Chapter Text
“Fries! Fries!” Lacus called out to enthusiastically to the passersby. “Come get some Bloody-Good Paprika Fries!”
For all you would expect the stupid red visor to look ridiculous on purple hair, Lacus was acting like he was completely in his element. Even more shocking, if it weren’t for the slowly darkening bruise on the right side of Lacus’ face, you would have never guessed that less than ten minutes ago, he’d been knocked over by a mousy, brown-haired boy almost a head shorter than him.
In fact, Mika, himself, was having a hard time processing the fact that his acquaintance and junior coworker had just been attacked by Yoichi. As Lacus said, he had deserved it. If it had been his sister Lacus had wronged, there was no way Mika would have ended it with just one punch. But it wasn’t so much about the fact that Lacus had been hit as it was that it was Yoichi who had done the hitting. And without warning, too.
Mika hadn’t known the small and timid-looking boy for very long, but apparently first impressions were misleading. Perhaps he ought to re-evaluate all his assumptions about Yuu’s friends, starting with Kimizuki, who Mika had always assumed was…
“Eh? Why’re you staring at me, Mika?” Lacus whined, jolting Mika out of his inner musings. He hadn’t even realized he’d been staring. “Do I have something on my face?” Lacus stuck his lower lip out in a pout.
Besides the black eye, you mean?
“No, I just…” Mika began, foundering for words. “Well, don’t you think you’re being unusually cheerful for someone who was just punched in the face?”
“Oh, come on. That was nothing!” Lacus smiled, walking over to Mika and lightly smacking him in the shoulder. “Besides, look!” Lacus shoved his cell phone in Mika’s face. “René’s gonna visit soon.”
Sure enough, on the hopelessly cracked screen of Lacus’ off-model iPhone was,
Won’t you come visit me, babe? ( ˘ ³˘)♥
Sure. Be there in 5
Mika congratulated himself on successfully keeping the feeling of nausea he was having from appearing on his face. He really didn’t care about Lacus’ love life, nor was he particularly excited to meet whatever girl the over-sexed Lacus had most likely fucked on every flat surface of his apartment, including the couch Mika had once regularly slept on.
“Oh! There you are! René! Over here!” Lacus jumped up and immediately began waving at someone in the crowd.
Mika scanned the people in the direction of Lacus’ waving, looking for a girl who seemed like his type. Probably some dumb blonde, Mika mused before remembering that he himself was a natural blonde, and promptly cursing himself for his overly conventional thought process.
It was odd. Although he saw a few girls who fit the description of what he assumed Lacus would be attracted to, the only person who was walking towards the McK’s stall was this tall, black-haired guy with a ponytail and some kind of odd pattern shaved into the side of his head. His dour expression looked more suited to a funeral than a festival, and the bags under his eyes made him look like he hadn’t slept for days.
Good grief, thought Mika. How much more emo could you get?
The man stopped in front of the McK’s stall, a misplaced smile on his lips.
No way.
“Wait…this is…Renée?” Mika stuttered, wondering if he should to get his eyes checked.
“Um, yeah. I thought you’d met before,” Lacus said, looking confused. “Oh wait! That’s right. The one time you were going to meet, I think you ended up having to work late or something.”
“Well, anyways,” Lacus continued, grabbing the arm of the black-haired man across the counter. “René, this is Mika. Mika, this is René.”
“Hello,” the morose-looking René said to Mika, holding out his hand.
Mika, still shell-shocked, gingerly took the hand and shook it. It was like shaking a dead fish.
“Anyways, it’s so good to see you, sweetie!” Lacus crooned, completely unaware of the awkward atmosphere around him. “You look so good! Mmmm…I like those jeans on you, hehehe.”
Mika went to lean over the counter for a look, wondering what kind of morbid curiosity was causing him to do so. Probably the same kind of morbid curiosity that causes people to watch Michael Bay movies somehow expecting them—against all previous evidence to the contrary—not to suck.
It’s going to be black, skinny jeans, isn’t it? Mika predicted.
It was black, skinny jeans.
Figures.
Mika wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. The fry-off had started with the last person in the world he would ever expect to have a violent thought, much less take a violent action, punching his coworker in the face. Now, he was discovering that the girl with the surprisingly low voice that Lacus had been dating for the last six months was not, in fact, a girl with a very low voice, but a man with a pretty average voice.
