Work Text:
"One Mojito, please." Tenn said as he sat down at the counter.
"Right away." The bartender grabbed an extravagant looking glass and went to the back, probably it was where he would prepare the more elaborate drinks one couldn't just get done from the shakes lined for display on the bar.
Tenn took off his coat and scarf and seated them beside himself. He heard a blender start in the distance, and remembered, it was extra fresh he wanted. He didn't even hear himself saying the word.
With a sigh, Tenn turned his eyes sideways, checking the place. 'Tavern' was its name. A painfully-uncreative name if anyone asked him. It was as unremarkable as the entire place was in its decorations. With only three tables with designated sofas, this counter he was sitting at and some neon lights to boost.
There was a piano as well, secluded in the far corner. Anyone could tell an antique was the best it could measure to. Funnily enough, the piano was placed to face the edge of the wall rather than the other way around, so that even if by any chance someone knew how to play it, they couldn't.
Tenn found himself laughing but not loud enough for the bartender to hear him and think he's mad or, quite worse, mocking his questionable way of handling pianos—what he was doing.
The glasses staked in front bounced off the slightly dim but relaxing lights filling out the place. Save for his presence and the barkeeper's, it was near empty. Which was perfect.
The only downside was with how the bar was slow on customers, the bartender, matching it, was slow on his feet. A drink that could be over and finished in 15 minutes could take up a whole hour. But tonight, like every other night he was there, Tenn didn't really have a schedule hanging on him so he didn't mind the wait and the extra time spent staring at the walls and counting how many shuffling and clattering noises he heard before he could get his drink.
Despite himself, only this place was off-limits from any complains he had about unprofessionalism. It wasn't out of the good in his heart but because he shouldn't even be at such a place to begin with that he could let that much slide. Tenn wasn't of proper drinking age even if he knew he could handle his liquor times better than Ryuu and Gaku at the very least.
Technically, he was breaking the law but considering how underground and forgotten this entire place was, he could enjoy his little break from being Kujo Tenn just fine. Right, that brings the second best thing about this bar to mind; here, he is never seen and even if he's seen he is never recognized. It's likely because it's such a poor-end place, only a selective few ever even heard of it but thanks to how hidden this bar was, he could be hidden too.
Today was one of those days where he wanted to unwind and relax removed from every person he knew. He relished into being neither Kujo Tenn nor Nanase Tenn he was only this nameless customer who ordered the same drink every time he sat at the counter.
A glass was placed before him, "Enjoy your drink." And Tenn thanked the barkeeper before the man quick enough disappeared in the back again. Now, it was only him, his hard-earned Mojito and the solemnity he had daydreamed about the entire month.
Tenn enjoyed nothing more than the privacy and anonymity of this place, and liquor could take care of the self-realization and conscious of it. It was all he wanted and Tavern, the poor-named tavern, if it scored a five star in anything it'd be in how it was right up Tenn's weirdly-specfic and inconvenient alley.
Tenn brought the drink to his mouth and he had to put it down right then. His gaze did a once-over to see if anyone was around and when he confirmed no one was there he returned to his drink, stirred it and took another sip.
The Mojito tasted like heaven. Tenn's eyes perked up, and now that he knows he'll not be judged for it, he could relax his features and savor every bit of it to his heart's content. The ice was glistening inside, floating up and down with every rise and downing of the glass. The taste of fresh fruits danced right with the bitter after-taste of alcohol, one tickled his palate and the other did his nerves. It was a waltz of sorts the way they complemented each other.
Tenn was reminded why he had frequented this place for well, over a year.. no a year and a half now.
He liked taking his time savoring the quiet and the chance to rid himself from a skin that was melting his soul and any energy the more he left unattended. It may be thanks to Gaku and Ryuu even if he doesn't want to admit it that he now gave himself some alone time. Gaku called it 'self-care', whatever that meant.
