shameless: front
sleepless worm their way into EVERYTHING. this is, as usual, exactly not what anybody asked for and i said i'd write.
but it's part 1 of 2, so please don't shoot me yet. :D *eyes rachel* ;;
☆ミfollows directly from nikaido and senga's first meeting.
Shameless: front
PG; 4350w
*
"Ten minute break!" Takizawa called, clapping twice after fifty-five minutes of class. Or what would have been fifty-five minutes if Senga and Nikaido had arrived on time and not caused a stir when they had finally walked through the door halfway through the lesson. Nobody really seemed up to concentrating today. "Nikaido?" Takizawa added. "Go see if Lost Property has your books. Now."
From his seat near the front of the class, Nikaido hesitated until Tackey gave a mock glare. Nikaido stood up. "Fine," he said. If he ran, maybe he'd make it back before the lesson started again. Turning to the back of the classroom at large, he shouted over the break-time ruckus that was building up: "If you pick on him, you're dead!"
Senga blinked. "Pick on me?" But Nikaido was already out the door.
Fujigaya barely heard the exchange from his seat at the back, swapping an amused glance with Goseki, who in turn smiled over at Kawai. "We'd be terrible senpai if we didn't go welcome the new kid, right?"
"Don't make him cry," Kitayama said absently. Fujigaya ignored him.
"Aren't interested in seeing what the boy might have, Hiromitsu?" Totsuka asked, filling in bits of his homework as the others went to investigate.
Kitayama gave a non-committal hum, gaze skimming over the small crowed gathering at the front of the room. He closed his eyes and pillowed his head on his arms. "I'll catch him later."
*
"Hey, it's Senga Kento, right?"
Senga blinked at the grinning face by his desk. "Hi?"
"Nice to meet you! I'm the Fearless fighter, Tsukada Ryochi!"
"His sacrifice, Kawai Fumito," a second grinning face introduced himself, appearing by Tsukada's shoulder. "By the way, if you need any help I'm your man."
"Okay," Senga said, "thank-"
"Ignore him," a third person interrupted, smirking. "Fumi-kyun couldn't direct you to his own ass on a sunny day."
"Hey! Just because your head's always stuck up yours, Taipi," Kawai sniffed.
'Taipi' grinned at Senga as well. "Fujigaya Taisuke, fighter." He indicated a fourth person: "My partner, Goseki."
"A pleasure," Goseki smiled. "We're Ruthless."
"Ah..." Senga said, wide-eyed. He tried not to let his ears flatten too far down into his waves of brown hair, but it wasn't working.
Fujigaya made a noise of annoyance. "See, Gocchi? I told you not to give the kids our name so early. They don't need to know 'til we fight-it just freaks them out all the time."
Goseki only smiled. "No sense in hiding who you are though. Right, Senga?"
"...right," Senga agreed, one hand raising subconsciously to the name at his neck. He wished the teacher hadn't sent Nikaido away.
"Lesson number two is learning to operate without your other half," Takizawa said, appearing between Fujigaya and Kawai through the wash of students and chatter as if summoned. He was smiling, and suddenly Fujigaya's gaze was fixated. Goseki chuckled, and Senga looked between the three of them in confusion. "After you've been joined it may feel like torture to be apart, but it's important you re-learn how to function independently."
"Boundless are experts at that, right, Sensei?" Fujigaya said. "You and Tsubasa-sensei, operating apart?"
"But they wish they weren't," Kawai added for Senga's benefit.
"Detention," Takizawa told them, deadpan. "Two hours this evening. Both of you."
Senga blinked. Fujigaya looked like he'd been physically struck, so distressed was his face, and Kawai was protesting to the sound of Tsukada and Goseki's laughter.
Amid the mild chaos, it occurred to Senga that he didn't know what Lesson Number One was-though almost regretted saying so aloud.
"Isn't he such a cute young thing?" Takizawa smiled, much to Fujigaya's dismay. "So innocent."
Senga felt he was sweating enough to fill an Olympic-sized pool under all the scrutiny. "Um..."
"The first lesson is absolute trust!" Tsukada beamed, his blond ears standing straight up; Kawai gave Tsukada's earring a fond tug.
"...absolute trust," Senga echoed when Takizawa nodded proudly. "Like... when your friends say the rollercoasters aren't scary, and you believe them and go every time?"
"Not quite, but nice try?" Goseki smiled. The others laughed.
"I like this one," Takizawa announced to nobody in particular before making his way back to his desk at the front of the room. "Okay! Five minutes left, class. Toilet runs now, or forever hold your peace!"
With Takizawa's back turned, Senga withered a little under the force of Fujigaya's sudden glare, tail swishing nervously behind his seat. Goseki grinned- "It was nice to meet you, Senga-kun. Let's get along~♪" -and firmly steered Fujigaya back to their seats.
"He really does have his head up his ass, doesn't he?" Kawai said, leaning on Senga's desk as he watched Ruthless go. "Taipi, I mean."
Senga just looked at Kawai with wide eyes and Tsukada said something about not putting the new kid in a pinch when the door suddenly slammed open. Nikaido stomped back in. "I TOLD YOU GUYS TO LEAVE HIM ALONE."
"Just like you did, Nika?" Kitayama called back, and Nikaido shot him a dirty glare. Kawai laughed.
Senga for his part only realised he was smiling in relief when Takizawa said, "Nikaido? Books?"-and his smile faded somewhat because Nikaido had nothing in his hands.
"I didn't get them," Nikaido said, frank. He crossed his arms. "Senga called me, so I came back."
"I did?" Senga blinked, ears perking back up as Takizawa looked his way again. Kawai cackled some more, and Nikaido frowned.
"You're a natural, Senga!" Tsukada grinned, giving a fist-pump of encouragement. "Most people have to learn!"
"Learn what?" Senga asked.
"Stop confusing him, you guys!" Imperiously, Nikaido dragged a chair up to the side of Senga's desk. "Go away. I'm sharing his stuff."
*
It was late by the time Shameless finally had a moment's peace, dinner and evening training both long over.
"Will you STOP DOING THAT?" Nikaido snapped, coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, hair dripping water from the ends. His tail bristled in irritation where it wasn't still entirely soaked, and Senga giggled.
