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Katsuhiko wiped his mouth and stood up. He caught his breath for another few moments, then took off his shin guards, his knee pads and his boots, stepped out of his trunks and underwear, grabbed a towel and joined Go in the shower.
“Thank you,” he said as he entered and grabbed Go’s shampoo. Go liked it when he smelled like him. He thought about scent marking in animals until he felt Go’s tentative hand on his cheek. A thumb rested at the corner of his eye.
“I wasn’t too rough?”
Katsu rolled his eyes, “Quit asking that. You know I can take it,” he smiled, “Besides, no better way to celebrate our first victory… our first victory this year.”
“Really? What about going out to eat after the show? Have you given up on that completely? I’m hurt, Katsu,” Go chuckled.
“I seem to remember it was you who said you wanted to wait with eating out because you wanted to focus on training.”
“Oh? Did I say that?”
“You did.”
“You must’ve misheard me, I love nothing more than eating with you.” Go’s cheeky smile was brighter than the fluorescents overhead. “Except for meeting fans! Come on, come on, we have a job to do, we can’t be late because you took forever with your hair!”
×××
“It’s so nice out.”
“Yes, it’s very nice this time of year.” They walked through the city center together, both on the lookout for a good place to eat. “Of course, it’s much nicer now with you here,” Go added.
Katsu bumped their shoulders together in gratitude. “It’s nice to know you think that.” He clenched his jaw, the butterflies in his stomach had wings of anxiety and guilt. “Listen, Go—”
“Katsu, look!” Go stopped to point at a sign so abruptly that Katsu almost ran into his arm, “’Perversely spicy ramen challenge – Must finish within 15 minutes! Prize: A really really long stuffed animal’ Look, it’s a cat! And it’s waving at us! Let’s eat here Katsu, we’ve been walking around for so long I’m starving.”
“Do they have anything mild for me?”
“What?” Go shouted from the doorway, “You should try it too so we have better chances at winning!”
Katsu shook his head smilingly and entered behind him. They sat down at the bar and his eyes started watering immediately from the steam that wafted over from behind the counter alone. He wasn’t going to survive even the first spoonful of this devil’s brew.
He desperately tapped Go’s shoulder and hurriedly motioned an X with his arms before Go could order. “I give up,” he said and clapped Go’s arm in encouragement, “You do your best to win that plush for me.” He ordered a beef noodle soup instead and the server grinned at him. Yeah, yeah, but I don’t have to prove myself to you by suffering needlessly, he thought and sized the man up, In a fair fight I could absolutely beat you. That’s all the proof I need.
“It only counts if you drink all the broth as well and you can’t have water in between,” the server told Go cheerily.
With mounting horror Katsu watched as the server prepared two bowls of soup and then added to one of them a mountain of freshly chopped chilis, two spoonfuls each of chili oil and fermented chili paste, and finally chili powder out of a small black packet with neon yellow text and a tiger on flames on it that he changed into new latex gloves for.
He grabbed Go’s arm in alarm and was about to offer to share his own, not-defying-the-Geneva-conventions soup with him, when Go clapped his hands together and dug in with ravenous gusto. Katsu turned on his barstool so he could eat his food and track Go’s progress at the same time. The beef in his soup was wonderfully tender at least.
“You know, I can taste all the flavors of the dish because my tongue isn’t busy screaming in pain,” he said after the first minute.
Go looked flushed and there was the sheen of sweat on his forehead. “What? Oh! I think you need the spice to bring out all the other aromas. And besides, I’m tough, I can withstand any pain,” he said and chewed on a piece of meat.
“How did you feel while I was gone?” Katsu asked innocently.
Go slurped up a mouthful of noodles and at first Katsu thought he hadn’t heard or was ignoring him, but then Go smacked his lips and turned around. “It hurt like only a few other moments in my career have hurt. But would you believe things got better after I lost the title to Muto? You won the tags with Kitamiya and kept teasing my about it. I knew then that you would be in good hands while I was out for surgery. If I gave you enough time, you would realize your mistake on your own and you’d come back to me as soon as you could. And I was right!” Go grabbed his hand and Katsu made a mental note not to touch anything and wash his hands as quickly as possible. A sort of chili paranoia let him sense all the capsaicin that was rubbing into his skin wherever Go touched it. A miracle that it didn’t turn as red as Go’s mouth was by now.
“I never took out the AXIZ that was on my twitter, did you notice?” Go said and gasped, then took his phone out of his pocket, “There’s this really cute fanart someone drew, have you seen it already? I like the one I have right now, but I think I want to make it my new profile picture…”
Katsu waved him off with a chuckle and carefully took Go’s phone out of his hands. “Your time is running out, Go-san. Or are you admitting defeat? Should I order us some beers?”
