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POP!
A sudden pop interrupted the low buzz of fluorescent lights jolted Kaiji awake, making his body reflexively jerk as he regained consciousness violently. Immediately he regretted waking up as he felt his stomach flip over and found himself vomiting into the toilet on which he had apparently fallen asleep next too, his arms wrapped around the cool porcelain bowl. The sounds of him throwing up echoed in the tinny bowl and when he finished, without pulling his head out of the toilet, he weakly reached up and flushed the toilet.
The toilet roared and splashed what he hoped was just water onto his face, and when it finally settled Kaiji weakly opened his eyes to look at his reflection in the water. The room was still spinning around him, but his stomach felt completely empty so he slowly lifted his head from the bowl to lean against the cool bathroom stall. If he had been a little more sober, the state of the bathroom would have disgusted him, with the wet yellowing floor tiles and bright graffiti and shit-stained cyan stall walls, while dead flies and bits of wet toilet paper dripped on the walls. Kaiji was no stranger to waking up drunk in shit holes, but this place was just disgusting. Where the hell was he? He tugged on the collar of his green shirt, his skin unusually hot and reached into his jean pocket, hoping to find- Oh thank god, at least no one had rifled through his pockets while he was passed out.
He slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the time- 5:00AM. Wherever he was must be some 24/7 place if they were still open this early. He frowned, trying to remember the events from the day but a throbbing pain in his head prevented any memories from surfacing. Whatever he had done yesterday must have been fun, because clearly he was still drunk. This was further confirmed as he tried, and failed, several times to unlock his phone, before finally giving up and typing in his passcode reflexively. Wait, why was it so easy that time? Whatever.
His phone unlocked and immediately a 10% warning popped up and his screen dimmed as it went into power saving mode. Shit, he had to act fast. He clumsily opened the maps app and somehow managed to hit “share my location” but as the option to pick a contact to share with popped up, he hesitated. Who the hell was even going to be up right now? Even on a good day he had three, maybe four people he talked to on the phone, and most of them were either asleep or not willing to pick his drunk ass up. He bit his lip and scrolled through his contacts, trying to figure out who to call for a few minutes, trying to ignore the room spinning around him.
Suddenly, the 5% battery warning popped up. Shit, he didn’t have much time. And he definitely didn’t want to spend the night on some dingy bathroom floor and wake up with some disease. But who-
Oh.
No, absolutely not.
Not him, he was the last person Kaiji wanted seeing him like this, even drunk Kaiji could at least make sense of that. But then again…. he would certainly still be awake… and he still owed Kaiji a favour for… well, everything....
He bit his lip thoughtfully and after a glance at his battery percentage, sighed and tapped on the name. The phone sent his location the number and he quickly opened his contact list and dialed the number.
It rang once, maybe twice before the person on the other end picked up.
“Well, it’s pretty early for a booty call, Ito-”
“Comefrisheheme.” Kaiji cut off the keening teasing voice. There was silence for a moment.
“... are you drunk dialing me right now?”
“No!....Hurg… come get.” Kaiji groaned, his tongue feeling leaddy and thick in his mouth. The words in his brain was getting jumbled as they came out his mouth. He wanted to explain but there was no way he was going to get the point across in time with his phone about to die.
“Phone… dying. Need… to go home.” He groaned into the phone and dropped his face into his hand, feeling his stomach swirling again. How the hell was he going to throw up on an empty stomach?
“Oh… Yeah, no, yeah. I can come get you. That explains the location sharing. I was just about to start getting ready for bed, but I’ll wake up my driver. Be there in a bit, just don’t…. Don’t wander off-” The voice on the phone was abruptly cut off as a loud chime played in Kaiji’s ear indicating his phone had died. The sound was so sudden it made his stomach churn and he hugged the toilet again and began dry heaving.
At least someone knew where he was…?
“Order number…. Aw hell, it’s yours man. Just take it and don’t throw up in the bathroom again.”
