Chapter Text
~Ⓞ~
When Takeru wakes up that morning, it’s to the bad kind of hangover.
Now, some might argue that there’s no good kind of hangover and they’d be right, however, Takeru would still maintain that he’s got something worse than your normal hangover. There’s no headache. There’s no immediate sensitivity to everything going on around him. There’s just horrible, incurable nausea that makes being alive seem like a mistake. Worse, it’s the sort that shows no signs of abating, probably for the rest of the day.
As he lies there, curled up into a ball on his bed, Takeru tries to remember what the hell happened to put him into this state. Clearly, he’d gone out drinking. Clearly, he’d drunk a lot. His evidence; the nausea, the lingering smell of beer, and the fact he’s still in his street clothes. Which means he hadn’t been with any of the good influences in his life, otherwise he wouldn’t be hungover.
Alright, so that narrows the who down a bit. But he’s still missing a lot of pieces.
Vaguely, a memory starts to assemble itself together in his head. Someone laughing. No, not someone. Reia laughing. With his pretty straight teeth and his eyes curved up into crescent moons and that wide grin on his face, one of Takeru’s favorite expressions. He doesn’t even remember what they were laughing about anymore, but he remembers the laugh itself. Big, genuine, enough to make his stomach swoop even just playing it back in his head. Which, turn, at least answers one more of his questions.
That’s who he’d been drinking with last night. At least Reia, though possibly more people. He’s struggling to remember any more faces, which means he must’ve been absolutely blackout drunk, but he at least has that one. It gives him a place to start, if he decides he wants to fully put together what happened last night.
If he can do such a thing.
Right now though, he doesn’t want to. Right now, all he wants to do is sink into his bed and go back to sleep. Hopefully, without re-awakening until this horrible fucking stomach ache is gone.
With very little input either way from the rest of his body, Takeru passes back out, and his world returns to darkness.
The second time he wakes up, it’s to nausea that’s still definitely there, and the sounds of someone moving around in his apartment. That, he has to take a second to process before it makes even a modicum of sense. Someone’s moving around his place, does Takeru care that someone’s moving around? Is he supposed to? Is this normal, or not normal.
The delayed response that his brain offers him is no, it’s not normal, so yes, he probably should care. It’s his apartment, after all.
For understandable reasons, Takeru really doesn’t want to get up. He thinks he might vomit if he does. Even if he doesn’t, whoever is out there is probably one of his friends. There’s no need for him to worry. He can just lay here and let them handle themselves. If they need him, they know where to find him.
On the other hand, he did manage to get blackout drunk the night before. If nothing else, he should head out there and apologize for however he’d behaved while wasted. He knows he’s not an unruly drunk, but someone had probably been tasked with helping get him home. So whoever it is, they at least deserve a ‘hey, thanks’ for their troubles. And maybe Takeru actually trying to play host.
Though it physically pains him to do so, Takeru manages to drag himself upright and crawl out of bed. Briefly, he’s forced to stand in the middle of his room, waiting for the feeling of ‘oh God, I’m going to puke’ to pass. Once it does, he cracks open his bedroom door and wanders out, not sure who he expects to find, but not particularly concerned either way.
Chances are, it’s either Tsubasa or Ryota. Maybe, if he’d been especially annoying last night, it’ll be Mizuki. Someone who cares enough to look after him while he’s like this. Or, alternatively, someone that was also out drinking with him last night and needed a place to crash. He’ll take either, but a small part of him hopes it’s Mizuki or Ryota, because both of them are incredibly good at getting rid of hangovers. That being said, he anticipates Tsubasa, since that’s usually who drags him home after a night like last night.
So you can imagine how surprised he is to see Reia wandering around his kitchen.
Okay, so maybe Takeru should’ve expected it. After all, the only person he remembers going out with last night was Reia. It stands to reason that if anyone would have noticed when Takeru had gone too far past his limits, it’d be the guy who was there. But see, Reia isn’t exactly the type of person to go caring for someone when they’re drunk. Especially not Takeru, so he’s confused.
