Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So maybe following that cat into a dark alley hadn’t been Yu’s brightest idea. Maybe looking up upon hearing an alarm and seeing a particularly suspicious individual in a long black coat duck into the aforementioned alley as the cops ran past hadn’t been very bright either. And maybe, just maybe, Yu shouldn’t have tried to get the police’s attention when the suspect, who was slipping a small item into his pocket, was standing between them.

Now here he was pinned against a brick wall in a back alley by a stranger, who was probably also a criminal. No, not probably, definitely a criminal. There’s no way this person wasn’t running away from those police just now. People don’t just duck into dark alleys when there’s police chasing them without a reason.

The other boy had an odd manner of dress too: a masquerade mask, red gloves, and a long black jacket. His shirt had a pattern not unlike that of a spider web, and Yu couldn’t deny that he did indeed feel trapped under this storybook-like person’s grip.

“What did you do?” Yu asked accusingly while attempting to release his arms from the phantom’s grip. The suspect had his knee on the wall between Yu’s legs, making it difficult to keep sturdy footing.

“I’m afraid that’s none of your business.” It was a calm, collected answer, almost as if he’d had nothing to do with it in the first place, as if he wasn’t keeping a witness hostage at this very moment. He kept his eyes on the street.

“I can’t say I agree.”

The phantom glanced at Yu for a moment, but was quick to return his gaze to the road.

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t, would you? Not from that position.”

“So you understand then.” There was more than a hint of annoyance in Yu’s voice.

“Yes, but I’m not wrong.”

Yu could see he wasn’t going to be able to talk his way out of this. Well, if talking wouldn’t work, screaming would have to do. There was no way this guy could hold both his arms and his mouth at the same time.

“HELP! POLICE! I’M BEING HE—” Yu’s words got cut short by the other boy’s mouth meeting his own. It seemed there had been one way. He tried to be loud despite the sounds being muffled, but it didn’t take long for the phantom to shove his tongue in the way. Yu could feel the heat rushing to his face.

He… he’s actually pretty good at this.

Yu tried to push that out of his mind, but with the current situation the task was more than a bit difficult. He could feel his thoughts melting away with every movement of the criminal’s tongue.

No, he’s… I’m supposed to…

But Yu was already falling under the phantom’s spell. The tension left his body, and he stopped struggling. He began to kiss back and let his tongue explore the other’s mouth. At first the phantom was a bit shocked at his hostage’s change of heart, but he accepted the chance, to stall for time, or maybe for another purpose. The boy let go of Yu’s arms, and took hold instead of his jaw with one hand and his waist with the other, drawing him closer.

Eventually the police sirens stopped, and the phantom pulled away. Yu was gasping for air, his lungs trying to catch up with his racing heart. His masked friend wasn’t showing it on his face, but his chest was heaving just enough to give him away. His gaze ran down the length of Yu’s body, but stopped just below his belt.

“You’re really enjoying this, huh?” he asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your dick’s more solid than my alibi.”

“Wh—” Yu’s eyes immediately shot down to his crotch. Indeed, once again, the phantom thief wasn’t wrong. There was definitely a lump there that hadn’t been there before, and the distance between his penis and the other boy’s leg had been reduced to approximately three layers of clothing.

If Yu’s face wasn’t red before, it certainly was now.

“I… Th-that’s…” Yu was too flustered to make a coherent response. This was not how today was supposed to go at all.

“I don’t mind taking care of it.” This was an unexpected offer. Yu lifted his gaze to the other boy’s face again.

“If you’ll stay quiet about all of this, I mean.”

Now it made sense.

“Please.” The word spilled from Yu’s lips before he had a chance to stop himself. He could hardly believe what he was doing, and yet, here was nearly begging for this stranger to jack him off. Whoever this guy was, he was too powerful.

“Very well,” he answered, smirking as he began to undo Yu’s belt. Yu tried to avert his eyes, feeling a more than a little shameful about the circumstances, but his gaze trailed back to watch the phantom’s hands work. Soon his fly was undone and a hand was sliding down the front of his underwear. Yu felt the soft leather of the other boy’s glove on his cock. He shuddered and his breath hitched, just loud enough for the phantom to hear it and grin in satisfaction.

“I haven’t even started and you’re already like this?”

“Shut up.” It was already embarrassing enough to be seen in this state, and here he was, mocking him. Great.

The thief pulled Yu’s penis out into the open, his red fingers gently stroking the shaft. His other hand reached into his back pocket and pulled out a smartphone.

“By the way,” the phantom started, bringing his face closer to Yu’s and forcing him to make eye contact. “I’ll be documenting this. For insurance, I mean. I’m sure you understand.”

“F-fine.” Yu wanted to stop him but what with his balls being in someone else’s grip it didn’t seem like a good idea to do so. He was too horny to waste time arguing over it anyway.

“You’ve gotten pretty agreeable compared to when we met,” the phantom commented as he hit the record button on his phone while absentmindedly rubbing his other thumb over the head of Yu’s cock.

God, this guy’s such a fucking tease, Yu thought to himself, clenching his teeth. It’d be faster if I did it myself.

Unable to hold back any longer, Yu began grinding against the fingers that were wrapped around his dick. Startled and a bit flustered, the other boy dropped his cell on the ground.

That would make for an interesting camera angle later.

“Okay, okay, calm down. I’m working on it.” The phantom finally started to deliver on his promise, clutching the penis tightly while Yu continued to hump between his fingers.

“You’re not the one with his dick out right now,” Yu muttered.This guy was unbelievable.

After some trial and error the phantom figured out the rhythm of Yu’s hips and he started to pump his cock accordingly. Yu could feel the heat rising inside him. He put his arms around the thief’s neck and pulled him closer, partially so he wouldn’t have to think about those judging eyes watching him get off, but admittedly also because round two on those lips was awfully tempting.

The phantom, however, had other plans. He pushed back Yu’s collar placed his mouth on the other boy’s exposed neck, sucking it gently, then slowly working his way down to Yu’s collar bone, eliciting a whimper of pleasure out of him.

“You like that?” the phantom asked, releasing the dick for a moment in order to unbutton the top of Yu’s shirt.

“Yeah,” he answered between heavy breaths. There was some shame in his voice, but apparently he wasn’t feeling enough of it to stop humping the phantom’s leg.

 “Good to know I’m doing something right.”

Rather than dignify that with a response, Yu took the masked boy by his wavy black hair, yanked his head back, and forced his tongue back into the other boy’s mouth. If this guy had time to be sarcastic, he had time to trade saliva.

Though surprised, and even a bit offended, the phantom caught on quickly and met Yu’s tongue with his own. He slid his hand down his thigh, searching for the boner he was supposed to be relieving. Even with the friction it was making on his leg, finding it without disconnecting their faces was a bit of a challenge. After a few seconds his fingers came upon the other boy’s exposed genitals. Still feeling a bit insulted from having his head jerked back, he didn’t bother being gentle. Instead, he recklessly gripped the penis, tugging it toward him far more roughly than was necessary. The action prompted an alarmed-sounding grunt out of Yu. He reeled back, but not enough to unlock their lips. It had hurt, but it wasn’t like he’d totally hated it. Yu bit the thief’s lip in half-hearted retaliation.

He heard a quiet moan escape the other boy’s throat. It seemed the phantom didn’t exactly dislike this either.

Holy shit, that’s hot.

The sound was enough to push Yu to the edge. He felt his knees beginning to grow weak. Yu hesitantly pulled back from their kiss.

“I-I’m close,” he stuttered, suddenly feeling really self-conscious again for whatever reason, but he was too close, too excited to stop now. His confession was met with a mischievous smile. Before Yu could question this, a thumb had been sturdily placed on the tip of his cock. Yu bucked his hips a bit, but the thumb wasn’t giving up its position.

“What are you…?” Yu asked, his voice cracking a little.

“Beg me,” the phantom commanded, stroking Yu’s dick with the hand that wasn’t denying him release.

“What the hell?”

“You heard me. Beg.” It seemed this condition would be non-negotiable. “Tell me how bad you want it.”

Haven’t you embarrassed me enough yet? Yu thought to himself, fully aware of his current pitiful state: face flushed, shirt undone, dick out, pants steadily falling, ass partially revealed, in public. He hoped to God no one he knew would turn into this alley. He didn’t think anyone would have a reason to, but he’d ended up here somehow, so he couldn’t deny the possibility.

“Let me come,” Yu muttered, his gaze fixed on the ground.

“I’m sorry, what was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

You fucking asshole. These were not words Yu often assigned to people.

“Let me spray my load all over your shit-eating face.”

“Whoa, hostile again, are we? Where are your manners?”

“PLEASE.” Yu’s desperation caused the word to come out louder than he had initially intended it be.

“Close enough, I guess.” Grinning, the phantom thief squeezed Yu’s cock one last time before removing his thumb from the tip of the other boy’s urethra. White liquid stained the phantom’s red gloves. “That’s odd. I thought you were aiming for my face.”

“Fuck o—” Yu started, but upon catching a glimpse of the phantom licking the cum off his fingers, Yu found himself too flustered to finish that sentence. The other boy gave Yu a curious glance, but didn’t bother to inquire about the abrupt silence. He took his leg back, letting a now limp and shaky Yu slide to the ground. He picked up his phone from the dirt beneath them, stopped the recording, and dusted it off on his pant leg before sliding it back into his pocket.

“I’d love to stick around and help you with your aim, but I’ve got places to be.” After adjusting his jacket, the phantom turned around and began to scan the area for police one last time.

“W-wait!” Yu struggled to get the word out.

“Hm?” The phantom turned to face him. Their eyes met. Yu felt his nerves tense up again.

“Will… will I ever see you again?” He could hardly believe he was asking this. The phantom smirked.

“You like me that much, huh? I couldn’t tell.”

“Shut it.”

There was a long silence, and then: “I’ll think about it.”

Though Yu couldn’t explain why, he felt his heart sink.

“So that’s it then?” It was a quiet question, more to himself than the other. The silence was shorter this time.

“I might have to check up on you from time to time. Make sure you’re behaving, I mean.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you,” Yu chided, despite his bizarre sense of relief.

“I can’t have you going back on our deal, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The phantom turned to leave again, but stopped one last time.

“You’re a lot nicer when you’re not in heat.” He wasn’t facing Yu when he said this, but somehow Yu knew he was grinning.

“I thought you were leaving.”

The phantom happily obliged, and with a small salute he disappeared into the shadows.

Yu severely hoped he wouldn’t regret this.

Chapter Text

A week had passed since Yu met the phantom in that dirty back alley, and he still couldn’t get the events of that day out of his head. He could hardly believe it had even happened in the first place. He kept thinking, ‘it had to be a dream’ but the bruises on his arms told another story (and that was without bothering to mention the bruises in, uh, other places).

Not a day went by that Yu didn’t replay the whole thing in his mind. The unexpected kiss, the hot feeling in his chest, that guy’s smug yet incredibly beautiful face, all of it was still vivid in his memory. Yu was beginning to realize he’d just have to accept the fact he was crushing hard on this mysterious stranger.

And of course, the phantom’s first impression of him would have to be ‘that one guy who got the untimely boner.’

Yu buried his red face in his arms on his desk. Class was doing nothing to distract him from his thoughts. The whole situation was already just too embarrassing to bear, and thinking about it in retrospect wasn’t helping.

God, I must have seemed so pathetic to him.

He tried to cheer himself up. Yu reminded himself that the phantom had been the one to kiss him first, the one to offer his services first, and that the thief definitely could have just left with a dick picture as blackmail rather than actually going through with their deal.

At that moment, it struck Yu that their entire first meeting was recorded on the phantom’s phone. All of it. Every awkward, uncomfortable, and entirely humiliating part of it. And the phantom could watch it as many times as he wanted.

Yu could physically feel his will to live draining from his body.

The walk home didn’t help to distract him any more than school had.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the other boy had stuck around out of some sort of pity for the mess in front of him. To the phantom he was probably just some kid who got accidentally wrapped up in something he had no business being a part of, and then was unreasonably turned on by it. Yu wondered if his line about “checking up on him” had been sincere or if that too could have been some throwaway comment to cheer him up before throwing him out too.

How was the phantom even going to go about checking up on him in the first place? They hadn’t swapped information of any sort, not even their names. Maybe he had some band of cohorts who had access to that kind of intel, but that seemed like a lot to go through for some guy he jacked off once in exchange for silence. As far as Yu was concerned, it was doubtful that the phantom would even bother finding him. The phantom was probably lounging with his friends somewhere, showing them the video of this horny loser he met last week and laughing.

Why did I even agree to do that? Was I really that desperate?

His face was burning. Yu tried to remember what his thought process during that whole event was, but all that came to mind was the phantom’s mischievous smile, his soft lips, the red hands undoing him, and those intense eyes watching him from the other side of the mask.

Yu realized that the phantom had left his mask on the entire time. He didn’t even know what this guy’s full face looked like. He could be anywhere. Hell, he could be someone at the same school, watching Yu collapse in on himself and enjoying the show.

Yu wasn’t even entirely sure why he liked that asshole in the first place. He hadn’t consciously thought of it during the event, but recalling it now, he couldn’t deny that he found the other boy to be incredibly easy on the eyes, but even if he was attractive, the phantom had literally spent the whole time teasing and humiliating him. Yu was baffled at how the other boy could remain so composed and calm throughout the whole thing while he’d been reduced to a panting, sweating, begging puddle. Hadn’t that guy been turned on at all? Yu had barely managed to get that one groan out of him. It wasn’t fair.

But even if it wasn’t fair, he had to admit, it was terribly sexy.

Ugh, just take me now. Yu was unsure if that thought was aimed at God or the phantom. He’d be happy with either option.

Yu came home to an empty house, as usual. Upon entering his room Yu found a message waiting for him on his laptop. It was from Yosuke, asking if a video call would be possible after class. He typed a quick “Sure, whenever works for you” into the messenger and set his bag next to his desk. Not even two seconds later his computer was bleeping at him. Apparently ‘whenever’ was right now, though Yu wasn’t particularly surprised. In his personal experience, Yosuke always had been unusually prompt in his responses.

“Hey.” Yu couldn’t help but smile upon seeing Yosuke’s face on the screen. Something about seeing his best friend was really calming.

“How’s it go—” Yosuke began before being pushed aside by a very excited Teddie.

“HIIIII SENSEI.” The greeting was accompanied by excessive waving.

“You could at least let me finish my sentence!” Yosuke was visibly annoyed, but his expression softened when he noticed Yu laughing at their antics.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t miss you guys,” Yu admitted. Though he’d made friends in the city, none of them really had the same family dynamic he loved about the former Investigation Team.

“Yeah, same here, Partner,” Yosuke agreed as he reclaimed his half of the screen.

Teddie crossed his arms and nodded with needless dramatics. “Inaba’s just not the same without you, Sensei. And Yosuke’s been beary lonely without you.”

“Don’t tell him that!” Yosuke sputtered. He really wished Ted would have a better sense of word connotation. It was like the bear wanted to make him sound like a housewife pining for a husband that had gone off to war. “Though… that’s not wrong, I guess. I mean, everyone else is here, but…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Yu reassured him. The feeling was definitely mutual.

There was a short break in the conversation. Yosuke looked like he was trying to work out something in his head.

“Hey so,” Yosuke paused to scratch his head and fixed his gaze on something that wasn’t within the webcam’s range of vision. “Sorry to ask so suddenly, but are you doing okay?”

“I, uh, well…” Suddenly the off-screen things in Yu’s room became a lot more interesting too. “Is it that obvious?”

“I mean, you weren’t answering my texts, so…”

“I wasn’t answering…” Yu furrowed his brow. “Wait, you sent me a text?”

“Yeah, like 3 of them.”

“But Yosuke, I thought you sent 8?” Teddie added.

“No one asked you!” Yosuke retorted, jabbing Teddie in the ribs. He turned back to his partner. “You mean you never got them?”

“I don’t remember my phone going off,” Yu answered, reaching into his pocket “But I can check…”

His pocket was empty.

“Maybe it’s…” Yu said to himself, looking through his school bag.

Not there either.

It was gone.

“Is there anywhere else you would have put it?” Yosuke asked, hoping the question would trigger some sort of memory.

“I can’t think of anywh—” Then it hit him. There was a reason he hadn’t gotten any calls since last week. “Oh, no,” Yu whispered with wide eyes, placing a hand on his forehead. “This isn’t good.”

“Uh, Partner, are you okay?” It was unusual for them to see their former leader losing his cool over something like this. After all, in the past they’d faced far more dire situations than just a missing phone.

“Yeah, I…” Yu was trying to regain his composure, but not having a lot of success. He couldn’t believe he’d let himself become so engrossed in his own thoughts all week so as to not even think to check his phone.

“Sensei, you look really pale!”

“It’s… it’s okay, Teddie,” Yu said, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than Ted. Yosuke and Teddie shot each other a worried glance. Yosuke whispered something inaudible to Ted, who then looked a bit sad, but nodded and waved to the camera before leaving the room.

“Tell me what’s going on.” Yosuke gave his partner a stern look. “Whatever it is, you don’t have to hide it from me.”

“It’s just…” Just what, Yu? Just that you made out with and received sexual favors from a sketchy stranger in a dark alley last week? Just that the whole thing was videotaped from a very unflattering view from below for the express purpose of preventing him from telling anyone? Just that the aforementioned stranger now had the ability to send that video to every single person in his phone’s contact list?

Honestly, Yu could probably live with just Yosuke knowing, with just him seeing it, but telling him at the risk of everyone else finding out? That was a bit more than Yu could take.

“What is it? You can tell me.” Yosuke’s voice wavered. “I mean, we’re partners, right?”

“Of course we are,” Yu countered, trying to come up with a response that would let Yosuke know that trust wasn’t an issue while still maintaining the privacy of his penis and protecting the innocent eyes of literally everyone he knew.

“Then why do you keep dodging the question?!” Yosuke was visibly shaken. This wasn’t good at all.

“Calm down!” The phrase seemed more than a little empty coming from someone who wasn’t calm himself, but Yosuke still backed off long enough to give Yu time to think it through. “Look, I’ll tell you when I can, but I can’t right now. I know that sounds bad, but please, just trust me for now.”

A long silence followed. Yosuke seemed to be digesting this new information.

“Okay.” Yosuke nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, you know…”

“No, I understand.” Yu shook his head. “Just… promise me you won’t answer if you get a call from my phone, okay? And tell everyone else not to answer too.”

“O-okay.” Yosuke’s expression seemed to say ‘I don’t really get it, but I’ll go along with it.’ At least, that’s what Yu hoped that confused look meant. “But if things get too hard, then don’t hesitate to contact me.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t.”

“Good.” Yosuke smiled again, relieved that he could at least do this much. Having reached a temporary resolution to the issue, the conversation turned to lighter things and the two of them made their usual chit-chat until Yosuke got a call from his dad telling him he was needed at Junes. They reluctantly said their good-byes and ended the call. Yu closed his laptop and set it aside before flopping on the couch in his room. He clutched his head and let out a frustrated yell.

“Dammit,” he told the ceiling. “Dammit, dammit, dammit.”

He couldn’t even recall when the phantom would’ve had a chance to take his phone. Yu could’ve sworn it was in his pocket, and that he definitely would have noticed if those red hands had been there. He was sure he would have felt that. His pants weren’t loose enough to not notice.

No. That wasn’t right. They were loose enough. During that particular time they had been loose enough that his bare ass had scratches from the brick wall behind him. That was more than loose enough to take anything, really.

“Why did I do that? Why? I should’ve just left. I should have just—”

He remembered the phantom’s face.

‘I don’t mind taking care of it. If you’ll stay quiet about all of this, I mean.’

His beautiful fucking smug-ass face.

“I HATE HIM.”

As usual, the ceiling had no advice to give.

“If I ever see him again, I swear I’ll make him be the one moaning and begging me for—”

Yu stopped himself.

Why…

His face went crimson in an instant.

Why do I want to get back at him by pleasuring him?

Yu rolled off the couch and face-first onto the floor in defeat. He wrapped his arms under his face, which at this point was glowing like a stoplight.

“What’s wrong with me?” Yu groaned into his forearm. It was undeniable; he had it bad for the phantom thief. He’d had crushes before, but nothing like this. Nothing where he had spent a whole week wallowing in self-pity because of a poor first impression. Nothing where he wanted nothing more than to see them weak with pleasure. Nothing where maybe he didn’t mind having his dignity as a person held hostage if it meant the possibility of seeing them again.

And Yu had to admit, he was just a little glad to realize the phantom had made some way to find him again.

I’m in too deep.

He spent a few moments staring at the grain of the wood floor, thinking. Even if Yu did want to see the phantom again, it didn’t change the fact he was overwhelmingly stressed out by the whole situation. He tried to think up ways to calm his nerves, and after ruling out the option of attempting to talk to Yosuke again (he wanted to wait until he could actually tell his partner something) he decided a bath might be best, even if it was a bit early for that.

