Chapter Text
"Aren't you going home?"
Reigen is leaning back from where's he's seated in his office chair. He moves into a full-body stretch, enjoying the pop of his joints. He looks over to the man he's sharing the office with, along with tonight's workload.
Serizawa, tie loosened around his neck, peeks up from behind the stacks of papers and empty binders on his desk.
"Huh?"
Reigen gives him a look, then jerks a thumb back to the clock on the wall right behind him.
"The workday officially ended fifty-two minutes ago."
Serizawa's head whips around to look where Reigen's pointing, mouth falling open as he catches on.
"Well," Serizawa starts, turning to glance over at Reigen. "I sort of figured all this was a two-man job..."
He makes a sweeping gesture over the piles of paperwork still left to be double-checked and sorted.
Reigen sighs at the reminder.
After the mice-meets-wiring freak accident at the old office and the insurance workarounds that ensued, Spirits and Such Consulting had implemented a new kind of method for handling paperwork . With every old document lost in the fire, Reigen had been adamant on them all doing a better job with book-keeping this time around, keeping every slip of paper and receipt, and filing them properly.
Then came the time to present the quarterly review to the insurance company, and as Reigen had looked up the adress, he'd found a banner on their website boasting their newly acquired digitized process.
He'd suddenly remembered the forgotten ambition to scan everything as well. They would need to find a way to put four months worth of documents in one handy .zip-file to be sent over "by the end of the week, thanks in advance."
It had seemed doable at the start of the day, with the entire four-man crew gathered at the office to contribute. Then the copier had chosen that exact moment to crash. Reigen had found a scanning app online, with a decent enough trial version to last them for the time being.
Right around that time, Mob had excused himself to go see about some homework that he honestly should be prioritizing over this, Master. Dimple had hovered right with him out the door, giving Reigen the stink-eye all the while.
Ultimately, that left him and Serizawa alone in the office, hunched over their desks with nothing but the slow hum of the A/C for company.
Right now, though, it was time to call it a day. Reigen stands up and gives another stretch, groaning slightly as his spine cracks back into an easier position.
"Well, I don't know what your benefits were like at Claw," Reigen rolls his shoulders. "But here, we don't pay overtime. Better my extra hours than yours."
He moves over to Serizawa's desk while talking, making a point of grabbing his stack of files and holding them under one arm, waving the other in Serizawa's face. "Off you go."
"But it's just you and me left to do it now..." Serizawa tries, looking at Reigen almost pleadingly.
"Ah, don't worry about it." Reigen waves his hand again, wrist limp. "If I'm the one who messed up, I'm the one who cleans up afterwards. Besides, this won't get done sometime tonight even with the two of us pitching in."
Serizawa looks like he's about to object, then rights himself and fiddles with his shirt cuffs. "Yeah, maybe you're right."
The wheels of his office chair creaks as he gets up. Reigen can sense the reluctance in Serizawa's movements as he stalks around the space, picking up his suit jacket from where it had been discarded on the sofa, wriggling into it unhurriedly. He grabs his brief-case, a hand-me-down from Reigen, and finally moves towards the door, hand stopping to rest at the handle.
"I'll see you tomorrow then, boss." He ducks his head with a small smile. Reigen just waves, and turns his back to the door as the lock clicks.
Finally alone, he spends another moment filing away some scanned notes into binders and putting them away. Then hand-washing the cups amassed after a day of meetings with tea on the side. Finally, he gives their sad house-plants a few sprays from the spritzer.
After finishing up, all he had to do was to lock up and walk a couple steps up and over to his own apartment, two stairs above in the same building.
Suddenly, there's a knock at the door.
If Reigen had startled at the sound, he soon forgets it in favor of the growing annoyance at someone coming by this late. Their opening hours were on the door, for crying out loud. He has the same sentence ready and waiting as he turns the lock, still holding the spray bottle, cracking the door open to look outside.
Standing there, almost tall enough to reach the doorframe, is his scruffy-looking co-worker: suit collar crumpled and tie unspooled, sweat on his brow and breathing heavily as if he'd been running.
"Serizawa? Why are you back here?" And why did you knock when you have a key?
"I, uh..." Serizawa swallows heavily, throat rasping as he speaks. "I missed the last train..."