While the two of them are friends, they’re not exactly close friends. They run in the same circles, but they don’t really do things without other people around. Not that Takeru doesn’t want to, it’s just a lot of their relationship has felt like him always looking up to Reia, and in turn, Reia tolerating his presence. So the thought that the two of them had not only been out drinking- possibly alone- last night, but that Reia had come back home with him is a lot to take in. Especially when Takeru is this groggy and hungover.
So… Takeru doesn’t question it. Instead, he drags himself into his kitchen and sits down at the table.
“Look who’s finally awake,” Reia hums. It’s clear from his tone of voice that he’s also somewhat hungover as well. His speech is still just a little slurred, and he’s got a mostly empty glass of water clutched firmly between his hands. “I was starting to think you’d died in there.”
“No, just drank too much,” Takeru mumbles, leaning on his elbows for a moment before giving up and pressing his face against the cool surface of his table. It feels nice. Now that he thinks about it, he might be running a fever.
“Better than the alternative,” Reia decides, downing the rest of his water before placing the cup in the sink. “Imagine having to explain to Mizuki and Neo I let you get alcohol poisoning.”
“Let’s… not do that.” Even in the state he’s in, Takeru finds it in himself to grimace. “You could always blame someone else.”
“Who?” Reia snorts. “It was just me and you last night.”
Despite how warm he already is, Takeru swears he feels his ears burning. “Oh. Right.”
Sliding into the seat across from Takeru, Reia taps the table with a finger. “How are you feeling?”
“Like garbage,” Takeru groans, picking his head up just enough to make eye contact with Reia. “How– how are you feeling?”
“Pretty much the same,” Reia admits, in a far more cheerful tone. “But, I’m here. I haven’t keeled over yet. Thanks for letting me crash on your couch last night, by the way.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Takeru says, even though he has absolutely no memory of agreeing to let Reia sleep anywhere. Not that he minds, not at all, but he certainly doesn’t remember it. “Considering we… Drank together last night?”
“Are you not sure?” Reia teases, tipping his head to the side and leaning over so he’s on Takeru’s level.
“Honestly?” Takeru mutters, making a valiant effort to sit up once more. “I’m having a lot of trouble piecing together last night at all.”
At this point, he’s conscious enough that he wishes he did remember what happened, for perhaps not the right reasons. It’s not often that he has the guts to do something like text Reia and ask him to go somewhere. It feels even less likely that Reia would’ve texted him and invited him out. But one of those two things must’ve happened, and he wishes he could remember that. He wishes he could remember the parts of the night that weren’t completely soaked in alcohol. Hell, he wishes he could remember the drunk parts too.
He likes spending time with Reia. It’s a shame that all he’s got for memory right now is a solid wall of black, interspersed with moments of Reia’s face looming way too close to his own.
A certain gleam enters Reia’s eyes. “How much do you remember?”
“I remember drinking with you,” Takeru offers lamely, with a small gesture of his hand. “I remember…” He remembers them talking, heads together, voices hushed. Maybe when Reia was trying to coax him into going back home. But he’s not sure, whatever the two of them said to each other– it’s not coming back to him.
“Do you remember going out?” Reia asks, sitting up a bit straighter himself.
Squinting at the table, Takeru fishes for his broken memories, and what he comes back with makes him somehow more nauseous than he was already. “You specifically asked if I wanted to go out tonight. Er- Last night.”
“I did,” Reia confirms, with a little bob of his head.
“And I said yes,” Takeru continues, belatedly remembering how elated he’d been to get that text.
“Obviously,” Reia agrees, with a little gesture at Takeru as if to say ‘that’s how you ended up in this situation’.
“After that…” Nervously, Takeru clears his throat. “I’ve got nothing.”
For a moment, Reia hesitates. It’s not something that Takeru see often, the man is usually incredibly decisive, to the point of sometimes getting himself in trouble. Or, more commonly, other people in trouble. Yet here, he seems to chew on whatever he’s about to say next for a while before opening his mouth.
