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Rei did this ‘thing’ that Kazuki liked to refer to as “window shopping.”
He would occasionally catch Rei staring at him in various states of undress or compromising positions- sometimes both, and just… take it in, for some reason. He didn’t even bother trying to hide that he was staring. He clearly liked what he saw, or he wouldn’t be staring so damn hard all the time, but he never said or did anything about it.
And it was harmless, so Kazuki had never addressed it either.
Until tonight that was.
Kazuki was fresh out of the shower, skin damp and towel wrapped around his waist because he forgot to bring clothes. Rei had been on the couch sipping a beer and watching TV when Kazuki had decided to discuss a few details about their upcoming job, only for Rei to have strong eye contact with his exposed upper body the entire conversation.
It had been fine at first, nothing unusual really, but as the conversation dragged on, the blonde found himself getting increasingly self conscious and maybe a little flustered about it.
And so it just kinda slipped right out of him.
“My eyes are up here ya’ know.”
Kazuki mentally kicked himself. He hoped he didn’t make it weird or somehow pissed Rei off by bringing it up. But Rei’s eyes stayed fixed on his pecs as he took another nonchalant swig of his canned beer.
“I’m aware.”
Huh. Perhaps he’d been overthinking the whole ’not addressing the situation’ situation. So Kazuki cautiously decided to push the subject.
“You’ve been staring at me a lot lately.”
Rei took another swig without taking his eyes off of him in place of a reply, so Kazuki continued.
“Most people would consider that rude, but you do it so much that I’m not sure if I should take it as a compliment or not.”
Kazuki pretended to think for a second and then plastered on a coy smile, “Should I be flattered?”
Rei shrugged but didn’t stop looking at him, so Kazuki decided to keep going, dropping his voice into his familiar flirty tone.
“Are you buying?” he asked while he fiddled playfully with the edge of the towel around his waist “Or are you just window shopping?”
Rei’s eyes followed his hands along the edge of the towel with veiled interest.
“What are you selling?”
Kazuki paused. Rei’s tone had been as flat as ever and so he couldn’t tell whether he was flirting back or if it had been a genuine question. Despite his lack of social skills, Rei was surprisingly quick witted, and that could have just been a really smooth, but really dry, pick-up.
On the other hand he was also kind of a dumbass and didn’t pick up on social cues a lot, so the latter was definitely also a likely option.
“...Me?” Kazuki responded pensively.
“You’re selling yourself?” Rei quirked a brow, “I thought you just did it for fun.”
'Is he serious, or is he flirting?'
“What’s your price?” Rei asked, finally looking up at Kazuki's face.
'He is definitely flirting, right?'
“For you,” this was probably a dangerous move, but it would definitely determine which side of the fence Rei was on, so Kazuki cranked the charm up to 11, “I’ll do it for free.”
The ball was back in Rei’s court, and Kazuki felt strangely nervous about it. It’s not like he felt any particular type of way about Rei, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t handle rejection either; but his heart was pounding and he could feel himself flush, heat spreading from his cheeks to his now sweaty palms.
“Free, huh?” Rei lifted his drink again, sloshing the contents around trying to gauge how much was left, “That doesn’t seem like a very sound business model.”
'What.'
“You’re not gonna make any money if you go around giving out freebies like that.” Rei continued unbothered.
Kazuki clicked his tongue in irritation, just for his mouth to run unchecked again.
“I cannot for the life of me tell if you’re flirting with me, or genuinely trying to give me business advice on whoring myself out.”
Kazuki regretted the words the moment they left his mouth.
Rei's expression changed instantly from the standard neutral expression he'd had all conversation, to vague surprise that ended up looking slightly disgruntled.
“Oh.” Rei sounded weirdly bitter as he spoke, “I see.”
'I see?’ Kazuki could grit his teeth, ‘What the fuck kind of answer was that? That didn’t tell him anything.'
“I thought it was pretty obvious.” Rei’s brow furrowed slightly, and then he turned his attention back to the TV.
He looked low-key pissed about
something
. But was he mad that Kazuki hadn’t been able to tell that he was flirting, or was he mad that Kazuki had had the audacity to assume that he was even trying to flirt in the first place?
He’d probably never know since Rei was full-on ignoring him, making it pretty clear that the conversation was now over.
Kazuki’s eyes stayed on Rei as the other watched TV for a bit before deciding to push again because, unlike Rei, Kazuki wasn't done talking and he'd at least like to resolve the initial question since he never really got an answer on that.
“So uhh… are you buying?”
Rei’s brow twitched, as he decided to aggressively slam back the rest of his beer and discard it on the coffee table.
“Nope,” he mumbled angrily as he sank back into the couch, “Just window shopping.”