[LOG] Niou and Hiyoshi

[spaceninja144]

Who: Hiyoshi and Niou
When: A few days after Niou moves his stuff out of the room
Where: Hiyoshi and Niou's room
What: Niou tries to break off the friendship and Hiyoshi refuses


It had been so easy to slip back into his habits from the start of the stay at the base, of avoiding being in the same room as Hiyoshi, after he'd moved his pillows and blankets out. And it had been a bit of fresh air and relief, as much as he hated to admit it.

Unfortunately, he couldn't avoid his room completely, and did need it still for bathroom and storage purposes. Although, as he grabbed fresh clothes to take into the bathroom to change into, Niou did consider the possibilities of just moving it all down to engineering when the loft bed was complete. Something to ponder while he stood in the shower.

Hiyoshi had suspected for a while now that it was more than just a coincidence that he hadn't run into Niou in their shared room lately, but when Niou's collection of pillows and blankets mysteriously disappeared, that confirmed it. And his moving out plus the way Niou had been acting lately, it meant… something, though Hiyoshi couldn't imagine what.

So when Hiyoshi entered the room and heard the shower on, he figured this was as good a time as any to find out, so he sat down on his bed and decided to meditate while he waited. Somehow he thought he might need it.

The plan was to just go and mooch around engineering and get some extra fun things done, but Niou stopped as he emerged from the bathroom and saw Hiyoshi. And he took a moment to debate the pros and cons of just heading straight back into the bathroom and sitting there until Hiyoshi eventually just left for his next shift or something.

But… that would be really obvious. "Hello, Hiyoshi," he said, looking away and heading to his desk to rummage for craft supplies. "I'll be gone in a minute."

"You always are." Hiyoshi opened his eyes when he heard the bathroom door open, but otherwise didn't move. And then, because straight questions were the only way to get information out of Niou, Hiyoshi cut to the chase. "Your pillows are gone. Are you moving out again?"

Niou kept his back to Hiyoshi as he made a pile of bits and pieces to take with him, biting back his immediate response that it wasn't like Hiyoshi spent much time in the room either. He paused at the question. Always so direct. "Yes. I'll still be back for the shower and to keep some of my things. But I'm sleeping elsewhere temporarily until Sanada makes my bed in my office." He kept his voice measured and flat as he spoke. "I'll try and keep regular times for when I come back though, so you can plan on when not to be disturbed."

He may not spend a lot of time in there, but Hiyoshi did at least reliably sleep in the room every night. (Or close to it. The thing with Gakuto had changed that this last week.) Meanwhile, Niou… With the confirmation that Niou wasn't planning on sleeping in the room anymore, Hiyoshi could feel something bubbling up from the pit of his stomach. Again, he asked a straight forward question. As simple as it could get.

"Why?"

Ah, some craft glue would also be a good thing to add to his pile. Niou fussed because he didn't want to do a second trip back. His hands stilled at the reply and he sighed. "Because I no longer feel comfortable sleeping in the same room as you. And since I acknowledge that I need some sleep to function and like lying down, I've had to make other arrangements."

"You don't feel comfortable sleeping in the room with me." As soon as he heard the answer, Hiyoshi knew this had been what he'd been dreading. Or was dreading too strong a word? All he knew was that his stomach clenched when he heard it, and even the fact that Niou had finally acknowledged needing sleep couldn't distract him from it. "What does that even mean?"

Niou nodded in affirmation that yes, Hiyoshi had heard and repeated that correctly. And he hated suddenly that Hiyoshi had learned to ask him questions and was doing that now. And he hated that he had to be truthful with his answers and the whole dislike of being in the room started closing in again. "It means that I no longer trust that you're not about to try and kill me in my sleep. And I no longer feel comfortable being myself around you." His voice stayed even though, and he finished building his pile of things to take with him. "Are we done?"

There it was. Hiyoshi's brows furrowed as his outward expression slowly caught up with Niou's words as he parsed them. "You can't trust me? I've never done anything to you, even after everything you pulled, and you can't trust me?" Oh yeah, Hiyoshi was angry. It was easier to deal with than hurt.

Oh maybe he should just leave. Niou exhaled loudly and he really hated that he still felt weirdly obligated to at least explain to Hiyoshi. "I think I would have preferred it if you did do something after that," Niou said, frowning as the first signs of annoyance crept through. And were quickly squashed again. "It would have been easier and we could have avoided the weeks of… shit."

"Weeks of shit? You mean weeks of trying to save our friendship? Being friends with me is just trouble to you?" Hiyoshi's fist clenched at his side. He'd been patient this whole time, willing to try to make up, and it had all been a waste of time to Niou. It was almost more of a betrayal than the Uion thing had been. At least there had been friendship there. Here there was nothing.

