Yukimura looked long and hard at Yanagi from across the table in the cafe, Sanada sitting dutifully next to the captain looking stoically embarrassed at the current conversation. Leave it to Sanada to manage that.
'What is it that you wanted to talk about, Seiichi?' Yanagi asked finally, looking up from the article he had been reading.
Yukimura glanced at Sanada before he coughed and looked Yanagi square in the eye. 'Genichirou and I are an item,' he blurted quickly with a straight face.
Yanagi blinked and looked over at Sanada, who nodded stiffly without making eye contact. 'I know,' Yanagi stated simply before he returned to his magazine.
His two best friends looked positively stunned at the careless answer and were reduced to staring for the following couple of minutes as they tried to cope with the less than expected reaction from their friend.
Yukimura was the first to come around. 'How?' he demanded.
Yanagi gave up on the thought of finishing the article and put it back into his bag before he fully faced his friends. 'I've been your friend since the beginning of middle school, I've watched the two of you ever since – for the sake of data, of course – and I am, if I may say so myself, by no means stupid. The fact that the two of you have been attracted to each other for several years was not hard to pick up on, if my assumptions are correct the two of you have been together for four months, thirteen days and either fourteen hours or sixteen hours, depending on if you, Seiichi, snapped and jumped Genichirou behind the clubhouse before or after afternoon practice.'
'Okay,' Yukimura interrupted quickly, his face hot enough to cause him to faint. 'You've known, we shouldn't have expected any less from you. Since you're the Data Master and all, not really having anything else to do, right,' he added teasingly, indicating on Yanagi's obsession with collecting data.
Yanagi, being who he is, picked up on the indication quite easily and smiled. 'Well, Seiichi, while we're at it,' he said and waved their waitress over.
When she reached their table, pen and notepad ready for any order they might make, Yanagi grasped her wrist and pulled her down beside him and kissed her fully on the mouth. Once again Yukimura and Sanada was reduced to staring, this time, however, for trying to cope with the more than unexpected action from their friend.
'Renji-kun,' she frowned as he pulled away, switching from the previously used Yanagi-kun. 'Does that mean they're out of the closet now?'
Yanagi smiled fondly at her before he nodded and looked over at his two best friends' stunned faces. 'Natsumi-chan and I have been dating for quite some time, so, no Seiichi, the fact that I picked up on your relationship has nothing to do with me not having anything else to do – I'm just that good.'
'And humble too,' the girl beside him commented with a raised brow, to which he shrugged playfully.
'How long?' Yukimura asked, feeling his brain closing in on a metaphorical overload.
Natsumi looked at Yanagi carefully, biting her lip as she did. 'Am I a bad girlfriend for not remembering that?'
Yanagi laughed, because it was completely expected that she would be insecure about such a thing. 'No,' he assured her with a kiss to her cheek. 'Eight months, three weeks and five days,' he told his friends.
Sanada spoke up for the first time since their confession. 'Wouldn't that make it the day before Christmas?'
Natsumi blushed and Yanagi's smile was positively feral. 'Right after the Christmas party actually,' he said.
Yukimura frowned. 'Is that why you left so suddenly after handing out the gifts?'
'Renji-kun! You said you didn't have anything important that day,' Natsumi scolded and looked disappointed at Yanagi.
'We've had those parties since middle school, I didn't think skipping one would be such a big deal for them,' Yanagi replied smoothly.
Natsumi was about to say something when someone called her from the counter. 'I need to go, my shift finishes in half an hour, wait for me?' she asked.
'Of course,' Yanagi replied and gently brushed some hair from her face as she kissed his cheek and gave the other two a smile before she hurried off.
'I called your house that night to see if you were alright,' Yukimura stated once she was out of earshot, causing Yanagi to smile again – that smile that was positively pleased and smug and full of masculine pride and borderline on Niou's malicious grin.
'I stayed the night,' he said simply.