Chapter Text
“Hey Aira?”
“Yeah?”
“What is that?”
Hiiro points to the side, towards the black lattice divider that sits between Rei and Eichi’s beds.
“Like, a privacy screen or something?” Aira answers, not really looking up from the homework he was trying to tackle.
Kohaku shifts slightly, trying not to disturb the assortment of books and snacks that the three had piled on Aira’s bed. “But ya can see through it.” He states.
“Yeah,” Aira halfheartedly shrugs. “I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either.”
“If it’s for privacy, why don’t you have one too?” Hiiro asks. While the dorm that Alkaloid had first stayed in had flimsy curtains on the bunk beds, his current dorm at Starmony Hall didn’t have anything like that installed.
“I don’t…Are you going to help me with this or not?” Aira huffs, handing his papers over to the redhead.
He chooses to ignore the small chuckle Hiiro lets out as he takes the offending homework. He leans back on his hands and glances over to the partition; there really was no point to it, was there? When Aira had first moved into this dorm, he was so overwhelmed with the fact that he was now sharing intimate space with two of his biggest idols that he just ignored the divider, but it had been there since the beginning. It was just a thing . It wasn’t until weeks later (once he started being able to calm down, once he was able to have a somewhat normal conversation with his roommates without becoming a completely flustered mess) that he realized how strange it was that there wasn’t any sort of partition for his bed, or that none of the other dorms he visited had anything of the sort. And the obvious fact that it offered no privacy at all, as you could see right through it.
In those early days of sharing a dorm room, Aira had his theories, as any good idol otaku would. He had been following both Undead and fine for quite a while, both on official social media and anonymous message boards. The two units very seldom ever performed together, outside of bigger festivals. While it was a common practice for many ES units to work together, or even something as small as shout each other out on their LINE chats or congratulate their new releases on Twitter, it was almost like Undead did not exist to fine, and vice versa. Aira thought this was a little strange.
He remembered he had seen a clip from a DreFes performance from their high school days, a shaky video from someone not very close to the stage. Aira’s heart had raced as he could feel the energy as both units took the stage, the crowd’s cheers almost blowing out the speakers on his poor laptop. The clip continued as Rei and Eichi were saying something to one another, of course not anything that could be heard. The two leaders approached each other, not breaking eye contact as if they were facing a predator and not a schoolmate. Eichi extended his hand and Rei had done the same. In a movement so quick that the camera couldn’t clearly pick it up, Rei had grabbed the other man’s wrist and sharply pulled, making the blonde stumble forward. Rei hadn’t let him fall, smirking down at him as the crowd went completely wild.
“Aaaaaah, I think I ship them now!!” Aira had commented under the post before sending the link to the video to his friend - the friend he knew now was the pink haired boy sitting to his right. “Look at this omg omg omg” he had quickly typed before watching the clip again. “Idols are so cool!”
It took a moment for Aira to snap out of his thoughts, for him to realize Hiiro was trying to show him why he had fixed what on his math homework. “Aira,” Hiiro repeated. “Do you get it now?”
“Ah?” Aira whipped his head back to look into Hiiro’s intensely blue eyes. “I mean, no?”
“What’re ya thinking about, Love-han?” Kohaku asked with a laugh. “Ya still turn all red when ya think about the idols ya like, even though yer living together now?”
“N-no!” Aira defensively squeaks, feeling his face heat up as if to drive home the point that yes he does . “I was just trying to remember if either of them had ever told me why they put that up.”
Kohaku lets out a quiet hmm as he pops one of the sweets from the pile into his mouth. “Oh, right, ya ship them together, huh?”
“That’s not-!!“
“What’s “ship?”” Hiiro asked. Aira groans.
“Y’haven’t heard Love-han going on about that before?” Kohaku laughs. “He likes to think they’re together .”
“That was just that one time!” Aira insists quickly before Kohaku can influence Hiiro.
“I can’t remember exactly what ya said, I think ya called it “enemies to lovers” or something?” The pink haired boy didn’t entirely believe that was what Aira had been spacing out about, but seeing him so flustered was a treat he couldn’t resist.
“I see,” Hiiro nods, taking in the information.
