’t going to stop until she got some sort of answer or was flat-out told to do so, and he seemed to realize it. His eyes went up as if he had to really think about it-- that was an answer in and of itself, really.

“I mean, I see pretty girls. I can tell when people are conventionally attractive.”

“That doesn’t sound like something someone who sees a girl and goes wow would say.”

“But I also don’t really think I see guys and think wow...”

“That would be totally reasonable, too. That happens. It doesn’t have to be based on attraction, either. Have you ever seen someone who just makes your heart stop? Who makes you really happy just by seeing them? Like… you want to see them more, because something about them is just different?”

Aoi counted three seconds of silence before Teru’s eyes widened just slightly. It was well concealed, but she knew him. She saw through him. She hoped to all of the gods that she didn’t believe in that he was thinking about Akane, because there was certainly something behind those eyes.

He hummed, pretending like he hadn’t just had some sort of revelation. Aoi tried to hide her smile.

“Maybe I like guys.”

“I told you, I got the vibes. I knew it.”

He rolled his eyes, taking another bite of his food. Something in Aoi settled, just a little, all of her planned conversations suddenly completed. It took the pressure off and meant that they could talk and hangout. She could stop stressing Teru out.

“I won't tell anybody,” she added, aware of the fear of such a statement; it was why she’d threatened Lemon once upon a time after confiding in him for the first time.

“I know,” Teru said with a smile.

Even with her and Akane’s closeness or her habit of gossiping to Nene, he trusted her enough. Even after she’d spent half the afternoon grilling him for answers to a puzzle that he didn't know existed.

She meant it when she offered to be there for him emotionally. She wouldn’t have expected to; he had a lot of baggage. Yet, it was that casual I know that punctuated just how much of a friend Teru had truly become. Today, she’d gotten the information she wanted, and she felt a lot better about the possibility of him liking Akane back-- both in the odds of the quarry itself and in the matter of his baggage weighing them both down.

Aoi smiled and asked about his siblings. They always seemed to put him in a good mood.

That afternoon, once she was home and comfortable in her pajamas, she frowned at Akane’s shut curtains. It wasn’t abnormal, but she needed to speak to him.

She pulled out her phone, texting him:

i hung out with Teru today

His response came within the minute.

i do not have a crush on him.

IV.

Nene came charging down the staircase, running her fingers through her hair and nearly whacking a student with her elbow. Aoi and Akane stepped out of the way to let her pass, clearly late for something because she’d been up in the bathroom with Hanako.

“Hi Aoi, hi Akane!”

Their shared greetings overlapped as she hurried, halfway walking backward so she could keep looking at them.

“I totally forgot I had a meeting this afternoon. Wish me luck!”

“Good luck!” Aoi called as Akane muttered something beside her. She gently smacked him on the shoulder.

They were over a month into the school year, so things were officially up and running. It was certainly harder than the year prior, especially when they all took on so many extracurriculars. Aoi liked to be busy, but she could do with a slightly looser schedule. She wanted to sit in the garden, for god's sake. The weather was officially nice, not yet sweltering but warm enough to classify it as the beginning of summer. It was earlier than usual, so she quite liked it.

Nene never did good with stress. Aoi was going to ask her to hangout soon, largely so that she could unwind and actually take a deep breath. She missed her, anyway.

She was already gone, lost to the hallways and whatever meeting she had. She made a mental note to text her and ask how it went. It was always extra important to keep up with each other when things were overwhelming, she felt. It was why she and Akane had finally planned a slumber party for themselves for the first time in years; they deserved it, both because of the current state of school and everything they’d been through the last year.

Relatively far behind Nene came Teru’s brother, who had clearly not just sprinted his way over. It was sweet that the two of them still hung out with Hanako. She raised a hand to wave, simply a greeting as a friend of a friend, before seeing Akane’s face beside her.

His forehead was wrinkled and his eyes were set on Kou from behind his glasses.

“What’s up with you?” She asked.

They’d been on their way to lunch, but it seemed the world had other things in store for them.

“Nene must have blabbed by now.”

It took her a moment to put together what he was thinking, but by the time she did, he was already walking over to Kou. The poor boy looked panicked, suddenly being approached by a stone-faced upperclassmen half-supernatural. He looked around as if Nene could help him, but she was long gone in a storm of knotted hair and anxiety.

Akane thought that Nene told Kou about his crush on Teru. Aoi opened her mouth to tell him to stop, because as far as she knew Nene hadn’t, but it was entirely too late.