Niou finally turned around to face Hiyoshi, leaning against the edge of his desk. "It's not as though you get anything out of this." He glanced down at the fist and then around Hiyoshi's face. "Nothing but getting annoyed at me for being anything but bland and dead inside, and what else? A few training sessions with some drones. Ask Byodoin or something if you want bruises so badly."

So everything was finally coming out. It blindsided Hiyoshi, and it hurt. "I don't get anything out of it? Who decided that, you? On your own? That's your problem, isn't it. You think you understand everyone, but you don't. If you did, you'd understand that other people aren't the mind readers you apparently want them to be. Did it ever occur to you to tell me you had a problem with me? Or was I supposed to 'ask more questions' and 'figure it out'?"

"It's a bit hard to tell you when you barely talk to me anymore," Niou snapped back and immediately looked like he'd bitten into something disgusting, and had to look away to get his expression back under control. "... I hate talking to you now."

Hiyoshi was so wrapped up in his own anger, he barely noticed the way he was actually getting a reaction out of Niou for once. With any other person, these reactions in this sort of fight would be normal. "Don't try to pin it all on me. You've been acting different too. At first I thought you were giving me space, but that wasn't it, was it? So it's because you hate me? I haven't changed, so look at yourself."

“I haven’t been acting at all around you, and I haven’t changed.” Niou clenched fingers into a fist and the feel of his nails biting into his palm cleared his head a little. “I’ve been making myself be myself around you, like you asked me to. And I can’t do it anymore. And whenever I stop, you just get annoyed.” Or if he’s anything but bland and nice, he gets treated like… he’s disgusting or something.

That's enough to get Hiyoshi to stop and think for a moment, about what was real Niou and what was fake Niou, and the truth was most of the time Hiyoshi couldn't tell it apart. But Niou seemed to be being open and honest now, and it's enough to get Hiyoshi to return in kind. "You talk to me less and you always seem bored." This time it's not an accusation, it's Hiyoshi genuinely trying to communicate.

“I’m just giving you exactly what you asked for,” Niou said, looking irritated. Hiyoshi wanted him to be himself around him? Then he had to deal with the fact that Niou was antisocial and regularly bored by most things and wasn’t going to do anything to hide it. Since that would be faking something. Niou glanced again at Hiyoshi’s hands and then to his face again before looking away. “I dislocated my shoulder a week ago. It’s still recovering.”

Oh. Hm. So Niou acted like himself when he talked to Hiyoshi, and he hated talking to Hiyoshi, so that meant… "But if you hate acting like yourself, is that really you?" Much of the tension Hiyoshi had held earlier had dissipated, replaced by uncomfortable confusion. Even the mention of the shoulder was a bit confusing, but Hiyoshi took it as an attempt on Niou's part to cross the gap. "I have some salonpas if you want."

Niou just gave Hiyoshi a withering look, rolling his eyes as he looked away again. He'd given all the necessary information and was irritated enough that he didn't want to spell it out bluntly for him. "No, I'm fine, thank you," Niou said blandly, shoving the emotions away to fall back into his neutral, bored state. "Any other questions? Or can I just go and leave you to enjoy your 95% solo room again?"

Hiyoshi had thought they were working things out, but apparently he was wrong. Niou was pushing him away again, and he didn’t understand why. He didn’t understand why he was trying to hold on so hard, either. Surely when someone said they hated talking to you, that was it? But somehow Hiyoshi didn’t buy it. “Yeah, one more. Why can’t you just tell me what’s wrong?”

He should have just left, instead of giving Hiyoshi that opportunity to keep asking questions. "I have told you, you just don't listen." Or just don't… look beyond what the words were on the surface, or look at the little hints hidden here and there and it was so frustrating. "And you don't try to either, you just get pissed at me. And now I'm tired of trying to tell you."

Right. Because Hiyoshi was the frustrating one in this situation. “I’m trying right now. Just tell me! Just–” He cut himself off, because he was doing exactly what Niou said and getting pissed. Hiyoshi took a deep breath and tried again, voice a little shaky but noticeably calmer. “I’m listening right now. Please tell me again.”

Niou blinked in surprise at the very obvious pulling back of emotions and oh that was interesting. And maybe the fact that Hiyoshi was at least trying (even if he was dumb and didn't listen half the time when Niou tried), made him sigh and try again. "If I hadn't run into you now, would you have even asked about me moving out?"

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?” Hiyoshi studied Niou carefully. He wasn’t quite at the point of putting everything together, but this was what Niou had decided to say when pressed about giving him more information, so it had to be important. “I’ve been busy this last week. I wasn’t ignoring you.”

