Title: Beginning after ending

Day/Theme: August 30th, 2014 - "With your empty smile / And your hungry heart"

Series: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi~ Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai

Character/Pairing: Kirishima, Yokozawa, pre-Kirishima/Yokozawa

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Before Kirishima created the Pet Project that intended to keep Yokozawa from agonizing over unrequited love.

How long was this guy gonna complain his ear off?

Kirishima rested his head on his palm as he watched the Wild Bear of the Sales department, Yokozawa, throw back a glass of alcohol, of which the name is too obscure to pronounce. He's on his second bottle and it's slowly getting emptied out. Kirishima eyed the label with disinterest, 48% alcohol. If Yokozawa doesn't stop right now, he might get himself killed with alcohol poisoning.

"-and after all those years, he just came back and waltzed into the department and Takano is-" Yokozawa slurred angrily, his frown deeply etched in between the eyebrows, flailing his arms around and slammed a fist on the counter. "The little minx doesn't even know what he'd done all those years when I supported Takano after the breakup and- I could've made him happier."

Yokozawa banged on the counter.

Kirishima's glass shook, the ice cubes clinking.

"Sir, please refrain yourself from breaking the bar." The bartender said sternly, while he's finished drying the glasses and looking rather put upon with Yokozawa's person. "Or else I'll have to kick you out right now."

"Sorry about this," Kirishima hastily grabbed for Yokozawa's fist before it struck the wooden counter again, clenching it tight in case Yokozawa would try to escape the grip. "I'll get him off your hands, boss-Yokozawa, stop. Stop! Calm down a bit-."

"Leggo. I want to drink more. Another shot, please!" Yokozawa whined, his words already slurring with each syllable.

"No. You've enough for today."

Yokozawa reached for Kirishima's untouched drink and tried to pull it towards his mouth. But before he could tip it back, Kirishima had taken his wrist hostage by pulling it away from Yokozawa's face. A tug of war ensued with Yokozawa snarling at Kirishima to let go and Kirishima refusing to give the drink away. Who would have thought the Wild Bear could act this unseemly? The uptight personality Kirishima was so used to seeing from Yokozawa had suddenly faded into the background.

Then Yokozawa crashed down face first on the counter. Completely wiped out, drool leaking from the corner of his mouth.

The sight actually amused Kirishima.

After he released Yokozawa's hands he pulled out his cellphone to take a picture.

"Colleague?" The bartender asked.

"Yeah." Kirishima checked the pictures in his gallery, smirking at the sleeping face, and then dropped the smirk, "Sorry, boss. I'll take him off your hands."

"You better, Kirishima." the bartender sniffed, resting his elbows on the counter to look down at Yokozawa.

"How long has he been drinking?" Kirishima asked.

"About an hour or so. Poor chap, got his heart broken, huh?"

"Not too difficult to see that since he's been talking my ear off just now." Kirishima sighed, rubbing his ear and then checked his watch. Crap. Already past 2AM? Thank goodness mom had picked up Hiyo from school. "Gotta go. How much is the tab?"

"I'll ring it up for you. Please wait a moment." the bartender shuffled to the far right where the register machine was installed and flipped through a small notebook, checking the orders. Not long after, the bartender handed Kirishima a rather long receipt.

His eyes widened at the amount.

Frigging expensive!

Kirishima grumbled at the bartender, but still, he took out his wallet and pressed one of his credit cards into the bartender's hand.

"You're gonna owe me a lot of money, Yokozawa." Kirishima muttered as he drew Yokozawa's arm around his neck and half-carried, half-dragged him out of the bar. Puddles of water splashed against the hem of his pants and dirtying his shoes, wetting the inside of his sock, as Kirishima dragged Yokozawa along.

The rain that was thought to have stopped earlier, crashed down in full force that Kirishima had a hard time squinting through the curtain for a vehicle. Eventually two headlights came his way.

He flagged a taxi and shoved Yokozawa into the car.

"Where to?" the taxi driver asked.

"Please send this guy to-." Kirishima blanked out. Where does Yokozawa live again? They weren't close enough to know such personal details. "Hey, where do you live?" He shook Yokozawa until the other man fumbled with words and slapping his hands away in annoyance.

Sighing, Kirishima gave up dumping Yokozawa at some random place and slid into the car as well. "The nearest hotel, please."

"All right, buckle up."

The taxi driver must have assumed they were in some kind of relationship, because the hotel he took them to, most likely, one of those love hotels with the creative couple room selections. He did always want to try the Jacuzzi chamber or the Maid chamber, but that was before he had decided to settle down, before he became a father.

The receptionist didn't blink when he carried Yokozawa's sleeping form to the front desk. She was rather helpful with the amount of room suggestions to pick out from, explaining the basic features each room provided (bed, lube, condoms) and the extras to set the mood (handcuffs, eye patches, candles, pleasure beads, Viagra to name a few). No matter how tempting these model rooms were, Kirishima was uninterested in coming on to a fellow-colleague. They were only acquaintances, nothing more. So he'd chosen one of the barest rooms and paid full cash for a one night sleepover.

"Not cute at all." Kirishima grumbled and carried Yokozawa's drunk ass over to the bed.

He was about to turn on his heels and leave when Yokozawa grabbed onto his sleeve. "Please don't leave me." A pause. "Please stay. I don't want to be alone anymore."

That pitiful whimper.

There was no sniffle, though.

Just a whining kind of whimper.

Kirishima closed his eyes to collect himself and sighed. Okay, he may have a thing for sad faces now.

He took off Yokozawa's shoes and then his jacket-stared a little too long at the slope of Yokozawa's collarbones and Yokozawa's sleeping face with the red rims underneath his eyes. Who would have thought that the Wild Bear could love someone so deeply he hurts himself by being there? He spotted the wet patches on the pillow where Yokozawa's hair had fanned out. Maybe it was better to get Yokozawa naked before he ends up sick tomorrow.

He went on his haunches and stared at Yokozawa's face. He noted the slight crease on his forehead between the eyes, the hanging mouth, the snoring, the troubled expression, the tears... and pulled out his phone again to take more pictures. It's not your every day you would see someone crying his eyes out. Not even Hiyo does it.

Kirishima caught himself brushing stray strands of hair from Yokozawa's face.

Then the glint of his ring brought him back to reality.

"How uncute." He said absently and stood up. He sniffed at his suit and immediately jerked back, his nose scrunched up in disgust. Sweat, smoke, old laundry, alcohol. He hadn't bathed properly for over 24 hours, no thanks to the end of the month cycle. His eyes finally saw a door standing ajar on his left. He spotted the outline of the shower head and the vanity mirror. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick shower before going home.

When he's done showering, he and Yokozawa will have a long, long talk about his expensive alcohol consumption to drown out sorrows.

TheNekoTalks:

this pairing needs more love. I can't wait to see the OVA of this novel.

It's also been a while since I wrote this pairing. I'm sad to say I've lost the notes for the other chapters.

Thank you for reading!

.:Nekocin:.