Chapter 14

It was about a half hour before Kisa's shift ended when Yukina stepped into Emerald Café. Kisa had convinced Ritsu to give him the days off he'd need to go with Yukina to his family's vacation home, and since it was only an hour down the coast by train from Tokyo, they were leaving that night. Unfortunately, that meant Kisa would have to talk to Ichinose about it, because the minute she saw Yukina walk in, she became suspicious.

"Weren't you trying to avoid him?" Ichinose asked after Kisa came back into the kitchen to drop off Yukina's order.

Kisa ducked his head and gave Chiaki the order slip. Chiaki, for his part, at least knew better than to become part of that particular conversation.

"He's that good, huh?" Ichinose asked.

Kisa frowned and folded his arms. "We haven't had sex in two weeks," he said. Chiaki looked alarmed when Kisa said this, but Kisa and Ichinose both ignored him.

Ichinose looked like she was considering this as Chiaki got the order ready. "Then why can't you get rid of him?"

"I just… can't," Kisa said. When Ichinose gave him a look, he shook his head. "How is this any of your business, anyway?"

"Because I care about you, Kisa-san," Ichinose said, holding a hand to her heart in an almost dramatic way. "And Mino-san does, too. He also seems to like getting rid of those crazy guys you sleep with who stalk you here, and you haven't slept with any of those kinds of men since you met Yukina-san." Ichinose folded her arms.

Chiaki was almost done frosting the cupcake Yukina had ordered, and the tea was already there on the counter. Kisa was tempted to take the tea out to him early and just go back for the cupcake. Any reason to get out of the kitchen was fine with him. Unfortunately, Ichinose seemed to remember something else she'd been meaning to ask Kisa, because before he could go for the tea, she said, "By the way, you have the next few days off, right? Going somewhere?"

"Yukina's family owns a house down the coast and he invited me to go visit with him," Kisa said, wishing Chiaki would hurry up. Kisa didn't really give a shit about presentation right then even though he knew Takano-san would kill him for having such a thought.

"So you're going on vacation together," Ichinose said, her voice flat. Kisa eyed her warily, and she continued with, "Just a few days ago you weren't even living in Tokyo because you were trying to avoid him, and now you're meeting his parents."

"His parents aren't going to be there!" Kisa said as if it defended his reasons. To him it did, of course, but Ichinose just kept looking at him like she thought he'd finally gone insane. Kisa noticed that Chiaki was done frosting the cupcake, though, so he grabbed it and headed for the door. Mino was coming through just as Kisa backed out, though, and they ended up crashing into each other.

Chiaki screamed as the cupcake went flying through the air, but before it could hit the floor and be ruined, Kisa managed to lean down and catch it, along with the tea. He even caught some that had splashed out of the cup. When he righted himself, a group of girls sitting near the kitchen were clapping, apparently having seen him. Kisa grinned sheepishly and just headed for Yukina's table before anything else could happen.

"That was impressive, Kisa-san," Yukina said as Kisa set it all down on the table.

Kisa laughed a bit, looking embarrassed. "I've worked here for years, that isn't the first time I've had to do something like that. And Takano-san would have my head if I wasted food."

Since it was the middle of the afternoon, there weren't that many people in there. This was good for Kisa since it meant he probably wouldn't have to do much work in the last half hour of his shift, and it also meant he wouldn't have to go back into the kitchen with order slips and have to hear Ichinose trying to tell him that he was being an idiot for not recognizing that he and Yukina were in a relationship.

Kisa went back to the counter, glancing over at Yukina periodically. It had been a month including the time that he tried to avoid Yukina. When it came right down to it, Kisa could remember every time they had sex, and it wasn't a number he was proud of. Yukina was good, but he was also easily distracted and Kisa more often than not ended up going along with him and ending the night with nothing but some kisses.

Not that the kisses weren't good, of course. Kisa couldn't remember the last time he'd kissed a man and enjoyed it so much. But he wanted more, or at least that's what he told himself every time someone accused him and Yukina of being in a romantic relationship.

"You might want to hide, Kisa-san," Mino said with that eerie smile on his face. Kisa was still leaning on the counter, and when he glanced to where Mino was looking, he saw that a man was entering the café. He didn't recognize this man, but the man seemed to recognize him, and he started over.

It was too late to hide as Mino had suggested, so Kisa just held his ground. Before the man could even say two words to him, though, Yukina was suddenly sitting at the counter instead of at his table, and the man who'd come in to see Kisa seemed utterly confused. For about five seconds, until he decided that the man who'd suddenly appeared didn't matter and went about his business.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a month," the man said, trying to sound friendly.