Hiyoshi was a dumbass, was all he could think. "I know you were busy." Niou didn't know everything, but he'd pieced together enough and it just made him roll his eyes and get more annoyed. "It wasn't just the last week though." He ran his hand through his hair and stared at the wall as he tried to think of how to explain it. "You're too high effort of a person to be around and I'm too tired."

Hiyoshi got the high-effort thing, or the concept of it anyway, and that was a legitimate reason. But if it was the main reason, why didn’t Niou say it first? Which meant that it was the spending time thing, but… that was so stupid. But if it was that simple and stupid, then in hindsight some of Niou’s behaviour started to make sense. Hiyoshi started slowly, sounding out his understanding of the situation as it formed in his head. “You think I was ignoring you. You give me hints that I don’t get and then you get mad because you think I’m ignoring you more, but really it’s because instead of telling me you’re upset, you tell me your shoulder’s hurt instead and I’m supposed to know what that means. That’s why I’m high-effort. Because I don’t get the hints.”

Listening to Hiyoshi try and figure things out was… interesting. And while he was still annoyed, at least Hiyoshi was trying? Badly. Because it just made Niou realise how little Hiyoshi actually understood. "You're wrong," he said. And maybe that was his fault for dropping the hints in the wrong order, or only pointing it out… too late? "You're high effort because I have to watch everything I say. All the time. Every single thing I say. And I hate it and hate talking to you." There, was that blunt enough for him?

Hiyoshi was a straight-forward person. Not to the same extent Sanada was, he understood there were subtleties to communication, but this went way beyond that. Talking to Niou was like talking to a riddle, and yeah, it frustrated Hiyoshi too. “Then the first part was right. You didn’t correct it.” Hiyoshi folded his arms, as if bracing for Niou’s bullshit. “Why didn’t you tell me all this from the start? And don’t tell me you did, your hints don’t count. I didn’t get them. You knew I didn’t get them. Did you ever really consider me a friend? Because where I’m from, if you have problems with your friend you tell them so you can work it out. That’s what you do when you care about a friendship. Why did you go through the trouble to apologize to me about Uion and then give up on me right after? Was that an experiment too? Was I an experiment?”

He didn't think he'd ever heard Hiyoshi talk that much in one go ever and Niou stared at him. It was difficult to know where to start. "... Yes you were an experiment," he said finally. "A failed one. So you can just go hang out with Gakuto and his lot, and I'll leave you four well enough alone." And Hiyoshi could stop watching his conversations and getting annoyed. And he could stop wasting time spamming Shishido.

"I see." Niou had heard Hiyoshi talk that much before, and just like the conspiracy theories he went on and on about, it was because he had intense feelings about it. But just like that, Niou's response killed the last bit of fight Hiyoshi had in him. He didn't look angry, just tired and disappointed. "I should have known you'd betray me again. It's my fault for not figuring it out sooner. You can go now if you want, I won't stop you."

It was the quiet defeated acceptance and the accusation of betrayal that made Niou snap and he grabbed the bottle of PVA glue from the desk and threw it at Hiyoshi's head. "You're a fucking dumbass. I was trying to keep you happy so you'd keep liking me but everytime I showed any emotion you just got pissed even though you have other friends who can be shitty sad and stupid fucks around you so it's just me who can't even though I'm suffocating every. fucking. time I have to talk to you." Somewhere in there he'd started shouting and he didn't know when, as all his pent up frustration came spilling out. "And I tried to schedule things with you but then I'm weird and it just seems like a fucking inconvenience when you'd probably rather hang out with other people who don't piss you off."

Niou threw a handful of random craft supplies at Hiyoshi as well and then grabbed his chair. "So I thought I'd just solve the problem for you so you wouldn't hate yourself or something fucking stupid like that and just leave but you're being dumb–fuck ow," he dropped his chair as he was lifting it to throw and grabbed his shoulder, angrily kicking his chair instead.

Hiyoshi dodged the glue on instinct, but besides that? He just stared, shocked pikachu face, as Niou went off. To turn around what Niou had been thinking earlier, this was the most Hiyoshi had ever seen Niou show emotion before. It was Niou hurting his arm that jolted Hiyoshi back to reality, (had he really been about to throw a chair at him?!?!), and Hiyoshi finally snapped back.

"I'm the dumbass?! You're the one who could have just said all that in the first place and saved me all that work trying to drag it out of you! You're the one always talking about hints, do you think I was just asking you that stuff for fun? I was trying to fix things!" Hiyoshi huffed, brushing glitter off where the bottle off it had hit his chest. "Maybe we're both stupid. But if you just tell me when I'm being a jerk I'll try to stop. I thought you knew I was just like that."