If Tavern started welling up if even slightly on the noise while Tenn was there he got up and left quietly. Some days his temper wasn't as cut short so he'd take in the rarely-crowded sight of the bar from a distance. It was a roulette every time, and with the Mojito doing all the magic on its own, tonight was the former.
Tenn had only set his glass down on the counter when there was an excited chatter against the doorway, the bell hanging resounded faintly as loud footsteps entered the shop.
"Minami'll kill us!! You made us get Haruka in this state and now this is the place you think of!?" Odd coincidence of names. Quite the line-up.
"Can you shut up?"
Two men. Unfortunately, familiar. And from their tones, they're hurried, most likely they had been going back and forth before they got here.
"Touma, lean Haruka properly on this couch, having him on your back could trigger him throwing up."
A muffled third voice complained softly, protesting having his piggyback ride cut. Apparently, he was draped on one of the men's backs.
Tenn sat still but made sure to follow the turbulence behind him.
There was an ear-deafening shuffling, before something, probably a body, was rested on a sofa. Tenn wanted to turn his face and look but honestly he didn't want to risk being found out. Not by people he knew out of all things.
"It's the only place out of the eyes i know. Also I didn't do it, you suggested the whole thing in the first place!"
They seemed like they were there to stay. On another note, Tenn wondered what was up with what he was overhearing. Curious but unable to risk bust, Tenn decided to listen in to the men out of sight.
"And who had to give Haruka every single thing he wanted?" One of the men went to put his coat on the hanger close by, "'Tou~ma, give me this thing,' and you're instantly on it! You've no self-control and you seriously need to work on it."
"W-who does.. Besides! You're not better off yourself, Tora! Acting like I'm the only one who spoils Haru." The other man took quick steps to where the other was. "Just last week Haru jokingly said he wanted to do a live again and you rented out Japan's biggest stadium! And he was joking!"
"Oh really, and why is that same as enabling him to drink when he clearly couldn't hold himself?" So that was it. Funny. Tavern now had two drunk guys below the drinking age.
"Man, you were right there, too.."
"Guys shut up.." The more quiet voice grumbled. He sounded bothered by all the noise. Something Tenn could relate to.
"Sorry!" The two men said in unison and it was a bit endearing how soft their voices had gotten. Tenn took another sip from his Mojito, he really hoped he'll just remain this nameless guy stuck in the stool and no one will approach him. Tenn had a few he didn't personally enjoy interacting with, Izumi Iori was on top of that list, and following right behind was the entirety of ŹOOĻ.
"We're kinda a sorry excuse for adults now.. Mostly you, Touma." The remark sounded mean but nothing unusual, Tenn could guess.
One of the men relaxed in the sofa beside the alleged 'Haruka' who remained quiet. Probably was asleep or too nauseous to speak. "Yeah, yeah go order us something and water." He waved his hand ushering the other, "lots of water." He made it a note.
Footsteps and, "Excuse me. I want to order." His voice came right over Tenn's head. It felt like he was towering over him.
The barkeeper materialized from where he had gone in an instant. He apologized and got a light-hearted, "It's fine," In dismissal.
As the Bartender took his order, Tenn took notice of the visible switch in the man's speech from just two minutes ago and then. He was more formal, and though it was nothing but a quick exchange of words anyone could tell he was from a sophisticated background.
There was two extremes of speech: elegant, Tenn was used to run into people that fit the description. And there was haywire, Yotsuba Tamaki was the one that came to mind first. No, ironically Isumi Haruka behind him here had a worse unfiltered speech-pattern. But the man just now, he was both and neither and somehow either seemed in-place for his voice.
Tenn watched the bartender dissappear in the back again, before he heard a sigh and the stool beside him being pulled out.
"Now, If it isn't Trigger's center. For us to run into each other—'the constellations must be in disarray about now' or whatever Minami would say." The man sounded cocky and like he wants to be in his business and Tenn wanted nothing but to be out of it.
"Don't mind if i do." And he sat.
Seriously..
