#like blowing stuff up and doing his job while internally having a constant monologue of ‘why did I do that??? will everything change now??’

[wispscribbles]

you know the art you made of Soap "accidentally" giving Ghost a kiss before going on a mission? (before they started dating) what do you think happened when Soap came back from the mission? :3c

follow up to this post

They start dating of course! <3

[kasisnotofimport]

Aaaa I love your writing and I specifically love your stuff with takenaka, teru, and mob (together and separate you write them all so well) so if you're still doing prompts could I request 3, 44, or 67 with... literally any combination of those three?

FINALLY I have finished it! I hope this strikes your fancy. Of course I went with 3, but hopefully I’m not too predictable with it.

Momozou Takenaka is quickly finding out that one doesn’t always need telepathy to read someone like a book. It isn't as if he didn't know this before, but with near constant mental chatter cluttering his ears, reading someone’s actions and postures came hand in hand with reading their thoughts.

It isn't like that with Teruki Hanazawa. The other esper has been absolutely determined to block Takenaka from reading any thought or feeling any emotion with a carefully crafted psychic barrier. It hardly matters. Takenaka can read him just the same as he can anyone else. While he is seven hundred layers of pomp over a perilously fragile ego, they are each just as manufactured and duplicate as the last. Figuring out the construction of one is enough to break all the way through to Teruki’s core where he is just as predictable and average as everyone else. Teruki knows it too, his desperate attempts at hiding it are more telling than any internal monologue.

It is when that masquerade begins to crumble that Takenaka finds a new enigma in Teruki Hanazawa. It is like night and day, one afternoon he is picking Shigeo up from school to walk to Spirits and Such, composed and proper as anyone pleases, and the next morning he nearly trips over his own feet on his way to school as Takenaka passes him in the street. The wide-eyed, fear stricken look he gives Takenaka is almost comical, especially when he is stumbling into an adjacent brick wall, but the entire interaction throws Takenaka for a loop.

“Good morning, Takenaka!” Teruki nearly shouts, much too cheerful to be interpreted as natural and not anything approaching the usual reserved tone he uses with him.

“‘Morning, Hanazawa,” Takenaka replies with a little bob of his head. Teruki nods back, then pushes himself from the wall and continues a more wobbling gait in the opposite direction. Their schools are on two different sides of the city after all. Perhaps he was just surprised to see Takenaka walking this way in the morning, even though Takenaka walks that way more often than not. Whatever the reason, Takenaka shrugs and ignores it. He has a hard enough time wrestling with the thoughts he is already capable of reading, he doesn’t need to expend more time and energy trying to read Teruki’s.

Though the whole thing is made exponentially more bizarre by the fact that Shigeo is also acting oddly. It is by no means the strange break in character that Teruki displayed that morning, but there is definitely something off about the boy. He greets Takenaka with that same pleased expression and accepts his company easily as always, but his thoughts are silent. When Takenaka goes prodding, he finds them blocked off and that is when he begins to worry.

“Shigeo,” Takenaka begins at lunch, pulling one of his earbuds out. Shigeo looks up from his lunch, chopsticks still poised delicately in one hand, but thankfully empty of food. “I can’t--” Takenaka tries to say, then reformulates his approach, “Not to seem… nosy, but I’ve noticed you’re not letting me read your thoughts anymore.” It still comes out stilted and awkward, but at least it gets to the point.

Shigeo jumps like Takenaka had slapped him, blinking once then twice before his mouth even begins to formulate an answer. “Uhm…” he hums. The barrier he has up between Takenaka and his thoughts wavers, but not enough for Takenaka to make any sense of his behavior. Takenaka wrinkles his nose. He tries not to feel hurt at Shigeo’s sudden secrecy. It wasn't really his business after all.

Shigeo eventually comes up with an excuse, though a weak one. “I just… have been thinking about a lot and I don't want it to get too loud for you,” he says quietly. It would be believable if it ever seemed to matter to Shigeo before.

Takenaka just nods, but is sure not to hide his distaste. It really isn’t his place to push the point, but Shigeo has never been like this before and Takenaka doesn’t know what he could have done to deserve it. He pushes it down, turning his gaze back to his own lunch. He roughly shoves his earbuds back into his ears, and hunches his shoulders as he sits back. He ignores Shigeo’s faint, probing worry as a result. It isn’t any of his business after all.

