#mmde

He was getting teary over weed, how funny. Except there was nothing humorous in recalling memories of running to the mansion’s greenhouse in search for Mother after being reprimanded by Father. She used to let him pick which flowers to put into the vase to place in their otherwise quiet home.

That was all in the past. The wet grass tickled his nose when Mastermind shook his head from the thought, yet another invasive thought arising from the depths of his mind. What was he doing pondering on what happened in the past when he was here 300 years into the future?

“You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

A soft chuckle had Mastermind flutter his eyes open to meet matching magenta eyes staring down from above. Thin arms, boney ones with dark veins visible pinned his down, but there was no fear when the scientist gazed at Esper’s pale face. Plated armor covered the time traveler’s torso, his body curled up against Mastermind with a peaceful expression filled with wonder and bemusement as he plucked a ladybug from his hair.     

“You’re getting bugs in your hair,” Esper brushed his fingers through the scientist’s curls before running through it again to straighten it.

“And who’s fault is that?” Mastermind laughed and sat up to shake the grass out of his hair.

As he took Esper’s hands, his heart fluttered in discovery how warm the time traveler’s hands were today. Tugging on a wild flower to his right, Mastermind gently pulled it out, careful to avoid damaging the roots as Mother once taught him. There were more, all of them going into Esper’s opened hands.

It became clear why his late mother appreciated surrounding herself with flowers. Flowers brought them momentary serenity and pleasantness that made it easy to forget about how they were in the middle of a war with demons.  

“Would you believe me if I said I’m glad you fell on top of me the first time we met?” Mastermind mused.

If not for his counterpart, he couldn’t imagine finding a compelling reason to tread outside his lab for reasons outside of research. He prided himself for being pragmatic, but it was also a weakness. Not that he wanted to admit that. No, but he had enough heart to admit to himself that meeting Esper and Psyker brought out the best in him, sometimes the worse. He liked to think it was more of the former.    

Esper held the flowers close, “I didn’t remember that when you screamed at me for getting your clothes dirty.”

Mastermind chuckled, “In my defense, you made me lose my data.”

He had long forgotten why he made a big deal of it back then, but he didn’t forget how he felt when he first learned about alternative dimensions. Well...with Henir’s existence, it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was still a shock to have it be confirmed by someone, his counterpart, no less. It was a wild concept, but one that opened his mind up to the possibilities that unfortunately would never be answered because Esper was adamant on keeping him away from time and dimensional jumping.

Mastermind frowned when the hair tie for his ponytail slipped down from rolling around in the grass. His hair was becoming a hassle with how much it has grown for the past few years, sometimes tangled from sleeping in less than comfortable positions from all-nighters. He was going to have to get it trimmed again when he got home.   

“Let me help,” Esper offered.

Esper’s hands were delicate, pushing Mastermind’s side bangs back to fall past his shoulders. The time traveler produced a brush from his bag to run through with his fingers, shaking off a knot he found before straightening it again. He tugged against the hair in repetition, careful not to yank Mastermind’s roots in avoiding an angered scientist.

It was difficult to explain the floating feeling he had when Esper ran the bristles over his scalp, even relaxing his shoulders and gazing at the tree across from them with a distant look in his eyes. The trees and flowers here weren’t unlike the ones around the mansion he was raised in. Could this be where the mansion once stood? It was burned to the ground by those people, so he didn’t expect to see remnants of the building left. Or was he grasping at straws and hoping to form a personal connection to explain the feeling of uneasiness when Esper stopped brushing?

Mastermind opened his mouth to ask why Esper stopped, but pressed his lips together. There was something in his hair.      

“Tada~” Esper placed something on top of Mastermind’s head.  

With a hair tie in one hand, Esper divided his hair into three ends, pulling them over one another into a loose braid. Mastermind gasped in surprise when he placed his hand on his head to feel the hair pins keeping his hair in place, but there was something else.

From the flowers Mastermind gave him before, Esper had the stems intertwined into knots and looped into a braid, pink and orange gerberas with clovers and weed woven into a crown of flowers.

When he saw his reflection in the mirror from his bag, Mastermind was in awe. There were flowers braided in his hair. They clung to his hair, their small petals spread out like the sun hanging overhead. Their sweet smell perfumed his skin and had the scientist look at them in awe. All of this was Esper’s doing?   

“You remember how to make them?” Mastermind asked. “That was a long time ago.”

