Chapter Text
The sun had set. The air started to cool down and Kaoru found himself, once again, sitting at the Counter of Sia la Luce. Kojiro filled both their glasses and leaned towards his guest.
“You are aware, that people usually pay the guy, who serves them wine multiple times a week, right?”
Kaoru looked unimpressed and sipped at his wine.
“It's your own fault for still wanting to meet me, after you close, you dopey gorilla.”
“What does-” Kojiro stopped as the door opened. He must have forgot to lock it, after Kaoru entered. He looked at the two people who just entered and his eyes went gigantic. He looked like he saw a ghost or-
“Kaoru. Look at them.” he whispered. Kaoru, out of curiosity did as he was told and his heart skipped a beat.
“Kaoru, that kid. Why does he look like you as a teenager? And and and the other one. He-”
“Calm down, stupid gorilla. That's just- just a very weird coincidence. It is impossible that they are us.”
At least that's what he tried to tell himself. He tried to convince himself that he wasn't going crazy. That he wasn't seeing himself a decade ago. Even though these two wore the exact school uniform they used to. Even though the smaller ones hair was the exact same shade as his. Even though he wore the same lip piercing with a chain, connected to his left ear, just like Kaoru used to. Even though the teens looked just as confused as Kojiro and Kaoru did.
The kid turned to his friend and whispered not so quiet:“Kojiro, why the fuck do they look like us but old?” He sure got some nerve. “”His- His name is also Kojiro. I'm going insane, Kaoru. Please tell me you see us too.” His voice was shaking. “Unfortunately I can.” he mumbled.
“What the fuck is going on here?” The pink haired one asked.
”I don't know. You always brag about how smart you are. So you tell me, idiot.”
Panic started to take over Kaoru's body. That's exactly how Kojiro and he interacted, basically since they have met. And their voices. The guys in front of him sounded almost exactly like him and Kojiro. This couldn't be. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Please tell me your Names aren't Nanjo Kojiro and Sakurayashiki Kaoru.”
The Boys jaws dropped. “How-”
“Kaoru. Why do our teenage selves stand in the middle of my restaurant?” At this point, they were both convinced they were losing their minds. They had to. There was no way they were seeing their teenage selves. Maybe Kojiro had put something in the wine that made them hallucinate. Yeah, maybe he had been drugged by Kojiro. This. This was a explanation. To be fair, it wasn't a very good one. But it was better than to think that their actual past selves were standing right in front of them.
“Wait wait wait wait.” 'Teenage Kaoru' spoke again: “You are trying to tell me, that this” he pointed at the Kojiro next to him, “Will turn into this?” He pointed at the Kojiro across him. “That's quite a upgrade.” He smiled one sided. “Rude.” The other Kojiro punched his arm.
“Kaoru, you make me feel very uncomfortable”
Kaoru adjusted his glasses. “I'm not doing anything, you moron.”
“Not you, you ignorant jerk. The other Kaoru. Ugh. We need different names for them.”
“Hey! Why do we need different names? And why would we even believe you, that you are.. us? God that's confusing.” The other Kojiro exclaimed. “Yeah! How do we know you are not playing some sick game wit us? And, lets be real,” the other Kaoru raised an eyebrow, “I would never walk around looking like that.”
That's it. This meant war. Kaoru would not let his young self insult him one more time. “Maybe not. But you little brat would totally wear a maid outfit, because you lost a bet to Kojiro. And we both know you secretly really liked it and considered wearing dresses more often.” The chance was pretty high, this had already happened to teenage Kaoru. It happened during the end his second year of high school. From the way he dressed, Kaoru assumed his younger self was probably 17 and in his last year of high school.
Blush creeped into the face of the young man and the second Kojiro started laughing.
It was still the same. His Kojiro's and the past Kojiro's laugh, were the same.
“Stop laughing, you idiot. We both know, it did something to you, seeing him like that.” His laughter died and he blushed heavily. Kaoru would get back to Kojiro about this later. But now they had to try and figure out what the hell as going on. And they couldn't do so, as long as the other ones were acting so much like.. ignorant, bratty teens. Which was exactly what they were.
