there are chapter 6 spoilers here, m'mam

Terurei: This is post DRA until SDRA2.

Learning to work with others as a team has been really hard for Rei, she's had to learn to not belittle others as much and learn to bite her tongue a little when people said silly things. Initially, Teruya (and Kinjo to some extent) were the only ones who'd know that she doesn't always mean the things she says or the harshness of her tone. She really appreciated his patience while she got the hang of it.

At the start of forming the Kisaragi foundation they needed to secure investment from important people to stay afloat amid the collapse. Which means Rei had to stress the importance of what they were doing without insulting anyone, and Teruya had to silently gesture or mouth "be nice!". When he could tell she was getting to the end of her tether, he came to distract the investors with some figures to give her a break.

Just as Teruya covers Rei in social situations, Rei covers him if he makes little mistakes in the field. She'll have extra contingencies in place so he doesn't take all the flack.

Training under Kinjo was hard for the both of them, and when the foundation was still small they'd often spar together. Initially Rei was better but as he got taller beating him got harder. The first time he won he put out his hand to help her up and she just dragged him down, out of pettiness. They still spar on occasion, while he’s taller and stronger now, she’s learnt judo just so she could throw him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The look of surprise of his face when she succeeded had her burst out laughing, it was the first time in ages he’d seen her laugh like that, and he couldn’t help but laugh too. They were just there, laughing in the empty gym.

The first time Teruya had shot someone was to save Rei, someone had caught them off guard and swiped the gun out of Rei's hands. Teruya scrambled for it as it hit the floor, and shot it before they could hurt anyone. One shot in the chest, just like Haru. He couldn't stop seeing his friend, he just broke down. Rei, just held him for a while in silence until he stopped shaking, they haven't mentioned it to anyone else.

One time the coffee machine broke at the office and Rei just went out of commission, face flat on the table, unmovable. Teruya managed to procure a new one and as he walks in she rushes over, grabs it, says "I love you", and immediately rushes to the counter to get it working. Teruya just stands there, red as a beet and there's a few whispers in the room from onlookers. Everyone kinda assumes she was talking to the coffee machine considering her state, but that doesn't stop him from being flustered for the rest of the day.

After the events of THH they (+Kinjo) had a visit to their old dorms at HPA. It's in the hope of triggering some memories that had been lost to them. Teruya finds a lot of photos that were taken with him, Haru, Satsuki, and Kiyoka, (and a couple that are the whole class, and also a couple of them all dressed up weird rehearsing for a play. He keeps the ones of Rei as a witch to show her later) that he keeps and frames in his office. Rei finds a giant teddy bear in hers that says "Happy birthday! From class 79b". Kinjo informs them that the whole class chipped in to get it for her birthday, he neglects to mention that Teruya had spent many sleepless nights getting that exact one at a good price after Mikako had come to him with the idea. Rei takes it back with her, it's dusty and worn but it's still cute. Afterwards, she notices that one of the bears paws has a rainbow embroidered onto it, was that custom added…?

Rei thought a nice thing to do would be to bring Teruya coffee on days he stressed towards the end of the tax year. It’s the one time of the year he stays at the office later than she does and it really wears him down. It turns out her coffee is way too strong for him and he was sent to the infirmary thinking he was having a heart attack. She brings him tea and some miso rice instead now.

Rei isn't good at handling feelings or relationships so when Minako and Midori invite her out for drinks they pester her about it. "He spends a lot of time in your office", "Why don't you bring me tea Mekaru", "I didn't know you could smile like that". It made her realise that perhaps she is treating him differently to the others she knew. That realisation was hard for her, she still has abandonment issues and doesn't want to lose what they already had. So she buries it for a while so she can properly think it over.

Teruya is more in tune with himself, and figured it out pretty early on. He's not sure when it started, but he has pretty low self-esteem since the killing game and he's not gonna act on it because to him she's so smart and beautiful and he's just.. him. She couldn't possibly see him that way.

Things get a little awkward on occasion after that, they'll work together and they'll accidentally brush hands, or hold a gaze a little longer so the pause is noticeable. Teruya always breaks it off first, he comes up with an excuse and leaves the room in a hurry. Rei is smart, but she's not very socially smart, so while she does question it she doesn't come to the right conclusion and just thinks he's has forgotten something. But then she'll ask him the next day and he has no idea what's she's talking about for a second. She starts to doubt then, perhaps he doesn't really enjoy the times they're together.