As a terrible feeling of dread washes over Takeru, he quickly interrupts Reia. “If I did or said anything weird last night, I’m really sorry.”
“Oh, you didn’t,” Reia assures him, before his face pinches and he dithers, “Well…”
Takeru pales.
Instantly, his mind is leaping to a thousand things he could’ve said, all of them horribly incriminating. Worse, very few of them would be easy to talk his way out of. He’s always tended to run his mouth when he gets really drunk. Usually, he’s got enough people he trusts around him that this bad habit of his doesn’t cause any problems. But last night, it had just been the two of them. At least, as far as he’s being told.
He could’ve said anything. And judging by the look on Reia’s face, it was clearly something big. He doesn’t like that. Because if he was around Reia, and didn’t have any filters…
Clearing his throat, Reia reaches behind him towards Takeru’s kitchen counter and pulls down a thick piece of paper.
“Does this look familiar?”
Blinking, brain resetting somewhat, Takeru forces himself to recalibrate enough to pay attention to what Reia is showing him. It takes him a second, he’s not exactly in a good place to be focusing on anything, but once he’s able to, he realizes what he’s looking at, and swiftly reads the paper in more detail. Then he reads it a second time, just in case he’s crazy and missed the important bits.
Abruptly, a wave of lightheadedness rolls over him. “Oh my God.”
Barely, a hint of teeth poke out past Reia’s lips. “Yeah.”
“That’s a–” Even though he’s currently staring at it, Takeru can’t quite get the words out.
Thankfully, Reia has no such issues. “A marriage certificate.”
Takeru’s dizziness worsens. “And it– At the bottom– my– I signed–”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Reia offers, tapping his finger on the other line. “I signed it too.”
For a second, all Takeru can do is close his eyes and breathe deliberately through his nose. Because what the hell? What the actual fuck? When Reia had started to imply something happened last night, Takeru had assumed he’d spilled his guts and admitted to the crush he’s got on the man, or something equally embarrassing. Not that they’d gone and gotten married. Because that’s a marriage certificate sitting between them. And it’s definitely got both of their names on it.
“You’re joking,” Takeru says, in lieu of any other more cogent commentary.
“Nope,” Reia states matter-of-factly, leaning back in his chair until it creaks. “Trust me, I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
“I got married last night,“ Takeru states, just in case he’s missing something that’ll make all of this make some sense.
“Yeah, it looks like it,” Is Reia’s only response, as calm as ever.
Takeru’s eyes lock on the man. “What happened.”
“As far as I can tell,” Reia begins, spreading a hand wide as he does. “The two of us went out drinking, we had a few too many, one thing led to another, and we started talking–”
“Oh my God, what did I say?” Takeru demands, because it must’ve been something spectacularly terrible if it led to them getting hitched that night.
“It came down to the tax benefits,” Reia says brightly. “Well, I was probably the one who brought up the tax benefits, but you said it was a great idea. And clearly, I was drunk too, so I didn’t argue.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I talked you into us getting married last night?” Takeru asks, half praying as he does that Reia says no.
“Yeah, that’s about what happened,” Reia confirms instead, without a single beat of hesitation. “I have to say, you’re really good at talking people into things when you want to. That’s a skill. I’m impressed!”
“I don’t-” Wondering distantly if he’s going crazy, Takeru stresses, “But I don’t talk people into things.”
“What can I say, you did last night.” Reia shrugs. “Come on, everyone tries to be convincing about one thing or another at some point in their life. It’s not that hard to believe.”
“Into marriage?” Takeru squeaks.
“Crazier things have happened.”
Not to me.
“I’m married,” Takeru mutters, briefly looking away from Reia so he can hold his head in his hands. “I’m too young to be married. I’m not– we never even dated. How can I be married?”
“In fairness, the legal benefits are actually quite impressive,” Reia defends, like he for some reason doesn’t mind that any of this happened. “I can see why you suggested it. And I can also see why I said yes.”
