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It's quiet in the Silver Star Tea House. The sun has recently set, and night has fallen. Hifumi, Mizuki and Hiruko sit in relative silence. Hifumi talks every now and then, Mizuki replies and Hiruko sits with his chin in his hand.
"There aren't any customers tonight." Hifumi comments, looking at the door. And he's right. There haven't been any, but there were some yesterday. Hiruko's not that hungry, so it's fine.
The baku simply stares at the chair in front of him. "Mhm.”
Mizuki glances over at the door. "I suppose we've gotten our fair share of customers recently. We even had multiple yesterday."
Hifumi turns to her with a smile. "Guess everyone's all nightmare'd out! Maybe we should just close up for the night--"
As if summoned, the door opens and its chime fills the room. The three of them look up, and there's a stretch of silence.
Long, white hair. An outfit that paralleled Hiruko's and matched him in uniqueness. Cane slung over his shoulder, Tsukishiro beams at the three residents of the Silver Star. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Not long enough." Hifumi frowns, glaring daggers at Tsukishiro. It's no surprise, seeing as everytime the white haired baku showed his face, something went purposefully wrong. He shoots Hiruko a concerned gaze, but the baku doesn't return it. Hiruko's staring at Tsukishiro with an annoyed expression on his face. "What do you want?"
"You don't need to be so cold, you know! I don't bite."
"I really doubt that." Hifumi responds, words tinged with anger.
Tsukishiro simply laughs and gestures towards Hiruko. "I wanna borrow him for a bit. Don't worry, he'll come back in one piece."
Mizuki and Hifumi share a look that seems to say no fucking way.
Hiruko glances down at his cane, briefly considering an attempt at putting himself into a permanent sleep, if only to avoid this conversation.
Ignoring all of their reactions and silent protests, Tsukishiro simply strides over to where the other baku is sitting and pulls him up by the wrist. Hiruko's struck by the amount of strength in the other baku's grip. Even though he could probably break out of it if he wanted to, he doesn't.
Tsukishiro waits for Hiruko to grab his cane and case. As soon as he does, the white haired baku makes his way for the door, waving obnoxiously as they exit. Mizuki stands still, looking hesitant and slightly afraid.
"Hey!" Hifumi shouts, but Tsukishiro moves too quickly. The door opens and the pair of them float up and away on their canes. "Hiruko! Tsukishiro, come back here! Tsukishiro!"
"It's fine!" Tsukishiro calls, his grin visible even from a distance. "Don't worry, I'll bring him back before morning no worse for wear!"
Like a tornado, Tsukishiro comes, goes, and leaves an utter disaster in his wake. One that he, of course, never has the intention to clean up.
Hiruko can hear the now-distant vulgar curses being spewed at Tsukishiro by Hifumi. He simply waves goodbye, and mouths a promise he'll be back safely to Mizuki, hoping she sees it and doesn't worry too much.
After a considerable amount of distance has been made between them and the Silver Star, Hiruko clears his throat to speak. The two of them are still up in the air, and Tsukishiro glances over at Hiruko.
"Where exactly are we going, anyways?" As he speaks, the blonde finds himself wondering why exactly he followed Tsukishiro in the first place. Maybe it was something inside of him that wanted to spend time with the other baku, despite Tsukishiro's… well, everything.
Maybe part of him felt betrayed when he found out that Tsukishiro was a baku, too. The little part of him that was so overjoyed to have found someone who understood… and the crushing disappointment that followed.
Maybe, just maybe, Hiruko followed him because he wanted a reason to believe that Tsukishiro could be anything other than a huge dick for literally no reason.
"You'll see! We're almost there." He points his finger forwards, and if Hiruko squints he can almost vaguely make out dim lights.
As they get closer, the scenery starts to take shape. The noisy hustle and bustle of a crowd fills the air, along with the scent of food that Hiruko's recognizes but can't name. There's many people, and the two of them land a short distance away from the crowd.
