Work Text:
He was tired of waiting.
Yamagi had spent approximately 2 years and 184 days (not that he was counting) waiting for Shino to notice how he felt, and that had ended up being a bust. It had taken a lot of courage, albeit liquid, coupled with a severe lack of judgement for him to finally spill all of his feelings to a very surprised- and very red in the face- Shino. And now that they’d been together for a little over three months (again, not that he was counting) with no sign of any affection beyond holding hands at the dinner table and an occasional cheek kiss on the horizon, Yamagi was about ready to implode.
Looking at him, you’d never guess Norba Shino was shy by any possible stretch of the imagination. That was part of what drew Yamagi to him in the first place. He was outgoing and kind, loudmouthed and outspoken. He was fast friends with anybody that he came into contact with, even if they were on complete opposite ends of the spectrum on almost everything. Shino was the best person Yamagi had ever met. When it came to romance though, his outwardly courageous persona shrivelled and he’d practically melt into a puddle on the floor.
This fact was best evidenced by their interaction earlier in the day.
The two of them had been walking home from the dining hall, chatting about their respective days when Yamagi suddenly stopped walking. Shino only noticed because he felt his hand slip and detach from his.
“‘Sup? Am I boring you or somethin’?” he smiled and laughed heartily. “Don’t wanna hear about how Eugene fell in a ditch and cried when we wouldn’t help him out?”
Yamagi shook his head. “You know I always love when Eugene makes an ass out of himself.”
“What is it then?”
Yamagi stepped closer and grabbed him by the collar. It was almost too late that Shino realized he was going in for the kiss. He could feel his face going bright red, and hastily maneuvered his head so Yamagi’s lips would land on his cheek.
“Heh, night, Yamagi!” he’d said, immediately bolting in the direction of his room.
That was his predicament, a boyfriend that would run at any sign of deeper feelings. He grabbed his tablet off its dock on his bedside table and opened a message to Shino.
“Sorry about earlier. You should come over tomorrow night. We can watch movies…” he muttered while typing it out. “I’ll even break out the good snacks.”
Yamagi tossed the computer aside and wrapped the blankets tightly around himself. Under no circumstances would tomorrow be yet another failure on his point.
Yamagi spent a good portion of his work day with his head in the clouds, trying to figure out strategies on how to get Shino to let his guard down for long enough to “take things to the next level” as Atra had joked over breakfast (to which Yamagi replied “as if I’m taking relationship advice from you when you haven’t even told Mikazuki how you feel yet, zip it.”).
This did not go unnoticed by his exceptionally frustrated coworkers, especially when he’d spilled oil all over the interior of a mobile suit while attempting routine maintenance.
After a round off profuse apologies while wiping it up and a promise not to do it again, he clocked out for the night and hurriedly made his way back to his room. The extra time he’d spent cleaning up the mess had taken a good chunk of time off what he’d allotted himself to get ready for Shino to come over. He tossed his jacket and pants on the desk and ran to his dresser, looking through his options before settling for a pair of black leggings and a white tank top. Simple and casual, it’s just a movie night. Plus, he knew he didn’t look half bad in leggings, so that didn’t hurt.
He was in the middle of pouring a half stale bag of kettle corn into a bowl when he heard a knock on the door.
“Just a minute!” he called, tossing the empty bag in the trash and making his way towards the doorway. “Shi--” he cut himself off mid-sentence. Standing in the doorway was Shino, but another unexpected, uninvited guest was there too. He kept the smile plastered on his face, and started again. “Eugene… What a surprise,” he said in a clearly forged happiness through gritted teeth.
Shino smiled nervously and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Yamagi.
“Sorry we’re early! Just thought we’d get a head start on the movie!” he said, pulling away
“Come on in,” Yamagi sighed, gesturing towards his open bedroom door. “What are you doing here?” he whispered at Eugene once Shino had walked by.
“He told me you wanted to hang out? Sure as hell didn’t tell me it was a date with a capital ‘D’,” Eugene replied, raising his arms in exasperation.
“Are you too stupid to put two and two together?” he said, annoyance evident in his tone.
“I can go if you want.”
“Too late now, isn’t it?”
Nothing could have prepared Eugene for how incredibly awkward this “movie night” would shape up to be.
His idea of fun wasn’t “sitting on Yamagi Gilmerton’s bed with his two dating friends”, but here he was, doing just that. He was sitting as far away from Shino as he possibly could, every couple minutes scooting toward the side of the bed and the door only a foot or so from it. The whole time, he could almost feel a pair of blue eyes staring daggers at him. He’d always known not to get on Yamagi’s bad side, but he didn’t know that his friend had some sort of laser vision that could sear tiny holes in his skin from the other side of the bed.
“Hey Yamagi, want some popcorn?” Shino beamed, turning to Yamagi who quickly wiped the sour expression off his face and replaced it with an earnest smile.
“No thanks.”
Yamagi was seething. Not that he could do anything about this whole mess other than stare at him and make him feel uncomfortable as some sort of revenge. Not that he didn’t enjoy Eugene’s company, he just didn’t like the idea of Eugene tagging along on his poor attempt at a date night.
