#GOD KNOWS tsunoda tried and served

[cheaperimint]

nothing but respect for my silly guys 🫡

[aggressivehasana]

Starry Night

Fandom: Aggretsuko/Aggressive Retsuko

Characters: Haida, Retsuko, Fenneko, Ookami, Tsunoda, Ton, Resasuke

Relationship: Haida/Ookami

Summary: AU where Retsuko didn’t break up with Resasuke and Haida is dealing with that.

Warnings: None

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CHAPTER 08

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Words: 1,807

Betaed by: @pomp-adourable

A/N: –

He was staring up at the ceiling, tinted a dark shade of blue due to the faint streetlight filtering through the darkness of his room. He had been home for a while now; hell, he had been in bed for a few hours, but he just didn’t seem to be able to fall asleep. Not with everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. There was so much to think about… But at least, for now, the grief was gone, replaced with the fact that he couldn’t get Ookami out of his head; his mind going over the conversation he’d just had with him, again and again, repeating what the maned wolf had said…

“We live in quite a starry night.”

It was true. He had to admit, to remind himself, that Retsuko was not the only star in his life, even if she was the brightest. He knew about “other stars” now. Maybe he could try to focus his attention on them. To distract himself.

He sighed deeply and rolled onto his side, probably for the sixth time that night. His eyes jumped to his digital clock, which marked eleven past one, and he growled softly. It was late. He needed to be up by seven. Closing his eyes, he snuggled against the pillow and decided to leave the thinking for some other time, but it wasn’t until almost three am that he finally fell asleep.

***

A glimpse from the skunk girl from Marketing. A whispered compliment from the sheep girl from Marketing. A shy smile from the hedgehog girl from Customer Service. He caught them all. He was actually surprised he never noticed those gestures, for now that he was well aware of the ladies’ interest in him, he could see they were pretty obvious.

He had to admit, it was sweet, and they sure served as a distraction during Retsuko and the Sales Guy’s 7th and 8th months together, but… He wasn’t sure if he was ready to take the next step. To start talking to them and getting to know them better. He’d catch himself still staring and smiling at Retsuko while hearing her talk, hurrying to open the door for her, buying her drinks at the vending machine… He was still thinking about her. There was no way he could focus on someone else while she remained in his mind.

“Hey, Fenneko…” he said after a brief moment of silence, one day when it was just him and the little fennec fox in the Dining Area. The calendar was marking the 18th of October, and Retsuko and the Sales Guy’s 9th month was fast approaching.

“Hm?” she replied, her eyes still fixed on her phone as her index finger danced up and down the screen.

“What do you know about Hana, from Marketing?”

“So you finally noticed? Or did someone tell you?”

At Haida’s silence, Fenneko raised her eyes, and his astonished, flushed expression made her smirk.

“I don’t know much about her, except for what you already know. And that she’s an Otaku and an artist. I believe she has an account on Pixiv where she posts her stuff,” she explained, lowering her eyes back to her phone as she kept scrolling.

Haida remained in silence for a moment, setting his gaze on the cup of coffee in his hands. An Otaku, huh? He squinted a little bit. He knew about the subculture of Otakus, and even though he enjoyed some anime shows from time to time, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep up with a girl who was obsessed with that kind of stuff. He had other interests.

“And what about-?” He started asking, raising his eyes to the fennec fox again.

“Misumi from Marketing?” Fenneko interrupted. “She’s Hana’s best friend. Seems to be into the same kind of stuff as she is. They’re quite close, actually, many of us suspect they’re in a relationship.”

Haida’s partially opened mouth closed, and he stared at his best friend for a few seconds, waiting for her to clear up that she was joking or something, but she never did. His eye twitched. In a relationship? The two girls, really? Then why would they be interested in him? Were they really interested in him? But he caught the skunk girl staring… And he overheard the sheep girl complimenting him… Then why?

“But that’s just a rumor, right? Nothing confirmed, right?” he asked with a chuckle and a forced little smile.

“Probably,” was all Fenneko said.

It didn’t help shake the weird feeling off him, so he shook his head, deciding to focus instead on his third option.

“Ok, what about Nezumi from Customer Service?”

“I don’t know her,” Fenneko replied, and it made Haida want to slam his forehead against the table in defeat, but before he could do anything, she finally raised her eyes to him, offering him her characteristic little smile. “Would you be interested in hearing about the guys who have a crush on you?”

Warmth immediately crawled up his neck, lighting up his cheeks in a bright blush.

“Not really,” he assured her, taking a hand to discreetly pull at the collar of his shirt.

“Do you know Nyanko?” She asked, nonetheless.