When Mother taught them how to hook them together to form into a crown. A childish activity, but Mastermind loved how she let him practice on her hair, weaving the green stems through her soft hair. They weren’t as neat and pretty as her flower crowns, but she praised him anyway and brought them home, later teaching him how to press them to become bookmarks. It was one of the many memories with her that made the scientist sometimes miss the past, even if he tried to move on.

“This place,” Mastermind’s voice drifted away. “Is this home?”  

Esper nodded, “It looks different than the day we left, doesn’t it?”

So it was their former home. There was nothing left of it, not that he expected much. The mansion was already burnt to the ground and with additional fires arising because of the demon invasion, it would have been a miracle if anything from 300 years ago survived. There wasn’t even rotting wood or remnants of the buildings to suggest that where they stood was once home to a family of three.   

“We can go home if want,” Esper said when Mastermind didn’t respond. “I know this place didn’t hold the happiest memories…”

Mastermind closed his eyes, squeezing Esper’s hand with a firm grip.   

“You’re my happiest memory.”

Esper froze, but relaxed when he felt Mastermind’s touch, letting the scientist lean over to rest his head on his shoulder. Without his gloves, Esper’s hands were soft and smooth, sunlight shining through his skin to show black veins running through them. He almost lost his words when Mastermind kissed the tip of his hands before tucking in a flower behind Esper’s ear, a red carnation.  

The time traveler gave a weak laugh, as if he couldn’t believe Mastermind. Hiding his eyes behind his long bangs, he said with a reddened face, “Is that so?”   

Mastermind only smiled.   

Author Notes:

Pink Gerbera - admiration, adoration or high esteem Orange Gerbera - sunshine and happiness Red Carnation - deep love and admiration

But the code is right there, almost complete. If only he could find the mistake, fix it and then see if everything works as he had inten--

Something pokes his shin.

He looks down to see a diamond segmented tail poking its head through a tiny crack in the space. It bumps his leg again, making sure not to use the pointed tip, before curling around his ankle, like a small snake. Masi can't help but snort quietly, even as his eyes narrow is amusement.

"Feeling neglected?" he asks the tail, to which it slithers further up, nuzzling his pant leg. The last segment even pulls away as if to look up at him, wiggling in its own way of saying yes.

Masi casts one look back at the screen, code sitting there, flickering innocently, and then back down to the tail, which is wrinkling his pant.

"Alright, alright, you got me," he mutters, standing up and rolling his shoulders. The tail flicks softly, languidly, but it doesn't unwind even as Masi sets both the computer and Apocalypse into sleep mode for the night (or what's left of it, anyway) and makes his way out of the spacious lab.

The tiny portal follows right behind him, the tail nuzzling against him all the while.

He doesn't have to announce himself when he arrives at the bedroom. The tail finally slips free from its hold on his leg, retreating through the portal which flits out of existence as soon as it's gone. Masi pushes the bedroom door open, fully expecting the soft grin on his counterpart's face.

Esper is spread out on the bed, a pillow hugged close and propped underneath his chin. The tail that had called him waves a hello and it's twins follow the lead.

"You're unreal," Masi shakes his head with a smile, to which Esper's grin only turns lopsided, his whole head lolling to the side, legs bending to move back and forth in a facade of innocence.

"I'm just as real as you are," Esper teases, beckoning the scientist with one of the tail.

Masi obliges, sitting on the edge if the bed, but Esper has other plans. A tail winds its way around his midriff, tugging him down. Esper rolls over, arms opening as Masi sprawls onto him.

Immediately, Esper muzzles his face into the crook of Masi's neck, hair tickling the sensitive skin there. Tails wind their way around Masi's legs, and then Esper's legs do the same, curling around Masi.

"A little more and I wouldn't be able to breathe," Masi mutters, raising a hand to cradle the back of Esper's head, fingers carding through the soft hair.

"Not a bad way to die," Esper breathes, half-slurred into the other's skin.

"It really isn't," Masi can't help but agree. "I love you, you octopus."

Esper's first reaction is to tighten all the limbs he has wound around Masi, but he pulls away to look him in the face right after. "Octopuses have eight limbs. Last time I checked I only have seven."

After waking up to make a cup of coffee and run scans on his newest project, the rest of the day ran like a blur with the scientist only aware of time because he had to stop for meals. It was a rare moment of peace for Mastermind lie down without having to worry if he left the stove on or if he needed to finish a project by the next day. There was no need for every fiber of his being to be productive and he wondered didn’t he discover this feeling sooner. 

