As promised, tada, chapter 17. Shout out to my beta, Aori. I couldn't have gotten the chapter out so quickly without your help.
Hayato hurried out of his apartment, jumping out of his window as always since the Hayashida family lived right across the hall. He didn't want them to find out about his job.
He was thinking about his living arrangement again. Tomorrow was the day he had to move and Hayato still haven't found a place yet. At last he considered rooming with someone, even though he was fond of his personal space and had a practiced habit of being wary of strangers. It couldn't be helped since he didn't have enough money.
Hayato skid to a halt when his eyes caught a paper stating something about a person looking for a roommate. At the bottom of the sheet was a bunch of slips with the contact info of the person. In Hayato's haste, since he was late already, he simply ripped the whole thing off the lamppost it was stuck on and stuffed it in his pocket before hurrying on his way again.
Hayato mentally cursed when he arrived at the bar and found the place packed with customers.
Fuck. The bar must not have enough staff, he thought.
"Excuse me," Hayato murmured, doing his best to be polite as he jostled his way towards the front of the bar.
He listened as people ordered drinks at a rapid pace and mentally started remembering the person who placed the order and the order itself. The other guy he was working with, Shinji, must be having a nervous breakdown by now.
"Hey, Gokudera," a familiar voice called out when he finally reached the front.
"Hey, Shinji," Hayato murmured, not really paying attention to his co-worker as he measured enough space for himself and then vaulted himself over the bar counter to the bartending area.
People let out 'whoa''s and whistles when they saw, but Hayato's attention was all work, work and more work by then.
"One Bay Breeze, two Bloody Marys, one Cuba Libre, one High Ball," Hayato murmured as he got to work.
"Wow," Shinji said as he began to prepare. "As reliable as always. But why don't you change first, Gokudera? You know Boss is picky about that kinda stuff."
"No time," Hayato said as he went to the sink to wash his hand. "There's –"
Hayato paused when he finally realized there was an extra person behind the bar counter.
"Yo," the guy said casually when he noticed Hayato's attention. Yusuke placed the drink he made down on a coaster, and then slid it across the bar counter to the customer. "Enjoy," he said professionally with a small smile.
The customer nodded her thank and then left. Another person took her place and as she ordered, Shinji explained, "He was going to drink here, but when he saw how busy it was, he offered to help."
"You let him come in here?!" Hayato asked, indignant.
"No!" Shinji quickly denied. "It just kinda… happened. Before you knew it, he was serving drinks. He's pretty skilled too! No one came back to complain and with his help, I didn't have to drive myself nuts trying to take care of everything."
Shinji rounded a glare on Hayato. "Besides, you can't blame me. Why were you fucking late?" he hissed lowly to Hayato. He poured the drink out of the shaker into a tall glass and then passed it to a customer, instantly changing his glare to a smile.
The second he turned back to Hayato, his eyes narrowed. "You know what? Never mind. Change first, work and then we'll talk. Kapish?"
Hayato held his breath and let it go. "Fine," Hayato snapped, heading to the backroom. "But for your information," Hayato said, turning around with a glare, "it's capisci."
Hayato slipped away before Shinji could respond.
Xxx
"That's some temper that bartender has," a random customer commented.
Yusuke shrugged noncommittally and slid the drink to him. "Here you go," Yusuke said.
"Thanks man," the guy said, handing him the money. "Oh, by the way," he said, rummaging through his jacket pocket. He pulled out a sheet of rumpled paper with a triumph look. "Your friend dropped this when he was vaulting over."
Yusuke casted the sheet of paper a quick glance, nodded and put it in his pocket. "Thanks."
The guy nodded and then he was on his way.
Yusuke looked over at the backroom to see Gokudera coming out but before Yusuke could call him, some customer gestured him to make them a drink.
Later then, Yusuke thought, as someone went up to the bar. He put up a professional smile. "Hello," he said.
Xxx
"Whew," Shinji said, crashing into the coach in the staff room. "What a day. Yusuke, right? You're pretty good with bartending, better than for it to be just a hobby."
Yusuke chuckled as he took a seat next to him. "I used to be a bartender, that's why," Yusuke said.
Shinji looked at Yusuke with interest. "Really, now? Ever thought of working here? Pay's not bad."
"Nah," Yusuke said. "I think I'll stick with drinking instead of making."
Shinji shrugged. "Oh well, then." He paused for a second. "Hey, were you thinking of getting paid when you helped us…?"
"I wouldn't mind getting paid for those hours but if you don't"–Yusuke shrugged – "no hard feelings."
"Easy going, I see," Shinji said, standing. "But the Boss is the equal kinda guy. You'll probably get Gokudera's pay for those hours."
"Hm," Yusuke said, following Shinji out. "I rather have a drink. How 'bout you guys make me a drink and we'll call that's that?"
