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Serizawa is pacing in his mother’s living room.Pacing, pacing, because it’s all he can seem to do.He’s not even sure how many times he’s walked back and forth at this point.The blinds on the windows are pulled down tight, shutting out the storm. The lights are off, and he couldn’t turn them on even if he wanted to. Even without the power outage which had rendered all appliances in the house useless, the light still wouldn’t work. Not after his attempt to change the bulb, when he realized the wires were frayed and had attempted to re-wire them. And when he’d tried to go to the attic to do that, he’d put his hand directly on a particularly large spot of black mold.At this point, he barely remembers why he had even come to his mother’s house, other than to make a mess of it.The ugly orange curtains framing the couch answer his question.The same color as His hair, he thinks, treacherously.The dog below him yaps, breaking him out of his thoughts.“Hi, Dimple.” Serizawa crouches down, running his fingers through the pup’s wiry fur, thankful for the distraction. Dimple whines at him.When Serizawa had come back from buying new light bulbs, he had noticed something beneath his mother’s stilted porch. So, of course, he’d gotten down on his hands and knees, and ventured into the cramped space. And what else would he find, but a tiny, scruffy puppy. The thing looked a bit like a wet clump of cotton when Serizawa found him, but now he’d been bathed and cleaned up, and now resembled a fluffy cloud. Serizawa had immediately noticed the two little brown spots just below his jowls, the source of the pup’s name.Really, Dimple was just another distraction.Serizawa didn’t mind it at this point, even if the puppy wasn’t potty trained yet.“Ah… you want food, don’t you?” Serizawa stands up, ignoring the noises his knees make.The dog’s ears perk up, and Serizawa takes that as a yes. “We don’t have dog food… but I’m sure we could find something?”When he opens the fridge, he is nearly physically pushed back by the horrific smell that hits him. The source? A package of definitely spoiled chicken, dripping nasty juices onto the foods beside it.“Fuck…” He’d forgotten about the food in the fridge when the power outage had hit. He sighs, grimacing as he grabs the spoiled chicken from the fridge to throw away. The dog below him licks its lips. “Gross, Dimple! No!” He laughed, “I promise I’ll feed you after I clean this out!”He gags at the smell several times as he’s cleaning out the bad food, but eventually finishes without making even more of a mess. Maybe not eating breakfast had been a good idea. He closes the fridge, and gags at the smell again. He decides he should probably take out the garbage if he doesn’t want to make himself sick.He grabs the bag and begins tying it up, but Dimple whines again. “Right, right… food first.” He sets the bag down again. He looks in the cupboard this time, hoping to find a can of something vaguely resembling dog food.Dimple whines again. And then he barks, sniffing towards the front door.Serizawa opens up the canned chicken he’d found, and Dimple quiets down while he eats. But he still seems bothered by something.Serizawa figures it must be the storm outside, and goes back to taking care of the trash.And then he hears it. Footsteps, and then a knock at the door. Serizawa nearly drops the bag of trash.Serizawa has known this man long enough that he knows exactly what He sounds like when He walks. And Serizawa has memorized the way He knocks on Serizawa’s chest to wake him up in the mornings, three times, then four, a joke that was never funny to anyone but Him. Serizawa freezes, hoping that if he just ignores Him, He’ll go away.A few moments pass.He knocks again. Dimple whines at the noise. A muffled “Katsuya?” can be heard through the door.Serizawa frantically looks around the house. He needs to get out of here. He needs to go.Serizawa grabs the bag of trash and heads for the back door, wincing as he opens it and hopes it won’t squeak.He steps outside, freezing rain soaking into his sweatshirt, and mud into his socks. He wishes he’d grabbed his umbrella before he’d gone out. But he doesn’t have time to go get it. He hears the front door being knocked at again, and He is yelling his name again.Serizawa dashes towards the bin at the side of the house, trying to move quickly.Out of the corner of his eye, he sees it: the shitty gray car that He had refused to ever replace. It was covered in duct tape and stupid freebie bumper stickers. He had always insisted it was cheaper this way, and that they barely used the thing anyways, so fixing it was hardly worth the expense.For some reason, that stupid gray car surprises him. Even though he already knows that He is here.And in his surprise, Serizawa accidentally slams the lid of the bin down on top of his hand. If the noise that makes isn’t enough, Serizawa also can’t hold back his pained yelp. “Fuck!”The knocking at the front door stops.“Katsuya?” He calls from the front of the house.Serizawa can hear His footsteps again. He turns, trying to get back to the open back door, trying to leave before he has no choice but to face Him again. He’s never felt so sluggish, trying to walk through the mud and back inside.