Friends With Benefits | Chishiya x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Three

His eyes glint when he says this and you can feel your eyes widen slightly, surprised. Chishiya continues to speak; each word sounds carefully chosen, as if he'd been thinking about this for a long time. "Any music is fine, as long as it's quiet enough for me to ignore it," he carries on. His eyes flicker over where your hands rest in his. "I could be a night person, if you had to put a label to it. My favourite movie genre...I like psychological thrillers, if they're not too terrible." 

You open your mouth to respond to this, dredging up an appropriate sarcastic comment, but then shut it. His words are beginning to ring a bell, and realisation dawns on you like a tap to the head.

Ah.

So that's what this is.

The memory of another moment on the rooftop surfaces, a night almost exactly like this one from what feels like so long ago. This was the game you had tried playing with him, all the questions you'd asked him on the rooftop in an attempt to get to know him. 'It's called, I Ask You Lots of Questions So I Can Get To Know You,' you'd said. He'd never answered any of them, save for one.

But here he was, telling you all the answers to them now. He'd remembered every single question, you realise.

Chishiya's grip tightens slightly on your hands, and you cautiously meet his eyes. "You asked me what I did, before the Borderlands," he says. You nod, recalling the question, lost among many of the others Chishiya had ignored. "Before all this, I was a medical student, at Tokyo University." The sentence conveys an underlying urgency, one you didn't know if Chishiya himself could hear.

A medical student? You turn this new information over in your mind. This does not come as a shock to you - it is indeed the sort of thing you would imagine Chishiya to be doing, if not smiting others in a game of death. Now that you think about it, his profession does explain the handwriting on his post-it note, too.

Another thought takes shape and washes over you like the waves of moonlight, the rushing in your head causing something panicked to squeeze at your heart. Why are you telling me this now? You want to ask.

But you don't, for you are afraid you already know the answer.

Called away to another urgent executive meeting, Chishiya attempts to evaporate with his lazy wave and idle glitter of the eyes. He has not retained any of his awkwardness from the night before, but his gaze seems to linger on you slightly longer than usual. Something about the absence of his usual unwillingness to attend said executive meeting makes you feel as if something is inherently wrong.

"Chishiya." You reach out a hand to stop him before he puts his famous disappearing act into practice. He raises an inquiring brow.

"Mm?" He hums in response. Your hand wavers over his shoulder as you take a moment to decide on the best course of action, and he lifts his palms in silent question. After a pause, you open your arms.

"Come here," you instruct, and he snorts. 

"What's this for?" He smirks, but steps into your embrace nonetheless. You wrap your arms around the man and he leans into you with a sigh. His words are warm against your shoulder. "Don't tell me you miss me already."

"I would never miss you," you mumble back, and he laughs. "This just feels right. I feel like something bad will happen if I don't."

Chishiya stays quiet. You feel the brush of the soft fabric of his hoodie against your cheek as he extricates himself from your arms. He takes in a breath as if trying to decide what to say, one hand still resting on your shoulder. The weight of his palm is heavy and light at the same time.