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“What are you two doing?”
“Homie sipping!”
Yukito blinked, confusion washing over his face. “You’re what?”
Rei and Inochi had come into the Cafe earlier, they seemed tired. Rei was wearing a black hoodie, which wasn’t normal for him… Did something happen? Yukito would wonder, though he never got the confidence to ask with Inochi around.
They had ordered Boba, it wasn’t that popular of a drink that was bought often, usually people who came in ordered coffee or tea.
Perhaps Rei-kun likes it… Or maybe Otogiri-san? They only ordered one, so…
Yukito let his thoughts trail off as he set the Boba down in the middle of the table, giving them a straw or two.
“There you go, one Boba,” Yukito says, trying his best to keep his voice steady and to keep a smile on his face, despite his anxiety.
Rei and Inochi simply thanked him as he went into the back to clean up from making the Boba in case he needs to make more later on in the day.
Though when he came back out…
The Boba was still sitting in the middle of the table, though two straws were stuck inside it, and the two were… drinking from it. At the same time, their faces were inches apart, and they were holding hands.
“...What are you two doing?” Yukito asks, coming over to the table they were sitting at.
“Homie sipping!” Rei pulls away from the Boba, giving Yukito a seemingly oblivious smile.
“I’m.” Yukito blinked, confusion washing over his face, “I’m sorry, you’re what?”
“Homie sipping.” Inochi says, looking at Yukito. For a moment, Yukito thought he was angry at him due to the look on his face, but then he turned his head away to look at the Boba, avoiding eye contact. “That’s what he calls it.”
“Mhm! Homie sipping!”
“Okay…” Yukito pauses, “Are you two gay?”
“No, we’re homie sipping!” Rei responded, still smiling.
Yukito looked to Inochi, hoping for some other answer. Inochi didn’t look to Yukito, not giving an answer either.
“You know.. You two shouldn’t, er, homie sip in my Cafe.” Yukito finally says after a moment.
“Why not?” Rei tilted his head.
“I don’t think it’s good for business…” Yukito says this a bit quietly, though Rei kept pressing on why they should leave. He ended up kicking them out of the Cafe.
Inochi and Rei were outside of the Cafe, Yukito seemed to have caught on to their… weird relationship.
Rei hasn’t caught on yet, though… Has he? Inochi glances at Rei, who seemed to be deep in thought. Shit, HAS he caught on??
“Hm.. Maybe just doing friend things isn’t allowed in Cafes?” Rei asked, Inochi blinked at him, “Or maybe just in Yukito’s?” Rei looked at Inochi.
“Eh - I guess so.” Inochi responds, averting his eyes once again. He doesn’t say anything about those ‘friend things’.
Inochi didn’t expect Rei to do these things in public. At all. Though, that’s what happens when you tell a romantically-innocent person that kissing and holding hands and… ‘homie sipping’ are normal friend things to do. Inochi would be surprised if he HADN’T already made out with every friend he’s ever had…He’s definitely surprised he hasn’t kissed it up with Yukito yet.
He expected it to be a private thing between him as ‘friends’, somewhat to make up for Inochi not knowing how to tell Rei that he likes him, but to still make up for his yearning.
This has been going on for weeks now, and it was fine at first for Inochi… But as time went on, Inochi felt the need to tell Rei… He even planned to, until unplanned events happened.
As the two headed back to Rei’s house, Rei’s demeanour seemed to get less happy, less energetic. It was understandable, but this is the first time since it happened that Rei is letting it show how much it’s getting to him.
When the two got home, Rei flopped onto the couch, letting out a big sigh. Inochi sat beside him, expecting what happened earlier that day to finally work its way into Rei’s emotions…
He was right.
He looked to Rei, and he had tears in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away as Inochi looked at him, though.
“…I know what happened was rough, but it’s okay.” Inochi doesn’t know what to say, he’s not good at this… But he tries. He leans over to Rei to give him a small kiss on the lips, not giving Rei time to kiss back, however, as he pulls away rather quickly.
Rei looked dumbfounded by the random affection in this sort of moment, even more surprised at the fact that Inochi initiated it, most likely… But his tears started to stream down his face, the area around his eyes turning more and more red as more tears fell.
“Nagi-san…” Rei chokes out, “Nagi-san used to kiss me like that too…”
A moment of silence passes, only Rei’s quiet sobs fill the room.
“NAGI WHAT.”
If you listen closely, you can hear Inochi’s heart break in two.
Inochi could barely PROCESS what he just heard, sure! He already expected Rei to have kissed a few people, but NAGI? That orange haired idiot? No way. “Dude. How many people do you kiss.”
“I..I mean, about anyone? Mostly with friends, or some people I meet in Tokyo. Sometimes I’ll show my gratitude to store people with a kiss.” Rei was done crying at this point, the conversation seemed to distract him.
“I… okay, listen.” Inochi could barely stand what he was hearing, did he really influence him THIS much? To make out with every person he fucking meets? “I know you’ve kissed half of Tokyo at this point, but none of them are that close to you so. Like. Answer me honestly. Have you kissed your blue friend.”
“Of course! The other day I went to visit him at his house and he made me promise not to bring you to his Cafe ever again! And so I went ‘of course’ and he made me promise so we did. I also asked him that day why we weren’t kissing because we were best friends, and so after that we sealed the promise again, but this time with a kiss!”
Now, if you listen closer, you can hear Inochi’s heart shatter into a million little pieces.
“I. Okay, no, just shut up, I don’t want to hear anymore, just stop it, keep your mouth shut, literally keep it shut from other people too, stop kissing people.” Inochi takes a deep breath, he had said that all in one breath. “I like you, Rei. What the hell.” Inochi had just blurted that out, he couldn’t take it back though, “I thought you’d NOTICE, but no you didn’t and here you are kissing all your friends, INCLUDING me.”
“Huh. You told me it was a normal friend thing, though??”
“I’m SORRY, I didn’t think you’d actually take it seriously, but you did, I just.” He puts his face in his hands, “I like you. I didn’t know how to tell you so I just - I just kissed you without thinking about it, and had to make up an excuse.”
It wasn’t a lie, that’s how all of this started.
Rei didn’t seem angry though, he seemed surprised.
“I see. Well, I could stop doing it with others, then?” Rei looked at him, “I mean, I do enjoy kissing you the most.”
Inochi’s face reddened at this, “H-Huh? I. Guess, alright…” He pauses, “Does that mean you like me then?”
“If that counts as liking you, then yes?” Rei clearly didn’t get any of this, “It makes me very happy when we kiss, or hold hands, or homie sip…So I think that counts!”
“Pfft. Yeah, I think it does.” Inochi tried to put on a smile, but it came off as awkward. He was happy he finally got to confess to him -
“Great!” Rei smiles innocently, “Then that means you’re my bestest bestie!”
You don’t have to listen closely this time to hear Inochi’s heart get absolutely obliterated. It no longer exists now.