Archive of Our Own ^beta

Keito finished signing another form and put it into the complete stack, which at this point has grown much larger than the incomplete stack. He'd probably finish it tonight, he thought, if he stayed late again. Maybe he'd even have time to go home instead of having to sleep on the student council room couch, like he'd done the last two nights. Though there hadn't been much of that, either- he'd probbaly gotten a total of five hours of sleep in the past few days. But things had to get done. Someone had to do them. He couldn't in good conscience keep any of the other student council members here late, so the job fell to him. It had been a very busy week- lots of requests for things like budget changes, forms to approve for the next S1, on top of all the disasters that brought about paperwork on regular basis. Things should calm down after he just got through this last bit of work.

That's what he kept telling himself, even as he started to fall asleep every few minutes, forcing himself back awake. Admittedly, there was only so much energy drinks and coffee could do to keep him going without the aid of sleep. He hadn't been able to pay much attention in class today. Keito was glad he'd thought ahead and cancelled unit practice until next week, so at least he hadn't had to exhaust himself more with that. His pen had fallen out of his hand at some point, another five minutes had passed since he'd even attempted to work, and he began to think perhaps it wouldn't be that bad to take just a short nap so that the words on the paper stopped blurring when he tried to read them, when the door opened with a bang and flurry of rose petals. It was enough to jolt him awake again.

"Right hand man! It seems the rumors about you not leaving the school in days are, in fact, true!"

Now he was going to have a headache as well as being tired. "What do you want, Hibiki?"

"I have come to steal you away from your work!"

"You will do no such thi-" Wataru didn't let him finish- Keito blinked and he had already managed to cross the room and haul Keito out of his chair. "Hibiki, put me down immediately!"

"I am merely helping you conserve energy on our trip by not walking, Keito-kun."

"I can walk just fine," he said, but was really too tired to protest further. He doubted anything he said was going to stop Wataru from doing as he pleased, so he might as well put up with this until he could find an opening to get back to work later. Though it seemed Wataru had already retrieved his bag, so he wondered if he would be leaving the school altogether, which would make that plan difficult. "Where are you taking me?"

"You'll see!" He replied, cryptic as ever.

He'd probably end up having another disaster to clean up and file paperwork on by the end of whatever this was. Which may have been pessimistic of him, but after three years in this school, it was just how things went. They reached the front doors of the school and were outside a moment later.

"I expected more complaints, Keito-kun."

"It's been a long day. I don't have the energy to waste lecturing you when we both know you won't listen, Hibiki."

"I'm glad you've finally realized your lectures are ineffective! The next step is accepting your feelings!"

"What," he said flatly. It was hard to tell if he was mishearing things due to lack of sleep or if Wataru had actually implied... Well, either one was likely. He wouldn't be surprised if Wataru had figured out how he felt about him and Eichi (as much as he hoped that wasn't the case.)

"What, indeed," Wataru replied, before stopping abruptly. "We have arrived! Only the first stop, of course."

As soon as he was set down, Keito turned around to find, unsurprisingly, Eichi. "You couldn't have called me instead of sending him?"

"Would you have listened?"

No, he probably wouldn't have. "Why aren't you at home, Eichi? You should be resting at this hour."

"As should you," Eichi said, then looked to Wataru. "Did you tell him anything?"

"I thought the reveal of the surprise was best left to you."

"That's very thoughtful, Wataru."

"Are you two going to keep flirting or is someone going to explain why I'm here?" Keito asked, really at the end of his rope at this point.

"I'll explain on the way," and so he found himself in the car, only going along with this ridiculousness to get answers. This had really been quite an overcomplicated way just to have a conversation with him, and he couldn't help but wonder what was actually going on here.

"Alright, let's get whatever this is over with so I can get back to work."

Eichi giggled. "Oh, you won't be going back tonight, Keito. You need a break."

"That may be, but there's too much to be done."

"All work and no play makes a dull boy, Keito-kun. Or should I say all work and no sleep makes one collapse eventually?" Wataru said.