"But it's fun, Nika~"
"It's really annoying is what it is!" Nikaido told him. "I wish I never said what calling was and how to do it!"
"You don't mean that though?" Senga was sprawled on his bed with a book of manga from Nikaido's shelves. It was the one about pirates, which Senga liked a lot as well. "You wouldn't have explained it to me if you didn't want me to do it, right?"
"I explained it to you so you wouldn't keep doing it accidentally!" Nikaido said, though faltered when all Senga did was grin up at him.
"But, I want Nika with me always."
The colour rose in Nikaido's cheeks. "Then come to the bathroom with me why don't you?" he said, black ears flattening against his head.
Senga hummed, rolling over atop the sheets. "But it's totally damp in there," he said. "You should come here instead."
Nikaido made a noise of indignation. "Maybe when I've gotten dressed!" He scowled, tail flicking out, and stormed back into the bathroom. "Moron."
Senga just laughed because obviously, Nikaido was the bigger idiot for thinking clothes were ever necessary rather than optional.
He was a quick learner, though. Kind of.
Or maybe it was just because by the time he came back into their room proper, toweled dry and properly dressed, Senga had tossed his manga aside and was spread-eagled on his bed without a shirt, eyes closed and breathing even.
Nikaido made an unintelligible noise and Senga cracked an eye open. "Hm~? Nika...?"
"What are you doing?" Nikaido demanded, stomping over to his own side of the room.
Senga tilted his head (though it did nothing since he was lying on his back). "Hm?"
"Not cute!" Nikaido flagrantly lied. "Where did your shirt go."
Senga made a vague gesture over the side of the bed. "I get really hot sometimes, so..."
Nikaido scrunched up his face. "Is that where your sweat problem comes from? Great."
"...are you always so grumpy?" Senga asked, looking at Nikaido out of the corner of his eye.
Nikaido frowned, ostentatiously throwing his blankets into a more acceptable level of disarray. "No, I'm not. I just..." he stilled. "I just..."
Senga rolled over to look at Nikaido from the right way up. "Nika?" Almost as if he liked saying Nikaido's name.
Nikaido crossed his arms and looked off to the side with a pout. "It's supposed to be our day, you know? I mean, I didn't even know you this morning and now we're a bond pair, but like I don't even know if you have siblings or whatever or anything because everyone keeps stealing you and getting in my face telling me to be nice to you, but I am being nice to you!"
Senga blinked. Nikaido was glaring now, damp tail puffy and swishing agitatedly from side to side. Slowly a smile grew on Senga's face.
When Nikaido saw it, he scowled. "What!"
Senga just grinned. "So, basically, you want me more already~♪"
Nikaido made another indignant noise, looking for a moment as if he was going to tell Senga to either shut up or not say it like that. But he huffed a breath and squared his jaw instead. "Yeah, and what if I do? We've gotta know each other real well if we're gonna have a chance at beating the older guys anytime like soon. We've gotta get strong."
Senga sat up, tail slowly curling in the sheets behind him. "Really?" he asked, tilting his head with a grin that may have been a smirk on anyone else.
Nikaido looked back at him. "I don't lie," he said, arms stubbornly crossed.
But Senga just held a hand out, undeterred. "I'm sorry people were busy with me all today, but I'm here now, right? We can get to know each other all you want?"
The implicit come here wasn't an order, but Nikaido didn't feel any less inclined to obey, crossing to Senga's bed. Senga slid his arms around Nikaido's neck with a pleased little smile, and they picked up where they'd left off before class earlier that afternoon-with the added bonus of Nikaido being very determined to kiss the self-satisfaction from Senga's face.
Innocent if not exactly cautious, Nikaido held his hands in tight fists against Senga's bare back. He wasn't really sure where to put them with no shirt to hold, and didn't trust himself with anything else while Senga's mouth was moving like that against his own with weird little noises that kicked up butterflies in Nikaido's stomach and made the fur on his tail stand on end right down to the tip.
"Mm... Nika?" Senga said presently, and Nikaido realised that maybe Senga had been saying words. "Hey~"
"What?" Nikaido said gruffly, his voice coming out oddly low.
Senga smiled, his eyes a bright, warm brown. "Mm, I like you, Nika~ I like you."
Nikaido shifted a little and self-consciously pulled his hands back into his lap. "Well," he said, glancing to the side. The colour on his cheeks wasn't just from Senga's lips. "So you should. Since we're bonded and stuff."
Senga laughed. "No, I like Nika best~" he said, and grinned even more when that got Nikaido glaring all over again.
"What do you even mean by that?" Nikaido demanded, and then another thought set his eyes blazing even more. His fists tightened. "Where the hell did you learn to kiss so good anyway!"
"Nika thinks I'm good?" Senga grinned, but his guileless expression didn't really cut it, especially not with his lower lip still slick and red. "Well, I..." Senga tucked his legs up under his chin. "At my old school, my senpai were all really nice to me..."
"I bet they were," Nikaido growled, glaring at the bedspread.
Senga stilled, regarding him for a long moment from over his knees. "Why are you so angry, Nika?" he asked eventually.
"...you know why," Nikaido told him tersely and sat back, cross-legged.
Senga's smile crept back to the corners of his mouth at that. "Well... maybe. But what if I want to hear you say it? Is that okay...?"
Nikaido folded his arms, turning now to glare at the wall. "Moron. It's not that. Just don't... tell me about your stupid senpai or anything anymore, okay? I don't want to know!" He turned back to Senga with eyes that were more decided, but no less unhappy.
"Mm~?" Senga hummed, and leaned forward to draw his fingers across Nikaido's stomach. "They taught me good stuff, though?"
"I don't want what they taught you!" Nikaido snapped, fighting the flush on his face with the vehemence in his voice. He slapped Senga's hand away. "I just want you!"
Senga froze, and Nikaido shut his mouth with a snap. But he didn't retract what he'd said, nor did the anger in his eyes back down from the curiosity in Senga's own.
"...I was waiting, you know," he said. "All this time. For you."
And Senga smiled again-a different smile. The brilliance of it stole Nikaido's breath away. "I love you, Nika~"
"...you can't," Nikaido muttered, cursing his own stupid embarrassment. "You just got here today."
