15 for serirei 🚬☂
this is late af!!!! i took liberties w the actual quote btw, but the basic sentiment is still there
15. “Why can you read me like no one else?”
Reigen is smoking when Serizawa comes into the office. It’s Serizawa’s first clue that something is different about today—Reigen hasn’t been smoking much at all lately, even when Tome and Mob aren’t around. He only does it now when he has something in particular on his mind.
That doesn’t always mean that he’ll tell Serizawa what it is, though. He knows better than to pry, so he just greets Reigen as usual with a polite “Good morning.”
“Ah, good morning, Serizawa.” Reigen looks almost surprised to see him, which would certainly be strange, since he knows Serizawa comes in for his shift at this time. But no, maybe surprised isn’t the right word—he’s sheepish, as he taps his cigarette against the ashtray, like he knows he’s doing something out of the ordinary.
Serizawa just smiles amiably and settles down at his desk to do some paperwork. Reigen’s attention shifts back to his laptop without any more words spoken, which is another clue that something is different. Normally, he’s much more talkative, even first thing in the morning.
Not that Serizawa minds either way. He likes talking to Reigen, even when he’s mostly listening, but he also likes the moments of comfortable silence that settle between them intermittently as they go about their work.
Today, that silence only lasts for another few minutes before Reigen breaks it, stubbing out his cigarette with a sigh as he says, “Serizawa, I want to talk to you about something.”
Even though Serizawa knew this might be coming, he can’t help but feel nervous at those words. Is it him? Has he done something wrong? Did Reigen find out that he—
“What is it, Reigen-san?” He cuts himself off before his mind takes him down that particular road.
Reigen doesn’t respond immediately. His fingers tap nervously on the desk; Serizawa doesn’t think he’s even aware of the action. “It’s been bothering me lately,” Reigen admits. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, so...now’s as good a time as any, I guess.”
He sounds so uncharacteristically frank. Serizawa sits up straighter in his chair, attentive.
The fingers stop tapping. Reigen looks at him, his gaze more intense than Serizawa is used to. “I’m not an esper,” he says. “I don’t have any psychic powers at all. I’m sorry that I misled you, and I hope this doesn’t make you think of me differently…”
He trails off, uncertain. Serizawa just blinks for a moment, feeling a bit pleasantly surprised, but mostly relieved. “Oh,” he says. “Is that it? I was worried something was wrong.”
Reigen gapes at him. “What do you mean, is that it?”
“Well.” Serizawa scratches his neck, flashing Reigen an almost sheepish smile. “I sort of already knew that.”
“You…” Reigen pauses, then leans back in his chair, appraising him. “You knew.”
Serizawa just nods.
“How did you know?” Reigen nearly yells, gesticulating wildly. Serizawa feels a strange sense of comfort in witnessing him once again acting as eccentric as he normally does. Before he can answer, Reigen settles his hand on his chin, looking contemplative, and continues, “Oh, is it because I don’t have an aura? I think Dimple said something about that before…”
“Not exactly,” Serizawa admits. “I noticed you didn’t have one, but thought maybe you had some trick to hide it...I really did believe you at first, but over time, I just realized it wasn’t true.”
Reigen looks even more confused at that. “Then what gave it away?” He sounds like it’s painful for him to even ask.
Serizawa thinks about it. “I guess...when you were talking to clients about it, I could tell you weren’t really telling the truth. When you’re lying or not being completely honest, you have a certain expression on your face, and you sort of do this thing with your hands…”
He trails off before he can describe more in detail what Reigen’s habits are, because he’s suddenly realizing that he might just sound like a total creep. He can feel his face turning red, and he averts his gaze, coughing nervously.
It doesn’t help that Reigen just stares at him without responding for several moments. He’s never looked at Serizawa like that before—surprised and contemplative, like he can’t tell what to make of Serizawa in this moment.
“Huh,” Reigen says at last. “Well, that made this whole conversation easier, then. As long as you don’t have any hard feelings about me not telling you.”
Serizawa waves him off. “It’s alright, Reigen-san. I really don’t mind.”
And he doesn’t. The conversation ends there, and they both go back to their work for the day.
That is supposedly the end of it, except Reigen doesn’t stop appearing distracted and contemplative throughout the entire work day. He barely talks to Serizawa the entire time, and is even much less enthusiastic around their clients.
Serizawa doesn’t know what to do about this, but he knows he wants to do something. So when they close up for the day, he tells Reigen he would like to walk home with him, if that’s alright.
Reigen seems surprised by this, since they don’t normally walk home together. This is because Serizawa doesn’t live in the same direction even remotely, but Reigen doesn’t really need to know that.
As they walk out, Reigen takes out another cigarette and lights it in what appears to be a mostly subconscious act. They continue silently, and he looks to be about as lost-in-thought as he had been all day.
Serizawa really doesn’t mind companionable silence with Reigen—but at this point, it’s wholly unnatural, edging on awkward.
