Notes: Um, I just recently finished watching the anime, and so I decided to try my hand at writing something in this fandom, also my first oneshot. I chose the TatsumixWatari pairing because it wasn't really portrayed completely in the series so that gives me some room to fluctuate. Sorry if it's a little OOC. It's my first fic posted in a while so any feedback will be appreciated.
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Tatsumi Seiichiro was a man of both very few words and (in his own opinion) also of very few talents. The only genuine gift, or rather, curse he allowed himself to acknowledge was his ludicrously accurate memory, one that spanned two centuries and three and a half decades exactly.
According to that ever-unfaultable sense of nostalgia, the day he and Watari Yutaka became lovers was not anything spectacular, nor was it anywhere near dramatic. It was certainly awkward, but in its own way, it was right, it also was odd, to say the least, and, in the privacy of Tatsumi's own mind, a little pleasurable.
Watari had pranced into his office that day, slightly more cheerful than usual, which made Tatsumi more than slightly wary than usual. "Ne, Tatsumi, what are you doing during break?" the blonde Shinigami looked at him expectantly.
"Work." Tatsumi replied shortly, without ever looking up.
"Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of taking a break?" Watari questioned lightly. "I mean, when you take a break, you usually rest or something."
"…I work now, so I can rest later." Tatsumi sighed. "…Not that it's any of your business. Shouldn't you be working, Watari?"
"I can't do anything in the lab until the potion has cooled." Watari said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "It's kind of pointless going in there when the whole place is like negative eighteen degrees, even you'd agree with me."
Tatsumi gave an involuntary shudder, just what kind of potion needed cooling at negative eighteen degrees, anyway? "…Forget I asked." He murmured under his breath, "Can't you find anything better to do than distracting me, Watari?"
"…Am I being distracting?" Watari raised a vaguely curious eyebrow, "How, exactly? I'm just standing here."
"…I work better when I'm alone." Tatsumi finally gave up and put down his pen. Just ignoring Watari wasn't going to work this time, most unfortunately. "When you're in this room, I'm not alone, am I?" he asked pointedly.
"I suppose not." Watari's tone held something he couldn't recognize. "Would you go out to lunch with me if I paid, Tatsumi?"
Was that it? A typical lunch invite from Watari caused him embarrassment to no end. The mad (if not mad, then something very, very close) scientist usually yelled his request across the entire office with a giant megaphone, one of his many useless, not to mention ridiculous inventions. Tatsumi could not help but smile, just a little, "It's nice to see you're changing your ways."
"It's the only way I know you won't refuse me." Watari made a show of looking at his wristwatch, "If you'll excuse me, I have to go back to work now." The emphasis on the last five words was not missed.
"In that case, you're excused." Tatsumi heaved a mental sigh of relief.
"But if that weren't the case?" Watari interjected quietly, almost bantering.
Oh, yes, he definitely had to be more careful around Watari today. Tatsumi kept his tone neutral and picked up his pen again, "Then you're still excused, if that weren't the case, go back to work."
"Yeah, yeah. See you later." Lifting a hand in farewell, the blonde man went.
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"Tatsumi, will you become my lover?"
Though Tatsumi made a pact a pact with himself not to drink during lunch break, as that would mess up his concentration and all, he accepted one cup of sake, the only reason being to calm his nerves, and now, promptly spewed the contents back into the cup. "…I'm not the type of person you'd want for a…lover." After he'd cleaned himself off the best he could, for some of the wine had stained the cuff of his sleeve, he glanced up to see, to his horror that Watari was staring back at him with a perfectly serious expression.
"…Then that makes two of us." Watari calmly took a sip from his own cup. "I don't think I'd make a very good lover, either. But will you, Tatsumi?"
This wasn't in any of the scenarios he'd created for his lunch meeting with Watari. Whenever Watari invited him out to lunch, it could only mean that Watari wanted something. Tatsumi thought that he had prepared for all of the requests that were likely to surface, he'd prepared a lecture for additional funding, a glare (quite literally) for a 'sick leave' and so on but… "Why?" he asked faintly. "Why me?"
"Why not you?" Watari returned calmly. There was a very odd glint in his golden eyes as they stared intensely back into his own grey-blue orbs.