“Huh?” Kaiji blinked slowly as a tray was shoved into his hands, making him stumble backwards slightly. He was standing in front of a counter with an annoyed looking teenager glaring at him as she pulled on an apron and headed towards the bathroom. Kaiji stood still, swooning slightly, as he took in his surroundings.
The smell of greasy food… the tacky outdated decor… the fake plants… the soft pastel tiles faded with age… he was extremely drunk in an empty Taco Bell. Kaiji glanced down at the tray and noticed he had ordered a bunch of greasy food and had an empty cup paper cup.
“I need to go… fill this up with something…” He slurred to himself, a little loudly, and blinked, suddenly finding his cup overflowing with water as he stood in front of the drink machine. He cursed and pulled his hand away sloppily, dumping a bit of water on himself. Sheepishly, he glanced towards the counter but the cashier was evidently still in the bathroom from the “Closed” sign on the men’s restroom door. He should leave a tip…
Once again, Kaiji blinked and found himself sitting in a booth, chewing sloppily on his food as he looked out the window watching the pink dawn sky breaking behind dull blue-grey clouds. Morning was coming. Or already here. He didn’t really know how much time had passed since he was in the bathroom, but god damn if this wasn’t the best food he had ever-
A chime caught his attention and he glanced towards the door, suddenly feeling his stomach drop with anxiety as a man in a black suit walked in. He felt himself sober up a bit as he quickly ducked down in his booth and winced as he heard the man in the blacksuit whisper;
“He’s here, sir. Looks safe, come on in.”
Kaiji hesitantly looked up as - oh fuck, that’s right. He had called Kazuya fucking Hyoudou of all people to come pick him up. Kaiji watched as Kazuya inspected the Taco Bell with his nose wrinkled in disgust. Probably the first time the rich brat had ever even heard of Taco Bell, nevermind set foot in one. Annoyance over Kazuya’s circumstances flared up in him and Kaiji sat up and bit into his taco a bit aggressively, avoiding looking at Kazuya. He heard a surprised but relieved “Ah!” and focused on his taco as the squeak of Kazuya’s shoes approached his booth.
Kazuya collapsed into the booth, lounging lengthwise across from Kaiji and leaned up again the window, crossing his legs and running his fingers along the pattern on the table cooly. Kaiji forced himself to stare at his taco.
“Looks like someone had a fun… actually, I can’t even joke about it, you look like shit.” Kazuya’s flirtatious tone dropped into brutal honesty.
“Mfmhmph.” Kaiji mumbled through chewing, a habit he knew would annoy him.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, you’ll choke.” Kazuya snapped without hesitation. Kaiji glanced up to meet Kazuya’s eyes and watched as his annoyance melted away. Kaiji’s annoyance, however, remained. Or maybe it was just embarrassment as Kazuya’s eyes seemed to be pitiful. Wait- was Kazuya pitying him? God, how pathetic.
“How the hell did you end up like this?” Kazuya asked. A valid question. If only Kaiji knew himself. Instead, he responded with a shrug and shoved the rest of his taco into his mouth, sucking the juices off his fingertips.
“You smell like shit. Is that vomit on your shirt?”
“Yes.” Another voice answered, and both Kaiji and Kazuya glanced up at the employee who was walking out of the bathroom with a mop and bucket, giving them an annoyed glare.
“I wasn’t asking you!” Kazuya snapped coldly at the employee.
“Surry….” Kaiji mumbled, honestly feeling bad. He’d had his fair share of shitty jobs and knew just what it was like to clean up after someone. Kazuya, evidently, had not and gave Kaiji a confused look.
“Oh, so you’ll talk to her but I just get grunts?” He pouted, and annoyance flared up in Kaiji again.
“When you clean… when you clean up a strangers vomit in a dirty bathroom… then, THEN , you get my words.” Kaiji slurred and picked up his drink, expecting water but gagging on orange juice, not prepared for the acidic sting.
“Yeah, I’m just your chauffeur, eh? I just came to pick you up at 5:30 in the morning but because I was born as a P.O.M I don’t get the grace of your words?” Kazuya snapped.
