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Karube doesn’t remember exactly when his little obsession starts.
Sometime in middle school probably.
He remembers pretty delinquent teenagers at the nearby high school, kids older than him that would never give him the time of day if he’d tried approaching them. They’d had all manner of piercings, in their ears and lips and noses; he specifically remembers one guy with a pointed piercing through his eyebrow that had gotten ripped out later in the year during a fight. It had left him with a gnarly scar that somehow only added to his attractiveness.
He was one of the first guys Karube had ever imagined kissing, too young to know about anything more than heavy petting.
The first girl he’d ever kissed had a line of three mismatched uneven piercings up both of her ears. Karube remembers running his fingers over the shell of her ear and feeling them. She’d had thin dark brows and short cropped hair with messy thick bleached strands that she’d dyed hot pink. She tasted like cherries and he still remembers the smell of her overwhelming stuffy perfume surrounding him when she’d helped him bleach his hair for the first time.
When she noticed how often he’d touched and stared at her piercings, she asked him if he wanted her to do his ears. He’d snorted and declined at the time.
It ran through his mind for months after, but he never took the leap and they broke up after two months before he could ever bring it up to her again.
He,at one point, considers doing it himself, but he doesn’t want to risk fucking it up so he doesn’t.
When he’s seventeen, Arisu jabs a finger at his pierced ear, jeering about him ‘really looking like some delinquent kid now’ with a piercing and bleached blond hair. Karube covers his newly pierced ear defensively and knocks his hand away.
He lies that he got it done professionally and doesn’t tell him that it was done in the crummy bathroom of some other latchkey kid with a lip piercing that Karube stared at the entire time so he didn’t even feel the actual piercing - or that they made out on his bed for 30 minutes after.
He doesn’t think Arisu would judge him for making out with a guy, but there was something vulnerable and intimate about getting the piercing that made Karube not want to talk about it.
The other boy’s hands had been warm and Karube had practically melted in them. For the entire time, he could smell the slight scent of the guy’s sweat and his deodorant. He’d barely even given his new piercing a glimpse in the mirror before he was diving forward and clumsily kissing the guy; the feeling of his piercing digging into his lips sent electricity through his body.
He starts working at the bar when he’s barely eighteen. A few years later, his boss hires his new girlfriend ‘Emi’ to work there too as a waitress. Immediately, Karube had thought the new girl was hot.
She was a couple years older than Karube, and nice enough. That wasn’t what drew him in though. She had long, dangling earrings that swung every time she moved and she would change them nearly every day. Karube would stare at them more than her eyes most times when they talked.
He doesn’t know why she was attracted to him, maybe because he was more available than her boyfriend or maybe she just liked the attention he gave her. Either way, he doesn’t care and just goes with it.
When he eventually finds out her piercings are fake, he’s disappointed. Her earrings - pretty as they are - are clip-ons. For some reason, it makes a difference and he doesn’t really understand why. He keeps ‘dating’ her anyway, maybe just because she’s still pretty or because it’s a stab at his shitty boss or maybe because she’s just around and wanting him and it’s easy for when nights are long and lonely.
Despite it, he’s a little more despondent after finding out, but he can hide it well and just kiss her before she tries to press him on it.
At some point, she stops wearing the earrings because ‘her boyfriend doesn’t like them’ and Karube doesn’t bother to tell her he liked them - or rather, he liked the image of them and pretended they were real.
Karube hates how hot he thinks Niragi is. The guy’s a jerk, a total douche that Karube isn’t even sorry about punching the first night they met - and several times after when Niragi tries to fight him again.
Still, he can’t help himself from staring at all of his piercings. The double-line of them in his helix, the one through his brow and in his nose, but especially - especially! - the one in his mouth. Karube’s entire body tenses every time he sees the light glint off it as Niragi swipes his tongue across his lips or waggles his tongue out in some attempt-at-intimidating taunt.
