Chapter Text
Kojiro’s just getting out of class when his phone rings. He makes a face, expecting a call from the boss of the restaurant where he’s been taking shifts, asking him to come in on a Tuesday again even though he has classes all day.
It isn’t his boss. Or any of his classmates, or anyone even on the same continent as him.
It’s Kaoru.
Kojiro does some quick mental maths. It’s just gone six in Florence, which means it’s past two in the morning for Kaoru. A fairly normal time for a student to be awake, but definitely not a normal time for Kaoru to be phoning him.
He accepts the call with a mild level of concern.
‘Kaoru?’
‘Oh, you’re awake.’
There’s a slight slur to Kaoru’s voice, which only serves to increase Kojiro’s concern.
‘Yeah. It’s like 6 o’clock here.’
There’s a pause, then. ‘Oh. Right. Timezones.’ Kaoru’s still slurring a little bit, but now he sounds annoyed. Kojiro holds his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he shifts the weight of his bags, trying to get a read on Kaoru’s tone. He’s prepared to stay on the line, if nothing else. His flat is only a short walk away, and his phone package has more data than he usually uses.
‘Are you drunk?’ he asks, once he’s got the weight distributed better.
There’s another silence.
‘Maybe.’
Kojiro can practically hear the pout in Kaoru’s voice, and it makes him laugh. He’s only seen Kaoru drunk a few times, but he’s cute when it happens. Clingy, too. Though maybe that’s not something Kojiro should be thinking about right now.
‘Don’t judge me,’ Kaoru is snapping down the line. ‘The real question is, why aren’t you drunk? What’s the point of having cheap Italian wine if you’re not going to drink it?’
That makes Kojiro laugh again.
‘I’ve been in class. The kind of class where you use sharp knives, I don’t think they’d be too happy if I’d been drinking before.’ He’s pretty sure some of his classmates have shown up drunk before, but Kojiro at least doesn’t want to lose any fingers. ‘How come you’ve been drinking so much you’re calling me at 2am?’
‘Is that what time it is?’ Kaoru mutters. Kojiro hears the sound of rustling - bedding, he thinks - and then a soft thump. ‘Hrmph. The computer science department had a party.’
‘Sounds like fun.’
‘Not really. I don’t like them. They're all nerds.'
'Takes one to know one, four-eyes.'
That gets a snort of disapproval. 'You're not sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a nerd and someone who's just intelligent.'
'Maybe not, but you're definitely both.'
Kaoru’s definitely drunk. He doesn’t call Kojiro out for saying something that could be construed as a compliment, just snorts. ‘Whatever. They’re just nerds. They don’t have anything else, it’s just computers and videogames and anime figurines and wanting to find a boring job in an office block where they can debug code for the rest of their lives.’
Huh. Kaoru isn’t being particularly nice in his assessment of his classmates, but Kaoru isn’t particularly nice in general. Kojiro can hear the frustration in his voice, and thinks for a second about what he knows of computer engineers. The image he gets is… quiet. Straight laced. Things Kaoru very much isn’t, because for all that Kaoru’s a nerd, he’s a multifaceted one. He’s interested in programming, sure, but also has a terrifying knowledge of poetry and art, and a feral streak a mile wide. He’s spent the past few months sending Kojiro selfies from increasingly improbable locations - abandoned parks, the roofs of buildings, anywhere he can get into with a skateboard.
Alright. Kojiro thinks he can see his frustration.
‘Maybe you should see if you can find some skaters?’ he suggests. ‘You can’t be the only person in Tokyo who can do an ollie.’
'Maybe. They're not the same either though.' There's a long pause. 'I miss you. We should video call.'
The thought of seeing Kaoru’s face, grainy though it will be, is tempting. Their schedules mean they don’t get the chance very often, and Kaoru seems awake and chatty. However, Kojiro is walking down the street.
‘Give me a minute to get home. My data plan isn’t exactly infinite.’
‘It should be.’
‘Yeah, well, until you can hack into the Italian telecoms network and get me an unlimited plan, you’re going to have to suck it up. I’m only a few minutes away from wifi.’
Kaoru makes some grumpy noises, but he doesn’t hang up. Kojiro speeds up a little, hurrying along the narrow roads that lead to his flat. Their conversation turns to Kaoru bitching about his classmates, people Kojiro doesn’t know but can imagine well enough from the pictures painted by Kaoru’s snarky comments.
