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“Finally!” Hizashi cheered as he pulled his final box towards him. He had spent the last two days in their new apartment unpacking; Shouta had helped the day before, but he was filling out paperwork at his new agency so Hizashi decided to surprise him by finishing it up on his own. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but now that he was knee deep in crumpled newspaper and hastily broken down boxes, he almost regretted taking up the task on his own.
In Shouta’s mother’s neat handwriting scrawled across the top of the last box was his new roommate’s name. The thought made him excited. It had been his idea to move in together and Shouta had agreed with minimal complaints. He was still a bit worried that Shouta had been coerced into it, so he vowed to be the best roommate possible so his friend wouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Finishing up unpacking was just the first step to being the best roommate, so Hizashi cut it open and began pulling items out. Shouta hadn’t struck him as the sentimental type when they had first met in their first year at UA, but after knowing him all the way through their graduation, the contents of the box were no surprise to him. Framed pictures from class trips, a cat plushie from the claw machine at their favorite arcade that Hizashi had won for him their second year, a handful of mixtape CDs with Hizashi’s own handwriting messily written across the top; it was all standard things that Shouta displayed rather proudly across his room. His old room, Hizashi thought with a grin. Now that they had graduated from UA and become full fledged heroes, his room was there, in the apartment that they shared.
Hizashi figured this box should’ve been among the ones that went straight to Shouta’s room in the first place, so he piled up its contents back into the box before hefting it and moving from the living room to Shouta’s room. He had a general idea of where things should go from the countless hours he’d spent at the Aizawa house in high school, so he quickly placed them in their new homes. A cat poster was tacked up to the wall while the CDs were stacked in a drawer in his desk. The picture of Tensei, Sekijirou, Shouta and himself in their graduation garb standing next to a proud Nemuri was set on the desk.
The box emptied quicker than he expected, but then again, Shouta was rather particular about what he considered worth keeping. He was scraping the bottom of it when he bumped into the last item. It was a black book with a plain cover. Hizashi had never seen it before. He flipped to the first page with curiosity. That was harmless enough right?
Opening the cover, Hizashi felt the air rush from his lungs as if it had been wrung out of him. The first page was a simple blue with photos glued to it and something written next to each one. He flipped to the next page and the next, only to find more of the same. It wasn’t just a book, but rather a scrapbook with pictures arranged painstakingly on a page and Shouta’s neat handwriting next to it filled the pages.
He went back to the beginning and stared down at the first page. It was sparse, only three photos and dates next to them. One was an adorable 14 year old baby faced Shouta pouting at the camera in his UA uniform and the date April 14th, first day at UA written beside it. The one below was of a tabby kitten hiding under a bench in the rain and another date next to it. Last was Shouta scowling as his mother grinned and hugged him with one arm, her other hand throwing up a peace sign. There wasn’t anything written next to that one, just a cat sticker stuck on the bottom corner.
The next page had four photos. Shouta and his mom at the zoo and one of his mom holding an armful of flowers. Another one of the tabby kitten, this time peering wearily from behind a bush at a cat treat that was tossed in its direction. The last one was of Nemuri and Shouta at the Aizawa kitchen table, from when she had first begun to tutor him in English. The photos brought a smile to Hizashi’s face. He’d rarely seen any photos from before they had become friends and he forced Shouta to take selfies or take back-to-school photos together.
He was grinning as he watched a few of the next pages go by. There was an entire page devoted to photos Shouta’s mother had captured during the first year sports festival, where they had met in the finals and Shouta had broken his glasses. And his nose too, but that was more easily fixed.
The next page another page titled Second First Day, only this time it was his first day of the hero course. Shouta stood in his uniform, the exact same pose as his first day of school photo but this time a smile graced his lips. There was another photo with Nemuri high fiving him at the front gates of the school and yet more of the tabby kitten that had been on so many of the pages so far.
Slowly, the pages became more filled with pictures and less handwriting. It was clear to see where Shouta had finally given in to Hizashi’s attempts to become his friend. The pages shifted from photos taken by Shouta’s mom to selfies of the two of them squished close, Hizashi grinning and Shouta frowning. It was his happy frown in almost all the selfies though, Hizashi could tell that now. He’d used to complain about Shouta never smiling in photos. It seemed silly to him now when it was clear he was happy anyway.
The third first day of school page, Shouta was smiling again. He also wasn’t looking at the camera, but rather at Hizashi who towered over him after his growth spurt the summer before second year. Hizashi was posing with finger guns, grinning, while Shouta stood at his side, smile clearly directed at his best friend. It made his heart skip a beat. He’d know that look anywhere.
That was the moony eyed look his parents made fun of him for giving Shouta whenever they were together.
He felt a blush creep into his cheeks as he stared down at that photo. That definitely hadn’t been the one Shouta’s mom had sent him. There was one where Shouta’s eyes were narrowed in a glare while Hizashi’s arms were wrapped around his neck in a hug. That was the one he had gotten from her. But this is the one Shouta choose to put in his scrapbook. He tried not to read too much into that.
