Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Nagisa-kun, I can’t study tonight,” Rei said. They were in the club room, changing into their swimsuits. Cleanup had taken longer than usual, so they were late and Haru and Makoto were already in the pool.

“What? Why not?” Nagisa dropped his shirt. Friday night was always study night.

“I have a doctor’s appointment.”

Nagisa looked looked him up and down. “But you aren’t sick.”

“It’s a dermatologist,” Rei explained, putting his glasses in their case.

“Is this about that pimple last week? Nobody noticed,” Nagisa said, putting a consoling hand on Rei’s shoulder. Rei choked. He had thought nobody noticed, but evidently not.

“Obviously you did!”

“That’s only because I’m always staring at you,” Nagisa shrugged and picked his shirt off the floor to unceremoniously throw it into his cubby. Rei blushed. They had been officially dating for a couple months, but Rei still had trouble dealing with the fact that Nagisa liked him. “It’s not big deal. Everyone gets them.”

“It’s not that. It’s… I’m thinking of getting my supernumerary nipple removed,” Rei mumbled that last bit.

“ What?! ” Nagisa turned to Rei, eyes wide, and grabbed him by the arms. “You can’t get rid of Nipple-kun!”

“It causes drag and is unsightly.”

“It is beautiful. Everything about you is beautiful,” Nagisa argued. Rei turned away, feeling his blush spread. “And it’s your most beautiful nipple.”

“What?”

“It’s true.” Nagisa released one arm so he could lay his finger on the spare nipple. “Nipple-kun is the best. Then this one,” he traced across Rei’s chest to indicate his right nipple. “Then this one.” He dragged his finger to Rei’s left, and let his hand rest there.

“You’ve rated my nipples?”

“Of course I have,” Nagisa said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He continued to absent-mindedly roll his fingers over Rei’s left nipple. “Doesn’t everyone? Personally, I prefer my right. What do you think?” He brought his other hand down to rub the right side of Rei’s chest.

“I… What… They’re both fine… Can you please stop playing with my nipples during practice?!” Rei struggled to keep his voice down. The last thing he needed was one of his teammates coming to see what the fuss was about.

“Fine.” Nagisa pouted. He leaned forward to press a kiss to the center of Rei’s chest. “We can continue this later.” He ran his hands quickly down Rei’s chest before grabbing his goggles from the cubby and heading to the door.

Chapter Text

Nagisa found out Rei had seen no Disney princess movies, and that simply would not do. Which is why they were dedicating the first day of winter break of their second year to marathoning them. Rei put up with Snow White (“That prince came out of nowhere, but the art is nice.”), grumbled through Cinderella (“He picked her because of her feet?”), but Sleeping Beauty broke him.

“How are they in love? They don’t even know each other!” Rei exclaimed.

“Because it’s true love,” Nagisa explained as he got up to change out the DVDs.

“But they just met,” Rei protested. “How can they know they love each other?”

“They’re soulmates.”

“Soulmates don’t exist.”

Nagisa rolled his eyes and settled back on the couch, picking up the remote to speed through the commercials. “Yeah, I know, soulmates don’t exist, love isn’t really, blah blah blah. It’s just a movie.” Then explain these feeling for Rei-chan , Nagisa thought bitterly. Soulmates only existed in the movies. As much as it hurt to admit it, Nagisa knew it was true.

“I never said love isn’t real,” Rei mumbled. Nagisa ignored him.

“We’ve made it to the Disney Renaissance. You’ll like these stories better. Ariel and Eric actually spend several days together.” Nagisa curled up closer to Rei as the movie started.

“Nagisa-kun, do you really think love isn’t real?”

“Shush. You’ll miss Eric’s introduction.” Nagisa busied himself pretending to focus on the movie, rather than the boy by his side. His best friend. The person who almost made him believe in true love, fate, soulmates, everything. Made him imagine romance like one in a Disney movie. B

But of course Rei wouldn’t care for any of that. He was way too reasonable. He would never care about something as silly and illogical as romance. That would be ridiculous.

“Do you really not believe in love?” Rei asked as Ariel appeared on screen.

“You don’t. ‘As if I would ever be taken in by something as illogical as love’,” Nagisa laughed as he adjusted his pretend glasses.

Rei frowned. “That’s not what I sound like.”

“That was a perfect Rei-chan,” Nagisa argued. “Now pay attention. This is important.” Rei picked up the remote and hit pause. Nagisa turned to find Rei looking at him. “What was that for?”

Rei cleared his throat. “While it is true love is quite illogical, that does not mean it does not exist.”

“Okay…”

“However, that does not mean that such fanciful ideas as ‘soulmates’ or ‘love-at-first-sight’ exist,” Rei continued. Yeah, it took me seeing you at least three times to fall in love , Nagisa thought, biting his lip to stop himself from saying anything. “Love takes time. I cannot approve of films that treat it so lightly.”

“Wow, Rei-chan, you think about love a lot,” Nagisa teased. Rei turned back to the screen and adjusted his glasses, his cheeks slightly pink. He turned the movie back on, but Nagisa was too busy staring at Rei to pay attention. Whatever; he had seen The Little Mermaid dozens of times. He loved Rei. He tried to pretend otherwise, but it was true.

After a minute or so, Rei glanced at him, but quickly looked away. “Um, Nagisa-kun?”

I love you.

“Yes, Rei-chan?”

“I thought you wanted to watch this movie?” Rei’s cheeks turned redder.

I love you. I love you .

“I do.”

“Then why are you looking at me.” Rei stole another glance, meeting Nagisa’s eyes for a split second.

I love you. I love you. I love you .

“I love you.” Rei’s entire face turned red. Nagisa felt his eyes widen and face grow hot as he realized what he just said. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to say that aloud . He turned to the screen, scooting away so he was no longer practically laying on his friend.

“Oh.”

“Never mind.” Shit . Nagisa stared at the television, not paying attention. He vaguely registered there was a shark. If he was lucky, Rei would pretend that had never happened and they could continue being friends. After a couple moments, Rei spoke.

“I love you, too, Nagisa-kun,” Rei said softly.

“Really?” Nagisa looked at Rei through the corner of his eye.

“Really.” Rei looked back at Nagisa. They smiled at each other.

“Oh, this is a good scene,” Nagisa said, looking away. He scooted back to lean against Rei as Scuttle explained a dinglehopper. Soulmates and love at first sight might just be the stuff of Disney movies, but at least he had Rei-chan.