Archive of Our Own

Nirei balances his chin in his palm, puffing out a breath that whistles through his teeth as he thinks. He taps the tip of his nail against the surface of the table to a discordant rhythm and stares unseeingly at his laptop screen. 

Before him, his cursor flashes black and white. He reads the words he typed out for the millionth time, diligently checking over the spelling of every word and phrasing of every sentence. There’s no mistakes to be found, just like every time he proofread it in the past week. 

Nirei almost talks himself out of it. Almost does, for the ninth day in a row. Then he remembers the promise he made to himself this morning, to not drag this dilemma out over ten days, and sighs. He drops his head onto the back of his chair and purses his lips. 

Blindly, without sitting back upright, he reaches for the trackpad on his laptop and navigates to the post button. At this point, he’s long memorised its position on the screen. 

Before he can regret it, he clicks the button. 

Nirei’s mind is stuck on it throughout all of his lessons. Every five minutes, in the midst of calculating the angle of a triangle or deducing the structure of a chemical compound or recalling the definition of an English word, his thoughts inadvertently circle back to it and he has to fight the urge to sneak out his phone. 

Occasionally, he gives into the urge and slips his hand into his bag. Though, as soon as his fingers brush over the plastic of his phone case, he withdraws them. After all, he just posted it this morning! He can’t expect a response already. 

Ah, but maybe that buzz was a notification…no, no. He shouldn’t be so impatient. But what if someone really did see it and—

Nirei buries his face in his hands in frustration. How can he focus on school like this?

Familiar laughs sound from the side of the classroom, chiming like peals of bells. Nirei can’t help the slide of his gaze nor the patter of his heart in response, so easily enraptured by the boy who’s dominated his attention for the past few months. 

The bubblegum-pink hair is what he instinctively seeks out first. It glows beneath the window’s sunlight and sends electricity coursing to Nirei’s fingertips. They nearly outshine the sparkle of silver piercings nestled into their owner’s ears, eyebrows and lips, catching the light unabashedly. Amongst them, though, what shines the brightest is the pair of emerald-green eyes, curved in joyful laughter. 

Nirei presses his lips together to stop himself from smiling giddily like an idiot. His pulse jitters nervously in his wrist to the same rhythm as the thump of his heart in his chest. Despite the urge to continue staring, he forces his gaze downwards at the surface of his table. 

On the first day of school, still dazzled that he managed to get into Furin and disoriented from the size of the campus, he tucked himself into a corner of the classroom. Around him, bunches of classmates clustered together and made introductions, diving into conversations that cemented their friendships in an instant. He stood at the side, isolated from it all, feeling helplessly disconnected from everyone else. 

Then, a boy sidled up to him. 

“Hey there,” he greeted with a smile. “You look lonely.”

Nirei jumped at the unexpected closeness and turned, opening his mouth to respond. When he saw the other boy, though, all the words flew straight out of his head. 

He was the most beautiful boy Nirei ever saw. Instantly, Nirei couldn’t hear anything apart from the patter of his heart in his chest. He vaguely felt the warmth that flared over his face and hoped his blush didn’t make him look as pathetic as he felt. 

“I’m Kiryu Mitsuki,” the boy introduced kindly, without a mention of the absolute mess of a state Nirei must have been in. “I’m trying to make a chat for everyone in the class so we can keep in touch.”

He offered Nirei his phone. Nirei stared at it for a few seconds, frozen in place, then scrambled to take it as he picked up on the implied instructions. Clumsily, fingers slipping a few times, he typed out his full name and phone number in a new contact. 

When he handed the phone back to Kiryu, the other boy looked at the screen then hummed lightly. 

“Nirei-chan,” he read, lips curving. “Nice to meet you!”

The sound of Nirei’s name on Kiryu’s lips was enough for his pulse to go haywire. As Kiryu waved goodbye casually then moved on to gather more contact information, Nirei felt himself slide down the wall he was leaning on. He didn’t know it was possible for someone to spark this kind of reaction in him. 

Since then, Nirei’s paid much more attention to Kiryu than anyone else in his class. He has nowhere near enough courage to approach him, or strike up conversation, so he keeps to stealing glances and making mental notes. It started with simple things, like his height and weight or his birthday, then grew into a detailed list of likes and dislikes, until he had a notebook half-filled with scribbles about Kiryu. 

Nirei sighs forlornly, now, chin cupped in his palm. He’d give anything for another coincidental interaction like that first day, if only to see Kiryu direct that same smile at him and call his name. 

When the bell rings, Nirei takes off like a shot. He dodges teachers as he speedwalks through the corridors then breaks into a dead sprint out the school gates, already digging his phone out. Once he’s sure no one from school is around him, he scrolls up to check his notifications. 

You have 1 unread message, the notification blinks. Nirei feels his heart lift to his throat as he clicks on it. 

hey! ur comms r open right?? 

Nirei squeals audibly. Passers-by give him weird glances, but he doesn’t notice. Instead, he holds his phone to his chest and laughs unabashedly. 

See, the thing is: Nirei is the hugest otaku. Since he was in middle school, he’s followed his favourite series religiously. Eventually, when his adoration for the manga spilled over into his love for drawing, he began to post his fanart online. It received way more attention than he expected, gaining him thousands of followers over his consistent years of posting. 

Recently, for the series’ anniversary, a new figure was produced that Nirei was desperate to get his hands on. However, when he checked his savings, the amount he was greeted with was enough to send him spiralling straight into despair. That’s when he had an idea. If he had so many followers, they must be interested in his art, right? So, if they were interested in his art, and he was interested in their money, wasn’t there an easy way to solve both problems at once?

That’s how Nirei opened his commissions for the first time in his life. He was terrified to post it, anxious that he wouldn’t get a single reply, but someone really did message him!

Nirei lifts his phone to grin giddily at the screen and the opened message. Then, when his gaze catches on the username, he gasps and brings the phone right up to his face. The person who sent the message—he recognises the username! He knows this username by heart!

Back when he just started out posting, still figuring out the basics like anatomy and rendering and perspective, he barely had any followers. He was indescribably nervous every time he pressed the “post” button, and contemplated deleting his whole account multiple times. 

Then, someone with the username hotdoggamer followed him. Nirei remembers, even now, the feeling of waking up to countless notifications. When he opened the app, he found that they had liked and reposted every single fanart Nirei had uploaded since he created his account. There were so many comments left under his posts, compliments on Nirei’s artstyle and skill that were incomparably enthusiastic and supportive. He maybe cried a little that morning. 

As Nirei continued to post over the next few years, gradually growing his fanbase, hotdoggamer never wavered in their support. Nirei found himself beginning to look forward to that notification in his inbox that indicates a new comment from them, always one that makes him smile bashfully or giggle at his screen. 