The days continue like that for a while. Both Teruki and Shigeo stumble around him like children hiding their mother’s accidentally broken vase. The fact that they are doing it at the same time leads Takenaka to one conclusion; that whatever it is they are hiding, it is something they are in on together. It cannot be the relationship they both have. They have been together far longer than the odd behavior has persisted, and Shigeo never hid it from him, even if they never discussed it. They still spend time together easily when Takenaka isn’t around, so it can’t be that their relationship is in jeopardy. That leads Takenaka to reason that not only is the secret something they hold together, it is something that concerns Takenaka himself. Rather than being bitter or betrayed, he just wonders what it could be. What could have them both so secretive and what about it concerns him?

Eventually, Takenaka grows tired of it though. It would be easy enough to ignore if the two of them ignored him, but they still go out of their way to interact with him. Teruki doesn’t change his morning route, and Shigeo still sits next to him in class. If anything, Takenaka thinks that he sees them more often. Teruki changes his afternoon route and walks beside Shigeo and Takenaka on their way home, even though his apartment is farther away. Shigeo likewise makes changes to his own schedule, making himself more available during lunch periods and loitering in the halls near where Takenaka usually hides when the voices become too much. All the while, it is as if they expect Takenaka not to notice their odd behavior. Teruki is insistent on making awkward, halting conversation and then stubbornly denying anything is wrong. Shigeo pretends unconvincingly like their behavior has been the status quo since the beginning.

He notices it, though, and unlike the other two he is unwilling to let it lie. He waits until they are all walking home together again before he brings it up. He waits for a lull in the forced casual conversation taking place on either side of himself before he strikes. He can no longer take the artificial friendliness and the forced nonchalance.

“Alright,” he says, pulling the others into complete silence, “What is wrong with you two?”

“Huh?” Teruki says, a little too strained and high. He heard exactly what Takenaka said. Shigeo doesn’t say anything, but there is a subtle curling of his hands into fists that tells Takenaka he heard him too.

“The both of you,” Takenaka clarifies, refusing to repeat himself, “You’ve been acting weird for two weeks now and I’m tired of it.” He keeps walking, but soon finds that his companions have stopped, both staring at him with twin expressions of shock. Takenaka pauses, turns and crosses his arms. He quirks a brow and cocks his head to the side.

“We haven’t been acting weird. Why would we be acting weird?” Teruki insists, rather than providing the requested explanation.

“You have been,” Takenaka maintains, “And that’s what I’m asking. What is your problem?”

“There isn’t a problem,” Shigeo says, sounding much more level than his companion. It soothes Takenaka’s aggression only slightly because he knows Shigeo is lying regardless of how sure he sounds. “I’m sorry if we’ve been acting weird,” he adds.

Takenaka lets out a gusty sigh, watching the two of them sweat under his critical gaze. “Alright,” he allows. Shigeo and Teruki look momentarily relieved before Takenaka’s next words. “If you’re not gonna tell me, then leave me alone,” he demands.

“What?” Teruki nearly chokes, stumbling for good measure, like he has received a physical blow.

“It’s one thing to have you two acting strange and not hanging around. It’s another when you seem insistent that you stick close by,” Takenaka explains practically, “I don’t have the patience for this.” He is not at all upset that whatever the anomaly is, both Teruki and Shigeo are in on it and then seem to think Takenaka is dense enough not to notice.

Shigeo sweats profusely and that mental block wavers for a moment and almost gives way. It is back up in place before Takenaka can even scratch the surface of what he might be thinking, though. “I-it doesn’t have anything to do with you though,” Shigeo says quickly while Teruki seems to reel from Takenaka’s outright banishment.  Shigeo might be preventing Takenaka from reading his mind, but Takenaka can sense the lie there. “Us acting weird, I mean… and we were trying to hang around more because we didn’t want you to notice anything,” he explains honestly.

“Good job. I noticed anyway,” Takenaka says testily. Shigeo winces and looks away. Takenaka tries no to feel bad about that. “Still, If you’re not gonna spill what this is about, then I want you to leave me alone,” he insists.

He turns away from them, ready to walk away, even if it means going in the opposite direction to where his home is. Before he can make it more than a few steps, however, a hand wraps around his and holds him back. “Momozou, Wait,” Teruki calls him.

Takenaka whips his head back at the name. He doesn’t allow it to sway his resolve, however. “If you don’t have an explanation, then let go of my hand,” he snaps.

