Work Text:
“Na-chan!” Touya yelled out, slamming the front door shut with his foot, “I’m not fucking cooking, do you want to get a takeaway?!”
“I already ordered one!” Natsuo bellowed back.
Touya shrugged his coat off and grabbing his quirk-supressing cuffs from the old fruit bowl they’d picked up from a charity shop to keep their keys and wallets in, as he walked further into their shared flat – it wasn’t big, but it was close to Natsuo’s university, Touya had managed to get a job in the area and, most importantly, their father wasn’t in it.
“Are you psychic?” He asked, wandering into the living area where his younger brother was posted up on the sofa with a console in his hand and something colourful and confusing on the television.
“No,” Natsuo said turning to look at him in confusion, “the kitchen’s being redone? We can’t cook in there at the moment anyway.”
Shit, that was today? Touya had been so downtrodden working in the kitchen that he’d completely forgotten about everything beyond cursing the customers and getting a takeaway so he didn’t have to look at another fucking pan.
“Fuck, yeah,” he said, collapsing onto the sofa next to him.
“Rough day?” Natsuo asking, fingers still working away on the controller. Touya was pretty sure the game was Crash Bandicoot, but he could be wrong. It looked pretty similar to the game Natsuo used to play when they were kids, which had been Crash Bandicoot. Or had it been Spyro?
Touya slumped to the side so that his head fell against his brother’s massive shoulder, “hospitality fucking sucks,” he said, “nothing hospitable about it.”
“There there,” Natsuo said, not looking away from the screen.
“When’d you order the food?”
“About half an hour ago. Should be here in twenty minutes. I thought that’d give you time for your stomach to calm down if your motion sickness flared up.”
“Thanks,” Touya said, “what are we getting?”
“Indian. I’m getting onion bhaji starter, chicken biryani, pilau rice and a garlic and cheese naan, you’re getting lemon and cashew rice with butter chicken and a regular naan. Also some poppadoms.”
“Fuck. I love you. How was school? Didn’t you have an important lab today?”
“Yeah, it went fine. Teacher even used me as a good example.”
“Over-achiever,” Touya said, knocking their knees together.
Natsuo blew a raspberry at him.
They sat in silence after that, Touya content to just want whatever the hell was happening on the screen and let the tension leak out of his frame as his temperature slowly crept downwards, helped by Natsuo’s own chilly base temp. He liked having access to his quirk when he was working because it gave him so much control over cooking temperatures – most people at work went to him whenever they needed anything flambéed, or were doing anything with melted sugar, and management were fine with him taking breaks in the walk-in freezer, but fuck if it wasn’t already hot in a commercial kitchen without throwing his quirk into the mix. But the money was good – he could cover all the stuff that made his scars easier to manage that wasn’t available on prescription, make rent and put a little away in a savings account, so he was willing to power through until he finished his piercer apprenticeship.
Working in hospitality whilst working towards a piercing licence was the sort of past time that would have Enji Todoroki rolling in his grave, if he had one, which he didn’t, because he was still alive, unfortunately.
“Yumi wants your blackberry and chilli glazed tofu recipe, by the way,” Natsuo said.
“No,” Touya replied, “I’m not giving her any of my recipes while she’s still cooking for That Man. The only way he’d tasting my cooking is if I’ve seasoned it with arsenic.”
“I told her you’d say something like that.”
“Then why’d she ask?”
“Maybe she’s hoping you’ve mellowed in your old age.”
“Fuck you.”
“I know you are, but what am I?” Natsuo shot back.
“That’s doesn’t even make sense.”
“You don’t even make sense.”
“I’m going to take off my cuffs specifically to burn your naan.”
“You’re a fucking monster; see if I order you takeaway again.”
They were quickly getting towards the part of the conversation where feet ended up in faces (worse for Natsuo, who would have to split his attention between his videogame and annoying his brother) when the buzzer rang to let them know the food had arrived.
Natsuo paused his game and Touya headed to the kitchen to grab some plates, finding that everything that had been on the countertops was gone, along with the splashback and, it seemed, part of the skirting board. There was also a lot of dust and old grout everywhere. He frowned, grabbed the plates and cutlery and headed back to the living room.
“What’s up with the kitchen?” He asked.
“I told you – the guys are in to fix it,” Natsuo said, grabbing his takeaway, taking the lid off and then licking it. Touya rolled his eyes.
“They’re supposed to be re-doing the tiling, right?” He said, taking the lid off his own and using some of the naan to mop up the sauce on top (like a grown up). “Well, they’ve taken all the old stuff off, but there’s nothing new, not even replastering or something. And they’ve taken some of the skirting board.”
“Oh, yeah,” Natsuo said, plating up his food, “apparently they found some more damp when they took the tiling off and they want to get it checked before they put anything new on it.”
“How long is that going to take?” Touya asked.
Natsuo shrugged, “it was two young guys who came today, they took pictures and wanted to check in with their superior. They said they should know tomorrow.”
Touya sighed. Looked like he wasn’t getting his kitchen back yet.
Natsuo put a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry the big mean workmen have stolen your sanctuary away from you.”
“Fuck off,” Touya said, still looking at the ceiling.
“Okay,” Natsuo said with a smile, before tucking into his food.
They ate on the sofa, chatting between mouthfuls until the food was gone and then continuing to talk about minor things, eventually, Natsuo stretched, his feet getting shoved into Touya’s side as he did so, and admitting that he had an early class tomorrow and should head to bed.
“Goodie-two-shoes,” Touya said, rolling his eyes, before picking up their plates and heading back to the kitchen to do the washing up.
When he turned around something dark in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It looked like it had been on the counter and slid off into the corner by the door where they kept the bin. It was fabric, a little dusty so Touya shook it out and looked it over. It was a hoodie. He flipped it round and back again – there was a decal on the back and small writing over the breast that said ‘SECURITY BREACH’ which wasn’t a brand he was familiar with. Looking a little closer he could see writing on the cuff and he put the hoodie down on the counter to read: ‘way to go superstar!’
Well, it wasn’t his. As he threw it over his arm, he caught sight of some lettering on the inside of the hood where the label was; ‘Five Nights At Freddie’s: Security Breach’. Oh! He recognised that one. It was one of Natsuo’s games: the one with all the jumpscares that he hated and refused to be in the same room when he was playing it. He must have bought more merch. Touya sighed, folding it up before walking back into the living room to switch the television off and leave the folded hoodie on the sofa before heading to the bathroom so he could start getting ready for bed himself.
He was woken by Natsuo knocking on his door the next morning and ducking his head in.
“Hey, Tou-chan,” he whispered.
Touya grunted in acknowledgement.
“I need to go to class, but the builders have texted back – apparently the damp is bad enough that they may need to redo the whole backwall. They’re going to come by with their manager this morning to get a better look and plan. They’ve already contacted the landlord about it. ‘Kay?”
Touya held one hand up to give him a thumbs up.
“Cool, see you later!” Natsuo said, before closing his door gently and heading off.
Touya then promptly fell back asleep until knocking on the frontdoor woke him up. Shit. The builders.
He rolled out of bed, “just a second!” he called out, rubbing a hand over his face.
He slept in shorts with no shirt because he wasn't supposed to sleep in suppressors so he was always overheating, but he was not comfortable answering the door like this; he didn’t care if they were all guys. He dragged some jeans on from off the floor and stumbled into the front room, grabbing Natsuo’s hoodie off the sofa and pulling it on before running his hand through his hair in a pointless attempt to tame it as he reached the door and undid the security chain.
There were three guys on the other side, one with long white hair scowling appropriately for 9am, a reptile heteromorph who was looking at his phone, and a taller man with the kind of grin that should be illegal before ten.
“Good Morning!” He said, in tone that sounded like he actually believed that, “I’m Atsuhiro Sako, and this is Shigaraki Tomura and Iguchi Suichi,” He introduced, holding out a hand, “we’re here for the kitchen.”
“Touya,” he replied, shaking his hand before turning and heading back into the flat, “you know where it is.”
He stepped into the living room so that there was space for the three of them to get into the kitchen (the corridor was not wide). He waited until the three of them were inside before leaning into the room himself, but not entering – he’d didn’t want to be overbearing and the kitchen wasn’t very big either.
“Natsuo said you found some damp and you might need to do more work than originally planned?” He asked.
“Yes!” Atsuhiro replied, “it seems that the splashback was hiding some pretty severe mould and when we looked behind the skirting board there was even more, so it seems like most of the wall has been affected.”
“That…sounds pretty bad,” Touya said.
“Yeah, it’s not good!” Atsuhiro agreed, still sounding chipper, “We’ve spoken to the landlord and we’re going to be replacing the wall.”
Touya leant forward, in case he’d misheard, “you’re replacing the whole wall?”
“Yes.”
Touya blinked, “how long will that take?”
“Probably about five days,” Atsuhiro said, “depending on what we find.”
Touya nodded, quietly mourning the loss of his kitchen for the rest of the week, “would it help if I packed up our stuff and moved it into a different room?” He asked.
“Yes please,” Atsuhiro said, “any thing on that side of the room is going to be in danger of getting damaged otherwise.”
“Cool,” Touya said, now mourning the fact that he was going to have to pack up most of his kitchen stuff whilst three strangers watched. Natsuo wasn’t even here to help, too busy learning how to save lives and shit to help his older brother with menial tasks. Ass. He patted the doorframe and headed towards the cupboard where they still had some of the boxes they’d used to move in last year, grabbing a few before walking back to the kitchen and squeezing past the others to put them on the countertop and start opening the cupboards.
“We’ll…leave you to it and grab some equipment from the van,” the white-haired guy, Shigaraki, said, scratching his neck and looking over his shoulder as he spoke.
“’Kay,” Touya said. At least that would give him a chance to get most of this done without an audience.
While they were gone, he tried to get the cupboards emptied as quickly and efficiently as possible, placing the crockery into a box gently and just sweeping ingredients and spices into a different one. He ended up filling three boxes from the overhead cupboards, and was in the process of moving things out of the cabinets when the two younger guys came back.
“Would you like some help moving those?” One of the guys asked and he turned to see that it was Shigaraki again. His voice was raspy, but not particularly low which gave it a gentle quality he wouldn’t have expected based on his appearance. He didn’t look aggressively masculine, but he was almost as broad as Natsuo and his resting bitch face was almost as bad as Touya’s. Although, that might have just been early morning grumpiness, since now his expression was much more sincere and even a little nervous as he spoke to Touya. Shit, that might be because of Touya’s morning grumpiness. And also his regular grumpiness.
“Yeah, that’s be great thanks,” he said, “I was just going to move them into the living room for now.”
The other man nodded and picked up the box full of their crockery easily. Touya had hoped that was the one he’d pick, since try to lug the heaviest box about without stretching was a recipe for sore scars, but the fact that he didn’t even react to the weight had Touya suddenly wondering if he should be feeling self-conscious. He settled on miffed. Why was he always surrounded by people who liked to lift heavy things for fun? Natsuo, Shouto, now this guy. Still, at least he didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble with his physio.
Because he’d seemingly decided that it was his job to carry the boxes while Touya packed them, he still didn’t have to deal with being stared at which he was grateful for as he dragged all their pots and pans out of the cabinets, along with more dry ingredients and appliances. It didn’t take long and soon enough Touya had filled the last box and had just hefted it up to take it to the living room with the other when –
“Let me take that.”
He appeared in front of him, arms held out to take the box from him. Touya thought about insisting on taking it himself, but the kitchen and corridor were so small that he’d probably just end up making the guy back up the entire way to the living room as he carried it.
“Thanks,” Touya said, leaning forward to pass the box over, their fingers briefly touching and he realised the other man must be wearing quirk gloves; the kind that only cover two or three fingers to mitigate a five-finger quirk.
