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Parties with the so-called “Phantom Thieves” were always a bit much for Goro’s taste. Even though most of them had mellowed out since graduating high school, alcohol always seemed to bring out the same hyperactive delinquent energy in the bunch. Goro didn’t know what their college parties were like, but since he had returned to Tokyo after graduation they’d followed a consistent pattern: It was entertaining for an hour or two at a maximum, and then Goro found himself making his excuses and heading home.
Unfortunately, Ren was currently very drunk and curled up on one of Haru’s ridiculous, overpriced plush couches next to him— and, most damning of all, he was leaning on Goro’s shoulder. So despite being forced to bear witness to a bunch of grown adults playing an excessively juvenile party game, Goro wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon. Frankly, he would rather die a violent and gruesome death.
“Ren, truth or dare?” Yusuke asked as he fell to the floor, his eyes still unfocused. Makoto had just asked him to spin around until he physically couldn’t anymore. Probably the most daring thing she could think of, that stuck-up prude.
“Truth.” Hm. Uncharacteristic of him. Goro wasn’t complaining, of course. Any dare would probably require Ren to move from his position next to Goro.
“How many sexual partners have you had?” Yusuke asked. “I must admit that I’m curious, after all of Ryuji’s bragging about your late-night habits.”
“Ooh, that’s a good one,” Ann said. “I mean, you’re hot, you work at a bar…”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s having… intercourse with many people, though,” Makoto pointed out, her face flushed. Whether from the current topic of conversation or her level of imbibement, Goro couldn’t be sure.
Goro wasn't expecting much. Ryuji did often talk about Ren coming home late or in the morning, but he had a tendency to exaggerate and he loved bragging about his “best bro.”
Goro looked at Ren, who had shifted slightly against him. Ren’s nose was slightly wrinkled in concentration and he was… counting on his hands?
“I don’t know,” Ren mumbled. “Like, twenty?” Goro froze.
“Damn, Joker!” Futaba let out a low whistle.
“Nice!” Ann said.
Twenty. Twenty?
“No way man,” Ryuji snorted. “With how often you come home in the morning? It’s gotta be at least fifty.”
Goro hadn’t even realized Ren was dating. He never mentioned seeing anyone during their many phone calls during the years Goro had attended university in Kyoto, nor during any of their rendezvous throughout the city in the weeks since he’d returned to Tokyo. Or was it only casual, one-night stands? Was that why he hadn't seen fit to mention it to Goro?
“A lot of those are repeats, though,” Ren argued, immediately dashing that line of thinking. “He said ‘sexual partners’. Not sexual… uh, um…”
“Encounters?” Goro volunteered, stiffly.
“Encounters! Yeah, thanks.” Ren propped his head onto Goro’s shoulder and smiled at him. Goro took a quick peek at Ren, his flushed, grinning face only inches away— and then looked very hard in another direction.
So Ren’s sex life was a bit more active than Goro realized. Big deal. None of his business, clearly, especially if Ren had never thought to bring up the topic around Goro. No use dwelling on such a thing.
“Is that a lot?” Haru asked. “I don’t have much of a frame of reference for these things.” Unlike Goro, who was losing his mind, she didn’t seem embarrassed at all. She barely even seemed drunk, even though Goro knew she’d been drinking just as much as the rest of them that night. Possibly more. Definitely more, Goro thought, eyeing her near-empty whiskey glass.
“Yes, definitely,”
“Oh, for sure!”
“I mean, it’s definitely above average for someone around our age. But I guess ‘a lot’ is relative,” Futaba said thoughtfully.
“Wow!” Haru exclaimed. “I had no idea you were so experienced, Ren!”
Yes, neither did Goro. Just what kind of women were Ren sleeping with, Goro wondered. Were they as “experienced” as Ren was? Was that what Ren expected from his partners?
“Yeah, I keep telling you guys! Renren can pull!” Ryuji yelled, gesticulating wildly with drink in hand. A few drops of beer landed on Haru’s pristine, imported white rug. No one else seemed to notice.
“It's not that big of a deal, guys…” Ren insisted. “It’s just. It's like Ann said, right? Everyone likes the guy serving their drinks, that’s all.”
Ryuji snorted. “Come on, Renren. It's also because people think you're hot!”
Goro was, unfortunately, inclined to agree. He attempted to ignore these thoughts by eyeing the beer stain disdainfully. Haru probably wouldn’t even care. She had staff to deal with that sort of thing.
