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Watching the clock as he wipes down the bar, Karube waits for that knock at the door.
With his boss out for the night for his and his girlfriend’s anniversary, the bar’s closed for the night - or it’s supposed to be. Instead, Karube’s got the keys and some thirsty friends. Once upon a time, it would’ve been him, Arisu and Chota here, now there’s a couple more of them and one less. The thought makes his chest ache a little and he pours Chota a drink in remembrance, setting it aside. It’s been a little over a year now since the meteor incident, since Chota had died and somehow Karube and Arisu had survived. Shibuya’s still recovering, so are most of the victims.
Karube’s hand slides to his throat, feeling over the scarring. The doctors had said it could’ve killed him, that it nearly did, that he was one of the luckiest to be alive. Sure, he might feel lucky, but it doesn’t necessarily feel good. Not when his friend is dead. 'Survivor’s guilt', Arisu had called it, he’d heard about it from his brother.
There’s a rapid knock at the door and Karube shakes the thoughts off, a smile pulling to his mouth. By now, he can recognise Kuina’s knock, a rap-a-tap of knuckles on wood. Hopping over the bar, he runs a hand through his hair and heads for the door, unlocking it with a flourish.
“Come on in,” he greets with a smile.
He quickly ushers the group in off the sidewalk. Since he’s not supposed to have people around without his boss knowing, he’s hoping to get them inside before anyone notices and dobs him in; by now, he’s sure he’s used up all his boss’ good will and guilt over 'firing a meteor victim'. They come in: first a smiling Kuina, followed by phone-distracted Ann, Arisu and Usagi practically arm-in-arm as Usagi discusses some mountain climbing trip, Chishiya strolls his way in, hands in pockets and only the briefest glance in greeting, and Niragi trails in last.
Karube perks up a little to see Niragi, half-surprised since it’s not unusual for Niragi to end up texting that he wouldn’t be coming whenever they invited him out. He’d been expecting a text an hour after everyone else turned up that Niragi was 'feeling sick' or 'working late'. Before Niragi’s can pick up on it, he curbs his obvious delight, flashing him an easy smile when Niragi glances at him in passing.
The group sidles up to the bar and Karube locks the door, then makes his way back around to the other side to pour up drinks. He slides glasses of beer towards Niragi, Arisu, and Chishiya; chuhai to Kuina and Usagi; and umeshu soda for Ann. Pouring up a beer for himself, they cheers and get the night started.
Some time later, Kuina snatches the phone from Ann’s hands, clapping it screen-down onto the bar. Ann frowns, her hand hovering frozen, holding nothing. The sound of the phone meeting the bar top draws the attention of the other’s. The guys and Usagi perk up and look down the bar towards the pair. They’re all a little tipsy, the air in the bar feeling warm, each of them a little pink-hazy in the face.
“You’ve been distracted all night,” Kuina complains, pouting frustration edging into her voice.
“I’m just checking in with work,” Ann replies.
She moves to reach for her phone, but Kuina’s hand is still covering it.
“If they need you, they’ll call. You’re off for the night anyway. Have some fun with us.”
“Why don’t we play a game?” Usagi asks, cutting in before the tension can grow heavier, “A drinking game? Like … kiku no hana?”
Karube snickers into the lip of his cup, “Too much sake makes Arisu barfy.”
Arisu goes pink all the way up to his ears, slapping at Karube’s arm for the exposé, and Usagi giggles a bit.
“Okay. How about truth or dare?” she suggests instead.
“It’s a bit childish, isn’t it?” Chishiya muses, rolling the base of his nearing-empty glass in a slow condensation-damp circle on the bar.
“Truth or dare or drink?” Kuina submits.
When there’s no complaints, just accepting shrugs, Karube glances around.
“Who goes first then?” he asks.
Kuina turns to Ann, “Truth or dare?”
Ann’s mouth twists and she shakes her head lightly with a sigh. It’s not hard to see the amusement edging in, a glint in her eyes.
“Dare then,” she replies as her phone goes forgotten.
“I dare you to finish your drink.”
Ann laughs lightly, “So my options are finish my drink or finish my drink?”
“Guess you gotta down it then,” Karube says, nudging her drink over.
Ann takes a breath and huffs quietly, picking up her drink. Bringing her glass to her mouth, she tilts her head back and down the plum-sweet mixer in a matter of gulps. There’s a short round of cheers and Karube leans to clap a hand on her shoulder with a laugh.
