Candy Man Chapter Three

Title: Candy Man Chapter Three
Author: anselik
Editor: shiroppumusume
Pairing: Tora/Nao, Saga/Shou, others?
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Humor/Romance,
Warning: Sweetness and a daily dose of my cliché. Also long chapters and offense wording.
Summary: Strawberry short cake, apple pie, banana pie, lemon pie, angel cake, brownies, lemon cake, double chocolate chip cookies, and among other sweets were placed in a glass display as one entered the building of a certain cafe. Will love blossom at this small café or will it wither away with time as the holidays come rolling along?

Comments: Happy late Christmas! Happy New Years as well. I hope you enjoy it!





Chapter Three: A First Experience is Always Different the Second Time

“OK, so that’s two bags of flour, I see five boxes of sugar. . .”

The profound executive chef of a certain café was currently in the back taking inventory of the new deliveries that had been made in the wee hours of the morning. With a clipboard in his hands, he counted the many ingredients that he would be needing throughout the day.

Sniff. Slurp.

The sound of someone smelling coffee, taking in the aroma in the room reached Kai’s ears as he looked up from his task and spotted Ruki sipping on a white cup. Both of the blond’s hands held the cup to his mouth.

“Ruki, did you move everythig inside?”

Slurp.

“I did.”

Kai turned for a split second.

“Good.”

Silence filled the room again, except for the sound of a scribbling pen on a paper.

The bell rang signaling the appearance of someone at the door. Both eyes darted to the kitchen door. Kai’s dark eyes then made their way to Ruki’s, his eyes full of question and confusion.

“Did you forget to lock the door or something?”

“I didn’t even open the front door! I only have the key to the back.” Ruki stated as he got down from the kitchen stool he was sitting on and started toward the front of the café. His legs were a little wobbly from the way he had sat on the stool with his feet dangling in the air.

Smack.

Many sounds were indeed filling the air, Kai thought. His gaze went back to the cabinets that held the ingridients that needed to be counted. As he finished counting the last packages, he tucked under his ear the pen he had been using and headed on to put the clipobard away in the office for record keeping purposes. He did not bother investigating who was at the front door. He had a hunch though.

When Ruki entered the front of the café, he saw a very well known individual ─ on the floor. He wondered why the head honcho’s face was touching the tile. Well, at least he knew who had opened the front door; it could have been worse, a robber at that.

“Uh, Tora why are you on the floor?”

No response.

“Need help getting up?”

Again no response.

“There is no need to help him out.” a voice said, coming from the door.

Ruki could only make out the glistening caramel hair being illuminated by the blinding sunlight from the windows; the rest of the building was dark, so the contrast was hard on Ruki’s unadjusted eyes. The tall figure was having trouble with the keys, Ruki presumed, because his hands were gripping the door handle with force. He heard the man let out a noise of frustration.

“Damn, why can’t I close the door?!”

“Ah! You’re Shou, right?”

Ruki asked trying to find out who the man was.

“Damn. Yes I am Shou. Shit.” Shou responded while closing and opening the door with force. The door was apparently not to his favor. Every time that he put the key in and turned it to the degree that should have locked the door it simply wouldn’t lock; his attempts were futile—the door always opened.

“Do you need help?” Ruki offered. He wanted to
laugh but that would had been rude, so he just smiled at the other. Hopefully Shou couldn’t see him from the dark. He was probably too preoccupied at the moment anyways.

“That would be great. I give up.” And with that Shou let go of the door while the chimes sang their daily song. Ruki took hold of the keys stuck to the doorknob and clockwise turned the key and once again closed the door.

Shou stared down at the figure on the floor. With his foot, he gently poked its side for his own amusement. Tora did not move at all. Not even a twitch or a groan.

“Well, he is definitely knocked out.” Shou said to no one in particular. “Is anyone else here?”

“Yeah,” Ruki said as he made his way to the register to put the keys away in a drawer. “ Kai is in the kitchen.”

“Great! I get to visit then.” Shou said as he made his way towards the double doors carefully not to step on Tora even though it was tempting. “I get to have free crème brûlée!” Shou sang as he opened the door.

All Ruki could hear after the door closed was the exclamation of the name “Kai!” and some sort of BANG—steel hitting steel maybe? He wasn’t sure. He chuckled at the thought of a startled Kai. He was always trying to keep his composure so the image of him looking up from his work and hitting the line of hanged pots and pans would be classic. Simply classic.

