Chapter Text
It would have been a calm spring evening in his studio for Kaoru if it hadn’t been for his eighteen-year-old self to burst through the door looking like it was the end of the world.
Before that, everything was alright. He had finished a big commission and was more than satisfied with the result, had lunch with a client at one famous Italian restaurant that he may or may not have recommended, and was currently programming some updates for Carla that would enable her to assist him even further in his calligraphy work. The weather had been quite hot recently, which was a pleasant thing once the night was settled and the calligrapher made his way towards the mountains of Crazy Rocks. He had been a little concerned as a storm had been forecasted for tonight and could put his weekly appearance at ‘S’ at risk, but it had been an empty threat after all. He liked those quiet moments of peace, satisfaction rolling over him. A good day of work, and then he would put his ‘S’ attire on, slip into his Cherry Blossom identity and go have some fun at Crazy Rocks with his friends. His stomach turned at the prospect of seeing Joe, skate together and flex a little in front of the younger skaters. And maybe tonight the big ape wouldn’t have chicks hanging off his arms for once…
That was his plan, until a red-faced teen practically broke the door to his studio. Kaoru jumped.
“Hey! The place is closed, what do you think you’re…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence as his eyes took notice of the person in front of him. The teen stood in the shadow of the entrance, slightly out of breath. Kaoru couldn’t really see his features clearly but those plaid pants…
“I’m sorry,” started the boy, and Kaoru flinched at the voice. Familiar and foreign at the same time. “I’m just looking for help. I don’t know how… and I saw the sign, and the light on, and I thought maybe my mother was still here… Though it doesn’t make sense at all…”
Kaoru heard the words but couldn’t understand a single sentence. It just didn’t add up. And then, the teen advanced in the light and both of them drew a sharp breath.
“Who are you?” they both said at the same time, and Cherry realised they had the exact same voice.
“Sakurayashiki Kaoru,” they automatically answered, and then fell silent and stared for a long minute.
It couldn’t - it was impossible . Yet, his gut feelings were screaming at Kaoru that the teen in front of him was actually himself. Everything concurred: the white shirt, the red tie, the plait blue trousers, the wild look in the eyes, the numerous piercings. For a moment, Cherry’s brain tried to fight it. It’s just a fan who’s trying to look like you . But how could they know the exact location of each of his piercings? How could they match the exact eye colour, the shape of his nose, the… His head suddenly spun.
“That’s impossible,” he whispered.
“I don’t understand,” shivered his past self, and for the first time since he entered the room, Kaoru realised the teen was drenched. This also didn’t make sense, as not a single drop of rain had fallen on Naha tonight.
“You should be the one giving me an explanation! You just burst in here, coming out of nowhere…”
“I’m not - hey!” interrupted teen Kaoru. “I’m not coming out of nowhere! I was skating and this fucking storm came out of nowhere and next thing I knew, I was waking up in this street and…”
“How old are you?” Adult Kaoru interrupted this time.
“What the fuck do you mean how old am I?”
“Sixteen? No, too soon for the lip piercing. I got this one when I was seventeen. So what, seventeen, eighteen?”
For a moment, the other Kaoru looked at him mouth open and dumbfounded, just like he had understood what this was about.
“Eighteen,” he swallowed. “What…” He trailed off, as if he was afraid of asking the next question. “What year is it?”
Kaoru didn’t answer. He took a long look at eighteen-year-old Cherry Blossom, his lost eyes, nervous expression, chewing on his lip piercing. He remembered Kojiro calling him to order: “Stop destroying it, you idiot!”. And sighed.
“Come with me. You’re dripping on my floor.”
Teen Kaoru let himself be led into the luxurious apartment above the studio. It was almost funny how he was looking at everything with wide eyes.
“I didn’t know this place existed. It’s been years since Mom owns this studio and she never mentioned it.”
“Because it belonged to someone else. I bought it a few years after I took over the calligraphy business.”
“So you took over Mom’s business? Uh.”
“Not something your baby brain can imagine, isn’t it?”
“Well, I don’t know. I’m not really sure what I want to do, at the moment. My life is a little bit messy. Adam left for America a few months ago, and Kojiro is moving to Italy in a few months as well, so I’m…” He didn’t finish his sentence, at a loss for words.
“I know,” said Kaoru, way gentler than he thought he would. A pair of golden eyes focused on him again.
“Yeah, I guess you would know. Why won’t you tell me what year is it? How old are you?”
