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Miya had found an endless source of entertainment in the duo that was Joe and Cherry.
The first instance was just pure whimsy, pull a prank on Joe so he can’t flirt with any of the women at the beach. It was pathetic and cringe to watch him do it anyway. He really saved himself the second-hand embarrassment that day but also opened a whole new world of merriment.
If things were ever going too smoothly, things to quiet, or maybe Joe was just being himself, Miya took it upon himself to shake things up.
“Joe,” Miya called out to the older man and tugged on his jacket.
Joe turned to him; a look of apprehension etched on his face. Perfect.
While Joe had been preoccupied with keeping his groupies entertained, Miya had been in the midst of setting up the perfect show. All he had to do was simply introduce a new skater — Circuit, or whatever his name was — to Cherry. Their love for robotics took the reigns from there. While they talked, Miya slowly made his way over to Joe.
While Miya was also frustrated with Joe and Cherry’s whole will-they-won’t-they shtick, he never poked the beast so directly before as a sign of respect. But it was a Friday night, there was no time for respect. Only mayhem.
Miya pointed to Cherry and the other skater, who leant in towards Cherry to hear his every word. And maybe get cozy with him. Miya couldn’t tell but he knew Cherry would put a stop to it the minute the other got too comfortable with themselves.
“Some weird guy is talking to Cherry,” he said.
Joe looked over, squinting slightly to see Cherry off in the distance, hanging on to some guy’s every word.
Bait and hook. Time to reel him in.
“Heard something about meeting up to discuss things,” Miya said. “Sounded serious.” He glanced up at Joe, making sure to look right in his eyes and be as sincere as possible when he said, “Very serious.” He threw in a not-so-vague hand gesture to stir the pot.
“And?” Joe answered, clearly tense. “That’s his business.”
“Oh, sure.” But Miya then countered with, “But it sounds like they have a lot in common. He could be a threat to your position.”
“And which position would that be?”
A sure grin spreads across Miya’s face. “My papa, of course!”
Joe rolled his eyes, but at that moment, Circuit had placed a hand on Cherry’s arm. And. Cherry. Didn’t. Shake. Him. Off.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Miya said and skated off to get a good view of the following fallout.
*
“You actually had to intervene because of something Miya said. You know he likes to pick on you.”
“Shut up,” Kojiro said, opening the door to his apartment above Sia so they could wind down together after S. “That kid does something much worse than simply ‘pick on’ me. And why does he never go for you?”
Kaoru smirked. “You’re too easy.” He elbowed Kojiro in the ribs. “I could hear his laughter from his hiding place.”
Kojiro rubbed at the place where Kaoru dug his pointy limb. “Well, he could still target you from time to time.”
“You target me all the time,” Kaoru pointed out, making his way to the bedroom to change into pajamas. “I’m too nice. Miya sees that and helps me out.”
Kojiro follows closely behind, pulling out clothes from his dresser. “He freaks me out. Like he knows stuff he shouldn’t.”
Kaoru shrugged while removing his S outfit. “He’s pretty observant. Probably noticed how jealous you can get under the right circumstances.”
“I wasn’t jealous!” Kojiro countered indignantly. He threw a shirt for Kaoru at his head, feeling smug when it wrapped around his head perfectly. “You just have bad taste in men. If I let that conversation continue, you would have been kidnapped and trapped in a warehouse in less than two weeks.”
“Mmhmm, sure,” Kaoru teased. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Kojiro huffed. “You wish I was jealous. You want me so bad. All you do is talk about my muscles.” And give Kojiro false hope when they’re mentioned a few too many times in a day.
“Pretty sure I was just talking about how obsessed you are with me,” Kaoru shot back. He removed his hair tie and went about starting to braid it.
Kojiro watched the motion of it. Kaoru’s fingers weaving his hair together, captivated by his easy grace. “In your dreams, four eyes. The only thing obsessed with you is your little robot girlfriend, and you had to make her that way.”
“Carla isn’t a robot or my girlfriend. She is an AI with no feelings. She is incapable of being obsessed with me.”
Kojiro rolled his eyes. “Semantics. You programmed something to talk about yourself to.”
