Sakyo x Shinobu
12
AU
Shinobu wanted love, but as a gay man, it was harder to find, even moreso when you have a tarot reading cousin trying to give advice. Then he meet a certain red head, unknown to him this read head has his own supernatural gift.
She shuffled the cards and then began to place the cards into the horse shoe fashion as she had been taught. Carefully looking at each card she could see who it was intended for and her eyes narrowed; she wasn't able to make sense of what was being told to her.
He's going to kill me. She thought to herself.
Sighing in annoyance she made a note of each card and put her deck away before she grabbed her coat and made her way to her cousin's work, hoping that he wouldn't be busy today.
As she walked along the road she looked into the window of the book shop her cousin worked in and was pleased to see that it was still quiet; although she didn't have a doubt that it would be, but there were times when it was busy and it always surprised her.
Going in she waved at the man at the cash desk, who was scanning some book into the system, he looked up and smiled slightly.
"Shinobu," She bounced over to him in excitement and he looked at her wearily.
"Ren, what brings you here?"
She smiled at him and leaned over to him; "Can we talk? Privately?"
Shinobu sighed knowing what this would be about although he really wished it wasn't true. He hated Ren meddling in his life, particularly when it was to do with those damn cards of her's, she always miss-read them and he was the one who ended up getting hurt in the end.
However she was his cousin so he led her to his office and he closed the door behind himself as she turned to looked at him, getting ready to speak when she noticed the glare he was sending her;
"Shinobu I just…" She trailed off, realising that she really should have thought more about the subject the cards were telling her about instead of running off to inform him about it.
He hates this. She remembered sadly.
"Butt out of my life," He told her firmly.
"I was doing a reading and…" Ren tried to continue on.
"Stop it," He said harshly, his pale green eyes glaring at her; "Jusr stop. I've already told you not to do a reading for me anymore,"
"But Shinobu this time is different! You're going to…."
"Ren," He said sharply and the blonde haired woman looked at him completely taken back; "I said stop. Why can't you listen to me?"
"This is important!" She argued back and just looked at him, pleading with her eyes; "Please just listen to me, I know you don't like what I do, although I don't know exactly why, but someone is going to come into your life and…"
"Ren, you know how I feel about those cards. Just stop," He moved to leave the room when Ren stood in front of the door, denying him access to leave; "Ren,"
"No. I know you don't believe in me, but you are going to meet with someone, he'll be completely different…"
He took her shoulders and moved her from the door, firmly; "My love life, or lack of it," He looked pointedly at her as he said that; "Isn't your concern,"
"But you aren't happy,"
"You are my cousin, you are not supposed to meddle in my love life," He said sternly, before he was about to leave; "Or lack of it. It has nothing to do with you and you shouldn't use your damn cards to try and read it for me,"
"But all I want is…"
"I know, but if you want to make me happy, stop it," He repeated and he felt he was going to repeat himself until he was blue in the face; "I don't need you to point things out to me. I will take whtever life hands out to me, but every time you do a reading it leads me down the wrong path and I am the one who gets hurt,"
"I didn't mean to," She began to say softly but he just shook his head.
"I know, I do. But I need to do this alone," He sighed; "I can make my own mistakes without you saying anything to me,"
"All right," Ren conceded; "I just…"
He nodded slowly and gave her a hug, letting her know that although he was annoyed at her and her cards interfering with his life, he wasn't holding it against her, unlike last time.
That time he had followed Ren's advice, he thought he had found someone who would always be there for him, who would be his equal and they would live rather well together, but then… His heart was split into two, it took him a long time to trust someone again and he fell out with Ren in a rather spectacular way due to it.
"I know," He said as they left the room, he didn't want to be hurt again, he wanted to be safe; yet he was also aware that he had to go out there and find himself again.
"So, will you be at the bar this weekend?" She asked him, deciding to take his advice and leave the tarot out of it. She wanted to improve on her reading and she never meant to have her focus on the cards shift to him, they just did. But with this reading that she did, she had a gut feeling that it was right, it was different to what her other readings had been about before; but she kept it to herself since she and Shinobu had only begun to talk to each other more often than before and the relationship was finally healing.
"I don't know," He admitted, noticing the store was still quiet.
"You really need to loosen up," She teased him; "Come on you can't have fun with drinking tea in that flat of yours," She kissed his cheek; "I have to go, got the night shift!"
Shinobu smiled at her and shook his head; "Why do you work in that bar?
"Um, the good tips?" She grinned at him; "I get more money in a night with tips that you do in here,"
"And yet I am the one who has bought a flat while you are still renting?"
