Ah, I have such fun writing this. I thin that Tsutsui and Kaga are very natural companions, and being a hardcore guy/guy fan, I thought it was only necessary this does not, however mean that I have no idea what's going to happen after the party. I'll think of something, but suggestions are always fun.

Kaga's like an extremely proud five year old as he almost races ahead of me to get to the apartment. This is my first time visiting his house, and Kaga seems to think that it's a special occasion.

I can see why people think that Tokyo Towers are so swish and fancy. They are. The foyer is coated in marble, shiny enough to blind people with the back of the midday sun, with a few Romanesque vases scattered artfully, each with about one bent twig and some greenery in it, in the way that flower arrangements are done these days. The elevator, one of many scattered down a (equally shiny) side hall, was large enough to fit about eight women with prams, and was an incredibly smooth ride compared to the Tower of Terror style of transport in my own building. The carpet on the 54th floor, where we got out, was thick beneath my running shoes, and would probably make a comfortable bed.

"Prepare yourself to be amazed."

"I'll try to contain myself."

Hitching my bag further onto my shoulder as Kaga opens the door in front of us with a large amount of pomp, and a small dash of dropping the keys and swearing, finally the door opens before me.

"So, what do you think?" asks the former captain of the Shougi club smugly.

"I'll admit it, it amazes me. How can you live in such squalid conditions?"

"Leeching off you and Dad, of course. I'm rarely home, these days,"

"Typical."

I stride across the apartment, and throw open the curtains, the light flooding in illuminating the dust floating around the room like fireflies. I think this is the first time that the curtains have been opened in months.

"Kaga, I think I'm going to have to do a bit of redecorating."

"What's wrong with the place?"

"Well, for one thing, the booby-posters don't quite go with the rest of the décor."

"okay, so the booby ladies'll go. What else?"

"Where's your cleaning equipment?"

It takes Kaga a few moments of squinty-eyes and serious thinking to remember, never a good sign.

"Down the hallway, first door on the right."

I'm practically beaned by a mop as soon as I open the cupboard, and after subduing that, I manage to pull out a bottle of glass-cleaner, a packet of the dust-attracting rags, a box of garbage bags, and walking backwards with the power-cord firmly between my teeth, manage to tow the vacuum with me as I enter the living room again.

I can just tell that Kaga raises an eyebrow.

"Need some help?"

I spit out the dusty-tasting cord, and dump my other burdens on the ground.

"Sure. I like to see a floor when I'm operating. Put the clothes in one bag and I'll wash them, all the garbage in another, and… roll up the boobie ladies and they'll go in another."

"I don't like the connotations of my posters going in a garbage bag."

"Cry me a river." Realising how callous my last statement might have been, I looked up with a reassuring smile, and added "Don't worry, you can put the booby ladies in a cupboard, then get them out again on Thursday. After then, you can have porno posters on the back of the toilet door for all I care."

Kaga sighed wistfully. "It's like having a mother again."

"That's not a compliment in any language. Go to your room."

Kaga gives me the finger, and tosses me a rag.

Spray, wipe. Spray, wipe, squint suspiciously, re-wipe. Kaga's place is pretty, but it's not cleaning-friendly. The windows are too high to be reached without a ladder, and stains show up too well in the pristine white carpet. After finding the floor again, cleaning the windows inside and out, vacuuming, dusting every stationary surface (and attacking Kaga and his shiny leather jacket with the dirty cloths a few times when I find a dirty sock shoved down the back of my shirt or something equally childish), I put on the washing machine, and then moved the leather couches and chairs to cover a few suspicious stains and what look like cigarette burn-marks.

I step back to survey my work.

"Wow Kaga, if anyone stepped in here right now, they might think you were a normal, functioning member of society!" I shoot Kaga's evil glare an innocent look. "And then they'd see your face."

"Right, that's it."

Kaga crash-tackles me, and we fall to the ground in a heap of limbs and screeching, mostly on my part.

