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Ugh. What was that noise?
Nagi picks up his phone, seemingly the source of the noise, and checks it, to see that his parents are calling.
The air in his room is thin and cold, even just putting his arm out is a massive pain. The lights of the baby Christmas tree that he and Reo had put together and placed in Nagi’s room together was the only source of light, with Nagi’s blackout curtains blocking all sunlight.
Shit. He had forgotten it was a Wednesday.
He picks up with a groggy “Hey…” and is immediately scolded.
“Seishiro?! Did you just wake up? It’s already 1pm, what time did you sleep?!” The grating and tinny voice of his mother reprimands.
He doesn’t know why his parents decide to be such hassles every time they call.
“Sorry…” He mutters, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“Seishiro, we had something we wanted to talk to you about.” His father says in a somewhat serious voice.
“Yes?”
“Will you be… coming home for the holidays?”
Nagi stays silent on the other end, contemplating. If he went home, he’d have to pack, and take a flight, and when he got there, he’d have to deal with all of his relatives. It seems his parents have followed his line of thinking, because they continue in their attempt to convince him.
“Come on, you can even bring Choki, that little cactus of yours. And will you be bringing home a girlfriend, Seishiro? …Or boyfriend, we don’t judge!”
“This is such a hassle…”
“Well that’s totally fine! When you come home, we have some friends who have kids your age that you might find…to your liking.” His mom says slyly.
Not only had his parents decided he was coming home against his will, but they wanted to set him up with people???
“Can’t I just stay here in England, with Reo?” He mumbles, half to himself.
“Who’s Reo?” His mom perks up. “Is that your boyfriend, sweetie?”
Nagi has a great idea. “Yes.”
“Oh, great! So you can bring him home for the holidays! I’ve already sent you the plane tickets, Seishiro! See you soon!”
Nagi flops back onto his bed with a groan.
-
“Reo.” Nagi calls into the thick air of the locker room after practice.
“Yes, treasure?”
“I need you to be my boyfriend.” Reo goes extremely red, eyes as wide as saucers. “For Christmas.” Ok, that did not help at all. “For my parents.”
“Wh-What?!” Reo looks at Nagi with eyes he can only describe as deranged.
“They said if I didn’t have someone to bring home, they’d set me up with their friends' kids. I’d rather spend Christmas here, with Reo. But I figured Christmas at home with Reo would be better than Christmas at home without Reo. So I said you were my boyfriend.”
“O-Oh…So like…you need a…fake boyfriend?”
“I guess…”
“And it– it has to be me?”
“Did Reo not want to come?”
“No! That’s not– that’s not it, at all! I was just curious, why me, is all…”
“Who else could it be?” Nagi thinks he sees the blush make a reappearance on Reo’s face, but maybe he’s so tired from practice that he’s becoming delirious.
-
The plane ride is less of a hassle than Nagi thought it’d be. It was nice that Reo was there for him to sleep on, even if he complained a bit about being in economy. It was actually quite endearing, Nagi thinks passively.
When they get into the taxi Reo hailed for them, the warmth from the heater is a welcome bliss from the frigid cold outside.
As Nagi breathes into his hands to try and warm them up, Reo begins to speak awkwardly.
“So…” He begins. “How is this going to work?”
“How is what going to work?” Nagi asks.
“You know…” Reo says, sheepishly gesturing between the two. “How do we get your parents to believe we’re dating?”
“Oh. I figured I’d just tell them, and they’d believe me.”
“And they’d believe you?” Reo asks incredulously.
“Probably not.”
Reo stares at him blankly.
“So what should we do then, to make them believe us, Reo? What do couples normally do?” Nagi doesn’t have any ideas. He’s not completely sure what couples act like in real life. The only frame of reference he has are shitty 2000s romcoms with slightly unrealistic and specific premises.
“I mean, I guess couples usually…um…k-kiss, n-not that I’m saying we need to do that! That’d probably be weird! For you! I’m not saying that you’re weird, you’re my treasure, it’d probably be weird for you, not that it wouldn’t be weird for me too, since we’re not, you know…really dating!” Reo rambles, voice getting increasingly more high-pitched. Nagi tries to ignore the pleased feeling in his stomach at the pink dusting Reo’s cheeks.
