Work Text:
10:36 pm
Monday is a quiet night at the bar, with only a few tired looking salarymen, regulars and strays, all lined up and nursing their drinks in silent harmony. Nino glances up at the TV propped up above the bar and reaches for his cloth rag, polishing the counter just for something to do with his hands. Just under one and a half hour left before he can go home. There’s a clock ticking in his head, a persistent tik tok tok tik that makes time appear to go backward.
He could have asked Jun to stay.
10:11 pm
“Kitchen is closed,” Jun announces. He’s already taken off his apron and replaced it with a knitted sweater.
Nino nods, distracted by the flashy fuchsia and wavy blue and pink patterns. Where does Jun even buy those things?
“Need any help?” Jun offers, and Nino gives him an amused look.
“Doing what? Fending off the crowds?”
Jun smiles, leaning against the counter, suave and oh so smooth in his lack of subtlety. “I could stay,” he says. He wasn’t so confident the first time he offered, Nino remembers. Stumbling words. Nervous hands holding too tight. Jun had first approached him with an edge of coming on too strong that somehow seemed unexpectedly charming.
“I could keep you company,” Jun adds when Nino doesn’t respond, just stares back at the elegant line of Jun’s neck, the stark contrast of his pale skin against the garish colour of his sweater.
Company means making out, on his back with Jun on top of him in one of the booth after closing. It means hand jobs with all of their clothes on. It’s tempting. But it also means missing the combini’s closing time.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Nino replies.
11:17 pm
Two customers leave, one enters. Nino recognizes him, not quite a regular but someone who’s been there before on a few occasions. He orders a gin and tonic and starts playing with his phone right away without much of a look in Nino’s direction.
Nino mixes the drink and plops a straw into the glass before sliding it carelessly towards the customer. The guy does look at him then and frowns slightly before reaching for a coaster.
Nino smiles.
“870 yen,” he says. “Pay now or open a tab?”
The guys seems to hesitate for a second, then he pulls out his credit card and hands it over to Nino. It’s a platinum card, Nino notes before reading the name. Sakurai. Why would someone with money choose to come to drink at a place like this? Unless…
“You’re a friend of Jun-kun, aren’t you?” Nino asks. He remembers vaguely seeing the two of them chat.
“Ah. Um. Matsumoto-kun and I went to the same school,” Sakurai replies.
“Is that so?” Nino says, just a little more amused than actually interested. “Well, Jun-kun left already.”
Sakurai looks a little disappointed first, then mildly embarrassed. “Oh, I wasn’t here for… I was just in the neighborhood. For work.”
“That’s a perfectly reasonable reason,” Nino nods.
11:33 pm
Sakurai closes his tab after one drink and leaves. Nino watches him go before picking up his glass, sloshing the melted ice around before throwing it in the sink. There are only a few customers left.
“Fending off crowds,” Nino writes to Jun.
“Is that your way of saying you wish I’d stayed?” Jun replies almost instantly.
Nino grins. “Your friend Sakurai came looking for you.”
There’s a little bit of a pause then. “Maybe I should have stayed,” Jun finally writes after a moment, and Nino chuckles to himself.
3:53 pm
Nino walks into the combini across the street from the bar. The place is empty except for a guy standing in front of the magazine stand.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to look at dirty magazines during work hours, Aiba-san,” Nino says, grinning.
“I wasn’t!” Aiba says. “Just taking inventory, you know.”
“Right,” Nino says, unconvinced but not in the least bothered by it.
Aiba’s smile, as ever, is brilliant and playful and everything that has made Nino want to stick around for all these years since high school. Between him and Jun, Nino thinks he would have no reason to ever want for more, except…
“Is Ohno-kun working tonight?” he asks.
12:28 am
Nino puts the key in the door and walks out in the cool night air. The street is quiet safe for the buzz of the neon light right above the bar’s front window. It’s a familiar sound, one that he knows drives Jun a little crazy.
Across the street, the open sign of the combini has been turned off already and Nino sighs, bending down to pick up the garbage bag at his feet.
“Hey,” Ohno says, and Nino startles.
“Hey,” he says back. “I thought you were open ‘til 12:30.”
Ohno shrugs. “There wasn’t really anyone so I closed a little early,” he says. “I thought maybe you’d be gone already.”
“Just a lot to clean,” Nino says, moving to throw the bag into the trash.
Ohno stays put, hands in his pockets, and it takes a moment for Nino to figure it out.
“Were you waiting for me?” he asks.
“The lights were still on so I thought we could walk together,” Ohno says.
Nino tilts his head and watches as Ohno shuffles his feet. “You don’t even know which way I’m headed,” Nino points out.
“I thought maybe we could walk together either way,” Ohno says, and when his eyes meet Nino’s there’s a little spark in there, the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.
It’s so simple, really.
3:56 pm
“Oh-chan works at 6. He’s on the closing shift,” Aiba says. He’s smiling a different kind of smile now, one that Nino knows to be wary of.
“Maybe I’ll come by to say hi later then,” Nino says.
“I’m sure he’d like that,” Aiba grins before turning back to the magazine stands. “Is Jun-kun working tonight?”
“Um, yeah, I think so,” Nino says, watching Aiba’s hands as he sorts through the magazines as if looking for something.
“Tell him I say hi?” Aiba says, his grin widening a little scarily as he finally picks a magazine and pulls it out triumphantly. “Here,” he says, pushing it forcefully into Nino’s hands. “There’s an interesting article just for you.”
21 questions to help you sort out your feelings.
Nino hits Aiba with the magazine. “Seriously?” he says. “That’s your great punch line?”
Aiba just giggles.
12:37 pm
They don’t really talk. They never really talk much, and yet Nino can’t help but feel like there’s an ongoing exchange, a mutual understanding woven in their unspoken words. It’s all very romantic. In theory. In practice it’s just the two of them getting nowhere. Both figuratively and literally.
“Did we just walk around the block?”
Ohno looks around. “Ah. We did,” he says, and he seems vaguely amused. “Were you following me too?”
“Well, you’re the one who said you wanted to walk…” Nino points out. Ten minutes ago, it made perfect sense to him.
“I meant to your place,” Ohno says. “I want to go to your place.”
“Oh,” Nino says, and his mind goes on a little spin. It’s interesting how their mutual understand has just taken a whole new direction.
“Aiba-chan said… So I thought,” Ohno says, and he sounds a little unsure now.
Nino hates Aiba. Nino loves Aiba. Nino is both figuratively and literally in love with Ohno.
“Let’s go to my place,” he says, reaching for Ohno’s hand.
9:58 am
Ohno’s arm is heavy around Nino’s middle, his breath coming out in little puffs of air rolling over Nino’s clavicles. The room feels a little stuffy, but cracking open a window would require moving and that’s just out of the question right now. They have a few hours left before work and they’re spending them in bed if Nino can help it.
“Hot,” Ohno grunts, pressing his nose against Nino’s skin as he yawns. “Time’s it?”
Nino stretches lazily. “Early,” he says.
“Hm.” Ohno gives a little nod. He goes silent then. Eyes closed, slow breathing, and Nino thinks he most likely has gone back to sleep. Until…
“Let’s stay in bed,” Ohno mumbles, and Nino grins. “Let’s just stay naked all day.”
Mutual understanding. It’s so romantic.