Kaoru handed him a towel to dry his hair and quickly grabbed some clothes in his room. To his surprise, young Cherry started undressing in the middle of his living room. When he took notice of his slightly disconcerted expression, he said:
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just figured, you know, since you’re me…”
“Suit yourself,” sniggered Cherry. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” Then he added as his younger self finished slipping the hoodie on, “I’m twenty-seven.”
“Wow.” That’s all the teen said while taking a seat on the sofa without asking permission. Kaoru almost sighed. No manners, yup, that was him. “I’ve got so many questions.”
“Well, me first. How are you here? If some version of myself had to pay me a visit, it would at least be logical that it was a future me. But I’m pretty sure time travel didn’t exist when I was eighteen.”
“Does it now?”
“Kaoru,” snapped Kaoru, and the weirdness of the situation hit him again. It was going to be a long night.
“Alright alright. God, I can’t believe you’re me. Look at you with your pointed expression, your boring job and your old man’s yukata… I bet Kojiro must make so much fun of you” he laughed, then stopped abruptly. When he looked at Kaoru the next time, there was - maybe for the first time since he appeared - true fear in his eyes. “Is Kojiro still around?”
Kaoru bit back a smile as a wave of affection overwhelmed him. He was so in love with Joe at that age. So afraid his best friend would leave for Italy and never come back. He had feared they would drift apart with time. And yet, here they were, both settled in Okinawa, still best friends, and Kaoru still scarily smitten.
“I’ll give you all the answers you want when you tell me what happened to you. We’re gonna try to figure all this out. In the meantime, you’re welcome to stay here, as long as you don’t wreak as much havoc as me.”
“That sounds quite hard,” sniggered teen Kaoru.
“You’d be surprised,” smiled adult Kaoru. “Speak now.”
The teen sighed and laid backwards on the couch.
“It was a normal night, Kojiro and I were skating at Crazy Rocks all alone, and then this big ass storm just came out of nowhere. So we obviously hurried down the slope, but it started to rain, and thunder and lightning everywhere… I swear man, this was fucking crazy. Obviously, the path got quickly drenched, and next thing I knew, I was bailing. Hard. I think my head hit the floor. And then, I woke up in this street - the street of Mom’s studio… well, your studio. It wasn’t raining anymore, and I panicked because… fuck.” The teen straightened up suddenly. “What about Koji? Am I still there, or did my body disappear? Is he looking for me? Oh fucking hell…”
“There’s nothing you can do about it now,” Kaoru said pragmatically - still he found himself worried about all of this. If something like this happened in his past, he should remember it, right? “What happened next?”
“Nothing more,” young Kaoru shrugged, tugging at his lip ring. “I woke up, couldn’t make sense of what happened, then saw Mom’s studio and the light. Thought that maybe she was still here. And I realised afterwards that actually, it couldn’t make sense since I saw her earlier tonight at home… And now it doesn’t seem so late, what time is it?”
“Carla, what time is it?” automatically asked Kaoru.
“It is seven past nine pm, Master” Carla answered, and teen Kaoru jumped, eyes scanning the room.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Come on Cherry,” smiled Kaoru. “You’re already thinking about AI at eighteen.”
“But you… you actually did it!? You’re a genius!”
“ We’ re geniuses,” corrected Kaoru. “Alright, we’re gonna eat something. We need to figure out how you came here and how to send you back, but in the meantime, I guess I can answer some questions that you may have.”
While the calligrapher set the table for two and warmed up the first thing he found in his fridge - which happened to be some risotto that Kojiro made for him the day before - the teen wandered around the apartment. He was curious about everything, but as soon as his eyes landed on his Carla board charging in the corner of the living room, he couldn’t get his hands out of it.
“That’s dope! You’ve got to tell me everything about how it works. Can you voice command it?”
“Of course,” huffed Cherry.
“What can it do? Calculate the speed of your opponent? Angles? Map the best path to go to your destination?”
“ She can do all of that, and more. She can switch to a longboard form for instance.”
The look in his younger self’ eyes at that moment was worthy of all those years of work. Kaoru smiled.
“Come and eat.”
“I’m not that hungry.”
“Well, I thought maybe you’d want to taste some of Kojiro’s renowned restaurant’s food.”
God, how he loved dropping little bombs like this. He could spend the whole night seeing teen Kaoru’s jaw drop. It was a delight to explain what happened in the nine years that separated them both. He left a lot of things in the dark of course, because he didn’t want the other Kaoru to know everything about what was going to happen to him when he would come back to his time. But would he ? And would his life go on as Cherry was telling him now? If this had really happened to his younger self, the current version of himself should be able to remember it. This was too complicated, and he didn’t want to think about it tonight. He just settled on enjoying the dinner and the glass of wine he allowed themselves to drink.