Most people would have went down at the end of the counter where the bartender would return, but Mido Torao came right to the end where Tenn was sitting and took the stool next to him, as close to him as he could come and Tenn knew, he was recognized, and it'll only go downhill from then on.
"What're you doing here, Nanase," Torao's eyes glanced down. "And to be drinking too.."
Hearing what he just called him, Tenn's face turned in Torao's direction, "could you not call me that?" His brows were knitted but rather than being taken aback or backing down, "what do you want me to call you then, i thought you didn't wanna be recognized," Torao turned his body so he'd be fully facing Tenn, his leg burrowed out so that if Tenn wanted to leave from his right side, he couldn't.
"Don't call me at all, I'd prefer if you just pretended i wasn't here."
"No can do." As expected. If Isumi Haruka was hard to get to, Mido Torao was impossible, he could tell you that much.
"You won't let this one go, will you?"
"I never had an actual talk with you, I could pass time and you could give me reason vaild enough not to have that drink confiscated. We both could use some chit-chat." Torao rested his head on his hand. Wearing his signature grin pretty much everyone knew him by.
"Not with Isumi Haruka sitting over there seeing stars right under the watch of two adults supervising him." Tenn wasn't about to be threatened by a glass full of gaps, replacing the intial annoyance, his eyes stared down, as though gazing at something below even if physically, Torao overrode him in every way possible. "You don't get to make the shots, Mido Torao." Tenn could swear his grin just widened. What was with this man.
"Then we are both at each other's mercy. Let the sleeping dogs lie, how about that?"
"Be my guest, you started this in the first place." Tenn sighed.
"That's true i was just testing the waters to be frank." Torao chucked, dissipating the tension that was building up. "Anyway I'm genuinely curious what's Kujo Tenn doing here, drinking in a place like this."
Feeling uncomfortable by the gaze locked onto him, Tenn took another sip from his Mojito, "I merely wanted to wind down, is all." The Mojito was almost running out, a shame.
"Seeking a companion in a short-lived tempest, was it? Life must have awfully ran out of people for you to rather--" Tenn watched Torao take an affirmative glance at his drink before returning back to meet him, "a Mojito. Good start for a hobbist."
"Yeah.. That's it, you could say." For some reason, that earned Tenn an amused giggle in return.
"Also,"
Up till this point, Tenn either looked really intensely at his glass or took a long stare in Mido's direction as if to drive him away. No, it was to read whatever was on his face; Tenn resorted to that to figure out how to indulge every person he comes in contact with, and now it was purely a force of habit.
"Call me Kujo, honorifics are welcome."
"Nice to make your acquaintance, Kujo." He extended his hand to Tenn. His gaze was relaxed and—It was hard to describe but he looked peaceful.
Originally, Tenn had resigned to keep giving Mido Torao the cold shoulder till he moved away; that included ignoring this offered handshake which was quite the rude act and Tenn wasn't really the kind to do so. Though some could argue.
But, for some reason, one he couldn't tell even at a gunpoint, he decided against it.
Tenn took the hand offered and he saw a satisfied nod flash across, "I'm Mido Torao. Feel free to call me anything that works for you." He was smirking. No malice in his rose-colored eyes, though.
"Pleasure is mine, Mido." Tenn said, half-smiling.
And there was silence. Torao watched as Tenn downed the last remnants of his drink. He, then, turned to check on Haruka and Touma further behind them: Touma had Haruka more snuggled to his side, now properly sat instead of draped. Haruka's head rest on Touma's nape, suppoesdly asleep but Torao could tell he was conscious, while Touma patted Haruka's head every now and then, his other hand scrolling through his phone. Tenn couldn't see Torao's face clearly from his side but he could tell he looked at his bandmates with a fond look.
It seemed like Isumi Haruka's leader was taking care of him, even more carefully than anyone necessarily needed to. That was the type of man he was.
Torao turned his head back and he almost caught Tenn staring back where he was. "So, you're with the time-paranoid crowd?" He gestured to the wristwatch on Tenn's hand.
