Working title All's Well That Ends Well.

Hey, so this was originally written in plot form on a few scrap pieces of paper at work, in the span of 5 minutes. How it turned to this, I still don't know. But… enjoy?

Couples – 5980 with a couple different ones mixed in.

Disclaimer, I do not own KHR! Love me anyway! Enjoy!

The transfer was so fast, Hayato's head was still reeling as he set his bag down in his new apartment for the next year. Literally, just yesterday morning he had been told he was going to be moved to a smaller branch in a smaller town nearly across the country. An 8-hour drive, in good traffic and weather. At the same time, he had also been handed the keys to his new apartment, the keys to his new car, and a promotion. His sister, whose couch he had been crashing on for the past week, was ecstatic that he was leaving her house and helped him pack with a fervour.

One the one hand, this could not have happened at a better time. He had just gotten out of a bad relationship that ended with him being temporarily homeless – the reason he had been crashing on his sister's couch – and he did need to get away from Mukuro. The bastard had invited his second boyfriend in to live in HAYATO'S apartment, without prior knowledge that anyone other than he was dating Mukuro, let alone was moving into his apartment.

Needless to say that the ensuing fight ended their relationship. On all three accounts, because apparently Hibari, the other guy, hadn't known about Hayato either, and was also just as affronted by the fact that Mukuro thought he could get away with being in an open relationship without consent from the other two participants. Now that wasn't to say that Hayato had anything against anyone in an open relationship, but at least have the decency of talking about it first with your partner, let them know what you're feeling and that you want to see someone else as well as you. Consent was still a thing, wasn't it?

With a sigh that held all his frustrations, Hayato walked over to the kitchen of his new apartment, pulling open the door of the fridge with perhaps a bit too much force. It was alright though; apparently, whoever had decorated his new home had forgotten to stock the kitchen, and that included more than just the fridge Hayato found as he started irritatingly opening all the cupboards to find them all so very empty. No spices, no coffee, not even any plates or bowls or cutlery.

This was the 'On the other hand' to Hayato's situation. He hated moving. Especially when that meant needing to buy himself new things. With another heavy sigh-turned-groan, he turned back to the door and left to go find a restaurant to eat at. Or maybe a bar to drown himself in.

As it turned out, in towns this small, most restaurants close early on a Sunday. Who knew? Hayato almost sneered as he came close to just buying something from a convenience store, taking it 'home' and going to bed when he finally stumbled across a bar. It was nothing like the clubs Mukuro would often bring him to, and that alone had Hayato stepping in to take a seat at the bar.

"What can I get for you?" the bartender asked as he came around. Blond hair, blue eyes and sucking on a lollypop, he was a lanky man with a look of perpetual boredom on his handsome face. Hayato tried to force a small smile for him.

"Yeah, is your kitchen still open?"

With a cocked eyebrow, the man turned around and leaned back, almost in Hayato's space, to check the clock on the overhanging wall. The clock was hanging in a way that made Hayato look up almost vertically just to see it, it was no wonder the man had to lean so much to see it too.

"Hmmm, yeah. For another 20 minutes, give or take. Want a menu?" The man stood straight again and reached for a menu before Hayato could even get a response in, and he let a small, real smile fall to his lips as he took it.

"Thank you. Mind if I start with a Rum and Coke?" Hayato asked as he opens the menu, not looking at the man and thus missing the wink sent his way.

"Sure thing."

The food turned out better than he had expected, but he also thought that might have had something to do with the amount of alcohol he consumed. Hayato knew he was tipsy before the food arrived, and he had another three rounds of shots while he ate; he was easily the drunkest he had ever been. He was so drunk he was leaning on the arm on some stranger who had come in halfway through his meal and joined him at the bar. He let the man chat him up, buy him a few more drinks. Let the man take him home.

Let the man take him to bed.

The next morning Hayato woke up in a haze of pain and self-hate. Honestly, this was how he and Mukuro started out, why would he do this again? A wave of nausea hit his stomach hard, but Hayato sat up through it, looking around the room and trying to gather his wits. He couldn't see the guy he had spent the night with, but he could hear the water running, sounding very much like a shower.

