~Time skip: 1 week~

Yuma sat in Senri's room, watching him pace around. Senri had invited him over yet again to discuss the same exact thing. Probably. Yuma looked at Touji who shrugged.

"I don't get it. He said 'I love you', I heard him say it clearly. Yet he's avoiding me like the plague. Doesn't he want an answer?" Senri rambled, his mind still scrambled from that night. "I'm not into men. There's plenty of girls at this school to satisfy me. So why does this bother me? Because he always slips away when I try to speak?"

Yuma sat Senri down, afraid he'd make a hole in the floor from so much pacing.

"Why don't you wait in front of his room? Or have Ushiwaka let you in?" Yuma suggested.

Senri blinked, surprised he hadn't thought of it.

"What exactly do you plan to tell him?" Touji asked.

"Shibutani, I'm thankful to hear that you have feelings for me, but I'm straight. So, no. I can't accept your heart." said Senri with a firm nod.

"Take out the so no part and you're good to go." said Touji.

Yuma and Touji exchanged looks as Senri hurried out of the room.

"I never thought anti social Kasuka would fall in love, nonetheless with energetic Senri." said Touji, unbelieving.

"Do you think Senri will succeed?" Yuma asked.

"Doubt it." said Touji. "And what about you? Aren't you having a Maki problem?"

Yuma looked away. It was the one thing he didn't feel like discussing.

⋆‪♡⋆‪♡⋆

Senri sat on the couch, staring intently at the door. Minato looked up from his magazine, wondering if he expected something to happen.

"Senri, what are you here for?" he asked as he wasn't given much detail.

"Kasuka." he replied.

"Ah~ Kasuka won't be coming back for hours." said Minato. "Did you come to pick something up?"

Senri left his spot and hovered over Minato who continued to smile brightly.

"Where did he go?" Senri asked.

"Eh~ I think he went... to a park? He said something about studying children." said Minato with a shrug. "I think he might scare them away though."

"I'm guessing you don't know which park." said Senri. Minato nodded. "Figures."

⋆‪♡⋆‪♡⋆

Kasuka wrote in his small notepad then sighed heavily. He was making things worse for himself, avoiding Senri like he did something wrong. He couldn't act like things were okay because they weren't. He confessed. He already knew Senri's answer, but he didn't want to hear him say it. His eyes rested on a child playing with their parent. Did he have a happy childhood like that? He couldn't remember, not that it mattered.

Kasuka pulled out his hair pin then held it tight. He had started to develop a new magic in hopes of ridding himself of the troublesome feelings. After watching children for a while, he finally finished the spell. He wrote down a little notation of how to reverse it in case anything went wrong. Should he try it on something else? It probably wouldn't be effective unless it was human.

Senri arrived at the park just as Kasuka cast the spell secretly. Senri spotted him off to the side then hurried over.

"I finally found you! What are you doing out here, scaring the children?" Senri fussed, pulling on Kasuka's arm.

Kasuka looked at him with cold, lifeless eyes. It was a look Senri wasn't familiar with, causing shivers to go down his spine.

"Who are you?" Kasuka asked, pulling Senri off of him.

"Nito Senri... You know me." Senri said, wondering if he was joking.

Kasuka looked him up and down before looking away. Senri quietly sat beside him.

"I don't. I remember a lot of things, so I wouldn't forget a familiar face. Who are you? How do you know me?" Kasuka pressed, getting a bad feeling from whoever this person was.

"Shibutani, stop joking around. We know each other. We're both demi-gods... we go to the same school. You love learning about magic and its history, you don't have any close friends, but you consider us, the other demi-gods, your family." Senri explained, unbelieving he was taking it this far.

"I told you I don't forget things. If I don't know you, I don't know you." fussed Kasuka, leaving his spot on the bench.

"Wait-" Senri said, grabbing his wrist and causing his notepad to fall out of his hand. Senri picked it up and started to read through it. "Wow, there's so many..."

Kasuka pulled it out of his hands, now ticked off. Senri stood up as well and followed after him.

"I see you were focusing a lot on emotion magic. Have you succeeded?" Senri asked.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" Kasuka complained. "Was there something you wanted to ask? To tell me?"