"Oh, sheesh." Reigen turns to look at the clock, remembering the late hour. He really regretted not sending Serizawa back home earlier. Behind him, the man is still heaving, breath strained as he continues.
"I had to run- made it to the platform just as it left... Didn't know if you'd still be here... so I ran back here too." He's steadying himself against the door frame, looking winded.
"You could've just texted me, y'know," Reigen laughs, but steps back to let Serizawa in. He stumbles and leans against the wall, letting his briefcase fall to the floor with a clunk.
"My phone died..."
Reigen thinks of the hours worth of awkwardly angled, grainy camera scans sitting in his inbox, sent over by his co-worker.
"Ah, shit. This is why you bring a spare charger, I guess..." Reigen trails off at the kicked-puppy look on Serizawa's face, as if he had had the same realisation just then.
"Hey, it happens! Don't beat yourself up about it," He nudges Serizawa with the spray bottle, aiming for something reassuring. "You made it back here before I left, at least!"
Serizawa shrugs and manages a small smile, looking less miserable but still worn out from the late night sprint.
"Well," he huffs, taking large enough breaths that his chest strains against his rumpled shirt, "At least you won't have to do all that filing by yourself anymore...?"
"Nope, that ain't happening. I just closed up shop."
"What, you finished it all?" Serizawa almost gapes at Reigen, awe in his voice. Reigen scoffs again.
"Nah, I just don't do all-nighters anymore. Or," Reigen corrects himself. "Not for small stuff like this, anyway. If it can be done tomorrow, it can wait until tomorrow."
He looks over at their desks, at the heaps of paperwork, hands at his sides. Then he turns back to Serizawa, sizing him up.
"Anyway... guess you need somewhere to sleep, in that case."
Serizawa hums absentmindedly and almost looks disappointed, like he'd really had been preparing himself for staying up all night anyway. Reigen sighs, more out of exasperation than annoyance.
"Well, my apartment is just two floors up. I might have a spare futon if-" He's cut off by the sudden scraping of Serizawa's soles as the man rights himself on the spot.
"Oh, no, I could just take the couch down here!" Serizawa looks frazzled, bending down to pick up his briefcase and clutching it to his chest.
Reigen makes a face. "The couch?"
"Yeah!" Serizawa steps over to the two-seater in the middle of the office, putting down his briefcase. "I've slept in my fair share of these, no problem."
As Reigen inspects the piece of furniture he'd gone acquainted with during many hours of office power naps, he gets a phantom pain in his back at the thought of spending more than thirty minutes on the thing.
"Well, alright. I mean, I could at least get you a pillow...?"
"These are good enough, don't worry." Serizawa plops down and adjusts one of the throw pillows, holding one up to Reigen. "And it's warm enough in here anyway, so I won't need a blanket or anything."
Reigen has to hold himself back not to sound like an overbearing parent, but he really didn't like the needlessly Spartan solution to this bedspace issue.
"How about, uh. Toiletries?"
"It's just one night, it's no problem." Serizawa rubs his chin absentmindedly at that, as if to will his usual scruff to grow slower overnight.
Reigen, thinking more along the lines of a toothbrush rather than a razor, has to train his face not to let his would-be kneejerk reaction slip through. Fine, then. He leans back on his heels.
"Suit yourself," he huffs. "I'm just a text away if you do end up needing anything."
Knowing Serizawa, he'd rather suffer through it in silence rather than reach for his phone, anyway. The man in question is smiling nervously up at Reigen, obviously anxious not to hold him up any longer than he already has.
"Yeah, gotcha! See you tomorrow, boss!"
Reigen manages a small wave, closes and locks the door behind him, and makes his way up the stairs.
All the way from putting his key in his door to standing above his rolled-out futon, he's stuck with an uneasy feeling that he just can't shake.
It's not like he himself hadn't spent a night or two back in the old office, back when the commute had been longer. He can excuse it for himself, but when it someone else...
Reigen huffs, more out of frustration than anything.
It makes him feel like a bad host, even though the office isn't his home or anything, technically. He turns off the small light in the window and gets down under the covers.
Oh well. It has to be a one-time-thing, anyway.
---------
The next time it happens, Reigen's less of a fussy parent about the whole ordeal, even though it still grates at him.
