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It wasn't hard to tell when Souji's parents called. For one thing, they were creatures of habit, so it was always at the same time, every other Sunday night at eight-thirty sharp, and Souji always took the call in his room with the door closed. And, even though it was the most obvious thing in the world, he’d always come back to the living room after the call and tell Yosuke, “That was my parents,” like it was somehow news.
Yosuke, being the excellent roommate he was, would ask how Souji’s parents were and what they'd talked about, and Souji usually gave vague responses and everyone moved on with their lives. It wasn't Yosuke’s favorite ritual, but he didn't think pointing out that Souji’s parents kind of sucked and he should maybe talk to them less would go over well. That felt like the kind of thing Souji probably needed to decide on his own.
The first clue that something about the call on January twenty-fourth was different was that it lasted a full forty minutes, when they usually wrapped up after fifteen at the very most. And Souji always came out looking vaguely haunted--to be honest, Souji looked vaguely haunted most of the time--but this time there was clearly something more on his mind than usual.
“Hey, everything okay?” Yosuke asked, putting his laptop down to give Souji his full attention.
Souji opened his mouth, closed it again, and looked down at his hands. “My parents think we're dating.”
Yosuke opened his mouth and failed to close it, staring at Souji in slack-jawed confusion for a long moment.
“I didn't tell them they were wrong,” he added, when Yosuke failed to respond.
“I need some more information here,” was what finally came out of Yosuke’s mouth. As far as he was concerned, it was a restrained and kind response. He could have used way more profanity.
Souji ran his hand through his hair. “They've been pressuring me about getting married for a while now. They said they were going to start setting up meetings for me so I could find a suitable match.”
Yosuke winced. “I forgot people still did that.”
“They were clear that if I found a girl on my own, I could just marry her. They wouldn't have vetoed someone if I had a relationship. But I didn’t.”
“And if you said you had a girlfriend, they’d just tell you to marry her.”
Souji nodded. “I couldn't legally marry a boyfriend, so I thought I'd tell them I was dating a guy. Honestly, I mostly wanted to see what they'd say.”
“And they said, oh, must be Hanamura?”
“Pretty much. They said they were glad I'd finally trusted them enough to be honest about our relationship.”
Yosuke rubbed his face. “Wow, seriously?”
“I think they might have been trying to lure me out the whole time.” He dropped his head against the back of the couch. “I had no idea.”
“Makes some sense,” Yosuke had to admit. “We've been living together since college, we're both single…”
“I almost told them they were wrong, but then I thought about it. If it was a test to get me to admit it to them, they wouldn't have been bluffing with the marriage. If I said they were wrong and we weren’t together, they’d still expect me to get married.”
Yosuke frowned. “You could have still had a boyfriend, it didn’t have to be me.” It didn't freak him out like it would have in high school, but it still bothered him a little, like having an itchy tag on the back of his shirt. When he didn't think about it, it was easy to forget that his relationship with Souji was a little weird. Or, if not forget, at least to justify said weirdness. They became friends fighting a serial killer inside a TV; of course their relationship was weird.
But it was another thing to have Souji’s parents not only think they were dating, but to come up with a weird plot to get him to admit it. That was a few steps beyond a couple people mistaking them for boyfriends in the past.
“I had my fake boyfriend ready,” said Souji. “His name was going to be Hideki, he was a coworker’s brother, we met at a work party. We'd been dating for about six months.”
Yosuke had to smile. “Trust you to have a whole fake profile ready, partner.”
“But it was always going to be a problem if they wanted to meet him. I would have had to find someone to pretend to be this guy I made up and memorize a whole fake profile.”
“But not if you were dating me,” Yosuke said, understanding flooding through him. He'd thought about faking a girlfriend once or twice in high school, back when he first moved to Inaba and wanted to seem cooler than he was. It had taken about five seconds of talking to Chie to make him realize she'd never buy it and would want some evidence. If he'd had a friend who was willing to help out…
“Sorry,” said Souji.
“No, no, I get it! Honestly, makes a lot of sense.” He tried on a cocky smile. “If you'd told me what was going on, I might have even volunteered. You don't always have to suffer in silence, you know?”
“It just feels so…” He sighed. “Silly, I guess. My parents wanting to marry me off.”
“That's not your fault, dude. It's your parents doing it, that's on them. Of course I’d help you out however I could.”
“I didn't actually think of this,” Souji admitted. “Telling them you were the boyfriend.”
“No, but you’re lucky they thought of it. It was their idea, so they're not going to be suspicious. We live together, we spend most of our time together, I already know what's going on. And we can't get married, so they're not going to pressure you. It's kind of perfect.”
“Not for you. You're not queer.”
Yosuke shrugged. “Not like my social circle has a lot of overlap with your parents’. Who are they gonna tell? It’s fine.”
“You really don't mind?”
“I really don't. If they make us go to dinner, it'll probably be somewhere expensive, right?”
Souji smiled, soft and fond. “I'll make sure of it.”
*
“My dad said you're dating my brother.”
“Hello to you too, Nanako-chan.”
“Apparently my aunt said he finally admitted it.”
Yosuke flopped onto the couch. Nanako had some sort of sixth sense about when to call Yosuke: always when Souji was out of the house. Like she had a tracking device on him or something. “So why are you calling me and not him?”
“I know why he said it,” said Nanako, sounding more like her brother than ever. “I don't know what you're thinking.”
“Why did he say it?”
“Because Aunt Seta wants him to get married. She complained to my dad about it sometimes. She'd ask him if bro was dating anyone.”
“And he said no.”
“I think one time he said if he is dating anyone, it's that Hanamura kid,” she mused. “So maybe the idea came from him. But like I said, I get why bro would say it, not why you'd agree.”
“To help him out?” said Yosuke, frowning at the phone. “Why wouldn't I agree? I'm way more open-minded than I was in high school.”
“Yeah, but what are you getting out of it? Did you want your parents off your back?”
His frown deepened. His parents hadn't asked about his love life in a while, had they? For a few years after college, he'd gotten regular questions about whether or not he was seeing anyone, but when was the last time it had come up? He couldn't remember.
Maybe they thought he was dating Souji too. The more he thought about it, the more he could see how people came to that conclusion. And the more he wondered how many other people already had and never mentioned it to him.
“He's my partner, of course I'm going to help him if I can. And it's not like I have to do anything special. His parents haven't even asked to meet me.”
“You've never met them?” she asked, sounding surprised for the first time in the conversation. “In ten years?”
“Just in passing. I think he introduced us at his graduation, but I always felt like he didn't want me to have to deal with them. Like he was protecting me.” He cleared his throat. “They're your relatives, what do you think about them?”
Nanako hummed thoughtfully. “I don't know. We don't see them very often. And it's hard to like them, you know? Knowing how bro is. Knowing how they were with him. My dad hasn't always been around as much as I’d like, but he never tried to give me away. And I think even without bro, he might have gotten better eventually.”
“Yeah.”
“They just don't love him,” she said softly. “Not like we do.”
“And that sucks,” Yosuke agreed. Like Dojima, Yosuke's parents weren't perfect, but he'd never doubted that they loved him. Every time he visited Inaba, they were thrilled, and they were just as thrilled to see Souji.
Souji didn't even know where his parents were half the time.
“Thanks for checking in,” he told Nanako. “But yeah, I know I'm Souji’s official boyfriend. I'm cool with it. Maybe I'll see you at a family reunion or something.”
Nanako snickered. “Like you need an excuse to see me.” She paused. “What are you going to do if same-sex marriage gets legalized?”
Yosuke didn't keep up with that particular issue, but he didn't think that was going to happen any time soon. “I look pretty good in white.”
That got an outright laugh. “You do.”
“Thanks for calling. Tell your dad we say hi.”
“We?”
“If you told him just I said hi, I think he'd show up here with a shotgun. He still doesn't trust me.”
“I just think this is why people think you're a couple.”
“Thanks for the update. Love you too.”
*
Truth be told, pretending to be Souji’s boyfriend required so little effort that Yosuke was a little disappointed. His life had been fairly mundane since the stuff in the TV had finished, and pretending to date his best friend seemed like the kind of low-stakes, sitcom plot that should have provided a little excitement. It didn't have to be full-on wacky--he wasn't imagining himself running between a date with a girl in one restaurant and dinner with Souji’s parents in another--but it felt as if there should have been something. Aside from Nanako, no one else had even brought it up. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, and apparently Souji hadn't either, given the lack of mocking from the Investigation Team.
“It’s just a little bit of a let down,” he explained to Souji over dinner one night.
“Being my fake boyfriend isn’t as glamorous as you thought it would be? Do I need to dote on you more?”
“You already cook for me every night, hard to get much more doting than that. Unless you want to do my laundry too.”
“I’ve seen your laundry, I’ll pass.” He regarded Yosuke across the table, his head cocked. “I really don’t know what you mean, though.”
“Your parents don’t even want to meet me.”
“They’ve already met you.”
“Once! You said this is Yosuke and your mom looked at me like I was a bug on the bottom of her shoe and they took you to dinner. They don’t know me as your boyfriend. We haven’t even had to fake kiss!”
Souji’s eyebrows went up. “What’s the difference between a fake kiss and a real one? Isn’t it kissing either way?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I don’t. Are you disappointed we haven’t had to actually pretend to be a couple?”
Yosuke rubbed his face. He’d thought his issue would be obvious, but of course Souji was actually clueless or just playing dumb for his own reasons. “I just thought there would be something. Maybe your parents would try to get rid of me, maybe they’d try to prove you were lying about us dating, maybe they’d pay for us to go to America to get married. I don’t know. I didn’t think they’d just find out we were together and shut up.”
“They ask about you when they call now,” Souji offered.
“They didn’t before? I was your roommate before I was your fake boyfriend.”
He paused to think it over. “They ask two questions instead of one. And they call you my boyfriend instead of my roommate.”
“You thought they might ask to meet the boyfriend you made up.”
“They didn’t know him. They know you. Why would they need to meet you?”
A few different responses flitted through his head, but Souji’s brain didn’t always work like Yosuke’s, so trying to get him to understand where Yosuke was coming from was an exercise in futility. Instead, he fixed Souji with a hard look. “Is this what you were expecting them to do?”
That finally got through to Souji, as he’d hoped it would. “No,” he admitted. “But I was expecting it to be a conversation about a stranger. They know we’ve been friends for ten years, and I’m sure they think it’s serious. I assume you’ll be invited to family functions going forward, but there haven’t been any. They’re not going to try to make me dump you.”
“No?”
“Not again.”
He said it casually, as if that would keep Yosuke from asking follow-up questions.
“When was the first time?” he demanded.
“When we first moved in together. They said I didn't need a roommate, that they'd pay for my apartment if I needed money. I told them I wanted to live with you.”
“And they backed off?”
