Rainbow: It's Halloween! And you know what that means?!
Star: We stay inside tonight because it's cold and wet outside, and we've already bought discount candy?
Rainbow: No! It means it's time for Cuticle Detective Inaba!
Star: Oh.
Rainbow: C'mon, don't sound so disappointed! At least I remembered in time this year.
Star: Fair point.
Rainbow: Anyway like always, I had to reread what I've already written to get a feeling for where I wanted to go this year. I'm actually quite surprised, since I actually like the kind of stuff I wrote. Hopefully, I won't screw it up!
Star: …
Rainbow: Yeah, that's right. You stay quiet. Anyway, let's get on with it!
It had been a few days since Yuuta had managed to drag Kei out of the underground. His apartment had already been rented out to another tenant. Kei's roommate hadn't been paying the bills.
Kei had been staying at Yuuta's for the interim.
Kei didn't really know what to think. It was early summer. Apparently, he had gone missing last fall, though he couldn't remember things that early. Most of the past year was simply blank space for him, though earlier events were still intact.
The Agency plus Ogi had gone out the day after Kei got back. Sukiyaki, as promised. Kei had vomited after five minutes of eating and had to be escorted out. So much for a fun night.
Kei turned over in the bed. The mattress creaked. Well, at least it moved, the mattress in Noah's lab had been as hard as a rock.
Truthfully, Kei was surprised that Yuuta even had an apartment. He had never really thought about it but had assumed that Yuuta lived with his parents or stalked Hiroshi through the night. They almost always arrived at the same time, though Kei had always been first.
He would have been lying if he had said he wasn't jealous. Even though they never entered together, it was apparent that they were closer to each other than to him.
Even if Yuuta's love was a little one-sided, downright creepy even, it was something. Kei held that thought for a moment and then sat up in disgust. It was really something to be jealous of what others found unwanted.
Inaba had never really acknowledged Yuuta's advances, oblivious as always, but Kei had thought that even Inaba wasn't that dense. Maybe it had something to with trying to let Yuuta down gently but that he didn't know how too.
Of course, that could have just been Kei trying to comfort himself.
Kei stepped out of the bed and turned slowly to face all corners of the room. It was a blank storage room. Well, technically it was a guest room, but Yuuta had been using the space as storage until Kei had moved in. Fittingly, it was almost as barren as the labs, though at least it was heated.
"Hello?" Kei tried to test his voice. It still came out hoarse and whispy, but at least he was audible. He wasn't sure how he had managed to first talk to Yuuta in the labs, but after the sukiyaki, it was like his throat had been ravaged beyond repair.
He took a shaky step forward. Walking was still difficult too. Go find love, go on an adventure!
Kei managed a dry laugh. It cracked his lips and fell flat on the ground. His lungs ached with the effort of drawing enough air for the unexpected sound. He would if he could, but what kind of adventure could he go on like this?
Kei stumbled to the door. Honestly, what kind of adventure could he have done before this?
Sure, he had done plenty of things with Inaba and Yuuta, but by himself?
Kei caught another chuckle before it scraped its way out of his lungs.
The door led into the main living space.
Kei had thought that he had had a very nice apartment, especially given how at first his roommate had contributed a fair portion and the salary that Inaba paid, but Yuuta's just blew him away. Kei wasn't even sure how Yuuta could afford the place.
A high rise in the middle of the city. On top of that, it was large and had full appliances. Inaba didn't pay enough for this kind of life.
Kei managed to make it to the couch before Yuuta entered.
The air seemed to thicken, and Kei turned his face so he wasn't looking at Yuuta.
He knew the only reason Inaba had gone looking for him was because he was the only employee who actually did his job and wouldn't quit from the extreme circumstances. Yuuta had made that much clear. Despite that, Kei was in no condition to go back to work, and so the Agency had remained in a slump.
For the moment, only Inaba and Yuuta were running the place and taking requests from Ogi. It didn't help Kei's feelings of uselessness, but there wasn't much he could do anyway.
"How was your day?" Kei finally managed to get out.