Eighteen-year-old Kaoru had hundreds of questions, sometimes Cherry would answer and sometimes not. Unfortunately, it quickly came to the topic of his romantic life.
“So…,” started young Kaoru with a mischievous glint in his eye, and Cherry should have known better. “I see you live alone.”
“And I see the storm hasn’t destroyed as many of your brain cells as I feared.”
Young Kaoru just rolled his eyes, unaffected.
“But are you alone?” The pink brows wiggled and Cherry sniggered.
“Most of the time.”
“What does it mean?”
“I think you know what it means. I have pretty much the same dating life now compared to when I was your age.”
Dating around, for some time, before getting quickly bored and staying alone for some time, and then dating again, to be disappointed again in the end. The high school student seemed chagrined somehow, and it didn’t feel good to be a deception for his past self.
“What about…”
Young Kaoru didn’t finish his sentence, yet they both knew what he meant. The name was hanging silently between them, until Cherry snapped.
“What about it?”
His interlocutor sucked his lower lip and his eyes filled with concern. When he talked again, there was a cautiousness in his voice that seemed wrong.
“Have you ever… you know… attempted something? Took a shot at it?”
It was so hard to deceive him. Kaoru remembered really well what it was to be eighteen, his heart on his sleeve, completely and irremediably in love with his best friend and full of hope, navigating through the complicated feelings Adam had stirred in him and the constant love he had had for his green-haired best friend for years as well as the apprehension of his soon-to-happen departure. Years had passed and his feelings for Kojiro had only grown, yet it wasn’t that easy. They had to build their career. They had partners, even if they only came and went for both of them. They had… Looking at his younger self now, Kaoru realised that he had been in love with Kojiro for more than a decade and never did anything about it. Never even tried.
“It’s not that easy. Kojiro and I are best friends. We’ve been for our whole life.”
“Yeah, what’s new in that? Look, I’m so glad to hear he’s still in my life when I’ll be old and all…”
“Old!?”
“... but that’s not a good reason not to try something.”
“Hey, you’re the one talking! You’ve never tried anything either!”
“You’re twenty-seven , dude! You’ve been in love with him for much longer than I have!”
“What makes you think I’m still in love with him?”
At this, high school Kaoru gave him a silent judging look and Cherry suddenly understood why people were sometimes scared by him. This stare was terrifying. Good.
“Okay. You know what. You’ll see by yourself what Kojiro is like now. Come to ‘S’ with me.”
***
All thoughts of his future self being boring left Kaoru when the calligrapher emerged from his bathroom wearing his ‘S’ costume.
“That’s so… You’re so… I am so… Oh my god.”
Adult Cherry Blossom only sent a mocking look his way and let Kaoru struggle to find words to express how cool all this was.
“You have an AI skateboard that can talk, and this fucking glorious outfit, and… wow I didn’t see the mask. You must look terrific with the mask on.”
“Is it considered narcissism when your past self tells you how handsome you are?”
“Oh come on, you’re gorgeous, and I bet your present self tells you that as well.”
“Maybe,” smiled the adult. “Come on, let’s find something for you to wear. We need to hide your hair and your piercings and… well, anything that makes me me at eighteen I guess.”
“Why?!”
“Don’t want Joe to recognise you. If you show up like this, he’ll figure out who you are even faster than I did.”
Kaoru followed begrudgingly as he was dragged along to the bathroom. Now that he could take a proper look at himself, he realised he looked awful. His hair had not properly dried and was a mass of entangled mess on his head. The hoodie that Cherry had lent him was too big and he was floating in it. He took a glance at the older man. He was the same height but those arms…
“You’ve been working out.”
“Sure thing.”
“Looks good on you. I bet now you must be as big as Joe.”
Cherry couldn’t repress a laugh but didn’t answer, leaving Kaoru perplexed. Ignoring his expression, old Kaoru turned back to look for clothes while the time traveller did what he could to fix his hair. In the end, he got dressed in a pair of tight black pants, a large t-shirt that he didn’t like at all, a jean jacket and a beanie to hide his hair.
“This is the most ridiculous outfit I’ve ever worn.”
“And that you’ll ever wear, hopefully,” nodded the calligrapher. “But I don’t wear these clothes often, so hopefully Joe won’t recognise them. And I’m sorry about the beanie, it looks awful on you, but you really need to hide your hair.”