"Ah, that no. I just like to keep track of time, there shouldn't be anything odd about that, is there?" By subconscious act, Tenn's right hand brushed over the watch on his other one, like he was removing dust that had accumulated without him knowing till then.
Breaking their eye contact, "heh, I suppose it won't work, after all." Torao threw his head back.
Tenn's hands stopped what they were doing, "what is?" He arched an eyebrow.
"I thought of using Minami as basis to work by getting to know you. But I can't get around it. You two are light years apart."
"If you want to know someone you make the effort to. Not project a puzzle on them and work up the pieces to fit together."
"Ahaha, that's harsh but fair. In that case, how about a game?"
Tenn tilted his head, and said, "you know I have no reason to linger around and entertain you now that my business here is done, right?"
"I know. And I won't force you." Torao shurgged one shoulder, "but you came here to trode a different gravel than you're used to. How about, and listen to me on this, you retrace your way back where you have walked; maybe if you conceded the things you're running from you'll find your path correctly." He stilled his eyes back on Tenn. Almost like he was reading into them, but Tenn thought to know better.
Mido was still using the same tactic of the puzzle, the only difference here was the subject.
Taking his silence as a cue to go on, "the game is a take-two kind of game: i'll think of a number in my head. Kujo, you'll guess whether that number is an odd or even. And if your guess is spot on, I'll share with you something I wouldn't let anyone on. However, if I win, no cheating involved, you'll tell me something no one else knows about you."
I see now. The subject of the puzzle was Mido Torao, himself.
"Sounds like a game perfect for blackmailing," Tenn said and Torao grinned, bemused. "I'm on."
"Good then i'll-" Tenn cut Torao mid-way, "there's one more rule, though." He pointed his thump right in Torao's face, as though shushing a child up.
With a croaked smile, "and what could that be?" Torao asked.
Tenn returned his hand, reaching to grab hold of the empty glass sitting before him, "the moment any of us doesn’t feel like it, they can say 'forfeit' and quit the game."
"That's fair."
Mido clapped his hands, startling Tenn momentarily, an effective way to grab his attention Tenn could admit. Mido arched his back, his black turtleneck fitted against it, muscles properly detailed; he deserves to be the most desired embrace up close, Tenn could get behind that, but it was nothing remarkable to him on personal preferences.
Fixing his position so he was now practically in Tenn's space, sitting sideways looking right at his face, Tenn felt prompted to look his way back and he almost cuffed his collar hadn't he realized he was no longer wearing his coat.
"Now guess. Even or odd?"
Tenn parted his lips slightly then crossed his arms, he was quick to go with a choice but decided to contemplate it a little. He was taking this part seriously, Torao thought. "Odd. This whole thing is." On second thought, maybe he wasn't.
Rubbing the nape of his neck, "try again, maybe?" Torao raised one eyebrow.
"Goodness. Don't take mercy on me, please. I'll take the lose." Tenn sighed with a slight frown, he looked into Torao's face again and saw that his eyes and lips were now both smiling. "Share one embarrassing story, huh.."
"Hey that's different from what I said it's 'something no one knows'...."
"Can you not complicate things than they already are? I suppose there is that one, where was it again, i was young. We were at the beach, at the time. Me, Riku, mom and dad. You know." As he started up, Mido leant forward.
"I know." He nodded.
"Yeah, um.." Tenn wrapped his hand round his empty glass, turning it around in his grip, "so i said i wanted to go in the water, mom refused saying i wouldn't handle it. I went anyway."
Torao straightened his spine, leaning a little away from Tenn's personal space, "Didn't take you for a rebellious kid."
"I was anything but. I was only 6 at the time, she was right. But I, and normally I am not, got real stubborn. Uncharacteristically stubborn. I ended up in the water, going further and further away; as far as my tiny legs could take me. One moment i was afloat and the second i was sinking down."
Torao nodded again. His eyelashes blinking with as much speed to match his start of losing interest.