This man still didn't ring any bells. If he hadn't seen Kisa in a month, though, it was quite likely that he had slept with this man right before meeting Yukina. He must not have been memorable enough to draw, though.

"…I'm sorry, who are you?" Kisa finally asked, since there wasn't much he could do if he didn't even know the guy's name.

"We were supposed to meet and you never showed up," the man said, still smiling. Kisa blinked, finally remembering: he had planned to meet with a man before Yukina showed up at Emerald Café and dragged Kisa to T University's art gallery. He hadn't even thought about this man after that day, and he'd never seen him again. "I haven't seen you in here at all lately so I thought you might've quit."

"Just been busy," Kisa said, trying not to let his voice crack. Mino was nowhere in sight and he had no idea why, considering the fact that Ichinose was right: Mino enjoyed bouncing the men out of the café. It was the one time Takano-san didn't care if they were rude to a customer, although admittedly, the men hardly ever came in and actually ordered anything. It was bad for business to have a man in there, waiting to talk to a waiter and causing a scene. "Anyway, my shift's almost done so…"

"Is that an offer?" The man's smile turned to a grin, and Kisa frowned.

"No, it's not," Kisa said. He noted that the man had taken a hold of one of his arms, and he jerked it back. "I have a train to catch so I won't have time to mess around."

"I doubt it would take either of us that long." He tried to put his hand back on Kisa's arm but was denied. "I've never had sex in a public place."

"Oh please, I get more of a thrill out of touching myself," Kisa muttered. When he realized that both Yukina and the man were staring at him, he said, "Just go home or find someone else willing to screw you, I don't care." He waved his hand in a gesture that made it clear the man should go now. He didn't, though. "What?"

The man leaned forward on the counter, cupping his chin in one hand. "I know your reputation, you know, and I was told that you never reject a guy even if you have something else to do. So what, do you think I'm not good enough?"

Kisa frowned at that. This man clearly didn't intend to give up. Then he eyed Yukina, who was happily eating his cupcake and looked like he was going to leave this to Kisa as long as possible. Then he just shook his head and said, "No, because my boyfriend is sitting right there."

There was a sudden pause in the conversation that Ritsu was having with a customer who was just paying for their food because Ritsu had stopped talking at that and just gaped at Kisa. Takano-san didn't seem to care, Ichinose and Chiaki were still in the kitchen, and Mino was still MIA. At least Kisa didn't have that big of an audience for this one.

"You have a boyfriend."

"Yes."

"And it's this guy." The man waved his hand over to Yukina, who was watching the exchange again probably in case he needed to somehow prove that he was, in fact, Kisa's boyfriend. "You probably don't even know his name."

Kisa rolled his eyes. "Yukina Kou, twenty-four, tour guide at Jump Art Gallery, went to T University for the Arts. His favorite food is vegetable stir-fry even though he knows I hate healthy shit like that."

"If you ate healthier you wouldn't be so affected by your varying work schedule, Kisa-san," Yukina offered. Kisa had nothing to say to that, so he just smiled and went back to his cupcake.

This was about the time that Mino appeared, and before Kisa could say anything, he was directing the man out of the café with a smile and a 'have a nice day!' because everyone pretty much knew that he wasn't going to order anything and Takano-san didn't like wasted space.

Yukina stayed there in his seat at the counter for the last few minutes of Kisa's shift, watching Kisa as he went around, gathering orders from a couple tables that came in to sit at the last minute. Kisa, for his part, was trying not to think about what had just happened. It wasn't just that he had used the excuse of Yukina being his boyfriend to not sleep with the guy, although when he thought about it, he probably could've given an excuse that didn't have to do with him being tied-down. It was the fact that he was able to prove he knew Yukina, even if it was just some basic facts. It was certainly more than he'd ever cared to learn about guys in the past. Most he didn't even get the name of.

The clock in the corner struck three and Kisa finally sighed, slumping against the counter. He was drained, and since they had an hour car ride ahead of them, he was looking forward to taking a nap. "Are you all right, Kisa-san?" Yukina asked. He'd long-since finished his cupcake and was now just sipping his tea, watching Kisa as the older man slowly made his way towards the bathroom so he could change into his street clothes before he clocked out.

Kisa nodded even though he wasn't. The thoughts going through his head certainly weren't ones he needed to share with Yukina.