And now, hotdoggamer is the first to message Nirei about his commissions! Nirei thinks he could cry. Internally, he swears that if he ever meets hotdoggamer in real life, he’s going to absolutely smother them in gratitude. Trepidatiously, he began to type out a reply to them. 

hi!! yes my comms are open, what would you be interested in?

He checks over the message a couple times then clicks the send button. As he instinctively makes to close the app, the typing icon appears in the corner of his screen. He yelps and nearly drops his phone in surprise. 

i wanted to ask for 2 fullbodys

full colour n rendering, w detailed background plz!!

Nirei’s jaw drops. When he set the prices for his commissions, he didn’t set them as high as he’d seen other people do. Regardless, the price of a piece like that isn’t cheap. Is hotdoggamer insanely rich or something? Maybe they’re just financially irresponsible…not that Nirei is in any position to judge. 

yeah sure! could you send me details on the characters and background you’d like?

yesssss ofc

They go on to describe two boys in detail, from the shade of their hair to their exact heights. It’s quite cute, really, as they describe the two characters chatting over bubble tea. They even ask for a classroom setting with a sunset glowing through the windows and Nirei melts just at the thought. He finds himself smiling as he confirms some details and notes down every request. He has to make sure this commission is absolutely perfect for them!

The next week or so, Nirei starts rushing home directly after school. The moment he swings open his bedroom door, he’s snatching up his drawing tablet to work on the first sketch for the commission. Hours pass like that, with him perched on his chair or splayed on his bed or seated on his floor. He draws and redraws every stroke of the sketch so many times that he commits each line of it to memory. 

Finally, when he’s satisfied enough with his drawing, he sends it off to hotdoggamer. Staring at the phone, he anticipates their response without blinking. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait very long. Their response comes near-immediately in a flurry of excitement. 

hoooly shhi t

ohh m. ymy god

thank u wbknotesfan-sama there r tears in my eyes rn

Nirei chokes out a laugh at the honorific attached to his silly username. He can’t hold back a smile at the unbridled excitement overflowing through hotdoggamer’s messages as they send a few more messages praising Nirei’s sketch with candid exhilaration. Nirei thanks them shyly for their kind words, then types out another message. 

are there any improvements you’d like me to make?

uhhhhu h hm is it ok,, if i ask for like

dyt u cld give the first guy a bit more of like a :3 expression

n for the second guy cld u give him a couple more freckles

They ask for a few more adjustments, all simple requests that Nirei agrees to easily. He’s almost touched that hotdoggamer is leaving so much of the piece to his own volition, and that apart from tweaking the character designs they’ve mostly left it up to him. It makes him more determined to perfect this piece!

It’s Nirei’s first commission, so he maybe sends a few too many works in progress to hotdoggamer in his goal to make the piece flawless. Still, it pays off because hotdoggamer does bring up a few more adjustments, like the position of each piercing on the first character and the shape of the second character’s eyes. Nirei’s pretty much in awe at the level of detail hotdoggamer has for these characters, and he tells them as much. 

whoa, you must really pay a lot of attention to your ocs!!

haha yeah smth like that

Nirei grins at the casual tone of the message. At first, the flippant way in which they typed was intimidating, but he’s gotten used to it lately. They’ve even struck up a few conversations outside of the commission, chatting about fashion tips or snack recommendations. Nirei feels disbelief at the fact that he’s becoming friends with his most supportive follower. It was unthinkable weeks ago, when he kept to merely leaving likes on their comments for fear of breaching any boundaries. The warmth bubbling up in his chest is unspeakably lovely. 

It’s another normal school day when their teacher announces a pair project. There’s a communal buzzing that rises from the class as people presumably begin to form pairs with their friends. Nirei ducks his head, feeling alone amongst everyone else who has someone to group with. He always hates pair activities like this, leaving him to pair with the other stragglers in his class. 

However, the teacher claps their hands to draw their attention. “Before you start pairing up, I should tell you that I’ve already made pairs for all of you. Now, now, don’t whine. I’ll announce the pairs—yes, you don’t have a choice—no, you can’t swap—oh come on, Anzai, being away from your friends for one project won’t kill you—”

The teacher waves away the complaints and begins reading off the list. Nirei listens half-attentively, already preparing himself to be straddled with a slacker that will leave him to do all the work. He casts his gaze towards the side of the classroom instead, where Kiryu is dramatically mourning the loss of his free will with his friends. 

“Nirei Akihiko,” he hears his teacher call. Then, like the first notes of birdsong on a spring morning, the name that follows his is—

“Kiryu Mitsuki.”

Kiryu turns in Nirei’s direction, eyes slightly wide, and their gazes clash head-on. Nirei feels himself blush completely at being caught staring, and his eyes dart away in sheer panic. 

“All right, go sit with your pairs,” he hears the teacher instruct distantly. “I’ll give you the rest of this lesson to work on the project. It’s due next month, alright? I’d better see some good work from you all.”

There’s no way. There’s no way. Nirei pinches himself to make sure he’s not dreaming, then pinches the same spot again for good measure. In the months of high school that’s passed so far, he’s never been given a chance delivered like this to him on a silver platter. A whole month’s worth of an excuse to talk to Kiryu one-on-one? Nirei can’t believe this is real. He’s simultaneously so excited and terrified that he can’t think properly, thoughts whizzing around in his mind like a hive of bees. 

“Hello there,” a greeting follows the drag of a chair as someone pulls up a chair before Nirei’s table and sits down. Nirei hears his heartbeat in his ears as he looks up, fingers curling around the edge of his seat. Kiryu smiles back at him. 

“Nirei-chan, right? I’ll be in your care~”

The rest of the class goes by in a blur. Nirei doesn’t remember much of it apart from his own stammered suggestion of a topic for them to work on, the shake in his fingers as he looked up related resources on the topic, and then…Kiryu arranging a date for them to meet at Nirei’s house the next day. 

When school ends, Nirei walks out the gates in a complete daze. 

When Kiryu asked to come over to his house tomorrow, he agreed without even a moment of hesitation. Now, though, he can’t stop panicking internally. He runs over every possible worst-case scenario in his head then tries to convince himself that they’re far too unrealistic, and then circles back to them anyway. He spends the train ride home spiralling down his thoughts. 

So, to take his mind off tomorrow, Nirei focuses twice as hard on his commission that day. He’s been working on the flat colours, carefully working through each part of the drawing to make sure they’re perfect. He draws late into the night, hunched over his drawing tablet, and passes out with it next to his pillow. 

The next day, he nearly oversleeps. He rushes to school and manages to make it in time, crossing the classroom’s threshold at the exact moment the bell rings. Despite being on time, the day’s classes are practical torture. He nods off a grand total of twenty-six times and is yelled at twice, cultivating in his anxiety being sky-high by the time school finishes. 

