Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s dark when he leaves Rika’s house. 

It’s winter now, the days are short and chilly, and Rika’s grandmother makes sure Yuuta’s scarf is warm and tight around his neck and that he’s got his gloves on - he’d forgotten them last time. The homework they’d been working on together is put safely in his backpack and he waves goodbye to Rika as he steps out into a crunchy snow that had fallen earlier. 

Even though the sun has set, the streets are well lit and welcoming, electric lights creating pools of warmth against the winter weather. Yuuta doesn’t live far, just a few streets over, so he takes his time, winter boots creating perfect footprints in the snow. 

He looks in the window of Nakamura’s bookstore, waving to Hime, the shop’s gray cat who’s curled up in her normal spot in the corner of the window sill. She yawns at him through the glass and he chuckles, his breath misting white in the night air. It’s a Friday and there are a few adults walking home from work as well or stepping off the bus after commuting. His own father works in the heart of the city in an office building but his mother works only part-time for a local cafe, mostly in the mornings while he and his sister are in school. She’ll be at home with Aika at this hour, probably starting dinner and berating his ten year old sister into finishing any remaining schoolwork. He smiles a little, thinking of his small family, and hopes his mother makes salted cabbage this weekend. It’s his favorite. 

He turns off Rika’s street, heading towards his own neighborhood, and his thoughts move to school and other things. His birthday is only a few months away - he’ll be fourteen - and he wonders what gifts he might receive and if he should have a party. He has a few, close friends - Rika being one of them - but he can admit, if only to himself, that he’s not popular at school. He can be shy and awkward around others his age sometimes, though he’d started running track this year and was slowly opening up to his teammates. 

Then, of course, there’s Rika. 

They’d met a few years ago when they’d both been in the hospital at the same time with pneumonia and then realized they actually went to the same school. They’d become close friends but Rika could be overprotective of him, snapping at girls that tried to talk to him. He knew she didn’t mean anything by it but it made it hard to make new friends sometimes. 

So, maybe no party this year, he thinks. He’s probably getting too old for one anyway. Maybe‒

His thoughts abruptly trail off as his eyes catch on something in the snow and he comes to a stop, brows drawing together. Just in front of his boots are three drops of dark red, contrasting sharply with the white of the fallen snow. Was that blood?

He turns slightly and his gaze quickly discerns another few drops leading off the sidewalk and then another few just beyond that - a literal trail of blood leading directly into the nearby park and the small playground there. Yuuta hardly thinks about what he’s doing as he steps off the path and follows the trail. What if there’s a hurt animal somewhere? Yuuta had never had a pet of his own - his parents always said they didn’t have time to take care of one whenever he asked - but he had a soft spot for animals. He knew he’d never forgive himself if there was a hurt dog or something nearby and he just left it there to suffer. 

He follows the dripping trail through the empty swing sets, around the merry-go-round, and over to a large slide with a ladder that you have to climb up to get to the top. Sitting tiredly against the bottom rungs of the ladder is not a dog but a boy. 

Yuuta comes to a ragged stop. 

The boy looks to be about his age, wearing some sort of black school uniform that Yuuta doesn’t recognize, but it’s the blood that shakes Yuuta’s core. It’s dripping from the boy’s mouth and down his chin, pooling onto his uniform and down into the snow - a dark, shocking red. The boy’s eyes are closed, his breathing ragged, the ladder he’s sitting against probably the only thing keeping him upright. 

Had someone attacked him? Yuuta looks around but there’s no one else there, the park is deserted and dark. He should get an adult, right? There’s an injured student, he should‒

The boy makes a sound then, a soft, wounded sound, and Yuuta’s tender heart is no match for it. He hurries to the boy’s side, dropping his backpack in the snow and kneeling down, heedless of the ice melting into his jeans. 

“Hey, are you okay?!” 

Yuuta berates himself silently - of course he isn’t okay, he’s bleeding - but the boy’s eyes open and Yuuta’s breath catches. The other boy’s irises are a unique violet. Yuuta hadn’t even known eyes could be that color. His hair was different, too - a blonde so pale it was almost silver, framing his face in shaggy, wild tufts. 

And were those tattoos?

There are intricate circular designs on either side of the boy’s bleeding mouth and Yuuta can hardly tear his gaze away from them. He’s never seen anything like it before but, somehow, the markings suit him. 

“I’m going to help you, okay? My name is Yuuta,” Yuuta says, firmly, pushing the boy’s strange appearance aside for now. “Can you tell me what happened? Do you live nearby?” If he was on his way home, maybe he lives close and Yuuta can run and get his parents. 

Instead of answering though, the boy makes a choking noise, a cough tearing out of him that forces more blood over his lips, sliding down the pale skin of his throat. His face is scrunched with pain and Yuuta can feel his anxiety rising, wondering if he should just run for the nearest adult to call for an ambulance. 

The boy's hands are moving though, fumbling at his pockets, and Yuuta realizes there’s something he’s trying to retrieve but he’s hazy with pain and lacks coordination. Yuuta grabs the wandering fingers and squeezes tight. 

“There’s something you want in your pocket, right? I’ll get it, just hold on to me.”

Yuuta uses his free hand to empty the boy’s pockets. There’s some change, an empty, travel-sized bottle of cough syrup and what looks like a student ID. Yuuta immediately latches on to the ID, flipping it over to read the small print. 

“Inumaki Toge,” he murmurs and then frowns. “This says you’re from a school in Tokyo.” His navy gaze catches pale violet. “Are you here on a school trip maybe? Is there someone here I can call?” Needless to say, they’re a long way from Tokyo but surely there’s someone, a teacher, that Yuuta can call from a nearby phone. 

This time the boy shakes his head. His fingers are fumbling again, reaching for the cough syrup bottle. It’s empty but Inumaki mimes drinking from it and then looks at Yuuta imploringly, the pain still stark across his face. 

“You want cough syrup?” Yuuta asks, doubtfully. Surely that’s not going to be enough to soothe the other boy’s hurts. “It’s your throat that’s injured?” Inumaki nods weakly. Yuuta has to try once more. “You’re sure you don’t want me to go get help?” 

Inumaki shakes his head again and his fingers curl around Yuuta’s urgently, with more strength than Yuuta thought the injured boy had. It makes his stomach drop and he can’t help the terrible thought that rises in his mind - that maybe it was an adult that had hurt Inumaki. 

“Okay,” Yuuta says, resolve firming. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I can get your medicine, there’s a place just down the street. I’ll hurry.”

He leaves his book bag with Inumaki and runs. 

He gets every kind of cough syrup they have, including a numbing spray for sore throats and a big bottle of water, supremely grateful for the pocket money his parent’s give him every week. He has to wait in line at the register and the adrenaline makes him fidget, antsy to get back and worried about leaving Inumaki alone in the cold. He bolts once he’s gotten his items paid for, plastic bag clenched tightly in one fist as he races back to the park. 

Inumaki is just where he left him, huddled at the bottom of the ladder, looking as pale as the snow he’s sitting in. He’s still awake though, his gaze weary and muddled with pain as Yuuta collapses next to him again, cracking open the water bottle first. 

“To wash out your mouth,” Yuuta tells him, breathing hard from his run. Inumaki takes the bottle shakily and Yuuta hovers, ready to help, but the other boy manages. At least until he takes a swallow of cold water and his purple eyes widen, focusing on something over Yuuta’s shoulder. Inumaki pushes him to the side abruptly, rolling up on his knees and opening his bloodied mouth to reveal a flash of a tattooed tongue. 

“Die.”

Yuuta’s ears ring and something shifts inside him, reacting to that singular voice as if summoned. 

Pushed back into the snow, he struggles to turn his head, looking for whatever has caught Toge’s attention. There’s something on the ground a few feet behind him and it’s… not right. Yuuta can feel it in his bones, goosebumps lifting on his skin. 

He scrambles to his feet again as Toge falls back, panting, though thankfully there is no new blood on his face. As Yuuta approaches the thing in the snow, his breathing quickens, close to panicking, because it’s nothing like anything Yuuta has ever seen before. Even as he watches, it’s slowly disintegrating, crumbling into ash that disappears into the breeze. It looks like a large fish, a flying fish with razor sharp wings and a mouth full of nightmare teeth like knives. Yuuta’s eyes almost can’t track it, his gaze wants to slip away from the fish like his body knows it’s dangerous and can’t face it head on. If he just looks away it won’t be there anymore. 

He can’t look away. 

Inumaki had killed this thing with his voice .

“It’s a… monster,” Yuuta whispers, wide-eyed. As the nightmare fish disappears into the ether, Yuuta turns his stunned gaze back to the wounded boy by the slide. Inumaki looks exhausted but his eyes carry a sort of empathetic sadness, as if he’s sorry he’s exposed Yuuta to such a thing. “It was going to… hurt me.”

Toge nods, clutching the water bottle Yuuta had given him. 

“And you have… powers.” It feels like a strange word to say, unreal. 

Toge nods again, almost hesitantly, but Yuuta’s panic is transforming into excitement as he puts the pieces together, eyes shining in amazement as he stares at the other boy. It all makes sense now.

“Inumaki, you’re a superhero.”

Toge denies being a superhero in his way - shaking his head, making a negative ‘X’ shape with his arms - but isn’t that exactly what a superhero would do? Deny the truth to keep their identity and the general public safe? Yuuta feels confident that he’s seen enough superhero shows to know. 

He helps Toge finish tending to this throat - rinsing out his mouth again and then downing an alarming amount of cough syrup. Still, Yuuta understands. Inumaki’s voice is his weapon and he’d worn it out fighting more of those… things. What Yuuta had failed to remember to get from the convenience store were some tablets for pain, however, and it’s clear Toge is still in a good amount of pain. Yuuta knows his mom keeps some pain medication in the medicine cabinet at home though, so it seems natural to take his new superhero friend back with him. Especially since Toge still doesn’t seem to want him to get outside help. 

