A/N: A reminiscent Valentine's Day fic that popped into my head while I was in Taiwan. I wondered when I would put this down in writing…I mean, compared to homework and other shit, this should be a piece of un-beta'd cake. But seeing as I seem to have no readers whatsoever (hint—click the review button and let me know where you are [no literalists. I am NOT a stalker. Just let me know you're reading]) and no deadline, stuff just never seems to be written down.
I own no one. Except for my one little OC.
Yuui Flowright always woke up at five in the morning to open his bakery by the sleepy hour of seven. His only other fulltime-weekend-and-breaks employee usually wouldn't be there until morning classes at Horitsuba College had started. Which usually meant that she would be there by nine-ish or before her morning classes at the college, if there was time. If Yuui had let her, she would have been at the Cat's Eye Café by seven-thirty. But children need their sleep, Yuui had trilled as Alice glared at him, not wanting to lose her job on the first day, but needing somewhere to go and something to do that was slightly more productive than sitting at home, studying, she complied. She also used to babysit Chi, his sweet, senseless little sister. He didn't want to lose someone with that amount of patience when necessary. Especially when you sometimes had to deal the occasional rough treatment to the pushier customers at the register. Sometimes, Yuui wondered if adding alcohol to the menu was a good idea.
Today was an exception, though. Alice was (finally) allowed to be at the Cat's Eye by opening. Just this once. Yuui's twin brother, Fai, was coming to town to play a special Valentine's Day concert. The poster had been hanging on the wall of the Café for weeks now. It was expected to bring in a huge turnout. Critics were expected to flock in from all around the world. But that's not the point; Fai had not been in town for years—when they turned ten, the boys had separated ways, Fai to study in Russia with one of the top pianists of the 20th century and Yuui to remain at home, honing his trove of culinary skills. They were separate except for the fervent emailing and odd phone calls home. When Yuui turned eighteen, he, too, flew the nest and went to Italy to study cooking with the masters. They always came back, though. Back to home. Yuui when he was 24, when he had finished and promptly opened up shop—the Cat's Eye Café. Fai when he was 22, to give a small concert to kickstart his career in America, well known as he was in Europe.
ANYWAYS, Fai was coming to town. On Valentine's Day. For a concert. For the first time in years, the twins were going to see each other. And Alice and Chi and everyone else would be able to see Fai for the first time since childhood. Yuui and Alice would be at the café early to make Fai's homecoming present before the usual morning rush. Then, there was the boyfriend.
O.o
"You have a boyfriend?" Yuui had incredulously asked Fai over the phone a week before the concert. "Since when did you get a boyfriend?" Alice was grinning from her place on the stool. She had her nose in a book, it being a pre- Break day where teachers get lazy. Yuui idly wondered what was so funny.
"Mmhmm," said Fai, in his boyfriend's lap in a hotel room halfway across the country and nodding into the phone (unbeknownst to Yuui). "I want you to meet him when I come home."
"Since when, Fai," growled Yuui. His overprotective gland was pumping overtime, as Alice would say. Just like Touya and his little sisters and their boyfriends (a couple of the very few straight couples). And Alice, no doubt, was grinning because she knew he would be thinking that. Damn that girl and her intuition.
"Oh, ah, I met him…awhileagoinabar," Fai had said way too quickly. In a bar…oh shit, he was in for a verbal beating. His boyfriend smacked him on the head. "Oww…Kuro-rin, that hurt," he whined.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING IN A BAR? YOU CAN BARELY HOLD DOWN HALF A GLASS OF CHAMPANGE!" Yuui practically yelled into his phone. Alice carefully marked her book, closed it, hopped off of her seat and walked over to Yuui. "Shh…"she hissed menacingly, somehow managing to glare at Yuui. Never mind that she was almost half a foot shorter than the guy. "There are customers out there!"
"And who's that 'Kuro-rin' you're with?" Yuui hissed more quietly.
Fai kind of panicked. "I was depressed, okay? I needed something to forget about the mess I made at my last concert, even if everyone said 'oh, it was simply amazing!'" He paused for a moment. "And aren't you the one who put alcohol on the menu?"
"You. Are. Avoiding. My. Question."
"Okay, okay…he's my boyfriend, okay? My B-O-Y-F-R-I-E-N-D!"
Yuui reeled backwards at the vehemence in the voice. "And how far have you gone with him?" he retaliated. There was a brief scuffle at the other end of the phone. A low "gimme that", a distant "Nooo! Give it back!" Then,
"How far can you go? All the way to the horizon, I say," asked a different, warm, dark and slightly naughty voice. A click and a dial tone.
"If you touched my little brother without permission, I will have your head!" Yuui yelled, not yet fully comprehending the dial tone. Without batting an eye, Alice threw a pen at Yuui while taking a customer's order.
O.o
Yuui looked accusingly at his employee, who was opening up the windows and starting up the computer. "I still have the bruise."
She glanced back at him. "I know." Creepy grin.
It was 7:15 in the morning. Oh yeah. They were definitely in for a good day.
