Chapter Text
What a pain.
The first time Teruhashi heard the voice in her head, she wasn’t sure if she imagined it or if Saiki had actually said it. It was somehow different from how he usually spoke but at the same time nearly identical. How could she put it? It was like she was eavesdropping on someone talking to themselves. Like she was hearing his thoughts.
The most concerning part, though, was just how annoyed he sounded. Well, it was Saiki. He always sounded annoyed. Which made the idea of him saying “Oh” all the sweeter. But this was as if he restrained himself when he actually spoke. His inner thoughts–assuming these were real–were harsher but also nicer somehow. Like he was more internally willing to accept those around him than he acted. It was almost like he was–
What is Teruhashi talking about? Wait. Is she somehow hearing my thoughts?
Teruhashi’s quiet musings were paused as she looked towards Saiki. They were on a break and she was technically having a conversation with Chiyo and Mera, or more Mera was talking about her plans for summer break which included a lot of working and fantasizing about eating. Chiyo herself was a bit distracted, staring at Kaido as he was talking excitedly with Saiki and Nendo the next desk over. Apparently he just got a scooter and Chiyo was probably imagining going on a trip with him. That made her smile.
Saiki was looking at Teruhashi, though he turned away as Nendo placed his hand on the pink haired boy’s shoulder. Saiki was rubbing one of his hairpins as if making sure it was still there. My limiter is still on. And Nendo, your breath stinks. What did you eat this morning?
“We should go out for ramen today!” Nendo announced. “All I had to eat this morning was some eggs my mom left in the fridge.”
Saiki narrowed his eyes at Nendo, though his mouth didn’t move. Some eggs? I have a feeling that it’s not that simple.
“They were a little funny looking but they actually helped with the taste of this weird steak I had left over.”
You still have that belt? And you’re still eating it? Hearing a shocked tone from Saiki was new. Teruhashi giggled slightly, drawing Chiyo’s attention towards her. Fortunately, Chiyo knew about her crush and gave her a knowing smile, though honestly that wasn’t on her mind right now. Mostly she was wondering why she kept hearing Saiki in her head. It was getting harder and harder to believe it was her imagination because that wasn’t at all how Saiki was in her own head, but there was little other explanation.
Oh right, Saiki thought. I forgot about that for a moment. This is a major problem. How is Teruhashi hearing my thoughts? I don’t think it’s forced telepathy; I can’t seem to stop it.
It’s not like I can stop it either, Teruhashi pondered. She tried, and failed, to turn her attention back to Chiyo and Mera. While she was looking at them, her thoughts were entirely with this strange, telepathy based conversation. Wait, he said it isn’t telepathy.
Well, I said ‘forced telepathy’, but honestly at this time I’m not sure what is causing this. Look, the teacher is coming in. We should both stop doing this.
Was she imagining that Saiki looked more annoyed than normal? Was it based on the voice in her head? She still hadn’t determined if it was real or not.
I’d rather she think it wasn’t real, Saiki’s voice echoed in Teruhashi’s head. But that’s going to be difficult. His mind buzzed with thoughts and out of the corner of her eye she saw him put a hand on his chin, reflecting what she heard. This was really, really weird.
“Teruhashi.” A teacher was speaking to her, the tone bordering on scolding. Oh right, Saiki did warn her of that. Or did she just subconsciously notice? She beamed at the teacher who immediately melted at the sight of her smile. In the back of her mind she heard Saiki mention something about a perfect pretty girl and Teruhashi tried hard not to flush. That was more in line with what she thought he should be like, though somehow the tone came off as exasperated. She did her best to force Saiki’s voice out of her focus and waited for the teacher to continue. Fortunately, the teacher already moved on to calling on a different student, having muttered an apology for bothering her.
Class went by slowly, painfully. While Teruhashi could ignore most of Saiki’s thoughts it was hard to keep it all out of her head so she hadn’t absorbed nearly as much as she should have. She’d have to spend some extra time going over the lesson today. It was so hard to pay attention when she had someone else’s voice constantly speaking in her head.
Welcome to my world, Saiki thought. Teruhashi tried not to giggle at that, but also another concern started to build. Through Saiki’s mental protests of ‘no wait!’, she began to panic. Did that mean that Saiki could hear her thoughts too? Teruhashi, you need to calm down. Was this something that went both ways? Not exactly, Teruhashi please listen– Does that mean he knew about her crush on him?Well if I didn't, I certainly would now.
