Ayase's hand trembled over his phone. Someya had given him Homare's phone number months ago, told him he had recovered completely – with the exception of his eye. "At least you can tell the two of them apart now!" He joked weakly. Ayase tried and failed to find a laugh.
He dialed the number slowly. He had to – his shaking fingers could barely press the buttons. He heard a vague clicking and then a short polyphonic tone.
"Hello?"
Ayase almost cried.
"Homare?"
"...A-Ayase? Ayase!"
He bit his lip. "How are you?" He asked.
"...I'm fine."
"Me too."
There was a near silence. He could hear Homare's labored breathing just out of sync with his own.
"I want – need to see you." Ayase broke out suddenly. "Come visit me."
"I can't do that, Ayase. Boss would never –"
"I know." He cut in. "Even so, I..."
"Me too."
Ayase chewed his lip and fidgeted. "...I think I love you." He blurted. There was a crackling fizzle of sound as Homare began to reply, but Ayase slammed the phone down on the jack before any words were spoken. After about an hour, his phone rang and proceeded to ring for the next thirty minutes. He let out a sigh and lay back on his bed. He had school in two hours and work in eight, but he promised himself he would call Homare again that day.
He swallowed and grimaced. There it was again - that vague, offensive taste. Bitter, smoky...
The taste of Kanou.
Ayase closed his eyes and thought of Homare and slowly, slowly, the taste faded.
But even so, it lingered just a little, as it always did.
Another Author's Note - (Please don't hurt me!):
That's it! Thank you so much for reading! I didn't want to lump on another AN to the first chapter, so I put this here, even though it has to do more with the last chapter. To any Kanou fans out there, I guess I'm sorry. I never liked Kanou very much, and I've wanted to have some comeuppance. I can't deny that I did lay on the guilt tripping a bit too much...
On another note - this turned out a lot more HomarexAyase-centered than I thought it would...This fic was really supposed to show Ayase's problems with their relationship and what I thought he wanted from Kanou, or how Kanou could have made it work. But I've been in love with Homare ever since I saw that huge "SELF CONTROL" over his head (Largely because he was the only person in the series who seemed to know what that was *cough cough*.) and I believe that nice guys don't always have to finish last. I really hope you enjoyed this!