"Pretty nice of you. Alright," Shinji said. "What do you want?"
Yusuke told him, and Shinji grinned.
"Gokudera, two more drinks for Mr. Yusuke here before we close," Shinji said, ambling towards Gokudera.
"Why should I?" Gokudera growled. "I'm almost done scrubbing all of these glasses."
"Because he covered for you," Shinji said. "C'mon, play nice."
Gokudera glared at Yusuke and Yusuke raised an eyebrow in return. In the end, Gokudera huffed as he made one drink and Shinji made the other.
Yusuke sat down to watch and as he did, he felt something in his back pocket. He pulled it out to see it was the sheet Gokudera dropped.
He's looking for a roommate? Yusuke wondered as he glanced at the ad in hand.
Xxx
"Are you tight on money?" Yusuke asked as he once again insisted on walking Hayato home.
Hayato choked on thin air, wondering how the hell did Yusuke knew. Yusuke shoved his hand in his pocket and when it surfaced again, it was holding onto a very familiar piece of paper.
Hayato immediately dug his hand in his pockets and found that the ad that he tore off the lamppost was indeed gone. "Give it back," Hayato hissed, snatching the paper away from the other man. "Why the fuck do you have it?"
"You dropped it when you vaulted over the bar counter," Yusuke explained. "A customer picked it up, but I didn't have the chance to give it back until now."
"It's none of your business," Hayato growled.
Yusuke quirked an eyebrow. "Even if I offer to be your roommate?"
Hayato could feel his jaws dropping, before he finally regained his wits after a few seconds. "What are you, a pedophile?!"
Hayato watched as Yusuke spluttered and choked. "What?!" Yusuke exclaimed.
"What?" Hayato threw back, crossing his arms. "You have to admit a sudden offer like that sounds fishy."
"I offer out of the goodness of my heart" –Hayato snorted, but Yusuke just continued as though he didn't hear – "and you suspect me?! See if I'll offer you help anymore after this."
"I—" don't need your goddamn help, Hayato wanted to say, except he did. He needed to find an apartment to move into literally between tonight and early morning, since he wouldn't have time to do anything else other than schoolwork and staying with Juudaime once tomorrow began. Juudaime must not know about Hayato's problem. So swallowing his pride, Hayato parted his jaws and said, "I'll be grateful if you let me stay at your place."
Yusuke froze mid-step, before walking backwards to stand side-by-side with Hayato. "What did you say?"
Hayato gritted his teeth. He was sure Yusuke was playing him and was just pretending to not have heard his words, but for the sake of not worrying Juudaime… "I said," Hayato said loudly, his words echoing in the empty street, "I'll be grateful if you let me stay at your place."
Silence reigned for a moment and just when Hayato began to regret ever asking Yusuke for help, a hand dropped on his head. Hayato glared at him and swiped his hand off. "Sure, Gokudera," Yusuke said with a chuckle. Then he began walking again.
"Where are you going?" Hayato hissed.
Yusuke turned his head to look at Hayato over his shoulder. "Don't you want to see the apartment you're gonna stay at?"
"This late?" Hayato said. "This is sounding more suspicious by the moment."
"Hey, it's not like I made you look for a roommate," Yusuke said. "C'mon. It's not that far. I'll even keep the door open so you can bolt whenever you want to once you're in the apartment."
"Fuck off," Hayato growled as he followed Yusuke.
Xxx
Hayato blinked when Yusuke opened the door to the apartment and beckoned Hayato in. Hayato stepped in, eyes taking in the sparely furnished room. The room felt very detached. Distant.
"Living room, kitchen and bedroom are all here. You can see everything with one look. Bathroom is there," Yusuke said, gesturing. He glanced at Hayato for his reaction. "So?"
"It's smaller than I thought," Hayato said slowly.
Yusuke quirked an eyebrow. "Where do you think I live? In a mansion?"
"No," Hayato said, walking deeper into the room. Hayato found it hard to explain that although the apartment looked pretty spacious, if Yusuke actually had any intention of settling in permanently, it would have been too small for two people. As it was, Hayato simply said, "It's fine."
His gaze dropped down. "There's only one bed."
Hayato turned around as Yusuke ambled up to him. A flare of annoyance entered Hayato's veins when he saw Yusuke really left the door open.
"What do you expect?" Yusuke said. "I didn't expect any guest and this is supposed to be a room for one person." He paused. "Just saying, I may be generous" – Hayato scoffed – "but I'm not giving you the bed."
While mentally Hayato expected that, the tone Yusuke used annoyed him. "Where do you want me to sleep then? I'm not sleeping on the floor."
"Lots of people do that with a futon. You have one, right?"
Hayato nodded. He wasn't really used to it, but the apartment he was staying at didn't have a bed, so Hayato got a futon instead. "Yeah. I guess you're saying I'm gonna sleep on a futon during my stay here."