“Other people have pink hair.”
“Cotton candy hair matched with golden eyes and a lip piercing? Of course. Put those sunglasses on.”
“I can’t believe you’re making me wear sunglasses in the middle of the night.”
“It’s ‘S’, Kaoru. This will probably be the least weird thing.”
The list of ‘Kaoru goes into raptures’ moments just expanded as the night went on.
First of all, Cherry went through his stuff in his wardrobe and finally produced, seemingly out of nowhere, Kaoru’s board. If he hadn’t been so excited about going to ‘S’ to skate with his future self, Kaoru would have teased him to keep such an old thing - it was already old in Kaoru’s time, so now, it was a relic.
Secondly, he went to ‘S’ on his future bike, and on this, his future self also had integrated Carla, his AI. He was also delighted when he found out that the twenty-seven-year-old was driving as fast as he was at eighteen, the whole thing being a lot more exciting as the bike was more powerful and his bank account could actually pay the potential fines. Or maybe old Kaoru was just showing off for his younger counterpart, who knew?
Then, they arrived at ‘S’, and Kaoru couldn’t contain his surprise and excitement. This was incredible . When he left the place only a few hours ago, it was empty and almost entirely dark, the mountain just coming alive thanks to two teenagers’ shouts and banter. But nine years later, it was as lively as a mall in the middle of the day. Streetlamps, fences and cameras had been placed everywhere, as well as the half-pipe Kaoru had dreamed of, and a giant screen that was displaying the race happening at the moment. People were everywhere, diversity all over the place, different backgrounds reunited for the love of skating. The place was buzzing with cheerful and competitive energy. All of this made Kaoru’s heart jump with joy.
“Do you like what S became?” asked old Kaoru when he stopped the bike and they climbed off.
“This is unbelievable. From where I come from, S is already a thing in Naha, and it’s already amazing but… now it’s completely different. It’s hard to imagine it’s still an underground thing. What happened?”
Adult Kaoru let his eyes wander on the scenery for a moment before answering:
“Adam happened. When Kojiro was studying in Italy and me in the mainland, he came back. He had started to make a lot of money. In a matter of a year or two, he had a huge political influence in Okinawa as well as building his career in Tokyo. He never gave up on S. He built it like he said he would when we were seventeen. When Kojiro and I came back… It was already like that, more or less.”
“So you saw Adam again, didn’t you? What is he like now?” Kaoru couldn’t suppress the hope in his voice. He wanted to believe Adam was not as violent and dangerous as he had been in the last months before he left for America. “Are you friends again? Will I see him tonight?”
It was a strange thing not to be able to read his own expression, but when the older man looked at Kaoru, it was exactly what happened. In the end, the calligrapher didn’t answer and Kaoru did his best to think about something else. He was going to see twenty-six-year-old Kojiro tonight. One thing at a time.
When they advanced towards the giant screen, some high-pitched shouts were thrown their way, and it took a moment for Kaoru to realise Cherry Blossom actually had a fanclub.
“We’re famous, dude?!”
Cherry sent a look his way.
“Are you surprised? You founded ‘S’ alongside that psychopath and the gorilla. And I’m still one of the best skaters out here.”
“Okay but, Lord Cherry Blossom?”
“I didn’t come up with that. The fans create my persona as much as I do. You’ll have to accept that.”
“Well, you don’t seem to contradict them.” Some more girls shouted as they made their way through the crowd, and Kaoru quivered. “Did I just hear ‘ Let me climb that cherry tree ’ !?”
This time, adult Kaoru sniggered inside his mask.
“They don’t know you only like men, don’t they?”
“Shut up!” snapped his counterpart. “Goddamn, keep your voice down, I’m not out at all.”
“You were at my age.”
“Yeah, things change, genius.”
“Like removing all your piercings?”
“It comes with the serious job, kid. You’ll understand someday.”
Kaoru huffed as they came to a stop.
“Whatever. But Joe knows you’re… you know, since I’m not allowed to say it out loud… I mean, he knows. I already came out to him, like, a few months ago.”
“Yeah, so what?”
Kaoru rolled his eyes. His old self really wasn’t helping him. He couldn’t believe the man in front of him was twenty-seven and had been in love with his best friend for most of his life and never even tried to confess his feelings. But maybe adult Kaoru had reasons to believe his best friend would never be into him.
“He’s always been with girls, hasn’t he? That’s why you’ve never taken your shot.”
This time, Cherry avoided looking at him.
