Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hanzawa, do you have the list?!” Hirano, Ogasawara and Sasaki cornered the RA on his way back to his room.

Hanzawa blinked, “Excuse me?”

“The list of the first years we’re taking care of-” Hirano started but Sasaki and Ogasawara both cut in, leaning even closer.

“Do you have it?!”

“I do. But why does it matter so much to you all?”

“We just wanna know who we’re rooming with.” Hirano explained and then shared a look with the other two. “And we…”

“We look like this ,” Ogasawara said bluntly, gesturing at the three of them with their dyed hair, piercings and general demeanor.

Hanzawa bit back a laugh but a small noise escaped him despite himself, “... pfft!” When they did nothing but frown in response, he broke out into full belly laughter.

“Sorry, sorry!” Hanzawa apologized after his fit was done, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I just never thought there would be a day when you three would worry about something like that.” He said, shaking from holding back his laughter again.

“Well these guys are first years, right? We don’t wanna scare them off or anything.” Hirano said, rubbing the back of his neck. Sasaki didn’t quite agree, he honestly didn’t care about the first years that were coming in but Hirano had dragged him out of his room to ask and well… he got caught up in the momentum.

“Well, it just so happens I was on my way to post the room list, so giving you all a peek shouldn’t hurt.” Hanzawa said as he handed them a piece of paper. Hirano took it and the three of them began to greedly look over it, searching for their names and room numbers.

“Ah! There's mine. Kuresawa, huh?” Ogasawara nodded, affirmingly.

“Mine is Kagiura… Kagiura…” Hirano repeated the name, trying his best to get used to saying it naturally. “What about you, Sasaki?”

“.... Miyano…”

“Miyano? Really?” Hirano quickly looked and confirmed that his roommate's name was indeed Miyano. “That's surprising.”

“A problem?” Hanzawa asked, watching the interaction between the two. 

Hirano and Sasaki shared a quick look before shaking their heads, “No.” Hanzawa didn't push but he made a mental note of how Sasaki pulled his sleeve down over his wrist just ever so slightly.

“Man, this makes it so real! We're gonna have juniors!” Ogasawara broke the tension with his words.

“That’s correct,” Hanzawa smiled. “So, I do hope you'll do your best to make sure they feel welcome.”

“Wait, how do you suggest we go about doing that?” Hirano asked as Hanzawa took the sheet away and they started down the hall again.

“Hmm… maybe a nickname? We can be informal here in the dorms so if both parties agree…”

“A nickname…” Sasaki muttered. Miyano… Miya… Mi?

“Who'd you get, by the way?” Ogasawara couldn't help but ask.

“A young man named Tashiro. I met him during the tour the first-years took of the dorm, he seems like he'll be fun.”

“... I don't like the way you said that.”

Hanzawa waved his hand, “It’s nothing. Anyway, you all have about a week before they start showing up so be prepared to be the best senpais possible and welcome them all with open arms.”

A week later

Miyano stood outside the dorm building, looking at with a feeling of fear and anxiousness growing in his stomach. When he had come for a tour, it was during break and everyone except for the RA, dorm head and a handful of other students had been there. He hadn't met any of the students and most of all, he hadn't met his roommate.

“Hey!” As he was working up the courage to go inside, someone came up and clapped him on the back, making him stumble.

“Ah-” He quickly regained his balance and spun around, getting ready to apologize but paused when he saw a boy around his height grinning at him. He had brightly (clearly fresh) dyed blonde hair, bright green eyes and a warm, energetic smile.

“I saw you hesitating. Are you okay, a first year right? Me too! I'm Tashiro. Tashiro Gonzaburou!” Tashiro asked his question and introduced himself in one breath, leaving Miyano just staring blankly at him.

“Uh-”

“What are you guys doing out here?” They both turned and saw another boy, this one wearing glasses, carrying bags and giving them a cool look. The bags indicated that this boy must also be a first-year.

“I was asking him what’s wrong, why he was standing out here.”

“Oh… why were you standing out here?” The boy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I…” Miyano took a deep breath. These people weren’t meaning any harm, they were probably just as nervous as he was. “I’m just nervous. I’ve never stayed in a dorm like this before. And my old school was co-ed so, I’ve never been around so many guys before.”

“Oh, no siblings?” Tashiro asked and Miyano shook his head.

“Same here. Kuresawa, by the way. Kuresawa Tasuku.” Kuresawa put one of his bags down and offered his hand to Miyano, which he gladly took.

“Miyano Yoshikazu. First year.”

“Right. Anyway, wanna go in together?” Kuresawa asked.

“I’m waiting for a friend actually, but-”

“Oh, is that why the three of you are blocking the way like this?” The trio jumped and spun back around to the front door to see Hanzawa standing there, a smile (that didn’t reach his eyes) on his face.

“Uh-”

“Hey, sorry I’m late.”

“Shirahama, you almost got us killed!” Tashiro cried, grabbing onto his friend as the other two laughed nervously.

“Sorry, sorry. My train got delayed. Senpai,” Shirahama shook off Tashiro and noticed Hanzawa in the doorway, lowering his head slightly to acknowledge him.

“Come in then, the sooner you get settled in, the better. The nerves will wear off in time.” Hanzawa said, his smile changing to a genuine one as he led the four boys inside.

Miyano had expected the dorm to be more… rowdy? More like a bunch of guys lived there, but it was surprisingly clean and bright. Several other first years (easily identified by the nervous way they were looking around) were milling about in groups, going from one place to another.

“Here, this is a map of the dorm. And there’s a list here of your dorm rooms.” Hanzawa handed each of them a map and then pointed at the bulletin board next to them. “The doors should be open, and if not, your roommate should be in to let you in. Once there, on the desks, there will be a map of the school as well as a list of local rest spots and places to eat. Tashiro-kun, since we’re rooming together, I can show you the way personally.”

“Okay. See you later,” Tashiro heaved his bags up onto his shoulders and then followed Hanzawa to their room. Shirahama also said his goodbye after realizing his dorm room was on the first floor, leaving Miyano and Kuresawa together.

“Let’s see… what room are you in, Miyano?”

“Um, it looks like 209. You?”

“211. Looks like we’re next to each other.” Kuresawa pointed out on the map. Rooms 209 and 211 were indeed next to each other, right across from rooms 208 and 210. Room 208 had a note on it that said it was the RA’s room, making it easy to spot for anyone that might need him. On the first floor, the largest room seemed to belong to the dorm head, which was also labeled.

“Do you wanna drop our stuff off and then go around and get familiar with the place?” Miyano asked as the two picked up their bags again and started heading upstairs.

“Sure, but it might be a minute. I have to call my girlfriend and let her know I got here okay.”

“Girlfriend?!” Miyano was shocked at how easily he had just… said it. Wasn’t having a girlfriend a big no-no in an all boys’ school?

“Yeah, we started dating during our third year. She’s the most adorable girl in the world, so I can’t show you any pictures.”

“I… don’t think I want to see any,”

“You don’t want to fall in love with her? You’re a good guy, Miyano.”

Not what I meant but, way to put a good spin on it!

“Oh, we’re here already.”

They had somehow made it to the second floor and in front of their rooms in no time. Kuresawa said his goodbye and quickly entered his room with no hesitation, leaving Miyano alone in the hallway in front of his door.

“Okay… greet like you would anyone else, you can do this, Yoshikazu…” He muttered to himself as he took a deep breath. He lifted his hand to the door and had just barely begun to touch it when it suddenly flung open. He froze, like a rabbit getting caught by its prey, as a… giant , loomed over him, glaring at him with cold eyes.

“Hah?”

Chapter Text

Sasaki heard a lot of noise going on outside his door and leisurely grabbed his phone to check the time.

“Crap…” Hanzawa had said that the first-years would be arriving in the morning and it was well past the time he had told him. Hopefully, he was too distracted with getting everyone settled to notice Sasaki was missing (Sasaki could also bet money that Hirano was sound asleep in his own room as well).

He rolled over and threw an arm over his face to cover his eyes. He had no idea what he was going to do about his new roommate. He didn’t really get along with other people and with his roommate being younger… he had never had any juniors before, what if he ended up scaring him worse than ever?

Not to mention…

He sighed and sat up, flipping up the sleeve of his shirt. There on his wrist, ever so lightly showing on his skin, was the name of his ‘soulmate.’ Miyano Yumi… what are the chances they’re related?

What if he was her cousin or something? Or even worse, her brother? And the two of them ended up not getting along at all? How was he supposed to explain that his family member was the one he was supposed to end up with at some point down the line. 

Now, all this was just hypothetical. Sasaki didn’t really believe in the whole ‘soulmate’ thing. After all, out of everyone he knew, he was the only person who had gotten the mark. Hirano had just happened to see it and thought he had gotten a tattoo and after a long talk, they both came to the conclusion that this random name on his wrist must be what everyone was talking about. The name of his soulmate. The timing of the name showing up was completely random and it was possible that he would never even cross paths with her, but nonetheless, she was his soulmate and eventually, his name would show up on her wrist in turn and supposedly, the two of them would be drawn together by fate. Maybe tomorrow, maybe years from now. There was no real way to tell.

Sasaki groaned. Maybe just explaining all this to Hanzawa and making the kid switch rooms was the better idea after all.

With this thought in mind, Sasaki got to his feet and trudged over to the door, going over what he was going to tell Hanzawa to get out of it. As he opened the door, he was shocked to see someone standing on the other side, a hand raised to knock on the door.

A girl…? Sasaki’s half awake mind took one look at the person’s big eyes, fluffy hair and soft features and immediately thought female . It took a moment before he remembered this was a boy’s dorm… in an all boy’s school. Meaning this person in front of him, was in fact, a man.

“Hah…” He let out a harsh sigh. He thought he had had a moment to get out of this whole thing, but it looked like it was too late.

“Uh- um…” Sasaki glanced at the first year - Miyano - and the poor boy looked absolutely terrified. His eyes were wide and he looked like he didn’t know what to do.

“Sorry, come in,” Sasaki moved out of the way and back into their dorm, placing a pair of slippers down as he went.

“Excuse me…” Miyano said lightly, following after his senpai. He hesitated for a moment at the threshold, making Sasaki look back.

“You can come in, you know. It’s your room, too now.”

“Right!” Miyano quickly slipped on the slippers that were offered to him and went about setting his things down. Sasaki just watched him from his bed.

It would be weird if I just brought it up out of nowhere… right? I can’t just ask him if he has a sister or anything out of the blue, we just met.

“... what’s this?” Miyano’s attention was brought to the desk next to his bed, behind the headboard. There was a map of the dorm and the school, a list of rules for the dorm that included meal times and the times the bath would be open, and a small pamphlet with the names of local restaurants near the school and some emergency numbers for the dorm. Next to that small pile was also a covered basket. Cautiously, Miyano lifted the cover and was surprised to find a variety of different types of bread underneath. They ranged from your typical breads to strange things like ultimate sugar sweet and flaming spicy hot .

“Oh, those are from Hanzawa, the maps and stuff; the bread is from me, I made it, actually.”

“Heh, that’s really thoughtful– wait, did you say you made it?!” Miyano suddenly spun around, a look of shock and confusion on his face.

Whoa . Sasaki blinked. He had been so scared before, the sudden change in expression was a shock to him.

“Yeah… my family owns a bakery. I used to help out there in the mornings before school back in middle school but now I only really help out on the weekends and breaks when I can leave the dorm.” Sasaki explained as Miyano marveled over the bread.

“I can’t believe you made this, senpai… I can’t even make eggs.”

“Huh?”

“Last time I tried, they blew up in the microwave and my parents banned me from being in the kitchen by myself.” Miyano stated bluntly, a blank look on his face as he explained the story.

“Pfft!” Sasaki couldn’t help but laugh and was soon laughing so hard he had fallen over on his bed, his face buried in his pillow.

