Post canon. Ryoken keeps asking Takeru (and Sb by default) to do certain tasks for him.
"Fetch this for me"
"Deliver this to x location"
"Investigate this shaddy place"
"Beat up this dude in VRAINS"
Takeru accepts for one reason only: Ryoken pays good and he pays in cash.
He definitely doesn't begin to enjoy his meetings with Ryoken as time passes by, it's all definitly about the money he's getting! Takeru also doesn't attempt to extend those meetings by asking Ryoken if he knew some random fact about some fish that he overheard while walking by some fisherman at the docks or anything like that!
Nope!
And when Takeru starts asking Ryoken how things are going or how his day was, it was just him being polite! He didn't care about Ryoken —Revolver!!— at all. It was just for the job.
And Ryoken didn't notice anything strange, of course. He didn't notice how Takeru now refused to look him in the eyes, or how he immediately pulled his hand away —face entirely red— when he kept accidentally brushing fingers with Takeru's as he passed him the payment he'd promised.
It was, of course, also unrelated that he started picking restaurants as their meeting place, and that he always had food to share at the table once Takeru arrived.
It was a hassle for both of them that they just had to share food, because it was always too much for Ryoken to eat by himself and Takeru refused to let good food go to waste.
"So you got another date, hmmm?" Kiku asked Takeru every time.
"I'M NOT DATING HIM!!" Was Takeru's answer, but his tone got increasingly louder every time he had to say it. And he became increasingly flustered by the idea, too.
They definitely were not dating.
This was an absolute truth.
Just because Takeru began adding good mornings and good nights to his messages to Ryoken, it didn't really meant anything. For either of them.
Ryoken also didn't began to expect those messages. Didn't look at them over and over again while working on his computer.
When Ryoken invited Takeru to dinner to that expensive restaurant, he absolutely did not plan to properly ask him to be something more.
"You keep doing that" Ryoken says when he notices Takeru glance at him for the 6th time. He could've pointed it out sooner, but he didn't want to. The way Takeru struggled to keep himself in check was undeniably adorable.
"Doing what?!" Takeru asks, maybe a little too loud as people from neighboring tables turned around and gave them a judgmental sare for a few seconds.
Takeru shrank in his own chair as he noticed that; it was embarrassing enought when the receptionist looked him up and down as he clearly wasn't dressed accordingly to this place's standards, now every person around them was looking straight at him.
It took him a few seconds —or an entire minute— to repeat himself, lower this time.
"Doing what...?"
Ryoken had to cover his mouth, hiding a smile that could only be attributed to a demon. Maybe even to the devil himself.
Takeru was too cute like this. Ryoken couldn't keep himself from messing with him.
"You keep looking at me."
"Well, you're right in front of me." Takeru frowns, and finally looks him in the eye. "It's not like I can avoid it."
It seemed it was easier for Takeru to look at him when he was annoyed. Good.
"Is that so." Ryoken takes a bite off his food, lets his lips linger on the fork for a little too long, sliding it a little too slow.
Takeru stares, then looks away again, blushing.
"If I didn't know any better," Once again, the devil was speaking. "I'd say you keep looking at me because you like me."
Takeru's eyes open wide.
"As if-!!" His voice is too loud again, enough to earn him a shhh from someone. He already hated fancy places before, but after this he would NEVER set foot in one ever again.
"I'd even say you gota crush on me," Ryoken's laugh is low, but not any less irritating to Takeru for that.
Refusing to say anything else, Takeru starts engulfing his food. The quicker they're over with this, the better. He needs to get out of this assap.
"Hmm. Keeping your thoughts to yourself?" Ryoken pokes at him, under the table, tapping Takeru's leg with his foot.
Takeru chokes on his food.
"If you like me, don't you think should date me?" Ryoken pushes, and Takeru might as well had fallen off a cliff, but instead he fell backwards —chair included— as he tried to get away from the demon he was sharing tables with.
They got kicked out, or well, politely asked to leave the restaurant after that. Ryoken paid no mind to it, finding it endearing how when he held Takeru's hand to help him up, Takeru had squeezed —clinged— a little bit too hard.
But for Takeru, this was too much. This was WAY over anything Ryoken could pay him. This fucker was so full of himself. Just because Takeru thought he had a handsome face and pretty eyes a few times, it didn't mean he liked him that way. It didn't mean anything!
Takeru was so glad he was on the driver's seat on the way back to his own house because it meant Ryoken wouldn't be bothering him as much. Or so he thought —hoped for— since Ryoken took the backseat.
He was wrong.
"So?" Ryoken asked, locking eyes through the mirror. "Are you asking me out now?"
It took everything in Takeru to not immediately hit the breaks and get outta the damned car, run away, then beg Kiku to teach him how to block Ryoken's number and email on every single one of his comunication devices.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, decided to ignore the man in the backseat. Imagined himself in a happy place. A peaceful place. No Ryoken Kogamis in sight. Ah.
So peaceful.
He could even feel the breeze on his neck-
Except it wasn't a breeze. It was Ryoken, blowing softly against Takeru's neck.
The seat belt was the only thing that kept Takeru from flying outta the car now.
"What is wrong with you!?" Takeru finally gives, parking the car so he can, get the seat belt off, turn around and grab Ryoken by the collar of his fancy suit that he was only now noticing wasn't his usual.