Souji shrugged. “What were they going to do? They couldn’t stop me.”
“Probably another reason they thought I was your boyfriend.”
“Probably.” He looked down at his dinner. “I thought it would bother you more. Letting them think that.”
“Are you kidding? I'm coming out ahead here, partner, you're way out of my league.”
Souji smirked. “Is that why you're disappointed you don't get to fake kiss me?”
Yosuke kicked him under the table. “Shut up.”
*
Three weeks later, Souji was checking the mail while Yosuke tried to play video games even though one of the cats was walking all over him; a pretty typical afternoon in the Seta/Hanamura household. Mail was one of those chores that Souji seemed to find soothing--he liked the process of sorting and classifying--so Yosuke generally wasn't involved until Souji gave him whatever portion he had to deal with, but he watched out of the corner of his eye. He just liked seeing Souji doing things he enjoyed, even if those things were objectively weird.
So he noticed when Souji stilled, frowned at an envelope, and then stopped dead once he'd read the letter inside.
“What's wrong?” Yosuke asked.
“You're getting your wish.”
“Which one?”
Souji held up the letter, clearly an invitation of some kind. “You need to pretend to be my boyfriend. My cousin is getting married.”
Yosuke’s stomach plummeted with cold dread for a second before his brain kicked in. “Dude! You can't just say that!” Souji cocked his head in confusion, and Yosuke rubbed his face. “I thought you meant Nanako.”
“I think if Nanako was getting married, we wouldn't find out from the wedding invitation,” he said, his voice as dry as sand. “This is Akemi, she's my dad’s brother’s daughter, so Nanako won't be involved at all.”
“Your dad’s side of the family, huh? When's the last time you saw the bride?”
Souji had to really think about it. Yosuke wasn't very close to any of his cousins, but he at least knew he'd seen them in the last two years, and sometimes they sent each other dumb text messages.
“She's three years younger than we are,” Souji finally said. “I saw her when I was thirteen and she was ten for our great-grandfather’s funeral.”
“So do you want to go to the wedding? You don't have to. You could have other plans. Just send a nice card and a gift and you'll be fine.”
Souji’s fingers fluttered on the invitation, which would have been enough of an answer for Yosuke all on its own. “I liked her, the last time I saw her. We have a cousin group text. I want to go.”
“Cool. Do you want me to come? Did they actually invite me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you just get a plus one, or was it addressed to both of us?”
“Oh. A plus one. But Akemi wrote I hope you bring your boyfriend! So my parents must have mentioned it to her parents.”
“You’re cool with that? Were you already out to your family?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea which of them knew, but I don’t care much either way. The only thing I’d be worried about would be gossip about us pulling focus from the wedding, but Akemi asked you specifically, so she must not mind. You don’t have to come,” he added. “I can say you’re busy. But if you want to pretend to date me, this might be your best chance.”
“If you want me there, I’m there,” said Yosuke. “But you’re going to have to give me some pointers.”
“Pointers?”
“I’ve never been gay before. Or bi? I should probably be bi. I don’t know if I can pretend to not like girls.”
“Do you really think liking girls is going to come up at my cousin’s wedding when you’re pretending to be my boyfriend?” Souji asked.
“It might! Okay, probably not. Maybe being gay would be safer…”
“Just be yourself. You don’t need pointers on how to act.” He paused. “Please don’t try to act gay, come to think of it. I don’t want to know what that would be like.”
Yosuke scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t want you imitating Kanji’s shadow because you’re afraid you’re not going to be convincingly gay.”
“I wouldn’t--” Yosuke started, but then he thought about it. “Okay, I might have. You’re not worried? This isn’t just dinner with your parents, this is a wedding with your whole family. We’re going to have to convince so many people.”
“They’re not going to be looking for a lie. No one will be looking to prove that you’re not gay or anything like that. Have you ever had someone tell you they were dating someone and you didn’t believe it?”
“You and Ai Ebihara.”
Souji smiled. “You didn't want that to be true. That's different.”
“So you really think we're just going to be fine? Nothing to worry about?”
“We know each other well. All we need to do is come up with a backstory for our romance and remember it. I'll just tell you the things I've told my parents and we’ll fill in the blanks.”
“What about kissing?”
“We don't have to kiss. I doubt any couples there will. At most, we might need to hold hands, but that isn’t difficult.”
“Yeah, but--”
“Yosuke,” he said, his voice pitched low and firm, the leader voice that Yosuke hadn't heard in years. “Don't think about how to fool them into thinking we're dating. Think about what you'd do if we were dating. If I was really your boyfriend, you wouldn't be worrying about proving it or making sure you kissed me enough, right?”
“Probably not.”
“So don’t worry about it. Or don’t come, if you’re so worried.”
“I already said I was going! I want to.”
Souji shrugged, but Yosuke was pretty sure he was smiling too. “Okay. I'll RSVP for us.”
*
In theory, Yosuke knew that Souji was right that he should try to think about how he’d act if they were really dating, instead of thinking about convincing people they were dating, the same way he was right that Yosuke shouldn't try to act gay or anything like that. But it was also really annoying advice, because now he couldn't stop thinking about how he'd be if he was actually dating Souji, and he was slowly losing his mind.
Part of the problem was that he just hadn't dated very much. He'd never taken a date to a family event, so he didn't have any real-life experience to draw on. And Chie never believed him when he said he had dates, so there was precedent there. Not that he was expecting Souji’s family to tease him like Chie did, or to have as low an opinion of his charms. But all his experiences with telling people he was in a relationship had ended with disbelief, and no matter what Souji said, Yosuke had trouble believing this would be the time nothing went wrong.
But the other part was that, so far, nothing actually had gone wrong. Despite everything, people were already convinced he was dating Souji. Even Nanako and Dojima, who knew it was bullshit, seemed to get why Souji’s parents had made the assumption. Which meant that, on some level, Yosuke was already a convincing boyfriend. And he wasn't actually sure what he would do differently at a wedding, if they were really together. When he thought about how it would be to actually date Souji--which he couldn't do for too long because it made his head hurt--most of the things that would be different would be private. They wouldn't be making out in the middle of the wedding reception or anything. That would wait until they were back in their room and then…
Then they weren’t in a relationship, so nothing would happen, obviously. The important thing was that he probably wouldn't have to do anything different other than say he was Souji’s boyfriend, and that bugged him a little. Maybe it would be the same with any of his friends, but the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t really think it would work with anyone else. If he and Chie said they were dating, they’d have to act differently, unless they wanted her family to assume they were in some weird, antagonistic on again/off again thing, which would probably be the only dynamic they could sell anyone. Yukiko would probably giggle the whole time, which wouldn’t be his fault, but would make things awkward. Rise would probably laugh the whole time too, unless she was invested in the whole thing, in which case she’d give him incredibly detailed instructions about exactly how to act and he’d spend the whole time terrified of fucking up. Naoto would have a whole brief prepared, and knowing her would still be stiff and wooden and weird about everything. Hell, she and Kanji had been together for years at this point, and half the time she was still stiff and wooden and weird about their relationship.
And, honestly, the less said about Yosuke pretending to date Kanji, the better. The only one who would be more of a disaster was Teddie, and Yosuke didn’t even want to think about that one. He had nightmares about Teddie asking him for smooches already.
None of which was bad, really. It wasn’t as if Yosuke wanted to be dating any of his friends, not at this point in his life. Ten years ago, if Rise had told him that he needed to pretend to be her boyfriend for convoluted idol reasons, he would have died from happiness on the spot, but these days he could acknowledge that she was gorgeous and he adored her, but with absolutely no romantic feelings. Which he obviously didn’t have for Souji either, so it should have felt just as weird. Instead, it was an entirely different kind of weird, like the difference between one of those little yappy dogs stuffy women kept in their purses and a great dane.
After three days of obsessing over the whole thing, he finally gave up and called Chie.
“Yo,” she said, somehow already sounding unimpressed with him. “What’s wrong?”
“Why does something have to be wrong?”
“Because if nothing’s wrong, you text me. You only call when something’s wrong.”
“Maybe I just wanted to talk to you.”
“So there’s nothing wrong? We’re not going to get through small talk and then you’re like, Souji and I had a fight?”
Yosuke winced. “We didn’t have a fight.”
“But something happened.”
He sighed. “I’d try to make you promise not to laugh, but there’s no way that would work. Can you promise not to tell anyone?”
“I’m telling Yukiko.”
“You don’t even know what it is!”
“Yeah, but you think I’m going to laugh, so it’s not bad. And she’s my girlfriend! You want me to keep funny secrets from my girlfriend?”
“I should have called Naoto.”
“You still could.”
He let out a breath. “Souji’s parents think he and I are dating.”
As expected, she laughed, but not for as long as he’d feared. “Since when?”
“A few months ago.”
“So why are you calling me now?”
“We’re going to his cousin’s wedding. As a couple.”
“Wait, Nanako-chan is getting married?!”
“That’s what I thought! But no, he has other cousins. This is someone on his dad’s side. He hasn’t seen her since they were kids, but I think he was really happy she invited him, and touched that she told him to bring his boyfriend. I’m not going to mess that up for him.”
“So, like, what happened?” she asked, sounding thoughtful. “You two have been partners for ten years, why did they decide that you were dating a couple months ago?”
“It’s a long story. They were on him about getting married and he decided his best option was to tell them he already had a boyfriend to try to get them off his back. And as soon as he told them he had a boyfriend, they assumed it was me.”
Now she was laughing like he’d thought she would, laughing so hard he was pretty sure she was crying. He finally just hung up and went to the kitchen to find a snack, giving her time to recover and call him back. Which she did, at least. There was no way she didn’t want this whole story.
“Of course they did,” she said, when he picked up. “Wow. I can’t believe Souji didn’t see that coming.”
“I get why,” he admitted. “And it made way more sense for Souji to just tell them it was me than for him to make up a whole other boyfriend. But a wedding feels really high stakes for our first fake date.”
“So go on another date first.”
Yosuke frowned. “What?”
“Go out for dinner or something and pretend it's a date. Then the wedding isn't the first time you’re going out.”
“I don't know if that really works if it's just the two of us.”
“That's how most dates are.”
“Yeah, but…” He trailed off, unable to come up with a counter-argument. It was kind of what Souji had said, right? He didn't need to worry about how to convince people, he just needed to act natural. How he'd act if they really were dating. Maybe a test run would help. “Yeah.”
“Are you freaking out about going out with a guy? Do we need to talk through gay panic again?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He scowled at the phone. “Are you seriously asking me why I'm not being homophobic?”
“Sorry, but it's kind of a valid question.”
“I'm not a sixteen-year-old dumbass anymore.”
“Yeah, you're a twenty-six-year-old dumbass.”
“I’ve known he likes guys for years,” Yosuke pointed out. “If I wasn't okay with it, I would have had a breakdown by now.”
