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There is a saying that goes ‘hindsight is 20/20’ and boy, does Akihiko feel like Suo agrees with it right now. Giving them a key to his apartment was a good idea, especially after that disappearing act Suo had pulled in their first year of high school. Akihiko isn't sure Sakura would have gone to the college he's at currently if Suo hadn't agreed to simply share a copy of his apartment key with them. As it stands, he is sure that Suo never expected both of them to come bursting in on a random Tuesday evening. Literally bursting in, the door bounced off the shoe rack from how hard Sakura had swung it open.
The combined noise of the door hitting the shoe rack, the shoe rack toppling, and just Sakura and Akihiko's general arrival noises caused Suo to startle out of what appeared to have been a light doze. Which set off a new chain reaction because of course it had. Suo's knee jostled the coffee table when he'd jumped, which knocked over his bowl of cheap ramen. So obviously that made them all scramble to try and save Suo's notes and laptop -Sakura and Akihiko both shucking their shoes in record time before diving to help- and in the process of them trying to help, they'd managed to tip over Suo's glass of tea. The laptop had been saved, the notes could be salvaged, but Suo and the blanket he'd had on his lap had both been soaked.
“It would be easier,” a soft voice positively purred from the speakers of Suo's laptop, “if you had any redeeming qualities whatsoever for literally anyone to like.”
Akihiko held the laptop in his hands, up and away from the mess of spilled liquids that both Sakura and Suo were cleaning off of Suo's coffee table. They'd arrived at a bad time it appeared, what with Suo having likely fallen asleep while relaxing and eating his dinner. Akihiko couldn't count the impromptu crashing of Suo's evening (and subsequent destruction of Suo's dinner) as a loss though. He would have never, not in a million billion gajillion years, even guessed that Suo would watch Vtubers. He couldn't stop himself from saying as much. The baby pink catboy yokai model kept catching his eye as he held the laptop.
“I don't really watch.” Suo's shoulders climbed a bit higher and his ears turned red. The rag he'd been fiddling with gets snatched away by Sakura, distracting them both as it becomes a game of keep away.
Akihiko clears his throat and stares at them both, laptop still held imperiously aloft in his hands. The Vtuber's laugh makes the speakers of Suo's old, beat up laptop crackle ominously. Out of the corner of his eye, Akihiko can see the peeling edge of a sticker that had once, probably, wrapped around the side of the laptop's screen.
Suo sighs, grabbing both rags from Sakura. “I like listening to them tear into the shitty people in their chat and…” Suo pauses, fussing with the rags before shrugging. “They've got a nice voice? Helps make the whole college thing less… lonely?”
Akihiko hates how uncertain of himself Suo sounds whenever he's being honest, with them but also with himself.
Mitsuki enjoyed his job. For the most part. He got to play video games, tell off internet trolls, and maintain a certain amount of anonymity. Sure it was sometimes annoying to be semi recognized in public, but it was also very funny telling the silly fib that they'd mistaken him for someone else. He probably should have had his Vtuber color palette be different from his own. Eh, too late now.
There wasn't much to complain about other than that. Mitsuki got to hang out with friends without having random strangers approach him and live the college life of his dreams. More or less. His father wasn't happy about him going into computer sciences, nor his pick of college. There were also comments on his work and friends. Shitty comments about his job, he could let go. His friends? Never.
Which is why Mitsuki was nursing a bruised cheek and bleeding nose when he met up with Sakura -his friend from their awful English course- and Sakura's blonde friend, Nirei. It's also why he forgives himself for ignoring the initial look the pair of them share when greetings are exchanged. The rest of the evening goes well. Nirei is terribly sweet and incredibly smart. It's always a treat to hang out with Sakura outside of their shared commiserating over their class. Mitsuki feels any residual unease from his meeting with his father dissipate.
Nirei is fretting over his phone when Mitsuki comes back from the bathroom. There's an itchy feeling at the back of his teeth that feels like a warning. Sakura sighs, loudly, through his nose.
“Leave him be, Nirei,” he says with an eyeroll. One eye, the golden one, flashes in the low light as he does. Sakura taps his index finger rather harshly on the table top between himself and Nirei. “You said you would after pressing every damn button he has the other day.”
Nirei opens and closes his mouth like a goldfish. Somehow both ashamed and affronted at once. “You didn't stop me!” He has his hands braced on the table, fingers spread wide. “We were both curious. Suo-san doesn't play video games but watches Vtubers? Of course I had questions!”
That, of course, piques Mitsuki's interest. “What Vtubers?” He asks, not uninterested in their friend but infinitely more interested in the part that may pertain to himself.
