Work Text:
Cats. Is there be anything more wonderful in the world? If one happens to know of the prime cat hunting spots, then you will greatly increase you chances of meeting these elusive felines. With all the zeal of a wildlife photographer, Eito was currently crouched down, looking at a bush where he had seen a cat jump in. What’s more, this prime feline catching spot was hidden behind one of the buildings, granting him enough privacy to shield himself from potential BL events. With this safety, he…
“What are you doing?”
The smooth, ikeman voice broke through Eito’s train of thought. It was, unfortunately, a voice he had become all too familiar with these days. He looked up at the person who spoke. Yup, same stupid face.
“Oh. It’s you.” He said deadpanned.
“Don’t make it sound like I’m an inconvenience.” Mizumoto grouched, annoyance seemingly pulsing through his temples.
“You are an inconvenience.” Bluntly stated Eito.
Seriously, ever since he met that guy, his peaceful days have become anything but. Forget breaking flags, this guy was the whole armada! No matter how hard Eito tried to avoid him, this guy just somehow magically knew where he was, like he had a tracker in his head. He didn’t even think Hatano was this dangerous. At least with that guy he could always leave the country before he graduated. Although, that did sound like a pain, plus, what if he just kept pinning? He’s already shown to be rather-
“Seriously, you…”
“Mm?”
Mizumoto shock his head, “Never mind.”
Eito scrunched his brows together; this guy was weird.
“You…!” Catching himself, Mizumoto stuttered slightly, changing what he was originally going to say midsentence. “You… don’t remember the group project?”
“Group project?”
“You forgot.” Mizumoto shot him an accusatory glare.
Raking his brain, Eito could vaguely recall that the group had agreed to meet at the library. And the time… Looking down at his watch, Eito sheepishly scratched his cheek. Does that mean he’s late?
“You are! I had to come and get you while the others got started.”
“Why didn’t you just call?”
“How am I suppose to do that, when a certain someone refuses to give me his number!”
Oh, right. This guy pestered him about that before, and he refused on principal. After all, this guy having his number could lead to any number of BL developments and…
Grabbing Eito by the arm, Mizumoto roughly lifted him up. Eito stumbled slightly forward and collide with Mizumoto’s chest, causing his mind to turn blank for a few seconds. Mizumoto for his part had put one of his arms around Eito’s waist to help stabilise him.
Blinking, Eito quickly realised that this situation was extremely problematic. Not only was this a classic BL move, but the distance between their faces was only inches apart. This was not acceptable. After all-
“Something on your mind?”
It took all of Eito’s will power to suppress his turbulent emotions. Things like blushing or stammering was not allowed. After a brief pause, one that might have been a bit too long, he neutrally stated “No?”
Mizumoto seemed to chuckle slightly but didn’t move or let go of his waist.
Having enough of…whatever this was, Eito shook Mizumoto off and put a healthy amount of distance between them. His mind now racing over how to minimize the impact of the event, what it meant, how to prevent future cases and how to, of course, pawn Mizumoto onto someone else.
That last one irked Mizumoto the most, for some reason.
“Shall we go?” Then as an after thought, Eito added “Although I don’t think we’ll get much work done.”
Mizumoto scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion.
***
The school library is an odd place. It’s rather fancy, what with the large windows, sleek minimalist design, and the absurdly ornate rows of books, but it’s also rather…plain. A fitting enough place that can blend into the background at moments notice; while also serving as the perfect accent to any developments someone might have in their relationship.
Eito himself only came to the library when absolutely pressed, due to the random rising of flags that could spontaneously arise without one’s knowledge. Take Kikuchi for example. Eito still doesn’t get what exactly happened there.
Ah, but he’s letting his mind wander. Right now, there’s a more pressing issue at hand.
“What do you mean he left?” Growled out Mizumoto, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I-it’s like I said, h-he got a sudden phone call and said he had to go.” Stuttered Hina.
Hina was one of their group members. A group member who was growing rather pale under the wrathful glare of Mizumoto.