He tries to push it down, but in the dark of night, when he’s alone in his Beach hotel room and it’s mostly quiet and he’s pretending he’s not where he is, he thinks about it. Thinks about him. He thinks about clawing his hands into Niragi’s stupid long hair and licking into his mouth until he can find the piercing with his own tongue. He wants to drag the pad of his thumb up Niragi’s ear, feel over the round metal studs. He wants to know what that tongue piercing feels like pressing against his skin.
Sometimes, he wonders if Niragi is hiding others, if there’s more piercings under his clothes that Karube can’t see.
When he finally kisses Niragi, he thinks about the piercing pressing against his tongue for days after. He thinks about it more than the taste of blood or the fact that he should be hating Niragi instead of thinking of kissing him again and again and again.
He meets Niragi months after the Tokyo Meteorite. Karube knows he’s attracted to him because of all the piercings - which he notices before even the burn scars - but he doesn’t know why he feels some kind of connection to him. He comes into the new bar Karube’s working at one night with some group of nerds that he stands out between like a gorgeous, pierced black sheep.
They don’t get along at the start. Probably because Karube stares and Niragi takes it the wrong way and they’re arguing for almost ten minutes before one of the bar waitresses comes to take over for him, telling him to go cool off and Karube’s sure he’s about to get fired and it’s all over some hot guy. Luckily, Karube doesn’t lose his job but is left with a stern warning.
They avoid each other for the rest of the night and Karube assumes he’ll never see the guy again.
He’s wrong, since apparently the company Niragi works for likes the place and he gets dragged along even though he doesn’t participate in their conversations and fucks around on his phone by himself the whole time. He ends up sitting at the bar after one of his co-workers tries to force him into playing some drunken game, and Karube gets him talking - this time without the arguing.
What Karube finds is that he’s actually kind of funny, he’s got a specific kind of dark monotone-voiced humour and he seems surprised when Karube snorts a genuine laugh.
Eventually, it becomes something of a friendship - and Karube tries not to stare too obviously at his piercings, because it really seems like Niragi could use a friend and not a quick one-night romp, and Karube can’t deny that he actually kind of likes the guy.
Leaned up in Niragi’s kitchen, Karube’s glancing around it, sipping a beer. He’s been to Niragi’s place quite a few times by now that it’s become normal for Karube to drink up all the beer in Niragi’s fridge and have to eventually replace it.
Niragi’s taking a work call, leaving Karube to stand around by himself and try not to snoop. ‘Try’ being the operative word. There’s still a lot he doesn’t know about Niragi, the guy’s overly private for reasons clearly unknown to Karube. There’s only so much he can garner from prying around in his fridge. Shifting around, he leans his elbows onto the counter and Niragi’s wallet catches his eye - well, actually, what’s pinned underneath it is what draws him in: the ziplock edge of a small plastic bag.
Karube plucks it up, and a sharp breath sucks passed his teeth as he sees the titanium of a piercing in it. Niragi chooses exactly that moment to walk in and Karube’s red handed, so he just waves it at him instead.
“New piercing?” He asks, trying for casual and mostly failing. Niragi plucks it out of his hand, not quite a snatch but still quick.
“The surgeons threw away my other ones after the meteor, so I had to buy new ones,” he explains, then motions towards the current piercings he has in, “These ones are old, like ‘starter jewellery’ old.”
Karube nods shortly, taking a long drag from his beer to try and calm himself down.
“So you’re gonna switch them all out then?” He asks, his eyes flickering smoothly between Niragi’s piercings - double helix, eyebrow, nose, tongue.
“Eventually.”
“What’s that one?”
Niragi fiddles the bag between his fingers, “Tongue piercing.”
Karube swallows thickly.
“Can I watch?” It trips out of his mouth before he can stop it.
Niragi blinks at him, surprised. His brow scrunches a little. Karube’s about to blurt out some excuse, his heart battering against his sternum -
“Okay.”
Niragi turns and starts to walk towards the bathroom. Karube stays frozen for a moment, then hurries after him, abandoning his beer in the kitchen. He almost trips over his own feet in his rush to get to the bathroom. Niragi stands in front of the mirror, pulling gloves out the drawer, the plastic bag sitting on the counter. Karube pauses at the bathroom door, then slowly steps in to stand next to Niragi, leaning his hip against the counter and crossing his arms loosely - if only to make sure that he keeps his hands to himself.