Though the hot water did help, Yu found that he still felt heart-racingly miserable. He wasn’t sure if it was nervousness or anxiety or just flat-out the uncertainty of everything, but the fact he was unable to bring a resolution to it made him feel helpless. Seeing what remained of his bruises on his naked body didn’t help to settle his thoughts either, especially seeing the one that had been left on his penis.

He didn’t have to pull so hard, a now clean Yu thought, letting his mind wander back to a dirty place as he dried off and put on his casual clothes.

But being handled like that, it was kind of…

He could feel it rising.

Not again. To be honest, he didn’t really want to deal with it literally just after having gotten dressed. At least he was in the privacy of his own home this time. He locked his door in case his parents were to come home. Yu leaned his back against the wall, and pulled his pants down as he slid to the floor, just low enough to give his dick some air.

He remembered the phantom’s lips on his collar bone and began to wonder what would’ve happened if he hadn’t stopped the thief’s slow descent, if he would’ve kept going, down his chest, over his abs, onto his…

Yu made a guilty sound as he let his fingers mimic the imagined movements of the phantom’s tongue on his cock. They trailed down around his balls and then tantalizingly slowly up his shaft. Yu wanted to go faster, but he knew that asshole would make it take as long as fucking possible, like some kind of sweet, delicious torture. He’d watch Yu blush and fidget and he’d smile that infuriating smile of his. He’d make some snarky comment about how the head of Yu’s penis was the same color as Yu’s actual head.

Despite the fact the line had come from his imagination rather than the actual phantom, it still pissed Yu off a little. Before he knew it Yu was giving himself the same reckless dick jerk that the phantom had given him. The lingering bruise made it hurt more than it had the first time. Yu made a mental note to be more careful about that in the future, especially considering the noise it’d prompted him to make. If someone had been home there was no way they wouldn’t have heard it.

“Fuck.”

He’s not even here and I’m— Ugh, get out of my head!

Yu tried to shake that smug face out of his thoughts, but instead it just returned to business on his smaller, but still just as pink, head. Instead of fighting it, Yu let his hands continue to simulate the experience. Around the base, then up to the tip, then back down, paying special attention to the crevices between his testicles and his thighs, his fingers didn’t miss anything.

Feeling close, he ran his fingertips up his dick one last time and wrapped his fingers around the end of his penis, firmly rubbing in a motion that would’ve felt like sucking had there been another person’s heat coming from the outside. His toes curled in while his legs spread out.

Yu moaned.

Soon his hands were covered with the same white substance that had stained the phantom’s red gloves only a week ago.

Yu wasn’t sure what possessed him to do it, whether it was the memory of the phantom doing it or if it was just sinful curiosity, but shaking, he ran his tongue through the cum on palm. It tasted like his sweat, only thicker.

He felt like he needed another bath. Or three. Maybe eight.

Despite having relaxed himself significantly, the night was still long and restless for Yu. His thoughts kept teetering between ‘when will I see him again’ and ‘that ass better not call anyone on my phone.’ The line between affection and aggression only got blurrier as time passed. Unfortunately not nearly enough of that time was spent sleeping and an exhausted Yu had to force himself to return to school the next day. He greeted his friends with a yawn and opened his shoe locker only to find a conspicuous red and black card waiting for him beside his indoor shoes. Yu immediately regretted opening his locker with his friends nearby.

Please don’t notice. Please don’t—

“Hey, what’s that?”

Dammit.

“Oh it’s just—”

“Isn’t that the phantom’s emblem?”

Yu’s eyes darted back to the card.

Why would he make it so obvious?!

“You better keep an eye on your shoes, Yu. They might go missing.”

A wave of relief washed over Yu as he realized his friends clearly thought it was a prank.

“Yeah,” he answered with a nervous laugh.

“Still though, he’s been getting pretty famous lately, hasn’t he?” The conversation continued on without Yu as he picked up the card and turned it over. The other side had an address and a note.

‘I’ll be there after school today, if you’re still looking for another round. Come alone and don’t tell anyone unless you want your cop uncle to know whose leg you were fucking last week. By the way, we can work on your aim, if there’s time.’

He really has a way with words. Sarcasm was really the only way Yu could think of to cope with all this. He could hardly believe he’d fallen for this piece of shit.

Chapter Text

Against his better judgment, Yu arrived at the address written on the card. It appeared to be some kind of abandoned warehouse near the river, complete with broken windows and a shady atmosphere.

Well, this seems safe. Sarcasm was the only thing getting Yu through the day. He felt like he could be jumped from behind at any time. Yu was beginning to wonder if his addiction to this man was really worth the trouble.

On the other hand, he wasn’t sure what the phantom would do if he didn’t show up, and it wasn’t like Yu didn’t want to see him again.

After a few moments of staring at the door in indecision, Yu shook his reservations from his mind and grabbed the door handle.

I might as well. I’ve already come this far.

Moments after entering his arms were taken from behind and handcuffs were placed on his wrists. The click echoed throughout the empty building.

“What the hell is this?”

“Really? That’s how you’re going to greet me? After I went through all this trouble? Do you think it’s easy finding a vacant place like this?”

Oh good. He’s still just as smug as before.

“I thought I’d at least see your face first.” Yu turned to see the smirking thief behind him.

“I wouldn’t be a very good phantom then, would I?”

“What about last time?”

The smirk drooped a bit.

“I think it’d be safe to say neither of us were on our A-game that day.”

Yu couldn’t argue with that.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked, trying to gesture to the handcuffs, but not being particularly successful at it.

“After last time? Yes.” The phantom said this while rubbing his neck. Yu almost felt bad. Almost. “By the way, uh, Yu, was it? I had no idea you were so popular. This thing’s been going off nonstop all week.”

The phantom held up Yu’s cell phone and flipped it open.

“I wonder, before we start, should I ask who this Yosuke person is? You’ve received 8 texts from him alone.”

“So Teddie was right,” Yu mumbled to himself.

“What?” That hadn’t been the answer the phantom was expecting.

“Uh, nothing. What are you getting at?”

“You’re not spoken for, are you?” He glanced at Yu for a moment before returning his eyes to the screen and tapping through a couple of the messages. “I have enough on my plate without juggling an affair with a taken man.”

“What? We’re not… No.” Though now that he’d said it, Yu almost wished he’d fallen for Yosuke instead. Maybe then he wouldn’t be in this bullshit situation.

“But you know, how I do know you’re not lying? I mean, he keeps calling you ‘Partner.’ You two seem pretty cozy in some of these selfies too.”

“Do you think I’d be here if I had something like that with him?” That came out sounding more bitter than Yu had intended it too. The phantom raised his eyebrows, though Yu couldn’t see it through the mask.

“All right, all right. I’ll believe you.” It seemed the phantom was satisfied for the time being. “But just know, if anyone comes after me for any reason, that video’s as good as public.”

“What about you? That won’t affect your reputation at all?” The thought had only just then occurred to Yu.

“No, it will, but this alias is already regarded as a public menace. It’ll hardly be an issue.” The thief continued to scroll through the messages without bothering to look up. “Some of my fellow bandits might be surprised, but I’m willing to live with that.”

Yu was a little shocked to hear that the phantom hadn’t told anyone yet. He began to wonder if the other boy, who was now pocketing Yu’s phone, was just as self-conscious about all this.

“There was another thing I wanted to discuss with you, but…” The phantom put his fingers down the front of Yu’s belt and pulled him close. Their eyes met.

“But?” Yu asked, suddenly feeling short on breath. The word lingered in the inch between their faces.

“It can wait.” He tugged Yu’s belt open. The rattle of the buckle was amplified by the vacant structure. Yu enjoyed the sound more than he wanted to admit. He was beginning to understand why the phantom had picked such a spacious location for just the two of them.

The thief placed his left hand on the small of Yu’s back and closed the space between them. This time Yu could feel that the phantom was just as hard as he was. Yu couldn’t help but find something about that comforting, like maybe this whole attraction was more mutual than he’d initially thought.

The right hand ran through Yu’s hair, around the back of his head, and then under his jaw, pulling him into a kiss for which he’d been waiting far too long. While their tongues were reuniting their genitals were meeting for the first time, rubbing together through the phantom’s pants and Yu’s underwear. The friction was making Yu sweat. He wasn’t sure how the Phantom could bear to keep wearing that jacket of his even while doing this.

If only I could use my hands right now, I’d get him out of… the thought trailed off as Yu began to realize maybe the jacket wasn’t his top priority. He soon found he wasn’t alone, as the phantom let go of Yu for just long enough to undo his own fly before placing his hands on Yu’s hips and steadying their grind.

After a minute or so, the phantom pulled his mouth away from Yu’s lips and made his way down, leaving kisses under the other boy’s chin and neck. He sucked on Yu’s Adam’s apple, spending a little extra time on it. Yu let out a low moan, the apple bobbed, and the phantom’s tongue followed, contouring to the movement.

“You don’t mind if I leave a mark, do you?” The thief whispered the question into Yu’s neck.

“How am I supposed to keep our secret if you keep leaving evidence all over my body?” Though Yu wasn’t opposed to the idea, he’d already had someone ask about the bruises on his arms. A hickey might be harder to explain, even with all his high collars.

The phantom pulled back with a thoughtful look.

“What if I left it somewhere else?” he asked, his eyes trailing down Yu’s figure.

“Somewhere else?”

“Somewhere only you and I will see,” the phantom answered, his hand sliding over the inside of Yu’s thigh.

“O-oh,” Yu said, his face flushed enough to make him feel a little hazy.

“Is that okay with you?”

“S-sure, yeah.”

“C’mon.” The phantom put a finger under the elastic of Yu’s underwear and led him to a stack of iron beams where he could sit. Yu had a lot of mixed feelings about being led this way. With the belt it had been hot, but somehow having his underwear tugged open like that only made him feel vulnerable, despite the fact that the other boy had seen it before. However, they soon reached their destination and he took a seat. The thief began to strip him from the waist down, and Yu had the revelation that it didn’t really matter how vulnerable he felt in his underwear, given that he wouldn’t be wearing them much longer.

The steel was cold on his bare ass.

As soon as those clothes reached Yu’s ankles, the phantom removed his jacket, knelt down, spread Yu’s legs, and placed his lips on the spot his hand had indicated earlier. He began to suck at the flesh on Yu’s thigh, gently at first, then harder. The beak of the mask pressed into his skin creating an adjacent mark.

“Don’t you ever,” Yu spoke between heavy breaths, “take that thing off?”

The phantom lifted his head from the area between Yu’s legs and admired his handiwork.

“Not on the second date, no.”

“This is a date?” Yu asked incredulously. This was the first he’d heard of it. “Wait, ‘the second’? There was a first?” And then he realized, “You’re counting that as the first?!”

“I agree to have sex with you and you won’t even let me call it a date. I’m offended.”

“You’re offended? You pin me to a wall, give me a boner, and steal my phone, and you’re the one offended?!” For some reason Yu had only just then remembered to be upset about these things. Admittedly, he was a bit ashamed that he’d been so caught up in the moment that he’d forgotten to be angry.

“Geez, just when I was starting to think you were cute, too.” The phantom mock-pouted for a moment before looking up to see a bright red face turned away from him.

“C-cute, huh?”

The thief stood up, took Yu’s chin between his fingers and looked him in the eye, and confirmed, “Yeah, cute.” He left a light kiss on the corner of Yu’s mouth.

“Wait.” Before the phantom could pull away, Yu left a kiss of his own on his upper lip.

“Does this mean you forgive me?”

“Like I have a choice,” Yu muttered, though his defiance felt half-hearted at this point.

“You’re more of a pushover than I imagined.” The phantom seemed happy with Yu’s response.

“So,” Yu started hesitantly, averting his gaze again, “If this is a date, then does that mean…”

“It means you’re more than welcome to mark me too.”

Yu wasn’t sure exactly what kind of response he’d been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been that. He was too shocked to even reply. How forward could one guy be?

“I mean, if you don’t want to—”

“No, I…” Yu could feel the heat racing to his face as he realized what he was saying. “I’d like to.”

Soon the two of them had switched roles, the phantom had removed his trousers, and Yu was knelt down in front of him, finding that it was hard to concentrate on his date’s thigh when his never-before-seen erect penis was right there beside it.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“No, it’s just…” Yu couldn’t bring himself to tell the phantom how distracting his cock was. Rather than complete his answer, Yu pressed his mouth against the phantom’s inner thigh and closed his eyes in hopes that he wouldn’t think about the dick less than an inch from his head if he couldn’t see it.

No dice. He was still thinking about it.

Though now that he was thinking about it, it occurred to him that this might be his chance to get back at the phantom, or at least to make him be the one making noises for once. After leaving a decent sized welt on the thief’s thigh he brought his kisses closer and closer to the phantom’s groin until he was sucking at the base of his penis.

“Hey, what’re you…” The other boy didn’t finish his question, since the answer became obvious when he felt Yu’s tongue run up the length of his shaft. Shuddering, he drew in a sharp breath and tried to bring his legs together, but the head between them was in the way. Yu continued exploring the phantom’s crotch, trying to find his sweet spot.

It didn’t take him long to find it. When Yu’s lips paused on the skin just below the head of the penis, the thief, whose face now matched his gloves, whimpered and put his hand on Yu’s forehead, pushing him back.

“So you have this side too, huh?” Yu couldn’t help but feel satisfied with his new discovery. Finally, this guy had a weakness.

“Please, if you keep doing that, I’ll…” He was practically gasping for air. Yu felt like he’d hit the jackpot. It was fun to watch him squirm.

“You’ll what?”

The phantom hesitated. Yu wasn’t about to wait for him. The heat of Yu’s breath on his dick spurred him to answer more quickly.

“I-I don’t want to come on… on your face.”

Yu was surprised to hear this, partially because he didn’t think the phantom would be so shy about saying that, but also because he wasn’t sure what the big deal was after they’d come this far.

“I don’t mind,” though, now that he was saying it aloud, Yu began to understand the phantom’s embarrassment, “If you do that.”

“No, I mean…” The phantom paused, putting his hand over his mouth. “I want to come somewhere else.”

Yu was confused until he realized exactly how few other places there were where one would want to do that. He spent a few seconds blushing in stunned silence before responding with a small, barely audible, “Oh.”

“…If that’s okay with you.” The thief was staring at something outside and rubbing the back of his neck.

“I think it is.”

The phantom’s eyes turned back to the boy between his legs.

“You’re not sure?”

“I mean, I’ve never actually… not there, anyway.”

“So you’ve never been, uh, you know?”

“No.”

There was a short silence.

“Would you like to be?”

Yu’s eyes gave the phantom a once over. Given his position, it didn’t take long for his gaze to fix back on the cock before him.

“God, yes.”

If the speed at which the phantom had whipped his head around to face Yu had been any quicker, he likely would’ve snapped his neck.

“What?”

Yu realized a little too late that he’d said that last thing out loud instead of in his head, where he’d meant for it to be. He felt as though he’d be crimson for the rest of eternity.

“So, you don’t mind then?”

Still too flustered to speak, Yu merely nodded to confirm.

“Well, if that’s the case,” the phantom said, his voice regaining its confidence, “I’m afraid we’ll have to make some preparations first.”

“Preparations?”

“Well,” the thief started to say while kicking off his boots, “I failed to bring lubricant, and if you’re telling the truth about your level of experience, we’ll have to… use an alternative.”

Yu was about to ask what he meant by that, but his thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of the phantom’s socks rubbing against his genitals.

That’s… that’s actually kinda…

“By the way, tell me when you get close again. That was really helpful last time.”

Yu pondered, ‘Helpful for what?’ but didn’t feel it was worth asking, not when he could be thinking about how shockingly skilled the other boy’s toes were at massaging him. He wondered if the phantom had practiced this.

“How can you be so gentle with your feet when you’re so rough with your hands?”

The phantom lifted Yu’s penis, the top of his foot parallel with Yu’s shaft.

“Are you sure you want to say things like that in your position?” he asked, sliding his big toe from the testicles to the tip. Yu struggled to hold back a moan. The thief curled his toes over the head, occasionally squeezing. His feet were warm on Yu’s bare skin. Yu felt like he was melting.

The phantom waited for Yu’s comeback, but there wasn’t one. There was a long silence filled only with the handcuffed boy’s heavy breaths. There was a placid smile on his blushing face.

“You’re really enjoying this, huh?”

Yu made an affirmative-sounding noise and rested his forehead on the phantom’s shin. The thief let him stay like this a while.

“As much as I enjoy this view, I’m gonna need my leg back.”

“That’s okay. I think…”

“You’re there?”

“…Yeah.”

The phantom knelt down beside Yu, taking the other boy’s dick in his palm. Yu frowned and asked, “When do I get to come somewhere other than in your hand?”

“When I don’t need to use your cum as lube.”

Yu nearly fell backwards in shock. Wide-eyed and red-faced, he stared back at the phantom while his mouth and throat tried to work together to form something kind of like a reply. Or maybe just a word. Anything would have been nice, really.

So that’s… that’s what he meant by an ‘alternative.’

Yu felt dizzy.

“Oh, hold still, for fuck’s sake.” The thief grabbed Yu’s collar and pulled him close to steal his lips again. If nothing else, he knew this was a tried-and-true way to get this kid to stay in place. With his other hand, he vigorously jerked Yu’s dick until he heard the boy’s loud grunts dissolve into distressed squealing. The phantom ended their kiss and looked down at his glove to see, as he’d expected, his red palm covered in white semen.

“That hurts, you know!” Yu didn’t need any more bruises down there. He was already starting to miss the foot.

“But you still came,” the phantom said, visibly amused. “Are you sure you’re not some kind of masochist?”

Yu grit his teeth. Given recent events, he wasn’t sure he could dispute that conclusion.

Meanwhile, the phantom was already smearing Yu’s fluid on his erection.

“Can you bend over? Or do you need my help for that too?”

“Maybe if someone hadn’t handcuffed me,” Yu countered, frustrated that he needed the phantom’s assistance just to put his face on the floor and his ass in the air without hurting himself.

“This is exactly why I handcuffed you,” retorted the phantom, irritated that he could only use one arm to steady the struggling and obstinate object of his affections.

When they finally figured out their positions, the phantom pressed his still wet finger into Yu’s anus. Unused to the feeling, Yu cringed. As it went deeper, he bit his lip in an attempt to cope.

Oh God, if this is just the finger then… Yu wasn’t sure if he was ready for what was next.

“Was that even enough to lubricate anything?” he asked, starting to have his doubts about the whole thing.

“It’s better than nothing.” The phantom withdrew his finger.

“Well, that’s reassuring.”

“Why are you complaining? Weren’t you the one saying ‘God, yes, give it to me’ earlier?”

Yu felt something larger than a finger rub against his asshole.

“That’s not, I mean, it was,” he sputtered. “Don’t put words in my mouth!”

“Do you want it or not?”

Yu hesitated for a moment, but then answered, “Just get it over with.”

“Look, if you’re not—”

“PUT IT IN, DAMMIT.” The words echoed throughout the warehouse.

“Well, okay then.” The phantom wasn’t about to argue any further.

In the short moment before penetration, all Yu could think was ‘Fuck, I really am a masochist.’

Yu made the most unholy scream when the phantom entered him. It hurt. It really hurt. He felt like he was being ripped apart ass-end first, and yet, though he was seething in physical pain, another part of him was more than satisfied with having the phantom thief take his virginity. The phantom himself, however, was a bit concerned.

“If it feels like I’m going too far, you can say so.”

“No, keep going. As far as you can. Fill me.”

“I really don’t think that’s—”

“Please.” The same desperation from the previous encounter resurfaced.

“Right.” The phantom nodded and pressed forward slowly, bit by bit until their balls touched. There was no lack of squirming on Yu’s part, and none of the noises he was making sounded much like pleasure, but he didn’t pull away or ask to stop. Cautiously, the phantom began to move his hips. The friction of movement didn’t hurt nearly as much as the initial entry, but it didn’t stop tears from escaping Yu’s eyes. Holy shit did it hurt.

“Harder.”

Apparently it didn’t hurt enough.

“Harder?”

Fuck, what am I doing?

“Yes, harder.”

“Are you trying to punish yourself or something?”

“How many times do I have to say it?”

The thrusts came faster. The noises leaving Yu’s mouth at last started to sound less like he was being tortured and more like he was actually enjoying it. The feeling of being torn apart subsided as he found comfort in being filled with the heat of his lover. He’d never been this close to another person before. If only he knew what name to moan.

Luckily, one of them had a name to work with, and he wasn’t holding back. It was a bit embarrassing to have one’s name echo off the walls of such a large space, but Yu couldn’t deny that it turned him on. The motions got rougher as the phantom got more and more into it, but even as the thrusting got harsher, the rhythm grew more natural for both of them, and the sparks between them also grew. The hands on Yu’s hips were trembling.

Yu wasn’t sure if he liked the feeling of another man’s load inside of him. He did, however, enjoy the gratification of knowing he’d caused it, and probably would’ve have loved to see the hazy look of contentment the phantom was wearing at that moment.