As much as Eito would love to see where this led, he also unfortunately knew Hina’s boyfriend. The man was a touch to possessive, and was definitely not someone Eito wanted to be involved with. Even if it was just to be a plot development for their romance.
“Nothing we can do about it now. We may as well just get to work.” Cut in Eito, breaking the tension.
“Y-yes!” Replied Hina, with all the zeal of a wet Doberman puppy.
Sitting down, the group got to work sorting through some of the preliminary group questions, assigning tasks and discussing which direction they should take the project in.
Things where progressive smoothly outside of the initial hiccups, and just as Eito felt that maybe he had been overly pessimistic about how pointless this meeting would be…
Hina left the group to go to the washroom.
That was about 15 minutes ago, and he still hadn’t come back. Eito isn’t about to regulate other people’s bowel movements, but that’s a bit… needlessly long.
“Hina’s been gone a while, hasn’t he?” Lightly commented Eito. It was just an observation, an observation. He wasn’t a weirdo who tracked other people’s habits.
Mizumoto’s let out a cough that sounded a bit like a chuckle. before responding. “He has.”
“Think he got sidetracked looking for research?”
“Let’s hope so.”
With that firmly established, they both went back to work.
After another 15 minutes, someone approached the table, although it wasn’t Hina. But his boyfriend, Kawa something or other, Eito couldn’t be pressed to remember his name at the moment.
“Hina had something come up, so I’m just going to take his stuff home.”
“What? Why? What happened?” Asked Mizumoto, his voice oddly wooden, as if he already knew the answer. His face magically appeared to transform into stone.
“None of your business.” With that, all of Hina’s stuff was gathered up and taken away.
Well, even if he say’s that, Eito could make a few guesses over what had transpired, and none of them particularly made him happy to think about. Why can’t these BL couples keep it in their pants?!
Regardless, what’s done is done.
“I guess Hina has been struck by explosive diarrhea.” Joked Eito.
Mizumoto let out a slight chuckle. “Must have been.”
“Still,” leaning back in his chair Eito let out a yawn and stretched slightly. “Since that’s the case, we may as well go home. We can just work on our stuff independently.”
Satisfied, Eito went to grab his stuff, only to have his wrist held in a vice. Seriously?!
“You aren’t leaving.” Groused Mizumoto.
Eito could feel his eye twitch slightly. “We’re the only two left, what’s the point in sticking around.”
“It’s precisely because we’re the only two left that you’re staying.”
“What, you don’t trust me to do the work?”
Mizumoto threw him an expression that screamed NO in bright red neon letters.
“I always do the work.”
“You forgot about today’s meeting.” Refuted Mizumoto.
“I was late. I didn’t miss it.” Protested Eito.
“Yeah, because I was the one who came and got you.”
That tiny pin deflated Eito’s argument somewhat, even if he did know that the meeting would be rather short lived. But he wasn’t about to give up just yet.
Lip twitching somewhat, Eito tried a different tactic. “Just because I was late to the meeting doesn’t mean I’m not going to do the work.”
“Oh? Are you going to text me about how the progress is going, then?”
“Y-“ The word immediately died on Eito’s tongue.
Crap. Texting, would, of course, require that he hand over his phone number. If there was one thing Eito was completely, one hundred percent against, it was that.
“What? You don’t want to give me your number?” Mizumoto seemed to gain the air of an emperor as he spoke, “Then I guess we’re just going to have to keep working on this assignment together.”
With that, the conversation was over. Eito was defeated. It was K.O.
With a grumble, Eito sat back down. He swears he use to be better at evading these situations. Wait…Could this BL world be making him dumber?! That was a scary thought. Eito could almost feel himself shiver in fear.
Mizumoto almost rolled his eyes. It wasn’t that Eito was becoming dumber, it’s just that Mizumoto, having spent a long time reading and analysing Eito’s thoughts, knew what tactics the man would try and use to get away. This made thwarting Eito’s plans as easy as pie. And having now spent about three months in each others spaces, Eito, whether he knew it or not, had started to become a bit lazy in his escape attempts. Take today for instance: Eito never would have dared be late for a group meeting, even one that he knew was going to be pointless, simply because he knew that being late to anything wasn’t very mob like behavior. But ever since Mizumoto confronted him, Eito seems to have slowly given up on the mob pretense. At least with him.
