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The sentimental framed photographs, of team victories past and personal milestones, trembled and rattled as Bane paced up and down the trailer. He took four heavy, bouncy steps towards the bedroom, and then he took them back again towards where Davide was sitting on the little couch and wringing his hands. Davide's eyes were downcast, and his hair was bunched into a messy ponytail, like he thought it might help him to think. Bane stopped short in his stride and frowned at him. He wanted for all the world to be comforting -- of course he'll come back! He's not stupid! -- and to throw his arms around Davide and kiss him til their bodies relaxed into one another, but he also knew that he would convince nobody of something he didn't believe himself.
After a few minutes of contemplative silence, Davide seemed to notice the bounciness had stopped, and he raised his eyes in a slow movement. They exchanged weary looks. And Bane sighed, let his tense shoulders drop so his arms swung loosely at his sides. Davide tilted his head, his eyes blue and almost watery, pleading. And Bane took himself over to the couch and locked Davide's fingers in his, shaking the trailer with another quake as he sat down beside his husband.
The silence was tense, though they comforted one another, and after a growl of frustration, Bane said, "If he misses this race, that kid--" and cut himself off with a sharp breath through his nose. He felt the small, soft pressure of Davide, squeezing his hand. "Shit, man," Bane said, "I mean, if he's gone back to that old scene, the fuck are we gonna do? --This ain't even about the team!" but even as he added that, he knew Davide felt the same.
"I'm worried," Davide said, in a very faint voice. This cut straight to Bane's heart and he flung his arm around Davide and squeezed him after all.
"Me too," Bane said, his lips buried in Davide's hair. They stayed like that for a time, and then Bane sighed and drew away, so he could catch Davide's eye. "I guess there's no use worryin' about the little shit," he said, trying to laugh, but not quite managing, "I mean he's a kid but he's an adult kid. He can do what he wants, but he's a selfish little brat to keep on doing this!"
Davide tried a weak smile, and didn't quite manage it. "Sometimes he DRIVES me up the wall," he said. A second; two. Bane snorted and the heavy atmosphere broke.
"Dude that's just fuckin' lazy??" he said, headbutting Davide softly and then pretending to bite at his nose, and Davide chuckled in his soft, deep way--
A knock.
They turned in sync towards their little metal door, down its few steep steps. And then they looked at one another. Wordless, Bane hefted himself back up off the couch and braced one arm off the little kitchenette counter so he could push open the door without stepping down to it. And there he was.
The little shit.
Grin as wide as the brim of his cap.
"Sup?" he said, with a little nod.
Bane pushed the door so it swung open, and looked back over his shoulder to see if Davide was seeing this shit too. Davide sat up a little way in his chair and craned his neck, his lovely lips dropping ever so slightly open. The word "Echizen!" fell softly from them.
"Ah, sup Davide-san," Echizen said, and as Bane turned back to the sound of his voice, he saw him.
This guy was dressed up in a conservative kinda brown-leather jacket and a simple polo shirt, tidy hair and simple glasses. Bane kept a stony glare on him, but he addressed Echizen, "Just where the hell you been?" Echizen snorted and tilted his head back. "Back on one of yer benders?" Bane took the time to slide his icy stare at Echizen, before placing it back on the stranger.
"Ehhh, is that what you think of me?" Echizen seemed to find it funny. Little shit.
Bane sucked in a great breath of air and pushed it out slowly through clenched teeth. And then he stepped out of the trailer. He heard the hurried steps of Davide, rushing to catch up with him, and that made Bane realise what he was thinking about doing for the first time since Echizen disappeared.
Echizen seemed genuinely taken aback by Bane's size as he stood at ground level with them, and for the first time his smirk seemed to falter. "I asked you, where've ya been?" Bane repeated with a growl on his voice, and he felt Davide touch his elbow and say, Bane-san…
"Che!" Echizen suddenly seemed offended, "Thought you'd be happy to see me! Screw this, c'mon Te--"
"Listen I need to know if you're gonna be safe for the track tomorrow or not, so you tell me now where the HELL you've been!"
There was a silence in which Echizen blinked, and his guest seemed quite startled, but also as if something had been awakened him. A little aura. He took a step towards Echizen and Bane wheeled on him furiously, but did nothing. His chest heaved and his fists clenched and unclenched.
"Bane-san, let's go inside?" Davide said, a soothing whisper on his neck, and Bane's heart softened the way it always did, but then it brought it back. Davide, sleepless, rising out of their little bed in the middle of the night to check his phone, to stare out the little window of their trailer at the dark and the nobody coming back onto the site. Bane shook Davide from his arm.