Music played from Dynamo as he turned a page and smiled. Underneath the warm blankets, his chest rose with each even breath. He was the sole occupant of the room and he was planning on taking full advantage of it before his counterparts come in to bother him for something stupid.

“Oh, Add~”

Shit.

Instead of using the door like a normal person, Esper slipped into the house through a portal with his head sticking out, waving at Mastermind with a razor sharp toothed smile. The time traveler ignored Mastermind glaring at him for tossing his winter jacket onto the coffee table. Dynamo shook in response to their owner’s excitement to see Mastermind with Esper sliding over to plop himself next to the scientist on the couch.

Mastermind sat up with a straight back when Esper held himself close to him. The asshole was hugging him after coming back from outside, in the winter! He gave a side eyed glare at his counterpart, who gave him a cheeky grin in response.

“What do you want?” Mastermind didn’t look up from his book. He was not going to let Esper win this time and steal his attention from his research.

“Lusa’s coming home late,” Esper cupped his hands to his mouth to blow warm air into them and rubbed them for heat. “He said to go ahead and eat leftovers from last night.”

“In a bit,” Mastermind said, only to realize he has been reading the same lines repeatedly. Esper was cold, but at least the blanket was warming them both. He turned to look at Esper sinking into the blankets with his face hidden, “Hey, don’t steal my blanket.”

Esper whined, “You took the warmest one. It’s freezing!” Placing his icy hands on Mastermind’s cheeks, he exclaimed, “See?”

Mastermind shot up from his seat and hissed, “Esper, that’s my face!”

The other closed his eyes in happiness and pulled his hands away, “I told you!”

It was so childish. Mastermind had to stop himself from laughing when Esper caught him smiling, feigning a scowl that was falling apart as quickly as King Nasod. Esper giggled when Mastermind threw a pillow at him and missed. His counterpart stole a cushion from behind and hugged it to his stomach.

“Where have you been?” Mastermind asked.  

“Unlike you, some of us have to leave the house sometimes,” Esper snickered.  

“Excuse you, but I do leave the house when I need to.”

Not that he needed to mention that the time traveler rarely left the house either, but Esper knew that and kept his mouth shut when Mastermind gave him a sly grin. With portals, there was no need for Esper to move beyond his room, but he did because he wanted to bother Mastermind and Psyker when the house became too quiet.    

“Go heat up dinner,” Esper mumbled and tugged in the blanket to cover himself.

“Let me rest a bit,” Mastermind closed his book. Looks like he wasn’t going to finish reading the book today either, not when he was busy conversing with his counterpart. “I just finished cleaning that mess Arc made.”

It took him hours to untangle the mess of codes Arc showed him from his notes. Things didn’t help when it turned out that his younger self combined different languages to create his own, albeit a sloppy attempt. But still, it was impressive for what Arc had been doing before he met Mastermind. With time and guidance, it wouldn’t take long before the Arc Tracer suppressed him if he wasn’t careful. Ha, maybe.

“I went shopping for food,” Esper said. Oh, Mastermind saw the bag of groceries beside the coffee table. It was enough to last them for a little over a week, but notice that Esper bought more than usual. “We’re out of eggs again.”

Mastermind hummed in acknowledgement and pressed his forehead against his book with closed eyes. After years of having meals at the inns he stayed at or shopping for himself if he ever bothered to cook, it was nice to rely on others to provide him warm meals (His cooking was superior, of course.). Yet, the effort to push himself away from the comforts of his warm blanket to heat up food already made seemed too cumbersome for the lazy scientist. No, let him nap for a little bit. That seemed like a better idea.

“You bought a lot,” Mastermind said between sleepy yawns.  

“I missed your cookies. Can you make them again?”   

Esper’s question stopped him from drifting to sleep and had him flutter his eyes open again.  

“None of Ciel’s?” Mastermind rose a brow at the idea that his counterpart would fail to mention the half demon butler’s superb baking. It was Ciel who taught him the basics because he wanted to replicate the Dread Lord’s cookies without having to rely on him so much.    

“Yours is sweeter,” Esper said.

“And not as chewy or moist,” Mastermind argued, trying not to smile from the praises or how something in his chest elevated in hearing someone appreciate his baking efforts.

