Archive of Our Own

The gifts started coming after the cult case.

Much to Taka’s disappointment, both he and Tome had gotten to hear about the case only after the fact. Some old school friend had asked Master Kageyama to help out. Taka and Tome had only found out about it afterwards, when the catastrophic interview had made its way online.

The spirit had been dealt with, sure, but Master Kageyama had never been a TV personality. He could have exorcised a thousand spirits, but nothing would have made up for the mute interview.

There was a reason why Tome did most of the publicity stuff for the office.

At first it’d been just a few discouraging messages online, nothing big. Prank letters had been sent to the office. Sure, there were a bunch of people showing real gratitude, mostly former cult members who now found their minds cleared from the spirit’s influence. But quite a few of the messages had been clear trolls with too much time on their hands. Taka had helped them get rid of some scalding notes about how Master Kageyama was a fraud and should stick to scamming old people.

He didn’t really think much of them at the time. Who cared if some randos online wanted to whine? Besides, Tome said it’d blow over soon anyway.

It all came to a head on one Wednesday, though, when Taka had been on his way to the office from school. He’d been climbing the stairs two at a time in his hurry to get in before Master Kageyama would come back from a job. He wanted to keep up good appearances so that he wouldn’t get kicked out. Or that his boss wouldn’t find out that he didn’t actually have any spiritual powers to begin with.

He’d been in such a hurry that he didn’t see the wall of flowers until he’d ran face first into it.

There’d been flowers before. Small bouquets. Single yellow roses with hand written notes of “Thank you” attached to them.

There’d never been a jungle outside the Spirits and Such office, though.

The usual stale air of the building was now tinted sickly sweet. The hallway was so full of greenery that there was barely enough room to stand at the top of the stairs. Vases after vases of freshly cut flowers, bound bouquets, potted plants in full bloom in all the colors of the rainbow had been placed in front of the office door.

What on earth?

Taka inched past the closest bush like it was going to launch itself to his leg at the smallest hint of provocation. He made his way towards the door, trying to disturb the flowers as little as possible. His foot struck a bouquet that must have had fifty roses at least and it rolled on its side, revealing a note underneath.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Taka reached for it and picked the whole thing up.

Seeing you again, after all this time, was a joy. I missed you so much. Hope to be seeing more of you.

Yours, H.T.

Okay. That didn’t exactly sound like a former cult member expressing their relief. He turned the card around, but there was nothing on the back but some abstract shapes in yellow and gold. He shoved the card back with the flowers and put it down.

It offered no answers to the wave of questions rising in his mind.

Like an adventurer battling his way through a jungle, Arataka pushed his way to the door. The flowers weren’t only blocking access to this one, but the other offices on the same floor as well and it was a wonder no one had come looking already. Or maybe they’d tried and couldn’t get the doors open. Taka managed to only kick one vase down on his way, water splashing on the pant legs his school uniform. A paper was taped to the door and it announced with slightly wobbly but sizable letters that this was Spirits and Such: Consultation Office. Taka wrenched the door open, struggling free from the hold of a bush of forget-me-nots.

”Did you know someone set up a flower shop outside our office?” he yelled from the doorway.

Kurata Tome’s head poked from behind a corner. ”What?” she asked.

”There’s like… a million flowers out here. What’s with that?”

”Huh?” Tome disappeared momentarily, then rounded the corner and took one look at the flowers before rolling her eyes. ”Jesus,” she said.

”It’s a curse, right?”

”Sure, kid. Help me clean this up before Mob gets here.”

They couldn’t just get rid of them, not this much, Tome said. Dumping them out by the roadside could get them in trouble with the landlady. So they ended up hauling the forest in to the office. By the time they were bringing the last few in, Kageyama arrived at the top of the stairs. He looked quizzically as Tome threw the last bouquet into his hands, held it in like he didn’t really know what to do with it.

Inside the office, Kageyama looked around slowly. Every single flat surface was covered in flowers of some sort. Taka could barely see the surface of his Master’s desk. Taka’s own was in full bloom, with three vases and smaller pots dotting it.

Mysteriously, there were none on Tome’s desk.

Master Kageyama blinked slowly, then turned to hang his jacket.

”Is it your anniversary?” he asked Tome.

”Not that I know of,” she said, crossing her arms. ”And she wouldn’t go this crazy on anything. No, I think these are for you.”

Kageyama’s expression didn’t change.

”Oh.” Then, after a pause: ”Are you sure?”

”Well…” Tome plucked the only card they’d been able to find from the forest of flowers. ”It doesn’t exactly say who they’re for. You know anyone with the initials H.T.?”

”No.”

”You sure?”

”…No?”

”From the cult case, maybe?” Taka suggested. The card might not have exactly sounded like it, but you couldn’t really tell. Kageyama Shigeo had a strange sort of charisma to him, that didn’t exactly show on the first viewing, but shined through his actions and had earned him quite a few admirers over the years. Flowers weren’t exactly a new thing at the office. Some customers felt the need to show their thanks after the job had been done. This amount of thankfulness, though, was a little much.

Tome waved the card in front of him.

“Come on,” she said. “Just read it. Tell me if it’s something.”

Kageyama took it, read it, turned it around, then right side up again and stared at it.

Something shifted in his demeanor. His brows fell a little.

“Oh,” he said.

“You know the sender?” Tome asked.

He stared at the card for a moment longer.

“There must have been a mistake.”

“Oh?”

Tome shot a look at Taka. They shared it for a moment. Tome crossed her arms.

Kageyama placed the card on his desk. Then he sneezed and sniffed after. His eyes were getting a little red.

The smell was pretty pungent.

They never found which flowers caused the allergic reaction. In the end they had to haul all of them into the trash canisters outside after all. Not that they all fit. The landlady gave them the stink eye for weeks after that and the smell stuck about as long.