“Oh, please. I hardly need to build anything for that when you hang around me all the time. It’s impossible to shake you.”
“You’re in my apartment,” Kojiro stated. “You’re the one I can’t shake.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Kaoru said, stretching out his arm to flick the other on the bare chest. “Now get dressed and make me a snack before I decide to touch the stove myself.”
The chef wrinkled his nose. “Arson would not be a good look on you.”
Kaoru tossed his finished braid over his shoulder. “Everything looks good on me; you just have bad taste.” He eyed the atrocious collection of shirts in Kojiro’s opened closet.
Kojiro let out a low whistle on his way over to the kitchen. “Be careful, princess. Wouldn’t want to insult yourself, now, would you?”
Kaoru’s brows furrowed. “Implying what, exactly? You have bad taste in friends? Because you do. I’m the only good one.”
Rather than answer, Kojiro just stuck his tongue out and turned the corner. His heart skipped a beat, and a flush appeared on his face as what he said settled in his own mind. He needed to keep a better grip on what he said around the other. When they get into their routine, it was easy to get caught up in it, saying whatever first came to mind.
“At least I have more than one,” Kojiro responded. “I didn’t have to build a robot girlfriend either.”
“Carla is not a robot or a girlfriend!”
“You keep telling yourself that, pinkie.” Kojiro reached for a pan and set it on the stove, ready to prep their snack.
*
Miya made a mental note. Joe’s jealousy ran much deeper than Cherry’s. He figured Cherry was probably used to it, whereas Joe couldn’t stand the idea of someone else getting to Cherry while he was “working on it” (per his and Miya’s last conversation on the topic).
They both knew Cherry had to schmooze clients and play nice, often accepting offers for dinners, many housed under Joe’s own Sia la luce.
What Miya hadn’t encounter before, however, was Cherry meeting with another man around his age in a completely different restaurant. Miya had been skating by when he caught the two at a table outside. The other guy was getting… friendly. A little too friendly.
Miya trusted Cherry wouldn’t tear up the family, but he also couldn’t risk his mama falling for the charms of some random guy.
With a scrunched-up nose in disgust, Miya snapped a picture of the two and sent it to Joe.
The response was a nearly immediate.
Joe: Where?
Miya: Don’t you have a job?
Joe: WHERE
Miya dropped the coordinates (an address is too easy, make him work that latitude and longitude), and skated off before he could get caught.
*
The guy’s advances weren’t exactly wanted, but Kaoru liked the attention enough that he didn’t bother putting up much of a fight. He was able to stay neutral enough that being polite wasn’t too much of a strain.
“It was good meeting with you, Sakurayashiki-san,” the man placed a hand on Kaoru’s shoulder, getting his undivided attention. “I hope that we may be able to meet again sometime. Perhaps with different context.”
Kaoru opened his mouth to decline the offer when a large hand stretched out from behind Kaoru and pushed the man back from him.
“Sorry,” a voice Kaoru recognized as Kojiro’s said. “He’s busy right now.”
With that, Kojiro’s hand gripped Kaoru’s wrist and pulled him away, feet taking him away as quickly as he could without breaking into a jog. Kaoru stumbled a bit and smacked Kojiro with his fan.
“What is this about, stupid ape?” Kaoru kept smacking, trying to get Kojiro to loosen his grip so he could free himself. “Where are you taking me?”
Kojiro didn’t answer. His jaw was set and tense, his eyes glued to a spot on the horizon, turned away from Kaoru. The silence caused Kaoru to dig his heels into the ground, causing the larger man to stop in his tracks. He finally turned back to look at the calligrapher.
Kaoru was panting with the effort it had taken him to try to break free from Kojiro’s grip. “What is going on with you, Kojiro,” he asked seriously. “Could you not see I was with a client?”
Kojiro’s eyes drifted from him again. He mumbled something under his breath that kaoru couldn’t hear.
“Pardon?”
The other mumbled again. Slightly louder, but still not clear.
“Stop acting like a toddler, you imbecile! Speak properly!”
“He was making a move on you! I had to intervene!”
Kaoru squinted his eyes, his frown deepening. “Are people not allowed to ask me out? Or do you think I can’t turn them down myself?”