Ann sets her empty glass down and turns in her seat, running her gaze across the group as she makes her choice.
“Chishiya, truth or dare?” she asks.
Chishiya’s eyes slide towards her. He sets his glass straight and Karube takes it to fill it again.
“Truth,” he answers.
“Scared?” Ann teases.
“The only person I trust less to give me a dare is Kuina.”
“Boo!” Kuina cuts in, dragging it out.
Ann sets a hand over her’s, leaning back against her. Kuina’s free arm loops around her waist to hold her. Ann sighs a breath and tilts her head back against Kuina’s shoulder, looking to the bar’s yellow lights, thinking. Her fingers drum a thoughtless tapping against Kuina’s knuckles. With a cheeky flash of a grin, Kuina leans in to whisper against her ear. Ann’s mouth twists in a smirk, glancing sidelong at her.
“Okay. We can still have fun with 'truth'. You have to hook up with Arisu or Niragi, who are you picking?” she asks.
There’s a surprised pause. Karube snorts a quiet laugh.
Chishiya’s silent. He looks at Arisu sitting on one side of him, then over to his other side where Niragi sits. Arisu looks owlish, still reddish over the tips of his ears; Niragi looks unfazed, his dark eyes sliding to briefly meet Chishiya’s own. There’s a long pause, all eyes on the three of them. Chishiya picks up his glass and downs it. There’s a responding round of boos.
“Oh boring! New rule, you can’t drink on every round,” Kuina complains.
Chishiya sets his empty glass down, running his tongue across his teeth. It’s not often he drinks to excess, he doesn’t like his head to get too hazy. For tonight, however, he’ll allow himself a few more drinks than usual, especially if it means dodging a few questions.
Shifting in his seat, he lets his gaze land on Karube.
“Truth or dare?” he asks.
“Dare,” Karube replies smoothly, a confident smile on his mouth as he sets down Chishiya’s refilled glass on the bar in front of him.
They play a few more rounds, trading dares and truths.
Kuina gets dared to perform Karube’s choice of songs from the jukebox; Niragi questions Arisu about his actual ranking in a game they both play, Arisu flusters and almost drinks until Niragi calls him a coward; Usagi and Chishiya get dared to balance empty glasses on their foreheads with Chishiya losing and having to down another drink; Chishiya questions Ann about her scores in med school to compare them; Niragi successfully beats the high score on the bar’s shitty decade-old pac-man machine in an allotted five chances, much to Arisu’s bemoaning; Ann dares Karube to make an awful cocktail and then drink it, it’s disgusting and he goes to retch into sink, earning a round of laughter.
As it comes back around to Karube, they’re all happily tipsy.
“Karube, truth or dare?” Kuina asks, singsongy, out of her chair and leaning heavy on the bar.
Karube leans across from her, eye-to-eye.
“Dare,” he replies.
She hums, swaying back and forth on her feet as she thinks. After a few beats, she swings back to look him in the eye, a grin flashing to her mouth.
“I dare you to kiss Niragi. For no less than five seconds.”
Down the bar, Niragi jolts up in surprise, almost knocking over his glass in the process. Karube’s eyes narrow minutely and Kuina’s grin quirks slightly wider. Damn her and her perceptive gaze, Karube thinks.
It’s no lie that Karube has an … attraction to Niragi, for lack of a better word and a refusal to use 'crush' like he’s some kind of schoolgirl. He’d assumed he’d been keeping it pretty well under wraps, but apparently he’s been obvious enough for Kuina to catch on.
“It’s just a kiss,” Kuina says, clearly toying with him.
If that’s how she wants to play, then fine.
Karube pushes away from his side of the bar, turning to move the few steps down the bar to where Niragi sits on the other side. He slides Niragi’s glass out of the way. Niragi is looking a little bit like a dear-in-headlights, his ink-dark eyes wide. He seems to force himself calm. His lips flatten in a line and he huffs quietly.
“Fine, whatever, but just on the chee—”
Niragi is cut off as Karube cups his face and pulls him into a searing kiss. A shocked sound escapes Niragi, muffled against Karube’s mouth. His hands clasp onto the edge of the bar, steadying himself. The bar disappears and it’s just the warm haze of the air and the dark behind his closed eyelids. Karube’s lips slide against his, and his hands are warm against Niragi’s face. He fumbles with how to respond, letting Karube take the lead.