"Fine."
The words danced for a bit in the air, filling the space with a short breath before the silence returned.
"What happened?"
"Nothing much."
More silence.
Kei willed himself to turn around and look at Yuuta. He was already bustling around in the kitchen.
"What's for-"
"When are you coming back?"
Kei blinked. "I, I don't know…"
The sound of water rushing into a pot and the stove being lit.
"Is there a reason you're asking?"
"It's empty." Yuuta started cutting vegetables. The sound of the knife colliding with the wooden board rang out from the counter.
"Oh…" Kei didn't know what to say.
"I guess it's a little lonely," Yuuta elaborated. "I guess I thought I'd be alright since we worked just fine without you for months, but really…" Yuuta shrugged. "I guess most of the time we were just out searching for you."
Kei swallowed. Of course he had known he had been causing a lot of trouble with his disappearance. "Sorry."
"Whatever." Yuuta placed the pot on the stove and turned away towards the fridge. He didn't ask how Kei's day was. He already knew.
Ten minutes later, Yuuta sat down next to Kei and turned on the TV. "Dinner'll be in about half an hour."
Kei nodded. It was a little odd being this close to Yuuta. The last time they had been this close, Kei was being pummeled to near death for not dying. Kei didn't care what Inaba said, the Hamusenryuu was not a massage.
It was also the first time that Kei had gotten a good look at Yuuta after work. Kei knew Yuuta put on appearances, specifically for Inaba. He knew that Yuuta had a vicious streak under that cute mask. He just wasn't prepared for… how casual Yuuta was in private.
Kei had built up this image of Yuuta as a hyper competent assistant with stalker tendencies and a sadistic flag. Well, those things were true, as Kei had learned over the years, but he had never quite thought about Yuuta when he wasn't around Inaba or Ogino, probably because those were the only times Kei ever saw him.
"Y'know, he's actually quite sweet. We text back and forth a lot. I used to think he had a crush on me, but he was surprisingly supportive of me when I said I was going on a date with Yataro."
Kei shook his head. Sometimes he almost got a sense of what he was hearing, but it would slip away at the last moment, before he could place a name to the voice. It was always like that, he just couldn't recreate memories in his head the way they were, even before he had gone missing.
Dinner was a bowl of stew. Kei felt his stomach start to curdle in on itself as it struggled to gnaw through the meat, but he didn't complain. At least it was keeping food down today.
Yuuta also ate in silence.
The pair finished their meal, and Kei started gathering the dishes to drop into the sink. His hands were still weak, but he could at least manage to move dishes, even if he couldn't muster the strength to wash them.
"Thank you," Yuuta mumbled in a token gesture.
The dishes made a dull thunk in the sink basin as Kei dropped them in, accompanied by the loud clatter of silverware following them. That was another thing. Yuuta had made Western dishes for most of the time Kei had been there, which admittedly wasn't very long.
When they had first met, Kei had assumed Yuuta had some foreign blood in her, at the time he hadn't known she was actually a he, but Yuuta had always had some traits that made him look Japanese. Kei hadn't really stopped to consider it though, like most things, Kei simply accepted Yuuta for who he was.
Yuuta finished his glass of water and walked over to Kei, or more accurately the sink.
Kei stepped out of his way.
Yuuta opened the cabinet under the sink, took out a bottle of soap, and a sponge, and started running the water.
Kei hung back and watched.
The water rushed out of the tap, steam rising up and coating Yuuta's skin. Foam started forming where he dropped the liquid soap. A growing lake at the bottom of the pot filling with rainbow bubbles. The sound of clinking plates on metal echoed out of the basin as Yuuta started to scrub.
In a few minutes, the dishes were done. Yuuta dried his hands off, and the pair walked back towards the table.
"What do you think of me, Yuuta?" Kei felt his lips move before he registered his own voice.
Yuuta blinked, just as confused as Kei was.
"I mean, I…" Kei stumbled. What was he thinking?