“Of course you can,” Kojiro amended quickly. He squirmed under Kaoru’s scrutiny, shuffling his feet and tapping his fingers along Kaoru’s wrist, which the latter hadn’t pulled away despite the grasp lightening. “But… ugh!” Kojiro dropped Kaoru’s wrist and held his face in his hands, hiding it from the other. He began pacing back and forth, as best as he could, at least, with how narrow the sidewalk was.
Kaoru’s eyebrows furrowed. “What has got you so agitated? I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I…” Kojiro began but couldn’t find the words. He dropped his hands and shoved them deep into his pants pockets. “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “I have something to say but you have to promise not to react to you. Promise you won’t say anything and promise you won’t avoid me afterwards.”
“Oh god, you got someone pregnant, didn’t you?”
“What? No—I haven’t even—that’s not the point,” Kojiro waved off. He hadn’t slept with anyone in months, and he was always safe. “It has nothing to do with other people, this is about me. And you.”
“Okay,” Kaoru dragged out the word, giving a hesitant go-ahead. He crossed his arms and leveled Kojiro with a stare, clearly nervous about whatever Kojiro was about to say. “What about you… and me?”
“I couldn’t have him making a move before I could,” Kojiro admitted.
At first, Kaoru’s only reaction was a quirk of an eyebrow, then his eyes widened. “Wait,” he responded, fingers go to pinch the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up. “What are you saying?”
“I’m working on confessing. I want to do it soon but I’m not ready. I can’t have someone snatch you up while I prepare.”
Kaoru’s heart skipped a beat. He cheeks went red with heat. “What the fuck are you talking about?” Kaoru looked Kojiro up and down. “Are you crazy? That’s not how this works. That’s not how anything works.”
“Well it is now,” Kojiro said. “There’s no rules to this!”
“You can’t just call dibs on someone with free will.”
“And you can execute that free will when the time comes.”
Kaoru sighed. “You’re useless. Stupid. Barbaric. You have nothing but wind between your ears.”
“But you’ll wait?” Kojiro asked, hopeful.
The other snorted. “Absolutely not. I’m not on your schedule and I see no reason to be.”
The light in Kojiro’s eyes shattered. His shoulders visibly slackened, drooping slightly.
“Don’t look so upset, you idiot.” Kaoru smacked Kojiro in the gut with his fan. “Confess properly and maybe I’ll reconsider.” He didn’t know where the confidence was coming from. Perhaps it was because he had seen Kojiro go through a lot. They’d lived a lot of years together, and he’d never seen the other this… “down bad” as the kids would say.
“I just told you,” Kojiro argued. “I have a plan. I’m not spoiling it right here on a sidewalk in the middle of the day. It will be perfect. Romantic. You won’t be able to say ‘no.’”
Kaoru smirked. “Oh yeah? And what’s your idea of romance, big guy? You already wine and dine me just about every day. Gonna throw rose petals at me? Light a candle?”
Kojiro’s nose wrinkled. “Well… not anymore. And what’s wrong with those things!”
Kaoru couldn’t help that laugh that burst out of him. This poor man. “It’s all so textbook, Kojiro. Get a little creative.”
“Then what’s your idea of romance? Building a robot child together?”
Kaoru flushed and launched another smack attack on Kojiro’s arm. “No! Shut up!”
Hands grabbed Kaoru’s wrists again to prevent more abuse. Kojiro’s eyes widened with mirth. “Oh my god. You actually do! You love that idea!”
“I said shut up!”
“You want to talk about our future little robot children. Carla’s future siblings.” He winked.
Kaoru tugged himself free and stomped on Kojiro’s foot.
“Ouch, princess! Hold your fire.”
“For your information, speaking of future children before the first date is just gauche! That’s not romance!”
Kojiro rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but you did like it, though.”
“Ugh! You’re insufferable.” Kaoru turned on his heels and began walking away.
“You’ll meet me later for dinner, right?” Kojiro shouted at Kaoru’s retreating figure.
Kaoru’s response was a middle finger.
Kojiro chuckled to himself. He’d come. He knew he would.