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Takumi studied the vinyl player. It wasn't anything fancy, just a wooden box with the bare minimum needed to make it work. Hiruko would probably turn her nose up at it. Takemaru would complain about the lack of gold on it. Kurara would mock how quaint it was.
He shook his head before he could go through his entire list of dead friends. He knew he couldn't forget them completely, but he did not want to think about them tonight. That was the point of the vinyl player. His usual efforts to keep busy weren't distracting enough.
...Well, that wasn't completely true. He was plenty distracted, all things considered. He was worried about the toll Eito's efforts to distract both of them was taking.
"Takumi?" Eito's nervous voice rang through their space.
Speak of the devil.
"Hey," Takumi greeted him.
Relief washed through him. Takumi closed his eyes and took it in. Eito's feelings were huge. It was so odd to have a front row seat to everything that was going through his partner's chest, especially after five months of being unable to read him at all.
It was for the best. It helped him know how to navigate Eito's turbulent moods.
Anxiety prickled at him again. "Sorry. You weren't sleeping, were you? I just... I realized I hadn't heard you speak in a while, and I..."
"I wasn't sleeping," Takumi replied. "Just kinda distracted? I've been paying like, half-attention to what you've been doing with the map and other files."
"That's fine," Eito said quickly.
Takumi winced. That would usually be an easy opening for Eito to slip into bantering with him. Eito didn't feel secure right now, then.
"I was actually wondering if we could go to bed early tonight," Takumi said before his partner could start rambling about how he could handle their entire mission alone if need be. Again. "There's something I want to try out."
Curiosity sparked. Takumi could still sense an undercurrent of nerves. Eito's fingers drummed on the top of the desk. "You've been moving things around in there again, haven't you? I told you I didn't care about the blood. You should be resting."
Takumi rolled his chair over to the bed. "This was easier to mess with than the bloodstains." Which was both hilarious and infuriating. It should not be harder to clean a room than to summon a whole ass vinyl player into existence.
The bloodstains were symbolic or whatever. He understood why they were so hard to get rid of. He was still a little annoyed about it.
"Takumi..."
Eito did not sound pleased. Takumi held in a sigh. He wondered if he had ever been this overbearing. The kicker was that he couldn't really blame Eito for it. If Karua had ever been as injured as Takumi currently was, he would absolutely be trying to keep her in bed.
"I'm okay," he promised as he moved onto the bed. "I think my idea will make it easier for me to sleep tonight. I know you've been worried about that."
Eito sighed. "I suppose I've been staring at this map for too long. I don't..." he paused for a long moment. "We don't have anything with the scientists tonight, unless they surprise me."
Takumi knew that. He wouldn't have suggested doing this tonight otherwise.
Well, maybe he would have. Eito had been the sort of off today that usually led to his emotions overwhelming him in highly stressful situations. Talking to the scientists was always highly stressful. Takumi didn't really want to deal with a breakdown tonight.
"I should probably eat before going to bed."
"You should," Takumi agreed. He lay down. "There's no rush. I just want some extra time with you tonight."
The last of Eito's anxiety fizzled out. Only curiosity and anticipation remained. "Okay." He got up from the desk and slipped all of their files into a drawer. "We could probably use the extra sleep anyway. I was never this tired in my own body."
Takumi snorted. "Welcome to mine, I guess. Exhaustion's always been a bit of a background track for me."
"Mm." Another wave of unease. "I thought it had something to do with the stress."
Stress was a cute word for everything that had happened since Takumi killed Eito. "Nah, it just makes a pre-existing problem worse. You know how it goes."
"And yet you don't sleep as much as I do these days," Eito muttered.
Takumi rolled his eyes and gently shoved Eito's shoulder. "I've got a lot to think about these days. Go eat. We'll both feel better after you do."
Eito pouted, which was still a weird expression for Takumi's face, but he left the room. Takumi settled in to watch Eito move around.
---
Eito blinked at Takumi owlishly from the couch before he turned away and rubbed his face. "Mmgnh."
"Take your time," Takumi told him. "I don't think you're supposed to be awake in here immediately after falling asleep."
"It wasn't a problem the first night you were awake. It... I was always awake in here while you were...were..." Eito's breath stuttered, and he shook his head before burying his face in his hands. "Well, not always, I guess, but usually..." he trailed off into a groan. "I don't know why it's different."