“Lacus, we’re still on the clock,” Mika said weakly, feeling as if he were lost at sea.
“Oh, right!” Lacus piped up before leaning across the counter and planting a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek. “Ok, babe. I’ll see you in a little bit. We’ll close down right before the fireworks start.”
“Nice meeting you, Mika,” René said quietly.
“Yeah….nice to meet you…too,” Mika muttered uncertainly.
René nodded, before turning around and walking off towards a stall a few meters away that sold vintage posters.
When Mika determined that the dour-faced man was far enough away not to hear anything, he grabbed Lacus by the sleeve and pulled him below the counter.
“Lacus! What the hell?” he hissed.
“Huh?” Lacus’ brows furrowed in confusion. He tried to pulled away, but Mika wasn’t having it. He needed answers. Now. And probably a drink. Or five.
“You said you dated Yoichi’s sister,” Mika said, pointedly emphasizing the last word. “You know, sister,” he repeated, hoping Lacus would pick up on his implication.
“Yeah, I dated her, why?” Lacus responded, finally twisting out of Mika’s grip and standing up, brushing himself off as if he was the sane one, and it was Mika who’d lost his mind.
Mika likewise got up, wracking his brain for exactly how he supposed to politely ask the question he desperately wanted to ask.
Lacus looked at him, more concerned than offended, until realization seemed to dawn on him. “Ooooooooooh!” Mika’s purple-haired coworker cried out in astonishment. “Oh my god, Mika. Did you not know I’m bi? I like girls and guys.”
Mika slumped, feeling altogether defeated.
“No, Lacus,” he said. “I did not, in fact, know you were bi. You did not, in fact, mention it to me. Ever.”
Lacus was now doubled over with laughter, adding to Mika’s mounting embarrassment and exasperation.
“I thought you always knew,” Lacus managed with only a few sputtering coughs. “I mean, it’s not like I try to hide it or anything. I have purple hair and everything.”
Mika hadn’t the slightest idea what purple hair had to do with someone’s sexuality.
“You know, Mika,” Lacus said, his expression shifting from mirth to uncharacteristic kindness. “When I heard what happened with your folks, I invited you to come crash at my place…well, because I figured you’d want to stay with someone who kinda knew what you were going through.”
Mika looked down, feeling more embarrassed than ever. In fact, he felt ashamed. He’d been so involved in everything that had been happening to him, he’d never taken the time to consider that maybe Lacus’ offer to help him hadn’t just been out of pity, that maybe Lacus had reached out to him because he’d understood a bit of what Mika was feeling.
He felt so stupid.
“I’m sorry Lacus,” Mika mumbled, not daring to look up at his purple haired friend, “I really had no idea.”
“Ah, that’s ok. Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry,” Lacus said, patting the top of Mika’s head. “Besides, you’re so much happier now that you moved in with Yuu than you ever were when you were stuck on my couch.”
Mika looked up at Lacus, who began happily snacking away on the stray fries left over that hadn’t been scooped into their paper containers. Mika wondered if he should scold him, but found that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“I was so excited when I heard you found a guy you really liked,” Lacus continued, resuming the cheerful tone he’d had earlier. “I thought maybe you were accepting it, you know? Like, getting more comfortable with yourself. And when you said you were moving in with him, I almost fell over!”
Mika wasn’t about to admit that he’d been just as surprised as Lacus by his own impulsiveness in agreeing to move in with Yuu. Still, Lacus was right. He was happy. Often unbearably so. That day when he’d walked in to the living room to see a huge sunflower bloom waiting for him on the dining table, Mika had been so happy it had scared him.
It had scared him because, as many times as he told himself, over and over, that Yuu-chan was a friend, a very good friend. His heart had begun to betray him in little ways, so that every moment of happiness Yuu gave to him was always tinged with a secret, impossible to ignore feeling of pain and longing. The pain of wanting something that he couldn’t have.
It seemed Lacus had picked up on it, too, because he turned to Mika and asked with a kind of casualness that was too awkward to be genuine. “Isn’t it hell for you, living with your straight crush? I mean, you even go to school together. It must a relief to get away from it sometime, right? Even if our managers are a little…” he made a vague gesture with his hands. “Hahaha what’s that word? ‘Ex’-something?”
