Chapter 5: The First Time

Ren was 3 hours into the workday before Yoh showed up. Needless to say, the brown haired guy looked… "ruffled". His hair was sticking up and puffy, his tie was undone, his shirt was wrinkled, and he had more than one gnaw mark on his neck. The Chinese boy was not thrilled.

"So! Ren, my dear friend, how went last night for you?" Yoh asked sweetly, smiling as he always did. He didn't get an answer. Silence was the tan boy's only needed weapon. So was ignoring the brown-haired "friend". Suddenly, it seemed that Yoh caught on. "You're not sore about me leaving you, are you?" he asked, smiling. Ren's gold eye twitched as he continued to organize the shelves of packages.

"No, I'm not. It was perfect. I found a ride home at midnight." The Chinese boy sarcastically growled. Yoh didn't catch onto the falseness of the statement, so he smiled. Ren just went back to arranging the chocolate. Yet, he couldn't help how his gold eyes wandered to the clock hanging on the wall. He had 4 hours to go until noon… until the coffee shop… until the spiky blue haired bartender…

His name was Horohoro, wasn't it? Yes, that was it. How could Ren have forgotten the name? It had been ringing around in his head all day, not even letting him concentrate on work. What had happened in the Chinese boy's mind that now suddenly made everything work-wise so damn hard? Why was everything so difficult to focus on?

Finally, while Ren was busy with a woman shopping for perfume for her daughter, the large clock off to the corner began to chime noon. Without so much as a goodbye to the woman, the Chinese boy leaped and ran off to the break room. After grabbing his coat and taking off his nametag, Ren ran out of the store and into the busy mall.

Eventually slowing down, Ren really began to wonder if this was for real or not… Maybe the bartender had only asked him out just to make him sweat, when in reality he was just going to stand him up. It wouldn't be the first time…

But as the Chinese boy walked around the corner, he saw blue spiky hair seated in the coffee shop window. For one brief moment, Ren smiled… but quickly wiped off the look, and entered the coffee house. He walked right up to the counter, unaware that the bartender rose from his seat and took a place in line behind him. After ordering a non-fat latte, he reached into his pocket for money only to see an arm come out from behind him and place $5 down. The barista looked at the man behind Ren, and so the boy with gold eyes spun around to also do so. It was Horohoro, smiling as he said, "I'll pay for it," and he took Ren's wrist carefully as he guided him over to their table, not waiting for the change.

Horohoro smiled as Ren sat across from him. The golden eyes looked at what the bartender had gotten. It was a frappuccino, almost completely frozen. Why would anyone get an ice-cold drink when it was 29 degrees Fahrenheit outside? The guy with blue hair seemed to noticed and said, "I was born in Alaska, so I'm used to the cold."

The Chinese boy blushed and nodded. Finally, after a very long silence, Horohoro blurted out, "You never told me your name." Ren nodded, a barista setting his drink in front of him. There was another long silence, and Ren suddenly realized he had been informally asked what he was called, so with a slight sniff he answered, "My name's Tao Ren."

The bartender smiled, thinking that the Chinese boy in front of him could not possibly be cuter. He was even cute when he was sick, and obviously oblivious that this was a "date". But Horohoro didn't care; it was enough to see Ren again.

"So, you work at the Bon? Must be difficult with all those people, especially around this time of year," Horohoro said, warmly inviting the cute guy sitting across from him into a conversation. "Personally I think this time of year is good for some reflection. That's what winter's about after all: renewal and that kind of stuff."

In the back of his mind, Ren agreed, and he mumbled, "What about your job? Bartending sounds like a pain."

The man with blue hair threw his head back and laughed. His laugh was joyful and light, warm to hear and nicer to create, though WHY he was laughing baffled Ren. Smiling, Horohoro chuckled, "Why would it be? You're surrounded by booze all day and get to attend parties. It's really cool making all those different drinks, like chemistry, only with more rewards. Plus, if your really good you get paid a lot, so it's actually smooth sailing kind of job. Still, I have to work days that I would rather be snowboarding. Especially during the holidays, because of all those "season parties" I get stuck with, but that cloud has its silver lining: I met you, didn't I?"

Being paid a compliment from a stranger was almost unthinkable with the crappy way Ren was feeling, which was similar to someone was holding a golf ball of phlegm in the back of his throat to see if he could swallow with it there. Some color passed over the tan cheeks as he sipped more of his coffee, saying barely above a whisper, "Thank you."

The great laugh sounded again and Horohoro smirked as he beamed. "I should be thanking you. I was feeling really crappy that night. You got me in a better mood."