“It’s dark and it’s getting late,” Yuuta says, glancing at the dark sky overhead. “You can rest in my room tonight until you feel good enough to… go back home.” He peers at Inumaki hopefully. He really, really wants to spend more time with the other boy, wants to understand what it is he just saw. Not to mention there’s no way he can just leave Toge out there in the cold and wet snow, bleeding silently with no one to look after him while he recovers.

Toge huffs a tired breath at him but seems too worn down to argue. He lifts his right arm tiredly, wriggling his fingers until Yuuta comes close to help him up. He keeps his arm around Inumaki’s waist as the shorter boy wavers on his feet, face paling as if he’s about to be sick. 

“Hold on to me,” Yuuta urges, getting Toge’s arm around his neck. 

It’s a slow trek home. 

Yuuta’s small and tidy single-family house is not far but, by the time they get there, Toge is breathing harshly, sweat dampening the pale hair by his temples despite the cold temperature of the air. Yuuta holds on to the smaller boy tightly, worry growing. He needs to get Toge inside quickly, preferably without his parents noticing. 

He ends up leaving Toge by his bedroom window and then making his way inside alone, calling out to his mother that he’s back. 

“Welcome home, Yuuta,” his mother answers, wiping her hands on a dish towel as she peeks out at him from the kitchen. “I’m making hamburger steak for dinner. Your dad will be home in a few minutes so go get cleaned up, okay?”

Yuuta nods quickly, “Okay!”

He hurries down the hall to his small room with its messy bed and Ultraman posters, throwing his book bag down by his tiny study desk before hurrying to the window. He pushes the dark blue curtains his mom hung for him aside and unlocks the window so he can slide up the sash. He sticks his head out, offering a hand to Toge who’s waiting listlessly against the side of the house. 

“Inumaki, here!”

Helping the other boy through the window is tough. Toge’s weak and Yuuta worries they’re making more noise than they should. When he’s finally inside, Yuuta shuts up the window again and gets Toge to his bed, helping the boy take his shoes off so he can collapse onto the mattress. 

“I’ve got to have dinner with my family,” Yuuta says regretfully, setting up Toge’s array of cough syrups and throat sprays on Yuuta’s beside table. “It won’t take long and I’ll bring you back something to eat so just rest for a bit, okay? No one will come in since we’ll all be in the kitchen, you’ll be safe.”

Toge nods and then surprises Yuuta by lifting both hands, his fingers moving gracefully as he signs in JSL and mouths ‘thank you’ at the same time. 

“You…you use sign language!” Yuuta knows absolutely nothing about sign language but he recognizes the hand movements as JSL. It’s perfect, too - if Toge’s weapon is his voice, then it makes sense he can’t use it all the time. Maybe it even needs to recharge to be at full power! If that’s the case, then he’d need another way to communicate until he can use his voice again. 

“That’s so cool,” he whispers and then shakes his head, realizing he’s got to go before his mom comes looking for him. “I’ll be back soon, Inumaki. Try to sleep.”

Dinner is a trial. 

Yuuta loves his family, he does. His dad is a busy but kind man, devoted to providing for his family. Normally, Yuuta doesn’t mind hearing about his day at work but tonight Yuuta’s father drones on and on about some sort of office meeting he attended that has Yuuta’s leg bouncing up and down under the table impatiently. 

Then Yuuta’s mother chimes in with a story of a gas explosion or something downtown that crumbled part of a building earlier that evening. It was on the news, apparently. Yuuta listens with only half an ear as he chokes down his rice, anxious to get back to Toge. 

“Yuuta,” he father says suddenly, startling him. “How was school this week?”

“It was fine,” he answers quickly. “I got my homework done at Rika’s earlier.” His dad nods approvingly and a sudden idea pops into Yuuta’s head. “Uhm, actually, I made a new friend this week. He’s a… transfer student from Tokyo.”

“Oh really?” His mom’s eyebrows lift but there’s a little smile on her face as she tucks her long, dark hair behind her ear. “I’m glad to hear that, honey. You can never have too many friends.” His mom has never really liked Rika much, for some reason, and has always encouraged him to meet new people. “What’s his name?”

“Inumaki Toge,” he tells her. “I was thinking I might, uhm, invite him for a sleepover tomorrow? Since he’s new in town, I thought maybe I could show him around a little?”

His father and mother exchange glances and then his mother turns to him with a warm smile. “I think that would be a great idea, Yuuta. That’s very kind of you.”

“Can I invite a friend for a sleepover, too?” Aika asks excitedly. 

“Have you finished your homework?” his mother asks. 

“No,” Aika answers sullenly, poking a piece of broccoli with her chopstick. 

“Then you know the answer to that, don’t you?”

His sister sighs dramatically. 

After dinner, Yuuta’s forced to help clean up, wiping down the table and counter tops as fast as he can without drawing too much attention to himself. While his mom’s busying washing dishes, he swipes a couple of wrapped onigiri from a plate near the fridge and finally hightails it back to his room, opening his door quietly in case Inumaki is sleeping. 

The other boy is curled up in Yuuta’s bed, lips parted as he breathes, blanket pulled up to his shoulders as he sleeps. It’s only at that moment that Yuuta realizes how cold Toge must have been out there, only dressed in his uniform with no coat. 

He gently sets the onigiri on his nightstand next to Toge’s cough medicine and then makes a quick trip to the bathroom he shares with Aika for two generic pain tablets. He should probably make a tea for Toge’s throat, too, but he’ll wait for a bit. It would be better for Toge to rest for awhile and then, once Yuuta’s family have gone to bed, they can move about a little more freely. 

Yuuta entertains himself by playing a video game with the volume turned down for awhile but can’t really focus, all his thoughts turning on the incredible Tokyo student currently snoozing in his room. Eventually he’s got too much nervous energy and he raids his closet for old clothes that might fit Toge’s smaller form. He also pulls out the spare futon for when he has friends over - not that there have been too many through the years. He’s sure his mom is thrilled he’s finally inviting someone to stay the night. It had certainly been the easiest way to explain Toge’s presence and not have to hide him, at least after tonight. 

Once the coast is finally clear that evening, Yuuta wakes Toge with a gentle shake of the shoulder and a waiting hot cup of tea. 

“Everyone’s asleep,” he says softly, watching as Toge takes the pain pills and chases them with a swallow of ginger and honey tea. He looks a little better after his rest, his eyes a little clearer. “I thought you might want to, uh, clean up while you have a chance. I’ve got some fresh clothes for you, too.”

Toge perks up at this, probably all too ready to discard his bloodied uniform for something more comfortable. Yuuta shows him where the bathroom is and then leaves him to it. Once the other boy returns, freshly clean, in an old pair of Yuuta’s sweatpants and much-too-big shirt, they sit together on Yuuta’s bed while Toge takes small, careful bites of the onigiri. Even that seems to aggravate his throat, however, and he has to stop and switch to just drinking his tea. 

“Is there anything else we can do for…” Yuuta pats his own throat. Toge shakes head. He signs something but, at Yuuta’s puzzled look, he then looks around the room for a moment, brightening when he sees the notepad on Yuuta’s desk. Yuuta follows his gaze and gets up to get it for him, along with a pen. 

Just need time, Toge writes, turning the notepad so Yuuta can see. The tea helps. Thank you.

“O..Of course!” Yuuta stutters, embarrassed at Toge’s gratitude. He doesn’t feel like he’s done anything at all really. 

Toge’s eyes crinkle a bit when he smiles. He writes one more word on the notepad. 

Ask.

Yuuta rubs his nose but he can’t help himself. He’s dying to know. 

“Will you tell me about the…the monster in the park? And about your powers?” 

Toge does. 

They sit side by side on Yuuta’s bed, their backs to the wall, Toge scribbling on the notepad while Yuuta asks all the questions bubbling up inside him. He learns the monsters are called curses and that Toge had fought more than just the one in the park. Apparently there had been a whole swarm in a building downtown but a few must have escaped or had hidden from him. Toge seems unsure of this himself, Yuuta notes. In any case, Toge had gotten separated from his guardian - some sort of school manager - and had ended up in the park where Yuuta found him. 

“Won’t they be looking for you?” Yuuta asks, anxiously. 

Toge gives him a surprisingly devilish look. It’s good for them to worry once in a while.

As the night deepens, Yuuta learns that Toge doesn’t agree with the title of ‘superhero’. He calls himself a sorcerer and destroying curses is just what he was born to do. Literally. His powerful voice is something he was actually born with and he doesn’t speak aloud much in order to avoid hurting other people accidentally. 

“You need secret code words,” Yuuta muses. He, maybe, still thinks Toge’s a superhero no matter what the other boy says.

Toge tilts his head at him. 

“Like…” Yuuta’s gaze catches on the onigiri Toge had only half eaten. “Like saying ‘salmon’ instead of ‘yes’ or something. Nothing bad could happen if you just say ‘salmon’, right? Then you could talk safely, I mean, if you want.”

Toge is watching him with a peculiar sort of look that Yuuta can’t quite decipher and he suddenly wonders if he’s overstepped. Before he can fall all over himself taking it back - sign language is amazing and there’s always paper and pencil - Toge’s lips part. 

“Sal…mon?”

Yuuta’s eyes widen, a breathless laugh escaping him. Toge’s voice is clear and gentle and a little hesitant as he watches Yuuta carefully, as if afraid some sort of punishment is waiting to befall them. It’s only the second word Yuuta has ever heard him speak aloud. 

When the seconds tick by and nothing happens, Toge huffs a silent laugh himself. He looks relieved and maybe, just a little bit, hopeful. 

They spend the next half hour making up other crazy code words until they both are too tired to keep their eyes open, one of them yawning every few minutes. Yuuta insists that Toge sleep in his bed and wins the argument by making sure the bedroom door is locked and then wriggling into his extra futon like an eel, arms and legs akimbo. 

Toge sighs but dutifully curls up under Yuuta’s blankets, his eyes sinking closed the moment his head hits the pillow. 

