These are snippets from a fic I was thinking of writing. Then abandoned. Thought it'd be cool to share.
Drabble 14: Not a Keeper
It hurts
His insides are bruising.
But weirdly, he likes it. A little more than he should. A lot more than he should.
He hits some spot deep within him and it sends a shockwave up his spine.
6 months. They've been meeting each other and hanging out inconsistently, for about 6 months now.
Tyson remembers how it started. The first time they crossed paths.
It was at a friend's birthday party. Kenny worked for the Hiwatari Corp as a senior engineer. His position was pretty high up that the president of the company attended the party himself.
Tyson had been talking to Hilary. Kai Hiwatari to Julia. A few feet apart. His gaze had drifted for a moment. And it had happened to be the same moment as Kai's.
Their eyes had met across the room.
Tall, dark, handsome. He ticked off all of his boxes.
Yet he was also unattainable.
Tyson had wrote off that eye contact as his only interaction with the Hiwatari that night.
Two minutes later, to his utmost surprise, Kai had tapped him on the shoulder. An hour later, they were in bed. Limbs entangled. Sheets winded across their bodies.
Tyson looks up at Kai now. There's an animalistic ferocity with which he takes him.
His hair hanging around his head. Out of the gel. His hand gripping his thigh. The other in a fist pressed into the mattress next to his head.
He never kisses him. He thinks it's too intimate. Tyson had tried to talk to him about it once, only for Kai to tell him he doesn't like bringing his face close to another person's.
Kissing was crossing lines. They were friends-with-benefits. Or more fittingly, acquaintances-with-benefits.
Kai visits Tyson in the coffee shop where he works sometimes. For a chat and a drink. Nothing deep. Just casual conversation.
"I came here to tell you we won't be meeting anymore."
Tyson sits up straight on the couch. Kai is standing next to the door.
"Why?"
"I've met someone."
"Oh"
The silence stretches.
"Can I ask who?"
"Hilary"
"Hilary" He nods. Right. The designer in chief of the advertising company opposite Kai's office building. Corporate workers who works in neighboring skyscrapers. Makes sense. "So I guess this is goodbye."
"Yes" Kai extends an arm. Tyson gets up. Shakes it.
"Good luck. I wish you all the best."
"Same for you"
He smiles.
The door closes.
The TV is on. Some man crying about his undying love for a woman playing on the screen at low volume.
He lies on the couch. Alone in his apartment on a Friday night.
All his friends are taken. They work too many hours and the little time they have left they spend with their significant others.
He's 25. Still single. Still lonely.
They hit it and leave it. 'Cause he's not the keeper type. Fun for a while, but not fit for the long haul. There's always something wrong with him.
Too loud. Too stupid. Too impulsive.
It's sad to think the happiest moments in his recent years were the ones he spent with Kai. They weren't even all that great. They simply hung out. Sporadically. To talk about mundane stuff. But looking back, that was the most fun he'd had in a while.
How fucking depressing.
Kai probably does not even think about him. He saw him kissing her during Kenny's birthday party a few months ago. He'd looked happy and so beautiful.
The five o'clock shadow on his face. His long sweeping lashes. His velvety lips smiling the slightest bit before meeting hers.
Guess he doesn't mind putting his face next to hers. Guess he is in love.
He knew Kai's body. But he had no idea what his lips tasted like. He'll never know.
"I need your help," Tyson says, standing before Kai's desk in his office at 10 pm. "My dad has a huge operation coming up soon, and I- I haven't been able to pay my rent. I'm going to be evicted tomorrow."
"Tyson, I understand what you're saying. The situation you're in is terrible. But-"
"Kai, please. Please." He does not want to hear the rest of that sentence. On the other side of that 'but' is his reason for why he cannot lend money to him. Because if he started doing that, every other person he's ever banged or had a fifteen minute conversation with would start knocking on his door. "I don't know who else to go to. I don't know what to do. Kai, you know me. I'll pay back every penny I borrow. I promise. On my dad's life. I promise."
Kai sighs, resting his nose on his intertwined fingers. "Here's what I can do. I can call your landlord and request him to give you another month."
"Thank you" Tyson breathes, partly-relieved.
He's getting ready to sell his soul behind the coffee shop the next day when Kai shows up with an envelope of money.
"Every penny," Tyson swears, tears of gratefulness drying on his cheeks as he looks at Kai. "I promise."
"Take your time. No need to rush."
He pays it in instalments.
He juggles four different jobs in order to make enough for his dad's medical bills, his rent, and the monthly sum he pays to Kai.
He takes up a job as a janitor at the Hiwatari tower. Only night shifts. After Kai's left the building.
One night, while he's mopping the floor of the giant lobby, his form barely illuminated by the streetlights outside, he hears the sudden ding of an elevator bell.
His heart almost jumps out of his body as he tries to hide before the footsteps reach him.
There's no point. He's too exposed. There's nowhere to run.
He keeps his face turned away from the suits crossing to the entrance, hoping the shadows will hide him, and Kai won't recognize him in the dark.
Too bad.
Most of his encounters with Kai had been in the dark. He knew the lines of his body well.
"Tyson?" comes his confused voice from behind him.
Tyson turns around with a forced smile.
Yes, you fucked your janitor.
He's a cruel boss.
He's a dickhead of a boss.
Kai hires Tyson as his vice president's PA out of sheer shock of discovering him mopping his floors in his office building.
"Are you giving me the job because you're embarrassed you fucked someone so low?"
"No, I'm giving you the job because I cannot see someone I know like...like this."
Tyson turned out to be excellent at learning new things and picking up skills quickly, but bad at following orders. Especially direct ones from Kai.
"You told me to bring the green file to the break room," he argues with him at one in the morning on a Friday night. When almost the entire building is empty. "I brought the green file to the break room. I don't know what I did wrong."
Kai drags a hand down his face, the other on his hip. "You couldn't check if the file contained actual papers or not?!"
"My job is to bring-and-take to you. I wasn't given anything high-level."
"High-level?" Kai snaps. "Making sure a file you were asked to bring is not empty is common sense."
"You were in the break room. Not a meeting."
"The meeting was held in the break room because our conference room does not have many windows and the client was claustrophobic," Kai shouts.
Tyson rolls his eyes. "I didn't know that. It's not my fault."
"You cost us a huge deal."
"I thought you were great at negotiations?"
"Tyson, do not get on my nerves right now."
"...You seem pretty pissed already."
Kai loses his patience. He yanks him closer by his arms. "Will you shut up?" he hisses, his breath washing over Tyson. "For a minute?"
His eyes carry the same energy he's so used to seeing while he's on top of him, that Tyson's mind goes places they should not go to.
He feels the sudden shift in the air and he knows Kai's thinking things he shouldn't either.
His hands fall away from Tyson's arms.
He steps back. Clearing his throat. Righting his suit jacket, which is already perfect.
Tyson's eyes drop to the floor.
"I have- I should go home."
"You should"
"Yeah"
He nods. Then spins on his heel, and rushes out of there.