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On fitness testing day, it was more important than ever that Saiki held himself back. Whatever he did would be recorded. Getting average numbers required careful restraint. For him, it was an annoying sort of day (which might not be saying much, since he found most days annoying).
For Kaido, it was a great day–theoretically–because he–theoretically–got to show off some of his Jet Black Wings abilities. He’d gotten a glimpse of Kaido’s numbers before. Not too impressive. Except for the flexibility challenge, which he was good at for some reason. He could basically fold himself in half like a piece of paper. Maybe that was because he was about as strong as a piece of paper. I really shouldn’t think mean things about Kaido.
The weakling in question was cracking his fingers beside him, flexing his bandaged fingers. “You ready for this, Saiki?”
Ready for what?
Kaido’s internal monologue was a level above the rest. Either that or Saiki interpreted it as such, like he tuned into it more than everyone else. He couldn’t remember exactly when he started doing that but at some point along the way, he did. ‘I can’t get six meters again,’ he thought, and Saiki almost felt sorry for him, until his next idea came along. ‘You better be helping me.’
What a pain. He’s not even requesting, he’s demanding.
‘No,’ Saiki said, just to Kaido.
‘Please.’ Saiki said nothing. ‘Please,’ he thought again, head turning to look up at him with those stupid puppy eyes. ‘Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.’
‘Fine.’
It’s not that I want to help him, it’s just that if he keeps staring at me like that, people will notice and start looking over here.
Kaido faced front again, clenching a wrapped fist in front of his face, lips quirked up in a lopsided grin, determined. It was kind of cute, but making Kaido happy had nothing to do with Saiki agreeing to help him.
When Kaido was up to throw, Saiki leant him a (very cautious) hand. Just enough strength to get an average distance. Thirty five meters, maybe forty. He turned to face the other way so no one would see him smile. Afterwards, he immediately knew how Kaido did because he heard it from everyone as soon as it happened, but he still did Kaido the kindness of turning to look at him when he came trotting up beside him to tell him how he did.
“Forty two. I’m pretty amazing, right?” He said with his silly faux bravado. He collected a few compliments and thumbs-ups and shoulder-shakes from some impressed classmates, and was loving every second of it.
Even though Kaido was simpering, Saiki didn’t have it in him to withhold anything from him the way he could with other people. ‘Yep. You’re amazing.’ Kaido was practically glowing. Honestly, he was way too easy to please.
The rest of fitness testing was a series of Kaido begging for help, and Saiki refusing, but still helping out about half of the time anyways. Only with things that wouldn’t be too suspicious. If it makes him that happy to get an average score, then fine. It’s the same as what I’m doing. That was how Saiki justified it at least. As long as Kaido knew he was helping so this wasn’t just fuel for his delusions, then what was the harm in it?
Ever since Saiki told him he was a psychic, Kaido ruthlessly abused that fact. He didn’t make selfish or dangerous demands, though. He was a good person in that way. He just made unreasonable ones. Like the ones he was making right after school, once everyone was home.
‘I wish Saiki was here,’ Kaido thought. Loudly. And repeatedly. ‘I wish Saiki was here with his PS4,’ he amended. ‘I wish Saiki was here with his PS4 and that one shooting game. Right now.’ See? Totally unreasonable.
If I don’t do something, he’ll just keep going.
He got up from his desk and unplugged the console, gathering up the cords and controllers. Then he teleported, PS4 in hand, into the middle of Kaido’s room. Kaido screamed loud enough to alert the neighbors. How can he still be so startled? I do this all the time.
“Saiki, what are you doing here?” He asked, frazzled, as he gathered the homework that was scattered across his bed into a pile. Like he didn’t ask him to come over a hundred times.
‘Be quiet,’ Saiki said, kneeling to plug the console into Kaido’s TV.
“You came all this way just to see me?”
Now he’s laying it on too thick. Kaido got up from the bed. Saiki held out a controller to him, but instead of taking it, Kaido threw his arms around him, burying his face in his neck.
‘You told me to,’ Saiki said, as flatly as always while he brought his free hand up to rest on Kaido’s back. He didn’t let him go for a while, and eventually Saiki dropped the controller (it landed softly, thanks, telepathy) so he could put his other hand in Kaido’s powder-blue hair.
“I missed you,” Kaido said against the collar of his shirt.
‘You saw me at school.’
“It’s not the same.”
He was right, it wasn’t the same. Saiki wasn’t the biggest fan of PDA. That was to say that he hated it. He couldn’t show public displays of fondness, let alone romantic affection. It was too vulnerable, too uncomfortable. He still had a hard time with that even when it was just the two of them. And somehow, Kaido didn’t mind at all. He knew that for sure, of course, because he could read his mind. So many people cared about that sort of thing. Kaido didn’t.
At some point (he wasn’t sure when), Kaido became a little too good at reading him – he didn’t have to give Kaido much in the way of explanations about why he didn’t want to hold his hand on the street or why he wasn’t comfortable kissing him with anyone around, he just kind of assumed it, and understood it. Kaido usually had to be the first to initiate things, like the hug, and when he did, Saiki almost never turned him down. The whole relationship “thing” was way easier than he thought it would be, and honestly, way better than he thought it would be, too. Somehow, Kaido had really wormed his way into Saiki’s heart, and he really liked being around him. How terrible.