With the insurance ordeal over and done with, he really thought they would steer clear of the long nights, at least for a while. Then they get an online tip about an eerie presence lurking around a nearby 24/7-convenience store, harassing the workers on the night shift.
With it being a school night for Mob, Reigen decides that the high schooler will be benched this round, bringing only Serizawa and Dimple with him to investigate.
It's way past midnight when the presence finally makes itself known, revealing itself to be a lost sleepwalking old man, groggy and not very happy about being rudely awoken by "two goofy-looking salarymen".
With the man safely directed to his home a couple blocks away, they call it a day. Dimple presumably flits back to his place at Mob's side, still grumbling at the wasted man-hours that remains a constant in their work lives. Serizawa, completely used to it by now, trails along back to the office with Reigen.
When they're there, they don't need to look at the clock to know that Serizawa's train has already stopped going. Reigen makes the same offer of his spare futon, and is met with the same hurried but polite declination.
Still, Serizawa's nervous smile is as apologetic this time around. Even more so as Reigen does go upstairs to get him a proper pillow and a blanket.
And this time, before locking the door, Reigen chucks a small toiletry travelkit with an even smaller toothbrush to go with it, in Serizawa's general direction. Spirits and Such didn't have dental care, after all.
---------
After that, the late nights came more often on Serizawa's end. Not every week, thank god, or Reigen would start to suspect something more ominous behind the reoccuring need for Serizawa to stay out of his own apartment. (Right now, Reigen's money was on an unresolved mold issue, Dimple's was on the mob).
It did happen often enough for a weird kind of habit to form: with Reigen showing up at the office with Serizawa already there in various stages of his morning preparations. Usually he was up, yawning and bleary eyed as he rearranged the couch, folding his blankets and putting them away under his desk, greeting Reigen as cheerfully as ever.
Then one morning, when Reigen's balancing two cups of coffee on his way down to the office, entirely pleased with himself and his benevolence as a boss, there's a change to the routine.
When he cracks open the office door, he halts immediately.
Serizawa is still sound asleep, softly snoring with a leg thrown over the back of the couch, hair and clothes in disarray. He's finally had the foresight to bring a spare set of sleepwear for nights like these, now wearing a loose pair of sweatpants and a washed-out t-shirt, currently riding up on his stomach.
Reigen is thrown aback by the sight for longer than he'd like to admit to himself. His eyes linger a split second too long on the sliver of exposed belly, with a thick coating of hair peeking through, weirdly enticing.
He blinks a couple times and struggles to remember the distinct rules of co-worker proprietry. His hold on the coffee cups tightens, and he clears his throat as loudly as he can.
Serizawa blinks awake at that, blearily looking up at Reigen, smiling suddenly as he recognises him.
"G'morning, boss."
"Yeah, morning. Up and at 'em." Reigen stumbles over his words, completely thrown off by the openness in Serizawa's face blinking up at him. He steps closer as Serizawa sits up proper, adjusting his tangled sleepwear unhurriedly as he moves.
"Here." Reigen hands over the cup, eyes flitting away and back to Serizawa's face. "Figured you'd want some, since we only got tea down here."
At that, Reigen is rewarded with the most genuine look of gratitude he's sure he'll ever see again, no matter how many clients he helps until the end of his days (or career, whichever comes first).
Serizawa reaches out for the cup and grabs it reverently, cradling it in his large hands.
Absentmindedly, Reigen realises he's never seen Serizawa's arms in full like this before, what with the office dress code being suits and long-sleeved shirts. They were unexpectedly thick, and covered in dark hair too.
Reigen swallows and finally tears his gaze away.
Then, suddenly, it's as if Serizawa's train of thought catches up with him, and his usual wall of nerves is right back up again. He gets up, spills a bit of coffee on him in the process, and hurries into the office bathroom.
When he comes back out, he's changed back into his usual work outfit and his hair is a bit wet from him giving it the quick water-and-finger-comb-treatment. He grabs his cup on the way to his desk, glancing over at Reigen nervously.
"Thanks." He lifts the cup like he's making a toast, then holds it in two hands, fingers skidding over the rim. "For the coffee."
Reigen hums in reply, feigning a non-commital tone. The moment's passed. Still, he can't help but feel nervous as well. And that look on Serizawa's face, like Reigen'd hung the moon, stays in the back of his mind for the rest of the day.
