Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Two weeks before the events of Super Dangan Ronpa 2

Byakuya tore through the depths of his closet, searching out the ratty bag that had once contained everything he owned. Stuffed in the back of a closet, the bag had been nothing but a bad memory, a reminder of the grueling weeks he and the other survivors of Hope’s Peak spent traversing across the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic ruin.

However, something had been nagging at the back of his mind during the meeting that Kyoko and Makoto had called him to; he listened impassively as they relayed their subterfuge against the powerful, controlling foundation that welcomed them with open arms, for better or worse.

Although it remained the most viable option for restoring society from Junko’s onslaught, the six of them had been wary of the foundation from the start. Byakuya had noticed Makoto’s not-so-subtle resistance, but apparently the young man had been far busier than the heir had given him credit for.

Byakuya’s immediate reaction to their plan was outrage, skepticism, and annoyance.

Outrage at not being made aware that the Remnants of Despair had been in their possession, apparently for some time now.

Skepticism at the pseudo-scientific plan to supposedly rehabilitate the Remnants that Makoto and Kyoko attempted to convey in a way that would convince the heir.

An annoyance because… well, because he was Byakuya.

Bits of this conversation played over in the blonde’s memory as he searched determinedly, almost frantically.

“As far as the Future Foundation is concerned, we are harboring sixteen high-caliber illegal weapons. Sixteen weapons responsible for thousands, if not millions of lives.”

“They deserve a second chance!”

“This is our last hope to figuring out how Junko’s plan succeeded in the first place, and how to stop it for good.”

“A beach trip to a tropical island? Makoto, do you hear yourself when you talk?”

“Trust me, please, Byakuya. You’ve trusted me so far, haven’t you?”

Again and again these phrases turned in his head. There was something to them, something…

Ah. The nondescript black backpack finally came into view and Byakuya wasted no time unzippering and digging through the contents.

Wrinkling his nose at the smell of stale air and fabric, he searched as quickly as he could before pulling out a notebook- stained and faded but unmistakable in quality.

Byakuya started flipping through the pages, dread building in his gut as though his body knew the answer before his brain could accept it.

Memories associated with his journaling flitted through his mind as he scanned over them, but there was one entry in particular he needed to remember, needed to make absolutely sure that-

There.

A chill shot up Byakuya’s spine.

“…Shit,” the blonde muttered out loud. Amongst the survival brainstorming ideas, map sketches, and supply lists was a passage clearly distinct from the other entries. It was written hastily in the middle of the page with no other text around it:

Sixteen knives.

A square. A simulacrum.

The brightest light for the blackest souls.

The last light for the last hope.

The bonds you have forged are not lightly tested. Even when those undeserving of trust are brought before you, trust those whom you have trusted before.

Byakuya’s breath caught in his throat as he remembered the night he had written it nearly a year ago. Had written it down as soon as he could, lest he forget-

Hiro, seizing on the rubble while Byakuya willed his heart to stop pounding in his chest.

The two of them in a smoke-filled room, hands joined.

The look on Hiro’s face as he seemed to be wrenched into a vision caused by Byakuya’s touch. The brunette’s eyes wide and overwhelmed, staring so transfixed at something Byakuya couldn’t see.

Byakuya stared at the page blankly, as though willing the words to change or disappear. When they stubbornly remained as they were, the heir took his glasses off and ran a hand over his face, his most persistent habit of stress that his father had not managed to break from him.

Hiro.

His indolent, aggravating, incomprehensible, stunning, utterly extraordinary boyfriend had seen all of it. Had seen beyond it, had seen their entire plan laid out before it was even a thought in anyone’s mind. 

Not only had he seen it, he warned Byakuya about it.

Something in the clairvoyant’s being felt so strongly about the importance of this decision that it thrust Hiro’s consciousness aside in order to relay it to him.

Byakuya had questioned the brunette a few nights later, when his emotions were firmly back under his control, and found that Hiro could recall nothing about the incident, just feeling briefly “stuck,” as he called it, between his meditative state and his corporeal body.