“Eccentric.”
“Yeah, that’s the word!” Lacus exclaimed, carefully maintaining his light tone. “Wow, leave it to a Lit major! You’re so smart.”
No, Lacus, you’re just dumb, Mika thought. Well, it was true. Lacus was pretty dumb about most things, but maybe that wasn’t all he was.
Where the hell was Guren?
Yuu had been looking for him everywhere. Shinya was missing, too.
Damn. Yuu was at a loss. The till needed some smaller bills, and he had to let at least one of his managers know before he went to some of the other vendors to see if they would do an exchange. In addition, there wasn’t a snowflake’s chance in hell that he was going to talk to Hiiragi Kureto if he could avoid it.
But, if he didn’t find either Shinya or Guren in the next few minutes, it looked like Yuu wasn’t going to have much of a choice.
Why me? He whined to himself. Surely Shinoa was a better person for this. She could at least deal with her lunatic older brother without being worried about getting hacked into little pieces. Yuu, on the other hand, was probably prime fishing bait for ol’ forked-eyebrows’ next trip to sea.
One last place.
After checking their entire tent, the back storage area behind their tent, the temporary toilets by the edge of the festival grounds, and even the empty restaurant on the off-chance that his uncle had needed to go there to retrieve whatever supplies they’d run out of since the opening of the festival, Yuu could only think of one last place Guren could possibly be.
Behind the restaurant.
There had been trash receptacles down at the festival, but there was no way the small festival staff was going to be able to keep up with the waste generated by two competing fast food stalls. Guren probably had to haul the extra garbage back up to the HFC dumpsters. At least, that’s what Yuu was hoping.
As he was about to round the corner of the restaurant, towards the fenced-in enclosure where the restaurant’s trash and recycling was kept, Yuu heard voices, and sighed with relief. He was saved from his destiny as fish bait.
But…why would there be….voices?
Yuu flattened his back against the way and carefully peered around the corner.
Under of the dim lights of the parking lot behind the restaurant were two men: his uncle, as he’d expected, but also another man with long, pale-colored hair. The darkness made him difficult for Yuu to make out, but when he opened his mouth, he knew it was Ferid, Mika’s creepy boss.
“I’ve been told that there’s no love lost between you and the Hiiragi,” the lilac-haired man murmured, taking a step closer to Guren. “It’s only a matter of time before Krul-sama decides to take over all the Hiiragi-owned businesses. So before that happens, why don’t you consider coming over to us, hmm? We’ll certainly pay you a lot more than you’re making now.”
What the hell was going on? Yuu wondered. Why was Ferid here to begin with?
“My family is worth much more to me than money, Ferid-san, so I suggest you stop right there,” Guren replied sternly.
“Family? Ahahaha, you mean your nephew?” Ferid chuckled. “Bring him along. I’m sure Mika would be delighted to have his…friend…working alongside him.”
Yuu felt his ears perk when he heard Mika’s name. He didn’t understand what was happening, but it sounded like Ferid was trying to convince Guren to leave HFC. Yuu almost wanted to tell him not to waste his breath. It was a hundred times more likely that Mika would come work for HFC than for Guren to go over to McK’s.
But, it was weird. Something about the way Guren had just said the word ‘family,’ as well as what had happened before between Ferid and Shinya, earlier in the night when the staffs of the two restaurants had met each other, made Yuu suspect that there was something else going on. Something Yuu couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“I’m sorry to say that you’re far less well informed than you think you are, Ferid…….-san,” Guren said, his voice dropping in pitch, which signaled, as Yuu knew, that his uncle was getting closer and closer to losing it. “It’s not just Yuu that’s my family. It’s all of them. Yes, the Hiiragi family ruined my life, but if it’s Shinya and someone he cares about, then they’re just as much my family as Yuu or my brother or…my father.”
Yuu watched Guren and Ferid stare at each other like alley cats sizing each other up, and swallowed heavily. An ominous silence descended between the two men, but Ferid was the first to back down.
“Ahahaha…I thought that might be the case,” he laughed and tossed his head, making his ponytail sway in the night breeze.
Yuu breathed out. It seemed like whatever strange contest had been going on between Ferid and his uncle was over. Guren began to walking towards the front of the restaurant.