"You are such an old man," Ren told him with a laugh; "Besides, I get to see all the hot men too,"
"And that's the only reason you enjoy it," Shinobu shook his head in mock despair.
"Oh you'd love it!" She teased and waved goodbye as she left the store.
Shinobu shook his head once more and went back to scanning the books, thinking about what Ren had said; Maybe I should go to the bar.
X
He hated the atmosphere of the bar, his red eyes glancing at all the people who were there to get drunk or it was the first stop in a long pub-crawl. However it was the only place that he could go to that gave him some kind of respite from those that tried to talk to him when he was in his home.
He sipped his beer as he noticed a man who was clearly not here for either of those things. If he didn't know any better he would have thought the sandy haired man was lost, but he held his own at the bar to get a drink and talked happily to the barmaid that served him before moving away.
He stood up and gestured for the sandy haired man to take his table, the bar was busy, but no one was claiming his table even though he wasn't standing right next to it.
"Thanks," He said with a short nod, only to notice that the red heads beer wasn't finished; "You don't like the beer?"
"The atmosphere here… Leaves a lot to be desired," He admitted and noticed the other male laughed.
"That's true, I'm only here because my cousin," He gestured to the barmaid, who was flirting with a few of the men she was serving; "Works here and asked me to come along," He paused for a moment, wondering if he was going to leave before he asked the ultimate question; "Join me?"
The red head thought it over and noticed the other seemed to look down; "I suppose so, the atmosphere isn't too bad now," He grinned as the other blushed; "I'm Sakyo,"
"Shinobu,"
"So if you are only here because of your cousin, you aren't normally here,"
"No, she moves around from bar to bar," He stopped and shook his head; "Not like that, she just, she likes a change of pace from time to time,"
"In that case all the bars in the city will know of her," Sakyo nodded slightly; "It means that she'll get a name for herself, since she is rather good with the patrons,"
"Yea she is,"
"So where do you normally go to then? It's not a bar or a pub; you don't seem the type,"
"I am more at home in a café," He admitted and looked around, seeing what Sakyo had seen earlier, everyone was dressed to the nine's, wanting to impress or to go out on a night on the town; "But what about you? You looked like you were going to leave,"
"I was, but you caught my eye,"
Shinobu felt a blush creep up his neck; "Oh,"
"And I needed to get away from my home," Sakyo continued, deciding that obvious flirting didn't seem to work well with this man.
"I see. Loud flatmates?" He hazard a guess.
"You could say that," Sakyo said with a nod, although to him they weren't really flatmates than spirit mates. Though he didn't consider either of them his friend.
They continued to talk for most of the night, much to Shinobu's surprise; though Sakyo did as for his number as they separated for the night, with Ren spying on them constantly, feeling her gut instinct come again as it had with the cards.
This is it. She though with excitement and then turned to continue serving.
Shinobu walked away and felt as though he had a spring in his step, while Sakyo wondered how it would go over all.
I will call him tomorrow and see what happens. He decided as he walked into his flat.
'Had fun with that little queer?'
An old Victoria woman, her grey hair pulled back sharply and she hunched over glared at him with those cold grey eyes of hers.
He just looked at her but ignored her as he went by to the kitchen, getting himself a glass of water.
'Don't you dare ignore me young man!' She shrieked; 'You are trying to sully your good name into the dirt? It's a sin! A complete sin!' She began to rant on about how he was living a sinful life and he just gulped down the water before finally looked at her.
"I don't care what you think about my love life," He growled at her and she just looked at him, her lips going into a thin line of disapproval; "You just have to deal with it. I am gay and always will be, there is nothing wrong with that. You don't have to be here if you disapprove of my choice that badly,"
'Someone had to try and get you onto the straight and narrow. What is wrong with girls?'
He smirked slightly and looked at her; "I like dicks,"
She gasped at his reply and vanished before his eyes when he heard someone chuckle behind him.
He turned to see a middle aged man, with brown hair that had a speckle of white at the sides smiling and nodding at him; "That certainly told her boy. Nice to see her being put in her place, too many people are push overs,"
Sakyo looked at him and then moved to get another glass of water; "I don't plan to be one of them,"
"Good to hear boy," He said with a nod; "When you phone that boy, make it at tea time,"
"Why?"
"Trust me, you want him to wait, but not wait too long,"
"That was my plan to begin with,"
He nodded; "Just mind yourself boy, I might not be able to tell the future for you; but I think this lad might very well give you a bumpy ride,"
"Oh?"
"Just a feeling the dead get boy. Just don't push him too hard is all am saying," He advised him and then vanished too.
Sakyo said nothing, but he got the feeling the man had checked up on his new interest; Why am I surprised?
Taking the rest of his drink he left the glass in the sink before heading to bed.