“Katsuya, please-”More desperate now, and Serizawa wants to melt into that name, and the voice behind it, and he wants to kiss the mouth that makes those words so easily. He squeezes his eyes shut and walks faster, as if the lack of sight will quiet his screaming brain. He nearly slips on the mud that’s gotten in his socks.“Please-” the footsteps behind Serizawa are closer. And then even closer. And then there’s a hand on his shoulder, equally damp as everything else. And then he can’t get away“Katsuya.” It sounds like his name, but He says it like He means “thank god”.Serizawa remembers the Greek myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. A man who’d lost the love of his life, doomed to lose it again when he turned to make sure Eurydice was truly there.If Serizawa turned around right now, what would happen? Was he doomed to lose Him, the same as Orpheus?Did he even ever have Him to begin with?Serizawa takes a breath. The hand on his shoulder still hasn’t moved.“Katsuya. Thank god… don’t walk away again. God, please.” He sounds so relieved.Serizawa stays there, frozen.“Katsuya, come on… turn around. I know you’re upset… but we can talk about this. Please?” The thumb of His hand rubs a circle on his back.Serizawa was used to this gesture, soothing and slow, the circles matching his breathing’s rhythm. It was one of His favorite gestures, too.Serizawa takes a deep breath.He can do this.And finally.He turns around.Staring back at him, His hair damp from rain and eyes red from tears, is his husband.
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“Stop calling me that” is the first thing that Katsuya tells him. No hello, not even a gruff one.Katsuya is shivering, soaking wet, and the back of his hand has a small cut on it from the impact of the metal lid. He was out here in his socks, too, his feet disgustingly muddy. The scruff on his face has already grown out, and he looks exhausted.“God, we’re both soaked.” Reigen sighs, his chuckle warbling into an unrecognizable noise. “Please… let’s go inside while we talk?”Katsuya glares at him. “N-no! I don’t see why we should!” and he roughly shoves Reigen’s hand off his shoulder. “What even is there to be said, Tar- Reigen?”Reigen sucks in a breath. Of course, this plan wouldn’t be easy. He pulls two things out of his pocket, but only shows one to Katsuya. He flicks the recording device on and then puts it back inside his pocket.“Look. I know you hate me right now, I hate myself just as much. I know you’re confused. But inside here…” He flourishes the envelope in his hands “is something that can save our entire marriage.” Rain spatters harshly on the paper, and he quickly puts it back in his pocket.“How do you know?” Katsuya sharply eyes Reigen’s pocket. “After all that's happened?” He gestures around.“Katsuya, please just trust me.” Reigen steps closer to him.“Stop calling me that! I know I can’t trust you-” Katsuya steps back. “You know who I could have trusted? If they didn’t fucking lie to me!? Hm?”Katsuya thrusts a finger in Reigen’s direction “Taro fucking Suzuki! But guess what? He never even existed in the first place!”Reigen winced at the sound of his fake name, flung at him like some disgusting slur. The moment of silence between them afterwards was even worse. He’s trying to gather himself, trying to find anything to say in response.And then lighting strikes just a few paces away from both of them. They both scream. “Fuck!! Get in the house!” And then Katsuya’s grabbing his hand, and Reigen is being pulled through the backdoor.They sit there in silence for a moment, before Reigen laughs and Katsuya sighs. Katsuya walks over to a small closet, and pulls out two towels. “Dry yourself off at least… you’re soaking wet.” and he presses the white fabric into Reigen’s hand.Even angry, he’s still kind. Reigen’s heart flutters. “Um.”“Yes?” Katsuya snaps the question as he runs his own towel through his hair.“I can’t leave.” Reigen admits. He was notoriously bad at driving, and that coupled with the awful storm had left his car a bit of a mess.“What? Why?” Katsuya frowned. Reigen’s heart sank. Of course he would want him gone, but it still hurt.“Two of my tires popped… I barely even made it here. Our car really wasn’t meant for these country roads.” Reigen gestured to the front of the house, which his car was parked outside of. “Please, just let me talk to y-” he spots something fluffy out of the corner of his eye.“Puppy?!” Reigen can’t help cooing at the small dog. He immediately drops to his knees, and reaches his hand out for it. “Is he your mom’s? She never mentioned a new dog!” and then the dog rolls onto its tummy for him, and he lets out another “Awww!”When he looks up, it’s clear Katsuya is blushing, averting his eyes. Reigen grins at him, glad for the break in tension. “What's his name?”“Dimple. I uh… I found him under the porch. And… I couldn’t just leave him out there, with this storm rolling in. So…” Katsuya wiggles his fingers at Dimple, who bounds over to him. “He has dimples, see?” He points to the two spots on the dog’s cheeks, smiling a bit.