An image flashed behind his eyelids, a man with tan skin, dark eyes and black hair, with a killer body moving over his own the past night. Hot hands and even hotter lips caressed his body in his memory and Hayato shook his head; he must have had way more than he thought. There was no way he could have taken someone that hot to bed when Hayato himself was sure he was a mess. Not even a hot mess, just a mess. He swayed as he threw his legs off the side of the bed and started looking around for his clothes.

The morning light coming in from the open window was more than enough to see by, and he located his clothes easily. Getting to them and getting them on would be the problem. He was most of the way into his pants when the shower cut off and a man stepped out of the bathroom, stopping Hayato's heart cold.

Holy… fuck…

He looked like a sex god, he was so hot. Steam from the man's shower rolled off his skin, and that towel around his waist left very little to the imagination and was causing a very… hard problem for Hayato to think past. The man had started with a joyed smile on his face when he caught sight of Hayato, but slowly, that smile turned to a cocky smirk that Hayato liked just as much, if not more. The man cocked his hips to the side ever so slightly and started toward Hayato in a prowl the likes of which the silver-haired businessman had only ever seen in one other ether real human.

Rokudo Mukuro.

For a moment, really just a split second, Mukuro was the one walking towards him, not this sex god of a stranger. Mukuro's smirk, Mukuro's eyes, Mukuro's hips, Mukuro's swagger. And that split second was all he needed to turn him off completely. The hurt was still too new, and Hayato couldn't stop the horrible thought that he wouldn't be enough for this stranger too. Just like Mukuro, this stranger would want more than Hayato could ever be able to offer him.

Hayato turned away from the temptation walking slowly toward him and grabbed his shirt off the floor. With his eyes still closed he heaved a sigh, listening to the stranger stop cold.

"No." He said as firmly as he was able. His voice still shook, but he ignored it.

"No?" The word was whispered, but Hayato still heard it, and dear god, the sound of his voice almost made Hayato want to forget that he didn't want another round of sex. "What's wrong? Was I too much last night?"

'No, you're so fucking perfect that there has to be something wrong with you, and I don't want my heart to hurt again when I find out what.' "I don't fucking know, I can't remember shit. Look," He turned around and stared directly into the other man's deep black eyes, so very different from Mukuro's heterochromatic dark blue and bright red.

"I'm new in town," he continued, "but it can't be so small that we'll run into each other over and over again. I don't know your name, and if you've told me I don't remember it. We're strangers, let's keep it that way." With that, Hayato turned a cold shoulder to the other man, finished gathering his things and left. He didn't quite catch what the other man said just before the door closed, but it had sounded broken.

He was so glad he had been given a week's grace before he started working at the new branch. It took him nearly two hours of pointless wondering around to even find his new apartment building and as he took in his surroundings in daylight, he realized he had essentially walked two fucking hours to go three blocks away! Literally, just down the street from his apartment building was that hot stranger's place. Hayato hadn't lied about the fact that he couldn't for the life of him remember the guy's name if he had been given it at all, but for fuck's sake, he had hoped he wasn't lying about running into the other guy again.

Honestly, thinking about the guy was terrible for his mental health. All he wanted to do was find him again, drop to his knees and beg for another round of mind-blowing sex. Maybe suck him then and there –

…

See? Terrible for his health.

With a sigh, Hayato unlocked his apartment door and strode inside for a change of clothes before he went shopping for all the things his new kitchen needed. He paused at the bathroom and thought about a shower, and images of the stranger stepping up to him flashed in front of his eyes. He shook his head with a firm 'no' and got changed, tossing his dirty clothes into a hamper.

Three hours later had him in line to buy all the things he could think of and praying to anything that might hear him to make thoughts of the stranger just leave him alone.

For Hayato, the following week was a blur of boredom and rushing to unpack before he started work Monday. He managed to get his favourite suit into the dry cleaners the Thursday and pick it up Friday, which was awesome… until he noticed that the cleaners ruined it! It was a fucking Armani suit! How the fuck did they get Bleach of all things on the ass of his pants?!