Byakuya put his glasses back on and took one last look at the final entry on the page

trust those whom you have trusted before

He let out a rather childish huff. If there was one thing Byakuya Togami hated, it was being told what to do.

And yet, Hiro had somehow managed to become the exception, something he did rather often and easily, much to Byakuya’s chagrin.

No sooner had Byakuya made up his mind that he heard the loud thunk of the front door, which usually indicated that Hiro had arrived home with his hands full.

“Togamins! You back yet? I went to the market, gonna try to make this awesome Yunnan hotpot base everyone’s been talking about!”

Guilt welled up in Byakuya’s stomach as he had the immediate realization that he absolutely could not under any circumstance tell Hiro about this.

There was a reason Kyoko and Mokoto told him and him alone. Hiro had no penchant for lying or keeping secrets, and was effortlessly personable with everyone he met, including his coworkers at the Future Foundation.

It wasn’t a question of Hiro’s loyalty, there was just far too great of a chance that Hiro would say something too specific, or too vague, or simply unusual, and the Future Foundation executives would pounce on him like lionesses on a gazelle.

The heir ground his teeth at the thought.

No, Byakuya determined, he couldn’t ask Hiro to do this, couldn’t bring himself to put Hiro at that level of danger. He closed the notebook resolutely, stuffing the backpack into its original position and taking a deep breath.

Hiro was not going to be happy about this.

~*~

* beep*

“Hiro, I don’t have much time so I can only say this once.

The broadcast is real; those really are the remaining members of Ultimate Despair. Their consciousness at least. Everything the Future Foundation has been saying about Makoto is true. He’s been trying to undo all the brainwashing that was done to them.

However, there was a… complication. The remnants are all connected through an experimental neurobiological cybernetic device intended to engulf the mind and the senses. That’s what’s being projected. The program’s been… infected. A virus. Everyone is in danger and Mokoto of course wasted no time throwing himself into the middle of it.

Kyoko and I… have decided to go in with him. Together. To rescue everyone and shut down the program. We have a plan, but… we don’t exactly know what’s going to happen.

I… don’t know why I felt compelled to tell you all this now. I wanted to tell you once I returned, but now... I suppose if everything goes wrong, you’ll need to contact Hina and maybe even Toko in case the Future Foundation starts a vendetta because of what we’ve done. I didn’t want you to have to be involved but now we might not have a choice.

All of my work on this is stored on an encrypted laptop, I trust you know the password. Try to-”

(“Byakuya! The machine is ready, this is our chance.”)

“… I’m sorry for not telling you. I truly am.”

*click*

~*~

It was a testament to Hina’s restraint that she let Hiro and Byakuya go back to their own apartment at all. After the six of them had been reunited, Makoto and Kyoko did their best to reassure the other half of their group that things were fine, for now.

Hiro and Hina listened to the two of them with rapt attention. Toko seemed unsure, but after glancing at Byakuya, he gave her a nod which seemed to be enough to hold her interest.

Byakuya was… uneasy. Beyond the initial bear hug that Hiro had swept everyone in, the clairvoyant had barely made eye contact with him during their reunion. The heir wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but something about Hiro’s measured response was far more unsettling to him than if the man had greeted him with a tackling embrace or even a punch to the jaw.

Similarly, their journey back to the apartment was a quiet one. Byakuya found himself growing restless, resisting the urge to grab the other’s hand, unsure whether it would be well received or not. He felt like a child again, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the levee to break.

Eventually, they left the security team at the door to the building and made their way into the apartment. Hiro took off his shoes and hung his jacket in the entrance, walking a few more steps into the hallway.

Byakuya followed suit, for no other reason than his continuously increasing nerves.

After a few more steps, Hiro turned around to face the blonde. Byakuya tried to keep himself from flinching.

Hiro furrowed his brow, Byakuya wasn’t sure whether it was in disappointment, anger, or confusion. After a second, the brunette spoke softly,

“Hey.”

Byakuya said nothing.

