Chapter Text
Atsushi wouldn’t exactly call himself a connoisseur of fanfiction, but he was familiar enough with the concept that he was most certainly aware of the Coffee Shop AU. Generally it involved two people meeting at, well, a coffee shop, that part wasn’t complicated. One character was a customer the other a barista, also not complicated. The two have their “meet-cute” and either like each other right away or get insulted over coffee or something equally insignificant leading to numerous wacky coincidental run-ins, even if the location is in a city of thousands. Honestly, the coffee shop aspect is only important in the first chapter, after that you would never know that the barista character even works at all with how little the coffee shop is later brought up… assuming the story isn’t a one shot, that is.
Again: Atsushi did not consider himself a fanfiction expert, but he was a step above merely a casual reader.
The point is, coffee shop AUs were overrated and he could prove this by showing anybody who disagreed with him the cute drunk barista he was currently dragging from his car. Yes, he had met Todomatsu at a coffee shop. Yes he was a cute barista. Yes they had exchanged numbers after what he thought was some adorable flirting, but then Todomatsu left his job over mysterious circumstances he vehemently refused to disclose and Atsushi can safely say that nothing that happened afterwards was in any way what so ever worthy of fluff fanfiction.
Which is why he couldn’t figure out his undying adoration for the little shit.
Oh, Atsushi had tried to stop thinking about how Todomatsu's legs looked fantastic in shorts. He made a point to avert his eyes every time Todomatsu chewed his rather full bottom lip when concentrating during a game of GO. He had made absolutely sure to avoid noticing that when the young man was particularly excited about something he had a tendency to squint his eyes from smiling so much. And most importantly he made it a point to never under any circumstances ever take Todomatsu over to his place to spend the night, no matter what... ever. It would lead to terrible things, and he wasn't sure if they had even had their first date yet.
Maybe under that list he should have put “stop going out drinking with Todomatsu, and especially stop offering to pay.” Because seriously, now he'd just look like a jerk if he were to leave the poor guy drunk and alone and unable to communicate where he lived. All that Atsushi seemed to be able to get out of him was something about juice and a previously never mentioned older brother. Todomatsu was way too far gone to be trusted alone, not to mention previously upset about something. He wouldn't say, but he sure as hell was ranting a lot about some group of guys. Luckily he tended to be a happy drunk, so he calmed down, but still he was in need of a "friend."
Hence we find our love struck fool very unromantically hauling an inebriated shit head into an elevator. With a sigh of relief, Atsushi leans against the elevator wall after pressing the top floor button. He'd still have to manage further down another hallway and then somehow unlock his apartment door, but he had found a good position with Todomatsu more clinging to his chest like a koala than weighing down his left side. Not only was it unfairly adorable, but it made Todomatsu actually carry part of his own weight, a feet rarely achieved sober much less intoxicated. Add in the fact that Atsushi was also having to carry his not-purse that he had never figured out why Todomatsu needed ever, and you can see why even having one hand in this situation was considered a victory.
“Hmmm, A-sushiiii?” Todomatsu slurred.
“Yes, Todomatsu?” Atsushi responded.
“There's.... there's no bed n' here...”
“You're right. This is an elevator.”
“I-Ichi... mm-su knee'sh cats'll be piiiiiiiissed.”
“Well, I can't help you with that, sorry.”
More unintelligible mumbles were heard against Atsushi's chest while the doors finally dinged open. With a huff, Atsushi once again started to drag Todomatsu out and down the hallway until they reached his door. Thankfully he had thought ahead, making sure to keep his keys already out so unlocking his apartment proved a little easier. With a well placed kick behind him and a rather careless toss of Todomatsu's bag to who-the-hell-cares-where, the two were inside and soon also in Atsushi's bedroom where he not so gracefully tossed his companion onto the queen sized bed.
Atsushi let out a breath of relief and tugged at his tie as he sat at the edge of the bed. Todomatsu's breathing had quickly evened out into cute little sighs as it seemed he had already fallen asleep. Atsushi wasn't surprised, he was honestly more surprised that the guy hadn't slept in the car. He might as well have been with how little help he was mobility wise, but the times the two had gone out drinking Todomatsu had shown to be a sleepy, cheerful drunk. Better than a loud drunk, but no less trouble.
“I guess you really are spending the night here, huh?” Atsushi said, glancing down at Todomatsu.
