Coffee and Champagne

Tyson was playing basketball with Max in his backyard when the text got delivered.

03:45 pm Lee: Congratulations, man. You passed the test ;)

Tyson snorted, then held up the phone so Max could see the screen. "I got in," he said in the deadest voice ever.

"Yay!" his friend cheered, shooting the ball into the hoop without even looking and landing it perfectly. He stepped forward like he was planning to give him a sweaty hug, Tyson dodged it at the last moment.

"Hell no, you're not hugging me."

Max's hands grasped at air but his smile grew. He found Tyson funny, and loved him to bits. Tyson only wished they could spend more time together, like they used to back when they were in college.

Life kept them apart more often than not now.

"Why'd you quit anyway?" asked the blonde, dribbling.

Tyson tried to steal the ball from him so he didn't have to answer right away. Max ended up winning that battle and scored another one over Tyson.

He turned around and looked at him with a smile after.

Tyson was in the light afternoon sun. His armpits were wet and gross. He shrugged anyway. "I felt like I had to leave everything when I dropped out. Say goodbye to that world." His neck prickled in the heat. "I met them in college and they were all still in their programmes when I dropped out." Tyson went to pick up the ball so he had an excuse to look away from Max's honest eyes, so he had something to do with his hands. "Lee didn't leave till his fourth year and I had no idea the rest of them were going to follow, but by then I'd broken all contact with them for over a year."

He aimed the shot and hurled it.

The ball sailed through the air, dipped, and went in.

"You didn't talk to Lee when he dropped out?"

"No, I heard about it from Rei."

Max squinted against the rare sunlight, wiped his hands on his trousers and asked Tyson in a lighter tone. "You want something to eat? I think mom left some spaghetti in the fridge."

He was thankful for the subject change. Max didn't live with his mother. He worked and lived in a whole different state, but he visited every two weeks. "Twenty-five and still a momma's boy," Tyson teased him as he brushed past his shoulder.

"Fuck you, Tyson," Max said with a laugh.


Tyson was twenty-four and sitting on a bar stool with his head on a counter. His hair fanning out over recently scrubbed, disinfectant-smelling surface. His arms on the counter, motionless and tired out.

The breakfast menu was in his line of sight and he kept mindlessly reading the names over and over, and over. The yellow lamp light overhead illuminating the characters, the empty tables and chairs in the coffee shop. The clock reading 01:45 am.

Mark," he said to the shop owner in his head, "this twenty-four hour thing isn't going to work out. I know the Hiwatari office workers leave late but they don't drink coffee at that hour. They're just tired and ready to hit the sack. Like me. Like Gia. Night shifts aren't for humans. There's a reason why the sun sets..."

The bell above the door chimed. Cold air entered the shop. "You don't usually work the night shift," Kai's deep rumble of a voice cut the silence.

"Were you expecting a brown head?" Tyson sat up to look at him.

He was wearing gloves. Black to match the rest of his outfit. There was a teasing glimmer in his eye as he stepped toward him. "I was expecting Gia."

Tyson blinked. He knew the name of the girl who worked this shift. "She's out of town on an emergency. I didn't know you were bi."

"I'm not" The 't' was emphasized. Tyson caught a flash of teeth. He set the gloves down on the counter, across from Tyson. "There's a lot you don't know about me," he said sarcastically. Was this a running joke between them now? He wasn't sure if it was very funny.

"I know how you like your coffee," said Tyson, chin raising in challenge, eyelids lowering, voice dripping honey.

"You memorize all of your customers' orders?" Kai lifted a neat brow. Lips quirking.

"What can I say?" Tyson held his eyes. "I have a great memory." Lie. But what was the harm in painting a faux pretty picture for someone who wasn't interested in looking at it for longer than five minutes?

It was all the same to Kai.

And just as expected, he didn't push. Simply didn't care enough to. He smiled for a fleeting moment however. "Make me a cup," he requested, eyes closing shut and opening again tiredly. Softly.

"Since you asked so nicely," Tyson slid off his seat and set to work.

Silence fell between them, broken sporadically by the sounds of Tyson making coffee. Kai leaned an elbow on the counter and watched him do his job.

He was filling up a cup when Kai asked all of a sudden. "Why did Mieko stop crying when he met you?"

Tyson took a breath. Stopped the coffee from pouring. He turned to meet Kai's eyes with the cup in his hand and said, "Because I smiled at him."

Kai's face stayed faintly curious, serious. He blinked twice in quick succession, with ease. Something he did regularly.

"You weren't smiling at him." He set the cup in front of Kai. "Babies need positive reactions and affirmations. Mieko was distressed."

Brown eyes met black and Kai dropped his gaze to the cup, picking it up and taking a sip, gaze rising back up to lock on Tyson's.

Tyson leaned on the counter with his elbows, expecting Kai to take his leave, but he was still looking at him. Staring. Observing. Eyes as dark as the night sky. Tyson wondered what he saw.

It wasn't till he heard a distant honk that he realized the road was nearly empty and the shop completely so.

Except for the two of them.

He had so many words on the tip of his tongue.

"Do you have a tab here?" he asked.

Kai nodded.

Tyson moved to the cash register to bill him, working the machine. A twenty dollar note was deposited in front of him by one long-fingered hand with a silver ring on it. "Keep the change," he said and left before Tyson could get another word out.

He stared after him confused for a moment before accepting the note and punching open the register.


"You did it where?!" Hilary screeched, champagne flute about to break in her fingers.

"In a corner of a club." Tyson adjusted his fringes against his forehead. "Keep your voice down."

Hilary sputtered in outrage. "Fucking in open air." Open air? "What's next? Fucking while sky diving?"

"There's an idea," said Tyson.

"Ugh, you're incorrigible." Hilary put a hand at the base of her throat, inches above the sweetheart neckline of her shimmery gown.