"I honestly thought i was going to die, mind you, i was only at the shore of the water; 1 meter from the sand, maximum. But being as small as I was, I thought I was a goner; hadn't it been for Riku who almost drowned following me. He went right away to save me not knowing he's even more helpless than i was." Mido's leg shifted away a moment then returned to place. His thumb tapping the counter away.
Tenn memorized enough patterns to tell what he was hinting at, at a glance and Mido, given his background, likely made it obvious on purpose.
"'The aider needed aid, himself,' or something of the likes. Dad saved the both of us and we vowed to never act carelessly again. It's funny now thinking back to it; it wasn't so funny back then."
Instead of interjecting any kind of smart retort, Mido remained quiet, staring him as if waiting for Tenn to still go on. As though, there was more to his story.
Tenn forced a laugh to wrap up his turn, he attempted to dispel the quelling awkwardness weaving. That's what people usually did. The lack of a reaction on Mido's side made things stifling on another hand.
Taking a deep breathe, "you are not satisfied, are you?" Tenn raised one eyebrow.
"I am not." He looked him dead in the eye. Head now resting against his palm.
Tenn turned to his long-empty glass. With a blank expression, he whirled it in his hand; playing with it.
"Let's start over. Guess away." Torao took the glass from his hand. Slow enough for their hands to brush against each other, 'he didn't want to startle him with the sudden movement,' Tenn thought.
"Even." Tenn moved his eyes on him, he seemed glaring to the outsider eye, but Mido knew better.
"My loss." Mido put down Tenn's glass more to his side, he put it as gently as he had grabbed it. "I'm not mincing any words saying it: I loathed my friends and thought once or two of prosecuting my own family." He said with a slight-close lipped smile.
With as much steady eye-contact as he could muster, "Why?" Tenn looked up.
Torao moved his hand to his face. He covered it with steeple fingers spread, and he was smiling at Tenn over his fingers; it was a gallant, in true Mido Torao fashion, gesture.
"Had you asked me some time ago i would have given you an answer that changed every other day and the other. Now? I appreciate the curiosity, but it's simply an act of defiance- No, an ascertaining of self that was often ignored. Nothing more, nothing less. It was a losing gamble from a broke player."
"Is that so." Tenn said, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. He was curious and judgemental himself. Torao could see him suppressing the desire to delve further into his words, preferring to entertain him and the night over with than remain faithful to who he was.
"See how i went about it? I don't beat my way around bushes." Torao shook his finger at Tenn. "Suppose you could mimick one thing or two?"
Torao leant forward, face closing in the more Tenn flinched back from him. It was a move to show off that he was the one holding reins, not Tenn, and most definitely not both of them together.
"And why's it so wrong to not want to disclose details about myself to a stranger?" Though he felt troubled under Mido's overbearing know-it-all look, Tenn stared him down. "You're getting too close."
"Because-" as soon as Tenn could get his answer, "Your order is ready, sir." The bartender walked in.
Mido Torao left Tenn's space, as calmly and casually as he had entered it. He drew over his well-mannered demeanor and turned to the barkeep, "Thank you. Please put the rest of the order on the table over there." His voice picked a lighter octave, "I'll pay for them." He said gesturing to the only table behind them occupied.
Out of sheer instinct, Tenn stole a glance back.
Apparently, Isumi Haruka sobered up a bit while waiting for Mido to return with their order. He was now listening in to the excited chatter of his leader. His gaze was dreamy, most likely he still was out of sorts, but he had enough consciousness to hold up an expression this peaceful.
Returning to Torao, now shifted, himself; properly sitting, glass in hand. "What's that drink called?" Tenn asked.
"It’s famous-drink-name made in famous-place-name. What does it matter. I don't take you one into drinks much less than your Mojito." And he glanced over his shoulder.
If veins could snap, Tenn heard himself bidding one goodbye right then, "good grief, I was just keeping conversation. So? What were you gonna say?"
"Where were we.." he made an exaggerated hum as if calling it back to memory, "right, you'll know the reason when you walk out."