Taka would have probably forgotten about the flowers at some point or another. After all, a jungle of flora sprinting into existence outside the office was small potatoes compared to everything else weird happening at Spirits and Such. In all the excitement of real and fake spirits and the people who claimed to suffer from them, some flowers were easily forgotten.

The gifts kept coming, though. Nothing as extravagant and troublesome as the flowers, but there was always something. A fresh basket of fruit. An expensive brand of coffee beans. Chocolate in a heart shaped box. Cufflinks that wouldn’t have gone with any outfit Taka could think of. They started piling on the floor around Kageyama’s desk.

”Are you sure they’re not for you?” he asked Tome, hopeful.

”Pretty sure,” she said.

”Hm. They must be coming to a wrong address, then.”

Master Kageyama was a lot of things. A quiet man, yes. But a good man. A top-notch esper as far as Taka was concerned.

A good liar he was not.

He might have been able to convince himself that there’d been a mistake somewhere along the way, but Taka could still remember the look on his face when he’d read the note.

He’d never considered Kageyama to be a stubborn man.

“They’re not going to anyone in this building,” Tome said, arms crossed and leaning on his desk. ”I asked around. No one knows anyone called H.T. So unless we catch the bastard red handed…”

”Hm,” Kageyama said and opened the lid of a package of fancy cookies that had arrived that day. He looked at them pensively, then picked one up between his thumb and forefinger. Like a shark smelling blood in water, Tome dashed forward and grabbed some for herself, munching on them happily.

”Mm,” she said, mouth full. ”These are good.”

Kageyama was slow to put the cookie he’d picked up back into the box. He’d hardly had enough time to offer the box to Tome when she’d already dislodged it out of his hands and made her way to her desk.

”They’ll stop coming eventually,” Kageyama said.

Taka wasn’t so sure about that. If they were going to stop, they would have already. But time after time, they just arrived outside their door, with no sign of the sender.

Well. No sign wasn’t exactly right.

He snuck up to Tome munching the cookies and grabbed the package.

”Hey! Give it back, kid!”

”It isn’t exactly yours, is it?”

”You don’t even work here!”

The card attached to the side was small. Arataka tore it off and opened it.

You changed my life. You came into it like a falling star and rocked everything off course. Only once I had picked everything back up did I realize what I had had and lost.

Yours, H.T.

Schmaltzy. And on brand, too. The secret admirer always left something awfully saccharine like this and it would have made Taka gag. But it was a mystery to solve and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Either someone was sending their love and admiration to the wrong address, or someone was crushing hard on his boss. Either way, neither Kageyama nor Tome was doing anything about it. Tome was probably fine with it since she got free food out of it. The basket of fruits and coffee had gone with her and apparently her wife had loved them. Master Kageyama was the harder nut to crack. He just refused to acknowledge the thing.

And it was infuriating! Taka was going to find out what was going on even if it was the last thing he did!

When a customer entered the next time to keep Kageyama and Tome busy, he snuck to Tome’s desk and snatched the booking calendar. Hurrying back to his own, a fair bit smaller desk, he dug out a worn manga volume from his bag and hid the booking calendar between it to read it nonchalantly.

There must have been something he’d missed. Kageyama Shigeo was a private sort of person. He didn’t talk much about his own life outside work. He had a brother he was close to and he worked out on his free time. That was pretty much it. So to Taka the only thing that made sense was that his boss had met this mystery admirer through work. Someone he had helped, perhaps. That would make sense to him.

That’s how he’d ended up inserting himself into Kageyama’s life, after all.

There were no H.T.s in the booking calendar, though.

Tome slid to the side of his desk and sat on its corner with her arms crossed. Taka slammed the manga shut and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. Tome was still looking at Kageyama with the customer, but the two of them had already gotten fast at work with whatever was ailing the guy.

”That’s not going to help you much, kiddo,” she said. ”I already checked it. Mystery admirer isn’t there.”

Taka bit his teeth and looked at the book. He hadn’t thought he was that transparent. He put it on the desk.

”I don’t know where else to look, though,” he said quietly.

”Yeah,” Tome said and Taka could hear her tapping her foot against the floor. ”Mob’s not going to go out looking for this guy. He wants to think it’s a mistake.”

Tome still ate all the treats that appeared by their door, though.

”What do you think?” Taka asked.

She was quiet for a while. Her foot kept tapping.

”The gifts are all pretty fancy,” she said. ”Expensive. Giver must be rich. They always appear before either of us get here or when we’re on lunch, so they know our schedule. Although that’s on the website, so maybe that’s not so weird. Never seen who it is, but if they can load a hallway full of flowers without anyone noticing, they must be fast. You think…?” She grew quiet, lifted her hand to her face and thought for a while. “Nah. It wouldn’t be another esper, right?”

Taka wasn’t sure what to think. He closed the booking calendar.

Without more information, it was hard to say.

Years I spent thinking about you, trying to find you. But it was like you disappeared into thin air. Like you never existed. Every sign of you vanished along you, the only thing remaining my memories. I dreamt of meeting you every night. But now I’m too shy to approach you. How silly. Just say a word and I shall disappear!

Yours, H.T.

The admirer was getting wordy. A little desperate, as far as Taka was concerned. The gift had appeared while they’d been out on a lunch. The gift had been wrapped into paper with yellow, orange and green stripes. Taka hadn’t seen Kageyama touching it after he’d brought it in and it was now leaning against the wall next to the door. The package was thin and shaped like a square and Taka found himself turning to look at it every few minutes.

Tome was staring as well, trying to drill through the paper with her eyes by the looks of it.

The boss just drank tea and avoided the whole thing.

”That’s it!” Tome declared. ”I’m opening it.”

”No, Tome,” Kageyama said calmly. ”It’s not for us.”

”We ate the cookies!”

”They could have gone bad.”

”Still!” Tome argued. ”Come on, Mob.”

Taka turned the card in his hands. There were flowers on it this time, thin little golden vines around the edges. Something about this message struck him as odd.

