Work Text:
The thing was, there was next to nothing whatsoever on this urban legend. And Adachi searched through the entire Google and even tried to look for some sort of information on foreign websites. Logically, it wasn’t difficult to figure out, how he could get rid of the magic. Just lose your virginity, right? Adachi grimaced at that. Sure, that was really possible in his situation. Yes, there was Kurosawa, but just the thought of using the man like this made Adachi’s stomach turn upside down. It was so confusing. Adachi ruffled his hair.
“A-d-a-c-h-i,” he heard behind him. Ah great, just as he needed. Urabe slid on his chair to the empty spot next to him.
The younger man managed to force himself not to sigh out loud and just turned his head in resignation.
'I don’t want to dump this on him, but my wife will surely complain. I promised her a date in a nice restaurant and then candles and then after that-'
Adachi really did not want to hear the rest. He quickly separated their touching feet and leaned away from his colleague. Adachi looked at Urabe’s face. The older man’s eyes were wide open as he held his head in his palms. He let out a quiet whine. So it will be that kind of work day. Maybe, it could distract him from his other problems, though.
And that’s how Adachi got something to occupy himself for the majority of the night. This time, he was in the office alone, or he hoped so. Kurosawa was helpful, he needed files, and he also took special care when it came to his job. (And it was pretty nice to work with him) But, the thing was, that since THAT MORNING, Adachi was kind of drowning in new emotions, thoughts, and….. He didn’t want to use Kurosawa. The other man was fun to talk to and was kind. And if Adachi didn’t think of the images, fantasies, and sometimes slightly inappropriate thoughts, there was no doubt, Adachi actually liked to spend-
“Argh, I really need to start concentrating on the things I should be doing.”
Since Adachi turned thirty, Urabe’s apparently 'nagging' wife (Adachi just thought, she cared for her husband and was concerned about him….) was making appearances in his senior’s mind more and more. Every time he accidentally touched the older man, he always heard thoughts regarding Urabe’s wife and work. Well, maybe he was always thinking of his wife, but Adachi wouldn’t know that, not before his birthday anyway.
Nope, that definitely wasn’t it.
Every single time Adachi glanced at Urabe at work, he looked like he would dump more work on him, but then the older man shook his head and continued to type information into an excel file. Well, it wasn’t Adachi’s place to worry about that. He already had too much on his plate, especially after the rooftop meet-up with Kurosawa the week before.
'It’s pretty difficult to avoid him. Why do I suddenly see Kurosawa literally everywhere?'
So, there he was, hiding and avoiding the other man.
That didn’t bother him at all.
'Has he really found himself, someone, to have a crush on? That fast? I mean, I don’t blame him. It’s pretty horrible when-'
Adachi almost jumped from his chair. Why was his senior next to him and not at his usual spot? This time Adachi had things to do! Like get out of the office early and avoid Kurosawa another day! (Even though it definitely was not healthy, and the guilt was pretty much eating him from the inside and the new kind of anxiety was definitely not good for his health.)
“I’ll leave first,” he muttered, picked up his things, and quickly left the room, without even glancing at the older man behind him. He had other things to worry about. It was all piling up! Work, the magic, Kurosawa, Urabe’s work, Kurosawa, Tsuge panicking over something sending Adachi incoherent texts, Kuro- Alright, that’s enough. He shouldn’t think about it this way, right?
The magic thing was getting out of hand.
Did Adachi really seem different? Urabe even mentioned, well thought, he now has a crush on someone. Could the older man know about-?
Now even his thought process was getting out of hand!
Adachi quickly headed home and flopped himself onto his bed.
Rokkaku started smiling at him. That wasn’t actually weird, no. Rokkaku smiled at everyone. He was constantly smiling, grinning, and jumping from excitement. The thing was, that the younger one was giving Adachi these “knowing” looks. The thing was, that these “knowing” looks were basically only for Rokkaku because Adachi did not know what these were all about.
Although Adachi had the power to find out what was going on, he wanted to avoid another shoulder “massage” from the younger one. But maybe, he could find out what was going on. Maybe he even should. But that would be an intervention into Rokkaku’s personal space and thoughts and that was totally out of question. Even though no one knew about his not-so-newly acquired powers, it still didn’t feel exactly right to use them on the people around him.
So, Adachi made the decision to stop overthinking it and got back to his work. Not overthinking things might do some good for him, for once.
'Has he already solved his problem with that thing? Is he already-? He really sped run it! It took me way longer than him!'
Adachi took a step to the side. Using the printer and standing next to his senior with really loud thoughts was not exactly something pleasant.