“Akane-”

“Hey there, Aoi-Senpai!” Kou said to Akane, raising his chin nervously.

“Hey there,” Akane smiled, but it was all teeth.

Aoi looked around, fearful for the carnage approaching. She wanted to eat her lunch.

“Um, Akane,” she tried to say, but he put an arm on Kou’s shoulder and turned them away.

It was far too late. It felt a little like a horror movie, the world moving in slow motion as Akane prepared to make a fool out of himself.

“I just wanted to check in on Nene. How is she?’

He was a horrible liar.

“Oh, she’s good! Pretty stressed, but she seemed better after hanging out with Hanako. Did something happen?” Kou seemed rather nervous, his smile bending slightly; he was almost taller than Akane, but right now, he seemed much shorter.

“No, no, I just know she tends to gossip. What’s she been saying lately?”

Kou turned back slightly to look at Aoi, but it was entirely too late for her to step in. She leaned against the railing of the staircase and bit her cheek.

“Um, just the usual. Rumors and crushes, and all that.”

Aoi was certain that Nene hadn’t told Kou about Akane’s crush-- the one which he was still denying. If she did, she would’ve told Aoi, and she would’ve told Akane. She wasn’t that cruel.

“Crushes, you say?”

“Uh, yeah. The dumb ones. Did something happen?” He laughed nervously.

“No, not at all. I just kinda lost track of the rumor mill lately. You wouldn’t share things you’re not supposed to, would you?”

Akane’s ability to be threatening was better than Aoi would have thought, but it lost all meaning when he was absolutely jumping to conclusions. He was practically confirming his own crush before their very eyes.

“No, of course not. Do… you like someone?”

Aoi dragged a hand down her face. Akane wouldn’t let her stop him if she tried.

“No, I do not. Nene just has a mind of her own.”

“Heh, she definitely does. Well, I wouldn’t tell anyone, even if I did know something that definitely wasn’t true.”

“That’s the spirit. Especially not your brother, yeah?”

Aoi couldn’t see their faces, but the sudden quiet was enough. She put both hands on her cheeks. Maybe this would lead to Akane finally admitting his feelings.

Kou leaned away, his eyes wide and his mouth open, “Wait, do you like my brother?”

She didn’t need to see Akane’s face to know that his jaw had dropped. Aoi decided that enough was enough, and she could no longer watch him fail to lie. He needed to accept his crush, but she didn’t want him to make an actual fool of himself. She darted forward, getting between them and grabbing Akane’s arm.

“Of course not,” she smiled sweetly at Kou, suddenly much closer. “I accidentally made Nene think that he does. We’re just worried about it going around, since you know, that’d be such a mess.”

She didn’t even look at Akane, simply batting her eyes at Kou and shrugging her shoulders as if this was all a big mess. She felt his weight shift as he nodded, absolutely speechless.

“Oh, hi, Akane-Senpai,” Kou said, looking between the two of them with wide eyes. “I didn’t see you there. Wait, so-”

“He doesn’t like anybody right now, okay?” Aoi giggled. “It’s just a stupid joke we had that got out of hand. Pretend you never heard it?”

He continued looking between the two of them, clearly confused out of his mind. All that mattered was that he agreed.

“I’m really sorry for the confusion,” Aoi said as kindly as she could, putting her hand on his shoulder, where Akane’s had been a moment before.

“Don’t- uh, don’t worry about it. I’m kinda confused, but I’ll just… ignore all of this.”

“Yes, perfect. Did you need to get somewhere?”

“Oh! Yes! I do! Have a good day, Senpais!”

“You too!”

Only once he’d hurried down the hallways, those of which had largely cleared out during the ordeal, did Aoi turn to Akane. His mouth was halfway into a cringe, one hand on the back of his neck. His face was pink, something that he was lucky Kou didn’t mention.

“You’re an absolute idiot. Will you accept that you like him, now?”

“I do not like him.”

V.

Aoi did a final glance over the apartment. It was always rather clean, seeing as neither her or her mom were particularly messy people, but she wanted it to be perfect.

Akane wouldn’t care either way; there was always paperwork or bags or keys scattered on the counters of his apartment. Him and his parents were homey, comfortable people. They liked their organization, but they also didn’t care if their space was lived in-- unlike her mom, who hired cleaners that they couldn’t really afford and didn’t need just to be able to mention the fact that they had them to her friends.

