p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He should probably be doing something other than staring at Mizuki, but he was bored and the atmosphere was nice today, the bartender working silently on a new design for somebody and music playing through the speaker system by the well-stocked bookshelf. Sly wasn't familiar with many of the songs but he assumed they were the same sort the bar played, pop and some dance type stuff, things that were easy to like and had catchy, upbeat lyrics./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he continued to study Mizuki, eyes scanning over the tilt of his jaw, the sharp angles of it and the way his slightly outgrown hair curled at the ends, tickling his neck and vest sliding off one shoulder, leg tucked up under his chin folding out to sit normally as he frowned minutely. Tiny lines appeared in his forehead then, cupids bow disappearing and eyebrows furrowing, lips pursed into the slightest displeased pout as he reached out for an eraser, leaning in close to the paper to swipe away a wayward line./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was interesting to watch him, to flicker eyes across the thick piercing in his ear, knowing already it was stretched wider than normal to allow the wide band of metal to fit though, debating for a moment a stud or ring in his nose and deciding it wouldn't be displeasing. He was pretty sure it would take a lot for Mizuki to be displeasing./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Pestering him wasn't really on his mind as he stood up, bartender having just flicked a button to repeat the previous song, humming along absently and one bare foot tapping on the carpeted floor, warm and comfortable with the summer breeze coming through the windows./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As he approached, Mizuki absently glanced up for the slightest of moments, not for a long enough time to smile or anything, just having heard the soft tread of feet towards him, perhaps anticipating he'd enter the kitchen. But he stopped right in front of him where he sat sideways at the dining table, a position that apparently made it easier for him to sketch without smudging the design./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He didn't do more than mumble indistinctly as Sly promptly put arms around his neck and plopped into his lap, sitting across his thighs and legs dangling above the ground, attempting to continue to draw with his newly acquired baggage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm trying to draw, Sly."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"I know, I'm trying to make out with you." Up close he could see the amused tilt of his lip, the way his fingers twitched on the pencil as it left the paper and lingered uselessly above it, could see the faint flare of his nostrils as he finally focused on him, smiling as if he'd been waiting a while, eyebrows high and speaking almost chirpily. "Hi."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey, something you wanted?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I believe I already said what I want." When he scoffed he rolled his eyes too and Sly was relatively sure the almost phlegmy sound of it shouldn't be as pleasing as it was, perhaps just glad he could still mildly annoy him, watching him abandon his notebook to wrap an arm around his waist instead, switching the hand his pencil was in. "You can draw with both hands?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm, I'm ambidextrous. Jealous?" His eyes glinted with good humour, teasing him lightly and trying to pretend he wasn't a distraction even as one of his hands wormed into his shirt to stroke the skin between his back and shorts./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Massively," another eye roll, olive eyes reaching skywards only to return and look right at him, huffing in reluctant fondness as Sly just looked expectant and he realised he had no choice in this, allowing the pencil to be pried from his hand with pale fingers. "Now pay attention to me."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was a nicely worded enough demand that Mizuki didn't even mind being told what to do./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He'd say it was ironic, if he knew what that meant properly, that a few weeks ago the slightest hint of affection would have freaked him out but now he was here, sat on the tattooist's thighs, hands playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck and making out to cliché pop music. He decided he didn't mind it too much./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sly, I span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"really /spando have to finish this design by tomorrow and I'm not even half done yet." His voice is inherently reasonable and Sly knows he's been enough of a pest already to call it a day, feeling the warmth of summer and Mizuki's body combine to make him feel even lazier, flopping over his shoulder like a cat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Fine, fine. Can I stay here?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sat on me?" His voice rumbles where their chests join and Sly can feel it vibrate right into the tips of his fingers where the idea starts to build that maybe he could stay here, like this with Mizuki, forever. He grips the feeling tight, balling it up into his fist where it stays for now, but he can almost feel it swelling against his fingers, trying to force its way out of his mouth as something he'll regret saying, so he hums agreement instead and lets his hand overflow with the feeling of span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"belonging./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm-hm."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I guess. But… why?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You're warm and I like to make things difficult."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His laughter huffs against his cheek and Sly's hair flutters with the sound, "I know that."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yet still you asked," Mizuki smiled then, he could feel it against his neck, accepting the kiss pressed there dryly a second later and closing his eyes to the sound of the pencil resuming its progress across the page, song changing to one he vaguely knew and feeling both sleepy and warm./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It had taken much longer than he expected to finish the design, sky streaked with beautiful peach and orange stripes as the sun began to sink down below the horizon, pausing to watch it through his high windows. He knew Sly had gone still a couple of hours ago without either of them having done anything about it, presumably having fallen asleep lying on him, face in his neck and long hair tickling his chin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sly, you asleep?" He kept his voice as low and soft as he could, because he wouldn't want to wake him and he knew he'd been having trouble sleeping lately, he needed all he could snatch. He just mumbled something and shifted so his nose was rammed into Mizuki's hair under his ear, sniffling contentedly and going still again, not shifting much as he was picked up, Mizuki's hands under his thighs and clinging onto him like a particularly cuddly koala./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He takes advantage of how tactile Sly is being, tucking him into bed and leaving him there for the shortest period of time he can, brushing his teeth, taking a piss and making sure the place is locked up in record time. Then he turns the fan on, opens the bedroom window as wide as it will go, and sips into bed beside Sly, able to bear even the hottest early-summer night if it means his half-asleep bed mate will allow the arms around his middle./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly is gone when he wakes up, Ren left in the kitchen next to cold sausages and an empty coffee mug with stained sides./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""He didn't leave you with his Granny?" Mizuki enquires as he squirts ketchup onto two slices of bread and sandwiches the cold meat between them, putting the kettle on to boil and scratching absently at Ren's ears, Amaya curling up between his feet on the cool kitchen floor./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""He planned to, but then she told him not to visit again and he ordered me to leave with him."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mizuki likes Ren's honesty, though considering he's an Allmate, he's not sure if it can be considered that, nodding and swallowing as the kettle boils and he can pour water into his mug, smell of coffee warming him as much as the early afternoon sunshine./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Was he upset when she said that?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""He seemed distressed, yes. I do not think she meant to be cruel."