After pausing to catch his breath, the phantom slid himself out.

“Hey, are you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.” It wasn’t like the pain had left, but the dying-from-the-inside feeling was gone.

“Are you sure?” The phantom seemed unusually troubled for someone who’d just had an orgasm. “I think you might be bleeding.”

“Shit.” Yu knew he should be more concerned about that, but at the moment he couldn’t care less.

“You don’t have anything, right?” the phantom asked while unlocking the handcuffs.

“A little late to ask now.” Yu sat himself upright (or rather, as upright as he could without writhing in pain) and rubbed the indents the cuffs had left on his wrists.

“Do you?”

“No.”

The phantom cleaned himself up and got dressed again before attempting to help Yu do the same, though now that he had his arms back, he insisted on doing it himself.

“C’mon, you can’t even sit properly.”

“I don’t need to sit to do this.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. At least let me look at the injury.”

“And how exactly do you plan on looking at something halfway up my ass?” Their bickering eventually ended when they realized how late it’d gotten. Yu pulled himself together and managed to put on his clothes, though it took more effort than usual. “By the way, when do I get my phone back?”

“Oh.” The phantom pulled the cell out of his coat pocket. “You can have it back, I’ve got the info I need.”

Despite saying that, he stepped back when Yu tried to grab it.

“I just want to clarify a few things with you first,” the thief explained. Yu had almost forgotten that there had been other things he wanted to talk about.

“Okay, what?”

“You know some pretty interesting people,” he began, examining the phone in his hand. “I mean, your uncle’s a cop, and you seem to be friends with a prodigy detective and a famous idol, among others.”

“I get around,” Yu admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

“It also struck me as odd that you keep the phone number of a convicted murderer in your phone. Is there a reason for that?”

“He was a close family friend,” Yu answered, casting his gaze toward the ground. It wasn’t really something he liked to remember. The phantom didn’t press any further. As it was, he wasn’t in a position to judge others for that kind of thing.

“And one last thing,” he said, opening up a text message, “What’s with all these messages about meeting in the ‘TV World’?”

“Uh, well, that’s…” Yu shifted his weight from one foot to the other, for reasons related to both physical and mental discomfort. “That’s kind of a long story.”

How far back in my message history did he go?

“I have time,” the phantom said, taking a seat on the iron stack and crossing his legs.

“It’s a little hard to swallow.”

“I like to think I’m fairly good at swallowing.”

Yu’s face grew hot as he realized he’d pretty much walked into that one.

“There was someone murdering people by throwing them into televisions. They’d be killed by the shadows on the other side and their bodies would reappear in our world.” Yu paused to see how the phantom was reacting to this, but he had difficulty reading the other boy’s expression through the mask. “So a group of us who could go in the TV, we solved the murder case. That’s the short version.”

“So, you mean to tell me, you and your friends didn’t get offed by the shadows that were killing these other people?”

This wasn’t the response Yu was used to getting when he told someone about the world inside the television. Taken aback, he hesitated before answering.

“I mean, we had weapons and personas. It wasn’t like we were unarmed.”

The phantom leaned forward.

After some thought, Yu wondered if he shouldn’t elaborate. “A persona is—”

“No, I know what a persona is,” the phantom interrupted, putting his hand on his chin and making a pensive face.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I have one.”

Yu was learning all kinds of new things today. He was shocked to hear this, but he couldn’t deny that it explained part of the weird attraction he had toward the guy. Somewhere in the back of his mind Yu had this nagging feeling like he’d felt it somewhere else before, but he couldn’t place it.

“By the way,” the phantom continued, “I’d like to see this TV World of yours, if that’s possible.”

“Maybe next time,” Yu agreed. “When I’m not so sore.”

The phantom stood up.

“So there’s for sure a next time then?” he asked, smiling as he finally returned the phone to its owner.

“Yeah.”

Chapter Text

Luckily there wasn’t any school the next day. Yu was unsure he could have explained his current limp or inability to sit normally to his classmates. The phantom had really done a number on his backside.

Yu woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating next to his futon. He wondered who it could be since he hadn’t told anyone that he had it back yet. Yawning, he flipped it open. It was a text from an unknown number.

‘morning! <3’

He stared at it for a few moments before he decided he wasn’t awake enough yet to deal with it and flipped it shut.

Maybe Rise got a new phone or something, he thought, rolling over. That would actually be ideal, considering it’d be one less person on the phantom’s People-To-Send-This-Video-To List.

Though now looking back on events of the day before, Yu began to question if the phantom would still do that. After all, he had referred to the meeting as their ‘second date.’ Was that video really all that was holding their relationship together?

A relationship, huh?

It seemed like a strong word for what they had, what with the fact they’d really only just interacted physically. Their discourse was composed entirely of teasing and bickering. He could hardly call that getting along, and yet the phantom’s words kept echoing in his mind.

‘You’re not spoken for, are you?’

He couldn’t help but wonder why the phantom had been so concerned about that, especially after what happened when they met. It seemed a bit late to worry about that kind of thing.

‘You don’t mind if I leave a mark, do you?’

Yu rubbed the hickey on his thigh.

‘You won’t even let me call it a date. I’m offended.’

But if that was a date then does that make us…

‘It means you’re more than welcome to mark me too.’

…boyfriends?

Yu was certainly awake now. He nearly ran to the bathroom to wash the burning sensation out of his face. It wasn’t very effective. His wet, blushing reflection in the mirror stared back at him with a shared look of uncertain panic. He couldn’t tell if this development made the situation better or worse. At least before he knew he should feel angry, but now his emotions were just a jumbled mess.

‘So there’s for sure a next time then?’

“What did I get myself into?” Yu asked, but his reflection was just as perplexed as he was. Still processing this information, Yu didn’t think he was quite ready for a third date with his maybe boyfriend.

Yu tried to calm himself down, remembering that the phantom had said he’d taken info off of his phone. Upon recalling that, he wasn’t sure what about that was supposed to be calming to him, considering it probably meant the phantom still had the phone numbers and email addresses of every important person in his life. The phantom could still end him with just the press of a button.

Yu dried his face off with a towel and returned to his room. He picked up the red card he’d found in his locker the day before and turned it over, then flipped it back again, wondering how the phantom had found his shoe locker in the first place. He’d probably figured out what school based on his uniform or his phone history, but finding the exact locker would have required either following him or asking someone. That is, if he didn’t go to the same school already.

Yu really had to get him to take off that mask.

Realizing he should probably let his friends know his phone was back, Yu opened his laptop and checked to see if Yosuke was online. He wasn’t.

“He’s probably at work, huh?” Yu said to himself, disappointed that he’d have to wait. He typed in a message telling his partner he’d like to talk later, and shut the computer. It was probably for the best, he had errands to run anyway.

The afternoon came faster than he’d expected, probably because he wasn’t walking at full speed. After returning home and putting the groceries away Yu returned to his room to check if Yosuke was back yet. As expected, there was a new message on his messenger saying to call whenever he got back. Yu was about to click the call button when his phone went off again.

‘youre not ignoring me are you?’

It was from the same number that had texted him that morning. Yu scratched his head and sent back a quick ‘who is this?’ before snapping his phone shut and calling Yosuke.

“Hi, Partner!” Yosuke seemed cheerful.

“Hey,” Yu said, returning the greeting with a smile while attempting to sit down. After some wincing he figured it out.

“Uh, I hate to ask this again, but are you okay? You look like you’re in pain.”

Yu regretted not making his sitting arrangements before calling.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Yosuke didn’t seem to be satisfied with that answer, but he didn’t pursue it further. “By the way, where’s Teddie?”

“He’s still at Junes. They’re doing a children’s event and they needed a mascot for the day.” Yosuke frowned. “I hope he doesn’t screw things up while I’m gone.”

“I’m sure he’ll do fine.”

“As long as he doesn’t hit on some kid’s mom again.” Yosuke cringed as though the memory of it brought him physical pain. “But I think he learned his lesson last time when her husband threatened to beat the crap out of him.”

“He can take it,” Yu said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess he probably could,” Yosuke responded, smiling again.

“Actually, I wanted to ask him for a favor.”

“Yeah?”

“This’ll sound strange, but…” Yu hesitated, wondering if he should really volunteer this much information, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized what a horrible idea it would be to go into the TV World without notifying anyone. “Could you ask him if he could put another exit in the TV World? One near the area that corresponds to where my television leads.”

“You planning to go back in?”

“Yeah.”

“We could go together and—”

“Sorry, but…” Yu turned away from the screen.

“I can’t just let you go in there alone.” Concern was written all over Yosuke’s face. Yu couldn’t blame him. If Yosuke was keeping secrets from him and trying to enter the TV World without him, he’d probably be on the first train back to Inaba.

“I’m not planning on going alone,” Yu admitted. “I met another persona user here, and they wanted to see it.” He had been hoping to omit that info, but he knew Yosuke wouldn’t let him go without it.

“Really?” Yosuke seemed excited about it until he realized, “Wait, and you’re not going to let me meet them?”

“It’s kind of complicated.”

“C’mon, why can’t you—” he paused, and then, “Oooh.”

Yu gave him a questioning look.

“Could this person be… a girl?”

“Uh, something like that.” If that’s what would help Yosuke sleep at night, sure, he could think that.

“Okay, okay, I’ll back off. Still though, the TV World? That wouldn’t be my first choice for a date.”

“Yeah, well…” Yu glanced at his television set. It wasn’t exactly his first choice either. As if to disagree with him, his phone started vibrating again. “Oh, by the way, I got my phone back.”

“That’s good to hear. So we can text you again?”

“Yeah.” Yu nodded as he pulled his phone out. He opened the message only to be greeted with a photo of the cock that had been pounding him the night prior.

‘dont tell me you already forgot about this’

Yu dropped his phone and it hit the floor with a clatter. His face was a shade of red Yosuke had never seen before.

“Dude, what happened?”

“N-nothing! Nothing. Everything’s fine.” Despite saying this, Yu jumped when he heard the phone vibrate again.

“You don’t look like everything’s fine.” Yosuke gave him a suspicious look. Yu tried to cover with a nervous laugh.

“Sorry, I just...” He glanced at the phone at his feet. “I wasn’t expecting that text.”

“It wasn’t anything bad, right?”

“No,” Yu reassured him. Far from it, he thought, but decided to keep that part to himself.

“Well, okay.” Yosuke didn’t sound totally convinced, but he’d accepted that if his partner didn’t want to tell him, there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. Their conversation eventually drifted to other things, much to Yu’s relief. His phone went off again, but he opted not to check it again until after finishing his discussion with Yosuke. Eventually the call reached its end, the two said their goodbyes, and Yu closed his laptop.

Finally, he picked up his phone from the floor to find 2 messages waiting for him, both from the phantom.

‘i was thinking about you today <33’

“Uh, thanks, I think.” Even though his voice was full of sarcasm, blush lingered over his shy smile. Yu hadn’t pegged the phantom for the type to use heart emoticons at the end of his messages, but he couldn’t deny that it was a bit cute. He scrolled up to the most recent text and opened it.

‘the reason youre taking so long to respond better be because youre too busy fapping to that photo i sent you’

And with that the whole moment was ruined. Though he was tempted to just ignore it, Yu figured he better respond before he pissed the phantom off. He’d just opened the new message menu when his phone notified him of another new message.

‘i s2g where are you did you stick your phone up your ass i bet youre enjoying this’

Yu couldn’t help but laugh at that. He came to the conclusion that the phantom’s frustration was a lot more adorable when his balls weren’t within the thief’s reach. He wrote up a response and sent it.

‘Sorry, I was in a video call with someone. I’ll be more prompt in the future.’

Within ten seconds the phantom had already responded.

‘wtf you mean you cant take the time to reply when youre in a call’

And then not much later:

‘was it with ten text tanaka i bet it was’

‘Do you mean Eight-Text Yosuke?’

He’s not jealous, is he? Yu had a hard time imagining a jealous phantom.

‘yea btw why are you being so formal i thought we were dating’

Though his heart fluttered at the thought, Yu was still a little miffed that the other boy had decided they were dating without even asking him for his opinion.

‘Are we?’

‘omfg youre the one that agreed to meet again i hate you’

Yu laid on his couch, taking special care to lay on his side rather than his back. He smiled at the message in front of him.

‘Really? You hate me?’

‘no but fuck you anyway’

‘That’s eleven texts from you now. That makes you worse than Tanaka.’

‘you know what nvm i do hate you’

‘Twelve.’

It felt nice to be on the side giving the teasing rather than receiving it for once. At that moment Yu caught a glimpse of his reflection on his phone screen. He was grinning like a doofus. When he realized, the smile instantly disappeared only to be replaced with embarrassment. He flipped his phone shut and rolled onto his stomach, burying his head into his arms.

“What the hell, self?”

His wallowing was cut short by his phone.

‘i still hate you but when are we meeting again?’

Yu didn’t have an answer for that. He figured he’d have to ask Teddie how long it’d take to put up the other exit in the TV World. He decided to stall for time by giving the phantom a more facetious answer.

‘When my ass is fully functional again.’

‘i know this is gonna sound crazy but its not mandatory for us to have sex’

‘Sitting and walking might be mandatory.’

‘no they arent’

‘What, are you going to carry me the whole time?’

The phone remained silent for more than a minute. Yu was about to give up on waiting for a response when it finally went off again.

‘do you want me to?’

Yu didn’t think the phantom would actually agree to do that. Suddenly his mind was filled with the image of the thief’s arms under him and his confident smirk looking down on him. Yu’s face was burning again.

‘I was kidding.’

That’s what he said, but in reality the thought of it made him giddy.

‘should we just get together in a week like last time?’

That seemed like a reasonable amount of time to give Ted to figure out the exit thing.

‘Yeah, that sounds like a plan.’

‘ok cool ive g2g do my thing so ill talk to you later’

‘All right. Later.’

Yu felt a bit sad seeing their conversation end, even if he did have a feeling he’d be woken up by another text from the phantom in the morning.

‘if you start to miss me look at that pic’

Yu opened the photo on his phone again and sighed.

“Thanks, but I’d rather have a picture of your face.”

Chapter Text

Even with the phantom’s constant barrage of texts, it felt as though the week dragged on forever. It was torture.

Yu didn’t know if he even wanted their date (if he could even call it that) to ever come. On one hand, he did want to see the phantom again, the sex was… not unenjoyable, and he had this weird desire to just touch him and be touched by him. Yu couldn’t really explain it; he felt like a magnet being held back by some kind of invisible barrier. He wanted to cuddle and hold hands and do other shit like that. It was fucking embarrassing.

On the other hand, the more he thought about his relationship with the phantom, the more he felt a lack of trust and control. The other boy wouldn’t even show his face or give Yu his name, and he still had that video looming over Yu’s head. That goddamn video. Yu felt like if he pressed the phantom for his personal info or even for some sense of equality that everything would come falling down around him. The phantom would drop both him and the video at a moment’s notice. It was stressful to even think about.

In short, the impending date was proving to be a major source of anxiety more than anything.

But Yu couldn’t just let this relationship continue this way either. The phantom knew everything about him, and it pissed him off. The phantom knew his school, his friends, and his family. The phantom knew him angry, lonely, and smiling. The phantom knew him vulnerable, crying, and begging. The phantom knew his screams and his moans.

And how much of this did Yu know about him? Barely anything.

Teddie had come to visit earlier that week to figure out the TV exit port. Apparently Ted had somehow caught wind of the conversation he’d had with Yosuke, because the first thing the bear did when he arrived was ask if Yu was planning on ‘scoring in the TV World.’ Yu couldn’t blame Yosuke for telling Teddie about this, since it was likely he wouldn’t have agreed to put the exit there without that information, but at the same time all of this was really starting to make Yu regret telling the phantom about the TV World in the first place. Then again, what was he supposed to do in that situation? Say no? Never get his phone back? Be exposed to the world as a phantomfucker?

Well, not many people can say they’ve had sex with a phantom thief, Yu thought, attempting to console himself. His consolation skills needed some work. He wondered if maybe he shouldn’t take up folding cranes or translation again.

After the exit had been set up, Yu thanked Teddie and told the bear he owed him. Ted smiled and wished Yu luck with scoring, though, in his words, ‘someone like Sensei definitely won’t need it!’ Yu shook his head and told Ted he’d need the luck more than one would realize. After another thank you and some resistance on Ted’s part, the two said their temporary goodbyes and Teddie took his leave.

The week finally reached its end. Yu found himself staring at his phone messages.

‘looking forward to tomorrow <3’

“At least one of us is.” Yu was nothing but nerves. He wasn’t sure how much of it was from the apprehension of an upcoming confrontation and how much of it was just from the idea of a date. A date. Yu still couldn’t believe he was dating the goddamn Phantom.

Noticing that his muscles had tensed up, he shook it off and gently slapped his face.

Calm down, self!

‘btw you said we could go to the tv world tomorrow right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘nice how do i get there’

‘We should meet outside of the TV World first. Not all TVs lead to the same place.’

‘fine should i just meet you at your house then?’

That was an unexpected proposal.

At my house, huh?

‘i wanna see your room from the inside’

“What the hell?”

‘From the inside?’

‘i saw you walking home the other day and i got curious so i checked it out’

The color drained from Yu’s face.

‘You followed me home?’

‘yea i was in my civilian clothes tho so i didnt say anything’

“Oh my God. Oh my Gooood.” Yu ran a shaky hand through his hair. He couldn’t believe it. The phantom knew where he lived. He wasn’t even safe in his own home. He set down his cell phone and got up from his couch to make a few very frantic laps around his room. Running through this new information a second time, Yu realized it wasn’t that big of a deal that the phantom knew where he lived since he was going to bring him there eventually. He was still upset, but for an entirely different reason. The sound of his phone vibrating against the table summoned him back, but did nothing to make him feel better.

‘you still there? youre not mad are you?’

Yu looked as though he was ready to snap his phone in half.

‘YOU FOLLOWED ME HOME AND YOU DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING’

‘you are mad huh’

Trembling with rage, Yu pressed the call button. He was planning to discuss this calmly with the phantom when they met, but given this new information and his heightened emotional state, Yu felt it couldn’t be put off any longer. Within two rings the call was accepted.

“What the hell is your problem?!” Yu shouted into the receiver before the phantom could even manage a hello.

“Really? This is how we’re going to start our first phone call as a couple?” The phantom’s lack of concern wasn’t helping to smooth over things.

“As a couple? How can you even call us that?”

“Well, I mean, we are dating. We’re going on a date tomorrow, right?”

“Couples don’t spy on each other.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like I was stalking you. I didn’t stick around and watch you undress or anything creepy like that.”

“That’s not the problem.”

“Then why the hell are you so mad?”

“I don’t know my own boyfriend’s name and he won’t even speak to me unless he’s disguised as someone else.” Yu’s voice cracked. “I’ve never even seen your fucking face.”

Oh my God, I’m crying. I can’t believe I’m crying over this. He’d only just noticed then. Even if nothing else was going right, Yu was glad that at least the phantom couldn’t see his tears through the phone. Even without the visual, the thief didn’t deliver his usual instant wit. Several seconds passed before he put together a response.

 “I’m sorry.” The words were hesitant. “I didn’t know it bothered you so much.”

“It’s not fair. It’s like you know almost everything about me. Most of it I didn’t even get to tell you myself. And what do I know about you? Next to nothing.”

There was a heavy silence.

“Should I come over?” the phantom finally asked. “Right now, I mean?”

“What?”

“You seem to be pretty shaken up so I thought—”

“Please don’t,” Yu said, wiping his face out of paranoia that the phantom might already be halfway there. He couldn’t risk being seen like that.

“Okay, if you’re sure.” The phantom paused. “Hey, I know this might sound kind of, um, bad, but are we still meeting tomorrow?”

Yu wasn’t sure how to answer.

“I mean, if you’d rather be alone, we can do it some other time,” the voice from the speaker hesitated, then added, “or do you even want to see me again at all?”

Yu hadn’t even realized that was an option until it’d been presented to him.

“You’re not angry?”

“The guy I’ve been dating for the past couple weeks finally calls me his boyfriend for the first time while crying and you expect me to be angry? What kind of impression do you have of me?”

Yu hadn’t expected the phantom to be this understanding about it. He’d thought for sure the other boy would use that video to ruin him if he ever resisted. But now, thinking back on it all, the phantom had never made him do anything he didn’t want to do, apart from tear his hair out in frustration.

“You can tell I’m crying?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious.”

“Dammit.” He’d been trying so hard to hide it, too. Yu could hear the phantom chuckling at him.

“What? It’s not like I’ve never seen you cry before.”

“That was different.”

“Fair enough,” the phantom admitted. “I really am sorry about all this.”

“No, I… Looking back on it, I should’ve expected this, since you’re, you know.”

“A criminal? You can say it, you know. I won’t be offended or anything.” The thief sighed. “But no, you were right. If I can’t trust you enough to show you my face even now, then what’s the point?”

The tears began to dry up. Yu put his free hand on the back of his neck and turned his gaze to the ceiling.