“Goodnight, Inumaki,” Yuuta murmurs softly, jaw cracking with another yawn. 

There comes a sleepy snuffling from the bed. “Spicy cod roe, Yuuta.”

Yuuta’s eyes fly open mid-yawn and he almost chokes. His name… Toge said…

Needless to say, it takes a long time for him to fall asleep.

The next morning, Yuuta has Toge slip out the window again and then go around the front of the house to the doorbell. He’d let Toge borrow some more clothes and a scarf to hide his face markings and so, when Yuuta’s mother opens the door, she sees just a young boy with smiling eyes who waves at her cheerfully. 

Yuuta handles the introductions, telling his mother the lie they’d come up with earlier - that Toge is recovering from a bad cold, has lost his voice and couldn’t speak much yet. Toge bows to her respectfully and Yuuta’s mother scurries off to the kitchen to brew ‘the poor thing’ a nice, hot cup of tea. 

After that, the two boys eagerly escape back to Yuuta’s bedroom where they no longer have to be quiet or hide Toge’s presence, giggling with childish glee that their master plan is working.  

Toge seems to be feeling better, Yuuta notes. The scrunchy look of pain on his face has eased, though he accepts his second cup of ginger tea from Yuuta’s mother with grace. They play video games for a little while, Toge kicking Yuuta’s butt in a tournament fighting game which, really, was to be expected. Afterwards, Yuuta tells his mother they’re going to go out and play for awhile. 

“Here, take these,” Yuuta says, giving Toge his gloves. The other boy doesn’t have a heavy coat with him so he’s wearing Yuuta’s lighter jacket that won’t do much against the winter cold. Toge takes them carefully - in fact, so far, Toge has treated all of Yuuta’s belongings delicately, as if unused to borrowing a friend’s things. He’d even made Yuuta’s bed that morning, something even Yuuta didn’t do with any regularity. 

Yuuta thinks maybe it might be lonely being a superhero. 

Yuuta shows Toge around the neighborhood, including walking past the park where Yuuta first found the other boy. There’s still some drops of Toge’s blood in the snow but a skiff of fresh snow has covered most of the tracks from yesterday. It’s strange, almost like nothing happened there. 

Most people can’t see curses, Toge writes on his small notepad, watching Yuuta’s face. Have you always seen them?

“Oh.” Yuuta shakes his head. “Never, not before I met you.”

Toge looks a bit disconcerted at that but continues writing. You might see more of them now. The one here was small but they can be big, too. Be careful, okay?

“Okay,” Yuuta agrees easily. 

For lunch, Yuuta takes Toge to Rika’s house, Rika’s grandmother plying them with sandwiches while Rika watches Toge curiously. It’s clear she’s not sure how to take his new ‘friend from Tokyo’ but she doesn’t appear to be threatened by him either. In order to eat, Toge must pull down the scarf he has wrapped around the lower part of his face and neck, exposing his cheeks, and Yuuta explains away the sigils, saying they’d been playing with markers earlier and Yuuta had drawn them as a joke. 

Rika’s grandmother pinches Yuuta’s cheek hard. “You know better than that, Yuuta! Your friend may have to do a lot of scrubbing to get that off later.”

Yuuta smiles sheepishly. 

“I like them,” Rika says suddenly, nibbling on her own sandwich. “They look cool.”

Both Yuuta and Toge look at her in surprise but she continues eating her lunch calmly, unconcerned. 

And that’s that.  

They go out and play in the snow afterwards, something that Toge, apparently, has never done before because he takes a snowball in the face from Rika almost immediately and looks completely shocked by it. Rika laughs like a cartoon villain and hurries to make more snowballs while Yuuta grins and helps Toge wipe the wet snow from his face. 

“Caviar,” Toge says glumly. He’s got snow in his pale hair and he’s giving Yuuta sad puppy eyes. Yuuta can’t help the laugh that escapes him. 

“Come on, Inumaki, you can’t let her get away with that!”

Their three-way battle is brutal with no quarter given. Inumaki’s aim is apparently deadly once he gets the hang of things and he gives as good as he gets. Rika gets a faceful of snow a couple of times and at some point a snowball gets put down the back of Yuuta’s shirt that has him squirming. Eventually, Yuuta and Rika have to join forces to take Toge down and they all end up in a dogpile, laughing hysterically as their breath mists in the air. They’ve all been pummeled at this point and are exhausted in the best of ways. 

Toge’s laugh is soft, breathless, barely there but it warms Yuuta’s heart to hear it. 

The sun is starting to go down by the time they walk home, loose-limbed and smiling. Rika walks part of the way with them, her hand brushing Yuuta’s where the cold silver of the ring she’d given him rests. He sees Inumaki’s violet eyes catch on the jewelry once but the other boy’s gaze slips away before Yuuta can explain. 

“Inumaki, if we ever come to Tokyo, you’ll show us around, right?” Rika is saying, skipping a few steps ahead. She’s wanted to go to Tokyo for a long time - her and many of the other girls in their class think it’s a romantic place to visit. 

“Salmon,” Toge agrees, voice muffled by the scarf around his neck. They’d taught Rika a few of the code words after swearing her to secrecy. 

Rika cheers, stepping out into an empty crosswalk, Yuuta and Toge a step behind. “It’s so‒”

Whatever she’s about to say is lost as Toge suddenly lurches ahead and pushes her. Hard. 

Yuuta’s heart constricts and his world slows down, time dripping by as thick as molasses. He’s stunned as he watches Rika fall to the side, a cry pushing from her lungs as she hits the pavement. He can’t believe Toge would - but no, the other boy is still moving into the center of the crosswalk and he’s not looking at Rika but facing the other direction, his fingers reaching up to pull down his scarf, revealing the sigils.  

“Stop!”

Even not directed at Yuuta, the pulse of Toge’s power is electrifying. 

There’s a squeal of brakes and the smell of burning rubber and it’s only then Yuuta realizes there’s car barreling towards them, fish-tailing as the driver succumbs to Toge’s voice and slams on the brakes. 

The car comes to a smoking, shaky stop mere inches from Toge, who’s hand is thrown out in front of himself as if he could physically stop the vehicle from going any further. And maybe he could, Yuuta thinks distantly. A superhero could stop a car with his bare hands. 

Time snaps back to normal speed and Yuuta finds his own voice. 

“Inumaki!”

Toge glances over at him but then looks back over his shoulder for Rika who is sitting up on the pavement, her mouth open in surprise, eyes wide. Besides a few scrapes, she’s completely fine. 

“You…you saved me,” she says, astonished. “Your voice…how…?”

Yuuta goes to help her up as the driver gets out, shouting angrily at Toge to get out of his way. Luckily, a few adults that were nearby come to Toge’s defense, yelling at the driver to watch where he’s going. It gives the three of them a chance to slip away further down the street away from the commotion. 

“Are you okay?” Yuuta asks Toge worriedly, touching his own throat in emphasis. Toge nods, already pulling his scarf back up into place. 

Rika still seems shocked. “That was amazing,” she breathes. “Thank you, Inumaki.”

Toge’s pale cheeks go a little pink, much to Yuuta’s amusement. The other boy shrugs like it’s not a big deal, uncomfortable or maybe unused to praise. It’s not clear if Rika understands what exactly she saw but Yuuta thinks it’s best not to explain. Toge had made it clear that sorcerers were a secret lot and often went out of their way to keep their identities and activities hidden from ordinary people. 

They eventually say goodbye to Rika, watching her head back home for the night before the two of them turn for Yuuta’s house. When they arrive, his mom plies them with hot chocolate that they take back to Yuuta’s room, both boys changing out of their damp snow-fight clothes and back into warm pajamas. 

They end up side by side on Yuuta’s bed again, sipping their drinks, Toge’s notepad between them. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Yuuta asks, still concerned. Toge was supposed to be resting his throat and he worries his friend might have strained himself again saving Rika. 

“Salmon,” Toge says, eyes crinkling a little as he smiles. Yuuta thinks he sounds a little croaky  but he’s in good spirits so Yuuta lets it go, taking a look at his bedside table to make sure there’s plenty of throat syrup for later. 

“Will you get in trouble?” Toge tilts his head at him and Yuuta elaborates. “For using your power that way? There wasn’t any curse…”

Toge huffs and then gives him a mischievous look, writing down his words. I won’t tell if you won’t. 

Yuuta grins into his hot chocolate. 

“Your secret’s safe with me.”

Late that night, he and Toge are watching a movie in his room, when there’s a soft knock at the door. Toge grabs his nearby scarf, wrapping it over his mouth as Yuuta opens the door to reveal his little sister, Aika, standing in the doorway with messy pigtails and rumpled pink pajamas.

“What are you doing up?” Yuuta asks in surprise. It’s close to midnight and Aika’s bedtime was hours ago.  

“There’s a monster under my bed,” she says, a bit petulantly, as if Yuuta should know this by now. “I can’t sleep, it’s too creepy.” 

Yuuta sighs. Aika’s complained about a monster under her bed for about a year now and they’ve tried all sorts of things to help her be comfortable at night - leaving her door cracked, adding a nightlight to her room, cleaning everything out from underneath her bed - but nothing has worked. Yuuta’s never seen anything strange in her room and Aika, herself, says she can’t see the monster, she can feel it, like a prickle at the back of her neck. Most of the time, if Aika refuses to sleep in her room, she’ll just jump into bed with their parents. It’s rare for her to come to him about it. 

“Come on, I’ll go back with you, we can turn on all the lights‒” 

“Yuuta.”

Toge’s soft voice interrupts him and Yuuta turns to find the other boy sliding out of the bed, fingers still resting in his scarf. He’s looking at Yuuta intently, eyes then flicking to Aika, and Yuuta abruptly understands. His teeth click together and he and Aika follow Toge, both of them wide-eyed and curious as he walks down the hall to Aika’s room. 

“It‒It’s under the bed,” Aika repeats, pointing. She won’t step into the room past the doorway and when she moves to flip on the light, Toge makes a negative noise and she stops mid-movement.