---------
Then one evening, after a heated argument with a disappointed customer and a couch repair fee e-mailed to them right afterwards, there's a sudden stop to the office sleepovers.
Mob and Dimple, who usually arrive late enough and depart early enough not to see Serizawa's latest routine, both mourn the trashed couch. For Reigen and Serizawa, however, there's a sort of shared realisation of what the busted couch really meant. Neither man adresses it at the time.
Then a few days later, it's just Reigen and Serizawa alone in the office again: during a spectacularly botched mission, a few of Serizawa's misplaced psychic attacks had nearly blown out the entrance level of an apartment building.
Thankfully, nobody had been hurt in the scuffle and the collateral damage dealt the biggest blow, with the repair fee that'd eventually show up at the office.
Small matters, Reigen had tried to explain to Serizawa, but that wasn't enough to ease his conscience. Instead, he had decided to go above and beyond, spending the entire afternoon looking up the contact info of every resident in the building to write personal apology letters to every single one of them.
His fingers were still tapping away at the keyboard of his laptop, looking comically small balanced in the lap of the large man. Reigen sneaks a few glances now and then, and can't help but smile at Serizawa's dedication.
Then Reigen is reminded of the late hour, and a look at the bright digits in the corner of his phone's screen confirms it.
"Hey Serizawa. I'm letting you off for today."
Serizawa's face is set in a look of absolute focus, and he doesn't look up as he answers.
"I just have to, uh- I just wanna finish this one floor, then I'll go."
Reigen clicks his tongue, but doesn't push it. Considering the man's growing sense of justice, Reigen figured it'd be best to let him pay his dues if he saw it fit. He does remind Serizawa again at the half-hour mark, but barely gets a reply.
Then, fed up with the tense energy in the office, Reigen excuses himself to go buy a fresh pack of cigarettes at the convenience store a couple blocks away. Maybe him being out of the office would make Serizawa ease off his weird obligation to his work, and he could sneak out while Reigen was away.
But as he steps through the door, Serizawa is still seated in the same position as Reigen had left him, with the same determined look in his eyes. Reigen sighs and makes his presence clear.
"Well, you just missed it."
"Huh?" Serizawa keeps tapping away at the keyboard while glancing at Reigen, without missing a beat.
"Your train."
Reigen glances at the clock, and catches Serizawa doing the same in the corner of his eye. The man's broad shoulders slumps down dejectedly, realising the situation he's put himself in.
Finally, Reigen decided he'd make do on his long-standing offer. If it weren't for this mishap, he had planned on bringing it up anyway, but maybe from more of a workspace-conduct-point of view. He wasn't sure, but he guessed there was some sort of regulation against office sleepovers.
That didn't make it easier to bring it up, however. Reigen couldn't channel the same easy manner of asking, like way back at their first time doing this song and dance.
Still, when Serizawa reaches down for his briefcase, Reigen finally clears his throat and decides to go for it anyway.
"You know the futon offer still stands, right?"
Serizawa freezes mid-gesture. Reigen figures he might as well barrel through all at once.
"I mean, I can't see any other options so—"
"No, I'm good down here, thanks." When Serizawa looks up at him, Reigen knows he's barely containing the incredulous look he's shooting the other man.
"Where were you planning to sleep with the couch out of business, anyway? Under your desk?"
Serizawa glances over at his work station with a face like he's actually considering the logistics of cramming himself under there. Reigen stops him before he has the time to try.
"Look, I obviously won't make you do anything you're not comfortable with, I'm just saying: it'd ease my conscience, y'know?"
Serizawa blinks at him, and Reigen catches himself, then.
"Not that I'm saying this in like a "I'm-your-boss-so-do-as-I-say"-kinda way." He laughs a little. "Just... as a co-worker concerned for your uh, health. And comfort."
Before he can continue on rambling, Serizawa interrupts him.
"Alright." He's looking at Reigen as if he'd just asked him for his kidney or something. "If it's not too much of a hassle."
Reigen breathes out, relieved.
"Good! Great. Or, yeah, super." He reaches into his suit pocket and pulls out his ring of keys, twirling it round his fingers. "Let's just lock up here and then we're all set."