Teruki’s expression hardens, his lips drawing down and his eyebrows together. He chews his lip momentarily before he speaks. “I’m in love with Shigeo,” he announces with all the authority of a king declaring a new law, “That’s why… we’ve been acting weird. We’re dating and we didn’t want you to feel left out… or know, for that matter.”

Takenaka blinks at him and Teruki tries for an uneasy smile. Something annoyed and ugly twists in Takenaka’s gut and he growls. “That’s not a surprise,” he spits, “Or an explanation.” He wrenches his hand away from Teruki’s grip and spins on his heel only to be restrained once again. This time as Shigeo grabs a handful of the back of his jacket and reels him back. Takenaka wonders why he is so insistent that he stay and twists around so fast that he nearly knocks Shigeo backwards on his ass.

“I don’t have to read your minds to know you two are an item,” Takenaka says, glaring down at Shigeo’s slighter form. The boy’s uncanny ability to remain stoic in tense situations is doing nothing to assuage Takenaka’s boiling temper. “I know you two are in love and you have been since way before you started doing this shit,” he fumes, voice just barely lower than a yell, “Like I said, not an explanation. It’s not even a half-decent excuse.”

Shigeo averts his eyes after the rant, looking unsure. It is almost worse than when his expression wouldn’t change at all. “I… uh... “ he stutters. His mental block makes another dangerous wobble, so tantalizingly close to falling and revealing the true reason.

“We didn’t want you to feel left out,” Teruki repeats himself, coming swiftly though uselessly to Shigeo’s aid, “Or feel jealous.” It sounds weak, like Teruki is grasping at straws and it sets off all the warnings in Takenaka’s head.

“Jealous?!” Takenaka mimics, offended and incredulous, “I am not jealous. Why would I be?” Perhaps if he did not already know that the two of them were already so caught up in each other, he would be. As it is, Takenaka knows better than to concern himself with feelings like that. He doesn’t have even an ounce of a chance.

Teruki, instead of looking relieved, looks offended himself. He makes an aborted gasping noise and clenches his fists at his sides, possibly to keep from pressing one to his mouth like an insulted housewife. “Why wouldn’t you be?!” he shouts. It snaps the tense atmosphere like an errant foot on a dry twig.

Takenaka blinks at the sudden release in pressure, feeling like a rug has been pulled out from under his feet. Shigeo looks between the two of them and sweats. Takenaka can feel his mental wall crumbling almost brick by brick as he fidgets with his shirt. Takenaka determinedly ignores it. “What?” he asks after a long pause, looking between the two of them.

Teruki turns beet red and presses a hand to his face. Shigeo reaches over and tugs at his sleeve, trying to make very obvious, subtle eye contact with the other. Teruki resists, bringing his other hand up to hide his face completely. Takenaka watches the whole scene with a small amount of amusement, the earlier heat of his anger all, but forgotten.

“We’re idiots, Shigeo,” Teruki says, “I completely underestimated him. We’re complete idiots.”

“Yes, you are,” Takenaka agrees with a nod, though he isn’t entirely clear on what the two are talking about.

Teruki pulls his hands away from his face. “Don’t be rude,” he scolds, but it is as weak as his knees look.

“I thought… I thought for sure!” Teruki continues on to say. He groans and buries his head in his hands again, hunching his shoulders.

Shigeo looks between his distraught boyfriend and Takenaka, biting his lip. There is a moment of confusion, a flash of indecision on his face, and then the wall blocking his thoughts drops abruptly and Takenaka is bombarded with a cacophony of thoughts that Shigeo cannot quite put words to. It is an explanation, an apology and a confession of disappointment all in one chaotic package, and Takenaka finds himself pressing a few fingers to the side of his head, trying to massage away the pressure.

“Sorry,” Shigeo blurts, shutting off the flood as abruptly as he opened it, “Sorry. I thought it’d be easier to think it than explain it.”

Takenaka winces and blinks again. “I didn’t get anything substantial from that,” he admits, disorientated. Teruki looks up from his embarrassment exchanging the glance with Shigeo that the boy originally sought.

“How do I explain this, Shigeo?” Teruki asks the other. Shigeo makes a weak shrugging motion in reply, looking sheepish. They both turn their eyes back to Takenaka, and Takenaka straightens under their contemplative gaze.