Niragi flicks a look towards him, then breathes quietly out through his nose, refocusing on himself in the mirror. He leans in, his tongue flicking out. Karube’s breath catches. Niragi twists the piercing out, setting it on the counter. His tongue ducks back into his mouth as he picks up the new piercing, twisting one of the metal balls off. He swallows, then his tongue flicks up behind his teeth and he fits the bar through the underside, his tongue drops, he twists the other end back on. Easy as that.
The entire time Karube just stares.
Niragi’s tongue shifts around, swiping across his lips, feeling out the new piercing. His gaze shifts sideways and Karube flits about awkwardly, not quite meeting his eyes. There’s the slight pink of a flush up his face. Niragi furrows his brows at him, confused.
“So - uh - what did you want to eat? I’ll go pick it up,” Karube fumbles out, turning to quickly leave the bathroom.
When Karube and Niragi start dating - even though they don’t call it that - it means he finally doesn’t have to keep his hands off. He tucks Niragi’s hair over his ear and prods his thumb at his helix piercings; he’ll tap his fingertip against the eyebrow piercing and, when he kisses him, there’s always a quiet moan when he brushes against the titanium tongue piercing.
It’s not sexual - most of the time - but when they’re cuddling, Karube pushes up against Niragi’s back and shoves his hand under his shirt, feeling over his nipple piercing. Niragi will half-complain and elbow back into his side, but Karube will just tuck into the back of his neck and nose into his soft, dark hair, and Niragi will just sigh and rolls his eyes.
Niragi always notices when Karube’s eyes drift when they’re talking, that he’ll be looking at the piercings instead of his eyes. He’s not exactly sure why but determined to find out. So, one day, when Karube’s focus is clearly drifting, he reaches out to grab at his jaw, shaking him to get his attention back.
“What’s your deal with piercings?” He asks. Karube blinks.
“What do you mean?” The blond shoots back, though his gaze shifts, almost embarrassed, like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Is it a kink or something?”
Karube jolts up a little: “No!” He takes a breath and settles, then reaches out to run his fingertips featherlight over the shell of Niragi’s pierced ear. “Maybe? I don’t know. I just … like them.”
“Not enough to get more than one though?” Niragi’s hand shifts from his jaw to flick at the flat stud in Karube’s lobe before dropping his wrist onto Karube’s shoulder, hand hanging loose against his back.
“I like them better on other people, I guess.” Karube leans in, fingers sliding over Niragi’s cheek, his thumb pressing against his bottom lip. There’s a tilt of his head and Niragi knows what he’s looking for, giving in to just roll his tongue out across his lip, watching the way Karube’s eyes light up at the sight of the piercing. “Speaking of, do you think you’ll get any more?”
Niragi huffs: “I have five.”
“You’ve still got plenty of free real estate.” Niragi quirks a questioning brow. Karube’s fingers drag to each location as he lists things off. “Tragus, conch, down your lobes,” Karube’s breath catches slightly, there’s a sudden heated flare in his eyes, his fingertip brushes under the line of Niragi’s bottom lip, “Snake bites. You’d look good with snake bites.”
Niragi laughs, but his heart skips a beat under Karube’s heady gaze.
“God, you really are into this stuff.” It’s supposed to sound more cutting, but it comes out low and breathy.
Karube doesn’t reply, just lunges forward to kiss him roughly, practically tackling him down onto the couch.
‘Koma’ should be nothing more than the name of some stranger to Karube. Niragi teases one night that the ‘hot guy at the restaurant’ hit on him while he was picking up their food, then he prattled on about the guy’s name and that they’d talked a little so that was why it took him so long to get back.
Karube doesn’t consider himself jealous, but he is and he’s sure that Niragi can tell. So after ordering from there a couple more times and Niragi bringing this new ‘hot guy’ up again and again, Karube offers - insists - to go pick it up this time.