“No. Joe is bi.”
“Joe is what?!” roared Kaoru, unable to stay quiet. He took some time to calm himself. His heart was beating so fast. If Joe wasn’t straight and Cherry knew now, that means that even in his time, Kaoru may have a chance…
“Not really out as ‘S’ either, so keep your voice down, dimwit,” hissed the calligrapher.
“You’re such a fucking idiot. I really don’t understand why you’ve never tried to…”
And then, the words died on his lips as he saw Kojiro appear in the crowd. Oh . He understood now why his future self had made fun of him in the bathroom earlier when he’d assumed he was as big as Joe. His best friend was huge . If it wasn’t for the green hair - that was now middle-long - and the almond-shaped eyes with burgundy irises, Kaoru wouldn’t have believed it was him. His Kojiro would never strut half naked with a charming smile in a crowd. But this Kojiro… His throat was suddenly very dry.
“Fuck he’s hot,” he stuttered weakly.
“No joke,” sniggered Cherry next to him.
“Cherry Blossom!” the warm voice was calling as Joe made his way towards them, followed by some of his fanclub. Of course he has a fanclub, thought Kaoru . And what a fanclub at that . His Kojiro would probably be half mortified, half marvelled at this view.
“Look at that,” said Cherry, his voice suddenly cold, “I thought I didn’t come to the zoo, so how come there’s a giant gorilla heading towards me?”
Joe only laughed, and Kaoru’s inside flipped. He was grateful for Cherry’s sunglasses, because he couldn’t stop checking up on older Kojiro. The more he saw, the more turned on he was. Kojiro was already hot at seventeen, Kaoru’s night fantasies could testify to that. But now, all that Kaoru wanted was to be pinned against a wall by this man and be reduced to a stuttering and moaning mess. Why have you never attempted something ? He silently chastised his older self. You’re hot too, and you guys are perfect for each other . He kept silent as the two men quarrelled for some time. Anyone in the perimeter could feel the sexual tension between those two. Are we already like this with Kojiro? His head spun for a moment when he realised that yes, he was fighting with his best friend the exact same way only a few hours ago. Only he had been to blind to understand that this was sexual tension as well.
Fine , he tried to rationalise. But sex isn’t everything. I mean, it’s a damn good start. But you’re in love with him, now or at twenty-seven all the same. What if he’s not in love with you? Maybe that's why Kaoru had never attempted something. The same fear.
His thoughts came to a stop when Joe turned to him and said:
“And who’s the new kid?”
He found himself incapable of answering. Goddamn, it took more than that to impress him usually. But knowing that this man was Kojiro in nine years… Fortunately, Cherry came to his rescue.
“Some dude that was lost on the way to Crazy Rocks. It’s his first time here. When I saw that he had the ‘S’ pin, I took him with me.”
“Mmh. A very un-Cherry Blossom gesture.”
“I have a heart, gorilla, even if your peanut-sized brain seems to forget it all the time.”
“You hide it so well I think at this point it’s a cold rock, Blossom. Anyway, welcome, newbie. Nice lip piercing.”
Please can you bite it , thought Kaoru, but said:
“Thank you.” He almost added sir , but stopped right on time.
“Langa is going to race tonight. I want to see that. See you around?” said Joe, ready to leave.
I can’t let him go , thought Kaoru, panicking. I have to do something . Looking at Joe and Cherry now, he couldn’t bear the thought that these two weren’t together. It was something to know that he wasn’t with Kojiro at eighteen, that he wouldn’t probably be for some years because they would study in different countries, and they would have several partners, different experiences and all. But this was an entire other thing to witness the fact that they were now grown ass men who clearly wanted each other but couldn’t wrap their head around the fact that they had to do something about it. So maybe he was going to ruin his future life. Maybe what he was about to do would have dire consequences on his future self. He didn’t even know if there were some time travel rules that he was supposed to respect - God, he didn’t even know time travel was possible before tonight. And maybe he was just having a very very weird and realistic dream.
Well, fuck it, if this is a dream, I can at least live my fantasies .
“Wait!” he shouted as he removed his glasses and his beanie. Cherry hissed at his side.
“Put that back immediately, you idiot!”
But the damage was done. Joe had stopped and turned and was staring at the two Kaoru in front of him. Now maybe Kaoru should have noted the fact that the green-haired man wasn’t surprised at all to see him here. That he probably knew since the beginning who he was. But he was too busy gathering all the courage he had deep inside.
He met Joe in two swift strides, pulled him by his necklace, and crushed their lips together.