I AGREE WITH YOU. it's why i dont really talk about yzei as much, really, like——i find it pretty difficult to talk about them as an individual pairing because, like. they're missing someone. and that person is hibiki wataru. and maybe i might just be biased because i'm less familiar with them but i feel like yzei has kinda had the same sort of dynamic for a long time already and i think that it could eventually exhaust itself. and so a third party is absolutely needed otherwise they'll start causing problems, i think. just like you said.

i've defended yuzuru for picking on eichi in atlantis before because it is pretty funny and eichi has done nearly the exact same thing to him in the past, but by doing so he also kinda gave eichi another thing to be slightly wary about and that's revealed in, like, stella maris——the part where eichi catches himself going "in any case" or "anyways" in front of chiaki and then chiaki denounces yuzuru for making fun of him for it. because it's not a polite or respectful thing to do. yuzuru's name isn't said throughout the whole thing but it's. i mean. it's obviously about him. i did feel a little bit bad after hearing about that but, man.... i can't believe yuzuru was so bored and uninvolved that he started picking on eichi just because. he can't just do that (but he can. and he did).

fushimi yuzuru, of course, is no stranger to playing along with 'roleplaying' a hatefuck dynamic. sorry to briefly bring ibara into this considering her and yuzuru's relationship is unique and the circumstances to what led to them being the way that they are are extremely different from yuzuru's relationship with eichi but they're a pretty good example of a dynamic that yuzuru has with someone where both of them don't actually hate each other but just really fucking love to pretend to. and they could totally absolutely fuck each other about it.

eichi really knows how to get on yuzuru's nerves and he's never been afraid to push his buttons to really get him going, so. yuzuru could and should do something about that... by domming him. i imagine that eichi is also super enamored by yuzuru's bloodlust and would want to purposefully draw that kind of insanity out of him——but i'm not saying that eichi wants yuzuru to kill him, of course. i'm talking more in line with what you said about eichi wanting yuzuru to [hurt] him. and he might be able to get that to happen after a lot of really thorough conversation and then him constantly and unapologetically testing yuzuru's patience.

ANYWAY. yes. so that's eichi and yuzuru.

and then also you have wataru wanting to tear away yuzuru's mask and yuzuru being stubborn about pushing the concept of how nothing lies behind it, yet never actually allowing anyone to really take a look. and he's clearly bullshitting because why keep something secret if hypothetically there should be nothing that comes from revealing it? but yeah, i think that since wataru's trying to take yuzuru apart, yuzuru could take that as a challenge and then try to do the same with wataru in turn. and so it ignites this spirit of competitiveness and 'rivalry' between the two. and wataru feels really competitive with yuzuru sometimes and yuzuru is a competitive person who isn't against taking on a good challenge, so it checks out. basically just what you've said there. it's really good so i apologize for kinda just repeating it in my own words but gosh it's so nice to think about.

yuzuru and wataru are both actors and there's nothing about the roles that they play that they aren't looking to fulfill completely. so two perfectionists dancing around each other trying to basically fuck each other up is soo. urgh. wow. the scenario seriously has my head reeling since it's way too good. i love it when characters try to pick each other apart all the while being super attentive to themselves as to not allow for any faults because it gradually builds tension until it's so thick it's suffocating. so when that tension eventually [snaps], it's like. absolutely fucking Everything.