Work Text:
Arakita hadn't meant for it to happen.
It was one of the standard catch ups that he and the rest of his old cycling team had over the years.
Hell, Arakita himself was twenty five now. High school was well behind him. Yet as he laid there on his back, staring straight up at the ceiling, he felt guilty. Like a child who'd been caught cheating during an exam.
The feeling of the other man moving closer, attempting to wrap their arms around Arakita was enough to make him feel sick.
He hadn't meant for this to happen.
Yet here he was. As much as he wished he could blame it on too much sake, Arakita knew that that wasn't true. And even if he could, it didn't matter because he'd done something stupid. He'd done something unforgivable.
Making up his mind, Arakita scooted away from the clingy, sleeping man. Being as quiet as he could as he went about locating and pulling on his clothes . With that done he could finally make his escape and pretend that what had happened hadn't.
Arakita managed to slide the door open with little to no sound. The hall outside was empty, given the early morning hour. Despite the coast being clear, Arakita hesitated, looking back.
The sleeping man had curled up under the covers,looking like some form of swollen caterpillar.
No, he couldn't go back.
He couldn't stay.
Arakita knew he was despicable for what he'd done.
What he needed to do was get away from Toudou's family Inn, head over to his parents house, and pretend nothing weird had happened. It wasn't like Arakita had to spend much time up here. He had an apartment and job in Tokyo after all.
The streets were quiet.
While under normal circumstances Arakita would've felt a sense of relief that no one would see him on one of his walks of shame, he had other things on his mind.
Arakita had slept with Toudou Jinpachi last night.
He never wanted to be a home wrecker.
After a faked emergency back at work Arakita was in the clear to leave Hakone the next day. Promising his mum that he'd sort things out so he wouldn't have to be called back early next time.
It was a long drive, and Arakita certainly hadn't gotten enough sleep for the journey to be safe. It seemed to be the easier option rather than stewing in his old room in his old town were his old friends were all congregated. They were probably wondering about his sudden and unexplained departure.
His phone had buzzed a few times, but Arakita couldn't bring himself to see what the messages were about.
He'd fucked up big time.
And like the mature adult that he was, Arakita's only choice was to slink away. He did not want to physically be there for the aftermath and have to explain himself.
What was he even supposed to say? Sorry. I've like liked you for years but never had the balls to do anything about it until I was too drunk to realise what I was doing, and I'm sorry for doing this to you? That would definitely go down well.
He cranked up the air con enough that he was shivering, and alert. Arakita then fiddled with the radio. He had hoped that the loud, trashy music blasting through his car would be enough to drown out his thoughts during the drive.
It wasn't.
“Why did you leave?”
Arakita hadn't expected to hear that voice while he was at work.
“How did you get this number, Toudou?”
“Your Mum, told her you left something at the inn. So, why did you leave?”
Arakita wasn't sure, but it sounded like Toudou was more sulky than upset or angry. The one reaction he hadn't been prepared to deal with.
“You know that this is my work line, meaning I'm at work. Can't we talk about this later?” Arakita pleads, looking away from his computer to survey the rest of the room. While saying he loved working in this IT department would be a stretch, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Besides the fact that the office seemed a bit too eager to eavesdrop on their department head.
“But you won't, you'll just 'forget' to call me, or 'misplace' your phone. You haven't even replied to any of my texts so I'm not going until you actually talk to me.”
“I could always just hang up, you realise that?”
“But you won't. You're a good for nothing coward, but you aren't that chicken.”
“You realise I have underlings listening to every word coming out of my mouth, right?”
“Maybe you should have texted me back. You dug you're grave, Arakita, now sit in it.” Toudou huffs.
Arakita forgot how stubborn Toudou was.
“Fine. You really wanted to know why I ran off in the middle of the night? Well maybe it's because we did something that we really shouldn't have done. We were both drunk, but I should have know better. And you have Makishima and I thought I could live with that, but I'm weak. I'm not strong and I caved in and I did something unforgivable, and I'm so, so sorry.” Arakita pleaded, trying his best to ignore the stares from around the room locked on him.
“What do you mean? Why are you sorry? If you're fishing for compliments, you were really good in bed so why the dramatics? And what did you mean about Makishima?” Toudou seemed confused.
Why wasn't he upset?
“I'm sorry because you're with Makishima. I never wanted to be 'that' person.”
Toudou sighs from the other end.
“But he's in England, half a world away. So what you're trying to tell me here is that you ran off in the night, leaving me to wake up by myself the next day. I had to make something up to explain why you weren't there to the others. All because you thought you'd slept with a committed man?”
“Yes?”
“You're ridiculous. What time do you finish work?”
“Wha- Why would you need to know that?”
“Because I'm in town and would really like to see you in person? Plus you kind of did forget something the other week.”
“Um, I finish at five, but-”
“Pick me up from that cafe near the train station after.”
“Do I get any say in this?”
“Don't be silly. Now get back to work or you'll never get here.” Toudou ordered before hanging up.
Arakita could only stare at the phone wondering what had just happened before he snapped back to the present.
“What are you all staring at? Get back to work.” He snarled, internally pleased with how quickly the room was filled with typing once more.
“So, I've picked you up, what else do you want from me?” Arakita grumbles as Toudou slides into the passenger seat and tucks his satchel underneath.
“Hmmmm, how stocked is your fridge?”
“Depends.”