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""She's grieving, people can be cruel when they're in pain," that was true of anyone, Tio had been cruel when he'd discovered the bartender and Sly, Kin had been cruel when he and Tio had fallen out for whatever reason, Mizuki was cruel after they rescued Beni-Shigure and Sly hadn't been what he needed. Sly's Granny was cruel to tell him not to visit, and to point out the similarities between him and his recently deceased brother, and Sly was cruel often, always./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Perhaps that just said something about how much pain he was in./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio is a piece of shit. This, to him at least, is an irrefutable fact given how he's been acting lately, like Kin's best friend one minute and like an insensitive, misleading bastard the next. He feels incredibly sick when he puts himself in the others shoes and even worse when he tries to figure out why the whole thing with Kurosawa has him so on edge. He knows why, he's not stupid nor slow, and he's been growing increasingly aware of how attractive he finds Kin ever since the Halloween party and his unfairly hot Swat costume./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he's scared too, to try this out and to make it work, to be in a relationship when he's tried his best to avoid them thus far. This won't be an arrangement, like with Mizuki, or a short period of dating ending in a brief fling, it won't even just be a hook-up. This will be serious, and above all, he is afraid of things getting serious./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he cannot avoid Kin even if he wants to, they are best friends above all else and he doesn't want to lose that, despite being a member of a fairly large team, he has remarkably few close friends. Yuu counts, he supposes, and along with Yuu comes Kouhaku, so he guesses that's two, and Mizuki as well though he knows they're drifting apart a little as he and Kin get closer./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So he's scared when he heads to work on Wednesday, knowing it's one of the quietest nights of the week and knowing he and Kin will be left with nothing to do but exist behind the bar and wait for patrons. Normally they'd chat, make conversation and joke around, but the almost dark look he gets when he enters the bar and the complete lack of greeting make him think perhaps tonight they'll both exist in silence./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's somehow more awkward than he anticipated, he still felt so incredibly stupid for having yelled at Kin like he had some kind of claim to him, it was embarrassing to have to admit his childish behaviour even to himself, let alone to have to apologise even as he knew he needed to. Something about saying sorry, about being guilty, always made snakes swarm in his stomach and he feels shaky as he lets himself linger on his faults, trying to work out how to gently ease into this./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He feels terrible, and he doesn't like it, aiming for neutrality that fails because his topic of choice is a hot one./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So," he can feel the air get crispier as he speaks, he doesn't turn to regard his co-worker and apparent best friend, but anticipates he froze at least for a second. He wonders if he feels guilty too, then feels worse because he has nothing to feel guilty about. "Did you end up seeing Kurosawa again?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes," there's no inflection to his tone, he answers shortly and turns back to the coil he'd been playing on, leaning against the counter above the mini-fridges, and flitting the occasional eye on the only three customers they've received thus far./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How'd it go?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Pretty good, same as it used to be really."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hm." He doesn't know why he asked let alone what he might have planned to respond with, just smiling thinly and turning back to the cash register. Something in his chest aches as Kin starts spinning a bottle with skill he taught himself, and it's painful, eyes crinkling and hiding a sigh that makes his shoulders sag. "You gunna yet back together?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I don't know about span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"that/span," he says it like it's an outrageous idea and Tio can feel hope bloom for a second, but then Kin speaks and ruins it and he can feel hot, stupid impulse rise in his throat. "But maybe. We're going out again next week."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His answering hum is choked in his throat and before he can think it through he's blurted it out and oh, he's doing what he always does again and creating false hope. Issue is, this time he's not entirely sure just how false it is. "Go out with me instead."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin stops and turns with a raised eyebrow and Tio knows it's the least he can do to at least look him in the face even as his expression distorts and he looks hurt, like he's doing this to be malicious. He asks it carefully, simple word filled with meaning. This is a chance for Tio to take it back and pretend he said something else, this is Kin quietly saying that if he's joking he needs to stop now or things won't be fine between them. "What?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He has to repeat it now and it's a lot harder the second time around, swallowing and distantly aware his hands are trembling on the surface behind him, propping himself up like he might fall if left on his own two feet. "Don't go out with him. Go out with me instead."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Go out as in..?" He waits for Tio to fill the silence but rapidly continues when he doesn't bother, voice disbelieving but in a surprised way more than anything else. The music isn't loud, but Kin speaks so quietly Tio feels like the mere pounding of his heart could drown it out. "On a date? With you?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm-hm," his voice is shaky and it errs into worryingly high pitched at the end, his nod is so jerky he feels like his teeth have to be rattling and his frayed sleeve is suddenly fascinating to him as he plays with it nervously./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Blue eyes are staring at him and Kin's expression still hasn't changed from being guarded and suspicious, he supposes it's the least he deserves, to stand awkwardly in the silence, feeling like everything around him has become unreal as he disconnects. "You're serious?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His gestures and his words don't mesh together well, his shrug is reluctant and awkward and now he finally stops looking, words still not firm enough to be believable, "yeah, I am."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Are you asking because it's him, or because you're jealous?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I don't-" But Kin is looking at him again and this is like actual torture and he knows he owes an answer, sighing in embarrassment, "the second one, or- Both, I guess. Mainly the second one."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He regards for a moment longer, gaze piercing like a hawk, but he doesn't swoop in for the kill, unless the dimple of his left cheek as he smiles counts, and Tio thinks it damn well might, "alright, are you free Tuesday?" He's so baffled at how quickly he was answered that he just nods dumbly. "Cool, make sure you wear something pretty."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He opens his mouth in amused indignation but Kin is already back to spinning bottles and he speaks before Tio gets a chance to collect himself and remark that if anybody is wearing something pretty it better be Kin. "Oh, and you asked, so you're paying."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He scoffs a little then, but he was planning on it anyway, "real gentleman, aren't you?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Sure am, but don't worry, I'll pick up the next one."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The next one, huh? He thinks to himself, turning round and considering that there's no way this could possibly go wrong now, hiding his smile where Kin can't see and just nodding, "alright."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's made the first move, and somehow that alone feels like a good step forward./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin walks home with him and they're back to normal, laughing and joking and teasing each other, Kin keeps bumping into him and he bumps back every time, and he lets himself wonder if this is what dating him will be like./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It doesn't seem as scary when he thinks that, in fact it sounds like everything he wants./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly is colouring in when he gets in from his afternoon tattooing shift. Filling in empty spaces with the pencil crayons Mizuki uses for sketches, lying on his stomach on the living room carpet behind the couch, TV on in the background going largely ignored, and having somehow found the apparent stress reducing colouring book he'd won in last year's secret Santa./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What you colouring?" He asks, feeling somewhat like he's talking to a toddler as Sly just discards the orange for red, colouring in the creature's mouth and most of its scales already filled in with greens and browns that don't really go together./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Snake." He answers plainly, like it's a perfectly normal thing for a grown man, or sort of grown, to be doing, and Mizuki is tickled by that./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You know, Sly, sometimes when you're here it's like you're not yourself anymore."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He took a second to think this through, wondering if Mizuki had twisted his words the way he was now untwisting them in his mind, because he didn't just mean when he came to Mizuki's place, he meant when they were together. "Why do you think I agreed to stay?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He doesn't answer, and Sly is feeling charitable enough to elaborate, abandoning his snake and flipping through the pages for something else, stopping on a whale type thing with almost leopard style spots. "You don't expect anything from me. So nobody's disappointed while I'm here."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Is that why you don't like your Granny's?