“P…. Pom?” Kaiji frowned, confused.
“P.O.M, Itou. Person of means.”
“.... you mean a muh… Multibillionare?”
“Oh, so now you’re going to call me a slur, I see how it is.”
“Being born rich does not mean- Ugh, no.” Kaiji groaned and dropped his head into his hands, a wave of pain throbbing through his head. The room felt like it was swirling again. Maybe eating so soon was a bad idea, but he didn’t exactly remember making the decision to eat…
“Are you okay?” Kazuya’s voice was low and suddenly a ringed hand reached across the table to rest on Kaiji’s shoulder. Even drunk, Kaiji recoiled, and he swatted Kazuya’s hand away quickly.
“This… this is why we broke up.” Kaiji slurred, and glanced up to meet Kazuya’s hurt gaze. Ouch, okay maybe that was a bit har-
“You know what, fuck you Kaiji!” Kazuya snapped and quickly stood up and stormed out of the Taco Bell before Kaiji could process what was going on. He sat in the booth, blinking in shock for a moment, before realizing his only ride home had just stormed out and quickly bolted out of the booth and stumbled towards the door.
He skidded to a stop before he reached the door and scrambled back to the booth, grabbing his jacket and then spinning back outside, bursting into the chilly morning air. The cold air felt like a punch in the face and he quickly spun and grabbed the nearest garbage can, shoving his head into the swinging lid as his stomach purged itself of the freshly eaten tacos.
As he vomited he felt a hand on his back, rubbing up and down soothingly. If he wasn’t vomiting his guts out into a trash can it might have felt nice, but it was hard to think anything nice with a face full of trash stench. After what felt like endless pain and suffering, he finally spit the last of the acidic bile out and pulled his head out of the garbage can lid, his hair sticking to his face.
“God, you’re disgusting.” Kazuya commented, and Kaiji glanced down at him, dazed. Kazuya’s hand was still resting on his lower back and his other hand was wrapped around his waist, probably from holding Kaiji up to prevent him from falling over while he threw up. For the first time all morning, Kaiji took notice of Kazuya. Despite wearing his usual dark purple leisure suit, Kaiji could tell he had thrown it on in a rush, and even noticed the tag on the back of his collar sticking out. There was dark stains on the sleeves from Kaiji’s splashback and sweat and stains, and he even took notice of a pair of mismatched socks under his loafers. His hair was messy and it looked like he had run a brush quickly through it and was actually wearing none of the “subtle” makeup he usually did. Actually, now that he thought about it, Kazuya looked a lot more his age without the makeup.
“Helloooooo, Itou? You’re just staring at me like a creep.” Kazuya’s voice pulled him from his daze and Kaiji blinked back into the moment. He felt his cheeks flush darkly and he leaned down to press his lips against Kazuya’s but was surprised when Kazuya ducked away.
“Ew! Normally I’d be all over a makeout sesh, Itou, but you’re gonna have to forgive me if I’m not in the mood after watching you vomit in a parking lot garbage can.” He spat, disgusted, but Kaiji noticed the twinkle of excitement behind Kazuya’s blue eyes. Oh god, he really did just try to kiss him. Shit. Maybe he wasn’t over Kazuya. Or, more likely, he was riding off a blood alcohol level that would kill a lesser man.
“M...muh… Maybe we should talk about… seeing each other… again…” Kaiji burped out slightly, and Kazuya wrinkled his nose in disgust. God, his nose was kinda cute.
“Yeah, yeah, I’d be down to have that discussion… when you’re not throwing up every other word.” Kazuya gently tugged Kaiji away from the garbage can and without thinking, Kaiji completely leaned into the other man, wanting to be close to him. The old Kazuya would have shoved him away and sneered about the cost of his suit and how Kaiji’s stench would ruin the value, but instead, Kazuya adjusted to account for his weight and pulled him closer. The last thing Kaiji remembered was a flash of bright orange dawn light before being pulled into the darkness of Kazuya’s limo.