“I won’t tell anyone you’re a criminal if you won’t tell anyone I’m dating one.”

“Deal. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Yu replied, finally starting to look forward to it.

Chapter Text

The morning came quickly. Too quickly. Yu woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing. After realizing his parents had already left for the day, he dragged himself out of his futon to answer it. Upon opening the door he was greeted by a boy with dark wavy hair, black-rimmed glasses, and a bag slung over his shoulder. He was dressed stylishly (a white turtleneck paired with an open black vest, plaid pants, and a red scarf), though it may have only seemed that way in comparison to Yu’s pajamas.

“Hey,” he said with a small wave. After giving Yu a once over with his eyes, he added, “Or should I say good morning?”

“Good morning,” Yu mumbled groggily, rubbing his eye.

“Are you going to invite me in, or is your doorway the main attraction around here?”

“Who…?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your own boyfriend. You just keep coming up with new ways to hurt my feelings, don’t you?” Despite saying this, his tone was playful.

“Wha…” Yu looked the other boy over several times. “That’s gotta be some kind of joke, right? There’s no way…”

“You’re not gonna make me strip out here so you can see that hickey as proof, are you?”

Yu’s face was soon a bright red.

“J-just get in here,” commanded a flustered Yu, pulling his boyfriend through the doorway and letting the door fall shut behind them. “I thought—”

“What? That I’d show up as the phantom? I was going to, but after last night I thought you might prefer me like this.” He kicked off his shoes and walked through the kitchen with Yu following him.

“I mean, well, yeah, but…” That assessment hadn’t been wrong. “It’s still so early. I thought you weren’t coming until later.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” the other boy admitted with a shrug. “I thought we could do lunch together. By the way, bedhead’s a good look for you.”

“Uh, thanks,” Yu replied, running his fingers through his hair in a subconscious attempt to fix it. “You don’t look quite how I imagined you would.”

The thief unexpectedly spun around, catching a still in-motion Yu off-guard.

“That’s the point.” The sudden proximity of their faces emphasized his words. He had that familiar smug look in his eyes, confirming that he was indeed the same phantom Yu had been meeting all this time. It was amazing how he could go from mild-mannered student to wild phantom thief with only a small change of expression. The act had been enough to prompt Yu to give him a small kiss.

“That was kind of cool, just now.” Yu tried to explain, turning away to hide his embarrassment.

“Thanks,” the other boy replied with a smirk. Soon Yu found two arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him in for another kiss. Yu accepted it, placing his own arms around his boyfriend’s waist, grateful that he was actually able to hold the person he was kissing, unlike last time. The kiss quickly became more passionate, but the moment their tongues met the phantom pulled away.

“You have morning breath.”

“That’s what you get for waking me.” Yu looked in the direction of his room. “I probably should go clean up though, huh?”

“Not that I don’t like you like this, but yeah, probably.”

The two separated from each other (much to Yu’s chagrin, as he’d been craving that kind of attention all week) and continued down the hall.

“You’re coming too?” Yu asked when he realized he was being followed.

“Like I said, I want to see your room.”

“Yeah, but… now?”

“Seeing you change might be a nice bonus.”

“I thought you said you weren’t trying to be creepy.”

“It’s not creepy if you know I’m there, right?”

“It’s a little creepy.” Though he said this, Yu wondered if maybe it was a silly thing to be worried about after already having had sex with someone. That, and he had to admit he was a bit flattered. Yu hoped the blush would leave his cheeks before he had to face the other boy again.

“You’re no fun.”

I never said I was fun, Yu thought to himself as he entered his room. “Well, uh, this is it.”

“It’s so clean,” the phantom commented as he looked around.

“Yeah,” Yu responded, distracted by his boyfriend adjusting his glasses. The action was cuter than it had any right to be. “I mean, thanks. I’m gonna go use the bathroom.”

“I suppose you don’t want me to follow you there either,” the other boy teased as he plopped down on the couch.

“Funny.”

“Aren’t I, though?”

Yu rolled his eyes and left to do his usual morning routine. By the time he returned the other boy was up again and examining the photo of the Investigation Team on his shelf.

“So these are the nerds you run with, huh?” He was smirking, as usual.

“Don’t talk like that about my nerds,” Yu replied as he opened his closet and took out his clothes for the day. He briefly wondered if the photo would prove to be an effective enough distraction for him to change without watching eyes, but as soon as he removed his t-shirt, the phantom’s gaze was fixated on his chest.

“Wow,” he whispered, his scarf emphasizing the sudden rosiness on his face.

“W-what?” First the glasses and now the blush? It was too much for Yu.

“This is better than I expected.”

“Shut up,” Yu muttered, throwing his shirt at the other boy, whose complexion he now matched. The boy easily caught it.

“I didn’t know you had battle scars. That’s hot as hell.”

Yu was too busy blushing to respond properly, but he did manage a nervous smile. Now that he thought about it, it was the first time he’d been shirtless in front of the phantom. He decided that he should try to flaunt it more sometime when he was feeling less self-conscious. Something about this whole situation was sapping away most of his usual confidence. Yu threw on another shirt and buttoned it up.

“You’re not going to watch me change the rest, are you?”

“Gotta make sure I don’t have to mark you again.”

Even if the phantom had already seen the rest of it before, stripping in front of him was a bit humiliating.

“If you just see the bruise, is that enough?” Yu asked, averting his eyes.

“You sure are bashful today. After what we did last time I didn’t think you’d be so adverse to this.”

Yu began to realize just how much his libido was affecting his decisions recently.

“Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize. I’ll give you some space.” The other boy was about to leave when Yu grabbed his wrist.

“Wait, I…” Yu looked at the floor. “It’s not like I don’t want to, I just…”

“It’s all right. I can check later,” the boy answered with a smirk. “When you’re feeling more up to it, I mean.”

“Thanks.” Yu loosened his grip on his boyfriend’s wrist and let his hand slide down until their fingers hooked together. This wasn’t quite how he’d imagined holding hands with the phantom for the first time, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

“By the way, it’s Hayato. Tsukimura Hayato.”

Yu gave him a questioning look and in response he pulled Yu in close, his mouth next to Yu’s ear.

“That’s the name I want to hear you moaning tonight,” he whispered. Despite being visibly flustered by Hayato’s method of info delivery, Yu in turn planted his lips on him. Hayato stood there wide-eyed for a moment before easing into a kiss that tasted much better than the last.

“If I’d known you’d react like that, I would’ve told you my name a long time ago,” Hayato commented, trying to catch his breath.

“Thank you.” Yu smiled. “For trusting me.”

“I, uh, no problem. I’m just kind of surprised.”

“Same here. I didn’t think you’d be so understanding about, um, all of this.”

“What kind of shit boyfriend do you think I am?” Hayato asked, mock-pouting.

“The kind that decides we’re dating without asking first,” Yu answered with a small chuckle.

“The hell? You’re the one who asked me.”

This was the first Yu had heard of it. His smile fell.

“I… I did?”

“Yeah, the day we met. You asked if we’d see each other again.” Hayato raised his eyebrows. He sounded like he was genuinely annoyed, in contrast to his usual teasing tone.

“I meant like, in general.”

“Oh, come on, a person doesn’t ask that after being jerked off and only mean it ‘in general.’”

“Well, I…” Yu wanted to argue, but there wasn’t any room to do so. Hayato was right. Yu put a hand to his forehead and started to wonder just how long he’d been unaware of his own feelings. He ran through the events of his first encounter with the phantom in his mind, trying to remember exactly what he’d been thinking when he asked that question. Yu had trouble recalling much more than his racing heartbeat and something that felt similar to fear.

“You what? You’re lucky I like you so much or I’d be pissed right now.”

“Sorry, I… wow. Wow.” God, I’m a dumbass. Though, looking back on it now, Yu realized, “Wait, so you’re telling me you agreed to date that?”

“That?”

“I was a mess.”

“A hot mess.” The memory of it brought a grin to Hayato’s face.

Hot? He thought that was hot?

Yu shook his head.

“I’ll never understand you.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

Yu decided to forget he said that and kiss him again. He wanted Hayato to stop talking, and for some reason the other boy’s lips looked better than usual.

“Again?”

“I like kissing you,” Yu admitted, looking a little guilty. He did feel kind of bad about using it to make his boyfriend shut up, but in all honesty, the phantom could stand to keep his mouth shut every once in a while. Besides, he was so good at it.

“We could do it a little more often, I guess.” Hayato traced Yu’s jawline with his index finger and tugged him closer.

“I guess,” Yu echoed quietly, wrapping his arms around Hayato for the second time that day. He leaned in, but it was the other who closed the distance between them. It started innocent enough, the two of them gently pressing against each other, but soon Hayato’s hands were making their way up Yu’s shirt, following the ridges of his back muscles. Yu wasn’t any better, letting his hand slide down the back of Hayato’s pants.

The mood was ruined by the sound of a growling stomach. Hayato pulled back.

“Did you forget to eat breakfast?”

“You were so distracting. How could I remember?”

 “What kind of line is that?” Hayato asked, unsuccessfully trying to hold back his laughter.

“A true one.” Yu frowned. That ‘line’ wasn’t meant to be funny.

“I better make sure you don’t forget lunch too. I’ll let you finish changing.”

“Thanks.” Yu said, though he didn’t sound very grateful. He reluctantly let their embrace end. Yu silently cursed his body for cockblocking him. Hayato left to wait just outside the room.

“What’s the plan for lunch anyway?” he asked from the doorway.

“I could make us something.”

“You cook?”

“Yeah.”

Hayato considered it.

“That’s a tempting offer, but I was thinking I’d get you something since we weren’t planning to meet this early. I didn’t mean to impose.”

Yu wanted to tell him it wouldn’t be a problem, but remembered that it’d been a week since he’d last gotten groceries. Not that he couldn’t still make something, but if he did it’d have to be pretty simple.

“You don’t have to pay for me.”

“I know, but I’m going to anyway.”

“If you insist,” replied a now fully-dressed Yu as he stepped out of his room. “Did you have anywhere in mind?”

“Well, I did, but then I remembered that it hasn’t been, uh…” For once, Hayato appeared to be at a loss for words.

“Hasn’t been what?” Yu asked as the two of them made their way to the door.

“It’s not important.” Hayato made a disappointed face that implied that wasn’t the case. He looked as though he wanted to say why, but couldn’t figure out how to put it together. Yu decided to let it go. The phantom had already provided him with a name and a face; he was probably all information’d out for the day.

After exiting the front door, Hayato returned the question. “What about you? Any ideas?”

“Uh, well, there was one place.”

A cat café hadn’t been at the top of Hayato’s list of romantic date options. He’d wanted to protest it, but somewhere between Yu’s embarrassed smile and the way Yu’s eyes lit up at the thought of dining with felines Hayato lost the will to argue.

“So, uh, you really like cats, huh?” Hayato attempted to brush the cat hair off his clothes. He wasn’t very successful. Yu handing him another kitten didn’t help the situation.

“Yeah.” Three of them. He was petting three of them. Hayato was starting to feel as though Yu was giving more attention to the cats than his own boyfriend – probably because he was.

“I mean, cats are nice, but I don’t really get it.”

“They’re cute.”

“I guess so,” Hayato admitted, absentmindedly scratching the head of the kitten in his lap. “Maybe I’m just immune to their charms since I have to deal with one every day.”

“You have a cat?” Now Hayato had his attention.

“Kind of. It’s not how you’re picturing it, I’m sure.”

Yu found this a bit disappointing to hear, but he didn’t let it get him down for long. After all, how could someone be sad in a place like this?

“You know the day we met?” Yu asked, his hand behind a fourth cat’s ear.

“Yeah?” It wasn’t exactly easy to forget.

“I was following a cat that day. In a way, that cat’s the reason we met.”

“More like I’m the reason you didn’t catch up to it,” Hayato muttered, more to himself than his boyfriend. “And honestly, you really dodged a bullet on that one.”

Yu wasn’t sure what to make of that statement, but given the way Hayato was glaring into space, he figured the best course of action would be to leave it alone. Yu picked up a fifth feline and held it up for Hayato to see.

“Look at this one.”

“He looks like a raccoon,” Hayato mused, looking at the white and black around the eyes that contrasted the rest of its gray fur.

“He looks like you.”

Hayato’s expression soured.

“You know what? I’m done. We’re done. I’m leaving.” He turned away with a melodramatic huff.

“It’d be really cute if you posed for a picture together.”

“Oh, you think I’m joking? I mean it.” Hayato wasn’t very convincing, and Yu was already leaning over the table. “I’m out. We’re over. Hey, waiter—” Yu forced his tongue into Hayato’s mouth, ending his facetious threats, but also beginning his squeals of protest. Yu pulled away to see a red-faced, dizzy, and breathless Hayato nearly falling over backward in his chair. It seemed the ever-teasing phantom wasn’t used to such public displays of affection.

Yu loved seeing him helpless like this. He wondered if this was how Hayato had felt the day they met, when he’d done the same thing to him. Revenge was sweet.

“Please?” Yu asked, his phone already in his hand, waiting to immortalize the moment.

“F-fine,” Hayato sputtered out while panting. “Just don’t do that again!”

The whole way back to the house, Yu was smiling at his phone. Grumpy, blushing Hayato pouting next to the Phantom Feline was the best phone background he’d had yet.

Chapter Text

After arriving back at the house, the two of them found themselves staring down the television in Yu’s bedroom. It was considerably larger than the one he’d had back at the Dojima household, but not particularly huge either. It’d be a snug fit if both of them were to enter at once.

“So, uh, is there anything I should know about the TV World before we go in?” Even the phantom had his hesitations about the unknown, it seemed.

“It’s not as bad as it used to be, but there’s still some shadows lurking around, so it’s good to be on guard.” Though it hadn’t been foggy there since the Investigation Team defeated the goddess, Yu still put his glasses in his pocket, just in case. If nothing else, they made him feel safer. “It’s easy to get lost. You’ll want to stay close.”

Yu glanced over to Hayato. He was smiling for some reason.

“That was the plan from the beginning, right?”

So that’s it, Yu thought. His face wore a disappointed expression, but his heart was beating a bit faster.

“You’re not going to treat this like some walk through a haunted house, are you?”

“Oh, no, I’ll take it seriously.” Hayato reassured him. “But if we just happen to see a big, scary monster, you might have to, you know,” he leaned in close, his breath on Yu’s ear, “comfort me.”

“If we see a monster that’s probably the last thing we should be doing.”

Like he’d be scared that easily anyway. Yu couldn’t really picture the phantom screaming at the sight of the shadows. Well, maybe the Fuzz.

Hayato turned his attention to the television. He pressed his hand against the screen, testing it. As expected, it was solid.

“How does this even work?”

“Here, let me just…” Yu put his own hand over Hayato’s, letting his fingers fill the spaces between the other boy’s fingers. The moment his fingertips touched the screen, the glass reacted like water, rippling at the impact. Their arms slipped into the void.

“Holy shit.” It wasn’t like Hayato hadn’t believed him, but actually seeing it with his own eyes was surreal.

“Yeah, it’s… something.”

Silence filled the room as the two of them had the realization that they were holding hands within the television. Despite their experiences together, they found themselves quickly withdrawing their arms from the TV and turning their red faces away from each other.

“R-right, so,” Yu started, putting his hand behind his head. “The TV World can change to reflect someone’s mental state, and can pull out a person’s insecurities. My friends had to face their own shadows before getting their personas.” Yu turned to Hayato. “You said you already have one, so you’ll probably be okay, but we shouldn’t take any chances.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘pull out a person’s insecurities’?”

“It can form a shadow that displays what you consider to be the worst part of yourself. Sorry, it’s hard to explain.”

Hayato put a hand to his chin, staring into the screen.

“And what would you do? If you saw the worst part of me?”

“We’d overcome it together. Just like the rest of us did back then.”

“Even if it was really horrible?”

Yu looked Hayato directly in the eyes.

“Especially if it was really horrible.”

Hayato’s serious expression slowly cracked into a smile.

“You’re an interesting person,” he laughed, dispelling the tension. Yu sighed, unsure what exactly the phantom thought was so funny about this situation.

“You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Take my hand.”

Hayato nodded and obliged, letting Yu take the lead. Yu went in first, with all the agility one would expect out of someone who’d spent a whole year jumping into televisions, though Hayato didn’t have any difficulty following suit, due to his own nightly escapades. However, it was more of a drop than he was expecting. Hayato managed to land on his feet, but only just barely. Yu’s landing hadn’t been particularly graceful either. He found himself leaning against Hayato for support.

“I’m a little out of practice,” Yu admitted, grasping Hayato’s biceps to steady himself.

“If you wanted to feel my muscles, you could just ask.”

“Oh, shut it.”

“Just saying.”

Hayato surveyed the area. It was pretty similar to the landing spot back in Inaba that Yu was used to – just like a studio backlot. The only noticeable difference was that it had more platforms connected to it, including several stairwells going both up and down. The sheer amount of architecture made it feel crowded even though they were the two people in the area.

“Hmm.” Hayato hummed pensively as he took it all in. It reminded him of how as a child he thought the actors on TV shows lived inside the television.

“That’s the exit.” Yu gestured to the pile of televisions Teddie had set up for them earlier that week. He turned to Hayato to see he wasn’t looking. “Hey, are you even paying atten—” Before Yu could finish his question he’d been swept up into Hayato’s arms. “What the hell are you doing?” The phantom dashed toward the side of the platform, hopped onto the railing, and used the momentum to leap off the edge.

“This is faster than walking,” Hayato explained, far too after-the-fact for Yu, who now had a death grip on Hayato’s scarf, to accept.

“Dying is faster than walking,” Yu agreed. Kind of.

“We’re not gonna die. I’ve done this a million times.”

Hayato landed on the guardrail of a lower level’s catwalk and followed it, swiftly running across the steel. Yu made an effort to avoid looking down over the edge. He failed and immediately regretted it.

“You’ve done this a million times in a place with a definite floor.”

“If there’s no floor then we can’t fall to our deaths.”

“Great,” Yu muttered, his voice reflecting exactly how little comfort the phantom’s words gave him. He was suddenly grateful Izanagi could fly.

“It’d be even greater if you’d pick somewhere else to hang on. You’re choking me.”

“Well, excuse me.”

“Hey, I trusted you enough to follow you into this place. Now trust me with this.”

Yu felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Hayato had put a lot of effort into trusting him since their conversation last night. It wouldn’t be fair not to do the same for him.

“Okay,” Yu replied, giving a small nod. He let go of the scarf, though the jump Hayato made to an adjacent part of the iron grid prompted him to grab the phantom’s shirt.

“Okay?”

“Sorry.” Yu loosened his grip, but when he glanced up and saw Hayato giving him a look of concern he tightened it again. “Watch where you’re going!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hayato smiled, facing forward like he was told. Yu frowned, not totally happy with that response, but didn’t press the issue. He leaned against Hayato’s chest, partially to stop himself from looking down again, partially because his boyfriend was warm.

Maybe this isn’t so bad, Yu thought, closing his eyes, taking in Hayato’s scent. He didn’t smell like anything in particular, but somehow Yu still found it comforting.

“Is it all like this?”

Yu opened his eyes at the sound of Hayato’s voice. It was true, the landscape wasn’t changing at all. It had been like this when Teddie came to check it out too. Now that he thought about it, the TV World in Inaba had only changed based on who had been thrown in at the time. It made sense that it’d be plain back in the city, since Izanami had only given the power to enter the TV to three people back in Inaba.

“I think it only changes if someone’s shadow appears. The TV World back in Inaba got to be pretty diverse before we solved the case.”

“We’ll have to visit Inaba some time, huh?”

“You know, if we visit, you’ll have to meet everyone, right?”

“So?” Hayato asked, nonchalant.

“They’ll ask how we met.”

“You don’t want to tell them you received an amazing hand job from a dashing stranger in a back alley?”

“No.” Yu grimaced as he tried to imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to share that story.

“We can make something up.”

“Uncle Dojima and Naoto are smart. They might figure it out. Who you are, I mean.”

“We’ll just have to be smarter. Besides, would they really rat you out?”

“Not me, no. But you? Definitely.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Hayato landed on a floor instead of a railing for the first time since they entered the TV. He slowed to a stop and looked down at the boy in his arms.

“So how is it?” Hayato asked. Yu raised an eyebrow.

“How’s what?”

“Being carried. You said you wanted me to carry you, right?”

“I…” Yu trailed off, only just now recalling the text message exchange from a week ago. Starting to feel the flames of embarrassment flare up again, he hid his face in Hayato’s chest before it became visible. “I told you I was kidding.”

Why’d he have to go and remember something like that? Why? Why? Why?

“Yeah, but you took so long to reply. You must’ve at least thought about it.”

“I... I might have…”

Just how long did I spend imagining that? Yu didn’t think he’d taken that much time to text back, but thinking about it now, he didn’t actually know. He made a mental note to check the timestamps on those texts when they got back.

“But, for real though,” Hayato started again, though a bit awkwardly, “Do we want to make this a regular thing or…?”