Embarrassed, Mastermind hid under the blankets as he felt his face heat up. He always joked about Esper stealing heat from him and Psyker, but cuddling with the other wasn’t a bad thing. The initiate shock from his counterpart’s cold skin was gone and Esper was quiet. The time traveler curled himself against Mastermind’s body with his head resting on the scientist’s shoulder and his arms wrapped around his waist.

Even without the plug suit he wore for the rest of the year, he could imagine Esper’s tails moving in happiness to Mastermind’s warmth and being with him. Esper was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, a colleague of bright colors that blinded anyone who stared too long.

Esper’s stomach gurgled.         

“Hungry?” Mastermind asked.

Flustered, Esper buried his face into Mastermind’s shirt, “Sorry.”

Mastermind patted Esper’s shoulder with awkwardness, letting him cling to him before gently prying his hands off so he could get up. He picked up the bag of groceries off the floor to move them to the fridge and the pantry in the kitchen. It wasn’t long when he came back with two bowls of heated food for the two of them when he caught Esper with his blankets wrapped around him like a burrito. He pushed Esper’s jacket aside to place their dinner at the edge of the already crowded table.

Mastermind moved Esper’s jacket off the table to place their dinner, moving his eyes over to Esper’s sleeping form. He shook his head with a small smile, how foolish of him to leave his spot for the other to steal it from him. With a chuckle, Mastermind let the time traveler be and ruffled the top of his hair before taking a seat opposite to Esper to attend his food. He could keep the other bowl warm if Esper woke up and was still hungry.    

The intruder's violet gloved hands curl themselves around the door frame to the scientist's dimly lit room and Esper's face peers through the open slit not long after, eyes narrowed deviously and mouth turned up in a grin.  Masi turns his head to glare literal daggers at him.

"I'm busy, Go away Esper."

"Yikes, and the cat hisses," he giggles when Masi snaps at him.  

"I'm not a cat," Masi growls, rubbing his temples in the dark room with tired eyes.  He covers his desk with his arms despite Esper unable to see from where he was.  

"I told you not to come into my room unless you ask," Masi whines.  Today is not a day he wants to put up with nonsense from his alternates, especially Esper.

"Aww, why not?" Esper pouts.

"You've been up here all week, only coming down for coffee and energy bars. And you complain about MY bad diet."

"It's about time you come down and take care of yourself!" Esper pushes the door open just a bit more, almost enough for him to slip through.

A violet beam of light hits the wall right next to the time traveler's head, missing by mere centimeters. The charred spot on the wall hisses with a curl of smoke.

Masi's expression is stone cold. "Get out. I won't miss next time."

Esper cooes, "Oh, resorting to violence now are w-?"

The time traveler doesn't get to finish. He's thrown backwards against the wall by a solid shot to the gut.

The lock to the door clicks shut and Esper is left scratching his head as he sits up on the hall floor.

"Huh."

Is it something he said?  Esper cocks his head to the side with a lopsided grin.  A caffeinated Masi hiding in his room is a formidable opponent, but Esper hasn’t forgotten all the Masterminds he's met and this one is not so different from the others.  

He opens a portal from a hidden part of Masi's room, in the corner where his outlets are, where the scientist can't reach him.  As he pulls his arm through, something pushes him back. His hands are deflected back into the portal by a powerful force field. Weird, this is the first time he’s been deflected without being physically shoved back by Mastermind’s own noodly hands.

The time traveler decides to try again, this time from a blind spot next to the scientist’s desk. Peeking his head through the freshly opened portal, Esper’s ahoge surfaces from the swirling vortex of energy. When enough of his head is poking through to see, he sees the culprit for his failures. Apocalypse swoops in and pressures him back into the portal, sitting on him with unnatural weight for a cube made of light.  Esper pulls out as fast as he opened the portal and shakes his head.  Masi really did think of everything.  The cat cube leers at Esper and hisses at the time traveler through the open portal, charging up its  lasers as he is forced to close that portal too.    

Well, that didn't end well.    

Esper will admit, Masi wins this round. The time traveler crawls to the kitchen and reaches for the fridge for leftover dinner from last night while he retreats to plan his next course of action.  Balancing himself on the kitchen counter with the platter of food on the other, he opens a portal and pulls his head inside with a light giggle.  Masi can ignore him all he wants, but Esper knows his one weakness.  