“Guys, not you.”
“It's fake, remember? It's not like he's going to try to kiss me. He doesn't even think we're going to have to do anything.” He paused, but he had called her because he needed to talk about this, so if he didn't talk, there wasn't much point. “He told me to just try to act like I would if we were really dating, and it's kind of weird I can imagine that.”
“Why?”
“I can't imagine dating you.”
“Duh, I'm way out of your league.”
“Like Souji isn't?” he shot back, and belatedly realized you're both too good for me wasn't exactly a slam-dunk argument. “I don't really think about this stuff. Now I am.”
Chie was quiet for a while, which was kind of nice. He appreciated when she didn't act like every one of his problems had a simple answer that he was an idiot for not seeing. “I really do think you should just go on a date or two with him. You'll feel better.”
“Really?”
“Because you’re too in your head. Look, before Yukiko and I started dating, we went out to get dinner or go to the movies all the time. And once we started dating, the only difference was that we both knew it was a date. It would probably be the same with you and me. Not that I'm imagining dating you either! But dating someone doesn't really change who you are with them, not if you're dating the right person, you know? So it's probably good you don't think you need to change how you are with him. That's how it should be.”
“But we're not actually dating.”
He could almost see her shrugging. “You want to be convincing, right?”
“Right.”
“So it's good. You’ll see, if you just give it a try.”
Yosuke sighed. “I’ll think about it. Thanks.”
*
The wedding was in two months, in Fukuoka. There was some kind of family dinner on the Friday before the ceremony, so they were both taking that day off work and taking the shinkansen down to Kyushu, returning on Sunday after breakfast. Yosuke was still trying to figure out a normal way to bring up Chie’s date idea when Souji said, “We will need to share a bed,” completely out of nowhere.
“What?”
“At the wedding. I was trying to figure out if I could get away with getting us two beds. If I said I thought it wasn't safe for the two of us to share, they might believe me. But I thought about what I'd do if we were really dating, so I did some research. There were a few reviews from same-sex couples who said the place was welcoming. Maybe Akemi checked, maybe she didn't, but if she did…”
“Dude, breathe. We can share, I don't mind.”
“Are you sure?”
“I'm sure. It's a couple nights in the same bed. I don't mind.”
His shoulders slumped in relief. “Okay. Sorry.”
“Don't apologize. It's fine.”
“Then can I give you some feedback?”
Yosuke snorted. “Feedback?”
“You probably shouldn't call me dude at the wedding.”
“Okay, yeah. Probably not.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, have you talked to Chie lately?”
“She said you told her about the wedding, if that's what you're asking.”
“She thinks we should go on a date.”
“If you’re asking me out, you need to be a little more romantic about it.”
“For practice,” said Yosuke, rolling his eyes. “So the wedding isn't our first time being boyfriends.”
“Oh. If you want, sure.”
“It can't hurt, right? We can get dinner and go to a movie or something.”
Souji patted Yosuke’s leg. “Like I said, be a little more romantic about it.”
He really was so weird. “Hey, partner, will you go out with me?”
“Taking little seriously, huh?” Souji asked, but he was smiling. “Of course. I thought you'd never ask.”
*
As much as Yosuke hated to admit it, Chie had been right about the fake date. There were absolutely no stakes, and no one, aside from him and Souji, even knew it was happening. It was a fake date that both of them knew was fake.
And Yosuke was still standing in front of his closet, fretting about what to wear. So it was good that he was getting this over before the wedding. Then again, at the wedding, he’d have Souji to help him make sure he was dressed appropriately, like he did for ordinary dates, so the fretting might not actually be the same.
But Souji was the one who'd insisted Yosuke really had to ask him out, and he'd let Yosuke plan the whole date because it had been his idea. He was probably going to dress up and look nice, so Yosuke should too. If Souji wanted Yosuke to act a little romantic, he could.
It was actually kind of nice. A reminder that if this was real, some things would be different.
He put on a white button down and some khaki slacks, nothing very fancy, but nicer than what he'd usually wear to hang out with Souji. If Souji had actually been helping, he'd probably look sharper--Souji was better at accessorizing--but it was an honest effort.
“You ready?” he called as he checked his hair in the mirror.
“Whenever you are,” came the response from the other room, and Yosuke tried to ignore the flutter of nerves.
This wasn't a real date. But it was the closest he'd come to a real date in over a year. It was impossible to not feel a little rusty and more than a little nervous.
He left his room to knock on Souji’s door. Should he have gotten flowers? He'd never gotten flowers for a girl before, but Souji might have enjoyed it. It would have made him smile, maybe even laugh. It would have broken the ice.
But then Souji opened the door and his eyes swept up and down Yosuke, his lips curving into a small smile, and Yosuke abruptly stopped feeling like he’d somehow already fucked up. “You dressed up.”
“It's a date. I know I don't look as good as I would if you helped me out, but I did my best.”
Souji reached out to straighten his collar. “You look great.”
Yosuke flushed. “You too. Ready?”
“Yeah. Where are we going?”
“Okonomiyaki. You like it but you don't like making it, so I thought it would be good.”
His mouth twitched. “That's true. Our usual place?”
“Why mess with a good thing?” Yosuke held the door open and gestured him through. “After you.”
Souji led the way down the walk and into the street. Their usual okonomiyaki place was only about ten minutes away, and Yosuke had gone to the trouble of calling ahead to let them know they were coming. He didn't often bother, but he knew Souji did for special occasions, when they wanted to be sure there would be space for them. Yosuke didn't think the owners had any particularly strong feelings about him, but, like most people, they adored Souji.
“Do you think they think we're dating?” he asked.
“Who?” asked Souji.
“The Yamadas.”
“Oh. Yes.”
Yosuke shot him a look. “You sound pretty sure.”
“Yamada-san mentioned it once,” he said. “When I was waiting for you after work. Just the usual kind of…” He waved his hand. “She wanted me to know that she accepted us. Trying to correct her but also tell her I was bi and appreciated her acceptance seemed more complicated than it needed to be, so I just thanked her.”
Yosuke nodded. “Do a lot of people tell you they think we're together?”
As was so often the case, the length of the pause gave Yosuke an answer before Souji spoke. “How many is a lot?” he finally asked, and Yosuke smacked his forehead.
“How many is it?”
“I don't actually count.”
“But it's a lot.”
He shrugged. “Not people who know us very well. But some acquaintances.”
“I sort of thought it was the first time, when it happened with your parents. Not that other people don’t think it,” he clarified. “But the first time anyone told you.”
“It was the first time it seemed important enough to tell you.”
Both Yamadas were as happy to see them as ever, Mrs. Yamada greeting them at the door while her husband waved from the grill. She took them to their table, told them how handsome they looked, and asked Yosuke if it was a special occasion.
His first impulse was to lie, to tell her it was something big and flashy, an anniversary, maybe, a celebration of some kind. Something that would make them look more like a couple.
But if they were dating, he wouldn't have anything to prove, no reason to feel like he had to put on a show.
“Nope,” he said, flashing her a smile. “Just a date night.”
She smiled big. “Well, that sounds nice.”
After dinner, they caught a movie, and as they walked home, Yosuke couldn't help thinking it had been a pretty nice date. If Souji had been a stranger--and a girl, obviously--he would have wanted another date.
Then again, it wouldn't have been the same if it was a first date. They'd skipped all the getting to know each other stuff and just got to hang out, and it wasn't news that hanging out with Souji was one of his favorite things.
“So, are you feeling better?” Souji asked, pulling Yosuke from his thoughts.
“About the wedding. Did the date help?”
“Oh, yeah. I think so. What about you?”
“I already wasn't worried.”
Yosuke bumped his shoulder against Souji's. “Fine, did it make you feel worse?”
Souji laughed. “No, it didn't make me feel worse. I had fun.”
“Me too.” On an ordinary date, this would be the point where Yosuke said they should do it again, but it wasn't actually necessary with Souji. Of course they'd do this again; this was a pretty typical night for the two of them. Instead, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask if Souji ever thought about doing this for real, if he’d ever wished Yosuke liked guys, if he’d ever wanted…
But what would it matter if he said yes? If Yukiko or Rise had ever asked Yosuke if he’d liked them, he would have said yes, and then what? If they didn’t want to date him now, what was the point of asking?
If Souji actually wanted to date him, what would he say?
It was a question he didn’t know how to think about right now, not walking home with Souji after a great evening. Not when there was a part of him that was thinking that if this had really been a date, he’d try to give Souji a goodnight kiss. “Want to grab some beers at the konbini and go home and play video games?” he asked, grateful that his voice came out normally, and Souji grinned.
“Sounds great.”
*
By the time the wedding rolled around, Yosuke had decided that he could, maybe, possibly be into Souji. Just a little bit. It was, so far, purely theoretical, mostly because he wouldn’t want to be into Souji if Souji wasn’t into him. Less because of the rejection--although the rejection would suck--and more because of the way the rejection might affect his entire life. He thought they could probably keep living together if Souji turned him down, but it was hard to be sure. And that was assuming Souji still wanted to live with him, if Souji didn’t feel the same way.
Even if Souji did want to date him, it would be complicated. Two months was long enough for Yosuke to come to terms with his interest in kissing Souji specifically, even to get into the idea, but the closest he’d come to doing anything with a guy was the fake date with Souji. Maybe he wouldn’t actually like it as much as he thought he would.
It was the kind of problem he was going to have to solve eventually, but doing anything about it before the wedding seemed stupid.
Going to the wedding as Souji’s boyfriend also seemed stupid, but he had promised. And there was a part of him that was looking forward to it. He didn’t really think he’d have much of an excuse for public displays of affection, but it was always fun to go somewhere with Souji. And his new crush made the dating part of it less daunting. He wasn’t worried he wouldn’t be convincingly into Souji anymore; that part was going to be easy. It could be a fun weekend, a test-run of what he was pretty sure he wanted, and if it turned out he didn’t want that, he’d just never tell Souji. No harm, no foul.
Chie called while he was packing.
“What,” he said, by way of greeting.
“Damn, why are you in such a bad mood?”
“I’m busy.”
“With what?”
“Packing.”
“So put me on speaker phone!”
She probably wouldn’t stop calling, so he did as she asked. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to see how you’re feeling about the whole wedding thing. I keep expecting a freak-out and then there’s just nothing. It’s weird.”
“Maybe I’m more mature now.”
“Maybe,” she said, sounding dubious. “I thought you might need a pep talk or something.”
Yosuke felt his irritation softening. “You’re worried about me.”
“Please,” she scoffed, “I'm worried about Souji. If you have a gay crisis, he's the one who has to figure out what to say to his family.”
“It would be a bisexual crisis,” he pointed out.
“He's not going to have a crisis,” Souji added. Yosuke jerked up to see him leaning against the door. “Hi, Chie.”