“Please just put me down.”

“So that’s a no then?” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice as he set Yu back on his feet.

“Maybe every once in a while,” Yu said, face still pink, staring at the floor. Hayato took Yu’s hands in his own.

“No need to be so embarrassed. I mean, it’s just us, all alone in this big, uh, TV World.”

“It’s embarrassing because it’s you.”

“After the back alley boner and the foot fetish, this is the thing you choose to be embarrassed about?”

“Thanks for reminding me.” That’s what Yu said, but it sounded a lot more like ‘fuck you.’

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I’ll stop.” Hayato paused to run his thumbs over the backs of Yu’s hands. “But you know, this place is pretty… private.”

“Yeah.” Yu murmured, watching their hands.

“Did you wanna?” Hayato’s face now matched Yu’s rosy hue.

“Do you even have to ask?”

Hayato leaned in, leaving a gentle kiss on Yu’s bottom lip. He was about to pull back, but Yu lightly bit the phantom’s upper lip, convincing him to stay. Yu had been waiting all day for this, and he wasn’t about to let it end early for a third time. He let go of Hayato’s hands and put his own hands around his lover, one on the nape of his neck and the other at the small of his back, holding him close. Hayato in turn let his bag slide off his shoulder and hooked his fingers on Yu’s belt at his hips. Yu slid his tongue into Hayato’s mouth, inviting him to do the same back. After some hesitation on Hayato’s part, the two of them shared wet, heavy breaths in the spaces between their tongues.

Feeling something below, Hayato withdrew.

“You’re rising,” he said, as if Yu wouldn’t notice. Though after their first meeting, he couldn’t be sure.

“Good,” Yu grunted, a little annoyed that Hayato felt this information was worth interrupting their kiss to deliver.

“Sorry, I’m just kind of surprised. You were so coy this morning.”

“This morning I was getting dressed. Right now I’m horny.” Yu was nearly glaring at him. “I’m sure you can tell the difference.”

“Yeah,” Hayato said wryly, casting a glance to the side. Yu really was a different person when in heat.

“Also,” Yu started, turning away, “You don’t have to hold back.” Hayato watched him with questioning eyes. Seeing this, Yu bashfully continued, “I… I kinda liked it when you were rough with me.”

Hayato smirked.

“So you’re finally coming to terms with being a masochist?”

“Just shut up and do me.” Yu wasn’t about to spend the next ten minutes enduring Hayato’s teasing while he stood there with a hard on. Hayato’s smile disappeared the moment he felt Yu start to undo his belt.

“Okay, okay. Doing.” Hayato reassured Yu before putting his lips on the other boy’s jaw, then slowly working his way down, unbuttoning Yu’s shirt as he descended. Yu took a step back, using the railing to steady himself, but eventually letting himself drop to the floor as Hayato’s lips moved from his collarbones to his chest. Hayato made a point of giving extra attention to the scars, running his tongue over their entire length. Growing impatient, Yu began to slide his hand down his pants, but Hayato grabbed Yu’s wrist and pinned it to the floor.

“God, you’re so slow.”

“I’m getting there,” Hayato whispered to Yu’s abs. His kisses followed the trail from Yu’s navel to until he reached Yu’s pants. Hayato undid Yu’s belt, then leaned back in and tugged at the button above the fly with his teeth until it gave way. He did the same with Yu’s zipper, further revealing the bulge underneath. Hayato let go of the wrist and cupped Yu’s crotch, groping him through his underwear and eliciting a low grunt out of the boy. Hayato took this as a sign to continue, and tugged the fabric down until the erection stood bare before him. He paused to survey it.

“You’re not just going to look at it, are you?”

“I just thought I’d take it all in.” Hayato said smugly before licking the head of Yu’s dick.

“Please don’t tell me you did all that so you could make a joke.”

“You should appreciate it more. I practiced this for you.”

“Practiced wha—” Yu’s question turned into a loud moan as his cock was surrounded by the heat of Hayato’s mouth. Yu looked down to see what he was feeling.

Oh my God, how much of it can he fit in there? Yu didn’t consider himself to particularly large, but there wasn’t that much room in Hayato’s mouth when he was kissing him earlier, was there? Yu’s face became a deep crimson, but eventually the shock turned to pleasure, and he closed his eyes and let the rhythm of Hayato’s sucking gently rock him back and forth.

“This is… just like…” he murmured.

The warmth left.

“Just like what?” When Yu opened his eyes Hayato was facing him with a raised eyebrow. “Please, educate me.”

Why did I say that out loud?

“It’s not, I mean, I just,” Yu stammered. After realizing there weren’t any lies that wouldn’t sound like he was thinking of another lover, he quietly admitted, “I kinda fantasized about this.”

“Is that all?” Hayato asked, trying to suppress a smile.

“I, uh.” Yu couldn’t bear to look at him. “I might’ve… done more than that.”

“Oh?” Hayato leaned closer to Yu’s face, no longer trying to hide his satisfaction.

“Don’t make me say it.”

“But now I want to hear it.” Hayato pouted.

“You already know. Isn’t that enough?”

Hayato took Yu by the chin, their faces less than an inch from each other.

“What if I told you what I fantasize about?”

Yu’s breathing became hard.

So that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?

“When I touch myself, I pretend my fingers are your tongue.”

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Hayato said with a wide grin as he stood up.

“Wait, what about y—” Yu started to ask before Hayato dropped his pants in front of him, revealing his own boner. “…Oh.”

“Don’t worry, you’re about to find out.” Hayato kicked off his shoes and the clothing around his ankles before kneeling down in front of Yu again. He poured lubricant into his hand and began slathering it on Yu’s cock.

“Where were you keeping that?”

“Phantom’s secret.”

“What does that even mean?” Yu couldn’t decide if that answer was hot or disgusting.

“Just be happy I remembered it this time.” Hayato put down the bottle and took some of the lube on his free hand before reaching back and placing two of his fingers in his own anus. He drew in a sharp breath as he stretched himself. Yu didn’t know where he was supposed to be looking, but between Hayato’s pained face, the exposed throbbing penis, the hand gliding over Yu’s own slick erection, and the other arm reaching around to who knows where, Yu certainly didn’t want to miss anything.

“Okay.” Hayato said, removing his fingers. He changed his position, now kneeling over Yu rather than in front of him, straddling his abdomen. Yu let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as soon as Hayato started to grind his ass against Yu’s dick.

“Ha…Hayato…” Yu gasped, his chest heaving.

“You ready?” The words were quiet and fragile in stark contrast to how the phantom had been previously. Yu glanced up at him, letting their eyes meet. Hayato was blushing, his face timid and vulnerable. It wasn’t a look Yu was used to seeing on him.

“Yeah.” Yu nodded.

Hayato put a hand on Yu’s shoulder, steadying himself as he held his anus open with the other. Slowly, he slid Yu’s cock into himself. Just after the head of the penis entered, he paused, fidgeting and biting his lip. Something that sounded like a whine escaped his throat.

“You okay?” Yu asked, remembering how much pain he’d been in when things were the other way around. Then again, the tight squeeze Hayato’s anus was putting on his boner had Yu close to making his own noises.

“Y-yeah,” Hayato replied, his voice quivering. “It’s not like…” He lowered himself further, clenching his teeth. Yu put a hand on the back of Hayato’s neck, and ran it up through his hair, pulling him into a kiss. Hayato’s tension melted away. He put his arms around Yu’s neck, returning the kiss in full. Hayato’s hips dipped up and down, riding Yu’s cock. His movements started slow and broad, but after Hayato let out a low growl, they became shorter, focused on one spot. Yu echoed his boyfriend’s noises, letting him know he was enjoying it just as much.

Somewhere between their muffled moans and the sensation of being wrapped in his lover’s heat, Yu noticed the head of Hayato’s moist cock rubbing against his abs. Yu curled his fingers around the shaft and unhurriedly pumped him. Hayato let out a whimper just as their lips parted.

“So this is what you think about when we’re apart, huh?” Yu asked, wearing a small smile.

“It feels a lot better doing it with you than a dildo.” Hayato confessed. The statement filled Yu’s mind with images of Hayato masturbating. Yu could feel his face burning up.

Is that what he’s been doing these past two weeks?

“Hey, are you okay?” Hayato laughed, stroking the blush on Yu’s cheek.

“I’m not sure.” Yu was used to people telling him all kinds of things, but nothing like that.

“I thought you wanted to know. That’s why you told me about what you do, right?”

“I did, but…” Yu didn’t expect the day he knew too much about the phantom to arrive so quickly.

“By the way, if you’ve ever wanted to make me beg, now’s your chance.”

Yu stared at him.

He doesn’t know, does he? Yu couldn’t tell if Hayato actually knew anything or if he was just teasing as usual. Before he could question it further, Hayato was speeding up his pace.

“Y-Yu, I’m…” Hayato was trembling as he failed to hold back a moan.

Damn, that’s…

It became difficult for Yu to focus on anything other than the boy on top of him. He only just barely remembered to block the tip of Hayato’s cock with his thumb.

“So you have thought about that,” Hayato said with a smile. The hand in Hayato’s hair moved down to his ass. Yu had intended to steady Hayato’s motions, but getting to feel his backside was a nice perk.

“Payback for when we met.”

“You’re still,” Hayato’s voice gave way to pleasure before he could continue, “bitter about that?”

“I wouldn’t say bitter, but…” Yu soon found his own voice was just as unreliable. Hayato wasn’t the only one shaking, and the phantom’s now constant noises weren’t calming him down in the least.

“Yu…” Hayato cast a sultry gaze at his lover and managed a few breathy words between thrusts, “Won’t you please… let me…”

“I don’t know,” Yu whispered back. “You don’t seem very desperate.”

“Oh, but I am,” Hayato assured him before his breath hitched. “So… please…”

“Not a chance.”

 “What do I have to do… to get you… to relent?”

“Maybe if you didn’t” Yu shuddered, “seem to like it so much.” It was true. Despite his panting, pleading words, Hayato was grinning. “Is that why…?”

“M-me? Like this? Ha… you’ve got… got to be…” His façade was crumbling with each passing second. “Oh my God… Oh my God.”

It was too much. Yu couldn’t hold it back anymore. He’d been trying to put it off as long as possible, but how could he while his boyfriend was riding him like that? While he was making that face?

With one last groan, a wave of ecstasy ran through Yu’s limbs. The impact of orgasm caused him to lose his grip on Hayato’s dick just long enough for his semen to spray out, landing on Yu’s torso.

“Sorry,” Hayato whispered softly. Yu shook his head and gently pulled Hayato into his arms. He felt the other’s heartbeat pounding against his own. After a few seconds, Hayato pulled back and rested his forehead on Yu’s. They shared a slow kiss, tenderly pressing their lips together. Before they could continue on to a second or third, they were interrupted by a yawn Hayato failed to hold back. It wasn’t long before he’d fallen asleep with his head resting on Yu’s chest, glasses askew from the angle.

“This isn’t really the place to be sleeping,” Yu protested, but Hayato was already too far deep in his slumber to hear him. In the end, Yu couldn’t bring himself to follow through with waking his lover. Instead, he slid the glasses off of Hayato’s face and set them on the floor. He embraced Hayato, smiling as he thought about how his boyfriend wasn’t unlike a cat.

Though Yu had every intention of staying awake, soon the other boy’s body heat lulled him to sleep.

Chapter Text

“Hey, wake up.”

Yu felt someone shaking his shoulder.

“No… por favor… todavía puedo luchar…” he mumbled, his mind still floating around somewhere in dreamland.

“What?” The source of the voice shook him again. “Come on, I don’t have time for this.”

Yu slowly opened his eyes, squinting when he was reminded how bright the lights in the TV World were. Hayato was hovering over him, looking unusually impatient for someone not wearing pants.

“Where’s your mask?” Yu asked, not quite having disconnected reality from his dream yet.

“What, now you miss it?” Hayato asked, scowling. “Now’s not the time. That snake just took off with our stuff.”

“No, not that one, the—” Yu’s eyes shot open. “What?”

“Wait, maybe you’re right,” Hayato murmured, pensively placing a hand over his mouth.

“What are you even talk—” Before Yu could finish, blue flames engulfed Hayato’s face, then descended down his form, burning his entire being. A tall glowing figure with horns appeared behind him. The blue parted to show a black being with a red jacket and looming dark wings surrounded in chains. The sparks trailed down the links to the cuffs attached to Hayato’s wrists. The blaze subsided, revealing the phantom that Yu was so used to seeing.

Fully dressed, even.

“I’m going after it!” Hayato yelled back as he leapt off the edge of the platform, his persona close behind him.

Must be nice, Yu bitterly thought as he shoved his penis back in his pants. He grabbed Hayato’s glasses off the ground and got to his feet. He rushed to the floor’s edge, peering over to see which direction they went.

Of fucking course they went straight down.

Yu didn’t consider himself to be all that afraid of heights, but a man has his limits.

He put Hayato’s glasses in the pocket next to his own and sighed. There was no way in hell he’d ever catch up to them using the stairs.

“Izanagi, I’m counting on you,” he said, jumping off the platform.

The floors flew by as Yu fell, his still open shirt billowing behind him. Below him, Hayato landed on an iron beam and propelled himself to the left, catching a pole and swinging himself forward onto a rail where he continued to give chase. He was close on the tail of the large reptilian shadow, which was twisting through the metal gridwork at an impressive speed despite the symbols on its neck rattling against the frame. The phantom’s motions were flawless, as expected from someone who made heists for a living.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” Yu muttered, crushing a tarot in his palm in order to prevent himself from plummeting into the beam. Izanagi materialized beneath him, catching him before impact. They followed after the others, soaring through the spaces in the grid.

Just as Yu and Izanagi were closing in on them, the snake took a sharp right, then slithered into the framework under the platform. Hayato dropped down, grasping the pipe he’d been running on, and swung into steel maze, his persona just behind him. Izanagi overshot the turn, but didn’t take long to thrust the two of them into the jungle-gym-like structure. The snake winded down the post at the far corner, the phantom sliding down the post like a fire pole with his red partner not far behind, diving through the air. After some jagged, and even awkward dodging, Izanagi escaped the metal mess with a dizzy Yu still under his arm.

Yu began to realize just how ill-suited the Japanese creation god was for parkour. Even so, they were finally able to reach the phantom’s side.

“So you managed to catch up, huh?” Hayato commented with a smirk, glancing at Yu and Izanagi long enough to acknowledge their presence.

“Yeah.” An upside-down Yu shot him a glare. “What did I tell you about staying close?”

“You said I’d want to do it.”

“And?”

“Right now I don’t want to do it.” Hayato let go of the post, latching on to a nearby perpendicular rod, spinning up and over it like a gymnast, then using the momentum of the motion to throw himself at the snake. He landed a hard kick to its head, knocking it off the post and sending it speeding down into the nearest platform.

He had no right being that graceful, especially after delivering an infuriating line like that.

Still in midair, the phantom pulled a pistol from his belt, firing three shots into the snake’s head. He pounced from pole to pole until he reached the same floor that held what remained of the shadow.

A gun? Now he has a gun? Yu couldn’t recall ever seeing a firearm on Hayato’s person, even with the nature their escapades. Maybe it was part of his magical phantom transformation, like his clothes? But even then, he should’ve had it the first two times, right? But wait, did his summoning work in the real world?

How did I not notice it? Where the hell was he keeping that?

Hayato’s words echoed in his head.

‘Phantom’s secret.’

“WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?” Yu didn’t realize he’d vented his frustration out loud until he noticed Hayato staring at him from below. Hayato shrugged it off, letting his persona disappear. Grinning, he held up his retrieved items.

“I got it!”

Izanagi caught up to the phantom, setting Yu down before fading away. Yu’s face was scrunched up in exhausted irritation, his hair strewn about in every possible direction.

After stuffing the pants he’d been wearing pre-coitus into his bag, Hayato turned to Yu with a smile, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m kinda surprised you were able to keep up.”

“Yeah.” It was a curt answer. He wasn’t disagreeing, but…

“Don’t tell me you’re mad I went off by myself. This thing was a pushover.”

“What if it hadn’t been a pushover? What if you ran into your shadow?”

“You said we’d take care of it, right? Besides, you said I probably wouldn’t—”

“What if you did? What if I wasn’t there? Do you know what happens to people who go off into the TV World alone?” Yu asked, facing the floor as his emotions starting to catch up with him. “They end up dead. I refuse to retrieve your dead body from a telephone pole.”

He could feel the waterworks coming on. As much as he didn’t want to cry in front of Hayato, Yu couldn’t bear the thought of being responsible for someone’s death again, especially after it’d almost happened to Nanako. Remembering it didn’t help his fight against the tears.

“Hey,” Hayato started, taking Yu in his arms. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

Yu rested his chin on Hayato’s shoulder, returning the hug.

“Thanks.”

“By the way,” Hayato’s smile slowly returned, “your persona’s pretty handsome.”

God, what is he thinking, saying something like that at a time like this? Yu considered telling Hayato to shut up, but decided instead to just accept the compliment.

“Yours isn’t bad eith—” Yu stopped upon seeing something on the horizon. He couldn’t quite make it out, but whatever it was, it was large, and moving toward them with incredible speed.

Hayato blinked, surprised at Yu’s midsentence stop.

“What?”

“We should run.”

The phantom turned around to see what Yu had meant by that. Upon seeing it, he nodded and faced forward again.

“Alright then.”

Hayato grasped Yu’s hand firmly in his own and took off sprinting causing a startled Yu to stumble while he struggled to keep up.

“Hey, wai—Haya—please, I’m not—” The edge drew closer. “Hayato, I can’t do this.”

“It’ll be fine. Trust your reflexes.”

How can he say that so calmly?!

“Uh, reflexes are more Yosuke’s thing.”

Hayato glanced at Yu from behind his mask.

“Are you sure you two are just friends?”

What’s that supposed to mean?

“I’m sure.”

They lunged off the platform, landing on a catwalk. For a split second Yu was grateful to land on something wider than his gait.

“Look,” Yu began, feeling nervous about the impending perpendicular rod that Hayato was bound to use to swoop up to a higher surface. “I’m no acrobat. I can’t swing that.”

Hayato snorted, failing to hold back a laugh.

“Hayato!”

“It’s fine, we got this.”

I sure hope so, Yu thought, watching the phantom carefully from behind. At least now he was keeping up to Hayato’s running pace, though he wasn’t sure how long that would last if he had to mimic Hayato’s rod technique. He turned back to gauge how dire their situation was.

It was more dire than he’d hoped. The thing that was chasing them was close enough for Yu to tell it was not just one but several shadows, probably attracted by the sound of gunfire. And as far as he could tell, they were the only beings there that resembled anything like prey in the eyes of their pursuers.

For some reason just then Yu could hear Yosuke’s voice in his head, telling him that at least he wouldn’t die a virgin. Yu mentally reminded his partner that ‘there are more important things’ before shaking the entire imagined conversation out of head and facing forward. It wasn’t the time for this nonsense.

“Okay, so you’re going to have to use your force to flip yourself up onto the bar,” Hayato explained, “and then before you lose momentum, push off and catch yourself on that grid that heads toward the direction we came. Pull yourself on top of it and run. Keep your legs in, but don’t trip over yourself.”

Yu desperately hoped Hayato would never become a gym teacher.

“I think you might be overestimating my abilities.”

“Do you want me to carry you again?”

Though the offer might be tempting under different circumstances, Yu really didn’t care for the idea of being spun around in the air by someone else.

“We got this.” Yu repeated, hoping the words would suddenly become more reassuring if he said them too. They didn’t.

“Get ready.” Hayato let go of Yu’s hand. The phantom flawlessly demonstrated exactly what he’d just told Yu to do. He swung himself up, easily gaining footing on the narrow grid.

Just… trust my reflexes, Yu told himself, trying to erase any doubts in the final moment before reaching the bar. He’d just have to do this to the best of his ability.

It went better than expected, though it wasn’t nearly as agile as Hayato’s ascent, and he came to the conclusion that he’d need footwear with more grip should he ever decide to attempt something like this again. He’d nearly lost his balance and slipped off. Luckily he had arm strength going for him, if nothing else, and he’d managed grasp the bottom of the metal structure he was aiming for. Hayato had been waiting for him, crouched down and holding out a red hand. The phantom pulled Yu up until his own feet found a place to stand.

“Thanks.” The word was shaky, but not insincere.

“No problem. Let’s go.”

Knowing it was best not to waste any time, they took off.

“We still have to go higher, right?” Even having survived the first trial, he wasn’t confident in his ability to take on a second one.

“Yeah. Arsène can fly us up to the exit.”

So that’s his persona’s name. Before Yu could muse over how fitting it was, he was struck by a sudden realization.

“Why didn’t you just summon him from the start instead of making me do that?”

“I wanted to prove you could do it.” Hayato replied, his smile evident in his tone. “Besides, you could’ve summoned yours at any time.”

“I really hate you.” Yu said, more than a little upset at the timing of Hayato’s trick.

“Yeah, I know.”