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""She compares me to my brother, but I'm not him. She span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"wishes/span I was," he's picked up the blue to begin filling out the waves, pencil barely staying within the line and words absent as he focuses on his colouring. Mizuki's glad he found something to distract himself with. "So she's always disappointed. I mean, I don't expect her to be proud of me or anything, she's not that fucking stupid. I thought I was doing the right thing, going round to see her, to make sure she was okay. Being a decent fucking Grandson for once. But I guess I was a shitty let-down then too."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He sounds upset, frustrated perhaps, annoyed that he was trying his best to do better by her and only managed to screw it up, feeling his attempts fall flat the second she turned to him with those watery eyes and told him she didn't want to see him. His chest aches and he swallows loudly, focusing back onto his pencil choices and the soft sound of them scratching the smooth paper./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Finish your whale," he speaks softly, Sly's feet toeing into the carpet as he nods and does as he's advised, tamping down the fact that now he knows why his Grandma has resented him so much all these years, the knowledge that he isn't the right person sticking in his chest like a rock. "I'm gunna cook, do you want pasta or curry?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Pasta."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Okay." He hesitates by the dining table, surprised at the empty ash tray he finds there and wondering if Sly has been colouring all day, hoping it works for him as it never had for the bartender, pressure of staying within the lines and choosing complimentary colours only making his stress worse. "Your Granny's wrong to not be proud of you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly doesn't move to show he's heard, he sets about sharpening the grey pencil into the bin by his side then gives up and reaches for the cigarettes instead and Mizuki feels like he misspoke, but there's no anger in his voice, only exhaustion. "Just go cook, Mizuki."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mizuki sticks the finished whale-leopard thing on the fridge under a magnet shaped like a shoe and Sly objects only half-heartedly, rolling his eyes incredulously and finding a channel streaming a 'true crime' series, the two of them sitting in front of it with more pasta than is really advisable./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly stays for exactly two hours, the minute the credits of the second drama/documentary is over he's standing and muttering something about going to bed even though it's barely eight at night. Mizuki just lets him go, the next show had looked promising and he's not really tired at all yet, despite his early morning and fairly busy day, packed with appointments./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He knows he's not asleep in there, the light's on for one thing, and it smells too strongly of smoke for him to have actually gone to bed, but he admits he also has no idea what he is doing, silence blanketing the apartment when he finally flicks the TV off and heads to shower./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He hesitates in the doorway of his own bedroom, and he's doing that a lot lately, towelling off his hair and regarding his bed-mate where he lies, curled up on his side on the sheets, covers pooling over his hips and shirt rumpled. He looks like he's been lying down for a while, and the main light has been flicked off, only Mizuki's lamp illuminating him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's on the wrong side of the bed, using the wrong pillow, too far away from the door and Mizuki thinks that was probably deliberate as he hangs his towel over the chair in the corner and quietly joins him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's done smoking and is presumably planning on going to sleep soon, but it's obvious he's awake because of how shallow his breaths are, like he's trying hard to be invisible./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly is changing, but it's too fast, too much too soon for him and Mizuki can feel things going badly even as to an outsider everything looks great. He slips into bed next to him, too warm to need the covers over his top half and eyes focused on the back of Sly's head, the trails of messy hair that run to just past his shoulder, back slim and ribs prominent./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sly?" He doesn't respond but his pale skin seemed to shrink into itself as he spoke, as if trying to disappear into the soft sheets. "You stillhate this don't you?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He can feel Mizuki's hand lingering in the no man's land between them, not quite close enough to touch him, though he knew it could do easily. Swallowing thickly and wondering what to answer, "hate is a strong word."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He would have laughed normally, he knew he would, because of all people to show disapproval of the word hate, Sly was the last person he would have expected. But nothing was funny now, this bed felt more like a coffin than it ever should and that blue hair was so far away they may as well be in different rooms. "But you still don't like it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He hesitated again, he'd been doing that a lot lately, unable to just say what he was thinking when his thoughts scared him like this, voice small and uncertain even to him, "I don't hate it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That wouldn't sound like much of a reassurance from anybody else, but from Sly it was the closest to an admission that he might like this as Mizuki would ever get, and he licked his lips nervously as he shifted across the bed towards him. It felt like it took years for his palm to meet warm skin, not surprised as he flinched away, though it was obvious he was trying not to, tense under his touch but staying put, lying there like a board and so pale compared to the bartenders tan skin. He was tentative, like he was just waiting for Sly to snap at him to get the fuck off and move away, to stand from the warm bed and exile himself to the cold again, to harden like ice and be three times as frosty./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But for now he was still, breathing slowly and fairly evenly, occasionally hitching as the bartender grew braver, feeling like he was on some kind of bizarre mission, though he wasn't sure what his goal was, maybe just to get him to relax. His neck was still speckled with tiny bite marks from a night or so ago, nothing in comparison to what it used to be and almost pretty where they marked the otherwise healing skin, injuries fading with the slow hands of time. Sweeping his hair off his neck carefully and fingers playing with the soft strands, freshly washed the night before and sliding silkily through the gaps in between his hands. His skin was supple and the invisible, downy hairs on his back tickled under his fingertips, running a rough palm across his back, tracing the dips at the base of his spine and trailing across the curve of his hip./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His sigh made goose bumps rise on his skin, prickling along his side as his arm wrapped round his slim middle and he pulled him into his chest, noting the catch in his breath and the way he suddenly turned stiff as a board in his arms. He wasn't sure if he was sad for Sly, or for himself, for having to give his heart to somebody so horribly unequipped to deal with it, who couldn't even handle the kiss he pressed into his hair a second later, scrunching his neck down as he tried to worm away from the touch./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But no, he was sad for Sly, who couldn't believe in his feelings enough to accept them, wouldn't let himself show even a second of weakness to get what he wanted, to allow himself to be warm and safe and loved even for a little while. He felt sad for him, because whatever he'd had happen to him in the past had made him like this, and it must have been more horrible than he could imagine, because he just wouldn't let himself get used to anybody for fear they might leave./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He was relaxing though, softening under his arm and breathing almost steady now, back pressed against a firm, warm chest and his own arm tucked in tight to his stomach, protecting himself still from the threat of closeness. It took a long time for him to shift, Mizuki drifting into sleep, the smell of Sly filling all his senses and eyes flickering shut, breaths even and feeling comfortable and thoroughly happy with this temporary intimacy between them. He was half asleep when Sly's hand moved, sliding over his and shaking nervously, as if he was terrified at showing some kind of complicity in this, at letting himself actually show affection for once. But his own cupped it easily enough, fingers slotting together and overlapping messily, just managing to nuzzle into his hair appreciatively before sleep overcame him once again and his eyes refused to stay open./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He woke a short time later, an hour, or eight seemed to have passed, he wasn't sure how long but the sun was shining through the blinds and he was suddenly aware of why he'd woken as his eyes landed on blue hair, almost glowing under the rays of vibrant yellow light. Sly had shifted in his arms, seemingly far more awake than him and eyes almost shy as they regarded him, not aware he was awake yet and flitting over his skin slowly, taking it all in. Lingering on the gentle swallow of his Adams apple, skin tattooed white shifting as his gaze rose north, focusing on his lips for longer than he'd ever let himself sober, seeming to almost deflate and eyebrows creasing just slightly as he averted his gaze and frowned./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mizuki always wondered what he was thinking at times like this, but normally just asking resulted in a scowl and the quick order to fuck off and mind his own business, but today was different, they were together now, albeit on trial, but still. The atmosphere was peaceful and calm and he wondered if maybe, just maybe, Sly might actually answer now, heaving a half sigh, half yawn and noticing the body in his arms tense only a tiny bit, which was an improvement he always liked to see./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey," his voice was thick with sleep and muggy, blinking tiredness out of his eyes and offering a small smile that wasn't returned, though not for the usual reason, Sly's yellow eyes almost golden and so open his breath caught as they met his, just letting Mizuki's fingers trace his cheek as he tucked a strand of hair neatly behind his ear. "What you thinking about?