Not that Touya cared much about what other people thought, but part of him felt more comfortable with the idea of being seen in his suppressor cuffs now. At the very least, he wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of ignorant or invasive comments if they saw him in them. It would probably be for the best that Touya wasn’t prompted into calling the workmen making their flat safe fuckwits or something.
No problem,” the other guy said before hesitating, “do you play?” He asked, nodding to the hoodie.
“What?” Touya asked, before looking down and remembering what he was wearing, “Oh, no not really,” he said, “it’s more Natsuo’s thing, I just watch. Well, most of the time, not this one,” he said, gesturing to the hoodie, “I hate jumpscares.”
The other man nodded thoughtfully, “you don’t get bored? Watching someone else play, I mean.” He asked, heading out the door with Touya following since there was no reason for him to stay in the kitchen.
“Not really,” Touya said, trying not to stare at the breadth of his shoulders as he walked behind him, “but I guess it depends on the game. And how good he is at it – anyone would be bored after watching the same level of Spyro fifteen times.”
“Yeah, I imagine they would,” the other man said smiling. “Is he particularly bad at Spyro?”
Touya hummed noncommittally. Truth be told he wasn’t sure which game Spyro was, he just knew it was one of the ones Natsuo had played a lot, “I’ve never seen anyone else play, so I have no idea. He might be great, he might be terrible.”
“Does he still take fifteen tries to finish a level?”
“I think he’s managed to shave it down to fourteen,” Touya joked.
“He should join a league,” the other man said with a smile, and Touya let out a small laugh, mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure he understood the joke. Did videogames have leagues like sports did? Was it a joke about League of Legend? That was a videogame, right?
“Tomura!” Someone called from the corridor.
“I’ll get out of your way,” Touya said, stepping to the side so that Shigaraki could get back to the kitchen.
He left them to it after that – he didn’t need to be at the piercing parlour for another two hours, but since it was looking like he’d have to pick something up for breakfast he decided to leave early, calling out to the team in the kitchen to let them know he was going, and to text either him or Natsuo if they needed either of them.
“Is that the Black Lotus II soundtrack?”
Touya hummed, looking up from where he had been looking through some of the jewellery options to order into the parlour – he wasn’t actually placing the order, but his boss had sent him to link to familiarise himself with the system and make recommendations for that month’s delivery. Touya was trying not to fall into personal window-shopping.
It was the Shigaraki guy, and he nodded to the collector’s vinyl Natsuo had displayed on a shelf.
“Oh, yeah,” Touya replied, “we both really like the game, and it came up secondhand online so Na-chan snagged it.”
“What’s the condition like?” Shigaraki asked, “Does it play?”
“Yeah,” Touya said, "I can put it on if you like,” he offered.
“I…wouldn’t want to intrude,” Shigaraki responded, hand moving up to his neck.
“It’s fine,” Touya assured him, “I was debating putting music on anyway, but I didn’t want to disturb you guys.”
“It’s your home, play what you want,” Shigaraki said, “don’t worry about us.”
Touya shrugged, “I’d have just grabbed headphones, to be honest. But right now I want to play the Black Lotus II Soundtrack on vinyl, so you’ll just have to put up with it,” he said playfully as he got up from the sofa and headed over to the LP. The record player was also secondhand and bought at the same time as the soundtrack so that they’d have something to actually play it on, since neither of them had owned any vinyls before that. Since then, Natsuo hadn’t gotten anything, but Touya had ended up starting a small collection of his own; he liked a lot of older rock and metal that could be found secondhand pretty easily too.
Touya set up the record and set it running, the opening theme blossoming out into the air through the old speaker system, the mixture of the old game soundtrack and the crackly quality of the speakers making it sound very nostalgic and he smiled to himself before returning to the sofa.
“How’s the kitchen going? Found any more mould?”
Shigaraki shook his head, making his long hair shift prettily. It almost made Touya want to grow out his own if it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t have the patience and he knew his wouldn’t look like that even if he did – it was the same colour, sure, but Shigaraki’s hair was thicker, and fell with a natural curl towards the ends. Touya’s hair was fine and fluffy – if he grew it out it’s probably just poof out around his shoulders like a cloud, unless he was willing to devote time to styling it. Which he wasn’t.
“No more mould,” he said, “we’ve gotten pretty much all of the wall down and we’ve checked the back of the cabinets to see if they’re damaged from it, which they aren’t. We’ll be rebuilding it tomorrow and adding some anti-damp coating to the new one, but since we’ll have resealed the original leak, it shouldn’t be necessary. Just a precaution.”
“You’ve gotten the whole wall down?” He asked.
Shigaraki nodded.
Touya had been home most of the day, his pain flaring up enough that he had called in for his four-hour shift at the parlour so he wouldn’t be completely destroyed by the full cooking shift he had tomorrow. But he hadn’t heard much in the way of noise from the kitchen – certainly not the kind of noise he’d associated with taking down a wall. He hadn’t even heard the frontdoor opening and closing to imply they were taking away old bricks or anything.
“Do you have a sledgehammer with a silencer on it?” He asked.
Shigaraki huffed out a quiet laugh, “both Atsuhiro and I have quirks that are…well-suited to demolition,” he said.
Touya realised that he wasn’t wearing his quirk-gloves anymore, and his attention was noticed if the way Shigaraki immediately crossed his arms, tucking both hands under his armpits, was anything to go by. Shit. The last thing Touya wanted to do was make someone feel uncomfortable about their quirk.
He feigned a yawn, stretching his arms up above him and letting his hoodie sleeves fall down his arm, revealing the suppression cuffs before interlacing his fingers and putting them behind his head so he could lean back on them, looking up at Shigaraki as he said; “must make life easier.”
“Makes work easier.”
Touya nodded. He understood that distinction very well.
“What do you do? If you don’t mind me asking?” Shigaraki asked, covering up a yawn of his own.
“I’m working part-time as a line cook while I get my piercing license,” he replied.
“Did you…do any of those,” Shigaraki pointed to Touya’s face, “yourself?”
“I did most of my ears myself,” he said, “my vertical labret myself, and my tongue,” he said, sticking it out so the silver barbell was visible for a moment, before continuing, “not my nose, and I usually get anything that’s going through my scars looked at by someone more experienced first.”
Shigaraki nodded, one hand coming up to rest on his neck again, “I was thinking about getting snake bites,” he said, “I’m guess that’s similar to the…” he tapped his bottom lip.
“The labret?” Touya offered, “they’re similar, sure, but you can get either snake bites or double vertical labrets; they give similar looks depending on what you’re going for.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Labrets are surface piercings,” Touya explained, “wait, I’ll show you,” he knelt up on the sofa, resting he elbows on the backrest and pulling his lip down slightly so that the top of the piercing was visible, “labret starts here, and goes down through the lip,” he said, before sucking his lip into his mouth so the bottom part was more visible, “comes out here. Snake bite goes through the inside of your mouth and out through your lip.”
“Uh huh,” Shigaraki said, staring at the piercing, “is…one better than the other?” He asked, sounding a little distracted.
Touya hummed, “depends on anatomy and what look you want,” he said, “you want rings or studs?”
“Studs look nice,” Shigaraki said, still looking at Touya’s.
“Vertical labrets are always studs – rings sit out too far and tend to snag. And since they only go through the top of the lip down, instead of into the mouth you don’t have to worry about possible damage to your teeth or gums,” Touya explained.
“Seems like the better option then,” Shigaraki said quietly.
“Yeah, you just need enough tissue for the piercer to work with,” Touya said.
There was a pause, “do I?” Shigaraki asked.
“Lemme see,” Touya said, holding out his hands expectantly. Shigaraki only hesitated for a moment before leaning to rest his crossed arms on the back of the sofa facing Dabi, dropping his chin into the offered hands and letting him cradle his face as Touya leant in to get a better look at his lips.
Touya was trying to get better at piercing consultations, but he knew his bedside manner wasn’t quite as good as other peoples, so he’d been trying to work on being gentle and reassuring even if he couldn’t quite manage ‘friendly’. He made sure to keep his voice low and even (gentle) and rubbed one of his thumbs back and forth over Shigaraki’s cheek (reassuring), it felt weird and kinda intimate but he felt that way about most things he did with strangers, even if it was as simple as prolonged eye contact. But if you were going to be poking needles into people, you needed them to feel safe with you doing that. According to his trainer, it was his largest weakness at the moment.
Shigaraki had nice lips. There was a scar cutting across one side, and a beauty mark on the other, both of which naturally drew attention to them. They were a little chapped but that wouldn’t make them unpierceable. Touya moved his thumb to press against Shigaraki’s bottom lip, rolling it forward to get a feel for its fullness. His lips weren’t super full, but they weren’t thin either – his bottom lip would hold a vertical labret just fine. His upper lip was a little thinner with a pronounced cupid’s bow which Touya couldn’t help but think would look good with a medusa as well.
“You’ll hold vertical labrets just fine on your bottom lip,” Touya said.
“Not the top?” Shigaraki asked, not removing his face from Touya’s hands.
Touya shrugged, “a more experienced piercer might be able to do it. Why? You thinking of getting some there too?”
“Not really,” Shigaraki said.
Touya decided not to say anything about the medusa – it wasn’t what Shigaraki had asked about, after all.
“Shig?” one of the other guys called, Iguchi, if Touya remembered correctly, popping his round the doorframe and freezing when he saw them.
“Yes?” Shigaraki replied, withdrawing his face from Touya’s hands and standing up straight.
“Uh…” Iguchi’s scales darkened in a…blush? What was blush-worthy here? “Sorry to interrupt, but Atsuhiro wants to talk to you.”
“I’ll be right there,” Shigaraki said, before turning back to Touya, “thanks for indulging me,” he said softly.
“No problem,” Touya said, unsure if he was referring to the Black Lotus II Soundtrack or the informal piercing consultation.
Shigaraki gave him a soft smile before leaving to go back to work. Well, that would imply Touya’s bedside manner was getting better, right?
Natsuo groaned, throwing his head back as the ‘MISSION FAILED’ screen sprung up again.
“Yeah, I know! I’m doing my best!” He said into his headset.
Touya scowled from where he was sat next to him. He couldn’t hear exactly what was being said since Nat-chan and he had agreed to keep either his headset connected, or the games on mute, whilst they had people in the house. But it was pretty clear from Natsuo’s responses that people in this particular lobby were being really fucking rude despite the link to it being labelled ‘play for fun’. Touya had just about enough of people being rude to his kid brother, particularly when there was no reason to be so critical. It was a fucking game! It was supposed to be fun! He was supposed to be winding down after a hard day of classes, not being verbally abused by sadsacks with inferiority complexes.
He'd already asked Natsuo why he didn’t just move lobbies, and apparently the actual team he was playing with were okay, it was just another team the same rank as them were absolutely foul. He’d asked if it was possible to just…not play against them and apparently it wasn’t, unless they moved up a rank, or something.
“I’m sorry! I haven’t played this map before!” Natsuo said into the microphone. Seemed like even the people on his own team were getting frustrated with each other now.
Touya started chewing on his lip, catching his labret and then releasing it a couple of times as he fumed, before eventually getting up and heading to the kitchen. He was just going to make them both some tea to calm down, and maybe ask some questions if the guys in there weren’t busy.
He knocked on the doorway, “hey,” he said, ducking in through the plastic covering doing it’s best to keep the construction muck out of the rest of the flat. He’d ended up emptying the rest of the kitchen the evening after they started work, too paranoid about damaging something as incredibly important as his back-up steamer.
