It happened so suddenly. Completely out of the blue and therefore Kurobane didn't know how to react at all.

"Bane-san, I have a problem," Davide had said to him just a while ago. "Will you help me?"

"A problem? What kind of a problem is it?" Kurobane had said rather nonchalantly knowing Davide's problems weren't that mediocre and thus he couldn't have ever expected the reply he got.

"Bane-san..." Davide had hesitated. "I know for sure that I've fallen in love with a guy."

At that point Kurobane had been shocked enough but there was yet more to come.

"And I really want to get laid with him..." Davide had added with a quieter voice.

Within Kurobane's head the word "WHAT" had echoed loudly and he would have wanted to shout it out loud, but that would have been too rude. Especially when the look on Davide's face had been so very serious and his eyes had showed that this time he wasn't kidding.

Right now Kurobane would have wanted to ask about a hundred different questions but he did his best and refrained from asking any one of them.

"So you understand it's a problem," Davide said when Kurobane hadn't said anything to him.

"Well... Yes," Kurobane said eventually and gradually began to wonder if Davide had meant him. No matter how close they were to each other, Davide was more like a little brother to him than... Something like a lover. Now that would certainly be a problem. Or at least become one sooner or later.

"Bane-san, what should I do? My feelings..." Davide put his right hand on his chest, somewhere near where his heart was. "They're for real."

Because for once Davide wasn't telling his stupid puns, Kurobane obviously couldn't kick him this time even though he truly felt like doing it anyway.

"Let me think," Kurobane said since it was what he really needed to do.

First of all he didn't want to ask who it was, that was Davide's own business. Of course Davide had been a close friend of his ever since they were little, but when he was saying such things with such a look on his face, it certainly was frightening. They hadn't even talked about love and sex before, at least not like this. Because right now, furthermore, Davide was seriously claiming that he was gay. Not that Kurobane had anything against it. But even so he had to admit it to himself that it was quite an awkward thing from his point of view.

What if it really had been him that Davide had loved for all the years that they had spent together, but he just hadn't dared to say or do anything about it? After all they had told each other a plenty of times that they liked each other, and at the end of the day Kurobane would have done anything to make Davide happy. But what if Davide was his boyfriend and they would start going on dates, holding hands, kissing, and go all the way to sleeping together...? And even then the redhead would be coming up with puns all the time and Kurobane would kick him in the head over and over again.

Could such a thing happen, really? At least there was no way that Davide could have appreciated all those times that Kurobane had kicked him. It was truly hard to tell, and what Davide had already said was definitely enough information for one time. Now it would be best just stick to the truth, no matter how things would turn out in the end.

"Davide, if your heart desires that guy with all its might, then it might be reasonable to tell him about it," Kurobane started as sincerely as he could. "But there's one thing you ought to know."

"Bane-san, you're amazing," Davide said listening to him attentively and nodded a little with a serious look on his face.

"Don't interrupt me now," Kurobane said looking at the redhead sulkily.

"But you just told a wonderful pun!" Davide rejoiced smilingly. "May I use it some time?"

"Davide, will you just shut up when there's something more important to talk about right now? Or else I'm not giving you any advice," Kurobane grunted glaring at Davide.

"Oh... Okay, sorry," the redhead apologized pouting a little.

"Listen to me carefully now, this's really an important thing. When you confess your feelings to that guy, absolutely NO puns are allowed that time," Kurobane added in earnest. "Otherwise he'll never take you seriously, believe me."

"Yep," Davide said and nodded again.

"And it might be better that you don't say anything like 'I wanna get laid with you' 'cause that's also bad," Kurobane said turning his head a little to look at something else than Davide. Saying something like that was undoubtedly embarrassing.

"I knew you'd help me, Bane-san," Davide said and when Kurobane turned to look at him again, there was a big grin on his face. And he couldn't help but feel that he might have just had the kind of a conversation with Davide that meant the beginning of an end of something. But whatever was going to happen, Kurobane hoped silently deep within himself that Davide wouldn't make a complete fool of himself. If his confession wouldn't go well and Davide would become dreary after getting the brush-off, it would break two hearts at the same time.

But he stopped thinking about it as soon as he noticed that Davide had begun to repeat "thank you" in English and didn't seem to stop at all.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kurobane asked staring at the senseless redhead.

"Now I lost count!" Davide yelled disappointedly but began to repeat "thank you" again.

"That's enough already," Kurobane said and was ready to give Davide a kick in the head.

"39 times thank you," Davide chuckled and then there was no way to avoid the kick anymore.

...to be continued...

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

Note from author:

Bane-san's pun was completely unintentional and I didn't write it purposely! I didn't even notice it at first, damn... I fail.

The Japanese pronounce "thank you" as "sankyuu" which is "san" and "kyuu", 3 and 9. On the other hand, 39, thirty nine, in Japanese is "sanjuukyuu". Yes, I fail again.