By the time he’d gotten midway through the second year pages, Hizashi’s cheeks were aching with how wide his smile had gotten. There was almost no blank space left on the pages anymore for dates or writing, but there were other things in their place. A ticket to the concert he’d dragged Shouta to, a handful of movie ticket stubs, stickers he’d once given Shouta; all of them made his heart sing. All his favorite memories were of things he had done with Shouta and apparently most of Shouta’s were too.
Scattered throughout the pages were always one or two photos of the tabby kitten - a cat at that point. She’d grown up over the course of the pages, clearly being fed well. Shouta had probably been taking care of her since his mom was allergic, so he wasn’t allowed to keep one in their home.
Their third year had the most pages out of all of them. Another first day page with pictures of their little friend group together and some with his mom. One of the two of them, just like the start of second year. This time Hizashi was laughing at something with his whole body, bent over and his hands on his knees and face flushed. Shouta was staring at him again with the utmost fondness, the softest smile pulling at his lips. Hizashi found himself touching that photo in awe with a shaky hand. If he didn’t know any better, he would have to say his best friend almost looked like… Well, like he was in love with Hizashi as much as Hizashi was with him.
He flipped to the next page, not ready to face that idea. That page wasn’t any better. A purikura strip he’d forced Shouta to take him from the arcade was staring up at him and his friend looked absolutely adorable in the top photo, chuckling at something Hizashi had said. In the second photo on the strip, he was leaning into Hizashi while his laughter overtook him. Even almost a year after the photo had been taken, he remembered just how much his face had burned in that moment while they were pressed close together. He’d wanted to kiss him for the third and final photo, as cheesy as they did in all the American romcoms he had watched with Shouta. He’d even leaned in, but chickened out at the last moment.
The scrapbook ended their third year, but there was another handful of pages at the end. They had graduated so recently, he couldn’t think of what had happened that would fill them. He flipped past the page with the same graduation photo that he had placed on Shouta’s desk and found himself looking up from the pages. There were selfies of the two of them, some Hizashi had sent him via snapchat, and some still that he never knew had been taken. In one, Hizashi had slumped over against the wall and rested his head on Shouta’s shoulder for a nap. Hizashi couldn’t put a finger on when exactly this was taken since he’d done it so many times before, but Shouta was flushed red in an obvious blush.
Almost an entire page was devoted to pages of the two of them playing Dance Dance Revolution as they did every time they went to the arcade. They were silly, both of them looking much too concentrated on the task at hand and sweaty with the effort of trying to beat each other. It brought a giggle to Hizashi’s lips when he saw a picture of a busted knee with a cute cat bandaid over it. He’d carried those silly bandaids in his backpack for months, looking for an opportunity to give one to Shouta, but he had never expected it to come in the form of Shouta slipping on a wet DDR dance pad and bleeding all over the arcade. He also never expected Shouta to think of that moment as fondly as he did himself.
It seemed like over the last three years, he hadn’t been the only one madly in love with his best friend.
Hizashi wasn’t sure what to do with this information at the moment. Did he call him and profess his love right this instant? Did he plan an elaborate confession date that ended with flowers and a kiss so romantic it would put movies to shame? Did he-
“Hizashi?” Shouta’s voice called out, “You here?”
He’d been so wrapped up in his own head, he didn’t hear the front door open. Cursing, he quickly threw the book onto Shouta’s desk and wrestled with the empty box, kicking it into the hallway. “Yeah! I just finished unpacking the last box! I hope you don’t mind, it was your stuff so I went ahead and put it up. Just some pictures and stuff! How was the agency? You excited to start work next week?”
“Actually, yeah,” Shouta called back, “I can’t wait to start work. My shifts are through the night, but we should still have Saturday nights together so I can kick your ass at DDR.”
Abandoning the box in the hallway, he was ready with a retort but he was cut short when he rounded the corner of the hallway. Shouta was spreading out takeout from Hizashi’s favorite ramen shop that was definitely out of the way from Shouta’s new agency’s building. It warmed his heart - and maybe his cheeks just a bit - to see him go out of his way for him, even getting his favorite without having to ask. “Oh, you didn’t have to get dinner! I was gonna cook.”
“I didn’t want you to poison me on my second night living with you,” Shouta teased, tossing a movie his way. Hizashi caught it and blinked down at Fools Rush In , an American romcom he’d been dying to see. “Thought that maybe we could have a movie night though?”
Shouta never had been very vocal with how he felt. It was the reason Hizashi knew which frown meant he was happy and which meant he was hungry. No, Shouta had always shown how he felt and his affection for Hizashi had been no different. He’d been saying it for years now, Hizashi just hadn’t been looking in the right places.
Someday soon, he would tell Shouta he loved him too.