"We're going on a trip for the weekend. Don't worry, I cleared it with your parents already," Eichi said, and. No.

"You didn't think to clear it with me?" It wasn't necessarily that he was opposed to the idea, but he'd have liked some warning. And to have not been literally taken from his work. "I don't even have anything with me to take a trip."

"I went to your house to pack for you, and Wataru got your things from school, so it's not really an issue, is it?"

"What about the work I didn't finish?"

"Tori and Mao already agreed to finish up this week's paperwork tomorrow."

Eichi really had planned for everything, hadn't he? Keito turned to Wataru. "And you? How did he rope you into this?"

"Why, did you really think I would turn down a weekend with the two of you?"

That only left him with more questions. Well, Wataru was probably only going along because of Eichi- he doubted he really cared if Keito got enough rest or not. He was fairly certain the two were already dating, or would be if they weren't already, and there... wasn't really room for Keito in that equation.

"Keito," He realized he must have been thinking too long when Eichi drew his attention back to him, "if you really don't want to go, we can take you home instead. But I'd like for you to come. You deserve a nice break, you've been working so hard all week- all year, actually."

Keito wondered if Eichi knew he couldn't say no to him when he looked at him like that. "...Alright."

"Amazing!" Wataru exclaimed. "He has accepted your gift!"

"Gift?"

"Keito... you do know what day it is, don't you?" Eichi asked.

"It's..." He realized he didn't. He'd been so caught up in work and school, and the sleepless nights hadn't exactly helped him keep track of the days. "No. Does it matter?"

Wataru and Eichi exchanged a look before Eichi said, "It's your birthday tomorrow."

"Oh," Keito said, not sure how else to react. He'd really almost forgotten his own birthday. If he'd been allowed to keep working he would have. But Eichi had never gone this overboard for Keito's birthday before, so he wasn't sure why he was now. (Which was not to say he didn't appreciate it.)

"You truly forgot your birthday, right hand man?"

"He did it last year too, I'm not surprised."

"It's really not that big of a deal," He'd never made a big thing out of his birthday; he didn't see why everyone thought working through it was so terrible.

"Well, it doesn't matter! You're going to take a break for your birthday whether you like it or not," Eichi said, as if he hadn't just offered to bring Keito back home if he didn't like it.

The drive took about an hour, and Keito mostly drifted through it half-aware. Now that he didn't have paperwork in front of him to focus on, he realized he really was exhausted. He probably would have fallen asleep if Wataru didn't raise his voice to levels too loud for such a small space every few minutes. Keito also hadn't eaten dinner... or at all that day, and they'd seemed to have anticipated that too, because Eichi handed him a bento a few minutes into the ride. ('Don't worry,' he'd said when Keito looked at him suspiciously, 'Wataru made it, I'm still banned from the kitchen after last time.')

It was dark by the time they arrived, and he was forced to bring himself out of his half-asleep state so they could go up to the room. It was a very nice hotel- not that he'd expected less. It was probably one of the ones the Tenshouin family owned. There was an onsen attached to the hotel as well, though that would have to wait until he was rested enough to not fall asleep in it.

The problems didn't start until they entered the room.

"...There's only one bed," Keito said, highly suspecting that this was intentional.

"Indeed there is! It seems we are left with no choice but to share it, hmm?" Wataru's voice was far too loud for the time of night.

"No. Eichi, I'm going to talk to the front desk about getting a roll away bed."

Eichi stepped forward before he could walk off. "It's not that big of a deal, is it? It's a very big bed."

It was a big deal, mainly because sharing a bed with the two of them was not a good way to keep his crush under wraps, but he could hardly say that. "That may be, but I don't see why we should have to sleep in the same bed when there's ways to avoid it."

"Wouldn't you like to sleep in a real bed after being on the couch for the past few nights?"

"We'll be on our very best behavior, if that's your concern, Keito-kun," Wataru added.

"You wouldn't know how to be on your best behavior," Keito said, but it was clear that neither of them were going to relent. "Fine. Just tonight, though."