Another portal forms adjacent to the first one, this time the time traveler opening it up in the most hidden spot in Masi’s room: under the bed where he himself cannot fit. The portal isn’t meant for him though. With a devious smile, he connects the two portals together and the kitchen rumbles from the cacophony of meows.  If he can't talk to Masi himself, then he’ll just have to send a couple messengers.  The first stray cat wanders astray and nuzzles his crossed legs on the counter..  As much as he wants to keep the kitty, it’s not what Esper planned for. He shooes it through the other portal to where Masi is and waits.

A second cat pokes through the first portal before a third and fourth all peek through the opening. Esper’s grin widens.

Masi huffs as he puts the final touches on his invention, sitting on the desk before him. Using delicate fingers, he turns the final screw into its spot.

It's been a long couple of days toiling over the device, but it is worth it. The mechanism works better than he even dreamed and he triumphantly tucks it away in a colorful box that's been sitting to the side.

The scientist exhales a sigh of relief and relaxes back into his chair.

He's about to pass the fuck out when he feels something brush against his foot. Masi doesn't bother checking, only makes a beckoning hand motion to the charging station.

"Enough roaming, Apo. You've done well to keep Esper away, so take a good long rest."

Apo chirps cheerfully behind him and nuzzles him before floating over to the aforementioned charging station, spinning a little over the spot before settling down, as though stamping out its bed before sleeping.

A thought strikes the tired scientist. If Apo is behind him, what's at his legs?

The tickly brushing feeling comes again, looping between his crossed legs, slipping by like fluid.

Masi searches his dark room with tired eyes.  He almost overlooks the trashed room when he sees a pair of glowing eyes.  Blinking at the sight, there are more than just a single set, all crowding around him when he hears… meows?  Huh?

He turns on the lights and blinds himself with the sudden light, but the bedroom lamp reveals their forms.  Cats scatter across his room, some of them climbing on his desk and others lying on his equipment.  One crawls on top of Apo and another nips at his ankle for attention with its cries.  What the...

Masi checks his room again to see a small portal finely concealed under his bed, small enough for a cat to fit through.  Rushing over to the portal, he didn't make it in time when he tries to fit his hand through and is forced to pull it out when it threatened to eat his hand.  Was this his doing?

Feeling the tickling sensation at his legs again, he kneels down to see a calico playing with his socks and picks it up to have it still bat its paws at him.  Looking back at the chaotic scene of cats playing and lying around him, Masi is too tired to bother scolding at them for hiding in places like the closet or his drawer.  The bed is occupied with a tortoise shell and a brown tabby curled up at his pillow, but he could care less because his sleep deprivation is getting to him.  The calico in his hands leaps out and joins him when he passes out the moment his head hits the pillows.

The sleep is the best he's had in a long time, the bedroom filled with the soft snores of the scientist and the literal army of cats there with him.

When the sun rises, a stray beam of sunlight lights Masi's face. He is so warm and snug, he almost doesn't want to move. Although today is the day he's been waiting for, so he can't just sleep all day as his body wishes.

The scientist stretches out, disturbing a couple cats from their spots as he rouses. They really are everywhere. No matter how he moves, there's always a cat in the way.

When the scientist finally tries to move off the bed, he realizes there's a weight at his side, far heavier than a single cat could be.

Masi blinks his sleep laden eyes into focus.

Oh.

O h.

Two lanky arms are loosely wrapped around his midriff, belonging to none other than the wayward time traveler. Still asleep, Esper's chest rises and falls to a peaceful rhythm.

His bangs tousled over his relaxed face, the time traveler looks calm and unlike anything when he is awake. Masi thinks he's cute and almost forgets that this is the asshole who released literally 50 cats into his room because he couldn't enter.

Masi feels like he should be shocked, but they've been living together enough that Esper's time and space travel BS is the norm. Without Apo to deflect him, the locked room might as well be an open door.

Masi settles back in the nest of cats on his bed and reaches forward a hand to adjust Esper's bangs. They’re soft and light, but the bangs slip back over his face almost immediately after, as though they belong over his face.

He startles back when Esper moves and his eyes flutter open.  

"Morning, Masi."  Esper rolls his head to plant his face into a pillow and muffles, "Did you like my presents?"

Presents… Mastermind rises from the bed when he remembers.  The box sitting at his desk is still there, luckily not knocked over by a cat while he was sleeping.  He grabs the box and makes it back to the bed to a confused Esper, still rubbing his eyes from last night’s sleep.  

