Work Text:
Reo Mikage had been famous for long enough that people had stopped being surprised when he appeared somewhere.
Award shows, interviews, fashion events, album promotions, charity galas, company functions, fan meetings... Reo was everywhere, always perfectly dressed, always smiling for cameras, always surrounded by enough staff to make it look like he needed an entire army just to walk into a building.
Nagi, on the other hand, was usually somewhere slightly behind all of that.
Not because he was trying to hide.
He just liked standing somewhere quiet.
At one of Reo's album events, Nagi was sitting backstage with a half-finished drink in his hand, looking like he could fall asleep at any moment while Reo's manager walked past him carrying three folders and a phone that had been vibrating nonstop for the last ten minutes.
"You're staying for the after-event dinner, right, Nagi?"
"Mhm..."
"Good. Reo told me to make sure you don't disappear."
Nagi lifted his head a little. "Why would I disappear?"
"Because you disappeared last time."
"I went to buy a jelly drink."
"Oh.."
Nagi nodded, apparently satisfied with that explanation.
Nobody backstage questioned his presence. The staff knew him. Security knew him. The stylists knew him. One of the makeup artists had even started keeping a specific brand of bottled tea in the staff fridge because Nagi liked it.
Reo's parents weren't any different.
They'd started inviting Nagi to family dinners so often that he barely remembered when he had last needed an invitation. Reo's mother knew which desserts he liked. His father would ask about Nagi's latest game or whatever he had been doing that week. At some point, Nagi had even stopped being surprised when one of Reo's relatives casually referred to him as family.
Because he was.
He was Reo's husband.
They had been married for long enough that Nagi sometimes forgot there had ever been a time when he wasn't allowed to steal Reo's food, complain about Reo taking too long in the shower, or fall asleep on the couch while Reo worked.
They also had a kid. Aww.
Which made the internet's favorite theory about Nagi particularly ridiculous.
It started with pictures.
Someone took a photo of Nagi waiting backstage at one of Reo's events. He was sitting in the corner, wearing a hoodie, looking half-asleep while Reo was being interviewed somewhere nearby.
The picture was posted later that night.
At first, the comments were normal, then someone recognized him.
"Isn't that the same guy who's always around Mikage Reo?"
"was he not at the last event too 😭"
"Does he work for the company?"
"Why is he literally everywhere Reo is..."
And then, inevitably,
"He's probably obsessed with him."
Nagi saw the post while lying in bed.
He stared at the screen for a few seconds.
"...Huh."
Reo, who was beside him scrolling through his own phone, glanced over. "What?"
"They think I'm your stalker."
Reo's thumb stopped moving.
"My what?"
Nagi turned his phone around.
Reo read the comments.
His expression slowly changed.
"Sei..?"
"Mhm?"
"Why are people saying you forced your way backstage?"
"I didn't."
"I know you didn't!"
Nagi looked at him.
Reo looked back.
you know . . .the he looks at me and I look at him shit
"...You literally come backstage because you're my husband."
"Yeah."
"And because I invite you."
"Yeah."
"And my staff literally knows you."
"Yeah..."
Reo stared at the screen again, visibly trying to understand how several hundred people had managed to reach a conclusion so completely detached from reality.
Nagi simply locked his phone.
"They're stupid."
"...That's not the point."
"It kinda is."
Reo opened his mouth, closed it, then looked down at his phone again.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it.
Over the next few weeks, it happened again and again. Nagi would attend another event because Reo had asked him to come, someone would photograph him sitting in the audience, waiting backstage, talking to a staff member, or occasionally just standing around looking sleepy while Reo performed, and the picture would end up online, with people connecting it to the previous ones like they had uncovered some massive conspiracy.
"There he is AGAIN."
"Does this man have a job 😭"
"Why does he keep following Reo?"
"Im crine he thinks they're friends."
"Reo looks so uncomfortable around him omg."
He wasn't. Not even remotely.
Reo was usually the one looking for Nagi between interviews, waving him over when he spotted him in a crowd, stealing his drink backstage, or asking whether Nagi had eaten yet. If anything, the staff had gotten used to Reo checking where his husband was before he would agree to leave an event.
Nagi would read a few comments, block whoever was particularly annoying, and move on.
Sometimes he found them funny, sometimes he didn't even bother reading them.
Once, someone made an entire compilation titled "RANDOM GUY'S GREATEST MOMENTS AS REO MIKAGE'S #1 OBSESSED FAN."
