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The Eastern Divisional Conference has been long and tedious, and Hoshina can feel Narumi staring at him. In fact, he can feel his piercing eyes stealing glances at him from time to time, even though Narumi is sitting on the opposite side of the hall, not even using his kaiju retina.
Narumi leans back on his chair, casually propping a leg up on the cushion and resting an arm on his knee. He is not even pretending to care about Director Itami’s presentation, but he seems awake enough for his vice-captain to take notes instead of digging his elbow into Narumi’s ribs every time he dozes off.
Hoshina is definitely not staring back. As the representative of the Third Division, he can’t afford to focus on anything but the meeting—not when he has a good reputation to maintain. That doesn’t mean he can’t take occasional glimpses at Narumi’s slouched form, though.
If their eyes meet at one point and Hoshina acknowledges Narumi with a playful wink that makes the captain break eye contact and cross his arms, no one has to know about it.
As expected, Narumi bolts out of the room as soon as the conference wraps up after almost three hours of discussions. Hoshina stays behind to collect his documents, chat with his fellow officers, and write a short email to Mina. Mostly to give her a quick update on the subjects discussed before their next debrief the following morning.
It’s not surprising that Hoshina is the last one to leave, but it’s definitely a surprise to find Narumi casually leaning against the wall outside the conference room, waiting for him. Hoshina had expected him to run back to his office and hide from his responsibilities as soon as possible.
“Hey, Bowl Cut!” Narumi stands with his hands in his pockets, staring at Hoshina through his long bangs. “You sure took your time.”
“Captain Narumi,” Hoshina addresses him, a smile already tugging at the corners of his lips. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Narumi doesn’t answer right away and instead gets rid of the distance between them with a few strides of his long legs. He stops right in front of Hoshina and casually asks:
“Are you free tonight?”
Hoshina is slightly taken aback by the directness of the question because, even though they’re alone in a random hallway, someone could catch them just by walking around the corner.
“It depends,” Hoshina answers, not giving in to whatever Narumi is thinking just yet. “Got something in mind?”
Narumi gets even closer, placing a hand on Hoshina’s shoulder and invading his personal space until he can feel Narumi’s warm breath on the shell of his ear.
“Come to my office before you return to your base.” It’s not a question, but it’s not like Narumi to politely ask for anything he wants.
“What kind of official matters need my presence tonight?” Hoshina teases.
“It’s an unofficial meeting,” Narumi replies without missing a beat before pressing his lips into a thin line and adding: “I need you for… you know… for something.”
A shiver travels down Hoshina’s spine.
He must return to Tachikawa as soon as he finishes his duties in Ariake. There is a pile of paperwork waiting for him on his desk, he has an early start the next day, and he definitely should stop mixing business with literal pleasure when it comes to Narumi, of all people. But how could he refuse such an offer?
“How forward of ya, Captain.” Hoshina’s words are accompanied by a hand sneaking onto Narumi’s waist, his gloved thumb tracing semicircles on the soft, worn fabric of his jacket.
“You’re in or not?” Narumi’s warm breath tickles Hoshina’s neck, still too close for comfort.
Hoshina can only nod.
If he turned to the right, his lips would brush against Narumi’s jaw and eventually find their way to his mouth. It’s a provocative thought that lingers in Hoshina’s mind even as Narumi takes a step back. He stays put, though. If Narumi wants to proposition him in the middle of the hallway during work hours, Hoshina has to be the one to maintain some sense of professionalism.
Narumi’s hands return to his pockets, unbothered by whatever just happened, and Hoshina won’t let it get into his head either. He smiles easily, pretending he’s not clutching his stack of documents closer to his chest to stop himself from slamming Narumi into the nearest wall and cage him in.
“See ya later, Captain.” Hoshina waves and leaves, turning his head around after a few steps to see Narumi walking to the opposite end of the hallway.
By the time Hoshina reaches the training grounds, his heart rate has gone back to normal, but he is not fully present. It’s as if Narumi planted a seed in him.
Kafka is already waiting for him, warming up to prepare for their joint training. Hoshina smiles, but not even the fun of seeing the man struggle to keep up with him can take his mind off from that unexpected encounter in the hallway. He keeps thinking about how Narumi’s warm breath felt against his jaw and the weight of his hand on his shoulder.
This distraction creates an opening that Kafka immediately takes, punching Hoshina. Kafka gasps and looks at his fist afterward, surprised that he managed to land a hit on Hoshina at all.
Kafka is so shocked that he looks like he might apologize at any second, even though Hoshina had tasked him with hitting him. Hoshina seizes that moment of hesitation to return the punch, taking Kafka by surprise and making him end up on his back on the ground.
“Next time, make sure not to lower your guard,” Hoshina says, ignoring the sharp pain in his side. Kafka is far from reaching his maximum potential, but he has been improving for sure.
Kafka groans and stands back up, adopting the battle stance again. Hoshina takes a deep breath and follows suit.
He doesn’t make the mistake of getting distracted again, and Kafka bites the dust a few more times. The balance of the universe has been restored until lunchtime, when Hoshina has free time to think about things he shouldn’t be thinking about.