"Yup. Any objections?" Yusuke asked.
Hayato mumbled something under his breath.
"What?" Yusuke said. "I can't hear you."
"I said," Hayato said, raising his voice, "what's the price of rent?"
"If I say free, you're going to leave right away, right?" Yusuke said with a knowing look.
"Damn right. I'm not going to owe anyone a favor and I'm certainly not going to live on pity," Hayato said.
Yusuke grinned. "Great," he said. "You're good with math and shit, aren't you? I got some stocks recently since I was bored. Just look over them for me, would cha? Sell them before they go down, hold them if they're going up and buy more if you want to, blah blah blah."
"Stocks?" Hayato said, looking so shocked. "What the fuck are you doing, playing with shit you don't know? You can lose your whole fortune if you're not careful."
Yusuke's smirk widened with smugness. "Which is exactly why I'm making you watch over them. I usually have someone to do that for me, but he just named some stocks I might wanna buy and then left me alone. Said something about preparing for something. Well? Have enough guts to give it a try?"
"What if I lose all the stocks for you and make you go into debt?" Hayato asked, wanting to see Yusuke's reaction. Did he truly have no fear or doubt about giving a virtual stranger control over his finance? Then again, Hayato couldn't speak since he decided to live with Yusuke when they couldn't even be considered as acquaintance. Granted, it was forced by circumstance but still, here they were anyway.
"Then," Yusuke said, amusement in his eyes, "you'll probably lose a place to stay."
"That's it?" Hayato asked, hardly believing. He thought over the terms they discussed and thought they were way too one-sided with the advantage on Hayato's side. Hayato had nothing to lose with these terms and while it was normally a good thing, the one-sided terms simply didn't sit well with his conscious. "I'm not a kid. Stop babying me."
Yusuke shook his head at Hayato's words. "Only idiots object to advantages handed to you on silver plates." Hayato scowled deeply, causing Yusuke to grin at Hayato. "But then again, honest idiots like you make life interesting. So how about this?
"Let's consider this business with a co-share of stocks. I'll get, let's say, 70% of the profit, since the stocks are mine. You'll get 30% of the profits for taking care of the stocks. We'll take the same percentage of loss if the stocks drop."
"You're kidding me," Hayato blurted out, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. "Are you a fucking idiot?"
"Hey!" Yusuke exclaimed, but Hayato was no longer listening, his mind going miles per hour as he once again considered the terms Yusuke set out. They were too good to be true. A normal rate for someone looking after stocks would be 15% to 25%. For Yusuke to offer a whole 30% of his profit to Hayato… either Yusuke was an idiot or he was a disguised philanthropist.
His mind whirled as he tried to decide. Hayato didn't want to rely on Yusuk's help once again, but it was also undeniable that he needed money. What should he do?
"20%," Hayato eventually said, looking straight at Yusuke. "I'll agree if we lower my share to 20%."
Yusuke paused for a moment as he let those words digest, before letting out a small grin. "Gokudera-kun, if this is the ancient times," he began, "you'll be a knight."
"You'll still sustain 80% of the loss," Hayato reminded, firmly refusing to acknowledge Yusuke linking a knight's honesty to Hayato's reluctance to take more than he deserved. He paused when he saw the confident look in the other's eyes. They were eyes that told Hayato Yusuke believed it was silly for even considering Hayato would lose money for him. Just where did Yusuke get this confidence from?
"Anyway, I don't like feeling like I'm taking advantage of a kid either, so let's just call your pay for looking over my stocks your rent, okay?" Yusuke said.
"…That will mean I don't have to pay any rent," Hayato said slowly.
Yusuke shrugged. "Just watch those stocks for me, Gokudera." He looked at Hayato and smiled. "Do we have a deal?"
Hayato paused for a moment, before nodding. "Deal," he said.
"Great," Yusuke said, nodding to himself. He then ambled to the door, causing confusion to appear Hayato's face. Just what was he doing?
"Oh, by the way, Gokudera," Yusuke said, gaze on Hayato. "I don't usually come back here for the night, so if I'm not back by 11 or so, you can take the bed."
"What?"
"Here's the key to the place."
Hayato automatically caught the key that was thrown in his direction.
"You can stay here for the night and use anything here. I'll be back whenever."
Yusuke slammed the door shut, leaving Hayato in the other man's apartment by himself.
"The hell…" Hayato said.
Giving credit to where it is due, I thought of this idea when I was reading We Just Live Together by raisin bean. In summary, it is "a chronicle of the happy life Gokudera and Hibari share under the same roof." Go read it, it's very well written.
*Edit: The deal between Yusuke and Gokudera was changed to 80% and 20% respectively, since Sachiel Angelo told me my former numbers (60% and 40%) were unrealistic. Thanks for the fact check, Sachiel Angelo.