Atsuhiro wasn’t about – after reviewing the damp problem the first time he seemed pretty happy to leave the younger two to it, only popping in now if they called him.
Shigaraki and Iguchi were on either side of the half-finished wall, now about two-thirds done which was pretty impressive headway. He might have his kitchen back earlier than he thought.
“Careful Iguchi –he might Cask of Amontillado you, if you’re not careful,” Touya said.
Shigaraki snorted, smiling slightly where he knelt. He had his gloves on again, and his work trousers were thoroughly covered in dust and…Touya wasn’t sure…would it be concrete? Caulk? Dried construction goo. And he was in a sleeveless top that showed off the kind of arms that could happily carry boxes full of Touya’s kitchenware without bother. The laugh made him feel better about asking –
“I know you play, are you any good at FPS?” He asked. He even used the right acronym and everything.
Shigaraki paused, looking confused by the change in topic, “yeah, I’m pretty good.”
“He’s played competitively,” Iguchi said.
Touya paused, fiddling with his labret again, technically he was bothering the guy while he was working…but…
“Some people are being real dicks to Na-chan and his teammates in a play for fun lobby, I don’t suppose you’d feel like taking a break and helping them move up a rank to get away, would you?”
Shigaraki looked at Iguchi, who gave him a look Touya didn’t understand, but before he could apologise and backtrack, Shigaraki stood up and brushed his hands off on his trousers.
“Yeah, sure,” he said, “I was going to take my break in a bit anyway.”
“Oh, you don’t have to waste your break on-”
“It’s fine,” Shigaraki insisted, “I’d have played games during my break anyway – might as well take advantage of an available console. I’ll wash my hands and be right out.”
Touya grinned, “okay, great.”
He headed back to the living room and scooted up even closer to Natsuo, nudging him to get his attention. They were waiting for the next game to start so they had a few minutes.
Natsuo pulled his headset off, “what?”
“I asked Shigaraki to help you move up a rank.”
“What? Why? I don’t want to bother him,” Natsuo started.
“I don’t want people to bother you,” Touya shot back, “And fuck knows I’m not going to be able to get you to move up a place.”
“Yeah, but-”
Natsuo was cut off as Shigaraki stepped into the room, having apparently tried to brush some of the dust off his clothes if the new streaks were anything to go by. Touya scooted over so that the middle of the sofa was free for him to sit down – that way he’d be able to see the tv dead-on instead of at an angle. It did mean he was between him and Natsuo, but Touya didn’t see that being a problem.
“Stargun?” Shigaraki asked, looking at the screen.
“Stargun: Reloaded,” Natsuo corrected, “I haven’t played it much.”
Shigaraki nodded, “I prefer the original, to be honest, but reloaded’s still pretty good.”
“It’s the Abandoned Carrier map, which I’ve never played and all the corridors are really hard to keep track off,” Natsuo said.
Shigaraki nodded, “it’s one of those maps where you really need to already be familiar with it to win.”
They started talking over specifics of the game and Touya let the conversation wash over him like gamer white noise, putting his elbow up on the back of the sofa by Shigaraki’s head so he could lean his face against his hand, staring at the screen where Natsuo’s character was rotating slowly back-and-forth.
The ten second countdown for the next round started up and Touya perked up slightly as Natsuo handed the controller over to Shigaraki, leaving his headset down around his neck and turning the volume all the way up so that they’d both still be able to hear the rest of the team. Touya wanted to ask about what Iguchi had said regarding him playing competitively, but he didn’t want to distract him.
It was very clear within the first few minutes that Shigaraki was leagues better than Natsuo, and anyone else on the team for that matter. Natsuo was reacting in an appropriately younger-brother manner that was usually reserved for Touya – cooing with wide-eyed wonder and getting so excited it was like he was dog who had heard ‘walkies’ uttered. Shigaraki seemed happy to have a cheerleader and fell easily into explaining his strategies and the inner workings of the game that he was exploiting or working around, depending on the situation. He was much more confident talking about the game then the other times Touya had spoken to him and he hoped that was because he really loved videogames and not because of Touya – Natsuo had always been the better at social interaction, out of the two of them.
But Shigaraki hadn’t seemed shy when they spoke before, just chill. And with how deep his knowledge of the lore of the game went, Touya was pretty certain that it was because he was in his element rather than in workmode, like the previous times they’d spoken. It was…nice to see. Charming, almost if it weren’t for the fact that Touya would rather be caught dead than calling someone play an FPS ‘charming’. What was wrong with him? He needed to get out more. It was kind of charming though.
When the round was (quickly) over, Natsuo had completely forgotten his nerves around asking Shigaraki for help and was busy talking is ear off about Stargun and some other games by the same developer. They were talking over a few changes that had been made between the original and the sequel and the general consensus seemed to be that they focused on the wrong things to change, which Touya was happy to believe since he was never going to play either of them anyway.
“What about you?” Shigaraki asked.
There was a pause and then Touya opened his eyes to see Shigaraki looking at him expectantly, “hm?” He asked, articulately.
“What did you think of the changes?” Shigaraki prompted.
Touya wished he had an opinion to give. Preferably one that was smart and nuanced, but…
“I don’t particularly like FPS, to be honest,” he admitted. “They’re usually pretty tense and if you’re ever on co-op there’s always a bunch of ragers.”
“What kind of games do you like then?” Shigaraki asked.
Touya shrugged, “since I’m usually watching, not playing, I tend to like ones with nice visuals. Black Lotus, Okami, Breath of the Wild are all really nice to watch. Anything with a strong narrative is also good.”
“Stargun doesn’t really score high on either of those,” Shigaraki noted.
“That’s why my eyes were closed,” Touya replied.
Shigaraki snorted.
“Yeah, I don’t tend to play it when we’re hanging out, but some classmates of mine have been talking about playing co-op so I thought I’d have a go first and see if I’d want to join in,” Natsuo said.
“Do you think you will?” Shigaraki asked.
Natsuo hummed, “if they go out of their way to invite me. Or if they really need someone to make up numbers. But that’s probably it.”
Shigaraki nodded, “fair.”
“What do you normally play?” Touya asked.
“I like strategy games most,” he said, “but I also like anything novel or a bit experimental even if it can be hit-or-miss. I like stuff with easter eggs and a lot of attention to detail – I love it when you can tell that the team were really passionate about making it. And, since I play a lot, I like anything with a lot of extra content to get through, or plenty of DLCs.”
“Makes sense,” Touya said. “You playing anything at the moment?”
“I’ve been re-running Hades at the moment.”
“Oh! I like that one!” Touya said, perking up a little.
“It does meet your requirements,” Shigaraki said, smiling, “Have you played the sequel?”
Touya shook his head, “not yet. We keep meaning to get it, but...” he shrugged.
“I have my deck with me, if you want to try it out while I’m here,” Shigaraki offered, one hand going up to his neck for a moment, before shooting back down to the controller to mash some buttons. The movement made Touya realise that the next round had started sometime whilst they were talking and he hadn’t even noticed.
“That’s really kind,” Touya said, struck by the generosity, “but I’ll probably just wait until Na-chan gets it and watch him. I’m not particularly good.”
“You don’t need to be good to enjoy doing something,” Shigaraki said, softly.
“True,” Touya admitted. He wondered if somewhere in Japan his father doubled over with bad gas or something. It was a fun trick he’d started doing in the last couple of years – to help himself say that he didn’t need to be the best at stuff, and actually feel that way (at least sometimes) he liked to imagine that it affected Enji like a disturbance in the force: A B+ was a good grade! – Enji gets a stomachache; his work being ‘good enough’ was fine! – Enji has a coughing fit; not getting 100% wasn’t a moral failing! – Enji has a dizzy spell.
“You have a deck?” Natsuo asked, “how is it? I’ve been thinking about getting one, but it’s a lot of money for me.”
Shigaraki shrugged, “It’s worth it to me, but I play a lot. I think it mostly depends on how many of the games you want to play are compatible. If most of your library can be converted to it and you want to be able to play on the go, yeah, it’s worth it. If it’s only a handful of games, or ones you’re not particularly interested in playing, don’t bother.”
Natsuo nodded, “That’s sort of the way I was leaning. Plus, if I moved to a handheld console, Nii-san would struggle to watch.”
“No deck for you,” Touya said, even though he and Yumi had been toying with the idea of both chipping in to get him one for his birthday.
Shigaraki snorted out a laugh. It was a breathy, somehow dry sound that matched the rest of his voice. It was nice – Touya couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever considered voice work, or ASMR. He enjoyed listening to Natsuo talk about videogames because he was his brother as opposed to having any major interest in most of the things he played. But he liked listening to Shigaraki talk about them because he just…had such a pleasant voice. If he asked him about his PC build or something, Touya was sure it could send him to sleep – and not just because he didn’t understand a thing about PC builds.
“No consoles allowed in the flat?” Shigaraki joked.
“They’re allowed so long as they don’t cut into my watch time,” Touya said.
“I can just about get away with nintendogs,” Natsuo told Shigaraki.
There was a flurry of garbled noise from Natsuo’s headset that Touya couldn’t quite make out and he turned back to the screen to see another ‘YOU WIN’ plastered across the screen.
“You’re making quick work of that,” he said.
“The map’s complicated but I basically memorised it when I was playing it through the first time,” he replied. “Mazes are only difficult if they’re unfamiliar.”
“Yeah, this one reminded me of Alien: Isolation a bit,” Natsuo said.
“Not as good,” Touya immediately chimed in.
“I think they did take inspiration from it,” Shigaraki said, “but your brother’s right – it’s not as good.”
Natsuo rolled his eyes, “Touya doesn’t get to have opinions on Alien: Isolation.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t,” Natsuo shot back, glaring at Touya.
“Why not?” Shigaraki asked, switching out some of Natsuo’s gear on-screen.
“He takes the side of the alien!” He complained.
Touya nodded, unrepentant.
Shigaraki laughed again, turning to look at Touya, “really?”
“I think she’s cool.”
“I had to stop playing it on my xbox because he kept using the microphone detection to tell it where I was!” Natsuo said, pointing at him accusingly.
“I did, yes,” Touya said, “and we won.”
“’We’ being the xenomorph and yourself, I’m assuming?” Shigaraki asked, looking amused.
Touya nodded.
“Have you played any of the DLCs?” He asked.
“No,” Natsuo said, “not with my awful brother playing marco-polo with the alien!”
Touya stuck his tongue out at him.
“Besides, I thought you hated jumpscares,” Natsuo grumbled.
“I do; they’re the cheapest form of horror. But I’m not scared of the xenomorph because she’s my dear friend.”
Shigaraki was smiling at their antics as the next round started and Touya briefly considered shutting up so as not to distract him, but he’d been chatting throughout the last round, so he couldn’t be that distracting.
“A xenomorph would make this level way more interesting,” he said.
“True,” Shigaraki said.
“Make it harder for Shigaraki to win though, with you luring the alien over,” Natsuo said.
Touya hummed theatrically, before leaning his head on Shigaraki’s shoulder so he could look up at him with faux-innocence and say, “you could handle that though, right?”
Shigaraki blinked down at him, lips slightly parted, before garbled yelling from Natsuo’s headset had him facing the screen again, the edges red as his health bar dropped lower and he quickly ran back around a corner to spam heal items.
“Yeah,” he said, quietly, “yeah, I could handle that.”
The avatar moved back around the corner and opened fire on the other team that had nearly killed him. They didn’t last long, with Shigaraki throwing a grenade that bounced off one wall and around the corner to where most of them were hiding, and then using the smoke as cover to move forward and take out the rest of them. Touya removed his head from the other man’s shoulder and settled for just watching him finish the fight, leaning back with an elbow resting against the top of the sofa and his cheek resting on his fist again. He really wasn’t that keen on this game, but it was clear Shigaraki was good at it.
