Chapter 5: Uncertainty

Rene orders them a final round of drinks and Mikaela eats one last piece of sushi. Their 90 minute time limit for nomihoudai at the izakaya is almost up and the the girls, Horn and Chess, are eager to do karaoke. After 90 minutes of unlimited drinks, he would think they'd want a break, but they picked a karaoke place that also offered unlimited drinks. Honestly, he's already feeling a little unsteady which never leads to good things, but he can't bail halfway through the night.

Lacus leans into him, "Still holding your alcohol?"

"Of course, though I don't see why we need to go to another all you can drink place."

"It's what they picked, but you don't have to drink, you can just fall asleep like you usually do after drinking too much, ya light weight."

"You gonna carry me home?"

"Not a chance," Lacus scoffs."You just better make sure you wake up when it's time to go."

"What great friends I have," he retorts, accepting his last drink. He tries to sip it slowly, but everyone else finishes up quickly and he's forced to chug the last half of the glass before they lose patience. "Alright, I'm done."

"Let's go then," Chess yells excitedly.

Rene links an arm with his to keep him with the group as they head out into the night. He must look a lot drunker than he feels if the other boy is already concerned about him getting separated from them. Granted, after chugging that last drink, he'd love nothing more than to sit down forever somewhere nice and cool, but he's pretty sure there's at least two hours of karaoke coming up.

They opt for a larger karaoke room meant for more people than they actually have in their party and the first thing he does when they get their room is to curl up in a corner of one of the couches. He dozes off and on for about four songs until Chess grabs his hands and demands they sing the next song together.

One song somehow turns into half an hour of slurred singing and it's a good thing he already knows most of the words because focusing on the lyrics displayed across the screen is out of his capabilities at the moment.

When he's deemed his participation good enough, he finally relinquishes the microphone to Rene and drops onto one of the couches with his head in Horn's lap, sighing in relief at the soft comfort of her thighs. His eyes close as she and Chess begin singing a classic Disney song and he's halfway to bliss when he feels someone poking him in the cheek.

He stares up at Lacus smirking down at him, "I knew you'd be asleep."

"Then let me!"

"First, tell me did you give up on the kid," he replies, brushing Mikaela's bangs back from his forehead.

"No..."

"What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mentioned him and you started grinning. You've seen him."

"Not for two weeks."

"Spit it out already."

"Well that day at the dojo after you pissed me off, he tried to fight me and I punched him."

"You punched him?"

"Not hard, well okay I mean kind of hard. He blacked out."

"Mika, what the hell?! You can't go around knocking people out!"

"I didn't! It was his stomach!"

"Well? Did you leave him there?"

"No," Mikaela then tells him what happened much to Lacus' amusement.

"Well you work fast, don't you?"

"I can't control his body."

"So, now what?"

"Now, I see if I scared him off or if he comes back."

"Didn't sound like he was scared to me. Bring him next time, let's see how well he holds his own," Lacus says, standing up and taking the microphone from Horn. "I love this song." Mikaela watches Lacus and Chess sing the next song and he wants to get up and join, but he's so warm and comfortable, sleeping comes much easier.

When he wakes up next, Chess, Horn, and Lacus are still singing their drunk hearts out and Rene has taken Lacus' spot on the couch, his head against Horn's shoulder, looks like Rene has hit his limit too. He's the second most light weight out of all of them, unlike the two purple haired members of their party. Lacus and Chess can go all night and still be fine in the morning. He's feeling a little lonely, he always gets like this after being drunk for a while. Mikaela reaches over to tug at Rene's shirt, "Kiss me."

Rene raises an eyebrow at him, but complies, leaning down to kiss him. It's warm, a little rough from their slightly chapped lips, and tastes heavily of alcohol, but that's fine, it's the affection he likes more than the actual act. He opens his mouth, content to keep sleepily kissing Rene until Lacus shoves a hand between them, "You are the most affectionate drunk I've ever met." He yanks Mikaela up, "Let's go, they're about to close. Can you make it home?"

"Yeah, I'm sober," he mumbles as they head towards the exit. Chess and Horn stumbling off together. He'd be more worried for them if he wasn't already aware they could take care of themselves.

"No, you're not. Text when you get home, so we know not to come hunt you down."

"Fine."