“Some pink cat boy person,” Sakura drawls out with a scrunch in his brow. “Thats the only one. Says he likes his voice and listening to him tell off assholes.”
Nirei hums, typing vigorously on his phone before flipping it around. “Momoiro the Nekomata,” he tells Sakura while showing Mitsuki the wiki page for the character, for his character. “He’s a Vtuber whose model is a pink catboy yokai. Most of the games he plays are either rhythm games or first person shooters and his fan base is mostly made up of girls.”
“Wow~ Nire-chan knows a lot!” Mitsuki coos. It's a little unnerving, how much Nirei knows. Then again, Sakura had told Mitsuki that Nirei was going into investigative journalism or something close to it. “Does your friend…”
“Suo Hayato,” Nirei supplies.
“...Suo-chan, thank you Nire-chan. Does Suo-chan comment or talk in the chat?” Mitsuki knows he's fishing and maybe being a bit too obvious but sue him, he's curious.
Sakura snorts. “That guy? Never.”
Mitsuki notices a strange gleam in Nirei's eye though. “Oh really? That's too bad,” Mitsuki says while watching Nirei.
It's several days later that Sakura texts Mitsuki that Nirei had texted him and it's a bit of a mess. Except now Mitsuki has the username of a boy who is a viewer of Momoiro but also isn't. A listener? Either way, he thinks about that gleam in Nirei's eyes and asks Sakura to put them in a group chat. It wouldn't be the first time someone figured him out, but maybe it would be the first time it didn't go badly.
Nirei Akihiko is something of an enigma to Mitsuki. The bottle blonde is all enthusiastic cinnamon roll wrapped around a core of determination made entirely of steel. If the definition of stubborn had a poster child… it would be this kid. For all that he was sort of like a dog with a bone when it came to pursuing whatever had his attention at the moment, Mitsuki liked him. Nirei is a good kid.
He hopes that Nirei's latest push for his friend’s happiness and whatever else doesn't blow up in his face.
MomoirotheNekomata: Hello! A little canary told me that you enjoy my streams. Don't be shy! I'd love to chat~
Nirei A., Suo H., Sakura H.
Suo Hayato
:) - delivered 11:02 pm
Nirei Akihiko
Uh… is everything alright Suo-san?
-delivered 11:03pm
Suo Hayato
Perfectly alright, Nire-kun. :) - delivered 11:04pm
Nirei Akihiko
You're mad about something.
I just dont know what
-delivered 11:05pm
Suo Hayato
Why did I get a message from Momoiro, Nire-kun? :) - delivered 11:06pm
Nirei Akihiko
The smiles are lies!
-delivered 11:06pm
Sakura Haruka
RIP
-delivered 11:07pm
Nirei Akihiko added Tsugera Taiga.
Nirei Akihiko added Sugishita Kyotaro.
Nirei Akihiko added Kiryu Mitsuki.
Kiryu Mitsuki renamed the group Finalsmaxxing.
Kiryu Mitsuki
Nire-chan I thought you said you were getting murdered.
-delivered 11:12pm
Nirei Akihiko
I am
-delivered 11:12pm
Suo Hayato
He is - delivered 11:13pm
Sakura Haruka
He is
-delivered 11:13pm
Tsugera Taiga
New group chat wooooo!
-delivered 5:45am
Suo Hayato removed Tsugera Taiga.
Nirei Akihiko added Tsugera Taiga.
Nirei Akihiko
Suo-san be nice
-delivered 7:30am
Suo Hayato
you don't get to say that to me -delivered 8:40am
jasmin328tea: You are very kind but you don't have to reach out to me on his behalf.
MomoirotheNekomata: You're cute. I don't reach out on anyone's behalf or do anyone's bidding but my own.
Mitsuki doesn't get to meet the infamous Suo Hayato until it's been over a month and a half since the initial message as Momoiro. He finds himself more and more enamored with the little details he learns about the other boy. Suo is a shadow that looms large in the lives of his two best friends. So much so that sometimes Mitsuki has a hard time remembering that Suo was not with them.
It's the little details that Mitsuki notices first when he finally meets the other boy out in the wilds of the city. Suo is tall with broad shoulders, but slender and elegant. He has striking features for someone with such a soft, pretty boy face -the eyepatch for one, but also the high cheekbones that the wispiness of his burgundy bangs just lightly brush, the pretty soft petal pink of his mouth. Mitsuki doesn't think about how he's spent far too long staring at this boy’s lips. He barely knows him! He hates that Nirei was being entirely unbiased when he said Suo is pretty.