“We are legally husbands now,” Takeru states in a shaking voice, staring at Reia in horror. “Why would I care about tax benefits.”
“Beat’s me, maybe the IRS is kicking your ass,” Reia reasons, with an unconcerned roll of his shoulders. “I just figured I should tell you. I guessed you might not remember, and you do have a right to know.”
“I have a right to– Why are you being so casual about all of this?” Takeru asks, as what’s strange about Reia’s behavior finally clicks with him. “Don’t you– I don’t know– care?”
“I mean, it’s not the most normal thing I’ve done while drunk,” Reia easily admits, examining his nails. “But like I said, it was your idea. I’m practically blameless here.”
Practically blameless his ass– “Why did you let me have the idea in the first place?” Takeru asks, as stress starts to build up in a knot at the base of his skull. “You could’ve told me no.”
“I don’t know, you made it sound like a good idea at the time,” Reia insists, with wide, innocent eyes. “I guess I was feeling suggestible last night.”
“But you’re usually not,” Takeru argues desperately, unsure if he needs to throw up or just cry. “This is a really big deal. Not something we should’ve done while we were– While I was blackout drunk and while you were drunk enough to say yes.”
“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Reia clucks, as he tries to fight a smile. “I wasn’t that drunk. Just mostly drunk. You didn’t coerce me into anything.”
“That doesn’t-” Stopping himself, Takeru frantically scrubs at his face. “We don’t even usually hang out, why would you legally tie yourself to me?”
“Wait, do you not like me?” Reia asks, instantly putting on a wounded expression that has Takeru’s heart lurching.
“No, I do like you,” he insists, waving his hands frantically. “I like you a lot. I just– Marriage? Are you sure?”
“I think you’re blowing this out of proportion, it’s just a legal document,” Reia dismisses, giving Takeru a look like he’s somehow acting silly. “It’s not that big a deal.”
But see, to Takeru, it is a big deal. This is Reia. The same guy he’s been crushing on for a while now. He’s not sure how drunk he’d been to have gotten it into his head that marriage would be nice, but sober him really wishes he done this properly. Like, say, starting with asking Reia out, instead of jumping the gun this badly. Because now what is he supposed to do? How the fuck is he supposed to admit that actually, marriage doesn’t sound too bad, but not for any of the reasons Reia has listed out.
Except no, hold on, it does sound bad. Because Takeru isn’t ready to get married. What he’s ready for is to ‘see how things go’ or ‘go one step at a time’. He’s ready for a boyfriend, and maybe some daydreams about the future. More specifically, he’d wanted a chance with Reia. And now it looks like he’s completely destroyed that chance.
Married for legal benefits? That practically locks him into the friends zone. For no good reason. Why the fuck had he done that to himself?
The nausea he was already feeling builds sharply. This isn’t something he wanted to wake up to. This isn’t something he’s prepared to deal with right now. And he’s so glad that Reia is calm about it, but he really really isn’t. In fact, he has no idea why drunk him would’ve put sober him into such a situation. Sure, he can be impulsive at times, but this impulsive? Surely he has a limit somewhere.
So maybe it wasn’t impulsive. And that thought actually scares him.
“Hey, Takeru,” Reia begins gently, shifting in his seat a little as he does. “It’s alright, we don’t have to stay married if you don’t want to.”
“What do you mean?” Takeru asks weakly, finally looking back up at the other man. “We already filed the paperwork.”
“I mean–” Reia makes an indecipherable hand gesture. “It’s literally just a certificate. We probably got some random person from the bar to witness us signing it. If you want, we can go get it annulled and pretend like it never happened.”
Oh. An annulment. Right.
Admittedly, that’s one way to solve this problem. It’s a pretty simple solution too. Takeru knows just enough about getting married that he’s aware it doesn’t start to become legally binding for real until at least a couple weeks after it happens. There’s a grace period, in the eventuality two people do something stupid like Takeru and Reia have apparently just done. The legal system plans for it. Fixing this probably would be as easy as going back to the courthouse and just saying ‘hey, we were joking’.