I only have a sister, and neither my parents nor my personality allowed for any sort of rough play before Kaga came sprawling into my life. Mr Sensitive, he took great pleasure in pointing out that my glasses were thick and my favourite game didn't come into anyone else's life. I finally came out one day that I already knew so he didn't need to keep repeating it, and from then on, Kaga shut up about my glasses, and just kept going with my lack of coordination and very unpopular club. It was, comparatively, a improvement.

Soon we were companions, if not friends. I liked having someone I could mouth-off at who honestly didn't mind and someone to talk to that wasn't a fellow nerd, and, having a stern father and no mother he could remember, I think Kaga appreciated having a mother-duck voice of reason in his life. Someone sensible to complement his very impulsive personality.

Kaga grabs a hold of on of my wrists, laughs triumphantly, and shoves his palm into my face. I bite the webbing between his thumb and forefinger, making him yowl, and he starts to poke my lower abdomen, my weak spot, mercilessly.

"Ah!" I gasp between giggles, "You're gonna- leave- bruises!"

"Bah! At least you haven't lost a chunk of skin, you savage!"

"I didn't even draw blood, you sissy!" I grab one of Kaga's wrists and yank, bringing his head forward and over mine until our noses almost touch. "I'll have to try harder, next time."

"Ye gods," Kaga mutter, his eyes focused firmly on my mouth, "I am a bad influence…"

I wrap my legs around his waist, bringing our bodies together. "Still got a nice ass though…"

"Um… Hello?"

Shocked silence.

"Are… we interrupting something?"

Kaga rolls his eyes, eliciting a small smile from me, and then hoists himself to his feet again. "Nice timing as usual, Shindo."

Kaga thrusts out a hand to help me up, and when I'm standing (and blushing wildly), I instantly start to apologise to the flustered pair of young Go players in front of us.

"I'm sorry Shindo-kun, Touya-kun, if I had known you were coming, I wouldn't have let Kaga tackle me."

"Ah, it's fine." Hikaru insists, his eyes bright with amusement and rocking on his heels as Akira continues to blush silently, his eyes wide, "When you came over we were just getting out of bed, and I guess you were just heading there… so…" The two-toned pro trails off for a moment. "Are you sure we shouldn't go?"

"Oh by all means, you can stay, but, um…"

Akira smiles shakily, finally coming out of his little pot of confusion. "Don't worry, we're not stalking you, Kaga invited us, for something about a party?"

Ah! So the man does think ahead!

Shooting my friend a huge, grateful smile, I gesture to the freshly cleaned couch. "Please, sit. Do you want anything to drink? Yes? Any preferences?"

"Tea would be fine, thankyou."

I smile like a good host, then grab Kaga by the elbow and drag him with me.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou!"

One big hug later, Kaga looks suitably smug. "So, can I look forward to a night of thankyou sex, then?"

"What? On top of 6 more days?"

Kaga shrugs. "Thankyou sex tonight, then we'll pick up where we left off?"

I roll my eyes, ready to agree with almost anything right now.

I had never thought of asking them for their opinions on guests, food and anything else about the night!

"Fine, fine. Now where do you keep the kettle?"

"Ogata Seishi?"

"Hm…" Hikaru pursed his lips. "I personally think he's scary."

"But he is also very intelligent and well-informed. Don't listen to Hikaru. Ogata inspires unreasoning fear in him for some reason."

"Could it be his scary obsessive-compulsive pin-Hikaru-to-a-wall tendencies, or maybe his grab-small-unfamiliar-child-by-the-wrist-and-drag-him-unwillingly-to-meet-his-boss-and-force-him-to-play-a-game-of-Go tendencies, just maybe?!"

"I've done that to you a couple of times."

"Yeah, but you're my age. And you're a sissy boy. Anyway, it was only after you started stalking me that the fear of Akira kicked in."

"I was not stalking you. You were merely suspicious. I thought you might be Sai."