“Then, we can just do whatever you’re comfortable with, Reo. I’m okay with anything, and I’m not really sure if I should decide what we do.” It wasn’t a lie, of course. Although Nagi had never really imagined being with Reo romantically, he finds the idea of…kissing or touching Reo to be…pleasant.
Reo was beautiful, everyone back in their high school had loved him. Reo had the world in the palm of his hand, and Nagi was no exception.
“A-And I’d be better at deciding…?” Reo questions, painstakingly earnest.
“Yeah, Reo’s always good at everything. Besides, hasn’t Reo been in a relationship before?”
“Uh–Uhm, N-not, uh, exactly…” Reo mumbles, blushing and staring at his lap. “Uhm, anyways, I think it’d be good to do some PDA in front of your parents, but just basic stuff would be fine. You know, holding hands, uh, ch-cheek kisses, hugging…We probably shouldn’t kiss for real though, I-I’ve never, um, kissed anyone before, so…” Reo trails off in a fluster.
“O-Oh.” It’s Nagi’s turn to blush. “So…I’m Reo’s… first boyfriend?”
“Well, I guess you could put it like that…” Reo chuckles nervously. “Oh, would you look at that! Looks like we’re here, haha! Time to unload!”
-
Nagi’s childhood home is nice; a one-story traditional Japanese home in the suburbs, about a five minute walk from Hakuho Prep. It makes Nagi nostalgic for those days of soccer, the golden sunlight-drenched days when Reo would make him play soccer until dark, and Nagi would pretend he was doing it for anything but Reo.
“You must be Seishiro’s boyfriend, Reo!” His mom says as she opens the door.
“Yup, that’s me! Na– Seishiro’s boyfriend!” Reo says, unconvincingly, as he plants a small kiss onto Nagi’s cheek. Nagi tries not to focus on the rush of heat radiating off of where Reo’s lips made contact.
“Wow, sweetie, you’re so handsome! Tell me, how did our son manage to bag such a sweetheart like you?”
Reo looks at Nagi nervously, eyes wide in panic. Nagi gives a slight shrug and tries to tell Reo to do his own thing, he’ll go along.
“Well, we met in high school, and we’ve been playing soccer together since! We started dating.. Um, a few months ago, but we’ve loved each other since we met!”
Reo hears Nagi’s parents say ‘aww’ in unison. Nagi grabs Reo by the waist and leads him to his room. Singular.
Oops.
“Uh,” Nagi nervously brings one hand to itch the back of his neck as they stand in the doorway of Nagi’s room. “Sorry… I forgot we didn’t have a…guest room…” Nagi moves his luggage to the other side of the room. “Ah… I can just sleep on the floor, Reo.”
“What? Don’t be silly, that’ll be bad for your back. W-We can j-just share the bed, I mean, we hug all the time when we celebrate goals, right? This can’t be that much different…” Nagi finds Reo’s bashfulness incredibly cute, forcing Nagi to unabashedly stare.
“Okay. If that’s what Reo wants.”
“N-Nagi!” Reo says, lightly thunking Nagi on the head. Nagi’s not sure what exactly for, but Reo’s touch is always nice, and he hit him lightly enough that it was closer to a pat on the head.
-
When Reo is dragged out of Nagi’s room by Nagi’s mom, he comes out to the dining room to find a significantly larger number of relatives than he had been expecting.
He counted eight– no, nine, with a toddler running around one of the older lady’s legs. When he enters the room, they all turn to look at him. Clearly, he was a spectacle.
“So this is the famous Reo!” A lady that Reo doesn’t recognize says, grabbing him by the shoulders and guiding him to the dining table. She resembles Nagi’s mom, so probably his aunt. “Seishiro’s mother wouldn’t stop talking about you over the phone, we all couldn’t wait to meet you! Come, sit, sit.”
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you all as well! Nagi talks about you guys all the time.” Reo lies.
“So how did you two end up together?” Nagi’s aunt asks, chin propped up on her hand, eyes glistening with a little too much interest. Reo can tell she’s skeptical about their relationship, how someone like Nagi ended up with someone like him. “Seishiro’s never brought anyone home, you know. Not even one of his friends.”
Reo’s brain, which has worked overtime to figure out a way to strike a goal in Olympic-level soccer matches, suddenly can’t seem to think of a story.