“You don’t!” Aira pulls one of his pillows in front of his face. Not only was Hiiro learning about something so embarrassing about himself, but he felt like by talking about it in the room, it would somehow get back to his roommates.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Kohaku pats Aira’s head, not at all sounding sorry.
Aira removed the pillow from the top half of his face, somewhat placated.
“Aira, do you ship us together too?” Hiiro asked, keeping his face neutral and trying not to smile at how red Aira’s face turns at that.
“Y-you-!!”
—-
No matter how many times Aira swears he got every crumb from his bed, his body manages to find another as soon as he tries to lay down.
“This is the worst…” He grumbles under his breath as he gets up for what must be the tenth time, shaking out his sheets. He tries to brush them clean with his hands, going off of touch alone as the lights are dim. The crumbs on the floor were a problem for later. He thinks that maybe he would ask Hiiro and Kohaku to help him clean tomorrow, since this mess was partially their fault.
“Do you need help, Shiratori-kun?” Eichi asks, looking up from his phone. Aira turns to his roommate, currently lounging on his bed but not under the covers. I’m probably keeping him from going to sleep.
“Sorry,” Aira replies as he tries to fix his bed back as quickly as possible. “I’m just having problems getting comfortable.”
“I have an extra set of sheets if you would like them,” The blonde offers, shutting the flap of his phone case and sitting up. Aira shakes his head rapidly.
“No, no, you don’t have to do that!” Aira exclaims. “It’s my fault anyways, I was hanging out with Hiro and Kohakucchi - Kohaku - and we weren’t being careful about eating snacks on the bed.”
“Fufu, I’m sure that was fun,” Eichi settles back down into his bed.
“We haven’t really had the chance to be together in a while.” Aira nods as he gets back into bed. Finally not feeling any tiny, sharp crumbs digging into his skin, he flops back and then rolls over, grabbing his phone from his nightstand and starting his nightly ritual of mindless scrolling.
“You’re very close with Amagi-kun, aren’t you?” Eichi looks over the top of his phone at Aira. “During the magazine shoot I asked him to do the other week, he wouldn’t stop talking about you.”
“O-oh?” Aira didn’t return his gaze, instead staring as hard as he could at the words on his phone, though he wasn’t reading them at all.
“Alkaloid really has become like a family,” fine’s leader states, putting his own phone on the bed next to his pillow and getting under the covers. “I’m glad.”
Aira nods, even though Eichi isn’t looking at him anymore. His thoughts are torn between Hiro was talking about me, he was thinking about me even while working and idols aren’t supposed to be in relationships, Tenshouin-senpai is going to kick me out!
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it was when Aira was tapping the “like” button on Makoto’s blog post when the door quietly opens, then shuts. Rei makes his way to the refrigerator, grabbing one of his cans of tomato juice and swiftly downing it.
“Good evening, Sakuma-senpai,” Aira greets him softly, not sure if Eichi had gone to sleep yet.
Rei smiles at him warmly. “Good evening, Shiratori-kun. I’m sorry if I’ve disturbed your sleep.”
“I’m still up,” Aira smiles back. “You’re back earlier than usual.”
“I have to try to sleep at a normal hour tonight,” Rei says with a sigh. He makes his way over to his own bed and throws himself on it inelegantly, still wearing his jacket. “Undead and Crazy:B have another meeting tomorrow about that cover song project.” He turns his head as Eichi gets back up and walks to the bathroom without saying a word.
“Oh, yeah, Kohakucchi was telling me about it, it sounds really cool!” Aira rolls to face Rei’s bed. “Do you know what other units are going to participate? Or what other songs are going to be covered?”
“I don’t, unfortunately.” Rei replies, smiling at the boy’s enthusiasm. “That’s right, Shiratori-kun and Oukawa-kun have been friends for a while, haven’t you?”
“We met online ages ago,” Aira nods. “But we fell out of contact. It was some strange fate that we ended up meeting here.”
“That sounds almost romantic,” The raven-haired man chuckles.
“Isn’t- Is it romantic?” Aira pretended to seem uninterested, like he definitely hadn’t thought about that before, like he definitely hadn’t brought it up to Kohaku himself while they were idly stroking each other's hands.
“Romantic?” Echoes Eichi as he reenters the room and slides back into his bed. “Ah, good evening, Sakuma-san.”