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He sucked a pink lip into his mouth, nibbling on it absently and eyes dropping down to his collarbones, as if he was afraid to look into his eyes for fear they'd see straight through him, looking back up a second later. He looked so small, so vulnerable where he lay nestled against his chest, half propped up against him and lips parting as if he was going to speak only to close instead as his eyes averted to the side. Then Mizuki shifted his hand onto the small of his back, drawing circles into his smooth flesh and offering him an encouraging smile, trying to tempt him to speak his mind for once, to let out some of the thoughts that must be strangling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He was scared again, the tattooist could see it in his eyes, staring at his for a second and fingers twitching against his side as he hesitated for a moment, just gazing at him as if trying to work something out. He moved cautiously, still not answering the question as he cupped his cheek and brought his face to meet his, lips soft against his and fingers trembling only a little on his jaw, stroking up towards his ear./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He never liked this normally, this slow, almost lazy kissing, he liked it hard and rough and going somewhere, with sharp clawing nails and fingers digging into skin, he certainly never initiated it, usually just going along with it for a little while when the bartender did then ceasing just as quickly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But living with him had changed something in him, and he was almost soft, pliable and bending to Mizuki's way of thinking, his way of acting, easily, accepting the goodbye kisses in the morning and the arms that wormed round his waist as they watched TV. Had become almost selfish with his attention, straight up glaring at the suggestion that he spend time with other people, trying to be subtle and squirming into his side until he got the message and he got the contact he'd so obviously wanted. Even his voice was different, he swore less and smiled more, eyes not narrowed into suspicious slits and instead either wide and open or bathed in uncertainty and nervousness, at this new thing, this relationship they were pretending to have. Acting out the steps, repeating them until he got comfortable and could repeat them without fuss, stepping around each other neatly and not colliding with angry words and raised voices and fists flying like they always used to. Bruises and scratches and mean, nasty cuts healing up and bandaged with care, soft white cotton stretched up arms marred by his own hands, by others words and by the hatred they turned on him and he turned upon himself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He was childish sometimes, the almost afraid expression in his face as he curled into Mizuki's chest made him feel a little hollow inside, because he was so young to have felt so much pain. Sometimes he felt like if he could remove just a little of it, absorb it into himself like Sly's scent had sunk into his bedsheets, then that would be enough, if he could take just a little of his pain away then he'd have played his part and could let whatever happened, happen./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But oh, he didn't want to lose this, the warm body next to his, the tentative, trembling hand on the back of his neck and the fingers that knotted into his shirt lightly, as if trying to keep him near, as if afraid he'd escape as he himself had so many times before. He wanted this, and more, he wanted all that Sly could offer him, his anger and hate and harshly spat words, the shaking of his fingers when he touched him and the genuineness of his smile. He wanted every piece of him, good and bad, hated and loved, he wanted to see every unique aspect of his personality until his habits were so ingrained in his mind that nothing could ever hope to push them out./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he was already moving away and the only words on his lips were, "so what were you thinking about?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He tensed immediately and Mizuki almost regretted himself for speaking, at least until he smiled, small and unsure but sweeter than honey on his face, fingers playing with the collar of his t-shirt and not meeting his eyes as he licked his lips, dampness glistening on the plump pink skin. "You."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He was still smiling when he looked up, but it faltered and flickered on his lips as Mizuki managed a lazy smile, because his honest, nervous words make something in his chest jump and he suddenly felt far warmer than he had before even with the body pressed up against him. Pleased hum escaping his lips as he pressed a kiss against his hair, smiling against the silken strands and nuzzling into his scalp, "hm, aren't you cute."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He could sense his pout even without being able to see it, voice sulky and almost like the teenager he sometimes forgot he was, "don't call me cute."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""But you are," he retaliated, not noticing the elbow moving towards him until it was too late and it had jabbed him hard in the ribs and he had to move away with a gasp of pain as it dug into his sensitive side, yellow eyes fierce but still not as angry as they once would have been./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Get bent, dickhead!" Harsh words but they were spoken with laughter as fingers dug into his sides and he squirmed feebly, trying weakly to hide his grin as the bartender essentially tickled him, foot pushing into his thigh as he managed to worm away with a weak glare. "Fucking sap."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But his words were half hearted and Mizuki knew he didn't mean them, although even he would admit he was a little bit of a sap, allowing Mizuki to pull him back into a hug and only trying to fight him weakly. It was a slow process, and the bartender knew that the next morning might not be anything like this, they might yell and fight, or Sly might doubt himself again and get angry or hell, he might even cry, but at moments like this, with him curled warm and soft against his side, he knew it would be worth any trouble that might come./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You okay? You're twitchy." That's an understatement, but his fingers are twiddling into the shirt at his sides and his eyes keep flitting from one nondescript building to another, staring at a lamp-post as if it's something fascinating, worrying his lips over and over./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh yeah, I'm back at the restaurant tomorrow. Kinda worried I'll fuck up again."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Your suspensions finally over?" It was ridiculous that they'd suspended him anyway, but he supposed it was good that they'd at least paid him half his normal wage despite making him feel terrible and be overwhelmed with fear he'd lose his second job and be financially destitute./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Actually no, scratch that, Tio still thinks Kin's manager is a horrible piece of shit./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm-hm."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Alright. Wanna walk around for a bit? It's still pretty warm, might help you relax more than going home and thinking about it too much."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Yeah, okay," he's all up for wandering aimlessly, but he doesn't see the point in just burning energy he'll need for a full day of work, voicing his own suggestion with trepidation because he's never shared this place before. "I know this really great spot to look at the stars, about half an hour away, if you're up for that?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He considered it for a minute, lighting a cigarette and figuring that with the warm evening air he'd quite enjoy a nice stroll, it wasn't super late yet and he could deal with a little sleep deprivation for one night if it helped Kin relax. "Sure."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's not as long a walk as he's made out, and within twenty minutes they're atop a fairly large, grassy hill, turning as they reach the top and catch their breaths with back and forth teasing about needing cardio and having weedy legs. Kin turns first to take in the view and he's suddenly so incredibly excited that his entire tone changes, body unfurling from its nervous coil and awe in his voice./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh it's so clear, this is span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"perfect," /spanit was stunning, Tio could admit that, about to say as much when Kin interrupted with a burst of speech, so genuinely excited and all the anxiousness in his shoulders having seeped away style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" "/spanLook, there's OoGuma, oh and Katakana's over there too. You see it?