Chapter Text
"Hey, Reo. You want to go on a date?"
Reo hums a noise in affirmation absentmindedly, flipping to the next page in the novel he's currently engrossed in.
"Ah," Nagi continues. "I think we're almost out of fruit jelly—"
Reo's book almost falls out of his hands when he finally registers Nagi’s words. "Wait, what?"
Nagi pulls his head from the fridge to blink lazily at Reo. "I think we're almost out of fruit jelly—"
"No, no—before that. What did you say?"
"Oh. You want to go on a date?"
Reo’s mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. “With—with you?”
Nagi doesn’t bother giving him any response other than a flat stare. Reo blinks rapidly, straightening from where he had been lounging on the couch.
“Where—” He cuts himself off with a nervous laugh, pushing his bangs out of his face. “Where’s this coming from?”
Reo has half an urge to pinch himself on the hand to check if this was the machination of his unconscious mind. Nagi, asking him out on a date?
Before he can check the reality of his situation with a quick pinch, Nagi speaks up again, fruit jelly pouch in hand. “You know that new video game we’re working on?”
Reo’s eyebrows raise at the mention of Nagi’s job. “Yeah,” he agrees slowly. “What about it?”
Nagi scratches the side of his nose. “We hit a development milestone ahead of schedule.” He shrugs. “I guess it’s a big deal or something, so they’re throwing a party for it.”
“Uh huh,” Reo agrees, still a bit lost on how the topic related to Nagi’s initial question. He didn’t know much about Nagi’s job other than the fact that it consisted of a lot of software that all went entirely over Reo’s head, and that Nagi found it all a pain. He’s long heard Nagi complain that if the pay wasn’t so good, he’d have quit ages ago. Still, Reo can’t begin to imagine how that would relate to Reo, of all people, needing to be Nagi’s date—
"I need a plus one for the party," Nagi continues to explain, and his lips pull down in a slight frown. "Or else I won’t be able to go." He wrinkles his nose. “Not that I want to go,” he clarifies, “but I’ve skipped too many already or something.”
“Oh,” Reo says, relief coloring his tone. “Is that all? You need a date for the event?” Nagi hums in confirmation, and Reo nods his head, finally understanding the other’s situation. “That’s no problem,” he says, fishing in his pocket for his phone and tapping at his list of contacts. “There are a few people I know that I can set you up with,” he remarks absentmindedly as he scrolls through the numbers and names.
“But I asked y—”
“Oh!” Reo interrupts. “Kiho’s available tomorrow at noon! Does that work?” When he looks up from his phone, Nagi’s staring at him strangely. Assuming the expression is resulting from Nagi’s unfamiliarity with the name, Reo hurries to explain. “Kiho’s a sweet girl, I think the two of you will get along pretty well. She even plays video games, like you!”
“Hm,” Nagi says.
Reo taps at his phone screen a few more times before turning to Nagi with a grin. “Alright, tomorrow confirmed, then! I’ll send you the address later.” He puts his phone back into his pocket, then pats the seat on the couch next to him. “Now come on, we’ve got to finish our movie.”
Nagi looks at him without blinking for one moment, then another, then another, before letting out a slight sigh and joining Reo on the couch. Their movie resumes, and Reo lets himself settle in, resting his head against Nagi’s shoulder as bright colors flash across their television. A quiet, indulgent part of Reo kind of hopes that even after Nagi gets a girlfriend, they’ll still be able to keep these movie nights for themselves.
“So?” Reo asks when Nagi returns the next day, a bag of takeout dangling from his right hand. “How did it go? Did you like her?”
Nagi gives a one-shouldered shrug before handing the bag to Reo. “Not really.”
Reo’s brows furrow, even as he makes his way to their kitchen to put the takeout in the fridge. “Oh?” he asks. “Why not?”
Nagi takes a seat at the counter, absently tracing a finger on the surface. “I dunno,” is his vague answer, and when Reo sends him a purposeful look, he simply shrugs. “She was too short, I guess.”
Reo blinks. “Oh,” he says. He frowns. “Why didn’t you tell me you only liked tall girls?”
Nagi shrugs again. “I dunno,” he repeats.
“Alright,” Reo says slowly. He pulls out his phone again, quickly scanning his contacts again. “Then, maybe… ah, Alisa was pretty tall.” He brightens. “And she’s available tomorrow for dinner!” He quickly taps out a message. “I’ll let her know you’re interested in a meeting… and done.”
Nagi makes a face. “Do I have to go?”
“...weren’t you the one that said you needed a date for your event?”
Nagi puts his head on the surface and mutters something into the counter. Reo leans forward.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” Nagi sighs.
“How was it?”
“Talked too much.”
“I guess that makes sense…”
“Did you like her?”
“Talked too little.”
“...really?”
“You seriously think I’m going to set my sister up with Nagi?”
“I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t serious—come on, didn’t you tell me she was going through a rough patch with her boyfriend? Isn’t she free for even a meeting?”