Tome dashed past him to the door in a blur. Taka hardly even had time to lift his head and she was gone already. Kageyama rose up from his chair, but he was too slow. The noise of paper ripping told Taka what he needed to know.

Tome stepped past the corner and handed Kageyama something. He held it in his hands, stared at it for a long time before saying: ”Oh.”

”What is it?” Taka asked, trying to reach for it only for Tome to shoo his hand away. ”Come on! Let me see!”

”Hold up,” Tome said. ”Let it sink in.” She moved to grab the card and read through it with a raised brow.

Kageyama moved to his desk with the thing in his hand. It looked like a square plate or something.

”You know,” Tome said quietly while Kageyama just stared at the thing, looking all sorts of lost. ”I was thinking back to when this thing started with those flowers. It was a bit after that cult case. Remember those creepy smilies?”

Taka did. It had been a big case and Kageyama had gotten mixed into it thanks to some old school friend. The cult had been popular and Kageyama taking down their leader had made it to news. That friend of his had tried to interview him on live TV.

She should have known it wouldn’t end well.

“It could have been one of the cult members.”

”Maybe,” Tome said slowly, but didn’t sound too convinced.

Taka wasn’t either. Not in the least. The timeline didn’t match with what the messages were saying. About losing sight of Kageyama. But anyone could have seen the quiet interview and decided it would be funny to send letters.

To continue it this long, though? And buying gifts this expensive? It was a bit much.

By the end of the day, Kageyama had taken the old paper off the door and replaced it with a new, simple but beautifully carved, professional looking plaque with the name Spirits and Such: Consultation Office on it with both the names of Kageyama Shigeo and Kurata Tome on it.

This was getting ridiculous. Now Master Kageyama was just being stubborn, avoiding the matter altogether. He had stopped touching the gifts and they were piling up in the small kitchen of the office because of it. Tome opened some of them, snatched the fancy sake bottle to take with her to her wife, but everything else just stayed there, as if they’d go away if Kageyama didn’t pay attention to them long enough.

Taka didn’t get it. He didn’t get his boss’s attitude and he most certainly didn’t get the secret admirer’s motives. This whole song and dance seemed so stupid and pointless. If the admirer wanted Kageyama’s attention, this wasn’t doing it.

If someone didn’t do something, this could go on forever and then there wouldn’t be any room left in the office anymore. And Taka was sure his desk would be the first one to go. Since putting on the plaque, the gifts had doubled and Taka wasn’t about to let Tome kick him out of the office just because they needed the extra space. He needed to double his efforts.

He just didn’t get it. It was dumb. The gift giver didn’t seem to be expecting anything in return, but there was a certain sort of desperation to their messages. All of the Missing yous and You’re always in my thoughts. It was so stupid.

Wouldn’t a direct approach be so much better? Taka thought it should have. He’d thought Master Kageyama to be smarter than this. But here they were.

It looked like he was going to have to take matters to his own hands, then. If neither his boss nor the secret admirer was going to do anything, he was going to have to draw the admirer out of their hiding spot and force the meeting. That seemed like the best possible solution. If they finally met, things would sort themselves out and either Master Kageyama would tell the person to cut it out or they’d actually get to talk about it.

Either way, they’d get to move on.

It was a simple trick, easy in its execution. Since the admirer left their gifts whenever the office was empty, Taka was going to leave something for them just before going for lunch with Tome and Kageyama. He took a piece of paper from Kageyama’s printer and folded it in half. To H.T. he wrote on the cover, Meet me at Ankle Park at seven on the inside. It was simple, painfully simple, really. Kageyama could have done it himself, but had for some reason decided not to.

When they came back from the lunch, the note had disappeared! Just as expected of the genius tactician, Reigen Arataka. He tried not to look as smug about it as he was feeling. He was pretty sure the boss man didn’t notice, but Tome did shoot a questioning look his way.

“I’ll explain later”, he whispered under his breath.

Now he was just going to have to get his boss into the same place at the same time, but not make it sound like they were waiting for someone.

Easy peasy.

”Hey! Master Kageyama!” he said, sauntering to Kageyama’s desk.

Kageyama lifted his eyes off the sudoku he’d been staring down at. There were so far no numbers of his own on it.

“You don’t have to call me that,” he said.

Taka shrugged. ”You know, I was going to do this myself, but I thought that since you have, you know, more experience with your powers than I do with mine and all, maybe you could help me out with a case of my own?”

Kageyama looked at him without a word, so Taka took that as an encouragement to continue. He started waving his hand around freely.

”You see, there’s this rumor, that there’s an evil spirit at Ankle Park, and it only appears at seven in the evening, so I was going to go there by myself and then I noticed that you had nothing booked on your calendar at that time, so I was wondering if you wanted to come as, you know, a backup?”

“Take a breath, kid,” Tome muttered from her desk.

Taka bit his teeth together to keep his smile well-meaning.

Master Kageyama blinked slowly. Then he nodded.

”Alright,” he said. ”I will come with you.”

Of course he would. He wouldn’t want Taka to get hurt.

As if he would. You didn’t need to be a psychic to throw salt.

Taka smiled like a little saint.

“Yeah, you know what?” Tome said. “I think I’ll come too. It’s just on my way home.”

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Taka said a little too loud, waving his hand dismissively. “It’s not that big of a deal, maybe ten minutes and then we’re done. You’d just be wasting your time.”

Tome lifted a brow, clearly buying nothing Taka was trying to sell. Taka nudged his head towards the unopened gifts, trying to tell Tome without saying it.

Tome’s brows rose higher.

“You know what, you’re right, actually,” she said. “I think I will go home a little earlier. You two have fun, you hear?”

“This is serious business!” Taka declared.

“Sure, sure.”

