#wanluce

"How?!"

It was a fair question, and a question Shoki should've been a little more prepeared for. But instead, here they were, in Nagisa's living room. When Shoki had texted him asking for a very private place to talk, as soon as possible, yes it was time sensitive, Nagisa had offered his house, even letting him know that Lufel was taking a nap. That actually helped him quite a bit - he didn't mind Lufel, but he didn't exactly want an audience to explain this to. Especially because right after he opened the converstation with 'mamma thinks we're dating', Nagisa froze for a second, eyes opened wide, and, well, here they were.

"When I was talking to mamma, I wanted to tell her about how I had made some new friends, and how amazing you all were. And I tried to tell her about how much you helped me, without telling her about the Phantom Thieves. And... I think she misunderstood." Shoki sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I was telling her how amazing you were, and... she took that as me dating you." Shoki waited for Nagisa to respond, but it took a second. Nagisa blinked a couple times, clearly trying to process it all.

"Why didn't you correct her, though?"

"She was... so happy on the phone. She sounded so much happier than she had in years, I couldn't be the one to break her heart," Shoki said. "And I did try to call her back, but she didn't pick back up. Mamma knows a lot of people who want to know how I'm doing, and by now she's probably told all of them that I'm dating someone, and is probably on the phone to papà." He could even see her, beaming proudly as she excitedly told her friends that her son had found someone, isn't that wonderful? And the idea of his mamma smiling so brightly, he couldn't, wouldn't, dare make her upset by correcting her. Nagisa took another second to think, his face betraying the hundred questions he had swirling in his head. Shoki spoke up again. "I know it's a lot to ask you, but i just need you to pretend we're dating, just for a little while, and just in front of my parents... and maybe the team, too."

"The rest of the team?" Nagisa asked, still a bit bewildered. Shoki couldn't blame him.

"If we're going to be acting in front of my parents as a happy couple, then we need to be a believably happy couple. We need a lot of practice for that, so we'll need others to believe that we're together too." The more he spoke, the more insane the idea sounded, but he was already too deep here, might as well see how long before he drowned in it. "We'll start slow, just telling them, and then from there see how it goes. And after my parents have met you, maybe a couple more weeks, and then we can 'break up', as it were," he put air quotes around the word 'break up', "and we can pretend this whole thing never happened."

"Can I let Lufel know?"

"I don't think so. Like I said, making it believable to everyone is the goal, so the only people who can know is us." Shoki sighed again, muttering a couple of Italian curses under his breath. "I'm sorry, this is way too much to ask of you, especially when we barley know each other."

Nagisa didn't say anything, but was clearly deep in thought. Shoki just studied him, watching as Nagisa thought of the next thing to say. He really was quite pretty, dark red hair shining slightly in the afternoon light while dark crimson eyes studied the table, framed by full lashes. On the most vain of levels, he was a good option for a fake boyfriend, looks-wise. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silence, Nagisa spoke up.

"I'll do it."

"Thank yo- huh?"

"I'll do it," he repeated. "I don't want you to be in any more trouble than you're already in, and it's not even the first time I had to fake a relationship with someone, though that time I had to pretend to be her cousin." Nagisa said this so matter-of-factly that Shoki could only stare for a second.

"But, don't you have a girlfriend? Won't she be mad?"

"Nope, I've never had a girlfriend," Nagisa shook his head, "I spent Valentine's about as single as you can be, so you don't have to worry about that." Shoki couldn't believe that girls weren't absolutely falling over themselves to confess to Nagisa, but that did make this much, much easier.

"Alright," Shoki nodded. "Well, I'm not sure when we're going to tell the team, but-"

"Tell the team what?" A sudden, third voice, and the sound of wings ruffling made Shoki's head snap around. Oh, Lufel had woken up, and now he had flown down from Nagisa's room to the living room, hopping up onto the table. He wasn't expecting to start the performance this early, before any rehersals, but an actor always had to be ready to improvise. And Nagisa seemed to know this too, taking Shoki's hand into his.

"That we just started dating," Nagisa said. Shoki looked away, both to play the bashful new lover and to avoid eye contact with Lufel, as the obvious reaction to that news happened.

"How are you at kissing?" Shoki maybe could've done with a little more lead-up to the subject, but putting together a convincing act of a young, fresh couple required a lot of planning on their parts, as it turned out.

Shoki is a little surprised that a charismatic guy like Nagisa has never kissed anyone before. That's fine though, that's why they're taking the time to iron out all the kinks before he goes and introduces him to his parents. "That's alright. I've never really done it for real, either, but I have done plenty on stage."

His friend seems surprisingly unfazed by the question. "I wouldn't know, the last time I kissed someone was my mom when I was little, and even that doesn't count, really."

Nagisa's face twists into an expression Shoki can't quite name, but it's gone almost as quickly as it comes. "I guess it's no different than preparing for the play then, I'll be looking to you to know what to do when the time comes."

He finds himself stepping forward before he knows what he's doing. "We're taking the time to work out the details, we may as well do a trial run. Just like rehearsals, the best way to ensure a good performance is to practice our parts, right?"

Their eyes are locked on the other's as Nagisa answers softly. "I guess that makes sense."

Shoki lifts Nagisa's chin, angling his face just enough for him to perfectly swoop in and steal a kiss. A totally platonic practice kiss, he tells himself. He's met with lips softer than he'd imagined, unmoving in his inexperience, but that was fine. Before Shoki can break it to offer instructions to make things look more natural, his partner leans in, his lips quickly transitioning from a lifeless prop in the scene they were building to a starring role, electric in their performance. Shoki melts into the contact as one of Nagisa's hands slides into Shoki's curls.

"You think so? I was worried it might look awkward. Do you think we should keep practicing? Just in case."

"Buono." He says as they come up for air, still hovering inches from Nagisa's face. Suddenly his brain catches up to his mouth as he realizes what he'd just said. "I-I mean, bene! Bene. You were-that was good! You're a quick study Nagisa." He assures hastily as he tries to ignore the hot flush creeping into his cheeks.