"Can I want you, then?" Senga grinned, leaning forward. "I want you, Nika~"
"Moron," Nikaido muttered again as Senga reached out, but closed his eyes when he felt Senga's fingers slide along his jaw. "You've had me since forever."
He felt Senga's smile more than anything-in his heart, and when Senga kissed him again.
Senga's lips moved softly this time, strangely. Not at all insistent, but in a way that drew Nikaido in and made him feel aware of all the little things, like the smoothness of Senga's lips, the warmth of his skin, and the strength of the muscle beneath it.
Distantly, Nikaido realised he was the one making the weird little noises this time, unable to help it. He could feel everything Senga was doing as if all his nerves were fired up at once and focused on his sacrifice.
A knock at the door made Nikaido jerk back in surprise. Senga blinked at him and licked his lips, his tail swishing calmly.
"Go the hell away!" Nikaido called over at whoever wanted to visit, irritated. The world needed to just leave them alone.
But the door opened regardless. "Tcht. Where are your manners, Nikaido?" came a too-familiar voice. "What if it'd been Takizawa-sensei?"
"Like hell it would've been Tackey-sensei!" Nikaido groused. He slouched against the wall, glaring at the intruder. "He's busy at night. Go away, Micchan."
"'Micchan'?" Senga blinked, smiling. "Hi!"
"Kitayama Hiromitsu," Kitayama grinned, easily ignoring the way Senga had no shirt on, and held up two bowls. "I brought you ramen."
As if on cue, Senga's stomach rumbled and he laughed, embarrassed.
"Thanks then, I guess," Nikaido grumbled.
"Not for you, Nika," Kitayama said, depositing one bowl into Senga's outstretched hands and seating himself on the bed across the way with the other.
"Well I didn't ask for any anyway!" Nikaido glared, slouching even further against the wall. "What are you even here for?"
"What are you so against me being here for?" Kitayama chuckled. "I haven't welcomed Senga-kun properly yet."
"Who says you had to!" For a moment, Nikaido debated whether throwing a pillow at Kitayama's face would be worth cleaning ramen off the floor and sheets.
"Why are you being mean, Nika?" Senga asked, glancing over the rim of his own bowl at Nikaido and conveniently missing the superior smirk Kitayama shot Nikaido's way. "Kitayama-kun brought us ramen!"
"He brought you ramen," Nikaido said with a noise of frustration.
"I guess so," Senga said. Shrugging, he shuffled over to lean against the wall beside Nikaido and went back to his bowl. His tail curled up Nikaido's arm, stroking absently.
"What the hell," Nikaido said, staring at the traitorous tip of it, "that's not fair!"
For a short while thereafter, the room featured only Senga's happy, foodful smile; Kitayama's professional slurping; and Nikaido's increasing agitation as he was kept well distracted.
Watching the spectacle, Kitayama chuckled. He put his finished bowl of ramen on the bedside table. "I interrupted your bonding time, I guess," he said, with a too-happy smile Senga's way. "Nika-chan's the impatient type, isn't he?"
Nikaido squawked.
"Man, I know!" Senga grinned, his tail giving Nikaido a little respite. "Super impatient~ and he gets super grouchy about it, too."
"Hey, you were the one who said you wanted-!"
"Patience, Nika-chan, is a highly underrated virtue," Kitayama smirked, reclining on the spare bed.
"So's not being an asshole!" Nikaido told him with feeling. "I don't need a lecture on waiting from you of all people."
"Nika!" Senga said, looking appropriately scandalized around the remainder of his ramen. "Just 'cause he's lost his ears already...!"
"Oh?" Kitayama grinned at Senga's defence. "'Already'...?"
Senga blinked at him. Nikaido rolled his eyes. Kitayama liked this stupid game-mostly because everyone else played it with him too easily.
Rolling onto his side, the Sleepless fighter propped his head up. "How old do you think I am, Senga-kun?"
Senga's tail went still. "Aren't- that is, aren't you... um. Nika." Wide-eyed, he glanced at Nikaido. Kitayama didn't look any much older than either of them, and the way Nikaido had addressed him certainly hadn't indicated any measure of seniority either.
"Che," Nikaido said, "he goes to uni already so it's not like he's a senpai or anything."
"What!" Senga exclaimed, fur spiking. And then his voice dropped to what he seemed to think was an appropriately tempered whisper. "Why didn't you say so!"
"Why?" Nikaido scowled. "It's not like you were gonna be rude."
"Unlike you, right, Nika-chan?" Kitayama teased.
"Aww, man!" Senga wailed softly. "I was gonna ask if I could call him Mitsu and everything."
"It's not like he can't hear you, you moron!" Nikaido said, exasperated.
Kitayama smiled, indulgent. "You can call me Mitsu. I've always wanted a little brother~"
"Can I really?" Senga said, eyes sparkling.
Nikaido exploded.
"Look, seriously, Kitayama, why are you even here?"
"Big brothers are supposed to protect their cute siblings from stray wolves," Kitayama said. "It's a matter of fact."
"Right, right!" Senga agreed. "I'd protect my little brother back home!"
"Aww, you have a real little brother, Ken-chan? Not fair~" Kitayama said with entirely too much coo for Nikaido's comfort.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded, and then of Senga: "Why is he finding out this stuff the same time as me!"
Senga gave an ostentatious pout- "You didn't ask, Nika..." -and Kitayama made condescending noises that made Nikaido want to throw things.
But throwing things would only give him ramen-soupy carpet to clean up, and so Nikaido took a deep breath. And let it out slowly.
He tried another tactic.
"Micchan... please? It's our day."
Amused more than anything by Nikaido's about-face, Kitayama smiled. Still, he could acknowledge that Nikaido had a point. "I suppose you're right. For once." Rising, he stretched. (It was a shame he had to move, since it was obvious nobody wanted to use the bed he currently occupied.) "Your day should be special after all, before it's over."
"Right!" Nikaido declared. "Our day, our special day, so you can just leave us alone and go back and do things with Tottsu."
"Who's Tottsu?" Senga asked.
"His own sacrifice," Nikaido answered with such pointedness that Kitayama had to laugh.