“How, uh,” the clairvoyant glanced down awkwardly before meeting his eyes, “How bad was it?”

The blonde once again said nothing, steeling himself and willing the other man to get on with whatever he needed to say.

Suddenly, the brunette stepped forward, hand outstretched. Byakuya closed his eyes and steadied his footing, balancing his weight back on his heels.

What befell him was a soft hand on the side of his face, gentle but firm, brushing against his cheek. Their close proximity enveloped Byakuya in the smell of cedar, rain, and incense that characterized the other man. The combination of the two caused Byakuya’s shoulders to relax as he reflexively leaned into the touch.

He opened his suddenly tired eyes, more than a little confused. He was met with Hiro’s own gaze, and whatever Hiro saw in Byakuya’s eyes made the clairvoyant’s breath hitch.

“Oh, B,” he said softly, sadly, knowingly, “C’mere.”

Before the heir could question it, Hiro closed the rest of the distance between them and crushed Byakuya against him, tucking his head into the crux of his shoulder and wrapping his other arm fully around the blonde’s waist.

Byakuya tensed for a moment, then was taken by surprise by the well of emotion that bubbled up from within him. He clutched at the clairvoyant, and Hiro in return threaded his hand through Byakuya’s hair, running his other hand up and down his back.

It took Byakuya a moment to realize he was shaking, and another to realize that Hiro was slowly guiding them both to the floor, resting against the back of the couch.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay,” He heard Hiro whisper, and it was then that he realized he had been muttering ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ into the other’s shoulder. Guilt and shame twisted his stomach as he felt tears escape down his face, but he was too far gone to do anything but collapse further against the brunette.

After an indeterminable amount of time he started to come back to himself, exhausted. His head pounded and his body felt heavy and sluggish.

He vaguely acknowledged Hiro speaking to him, guiding him onto his feet and down the hall, but his brain felt like it had been stuffed with wet cotton.

His body gave a sigh of relief as he laid down onto a soft mattress, his head resting heavily against the pillow. Hiro might have said something else, but the blonde was already losing the battle with consciousness, and welcomed the dark oblivion with open arms.

Chapter Text

He wasn’t sure if he ever actually fell asleep, but the next time Byakuya came to, there was a heavy, comfortable weight across his chest, and the sound of faint snores.

Blinking his eyes open, the blonde was greeted with the afternoon sun streaming into their room. He glanced down, color tinging his cheeks as he took in the form of the ultimate clairvoyant draped on top of him.

At some point, Hiro must have decided the two of them deserved to take the rest of the day off, and so had promptly switched to his “home clothes” which, in this case, consisted of no shirt and a pair of sweatpants that Byakuya had been begging him to throw out for months now.

Byakuya noticed that he himself was missing his button down, left only in his undershirt and dark athletic shorts he didn’t remember changing into.

I must have fallen asleep after all, he mused, sighing and resting his head back against the pillow. He gently ran his hand along Hiro’s exposed skin, warm and grounding.

Hiro gave a nondescript noise, “hrmph, tickles,” he muttered, slightly arching his back not unlike a cat.

“You and I both know that’s a lie,” the heir replied.

Hiro chuckled, the vibrations rumbled through both their chests, “I didn’t say stop.”

Byakuya gave a small smile as he continued, “I trust you got my voice message, then?”

Hiro turned towards him, half-awake, propping himself up on his elbow so he could meet Byakuya’s eyes, “Yeah, uh, do me a favor and never scare me like that again, huh?”

He leaned back down and pressed a kiss on Byakuya’s clothed chest before resting his head back down. Byakuya couldn’t even bring himself to roll his eyes, guilt still gnawing at his stomach.

“… I won’t,” he said softly, unconsciously grabbing onto Hiro’s shoulder just a little bit tighter.

Hiro turned his head up again, wrapping both arms around the other man’s too-thin waist, “So it was really as bad as it looked.”

The statement came out half like a question, his eyebrows furrowed in concern and slight curiosity.