"A festival?" Hiruko asks, looking around. It had to be. Among all the decorations, there were also paper lanterns and candles--clearly the source of light the blonde spotted moments ago.
Tsukishiro nods his head, slinging his cane over his right shoulder. "Yup! Have you ever been to one?"
"Well, there were a few times in a client's nightmares, but…" Hiruko pauses, surveying Tsukishiro's expression. Cheerful looking, but all around unreadable. He takes in the scenery. It's a comforting scenery, but it doesn't feel familiar. It was just comforting. With that, Hiruko figures that he hadn't been to one in anything other than a nightmare. And it went without saying that Chitose had never been to one, either. He looks back at Tsukishiro and shakes his head. "No, not really. Have you?"
"Mm, once or twice!" The white haired baku hums, seeming pleased with Hiruko's answer. "Okay, let's go explore! You've never been to a festival, so I'll be sure to show you everything. But it goes without saying that we can't try the food."
"We could." He responds, flatly. "If you were willing to puke blood."
"Ehh, not worth it." Tsukishiro takes a step forward, but pauses and turns to face Hiruko, stretching his hand out. The blonde stares at Tsukishiro's outstretched hand with a blank expression. "I'm offering you my hand. So we don't get separated. It's not like we have some built in baku sensor to find one another if we get lost."
Hiruko frowns. Yeah, he knew that Tsukishiro stretching his hand out was an offer to hold hands. But why. Sure, Tsukishiro said it was so they wouldn't lose each other in the crowd which makes sense to an extent. It was busy.
But it was Tsukishiro suggesting it. Which made Hiruko suspicious of his intention. Was there an ulterior motive? He couldn't tell. He didn't know. Hiruko just didn't understand Tsukishiro, even though he did once. He used to understand.
And now he doesn't. At all.
But despite all of the thoughts whirling around in his head, eventually Hiruko sighs and takes Tsukishiro's hand. The other baku smiles at him, lacing their fingers together. Hiruko stares blankly at Tsukishiro, surveying his expression but again, it's unreadable.
Tsukishiro's hands are much warmer than the blonde had expected.
“Okay.” Hiruko replies, eventually. Just like that, they start walking forwards into the crowd. The two of them get a decent amount of stares, most likely due to their strange style of dress and the whole hand holding thing. He’s fairly certain that everyone looking their way can’t make out what gender the two of them are, and that only adds to their already obvious confusion. “Where should we go first?”
“Hmm,” Tsukishiro hums, glancing around. Eventually he points out a stall with a fish tank in front. “Let’s go there!”
“Okay.”
The man stares at the pair of them but eventually smiles. Customer service smile, most likely. Hiruko’s seen that expression on Mizuki’s face many times. He does appreciate the lack of questions the shopkeeper has about the pair of them, though, because if he asked Hiruko anything about himself and Tsukishiro, he’d have no idea how to answer.
That line of thought makes a sense of unease swirl around in Hiruko’s stomach. He still really doesn’t understand why Tsukishiro dragged him here. Was the other baku planning something? It was hard to tell with him, but the blonde figured it was pretty likely that Tsukishiro was up to something. He had to be.
Why else would he have brought Hiruko here?
Lost in his thoughts, Hiruko realizes that Tsukishiro is looking over at him, holding a net now. The shopkeeper must have been explaining something while Hiruko’s brain was running Tsukishiro-related circles.
Hiruko stares at the net in the other baku’s hand, mind filling in the blanks. The material of it seemed rather thin, and Tsukishiro had returned to looking at the tank full of fish. It seemed easy enough to guess what one was supposed to do.
He watches as Tsukishiro swipes the net through the water, scooping up a fish in one clean swoop, but as he raises the net, it splits and the fish falls back into the water, droplets of water flying towards the pair of them.
“Aw.” The baku comments, frowning. He hands the net back to the shopkeeper, who smiles and turns towards Hiruko, handing him a new net.
“You were so close!” The shopkeep says with a good-natured grin. “Do you want to try your hand at it?”