“Yeah, have some more confidence! You're sexy and people like youuuuuu!” Ann piped, leaning forward dramatically. She had drunk a lot that night. Someone should probably cut her off. Not Goro, though. Goro wasn't moving as long as Ren was still touching him.
“Urghhhh,” Ren mumbled into Goro’s shoulder. “Stop it, guys… no more…”
Futaba cackled. “Compliments are super effective against Joker!”
“I am curious,” Makoto said, “was it mostly men or women?”
What.
Makoto also started probing about whether Ren was practicing safe sex, that fucking busybody, but Goro barely processed it. All the sounds around him faded into white noise. His vision started to swim.
Men? Ren was having sex with men? Men who weren’t him?
Ren wasn’t straight?
Goro was distantly aware of Ren talking again, of his low timbre in Goro’s ear. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, and the world around him came back into focus.
“—get tested regularly, I'm on PrEP, the whole shebang. Men or women… depends on how I'm dressed.”
What was that supposed to mean? Goro rarely saw Ren in anything other than standard t-shirt and jeans combinations. Was there really such a wide variance in Ren’s wardrobe that it was statistically significant in whether he attracted primarily men or women?
“But usually men,” Ren continued, seemingly unaware of the fact that Goro’s entire worldview was collapsing in on itself. “Most girls don't come to a drag bar to kiss boys, you know?”
A drag bar? Ren worked at a drag bar?
“Hey, wait! Haven't I answered like, five questions? Ryuji.” Ren pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Truth or dare.”
“Dare!”
And the game continued. Goro was only half-paying attention, his mind reeling from the revelation that Ren was, apparently, not straight. Since when? Why had he never mentioned this? It clearly wasn’t a secret, as Makoto had seemed comfortable bringing it up casually. Besides, no one else in the room seemed surprised, and he knew for a fact that none of them were as good at acting as he was.
Across the room, Futaba was confessing to a short-lived crush on Haru during high school, which everyone cooed at.
Luckily Goro didn’t actually have to participate in this inane children’s game, having threatened to leave at the start if any attempt was made to force him. He’d only stayed because Ren begged him to. And just how many people had Ren begged, anyway? Was that something he liked?
Such thoughts continued to plague Goro. And then before he knew it, Haru had turned to Ren with a sweet smile and asked if he’d rather like a truth or a dare. Ren had sobered up a little by then, having switched to water. He hadn’t moved from his position, still leaning on Goro’s arm.
“Truth.” Again? Ren was typically more adventurous at these things.
“I’m quite curious after your last response,” Haru said. Goro stiffened minutely, bracing himself for what was to come.
“What's the worst sexual experience you've ever had?” she asked.
Not for the first time, Goro wished he’d never come back to Tokyo. He always knew Haru was more of a sadist than she let on. No one could be that kind all the time.
“Dude!” Ryuji yelled. Ugh. He was so loud. “You gotta tell ‘em about—” lightning-quick, a pillow struck him in the face before he could finish the sentence. Ryuji gave an undignified screech and dropped his, thankfully now empty, beer bottle.
Ren had, unfortunately, stopped leaning against Goro to throw the pillow. And he didn't return to his position, instead slumping back and crossing his arms. Goro quietly mourned the loss of contact, but didn’t move. Maybe if he stayed very still, Ren would be tempted back to his perch on Goro’s shoulder.
“Come on,” Ryuji whined. “It's a good story!”
“It was barely sex,” Ren muttered. What the fuck did that mean?
“But it was definitely the worst sex you've had, right?” Ryuji said with a shit-eating grin. Ren was pouting. It was unfortunately very cute.
Maybe this was a good thing. Information gathering. If Goro had an idea of what Ren didn’t like, Goro at least knew what to avoid if—
Nope. Not thinking about that. Goro went back to glaring at the beer stain.
“Would you rather take the penalty, then?” Haru asked sweetly.
Ren paled. “No. Ugh. The worst sex I've ever had was with…” Ren covered his face with his hands. The group quieted in anticipation.
“…Mishima.”
Chaos erupted around the room. Futaba choked on her drink. Ann gasped. Makoto looked horrified. Ryuji was laughing so hard that tears were forming in his eyes. Even Yusuke made a face like he found the mere idea aesthetically unpleasing.
Goro had literally no idea who this man was.
“Oh,” Haru said with a wicked glint in her eye. “I hadn’t realized Mishima was your type.”