“Bonito flakes.”

“Huh?”

Toge goes to stand right by Aika’s bed and motions to Yuuta, who moves closer. Toge points at Yuuta’s eyes and then down at the space between the bed and the floor. 

“You want me to look?” Yuuta guesses. Toge nods. 

Feeling a little nervous, Yuuta gets down on his knees and hunches over, fully expecting to see nothing just like every other‒

“Ah!” Yuuta nearly brains himself on the metal bed frame, horrified by the many-eyed centipede-like creature that is slowly crawling on the bottom of the frame, upside down. It moves sinuously, its many tiny legs making eerie clicking noises as it shuffles around. A multitude of eyes blink randomly, making Yuuta sick to his stomach. He shuffles back, enough to look up at Toge. “I see it now. It’s under there.”

Aika makes a scared sound at the door but Toge nods calmly and touches his shoulder, silently asking him to move out of the way. Yuuta scrambles to the side, not sure why he’s so shocked. He had seen that curse in the park, too, but also when he had looked in Aika’s room before there had never been anything amiss. Is it because he met Toge that he can see them now? 

It feels…comforting, somehow, to share this ability. 

Toge gets down on his knees, pulling on his scarf to bare his sigils again, laying his head on the floor. Yuuta bends down awkwardly, too, trying to watch. 

“Shatter,” Toge whispers. 

Cracks immediately spider web over the body of the small curse and it gives a nerve-wracking shriek as it bursts into pieces, crumbling to the carpet like shards of broken glass. Aika’s dresser mirror also cracks across the middle with a loud snap, making all of them jump, but thankfully stays in one piece. Toge looks a little embarrassed at his errant show of power as he sits back up, putting his scarf back in place. 

Under the bed, the curse drifts away like ash. 

“It’s gone now, Aika. Inumaki took care of it,” Yuuta tells her gently, holding his hand out to her. She takes it uncertainly. 

“Are you sure? It's really gone?” she asks, moving a little closer. She looks up at Toge who nods. 

“Salmon.”

Aika snorts. “You talk funny.” She’s watching Toge curiously though, and she’s unafraid when he pokes her square in the middle of her collarbone and tilts his head in question. Yuuta opens his mouth to translate but Aika beats him to it. 

“You want to know if I feel okay now,” she says, sounding a little awed, and grins toothily when he nods again. “I feel lots better! It’s really gone, isn’t it?!” She’s getting excited now, flopping on the floor to peer under her bed even though there’s nothing there for her to see. “I can’t believe it!”

“You should thank Inumaki for helping you, Aika,” Yuuta says indulgently, smiling when his sister bursts to her feet again and throws her arms around Toge’s waist, hugging him tightly. The other boy rocks back on his heels, startled. 

“Thank you so much, Inumaki!” She tilts her little face up, still squeezing him, eyes practically sparkling. “You’re the bestest friend ever!”

Toge’s face goes beet red and Yuuta has to laugh, swooping in to save him. 

“Alright, go to bed now, Aika, before Mom and Dad figure out you’re still awake.”

They say goodnight to Aika - the little girl still giddy with relief - and head back to Yuuta’s room to finish their movie. Yuuta gallantly gives Toge the last of the popcorn as they get comfortable under the blankets again. 

“For the bestest friend ever,” he says, fondly. 

Toge puffs out his cheeks grumpily. 

“Yuuuuuuuta.”

It couldn’t last, of course. 

Yuuta knew it wouldn’t. After all, Toge didn’t belong there. He was from a whole different sort of world than Yuuta and his life was in Tokyo. He’d just hoped they’d have a little more time together. The other boy was so different from anything he’d ever known and Yuuta felt more alive when he was around him, as if life was an adventure when Toge was near. He didn’t want to lose that. He didn’t want to lose Toge. 

It happens around four o’clock in the morning. Toge wakes him with a gentle shake of his shoulder. 

Yuuta groans softly, blinking his eyes open. They’d only fallen asleep a few hours ago. “Inumaki? What is it?” he mumbles, half asleep. Then he realizes that Toge is dressed in his blood splattered uniform again and Yuuta feels his blood go cold. 

“No,” he whispers, despite himself. Toge gives him a gentle look. 

“Salmon.” Toge goes over to the window and points. “Tuna tuna.”

Yuuta gets up and stumbles over to join him, squinting to see against the lights of the city. There, a few miles away, is a large dome. It’s dark in color and sits there silently, taller than the buildings around it, this foreign thing in the night. It gives Yuuta chills. 

“Is that… Does that mean other sorcerers are there?” he asks quietly. Toge watches him, nodding slowly. Yuuta turns his head to meet his gaze. “You’re saying you have to go now.”

Toge’s expression is kind, compassionate. He steps away to grab the small notepad they’ve been using. 

Thank you for helping me. No one’s ever really cared what happened to me before. You’re a good person.

Toge turns the notepad so he can read it and Yuuta finds himself tearing up. No. This is happening too fast, he’s not ready. He can’t.

“Wait, Inumaki, you‒” He breaks off as Toge lifts his hand, extending his pinky to Yuuta. When Yuuta just stares at him, Toge gives a little huff and reaches down to catch Yuuta’s pinky with his own, connecting them.  

“Oh,” Yuuta breathes, a lump in his throat. “A promise?”

“Salmon,” Toge murmurs. His lavender eyes look gray in the darkness. “Tuna mayo.”

It takes a moment and then Yuuta exhales shakily. “You’ll come back to see me?”

“Salmon salmon.”

Yuuta rubs his free arm across his eyes, clumsily smearing away tears. “Okay,” he agrees, struggling to find a smile for his friend. “We’ll see each other again. It’s a promise.” Yuuta’s eyes catch on the blue discarded scarf he’d let Toge borrow and he drops Toge’s hand to grab it. “Here, take this with you.”

Toge stands patiently as Yuuta wraps it around his neck, making sure it covers his markings. Then Yuuta has to stand by and watch as Toge lifts up the window sash, the cold wind of winter blowing into the room as he perches on the sill. His friend looks back only once, eyes crinkling with a hidden smile. 

“Mustard leaf, Yuuta.”

And then he’s gone into the drift-blown snow and icy dark, headed back somewhere Yuuta cannot reach where he fights terrible monsters with just words and bleeds alone. And Yuuta can only wait. Toge had promised. 

It takes him a long time to close the window. 

After Toge leaves, Yuuta’s gloomy for a long time afterwards. 

Rika and his family don’t really understand it and it’s hard for Yuuta to explain without revealing how amazing Inumaki is. For Yuuta, it’s like he glimpsed a different life, a better one, where he had a best friend he shared secret code words with, and maybe he could do something with his ability to see curses. Maybe he could help people, maybe he could help Inumaki, maybe he could matter. 

“You’re acting like he died,” Rika says, perplexed. “Didn’t he just go back to Tokyo?”

And she’s not wrong. He’s definitely sad and mopey, grieving for a something he can’t even put a name to. He goes through the motions, of course - keeps up his grades and runs tracks and visits Rika - but his heart isn’t in it. He’s full of could haves and might have beens and they hurt, an ever present ache that keeps him awake at night, the circles under his eyes growing darker by the day. 

There’s a tiny consolation in that Toge didn’t take his notepad. Yuuta flips through it often, chuckling a little at some of their conversations. Despite his inability to speak freely aloud, Toge has a lot to say and he’s good at communicating in the ways that he can. It’s nice to have a reminder of his friend that he can still touch. 

Time, though, is a great healer. 

As the weeks pass, things slowly go back to normal, as they do. School work takes over and the weather slowly turns from winter to spring. The snow melts and the grass in the neighborhood park turns green again. Yuuta’s birthday passes and he turns fourteen. The world keeps spinning and Yuuta keeps going forward. 

Until three weeks later, at the start of April, when there’s a quiet knocking at his window. 

It’s late, Yuuta’s parents have gone to bed, and for a moment he freezes, heart in his throat, before he realizes. He runs to the window and throws back the curtains, revealing Toge standing outside. The other boy raises his hand in a little wave and Yuuta can’t get the window open fast enough. 

“Inumaki!”

“Kelp, Yuuta!” Toge exclaims, stepping through the window, his foot barely hitting Yuuta’s carpet before he’s being hugged within an inch of his life. 

Normally, Yuuta thinks, he wouldn’t be brave enough to do this, but as Inumaki’s arms come up to hug him back gently, it just feels right. He’s overwhelmed with relief and just pure happiness . Toge’s here and he seems to be in one piece. He kept his promise. 

Yuuta could cry. 

“What are you doing here?!” Yuuta asks, stepping back to look at his friend properly. Toge’s pale hair is still wild and pushed back from his face but he’s not wearing any face covering this time, sigils on display, the collar to his black school uniform unzipped. 

Toge, it turns out, is on a training ‘mission’ in Yuuta’s city and got permission to come visit before he must return to Tokyo in the morning. Yuuta’s spirits are a bit dampened to learn they only have one night but he’ll take what he can get. 

They stay up for hours, pressed together on Yuuta’s bed, going over everything that has happened since they’ve last seen each other. Toge’s still in training, working on his voice technique and only allowed to fight small curses with supervision. He’d gotten in a lot of trouble for ditching his chaperone last time so he was under orders to play by the book. 

It’s a glorious night. Yuuta feels alive again in a way he’d almost forgotten about, cheeks flushed and eyes bright as Toge scrawls on his notepad and uses their code words to tell him everything he’d missed in the months they’d been apart. 

He falls asleep just before sunrise and by the time he wakes up, Toge is gone again. There’s a simple note waiting for Yuuta on the notepad. 

Till next time, Yuuta. 

It’s strange but this time Toge’s departure energizes him. Toge will come back, he knows that for sure now. Yuuta throws himself into school and sports, making friends with some of his club mates. He also starts taking JSL classes that summer. Notes and code words are fine but Yuuta wants to be able to understand Toge on his level. 