“Senpai!?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Sasaki finally recovered and sat back up, wiping the tears from his eyes. “That was just a really cute story,”

“Eh…?”

“Oh, by the way, I’m Sasaki. Sasaki Shuumei, your roomie for the year. Nice to meet ya,”

“Oh! Miyano Yoshikazu. Please take care of me!” Miyano quickly put down the bread, bowed and then stuck out his hand for Sasaki to shake.

Sasaki laughed again and took his hand, “Likewise, Miyano.” How cute can this guy be?

Chapter Text

School soon started and Miyano felt like he was finally getting the hang of things. The first week in the dorms, he had stuck to Sasaki-senpai like glue. He had never lived away from home before and it was kinda nerve-wracking being in this new place all alone. He had met his neighbors, too. Kuresawa and Ogaswara-senpai were in the room directly next to them. Directly across the hall from the two of them were Hanzawa-senpai and Tashiro. Across the hall from Sasaki and Miyano’s room was one of Sasaki's other classmates, Hirano and his roommate, Kagiura.

Miyano had caught a glimpse of them together in the dining hall one evening and had seen Hirano-senpai eating off of Kaguira’s plate. The look on the other boy’s face as his (honestly quite terrifying looking) senpai ate the things he didn’t like off his plate was burned into Miyano’s mind and it was just about all he could think about. Even though Hirano-senpai looked really scary, with his dyed blonde hair and piercings - kind of similar to how Sasaki-senpai was when he first met him - Miyano quickly learned that, also like Sasaki-senpai, Hirano was actually really kind.

Hirano-senpai was part of the disciplinary committee and went out of his way to make sure the first years were settling in okay. It seemed like he was the mother hen type and tended to dote on those younger than him, albeit in different ways. While he seemed to outright spoil Kagiura (at least, to Miyano’s eyes), he was quite soft on Miyano and the others as well.

“I’m telling you, there’s something there!” Miyano was telling Kuresawa as they were heading back to the dorms after school. Now that everyone had gotten used to things, people had started joining clubs. It seemed that Tashiro and his friend Shirahama had joined the table tennis club and therefore would be unable to join the two of them on the way home. Kuresawa had joined the astronomy club and Miyano had joined the literature club (he also somehow ended up on the disciplinary committee with Hirano-senpai and Hanzawa-senpai as well).

“I think you’re looking too much into it - wait, does Sasaki-senpai know about your uh… hobby?” Kuresawa asked, suddenly realizing. His friend was a hardcore fundashi. Aka: a major BL lover. Kuresawa had been texting his girlfriend and it seemed that Miyano had just happened to read his texts. When he had seen that they were talking about BL, Miyano suddenly became very chatty and the two of them started talking more and more. That being said, Kuresawa was well aware of Miyano’s collection and was surprised it hadn’t come out yet (at least among the dorm).

“Of course not!” Miyano shook his head vehemently. “I make sure to hide all my books and the ones I leave out, I put in a totally innocuous book cover so no one would think twice about reading it!”

“Uh-uh…” For some reason, Kuresawa wasn’t so sure but he wasn’t about to burst his friend’s bubble.

Turns out, time will do that instead.

Miyano said goodbye to Kuresawa at the door to his room and entered, “I’m back, senpai!?” Miyano’s tone lifted at the end as he saw Sasaki lounging on his bed, the BL Miyano had forgotten to put back last night in his hands. He knew it was one of his BLs due to the plain book cover Miyano had put on all his BL he kept out (the less racy ones).

“Oh, welcome back, Mya-chan.”

Mya…? Wait, not the time for that! “Wh- wha - what are you doing?!”

“Hm? Oh, when I got back I found this on the floor near the desks so I picked it up. I wasn’t expecting a manga so I couldn’t help but read it, it’s interesting.”

“You-! Wait, do you… like it, senpai?”

“I wouldn’t say I like it… but I also wouldn’t say I hate it. I don’t read romance manga very often in general so I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but it’s good. The art is good and the plot is nice. And the characters are really funny,” Sasaki said with a laugh. When he looked up, he saw that Miyano had his head down, his hair hiding his face.

Crap . “I’m sorry, Mya-chan! I just wanted to know what you were reading - I know I should have asked for permission first but-” Sasaki put the book down and went over to his junior, more than just a little panicked about his reaction.

“... it…”

“What?”

Suddenly, Miyano’s head shot up and Sasaki stumbled back. Miyano’s eyes were literally shining and he had the happiest look on his face. One that made Sasaki’s heart stumble before it started pounding in his chest.

“Uh…”

“I can’t believe you like it!” Miyano grinned widely, taking a step forward and making Sasaki stumble back onto his bed. “I didn’t think you would like it ‘cause it’s two guys but you made such good points! That artist is one of my favorites, I go back and read their stuff all the time! Their stories just make me feel so happy and warm. And I love the way they portray the relationships between the characters…” Miyano kept going and Sasaki couldn’t help but watch in awe. They had been together in this room for almost a month now and this was the most animated and talkative he had ever seen him. He had never seen someone shine so brightly before…

“Oops. Sorry, senpai. I kinda went a little overboard there, huh…?” Miyano blushed and then quickly backed away, sitting on his own bed away from him.

“Nah, it’s fine.” Sasaki shook himself out of his stupor. “Got any others?”

“Huh?”

“I thought this one was good and you seem really happy about it so… why not recommend some more to me?”

“Uh… I guess… I can…”

“Great! Oh, crap. The time, I gotta go get my gym stuff from the school before it locks up - I got totally engrossed in that manga. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your recommendations, Mya-chan!” Sasaki grinned, waved and left the room, leaving Miyano frozen on the bed, still processing what his senpai had just said.

“Wait… what???”

Chapter Text

“So, how did he take it?” Kuresawa asked the next day during a break. Miyano simply glared at him.

“How did you even find out?”

“I could hear it. Well, more like, I heard you. I heard you muttering and when I went to check on you, you were on your knees, going through a huge pile of manga.”

“Manga? Let me read some!” Tashiro suddenly popped up, leaning against Miyano’s desk.

“Not that type of manga.” Kuresawa and Miyano said swiftly.

“Oh, the type that makes Miyano go crazy, right?” Tashiro said. “The B-”Before he could finish, Miyano smacked a hand over his mouth. “Mmmph!”

“Don’t you dare bring that up in this classroom again.” Miyano said and Tashiro nodded, taking him seriously.

Miyano removed his hand and sat back down. “Sasaki-senpai was fine with it. In fact, he didn’t even bat an eye. He actually wanted me to recommend him some which is what you probably saw,”

“Sasaki-senpai wants to read the same stuff?” Tashiro asked.

“Is that strange?”

“No, I guess not. Your roomies, right? And Sasaki-senpai is like, super scary looking. I bet he’s just trying to find some common ground.”

“Sasaki-senpai may look scary, but he’s not. He’s actually really nice.”

“‘Cause he didn’t care about the manga you like?”

“Not just that but just… in general.”

“Hmm… wait, Miyano, how do you read your name?” Tashiro was quickly distracted by the worksheet on Miyano’s desk, their current conversation flying to the wind.

“He flips on a dime, huh?” Kuresawa said but was ignored by Tashiro picking up the paper to examine the characters on Miyano’s sheet.

“It’s read as Yoshikazu.”

“Is that normally how that’s read?”

Miyano blushed and took his paper back from Tashiro, “No. The more common reading is actually Yumi.”

“A girly name to match your girly face.” Tashiro said without thinking, getting a glare from Miyano. “Sorry, that just slipped out.”

“I didn’t know that was how you wrote your name. I knew your name was Yoshikazu, just not the characters for it.”

“Hanzawa-senpai suggested that, in the dorm, I use hiragana to write my name, so it wouldn’t be confused for a girl’s name and cause a bunch of a fuss before I got here. He then just suggested I continue to do it, so people won’t misread my name in the future. I really only use the characters here at school now,”

“What about you, Tashiro? How do you write your name?”

“With the characters for authority, three and son.” Tashiro said, using his fingers to list off the meanings.

“Are you the youngest?” Miyano couldn’t help but ask.

“Yup! By a large margin, too. My oldest sibling is twelve years older than me.”

“Heh… wait, how many do you have?” Kuresawa was slightly taken aback by the age gap but not enough to not ask.

“Just two. My other sibling is ten years older. I never really saw them much growing up so I was basically raised as an only child.”

“You do give off heavy little brother energy.” Miyano agreed.

“Hanzawa-senpai tells me that a lot. He said that if he didn’t already have two younger siblings, he’d want me to be in his family instead. He says he wants to take me home to his family a lot,”

“...”

“Miyano?”

“... thank you.”

“Hm?”

“Mya-chan~?”

The three of them jumped and looked towards the door to see Sasaki sticking his head inside.

“Senpai?” Miyano got up and went to the door, ignoring the eyes of the other boys who were watching them wearily.

“Ah, you were here! I just wanted to give you this book ba-” Before Sasaki could say another word, Miyano grabbed him and dragged him out of the room and down the hall, far away from the classroom and its watchful eyes.

“Please don’t bring me things like this during school. It can wait until we’re back in the dorm!” Miyano cried (taking his book back anyway) once they were far enough away.

“Sorry, Mya-chan, I just wanted to tell you what I thought since I finished it.”

“That could wait too… look, senpai, I’m happy you’ve taken an interest in BL but the school isn’t the place for it.”

“Why not?”

“Fundashi thrive in the shadows…”

“Hm?”

“It’s embarrassing and you stand out too much! Upperclassmen bring a lot of attention!”

“Oh. Then, if I don’t come to give you back your manga, it’s okay?”

“Yes… wait, what?”

“Perfect! I’ll see you later, Mya-chan. Let’s go home together.”

“Okay… wait, I have committee duties today, I can’t go straight back.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just wait until you’re done.” At that moment, the bell rang, “Oh. Break’s over. Alright, see you after school!” Sasaki grinned and walked away, once again leaving Miyano alone and puzzled.

“Ah!... I never got to ask him why he started calling me Mya-chan…”

“So, how are you settling in?” Hanzawa asked Miyano as he, Hirano and Miyano all worked at organizing some pamphlets for the school.

“Didn't you ask that this morning?” Hirano asked with a frown but Hanzawa ignored him and focused solely on Miyano.

“It's going well! I thought living in the dorms would be a lot harder but everyone is really nice. Sasaki-senpai was pretty scary at first but he’s actually really nice! He’s helped me get used to the dorms and the school.”

“Oh, right, speaking of. Has he been going to your classroom too much lately? It seems like whenever I look up during a break or lunch, he’s gone and when I go to look for him, he’s always in your classroom.” Hirano said, frowning as he remembered.

“He’s not bothering me. We get along just fine.” Miyano told him flatly. Everyone seemed to think that Sasaki-senpai was doing something to him but he hadn’t done anything! If they were gonna worry about someone, worrying about Kuresawa with his roommate Ogasawara seemed like the more logical option.

Hirano sighed, “Sorry, I know he’s not a bad guy and he seems to have really taken a shine to you, Miyano but, I just know how he is and-”

“Mya-chaaann~!” Sasaki suddenly burst into the disciplinary committee room, cutting off Hirano’s point.

“… I’m gonna hit him.” Hirano pushed back from the table but Hanzawa put a hand on his shoulder and made him sit back down.

“Senpai?! Why are you here? I told you I had a meeting today,”

“I know, but I didn’t want to go home alone. I’ll stay out of the way so…”

“If you gonna be here, you better help out.” Hirano snapped, pointing the pile of papers across the table from him.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re just making pamphlets to let students know where they can go for study aids and such.” Hanzawa explained as Miyano and Sasaki sat down again.

