2101/Nothing More Than

Nothing More Than
Date of Scene:	24 November 2024
Location:	Sugata's House
Synopsis:	Things have been off with Sugata for a while now, and there's only one thing that can resolve it, much to his own displeasure. Can Takuto survive his boyfriend's idea of a feelings talk?
Cast of Characters:	Takuto Tsunashi, Sugata Shindo

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Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto practically bounces into the changing room for the onsen, carrying two crinkling bags. "A new food vendor opened by the temple down the street!" he crows. "They sell crepes AND ningyo-yaki! I got a bunch for Wako-chan, I left it on the big table--"

It's street food. It's just street food, and he's so excited about it.

He's still wearing his STAR*DRIVER varsity jacket even inside the warm room, but is spared the mortifying ordeal of taking your jacket off to immediately put it on again by dint of holding two bags of food. He'll jam his shoes back on in a minute, as soon as Sugata's finished getting dressed-- or undressed--

He should have thought this through.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Is Sugata surprised that Takuto bounces into the changing room like a whirlwind of energy, carrying ordinary street food like a precious treasure he's eager to show off? Not even a little bit. Takuto has, from that very first day, been an agent of change, a shift in the status quo, a disruption of calm (of stagnation).

So it only makes sense that he would bounce on in with a ramble about snack foods (perfectly ordinary ones, even, ones they could get on Southern Cross Island, even), unexpected but never unwanted.

That said, is he ever so slightly startled by it, given that he is clothed in nothing but a towel, having been drying off from a just-finished dip in the onsen? ...perhaps.

Sugata looks at the bags, bulging with snacks. He looks at Takuto, still fully dressed, at his jacket that proudly proclaims what he is, at the bright excitement in his face, the stars practically shining in his eyes, and, says, "We need to talk."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
It's a slow-motion crumple-deflate with a side of worry, actually. Almost fear. It is purely strength of will that keeps Takuto from saying what's on his face: what did I do?

"About what?" he asks instead, his attempt at regaining his cheer echoing hollowly. His movements are a little stiff, forced. He sets Sugata's bag on the little table with a firmly choreographed movement, then practically hugs his own when he turns to face Sugata again.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
There is a pang of regret, at the way Takuto crumples, at the worry that crosses his face, replacing all that excitement, that joy. His mask is up, the usual cheer, but it's hollow, when Sugata can see through it.

This is when he should push on, when he should rally himself and marshal his courage to have a talk about feelings, but though he shifts, mirroring Takuto in facing him dead on, his throat is tight, his jaw rigidly clenched. The words don't want to come out. The emotions don't want to come out. The only saving grace is the lack of color commentary from the undersized bucket that can and does so-often use Sugata as unwilling audience.

"Our relationship," he manages to force out, and then, after a swallow, continues on - "I...owe you an apology."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Tauburn is not helping. At all. He is silent in Takuto's head just as Takuto wants to hear the ancient and wise advice... the ancient and wise advice probably has nothing to do with boyfriends, so it makes sense, but it still feels briefly like a betrayal.

Which actually helps. There is no one in his corner right now, and when he's cornered without help, he breaks giant robots.

He sets his bag down, too, then insouciantly hangs his hands off his pockets by his thumbs, cocking a hip. This is a different mask, but it's one Sugata's met before.

"Just friends, then?" he asks with a brittle confidence. "You don't have to apologize."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Sugata is thinking about how to explain - things that should be perfectly ordinary, like taking note of the look of your partner in a fight, in the way their eyes flashed, in the way their body moved, and realizing that you didn't just like them, you liked them, all over again. About how to put into words that Takuto and Wako had saved his life last year, but they had also saved his soul, and that he is still, day by day, beginning to understand what that means.

His vocal chords do not want to flex around the words. The sheer vulnerability of it feels like ripping off his own skin. Absurdly, a part of him wishes that they were in the dojo, that they crossing swords - FUCK.

A flush rises to his cheeks, faint, hard to distinguish from the heat the onsen brought to his pale skin anyway, and he is preparing to force words out when Takuto speaks, instead, all brittle confidence and cocked hip, the mask of being okay, and it floors him.