“Prepared a present for you too,” Mastermind breathes.  It’s hard not to be distracted by the stray hair sticking out on Esper’s hair like a porcupine, so he looks down at the box to distract himself.  “I finished it last night.”  

Esper stares, but takes the gift to pull the tissue paper out like handkerchiefs.  At the bottom of the box is a set of headphones with pointy cat ears on the side with purple outlines that glow when hooked up.  It is nothing like what Mastermind typically works on. Unlike the combat upgrades and near infinite list of sleek devices, this one is very cute. When he tries them on, they perk up to follow his emotions and Esper looks down in an attempt to hide the blush creeping across his face.  It’s hard to stop the heat from traveling up to his neck and cheeks, his ears too.  

When Esper finally gathers the courage to look up at Masi, he notes the flush on the scientist’s face matching his own. Masi has a gloved hand covering his mouth, just barely containing himself.

“Cute…” The scientist mumbles absently.

The headphone ears stand up straight and Esper’s blush deepens. “Th- Thank you. They’re… very… cute.”

The three tails flicking back and forth behind Esper don’t escape Masi’s notice. It seems to be a subconscious action seeing as Esper doesn’t seem to be controlling them, face flushed and very much admiring the cute cat earphones. The bright smile on Esper’s face as he fingers the soft felt-like material lining the ears makes all his sleepless nights worth it.

Mastermind is shaken out of his thoughts when the time traveler turns his attention to him, eyes narrowing and the ears flattening down a bit to suit his now devious expression.

Esper drawls, “Your gift is purrfect~ As for mines, which one is your favorite?”

Masi takes a moment to glance around at all the cats in the room, some of them curled up on the bed and others dancing around his tables and equipment.

Esper watches as the scientist's gaze dances from one cat to another, weighing each of their merits and cuteness factor. After looking at all cats in view, Masi turns back to the time traveler curled up against his waist.

Masi's lips curl up in a smirk. "You, of course."

Esper's eyes open in surprise and the mechanical ears on his head perk up.

The scientist reaches a hand up to comb through the time traveler's messy hair and smiles when the cat ears twitch happily with his strokes. Esper blushes and closes his eyes when he rests his head on Masi's chest as his alternate continues to pat him, almost purring against the scientist's chest. A soft blush dusts Masi's face because the ears on Esper are just... too cute... like they were meant to be.

Esper nuzzles his face into the scientist’s chest, “You’re my favorite cat too, Masi!”

Mastermind gasps. “I’m no-”

The scientist cuts himself short. After clearing his throat, he blushes and responds with a soft. “Thanks, Esper.”

His desk is littered with open textbooks and notebooks with neatly written notes that he copies down, fingers starting to glide over his laptop’s keyboard again. He works manually, not really comprehending the words as he types them out, even if he reads through them to make sure there are no grammatical errors he’d get chewed out on.

The assignment is due at nine AM, and now he curses his past self for not doing it earlier. It’s English, though, and he has about as much motivation to dedicate his time to English as he has to sports. Which is, to say, none.

He keeps unlocking his phone so he can reply to Esper, walls of hearts met with more walls of hearts as they go back and forth. He’s thankful for the small talk; he probably wouldn’t have enough nerves to finish this thing.

No later than he’s saving the doc, fingers lingering over the control and s buttons, is there knocking on the door, loud and insistent, knowing very well he’s still up.

Masi pushes his chair away from the table and stands up, rubbing at his eyes after he pushes his glasses up. He puts them back into place before he opens the door, to properly see the person standing in the hallway.

His heart skips a beat — or two —  when his eyes settle on the man.

“Lusa,” he mutters, unable to hide the confusion in his voice. What’s he doing here?

The kickboxer smiles a little sheepishly. His hair is sticking up on one side, a clear testament saying he probably just woke up from a nap, probably after his training. He’s only wearing a tanktop and a pair of sweats.

Masi’s cheeks dust with pink and he tears his eyes away.

“I came to borrow the notes like we agreed,” Lusa says.

“Oh! Right.” Masi blinks; he’d almost completely forgotten about the deal they’d agreed on earlier. He retreats back into the dorm and digs through the pile of notes on his table, grabbing the two notebooks to give them to the other. “Here.”

Lusa takes them with a grateful smile, flashing his brilliant teeth.

Masi’s breath hitches a little.