“Well,” He starts, not really knowing where this sentence is going but hoping his brain will think of a story fast enough that it’s not suspicious. “You know how these things are sometimes, haha, you can’t, uh, exactly pin down when you started lov–”
“I confessed to him.” Nagi says, suddenly appearing behind Reo, putting a hand on his shoulder and fluffing his hair.
Everyone at the table goes almost completely silent, turning to look at Nagi in surprise, probably at his initiative. Nagi rarely ever addressed a group.
“I confessed to him.” He repeats, like it doesn’t make Reo’s heart feel like beating right out of his chest. “Reo’s the only person that’s ever taken interest in a slacker like me. Not that I would want anyone other than Reo. So, I realized that I loved him, and I told him.” Nagi says, far too evenly for being the bad liar Reo knows he is.
“Reo cried a bit when I confessed to him, just so you guys know.”
“No I did nOT!” Reo’s voice cracks as he says it; he’s absolutely mortified. The table erupts into boisterous laughter, a few aunts and uncles affectionately teasing Reo.
By now, Nagi’s taken the seat next to Reo, sitting farther from Reo than Reo would like.
When Reo looks at Nagi’s face, he realizes that Nagi is enjoying this. He’s enjoying the socializing, the laughter, the family around him, he’s enjoying teasing Reo.
Except– Nagi doesn’t like these things. He doesn’t like people, or socializing, and he doesn’t like Reo like that. But…the way Nagi had told his family how things went down between the two of them; it felt real. Nagi had always been a bad liar, he never found a reason to lie, so he never had practice.
Was there maybe a semblance of truth in Nagi’s story? Or was Reo’s stupid wanting heart just getting its hopes up again?
In the middle of Reo’s self-deprecating spiel, the matron of the family– the grandmother, sitting at the head of the table, speaks up in an almost accusatory tone.
“You two sure don’t act like a couple that’s been together long. You sit like you’re afraid to touch each other.”
Before Reo can process it, Nagi’s fingers are interlaced with Reo’s, holding hands underneath the dinner table, but high enough for everyone to see.
“Reo’s just shy.” Nagi mutters, nuzzling his cheek against Reo’s in a way that makes the tips of Reo’s ears go red. Reo wishes it was cold enough in the living room to blame it on the temperature.
“Y-Yeah, and you guys know how Seishiro is with PDA! We’re just very private, that’s all.”
Nagi’s grandmother seems satisfied with that answer, and so does the rest of the family. They continue eating, changing conversation topics every so often, each part of the table splitting into its own conversation.
Nagi doesn’t let go of Reo’s hand. Not for the entire two hours they sit down there. Even when Reo’s hand gets all clammy and gross, Nagi holds onto Reo’s hand like it’s a lifeline.
They don’t address it.
Reo feels nice, content. The atmosphere all around him is warm and familial, something he never had growing up. He rarely saw more than three relatives at a time, and when he did, it was at a business meeting; a quick glance and wave, then off to the meeting they always seemed to be late for.
Holding Nagi’s hand under the table is nice, too.
He tries not to think too hard about how he won’t have this again next year. This was all just temporary, just for this week.
-
When the house begins to clear, it’s already late. The streetlamps turned on a few hours ago, lighting the snowy streets with warm orange light.
Reo insists on helping Nagi’s mom clean up, but when Nagi enters the dimly–lit kitchen, she excuses herself with a sly tone, insisting they have some alone time. She probably also figured this would be a chance to finally coax her lazy son into doing a bit of housework.
“Hey.” Reo says quietly, trying not to stare at the way the soft light from outside comes through the window and lights up Nagi’s face, casting a shadow on his every feature. His treasure really is handsome.
Reo finds himself focusing on the shadow of Nagi’s unfairly long eyelashes from across the counter. He forces himself to look down at the cup of chamomile tea Nagi’s mom brewed for him.
“Hi, Reo.” Nagi says softly. Reo convinces himself it’s because Nagi doesn’t want to wake anyone up. “You did really good today. Everyone loved you.”
Including you? Reo wants to ask. Clearly the late and quiet atmosphere was making him braver, and a bit melancholy.