Minako is a terror, she got it out of Rei when they went out drinking and she /knows/ from how Teruya looks at her. So she plays a little prank on them, they need to go pretty far for their next scout and she has to book them somewhere to stay in the safe zones on the way. She purposely books one room with one bed and doesn't tell them. It's a …very awkward exchange that results in them alternating sleeping in the car. Rei says it should just be her, as Teruya is too tall to comfortably sleep in the car, but he insists. Rei had some stern words for their receptionist on their return.

Rei is the first to confess, it was by accident while they were on a mission and things go south. He gets hurt, there's so much blood and no not again, she can't lose someone she's close to again no nonono. She panics, and it all just comes spilling out. He's pretty delirious at this point from the pain, she doesn't even know if he can hear her, she doesn't care. She needs him to know, he's important to her, she can't lose him, she loves him.

He gets patched up at the hospital, once she's allowed to see him again she just sits and waits by the bed. She's asleep from exhaustion well before he wakes up. Once he wakes, he sees her there. She's a mess, she looks exhausted but she still looks so beautiful to him. He isn't sure if what he remembers from before was real or just a delusion so he just sits there quietly and lets her rest a little. When she wakes up he just smiles over at her "See? I'm not goin' anywhere". She pulls him into a hug out of relief and just sobs there for a bit quietly. Like how she did when he'd first shot someone, he just holds her until she stops shaking. At some point he musters up the courage to say it too, he knows now what he remembers actually happened.

Of the two of them, Teruya is the better cook. Rei has always been of the mindset of as long as it's edible, fast and nutritious who really cares, but Teruya likes to makes things look nice and got loads of local dish ideas from his trips with his dad that he likes to make. Occasionally he's a little too ambitious and it all turns to a mess, but he tries. If it goes badly, Rei just smiles and then orders something in for them.

They laugh a lot together, Rei has chilled out a lot and makes small sarcastic remarks that has him grinning, and Teruya gets really excited about the little things and can't wait to show her. He notices that she sticks up for him when she thinks he's out of earshot, and he just can't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

I could go on forever but Imma stop there haha

Kokoyuri (Every time I get someone asking about something kokoyuri I remember I ran a wheel of fate for SDRA2 with a Yuri protagonist that I /really/ wanna do some stuff on but the DRA one went so close to canon that I haven't shown them because I'm worried people will think I've rigged it lmao)

I'm gonna go with some HPA AU this time, so they're both 16 and all that.

There's kinda a mutual fascination there, it's really difficult to see what Kokoro is thinking when her expressions are so muted and her voice so flat, the only real way Yuri knows how to connect with others is through stories of the stuff he's been through, facts from his talent, or through compliments. Compliments don't seem to work at all, rather they either fly over her head completely or she just looks a little annoyed that he would derail an interesting subject with something so inane.

However, she really finds his stories fascinating. He's been through a lot of trauma for someone his age and yet he tells these stories so nonchalantly, as if it were totally normal to be kidnapped 40 odd times. She can see in his eyes that he's going through a lot when he recounts them, he's just gotten really good at masking it.

She finds him really easy to talk to, he listens to her ideas and thoughts intently, and he gives really insightful feedback. He seems against her harsher experiments when women are involved than men for some reason. He gently tries to coax her into doing having men as test subjects rather than women, and she can't help but wonder, why? Why would there be a difference?

“Idolising someone is just as dehumanising as demonising someone, in some ways, the way you treat women is the same as the way you treat men”. Yuri is shocked at first, outraged. So much so he leaves the cafeteria where they were chatting. She’s caught off guard, she’s always valued being able to speak her mind with him. Perhaps Emma was right, there are some truths better left unsaid.

Kokoro struggles to realise guilt for what she had said, but she knows that she needs to apologise. She goes to ask Yoruko and Emma for help, as she needs to understand the rage and hurt in his eyes before she attempts an apology.