Even his attempts at trying to get Mizumoto a “new love interest” had become a bit… skewed. It turns out that BL avoidant tactics only work on people who weren’t aware of these tactics being used in the first place.
And Mizumoto wasn’t ignorant.
Plus, like it or not, Eito was a lot more open with Mizumoto then he was with other people. Mizumoto supposed this was another chink in Eito’s anti BL armor. Slip past the defences, and the man was powerless against you.
That thought made Mizumoto happy, for some reason. As if he enjoyed being the only one able to tease Eito. He wondered how the other man would react to such a sentiment. Probably not well, which in Mizumoto’s mind, made it something to be used for later. Watching Eito panic, while annoying to listen to, was, he admitted, at least somewhat entertaining to watch when it involved himself.
***
Eito was exhausted. Not because of the horrible pressures of group work, or because of the man before him. No. It was everyone else who was the problem.
From romantic confessions, stumbling on couples making out (or worse), and to having to dodge BL developments…Eito mused that the BL world was working extra hard today just to spite him.
Across from him, Mizumoto didn’t look any better. The man’s usual scowl seemed to have deepen into a glower of epic proportions.
“I need a break.” Eito said, his mind jumped to a few different restaurants in the nearby area. He was definitely hungry.
“Mm.” Mizumoto nodded absentmindedly, “We should get something to eat.”
“We?”
“Yes? It’s not like we’re done working.” Casting a frustrated look towards the other patrons, he continued, “Besides, we aren’t getting a lot of work done here anyways, so we may as well go to a family restaurant.”
Eito’s brows furrowed a little. It’s not that he was opposed to going to a restaurant, it was the opposite actually. It’s just that going to a restaurant with Mizumoto wasn’t something he was keen on doing.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just split up here? I can just do the work at home.”
“Didn’t you hear the part where I said we weren’t done working yet? Unless you’re planning on giving me your number…”
Eito slammed the book in front of him shut. “Right, restaurant. Let’s go.” Packing his things quickly, he got up and waved to the door. “I know a place nearby.”
***
The restaurant was pretty average in Mizumoto’s opinion. It was just a standard family restaurant chain you could find all around Japan, but then, the point wasn’t really to go someplace nice, so much as going somewhere that had fewer distracting elements. For some blissful reason, people where less inclined to fuck in the bathrooms of a family restaurant then they where in the library.
Sitting down, a waitress handed them a menu before quickly scurrying off. Throwing a quick glance at it, Mizumoto pulled out his laptop and a few books.
“What are you planning on getting?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
“Not sure. Probably just some fries.” Although he was eyeing the shaved ice. It was warm today, after all. But on the other hand, it wasn’t really what you could call a filling snack.
“I’ll get some shave ice then.” Replied Mizumoto, pressing the button to call back the server over. Order placed, Eito couldn’t help be feel like that went by a little too quickly. What happened to the hemming and hawing of deciding the best possible combination? And what if he changed his mind and wanted something else? Really, Mizumoto is just to…
“If you want something else, you can just get it later.” Commented Mizumoto, interrupting Eito’s train of thought.
“What?”
“You keep looking at the menu.” Was all he replied.
Was he? Wait… If Mizumoto noticed that then-
“We still need to figure out what we’re going to do about this section.” Cut in Mizumoto, pointing at the screen. He saw Eito furrow his brows as his internal monologue got grounded to a halt. While Eito went over the section, Mizumoto couldn’t help be feel a small sense of satisfaction at putting a halt to yet another monologue. Now all he needed to do was figure out how to make the man’s mind shut down, and he’d finally have some peace and quiet.
