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Kaito waited patiently as the phone rang. Once. Twice. “Hey, Kaito-no-aniki." The voice on the other end makes Kaito perk up in his seat. Higashi was usually pretty good about answering his phone quickly, but given how busy his business was getting with the second location, there was room for uncertainty.
"Yo, Higashi! Are you free tonight?"
"Actually, I am. Is there a reason you're asking?"
Kaito leaned back on the couch and slung his arm over the back of it. "Yep. I was wondering if you wanted to get some drinks with me tonight? You know, to celebrate your Yokohama location."
There was a brief pause on the other end. "Aniki... it's been open for a few months now."
"Yeah, well, better late than never, right? Are you in?"
"Sure. I don't have anything planned in the morning, but I still don't think I'll drink too much."
Kaito let out a hearty laugh. "Then I'll just have to drink for the both of us! See you at Tender in 20 minutes?"
"Sounds good."
"Great! See ya." Kaito heard the click on the other end and pocketed his phone. It was just Higashi, so there was no need to get too dressed up for the occasion, but he still fixed his hair before heading out, double-checking his pockets for his cigarettes.
When Kaito got to Tender, he wasn't surprised to see Higashi sitting at the bar, chatting idly with Mari. "Yo, aniki," Higashi greeted, giving a slight gesture with his glass to the seat next to him. Kaito slid into the stool and leaned forward on the counter.
"I hear you're celebrating Higashi's arcade opening, yeah?" Mari asked as the master grabbed Kaito's bottle from the rack. "Isn't it a bit late? Higashi-san was telling us about the new location a while ago."
"Turns out being a manager eats up a lot of your time, even with just one location." Kaito nodded his thanks to Masuda as a glass full of whiskey was placed in front of him. "I figured I'd wait until the stress of the new place calmed down a bit before inviting him out."
Higashi nodded once. "It's been hectic, so I appreciate the consideration, aniki."
“Tonight, drinks are on me! It’s the least I could do. To mister manager!” Kaito raised his glass in a toast, and Mari and Higashi did the same.
And with good company and good drinks, the night seemed to fly by, and of course, it ended about as Higashi had anticipated: Mari left before either of the men did, Kaito drank a bit more than he could handle due to the occasion being celebratory, and Higashi was (almost) entirely sober. Not that he minded. Kaito had proven himself more than capable to be his own caretaker when he was drunk, but Higashi still wanted to make sure Kaito made it home.
And yet, they had ended up at Charles after hours, seated at one of the arcade machines. It was a space shooter, and Kaito was furiously tapping the button as he moved the joystick side to side. Higashi’s mind started to drift…
The higher-ups had shut themselves in the back office of Charles, leaving Higashi and Kaito to wait for orders in the main arcade area. Five minutes turned to ten, to twenty, and Kaito grumbled his frustrations. “I’m getting bored as hell out here. Waste of our time.” Higashi remained silent as he nodded his agreement (only after making sure none of their superiors could see it.)
Kaito plopped down onto one of the stools in front of an open machine. “Come play with me,” he invited. He grinned, adding, “1000 yen says I can beat you.”
It wasn’t a very large wager at all, but Higashi smiled back. “You’re on, Kaito-no-aniki.”
Kaito’s groan brought Higashi out of his reverie. “I could’ve done better. But I got 1000 yen that says you can’t beat me.”
“I don’t think the gambling is necessary.”
“Scared you’ll lose?”
“I never said that.”
Kaito stood and Higashi took his place in front of the screen as 2P START flashed in bright colors.
Kaito could do nothing but watch as Higashi’s score climbed higher and higher, and finally GAME OVER was displayed on the monitor, followed by 2P WIN. He scoffed, crossing his arms. “By 100 points? Best two out of three.”
Higashi stepped away, a slight smirk on his lips. “The result isn’t going to change.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Following the round, filled with heckling on both sides, the screen confirmed what Higashi predicted, and this time Kaito had lost by an even wider margin of 1150 points. “This game isn’t my best one, anyway,” Kaito muttered, waving a hand dismissively.
“Whatever you say, aniki.”
A silence settled over the pair. That was something that Higashi liked about being around Kaito; even when he was quiet, he was… comfortable, in that Kaito sort of way. Strong. Steady. Warm. It was hard to feel unsafe with Kaito around. During the whole Red Nose incident, Higashi had never felt so… vulnerable. Like a single wrong word would send him to the Tokyo Bay in a barrel.
“What’re you thinking about?” Higashi looked up to see Kaito looking at him, head tilted subtly to the side. “You’ve got that look on your face like something’s on your mind.” Higashi broke eye contact. He wasn’t able to collect his thoughts now that Kaito had put him on the spot.
“Just… about how so much has changed. I know it’s been a few years, but sometimes it feels like it was last week.” But my feelings for you haven’t changed at all. The words caught in Higashi’s throat, but they continued to weigh heavily on his chest.
