Work Text:
Title: Special Someone
Author: Triste
Fandom: Magi
Pairing: Kouen/Alibaba
Warnings:
None
Rating:
PG-13
Status: Complete
Disclaimer: Not mine
Thanks to everyone who's been following and commenting on the academic au series! This fic is for all of you. <3
~~
There’s nothing worse than being invited to a party and finding out that you’re the only one who’s not having fun, Alibaba thinks to himself, and if there’s one thing that sucks more than watching other people enjoy themselves, it’s watching them flirt with each other.
It’s not like Alibaba planned for things to be this way. He wants to be out there too, drinking, dancing, laughing and maybe doing something more besides, but he’s stuck here on his own, feeling lonely and left out.
Officially, the event is being held to strengthen the ties between their countries. In reality, it’s just an excuse for everyone to get blind drunk and have a good time, which Aladdin certainly seems to be doing as he flits from one pair of breasts to the next. Alibaba can see Kougyoku hovering bashfully by Sinbad’s side, and even Morgiana and Hakuryuu appear to have forgotten about him.
“Cheer up,” Sharrkan says, giving Alibaba an encouraging slap on the back as he passes by. “Nobody’s going to come near you if you keep making a face like you’ve been abandoned.”
That’s the point, Alibaba wants to say, all his friends *are* abandoning him, but then he notices how his master is dressed far more extravagantly than usual.
“You’re looking sharp tonight,” he comments.
“You think?” Sharrkan brightens, pleased by the observation. Then he shakes his head with a grimace. “Well, it’s not like I made *that* much of an effort. It’s only Yamuraiha, you know.”
Alibaba isn’t in the mood to hear Sharrkan pretending not to be flattered or excited that the person he’s had a crush on since forever has finally asked him out, so he shoos him away.
“Okay, okay, sure. Now get going, before your date grows tired of waiting for you.”
Sharrkan hurriedly gives himself the once over and, satisfied that his appearance is unchanged, he offers Alibaba the thumbs up sign. “Stay positive, and good things will happen. Heck, you might even get lucky tonight.”
And pigs might fly, Alibaba almost retorts, but he waves Sharrkan off anyway before sinking back into a state of dejection. It’s difficult to maintain any kind of positivity despite doing whatever he can to change his relationship status. He could hold a huge sign over his head saying ‘I AM AVAILABLE PLEASE HIT ON ME’, and it still wouldn’t make any difference.
Some people just seem to hook up without any effort, which is horribly unfair when Alibaba thinks about how hard he’s been trying to find a special someone.
Maybe he’s destined to stay single for all eternity.
Resigned to his fate, Alibaba decides to at least keep drinking until he forgets the bad feelings, but then the god of love rubs his solitude in his face by sending another happy pair his way.
“What are you doing out here all on your own?” asks Olba, peering down at Alibaba in concern. “You should be having fun along with everyone else.”
“This is the forever alone table,” Alibaba says, leaning protectively over the one thing that’s bothered to keep him company this evening, even if it is just a piece of furniture. “No couples allowed.”
Olba exchanges a glance with Toto as if to say ‘not this again’, and that makes Alibaba even more jealous to see them communicating silently, something people only do when they’re close enough to no longer need words to speak for them.
“Want us to hang out with you for a while?” Olba offers, after he and Toto have apparently reached an agreement.
Alibaba’s sour mood sweetens slightly at that. Olba knows full well how pathetic he’s being, and yet he’s still willing to take time away from being with his girlfriend and share a little of it with someone else.
Alibaba feels proud of him. He wants to pat Olba on the head and tell him how much he’s grown up, that he’s been a great big brother to all the other pirate kids, and that now he’s being a great boyfriend. Someday he’ll be a great husband, and then a great dad, and then...
Blinking back tears at the mental image, Alibaba forces a smile.
“Nah, it’s fine. You’re at a party, remember? You guys should be enjoying yourselves.”
Olba nods, albeit with some reluctance. “Don’t worry, Alibaba-san, you’ll find someone special soon. I’m sure of it!”
Ah, thinks Alibaba, the optimism of youth.
Toto, on the other hand, is much more down to earth.
“Well,” she says, patting Alibaba on the shoulder. “Hang in there.”
Alibaba watches them leave, walking off hand in hand into the fading sunset, and it’s kind of like watching his parents float away to the river of rukh, along with Cassim and Mariam, to be reborn and start a new life, and shit, now he feels even more lonely, or maybe he’s just really, really drunk.
If Aladdin weren’t busy feeling up the entire female population of Sindria, he’d probably say something nice about fate and how nobody is ever truly alone when the people they love and are no longer with them continue to live on in their hearts.
Olba was probably right, Alibaba tells himself. He’ll meet his most important person someday. Maybe, like Sharrkan said, luck will finally be on his side. Maybe, if he does as Toto instructs and just believes strongly enough, his destined person will appear before him. Like, next year or next month, or maybe even this very moment.