Kiryu, at least, looks sympathetic when he comes over to Nirei’s desk. 

“Rough night?” he asks. Nirei just yawns in response, which seems to work well enough as confirmation. Kiryu laughs and Nirei feels his heart stutter at the sound. 

He’s sleepy through the walk to the train station, stumbling a few times. However, when Kiryu notices and stabilises him, his touch on Nirei’s shoulder is enough to jerk him entirely awake. He manages to stay awake for the rest of the walk, hyper-aware of the touch of Kiryu’s palm through his school jacket. 

Thankfully, they snag two seats on the train that Nirei plops into with a grateful sigh. He yawns again, rubbing at his eyes. 

“What stop are we getting off at?”

Nirei blinks up at Kiryu, sleepy confusion evident in his slight frown. Kiryu chuckles at him, then elaborates. 

“You’re exhausted, right? Sleep on the way home, I’ll wake you up when we reach.”

Nirei genuinely feels like an angel has descended from the heavens. Seriously, is it possible for a person to be so perfect? He almost feels bad to trouble Kiryu like this, but the other boy’s smile is surprisingly sincere. So, with profuse thanks, he tells Kiryu the name of his stop and then immediately succumbs to the closing of his eyelids. He sinks quickly into deep sleep. 

Amidst the dizzy spin of his head and the pounding ache in his temples, Nirei feels his head tilt with the sway of the train. It falls like a bag of bricks, painfully heavy, before dropping against a soft surface. Strangely, it smells sugary sweet, like strawberry cream. It’s so addictively lovely that Nirei instinctively leans into it. Vaguely, he registers the subconscious alarm that sparks in his chest, but he’s too tired to react to it. 

Nirei thinks he dreams up the fingers that brush tenderly through his hair. 

He wakes up to a gentle prodding on his shoulder and the murmur of his name in his ear. He blinks awake, processing the softness against his temple and the crick in his neck. The moment he realises the position he’s in, he shoots upright with apologies already spilling through his lips. He was sleeping on Kiryu’s shoulder the whole ride home!

“Don’t worry about it,” Kiryu curves his eyes in a secretive smile. “We’re reaching our stop soon.”

Once the train doors open, Nirei is scampering through them in an attempt to hide his severely red face. Kiryu follows, and at least gives him the dignity of pausing by a pillar to regain his calmness. Nirei fans his burning face for a few seconds, before setting off. He leads Kiryu to his house, feeling distinctly like he’s walking himself to his execution. 

He unlocks the door, greeting his parents on the way in. Kiryu politely introduces himself with a bow, then follows Nirei into his room. Nirei’s face begins to heat up again, at the traitorous thought that maybe this would be how introducing his boyfriend to his parents would be like. It’s why he doesn’t catch Kiryu’s casual glance around his room and the lighting up of his eyes once he catches sight of something. 

“No way!” Kiryu gasps. “You have a shikishi signed by Nii Satoru-sensei?”

Nirei jumps and goes over to where Kiryu is admiring his wall. His hands scramble about as he explains, “It’s not an actual signed shikishi, just printed. I got it from a promotion a few months back.”

Kiryu still seems jealous regardless. He gazes in awe at all the prints Nirei has stuck on his bedroom wall. “Did you commission these? They look amazing, you have to give me the artists’ handles!”

“Ah, uh,” Nirei scratches at his cheek shyly. His chest feels oddly fluttery. “Yeah, of course! I didn’t know you were a fan of this series too, Kiryu-san.”

“Oh my god,” Kiryu grins. “You have no idea. I absolutely love it! Especially, in the new chapter where—”

He launches into a detailed rundown of the implications from the latest chapter, excitement lighting a fire behind his emerald irises. Nirei can’t help but get swept up in his enthusiasm, matching his energy as he similarly dissolves into theories and symbols and notes. 

In the end, they don’t get anything done at all. By the time Kiryu has to go home, there’s manga scattered all over the floor and multiple notebooks splayed open with both of them bent over the pages, furiously debating predictions for the next chapter. 

Kiryu checks the time and sighs in disappointment. When he leaves, bidding Nirei’s parents goodbye on the way out, Nirei insists on walking him back to the train station. The journey there is much less anxiety-inducing than the first time. They both gesture animatedly as they discuss their favourite series, so caught up in the conversation they almost miss Kiryu’s train. 

“Thanks, Nirei-chan!” Kiryu smiles wide as he waves with his whole arm. “This was really fun!”

Nirei laughs lightly and waves back. He keeps his gaze fixated on the familiar shade of pink as the train pulls out of the station, until it disappears into the distance. The smile fixed on his face lasts the whole walk home. 

“Kiryu-san told me he has the entire manga set,” Nirei gushes over his bubble tea. “Every single volume! Can you believe that? The entire set!”

It’s a rare afternoon where Sakura, Suo and Nirei are all temporarily free from deadlines to meet up. Nirei’s been best friends with them since middle school, but were sorted into different classes once they entered Furin. Thanks to the heavy academic workload, they pretty much can only meet outside of school a few times a month or so. 

Across from him, Suo chuckles. “I’m happy you have a chance to finally talk to your crush, Nirei-kun.”

Nirei waves his hands about in denial, feeling his face burn. “No, no, it’s nothing like that! I just really like Kiryu-san, is all.”

Suo gives a meaningful look to his left. Sakura currently has his face buried into his hands, elbows set on the table, surprisingly similar to an ostrich burying its head in sand. From where his ears poke out between strands of his hair, they’re red as rubies. 

“Nah…” Nirei insists, though his voice sounds unconvinced even to himself. “Sakura-san’s just…feeling sort of unwell today, I’m sure.”

Sakura makes the high-pitched noise of a boiling tea kettle. Suo fixes Nirei with a flat stare, as if to say: really? 

“Well, um,” Nirei searches desperately for something to change the topic to, “I got my first commission, by the way!”

It seems to do the trick, because Suo lights up instantly. Sakura unburies his head to rejoin the conversation, though his ears are still glowing red. 

“Congratulations, Nirei-kun,” Suo says sincerely. Sakura mumbles his own congratulations then blushes a furious maroon. 

“It’s a big piece, too,” Nirei explains and chatters on about the details that hotdoggamer requested for. Suo listens attentively while Sakura slowly recovers from his overheated state at his side. 

“What’s it look like?” Sakura asks eventually, when Nirei has tired himself out from talking so much and is sipping milk tea from his straw. 

Nirei perks up in an instant. He turns to his bag and rifles through it eagerly to pull out his tablet. Sakura squints at him a bit, as if bewildered at the fact that Nirei’s lugging the whole tablet around with him everywhere. 

“Here!” Nirei pulls the work in progress up and presents his screen with a flourish. He’s quite proud of how it looks so far. He’s managed to finalise the flat colours with hotdoggamer’s help, over days of back-and-forth messaging. The last conversation from mere hours ago lingers in his mind, making him smile subconsciously. 

i think i’m pretty much done with the flat colours!!