“It was Junko herself,” Byakuya started, Hiro’s eyes flying wide open, “well, an AI simulation of her. The Ultimate Despairs managed to bring in an alternate code to the simulation that hijacked Alter Ego, using the program to create a digital replica of her. She completely hijacked everything,”

“Jesus,” Hiro commented, his chin perched on Byakuya’s chest as he listened attentively.

Byakuya hummed, “Luckily just as short-sighted and absurd as the real Junko was, as well. It seems her ‘ultimate’ plan was an attempt to trap Makoto, Kyoko, and I in the simulation world so she could run her killing game on us again. Like a petulant child that can’t accept that they’ve lost.”

Hiro gaped at Byakuya, “W-wait, what?! The Remnants ­wanted you all to go in after them?! She was targeting you?!”

The heir huffed, “Supposedly. Don’t be dramatic; obviously it didn’t work, so-”

Hiro stared at him, horrified, “She tried to torture you guys, man. Again. She would have taken your memories away, and- and- made you all…” he trailed off, chest heaving as he actively took a breath to calm himself down.

“It’s really fine, Hiro, we-”

“It’s not!”

“There’s nothing rational about dwelling on it, so-”

“Byakuya!” This caused the blonde’s mouth to snap shut, looking back at the other man. Hiro almost never called him by his full name anymore, at least not when it was just the two of them.

“B… we talked about this,” Hiro sighed, “you gotta let yourself feel these things. What do you think that was a few hours ago, huh? It’s okay if you were scared, or sad, or whatever. It’s the right response. It’s what’s supposed to happen in situations like this.”

To this Byakuya had no quick retort, turning over the clairvoyant’s words in his mind. He had to begrudgingly admit that was a reasonable explanation for his earlier breakdown, and they had indeed talked several times before about his (supposed) tendency to over-compartmentalize and rationalize his way out of experiencing emotions.

Byakuya pursed his lips; he hated it when Hiro made sense.

Hiro accepted the lack of pushback as a victory, crawling up the bed so he could sit back on the headboard, readjusting so that Byakuya’s head was against his hip, “I’m sorry B, that sounds fucking terrifying.”

Byakuya just leaned his head against the other man. After a moment he spoke up, “Do you have your vision journal handy?”

Hiro blinked, “Uh, yeah, course I do. Keep it right here in case my dreams are particularly divination-y.” He leaned over, grabbing the worn notebook off the bedside table.

“I think… a number of them had to do with this… ordeal,” Byakuya admitted, thinking back to the words scrawled on a stained page, and from there thinking back even further…

“Really?”

“Well… remember the tarot reading you did after your vision when we were crossing the city?”

Hiro thought back, “Yeah… that was the one that freaked you out, right?”

“I wasn’t- I don’t get ‘freaked out.’”

Hiro chuckled, “Sure, man.”

“I didn’t-” Byakuya let it go, knowing it was a fruitless endeavor, “Anyways. I had written down what you had said, the part you didn’t recall… it was this.”

“Shit,” Hiro breathed, “I’m impressed you remembered.”

“It’s… not something I was quick to forget,” the blonde admitted, “It was like you were… addressing me, specifically. Only it wasn’t exactly you.”

“Like I was channeling something?” Hiro asked worriedly, his thoughts trailing to the occult.

“No… it was still you, kind of. I think. Your clairvoyancy just sort of… took over.”

Hiro cocked his head in thought, “Huh, I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. Although I guess I wouldn’t have remembered it if it did.”

“In any case,” Byakuya continued, “it reminded me of the rest of the reading, as well as the visions you had the episode before that, at Hope’s Peak.”

Hiro rubbed his forehead as he thumbed through the pages, “Oh man, this must have been a pretty pivotal moment.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well… how much do you know about quantum mechanics and the multiverse theory?”

Byakuya sat up, staring at the brunette, stunned.

“Quite a bit,” he responded curtly, “How much do you know?”

Hiro shrugged, “I got into it a bunch when I was like… 17? 18? It’s super helpful for understanding how a lot of my clairvoyancy stuff works.”