Meanwhile Yuri is conflicted, hurt, confused. How could Kokoro say something like that? They’ve talked so much, how could she ever think that his adoration towards women, towards her could be dehumanising? But at the same time, he knows Kokoro can’t lie, and he knows the uncomfortable looks some girls shared when he compliments them.

And so he wonders, isn’t he just, lonely? Having never had the opportunity to connect with peers before he only knows how to act how the servants in his household do, or talk endlessly about his life and hobbies. And even if his classmates think he’s a little weird isn’t being remembered for that better than nothing at all? But it’s not like that with Kokoro, she’s interested in what he has to say, how his experiences have affected him and responds in turn with really interesting points and questions. It’s the first time he’s really been able to interact with someone as an equal.

They both come to apologise after school that day, it’s awkward and messy (mostly on Yuri’s side, as he starts to ramble), but it’s sincere and they agree to be friends again.

And things are so easy for a while, Yuri introduces Kokoro to his flight path AI that he’s been training for his final project at HPA, and Kokoro shows him some tricks to read people better, small fidgets and tells that will help him read the room. It helps him communicate with the rest of the class better, and in turn he helps explain to her why some of the class act the way they do, to know times when to be honest and times where it is better to be a little quieter.

She hasn’t told him, or the rest of the class yet that they’re kinda her test subjects for her final at HPA. That she’s studying the emotion and thought behind each persons actions day-to-day. Though she does talk to him about her research when he asks, she feels lighter being able to discuss it with someone, she’s convinced this must be happiness.

He starts to notice that she has her own tells, but so few compared some of the others in their class. She’ll sometimes hide behind her iPad when she’s trying to change the subject to something else, or if she’s unsure about something. He finds it kinda cute.

As he falls, he realises, shit, she’ll be able to see the emotion in his eyes when he’s talking to her. He can’t have that, she’s his first real friend he really doesn’t want to lose that and become all alone again.

So he starts avoiding her eyes when they talk, talking a little less and avoiding bumping into her. Their other classmates notice, and notice that Kokoro almost seems… down? She’s talking less and her sentences are shorter and more curt.

Kokoro isn’t sure if she feels hurt, or simply misses the status quo they had. But either way she wants to resolve this. She manages to catch him one day after school, it turns out he’s pretty fast when he wants to be. She wants to know what she’s done to cause this change and how it can be fixed.

She holds him by the shoulders and asks him to look at her, to which he reluctantly obliges. When she looks at his eyes this time she sees a wide variety of the emotions rattling through his head. She’s able to decipher some of them from practice, but there’s a good few that she doesn’t understand. And yet, they feel, light to her.

Meanwhile this is like ten minutes of absolutely unbearable silence for Yuri and his mind is just racing and she’s so close that he just blurts out that he thinks she’s beautiful. It’s not like his normal pickup lines at all, it’s just ungraceful word vomit and he’s cringing on this inside the moment he realises what he says.

Kokoro is just stunned for a second, she’s unsure how to process this. Some of the emotions she reads make a little more sense now. She’s not quite sure how she feels herself, these things don’t come to her naturally with her condition so she’s going to need time to work this out properly.

He’s happy with this response for now, it’s far better than all the terrible scenarios that ran through his head in those ten minutes. So they agree to take things slow, to keep it to themselves for now and see where it leads them. He may even be able to slip in more compliments and look for signs of those tells that she was telling him about.

Little do they know that the entire class was spying on the exchange, the whole school knew the next day.

♡

The words poured over his tongue like a river, a steady flowing course that has been said over, and over, and over again. Memories flowed back as well, some pleasant, some bitter. Some were of the best he'd ever had. Some still tugged at his mind years later and rid him of sleep. No one else would ever know the more gruesome details that danced behind his eyes. And that's okay. That's how he wanted it to be.

Even the most horrifying tales can be turned into a bedtime story if you're creative enough.

He could never tire of telling stories like these, especially not when he has such an attentive and creative listener herself.

Iroha Nijiue. The only girl who was more than happy to sit down and listen to his stories. He noticed rather quickly that he has to make the boring parts a lot more exciting to keep her attention, but she made an effort to stay awake, and that's all he needed.

Just her name alone made the memories worth it.

⠀

Yuri started on another story, describing how far he had travelled this time, describing the culture and scenery of the new world he'd stepped into, describing---

Iroha's face suddenly lit up, her hand shooting in the air as it did.