The chime on the door frame rang as the movement of the door set it off. Ruki’s chuckle turned into a grunt of frustration. He had not closed the door properly. He would be in trouble for this. He should have checked if the door was locked before he had given up on it. Ah well, at least Tora was still on the floor and unable to insert a smart ass comment. Ruki’s eyes widened when he made this realization. He scrambled back to the place where Tora was half-dead lying on the floor and attempted to lift the lifeless body up and away from the currently invisible, intruding customer’s view. To no avail, the taller man was heavy and of course taller than him. He did his best to lift him and at least drag him away with Tora’s weight concentrated on his left side.

“Is he alright?”

Ruki turned his gaze from Tora to the person entering the building.

“Uh, we are not open at the moment.” Ruki said as he let Tora drop without warning to the floor. A loud thump was heard. The short man panicked a little. He did not want Tora to be seen in his current state of hoboness—for a lack of another word. The taller man exhaled a breath of pain when he was again on the floor.

‘I hope Uruha swept the floor…’ Ruki thought as he directed his vision towards the man standing at the door.

“Oh. I am sorry! I was just looking for—Tora-san, are you alright?” he said, eyebrows raised as he thought he spotted a figure rising up from the floor. He could not tell—Tora was hidden behind tables and chairs.

Tora only grunted. As he stood to his full size form from the floor, he had a hand to his forehead. He felt a slight pain in his head. He wondered how he ended up on the floor. He squinted one eye open and took in his surroundings. He was not in the usual club. Had he been in a club last night? Was it a dream? There was new lighting inside this new place. He took in the French windows bright with sunlight. Rays of sunlight came in through the glass as the sun rose higher and higher with every passing second. His mind took a while to register the situation. When he opened both his eyes, he saw two pairs of eyes staring at him: one with concern and the other with indifference.

“Ah, I…”

A creak came from behind them announcing the double doors opening. A content Shou came out with a bag in his hand and Kai following behind him.

The caramel blond took in the scenery before him as he halted to a stop besides the counter. He blinked once with his big eyes and all.

“Nao? What are you doing here?”

“Huh? You called me to come here Shou.”

“I did?” Shou started. He had to ponder for a moment. “Oh yeah, I was gonna ask for a favor since you were close by, but I couldn’t find you. Ha. I left a message, sorry about that.”

“Are you alright, then?” Nao said with concern in his voice. “The phone woke me up since it was vibrating on the floor beside my futon.”

“Nao-san, was it?” Kai question as he broke into the conversation. “I think you should come inside since it’s kinda cold outside don’t you think?”

The brunet did a gesture with his hands signaling him to come inside and sit down at one of the tables. Nao completely forgot that he had the door half way open, letting in the cold winter air. Nao stepped inside completely and closed the door, taking Kai up on his offer. With that, the executive chef made his way towards the door to lock it properly.

Tora stared as well as he could—a little torpid—as
Nao dragged out a seat from under the table to sit on.

The coffee shop owner grunted. “Kai, could you get me an expresso doppio?”

_________________________________________________________________________

A fit of laughter came from the small café in the middle of the city as someone walked through its doors, held open by another cheerful body. People held boxes of sweets—one or as much as four—within their hands as they exited. Others felt comfortable inside the little café as a hide away from their busy city life. It was an escape of some sort for some people after a difficult day.

“You are right, Shouji, the pies here are delicious! The cappuccino is super! Way better than Starbuck’s! You’ve completed my vacation with this! “

“It was my pleasure, Yumi-chan. I am glad that you liked them. I discovered this place while I was walking from work, you know. I took another route because I didn’t want to go home early. My ex-girlfriend was in the apartment…”

“Well, then it was a good thing you didn’t go! I was super glad when you broke up with her. She was too annoying and. . . ”

This escapist answer was typically held by many customers in response to how they had come upon discovering the college student operated café. People would walk home from a hard day’s work and seek something to cheer them up; the café did just that. With every bite, the customers felt the need to come again and eat the sweet taste of their pastries, reminding them of their untroubled childhoods.

“Ah, Uruha-kun, please give my regards to the master in the kitchen. These pastries are magnificent. They remind me of the time when I went to France.” a middle aged man said as he got up from his seat and went to put on his black, winter coat located at the coat rack in front.

