Suzuka is moving before the match has even been called. It's easy to see who the winner is, after all, and his now-needless panic is making him shake with an excess of energy that needs bleeding off. Besides, he needs to be at the arena exit to take advantage of the few minutes he can get before Shishi rejoins the rest of their team.

There's a press of bodies, fans and announcers and just people, but Shishi's long hair is easy to spot with the practice Suzuka has had in the last few months, and as soon as the blond catches his eye the new champion makes his ever-effusive farewells and navigates through the crush to join him.

"Suzuka," he starts, and his eyes are sparkling and his voice is high with the thrill of victory and Suzuka can't handle it, he can't. He closes his hand so hard around Shishi's wrist that the other flinches and hisses in irritation, but when he pulls Shishi comes too, walking fast so he gives the impression of following instead of being dragged.

He's hissing under his breath, though, smiling hard and brittle for the benefit of those around him but furious underneath. "Suzuka, what are you doing, what is your problem let me go this instant." The blond ignores him entirely, weaves through the crowd as fast as he can manage, and even when Shishi realizes they're not headed towards the rest of the group and starts to protest Suzuka doesn't slow.

Finally he rounds a corner and finds what he's looking for, a space blessedly absent of any other attendees. He drops Shishi's hand and turns back to face the other man, who reclaims his wrist and immediately locks his fingers around the newly-freed skin with a overdone grimace of pain.

"Honestly Suzuka, that was unnecessary," he says, or starts to say, but Suzuka grabs him with one hand at his shoulder and one in his hair and cuts off his words with his mouth.

Shishi huffs a sigh of exasperation, but he is bringing his arms up around the other's neck and his body is going soft against Suzuka's, and after that initial protest he gives over to the kiss without further fighting. It's Shishi who parts his lips first, and Suzuka doesn't hesitate to take the offered intimacy and trace his tongue along the familiar contours of Shishi's mouth.

He pulls back after a minute, just enough to take a shaky breath and shift his hand from Shishi's shoulder to join his other in long violet hair. "I thought you were dead."

"I thought I was dead," Shishi snaps back, but his hands are tight on Suzuka's waist. "You don't get to lecture me about that."

"I'm not lecturing," Suzuka protests. It sounds petulant but he can't clear the fright from his tone.

Shishi takes a breath and comes in closer against Suzuka's body. He's shaking, the blond realizes, trembling hard against him with the aftershocks of fading adrenaline. Suzuka wraps his arms around Shishi's shoulders, breathes in a forced slow inhale with the physical comfort of the other man in his arms.

Then he laughs. The sound shakes in his throat like Shishi is shaking in his arms. "Your hair is disgusting."

Shishi laughs too, and it's only the sharpness in the sound that keeps it from sounding like a sob. "I know. All of me is disgusting, I'm covered in spit. I'm getting it on you, too."

Ordinarily that would be enough for Suzuka to shove Shishi away, abandon the other in favor of locating a shower as rapidly as possible. Even now there's a shiver of distaste that fires down his spine, but it doesn't make it to the tension in his arms.

"Suzuka?" Shishi asks. He sounds unsure as Suzuka has never heard him, even during their first time when they were both recklessly pretending experience neither had.

Suzuka takes a breath and realizes he can't trust his voice around the knot in his throat. Instead he tightens his hold on Shishi and tangles his fingers into the other's sticky hair. After a moment, Shishi tips his head in to rest his forehead against Suzuka's shoulder and the last of the tension drains out of his shoulders.

It is a while before they make it back to the audience.