“Hmm…” Sasaki started to help but Hanzawa noticed how he kept glancing over at Miyano as he helped. Just as he was about to question it, Hirano cleared his throat to break up the silence.

“So, you guys enjoying your roommates?”

“You couldn’t ask something else?”

“I already know your story, but I wanna hear about Hanzawa.”

“I wanna hear about Hirano-senpai’s roommate! He’s the basketball club, right? So he’s taller than you? Every time I see you together, he always has this huge smile on his face and you’re always eating of his plate in the dining hall-”

“Okay, stop.” Hirano held up his hand and stopped Miyano mid-rant. “First off, Kagi-kun is on the basketball team and is taller than me but he’s not always smiling when he’s with me.”

“You do eat off his plate, though.” Sasaki pointed out, causing Hanzawa to choke out a laugh.

“I’m not eating off his plate! He doesn’t like peppers so I just eat them for him.”

“… thank you,”

“Hah?”

“I can’t believe you do that. That’s super spoiling him,”

“He eats at least one!”

“He should eat them all!”

The conversation quickly turned into them all (mostly Sasaki) talking about the ways Hirano spoiled his roommate and Hirano quickly knocking all the points away.

“Aahh~ I’m so tired,” Sasaki stretched out as he and Miyano headed back to the dorms. Hirano and Hanzawa had stayed behind to clean and lock up the committee room.

“Thanks for helping out, senpai. You didn’t have to stay.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind helping you,” Sasaki said with a shrug. Miyano wasn’t sure what to say after that so he just nodded and followed behind him.

They got back to the dorm and returned to their room but before they could enter, Sasaki stopped. “Wait, stay here!” Sasaki quickly ducked into the room. After a couple minutes without coming back out, Miyano titled his head and opened the door.

“Senpai?”

“Welcome home!” Sasaki grinned at Miyano when he opened the door.

“Huh?”

“I don’t normally get to say that on days you have committee duties, I see you in the dining hall during dinner. So I just wanted to greet you properly.” Sasaki grinned.

Miyano felt his heart squeeze at his smile but he returned it in kind, “I’m home, senpai.”

Chapter Text

“Do you guys find your roommates cute?” Tashiro asked out of the blue one day as the three of them were cleaning up at the end of the day. The question had caught them so off guard that Kuresawa had dropped the box he had been holding and Miyano just froze in place.

“… what?”

“Do you guys find your roommates cute?” Tashiro repeated. Okay. That had been what he had said.

“No??” Kuresawa said, absolutely incredulous but Miyano couldn’t say the same.

Sasaki-senpai was more cool than cute but there were moments where he was utterly adorable to him. A good example was a recent one, with Sasaki-senpai going ahead of him into their room – even though they had been together until that moment – just to greet him. Another one was one he wasn’t even sure Sasaki-senpai knew about. When Sasaki-senpai would listen to his music, he would hum along and tap his hands or fingers or whatever he was holding to the beat while he worked. It seemed to be an unconscious movement, but there was something so endearing about it… Miyano couldn’t quite explain.

“Why do you even ask?” Kuresawa’s question brought Miyano out of his thoughts.

“Hanzawa-senpai says it a lot when we’re in the dorms together. And I overhear Sasaki-senpai saying it about Miyano a lot, too. By the way, are you guys dating?”

Miyano broke into a coughing fit that. “N-no!”

“Really? He calls you Mya-”

“Don’t!” Miyano stopped Tashiro before he could finish… but he couldn’t explain why, exactly. It was like that name was for Sasaki-senpai to use only. He still hadn’t had the chance to ask about where it had come from, but no one except for Sasaki-senpai had used it.

Miyano’s reaction didn’t stop Tashiro’s line of thought and he kept going, shrugging it off. “And he always calls you cute and stuff.”

“He just means like a junior,” Miyano sighed.

“Really?”

“Isn’t that what Hanzawa-senpai probably means as well?” Kuresawa asked as he picked up his box again to put onto the nearby table.

“I dunno. It doesn’t feel like that,”

“How does it feel?”

“Hmmm….” Tashiro paused and thought for a moment. “Like he’s talking about a puppy?”

“Isn’t that worse…?”

Suddenly the door rattled open, “What are you doing in here?”

“Whoa!” Tashiro jumped away from the door, and the three of looked up to see none other than Hanzawa-senpai on the other side.

“Actually, more accurately, what are you doing here?” Hanzawa pointed his attention to Tashiro, who went pale. “You’re supposed to be at practice.”

“Uhh…” Tashiro desperately looked around for an excuse – any excuse would do – but came up empty. “I-”

“I don’t want to hear it, come on.” Without hesitation, Hanzawa grabbed onto the hood of Tashiro’s parka and dragged him away.

“What part of that is thinking he’s cute…” Kuresawa muttered.

“I see the dog thing now,” Miyano couldn’t help but respond.

“If he doesn’t want to be on the table tennis team, why doesn’t he just quit?” Kuresawa asked as he began to put up the rest of the things in the box with Miyano’s help.

“I asked him once. He said that since Hanzawa-senpai is his roommate, it’d be too awkward. Since he’s the vice president and all.”

“But isn’t skipping out on practice worse?”

“He always gets caught, so I guess it balances out.”

“Hmm….” Kuresawa hummed in response and the two of the quickly finished the last of their duties. “He brought up a good point, though.”

“When?”

“When he asked about Sasaki-senpai. Are you two dating?”

“Like I said we aren’t, he’s just my senpai.”

“You guys are super close though. I don’t let Ogasawara-senpai cling all over me in the mornings.”

“He just has a hard time getting up,”

“I also don’t trade manga with him.”

“Does he read manga?”

“He listens to music. His bookshelf on the desk is actually filled with nothing but CDs.”

“Oh yeah, I remember now. Sasaki-senpai goes to borrow music from him a lot.”

“You’re dodging the question.”

Miyano flinched. Kuresawa was a little too observant sometimes.

“We aren’t dating.”

“Do you wanna date him?”

“I – I dunno! What’s up with all questions?” Miyano cried, throwing his hands up in defeat.

“My girlfriend has been asking for some real life BL moments and has been specifically asking for you and Sasaki-senpai,” Kuresawa explained, showing Miyano his phone screen which was lit up with a text conversation between the two of them.

“… wow, she’s actually begging…”

“Cute, right?” Kuresawa smiled softly at his phone.

“That’s not the point – Sasaki-senpai and I aren’t dating. We don’t even like each other romantically!”

“Are you sure?”

“I… I know how I feel. And while I can’t speak for Sasaki-senpai, he can’t possibly like me because–” Miyano stopped himself before the words could leave his mouth.

Kuresawa cocked his head. “Because…?”

Miyano groaned and ruffled his hair – something he hated doing because it always became an unruly mess but it matched how he felt inside whenever he thought about it .

“Miyano?”

“He has a soulmate,” Miyano said softly, feeling his heart twinge a little.

“How do you know that?”

“I saw the mark on his wrist. I didn’t get a good look at it but I know what it looks like. There was a name there,”

“When did you see it?”

“When he was sleeping. He had his arm over his eyes and I just happened to catch a glimpse of it, is all.”

“But that doesn’t mean-”

“It’s fine. We’re just a senpai and his junior. Nothing more and nothing less.”

Time started to fly by and soon, the end of the school year was upon them. Tension in the dorm was at an all time high as the third years prepped for their exams. While they studied, the first and second years held a meeting in the common area, led by none other than the RA himself, Hanzawa.

“Now, I know things are hectic right now but don’t worry too much. Things aren’t that different from first to second year. The biggest difference is that you’ll be moved into a room with a first year and the new third years get an option of rooming by themselves.”

“Do we have to move into a new room?” Sasaki called from the back. Over time, his boundaries with Miyano had become non-existent and he had quickly become known to literally be attached to Miyano at all times. This moment was no exception, as he was casually draped across Miyano’s back, his arms wrapped around him and his head resting atop Miyano’s. Miyano – for his part – had gotten so used to his senpai’s skinship that he didn’t even think about telling him off anymore.

“For the hundredth time, yes. You have to move into a new room. If you don’t, there won’t be enough rooms for the first and second years.”

“But you’re staying with Tashiro in the same room! How is that fair?” Kagiura piped up before Hirano elbowed him to make him stop talking.

“I’m the RA, my room has to stay the same otherwise no one would be able to find me when they need me.”

“Are you okay with that, Tashiro?” Miyano asked him, as he was sitting nearby, playing a game on his phone.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I don’t mind. Hanzawa-senpai helps me study. My grades have never been better actually, so I’m pretty okay with it honestly.”

“What about you, Mya-chan?”

“Hm?” Miyano titled his head back slightly to look his senpai in the eyes.

“Do you want to switch rooms?”

“Not… really. If I had the option, I would like to stay in the same room as Sasaki-senpai again…”

“Alright, let’s just put it to a vote!” Hirano suddenly called out and stood next to Hanzawa at the center of attention. “If you wanna stay in the same room as you are now, raise your hands!” Hands flew up, not many but decent enough amount.

“… Alright, plus me makes 18.”

“You want to stay in the same room?” Hanzawa asked at the same time Kagiura called out

“Hirano-san!”

“I like my room right now. If that amount of people want to stay in the same rooms, that’s only nine rooms that don’t change – roughly. I don’t know if any of those people are four to a room. But still, there’s more third years leaving than there are people that want to stay in the same room so why not just let them stay? There’s gonna be plenty of room for the first years.”

“Well…” Hanzawa pondered for a moment, looking out at all his fellow dorm mates. “… Fine. I’ll discuss it with the dorm head.”

A cheer rose from the group but Hanzawa quickly quieted them, to make sure they didn’t disturb the studying third years. “Assuming everything goes all right, that won’t stop the second years from their duty. You all are still expected to watch after the first years when they come in and show them the ropes.”

“Yes…!” The voices called out in unison and the group quickly dispersed, each group of roommates talking among themselves about what would happen next year. Before long, it was down to just their hall – Hanzawa and Tashiro, Sasaki and Miyano, Hirano and Kagiura and Ogasawara and Kuresawa.

“Are you really gonna ask the dorm head if it’s okay to stay in the same rooms?” Tashiro asked Hanzawa.

“Of course, I wouldn’t lie about that.”

“But you said we couldn’t room together if-”

“Alright, to your rooms everyone!” Hanzawa quickly cut Tashiro off and dragged him away before he could finish his thought.

“Hirano-san, I can’t believe you stood up for us like that!” Kagi-kun shouted happily as he and Hirano left the room, with Miyano’s ever listening ear right behind them.

“It’s not like I’m doing it for us. I’m doing it because I like the room I’m in, I’ve been in it since I was a first year. Although, I will admit, helping you study has been a great aid for me.”

“Hirano-san…!” Their voices quickly faded off into the distance.

“Are you guys okay with rooming together again?” Miyano asked Kuresawa. Kuresawa glanced over at Ogasawara and shrugged.

“I don’t mind it. It’s not the worst thing in the world, after all.”

“Yeah, for the most part, this kid stays out of the way. I just wish he wouldn’t talk about his girlfriend so much.” Ogasawara said with a slight frown.

“I only do it so you can be more comfortable talking about your girlfriend, Ogasawara-san.”

“Yeah, right.” Ogasawara scoffed and stood up, “I’m gonna make a phone call real quick. I’ll try not to make too much noise when I get back.” He then took off towards the front of the building.

Kuresawa sighed and stood as well, “I guess that’s my cue. You coming?” He meant the question to be directed at Miyano but Sasaki was still clinging to him. Miyano just shook his head and waved goodbye and soon the two of them were left alone.

“… you can let go now,” Miyano said, lightly tapping Sasaki’s arm.

“Hm? Oh, right.” Sasaki gave him one last (subtle) squeeze before letting him go and moving to sit in front of him, so he could see his face. That was the only real downside to that position.