“Ah, thank you very much, Shimura-san. Thank you very much for choosing us! The cherry pie that you ordered is here. I hope you enjoy it. Please come again.” He smiled.

“Of course. I will never stop coming here. Expect me here with my wife on the weekend.” The man said with a bright smile. Uruha returned the gesture and bowed as the man with the coat left with a white box representing a little bit of the life in the café.

“Thank you for your patronage!” Uruha exclaimed with a smile on his face. He was having a good day today.

The amiable and polite hospitality was also another reason why people kept on returning. The younger crowd chose another reason, however.

“Do you see that guy over there?” a girl in her late teens motioned her fingers in the direction of a waiter inside the café. Her friend took a quick glance at the waiter and then back to her pastry.

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Isn’t he cute?” She whispered.

The girl looked again to her right. Her brown eyes concentrated on the small figure carrying a tray of hot tea as he passed them by.

“Ah! He is cute!” she said as she looked at the short figure ahead of her.

“Do you know his name?” she eagerly asked.

“I think his name’s Keiyuu.” her friend answered with a hint of amusement in her tone. “You could just check his nametag….” She smiled.

“True.” the girl said as she sipped her tea in front of her friend and took quick glances at the waiter named Keiyuu.

“So anyways, you know what he does?” Shou excitedly exclaimed rather than asked, speeding his words up; he was usually tripping over his own words. “He didn’t even know what type of coffee they had at the office! He thought the grounded coffee was instant coffee! What a nice surprise the boss had when he sipped it!”
Everyone at the table burst out laughing.

“So what happened?” Tora asked. He was intrigued by the story, with his mouth shaping a smirk and his eyes fixed on Nao.

Fixed on Nao laughing.

“The poor guy got fired.” continued Nao as he tried to contain his laughter. It got the better of him, however. He wheezed a little when he laughed. This Tora found charming.

“It’s not a laughing matter, but the look on the boss’s face when he drank it—”

“It was priceless!” Shou burst out with a roar of laughter. His deep, projected voice filling the café.

“Not only that, though,” Nao started while stirring the cup of coffee he had with a spoon,

“The poor guy put salt instead of sugar!”

“It was so not his day!” Shou remarked on the situation. He supported his head with the palm of his hand while he took a sip of his coffee at the table. The friends had been talking for more than an hour now after the shop had opened. Kai had gone back to put his culinary skills into action. Ruki was currently cleaning dishes. Keiyuu was serving the customers as the girls threw glances at him, and Uruha was ringing up people’s orders with a smile. The owner, well, the owner was seated right next to the customers listening to the whole conversation.

“Off topic,” Shou warned, “Tora, aren’t you supposed to go and work?”

“I am working.” Tora said as he sipped his coffee.

His calm composure did not faze. Shou saw that he was not concerned with anything at the current moment.

“So, working is sitting around and sipping coffee? I thought you had to manage the place. Sit in an office and plan stuff. Have you ever helped Kai in the kitchen?” Shou inquired.

“I do.”

“Uh huh.”

Shou had to roll his eyes a little at Tora’s terse answer. He was never really completely forward. He once again took a sip of his coffee. The warm liquid sent a warm feeling down his throat. It was too cold outside. Thankfully the café was a safe haven from the outer world.

“I am looking at people’s faces to see if they like the café.” Tora said matter-of-factly.

“They are all happy as I can see. There is my work.”

“Did you barely open this café?” Nao asked. His eyes went straight to Tora.

Tora felt a little shiver go down his spine. He liked attention. He had been looking at Nao for quite a while but he never got the other to look at him. This was quite the change, he thought.

“Not exactly, I opened this place about half a year ago.” Tora said while shifting his position a little; he wanted Nao to get an easier view of him so that he wouldn’t have to force his eyesight too much. ‘Yes, lame excuse,’ he thought inside.

“It’s still new then. Not even the first year anniversary.”

“True.” Tora agreed. “So, Shou, how is Saga doing? Did you get that toaster?”

“Uh, not exactly.” Shou said as his lips searched for coffee inside the cup, only to realize that he had no more. He put the cup down. He could not use the excuse of having liquid in his mouth so as to not talk.

“So all that rushing for nothing?” Tora asked with a raised eyebrow as he drank his coffee. He ran out of coffee, too. He motioned his hand over to a waiter.