Now that the anger had been broken, Niou sank into a crouch to hold onto his shoulder until the pain went away and just shook his head. He thought about arguing more but words didn't want to come out, so he just shook his head again and pressed his hand to his face, trying to ignore the upset shaking of it.

Hiyoshi had expected more yelling, not Niou huddled over and quaking. He vaguely considered running to get Niou an ice pack, but he was sure if he did that Niou would disappear on him, so instead Hiyoshi watched in silence for a few moments before sitting down beside Niou in silent, non-probing solidarity. It what he would do for Gakuto after all, and if Hiyoshi was translating right, it’s one of the things Niou wanted from him.

Niou counted his breathing as he tried to squash down the angry, upset bubbling in his chest. And he didn't know how to feel when Hiyoshi actually moved to sit next to him instead of just leaving like he half expected. And that just made him feel worse. And just breathing wasn't enough and the room was stifling and Niou abruptly stood up, his knees and hips cracking at the sudden movement. "I have to go throw up," he said, speeding off to the bathroom and gratefully locking the door behind him.

Ooh. That bad, huh? Somehow Hiyoshi got the feeling that it wasn’t the pain in the arm that had Niou ready to barf. He thought about leaving Niou alone for a while, but once again, Hiyoshi was sure Niou would leave the second he thought Hiyoshi was gone, and it didn’t seem to be the right note to leave things on. So instead he gets up, sits on his bed, and waits.

Niou did actually throw up when he got into the bathroom, and it did make him feel a little better. But then he was stuck awkwardly pacing around the little bathroom because Hiyoshi was probably still in the room, stubbornly waiting. And so Niou waited, and waited until he had his emotions back in check and the anxious knot in his stomach was just there and not showing. And then he left the bathroom and beelined back over to his desk to tidy it up after the anger and remake his pile of things to take down to engineering.

Niou took longer than Hiyoshi expected, but he figured Niou was trying to wait him out, that was the sort of thing Niou liked to do. When Niou did finally appear and didn’t say anything, Hiyoshi wasn’t surprised, but he wasn’t going to let Niou have his way, either. “Is your shoulder okay?”

"It's fine, it's just still recovering" Niou said, and god this was like they were back at square one of this bloody interaction. He picked up the PVA glue bottle and then paused and threw it at the wall suddenly, watching it fall again. "I hate this so. Fucking. Much."

“Pretty sure it’s not fine. Pretty sure you messed it up when you tried to throw that chair at me.” It might be square one for Niou, but Hiyoshi felt like they got somewhere, and was seeing their interactions in a new light. “That was really funny by the way.”

"Not everyone can have muscles and find picking up chairs easy," Niou snipped at him. And certainly not throwing them… with an injured shoulder. And that was the story that Niou was going to go with. He frowned at Hiyoshi and then sat down in aforementioned chair with a slow exhale. "What, you found my raging intent to cause you actual bodily harm funny?"

“I spar with Tooyama. You’d have to try harder than that if you actually wanted to hurt me,” replied Hiyoshi with a shrug. “I don’t think you getting mad was funny, by the way. I know that was serious. I didn’t know stuff like that was enough to make you throw up.”

"... I've always preferred hurting people psychologically." Which, he'd managed to with Hiyoshi, but he left that point just hanging in silence between them. Niou ran a hand through his hair and he still felt frustrated, but a bit better after actually vomiting and throwing things. "Well, fun facts for you today, then. Extreme emotions make me uncomfortable and I deal with it by vomiting to reset."

Hiyoshi nodded. “You’re good at that.” He said it objectively, like he was commenting about someone being good at painting or singing. There was no defensiveness there, despite Niou using his talents on Hiyoshi so recently. “You probably know this, but if you want to get used to your feelings you have to let them out more. It helps. You should at least try before you ruin the enamel on your teeth.”

Niou frowned slightly. "Or I could just keep bottling things up again until I can figure out how to 3D print false teeth." Except for right now when he didn't have complete control over himself yet, and slumped in his chair a bit more. He tugged at his hair. "I think...I'm just going to have to talk to you in private only."

“Fangs would be cool,” volunteered Hiyoshi. He tilted his head at the last comment. “Why, in case I make you mad again?”

Well, at least Hiyoshi wasn't about to rub in his face that he'd just unsuccessfully tried to cut it off completely. Niou shook his head and just stared at the wall. "No it's just more comfortable. Like this." Without worrying about Hiyoshi misinterpreting his written words and the truthfulness, and where he could let actual emotions slip through his usual tight control. "I miss you visiting me at night at work."

Hey, what was an attempt to sever all ties between friends? All water under the bridge to Hiyoshi. “I’ll visit more. I got snacks from my family this shipment, I’ll bring some.” Nothing to patch up a friendship like sharing food, right?

