Disclaimer: Flame Of Recca isn't mine, sorry.

"Why am i here?" Kurei asked.

Joker grinned at him. "I thought it would be fun!"

Kurei surveyed the club before him. Dim lights, moving bodies wherever you looked, throbbing music, a bar . . .

"I'm leaving," he said.

"Don't be like that–" Joker started to chide him, but he was gone.

Once he was back home, in the safety and relative quiet of his room, Kurei let himself relax, slumping back against the door. It wasn't that he didn't want to go out with Joker. He just couldn't deal with the other ninja's choice of date spot. He couldn't breathe surrounded by so many people in such a small space. Joker would understand. He thought. Probably.

It wasn't long before he heard the telltale sounds of someone climbing up to the balcony. For some reason, that was Joker's favorite entry point to Kurei's room.

Sure enough, Joker's head poked up above the rail. "Hey," he said. "Where'd you go?"

Kurei didn't bother to answer him.

Joker swung his body up and over the rail. "It wouldn't be so bad to try something new once in a while, you know."

"It's not that it's new," Kurei corrected him as the ninja came into the room. "I don't feel safe in crowds. You can barely move, and anyone could knife you."

"Well, if it's like that, i suppose there's only one thing for it." Joker began to set up an old-fashioned record player.

"Where were you keeping that?" Kurei asked, with a sinking feeling that he did not want to know the answer.

Joker grinned widely at him, but didn't reply. Instead he pulled out an LP from yet another mysterious location – had he found one of the space-warping madougu? – and made a great show of depositing it onto the wheel and lowering the needle. Kurei didn't recognize the music that started playing. Joker stood in triumph and held out his hand.

It took Kurei a minute to realize the hand was meant for him.

It was long enough for Joker to get impatient. He stormed over and took Kurei's wrist, tugging him into the empty space at the center of the room. Kurei let himself be pulled after the other man, but when Joker drew him close, he had to say something.

"This is a fast song," Kurei pointed out.

"Yeah, but you don't dance to fast songs, do you?" Joker replied as he began to sway.

Kurei had actually never tried, but he wasn't about to tell Joker that. Besides, slow dancing with him was nice. He leaned into Joker's body a little and moved with him. The music washed around them, the singer more energetic than he had any business being. Kurei sighed and let his head drop onto Joker's shoulder.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Joker asked. Kurei didn't answer him. "Kurei-san . . ." When Kurei didn't respond to his verbal prodding, he moved into the physical, digging his fingertips into the soft spot beneath Kurei's ribs. "Kurei-san!"

Kurei jumped, the motion pulling him just far enough away to end the dance. "Don't do that."

"Sorry." Joker held out his arms out to his sides. "Wanna try again?"

Kurei gave him a look. Joker responded with a winning smile. Kurei sighed. "Watch your hands."

Joker grinned and started wriggling his fingers. "Scout's honor!"

Kurei eyed him, then pulled off Joker's hat and tossed it in the general direction of the bed.

"Hey!" Joker protested, but without much spirit. It wasn't the first time Kurei had seen his face.

"I can't trust you," Kurei said, as he stepped into the opening of Joker's arms. "Who knows what you'll do."

"I don't," Joker said, as if admitting a great secret. Kurei snorted.

"No, really! It's not like i plan ahead – i just do whatever seems like a good idea when i think of it."

"I'm aware." Kurei's voice was dry.

"Yeah, so i didn't really think about the club either." Joker rested his hands on Kurei's shoulders. The song had changed. "Sorry. I shoulda realized you wouldn't want to be in a crowd."

"You should've," Kurei agreed. He leaned into Joker's body.

"Hey, now who's getting handsy?"

"My hands aren't doing anything they shouldn't," Kurei said primly. They were resting on Joker's back without even so much as a weapon to dig into his flesh.

"Pity, that," Joker said. Kurei snickered.

"Hey, you laughed! I heard you! You can't take it back now!"

"Did i say i was going to?" Kurei replied. "Count yourself lucky. It doesn't happen often."

"Oh, i always knew i was lucky," Joker said flippantly. "How do you think i survived this long?"

Kurei wouldn't know. Neither of them ever spoke about their own pasts or asked about the other's. "Quick thinking and fighting," he replied.

"Yeah, i've got some moves," Joker agreed. "You don't even know."

"I'm sure." Joker was thin, but his back felt deceptively strong under Kurei's hands. Anyone who thought Joker's power was a sleight-of-hand from being able to manipulate gravity made the mistake at their own peril.

"Next time, you can pick the date spot," Joker told him.

Kurei snorted. "Next time, huh."

"Yeah, next time. You can't throw in the towel now! It turned out pretty good, right?"

Kurei frowned at him. Joker grinned back. Kurei looked away.

"Yeah," he murmured, almost to himself. "It did."

A/N: First fic posted from the new computer! Even though it's an old project.