They both looked far too pleased, and if that wasn't evidence this had been done on purpose, he didn't know what was. He couldn't help but wonder if this was simply to see how he'd react (they liked causing chaos too much, honestly) or if they'd realized how he felt and were messing with him. Either way, he'd already agreed, so there wasn't any going back now. Keito claimed the shower first, digging through what Eichi had packed for him to find that everything he needed really had been packed. He probably shouldn't have been surprised; they'd known each other for enough years that Eichi should know what he would've packed himself.

Keito took his time- if they'd brought him here for his birthday then they couldn't complain when he took advantage. It was getting late before he'd gone to shower, and by the time he was done it was after ten. Eichi went in after him, leaving him alone with Wataru once again. The other was surprisingly quiet for a bit, then-

"Keito-kun, there's a scene from the Theatre Club's next play that I've been doing re-writes on, would you mind helping me practice?"

"Wouldn't it be better to have someone from your club help with that sort of thing?"

"I'd like to make sure everything about it is perfect before I bring it up, of course," Wataru said, "Consider it a gift- I really would value your input. Though that might make it more a gift to me..."

He hadn't realized Wataru thought so highly of his opinion. "Alright, I'll do it. Do you have a script?"

"Ah, I'd like to see your real reactions- it will help me adjust the script to be more realistic. Is improv okay?"

"If that's how it has to be."

"Excellent!" And then Wataru was much closer than he was before. "I've been wanting to talk to you about this for a while."

For a moment Keito almost forgot this was just an act. "About what?"

"Let's not play this game. I think you're well aware of what I mean," Wataru held his gaze, voice quiet like it was a secret just between them. And Keito began to think this was a bad idea, because despite the fact that he knew this wasn't real, because Wataru's acting was good enough that it certainly felt real. But Wataru had wanted improvisation... he could always put off any of his very genuine reactions to simply being acting.

"Why don't you spell it out for me?" He managed to say.

Wataru chuckled softly. "You can't just admit to your feelings?"

"I..."

"It's alright, I'll say it first if that's what you need to admit it," Wataru moved in even closer, reaching up to cup Keito's cheek. "I've been in love with you for months, and I'm not the only one"

Keito's mind went blank. A part of him registered that he probably wasn't hiding how flustered he was, between his speechlessness and how red his face must be, but he couldn't seem to do anything about it. Before he got the chance to try to reply, Eichi came back into the room. "Wataru, what in the world did you do to make him react like that?"

Wataru finally moved back, and quickly as he'd gotten close, back to his usual self. "Keito-kun was helping me workshop my next production!"

"Oh? It's nice to see you getting along."

"It really is! I will return shortly," he said before disappearing, and Keito finally pulled himself together.

Eichi went about taking his nighttime pills. "Wataru showers in the morning, so it'll only be a few minutes before we can go to bed."

"Alright. Did you have anything planned for tomorrow?"

"Not in particular. I thought I should leave it up to you, since it's your birthday. Though I did think we should go out for dinner to celebrate."

Keito had to ignore the thought that that sounded like a date, because surely Eichi didn't mean it that way. "That sounds fine."

Wataru re-entered the room normally for once, and they went about getting settled in the bed. It really was big, so there wasn't an issue fitting all of them- the upsides of being in such an upscale hotel. He wasn't sure if it was as comfortable as it was because he was overtired or because it really was that nice. Either way, he could already feel his tiredness start to take over. Keito tried to set an alarm, but Eichi took his phone and put it on the side table (out of Keito's reach, since he was in the middle of the bed). "No, you'll sleep as much as you need to. We don't have any obligations tomorrow."

"We need to get up at a reasonable ti-"

"Keito-kun, it's a vacation. Reason has no place here!"

He sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere with the two of them against him. "Incorrigible. Fine. If you get bored waiting for me to wake up, it's on you."

"Bold of you to assume I'll find watching you sleep boring~"

"Hibiki, you promised you would behave."

"We did say that," Eichi said, "so we'll let you sleep now." He reached over to turn off the lamp. "Goodnight, Keito, Wataru."