Point being said, it was clean. The floor was vacuumed and not a single thing was out of line. Even if it wasn’t, Akane wouldn’t care in the slightest.

Aoi cared. She always cared. It was engraved into her as much as it was in her blood, inherited by her mother. If they were having their first slumber party in years, it needed to be as clean as it possibly could be-- especially since they were only going to make a mess.

Satisfied that everything was set up, she opened the door, revealing Akane with a backpack and a tin-foil covered pan in his hand. It made a smile spread across her face.

It had been a long time since they had a slumber party-- dubbed a slumber party, not a sleepover, back when they were just kids. As they got older they stopped being allowed to sleep in the same room, and sleepovers became taboo the moment anyone suggested that they would ever date. They both knew that story well, and how Akane’s crush forbade such a thing entirely.

Tonight, though, his parents said they didn’t care as long as he was on her couch. What they didn’t know was that her mom was sleeping in another city so that she could go to her friend’s birthday party. It meant they could have a slumber party like the ones they did as kids, long since kept away by social norms and a tense relationship.

Just like she did as kids, Akane’s mom must have sent him with brownies. Aoi could practically smell them. She’d missed this.

“Give,” she took the tray from his hands and crossed the room to set it on the kitchen counter.

“Hello to you too.”

“I haven’t had your mom’s brownies in ages.”

Akane chuckled, dropping his backpack at the corner of the hallway leading to her room. It was already evening, so they were both in their pajamas, ready to watch movies and make their own dinner. He’d taken care of finding a recipe they would both like, the ingredients already in her cupboard.

“That’s what she said, too.”

Aoi hummed as she popped a brownie into her mouth, smiling back at him. It was straight out of her childhood, solidifying that it would be a good night. They were officially at a point where they could do this again, and she couldn’t be happier.

They chatted about everything and nothing, just as they always had. She briefed him on the declining health of Nene’s hamster and he told her about Lemon’s failed essay. Dinner started, and she found herself quite pleased with the recipe. They both knew how to cook much better than they did as kids.

The sun had barely gone down, and Aoi already felt ten times more relaxed.

Once they’d eaten their fill of dinner and more brownies than either of them should have, they ended up sprawled on the two couches that made up her living room, their favorite disney movie paused on the TV because they wouldn’t stop talking.

It hadn’t always been easy to talk to Akane. In the last year, it became easy. Aoi could never have asked for anything more.

“Was that your mom’s favorite pot?” Akane asked when they both reached an end of their stories, silence stretching between the couches.

Aoi was folded in the corner of her chosen couch, as close to the other one as she could possibly get. She had her head on the armrest and her arms wrapped around her legs. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it sufficed enough. Perpendicular to her was Akane, flat on his back with his head closest to her. His feet were over her father’s permanent indent in the couch, the one which he knew she refused to sit on.

She sighed deeply, frowning at the ceiling fan.

“Yes.”

Akane turned onto his side so that he could look at her, something that had been unnecessary up until this point. He wasn’t going to talk until she explained why she’d purposefully used the excessively heavy pot that her mom told her not to use lest she scratched it.

She sighed again.

“I don’t get why she even went to Yokohama tonight. She didn’t tell your parents, so she’s not doing it for attention, and she can’t even stand this friend. It’s Aeko, the one who wanted me to get that virtual job answering phones all day last year. Remember that? Mom’s been complaining about her for years, saying she’s ingenuine and too flippant and is always late. It doesn’t even make sense.”

Akane looked back at the TV screen, currently displaying a fish tank, as he thought the words over.

“Most things she does don’t make sense.”

“Yeah, well, it’s stupid. She’s gonna come back and complain, you just know it. And then she’ll go out of the country or something for her next year.”

Akane looked back at her, frowning, “We deserve to go to Yokohama instead.”

He knew that there was no end to her complaints about her mom, and she appreciated it. She shifted so that she could see him better.

“What even is there in Yokohama?”

He flipped back onto his back, red hair falling between the couch cushions. She couldn’t tell if he was growing it out or simply putting off getting a haircut.

“A cool art museum. We don’t have anything even close to its level.”

Aoi smiled at the back of his head, “You should take Teru.”

Instead of getting the glare that she expected, Aoi didn’t even hear the teasing lilt in her voice. He reached a hand to push up glasses that he wasn’t wearing, not in the safety of her apartment. She chuckled, but he was lost in his own world.