“Hi, Souji! Are you all packed?”
“Pretty much.”
“And you're not worried at all?”
“I'm going to hang up on you,” said Yosuke, to put up some sort of token resistance, but everyone knew it was a lie.
“I'm not worried,” said Souji, proving Yosuke’s point by completely ignoring him. He gave Yosuke a smile that made his heart melt, which wasn't actually a new sensation, Yosuke just hadn't been willing to name it before. “I think it's going to be fun.”
“Me too. The hotel has a hot spring and everything.”
“If you want to go to a hotel with a hot spring you could just come visit us,” Chie pointed out. “You don't need to go all the way to Kyushu.”
“Yeah, we need to go to Kyushu for totally different reasons,” said Yosuke. “We'll visit Inaba soon.”
“Yeah, Nanako says she misses us too,” Souji put in, which just reminded Yosuke of how his cousin had teased him about speaking for Souji. Which he still did, of course. Being a fake couple was going to be so easy.
“I really was hoping for some freaking out,” Chie said, because she was a terrible friend. “Maybe once you get there?”
“Maybe Souji will freak out,” said Yosuke.
“Maybe,” Souji agreed.
Chie huffed. “Well, send pictures at least. I want to see the two of you all dressed up and making kissy faces.”
“You never send me pictures of you and Yukiko making kissy faces,” Yosuke said. “And I always ask.”
“Souji is nicer than I am,” she said, and hung up before he came up with a response to that.
Souji sat down on Yosuke’s bed next to his open suitcase. It was of a thousand things that Souji had always done that Yosuke hadn't given a second thought until he realized how he felt. Now all he could think about was pushing Souji down and kissing him breathless.
His feelings might have been slightly more than theoretical.
“We haven't finalized our story,” said Souji. “That's actually why I was coming to talk to you.”
“Oh, yeah. That is the thing they're going to ask about, huh?”
“I told my parents it was recent. No exact date, but within the last year. I didn't want them to think I'd been keeping it from them since high school.”
Yosuke nodded. “Maybe like six months before you told them?”
“June,” said Souji. “Your birthday.”
“We got together on my birthday?” Yosuke asked. “Man, what a cliche.”
“Is it?”
“If you confessed to me, yeah.”
“Who says I confessed to you?”
“Why would I confess to you on my birthday?”
Souji was smiling. “We can't even agree on how we got together.”
“You're the one who wanted to do it on my birthday. That means it's your thing, not mine.”
“How would you do it, then?”
Yosuke’s mouth went dry. “I don't mind you doing it on my birthday,” he stammered. “But I figured you had an idea.”
“I just thought it could happen at your birthday party,” Souji said. “That seemed like the kind of thing that could happen.”
“And you told me I'm not romantic.”
“I never said I was romantic,” said Souji with a shrug. “I’d probably just kiss you. But it's not a very good story for my family. I thought you might have something better.”
“Not really. The big question is why now,” he admitted, even though it skirted a little too close to how he was really feeling for comfort. “What changed since high school?”
“You liking guys,” said Souji, quickly enough to make Yosuke’s heart race. “I always have, but you haven't.”
“So I tell you I'm into guys and you make a move?”
Souji shifted a little on the bed. “I think that's a narrative that they'd understand. One that makes sense.”
“Yeah,” Yosuke agreed. “Doesn't have to be on my birthday, even.”
“No.”
“Did you ask me out or just jump me? I know I'm pretty irresistible.”
“I think we should tell my family I asked you out.”
“They're going to ask if you were always into me,” Yosuke said, moving onto thinner and thinner ice.
“It's more romantic if I was.” His voice gave nothing away. “They'll like that. You should figure out what to say about liking guys. Someone might ask.”
He didn't have to think about it. “Obviously I figured out I liked you. That's the romantic answer, right?”
“Definitely. I am irresistible. But I always have been,” he added, with neither humility nor smugness. “What took you so long to notice?”
Yosuke had to laugh. “I don't know. I'll try to figure it out.”
*
They took the train late Friday morning. Souji packed bento boxes, made sure the cats had enough food and water for 48 hours on their own, and then the two of them made their way to the station. Souji, as usual, settled in with a book, while Yosuke put his headphones on and leaned against the window, thinking about liking guys, as a broad concept. It still didn't feel exactly right, like shoes he hadn't fully broken in, but the more he thought about it, the more he recognized moments when he'd pushed attraction or interest away and told himself it didn't mean anything.
Everyone loved Souji, he'd told himself. It would have been weirder if he didn't.
Souji had timed the trip so that they'd get to Fukuoka just after check-in time at their hotel, so they went straight there, at which point Yosuke’s nerves set in. Souji’s parents were staying here, along with all of his non-local relatives, which meant that as soon as they were in the hotel, they could encounter people who knew Souji and wanted to be introduced to his boyfriend at any time. He wasn't panicking, not like Chie wanted him to, but the shift from knowing you were going to do something to actually doing it was always rough. He’d been so sure everything would go fine, but now all he could think was that everyone would know something was up.
As if he was reading Yosuke’s mind, Souji reached over and took his hand as they walked toward the check-in counter. By some miracle, Yosuke didn’t jump, but he did slant a look at Souji.
“I know meeting the family is stressful,” Souji told him, low enough that no one would overhear. “I’m not worried you’re panicking.”
“Just that I’m stressed,” Yosuke teased.
“It’s different.”
Yosuke squeezed Souji’s hand, just to see how it felt. “I’m fine, partner. Don’t worry.”
“You can tell me if you’re not.”
“I know.”
He was expecting Souji to let go of him, but he didn’t. He kept a hold of Yosuke’s hand as they went to the desk and through check-in. He had to drop it to sign some things and take the keycards, but once they were done, Souji took his hand back and tugged him towards the elevator.
“Are you okay?” Yosuke asked. “Not that I mind holding your hand, but…”
“I might be a little nervous,” Souji admitted.
“You should have said.”
“It’s been a long time since I saw any of these people in person. Even my parents. I didn’t think I cared, but apparently I do.”
“We don’t have any plans until dinner tonight, right?”
“No.”
“So we’ll go to our room, settle in, and if you’re still feeling nervous, we can hit up the hot springs and unwind.”
That made Souji smile. “You just want to go to the hot springs.”
“Duh.”
The elevator doors opened and he and Souji went in, letting go of each other again. Souji tapped his keycard against the reader and then hit their floor. He was about to push the button to close the doors too when someone said, “Please hold the doors!” and Yosuke could see Souji snap to attention, his whole body tensing.
He still pushed the button to open the doors.
The couple that joined them wasn’t Souji’s parents, but Yosuke was sure they were relatives, probably an uncle and an aunt. In all their years of friendship, Souji had barely talked about his parents, let alone his extended family, but Yosuke had gotten a crash course before the wedding. Souji’s father had three siblings, the father of the bride and then two sisters. The bride and her parents lived in Fukuoka, so it probably wasn’t her dad, but the woman who’d jointed them had silver hair, so--
“Sou-chan!” she said, beaming as she recognized him. “Is that you?”
Souji’s smile was polite, picture-perfect, but Yosuke knew him enough to know there was no warmth in it. “Aunt Emiko. It’s been a long time.”
“I was so happy to hear you’d be coming! You’ve gotten so big.” Her eyes flicked to Yosuke, and he gave her a smile of his own. “And this is the boyfriend,” she said, as if boyfriend was a delicate word that she didn’t want to break.
“Yes,” said Souji. “Yosuke Hanamura, my boyfriend. Yosuke, this is my Aunt Emiko and her husband, Takeru Kishimoto.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Yosuke, with his best Junes smile. “So glad we could make it. What floor do you need?”
“Oh, eight, thank you.”
“Same as us,” said Yosuke. “They must have gotten a block of rooms for the wedding. Where did you come in from again?”
Yosuke and Emiko chatted on the ride up, but Souji and Kishimoto were silent and tense on opposite sides of the elevator. It was hard to tell if the awkwardness was because of homophobia, how long it had been since they'd seen each other, some weird family thing Yosuke didn’t know about, or a mix and match of the three, but whatever was happening, he was profoundly relieved when the doors opened and Emiko and her husband found their room almost directly next to the elevators.
Yosuke and Souji had a little farther to go, but they went in silence until they reached their own room and Souji had opened and then closed the door.
“I'm sorry,” he said, before Yosuke could speak.
“How bad was that?” Yosuke asked, trying for curiosity and landing closer to caution. “Like, are those some of your worst relatives or…”
“I stayed with them for a summer in elementary school. They don't have any kids back then, and Uncle hated having me around. He thought I was too loud.”
Yosuke gaped at him. “You? Too loud?”
“I was louder before that summer,” said Souji, so casual Yosuke thought that his chest might crack open.
“Dude.”
“No dude, remember?”
“Partner. That's awful.”
He shrugged. “I was glad I didn't have to stay with them again. But I don't think I'll ever talk much around him.”
“I guess not.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Your aunt didn't seem wild about the boyfriend thing either.”
Souji sat down on the end of the bed with a smile. “You were winning her over.”
Yosuke took one of the chairs. “You didn't really answer my question, though. How bad are they, compared to the rest of your relatives?”
Souji rubbed the back of his neck. “I'll probably be awkward around all the adults. I haven't seen them in a long time, and I never really knew them very well. The cousins are mostly fine.”
“Mostly?”
“I don’t really know the younger ones, Aunt Emiko’s kids. They’re closer to Nanako’s age. My aunt Chiyo’s oldest son was kind of a bully, but he's four years older than I am. He has a couple kids of his own now. If we're lucky, he grew up a little.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry about holding your hand.”
“I don't mind. Hold it as much as you need to, partner.”
“Make sure to text Chie and tell her I'm a mess and you're doing fine.”
“I'll brag about it once we're done. For now, walk me through dinner. Who’s going to be there? How much should I hate them?”
For better or worse, it turned out only Souji’s parents would be at dinner, so this was at least something Yosuke had prepared for. Ever since Souji had told them that he and Yosuke were dating, Yosuke had expected an awkward dinner with some pointed questions about his intentions. What a waste of stressing it would have been if he never got it.
Once they’d talked through the rest of the evening, Souji at least seemed to relax a little. Or, he relaxed by Souji standards, which meant he spent a while exploring the room and making sure that he’d situated his suitcase correctly while Yosuke stretched out on the bed and tried not to think about how they’d be sleeping in it together that night. It was a big bed, but not huge, and Yosuke tended to shift around a lot in his sleep. The odds that he’d end up wrapping himself around Souji without even knowing it seemed pretty good.
“Do you still want to go to the hot spring?” Souji asked, sitting back down on the edge of the bed with a whoosh that Yosuke felt.
“You want to?”
“It might make me feel better.”
“Then yeah, let’s go.”