As per his brilliant plan, they left some time before seven. Kageyama locked the office up behind them, taking his sweet time with it and Taka was swinging back and forth on his feet. Not that they were in any hurry. They’d be making it to Ankle Park well ahead of time.

The park was mostly empty at that time of the day. Some dog walkers were hurrying home, a couple of joggers passed them without a second glance. Taka eyed anyone getting close to them with care, but none of them had looked back just yet.

No matter. They were a little early.

Kageyama looked around slowly, taking in the park.

”I don’t feel anything,” he said. ”It must be just a rumor, then.”

”Yeah, maybe,” Taka said, shifting weight from one foot to another. Still no sign of the secret admirer. He pulled his phone out. They still had five minutes until seven. ”But, you know, they did say that it… only happens at seven o’ clock exactly. So maybe we should wait around long enough. You know. For customer satisfaction.”

Kageyama looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

“You are a good kid, Arataka,” he said.

“Ah.” Taka looked down.

They waited around for five minutes. Then a five more. A couple with a stroller passed them by, but after that they hadn’t seen anyone else. Taka was starting to get antsy. The note had disappeared from the door, but then again, that didn’t mean H.T. had been the one to take it. Damn. He hadn’t thought of that. He shifted nervously, pulling at his school uniform. Maybe it had been a bit too simple to work.

“Oh,” Kageyama said and looked off to somewhere. Taka followed his stare to a man approaching them.

He saw that the man was wearing a three-piece suit and that that was about all he could see before his eyes started watering from the strain and he had to blink away. The patterns on that suit had looked like they were moving on their own. Or maybe it was just the light reflecting from the shiny fabric. Either way, it was like staring at the sun. Too much exposure would make you go blind.

Taka rubbed his eyes to the corner of his sleeve while the man caught up to them. He didn’t pass them, just stopped right in front of them.

“Ah,” he said. “I was worried you might have gotten here a bit earlier than me. Sorry for the wait,” he said.

No. Taka rubbed the water out of his eyes. It couldn’t be this guy. Could it? He chanced a look, kept his eyes above the eldritch horror that was his suit. He saw a blond head of hair, some flashy earrings and then he had to look away again, when the colors of the suit started to bleed into his vision. He turned to look at Kageyama instead and saw that he had an empty look in his eyes as well, like he was staring through the man’s jacket instead of at it.

It had already gotten him.

So. This was H.T.

He shifted slowly and swallowed audibly. His eyes travelled to Taka and grew a little larger.

Time for part two of his master plan.

“Oh well, I guess the spirit thing was a bust, anyway, I’m going to go now, bye!” Taka yelled and turned on his heels before Kageyama could catch onto what was going on. He started running just in time to dodge the confused call of his name. He made a sharp turn behind some bushes and stopped. Peeking over them, he saw them standing awkwardly there where he’d left them.

Taka wasn’t just going to leave these two out here without knowing what had happened, though. That would have been a wasted opportunity! He had a plan! Hiding behind the shrubbery he made his way back towards them, straining his ears.

For such an outrageous dresser, the guy approached Kageyama shyly, rubbing his neck, speaking downwards and so softly Taka was having a hard time picking up his voice at all. Watching his body language, H.T. was nervous and trying very hard to hide it. It must have been easier for him to do, since it was hard to look directly at him even at a distance.

Master Kageyama, on the other hand, was a lot harder to read. He was stiff, but he was always like that, shoulders kept at a certain angle, neck unmoving, head facing forward. Taka could say that he had some experience reading him, though, having insisted on coming around the office since he was eleven. Kageyama was looking at H.T.’s suit with interest. He said… something… his tone revealed nothing.

Damn it. Taka was going to have to get even closer if he wanted to hear.

He snuck along the flowerbed, keeping his head low, trying not to crinkle the leaves. The blond guy was talking a lot and talking fast. He seemed to be gaining some confidence the longer he went, looking Kageyama in the eye, leaning closer. Sunlight hit his suit in just the right angle to reflect into Taka’s eye and he had to cover his face with his hand.

Taka got juuuuust close enough to hear how his boss ripped the guy’s heart out.

“I’m sorry,” he said calmly. “Who are you?”

That shut the guy up pretty fast. Whatever he’d been about to say, it got swallowed down and Taka heard the guy’s jaw click shut. H.T. waved his hands around uncertainly.

“You know,” he said. “Hanazawa Teruki. Have you… did you get my… gifts?”

Taka didn’t see the look on Kageyama’s face from this angle, but he did see his boss shifting a little.

“Ah,” he said. “So it was you.”

“Yes!” Hanazawa said loudly. “Yes, and I meant every word I said and – “

“But who exactly are you?” Kageyama asked. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“Ah.”

Ouch. This was painful to watch. Taka pulled behind the bushes.

“I’m sorry,” Kageyama continued, his voice unaffected. “Were you a client?”

Hanazawa started laughing, but from years of self-taught experience Taka could recognize a fake when he heard one.

“No, no,” he said. “Well, in a way, I suppose, although I guess I never paid you back for… for helping me. No, I… What was I thinking? Of course I wouldn’t have made as big of an impact on your life as you did on mine. Damn it. Of course. I’m sorry, I… This was… Ah. I’m sorry, I think there’s been a mistake.”

Taka heard his steps on the pavement, heard them hurrying off back the same way he’d come. By the sound of it, Master Kageyama hadn’t moved an inch.

Taka sighed and ran his hands over his face. This wasn’t exactly the outcome he’d been hoping for. He wasn’t sure what he’d wanted. Maybe to get something to happen instead of letting things stay the way they’d been. And now it had ended up like this.

“Arataka? Please come out.”

Taka nearly jumped out of his skin. He hurried to his feet from behind the shrubbery and Kageyama’s eyes landed on him.

“I… I’m sorry,” he said, the first thing that came to mind. He wasn’t sure which part he was apologizing for. Maybe the whole thing.

Kageyama didn’t look disappointed exactly. Just tired.

