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1.
They never let Tome do anything fun. Just because she’s ‘not a psychic’ or ‘just a kid’ or ‘doesn’t work here’ or whatever. Tome sighs and lazily pages through one of Reigen’s books, her feet up on his desk. She’s burning some of Reigen’s incense, too—little rebellions for leaving her here for hours, all alone, to ‘hold down the fort.’
She’s already flipped through all of Reigen’s more interesting reading material, so she has no choice but to read about massage. She narrows her eyes at an illustration of the pressure points on people’s upper backs. Experimentally, she digs her fingers into the back of her neck, pressing along her vertebrae. Hmm. Yeah, maybe there is something to this after all.
The door to the office flies open suddenly and Tome scrambles to get her feet back on the floor. Reigen and Serizawa enter the office, too engrossed in their conversation to notice Tome’s suspicious behavior.
“I told you it’s fine, Serizawa.”
“But I feel bad; you should take it out of my paycheck.”
“No, I’m not going to do that. It’s not a big deal.” Reigen pauses, his coat half-way off, and sniffs the air. “Tome-chan, the incense is for clients, how many times do I have to…”
Tome mutters an apology and extinguishes it before leaving Reigen’s desk to sit at her own smaller, less comfortable desk. Her knees bump against the bottom of it as she wheels her chair in.
Serizawa, still fretting, continues, “I’m sorry, Reigen-san, I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Stop apologizing!” Reigen snaps. “I said it’s okay!”
“Sorry,” Serizawa says again. The irony hits him a second later, and he says, “Oh. I didn’t mean to…” He laughs a little, and Reigen laughs too.
The tension sapped, Reigen sits down at his desk. He frowns at a bit of dirt where Tome’s shoe had been and wipes it away with his sleeve. “Order us some take-out,” he says to Serizawa. “Then we’re even.”
Serizawa nods eagerly and takes out his cell phone. Tome rolls her desk chair over to Reigen as he pointedly ignores her, looking at his laptop screen instead. “What happened?” she asks, leaning over his desk.
“Nothing.” Reigen’s gaze is still fixed on his laptop. “Serizawa accidentally broke something belonging to the client, so we waived our exorcism fee. A good deal for us, actually, our fee is much lower than the value of that antique vase.”
Tome glances over at Serizawa, facing away as he talks on the phone. How come he gets to go on exorcism jobs and she doesn’t? Tome wouldn’t break anything valuable.
“Anything happen while we were gone?” Reigen asks absently. “Any visitors? Phone calls?”
“Nope. Just one telemarketer.”
“Good. Flip over our open sign, will you?”
Tome shoves herself off his desk to wheel over to the window. She flips the sign to ‘closed.’
2.
When Tome arrives after school, she’s surprised to find it’s dark in the office. Are they already out with a client? This hasn’t happened in weeks now that Reigen has begrudgingly accepted that Tome works at Spirits & Such and adjusted his schedule accordingly.
Tome tries the door anyway; it’s unlocked. She steps inside. Afternoon light streams in through the blinds at the window—and a light shines in from the slightly ajar bathroom door. She hears water running and the murmur of Reigen’s voice.
It’s only getting more confusing with each observation. Not wanting to catch anyone off guard, Tome hits the light switch and the bright fluorescents overhead flicker to life.
She hears Serizawa then, speaking in the same low murmur as Reigen. The water turns off. Reigen’s voice, projecting now: “Tome-chan, is that you?”
“Uh huh.” Tome slings her book bag onto her desk, a dull thump.
The door opens a little wider. Serizawa is sitting on one of the desk chairs, a towel over his shoulders. His hair is damp, shorter. Reigen’s sleeves are rolled up, tie tossed over his shoulder.
“Are you cutting his hair?” Tome asks, bewildered.
“Well, I was. We’re just finishing now.” Reigen removes the towel from Serizawa’s shoulders, folding it up to contain the dark trimmings of hair, keep them off his suit.
Serizawa ruffles his hair and stands up. “Thanks, Reigen-san.”
“Nice getting a fresh cut, huh?” Reigen gets a dustpan and starts to sweep up the floor while Serizawa rolls the chair back out to his desk and sits down. He opens his laptop and starts reading emails.
Tome regards him suspiciously. “Uh, Serizawa-san… Why does Reigen cut your hair?”
“Saves money.”
“You can get a haircut for, like, a thousand yen,” Tome points out. “There’s a place down the street from here.”
Serizawa takes a moment to type something out before responding, “I guess.”
“Why were the lights off?”
“Wanted to make it look like we were closed.”
“But you didn’t lock up?”
“We knew you were coming.” Serizawa lifts his gaze finally to meet Tome’s eyes. “Are you done with the interrogation now, Kurata-san?”
