Parties were officially cursed.

Or were they blessed? Eiichi wasn't sure at this point.

Maji Love Kingdom was finally over after months of hard work. All eighteen boys agreed it had been the most mentally and physically taxing, but also the most exhilarating and rewarding concert of their entire lives. But no matter how tired they were, it didn't feel right to just call it quits and go home right after the concert ended. Some sort of celebration was needed, and Reiji and Otoya had proposed that they all commemorate the completion of their passion project with a massive party.

So they all booked themselves a penthouse for the evening, complete with a hot tub and a massive flat-screen television set that played nothing but footage of the weekend's concert, as well as past performances by each group. The room was alight with music, laughter, neon lights that cast fluorescent pinks and blues across the walls, and all-around positive energy. The food was all catered - the three leaders of each respective group had established a strict no home cooking rule. They had worked hard enough over the past few months, this was a night for them all to relax, let loose, and have fun. The last thing anyone needed was more responsibilities.

Eiichi was currently lingering around the horderves, shoveling a record amount of spicy tuna rolls into his mouth. He was happily conversing with Natsuki, who was relaying the story of how he and Syo met as children. Natsuki spoke of Syo with such a strong sense of fondness laced in his velvety voice, his emerald eyes sparkling each time he mentioned a particularly cherished memory. Eiichi definitely sensed the existence of something more than platonic companionship between them, but didn't bring it up, simply smiling at the taller man.

"Hope there are still some of those deviled eggs left!"

Eiichi couldn't help but smile at the sound of Otoya's warm voice. He stepped aside to allow his friend easier access to the table behind them. "Almost a whole plate; knock yourself out."

Otoya grinned and reached for the plate before beginning to chow down, making Eiichi laugh. The two of them were quite the unlikely pair, but following the whole duet project ordeal, they found that they got along quite nicely, and a rather strong friendship had formed between the respective group leaders since then.

"Don't make yourself sick," Eiichi chuckled, placing his hand on the crown of Otoya's head and ruffling the fluffy red spikes. The younger man responded by furrowing his brows.

"I could say the same to you! Hardly anyone else got to try those spicy tuna rolls because you were hoarding them all," Otoya retorted, his words muffled by the food he was still chewing.

"Alright, you got me. Pot calling the kettle black. In any case, what are you doing at the buffet? Weren't you planning to go into the hot tub?"

"Was, but Rei-chan and Ranmaru-senpai are making out in there," Otoya grumbled. Eiichi craned his neck to get a look - sure enough, Reiji was straddling Ranmaru's waist, the rocker's large hands firmly gripping his hips as their lips devoured one another, their bare torsos glistening with water from the tub. Eiichi could only cringe at the sight.

"Do those two ever keep their hands off one another?"

"Nope," Natsuki and Otoya said in unison.

"What, are you talkin' about you an' meeee?"

Eiichi didn't even have the time to register whose voice it was coming from behind him before a pair of short arms were sloppily strewn around his chest. Van rubbed his cheek against Eiichi's, and the bespectacled man could smell the sting of booze riding on his breath.

Eiichi sighed. "No, Van. I was talking about Ranmaru and Kotobuki."

"Awww, but Eiichaaaan! I fought what we had was speshul." His words were drawn-out and overlapping one another, a clear sign that Van had consumed more alcohol than he was capable of holding. Eiichi felt heat rising in his face and shooting up to the tips of his ears; partially due to secondhand embarrassment for Van, but mostly from the words he was saying.

"Errr…" Otoya stared blankly as he tried to make sense of the situation unfolding in front of him, while Natsuki was not shy in voicing his wonder.

"Uwaaa! Eiichi-kun, Van-kun, are you two - "

Both responded at the same time, but each with a different answer.

"No."

"Not yet."

Eiichi turned to frown at him. Van giggled, nuzzling into Eiichi's cheek again. The taller man huffed. "Never mind that. How much did you drink?"

"Uhhhhhh…" Van stuck his tongue out, his bottom lip unfolding as he attempted to recount his evening's drinking habits. "Liiiike. Three or four beers. I fink."

"You've always been a bit of a lightweight," Eiichi sighed. "Is it time for you to turn in for the night?"

"Noooo!" Van harshly protested, stamping a foot against the ground like a child. "I'm habing a gooooood time. I dun' wanna stop now. I can barty alllllll night."

"Alright, alright. But no more drinks for you. You've had enough."

"Psssshhh. Screw dat. I'll drink as much as I wa - " Van abruptly halted in the middle of his own sentence, his words being intercepted with a burp, followed by a hiccup, followed by a gag. Eiichi looked down at him, eyebrows furrowed in concern. The skin of Van's face was notably a few shades lighter than usual, his eyes already drooping with fatigue.

"Okay, that's it. You need to at least lie down and rest for a while."