“Keiyuu, get me more coffee and the thing that I asked Kai to make. Thanks.”

“Why can’t you get it, hmm? Lazy ass.” Shou said jokingly disgusted. “Get me some coffee, please, Keiyuu-kun.”

“Got it!” Keiyuu responded, setting their empty cups on a tray full of more coffee cups that needed to be washed. He smiled at them and then disappeared towards the kitchen.

“Umm, Shou, I have been meaning to ask you…” Nao looked directly at Shou. “What did you need me for in the morning?”

“Oh that. Well, you see, Tora here decided to go to a club last night. Our friend, Aki, went with him but then Tora got carried away and lost him.” Shou explained.

“The idiot didn’t even think of calling. He just expected him to show up. Mind you, Aki is a heavy drinker and goes on a rampage when he is drunk. Pour soul. Anyways, the idiot got stood up and it was like, what? 4AM? And then he decides to call me! Fuck, he killed my damn sleep.”

“Oh please! You were awake.” Tora said as Keiyuu came back with the coffee pot to refill the cups on the table. Nao smiled at him as a ‘thank you’. Tora looked his way and smiled as well, but not at the waiter.

“No, was not. I had a rough night.”

Tora only snorted at this statement. Shou only looked and gave Tora a disgusted look. He directed his attention back to Nao.

“So yeah I picked him up. That drunken bastard.”

“Correction, I was not drunk.” Tora butted in.

“I don’t think being passed out on the floor comes in your favor. You passed out because of the beer!” Shou said while glaring at the taller man.

“Whatever. I was tired.” was Tora’s only reply.

“—tired of drinking. Anyways,” Shou continued his explanation once again after being interrupted.

“I wanted to know if you could have helped out a friend. The club was not exactly in my neighborhood so I had to get a taxi, which I thought I would never get in the first place.” He then directed his attention to Tora. “ You owe me money.” Shou said with a stoic face.”I did you a favor.”

“What?” Tora exclaimed as he put down his cup and looked at Shou with a face of disbelief.

“Yeah, you do. Damn it! You made me lose my place.” Shou said. He paused in order to regain memory of the place he had left off on in his narrative.

“So, yeah. I called to see if I could leave Tora at your place ‘cause its way closer to his than the café.”

Tora’s eyes widened but then went back to normal. He did not want anyone to see that he was being affected by the talk of inhabiting Nao’s home.

“I see.” Nao said. “You could have just knocked. I do not mind. After all, I owe Tora-san for the time he drove me home.”

Shou’s eyes widened. He had to question this new development that came forth to the table.

“He drove you home?” Shou said with a hint of curiosity. “Why haven’t I heard of this before?”

“It’s none of your business, really.” Tora stated.

“If Tora has a car though,” Nao started, ignoring the question beforehand, “why didn’t he drive himself home after the party?”

Shou only chuckled.

“Drinking and driving is bad, Nao-san.”

“Oh. True.”

“That and I couldn’t find my car.” Tora, half mumbling his words, guiltily admitted. The table broke out into laughter again.

“Are you serious?!” Shou shouted out loud before coughing. He gulped his coffee down to stop the coughing, but it only came down the wrong way from the suppressed laughter in his chest—the coughing became rather violent and so Tora patted, rather, smacked him on the back. It was apparently done a little roughly, though, because Shou’s abdomen hit the edge of the table, the force knocking him forward.

As Uruha worked on the register, he looked in the direction of the group. He saw Shou glare at Tora as he held a hand to his mouth. He also saw the newcomer of the group, fighting the urge to break out into laughter. They had been there for quite the hours. He wanted to join in, but he had to work.

‘Damn it.’ he would think. At times he would look in the direction of Tora and just stare at him enviously for being the lucky bastard that he was. He would admit that Tora did do a lot of the back stage work, but still… Uruha couldn’t help but feel deprived and overworked sometimes.
Tora sneezed.

“Oh, someone is talking behind Tora’s back.” Shou teasingly informed.

“So, you guys wanna go for some food?” Tora
changed the subject.

“Yeah, let’s go! I want ramen.” Shou said. He was hungry and sweets were not exactly a good meal in the morning. He looked down at his watch and took notice that it was almost one in the afternoon.