“That’s not a bad idea. He hasn’t been to a museum, did you know that? Since we don’t have any good ones around here, it’s not easy to take care of. He doesn’t care that much since he’s always around ancient artifacts, but I think he’d really like the art.”

She kept quiet, staring at him with a toothy grin and raised eyebrows. It was only once he realized she wasn’t responding that he leaned onto the crown of his head to look at her. His eyes flattened as he realized why she’d suggested taking Teru at all.

“Oh. Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” her smile grew wider.

“I can see it all over your face. You’d want to take him, too. I know it.”

“Don’t even compare our brains, they’re too different for that. I’d want to take him as a fun outing, you want to take him because-”

“I do not like Minamoto.”

Aoi laughed, putting her feet on the floor to lean forward and look properly at him. He looked over, nose wrinkling as if she was already fighting with him.

“I’ve never heard you deny your feelings so much. Seriously. This can’t be healthy.”

“It’s not unhealthy because I don’t like him.”

“You’re just friends? No romantic feelings?”

“Yes, Ao-Chan. I don’t like anybody, especially not Minamoto.”

She took another brownie from the coffee table, popping it into her mouth before leaning over to grab another and drop it into Akane’s mouth. He sat up, barely catching it with his hands before the crumbs could fall all over him and the rest of the couch. Once he was up, she quickly hopped onto the other couch, falling right beside him.

“Are you scared to like someone again?”

He frowned, looking forward as he chewed. The TV had moved on to lions frolicking in a field. She almost missed the fish.

“I didn’t even really like you, and that’s scary enough. But, yeah, I am.”

“Well, considering the circumstances of all that, it wouldn’t be that way again. There’s nothing indicating it would.”

He leaned his head onto the back of the couch to fix her with a pointed look, “I’m obsessive.”

“Yeah, and you’re medicated. And conscious of it. And Teru isn’t even like that, you two have such a unique dynamic. I’m very confident you wouldn’t act like that again.”

“Yeah, and if I did like him-- which I don’t-- that would mess all of that up.”

“Why? You’re already close. It would just be a new level of closeness, it wouldn’t have to change that. I’m really glad you two have become so close, and I think it’s good for everyone.”

Silence fell between them for a long moment, draping over their shoulders like a warm blanket. Aoi looked at the pile of neatly folded blankets in the corner of the two couches and reached over to grab the biggest one.

“It is nice.”

“I know.”

“He’s a really weird guy.”

“I know,” she repeated, chuckling.

“And the whole school thinks he’s some super attractive god, and I have eyes, but that doesn’t mean I like him.”

Something was definitely shifting. Akane knew his feelings somewhere within himself, she was sure of it, but he’d repressed it damn near better than he did anything in his life. This was the most they’d ever talked about it, and the last thing she wanted was to scare him back into hiding.

She hummed, letting him do the talking.

“And I get why you think I do. I talk about him a lot. I talk to him a lot. After last year we got so close, and it's just… he’s one of my favorite people now. I like seeing him live like a normal teenager, the way we’re all supposed to. I like helping him do that. He drives me crazy, but that’s just part of the fun. When he gets genuinely happy he has this look in his eyes…”

She waited, but he didn’t go on, simply frowning at the TV. They were definitely making progress. It was endearing to hear Akane so genuinely enamored by someone, and she couldn’t stop the smile on her face. It was small and closed, nothing obnoxious like earlier, but she was genuinely happy for him.

“You can keep going,” she nearly whispered.

“No, I’m good,” he sat up, taking the folded blanket from her hands and tossing it out over them. “Wanna watch the movie already?”

The puzzle pieces were all there. He just needed to put them together. It wasn’t something Aoi could rush, and she didn’t want to be too pushy and scare him away from the feelings. He would figure it out himself, sooner or later. She had faith.

She smiled, grabbing the remote and pressing play on Finding Nemo in lieu of an answer.

+1

Aoi was tired.

She didn’t even know how long she and Akane stayed up last night, but it had been well past midnight. They found an ancient box of poundcake mix in a cupboard and baked it while singing old pop songs from their childhood, undoubtedly pissing off all of her neighbors. Her mom would be embarrassed, but she didn’t even care.

By the time they collapsed into her bed with blankets from the living room and a complete disregard for the time, her feet had been hurting and her hair was a mess. She didn’t even care to brush it before bed.