"I get it, I get it," he chuckled. "You're impatient and getting desperate. Ken-chan's quite cute after all, isn't he?"
"That's not for you to say!" Nikaido snapped, at the same time Senga beamed.
"Thanks, Mitsu-nii!"
"No problem," Kitayama grinned over his shoulder before the door clicked shut behind him.
And silence reigned.
"...stupid Kitayama just completely ruined my mood," Nikaido declared sullenly. "I hate it when he does that."
"Often?" Senga guessed.
"No," Nikaido grumbled.
Senga laughed, flopping back against his pillows in a graceful way that failed at being completely unsexy. "I believe you, Nika~"
Nikaido eyed him for a long couple of moments-the easy way he sprawled, comfortable and smiling-and was just about to maybe reach out when the door handle clicked again.
"What the fuck!" Nikaido shouted, turning to lunge, but Senga grabbed him in a bear hug from behind before anybody could be killed.
In the doorway, Kitayama looked unperturbed. "Look after Ken-chan properly okay, Nika?" he said.
"Why the hell does everybody think they have to tell me that!" Nikaido shouted, mollified not at all by Kitayama dimming the lights and flicking the lock this time before he pulled the door shut behind him. "Of course I'm gonna take good care of him, I-" love him.
...Senga was a lot stronger than he looked, Nikaido discovered then, his ears twitching as he tried to squirm out of Senga's grasp, feeling slightly too warm and not a little embarrassed about what he'd nearly let slip.
"Ne, Nika~" Senga said softly, breath tickling the back of Nikaido's neck. "You what...?"
"I nothing," Nikaido told him, squirming some more. He scowled.
"You're the worst liar ever," Senga said happily, and nuzzled Nikaido's nape. "I love you, Nika~ hey, in Spells class today Takizawa-sensei said that saying it makes it true, right?"
"No," Nikaido told him, finally getting to turn around. He poked Senga in the stomach to get oriented, eyes slowly adjusting to the semi-dark.
"He did!" Senga admonished. "I was taking notes, unlike you."
"I don't hafta take notes. You're still wrong," Nikaido said loftily, poking Senga some more. "You don't know the first thing about being a fighter." He ignored the fact that really, Senga didn't have to know about fighters, being a sacrifice, and also the fact it had only been his first day at Seven Voices.
"Then tell me," Senga said, trying to grab Nikaido's hand, but Nikaido evaded him. "What's thing number one?"
Nikaido rolled his eyes. "What makes it real," he said, and poked Senga first in the forehead, then in the chest. "Is when you see it here. And know it here. Then it's already real. For you."
Senga nodded. "So-"
"Speaking it," Nikaido continued, and drew his finger up, up Senga's bare chest to his chin, and tapped twice, "just makes it real for everyone else, too. That's what a spell is."
Senga blinked, suddenly a little less sure of this logic. "...so why don't you-"
"Say it?" Nikaido smirked. "Why should I?" He leaned forward and forward, until Senga leaned back enough to flop against the pillows. Nikaido leaned on his hands, either side of Senga's shoulders. "I don't wanna make you love me. That just defeats the whole purpose!"
Senga frowned. "You're the one that defeats the whole purpose!"
"What kind of comeback is that?" Nikaido scoffed, just to be obnoxious, but then shut his mouth when Senga grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him down so their foreheads thudded. They looked at each other cross-eyed from really close. Sort of. "...ow," Nikaido said.
"Dummy," Senga told him. "I don't wanna make you say it either, you know..."
"Then don't," Nikaido said, oddly soft suddenly, his voice and half-smile mellowing the air between them. After a moment, he wriggled out from Senga's grip, curling up on his side against the wall with a pointed smirk. "Just don't make me say anything at all~♥"
"But..." Senga chewed on his lower lip.
"As a sacrifice, if you know it, then you should believe it," Nikaido recited, his grin softening. The lessons he quoted were things he'd been told a billion times before, but it was all different now that he could actually know them first-hand. "If it's what you really want, then it's my job to make it happen. Even if you don't say it, I'll know it if we're connected. I'll do it."
"...if it's what I really want?" Senga said, staring up at the ceiling. His tail swished slowly, thoughtfully between his legs. "Anything?"
"Mm," Nikaido hummed. "Anything. That's the real first thing about being a fighter."
"Oh," Senga said, though so softly he wasn't sure Nikaido could hear. "Then... I better think of something good."
*
"So?" Totsuka said, muting his silent movie as Kitayama returned to their room.
"They'll live up to their name if nothing else," Kitayama chuckled, not particularly offended by the idea as he stripped down to his t-shirt and boxers. "Cute. Stupid. Not your type."
Totsuka hummed, amused. "No threat to us then, I guess."
"Not in a hundred years," Kitayama agreed, knowing full well neither of them actually worried about things like that. Not that way.
Totsuka smiled, stretching. "Well, good for Nika-chan. He's been boarding since back when he was actually cute."
"Mm~ well, you'd know." Kitayama glanced over his shoulder at the light switch. Night, he ordered, and the room fell to darkness with a soft click, apart from the flicker of the television.
"You're the laziest fighter I've ever known," Totsuka chided mildly. "Our neighbours are going to get sick of your battle frequency spikes sooner or later."
"They can challenge us about it if they care," Kitayama said-and despite everything managed to stub his toe whilst climbing into bed, much to Totsuka's amusement. When the curses subsided, Kitayama's pout was audible. "I wish I'd been here since I was cute."
Totsuka smiled at that and rolled onto his side, looking steadily over the space between them. "Come here, Hiromitsu."
Dutifully, Kitayama obeyed, and ignored the tingles down his spine at the way Totsuka looked up at him in the unsteady light, his eyes dark and never quite describable.
"Show me something else you learned out there in the big, wide world," Totsuka said, his fingers circling lightly around Kitayama's wrist.
Resistance was futile of course, but for a moment Kitayama did consider trying. He braced himself over Totsuka's form and eyed him evenly.
Totsuka tilted his head a little.
"...you know," Kitayama said at last, his threats empty, "one day, I'll have shown you all my tricks and suggestions like this aren't going to make me feel better anymore."