“Do you want to talk about earlier?” Serizawa decides to ask, because he can’t think of anything other than that exchange that would be making Reigen act strange.
“Huh?” Reigen is trying for indifferent curiosity, but sounds nervous.
“I can tell something’s on your mind,” Serizawa explains. “I guess it’s what we talked about earlier? I promise you I really don’t mind.”
There’s a few beats of silence. Then Reigen laughs, softly. It’s not a kind of laugh Serizawa has heard from him before; there’s a quiet, wry amusement in it. “It’s not that I think you mind. It’s just…”
Serizawa waits, anxiously.
“No one else can read me like you can.” Reigen looks at him, probably for the first time since they started walking together. Serizawa feels his face heating up, both from Reigen’s words and his gaze being turned on him.
“Usually it’s easy for me to...hide behind my words, so that people don’t know how I really am, or how I really feel. But you can see through all that, huh?” Reigen continues. “Why is that?”
Serizawa thinks about that. He doesn’t think he’s any good at reading people in general. If he’s good at reading Reigen, then it’s just him specifically. Probably because he spends so much time watching him, deciphering him, how he’s feeling and what he’s saying, what matches up and what doesn’t.
His face heats up more as he thinks about that. He knows why he spends as much time watching Reigen as he does. After so long working together, he can no longer deny that he’s developed....certain types of feelings. But he doesn’t know if he wants Reigen to know this.
Despite Reigen’s words, Serizawa finds it difficult to tell how Reigen is feeling right now. There’s a kind, open expression on his face, the sort that Serizawa only sees when he’s being sincere. But his hands are moving with a sort of nervous energy, and his voice is strained ever so slightly, betraying that he may not feel entirely happy about this development.
He probably doesn’t really like how Serizawa knows so much about him. He might not like hearing why Serizawa has taken the time to learn so much about him, either.
“Don’t tell me you have some telepathy powers or something.” Clearly Serizawa is taking way too long to answer, and Reigen has taken upon himself to fill in the silence. He sounds even more strained now, despite his attempt at a flippant tone. “Because you shouldn’t use them on people like that. Privacy needs to be respected, even by telepaths! No, especially by telepaths. My uncle always used to say to me, with great power—”
“It’s nothing like that,” Serizawa hastily cuts in, before a rambling Reigen can attempt to plagiarize from any popular superhero comic book series. “I just, um…”
He started speaking before he could even think about what it was he wanted to say. Reigen is watching him expectantly, and suddenly Serizawa really can’t find it in himself to lie to him.
Reigen has done so much for him, and sure, he may have pretended to be something he’s not, but he’s never done anything to Serizawa’s detriment; he’s only ever helped him be a better person. And Serizawa doesn’t feel indebted to him in the way he did to the President; he just thinks, maybe, he owes Reigen the truth.
“Well, I guess I notice a lot of things about you, because…” This is a lot harder to say than he thought. He scratches the back of his neck, glancing away and down at the sidewalk. He can feel his face heating up again, and as damning as that is, he’s powerless to stop it.
“Ah.” He looks up and sees that Reigen’s face has turned pink as well. “I think I understand.”
“You do?” He isn’t sure if he should feel relief or mortification that he didn’t even have to say it.
“You’re not the only one who can read people, you know.” Reigen wags a finger at him in an almost-admonishing fashion, but he still looks fairly embarrassed, himself.
It’s not a wholly negative reaction—something like abject horror or disgust would be much worse—and this makes Serizawa the slightest bit more confident. “Well. What do you think about that, then?”
Reigen’s face colors even more. It’s cute, but Serizawa probably shouldn’t mention that right now.
At this point, they’ve stopped walking and are standing outside of Reigen’s apartment building.
“God, I’m really out of practice with being straightforward like this.” Reigen says this in nearly a mumble, his gaze averted as he stubs out his cigarette on the ground. “I, um…I feel the same way.”
Even though he can tell saying so makes Reigen uncomfortable, Serizawa can’t help the overwhelming swell of happiness and relief at hearing those words. He also appreciates that even though it’s hard for Reigen to say, he made the effort to tell him the truth anyway.
And for someone so terrible at being straightforward, he’s clearly braver with saying his feelings out loud than Serizawa is.
Serizawa grins, suddenly filled with fondness and admiration for the wonderful, bizarre man in front of him. Reigen still looks nervous, like he might start rambling again, so he responds with a sincere “I’m glad,” and kisses Reigen on the cheek.
The simple, chaste act makes his heart race, and effectively stuns Reigen into silence.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Reigen-san,” Serizawa says before turning away. He has a long way to go now to get back to his own apartment.
Reigen mumbles out a goodbye in return, and when Serizawa looks over his shoulder, he’s still standing there, touching his fingers to his reddened cheek.
Serizawa can’t keep the smile off his face the whole way home.