Yuuta frowned. "I guess," Yuuta looked at Kei. "You're a nice enough person. I know I'm not the greatest person to be around, but it's not like you're in the way too much or anything."
Yuuta didn't look like he was satisfied with his answer either. He turned his head to look out of the apartment's window wall, towards the skyline of the city.
"I guess… Well, I guess I'm glad you didn't flip out on me when you first found out about my…" Yuuta gestured weakly with his hands. "Well, you know. I hadn't really gotten a lot of praise from my folks, and most of my school friends didn't really want to be with me in public after that. I stopped talking to people about it, but it was a little weird for a while being with people who didn't really know me. I mean, it's not like I have a problem being a boy, but sometimes it's nice to change for a while.."
"..."
"People usually aren't rude enough to ask about it, even if they think it's disgusting, but you can always tell, right? Like how they can tell things about you." Yuuta balled his right hand into a fist and ground it against the palm of his left. "Well, it didn't stop them from asking about me in private though…"
Kei almost wanted to take a step back. Yuuta was dangerous when he got riled up, and Kei wasn't in the mood for another "stress-relieving massage." Though it probably was a good way to lose tension, for Yuuta.
"And like I said, it's really empty around the office, when you aren't around too." Yuuta shrugged. "I mean, why do you ask?"
It was Kei's turn to shrug. "I don't know. It just sort of came to me." Maybe in the back of his mind, Kei really did know why he had felt the urge to ask, but he buried it a little deeper. He didn't have the strength to go spelunking for answers down there.
Yuuta nodded. "Alright. Here. Get some rest. You're not really in the right state of mind to go around asking those sorts of things." Yuuta grabbed Kei's shoulders and spun him around to face the door to his room. "We can talk about it with Inaba when you get back to work!"
Kei slowly nodded and walked towards the door. He paused at the handle and gave a quick glance back. Yuuta was already sitting back down on the couch, turning on the TV. "Well… Good night."
"Yeah, good night."
Rainbow: And scene! Whew, finished the chapter!
Star: What's wrong? You look way more tired than usual.
Rainbow: Yeah, I probably shouldn't have read up on this fic. I think the past mes intimidated me, or at least, I felt really pressured to maintain the kind of mood I thought was building up.
Star: So how do you think it went?
Rainbow: Mmm… I guess I'm continuing the annual tradition of varying up what I wanted to write last year. I know for sure that for the first chapter, I really wanted to write a horror themed fic, and the second year, it turned into this mad dash kind of pacing. Last year really had this bitter sweetness when I read it this year… I guess after all that, I wanted a sort of break or backdrop to let everything soak in. In a way, I really set myself up for that without meaning to. It's actually really interesting reading my older work. I want to rewrite the chapters to edit out errors and bring some new ideas, but at the same time I feel like I'll lose a lot of the original feeling I had in them. Actually, I kind of want to write more of this fic outside of Halloween, but I say that every year, don't I?
Star: I mean, I wouldn't be against it.
Rainbow: Really? Y'know, you've been awfully nice today.
Star: It's Halloween. Fantasies are supposed to come alive today.
Rainbow: Good enough for me. Anyway, I just get the feeling like I actually have the basis to explore a lot about Kei and actually maybe Yuuta and Inaba too. Though, I have to admit everyone in this fic is super OoC, but I'll just blame that on the genre shift. I dunno. I think a more vulnerable Kei is pretty fitting and is something that was never really addressed in the show, and a more relaxed Yuuta is a little hard to comprehend, but I think it fits the mood. I w as really worried that I would make Yuuta overly friendly with Kei, but I think I managed to pull off a more distanced relationship in place, even if the interactions are a bit awkward. I don't really know if I should continue down this vein though or try and shift things back to a more normal tone.
Star: Why don't you ask people to comment on if they want you to keep writing?
Rainbow: Great idea! Please leave a comment if you guys want to see more of this, or have anything to say in general! All comments really help motivate me to write! And hopefully, I'll see everyone before next Halloween!
Star: Unlikely, but you can hope.
Rainbow: Oh, that's where you were. Well, see you guys in the next chapter!