“You too. The confession story was a nice touch,” He whispers, getting closer to Nagi. Having a secret only the two of them knew was nice. “Very dramatic. Very not true.” He tries to poke fun at Nagi and himself for the slightly mortifying part of the story where he had apparently cried, but ends up sounding a bit too much like he wants Nagi to deny his words, deny really loving him.
Nagi doesn’t. He instead stays silent, staring at Reo, who can’t seem to bring himself to stare back. He determinedly stares at his cup of tea.
“Reo?” Nagi whispers. “Let’s go to bed…” Nagi says in a whine as he gets up and grabs Reo’s hand to lead him to the bedroom.
Reo can’t seem to take his eyes off of his and Nagi’s hands, intertwined. There was no one around. Who was Nagi performing for? Reo’s heart beats too quickly. He thinks he might be making a weird face; he should probably stop staring at their clasped hands.
When it’s time for Reo to finally get into bed (he had maybe stalled and found a lot of things to do in the bathroom instead of getting into the shared bed of him and his best friend that he liked maybe a little too much), he does so stiffly, quickly pulling the sheets up to his shoulders and lying on the farthest possible spot from Nagi, which on a full bed, was not very far.
Reo will get through this.
He closes his eyes and thinks about his breathing. He faces up, and he can tell Nagi is facing him.
-
In the middle of the night, Reo wakes up and drowsily comes to the realization that it’s very warm. And there’s something around him. Nagi. Nagi’s arm is snaked around Reo’s waist with zero leeway for Reo to wiggle out, and Nagi's head is placed atop Reo’s.
He tries (not very hard, he may admit) to get out of Nagi’s grip. He fails.
Oh well. At least he tried.
Reo goes back to sleep and tucks his head further into the column of Nagi’s neck.
-
When they wake up in the morning, the position has barely shifted, except that they had somehow gotten closer, if that’s even possible. Their legs were tangled in one another, and Nagi was wrapped around Reo in a way Reo could never even hope to escape. If he had wanted to. Which he totally did!
It would be weird to want to cuddle with your best friend this…intimately. Even if he was really warm and the room was really cold. Even if he had held your hand all dinner with his family and then looked at you with eyes that seemed almost like they wanted more.
Reo mentally berates himself. His romantic side really needed to get a grip.
Reo feels Nagi shift around him. “Nagi?” He whispers, testing if he’s awake. He hears children playing outside the door and goes stiff.
Nagi hums sleepily in answer to Reo. “Mmm, Reo?”
“Uh… We should get up.” Reo says awkwardly.
“Few more minutes, Reo…” Nagi says, tightening his grip on Reo’s waist, as well as his leg around Reo. Nagi nuzzles his face into Reo’s hair far too contentedly.
Reo feels his face heat up and finds himself suddenly glad that Nagi cannot see him.
Reo’s not really even sure how Nagi isn’t being woken up by the pounding of Reo’s heart. He feels like it’s really loud.
“Nagi! Come on, let go of me–!” Reo insists, suddenly embarrassed now that he and Nagi are both awake. He tries to wriggle out of Nagi’s grip, which only leads to Nagi whining.
“Reooo, stop it, ‘m trying to sleep…”
“Seishiro!” Reo’s really not sure why he chose this moment to call Nagi by his first name for the first time without his parents around, but it seems effective.
Nagi removes his head from atop Reo’s and moves back to look at his face. Nagi gets a weird look in his eye, then smiles at Reo, again, in a weird way, and gently puts his hand on the back of Reo’s head to pull him back in.
Then, Reo feels the light pressure of a small kiss to the crown of his head, then an exhale, and Nagi seems to fall right back asleep.
What. The. Fuck????
Is this what Nagi was really like when he had just woken up??? This whiny and affectionate and adorable????
Shit, shit, shit, brain, calm down!
Reo tries to calm down. It was fine. Nagi and him touched each other all the time. Like when they got a goal, and Reo would jump up on Nagi’s shoulders. This was definitely the same as that.
Reo closes his eyes and falls back asleep with sheer willpower.
-
“Come on, it’ll be fun!”
“Reooo~ Can’t we just stay in bed today?”
“Your mom said we should go ice skating with your little cousins! What’s winter without a bit of ice skating?”