“Even if she was, no way in hell would I let her go on a date with Nagi.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“You’re so—fine. Fine. What about Kunigami’s sisters? Are any of them—”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Chigiri, wait—”
“What did you think?”
“Her hair was too long.”
“How—”
“Her hair wasn’t the right color.”
“...what is the right color?”
“Purple.”
“...right.”
“Before you hang up—”
“Reo, I do not want to have this conversation with you—”
“—do you know anyone who’s tall, doesn’t talk too much but not too little, and has short, purple hair?”
“...is that a rhetorical question?”
“Huh?”
“You’re seriously asking me if I know any tall person with purple hair?”
“...yeah?”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Oh, come on—”
“So? Did you like her?”
“Her hair wasn’t the right shade of purple.”
Reo manages to resist the urge to repeatedly slam his head into the nearby wall. “Wasn’t the right shade of purple,” he repeats through gritted teeth. “Right, well, then—enlighten me. What would the right shade be?”
Nagi doesn’t bother looking up from his phone from where he’s sprawled on the couch. “HEX code 795ba1,” he rattles off. Reo blinks before sighing and pulling out his phone.
“7-9… what?”
“7-9-5-b-a-1,” Nagi lists off slower. Reo taps the letters and numbers into his phone, then stares blankly at the resulting color.
“Nagi,” Reo says slowly. “This is the exact color of my hair.”
“Mhm,” Nagi hums. Reo throws his hands in the air.
“Of course—of course the people I set you up with won’t have the exact same color hair as me,” Reo says, exasperated. He has half a mind to ask Nagi why he even knows the precise HEX code of his hair, but he figures he has more pressing matters to address. “They’re not me, Nagi.”
The video game noises from Nagi’s phone continue. “Can you just do it, then?”
Reo stares at him. “Can I just…?” He blinks. “Can I just, what, date you?”
Nagi nods. Reo continues staring. If he was in a comic book, there would likely be a panel where gears were shown spinning in his mind as he struggled to process Nagi’s words—since he isn’t in a comic book, all he can do is stare stupidly at Nagi, who refuses to look up from his phone. Reo doesn’t get it, doesn’t get what Nagi is trying to accomplish with his ridiculous suggestion—
“Oh,” Reo says as realization strikes him like a brick. "Oh! You mean fake dating, don't you? As in, we pretend to be dating, right?"
Nagi's gaze, finally, pulls away from his phone to Reo, but only for a moment before landing back on his phone. Something like disappointment flickers across his face. Ah, Reo thinks, his game character must have died.
"Mm," Nagi says noncommittally.
Reo nods. "It makes sense," he admits slowly. "We already know each other, so it wouldn't be too difficult to fake—plus, you only need it for this one event, right?" He waits for Nagi’s nod before continuing. “Yeah, I guess that would be easier than committing to a whole relationship.” He grins at Nagi. “Less of a pain, right?”
“Less of a pain,” Nagi murmurs. Reo nods. It’s a strange request, to be sure—
—but Reo is a Mikage, and Mikages never back down from a challenge.
“Okay,” he says. “Okay. Just for this event—I’ll do it.”
“Yay,” Nagi cheers lazily.
“Ah, you never told me. When’s the event? Later this week?”
“Tomorrow,” Nagi says around a yawn.
“Tomorrow,” Reo says with a nod of his head, before pausing. “Tomorrow?” He gapes at Nagi. “And you didn’t think to—you didn’t tell me it was tomorrow—” He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. “Do you even know what you’re going to wear?”
Nagi looks down at his own current outfit—a loose hoodie and some sweatpants. “This, I guess.”
Reo’s mouth drops open even more. “You’re not serious.” Nagi’s blank stare in response tells Reo that unfortunately, Nagi is quite serious, and Reo immediately shakes his head. “Absolutely not. We’re going shopping tomorrow.”
Reo expects Nagi to complain a little more before giving in, but he simply blinks at Reo before shrugging. “Okay.” Reo, a little taken aback by the easy concession, can only stare at Nagi for a few moments before blinking out of his own stupor.
“Right,” he says. “Right, then.”
One successful shopping spree later, Reo and Nagi finish their morning outing at a small brunch place that the two frequent often. Reo orders for the both of them, placing the shopping bags containing their haul underneath their table. Nagi, as he typically does, taps away at his phone. Reo usually lets him be, using the time to check on his own business—stocks and the like—but this time, Reo taps his hand on the table to catch Nagi’s attention. Nagi doesn’t look up, but raises his eyebrows to acknowledge the motion.
“So,” Reo starts. “This fake dating business.”
Nagi hums.
“You won’t be able to attend the office party at all unless you have a date, right?” Nagi nods. “So, we need to be convincing. What’s our story?” Nagi makes a questioning noise, and Reo clarifies. “How did we get together, how long have we been together, et cetera.”