Totsuka smiled, lacing their fingers together. "I'm sure I can think up some other distraction before then."
but it's part 1 of 2, so please don't shoot me yet. :D *eyes rachel* ;;
☆ミfollows directly from nikaido and senga's first meeting.
Shameless: front
PG; 4350w
*
"Ten minute break!" Takizawa called, clapping twice after fifty-five minutes of class. Or what would have been fifty-five minutes if Senga and Nikaido had arrived on time and not caused a stir when they had finally walked through the door halfway through the lesson. Nobody really seemed up to concentrating today. "Nikaido?" Takizawa added. "Go see if Lost Property has your books. Now."
From his seat near the front of the class, Nikaido hesitated until Tackey gave a mock glare. Nikaido stood up. "Fine," he said. If he ran, maybe he'd make it back before the lesson started again. Turning to the back of the classroom at large, he shouted over the break-time ruckus that was building up: "If you pick on him, you're dead!"
Senga blinked. "Pick on me?" But Nikaido was already out the door.
Fujigaya barely heard the exchange from his seat at the back, swapping an amused glance with Goseki, who in turn smiled over at Kawai. "We'd be terrible senpai if we didn't go welcome the new kid, right?"
"Don't make him cry," Kitayama said absently. Fujigaya ignored him.
"Aren't interested in seeing what the boy might have, Hiromitsu?" Totsuka asked, filling in bits of his homework as the others went to investigate.
Kitayama gave a non-committal hum, gaze skimming over the small crowed gathering at the front of the room. He closed his eyes and pillowed his head on his arms. "I'll catch him later."
*
"Hey, it's Senga Kento, right?"
Senga blinked at the grinning face by his desk. "Hi?"
"Nice to meet you! I'm the Fearless fighter, Tsukada Ryochi!"
"His sacrifice, Kawai Fumito," a second grinning face introduced himself, appearing by Tsukada's shoulder. "By the way, if you need any help I'm your man."
"Okay," Senga said, "thank-"
"Ignore him," a third person interrupted, smirking. "Fumi-kyun couldn't direct you to his own ass on a sunny day."
"Hey! Just because your head's always stuck up yours, Taipi," Kawai sniffed.
'Taipi' grinned at Senga as well. "Fujigaya Taisuke, fighter." He indicated a fourth person: "My partner, Goseki."
"A pleasure," Goseki smiled. "We're Ruthless."
"Ah..." Senga said, wide-eyed. He tried not to let his ears flatten too far down into his waves of brown hair, but it wasn't working.
Fujigaya made a noise of annoyance. "See, Gocchi? I told you not to give the kids our name so early. They don't need to know 'til we fight-it just freaks them out all the time."
Goseki only smiled. "No sense in hiding who you are though. Right, Senga?"
"...right," Senga agreed, one hand raising subconsciously to the name at his neck. He wished the teacher hadn't sent Nikaido away.
"Lesson number two is learning to operate without your other half," Takizawa said, appearing between Fujigaya and Kawai through the wash of students and chatter as if summoned. He was smiling, and suddenly Fujigaya's gaze was fixated. Goseki chuckled, and Senga looked between the three of them in confusion. "After you've been joined it may feel like torture to be apart, but it's important you re-learn how to function independently."
"Boundless are experts at that, right, Sensei?" Fujigaya said. "You and Tsubasa-sensei, operating apart?"
"But they wish they weren't," Kawai added for Senga's benefit.
"Detention," Takizawa told them, deadpan. "Two hours this evening. Both of you."
Senga blinked. Fujigaya looked like he'd been physically struck, so distressed was his face, and Kawai was protesting to the sound of Tsukada and Goseki's laughter.
Amid the mild chaos, it occurred to Senga that he didn't know what Lesson Number One was-though almost regretted saying so aloud.
"Isn't he such a cute young thing?" Takizawa smiled, much to Fujigaya's dismay. "So innocent."
Senga felt he was sweating enough to fill an Olympic-sized pool under all the scrutiny. "Um..."
"The first lesson is absolute trust!" Tsukada beamed, his blond ears standing straight up; Kawai gave Tsukada's earring a fond tug.
"...absolute trust," Senga echoed when Takizawa nodded proudly. "Like... when your friends say the rollercoasters aren't scary, and you believe them and go every time?"
"Not quite, but nice try?" Goseki smiled. The others laughed.
"I like this one," Takizawa announced to nobody in particular before making his way back to his desk at the front of the room. "Okay! Five minutes left, class. Toilet runs now, or forever hold your peace!"
With Takizawa's back turned, Senga withered a little under the force of Fujigaya's sudden glare, tail swishing nervously behind his seat. Goseki grinned- "It was nice to meet you, Senga-kun. Let's get along~♪" -and firmly steered Fujigaya back to their seats.
"He really does have his head up his ass, doesn't he?" Kawai said, leaning on Senga's desk as he watched Ruthless go. "Taipi, I mean."
Senga just looked at Kawai with wide eyes and Tsukada said something about not putting the new kid in a pinch when the door suddenly slammed open. Nikaido stomped back in. "I TOLD YOU GUYS TO LEAVE HIM ALONE."
"Just like you did, Nika?" Kitayama called back, and Nikaido shot him a dirty glare. Kawai laughed.
Senga for his part only realised he was smiling in relief when Takizawa said, "Nikaido? Books?"-and his smile faded somewhat because Nikaido had nothing in his hands.
"I didn't get them," Nikaido said, frank. He crossed his arms. "Senga called me, so I came back."
"I did?" Senga blinked, ears perking back up as Takizawa looked his way again. Kawai cackled some more, and Nikaido frowned.
"You're a natural, Senga!" Tsukada grinned, giving a fist-pump of encouragement. "Most people have to learn!"
"Learn what?" Senga asked.
"Stop confusing him, you guys!" Imperiously, Nikaido dragged a chair up to the side of Senga's desk. "Go away. I'm sharing his stuff."
*
It was late by the time Shameless finally had a moment's peace, dinner and evening training both long over.
"Will you STOP DOING THAT?" Nikaido snapped, coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, hair dripping water from the ends. His tail bristled in irritation where it wasn't still entirely soaked, and Senga giggled.