Hayato flinched just before Arsène reappeared above them. It didn’t hinder his speed, but he was holding his hand to his head as though he was in pain for a couple seconds.

“Are you okay?” Yu asked, concerned.

“Yeah, I’m…” After recovering, Hayato turned to Yu, but instead saw the crowd of shadows closing in on them. “Fuck.” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Sorry?”

“I lost focus. I’m good now. Let’s get out of here.”

“Right.” Yu had a nagging feeling there was more to it than that, but it wasn’t exactly a good time to ask so he accepted it for now. Arsène swept the two of them up, holding them close to his breast, against his cravat. “You know where the exit is, right?”

“Duh. Why wouldn’t I?” Hayato gave Yu a gentle flick on the forehead, letting him know that his doubt wasn’t appreciated.

“Well, I mean,” Yu averted his gaze, feeling a tinge of shame. He could’ve sworn Hayato hadn’t been paying attention, but apparently he hadn’t been giving his boyfriend enough credit. “Never mind.”

Not wanting to continue that awkward conversation, Yu leaned over Arsène’s elbow to check their rear. The horde was only meters away now, or at least, the part of it that could fly was.

“Shit.”

“They’re close?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit,” Hayato agreed. “We can’t go any faster.”

“I’ll hold them off.” Yu told him, already shattering a blue card in his hand. Within an instant Izanagi returned, aimed his blade, and cast a massive lightning bolt into the pack of shadows. Debris flew out from the center of the blast, scattering across the nearby platforms. Though the attack made a dent in their numbers, it hardly slowed down the survivors. With Izanagi readying another blow, Yu asked, “How much further?”

“The exit’s within view.”

Another wave of electricity shot into the crowding shadows. More sizzling fragments of rubble and shadow remnants soared through the air.

“Now?”

Izanagi sliced through the front line of their pursuers, sending their halves back at those following. The persona spun his naginata in a circular motion in front of himself, creating a shield that prevented the remaining shadows from getting any closer.

“Thirty seconds. Gonna have Arsène toss us out. Do you know if they can follow us into the real world?"

“Probably.” Teddie once left on his own, so really, what was stopping the rest of them?

“Can you destroy the exit?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Get ready.”

Yu nodded. Izanagi cleared the rear just enough that the shadows wouldn’t be able to catch up before their exit, then flew to Arsène’s left, running his blade through the nearest section of the steel framework that kept the place standing. The structure began to collapse, falling into the platform that held the exit port. Arsène pitched the two boys through the screens just before the upper level dropped, flattening the stack of televisions. Less than a second later, the personas fizzled away.

The couple collided face-first into Yu’s bedroom floor. The television tipped over and crashed behind them. They shuffled onto their hands and knees, turning back to make sure they weren’t being chased anymore. The shattered glass coming out from the body of the TV set reassured them of their safety.

As the tension faded, the phantom broke into a fit of laughter. Yu gave him a puzzled look, but then his expression softened into a smile. The two pulled themselves into sitting positions, Hayato leaning back against the couch and Yu resting his arms on his knees.

“God, I can’t believe that happened,” Hayato said, spreading his arms out on the edge of the couch cushions.

“I can’t believe we survived,” Yu admitted, silently deciding he’d never go back inside the TV without the rest of the Investigation Team ever again.

“Looks like your TV didn’t though.”

“Yeah…” Yu wasn’t sure how he’d explain that to his parents. He wondered if they’d notice if he replaced it. Either way, it was a small sacrifice to make considering the situation.

“I’ll take care of it. I was the one that wanted to see the TV World in the first place.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out.”

“Nah, I got it. I know where I can get one cheap.”

Yu frowned, narrowing his eyes.

“You’re not going to steal one, are you?”

“What? Me? Steal things?” Hayato asked, feigning offense. “What kind of heathen do you think I am?”

“The kind that’s dressed as an infamous thief.”

Hayato shrugged, letting his alias fall. He returned to his previous half-naked state. Having forgotten that his boyfriend hadn’t been dressed prior to his transformation, a flustered Yu found himself unable to face Hayato.

“H-here,” Yu mumbled, handing back Hayato’s glasses without looking at him.

“Really?” Hayato said, putting his glasses back on. “I mean, you literally just saw this. You have a photo of this on your phone, for fuck’s sake.”

“I wasn’t expecting it,” Yu replied, staring at the floor.

“You’ve fucking licked this thing, and now you can’t even look at it?”

“That’s exactly why I can’t look at it.”

“Hm.” Hayato reached around Yu’s waist from behind, pulling him close and wrapping his legs around him. He rested his chin on Yu’s shoulder. “There, now you can’t see it.”

“I can feel it,” Yu muttered, his face still burning. Even while flaccid, Hayato’s crotch wasn’t exactly flat.

“Details,” Hayato replied, dismissing the complaint. He absentmindedly ran his fingers over Yu’s abdomen while he let his mind wander to other things. Yu let it happen, unwilling to fight it anymore. Besides, he didn’t necessarily dislike it. Watching it, he placed his hand over Hayato’s.

 “I need a shower,” Yu said, more to himself than Hayato, though that didn’t stop him from responding.

“Yeah, I kinda…” Hayato’s face gained its own light blush. “I didn’t mean to make a mess. Sorry.”

“No, it’s…” Yu wanted to say it was fine, but somehow that didn’t seem like the right word. He decided it was okay that he didn’t know what he wanted to say, as it probably would’ve been too humiliating to say aloud anyway. Instead he just shook his head, letting Hayato know it was nothing to waste time worrying about.

“I could clean it off,” Hayato offered, his mouth a bit too close to Yu’s ear, “if you want.”

“Thanks, but I really could use a shower.” As tempting as the offer was, Yu didn’t think the other boy’s tongue would make him feel any cleaner.

“I never said we couldn’t shower,” Hayato answered, making his intentions clear. He put his teeth on Yu’s earlobe, lightly nibbling, just in case there was any doubt remaining.

“Oh.” Yu could feel his face heating up again. He paused, feeling a bit concerned that Hayato seemed to know how to control his temperature like he was some kind of oven. “Even though we just did it?”

“We don’t have to do that.”

“I guess.” Somehow, Yu had a feeling like they would end up doing it anyway if they did shower together. They already had trouble keeping it in their pants when they were fully dressed. He couldn’t imagine being naked together would make it any better.

“I mean, we can if you want to.”

“No, I…” Yu leaned back against Hayato, letting the other boy support his weight. “It’s just…”

“Just?”

“What if my parents come home?” Yu hadn’t told them he had a boyfriend yet. Hell, he himself hadn’t been sure he even had one until the night prior. He didn’t think his parents would mind, but if their first impression was colored by the two of them getting it on in the family bathroom, there could definitely be some issues. Then again, the potential first impression of one of them without pants and the other’s torso stained with cum while sitting in front of a destroyed television wasn’t exactly a winner either.

“Why? Do they regularly walk in on you while you’re bathing?”

“No, but if they hear us they might wonder.”

“We’ll just have to keep it down, then,” Hayato whispered into Yu’s neck.

“We’ll… have to do that,” Yu murmured in agreement, enjoying the contact of Hayato’s soft lips under his collar.

God, I’m so weak, he thought, letting the phantom have his way with him once again.

Chapter Text

Somewhere between the bedroom and the bathroom Hayato had removed Yu’s clothes, leaving a trail in the hallway. After lifting off Hayato’s shirt, Yu had made a point of kicking the clothes back into his room so his parents wouldn’t ask about the unfamiliar outfit laying on the floor if they happened to stumble upon it. (Or for that matter, if they saw his own clothing, seeing as he’d never leave it in the hall himself.) For someone with experience in covering things up, Hayato sure didn’t seem very concerned about leaving evidence behind. Yu couldn’t help but wonder if Hayato wanted them to be found out. He’d only just barely managed to shut his bedroom door before his boyfriend was pulling him close, feeling up his chest, and leading him by his chin into the already running shower.

Naked was a good look for Hayato, Yu decided. The water streaming down his lean figure only emphasized the curvature of his lithe muscles, which were no doubt honed to perfection from making several post-heist getaways. Needless to say, it was hard not to stare at the chest Yu was only just then seeing for the first time. Or, it would’ve been, had his hair not been hanging over his eyes, like it always did when it got wet. Luckily, Hayato was quick to push Yu’s bangs back, restoring his vision.

“Nice forehead.”

“Shut up.”

Hayato leaned in close, smirking at Yu.

“Make me.”

Yeah, Yu thought, I knew it was going to end up like this. Regardless of Hayato’s insistence that they didn’t have to do ‘that,’ there was no way he’d be coming out of that shower before coming in it first.

Accepting the invitation, Yu grasped the back of Hayato’s head and closed the distance between them with an aggressive kiss. Hayato answered by shoving Yu against the shower wall. His eyes were hungry.

“You said you like it when I’m rough, right?”

“Yeah?” Yu asked, his own expression defiant despite his breaths growing heavier.

“Sorry for not delivering earlier.”

Within seconds Hayato’s forceful tongue was running over Yu’s own. Yu attempted to push back in retaliation, but the phantom took hold of his gray hair, jerking him out of their kiss. He pinned Yu to the wall again. The impact was loud enough to be heard down the hall.

“I don’t think so.”

Hayato ran his fingers down Yu’s thigh, lifting the leg up around his waist. He dug his fingernails into Yu’s supple flesh. Yu pulled Hayato close again, his own nails pressing into Hayato’s shoulder blades when the other boy’s teeth found his neck.

“W-wait,” Yu gasped. “What about…?”

“Evidence?” Hayato asked, letting his free hand wander to Yu’s crotch. “I only care if people know you’re fucking the phantom. Now that we’re an item, I couldn’t care less if people know you’re fucking Hayato Tsukimura.” He gave Yu’s erection a rough squeeze to emphasize his point. Yu let out a pained grunt.

“What if I care?”

Hayato raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t want me to mark you?”

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Yu knew that wasn’t the case at all. He wanted the phantom to mark every inch of his body. He wanted to wear the bruises Hayato left on him like goddamn tattoos.

God, I’m going to regret this during gym class tomorrow.

“Fuck it. Do what you want.”

Yu yelped as he felt Hayato’s teeth sink back into his neck, then his shoulder, his collarbone, Hayato sucking on his wet skin. Below, Hayato had both of their cocks in his hand, steadying himself while grinded his own dick against his boyfriend’s. Enjoying the friction, Yu began to slowly hump under Hayato’s fingers, taking care not to lose his balance.

The nails under Yu’s thigh scrapped down his leg. Yu released a moan that was one part pain, two parts pleasure.

“Yu, are you okay in there?”

Yu froze. That voice didn’t belong to the boy standing in front of him. Noticing the sudden halt, Hayato removed his teeth from Yu’s shoulder and watched him, waiting for cues. His calm reaction was doing little to help Yu’s emotional state, which would’ve been best described as ‘borderline panic.’

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, Mom,” Yu called out, trying to downplay his horror in favor of sounding like he was actually using the shower for its intended purpose. He hoped his heartbeat wasn’t as loud to everyone else as it was to his own ears.

“Are you sure? That sounded painful. If you need help I could come in and—”

“NO—no, we’re—I mean, I’m good.”

“Smooth,” Hayato whispered.

“Shut up,” Yu muttered back.

“What was that?” asked the voice from outside.

“N-NOTHING. Nothing. I’m fine, I promise.” Yu reassured her, making a desperate hand motion across his neck at Hayato telling him to stop. Hayato merely shrugged in response. Not long after, he gave Yu a mischievous smile and playfully stroked Yu’s dick, eliciting a whine from Yu that was quickly followed up by a glare and a swift removal of Hayato’s hand from that sensitive location.

“Well, okay,” Yu’s mother answered, doubt heavy in her tone. “Anyway, I just thought I’d tell you we’re heading out again.”

The panic disappeared from Yu’s expression, but what replaced it wasn’t much of an improvement.

“…Oh,” Yu said. The syllable was heavy. “For work?”

Hayato gently took Yu’s hand, looking at him with concern.

“As usual. We’re going abroad again. It was short notice, so we’re just stopping by to pick up some things before we go. We’ll be back in a couple weeks. You’ll take care of the house like always, right?”

“Yeah,” Yu answered, gaze locked on the floor, “…like always.”

“We’ll leave some money for groceries on the table.”

“Thanks.” The word was weak and likely went unheard, if the sound of the footsteps outside growing more distant was to be trusted. The two boys could barely hear the muffled sound of the parents’ conversation in the kitchen.

“Hey.” Hayato squeezed Yu’s hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I—” Yu was interrupted by the sound of the front door falling shut. He didn’t bother to finish his sentence. After a few seconds of silence passed, Hayato pulled Yu close, holding him tight.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, resting his head on Yu’s shoulder.

“It’s nothing,” Yu mumbled. “I’m used to it.”

“Don’t make a face like that and then tell me nothing’s wrong.”

A face like what? Yu wondered. He must’ve looked worse than he realized.

“I just…”

Wanted to see them.

Wanted to introduce you.

Thought it would be different since I got back from Inaba.

Of course it isn’t.

Why did I think it would be?

“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” Yu finally said.

“Don’t be.” Hayato leaned back and looked Yu in the eyes. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, but—” The finger Hayato put on Yu’s lips halted his protest.

“Shut up, okay?” Hayato left a kiss on Yu’s forehead. He picked up one of the shampoo bottles from the shower ledge and after pouring some in his hand, began to run his fingers through his boyfriend’s gray hair.

“What are you doing?” Yu slouched a little, partially to make it easier for Hayato, but partially because the guy was pushing down on his head anyway.

“Cleaning you, like I said I would.” Hayato put down the bottle and started using both of his hands to lather up Yu’s hair.

“But you’re still…” Yu glanced down, but was quick to turn away with a blush.

“Yeah, well, I’ll live.” Hayato chuckled. “Besides, it’s easier to clean it that way.”

“Are you saying that from experience?”

“I might be.”

“What the hell do you do in the shower?”

“Don’t say that like you weren’t just grinding dick with me in here a few minutes ago.”

“…Fair.” Yu conceded, dropping his judgment for the time being. “You’re using way too much shampoo.”

“So what?” Unlike his usual playful expression, the phantom wore a genuine pout on his face. Yu had been about to scold him, but seeing Hayato give him such an innocent reaction prevented him from going through with it.

“Here,” he said, transferring a mass of bubbles from his own head to Hayato’s and returning the favor.

“I don’t want your secondhand shampoo.” Hayato closed one of his eyes, hoping to keep the suds out as they ran down his face. He was about to protest more, but between the nice feeling of Yu’s fingers running over his scalp and the fact his boyfriend was laughing again, Hayato merely gave Yu a faint smile and reached for the soap.

“Hey, so…” Yu started, glancing away for a moment. “Are you staying for dinner?”

“Is your offer to cook still on the table?”

“It might be.”

“I suppose I could take some time out of my busy schedule,” Hayato answered, with his signature grin, though he was quicker than usual to drop it. “Actually,” he hesitated, “would it be okay if I stayed the night?”

 Did he… cringe just now?

Yu searched Hayato’s face for some kind of explanation. The question had been delivered without the phantom’s usual flirtatious tone, and if Yu was to be honest, it concerned him.

“Y-yeah,” Yu finally said, when he noticed Hayato’s eyes looking him over, wide with, was that worry? “I mean, there’s school in the morning so we probably shouldn’t… you know…”

“Oh, no, that’s fine. I just don’t…” Hayato bit his lip and let his gaze fall, passing the bar of soap from one hand to the other. “I don’t want to leave yet.”

“That’s okay.” Yu wrapped his arms around Hayato. “I don’t want you to leave either.”

It had gotten dark by the time the two of them finished their shower. They went back to Yu’s bedroom to get dressed together. It was easier this time, being bare in front of Hayato in a non-sexual way. Yu couldn’t really put a finger on why that was. He wondered if the fact they were both on equal terms had anything to do with it. Or maybe it was because they’d already gotten the sexual nudity done and over with.

“You don’t mind if I borrow some of your clothes, do you?” Hayato asked, though Yu couldn’t help but think the question had come a bit late considering the guy was already rummaging through his closet.

“I don’t mind, but will they fit?”

“Only one way to find out. By the way…” Hayato pulled out his discovery with a smirk. It was the sukeban costume from the pageant a year ago. “You wouldn’t mind telling me why you have this, hm? You haven’t been holding out any weird kinks on me, have you?”

“Wow, that brings back memories.” Yu took the sailor uniform from Hayato, looking it over.

“No reaction, huh?” Hayato asked, sulking.

“How am I supposed to react?” Yu gave him a questioning look before returning a nostalgic gaze to the clothes as he hung them back up. “I wore that for a beauty pageant during our culture festival last year, at my old school.”

“Ah.” Hayato said flatly, as if he’d made a disappointing revelation. “So?”

“…So?” Yu echoed as he dressed himself.

“Did you win? Or more importantly, do you have any pictures?”

“Oh, no, we were pretty thoroughly defeated,” Yu answered, pulling a gray V-neck sweater over his head. “But I have some photos around here somewhere.”

After helping dig out some clothes for his still naked boyfriend, Yu walked over to the shelf by his desk, careful not to step on the broken glass from what once was his television. Yu searched through the shelf’s contents until he found the photo album. He spread it open on his desk, flipping through the pages. Hayato soon joined him, wearing one of his gray and white t-shirts and a pair of black sweats. They were a bit big on the thief, but it wasn’t like he was swimming in them or anything.

“Here we go.” Yu found the page and moved aside, letting Hayato get a better view. Hayato slid his glasses back on as if he actually needed them and leaned in to look.

“Thoroughly defeated is an understatement. You didn’t tell me you were competing against Alice herself.”

“Hey.” Feigning offense, Yu nudged Hayato with his shoulder.

“…Not that you aren’t smoking hot.”

“Nice save.”

“No, I mean it. I would’ve voted for you.” Hayato reassured Yu, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Yu felt his face grow warm, but something about it was nice. It was a soft warmth, unlike the flustered heat he often felt from Hayato’s advances. However, before he could enjoy it too much, Hayato was pointing at Yosuke in the photo and commenting, “Now, this guy, on the other hand…”

“Cut it out.” Yu playfully bumped Hayato again.

“Though he does have nice legs, I’ll give him that.”

Yu shut the photo album, preventing any further commentary on his partner’s legs. For some reason Hayato seemed pleased with himself.

“By the way, will I ever get to see you wear that outfit in person?” Hayato had a glint in his eye, like he had something more in mind than just playing dress-up. Yu shook his head.

“I’d like to keep it in good condition. It was kind of a gift.” If the phantom wanted to fuck him in a skirt, he’d have to find him a different skirt. And preferably a shorter one that wouldn’t look ridiculous with someone else under it.

Yu could hardly believe he’d just had that train of thought so casually without any kind of irony. The shame caught up with him not long after, setting him ablaze from the neck up. He must’ve stayed this way for at least a few seconds, because Hayato thought it necessary to wave his hand through Yu’s line of sight to get his attention.

The breeze felt nice.

“Hey, Earth to Yu. You still there?”

“Y-yeah?” Yu had meant for it to be an answer, but it came out sounding more confused than anything.

“What were you thinking about just now?”

“What?”

“Well, the way you lit up when I hadn’t even done anything to cause it, that kinda makes me curious.”

There was something about this guy that just totally decimated Yu’s usual poise, and God, did it make Yu uneasy to be read like an open book. He briefly wondered if this was how Yosuke felt all the time.

Yosuke has it rough.

“I’m gonna go start dinner,” Yu mumbled, rushing past Hayato toward the door after pulling an effective, if not totally obvious, subject change. Though perplexed by the sudden turn of events, Hayato followed him to the kitchen.

There was less food in the pantry than Yu remembered. A bit embarrassed, he asked Hayato if a simple meal of fried rice and eggs would be acceptable. Hayato had no complaints, saying it was better than whatever he would have eaten had he not asked to stay. Yu was a little alarmed to hear Hayato’s meals tended to be composed of junk food, though he was relieved to that what little he had to offer was a welcome change of pace, and if he was honest with himself, some of his eating habits weren’t very praiseworthy either.

While Yu got the rice going, Hayato offered to clean up the broken television set. Yu was about to tell him it wasn’t necessary and that he’d get it after dinner, but Hayato was already headed back to the bedroom with a broom and dustpan.

When did he find those?

It was a bit discomforting that Hayato had so few reservations about going through other people’s belongings, but if he was going to pick up the broken TV, Yu wasn’t going to stop him. Hayato returned a while later carrying the part of the television that had remained intact. He set it by the door, saying he’d take it with him in the morning. He made a quick trip back to the room to get the dustpan full of glass shards and disposed of the mess.

By then, the meal was almost done. Hayato approached Yu from behind, wrapping his arms around the cook’s waist.

“Is it ready yet?” Hayato asked, resting his head on Yu’s shoulder and peering down at the sizzling mixture on the stove.

“Almost.”

“I’m starving.”

“I’m not surprised, after all that physical activity.”

“Are… are you making fun of me?”

