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It was a very late Saturday night, or technically an extremely early Sunday morning. Joe and Cherry had been at S until 2:30 am. Fortunately, both of them didn’t have to work until the afternoon. The night had been exciting with Joe competing in a couple of different beefs. Cherry was still recovering from the “Adam” incident so he couldn’t skate at all.
“I can skate. It’s been a month! I’m not even in a wheelchair anymore. I’m fine!” Cherry had yelled at Joe when he had come to pick him up.
Joe rolled his eyes. “Until you get clearance to drive you aren’t going to be skating. Besides, when you do start skating again you’ll have to rehabilitate your body before you can skate at S.” Joe reasoned.
Kaoru huffed; Kojiro was right and he knew it. “Ugh fine but when I’m back on my board I’m going to destroy you in a beef,” Kaoru said, finally giving in and getting on the back of Joe’s motorcycle.
“Ok,” Joe responded. There was an evident fondness in his voice and Cherry rested his head between the gorilla’s muscular shoulder blades, hiding his blush.
Now they were sitting on Kojiro’s coach. A bottle of red wine -- from Joe’s personal collection -- sat on the coffee table with two wine glasses. The bottle was about half full and both wine glasses were in different states of being emptied.
Kaoru rested his head on Kojiro’s shoulder. Joe just sat there, not daring to ruin the moment. His childhood best friend and his almost decade-long crush was using him as his personal pillow; Kojiro just couldn’t find it in himself to be annoyed.
Though that didn’t stop his mind from running almost as fast as he had skated earlier.
Kaoru wasn’t an open person. That had been true for as long as Joe had known him but had become even more true after Adam left the pair for America. And after the most recent incident, Kojiro could tell that Kaoru was suffering not only physically but also mentally.
Tonight Joe had actually planned on getting Kaoru to talk about his feeling after a glass or two of wine but Cherry had fallen asleep on his shoulder not even halfway through his second glass.
Kojiro wasn’t overly surprised. Given his injuries, going back to work only a week after the incident, and still going to S every weekend, Kaoru must’ve been exhausted. So Joe wasn’t mad that Kaoru had fallen asleep, he was just curious about why he had decided to use Kojiro’s shoulder as a pillow instead of the throw pillows on his couch -- again, Joe wasn’t complaining, he was just… curious; and maybe a bit hopeful.
Joe started to recall the other times Kaoru had fallen asleep on him, specifically when there was another (more comfortable) option nearby. He could only remember a few dozen times but it happened more in the last month than normal.
This is a dangerous train of thought, Kojiro told himself, not wanting to get his hopes up, Kaoru doesn’t like you like that, idiot.
He leaned forward and grabbed his half-full wine glass. “Why do you fall asleep on me so often,” Joe wondered aloud to himself, bringing the wine glass to his lips.
“Because you make me feel safe,” a half-asleep Kaoru mumbled in response.
Kojiro froze, glass less than an inch away from his lips.
He slowly turned his head to see a now snoring Cherry hugging his arm.
I must’ve heard that wrong… right? Kojiro told himself. But no matter how many times he replayed the words in his head he heard that same words.
“Fuck,” he cursed quietly, “Why did you have to go and say something like that Kaoru? You’re going to get my hopes up…”
Kojiro sat back, finally, and sipped on his wine glass.
Joe had finished his glass and moved to get up when Cherry nuzzled into him more, preventing him from moving.
“Christ Kaoru,” Kojiro breathed out. His heart couldn’t take this.
Seeing that Kaoru was thoroughly exhausted and would likely kill him if he woke him up, Kojiro opted to lift the pink-haired man bridal style and bring him to his bedroom.
When Joe gently placed Kaoru on his bed the latter tensed up and grumbled a little. He grabbed the blanket on his bed and cover Kaoru with it. That seemed to ease him as his body relaxed.
Kojiro just stared down at his best friend. A part of him just wanted to crawl into bed and cuddle with Kaoru but he knew better. He wouldn’t dare impose on Kaoru like that.
Ever since Adam left Kaoru heartbroken he has been cautious of love. He never let anyone get too close, not even Kojiro. There were walls that, no matter how hard he tried, Joe couldn’t break. The prospect of making Kaoru uncomfortable and possibly driving him away made Joe’s stomach churn and his heartache. He couldn’t lose Kaoru, so he grabbed an extra blanket from his closet and went to sleep on the couch.
When he got to the living room, Kojiro brought the two wine glasses and the wine bottle to the kitchen.
In an effort to clear his mind he cleaned the two wine glasses after he recorked the bottle and set it in his fridge. This did help him relax and Kojiro soon felt sleep pull at his eyelids.
Moving to the living room he shut off every light but the one in his bathroom just in case Kaoru needed it.
His couch wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep on and his mind was going a hundred miles per hour. Does Kaoru like me like that or am I just reading too much into it? The question replied in Joe’s mind, over and over again.
He’d spent years pinning after Kaoru in silence. Once he figured out his feeling it was already too like. Adam had swiped him off his feet and far out of Kojiro’s reach.
Turning over with a sigh, Joe decided that with would be a secret he kept to himself. Most people saw him as a fearless go-getter, but in truth, he was just a coward who couldn’t even confess that he was in love with his childhood best friend.