With all of this in mind, there was absolutely no reason for Akane to be shaking her awake. She didn’t even know what time it was, but she knew it was too early.

“Ao-Chan.”

She kept her eyes shut, curled up on her side away from Akane and hoping that he would simply give up.

“Ao-Chan.”

Sleep was such a beautiful thing. Aoi hated mornings.

“Ao-Chan,” Akane said in his usual voice, rather than his previous whisper.

It had been so many years since Akane woke Aoi up. She was just as little of a morning person, and it was just as annoying. She resisted the urge to hit her hand into his chest, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to drift back into sleep.

“You were right,” Akane said, his hand disappearing from her shoulder. “I think I like Minamoto.”

Aoi peeled open her eyes. She was faced with her wall, but she suddenly couldn’t care less about it. Sleep still tugged at her like strings on a puppet, but Akane’s words rang sharper. She’d been waiting over a month for this.

She turned just enough to see him, still leaning over her. His hair was an absolute mess, just like it was every morning as kids.

He looked… terribly stressed.

“Finally,” she said, her voice heavy with sleep and scratchy from all the singing the night prior.

The mattress shifted as Akane stood, one hand on his jaw and the other bunched in his shirt as he started pacing the length of her room. Aoi rolled into the space that he’d previously occupied, her head going limp on the pillows as she watched him.

“I definitely like him. Oh my god, I definitely like Minamoto. Ao-Chan, what do I even do? The guy is definitely too dense to know, right? I’m not good at lying, but since I didn’t even know, there’s no way I was too obvious. I don’t think he likes me back. No way. I need this to go away. How do I make something like this go away?”

Aoi begrudgingly pulled herself up enough to look at the clock sitting on her nightstand. It was just after seven in the morning. Akane had woken her up at seven on a saturday.

She couldn’t even be mad, not when he finally accepted his feelings. She sat up, dragging both hands over her eyes.

“Okay, deep breaths.”

Akane paused his panicked questions, spoken more to himself than her, but not the pacing.

“Sorry I woke you up so early, Ao-Chan. I just-”

“You’re fine,” she said, perhaps a bit harshly. She meant it, at the very least. “I’m glad you finally know. Take a deep breath, stop mumbling. I’ve thought of all of this.”

He paused the pacing, which she hadn’t at all expected him to do. It was a good sign. His shoulders slumped, looking at her as if he was stranded on an island with no way out.

“I need to get rid of it, right?”

“I don’t think so,” she swung her legs over the side of the bed, resisting the urge to stretch her arms up.

“But- I’m definitely just dooming my friendship, right? Embarrassing myself, right? I’d rather be his friend than nothing at all, and-”

“Deep breaths. You still haven't done that. You’re totally freaking out. It’s going to be okay. I’ve been trying to figure out if he likes you back, and I think the chances are decent.”

This was what she’d hoped for a month ago, the day after she told him she was sure that Teru liked him. It was a little late, but now, she had more information. She had more control of the situation, which meant she could help Akane more.

He’d finally accepted it. What did that mean now? She’d hoped it was coming, but every day that stretched by made her expect it less and less. She felt thrown off guard, especially waking up first thing in the morning to a full blown Akane freakout.

“Decent…”

“That’s better than none. Way better. I’m optimistic.”

Finally, Akane took a deep breath, running his hands down his face.

“How the fuck did I start liking that guy of all people?”

Aoi couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face, “I think you told me last night.”

Before she could move out of the way, Akane was collapsing onto the bed beside her, his back landing on the mattress like a heap of bricks. She pulled her legs back up and turned to him, looking over his face as if he’d been knocked out cold.

“This isn’t a bad thing.”

“It feels like a really bad thing,” he groaned.

She patted his hair like a cat that would run away, rubbing at her eyes with the other hand. She was still tired, but there was no chance of going back to sleep after this. She couldn’t tell if Akane had slept at all last night.

“We should get to the bottom of it. I’ve been watching him.”

Akane turned to her with raised eyebrows, the obscenity of her statement breaking through his panic. That was good enough for her.

“Watching him?”

She shrugged, “I’ve been trying to figure out if he’s good for you.”

Akane’s face went through a range of emotions, intense confusion taking over for a moment before a small smile settled on his face. That was the most positive emotion so far, and it wasn’t even about Teru.

She thought of the way he’d talked about him the night prior, his head leant on the couch as he talked like a lovesick fool. She’d never heard him talk about anyone like that, not even her.

