This chapter: the wedding ends – Featuring Serizawa "how to tell your best friend they're an idiot and you're in love with them" Katsuya and Reigen "how much do I drink to forget a stupid crush" Arataka, with another bonus appearance by Shigeo "please leave me alone" Kageyama.

After Reigen ran off with his phone, Serizawa was left at the mercy of social conventions. Returning to the table with this in mind was not the most appealing of thoughts, so he decided it better to join the slowly dwindling line of people greeting the couple. He thanked them for having him over, Aiko giving him a pleasant smile.

"Honestly we will be glad to have it done with," she said amiable, casting eyes to the room with a mixture of joy and trepidation. Serizawa hadn't spoken with her that much over his stay, but Reigen seemed to favor her between all of his cousins and that meant Serizawa liked her by association. "I can't believe we've been living towards this for over a year almost."

Suke nodded. "You have a lot to look forward to."

The comment came so much out of left field to Serizawa he didn't immediately know how to react. "M-me?"

"Oh!" Suke startled as if shocked by his own presumptions. Aiko hit his arm playfully. They seemed like a happy couple, but Serizawa remembered they called this the honeymoon phase for a reason. "We did overhear your conversation at Sunday dinner, but we didn't mean to assume it would go anywhere so quickly."

As if hit by lightning, Serizawa remembered the awkwardness from that night. It had only been a few days and yet somehow felt like a lifetime ago. "We'll see," he said, trying to laugh it off. Hopefully, it came across as evading the question without being rude.

Faking a relationship was one thing, he wasn't sure faking a wedding would be within his capabilities as an actor.

It wasn't until a moment later that Serizawa realized that his most pressing complaint about such a situation shouldn't be that he didn't have the acting skill for it and rather the more logical protest that he didn't want to be married to Reigen to begin with.

Much like the devil – said to come around when one invoked its name – Reigen appeared beside him. Serizawa might have been surprised to a mortifying degree, but luckily Reigen didn't notice as he exchanged his own thanks with the couple. When they turned around to return to their table, he pushed Serizawa's phone back into his hands.

"Thanks for lending me this."

"Any time." Serizawa turned the device around in his hand. "Did you get the uh, work thing sorted?"

Reigen's face contorted into a humorous combination of a frown and a smile. "I definitely came to a conclusion." Serizawa couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing. "Shall we go back? Unless you want to try for another round of dancing?"

As tempting as the offer was to Serizawa he had to decline. "Uh, you can go ahead. I'll be right there."

"Okay..." Reigen quirked a curious eyebrow at him but didn't ask any further questions, something Serizawa was internally grateful for. He was a bit embarrassed about what he was planning to do.

Shuffling his feet, he waited for Reigen to be far away enough before turning around. He spotted a door that led to the secluded back patio area of the hotel, which looked sufficiently empty to be perfect for what he needed. He was already dialing the number as he made his way outside.

The dial tone only rang once before Shigeo picked up.

"Shishou?" he said.

"Uh, no. It's me. Serizawa." He was befuddled by the need to introduce himself when calling with his own cell phone. "Why did you-"

"Never mind," Shigeo said, a small nervous squick slipping into his voice as if he had said something he shouldn't have. Serizawa would have been concerned, if he hadn't been so preoccupied with his own troubles.

"I know this is weird," he began, before realizing how much weirder it was for a grown adult man to apologize for asking a simple question. "But I just wanted to ask. You wouldn't happen to know if Reigen ever had... a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend I guess. Or currently has one?"

If there really was such a thing as instant regret, then that must be what Serizawa was feeling right then. Maybe if the gods were real and if they were compassionate, he could be struck by lightning and not have to finish this conversation.

"No, he hasn't," Shigeo answered simply. Serizawa had to be grateful for how direct the middle schooler was, which was an excellent way to not make this any more awkward than it already was.

Now if only Serizawa could make up his mind on whether this was a good development or a bad one.

He could hear Shigeo's calm breathing on the other end of the line, followed by a sharp inhale signifying he was harnessing his own boldness. Serizawa knew that inhale well, he had used it plenty of times before. "Serizawa, if you don't mind... Why are you asking this?"