Well… He actually did have some inclining on the how. If the way Eito reacted to just being close to him was any indication. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to go there. Mizumoto wondered if the man’s oddities were rubbing off on him. Shacking his head slightly to clear his thoughts, he brought his attention back to the task at hand.
Once that happened, it was like they where in perfect sync. Both offering suggestions that was either accepted, denied or fiercely debated. The two of them worked surprisingly well together, although neither of them would ever consciously admit it.
“I don’t think we should just leave this section blank. We need to put something in it.” Said Eito, pointing to a few gaps in the project.
“But if we do that, then we reward those slackers for running off.” Argued Mizumoto, nabbing one of Eito’s fries. He started stealing them about halfway through their second argument.
“But we’re the ones who pay the price for incomplete work.” Eito wasn’t willing to lose out on grades just because they where unlucky enough for two of their members to have some sort of BL development at the same time.
“Well, we do still have two weeks left. That should give them some time to get things organised.” Commented Mizumoto, throwing a glance at the menu. It was pretty late now, and since he was already at a restaurant, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to get something else to eat.
“If we had two weeks left, why did you insist on finishing everything today?” Grumbled Eito, also looking at the menu.
“Better safe then sorry. Although, I thought that today we would just chat about the work and then go our separate ways.”
“If that was your plan, why did you force me to stick around? We got that done shortly after Hina left.” Glaring at Mizumoto, Eito began tapping his finger against the table. A part of his mind whirling over different scenario’s, different methods of deflection, and different ways he could potentially get out of staying a moment longer. Another, bigger part was focused on picking something from the menu.
“I didn’t realise you wanted to spend more time with me.” Said Mizumoto, leaning back. “I just assumed you would want to get everything done today so that I wouldn’t have to keep pestering you.”
Seeing Eito freeze, and his mind erupting into complete and utter chaos, Mizumoto stifled a laugh as he continued “My bad. I’ll make sure to keep seeing you in the future since my friendship means that much to you.”
“Oh… You don’t have to…” Robotically replied Eito, only for Mizumoto to grasp his hand in his. Behind him, you could practically see flowers erupt, as if he was deliberately putting up the charm.
“But we’re friends, aren’t we?”
Eito’s internal mind was obliterated into a million pieces. If any sound could be heard from it, it would certainly have to be a dial tone, but even that was missing. Mizumoto used this as a chance to order them some food.
By the time Eito’s mind recovered from the blow, food was being brought to their table.
“What…”
“Oh, I ordered us supper. I hope you don’t mind.”
Eito did mind, actually. He minded a lot. However, he didn’t have it in him to protest either, afraid that any protest would be misconstrued in some way to raise the flag further…
Who was he kidding? There had to been at least thirty flags raised today, never mind since they met. At this rate, he may have to change universities just to get away!
Mizumoto had to suppress a smirk. He knew that Eito was an insane man who believed this was a BL world, but watching the man have an internal meltdown while passively eating rice was incredibly entertaining. It was then that Mizumoto suddenly had a thought. He’s listened to Eito’s mad, paranoid ramblings for a long time now, and he understood the gist of his concerns pretty well… So why didn’t he just use that knowledge to steal Eito’s phone number?
“You have a brother?”
The question caught Eito off guard slightly. People at the university didn’t tend to ask about his family, and he never felt the need to really talk about them. The sudden interest was a bit odd. But he supposed there was no harm in engaging in light conversation.
“I do. He’s in High School.” Said Eito.
And he has a boyfriend who most likely will earn a lot of money in the future. Eito silently added.
“Interesting. Do you look alike?”
“Obviously. We are related after all.”
“You mean he’s also ugly?”
“Wha-Where did that come from?!”
“Where did what come from?”
“You- Never mind.” Eito forced a crocked, broken smile before turning his attention back to his meal. He couldn’t believe he was about to argue over -
“Did it bother you that I called you ugly?” Asked Mizumoto, a smile plastered on his face.
This question caused Eito to choke on the food he was just eating. In between coughs he spat out “Why would I care about that?”
“You seemed upset.”