“You better figure it out, or else I’m leaving,” Takenaka says after Shigeo and Teruki have exchanged a series of harried hand motions and expressions. Shigeo’s thoughts are still a confusing flurry of barely contained emotions, mostly nerves, but something more complex underneath. Takenaka cannot parse it, nor does he want to with the headache that resulted from the first onslaught.

Teruki’s barrier is just as strong as ever, even as his expression softens into something hesitant. He bites the inside of the his cheek thoughtfully. “So you’re already aware of Shigeo’s and my relationship,” he says levelly, forcing even breaths in through his nose, “But there is something additional that you evidently do not know.” He eyes Takenaka critically before speaking again. “... or will likely care about,” he adds regretfully.

“Tell me anyway,” Takenaka insists, making his frustration clear in his tone, “I’ll decide if I care or not.”

Teruki visibly steels himself while Shigeo moves around to brace him. “We thought…Well, I thought, I should say, that you maybe had feelings for Shigeo,” he says as a preface. Takenaka feels his face abruptly heat with the wash of Shigeo’s confirming thoughts. Takenaka wasn’t the only one good at reading people, it seemed. “And well,” Teruki begins again, a fond arm wrapping around Shigeo’s shoulders, “We realized that, perhaps those feelings were returned.”

Takenaka’s heart gives a lurch at the same moment that Shigeo goes pink from his neck to his ears and looks away. “Regardless, you know I—“ Takenaka cuts himself off. Perhaps Teruki didn’t know, after all. “I’m not gonna get in between you two,” he says after a deep breath, “Whatever my feelings or Shigeo’s are… he obviously likes you, so I wouldn’t…”

“I wasn’t finished,” Teruki interrupts his rambling, “I am perfectly fine with whatever Shigeo feels, as long as he’s happy. This isn’t about that, clearly, or we’d be avoiding you, don’t you think?” He sounds just a hair more put together and Takenaka tries to follow his lead.

“As I said, when we began our relationship, I was worried you might be jealous,” Teruki continues, “And I didn’t want you to resent me any more than you already do.” He takes a breath, like the idea of Takenaka hating him is honestly more painful to him than Shigeo having feelings for another person.

Takenaka blinks at the reaction and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “I don’t resent you,” he says honestly. Teruki looks doubtfully at him and Takenaka sighs to release some of the built up tension in his chest. “Alright. I know I’m not the most friendly, but it isn’t that I don’t like you. I just don’t get you,” he explains, “Since when do you care what I think, anyway? It’s not like I’m gonna damage your reputation… as if I could.” Even if Takenaka professed Teruki to be the most horrible bastard that ever lived, he would be disbelieved at best. Teruki had much more sway than Takenaka ever hoped to have. Takenaka had no interest in defaming Teruki anyway.

Teruki makes a melancholy face, his shoulders slumping in defeat. His arm unwinds from around Shigeo, and Shigeo braces his shoulder with a hand. “Because I care what you think about me, Takenaka,” Teruki says. Takenaka feels like there has been a distance reestablished with the use of his last name. He tries not to feel the loss so viscerally. “You’re someone Shigeo holds in very high esteem,” he explains, “And… despite what you may think I think about you, I respect you, Takenaka. A lot.” The last part of that sentence seems almost choked, and Teruki looks down at the admission, pinking at the tips of his ears. He mimics Takenaka’s posture, hunching his shoulders and stuffing his hands in his pants pockets.

“What does that mean, Teruki,” Takenaka demands, looking down at him. He looks shorter with his head down and his back hunched, even if he is about averagely sized for someone his age. Takenaka feels cruel for causing him to look that way.

Teruki doesn’t reply, eyes still trained on the ground, struck speechless. Shigeo comes to the rescue, however. “I’m not the only one who likes you, Takenaka,” Shigeo says. He winds his arm through Teruki’s like it might grant him strength as he wrestles with his words. Takenaka stares at him, bewildered and disorientated by his words and his thoughts.

Despite himself, Takenaka shakes his head. “Nuh-uh,” he says firmly, “Nope. That’s too--”

A small crack opens up in Teruki’s mental block and gives Takenaka a meager, but dizzying taste of Teruki’s thoughts and feelings. Underneath all the turbulence are genuine feelings of fondness in Takenaka’s direction, along with no small amount of exasperation.

“It isn’t like I was supposed to know!” Takenaka defends himself against the thoughts, “You keep yourself closed off all the time and you treat me like a threat. I was surprised you didn’t outright hate me!”

