I'm a sucker for soft handholding moments and I've just been fucking fed

From the Gavan spin off 😭

Guess what this one screenshot lead into 😭😭

Everyone was surprised when Reiji and Daisuke emerged from their hours long talk as tentative friends- they had expected them to literally kiss and make up.

They had cleared things up, buried the hatchet, even confessed their mutual feelings. But they pressed the brakes short of actually becoming a couple- or rather, Daisuke had. He wasn't ready to jump into a relationship with Reiji yet- everything was still too raw and he hadn't healed from the hurt of Reiji's abrupt departure. He wanted a time for them to rebuild the trust between them, to actually become friends again, as the people they are now, then decide down the line if they still had those feelings for each other.

Reiji accepted this- even though he just wanted to be with Daisuke, he respected Daisuke's boundaries and didn't push him into anything he wasn't ready for. He would take what he could get if it meant he could stand by his side again, whether as a friend or something else (but boy, did he yearn for more.)

It was almost a year later, after lots of work put in by both of them to rebuild what they had before Reiji left into something even stronger, that both finally felt ready and comfortable about pursuing a relationship beyond friendship.

Both were incredibly nervous about their first date, even though they had chosen to just watch a movie at the cinema and grab a dinner at a restaurant they already ate frequently at. They managed to relax as the night wore on, laughing and enjoying each other's company and becoming bolder with their affection, culminating in a good night kiss right before they entered the dorms, away from the cameras that they knew could catch them in the act.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief when their first date ended in success- then watched in bewilderment as Reiji and Daisuke entered a whirlwind romance that made their heads spin. They went from being too shy to even ask the other out for coffee to getting caught in flagrante delicto in a not-so-dark corner of the Cosmo Gavarion by an unlucky Kunai (who they didn't notice until he was swearing violently and nearly ready to kill them both) in only a few weeks.

When they got the wedding invitations just 4 months after, people yelled at them for rushing into things. Well, Koto and Wanibuchi were mostly the ones yelling, with Kunai butting in occasionally to snark about the time he walked in on them.

They just looked at them befuddled. Wasn't the one year they spent making up enough already? Sure, they were dating for just the four months, but they already knew what they felt was mutual ages ago. The dating was just to make the romantic status official and let everyone know they were together (Daisuke muttered something about "scaring the harpies who wanted to steal his Reiji away" and Reiji mumbled about "making it clear his Taisa was off the market").

They were in love, they had worked through the problems they once had, they both wanted it, and they knew they were in it together for life. What was the use waiting for the inevitable conclusion?

Their response was met by multiversal exasperation. Even Amigo facepalmed.

But anyway, the wedding went through as those two planned, somehow getting all their friends together despite the insanity of lining up the schedules of Gavans and Kakuzyu Hunters across a multiverse. They even convinced the Supreme Chancellor to officiate (Because apparently if it's him it's official in all the universes...? No one could tell if he was serious or if he was just indulging Reiji, who was clearly his favorite out of all the Gavans.)

WaniPat were the best men, Setsuna and Kunai the groomsmen, and AGI, Kiki, Koto and Amou were bridesmaids. They left a seat empty at a place of honor for Reiji's beloved mentor. Reiji tossed his boutonniere (apparently their twist on the bridal bouquet toss) and Shout turned red when an oblivious Enkaku caught it and gave it to him, not knowing what it meant. (Neither caught Daisuke elbowing his new husband and scold him about teasing his kouhai.)

They honeymooned in a new universe they haven't explored, though they inevitably get caught up in shenanigans there. Fortunately they got some help from that universe's Gavan... or rather, its Gavans... and one of them smiled proudly at Reiji, telling him there was no better man who could carry the name of Gavan into a new age, into worlds beyond anyone's imagination...

There were days of tension in the Gavan group due to the row between Daisuke and Reiji. They both retreated into themselves, never staying around the others for very long and especially when the other was around.

Daisuke mostly spoke to AGI, WaniPat and Amou, but it was all business and no personal talk with the topic of Reiji being strictly off limits. None of them were convinced when he told them there will nothing be between them but a professional relationship.

Reiji only mostly spoke to the other Gavans (and Shout if he's there), pretending to be okay when he's not, his smiles never reaching his eyes, brooding when he thinks no one is watching. He would talk about Daisuke, but in a resigned sort of way, like what's done is done and there was nothing more he could do.

Then, a few weeks later... during a fight, Reiji took a bullet for Daisuke. Untransformed.

Daisuke could only stare on in horror as the attack tore through Reiji, his blood splattering across Daisuke's face and white sweater, then Reiji fell to the ground limply. The sounds of the battle in the background faded away as Daisuke watched more blood poured out from Reiji's wound, staining his clothes.

Daisuke screamed, yelling for AGI and everyone to help him and putting pressure on Reiji's wound to try stopping the bleeding, all while chiding Reiji on being reckless and doing something utterly stupid once more. Reiji just smiled at him and said, "At least you're okay... At least I could protect you like this... Even if you hate me..." Reiji's eyes started slipping close, but not before he managed to whisper, "Daisuke... I'm sorry for everything... I love you..."

