Only A Little?

"Do not patronize me... I know what I'm doing," Kiku pushed Heracles' hand off of his shoulder. Kiku did know what he was doing. He was looking for Alfred. Alfred said they were going to talk now, right? At least, Kiku was pretty sure that was what he had said. Was it after the wedding day, or just after the wedding ceremony?

Oh, he should have clarified! What if it was after the day? Then he should not be looking for him now!

"I think you've had a little too much," Heracles repeated, once more trying to take his drink away Kiku pulled his hand back once more, shaking his head.

"No I have not! When I see him I will talk and not balk at the opportunity which has been presented me! I will not have my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth! I will speak and he will hear me. He will hear me, damn it!"

"What's going on over here?" Elizaveta asked, suddenly at Heracles' side. Kiku focused in on her, trying to decide where she had come from. Quickly, however, he shook that curiosity from his mind. Alfred. He needed to talk to Alfred. So he needed to find him first. That was what he was doing. He was not to be distracted by anyone or anything else.

"Nothing important, currently," Kiku paraphrased.

"Kiku is getting drunk before he admits his feelings to Alfred," Heracles said. Kiku stared blankly at him. If he had not been a Japanese man, he would have become very angry at that statement!

As it was, it simply caused him to feel ashamed. Elizaveta plucked the drink from his hand. "Let's sit down," she suggested, leading him toward a chair.

"No, you do not understand!" Kiku protested. Elizaveta glanced toward Heracles, who was looking at him.

"He wants to tell Alfred," Heracles said. Elizaveta looked surprised. Probably because of how long it had been. Kiku covered his face with his hands.

"Drunk?" she asked quizzically. "You want to tell him while you're drunk?"

"I told him this wasn't thought through well," Heracles agreed. Kiku tried to make himself smaller than he actually was.

"I... I am not drunk!" he insisted. "Just... just... a little... a lack of inhibition. I am not drunk!" No one responded to that and he was afraid to look up and see them being sympathetic or the like. "If I sit here for a while and not touch a drink... may I get up to find him?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't stop you either way," Elizaveta sighed. "It's not my place."

Heracles handed him a glass of water, which he took and stared at. At some point Elizaveta left them and Heracles took another seat, but Kiku was busy trying to keep his current level of disclosure while being slightly more sober while not actually talking right now.

Needless to say, it did not seem to be working. Kiku sipped at the water and gazed out for Alfred. He was certain he could see him right now, talking with someone else who was blocked from his view. Which meant he should go now, before he lost him. Though he needed to prove himself able to Heracles before he would be allowed to do so. Unlike Elizaveta, Heracles obviously thought it his place to stop him.

"How have you and Gupta been?" he asked, focusing on his words to keep them from wavering.

"Good," Heracles nodded. "Except..."

"Still as quiet as I was?" Kiku found himself saying against his better judgment. Maybe he was a little drunk.

"Uh... I wasn't going to say that..." Heracles rubbed at the back of his head. "I was just going to say... he still has not picked up the pieces of the vase I broke."

Kiku blinked a few times, catching Heracles' eye. "It is still on the floor? That is dangerous."

"I don't go near it within a meter," Heracles responded. "I don't want to say anything. I don't know whether he has just not thought about it. He'll pick it up in his own time."

Kiku still found that odd, but decided not to comment further. Alfred was moving away now. Kiku sipped some more of his water and set it down.

"I will be right back," he said to Heracles, before rushing off. Heracles said something, but Kiku could not make it out. He would have to apologize later, but right now... right now...

He grabbed the other's sleeve.

"Alfred?"

"Eh... I'm Matthew, Kiku. Matthew."


Notes:

Heracles and Elizaveta have a special connection. It is the 'mutual-hating-of-Sadiq' connection.