[image]

do they look okay?

PERFECT

BELONGS IN THE LOUVRE

nah…i wouldn’t want it to get nabbed by robbers

how about the characters?

i’m not sure if i got them perfectly down from your descriptions,,

RIGHT WAIT

i literally just wrote down the hex code for the hair colours down last night

GIVE ME 5 SEC

5

4

3

2

IM BACK!!! here u go

HA thought u cld get me

noooo i would neverrrrr…

i’ll change the colours now hold on!!

here, does this look correct?

[image]

take my life savings

in fact. take my kidney

i dont need that extra one its just for spare cash

LOL??

please keep your kidney

i WILL however take boba as payment

The unyielding eagerness in hotdoggamer’s responses is why Nirei truly does think the piece is taking shape nicely. It buoys his confidence as he holds out his tablet to show his friends. Both Suo and Sakura lean in to look, eyes wide in curiosity, and freeze at the exact same moment. 

“Uh,” Suo starts. Nirei doesn’t think he’s ever heard him sound so hesitant. He cocks his head to the side questioningly at Suo, slightly concerned. 

“What’s,” Suo coughs into his fist, “Uh, what did you say your relationship with Kiryu-kun was again?”

“Friends,” Nirei blinks, confused at the sudden topic change. “I guess?”

Suo stares daggers into the screen of Nirei’s tablet. “Right.”

The sudden silence that has swooped in to replace their conversation hangs over them like wet clay. It stretches longer and longer, until Nirei finally breaks it. 

“Is there something wrong with it?” he asks nervously, when neither of his friends have spoken for worryingly long. 

“No, no,” Suo rushes to assure him. “It looks great! The characters are, um, very—lifelike? They practically look like…real people…!”

Nirei perks up at his compliments, though his brow creases a little at Suo’s choppy speech. He wonders if the tea in his bubble tea today happens to have copious amounts of caffeine, or something. When he turns to Sakura to ask, he finds the boy faceplanted onto the table. 

“Is Sakura-san okay?” Nirei asks, reaching out to prod his shoulder. Suo’s hand lands on Sakura first, though, so Nirei drops his hand. 

“Sakura-kun just drank too much bubble tea,” Suo says forcefully. “Isn’t that right, Sakura-kun?”

The noise that emanates from Sakura’s vague direction sounds like both the screech of rubber tyres on asphalt and the scrape of nails down blackboard. Suo smiles pleasantly throughout it, acting like absolutely nothing is out of place. 

“Oh, look at the time!” Suo lifts his wrist to stare at it, although both of them can clearly see it’s bare of a watch. “We should get going.”

Nirei makes to check Suo’s temperature, fearing a fever or sickness, but the other boy stands up far too fast. He grabs both his and Sakura’s bubble tea, holding one cup in the crook of his arm and the other in his hand. With his other hand, he grabs Sakura’s wrist. He directs a wide smile at Nirei as he delivers an apologetic farewell. Nirei waves back helplessly as his eyes follow them out. 

It’s strange, really. As Suo and Sakura hurry out of the shop, Nirei swears he catches the most ferocious blush he’s ever seen painted across Sakura’s nape and down to his fingers. 

That night, as he starts on the commission’s rendering, his phone pings with new messages. He picks it up and finds that they’re from their three-person group chat. 

suo: good luck, nirei-kun!

sakura: hgdjgjhghrjg

He frowns in confusion at the cryptic words, but can’t help the affectionate smile at his best friends’ texts. 

“Do you think we should add an image here?” Kiryu points at the slide he’s currently on. Even though Nirei has the presentation open on his own laptop, he leans over to look at Kiryu’s screen. 

After the completely unproductive session last time, they decided to meet up at Nirei’s house again to finally start on the project. They’re currently an hour into discussion, and have a grand total of two slides to show for it. The first being the title card, and the second being completely blank apart from a text box. 

Nirei scrunches his brows in thought. He misses the way Kiryu’s gaze lingers over it, too focused on the flashing cursor before him. As he contemplates, the tips of Kiryu’s fingers turn yellow where he presses them against the floor, out of his line of sight. 

“I think the new manga chapter is out,” he says after a long silence. Simultaneously, they both dive for their phones. 

The new update leaves them both sprawled on the ground, Nirei with his arms motioning in the air above him and Kiryu interjecting with thoughtful comments in between Nirei’s thorough analysis. Their laptops sit abandoned at the side, since both of them get far too wrapped up in their conversation. When the time ticks over to Kiryu having to go home, they shoot up at the same time and groan in frustration. 

With his face buried in his hands, Kiryu sighs, “We gotta lock in, Nirei-chan.”

In a similar position, Nirei agrees, “We really should, Kiryu-san.”

“Okay!” Kiryu decides, dropping his hands from his face. “We’ll start meeting every other day, beginning from the day after tomorrow. We’ll spend one hour being productive and then another hour completely locking out. I’ll download a study timer app for it and everything.”

Nirei giggles at Kiryu’s faux-seriousness. “Alright. It’ll still be my house, right?”

“Are you kidding?” Kiryu turns to look at him with mostly-fake horror. He gestures to the signed shikishi on the wall with great emphasis. “I could never focus without the presence of the great Nii Satoru-sensei!”

Playing along, Nirei teases, “How do you get any work done at home, then?”

“That’s the secret,” Kiryu grins back, as if he were already expecting that reply. “I don’t.”

Nirei laughs at Kiryu’s terrible confidence, melting at the sheer silliness of the exchange. When he turns to Kiryu, ready to return the banter, the snarky comeback on his lips dies instantly. Kiryu is looking at him, crinkles at the corners of his eyes, mouth slanted in a soft smile. There’s so much sincere emotion that he lets spill from the expression that Nirei doesn’t know what to do with. 

“I guess,” Kiryu continues, voice barely above a murmur, “I’ll have to keep coming back here.”

Nirei feels like he can’t draw in air. With effort, he returns, “I guess so.”

When Nirei turns to leave his room and Kiryu follows with a pause, it’s a bit of a relief. 

Miraculously, Kiryu’s desperate plan actually works. The moment they sit down in Nirei’s room, Nirei confiscates both their phones and deposits them in a drawer. Kiryu pulls up the study timer he downloaded on his laptop and clicks the “start” button while Nirei opens the presentation on his laptop. They keep each other in check, Kiryu nudging Nirei when he begins to fidget and Nirei tapping Kiryu when he surreptitiously swipes to a new window. 

Both of them collapse to the ground with twin exhales when the timer’s notification sounds. Kiryu whines about how difficult the work is and Nirei matches his exasperation, before casually bringing up a detail about the manga that he definitely didn’t prepare beforehand the previous night. They spend the hour lounging around, lost in their chatting, until the timer dings again and they return to their laptops with a sigh. 