“You just had to get involved, didn’t you?” he said.

Taka opened his mouth, but Kageyama lifted his hand.

“It’s alright,” he said and turned to look away. “I understand.”

Taka climbed over the bushes and made his way to his boss. Kageyama looked him over, flicked his hand and some of the leaves stuck to his school uniform fluttered away.

“So… you really have no idea who that was?” Taka asked.

They both looked the way that Hanazawa guy had disappeared off to. The guy had just given up like that. Taka had kind of expected… more. From a guy writing how he dreamt about meeting Kageyama, he sure had disappeared quickly.

But then again, Kageyama wasn’t a good liar, was he?

“No,” he said slowly. “I do know him. I’ve met him before.”

“What?” Taka asked, a bit louder than he’d meant to. “Really? Why? What? But you said –”

“I thought this would be easier,” he said, as if that would explain everything. “He would have given up and forgotten eventually.”

Judging by the look on the guy’s eyes when he’d started backtracking, Taka wasn’t so sure he agreed.

“I’m… pretty sure you broke his heart,” he said carefully.

Kageyama pursed his lips, then looked down.

“He’ll get better.”

So he said. But the mood in the office sure was frosty.

“Okay,” Tome said. “What did you do, kiddo?”

Kageyama was sitting behind his desk and staring out through the window, looking like he didn’t really see anything at all.

He’d been sitting like that for half an hour now.

It had been a full week now without any gifts. A full week of Kageyama working like his heart wasn’t really in it. Taka had kind of… been avoiding the office for the most of it and Tome seemed to be at the end of her rope. She was holding her teacup like she was going to shatter it with her bare hands.

“Uh,” Taka said.

Tome lifted a brow.

“It was nothing!” Taka defended himself. “I just wanted to help things along! Neither of them was doing anything about it!”

Tome stared at him. Her arms crossed over her chest with devastatingly slow speed while her chin lifted upwards.

“Reigen Arataka,” she said with a tone far too calm.

Taka buckled under the stare.

“You’re not my mom!” he said, voice cracking. Looking down at his desk, he twined his fingers together. “I was just trying to help.”

Tome looked him over a moment longer, then moved to put her mug on her desk. When she turned back around, her look was considerably softer.

“Hey,” she said. “How about you and I go get some lunch, yeah? It’s about that time, right?”

Taka shot a look at Kageyama. He didn’t look like he was even registering their presence anymore.

“But,” he said.

“Let him think about things,” Tome said quietly. “He’s been having a lot on his mind lately. Give it time. When he gets hungry, he’ll get food.”

There was no arguing with that. Master Kageyama did look like there was a lot on his mind and no one was going to pull him out of that state but himself. Except maybe his brother, but Taka was in no hurry to ask help from that man. He had a feeling that Kageyama Ritsu did not much care for him. Whether that was because he just didn’t like teenagers as a principal or because Taka had – purely by accident – thrown salt to his eyes the first time they’d met, he couldn’t tell. They left the office and Taka followed after Tome when she jogged down the stairs to the ground floor. She guided them towards a destination unknown, though Taka had an idea where she wanted them to get food from.

They passed an ice cream parlor that had just moved to the neighborhood. It was far fancier and shinier than anything else there and Taka slowed down his pace deliberately and offered Tome a pleading look.

“No way, kid. That place overcharges like crazy. No one is going to pay that much for ice cream,” she said loudly, as if the guy behind the counter was going to hear her through the door. “And no way am I going to be buying you that. Not today. Come on. We’re getting real food.”

And by real food, she meant MobDonalds’, apparently. She ordered nuggets for Taka, even though he hadn’t asked for them.

“So,” she said when she had a tray full of fries in front of her. She grabbed them by a fistful and Taka followed her example. She put way too much salt in her fries. “What’s this thing about?”

Taka kicked his feet under the table and sulked.

“I made Master Kageyama meet up with the secret admirer guy.”

“I kind of assumed,” Tome said and grabbed her cola. After a long drag, she breathed out. “A guy, huh?”

“Yeah,” Taka continued. “And it went bad. He was wearing this terrible suit and when Master Kageyama said that he didn’t recognize him – even though he clearly did – he got this really weird look on his face and left.”

“Okay. That’s weird,” Tome said.

“Right? And then Kageyama said that I shouldn’t have gotten involved and he’s been sulking about it whole week and I didn’t think it was going to be this bad, ‘cause I just wanted to help them out and stop –“

“Hey!” Tome said and lifted her hand. “It’s okay, kid. It’s fine. You did what you thought was right.” She played with the straw of her drink. “Sometimes getting involved in other people’s business gets complicated. And you know Mob can be a complicated guy, despite popular opinion.”

Taka sagged down. “Yeah.”

“So tell me about this guy,” Tome said. “What’s he like?”

“He said his name was… Hanazawa something. He was this blond guy. With this ridiculous suit thing that looked like it glitched when he – “

“Wait,” Tome said and lifted a hand to stop him. “Hanazawa. Not Hanazawa Teruki, right?”

“Uh.” He wasn’t sure.

“Hold on.” Tome dug out her phone and tapped on it for a moment, before turning it around to show him a picture of a guy.

The hair was different. It was. Massive. Tall. The clothes were different too, not as horrid, but not on the side of good taste either. The guy in the picture was offering the camera the smuggest smile Taka had ever seen on a person and it was a far-cry from the person he’d seen rubbing his neck and blushing at the park.

But it was, without a doubt, the same guy.

“That’s him,” he said with a sense of dread. “Who is that?”

“He’s a big fashion guy,” Tome said. “My wife loves his clothes line. For. Some reason. He does design tamer clothes too, by the way. But. He’s been kind of missing from the scene for a few years now.” She pulled at her lips, twisting them. “I’m not sure what to think about this. He seems like a prick.”