“So… are you okay with rooming together again next year, senpai?”

“Of course! If Hirano hadn’t said something, I would have done something. I would have bribed someone so we could stay together next year, too.”

“O-oh…” Miyano felt a blush rise to his cheeks. Sometimes Sasaki’s straightforwardness was a little… overwhelming, so to speak.

“Didn’t you say that you wanted to stay together, Mya-chan?”

“Well, it’s not like I want to leave our room… I want to stay in it if you’re there, senpai. This past year has been so much fun – I thought coming to this new school and staying in a dorm was going to be overwhelming, but thanks to you and everyone else, it was actually really fun! The cultural festival was a blast – seeing your class doing that haunted house was amazing.”

“I really liked your class’s cafe, too.”

“I wasn’t part of making any of the food though…”

“You poured my tea, that’s all I needed.” Sasaki smiled, “I’ve really loved rooming with you this past year, too, Mya-chan. Being able to wake up and seeing you in the bed next to me has been really great motivation. And trading manga with you has been so much fun, you’ve given me even more things to be excited about.” Every day with you is something to be excited about though.

Miyano laughed, “I don’t really get the motivation part but I’m glad you enjoy the manga! At first, I thought it was going to scare you off,”

“You clearly like it a lot, so why would I make fun of you for it?” Sasaki’s question was a genuine one. “It’s important to you so of course it’s going to be important to me.”

Miyano couldn’t help but tilt his head slightly at that, “Why?”

“Why?” Sasaki repeated. And then he paused. Why indeed? It wasn’t like Miyano was the person whose name was engraved into his wrist. Why did he feel so strongly about him, even though he was his soulmate?

“Senpai?”

Sasaki bit back the words that were at the tip of his tongue upon seeing Miyano’s expression. It was filled with curiosity and worry. He was just too adorable…

But Sasaki held himself back and simply flashed Miyano a bright smile, “Because what’s important to my junior is important to me, too.”

Chapter Text

The school semester ended and spring break arrived. It was the longest three weeks Sasaki had spent since meeting Miyano. At least when it was winter break, he knew when got back that Miyano would be returning to their room and would be there to greet him, but with the start of the new school year that wasn’t guaranteed anymore. Even though Hanzawa had said he had asked, no one was able to get a definitive answer out of him to know for sure if they were switching rooms or not.

“Hah…” Sasaki let out a sigh for what felt like the thousandth time of that morning alone.

“Yo, Sasaki!” Ogasawara came up and knocked him on the back, which only gave him a glare in response. “Whoa. I know you don’t like waking up in the morning but come on,”

“Being up this early is only part of it.” Sasaki said, biting back a yawn.

“Oh, right. The dorm thing.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Not really? I mean, Kuresawa is a good guy and all but it won’t bother me if we don’t room together anymore.

“Really?”

Ogasawara rolled his eyes, “I know it’ll bother you if you don’t room with that BL lover again,”

“Miyano.”

“Yeah, okay, Miyano. But you saw him over the break, right? Did you talk about what you’ll do if you don’t room together again?”

“I didn’t see him over the break.”

“For real?”

“I don’t even have his number, man.”

“How!?”

“We lived together and saw each other every day! There wasn’t a need.”

“For a whole year?? You guys didn’t see each other over summer or winter break either – how did you not get his number then??”

“Yeah… when the breaks were almost over I told myself I would ask for his number when I saw him but then I saw him and that thought just kinda… flew out the window.”

“Ugh,” Ogasawara groaned. He wasn’t sure if it was Sasaki’s general reaction that was making him feel exhausted or the situation itself.

“I’ll get his number this time.” Sasaki said as the school’s dorms came into view.

“Whatever man… wait, isn’t that…?” Before Ogasawara could finish his sentence, Sasaki was gone, racing to greet Miyano who was standing at the gate to the dorm.

“First years, please make sure to check which room you’ll be in and find your second year roommate or guide! There’s a list being handed to you as you go in – Sasaki-senpai?”

“Mya-chan!” Sasaki couldn’t help himself and latched onto Miyano immediately, nuzzling into his soft hair. I missed him so much.

“Senpai!?” Miyano panicked. Sasaki’s skinship wasn’t a problem normally, but there were a bunch of first years around. And something else had changed during the break as well…

“Oh, there you are.” Hanzawa suddenly popped up beside them, making the two split apart in surprise. “Here, your dorm assignment.” He handed it to Sasaki.

Sasaki’s heart sank. He wouldn’t have said it like that if he had succeeded… “Huh?”

Sasaki looked at the paper. His room did move – he was now in the room right on the other side of Hanzawa and Tashiro – but his roommate didn’t change. He and Miyano were still rooming together.

“Really?!”

“Really, now go unpack your things. Quickly.” Hanzawa nodded to Miyano before disappearing back inside.

“Mya-chan, isn’t that great?!” Sasaki wanted to pick him and swing him around in his happiness but instead he held himself back. “We’re still rooming together!”

“I know, I got here before everyone else to help Hanzawa-senpai out before the first years got here and he gave me the room assignment. I already unpacked, I’m sorry I’m not going to be there to greet you.” Miyano said sheepishly. It felt like a silly thing to be sorry about but for some reason it left a hollow feeling in his chest.

“It’s okay, you can greet me for the rest of the year.”

Just the rest of the year…?

“I’m going to go unpack, I’ll see you later!” Sasaki ruffled his hair once before happily skipping away to their room.

After things had finally settled down, Miyano collapsed onto the couch in the common room and let out a loud, exhausted sigh.

“Good work,” Kuresawa appeared with Tashiro by his side and handed Miyano a bottle of tea.

“Thanks,”

“That was way more people than I was expecting. I stepped out of the room into a sea of first years.” Tashiro said lightly as he took a seat across from Miyano.

“Hanzawa-senpai didn’t say how bad it was going to be…” Miyano groaned, lifting his arm to cover his eyes.

“Hey, is that new?” Tashiro asked, pointing at Miyano’s hand. He went stiff and moved to hide it but Kuresawa – who was right beside him – was faster and grabbed his hand, pushing his sleeve up.

“Is this…?”

“A soulmate mark?”

“I can’t read it…”

“It just appeared yesterday!” Miyano cried, pulling his hand away.

“Heh… so you got one, too.” Kuresawa said, nodding his head lightly.

“Too?” Miyano couldn’t help but ask. Kuresawa tilted his head towards Tashiro. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Tashiro held out his arm and pushed up his sleeve. The name on his wrist was still light but far more readable than the one on Miyano’s.

“… Masa…?”

“Masato. Hanzawa Masato.” Tashiro said.

“Hanzawa… wait, Hanzawa Hanzawa? That’s your soulmate?!” Miyano cried out, grabbing Tashiro’s wrist and examining it closely. “And you knew!?” He turned to Kuresawa.

“He flashed it at me this morning when we met up. I don’t think he’s trying to hide it,”

“I’m not.”

“Good because I was going to say if you are, you’re doing a terrible job of it.”

“Does Hanzawa-senpai know?”

“No,” Tashiro shook his head. “It appeared at the end of last week and I only saw Hanzawa-senpai a couple times during the break. I haven’t seen him since getting here,”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“Yeah! He may be scary when it comes to the table tennis team but I think I do like him. He helps me study and even though he’s strict, he’s really good at teaching me things on the team. Plus, he’s so pretty. I don’t think I could do better for a soulmate.”

“My girlfriend is far prettier but I do agree that Hanzawa-senpai is very stylish.” Kuresawa nodded sagely.

“What about you, Miyano? You gonna tell… whoever that is?” Tashiro asked, gesturing at Miyano’s wrist.

“I… I don’t know. It depends on who it is, I guess?” Miyano mumbled, rubbing his thumb over the name. He had hoped that it was light enough that no one would notice but now he had to make sure he covered it properly. He didn’t want Sasaki-senpai to get the wrong idea.

Wait… the wrong idea? About what? It wasn’t like Sasaki was his soulmate or that Miyano was his… right? The name on Sasaki’s wrist wasn’t his. It was someone else. Someone that he didn’t know, that he might’ve met during break–

“Miyano.” Kuresawa lightly tapped his shoulder and broke him out of his spiraling thoughts. “You good?”

“Yeah, thanks.” There was a pause. “Hey, Tashiro?”

“Mm?”

“Is it… different?”

“What is?”

“Knowing your soulmate and knowing who they are and stuff. Did it… change anything?”

“Hmm…” Tashiro paused and thought for a moment before shaking his head, “No… I don’t think so. Even if Hanzawa-senpai wasn’t my soulmate, I think I would still fall for him. That just kinda happens in these situations, right? You get treated differently from everyone else and see a different side of them that no one else does ‘cause you’re the roommate and just over time, it happens. I can’t exactly say when it started but I think I’ve liked him for a while now and then the mark appeared and his name started showing and it was like an ‘oh, this is it’ kinda thing.”

“Hm…”

“Ugh, still showing off?”

“Shirahama!”

“Did you know?” Kuresawa asked.

“He wouldn’t stop telling me about it. When he was able to read the name for real, he wouldn’t stop talking about he lucky he was. I got sick of hearing it.”

“You’re just mad ‘cause your soulmate isn’t real.”

“Oi,” Shirahama frowned at Tashiro.

“Huh?” Miyano blinked.

“This guy is only into 2D girls,” Tashiro said, tapping Shirahama.

“Really?”

“They can never betray your heart, they’re always loyal.” Shirahama said with a nod.

“H-huh…” Miyano wasn’t sure about to do with this newfound information.

“I’m back,” Miyano called out as he entered his dorm room.

“Welcome back, Mya-chan!” Sasaki grinned from his bed, where he was reading some manga Miyano had left out. The sight made Miyano’s heart squeeze.

If my soulmate is someone I know, I hope it’s Sasaki-senpai…

“Mya-chan?”

“Oh, sorry! Are you enjoying it? The manga.”

“Oh, yeah! Sorry, I know I should have asked first but I recognized the cover and realized it was a continuation so I couldn’t help myself.” Sasaki said sheepishly.

His nervous grin made Miyano’s heart squeeze again. “It’s okay, I’m glad you liked it enough to grab it like that.”

“So, did you do anything fun over the break?” Sasaki asked, marking his place carefully with a bookmark before giving Miyano his full attention.

“Oh, yeah, actually, Kuresawa took me and Tashiro out to see the stars and…”

The two of them caught up and talked about manga. Before they knew it, there was a knock on the door and Hanzawa poked his head in. “Hello, you two.”

“Oh, Hanzawa, what’s up?”

“I just came to check on you. Dinner started about twenty minutes ago and Hirano was bugging me about making sure Miyano ate today – he worked hard after all.”

“What? Whoa, it’s that late already?” Sasaki glanced at the clock in surprise. “Time really does fly when I’m with you, Mya-chan...”

“Sorry, senpai. I didn’t realize how late it was.” Miyano apologized to both of them with a bowed head.

“Don’t worry about, just come down soon, okay?” Hanzawa waved his apology away and the two of them said they would be down shortly, letting Hanzawa leave.

“I guess we should probably head down then, huh?” Sasaki said, getting up and stretching. He really hadn’t realized how long they had spent talking, his whole body was stiff.

“Yeah…”

“Mya-chan?”

“I mean, yeah! Let’s go, senpai.” Miyano couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by their alone time together ending. Was this heavy feeling because Sasaki’s name had appeared on his wrist? Wait, it’s not him! The name hasn’t even formed yet there’s no way it’s him… right?

Chapter Text

Leaving behind the slow pace of Sasaki and Miyano’s relationship, let’s move onto a more blatant one instead…

“How old do you have to be to get married?” Tashiro asked out of the blue one day as he fiddled with his phone while waiting for Kuresawa, Miyano and Shirahama to be finished with their tasks in home ec. His question caused Miyano to let go of the knife he was already struggling with and for the other two to completely pause in their own actions.