"Sleep well!"

"Goodnight."

Keito, despite his earlier misgivings about sharing a bed with them, was out within minutes.

***

"He's quite oblivious, isn't he?" Wataru said quietly after Keito had been asleep for a while.

"We may have to be even more obvious than we've been so far, subtlety hasn't worked well."

"Plan B tomorrow?"

"Of course."

***

If Keito woke up briefly in the middle of the night practically being cuddled by the two of them, well, he probably wasn't going to remember that come morning, and it didn't seem like a problem to his sleep-addled brain. He went back to sleep without a second thought.

***

Keito woke up slowly. He could tell as soon as he opened his eyes that it was at the very least well into the morning, with how the sun was shining in. The thought should have made him want to get up immediately, but he almost found himself wanting to go back to sleep. He didn't let himself; he reached over to get his glasses from the side table instead.

"Ah! Eichi, he has awoken!"

"Good morning, Keito. Happy birthday."

"What time is it?"

"It's-" Eichi looked over at the clock, "Just past eleven."

God. Keito hadn't slept that late in... years, probably. But he did feel a lot better than he had all week. He got up out of the bed (which was far more comfortable than it had any right to be), "Have you had breakfast yet?" They had tea at the table, but Keito didn't see anything else.

"No, we haven't been up that long."

"Come sit down, Keito-kun," Wataru said, already pouring a third cup of tea. "We'll order room service. Eichi says it's very good here."

"In a minute, let me go get dressed at least," it was already late enough, it was past time to get ready for the day. "If you want to order go ahead, Eichi knows what I like." As he got ready he found himself hoping there wasn't going to be anymore strange behavior from either of them like last night... or at least, nothing that would make hiding how he felt about them difficult. Expecting Wataru not to cause chaos was futile, and he always enabled Eichi to do the same... He wondered if he'd spend the whole trip keeping them from causing public disturbances (which they could get away with at Yumenosaki, but not in the outside world).

Over breakfast everything seemed normal at first, so he started to relax. After they'd finished, Eichi turned to him, smiling in a way that made Keito wary of what he was about to say. "I have another gift for you."

"Was the trip not enough...?"

"This one is from both of us, actually," Wataru said.

"...Alright, what is i-"

Before he could finish asking, Eichi leaned forward and captured Keito's lips with his. For the second time in the past 24 hours, his mind went blank. It didn't really register with him until Eichi pulled back.

"Wha-"

Wataru reached out to turn his face towards him. "Both of us," he reminded, before he also kissed Keito, who was still too shocked to even kiss back, and Wataru pulled away after a moment. They both looked at him expectantly; he wasn't sure how to respond. Keito wondered if he was still asleep and this was just a dream. He hadn't imagined either of them would ever return his feelings, much less both of them.

"There's no way he still doesn't get it. He can't misunderstand after that, can he?" Eichi said, breaking the silence.

"I think the shock was too much for him... It's good we didn't decide to go with the surprise party idea, he may have just passed out if we had!"

Keito tried to process it all, tried to find the words. "You- You love me. Both of you?"

Wataru clapped once and confetti poured down on them. Keito couldn't bring himself to be annoyed about it, for once. "You've finally realized it! Amazing!"

"We have been flirting with you for over a month now, Keito."

"I assumed that was just the two of you messing around as usual."

"I mean, we were quite obvious about it... Wataru even did that whole act with the script..." That was fair. Looking back on it, it had been very obvious that he was being flirted with.

"Well, you've made your point," he just wasn't sure where they were supposed to go from here. "Then... we're dating, now?"

"If that's what you want."

"We certainly would like to," Wataru added, voice softer than usual.

It still felt too good to be true, but he was hardly going to turn down the offer because of that. "Yes... I'd like that."

Later on, after they'd spent some more time kissing and Eichi and Wataru started talking about all the failed plans they'd executed in the past month before they'd resorted to this, he thought...

Maybe birthdays weren't so insignificant, after all.