Looking at the picture, Taka had to agree. He searched the name on his phone and looked through some pictures. His insta hadn’t been updated in a while, but the pictures that were there, were… outrageous. He couldn’t think of another word for it. The guy seemed to be constantly spending time with the biggest celebrities, not showing any shyness around them.

And then he spent months sending expensive gifts to the office, too shy to approach Master Kageyama directly.

“Should they maybe meet again?” he said.

Tome sighed and leaned back on her chair. “I don’t know, kid,” she said. “You tried that already, didn’t you? Sometimes things just got to go their own pace.”

“But it’s taking so loooong…” Taka whined.

Tome laughed a little. “You know he takes things at his own time.”

“But that Hanazawa guy looked so heartbroken too. I don’t care what happened, can’t they just… like… talk about it?”

She hummed and shrugged. “I mean, I guess. These things are complicated.”

“Not that complicated,” Taka grumbled and leaned his head against his hand.

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, if you really want to keep messing with this to see if it’ll get better, I do know someone who could help. Someone, who owes Kageyama big time.”

Taka looked up at her with hope.

“Let’s give Mezato a call, huh kid?”

Tome had been on the phone forever. What had started with something that sounded like friendly bantering had turned into boring, boring, boring adult talk about work and taxes or whatever grown-ups talked about. Taka’s phone battery had nearly died by the time they were done. Tome had leaned down to write a number on a napkin.

She’d given him the work number of Hanazawa Teruki’s personal assistant.

“If it doesn’t work out,” she’d said, “you got to let it be. Mob’s got his reasons. One call and that’s it. Got it?”

And then she’d gotten up and returned back to the office, leaving Taka with a smoothie and a choice.

It wasn’t really a choice. He didn’t have to think about it. Someone needed to do something and apparently that someone was going to be Taka.

He dialed the number and walked out of MobDonalds’.

He was greeted with elevator music and a voice telling him to wait.

Great. He kicked his feet. This was just stupid. He was on an important mission and he was being thwarted by an answering machine. Everything depended on this, and they were giving him elevator music. He didn’t have the whole day to wait on his phone!

Besides, he couldn’t exactly play on his phone while he was on his phone. This was stupid. If they wouldn’t pick up within five minutes, he was ending the call.

By the end half of the first minute, Taka was suffering.

Then the phone clicked and a bright, sunny voice greeted him.

“You’ve reached Hanazawa Teruki’s personal assistant. Can I take a message?”

“Hi! Yeah, hey. I’d like to make an appointment,” he said.

The line was quiet for a moment.

“Who is this?” the lady on the other end asked, considerably less sunny. “How old are you? Where did you get this number?”

“Uh, I’m Reigen Arataka?” he said. “I’m calling… on behalf of Kageyama Shigeo, the world’s greatest psychic and – “

“Jesus,” the woman said. “I thought we had spam blocked. Okay. I’m hanging up now! Byeee!”

“No, no wait!” Taka shouted. “Wait! I need to talk to Hanazawa. It’s really important!”

“Sure, kid,” she said, with everything but faith in Taka’s words. “And I’m sure he’d really want to waste his time taking your prank call, but he hired me to – “

“Tell him it’s about Kageyama!” Taka shouted. It couldn’t be over this soon! “Ask him! Because… I don’t think you’d really want to be the person who turned down this chance for him.”

The lady groaned like she was in pure agony on the other side.

“Fine!” she said. “I’ll put you on hold. But if he tells me he doesn’t know who that is, your number’s going on the block list.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Taka said. “He’ll –”

The elevator music was back on.

It lasted for all of fifteen seconds before cutting off again. The voice coming through was strained and breathless.

“Kageyama?”

It must have been Hanazawa.

“No, this is Reigen Arataka, actually.”

“What?” he asked, strain turning into irritation. “Who is this? What the hell do you want?”

Now there was an attitude. Taka grimaced, then gathered himself full of as much condescension as a middle schooler on a mission could.

“Uh, I’m the guy who was at the park when you talked to Master Kageyama?” he said. “I happen to be his assistant, part time worker and student, just so you know.”

“What are you –? Oh. Oh! The kid. Oh. Sorry. That wasn’t –” The voice cut off for a moment and something got knocked over on the other end. Taka pulled the phone away from his ear while the man on the other side fumbled. “I’m not usually this short tempered, I swear,” he said. “I’ve just – It was just – You know, I’ve actually been having a bit of a bad time lately and – No. It doesn’t matter.” Taka heard more ruffling and when Hanazawa next spoke up, his voice was more composed. “So. What can I do for you, kid? Did, ah, did Kageyama ask you to call, perhaps?”

Here we go. Now they were getting to the important stuff.

“No, he didn’t,” Taka said.

“Oh.” All the world’s pitiful suffering could have fit into that simple syllable.

“He’s being stubborn, so I wanted to see if I could change his mind about this whole thing, because he needs to talk to someone about it and he’s being stupid. He’s not talking to Tome and Tome says it’s important to talk to people about emotions. So. You need to talk to him.”

The line was silent for a moment. Taka started to make his way back to the office. There were still a few hours left of the day to work and he wasn’t going miss any of it. He crossed the street while waiting for Hanazawa to say something. He was taking so long that he had to check that the call was still going.

Taka started to drum his fingers against the phone.

“I think,” the guy started slowly, then fell silent again. He cleared his throat and started again. “I think he made himself very clear on…” And then he was silent again.

Taka drew breath to speak, but before he could get a word out, Hanazawa let out the last wail of a dying whale.

“Oh, who am I kidding?” he cried. “I had my chance and I blew it! I’m going to live the rest of my life alone and loveless!”

Okay. Great. Taka closed his eyes and rubbed his face.

Grownups weren’t supposed to be this stupid.

“Come on, dude,” he said. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world.”

It really wasn’t. But Hanazawa very much sounded like it was, when his only response was a wordless whine.

