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“Fuck,” Jun stumbled backwards, shuffling on one foot as he tried to maintain his balance. The coffee table in the break room was, once again, in the middle of the room instead of tucked by the couches where it belonged. He hobbled to the sofa, crumpling bodily around his foot and looking around for Nino: Nino, who had laughed at him when he brought the vintage piece into the room in the first place; Nino, who had told him it was salvage; Nino, who enjoyed watching him trip every goddamn day.
The snickers from behind the doorway clued him in. He glared, using his eyebrows fiercely, as he willed the pain of his stubbed toe to lessen enough for him to confront the troublemaker in person. A moment later, he strode over - wincing each time he stepped - before tripping with his other foot over the power cable Nino had strung across the floor. He fell, hard, catching himself with his upper arms and completely unable to withhold the grunt of pain that radiated through his upper body. He rolled on to his side, grimacing as he rubbed his sternum before releasing the rest of his breath slowly through his nose.
“Ah, whoops,” Nino’s voice had that particular breathlessness that it achieved right after he laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t quite mean for that to happen.”
His chuckles started again, but Jun’s entire body hurt. It had been a long day; Sho’s increasingly frequent overseas trips were being noticed by the press, and he had spent the whole day deflecting that it was anything more than a personal penchant for travel. He had just wanted to grab a water bottle from the case by the bathroom doors and head home. He felt the desolation and stress building up, the pressure growing right behind his eyes. He squeezed them shut, using pure force of will to keep them in.
“Hey,” Nino’s hand reached out, gently cupping his face. “At least the fall was beautiful.”
The corniness of Nino’s line startled a laugh out of Jun, even though that was the last thing he wanted; as much as the laugh was cathartic, the pain it was literally shaking out of his ribs was not.
“That really fucking hurt,” Jun grumbled through his laughter. His effort was rewarded with that particular laugh of Nino’s; the one where he threw his entire head back and guffawed with his whole body. Jun’s eyes were still tightly shut, but he smiled to hear it. He blinked them open and resented it immediately - the warmth of Nino’s hand left his cheek as Nino reached down to help him up from the floor.
“Maybe next time,” Nino was grunting with the effort of trying to pull Jun up; Jun was trying very hard not to laugh - or to help. “Maybe next time you’ll watch where you’re going.”
Nino tugged hard, and as soon as he depleted his strength, Jun grinned menacingly and pulled Nino down, delighting in Nino’s brief scream of surprise. He trapped Nino in his arms, laughing and resisting Nino’s futile attempts to pull away.
“Maybe next time you’ll watch where you’re going.”