“Well we could either go grocery shopping or grab take out. Choice is yours.” Toudou offers.
“So you're now inviting yourself over. Great. Thanks for asking by the way.”
“You're welcome.” Toudou replies, pleased with himself. Arakita doesn't know whether he wants to punch him or do something else. Instead he tightens his grip on the steering wheel and glares at the the car in front of him.
“I don't want you messing around with what food I buy, or my kitchen, so what do you want.”
“I feel like a curry of some sort, know any good places?”
Arakita nods and the rest of the car trip is more or less basked in comfortable silence.
“I didn't know that working in with computers made much money?” Toudou asks as Arakita lets him into his apartment.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You told me you don't rent, meaning you own this place. It's in a central location, with this much room, and you're not even thirty.”
“I work on some projects in my free time that people pay money for, it happens. And the place isn't that big.”
“How many bedrooms?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Answer the question, Ara-chan.”
Arakita's face does not heat up at the nickname.
“Well, it was two,”
“Was?”
“Fine. Grand tour time. T my left, the lounge. Right, kitchen. Down here we have the bathroom, my room, laundry. And at the end we have what was originally a second bedroom but now is my study of sorts.” Arakita rattles off, swinging the final door open to a room that was significantly warmer than the rest of the apartment.
“How many computers do you even need, Ara-chan?” Toudou asks in wonder, taking in the series of monitors, cables, blinking lights and the hum of the machinery.
“Enough to work with. It's easier to work on separate machines for different projects. Less chance of stuff interfering with each other.” Arakita offers, suddenly feeling self conscious. “C'mon, foods getting cold. I don't want to have to go out and drive again to get more so move your fat ass.”
“I'll have you know that my ass isn't fat in the slightest.” Toudou huffs, breaking out of his trance and stalking behind Arakita back down the hallway. “Just for that I'm taking control of this.” Toudou announces as he snatches up the remote, settling down on the couch. He flicks through the channels before he settles on some documentary.
Arakita doesn't argue, instead passing one of the containers over to Toudou, before focusing on his own meal.
He tried not to think about how Toudou felt warm against his side. Or the fact that the other man kept on brushing his feet against Arakita's own.
“So, should I expect you to be running off again as soon as I fall asleep?” Toudou asks, still sweaty, sticky, and out of breath. His arm tossed over Arakita's side, keeping him more or less in place.
“It's kind of hard to when this is my place. Where would I go?”
“Not the point. So you'll be here in the morning?”
Arakita can feel Toudou's hand start to move, drawing patterns across his side.
“I have work, so-”
“So you'll wake me up before you go, and offer to make me breakfast.”
“Pffft, if you want to eat then you can make you're own goddamn food.”
“And maybe I'll make enough for you, so you better wake me up.”
“Fine. I'll push you out of the bed in the morning, that's as far as I'm going.”
“You're so mean to me.” Toudou says as he presses kisses against Arakita's shoulder. Moving up his pale neck before stopping at his ear. “What would happen if I keep you up?”
Arakita doesn't shiver at the feeling of Toudou's breath ghosting across his ear.
“It'll mean that the department will need new interns.”
“Knew you'd be the big, bad wolf, with all your huffing and puffing.” Toudou jokes, his nails scraping across Arakita's skin. He can feel his breaths beginning to hitch.
Arakita's resolve is only so strong.
Arakita kind of liked the feeling of waking up tangled in his sheets and Toudou.
“So, you should come back up to Hakone sometime soon.” Daily calls from Toudou had become a thing that Arakita was happy to have in his routine.
“Easier said than done. I'm neck deep in a program right now. Not to mention the whole department is being worked overtime because the company wants all their systems upgraded with some 'state of the art' software.”
“Inferior product?”
“It doesn't even resemble a bucket anymore, that's how many fucking holes there are in the piece of shit. And because of that there is going to be problem after problem that the lot of us down in the dungeon are going to have to fix. It's going to end up with us wiping all the systems and re installing everything with the original program.”
“You sound like you need a break, I'm sure I could get some time off and come down.” Toudou offers.
“Nah, it's nearly tourist season, can't make you come all the way down here just for this.”
“But I want to see you.” Toudou whines.
“Sap. Don't worry, I'll try and find some time, but I can't make any promises on when exactly.”
“Well not to rush you, but I am feeling a little lonely up here, with just me in this big, empty bed.”
“Yeah?”
“Plenty of room for two and then some.”
“Hmm, sounds tempting.”
“Oh, it is. I'd hurry if I was you.”
“No promises, but I'll see what I can do for next weekend if you want.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Good. And I'll be able to get some actual meals in you as well. While you can somehow pull of the skin and bones look, doesn't mean a should be able to count ribs.”
“I know how to feed myself, I'm a fucking adult, Toudou.”
“Well you don't feed yourself the right stuff apparently, but I'll fix that, so get your twiggy self up here.”
“Fine, princess.” Arakita ends the call, knowing about the fuss Toudou would make at that comment.
He ignores the flurry of texts and can't help the smile that spreads across his face.
Arakita felt happier than he had in years.
Arakita hadn't expected to see Toudou and Makishima, walking hand in hand, as he drove past on his way up to the inn.
He turned his car around at the next opportunity, heading back to Tokyo.
Arakita didn't trust himself to answer his phone or any texts.
It was difficult to focus on the lines of code sprawling across the screen when his eyes wouldn't stop tearing up.
Maybe it was better if he just kept to himself.