"But Eiichiiii!"

Giving him no room to protest, Eiichi grabbed his friend's hand and began to drag him away from the party, resulting in Van whining and struggling to twist his hand away. He waved pathetically at Otoya and Natsuki, who waved back before whispering to each other about what could possibly be going on between those two. Eiichi's brows crinkled when he caught wind of their giggles and murmurs drifting through the lively air. Could they be any more immature? Gossiping like a pair of schoolgirls, and over what! Over Eiichi taking care of his friend who was clearly drunk and couldn't take care of himself? Please. Speaking of, why was nobody else stepping up to the plate to babysit Van? Where were the rest of HEAVENS when he needed them?

It took a bit of a struggle - when did Van get so heavy? - but Eiichi eventually succeeded in dragging a complaining Van up the stairs, and leading him into one of the empty bedrooms. Eiichi wasn't the strongest person alive, his physical brawn nowhere near that of Natsuki or Yamato, but given how small Van was in comparison to him, it wasn't much of a challenge hoisting him up onto the bed.

Van flopped onto his stomach, then flipped over onto his back, groaning and shielding his eyes with his arm.

"You don't have to stay here the whole night, but I want you to at least stay until you've sobered up a bit," Eiichi explained to him gently.

"Eiichan, will you stay wif meeee?" Brown eyes shifted up to gaze at him pleadingly, complete with a pout.

Eiichi sighed. It wasn't like he had anything better to do, plus he didn't trust Van enough to leave him on his own. He nudged the door shut with the toe of his shoe, not turning back around until he was sure he heard it clicking into place. "Fine."

Eiichi toed off his shoes and lazily kicked them into the corner of the room before climbing into the bed alongside Van, filling the empty space in the mattress next to him. He didn't bother to peel back the sheets, their bodies settling on top of the comforter instead.

"Yaaay~" Van rolled over so that he was close to Eiichi, the stupidest smile plastered to his face. He threw an arm around Eiichi's waist and snuggled into his chest, sighing contentedly as he did so. Eiichi smiled despite himself, curling a hand around the small of Van's back.

They stayed like that for a while, Van's ear pressed against Eiichi's chest close enough to hear the rhythmic battering of his heartbeat. Eiichi just held him close, like he'd slip away if he took his hand off. In all honesty, he was so loopy from the alcohol that he probably would.

Eiichi peered down at Van. His eyes were closed and face serene as if he was sleeping, though his breathing gave him away. Instinctively, Eiichi reached a hand up to stroke through his hair. It was mussed and tangled, a contrast from its usual put-together style.

"Hey," Van eventually whispered, his voice slightly muffled due to his position against Eiichi's chest obstructing his lips.

"Hm?"

"Do you like me?"

Van moved so he was resting higher up on Eiichi's chest. The taller man's eyes remained bolted onto the ceiling. "Of course I like you, Van. You're one of my most cherished friends."

"Das not what I meant," he whispered, the slurring in his voice slowly fading away, but still there.

He rolled over, hoisting himself up until he was on top of Eiichi instead of right next to him. He was kneeling on all fours, palms and knees sinking into the plush mattress, his hands on either side of Eiichi's shoulders and legs on either side of his hips. Eiichi's breath hitched as soon as he felt Van's legs brushing against his. The sudden contact between them halted all of his movements; all he could do was stare up at the other man, his body still as a doll's. Van swept some of Eiichi's hair from his face, and then, with nary a second for Eiichi to prepare himself, he swooped in and crushed his lips against the other's.

"Mmf!" Eiichi gasped out in shock, a noise that was lost into Van's mouth. Van began to move his lips against the other man's, toying with them and moving like he was trying to swallow Eiichi whole.

Eiichi had never expected his first kiss to go anything like this. In the movies, first kisses are slow and romantic. They start by slowly leaning towards each other before two sets of lips finally meet, tentatively fluttering against one another at first and then becoming increasingly passionate as a flame ignites and then grows inside both parties. They happen at beaches and under the stars and in front of fireworks and with violins playing in the background. They didn't happen at parties in a random bedroom with your drunk best friend on top of you. They weren't supposed to taste bitter like vodka and they weren't supposed to be fast and sloppy.

The second he felt Van's lips crash into his, Eiichi felt heat burst throughout his entire body. But he couldn't even kiss back. He lay completely static, letting Van's lips explore around his while he remained completely motionless, not even closing his eyes or blinking.

"Eiichiiiii," Van whispered, his breath hot. "C'mon, play wit' me."

"Van…" Eiichi choked out.

Van's mouth returned to his, and Eiichi was just as dumbfounded and useless as before. The shorter man took things an extra step further when he began to poke his tongue at the corners of Eiichi's mouth and tug at Eiichi's lower lip with his teeth, cheekily requesting access inside. Unsure of what else to do, Eiichi let his lips separate, and Van took the plunge immediately, his tongue gliding into the other man's mouth with ease.