It's other little things that Mitsuki notices as well. Things like Suo writes with his right hand but uses his left for everything else. That everything he owns is a little worse for wear (his laptop is scuffed, dented, and covered in peeling stickers that don't suit him and his book bag has a hole in one corner, messy stitches holding one side of it closed, and what looks like neon cheetah print duct tape holding the strap together) and that he is nothing if not very studious. Mitsuki is glad he showed up very early for this tutoring session. He watches the way Suo sets up the table with everything neatly and deliberately placed. Mitsuki watches as Suo ties his shoe and ignores the beat up, tearing at the seams quality of them.
Suo's eye is big and round when Mitsuki plops into the chair and startles him. He'd feel bad for surprising the brunette if he didn't make such a cute expression. This is supposed to be a tutoring session in English, but Mitsuki already plans to derail it. Though it seems to be a testament to Suo's discipline, will power, or obliviousness (and that last one feels entirely unlikely) that all attempts at code switching this from tutoring session to a coffee date fail. Mitsuki supposes that it's not entirely fair to be upset about it though.
He leaves the session with another scheduled, his cute tutor pink cheeked though that may be from the chill, and something to talk about in that evening's stream.
Midterms Maxxing
Suo Hayato
Nire-kun is the worst -delivered 2:13pm
I'm never doing any favors for you again. -delivered 2:14pm
Sakura Haruka
You never do us favors anyways
-deliverer 2:34pm
Nirei Akihiko
Sorry not sorry Suo-san!
-delivered 2:34pm
Suo Hayato
The worst Nire-kun! :))
-delivered 2:42pm
Sakura Haruka
Stop that!
-delivered 2:43pm
Suo Hayato
:))))))
-delivered 2:44pm
Sakura Haruka
You don't have that many mouths!!
It's creepy, you bastard! Stop!
-delivered 2:57pm
jasmin328tea: that was a tutoring session.
MomoirotheNekomata: but it could have been a tutoring date~ (´ ε ` )♡
Mitsuki thinks it's funny that Suo listened to his streams because his voice helped Suo fight off his loneliness. It's funny because he can see the irony in how much Mitsuki loves listening and watching Suo talk. Their tutoring sessions end up going twice as long because the brunette keeps having to repeat himself. It's only a real problem when, after the third time their sessions get extended, they end up getting kicked out of the café.
It's an easy issue for Mitsuki to fix.
An even nicer excuse to get Suo into Mitsuki's house. Which sounds… creepy when he dwells on it. He just wants to spoil the other boy a little. Okay, a lot actually. It's like when the skittish shelter puppy finally grants you permission to pet it, you gotta pour all that love and attention and care into every inch they give you. Suo is Mitsuki's shelter puppy and he's dying to spoil him. Even if it's just with an environment that is more private so that Suo can relax some.
It works, maybe a little too well. Suo has never shown a hint of feeling flustered by Mitsuki's flirting, but that secret fear that Mitsuki had carried of having made him uncomfortable with it washes away while they're studying at his house. Suo wouldn't have agreed to a more private venue if Mitsuki made him uncomfortable. In all honesty, he fully planned for them to actually study this time.
Except… except Suo takes a phone call. He takes a phone call and speaks in not just one other language but two. It's incredibly hot.
Mitsuki is not responsible for his actions after Suo hits the big red button to end the call. He isn't. Suo turns to him, mouth forming around the words ‘sorry about that’, and only gets as far as ‘so’ before Mitsuki cuts him off. With his mouth. With his mouth against Suo's mouth.
Nothing matters after the little half startled ‘oomph’ Suo makes. Because Mitsuki has the prettiest boy, who likes his silly job and helps him with his classes, and lets Mitsuki flirt with him in bad English. Nothing matters because Suo is kissing him back and it's a bit clumsy but it's perfect. His pretty pink mouth is soft under Mitsuki's and his hair is silky between Mitsuki's fingers. And oh, they should probably breathe now.
Suo’s face is the most flushed that Mitsuki has ever seen it and absolutely utterly gorgeous. It should be illegal. Kissing the pretty boy who is friends with his friends but mostly his tutor was not really plan. Even if he did flirt with him a lot.
“What,” Suo pants out the words between breaths, “was your plan?” He sounds a little amused, the jerk.
“I was thinking I'd eventually shoot my shot and you'd turn me down, honestly,” Mitsuki tells him. After he's spent a little time mourning the loss of any cool points he had earned with Suo. “This isn't how I expected this to turn out.”
“Is that so?” Suo hums, his gaze is on Mitsuki's face. More accurately in the area of his mouth. “Better or worse than you expected?”
Mitsuki considers things for a moment. He's all but sitting in Suo's lap, hasn't been shoved away, there's no outrage at having been kissed.
He slides into Suo's lap properly, letting his fingers slide through Suo's soft hair. “Absolutely better,” he says before kissing him again.