Bathing with Souji was nothing new, but it had been a while since the last time they’d done it. There wasn’t a public bath very near to their current place, so they usually only went when they visited Inaba, and not even always then.
They certainly hadn’t done it since Souji had told his parents the two of them were dating, let alone since Yosuke had realized he wanted that to be true. But it didn't feel as different as he thought it probably should have. He'd always stolen a few glances at Souji as they got undressed and showered, and he'd always told himself that it was a pretty normal thing to do, a natural curiosity about how he and his best friend were different.
It might even have been true, but now he realized he also just wanted to check Souji out.
He looked good, like he always did. His muscles weren't as defined as they were in high school, but not in a bad way. Both of them ate better than they had back then, put on a little weight and settled in to being two guys in pretty good shape but who weren't battling through hordes of monsters in a nightmarish alternate dimension on the regular. It was worth losing a shredded six pack for that.
As always, Yosuke didn't let himself look anywhere below the belt, except to check out Souji’s (very nice) ass as he led the way towards the baths. But there was a familiarity to that too, the desire to see what Souji was packing and the knowledge that he definitely shouldn't look. He just wanted to look a lot more now, and he didn't pretend it was just because he wanted to see if Souji was bigger than he was.
He did have a few more fantasies about getting up close and personal in the deserted bath, but luckily they were pretty easy to ignore. Souji probably wasn't looking at his dick either, but if he got a glimpse, Yosuke didn't want to be hard.
But he didn’t need to worry. As soon as they were in the bath, Souji closed his eyes and leaned back, looking so relaxed that he might melt. “This was a good idea.”
Yosuke leaned back himself. “I'm really smart, yeah.”
“You are.”
“So, tomorrow. What do we have other than the wedding and the reception?”
“Dinner at some nice restaurant after the reception, but I think we’ll probably be seated with my cousins. I assume we’ll see some relatives at breakfast too, but there's nothing planned until the wedding.”
“Anything you want to see in Fukuoka while we're here?”
“Not off the top of my head.”
“I bet there's some cool shrine or something you'd like.”
“You don't have to worry about me.”
“That would have been more convincing yesterday.”
Souji let out a long sigh, although about half of it seemed to be pleasure at relaxing in the water. “I know it's not great. Whenever I'm around my family--Nanako and my uncle excluded--there's a lot of pressure to be what they want me to be, and I never really have been.”
“Man, I don't get that. You're like the perfect son. My parents still wish I was more like you.”
“Your parents are proud of you.”
“Yeah, but if we told them they were dating, they'd be so pumped to get to call you part of the family. You’d become their favorite son in about five seconds. If you're not what your parents want, they're the ones who are wrong, not you.”
Souji didn't respond for a while, but Yosuke wasn't worried. He just let his limbs float in the water, enjoying the sensation of weightlessness, the warmth of the water and the knowledge that Souji was by his side.
“I know that,” Souji finally said. “I do. But it's hard to remember when I'm with them. You're going to laugh, but I'm the black sheep of the family.”
Yosuke did laugh, mostly because he knew Souji wanted him to. “Your family sucks.”
“Like I said, a lot of my cousins are fine. But I'm the second oldest, after Taichi. The bully,” he added. “He did exactly what he was supposed to. Job at the family company, married right out of college, his first kid a year later, the second and third a few years later. Akemi is only the second to get married, but the others around my age are either engaged or in serious relationships. It won’t be long before they get married and carry on the family, just like they’re supposed to..”
Yosuke considered that. “You know, I always figured you wanted kids.”
“I do. But I don't have plans to have them any time soon.”
“And your parents would be worried about you getting approved to adopt if you were with a guy.”
“Yeah.”
“I meant it,” Yosuke told him, trying to pour sincerity into every word. “If they don't appreciate you, that's on them. They could look at all the good stuff you're doing and be proud. But all they see is what you're not doing.”
“They see what other people see,” said Souji. “What other people will think of them because of me.”
“Bullshit. I thought your parents must be amazing when I met you. I don't know how you turned out so well with the family you have, but you make them look so much better than they deserve.”
Souji huffed out a soft laugh. “I wouldn't have come without you, you know. I wanted to be here for Akemi, but I would have been miserable alone.”
He seemed kind of miserable even with Yosuke here, but it was easy to imagine how much worse it would have been if he was on his own. If he didn't have Yosuke to remind him that he was amazing. Anyone could have done it--Souji’s family were the only people Yosuke had ever met who didn’t appreciate him--but Yosuke was glad it was him.
“We're going somewhere expensive for dinner, right?”
“Definitely.”
Yosuke sank a little deeper into the water. “Then I wouldn't be anywhere else.”
*
“So good to see you again, Hanamura-kun,” said Souji’s dad, with all the effortless smarm of a politician looking for votes. “It's been too long.”
“It has,” Yosuke agreed. Two could play the fake politeness game. “Thanks for inviting us out.”
“Of course.” He held the door open for them. “After you.”
Yosuke went first, followed by Souji and his mother, but it wasn't until Souji’s father came in that all the staff snapped to attention.
“Seta-sama,” said the host, with a bow lower than Yosuke had ever had to do at Junes. “We're so honored to have you dining with us. Your table is this way.”
From a certain perspective, Yosuke could see how Souji could be a disappointment to this kind of man. As far as Yosuke was concerned, Souji’s job in civil service was far more impressive than his parents’ corporate climbing, but no one ever groveled at Souji like they did at his father. When they walked into their favorite restaurants, they were greeted with warmth, not deference. Souji forged friendships and relationships, and he probably could have used those same skills to become incredibly successful in the family business. It was so easy to see how well he would have fit in, if he’d wanted to. Of course his dad was disappointed.
But Yosuke remembered telling his own family that he didn't want to work for Junes, how nervous he'd been that his dad would be upset or disappointed. And he probably had been, but he'd hidden it so well Yosuke couldn't tell. They'd had plenty of conversations about Yosuke’s life path since then, including some reminders that if he ever wanted to come back to Junes, he'd be welcome, but they'd never made him feel like he was a disappointment or a failure. Yosuke knew from personal experience that it was possible to disagree with what your son was doing with his life without being a total asshole about it.
“What is it that you do again, Hanamura-kun?” Souji’s mom asked him after they ordered.
Next to him, Souji tensed in a way that suggested she knew the answer to this question but still asked it on a regular basis.
“I'm an audio engineer,” he said, giving her an easy smile. “I love music, but I'm not really good enough to play guitar for a living like I wanted to. I still play for fun, but for work, I make other people sound good.”
“How does work like that pay?” asked Souji’s father.
“Dad,” said Souji, his tone as sharp as Yosuke had ever heard it.
“What? It's just a question. Your profession doesn't pay particularly well, so I assume Hanamura-kun here is the breadwinner. I don't want you coming to us for money when you can't support yourselves.”
Souji’s jaw worked. Yosuke wasn't happy his dad was being a dick, but it was always a little bit exciting to see Souji lose his temper. It hadn't happened in a while.
“I haven't asked you for an allowance since I was in middle school,” Souji said, his voice low and even, dangerous. “You haven't paid for anything for me since I finished college, and I offered to pay for college myself too. In fact, the last time you offered to support me, it was because you didn’t want me to live with Yosuke. I said we could take care of ourselves, and we can.”
Souji’s father scoffed, but he didn't have a counter-argument. His mother was anxious, her eyes darting between her husband and son and the door of their room. They had privacy, but someone on the staff could be coming to bring them something or even just passing by. Anyone could see Souji and his dad glaring daggers at each other, and of course, it wouldn’t do for the family to be seen at odds with each other, especially by the help.
Souji had his hands in fists on his thighs, and Yosuke reached over to hold the one closest to him. “My job pays well, as does your son’s. We haven’t had any trouble yet. And if my career as an engineer falls through, I know Junes will always take me back.”
If he’d really been trying to deescalate the situation, he wouldn’t have said it, but Souji’s dad was a dick. Yosuke wasn’t actually very interested in making him feel better.
“Junes?” asked Souji’s mom, in what was probably supposed to be a polite tone. “The chain store?”
“Yosuke’s father is a manager there,” said Souji. “So he has an in. Just like I have an in with the Seta Group, if I ever decide to leave public service.”
His father’s eyes flashed. “You really think the Seta Group would take you back? After the way you’ve acted?”
“If he asked you for a job, you’d give him one before he finished the question,” Yosuke said. Souji looked more relaxed than he had since they met up with his parents; there was no reason to stop being a little shit now. “I’m pretty sure you fantasize about him coming crawling back to you. It’d be a shitty job,” he granted. “I’m sure you’d make him work his way up the hierarchy. But you’d upgrade him to a cushy position you could brag about as soon as you decided he’d sucked up enough.”
It had been a while since Yosuke had pissed someone off enough that they actually physically assaulted him, but Souji’s dad was definitely thinking about it. Which honestly wasn’t that worrying. Souji was watching him with sharp eyes, and Yosuke had always been fast and evasive. If he did throw a punch, it was just a question of if Yosuke would need to dodge or Souji would manage to intercept.
Instead, there was a soft knock on the door and then it slid open. One of the servers came in with soup and tea, efficiently distributing them with no regard for the tension at the table.
By the time she left, tempers had cooled, and Souji’s mom asked a much less loaded question about how the cats were doing. Souji gave a few cute anecdotes and asked her about her volunteer work, and for the rest of dinner, conversation remained surface-level and only a little strained.
But Souji never let go of Yosuke’s hand under the table.
*
Souji’s parents were on the same floor of the hotel they were, so they had a tense cab ride back and a silent elevator ride up to eight before they finally got to their room and had some privacy.
Not that Yosuke knew exactly what to do with said privacy. He didn't feel bad about what he'd said, nor did Souji seem upset with him. It had been about as weird and uncomfortable as he'd been expecting, but it had also been a little bit exhilarating.
That was what he focused on. “Do you think they got it?”
Souji gave him a fond smile. “Of course. They're the ones who thought we were dating in the first place, they didn't change their minds.”
“Not that. Do you think they understand they don't have any control over you anymore?”
“What do you mean?”
Yosuke flopped back on the bed, looking at the ceiling with a doubtlessly goofy grin. “You can tell them you broke up with me, tell them you're never going to get married, tell them whatever you want and it doesn't matter, partner. They don't have a single thing to offer you. All they can do is threaten to disown you, and you don't even care if they do that. And even if they did, they'd always let you come back. You've got all the power here.”
“I know.”
Yosuke sat up. Souji was leaning against the desk, watching him with a wistful smile. “So why don't you tell them to just…leave you alone?”
He came over to join Yosuke on the bed. “They never called me the whole time I was in Inaba. Not once.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured.”