It doesn’t help that Narumi, with his loud mouth, brash attitude, and handsome face, is sitting a couple of tables away, having lunch with his platoon leaders and complaining about how hard his life is for having to attend boring meetings all the time.
Narumi is ridiculous, and yet Hoshina wants to push him down onto a bed and—
“Vice-Captain, is there anything I can do to improve faster?” Kafka asks from the opposite side of the table.
Both he and Kikoru choose to sit with him instead of Narumi, and now they stare at him expectantly, awaiting valuable tips from their superior. Hoshina discards his very unprofessional thoughts and smiles.
“Ya can’t rush progress. Just keep workin' with consistency and enthusiasm,” he replies.
Kafka looks at him with disappointment. Like he equally expected that kind of answer, or a secret to becoming stronger overnight that he won’t receive. Kikoru nods and takes a sip of her tea.
Hoshina notices when Narumi stands up after finishing his lunch. Not because he is paying attention to him, but because Narumi can’t do anything in silence and he complains, screams, and tries to run away when Vice-Captain Hasegawa shows up to drag him back to his office since he promised to finish his paperwork after lunch.
On his way out of the mess hall, Narumi playfully pats Hoshina’s shoulder with a wide smirk on his face, which could seem condescending to anyone but them. Hoshina rolls his eyes and casually picks up his chopsticks to finish his bowl of rice. If anyone else noticed the gesture, no one comments on it, probably too afraid of potential punishments from them.
After lunch, Hoshina has a meeting with Izumo Tech engineers. By the time he arrives at the Research and Innovation Laboratories, the seed that had been planted in his brain has truly taken root as if it had been nourished by his meal and own boredom. It’s an infectious seed. A parasitic one.
He really tries to focus on the team’s opinions about Number 10’s weaponization and offer his own insights too, based on his preferences and data provided by the researchers back in Tachikawa, but his brain once again keeps replaying the impromptu encounter with Narumi in the mess hall.
“As you can see, Vice-Captain,” one of the Izumo engineers starts, signaling to the suit’s diagram. “Our main goal right now is to find a way to make the main breastplate flexible and resistant enough to last a battle, while also leaving room to integrate Number 10 into the construction, and…”
Hoshina nods, zoning out. He blames his inattentiveness on staying up well past midnight to finish his paperwork rather than on his thoughts, but there’s no use. His mind keeps going back to fucking Narumi Gen, as in both the person and the action.
Perhaps he should follow Captain Ashiro’s advice and take a couple of vacation days to rest and recharge, and stop thinking about how Captain Narumi looks on his knees.
“Do you have any questions?” the engineer asks.
Hoshina has no idea what she just explained.
“No,” he answers anyway. Material science is definitely not his forte, so he doubts another explanation would help.
“Good. Then we can move on to the gloves.”
At some point, Hoshina loses track of time. When leaves the innovation laboratories with a bunch of documents to take with him to Tachikawa, most of the officers have already finished their work for the day and they’re now having dinner or resting while they can.
He knows that Narumi prefers to lock himself in his room with the company of a video game or social media on his phone, before inevitably succumbing to hunger at midnight, when the mess hall is closed and he has to eat cheap cup noodles instead of something better.
Maybe Hoshina can convince him to grab a bowl of fresh ramen before he leaves. After all, the reason Hoshina is not driving back to his base yet is Narumi himself. If Narumi behaves, maybe Hoshina will even offer to pay for his dinner.
Hoshina knocks on the door and waits until Narumi exclaims “It’s open!” from the other side. He can’t help but smile as he unzips his jacket, letting his skin-tight compression shirt speak for itself before he opens the door.
Narumi doesn’t look at him when he enters the room. Instead, his eyes stay glued to the T.V., his whole attention captured by a video game.
Hoshina leaves his boots and the stack of documents by the door and approaches Narumi. The captain’s office is surprisingly clean, so Hoshina doesn’t have to worry about stepping on a forgotten tiny model gun, or a LEGO block, or something equally unpleasant. One time was more than enough.
“Ya wanted me, and now here ya have me, Capt’,” Hoshina says, inviting himself to sit next to Narumi on his futon. If his jacket slides down his shoulder in the process and he does nothing to fix it, no one has to know that it was exactly what he wanted to happen.
“Hmm, yeah.” Narumi still won’t look at him, furiously and desperately pressing the controller’s buttons instead. His hair is a mess, and he has already changed out of his uniform into an oversized shirt with a stretched-out collar that lets Hoshina catch a glimpse of his collarbone.
Hoshina would love to sink his teeth into Narumi’s skin within the next few minutes, so he reaches to caress Narumi’s bicep, hoping to speed things up a bit.
“Hey!” Narumi dares to shrug him off. “Hoshina, wait! I’m busy!”
Unfortunately, there’s nothing Hoshina can do when Narumi is in this kind of mood. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to wait more than a minute for Narumi’s character to be obliterated as “GAME OVER” appears on the screen in bold red letters.