"I don't think I'm capable of being anyone's…" that word still sounded supremely strange on his tongue. "—Lover. I have never…loved—anyone, I'm not competent of doing such a thing."
"Again, that makes two of us." Watari smiled suddenly, a smile that was way too bright and cheery to suit, as he took a slow sip from his own cup, "But we can pretend, at least, can't we?"
"Fantasies don't suit me." Tatsumi said, rather stiffly. He took in a spoonful of rice to prevent himself from saying anything else strange and stupid.
"They don't suit me any better, fantasies, that is." Watari agreed. "But we can learn. If you don't like to pretend, and I don't like to pretend, then we can try our best to make it real as quick as possible."
"…I don't understand you."
"You'll understand me sooner or later. If you become my lover, I'll understand you better too."
"Maybe not."
"But maybe yes." Watari finished swiftly, "I'd take the chance if you'd want to."
"What if I don't want to?" Tatsumi asked, in a very matter of fact tone.
"You have nothing to lose." The scientist reminded him.
"I have nothing to gain, either." Tatsumi replied a trifle harsher than what he'd intended.
"…But you don't know that."
Tatsumi set his chopsticks down and proceeded to stare out the window, where the living world full of life was running about outside. Watari was sure presistant today, he had a vague feeling that they'd be there all day, and possibly all night, if he didn't agreed to his coworker's...to say the least, rather interesting proposal.
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If being Watari's one and only meant picking up a whole host of bad habits, Tatsumi thought he'd assimilated into the role of 'lover' a little too easily.
Thanks to his lover, in addition to showing up to work on the dot, instead of an hour or two early, it was also pretty much routine now for him to walk around without any clothes on save an oversized shirt in the apartment that he and Watari shared when they had no guests. Watari himself sometimes wore a shirt when it was cold, but most of the time, he went around naked and shamelessly so.
The first time they tried this, was at night, when Watari oh, so casually reasoned that body heat would provide enough warmth for both of them and that clothes and clothes were not only troublesome, but also unnecessary. "This is what lovers do with each other anyway, Tatsumi." He said, a bit smug.
Privately, Tatsumi thought that sharing a single bed with clothes intact was sufficient at this point and time and he told his lover so, glaring, as if that would somehow strengthen his case.
But then, he should have known better that his protests would be futile, Watari always got the better of him, no matter how much he threatened or glared. The shorter Shinigami promptly rid him of his robe, and led him by the hand to the edge of the bed. "Hold." He said, simply, and guided Tatsumi's arms around his waist. "Gently."
Tatsumi was not a modest enough man to be ashamed of his naked self; he could stare at himself (as narcissistic as that might seem) in the mirror without flinching, but…this… "I'm not a gentle person." Yet he took great care in taking off Watari's lenses and placing them on the bureau beside the bed.
"That's fine." Watari got up and shrugged off his own robe, and sat back down. "You can make it hurt then."
"I'm not a harsh man either." Brushing a stray strand of honey blonde hair aside, he kept his hand cupped around the other's cheek, although Tatsumi did not lean forward, nor did he shy away at their sudden proximity.
"…Then what kind of man are you?" Watari asked, cautiously light.
"I…" Tatsumi decided it was safer to change subjects, so he cleared his throat.
However, Watari's lips locked firmly on his own and after what seemed like an eternity, pulled away, "No, don't tell me." he was panting, just slightly, "I'm your lover, I'll find out soon enough." He lay down, and patted the space beside him. "Let's sleep now, it's getting late." He added teasingly, after Tatsumi still did not move, "You don't want to late for work anyway, tomorrow, do you?"
Tatsumi obliged and lay facing the wall.
After a while, Watari put his arms around him again and turned him around, so that they faced each other. "Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful, Tatsumi?"
His face felt just slightly warm. A vague smile touched the edge of Tatsumi's lips, but in the darkness, Watari had no way of knowing. "No, no one, at least…not yet." He said.
"No one except me, you mean. I'm telling you now, so you know." Watari chuckled softly and traced a finger down Tatsumi's thigh. "You are very beautiful, Tatsumi. Good night."
He dreamed, Tatsumi was too serious and too caught up in the chains of reality to dream, but he dreamed that night, naked in bed with Watari, arms wrapped loosely around the other's waist. He saw amethyst eyes. Eyes that eerily mirrored all the sadness in the world.
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Part 1/3 fin.