Work Text:
Oso took smoke breaks on the roof. His mom always got pissed about them smoking in the house so when he really needed a cigarette he would climb all the way up to the roof since apparently it was some great crime to stand right under the vent in the bathroom and smoke there, even though all the smoke was clearly getting sucked up— also Ichi smoked weed upstairs all the time and nobody ever said anything— but whatever, fine.
It was dusk and Oso laid down on his back, watching a plane fly overhead. He took a long drag of his cigarette and for once in his life he didn’t really mind the quiet. It had been a long fucking day, man, he’d gone to the store with his mom and to the park with Jyushi and had even made a brief appearance at the coffee shop to visit with— well, mostly annoy— Totty. That was a lot of stuff to do in one day for Oso, usually he kept it pretty low-key.
“Hey, you should really close this window so smoke doesn’t get in the house,” Choro’s voice said behind him, and when Oso turned he found Choro was standing in the window, arms crossed, mouth pulled down in a disapproving little frown. He could faintly hear idol music in the headphones around his neck.
“Hop off, Fappy,” he muttered with a chuckle. “I’m having quiet time right now. You’re disturbing the quiet.”
“I’m just saying,” Choro added with a sigh, rolling his eyes. “If you keep on getting smoke in the house Mom is gonna make you quit for real this time. I saw nicotine patches in the grocery bags today, I’m trying to help you.” Oso just shrugged and blew smoke in Choro’s face, which made him wave his hands around and make a prissy little whiny noise, even though he chuckled afterward. “Fuck you,” he said, snorting and reaching through the window, giving Oso a surprisingly solid punch on the shoulder.
Oso rubbed his arm. “Ooh! Ouch! That was a nice one, dude, have you been working out? Or is it just…” he made a jacking off motion with his hand and snickered.
“Shut the fuck up,” Choro said, but he was laughing, too.
Oso just grinned and leaned his head back, then asked around his cigarette, “What are you doing right now?”
Choro shrugged. He motioned to his headphones, to his phone. After a moment he made a “pff” noise and a jacking off motion, then held up his hands and shrugged again. When Oso laughed out loud, he could see Choro grinning.
He scooted over a little and patted the spot beside him. “You can join me if you want. C'mon, take a break. Unless you’ve got some urgent fapping to get to.”
“I guess it can wait. I guess,” Choro said with a shrug, and he took the headphones off of his neck and unplugged them from his phone, tossing them somewhere back in the room. Oso helped him through the window and Choro settled in next to him, fingers laced together over his stomach.
They were quiet for a few minutes, just the sound of Oso smoking and the traffic below, silence occasionally punctuated by sounds from inside the house. Oso could faintly hear the television, which meant it must be absolutely blaring.
“Who’s got the tv turned up so loud?” Oso asked around his cigarette, chuckling.
“Totty,” Choro sighed. When Oso glanced over at him his eyes were closed, like he was trying to fall asleep sitting up. “He’s mad because everyone keeps talking when he’s trying to watch his show. So he’s turned it up so loud you can’t talk over it.”
“Totty? No, that doesn’t sound like Totty at all,” Oso said in a sarcastic tone of voice, laughing.
“I know, he’s always been so good about not getting his way. Very out of character,” Choro responded dryly.
Oso chuckled. “What a brat,” he muttered. “I love him.”
“Yeah,” Choro mumbled.
“I saw him at work today.”
“Yeah?” Choro opened one of his eyes, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Was he mad?”
“Oh my god,” Oso nodded, widening his eyes. “Choro, he was fucking livid.” Choro laughed. “He was all…” Oso pulled out his phone and pretended to text, rolling his eyes and making a cutesy little grin with his mouth, saying in his best possible approximation of Totty’s voice, “Oh my god can you please not come to my place of business, please!” Choro laughed so loud that he covered his mouth. “He handed me my drink and wrote you’re dead to me on the cup, I’m not kidding, I’m not kidding, Choro!” Choro slapped his knee. “And he made me pay for the drink, no employee discount or anything!”
“Oh! So cold!” Choro snorted and then pulled out his phone, too, wrinkling up his nose and hissing through his teeth, “Oh my god I’m gonna subtweet you if you don’t fuck off in like three, two, one, that’s it, 180 characters of fuck you coming right at you.”
“I swear if my manager wasn’t here I would throttle you,” Oso mimicked, and Choro just shook his head, laughing. “I’m gonna call my big bad sleepy boyfriend and he’ll hit you with his fancy fucking car.”
“Big bad sleepy boyfriend,” Choro repeated, wiping at the corners of his eyes. “Oh my god, fuck! Perfect.”
“Atsushi drives up to hit me with his car, rims spinning,” Oso added around his cigarette, and Choro laughed so hard he was clutching at his stomach. Oso put on a sleepy eyed expression and said in a deep, monotone voice, “You… fucked… up, …Matsuno.”