“He’s not!” Ren exclaimed, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. At some point in the night he'd lost his glasses. Goro wanted to reach out and grab his thin wrists and—
Goro looked away. That way madness lies.
Makoto grimaced. “I was under the impression that Mishima was, well—”
“An incel?” Futaba interrupted, her voice a bit hoarse from the coughing.
“I was going to say ‘straight.’”
“Oh yeah, that too.”
“He might be? I don’t really know what his deal is,” Ren said. Goro was, very intentionally, not looking at Ren. He glared at the beer stain on the carpet. “I was dressed as a girl at the time. So.”
There was no round of commotion this time. Everyone seemed to have already accepted that this was a thing Ren did sometimes and it wasn’t worth commenting on. Everyone except Goro, who had only learned in the last half hour that Ren was 1) interested in men 2) crossdressed???
“Oh my god,” Ann gasped. Alright, at least one person was having an appropriate reaction. “Were you working?”
Or maybe not. Distantly, Goro heard Ryuji cackle.
Goro knew, intellectually, that Ren worked nights at a bar at the red-light district in Shinjuku. From their earlier conversation, Goro had gleaned that said bar was a drag bar. He had not, however, come to the conclusion that Ren wore drag at said bar.
“Depends on how I'm dressed,” Ren had said earlier. Of course. How could Goro have missed such an obvious deduction? He blamed the alcohol.
“Mishima was at Crossroads? That’s hard to imagine,” Makoto said.
“Did he pay you?” Futaba asked.
“I wish,” Ren groaned. “Then at least I would've gotten something out of it.” Then he would have… gotten something out of it? THEN HE WOULD HAVE. GOTTEN. SOMETHING. OUT OF IT?
Did that mean…? So Ren hadn’t—
“You mean to say you didn’t orgasm?” Yusuke asked. Goro felt like he had steam coming out of his ears. Hopefully no one noticed.
“Everyone shut up!” Ryuji yelled, hypocritically. He hiccuped a little. “I wanna hear Renren tell the story!” Shockingly, everyone did cease their questioning and quiet down. Goro (discreetly) took a deep breath and turned with the rest of the group to face Ren, who was running a hand through his stupid, unruly hair. Goro valiantly resisted the urge to replace Ren’s hand with his own.
“So,” Ren sighed dramatically. “This was like, a year ago. I was working a shift at Crossroads and he came in alone. He seemed really nervous and he uh. Didn’t seem to recognize me.”
“Because you were in drag,” Futaba said.
“Well not like, full drag. I wasn’t performing that night.” So he did perform some nights? “But yeah, I was crossdressing. And I thought it’d be funny to, uh. To flirt with him a bit.” Ren’s leg was bouncing. He was staring at the floor. He was clearly nervous. Why was he so nervous?
“You slept with Mishima Yuuki because you thought it’d be funny ?” Makoto said, genuine horror in her voice.
“I didn’t sleep with him,” Ren said petulantly. Makoto, who had seemed surprised but not judgemental at hearing Ren’s body count, was now looking at him extremely judgmentally.
“Let him finish!” Ryuji insisted.
“So I flirt with him a bit and he still doesn’t recognize me. He actually seems. Interested?” Ren had already been flushed from the alcohol, but now his face was growing steadily more red. Goro wanted to tear this ‘Mishima Yuuki’ character apart for having gotten such a reaction out of Ren, bad sex partner or not. He was going to die for his crimes.
“So I think, alright, not funny anymore, I’ll tell him it’s me and he’ll probably be kind of embarrassed and we can both laugh it off.”
Goro watched the blush creep up Ren’s cheeks and down his collar. He contemplated tearing out the gastrointestinal tract of a faceless man and strangling him with his own organs.
”But then I told him and he uh. Actually seemed. More interested.”
Like it was such a surprise that someone who knew him would want to sleep with him. Ridiculous. Ren was clearly living in some kind of mass delusion if he believed it to be the case that anyone would be less interested in him after learning who he was. Goro wanted to scoff, but held it in.
“Because you’re hot and people like you!” Ann yelled, to Goro’s point. Ren ignored her.
“But at this point I was like. In too deep. So we ended up. Uh. We ended up in the bathroom.”
Goro saw red. He felt red too. Hopefully his makeup was covering the rising heat in his face. How had this escalated so quickly? What the fuck had happened between “flirting with him a bit” and “we ended up in the bathroom”? The rest of the thieves didn’t seem to share his morbid curiosity, instead expressing their disgust with the situation.