Takumi lightly bit his tongue. It still bothered him that Eito could casually talk about the horrors of his simulated past, but the instant that they got onto the topic of the time that Takumi was basically dead, it was grounds for a potential panic attack. He was doing his best to keep his guilt about that away from Eito, who had somehow internalized that the entire situation was his own fault and got upset whenever Takumi even insinuated otherwise.
The truth of the matter was that it was a mess of fault and blame. It was far more complicated than Eito made it out to be. Takumi still felt awful about the fact that he had traumatized his partner to this degree.
He had theories about Eito's relationship with this space. He was even putting some of those theories into practice to make sure Eito actually slept. He didn't want to talk to Eito about his insomnia and anxiety tonight, though.
It didn't take Eito long to gather himself. He quickly noticed the vinyl player on the desk. He looked at Takumi. "...You said you wanted to try something?"
"Yeah." Takumi sat up and swung his legs over the bed. "Maruko had that romantic drama playing while we were talking with Shizuhara this afternoon."
"I...recall, yes." Eito stood, his brow furrowed. "I thought you felt distracted during that conversation. You don't usually pay attention to the TV."
"I mean, there's usually nothing interesting going on in the story." Takumi shrugged and also got to his feet. "But the dancing caught my eye. I've been wanting to test putting things in here for a while now, and I figured that while the partners-in-crime schtick is working for us, maybe we should...try more things."
"Takumi, have you been studying Maruko's awful romance drama as a model for our relationship?"
"Hell, no." Takumi rolled his eyes. He was glad to see amusement sparkling in Eito's pale blue eyes. He was also glad that Eito felt secure enough to tease him. "We've got enough stuff going on without added miscommunication drama. The tropes in that series are awful and I'll have none of them in this relationship."
Eito arched an eyebrow. "...You've been paying much more attention to the TV than I thought you were."
"Yeah, whatever. I can multitask."
"Can you? I thought that single-minded determination was your greatest strength."
"For the love of everything under the sun, you bitch. I want to try slow-dancing."
Eito's timid smile was a rare one. Takumi could count on one hand the number of times this Eito had given him one of those smiles. Each one was precious because it was real.
"Neither of us know how to do this, Takumi." There was still a little bite in Eito's tone, but it was quickly eroded by fondness. There was a bit of trepidation as well. "Or, well, I don't know how to do it."
"Neither of us do," Takumi confirmed. He walked forward and took Eito's hands. "But I've seen the gist of how it works, so we're going with it. No one's here to tell us we're doing it wrong."
Pink began to creep across Eito's face. He ducked his head. "Stupid. If we're going to do something, we should do it right."
"According to whom?"
Eito startled a little, then giggled. "You actually used it right."
"Scold me enough times and the lesson will stick." Takumi briefly stuck his tongue out at his partner. "Come on, babe. It's our space. Our rules. Dance with me."
He got another timid smile. Eito's face was very pink now. "What are we even dancing to? Most of my music tastes aren't well-suited to slow dancing."
"I've got a song that'll work." Takumi cocked his head towards the vinyl player at an angle that made his spine audibly grind.
Eito made a startled, alarmed noise, and raised a hand to Takumi's bandages. He paused when he heard the guitar and soft singing from the vinyl. His hand became a fist. "...Takumi."
Takumi subtly swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth. "Yes?"
"Is this the song that you used to drown out Turamtammi's battle soundtrack?"
Takumi laughed and brought his neck back into alignment. The look on Eito's face was more than worth the pain and another hidden mouthful of blood. "It works for slow dancing, doesn't it?"
"I mean..." Eito gently placed a hand against Takumi's bandages. He tilted his head towards the vinyl player. "It's not terrible. It just took me by surprise."
Takumi wrapped his arms around Eito and smiled against his chest. "A lot of the SDU members would disagree with you. Takemaru in particular hated this song."
"...He would." Eito moved his hand up to Takumi's hair. "Was this song meant for Darumi?"
"No, this is actually Gaku's go-to for parties."
Eito huffed. "You're joking."