"Mmngh…" This was a lot to take in. Eiichi's mouth had become Van's personal playground, and Eiichi was doing absolutely nothing in response to the situation. He wasn't stopping it, but he wasn't going along with it either. Why wasn't he doing anything? Was it maybe because both options sounded like they shared an equal amount of pros and cons, and Eiichi wasn't sure which one he should go with?

The shorter man did depart after a few seconds, leaving only a translucent string of their saliva in his wake that connected their lips like some sort of low-brow red string of fate. Van's breaths were heavy, his chest rapidly rising and falling while he tried to steal back the air he had lost while kissing him.

"You're not kissin' back," Van finally spoke. His voice seemed significantly less garbled than before. Was he sobering up?

Eiichi couldn't say anything back, not even when Van's fingers began to dance and ride along the contours in his collarbones.

"Do you want me to stop?"

Eiichi shook his head.

"Do you want me to continue?"

"I don't know."

Van leaned back down to slide his lips along Eiichi's jawline instead, and the bespectacled man let a breathless moan billow up from his throat.

"Eiichi," Van whispered. Hearing his actual name rather than his usual nickname of Eiichan in the other man's voice sent a shiver eddying up his spine. "What are you afraid of?"

"Van, I…" Even if Eiichi had known what to say in response to the harrowing question, it would have been lost as Van distracted him by raining a barrage of kisses onto the warm, goosebump-ridden skin of Eiichi's neck.

"Van," he mewled, his voice small and helpless. The man in question continued his descension down Eiichi's upper body, lips coming to stop right at the base of Eiichi's shoulder.

Both their heads snapped up at the creak of the door swinging open.

"Oh shit, uh…" A staggered-looking Ranmaru stood in the door frame, his arm coiled possessively and tightly around the waist of Reiji, who had his head lolled against one of Ranmaru's generous pecs. Their bodies were still wet from the hot tub. Eiichi could identify the obvious imprint of human teeth haloing a spot on Ranmaru's neck, the purple bloom of a bruise clearly manifesting beneath it.

"If we're interrupting something, we can just go to another room, s'not a problem," Ranmaru mumbled, jerking his thumb in the direction of the hallway. Mismatched eyes pointed away from the scene before him.

Reiji and Ranmaru relocating to another room would be, in fact, ideal. But not without Eiichi ensuring they knew that whatever they thought was happening wasn't really happening. That was one of his fatal flaws - too overly concerned with outsiders' perceptions of him. Always needing to be right and feeling the need to prove something, all the damn time.

"It's not what it looks like," he blurted out, in spite of another wet, messy kiss being pressed against his neck.

"Really?" Ranmaru's brows shot up dubiously, clicking his tongue. "Because what it looks like is that you two are hooking up, and while I don't wanna make any assumptions, given…" - he motioned towards them - "what I'm looking at right now, I think it's a pretty reasonable one. Unless you got bitten by some kinda poisonous spider and Van's tryna suck the venom outta you? 'Cause that's the only other valid excuse I can think of."

"Ran-Ran! Don't be mean!" Reiji scolded him with a light shove to the ribs with his elbow. He grinned at the other two men, his cheeks slightly flushed, probably from embarrassment at having walked in on such an intimate scene. "We won't bother you kids! Have fun, be safe!"

Just as Eiichi was about to retort that it wasn't like that, the couple scrambled out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind them. Eiichi sighed, rubbing his temples as he felt the oncoming of a headache begin to tug at him. He hadn't even had any alcohol tonight, but he sincerely doubted it was brought on by anything other than his own conflicting feelings.

"Whatever, I think we can trust them not to blab, at least," Eiichi muttered. "Right, Van?"

No response.

Eiichi nudged him lightly. "Van?"

The sound of Van's snoring broke out through the otherwise silent air, reverberating against Eiichi's chest. Eiichi rolled his eyes, then smiled softly. Carefully, he attempted to gingerly peel Van's hands away from his torso and slip out unnoticed from beneath the other man's sleeping body, but Van tightened his grip around him, locking Eiichi into an embrace he wouldn't get out of without waking Van up.

"Fine," Eiichi whispered, though he knew Van wouldn't hear him. "I'll stay. I just hope nobody else comes in."

His own eyes began to feel heavy eventually, too, Van's breaths soothing him. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he just took a quick nap, right…? His lashes slammed shut, and he felt his muscles relax, his own breathing pattern evening out.

Van was out cold for the rest of the night, but Eiichi was abruptly pulled from his sleep within mere minutes when he made the unfortunate discovery that A. Ranmaru and Reiji had elected to take the room right next to theirs and B. the walls in this place were paper-fucking-thin.