"And don't forget we're coming over tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah," he mutters, waving a dismissive hand, "Bring food." Lacus salutes him with two fingers and turns away, leaving Mikaela to make his way home alone. The other two live near each other, their dorms are the opposite direction of his and a little farther away, so all three of them rarely end up commuting together unless they're already in the same place. He shakes his head and buys a bottle of water from a nearby vending machine before checking the time. 3 a.m. Hmm, by the time he wakes up it'll be afternoon, he muses as he begins the walk home.

~~~~~
"So idiotic," Shinya murmurs in annoyance, glaring at Guren.

Yuu stands next to them holding the first aid kit as Shinya patches up a long gash down Guren's arm. Yuu had suggested they go to the hospital, but Shinya had reassured him that it wasn't deep enough to pose too much of a problem.

"I told you to wait! Why didn't you listen?" He demands to know, pulling the bandage tighter around Guren's arm.

"Ow, careful! Yuu, come finish this."

"I've got it!"

"You're hurting me more than this scrape right now."

"You deserve it!"

"Shinya, it's just a scrape. I had him, there was no point waiting."

"I'm your partner! You should at least try listening to me!"

"You're not my partner," Guren responds blankly.

"I am! We've been assigned together, you can't just run off on your own like that."

"I took care of myself before you came and I still can."

Shinya ties off the bandage and smacks the wound hard, looking pleased when Guren can't hold in his flinch. "Oh, did that hurt?"

Guren glares back at him, opening his mouth to argue with Shinya, and Yuu sighs as he listens to them bicker. He frowns at Guren, he doesn't get why he's resisting Shinya's partnership so hard. Having a partner would be nice, someone you could always rely on to have your back and to be there for you no matter what. He has his friends and they're great mostly, but it's different from having a bond with one person through thick and thin.

Guren has his whole detective agency as friends, Mito, Goshi, Sayuri, and Shigure, they're all close, but none of them would qualify as his partner. All of them are content to let Guren fly solo and do his own thing. Shinya seems to be the only one trying to form a different kind of bond with Guren, but he's fighting an uphill battle. Guren is content with his circle of friends and doing things his way, honestly he wouldn't be surprised if Shinya gave up sooner rather than later.

Yuu sets the kit down now that he knows his adopted parent is fine and walks out the door to meet up with his friends. They're meeting at the arcade to celebrate the end of his two week grounding. He didn't tell them the full details of what happened, just that the fight ended badly and he missed curfew, he refused to elaborate any more than that. Yuu picks up the pace, he's so restless and has been the past two weeks.

Since he's been grounded, he's been either at school or stuck at home. Although, it has given him a lot of time to practice his fighting stances. He's spent some time every day for the last two weeks copying the beginner youtube videos, so he's made some progress there and hopefully he's convincing Guren he's serious about gaining fighting skills.

But, going somewhere else and getting out of the house would finally get rid of his need to do something. He arrives at the arcade and heads up to the rhythm floor where Yoichi and Shinoa are having a dance off.

"Hey guys."

"Hey," Mitsuba and Kimizuki reply, the other two too busy concentrating on the game to answer.

"You guys been here long?"

"Just long enough for Shinoa and Yoichi to go head to head."

Shinoa jumps off the machine with a jeer in Yoichi's direction and a cheer in Yuu's. "He never stood a chance! What took you so long?"

"Guren got hurt stalking some guy and the new guy was patching him up."

"The one Guren refuses to acknowledge?"

"Yep."

She nods, "You're up. This may be the only thing you can actually crush Kimizuki in."

Kimizuki scoffs, "I'd like to see him try."

"You're on." He's excellent at this game and he knows Kimizuki's weakness is songs that require a lot of jumping, which is of course what he picks. By the third round, Yuu's almost as out of breath as his opponent. He's about to secure his win when he catches a flash of blonde hair, Yuu whips his head around just in time to see a girl disappear around the corner and he's filled with disappointment as he tries to recover from his blunder, but he's completely out of sync now and he gives up, letting Kimizuki win.

"Yuu, what the hell was that?"

"I got distracted."

"Yeah by that blonde girl with the bouncing boobs, better watch out Mitsuba, Yuu's taste might be changing."

"I don't think he was distracted by her, Shinoa." Yoichi inputs quickly. "Were you?"