"And you're alright? Even if I'm a shitface to your other friends?" Niou just… couldn't bring himself to really care about them, they were just boring. "... You can still tell me when I've gone too far. I told you that ages ago, as Uion, about getting Niou in line." He didn't think Hiyoshi would remember that, it had been a bit of an awkward throwaway thing.

“I’ve been doing that, you called it me getting annoyed at you. If you ever piss me off enough that I want you to stop, I’ll tell you to stop. Otherwise it’s fine.” There was one thing however that Hiyoshi needed to get out of the way right now. “Except picking at Gakuto-san’s self esteem. I don’t like that. Stop it.”

Niou was going to agree - that he’d stop just expecting every time Hiyoshi got annoyed to lead to being told to bluntly stop so he didn’t have to watch himself every single comment - but then Gakuto came up. And he rolled his eyes. “I don’t pick at his self-esteem. I just pick out his weak points that he’s all sensitive and mopey over and stab at them until he realises it’s just him being a moron.” Which was a far better solution in his mind than the codding and plastering over that Gakuto’s childhood friends did. “It’s worked, hasn’t it?”

“His self-esteem and his weak spots are the same thing.” Hiyoshi frowned. Of course Niou wouldn’t want to give this up. “It’s worked so far but I don’t like it. You always screen it and you could be saying anything.” Really, Hiyoshi didn’t like the lack of control he felt in those situations, but that was beyond his ability to understand and communicate.

Niou raised an eyebrow and okay then. He took the comm off his wrist and tossed it at Hiyoshi. “Then read it if it really bothers you. I don’t really care. Just don’t look at my private conversations with Tachibana or Akutsu.” Mostly because there were a few too many secrets with Akutsu and then a very weird personality with Tachibana.

Hiyoshi caught the communicator and hesitated. He hadn’t expected Niou to just straight up pass it to him, and part of him wanted to refuse the offer to invade Niou’s privacy like that, but on the other hand maybe taking the chance and proving he could be trusted was the better option. After a few moments of deliberation, Hiyoshi brought up Gakuto’s latest post and read the comments between him and Niou. And in the end? “...that wasn’t that bad.” He handed the communicator back to Niou, mildly flustered that he’d made such a big deal over nothing.

Niou stared at the wall and pondered over random things as he waited for Hiyoshi to be finished. And hopefully he was actually just reading one thing and not just trawling through to find all of Niou’s conversations with Gakuto. He put the communicator back on his wrist and shrugged. “It’s fine.” He was so used to people assuming the worst with him or that he was just lying. “He’s kind of pathetic and just takes it, it’s no fun to actually attack him.”

He may have conceded that their conversations weren’t as bad as he’d imagined, but Hiyoshi still wasn’t going to let Niou talk about Gakuto like that. “Don’t call him pathetic.” He could ignore Niou describing attacking people as ‘fun’, but calling Gakuto names was a no-no.

Niou shrugged again. “Okay.” Even if… Gakuto definitely was pathetic at times. Although at least marginally more interesting to talk to than Shishido and Jirou. “Anything else I need to stop doing while you’re at it?”

“Don’t insult him in front of me in general. He’s my boyfriend now.” And hopefully Niou understood enough about dating to know that generally, people didn’t want to hear shit-talk about the person they were seeing. Even if he didn’t, Hiyoshi felt he’d made it clear by this point what he thought of it. Hmm, and one more thing… “And stop using the spray glue in the room, the smell makes me sneeze.”

“So… no insulting him on the journals in public?” Niou asked, teasing just a little. But also, not. He could help the spray glue though, and spun around in his chair to grab it from his desk and add to his ‘take to engineering’ pile, where it would live from now on apparently. He knocked his hands on his thighs and looked a little uncomfortable. “This is so not my business, but… can you just leave Akutsu alone about the family thing?” And Niou could imagine Akutsu now telling him to butt out. “He’s weird about it.”

Hiyoshi gave Niou a withering look that told him exactly what he thought of his joke, even though that more or less covered it. He couldn’t change Niou’s opinion, so not hearing about it was the next best thing.

Niou’s request was more surprising. How often did Niou ask for favours on other people’s behalves? “I’ll try, but I’m getting that picture first.” It was a matter of principle now.

Oh right, he’d seen that. And it had made him laugh because Hiyoshi was just as stupidly stubborn as Akutsu and didn’t quite know how to do the sneaky sideways attacks that often worked with getting things from him. “Just… he used to hang out at my place all the time, to avoid his mother a bit.” Which was not at all relevant, and it wasn’t actually a bad thing, but Hiyoshi could interpret it however he wanted. “He gets weird and stubborn about things… like you, actually.”