“Get. Out.” he mouthed and cocked his head furiously at the door when Eugene finally caved and looked over.
“I can’t?” He pointed at Shino.
“He’ll notice.”
Shino, on the other hand, was engrossed in the frankly terrible slasher movie that was projecting on the wall. Or so it seemed, to the other two. He was trying his hardest to stare straight forward, not making eye contact with either of the people to his right and left. Truthfully, he was more petrified thinking about having a first kiss with the person he was dating than the idea of Eugene kicking him in the balls as payback for inviting him on their date as a buffer.
“He won’t,” Yamagi whispered. “Now leave.”
Sure enough, Shino was so engrossed in pretending to be engrossed on the movie that he didn’t notice Eugene carefully standing up (as not to shake the bed and set off the time bomb sat next to him) and slipping out the bedroom door to freedom.
"Thank God.” Yamagi whispered to himself, shifting his weight so his arm was pressed against Shino’s, and tilted his head so it was leaning against his shoulder. Shino immediately whipped his head around, looking frantically for Eugene to somehow diffuse the situation, but he was nowhere to be found.
“He wimped out,” Yamagi said, looking up to meet Shino’s eyes, a soft blush painting his cheeks and nose. “Looks like it’s just me and you.”
Shino felt like his heart was beating practically in his throat, and it wasn’t from the screams of the movie’s protagonist as she was being chased through the woods by a man with a knife (although that did not help bring his heart rate down). Yamagi reached out his hand and Shino grabbed it, intertwining their fingers. Shino shakily moved the arm that Yamagi was resting his head on and wrapped it around him. Yamagi’s face lit up and he nuzzled his head into Shino’s chest.
They sat there together, physically closer than they’d ever been before, and talked over the action (if you could really call it that) going on onscreen. About their days, Shino went on and on about the current “rival” drama going on between Eugene and one of the new recruits.
When it was Yamagi’s turn, though, things went silent.
“Sorry I was so annoyed earlier,” he added quietly, his face going from vaguely pink to burning red. “I really do love having time together as friends but… I just… Was hoping to have a normal date.”
Shino opened his mouth, trying to will his brain to vocalize an adequate apology, but all that came out was a stuttered “Oops?”
He looked down at Yamagi, who was now covering his face, a stifled whimper escaping through the spaces between his fingers.
“Oh my God,” he thought to himself. “You made him cry, dumbass.”
He was beyond mortified.
“Hey, you oka-” Shino’s attempt at salvaging the already ruined night was cut off abruptly by Yamagi’s howling laughter.
“What?!” he said, worried that he’d broken Yamagi to the point where laughing was the only reaction he had.
Yamagi pushed himself out of Shino’s arms and fell backward onto the bed, laying there with his hands on his stomach, practically out of breath from laughing so hard.
“You really are an oblivious idiot!” he cackled, pulling himself together and wiping tears from his eyes.
“And...” he said, making his way back toward Shino. “I know you invited Eugene because you’ve been too scared to kiss me.”
“Heh, me? Nah!” Shino said, his confidence clearly not quite at its normal level.
“Are too.” He scooted closer.
“As if!” He folded his arms. “Y’know, I’m an experienced man.”
“You’re all talk,” he smirked.
He put his hand on Shino’s shoulder to steady himself while he slung one leg over his lap.
Shino could feel his heart pounding what he estimated was approximately ten times harder than before. They were face to face, Yamagi sitting in his lap, arms linked behind his neck.
“Is this ok?” Yamagi whispered, his face flushed bright red.
Shino couldn’t even get the words out, he just nodded and closed his eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t have some sort of freak heart attack when their lips touched.
Yamagi tilted his head, bringing it closer to Shino’s and kissed him as gently and sweetly as he possibly could, almost like he was afraid he’d break him somehow. It wasn’t a display of skill by any means, but the soft pressure he put on Shino’s lips was enough to make all the tension and worry he’d been carrying about this situation practically melt away. He let go of the fistful of blanket he’d been white-knuckling for the past few minutes and loosely wrapped his arms around Yamagi’s waist. The steadily increasing rhythm that they settled on felt like finally, something was going without any real hitch.
“Told ya it wasn’t all talk,” Shino said, to which he got a killer eyeroll in response before Yamagi started kissing him again.
Shino slid his hands up from his waist to his back, and Yamagi shifted forward, sighing into the kiss and tangling a hand in the back of Shino’s hair. Shino reciprocated, pushing back and increasing the pace, changing the tone from gentle and quiet to something different altogether.
Yamagi took the hint and pulled away, breathless and pink faced, tilting his head and pressing hot, open mouthed kisses down Shino’s jaw and neck. He inhaled sharply and reflexively let his eyelids droop when Yamagi suddenly stopped.
“If this is too much, we can stop.” He looked up, his expression gentle. “I’ve waited much longer for much less. I can wait some more.”
Shino grinned, pulling him closer, so they were chest to chest.
“Hell no.”