Chapter 7

Two days after Kisa found himself in a relationship with Yukina Kou, he started getting text messages from Kawano. The thing was, however, that they weren't angry as Kisa had been expecting when he saw his name for the first time.

You need to start calling each other by your given names, the first one had said. When Kisa replied with a simple 'Why?' Kawano responded that it would be cuter.

Cuter.

Right.

But another text came a few hours later, correcting the first one. Yukina was fine just using "Shouta," but Kisa had to use "Kou-chan."

"Kou-chan," Kisa said in disbelief.

"Yes?" Yukina looked over at Kisa with a goofy smile, and Kisa rolled his eyes. The man was making nikujaga, something that surprised him. When Yukina had said he could get Kisa anything and bring him anywhere he wanted, Kisa had expected to be eating out every night . He seemed a lot happier about it than Kisa was as he went back to cooking. "I think it's cute, Shouta-san."

Yukina still used honorifics when it was just them. The names thing was a little strange, mostly because he was used to men he slept with only having the chance to use his first name in bed.

Kisa sighed and rolled over onto his back, then moved so his body was draping over the couch and he was looking upside-down at Yukina over in the kitchen. "I don't mind calling you by your given name. I don't mind people knowing that we're together, because so far it hasn't been that bad. But do I really have to act like a cute little virgin schoolboy just because I look like one?"

There was a long pause as Yukina stared at a pan hanging over the stove, considering Kisa's words. Yukina, of all people, knew Kisa wasn't a blushing virgin. They hadn't actually gotten to sleep together yet, with Kisa busy at work and Yukina running between school and his responsibilities at the record company. Still, Kisa was a blunt person.

"No," Yukina finally said, turning off the burner. "At least I don't think so. But Kawano-san does, and Kawano-san knows best. He's the one who got me this far, after all."

The smell of meat was making Kisa's mouth water, and he managed to make it to the table without just snatching the serving spoon from Yukina and dishing it all for himself. It would be rude, after all. Not that Kisa cared. There was, however, a question on his mind, and as he used his chopsticks to split a piece of boiled potato in half, he just stared at Yukina, as if he expected the man to be able to read his mind.

When it didn't work, he abandoned the potato and said, "Kou?"

"Yes, Shouta-san?"

"Just what is that date that Kawano thinks we're going on, anyway?"

Yukina looked like he didn't know. Even though he couldn't read Kisa's mind, Kisa could read his. Or some reasonable facsimile of such. Yukina Kou was so transparent in his thoughts that he could never say a word to Kisa again and they'd still be able to carry out a conversation.

"I guess just dinner, and maybe some other things." He frowned, looking disconcerted that Kawano hadn't talked to him about his and Kisa's first date. The fact that he had so little control over his love life was cause for concern, but it was par for the course when you were famous.

Yukina had had to sneak into Kisa's apartment, after all. He wasn't so famous that he had paparazzi following him wherever he went, but it was still possible to find pictures of himself in tabloid magazines a day or two after doing something seemingly normal. They could get anything out of a picture. Even with someone as innocent as him.

"…either way, I have work so we can't even do anything until the weekend." He pointed at Yukina with his chopsticks. "Talk to Kawano and get him to tell you what he has planned. I'm not going to have him drag me all over Tokyo just for a photo op."

Yukina smiled, staring down at his food. "Yes, Shouta-san."

xxx

Kisa didn't hear from Yukina again about the date, and he didn't bother asking. Maybe these types of things took time. Kisa wouldn't know, having never been famous. He was infamous, if anything, and only to a certain subset of the population. That specific subset was also the kind to appreciate Yukina, but not in the same way that his teenage fangirls did.

It was about eight in the morning on Saturday when there came a knock at his door. When it wasn't Hell Week, Kisa did not and would not get up that early on a weekend. The person was insistent, and Kisa pulled one of his pillows over his head and folded it over his ears. However, his phone went off after a little while, Yukina's ring tone sounding from the nightstand and making Kisa's eye twitch. "Geeze," he muttered as he sneaked his arm out from under the covers and picked it up. "Kou, I don't function properly for at least two more hours."

"Ah, well, Kawano-san and I are standing outside your door right now and you weren't answering, so I thought you might've had to go into the office today or something.

Kisa pursed his lips and looked at the clock to make sure of the time. Barely past eight. With a long sigh, he answered, "Yeah, I had to go in. Lots of stuff to do, so little time."

"We'll meet you there, then. I'm sure Takano-san won't mind if you take off today. It's the weekend, after all."

"…yeah, see you there."

Kisa shut his phone before Yukina could respond further. However, now that he was up and had his first lie of the day out of the way, there wasn't much use in going back to sleep. He'd just have to take a nap later or something.