Serizawa still looks a bit uncomfortable as he gathers his things, then waits for Reigen at the door. The other man flits around the office for the usual closeup routine, talking all the while.
"It'll be like in grade school." Reigen bites his tongue, too late to stop the awkward comment. He walks over to the door, suit jacket in hand. "Sleepovers, I mean. No ghost stories though, we're off the clock, haha!"
Serizawa gives a dutiful laugh, and trails behind Reigen as they finally leave the office. As they make their way up to his apartment, Reigen's mind is going a mile a minute.
He has to keep reassuring himself that this was just a favor, from friend to friend, nothing weird about it. A need fulfilled, a demand met, and all that. Good karma out the wazoo, probably.
When he unlocks his front door, he finally lands on the most pressing question: Why did he have to feel so nervous about it all?
---------
Serizawa looks incredibly out of place in Reigen's apartment. It was a lot smaller than his older one, but made up for it with a lower rent and, frankly, a very comfortable commuting distance. Still, Reigen was starting to wonder if the ceiling was a bit too low, now that he thought about it. Or maybe Serizawa was just too damn tall.
Reigen finds he's doing most of the talking, with Serizawa humming or just nodding along as they go through the procedures of getting ready for bed. He lets Serizawa use the bathroom first, taking the opportunity to get changed while the other man lets the tap run, presumably putting his travel kit to use. Reigen takes longer than usual to decide on what to wear, finally discarding his usual shorts for a more modest pair of sweatpants.
When Serizawa steps out of the bathroom, Reigen has already started readying the space for the futons, moving away his set of low chairs. Serizawa reaches for one of the chairs, aiming to help, but Reigen grabs it before he can.
"Don't worry, I'll fix it. You stay here and be, a guest, or whatever."
Reigen walks over to his small storage room and pulls open one of its closet doors. He rustles through the heaps of fabric and finds an extra duvet and bedding, then bends down to look at the space under the shelf. He looks again. Steps over the folded bedding on the floor to look through another closet, finding nothing but clear boxes with books and memorabilia.
It dawns on him. He makes a fist and thumps his head lightly, swearing under his breath. Then steels himself for what could be the most awkward conversation of the night.
When Reigen finally re-enters the room, Serizawa has his suit folded across his arm, looking around the room for someplace to put it. He's changed into his pyjamas, the usual tee and sweats, and looks up at the sound of Reigen voice.
"So... this is awkward, but, uh... I threw away my old futon back when I moved here."
"Yeah?" Serizawa looks at him like he doesn't quite see why that's anything but a sensible thing to do.
"Meaning I only have one. And we're gonna have to share it." If Reigen mumbles the last part, he doesn't know why. He speaks up again, feigning a casual tone. "That alright with you?"
Serizawa's mouth is a thin line, and he's not meeting Reigen's gaze. A beat passes before he finally mumbles: "Only if it's alright with you."
"Yeah, no problem!" Reigen laughs, maybe a bit too loudly. If he weren't such a natural conversationalist, Reigen would be worried he'd be showing his whole ass, figuratively, at how exceedingly casual he was trying to be about the whole thing. "Let's get it all set up, then. Here, I'll take that."
Reigen puts down his pile of bedding and holds his hands out, taking Serizawa's suit and putting it on one of the chairs stashed away in the corner of the room. He goes back for the futon and rolls it out, throwing his pillow on the bed with a soft thump and letting Serizawa grab the other one. While they set up shop, Reigen is chatting away through the motions.
"Man, if I only had room for a couch in here, huh." He shakes out the comforters, movements a lot antsier than he'd admit to himself. "But hey, it's even more like a sleepover now!"
As his back is turned, Reigen thumps himself in the head again, reproachingly. Quit while you're ahead, you walking word vomit. When he finally looks back, he realises Serizawa is still holding his pillow, hands trembling a little.
"Everything alright?"
Serizawa wrings his hands in the soft fabric. A moment passes before he finally speaks.
"I haven't done anything like this in years."
Reigen blinks, then laughs a little. "Hey, me neither, it's totally alright. Let's just-" He's interrupted, Serizawa's voice a little shakier now.
"No, I mean... not since my powers manifested."
At that, Reigen shuts up. To call this a sensitive subject is an understatement, so he lets Serizawa set the pace and do the talking, for once.