"I don't know," Serizawa admitted lamely. "I guess I am trying to figure out if I have a shot or something."

And against all odds – in that exact moment – it didn't feel like such a weird thing at all to tell Shigeo this. Serizawa didn't have a lot of memories of having friends, maybe when he was very small and even then the other kids probably only liked him because it was easy to get him to do things for them. Now he had Reigen, he had Sho and Tome. He had Shigeo who had sat down with him on the staircase of a collapsing building and told him about fear and kindness.

Serizawa had people around him again, who only wanted for him to be happy. And he wanted the same for them. It wasn't weird at all.

"If you want to know if you have a shot, why don't you ask him?"

Shigeo's soft voice was nearly too quiet for Serizawa to catch, or maybe he just didn't want to. Because he knew that what Shigeo was saying was the only logical response, but that didn't take away the fear of possible rejection. "I don't know."

"I really think you should tell him," Shigeo said, full of conviction and whole-hearted encouragement.

"Maybe," Serizawa answered. The door to the patio slid open, the sound of a grating metal against plastic signaling somebody's approach. Serizawa should probably head back inside and see how Reigen was faring anyway. "Thanks, Shigeo. I have to go."

He hung up and was about to turn around when a chilly voice stopped him.

"Serizawa, was it?" Masaru had the tone of somebody who could hardly care enough to remember the name of a person who worked under them, who they regarded as entirely inconsequential. A fake warmth seeped into his voice, disinterest clouded by thinly veiled politeness.

Despite himself – despite how much he hated it – it was impossible for Serizawa not to slip back into old habits. "Yes sir?"

The other man's frame was loose, relaxed. Serizawa hadn't seen it like that before, maybe that's why it subconsciously put him on guard. Masaru approached him as a hunter does its pray, casual confidence in having the upper hand. Serizawa swallowed.

"Would you walk with me?" Masaru asked. The politeness of his voice would betray nothing of the strained interactions they had so far, as if they all had been wiped away with the flick of a wrist.

Once again Serizawa was reminded of Toichiro in the worst possible way.

He followed Masaru into the garden's main part along the small gravel road that winded between the bushes, glad that the sun was already starting its slow descent towards the horizon. It would take a while for it to disappear completely – especially since it was summer – but its sickening glare wasn't half as bad as it was before. Masaru flicked a cigarette out of his front pocket, retrieving another one to offer Serizawa.

"I don't smoke," he said rather tersely.

"Neither do I." Masaru placed the cigarette back. "Not when my wife asks, at least." And the smile he threw Serizawa's way was sharp and full of too many teeth. A lighter appeared out of his pocket, which Masaru used to light his cigarette, before taking a long drag.

They stood in silence, a heavy atmosphere only slightly uplifted by the sound of one of the fountains in the garden. Serizawa felt unreal, as if he was stuck in a dream. Or being crushed under a great weight. The whiplash was maddening.

He wanted to say something but Masaru beat him to it.

"Let me ask you a question," he said, letting out a puff of smoke that pooled into the air, dissipated too slowly and hung around his nose with every exhale. Serizawa could smell they were the expensive kind of cigarettes that are scented with mint, a thin veneer of pleasantness plastered on something truly unpleasant. How oddly fitting. "What do you want from my son."

Feeling numb to his very core, Serizawa could only repeat the question. "What do I want?"

"What do you gain?" Masaru drew the last word out, rolling it around on his tongue. "I've been in this world long enough to know everybody is always working towards some goal. I'd like to figure out what yours is."

Trying to get some of the excess nervous energy out of his system, Serizawa shuffled his feet. He almost wished he had accepted that cigarette, just to give his hands something to do. "Isn't that a bit depressing?"

Masaru raised his eyebrows at him and in that moment he looked almost like Reigen but also not at all. "Maybe."

"If you're always expecting for others to have ulterior motives, I can't imagine it would be easy to built healthy relationships."

With a short laugh – almost more like a bark, an animal snapping its teeth – Masaru took another drag. He tapped the cigarettes against a nearby flowerpot, dispersing the ashes between green leaves of peony. "In that case, why don't I ask another question." Their eyes locked, unmoving. "Are you lying to Arataka as well, or just to me?"