Around 20 minutes of explaining, how they actually were the same people as the teens in front of them, later Kaoru emptied his glass of wine. “What are we supposed to do?” Kojiro asked but Kaoru had no idea.
“How is this even possible?” Asked the young Kojiro. Meanwhile the four of them sat at a table, each version facing each other like a very bizarre mirror. This would probably be a very long night.
“I mean;” he continued, “If we exist at the same time and.. we interact, shouldn't this like.. destroy the future? Or now present? Shouldn't everything fall apart now because we messed up the space-time continuum?”
Kaoru's bracelet lit up.
“This assumption is only correct, if you assume time is linear, Kojiro-san.”
“Thank you, Carla.” Kaoru said with a light smile. The teenagers just stared at him. “Did- did your bracelet talk to you?” Kojiro two stuttered. “And did you give it a name? And thanked it?” Kaoru two asked with a shocked expression on his face. He sighed. “No. That's Carla. She is a AI program I have developed and integrated in, amongst other things, this bracelet I have build. She is a virtual assistant and is programmed to interact when asked or when the situation seems to need her assistance.”
“Okay but like, what did she mean with the part where she said that time is linear? Or isn't? Man I am just so confused.”
Kaoru rolled his eyes, “As usual. I'm trying to explain it as easy as possible so even you gorilla brains can understand it. She meant, that there are multiple theories, when it comes to our understanding of time. One of them is that time is linear. Meaning the past the present and the future are lined up and everything in the past affects the present and future directly. If this would be the case, the present, or for you the future, would collapse because you two are interacting with the future versions of yourselves. Which would probably cause the space-time continuum to collapse.”
“But yet, here we are.” The young version of himself interrupted Kaoru. That kid really started to annoy him. Was he really such a obnoxious jerk?
“Unfortunately.” Kojiro mumbled under a breath and Kaoru smiled. Apparently he was also not too fond about taking care of even more teenagers. As if Miya and Reki and Langa hadn't been enough already.
Speaking of which; they had to hide the teens from them. Kaoru didn't have the nerve for them to team up against the adults. And, oh boy, they would. “Kojiro.” both of the Kojiros looked at him. “Okay, you guys know what? We need different names for you two.”
“Why do we need different names?” young Kaoru protested.
“Because we existed before you did.”
“No you don't. You just exist longer.”
“Listen you little-”
“Kaoru. Stop yelling at him.” Kojiro intervened, placing a hand on his arm to calm Kaoru down and the green haired teen laughed. “You two are so gay.”
“So are you, douche.” the original Kojiro replied.
“I-I am not!”
“You know, I could expose a lot of our secrets, kid. And you would probably have it worse than me.
Because your Kaoru is a even bigger asshole than mine. So keep on teasing me if you care to explain why you-”
“Okay. Stop. Please.”
Kojiro had a victorious look on his face. He seemed way to proud for winning over his younger self.
“Damn. Future Kojiro is even hotter when he gets mad.” Teenage Kaoru smirked.
“Kid. Please stop this.”
“Why? We both know you can't resist forever. Just gotta be persistent.”
“Ew. Kaoru. That's.. basically me you are taking about” The other Kojiro made a disgusted expression.
It was weird, having two people sitting across the table who talked almost exactly like Kojiro and he did. And it was even weirder hearing himself hit so shamelessly on Kojiro.
“Congrats. You successfully made everyone in this room uncomfortable for various reasons. Can you now finally shut up? We still have to figure out what to call you two. Because I will not give up my name for the sake of a little bitch.”
“Kaoru, you can't keep pretending that kid isn't you 10 years ago.”
“Yes I can, you stupid gorilla.”
Now they had reached a point where they would usually just insult each other. But they somehow still had to figure out what to do with the teenagers sitting across the table.
“If they meet Miya, we're dead. They would never stop coming up with new things to pick on.” Kojiro pointed out to change the topic.