He ran his hand through his hair, looking embarrassed, “That’s kind of why I had to repeat school so much. All my schoolwork seemed so boring compared to the stuff I was reading that was actually useful to me.”

Byakuya continued to stare at him, not even bothering to hide the disbelief on his face, “That’s why you were held back?”

“Well, yeah,” Hiro said, more than a little insulted, “That and because everyone kept freaking out about my seizures and pulling me out of school.”

Hiro looked at his boyfriend with a seriousness that didn’t normally grace the clairvoyant’s features, “I’m not stupid, B.”

The heir sneered, “I know that. I had just assumed you were bored because institutionalized education is boring, let alone whatever they were doing in that public school you attended before coming to Hope’s Peak.”

Hiro rolled his eyes but grinned nonetheless at the way Byakuya’s nose wrinkled up when he mentioned public school, as if just saying the word cause him to smell something offensive.

“Whatever. You’re lucky you look super cute when you do that,” the brunette remarked, earning a faint blush from a slightly flustered Byakuya.

“I- That’s- We’re getting off topic. What does multiverse theory have to do with the visions you’ve been having the past few years?” He asked, trying to save face.

Hiro chuckled as he looked back down at his journal, “Right, right.”

Byakuya shifted closer to the other man to get a better look at the journal while Hiro started to explain.

“So, I told you that my visions aren’t guaranteed, yeah? They’re just more likely than normal? It used to drive me crazy because in the moment they always feel So. Real. Like I’m right there beside the person, or I am that person while not being them at the same time. It’s weird, I dunno. I just knew they had to be real.”

“Well, I finally figured out what it was,” the brunette continued, “They are real… in a certain sense.”

“In different timelines?” Byakuya ventured.

Hiro furrowed his brow, “Kind of. So there’s a less-known branch of theoretical quantum mechanics that views the multiverse as sort of a branching, interwoven, web, where every universe is surrounded by the universes that are the most atomically identical to it. But they’re not singular threads, right? Because of non-Euclidean time and all that...”

Byakuya nodded tersely, trying very hard to listen to the point Hiro was trying to make but also suddenly getting extremely distracted because holy shit he had never been more attracted to this man than in this moment.

He hadn’t been lying earlier, he knew Hiro was far smarter than most people gave him credit for, but to hear him speak so casually about such complex, abstract theories in that same rumbling, low baritone…

Hiro stopped the tangent he had been going on, glancing over to find Byakuya staring at him intensely, "Shit, sorry. I got really off topic. I just get really frustrated when people talk about time like it's a linear, stagnant thing when clearly- Fuck. Sorry. Anyways, what I was getting at was-”

“Hiro,” Byakuya stated, “can you put your diary down for a minute?”

The brunette gave Byakuya a confused sidelook but closed the small notebook and tossed it onto the nightstand, “Uh, okay. But how come-”

That was as far as the clairvoyant got before Byakuya swung his leg over Hiro’s lap so that he was straddling him in one swift motion, crushing him in a ferocious kiss.

Hiro let out a surprised noise but wasn’t one to complain, letting himself relax into the blonde’s fiery touch. Byakuya grabbed the back of Hiro’s head with both hands, holding him in place while his tongue lavished the other’s mouth, dragging out a startled moan from the clairvoyant.

The noise seemed to bring the heir back to reality as he froze for a moment before slowly disentangling himself and sitting back on Hiro’s lap.

Hiro just stared at him, equal parts dazed and aroused, his wide eyes dark and slightly glazed.

“So…” he started, “I guess I should talk about theoretical physics more often?”

Byakuya let out sheepish scoff, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear, “I… sorry. I don’t really know what that was.”

Hiro just smiled widely, “Of course Byakuya Togami would have a kink for nerds.”

“I do not have a- hey!” Byakuya let out a yelp as Hiro easily grabbed the blonde by the waist and lifted him up, tossing him back over to his side of the bed with a laugh.

“There’s gonna be plenty of time for sexy nerd talk later, Togamins. Right now I want to hear about which visions you think were about the Junko Alter Ego thing.”