It was also clear he was fine with Touya talking to him while he played as he asked, “if you don’t like jumpscares, why the hoodie?”
“What?” Touya asked.
Shigaraki took his eyes of the screen briefly to nod at the stolen hoodie Touya was wearing, “It’s merch for Five Nights At Freddy’s,” he explained, “a game well-known for employing jumpscares.”
“Nii-chan leaves the room when I play that one,” Natsuo piped up.
Touya shrugged, “it’s a nice hoodie,” he said, “it’s the right amount of oversized and it has a really soft, fleecy lining.”
“Fiend for a soft, fleecy lining,” Natsuo agreed, “none of my hoodies are ever safe.”
“Yeah, but this one’s 100% cotton so it’s also breathable,” Touya said.
“Ultimate combo,” Natsuo agreed.
“You guys have pretty strong opinions on hoodies,” Shigaraki observed.
They both nodded.
“Temperature-based quirks will do that,” Natsuo said, “I always run cold. Worse for Touya though.”
“Oh?” Shigaraki prompted.
“My temperature fluctuates pretty drastically,” Touya said, “I run really hot most of time, but my core temperature drops really low when I have my suppressors on – having something that will stop it dropping too low but also let some of the residual heat leech out is great,” he explained.
Shigaraki nodded in understanding, “so something breathable but still insulating?”
Touya nodded enthusiastically.
“I swear half my hoodies end up in his wardrobe eventually,” Natsuo griped.
“I wear them more than you!” Touya pointed out.
“Yeah, because they’re in your wardrobe!” Natsuo shot back.
“So stealing hoodies is a habit of yours then?” Shigaraki asked.
“It’s not stealing, per se,” Touya said, causing a derisive snort from Natsuo, “it’s more like Squatter’s Rights – if I’m in it for long enough, I have a claim to it.”
“And how long until those rights are granted?” Shigaraki asked, raising a brow.
Touya thought for a moment, before turning to Natsuo, “A week?”
“Two weeks,” Natsuo said.
Touya turned to Shigaraki, “A week,” he confirmed.
Shigaraki hummed, before nodding thoughtfully.
Touya watched him play the rest of the round quietly, Shigaraki winning again, and unlocking some new gear thanks to an achievement for Multiplayer Victories. He started cycling through the new options and Touya couldn’t help but pipe up;
“Wow. Poor avatar – those are hideous.”
“They give an extra +2 stealth, and increase ammo drops by 10%,” Shigaraki said.
“Whilst being hideous,” Touya agreed. “Chartreuse and hot pink. How’s that supposed to increase stealth?”
Shigaraki switched back to the old gear.
“You don’t need to change just because nii-chan’s playing fashion critic,” Natsuo said, shooting Touya an unimpressed look.
Shigaraki shrugged, “I don’t need the bonuses,” he said, “besides, your brother’s watching for fun; if he’d rather watch me beat the level in a different outfit, I can do that.”
Touya shot a smug look back at Natsuo, who rolled his eyes.
Shigaraki clicked out of the character editor and started the next level, avatars appearing on the side as the teams appeared.
“That’s them!” Natsuo said, pointing.
As he said it, his headset started to crackle, and Touya could just about make out the shouting coming from the other team as they connected.
“Wow, gamers know so many slurs,” he observed dryly.
Shigaraki snorted next to him, “these are the guys who have been giving you trouble?” He asked Natsuo.
His brother nodded, “I just want to move up a league so we don’t have to play them anymore.”
“Well I want all of them to experience ego-death,” Touya said.
“I think I can manage that,” Shigaraki said to him, before turning to Natsuo, “you might want to turn the headset down though – people like this often get fouler when they’re losing.”
“I almost can’t imagine how they could get any worse,” Natsuo replied.
They did get worse. Touya heard language so colourful it could be used to create a rainbow, if not for the fact that rainbows were ‘gay’ and the speakers had already made it clean what they thought about ‘gay shit’. Shigaraki decimated them, the round finishing in only just over three minutes, causing two more achievements to pop up on the screen.
Natsuo cheered, throwing his arms up in the air.
Touya nudged his shoulder with his own, and Shigaraki turned to look at him, “Thanks. You didn’t have to spend your break doing this for us. Appreciate it.”
"Like I said, I would have just played games on my phone anyway. Might as well go for the offered console."
"Still appreciated," Touya said.
"Yeah! You wiped the floor with them!" Natsuo added.
"Thanks," Shigaraki said with a soft smile.
"Chat wants to know why you aren't wearing your limited edition FNAF hoodie?" Spinner said. He was moderating this stream, happy to sit next to Tomura in their lounge at their set-up and keep an eye on the chat on one of the other monitors while Tomura played through Security Breach. They had mostly been talking about the lore together as he played, along with some of the game mechanics they liked, and comparing it to the other games, with the chat joining in. For the most part, Tomura tended to get a pretty tame chat full of people who were interested in the game, rather than him, which he preferred.
"It wasn't available," he said, distracted as he peeked around a corner. He was dangerously close to the mini-golf area, which meant he had to keep an eye out. "If they're that interested, there are pictures online."
"Uh, they want to know what you mean by 'unavailable'? Did you damage it?"
"It's not damaged, I just don't have it right now."
A pause as whatever was going on in the chat went on.
"No, he didn't get robbed," Spinner scoffed.
Tomura raised an eyebrow and almost looked away from the screen. "They think I got robbed?"
"They're throwing out some theories about why you wouldn't have it," Spinner explained, "since you're notorious for showing off your merch. Toga thinks you spilt something down it and have had to take it the dry-cleaners, and you’re being obtuse because you always said she couldn't borrow it because you thought she would do that."
"If I did spill something down it, I wouldn't feel the need to hide the fact from Toga," Tomura said, moving away from the mini-golf course, "it's my hoodie and I can do what I like with it. Including not wearing it for a stream."
"Toga now thinks that you ripped it in half in a gamer rage superman-style," Spinner added.
"Toga needs to mind her business."
"It is a good hoodie, to be fair," Spinner said, though Tomura could tell he was talking to the chat as he said it.
"Chat wants to know if it was worth the money."
"Yes."
A pause.
"There you go folks," Spinner said. "Toga says we're hopeless."
"Toga's real active in the chat considering it's a school night," Tomura shot back.
"That's a good point," Spinner said, "Toga have you done your homework?"
Silence.
"That's not an answer," Spinner said.
"Kick her out if she's still here at eleven."
"Education's important, Toga!" Spinner said, clearly dealing with the complaints.
"Toga wants you to talk about Roxy," he followed up.
"We can talk about Roxy," Tomura said, "what about her? Lore? Strategy?"
"I think we're going lore," Spinner answered.
"Cool," Tomura said, "Roxy's new with Security Breach-"
"Somone called Natsuo says hi," Spinner said.
Tomura nearly fumbled his controller for a moment, but thankfully managed to disguise it as a button mash.
"Apparently Touya says hi too," Spinner continued.
"Hi Natsuo, Hi Touya," Tomura said, deciding that if they had chosen to use their first names, then it was fine for him to use them. Besides, if they were using the first names, then Tomura revealing their surname could count as doxxing. "I didn't know you guys watched streams."
A pause as the reply was typed out. Tomura tried not to lose too much focus on the game.
"Apparently, only Natsuo does normally, but Touya's being nosy over his shoulder."
Tomura smiled at that, "I thought Touya didn't like jumpscares?"
Another pause, then, "he doesn't, he's now bitching about it, apparently."
Tomura smiled again. "Tell him I'll play Alien: Isolation next time if he likes."
"Touya is appeased, Natsuo says." Spinner parroted back before looking confused, “Isn’t Alien: Isolation chock-full of jumpscares?” He asked, looking at Tomura.
“Yes, but Touya sides with the xenomorph.”
“How does that work?” Spinner asked.
“Using the mic-detection to lure it over to whoever’s playing.”
“Evil,” Spinner said. “And now you’ve given Toga ideas – good luck playing isolation with her around.”
“I’d just switch mic-detection off,” Tomura said, unbothered. He nearly considered asking if they wanted to watch him play it tonight, and pause the speedrun of Security Breach, but with Toga in the chat, there would be no way that favouritism would pass un-questioned. In fact he was probably already in her crosshairs for using first-names and knowing the interests of two people she hadn’t met yet.
"It's been ages since we played Alien: Isolation," Spinner mused.
"Yeah, we could do one of the DLCs," Tomura pointed out. He was a little tempted to ask Touya if he wanted to come around and make it more difficult by playing Marco-Polo with the xenomorph, but he thought that inviting the guy around might be an over-step. After all, they only knew each other because Tomura was re-doing his kitchen and they'd had a couple of conversations. And Touya had given him some advice on piercings. And showed him the Black Lotus II vinyl. And called him in to help his brother in a co-op.
It was odd; they weren't quite friends, but they weren't professionally detached either. Also, he had Tomura's beloved hoodie. Which he would like to get back, eventually. Maybe if he got a plain black, 100% cotton hoodie the same size and left it in their flat Touya would change targets? No, that was convoluted. He should just ask for it back like a normal person when they were done fixing up his kitchen. And then what? Never talk again? It's not like they'd have an excuse to see each other after the renovations were done.
He hid his avatar as Chica appeared, trying to draw his thoughts back into the game - he was aware that he'd gone quiet and people were going to start asking questions soon. He was supposed to be talking about FNAF lore. Shit, if he didn't start talking, then Toga was going to sniff out something interesting enough for her to start bothering him off-stream. He threw himself into listing out pretty much every piece of lore he knew, as well as fan theories he either liked or didn't, explained why, and hoped that his word vomit was muddying the waters enough that no one would realise he was distracted. Thankfully, he'd played Security Breach enough that his gameplay wasn't affected. During a moment when his avatar was hunkered down, he grabbed his phone and texted Spinner;
Friend Natsuo
He heard Spinner's phone go off, but the controller was back in his hand by the time his friend was looking at it. He could see the chat in his periphery and Toga's username was coming up a lot. Nosy.
"Toga wants to know what we're sneaking about for," Spinner said, chuckling.
"Her birthday present," Tomura said.
He saw a flurry of activity from the chat and he was 90% certain it was all her.
The rest of the stream was pretty normal, and he tried not to get too distracted wondering if Natsuo and Touya were still watching. Natsuo apparently hung about until the end of the stream and then sent him a nice dm afterwards. But nothing from Touya. Then again, it seemed like Natsuo was the only one with a Twitch account. Had Touya continued to watch over his shoulder? He liked watching gameplay, but he didn't like jumpscares. There was no way for Tomura to know and no way for him to ask without being a bit obvious. Although, now that he had friended Natsuo, he at least had an avenue for getting his hoodie back if he didn't pluck up the courage to ask Touya directly.
To be honest, trying to ask for it back and finding himself with Touya cradling his face and staring at his lips while talking about piercings hadn't...scared him off, per se, but it was enough of a surprise that he'd forgotten to bring it up again. Because he was wondering how he'd gotten into that situation. He didn't mind - it had been nice. It just seemed like every time he was getting ready to broach the topic, he ended up doing something he hadn't been planning. Like getting snake bites. He'd always thought they were cool, and had toyed with the idea of getting them, but wasn't bothered either way. But he'd been trying to make conversation, and Touya had so many piercings that it seemed like a safe topic.
Maybe he would get snake bites. Would it be weird to ask Touya where he worked so he could get them done there? Another avenue to get his hoodie back, although going by how he'd lost control of the conversation and ended up with his face in Touya's hands, he may end up running the risk of getting multiple piercings as he tried to broach the subject, only to get smoke-screened by pretty blue eyes and too much shiny jewellery drawing attention to an equally pretty face.