Years pass this way.

Toge stops in whenever he’s in town, usually in the dead of night, a soft knocking at the window announcing his presence. Yuuta practices his sign language on him, Toge laughing his breathy, sweet laugh as he gets some of the fingerings horribly wrong. They talk about everything and anything, catching up on each other’s lives, discussing shows they’ve been watching or books they’re reading. They play video games till the wee hours of the morning and then curl up together in Yuuta’s bed, too tired to put out the extra futon. 

Yuuta always wakes alone. 

Sometimes the timing is right that Toge can stay long enough to see Rika or wave to Aika, whom Yuuta has sworn to secrecy about Toge’s nighttime visits in return for not telling their parents that she failed her last two math tests, but most evenings he only has enough time to see Yuuta.

Yuuta’s not complaining though. Over all their stolen moments, Toge has become his best friend, the one he tells all his secrets to, who comforts him just by showing up. He understands that Toge’s life is more dangerous than his, fraught with dangers and monsters in the night that most teens their age never have to contend with. Toge doesn’t belong just to him, but to all those out there that he protects, unseen.

He’s sharply reminded about this the year he turns sixteen.

As always, the soft knocking at his window gives him a rush of adrenaline, his spirits already lifting as he hurries to the window, pushing back the curtains and lifting the window to‒

Toge half falls through the window, Yuuta scrambling to catch him and lower his body to the carpet. There’s blood around his mouth, staining his pale skin, and the right side of his face is black and blue, his right eyelid mostly swollen closed. 

Yuuta’s heart clenches. 

“Inumaki, what happened?!” His hands hover over Toge’s body, unsure of where he can safely touch him. “What can I do?”

Toge makes the sign for water, his fingers shaking and feeble, and Yuuta takes off like a shot, running to the kitchen for a glass of water. When he returns, he helps Toge sit up a bit in order to drink it. Yuuta still keeps throat syrup for Toge, too, and gives him some of that as well. This time, though, it’s not Toge’s throat that worries Yuuta, but the other physical injuries he seems to have. It looks like his friend was savagely beaten. 

Yuuta wipes away the blood from Toge’s face with a discarded towel, trying to be as careful as possible. 

Curse, Toge signs, once he’s taken a breath or two. Big one. I can’t stay long. 

Yuuta watches him worriedly. “What do you mean? Surely you can’t fight like this? You’re hurt!”

Toge gives him a sad little smile. I’m used to it. He coughs, blood staining his lips again, and Yuuta pats away the red with his towel, gritting his teeth. It shouldn’t be like this. Toge’s just a teenager! It’s not fair that he’s out there, risking his life, bleeding, while Yuuta plays games and eats dinner with his family, safe and sound. It’s not fair. 

Toge’s getting to his feet, swaying a little where he stands until Yuuta reaches out to steady him, standing up with him. 

I shouldn’t have let it go this far, Toge signs. He looks exhausted now, staring at Yuuta with his one unbruised eye. I was selfish. 

Yuuta frowns. He doesn’t like where this is going. “What do you mean?”

There’s that small, sad smile again. I knew it was wrong but I didn’t want to give you up. I wanted you to be here, waiting for me, happy to see me. 

“I…I am here, Inumaki,” Yuuta says, confused. He can feel his anxiety rising. Something’s not right. He reaches out, taking Toge’s hand in his, squeezing his fingers briefly. “I’m always happy to see you, you know that.”

Toge squeezes his hand in return before letting their connection drop and Yuuta’s horrified to see tears in his friend’s violet eyes.  

I thought I could keep you safe but it’s getting more dangerous out there. Toge blinks and tears cascade down his cheeks. You have a good life here, a family that loves you. I can’t be selfish anymore. A sob escapes him, a broken thing that cracks Yuuta’s heart in two. 

He can’t listen. 

Yuuta throws his arms around the other boy, hugging him tightly. He’s grown a little taller than Inumaki, enough that they fit together easily, Toge’s fingers crumbling the material of his shirt as he clings back. 

“Stop it, Toge,” Yuuta orders, voice trembling. He can feel the smaller boy jolt in his arms. It’s the first time he’s ever called Toge by his first name aloud. “You’re the least selfish person I know.” He pulls back a little, just enough to press their foreheads together, trying to embed every word into Toge’s very being. “I do have a good life and you’re a part of that. Please,” he breathes, “please don’t leave me.”

There’s more he should say, more he should confess, about how he thinks about Toge all the time when they’re apart. How he blushes when Aika teases him about the friend he hides in his bedroom. How he thinks Toge’s pretty now, in a way he didn’t when they’d met at thirteen. 

How he’d given Rika’s ring back to her a few months ago, apologizing that he couldn’t share her feelings any longer. Something had grown in him, you see, over the last few years, blooming quietly just beneath his heartbeat, nurtured with every one of Toge’s precious smiles and contagious laughs. Somewhere along the way, Toge had become his most important person, the one thing he wanted for himself. 

But Toge’s hands are moving between them, signing against Yuuta’s chest. 

It’s okay. I know what to do. You’ll be safe now. 

Toge’s fingers slide over his jaw, tangling into dark hair as he tilts Yuuta’s head down to press a soft kiss into Yuuta’s forehead. When he pulls back, he’s smiling through bright tears and dark bruises. 

“Spicy cod roe, Yuuta,” he says, his voice light, warm. Yuuta’s eyes widen, hands tightening on Toge’s shoulders as if to hold him in place, hold him there. 

“Toge, don’t, wait‒”

“ Forget. ”

Chapter Text

It’s raining again. 

Yuuta’s sitting by the window in his room, looking out at the blurry, gray world. He’s found himself in this exact spot a lot lately, just mindlessly staring through the glass. Rika says he’s been more contemplative lately, quieter, but Yuuta doesn’t think so. 

It’s the world that’s gone quiet, not him. 

He’s not sure when it happened but things seem…muffled. There had been more once, hadn’t there? More light, more joy, more warmth? He’s not sure where it went or why he can feel it missing now. Maybe he’s wrong, though, maybe it’s always been this way but he just never noticed before. 

He’s noticing a lot of things this year. 

For example, the park down the street. Yesterday, after school, he started walking home but ended up at the big slide in the park, totally bewildered at how he had gotten there. He’d been thinking about his homework and maybe stopping at the convenience store for a snack on the way home and his feet had just taken him there. There were kids there, too, a little perplexed by why a tall, overgrown seventeen year old boy would be hanging out near the children’s play equipment. Embarrassed, he’d turned on his heel and gone straight home but, thinking back on it, he realized he’d been a little obsessed with that park for awhile now. He’d walked by there several times during the winter, even when it was out of the way and completely deserted, looking for…what?

He doesn’t know. 

“Dinnertime, dummy!” Aika singsongs, sticking her head into his room. 

He turns his head, summoning a smile for her. “Okay, be right there.”

But Aika doesn’t leave, instead she steps into the room, watching him curiously. She’s fourteen now and has exchanged the pig tails for shoulder length hair and an overly rebellious teen attitude. “Is he coming over tonight? I haven’t seen him in awhile.” 

Yuuta’s brows draw together. “Who?”

Aika pauses, blinking at him. “Inumaki, of course. You’re sitting there like you were expecting him so I thought…” She huffs as he continues to look at her in confusion. “No need to be so secretive. I already promised forever ago I wouldn’t say anything.” She flounces from the room, obviously aggravated with him, but he honestly has no idea what she’s talking about. 

He chalks it up to adolescent weirdness and goes to dinner.

His dad chatters on about some sort of company merger that is causing a stir at his office job while his mother nags at Aika to eat something besides meat. 

“I think I may have to go to Tokyo in a few weeks,” his father is saying, glum. “There’s a big meeting with the lawyers to go over the finer details of the contract.”

“For how long?” his mother questions, frowning. Yuuta can see her flipping through her mental calendar. 

“A few days probably,” his father replies, taking a bite of his rice. “I think we should be able to‒”

“Yuuta can go with you!” Aika exclaims, interrupting them. She’s leaning forward in her seat, both hands on the table while their parents look back at her in surprise. Yuuta, too, is looking at her, a piece of fish halfway to his mouth. 

“What?” he asks, bewildered. Why would he want to go to Tokyo?

As is typical, Aika ignores him. “School will be out by then and he can go see his friend while Dad does his meetings.” She says this smugly, as if she’s already decided everything. 

Their mother’s expression eases as a thought occurs to her. “Oh, you’re right.” She turns to Yuuta. “I forgot about your friend - the exchange student, right? Such a nice boy.” She glances at her husband. “Would that be alright, dear? I could have Yuuta pick up a few things for me, too.”

“Of course.” His father smiles at the both of them. “We’ll make a weekend out of it!”

“Great!” Aika says, cheerfully, “Then Yuuta can get out of here for a bit and stop being so depressing.”

Yuuta chokes on his dinner and has to take a drink while his father berates Aika for her comment. His sister is unrepentant though, even when Yuuta questions her as they’re cleaning up the dishes later. 

“Why do you want me to go to Tokyo? You know there’s no‒”

She cuts him off, scrubbing a plate like it’s personally offended her. “Just trust me, big brother,” she says, confidently. “You’ll thank me later.”

Toge doesn’t go by the house anymore. 

He’d tried at first, the first time he was back in Yuuta’s city after…after. It had been too hard though, seeing the cute, little home, light shining warmly from its windows as if to welcome him. He can’t go up to that special window on the back of the house and knock like he used to, expecting to receive Yuuta’s excited face and glowing words. Doing that now would probably get him a frightened look and a call to the police. 

So he doesn’t go by the house anymore. 

He does check in though, when he can. If he’s in the area, he’ll go by Yuuta’s school to get a glimpse of him, dressed in normal, everyday clothes with a medical mask to hide his face. Sometimes, desperate to be close to him, Toge will even follow Yuuta home or to Rika’s house, drinking in the sight of his friend like a sponge. Like he’s doing now.

