Yasuhara sighed, staring out the window of the cab. It was raining. He usually loved to watch the shape of the clouds, the slowly dripping rain, but today his thoughts were occupied. He should have known it was a bad idea. He had known. And yet…
(-(-)-)
He and John had gone out to lunch with Ayako and Takigawa. Mai had wanted to come, but between the studying she had to do, the files she needed to file, and the tea she had to make, it had been a better idea for her to just stay in the office. So, after lunch, they had cut through the park with a meal for her. Takigawa and Ayako had moved ahead--it was just the two of them.
It was just starting to drizzle, raindrops dripping from the cherry blossoms. John was looking up, his head tilted thoughtfully. It was hard for Yasuhara to keep from staring at him openly. As it was, John noticed his distraction.
"Is something bothering you, Yasuhara-san?"
"A great many things bother me, Brown-san," Yasuhara said, managing to keep up a cheerful façade. "Our planet is being destroyed, I have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for textbooks, and every fifteen seconds a child in Africa dies of water pollution, starvation, or malaria."
John smiled that peaceful, detached smile he had. "That's not what I meant, Yasuhara-san. Would you like to talk about it?"
Yasuhara sighed. "I wish I could, John, but I ..."
Yasuhara wasn't sure what it was, the expression in his pure blue eyes perhaps, or the innocent smile that never showed emotion, so like his own, but the words died in his throat. It only took a moment for him to forget every reason he shouldn't lean down suddenly and touch John's warm, soft lips with his own.
It was everything that could have been expected of the young exorcist. There was a moment in which he hesitated, but he responded with a gentle eagerness that was completely in his character. Yasuhara smiled into the kiss, wondering how weeks of torture could be so easily dissolved like this, with a simple touch of lips. Too soon--much too soon--John pulled away, blushing.
Without saying a word, they turned and kept walking. There was a minute of thick silence, and John slowly, haltingly, began to speak.
"My … my grandfather became a priest when my grandmother died. When I was eight, he was assisting another member of the church with an exorcism, and the demon possessed him instead. It became violent, and the exorcist was incompetent. He used physical methods and my grandfather had a heart attack or something similar. I wasn't told the full story until nearly five years later, and it made me angry. I wanted to keep people from having to deal with that sort of pain."
Yasuhara privately thought that not many people had dealt with the pain of having a relative die at the hands of an exorcist, but he kept silent. He didn't want to offend John, and he was very interested in understanding how this had anything to do with him.
"I've never regretted my choice." He looked up with pleading eyes. "My faith isn't perfect, Osamu, but I can't just walk away from it."
Yasuhara sighed. "I know. I'm sorry."
John reached up to touch his face with a sad little smile. "Don't be."
(-(-)-)
Yasuhara leaned against the window and sighed. Five billion people in the world, and he had to fall in love with a Catholic priest.
I know, it's a little goopy. But come on, is there anything more tragic than a gay man falling in love with a Catholic priest? Speaking as a former Catholic, they are seriously against the gay thing… It's my first try, all right? Flame with that in mind. Also include in your flames who you want next: Bou-san, Lin, or Naru? I'm not quite set on what I'm going to do with Naru or Lin yet, so it might be a little longer, though...