Coming back to himself, Niragi is suddenly painfully aware of the eyes on them. In his head, he counts it out, doubling it to make sure he isn’t counting too quickly. When he reaches ten, he forces his hands up to land on Karube’s shoulders, pushing him back and breaking the kiss. His face feels warm and he’s breathing a little hard and his mouth tingles. He can taste Karube on his mouth, slightly malty from the beer he’s been drinking all night.
Swallowing, Niragi goes to reach for his half-empty glass but Karube plucks it up before he can, taking a long sip from it himself. Karube meets his stunned staring gaze for a moment, then looks back to the rest of the group, seeming unfazed. Kuina is grinning. The others, except Chishiya, look pink-faced surprised. Chishiya’s as unreadable as always.
“So, who’s turn next?” he asks.
Karube deals Arisu an easy dare, quickly getting the focus off himself so he can attempt to disguise his own emotions. His heart is pounding in his chest, thumping like it could leap out of him. Niragi’s glass is sweating condensation into his clammy palm. He takes another long drink from it. Niragi’s still looking at him, he can feel his dark eyes staring into the side of his heated face.
Karube swallows the mouthful of beer, but he can still taste Niragi.
He tries to push it down. He tries to tell himself it was just a kiss, just a dare. Hell, it would probably never happen again. It wasn’t like Niragi liked him that way, they were just friends.
Lifting the glass back to his mouth, his eyes flit subtly sidelong towards Niragi. He watches Niragi’s tongue roll across his bottom lip, the piercing glinting under the bar lights. There’s a stutter in Karube’s chest and he swallows thickly, exhaling slowly against the lip of the glass.
The game continues without him. He refills glasses when necessary and coaxes the others on, but his attention is elsewhere. Niragi’s mostly clocked out as well, falling into the background as Kuina, Arisu and Chishiya all bounce truths and dares off each other, only sometimes remembering to shoot some off to Ann and Usagi.
Eventually, it winds down, dwindling off as Kuina wide-mouths a yawn into her knuckles and leans heavily against Ann. Arisu’s also looking particularly spent and even Chishiya’s slowed, seeming heavy-lidded as he leans his weight against the bar, his knuckles tucked under his chin to keep his head propped up. Karube, Ann, and Niragi are by far the most sober. Usagi’s a little hiccup-y, but not too bad considering.
“Okay, I think it’s time to close up,” Karube says.
There’s a quiet murmured round of agreement as they start to get up. They make their ways to the door, each partnering off as they step out onto the street. Kuina doesn’t live far off and insists she’s fine to walk; still, Ann takes her by the arm and steadies her as they walk away. Karube helps Usagi call over a taxi, then helps Arisu inside. Usagi offers to take Chishiya with them since he’s swaying on his feet, so Karube ushers him into the backseat beside Arisu, waving as the taxi pulls away.
“You good to get yourself home, Niragi?” Karube asks once they’re left alone.
Niragi glances at him, then back to the door of the bar.
“You’ve still got to clean up in there, right?” he asks, “I’ll stick around, give you a hand.”
There’s a flutter in Karube’s chest, but he replies, “You don’t have to.”
Niragi just shrugs.
“It’s fine. It’ll give me more time to sober up.”
“I’ll take you home.” Niragi looks at him. Karube quickly corrects himself, “I mean, I can help you get home. If you want.”
Niragi huffs, amused, then turns to head back into the bar. Karube rubs a hand over his face, cringing internally. Saying such dumb shit in front of someone he likes, he’s going to become Arisu at this rate. Shaking it off, he takes a breath and follows Niragi into the bar, closing the door again. Niragi casually strolls around to the other side of the bar, ruffling a hand through his hair to push it back from his face. He undoes the cuff buttons at his wrists and neatly rolls up his long sleeves up to his elbows.
Karube can’t help but stare a little. He’s no stranger to Niragi’s burns, even if he’s only seen them in passing. He’s familiar with the ones on Niragi’s face and the ones on his hands, but the others he usually keeps covered up. As Karube looks now, he notes how Niragi’s lean forearms are mottled with pink scarring interspersed over smooth pale skin, all the way up to hide under the rolled up sleeves and down onto the backs of his hands, wrapped over the defined points of his wrists.
“Are you going to come help me or just stare?” Niragi asks.