“Oh shit! I was suppose to go back home after I dropped you off! Shit!” Shou said as he abruptly got up from his seat. With so much force, he almost knocked it down. The chair was wobbling. He roughly took his coat from the chair’s backrest and put it on.

“Sorry guys. I gotta go. I was supposed to go shopping with Saga. Bye!”

And with that Shou raced out onto the street to
stop a cab.

The two sitting at the table had no time to say anything in protest. They stared out the window to look at the passersby’s huddled within their coats because of the cold weather at this time of the year.

“Does he usually do this?” Nao asked as he glanced back at Tora.

“Pretty much. When he’s late he goes full force. Stubborn that one.” Tora stated. “But Saga is worse. Too stubborn.”

“I see. I only met Saga twice, I think.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Nao replied.

“Hmm, then we should arrange a meeting so you can witness his stubbornness.”

“I don’t think that’s a great reason to meet someone: just to witness their stubbornness.” Nao said before taking a gulp of his drink.

“Nah. It makes it more interesting.”

Tora pondered the thought for a bit as he took a big gulp from his pearl white cup.

“You know what? Let’s go right now.”

“Go where?” Nao asked with a confused expression on his face.

“To meet and greet.” Tora said as he got up and took the plates with him into the kitchen for cleaning.

It took a while for Nao to take in the situation. Then he glanced at the chair next to him. He saw a bag sitting there.

“Oh. Shou forgot his bag.” Nao said out loud.


````````````````````````

The Christmas scene was coming alive right in front of Nao as he saw the shopping district changing. Regular-looking shops that he once visited now had a holiday theme to them. He noticed a lot of blue colors and silver for this year. Little trees were stationed in various places.

“Do you know where they are?” asked Nao as he gazed at the people passing by the crowded street, attempting to find a piece of caramel or brown hair shimmering in the light. He had Shou’s bag swinging back and forth from his arm.

“Nah.” Tora said as he kept on walking straight.

“Hmmm.” Nao contemplated in the back.

“Let’s take the train to Shinjuku; they usually shop there on their free time.”

“Good idea.”

They looked at the colorful table on display to see what train they needed. They purchased their tickets and then went to wait for the train. Nao took in the surroundings. Then he looked at Tora and saw his calm demeanor. Nao thought that Tora was quite the nice person that was committed to helping the people around him. He seemed like a good person to hang out with when he needed a laugh. This he had experienced throughout the time that they had met. With the passing of the train and the cold air it brought with it, Nao adjusted his scarf to warm up his neck. He followed Tora as he walked into the train.

There were not a lot of seats so they had to scan for some. Nao saw Tora’s head moving back and forth looking for any on the train. They found two and they sat down. It was a tight squeeze so they did their best to give each other some space in which to move their limbs. As soon as they sat down the train started moving, not a minute too soon.

``````````````````````````````````````````````````

“We couldn’t find them~!“ Tora exclaimed as he rose his arms to stretch.

They were currently walking through a park in order to get to the other side of the street to get nearer to the train station. They went simply nowhere. The place of green foliage was empty, except for the sounds of birds. The children were nowhere in sight. Maybe the fact that it was the evening was the culprit. Nao looked up at the sky to see if he could see little specks of sunlight in the sky. There were none in sight. Nao simply felt the winter air hitting his face. It was not too cold but the weather required a person to wear their warm jacket outside. The dark brunet contemplated on getting his gloves out of his winter clothing box back at home. His hands were becoming a little numb.

“Are you cold?” Tora asked as he glanced at Nao putting his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.

“Uh, no, no, I am fine.” Nao reassured Tora.

“Well then. I think. . . ” Tora started. He suddenly got distracted by a shinny object on the floor that caught the light of the street lamp.

Instead of continuing the sentence he began, he walked closer to the object. Nao was curious as to what fascinated Tora. He looked in the direction that Tora was looking at and also found something shinning in the grass.

“What is it?” Nao called out as he too got closer. When he made it to Tora’s position he found the taller man leaning down and picking up the object in his hands.

“It’s a can of beer. Asahi dry.”
Nao started to laugh. “Wow. Someone was having fun. That’s good beer.”