They didn't even know his name.
The thumbnail was a picture of Nagi standing beside Reo at an awards ceremony, looking bored while Reo smiled at the cameras.
Nagi stared at it for a while before sending it to Reo.
Nagi smiled faintly at the screen.
That should've been the end of it.
Except Nagi made the mistake of posting a family photo.
It wasn't even anything dramatic. He'd taken the picture that morning while Reo was getting ready for an event. Their kid was sitting on the couch between them, looking considerably more awake than either parent, while Reo had one arm around Nagi and Nagi was holding a cup of coffee in the other hand.
Nagi posted it with the caption:
"sleepy family"
That was it.
There was no announcement, explanation, or a dramatic reveal.
Just a normal picture of his family. Aw..
The internet lost its mind.
"WAIT WHO IS THAT KID"
"Is this ai?"
"Guys I think he edited this 😭"
"There's no way this is real."
"He's pretending to be Reo's husband now???"
"Didn't we already establish this guy is obsessed with him?"
"he made an entire fake family.."
Nagi stared at the comments for a while.
Then he locked his phone.
"...this shit crazy im frine"
He wasn't particularly bothered. Mostly, he was confused.
Why would someone spend that much time trying to prove that a child they'd never met was fake?
Nagi went back to eating his breakfast.
Reo wasn't there to see any of it.
He'd already left for rehearsals that morning, and Nagi hadn't mentioned the comments when Reo called later. There wasn't much point. Nagi knew exactly what Reo would do if he found out, and honestly, dealing with the comments himself was less troublesome.
He blocked a few accounts.
He muted the post.
Then, after thinking about it for another few seconds, he unmuted it because he wanted to see what other ridiculous theories people came up with.
That was probably a mistake.
Someone had started a whole thread analyzing the family photo.
"The lighting doesn't match,"
"Look at the kid's hand lmao"
"Definitely ai."
"He's getting more delusional,"
Nagi read that last one twice.
"...Delusional?"
He looked toward the hallway.
Their kid was sitting on the floor nearby, playing with a toy and making little noises to herself.
Nagi looked back at his phone.
Then at their daughter again.
"...You're real, right?"
She looked up at him.
Nagi nodded slowly.
"Thought so."
He put his phone away.
A few hours later, Reo came home, tired from rehearsal but still somehow energetic enough to complain about three different things that had happened during practice. Nagi listened from the couch while their kid eventually crawled over to him, and the whole thing disappeared from his mind almost immediately.
He didn't mention the comments, nor the thread.
And Reo, who had absolutely no idea that half the internet currently believed his husband had fabricated their child with ai, simply dropped onto the couch beside Nagi and leaned against him. Im crine
"Missed me?"
"Mhm."
"Only 'mhm'?"
Nagi glanced at him.
"...A lot."
Reo smiled.
"Better."
Nagi left his phone on the kitchen counter the next morning while he went to get their daughter a snack, Reo happened to see the notification.
A reply to Nagi's post.
He tapped it, then another, and another. Wow ang sikat naman
His eyebrows slowly pulled together.
"...."
Nagi came back into the room holding a small plate.
Reo was standing perfectly still.
Nagi stopped.
"...What?"
Reo turned the phone around.
"Sei."
Nagi looked at the screen.
"Oh."
"Oh??"
Nagi shifted the plate into one hand.
"They think she's fake."
"I CAN SEE THAT!"
Their daughter, sitting nearby, looked between them with absolutely no idea why Reo had suddenly gotten so loud.
Reo scrolled.
His expression somehow got worse.
"They think you made a fake family."
"Mhm."
"They think our daughter is AI."
"Yeah."
"They think you're pretending to be my husband."
"Apparently."
Reo stared at him.
Nagi stared back.
There was a long silence.
Then Reo slowly put the phone down.
"...Why didn't you tell me?"
Nagi scratched the side of his face.
"Because you'd do this."
"Do WHAT?!"
"This bru bingi ka ba"
"I'm doing this because somebody just called our child AI!"
Nagi looked over at their daughter.
She was now chewing on the edge of her toy.
"She's not AI."
"I KNOW SHE'S NOT AI!"
"Then it's fine."
"No, it isn't!"
Reo picked the phone back up and scrolled through the thread again, visibly getting more offended with every sentence.
"Look at this one. 'The hand looks generated.'"
