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Waking up was beyond painful.
It felt as if his brain was trying to escape the confines of his skull, whilst the world only wanted to force its way in through his eye sockets. All in all, it was one of his least favourite beginnings to a day.
It didn't help that his throat felt like sandpaper either.
Aoba whined pitifully as he forced his body upwards into a sitting position, his hands sinking into the wonderful softness of a mattress that didn’t want him to leave. He would be back soon, he promised himself and the bed, stroking it in a hungover daze while he waited for the world to stop spinning.
It didn’t quite stop, but the feel of cool air brushing against his very bare skin had Aoba looking down at himself in confusion.
He barely saw his own body for a second before his vision was obscured by something floaty and white. It didn’t make sense to his sluggish mind, the strange object only causing Aoba to fly into a surprised panic. He yelped loudly and started flailing, the item tangling with his arms until he could get a good hold on it.
It was yanked away from his head, and Aoba cried out in pain when it caught in his hair for just a moment before sliding out. Finally free, Aoba stopped moving and stared down at the… Wedding veil? Now draped elegantly across his palms.
“The fuck…?” He rasped.
He was butt naked, already unusual, and for god knows how long last night he had clearly been running round in a veil of all things.
Okay…
How this had not been dumped when he’d decided to shed the rest of his clothing, Aoba guessed he’d never know.
None of this was entirely making sense to his still pounding mind. The veil soon found its place on the floor beside Aoba’s discarded jeans, but after a quick check around there it seemed clear that Aoba’s boxer shorts were MIA elsewhere.
He groaned softly, feeling a dull ache within his body that made him think he’d been doing somersaults all night. It was probably just his kidneys deciding that they were done with life, as he himself was, and so Aoba decided for now to stop bending over as that only made the pain worse.
Stumbling gracefully into the bathroom Aoba all but shoved his head beneath the faucet to gulp down every drop that fell as his thirst peaked. The taste of vodka was lingering in his mouth. Praying that it would go away did not seem to work, so instead he worked up the strength to, first of all relieve himself since that was becoming an issue, then wash his teeth.
He could only guess that last night had been a blast.
It was their second to last night in the glorious and crazy city that was Las Vegas, and Aoba could faintly remember Koujaku’s insistence that they go out and truly drink to their last day. Mizuki was never one to turn down a night of drinking, Noiz hadn’t exactly resisted either. In fact he'd made a point about paying for the entire trip and had insisted that if they didn't drink themselves an awesome hangover, they would not be joining him for the trip home.
He was holding all of the tickets.
It was only Aoba who’d felt that usual apprehension before a night out, when he very well knew that he would wake up regretting something.
So far nothing seemed… Terrible. Perhaps he’d get off lightly this time. He’d only know once he went across the hall to bug Koujaku in perhaps an hour or two. He really needed more sleep at this point… He hoped the other three had gotten back to their rooms okay. He honestly didn’t remember a thing.
Aoba started brushing slowly, eyes closed for a good minute before he looked up into the mirror.
He winced at the state of his hair, noticed how red and puffy his eyes were, which slowly drifted down to look at…
The toothbrush clattered into the sink as he leaned suddenly forward, eyes wide as Aoba studied the obvious red and purple hickies that stretched from one collarbone and all the way up one side of his neck.
“Oh god… Oh shit…”
Aoba drew in a breath as he poked at an especially bad borderline bite wound on his shoulder.
His exhaustion was all but forgotten, even if his headache only seemed to grow a hundred times worse with each moment he stared.
Who in the... Who the hell did he sleep with last night? Did he really actually fuck someone?
Aoba looked over himself in a panic, finding yet more evidence that indeed that was the case. Three more hickies coloured the inside of his right thigh, not to mention the remnants of a certain mess was making itself known now that he was upright…
Aoba covered his face with both hands, muffling a groan at his own stupidity.
He wasn’t the type to just jump into a bed with someone he didn't know. Even when he got drunk back home it rarely ever ended on anything serious...
Koujaku. He needed to find Koujaku. He couldn’t deal with this on his own right now.
Aoba raised his head with new, feverish resolve.
What if the guy was still in the room? Aoba had practically walked to the bathroom with his eyes closed, he could have entirely missed a guy being there.
Jesus christ…
He knew alcohol wasn’t his best friend. Past four shots of whatever Aoba was drinking and he’d be flirting with anything on two legs.
Obviously it had gone way past that point on this occasion.
The bit that shocked him the most was that it had clearly been a guy last night. Even though he honestly had no recollection of what had gone on in that bed… It wasn’t exactly hard to figure it out. It was just... Really unusual for him.