This was going to be a good thing.

Now, they had to figure out Teru’s part in all of this. She didn’t want to reassure Akane that everything would work out if it wouldn’t, and she simply didn’t know the answer yet.

“Thank you, Ao-Chan.”

Aoi was finally up, patting his shoulder as she grabbed her phone. She needed to tell Nene.

“Don’t thank me, Akane,” she rolled her eyes.

For the entirety of the next day, she was subjected to all sorts of inquiries from Akane. Why did she think Teru liked him, why didn’t she think Teru liked him, what had Teru said about him, did she imply too much, had she ever noticed the way Teru’s eyes crinkled when he was genuinely happy?

Aoi stopped answering after a while. Akane was past his embarrassment, considering that it was her, and that meant they could simply exist with this newly admitted fact.

By Monday, Nene had been recruited to help.

Akane wasn’t thrilled about it, but she’d kept it a secret for an impressively long time-- although, Aoi was almost confident that Hanako knew. He knew most things. She didn’t need to tell Akane that, though. The three of them had known each other long enough to be upfront, so Nene was tight lipped and prepared to scope out Teru as nonchalantly as possible. She was actually a perfect candidate to ask him about crushes, an idea which Akane took ages to convince of.

She didn’t get any answers. He gave his usual pleasant answers, although his smile was a little too fake for Aoi to believe it from where she’d been conveniently walking in the hallway behind them.

Akane wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, except for that he now knew about his crush. If there was any fact Aoi could share about him, amongst thousands, it was that he was a horrible liar. It was one thing when he refused to admit that he liked Teru, but now, Aoi was worried that he would give it all away. She was optimistic that it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but Akane didn’t agree, not yet.

The way that Teru looked at him seemed to be a rather direct giveaway, especially for him. His entire face brightened and his shoulders relaxed immediately upon the sight of him. He jumped at every opportunity to be around Akane-- including the orchestrated baking session that Aoi conveniently needed him to take her place for-- and seemed to be the most open with him, more than anyone else.

She couldn’t directly state her concerns about Teru’s wellbeing affecting Akane without ending the conversation before it even began, but Akane did admit that Teru talked to him about things Aoi didn’t think he was capable of. In return, Akane talked about himself. She didn’t even have to ask before he was babbling about how it was a two way street and Teru was much better at communication than he would have expected.

She was thoroughly impressed, and the biggest concern was now whether or not Teru actually liked him back. It was unbelievably nice to theorize with Akane about a crush, of all things. Neither of them had ever gotten this before, especially not with each other, and it was a new sort of exciting to see how awkwardly happy it made him. She liked planning with him and throwing points back and forth, and his crush made it different than anything before.

It felt like, somehow, it made them even closer. She held onto it dearly.

Yet, all things ended eventually. Aoi couldn’t say she was sad, not when she saw the look on Teru’s face from across the hallway on a random Thursday. She didn’t even know he was there, the hallways crowded as students moved between classes. She was with Lemon, Nene, and Akane, all of them complaining about the literature project they had to do.

Akane was beside Aoi, talking with his hands about the topic he’d picked. She spotted Teru as she zoned out, her eyes glancing up the hallway absentmindedly. He was walking toward a door, a folder tucked under his arm, but his eyes were on the space right beside Aoi.

He looked… so captivated. Akane was simply talking, hands gesturing in a way that didn’t at all reveal what he was saying. There was nothing about the sight except for Akane, but Teru’s eyes were wide and focused on him. He was smiling, the one that only ever Akane got, in the middle of the hallway. All of the stress he seemed to carry was gone, despite never being noticeable before. Only in its absence did Aoi see just how light he looked, absolutely starstruck by her best friend.

Teru liked Akane, Aoi was sure.

Right before he walked into the classroom, he spotted her, their eyes locking for just a moment. She only saw his eyes widen for a brief moment before he was gone, and then she realized that Lemon was talking to her.

Yeah, they liked each other. Everything would be okay.

She didn’t tell Akane, suddenly feeling that the two of them needed to get there on their own. Their efforts to push the two of them together wouldn’t stop, since that was simply bonding, but she didn’t need to keep investigating Teru. Her worries had been quelled, and she was simply excited for Akane.

His nervous rambles didn’t cease, just as his frequently mentioned stories of Teru continued before and after he was aware of his crush. Aoi responded the same way, still not quite revealing that she was confident about Teru’s feelings, but just as confident as she’d been for weeks.