“Who's Miya? Can we meet them now? Sounds like fun” Young Kaoru smirked devilish.
“No-”
“He is just a young skater who pretends we're his parents because Kojiro adopted him.”
The other Kojiro nodded. “Sounds like something I would do.”
For the first time since they came in, it was quiet for a moment.
“Okay. What if”, Kojiro began,” what if I am Kojiro, and he is Koji. And.. Adult Kaoru is Kaoru and teenage Kaoru is Kao.”
They thought about it for a moment. “That's fine by me.” Koji agreed. “What about you?” He turned to his friend who mumbled something incomprehensible. “It works I guess.” He finally said with a defeated look on his face.
“Good. Now that we talked about this, how the fuck did you even end up here?” Kojiro asked and Koji began to explain: “We were just hanging out like usual and then everything went black.”
“You mean you passed out?” Kaoru interrupted.
“No. We didn't pass out. Kaoru freaked out a little, because he thought he had gone blind all at sudden.”
“No I didn't!” Apparently Kaorus have a thing for interrupting Koji.
“Anyway. I told him that literally everything had gone black and he was probably not blind. And then, and then just as soon as everything had gone black, everything went bright white. It was only for a few seconds, but when everything was back to normal it wasn't normal at all. All at sudden, we were in front of a restaurant I had never seen before. And here we are.” For Kaoru, this had crated more questions than answered.
“I mean.. when we're already here we could also have some fun, don't you think so, Kojiro” Kao tried to hit on this object of desire again.
“Kao, Goddamn! You are literally, legally a minor!”
Kao didn't seem bothered by Kojiro brushing him off again.
Kaoru can't remember being so.. persistent at flirting. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe Kao only was, because it was Kojiro. They were the same person. So how could Kao not be interested in Kojiro, rather than Koji. When they were teenagers Kaoru didn't see Kojiro as anything more or less, than his best friend. It wasn't until their early twenties, he believes, that he began to fantasize about Kojiro one day being his lover. His partner. Maybe even husband, one day.
But he had thrown away his shot. Kojiro didn't look at him anymore, the way Koji looked at Kao. With these stupid, love sick, sad eyes. With that dumb sappy look that only love can cause.
“What should we do with them, Kojiro? I am, honestly so tired. And I highly doubt, that we will still find any solution tonight.”
“What do you mean 'What should we do with them' ?"
Kaoru throws his head back and sighs. “For example: What are they supposed to wear? Your 5 XL Shirts will for sure be way to big for someone with a normal shaped body.”
“Aaawe. You are just jealous, that I get more in one week, than you in a whole year.”
“If I were you I wouldn't brag so much about being with literally everyone who pays you just the tiniest bit of attention and strokes your ego, while this dunce is here.” He nodded towards Kao and Kojiro changed the topic, before the kid could say something inappropriate.
“Why don't we ask Reki and Langa?” Kaoru sighed again and tightened the grip around his fan. “Kojiro, please picture your idea for a moment. We, two grown man, ask to teenagers, in the middle of the night, for clothes.” Kojiro breathed in sharp before answering: “Oh.. yeah. That's bad.. That's very bad.”
“Yo, with how many teens do you hang out, man? That's lowkey creepy.” Koji said and Kao nodded in agreement.
“I never decided to be part of this!” Kaoru protested. “Kojiro just can't stop adopting underage Skaters. And for some reason, they don't care about the fact that they have their own parents and don't need me as a parental figure”
“C'mon, Kaoru. You love the kids too.” Kojiro teased.
“I suppose we have to give them our clothes for tonight. And tomorrow they get themselves new clothes.”
“I don't know if you noticed, but we have literally no money. How do you imagine us getting- wait. Are you suggesting we just steal the clothes? Sounds like a fun challenge.” Kao said with a smile
Kojiro sighed. “No you will not steal your fucking clothes. Kaoru and I will give you money.”
“Where are they gonna sleep?” Kaoru entered the conversation again.