Go laughed and turned back to his bowl, “You’re too right, I got carried away. I can do this,” he said and shoveled chili pieces into him. As he slowly flushed red he added, “Not like your Kenoh when he did this challenge.”
Katsu spluttered and got broth into his windpipe. He coughed until he felt ready to press out, “You watch the channel?” Mentally, he flipped through all the videos he remembered, at least the videos he knew he was in. Was there anything too revealing or embarrassing in them? He hadn’t considered that Go would ever see them. “He’s not my Kenoh,” he added belatedly, then, “Kaito won and did it with time to spare.”
Go swallowed and looked at him with tears and a fierce stubborn look in his eyes and shrugged as Katsu hastily dabbed at him with an unused napkin so he didn’t smear any chili into his eyes. Go chuckled and thanked him. “Aahh, whatever this chili powder is, it packs a lot of extra heat, remind me to ask them what brand this is,” he coughed, “In any case, to answer your question I don’t watch all the extra content we put out, but someone sent me a link and I had fun watching them take on the challenge. Ha! I was so surprised when our Junior champ gave up too quickly! See how little is left in my bowl, Katsu, I will beat even Kiyomiya’s record!”
Go brought the bowl up to his mouth and tipped it forwards, defiantly breathing through his nose so he could finish the meal off without another pause, even though it had to be hell on the lining of his nose. Katsu signaled for the server to bring them two beers. Go drank both of them in short order. Katsu and the server stared at him in shock and concern. Go was breathing heavily.
“Please bring out the really really long stuffed animal. Me and my friend will freshen up in the bathroom.” He motioned for Katsu to get up off his seat and steered him to the toilets with his hands on Katsu’s shoulders.
As soon as the door swung shut behind them, he turned and pressed Katsu against it, one hand on his face, the other holding the door shut and a knee between Katsu’s thighs.
“There. Look what I did for you. Now answer me, dear Katsu, is he really not your Kenoh anymore?”
Katsu blinked at him, trying his hardest to catch up.
“Because all month it felt like you were less committed to us than you could’ve been. Do you remember that our photobooks went back on sale? And you only tweeted about them a day later? Selling merch means we’re earning the company’s favor. You did well at the signing today but I need you, fully by my side or not at all.” Katsu nodded at him fervently. “You might think this is only between you and Kenoh, but I have something even bigger to prove to him. He was the last man that pinned me before I won the title and I haven’t paid him back for that yet. You better beat him in your singles, not just to sever all ties properly and give us the restart you deserve, but also to make good for the loss we took last week.” Go’s face softened and he smiled at Katsu. “I love you so much, I believe you can do it. For me?”
Katsu put a hand on the arm boxing him in. Go’s muscles were rock solid. He smiled up at him through his eyelashes and bit his lip in fake bashfulness. “I love you too, I will do anything you ask of me,” the chili smear Go had rubbed into his skin screamed to be washed off, “I will beat him and show him that it’s over. Prove to him that I made the right decision.”
“Kiss me then.” Go beamed.
Katsu laughed, “No, your lips are still bright red from all the chili, I would—”
“Do it, Katsu. For me?”
“Go…”
“You would let yourself be pummeled with kicks for me but won’t brave the pain of a little spice to kiss me?” Go teased and pursed his lips goofily. They were swollen and admittedly looked invitingly plushy. “What, afraid it’ll stain?” he continued in a quieter voice, “I thought you loved the color red.”
Katsu slung his arms around Go’s neck and crashed their faces together. Go bit at his lip until Katsu let his tongue in and he spread a burning heat wherever he touched. Katsu had to fight down the urge to cough and pressed his watering eyes shut while he let Go stake his claim. His nose started tingling but that was the least of his worries.
His face tingled as they broke apart for air. He felt his nose start to run and with an apologetic half-gesture extricated himself from Go and cleaned himself up at the sink. He was shocked to see how young his reflection looked. A man with a history, but not many great mistakes and bad decisions in his past. No misspent youth to feel guilty about. A bright future ahead of him. He grabbed Go’s hand and smiled at his reflection. He hoped all the certainty and hope and determination he wanted to feel so badly was visible in his smile.
“We’re going to make it back to the top together.”
Go pulled him in for another kiss which didn’t sting as much as the first one either because they had both washed up or because Katsu felt the pain less now, had learned how to suppress and ignore it better at least, and in any case, it was the sign of approval he wanted from Go. They went back to their seats. Katsu had the server take a picture of them holding the kitty plush, their swollen red, chili-bitten lips definite proof he could show anyone who doubted that he loved Go more than he hated spicy food.