It was definitely preferable that he could have taken Todomatsu to his own home, but Atsushi wasn't necessarily adverse to this turn of events. He did enjoy spending time with his friend, after all, and this could be something they'd laugh about later. That was probably why Atsushi was so found of him, now that he thought about it.
Todomatsu was rather two faced, if Atsushi was being blunt. However, so was Atsushi. He had to be in the business world. There was no way he was capable of actually liking all of his coworkers, and don't even get him started on his superiors. Most of them were complete dicks who could get away with it since they were so high up in management. But Atsushi would be damned if he was going to be stuck underneath their thumbs for the rest of his career. So yes, he was absolutely playing the part of the good Yes Man, smiling at all the right things and waving off horribly inconvenient tasks given to him as “no big deal!” while also dealing with suck ups of his own. It was exhausting.
Which is where Todomatsu came in.
The two had met at Sutabaa's while Todomatsu was working there, and again, their initial talking and meet ups on Atsushi's end had been because he thought Todomatsu was cute. He could never seem to get much out of him about his personal life when they started meeting up outside of the coffee shop, though, and always felt that there was a lot about Todomatsu that he wasn't being told. The effeminate man was always side stepping questions about himself and giving Atsushi over whelming compliments that for some reason didn't ring as completely true, possibly even passive aggressive, and just reminded him of the work place, always saying the rights things at the right time whether you mean them or not. It wasn't a relationship that Atsushi wanted, and he was honestly about to give up even being friends with him. That is, until he happened to be showing Todomatsu a picture of a company charity event with some of the CEOs, since one of the few things he knew about the guy to be true was that he liked flowers and there were plenty of them in the picture. The place stank.
Atsushi had been expecting a simple response along the lines of, “Wow! They're so pretty!” or, “You're so important at such a young age, Atsushi-kun~!” Boringly predictable stock phrases that only serve to be complimentary yet still neutral.
Instead what he got was a snort followed by, “How can that guy manage a company when he can barely manage his comb over?”
There was a beat of silence as Todomatsu looked horrified at his own statement and was probably about to go back on it, until Atsushi began choking on his drink from his sudden outburst of laughter. As Todomatsu lightly patted his back in confusion, Atsushi couldn't stop cackling. It wasn't like it was the funniest thing he'd ever head, but good god, it had been near exactly what he had been thinking about that particular CEO for months and hearing Todomatsu say it so casually out loud and in such a catty manner was... rather refreshing. He would say at that time it was out of character, but it actually seemed like it was the most honest thing that had come out of Todomatsu's mouth ever since he met him, obnoxious or not.
Once Atsushi could breath again, he had turned to his drinking buddy, still chuckling, and told him that the one with the glasses had spent most of the charity event name dropping a celebrity that had supposedly asked him out to dinner.
Todomatsu had looked at Atsushi with wide eyes, before a slow smirk curled at his lip giving him a cattier appearance than normal and asked if the man was at least fifty years old because that was how long it had been since anybody had given a shit about said celebrity.
That night had been the first of many in which Atsushi had felt like Todomatsu had been genuinely relaxed around him and that the two had finally found the ice breaker in their relationship. Ever since, Todomatsu hadn't been shy at all to show his more, well, human side. It was quite the nasty side, definitely, but honestly it felt good to have someone like that in his life. It made it so Atsushi was comfortable venting his numerous work frustrations without worrying about it coming back to bite him in the ass. The two knew they could trust each other and felt comfortable enough in one anothers' company to let go and just say what they felt. It was certainly better than keeping it in until it blew up in the worst way possible, that's for sure. He could probably say that Todomatsu was the closest to a best friend he had in his adult life and that perhaps he didn't want to try for a romantic relationship with him anymore. Sure, he still found Todomatsu quite attractive, it had been the entire reason he wanted to get to know him after all, but they were definitely friends first.
Atsushi liked it that way, too, just being friends.
Then he actually started to pay attention to their behavior.
It could be blamed on how happy he was, having somebody who seemed to near completely understand him and whom he had so much fun with. It also could be blamed on the occasional lunch Todomatsu would send to his office as a surprise if he was too swamped with paperwork to head out for something. There was also the matter of him apparently never stopping his chatter of one simply referred to as “Todo-chan” in practically every conversation his had with a coworker. All of that must have contributed to eventually one of his work friends informing him that he, “really need to lessen that love stank ya' got there, man.”
Atsushi was halfway through the phrase "what are you talking about" when reality finally smacked him upside the head.