Nagi pouts cutely at Reo, and it’s almost impossible to resist kissing his adorable pouty lips. Reo, of course, has always been incredibly strong-willed, and there’d be no plausible reason for him to kiss Nagi right now, as they were alone in Nagi’s room—with no parents to perform for.
Nagi reluctantly (and with a lot of nagging) gets up, and they walk over to the ice skating rink, led by Nagi’s aunt.
It’s a quaint little outdoor rink, with fairy lights hung all around the perimeter, the light barely visible at this time of day.
“I didn’t know you could skate,” Reo remarks, tying up his rental skates.
“I can’t.”
“...What?”
“I can’t skate. I never learned how to.”
“You can’t skate? Professional athlete, soccer prodigy, Nagi Seishiro?”
“Nope. Teach me, Reo?” Nagi says too cutely to resist.
The first ten minutes of teaching Nagi how to skate are, in Reo’s opinion, one of the funniest moments of his life.
The white-haired boy flounders around the rink, slipping and sliding like a seal trying to learn how to walk. Reo, however, has spent many days of his childhood spread out across years, being dragged to ice rinks just like this one with his friends’ families, meaning he was definitely more…coordinated than his counterpart.
“Reo…This isn’t fair.”
“What’s not fair?”
“You, skating like that…”
“How is this unfair?”
“You’re doing it to make me look bad…” Nagi whines unreasonably.
“I’m doing it because it’s fun, and you look adorable, treasure, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Nagi’s entire face goes beet red, staring at Reo with his impossibly wide bug eyes. This makes him lose his balance completely, and he stumbles sideways with a garbled noise. Without thinking, Reo grabs Nagi by the waist.
For a second, neither of them moves.
Nagi’s hand is fisted in Reo’s coat, and he’s close enough that Reo can feel Nagi’s jagged and uneven breath. They’re so close that he can follow Nagi’s eyes, searching Reo’s face for something, and seemingly finding it and stopping when they reach his lips.
Reo clears his throat awkwardly. He looks off to the side. “You good?”
Nagi’s hands haven’t left Reo’s jacket.
“Yeah.”
“Um…You can let go now.”
“But I don’t want to fall again.” Nagi says bluntly, like it’s reasonable to cling onto someone like this while ice skating, just to not fall.
“Yup…Definitely sounds…like a practical reason.” Reo says.
“I’ve always been very practical, Reo.” Nagi says, with a tinge of pink on his cheeks that Reo decides, for his own wellbeing, to not look too hard into.
“Come on lovebirds, you can’t stand around the rink staring at each other all day!” Nagi’s aunt calls from behind them.
Nagi grabs Reo’s hand without warning and attempts to lead the way. It doesn’t quite work, but he’s lucky Reo finds him hopelessly endearing.
-
Nagi is incredibly exhausted from the day they’ve had, and all he wants to do is be alone with Reo. That wasn’t weird, right? Best friends wanted to be around each other all the time, didn’t they?
Nagi’s laying in his bed, waiting for Reo to finish brushing his teeth. The bathroom light reaches into the bedroom, but Reo is the only thing Nagi can seem to see.
He watches Reo brush his teeth with a weird feeling in his stomach. This was nice. Nagi wanted this. Not just for this week. He wanted to see Reo brushing his teeth next to Nagi every night, and he wanted Reo to come to bed and sleep with him after.
Reo climbs into bed, on the opposite side from Nagi.
“Reooo, you’re so far…” Nagi whines quietly.
Then, dramatically, Nagi rolls over and flops a few feet from Reo. He stops and lands, trying to wrap his limbs around Reo.
“Whatthefuckareyoudoing?” Reo says in one breath, looking at Nagi with something akin to panic in his eyes.
“Um. Trying to sleep?”
“I know that, but why are you– you know,” He gestures to himself, “Like, you know!”
“Cuddling?” Nagi admits shamelessly.
“Y-Yes!”
“We did this last night.” Nagi says matter-of-factly.
“On accident!”
“You’re my boyfriend, Reo… Boyfriends cuddle.” This logic was irrefutable. There was no way Reo could say no now.
“B-But we aren’t really–”
“No buts. Pleaseeee~” Nagi pleads with Reo, and he knows Reo won’t deny him; when has he ever, especially when Nagi really asks.
Nagi doesn’t understand why Reo doesn’t want Nagi to hold him. He said it himself, they did this all the time on the field, why would it be different just because they were in bed now?
