Imagine little just out of middle school Yata getting all this dating advice from Homra and the guys are all yeah, you can use this to pick up girls, we know you’re going to use it on girls and not anyone else, wink wink. Yata just thinks they’re trying to be nice and want to help get him a girlfriend. Like of course especially when he first joins Yata’s not really allowed to go to bars with everyone, he’s considered still too much of a snot nosed brat for that, but now he has to listen to the Homra guys talk about girls they were trying to pick up. Yata doesn’t think that sounds all that interesting, why are you guys always chatting about girls, and Chitose grins and says they probably shouldn’t talk about this near virgin kids who have never even kissed anyone. Yata’s immediately like I have so kissed someone, Bandou pipes up and says your mom doesn’t count. Yata huffs and says it’s stupid anyway, why do people always want to hook up so bad. Chitose figures these are the words from the a guy who’s never had a girlfriend and Yata grumbles so what if he’s never had a girlfriend, he doesn’t need a girlfriend and anyway Saruhiko’s never had a girlfriend either.

Chitose and Bandou exchange grins and Dewa sighs, like guys remember this is a kid don’t tease him too much. Bandou and Chitose walk over and each put an arm around Yata’s shoulder, like let us tell you the finer points of flirting with a girl. Yata starts out complaining but imagine as they give him tips he finds himself thinking well, Saruhiko hasn’t really wanted to hang out much recently but I could use this stuff on him too right, maybe this’ll help him feel more comfortable now that we’re in Homra. It’s not like he wants to flirt with Fushimi or anything, he just wants to help his friend come out of his shell and besides it’s like practice, for if ever Yata wanted to talk to a girl, since girls are hard to deal with but Saruhiko is easy for Yata to talk to. Imagine Yata accidentally letting it slip that he’s gonna try and use these lines on Fushimi and then trying to cover all ‘I mean, I’ll say it to a girl,’ and Bandou and Chitose just give each other a look as they’re like sure you will. 

Everyone has mistaken Fushimi’s deep, deep disgust for fear. Imagine one day Hidaka is on his way to Munakata’s office to deliver a report and he runs into Fushimi hurrying out. Hidaka tries to greet Fushimi but Fushimi just mumbles at him not to go in there and rushes off, looking pale as a sheet and like he might possibly be sick. Hidaka is now a little worried, like is Fushimi sick or did something happen in Captain’s office, was Captain doing a really disturbing puzzle of Fushimi in the bath or something, and that’s when the door opens and Mikoto lazily steps out, leaning on the doorjam. Hidaka quickly ducks out of sight, watching as Mikoto yawns and lights a cigarette. Munakata steps out behind him and gets very close in his personal space, as if giving Mikoto some kind of lecture, and Hidaka decides it might be best to hand in this report later. Afterward he’s discussing it with the other alphabet boys, that the Red King is apparently in their office and also Fushimi looked really sick and upset. At first maybe they’re all thinking that Mikoto might try to like ‘punish’ Fushimi for leaving Homra, maybe Fushimi was scared because he didn’t want to be attacked and isn’t there a rumor about a horrible burn scar on his chest, do you think the Red King did that. Gotou idly wonders if the Red King would just try and kidnap Fushimi and take him back, Fushimi does so much work here Homra probably misses him. Hidaka is immediately in full guard dog mode, do you think he would really try to steal Fushimi-san away we need to protect him.

Some of the other members aren’t so sure about this, Akiyama feels like there must be some misunderstanding somewhere but also he ran into the Red King briefly in the hallway and was referred to as a minion so he’s not feeling very well disposed towards Mikoto either. Doumyouji laughs and says who knows, maybe the Red King came here to spend time with Captain instead and everyone’s like don’t be silly why would those two want to spend time together. The squad agrees the best course of action would be to keep an eye on Fushimi for the rest of the day, Akiyama and Benzai quickly pair everyone off together and assign them shifts based on their duties for the day. Benzai says he isn’t really sure what they could do if the Red King actually tried to take Fushimi away but he supposes at worst they can stall him and then go tell Munakata, Hidaka insists that if Mikoto could see how much they want to protect Fushimi he might just give up and see that Fushimi belongs here in S4.