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Not really."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Like a guy holding a bow and arrow, kinda?" He held a hand up and traced out a shape Tio couldn't really follow, just smiling as he shrugged in admission of defeat, both of them checking the grass was dry before lowering themselves down to perch on the downy ground. "Never mind, that's a hard one, I guess. Look, there's Ohitsuji, like a slightly bent line?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He has no idea what he's talking about, but he humours him and nods even as he can just see scattered points of light that don't look like much at all, let alone actual shapes of animals, "you know a lot about stars."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Mm, I liked them when I was a kid. My house had a fairly flat roof so I used to climb onto it and watch them. My Mum told me when you see a shooting star you could make a wish, haven't seen one yet though. Give me your hand," Tio complied fairly easily, letting his digits be covered in warmth and encouraged to stick his pointer finger out, Kin guiding his hand to whatever constellation he wanted to show him. "That's OoInu, the big dog, I like that one, and there's KoInu somewhere too but I can never remember that one enough to find it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It was still warm, summer fast on the way and the grass they were sitting on not chilled enough to be uncomfortable, occasional breeze ruffling their hair and sending Kin's stupid attempt at a quiff into his eyes a number of times. Whether he or Kin had moved closer he wasn't sure, but this was really nice, just sitting quietly and gazing at the stars, being shown new constellations he could only truly see half the time but said he could nonetheless. Kin too seemed to have relaxed into this, shoulder pressed against his and knee lightly resting on his leg where he'd bent it, no touch of anxiousness in his voice as he quietly told the stories of stars with such gentle confidence he could have been an expert./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio was almost sleepy, comfortable and feeling remarkably safe, like they were untouchable up on their hill, sharing this special moment together and aware of how horribly soppy that was even though he felt really honoured to be the one Kin would do this with. It was beautiful too, the moonlight illuminating the island spread out below them, the glistening points of light where stars shone from millions of miles away just to bless those who bothered to look up to the sight of the speckled sky. Kin was a steady presence at his side, just exhaling a soft laugh as he yawned widely and tried to keep his eyes open, incredibly tempted to just take a nap in this secluded space he'd never known about before./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he didn't, he knew Kin was the exact type of asshole to carry him home were he to do anything of the sort and he didn't need that embarrassment, instead he shifted a little nearer to Kin and rested his head tentatively on his shoulder. To his great credit, he didn't so much as falter in his words, speaking about the moon now, how far away it was and how it reflected light from the sun./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He hadn't known that, to be honest he had to admit that since school he'd forgotten approximately everything he'd learned, and space had never been his thing to begin with. He was a dinosaur kid at heart and a general knowledge nerd as an adult, so to learn the moon actually didn't generate light was a little surprising, but also seemed like something he'd once known then forgotten. "So it be dark if the sun wasn't there?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm-hm."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""That would suck."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I guess so," he debates pointing out that really it's the moons gravitational field that's important rather than its reflected light, but decided not to get into that. "Everybody needs a sun."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio had a feeling Kin was a romantic, he seemed the type, but that line had been span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"so /spandamned cheesy that he actually shifted on his shoulder to stare at him incredulously, because sometimes his soppy lines worked on him, but this was just too much. "That's so gross."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Shush, you're ruining the moment."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He snorted lightly, Kin shifting under his head, shoulders a little tense under him but not bothering to register it as he fell quiet for a moment and a sturdy weight came to rest on his curls. Tio felt loathe to break the silence, but he had a question and it was almost burning up his throat as he spoke, voice barely a whisper, like this was some sacred thing he wouldn't dare break with unnecessary noise./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Why do you like the stars so much?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hm. They're constant. They don't change like the moon does, they're there every night, the same as always. There's no inconsistency with stars, you always know where you are with them. Plus they're pretty."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""That's a good reason to like something."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Or someone." He'd moved again and Tio knew he was looking at him, just pretending he hadn't noticed because his logic was sound and he had the feeling this venture had gone from a simple way to calm him down to something else entirely. He wasn't sure how much he minded. He turned to look back into matching blues then even though it was a dumb idea and really the stars were so very pretty it felt wrong to ignore them for even a moment./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He's a sap, a giant, gross, romantic sap, the cheesiest person. /spanYet Tio knows he's a sucker for cliché romance as much as Kin is for being the one to start it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin had softer palms than he'd expected and for the first time he could feel his burn where it streaked across his fingers, marring them with scar tissue that landed on the very spot where his jeans were ripped, just above his knee. His fingers had curled up and it was almost cute, Kin's slight reluctance to touch him properly and especially after he touched bare skin he hadn't intended to, that distracting Tio enough that he was almost taken by surprise./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Ironic, to be so surprised by something he'd known was coming./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But surprised he was, and to such an extent to respond, albeit nervously because this was so stupid and every time they'd ever kissed in the past one of them had regretted it and the other had their feelings hurt. He was a little sick of feelings in general, to be honest, let alone to damage them more./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He didn't touch him anywhere but his knee this time, other arm propping him up and the warmth of his fingers lying millimetres from Tio's so hot it seemed to scald him as he shifted closer and his lips parted more and there was dampness on them that wasn't his own./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He isn't entirely sure what to say, or indeed do, when they separate, but for once he doesn't push Kin away or say this was an awful mistake or anything of the sort, he does, however, think of something smart to say while Kin tangles their fingers together./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You know, traditionally you're meant to wait to kiss me til span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"after/span we go on a date." He's not even sure if he would have stuck to that, to be honest, he figures it would have been more of a spur of the moment type thing. Yes, it's expected to kiss goodbye after a date but they aren't exactly in a normal situation and they've already kissed a damn sight too many times for people who are supposedly 'just friends.'/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Didn't know you were so old fashioned. Guess I'll have to wait then." He speaks as if he didn't already kiss him, but there again is the word 'wait', which fills Tio with relief because Kin is a good guy and he is willing to span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"wait/span. The issue is that Tio isn't sure exactly what it is he'll have to wait for, or for how long. He still needs to sort some stuff out with himself, it would seem./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You might be waiting a while if work stays as mad as it is."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They've already had to reschedule once, Hideaki's girlfriend was really sick and he'd had to take time off to look after her and their baby, and Mizuki still needs to find somebody else to train up for the job because really, they're short-staffed. So his and Kin's plans had been replaced with a shift instead and they'd rearranged their plans and Kin had to wait another week before he could even take Tio out let alone do anything else. He seemed to have found a nice compromise though, perfectly content to hold Tio's hand in a loose grip as they gaze up at the sky, islands lights dim enough to not conceal the glittering heavens. "I've got nothing better to do."br /"Well that's depressing."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I do apologise, I'll go climb Everest, shall I?