It was an unsatisfactory answer but Tenn wasn't really one to insist nor seek stuff he wasn't graciously given.
Putting down his glass after a quick taste-test, "third turn." Torao smiled and whirled his hand through his hair.
"Even." Tenn guessed, deadpan.
"Wrong." Torao relaxed his eyes, as though he was the one in defeat; he was apologetic each time Tenn lost and had to share a secret of his own. Could it have been a guilty conscience for making Tenn take part in something he didn't really fancy? Then again it wasn't like Tenn couldn't have gotten up and left thirty minutes and a half ago if he had so desired.
It could have been the Mojito getting to his head or the fatigue, Tenn didn't know,
"It's another story about my childhood but, hear me out this time around." Tenn found himself confiding something he had shut-off far in the depths of his heart. He didn't want to deal with it so he pretended it didn't exist altogether.
"Winters were always a most hated season in our house. Riku and his sickness got much worse and along with them hospital visits became much more and sleep much less." He took a breathe, brooding for a moment, "Once winter hit, every last problem was no longer a priority. Riku was." Tenn took notice of the attentiveness now painted on Mido's face—one utterly forgetten long before he had seated himself beside him.
"Mom and Dad made room in their days for work than they did for anything else. Mainly for the reason to make sure they always stood on their feet in face of all those medicine and hospital bills. That also meant all their time, what laughably small amount was there, was dedicated to looking after Riku." Tenn said, caressing his words.
"Days on end i got sick lying immobile in my bed. But the side of my bed was never as warm and cared for as Riku's. I had made peace and didn't mind the fact. Until, on one terribly long night. The cold was extra harsh, my nose extra runny, my mind extra hazy and my emotions--"
"A disorder." Mido said, carried away.
Tenn nodded, "I felt extremely lonely that day. And it was almost as if the sadness of abandonment on every other similar night had came crashing down on me. It was uncomfortable and I hated feeling that way. I love Riku and my parents with all my heart. That's the one thing, more than anything, i can attest with full truth. But that night, overwhelming one, hovers over my skin like a bug crawling. It's repulsive and it was the time i thought, selfishly, that Riku had been far more chanced in life than i ever was."
Tenn broke their locked-on gazes, he looked down.
"I, for the first and last time then, hated my brother." His face had worn sentimentality it was never used to. Perhaps, it was why Torao felt the more Tenn had bore that expression the closer it was to unearthing the skin beneath it and have both crumble down from its weight.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I don't think much of it nowadays. For several reasons."
Puttimg down his drink with a thud, "well, you should." Torao positioned himself towards Tenn beside him.
"Hah?" Tenn's pink-tinted eyes dilated.
"I said I'm sorry because you're that way. You've ran off the deep end you've completely compromised your feelings. 'Selfish' you say? And what's wrong about it?" Be it by reflex or shrewd deftness, Tenn almost flinched back. However disappointing it may be, Mido held his darting eyes in place before they even were the fact.
"Where did this come from? Just to let you know i don't appreciate strangers' uncalled for snobbery." Tenn let out a weighed, exasperated sigh.
Resting his hand against his hips, nowhere else to move it, "Well, you told me your business so you'll have to deal with my so-called snobbery." Torao retorted.
"I told you.. I told you because you wanted to hear!" Tenn said, pitch in his voice Increased.
"And I'm now telling you that you've conditioned yourself into being a wreck of a cluster of self-sacrifices." Tenn watched as Torao's features bit by bit by the minute came to distort into a sour, censuring look.
Tenn began to shuffle involuntarily, looking away at the counter, then at the bowed-down piano and back to his own hands on his thighs "I'm not into your self-imposed issues being passed on me as judgements." He crossed his arms.
"Me neither. But I see things for the reality of them. I have been considering it for a while but—how many parts do you think you've cashed with no actual turnaround. Do you believe that every feeling and own desire you've turned into gainsay will turn around and come back to you, or quite more hilariously, be compensated?"