Growling helped a little, taking his anger out on the young boy at the counter (who likely had nothing to do with anything concerning his suit) helped a little, but what really helped was that they paid him for damages. He couldn't get to the tailors until the following Monday, but that was fine. At least he could get this shit fixed. He huffed his way into a sushi shop and sat at a bar stool, his head in his hands.

"What would you like today, sir?"

"I want to deal with someone that isn't incompetent." He said into the bar top in front of him. "And I'm hoping that's you. One of your specials to go." He finally looked up as the man laughed cheerily and got to work, and Hayato could hardly believe what he was seeing – it was like the man was an older version of his sex-god stranger from a few nights ago! Same handsome features, same smile, same body movements, hell even his voice was similar. Maybe Hot Guy grew up here? Maybe this was his dad?

Huh… it really was a small town.

It wasn't that this suit was bad per se, it was just not his Armani. Not his first choice. Not his favourite. And, most importantly, not what he wanted to start his first day at work in. Hayato tried to hold back a sigh, but it escaped his lips before he could really attempt to stop it. His new boss, Sawada Tsunayoshi, looked over his shoulder as he guided Hayato to his new desk for the following… year.

"Are you alright, Gokudera-san?"

His voice startled the other, taller man into blinking up at him stupidly. "Uh, Yeah… Just… Not yet adjusted to this new town, you know?" he lied smoothly, a fake smile on his lips and his hand coming up to rub at the back of his head. Sawada screwed his lips up and turned around completely, worry creasing his eyebrow.

"Was a week not enough time? If you need to, you can take another day off… come back tomorrow? I think I can put a hold on your paperwork until then…"

"Ahh, no! No, don't worry about that. Actually…" Hayato sighed. "This is going to sound really trivial, but I wanted to wear a particular suit today, but the cleaners in this town kind of fu- er… messed up and ruined it. I can get it fixed, but not until later today." Hayato looked up sheepishly and found his new boss's expression not one of disappointment, but rather one of understanding.

"Ah, you went to Shimon Dry Cleaning, didn't you?" It was a rhetorical statement and Hayato nodded anyway.

"Yeah, h-how did you…?"

"I've been there. The workers are all a little weird, and sometimes a little klutzy, but they always own up to their mistakes. They tell you to bill them for the repairs?"

Hayato huffed a small laugh. "Yeah, they did. They told me to go to Haru's Fix It, I think?"

A smile lit up on Sawada's face. "Oh! I love Haru's work. A little advice though, she can be a little eccentric sometimes."

"A little eccentric? How so?" Sawada started walking again, and Hayato followed behind him.

"Well, when she gets excited over a new idea or over a nice suit, as yours seems to be if you wanted to wear it so bad, then she starts speaking in the third person. A habit that was never corrected from when she was little." Sawada explained as he stopped by an empty desk.

"Uh huh," Hayato replied if only to respond with something. This 'Haru' sounded almost as weird as the people at the dry cleaners. Maybe that was why the people at the dry cleaners told him to go to her? Probably.

"Well, this is your desk. I have to get back to work, but just over this short wall is your guide for the week. You'll be his immediate manager, though. His name is Yamamoto Takeshi, and you can ask him anything, within reason, and I'm sure he'll be happy to answer. I'll just be down the hall if you need anything he can't help with. Good luck on your first day, Gokudera-san!"

And with that, Sawada turned and left him standing there, the name 'Yamamoto Takeshi' echoing in his head. Where had he heard it before? Where…

A memory of hot hands and an even hotter mouth caressing his body flashed behind his eyes just as he heard his doom give a small laugh just behind him. (Apparently, he had been told the sexy stranger's name.)

"Haha! We meet again!"

'Fuuuuuuuuck.' Hayato wasn't ready. He couldn't take seeing him again, not when he hadn't been able to take his mind off the other man since that night literally a week ago. His heart couldn't take the chance of falling for another man that would just play him again, as all men that were that hot usually did. So then, what were his options? Thinking as quickly as he could, Hayato settled on the one that would hurt him the least and possibly make the other man back down.