“Thanks. I’ll give them back tomorrow. Or, y’know, later today,” Lusa laughs softly, looking at the clock mounted on the wall, and Masi can’t help a smile.

Lusa leaves with the notebooks and Masi is left alone with just the soft hum of the crickets from outside.

Now, done with the assignment, Masi flicks the light off and clambers into the bed, already looking forward to the morning.

He’ll have to get the essay printed and delivered, but, much more importantly, Lusa is going to take him for the morning coffee. The slight absurdity of the predicament they are in never ceases to amaze him.

They started off as nothing more than a pair working on a presentation for their applied physics class, and now, barely two and a half months later, they could even be considered best friends. Sometimes they snuck around the dorms to work together overnight, sometimes they exchanged notes, and sometimes they just went out for a coffee together. It had been a real surprise when Lusa told him he loves coffee — the guy certainly doesn’t look it, looks more of a protein shake kinda guy, but life is full of surprises, Masi supposes.

Masi walks back over to the table, double checks to make sure he actually saved the document by re-saving it a bunch of time, and then he copies it to a USB drive. With that done, he’s free to shut the laptop down and put it, along with some of the books and notebooks, into his backpack for the next day. The rest he puts away, each to its own designated spot on the shelf above the table, organized by subject.

Only then he’s satisfied enough to finally retreat to his bed, exchanging his t-shirt and pants for a pajama set. The mattress feels soft and the blanket so comfortable that he’s asleep in mere minutes, even despite his still marathoning brain.

Barely five hours later, the very same insistent knocking awakens him. The first rays of sunlight creep in through the window, creating stretched out shadows on the tidy floor. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Masi patters his way to the door and opens it to reveal Lusa, smiling way too cheerily for such an early hour of the day.

“Nice pajamas! Did I wake you up?” Lusa asks, not sounding apologetic in the slightest as he points to the pajama set Masi is wearing.

Masi looks down at himself. He’s wearing his favorite pajamas; the ones with paw prints that are so comfortable that it overweights the sure embarrassment of being seen in them by literally anyone aside from Esper, who owns a matching pair. Except…

“Give me a minute!” he squeaks out indignantly, slamming the door closed.

He scurried to get the pajamas off and some presentable clothes on, feeling heat blooming in his cheeks. Lusa’s mirthful laugh is audible even through the door, and the flush coloring Masi’s cheeks is about thrice as bad by the time he finally reopens the door, dressed in his usual dress shirt, pants and knit vest combo and holding his travel mug in one hand as he locks his dorm room.

“Aw, those pajamas were cute,” Lusa jests, very obviously enjoying Masi’s embarrassment. He startles, as if noticing something. “You really like cats, don’t you?”  His tone is lighthearted and jovial — almost as if he isn’t making fun of Masi at all. Masi follows his line of sight down to the mug he’s holding.

The cat head printed on it is pushed against Masi’s chest in an attempt to hide it. “Stop making fun of me!” he grumbles.

Lusa raises his hands and waves them a little, finally looking a tad bit sorry. “I wasn’t making fun of you! I love cats too!”

“You… do?”

“Yeah!”

Masi thinks back to Esper’s dorm room, where he secretly keeps a cat, and thinks that maybe they could introduce Lusa to the aptly named Paranoia. Hopefully she won’t be too scared.

“Okay, let’s go, Ara will kill me if we come in during the morning rush,” Lusa laughs, twisting on his heel and leading the way down the hall to the elevator.

“You know Ara?” Masi asks, slightly surprised, while he catches up, shoes squeaking just a tad bit on the floor.

“Oh boy do I… Her girlfriend is in the kickboxing course with me. I’m sure I know more about her kinks than I do about my own.” The last sentence is said with a vaguely wry tone. Masi wonders just how much he’d been told.

“I… see...” Masi mutters, face scrunching up a little as the elevator dings happily and they step in. He’d known Ara for long enough to know that both her and Elesis simply love talking about each other. A day without being told how sweet Elesis’ kisses are over coffee is a day when Masi wonders whether Ara is sick.

Though, to be fair, he also can’t resist to tell her about Esper and everything he does. They’re both just idiots in love, it’s okay.

Masi looks sideways, catching the way Lusa’s bangs bounce as he shifts. His eyes trail away again. Yes, very in love indeed.

They arrive at the ground level and Lusa leads the way again, just as chipper as each morning. Masi doesn’t know how he does it; he can’t even act alive until he’s downed his mandatory cup of coffee. Probably has to do with those energy smoothies he’d learned Lusa actually drinks.