Sure, Master Kageyama was great and all. The greatest psychic alive, Taka was pretty sure. But nothing was worth this much crying.

“I just want to talk with you,” Taka said. “This is stupid.”

Hanazawa grumbled something more, before sighing. “Fine,” he said. His voice was so full of suffering that it was hard to take him seriously. “Alright. You’ve convinced me, kid. Where should we meet, then? To talk about this?”

Taka started walking again, then slowed down his pace when the ice cream parlor came into view.

Hanazawa had money, right? Tome said he was famous or something.

“I know just the place.”

The ice cream shop was pretty empty this late in the day. Taka should have, in theory, been on his way home already too. His work day was over, the last clients had gone home and he should’ve taken the first bus home. He knew that he had a little leeway there, though. Sometimes clients took longer than expected. Taka would have time before his mom noticed anything amiss.

The guy behind the counter, tired and frazzled, shot a disparaging look his way when he entered fifteen minutes before closing time. Instead of going to the counter, Taka looked around the parlor.

Most of the tables were empty. There was one couple staring at each other lovingly in the corner, but other than them, only one table had a customer behind it. A pile of turquoise fur was leaning against a windowsill, staring out through the glass like the picture of a forlorn, jilted lover.

Taka needed a drink for this.

“One lemonade, please,” he told the guy behind the counter.

The guy looked like he’d seen hell and knew it had nothing on working a customer service job.

With his drink in hand, Taka sat on the other side of the table.

“Reigen Arataka,” he said, all business-like and offered his hand to him.

Hanazawa Teruki was slow to shift his attention away from the street outside. They couldn’t really see the office from here, but Taka was pretty sure he knew where Hanazawa had been staring at. He eyed the hand for a moment, then looked around as if he was expecting someone to jump out of the potted plastic plants. He was slow to reach over the table. He was wearing purple fingerless gloves and rings that looked like they could be bought from those machines at gas stops for 100 yen.

“Hanazawa Teruki,” he said and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

With the pleasantries out of the way, Taka nodded. He took a long sip from his drink, keeping steady eye contact with the increasingly uncomfortable looking guy on the other side.

“Did… did Kageyama…?” he started.

“He didn’t send me,” Taka said, putting the glass down. “I came here on my own accord.”

Hanazawa nodded. He didn’t look surprised, but he sure as hell looked disappointed.

“So,” he said a bit unsteadily. “Are you like… his kid or something?”

“How young do you think I am?” Taka asked. “No! I’m his assistant.”

“Mmh.” Hanazawa sank back into the miserable puddle he’d been before Taka arrived. His jacket looked like it was bleeding turquoise.

Taka kicked the legs of his chair, impatient. Hanazawa was staring through the window again, a lovelorn look on his face.

“I called you here for a reason,” Taka declared, important. “Master Kageyama’s been acting real weird after he met with you and he’s just being so stubborn about it and Tome is really worried. So I need to know what’s going on. Like, what’s the deal?” He started to gesture with his hands. “I mean, Master Kageyama’s usually pretty weird, but it’s always the good kind of weird, but now it’s the bad kind of weird and it’s different and Tome said I should wait and see it blow over, but it’s taking ages. So I thought that since it was kind of my fault things got weird, I should try to fix it.” He stopped and stared at Hanazawa through narrowed eyes. He might have said ‘weird’ too many times. No taking it back now. “So what happened?”

Hanazawa sighed deep and fluttered his eyes closed.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’ll spend the rest of my days all alone, unable to love or be loved by anyone. I’m through. My life is over.”

It took all of his mental strength to keep his eyes from rolling all the way back to his skull. Yeah. This was definitely the guy who’d been sending all those notes to the office. For sure.

“So you knew Master Kageyama from before?” he prodded.

“Yes,” Hanazawa said and he got a wistful look in his eyes. “Well. You could say we met due to destiny’s quirk.”

Yeah. Sure.

“I was… quite a handful when I was younger. So young, so full of myself. I thought I was at the top of the world.” His eyes sparkled when he spoke and he lifted his head to lean on his hand. “I used my powers to do all sorts of bad things. Selfish things.” He sighed and smiled. “And then I met Kageyama.”

“Uh-huh.” This sounded like more of the boring stuff. Taka took another sip of his drink. He was sure Hanazawa would get to the good part eventually.

“He was like no one I’d ever met,” Hanazawa said, dreamy. “And he saw right through me, like he could read my deepest, darkest secrets.”

Master Kageyama had that effect on people. Taka nodded.

“And he was so brutal with his words. No one had ever dared to speak like that to me! And hasn’t since. You can imagine? It was an eye-opening experience.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Of course,” Hanazawa said, joy draining from his voice. “I opened my eyes… a little too late. And he showed me the error of my ways. But he did… he did see me at my ugliest.” He was quiet for a while. “And I don’t just mean it because he shaved me bald.”

Taka nearly choked on his drink. He coughed and gagged, wiping at his mouth.

“What?” he wheezed.

“I didn’t realize just how valuable of a lesson he’d taught me until he’d left and I was all alone. But when the realization hit me, it was already too late.” Hanazawa sagged back down, leaning his head on his hand, miserable. “There will never be another like him,” he lamented. “I could never look at another person like I look at him. It’s impossible. I’ll have to move cities, countries even, but I could never love like I’ve loved him.”

Gag. Okay. This was stupid. Taka crossed his hands and tried to think about this.

The answer seemed pretty clear to him.

“Well,” he said. “Obviously you two need to talk about it.”

“No,” Hanazawa said outright. “Impossible. He would never want to hear what I have to say.”

“Master Kageyama isn’t really –”

“Besides, I don’t even deserve his forgiveness! I don’t deserve his attention. No one would ever hear my truest thoughts and feelings! They only want to see the public persona! But no one could truly understand my deepest, darkest thoughts. I could never speak them aloud to anyone.”

Well. He was here, pouring his heart out to a thirteen-year-old. So.