It’s not long before Kojiro reaches his flat. He holds his phone on his shoulder again as he fumbles the key into the lock and lets himself in. His housemate is working a late shift at a restaurant today, so he doesn’t bother retreating to his room, just balances his phone against the bucket that holds all their wooden spoons and hits the video button.
Kaoru answers immediately. He’s in bed, collapsed back on the pillows with his hair fanning out around him. The lighting isn’t very good and the image is grainy, but Kojiro thinks he can see the remains of some eyeliner smudged around his eyes.
He’s devastatingly pretty, but Kojiro knew that already. He’s known that since he was a child, staring at a grumpy little boy with bright eyes and pink hair. He’s not really stopped staring at Kaoru since then, though the motivations may have changed a little as he grew up.
‘Pretty,’ he hears, and thinks for a second he managed to somehow accidentally blurt his feelings out, but then his brain catches up with his ears and he realises that it’s Kaoru who spoke, not him. His heart starts beating faster.
‘Wow, you must be drunk,’ he says, hoping to cover up whatever his heart is doing right now.
For once, Kaoru doesn’t snipe back at him. He rolls onto his side instead, bringing his phone camera in a dizzying swoop of movement. When it comes into focus again, Kaoru’s lying on his side, hair in his face, eyes soft.
‘Yes. You’re still pretty.’
Kojiro doesn’t know if he can handle this. He’s been crushing on Kaoru since before he knew what a crush was, pushing it aside all through high school. He knows what to do when Kaoru’s mean, or handsy, or even aggressively flirty like he sometimes is. He can deal with that. But now, watching Kaoru be sleepy and sweet and 10,000 miles away…
He coughs to cover it, turning away to hide his discomfort.
‘I’m going to start making dinner,’ he says. ‘Have you drank some water?’
He's not looking at the camera. But he can hear Kaoru's pout. He turns back around, raising his eyebrows at his best friend.
'You'll feel better in the morning if you have water now.'
Kaoru grumbles, but it's the kind of grumbling that means he's going to get up in a second. True enough, he throws the covers back after a second, leaving his phone behind as he pads off to get a drink. Kojiro, likewise, turns away from his phone and starts fetching the ingredients for his dinner. Nothing fancy tonight. He’s spent the whole day cooking, he can’t handle anything complicated right now.
'I've got water,' Kaoru says after a minute. 'You have to stay online until I’ve finished it.’
Kojiro is fine with that. He washes his rice and starts chopping vegetables, chatting quietly about his day. Kaoru’s quietened down, reaching the sleepy stage of drunkenness. Kojiro can see his eyes starting to droop as he tosses his vegetables into the pan.
‘Did you finish the water?’ he asks. Kaoru reaches over the camera and holds up the empty glass in response. Kojiro smiles at him. ‘Go to sleep. Take your glasses off first.’
Kaoru makes a noise halfway between a squeak and a grunt, and pushes his glasses off his face, dropping them on the pillow next to him. Kojiro wants to tell him to put them somewhere proper, but he thinks that might be more than Kaoru can handle right now. If Kaoru rolls on top of them during the night, that’s his problem, not Kojiro’s.
Instead, Kojiro just watches his best friend for a few moments. He’s cute like this, snuggled up under the covers and already mostly asleep. Kojiro wishes it was a sight he got to see more often.
He reaches out to hang up, but a soft sound stops him.
‘I miss you,’ Kaoru says. His eyes are still shut, and his voice is thick with sleep. ‘I wish you were here.’
In general, Kojiro’s pretty glad he’s in Florence. He gets to do what he loves, learning in one of the best culinary schools in the world. He always wanted to live abroad, and living in Florence means that the whole of Europe is at his doorstep, really. It’s amazing, and he regrets nothing.
All the same… there’s times like this, when he wishes more than anything to be back home with his best friend.
‘Yeah,’ he says.
‘Wish I’d said something before I left,’ Kaoru says. His eyes blink open, reflecting the light of the phone screen. They’re wide awake, and shockingly clear. ‘I wanted to kiss you so badly at the airport.’
Kojiro freezes . Kaoru has never once in the history of their friendship expressed a desire for Kojiro that is anything more than strictly platonic.
He’s still trying to figure out a response when Kaoru rolls over, muttering something that sounds like ‘Stupid’ under his breath.
‘Kaoru?’ Kojiro tries, but gets no answer except, a few minutes later, a very soft snore. Kojiro sighs, and hangs up, left with nothing but his now-slightly-burnt dinner, and Kaoru’s confession ringing round his ears.