“Maybe,” Yu said, letting out a soft laugh as he got out bowls for the two of them. Hayato followed him, refusing to let go of Yu’s waist. He was frowning.

“I help you escape the TV World, clean up your broken TV, and provide you with more pleasure in a couple weeks than you’ve probably had in months, and you, you have the gall to make fun of me for having an active sex drive?”

 “Hey, the TV World was your idea.” Yu raised his eyebrows. “And months? Is that how long you think it’s been?”

“If I had to guess. You can’t tell me you didn’t do anyone back in Inaba. A place that boring, there’s nothing else to do there.”

“Not like we had a murder mystery to solve or anything,” Yu replied, turning off the stove and scooping the mix of rice, vegetables, and eggs into one of the bowls. Working around Hayato’s arms was proving to be more cumbersome than one would expect.

“Oh, please. With a group of attractive people like that? And you didn’t fuck any of them?”

“So now my nerds are attractive?”

Yu turned to face Hayato and shoved the bowl and a pair of chopsticks at him. Hayato’s expression dropped a bit as he realized he’d have to release his hostage in order to accept the offering.

“Yes, fine, I’ll admit they’re attractive,” Hayato conceded, letting go of Yu and taking the bowl from him. “But who did you hook up with?”

“…Who did I hook up with?”

“Not that I want to picture you with someone else, but I am kind of curious what your type is.” Hayato leaned against the counter. “Besides me, I mean.”

“Well, I…” Yu trailed off, turning his attention back to the skillet and filling his own bowl. “You were actually…”

“What? I was your first?”

Yu bristled a little upon hearing it. Even though he’d hinted at it in their prior conversations, hearing Hayato say it so bluntly kind of stung. He gave a hesitant nod to confirm.

“…Really? There wasn’t anyone? Not even a short fling or anything? Tell me you at least dated someone.”

Yu shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

“Can we talk about something else?”

Hayato looked down at his food, twirling one of the chopsticks between his fingers.

“Oh. Uh, yeah. Sure.” The chopstick became still. “Sorry. You probably don’t want to spend our date talking about your past relationships, huh?”

Yu didn’t answer, opting to instead focus on getting a couple glasses out of the cupboard.

“Though,” Hayato started, unwilling to let the imminent awkward silence set in, “it’s kind of nice. The idea that you’re completely, one-hundred percent mine, that is.”

Yu nearly dropped his glass. He stared at Hayato, face reddening with each passing second. Hayato lifted his gaze from his bowl and met Yu’s eyes. The blush must have been contagious, as it didn’t take long to spread to Hayato’s face. The two of them coughed. Yu muttered something that sounded like he was probably asking Hayato what he wanted to drink. Regardless of whether or not that was what he actually said, Hayato answered with a similarly incoherent mumble that sounded vaguely like “whatever, anything’s fine.”

They took their meal to the living room, eager to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere they’d created in the kitchen, though it seemed to follow them. Hayato was quick to spread himself out on the couch in a position that looked anything but conducive to eating. He set his glass on the floor next to the sofa.

“You’re eating like that?”

“Yeah,” Hayato replied, as if it was the most natural eating position in the universe. He dropped a clump of rice into his mouth, then through his chewing added, “Siddown an’ join me.”

Yu looked him over, wondering how exactly he was supposed to join him when he was taking up the entire piece of furniture. Apparently the pause had been enough of a hint, because it wasn’t long before Hayato lifted his legs, making some space. Yu sat down, but soon found Hayato’s legs draped over his lap.

I should have known.

Sighing with resignation, Yu decided to make the best of it and placed his glass between Hayato’s knees.

“Don’t move.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Hayato said, readying another rice drop over his mouth. Yu watched him, feeling a bit apprehensive that he might have to clean up after his boyfriend’s eating habits, but the rice made it to its destination without incident.

Yu’s mind was quick to return to their previous conversation.

‘You’re completely, one-hundred percent mine.’

The heat returned to his face.

God, what an embarrassing line.

But even so, Yu still found himself running his fingers over the bite marks Hayato had left on his neck earlier. He had to admit, there was something comforting about having physical proof of the phantom’s affection, even if he would have to make some excuse when his classmates noticed.

“You like those?”

“What?” Yu asked before realizing what he was doing. He pulled his hand away from his neck and stared at it for a few seconds. “Oh, I… y-yeah.”

Yu picked up his dish and murmured a quiet “thank you,” though he said it more into the bowl than to Hayato. He felt Hayato shake on top of him, choking back a laugh.

“I’ve never been thanked for biting someone before.”

“Well, I… I asked you to… you know, so I…”

“It’s no big deal. I wanted to mark you anyway. You know, let others know you’re taken and all that.”

For some reason, Yu found that information far more flattering than he should have. He wondered if the phantom had the impression that he was popular enough to warrant leaving a mark to repel other potential suitors. However, that said, Hayato was right, there was no way he’d be able to explain away his new bruises with just some mundane accident. They were pretty clearly human bite marks. Yu sighed, accepting his fate of being known as Hayato’s chew toy.

"So back in the warehouse, that was..."

“Yeah. I figured even if it wasn't visible normally, if you got that far with someone else, they'd notice. By the way,” Hayato continued, “it sounds like you’re pretty popular. I’m surprised you weren’t taken already.”

Yu picked the wrong time to take a drink and ended up choking on his water. He turned to Hayato with a pained face.

“W-what?”

“I asked around when I was looking for your shoe locker.” Hayato shrugged. “You have more than a few secret admirers. They’re gonna be pretty disappointed when they find out.”

“That’s… unexpected.” Though Yu had mixed feelings about his popularity ranking, he was relieved that it didn’t sound like Hayato attended the same school. Even now that they were officially together, it was nice to know at least some of his suffering had been kept relatively private. That, and sharing a class with the phantom would be nothing if not distracting as hell.

“Is it?” Hayato cast a pensive gaze at the ceiling. “Besides that, I figured if you weren’t with anyone at school you were probably with someone from Inaba, especially the way your phone kept going off that week I had it. I can’t believe you were actually single.”

He was right about the phone thing. By the time Yu had gotten his phone back, he had more than twenty messages from other members of the Investigation Team waiting for him, and that wasn’t even counting Yosuke’s eight suspicion-inducing texts.

Yu realized he should check his phone before the end of the night. He hadn’t checked it since they got back from lunch, but maybe that was for the best. Even if he claimed not to mind, Hayato seemed a bit annoyed when he’d taken the time to respond to Yukiko’s cooking inquiry on the way to the café. Then again, if he hadn’t answered it, they likely would’ve had to quarantine the Amagi Inn.

Returning to the matter at hand, Yu wasn’t happy to hear the conversation veering back toward his relationship history.

“About earlier, when we were in the TV,” Yu began, hoping to steer clear of the topic Hayato seemed to have stuck on his mind, “I noticed you have a gun.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Yu looked at him. Hayato was still fixated on the ceiling, though more blankly than before.

That’s it?

‘Oh, yeah. I have a gun. I shoot it sometimes. No big deal.’

“Where is it now?”

“Not in your house. Don’t worry about it.”

Is that… supposed to be an answer?

“I just thought it was odd since you’re not a cop.”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

Well, this isn’t working.

With his attempt at conversation thoroughly crushed, Yu let his gaze fall down to Hayato’s legs in his lap. He rested his hand on Hayato’s ankle and collected his thoughts.

Maybe I have to meet him half-way?

“What are your friends and family like?” Asking something Hayato already knew about him, just in the opposite direction seemed like a more promising strategy. If nothing else, Hayato seemed far more interested in talking about people than other things. Besides that, Yu was curious what kind of family would turn out a phantom thief.

“My friends and family, huh?” Hayato set his chopsticks back in the bowl, delaying his next bite. “Well, for one thing, my friends are better at parkour than you are.”

That hadn’t really been the answer Yu was looking for, but he was glad Hayato seemed more open to this topic than the last.

“I’m not surprised.”

“Yeah.” Hayato chuckled. “I guess that’s to be expected. You did well for your first time though.”

“Thanks.” Yu smiled to himself, despite how pissed he’d been about the situation at the time. “And your family?”

“We don’t really get along. I’m sure it’s not hard for you to imagine why.”

“Do they know you’re the phantom?”

“No, but I wasn’t exactly the model of good behavior before becoming the phantom either. That’s why they sent me here.”

“You’re not living with them?”

“No. Well…” Hayato hesitated, furrowing his brow. “No.”

“You don’t sound very sure.”

“I…” Hayato turned his head to its side. “I’m in kind of strange situation right now. I’m not where I’m supposed to be.”

Something about that line tied a knot in Yu’s stomach.

“You’re not supposed to be here?”

Feeling Yu’s grip on his ankle tighten, Hayato turned back to him.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like I shouldn’t be here with you or anything. It’s more like…” Hayato ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think of an explanation. “Like… I don’t know how to explain it. But I’m not leaving you, I promise. Besides,” A smug smile appeared on his face, “you know too much for me to leave you unchecked.”

Though his face didn’t lighten up, Yu loosened his hand and began to rub Hayato’s shin under his pant leg. Hayato swallowed the last of his meal and set his bowl on the floor.

“You’re not a bad cook.”

“It was just fried rice.”

“Really good fried rice. Your mom teach you to do that?”

“No.” Yu cringed. “I figured it out on my own.”

Hayato propped himself up into a more proper sitting position.

“Oh.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine.” Yu shook his head. Usual disappointments aside, he was still bitter about earlier. His parents were never around when he wanted them to be, which was nearly all the time, but the moment he tried to make love to the one person who made him feel less alone in his own house, of course, there they were, ready to kick him down again, and then, as usual they were gone before he could recover. He knew they never tried to hurt him on purpose, but damn, did that timing feel fixed.

If it was just going to be like this again, they could’ve left him in Inaba.

Yu stared into his half-eaten meal.

“If you’re done, I can start dishes.”

“You could,” Hayato admitted, taking Yu’s bowl and glass and setting them beside his own. He put his arms around Yu’s neck, pulling him closer. “Or you could stay here.”

It didn’t take Yu long to realize he wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. He gave in easily, letting his head fall into Hayato’s chest, enjoying his warmth.

“Thanks for staying with me.”

Yu wrapped an arm around Hayato, hugging him tight.

“I should be thanking you for letting me stay.”

“This house is always so empty. It’s nice to have someone to share it with.”

For the first time since they’d met, the phantom didn’t have anything to say. To make up for it, he returned the hug, gently rubbing Yu’s back.

Several minutes later, the yawns started to set in, forcing the two of them to get up before falling asleep on the couch. Hayato suggested that they let it happen, after all, they were already comfortable, but Yu insisted that the dishes had to be done lest something be stuck to the pan for the rest of eternity. Hayato told Yu he worried too much, but agreed to help.

“Is your cat gonna be okay being alone this long?” Yu asked as he put his leftovers in the refrigerator.

“Morgana’s pretty self-sufficient.” Hayato shrugged, apparently unconcerned about his cat’s wellbeing. He put his bowl in the sink and began to rinse it out.

“Does Morgana know parkour too?”

“Yeah.”

Huh?

Yu stopped with the fridge door still open. He turned to Hayato, searching for some kind of signal, but Hayato hadn’t changed his facial expression at all, or even bothered to look up from what he was doing.

That…

That was a joke, right?

…right?

Yu himself had a tendency to say outrageous things with a straight face, but something about it seemed out of character when Hayato did it. Yu shut the fridge.

Maybe he’s just tired.

It had been a pretty long day.

After completing the dishes, the two made their way back to Yu’s room. Hayato stifled a yawn, but that didn’t stop the contagion from eliciting a consequent yawn out of Yu.

“Did you want the futon or the couch?”

“C’mon,” Hayato said, taking Yu by the arm. “Are you really asking me that?”

“Oh, r-right.” Yu blushed and turned away. He hadn’t thought about it before, but given all the things they’d already done together, it did seem weird to suggest sleeping separately at this point, and it certainly wasn’t as if he didn’t want to share the futon with Hayato. He’d really only asked out of habit from his time in Inaba when friends used to visit.

“For someone who accepted a hand job from a stranger in a back alley, you can be such a prude sometimes.”

“Can we stop bringing that up?” Yu asked, spreading out the futon on the floor.

“Fine, fine.” Hayato said, already taking off his glasses and making himself comfortable on the futon even though Yu had just barely finished putting it out. Yu turned off the light, then grabbed his cell phone off his desk and sat down next to Hayato. He had a couple messages from Yosuke and Teddie asking if their trip to the TV World went okay. Yu sent them a quick response to let them know that the two of them had made it back safely and that he’d share more details about it later. Meanwhile, Hayato had sat up and placed his arms and legs around Yu’s waist. “Who’s so important that they can’t wait until morning, huh?”

“The people who made our trip to the TV World this afternoon possible, that’s who.”

“Hm,” Hayato hummed in thought. “Be sure to thank Legs-For-Days for me.”

Yu had to think about that one for a moment before realizing who Hayato was referring to.

“Oh, so he’s been promoted from Ten-Text Tanaka?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“I’ll let him know, but you should really be thanking Alice-In-TV-Land.”

“Really?” Hayato sounded genuinely surprised. “Huh. Yeah, thank her for me too then, when you get the chance.”

After setting the alarm on his phone, Yu set it down next to the futon and finally let Hayato pull him down into a laying position. He rolled over, facing the other boy, who took his hand, intertwining their fingers.

God, he was close.

“Hey.”

So close he could feel Hayato’s breath on his face.

“Thanks for today.”

So close he could…

Yu kissed him.

He placed his hand along Hayato’s jaw and kissed him.

Again.

And again.

Maybe… one more…

Not wanting to stop, he continued giving Hayato slow, drowsy kisses until Hayato finally put a finger between their two sets of lips.

“I thought you had to get up for school tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I…” Yu trailed off, distracted by the proximity of Hayato’s face. Too tired to maintain any kind of self-restraint, he let his momentary desires win. “Just a couple more.”

Not about to argue, Hayato moved his hand and let their lips meet again. Ten (or maybe twenty – he’d stopped counting, and either way, it wasn’t enough) kisses later, exhaustion took over, pulling him back to dreamland for the second time that day.

Chapter Text

The sound of the alarm stung Yu’s ears. His eyes blinked open. Hayato, hands under his chin and on top of Yu’s chest, was lying on Yu, apparently watching him sleep just moments before.

“Morning, Sunshine.”

“Morning…?” Yu reached for his still beeping phone, and after accidentally picking up Hayato’s glasses first and staring at them for three seconds before realizing they weren’t the source of the noise, he found it and turned off his alarm. He turned his attention back to Hayato, trying to remember when he’d ended up on his back. “When did you?”

“When did I?” Hayato repeated back before figuring out what Yu meant. “Oh, this? Don’t look at me, you did this. This was all your doing.”

“What?”

“In the middle of the night, you pulled me on top of you. Which I mean, not what I expected, but…”

“I don’t remember doing that.”

“I’m not surprised. You seemed pretty out of it. I asked you if you’d changed your mind about doing the usual and you just kinda… well, ignored me.”

The usual? When did that become the usual?

I guess we do it pretty often.

No, we haven’t even been dating long enough to have a ‘usual.’

…Damn, I’m actually dating this guy.

“Sort of like you’re doing now,” Hayato said, interrupting Yu’s thoughts.

“Sorry, I just… I was thinking.” Yu paused just long enough to let the realization of what time it was to sink in. “I need to get ready for school.”

He sat up and tried to push Hayato off, but the other boy had wrapped his arms around Yu’s waist.

“You don’t have to go to school.”

Yu gave him a short stare of disbelief.

“No, I… I’m pretty sure I do.”

“Nonsense.” Hayato insisted, locking one of Yu’s legs between his own. “People play hooky all the time.”

“I don’t. Besides, don’t you have school too?”

Yu tried to slide back and out of Hayato’s hold, but really only managed to drag himself and his boyfriend halfway across the room. There was an attempt at standing, but Hayato’s weight made Yu too lopsided to maintain anything resembling balance.

“I won’t miss anything important.”

“Yeah, well, I will.”

“A goody-goody like you? You probably have perfect grades. You could stand to miss a day or two.”

“I really don’t have time for this. If you don’t let go, I’m gonna be late.”

“I can accept that responsibility.”

“That’s not—” Yu stopped himself before he raised his voice any further. He took a deep breath and calmed himself before continuing, “Is there a reason you don’t want me to leave?”

Hayato didn’t answer. Instead, he cringed and averted his eyes. Yu pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, trying to think of something since Hayato didn’t seem willing to share just yet.

“You were acting like this yesterday too, in the shower, weren’t you?”

Hayato didn’t answer. Yu pressed on.

“Why don’t you want to go home?”

“Look, Yu, I—” Hayato started, pausing to consider his words. “There was a fight, no, an argument, and then… this thing happened and now everything’s all gone to hell.”

Yu remained silent, nodding to let Hayato continue.

“I’ve—no, we’ve been trying to figure it out but all of our leads have been complete bullshit.” Hayato sighed. “Sorry, I know that’s really vague, but I can’t really talk about it. It’s just… it’s something I need to sort it out for myself.”

“No, it’s okay.” Yu put his arm around Hayato. “I understand.”

“It’s just so fucking frustrating. Even after we had that big thing about trust, it’s like I still can’t tell you anything.”

“I actually…” Yu hesitated. “After we met, I had to say something really similar to my best friend. That something happened and I couldn’t tell him about it. That he’d just have to trust me for now.”

“I…” Hayato bit his lip. “I’m really sorry for putting you in that kind of situation.”

Yu shook his head.

“What’s done is done. Looking back now, I might have been a little selfish about the trust thing too. Just tell me what you can, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Hayato agreed with a small smile. “But I’m still not letting you go to school today.”

That wasn’t really the resolution Yu had been hoping for. He’d thought he would bring the problem to light, and Hayato would just let him go, no arguments, no resistance. Maybe Hayato would stay at the house today and greet him when he got home, and somehow the fridge would be even emptier than before. Yu would scold him and Hayato would pout the way he usually does. They’d kiss and laugh about it. Yu would try to do his homework and Hayato would distract him. Good Lord, would he distract him.

But no, here he was, held down by the human equivalent of a ball and chain, fantasizing about what could be (or what Hayato would tell him “could be right now”). It seemed Yu had underestimated the phantom’s tenacity.

“Really?” Yu asked with a tired sigh.

“What? You mean you don’t want to spend another day with your incredibly charming and sexy boyfriend?”

Hayato’s fingers crept up Yu’s chest.

“I never said you were charming.”

“But you do think I’m sexy.”

Yu turned away from him, a light blush on his cheeks. He couldn’t argue with Hayato on this one, not when the ratio of meetings with Hayato to raging boners in his presence was 3:4.

“No need to be embarrassed. I think you’re sexy too.”

Yu wasn’t sure what about that was supposed to make him feel less embarrassed. Or maybe ongoing embarrassment was what Hayato wanted.

Either way, Yu was about to be very late.

“I literally have fifteen minutes to get to class.”

“More like fifteen minutes and twenty-four hours.”

Yu briefly wondered if kneeing Hayato in the crotch was a viable escape option. If it was anyone else, it might have been, but given this was the phantom he was dealing with, that plan seemed risky for more reasons than one. Plan B, however…

“So about that situation you put me in two weeks ago,” Yu began. Hayato looked up at him. “How sorry about that are you?”

He’d hoped he wouldn’t have to resort to such a cheap tactic, but as it was, he had nothing to lose, and he was still kind of pissed about having to hide things from Yosuke, and everyone else, for that matter.

“What are you trying to say?”

Hayato was quick to catch on. Yu expected that from someone in his line of work.

“You owe me.”

“I suppose I do,” Hayato said with a frown, unable to dispute Yu’s logic. He let go of Yu’s waist and sat up. “Are you suggesting I let you go to class to make up for it?”

“Yes,” Yu answered, but as the gears turned in his head, he added, “but I might be persuaded to stay if...”

“…If?”

“If you delete that video from the day we met.”

Hayato shot a guilty glance at the floor.

So he does feel bad about that.

“You wanna destroy the memento of our first date?”

“Really? A memento?” There were so many things wrong with that sentence.

“Actually,” Hayato gave him a weak smile, “about that…”

Something about Hayato’s tone twisted Yu’s stomach in knots. Hayato reached for his bag and pulled out his phone.

“W-wait, I,” Yu stuttered, reaching for Hayato’s wrist, “I was just—that was a joke, please don’t—”

Hayato had pulled up a video on his screen just before Yu swiped it out of his hand. Pale and shaking, Yu watched it, but his panic gave way to confusion. All the video showed was a flash of movement followed by and ongoing visual of part of the phantom’s leg and jacket. Some of the screen was obscured with dirt. No matter how loud he turned up the volume, there wasn’t any audio.

“What… what’s this?”

“I, uh, well…” Hayato’s gaze wandered to the window while he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve decided not to pursue a career in filmmaking.”

Yu stared at him.

“This… this is what you’ve been blackmailing me with.”

“Yeah.”