Takuto can see that, in Sugata's face, the utter confusion, the bewilderment, the edge of baffled hurt that shows that this has well and truly thrown him. Like stepping into a pile of glass, without realizing someone's broken one to begin with.

"Just friends?" he echoes, brows knit together, hand clutching his towel to keep from losing it and making an awkward moment worse, "That would make the kissing much more awkward, so if that's what you want, I... will owe more apologies than I was prepared to give."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"You-- what?" asks Takuto, suddenly completely lost. He was sure they were about to talk about how Sugata wasn't actually interested in him like that at all, and now Sugata's talking about kissing?

There's a moment of reading Sugata's body language and rearranging his perception of reality again, and Takuto sighs.

He sighs and he takes a step forward to put his hands on Sugata's cooling shoulders. "Then don't start with 'we need to talk' and follow up with 'about our relationship, i owe you an apology' because that's exactly what that setup leads to. I thought you were breaking up with me."

A beat. "So you want to actually... do kissing? I mean apologies aside."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
At least they're both lost. Sugata chooses to take solace in this, amidst the quickly rising understanding that he has messed this up in a way that will quickly get back to Wako, which - might be a good thing? Maybe if she has an expectation of things, he won't manage to put his foot in it?

It was never this hard to talk about relationships on stage. (Never mind that those were false relationships, a performance, a role. Surely, the experience is transferrable?)

"I've made a tactical error somewhere?" He says, in response to that you what. Maybe the honesty of that helps, because Takuto at least relaxes. Even if his words are nonsensical.

"Why would I break up with you? You asked what I wanted to talk about, which is our relationship, and I do owe you an apology."

A beat.

"But... yes, because I would like to... do kissing, and not because I want to break up with you."

There's a grimace, and Sugata lifts a hand, pushes it back through his hair, as he looks at Takuto, gold eyes meeting red ones. "I've been kind of a dick, lately. More than usual, and you've been the one apologizing to me, because I have been..." he struggles with the words. "Flustered, by... the fact that you're terribly attractive."

He can be struck by lightning, now. Swallowed by the earth, perhaps.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Oh he wants to make fun of Sugata a little bit. Takuto sees Sugata wishing lightning or the ground would come whisk his soul away, and he wants to tease. Instead, he gives Sugata his patented bright-eyed crooked smile, and then he leans in-- and it's a little tiny kiss, on the lips, before Takuto pulls back away and drops one hand, and slides the other down to catch at Sugata's towel-free hand.

"You haven't seemed to be much more of a dick than usual, just more upset. I wasn't sure what was causing it." He shifts, then lifts Sugata's hand up to his chest and hugs it with a laugh. "I'd give you a better hug but you're all wet. You've truly been losing your mind because the Galactic Prettyboy is pretty?"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
So this is why they call it the mortifying ordeal of being known. It's because the ground will not kindly swallow you, the heavens will not mercifully strike you down, and your boyfriend can read it in your face that you wish for all that to happen anyway.

And then Takuto kisses him. Just barely, a peck on the lips, contact there and gone in an instant, but it has Sugata turning a humiliating shade of red and half-turning, until his hand is caught, and he goes still.

"Unfortunately, I have. Who knew that you'd be the one case of truth in advertising?" Trying to regain some semblance of calm, collectedness, but Takuto will see through his hollow mask as easily as Sugata had seen through his, will know that he's flustered, seen, caught, because yes - the Galactic PrettyBoy is pretty, and Sugata can't quite look away.

"It isn't as though I was - unaware. But," and he hesitates, then takes the plunge, "It wasn't until that damned haunted house, that I realized how much I wanted to... act on it. On you. With you."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto cannot help himself: he laughs, bright and incredulous, and doesn't let go of Sugata's hand. "Wait, it was that Yamada kid, wasn't it," he says while trying not to outright actually giggle. "What he said made you think about it. Do you know why it took me so long to get used to the onsen at your house on the island?"