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /It's a strange example, and Tio laughs as he imparts a fact he's suddenly, and very helpfully, remembered, "I wouldn't recommend it, one in nine people who try it die."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Let me guess, Everest is your thing?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Nah, I have approximate knowledge of many things."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Yeah? Like what?" He isn't looking at the stars anymore, but his fingers are still and his lips are in that wonky smile so he seems relaxed enough, having turned sideways, body tilted towards Tio how it always is and interested to learn something new about him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Like that… Apples originated in Kazakhstan."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hm, what else? Tell me more weird facts."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio just smiled then, Kin's thumb absently rubbing across his hand, the mood friendly now with things cleared between them and the odd reassurance that he didn't have to rush, that he wasn't being an asshole because his feelings were all screwed up, it was nice. He even picked out his favourite and cutest fact to mark the moment, "a baby puffin is called a puffling."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Seriously? Fuck. That's the cutest thing I've ever heard. A span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"puffling/span. Fuck." He laughs and it's deep and his entire face breaks into the widest, happiest smile and Tio feels warmth burst into his chest for being to one to have caused it. Kin is exactly what he wants in a best friend, everything he wants in general, to be honest, though he keeps that quiet for now, it's really too early for huge statements like that./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I like that one too. Tell you what, I'll tell you one dumb fact a day if you tell me something about stars."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He contemplates this, tilting his head to the side and Tio noticing the slightest hints of stubble forming across his jaw, eyes drawn to it and the sharpness of his profile, the nose that perhaps is a little too long, the slight unevenness of texture across his cheeks. He's remarkably distracted for a minute. "Does it have to be about stars? I know lots about the planets too."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"That's cool. But did you know that… Some famous science person, I forget who," his fact grows distinctly less impressive as he forgets one of the main details, forgoing it in lieu of lying and risking Kin somehow knowing he's making part of it up. "Thought the rings on Saturn were Jesus' foreskin?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"They did not."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"They did."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Prove it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /Arguing is something that characterises their friendship hugely, and Tio argues back immediately, not scared now as they're both teasing each other and nobody is serious and feelings can't be hurt with arguments like these. He can turn his tone sarcastic and mocking and nothing will blow up in his face, "Oh yeah sure, I'll just ring them. 'Hey, famous person whose name I can't remember and died hundreds of years ago, tell me about Jesus' dick skin again, would you?'"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"His choice of words is absolutely not the best, and Kin blinks at him in some disbelief at the unusual and somewhat disrespectful phrase 'Jesus' dick skin'. He's not religious though, so he laughs and wonders how they ended up there, "God, this conversation really fell apart, huh?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Most of our conversations do."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"True. Come on, we should probably go home, it's late and span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"some of us/span have work tomorrow morning."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Yes, some of us do." He turns his tone stern as Kin uses their linked hands to pull him up, not separating and shoulders bumping playfully as they make their way back down the hill./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Oh, piercings, of course. Got any weird ones pencilled in?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Actually, and you're going to love this. I have a guy coming in who pierced his own testicle and can't get the ring out because it's so swollen, so I'm taking it out for him. I'm horribly excited."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"He pierced his own testicle?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""He certainly did."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"And I thought my life was a mess."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio laughs and misses Kin smiling at him like he's worth more than every star in the sky./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What's up with you? You've got a face like a slapped arse."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mizuki frowns, because really, a slapped arse always looks kind of appealing, provided that he's been the one slapping it, mentioning this as he ditches his jacket onto its peg, "wouldn't be so bad if it was your arse."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Someone else's," he waves this away dismissively, not even bothering to make an innuendo as he normally should, so Mizuki guesses his expression must be pretty bothered, even if he hasn't noticed himself. "So, who hurt your span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"precious /spanfeelings?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Nobody," he snorts at the mere idea of his feelings being hurt at work, trying to think of anything that's bothering him and an image popping into his head so fast that has to be the thing effecting his expression. "Tio and Kin are just being weird."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So what's different?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Nothing. I just asked if they could cover Tuesday again because nobody else can and Kin looked heartbroken, then they started muttering about rearranging something." It had been a weirdly dramatic reaction, Kin's face had actually crumpled and Mizuki could feel guilt and unease crawling out of his chest as Tio noticed and placed a placating hand on his arm./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Maybe they had plans?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"Yeah, but what kind of plans?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly snorts, rolling onto his front on the couch and reaching out a hand towards the cigarettes Mizuki has just removed from his pocket, half expecting to not be given them and looking surprised and pleased when he is. Voice distorted with one in his mouth as he speaks anyway, "why'd you care?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I don't," he replies, but it becomes clear after their next shift that that isn't true at all./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""This isn't really how I expected it to go," Kin remarks, regarding the sea of bodies in front of him and immediately ignoring those with raised hands waving notes, queue jumping was not something he appreciated and everybody had to pay, the fact they had cash ready made no difference. If anything it was more annoying than a simple coil payment would ever be. "Not that I mind, you could use the money."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"I could?" Tio's busy pouring a row of rainbow shooters from the cocktail mixer in his hands, watching the colour slowly fade from yellow to blue as the container empties, Kin is pulling beers at his side and Mizuki has disappeared into the back for more vodka to replace their depleted stash. "Why's that?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He leans in close to speak, partly because the bar is loud and partly because he doesn't want Mizuki or anybody else to hear, but he's maybe a little too close, or perhaps Tio is just overthinking this. Kin's breath washes over his neck and it makes his skin prickle, bar suddenly seeming warmer than it already is, packed with bodies, he's so close that Tio thinks if he moved slightly to the left, his nose would end up buried in his hair. He swallows, and the pounding of aggressive hip hop drowns it out. "I'm an expensive date."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Date or not, something feels a bit different behind the bar tonight and every touch of Kin's hand against his back as he squeezes past makes his skin tingle, turning pink when a drunk customer tries to proposition him and he dramatically sighs and says that his heart belongs to another. Even Mizuki raises an eyebrow at that one, glancing to Tio as if to ask if it's true and snorting in good natured amusement as Tio expresses his disapproval by elbowing his tree-sized friend in the side, hard./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The shift's over and Mizuki is out the back again, counting up the tills contents and leaving them alone almost deliberately the moment Kin groans in contented exhaustion and stretches upwards, fingers almost brushing the damn ceiling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What you doing?" He asks lazily as Tio swipes at something on his coil, not content to just peer over his shoulder and deciding it'll be far easier and less effort to just dump his head atop Tio's curls and lean his entire body weight against him. He's heavy, yes, but Tio's tired too and to be honest he'd happily curl up on the nearest couch and take a long nap, so he speaks anyway and ignores the fact he can feel Kin's firm chest flush against his back./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Looking for a better date on Tinder."