“Cute.” Reigen remarks simply, grinning when Katsuya blushes again, his face scrunching up as he tries to hide it, trying to wrest away the color to no avail.Reigen loves how easily Katsuya blushes. He always has. But there’s more important matters to discuss, sadly.Reigen sits down fully, against the wall. He can’t help but look around the kitchen they’re in. It’s a mess. One of the walls, which once separated the kitchen from the living room, had been partially destroyed.“Um… I know I’ve never been to your mom’s house before, so sorry for asking…” He looks over the room a second time. “Has it always been such a mess?”“No!” Katsuya quickly snaps. “I just… I was trying to fix up the house. And then… everything went wrong, I guess.”“This was all your doing?” Reigen is now eyeing a pile of framed photos. Some on the bottom had been broken.“Look… it was really generous of Mom to have me over here, and she- the least I could do was try to make her house look nice!”Reigen raises an eyebrow at him, and Katsuya sighs. He knows all of Reigen’s tells and gestures. They could probably have an entire conversation without speaking a word like this. They probably have in the past.“By… um… destroying it.” Katsuya frowns, saying exactly what Reigen had been thinking.“It started with the light in the hallway, I wanted to fix it because it was getting really dim. So I got a new bulb, but then I figured out it was the wires; one thing leads to another, and now my mom’s house is… um. Borderline unlivable. But… I really was just trying to fix it. For my mom.”“Katsuya… is that really why you’re doing all this?” He takes off his soaked suit jacket, a small, stupid part of his brain hoping Katsuya will eye him up like he used to do. It’s something Reigen revels in, Katsuya’s wandering eyes- over his scarred chest and down, down-“Don’t- Yes-!” Katsuya isn’t looking at him at all when he snaps.“Because it seems like… you’re just trying to distract yourself. You’ve done this before, you know? You hide, you run away…” Reigen momentarily thinks about all the times Katsuya had been stressed with schoolwork and, instead of working at it and getting it done, had buried himself in strategizing a new farm on Stardew Valley, or a week-long World of Warcraft session.“I’m not! I’m just… trying to help my mom!” Katsuya sputters, gesturing at everything around them. It really, really wasn’t convincing.“Katsuya, please. You were trying to run away from me again, even out there in the rain!” Reigen stands up again. “We can talk about this. We can fix our marriage! I promise!” He pulls out the envelope again, along with the recording device. “But only if you let us.”“You’ve been recording this!?” Katsuya sounds offended.“Yes?” Reigen sets it on the ground beside him. “I… if things go poorly. I want to… remember. Everything about you.”-Serizawa’s mouth is gaping at the words. He has to bring a hand up to his face and manually close it. He coughs, hoping Taro-- Reigen. He hopes Reigen doesn’t notice.He takes a deep breath. “...Fine. Fine. Record this. Whatever. What do you want to do?”Reigen carefully opens the envelope, reminding Serizawa of their birthdays and Christmases together, how Reigen was always painfully slow at opening any gifts or packages. Serizawa would have probably just ripped it open, and he always gave Reigen shit for his method. But now, right now, he thinks it’s actually fitting. So he doesn’t say anything, just watches and waits as the paper slowly opens.Out of the thick envelope, Reigen takes a small stack of papers. Serizawa looks over them for a minute.“Those- are your documents?”“Every single one I’ve ever forged.” Reigen confirms, spreading them out. Reigen’s- no- Taro Suzuki’s drivers license, birth certificate, passport, government ID. Seeing them makes Serizawa’s emotions bubble up to the surface, like a bottle of seltzer being shaken and popped open.He starts crying.Because honestly- honestly! This is such a stupid situation for him to be in! He feels stupid, so stupid, for not knowing the truth. That his husband, who he had married and fallen in love with for two years, wasn’t real. That his happiness was all a dream, a clever tapestry to hide a garish hole in the wall. And it all burned away, that day those men in suits came to their apartment, asking for Arataka Reigen.Reigen reaches over, as if he wants to give a comforting hug, or pat on the shoulder. But he lowers his hand- at least he’s smart enough to know not to touch, Serizawa thinks.“Okay.” The word leaves his mouth distorted, like the cry of some wounded animal. He reaches a hand up to wipe at the tears, sniffling. How is Reigen so calm through all of this? “How’re we gonna do this?”“I was thinking we’d burn the documents.” Reigen digs his lighter out of his pocket. Serizawa sniffs, then, and realizes how potently the blonde man smells of cigarettes. Yikes, Serizawa had thought he had quit those two years ago.Maybe that was just another lie, though.“Alright… like a weird… cremation?” Serizawa manages to stop his tears, wiping at his eyes one last time.“Yeah. I figured… we’d both want him to have a proper funeral.” Reigen stands slowly, and attempts to turn on the sink, to make someplace to burn the documents over and not make Serizawa’s house more of a mess than it already is-No water comes out.“Ah… do any of the faucets in this place work?”