Hiruko briefly considers saying no, but doesn’t. He silently takes the net, glancing over at Tsukishiro, who’s looking at him with expectant eyes. Cool. No pressure. He takes a breath, examining the fish swimming in the tank. It’s rather sizable, with around a dozen fish inside.
When Tsukishiro caught the fish moments before, his force and speed were likely what ripped the net, but if going slowly was enough to get a fish, surely there’d be less in the tank--so it can’t be as simple as scooping slowly. There had to be more to it… with a quick but gentle swipe, Hiruko feels like he might be able to catch one.
He dips the net in, aiming for a fish that’s a distance away from the rest. He lifts it out as carefully as he can. The net doesn’t rip. Hiruko feels triumphant, and then shopkeeper whistles, amazed.
“Huh, you did it.” Tsukishiro replies, eyebrows raised. He directs his gaze toward the shopkeeper. “Since he caught it, it means he gets to keep it, right?”
“Yup!” He gestures towards the back. “I’ll go get a bag for you to keep it in.”
Hiruko shakes his head, staring at the fish. “It’s fine. I don’t need a pet fish.” Naamu would probably just eat it, anyways. He takes a sidelong glance at Tsukishiro, gently lowering the net back in the water. The fish swims away. “...And somehow I feel like a fish owned by you would have a miserable life.”
Tsukishiro grins at him. “You’re no fun.”
Hiruko doesn’t respond to that, simply standing up from where he had been kneeling on the floor. He brushes his cloak off and slings his cane over his shoulder once more. “That shouldn’t be news to you.”
“I never said it was.” Tsukishiro stands, too. “Alright, let’s keep going.”
Just like before, he extends his hands to Hiruko. But unlike before, Hiruko takes it without hesitation. Tsukishiro entwines their fingers.
The shopkeeper waves them goodbye. “Have a good rest of your festival!”
The pair of them start walking again, and Hiruko looks around at each of the stalls. There were more games scattered around, but a vast majority seemed to be food. In a way, it was a shame Tsukishiro had brought them here of all places. They couldn’t enjoy everything the festival had to offer.
Hiruko wonders if thinking about it like that was overly sentimental, but he’s not quite sure of the answer.
Tsukishiro drags Hiruko from booth to booth, trying every single game that catches his eye. They’re now at a dart booth, and Hiruko’s already thrown his darts and missed every single one. Which is a shame, really, because there was a black cat plush that the blonde admittedly had his eye on. But not being able to get it isn't really all that big of a deal.
He’d never really cared for stuffed animals much anyways, but Hiruko couldn’t help seeing a resemblance between the stuffed cat and Naamu. He tears his eyes away from the cute plush and watches as Tsukishiro begins to throw his darts. The white haired man’s movements are delicate and almost… picturesque, maybe.
Though, he'd sooner die than say that out loud.
Hiruko suddenly feels like looking back at the stuffed cat instead of having some weird crisis, so he does.
Not for the first time that evening, he wonders just what exactly the two of them are doing at the festival. Just playing games? That’s it? It seemed too anticlimactic.
It had been about two hours or so, and Tsukishiro hadn’t done anything Tsukishiro-esque. It was weird and slightly unsettling. Hiruko realizes he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. He’s waiting for Tsukishiro to do something more in character, and then he thinks that maybe Tsukishiro’s goal all along was just to make Hiruko confused--to make him spin in circles thinking about why exactly he had brought him to a festival--and why Tsukishiro had asked Hiruko out in the first place.
There was really no way to know. Not even asking would guarantee a truthful answer.
“Here.” Tsukishiro says, nudging Hiruko’s shoulder. He’s smiling.
Hiruko turns, broken out of his thoughts. And then he stops. Stares. Tsukishiro’s holding the black stuffed cat that Hiruko wanted. He breaks his eyes away and looks at the other baku, eyes wide. “Huh?”