It’s been a year since Toge erased Yuuta’s memory of him and, though he doesn’t regret it, he does feel guilty. Yuuta is someone he cherishes, his first real friend, and Toge had used his technique on him in a way that Toge never used it on anyone. A way he went to extreme lengths to avoid with his JSL and onigiri code words. The situation they’re in now is Toge’s fault. He should have never let Yuuta look after him that first night, entangling the boy in a world he knew nothing about. Toge should have refused his help and looked after himself. After all, he was used to being alone. 

But Yuuta had been so gentle, so kind - his family so wholesome - that Toge had been undone by it. He’d been blinded by Yuuta’s soft bed - so unlike the dorms - and doing such normal things like playing games and snowball fights and hot chocolate under the blankets. He’d been seduced by Yuuta’s world, like Yuuta had been seduced by his, only Toge was supposed to know better. He wasn’t supposed to want those things.

Toge is weak. 

He still wants, and much more than just a friendly sleepover. 

Over the last year, Toge has checked on Yuuta several times and his friend has grown a lot. At seventeen, he’s tall now, much taller than Toge, with the body and physique of a runner. He wears his hair differently - longer and parted on the side, with dark locks falling into his blue eyes as he looks down at Rika, smiling softly at something she’s saying as they walk home from school together. He looks… grown up, in a way that Toge’s not sure he, himself, does. Yuuta is handsome, still awkward in a sweet way sometimes, but there’s a new found confidence that Toge also finds himself drawn to. 

Feeling his cheeks flush, Toge ruthlessly pushes those thoughts away. It feels wrong to think of his friend like that now, like lusting after a complete stranger. 

Besides, even with his crush, Toge can admit that Yuuta and Rika look like a perfect couple. Rika has grown, too - into a lovely girl with long, brown hair, dark eyes and perfect skin. She’s slender and looks pretty in her school uniform. She’s everything someone like Yuuta could want and Toge imagines they’ll be one of those couples that marry early after graduation, have a few kids and settle into a quiet domestic life that others envy. 

A life Toge was never destined to have. 

He’ll protect it though, for Yuuta. He’s already spent years clearing curses within a mile radius of Yuuta’s school and home, even some he shouldn’t have on his own and he’d borne the wounds for it. He’s sure though that if there are no curses to kill, no sorcerer will stumble upon Yuuta and his incredibly strong cursed energy and try to recruit him. No, Toge will do anything to keep Yuuta safe, and that includes protecting him from other sorcerers. Especially with the latest cracks in the sorcerer world, with Geto and Gojo butting heads and sorcerers everywhere choosing sides. Geto’s fanatical followers have been persistent in trying to lure young sorcerers to his faction - even Toge has been pursued by them, cornered in the streets for a ‘friendly chat’ that definitely felt more like a threat. 

Little do they know that Toge has already chosen his side.

He follows Yuuta and Rika from a distance, hands in his pockets, merely out for a stroll while the two ahead of him make for Rika’s house. Yuuta seems better today, Toge decides. On some of his past visits, Toge had thought Yuuta seemed different - melancholy, maybe - but he’s smiling today and looks happy in the sunlight. It’s a sight that pulls at Toge’s heartstrings. He wishes he could be the one walking with Yuuta in the heat of a summer afternoon, laughing about the latest funny Youtube video he watched. 

Maybe he should stop, he thinks, rubbing the ache in his chest. It’s probably not good for him to keep coming here. He’s only torturing himself with what he can’t have. For Yuuta, it’s been a year without Toge and the other boy seems fine. There doesn’t seem to be any negative side effects from Toge tampering with his memory, though Toge’s sure there’s probably some internal confusion at times. After all, Toge didn’t use his technique on Rika or Yuuta’s family, something he was a little worried about. Still, all seems well from the outside and, really, what did he expect? 

Toge was just a footnote in their lives. Without him, their story goes on much as it had before he ever stepped into it, and probably all the better for his absence. 

Toge slows and then stops near a bus stop, a burning sensation in his throat and eyes as he watches the couple continue on their walk ahead of him. You’ve got to let him go, he tells himself. You’ve made sure he’s safe and he’s happy now. He’s going to be okay. Isn’t that what you wanted?

Yes. Yes, that’s what he wanted, and it’s selfish to wish for more. It’s time for him to grow up, too.

He gets on the bus that’s there, not really caring where it’s going, rubbing his arm across his eyes to smear away the tears. He finds an empty seat quickly, adjusting the mask to make sure his seals are still covered, and turns his head to blindly watch the landscape roll by. 

Every time, he thinks, brokenly. Every time I leave it feels like heartbreak.

So this is the last time. Yuuta deserves to live his life without any ghosts trailing him. Toge will go and focus on his sorcery and helping his fellow students in the war that seems intent on brewing. 

Besides, he thinks dismally, it won’t matter for long anyway. 

Sorcerers tend to have a short shelf life. 

“‒ou listening to me?”

Yuuta startles, realizing his attention had been on a bus going by, its engine loud on the tiny, neighborhood street. He’d felt something watching it, a vague nagging thought, like something on the tip of his tongue. 

“Sorry, Rika,” he says, sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I got distracted for a moment. What were you saying?”

They’re standing in front of Rika’s front door, Rika clasping her school bag and watching him with a hard to read expression. She tilts her head, dark hair falling over one shoulder. 

“What were you thinking about?” she asks, her voice suddenly soft. She doesn’t seem upset with him so he answers her truthfully. 

“I… I don’t know. Lately, I keep thinking that I’m forgetting something. Like I left the tea kettle on when I left this morning, or something like that,” he says, a little embarrassed, “but I can’t remember what it is I’ve forgotten.” He looks away, voice dropping. “It feels important though. It bothers me that I can’t recall whatever it is.”

Rika nods absently but her words are firm, pointed. “I’ve been thinking about this. Do you recall an exchange student from Tokyo that visited a few years ago? Saved me from almost being hit by a car?”

Yuuta’s shocked. “A car?! Why didn’t you tell me? What happened?” He frowns. “I don’t remember an exchange student. Was he in your class?” Come to think of it, his mom had mentioned an exchange student, too…

Something settles on Rika’s face. She sets her bag down and crowds into him, looping her arms around his neck. She’s so close that his heart is rabbiting in his chest, unsure of what’s happening. 

“Rika,” he says, uncertainly, “what are you…”

“You don’t need to worry, Yuuta. Everything’s alright,” she says, easily. Her fingers curve along his neck, sliding into his hair. “I think you just need to get some rest and let me take care of you.” She’s lifting up on her tiptoes, her lips just inches from his and he can feel himself panicking. He feels hot, all of the sudden, and off balance. He can’t catch his breath. This is not… He doesn’t want this, this isn’t… She’s not…

He steps back, trying not to show how much she’s shaken him, and Rika’s arms drop like dead weight. She watches him emotionlessly, silent as stone. She doesn’t really even seem surprised. 

“I… I’m sorry,” he manages, taking another step back again. “I…I guess I’m not feeling well. I’m going to go home.”

He turns and walks away. 

Rika doesn’t call after him and he doesn’t look back, breaking into a run the moment he’s out of her view, gasping for air. He doesn’t understand why she did that. He’d given her ring back over a year ago and he’d thought she’d given up any romantic notions towards him. He’d never expected her to act that way as he’d thought she had come to terms with just being good friends. He’s a little surprised at himself as well. Rika’s body against his, her breath on his face and her hands on his skin - they all felt wrong. He hadn’t thought it would be like that, so blatantly bad that he had to get away as fast as possible. 

Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrong.

He runs the rest of the way home, banging through the front door to go straight to the bathroom and throw up in the toilet. 

As he’s sitting there, leaning over the bowl, sweating and heaving, a cool, small hand rests lightly on top of his head. 

“Yuuta,” Aika says quietly. “What’s going on with you?”

He can’t answer but his sister doesn’t seem to expect one anyway. She gets a washcloth and runs it under the cold water before laying it on the back of his neck. It feels good, calming, and so does the cup of water she gets him so he can rinse out his mouth. He flushes the toilet and sits back, letting her take the cup away, abruptly exhausted. He takes the washcloth from his neck and holds it to the side of his face. 

Surprisingly, Aika gets down on the floor with him, sitting cross legged and watching him expectantly. It takes him a moment. 

“Rika tried to kiss me,” he confesses. 

Aika nods with all the wisdom of her fourteen years. “And you… didn’t like it,” she guesses. He nods solemnly.

“I think there’s something wrong with me.”

To his utter dismay, Aika bursts out laughing so hard she almost topples over. “Oh, there’s definitely something wrong with you,” she wheezes, overcome by the hilarity. Before he can pout at her, she continues, “but it has nothing to do with Rika.” She wipes away a tear, still giggling and, weirdly enough, Yuuta feels himself start to relax. “So you didn’t want to kiss Rika, so what? I wouldn’t want to kiss her, either.” She makes a face. “Nothing wrong with that.”

“But,” he argues feebly, “we’ve been friends so long, she even gave me that ring! I don’t understand why I reacted so…” He trails off and Aika leans forward far enough to pinch him by the cheek. “Ouuuuuch.”

“Maybe you’re just not interested in her specifically,” his sister says, shrugging. “Or maybe you just like boys.” She releases his cheek and pats it fondly, nonplussed by the bomb she just dropped on him. “I like boys, too, you know. It’s okay. Either way, she tried to kiss you and you didn’t want to be kissed. I don’t see the big deal.” 

Is it really so easy? He’d felt so discombobulated afterwards, like he’d fallen into deep water and didn’t know which way was up. Aika makes it all sound so normal.  

“There’s something else,” he says, hesitantly. “Rika mentioned someone, an exchange student. Mom mentioned him, too.”

“But you don’t remember him,” Aika says, knowingly. Yuuta’s eyebrows lift. 

“How did you know?”

“I put it together after some things you said,” she answers. “Does it worry you? That you can’t remember this person?”

