Chapter Text
“Hey man! How you’ve been?”
“Ah Akio! I haven’t seen you since the opening of Sia La Luce. I’m doing good as always, how about you?”
It was ten o’clock on a Tuesday night, and Kojiro was the only one left in his restaurant cleaning up the place. No matter how much his staff offered to stay and help, he always refused and told them they deserved to rest. His employees all thought he was the nicest boss for caring so much about their well-being, but in reality Kojiro had ulterior motives for making sure he was always the only one left after hours. A certain pink-haired man was known to wander on in demanding for food and company, and Kojiro would never miss an opportunity to be near him or fulfil his bossy appetite.
He had been wiping down a table and staring at the door when his phone rang, it was one of his good friends from his time in culinary school. “Listen Kojiro that’s why I called you, I’ve got big news. You’re not going to be the only one with a restaurant anymore!”
“No way, you’re opening your own?! Congratulations dude!” Kojiro was smiling from ear to ear. He was so happy for his friend. Akio was a little younger than him and Kojiro had always thought of himself as a sort of mentor for the guy. He helped him whenever one of his dishes was missing an ingredient and gave him advice about life such as, “you gotta get them gains *flexing his muscles* so you can get these gains *pointing to his pasta report with outstanding remarks and a gold star on it*” Honestly looking back, how did Akio ever manage to listen to Kojiro’s dumb words without bursting into laughter or calling him out on his shit? Either way, he was glad that his friend had succeeded in life despite all his “awful” guidance.
“Thank you, that means a lot. You were such a huge help during school, so I wanted to invite you to the opening next Saturday.”
“Next Saturday? Of Course! I wouldn’t miss it. Just give me the time and place and I will be there.”
“Awesome! Yeah, it’s in this place called Palm City, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”
Kojiro had heard of it. It used to be a small town with not much going on, but in recent years new buildings and businesses had started being developed there. Every magazine listed it as the new up and coming hot destination for all. It was a couple hours away from Okinawa, so he’d have to get a hotel, but Kojiro was ecstatic at having an excuse to visit.
Akio continued, “It’ll be in the evening, fancy formal event because I ain’t opening a subpar restaurant. Oh, and you can bring a plus one… and by that I mean Kaoru.” He said with his voice sounding a little smug at the end there. Kojiro tapped his fingers on the table he was now leaning against. It seemed that Akio had not forgotten about the hopeless feelings he had for his best friend. He remembered the night he found out. They were walking back home to their dorms drunk after a social gathering and Akio asked him why he hadn’t gone home with any of the girls he had been incessantly flirting with all night. And that’s when he spilled all of the beans. About his unrequited love for his childhood friend Kaoru, about how the basturd Ainosuke had stolen and broken his heart in high school, and how he only had eyes for him. After that night, Akio was always there to hear about his love woes and always tried to get him to confess his feelings, but of course Kojiro never did. Maybe he was Kojiro’s mentor all along and not the other way around.
Kojiro managed to evade the subject and the two of them started catching up with one another. About thirty minutes later, the bell above the entrance to Sia La Luce chimed and in came the secret source of Kojiro’s happiness (and annoyance). “Well it was nice talking to you but I gotta go. A four-eyed rat just came in for its feeding.” Kaoru said nothing, but he did walk up to kick him hard before taking his usual seat at the bar.
The smugness in Akio’s voice returned, “Ah I see, a little late-night loving huh. Well make sure to bring him, I’ll send you the invite through text. Bye!” He hung up abruptly and Kojiro was left with a small tint of pink color to his cheeks, “what the hell man, “late-night loving”
Kaoru noticed the blush and his eyes narrowed just a tad, shifting his position on the stool, and crossing his legs so that the fold of his yukata would ride up a bit exposing some leg he asked, “Who was that?” Kojiro had to avert his eyes and conjure up his best bickering voice to stop it from cracking, “We’re not jealous here are we?”
Kaoru’s eyes widened, “Dumbass gorilla, I could care less if you’re having a chat with one of your conquests, I just came here for food and I can be on my way.” He said with an air of arrogance, yet his own cheeks blushed with slight irritation. Kojiro found it endearing, “Jeez you think me that much of a player? Well you stupid cinnamon stick boy, if you must know it was Akio, my old friend from culinary school.”
Kaoru’s face looked relieved for some reason, but Kojiro didn’t want to pay too much attention to it. “Oh, so the big ape has friends, how lovely. Now where is the food I’m expecting?”