Tyson sipped on his drink, eyeing the other guests in the room. "Is that Callum Scott?"

"I don't think so." Hilary discreetly pulled up her dress over her chest. "Shit, Julia got the wrong size. I have reinforcements under the bodice but I still feel like my boobs are going to fall out any minute."

"Quit fussing. Your dress isn't going to slip. Even if it did, who's looking? There's nothing to see."

Hilary darkened. Tyson smiled, smug about pissing her off. "Oh, I could," she threatened, dropping her voice.

"You could…try"

"And succeed"

"At failing"

Hilary would have growled if she could but she ground her teeth and kept her anger in. "I'm going to go. Mingle."

She was going to chew him out later for that.

"Have fun" He raised his glass in farewell.

When Julia invited Hilary to the party, Tyson had been expecting a crowd of b-list celebrities and influencers. Not a room full of politicians and A-listers.

He eyed Kai talking to a well-dressed couple and wondered who he came with. Hilary brought Tyson as her plus one because she didn't want to be alone (which said a lot about her two influencer besties.) Kai had to have brought someone. He didn't seem the type to go dateless to a party. Or may be he was the type. Why was Tyson trying to draw a character sketch of him anyway?

He downed half his glass and summoned some of his old social skills and decided to go mingle as well. Hilary had already moved onto a conversation with someone else.


Kai was surprised to find him there. This was not his circle. He was probably an acquaintance of one of the influencers in the room. Cheap guests.

The influencers. Not him.

He was anything but as he glowed under the soft lights. Plain black t-shirt and jeans but he made them seem high fashion. The smooth fabric hugging his chest and biceps modestly yet enticingly. Chain link bracelets and a band adorned one of his wrists.

The body. The skin. The hair. He was approachable and unattainable at the same time. People were starting to notice him.

He mostly stood by a short brunette, making conversation with faces he deemed friendly. But every now and then his gaze would stray. Flit around the room. Before landing on Kai's.

Eyes profound and round. Face soft yet giving away nothing of what he was thinking.

They'd met last night in Kai's apartment. Had a conversation the night before that. Three encounters a week alone was a bit much. It wouldn't do either of them any good to approach him. Kai broke the eye contact and raised the glass to his lips, focusing on the tirade of one of his fellow directors.


The decision to abstain from hooking up that night did not stop Kai from observing him while he wasn't looking however.

He was currently at a small snack table trying out the different varieties available. He was pink at his elbows.

Tala burst out laughing at something on his right, drawing Kai's attention away for a brief instant. His HR manager was already swaying a little on his feet. Not drunk enough to tip over (may be dance a bit), but definitely about to get meaner. If the sharpness of his laugh was any indication.

"Robert's firm couldn't save a petty thief's ass, let alone a politician's," Tala was saying.

"They did win that Cameron case."

"Which Cameron case? I don't recall any such thing."

"The gambling scandal," Kai murmured, eyes prying away from a pair of dreamy pink lips wrapping around a chocolate-covered strawberry. To land on Tala's ice-cold eyes. "Remember?"

He made an expression of regret at Kai. Mouth turning down at the corners. "Beats me," he said. "Robert's not going to be able to save Tony. The Democratic Party will suffer the consequences and who's going to pay for his stupidity then? Tony will come crawling back to us on his knees and we-" he jabbed a finger into Kai's chest- "will have a bigger mess to clean up."

They'd been having this argument for three days now and getting nowhere. Kai took a sip of his champagne in favour of answering. Finding a head of shiny black hair leaving the building.

"Why would you take him back after he pulled the kind of stunt he did?" Petrov directed his question at Kai, who was relieved to not be surrounded by politicians for ten minutes.

"We can't afford to have the Democratic Party too upset," he said, actively joining the conversation once more.

"Tut" Tala shook his head disappointedly, sparking yet another heated argument between the two of them.

Petrov sipped on his vodka.


He was crying. Or he had been. He hid his tears the moment he spotted Kai coming down the steps and offered him a warm sweet smile. Polite. Always polite.

Kai stopped by a few feet away. The side entrance was darker than the front one since it led out to a moodily-lit garden. He'd been standing in a corner of the exit where the light didn't reach, silently weeping. His eyes were still a little wet. They twinkled like a million stars were scattered among their depths when he looked at Kai.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Kai asked when the other noticed he was lingering and his lips parted like he was about to ask Kai why.

"Yeah" he said. "My friend" His hands made a move towards his hips, his pockets, probably reaching for his phone, but then they simply came back to the front to touch each other without clasping. He was fidgeting.

He didn't have a jacket on. It was December.

"Short?" asked Kai. "Brown hair?"

"Yeah" he nodded, bringing his palms together before his waist absently.

"She left" said Kai.

The surprise and confusion was immediate. A frown grazed his delicate brow. His lips moving over unsaid words for a second. "What do you mean 'she left'?" He reached for his phone and took it out this time. "She didn't say anything to me."

Kai watched him text her, then call her. Then when he got no response he asked, "Has this happened before?"

"Yeah" he nodded sheepishly, gaze on his phone. "This has happened before. She probably went home with someone." He winced, looking back up at Kai. "Heading home?" Changing the subject.

Kai gave a nod.

"Not a big fan of parties?" He tilted his head.

"Not really" he replied, recalling the shit that just went down in there. He needed to keep Valkov off alcohol.

His smile was sympathizing and small. But the curve of it called out a few dimples in his cheeks. And his lower lip pouted just a little further than the one above.

He didn't know he was going to do it. Kai saw him cross one hand over a wrist and hold his shoulders like he wanted to hunch them against the cold but was fighting to keep his chest strong and open.

And the words simply tumbled out of his mouth. "Would you like to come with me?"