“I’m… not sure.” He decides then to come clean. “For a while now, I’ve felt like I’m… looking for something, like if I turn my head fast enough, I’ll see someone out of the corner of my eye. No one’s ever there, of course, and sometimes I feel sad about that, like I’m…I’m grieving something I'm not even aware of.” He sighs, running a hand over his face and hair, frustrated. “I know that probably doesn’t make sense.”

“So you think the student you can’t remember and the thing you are looking for are the same thing?” Aika asks. 

Yuuta shrugs, confused. “Maybe?” He laughs suddenly. “It sounds insane, right?”

Aika smiles. “Not so much as you might think.” She scoots across the floor to sit side by side with him, both of them leaning back against the bathroom wall. She threads her arm through his and allows him to tilt over, resting his head against the top of hers. 

“What should I do?” he mutters. She pats his arm. 

“You should go to Tokyo.”

He huffs, breath ruffling her hair. “Why?”

“Maybe you’ll finally find the thing you’re looking for,” she answers, primly, and then grins. “Or maybe it’ll find you.”

School breaks for the summer and, a day before the Tokyo trip, Rika stops by to see him. They hadn’t talked much after the almost-kiss and it’s a little awkward as they sit out on the front steps together, the summer sun falling on their shoulders, the cicadas singing in the trees. Rika’s wearing a cute sundress, a purse slung over her shoulder. She plays with the strap as he sits there, struggling to know what to say. 

Yuuta swears he can feel Aika peeping on them from the window. 

“So, how have you been feeling?” Rika asks after a long moment. Her smile is sweet, kind, the one he remembers from when they were children together. It comforts him. 

“Better,” he admits. Talking with his sister had really helped, even though now he’s tasked with bringing her back a million things from Tokyo as payment for her services. “I…I think I just need to work through some things.”

Rika nods. She takes a breath. “I’m sorry about…the other day,” she says, red in the face. “You told me you didn’t feel that way about me but I thought, maybe, things had changed after…” She trails off, leaving the thought unfinished. 

“I’m sorry,” Yuuta offers quietly. “You’re one of my best friends and I love you a lot, I just…”

“You’re not in love with me,” she finishes with a self-deprecating smile. Yuuta nods slowly. Rika hums. “I suppose I knew that, I just didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t compete with a literal superhero.”

Yuta blinks at her. “Huh?”

She laughs lightly and stands up, Yuuta following in her wake, dusting off his jeans. “You’ll tell me how it all turns out in Tokyo, right?”

“Sure? I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be that interesting?” Besides running his mother and sister’s errands, he’ll probably just be hanging around the hotel while his father attends meetings and goes drinking with his work buddies. If he’s lucky, he might be able to try some good restaurants or see a few tourist attractions. 

“You might be surprised,” Rika says, encouragingly. “Call me when you get home, ok? I want to hear all about your trip.” She waves, heading down the sidewalk, shoes clicking on the concrete, and Yuuta smiles. 

They’re going to be alright. 

The next day, Inumaki Toge stops at a convenience store for throat medicine. 

He’d just finished exorcising a huge swarm of tiny locust-like curses in an old warehouse. It had been more difficult than normal. After the main portion of the swarm went down, some little groups split off and he was forced to hunt them all down over the three story building, using his technique much more than he had anticipated. 

He’d sent Ijichi back to the school without him, wanting to stop for some medicine and take a walk to clear his head. Maybe not the best idea as it’s been a long week and this latest mission has exhausted him. Between his studies, missions, and avoiding the growing numbers of Geto’s curse users in the city, Toge’s worn down, but he doesn’t really want to go back to the dorms yet either. Having even a small break from the everyday chaos is a temptation he can’t ignore. 

So he sits on a bench outside the store, pulling down his collar a bit to take a large gulp of the throat syrup and people watch for a bit. Twilight is falling, the city coming alive with lights and people as commuters make their way home and others head out to start their Friday night. 

When he feels a little better, he gets up and heads down the street, wondering if maybe he should pick up dinner before he goes back. Of the other second year students, he’s the best cook and he doesn’t relish the thought of having to come up with a meal for everyone tonight. 

He looks for a likely place as he walks, losing himself in the sidewalk crowds, half listening to stranger’s conversations, letting them wash over him as if he’s somehow a part of their stories and not a lone, young man far removed from their everyday comings and goings. It’s nice, even if it’s an illusion. 

As he walks, he realizes that something is slowly weighing on him. He doesn’t notice it at first but as time passes it becomes heavier, pressing in on him. Concerned, he looks around, wondering if Gojo is nearby. The cursed energy has to be strong for him to feel it like this and not actually see the sorcerer. 

It could also be Geto, Toge thinks, unhappily. 

Either way, he feels duty bound to check it out. He leans into the pressure, following it as it grows larger and more powerful until he feels the need to reach up and check the zipper on his collar, in case he needs to quickly defend himself. 

He’s standing on a street corner, eyeing the surrounding buildings, when Okkotsu Yuuta steps out of a nearby bookstore. 

It’s so unexpected, so abrupt, that the sight of him takes Toge’s breath away, one hand coming up to grip the front of his uniform over his rapidly beating heart. He drinks in the vision of his childhood friend like a man dying of thirst. It’s been only weeks since he last saw him but, somehow, it also seems like ages. Yuuta’s gloriously handsome - tall, broad shouldered, wearing dark jeans, a simple white t-shirt that shows off his arms, and holding a shopping bag from the store he’d just exited. 

Dark hair falls into Yuuta’s face, ruffled by the evening breeze, and Toge stops breathing altogether when Yuuta’s navy eyes lift to meet his. 

The curse on Yuuta is his and so he feels the moment it falls apart. 

Yuuta staggers and Toge can see it in his friend’s face, their meeting on the street like this much too strong for a word Toge had painfully uttered when he was sixteen. It had probably been chipped at over the last year, slowly eroded, barely holding on by a fragile thread, and now fails with just a look. 

Yuuta remembers. 

The moment he notices the silver-haired boy on the street, an old and leaky dam in Yuuta’s mind breaks. 

He’s immediately flooded with a rush of memories, each one golden and precious in the mind of the child he had been. He staggers under the weight of them, a bolt of pain lancing through his head. Toge killing Aika’s monster, snowball fights with Rika, his sweet, breathy laughter, a notepad with all the words he couldn’t say aloud, their linked pinkies - Till next time, Yuuta - hot chocolate and knocks at the window and giggles under the blankets andandand

“Yuuta.”

Toge’s voice is like a caress right to his soul. The sound of it is so dear, so cherished, that it cuts through the deluge in his head and the memories click into place like puzzle pieces. He’s left with the sum total of his life - no more holes - and all of it leads right back to the lovely boy in front of him. 

Yuuta feels himself tear up. Toge’s so pretty now it hurts. His pale hair is longer, feathering into those soft lavender eyes that Yuuta has admired for so long. He’s shorter than Yuuta, slender and toned, half of his face covered in a zippered collar that looks to hide his sigils. Just seeing him standing there, alive and whole and real‒

Yuuta’s voice breaks. “Toge.”

He drops the shopping bag and runs. 

Toge reaches for him as he nears and they slam together right there on the sidewalk, Yuuta’s arm going around the other boy so hard that Toge makes a warbling sound in his ear and hangs on for dear life, his arms going tight around Yuuta’s neck. Yuuta bends down for the height difference, burying his face in Toge’s neck, breathing in the other boy’s windy scent. Toge is shaking against him, fingers clenched in Yuuta’s t-shirt. One of Yuuta’s hands slides up Toge’s back to his neck, the other still around his waist as he presses the boy even closer to him. And it’s still not close enough, not for Yuuta.

“You made me forget,” he cries into Toge’s collar. “I forgot you, Toge. I’m so sorry.” He leans back to look down into Toge’s teary face as Yuuta’s hands smooth frantically over Toge’s hair, unable to hold still or stop touching him for an instant. His touch forces the collar down further on the other’s boy’s neck, exposing Toge’s seals, but neither of them are aware enough to care. “Why… Why did you…?”

Crushed as he is against Yuuta’s chest, Toge can’t sign properly and he’s left with only their safe words. 

“Mustard leaf, Yuuta,” he says, desperately, fingers tangling in Yuuta’s hair as if to hold on to him. There are tears in his pale, delicate lashes. “Tuna mayo.”

Yuuta closes his eyes, pressing his forehead against Toge’s, overwhelmed with the pure and fierce love he has for the boy in his arms. It's all encompassing, a tide held back by a single word, now let loose to fill every crevice inside him. Of course Toge had done it to protect him. He remembers his friend’s black and blue face that day, how he’d smiled and told Yuuta he could fix everything. He shakes Toge by the shoulders a little, aggressive in his need to make him understand. 

“Never leave me again,” Yuuta says urgently against Toge’s temple, nuzzling his nose into the sorcerer’s hair. “Promise me.”

“Salmon,” Toge whispers and then, somehow, Yuuta shifts one way and Toge the other and they’re kissing recklessly right there in the street, teeth clacking together with how determined they are to swallow the other whole. Gone are any thoughts of the gentle, chaste kisses between boyhood friends for the first time. Yuuta’s only desire is to devour Toge, ravenous for him in a way he’s never felt for anyone else ever. He sucks Toge’s tongue and lays siege to the other boy’s mouth like it’s a battlefield he’s destined to conquer. In return, Toge makes the most delicious sounds - breathy moans and needy whines - and hands threading through Yuuta’s hair, scratching his scalp in a way that feels so good Yuuta’s half hard in his pants. 

“Yuuta,” Toge says his name sweetly, hungrily, between frenzied kisses, “Yuuta.”

Logically, Yuuta knows they should slow down, that what they’re doing now is new for them, that there are words that need to be understood between the two of them. There’s so much he wants to tell Toge, things he didn’t get to say a year ago and then couldn’t say, even if he had remembered. 