As coolly as he could Hayato turned to the man hanging over the short wall with a small, business-like smile and said as pleasantly as possible,

"Meet again? I don't believe we've met before." Hayato didn't think he could regret something that fast before. He watched as that beautiful face and bright smile fell as he realized Hayato's meaning – that he had been forgotten. That he hadn't made enough of a connection to remain in Hayato's mind.

Yamamoto shifted his eyes to the side and he coughed awkwardly into his fist. "Oh… I must have been mistaken." But then his melancholy was replaced with a smile so fake it looked painful. "I'm Yamamoto Takeshi." He stuck out his hand, despite the weird angle it put his shoulder in, and Hayato took in hesitantly. "You can call me Takeshi." he said as he shook Hayato's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Yamamoto. I'm Gokudera."

The entirety of the following week had been excruciatingly hard for Hayato, for several reasons. All of them were related to Yamamoto in some way.

No, seriously.

He had tried to find his way to Haru's Fix It and had somehow gotten lost and had bumped into Yamamoto along the way. (It wasn't that he was directionally challenged, this town was just so confusing.) Yamamoto 'just happened to be going the same way' and all but insisted he help Hayato find the elusive shop.

Which was not elusive. At all. (With the fucking neon sign and glitter: how the fuck did he miss it? He blamed Yamamoto.)

Then, the tall man guided him in with a hand on the small of his back (And that in and of itself made Hayato feel like he would willingly sell his soul for that hand to just go a little lower…) and introduced him to Haru. Now Haru… perhaps blaming his entire week on Yamamoto alone was a bit much, because Haru was a bit much.

And so very annoying.

The moment she laid eyes on him she started squealing. Not because of his looks (Which happened from time to time. He wasn't vain, but he knew he could look damn good when he tried) and not because of his companions' looks either (Which was odd because one look at the man and Hayato was fighting down a massive school-girl like swoon). She wasn't even squealing over the fact that Yamamoto still had a hand on Hayato's lower back. (Because, and he is quoting here, "Some chicks dig that.") No, she was squealing because of his Armani suit.

(Admittedly, when he first saw it, he too felt like squealing but…)

"Ahhh! Haru has always wanted to work on an Armani suit!" She screamed, much like a banshee, as she took his suit right out of his hands.

"O-oi! Don't you need to-"

"Nope! Enma-kun told Haru you were coming, and that they would take care of the bill, Gokudera-san! To be honest, I had thought you would come earlier today, but oh well! I'll just get started then."

"Yeah, I had a job to start, and I wanted to wear that suit. By the way when-"

"Haru doesn't think it'll take me much longer than a few hours to fix." She finally quieted down long enough to actually look the suit pants over. "Oh, maybe not. Is that bleach? What on earth did you do?"

"What do you mean 'What did I do'? I brought it to that fucking place and-"

"There is no need to be rude! No way would they put bleach of all things on such a lovely suit!"

"Excuse me?! You think I would do that to my own prized possession?!" Hayato yelled back, finally snapping enough to actually raise his volume. They set into a firm glare, heatedly not taking their eyes off of each other.

"OK! I think that's enough! Come on, Gokudera, I'll treat you to a late dinner and Haru-chan can fix your lovely suit, ok? Haha…" Yamamoto interrupted, bravely stepping between them. Haru harrumphed and turned her shoulder to the men, stomping one heel childishly against the wood of her shop.

"You are such a child!"

"Hahi! And you are such a bas-"

"OK! That's it!" Yamamoto must have snapped as well, but it also must have been a rarity, since Haru didn't even react to Hayato getting his feathers all riled up, but she flinched and took three whole steps back when Yamamoto opened his mouth. Yamamoto whirled on her.

"Haru! Go to the back and start on his suit. I'll call you later to talk this out." He turned back to Hayato. "And I know I literally just "Met" you, but you can't seriously be having this kind of conversation! You are a 26-year-old man! Act like it."

And with that, the man Hayato was now sure was the new love of his life just ditched him.

(Why was this his life?)

"H-hey, Gokudera-san?"

Hayato blinked up at the timid voice of his boss and watched as the man seemed to shrivel in on himself. Blushing a deep red, Sawada Tsunayoshi wouldn't look Hayato in the eye, and stood there by the side of his desk, hands behind his back and his one foot scuffing the floor. He no longer looked like the confident 25-year-old man he had five days ago when they met – he looked like a teenage boy with very little confidence about to ask out his crush.