Narumi looks like he might smash his controller, or even the entire gaming console against the wall.
“Ready for our unofficial meeting now?” Hoshina asks, his fingers wandering to Narumi’s thigh.
“Yeah, just gimme a sec,” Narumi says, pressing his lips into a line and Hoshina waits for the imminent moment when Narumi will tackle and ravish him on the floor.
The moment doesn’t arrive. Instead, Narumi takes the controller again and restarts the game, all before Hoshina’s bewildered eyes.
“Is yer game that good?” At this point, Hoshina just discards his jacket and throws it somewhere behind him.
“Yeah.” Narumi looks genuinely conflicted when he pauses the game for a moment and finally meets Hoshina’s gaze. “You may be wondering why I called you here.”
“I think I do.” In all honesty, Hoshina is mostly curious about why they’re still wearing clothes.
“Well, I’ll let you know that you weren’t my first option for this, Bowl Cut, so don’t get too cocky!”
That makes Hoshina pause. What the hell does Narumi mean by that? How many more people has he invited after work to his office? How many of them are at his disposal whenever Narumi wants a quick fuck?
A bitter pang of jealousy and betrayal settles in Hoshina’s chest. He is about to storm out of the room when Narumi takes his hand and places the video game controller in his open palm.
“You should be happy I’m giving you the honor of helping Japan’s strongest with this.”
“What?” Hoshina opens and closes his mouth, processing the situation. “Ya asked me to come here to play video games with ya?”
“Not with me, for me,” Narumi clarifies. “I’ll make one positive comment about you on social media in return.”
“Why?” It’s all Hoshina can ask, trying to understand how he even got here.
“I’ve been stuck on this part for two days—”
“No.” Hoshina shakes his head, refusing to let the exasperation consume him. Not yet. “Why did ya ask me to come like this is a secret no one is allowed to find out about?”
“Because this is a secret no one is allowed to find out about!” Narumi replies. “It’d absolutely ruin my reputation!”
“I thought ya were propositioning me!”
Hoshina notices the moment when Narumi finally realizes what’s going on—how his mouth hangs open and adorable blush puts some color on his face. Narumi is smarter than he looks and he is not an idiot by any means, but he can have a one-track mind sometimes. Most of the time, actually.
“That’s on you!” Narumi exclaims.
“Clearly.” Hoshina sighs. “Ya know I’m not a gamer.”
“You were…” Narumi pauses for an instant to ponder his words, then continues, “You were sufficiently and surprisingly proficient the other time. Not as good as me, but good enough for me to think you could do it.”
Hoshina could spend the next few minutes teasing Narumi, jabbing at his skills when it comes to his favorite hobby, or defeat the boss and go home earlier than expected. He chooses the latter.
“Let’s get over this.”
Hoshina takes a moment to familiarize himself with the video game. It’s different from the one they played last time, but the controls are similar enough for him to decide to confront the big monster Narumi has been struggling to kill right away.
Narumi clutches a fluffy pillow to his chest, biting his lower lip every time the boss’ claws come too close to the swordsman on the screen. He flinches when Hoshina inevitably fails to dodge a direct hit, as if the events of the game are causing him real, physical pain.
Hoshina ignores the theatrics and focuses on the screen. His lips curve up in a smirk when the sword pierces the monster’s armor for the last time, causing it to erupt in a flash of bright light.
“Fuck yeah, baby!” Narumi celebrates, pumping his fist in the air as if he were the one who killed the boss after all. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
He wraps an arm around Hoshina’s shoulders, presses a sloppy kiss to the side of his head, and messes up his hair. Hoshina pushes him away with a laugh he tries to suppress.
“Sex is cool, but winning at video games is better, amiright?” Narumi teases, lifting his hand for a high-five. Hoshina promptly punches his shoulder, not hard enough for it to sting, but to make his response clear.
“I’m the one, ya’ve been having sex with, ya dolt,” he mutters, refusing to take it too personally because their occasional encounters have been good at worst and mind-blowing at best—definitely better than video games, mind you.
Narumi sticks his tongue out at Hoshina and pries the controller from Hoshina’s hands to collect the spoils of the battle with a big smile. He repeatedly saves his progress, as if he is afraid of it will somehow disappear from his console if he only does so once.
“I’ll be leavin' then. I have work to do.” Hoshina stands up, retrieving his jacket and shrugging it on in one quick motion. “Make sure to tag me in that post ya promised, or whatever.”
Narumi’s hand shoots out to grab Hoshina’s wrist, scrambling to his feet. “You should stay.”
“I don’t feel like playin' games all night, Narumi,” Hoshina complains.
“I didn’t say anything about staying up to play games.” Narumi pulls Hoshina in by the belt loops of his pants until they’re chest to chest. “You deserve a nicer reward for killing the boss on your first try.”
There is no mistaking his intentions now and Hoshina doesn’t waste any more time. He moves his hands to Narumi’s cheeks and holds him firmly before kissing him and pushing him back down onto the futon. The video game becomes nothing more than background noise.