Sensing the conversational space made for him, Serizawa continues. "I don't know what could happen, what I'd do. Sometimes I wake up and I've rearranged all my things in my sleep, sometimes breaking them."
Reigen remains silent, mostly because this is the longest Serizawa's talked in the last thirty minutes.
"And there's also-" Serizawa stops himself, looking down at his hands in a way that almost looks... bashful? He doesn't finish the sentence, and Reigen is desperate to fill the silence between them.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I've been telekinesis'd more times than you could count, y'know. I've got a thick skull." He thumps his head again, as if to prove his point.
Serizawa looks even more distraught by that, so Reigen aims for something more serious. "I trust you, Serizawa. You can just wake me up if something's wrong, and we'll fix it."
Serizawa looks a little less worried, but the firm grip on his pillow remains.
"Or I'll just be the one who kicks you awake." Reigen squints his eyes at Serizawa. "We're getting up early tomorrow, I don't wanna lose any sleep to being swooshed around, you know."
Serizawa laughs a little at that, sounding more genuine this time. He puts down his pillow, finally, and slips under the covers, looking up at Reigen with the same apologetic smile as before.
"Thanks."
"Hey, don't mention it." Reigen gets down on the other side of the bedding, reaching over to turn off the lamp on the windowsill.
With the added darkness, the silence between them seems even louder.
They're lying back to back, and Reigen thanks his past self for deciding to keep the spare comforter, or this would've been way more awkward. And hotter in all senses of the words, he adds on to himself, then bites his cheek.
"You really can kick me awake if you have to,", comes Serizawa's voice, smaller than ever, but enough for Reigen to feel it rumbling through his frame . He holds his breath as the sensation fades away, then remembers he has to answer. Natural conversationalist indeed.
"Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep, big guy."
He adjusts his position one last time, taking care not to bump into Serizawa more than he already had. Then, as his breath catches up to the other man's steady rhythm, he drifts off to sleep.
---------
When Reigen wakes up the day after, he's unusually well rested. And unusually warm. Did he accidentally turn off the A/C during the-
Suddenly, he's wide awake and very much aware of his surroundings. Especially how they've seemed to close in on him during the night.
Serizawa has a thick arm slung half-way across Reigen's upper body. Or rather his chest, who's now decidedly done a 180 from the position yesterday - with the added detail of having Serizawa's head resting on it. They're both sharing the same comforter, with Reigen's lying abandoned somewhere at their feet.
Reigen is very much aware of exactly how warm Serizawa's skin is, how pleasantly coarse his arm hair feels against Reigen's sweaty forearm, how much the air rushing out of his nose with his every breath tickles Reigen's collarbone.
He looks down at the other man, softly snoring away without a care in the world. Under different circumstances, like if they were Actually Involved With Each Other Maybe, he suspects he'd do nothing but take in the view, maybe make an internal note of the unguarded look on his face, the generous glimpse of chest hair visible through his t-shirt collar, or the way his short eyelashes fanned across his cheeks. Or something.
Instead, Reigen makes a small, strained sound. Yeah, maybe he would take note of all that, he thinks, but in this universe, the only need Reigen felt was the one to put as much distance as possible between himself and his co-worker slash friend slash sudden bed buddy.
So Reigen tries to wriggle out, bit by bit, careful not to wake Serizawa and have to face that conversation. He's barely made it out when Serizawa, damn the man, pulls him closer, mumbling in his sleep and then sighing as he settles down, his large frame tightly pressed against Reigen now.
Then Reigen's very much aware of something else pressing for his attention somewhere in the general area of his left hip, and his mouth goes completely dry.
The primal part of his brain hollers at him to get out and get away, don't care about waking him up, screw the consequences and do it now immediately please and thanks. So Reigen moves properly this time, lifting Serizawa's heavy arm to roll out from his warm half-embrace.
This, of course, is enough to make the other man stir slowly, blinking at Reigen as he wakes up. He lifts his other hand to his face and rubs the sleep out of his eyes, mumbling in a way that would be adorable if Reigen wasn't busy staving off a full-on panic attack.
"Mm... g'morning, boss." Serizawa smacks his lips once, twice, peering over at Reigen and looking more well-rested than he's ever looked during the five months they'd known each other.