“Why don't they sleep in the restaurant? Or your studio?”
“Kojiro.” Kaoru looks directly in his eyes. “You know what we did when we were their age. Do you-”
“Okay!” Kojiros voice was weirdly high and he blushed a little. “Okay. They will not sleep here. Or at your Studio. They-”
“What did you do when you were our age?” Koji asked a little concerned and with a deep red face. But the adults decided to ignore him.
“We can just.. each take one of them to our apartments?” Kaos eyes sparkled when he said: “I sure wouldn't mind spending the night with a handsome man like you.”
“Kaoru. You take him.” He sounded concerned. “I really don't want to have him around longer than I have to.”
“Kojiro.” Koji just left the bathroom. For Kojiro the shirt Koji wore fit snug. It was the smallest he could find and still it was so over sized at his younger self. The older one looked up. “What's up, buddy?
“You know, I think its kinda unfair that you know literally everything about me, but I barley know anything about you. Only what I also know about myself.” He sat down on the couch, right next to Kojiro.
“You have a point. What do you wanna know?”
“Hm..” he thought about it for a moment. “What d you do for a living?”
“Koji. You were sitting in my restaurant until like.. 30 Minutes ago.”
“Right. Right right.. yeah.. so.. you just own it or..?”
“I am also the head chef. And before you ask, yes I do work out a lot to maintain this body.”
“Why did you become a chef?”
Kojiro can remember seeing cooking only as a additional chore he had to do, because his mother was working all the time.
“When Kaoru and I just graduated, he took me on a trip to Italy. Because, you know.. it's a part of me but I didn't know anything about it. I Had no money at all so he paid for everything. The flight, the hotel we stayed in. He only let me pay for food once or maybe twice. I felt really bad for letting him spend this much money on me. It wasn't very long but it was the most amazing thing someone had ever done for me. And.. I still remember sitting in like a small restaurant. And I had the best lasagna I ever ate. It was literally the best food in my life. And because it was pretty late already, there were rarely customers, so the chef sat with us and talked about his life. He was a adorable old man. And he said he opened this restaurant over 40 years ago, with his wife. Because his wife loved to cook. And she always dreamed of having big family she could cook for. But unfortunately they couldn't have kids. So he opened the restaurant with her and eventually the tiny village became their family. And.. he said she had died a few years ago. But he wanted to keep the restaurant open. For his family. So I asked mom, to teach me how to cook. I wanted to learn how to cook, like her parents cooked. I worked as a waiter and went to culinary school. Because once I stopped seeing cooking as a chore, but something that can connect you with your ancestors, it became my favorite thing to do.”
Koji smiled. “That's really sweet.” For a long moment they just sat there in silence, before Koji began asking questions again.
“Why did you start working out?” “Because of culinary school, I ate way more than I used to and I didn't want to get fat I guess. So I started working out regularly. Firstly only to loose some weight. But once I started gaining muscles, i realized i really liked how that looked on me.”
“You do look good.” Koji mumbled.
Kojiro smiled. “Thanks kiddo.”
“You know, I just think its not fair that he-” He stopped himself mid sentence. Kojiro put his arm around Kojis shoulder. “That he looks at me, the way you wish he looked at you?” He nodded quiet.
“I know it hurts.”
“Are you two.. like..?”Koji asked hesitant. The older one shakes his head slowly.
“Nope.”
“Are you still in love with him?”
“I am.” Kojiro said under a breath. “Probably just as much as you are.”
“But.. he's changed so much.”
He smiled, thinking about their journey. What they've been trough. “Only on the outside. There are moments, where he still is like your Kaoru. Mine is just.. maybe he is a little more damaged than yours. But that's okay. I am also more damaged than you are. Deep inside, they are the same person. Which is a weird thought, considering how uncomfortable he made me feel.”
Koji laughed: “We both know he would freak out if you would actually flirt back.”
“Yeah. That's something that changed. Now Kaoru can handle it pretty well, when I try and flirt with him. Is there.. anything else you wanna ask me?”