Is it ‘All Kusanagi’s Friends Are Dead’ appreciation week :P I imagine this being something that hits him out of the blue sometimes, normally he can easily keep up the bartender smile even as he nostalgically thinks that Mikoto liked that beer or Totsuka was always stealing those snacks, but then other times it just hits him like a truck. Imagine he has like some weird or out there meal that’s still listed on the menu because Totsuka created it and put it there, and of course no one ever orders it because it was one of Totsuka’s ‘experiments.’ Then one day some random customer is like hey what’s this, I wanna try it, and Kusanagi goes from trying to remember what recipe that’s supposed to be to finding his eyes suddenly stinging. He manages to keep up his smile, maybe a little glad that the sunglasses hide his eyes as he says he needs to check in the back to see if they have the ingredients. Once he’s out of sight of his clients he leans against a wall and just takes these slow deep breaths, removing his sunglasses and rubbing at his eyes and just waiting for the wave of grief that hit him to pass. Then he politely tells the customer that unfortunately they’re out of that one, and later he makes sure to quietly remove it from the menu.

MS Yata stealing Fushimi’s glasses as a joke, only to realize just how long his eyelashes are since the frames are so thick. Fushimi takes back his glasses, but Yata still wants to see them… platonically of course!

Yata not realizing how pretty Fushimi’s face is until he takes the glasses off (totally pretty in a platonic way mind you, just like from an objective standpoint). Imagine this shortly after they’ve really become friends and maybe Fushimi is sleeping over at Yata’s place for the first time. They’re staying up late with flashlights, happily chatting with each other in low voices and Yata wonders if Fushimi even sleeps with his glasses on. Fushimi clicks his tongue and is like of course not, Yata says he just wondered because he’s never seen Fushimi without glasses. Fushimi doesn’t see why that matters, he looks the same without as he does with (and imagine on Fushimi’s end he’s thinking that of course he knows what he looks like without glasses, just like ‘that man,’ so why would he want to take them off). Yata grins and is like okay let’s see, snatching Fushimi’s glasses off his face. Fushimi calls Yata an idiot as Yata puts the glasses in front of his own eyes, noting that Saruhiko sure is blind, look at how thick these lenses are, and then he glances at Fushimi above the glasses and just pauses.

It’s very simple really.

Imagine Yata struggling with becoming Red King after Mikoto’s death, maybe rather than awakening like Anna during MK he becomes King before that. Like some guys who want to get revenge on Homra attack him while he’s out on his own and he awakens as King, at the time Kusanagi had just closed the bar but hadn’t left for Germany yet. Anna immediately becomes aware of the new Red King awakening and she leads Kamamoto to where Yata is struggling in the aftermath of burning those guys who attacked him. At first Yata thinks this might be okay, desperately, he can’t be Mikoto but this way Homra can stay together right, nothing will change now right. Kusanagi feels weirdly responsible for this, he was the one who let Mikoto do what he wanted to his death and he feels like he has to help Yata through this even with his own struggles. Anna is also very determined to support Misaki, imagine her even more than anyone else being by Yata’s side and helping to keep him stable because he’s important to her and she knows Mikoto and Tatara (and Saruhiko) would be sad if anything happened to Misaki.

Kusanagi still feels like he needs to go to Germany to study the Slate, not just due to Mikoto’s death but also due to Yata’s issues now, imagine him secretly harboring the worry that Yata will end up like Mikoto and he doesn’t want to let that happen again. Yata insists that he’s fine and Kusanagi can go, doing his best to clamp down on the power that’s still roiling inside of him because he feels like he needs to be strong like Mikoto, he can’t let Kusanagi see how much he’s struggling. Kusanagi is concerned but does end up going and it’s while he’s gone that jungle decides to attack, assuming that the new Red King is too unstable and if they kidnap Anna Yata will be unable to do anything without endangering himself. Imagine Yata’s like napping the way Mikoto used to because it keeps his powers calm and that’s when Kamamoto bursts in to tell him that Anna’s been kidnapped and Yata’s power flares up so badly that even S4 notices the way the new Red King’s Weismann level is fluctuating.