Adachi wanted to go home. He wanted to take a long hot shower, eat something from the nearby convenience store and then go to bed and not get up.
And there it was again. Well, for the past few weeks Adachi has been ignoring this probl- It wasn’t exactly a problem. His colleague was entitled to whatever thoughts he had, but really, Adachi did not want to hear about Urabe’s wife, or his work and sometimes he even speculated who the lucky girl in the younger man’s life was.
'He’s smiling again. Should I congratulate him for getting himself a girlfriend? Maybe-'
Yep, Adachi even now did not need to know the rest of his colleague’s thought process. He retreated his finger from the printer’s panel and his and Urabe’s jacket’s stopped touching, then he walked out of this part of the office heading toward his seat. Sometimes Adachi would even overhear a piece of information about himself, that he did not know. And in the case of his ‘mysterious girlfriend’, he felt like he might find out something he would not want to know.
Was it really that obvious? Maybe Adachi did really change. He was still sometimes an anxious mess, but nowadays it was easier to navigate through. The progress was slow, but there was no doubt he felt slightly better about himself than before. He even got better at ignoring other people’s thought
“Everything alright?”
Adachi turned around. Kurosawa flashed him a smile.
“Huh? Oh...yeah,” remembered himself Adachi as he slowly leaned into the direction of his seat.
And there it was again. The warmth. Adachi smiled at that. And just like that, the thoughts regarding the case of his senior’s thoughts about his presumable girlfriend were gone.
“So this weekend...we..will it still work out for you?” asked Adachi. He tried to be as direct as much as he could in the office, but still mustering up his courage could be still difficult from time to time. He was trying, he really was.
“Sure!”
“I should probably tell him… Well, it’s no longer a problem, so…” Urabe has been muttering something for himself for the past thirty minutes or so. Adachi wanted to ask if everything was alright, but they were not exactly close. He would intrude. And in a few minutes, he would close the tabs on his computer, check out, wait for Kurosawa and then head back home together.
It was one of the few evenings they did not have to work till late hours, and Adachi has been looking forward to playing some games before going to bed. He hoped he wouldn’t fall asleep on the controller, again. And then tomorrow was their day off, so they had agreed on going to a newly opened cafe.
“Well, I’ll leave first,” said Adachi as he shut off his computer. He put his coat on and grabbed his backpack.
“Adachiiiii.”
'No, sorry, not this time. I have plans.'
Adachi pretended not to hear his colleague as he lowered his head and started heading toward the door.
“I hope the mind-reading thing didn’t mess with you that much.”
Adachi did not stop in his tracks. He rushed towards the elevator. Today, he definitely did not want to spend more time in the office than he had to. He had a boyfriend to catch up to. Adachi quickly rushed out of the elevator as he spotted Kurosawa heading in his direction.
And then it hit him.
Urabe muttered something about mind-reading powers, about Adachi’s mind-reading powers.
“Eh?”
Did his senior know about his situation?! Wait! Wasn’t he the one, who mentioned the urban legend to Adachi in the first place? Was he also a-
“Everything alright? Adachi?” asked Kurosawa.
What was he supposed to answer to that? Nothing really happened, it was just that- Adachi walked the rest of the steps falling into the other’s personal space. What was he supposed to answer? 'My senior colleague was probably a virgin on his 30th birthday too. He actually was the one who told me about the urban legend, and now he basically announced to me, when the magic is no longer a problem.' Kurosawa would definitely understand, but also this didn't even sound good in his head.
“I- I just realized something? He also? Nevermind. I’ll collect my thoughts and then I’ll-” Then he looked up. “It’s fine though. Nothing’s really wrong. I just put two and two together,” tried Adachi to reassure his boyfriend. He didn’t want to worry Kurosawa. Nothing was really wrong. And he was looking forward to gaming, and tomorrow the cafe.
“Alright, do we head home, or?”
“Oh, sure. I think it’s fine now. I’ll tell you about it later,” promised him Adachi as they slowly walked toward the train station.
Much later that day
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know, if I just imagined it, or if I really heard it…” thought out loud the other. “But sometimes his thoughts were implying it.” ‘Sometimes’ was an understatement. Most of the thoughts Adachi unwillingly heard, were about Urabe’s wife, work, and then Adachi’s mysterious girlfriend and if he had found a solution to his 'problem'. Then he realized what Adachi himself implied by that. “Not that I would intentionally read his mind,” he quickly clarified.
“Don’t worry, I understand.”
“Sorry, it’s probably pretty difficult to reply to that. What character do you want to play as now?”