“I like Corona, but yeah, this is pretty good.”
Tora said with a smirk on his face. Maybe some kind of delinquent wanting to rebel and threw the can on the grass as they passed by. Tora himself had done a horrendous thing like this when he was younger and full of mischief. His father told him to be careful with alcohol ever since he was young but he never listened. He had to join the wrong crowd. He liked the guys though. They taught him about life and about friendship. His mind wandered for a bit remembering the games that they had played. Then the thought came to him.

“Hey, Nao you know how to play kick the can?” Tora asked as nostalgia hit him.

“I know the rules, but. . . ” Nao started as he lowered his head in shame for a split second.

“I never really got to play it.”

“Huh?” Tora said with a surprised appearance on his face. “But you know the rules?”

“Yeah. “ Nao said with a sigh. “I was always looking at the kids that played. I stood there with my juice box and watched them play.”

“Why didn’t you play then?”

Nao stood silent for a little while. Tora felt that he had touched a soft spot. He was about to take back what he had said until Nao made the first move to speak.

“There was this boy,” Nao started. “He . . . did not want me to play. He said I was slow at running. My neighbor would tell him to let me play but he never did. It’s ok though.” Nao said while looking up at Tora with a half smile. “I got to see them play. So I guess I know the rules. I gained knowledge.”

Tora kept his line of vision on the can. He did not know how to respond to that. It was like saying “my mom and dad are getting a divorce.” No one really knows what to say in those types of situations. You could say, “Ah. That’s not good. I feel sorry for you”. Or the worst, “I know how you feel.” Tora knew that he did not truly feel the pain that the other man was going through, but he could try to imagine it.

He kept on glancing at the metal can while Nao looked at the trees that were swaying back and forth with the wind. He held the cool metal with his fingers. It was chillier at night, he thought.

“Let’s play.” Tora said as he walked away from his position and placed the can upright on the floor.
Nao stood a little stunned. “But we don’t have enough players.”

“We combine some rules. You hide and I count. If I find you, run for the can and kick it. If I get to the can first you lose.” Tora said with one go of his breath.

“What about restarting the game?” Nao asked.

“If you kick it you win so I start counting again, but watch it: I can tackle you down easily.”

“Oh? Really?” Nao said with a chuckle. “That confident that you can knock me down and stop me from kicking the can?”

Tora put on his signature smirk-smile. He put his hand on his hip and pointed at Nao’s direction.

“You’re on.”

Nao couldn’t contain his laughter. He hugged himself, holding his aching sides from laughter. The image of them playing together like little kids was enough to make anyone laugh; Two grown men acting like little children—what a sight to see.

Nao tried to suppress his laughter so the other would not think of him as odd. Waiting, Tora started doing some sort of dance that consisted of him swaying back and forth.

“Come on Nao! I’m gonna start counting. You better run!” Tora said as he found a tree and started to count out loud.

“1, 2, 3!”

As the numbers were being counted, Nao dashed his very best to find a spot where he would not be found. His head went back and forth trying to find a perfect spot. As he ran, his hair flew in front of his face a few times, preventing him from seeing. His sparkling eyes filled with mirth kept on looking back at Tora to see if he was near in sight. His smile felt like it was going to rip up to his eye, similar to that Cheshire Cat’s smile from Alice in Wonderland. He did a little skip when he noticed that Tora was not behind him, but kept an eye on the tree. He gave out a little chuckle, but then covered his mouth so no more sounds would come out. He diverted his gaze to find a bush coming up in his vision. The sky was turning into a painting of mixed colors of pink, yellow, orange, light and dark blue, and others.

The street lamps where starting to light up. With heavy breathing due to running Nao sat down behind the bush. He inhaled the cold air. He felt like he was defrosting with the warmth that he had just produced from running.

He took in as much of the scenery as he could in the condition that he was in. Little specks of brown could be seen hidden within the leaves. Nao took notice of the intricate design that nature created in just one twig; the way a single leaf had a wave to its form.

The lights were appearing everywhere in sight as the sun was leaving the sky. Nao looked up to see darkness appearing already. It was getting cold. He tightened the scarf around himself and waited. The cold grass was not a friendly blanket for his bottom half, nor for his hands. He had forgotten his gloves at home so touching the icy grass was not in his list of things to do at the moment. Nao was too preoccupied to notice that a figure was standing right next to him. His eyes just wandered and looked at the park and the children’s play area. He held a small smile as he saw the swings and the bars.

“Found you.”

