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‘Get off me, idiot,’ Lin tried to detach Banba who had glomped onto Lin as soon as he’d entered Jirou’s bar. It was a week night so relatively early. The bar was empty other than Banba, Jirou and Jose.
'But I am so happy to see you Lin-lin.’
Lin raised one eye at Jirou who shrugged not giving anything away, it was Jirou who’d called him to come get Banba, and it was Jose who was in the back booth with a book who spoke up as Banba rubbed his cheek against Lin’s shoulder.
'He’s been drinking vodka for the last few hours.’
Lin frowned. Banba usually drank beer, and sometimes sake with traditional Japanese food. He wasn’t a heavy spirit drinker.
‘I knew you’d come.’ Banba tightened his grip on him.
‘Yeah, you owe me.’ He pushed Banba off him again, or tried to. Banba had attached himself like a leech.
He frowned again at Jirou who was tittering behind his hands. Something told him there was much more going on than he was being told.
He was missing his current favourite soap opera for this shit. ‘Come on,’ he grabbed Banba by the hand and walked out.
‘Take care of Banba-san, Lin-chan,’ Jirou sing-songed as they left.
The walk to the train station, the short trip on the train, and then back to their apartment was strangely silent. It was unsettling. Over the years he’d seen Banba drunk more times than he could count, and often they had walked home drunk, sometimes Banba more so than him, other times the other way around. But Banba was a happy drunk, a tiny more flirtatious, a lot more annoying and always social.
He wasn’t a quiet drunk.
Lin was starting to think that Banba’s over the top welcome of him at the bar was an act for Jirou and Jose’s eyes only.
He looked at Banba as they approached the apartment. Banba was still obviously drunk, but stumbling only a little . It was easy to help him along with Banba’s hands threaded through his right hand, a little more tightly than Lin would like for circulation, but it was tolerable. Banba’s gaze was low, eyes a million miles away.
‘Almost home, Banba.’
Banba stayed silent as he led him up the stairs. When they got there Banba let his hand go before moving over to the couch and sitting down heavily. Lin studied him a minute, honestly Banba looked like he was only minutes away from crying. Now that image Lin couldn’t imagine.
Lin busied himself getting water for Banba. He was used to this, he’d done it many times before when Banba had come home drunk. Granted, Banba had been a bit more talkative.
‘Drink this,’ he shoved the large plastic glass with the straw in front of Banba and then sat down opposite, studying the man.
‘Thanks, Lin-chan.’
Banba drink the water and stayed silent. Now Lin was getting really worried.
The thing was, Lin had spent many years trying to shut down and discourage Banba’s happy drunken ramblings. He’d never been in a position where he wanted more talk, especially when the idiot was still rather intoxicated. But Banba’s defeated look was really worrying him. And he had a feeling that if he waited until tomorrow that the subject would never be raised again.
‘Why were you drinking at the bar alone, Banba-san?’
Banba gave him a ghost of a smile. ‘I wasn’t alone.’
Lin rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not an idiot, Banba. You’ve never drunk spirits at the bar without the whole team.’ You rarely drank spirits at all.
Banba put the cup down, and leaned back on the couch and put his legs up, Lin had to grab the cup before it went tumbling when Banba’s socked foot knocked it.
Banba gave him a sorrowful look. ‘I just am going to miss you, Lin-chan.’
Miss him? ‘I’m right here, idiot.’ He put the cup down again, as far from Banba’s feet as he could.
‘But you’ll be gone soon. This time next year you’ll leave. You’ll have paid up all the mentaiko.’
Lin gaped at him. He hadn’t really thought about that contract for years. In the early days he’d marked the days down mentally, but after all the matters with Fei-lang had been settled they had slowly gotten into a routine together. Lin had enjoyed his new life being busy with detective work that Banba had gotten into more so these days. There was only the occasional assassination, (much less than the old days) and baseball practice and hanging with the team. He’d been so busy that he’d totally forgotten about the contract, buying the fish had become just habit. And Banba had become a constant in his life. His stupid jokes and commentary as they watched baseball or soap operas was what he expected, the way he welcomed Lin home, the teasing and the compliments. All of it Lin liked, even if the idiot was so frustrating sometimes. He couldn’t even imagine a life without Banba.
Banba was Lin’s world. Didn’t Banba know that? Wasn’t he the private detective?
‘What! You said one year from now? Don’t tell me that’s why you were drinking.’ Lin rolled his eyes and stood up, there was a futon that Jirou had brought him years ago that was calling his name and he was going to leave now before Banba got more ridiculous. ‘I’m not going anywhere, idiot. Not now, not ever.’ He turned to leave, but stopped at Banba’s next words.
‘But you’re young, Lin-chan. You’ll want to settle down and marry and-‘
Lin laughed, he couldn’t help it as he whirled around. ‘I’m not marrying anyone, idiot. In case you noticed, I haven’t exactly been dating anyone, oh ever, while I’ve been living with you. You’ve kept me too busy for that.’ As he’d said that he’d walked back, standing over Banba hands on hips.
‘Oh?’ Banba for the first time looked hopeful.
Without warning, Lin was grabbed and pulled into Banba’s lap. ‘Banba,’ Lin protested feebly, resigned to Banba’s drunken idiocy. He made a mental note to never let him drink anything but beer ever again.
‘Marry me, Lin-chan.’ Banba said against his neck.
What the fuck! ‘What the fuck!’ He tried to pull back to look Banba in the eye, to see if he was being serious.
Banba pulled him in closer, arms around his waist. ‘Marry me, Lin-chan. We can go to Las Vegas and get married. Jirou-san said he’d organise everyone to come and-‘
Lin pushed his hands against Banba’s mouth. ‘I’m going to bed. So are you after you drink more water. We’ll talk about this in the morning when you’re sober.’ Banba was drunk. Talking about this was a bad idea.
‘Is that a yes?’ Banba’s eyes gleamed with hope.
There was so many things Lin wanted to talk about. Like the fact he wasn’t a woman and Japan wouldn’t ever let them marry, not legally. And what did Banba even expect with their marriage anyway? He didn’t even know what he wanted with something like that. But he knew one thing.
He leaned his forehead against Banba’s, hands on those broad shoulders. ‘It’s not a no.’
He was pulled into another tight hug. Lin decided he didn’t quite mind that and let the rest of his worries go.
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