“My destiny has been set. I’ve paved my road to loneliness and I shall forever be trapped on it. Passing others by, never meeting them as true equals.”

This time he couldn’t stop it. He rolled his eyes so hard it hurt.

“That’s so stupid,” he said. “And not just the usual grown up stupid.”

Hanazawa was quiet for a beat. His mouth hanged open forgotten as he stared.

Then, slowly, a smile stretched on his face. It wasn’t really a happy one, but a smile anyway. He laughed a little and hid his eyes behind his hand.

“You really are his student, huh? So blunt. So ruthless.”

Taka looked at him suspiciously. While behind his hand, his mouth twisted and from behind the curtains of melodrama, Taka caught a glimpse of something more genuine. It made him feel kind of bad. He looked down at his nearly empty glass.

Hanazawa sniffed, then cleared his throat.

“So,” he said, a little hoarser than he’d been a moment ago. “So I should talk to him, huh?”

“Well, duh,” Taka said, not really looking at him. He’d rather see him as blotches of color right now. “What else?”

“Mmh.” Hanazawa wasn’t looking at him either. “I don’t think he wants to see me right now. He is right to dislike me.”

“I don’t know if it’s really about that.”

Master Kageyama was notoriously hard to irritate and he didn’t really hate anyone.

Taka had noticed, though, that if there was one person Kageyama had negative feelings about, it was Kageyama himself.

“What am I supposed to do, then?” Hanazawa said, back to being miserable. He had imprints from his rings on his cheek now. “He won’t want to meet me after work or anything. I can’t just go to him and ask if I could buy him a drink.”

Well. Here Taka thought he might be able to do something. He straightened his back and offered the most confident smile he could muster. He’d watched Tome make one enough times when talking to a customer. She said it was important to negotiate a price first before going in for the deal.

“I can help out,” he said. “But I think you need me more than I need you. So you’re going to have to sweeten the deal.”

Hanazawa lifted his head slowly. His eyes narrowed a little.

“You’re the one who called me, kid,” he said.

“Uh, don’t call me kid, maybe? When we’re negotiating the prices?”

Hanazawa frowned, then smiled a little.

“Okay,” he said. “Fine. What do you want?”

Taka’s look brightened and he pointed at the counter.

“I want the triple caramel dip,” he said. “With marshmallows and sprinkles.”

Next week, Taka could hardly contain his excitement at work. He was having trouble sitting down behind his desk and if he wasn’t drumming a rhythm against the table, he was kicking the chair.

Every time the door opened and a customer came in, he was up from his chair. Tome noticed, but didn’t say anything about it.

By the time Hanazawa was supposed to be coming over, Taka was nearly ready to vibrate out of his skin. It was the meeting of two bosses! The two opposite forces meeting right here! It was a thing to surely go down in history. The great psychic team up! Something, something, romance, whatever. And he was going to be right at the center of it, watching and influencing things from behind the scenes.

This time it was going to work! He was sure of it! The boss was in a comfortable, familiar environment now! It was going to be good!

And if it wasn’t. Well.

At least they could try to talk through it. Stop letting it fester.

A knock on the door had him throwing himself out of his chair.

“I’ll get it!” he shouted.

Tome muttered something to Kageyama, but Taka had no time to hear it out. He rushed to the door, nearly slipping on his feet in his hurry. He threw it open to reveal a flustered Hanazawa behind it.

He’d toned down his clothes a little this time. Not much, he was still dressed in brighter colors than most you’d meet, but at least it didn’t hurt to look at him anymore. Taka waved at him to come in.

“Oh look!” he yelled. “A walk-in customer!”

Tome was actively staring at the man fiddling his purple sleeves, when Taka shepherded him in. Her look was sharp, far sharper than anything she ever gave Taka.

Master Kageyama rose slowly from his chair.

“Uh,” Hanazawa said. “I, um, hope this isn’t inappropriate, considering our past, but… I was hoping you might be able to help me, ah, exorcise a ghost from the past?”

Master Kageyama said nothing. Just stared at the man in his office. And the longer he stared without saying anything, the more fidgety Hanazawa got.

For a moment they all stood frozen, waiting for a reaction that wasn’t coming.

Tome cleared her throat, making everyone else jump a little.

“Do you want me to take this one?” she asked.

Kageyama opened his mouth, then closed it. He thought about it for a moment, looking at her, then turning back to Hanazawa.

He looked like a drowning man watching an approaching boat.

“No,” Kageyama said. “I’ll handle it.”

“Okay. Got it. Well,” Tome said, leaning back and pointing a thumb at the clock. “Looks like it’s time for my lunch anyway. Come on, kiddo. We’re going eating.”

“What?” Taka asked, looking from Tome to Kageyama. “No! I’m not hungry.”

“Come on, Taka,” she said, softer. “Things got to go with their own weight. You gave them the push, let them find out themselves if it’s going to work out.” She put her hand on his shoulder, nodding at the door.

“But –”

It wasn’t fair! He gave one last look at his boss. Hanazawa had drawn a chair for himself and was sitting across from Kageyama. The air was still a little uncomfortable and he was going to tear the sleeve of his jacket if he kept at it, but at least now Master Kageyama was looking at him. He looked like he was willing to hear what Hanazawa had to say.

Something had softened behind his eyes.

Taka supposed there was nothing more either him or Tome could really do about it. He let himself be guided out of the office.

Soft murmurs of a conversation followed them to the hallway. Tome closed the door behind them and it was quiet again.

She sighed, then shook her head and offered Taka a small smile.

“You did good, kid,” she said, patting his shoulder.

She was right. He’d given them a push. They’d have to take things at their own pace from now on.

A mystery solved. At least it should mean the end of the extravagant gifts. No more jungles outside the office, no more dramatic messages of love and admiration. Things were going to go back to normal now, right?

Wrong.

There were flowers in the hallway again the next day.