Nao looked up from his sitting position on the floor. He was in a state of bewilderment. For a split second he forgot about the game but then remembered. With a spark of some kind and a word like “oh!” he used his two legs to jump up and start running. He almost fell over from the force that he used to push himself up. A branch was in his way and his foot got caught in it. As he was getting ready to fall back Tora took a hold of him and with his hand gave the other a mild push in the back to help him regain some balance and speed.

“You aren’t supposed to help me!” Nao shouted with glee as he kept on running towards his target.

“Yeah, well. I was gonna fall too. I used you as support!” Tora shouted back with a smile on his face. He used that for a cover up to mask his real intention: to give Nao a heads up in the game.

As Nao saw something glimmering at the corner of his eyes, he felt a force taking him down to the floor. His chin felt the coldness of the floor as his world went upside down for a little bit. His eyes were closed, his breathing hard from running to the goal.

“Ha. See? I can tackle you down.” Tora said triumphantly as he got up on his knees and swiped the sweat off his face with his jacket’s sleeve. His nose lingered on his sleeve for a little bit, the smell of alcohol was very obvious on his clothing from the previous night. Not a very nice smell. He wondered if he had smelled the same way when they were in the café.

Nao was laughing as he laid there on the floor. The need for getting up was not necessary. He felt a kind of peace when lying down with his stomach flat on the ground. Tora looked down at Nao and just smiled. The dark haired man felt as if every time he was around Nao a smile would appear on his own face. He would feel a certain warmth engulf him, warmth that could withstand the cold. Speaking of cold, it had gotten late and there was enough of a breeze to make his spine shiver. He grabbed both of his hands and started to rub them against each other. He felt the need to produce heat even though that was a sure fail attempt to keep warm.

Nao moved his head to the side and opened his eyes. He saw Tora’s breath in the air. It had gotten dark and the cold had made his breath visible. With a contemplated face, he looked up at the sky. He wished to see the stars in the sky but he found none. The light of the city concealed the night’s elegant gems—the light that would calm people’s soul when gazing up at the sky. All Nao could do was remember the stars that he saw when he was younger and remember those moments. As his thoughts took him to different places, he forgot about the game and remained pensive on the cold, humid grass.

As Tora was getting up to dash for the can, he felt a droplet of water hit his palm. He did not mind the water though, for he wanted to win the game. Nao was down and dazed so this was his big chance to win. He did not notice how many more droplets of water kept falling.

“You are going to lose!”

Nao looked in the direction of a running figure getting dangerously close to a can. Just as Nao managed to push himself up from the floor, he slipped on the grass and clumsily hit the floor. His arms went flying in the air. His rib cage hurt but he got up with a chuckle and ran as fast as he could. He felt like collapsing right there and then but he had decided he wasn’t going down alone. He managed to catch up to Tora and tackled him down from behind. They both fell with a loud thump onto the floor. Tora was bewildered by the situation for a little bit and then regained his senses. He burst out laughing.

“I thought you had given up on the floor. You looked like an old dog tired of life.”

“Yeah, well, consider this payback.” Nao laughed out loud while standing up. The rain had become a little heavy from a light drizzle. Tora felt the cold through his clothes as he remained on the ground. He stood up and felt the mud slide off his pants and gather at the ground. His sleeves were covered as well. With his mud-covered shoes that were getting worse by the instant, he ran his best to catch up to the happy brunet. The cement was becoming more slippery by the minute.

Side by side they ran trying to match one another. No tackling nor pulling or pushing, they simply ran at their best. Two mouths gasping in air as fast as they could. Their heart rates beating at the speed of light. Racing one another, with their breaths visible under the night air. Even though the rain was not heavy, it had gotten quite loud and the water did not seem to want to stop. When Tora was about to kick the can, Nao stepped in and gave Tora’s foot a shove. That caused Tora to lose his balance. Nao could vaguely hear Tora muttering the word ‘shit’ under his breath. The taller male grabbed Nao’s arm as a rope to keep himself secure but that rope broke as Nao felt the extra weight taking him down yet again. He recovered, however, by getting rid of the iron grip Tora had on his arm. This sent Tora landing onto a puddle of mud. With a jump, Nao got his balance back and finally kicked the can, not very high though.

“You bastard! You kicked it!” Tora yelled as he got up from his current position. He rubbed his wet face but that was not the right decision for his arm was covered in mud. Now his face was the canvas of some kind of artwork.