“For you?” Tsukishiro replies, holding it by the scruff like it's a real cat. If the blonde wasn't so confused he might have found the other baku's style of holding a stuffed toy endearing. Tsukishiro stares at the plush. “You didn’t want it?”
That’s not it, Hiruko thinks. He did want it. But how did Tsukishiro know that? Because Hiruko was staring at it? And if he knew Hiruko wanted it, then why’d Tsukishiro give it to him? That wasn’t like the other baku to do.
Tsukishiro just wasn’t the type to do something for someone else--something nice, that is. The white haired baku is still staring at Hiruko, and a smirk spreads across his lips and he practically shoves it in Hiruko’s hands. “You seem so shocked. Have you never gotten a gift before?”
The fabric of the stuffed animal is much softer than it looks. Hiruko finds himself holding it, arms wrapped around his chest to keep the cat in place. “I have before. I just didn’t realize you were capable of doing something nice for someone.” He pauses, clutching it close to his chest. “Are you just doing this to get me off my guard?”
Tsukishiro tilts his head, chin in his hands. “You know, that’s a really good idea. I’ll be sure to try that on you next time.” He waves his hand vaguely in the air, like he’s trying to swat away an invisible fly. “But I guess it wouldn’t work on you after I just said that, huh? That sort of sucks.”
Hiruko frowns and opens his mouth to reply but he can’t figure out what to say back. Before he can figure out what to say, Tsukishiro grabs his arm and pulls him over to another stall.
“Wait, look over there! That looks fun.”
The blonde only feels more and more confused. Tsukishiro’s chatting away with another shopkeeper, who’s explaining the rules of whatever game the booth had. Once the explanation ends, Tsukishiro glances over at Hiruko.
“You know,” He starts, lifting up one of the temari balls the shopkeeper hands to him. “It is possible for me to ask you out without a reason. I don’t need to be planning anything. It’s all in the moment for me. Did you forget that?”
Hiruko’s frown deepens. “You aren’t always the most consistent. Did you forget that? ” He wanted to sound like he didn’t care, but his irritated words came paired with a sharp bite.
The shopkeeper looks back and forth at the pair. “Lover’s quarrel?”
At his words, both Tsukishiro and Hiruko turn over to look at him. Hiruko doesn’t know what kind of face the other baku is making right now. Part of him wanted to know. Part of him didn't.
Hiruko squeezes the plush in his arms.
“It's not quite a quarrel. We're like this most of the time." Tsukishiro laughs, and throws the first temari ball. It lands right in the basket. He picks up another and throws it. Again, it lands right in the basket. Finally, he picks up the last temari ball and aims.
It lands in the basket once more.
“Wow, amazing job!” The shopkeeper claps, and turns around to grab the prize. It was pink cotton candy on a stick, wrapped up carefully. “Here you go! Make sure to share it. That’s how I get my wife less angry at me! The way to the heart is the stomach, after all!” He boisterously laughs, the sound ringing loud in the blonde’s ears.
Tsukishiro grins, thumb running over his cane. “Indeed it is.” He taps his fingernail against the hollow sphere in his cane, and his smirk doesn't fade.
Hiruko realizes as they walk away, and as the other baku reaches out for his hand once more, that Tsukishiro didn’t deny the shopkeeper saying they were lovers.
"Well," Tsukishiro starts, glancing around at the stalls surrounding them. "I think we've hit pretty much everything we could. Unless you're in the mood to puke blood? If so, we could try some of the food."
"I'm good." Hiruko replies. He looks at the still packaged cotton candy in Tsukishiro's hands. "What are you even planning on doing with that?"
He hums, looking at the stick attached sugary treat held between his fingers. He's holding his cane with the same hand. "Dunno! Wanna give it to one of yours? It's not like I have any use for it."
"Sure." He takes it, stuffing it between the handle of his briefcase. It gets a little bit squished because of how closely it's stuck to Hiruko's cane, but at least it’s not likely to budge from that position. "Thanks."