Koji started biting his lip. “When do we-” he started over and rephrased. “When did you.. you know.. lose-”
“I am not talking to you about my sex life!” This was a line Kojiro would never want to cross. Talking to a teenager about sex. Even if it was himself. Koji looked bummed about that so Kojiro sighed.
“Alright. But I am not giving you any details!” Why the hell was he doing this? “I was 20. And we were drinking. Not enough to be drunk, but enough to do dumb things.”
“Were you dating her?”
Kojiro smirked. “Who said it was a woman?”
Kojis jaw dropped and his cheeks had a dark red color.
“You- you're just messing with me. Right? You're messing with me for asking you this.. Right?”
Kojiro got up and went to the bedroom door. “Good night, Koji. Don't think about it too much, okay?”
“Kojiro. You are messing with me.” He sighed. “Please at least tell me you were top.”
“Again. Good night, Koji. I will not ever again talk to you about my first time. I'll go to bed now. Just wake me up if you need something.”
For most of the way home to Kaoru's apartment, none of them said a word. It was a uncomfortable silence. Neither of them knew how to interact or what to say.
“I still don't get why I have to leave with you, instead of him.” Kao complained, breaking the silence. The adult was even more annoyed than before.
“Listen. I also don't want you around my apartment and would have preferred Koji as my guest. And to be honest I just wish both of you never showed up at Sia la Luce. Because i rather forget so much of what you remind me of. But you are here. And since you keep making everyone feel weird and unfortunately are me, we have to get through this night somehow.” It was quiet again. It was only a 10 minute car ride, but it sure felt like hours.
Once the finally arrived, Kaoru showed the teenager around. “Don't touch anything. I bet you would break everything.”
“Why the fuck do you have so many calligraphy brushes?”
“Because I am a AI calligrapher, dimwit.”
“That's so boring.”
Kaoru was so close, to kicking the brat out. He just wanted to kick his damn ass out the door and let him sleep on a bench outside or something. Being called boring, broke something in him. He took a deep breath. Tried to collect his thoughts and calm down. Kao was only a dumb teenage delinquent. He had no idea what he was talking about. He had no idea how influential Kaoru was. How famous. How much money he had. How his fans adored him.
“Do you want to take a shower?” He turned to Kao. He begged for him to say yes so he would have twenty minutes of peace.
“Nah. I showered this morning.”
Kaoru sighed. “Fine. I'll go shower and then I give you some clothes and bed sheets. You will take the couch.” Kao nodded while Kaoru made his way to the bathroom. “Just sit there and watch TV or something.”
Kaoru locked the bathroom door and leaned against it. “Carla,” the bracelet lit up again, “Yes, Master?”
“Deactivate all your devices except for this bracelet.”
“Yes, Master. All devices are deactivated now.” This was simply a precautionary thing to do. He didn't want a stupid teenager to mess with Carla. He took out his phone and began texting Kojiro.
Sakura Kaoru
>Kojiro, am I boring?
He hated being so self conscious. So insecure. He placed his phone next to the sink, put off his yukata and took of his glasses.
The shower was hot. Way to hot for Kaoru's usual liking and the bathroom was soon filled with steam. He tried to replace his thoughts with the burning water, hoping if his body felt like it was on fire, he would stop thinking about Adam. Looking down on him, while Kaoru is on the ground, his nose bleeding and his vision blurry. Saying You are so boring over and over again.
I never accepted your challenge, because you are just so boring. So boring. So. Boring. I left you, because you were never interesting. You were never a challenge for me. God. You are just so boring, Kaoru. Why would I be interested in someone like you? So. Boring.
He buried his hands in his soaking wet hair and tried to make his thoughts stop. It didn't matter what Adam said, Kaoru tried to convince himself. It didn't matter. Because Adam was not the man he used to be. He became more and more reckless. Not skating for the fun anymore but to prove that he is the best. Always seeking more and more adrenaline. Always getting more and more careless who he hurts. Kaoru didn't believe Adam would actually hurt him. He didn't believe, that he could be so merciless. He didn't believe, Adam actually didn't care for him.