“You’re quite the loyal husband, Guren-san,” Ferid called out to Guren’s retreating back. “Ah but, what about your pretty wife?”
Yuu watched in alarm as a storm passed over his uncle’s expression.
“You know, I’ve been wondering where Crowley-kun went. Do you know?” The lilac-haired man continued in an overly casual tone that made Yuu’s skin crawl. “You see, he looks lazy, but he’s a bit like a cat. He might lie around all day doing nothing, but if he sees a little white mouse, there’s nothing that will stop him from pouncing on it.”
Guren didn’t even bother saying anything back. He just took off, running faster than Yuu had ever seen him run, back towards the festival grounds.
For a split second, Yuu saw Guren’s face as he rushed past. It seemed that the bad lighting meant his uncle missed him from where he was standing deep within a shadow. Still, Yuu knew he’d always remember that fraction of a second where he’d seen an unparalleled, raging fire behind Guren’s purple eyes. It would surely haunt him for years.
“What was it you wanted to talk to me about Crowley-san?”
Mika nearly dropped the armful of french fry containers he was carrying when he heard Shinya’s voice from the other side of the tent flap.
“Ah, it wasn’t anything important, I’m just getting to know you, Shinya-san.” His assistant manager, Crowley’s voice likewise drifted into the back storage area of the tent. Mika deduced that they were standing in the small alley that had been formed between the McK’s tent and the carnival games trailer next door.
“We noticed that you’ve taken a great interest in Mika-kun,” Crowley said. “I hear he goes over to your restaurant every day.”
Mika moved closer to the tent wall so he could hear the two men more clearly. He was a little miffed to hear Shinya and Crowley talking about him behind his back, but his annoyance was overruled by his curiosity.
No matter what Crowley was saying, Mika knew there was no way in hell this was about him. He’d seen that little display of Ferid’s when they lined up to meet the staff of HFC. His boss had hit on Shinya, and deliberately. Worse, Yuu’s uncle had reacted, basically admitting to everyone that he was Shinya’s lover. If the managers of McK’s were decent people, that should have been that. Ferid would have backed off, and they would have all gone on their merry way.
But Ferid and Crowley were far from decent people.
“Well, he’s living at Yuu’s place,” Shinya explained. “It’s expected that he’d come over to HFC to meet him.”
Mika chuckled to himself. Hearing the measured lightness in Shinya’s tone, he was almost positive that HFC’s general manager was wearing his signature meaningless smile.
“Oh? Really. That’s interesting. I’m not sure I believe you….Shinya-san,” Crowley said in a voice that reminded Mika too much of a predator stalking its prey. He jumped when he heard a loud thump as something came in contact with the aluminum siding of the adjacent trailer.
“Aren’t you and the Hiiragi rather trying to steal one of our precious employees?” Crowley asked in a low volume that just barely registered on the edges of Mika’s hearing.
“What are you—?” Mika heard Shinya began, before he heard a roar that nearly ruptured his eardrums.
“Shinya!” Guren shouted, most likely from the opening to the alleyway. “What the hell is going on here?!”
Oh, fuck. Mika dropped everything he was holding and ran in the direction of the voices. Things were about to go to hell in a minute if he didn’t do something.
Ripping aside the tent flap at the back of the stall, Mika skidded the couple of meters between him and the back of the alley facing away from the main thoroughfare of the festival. Sure enough, Crowley had Shinya backed against the trailer, his hands on the aluminum siding, trapping Shinya between his muscular arms.
Further down, standing at the entrance to the make-shift alley, partially blocking the light spilling in from the thoroughfare, stood Guren.
“Oh? Does Guren-san want to fight?” Crowley straightened up, backing away from Shinya, as Guren walked down the alley, advancing on him like wild beast. “That works perfectly for me,” the broad-shouldered man continued, pushing up his sleeves. “After all, you all seem to have such excellent track records with lawsuits.”
This was bad.
If Guren took a swing at Crowley here, not only would it cause problems for him and Shinya, from what it sounded like, it could be devastating for the entirety of HFC.
But Mika could see that Guren wasn’t thinking clearly. Shit. He’d seen Yuu like this before, too.
Mika didn’t wait, he ran up the alley towards the three men.
“Shinya-san! Guren-san!” he called out in a very real panic, although not for the reason he was about to tell them. “Thank god I found you! Yuu had another accident with the fryer! You need to come right away!”
