Reigen had always loved to travel.

Being free to travel was the ultimate freedom. If you didn't like a place then you were free to just pick up and go somewhere else. Of course things did get kind of complicated the older you got. Apartment leases, jobs, friends, and other such roots. That was why Reigen wasn't leaving forever, this wasn't a move, it was just a trip. A day trip.

A work trip.

Because, really, he wasn't in any position to just be taking random trips in the middle of the week. His budget simply didn't allow it. What the budget would allow for, however, were work trips. Wonderful, tax deductible, work trips. Work day trips. Just him all by himself…well, mostly by himself.

Where was he?

Reigen checked his phone. Serizawa was cutting it way too close. Reigen had no idea what he'd do if he had to go on this job on his own. Spread some salt around? if it turned out to be nothing then, well, yeah. Salt away. If it turned out to be something, like the last one had, then…yeah. He'd be screwed, royally, and probably in a weird position too. Hell, with his luck he'd probably end up locked in some parallel train dimension like last time-

-that wasn't going to happen again.

That had just been a freak accident, that was all. One very unique psychic power that had come into existence through a very unique set of circumstances that was never going to happen again because of how incredibly unique it was. So there, that was that. A thing that had happened and then was never going to happen again, like new coke, not that he was old enough to remember new coke. Though he certainly felt it.

He flexed his fingers.

He was tense, still, like an old man. A train pulled out of the station. Not his train. No need for all of this tension. His train wasn't scheduled to leave for a while yet. A short while. Or a long while, too, depending on how you looked at it. He checked his phone again. He was just getting excited, that was all. He always got this way before a trip. The night before his last school trip he hadn't slept a wink. He had been too excited. One last hurrah before he had to grow up and leave school forever. He had been so excited at the prospect of hanging out with everyone away from school, traveling, and all the fun stuff on the itinerary. He'd also been worried, too, but not by much.

Not by that much.

There was always the chance that he'd make a fool of himself but that chance was miniscule…but even miniscule chances…it hadn't been that bad, he'd recovered, and become the man he was today. He wasn't going to make that mistake again…and anyway he'd managed to play it off as a bad joke…and anyway he wasn't eighteen years old anymore! No, he didn't have to worry about drinking too much and confessing to something that he had no business confessing to. Really, he had a much bigger chance of winding up trapped for weeks and months and years on end in some kind of crazy, parallel dimension…

Damn it.

He felt around his front pocket. Did he have time to smoke? There was always time to smoke, even if there wasn't. He needed to quit. He should have quit years ago. He should have quit when Mob, back when he'd been little Mob, had asked him if smoking was fun and why he did it all the time…well, it wasn't like Mob was dumb enough to take up smoking. Him or any of the kids….and it wasn't like any of the kids were around to see him start smoking anyway. No, it was just him and a few strangers.

Yeah, he had time to smoke.

Of course the minute he lit his cigarette, the second he inhaled, the moment he felt some of the tension leaving his body that was when he finally saw Serizawa. With a normally sized suitcase this time, thankfully, or maybe less thankfully. Serizawa may have way overpacked last time but if he hadn't then Reigen would have…could a person even die in a parallel dimension?

He didn't know. He didn't want to find out.

"Reigen! Sorry! Sorry!" said Serizawa as he practically ran across the platform. He was clearly frazzled. His hair was growing out again, not as much so as when they met but enough to look wild, and he was running so fast that if he had been anyone else Reigen would have worried about him slipping and winding up under a train. But of course he wasn't anyone else, he was Serizawa, and he was right there.

Reigen inhaled again.

"Really! I'm so sorry. I was so afraid of oversleeping that I actually wound up staying up too late and then I almost overslept and then I couldn't find my shoes, I think Shimazaki might have hidden them for fun, and then I left my house without my coat on so I had to go back, and then after I left again I forgot my suitcase and then I had to go back again, and then when I went back for the last time Shibata said-" said Serizawa

"It doesn't matter, you made it anyway. That's what, uh, matters." Said Reigen as he exhaled. That had sounded a lot better in his head. He looked a step back. Serizawa was a furnace right now, the warmth of him was cutting right through the cold, winter's air. That was all. Nothing else.

Thank God there had been time to smoke.

"Thank you. I mean I'm sorry but thank you-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa." Said Reigen

"And thank you for bringing me along! You didn't have to but you did-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa." Said Reigen

"Especially after what happened last time. I mean Shigeo or his brother or their friend or Sho, actually not Sho because he says he never wants to travel again, but someone else would have been better since I-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa! It's fine! It's fine, you're fine, I'm fine, this is fine." Said Reigen, running his free hand through his hair. Serizawa actually looked a little hurt there…and now Reigen felt like shit. He shouldn't have raised his voice like that. He knew how sensitive Serizawa was and he knew that he hadn't meant anything by what he'd been saying. He also hadn't had any idea that there wasn't anything worth mentioning in what had happened last time. Something weird had happened, it hadn't been the strangest thing that had happened to Reigen at that point in his life, and it probably wouldn't even make the top ten by the time he died.