“Gross!” Futaba yelled, throwing a pretzel at Ren. He dodged expertly.
“The bathroom? Not a very romantic setting…” Yusuke muttered.
“ANYWAY. So I’m on my knees.”
Goro’s mind was briefly filled with a vivid image of Ren on his knees, dressed in women’s clothing. Then he remembered who Ren was on his knees for and felt nauseous.
“And I barely touch him and he just like. Comes. Immediately.”
Goro’s therapist was helping him deal with his constant intrusive thoughts of violent murder, but just this once Goro felt fine about indulging.
“Like, in his pants?” Ann asked as Goro silently planned the mutilation of this ‘Mishima Yuuki’s’ corpse.
“No, on my face.”
Goro was actually going to kill him. He was going to hunt down Mishima Yuuki and cut off his appendages one by one, and then feed the remains of his desecrated carcass to the crows. Makoto could help him hide the bones, she seemed to dislike this mystery man enough.
“It was actually really annoying because I had to fix my makeup afterwards. I actually spent more time on my makeup than on…” Ren made a vague jerk-off motion that made Ann and Futaba start laughing along with Ryuji, who had long been lost to hysterics. Even Makoto and Haru giggled a bit. Juvenile of them. As far as Goro was concerned, this was the least funny story ever told.
“And then what?”
“And then he panicked and ran out. Didn’t even close his tab.”
“He didn’t even tip you?” Ann gasped.
“Nope.”
“BOOOOOO,” Futaba yelled.
“Has he like, texted you at all?”
“Not once.”
“He's probably too embarrassed to ever contact you again,” Haru said in as pleasant a tone as always, which set off another round of laughter. It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down again after that.
The conversation kept moving, but Goro barely followed, too preoccupied with thoughts of scooping out Mishima Yuuki’s eyeballs and crushing them beneath his heel.
“Wow. I still can’t believe it. I mean, Mishima?” Ann said, wiping away actual tears.
“Right?!” Ryuji exclaimed. “Remember that time we were in Harajuku and he freaked out because he saw a goth guy?”
“Oh, or the time he asked if Futaba was a camgirl?”
“He did used to follow Ren around a lot. A bit like a lost puppy. Remember the Hawaii trip?” Makoto mused.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Ryuji groaned.
“Is it really that much of a surprise? Ren’s always had bad taste in men.”
“Can you just let me live. Please.”
“I still can’t believe Mishima was at a drag bar in the first place.”
“Oh, Mishima actually introduced me to Crossroads. Back in high school.”
“WHAT.”
“Yeah, it’s a long story.”
Goro chose this moment to finally cut in, before the conversation could be derailed with another anecdote about this ‘Mishima’ person, who apparently literally everyone except Goro knew.
“Sorry, I’m not sure I know who this person is?” Goro said in his most pleasant, talk-show appropriate voice.
“Oh!” Ann said. “He was in Ren and I’s class at Shujin. Let me see if I can find a picture.”
“I think you two actually met once,” Makoto pointed out while Ann searched her photo gallery.
“Oh yeah, at the school festival!” Ryuji yelled.
Goro’s eye twitched. That explained it. He tried very hard not to remember Shujin Academy’s school festival. He’d blocked it out almost entirely.
“Hey, remember the spicy–” Ryuji was, thankfully, cut off by Ann finally managing to find a photo of ‘Mishima.’
“Here!” Ann yelled, shoving her phone in his face. It was a group photo, presumably taken in Hawaii based on the tropical background. Next to a younger looking, Ann, Ryuji, and Ren was a very skinny, boring-looking boy. Goro had absolutely no recollection of him.
“I see,” Goro said, through clenched, smiling teeth. “So is this what most of the men you sleep with look like, then?” He raised an eyebrow at Ren.
“I didn’t sleep with him! And no, I said he’s not my type!”
“Ren’s kink is commiting to the bit,” Futaba said.
“Shut the fuck up. I hate all of you.” Ren was now curled up the corner of the couch, hiding his face with the remaining throw pillow that he hadn’t thrown at Ryuji.
“Only Mona loves me. C’mere, Mona.” Morgana ignored Ren’s invitations, remaining curled up in Ann’s lap.
“Betrayed! By my own family!”
The party began to wind down from there. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the game they were playing, finally. The conversation devolved into chattering in smaller groups, and Goro took the opportunity to escape to the balcony for some much-needed time alone. Especially since Ren hadn’t touched him again and didn’t seem in any rush to return to his spot curled up with Goro.