Tomura ran his hands down his face. Why was this proving to be so difficult? He was just asking for a hoodie back! Touya did look cute in it. But it was his favourite hoodie, and he’d like it back. Maybe he should just message Natsuo. He'd help. But he didn't want Touya to be embarrassed. God, what a minefield of a social situation.
Of all things he was expecting when the door opened to their job that day, a guy wearing his hoodie was not one of them. Tomura had felt himself blue screen as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. For a moment he had to wonder if the guy owned his own limited-edition hoodie which would come with the caveat of making it very difficult for Tomura to be normal and professional around him. And then he realised that the most logical explanation was that, early morning start, they'd woken him and he'd grabbed the nearest thing to cover himself up before opening the door. Which, since Tomura had left in the kitchen would have made sense - the guys was probably just grabbing breakfast. Or possibly a coffee. So, he'd thought he let it slide and just grab the hoodie next time he saw it, to save the guy the embarrassment. Unfortunately, every time he's seen his hoodie since, it's been on him. And the worst part was that Tomura really didn't mind. The guy was cute. He was cute and wearing Tomura's hoodie. It was pleasant to see.
And apparently Tomura's favourite hoodie was very much in danger of becoming Touya's favourite hoodie, and then they'd be in trouble because there was a non-zero possibility that Tomura would let him have it. Especially after Touya had admitted that, as a habitual hoodie-thief, Tomura's hoodie was ticking all the boxes, and that he only had a few more days to ask for the hoodie back before Squatter's Rights kicked in. Which, also cute. And there was a very small voice in the back of Tomura's mind that said that clearly the most logical answer was if Touya started coming round to watch Tomura game and then he could wear the hoodie while he was here. Which was a dangerous thought, because Tomura really liked that idea. He spent a lot of time gaming, and he liked co-op. But not as much as he liked doing things himself. Someone who actively enjoyed sitting next to him and watching him game? The dream. A hot hoodie-thief with piercings who liked watching him game? Too good to be true. There had to be a catch. Like him being straight. Yeah, that would just about be Tomura's luck. He should just suck it up and ask for his hoodie back.
"Hey," a soft, gentle voice said from above him as something wonderfully cool was pressed against his forehead. He pushed into it with a sigh.
"Touya," the voice said again and he realised he was being spoken too and cracked open an eye. A concerned Shigaraki looked back at him, leant in so his pale hair was falling around them and making him look like he had a halo. "Are you okay? You're burning up. I'm going to call your brother."
Touya blinked up at him, then groggily reached out to grab his wrist, remembering his quirk at the last moment and redirecting to his sleeve. He was wearing gloves anyway, he realised. He would’ve been fine. His hand was already on his forehead. He had such lovely, cold hands. "Already texted him," he said. "Not sick, just on strong painkillers," he explained.
Shigaraki blinked down at him, still looking concerned, "Okay, is there anything I can get you? Make you more comfortable."
Touya shook his head and then grimaced at the wave of dizziness it caused, "not unless you wan' to play hookie n' play Okami for me," he joked.
Shigaraki smiled down at him and Touya realised that he was still holding onto his sleeve and had dragged his hand down so that it rested on his cheek. He leant into the contact again, eyes fluttering shut. Shigaraki's thumb started to rub back-and-forth as he said, "Maybe another time."
Touya pretended to pout before smiling up at him.
"When's Natsuo going to get here?" He asked.
"'S got class until eleven, then he's coming home," Touya answered, "gonna study here instead of the library." He pouted melodramatically again, "No Okami for me."
"Is Okami an important part of the recovery process?" Shigaraki asked.
"Doesn't have to be Okami," Touya said, "just has to be nostalgic and have a good soundtrack."
Shigaraki leant forward to rest his forearms on the back of the sofa, "Oh? And what other games fall into that category for you?" He asked.
Touya thought for a moment, blinking slowly, "Mmm... Black Lotus II, Breath of the Wild, Cult of the Lamb."
"They're all pretty good. I could put the Black Lotus Soundtrack on if you like?" He offered, "I know it's not the same as watching gameplay, but would that help?"
Touya grinned up at him - he was so nice. He nodded and then grimaced as the movement set off the dizzies.
"You okay?" Shigaraki asked.
"Dizzy," Touya said, letting his eyes fall shut, "normally try not to move my head too much, but it's tricky."
He heard Shigaraki move off towards the vinyl player and held back a yawn. He should probably eat something soon, but his appetite was always shite whenever he was a) in pain or b) on painkillers, which didn't make things any easier. He wasn't sure how long Shigaraki had been fiddling around with the setup, but eventually he heard the soundtrack start up. The sound quality seems a little off, but on the stronger painkillers, it wasn't uncommon for that, so maybe he was just a bit sensitive to them today.
The familiar music was a good distraction as he waited for the dizzy-spell to pass. He wasn’t quite present enough to keep track of the songs, but it was nice to let the melodies wash over him, remembering different cut-scenes and gameplay that he associated with the music after watching Natsuo play it through so many times. Black Lotus Reloaded, usually called 1.5 by fans, was a remake of the first game for Gameboy, and Touya used to crawl under Natsuo’s covers at night to watch him play when he was having nightmares. 1.5 was notoriously mediocre compared to the other games in the series, the PC gameplay not translating well to the simpler console, but still good overall. He’d enjoyed it. It had kept the nightmares at bay. The music had been tinny, 8-bit little melodies, but when Black Lotus II came out, there were a few melodies and refrains from the first game that they’d worked into the soundtrack as an homage. There was even a bonus track at the end of the album where they did the theme in the 8-bit style of 1.5. He was looking forward to that. Sometimes he still put on the 1.5 soundtrack when he was having trouble sleeping.
A phone rang, cutting off the music. A phone ringing shouldn't affect the music. He cracked an eye open before lifting his head in confusion and was delighted to realise that no dizziness accompanied the movement. He looked over at the vinyl player to see it shut. Then to the side, where a phone in a Black Lotus II case was buzzing. Shigaraki appeared, grabbing his phone where he'd left it next to Touya on the sofa back, giving him a sheepish look before answering; "Atsuhiro-san?"
Touya left him to his phone call - it wasn't any of his business, and focused on getting some of the stiffness out of his back. He lifted his arms above his head to stretch, his spine popping with the action, and he let out a groan of satisfaction. He should probably get something to eat as well, even if he didn't feel like it. Definitely something to drink. He massaged the back of his neck where a knot was threatening to develop.
"Sorry about that," Shigaraki said, the soundtrack starting up again.
"It's fine," Touya said, "You should have told me you were struggling with the vinyl player - I'd have helped. You didn't have to sacrifice your phone."
"I don't mind," Shigaraki assured him, "It's not like I really have any opportunity to use it when I'm working anyway."
"You could have left me without music," Touya pointed out.
Shigaraki shrugged, "You looked like you could do with a pick-me-up."
Touya smiled at him again, "I did."
"How're you feeling now?" He asked.
"Much better - the dizzy-spell’s over and I've got basically no pain now," Touya said.
Shigaraki gave him a relieved smile, "Do you want a glass of water or something?"
Touya perked up, "Shit yeah, that'd be great."
Shigaraki started off back to the kitchen.
"It's fine! I can get it," Touya said, kicking his duvet off where he'd tangled his legs in it.
"No, you stay there," Shigaraki said, "I'll get it."
"I'm not an invalid!" Touya insisted, and Shigaraki waved him off.
Touya knelt on the sofa staring after him. He could get it himself, but trotting after Shigaraki when he was already headed back to the kitchen seemed like it might be annoying or something.
He heard the front door slam, "Tou-ta- oh, hi Shigaraki," Natsuo said from the hallway.
He soon appeared in the living room with his satchel still over one shoulder, letting it drop when he got to the coffee table.
"How're you feeling?" He asked.
"Better," Touya said, "Dizziness is over. Same with the pain."
"Have you eaten?" Natsuo asked, "Drank?"
"Shigaraki's just gone to get me a glass of water."
"You should eat something too," Natsuo said.
Touya groaned, "I'll get to it."
"I'll grab some study snacks and I expect you to steal at least 30% of them or I'm going to be very disappointed," Natsuo said, doing his best impression of a real doctor as he levelled Touya with a meaningful look. Touys stuck his tongue out at him.
Shigaraki returned as he did this and passed Touya a glass, who tried not to flush at being caught being so childish, thanking him before downing the entire thing. Shit, he hadn't realised how thirsty he was.
"Hey Shig," Natsuo greeted today, "he convinced you to play nurse?"
Shigaraki looked a little surprised, and then a little pink before he said, "I just wanted to help."
"He's been lovely," Touya said in his defence.
"Did he try and convince you to play Okami?" Natsuo asked, ignoring Touya.
"He mentioned it was his favourite game to watch when he was sick," Shigaraki said.
"That's him asking," Natsuo said, giving Touya an unimpressed look before turning back to Shigaraki, "how's the kitchen going?"
"Well," Shigaraki replied, "we should be finished in the next couple of hours."
"This is your last day?" Touya asked, feeling his stomach drop at the thought.
"Uh," Shigaraki said, scratching his neck, "yeah, I guess so."
Touya tried not to pout, but in all honesty, he felt like a bit of an idiot for getting so attached. But, well, he'd thought they were friends? Or at least, getting there? They got on well, and he liked talking to him. He even thought that Shigaraki might like talking to him, too.
"There you go, Tou-tan!" Natsuo said, "if you ask nicely, maybe in a couple of hours, when Shig's off the clock, then he'll play Okami for you."
Touya felt his face heat in embarrassment for being so transparent and for having his younger brother point it out, eyes darting to Shigaraki nervously. But he looked a little pink too. Oh god, he hoped they weren't making him uncomfortable.
"Yeah, Spinner and I were going to stream after this anyway. We can do Okami. If you'll still want to watch it in a few hours, that is."
Touya perked up. That was something, right? He turned to Nat-chan, "Can I borrow your Twitch account?" He asked.
"Yeah, sure, I'll get it set up in a bit. You can watch, and I'll study. Hell, if Shig's okay taking requests, maybe he can keep you entertained when I have my exams in two weeks."
Touya peered out the corner of his eye to see how Shigaraki took the idea.
"We could...do Alien: Isolation?" He offered, turning to look at Touya. He seemed nervous, which was wild, since he was the chillest person ever and also offering to do Touya a favour.
"That would be nice," Touya said, smiling up at him.
"If you like," Shigaraki continued, "you could come round. Play Marco-Polo with the alien. Make the game more challenging for me."
Touya grinned, "Sounds good."
Shigaraki nodded, "I'll see you then."
Okay, so Tomura hadn't gotten his hoodie back, even though it was their last day working in the Todoroki flat. He'd been meaning to and then Touya had clearly been having a bad day and Tomura didn't want to impose. And he was going to see him in a few weeks; he could ask for it back then. Even though, by Touya's own rules, Squatter's Rights would have kicked in by then and it will be Touya's hoodie, not Tomura's.
He'd left his phone number stuck to their fridge in case they wanted to contact him that way - he'd thought about offering it properly, but Natsuo was studying and Touya had fallen asleep on the sofa. Still in Tomura's hoodie. Snuggled down into it with his duvet piled up around his legs. He'd said a quiet goodbye to Natsuo and gave him all the information about the kitchen he needed, along with the work number to call if he had any more questions. Natsuo had nodded through all of it and then asked if he wanted to play Baldur's Gate co-op sometime, which Shigaraki had agreed to with relief; it was nice to know he wasn't the only one who thought they had become friends.
