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Everything changes in an instant.
In one moment, there’s nothing but the blood rushing in Reo’s ears. In the next, there’s a sharp cry of a whistle, and a roaring, deafening cheer, and Reo moves, on instinct, to the one who made it possible—
“Nagi,” Reo says, the name spilling from his lips breathless and stunned as he slams into the other boy, making them both topple onto the field, Reo’s hands bracketing either side of Nagi’s head. “Nagi, you magnificent bastard, you—you did it—”
“We,” Nagi corrects softly, “we did it.”
Reo has to laugh at that, has to laugh at this crazy, beautiful genius he’d spotted from the crowd and claimed his own. He has to laugh, because Nagi has handed the world to Reo and still looks at him like this, and—
Right there, on the field of the World Cup final, Reo Mikage kisses Seishiro Nagi.
“Took you long enough.”
“No—oh my god, I put out a statement about this already! It was an accident—like, a heat of the moment thing, you know? I didn’t actually mean to—”
“No one’s reading your damn statement, Reo,” Chigiri says as he scrolls his phone. “It was, like, five pages long. No one’s going to read all of that.”
“...seriously?” Reo grabs Chigiri’s phone out of his hand so that the other finally meets his eyes. “What, so you think people think I actually—actually kissed Nagi? Because—I wanted to?”
“I don’t know,” Chigiri says, obviously annoyed as he tries to grab his phone back. “It’s not really a big deal, but I think you putting out a five-page statement kind of made it a big deal.”
“Oh,” Reo says, letting Chigiri tug his phone back. “That’s… not good.”
“What’s the big deal? Everyone knows you’ve been wanting to do that for years.”
“Wh—huh? That is not true—”
“Dunno why you ran away so fast afterwards, though. Poor Nagi.”
“I—I sent Nagi my statement, too! He knows it was an accident!”
“...you think Nagi’s going to read any of that statement?”
“He… he, uh, reacted to it with a thumbs up emoji.”
“Right.”
“...fuck, he definitely didn’t read any of that.”
“Not a word.”
“Oh my god,” Reo says, beginning to pace in their room. “Then, all he knows is that I kissed him and ran away—oh my god, what do I do?”
“You’re… overthinking this.”
“Do you think he hates me now?”
Chigiri lets out a long-suffering sigh. “I think you should ‘accidentally’ kiss him again and see what happens.”
“I’m not going to do that!”
So the kiss is one thing. But the other thing is—
Reo doesn’t even know what their relationship is going to look like now. Sure, they’ve had a few rough patches, but Reo has always been somewhat confident that Nagi would, at the very least, stick around until they’d won the World Cup. He’d said it himself, hadn’t he? That he would stay with Reo until the end.
But now, it’s the end. Now, there’s no reason for Nagi to actually stay.
They’ve never actually talked about this, and for a few days before the final, Reo had been wondering if there was a way he could still see Nagi. Reo would likely be forced back to Japan to start working for his father’s company, and he assumed Nagi would stay on the Japan team to continue playing. Maybe they would still be able to meet up at Nagi’s matches? Reo could write off the flights as a business expense.
But that was before the mess that was kissing Nagi on live television. Now, Reo doesn’t even know if Nagi wants to see him again. He hasn’t tried to find the other since then, and aside from sending Nagi his statement, they haven’t had any virtual communication since, either.
Reo puts his head between his knees and sighs. Nothing’s happened yet, but he knows it’s going to hurt. Losing Nagi is going to hurt, and Reo had somehow found a way to make it more painful.
No. No, he was overthinking this. Chigiri was right—the only reason that kiss could be construed as anything other than spur of the moment is if Reo insists on making it a big deal. Hell, Nagi had probably already forgotten about it by now, and Reo stewing on the topic wasn’t helping anyone. He doesn’t know how long it’ll be before his father starts sending not-so-optional suggestions to return home, but in the time he still has with this team, he should make the most of it. In the time he still has with Nagi, he should make the most of it.
“Can you stop sulking in the damn bathroom? Some of us actually need to use it!”
“Oh, hey, Nagi!”
“Hi, Reo.”
Reo watches Nagi carefully for a few moments. After determining that the other boy doesn’t seem to be too annoyed at Reo, he beams.
“I feel like we haven’t seen each other in a while, sorry! I was busy sorting some things at home.”