Nagi leaned over.
"...Her hand does look kinda weird in that picture."
Reo's head snapped toward him.
"NAGI."
"What?"
"You're supposed to be defending her."
"I know she's real"
Reo stared at him for a second.
Then he covered his face with one hand.
"You're impossible..."
Nagi quietly ate one of the snacks from the plate.
Reo continued scrolling.
Then he found the older comments.
The stalker comments, the fan account, the compilation, the accusations that Nagi had been forcing his way backstage, rhe comments saying Reo looked uncomfortable around him.
His expression changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough that Nagi noticed.
"...Reo?"
Reo lowered the phone.
"They've been saying this about you for weeks?"
Nagi paused.
"...Mhm."
"And you didn't tell me."
"You would've gotten mad."
"I am mad."
"Yeah."
"Very mad."
Nagi nodded.
"I know."
Reo looked at him for another moment, then glanced toward their daughter.
She was still completely occupied with her toy.
Reo took a breath.
Then another.
"Sei."
"Mhm?"
"I'm making a statement."
Nagi immediately looked tired.
"Don't."
"I'm making a statement."
"Reo..."
"No. Absolutely not."
"It's not that serious."
"They think my husband is an obsessed fan."
Nagi opened his mouth.
"They think our daughter is fake."
Nagi closed his mouth.
Reo was already reaching for his laptop.
"...Okay."
"And I'm going to tag you."
Nagi's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Why?"
"So everyone knows exactly who they're talking about."
"That's troublesome."
"I don't care."
Nagi sighed.
Reo sat down at the table and started typing.
He rewrote the first paragraph three times.
The first version sounded too corporate.
The second sounded too angry.
The third sounded like he was threatening half the internet.
Eventually, he settled on something that sounded unmistakably like him.
A few minutes later, Reo posted it.
"I've seen some of the recent posts about my husband, Nagi Seishiro, and I think there's been enough confusion for me to clarify this myself.
Seishiro is my husband. He is not a fan, a stalker, an employee trying to get backstage, or a stranger who somehow keeps appearing at my events. He attends with my invitation, and my staff, security, friends, and family all know him.
He has never forced his way into an event. He has never been banned from anything. He has never followed me somewhere without my knowledge.
In fact, I am usually the one asking where he is when he isn't around.
And yes, the child in his recent post is our daughter. She is real.
Seishiro did not create her with AI. He did not Photoshop her into our lives. He did not invent a family because he was 'delusional.' That's our family.
Please stop making strangers into characters in a story you invented about them just because you don't know who they are.
Also, for the record, Seishirou is terrible at pretending to be interested in anything lmao. If he were actually trying to follow me everywhere, he'd probably fall asleep halfway through it.
I love my husband. I love our daughter. And I'm very tired of seeing people talk about them like they know us.♡"
Dyg think reo would post this formally or like. Causally. Ykwim
And then, underneath the statement, Reo tagged Nagi.
Nagi stared at the screen.
"...You really posted it."
"Obviously."
"You said 'our daughter.'"
"She is our daughter."
"I know."
"You said she was AI."
"Other people said that."
"You've been reading the comments."
"Mhm."
Reo looked at him.
"How much?"
Nagi looked away.
"...Enough."
Reo's expression softened slightly.
He reached over, took Nagi's hand, and squeezed it.
"You don't have to tell me everything."
Nagi glanced at him.
"But you can."
"...Okay."
Reo leaned back and checked the post again.
The notifications were already exploding.
His manager had commented.
Reo's mother had liked it.
One of the security staff had reposted it with a laughing emoji.
The official Mikage Corp account had quietly shared it.
Nagi glanced at the phone.
"...You're going to make another one, aren't you?"
Reo smiled innocently.
"Maybe."
"Reo."
"I'm kidding."
Nagi stared at him.
Reo lasted approximately three seconds before laughing.
Their daughter suddenly made a little noise from the other side of the room, and both of them looked over.
Reo's expression softened immediately.
"See?" he said quietly. "Definitely not AI."
Nagi looked at their daughter, then at Reo.
"...Yeah."
He leaned against Reo's shoulder.
"Pretty convincing."
"She's our kid, idiot."
"I know."
Reo smiled and rested his head against Nagi's.
Outside, the internet was still losing its mind.
Inside, Nagi was already getting sleepy again.
Honestly, he thought that was probably the better way to handle it.