"But it's fun, Nika~"
"It's really annoying is what it is!" Nikaido told him. "I wish I never said what calling was and how to do it!"
"You don't mean that though?" Senga was sprawled on his bed with a book of manga from Nikaido's shelves. It was the one about pirates, which Senga liked a lot as well. "You wouldn't have explained it to me if you didn't want me to do it, right?"
"I explained it to you so you wouldn't keep doing it accidentally!" Nikaido said, though faltered when all Senga did was grin up at him.
"But, I want Nika with me always."
The colour rose in Nikaido's cheeks. "Then come to the bathroom with me why don't you?" he said, black ears flattening against his head.
Senga hummed, rolling over atop the sheets. "But it's totally damp in there," he said. "You should come here instead."
Nikaido made a noise of indignation. "Maybe when I've gotten dressed!" He scowled, tail flicking out, and stormed back into the bathroom. "Moron."
Senga just laughed because obviously, Nikaido was the bigger idiot for thinking clothes were ever necessary rather than optional.
He was a quick learner, though. Kind of.
Or maybe it was just because by the time he came back into their room proper, toweled dry and properly dressed, Senga had tossed his manga aside and was spread-eagled on his bed without a shirt, eyes closed and breathing even.
Nikaido made an unintelligible noise and Senga cracked an eye open. "Hm~? Nika...?"
"What are you doing?" Nikaido demanded, stomping over to his own side of the room.
Senga tilted his head (though it did nothing since he was lying on his back). "Hm?"
"Not cute!" Nikaido flagrantly lied. "Where did your shirt go."
Senga made a vague gesture over the side of the bed. "I get really hot sometimes, so..."
Nikaido scrunched up his face. "Is that where your sweat problem comes from? Great."
"...are you always so grumpy?" Senga asked, looking at Nikaido out of the corner of his eye.
Nikaido frowned, ostentatiously throwing his blankets into a more acceptable level of disarray. "No, I'm not. I just..." he stilled. "I just..."
Senga rolled over to look at Nikaido from the right way up. "Nika?" Almost as if he liked saying Nikaido's name.
Nikaido crossed his arms and looked off to the side with a pout. "It's supposed to be our day, you know? I mean, I didn't even know you this morning and now we're a bond pair, but like I don't even know if you have siblings or whatever or anything because everyone keeps stealing you and getting in my face telling me to be nice to you, but I am being nice to you!"
Senga blinked. Nikaido was glaring now, damp tail puffy and swishing agitatedly from side to side. Slowly a smile grew on Senga's face.
When Nikaido saw it, he scowled. "What!"
Senga just grinned. "So, basically, you want me more already~♪"
Nikaido made another indignant noise, looking for a moment as if he was going to tell Senga to either shut up or not say it like that. But he huffed a breath and squared his jaw instead. "Yeah, and what if I do? We've gotta know each other real well if we're gonna have a chance at beating the older guys anytime like soon. We've gotta get strong."
Senga sat up, tail slowly curling in the sheets behind him. "Really?" he asked, tilting his head with a grin that may have been a smirk on anyone else.
Nikaido looked back at him. "I don't lie," he said, arms stubbornly crossed.
But Senga just held a hand out, undeterred. "I'm sorry people were busy with me all today, but I'm here now, right? We can get to know each other all you want?"
The implicit come here wasn't an order, but Nikaido didn't feel any less inclined to obey, crossing to Senga's bed. Senga slid his arms around Nikaido's neck with a pleased little smile, and they picked up where they'd left off before class earlier that afternoon-with the added bonus of Nikaido being very determined to kiss the self-satisfaction from Senga's face.
Innocent if not exactly cautious, Nikaido held his hands in tight fists against Senga's bare back. He wasn't really sure where to put them with no shirt to hold, and didn't trust himself with anything else while Senga's mouth was moving like that against his own with weird little noises that kicked up butterflies in Nikaido's stomach and made the fur on his tail stand on end right down to the tip.
"Mm... Nika?" Senga said presently, and Nikaido realised that maybe Senga had been saying words. "Hey~"
"What?" Nikaido said gruffly, his voice coming out oddly low.
Senga smiled, his eyes a bright, warm brown. "Mm, I like you, Nika~ I like you."
Nikaido shifted a little and self-consciously pulled his hands back into his lap. "Well," he said, glancing to the side. The colour on his cheeks wasn't just from Senga's lips. "So you should. Since we're bonded and stuff."
Senga laughed. "No, I like Nika best~" he said, and grinned even more when that got Nikaido glaring all over again.
"What do you even mean by that?" Nikaido demanded, and then another thought set his eyes blazing even more. His fists tightened. "Where the hell did you learn to kiss so good anyway!"
"Nika thinks I'm good?" Senga grinned, but his guileless expression didn't really cut it, especially not with his lower lip still slick and red. "Well, I..." Senga tucked his legs up under his chin. "At my old school, my senpai were all really nice to me..."
"I bet they were," Nikaido growled, glaring at the bedspread.
Senga stilled, regarding him for a long moment from over his knees. "Why are you so angry, Nika?" he asked eventually.
"...you know why," Nikaido told him tersely and sat back, cross-legged.
Senga's smile crept back to the corners of his mouth at that. "Well... maybe. But what if I want to hear you say it? Is that okay...?"
Nikaido folded his arms, turning now to glare at the wall. "Moron. It's not that. Just don't... tell me about your stupid senpai or anything anymore, okay? I don't want to know!" He turned back to Senga with eyes that were more decided, but no less unhappy.
"Mm~?" Senga hummed, and leaned forward to draw his fingers across Nikaido's stomach. "They taught me good stuff, though?"
"I don't want what they taught you!" Nikaido snapped, fighting the flush on his face with the vehemence in his voice. He slapped Senga's hand away. "I just want you!"
Senga froze, and Nikaido shut his mouth with a snap. But he didn't retract what he'd said, nor did the anger in his eyes back down from the curiosity in Senga's own.
"...I was waiting, you know," he said. "All this time. For you."
And Senga smiled again-a different smile. The brilliance of it stole Nikaido's breath away. "I love you, Nika~"
"...you can't," Nikaido muttered, cursing his own stupid embarrassment. "You just got here today."