He wonders if Mizuki or Hifumi would even eat something given to them by Tsukishiro. Probably not. It's a little bit disappointing to realize how likely it is for the cotton candy to go to waste.
"Hmm, we finished doing everything just in time." The white haired baku announces, looking off into the distance. There's an empty space devoid of booths that's begun to get rather crowded. "Come on." Tsukishiro takes Hiruko's hand as they walk in the direction of busy space.
There's various murmurs and mumbling voices but there's too many for Hiruko to pick out what anyone's saying. He tries to see what they're looking at, but he's too short to see over people's heads.
"What is it?" Hiruko asks, and Tsukishiro smiles, gently squeezing his hand. It doesn't seem like he's going to explain so the blonde simply waits for something to happen. Then again, that's what he's been doing since the beginning of the night. Waiting for something to happen.
There's a loud bang, and a bright flash. Hiruko flinches, and whips his head over to Tsukishiro with a frown on his face. But the other baku simply points and Hiruko looks up to see--
Fireworks.
There's many different colors, and they're all bright and sparkling. Hiruko feels his eyes widen as he stares upwards at the scene unfolding in front of him. The crowd gives happy, surprised gasps as the fireworks continue overhead.
"It's pretty, right?" Tsukishiro smiles, and Hiruko finds himself nodding his head slowly. The other baku laughs. "You should've seen the look on your face."
Hiruko rolls his eyes. "It's not like I knew what was going to happen."
"True. Does that enhance its beauty?"
"Hmm," Hiruko hums, watching as red, blue and green fill the sky. "Maybe."
"That's a pretty lame answer. Shouldn't you praise me a bit more for getting us in this spot right on time?"
"You actually want me to praise you?"
He appears to be thinking it over, chin in his hand. "Yeah, no. Not really." Tsukishiro chuckles. "I was expecting a different reaction, but I guess you're just full of surprises."
"What exactly were you expecting?" He pauses. "Actually, don't answer that. I don't think I want to know."
The other baku simply laughs again. Despite the cold night air, Tsukishiro's hands feel warm. They've been moving around quite a lot so it's only natural, but Hiruko couldn't help noticing their warmth.
The fireworks were beautiful. But they didn't succeed in quelling the thoughts that lurked in Hiruko's head.
"You know, it's much easier to interact with you when you're being an asshole."
Tsukishiro raises an eyebrow and Hiruko sighs, reluctant to elaborate, but the other baku looks so genuinely confused that Hiruko feels compelled to explain.
"How you normally are. How we normally are--slinging petty insults at each other, you actively trying to make me miserable?"
"You like when I insult you and go out of my way to make you miserable? Wow, are you a masochist or something?"
Hiruko is struck with the sudden and incredibly overwhelming urge to punch Tsukishiro in the jaw. "That's… not even remotely what I said. Or meant." He sighs. "And, no. I'm not a masochist, nor I do I particularly enjoy your continued efforts to try and make me cry."
"Shame." Tsukishiro replies, looking back up at the sky. Hiruko chooses to ignore that comment.
The fireworks continue, dazzling colors lighting up the pitch-black sky.
Eventually, Tsukishiro's lips part and he opens his mouth to speak again. His voice comes out quieter than a whisper. "Why?"
Hiruko glances over at him. "'Why' what?"
"Why is it easier?" Tsukishiro asks, and his gaze doesn't budge. He's staring intently at the sky above them.
"I… don't know." He admits, and follows Tsukishiro's gaze to the fireworks. He thinks about it for a minute. "When you're acting all nice and normal by everyone else's standards, I can't figure out what you're thinking. Your usual self is...easier, I guess, for me to understand."
There's a beat of silence. Even the fireworks go quiet, as if they're aware of the conversation and don't want to interrupt. Or maybe the fireworks just had a flair for drama, and figured that their sound and sight would destroy the perfectly crafted moment between Tsukishiro and Hiruko, and thus decided to stay silent out of respect for them.