His phone buzzes in his pocket and Masi fishes for it, unlocking it to find a new message from Esper, the messenger still open from last night.

‘have fun ;) ill see you in class later’

Despite it being a fairly normal message, Masi can feel heat filling his chest and cheeks alike. Esper had been doing this for a while, ever since him and Lusa started hanging around the shelter helping out. Actually, he should’ve figured the guy likes cats, working in a shelter, but somehow it never clicked in Masi’s brain.

Students did crazier things for credit and a nice line in their resumes.

Masi uses the rim of his mug to push his bangs out of his face as he types up a reply, thanking Esper, only to be met with the usual ‘yup~ np np’.

Putting away his phone when he gets a sticker of a cat doing a winky face and a peace sign, he catches Lusa not-so-subtly peeking over at him. The bulkier boy twists away to face forward again when he gets discovered.

Masi can swear he sees pink dusting his cheeks. His fingers itch to tell Esper, but he just curls them tighter around the mug and use his now free hand to actually push away the fringe out of his face from where it had fallen back right away.

“Ah, can you hold this for me?” he pipes up when the bangs relentlessly refuse to cooperate with him, holding up his mug.

Lusa takes the lilac plastic and watches almost enraptured as Masi undoes his ponytail to remake it, gathering the flowy locks tightly and wrapping the tie around them with deft fingers. They spill over his shoulders in a neat tail again and Lusa feels the impulse to reach out and touch it to make sure it’s as soft as he thinks it is.

“Thanks,” Masi says, taking the mug back from Lusa’s lax fingers and offering a small smile.

They walk to the coffee shop in silence after that, but somehow it isn’t uncomfortable in the slightest. Only as they’re entering the shop and Masi can feel his phone vibrating in his pocket with a new message from Esper — probably a meme at this point — does he pipe up.

“Hey, have you ever been in Esper’s dorm?” he asks, pulling Lusa’s attention as he holds the door open. Masi slips inside, accompanied by the chiming bell overhead.

“Hm?” Lusa hums, following, “No, why?”

Masi’s fingers curl around his phone. He looks away. “Well… I don’t think he told you, since it’s a secret, but Esper has a cat in his dorm. She’s super nice, uh… You could come visit her sometime?”

He isn’t quite sure why that proposal sounds so weird on his tongue or why he can’t move his eyes from the window and all the people passing by in their morning rush. He feels a little bad for putting more meaning behind it in his mind.

“Would Esper be okay with that?” Lusa asks in reply, leading the way to the counter, where Ara stands, keeping an eye on the small oven in the corner. The sweet smell of croissants fills the air.

Masi bites back the ‘it’d been Esper’s idea in the first place’ that sits at the tip of his tongue. Thinking of the three of them spending time together doing nothing but playing with Paranoia or playing those rpg games Lusa loves so much… is nice. It’s really nice; all they’d wanted for some time now.

“Yeah,” he says instead. “Ask him if you’re worried.”

Lusa seems to mull it over as they wait for Ara to acknowledge them, doing her best not to drop the tray with fresh, steaming croissants as she places it onto the counter to cool. “Nah, I’ll take your word for it. I’d love to. It feels weirdly like cheating hanging out with one of you alone anyhow.”

The way he says it is nonchalant, just a remark he probably doesn’t think much of, but Masi’s heartbeat picks up nonetheless and he bites down on his bottom lip. It hadn’t been cheating, not for the longest time. Not since Esper let it slip that Lusa looks hot after a workout. Not since Masi admitted he likes the way his chest feels lighter around Lusa. Not since they laughed together over Paranoia’s hungry meowing at each other’s stupidity for worrying so much.

“Esper’s gonna be happy,” Masi says quietly, unable to force back a smile stretching his lips. “Maybe we can make it a surprise. He’s always happy when you’re around.”

Lusa laughs, the sound finally getting Ara’s attention. “What about you? Are you happy with me? Or am I just pulling you along unwillingly?” Lusa elbows him teasingly, his eyes crinkled at the corners despite that.

Masi’s cheeks heat up when he thinks how he’d been looking forward to this. “No!” he blurts out, “I like being with you.”

There seems to be a knowing glint in both Lusa and Ara’s eyes after that. Masi hides his blush with his now filled mug, feeling like he had just spilled some age old secret.

Lusa laughs at him.