A folded piece of paper landing on her desk startled her away, though she heard the slight sigh of relief from Saiki.Good job, Yumehara. Teruhashi looked down and then over a couple of desks where Chiyo was trying to subtly glance back at her, concerned. The note simply read “Are you okay?” and Teruhashi offered a smile and a nod which seemed to appease her friend. For now. Still, what kind of expression had she had on to have Chiyo pass a note to her?
Don’t know. I wasn’t looking.
I wasn’t asking you, Saiki.
She once more attempted to focus on the teacher, but a quiet snort from her right made it exceedingly difficult. This was going to be a long day.
At the next break, Teruhashi hatched a plan. She couldn’t just approach Saiki by herself. A perfect pretty girl didn’t approach others for a one-on-one conversation, especially not boys and especially not in front of others. But she just had to go over to Chiyo and mention something about Kaido, who would likely be hanging out with Saiki anyway, and then she just needed to subtly invite Saiki somewhere and hopefully Chiyo would be able to make Kaidou not join. Nendou was a concern, though, as well as any of the other friends who–
Teruhashi. Meet me after school at Cafe Mami. Mera doesn’t work there today–she’s got a construction job on the other side of town. We will talk there.
Did… did Saiki just ask her out on a date? Assuming this voice in her head was really his thoughts.
Good grief. Maybe I shouldn’t go. Then she’d still be wondering.
Then I’ll just have to find out another way! A few ideas started forming in her head, not dissimilar to the ones she had crafted to make Saiki say ‘oh wow’.
That’s what I was afraid of. I’ll be at Cafe Mami once I shake off Nendou and the others. Try to leave your fan club behind too.
Then it was a date!
No.
*
Teruhashi arrived at the small cafe to find only two other patrons inside. The two men gawked at her and immediately offered to buy her a drink. She smiled at them and politely refused. A perfect pretty girl didn’t fall for such pick up lines and besides she was there to meet someone else. Not that it mattered; the cafe owner gave her her order for free–a strawberry milkshake and a blondie. The white chocolate pastry was a perfect compliment to the strawberry treat. She nibbled on it while she waited.
Even if the voice in her head was real, she felt Saiki was just as likely to show up as not. His absence was not indicative of not actually hearing his thoughts, but his arrival almost certainly confirmed she was. So when Saiki stepped inside and waved to the owner, Teruhashi felt her heart jump to her throat, the panic of what this meant coming back to her.
“I’ll have the usual.” Saiki said. Or more like ‘said’. His mouth didn’t move and it still sounded like the voice in her head but it felt different somehow, more like how she was used to hearing him speak. Weird how she had not noticed before. The waitress clearly heard him and immediately set about making his order, which came out swiftly as just a cup of coffee and coffee jelly. Definitely his usual. Teruhashi smiled. He really did like his coffee jelly.
Because it’s delicious. Saiki sat down across from her as the waitress set the items on the table. Good grief, this is always the problem with going anywhere with Teruhashi. Not even Cafe Mami is safe.
Not safe? Teruhashi glanced around and then noticed the two men from before. They were trying to be subtle about it but they were glaring right at Saiki. How had he noticed? He hadn’t even looked in their direction.
Because I can hear their thoughts. Why else? Saiki sounded exasperated. He took a bite of the jelly in front of him and relaxed a bit. Teruhashi grinned at him as he ate.
It really is nice to see Saiki so happy. I’ll never get tired of how happy he is while eating desserts, though coffee jelly definitely seems to be his favorite.
It’s objectively the best. But enough about desserts, we need to figure out what is going on. Why are you hearing my thoughts?
And why are you hearing mine too. This whole silent conversation is a bit unsettling.
“Then we can talk, but keep it down.” Saiki ‘said’, his voice once more projecting in her head with more purpose than the stray thoughts. The difference was stark against his next, more private thoughts. I’ll just get those guys to leave with a few suggestions.
Before Teruhashi could ask what he meant, one of the men suddenly stood up and dashed out of the cafe, shouting something about leaving an oven on. The other also bolted up, alarmed. He had the frame of mind to grab some money and set it on the table, though, before running after his friend. “What the hell, man? You don’t even cook!” he shouted as he chased.
“You did that?” Teruhashi asked, her voice kept quiet.
Hm? Right, forgot she can hear what I’m thinking. This is harder than it seems.At this rate it’s only a matter of time before she finds out I’m psychic. Saiki’s body froze, rigid at the table for a moment while Teruhashi swore she heard static from him. Crap.
“Psychic?” Teruhashi asked, squeaking just a bit. The manager looked over at her, immediate concern.