 Meanwhile Fushimi is aware that Yata’s become Red King and he’s been having conflicting feelings about that too, probably telling himself that this just shows how he and Yata were never meant to stay together considering how much Fushimi didn’t fit in with the Red clan. Plus knowing that Yata is a King now and Fushimi can’t stand up to a King, feeling like this means Yata can’t even be his enemy anymore because Fushimi is probably beneath Yata’s notice. Every time he overhears talk of ‘the new Red King’ Fushimi starts reflexively scratching at his tattoo, muttering to himself and probably trying to find some way to blame this on Mikoto as well. When he hears that Anna’s been kidnapped and there’s a spike from the Red King’s Weismann level though Fushimi decides to take matters into his own hands, he was told to gather intel on what’s happened and if he can get Homra to keep Misaki in line while he’s at it then fine. He doesn’t actually intend to talk to Yata, just delivering a message to Kamamoto that Yata should stay out of it, but when Yata becomes aware that Fushimi’s there imagine him stumbling over demanding Fushimi tell him what’s happened to Anna.

Yata and Fushimi both like it best when Fushimi has a nice long vacation because Yata can make as many marks as he wants, and Fushimi is probably the type who doesn’t like it when Yata holds back anyway. I feel like in this case Yata would almost be the one who’s more worried about the marks, like if he accidentally leaves one on Fushimi’s chest that hasn’t gone away by the time Fushimi has to go back to work Yata’s the one freaking out about people seeing it and making Fushimi button up his shirt and Fushimi is the one clicking his tongue and wondering why it’s such a big deal. Maybe Yata leaves a mark one day and Munakata comments on it and now Fushimi cares, he never wants to have that conversation with Captain again for the rest of his life so Yata needs to rein himself in if Fushimi’s going back to work within the week. 

One day Fushimi’s supposed to have like a couple weeks off, as a reward for working through another planned time off, and so Yata can finally really go wild. Fushimi is all ready to let Yata scratch up his back (and reciprocate himself, probably) but then barely a day in something major goes down and he has to go to work. Yata figures he’ll probably see Fushimi in a bit, if it’s this serious Homra might need to help too, and Fushimi nods and says he’ll let Yata know otherwise if he gets delayed. As he’s stepping out the door he fusses with his collar and imagine just before the door closes behind him Yata suddenly realizes that there is a very obvious bite mark right at the nape of Fushimi’s neck, not quite hidden by the coat. 

Yata immediately freaks out like oh shit but it’s too late to stop Fushimi. Luckily Kusanagi calls him a minute later and barely gets out the words ‘meet us with S4 at—‘ and Yata’s already like out the door bye. When he sees Fushimi Yata tries to go right over to him to tell him to pull his collar up more but imagine Yata keeps getting stopped, like a Homra guy comes over to ask him something or a bunch of S4 guys start surrounding Fushimi to give him their reports and Yata can’t get past them. Fushimi seems unaware of the mark and maybe no one else has really noticed either, like his coat is kinda covering it depending on how he moves but not entirely. Yata has spotted Munakata nearby too and he needs to make sure he hides Fushimi’s bite before the Blue King sees it or Fushimi is going to be pissed at him. Imagine Fushimi turns away from where Munakata is to answer some question and Yata darts between them, Munakata is all amused like ‘oh, Garasu-kun, did you wish to talk.’ Yata stutters because he definitely doesn’t but he has to protect Saruhiko’s modesty (or something like that) so imagine he just gets roped into this whole chat with Munakata about ninjas or something and he can’t get away, he’s trapped.