Not that he cared.
"Why do you keep pushing me like this!?" He shook Ryoken a little, but he remained unbothered. "Is this some kind of game? Did you get bored of hacking shit or something?!"
Ryoken's actions made no sense to Takeru, unless he was trying to mess with him, there was no reason for this out of nowhere dinner invitation.
"Do you want to go out with me?" The question Takeru let out was for both of them, but also mainly for himself, as he tried to rationalize whatever Ryoken could've had in mind for orchestrating this.
Ryoken, on his side, got exactly what he wanted. And he wouldn't give Takeru the change to rethink or clarify what he'd just said.
"Well, if you ask me like such a gentleman, how could I say no."
Takeru would have punched Ryoken's pretty face if he wasn't using all of his brain capacity to come to terms with the treachery he'd just fallen victim to.
He let go of Ryoken and finally got out of the damn car. Ryoken couldn't help but laugh as he saw Takeru walk to the opposite side of the street, walk in circles a few times, then letting out a very loud "FUCK!" before walking himself back to the car and into the driver's seat.
Takeru wanted to smash his face against the steering wheel so he could pretend the red in his face was from that and not because he was embarrassed.
Was he really dating Ryoken Kogami?
"You're paying me for this shit, right?" Takeru asked, forehead pressed against the steering wheel.
"If you want me to."
He was dating Ryoken Kogami.
They're officially dating now. When Kiku bothers Takeru about their meetings he can no longer deny they're dates because they might as well be.
Might as well have been from long before Ryoken tricked him into asking him out.
Takeru honestly expect Ryoken to grow tired of this, of their sneaky vrains meet ups, their good mornings and good nights, the late-night calls when neither of them could sleep, their not-dates that might as well be.
Takeru expects that to happen at some point, but starts hopping that it never does. That the brushing of their fingers lingers for a little longer. That their hands keep holding each other's as they talk over coffee. That they keep kissing hello and good bye.
Expectation that Ryoken might grow tired of this turned into fear at some point, even if Ryoken showed no signs of wanting this to stop. Even after Takeru talked about how there was no reason to pay him for this anymore.
Even after he dropped the first I love you during one of those late-night calls on the phone and Ryoken responded with I love you, too.
And after years of I love yous that fear remained in the back of his head.
"I miss you." Soulburner said, holding Revolver's hand.
Ryoken had been away for a while, they hadn't seen each other face to face in a nearly a month and he'd really come to understand just how much weight Ryoken's presence had in his life.
"I'll be back soon." Revolver answered, Soulburner's grip on his hand tightened.
"You're still busy, aren't you?" He can tell, even if Revolver's helmet covers half of his face and he's doing his best to keep his expression in check.
"It's nothing I can't put off for a few minutes."
Soulburner isn't convinced.
"Go and get whatever it is done already. I'm tired of waiting for you."
Soulburner didn't put much thought into his words, but Revolver did.
"I miss you too, you know." He frowned, looking at Soulburner. "So much I had to drop my work because I kept thinking of you."
He looked... hurt. If only a little. It hadn't crossed Takeru's head that maybe he wasn't the only one worried that the other might grow tired of what they had.
I'm tired of waiting for you.
He felt a bit guilty for saying that now.
"I'm tired of waiting." He repeated. "I want you back with me already." Soulburner gulped. "What job is so difficult or important that the mighty Revolver can't even park his ridiculous yacht near his boyfriend's house. You do know I live in a port town, no? Huge pier and all that."
Revolver blinked a few times, then smiled. And oh, who was getting flustered now? The mighty Revolver of course. So much he had to take off his helmet and kiss Soulburner's lips in retaliation.
"The mighty Revolver will see what he can do with that then."
And he disconected.
Stupis Revolver, always wanting to have the final say in things.
His phone ringing with a message from Ryoken was like a siren call, and Takeru made that walk to the docks in record time. He was in fact ten whole minutes earlier, and waiting those out was only worth it once he could see Ryoken's stupid, gorgeous face as he walked down the yacht just to invite him in.
"Are you walking in or do you intend to make me beg?" Ryoken turned around midway, as he noticed Takeru didn't follow. "I mean, you're the one who couldn't live without seeing me for a few days. Oh, I want you back with me already"
Stupid Ryoken, of course he'd make fun of him for that. Takeru would never let guilt make him say something as embarrassing as that ever again.
"Hold my hand." Takeru wasn't about to admit he was slightly afraid of the yachts gangway, so he demanded that Ryoken would lead him instead.
His intent was fairly obvious, but Ryoken didn't mention it. He wouldn't make a joke about Takeru's fears, even if it was a silly one such as a gangway that was a little bit too shaky for his boyfriend's liking.
For the record, Takeru did make him beg later. And Ryoken begged so loud the rest of the Hanoi fleed the yacht for the night.
After that encounter, it was a whole other week before Ryoken came back, for good this time.
And it wasn't even a month after that they decided to share an apartment.
Not that either of them needed to, but the Hanoi begged them to do it. For their sanity.
"Marry me." Ryoken drops one day, a year into living together, with no warning as they shared breakfast in their apartment.
Takeru doesn't seem nervous as he takes a sip of his coffee, letting the words sit between them in silence for a while.
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