Yes, Atsushi was swimming in a shit ton of love stank.
And the person of the stank's source was probably most likely maybe definitely only a kind of friend. That made life suddenly way too awkward for Atsushi to handle at that point, which caused a lead in to an embarrassing week of avoiding Todomatsu completely... not his finest moment.
When he finally found the courage to face Todomatsu with the excuse of “it was just a busy week at work, lots of meetings!” he only felt like the biggest douche bag on the planet with how noticeably hurt Todomatsu was. Todomatsu would occasionally pout at being teased or pull some crocodile tears to get the two some sort of discount when he didn't feel like just flat out lying, but Atsushi had never actually seen him genuinely upset. No, that time had shown him a Todomatsu with pinched eyebrows, bags under his eyes and biting at the inside of his cheek seeming to keep himself was crying.
An attempt at stuttering out his practised excuse was made, but when Todomatsu interrupted him by nearly yelling that he should have at least texted him back ONCE if he was that tied up so he wouldn't be worrying about him as much as he was, "you dumbass!"
“I thought you were mad at me,” was tacked on while he looked at the ground, gnawing at his bottom lip anxiously.
The pain Atsushi felt in immense guilt certainly drove home his more-than-friends feelings a thousand times more. It also drove in how bad Atsushi was under stress in a non work enviroment, it seemed, but that was for another time. At that moment, he felt it more important to apologize to his friend, and shove the possibility of their relationship being more to the side. Just being with Todomatsu in any way was fine and he didn't want to ruin what they had any more.
After he begged for forgiveness, it was a bit awkward for all of ten minutes until Todomatsu sighed and told Atsushi, “I can't be mad at your stupid face. Just... I don't know, buy me a cookie and we'll forget your behavior so long as you don't ignore me again, okay?”
As Atsushi had somehow blurted out an agreement over the deal, despite his previous vow to stop overanalyzing their status, he still couldn't help but to question whether they were unofficially dating already, just no kissing.
He was still debating that.
A small sigh sounded from behind Atsushi, along with some rustling bed sheets, bringing him back to the present. Todomatsu had rolled over onto his side and was now curled up like a kitten, a content little smile on his lips. Atsushi couldn't help a smile of his own at the sight. It was nice that Todomatsu seemed so comfortable in a different bed, even if he was unaware of it at the time. Atsushi would have to make sure he had some clothes to change into in the morning in case he wanted a shower, along with an impressive breakfast for two. He wasn't necessarily trying to woo his friend during a hangover, that sounded impossible, but some extra hints in how much he cared about Todomatsu wouldn't hurt.
In the meantime, Atsushi would have to somehow make himself comfortable on his couch as Todomatsu had full control of the pillows and the man wasn't about to be a creeper any longer than he already was. It was one thing to provide a bed for your drunk friend to make sure they're okay, but it was another to stare at your drunk friend to whom you have a romantic interest in as they slept and entertain the idea of... maybe, you know, brushing some hair out of their face, nothing too salacious, and sliding under the sheets next to them since it is your bed and...
And that was Atsushi's queue to turn off the lights and leave Todomatsu to his rest, along with a bucket by his side, just in case of any late night sickness.
Laying as comfortably on his couch as possible, Atsushi stared up at his ceiling, trying to empty his mind so he could actually sleep. It was well past midnight and while in his early twenties he could go to four in the morning and still be fine for work at seven, something apparently happens when you turn twenty five that makes you unable to keep up with your pretty twenty three year old friends... and he was back to Todomatsu. Anyway, he didn't have work in the morning, hence why he went out at all, but he was exhausted and really just wanted to sleep.
“My back will probably be in knots tomorrow,” he murmured to himself. He was rather tall, so his feet were hanging off the end of the couch. There was no blanket, either. His wall clock's ticking seemed louder than it usually was to the point where he was debating whether he should take the batteries out for the night. Maybe that was what was keeping him up? It was so quiet, after all. He was also pretty sure that he could hear his AC humming, despite it being top of the line and supposed to be near silent while also saving electricity. Not to mention, it shouldn't have been running.
There was a sound of some sort, though, now that he was really focusing on it, Atsushi was starting to be sure of that. It was a something like a humming, but not?
His thoughts were cut short by a loud enough thump and crash to make him shoot upright, followed by a scrambling sound and banging against something.
Atsushi quickly made his way back to his bedroom.