Weeks speed by like that. Nirei spends one afternoon with his head buried in his commission, then goes to sleep early to avoid any more embarrassing train rides. The next afternoon is spent alternating between making up wild theories and putting together their project. With the gradual perfection of the presentation, his commission inches closer to completion as well. This also means that he and hotdoggamer have been messaging even more, but nearly never about the commission. 

At this point, Nirei thinks he can confidently call himself and hotdoggamer close friends. Lately, they’ve been trading screenshots of shirts or accessories that they see online and think would suit each other’s style. Nirei has been looking forward to checking his notifications and finding either hairclips with cartoon dogs on them or shirts with truly garish designs that make him laugh. As they continue to chat, the exchanges further cement his determination to render the piece as beautifully as he can manage. 

It’s one evening, as Nirei fights for every scrap of drawing time he can salvage before he’s summoned for dinner, that he pauses to look at his tablet and the almost complete commission. Something in his mind clicks, making him chuckle. He does what he does every time something mildly interesting happens in his life and opens his group chat with Sakura and Suo. 

lol i think i’ve been working on this comm for too long??

i’m starting to think that the character’s hair looks the same shade as kiryu-san’s…

suo: oh my god

sakura: ]\[=][/\;][-=-/]m\[]

?? are you guys good

suo: so good. yes. doing very good

sakura: \[[][;][;][aa‘-=-[’;...

suo: i mean. that’s fascinating, nirei-kun!

suo: i can’t imagine how wild of a coincidence it must be

yeah! imagine the odds

getting commissioned to draw a character that looks just like kiryu-san lol

sakura: ,/==\,;[/,;/[-lkkf]

suo: yeah…that’s crazy

suo: all the best.

thank you, suo-san!

suo: i meant to target that at…someone else not in this chat

suo: but yes. all the best, nirei-kun

sakura: ./\afd-[-\.\,\[-,fgimv-]\-

Furrowing his brows, Nirei wonders if Sakura is okay. Maybe he should drop in on him again sometime, he doesn’t seem to be doing too well lately. He picks up his tablet absentmindedly and the screen, which went dark from inactivity, lights up again. 

Huh, Nirei thinks distinctly. That’s funny. 

He never really noticed in between his pinpoint fixations on every minute detail in the commission. However, now, as he looks over the entire half-rendered piece…

“That looks a lot like the shade of hair dye I use,” he mumbles to himself. It's a cheap hair dye that he grabs frequently from any convenience store, but he knows this brand is only widely available in Japan. He recognises the exact shade, too, because the colour stains multiple surfaces in his bathroom from his first few disastrous attempts to dye his own hair. 

“I wonder if hotdoggamer lives in Japan,” he thinks aloud. “Maybe I’ve run into them before…”

He banishes that idea with a laugh. That would be way too much of a coincidence! There’s probably just really similar hair dye where hotdoggamer lives, or something. 

By the time only a week is left before their project deadline, Kiryu and Nirei have finished up most of their presentation. All that’s remaining is to check over it a few times and maybe go through a practice run of the actual presentation, both of which can easily be done over a phone or video call. Despite the two of them being keenly aware of this fact, they keep up their routine of Kiryu crashing Nirei’s house every other afternoon. 

Even after they have well and truly exhausted every possible preparation they could make for the presentation, Kiryu follows Nirei home after school. They kill time on the last day before the presentation by using the whole afternoon to create an intricately detailed mindmap of theories for the current arc in the manga. Nirei sacrifices the ripped-out pages of an old notebook for it, and it ends up spanning nearly the entire length of his bedroom floor. 

At the end of it, in their unspoken agreement to not step on a single sheet of paper, Kiryu and Nirei squeeze themselves stubbornly into a corner of the room. Nirei knocks his elbow into Kiryu by accident more than a few times as he points to different sections of the mindmap. Kiryu leans into him multiple times when he reaches over Nirei’s shoulder with his arm to gesture at another part for a counter-argument. Although either of them could move away at any time, neither of them seem to consider the notion at all. 

“No, no,” Nirei fights, scowling in frustration, “Kiryu-san, you’re not getting it. Can’t you see—”

When his newly-set alarm for Kiryu’s departure rings, they sigh in unison. Kiryu stretches his arms up over his head, the motion fluid and graceful, then slumps into a particularly ungraceful slouch. Nirei feels a sudden rush of cuteness aggression and has to valiantly fight back the instinctive urge to kick Kiryu in the shin. 

“This was fun, Nirei-chan,” he yawns, “But I’ll have to absolutely demolish your shoddy theory—with zero concrete evidence, by the way—next time.”

“Next time,” Nirei parrots, lightheaded. He feels as if his soul is drifting out of his corporeal body, too distracted to come up with a retort. Kiryu still wants to…hang out with him. He still wants to come over to Nirei’s house in this little routine they’ve established. The project can’t even be used as an excuse after tomorrow’s presentation. Still, Kiryu…

“Yeah,” Kiryu agrees easily, like it’s the simplest conclusion in the world. “Same as always, right? Day after tomorrow?”

Nirei subtly pinches his own arm to check whether this is another outrageous dream. When the spot stings and doesn’t fade, he turns a wobbly, radiant smile onto Kiryu. In the haze of his disbelief, he doesn’t catch the way Kiryu squints like the whole force of the sun is being directed straight at him. 

“Yeah,” Nirei replies breathlessly. “I’ll see you then.”

This time, on the walk to the train station, they don’t chat like they usually do. It’s not awkward, exactly, but it’s not comfortable either. It feels like the air during a storm, charged with lightning and dense with vapour, so thick Nirei thinks he could slice it open with the tip of his nail. 

As they pass by under the trees, the angled sunlight filters through the patchy leaves and tilts over them. Kiryu is bathed partially in golden glow, as if the sun has descended from the heavens purely to render him like an angel. Carried by the gentle breeze, a leaf brushes by Nirei’s curls and drifts aimlessly in the air above Kiryu’s shoulder. As it floats down with a gentle tremor, Nirei finds himself following its descent with his eyes. 

When the leaf lands gently on Kiryu’s shoulder, Nirei instinctively reaches out to brush it off. Kiryu’s hand lifts at the same time, feeling the leaf’s touch. Their fingers clash, Nirei’s knuckle somehow knocking against Kiryu’s pinky. The touch feels akin to brushing fingertips over a burning stove, like lighting a match or setting a wildfire. It explodes outward from that singular point of contact into a million fireworks that ignite against the darkness of Nirei’s mind. Nirei wrenches his hand away as if he’s been burned. 