“Voice down. This is such a pain.” Saiki brushed back his hair, glowering at her in annoyance. Well it wasn’t her fault! Though the telepathy made sense then. Was she a psychic too? “I doubt it. Every other psychic I’ve met had their gift since birth. This is likely feeding off my energy and I’ll treat it as such until I can find the root cause.” Teruhashi bit into her brownie to try and hide her confused expression. Psychic since birth? So he’d always been a psychic who could read minds? Did that mean– “It’s like that stupid elephant theory.”
“Eh?” Teruhashi’s mind went blank at that statement and she could hear a slight chuckle from Saiki. For a moment, she was afraid she’d have to demand an explanation, but he dove right in, being forthright about this train of thought at least.
“The elephant theory, or the pink gorilla. I’ve heard it as both. The idea is that if someone tells you not to think about something, like an elephant or a pink gorilla, you can’t help but think about it. It’s sometimes used to help explain how people think and to work backwards to meditate.”
“Oh so like the ‘elephant in the room’ saying?” Teruhashi inquired, piecing together some things she’d heard before. You weren’t supposed to talk about the elephant in the room, though usually the elephant was a metaphor for something obvious and distracting.
“Similar, but not quite. I think people just like to use elephants when it comes to distractions because they are big and distracting themselves. World’s largest land mammal and whatnot.” Saiki explained, sipping his coffee. There were two stray thoughts after his projected one. The first described how the regular coffee greatly contrasted the jelly well, despite being similar items. The second implied Makoto’s ego was actually the world’s largest land mammal.
Teruhashi let a sly smile sneak onto her face. “You assume that he’s a mammal,” she teased. Saiki chuckled at that, offering a sincere smile before his face went back to neutral.
“Anyway, the point of that is to say that the more you try not to think about something, the more likely you are to think about it,” Saiki concluded.
“Which is why you couldn’t help but think about the fact you’re a psychic,” Teruhashi whispered. Saiki’s displeased expression showed he had hoped she wouldn’t follow the explanation back to its origin. Perhaps he’d underestimated her intelligence, but perfect pretty girls were–
“No, I’ve known you’re smart, but sometimes even intelligent people will miss a crumb and lose the trail.” Like he had a few times.
Teruhashi wanted to pursue that thought of his, but instead pushed forward with the conversation, not taking the bait of another distraction–tch. “So you think that me reading your mind is because of your own psychic abilities?”
“Yes. And despite my earlier consideration, I do think it’s forced telepathy. It’s just odd that I can’t seem to control it. Usually it functions between other people like this, every thought coming through especially the surface ones. With me it’s just what I want to send over, or should be. Weirder yet, I can still ‘send’ what I want over, project my thoughts like I am now.”
“So you are… talking to me through thought projection?” Teruhashi tried to think back on her encounters with Saiki. Had he ever moved his mouth while speaking? She was sure he had, but that may have been just her imagination.
“I almost always talk like this. It’s easier.”
“Huh,” Teruhashi stated simply. She felt, somehow, calmer than she expected when hearing that her classmate–her crush even–could read mi– “Y-y-you didn’t hear that did you?” Teruhashi’s face suddenly heated up. Oh God, please, if you love me at all, don’t let Saiki have heard about my feelings for him!
Saiki sighed. Here I was hoping she wouldn’t go back that direction. he thought before projecting towards her a different line. “Relax Teruhashi. I’ve known for a while.”
That was, pointedly, not a thing to relax about!
“Good grief.” Saiki’s spoon settled in the cup, now empty of jelly, and he stood up, sighing again. He placed a hand on her shoulder as he turned to leave, waving half-heartedly as he walked away. “What I meant was that nothing’s changed. You can keep acting as usual and I will do the same.” There was another thought underneath that Saiki had, one that wasn’t projected, but Teruhashi couldn’t focus on it, her face flush with embarrassment.
There was no way she could just act normal!
*
Saiki stared at the ceiling while he lay on his bed, hands propping his head up as he considered today. Whatever had happened had to have been over a day ago. He’d reversed time on them both at one point to make sure. His limiter was also still working as far as he could tell and he’d only reach out to the one person who would know for sure if it became absolutely essential. No, the cause remained unfortunately a mystery.
Well, it wasn’t the worst scenario in the world. It was a pain, don’t get him wrong, but it wasn’t as if similar situations hadn’t come up. He’d almost told a few of his friends a couple of times–such as during the school trip when Teruhashi had taken his limiter. He had told them a few times as well, though he was no longer in the alternate timelines and he’d reversed his own world after the reveal at the volcano. He could handle this and bring things back to normal–or what counted as normal in this disaster of a life.
This is going to be annoying. He thought idly before rolling over and closing his eyes. Who knows, maybe everything would be back to normal the following day.
It was not.