“Ow!” Shirahama cried out, quickly turning off the stove top. He had held too long onto the handle.

“Watch it,” Kuresawa responded the fastest and grabbed the knife from Miyano before he could do any real damage. “Why are you asking that, Tashiro?”

“I wanna know if I can marry Hanzawa-senpai now or if I have to wait until we graduate.” He stated simply which just made Miyano freeze up even more and Shirahama to panic more.

“... Technically speaking, if you get the parent’s permission you can get married whenever.” Kuresawa explained calmly, adjusting his glasses.

“Really?!” Tashiro cried, leaping from his chair with excitement.

“Why do you know that?” Miyano asked, a hint of apprehension and regret lining his words. He knew the answer - it was obvious, this was Kuresawa they were talking about - but he still had to know for sure.

“I looked into it when I turned 16, I had planned to ask my girlfriend for her hand but her parents said we were too young and to ask again when we turned twenty.”

“Is twenty the age without parental consent?” Shirahama couldn’t help but ask.

“No, it’s eighteen. But I’m not about to go against my in-laws' wishes.” Kuresawa said solemnly.

“Look at him, calling them his in-laws already…”

“So I can’t marry him until I’m eighteen? That’s two more years.” Tashiro groaned, sitting back down. Everyone slowly got back to what they were doing. Tashiro had gotten lucky this time around and had pulled making the salad but that meant that he didn’t have much else to do. Kuresawa and Miyano were on curry duty (Kuresawa supervised while Miyano haphazardly cut the vegetables) and Shirahama was in charge of the dessert and the rice. But that meant everyone else was busy and Tashiro’s mind was left to wonder. 

“Why do you wanna marry him anyway? You guys aren’t even dating yet… right?” Miyano asked, paleing a little at the thought. They did share a dorm wall…

“No, we aren’t.” Tashiro shook his head, “He doesn’t even know he’s my soulmate.” He said, stroking his wrist wistfully. Hanzawa’s name boldly stared up at him. Clearly staking its claim on his body.

“Wouldn’t telling him first be a good move, then?” Kuresawa asked as he checked the temperature of the water in the pot.

“I don’t know. What if I’m not his true soulmate?”

“True soulmate?” Miyano asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Oh, I know what he’s talking about. It’s that thing where if you get their name on your wrist but they don’t get yours, that just means you two are fated to be friends or something, right?”

“That’s a thing?!”

“It doesn’t happen often but there are people out there who have no interest in romance. It would be unfair if they had to be with someone romantically just because their name matches.” Kuresawa said.

“So… what would happen then?”

“Well, let’s just use this as an example.” He grabbed a carrot, a potato and an onion. “Let’s say that these three people know each other, vaguely. Carrot-kun and Potato-chan are good friends. One day, Carrot-kun wakes up and finds that Potato-chan’s name is on his wrist, but he hasn’t ever felt romantic feelings for Potato-chan. So he goes to see Potato-chan and asks. When he does, he finds that Potato-chan has Onion-kun’s name on her wrist and not his own, but her name doesn’t fade.”

“So… then what happens between Carrot-kun and Potato-chan?”

“Nothing. They remain close and good friends. Their relationship never fades and just grows stronger. A bond that can’t be broken by love… or so the story goes. Can’t say I know anyone personally who has had a soulmate’s name appear and then not have that person also have their name appear as well, though.” Kuresawa said with a shrug, putting down the vegetables. “But then again, the soulmate thing is quite rare. I think the fact that we have so many in our year alone is kind of an anomaly in and of itself.”

“I never even knew the whole soulmate thing was real until this one came to my house screaming about it,” Shirahama said, nodding in Tashiro’s direction who was still absently stroking the characters on his wrist.

“So it’s possible for you to have someone’s name on your wrist but for them to not have yours…?” Miyano asked softly, thinking of the name on Sasaki-senpai’s wrist. He had never treated him any differently, so was it possible that the name on Sasaki’s wrist wasn’t Miyano’s after all?

“Possible but highly unlikely.” Kuresawa reassured his friend.

“Man, I wanna see him…” Tashrio sighed.

“Oh, shut up.” Shirahama flicked water at him from the rice bowl.

“Then go to practice,” Kuresawa said flatly.

“No way, I don’t want to.” Tashiro said, suddenly sitting up and shaking his head.

“If you actually went to practice, senpai wouldn’t be so harsh on you know,” Miyano said.

“But if I skip practice that makes him think about me, right? It’s a win on all sides.”

“How is that a win for Hanzawa-senpai…?” Shirahama wondered but soon enough, Miyano caused a small fire somehow and panic ensued and their conversation was soon put off to the side.

Several days passed after their talk of marriage in home ec and every day got a little harder for Tashiro. It eventually got so bad that rather than stay in their shared room when school was done or on weekends, Tashiro would escape to the lounge area (typically dragging along Shirahama) and stay there until he either saw Hanzawa leave or until it was curfew. 

Hanzawa didn’t really know what to make of this sudden change in his junior either. Before the new school year had started, Tashiro had more or less been glued to his side. Sure, he had reacted slightly afraid of him at first but it had never gotten to the point where Tashiro had just so blatantly avoided him.

One day, Tashiro was sitting in the corner, simply observing his fellow dorm mates (a common pastime he’d picked up while staying in the dorms)… his eyes landing on a particular pair who were excitedly talking about something… well, at least one of them was.

Sasaki and Miyano were often found together in the lounge - if one was alone the other was sure to pop up soon after - and they would always seem to be engrossed in their own little world. Miyano would talk so excitedly and Sasaki would simply listen, the most endearing smile on his face as he did. Sometimes he would respond and every time he did, Miyano’s whole face would light up like a Christmas tree before he would start animatedly talking once again.

Eventually one of them would leave and after being alone for a bit, the other would follow. Today was no different.

After observing them for a bit, Tashiro watched as Hirano walked over (Tashiro looked around and sure enough, Kagiura was watching him like a hawk from his seat across the room with Shirahama) and said something to the two of them. Miyano panicked and Sasaki frowned and said something that made Hirano kick him. Miyano then said something to Sasaki before he and Hirano went off together, leaving Sasaki alone in their spot.

It’s now or never . Tashiro thought, quickly getting up and making his way over. If he waited too long, Sasaki was sure to return to that cold look and disappear to their room until Miyano came  back. He had to get him while he was still soft.

“Sasaki-san,” Tashiro occupied Miyano’s seat, making his senpai react in confusion. Tashiro watched the confusion flash over his features before turning cold - putting up the barrier around him. It wasn’t completely up - after all, Tashiro was Miyano’s friend.

“... what do you want?”

“I just have a question - I’ll be quick,” Sasaki narrowed his eyes but gave Tashiro a small nod, signaling that he could continue. “How do you hold yourself back?”

So… many emotions flashed across Sasaki’s face that Tashiro could only catch a few of them. Confusion, anger, fear, shock. Eventually, Sasaki settled on a blank expression.

“What?”

“Like how do you hold back, living with Miyano in the same room? I need some tips on how to hold back like you do.”

“Hold on, pause.” Sasaki held up a hand. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you have feelings for Miyano, right?” Tashiro asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sasaki’s eyes widened. Oh, that’s new .

“How do you…?”

“Oh! Don’t worry, I don't think anyone realizes it’s romantic.” Tashrio said, waving his hand but that just made Sasaki give him more of a look. “I have a hobby of observing others - and honestly, you’re, like, really obvious. Although I guess that makes Miyano a bit oblivious, but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, I just need to know how to hold back when staying in the same room as the person you like.”

Sasaki just stared at him. He wasn’t sure how to feel about… everything Tashiro had just said. So, he knew about his feelings for Miyano but he didn’t care? And what did he say? He asking for advice on how to stay in the same room as the person he liked? But wasn’t his roommate…?

“Do you like Hanzawa?” Sasaki asked bluntly. However, Tashiro was just as blunt in his response.

“Yeah,” Tashiro nodded, with no hesitation. “He’s my soulmate.”

“Soul… like…?” Sasaki tapped his wrist and Tashiro nodded, bringing up his arm and pulling his sweatband up so Sasaki could see the name on wrist. Clear as day, Hanzawa Masato was embedded into his skin. “Whoa.”

“I mean, I’d like him anyway but yeah.” Tashiro put the sweatband back to cover it. “So, what am I gonna do?”

“Well… I don’t know how to help you with the soulmate thing-”

“Oh, that’s not a problem. I just need to know how to handle being in the same room as him. It gets really… difficult, ya know? He’s just so… so… defenseless? Like, he doesn’t even think of me as anything more than his junior he shares a room with,”

“Hmm…” Sasaki pondered. He understood why Hanzawa was like that - he treated his juniors like equals and sure, even though Tashiro was his roommate, he was still one of his juniors. And it wasn’t like Hanzawa knew Tashiro was his soulmate (or rather, that Tashiro had his name on his wrist). Sasaki was pretty sure he would have said something otherwise. “I don’t think I really have any advice for you,”

“Seriously?”

“Well, it’s not like I do anything in particular. I just kinda work on instinct, I guess? If I don’t think he’ll like something I just don’t do it.”

“That’s… really useless advice.”

Sasaki shrugged, “I just try my best not to touch him.”

“You touch him all the time!”

“Touch him too much. There’s a balance.”

Tashiro frowned. That certainly didn’t seem to be the case last year, when Sasaki would quite literally hold Miyano in his lap in the middle of the lounge.

“All the advice I can give you is to basically just act like nothing's bothering you. The weirder you act, the more suspicious you’re gonna make Hanzawa - and that guy is like super observant. If you don’t want him finding out that your his soulmate or whatever, just act like everything is normal.”

“I just said I can’t do that…!”

While Sasaki attempted to advise Tashiro on his issues, little did the two know that from across the room, Hanzawa was watching their every little interaction and movement, silently brooding so much, the other dorm kids were actively avoiding his presence.

 A while later, Tashrio returned to his room, utterly defeated. Talking to Sasaki hadn’t really helped much and when Miyano had returned, the conversation became completely useless.

Never touches him… what a lie! The second Miyano got there he wouldn’t stop grabbing his hand…

“Ahem,”

“Ah!” Tashiro jumped and looked up to see Hanzawa sitting at his desk, his cheek resting on his hand as he watched the door. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t think you were here - oh, I’m back,”

“You seemed to be having fun earlier.” Hanzawa said, his tone icy.

“Huh?” Tashiro paused. What did he mean by that? “You mean at practice…?”

Hanzawa scoffed, “Okay. Fine. That’s fine.” Hanzawa turned back to his desk, putting his headphones on.

“Wha - hey!” Tashiro threw his stuff on his bed and marched over to Hanzawa, grabbing his wrist and stopping him from putting his other headphone in. “What is with you?”

“Me? You were the one getting all chummy with Sasaki in the lounge just now.”

Tashiro was taken aback, “I - that -”

“First, you avoid me for days on end, and next thing I know you’re getting all cozy with another guy.”

“Ok first off, don’t put it like that, I was just getting some advice. Second of all, why does it matter?”

“You used to come to me first for everything!”

“I-” Tashiro paused. He hadn’t let go of Hanzawa’s wrist yet. He glanced down and saw some faint markings… “How long have you had this?”

Hanzawa gasped and jerked his hand back. Tashiro was surprised and looked down at his hand. There was substance left on his fingertips. He rubbed them together. Makeup?

“Senpai… what is that?”

“It’s none of your concern.” Hanzawa said, holding his hand over his wrist, covering what was there.

No, I think it really is .

“Is it a soulmate mark?” Tashiro asked. He didn’t move towards him to check again - he had felt like he had crossed a line before and didn’t want to risk making Hanzawa hate him.

Hanzawa didn’t say anything.