After approximately 20 to 30 minutes, Kaoru entered the bedroom with his damp hair in a loose bun and a towel around his hips. He planned on getting dressed and would then look for stuff to give to Kao. But hen he opened the door, Kaoru couldn’t believe his eyes.
“What the-”
“So you do have normal people clothes. Why don’t you wear them?” Kao had put on his old leather jacket and kept digging through the closet.
“Put that off, right now!”
Kaoru demanded. The jacket used to belong to Kojiro. But when he started to build up muscles, it eventually became too small and he gave it to Kaoru.
When Kao looked at him, he almost seemed scared. “God, I was just joking around. No need to look at me like that.”
He took the jacket off and threw it on the bed to tons of different traditional Japanese clothing, including his skating hakama.
Kaoru walked over to his dresser. “You looked in the wrong place for normal people clothes. ” He opened the second top drawer and grabbed two pairs of sweatpants. One gray and one black. Kaoru closed it again, threw the gray pants onto the clothing pile and opened the top drawer, puled out two shirts, that used to be black, but were washed so often, they had turned to a dark gray. One of the shirts landed right in the pants and Kaoru looked over.
“Go, take your clothes, go to the bathroom and change.”
Kao moved towards the bed, picked up the clothes and mumbled: “Thanks, I guess.”
Kaorus body didn't really change since high school, he had noticed. He was a bit more muscular, his hair slightly longer and his eyesight a lot worse. Maybe he was also a little bit taller. But he, for sure, didn't improve as much as Kojiro did.
He put on his new clothes as fast as possible, to prevent being seen naked by a teenager. Even if.. he technically already knew everything. Ugh. What a weird and disgusting thought.
“Ey, Kaoru.” Kao stepped back into the room. “Why do your clothes smell like lavender?”
“It helps against the anxiety” Kaoru said mindless while hanging up his clothes again.
Kao now stood next to him and handed him the jacket he wore before. “So.. you sill..” He went quiet. Kaoru assumed it must suck to know, he will, if his life goes the same as Kaorus, still suffer a decade later.
“Just because I turned out like this, doesn't mean you have to.”
“I sure hope I don't turn out like you.” Me too, kid he wanted to say but Kaoru didn't want to give this idiot the satisfaction. So instead he said: “Don't be such a brat and hang up my stuff again.” And he did.
Kaoru knew, it was hard for him to let his guard down. And his behavior, or acting better than everyone else, was a defense mechanism. He knew he still did this. But now he had to be presentable most of the time. Sometimes he hated the life he had chosen. But at the same time.. there really only was one thing he would have done different.
His phone buzzed and the screen lit up.
Nanjo Kojiro
> What? Why? You are not boring. A smart-ass. Annoying. Neurotic, sure. The biggest burden in my life. But you are not boring. Why would you think this?
Kaoru smiled a little and immediately Kao teased him: “Is your lover texting you? God I wish he would give me these looks he gave you.”
Kaoru locked his phone without replying and turned to the kid looking over his shoulder.
“For the sake of everyone, stop saying shit like this. We are all aware how fucking hot he is. And also,” He wasn't sure if he should say this, “and also it hurts Koji.”
Kao backed off and sat down on the bed.
“I'm sorry.” He sounded surprisingly sincere.
“Don't tell me.”
“Was Kojiro... I mean your Kojiro.. was he also in love with you when you were our age?”
Kaoru nodded. “He was. I didn't see him as anything but a friend and eventually.. a way to get over Adam.”
“Does he still love you? I mean.. are you?” Kaoru swallowed.
“I don't think so. When we were 20 or maybe 21, he confessed. And I rejected him, because I panicked. He's been sleeping around a lot since then. He doesn't want me anymore.” His voice was shaking more than expected. “And he for sure doesn't want you!” Kaoru caught himself again. “So stop trying.”