Kiryu turns to him with an apologetic smile. The sunshine falls across the sheepish quirk of his lips and the glimmer in his pupils. When his eyes crease like crinkled origami paper and his lips part like blossoming flower petals, Nirei’s breath catches at the way light glints off his canines. Kiryu’s laugh is heartfelt and spills from his mouth like sparrows taking flight. It fills the air around them with vibrations that set Nirei’s nerves alight. 

A gust of wind descends upon the trees. The leaves are sent into a flurry of rustling that spins the sunlight into dizzying patterns. They paint Kiryu’s face into shades of auburn and honey that accentuate the curve of his smile. Somewhere beyond the verdant canopy that shadows the two of them, a bird trills the tune of a love song. 

Oh. 

Oh. 

The rush of cool air carried by the breeze spirals into Nirei’s lungs in an instant. Despite the surge of oxygen, Nirei still feels out of breath. He feels the skin of his face darken into an incriminating pink and ducks his head to hide it. Even then, he’s so sure that the warmth he feels staining his ears are undeniably visible. 

Nirei parts with Kiryu at the train station with a habitual farewell, then digs out his phone. The group chat is open before he realises he’s clicked on it. 

i think i have a crush on kiryu-san

His fingers shake so much that he has to backspace and retype words more times than he can count. The replies come in immediately, which Nirei is thankful for up until he reads their actual contents. 

suo: finally

sakura: 0prp;[32r’r’r3r’;f

did you BOTH know??

suo: maybe

sakura: 99rijfiija9ef9i;;f

oh my god

you’re dead to me. you traitors???

suo: enjoy the spring of your youth, nirei-kun!

sakura: wifj32r;24]r][42[r.2r4,

Nirei shoves his phone back in his pocket with a scowl. Nevertheless, he can’t remain upset for long. With every step he takes, he feels infinitely lighter until he is spiralling into the sky like a stray bubble. How long has this spring dwelled in his heart? There are dandelions and daisies and daffodils nestling into the cavity of his chest and bursting out through his ribs. He laughs, clear and crystal, then laughs again, sending the sound upwards to the sky. 

Nirei likes Kiryu, likes him, like-likes him in the way grade schoolers whisper to each other with childlike giggles behind sticky palms. He likes Kiryu’s cotton-candy hair dye, likes his shiny silver piercings, likes his leaf-green eyes. He likes the way Kiryu smiles with his eyes and laughs with his teeth. He likes the conversations they slip naturally into and the arguments they get far too wrapped up in and the jokes that send them both into laughing fits. 

The world spins a little brighter around him. The trees bend towards him as if reaching out to brush his flushed cheeks with their branches. On the whistling breeze, the birds sing in a choir. The sky sinks into sunset and settles into breathtaking colours. Nirei darts home, light on his feet, and feels untethered from this earth. 

The presentation doesn’t go by perfectly, but neither of them expected it to. Kiryu captures both the teacher and the class’ attention in one fell swoop, effortlessly taking the spotlight. Nirei dresses up the information on the slides with his genuine interest in the topic and delivers flawless explanations, anxiety fizzing in his chest. When they finish with a bow, the cheering makes Nirei blush with a giddy grin. 

The next pair steps forward, so they compliantly return to their seats. As Kiryu goes, though, he turns to throw Nirei a congratulatory smile and two thumbs-ups. Nirei smiles back and feels his nape burn in response. He can’t quite meet the gleam in Kiryu’s eyes. 

They’re not meeting that afternoon, so Nirei heads home by himself. He stares out the window with the rhythmic motion of the train and watches the sky fade into dark. His mind feels restless like a shaken box of marbles. 

So, when Nirei reaches home, he finishes the commission in one night. Buzzing with energy that skitters across his skin, he picks up his tablet and draws until daylight. He finishes off the last details as his usual alarm goes off, forcing in a few last strokes until he sits back with a satisfied smile. He sends it off while fighting to wear his school uniform, hopping on one foot with a toothbrush held precariously between his teeth as he types. 

hiii sorry this took insanely long but I FINISHED IT!!

[image]

Nirei looks away for a second as he rinses out his mouth and grabs breakfast. When he looks back in the next moment, his phone has nearly buzzed its way to the table edge. He picks it up and shouts a farewell when he sprints out the door. He barely makes it onto the train and slumps into a seat before passing out instantly. The whole way, his phone doesn’t stop vibrating. 

By sheer luck, Nirei doesn’t miss his stop. He snaps straight up when the train announces the next station, drool drying at the corner of his mouth and crust sticking to his eyelashes, but scrambles out the doors before they can close. When he yawns, his breath is akin to the smell of raw meat left out to rot in the afternoon sun. Discreetly, he retrieves his emergency mints and pops one in his mouth. 

This time, he sleeps through the whole day of classes. It restores at least enough energy for him to shoot up when he’s awoken by a tap on his shoulder. Kiryu frowns down at him with a worried smile. The classroom is empty around them. Was he waiting? Nirei feels abruptly guilty. 

Nirei doesn’t even have the capacity to feel embarrassed when he leans on Kiryu all the way to the station. Kiryu’s shoulder is soft, and nice-smelling, and everything that makes it perfect to snooze on when they sit down on the train. Nirei’s memories are muddled with fuzzy dreams and distant noise, but what he recalls most clearly is the familiar scent of strawberry cream. Kiryu doesn’t try to initiate conversation at all, just lets him nap until they reach Nirei’s stop. 

Unfortunately, the extra moments of sleep doesn’t seem to help much. Nirei stumbles on the gap between the train doors and the platform, trips over his own feet on the walk home, then nearly falls face-first into his own room. 

“Hey, whoa,” Kiryu catches him. “We don’t have to hang out if you don’t want to.”

“No, no,” Nirei rubs at his eyes. “I want to. I really do.”

Nirei doesn’t see the way Kiryu melts, honey-like, and how his hands linger before releasing Nirei. However, he does see the crease in Kiryu’s brow and the crooked slant of his mouth. He feels instantly guilty, the emotion like a sharp bite of ice through the warm haze of sleepiness. 

“Sorry,” he apologises, “It’s not that hanging out with you isn’t important to me, or that I didn’t care enough about it…I just got so wrapped up in what I was doing last night. It’s something that was really important to me, I promise.”

“You don’t need to apologise, Nirei-chan. I wasn’t thinking any of that,” Kiryu softens in an instant. “Here, I’ll ask your mom if you have any instant coffee or tea with lots of caffeine, okay? You can nap for a bit while you wait.”

Nirei doesn’t need an invitation, just plops straight onto the cool wooden floor and shuts his eyes. Kiryu nudges him a few times, urging him to at least lay down on his bed that’s only a few steps away, but Nirei’s incomprehensible mumbles and groaning whines dissuade him. There’s a light pressure that sinks into Nirei’s hair and disappears as soon as it appears, before he hears his bedroom door shut softly. 