Although there was still a charge in the air, Byakuya was determined to save what was left of his dignity, sitting a respectable distance next to the other man. Hiro leaned over to grab his diary, causing Byakuya to definitely not sneak a glance at the man’s still-shirtless torso.

Hiro finished his thought as he attempted to relocate the relevant pages, “Long story short: time is weird; the future is weird, but some events have a greater impact on the timelines than others, depending on their outcome.”

“If you’re right about this- which, I know, you are,” Hiro preemptively interjected as he saw the heir take a breath, only to huff it out in annoyance with Hiro’s exasperating ability to predict his reactions, “then this simulation, this virus, whatever was trying to trap you… it could have been really bad.”

The clairvoyant bit his lip as he came across the tarot reading he and Byakuya had done. He skimmed over the hastily scrawled notes-

The Emperor, reversed: control, tyranny. Spiderweb of Hope’s Peak. blood-soaked chalkboard… a glowing rectangle (door? Screen?) Flies in the web

Death: A spinning wheel. A broken gear shaft. An unopenable open door, an unplayable game. A dark skyline. A smile, rare and gentle. Fragile.

The Lovers: A second chance. A promise. A sunrise over an ocean. A silent, dark room at the top of a high tower. A sun-filled library…? The smell of safety.

Byakuya pointed at the pages, “It’s the Neoworld Program. It has to be. It was supposed to be the Ultimate Despairs’ second chance, their new beginning, an olive branch. Death followed by the Lovers.”

Hiro nodded along, his eyes also trailing over some of the notes that didn’t seem to be referencing this event, wondering what they could be.

The blonde continued, “The Emperor must have been about the origins of the Remnants. The massacre Junko caused when she was still testing her brainwashing video.”

Hiro grinned, “Seems like we got almost all of it, right on. You said the earlier vision too?”

Byakuya nodded briskly, “Yes, the visions from during… from Hope’s Peak. When I found you.”

The brunette flipped back a few pages before he suddenly sucked in a breath, “Right. That one.” He made a motion to keep the book mostly closed, obstructing it from Byakuya’s view.

Before Hiro could draw the further diary away, Byakuya grabbed his forearm, stilling the movement.

Across from the diary page that seemed to have some notes scribbled down was a large, black circle that took up nearly the entire page. The dozens of strokes of the pen were deep, indenting the page so much that the individual spiral patterns could be seen even amidst the inky blackness that flowed and stained the paper.

“I didn’t…” Hiro started and then stopped, “I shouldn’t have…”

Byakuya ran his thumb along the clairvoyant’s arm, “Tell me what happened.”

Hiro sighed, “After you and I had… y’know, talked. I still wanted to write down the visions, just in case. But that one… the one where you - well, that guy that looked like you - was dead…. I don’t know if you remember but-”

“You kept getting… stuck,” Byakuya ventured, remembering the faraway look Hiro got whenever his visions or abilities brushed too close to the dead.

Hiro nodded, “It was stupid, but I felt weird asking you to stay with me just so I could journal. I wrote down some of it, but, after a certain point I just sort of snapped awake and I had done…. This.”

Byakuya felt a pang in his stomach at the thought of his boyfriend in his room alone, caught somewhere in between memories, visions, and the gaps in between material planes, like a fish mesmerized by an angler’s lure.

“It definitely wasn’t you though, we know that now,” Hiro sounded like he was trying to reassure himself while also recapping the visions themselves.

“Obviously,” Byakuya rolled his eyes, “As if I would be murdered by the likes of two second-rate lunatics.”

Hiro heaved a sigh, closing the notebook with an audible thunk, “Well, I think that’s enough memories for one day, past or future. That’s crazy that you remembered all that, B.”

“You act like I don’t listen to you when you say things.”

“I mean… you don’t. Like, a lot of the time.”

“I listen to the important things.”

“Rude,” Hiro said with a chuckle. He turned back from the table where he had set the journal to find Byakuya looking out the bedroom window, his expression pensive.