Thrown back into action, Karube quickly moves to step around the bar and help Niragi gather up the glasses. They stand shoulder to shoulder at the sink, washing the dirty glasses. Flicking water off his hands, Niragi plucks up a cloth and starts to dry the glasses, setting them alongside the neat rows of unused glasses when they’re shining. Still washing glasses, Karube’s eyes drop aside to watch Niragi’s hands, his gaze trailing over his long fingers.
“Is your boss going to be mad?” Niragi asks.
Karube’s eyes snap away and he shrugs, passing over another glass.
“Only if he finds out, but he’ll get over it. Besides, he won’t fire me, don’t you know I’m the best bartender around?”
Niragi smirks at that, bringing a grin to Karube’s own face. They continue to clean in casual silence.
Soon, Niragi dries the last glass and puts it aside. Drying off his hands, he hangs the cloth up and steps away. Karube finishes tidying up the sink, making sure the taps are turned all the way off and won’t be dripping through the rest of the night. When he turns around, he jumps slightly as Niragi moves in and cages him against the sink, hands landing either side of him.
Karube’s heart thumps in his chest, his breath catches. He’s too close. Karube can see the blur of his reflection in his piercings. His gaze flicks to the pink burn scar stretching over one side of his forehead and down to his cheek, the missing tail of his dark brow, then his eyes dart to Niragi’s mouth, soft and pink and making Karube’s heart stutter.
Head tilting, Niragi gazes at him, searching across his face, seeming to be looking for something in Karube’s face. Karube can’t tell what he’s thinking.
“Niragi?”
Niragi briefly presses his lips together, then moves back, straightening up and giving Karube enough room to feel like he can breathe again. Turning away, he steps around the bar, tucking a hand into one pocket. Karube stays, mostly-frozen, by the sink. Niragi looks back at him.
“Come on, you said you’d take me home, right?” he says with a quirk of his head towards the door.
Karube huffs quietly at the hint of teasing in his tone, but nods and walks around the bar. Turning the lights off, they step out into the cool night and Karube locks the door, shoving the keys into his pocket. The streets are beginning to grow empty as they start to walk off. Niragi’s place isn’t too far of a walk, but Karube’s apartment is in the entire opposite direction. Still, he makes no complaint though as he walks beside Niragi.
They walk along silently for a few minutes, then Niragi looks sidelong at him.
“So,” Niragi starts, “That kiss …”
Karube stiffens slightly. He wets his tongue across his bottom lip and forces a short laugh, running a hand through his blond hair.
“Just for the game, you know?” he replies.
“Oh. Sure.” He doesn’t sound like he believes him.
They go back to walking in silence, surrounded by the sounds of the city at night, cars passing by and late-night shops closing up and other people who are clearly more drunk, tottering along. Niragi’s shoulder bumps into Karube as he dodges around someone drunkenly stumbling by. Karube steadies him, a hand brushing against his still-uncovered wrist.
Soon enough, they’re stepping into Niragi’s building and taking the stairs up to Niragi’s floor. It’s a familiar walk up, this isn’t the first time Karube’s been around to Niragi’s apartment. As they reach his place, Niragi pulls his keys from his pocket, unlocking the door.
It hits Karube then. In a few moments, Niragi will be inside and Karube will have lost his chance to say anything. His answer will have to stand as is, that the kiss was just for the game and it didn’t mean anything. There’s a non-small part of him that doesn’t want to leave it at that.
Karube forces himself to move, he grabs Niragi’s wrist, stopping him before he can step inside. Niragi looks back at him, quirking his pierced brow, confused. Taking a breath, Karube circles his thumb over Niragi’s wrist, feeling the slight difference between burn and his skin.
“I was bullshitting. It wasn’t just for the game,” he says quickly.
Niragi smirks. His eyes flick down to where Karube’s hand is wrapped around his wrist. With a twist, he disentangles easily from his grip.
“I figured.”
Karube’s brows crease. Before he can speak, Niragi reaches out, his hand curling into Karube’s shirt and pulling him into a kiss. Now it’s Karube’s turn to be surprised. Their mouths slot together, Niragi’s lips moving smoothly against his. After a beat, his hand moves and lands on Niragi’s hip, pulling him closer and kissing him back heatedly. Niragi’s tongue slips into his mouth and Karube feels the piercing brush against his own tongue. Before he can do any more, Niragi steps back, a smile on his mouth.
“Goodnight, Karube.”
With that, he steps inside and closes the door, leaving Karube dazed in the hallway.