She narrows her eyes at him, but he stands up to her scrutiny much better than he used to. “That’s all for now.”
3.
Tome thinks maybe she’s developed the ability to sense auras. The tension in the office is palpable, almost suffocating. She pauses by the door to assess the scene: Reigen hovers in front of Serizawa’s desk and their hushed conversation ends when the door clicks shut behind Tome. Reigen mutters something under his breath and returns to his own desk.
Neither of them greet Tome or even look at her. She has a fleeting concern that she may have died and become a spirit—until Reigen says, “Serizawa, take Tome with you to visit the client.”
Serizawa blinks a few times. “Uh… you’re not coming?”
“No, I have work to do.” Reigen cracks his knuckles and starts typing at his laptop.
“Oh. Okay.” Serizawa slowly stands up and pulls on his coat.
Tome would be excited about finally going on an exorcism job, but now she’s more interested in figuring out what exactly is going on between these two.
“Come on, then,” Serizawa says to her, uncharacteristically stony. Tome follows him out of the office, relieved to escape the tense atmosphere.
“What’s the client?” she asks him as they walk toward the train station.
“It’s an exorcism.”
“Well, I figured.”
On the train ride across town, Serizawa’s phone keeps buzzing in his pocket. He pulls it out, reads the screen with a pained expression, and spends minutes typing out a response.
“Is everything alright?”
Serizawa clicks the lock button, the screen going dark. “Hm?”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Oh, uh.” Serizawa stalls for a bit, glancing out the window. “Reigen. He’s just giving some… pointers. For the exorcism.”
Tome quirks an eyebrow. “Really? You seem kinda… wigged out about something.”
Serizawa slouches down in his seat, his shoulders slumping as he takes on a willfully relaxed posture. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”
The client has a legitimate spirit problem; the ghost of her recently deceased cat has been shredding furniture and knocking things over. Serizawa is all business and they’re in and out of her house in under twenty minutes, including the time it takes to drink the tea they politely accept. It’s not as exciting as Tome hoped; she can’t see the spirit so all she sees is the burst of light from Serizawa’s palm when he exorcises it.
On the train ride home, Serizawa is silent, tense, absorbed in his phone, as he exchanges texts back and forth. Tome leans closer to him and he angles his phone screen away from her so she can’t see.
“Dude, seriously, what’s going on?” Tome says finally.
“Nothing.” Serizawa shifts farther away from her.
“Nothing? Really?” Tome snatches his cell phone and leaps out of her seat. She manages to read a text from Reigen—Can we just pretend I never said anything?—before the phone flies out of her hands and back into Serizawa’s.
“That is really… not nice,” Serizawa says, pocketing the phone. He glances around the train car nervously, but no one noticed him use his powers. “And it’s unprofessional.”
Tome, still standing in the aisle in front of him, throws up her hands and says, “I’m unprofessional? You two are the most unprofessional people I’ve ever met! What’s going on between you guys?”
“Nothing!” he insists, the volume of his voice ticking up a notch.
“Then why are you in such a bad mood? And what are you texting about? What did Reigen say? Did he—?”
“Tome! Please!” Serizawa snaps, loudly enough to startle her into silence. “This is not appropriate. It’s none of your business.” He turns to look out the window, signaling the end of the conversation.
After a moment, Tome settles down across the aisle from him, pouts a little. She’s accustomed to Reigen’s sharper words by now, lets them roll off her back, but Serizawa has never used a harsh tone with her before.
When they reach their stop, Serizawa finally looks over to her and says, “Listen, I’m sorry I yelled at you. But for the record, you do need to learn when to quit.”
Tome frowns, not sure if she’s willing to accept that. “But my persistence is my best character trait.”
Serizawa cracks a smile. “That’s true. Nevermind.”
4.
By now, Tome should be used to abrupt shifts in the atmosphere at Spirits & Such. It’s midweek when she walks into the office and Reigen is whistling idly at his desk while Serizawa makes tea in the kitchenette. She wonders if they changed the lightbulbs, because it seems noticeably brighter.
“Good afternoon, Tome-chan,” Reigen says cheerily.
“Um… hi.” She glances warily between Reigen and Serizawa, before deciding that maybe she can use their good mood to her advantage. “What’s on the docket for today, boss?”
“We have an exorcism request at a construction site across town. Workers have been getting mysteriously injured.”
“Cool!” she says before the ‘injury’ part fully sinks in. “Can I come with?”
Reigen leans back in his chair, considering—already a much better reaction that she usually gets. “I don’t know… It’s not a good business practice to leave our office closed in the middle of the workday.”
“No one ever drops in or calls,” she says bluntly. It’s not strictly true, but it’s more true than Reigen probably wants to acknowledge.