“It wasn't until I told them I was going into child welfare in college that they started calling. They thought that because I was getting good grades in school, I was on the right path and they didn't need to do anything. When they figured out they were wrong, they started calling.” He shrugged. “It's stupid, but I don't want to lose them. I'm the same as they are. We're both hoping the other will change, even knowing it’ll never happen. But it was a relief to stand up to them, for once. Instead of trying to play nice.”
“Then you should do that more. Like I said, you have all the power here, partner. They're the ones who want something from you.”
“All they can do to me is take away affection, and they barely give me that in the first place.”
It was incredibly bleak, but the kind of bleak that Souji didn’t usually want to talk about. “That's what I'm saying. If it made you happy, I wouldn't care, but you always come out of calls with them looking miserable. You seemed a lot happier when I was trying to get your dad to punch me.”
Souji snorted. “He nearly did.”
“I would have dodged it.”
“It was fun to just not give a shit,” he admitted. “I should try it more often.”
“Like I said, if they were going to disown you, they already would have, so you might as well just tell them what you really think.”
Souji smiled. “My mom liked you.”
“Really? How could you tell?”
“I think my dad will too, when he gets over how rude you were. It’s…complicated. As disappointed as they are in my life choices, I know they’re also proud that I’m so sure of who I am and what I want. My mom liked you because you’re the same way, and you stood up for me. I think,” he added, with a self-conscious smile. “Maybe I’m giving her too much credit.”
“I’m giving her no credit, so we can meet in the middle.” He stretched. “I think I’m gonna turn in. Did you figure out something you want to do tomorrow?”
“There are some temples I wouldn’t mind looking at, but you don’t have to come.”
“Hey, I’m cultured! I can go to temples.”
“Then we can go to some temples.” He cleared his throat. “Which side of the bed do you want?”
Yosuke felt the blood drain from his face. Somehow, even though they’d been sitting on the bed together as they talked, he’d forgotten that they were going to actually get into the bed together. They’d sat next to each other plenty of times on a bed, but they’d always gone to separate places to sleep before. He’d never actually slept in the same bed as anyone before; the few times he’d had sex with girls, he hadn’t stayed for the whole night.
“I like being closer to the wall?” he offered, for lack of any other preference.
“Okay,” said Souji. “I’m going to go brush my teeth and get changed, then.”
Yosuke changed while Souji was in the bathroom and then went to brush his own teeth. By the time he was done, Souji was in bed, leaning against the headboard and reading a book. Even with all the awkwardness hanging in the air, Yosuke couldn’t help thinking he looked inviting. It was all too easy to imagine more nights like this, crawling into bed next to Souji, giving him a kiss and telling him not to stay up too late reading.
He could at least do two out of three tonight. “What time is breakfast?” he asked, sliding under the covers on his side.
“Starts at seven, goes until nine.”
“I assume you want to go early.”
“The earlier we go, the less likely we are to see anyone.”
“Okay, I’ll set my alarm for six-fifteen, take a shower, be ready for breakfast right at seven. Don’t stay up too late, okay? Tomorrow’s going to be stressful.”
“I won’t. Thank you again for being here.”
“Wouldn’t be anywhere else.” He settled in, closing his eyes. “I move around a lot when I’m sleeping, don’t be surprised if I end up on top of you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Souji, his voice giving nothing away. His face probably wouldn’t have either. “Goodnight, Yosuke.”
“Night, partner.”
*
To his mild disappointment, Yosuke didn’t wake up on top of Souji. When his alarm went off, he and Souji were firmly on their sides of the bed, not even touching, and Yosuke assumed his disappointed groan would seem related to the alarm and not the lack of spooning.
“Good morning to you too,” said Souji.
“You go to bed later than I do, you get up earlier, but somehow you’re always better rested,” he grumbled. “If you weren’t my best friend, I’d hate you.”
“Then I’m glad I’m your best friend. You can take your shower first, I’ll go after you.”
As Souji had hoped, their early breakfast meant they didn’t see anyone they knew while they ate. Once they were done, they went into the city. Souji had a whole itinerary of shrines and other landmarks he wanted to visit, ending with a lunch out before they headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. Yosuke didn’t have any very strong opinions about shrines, but he always liked watching Souji geeking out, and the restaurant was good. Even if the wedding was a total shitshow, they would have some good memories to look back on.
Not that he told Souji that. The closer they got to the time of the wedding, the more tension crept back into his shoulders, and Yosuke didn’t think it would help if he admitted he was also worried things would go wrong.
“Your parents won’t want to make a scene in front of everyone,” he pointed out instead, straightening his tie in the mirror. “And I won’t try to make your dad punch me again.”
“I wasn’t worried about that.”
“So what are you worried about?”
Souji came out of the bathroom, looking pale but still stupidly handsome in his suit. “I don’t know. I’m running through every possibility, and I don’t like that most of them are mundane and painless.”
Yosuke snorted. “Yeah, who wants that?”
“It makes me feel like I’m missing something.”
He could admit there was a certain logic to that, even if it wasn’t particularly good logic. “You’re probably not. You know a lot about worst-case scenarios. It’s a wedding. The ceremony will be boring but probably pretty short, we won’t have to do anything at the reception, and if we don’t want to go to the dinner after, we can just bail. Let your whole family think you can’t wait to go back to your room and have a lot of sex with your boyfriend.”
“That does sound a lot better,” said Souji in the same even, placid tone he'd used to talk about the prospect of being attracted to Yosuke for their entire friendship.
“Oh, we should get a picture now. Just in case we don’t remember later.”
Souji had many talents, but taking selfies wasn't one of them, so as usual he leaned in while Yosuke got a few shots. He picked the best one and sent it to the Investigation Team group text without thinking.
Rise was the first to reply: omg u 2 r getting married & didnt tell us???!?
NOT LEGALLY, said Naoto. UNLESS THEY LEFT THE COUNTRY.
“I only told Chie, huh,” said Yosuke. Right on cue, she chimed in with that stupid emoji with no mouth, which was probably the least helpful emoji choice possible.
“Yeah, I didn't tell anyone,” said Souji. “I'll explain.” We’re going to my cousin’s wedding, he typed, and sent it before Yosuke could remind him that everyone was going to assume he meant Nanako. Which they did, immediately, but he couldn't even say I told you so, because Teddie was calling him.
“What are you doing with sensei??” he demanded, before Yosuke could even say hi.
“Hi, Ted. Been a while, good to talk to you, Souji and I are fine, how are Mom and Dad doing?”
“They're fine, they love you! What are you doing?”
“We're at his cousin Akemi’s wedding,” he said, hoping to avoid the whole Nanako issue. “Which you'd know if you just kept reading the group text instead of calling me.”
“Sensei’s cousin? Is she cute?”
“Dude, she's literally getting married. She's not going to go out with you.”
“Does he have more cousins? Cute ones?”
“I haven't met them yet but I'm not going to get their numbers for you.”
“You could get them for you! I know you want a girlfriend.”
Reading over Souji’s shoulder, he could see that Souji had explained the whole thing, fake dating and all, to the group text, so he said, “I'm actually here as Souji’s date, so--”
Teddie’s gasp cut off the rest of his explanation. “You're dating sensei? I'm so happy for you!!”
“Ted, that's not--”
“I have to go tell Mom!”
“You really don't,” Yosuke said, but of course Teddie had already hung up. He rubbed his face. “Wow, I don't think I could have fucked that up more if I was trying.”
Souji patted his shoulder. “Just text your mom, she knows how he is.”
That, at least, was true, and Teddie would get the real story whenever he bothered to check his texts. Texting his mom felt a little weirder, but it was better than letting Teddie’s version of reality stand uncontested, and she immediately responded that she understood, but if he and Souji ever did start dating, she and his dad would be very happy for them. So that was confirmation that his parents also thought there was something going on with them.
“Does everyone we know think we're secretly married?” he asked Souji.
Souji just shrugged. “Apparently. Let's get going.”
*
“So, Sou-chan said you met in high school? But you only just started dating, right?”
As expected, the wedding had been quick and pretty painless. They sat with Souji's cousin Reika and her boyfriend, chatted with them a little, and then watched Akemi get married. Afterwards, they made their way to the reception, listened to the speeches and reacted appropriately, and then followed the crowd to dinner. As luck would have it, seats were assigned and they were with Reika and the rest of the unmarried-but-partnered cousins. Aside from the bride’s brother’s girlfriend, who gave Yosuke some lowkey homophobic vibes, it was a nice group, and now that everyone had finished their first drinks, Reika was apparently ready to get the backstory he and Souji had figured out.
“Yeah,” he told her. “Last June.”
“What happened? Did he ask you out? I can never imagine Sou-chan being romantic.”
“Why would you imagine that?” her sister, Ami, teased. “He’s your cousin, you’re not supposed to be thinking about him being romantic.”
“That’s not what I meant! He’s just always so cool and quiet. I can’t imagine him getting down on one knee and serenading someone.”
Reika’s boyfriend, Kamui, snorted. “I didn’t get down on one knee and serenade you either, you know.”
“It was just an example,” Reika protested. “Don’t take it so seriously. Anyway, Hanamura-kun, did Sou-chan make the first move?”
“Yeah, he did. But I wouldn’t say it was super romantic. He just told me he was interested and asked if I felt the same.”
“Not very romantic at all, Sou-chan,” said Ami, shaking her head.
“If it worked, who cares?” asked Souji. “I wasn’t trying to be romantic.”
Reika was watching him with narrowed eyes. “So why now, after all these years?”
Souji took a sip of his sake. “I was always interested, but Yosuke thought he was straight. When he told me he wasn’t, well…”
“As soon as I realized I liked guys, I knew I was into him,” Yosuke found himself saying. “I was trying to figure out how to tell him when he confessed to me.”
“Awwww,” said Ami. “That’s adorable, though! What made you realize?”
“A lot of things, I guess.” This, at least, he’d prepared for. “It was kind of hard for me, honestly. When Souji and I were in high school, I was a homophobic dick. As more of my friends came out, I got better and better about it, but there was still a part of me that always thought I couldn’t be like that. I liked girls, you know?” He was expecting Souji to make a comment there, to point out that he liked girls too, but when he glanced over, Souji was watching him intently, waiting for whatever Yosuke was going to say next.
He had to clear his throat to get his voice to work. “Anyway, Souji and I have lived together for years, he’d bring guys home sometimes, and even if I didn’t admit it, I would get jealous.”
“You didn’t get jealous of the girls?” asked the presumed homophobic girlfriend whose name Yosuke couldn’t remember. She sounded really curious, so maybe she had some of her own stuff she was dealing with.
“Probably. It was different, I guess. I was like…” He looked for the words, not even caring anymore than he was telling everyone, Souji included, almost the full, unvarnished truth. Only the timeline was off. “I figured I’d find a girl and he’d find a girl and we’d both get married, but I’d always be his best friend. Even if I didn’t like the idea of him moving away when he got married, I figured we’d be doing the same thing. But with a guy, I always felt like I’d get replaced. And then I finally realized that I wanted to be the one dating him. So, really, I figured out I liked him, so I must like guys too.”