Aoba paused to clean his lower body up after his short freak out, as last night was definitrly coming back to haunt him in the most uncomfortable of ways.
It wasn’t as if he’d never gotten close to this point with a guy in the past. Mostly he’d been with girls. He really liked girls, no questions asked. However Aoba had realised on one particularly tipsy night at the black needle that he was definitely not straight.
That fact was solidified when Koujaku had come back into his life the previous summer.
He wasn’t just the sweet older kid that used to take care of him when they were both little, though in the beginning Aoba could have sworn that he was almost unchanged from that time in a wonderful way. It had been the nicest feeling welcoming the man home after almost ten years, despite the child in him hating that Koujaku had left in the first place.
They’d ended up at the beach toward the end of that summer, and Koujaku had fully opened his kimono to try and cope a bit better with the heat of that day.
Aoba didn’t fail to notice that Koujaku had become an incredible sculpture of a man, all muscle and tattoo’s and old scars… And by god he wanted a piece of that. Aoba felt himself blush at the thought.
That interesting night at the black needle, and perhaps the few others after that, had clearly prepared him for the only man he was truly attracted to.
Koujaku.
... The womaniser.
That detail never failed to make Aoba’s heart sink.
What chance did he even have with Koujaku the romantic when he clearly wasn’t into guys. Or even if he was, would he even look at Aoba once he found out what he’d done?
Aoba could remember some snippets from earlier in the night. Guys flirting with him, perhaps even buying him drinks and Aoba had hardly refused, had shown he was interested. Finally he must’ve gotten himself drunk enough to jump on literally the closest dick he could find. It proved he had no self control if anything else.
“Ugh…”
Aoba wished he could die. At least for a few hours so he didn’t have to face today. Anything could have been better than this reality.
Eventually he shook his head, quickly washing his mouth out before deciding that he needed to just get across to Koujaku’s room. Get there, and then work out what he wanted to do. He needed some kind of moral support right now even if it did mean telling his friend and crush he’d slept with someone.
Before he could do any of that however, he needed clothes.
Shutting his eyes tight for just a breath, Aoba stepped slowly back into the bedroom with stiff, careful movements.
...and sighed in relief when he saw the bed was in fact empty.
Thank fuck for that.
Aoba busied himself then by rooting around for his boxer shorts, frowning when they proves elusive.
So... When did the guy leave exactly? He couldn't imagine they'd been that drunk if they'd been able to stumble out of his hotel room. Although Aoba was a bit weird about bed space. It was entirely possible that he'd kicked them out even while completely out of it.
Ah, there were his boxers, on top of the lamp…
Aoba quickly got dressed once he’d snagged them, still feeling absolutely disgusting even after cleaning up a little. He was desperate to find his friend. For either comfort or beratement. He didn’t really care at this point.
He grabbed his card key off the counter in the lounge area, hurrying to the door and out into the hallway. Koujaku’s room was right across from his, while Noiz and Mizuki’s rooms were somewhere further off down the hall.
He knocked three times on the door, glancing up and down the corridor as he hugged himself.
Aoba sighed, feeling the weight of guilt in his chest a he stood there.
He still couldn’t really believe it… He’d actually slept with someone in Las Vegas. Which was possibly an achievement he should have been proud of. But it was some random fucking guy at some damned random bar.
“Koujaku! Open the fuck up!” Aoba called through the door, as if he cared about being quiet.
There was no response from inside.
Aoba made another groaning cry, allowing his head to butt the door in his frustration. He didn’t exactly feel like talking to Mizu-
The door moved inward by an inch, enough to have Aoba leap back in surprise to suddenly see that the door wasn’t in fact shut.
A spike of worry found his heart, and Aoba pushed all the way in expecting to see the scene of a burglary or… Something.
“Koujaku?”
Despite the darkness of the room, Aoba felt himself relax just a fraction when he noticed everything more or less in order. He started toward the bedroom, not really caring if the man was still trying to sleep. Not at this point.
“Kouja- Ahh!”
Something moved on the couch and for the second time in five minutes he almost leapt out of his skin.
...Of course it was just Koujaku, covered in a thick blanket and looking like a train wreck.
“You…! You left your door open you stupid freaking hippo!” Aoba cried, his voice a higher note than it should have been.
“Aoba…?”
“Yeah, Aoba. Get the hell up, I need to, we… Damn it…” Aoba turned away, moving to the windows so that he could pull up one of the blinds. The darkness was a comfort to his eyes, but this conversation needed light. That and he needed to stall...