"No, he really did make us listen to this song. We partied to it until dawn in my first timeline. That was before Turamtammi came to the school." Takumi brought a hand over to gently shove Eito's chest. "I saw Kurara slow-dancing with Darumi there, so everything I'm about to teach you comes from watching their footwork. Pay attention."
Eito's breath stuttered, but he put his left foot back when Takumi nudged it with his own. Takumi moved them forward, then back, then to the side.
"I think... I think I need to kill whoever taught you how to take my breath away," Eito mumbled. The pink on his face had intensified to red.
"You can't kill yourself," Takumi whispered as he led them through a full circle of steps. "You bound yourself to me for eternity. Reap the consequences."
Eito gave a faint, frustrated noise and grabbed Takumi's chin. He gently tilted Takumi's face up.
Takumi stood on his tiptoes and met Eito's kiss halfway.
The song switched to something that was still melancholy, but far more musically impressive. An old movie soundtrack from Takumi's simulated memories.
Maruko's stupid romance drama was the first time he had seen a slow-dancing scene portrayed in film, but it was not the first one he remembered.
It was easier to sway to the beat of the music after the kiss. It felt eerily like the times that they had cooperated together in battle. At first, Takumi led. Once Eito got the hang of the footwork, he took the lead. They didn't move too fast, but they were together. A single-minded purpose moving around their bloodstained room. They didn't have to think. They just basked in each other's warmth and movement.
Eito led the final twirl near the vinyl player, and Takumi reached out and lifted the needle off of the record. The music stopped, leaving only their unsteady breathing in its wake.
Eito sat down on the bed, but he left his hand on Takumi's arm. "You could have done that instead of messing with your neck, right?" he asked.
"Neck was easier." Takumi sat down on the bed next to him. "I would've had to leave your arms to turn it on otherwise."
"...You're awfully bold tonight." Eito stared at him, awe and fondness clear in his expression. "I'm not complaining, mind you. This was very nice. It caught me off guard, though. Why did you set this up?"
Takumi smiled. "Well, part of it was I wanted to see if I could mess with the room in ways other than the bloodstains. The vinyl player took some doing, but I also did this."
He clapped his hands, and the room plunged into darkness. Not complete darkness. He had made sure of that earlier.
Dotted across the ceiling and upper walls were hundreds of glow-in-the dark stars and one crescent moon. The bloodstains almost looked like clouds under their light...and there was enough light for Eito and Takumi to be able to see.
Eito gasped.
Takumi took a moment to observe his partner in silence. He memorized the look of awe on his face. He drank in the way that the artificial light bounced off of Eito's face and shone in his huge blue eyes. One hand squeezed Takumi's arm hard enough to hurt, and the other was curled into a gentle fist near Eito's lips.
His thumb was loose. The pose was similar to a Futuran battle prayer.
Takumi reached out and grasped that hand in his own. Eito turned his wide gaze back to Takumi's own.
"You and I have been sprinting towards tomorrows that might never come since the day we met," Takumi told him quietly. "I wanted to slow down and see some of our tomorrow today."
Eito looked down at their clasped hands, then back up at Takumi. His eyes were still wide. "That's beautiful."
Takumi gave him a small, sheepish smile. "Thanks. I'm just happy I pulled it off."
"Oh, shut up." Eito pulled him into a hug, laughing. "You're going to make me cry. You monster." He buried his face in Takumi's hair. "You were right. This was really, really nice," he whispered. "Thank you. We're going to make it to that tomorrow you want. Our tomorrow. I promise."
The memories of a thousand promises that could never be kept, whispered over two sets of left behind friends, flashed through Takumi's head. They shuffled themselves like a deck of cards and added Eito's words to their number.
Takumi appreciated the sentiment anyway. He returned the hug. "I'm glad you liked it," he murmured. "Thanks for indulging me."
"You're hard to say no to when you get like that." Eito kissed the top of his head. "...We should sleep, though. That was a lot."
Takumi closed his eyes against a dozen memories of a different Eito who wasn't afraid to say 'that was a lot' to him in such a happy tone. He nodded against his Eito's chest.
He still ached everywhere. His mouth tasted like iron and tears burned in his eyes, but he had another precious memory to safekeep now. A snapshot of time that could propel them forward.
Eito was happy. Takumi was happy. It had been a very long time since they had been able to just exist without everything weighing them down.
These precious moments together were all he could ask for.