A Very Torrid Christmas

This is for Dudly, since I promised her something Torrid, which is, by the way, Atobe x Nanjiroh. This is just Torrid friendship since I couldn't manage well, an actual Torrid Pair story. xD

It also started out in present tense but then wound up in past tense, so if I missed any present tense verbs while fixing it up, I'm sorry! XD This isn't beta-ed, so tell me about any mistakes you see~.

x A Very Torrid Christmas x 777 words

The snow was falling, the clouds weaving a thick white blanket for the cold ground. Two men watched this large-scale knitting through a window, both looking at the same scene but seeing views that are entirely different.

The hand struck twelve, and through the bar there was an echo - twelve long chimes. Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong. There was still talking over this - there is never complete silence in a good bar, you know - but the two stayed quiet, letting the grandfather clock finish its declaration.

'What a laugh this is,' the older man said with a snort, 'two men drinking away their worries on Christmas Eve.'

'Christmas Day now,' the other man corrected with a sniff. 'And I was not drinking away my worries. I merely agreed to accompany you on this drinking escapade -'

'Don't be so full of yourself!' the older man said, snorting again and slapping the younger man on the back, making the younger man frown and put down his glass. 'Merry Christmas then. You needed a drink, so I asked you to join me - none of that accompanying junk.'

The younger man just sniffed again, obviously not content with the other's answer. He had no reason to be. 'I've never been to a bar like... this before.'

'Too common for you?'

'Quite.'

'Oi,' the bartender said with a frown from behind the counter, 'I don't like you sophisticated types - Echizen, can't you get him out?' This was said light-heartedly, but sent quite a jolt through the younger man, who sat up a bit straighter, feeling out of place amongst these beer-drinking working-class men.

'Sorry, sorry,' Echizen Nanjiroh replied with a grin. He tilted back on the barstool, his monkish clothes draping over the edges. 'I'll get him to drink up - then he won't be such an annoying guy. Beer solves everything'

'Youngsters these days,' the bartender said in an agreeable tone, stirring up a drink for another guy down the counter. 'Too uppity for their own good.'

'I'm not a youngster,' the brunet protested, but the barkeep and Nanjiroh just laughed heartily, though Nanjiroh's laugh was a bit stilted.

'Have some more drink, will you, Atobe?' Nanjiroh took a swig from his own glass and sighed. 'It's nice to drink without having women fussing over you - but you wouldn't know that, right?'

Atobe Keigo stiffened, and Nanjiroh just laughed. 'I'm just making fun of you, boy, don't think anything of it.'

'Why did you invite me here?' Atobe said at last. 'I don't even know you, Echizen-san.'

Nanjiroh hit Atobe on the back again. 'Don't be so formal! Since you had been a potential son-in-law, right? You can just call me Nanjiroh.'

Atobe sighed. He didn't want to be reminded of what could have been. 'Nanjiroh-san, why did you invite me here?'

'Why not?' Nanjiroh asked with a lazy shrug. He invited people to drink with him all the time - just usually, they weren't around his son's age. 'Bartender, more beer!' The barkeep laughed, used to Nanjiroh's lack of manners. 'You didn't have anywhere else to go on Christmas Eve.'

Atobe sighed again. Nanjiroh was right. 'You know that's your son's fault, right?'

Nanjiroh snorted. He seemed to like doing that. 'Only the brat would decide to fly off to who knows where on his own birthday to play tennis with some guy.' It wasn't just tennis with some guy, Nanjiroh knew, but he didn't think he needed to remind the brat's ex-lover any more of Ryoma and -

'Tezuka,' Atobe automatically corrected. 'Ryoma's always made exceptions for Tezuka.'

There was a smirk on the older man's face that he couldn't help, but the smirk was a bit wistful. 'Jealous, are you? Well, if it makes you feel a little less awful, the brat really loved you before. Talked about you all the time.'

'What?' This was news to Atobe, and he stared at Nanjiroh, shocked.

'Yeah,' the man continued, staring into his drink. 'Whined about this annoying guy who always forced him to eat this weird, expensive food and called him all the time on his cell.'

So it hadn't been anything good. He shouldn't have expected anything anyway. Atobe looked out the window again, and Nanjiroh did as well. 'Wonder where he is now.'

'Probably halfway across the world.'

The two men drank, both thinking about the same young man but thinking entirely different things, seeing entirely different situations, remembering entirely different dreams that had been shattered but only sometimes rebuilt.

But there was one thought that crossed both of their minds: I hope Tezuka is good to him.

The snow continued to fall.

x owari

And there it is. I started it off thinking it'd be humorous, and well, this happened. D: It was supposed to be Royal too. What is this? Well, anyway, wouldn't you all like to review? ~awinchan