Serizawa's heart stopped.

It had crossed his mind over and over what he should do when somebody found them out and yet somehow he wasn't prepared for it actually happening. He felt all the blood in his face must have drained and he looked horribly pale, going by Masaru's mischievous smirk it was clearly visible to others too.

Oh, how stupid they had been, thinking they could get away with this forever.

"It wasn't that hard to look into your name. Do you think universities don't keep records? Granted, not many would go to these lengths to prove their suspicions but what I found was telling enough," Masaru said.

Making more of an effort to not let his surprise show on his face, Serizawa must be grinding his teeth hard enough to hurt. His dentist wouldn't be pleased with him later. "What do you mean?"

"Cut the crap." Masaru extinguished the remaining stub on the side of the ceramic pot, then threw the dud onto the ground and stepped on it with one foot. "I know you're not a medical student. You don't even go to university, you take night classes. So, does Arataka know?"

Serizawa's throat was too tight to answer, yet he had to force himself through it. As it was he had two options – either dig a deeper hole or confess the part already uncovered to draw attention away from what hadn't. And he had spent enough time around Reigen to know which one was the better course of action.

"It was Arataka's idea actually."

The small victory he had felt at genuinely taking Masaru by surprise was quickly extinguished by the placid expression that immediately followed. Straightening his sleeves, Masaru made quick and measured movements. He was physically taking back control of the situation. "Very well, then you already know you're out of his league."

Where those words should probably illicit anger, the need to defend himself from such bold accusations, all Serizawa registered was vague acceptance. Deep down – way, way down – he might have even agreed.

"Clearly if you both saw the need to lie about your position in society, you acknowledge the differences in your status." The clinical manner of speaking could cut through Serizawa like a knife, the pragmatic sense of a discussion that left no room for dispute. Masaru was not sharing opinions, merely facts. "You already understand there is no future for you together."

Every conscious inch of Serizawa was telling him to respond – to deny what obviously had to be the conservative ideals of a condescending autocrat. Yet somehow he couldn't get himself to move, couldn't even get his mind to form the words.

"Arataka is a smart boy, but I fear my own recklessness in raising him has left him misguided. If he'd only allow me, I could chip at away all this unrefined idiocy to get at the diamond I know to be beneath. You have to understand-" and as Masaru spoke those words, he crossed the distance between them. His claws dug into Serizawa's back, or maybe he merely put a hand on his shoulder. "- I only want the best for my son."

By the time Serizawa had mustered the power to blink, Masaru had already walked past him. The sound of the undersides of his leather shoes on pebbles already faded into the background. The duplicity of those final words echoed within Serizawa's perception.

He dug his nails into his hand until the pain became too distracting to bear.

With nothing else to do, Serizawa went inside a few minutes later. Masaru and Yuuko weren't at the table, Serizawa could only presume they were dancing but he didn't particularly care to find out. Reigen was slumped a bit forward into his seat, hand curled around a tall glass of champagne.

That's when Serizawa noticed the three empty glasses accompanying the current one.

"Finally, you came back!" Reigen got up from the chair but almost knocked it over. He steadied himself by putting a hand on Serizawa's shoulder. The opposite one from where Masaru had put his own. "Let's get out of here."

Serizawa put a hand on his elbow to steady him. "You want to leave? What about dinner?"

"Unless you're really looking forward to that shrimp cocktail, I promise it's not worth it." Reigen tilted up his glass again to drain the remaining champagne. "And I need to avoid my old man, he's being annoying. I promise they won't care."

Serizawa doubted that. He watched as Reigen put the glass down among its comrades. "Was I gone that long or are you just a quick drinker?" he joked.

"Everybody is a quick drinker with my family around."

And to that Serizawa would certainly not object.

Since the hotel was situated in the middle of town, the walk they took leading them back to the house was the same one they had walked a few days prior. The sun was setting this time, painting the sky a mix of purples and reds while casting outstretched shadows on the ground. Reigen was unable to shut up, probably due to the alcohol. He wasn't drunk perse, but probably just south of being there and it reminded Serizawa of the night this all started, the night that was the catalyst for all he had to deal with now.

He couldn't bring himself to regret it.