Either way, a certain kind of stillness hangs in the air between the two.
Voice softer and more gentle than Hiruko's ever heard it, Tsukishiro speaks. "Do you want to?"
"To understand you?"
"Yeah."
Silence, again. Hiruko finds half of himself wishing the fireworks would come back, loud and booming in his ears. He finds the other half of himself content with the silence. It fed into the delusion that time had stopped.
This moment feels like it could last forever.
The pair of them glance over at one another in the same instance, locking eyes. Hiruko's struck by just how vivid and bright Tsukishiro's eyes are, and how closely their color resembles the luminous fireworks from mere moments ago.
"I don't know."
Neither of them say a word as they walk back to the Silver Star. The cicadas cry out somewhere in the distance and Hiruko glances over at Tsukishiro. The other baku is staring forward.
Eventually he notices Hiruko looking, and turns his head. "What?"
"No, it's nothing." The blonde turns away, feeling on the edge of embarrassed.
The path they're taking is devoid of people. The two of them pass a person or two every now and then, but those encounters were few and far between. They were far from the crowd, now.
But Tsukishiro and Hiruko's hands were still entwined together.
There wasn't a reason to hold hands now, was there? The crowd that the two of them could have lost each other in was far away. Really, they could let go now and be fine but neither of them do.
They keep walking, in silence, hands held tightly together. Slowly, the path gets more familiar.
They've finally arrived back at the Silver Star, and Tsukishiro stops in front of the door. He's looking away, up at the sky. The stars are out tonight, but they're not as bright as the fireworks were.
"You know," Tsukishiro starts, and finally looks back at Hiruko. "This whole time, I said I wasn't planning anything. But I guess that wasn't entirely true." He lets go of the blonde's hand and Hiruko feels his heart shrivel up in his chest and drop down to his stomach.
Oh. Of course. He should have known, really. No, he did know, he figured, but it still stung. The blonde's ready to turn away and open the door and slam it directly in Tsukishiro's face, but before he can--
Tsukishiro reaches out, cupping Hiruko's cheek in his hand. There's a soft smile on his face as he pulls Hiruko closer, kissing him softly.
The smile remains on Tsukishiro's face, even when he pulls away. "I've been planning that for a while now." And he turns around, walking away. Tsukishiro waves goodbye, his back to Hiruko. The blonde can't see his expression but he's too busy processing what just happened to even notice and be frustrated over the fact he can't see Tsukishiro's face in this moment. "Well, see you next time! Let's do this again sometime, I had a lot of fun~"
Hiruko finds himself leaning against the entrance to the Silver Star, black stuffed cat clutched tightly in his arms as he presses two fingers two his lips, heart beating furiously in his chest. His mind runs a million miles per second as he moves on autopilot, opening the door. The bell chime sounds distant, even though it's right there.
Mizuki and Hifumi practically jump out of their seats when they see Hiruko enter.
"Are you okay?!" Hifumi asks, immediately.
Hiruko doesn't respond because he doesn't have an actual answer yet. He pulls the cotton candy out from the handle of his case and sets it on the counter. "From Tsukishiro. Don't eat it. Probably just throw it away."
Hifumi stares wide eyed at him. "Are… you okay?" He asks again, voice sounding distinctly more confused. "Your face is really red?"
"Oh." Hiruko says. Despite his blank expression, his cheeks are flushed a bright red. His blush further emphasizes the sickly pale of his skin. "I'm fine." Just like that, he begins walking up the stairs to his room. The sound of his door shutting echoes, and downstairs Mizuki and Hifumi share expressions of confusion.
"Should we check on him?" Hifumi asks.
The woman pauses, but shakes her head. "Maybe a little later. I'm sure he'll talk to us about it if he wants to."
"What do you think happened?" He mutters, crossing his arms. It certainly seemed like something happened, but neither of them knew exactly what had transpired between Hiruko and Tsukishiro.
Mizuki's gaze travels to the stairs, and she sighs softly. "I don't know."