"I was," he answers simply, leaving it at that. There's no way he'll admit to hoping it was Mikaela, that would lead to a new round of questioning that he doesn't want to bother with.

Yoichi's eyebrows furrow, "You were?"

"Your turn Mitsuba."

As Shinoa and Mitsuba battle it out, Yuu wanders over to one of the other games, now that he's here he doesn't actually feel like doing much and he's not feeling very social anymore. It sucks to say, but he'd rather be at home right now, at least there he wouldn't be glancing around every five seconds on the zero percent chance Mikaela might show up.

"Yuu-san, do you want to race against me?"

"Sure," he answers Yoichi halfheartedly. He can count on Yoichi not badgering him with questions. He follows the brunette to the other side of the floor where he uses Mario Kart to take his mind off what he really wants.

They go from racing, back to rhythm games to the crane machines, and finally finish in the new photobooth Mitsuba insists they try out because of the added features. It proves to be a long three hours at the arcade. It's a blessing when they finally leave to the crepe shop.

"What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've had that stupid look on your face ever since you messed up on DDR," Kimizuki states.

"Didn't you want to come out with us to celebrate?" Yoichi questions.

He takes a bite of his chocolate banana crepe, "I did, guess I didn't realize how tired I was. Didn't realize I had a stupid look on my face either though, so thanks for that."

"No problem."

Yuu debates throwing his crepe at Kimizuki, but decides it's too good to waste on him, he turns to Yoichi instead. "Guren still hasn't put martial arts lessons back on the table, not even if I wait three months. He says I have no discipline…"

He hums thoughtfully, "Yuu-san...what did happen when you fought that guy?"

Yuu struggles and fails to fight down the blush his memories bring up, "I lost, that's all."

"Yeah, but how did that make you miss your curfew?" Mitsuba looks at him in confusion.

"Uh...I got hit so hard, I was confused and couldn't find my way home."

They all stare at him with nonplussed looks until Kimizuki breaks the awkward silence with a direct, "You're lying."

"I'm not," he says around a mouthful of crepe.

"There is no way you wandered around for hours without calling for help or you know using your phone. I call bullshit."

"You are bullshit," he mutters back.

Shinoa snatches the rest of his crepe, "Spill or the crepe gets it!"

"Shinoa!" Yuu frowns in disgust as she mimes licking his crepe. He debates between lying again or telling the truth, settling for somewhere in the middle. "I put him in a headlock, but he pulled a dirty move and punched me in the stomach. I woke up near the dojo close to midnight."

"He left you?"

"You passed out from one punch? I told you to leave that guy alone! Why are you so stupid?" Kimizuki exclaims in frustration.

"Hey, I was winning until he did that!"

"He left you unconscious! What part of that do you not understand?!"

"I'm fine."

"Yuu, I don't say this enough, but seriously be careful. That could have ended really badly."

"Believe me, I know, Shinoa." She shakes her head and they all give him concerned looks. "Seriously it wasn't that big a deal, I survived and made it home, now I'll just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I think it's a good idea Guren cancelled your martial arts classes," Yoichi begins. "Imagine if you were running into him all the time."

"Wrong! If I took classes, I would've known to block. But, more importantly, Shinoa give me back my crepe!"

She pops the last of it into her mouth, "For being an idiot and lying to us about it."

Yuu feels his frustration grow, all he wanted was the crepe, not a lecture about misbehaving from Shinoa of all people. He shoves back his chair, "It's been fun, but I've gotta get home. Thanks for coming out guys."

"So what? Now you're going to go home and sulk?"

"No," Yuu shoots the pink haired boy a dirty look, "We're done right? You were about to leave too."

"Don't get mad at us because you got your ass kicked."

"See ya!" He pushes his chair in and makes a break for it. This outing didn't help at all, just made him even more annoyed. He's heading for his platform when he pauses, Guren may still be at home arguing with Shinya and he doesn't feel like holeing back up in his room. Yuu sighs and turns away, letting his feet take the lead. When he looks up, he already knows what to expect. He's walked right back to Mikaela's apartment, where he's wanted to go all day.

He steps back after pressing the doorbell, half of him desperately hoping Mikaela isn't home and the other half hoping he is. The door unlocks and Mikaela appears, looking like he just rolled out of bed with messy hair and wrinkled sweat pants. His eyes, however, look wide awake as he grins down at him. "Hmm, look who came back."