It felt nice when they touched. Was it not as nice for Reo?
“Fine. Just for this week, my treasure.”
Nagi basks in his joy. Reo was the best.
Nagi tries not to wish too much that he could have this forever.
-
Standing in the entrance to the Nagi family household stands a small, petite, and beautiful girl.
“Hi, is Reo here?” The mysterious girl asks.
“Um…yes.” Nagi replies flatly, trying to figure out what business this girl has with Reo. Is this Reo’s secret girlfriend that he was replacing Nagi with? Or worse, a girl he was being forced by his parents to marry?
“Reo!” Nagi calls from the door. “Someone’s here to see you!”
“Hey, what’s up?” Reo casually says, speedwalking to the door. When he sees the girl, his eyes light up. “Aiya, you’re home?!” He engulfs her in a hug.
“Reo, who is this?” Nagi can’t help but ask.
“Oh, shoot, Seishiro, I didn’t tell you? This is Aiya, my childhood best friend. She was supposed to come tomorrow, but I guess she’s early!” Reo chuckles with delight. Nagi can’t help but stare at Reo’s soft laughing face. He wants to–
“Do you mind if I go out for a bit today? Aiya wants me to go look at the lights with her and her family,” Reo explains, speaking to Nagi on the side.
Nagi wants to say no. He wants to have Reo all to himself today, and he doesn’t want Reo to spend a single hour alone with this beautiful girl. Perhaps Nagi really shouldn’t have gotten so attached to the idea of him and Reo dating. He was never meant to be this happy.
Reo probably liked girls. He probably liked this girl.
“Okay…” Nagi says with a sigh, shoulders slumping, feeling far more dejected than he knows he should.
-
For the few hours that Reo is gone, Nagi feels incredibly bored. He feels worse than bored. He feels lonely.
He misses Reo. He misses holding Reo and seeing his cute blushing face, he misses Reo’s head pats and his adorable laugh, he misses everything there is to miss about Reo.
Cringe. He was being melodramatic. There was no reason to be oversensitive over such trivial matters. Nagi can’t help but imagine Reo and his ‘best friend’ having fun together while Nagi sulks at home.
It was even worse when his mom came into his room asking about where Reo had gone, and Nagi had to say he went off to hangout with his friends instead of his boyfriend.
It’s almost dinnertime when Reo comes home, Nagi, in the kitchen pretending to help, sees the front door open and immediately stares intensely to see if it’s Reo.
-
“Sorry I’m home later than I said, Seishiro!” Reo exclaims, taking his shoes and coat off at the entrance. “Aiya’s mom would not let me leave until–”
The day Reo had was fun, nostalgic. He missed Nagi the entire time.
“Hi, Reo. Welcome back.” Nagi says, bitterness seeping into his tone. He stares down at the rice in the rice cooker.
“Is something wrong, Sei? You look…um, out of it.”
“I’m fine.” He deadpans. Nagi is obviously not fine.
Nagi was probably just tired from a long day at home. Reo forgets, but Nagi wasn’t used to talking this much, especially to real people and not cacti.
Before the two had ever met, Nagi would go days without speaking to anyone, Nagi had told him once. It made Reo’s heart wilt just at the thought that Nagi used to be so lonely. Nagi was special, something to be treasured, not ignored.
The absurd amount of relatives probably drained Nagi, so Reo gives him some grace since Nagi obviously doesn’t want to talk about why he’s mad.
“Um, anyway, I got you something!” Reo says, pulling a small white paper bag out of his coat pocket. “It’s taiyaki from this place me and Aiya used to always go to when we were little, we got it earlier but I stopped by right before I came here so you could have it fresh! I’ve been begging my mom to take me, but she’s out of town so we just went with Aiya’s–”
“You went with her family?”
“Yeah.”
“Did any of your family go?”
“...No? Why?”
“No reason.” Nagi says dejectedly.
If Reo knew Nagi Seishiro at all, he knew that Nagi didn’t do ‘no reason’. He said everything for a reason– to find out more information, to let someone know something. He didn’t just say things to say them, that’d be a hassle.
“Nagi.” Reo says. “Will you look at me for one second?”