He hadn't actually played Okami since it came out on the PlayStation, so he had to buy it on Steam so he could run it on the desktop, but he'd already gone through a few levels just to reacquaint himself with it, and it was like riding a bike. Spinner hadn't asked why he'd suddenly decided on Okami rather than The Isle, which they had been planning to play, but he didn't seem to think it was worth investigating. If he had been playing with Toga, he did not doubt that she would have sniffed out the potential gossip behind the choice and latched onto it like a bulldog (honestly, he was surprised she wasn't planning on going into journalism rather than phlebotomy). It was a nostalgic enough game that no one watching the stream seemed to mind the change either. Not that Tomura would care - it was his stream and he'd play whatever he felt like. And he felt like playing Okami. Mostly because of Touya.
The stream started and he and got to work grinding through the levels and talking with Spinner about the storyline. It was a singleplayer, which meant that Tomura was playing it whilst Spinner played The Isle on his own on a different stream. It meant that their viewer count hadn't pooled the way it usually did when they played together. It was about 2 hours in and he'd given up on keeping an eye out for Touya in the chat, instead focusing on the game and the familiar storyline - he'd not been feeling great, he'd probably gone to bed. He'd said he'd like to watch Tomura play Okami, not that he would be watching his stream tonight. Besides, it's not like he even knew his screenname. In fact, hadn't he asked to borrow Natsuo's account? So he didn't even have his own to watch on. He'd left his phone number on the fridge; he'd done his part to indicate that he'd like to remain in contact. The ball was in their court.
He played through the night - one thing about his viewers was that they knew about his insomnia, and quite a few of them had it themselves and enjoyed having the streams as company. Between that and the compelling storyline, he found himself playing well past sunrise, and his main issue was just the dry eye he'd ended up with. He decided just to push through until he completed the first arc and then grab breakfast, a refrigerated eye mask, and lie down for a few hours with an audiobook to at least pretend he was trying to sleep. He had nothing else to do today.
He'd only logged off about ten minutes ago, eyemask on his head, cup noodle in hand, when his phone buzzed and he looked to see a message from an unknown number:
>did u sleep at all?
>went to bed when u were still playing and woke to find u still going??
>Nachan and I watched while we had breakfast
>he won't shut up about how easy u made the fight against Orochi look
>this is Touya, btw
Tomura felt something warm and fuzzy take hold in his chest.
<I have pretty bad insomnia. I usually play games on nights I can't sleep
>should i tell nachan that's the secret to defeating orochi?
<yes. he should give up on med school, develop insomnia and start gaming competitively.
<he'll finally be able to beat spyro if he uses this technique
>finally
>what are you doing for the rest of the day?
<was gonna try and have a nap
<it's my day off, so i wasnt going to do much tbh
>fair enough
>i'll leave u to it then. Hope you get some rest
Tomura tried to figure out if there was a cool way to say 'no, please feel free to keep chatting, I don't need sleep that bad' but couldn't and ended up flopping back on his bed and thinking through the conversation, short as it was. Should he have invited Touya out for coffee? Or was that too soon? He was seeing him at some point anyway to play Alien, so it wasn't pressing. He could ask him out later, maybe after setting up more of a rapport. He pulled his eyemask down and tried not to overthink it.
He didn't get to see Touya before his brother's exams started, but since Natsuo and he had been grinding Baldur's Gate Thursday nights pretty consistently, he had heard him - Natsuo always put himself on speaker so they could all chat but it also meant that whatever flirting skills Tomura had stayed very much off the table. From what he could tell based the handful of comments in his chat and what Toga had to say (unprompted) the majority of his charisma came from being good at what he did and not particularly egotistical or aggressive. One of the most common compliments he got was on his lack of 'gamer rage'. That did however, bring into question his capacity to flirt outside of gaming circles. He was hoping that wouldn't be an issue, though - Touya might not game himself, but he was interested in it. That should be enough, right? A lot of it was just he and Natsuo running through quests together (Tomura's character was notably higher level, but that wasn't an issue) to the sound of Touya's questions and commentary. It was nice. Touya was funny and quick-witted even if he didn't know much about the game or storyline. Natsuo had mentioned that he was going to start cramming for his exams that coming week and Tomura had casually brought up his previous offer to entertain Touya during that time.
Which was why he had been tidying up his and Spinner's flat all of yesterday to make it look less gamer-stereotype-y and making sure that he hadn't left any dirty laundry on the floor. Both because it would be embarrassing and because Touya was a known hoodie-thief. If he happened to leave two freshly-laundered hoodies (100% cotton) one on the sofa and one on his bed, well, that was just tactical defence. He normally gamed in his room, but there was also a set-up in Spinner's room and they had a few consoles in the living room which were usually used for group games like Mario Kart. Alien: Isolation was a game that Tomura had gotten on PC for modding purposes, which meant that if Touya wanted to watch him play, then they were going to have to be in his bedroom. Which was fine, but it was going to be the first time Touya was in the space and Tomura was a normal amount of nervous for that. He wasn't the most social person and he tended to see his bedroom as a private space rather than one for hanging out in. It had been a few months before he'd even invited Spinner in to see his PC build, but the plan had been specifically for Alien: Isolation, so he was going to have to get over it. Besides, he did want Touya in his personal space; he just wanted it enough that he was worried about fucking it up.
He heard the intercom buzz and he headed to the corridor to answer it, stopping to drop the bag from his bedroom bin in the larger kitchen one, and found Spinner already next to it.
"It's Todoroki, I let him in."
"Great, thanks," Tomura said, reaching up to scratch his neck before realising what he was doing and diverting the action to run a hand through his hair instead and make sure it wasn't a mess.
Spinner paused, shifting on his feet.
"What?" Tomura asked.
"Nah, it's just...should I... find somewhere else to crash tonight?" Spinner asked.
Neither of them looked the other in the eye as Tomura felt his face heat up, "Uh, no I don't think that'll be necessary," he muttered.
"You gonna try and get your hoodie back?" Spinner asked.
"Yeah, I was thinking I might ask," Tomura said. Squatters' Rights will have kicked in by now, though.
"Cool," Spinner said, before walking back to the kitchen to make himself a cup noodle.
There was a knock on the door and Tomura answered it, finding Touya standing on the other side.
"Hi," he greeted.
"Heya," Touya answered, before lifting a bag, "I brought food."
"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Tomura said, opening the door wider to let him in.
Touya shrugged, "seemed like a fair trade for letting me team up with the xeno to kill you."
Tomura hummed, closing the door before leading him to the kitchen and grabbing some plates, "How many do we want?" He asked.
"You mind different foods touching each other?" Touya asked.
"No."
"One plate each should be fine," Touya replied, setting the bag down on the counter and fishing out some tupperware containers. Tomura set two plates down and then realised on closer inspection that the tupperware that Touya had put down wasn't the cheap, single-use takeaway kind, but the hardier, click-shut kind used at home.
"Did you make these?" Tomura asked in surprise.
"Mhmm," Touya affirmed, opening them and starting to plate up. "We've got blackberry and chilli glazed tofu in the bao, onigiri with either pickled plums or tuna mayo - I don't like fish so those are all yours - doriyaki, and I also grabbed some crisps."
"This is...really thoughtful Touya," Tomura said, "thank you."
Touya shrugged, focused on plating up, "I already made a bunch of stuff for Na-chan to snack on while he studies, it wasn't any bother to make a bit more."
"I appreciate it anyway," Tomura assured him.
Touya hummed in response and Tomura decided to contribute what he could and headed to the fridge. There were two packs of monster energy in there, but he opted for the sodas instead, holding up the two flavours, "do you want mango or lychee?"
Touya perked up, turning to face him, "oh! Lychee, please."
Tomura nodded, taking two out along with a mango and a white monster for himself. He started walking back as Touya picked up the two plates, "Should I put them on the coffee table?" Touya asked, nodding to the one in front of the television.
"Oh, uh," Tomura thankfully couldn't scratch his neck while he was holding the drinks, "I actually don't have Alien: Isolation on console," he explained, "only PC, so we'd need to be in my room. Unless you'd prefer a console game," he tacked on the end.
"That's fine," Touya said, "which way am I going?"
Tomura led the way into his room, putting the plate down on the desk before settling into his gaming chair. The familiar feel of it and the time he'd spent quietly doing something he loved and was good at felt like it had seeped into the fabric of it and made him feel calmer about inviting Touya into his room. He liked his room, he liked gaming, he liked spending time with Touya. Gaming in his room with Touya was, statistically speaking, likely to be very enjoyable. The nerves bourne of unfamiliarlty would settle. Touya put the other plate down next to his and got into the other chair, pulling his legs up underneath him as he did so, body leant towards Tomura the same way he'd sat on the sofa when they'd gamed at his place. Tomura didn't waste any energy pretending not to be charmed by it, and passed him his soda with a soft smile.
"Comfy?" He asked, "you can grab more pillows from the bed if you like. Or a blanket if it's too cold."
Touya took the drink, popping off the lid, the gentle fizz bubbling up along with the smell of lychee and sugar, "Nah, I'm good for now. Might take you up on the blanket thing later if the sweatshirt isn't enough."
"No problem, help yourself anytime," he said, clicking through to make sure he had the right mods installed and uninstalling a few that he didn't want right now. The microphone detection mod for PC that replicated the one available on the console version had been new, but he'd tested it out the day before, and even made Spinner come in to make sure it would pick up sound from someone sat next to him.
He loaded up the game, the atmospheric spaceship noises playing through the speakers and he saw Touya perk up and turn to the screen with the opening credits, before heading into the soliloquy from Ripley.
"When was the last time you played this?" Tomura asked, "Or, you know, watched Natsuo play?"
"A few years ago," Touya said, "you?"
"Probably about the same," he said. The game was good, but it had been out for a while, and despite all the DLCs and mods Tomura had gotten tired of it eventually.
They sat quietly as the opening scene set up the plot, even though they both knew it and then Tomura started the small tasks at the beginning to help orientate the player and get them used to the controls and the plot.
"That looks damaged," a character said.
"Oh my God, what could have damaged it?" Touya asked, dryly.
Tomura snorted as they watched the spacewalk sequence and ensuing explosion that separated Amanda from the rest of the team and put her on the Sevastopol. Tomura decided that while the game was doing it's set-up was the best time to eat some of the food Touya had made before he really needed to pay attention to gameplay. He grabbed one of the onigiri before leaning back into his chair.
"Ah yes, the old airport-luggage-conveyor-belt simulator," Touya said as Tomura navigated the start of the Sevestopol map, "I had forgotten about that."
"These are really good," he said to Touya, taking another bit out of the onigiri. It's not like he'd had low expectations - the fact that Touya had gone to the trouble of making food for them was kind enough. But as it turned out, he was particularly gifted in the cooking department.
"Thanks," Touya said, sipping his soda.
They ate their way through about half the food, making little comments to each other while they waited for the action to start properly (read: for the xenomorph to appear so Touya could start trying to kill him).
"Axel’s so slimy," Touya said.
"Yeah," Tomura said, "if I could skip his dialogue I would."
"Set the xeno on him," Touya said.
"I can't do that," Tomura said, "that's your job, remember?"
"You're right. I'll let her know."
When Axel died and the xeno finally appeared they both cheered, Tomura then ran away to the towerlink while Touya ate a bao.
They ended up talking about some of Touya's work at the piercing parlour; apparently he'd done his first tongue piercing the other day which could be a particularly tricky one. Something about bloodflow. It was interesting to hear about the more technical side; it was making him think about getting snake bites again. He'd been toying with the idea more since talking to Touya - the vertical labrets seemed like a good idea. He was pretty sure he was going to get them at some point, but he hadn't gotten around to making an appointment yet.
"Have you done any lip piercings yet?" Tomura asked.