Oh fuck, Reigen thinks, but finally opens his mouth dumbly, to say something that's sure to give a sensible explanation to the entire situation, definitely, for sure.
"Hey."
Reigen has a brief moment where he views the scenario from a viewpoint somewhere a little to the left of his body, and finds there's no easy way to explain why it looks like he's grabbing his co-worker's arm while the latter is sleeping. Still, it doesn't stop him from trying.
"Uh- So I was just- haha..." he starts.
Then just like that one morning at the office, weeks ago, it seems to take a while for Serizawa's brain to catch up with his body. And when it does, it's all happening at once: he rolls out from under the futon, dragging his comforter with him on the way, rolling and rolling with arms outstretched, a panicked look on his face.
They both start shouting at the same time.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"I didn't either, I-"
Reigen scrambles for his own discarded comforter, pulling it over clumsily with one hand as the other one gestures frantically at Serizawa's general direction. He lets his mouth work away, probably loud enough for the neighbors to hear.
"I didn't wanna wake you, but your arm was kinda heavy, you know! And it was getting sweaty, too- not your arm I mean, just, y'know, the bed! And it was time to get up anyway, so! Yeah!"
Serizawa gives no reply. He's wrapped up into his comforter like cocoon, with only the black tufts of his hair peeking through at the top.
A silence stretches out between them for what seems like minutes. Just as Reigen scrambles to say something else, anything, Serizawa stands up.
"I have to- I'll just..." Serizawa is still wrapped in the comforter as he grabs his clothes and makes his way over to the bathroom, slamming the door after him.
He leaves the tap running for a long time and Reigen tries really hard to aim his thoughts at the increasing water bill rather than what Serizawa could actually be doing in there. He cradles his head in his hands and takes a deep breath. Then another one. Then he gets up and starts putting away the bedding.
When Serizawa steps out of the bathroom, he's changed and holding the comforter in front of him, looking smaller than his size. He steps up to put the comforter next to the pile of bedding next to where Reigen is packing up, and starts to say something, then stops himself.
Reigen rests his hands on his knees, looking anywhere but at Serizawa.
"So, uh..." For once, Reigen is at a loss for words. He sees Serizawa fidget in the corner of his eye, and settles on the approach "cowardly blasé". He straightens up as he speaks.
"You can go ahead, I just gotta put this away-" Reigen has barely finished the sentence before Serizawa nods his head and is out the door.
After finishing up, Reigen makes his way down the stairs in silence, almost considering taking a sick day and run back up to his apartment. Still, he gathers his resolve and steps into the office, determined to at least be civil, however embarrassed he may be.
At his entry, Serizawa peeks up from where he's seated at his desk, greets Reigen in a small voice and then dives back into his work.
Reigen makes the informed decision to play at being ignorant the entire day, in hope that it'd make the hours pass faster.
But by some freak accident involving time itself, the day goes slower than ever. Mob seems oblivious to the change in atmosphere, and Dimple makes an off-handed comment only to shut up when it doesn't get him the reaction he wanted. The pair then leaves in time for dinner as usual, leaving Reigen and Serizawa alone again.
Despite his steeled resolve and all that, Reigen is on pins and needles throughout the last hour of the work day. He half expects Serizawa to leave early just to make it to the train, but as the clock edges closer to closing hours, the other man doesn't move from his desk. If the clock passes quitting time, Reigen won't be the first one to say something about it. It can't get any more awkward between them, anyway.
Then, forty-five minutes after the regular closing hours of Spirits and Such Consultation Office, the silence is finally broken.
"Hey, Reigen."
Reigen keeps tapping away at his keyboard, not looking up at Serizawa but humming distractedly as an answer.
"I think I missed the train again."
Reigen hums again, mind racing in all kinds of directions behind his trained expression. He says nothing, waiting for Serizawa to fill the conversational gap between them.
"Would it be alright if I stayed over tonight as well?"
Reigen can hear his heartbeat thrumming in his ears. He finally gives in and glances up at Serizawa, probably for the first time during the entire day.
The man looks every bit as nervous as Reigen feels. His face is flushed and a bit sweaty, but his expression is adamant, even if the hands in his lap are shaking a bit.
And suddenly it's as if the other shoe drops.
Reigen clears his throat one final time, then takes the plunge.
"Yeah, why not?"