“The audacity the princess has to insult me and then make me feed him.” Although his words said this, his actions spoke another truth. As he was already making his way back into the kitchen where he had already saved a portion of carbonara for the man. From the front bar he heard a chuckle and then, “Don’t forget the wine!... white wine or I will hurt you!!!”
“Sure thing princess.”
“Stop calling me that you ape!”
Kojiro walked in a few minutes later with a bottle of Kaoru’s favorite wine and a plate of freshly heated up food. He served Kaoru with a wink and then went off to continue his cleaning, letting the other enjoy his meal in peace.
It was quiet for a while, with only silent chewing noises and wiping of tables. Neither would ever admit it out loud, but this part of their day was each other’s favorite. It was a rare time when they weren’t arguing or bickering with one another. One wasn’t calling the other one “four-eyes” or the other one shouting out the word “ape” every five seconds making the veins on their foreheads or neck bulge out with irritation. It was peaceful. Kojiro got to admire long pink strands of hair falling over lean-muscled cloth-covered shoulders and Kaoru got to pretend he was someone special to the other man because he always made him his favorite dishes. They both secretly wished that these moments meant as much to the other person as it did to them, but they both settled with resolving that wishing is all it would ever be.
Kojiro finished up wiping off crumbs from the last table. Akio’s words kept playing in his mind, plus one…by that I mean Kaoru. He really wanted to invite him. He wanted to spend more time next to him. Sure they saw each other pretty often, but it was never for whole days. Besides, it’s not like they hadn’t gone on vacations together, heck they’d travelled through various parts of the world together in the past, but it had been a long time. He was having a mental turmoil that was only broken when Kaoru spoke, “Earth to gorilla, I said I’m done with the meal, you can take this dirty plate away now.”
Kojiro blinked out of it and went to retrieve the dish, “You know, would it kill you to say thank you?” Kaoru smirked, “yes actually.” With that he started getting up to make his exit. Kojiro knew that if he didn’t ask now, he would end up going alone to his friend’s restaurant opening and he so desperately wanted to be accompanied by the man in front of him. He had to try, which is why he quickly put the plate down and half-yelled, “Wait!”
Kaoru slightly winced, “Ah shut it! Why so loud? I’m not that far away from you idiot!”
Kojiro’s expression turned shy, “I just…”
“Well, spit it out, I don’t have all night.”
“Akio is opening a restaurant next Saturday and uh, he said I can bring a plus one…” He had to pull himself together, he mentally chided himself for sounding like a schoolgirl confessing. He took a small breath and mustered up a nonchalant mood, “So anyways I figured you could go with me, besides, you met him a couple times back in the day when you’d go to visit me. It’s in that cool new place Palm City. We could leave a couple days earlier to explore the town, you know, vacation like the old times.”
Golden eyes held a look of confusion, “You’re inviting me to spend insufferable time with you? Why don’t you get some woman to go with you instead, explore with her?” The words hurt to say, but Kaoru was sure he’d have a much better time if he were out there fooling with some girl instead of bickering with him nonstop.
“But I want to go with you!” Kojiro mentally slapped himself, he had to pull it back and save his attempt at getting the other man to join him, and he knew just how to do it, “I mean, there’s girls all over the place *he winced* and I know we fight a lot but come on this is a restaurant we’re going to, you love food! You’d get to eat yummy food and explore the town, do some skating. We both know you need a break from your prissy job.”
“My calligraphy is not a prissy job!” A couple seconds passed. Kaoru had his hands holding the clothe of his yukata tightly as he pondered the proposition, making Kojiro hold in his breathe with anticipation. He did want to go with him, and all the things he listed did sound fun. He wouldn’t say this out loud, but he thought the other man must have some sort of mind-reading capability because he had been very stressed at work lately and even Carla couldn’t help him as much as usual. After some debating, he looked up, golden eyes interlocking with shiny ruby ones, “Fine.”
Kaoru didn’t want to think too much about how Kojiro’s face lit up, and before the green-haired man had a chance to speak he turned to make his way towards the door. He stopped right before exiting, “We’ll discuss the details for the trip through text, and Carla will be the one booking the hotel.” He turned over his shoulder to face Kojiro, his eyes narrowed, and his cheeks flushed a bit, “She’ll know the best places, we wouldn’t want your two monkey braincells messing things up.”
Once he was gone, Kojiro slumped over a chair and tried calming his heartbeat. He was already starting to plan, enamored that he was going to spend three nights with the secret love/pain in the ass of his life.