"Can I want you, then?" Senga grinned, leaning forward. "I want you, Nika~"
"Moron," Nikaido muttered again as Senga reached out, but closed his eyes when he felt Senga's fingers slide along his jaw. "You've had me since forever."
He felt Senga's smile more than anything-in his heart, and when Senga kissed him again.
Senga's lips moved softly this time, strangely. Not at all insistent, but in a way that drew Nikaido in and made him feel aware of all the little things, like the smoothness of Senga's lips, the warmth of his skin, and the strength of the muscle beneath it.
Distantly, Nikaido realised he was the one making the weird little noises this time, unable to help it. He could feel everything Senga was doing as if all his nerves were fired up at once and focused on his sacrifice.
A knock at the door made Nikaido jerk back in surprise. Senga blinked at him and licked his lips, his tail swishing calmly.
"Go the hell away!" Nikaido called over at whoever wanted to visit, irritated. The world needed to just leave them alone.
But the door opened regardless. "Tcht. Where are your manners, Nikaido?" came a too-familiar voice. "What if it'd been Takizawa-sensei?"
"Like hell it would've been Tackey-sensei!" Nikaido groused. He slouched against the wall, glaring at the intruder. "He's busy at night. Go away, Micchan."
"'Micchan'?" Senga blinked, smiling. "Hi!"
"Kitayama Hiromitsu," Kitayama grinned, easily ignoring the way Senga had no shirt on, and held up two bowls. "I brought you ramen."
As if on cue, Senga's stomach rumbled and he laughed, embarrassed.
"Thanks then, I guess," Nikaido grumbled.
"Not for you, Nika," Kitayama said, depositing one bowl into Senga's outstretched hands and seating himself on the bed across the way with the other.
"Well I didn't ask for any anyway!" Nikaido glared, slouching even further against the wall. "What are you even here for?"
"What are you so against me being here for?" Kitayama chuckled. "I haven't welcomed Senga-kun properly yet."
"Who says you had to!" For a moment, Nikaido debated whether throwing a pillow at Kitayama's face would be worth cleaning ramen off the floor and sheets.
"Why are you being mean, Nika?" Senga asked, glancing over the rim of his own bowl at Nikaido and conveniently missing the superior smirk Kitayama shot Nikaido's way. "Kitayama-kun brought us ramen!"
"He brought you ramen," Nikaido said with a noise of frustration.
"I guess so," Senga said. Shrugging, he shuffled over to lean against the wall beside Nikaido and went back to his bowl. His tail curled up Nikaido's arm, stroking absently.
"What the hell," Nikaido said, staring at the traitorous tip of it, "that's not fair!"
For a short while thereafter, the room featured only Senga's happy, foodful smile; Kitayama's professional slurping; and Nikaido's increasing agitation as he was kept well distracted.
Watching the spectacle, Kitayama chuckled. He put his finished bowl of ramen on the bedside table. "I interrupted your bonding time, I guess," he said, with a too-happy smile Senga's way. "Nika-chan's the impatient type, isn't he?"
Nikaido squawked.
"Man, I know!" Senga grinned, his tail giving Nikaido a little respite. "Super impatient~ and he gets super grouchy about it, too."
"Hey, you were the one who said you wanted-!"
"Patience, Nika-chan, is a highly underrated virtue," Kitayama smirked, reclining on the spare bed.
"So's not being an asshole!" Nikaido told him with feeling. "I don't need a lecture on waiting from you of all people."
"Nika!" Senga said, looking appropriately scandalized around the remainder of his ramen. "Just 'cause he's lost his ears already...!"
"Oh?" Kitayama grinned at Senga's defence. "'Already'...?"
Senga blinked at him. Nikaido rolled his eyes. Kitayama liked this stupid game-mostly because everyone else played it with him too easily.
Rolling onto his side, the Sleepless fighter propped his head up. "How old do you think I am, Senga-kun?"
Senga's tail went still. "Aren't- that is, aren't you... um. Nika." Wide-eyed, he glanced at Nikaido. Kitayama didn't look any much older than either of them, and the way Nikaido had addressed him certainly hadn't indicated any measure of seniority either.
"Che," Nikaido said, "he goes to uni already so it's not like he's a senpai or anything."
"What!" Senga exclaimed, fur spiking. And then his voice dropped to what he seemed to think was an appropriately tempered whisper. "Why didn't you say so!"
"Why?" Nikaido scowled. "It's not like you were gonna be rude."
"Unlike you, right, Nika-chan?" Kitayama teased.
"Aww, man!" Senga wailed softly. "I was gonna ask if I could call him Mitsu and everything."
"It's not like he can't hear you, you moron!" Nikaido said, exasperated.
Kitayama smiled, indulgent. "You can call me Mitsu. I've always wanted a little brother~"
"Can I really?" Senga said, eyes sparkling.
Nikaido exploded.
"Look, seriously, Kitayama, why are you even here?"
"Big brothers are supposed to protect their cute siblings from stray wolves," Kitayama said. "It's a matter of fact."
"Right, right!" Senga agreed. "I'd protect my little brother back home!"
"Aww, you have a real little brother, Ken-chan? Not fair~" Kitayama said with entirely too much coo for Nikaido's comfort.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded, and then of Senga: "Why is he finding out this stuff the same time as me!"
Senga gave an ostentatious pout- "You didn't ask, Nika..." -and Kitayama made condescending noises that made Nikaido want to throw things.
But throwing things would only give him ramen-soupy carpet to clean up, and so Nikaido took a deep breath. And let it out slowly.
He tried another tactic.
"Micchan... please? It's our day."
Amused more than anything by Nikaido's about-face, Kitayama smiled. Still, he could acknowledge that Nikaido had a point. "I suppose you're right. For once." Rising, he stretched. (It was a shame he had to move, since it was obvious nobody wanted to use the bed he currently occupied.) "Your day should be special after all, before it's over."
"Right!" Nikaido declared. "Our day, our special day, so you can just leave us alone and go back and do things with Tottsu."
"Who's Tottsu?" Senga asked.
"His own sacrifice," Nikaido answered with such pointedness that Kitayama had to laugh.