Nirei forces his eyes open blearily, wondering if the contact was a dream born from his half-unconsciousness, and pushes himself up into a sitting position. Kiryu took the effort to wake him up and guide him home so they can spend time together, so the least he can do is stay awake. He wracks his mind for something that can wake him up, then remembers the messages he received that morning. 

Nirei picks up his phone and taps the dark screen. Instantly, his screen lights up to reveal a barrage of unread messages. He scrolls through the notifications as he pulls his legs up to his chest and presses his smile into his knee. 

I JSUTT WOIKE UP

YORTUW CANT DOS THIS TO ME

OHOWRMGROD IM ASCENIDING IM ACUTAUYLLY ASCNEIDNG

TJHIS ISS TTOO CUTE FOFR TSHIS REALM

IM RFOLLGING ON TEH GROUND IMM KICCKING MY FEET IM GIGGLIMG

IIMS FLYIGNS INTO TJE SKY!!!

is this a dream i think i see the light

i can hear the trumpets heralding my ascent to heaven

The texts span multiple pages, and Nirei’s smile grows with each scroll of his thumb. He laughs when he comes across the more ridiculous comments, and blushes over the surprisingly sincere and analytical breakdown of the details he added to the commission. 

With a sappy beam on his face, Nirei types out a response. As he sends it off, he’s already plotting the next one in his head. Maybe something that plays along, or teases them, or simply a heartfelt expression of the overwhelming gratitude he feels. 

Kiryu’s phone buzzes from where he left it on the floor beside Nirei. Instinctively, Nirei glances at it then returns to his own screen. 

Nirei’s fingers freeze around his phone. 

His grip grows slack and the device slips from his grasp to drop onto the floor, though he doesn’t take notice. He’s too busy scrambling over to Kiryu’s phone on his hands and knees, grabbing it like a lifeline. With his lifting of the device, the screen lights up again. 

The commission, the one that Nirei has been working on tirelessly for the past month, stares back innocuously at him. 

Maybe his wallpaper just…happens to look really similar, or something! Nirei reasons, because that’s the logical conclusion. 

When he holds it up to his face to squint at the details, though, it’s unmistakable. There’s that singular stroke that Nirei laboured over for an hour, undoing it then redrawing it again. There’s the cloud texture from the new brush he downloaded purely for this commission, trying to perfect the sunset background. There’s the tiny piercings he spent days redoing over and over, because he’s always avoided rendering metal before this piece. 

Maybe he follows my account and got it from there! Nirei thinks next, trying desperately to find any alternative explanation for this. 

It would make sense, except he literally finished the commission this morning. He’s been knocked out all day and hasn’t had the time to post it yet. The only person who has seen this would be himself and hotdoggamer. Beside them, there isn’t anyone else who can conceivably have obtained this drawing. 

Disbelief fizzing in his chest and clogging up his throat, Nirei blindly grabs for his phone. When he secures his fingers around it, he pulls up his chat with hotdoggamer again. Furiously, he types out a single message:

hello?

Kiryu’s phone lights up in his other hand. At the bottom of the screen, the notification cheerily reads: You have 2 unread messages. Above it, the username is damning: wbknotesfan. Slowly, Nirei flips Kiryu’s phone over. The bright colours of his phone case are almost glowing beneath the electric light of Nirei’s room, but what Nirei focuses on is its distinctive design. 

“Hot dog,” Nirei murmurs as he traces his fingers over the interlacing silicon ridges of ketchup and mustard, the sausage beneath, and the green lettuce at the very bottom. He’s brushed his gaze over it a million times in the past month, until he’s come to associate it with pink hair and green eyes. 

“Gamer,” Nirei adds as he thinks of the way Kiryu’s phone is always glued to his hands. If he catches a glimpse of his screen, it’s always plastered in game effects and neon colours. Kiryu logs in religiously everyday to finish his dailies, Nirei remembers him mentioning, something about grinding for a new unit. 

“Holy shit,” Nirei says numbly. “My crush commissioned me for a drawing of us.”

The door opens with a quiet click, and Kiryu steps through with a smile. He’s holding a steaming cup of tea and his mouth is opening as if to politely announce his entrance. The tea is promptly upended over his own socked feet when he catches the wide-eyed stare Nirei is directing straight at him and his own incriminating lit-up phone screen. 

“Ow,” Kiryu hisses as the cup clatters to the ground, thankfully plastic and undamaged. Nirei leaves both phones and rushes over instantly to help, worried questions already on his tongue, but Kiryu puts up a hand to stop him. His other hand is clenched over his face, burying his clearly ruby expression into his palm. 

“No, wait,” Kiryu says in a muted voice. “I’m fine. I caused the mess, so I’ll clean it up.”

Nirei gets the feeling that his words apply to more than just the spilled beverage by his feet. 

Regardless, Nirei ducks past Kiryu to grab a towel from the nearest bathroom, passing it to the other boy as he returns. Kiryu crouches to pick up the cup, wiping its outside carefully before setting it down on a surface, then mops up the liquid on the floor. He tugs off his socks, sopping wet with tea, then drops them at the side with the cloth. Once he’s done, he folds his legs neatly beneath him and clenches his fists in his lap. He stares at Nirei like he’s preparing for execution by firing squad. 

“So,” Nirei begins, lifting Kiryu’s phone. “Uh—”

“I’M REALLY SORRY,” Kiryu practically shouts, bowing with his forehead pressed to the ground and his hands laid out neatly before him. Nirei jumps a bit, staring down at him, then tracks his movement as he rises back into his sitting position. 

“Sorry, I know this seems weird—like, really weird, and I’d understand if you never want to talk to me again, or—” Kiryu rambles, looking haplessly panicked. His eyes are watery and his hands are half-lifted before him, like he doesn’t quite know what to do with them. It tugs at something inside Nirei and brings him, a little, back to the present. 

“I mean,” Nirei replies, a helpless smile curling at his lips, “Mostly, I want to know why…?”

“I just,” Kiryu halts, guilt evident in the wideness of his eyes, “I just like you so much, and I want to buy you all the merch you could want, and take you out for fancy bubble tea, and I can’t do any of that when we’re nothing more than classmates—but whenever I see you at school my chest gets so tight and my heart goes haywire and I didn’t know what to do with my affection, and then I saw that my favourite artist opened their commissions, and I—”

Nirei feels himself flush completely at the rush of candid words. He can’t process all of the information being thrown at him, but the unchecked affection that runs through Kiryu’s words is enough for him to understand the gist. 

“Kiryu-san,” he starts. Kiryu instantly snaps his mouth shut. The expression on his face is one of sheer, utter panic, as if he were a man awaiting his death sentence. He looks at Nirei like he’s offering up his life to Nirei’s hands. 