Goro looked out at the lights of Tokyo, feeling regrettably more sober. He’d stopped drinking an hour ago when he was still hoping to head home early. Before Ren had asked him to stay. Ugh, Ren.
So Ren was interested in men. That was fine. Clearly he hadn’t thought Goro important enough to inform of this fact, but it was fine. Everything was fine.
Goro was seriously going to kill this Mishima guy.
The balcony door opened behind him. Goro didn’t have to look to see who it was. He knew.
“Hey.”
Goro hummed in response. He kept his eyes trained forward on the city below.
“You doing okay?"
“Just needed some air,” Goro responded, glancing over at his new company. Ren looked as roguishly handsome as before, bathed in the soft light flowing through the balcony doors. His side was leaned against the balcony railing, his body angled towards Goro with his hands in his pockets. He still wasn't wearing his glasses. His eyes shone, unobstructed.
Goro looked away again.
“Sorry about them. Hope none of that made you, uh, uncomfortable or anything.”
“No, although I was a bit surprised,” Goro said. A half-truth. He was extremely uncomfortable, but not for the reasons Ren was assuming. “You’ve never mentioned any of your… escapades before.”
“Oh. Well. We don’t usually talk about that kind of stuff. I just felt weird bringing it up, I guess.” Ren said, his tone as unreadable as ever.
“Everyone else seemed well-informed,” Goro muttered, a bit of vitriol slipping through.
“About my sex life?” Ren was flustered now. “No, they only know because Ryuji blabbed about it. And Ryuji only knows because he, you know, lives with me.”
“About your interest in men,” Goro snapped, turning to face Ren completely. Ren blinked with those wide, striking eyes of his.
“Oh. Yeah. Did I… never tell you?” He at least looked apologetic now, rubbing his neck with one hand. An old nervous habit. Some things never changed.
“No,” Goro said flatly. “You did not.” Unlike seemingly everyone else they knew, Goro had been under the impression that Ren was straight, which Ren had never done anything to disprove. Goro would know, having watched Ren like a hawk for signs of homosexuality the entire year he was on probation.
“Ah. Right. Sometimes I forget that you can’t actually read my mind.”
God, if only.
“You don’t mind though, right?” Ren’s eyes bored into him, his eyebrows furrowing slightly with— concern, perhaps? Confusion?
“I’m gay, Ren,” Goro said flatly. “I told you, remember?”
“Oh, right. Hah. Yeah.” He was messing with his hair again. Goro forced his gaze back to the Tokyo skyline.
Goro had come out to Ren during high school, after a nerve-wracking evening at Jazz Jinn. They had been walking to the station and Ren had made some joke about Goro’s taste in women. Goro, caught up in their banter, had replied, “I prefer men, actually,” without missing a beat. He didn’t even realize what he’d said until a moment afterwards, when Ren was grinning wildly and promising him that Goro’s secret was safe with him. Ren always made him forget himself like that.
“I didn’t figure it out until after I left Tokyo,” Ren said, breaking Goro out of his reminiscence. “It’s, um. Actually kind of a funny story."
Another ‘funny story.’ Wonderful. Perfect. Time to find out what small-town hick had been Ren’s gay awakening. Goro seriously considered throwing himself over the balcony railing. Then a little voice in his head which sounded like his therapist scolded him for it, so he started thinking about throwing Mishima Yuuki off a balcony instead. It helped that he had a visual now.
Ren seemed to take Goro’s silence as a cue to continue.
“I really missed you, you know? I mean, I missed everyone, but I missed you a lot. And I was complaining about it to Ann once and she was just casually like ‘Oh yeah, long-distance can be hard.’ She actually thought we were, uh. Dating. Funny, right?”
Goro didn’t think it was funny at all, but his lack of response didn’t stop Ren’s rambling. Where alcohol typically made Goro talk less, it only seemed to loosen Ren’s lips. He started speaking faster, nervousness quickening his pace.
“Obviously we weren’t actually dating. Obviously. But then I started thinking about it and I realized I actually… I actually liked you a lot. Back then. And I guess I was too freaked out to actually say anything to you about being like, bisexual, because what if you asked how I realized and I had to try and act like it wasn’t my stupid huge crush on you? And you can always tell when I’m lying. So I just. Didn’t mention it. And then I didn’t really have to tell anyone else, they all just figured it out at some point since I wasn’t trying to hide it or anything. So I kind of. Forgot that you didn’t know. Sorry.”