"Oh, right. I was going to give you my answer from before. I can't accept your feelings. I don't like men that way." said Senri.

"What bullshit are you spewing? You must have the wrong person. I don't even know you! How can I have feelings for you?" Kasuka seethed, getting tired of this person's shenanigans.

Senri held Kasuka by his shoulders and shook him.

"Stop saying you don't know me! You do know me! Don't you remember the days I spent watching you hone your craft? Asking you questions about magic and how excited you got? How we somehow got along despite me thinking you wanted to end my life..." Senri said loudly, only to trail off at the end. "I really admire you, Shibutani!"

Kasuka blinked then frowned. He was clearly trying to give him false memories. How would he have forgotten such pleasing memories?

"Stop, now you're just making yourself look bad. You already said what you needed to, so why are you still hanging around?" Kasuka said, trying to spare him of embarrassment.

Senri took his notepad, hoping to find something that could restore memories. He kept a certain distance from Kasuka who tried getting it back. He turned to the last written page and saw a small notation towards the bottom.

"'If something goes wrong, use this reverse spell.' Did he use magic on himself...?" Senri mumbled, committing the spell to memory. "Shibutani, do you remember using magic on yourself a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah. Wait, no. Why am I telling you this?" Kasuka griped.

Senri took his hairpin and quickly repeated the words he memorized as he pressed the rounded end against Kasuka's forehead. Senri caught Kasuka in his arms as he stumbled.

"Senri? What are you doing out here? Ugh, my head hurts." Kasuka whined. He took note of his notepad and hairpin in Senri's hands. "So it failed."

"What did?" asked Senri, handing his things back.

Kasuka sighed and started to head back to the school. Senri walked beside him, hoping for an answer.

"I was trying to create an emotion removal spell. It's back to the drawing board." Kasuka muttered.

"Emotion removal? Why would you want that?" Senri pressed.

"Make our lives easier. You won't have to worry about giving me an answer and we can continue on like we have been. I'm sure it's just as annoying for you like it is for me." said Kasuka reading over his notes.

It was then Senri remembered Kasuka wouldn't have remembered him rejecting him. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it. He took Kasuka's notepad and ripped out the parts dealing with emotion removal.

"I don't want to be forgotten..." Senri said quietly, remembering how serious Kasuka looked when he denied knowing him various times. He didn't want to go through that again. "I don't want to lose my senior over something minimal... it was heartbreaking..."

"Senri..." Kasuka whispered. He had forgotten Senri at some point? He couldn't fathom it. "I'm sorry..."

Senri quietly walked beside Kasuka, secretly happy to have his senior back to himself.

⋆‪♡⋆‪♡⋆

Yuma hummed as he sketched and ate his fruity treats. It was a nice day to be outside. A familiar cat filled his vision. It's ruby red eyes bore into his. Yuma moved his things aside and the cat jumped onto the bench before transforming into Chizuru.

"Jin says we can stay." Chizuru reported.

"That makes me so glad." said Yuma with a smile.

Chizuru looked at Yuma who nibbles on the sweet. He plucked one from the container and ate as well.

"Maki... can I tell you something?" Yuma asked, finishing off his piece.

"Go ahead." Chizuru said.

"I don't know when or how, but over time, you've become someone special to me. Everything always feels different around you." said Yuma, meeting Chizuru's eyes. "It's a nice feeling I never want to let go of."

Chizuru scooted closer to Yuma then leaned in close. Yuma's cheeks unwillingly turned pink. Chizuru held Yuma's face then connected their lips. Yuma's eyes widened. He pulled away and stared at a flustered Yuma.

"I know what you mean." said Chizuru softly. "You're special to me too."

Yuma touched his lips then looked at Chizuru. He liked it. It was exhilarating, tender, intimate. It was one of the rare moments that he liked something new instantly.

"Again..." Yuma pleaded quietly.

"I'll do it as many times as you want." replied Chizuru before going in for another kiss.

Yuma closed his eyes as his arms moved on their own and wrapped themselves around Chizuru's neck. Bliss was the only word he could think of to describe the raging storm of emotions inside of him. He hoped it would never end.