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's not, the island doesn't even span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"have /spanTinder, he's just tormenting Kin, who somehow moves even closer, hands reaching around him to take his wrist and regarding the page his coil displays, his chuckle making something in Tio burn alarmingly hot as he feels the vibrations spread through his chest. "Never been compared to a labradoodle before, but she span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"is /spancute so I'm not too offended."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He tries to reply but stumbles on the words because it's so warm pressed between Kin and the bar and span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"fuck, /spanhe might be a little bit turned on right now, feeling a flush rise on his cheeks because Kin still has the coil so his arms are still wrapped around him and he's suddenly very aware of how built his arms are./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He shouldn't have accepted that beer from Kaoru, or those shots from the hen party who had given him a feather boa and span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"insisted /spanhe had a couple with them, he shouldn't have been cheeky and poured him and Kin vodka cokes to start the shift. He shouldn't be a little tipsy and a little sleepy and very, very conscious that his pulse is racing and Kin has to feel it where he holds his wrist still to see the screen better./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He says a silent thank-you to himself for not wearing his slit-sided vest today like he'd intended, pretty sure Kin's arms against his bare sides might have caused him to blow some kind of fuse, discovering he found his best friend attractive in this way is shock enough./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You're getting a dog?" Said friend though seemingly has no idea that Tio is currently thinking about his deep voice saying other, less family friendly things, and just makes a distant sound of agreement, something between 'yes', and 'I am'./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yam?" He's laughing again and he really needs to stop doing that because he can't get the idea out of his head that he should jump onto the counter, grab Kin's stupid face and kiss him until he's breathless. Blinking in alarm because this is his best friend he's currently thinking about and of course he'd take this long to realise how much he'd like to jump his bones, or, more truthfully, how much he'd like to have his bones jumped. "That what you're going to call it? Or am I squashing you so much you can't breathe?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Second one," his voice is breathy enough by itself that the excuse works efficiently, Kin humming against his head and stepping back enough for Tio to turn round to regard him which sets off alarm bells because it is a span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"mistake. /spanHe's so much taller that he ends up staring at his collarbones, at the faintest sheen of sweat that covers all of his skin, close enough to see the constellation of freckles that continue across his neck and décolletage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin opens his mouth again, possibly to ask about the dog despite the fact that his coil has automatically locked itself and Kin doesn't know the password, but he must notice Tio's staring at him, or perhaps he identifies the expression on his face because his voice drops both an octave and loses most of its prior volume when he speaks./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Pretty hot in here, huh?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm-hm," he can't even explain it, but Kin's voice is doing things to him it shouldn't be, and either he's really sexually frustrated, or Kin is just that damn hot that he's lost all sense of where he is and who he's with and the idea of taking things slow and being careful flies out of the window./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Maybe he's drunk. Yeah, probably just drunk./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin's eyes have narrowed and since he's looking down on Tio, they look hooded and intense as they stare at him, flickering across his face, reading his expression, the nervous way he licks his lips and the high flush on his cheeks and the soundless way his entire body says span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"please, please just kiss me/span./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Kinda… Seems like it's gotten hotter," his words are cautious and if Tio wasn't so incredibly poised on the brink, he'd snort at what a bad line that is, but he almost doesn't hear it because Kin has ducked down to kiss him with damp lips parted and the air between them grows thinner. The first touch is cautious, there's a hand on his jaw but he doesn't push Kin away for once and instead his hands bunch into his shirt, colliding them together and Kin doesn't even hesitate to kiss him again and maybe they're both desperate because there's something hungry in the way his hands shove into his hair so abruptly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He smells amazing, like the ocean, fresh and crisp and salty, though that's probably just sweat, Tio doesn't really care much either way because his brain has already short-circuited and even with the needy way Kin's grabbing at him, there's still softness in his grip. He tastes like energy drink and the cigarette break they'd managed to sneak two hours earlier in a lull of customers and it's span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"wonderful/span./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin bites his lip and it's most likely an accident given how intense this has gotten, but he gasps anyway and if he could hear over the pounding of blood in his ears, he'd say Kin had growled. The heat in his body is only growing and Kin's hand slides up his neck to cup his jaw and leaves fire in its wake, tingling through his skin and making him feel less grounded than ever as he's pulled closer to him and his back leaves the counter and for a moment they're almost losing their balance./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They switch places messily, an awkward dance until it's Kin's back facing the bars entrance, crowding Tio against the back counter and his brain has turned to mush other than the desperate chant of, span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"yes, yes, yes,/span so he doesn't really gather where they are or that Mizuki could walk in at any second. He just kisses Kin harder and his arm reaches out for the counter-top when they nearly stumble, too focused on touching each other to stand still./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But then his hand touches something cold, there's a huge crash, and everything breaks all at once, the contact between them shattering as fast as the new, expensive bottle of spiced rum he's managed to majestically swipe onto the floor./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin jumps away from him in alarm and somehow rams his elbow against the opposite counter with a nasty thud, hissing in pain and just like that everything goes downhill, there's a rapidly increasing puddle of expensive liquor spreading around their feet and Kin's rubbing his elbow and grimacing but his lips are still red and for a moment Tio is utterly distracted./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh shit!" But then, of course, common sense sinks in and Tio's reached down to grab the bottom half of the bottle and hold it as if they'd ever be able to serve the remaining litre or so, swishing it round and frowning as glass shards clink within it. He's suddenly very irritated at the bottle for stopping what had undoubtedly been a very good, if ill-advised, thing, glaring at it as if expecting an apology for being in the wrong place at the right time. "Stupid fucking thing."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin finds the whole situation amusing, even as he flexes his elbow, checking to see if he's actually broken it because it sure feels like he has, laughing in embarrassed disbelief and ducking to hide his head in Tio's neck./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We're a disaster," he can feel Kin's breath washing over the front of his shirt and he laughs along in agreement, knowing Mizuki will be in at any moment but tentatively twining his fingers into the shirt at Kin's side. "We should clean up."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mm," he hums in agreement, adjusting his head so his nose brushes Tio's skin briefly and he's sad for a moment because he feels like maybe this won't happen again for a while, like maybe they both realise this could have easily gone too far and become a mistake. But Kin presses two, soft kisses to his neck and lightly squeezes his sides before he draws back and Tio's cheeks are definitely red again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They're kneeling to try and somehow fix it within seconds, then Kin's finger is dripping blood everywhere and span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"of course/span it is, he's the clumsiest person Tio's ever met, Mizuki's rushed in from wherever he was after hearing the crash and he only goes and fucking slips on the wet floor./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tio's left there with the ability to do nothing but stare as Kin's finger gushes all over the shirt he's rapidly yanked up to wrap it in, feeling a strange sense in the back of his head that perhaps he should be apologising rather than staring at the strip of Kin's stomach he can see. Or maybe he should be more concerned that he's, you know, span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"bleeding everywhere./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But as it is he just stares and lets his feet splash about in the puddle they've made and feels events flood back as if he's been in some state of shock./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mizuki groans and rubs his side as he straightens up, hot, bothered, and looking like he'd rather die than have to deal with anything else after such an insane shift with more than it's fair share of rude, unreasonable customers. But for some reason, Tio suddenly finds everything hilarious and despite the incredibly pissed off look on his boss' face, he starts laughing and can't stop, giggling into his hand and rum slopping in the remains of it's bottle./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's cackling and even Kin is suddenly finding the humour in the situation, biting his lip hard to keep from laughing because Mizuki looks span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"furious /spanand they are still at work after all, trying to ask if he's okay through his peals of amusement as he takes his hand and helps him up, legs soaked where he'd landed hard./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I- I'm span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"so /spansorry, a-are you okay?