Hiro bit back a frown and leaned over to bring his hand under Byakuya’s chin.

“Hey, quit it,” the brunette said softly, “I keep telling you you’re gonna get lost in there one day.”

Byakuya rolled his eyes and brushed Hiro’s hand away, trying to hide the small smile that made Hiro’s heart flutter in his chest.

“You’re ridiculous.”

Hiro grinned mischievously, Well, I guess I know one surefire way to get you out of your head.

“No, what’s ridiculous is the idea that most major theories about multiverse necessitate conceptualizing space-time as a flat plane with infinite dimensions that are entirely independent of one another and end up repeating after reaching the limitations of particle configuration.”

Hiro’s grin deepened as he noticed a faint blush already spreading down Byakuya’s neck as he glared at him, “Stop that.”

Hiro stretched out on the bed lazily, “Now why would I ever do that? You see, when you start claiming that infinite universes mean that universes start repeating themselves, you’re completely negating any argument against causality, determinism, and true randomness. Just because a universe is atomically identical to another at a given point in space-time doesn’t necessarily mean that every subsequent moment in space time will continue to be atomically identical-”

“Hiro, cut it out, this is demeaning and honestly exploitative,” Byakuya looked away, noticeably fidgeting

The clairvoyant laughed in spite of himself, “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, man.”

Hiro decided to go for broke and reached out to slide a hand up Byakuya’s waist, brushing his undershirt up ever so slightly to feel the soft, slightly warmer than average skin there.

Byakuya flinched slightly at first, but then slowly brought his gaze back to look at Hiro, his expression an adorable combination of frustration and flustered.

“Now,” Hiro continued, “I’m not saying all these eggheads are full of shit- well, some of them are, but whatever- I just think that there’s a weird assumption of independence across space-time when so few things in the fabric of reality are ever truly independent of each other. Everything is constantly affected by what is closest to it.”

Hiro not so subtly drew closer to Byakuya, a move that the blonde would normally have called him out on immediately if he wasn’t preoccupied with staring stiffly at the other man, his hands balled into fists twisting into the fabric of the sheets, “and even distantly affected by things that aren’t. Like, isn’t that kind of the theory behind gravitational pull?”

Hiro had now drifted close enough that he was positioned slightly over Byakuya, propped up by one arm while the other continued to trail along the heir’s side.

If Hiro was being honest, it was becoming difficult for him to keep this up as well. He and Byakuya had been living together for some time now, but he could hardly remember a time that the man had look at him like this.

Like he wanted to devour him. Byakuya’s eyes were dark and smoldering; his nostrils flaring as he took deliberately deep breaths.

If there was one thing Hiro and Byakuya could go toe to toe for, however, it was stubbornness, and this had somehow turned into a competition that Hiro would be damned if he didn’t win.

“I guess all I’m saying is who says that the multiverse can’t be interdependent? Why is space-time considered a tessellating tile floor instead of like a woven fabric? That’s what I meant by pivot points- all the universes layered and twisted and connected to each other like neural synapses. Bright points of space-time that represent divergence or convergence of these realities dictated by the events that most closely mirror themselves.”

Hiro smirked and brought his hand up to rub along Byakuya’s jaw, causing the other to inhale sharply “I told you B, you gotta stop grinding your teeth. You’re gonna get lockjaw or something.”

As he brought his hand forward, Byakuya parted his lips, his mouth slightly agape so that Hiro’s calloused thumb ran along his lower lip instead.

------------------------------------------

Before the brunette could even think about stopping himself, his finger pushed further into Byakuya’s mouth, and he let out a shuttering breath as the blonde immediately closed his lips around Hiro’s thumb, curling his tongue around the digit and sucking lightly, never breaking eye contact. The sensation was like a lightning bolt to Hiro’s cock as he felt himself hardening, biting back a groan.

Gloves off, then, he mused.

Hiro tipped his head down, moving the blonde’s chin to the side ever so slightly so he could bury his face against Byakuya’s neck.