When Nagi continues staring at the ground and darting his eyes around the room nervously, Reo gently grabs his chin and faces it towards him.
He sees it, in Nagi’s eyes. A glint of sadness, a tightness of the jaw, a stiffness in his facial expression. Nagi was upset at Reo.
“Nagi were you–” Reo starts, not exactly knowing how to say it. “Were you upset that I went out today?”
“No.” Nagi says, eyes shifty.
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“You know, you’re not a very good liar.”
“I’m not upset.” Nagi pauses, and then, “It’s just… Did you have to spend the whole day with her? I just don’t understand why you’d rather be with her than me.” He continues, suddenly shameless, a fire in his eyes. “She’s really pretty. And you spent the whole day with her and her family.”
Reo’s brain can only be completely unhelpful. All it can think about is whether Nagi is really jealous. Is Nagi jealous? Wouldn’t that mean…Nagi wanted to be with Reo? In some way, at least. Reo would figure that part out later, when his thoughts weren’t going a mile a minute looking at Nagi’s pouting face, who was jealous of Aiya, his honorary sister who he’d been friends with since neither of them had their two front teeth.
“Nagi,” Reo tries to reassure, “You don’t need to be so possessive over Aiya, she’s like a sister to me. Besides, she spent practically the entire day asking me about the ‘cute guy that answered the door’ and if you were really as amazing as I had described you.”
“You talked about me?” Nagi’s eyes light up hopefully. Something in Reo’s stomach does a flip.
“Yeah, I always do. Ask anyone on the team.” Reo sets the taiyaki bag down onto the counter, sliding it over to Nagi, who is staring at him rather than the gift. “The point is, you don’t have anything to be jealous about with Aiya. Or anyone else.”
This feels a little too much like a conversation a real couple would have. Why was Reo reassuring Nagi over something like this, when they weren’t even dating for real?
“I wasn’t jealous.” Nagi pouts.
“Yeah, whatever you say, treasure.” Reo says, and even he can hear the affection dripping from his voice. When he looks up at Nagi, he sees an adorable expression on his face, the pout long gone. Reo hasn’t figured out exactly why or what, but it seems Reo’s little petname for Nagi did something to the other boy that he couldn’t quite put into words.
Reo comes over to the stove, where Nagi is, to see what he’s staring at so intently in the rice cooker, and the second he gets behind Nagi, Nagi turns around.
Nagi’s grown a lot, Reo realizes, looking up at the boy that used to be a marginal amount taller than him. He’s looking at Reo too, but not quite at his eyes.
Reo’s breath hitches when he realizes Nagi’s staring at his lips.
Nagi softly grabs Reo’s chin between his thumb and pointer finger, and leans in to kiss him, just like that. Nagi kisses softly, like he has all the time in the world. He kisses Reo for about that long, too.
It’s a bit too intimate for Reo’s heart to take. Reo’s already weak heart tries not to think about the fact that there’s no one around, this kiss was just for him and Nagi.
Reo pulls back for air, and is greeted with the beautiful sight that is a dishevelled Nagi Seishiro, eyes blown.
“Oops.” Nagi whispers. “I broke your rule, Reo. Ah, sorry about that, I totally forgot…” He says, sheepishly, not like Reo’s ever seen the typically shameless boy before.
Reo, in his dazed state, tries to figure out what rule Nagi is talking about.
‘We probably shouldn’t kiss for real though, I-I’ve never, um, kissed anyone before, so…’
Ah, that one. Reo feels a bit embarrassed at how easily he allowed himself to break his own rule.
“Well, what’s done is done…” Reo trails off. He doesn’t care about his stupid self-imposed rules. Basically the only thing he cared about right now was having Nagi’s lips on his again.
It made him feel good, the way Nagi would kiss him. It made him feel like Nagi wanted Reo as much as Reo wanted him.
Reo feels an urge to let an ‘I love you’ slip out of his lips. He wishes he wouldn’t.
Reo leans in with a bashful giggle and kisses Nagi again. It feels like falling, and it feels like heaven.
“Remember Reo, you’re supposed to be my boyfriend, ‘kay?” Nagi says, pulling away with a sudden and strange shine in his eye.
“What’s this about, Nagi?”
“You’re not doing this with anyone else, right? I’m the only one you– um, do this with?”