"Oh! Wait, hold on! I got a question!"

Yuri chuckled at her excitement. "Yes, dear? Ask whatever it is, and I'll be sure to find an answer for you."

"Have you ever been to the edge of the world?"

He opened his mouth to reply, then felt his entire body freeze up. Yuri slowly sat back in his seat, carefully considering how to... answer that, licking his lips as he did. Surely, she must be talking about some sort of attraction that he's never heard of, right?

"Could you elaborate, dear?"

"You know! The end of it, where the water spills over and you can see out in space and stuff! It'd be so cool to go there!"

⠀

Dear god, not this.

Normally, Yuri would have been compelled to say something sweet to make her blush. The first thing to come to mind was: 'I could take you there on our wedding day!'

It was adorable, the last time he said something like that. She whined and got so embarrassed, hiding behind her sketchpad to shy from his gaze.

But he can't even bring himself to play along right now. He just can't.

Come, come, now. He's a man. He can and will be respectful about this.

"I don't mean to doubt you, baby, but... the world having an edge? That's certainly news, despite my travels. Could you explain it to me?"

She happily nodded, lifting that adorable little sketchpad out of her lap to flip through some pages of it. She readily tilted it away from Yuri's delightfully curious gaze. If some of the contents made her blush, it would easily be worth his time, no? Come to think of it, he never has seen a portfolio of her more personal work, has he...

"Here!"

She finally spun the book around and slid it across the table, its pages showing an astonishingly detailed map of the earth.

"When I was a kid, I had to learn how to make maps of areas off the top of my head. How come the Earth's a circle if there were so many flat maps?"

⠀

Because maps existed back before they had the technology to determine that the world had a curve...? Really? This will be a doozy.

He got up from his side of the table, humming as he moved. Then, froze to ask: "Oh, er. Do you mind if I come show you? I find it very difficult to explain without a sketch as a reference."

Iroha looked down at the space next to her and shrugged. "I don't care."

Which... made Yuri cock a brow. "I'm sorry, but I'm very particular about this sort of thing. I don't think that was an answer."

"Uhm... do you want me to say yes? Go ahead."

At the clear confirmation, Yuri easily moved around to her side of the table, and he cautiously sat close enough to see over the sketchpad but not so close as to make her feel anxious.

He then asked her to draw a sphere and tried to explain to her the things that he knew for certain: he knew how to find the trajectory of an object in the air, he knew how to measure the length of shadows to find the time of day, he knew how to find the window in which something could safely leave and enter earth's atmosphere, he knew how to read the stars in the sky and the horizon over the water. All things that proved his point one way or another.

But all the time he spent talking was futile, as his listener only grew bored and obviously stopped paying attention after his first two examples.

⠀

This is going nowhere.

Time for a different approach.

His fingers drummed gently against the table. "I have a question. How did you learn how to draw a map with that much accuracy, and no distortion? Usually, flat maps like that will have some countries looking bigger than others, and that's because they didn't know about the curvature of the earth."

"Oh! I noticed that, too. It really irritated me when I was still learning. But I figured it out because I looked at a globe instead! They were really the only things proportionally consistent."

"... So you used a globe to take into account the curvature of the earth? So everything would be proportioned correctly?"

"Uh... I think so!"

"And you understand that a globe is a sphere, correct? A rounded, circular object?"

"Yes, I get that! I'm not dumb!"

"I would end my life before I'd ever say that you are, baby. I'm just trying to repeat what you said back to you, but in a longer way, okay?"

"Eh...okay. But you don't have to get weird about it."

He could only chuckle. "You're right, I don't. What my point is: if the Earth is flat, then how come a spherical globe is more accurate than a dozen flat maps?"

Iroha opened her mouth to respond, then suddenly froze. Her gaze broke from his, trailing off into space. He could practically watch the gears turning in her brain, which was very hard not to chuckle at. He did allow himself to smirk as her face dropped in realization, though. She slumped over with a very familiar whine, setting her face on the table with a gentle plop.

⠀

"Oh... ohhhhhhh. I take it back, I am dumb."