“And Sou-chan was so excited he didn’t even wait for you to confess to him,” said Reika, grinning at her cousin. Souji had been looking at Yosuke, almost hypnotized, but Reika’s question shook him out of it, and he returned her smile easily.
“Well, what if he decided to date someone else? I didn’t want to miss my chance.”
Ami nodded. “No wonder your parents weren’t surprised. Our mom said they were just glad you finally told them.”
“They thought it had been going for a long time,” said Souji. “I corrected them about when it happened, but…” He glanced at Yosuke with a smile that made Yosuke’s heart flip. “They might have been right after all.”
*
Part of why Yosuke hadn’t been planning to confess to Souji before the wedding was that he didn’t want to make the wedding awkward, but, in classic Hanamura fashion, he’d managed to sort of confess at the actual wedding, which would have been awkward even if everyone else at the wedding didn’t already think they were dating. If there was some way to make money off of fucking things up, Yosuke would have been rich enough that even Souji’s parents would have been impressed.
There were things he could do even with Souji’s family around, of course. He could have tried to send Souji a discreet text, but he wasn’t even sure what he’d say. just so u know that was 90% true? fy i rly do like dudes/u? They might have gotten his point across, but Reika would have been very disappointed with his sense of romance.
Besides, it wasn’t like he had to rush it. He’d spent ten years falling for and then accepting that he’d fallen for his best friend. One more night of waiting to talk to Souji about it wouldn’t kill him. Especially because, miraculously, Souji really did seem to be enjoying himself. Most of his cousins were cool, as he’d said, and it was clear he was happy to see them again. The bride stopped by their table before the main course and they got to congratulate her and her new husband, and she was as thrilled to see them both as she’d said she would be. Yosuke even got a hug, just like the rest of the family.
Souji’s parents and other relatives were obviously around too, on the periphery of Yosuke’s awareness, but they stayed at their respective tables, only occasionally glancing over. Maybe they didn’t want to risk Yosuke embarrassing them, or even Souji. It was a lot easier to pretend you had the son you wanted if you didn’t let him talk to anyone. From a distance, Souji probably looked almost perfect. Give or take a boyfriend.
As dinner wrapped up, Yosuke’s nerves set in, but it was mostly anticipation. This would be the end of their obligations, and they could go back to the hotel room, and Souji could tell Yosuke whatever he was thinking. Somehow, right now, Yosuke couldn’t believe it was going to be bad news.
He might actually have a boyfriend to tell his parents about after all.
Unfortunately, right as they were finishing, Akemi’s brother said, “You’re coming to the club, right?”
Souji and Yosuke exchanged a look. “Club?” Souji asked.
“Oh, I forgot to tell them!” said Ami. “Sis and I thought all the older cousins could go to this club Akemi-chan likes. She and Shin-kun have some stuff to finish up with the family, but she promised she’d try to come by and let us buy her a drink or two.”
“Oh,” said Souji. “Of course we’ll come, yeah.”
“Awesome! Come on, we’ll grab a taxi.”
They shared a cab with Reika and Kamui, Kamui taking the front seat while the rest of them squeezed into the back. Souji took the middle and kept his hand on Yosuke’s thigh for the whole ride, which was simultaneously encouraging, comforting, and kind of frustrating. He didn’t need Souji’s hand that close to his dick in a crowded car.
The club wasn’t much better. They had a private table upstairs, so of course all Yosuke could think about was that school trip and King’s Game, and he and Souji were still wedged together, possibly even closer than they had been in the taxi. But everyone else was closer too, and Souji’s hands were on the table now instead of Yosuke's leg, so mostly an improvement.
At least until the talk turned to more weddings.
“Ours is going to be huge,” said Ami, in a tone that suggested she wasn't thrilled about it. She nodded towards her fiancé, who had yet to say a word. “Akito works for the Yamada Group so our parents want it to be as much about networking as it is, you know, a wedding. If I was as brave as Sou-chan, I'd just elope.”
“A tropical wedding sounds nice,” said Souji. “You'd probably have fun.”
“You have an excuse to have one,” said Kamui. “Since you can't get married in Japan. Go to Hawaii and do it there.”
Reika frowned. “That wouldn’t count here, right? You couldn't come back and get legal benefits or anything.”
“No,” Souji agreed. “Not that we've talked about marriage yet. It hasn’t even been a year.”
“Yeah, but you've been together longer than any of us, kind of,” said Reika. “If you think about your whole relationship. You probably know if you're serious about each other by now.”
Ami groaned. “Jeez, way to put the pressure on, sis.”
“I didn’t mean it like that!” she protested. “I was just thinking out loud.”
“You’re not wrong,” said Yosuke, finding Souji’s hand under the table and squeezing it. “It took a while, but that just means we’re sure. Once I figured out how I felt about him, I knew this was it.”
Souji’s hand twitched under his, but all he said was, “Yeah.”
Akemi and her new husband showed up after not too long, and Yosuke crammed even closer to Souji as everyone crowded in. Once the cousins were assembled, talk turned more towards family business, but Yosuke found he didn’t mind. It was kind of interesting to get more perspectives on the extended Seta family. Souji really was the only one who’d struck out on his own; for all his cousins seemed fond of their respective significant others, their parents had been the ones to set them up, and all of them had jobs either with the Seta Group or in closely related industries. Yosuke didn’t doubt that they were happy, but there was a certain wistful longing in their voices when they asked about Souji’s life. If no one had gone off script, it might have been easier for the rest of them, but here was Souji with his civic service job and his unapproved boyfriend and his total disregard for his parents’ wishes. How could any of them look at him and not wonder how their lives would have turned out if they’d been willing to say no more often?
“Okay, who wants another round?” Ami asked.
She was met with cheers of agreement until Souji, still the only one willing to go against the grain, said, “I’m actually pretty beat, I think we’re going to head back to the hotel.”
Akemi pouted. “Already? I just got here!”
Souji smiled at her. “Sorry, Akemi-chan. We’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast, right?”
“You had better,” she said, her tone teasing but her eyes serious. “And we’re going to come visit Tokyo soon too.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Souji.
There were hugs and farewells all around, and then Souji led him out of the club and onto the street. It wasn’t much cooler outside, but it was less stuffy, and they were much closer to being alone. Yosuke took in a deep lungful of fresh air. He hadn’t even realized how much he’d needed to get away.
“It’s only about fifteen minutes to the hotel,” Souji said, checking the map on his phone. “We could probably just walk back.”
“Sounds good.”
It was just after ten, so the streets were quiet, but not quite quiet enough to feel private. There were a few clubs and bars in the area, and there were drunker, rowdier groups laughing and teasing as they walked. But the crowds thinned as they got closer to the hotel, until Souji finally cleared his throat. “How much of it was true?” he asked.
“Pretty much all of it,” said Yosuke. There was no reason to lie or play dumb. “But I didn’t actually put it all together until we went on that practice date, and I realized how much I wanted it to be real. Sorry for telling you like that,” he added. “It just seemed like more trouble to make up a story, you know?”
“I had wondered why you never liked any of my boyfriends.”
“Yeah, me too.” They walked in silence for a block or so, until Yosuke couldn’t stand it anymore. “I was going to wait.”
“Wait?” asked Souji.
“Until after the wedding. I didn’t want it to be awkward if you turned me down and you still had to pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Souji huffed out a laugh. “That’s what you were worried about?”
“It’s your cousin’s wedding! You were stressed enough.”
“I was telling the truth too, Yosuke.”
Relief washed over Yosuke, an instantaneous release of tension, and a smile grew on his face. He looked around, making sure that things were as quiet as he thought, and then he reached over to take Souji’s hand again. “I’m still going to call you dude.”
Souji laughed, and Yosuke could hear the relief in that too. “Good.”
*
What Yosuke hadn’t realized was that his nervousness about telling Souji how he felt had been protecting him from all sorts of other anxiety, like what would happen if Souji actually felt the same and they started dating. Which was, to be fair, the best-case scenario, so why would he have worried about it?
But now Souji was unlocking their room and Yosuke was looking at actual privacy with his actual boyfriend, and the vague fantasies about maybe touching Souji’s dick didn’t seem like preparation enough for whatever was coming. Assuming Souji even wanted that tonight, which Yosuke didn’t know. He probably did, right? He must have been thinking about this too. And unlike Yosuke, being with a guy wasn’t new for him. Did he usually hook up with guys on the first date? Not that this was really their first day.
“Don’t be nervous,” said Souji, glancing over his shoulder as he went into the room. “I don’t want to have to text Chie that you’re finally having your bisexual crisis.”
“I’m not!”
Souji’s eyebrows went up. “No?”
“It’s not a crisis. Just…wondering what happens next.”
“I was thinking about brushing my teeth.”
“That’s it?” Yosuke demanded. “Come on, don’t you have fantasies about ravishing me on a hotel bed or something?”
“You want to be the one being ravished?”
Yosuke blushed. “You know what I mean.”
Souji leaned against the bathroom door. “Honestly, it sounds like a bisexual crisis.”
“I guess it probably sounds like that,” he admitted. “But it’s not. I just thought it would be easier if you were so hot for me that you wouldn’t need to have a conversation about it.”
It was an embarrassing enough way to feel, let alone having to admit out loud, but Souji was smiling a little. “I like having conversations.”
Yosuke shot a half-hearted glare at him. “What is there to talk about?”
“What you want,” said Souji, and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth before Yosuke could respond.
“You know what I want,” he muttered, flopping back onto the bed. But it didn’t sound convincing, even to his own ears. What he’d wanted was for Souji to take the lead, to be so overcome with lust that Yosuke didn’t have to do anything but go along for the ride. But Souji was the one who had to worry that Yosuke would get uncomfortable, change his mind, decide that guys really weren’t for him after all. Yosuke said he realized he liked Souji first and guys second, which was true, but probably wasn’t reassuring.
Souji came out of the bathroom in his pajama pants, but he’d left his shirt off. He looked cozy and inviting, and Yosuke sat up on the bed. “I really want to kiss you, partner,” he said, and Souji smiled.
“So kiss me.”
Yosuke tugged him in by the hips, grinning as Souji slotted between his legs, and then he tangled one hand in his hair, pulling his partner’s mouth down to his. Souji caught himself on Yosuke’s shoulder, smiling into the kiss, pressing in close. Yosuke slid his tongue against Souji’s lips, tasting toothpaste when they opened. He was so lost in the kiss that he barely even realized that Souji was pushing him back until his back hit the mattress, and he wrapped a leg around Souji to draw him closer.
Unfortunately, that made Souji laugh and pull away. Yosuke glared. “What?”
He was grinning down at Yosuke, so flushed and happy that Yosuke’s irritation evaporated. “I really thought you were going to freak out if I actually made a move.”