Reo can’t help but feel happy at Nagi’s possessiveness towards him. Was Nagi his the way he was Nagi’s?
“Yeah, you’re the only one I do this with.” He whispers against Nagi’s mouth.
Nagi grabs Reo’s hand gently, kissing him as he does. They lead themselves slowly to Nagi’s bedroom, and they kiss until they both get too sleepy to keep going.
Reo lets Nagi hold him again tonight.
-
More of winter break has passed than is left, and with the later days of the week, comes Christmas Eve.
Nagi wakes up before Reo. The room is warmer than it should be at this time of morning, where the sun’s begun to peek over the horizon and the Earth’s losing heat faster than the sun can warm it up.
When Nagi looks down, he realizes where the warmth is coming from. Lavender hair splayed across his chest greets him. Unlike the other times they’ve slept together (not like that), Reo is the one holding onto Nagi, with one of Nagi’s arms thrown around Reo’s waist to keep him close.
Nagi’s a bit drowsy, and he doesn’t know how long he spends staring at Reo and focusing on the feeling of Reo around him, but the sun is up now.
He leans down and presses a small kiss to the crown of Reo’s head, reaching more hair than skin in its reluctance. At that, Reo grumbles a little and shifts upwards, his head snuggled in the crook of Nagi’s neck.
Before, Nagi thought he knew Reo better than anyone could. Now, he knows this side of Reo exists.
How did he live without this before? Without knowing how Reo gets when he’s just woken up, the way he blushes before he does something daring and romantic slightly too earnestly, the way Reo’s lips taste.
How was he going to live without this, afterwards?
Nagi stares down at Reo’s sleeping face. He should probably move, get up.
He doesn’t. He lies there, grateful that the universe has granted him this week to be happy with Reo, and these few moments between them that he’d remember forever.
Him and Reo both knew this was fake. When they got back, they’d be best friends again. Nagi should be happy to have a best friend willing to do this for him. Nagi doesn’t want to be best friends anymore. He doesn’t want to go back to their separate apartments and pretend he didn’t know what Reo tasted like. He had said it last night; Reo was supposed to be his boyfriend.
He stares at Reo’s face, he thinks about how he wants this every morning.
“I wish this didn’t have to end.” He whispers into the cold morning air. This is the only time he’ll have the courage to say it, when he knows Reo can’t hear.
Reo goes stiff.
“Reo?” Nagi whispers a bit louder.
Nagi notices Reo’s breathing has changed, his body is a bit stiffer, his face a bit redder. His eyelids flutter. Nagi doesn’t take back his words. He’s never been a good liar.
Reo’s eyes flutter open. “Nagi? What did you just say…?” He questions, voice thick with sleep and confusion.
“I wish this didn’t have to end, Reo.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I haven’t been pretending for a while, Reo. Back then, you promised to give me anything I wanted, right? This is what I want. You. This.”
“Nagi–” Reo says with a weird kind of laugh.
“Reo, wait. Let me finish.” Nagi shushes. “You don’t have to feel the same, and I really understand if you don’t, and I’m sorry if I ruined everything. I just needed you to know. You’re what I want.”
“Nagi…” Reo giggles, moving up to kiss Nagi. That was probably a good sign, right? “I’ve loved you since I was fifteen, and I dragged you out to the soccer field everyday.” Reo says, like he’s been waiting an eternity to say it. “I’ve loved you since before England, Manshine and all that. I’ve loved you since before all of this,” He waves his hand around, gesturing at the room.
“You’ve always been it for me, Seishiro.” Nagi looks at Reo with wide eyes, pupils so blown he thinks his eyes are probably completely black right now. “This week has been…a dream for me. I didn’t know how I could possibly go back.”
“Then don’t.” Nagi says with conviction.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Let’s not go back to being friends. Hey, let’s get married, Reo.”
Reo chuckles warmly, his shiny white teeth showing. Nagi feels the room heat up. “That’s moving a bit fast, my treasure. Maybe let’s date first.”
“Hmph.” Nagi pouts childishly. “Fine…only because Reo knows best.”
“That’s the spirit!” Reo exclaims, giggling against Nagi’s lips. Nagi can stare at Reo’s face shamelessly now, Reo was his.
This is easily the best Christmas Nagi has ever had.