Tapping his feet, "your twisted views are not of any reliability, whatsoever." Tenn did so with light steps as to not be noticed.
"If everything about me is twisted, at least it retains part of credibility." Eyes now narrowed to slints, "you, on the other hand, have secluded away each truth you couldn't accept for the reality of them in a dark soot-infested room." By instinct, Torao lightly held Tenn's shoulder, it felt like a bug's glaze than anything, "your prespective is not even telling let alone paradoxical." He turned Tenn's head his way.
With lips tightly-pressed and a contemptuous face staring back, "I forfeit." Tenn brushed Torao's hand. He briefly checked his wristwatch, grabbed his coat and pulled away from his seat, leaving from the bar counter where his glass sat, and from Mido Torao.
As he headed for the door, "H-hey!" Torao stammered. His eyes immediately turned to Haruka and Touma behind him, they didn't seem even aware of much that was going on. They will manage. Telling himself that, Torao took his cue to follow his own whims.
The bell hung on the bar resounded once more as Torao made his way out. The last that wafted in the air was the strong-scented Acqua Torao often wore and often got scolded by Haruka for how 'overwhelming it was' and a modest Burberry, a less-known end.
.
.
The place outside was the stark contrast from the bar: if Tavern was lit, homely and warm in its atmosphere, the scenery before Torao now was stark in lightlessness, lethal cold, and unforgiving in the occasional storms of wind that passed now and then.
"Hold on, Kujo!" Torao forced his legs through the accumulated snow on the asphalt, quick steps enough to catch up. "Stop walking faster!" Torao finally managed to grasp his hand. Tenn immediately stopped in his tracks.
"Let go." Narrowed eyes reflected Torao's own ones. Taken aback, Torao, with all due honesty, didn't expect to have messed up that badly.
Ignoring him, Mido worked a tighter grasp on Tenn's hand. "No. Look around you, do you really think this is a weather for this?"
"I never intended to stay till it started snowing. You made me stay." Tenn said.
"And that's why I'm making up for it."
"I'll be fine."
Tenn powered enough strength to back away, shoving Torao back; his feet missing their distance, making him fall back two or three steps. The soles of his high-end hightops strudding against solid concrete.
Realizing he put more strength than was necessary, shock forceful than a current ran through Tenn's mind. Like the fleeting breeze replenishing disorder into the trees around him, Tenn's control over his body, intensified one instant, then burnt out the next. Before he took one step into Mido's direction to brush him off, his feet fell numb. Under his weight, they gave out.
Rather than the roughened gravel and cold snow jarring against him, Torao had grabbed him just in time, his hands encircled round Tenn's chest, their heat seeping to his heart even through the gloves' enshroudment.
"Like hell you will be." Mido sounded like he was gently scolding a child than anything. But it calmed Tenn's head.
"I didn’t anticipate the alcohol to hit me now of all times." With a self-mocking scoff, "how embarrassing." Tenn tilted his head, refusing to meet Torao's eye even though the latter was practically holding him.
"It’s because you changed temperatures fast and–" Torao looked into him, his eyes and lips smiling nostalgic of how they were when the night had just started, "there's also the getting worked-up."
"Can you rest me against that lightened railing. I feel like retching i just want to put my body back in check." Tenn asked despite himself, he could tell.
"Sure." Torao found it a little endearing.
After he pulled him up, Mido draped Tenn's right hand over his shoulder, it was to support his weight to the lamp-post but, deliberate or accidental Tenn couldn't figure clearly, his body then had felt the lightest it ever was. Mido might have rested his entire weight on him for all Tenn could know; but Tenn didn't know and, frankly, he couldn't care.
The barren lamp-post felt especially wintry against Tenn's back as Torao carefully, with uncharacteristic meticulousness that could have earned him a laugh or two had Tenn felt it appropriate, helped Tenn sit upright the ground.
"Thanks." His voice sounded hazy than he wanted it to be, "sorry for lashing on you earlier. That wasn't like me." With the little consciousness Tenn could piece together, he tugged many of the loose strands behind his ear.