“Give me a little credit. I’m not saying I’m ready for everything, but I haven’t spent the last few weeks thinking that I’m never going to see you naked.”
“You saw me naked at the hot spring yesterday.”
“Yeah, and I resisted checking out your dick.”
“Resisted,” Souji repeated. He looked away, a flush creeping up his bare chest. “Do you want to see it now?”
“I think we’ll get there.” Yosuke pulled him back down for another kiss, and Souji followed his lead.
“We could at least get all the way onto the bed,” he pointed out, but at least it was between kisses. As long as Souji didn’t pull away, Yosuke didn’t care if he wanted to talk.
“We could,” Yosuke agreed, but he didn’t move until Souji pushed him. He backed up until his head was on the pillow and Souji followed him, slotting in between his legs again. In that position, Souji was absolutely going to feel how much Yosuke was enjoying things, but he couldn’t manage to feel self-conscious about it. If anything, he was glad. Maybe feeling Yosuke hard and eager under him would kill the last of Souji’s doubts. Yosuke certainly didn’t have any left; he was absolutely into guys. He’d been missing out for years.
“You’re wearing so many clothes,” Souji muttered, fumbling at Yosuke’s tie. “I want to see you.”
“You’ve seen me,” Yosuke teased. “Yesterday, remember?”
“I want to touch you,” he said, his voice a little desperate, and Yosuke groaned.
“Yeah, okay.” He sat up, displacing Souji a little, but Souji had gotten his tie, so Yosuke could unbutton his shirt and shrug it off. Souji tugged his undershirt off too and then they were kissing again, sloppy and desperate, as Souji’s hands roamed over his back. He could feel Souji getting hard against him, and if anything was going to trip him up, it would be that, but his hands found Souji’s hips and pulled him closer. Souji gasped against his mouth, moving his head down so that he could kiss Yosuke’s neck instead, making Yosuke moan.
“Can I suck your dick?” Souji asked, like Yosuke would be doing him a favor if he said yes.
“Fuck,” Yosuke breathed. “Obviously. Please.”
Souji pushed him onto his back again and slid down Yosuke’s body. Yosuke let out a shuddering breath, watching as Souji’s fingers undid the button on his slacks, trying to ignore the sudden swell of nerves.
“If I’m not as big as your last boyfriend, just don’t tell me, okay?”
Souji snorted. “Have you ever told a girl her breasts aren’t as big as your last girlfriend’s? It’s rude. And it doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“It matters to me,” he grumbled.
“But now, if I tell you that you’ve got the biggest dick I’ve ever seen, you won’t believe me,” Souji pointed out. “You won’t be sure if I’m just telling you what you want to hear.”
Yosuke was trying to come up with a response when Souji got his boxers off, and having his best friend looking at his dick was apparently enough to shut him up. As always, Souji’s expression was hard to read, but when he licked his lips, it was pretty much the hottest thing Yosuke had ever seen in his life.
Souji was apparently thinking the same thing. “You’re so hot. It’s been a while, I might be a little rusty.”
Again, Yosuke wanted to say something, but Souji’s hand wrapped around his dick and his entire brain shorted out. It had been a while for him too, after all, and Souji’s hand was bigger than he was used to, rough in different places than his own, but still familiar. Even if he hadn’t been holding Souji’s hand an unprecedented amount over the last few days, he would have known it. There was no way he could ever forget it was his best friend he was doing this with, and he wouldn’t want to, because that made it so much better.
He’d never actually had sex with someone he was in love with before.
Souji only gave him a few firm tugs with his hand before he leaned over, sliding his mouth over Yosuke’s dick, engulfing him in perfect warm heat.
“Oh fuck,” he groaned, resisting the urge to thrust up into Souji’s mouth with supreme self control. “Fuck, Souji, that feels so good.”
The pleased noise Souji made reverberated around his dick, and Yosuke threaded his hand in Souji’s hair again, feeling the movement of his head under his fingertips. Rusty or not, Souji clearly knew what he was doing, swirling his tongue over the head of Yosuke’s dick, taking him deep into his mouth, making these greedy noises like he’d never enjoyed anything more in his entire life. Yosuke’s brain had pretty much shut down; all he could do was gasp and moan and try to just come quickly instead of embarrassingly quickly. But Souji seemed to love all the praise pouring out of Yosuke’s mouth, so he kept up a steady stream of dirty talk, telling Souji how hot he was, how good he felt, how perfect his mouth was.
When Souji wrapped his hand around the base of Yosuke’s dick again and jerked him off as he sucked him, that was it. Yosuke came with a strangled cry, not even giving Souji the chance to pull away. He didn’t seem to mind, though, waiting until Yosuke was spent before he pulled off with a smug grin.
“Not too rusty, huh?”
“Definitely not,” said Yosuke, pulling him up and kissing him hot and hard, tasting himself in Souji’s mouth. Souji moaned, pressing closer, his dick hot and hard through his pajamas. Yosuke pushed his hand under the band and down, wrapping his hand around Souji. The angle was different, but he had plenty of experience jerking off, and judging from Souji’s gasp, he was doing fine.
“Is this okay?” he asked. “Can I?”
“Please,” said Souji.
“Take your pants off,” he said, swiping his thumb over the tip, spreading the slickness down Souji’s length. It was a little awkward, but Souji pushed his pajamas down and Yosuke could see him now, his dick thick and perfect, probably a little bigger than Yosuke’s. “I can’t wait to blow you,” he said, licking his lips. “Fuck, I think I’m into sucking dick.”
Souji laughed, resting his forehead on Yosuke’s shoulder and pressing sloppy, desperate kisses against his neck. “I hope so.”
“Tomorrow,” he said, like a promise, and Souji’s hips sped up, pumping into Yosuke’s hand until he came hot and messy onto Yosuke’s stomach.
For a long moment, neither of them moved or spoke, just stayed twined together, breathing hard. Yosuke waited for the bisexual panic to set in, but he and Souji were mostly naked together and he’d had his hands on Souji’s dick and he couldn’t wait to do it again. He’d be more freaked out if he hadn’t liked it, because how much would it have sucked if he liked Souji this much but wasn’t interested in fucking him?
“Good?” Souji asked, like he was thinking the same thing. But Yosuke could feel his smile against his neck; he wasn’t worried.
“Great,” he said. “We should do that more often.”
*
Yosuke hadn’t really been worrying about breakfast the next morning, but only because with everything else going on he’d forgotten it was going to be a whole thing. Given that he woke up with Souji snuggled against his chest, it wasn’t enough to ruin his good mood, but he wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. There were too many of them to all be seated at the same table, but the assigned seats for breakfast were considerably worse than the ones they’d had at dinner. Yosuke and Souji were seated with Souji’s parents, his Aunt Emiko, Uncle Takeru, and their two very quiet children, which was about the worst-case scenario, in Yosuke’s opinion. Souji’s parents did polite adult small talk with his aunt and uncle while Souji looked like a little kid stuck at the adult table, his two cousins spoke only when spoken to, and Yosuke felt like he was invisible. It was probably better than trying to start a fight, but the only bright spot in the whole meal was when Akemi came over to say hi. Not just because he liked Akemi and it was good to see her, but all the bright and lively chatter clearly pissed off Souji’s asshole uncle.
After the meal was done, they said their awkward goodbyes. Yosuke bowed a little too deep to Souji’s parents, just to be an asshole, and Souji’s dad returned the bow with stiff formality. “It was good to see you again, Hanamura-kun,” he said. “Maybe we’ll be in Tokyo for the New Year.”
“Maybe,” Yosuke agreed.
“Take care of Souji for us,” said his mom.
“I will,” he promised. That was a gimme.
Souji fell asleep on him on the train back to Tokyo, and Yosuke snapped a quick picture. He thought about just sending it to Chie, but then he moved over to the group chat and poked Souji in the arm.
“What?” Souji asked, bleary and adorably grumpy.
“Can I tell them?” he asked, showing his phone.
“About us?”
“Yeah.”
“If you want,” said Souji. “But I’m going back to sleep, so you’re answering questions.”
Yosuke texted the photo with the caption: ok yah were officially dating now stfu chie. Within seconds, he had replies from everyone, and both Teddie and Chie had tried to call, which was about what he’d expected. stop calling me im not gonna pick up the phone on the train, he told the group, and added, ted dont tell my mom ill tell her.
The ensuing conversation and teasing got Yosuke through until Souji woke up, and then watching Souji read and respond to all the private texts he’d gotten about dating Yosuke brought them most of the way back to their place. Souji made a big show of picking up both cats and telling them how much he’d missed them, and Yosuke snapped a picture of that too.
Then he called Nanako.
“Hi, is everything okay? How bad was the wedding?”
“It was fine. I still don’t like Souji’s parents, and most of the rest of his dad’s side of the family is on thin ice too, but at least the cousins were cool. Not as cool as you, obviously.”
“Of course not. Why are you calling?”
“Your brother and I are dating now. For real.”
“Oh. You weren’t already?”
“We talked about how it was fake!”
“That was months ago! I thought you would have figured it out by now. Is he there?”
“He’s telling the cats he’s sorry we ever left them. Nanako wants to yell at you,” he told Souji, and handed over the phone.
“Hi, Nanako.” Yosuke couldn’t hear when she said to him, despite the volume, but he saw Souji wince. “I was going to tell him, I just hadn’t figured out how yet. He told me first. I know I said I’d do it sooner, I’m sorry. It worked out fine, right?” Another loud response, and Souji smiled. “You could just be happy for us, you know.”
Apparently that worked as an argument, because Souji gave the phone back to Yosuke.
“You told him to tell me he was interested?” he asked.
“I told you I knew why he went with it,” she said, with earned smugness. “That’s why I was so happy when you did too. I thought if you agreed to pretend to be his boyfriend, you’d probably agree to just be his boyfriend.”
“You’ve always been the smart one, Nanako-chan. Sorry we took so long to catch up.” He sighed. “But I’ve got more calls to make and more I-told-you-sos to hear, unfortunately.”
She snickered. “I bet. I am happy for you. Really! I just think you’re both kind of stupid, too.”
“I don’t blame you. Tell you dad we say hi. And that we’re really dating. I don’t want to know what he says when he finds out, so you can do it for me.”
“Will do. Love you both.”
“Love you too.”
He hung up the phone and went to Souji’s room, where he was already unpacking his bag, like some sort of very efficient weirdo. Yosuke watched him for a moment, enjoying his focus, and then flopped down on Souji’s bed.
“Do you think anyone is going to be surprised when we tell them?” he asked.
“Sure. After all these years, they’ll be surprised we finally figured it out. I think most of our friends were sure we never would.”
Yosuke snorted. “Well, we showed them, huh, partner?”
Souji leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, and then went right back to unpacking. “We sure did.”