“Does it happen to be a name I know?” Tashiro asked again, slightly tilting his head. He watched Hanzawa squeeze his wrist a bit.

“Does the name belong to a first year? A second year?”

“Stop asking,”

“I need to know.”

“Why?!”

“ ‘Cause you’re mine and I need to know if it’s because I love you or if it just means I’ll never be able to be your partner!”

Chapter Text

“Wha-?”

“See?” Tashiro showed Hanzawa his wrist. If anything, his name was now even darker on his skin.

“Not that. The love part…?”

“Oh,” Crap . That had just slipped out in the heat of the moment. Well, it wasn’t like he could take it back now. “Yes.”

“Since when?”

“Does it matter?”

“Before the mark showed up, or after?”

“Before. Almost immediately after we met, actually,” Tashiro said with a sigh, sitting at his desk behind Hanzawa. His senpai spun around in his chair to face him. “I thought you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen - I couldn’t believe we got to share a room together. And over the course of that first year, yeah. I fell in love with you,” Tashiro’s thumb gently stroked over the characters on his wrist. “These showed up over spring break. At first, I wasn’t even sure it was going to be you but as they got darker it got clearer and…” Tashiro sighed. “I’m sorry, senpai.”

“Why?”

“For getting so heated, just now. I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that or yelled at you. You have your reasons for hiding what’s on your wrist - I should have just accepted that and moved on. But it’s hard, ya know? With you.”

“Hmm…” Hanzawa hummed lightly in response before getting up and moving to his bed. Tashiro watched him go and once their eyes met again, Hanzawa smiled and patted the spot next to him. Ever the obedient puppy, Tashiro hopped up from his seat and took his place next to him. “Would you mind elaborating on that a bit?”

“Eh?” Tashiro blinked. He hadn’t expected that to be his response.

 “Um, well… it’s like. It’s hard to hold back with you. When I see you talking to other people it’s like this feeling just wells up in me like Get away, he’s mine! Or Why isn’t he looking at me? That kinda feeling. It makes me want to ignore all your feelings and just grab you and make you look at me.” Tashiro just let the words spill out. He figured if he was going to say them, now was the time anyway.

“A bit possessive, no?”

“I know,” Tashiro hung his head. “It’s just gotten worse over time and I was worried that if I was alone with you I’d just snap and do something that would hurt you… and the last thing I want to do is hurt the person I love.”

“... there’s that word again…”

“Hm?”

“Is that why you’ve been so blatantly avoiding me?”

Tashrio flinched a little, “... yeah,”

“Tashiro, look at me.” Hanzawa gently grabbed Tashiro’s face in his hands and made him look at him. “I believe that you would never hurt anyone on purpose. Myself included.”

“ On purpose is the key word there, senpai.” Tashiro couldn’t help but lean into his touch while closing his eyes, holding his other hand to his cheek while he did so.

“Do you really think you’d hurt me, though?” Hanzawa asked. Tashiro opened his eyes and caught a good glimpse of the characters on Hanzawa’s wrist. Most of the name hadn’t formed, only the first and last (judging by the space between them) characters were on his wrist. And with just that to go by, who knew if it was really his name? But the two characters were part of his name…

Tashiro only glanced at the name though before meeting his senpai’s eyes. Normally, Hanzawa was all smiles and you couldn’t really see his eyes that well (Ogasawara tended to call him that fox faced demon for a reason, after all) but right now, he was looking at Tashiro and only at him.

“Never.”

Hanzawa smiled, this smile different from all the other smiles and it truly reaching his eyes - softening his face making him look a thousand times cuter than Tashiro could ever believe. He gently bumped his forehead against Tashiro’s, “Then stop avoiding me, okay?”

Being so close to him like this was making his heart feel like it was leaping out of chest but he silently nodded his head. For a moment, the two stayed like that - Hanzawa holding Tashiro’s cheeks with his forehead against his and Tashiro holding onto his hand. All Tashiro could think of was how close he was and how much he wanted to…

“Senpai…” Tashiro brought both his hands up and grabbed Hanzawa’s hands, slowly leaning forward, hoping to close the small distance between them before he had a chance to think it through-

“Oi, are you guys coming out for dinner or what?” Ogasawara’s voice was followed by his pounding knocks, making them both freeze in position.

Hanzawa let out a little shaky breath and gave Tashiro’s cheek a final squeeze before letting go and hopping off the bed, “Shall we?”

Tashiro groaned into the table and his friends all gave him a weary look. Hanzawa and Tashiro had come down together but the moment they entered, Hanzawa was surrounded and quickly whisked away. Right now, he was sitting with the other senpais while Tashiro sat with his classmates.

“So, how’d it go?” Shirahama asked, half joking, half serious. Tashiro just groaned.

“What happened?” Miyano asked.

“I may or may not have confessed that I was in love with Hanzawa-senpai,” Tashiro said, his voice muffled by the table.

“Wha-!?”

“Why is it maybe?” Kuresawa asked.

“It’s not maybe.” Tashiro said, sitting up and leaning his head against his hand. “I did tell him, I just… wish I hadn’t.”

“Why? He reject you?” Shirahama teased which got him a swift kick to the shin under the table.

“Tashiro,” Miyano got him to look at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Tashiro paused. Did he want to talk about it? They were all understanding - Kuresawa was indifferent due to the only thing in his life that cared about being his girlfriend, Shirahama was an old friend and Miyano… well, while BL might have been what was on his brain most of the time, it seemed like he was asking out of genuine concern.

“I think… I think I’m okay for now. I talked a little bit with Sasaki-senpai and I guess it helped?”

“You talked with Sasaki-senpai?” Miyano repeated.

“Yeah, just for a bit, earlier when you left with Hirano-senpai,”

“You guys know in the dorms we’re supposed to use -san, right?” Kuresawa spoke up. Tashiro frowned.

“I don’t want to. They’re our senpai,”

“They did say it was to teach us how to be more adult,” Shirahama pointed out.

“It’s not like they’re here to hear us say it so I think it’s fine.”

“What about?” Miyano asked, getting them back to the topic on hand.

“Oh just about-” Tashiro caught himself. He knew Sasaki had feelings for Miyano but it didn’t seem like Miyano knew about them. And Miyano knew Sasaki was his soulmate but that didn’t mean that he was in love with him. The last thing Tashiro wanted was to somehow force Miyano into thinking he was in love with Sasaki, so maybe keeping his mouth shut was the best idea.

“Tashiro?”

Tashrio shook his head, “Nope. Sorry, promised I wouldn’t say anything about what we talked about.”

“Oh…” Miyano deflated. Tashiro felt a little bad, seeing his friend look so down but honestly, the two of them should have a proper talk about their relationship and feelings… not that he was one to say anything though.

“Anyway, Shirahama, how is it going with your roomie?”

“Hm? You mean Niibashi?”

“Yeah,”

“Fine..” Shirahama narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

Tashiro shrugged, “No real reason. He just seems like your type, is all.”

“Wha-”

“Really?!” Miyano immediately perked up. “You have feelings for your roommate? The short one with the pink hair and girlish face - more than mine?”

“I don’t - Miyano, chill!” Shirahama shot an ugly look to Tashiro but his friend was staring wistfully across the dining hall at his roommate, daydreaming about how to make another situation where he could fully kiss him and not be interrupted like last time…

Meanwhile, Hanzawa let out a sigh and picked at his food.

“What’s up with you guys?” Hirano finally asked after watching both Hanzawa and Sasaki just push their food around on their plates. At least Hanzawa took a bite every now and then.

“Nothing,” The two sighed in unison.

“You’re freaking me out. Stop it,” Ogasawara said with a look on his face that showed his disdain. “You’re looking at something… oh,” Ogasawara spun around in his seat and followed their gazes, seeing that they landed on the table with Miyano and the others. “The fundashi,”

“His name is Miyano.” Sasaki corrected quickly and sternly.

“Right. And his friends. Your roommates with the little chick one right?” Ogasawara directed his question to Hanzawa.

“Chick?”

“The blonde with the green parka.” 

“Oh,” Hanzawa sighed and nodded, “Yeah.”

“Why’s that got you upset? You two fight or somethin’?”

Hanzawa shook his head, “No, nothing like that. Hirano, what about you? How are things going with Kagiura?”

“Hm? The same as it always is, I guess. He keeps insisting he’s my soulmate.”

“You too!?” Ogasawara couldn’t help but exclaim. Earlier in the day, Hanzawa had shown them that he was getting the soulmate marking and everyone knew about Sasaki’s already. It was starting to get out of hand.

“No, not me. I don’t have any sort of marking on my wrist. See?” Hirano showed off his wrists. They were bare, not a single inkling of a character showing.

“Oh, good.” Ogasawara couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“But Kagiura is saying otherwise?”

“He won’t show it to me but he says it’s there.”

“Do you think he’s just writing it on his wrist in like a sharpie or something?” Sasaki asked, briefly looking away from Miyano to look at Hirano

“The thought has crossed my mind,”

“You don’t really think he’d lie about that do you?” Hanzawa asked.

Hirano shrugged, “I don’t know. He seems pretty desperate for it to be true.”

“Does he have a fiancee or something he doesn’t wanna marry? Why is he so desperate?”

“I think it’s slightly my fault. When we first started rooming together, I made an offhand comment about how if I were to marry someone, I would want them to be like Kagi-kun.”

“Oh, how could he possibly misunderstand that?” Sasaki asked, sarcastically.

“Did you mean that?” Hanzawa asked, ignoring Sasaki’s tone.

“I meant like… someone who gave it their all. Not literally Kagi-kun.”

“... you gotta admit, you do baby him.” Ogasawara pointed out. Sasaki and Hanzawa nodded in agreement.

“I do not!”

“When you eat together, you eat his peppers.” Sasaki stated.

“So? I like them and he doesn’t, it’s a fair trade.”

“Don’t you also tutor him?” Hanzawa asked.

“If I don’t, he could be kicked off the team.”

“You wake him up, too, don’t you?” Ogasawara said. “We share a wall, I can hear you trying to wake him up. He sleeps like the dead.”

“You wake him up?” Hanzawa repeated, shocked.

“You can hear that? Sorry, we’ll try to keep it down.” Hirano apologized and Ogasawara waved it away.

“If you ask me, it’s no wonder the kid fell in love. If a girl did all that for me, I would be asking her to marry me on the spot.” Ogasawara said.

“I’m telling your girlfriend you said that.” Sasaki said.

“Please don’t.”

“So what? Wait, why am I the one being questioned, this started with you two acting weird!”

Sasaki sighed while Hanzawa just smiled, his eyes only drifting back towards that table. They seemed to be having a lively discussion now. 

Hanzawa softly brushed his fingers against his lips. Earlier, before Ogasawara had knocked on their door, they had come so close…

“Hanzawa!” Hirano’s yell brought him back.

“Hm?”

“What is up with you, seriously?”

“Oh… nothing,” Hanzawa glanced at the table again and for the briefest of moments, it seemed like their eyes met before Tashiro looked away. “Nothing at all…”

Chapter Text

Hanzawa and Tashiro seemed to be in a stalemate. Everything was normal in the morning and during school and even once they got back to their dorm but during the hours after dinner and before lights out things got… intense.

They wouldn’t really talk during that time. Just kind of sit near each other. Tashiro was worried that if he said something, it would cause a chain reaction and he would somehow end up jumping his senpai.

On the other hand, Hanzawa was just waiting to be jumped. He had thought over the last week or so about how he felt and the conclusion he came to each time was that he, indeed, did have romantic feelings for Tashiro. But he also thought it was too late to tell him so and had decided that just telling him with his body was the best course of action (Hanzawa was very smart when it came to academics and most personal relationships but when it came to his own romantic ones, he got a bit… dull).