"He was with you, yeah?" he demanded of the stranger, "You're the one who--"
"Bane-san, what are you talking about!" Echizen began, but it was too late.
"Echizen, I won't let this dangerous man--"
"ME, dangerous?" Bane was suddenly flaring red hot with his anger, and this strange man stared him down coldly.
"I'm sorry, I won't let anyone harm Echizen," he said simply. Quietly.
"You sunovabitch! Act like you give a SHIT about him!" Bane was squaring his shoulders now and he felt Davide touching the small of his back and saying, please, please calm down, but it was too late for that. "Stay away from him!" Bane yelled, and when the man took another step towards Echizen, he suddenly found himself with his ass on the ground, covering his mouth with a bloodied hand.
"TEZUKA-SAN!" Echizen rushed towards him, peering with a rare kind of tenderness (for Echizen) at his injured face. And Davide appeared in front of Bane, eyes wide and his hands shaking just a little.
"I have a first aid kit, hold on," he said, and darted back into the trailer.
And reality sort of fell down and shattered all around Bane, and he realised for the first time what he'd done. "Oh shit," he mumbled, "Oh shit, I-I'm sorry, dude, I--"
Echizen looked up at Bane with disgust, "You PUNCHED my BOYFRIEND!"
There was a pause. Bane began to mouth, what??? when Davide burst out of the trailer with the first aid kit, and stopped suddenly, looking between his husband and racetrack 'son'. Bane squinted at Echizen, and saw that his face was flushed up, and not just from anger. Davide turned a watery and confused look to Bane, so he repeated.
"Your BOYFRIEND??" and soon Davide turned his watery and confused look back on Echizen. Bane loosely pointed his finger at Echizen, who was hiding his face beneath the brim of his cap, "But you're not gay…?"
Davide clicked his tongue loudly, and knelt down near the injured guy. "Are you okay?" he said, opening the tin and getting out the antiseptic.
"I'm alright," Echizen's 'boyfriend' said in a muffled way, rubbing his jaw.
"Yo, Echizen's not even gay though??" Bane said.
"Still got all your teeth, Tezuka-san?" Echizen said, in a soft voice. Tezuka nodded.
"Even if you don't, it's okay. I will 'chew' Bane-san out for this… pfft!"
"Since when were you gay??" Bane said again, but they ignored him.
"He's not really a bad guy," Echizen put in. He had his hands tenderly about Tezuka's shoulders, gazing right into his bruised and swollen face. Davide put an ice pack in Echizen's hand, and without a word, he held it to Tezuka's jaw, and they stayed, locked in one another's glances.
"He… Bane-san, he," Davide stammered, calm enough now to remember he was addressing a stranger, "He thinks with his fists, sometimes. But, he has a big heart." He paused, nodding to himself. "He can beat his chest all he wants, we know his heart beats harder… pfft,"
"Not sure that was a pun, but okay," Bane said, even though he was apparently fuckin' INVISIBLE.
"Listen," Echizen said, lowering the ice pack for a moment and brushing a hair out of Tezuka's eyes. Davide seemed to realise he was intruding, and went to stand beside Bane, shooting him a reproachful look, "I, I'm pretty angry at Bane-san right now, but… he had a reason. A-and I'm sorry, because I should've explained to you about my past before… I've been a bit--"
Tezuka interrupted him by softly clasping Echizen's cold-reddened fingers. "You never need to explain yourself to me," he said, and Echizen exhaled in a soft little laugh or gasp. And then Echizen leaned in to Tezuka, and knocked the brim of his cap upwards in the process. Bane looked away uncomfortably, and found he was looking at Davide. And Davide, catching him looking, turned his nose up sharply in the opposite direction away from Bane. Bane watched the nape of his husband's neck, revealed by the pull of his scraggly ponytail, and listened to the wet smacking lips of apparently-gay Echizen kissing his boyfriend on the ground in front of his house.
"Echizen, bring him inside, we'll have a drink and talk about it," Bane said, reaching around for the ground he had to make up. Echizen pulled away from Tezuka with a long, wet sound. His cap fell to the ground. "C'mon, lemme apologise, I can explain!" Bane knitted his eyebrows together and shrugged nervously.
"Maybe another time, Bane-san," Ryoma said, getting to his feet and brushing off his knees, then putting a steadying arm out for Tezuka, "I'm taking my boyfriend back to my place," he said, with his usual smirk, "but you're definitely gonna have to make this up to me somehow!!" He said, wagging a finger back at Bane as he dragged a flustered Tezuka away.