"Yeah, I did a medusa yesterday," Touya said, taking another sip of his soda, "and I got to do cyber-bites the other day which was fun. All under supervision, but especially the cyber bites was good experience."
"That's all four, right?" Tomura asked, motioning to his own mouth.
Touya nodded, before pointing at the screen in excitement as the xenomorph descended from the vent and started the cutscene. Tomura took a sip from his monster while Amanda screamed on screen and Touya made finger-hearts at the xenomorph.
A little pop-up appeared in the bottom corner of the screen:
♡⊹˚₊~Himi-kun~₊˚⊹♡ : omg, tomu r u playing alien??? without me???
Shit.
♡⊹˚₊~Himi-kun~₊˚⊹♡ : u KNOW how much i love alien
He quickly pulled up the chat box to type out:
FearSymbol: i have a guest. we can play later
♡⊹˚₊~Himi-kun~₊˚⊹♡ : U HAVE A GUEST????
"Just a second," Tomura said, before pulling up his phone and messaging her on discord.
<Talk on here if u have 2
>so ur 'guest' can't see???
<yes
>who is it (¬‿¬)
<no one u kno
> (¬‿¬)(¬‿¬)(¬‿¬)
< I have to go deal with the working joe, ttyl
> tomura shigaraki u get back here
He shut off his phone and set it down before turning back to the screen.
"Sorry about that, she's a big Alien fan too," he explained.
"I don't mind if your friend joins us," Touya said, "Natsuo's friends join sometimes, I'm used to it."
Tomura shrugged, "she's great and she loves the xenos so you'd probably get on," he said, "but I want to keep you to myself for a bit."
There was a pause before Touya said, "cool. That's cool."
Tomura wanted to turn and look at his face, but he needed to get away from an angry working joe and activate the cutscene with Samuels. They continued chatting while Tomura tried to get his objectives complete, though it seemed like Touya had forgotten his goal of getting Tomura killed. At least, until a few minutes later when there was a clattering noise in the vents and Touya let out a cartoon-y "yoohoo! Over here!"
Tomura whipped his face back to the screen and started mashing buttons to get some doors between him and the most suspicious-looking vent.
"Coo-ee!" Touya called out.
"Fuck off," Tomura said without venom, kicking Touya's chair gently with his foot so that he started to spin around.
"Kick me all you want, she's gonna get ya," he replied.
"Yeah, she probably will at some point," Tomura admitted. And then used the nearest save point just in case.
"Have I already worn down your resolve?" Touya asked, craning his neck to look at him as his chair slowly circled.
Tomura shrugged, "getting a playthrough with no deaths in this game is pretty tricky. I've managed it before, but it's not a goal this time."
"What's your goal this time?"
"Want you to have fun," Tomura replied.
There as another pause and he turned to look at him.
"I'm having fun," Touya said, cheeks slightly pink.
Tomura smiled at him. Only to hear a squelching noise from the screen and turn around to see a tail blade sticking out of his chest on the screen. He turned back to look at Touya with narrowed eyes, who looked back at him innocently. He took another drink of his monster while he waited for the game to reload at his last save point.
♡⊹˚₊~Himi-kun~₊˚⊹♡ : check ur phone
"Just a second," Tomura said, pausing the game and reaching for his phone.
"S'fine," Touya said, "where's your bathroom?" He asked, stretching.
"Oh, it's the door between Iguichi's room and mine," he said.
"Cool. Want me to grab you another drink while I'm near the kitchen?"
"Yeah, sure, that'd be really nice," Tomura said.
Touya smiled at him and Tomura found himself watching him walk out the room before turning back to his phone.
>r u on a date??
>uve got 2 b on a date (≖⩊≖)
>if it was spinner or another friend u'd let me play
>or at the very least not b bothered about me messaging u where they can see it
>bc u kno id ask if it was a date
>and ud only care abt them seeing that message if it was a date
>or if u wanted it 2 b a date (╭ರ_•́)
>im right arent i? (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)
>tell me in right
>TELL ME IM RIGHT TOMU ( •_•)╦̵̵̿╤─
<I have a new friend round I havent played with before. I wanted to play together first before I introduced him to the rest of you.
> (╭ರ_•́) a new friend???
>a new friend and u want 2 play together first (≖⩊≖)
>interesting
<isn't it a school night?
> ( •_•)╦̵̵̿╤─
> is he cute?
>tomu is he cute?
>is ur new friend cute?
Tomura opened a different chat and messaged Iguichi;
<could u distract Toga pls?
> k
He clicked off his phone as Touya returned.
"White one, right?" he said, handing one over to him.
"Yeah," Tomura said with a smile, "thanks." He actually didn't care what flavour he had, for the most part, but it was touching that Touya had paid attention.
They settled in again, and by the time they'd finished the food and Touya had gotten him killed three times, it was getting late and Tomura had somehow ended up with Touya's feet in his lap and a different hoodie now claimed by the thief. He possibly should have seen that coming. He'd left them out to tempt him, in the hopes that he'd get his other one back. But Touya hadn't worn his hoodie today, so there was no stolen hoodie to take off and replace with a different, less valuable one. But it was...cute. Having Touya in his hoodie, in his room, watching him game with his feet in Tomura's lap and his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. There had been a few times now where he hadn't noticed the tell-tale noises of the xeno nearby and Tomura had gotten away safely.
It was only when the alien appeared on screen to zero cheers that Tomura realised he'd fallen asleep. He looked at his sleeping face long enough for the alien to kill him, but he needed to pause the game anyway. He checked the time and realised that it was around three in the morning - normal for him, but a time when most people would have been asleep long before. He didn't feel tired though. But despite the ergonomic design of a gaming chair, they weren't really something you should sleep in. He looked over at his bed - he knew that normally guests took the sofa or something, but Tomura was unlikely to sleep tonight so it seemed stupid to leave a perfectly good bed un-used. He carefully removed Touya's feet from his lap, then got up and pulled back his covers, before wandering over and nudging the chair a little to see if he'd wake up. Nothing.
He slipped one arm under his knees and one behind his back before lifting him, Touya grumbling a little at the movement but not waking, then turned to place him on the bed before pulling the covers over him. He grabbed his phone to send a quick message to Natsuo, seeing a message from Toga:
>Spinner says he's cute (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)
He rolled his eyes before clicking away from it and sending a quick message to Natsuo that Touya had fallen asleep and would be staying over unplanned. He settled back into his chair and loaded up a different game so that Touya wouldn't miss anything and planned what he could order them both for breakfast - something nice, since Touya had gone to the trouble of making dinner for the two of them.
So, Tomura didn't get his hoodie back, but he did get to see Touya with bedhair the next morning. Bleary-eyed and still in the other stolen hoodie as he followed Tomura out into the kitchen where he made them both a coffee while they waited for breakfast to arrive. They hung out some more with Spinner until Touya had to head home. Which he did while still wearing Tomura's other hoodie. He purposefully avoided Spinner's eyes when he told Touya he could return it later.
"Giving him another hoodie is the exact opposite of your goal here," he said.
Tomura shrugged, "it's cold out."
Spinner sighed.
"Tomura!" Touya greeted in surprise after looking up at the sound of the shop's bell, his face breaking into a grin.
"Hi," Tomura replied with a smile of his own.
"Are you here to see me?" Touya asked, looking a little confused.
"Sort of," Tomura admitted, "I was thinking about getting my snake bites done today."
"Oh! Sweet!" Touya said, "I'll get you one of the forms."
He shuffled through some mini clipboards before handing one over to Tomura. It was a basic checklist about safety; bloodborne diseases, dizzy spells, blood-thinning medication that the piercer would have to know about, whether he'd eaten and/or drunk in the past four hours, if he'd ever been pierced in the area before. Stuff like that. Tomura filled it out before handing it back to Touya.
"Great," Touya said, "boss is in the back with a client at the moment, but she'll be out in a bit. I can do a consultation for you if you like, but it'll mostly be a rehash of what I said a few weeks ago when I asked. But I can do it again and you can ask any questions."
"That'd be great," Tomura said, not against another opportunity to have Touya cradle his face.
"So it's two piercings to your bottom lip," he said, "do you want rings or studs?"
"I was going to go studs," Tomura replied, "and two vertical labrets, like you mentioned."
"Okay, cool," Touya said, "and you mentioned you haven't been pierced there before?"
"No," Tomura confirmed, realising that he wasn't going to have his face cradled today, which was a shame.
"Any piercings before?" Touya asked.
"None."
"Okay, no problem," he said, "It's a really simple procedure; a lot of people only feel it as a sharp pinch. But it can be a weird sensation if you aren't used to it. She'll mark out where the piercing will go in pen first, so the two of you can adjust to where you want it to sit, and after that she'll hold your lip still, pierce it with a needle and then put the jewellery in," he explained. "It'll only take a few seconds and then she'll wipe it off."
"You won't be doing it?" Tomura asked.
Touya paused in what was clearly a script for him, "I assumed you'd want a more experienced piercer for your first piercing."
"I trust you to do it," Tomura said.
"Okay, yeah sure, I can do that," Touya said. "Well then, after I've pierced you it's just aftercare - lip and mouth piercings all tend to heal pretty quickly, so you're looking at about six to eight weeks healing time unless you use a quirk, which we don't recommend since healing quirks all work differently and you'd need to go through a doctor to get one that's definitely suitable. Your quirk doesn't have a healing or regeneration factor, does it?"
Tomura shook his head.
"Didn't think so," Touya said, "you can take a painkiller afterwards, I'd recommend an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen. You'll have some swelling; it usually goes down within two days. You might develop a lisp in that time," he warned. "Come in again in about six weeks and we'll look at downsizing your jewellery, if it's still swollen after a week or if at any point you're worried about it, you can come in and we'll check it for you, or you can call your doctor. Rinse it twice a day with boiled saltwater, don't twist it about, eat soft foods for the first two days and avoid hot curries or citrus for a bit. Also, I'd avoid kissing anyone until the tenderness is gone."
Well, that wasn't going to be an issue for Tomura - at the moment he was only interested in kissing one person and that person was an oblivious hoodie-thief about to put a needle in him.
"We've got all that written out in a pamphlet by the way, so you don't have to remember it all," Touya assured him, "but also you can just text me, if you like."
"Thanks," Tomura said.
"Want to pick out your jewellery and then work on placement?"
Tomura nodded, following him to a glass fronted cabinet that Touya unlocked before pulling out a small square of black velvet with various display barbells on it.
"You can get some more elaborate jewellery later, if you like, but for the piercing and healing process these are your options."
Tomura wasn't particularly bothered about elaborate jewellery - his goal had been plain black snake bites and that's what he was going for. He pointed to the black barbell.
"Nice," Touya said, putting the display away, "I'll grab those in the right size in just a bit, for now would you sit over there while I grab a pen?"
Tomura did as instructed, sitting on the sofa and looking around the shop, with it's display cases full of jewellery, some clothing rails with a lot of alt-style pieces on them, hair dyes, make-up catered towards bolder looks, that sort of thing. It wasn't his exact scene, but there was enough overlap between the kind of people he hung out with and the kind of people he imagined shopped here that he didn't feel out of place. He wondered if any of the hoodies on the rack were ever in danger from Touya, or if his supervisor kept a close eye on them.
Touya fiddled about behind the counter for a bit, before heading to the doorway that led deeper into the shop, poking his head around the corner to talk to someone before moving back over to Tomura.
"Okay, sensei's just finishing up in there, then we can head in to check your placement since that's where the big mirror is." Touya said.