Except… Takeru’s not sure he was joking. And if Reia, as not-drunk as he claims to have been, said yes, then what’s to say he wasn’t serious too. So wouldn’t going in calling it off be a stupid thing to do?
Because alright, now that the initial panic is wearing off, Takeru supposes it isn’t that bad an idea. Taxes are a pain in the ass. Being married does make a lot of things better. It’s just a legal document, one Reia clearly doesn’t think changes anything. If he was willing to do it last night, while drunk and honest, by God, he should be willing to do it now.
“No, it’s fine,” Takeru finally says, with a shake of his head.
Lurching forward in his chair, Reia’s eyes widen comically. “Wait, are you saying you want to stay married?”
“Why not, we definitely made some kind of promise last night,” Takeru reasons, with a little lift of his shoulders. “We wouldn’t have put our names on the paper if we didn’t have a plan.”
“But–” Reia gives a thin half-laugh. “You don’t even remember agreeing to it.”
“But I did,” Takeru presses, with more certainty this time. “I know I was drunk, but I’m not a completely different person when I’ve got alcohol in me. It’s probably something I was thinking about anyway, even if I didn’t realize it.”
“People think about a lot of things,” Reia argues, smile frozen on his face. “It doesn’t mean we need to act on all of it. You were clearly uncomfortable about being married before, this would just be the–”
“The easy way out, yeah, it would be,” Takeru agrees, with a bob of his head. “But it’d also be easy to just stay married. The benefits would be nice. And it’s not like I have plans to get married to anyone else any time soon.”
“I mean- But I-” Furrowing his brows as he starts to seriously consider the matter himself, possibly for the first time since he woke up this morning, Reia stares hard at the piece of paper. “You… you don’t think this is moving a little fast?”
“Obviously it is.” Takeru manages a small laugh of his own. “We’ve never talked about something like this until last night. And then we did it. That’s so fast.”
“But…?” Reia prods, expression contorting further as he stares down at the paperwork.
“But just because it was rushed doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea. Or… It doesn’t mean it can’t become a good idea.” Fiddling with his fingers, Takeru softly says, “Usually you have pretty good instincts. If you said yes, then I trust that.”
“My instincts might have been terrible this time,” Reia mutters, pursing his lips.
“You don’t believe that.” Chuckling, Takeru flashes a smile at Reia. “I know you, you don’t second guess yourself. Why would you start now?”
“Because-” Forehead wrinkling, Reia complains, “That’s not fair, you’re doing that thing where you’re being convincing again.”
Laughing at the look on the man’s face, Takeru returns with, “You were the one who said it works.”
Honestly, Takeru doesn’t think Reia is going to agree. The man is right, this was a wildly impulsive decision, made while they were in compromised states, and the consequences of following through with it are probably more than his hangover addled brain is able to comprehend. Ripping up that certificate and calling the whole thing off would be the most sensible option. And it’s clear those thoughts are going through Reia’s head too.
But at the same time, he might as well try. If for no other reason than not going back on whatever promises he’d made the night before and taking the easy way out feels wrong. If Reia is willing to take that plunge as well, for tax reasons or otherwise, Takeru will go right along with him.
After all, he’d do anything as long as Reia is involved.
For a long moment, Reia mulls the matter over. His expression morphs as he does, from consternation to consideration to doubt to decisiveness, as well as a whole host of other emotions in between. The silence only lasts for maybe twenty-five seconds, but they’re the longest seconds of Takeru’s life. As he waits with baited breath for an answer. Any answer.
Then Reia’s face clears, and the tension in the air breaks.
“Ah, you know what, what the hell,” the man announces, picking up the marriage certificate and holding it out in front of him. “Might as well, right? Since we already went to all this trouble. It’d be a shame to waste the money.”
It’s not a ringing endorsement, but it’s certainly not a no. And at that moment, it’s all Takeru needs. “Yeah, might as well.”
And with that, Takeru finds himself officially married.
~Ⓞ~