His mind flew to thoughts of him leaning over and rubbing her back, or brushing her hair out of her face, or cupping her cheeks in his hands to lift up her head, or softly cooing that she doesn't have to say those things. His body itself, however, stayed deathly still. Maybe he can... let himself attempt the last one.

"Come, no, you're not. You just needed it to be explained differently, see?"

She only rolled her pretty teal eyes. "Yeah, right. Compared to you, I'm dumb. And annoying. And a sad excuse for... everything."

"Don't say these things, dear, you'll break my heart!" There they are, again: those thoughts he had to ignore. That he can't quite spin into a story just yet.

"Then let it break. It's true."

"See: I don't know the things I do because I just know it. I had to learn it. For example: I like to think of myself as a visual learner. That's why I asked you to draw examples for me. I learned that you think very differently compared to me, even though I think you're a visual learner, too. And I learned that you need a better person to be around than yourself, if you really think those things about someone as kind and sweet as you."

⠀

His attentive, creative listener groaned at his last few words, a hand seemingly trying to swat them all away. "You say that to every girl."

"I really, truly don't. That was just for you." Unsure of how else to get her attention, Yuri rested his head on the table beside her own, trying to look into her very being.

"I can prove it. I learned that you use your left hand to write, but your right to draw and paint. I learned that your hands are much more fluid depending on what I asked you to make. I even learned that you go out of your way to spend time with me just because I said I was a little lonely so long ago I can't remember. I may be nice to every woman I meet, but you are not every woman, Iroha."

⠀

Soft color spread its way across her more and more the longer he spoke. Quiet pinks and reds brushed her cheeks, and ears, and nose. A beautiful contrast to her wavering eyes and deep brown hair.

"But I can't do that. You saw that stuff and you know it now. I can't. I don't know anything unless it has to do with... stupid technical art stuff. I'm only good for that. What good is painting something with perfect contrast and a stunning composition if I can't even..." She trailed off, pouting as she thought. "Muti-... Mulpl-... Mul-i-ply...?"

"Multiply?"

"See!? I can't even say it right! Little baby kids can do it! I'm useless if I'm not painting."

⠀

She doesn't know something as simple as multiplication, but is extremely gifted in anything regarding a physical medium...

... He did learn something else about her before this, didn't he? That she shies away whenever someone says her family name.

Only trained in one specific thing, and being practically shielded from knowing about anything else...

He knows that all too well.

It wasn't long before memories of his own, similar to those, bubbled in his mind. Long hours he was forced to study, and starve, and sacrifice, all to be the heir to something he now resents. And all in vain, as it was all useless to him the moment he stepped outside those blackened walls, or were dragged out of them kicking and screaming. Again, and again, and again.

But this isn't about him anymore.

⠀

"Please don't get sad, dear. You do know how to count and measure amounts, don't you?"

She puffed out her cheeks. "... I think so."

"Then you're doing fantastic already. I know math and science and literature because those are concepts. You need to be taught them by someone else who knows them. I don't think you were taught any of these things."

"... No. Anyone that tried to just said I didn't need it or that I'm too stupid to remember it all."

"Well, I want to make that different. May I try to teach you the things you want to learn?"

The creative, attentive student, now, sprung up from the table. Her smile beamed as bright as the sun. He could've sworn she'd gotten so worked up she was vibrating with excitement as he lazily sat up.

⠀

"Will you!? You really think I learn? I mean- please? I don't know what I can do to make it worth it for you, but, uhm---"

"You don't have to. Seeing you so happy makes it worthwhile as it is, baby."

"Yeah, but I want to do something for you, too! I want this to feel like it's fair."

"In that case... what about this: I teach you whatever you want to know, and you teach me how to do whatever makes you the happiest. That is the only thing I want."

"I can do that easy! I'm gonna be smart! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Iroha squealed right after she spoke, practically lunging for Yuri to wrap him in a tight hug.

⠀

He took the playful pounce with so much ease. His hands shot out to the sides, however, so they wouldn't touch her by accident. He made sure of that. But, he...

God, he melted at the slightest warm touch, let alone this.

The warmth of her, the smell of her hair, the brilliant smile still burning in his mind, the fact that she's even here with him...

It was like heaven on earth had her arms wrapped around his chest. And he'd give anything to die right there, enveloped in so much peace.