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's still annoyed as he straightens himself up and regards the mess, pointing a stern finger at Tio that somewhat halts his laughter as he tries to control the hysteria bubbling up in him at how badly things always go with him and Kin. Apart they can function fine, but the moment they're together disaster always spikes, "this is coming out of your wages."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He turns to Kin then and any smile has faded from his face, Mizuki faltering in his words as he realises he should say the same to Kin, but finds he can't, "you can clean this up." He points the finger between them both with mild aggression, looking tired and rubbing at his damp side where he'd suddenly plummeted to the hard ground, "lock up when you're done, I'm going to bed. I'm fucking span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"done /spanwith this shift."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sly seems mildly confused when Mizuki arrives back in the apartment minus a shirt and plus the absolute span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"stench /spanof alcohol, but any concern he might have had dies the second Mizuki explains and he cackles so hard he almost rolls off the sofa./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He should be annoyed that he's being mocked, but it's nice to see Sly happy and even nicer when he slips into the shower enclosure behind him less than twenty minutes later./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The walk home is a little uncomfortable to begin with, but then Kin suddenly speaks and things are out in the open and Tio supposes it's best to talk about these things, it's hardly normal to be making out one minute and mopping up a mixture of blood and rum the next. It is though, an entirely span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"them /spanthing to happen./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Only you would spend weeks showing no interest whatsoever then suddenly jump me at work."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"I'm sorry, jump you? You started it." He is indignant, but it is all false and if anything they both started it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh please, you were the one looking all…" His voice trails off and it seems they both burn red with embarrassment at the same time, Tio imagining the ridiculous expression he must have had and Kin wondering just how he'd go about describing that. "Whatever. I'm blaming you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh, you regret it that much you have to blame me?" He's joking but Kin looks disgruntled and he has to make it obvious before he does something both mortifying and endearing like saying he could never regret something like that, placing a consoling hand on his shoulder. "Joking, Kin. But next time I jump you, I won't do it at work."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /He reacts to the teasing provocation perfectly and Tio's laugh breaks through the quiet of 3am streets. "So you admit you jumped me!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Just, one thing," Kin nods, ever reasonable and growing seemingly more so as their hands 'accidentally' brush and Tio takes the incentive to twine their fingers together, heart pounding nervously at how together this makes them look. "No labels? Just, you know, keep things casual, see how it goes?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There's a hint of real anxiousness in his voice, nervous that he's continuing to be difficult and make things harder than they need to be, but Kin squeezes his hand and nods slowly, "okay, keep it casual, we can do that, if that's what you want to do."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""There's just less chance of things going wrong that way, you know, like if a 'boyfriend' does something it's a lot more to lose. Safer not to have labels for a while, really, just in case."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Kin is clearly lost, but he nods anyway, face twisting in confusion and they continue along in silence for a while, shoulders jostling together and night air warm and balmy where a slight breeze ruffles their hair. "What is it you think I might do?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Not you! Me." He's talking in circles a little, saying too much and still not making sense, aware he's babbling and trying to explain himself without giving too much away. Without telling the truth he's so afraid of. "Or, well, either of us, I guess, jus- It's easier to get over somebody doing something bad if you're not super serious."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"br /"So… You don't want to be serious?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Bit early for the relationship talk, don't you think?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He can feel something uncomfortable crawling under his skin, changing the subject because his conversation is serious and serious never leads to anything good. He has his own language when it comes to things like this, things like 'seeing each other', and 'seeing how it goes', and 'taking things slow.'/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I like spending time with you already, and if now that means holding hands and stuff, I'd like that too, I just don't want to dive right into something without… Being one hundred percent sure."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense. I'll meet you at the diving board." It's a very stupid metaphor, but he likes it nonetheless, almost as much as he likes Kin kissing him goodbye before they part, almost as much as he likes the understanding smile his response earns./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'll find my trunks."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's annoyed at Mizuki and grateful at the same time, because he knows that if it had just been the two of them in the bar he would have let Kin push hands up his shirt, and kiss down his neck and hoist him up onto the counter to-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He really needs to stop thinking about this before he gets himself worked up, but he has the feeling it's not gunna work because he already feels hot under the collar and he imagines he can still taste Kin on his lips./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He definitely feels all hot and bothered again, pushing his fringe off his forehead and shoving a hand down his jeans with minimal guilt, closing his eyes to remember the look in Kin's eyes and trying to ignore the stench of spiced rum that reminds him what happened after./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"When his eyes open again he feels a little sick./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He doesn't get to sleep for a long time./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 194.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.23px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Weirdness at work aside, ignoring the throbbing of the bruise forming along his left side, he feels happy again with Sly at his side, back spotted with water droplets he hadn't bothered to wipe away properly after their impromptu joint shower. He's flooded with affection at moments like this, where they are quiet and together and it seems like it's going to last forever, where Sly's eyes are slowly fluttering shut and he can see faint freckles on his shoulders from the daytime sun./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There's a long, ugly scar on his back, his wrists are the usual mess of old cuts and cigarette burns, his hair is an awful, tangled mess and there's a bite mark right in the middle of his left ass cheek./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He's perfect, so he says so. "You're beautiful."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's said so abruptly, that bless him, he's so taken by surprise that he can't even resent it, blinking in surprise before regarding himself slowly, the bare plane of his back and his legs where they lazily link in the air behind him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You think?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yeah, I do."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He nods, considering this for a moment, shifting across the bed, pushing hair behind an ear, "thanks."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""No problem."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.23px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And Sly, satiated by the soft mattress and the silence, just huffs an exhale and they speak no more about it./p