"I get it, I get it," he chuckled. "You're impatient and getting desperate. Ken-chan's quite cute after all, isn't he?"
"That's not for you to say!" Nikaido snapped, at the same time Senga beamed.
"Thanks, Mitsu-nii!"
"No problem," Kitayama grinned over his shoulder before the door clicked shut behind him.
And silence reigned.
"...stupid Kitayama just completely ruined my mood," Nikaido declared sullenly. "I hate it when he does that."
"Often?" Senga guessed.
"No," Nikaido grumbled.
Senga laughed, flopping back against his pillows in a graceful way that failed at being completely unsexy. "I believe you, Nika~"
Nikaido eyed him for a long couple of moments-the easy way he sprawled, comfortable and smiling-and was just about to maybe reach out when the door handle clicked again.
"What the fuck!" Nikaido shouted, turning to lunge, but Senga grabbed him in a bear hug from behind before anybody could be killed.
In the doorway, Kitayama looked unperturbed. "Look after Ken-chan properly okay, Nika?" he said.
"Why the hell does everybody think they have to tell me that!" Nikaido shouted, mollified not at all by Kitayama dimming the lights and flicking the lock this time before he pulled the door shut behind him. "Of course I'm gonna take good care of him, I-" love him.
...Senga was a lot stronger than he looked, Nikaido discovered then, his ears twitching as he tried to squirm out of Senga's grasp, feeling slightly too warm and not a little embarrassed about what he'd nearly let slip.
"Ne, Nika~" Senga said softly, breath tickling the back of Nikaido's neck. "You what...?"
"I nothing," Nikaido told him, squirming some more. He scowled.
"You're the worst liar ever," Senga said happily, and nuzzled Nikaido's nape. "I love you, Nika~ hey, in Spells class today Takizawa-sensei said that saying it makes it true, right?"
"No," Nikaido told him, finally getting to turn around. He poked Senga in the stomach to get oriented, eyes slowly adjusting to the semi-dark.
"He did!" Senga admonished. "I was taking notes, unlike you."
"I don't hafta take notes. You're still wrong," Nikaido said loftily, poking Senga some more. "You don't know the first thing about being a fighter." He ignored the fact that really, Senga didn't have to know about fighters, being a sacrifice, and also the fact it had only been his first day at Seven Voices.
"Then tell me," Senga said, trying to grab Nikaido's hand, but Nikaido evaded him. "What's thing number one?"
Nikaido rolled his eyes. "What makes it real," he said, and poked Senga first in the forehead, then in the chest. "Is when you see it here. And know it here. Then it's already real. For you."
Senga nodded. "So-"
"Speaking it," Nikaido continued, and drew his finger up, up Senga's bare chest to his chin, and tapped twice, "just makes it real for everyone else, too. That's what a spell is."
Senga blinked, suddenly a little less sure of this logic. "...so why don't you-"
"Say it?" Nikaido smirked. "Why should I?" He leaned forward and forward, until Senga leaned back enough to flop against the pillows. Nikaido leaned on his hands, either side of Senga's shoulders. "I don't wanna make you love me. That just defeats the whole purpose!"
Senga frowned. "You're the one that defeats the whole purpose!"
"What kind of comeback is that?" Nikaido scoffed, just to be obnoxious, but then shut his mouth when Senga grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him down so their foreheads thudded. They looked at each other cross-eyed from really close. Sort of. "...ow," Nikaido said.
"Dummy," Senga told him. "I don't wanna make you say it either, you know..."
"Then don't," Nikaido said, oddly soft suddenly, his voice and half-smile mellowing the air between them. After a moment, he wriggled out from Senga's grip, curling up on his side against the wall with a pointed smirk. "Just don't make me say anything at all~♥"
"But..." Senga chewed on his lower lip.
"As a sacrifice, if you know it, then you should believe it," Nikaido recited, his grin softening. The lessons he quoted were things he'd been told a billion times before, but it was all different now that he could actually know them first-hand. "If it's what you really want, then it's my job to make it happen. Even if you don't say it, I'll know it if we're connected. I'll do it."
"...if it's what I really want?" Senga said, staring up at the ceiling. His tail swished slowly, thoughtfully between his legs. "Anything?"
"Mm," Nikaido hummed. "Anything. That's the real first thing about being a fighter."
"Oh," Senga said, though so softly he wasn't sure Nikaido could hear. "Then... I better think of something good."
*
"So?" Totsuka said, muting his silent movie as Kitayama returned to their room.
"They'll live up to their name if nothing else," Kitayama chuckled, not particularly offended by the idea as he stripped down to his t-shirt and boxers. "Cute. Stupid. Not your type."
Totsuka hummed, amused. "No threat to us then, I guess."
"Not in a hundred years," Kitayama agreed, knowing full well neither of them actually worried about things like that. Not that way.
Totsuka smiled, stretching. "Well, good for Nika-chan. He's been boarding since back when he was actually cute."
"Mm~ well, you'd know." Kitayama glanced over his shoulder at the light switch. Night, he ordered, and the room fell to darkness with a soft click, apart from the flicker of the television.
"You're the laziest fighter I've ever known," Totsuka chided mildly. "Our neighbours are going to get sick of your battle frequency spikes sooner or later."
"They can challenge us about it if they care," Kitayama said-and despite everything managed to stub his toe whilst climbing into bed, much to Totsuka's amusement. When the curses subsided, Kitayama's pout was audible. "I wish I'd been here since I was cute."
Totsuka smiled at that and rolled onto his side, looking steadily over the space between them. "Come here, Hiromitsu."
Dutifully, Kitayama obeyed, and ignored the tingles down his spine at the way Totsuka looked up at him in the unsteady light, his eyes dark and never quite describable.
"Show me something else you learned out there in the big, wide world," Totsuka said, his fingers circling lightly around Kitayama's wrist.
Resistance was futile of course, but for a moment Kitayama did consider trying. He braced himself over Totsuka's form and eyed him evenly.
Totsuka tilted his head a little.
"...you know," Kitayama said at last, his threats empty, "one day, I'll have shown you all my tricks and suggestions like this aren't going to make me feel better anymore."
Totsuka smiled, lacing their fingers together. "I'm sure I can think up some other distraction before then."