Sugata knows. Sugata probably remembers every blush, every mad scramble, every inching down underwater, every desperate clutch for a towel-- and every squawk early on when Wako would tease them about coming in. "It's not like I was like that at the school onsen, unless RA-chan was sneaking in during boys' time."

Sugata is unloading his soul and Takuto is watching his mouth. Sugata is really Going Through It and Takuto is thinking about what Sugata was probably thinking about, but Takuto got over his true embarrass over liking Sugata considerably before--

"I'm not sure if I've wanted to kiss you from before the Samekh fight or just after it, but I've definitely wanted that at least since then." Now Takuto just holds Sugata's hand in both of his, and he grins a little wider. "You should kiss me now."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Some say, pride goeth before the fall. Sugata would say that pride goes hand in hand with the fall, and that the fall repeats, in cycles, like everything else in life. Takuto laughs, bright and incredulous, but he doesn't let go of Sugata's hand, and so Sugata doesn't pull away, and tries to resist the urge to armor himself again, the flee from stinging vulnerability.

"It was that Yamada kid," he confesses. "I'd - thought about it, before, but never..."

Never in terms of mechanics. Never in terms of action and reaction, of skin on skin and mouths touching, and affection true and real and with nothing staged. And yes -

Yes, he does remember Takuto's embarrassment about the onsen, and at Wako's teasing, and he remembers every second of that time, the slow relaxation, the guard that had lowered, and he murmurs, under his breath, "I thought that was about Wako being in the house."

And worst of all, he really had. It hadn't occurred to him, not properly, to want Takuto, in that time. Not when he'd been scheming and strategizing, planning out a life for Takuto and Wako both that wouldn't have him, wouldn't need him. Not when he'd been trying to push them together, so there'd be no holes left when he was gone.

And then they'd saved the day, from his plan that hadn't been enough, that hadn't prepared a counter-attack for what Tokio Tsunashi was truly planning, that had never imagined that they would come after him, and give him a world after, and what a world it's been. An endless array of monsters to fight, friends to make, foods to try, places to go, with both of them at his side -

So yes, unfortunately, it had taken a careless remark in the midst of a mushroom themed haunted house experience for Sugata Shindo to consider what it meant to be attracted to his boyfriend. And from there, well, it's not like Takuto was only attractive in the dark atmosphere of a fungal nightmare. It wasn't like Wako wasn't a vision of beauty only in the midst of odd turmoil. It wasn't like he could stop noticing.

"I might have been slow on the uptake, this time," he concedes, rather than say all of that, with the uncomfortable feeling that Takuto might know, anyway, might read it in his body, his eyes. He squeezes his hand, for lack of anything to do, and resists the urge to ask if it was Samekh that tipped the odds, if only because he doesn't want to kiss Takuto with that name on his lips.

And kiss him he does, stepping closer, comfort with being in Takuto's space at odds with his hesitation, obvious inexperience, in pressing their lips together.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"A little bit of it was Wako in the house, but it was -- and is -- very complicated in some ways, isn't it? Feelings are messy. But it doesn't have to be so complicated for us anymore! We just have to talk, like this, whenever something starts going sideways," Takuto says, eyes bright and meeting Sugata's when he can, but tone serious and earnest again. Damn right he's not letting go of that hand.

"And it's also important that-- if you decide you don't like kissing, we don't have to! If you decide you only like kissing Wako, that's okay too. Or neither of us! Maybe a little disappointing," the redhead laughs, and it's easy, and it's not a mask anymore, even if he's talking faster, "but ultimately fine, because I want you to get to be happy, and so does Wako. You already know I won't leave, even if you break up with me."

Hands squeeze, and Takuto leans in to meet that kiss, managing not to bump noses with Sugata solely through being able to tell, at this point, which way Sugata leans and feints and commits and habitually moves. Martial arts makes for better kissing experiences, obviously.

It's such a sweet kiss, in the end. There's also a mischievous little lick of Takuto's tongue against Sugata's lower lip right before Takuto pulls back, and his eyes are soft and affectionate.