“You mean after he broke into your shop and stole from you?” Or something along those lines that Hiyoshi remembered Niou mentioning on the journals. He talked a lot, he couldn’t remember everything, but he did know that Niou and Akutsu were close. Close enough that he didn’t doubt when Niou called him ‘weird and stubborn’, not to mention that he’d experienced it first-hand himself recently. Annoying, really. “It would be easier if he’d just fight me over it so he could lose and give me what I wanted. That’s how I solved things with my brother.” Pause. “My other brother.”

Niou snorted. Right, that was kind of as far as he'd told people with how they knew each other. "Yes. For months after that." As he thought about that though, he still has to bother Akutsu to pay him back for what he'd stolen. He cringed at the mention of the family relationship again. "I'm still so weirded out by you two being brothers." He ran a hand through his hair and visibly shook away the awkward tingles. "Like you guys are really similar in a way. And it's… just fucking weird. How are you not freaking out about it?"

Hiyoshi shrugged– the situation really didn't bother him. "It doesn't matter to me, it doesn't change anything. The only thing different is he's first in line to inherit the dojo now, but he can't claim it unless he learns kobujutsu anyhow, and even if he does it's just one more person for me to defeat. So instead of wasting energy overthinking it, I'll use that energy on training." Akutsu was just one more potential hurdle on Hiyoshi's way to his goal, and hurdles were to be challenged not feared. How similar they were or weren't simply didn't factor in.

“... He doesn’t want it anyway, don’t worry,” Niou said with an easy shrug. The idea of Akutsu in a traditional family like Hiyoshi’s just made him laugh, really. “I dunno, you two might actually get along, I like you both.” And had similar communication problems with both of them. What else… “Oh! He thought that you had the best ass out of everyone in our expedition team and were the most attractive. Even over Mr Oshitari.” Fun facts with Niou today, apparently.

Hiyoshi was a bit disappointed to hear Akutsu wasn't interested in the dojo, he had been looking forward to fighting him for it. And then his ass came up in casual conversation and the face Hiyoshi made. "Why were you talking about my ass?!" Even before they realized they were related that was weird, and Hiyoshi was gonna let Niou know.

Niou burst into laughter at Hiyoshi's expression, something that he normally very tightly controlled but was apparently joining the anger as something that was just free and open today. It took a little bit to control it, pressing his hand against his mouth to stifle the noises. "It was like the day after the expedition," he said after a while. "He'd been there when we were in the nanosuits and had been perving at everyone. So he just gave his opinion. He thinks mine is too flat and boney."

It was great that Niou was laughing and all, but Hiyoshi continued to sit there with his sour face. "That doesn't make it better." Grumble grumble. "I'm related to a pervert…"

“He’s not that bad. He just likes sex.” Niou was finding poor Hiyoshi’s expressions so funny still and had to sit back to fan himself with his hand to try and calm down again. “I think he’s better at kissing than you,” he added on unhelpfully. “Shit at hugging though.”

"Thank you. It's always been my dearest wish to know how well I kiss compared to my brother. Let's have my other one come to Yomi too so you can rank all three of us." Hiyoshi's delivery was completely deadpan. Yes Niou. Let's make it a proper experiment.

Ah, he missed hanging out with Hiyoshi. The thought suddenly hit him as he again smothered his laughter. "Unfortunately I've been asked to not kiss other people and for the time being I think I'm going to follow that," Niou said apologetically. "You'll have to find someone else to do your test for you. Which is a shame because we could have also seen if your other brother would've also grabbed my hair."

And to think, Niou was thinking of ending it all. Hiyoshi meanwhile was regretting that he hadn't let it happen, because wow that was way too much information. "That stuff isn't genetic!" snapped Hiyoshi. And if it was, Hiyoshi did NOT want to know. This conversation kept going down roads Hiyoshi had no interest in going down, so it was time for a change of topic. "Does that mean you're dating Tachibana now?" Some of the things Niou had said about him in his conversation with Gakuto weren't too nice, so it was hard to tell.

The worst thing was the curiousity bubbling up now to explore what else was unexpectedly the same between them and Niou had to stomp down on that very, very firmly. He blinked at the sudden change in conversation. "Ah… I don't know?" They hadn't really sat down and talked about it, just sort of gone along with things. "We have a thing? And he's attempting to help me not be skin and bones for once."

A thing. With kissing. For anyone else Hiyoshi would have a million questions, but for Niou it made sense somehow. He wasn't about to meddle in Niou's bizarre affairs, but he felt like he should at least offer some small advice. "Lots of people like Tachibana. If you hurt him, you'll make a lot of enemies." Straightforward and factual. Just something for Niou to think about.