He was fine. This was fine. Everything was fine.

"Are you sure? I was nearly late and then-" said Serizawa

"Really." Said Reigen

"Ok….but don't worry! It won't happen again! I'm going to be sure to stay up and even if you fall asleep I'll wake you up before we get there or go through any tunnels." Said Serizawa. Reigen smiled what must have been the tersest smile anyone had ever smiled before inhaling again. Too deep that time, way too deep. This was a cigarette, not a hastily cobbled together bong in a dorm room. He resisted the urge to cough even though his lungs were crying out for relief.

He exhaled.

He put his hand on Serizawa's shoulder and tried his best to look reassuring. It was kind of…kind of sweet, maybe, probably. The way that Serizawa worried about him. The way that he was practically throwing himself on the ground in apology. Not that he needed to apologize. If he apologized then it would be like they were talking about it and there was nothing to talk about.

He was fine. Everything was fine.

"There's no need to-" said Reigen

"Really. I'll protect you." said Serizawa. Reigen forgot whatever reassuring thing that he was going to say. He forgot, completely, what words even were. He forgot everything. He had no idea what he was supposed to say there? Beware the ides of March? Where had that even….no. That was just…no.

He had to say something.

But what? Serizawa had just offered to protect him! That should have been more ridiculous than anything. Serizawa protect him? Sure he was a powerful psychic, and probably as strong as he was tall, but it wasn't like Reigen was some kind of little kid. He didn't need to be protected. If anything Reigen should have been protecting Serizawa.

He was the terrified one.

Serizawa looked like he was about to faint. He was shaking in his gym shoes, he was biting his lower lip to a worrying degree, and it looked like he hadn't slept for the past fortnight. Reigen should have been the one offering to protect him, as ridiculous as it was, and it was ridiculous. He and Serizawa were both being ridiculous. It was just a train ride, and here it came.

It was just a train.

"If anything I should be the one protecting you, now come on before we miss our train. I don't know about you but I don't want to spend the entire day hanging out at the train station. Hell, I'd rather hang around the office hearing Tome go over all of her extraterrestrial 'evidence'." Said Reigen with a laugh that may have sounded forced but wasn't. And he certainly wasn't mentioning one of the kids to, he didn't know, put a buffer between the two of them?

If he had wanted to put a buffer between them he would have taken his hand off of Serizawa's shoulder.

Which he was going to do. Right now. Any moment now…it felt like trying to pry a syrup covered pancake from a wall. He had no idea why he'd done that, all those years ago, even less of an idea as to why he'd had such trouble letting go of Serizawa. Probably because he was dumb. He'd been dumb back then and he was dumb now. Dumb and weird. Serizawa was probably incredibly weirded out right now.

He risked a glance up at his face.

Serizawa was glancing over at his shoulder. He seemed kind of…crestfallen? If that was the right word, he didn't know, he'd never been that good at vocab. It only lasted a moment, though, before a burst of panic bloomed across his face. Hey, it was better than the mother of all blushes that had taken over Reigen's face.

He almost wished for the parallel dimension. At least then he wouldn't have had to chance to make even more of a fool of himself.

"Oh no! You're right, we're going to miss our train. I hate when that happens. One time we were going from Zurich to…" Reigen, for once, let Serizawa go on about his time with that redheaded asshole. At least if Serizawa was the one talking Reigen didn't have to think about what in the hell he was supposed to say to…to any of that.

That had been weird.

He had heard, once, that the human mind liked to look for patterns. It even made patterns where there weren't any. That was why people kept on seeing spirits wherever they looked. It was good for business, of course, but not always good for him. His own stupid mind was just making things up. Serizawa hadn't meant anything by that, by saying that he'd protect Reigen. He had just been thinking of his time with that redheaded asshole again.

That was all.

That nutjob had been his boss and now Reigen was his boss and it was all just basic association, that was all. It had nothing to do with what Reigen wanted it to have something to do with. His mind was just telling him that things were there that weren't. Serizawa hadn't meant whatever it was the Reigen thought that he meant…knew what he wanted him to mean…but he knew that nothing could ever come from that. Serizawa was just a good friend, that was all, a good friend who didn't exactly know how the things that he said could have been taken. That was alright. He was still a good friend, and a good traveling partner. He had taken Reigen's mind off of the fact that he was on a train, after all, so yeah.

He'd had no idea that Serizawa would have been such a good travelling partner.