When actor Youou Kurogane Suwa stepped off the plane into the airport of his old hometown, he was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia. And the emptiness of not being mobbed by fans. But hey, who really misses that? I wonder if Touya and Yukito and all those other guys are still here, he thought. He hadn't been back in forever. Fai came from the same town, as he had learned after the disastrous phone call to Fai's brother. Why the hell didn't that bastard tell him earlier? He wondered suddenly.
O.o
With the flip of the phone, Kurogane cut the call. He tossed the little silver thing back to its owner who was currently wearing his shirt with his knees tucked up to his chest like a small, sulking child.
"You know my brother hates you now, don't you?" Big blue eyes turned to face him. "That was way out of line."
"Yeah? You think so?"
"I know so."
Kurogane wrapped an arm around his boyfriend's waist and dragged him closer to nuzzle his neck. "So, where are you headed after this stop?"
Fai unfolded himself from within Kurogane's shirt. "Well, after this, I'm going back to Celes to see everybody again and give a concert in their new and supposedly acoustically sound concert hall."
Surprise alighted in Kurogane's red eyes. "You come from Celes?"
"Mmh, yeah, why?"
"I come from Celes, too."
"Really? How come I never met you? I lived there until I was ten."
"My parents and I moved to Nihon when I was three."
"Oh." Suddenly, they were reminded of the age difference between them. Even if they were older than when they first met, the difference still seemed so large. An uncrossable gap. Then…
"Will you be there for my concert?"
Kurogane shifted slightly. "I don't know. I'll try to make it, but Yuuko is a bitch."
Fai giggled quietly, his blue eyes had a sad tint to them. "Language, Kuro-pon." This was rewarded with a kiss on the forehead. "Never," Kurogane growled. "We have to leave, soon," he added after a moment.
"I know." Fai wiggled out of Kurogane's warm embrace and started to gather his clothes. Kurogane gathered his own clothes and began dressing. Fairly simple. Jeans, socks, jacket. Shirt.
"Hey idiot," he said. "Can I have my shirt back?" Then, what Fai was wearing finally filtered its way to the processing corners of his brain, where they promptly jammed them. "So I wasn't drunk when you walked in wearing a skirt, huh?" There sat Fai. On the bed. Wearing Kurogane's shirt and a blue ruffled skirt. (Which reminds Kurogane forcibly of the one Halloween where Fai appeared at his house with a bucketful of candy, a bottle of wine and wearing a pink, frilled dress of a costume, complete with black cat ears and a tail with a bell on the end.)
"Nope," Fai said cheerily. "But you seemed very happy to see me in it, anyway."
"You are not walking out of this hotel room in a skirt," Kurogane growled, stomping over to his boyfriend. Fai looped his arms around Kurogane's neck and whispered into his ear, "Does that mean I get to wear your pants, too?"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
"Fine. Then I'm keeping the skirt and your shirt." Fai pouted. "Especially since you saw the need to destroy my shirt last night."
Kurogane huffed. "Don't start acting like Yuuko, moron, or you'll regret it," he warned Fai, to which Fai grinned cheerily and planted a large kiss on Kurogane's cheek. "Yay!"
O.o
Then, of course, they checked out of the hotel for their respective destinations: Fai, a non-stop to Celes; Kurogane, to make a deal with Yuuko about giving him the Valentine's Day weekend off. Let's just say that the bargain could have been worse for Kurogane. At least Fai would never have to know about what Yuuko and the head-of-outfits/successful fashion designer cousin Tomoyo did to Kurogane. At least Kurogane could still go visit Fai. (Yuuko is a good person ;)) Night before Valentine's Day, Kurogane, with Yuuko (plus entourage) and Tomoyo (who was born and raised in Celes until fashion college) in tow, flew back to Celes. Yuuko ordered her assistant, Watanuki (who started yelling, causing the party's muscle (not to mention not-boyfriend *smirk*) Domeki to drag him off), to go find sake after checking in to the inn owned by Sorata (who still calls Kurogane a little boy and started swapping stories with Yuuko) and Arashi. Tomoyo immediately whirled off to find her old friends Sakura and Sakurako. Kurogane, meanwhile, decided to explore the city a little, since he had not been back since he was a little toddler. Plus, it would avoid the mass headache that was bound to happen if he stayed too long in Yuuko's company.
The time was 6:45am. They were definitely in for a long day.
A/N: This was supposed to be a short one-shot! –wails- fine. This extremely reminiscent Valentine's Day fic will expand! Meanwhile, I will go rip out the back pages of my Chinese notebook, as they have been written on with pens and pencils an unfinished Kurofai fic :) that, and I reuse notebooks, so…yeah. Anyway,
Sakurako: (probably illegally) borrowed from Irene Gerke's Stray (sorry, too lazy to think about such things as naming the C!Sakura…but hey, to make it up to you, FREE ADVERTISING! Read it. It's good.)
DomekixWatanuki: They have my support.
Tomoyo: Cousin, no incest. Tahnk you.
Yuuko: definitely my favorite. :]
Next chapter will be up…soon-ish. It's hard and unproductive to multitask. As I have learned from the book In Praise of SLOW. Yeah. Hard to believe a 國中學生 (nup. Nuthin bad.) would read something like that. But it was a good book.