Niou ran a hand through his hair. "Yes I'm aware." And it'd been something he'd thought about regularly. And he blamed it on the fact that Tachibana was just a nice person in general, and also very happy to cook for people. "He's told me that we can go back to being friends if we need to… but ah… I know he's really in love and it's getting worse."

It was an uncomfortable situation. As much as Tachibana was reassuring Niou that they could always go back to being just friends, the longer Niou let things go on the harder that would be. Hiyoshi assumed Niou knew that, but then again who knew, Niou had gaps in knowledge that most people would never expect. It was a sensitive topic to touch so soon after a fight, but if Hiyoshi didn't try now, who knew if he'd get another chance. "Do you think you could love him back?"

If he really wanted to tease Hiyoshi, Niou could probably tell him that he sounded so much like Akutsu right now, and both the question and the similarities were throwing Niou enough for him to openly look uncomfortable. "I don't know." Which seemed to be his default go to when it came to things with Tachibana. "Maybe I already am, I don't know. I don't even know how I'm meant to be able to tell? Like what's the boundary that I need to look for?"

Clearly Akutsu was just a sensible guy. Hiyoshi listened to Niou's answer patiently, and while he personally thought the absence of a hard no was a good sign, Niou sure did follow it up with a hard question. "I'd say you just know but obviously that doesn't work for you. Love is… you like being with them, and talking to them, and touching them. They make you happy and comfortable and kind of… warm inside. You think they're special and you want to do stuff with them and for them and maybe it's stuff you wouldn't do with anyone else but for them it's different because it's them." Hiyoshi shifted awkwardly, he was drawing from his own experience and even though it was generalized, it was still a bit embarrassing. "Maybe you could google it. I'm not the best at describing it."

Niou blinked in surprise that Hiyoshi was actually giving him a… genuine answer. He narrowed his eyes slightly and then looked away. "I see. That's very similar to what Gakuto described for me quite a while ago." In yet another one of their long meandering screened conversations. He drummed his fingers on his legs and shifted. "Okay, I can apply that checklist though. And parts of it match up fine. What if it applies to multiple people?"

Hiyoshi had figured out a long time ago that when Niou asked questions that other people would say the answer was obvious to, he genuinely needed them answered, and so Hiyoshi answered them without judgement. (...Maybe a little judgement, sometimes.) “It doesn’t have to be a 100% checklist. Most of them is good.” He tilted his head at that last question though, even though he was prepared for the types of question Niou asked, that one caught him off guard. “You can love more than one person. And you can love them in different ways.”

Niou's frown deepened. "I assume that would be the 'love' for a friend and then uh, the 'love' for someone else in a relationship with feelings, right?" He ruffled up his hair as he thought. "Because I can differentiate you from that, that's easy. And okay, family love I suppose, that's easy enough on a theoretical level." He huffed and okay, he needed to google this, and looked at his communicator to start doing that.

Oh good, Niou was actually googling it. Hopefully he would google ‘types of love’ too, so Hiyoshi wouldn’t have to explain to Niou that there was a kind of love that was basically just having a boner for someone. “Take what you read with a grain of salt. Everyone is different.” …God he felt like a school teacher saying that.

"Yes, the websites are quite clear that everyone experiences love differently," Niou said, slouching in his chair as he fell into silence to read, his eyebrows drawing together more as he went. "God these sites are rubbish," he said finally. "I can at least say you're in the 'platonic love's category, at least according to this second one."

“Oh. Thanks.” Hiyoshi wasn’t expecting that, but it was always nice to hear. “Did it help at all besides that?”

Niou took a moment to smile in response to the thanks, the expression fading as he went back to reading and frowning over it. "... No. It didn't. I think… I have a lot to think about. And more research that needs to be done beyond just reading a couple of websites." And a lot more conversations to have with people. "Are you happy being in love with Gakuto?"

Hiyoshi went from zero to beet red in two seconds. He should have expected a question like that after everything else they were talking about, but it still caught him off guard. Hiyoshi sputtered for a moment, considering denying being in love so early, or questioning Niou on why he was so sure he was, but some small bravery won out and instead answered with a quiet and awkward, “Yes.”

Niou grinned at the sudden blushing on Hiyoshi's face and the awkward response. "Good. I asked him once you know, about what he'd do if I was in love with you, and he got quite defensive about it." In yet another screened conversation he was pretty sure. "But Gakuto is easy." He dragged his hand down his face and sighed loudly. "Does worrying about whether ghosts actually exist and can pick if they haunt someone count as making plans for the future?"