Tomura nodded. It only took a couple of minutes for the head piercer to come out, followed by a girl with a red-looking nose and shiny stud in her nostril and took her over to the till, pulling out some pamphlets and talking to her in a low voice. Touya waved him through and he was in a small, well-lit room with a contraption in the middle a little like a dentist's chair, with a huge mirror on the adjacent wall.
"Hop up here a moment," Touya said, patting the chair, which was flat as a table at the moment, a paper-y sheet laid across the padded surface. It crinkled as he sat down and then he was looking up at Touya, standing in front of him with a marker pen in one hand. "Okay, do you know where abouts you want them?"
Tomura tapped his fingers against where he'd imagined them being and held very still as Touya used one hand to hold his chin before leaning forward, eyes trained on Tomura's mouth, and making four small dots - two on his lip and two underneath. He took a moment to stand back and then leant forward to rub one off and replace it slightly to the side.
"Okay, how does that look?" Touya said, stepping back and letting go of his light grip on Tomura's chin so he could turn to the side and check the placement in the mirror.
"Closer together? Further apart?" Touya asked.
Tomura shook his head, "that's fine."
"You sure? Because you're going to have these for a while and it's best to get them right the first time."
Tomura chewed his lip thoughtfully and tried to imagine a stud there as he did it.
"Can I have them a little closer together?" He asked.
"Sure," Touya said, leaning in to correct the placement.
This close it was so easy to see his pale white eyelashes, much longer than Tomura's own, and those striking blue eyes. Tomura wondered, as his eyes dropped down to Touya's own mouth and the stud there before snapping them up again and looking at the other piercings in his face as a distraction, if he'd ever swapped out his plain metal studs for crystals that would match. The light blue ones he'd seen in the display cabinet were a very similar tone.
"How about now?" Touya asked, stepping back again.
Tomura looked in the mirror and hesitated.
"Too close?"
He hummed, tilting his head and trying to imagine the piercings there.
"I can put them right back where they were, or even further apart. Or even closer together, if you like."
"I think I liked the first placement more," Tomura said.
"Okay," Touya said easily, leaning in to correct them again.
He was so pretty. It really wasn't fair for Tomura to see his face this close-up when they were, technically, in a professional setting and that comment wouldn't be appropriate. Not that he'd made that comment when he'd thought it previously. He was still...feeling out their dynamic. He wasn't bad at making friends but he was choosy, and more than a few people found his affect unwelcoming or off-putting. Which was fine, he didn't really mind if he was unwelcoming and off-putting to most, because he'd found people that didn't think that, who he did want to spend time with. But it was maybe a smaller number than other people his age. Which, quality over quantity, but he didn't have as much experience reading his dynamic with others. He could tell if someone was being flirty in a nightclub, sure, and over VC while gaming (though that was usually more playful than sincere) but everyone was different - some people flirted with the friends all the time, some people never did. He wasn't sure which camp Touya fell into or what his flirting looked like. If he didn't find out soon then he'd just have to bite the bullet and ask.
"Check them again?" Touya asked him, motioning to the mirror.
Tomura glanced in the mirror, tilting his head this way and that. They were exactly where they had been the first time. "They’re good," he said.
Touya nodded, before heading over to a cabinet full of tiny drawers, "okay, I'm going to pierce them now - you'll feel a slight pinch, and a bit of a tugging sensation as I put the jewellery in," he said, wandering back over with some little packets.
Tomura nodded as he approached, until his face was level with Touya's chest.
"Look up for me," Touya said, and Tomura did, locking eyes with him for a moment before Touya's gaze moved to his mouth and he leaned in.
He felt Touya pull his bottom lip forward and resisted the urge to lick his lips. The needle started to go in and all his focus suddenly went to trying not to flinch. He wanted to hiss at the pain, but that might fuck up whatever Touya was doing so he just gripped his jeans and powered through.
"You're doing great," Touya murmured, and he heard the sound of another little packet being opened. "Really good, Tomu."
The sudden nickname gave him something new to focus on rather than the pain in his lip and the strange pulling sensation of the jewellery. He almost wanted to ask about it, but he couldn't talk right now.
"Just one more to go," Touya said, "you're doing really well."
The needle went in again and it wasn't as bad this time - his lip already hurt, so it kinda just got mixed in with the rest of the pain, dulling it slightly. Or, at least, making it easier to ignore.
"Great work, Tomu-chan," Touya said, as he put the other stud in. Tomura could feel the weird sensation of him tightening the screw of the ball-bearing. "And, all done," Touya said, before taking a step back. "What do you think?" He asked, motioning to the mirror again.
Tomura leant forward to get a better look - his lip was red, and already looking a bit swollen, but the piercings looked good. Symmetrical, well-spaced, just how he'd wanted them when he imagined it. He turned to smile at Touya, wincing a bit as it pulled on the fresh piercings, "They look great, thanks."
"No problem," Touya said with a smile. "Let me grab some aftercare pamphlets and I can go through them with you."
Tomura happily followed him back out to the register to pay, and then dutifully stayed so Touya could re-iterate how to wash them, how healing should look, that he shouldn't eat spicy foods for a few days, that despite the fact that they'll probably get dried and chapped he shouldn't use any chapstick until it was healed, that he shouldn't drink using straws, and that he should avoid kissing or any other 'activities' that could introduce bacteria to the piercing.
"Is that your polite way of saying 'no oral'?" Tomura asked, raising an eyebrow.
Touya snorted, before looking around the shop to make sure no-one was eavesdropping, "no giving oral," he confirmed, "anything else is your business."
Tomura hummed thoughtfully. He still wasn't sure how Touya flirted, but he knew how he flirted - direct and to the point. If Touya was uncomfortable, then he'd just stop.
"In that case, I'll put off making a move until it's healed," he said, making direct eye-contact and watching as Touya raised an eyebrow at him. "I'd like to be able to kiss you, if you say yes to the date," he clarified.
Touya's other eyebrow shot up to join the other.
"Are you asking me out?" Touya asked.
"Yes," Tomura said, "I would like to take you on a date after my piercings have healed."
There was a pause as Touya took a step towards him, "six to eight weeks is a long time to wait," he said.
Tomura blinked, "but I can't kiss you until then."
Touya hummed, "well, what if I want you take me on a date next week?" He asked.
"We can go on a date next week, but I won't be able to kiss you."
"I'll see you next week then," Touya said.
Tomura nodded before heading out of the shop and back towards his flat, lips still stinging. It wasn't until he was walking through the front door that he realised he'd forgotten to ask about his hoodie. Again.
"Okay, next round is Coconut Mall, if anyone's placing bets, place 'em now," Spinner said, before turning to Tomura and Touya, the latter with his feet in the former's lap, "unless it's kisses. I'm tired of you two betting kisses. It just means you both kiss at the end of every game."
"Yeah. And?" Touya asked.
"It makes the bet pointless!" Spinner griped.
"No!" Toga said from where she was sat on the floor, "it's cute! Leave them alone!"
"They can kiss whenever they want!" Spinner said, "and they do! There's no need for a bet!"
"You think we should be betting more than a kiss?" Tomura asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No!" Spinner squawked.
"No!" Natsuo echoed, even more aghast. "Please, nii-chan, my innocence!"
Touya rolled his eyes before turning to Tomura, "if I win I get to borrow your expensive headphones for my commute to the piercing convention next month," he said.
"Done," Tomura said, even though both of them knew that Touya wouldn't win, and he would still be allowed to borrow the headphones. "And if I win..." he paused, realising he finally had the perfect opportunity he'd been waiting for, "I get the FNAF Security Breach hoodie."
"Oh," Touya said, blinking at him in surprise, "I can't bet that."
"Why not?" Tomura asked.
"It's not mine," Touya said, "It's na-chan's, I just borrow it a lot."
"No it's not," Natsuo said, turning to look at him in confusion.
"What?" Touya said.
Natsuo stared at him, "It's not my hoodie," he said, "I never saw it before until you started wearing it."
"What?" Touya repeated, wrinkling his nose in confusion. "Then where did it come from?"
"I assumed you bought it?" Natsuo said.
"No," Touya said, "why would I buy merch for a game I don't play or watch?"
"Because it's a good hoodie?" Natsuo offered.
Touya paused, then nodded in agreement, "yeah, it is. But I didn't buy it."
Tomura wondered at what point he should jump in. Spinner was staring at him. Toga was watching the back-and-forth between the brothers with a gleam in her eye that told him she had put the pieces together and was deeply entertained.
"Where did it come from then?" Natsuo asked.
"I found it in the flat. That's why I assumed it was yours," Touya replied.
"In the flat?" Natsuo echoed, looking perplexed.
"Yeah, in the kitchen," Touya said.
"Wow," Toga said, with an expression that would better belong on a fox walking into a henhouse, "who could have possibly left a FNAF hoodie in your kitchen?"
"Well, it turned up the day-" Touya paused and then turned to Tomura, then to Spinner.
Spinner shot another meaningful glance at Tomura. Okay, time to air this out it seemed.
"It's mine," he said.
"It's yours?" Touya echoed, sounding shocked.
"Yes, I left it behind on the first day. I was going to pick it up the next day, but..."
He watched as dawning horror took over Touya's face.
"But what?" Natsuo asked.
Touya brought his hands up to cover his face, "but I was wearing it."
Natsuo turned fully to look at him, his expression mirroring Toga's, "you answered the door wearing his hoodie?"
Touya nodded, face still hidden in his hands, before dragging them down and turning to Tomura, "why didn't you say anything?"
"Wasn't sure if you knew it was mine," he said, "planned to just wait until you took it off and take it then."
"Tomura, I've had it for weeks."
"I didn't say it was a good plan," Tomura admitted.
"Why didn't you just ask for it back when you realised that wasn't going to work?"
"That's what I kept asking him," Spinner said.
Tomura shot a glare to his friend before looking back at Touya, "You made such a good argument about it being a good hoodie. And you said squatter's rights made it yours after a week."
"Yeah, about Na-chan's hoodies!"
Tomura shrugged, "I didn't know that. I thought you might just be being cute about it."
"Cute about it?" Touya echoed, sounding disbelieving, "you think me marching around in a stolen hoodie and saying it's mine now is a cute thing to do?"
"When it's my hoodie, yeah, I do," Tomura said.
Touya stared at him for a moment, his face turning redder before he whipped his head around to look at the tv, "you don't have to make a bet to get it back, I'll give it back," he muttered.
Tomura looked at him in concern, before putting his controller down, "I don't mind you wearing it. I like you wearing it. I just want to have it for the next FNAF stream. It'll be yours again right after," he said.
"It's fine, it's yours," Touya said, still not looking at him.
Tomura put a hand on his knee, rubbing his thumb back-and-forth, "Touya you're not upset about this are you?"
"I'm not upset," Touya said, too fast.
Tomura tilted his head to try and meet his eye and Touya glanced over at him before looking away again. "I'm embarrassed because I just found out I've been making an absolute ass of myself in front of you for the first two months we've known each other," he said.
"You'd have done that anyway, Nii-chan," Natsuo said, unhelpfully.
"You haven't been making an ass out of yourself, Touya," Tomura assured him, "there was just a misunderstanding. I didn't mind you having the hoodie and I still don't. In fact, if you hadn't noticed, I liked you enough that I asked you out and we started dating, so I really don't see how you can think you've been making an ass of yourself."
Touya grumbled, hunching into the sofa more but leant towards Tomura, even if he still wasn't looking at him.
"So, if I win this round, I get to borrow the hoodie for stream and I get my kiss," Tomura said, tapping Touya's knee to make sure he still had his attention.
Touya looked up at him, face still red before tsking and nodding his agreement. Spinner made retching noises while Toga cooed. Touya picked up his controller and Tomura followed suit, turning to face the screen as the countdown began.
He got his hoodie and his kiss.