“I’m not.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Said Eito, although internally he thought ‘Who wouldn’t be upset over being called ugly to their face?!’
Mizumoto, pretending to be inspired, snapped his fingers. “I know what the issue is.”
“Issue?”
“Your missing gap moe.”
“Gap M- I don’t need gap moe.” Eito looked at Mizumoto as if he had lost his mind.
“Sure, you do. If you had gap moe, you’d at least be cute.” Lifting up his hand, Mizumoto pretended to flicked Eito’s nose, before grabbing his rice bowl instead.
“What man wants to be cute?” Groused Eito, glaring at Mizumoto. “And that’s my rice.”
“So? Just order more.” Taking a bite, Mizumoto skillfully avoid Eito’s angry hand grabs.
“Give it back.”
Mizumoto took this opening, and, giving the most ikeman smile he could muster, he lifted up his chopsticks with some rice on it, and pointed towards Eito. “Sure, open wide.”
This finally seemed to get Eito to crack, as Mizumoto watched his face go from forced neutrality to angry blushing and bewilderment. Not giving Eito even a moment to think, Mizumoto got incredibly up close to his face and said: “Oh look, finally some gap moe.”
Eito almost immediately got up and ran to the washroom with no more then an excuse me.
Letting out a sigh, Mizumoto quickly went to Eito’s bag and pulled out his phone. He definitely got lucky that Eito’s first instinct wasn’t to grab his bag and flee the restaurant, otherwise he would have been stuck with the bill. It didn’t take long for Mizumoto to open Eito’s phone, as he made sure to write down the password when he read it in Eito’s mind. Going to his messages, Mizumoto added his number inside under the name💖Honey💖 and sent himself a quick text.
Putting the phone away, Mizumoto wrote a note to Eito, and then paid for his meal and left. Chuckling to himself.
‘Now’ he thought ‘what should I send him to really set him off?’
***
When Eito came back from the washroom, he was greeted to an empty table with a note that said “Keep working on that gap moe!” Crumbling it, Eito resisted the urge to throw it. Mizumoto was definitely messing with him. Sighing, Eito went and paid for his half of the meal and walked home, his thoughts a whirl the whole time.
Seriously, what did he do to catch that guy’s attention?
Once he was back in his room, Eito plopped his bag onto the nearby chair and grabbed a yaoi manga. While it wasn’t relaxing, he hoped it could offer at least some sort of insight into how to deal with this problem.
About half an hour later his phone buzzed with a name he didn’t recognize. Eito’s face went pale. ‘No…he didn’t…’ Hand shacking, Eito swiped the notification and saw the message:
💖Honey💖: Thank you for your number ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
Face going deathly pale, Eito could feel his soul leaving his body. Possessed with, Eito began furiously typing back:
Eito: Delete my number.
💖Honey💖: No. (*^ ‿ <*)♡
Eito: Delete.My.Number.
💖Honey💖: I got it fair a square. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
Eito: You stole it. And stop using emoji’s. Their gross.
💖Honey💖: How uncute. Keep working on your gap moe, and one day you’ll look as good as me. ( ˘ ³˘)
At that, Eito couldn’t help but yell out “GAP MOE MY ASS!” only for his brother to almost immediately pound on the wall shouting back “BE QUIET! I’M STUDYING!”
This immediately caused Eito’s blood to cool. Suddenly his phone buzzed again.
💖Honey💖: Thanks for the date! ( ˘ ³˘)♥
Eito felt his brain blow a vessel as his entire face grew bright crimson red.
A d-d-date?! The panic was swift and sudden.
On Mizumoto’s end, he watched as Eito seemed to go on typing and deleted whatever it was, he was working on for over ten minutes, before the line finally fell silent. Guess the man gave up on answering. Well, that was to be expected. Knowing Eito, he was probably going through a thousand different possibilities all at once.
Mizumoto couldn’t help but laugh to himself. He wondered what kind of face Eito was making, and if he had once again managed to slip past that mask of indifference the man always wore.
Either way, he had to admit to himself, he was definitely looking forward to their next “date”.