Nirei reaches over to set his own hands on top of Kiryu’s. Beneath his touch, they’re cold and shivering like leaves in the wind. Firmly, Nirei tells Kiryu, “I like you too.”

Kiryu’s jaw goes slack. His whole body goes still. Where Nirei is pressing his fingers comfortingly, even his shaking hands freeze. As Kiryu blinks in shock, his tears overflow and stream down the sides of his face. He doesn’t move to wipe them away, keeping his hands under Nirei’s own. With them glistening over his irises, he looks simultaneously hopeful and terrified. 

“Really?” Kiryu asks with his lower lip trembling and voice raspy with choked-back sobs. He sniffs, lips jutting out marginally with the motion, and searches Nirei’s eyes. Nirei looks back at him and tries to imbue as much reassurance as he can into his gaze. They stare at each other for a long moment, so quiet that Nirei’s sure neither of them are breathing. 

“You’re…” Kiryu breaks the silence, fingers moving to curl tighter beneath Nirei’s palms. Subconsciously, Nirei strengthens his own grip in a voiceless form of comfort. 

“You’re not mad?” Kiryu asks quietly. He looks so, so guilty before Nirei, as if he kicked fifty puppies then robbed an elderly at gunpoint. On his forehead sits a frown both confused and scared, and from his bowed head stares a pair of eyes so nervous their emerald is almost wobbly. 

“I’m not mad,” Nirei confirms. “And I really do like you, Kiryu-san.”

Kiryu watches him for a few more seconds, gaze skittering over his face as if in search of falsity. Nirei lets him look, laying bare his emotions without fear. When Kiryu is done with his examination, he leans back. His head drops into a backwards tilt that leaves only the tip of his nose visible, so far back that Nirei’s almost worried he’ll hurt his neck. It’s accompanied with the most forceful inhale Nirei has ever heard, a huge rush of air that’s audible even though he’s facing away from Nirei. His hands stay in his lap, unmoving from where they’re covered by Nirei’s. 

Then, Kiryu tips forward and faceplants straight into Nirei’s arms. Nirei startles and looks down at the sudden head of pink he’s gained in his lap. Head down, Kiryu exhales equally as forcefully like a particularly strong sigh. The tickling brush of warm air against Nirei’s skin makes him giggle. 

“Thank god,” Kiryu says, muffled. As he talks, Nirei shivers at the accidental brushes of his lips against his arms. “I thought you were going to kick me out of your house and then tell your parents and then block me on every social and then transfer schools and never talk to me again.”

“Isn’t that kind of an overreaction?” Nirei laughs again, a degree more carefree. He feels like floating, now that he’s confessed to the boy he likes and knows that his sentiments are returned in full. 

“But,” Kiryu shoots upright, wide eyes full of desperation, “I thought you would hate me!”

“It’s a lovely commission,” Nirei tells him with a smile, retracting one hand. As he lifts Kiryu’s phone, the other boy’s hand twitches as if missing his touch. The phone screen brightens to show the drawing, and Kiryu’s face turns completely scarlet as it’s displayed again. They both admire the wallpaper for a while. 

“They’re amazing, right?” Kiryu can’t hold back the hushed awe in his voice. As Nirei turns to look at him, he feels Kiryu’s expression steal the breath right out of his lungs. His eyes are sparkling with pure joy and his mouth is curved gently in that genuine smile, the one Nirei sees in cherished moments of sincerity. 

When he catches Nirei’s look, Kiryu explains, “The artist. I’ve followed them for years, you know, and they’re my absolute favourite. They did such an amazing job on this.”

Nirei heats up to the same level of redness as Kiryu is currently exhibiting. Right, he thinks dizzily. Kiryu called me his favourite artist. His heart is thudding furiously in his chest, as he recalls the wall of text he was sent that morning. It was childishly silly, and incredibly exaggerated, but the gratitude that spilled through the words was evident. 

“I, um,” Nirei scratches his cheek shyly. “I’m glad you like the commission that much.”

“You do?” Kiryu asks, head tilting in a question. 

“Mhm,” Nirei looks to the side, knowing his cheeks must be mottled over with vermillion. “Since I pulled an all-nighter yesterday finishing it in one go.”

Silence. Nirei thinks he could probably hear an actual pin drop on the wooden floor of his room. 

Before Nirei can even begin to regret what he said, Kiryu’s hands slam into the ground on either side of him. Nirei turns forward in alarm and nearly knocks their noses together, though Kiryu doesn’t take notice at all. He’s so close that Nirei is looking straight into the verdant green of his eyes, while Kiryu’s warm breath brushes over his cheek. 

“Are you wbknotesfan?” Kiryu asks. He stares unblinkingly into Nirei’s eyes, tracking every miniscule twitch in his expression. 

Kiryu’s lashes are incredibly long, Nirei realises. Intelligently, he replies, “Uhh.”

It’s not exactly an affirmation, but it seems to answer Kiryu’s question anyway. 

“Oh my god,” Kiryu falls backwards and lets his back hit the floor with a thump. He sounds like his soul is being plucked straight from his body. “I commissioned my crush to draw us together.”

Nirei can’t help his giggle. In response, Kiryu hikes himself up onto his elbows to fix Nirei with a stare. “Nirei-chan, did you already know?”

“No,” Nirei admits. He thinks back on the mysterious conversations he had with his best friends, which make some sense in light of this new revelation. “I think my friends might’ve guessed, though.”

“We are,” Kiryu says emphatically, dropping his head back again, “So dumb.”

As Nirei reaches out to comfort him, Kiryu sits up with his back ramrod straight again. This time, his expression has much less grief and much more euphoria. 

“Oh my god I’m dating my favourite artist.”

Nirei splutters, “Dating?”

Kiryu’s head lolls to look at him. Despite the casual pose, his gaze is evidently anxious. 

“Do you not…want to?”

“N-no, I’d love to!” Nirei shakes his head so hard he fears it might fall off. “Please take care of me, Kiryu-san.”

Kiryu returns to his original sitting position, legs folded politely under him. He dips his head when he returns, “Please take care of me, Nirei-chan.”

They remain suspended for a few seconds before they both burst into uproarious laughter. Nirei slumps against Kiryu’s shoulder parallel to the way he did on the train, laughing until the tears staining his cheeks match Kiryu’s. Kiryu has his hand shielding his mouth, though it does nothing to muffle the giggles that escape. 

“Suo-san and Sakura-san are never going to let me live this down,” Nirei sighs, when they have both calmed down and are leaning on each other. 

Kiryu hums. He reaches out and, like slotting a puzzle piece into place, laces their fingers together. He lifts their interlocked hands to brush a soft kiss against Nirei’s knuckles. Nirei’s face blooms with a fresh blush. 

“I believe in you, wbknotesfan-sama,” Kiryu presses his smile into Nirei’s fingers.