“Nyanko?” His eyes drifted to the ceiling as he made an effort to relate that name to a face, resulting in the picture of a young, orange cat with round, blue glasses. “Oh, from Technical Support? Yeah, I know him… Wait, really?” He lowered his gaze to the fennec fox and she let out a giggle.

“You seem surprised.”

“Well, I am! I’ve only exchanged words with him a couple of times,” he said as he swung his cup, trying to seem busy assessing how much coffee he had left, to avoid fully minding the conversation, but Fenneko could see his blush increasing, covering the bridge of his nose.

“Is he not your type?” She asked resting her cheek on her hand. Now she was just teasing, Haida knew that much.

“No, he is not my type…” he growled while setting the cup back down on the table. “…Because I’m not-“

His voice was cut off by a quiet gasp coming from the fennec fox. In a blink, her expression had morphed completely; she didn’t seem playful anymore, she looked mortified, as if she was facing a ghost. And not only that, but he noticed her attention wasn’t on him anymore; it was on something over his shoulder.

“What?” He asked, and he was about to turn when his little best friend interjected.

“Don’t look.”

He remained frozen in his place, staring at the fennec fox as he slowly began to realize what was probably happening, and before he could do anything about it, he heard Retsuko’s voice behind his ear.

“Hey, guys!” she said with that particular tone if glee in her voice that she’d had for the past few months. “Can we have lunch with you?”

He knew it.

God, he wished he’d had more time to prepare himself. He knew this day would come eventually; hell, they all worked in the same place! But a little warning would’ve been nice. A little “Hey guys, is it ok if we have lunch with my boyfriend?” a few hours earlier would’ve been nice. When Retsuko disappeared from the Accounting Department, he assumed she’d just go look for him, have lunch with him in his department, as she had been doing all these months. Not…bring him along…

“Um, sure.” Fenneko was the one to respond. They both knew Retsuko didn’t deserve cold treatment over this; they needed to be welcoming. Supportive.

Because she was happy.

“Thank you! Oh, Haida!” Retsuko’s voice called him, and his heart skipped a beat. “Let me introduce you to my boyfriend!”

There it was. The line he had hoped for months he’d never have to hear.

He closed his eyes for a breath, collecting himself as best as he could before finally turning around.

Retsuko was standing next to a male red panda who was slightly taller than her, holding his arm with one hand, while the other held two bento boxes in a napkin, stacked one on top of the other.

“This is Resasuke!” she continued, looking at her partner while saying his name, before returning her eyes to him. “Resasuke, this is Haida. He’s also a friend from the Accounting Department, along with Fenneko! You remember Fenneko, right?”

The male red panda didn’t reply, he just turned to look at the small fennec fox with a pair of black, almost lifeless eyes, and she greeted him with a soft “Hey.” He nodded in response, and then moved his eyes back to him.

He had to say it. Retsuko had just introduced them, now he was supposed to smile, to stretch out a hand and say “Nice to meet you!”… But he was paralyzed.

For months he had tried to imagine what Retsuko’s boyfriend would look like, and even though people had told him that the boy wasn’t bright, he really wasn’t expecting…this. This mannequin-looking guy with a dull expression and emotionless eyes. Did he… Did he really lose Retsuko to this guy?

“Senpai!”

In what threatened to grow into a storm of mixed emotions of pain, frustration and despair, a voice crashed in. A voice that his brain delayed a moment to recognize, but just as he was associating it with his owner, he felt a couple of hands clasp onto his shoulders tightly, pulling him back a bit to make him turn.

“Here you are! Thank Goodness, I’ve been looking for you all over!”

Facing the other way, Haida’s face met with the young maned wolf’s, who was offering him a cheerful smile.

“Ookami,” Haida babbled.

“You’ve gotta help me with the thing! Remember?”

“The thing?” the hyena asked clueless, and the maned wolf gazed into his eyes intensely.

“Yes, the thing! I asked you to help me with it this morning. Please, Senpai, I won’t be able to get it done without your help!”

Haida noticed Ookami’s eyes drifting slightly to the doorway, and after a couple of seconds, he caught on.

“Oh! Right!” he exclaimed, and the maned wolf smiled victoriously. “Right, sorry, I almost forgot. Let’s go.”

Taking his cup in one hand, he stood from the chair and turned to Retsuko and her boyfriend, but hardly spared them a glance.

“Um, sorry Retsuko, I gotta go. We’ll talk some other time!” he said as he started to walk away, but only stopped to raise a farewell hand at the male red panda. “Nice to meet you, Resasuke.”

He couldn’t stay to wait for a response, even if he’d wanted to, for he immediately felt Ookami taking his hand and pulling him away from the scene, out of the Dining Area.