But Yuuta literally cannot stop. Every kiss, every slick slide of their tongues, heightens his need to be close. Every touch, every heated breath, sets his nerves on fire. He wants Toge in every way possible, in whatever way Toge will allow. 

And they really need to get off the street. 

“Can we…?” Yuuta gasps desperately into Toge’s mouth. “Can I…?”

“Salmon,” Toge rasps. 

Yuuta takes them back to the hotel he and his father are staying at. It’s thankfully only a few blocks away and his father is out, probably not returning until the wee hours of the morning after a night celebrating the company merger. They’ve got time. 

The moment the hotel door closes, their desperation simmers a little, slowing just enough for Yuuta to look down into Toge’s face, hands cupping his jaw while his thumbs move over the stark seals around his mouth. 

“I’ve missed you so much,” he breathes. He watches, transfixed, as Toge blushes prettily. “Every day, even when I didn’t know it was you I was missing.”

Toge mewls, lifting up on his toes to lick softly into Yuuta’s mouth. Yuuta moans into the kiss, fingers smoothing down over Toge’s shoulders to the buttons on his uniform. He peels off Toge’s jacket as they move backwards towards the bed, laughing lowly when Toge’s arm gets stuck in one of the sleeves. Their movements are awkward, unpracticed, but Toge’s bashful smile is everything. 

Yuuta’s shirt is simpler - he pulls it over his head in one motion, throwing it to the side, shivering as Toge’s hands immediately slide over the planes of his bared chest, exploring the newly exposed skin. 

Yuuta’s hands rest on the dip of Toge’s hips. “Toge, I want…” He’s not exactly sure how to say it, there’s so much he wants - a year’s worth. He presses his hand into the small of Toge’s back, pulling the smaller boy closer until he can feel Toge against him, his erection hard along Yuuta’s thigh. 

Toge’s violet eyes are hazy, pink lips parted as he breathes. His fingers tremble when he signs. I want you, too. I want this. Please. Yuuta.

There’s nothing Yuuta would not do for Toge. 

They shuck their remaining clothes with quick, ungraceful movements, Yuuta tripping over the legs of his jeans. They fall together into the bed, Yuuta on his elbows over Toge’s slim body, struck dumb by the way the boy looks underneath him. Toge’s silver hair is splayed across the pillow like spilled starlight in the dim room, a pink, tattooed tongue dipping across his plush, bottom lip. There’s color high on his porcelain cheeks and he looks… 

Yuuta’s breath catches. 

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs, his chest tight. “I almost can’t believe you’re real.”

I’m here, Toge signs, cradling Yuuta’s body between his legs. His fingers slide up into ink black hair and Yuuta can’t help but dip down, capturing Toge’s spit-slick lips. This kiss is slower, deeper, than their earlier, frantic fumblings. Yuuta’s hips move automatically, rubbing a little against Toge’s core, heat building between them. Everything feels so good that Yuuta’s mind is a little fuzzy around the edges. He should be more hesitant about this, right? Just a hint of a kiss from Rika had sent him into a spiral, so why isn’t he panicking at being naked in bed with Toge? Why does everything just feel so right? 

Yuuta reaches down between them to grip Toge’s length, breaking the kiss so he can see what he’s doing, admiring Toge’s cock. He palms it, fingers curving around its warm weight, and Toge whimpers, the sound going straight to Yuuta’s dick. 

He wants everything. 

There’s some fumbling, of course. Yuuta knows the basics but reality is different than what he had imagined. Toge, the person most important to him, is laid bare against him, vulnerable and trusting him implicitly. He doesn’t seem to have any more knowledge than Yuuta does so they figure out what feels good together. Since neither of them were prepared for this, they’re forced to use a hotel-sized bottle of unscented lotion as lube, Toge dissolving into fits of laughter when Yuuta asks if his throat syrup could also work. The warm, carefree sound makes Yuuta laugh as well, so gloriously happy he might combust. 

Yuuta catalogs every one of Toge’s expressions and vocalizations as he uses his fingers, stretching and massaging Toge’s hole. The other boy’s back arches, little sounds pulled from his throat, the back of one hand over his mouth to muffle his cries. 

By the time Toge’s ready, Yuuta’s so hard he’s not sure he’ll last five minutes. He tries to be gentle, pushing in slowly, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Toge whines at the pressure but his arms are tight around Yuuta’s shoulders, his ankles locked around Yuuta’s waist to keep him close. Yuuta pets down Toge’s sides soothingly, murmuring mindless praise into his skin. 

“You’re incredible, Toge,” Yuuta pants when he’s finally fully seated. “So tight, nngh. Feels amazing.” 

There are tears in the corner of Toge’s eyes that Yuuta kisses away before plundering the other boy’s mouth again in distraction, allowing Toge time to get used to him. When Toge motions it’s safe to move, Yuuta starts small, merely grinding into Toge’s heat, barely there thrusts that have both of them moaning with the sensation. They build into deeper, longer thrusts - one particular angle making Toge go wild, head thrown back as he cries out, baring his perfect throat to Yuuta’s hungry gaze. 

He aims for that one spot, thrusting into it repeatedly until Toge comes between them, pearly white strands smearing over his stomach. Toge’ body tightens dangerously and Yuuta groans with it, on the edge. 

“I’m…close, Toge,” he bites out, straining. 

Toge’s chest heaves, his hands sliding up Yuuta’s shoulders to his neck. 

“Yuuta,” he croons, voice breaking. It triggers a wave of love in Yuuta so strong, he doesn’t know what to do with it but to fuck it into Toge, thrusting hard and fast until he comes, shuddering in Toge’s arms as he empties himself into the smaller boy. He collapses into Toge’s embrace, head on his shoulder as he catches his breath. Toge’s hands run up and down his back slowly, smoothing over Yuuta’s skin in light caresses. 

Eventually, when they can think again, Yuuta pulls away and falls over himself helping Toge recover, cleaning both of them up as much as he can. Neither can bear to be parted for too long though so, instead of showering as they probably should, they remain curled up together, face to face, legs entangled. 

“You okay?” Yuuta whispers, hand resting in the curve of Toge’s neck. “How’s your throat?”

Toge leans his cheek against Yuuta’s palm. I’m okay. You?

Yuuta inhales, thumb brushing the mark near Toge’s mouth. “It feels like I’m dreaming,” he admits, focusing on the silk of Toge’s skin under his fingers. “I spent the last year not knowing what I wanted, feeling like there was someone waiting for me just around the corner if I could just run fast enough.” His eyes lift to meet Toge’s dewy lavender. “And now you’re here.” He smiles slowly, like a sunrise. “If it’s a dream, I don’t want to wake.”

Not a dream, Toge signs, a gentle look on his face. He brushes his fingers over the slope of Yuuta’s jaw. I’m sorry I made you forget. Things are getting more and more dangerous for sorcerers. I couldn’t risk something happening to you because of me.

“If you’re in danger, then you shouldn’t be alone,” Yuuta says, firmly, no hesitation. “I should be by your side.”

Toge nods, a smile curving his lips. We’ve always been better together. He smooths back a lock of Yuuta’s dark hair. And… Toge’s smile turns a little painful.  I don’t think I could let you go again. 

“Then don’t,” Yuuta whispers lowly, leaning forward to kiss Toge’s sweet mouth. When he pulls back again, Toge’s smile has steadied, healing.

He gives Yuuta a sly look so familiar it sends him right back to his childhood bedroom, Toge hatching some plot as they laugh together, carefree and young.

How would you feel about being an exchange student?

Six months later, Toge coughs as he watches the curse disintegrate, searching his pockets for his bottle of throat syrup. He’s standing in the middle of a deserted playground as the curtain falls, revealing a pale winter sky and a setting sun. Toge’s breath mists in the air and he shivers, frowning as his pockets come up empty. At least until strong, warm arms wrap around him from behind, pulling him back snug against a hard chest. He relaxes into the hold, trying to melt into Yuuta’s heat. Toge’s really never been a fan of the cold. 

“Forget your medicine?”

Toge makes a grumbly noise and Yuuta laughs softly in his ear, even as one of his hands slides up to wrap lightly around Toge’s neck. Warmth spreads from Yuuta’s fingers, sinking past Toge’s skin and into his tattered throat. 

He’s gotten much better at this, Toge thinks, in such a short time. Yuuta’s first attempts at healing Toge with RCT had been like getting doused with a firehose. Toge had been dizzy and half punch drunk, full of warm, fuzzy feelings for hours. Yuuta had been apologetic but also highly amused. Toge’s sure Yuuta has video of it somewhere, hidden on his phone. 

When Yuuta’s done, Toge turns in his arms, pressing close to the other boy, gazing up into dark blue eyes. He brushes his fingers over the matching sigils on the taller boy’s face, the markings already fading. He wonders what thirteen year old Yuuta would think of this - are they both superheros now?

“Thank you for letting me borrow them,” Yuuta says, pressing a kiss to Toge’s temple. It had taken Yuuta awhile to understand his technique but copying Toge’s cursed speech is now one of his favorite things, if only because he can now fully indulge in his self-sacrificing behavior of using it before Toge has to. Yuuta’s control is still lacking but they're working on it. 

There’s also the nice perk of Yuuta having to kiss him to copy the technique. 

A deep kiss is not the only way Yuuta can copy but it’s definitely the nicest. 

“Yuuuuuta.” Toge drags out his boyfriend’s name in a whine and blinks wide, lavender eyes at him. I want you, our bed and some hot chocolate. I’m freezing. 

Yuuta goes soft around the eyes, as he always does when Toge brings up something they did together as children, and his hands tighten around Toge’s waist. “Yeah?”

Toge nods, smiling impishly. All of my favorite things. 

Yuuta laughs, the one that makes Toge’s heart flutter and leaves no room for silence. 

“Alright, let’s go,” he murmurs, taking Toge’s hand, long fingers curving around his gently. They head back to the school together, and if Toge pauses to chuck a surprise snowball at the unsuspecting boy next to him along the way, well. 

He learned from the best.