It was oddly adorable and Hayato fully turned to watch how this would play out. Sawada wasn't his usual type, but if the man did ask him out, he might take him up on it. The blushing just made him so cute.

"Uh… I- uhm…" he turned away and tisked to himself, lips moving without sound as if he was berating himself for his stutter. Hayato smiled a crooked grin and leaned back, hands folded in his lap. Well, if nothing else, this would prove entertaining. Suddenly, Sawada screwed his eyes shut, turned to Hayato, hands clenched at his side and he stuttered out,

"A-a-are you doing anything for dinner? W-w-w-would you like to go out with me?"

Hayato was so glad he stayed late. There were maybe 3 others in the office with them, but it was such a wide office space – it took up most of the 7th floor of the building – and Sawada spoke so quietly, Hayato doubted that the others had heard them. It was totally different from what he was used to.

Mukuro did Grand Romantic Gestures, but he was never cute. Hell, the only guys he dated did romantic gestures, but they never did anything 'cute'. Sawada looked like he could be cute even doing Grand Romantic Gestures. And yes, that has to be capitalized, because they were always that grand.

With a wide smile, Hayato leaned on his desk, chin resting on his fist, and waited for his boss to crack. Sawada squirmed, his eyes still closed, and the man waited a full minute before he looked to see the smile on Hayato's face. Sawada must have read it as a polite way to turn him down, as his face fell, his shoulders slumped, and he turned away from Hayato.

"I see… I'm sorry for wasting your time, Gokudera-san."

"Now wait a minute," Hayato said as he reached forward and pulled on the other man's sleeve. "I'm sorry, I was teasing you a little." Sawada turned back to the man with an actual, honest-to-god pout and Hayato had genuinely never seen anything so cute in his life. He let a real smile unfold on his lips as he stood.

"You're adorable," he said slyly, taking a small step into Sawada's space. He lifted one of the slighter man's hands in his as he continued. "I would love to go to dinner with you. If you'll have me." He added a wink at the end of his sentence, just to see how deep that red blush would go, and if maybe the other man would pass out. Sawada was almost a half foot shorter, and the height difference caused Hayato to tower over the slighter man – and it gave him the best angle to watch those deep brown eyes widen and that dark red blush deepen.

He stepped back a moment to let the other man cool down and breathe. "I just need to finish up this report, shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes. Why don't you grab a seat?" Still very red-faced, Sawada nodded and almost robotically pulled a chair from another person's desk to sit at the end of Hayato's desk.

True to his word, 10 minutes later and Hayato was pulling his suit jacket from the little peg on the wall next to his chair, hitting the send button and closing his web browser.

"Sorry about that, I didn't know I was going to be asked out to dinner." Hayato said casually as he pushed the other's chair away for him.

"Thank you." Sawada said softly, "And I'm sorry about sneaking up on you with that."

"Nah, don't worry about it. It was a nice surprise." He led the way out of the building and waited for Sawada to take control of the night from there. After all, Hayato was still new in town. He didn't know all the best places in town to eat. It turned out that that didn't matter much because Sawada took him to the very bar Hayato stumbled into his first night in Namimori. He found himself chuckling slightly at that thought.

"What?" Sawada asked softly, looking up at Hayato from under his eyelashes.

"It's nothing, really. Just that this is the first place I came to eat when I got here."

"Oh… did you want to go somewhere else?"

Yamamoto and his beautiful eyes, firm hands and hot body flashed in Hayato's mind and he suddenly felt like he was cheating on the man. Which was absurd, they hardly knew each other, and they only had one tryst. It wasn't like they were dating or anything. They weren't an 'item'. Why would he feel like he was cheating of all things?

He needed to forget the man. Soon.

He looked down at Sawada, who was still waiting on an answer, and Hayato stumbled upon a chance to get his mind off of Yamamoto. For good. (Hopefully.)

"No, this place is fine. I like it here. You come often?"

As it turned out, seducing your boss really wasn't that hard.

First part – done!

What do you think? Am I stupid or what? Lol…