“Shiratori-kun and Oukawa-kun being reunited after so long,” Rei provides, sitting back up slowly to shrug off his jacket. Speaking only to Aira, he adds with a wink, “This old man thinks stories like that aren’t something to take lightly.”
Before Aira can begin to react, Eichi spoke up, “But Shiratori-kun is closest to Amagi-kun, not Oukawa-kun.”
“Amagi-kun is his unit leader, not the person he was destined to meet.” Rei corrects the blonde with a wave of his hand.
“You haven’t heard how Amagi-kun talks about Shiratori-kun.” Eichi props himself up on his arm, staring at Rei through the divider. “If we’re talking about romantic , it’s how close those two have become.”
“Is that what you think?” Rei returns the stare. “Or is the concept of having someone that you’ll always wind up going back to not enough for you, Tenshouin-kun?”
“It sounds more like you can’t appreciate the closeness that comes from being brought together and clawing your way out from the bottom, Sakuma-san.”
In the months since living together, Aira had realized that the partition in between Rei and Eichi’s bed was there to provide them with the barest form of protection when they get like this . He has never seen his two senpai outright shout at each other, or even say anything that could actually be interpreted as an attack of any sort. But more often than not there was a tenseness in the air between the two, something that was normal to Aira at this point, though still unwelcome. When they were on their beds, staring at one another through the lattice-paterned divider, it was as if they had its permission to be as verbose as possible. They were “safe” to speak for minutes - sometimes hours - on end, almost as if they were in a church’s confessional, spilling their every thought.
This wasn’t the first time that something Aira had said was the catalyst for the two unit leaders to go at one another like this, but this was definitely the most uncomfortable he had felt because of it. His two senpai that he had idolized for ages were…disagreeing about who he liked? That was what it sounded like at first but Aira honestly wasn’t sure at this point. The two were going, and still going, but he hadn’t heard his own name brought up in a few minutes. To be honest, he was more fixated on the fact that neither of them had brought up that idols can’t be in relationships. Belatedly, he realized that he also didn’t deny having a big gay crush on both of his friends, but it didn’t really seem important in the moment.
“Um,” the younger boy tried speaking up, “It’s getting late, and I have school in the morning, so…”
“Of course, of course, apologies, Shiratori-kun,” Rei’s voice was suddenly calm again.
“Yes, we didn’t mean to put you in between our, ah, discussion.” Eichi added. “As our precious kohai, we want you to be happy.”
“When you’re talking about someone who isn’t yourself, it’s easier to imagine a situation where things happen exactly how you wished them, you see?”
Aira does not see, but he’s not wanting to prolong this any more than necessary. “I appreciate that my senpai want me to be happy…with my friends.” He’s aware that both of their stares are on him. “But, u-um, you know, it’s all just…we’re all idols, so…”
“And human as well.” Rei leans back on his elbows.
“Mm, I’ll agree with Sakuma-san on that,” Eichi’s eyes lid. “Of course I’m not saying you should do something that would put you or any one else in any sort of danger of public scrutiny…but as manufactured as we may be, idols are not machines.”
This discussion really wasn’t one Aira imagined he’d be having, that the president of all of ES was essentially telling him it was okay to break one of the biggest rules of being an idol. It felt almost like a trap, and instead of saying anything that would have incriminated him, he chose to just nod and try to settle back down under the covers.
“Of course,” Eichi continues, “As your senpai, I expect you let me know if there’s anything I can do to assist you and Amagi-kun-“
“You’re just so sure it’s him and not Oukawa-kun,” Rei sits back up and glowers through the divider. “Shiratori-kun, the offer extends to myself as well, if you ever-“
“Both of them!” Aira exclaims much louder than he intended, face red, before turning over and pulling the sheets over his head. “I-I’m going to sleep now, I have a test in the morning! Goodnight!”
Either Eichi or Rei let out a small noise that sounded like a chuckle - Aira couldn’t tell which - and then the room became silent save for the sounds of the other two men settling into their beds. Aira kept his eyes firmly shut and didn’t release the tight grip on his blankets until maybe five minutes had passed. When he finally deemed it safe, he snuck a hand out from his covers and pulled his phone back to him.
Goodnight <3 he types into the group text between himself, Hiiro, and Kohaku. I had a lot of fun today!