Chapter Text
It was probably a bad idea to actually bring the entire Go-Home Club to the arcade as a "team-building" exercise. It was also probably a bad idea to agree to using the photo booth with the President.
It's not that Akira had any malicious intent — at least none that Gin could outright tell, and he often had a good sense of intuition on these things — but rather, photo booths probably weren't meant to fit two average-sized masculine-presenting adults who were masquerading as teenagers at the same time. Maybe. Gin hadn't touched one of these things with a ten meter pole since coming to Redo, so it'd been a while.
"Hey," Akira said, nudging Gin in the shoulder. "You're thinking really loudly again."
"N—nothing's the matter," Gin swallowed.
A self-satisfied smirk adorned his partner's face. "That was more of a statement, but thanks for answering honestly."
"I'm fine! It's only a photo booth… I swear that Ryuto has only been enabling you since he joined."
"Mhmm."
Gin couldn't tell if it was cramped in here or if he had suddenly developed some acute form of claustrophobia. He was keenly aware that his leg kept pressing up against Akira's and that his hands were starting to get clammy. There was also the faint scent of cologne tickling his nose, some combination of sandalwood and lavender that both soothed and agitated Gin's nerves at the same time. It certainly didn't help when Akira's arm brushed against his as the other pressed the buttons to set up the session.
The President cast him a sideways glance. "It's starting."
"I know that. Sheesh, you're making me nervous..."
How the hell did boys pose for this sort of thing again? Akira casually slung an arm over Gin's shoulder and threw a V for Victory sign with his hand, and unsure of what else to do, Gin dumbly mirrored the gesture. He wished that his heart would stop hammering so loudly in his chest. So what if they had exited the school festival's haunted house hand-in-hand? Never mind the fact that they had both accidentally confessed to the possibility of being into one another, just on the principle of gender and sexuality being a complicated mess. Besides, those intense, longing gazes into each others' eyes during class were just a byproduct of boredom. This was just dudes being bros, bros being pals, pals being a little too close to each other—
"You're still thinking too loudly," Akira noted, almost amused.
Gin hissed between a forced grin. "I'm fine."
Mentally, it was easier to pretend that this was just another fight against some Digiheads. The Catharsis Effect made him feel cool after all. In the heat of battle, Gin could read Akira's movements like an open book and predict which move to take next, which bolt to load into his crossbow, which enemy to kick into the air for his partner to skewer like a very deadly trapeze artist dual wielding a pair of equally deadly knives.
Compared to that, this was what… Cirque du Gender?
Gin let out a sharp laugh. This was only a photo booth. He was overthinking this whole thing. Imagine having a masculinity so fragile that it couldn't handle a photo booth.
The tension fell out of Gin's shoulders, which caused his partner to hum in approval. He couldn't remember why he was acting so serious about this whole ordeal. It was just a photo booth.
"Hah, I forgot how fun these things actually were," Gin sighed with relief, turning his head towards the other boy.
Akira chuckled but said nothing else, just leaned in closer until—
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
A pair of hands pushed Gin back against the interior of the machine, startling him as he bumped his head and swore loudly. By the time Gin realized what happened, his partner was already gone, leaving him in a daze.
"That was Miss χ wasn't it?"
"Did Digiheads appear here too?!"
"Sasaki! Where are you going?"
Fuck.
The Go-Home Club ended their arcade excursion much earlier than the majority of them would have liked, though Gin could have sworn he saw Ryuto breathe a sigh of relief. They decided to split up after χ's outburst to search for the now missing President as neither he nor χ would respond on WIRE.
"Akira!" Gin called out. "χ? Where are you?" When only the echo of his own voice and footsteps answered, Gin sped up. "Please don't tell me I went too far—"
"χ, shut up, shut up right now! Leave me alone!"
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING BACK THERE?"
There was no mistaking that scream for anyone's but his partner's. Gin turned the corner with a sharp skid and nearly jumped down the entire flight of stairs. His face paled when he saw his partner laying on the floor, flat on his back.
"Akira!" Gin knelt down next to the boy on the ground. "Are you okay?"
"You do not have permission to hijack my body like that ever again," Akira hissed, and it took Gin a split second to realize that his partner wasn't replying to him.
"I PANICKED!" χ jabbed her finger violently into the air, her entire face flushed. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING?"
"I'm trying to—!" the President huffed, clearly exasperated at this point. Eventually his shoulders dropped in defeat. "Gin."
"Y—yes?"
"Stop playing this stupid game of gay chicken and just go out with me already."