"Why were you in a bad mood to begin with? If you don't mind me asking…"

"I don't, see, my sister has been on my case forever for dropping out of college to be a bartender and she was at one of the last parties I was at, so she went insane that I was hired for "her" party and basically chewed my head off because I was embarrassing her and—" Horohoro continued talking and Ren was so taken with him, that he just stared into those beautiful brown eyes. The sound of his voice was fun-loving but peaceful and laid-back at the same time, and it was so rich that it just lulled Ren into a moment in which nothing mattered, not even the fact that it was past his break time.

The large clock in the middle of the mall began to toll one o'clock and Ren's eyes widened. He was late in getting back to work! He stood up suddenly and ran off yelling behind his shoulder that he was sorry he had to leave so soon, not looking back to the blue-haired bartender at all.

As soon as Ren dashed into the store, he was called over the intercom by a cruel, radio wave distorted voice yelling, "Tao Ren, report to the Store Manager's office. Tao Ren to the Store Manager's office." Ren could only catch a sorry look from Yoh as he slowly walked to the back of the store and up the nice staircases to the business offices. With each step, he could feel another lump growing in his throat; only this one was made out of fear and regret. What was going to happen to him? He hadn't done anything too bad, had he? Could this really be it?

As he reached the end of the hall and opened a small door to look inside and see a cheery-faced man with green hair, who looked incredibly like a woman. It was the Store Manager, Lyserg. Smiling, he bid the Chinese boy to take a seat, and that this wouldn't take long. Whether or not this was a good thing, Ren didn't know.

"Well, Ren, I know how important your job is too your life, and how much you appreciate this company," Lyserg started out, his tone almost creepily calm and kind. Any minute, a monster was expected to jump out of his stomach and eat Ren's head off with a cruel laugh, but no such thing occurred. "However, you don't seem very good with time. By the look of the tan line on your wrist, you lost your watch, hm?"

"Actually, sir, it broke," Ren mumbled, not sure if it was a rhetorical question or not. Lyserg tittered in an odd way and took a box out of his drawer, handing it across the oak-wood desk to the Chinese boy with ever-watchful gold eyes.

As Ren opened it, Lyserg said, "I value you a lot, Ren. You never complain and always do your job beyond your ability. So here's a watch so that you can stay on top of the time. I hope it'll work for you. And Happy Christmas."

Ren put the watch on and thanked Lyserg gratefully, soon rejoining his coworkers down in the store. Of course, Yoh had to ask a million times what had happened and why HE was so lucky.

Soon after closing, Ren walked out of the store into the cold and windy night. Snow clung to his hair as he trudged through the lit-up streets emptying of shoppers and shop owners alike… but all with someone to go home too.

Ren wished with all his heart that there was someone he had to go home to, especially in three days, when Christmas would arrive. That, and that he would get over this cold soon. Funny how it had never really bothered him until now… when he was old enough to need love yet young enough to have never experienced it.

Just then, a blue Ferrari pulled up next to Ren as he looked in the window to see Horohoro, smiling meekly and unlocking the car door. Without a word, Ren got in and sat there in the warm car as the bartender drove him home.

The blue-haired guy parked in the empty driveway and followed Ren up the steps to his front door, all in silence. As Ren was unlocking the door, he could feel Horohoro's warm breath on the back of his neck, tantalizingly tickling the nerves in his body. He opened the door a jar and turned back around to look into the warm dark eyes. "Do you want to come in?" he asked softly, sniffing his runny nose, as he blushed a bit. Loneliness had gotten the better of him.

Horohoro smiled, but declined, saying, "Maybe some other time, Ren. I should be getting home… I wanted to give you my phone number." He dug out a card and scribbled some numbers on the back of it, placing it in Ren's gloved shivering hand. Yet their hands didn't move apart after that, and instead stayed touching as the eyes looked at each other.

Slowly, the eyes closed, the bartender bent down and touched Ren's cool lips with his own, Ren's own mouth responding. Their lips moved over one another's in a ritual motion, rubbing heat into such a simple thing as a kiss. Lacing his arms up around Horohoro's neck, Ren pressed his body against him, feeling gravitation towards the blue-haired man. He felt two hands rest on his hips as he slowly opened his eyes and his shivering lips parted from Horohoro's. In his eyes was such tender emotion that Ren could not describe how deeply the entire experience touched him.

They said goodnight and parted, Horohoro for some reason being giddy and happy as ever. Ren was in a daze and remained that way until he slipped into bed and held himself, imagining that the bartender was holding him again. His very first kiss had been from a bartender, and had gotten him drunk.