Goro felt like he was frozen solid. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. His whole body was tense. What the fuck. What the actual fuck. Ren had a crush on him? Ren realized he was bisexual because of him? He was Ren’s gay awakening?
I actually liked you a lot. Back then. What was he supposed to do with this information. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that.
“Um. Goro?” Ren sounded scared. Fuck. Goro was worrying him. Ren was scared of Goro’s response. Shit.
Goro’s mouth moved without his permission. His eyes were still trained forward, pointedly not looking at Ren.
“Ah. Well. I had feelings for you as well,” Goro said. What. Why had he said that.
“Back then,” he tacked on, as if it could reduce the magnitude of the reveal of the single biggest secret Goro had been keeping from Ren for the past five years. And it was technically true. Ren didn’t have to know how Goro felt about him now .
“So there’s no reason to be embarrassed,” Goro finished weakly. He tugged on the collar of his shirt, feeling suddenly much warmer than he had a minute ago.
“Oh,” Ren said, sounding strangled and— something else. “You did?”
“I won’t repeat myself,” Goro scoffed, turning to glare at Ren. Ren was flushed to his roots, with a bit of a crazed look in his eye. He looked more red now than he had during his sordid tale earlier, Goro noted with some pride.
“So,” Ren said, leaning farther into Goro’s space, “we both had feelings for each other. And didn’t say anything. That’s. Wow.”
“It would appear so, yes,” Goro gritted out.
“That’s… kind of funny, honestly.”
“Is it,” said Goro, who had not found a single thing Ren said in the past hour ‘funny.’ Goro found absolutely nothing about this situation amusing. Frankly, it was nothing less than utterly humiliating. He began the night thinking, as he had for years, that he was making the best of an impossible situation by maintaining his friendship with Ren and shoving his unrequited feelings deep into a dark, disgusting pit where they belonged. And now he found out that not only had he had a chance with Ren, but he’d apparently squandered it, completely unaware.
“Yeah, it’s funny. Because…” and now Ren was the one who wasn't looking at Goro, “Because we could have been dating this whole time.”
How the fuck was that supposed to be funny.
Goro scrutinized Ren's face— his flushed cheeks, his fluttering eyelashes, his quick breathing— and chose his next words carefully.
“I believe that would require you to have feelings for me in the present moment.”
Ren kept his eyes trained firmly away from Goro, but grew more even fidgety under his unrelenting gaze.
“Ren,” he growled, taking a step forward. They were only inches apart now. He could count Ren’s eyelashes from here.
“Do you have feelings for me?”
Ren squeaked. Actually squeaked. Like a mouse. Goro found it heart-wrenchingly charming.
“I, um. Yeah. Sorry. I really thought I was over it, and then you came back and I— Yeah. Sorry.”
“Ren.”
“Yeah?”
“Stop talking.”
And then Goro’s mouth was on Ren’s, and they were kissing. Holy fuck, they were kissing. Fuck, Ren was a good kisser. They were kissing, Ren’s lips were on his , Ren’s chest was pressed up against him, they were kissing. What the fuck.
Ren’s tongue was in his mouth. His hands were on Goro’s waist. When did that happen. How. Goro’s grip tightened on Ren’s hair and Ren exhaled, soft and quiet. When had his hand gotten there. What the fuck was happening.
Goro’s internal crisis was interrupted by a chorus of loud hooting and wolf-whistles. The two of them startled apart.
Right. They were on the balcony. And the curtains were open. Everyone could see them through the glass doors. The rest of Ren’s friends— their friends, loath as he was to admit it— were gawking at them, laughing and clapping and in Futaba’s case, filming them with her phone.
“Get it, Renren!” Ryuji yelled, which prompted a round of similar encouragements from the others.
Goro couldn't help it. He started laughing. It started out as a chuckle. And then a cackle. And then he was really laughing, not the calculated little noises he made when he wanted people to like him. He laughed like an absolute madman, harder than he had in years. Then he remembered the deranged violent fantasies he'd been having all evening about some guy he couldn't even remember meeting and he laughed even harder. He laughed until he was bent over and clutching his stomach from the pain.
“Uh, Goro? Are you okay?” Ren asked with a nervous smile. Fuck. He was so beautiful. Goro was going to make sure he never touched anyone else again.
“Yes,” Goro said, wiping away tears of laughter. “It's just a bit funny.”
Ren’s smile lost his nervous edge as he leaned in again. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Then Ren’s lips were on his again, and Goro stopped thinking.