"Uh huh. Suuuure. Waya did too, and he didn't follow me, now did he?"

"Um… guys?"

"Eh? Oh yeah! Sorry! Well, I guess it's probably a good idea to invite Ogata-sensei… if I don't have to talk to him."

There's confused silence from Kaga and I, who sit opposite the two pros with a folder between us with a list of names. Kaga wordlessly mimes 'that just went waay over my head' by sweeping a hand over his forehead and beyond, and I shrug a bewildered 'whatever' back, and extract what I need to from the last conversation: 'It's probably a good idea to invite Ogata-sensei'. I highlight his name.

"Kurata Atsushi?"

"Ah! Kurata." Akira smiles. "He's an interesting fellow, you'll like him."

"Just don't ask for his autograph."

I nod like I have every idea what Shindo's blathering about this time, and highlight his name.

"Ashiwara Hiroyuki?"

Hikaru frowns. "He's one of the enemy."

Akira leans forward, as if trying to block his boyfriend, and says "Ashiwara is from my father's study group, and one of my friends. He's a nice man."

Another set of weird looks is exchanged with Kaga. I highlight the name.

So far, I have Waya Yoshitaka, his housemate Isumi Shinichirou, Ochi Kousuke (barely, it was only aftera bitter debate the Hikaru conceded that it was polite to invite the poor sod), Honda Toshinori, Kadowaki Tatsuhiko, and the two opposite me on the list besides the ones that were just decided. Only one was rejected, a Moshiba Mitsuru, on the grounds of being, according to Hikaru, with the backing of Akira, a jerk of the highest order, and a pro because he was lucky.

"Is that everyone?"

I nod my head, relieved. Another few minutes of that and I think my head might have exploded with the amount of useless and seemingly inexplicable gossip that had been shoved into it. I didn't realise that the world of professionalGo could be so juicy. Damn, I should just pump these guys for information on a monthly basis, and write a gossip column.

"Can I just add a few more names onto the list?"

"Sure. Do I know them?"

"Yeah, but they're not pros."

I blink as Hikaru scratches his head, a little embarrassed.

 "Who are they then?"

"Mitani and Akari."

"Ah! You've kept in touch?"

"Yeah. They're married, and have a kid on the way. I just thought you might want to catch up."

"Of course I would!" I smile face-splittingly and pat Kaga on the knee. "Isn't that great? You get to renew your aquaintenceship with Mitani!" I exclaim, taking a dig at my friend.

Kaga grunts, his arms crossed over his chest. "He was a brat then, and I doubt anything would have changed."

I smile broadly again, then look across at the two younger men. "I want to thank you guys again. I hope you don't think that this was all… I appreciate your help, as friends as well as informants."

Akira smiles depreciatingly. "It's okay, we understand that it's work. And we don't mind helping friends either."

The long-haired pro stands up then motioned for his partner to do so, draping his coat over his arm. "If there's anything else you need help with, don't hesitate to ask."

With a thumbs-up and a wink, Hikaru bustles his lover to the door. "See ya Wednesday, okay?"

"Are you sure you can't stay for dinner?" I ask impulsively, before realising that any of the food here is probably either instant, or growing tentacles.

"No thankyou, we really must be going. Beside, I'm sure you two have better things to do than entertain two nerds." Akira said with a secretive smile, before muttering under his breath, but still loud enough for us to hear, probably deliberately, "Like each other…"

The two leave amidst Hikaru's cackling, shutting the door behind themselves, leaving me blushing furiously for the second time in one afternoon. They have a talent for that.

Okay. I had more, but it was basically in my head, a sex scene (of which I have never written before), and something I really couldn't be bothered committing to RAM. Maybe next time I shall… Imply that sexual gratification was achieved! Oh gods, I'm good.

Sorry about the wait… but I've been really busy lately, and with a friend from another country over, I have to do a lot more social and sight-seeing activities than I usually do. I'll try to post faster next time.