But he wasn't listening, unable to over the reverberations left by Masaru. Serizawa knew he should know better, but knowing and knowing are two different things and a seed once planted needed a lot of power to be weeded out.

You could pull at it, but a fast wrench wasn't all you needed to get it loose. Maybe he had been naive to believe otherwise.

Taking advantage of Reigen's inherent need for oxygen, Serizawa waited for a split second break in the other's monologue to assert himself. "Can I ask you a question?"

Without answering, Reigen kept walking. The road was asphalt, but on both sides were shallow ditches Serizawa imagined were full of water in the other seasons, for the crops. At the moment they ran dry though. As if it was some immeasurable challenge, Reigen was walking along the edge in painstaking concentration, arms outstretched to keep his balance. Kids would probably consider it a game, Reigen might have done it every day when he was younger. Walking to and from school.

He threw back his head to look at Serizawa. "Sorry, I was waiting for the question," he laughed.

"R-right, uh..." Trying to compose himself had never been this hard. "When you need to confess something important, do you think it's better to get it over with quickly or-"

"Quickly," Reigen answered without missing a beat. He turned sideways to face Serizawa properly while still walking. "It's like ripping off a bandaid, I think. The quicker you do it, the less you feel the pain."

It made sense, it had to make sense. Serizawa wanted it to make sense. Confessing you had a crush on somebody you were already pretending to date had to be the most nonsensical thing in the world. "Then I have something important to tell you..." If he waited any longer his heart might burst.

Reigen was still looking at him, still walking. "Yeah?"

"I- uh, I think I-"

Then Reigen disappeared before Serizawa's very eyes.

Or not so much disappear as manage to full stupidly into a ditch. Serizawa stopped and stared, mouth halfway open – halfway into a confession he had to muster all his resolve to even jump start but never got to finish. Reigen's leg was sticking out of the ditch, that's how shallow it was.

"I'm fine," Reigen yelled, volume not quite matching the urgency of the situation.

"Thank god." Serizawa walked over, stretched out his hand to help the best-friend-not-quite-boyfriend he had been so zealously about to declare his love for out of the ditch. Reigen managed to get upright just fine but cringed when his foot touched the ground.

"Fuck!"

"Did you hurt yourself?" Serizawa's failed attempt at a romance movie-worthy moment was forgotten in light of this fresh worry. But Reigen shook his head.

"No, it's fine. I think I just twisted it." He tried to take a few steps on it and hide the flinching. "See, I'll be good as new tomorrow."

"Not if you strain it further," Serizawa said. He cast his mind around for a solution, but as they were stranded on a near-deserted road around sunset in the middle of nowhere and with more than fifteen minutes left to walk, he couldn't see many alternatives. "I'll carry you."

Reigen laughed as if this was the most absurd proposal he had ever heard. "Serizawa, I am a grown man."

Serizawa sighed. "A grown man who just managed to twist his ankle by falling drunkenly into a ditch."

"I'm not drunk," Reigen protested.

"And I'm definitely carrying you." Serizawa turned around, crouching down a bit to make it easier. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get home."

"You're not giving me a piggyback ride," Reigen said, but Serizawa could hear his resolve was already crumbling. "Besides, I'm way too heavy."

"Psychic powers, remember?" Serizawa clarified. "If you rather I could also leave you here until tomorrow."

He felt Reigen's arms lock around his neck a moment later, accompanied by a disgruntled noise he gladly ignored.

Pushing his hands up to support Reigen's thighs, Serizawa easily hoisted him onto his back. Even without his powers, it wouldn't be too hard for the short distance they were traveling. Reigen wasn't light exactly, but Serizawa knew he could manage if he wanted to. When he started walking, Reigen held on closer to keep from falling off, pushing his arms to the front. It was almost an embrace, his chin resting on Serizawa's shoulder.

"So-" he said softly, breath ghosting along the outer edge of Serizawa's ear. "What important thing did you need to tell me?"

Eternally grateful Reigen couldn't see his stupid blushing face, Serizawa nearly bit his tongue. The moment was gone, and maybe that was just fate telling him something important too.

Or maybe he should have been listening to Masaru all along.

"Nothing," he lied, as the sun set on another day.

Tumblr: sharada-n