“Whswrong…? What time is it?” Koujaku groaned, rubbing his eyes as light suddenly poured in.
“I don’t care... “ Aoba snapped back, before pausing, “My coil is in the other room…”
“Oh..”
Aoba paced over to the sofa again, looking at Koujaku as he shifted beneath the blanket.
“Why are you on the couch?” Aoba asked suddenly, yet more confusion touching his already befuddled mind.
“Huh? Oh um… I don’t really-” Koujaku moved to sit up, the blanket falling into his lap, when Aoba made a sudden strange sound and covered his eyes.
“Koujaku!”
“Wha- Oh!” The older man pulled the blanket up over his stomach, blushing as he realised he was wearing absolutely nothing underneath.
Aoba slowly looked between his fingers, eyes wide as saucers.
Did he actually just see Koujaku’s d-
“I don’t know why I’m on this couch. I don’t know why I’m so naked. I’m sorry, I…” Koujaku blearily looked up at Aoba, a frown clouding his face, “What’s on your finger…?”
“Eh?” Aoba pulled his hands away from his face, about to ask what Koujaku was seeing when his eyes fell upon a small silver band on his ring finger. Quite snug too; he hadn’t even felt it there…
Why was he wearing a ring?
“Why are you wearing a wedding ring?”
Was there an echo going on in his head?
Aoba stared. Continued to stare while turning his hand palm face down to find some tiny diamante stone embedded in the silver.
Koujaku’s voice had been confused, tinged with hangover sickness. Aoba could feel some of that coming on himself
He swallowed.
“I woke up with a veil on my head.” Aoba whispered.
Koujaku stared at him, seeing Aoba’s skin go from pale pink to just… Pale.
“Aoba…”
“...yeah?”
“Are those hickies all over your neck?”
A long, long pause.
“...Yes.”
“Um… A-Aoba.”
He’d barely croaked a ‘what’ before his eyes focused in on Koujaku’s now raised hand. Notably, the small silver wedding band on his ring finger.
There was a sudden crash from within the bedroom behind Aoba. It barely registered in his mind. His world was too busy slowing to a stop.
The veil, the hickies, the rings he and Koujaku were both wearing, the other man naked on the sofa while his door had sat open. Aoba naked in his bed…
He felt his heart miss several entire beats and his stomach clench.
“Woah… What are you guys doing in here?”
Aoba and Koujaku paused before slowly looking around.
Noiz stood in the doorway of the bedroom, eyes squinted against the natural sunlight.
He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was standing there naked in front of them.
“Please tell me that we didn’t have a threesome.” Aoba pleaded softly.
“Is that why I’m on the sofa… The fuck are you doing in my room, brat?” Koujaku asked in stronger voice.
Noiz blinked, still clearly uncaring that Aoba was now glancing at places and turning a gentle red.
“As awesome as that would have been, no we didn’t have a threesome. My bed is too damn small and you were at Aoba’s so…” He gave a shrug and a smirk before looking back into the room, “Mizuki, it’s time to split.”
“Mmm fivemoreminutes…”
“Now gorgeous. Lemme see that ass.” Noiz paused before going back in, looking at the pair with a wink, “Congratulations by the way.”
Aoba made the sound of something choked and dying as he disappeared once more. It wasn’t twenty seconds before odd noises started to emerge from within.
“Aoba?”
The bluenette raised his hand.
... His right hand, so he didn't have to look at that damned ring…
“Just…” He didn’t say much beyond that. Couldn’t.
He and Koujaku… Did they really...
They did didn’t they?
“Aoba, I’m sorry…”
His stomach gave another churn and Aoba placed a hand over his mouth. Where was that bathroom...
Koujaku must have thought he was going to cry or something because his face grew fearful.
“Aoba, please-”
Aoba shook his head. He was about to reverse engineer what he’d drunk last night and he needed to get out of there. There was no time.
He all but bolted from the room, across the hall, and somehow survived the moments it took for him to find his key card and get back inside.
The gods had clearly blessed his path back to the toilet, watching over him for the fifteen or so minutes in which he suffered.
This was it. His life was done. Koujaku was probably going to leave the island again and go back to wherever it was he’d come from.
After divorcing Aoba, that was.
What had they joked about on the entire journey here? About idiots who got drunk and decided it was a great idea to get married in Las Vegas.
Idiots like Aoba who trusted his idiot friends to not allow him to get blackout drunk to the point where he’d get happily fucking married and then just spread his legs for his childhood best friend.
“Fuck…”
Aoba felt a little cheated in that moment.
For the small price of fucking up entirely, the universe could have at least let him remember that last part.