“Four years and six months,” Nagi says. Reo blinks.
“That’s, uh… oddly specific.”
“You confessed to me with a candy apple.” A tinny shooting noise sounds from Nagi’s phone. “And I said yes.”
“…also oddly specific, but alright.” Reo taps his fingers against the table. Something about that mention of a candy apple rings recognition in his mind, but it’s too faint to recollect fully. “So I confessed to you five years ago. That should be easy enough to keep straight.”
“Four years,” Nagi corrects, “and six months.”
Reo squints at him. “Right.” Nagi’s insistence on the timeline is strange, but not necessarily extraordinarily out of character for him. It was probably just another one of his idiosyncrasies, like his preference for piggyback rides or distaste of most hard labor. “That’s our story then. What about ground rules?”
“Ground rules?”
“Yeah, you know.” Reo waves a hand ambiguously in the air. “How much you’re comfortable with when we’re around your coworkers.” When Nagi doesn’t offer anything further, Reo prods some more. “You’re fine with hugs?”
“Okay.”
“You’re fine with holding hands?”
“Okay.”
Nagi still hasn’t looked up from his phone. Reo’s eyebrows raise.
“You’re fine with a kiss on the cheek?”
“Okay.”
“You’re fine with a kiss on the lips?”
“Okay.”
Reo leans back with a frown. “I knew it,” he complains. “You’re not even listening to what I’m saying, you’re just agreeing with everything.”
Nagi finally looks up, giving Reo a flat stare for a few seconds before going back to his phone.
“I don’t really care,” he mutters. “Anything’s fine.”
“Anything, huh,” Reo muses. “I think we’ll stick to cheek kisses. If needed.”
Nagi looks like there’s something he wants to say to that, but before he can open his mouth, their plate of pancakes arrives. Reo brightens, taking the fork and knife by its side into his hands and beginning to cut it into smaller pieces.
“I just realized,” Reo says as he offers a forkful to Nagi, who leans forward to take it, “that this means I finally have a chance to meet your coworkers!”
Nagi wrinkles his nose as Reo takes a bite of his own. “You really weren’t missing out.”
Reo laughs. “You say that about everything,” he teases, holding up another forkful to Nagi. “Ah,” he realizes as Nagi eats, “but won’t they be suspicious if I show up as your boyfriend out of nowhere? It’s not like you’ve ever talked about me at work, right?”
Nagi glances to the side. “I’ve mentioned you a few times,” he murmurs. Reo raises his eyebrows.
“Only good things, I hope.”
Nagi hums. It’s not exactly the most reassuring response, but Reo will take it.
It takes only a few more moments for them to finish off the plate, after which their drink arrives. Their smoothie is fit with a heart shaped double straw, and Reo finds the sight somewhat amusing.
“Aww,” he says, “isn’t it cute?”
“I guess.”
Reo reaches over to hit Nagi lightly on the shoulder. “You don’t think anything’s cute, you bore.”
Nagi pokes the straw experimentally. “That’s not true,” he murmurs. He leans forward to take a sip, and Reo is struck with the sudden urge to capture the moment on his phone, so he does just that. Nagi leans back with a blink. “What was that for?”
Reo grins. “No reason,” he says innocently. “Is the smoothie good?”
Nagi eyes him suspiciously for a moment, before nodding. “Not bad, at least.”
“What a glowing recommendation.” Reo takes a sip of his own, his eyes widening when the flavor hits his tongue. “Not bad at all!”
Between the two of them, the smoothie disappears quickly, shortly after which the check arrives. Reo, on instinct, slides his card over without checking the bill, but a strange deduction at the bottom catches his eye. When their waiter returns with Reo’s card, Reo stops her before she can leave again.
“Excuse me,” he says, flashing the girl a polite smile, “but can I ask what this is regarding?” He points to the value in question.
“Since it’s December 24th,” the waiter explains, “there’s a 25% discount for all couples.”
Reo blinks. “Oh,” he says. “Err, but we—”
“Thanks,” Nagi interrupts, grabbing Reo’s hand. “Come on, Reo, let’s go.”
“A-ah, yeah. Let’s.”
Reo allows himself to be tugged out of the café by Nagi, and it’s only once they’re out that he lets out a laugh.
“They thought we were a couple?” Reo asks as he swipes a bit of whipped cream away from Nagi’s cheek. “What gave them that impression?”
Nagi stares at him. “I have no idea,” he says slowly, and Reo shrugs.
“Guess it’ll be easy to convince your coworkers then, hm?”
Nagi hums. Reo links his arm through Nagi’s with a grin.
“Come on, we’ve got to prep your outfit for tonight.” He begins tugging Nagi away, before his feet come to a halt. “Wait, where are the clothes we bought?”
Nagi wordlessly juts a thumb in the direction of the café they are now quite a distance away from. Reo lets out an exasperated sigh.
“…you think they’ll deliver?”