The only problem was, he wasn’t sure when or how to do that. But the opportunity came out of nowhere one day, just before the weekend started.

“Hey, Tashiro, what are you going to do?” Miyano and Sasaki came up to the table where Tashiro and Hanzawa were sitting together in the dining hall.

“Hm?”  Tashiro raised his head, slurping noodles from his ramen set.

“About a place to stay?”

He gave Miyano a blank look. “Huh?”

“Oh!” Hanzawa let out a small gasp and covered his mouth with his hands, making the three other boys look at him. “I forgot to tell him…”

“Wait, tell me what? What’s going on?”

“They’re doing some emergency renovations in the dorms,” Sasaki explained. “They’re kicking us out to do it.”

“What?!”

“The school is closing too, since so many people are probably not going to be able to commute between their houses and the school. It’s only for a few days but we aren’t going to have a place to stay so…”

“What about you? Where are you going, Miyano?”

He gestured to his senpai beside him, “Sasaki-senpai offered to let me stay at his place since it’s nearby. My parents are out of town for work and no one is at the house. What about you?”

“My brothers aren’t home and my parents are working overseas… plus we live super far, like four to five stations away… what am I going to do?” Tashiro groaned, letting his head fall into his hands.

“Well… if you don’t mind, Tashiro-kun, you can always stay with me.” Hanzawa offered.

“Eh?”

“Huh??”

“It is my fault for not telling you. I was aware of the situation and it just… slipped my mind, with everything else I had to take care of. I should have told you as soon as it became apparent.”

Formal speech… he must feel really bad about all this . Tashiro couldn’t help but think.

“What exactly happened anyway? Hirnao said they had to do some emergency renovations but he didn’t explain exactly what that meant.” Sasaki asked Hanzawa.

“Well… it all kind of happened all at once.” Hanzawa said with a small smile, “One of the pipes burst in the bathroom on the first floor and that caused a train reaction in all the bathrooms on every floor. It also caused a problem with the water in the kitchen. It’s been quite the predicament for the dorm head and I.”

“Is that why you haven’t been in the room as often?” Tashiro asked, everything suddenly clicking together. He had assumed Hanzawa was just getting back at him for how he treated him before.

“Yes. We’ve contacted all the families and explained the situation and we’ve found places that are willing to take in the handful of students that can’t return to their homes at all, for various reasons… even then, while the renovations are only supposed to take a few days - who knows if that’s true so we’ve also had to come up with emergency accommodations for when everyone comes back just in case the dorms are closed but the school reopens.” Hanzawa kept his smile on but his eyebrow twitch gave him away.

“Oh…” Miyano couldn’t help but let out a small noise. He had been helping out at school with making sure that the students and faculty knew the school was closing for a few days as part of his disciplinary committee duties but hadn’t known anything about what was going on in the dorm. Hirano and Hanzawa had told him not to worry about it and to focus on the school instead.

“Well, I guess it’s fine if I stay with you then, senpai.” Tashiro said with a shrug. “Although I might just be adding to your problems.”

“Any problems you add are welcome.” Hanzawa said, his smile losing a hint of his annoyance. Sasaki and Miyano couldn’t help but share a look. Was this really going to be okay?

“I’m home,” Hanzawa called out once they arrived.

“P- pardon the intrusion!” Tashiro echoed, his voice cracking halfway through. He saw Hanzawa double over and shake with laughter out of the corner of his eye and felt his face turn red.

It was then that the two noticed that they hadn’t been greeted yet.

“Strange…”

“Hm?”

Hanzawa put his stuff down and took off his shoes, going deeper into the house (and gesturing for Tashiro to follow him). The pair entered the kitchen where a neatly written note was left on the fridge.

Hanzawa grabbed it and began to read with Tashiro peering over his shoulder.

Dear Maa-kun, (Maa-kun?)

Mom and Dad said that Uncle is in the hospital again - he’s fine but he rebroke his leg somehow - Masako and Masaki said they were each staying at a friend's house tonight. I’m going drinking with my circle and might be back late but dinner is in the fridge for you and your junior. Mom also said she left some money on the dining table just in case. 

See you in the morning,

Masaomi nii-chan

“... Maa-kun,” Tashiro couldn’t help but repeat the nickname causing his senior to quickly crumple up the note and take a step back.

“Don’t-”

“Maa-kun,”

Hanzawa quickly clapped his hands over Tashiro's mouth, “Forget what you read.” He said, his trademark smile not reaching his eyes. Tashiro’s eyes went wide and he nodded desperately. “Good,”

Hanzawa let him go and Tashiro couldn’t help but rub his cheeks from where he had grabbed him, “Now, follow me.”

The pair went back to the living room area, where Hanzawa sat on the couch. Tashiro froze in the doorway. It suddenly hit him. He was alone. With the person he loved - his soulmate - in a house where no one could interrupt them.

“Tashiro?”

“Yes!” His voice cracked.

Hanzawa bit back a smile and patted the spot next to him, “Join me?”

“Okay!” Tashiro’s voice cracked again and he robotically moved towards the couch and sat down. Hanzawa doubled over in laughter watching him.

“Why are you so stiff?” He asked after recovering, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“It’s just - we - you…” Tashiro sighed and ran a hand through his hair, letting it out of the updo he always had it in and shaking it out, “You know I confessed to you, right?”

“Yes,”

“And that you’re my soulmate, right?”

“... yes,”

“And that we’re alone, in this huge house, together. With no one coming until tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“How are you so calm?!” Tashiro cried, ruffling his hair and lowering his head. “It was hard enough at the dorm but this is killing me…”

“Tashiro-kun,”

“What? Whoa…” At some point while he wasn’t looking, Hanzawa had gotten up and basically straddled his lap, his arms on either side of Tashiro’s head, blocking him in on the couch. His body moved without him thinking, grabbing Hanzawa by the waist to… make sure he didn’t move? He wasn’t sure but he did it anyway.

“Do you really think I would invite just any of my juniors to my home, to stay, just because I forgot to tell them something and they ended up with nowhere else to go?” Hanzawa asked. “There were several other students - both on the table tennis team and on the disciplinary committee - that needed a place to stay but I didn’t offer it to them. Do you know why?”

“Uh…”

“Because…” Hanzawa slowly sunk down so he was in Tashiro’s lap, his hands sliding from the back of the couch to cup Tashiro’s face gently. He was leaning so close that Tashiro could feel his breath on his lips. “They aren’t the ones I’m in love with.”

The next few seconds were a blur. Their lips met in desperation. Tashiro used his grip on his senpai’s waist to pull him closer and Hanzawa did the same, tangling his hands in Tashiro’s hair and kissing him harder. 

When Hanzawa began to grind his hips into his lap and sweep his tongue across his lips, Tashiro pulled back with a gasp.

“Wait-”

“Wha-”

“Before anything.” Tashiro gasped out. His heart was pounding in his chest. His mind was melting and his face felt like it was on fire. “I need to know - need to hear - that you are okay with everything.” Tashiro squeezed his waist as he brought his face to his senpai’s shoulder. “I’m not going to do anything you don’t like, Han… Masato-san.”

Hanzawa’s heart melted. He grabbed his face again and began to pepper it with kisses as he spoke his response, “I’m okay with anything you want to do to me… Gon-kun.”

That was all the consent Tashiro needed. He caught his lips once more and threw him onto the couch below him, letting his hands roam under his senpai’s clothes as their tongues intertwined and his senpai’s voice changed from giggles to breathless gasps and moans. All the pent up feelings from the last few weeks - months, actually - were finally breaking free in the only way teenage boys knew how.

Meanwhile, Sasaki was fighting demons of his own as he waited for Miyano to exit the bath. He hadn’t really thought ahead when inviting him over. He was in love with Miyano, plain and simple, but he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Talking to Tashiro had helped put some of it into perspective but the important part - the whole soulmate thing - still had a chance of throwing everything into chaos.

Speaking of, Miyano still hadn’t returned. Based on how quickly he would return from the baths at the dorm, he should have been back by now…. A feeling of dread quickly filled Sasaki’s stomach. He quickly left his room and headed downstairs to the bathroom but paused when he heard laughter coming from the kitchen.

Out of pure curiosity, he turned and poked his head in.

“Myaa-chan?”

“Oh, senpai! Sorry, I was headed back to your room after getting out of the bath but your sister saw me and…” Miyano trailed off.

“He’s helping us prepare your lunch for tomorrow.” Satoko teased her brother.

“... Really?” He gave Miyano a look. Sasaki knew Miyano’s… talents in the kitchen well. Once he tried to help Hanzawa in the dining hall and got kicked out in thirty seconds. Neither of them ever explained what happened that day. 

Miyano blushed and quickly shook his head, lifting his hands in defense “N- no! I was just observing!”

“Hmm…” Sasaki hummed and narrowed his eyes. Something was going on but it didn’t seem like Miyano was going to get hurt so he decided to let it slide, so he shrugged and turned to the fridge to get them some drinks.

While his back was turned, Satoko noticed the dark mark on Miyano’s wrist as he lowered his hands. Before Sasaki could turn around again, Satoko gently pulled on Miyano’s sleeve and gestured silently at her own wrist - asking for permission to see Miyano’s.

Miyano panicked. The one person who shouldn’t see his wrist was the sister of the person whose name was on his wrist. But unable to fight, he just kind of gave up and lifted the sleeve just enough for her to see. Her eyes went wide and she made a noise that made Sasaki spin around.

“What happened?”

“Hm?” Satoko was sitting straight up and Miyano was bright red, his head buried in his hands.

Sasaki glared at his sister, “What did you do?”

“Nothing! I swear! Oh, is that the time? Mom, I’m going to the conbini real quick to get some… some snacks!” Satoko quickly dashed out of the house before Sasaki or their mother had a chance to comment on it.

“What was that about…?” Sasaki’s mother mused.

“Who knows. C’mon, Myaa-chan,” Sasaki grabbed the two waters he had gotten from the fridge, took Miyano by the hand and the two went back to his room.

“Sorry about that, Myaa-chan. I hope my sister didn’t freak you out too much…” Sasaki said with a small sigh as he handed over a water bottle.

“No, it’s fine! Really. Before you came down we were talking about your…” Miyano trailed off as he looked around the room. He had only briefly had a chance before, as Sasaki had quickly shooed him out once his sister got home. And his eyes narrowed in on a singular book that was laying on top of some CDs on his shelf. “What’s this…?” He asked, as he walked towards it and picked it up.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I bought that.”

“You bought…” It was a manga. A BL manga. That Miyano had introduced to him last year.

“Yeah. It was really good, I liked what I read before and couldn’t wait so when I saw it on the shelf I bought it.”

“You don’t… have a lot of manga, do you?” Miyano asked as he looked around. This was the only manga he could see on any shelf.

“Nah, I don’t read much.”

“But you bought this one.”

“Well yeah,”

“... ank you…”

“Hm?” Sasaki got closer, not quite able to hear him.

“Thank you!” Miyano suddenly lifted his head, his whole face bright with his smile. It literally knocked the breath out of him. Without thinking, he grabbed Miyano and pulled him into his embrace. At the same time, he heard the door to his room click open.

“Shuu, I’m back. I brought pudding for-” Sasaki reacted before thinking and slammed the door on his sister, not letting go of Miyano and putting his whole body weight on the door so she couldn’t open it. “Hey!”

“Sorry,” Sasaki didn’t know who he was apologizing to. His sister or Miyano.

“Well… whatever, it’s in the fridge.” Satoko said with a slight knock on his door, signaling that she was leaving.

“Senpai?” Miyano could hear his heart pounding. Was that Sasaki’s heart? Or was it his own? He couldn’t be sure.

“Sorry…” Sasaki repeated again, squeezing Miyano. He didn’t want anyone to ever see that expression on his face. That was a smile that needed to be for him alone.