Reigen taps his chin. “I don’t know… Eh, Kats—” his eyes go wide “—Serizawa... What do you think?”
Serizawa reels around, tea in hand, looking equally panicked. “Um. I think Tome should come with us.”
Tome’s not sure she wants to unpack that little interaction, so she lets them off the hook. “Great! I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
On the train ride there, Tome sits in between Reigen and Serizawa on the bench. They don’t seem to have much to say, so she's happy to fill the silence, chattering away about an online forum she found the previous night: “It’s all people who have had close encounters with aliens, so I shared our story and everyone thought it was really interesting. Someone may have even met the same aliens we did!”
“Are you sure you should be talking to strangers online?” Reigen says.
Tome rolls her eyes. “Yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t give out any personal information,” he continues in his annoying lecturing tone. “They might act like your friends, but you don’t know what their intentions are.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s not… Nevermind. I was just trying to tell you a fun story and you ruined it.” Tome sinks back in her seat, pouting.
Reigen doesn’t seem very apologetic. He’s got his phone out now, tapping out a message and smiling down at the screen. Serizawa, on the other side of Tome, lifts up his phone when it buzzes, wearing an identical smile.
“Are you two texting each other?”
They both pocket their phones immediately. “No,” Reigen says.
“About me?” Tome asks indignantly.
“No, not about you, don’t be paranoid.” Reigen rolls his eyes.
“So you are texting? What can’t you say in front of me?”
“It’s boring adult stuff,” Serizawa says smoothly. “It’s about taxes.”
Reigen actually giggles. “Yeah. Taxes.”
Tome is not convinced in the slightest, but she’s not sure she wants to know anymore. Maybe she should have stayed at the office.
5.
“How was your weekend?” Tome asks, looking up from her homework. The question is a little out of the blue considering it’s late afternoon on a Tuesday.
Reigen glances up at her, clearly suspecting some ulterior motive. “Fine…”
“Do anything fun?”
“I, uh… Actually, yeah, I went to the new exhibit at the art museum.”
Tome smiles. It’s too easy. “Who with?”
“A friend,” Reigen says quickly, returning his gaze to his laptop screen.
Serizawa told her all about the museum exhibit on Monday; he also attended with an anonymous ‘friend.’ They really need to coordinate better. Tome is about to go in for the kill when Serizawa pokes his head in from the kitchenette. “Are we out of tea?”
Reigen answers from his desk: “Um. I don’t know.”
“We’re out of tea.”
“Then why did you ask?” Reigen mutters, a definite edge to his voice.
Tome closes her textbook so she can give this her full attention; this is about to get entertaining. It’s been a while since their last good petty argument and things were starting to get dull around here.
“You keep ordering your Keurig pods and forget to buy the tea that I ask for.”
“You can order it yourself,” Reigen says with a shrug. “Just borrow my credit card or submit your receipt or something.”
“Can you just order it next time you order coffee?”
“If I remember.”
“Well, can you remember?”
“I can’t control whether or not I remember something, Katsuya.”
“Yeah, you can, you just have to put in the effort.”
The entertainment value of their bickering is starting to wear thin, so Tome interrupts: “Oh my god, you guys. I’ll order the tea. Give me your credit card.”
To her surprise, Reigen pulls out his wallet. Tome orders the tea that Serizawa likes, and she throws some soda and snacks into the cart, too. There’s never anything good to eat here.
6.
“Can you read this?” Reigen thrusts the paper at Tome, giving up trying to squint at it in the dim lighting of the office store room.
She looks at the page of instructions. It’s not difficult to read in the slightest. “Yeah, it says that the pieces labeled A connect to the pieces labeled 1.”
“Well that doesn’t make any sense. Mixing the letters and numbers like that.”
“I think you need glasses, Reigen-san.”
He looks up at her, from where he sits surrounded by an assortment of screws and metal shelf pieces. “I do not.”
“Serizawa wears glasses sometimes,” she points out.
“Yeah, but he’s old,” he says, a smile breaking on his face.
“Aren’t you only two years younger than him?”
He looks at her, narrowing his eyes. “Shh. Hold this piece in place for me.”
She obliges the latter of his commands, holding one leg of the shelf steady while Reigen sets up the first horizontal beam. “Is Serizawa going to keep working here now that he’s done with school?”
“Um. Yeah. I think so.” Reigen sorts through the loose pieces on the ground until he finds the right one. “I offered him… Well. I asked him to be a co-owner of Spirits & Such… with me. After he graduates.”
“Did he say yes?”
“He’s thinking about it.” Reigen picks up the hammer, and says, “Watch your hands,” before he starts pounding the next piece of the shelf into place.
“If he says no, I’ll be the co-owner,” Tome raises her voice over the clanging of metal on metal.
Reigen laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He sits back on his heels, appraising the bones of the shelf, sturdy enough to stand on its own.