Annoyingly, Niragi’s right. The guy is hot. A fraction shorter than both he and Niragi with bleached blond curls falling over his dark brows and into his dark brown eyes; when he grins, it’s crooked, quirking up more on one side. What Karube spies - and what he’s sure Niragi noticed too when he’d thought to bring the dude up at all - is the piercing in his earlobe. A thick loop of silver that glints in the light every time he moves his head - which is often since it seems like he’s incapable of staying still.
There’s something that feels familiar about him too, but Karube doesn’t know what it is. It’s almost the same feeling he’d had when he first met Niragi.
Karube doesn’t know what to think, or what Niragi’s pushing at. If it had just been flirting, he doesn’t think Niragi would’ve brought it up as much as he had, with that teasing pointed look in his eyes.
The piercing feels especially like a jab.
When Karube walks back into Niragi’s apartment, Niragi fixes him with that same teasing look.
“So … did you meet him?” He asks, faux innocent.
Karube sets the bags down in the kitchen, then turns to clamber onto Niragi’s lap, his hands gathering on either side of his face, squeezing his cheeks. Niragi looks smug, running his hands up Karube’s thighs, pinching at his hip.
“He could be fun, you know?” Niragi muses. “If you’re interested.”
Karube hums quietly. “There’s something about him.”
“You felt that too?”
It turns out to not be a one time thing with Koma. He fits himself easily into their relationship. It happens much quicker than the ‘will they, won’t they’ situationship Karube and Niragi had going on for months before they fell into each other.
Niragi’s working overtime, holed up with his laptop, leaving Karube and Koma to hang out by themselves. Neither are good with just being left to do nothing, and after struggling to find anything to watch, they end up in the kitchen, cooking dinner.
Rather, Koma is cooking dinner, and Karube is keeping him company and drinking beer and stealing food despite Koma’s complaints.
Eventually, he sees a glint of something in Koma’s mouth and freezes.
Immediately, his drink is ignored, set down and shoved aside in favour of reaching out to grab at Koma’s arm and pull on him. Koma glances up, confused, his hand stilling the knife he was using to cut vegetables unless he accidentally nicks Karube.
“Open your mouth,” Karube says quickly. Koma quirks a brow at him.
“Wha-”
“Do you have another piercing?” Karube cuts him off, a frantic hand grabbing at his jaw, lightly pressing his fingers into his cheeks.
Amused recognition flashes across Koma’s squished face. His mouth drops open and he flicks and curls his tongue up, tucking the tip behind his upper teeth. Set under his tongue, through his lingual frenulum, is the curve of a small titanium piercing. A loud groan rolls out of Karube’s mouth. His hand presses on Koma’s chin and jaw, keeping his mouth open. He stares at the piercing, watching his curled tongue twitch; the piercing is slick and wet and catches the dim kitchen light when Karube tilts his head back slightly.
Darting forward, he licks into Koma’s mouth, his tongue deliberately seeking out the piercing. He can feel Koma grinning and giggling as he clumsily kisses him back. When Karube finally breaks the kiss after minutes, he presses his forehead against Koma’s, panting quietly.
“How long have you had that?” He asks breathlessly.
“Like, almost two years?”
Karube groans: “And I never noticed?”
“It’s well hidden. My father would think I’m even more of a disappointment if he knew, he hates my earring enough already.”
Karube’s hands slide over his cheeks, thumbing at the line of his jaw.
“Let me see it again.”
Koma laughs, shoving feebly at his chest. “I’m trying to cook!”
“Getting your first hand experience of Karube’s fetish, huh?” Niragi cuts in, leaning against the kitchen doorway. Koma laughs again and Karube shoots Niragi a look.
“It’s not a fetish,” he complains.
“It’s not not a fetish.” Niragi pushes off the doorway to step behind Karube, looping an arm around his neck and leaning against his broad back. He drags the ball of his tongue piercing up the shell of Karube’s ear, grinning at how he shivers in response.
“You know, you’re the only one without a tongue piercing,” Koma says, his fingers dancing their way up Karube’s chest until he can tap on the point of his chin, “You should get one.”
Karube snorts, rolling his eyes: “No way.”
“Boring,” Koma pouts in reply. Karube’s pinches his cheek.
“They look better on you two anyway.”