“Yeah?” Kaito cocked an eyebrow. “I think there’s more to it than that. You can talk about anything with me, Higashi. Stays between us, I promise.”
That’s not the issue, Higashi thought. Something like a confession could drastically alter the course of their relationship, and not necessarily for the better. Higashi could handle himself much better than he could three or four years ago, but he’d felt happier with Kaito back in his life than he had in the entire transformative year he had spent as Hamura’s lapdog. Sure, he didn’t have to have Kaito around to stand on his own feet anymore. But losing a good friend still hurts like a bitch, and Higashi would really rather avoid it if he could. He’d already felt the sting once. And they really didn’t need to be more than friends, but sometimes Higashi’s thoughts would wander and linger on the what-ifs of the future. A future with Kaito.
But Higashi knew if he avoided the subject, Kaito was incredibly stubborn, and he’d get it out of Higashi’s own mouth eventually anyway. “I can’t slip anything by you.”
“Nope! C’mon, spill it. I’ll even drop it right after if it makes you feel better-”
“I have… complicated feelings for you.”
The hush that followed only made Higashi’s heart beat louder in his ears. “Complicated how?” was what finally broke the silence.
“I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Like a crush?”
Higashi was loath to describe it in such a childish way. The word crush made it feel like they were high schoolers and not reformed ex-yakuza. But his lack of response combined with the expression on his face told Kaito he’d basically hit the nail on the head.
“Hey, at least I know you got solid taste.” Kaito laughed, and Higashi could feel the tips of his ears turning red. He wondered if Kaito was drunk enough to forget this conversation, but knowing how much of a heavyweight Kaito could be, he very much doubted it. “No wonder you haven’t fallen for Mari’s charms. She was really laying it on thick tonight, too. Guess it’s hard to outshine me, though.”
Higashi knew it was too late, but he still crossed his arms in an effort to seem more detached from the situation. Matters of romance and the like were far from what Higashi considered his realm of knowledge, and staying on the topic was beginning to make him antsy. “You asked what I was thinking about, and I told you. Now we can move past it.”
“I know I said I’d drop it, but I kind of want to hear you talk about it more now. What is it about me that you like most? Is it my striking good looks? My rugged charm? How funny I am?”
Higashi huffed. “You’re also loud, annoyingly persistent, reckless, and you have bad taste in business partners.”
“Damn. And you still like me.”
“For some reason.”
Kaito sighed, completely relaxing his shoulders. Another lengthy pause in the conversation. Then, finally, “Hey. Thanks for telling me.”
Higashi shrugged, still clinging to his aloof persona as though any shred of dignity he had depended on it. “You asked.”
“I know.” Kaito placed a hand on Higashi’s shoulder. “But I know you’re more guarded about your feelings. You didn’t have to let me in, but you did. Especially with something so personal. Let me guess, you thought it would make it weird between us?”
Silence was his only reply.
“Thought so. Higashi, I care about you. You’re one of the most important people in my life. I’d be a real shallow son of a bitch if I let something like that get in the way of one of the best relationships to ever happen to me. Really.”
Despite the soothing words, Higashi’s mind continued to race. Kaito had been drinking a lot. He probably only cares about him as a friend. And that’s fine, of course. But he bared his heart and could not build those walls again so easily. It’s platonic, and there was no need to get his hopes up. Calm down. It’s not happening. They weren’t going to be anything more than good friends. That’s okay. It’s okay.
Higashi nearly jumped out of his skin when Kaito pressed his lips to his cheek. Soft. Tender. Everything Kaito typically wasn’t. Not on the outside, anyway. And just like that, Higashi's thoughts dissipated into nothing. An overwhelming calm from something so simple as a kiss on the cheek.
He knew it was only a couple of seconds at most, but it felt much longer before Kaito pulled back. Higashi blinked a couple times before he snapped out of his stupor. “It’s getting late,” he noted, unable to conjure up anything else to say. “Come on. I’ll let you crash at my place.” Higashi headed for the stairs to the door, and Kaito followed behind without hesitation. “It’s closer than your apartment, and I’m not going to make you sleep on the shitty office couch after you bought me drinks,” he explained. “It’ll make your back hurt in the morning, too.”
“Ever thought about replacing the shitty office couch with one that’s not as shitty?”
“Every time I fall asleep on it.”
Much to Higashi’s relief, the conversation flowed just fine as they walked through the neon streets of Kamurocho, as though nothing had changed at all. Now he just felt sort of foolish for thinking he could drive Kaito away. Even when he actively tried to be left alone following Kaito’s removal from the family, Kaito was still there. Despite everything through all the years, through Higashi's evolution, the dissolution of the yakuza, and so much more, Kaito remained.
And now he slept easy, knowing that Kaito would always be there. Strong. Steady. Warm. A constant in Higashi's life. And he wouldn't have it any other way.