“Senpai.” Miyano said, more firmly. He gave Sasaki a small squeeze.

“Oh!” Sasaki quickly let Miyano go, but he didn’t push him away. He didn’t want to use too much force with him. So Miyano had to be the one that stepped away.

But Miyano didn’t step away.

“Are you okay, senpai?” He asked, looking directly into his eyes. It made his heart melt on the spot.

“Oh…” Sasaki let out a soft sigh and gently brushed Miyano’s hair back, running his fingers through it. He had just taken a bath so it was extra soft to the touch. His fingers trailed from his hair to his ears and then down to his neck before dropping. He slowly slid against the door until he was on the floor.

“Senpai?!” Miyano joined him, a look of concern on his face.

Sasaki let his fingers wander until they reached his hand. With his index finger, he lightly touched his hand and slowly brought his eyes to Miyano’s.

It hit him. All at once. And the words spilled from his lips before he had a chance to think twice.

“I love you, Miyano.”

Chapter Text

Miyano could hardly believe his ears. Had he just heard what he thought he heard?

“Huh?”

“I’m in love with you, Miyano.” Sasaki repeated, with more conviction this time.

“You… are?” Miyano fell back. He looked at his hand. At some point, their fingers had intertwined. “But, you… your soulmate-”

“It doesn’t matter. I love you ,” Sasaki squeezed his hand. “I don’t care what fate or whatever says. The one I’m in love with, have been in love with, is you.”

“Senpai… I…” Miyano’s mind was spinning. How was this possible? Yes, Sasaki was his soulmate (it was confirmed now… as of earlier that day in fact) but Sasaki had never made any sort of motion after the past year that Miyano was in turn his. So did that mean something was wrong? Would they break up if Sasaki’s soulmate did appear? Wait! They aren’t even dating! Did Miyano want to date him? Actually that was obvious, of course he did… didn’t he?

“Myaa-chan?” Sasaki squeezed his hand, getting his attention again. “You okay?”

“Senpai… I… I’m not… Can I think about it?”

“Of course.” Sasaki answered without hesitation which kind of surprised Miyano. “I don’t want you to rush into anything and end up regretting it. Take all the time you need.” With another squeeze to his hand, Sasaki stood up and dusted himself off before offering a hand to Miyano.

“Thanks…”

“Hey, my sister said she brought home pudding. I know you don’t eat sweet stuff but I can make you something if you want.”

“Oh that’s not-”

“Nope, I’m gonna do it. Wait here, it’ll only take a second.” Sasaki smiled at him and left Miyano alone in his room.

Miyano stumbled to his bed, falling back on it and staring at the ceiling.

I need advice . Miyano immediately pulled out his phone and dialed the first person he thought would give him good advice for this - Hanzawa-senpai. But the phone rang and rang without an answer. Weird. Next he tried Tashiro, after all he was staying at Hanzawa-senpai’s house, maybe he knew why Hanzawa-senpai wasn’t answering his phone. But the same thing happened there.

With a frown he dialed Kuresawa, who picked up after the first couple rings.

“Hello?”

“Oh, you answered.”

“Why do you sound surprised?”

“I tried calling Tashiro and he didn’t answer. Neither did Hanzawa-senpai.”

“Really? Well, Tashiro not answering makes sense - he never has his phone when he should - but senpai not answering is strange. Why were you calling him anyway?”

“I needed some advice and didn’t know who else to turn to.”

“I can help ,”

“I know but Hanzawa-senpai just seems so… mature. Like he has a lot of experience.”

“ Experience, huh? ” Kuresawa mused. “So, what happened?”

“Well…” Miyano told Kuresawa a shortened version of what had just transpired and his worries that came with it.

“Huh… so it did end up being senpai after all… ”

“Not the time, Kuresawa.

“ Sorry. Just funny. That your soulmate is your roommate and Tashiro’s ended up being Hanzawa.”

“What, you think Ogasawara is yours?”

“No way. My girlfriend is my other half, in every sense of the word .”

Right. “So, what do I do?”

“ Well, do you like him?”

“I don’t know…”

“Miyano, I think you do.”

“Fine!” Miyano sighed and pulled at his hair. “I do. But I’m not his soulmate.”

“So?”

“That’s just it! I’m not his soulmate. That means his soulmate is somewhere out there and if they meet, he’ll just…” Miyano couldn’t finish.

“Do you really think he would? Miyano, I know he just confessed to you but he wears how much he loves you on his sleeve. If anyone gets close to you, he freaks out and gets super possessive and scary.”

“He does not.”

“Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not true. And why would he show you that side of him? It’d just scare you.”

“Nothing he can do would scare me…”

“Miyano… I think you just got your answer.”

Sasaki sighed and bumped his head against the fridge door, looking down at his wrist and rubbing his thumb over the name there. 

He had confessed. He had confessed his feelings to Miyano . He had gone against fate and chosen Miyano over his soulmate.

“Hey - whoa, what’s that?” Satoko appeared and grabbed Sasaki’s hand before he hand a chance to respond. “A soulmate mark? Wait… isn’t that Miyano?”

“Don’t touch me,” Sasaki gently pulled away from his sister. “And it’s not Miyano. It’s someone with the same last name but it’s not him.”

“Yes, it is. It’s written the same way.”

“What? How do you even know that?”

“I asked? He said his given name is Yoshikazu but people misread it all the time because of the characters it’s written with. Most people read it as Yumi.”

“... What?”

“C’mon, know your junior a little better than that, Shuu. Oh wait, or should I say soulmate…?” Satoko mused, grabbing her pudding out of the fridge and heading back to her room. It hadn’t quite hit her about what being soulmates meant.

“No… no, no, no.” Sasaki pulled out his phone and immediately dialed Hanzawa. It rang and rang but he never picked up. He hung up and dialed again. And again. “C’mon Hanzawa…”

Finally, he answered.

“Yes?”

“Wha - why do you sound so out of breath? Were you running?”

“Something of the sort, yes. What do you want, Sasaki?”

“How does Miyano write his name?”

“What?”

“His given name. The characters.”

“Why?”

“In the dorm - it’s written in hiragana. What are the kanji characters?”

“It’s written with the characters for ‘reason’ and ‘beautiful.’”

“How is it read?”

“Sasaki-”

“How. Is. It. Read?”

“Yoshikazu.”

“An alternate reading.”

“Yumi.”

Sasaki felt like a cold bucket of water had been poured over him. All this time… all this time… all this time. His soulmate had been right in front of him! From the very beginning.

“Hey, Sasa-” Sasaki dropped his phone and went running upstairs without listening to what Hanzawa was saying.

“Myaa-chan!” Sasaki burst into his room, causing Miyano to nearly jump out of skin. He sat bolt straight on Sasaki’s bed.

“S- s- senpai?!”

Before he could think, Sasaki dove right at him, tackling him onto the bed and holding him close. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Miyano sounded slightly panicked.

“I’m more than okay.” Sasaki laughed, letting him go and stroking his cheek. “You’re my soulmate.”

“... huh?”

“The name on my wrist. It’s you, Myaa-chan.” Sasaki said, gently bumping his forehead against Miyano’s and brushing back his hair. “It’s always been you…”

“But then… that means…” Miyano gasped and sat up, looking at his own wrist. Sasaki also sat up and held up his marked wrist next to his - seeing his name for the first time on Miyano’s wrist. Neither of them had noticed, but the names weren’t black like they had been when they first appeared. They were red… just like fate’s string.

Miyano could hardly believe his eyes. Sasaki slowly reached out, gently hooking his thumb with Miyano’s - testing the waters. When Miyano didn’t pull away, he continued to slowly intertwine their fingers until they had their hands clasped together.

Sasaki gently rubbed his thumb against the back of Miyano’s hand and slowly brought it up to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to that spot.

Miyano felt his breath catch in his throat at the soft, gentle expression on his senpai’s face. That expression that he only ever wore in front of him… the expression that was for Miyano and Miyano alone.

“Senpai…” Miyano reached out with his free hand and gently cupped Sasaki’s cheek with trembling fingers. Sasaki leaned into his touch, nuzzling into his hand before mimicking the movement and cupping Miyano’s cheek with his free hand, rubbing his thumb along his cheek.

Sasaki’s eyes moved from Miyano’s own gaze and down to his lips, asking without asking. Slowly, Miyano leaned forward, initiating the movement, and Sasaki met him halfway, their lips meeting in the softest possible way.

It felt like forever but all too soon, Sasaki was pulling away, resting his head on Miyano’s shoulder and holding him tightly. He nuzzled in and Miyano did the same, gripping onto his senpai’s clothes.

Somehow, some way, fate had brought the two of them together at this very moment and finally - finally - everything felt complete.

“Oh! Wait, senpai!” Miyano jerked away from Sasaki, making him get a bewildered look on his face.

“Huh?” Sasaki blinked at him like a cat.

“I love you, too! Please go out with me!”

It took a moment for his words to process in Sasaki’s blissed out mind, but process soon they did and he burst into laughter so hard it made him cough. “Senpai?!”

“Gladly.” Sasaki grinned at Miyano, making his junior’s heart skip a beat. “Take care of me, Myaa-chan.”

Miyano couldn’t help but grin back, “I will!”

Sasaki kissed him once more and the two fell back into the bed, soon falling asleep soundly in each other’s arms.

Meanwhile, Hanzawa and Tashiro’s story was also reaching its end…

“Hey, Sasa-” Hanzawa pulled the phone away from his ear as he heard it clatter to the ground. “Hello?” There was the sound of thumping footsteps and then silence. With a frown, Hanzawa hung up the phone. He glanced over at Tashiro. His hair was a mess and his shirt was half on, hanging around his neck like a stylish scarf. He was sitting patiently beside Hanzawa, twiddling his thumbs.

Hanzawa couldn’t help but laugh. The call from Sasaki had cooled things down a bit and brought him back to his senses. There was no way they could go all the way tonight - after all, they had just confirmed their feelings for each other and it took a lot of prep work for things to work out between two men. Hanzawa had gotten curious and asked his elder brother about what went into it once and they weren’t ready for that yet.

“Masato-san?” Tashiro looked over at him at the sound of his laugh.

“You’re adorable,” Hanzawa laughed again and leaned over to kiss his forehead.

“What was that about?”

“I think those two are finally taking a step forward.”

“And…”

“And we,” Hanzawa sat next to Tashiro and leaned against his shoulder, “Have gone as far as we can, I think.”

“Oh,”

“Just for tonight though. In the future, it’ll be okay. But for now,” Hanzawa took Tashiro’s hand and intertwined their fingers. “This is enough.”

“Okay,” Tashiro nodded and leaned his head against Hanzawa. At some point in the past few months, he had gotten to be the taller of the two. He squeezed his hand back, “Okay.”

They sat like that for a moment, just basking in each other's warmth. Tashiro was playing with Hanzawa’s hand and slowly turned around. The mark on his wrist was darker now and fully formed…

“Say, Masato-san… does this say…?”

“Hm?” Hanzawa looked down at his wrist as well and felt all the breath leave his body.

Tashiro Gonzaburou was carefully scripted across his wrist. They both just stared at it for what felt like hours but could have only been at most thirty seconds before Tashiro tackled Hanzawa back onto the bed, covering him in kisses.

“I love you… so much…” Tashiro whispered between his desperate kisses.

“Wait… Tashi… we can’t…” Hanzawa met each of his kisses in kind.

“I love you…”

Oh well… a little heavy petting never hurt anyone… Hanzawa thought as he wrapped himself around Tashiro once more; the two names on each of their wrists glowing from black to the fated string’s red to signify that they had found their other halves.

And so, fate does as it will and despite a lot of confusion and worry, two halves come together to create something new and whole - melding together and smoothing the rough edges to each heart and soul. Creating a new point of view that all started with sharing that one room…