A heavy silence filled the room as this new information sunk in.

The video ended.

Yu became a truant.

“I hate you.”

Yu threw the phone at Hayato’s chest and covered his beet red face with his hands. He couldn’t believe all his stress and frustration had been over nothing the entire time. The whole thing had been a bluff, and he’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

“I meant to tell you eventually.”

“Eventually?” Yu asked incredulously, dragging his hands down his face just far enough to see Hayato through his fingertips.

“I wanted to make sure I could trust you first. You know, like that you weren’t gonna sucker me into a date with the cops instead of you.”

Yu could hardly believe what he was hearing. If anyone here was the sucker, it was him.

“I felt pretty good about you after the warehouse, but I wanted to be sure.” Hayato averted his gaze again, playing with a lock of his hair. “To be honest, you made me a little nervous when I first texted you and you took all day to respond. I thought maybe you’d asked the cops to track my number.”

Yu let his hands drop into his lap.

So that’s why he seemed so upset about me finishing my call with Yosuke before answering. Yu cringed a little remembering how funny he thought it was at the time.

“Are you sure about me now?”

“After yesterday with the whole TV World thing? Of course I trust you.” Hayato laughed softly. “Besides, you’ve had more than enough opportunities to turn me in if you really wanted to. I’ve been a bit careless with you.”

Thinking about it now, Hayato was right. Ever since receiving the invitation to their second meeting he’d been given every chance to back Hayato into a corner. He had his phone number and knew his location often enough to have informed the police.

And though Yu didn’t like to think about it, he’d definitely had a substantial amount of Hayato’s DNA inside of him at one point, but it’d take a stronger man than him to turn in that evidence for analysis.

A small, nervous smile appeared on Yu’s face.

Heh. Anal-ysis.

“Though… you did help me escape. I wonder if that makes you a wanted man now too.”

“What did you do anyway?” Hell, if there was a chance he’d be on the run too, Yu at least wanted to know why he was running.

“I’ve done lots of things. Be more specific.”

“What’d you do on the day we met?”

“Ah, you know,” Hayato said, looking away again. “Helping the local museum test its security system.”

A vague answer. Yu could’ve learned that much just watching the news. Apparently Hayato couldn’t talk about this either.

“I bet they didn’t appreciate your help very much.”

“They never do.” Hayato admitted. “By the way, when I took out my phone, did you really think I was gonna, um, you know?”

Both of them fixed their gaze on the floor. Yu shifted his legs, visibly uncomfortable, shame written all over his features.

“Yeah,” Yu confessed, rubbing his arm. “I didn’t know if… if that was what was holding us together.”

Hayato’s offended shock subsided, slowly being replaced by understanding.

“Oh, you mean, you… you thought that… that if you…” After piecing it together, Hayato turned pale. “Oh my God.”

Yu looked up at Hayato, taken aback by his reaction.

“I… I didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do, did I?”

“Lose sleep?” Yu had meant that to be an answer, but it sounded more like he was trying to provide an example.

“Like… you weren’t just having sex with me so I wouldn’t make the video public, were you?”

“What?” Yu’s eyes widened when he realized where Hayato’s mind had went. He hadn’t even thought of it that way. “Oh, no, it wasn’t that. I actually…” Yu turned away, trying to hide his blush, and quietly added, “I really liked doing that with you.”

“Oh, good.” Hayato said, with obvious relief in his voice. He scooted next to Yu, taking his hand. “I thought you did, but then, you said that and I…”

“No, it’s okay.” Imagining it from Hayato’s perspective, it made sense that his mind would jump to that, especially considering they’d done that kind of thing every time they met. Yu shifted his position, crossing his legs and leaning his shoulder into Hayato’s. “I guess, I just didn’t know what we were, if you really liked me or if you were keeping me around for something else. I didn’t want to bring it up because I thought you’d get angry and send it to everyone. I felt like I was walking a tightrope.”

Hayato stroked Yu’s knuckles which his thumb.

“That explains why your first attempt at parkour went so well.”

Yu lightly elbowed Hayato, letting him know the joke was in poor taste.

“But I want you to know,” Hayato began, looking into Yu’s eyes. “When I call you my boyfriend, that’s not some alias or code. I really do have feelings for you.”

With his free hand, Hayato brushed Yu’s cheek. Yu put his own hand over Hayato’s on his face and leaned in, closing the distance between them. They shared a soft kiss.

“Thanks for staying with me.” Hayato’s mouth spread into a wide smile. “I know we’re doing this whole falling in love thing out of order.”

“…Love, huh?” Yu asked, wearing a shy smile of his own. Hayato fidgeted and averted his eyes, his grin disappearing and his face fading into a deeper shade of red.

“I… I wasn’t expecting to fall this hard.”

Yu’s face shared Hayato’s own red glow, but this time he didn’t look away.

“You too?”

Hayato faced Yu again.

“Yeah, me too.”

Yu brought the hand on his face to his lips, kissing Hayato’s palm. Though still a bit embarrassed, the smile returned to Hayato’s face. He returned the gesture, bringing Yu’s other hand to his own lips, leaving a kiss on Yu’s fingers.

“But I am going to school again tomorrow.” Yu said, letting Hayato have his hand back.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Chapter Text

Yu and Hayato spent the morning together, scraping whatever was around for breakfast, which wasn’t much. Yu didn’t usually feel thankful for when he was in a funk, but he was glad he didn’t finish his meal the night prior. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that he was skipping school since he’d missed his usual weekly grocery trip, “thanks to a certain someone.”

Hayato waved away the accusation and shrugged, obviously unconcerned. Apparently he didn’t mind putting on another set of Yu’s clothing and going to the grocery store for day two of their date. Yu hoped they could pass as non-students. They were old enough to be out of school, so he didn’t think it’d be an issue so long as they weren’t wearing uniforms, though they’d have to go to a store where they wouldn’t recognize him. It wasn’t hard in a city that size, but it was more of a walk than usual.

Before leaving, Hayato insisted on helping Yu disguise himself. A large hat and a heavy jacket later, he seemed happy with the transformation. Yu frowned at Hayato, informing him that it was far too warm out for this attire.

“Deception requires dedication,” Hayato said, before unnecessarily adding, “especially with hair like that.”

Rather than dignify that with an answer, Yu put the hat on Hayato’s head and tugged it down over his eyes in retaliation.

“You don’t have to be so salty about it.”

Yu made a mental note to make sure salt was on the shopping list as he shed off the jacket and tossed it on his couch.

Grocery shopping with Hayato was risky, or at least, that’s what Yu decided as he removed the umpteenth bag of chips from the cart. This wasn’t the salt Yu had in mind when he’d put it on the list.

He reminded Hayato that he wasn’t made of money. Hayato said he could pay for it himself if money was the issue. Yu wanted to fight it, but as things were, Hayato was in just as good, if not better, shape than he was (which was an impressive feat, considering how much Yu had been through in the past year and a half), and the health argument wouldn’t be very strong coming from him. Yu sighed and let it slide, though several salty junk foods, bottles of soda, candy bars, and instant ramen cups later, he sent Hayato back to get his own damn cart.

The shopping took longer than planned, and lunchtime arrived before they could get back. Somehow Yu ended up holding all the groceries while Hayato bought them some takoyaki from a nearby vendor. While Yu appreciated that Hayato wasn’t going to let him go hungry, there was a part of him that wondered if it wouldn’t be more productive just to go straight home and eat then.

As they made their way home, he asked Hayato to take his back his bags, but Hayato made some excuse about the takoyaki being hot and requiring two hands to work with. Just as Yu was about to frown at him, Hayato held out one of the takoyaki balls on a toothpick in front of Yu’s face. Yu accepted the offering and forgave Hayato for the time being. While he watched Hayato stick the toothpick into another and put it in his own mouth, Yu wondered if something like that counted as an indirect kiss. Before he knew it, Hayato was waving another one in front of him. Apparently it was his turn again.

Maybe Yu hadn’t completely forgiven Hayato for dumping all the whole load of groceries on him, because he took his sweet time with the second takoyaki, suggestively running his tongue over it before taking it, then rolling it between his lips and watching his blushing boyfriend squirm with discomfort.

“Just eat it already!”

Yu swallowed it and smiled to himself.

Mission accomplished.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Hayato stared at the toothpick as though it had been irreparably defiled. “I’m not sure I can bring myself to keep using this.”

“You could use your fingers.”

Hayato was about to consider it until he realized the implications of what would happen when Yu’s turn came around again. His face burned a bright red as he elbowed Yu in the ribs.

“M-maybe later. When we’re not in public.” Hayato mumbled, resigning himself to using the toothpick again. Yu felt his own face heat up. He hadn’t expected his suggestion to get that much support.

“You don’t have to.”

“What? Now you’re taking it back?” Hayato asked, almost sounding disappointed before returning a bashful gaze back to the food in his hand. “Actually, it… it might be kind of cute.”

Hayato popped another takoyaki into his mouth while the two of them shared the silence of embarrassment. He stuck the toothpick into the next one and shot Yu a look.

“You’re not going to do that again, are you?”

“Not anymore.”

“…But you were planning to?” Hayato narrowed his eyes, squinting at his suspect.

“That was before I embarrassed myself.”

Hayato must have found that answer acceptable. He gave Yu another takoyaki.

“So, I was wondering,” Yu began after swallowing, “why do you like me?”

“That’s an awfully forward question.” Hayato rolled his next bite around before finally picking it up.

“Well, I…” Yu hesitated, staring at the sidewalk. “It’s been on my mind since this morning.”

If Yu was to be honest, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the two of them really shouldn’t like each other given the circumstances of how they met, but here they were, awkwardly flirting with each other over a tray of fried octopus balls.

“I’m not sure I can answer that. I mean, can you say why you like me?”

Hayato had a point. Sure, Yu could list off a bunch of the small things he liked, but he had trouble pinpointing exactly what it was that drew him to Hayato.

“Then,” Yu paused, thinking about his words, “When we met and I asked if I’d ever see you again, what made you say yes?”

“When did I say yes?”

“The card in my locker was your ‘yes,’ right?”

“I guess it would be.” Hayato gave Yu another takoyaki, as if it were some kind of reward for giving the correct response. After some thought, Hayato finally answered, “I was really caught off-guard when you asked. I mean, the way you were acting, I thought you’d never want to see me again. That whole week I kept thinking, ‘Someone in his position? Asking to see me again? That takes guts.’”

“It’s weird to hear it described that way.” Yu admitted with a wry smile. “I was scared shitless when I said it.”

“Yeah?” Hayato chuckled. “If I were in your place, I guess I would have been too.”

Hayato finished off their lunch, and after tossing the tray into a nearby trashcan, he took his share of the groceries again, much to the relief of Yu’s shoulders.

When they arrived back at the house, Yu made a solid attempt at putting the groceries away, but didn’t get much farther than putting the cold foods in the fridge before Hayato was pulling him away from the kitchen, telling him that stuff could wait. Yu protested, saying he’d like to make a proper meal, rather than rely on takoyaki to get them through the day. Hayato pushed Yu into the living room, saying it was his turn to cook today. In all honesty, the thought of someone new rummaging through his kitchen bugged Yu more than he cared to admit, but Hayato made it fairly clear he wanted Yu to stay on the couch rather than check on him.

Just as Yu began to wonder about Hayato’s cooking prowess, his questions were answered when Hayato placed a steaming bowl of instant noodles in his lap. Yu couldn’t help but laugh.

“I cook for you, and this is the thanks I get?” Hayato asked with his usual playful smirk as he set their drinks on the coffee table and joined Yu on the couch.

“Sorry,” Yu said, smiling back. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit much, isn’t it? Maybe I should’ve chosen something less extravagant.”

Yu acknowledged Hayato’s sarcasm with a light kick to the ankle, but Hayato was quick to match it, putting his foot down on Yu’s instep. Yu pressed his free foot on Hayato’s, trying to free himself. After realizing what they were doing, the two of them blushed and decided to focus on their food, but neither moved their feet.

“You wanna watch something?” Yu presented the question in hopes to find some kind of distraction from what had just happened. Luckily the living room television was still intact and fully functional.

“Sure, if you want.”

Yu turned to Hayato only to see an averted gaze telling him that the other boy would appreciate a distraction just as much. Yu picked up the remote from the table and turned on the TV. After flipping through all the channels twice, it became obvious that neither of them cared what was on as long as something was playing in the background. In the end, Yu left it on a rerun of the quiz show Nanako liked to watch so much.

Rather than watch the program, Yu’s mind wandered back to their morning conversation.

‘I really do have feelings for you.’

‘I know we’re doing this whole falling in love thing out of order.’

‘I wasn’t expecting to fall this hard.’

Was that… a confession?

Halfway through his bowl of noodles, Hayato pulled Yu out of his thoughts.

“Why does this keep happening?”

Hayato was making an unsavory face at his lunch.

“What?”

“I can fuck you no problem, but as soon as we hold hands or something I can’t even look at you.”

“Oh.” Yu looked down at their feet. “I can move, if you want.”

“No, it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”

Despite what he was saying, Hayato continued to frown at his noodles. Yu wasn’t sure if his face was flushed from the steam of the meal or something else.

“This is,” Hayato hesitated, then admitted, “actually kinda nice.”

…Something else it is, then.

“You don’t mind?”

Another pause.

“As long as we’re alone.”

Yu leaned over and gave Hayato a peck on the cheek. It did nothing to help with the rising temperature of his face, but Hayato didn’t resist. He let himself lean into Yu’s side, laying his head on Yu’s shoulder.

“It feels nice to be here and not dealing with that bullshit.”

“You’ll have to face it eventually.” Yu reminded him while still trying to eat, but not having a lot of luck with it now that he had someone leaning on the arm that was holding the bowl. Hayato set his own bowl on the table, somehow already empty.

“I know.” Hayato conceded with a sigh. “But for now just let me enjoy this.”

Hayato took the bowl from Yu’s hand and put it on the table next to the empty one. Apparently he was done eating.

“I don’t even get to finish the meal you worked so hard to make for me?”

“Oh, shut up.”

Before Yu could argue, Hayato was kissing him, gently pushing against Yu, placing his hand on Yu’s back and lowering him down until Yu was lying beneath him. Yu felt the tip of Hayato’s tongue pressing on his lips. He parted them, letting Hayato’s tongue join his own. Yu soon discovered that Hayato’s meal had been a different flavor, and one that was much spicier than what he himself had been served. He tried to pull back, but seeing as he was flat against the couch, it wasn’t an effective tactic. Yu then resorted to taking Hayato by the shoulders and pushing him up.

“Something wrong?”

Yu hurried to sit himself up and then reached for his glass, wasting no time before chugging his water down. Hayato watched him, his legs straddling Yu’s lap.

“Seriously? Come on, that’s kind of offensive.”

Yu coughed and lowered his glass.

“Sorry. Your mouth was too spicy.”

Hayato gave Yu a confused stare for a moment before realizing what he meant and laughing at him.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot.” Hayato laid himself down on Yu’s chest, encouraging him to relax again. Yu relented, letting Hayato’s weight press him back into the couch. “That can wait then.”

Yu nodded, grateful to have been spared from the lingering wrath of whatever flavor it was that Hayato had been eating. He put his arms around the boy on top of him. Before long, the two of them drifted to sleep, leaving the quiz show host on the television to his own predetermined devices.

A few hours later the sound of a cell phone ringing woke them. Yu took his phone from the table. The display showed the interruption as a call from Naoto.

“That’s weird.”

“You didn’t tell your detective friend about me, did you?”

Yu couldn’t tell if Hayato was teasing or not. He shook his head and took the call.

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

“It certainly has.”

“How are things?”

“Well,” Naoto started, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “I’m going to be straight with you. News got around that you’ve entered a relationship with someone, and frankly, it’s causing quite the stir.”

Yu was a bit shocked to hear this from Naoto of all people. He hadn’t pegged Naoto for the type to engage in that kind of conversation. Then again, maybe someone else was behind it, considering the amount of background conversation the phone speaker was picking up. Yu heard what he was pretty sure sounded like Yosuke telling Rise to “mind her own business” and not to “trust every little thing that damn bear says.” Rise pointedly informed him that “this is her business.” Teddie defended himself while lamenting the fact he’d unintentionally created a “claws for alarm.”

“Ah, um,” Yu paused, sharing a glance with Hayato, hoping the other boy would have some contribution or advice, considering that he’d adjusted himself into the perfect eavesdropping position, his face far too close to Yu’s for his own comfort. Hayato merely shrugged in response. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Naoto answered flatly, with an obvious tone of exasperation. Somewhere in the distance Chie was sharing that sentiment with a tired sigh of her own. Rise and Yosuke were still bickering. Yu covered the receiver and turned to Hayato.

“Is it okay to tell them?”

“It sounds like you already have.”

“I had to tell Yosuke and Teddie.”

“Had to?”

“You wanted to see the TV World?”

“Yes?” Hayato raised an eyebrow. “So?”

“So I had to tell them something.”

“Are you still there, Senpai?” Naoto asked, interrupting their exchange. Yu moved his hand from the receiver.

“Yeah, I’m still here.” Yu watched Hayato, waiting for some kind of cue.

Hayato averted his eyes and muttered, “Sure, fine, you can tell them.”

“And it’s true, I’m,” Yu looked Hayato over, “seeing someone.”

Naoto relayed this information to the group. There were some muffled noises. Naoto’s voice became more distant and notably less calm as Rise snatched up the conversation.

“You’re dating someone and you didn’t tell us?!”

“I, uh, I meant to tell you eventually.”

“Eventually?”

“You and your friends are exactly the same, you know that?” Hayato whispered before Yu’s palm met his chin and pushed him away.

“It’s still kind of a recent development, to be honest.”

“How long have you been dating?”

“Uh, well…”

“A week.” Hayato answered, not even bothering to whisper this time.

How good is his hearing?! And wait…

“A week?” Yu blurted back in surprise.

Two days isn’t a week!

“Only a week, huh? I guess that is pretty recent.”

“No, that’s not what I—”

“So what’s she like?”

Yu glanced at Hayato, removing his palm from under Hayato’s jaw.

“She?” Hayato asked, frowning.

“Yosuke may have made some assumptions I didn’t bother to correct.” Yu responded with a small, nervous smile.

“Do you really mean to tell me your best friend doesn’t know you like dick?”

“It never came up.” Yu gave a helpless shrug.

“That explains why you’re with me instead of him.”

Yu didn’t like the playful smirk Hayato had while he spoke those words, nor did he need that kind of dirty image in his mind right now. Yu put his hand on Hayato’s face and shoved him back again.

Luckily, Rise was too busy convincing Naoto to let her keep the phone a bit longer to notice Yu and Hayato’s side conversation.

 “Hello? Senpai?”

“To be honest, he’s a pain in the ass.”

“Rude.” Hayato’s voice was muffled by Yu’s hand.

“Then why are you dating her?” Rise said, asking the obvious question, but not picking up on the pronoun change. Then again, Yu didn’t bother to correct her either.

“I guess—” Yu had been about to say ‘I like him in spite of that,’ but the sensation of Hayato’s tongue running over his palm did nothing to reinforce that opinion. He took his hand back and gave Hayato’s saliva a disappointed stare before wiping it off on Hayato’s arm. “—you’re right, I don’t know why we’re dating.”

“I could remind you.” Hayato offered, playing with Yu’s belt buckle.

“L-later.” A pink-faced Yu mumbled back, grabbing Hayato by the wrist and delaying his actions for the time being. Yu didn’t need the rest of the Investigation Team listening in while they did that.

 “Senpai, could you not joke about this right now?” Rise asked, pulling Yu’s attention back to his phone.

“Sorry. I was distracted.”

“Is there someone else there with you?”

“It’s just the TV.”

Rise made a noise that sounded like she was offended, but didn’t bother to put it into words. Yu was just happy she believed him.

“So when do we get to meet her? We do get to meet her, right?”

“S-sure,” Yu began, once again distracted by Hayato, who was playing with his free hand, squeezing his fingers. At least Hayato’s attention wasn’t on his crotch anymore. “I mean, yeah, I was planning on it. He’s a persona user, so I thought we should meet up.”

“Oh, yeah, Teddie was saying that you went to the TV World together.”

“Yeah.” It was a short, curt answer, indicative of exactly how much desire Yu had to do that again.

“We’ll have to plan to get together soon then!” Rise said with a giggle, her usual enthusiasm back in her voice. “I’ll save my judgment of your girlfriend until then.”

“Uh, thanks.” Yu said, already feeling a bit nervous about the imminent opinions of his friends, but managing a smile anyway. “I’ll keep in touch.”

“You better! See you soon, Senpai!”

“Say hi to everyone for me.”

“I will!”

After hearing a click, Yu flipped his phone shut and set it back on the table.

“So…” Hayato began, letting the word hang in the air.

“So?”

“They’re gonna be a little shocked when they find out.”

“Yeah,” Yu admitted. “Just a little.”

A grin spread across Hayato’s face as he made himself comfortable on Yu’s chest again.

“I look forward to it.”