She found herself late in the garden on a random Tuesday, as she did most days. Clubs were ending, so everyone else had gone home, but Aoi tended to persist. She liked her alone time in the gardens.

Naturally, the first thing that blossomed within her when she saw a pair of shoes approaching was irritation. It wasn't the boots of the club administrator, but simply the school uniform shoes, meaning someone truly was interrupting her. All of her friends knew better, which meant she had to plaster on a fake smile and play the part.

She looked up, smoothing her irritation off of her face, and found Teru Minamoto.

In an instant he was crouched beside her, hiding behind the bushes.

“Aren’t you supposed to be staying back in student council right now?” Because you couldn’t stop flirting, she refrained from saying.

“I had things to attend to,” Teru smiled, but there was something behind it.

“Like bothering me in the gardens?”

Teru was the only one of her friends who didn’t know about her irritation in the gardens, seeing as he was held up in student council every single day. She thought back to Teru’s expression in the hallway that day and her subsequent confirmation that he liked Akane back.

This wasn’t a random meeting behind the bushes. She smiled, clipping away a stray weed as she raised her eyebrows.

“Of course. I’ve been told you enjoy it so much.”

She stuck her tongue out and looked back at her weeds, sticking her gloved hand into the bush. Teru gave up on crouching beside her and let himself collapse into the dusty dirt, likely unaware that it would be coating his clothes for days. Aoi was halfway into a bush and on her knees, so it was only fair.

Neither of them spoke for some time. She had no interest in ruining her peaceful gardening, and there was nothing she had to say that couldn’t wait. Teru, it seemed, had no idea what he was doing. He simply sat and watched her pull weeds, throwing them all in a pile on the opposite side of him.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed before he finally inhaled and got on with it.

“I like Aoi.”

It was easy enough to infer that it would be about him, but hearing it said so plainly made her pause. She left the weeds behind and leaned away from the bush, taking a stick with her hair, and looked at Teru.

He looked… like a normal teenager. That happened more and more often, but this was something new altogether. He was slightly sweaty from the heat over his long sleeves, his hair falling against his head the way that it always did. Most striking was the color gracing his cheeks, atop a small, nervous smile that she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen on him before.

Aoi smiled back.

“I thought so.”

Teru’s eyes widened, and he was lucky they were hidden from sight by bushes. It wasn’t a look he wore often.

He did like Akane, just like Akane liked Teru. They liked each other. They were both functioning humans who could take care of themselves and each other.

Aoi was really, really happy for her friends.

“I was worried about that.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You’re not as subtle as you may think.”

The pink across his face deepened, spreading to his ears. Akane was the one making him act this way. Aoi couldn’t be happier.

“According to my brother, I’m not subtle at all.”

Aoi remembered a chilly hallway and the awkward situation that occurred beside the stairwell as Akane blatantly gave away his crush to Teru’s brother. She couldn't tell him that, though. As much as she wanted to help both of her friends, she refused to tell them about each other’s feelings. It was as much for their sake as it was for her’s.

“Minamoto-Kouhai knows? He hasn’t told anybody?”

“I swore him to secrecy,” he scratched his chin nervously, showing that the promise made him feel about as content as Nene’s did for Akane-- which wasn’t saying much.

“Right,” she nodded, winking. “Why are you telling me?”

There were a million reasons why he would tell her, but she wanted to hear it from him. She knew Akane’s point of view in great detail and had been observing the two of them for longer than Akane even knew he had a crush for, so it was well past overdue to hear about it from Teru.

Teru sighed, running a hand through his hair. Just as Aoi had never seen Akane with a real crush before the past month, she’d never seen Teru even close to this type of behavior.

He looked up at her, looking honest-to-god nervous.

“You’re you,” he smiled sheepishly. “If there’s anyone to tell, it would be you.”

“Or him,” she said near-immediately.

Teru looked down, drawing a circle in the dirt. The clouds in the sky guaranteed that it would be gone by the morning. He looked nervous, but his eyes had widened as she said it; she’d essentially admitted that confessing wouldn’t be a bad thing. It was the closest she could get to quelling his nerves without revealing that Akane liked him back.

“That’s another reason I told you.”

She looked back at him, away from the clouds, and furrowed her brows. Naturally, she wanted him to confess. Akane was a trainwreck when it came to a simple decision, let alone a whole confession.