“Connecting. Webs,” Hiro punctuated each word with a kiss against the blonde’s throat, his voice noticeably huskier, “with a reaction for each and every action before it.” When he reached the corner of his jaw, he pressed his lips once more as if to kiss him but gave a small nip with his teeth instead, followed by a lazy swipe of his tongue against the bite and up the lobe of Byakuya’s ear.

A stifled but audible whimper came from near Hiro’s ear and he smiled victoriously to himself.

Gotcha, he thought.

Never one to gloat right away, Hiro instead took mercy on them both, rewarding Byakuya’s secession with a growl low in his throat as he lowered himself fully onto the other man, gripping his waist as he let the friction of their clothed cocks against each other drive him mad.

Byakuya sighed,  taking full advantage of the change in momentum by drawing his knees up, encircling his legs around Hiro’s hips and somehow drawing them even closer together as he tangled a hand in the clairvoyant’s hair.

“Fucking hell,” Byakuya muttered, then moaned as Hiro rutted against him once more.

Tightening his grip, the heir roughly pulled Hiro back from his neck and crushed his lips in a searing kiss.

The kiss was sloppy, wet, scorching from the tension that had built up between them. Goans and growls erupted from both men as Byakuya lifted his hips to meet Hiro’s thrusts.

Byakuya pulled away from Hiro’s lips, keeping their faces close, “Bite me,” he whispered breathlessly.

Hiro’s rhythm faltered, “A-are you sure?”

As much as the two of them loved marking each other, they were also adults with adult lives and especially high-profile jobs, and so anything rough enough to leave a lasting mark typically had to be placed very strategically.

Byakuya pulled Hiro even tighter, so close that his lips brushed against the other man’s as he spoke,

“We’re calling in sick because we just saved the fucking world again, now shut the fuck up and bite me,” the words came in a hurried hiss.

Hiro smirked, reaching down between them, past the waistband of Byakuya’s shorts to wrap his hand around the other’s straining, sensitive cock. Byakuya moaned, tossing his head back against the pillow.

“God, you’re amazing,” Hiro muttered absentmindedly, taking in the sight of his lover so wound up and needy.

“Hiro,” Byakuya said in a tone that he would probably claim was supposed to be demanding, but to Hiro sounded a lot like begging.

While giving Byakuya’s cock firm, long strokes, Hiro pressed himself against Byakuya’s neck once more; this time, however, opening his mouth and sinking his teeth into the soft flesh and sucking lightly at the skin between his teeth.

Byakuya came with a shout that trailed off into a moan, bucking up into Hiro’s hand as the clairvoyant worked the other man through his orgasm, moaning as he felt the increasingly slick texture of the other’s abdomen.

When he felt Byakuya start to come down, he broke contact with his neck, giving one last swipe of his tongue against the quickly reddening patch of skin.

Suddenly, Hiro let out a surprised yelp as dexterous fingers swiftly curled around his shaft, swiping across the head of his dick to smear the pre-cum already leaking from him.

With a strained moan, all Hiro could do was thrust against the hand, not quite realizing just how close he had been, until one last uneven thrust and a flick of Byakuya’s wrist sent him spiraling over the edge, lost in a wave of heat and pleasure.

---------------------------------------

Hiro collapsed beside the blonde, feeling slightly lightheaded and reeling from the rush of endorphins coursing through him.

“Wow,” he muttered, his brain incapable of forming more substantial words. Byakuya’s breathy hum in response hinted that he was likely in a similar state of mind.

Keeping his face against the pillow, Hiro blindly reached out until he made contact with Byakuya’s shoulder, just resting his hand against the other man. His brain started having the “feeling gross vs. actually getting up and cleaning himself” argument, but apparently his body had already made the decision as his eyelids fluttered closed and he ever-so-gently tightened his hold, running his thumb across the soft skin beside him.

Well, shit, he thought to himself just as he started sinking into slumber, guess I’m going to have to break out my theoretical physics textbooks again and do some… studying. Crazy times we’re living in.