Daisuke didn't even register the enemies being driven away by an angry Shout and a rampaging Enkaku, or the others running over to look on in horror at Reiji's state, or AGI and Wanibuchi pulling Daisuke back so they could work on him, or the Luminous duo wrapping their arms around him so they could lead him to the Cosmo Gavarion while Patrun, Setsuna and Kunai all helped carry Reiji back with them, or the twins crying while Giriko turned them away from the gory sight. Reiji's last words echoed on loop in his mind while he watched AGI work on Reiji- alarms blaring as his vitals slipped into critical levels, the heart monitor making a shrill noise as Reiji flatlined.

Around him, the others had fallen apart too. The Luminous girls held each other as they cried, worried for the man who they both regarded as a brother. Setsuna, normally stoic, was staring blankly with tears rolling down his eyes. Fullmetal Amou was tearing up, dabbing at her eyes as she prayed for Reiji's life to some deity, any deity. Kunai paced around like a caged animal, ready to lash out, cursing under his breath. Shout and Giriko were huddled with the twins, hugging them and each other while crying themselves. Even Enkaku seemed affected, jaw set and angry.

Daisuke noticed none of this. It was like Daisuke's whole world had shrunk to the man in the treatment room. His best friend, his brother in arms, his partner... the one he loved in secret for years. The one who took a bullet for him, fully ready to die for his sake, thinking Daisuke hated him, when that couldn't be any farther from the truth.

Everyone jumped a mile when he yelled and pounded his fists on the nearest surface. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare die on me now, Doki Reiji! If you die here I will never forgive you, you hear me?!"

Miraculously, Reiji's vitals started to stabilize. He was still unconscious and in critical condition, but he was getting better by the minute. Daisuke didn't even spare anyone a glance before he hurried into Reiji's room and taking the seat next to the bed. He didn't hear them all loudly wonder... had Reiji perhaps heard Daisuke, and pulled himself back from the brink because he told him to?

A day later, when Reiji came to, an exhausted Daisuke was by his bedside, clutching Reiji's hand as he dozed. Reiji thought he was dreaming, because how else would Daisuke be there? Then he felt the pain from his wound and winced, which woke Daisuke. Reiji was about to apologize for waking him up but Daisuke just pressed the button to call for AGI before looking at him. "I know we have to talk... but later. After AGI looks at you first. And when everyone sees you're awake."i

"Okay." Reiji was confused at how amicable Daisuke was, but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to clear the air between them.

Everyone poured into his room soon after, asking after him while AGI checked on him with various scanners. She declared him to be out of the woods, though he would need time off from his Gavan duties to fully recover. Reiji whined at the thought of not being able to go on missions for weeks on end, even with the other Gavans promising to protect the multiverse in his stead.

A few hours of talking with the others and they finally left, leaving Reiji alone with Daisuke at last. "Ready to finally have that talk?" Daisuke asked him.

Reiji came back only for Daisuke to be cold around him, refusing to talk to him when they're alone and only doing so around the others to snark and make snide comments towards him to try to make him react somehow... and Reiji just took it all in stride because he thought he deserved it for not telling Daisuke anything and going off on his own and joining the Ibaru Alliance. No matter how many times he got rejected he still tried to talk to Daisuke, he still tried and tried, even just to make inane small talk, anything to try fixing what broke between them...

Then it all came to a head in a very public way when Daisuke finally snapped at him in front of everyone, unleashing a tirade that no one dared to interfere in, while Reiji just stood there unwilling to even say a word in his own defense. When Daisuke started crying the middle of his rant, everyone else wisely made themselves scarce, but they all exchanged worried looks, wondering if whatever they had was broken beyond repair.

"I hate you, I hate you," Daisuke said while hitting Reiji's chest, sobbing. Reiji took each hit without a word, biting his lips so Daisuke wouldn't hear the wounded sounds he wanted to make when he heard those words.

He could live with Daisuke being indifferent to him, or even pretending he didn't exist... but Daisuke hating him was unimaginably painful. It was worse than anything he'd faced as Gavan. Worse than anything he regretted doing as the Ironclad. Worse than seeing Mikage ruthlessly murder Gato, just to cement how evil he truly was.

If nothing he did when he was with the Ibaru Alliance had damned him, then hurting Daisuke surely had. His hatred was the least Reiji deserved, for being a wretched man who wasted the friendship, trust and loyalty of a man like Daisuke. He certainly didn't deserve his love, either.

Finally, Daisuke told him to get out of his sight. Reiji nodded, leaving without a word, walking numbly down the hallway, not noticing the others who stared at him as he disappeared into another room, where he finally lost his control and broke down, believing that there really was nothing he could do to fix things between them, that the love he'd quietly harbored for his best friend would go unrequited forever... and he had no one to blame but his stupid self.