Tome glances at the time on her cell phone. “I have to head out now. I’ll see you on Monday.”
Reigen nods absently. “Yeah, have a good weekend.”
Tome collects her book bag from her desk. Serizawa glances up from his laptop as she walks past him. “Is he still in a bad mood?” he asks quietly, a bit conspiratorially.
Tome looks at him, surprised. “Reigen? He seemed fine.” She hears another outburst of hammering from the storage room; bad timing, but probably just a coincidence.
“He’s been grumpy all day. He’s kinda stressed out lately.”
Tome takes a step closer to his desk, intrigued. “Really? What about?”
Serizawa hesitates, seeming to realize a little too late that he shouldn’t gossip about Reigen—her boss and his… whatever they are, at this point.
Tome is happy enough to connect the dots. “Is it because he’s waiting to hear your answer? About whether you’re going to be co-owners with him?”
Serizawa snaps his head up in surprise. “Did he tell you about that?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it,” Tome says, leaning against his desk. “I think he really wants you to.”
He looks down at his desk, rubs at an old coffee ring. “Well, I know that,” he says, softly enough that Tome knows it’s not really to her. “Can I ask you something, Tome?”
“Of course,” she says, trying to keep her face as blank as possible so as to not scare him off.
“Is it…” His eyes dart to the slightly ajar door to the storage room, and he lowers his voice. “Does it seem… lazy to stay in this job? A job that Reigen gave me? Should I try to do something on my own?”
“Oh.” She folds her arms. “I guess I get what you’re saying. But you worked really hard and you earned it. If you want to stay here, then you should. Don’t worry about how it looks.”
He nods but he doesn’t look entirely convinced. “Thanks, Tome. Have a good weekend.”
7.
Tome didn’t think anything of it when Reigen and Serizawa invited her to dinner that night. They eat together often enough. It’s a nice restaurant, but she didn’t think anything of that either. The first thing that gives her pause is when Reigen mentions that Mob is going to meet them there. Is it someone’s birthday? She racks her brain, trying to remember their birthdays, but comes up empty.
Reigen and Serizawa sit on the same side of the booth, facing Tome and Mob. They look a little silly in their suits (the same brand) and coordinated ties, pink and blue. Reigen’s a little pale and sweaty, but that doesn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary.
Reigen begins, “You’re probably wondering why we brought you here.”
“For the food?” Mob suggests.
“No. Well, yes, but also. We have something to tell you. Both of you.”
“What is it?” Tome prompts, wishing that they had ordered dinner before starting this conversation.
“Um. Serizawa and I, are…” Reigen takes the other man’s hand on the table, intertwining their fingers. “We’re in a relationship. A romantic relationship.”
Tome laughs out loud. It’s involuntary, and she feels awful once she sees the pained expression on Reigen’s face as he lets go of Serizawa’s hand. She claps her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh, it’s just… Is this supposed to be… news?”
In the silence that follows, Mob adds, “Yeah, I kinda already knew, too.”
Reigen sputters wordlessly for a few moments, like he’s short-circuiting. Serizawa steps in: “How did you figure it out?”
Mob looks at the other esper, deadpan. “You know what your aura does every time you’re around him?”
Serizawa’s cheeks redden, and Reigen seems to regain lucidity. “Wait, what does his aura do?”
“It just…” Mob waves his hands around in a way that doesn’t help illustrate the point to the non-espers at the table. “I don’t know. Hard to explain.”
Reigen shakes his head. “Okay, well, let’s put a pin in that, but—Tome, how did you figure it out? Did Mob tell you?”
“You’re kidding, right?” From his expression, Tome realizes that he’s not, so she spells it out for him: “I’ve spent every weekday afternoon with you guys for almost a year. You two are so obvious, you don’t need to be a psychic to figure it out.”
Serizawa starts laughing, more heartily than his usual chuckle, enough that he folds in on himself a little. “I told you they knew already!” he manages to say, wiping his eyes.
Reigen looks dumbstruck. “Well it hasn’t been that long. It’s only been a little over a month that we’ve actually been…” Reigen trails off, distracted—Mob has his phone out. “Mob, what are you… who are you texting?”
“Ritsu and Hanazawa,” he says. “We had a bet going and I just won.”
“Are you—are you serious?” Reigen puts his head in his hands, elbows on the table.
Tome reaches over the table to pat Reigen’s arm. “It’s okay, Reigen-san. It’s about time you learned you’re not as good of a liar as you think you are.”
Reigen lifts his head to glare at her.
“Sorry, Shishou, but it’s true,” Mob says.
Reigen slumps back in his seat, pouting. “Okay, geez. I try and do a nice thing and have an honest conversation… Let’s just order some dinner, then.”