There was typically a little time before Kaido’s mom got home. And it’s not like she could sneak up on them even if she got home early, since Saiki would be able to hear her. So they spent the time that they had playing the game Kaido wanted to because he wasn’t allowed otherwise. After issuing several ruthless beatings, he even let Kaido win a few rounds.
After about an hour, his mom came home.
‘Your mom is here,’ Saiki said. He shut off the console and the TV while Kaido hopped up and hurried over to his bed where his stack of notes sat, forgotten about. He spread the papers out in an attempt to look busy, and Saiki moved to sit on the bed as well, against the headboard so Kaido was the one closer to the door.
And then he apported the console, swapping it with a stack of miscellaneous textbooks from under Kaido’s bed, and turned invisible. Just like when he teleported into the room, Kaido was way more shocked than he should have been. He’d seen this plenty of times. Then he jumped again when his bedroom door opened. Seriously, he’s way too skittish.
The scene his mother saw was perfectly orderly and appropriate. Just Kaido, alone, doing his homework. Saiki stayed put at the far end of the bed.
“Honey, what are you doing up here?”
“Nothing, mom, I’m just doing my homework!”
She was completely buying it. But she was also thinking about how weird it was that he talked to himself so much. That’s been her impression of him since Saiki started coming over without a formal invitation during Kaido’s “homework time” (which was–unfairly–all the time, with a tiny break on the weekends) – to her, he’s been talking to himself a lot, but he says he’s talking through his notes, and that’s been a good enough answer for her.
“Hm. Okay. Do you want me to make you some tea, Shun baby?” There’s that nickname again.
“No, I’m okay, thank you!” He put his pencil to the open notebook and started scribbling nonsense, his tongue poking out a tiny bit, more focused than he should be on writing a series of meaningless words.
“Alright, then. Don’t work too hard,” she said before shutting the door. She secretly did want him to work too hard, though, which was pretty bothersome to Saiki, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Correction, there wasn't much he should do about it.
Once the door was shut and his mom was halfway down the stairs, Saiki made himself visible again, and thankfully it didn’t startle Kaido as bad as everything else had. He was looking back over his shoulder at him, pencil still in hand. “Can we play one more round?”
‘I thought you had to do your homework, Shun baby,’ Saiki said, mocking the nickname for what was probably the hundredth time, but it still got a rise out of Kaido, which was sort of the point. He dropped his pencil and turned on Saiki to attack him in some half-hearted fashion, starting to shout something argumentative, to which Saiki grabbed one of his hands to protect himself from a weak punch and used his other hand to put a finger to Kaido’s lips.
‘Stop talking.’ There was an amused tone to his voice, and however subtle it may have been, Kaido noticed it.
‘Sorry, okay. I got it,’ Kaido thought, deliberately, pointedly. It came across to Saiki as naturally as regular speech. It was interesting to him, the audible distinction between an inner thought and one that was specifically meant to be heard by him. They were the only kind of thoughts he actually liked being able to hear.
Initially, he was very quick to explain to Kaido just how much he could hear, worried that it was unfair to Kaido that his recently acquired significant other would be able to hear everything he was thinking. It was incredibly imbalanced. But as with so many other things, Kaido didn’t mind that much. He thought it was cool, like a secret channel of communication just for them to share. Saiki had never thought of it that way. It was nice to have someone put a positive spin on things, however small it may be.
When Saiki withdrew his hand and released Kaido’s wrist, he resumed his mock assault, following through on one weak punch to Saiki’s arm. In turn, Saiki closed the small distance between them and placed a quick kiss on his lips. Kaido’s face was already burning up. He’s so ridiculous. Attack forgotten, Kaido grabbed the front of Saiki’s shirt and leaned in for a proper kiss. Saiki granted him that, and probably for longer than he should have, because by the time Kaido pulled back he was a little out of breath. He couldn’t help the fact that things (his own thoughts, everyone else’s, everything) got a little quieter when Kaido’s mouth was on his like that. And Kaido was still blushing, too, as though this wasn’t a normal thing by now.
Kaido tried to kiss him again, but Saiki leaned back so he couldn’t.
‘Really. You do have to do your homework.’
‘Seriously?’ Kaido thought. He was trying to come off as annoyed, but he sounded and looked more disappointed than anything. Cute.
‘Seriously. Sorry.’ His mom was very strict about the homework stuff. Sure, Saiki visited Kaido a lot and would be able to with or without permission, but he didn’t want to be the reason for Kaido getting into any kind of trouble with her. Plus, he really liked it when she invited him over (‘to thank you for dating my Shun baby even though he’s so shy!’) and gave him coffee jelly, so he didn’t exactly want to burn that bridge.
“Fine,” he grumbled quietly. Saiki cupped his face with both hands, and there those stupid puppy eyes were again. The way he looked at Saiki really was ridiculous. He sat up to give him a kiss on the forehead then let him go, and Kaido shuffled back to where he was before, retrieving his pencil to start doing some real work.
He could tell that Kaido wanted him to stay, which was kind of stupid because he usually did, and he never said he wasn’t going to. It’ll make him happy if I tell him anyway.
‘I’ll stay until later, if that’s okay.’
‘That’s okay!’–it was more than okay, Kaido was ecstatic–‘and you’ll help me, right?’
‘No.’ Okay, I’ll help him. But just a little.
Kaido smiled, because he knew that Saiki had every intention of helping him. Him knowing just how much I like him is such a pain.