“He did?” Hiyoshi knew Gakuto liked him obviously, but it still gave him warm fuzzies to hear it. Such was being in love. Hiyoshi’s thoughts quickly wandered to Gakuto, and what exactly he might have said, so when Niou changed the topic to ghosts it took Hiyoshi a few seconds to catch up with what exactly was going on. “Worrying about– of course ghosts exist. What plans are these, who’s dying?”

"Yes, I think he said he'd kick my ass, but I can't remember exactly. And then fight for you." Which had been enough of a confirmation for Niou about Gakuto and his little badly hidden feelings. Niou blinked and oh, he'd never actually told Hiyoshi. "Me. Before I'm 30. I'm planning on coming back as a ghost and haunting Akutsu, so he doesn't get too lonely. But then what if I get accidentally tied to somewhere on Earth or something?"

If Hiyoshi’s face kept heating up like this it was going to cook one of these days. He tried to play things cool, like he wasn’t absolutely dying because of what Niou had just told him. “You wont get tied to Earth, you’re too far away. You’re more likely to get stuck here, attaching to a person is less likely but I guess it’s not unheard of… But that doesn’t matter because you’re not going to die. Idiot. Just spend time with him while you’re alive like a normal person.”

"Well I mean, I'm only 24. 5 years and I'll be back on Earth, and I'll still have time to do that trip to Eastern Europe with you before I hit 30," Niou argued. Because he could focus on that instead of how red Hiyoshi's face was, because he was feeling kind. He shook his head and skimmed through articles again. "You know the worst thing is that I'm sleeping more now, and so I actually am rediscovering this long-dead sex drive and oh my god it's the worst. I want it to die again."

Hiyoshi was about to tell Niou that he should stick close to Akutsu if he wanted to haunt him, or better yet just not die, and then the conversation takes another turn and yeah, no. Hiyoshi was out. "I'm glad we're friends again, but I don't want to hear about your sex-drive. If you need help, ask Ensign Yanagi to send you the PowerPoint again." Hiyoshi stood up, brushing himself off again (damn that glitter got everywhere), and got ready to leave. "If you want the room to yourself, just tell me. Even if it's by yourself. Ignoring it makes it worse." …ugh, that was advice after all. How did he keep getting sucked into this.

Niou bit back a laugh at the reaction. “No thank you, I was traumatised enough by him sending it the first time. I don’t need it again.” He just shook his head at the advice. “I’m still moving out for the time being,” he said, looking at Hiyoshi and chasing away the (hilariously awkward) previous conversation topic. “Not because I don’t trust you, but it’s just easier. I have a separate room, I’m not just sleeping in my office again.”

Hiyoshi was confident enough in their making up that he accepted the news of Niou moving out easily this time. "I don't know how you managed to get a room for yourself. Most people here would kill for that chance." Hiyoshi himself kept his own rooming situation quiet to avoid any room-related jealousy. "It sounds better than sleeping like a pretzel at least. The offer still stands though. This is still your room even if you're not sleeping in it."

“Well, it’s the room Renji locked me in until I slept. It’s not actually a room originally designed for sleeping.” But… given that he used to sleep in a closet in the hallway, he considered it a bit of a step up. And he’d consider it a rightful payment for the actual stress when he’d been stuck in that room and locked in. “And it’s only temporary. Sanada’s building me a proper sleeping space in my office.” Niou glanced over the two beds, lingering on his own that he’d stripped of any bedding and pillows. It looked a bit weird, after the couple of weeks of actually having his pillow pile on it. “If I find myself in this room and absolutely about to pass out, and I cannot at all make it back to the storage room… I may have to use your bed instead.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.” Hiyoshi found this to be a good compromise, and maybe more importantly, reassurance that they really were still friends. Stepping forward, he pulled Niou into an (unauthorized) hug. “Sorry for making you scream and vomit. I’ll try not to do it again, but no promises.”

Oh, the hug was unexpected and Niou relaxed into it, hugging back loosely. "Yeah… well, hopefully I don't do it again. My stomach's still feeling a bit upset." He pressed his face into Hiyoshi's shoulder and exhaled slowly. "And I'll try not to let it get that bad. You can punch me next time if I get really stupid and manipulative."

“Only if you deserve it.” Which realistically was likely, because this was Niou, but Hiyoshi would try his best not to actually hurt him if it came to that. He gave Niou a couple pats on the back before pulling away. “I have some night shifts this week, I’ll come by and see you.” And with a little wave, Hiyoshi left to start his long overdue workout.

"Send me your work schedule again, and I'll ask Tachibana to make me more dinner, so you can have some too," Niou said, as Hiyoshi left. And okay. Okay he felt weird now after that. He glanced at the collection of craft things and… he'd take the glue down to engineering as promised, but leave the rest in the room so he still has random things there.