And that’s when Ren Kouen sits down next to him.
Alibaba bursts into tears. “Why did it have to be you?”
Kouen looks at him like he’s being weird and stupid, but then that’s how he usually tends to look at Alibaba, so there’s hardly any reason for him to take offense.
“That’s no way to greet someone,” Kouen says. “Then again, it’s not as if you had any manners from the start.”
“You could never understand!” Alibaba says, wiping his eyes. “You don’t know anything about me!”
Kouen’s face clearly says he has no idea what Alibaba is talking about, so Alibaba explains it to him, but only because Kouen just happens to be there, of course, and only because he’s drunk.
It’s nothing at all to do with fate and destiny.
“I,” Alibaba declares, staring straight into Kouen’s eyes, “am lonely.” He probably shouldn’t sound so proud of that, but, whatever. “I want someone to be with, and flirt with, and be all ‘ahaha’ and ‘ufufu’ like everyone else!”
Kouen stares back at him, doing his best impression of a kokeshi doll and then, very slowly, and in a tone of voice that’s about as flat as Alibaba’s favourite table, he says, “Ufufu.”
Alibaba snaps, and he leans over to grab Kouen by the collar. “Are you screwing with me?”
Kouen remains expressionless, but Alibaba just knows that, yes, Kouen is indeed screwing with him, and that he’s enjoying it immensely. Alibaba is far too irritated to wonder *why* he happens to know this, or even to wonder how he came to read Kouen so easily (or more importantly, to remember that Kouen has always known how to push his buttons and get a reaction out of him better, and more explosively than anyone else).
Because Alibaba doesn’t want to think about any of these things, he settles for trying to punch Kouen instead, but he fails miserably and ends up falling into his lap.
“Now this,” says Kouen, the faintest hint of a smirk on his lips, “I do understand, although it’s the most pitiful attempt at seduction I’ve ever seen.”
“Who’d want to seduce *you*?” Alibaba stammers, telling himself it’s only the alcohol that’s turning his cheeks red and not the situation he’s in, but then Kouen does the ‘my face may not be moving, but I’m laughing really hard on the inside right now’ thing again.
For some reason, it’s ten times more annoying than when he laughs out loud.
“Ahaha,” he says in a perfect monotone that sounds more funeral-like than flirtatious, and then, just to piss Alibaba off that little bit more, he raises an eyebrow expectantly. “Go on, it’s your turn. It’s what you wanted, right?”
“I’ll ‘ahaha’ you, you bastard,” Alibaba growls, and by that he means throttle the life out of him, but he’s forgotten three things: that Kouen is a bully, especially when it comes to Alibaba, that he’s a lot bigger and stronger than Alibaba, and that he’s had years of experience practicing pro wrestling techniques on his brothers.
There’s not much point in fighting back, once Alibaba realises that there’s no chance of escaping Kouen’s death grip, so he lets his body go limp in the hope that Kouen will get bored eventually and let him go.
That’s when he starts to notice other things, like how close they are all of a sudden, and how people are starting to snicker and stare as they walk past (someone shouts out “get a room, you guys” and Alibaba ignores it by imagining how he’s going to kill Kouen in his sleep).
“This is getting really embarrassing,” he mutters.
“I thought you were used to humiliation,” says Kouen.
“Not when it’s–” Alibaba cuts himself off before he can finish the rest of his sentence with ‘from you’, because he’s not going to give Kouen anything else to use against him (and because he’s a sadist like the rest of his family). “Ugh, just shut up.”
Kouen does, at least for a few seconds, and then he opens his mouth.
“Don’t you dare,” Alibaba warns, before Kouen can get another ‘ufufu’ out.
Kouen stays quiet.
It’s better when he’s not talking, if only because it gives Alibaba some time to try and figure out his motives without getting distracted by bickering. He knows Kouen has difficulty expressing himself, but without Hakuei around to translate, he’s going to have to manage on his own.
Maybe Kouen is lonely too, in his own way. He’s just too awkward and obtuse to acknowledge or do anything about it. He’d rather harass someone instead. Or maybe this is simply how he thinks people flirt with each other.
It’s kind of sad, and maybe even a little bit endearing.
Kouen is a good guy really. He just also happens to be an enormous asshole.
It’s confusing.
The hard-on poking Alibaba in the ass, however, is not.
“Do you mind?” Alibaba sighs. “I was having a moment.”
Kouen does his kokeshi impression again. It’s like his face and his nether regions aren’t actually connected. “And I was showing you how to properly seduce someone.”
Alibaba is pretty sure the art of seduction is supposed to be more subtle, not to mention... well, more sexy. “Are you even trying?”
*Then* Kouen shows some emotion for once as he bares his teeth in a grin, expression predatory and downright dangerous, and now Alibaba is the conflicted one, because it makes him feel as afraid of Kouen as he is attracted by him.
Kouen’s smirk widens. “I’ll let you be the judge of that.”