"Nah, it's fine. I could've worded it better, I'm aware." With an enigmatic smile that Tenn wasn't even aware he could muster, Mido reached out and fixed Tenn's disheveled clothes. He was still meeting Tenn's eye-level despite their height differences; the same wind blew in the same cadence to them, Tenn supported against the one towering light-source in the night and Torao crouched opposite him.
"So we've both done each other wrong? All mud under water—let's leave it at that." Tenn said, the ardenty of his pulse in beats and lulls weaving into serenity.
"Hahaha, I like that one." Tenn looked into him, he saw Mido's lips upturn for the umpteenth time since their meeting. He didn't expect him the cheerful type—or maybe those were out of confidence; he wanted to convey himself a master of his self and others throughout his self-assured movements. Or it could have just been his way of trying to hide his struggle, hide that he was as reserved and anxious from meeting others as he made others to be from him.
Mido started to sound far away and, by some turn of stars, Tenn couldn't find it in him to mind him anymore. His head could put snowfall to shame: it was clear, light, and, curiously compliant.
Tenn extended his hand, sure that it was steady and grounded in its fluctuations, he grabbed a fistful of Torao's hair enough to shove his eyes in his, for their breathes to overturn each other. He knew what he wanted and with better haughtiness than Mido could ever manufacture the entire night, Tenn forced his lips against Torao's. Those wide-eyes reflecting his own stern ones made him have the briefest moment of satisfaction at the pure shock.
It took a second or two before Mido echoed his own euphony in tune. Tenn moved his lips, foreboding in fever, and wanting more, but more of what, he couldn't tell. Mido pried him open, stepping closer, until quiet muffled breaths rebounded off one and the other, then his other hand came up, the warm fingers, still gloved, grasped his waist, pulling himself closer against Tenn.
Interwoven in his kiss, Tenn's consciousness began to elapse by, the alcohol in his system was perhaps not the brightest idea for this, but he knows, firmly knows, all his defenses had gave way before the familiar mystery that lied between them. And this was but a byproduct.
"That flare-up you have might not be off beaten path, but it’ll have to do." Tenn's lips parted. "I merely wanted to know what it feels like," he whispered. Torao could tell by his heart thumping under him that he conceded his nod of decadence, that Tenn responded to his whims the same way humans did.
And then he pulled away, slowly. As they parted, another gush of wind overhauled the two by, more vehement than any of its predecessors, loathing them doing so.
Both fell silent. Like they had just been temporarily removed from who they are. They shared a moment of intimacy, foreign, possibly even immoral to either of them, out of sheer instinct or hedonistic value. As though, the scenery surrounding them, the streak of luck that set them up, had urged them, and they answered so in turn.
Tenn nor Torao bore the faintest of heated guilt or adolescent shyness. Neither of them yielded the moment of intimacy they just shared. They didn't need to.
"I will take you home in my car. You're in no state to walk."
"Unnecessary." Tenn said, trying to get up.
Torao watched in bore as Tenn's body gave out under him yet again, "what you mean unnecessary you're spinning and you're below the drinking age. I can't just leave you be." His voice picked a hurried octave than he originally intended.
"What about Isumi Haruka?" Tenn's face, slightly worn out from the fouling-up snow and impeding nausea welled in his throat before he pushed them back down. "Will you leave him behind just to bother me?" Tenn probably didn't know it, but he had betrayed himself—his body did.
The face staring down Torao, futily trying to maintain autonomy long forfeited, was not that of lethal bravado and make-believe disregard, It was a need that was both unpleasant and, rather laughably, overwhelmed in desperation. Handwritten on its walls, a want for warmth.
Running a knuckle down Tenn's cheek, "If Touma wasn't there, i'd have gone to Haruka in an instant." Mido's gaze was firm and Tenn, he didn't want to admit it, could feel all willingness to lengthen the night in him rendered a nuisance.
"Ha." Tenn scoffed. "Do what you want."