“Hm,” Nagi says as they enter the restaurant. Most of the rest of the team is already inside, loudly celebrating their victory. Reo is a little miffed that they started without waiting for the actual winning goal-scorer of the match, but he tries not to let it show on his face. Anyway, based on Nagi’s expression, it looks like he doesn’t actually want to be here for very long.
He also hasn’t brought up the kiss yet, mostly confirming Reo’s suspicions that Nagi hadn’t thought too hard about it after the fact. Reo lets himself relax a bit. He hadn’t ruined everything yet.
As soon as they’re seated beside the team, Nagi pulls his phone out. Reo isn’t surprised, but he peers at Nagi’s phone after he orders for the both of them anyway. He’s curious to see if he can finally get a glimpse at the video games he plays there that he usually tries to hide from Reo. But to Reo’s surprise, Nagi doesn’t pull up a video game. Instead, he pulls up a series of—house listings?
“You’re moving out of your flat?” Reo blurts out, forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t actually meant to be looking at Nagi’s phone. Nagi glances up, seemingly unbothered by the fact that Reo was snooping.
“Yeah,” he says. “Barou’s annoying.”
“Right…” It isn’t like Reo hasn’t heard Nagi complain about his nagging roommate often, but the decision to move, and from Nagi of all people, still feels a bit uncharacteristic of the lazy genius. “I’m… kind of surprised you’re taking initiative on this?”
“Mm.”
“And… you’re looking at houses? Not apartments?”
Nagi shakes his head. “An apartment is too temporary.”
“Ah…” Reo trails off. “Uh, what?” He squints at Nagi. “You’re… looking for something long-term?” His brows furrow. “With who?” He shakes his head. “I mean, I guess you could live by yourself, but—”
“It’s for us.”
“Oh,” Reo says. “Huh?”
“Do you like this one?” Nagi shoves his phone into Reo’s face. “It’s close to a Mikage office. And there’s a good window box for Choki.”
“Uh, wait, wait,” Reo says with an awkward laugh. “You want to move in with me? Why?”
Nagi seems bewildered by this question. “Why?” he repeats. “Why not?”
Reo feels something strange stir in his gut. He swallows. “Nagi, you… you know you don’t have to stay with me any more, right?” Every word is painful to get out, but Reo will not let his selfishness keep Nagi from his own future. “We… we did it. We reached the end. So you can… you can do whatever you want. With whoever you want.”
Nagi’s expression grows a bit more bewildered. “No, we didn’t.”
“Huh?”
“We didn’t reach the end.” His brows furrow slightly. “Did… did Reo think that’s what I meant by the end?”
“Um…?” It’s Reo’s turn to be bewildered. “What else could it possibly mean?”
“The end,” Nagi stresses meaninglessly. “You promised to stay with me until the end.”
“...and I did, didn’t I?”
“No.” Nagi shakes his head. “Reo’s not getting it. I mean until the end of everything.”
Reo stares at Nagi. “What,” he says with a short laugh after a pause. “Like forever?”
Nagi nods. “Exactly.”
“Huh?” Reo blurts out. “Nagi, that’s—that’s crazy. You can’t… you can’t tie yourself to me like that. It’s not like we’re—” Reo bites down on his next words before they make it out. He clears his throat. “I mean, it’s very sweet, but you should, um, probably wait for someone else to—move in permanently with.”
“But Reo likes me too, right?”
“Yeah, I like you, but that doesn’t mean—”
“No, I mean—” Nagi leans closer towards Reo. “Reo likes me, right? That’s why you kissed me.”
Reo’s face immediately flushes. So much for Nagi forgetting about that.
“That’s not—I didn’t—I wasn’t—” he splutters for a few moments before remembering Nagi’s words. “Too?” He repeats. “You think I like you, too…?” His brows furrow. “Wait, you like me?”
“I’m in love with you.”
“Hh—” Reo chokes out. “Oh. Okay. Um—!”
“So when Reo kissed me,” Nagi says, leaning forward even more and making his voice quieter. “It made me really happy.”
“Really,” Reo chokes out. “That’s, uh, that’s good.”
Nagi’s very close now. He’s incredibly close.
“That means it’s my turn, right?” he says quietly.
“I—I guess it is.”
Nagi pauses an inch away from Reo’s mouth. “Will you run away this time, too?”
Reo huffs out a quiet laugh.
“No,” he murmurs. “This time, I’m here to stay.”