He went about his day as he usually did, grabbing clean clothes from beside the washer because he never bothered putting them away and taking a shower before he did anything else. He liked to shower every day when he could, mostly because Hell Week meant they went quite a while without one. He even started singing as he washed, and he still hummed as he stepped out of the bathroom, only dressed from the waist-down and a towel draped over his head.

That's about when he saw Kawano and Yukina sitting on his couch.

"Wha-what the hell?" he demanded as he moved the towel from his head to his front, as if these men seeing him shirtless was the worst of his problems. "How the hell did you guys even get in my apartment?"

Yukina smiled and held up a key. "You gave it to me, remember Shouta-san?"

Kisa frowned and walked over, snatching it from him. "No more key privileges for you." Instead of hiding it, though, he just chucked it onto the coffee table, at which point Yukina leaned down and picked it up again. It was on a keychain of Tinkle, the Emerald department mascot. Kisa really shouldn't have been surprised that Yukina had one of those.

"Either way, you two are scheduled to have lunch together at eleven-thirty." Kawano stood, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and closing a little black schedule book. "You've already washed, so get dressed and get ready."

Just to confirm, Kisa checked the wall clock hanging in the kitchen. "It's eight-forty-five. We have hours." And then he paused. "And I'm not going out somewhere just because you tell me to." He used his most threatening voice, the one he reserved for his authors when they skirted the deadline so closely that Takano started talking about telling the printers they had gone out of business.

Kawano adjusted his glasses. "Well you'll have to eat breakfast so you don't eat too much. And of course you'll have to look good for the photoshoots."

"The what."

Yukina had stood by then, going over to Kisa's kitchen and looking around. Apparently the fact that they were going out and were going to be photographed as they had a date didn't alarm him in the least. Just how the hell long had Yukina been doing this that he thought nothing of every facet of his personal life being up for public scrutiny? And how far gone was Kawano that he didn't care?

It wasn't up for debate, though. As Yukina made rice omelets, Kisa was reduced to sitting there on the couch, his arms folded as he vaguely listened to Kawano list out all the things they were doing.

"Can I at least drink at the end of the day?" Kisa asked when Kawano told him that they'd be going to supper at a romantic restaurant with a great view of the city.

Kawano stared at him. "No. You're not old enough."

Kisa stared right back. "Wanna fucking bet?"

Before he could say anything else, though, Yukina was back in the living room, putting plates down for all three of them. It was, apparently, a day for eating in the living room. No formalities were needed when you were discussing your love life with your boyfriend's manager, he supposed.

"No drinking," Kawano insisted as he picked up his chopsticks and dug in. "We need Yukina sober for the night. I've seen what he's like when he gets drunk, and it's not an experience we need caught on film."

"I keep telling you, I'm old enough to drink, too." Kisa almost pouted down at his breakfast but caught himself. How was he supposed to convince this man that he wasn't as young as he looked if he acted like that?

There was a long silence. And then, seeming to relent, Kawano said, "Alright, try me. How old are you, Kisa-san?"

"Thirty."

"Liar."

"You asked." Kisa stuck his tongue out and jabbed a chopstick at him. "I'm thirty, and that probably means I'm older than you. Haven't you ever heard of respecting your elders?"

"Haven't you ever heard that if you're going to lie, you need to at least make it believable?" Kawano didn't get to say anything else, because Kisa had dug around for his ID card and flung it at Kawano's head. After a few seconds, he pulled a face and flung it back. "Alright, the magazines don't need to know that part."

And there was another thing Kisa was afraid was going to happen. Kawano would find out just how old Kisa really was, and try to keep it a secret. Instead of taking it, he jabbed his chopsticks at Kawano again and said, "I am a thirty-year-old man with a respectable job and the looks of a teenager. If the magazines don't like that, they can kiss my cute little ass."

Yukina snorted back a laugh, and he was grinning around his chopsticks as he tried to keep quiet. When both Kawano and Kisa stared at him, he cleared his throat and put his utensils down. "Nothing, Shouta-san. Just thinking that your ass really is cute."

Kisa slapped his forehead and turned away from the man. "Ugh, I don't even know what to do with you anymore."

"Go out on a date with him so we can get this over with," Kawano said, putting his own empty plate down. "It's not much to ask, Kisa-san."

There was a long silence between the men, each exchanging glances with each other in intervals. It was mostly just Kisa and Kawano, however, as Yukina was looking between them with that bright grin on his face, like he wasn't aware there was a Western-style standoff happening right in front of him.

Finally, Kisa let out a long sigh and nodded. "Fine. They can photograph one date. But I'm dating Yukina because I like him, not because I want to be famous. You're not getting anything out of me after this."

Kawano simply smiled and stood, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "We'll see about that."