Then Takuto squints at Sugata. "Wait, you're worried about something, there's a crease between your eyebrows. What is it?"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Maybe we shouldn't talk entirely like this, given you thought I was breaking up with you," Sugata says dryly, in the tone of one who knows he will never live this down. In his heart of hearts, he knows this is the onions all over again, but where he still wants that picture deleted, this... He can admit he deserves the mockery for.

"It was complicated then but... you are right, in that it doesn't have to be complicated, now. Things are better now than they've ever been, and I'm including being able to kiss both you and Wako in that better."

A beat of time, simultaneously endless and yet all too short, as they kiss, and yes, he'll claim the victory that training together so often is what makes this first true and real kiss so easy, the both of them melting together without the usual awkwardness of bumping noses or clacking teeth. Takuto isn't masking, now. He's just being himself, confident and laughing and knowing what he wants to do and what he has to do.

...and then Takuto calls him out, which gets an annoyed little side eye before he surrenders to the inevitable.

"You said you weren't sure if you wanted to kiss me before fighting Samekh or after. Is that - does he have anything to do with it, one way or the other?"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
    "Ohhh," says Takuto, arms ringed around Sugata, lightly keeping them together. His red eyes are wide for just a second, and then they soften again and Takuto chuffs out a laugh. "I don't know? It was the look on your face after I saved you that made it an okay thing to want. But I started wondering about whether I wanted to or not when you were driving Peshent. I was like... wow if we put this punching energy into kissing... and then I went, what am I thinking?? Because at the time... well, doesn't all of that seem complicated from the other side of this?"

He tilts his head to impishly nose Sugata's hair away from his face and kiss just at the line of his jaw, then laughs again, breath hot against skin. "Do you want," he asks, drawing his head back again, "to talk to Wako before I do? As a reward for having this talk at all! You can be the one to tell her how you fucked up, hee hee hee."

Literally hee hee hee, and a grin to go with it.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
There's a hum, low in Sugata's throat, as he considers this, trying to remember what his face would have been doing in that moment. Probably something terribly sappy, and soft, because what he remembers of that moment is Takuto's smile. The way his hair blew in a non-existent wind, as they looked out over the Earth and the sun shone over the curve of the planet, the sight of that sky as beautiful as Takuto himself.

"Well, as long as it wasn't Samekh himself that got you going," he says, mouth curving into a smirk. "And... honestly, it all seems so simple, now. That's because of you."

Takuto had broken through everything - the old traditions, the chains of what was supposed to be, even Sugata's own stubbornness -

There's no chance he's going to express all of that though, especially with Takuto nosing at his hair and kissing at his jaw and his cheeks are flushing pink, at the intimacy of it all -

And then Takuto gets shoved away with a huff.

"What, and take the brunt of her initial fury? No thanks. You can tell her, while I buy out Nounamu's inventory again. At least I'll have a treat on hand when she comes for me with her pointy elbows."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto absolutely cackles as he wobbles away with the shove, then gets himself under control enough to lean toward Sugata again -- from over there -- with his hands clasped behind his back and his elbows locked, grinning wide and full of the promise of chaos. "I think she'll laaaaugh," he says, dancing out of Sugata's reach and picking up the bag of snacks.

"And you probably want to put on some pants," he says like it's a crowning glory of a sentence, his bag-free hand over his heart, "or not~~"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
It probably says something about the amount of time Sugata and Takuto have spent together in various states of undress that Sugata had actually managed to forget that he was wearing nothing but a towel, drying from the onsen.

Sugata will consider what that something is later. Now, with his face aflame and his heart not much cooler, he reaches for the shelves of the changing room and snatches clean fabric.

"Get out."

And a towel hits Takuto square in the face and sends him toppling through the door.

The worst part is that Wako really will laugh. He can already picture the look on her face, when she's over being mad at him for scaring Takuto so badly.

'Sugata-kun,' he can practicaly hear her sighing, 'You're kind of hopeless, aren't you?'

Yeah, well they're stuck with him. Both of them.

"And you'd better not give all of those to Wako, I want to try at least one," he orders, even as he pulls the door shut and finally starts changing into proper clothes.