Teruki snaps his head up, eyes wide with surprise, but soon narrowing in anger. Takenaka reels at the flare of disbelief and indignation. “I have done no such thing!” Teruki shouts, “Only recently did I begin shutting you out, and I have never treated you like a threat! What is threatening about you?!”

“Hey!” Takenaka shouts back, ignoring the throbbing in his head at the combined emotional catharsis and tumultuous turn of events, “I’m plenty threatening!” Takenaka is more than aware that is besides the point, but he poses just as much of a threat even without telekinesis or pyrokinesis or any other kind of kinesis there is. He takes a deep breath, calming himself. “I’m just saying, you were being pretty damn standoffish before… all this,” he snaps, motioning helplessly at where they stand.

Then what Teruki said finally registers and Takenaka gasps loudly, cutting off Teruki’s own answering tirade. “What do you mean you only began shutting me out recently?” Takenaka asks in the ensuing confused silence.

“Just that!” Teruki says, “I didn’t even know you could block your thoughts until you said something to Shigeo about it.”

“What?” Takenaka asks, more shocked surprise than a request for confirmation.

“I said, I haven’t been blocking you out. I didn’t even know how until Shigeo showed me,” Teruki repeats himself, but his ire quickly fades into confusion as his brows draw together. “Are you telling me that you haven’t been able to hear my thoughts at all?” Teruki asks, his tone much softer than it was.

Takenaka shakes his head dumbly. It feels like his mouth has been glued shut and Teruki suddenly seems less hostile and more of a blank. “Oh,” he breathes.

It is very quiet for a long while as the weight of the revelation settles. Teruki then lets out a groan and drops into a crouch, pressing his hands to his face again. Shigeo follows him down, inquiring about his health while Teruki just shakes his head. “I can’t believe this,” he says after a few moments, “Out of all the abilities I could have without thinking about it… it’s that.”

Takenaka slumps. “That explains a lot,” he says, at a loss, “At least its useful.”

“Against one person,” Teruki says mournfully, standing up again. He leans heavily on Shigeo who is watching the two of them cautiously. “Against the one person I wanted to hear them,” he repeats, using two of his fingers to squeeze the bridge of his nose.

“At least…” Shigeo breaks in, “At least we know now.” There is an apology floating in the back of his thoughts. Takenaka cuts him off before he can voice it.

“At least we know,” he agrees, though he can’t help, but feel bitter about it.

“Now that… now that that’s cleared up,” Teruki says, regaining some modicum of composure where Takenaka and Shigeo have failed. He looks up at Takenaka and projects his thoughts in a way that is almost forceful, like he is pushing them onto him. “What are we going to do about it?” he asks, looking up at Takenaka and holding his gaze fearlessly. He is naked in a way that is new to Takenaka, but apparently not to him.

Takenaka swallows, resisting the urge to stumble backwards. His gaze flicks between the two of them. He knows what he feels for Shigeo, has known since the time they climbed that mountain together, but Teruki has been a stubborn, albeit unintentional enigma to Takenaka. He knows from Teruki’s thoughts how he feels and what he is offering, and the whole thing sets his mind spinning with the suddenness of it.

“Uh…” Takenaka chokes, “I’ll… I need to think about it.” Though it draws disappointment out of Teruki, he knows he has to remain firm. “Teruki, I don’t… You have to understand that I don’t know you that well,” he says.

The projection of feelings slows to a trickle and then stops completely as Teruki spares him from his disappointment. “I understand,” he says reluctantly. The only tell to the true depth of his discouragement is the way his grip tightens on Shigeo’s hand. Shigeo pats his shoulder gently, his own sadness apparent, but not nearly as concentrated as Teruki’s had been.

“I suppose we will be seeing you tomorrow?” Teruki asks, looking up hopefully.

“If that’s alright with you,” Shigeo adds.

Takenaka nods, and the two of them turn to leave, both slumped in a way that sits heavily in Takenaka’s gut.

“That wasn’t a ‘no,’ by the way,” Takenaka adds before they can get too far. Shigeo’s head turns first, followed by Teruki’s, and Takenaka tries not to stiffen or blush when their eyes meet his. “I just… I need to think about it first,” he repeats his earlier statement, “Get to know you better.”

The smile Teruki gives him is by no means the blindingly bright one Takenaka is used to, but it is comforting all the same.