“Oso, stop, please, I’m gonna piss myself!” Choro gasped, covering his face with his hands.
They both laughed until they couldn’t anymore, Choro leaning forward and Oso leaning back against the window. Eventually their laughter subsided, Choro still wiping at his face and snickering, and Oso looked over at him, lighting another cigarette and thinking about how nice it was to make his little brothers laugh.
Once Choro had fully calmed down, Oso jostled him with his elbow and asked, “So. Apply to any jobs today?”
Choro groaned. He ran his hand through his hair. “No. What a clusterfuck.”
“Somebody’ll hire you. You’re smart,” Oso said, shrugging.
Choro laughed a bitter little laugh. “Not really,” he mumbled. He pulled one of his knees up to his chest, hugged his arms around it. “I dunno. It seemed that way in school, I guess. But even then, I wasn’t… I dunno. I don’t have any natural talent.”
“Who gives a shit about natural talent, you worked your ass off, you got the grades, work is work, you know,” Oso put in.
“But I cared a lot more, then. I don’t… I dunno. I don’t think I’m that person anymore, you know? Well. I guess I also don’t know if I should be.” he sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. “I mean, getting honor roll was nice. It was. But I drove myself fucking crazy. I don’t think I can do that again. I felt really… bad.” he paused, then added with a shrug, “But then again. It’s not as if I exactly feel good now.”
“Hmm.” Oso nodded.
Choro just shrugged again and rested his cheek against his knee.
Oso paused, then offered the cigarettes and lighter to Choro, who held up his hand and shook his head at first, then relented and took a cigarette. He struggled with the lighter for a moment, then handed it to Oso, who snorted and lit the cigarette for him.
Choro coughed a little but gave a loud sigh, relaxing against the window. “I dunno. It’s. Fucking bleak.”
“Yeah. You’ll figure it out, though,” Oso remarked, trying to sound encouraging. “You always do, right? So. It’ll be okay. And even if it isn’t. It’ll still be okay, because Totty’s big bad sleepy boyfriend has saved us all with his cash.”
Choro chuckled and shook his head. “I need to get me one of those.”
“A boyfriend?”
“I meant someone successful so this all isn’t such a big deal, but…” he took a long drag of his cigarette. “Yeah, that too.”
Oso looked down at the street below, thinking about all the time they’d spent sitting on the roof, all the whispered conversations and quiet debates and laughs over stupid jokes. They had been inseparable as kids, two alike minds, always laughing, always playing and joking and running and always, always together. How long had it been since it had been just him and Choro up there?
Oso took a long drag of his cigarette. “Why don’t we do this anymore?” he asked.
“Because I haven’t smoked since high school,” Choro answered.
“No, I mean why don’t we hang out anymore,” Oso said.
Choro paused. Oso looked over at him. He just fiddled with the top button on his shirt, looking down at the cigarette. He glanced over at Oso. He shrugged. “I dunno. I kinda thought you didn’t want to.”
Oso made a face. “What?”
Choro just shrugged again.
“Dude!” Oso exclaimed, punching Choro on the arm.
“Ow,” Choro whined, rubbing at his arm. “Why are you so rough.”
“Choro, I always wanna hang out with you!” Oso went on, ignoring his complaints. He slung his arm over Choro’s shoulders, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and shaking him around a little, which made Choro whine again, even though he was laughing a little. “Dude! Dude!! You’re my best friend!”
Choro looked at him like he was surprised.
“C’mon, you know that,” Oso said, rolling his eyes. It felt very obvious to him. “You’ve always been my best friend. Even if you’re a pretentious, fappy, lame-ass otaku now.” Oso laughed.
Choro’s face wrinkled up in derision and he laughed, rolling his eyes. “Whatever. I guess you’re my best friend, too, even if you’re a lazy asshole fuckboy now.”
Oso gasped. “Ouch!” He put his hand over his heart. “I am not a lazy asshole fuckboy! I’m a lazy asshole douchebag. I’m not a fuckboy. We’re two very different breeds of asshole.”
“Oh my god, whatever,” Choro said around his cigarette.
“Whatever is right, Fappy,” Oso said, and Choro just laughed in response. Oso tightened his grip on Choro’s thin, slumpy shoulders and added, “Let’s do this more often, okay?”
Choro gave a loud, beleaguered fake-sigh, answering dryly, “I suppose I can work you in.”
Oso chuckled and shook him around one last time before taking his arm back so he could put up his hood. It was starting to get chilly out. He could see Choro rub his arms out of the corner of his eye.
“We can go in if you want,” Oso remarked around his cigarette, but Choro shook his head, crossing his legs.
“Nah. I wanna hear you do more Atsushi impersonations,” Choro responded, and Oso laughed and obliged.
They sat on the roof until well into the night, swapping jokes and smoking and Oso couldn’t help but think that this was exactly how it was supposed to be.