She realized why she, of all people, would understand Teru’s feelings on confessions. They both got confessed to on the daily by people who didn’t even know them, and it was an easy bonding point seeing as they both had no patience for it. It was a bother, and while Teru didn’t say it as crudely as Aoi did, he wholeheartedly agreed.

Confessions felt impersonal and fake, at this point.

“Do you want to tell him at all? It’s Akane, you know that in a situation like that, he’d be freaking out.”

“I- well, I don’t know. This isn’t…”

“Romance isn’t something you’re supposed to get.”

“Yeah.”

She remembered their conversation in the diner and the miserable reality that Teru lived in. She hadn’t even thought about it when he confessed, but now…

“Screw that. You like him. I don’t really care what exorcist standards exist.”

Teru chuckled, “I don’t think I can really ignore them like that.”

“This isn’t life or death. This doesn’t have to be forever. For now, you deserve this. It’s supposed to be fun and make you happy, and he sure does seem to do that.”

Something about that seemed to give him pause, his eyes freezing on hers. Aoi remembered talking about the concept with Akane when they had their massive conversation; the things they did now didn’t have to last forever. All that mattered was that it made them happy, and she could see that logic in Akane’s way of thinking.

“I’m still not used to that.”

She pulled off a glove and patted his shoulder, “You might as well be. I don’t think he’s leaving you alone any time soon.”

Again, his eyes widened. It was so interesting to see from him, and she wondered just how often Akane saw it; she was sure that it was a frequent occurrence, if this conversation alone was enough to pull it out of him.

His shoulders slumped, leaning on one hand in the dirt behind him.

“I’m not a fan of confessions.”

“Me neither,” she admitted, poking his shoulder. “But, well, you like him. Do you wanna remain in limbo?”

“You don’t think he’d do it?”

She raised her eyebrows and tilted her chin downward, silently mocking him. Akane could do a lot of things, especially when his heart was in it the way it currently was, but he was terrified that Teru didn’t like him back. He still couldn’t accept any sort of future where he dated Teru, not when he was so unsure.

“Right. It’s Aoi. He’d be freaking out.”

“He would be,” she said, pretending like she wouldn’t know whether or not Akane liked Teru. “And I’d hope you wouldn’t want him freaking out.”

“Of course not.”

“Well, then.”

Silence fell. Aoi pulled off her second glove, officially deciding that no more weeds would be pulled today.

“Well,” Teru said, quieter, as if he was thinking.

Aoi looked back at the sky, at the clouds slowly building. She hoped Akane was home by now, before it started to rain. Her and Teru would need to hurry.

Her friends liked each other, and one of them had to say something about it before they both turned into a mess.

“I was skeptical at first,” she said, turning to properly face him. “You’re a mess. As your friend, that’s okay. But as Akane’s best friend, that made me worry. I feel a lot better about it now, seeing you more. I really think you’d be good for him.”

He really did look like a person, staring at her with Akane in mind.

It made her happy.

Teru laughed, the kind that said nothing was really funny, “I was worried about that too, actually.”

Aoi smiled, “That makes me feel even better. We should go, it’s going to rain.”

She stood, taking her pile of weeds and gloves with her. She didn’t wait for him to follow before walking out of the gardening space and over to the stands that her belongings were in. She’d long ago changed out of her uniform, the simple work clothes much more comfortable.

“I’m really glad you think that,” Teru said, waiting for her near the path to the gates.

Aoi turned to properly look at him, really taking him in, and decided that he truly would be good for Akane. They would be good for each other.

No one else was around so late in the day, so there was no concern for talking about it aloud.

“You won’t confess, though?”

She, of all people, couldn’t push him; not really. She didn’t like it, but she firmly understood Teru’s belief about confessions. Unfortunately, a confession was just formalized communication, and they couldn’t avoid that. She simply didn’t see Akane being the one to initiate it, not when he was so worried.

She’d stopped expecting an answer by the time they made it to the gate, but sometimes, even Aoi could be caught off guard.

“I’ll think about it.”

Aoi didn’t miss the smile that Teru gave when he saw how her eyes widened; for once, he’d caught her off guard.

He would think about it.

She would keep her mouth closed about this conversation. She wouldn’t tell Teru that Akane did like him back, and she wouldn’t tell Akane about any of this.

For the first time, she had faith that they would get together on their own. They would work it out. Aoi was really, truly happy for them. They’d both admitted it, and now, they would get somewhere.

She was looking forward to seeing it.