“WHAT?! HOW?! I AM GONNA FRY HIS ASS NEXT!!!” Guren yelled. Mika thanked all the gods that never existed that he’d at least managed to deflect Yuu’s uncle’s anger away from his smug-faced assistant manager.
“Come on! You, too, Shinya-san. It’s an emergency!” Mika insisted, grabbing both of them by the sleeves and hauling them towards the main thoroughfare of the festival and away from the McK’s tent.
Shinya narrowed his eyes, but followed obediently behind.
“Mika-kun, what is this all about?” he asked when Mika had finally led them far enough away from his workplace to be out of earshot of anyone who could be listening. “Nothing happened with Yuu,” Shinya pressed. “Isn’t that right?”
“WHAT?! NOTHING DID??” Guren squawked in surprise.
Despite his expression of suspicion, Shinya still managed a laugh. “Pfffft, Guren. Honestly, you should know your nephew better, do you really think he would send some to find you if he messed up?”
“Oh, uh, yeah…I guess not,” Guren admitted, a dumbfounded look on his face that Mika thought, had Guren been 20 years younger, would have looked exactly like Yuu.
“So…Mika-kun?” Shinya prompted again.
Mika sighed. He wasn’t sure how he was even supposed to begin. “Please ignore my managers,” he begged. “They’re just playing some kind of game.”
“Well, of course they are,” Shinya nodded. Then all of a sudden, a look of shock passed over his delicate features. He blinked his deep blue eyes, and turned towards Yuu’s uncle. “Wait a second, Guren,” he said, “You didn’t think Crowley-san was…forcing himself on me, did you?”
Guren lips were pressed into a thin line, while his gaze remained firmly fixed at on feet.
God, they really are related, Mika thought, wanting so badly to clap the palm of his hand to his face in exasperation.
“Well…that long-haired guy….” Guren muttered.
Mika sighed loudly. Seriously, he shouldn’t even be surprised.
“Guren-san, Ferid-san just likes to mess with people. There’s no way he would really do something like that,” Mika explained patiently. “Besides, they’re…I mean, Ferid-san and Crowley-san are like…well, you and Shinya-san. Well, not really like you and Shinya-san, but…”
“I understand, Mika-kun,” Shinya smiled. “It’s fine.”
The white haired man nudged Guren, who was still looking resolutely at the ground, with his elbow. “You see, Mika-kun,” Shinya giggled, poking Guren in the cheek with a finger, “Guren can be a little dense sometimes.”
“Well,” he grinned, turning his bright blue eyes back on Mika. “I’m sure you of all people can understand.”
Mika nodded. He could. Oh, yes, he could.
“Well, come along, Gu~ren,” Shinya purred, pulling on his lover’s arm. “We should make sure our cute nephew hasn’t actually burned down the tent, shouldn’t we?”
Mika let out an exhale of relief as the two HFC managers began walking back towards their tent. He couldn’t wait until this damn festival was over. Considering everything that’d happened today, Mika was really looking forward to a long soak in the bathtub with some wine and TV to follow. Something funny and absurd where he could laugh at the misfortunes of others in order to forget his own.
Well, there had been that one reality TV program he’d been itching to watch for weeks.
“Oh, Mika-kun, by the way,” Shinya called back at him. “I’m sure you were listening, so…what Crowley-san said, will you consider it?”
“Huh?” Mika blinked.
He was confused. Consider what?
“I’m asking you if you would like to come work for HFC,” Shinya said bluntly.
Mika was shocked. Well, his assistant manager had said that, but Mika had been so concerned with saving Yuu’s uncle from his boss’ twisted game, he hadn’t paid it any mind.
“Oh…well…” he hesitated.
He’d never really thought about quitting his job at McK’s and moving to HFC, and Yuu had never suggested it. It wasn’t that Mika liked working at McK’s. If anything, he hated it, but…
Isn’t it hell for you, living with your straight crush? I mean, you even go to school together. It must a relief to get away from it sometime, right?
Mika swallowed, trying to find the right words. “Um…thank you, Shinya-san. Really, thank you…” he began.
“No, no, don’t worry,” Shinya’s lyric voice cut through his anxiety. “It’s no rush, Mika,” he smiled gently, “Just…think about it, ok?”