Nao simply laughed. He knew they were both acting like children. Very childish indeed. As Tora walked towards him, he lost his footing on the slippery floor and fell once again.

“I think we need to get out of the rain, don’t you think so, Tora?” Nao said with folded arms, as he observed their clothing covered in mud.

“Yeah, before the bus leaves us.” Tora said brushing away invisible dust from his knees only to cover his hands with more mud.
He smacked Nao’s back with his hand as a sign of

“Good job!” Nao only smiled as he hit Tora back as well.

With the little droplets of water shimmering in the light of the street lamps, the two individuals left the park that had brought them memories of their younger years. The same park in which they also left a certain white box filled with crème brûlée.

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````


“Thanks again for letting me stay, Nao.” Tora said as he made his way towards the table with a plate in hand ready to serve.

“It’s nothing, Tora-shi. I owe you anyways.” Nao said as his happy eyes glanced at the plate before him, filled with a rice omelette and hash browns. Nao normally didn’t even have hash browns. He frankly was amazed at himself for knowing the side dish.

“I have a question though.” Nao started as he got his fork prepared in hand in order to dig in.

“Hmm?” Tora said with a piece of omelette already in his mouth not noticing the nick name that Nao had given him.

“Why hash browns?”

“Hmm. De ahr gud.”

“Hmm. They are.” Nao responded warmly, not caring that Tora was talking with his mouth full of food.

Tora took a big sip of the coffee that he had made this morning as he prepared the breakfast without Nao’s knowledge. With a sound of satisfaction, he put his cup down with a little slam on the table.

“I went shopping while you slept. I saw this market as we were walking towards your place. So yeah, got up early and bought stuff ‘cause you have none in your fridge. Uh. . . so I made hash browns out of potatoes. I wanted some potatoes.”

Nao just laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Tora asked with a smirk. He wanted to know what was so funny.

“Your chuckle, you greasy Mexican.” Nao said while laughing. “You have oil on your face! Was it that hard to make them?”

“Hey! Uncalled for!” Tora said as he pointed to his shirt that said “Mexico” in big capital letters. It looked like a jersey. “I like this shirt.”

Nao only laughed even harder. “I just thought your clothing for clubbing would be more. . . formal?” Nao questioned himself as to how to describe clubbing clothes.

“I was wearing a jacket.” Tora said to defend his situation.

“True. But what if you got hot?” Nao said in acknowledgment to Tora’s answer.

“I just don’t take it off.”

“Ah. I see. So you roast like a chicken.” Nao said as an implied question.

“Why not? I think I remain more mysterious that way, ne?” Tora said as he put his fork down on the plate and slouched forward on the chair, looking at Nao straight in the eye with his palm supporting his chin on the table and giving Nao his smirk. The only thing the brunet could do was finish his omelette with the same smile he had had ever since yesterday. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had smiled this much in his life. It was a new comfort, the comfort of knowing that Tora provided him much laughter. Much happiness.

As Nao finished his meal, he got up from his seat and picked up his and his guest’s plate in order to wash them. Nao pulled up his sweater’s long sleeves and went on to scrubbing the dishes. Tora glanced at Nao’s back and then directed his attention to the many computers in his room. He would have to leave the small apartment, go home, change clothes and then go back into work again. He had enjoyed the little distraction from the routine schedule he had ahead of him. He rested both arms behind his head and laid back on the chair.

“Thanks for letting me stay.”

“It’s nothing. I wasn’t gonna let you go on the train again looking like you had just taken a bath in your clothes.”

Tora only chuckled.

“It was nice of the old lady to yell at us and tell us to be ashamed of ourselves because we ruined our clothing with mud. Oh, and that we were gonna get sick.”

“Yeah.” Tora responded. “Just like my old man.”

“Well,” Nao started as he rubbed the dish cloth on the plates, “We should get going or we’re gonna be late for work.”

“Right, mother.” Tora said with a smile as he grabbed Nao’s bag and handed it to him.

Nao just laughed at Tora’s antics and closed the door of his apartment.

Ring. ring. Ring

“Hello. This is Murai Naoyuki’s home. Please leave a message. Bye!”

Beep.

“Hello. I am calling from the offices of Doctor Higashi. This is regarding the last visit that was made. Please contact the offices. Thank you.”




Beep.