Archive of Our Own

They just about fit into the little front yard, with the gate latched behind the last of them. The limited space was kinda welcome, with them all rubbing their hands together or snuggling their faces into scarves or the necks of their hoodies. In that little front yard they made a kind of huddle against the cold, and actually, Bane turning his head around to check everyone was correct and present -- at least by Bane standards -- there was a kind of team spirit about them all braving the cold together to--

"Bane hurry up and knock, it's freezing!" Ryoh said, from somewhere within his scarf. Bane scoffed at him, but he turned back to the door, let his hand hover over the prime knock-spot for a moment, taking it in. He held his breath, and felt stupid for holding his breath, not like it was HIS birthday, but he chuckled because it was Davide's birthday, and he liked that he was excited for it. Then a heavy shove from behind drove his fist against the door, and he remembered to knock.

After a few moments the door pulled open, and Davide's mom popped her face around the side of the door. There was mischief on that face, and a finger pressed against her lips. She smiled, at first, to Bane and then looked at the group behind him with a warm sparkle in her eyes. Bane opened his mouth, but she hissed at him, holding her finger up to her lips again, so Bane let his shoulders drop and obeyed her. She beckoned them, not in the normal way, she beckoned them inside with a curl of her finger, and Bane stepped inside only to realise the others didn't get it. Bane scowled and motioned towards the inside of the house with a nod of his head, and the rest of them gasped and let off little plumes of steam, and followed.

Once all their shoes and coats were removed (as quietly as possible, at the risk of a hiss from Davide's mom), she gathered herself at the foot of the stairs and called in her clear, birdsong voice, "Hikaru?" The rest of her words were chirped out in French, but Bane felt for once like he got the gist. A little way removed came the reply, but that voice was deep and rich and the sound of it seemed to vibrate even through the house and tremble in Bane's chest.

When she'd heard, "Oui, maman," Davide's mom turned to the group and shooed them on into the living room. Saeki's mouth was agape, and Kentaroh seemed wonderstruck, so Bane put a hand around each of their shoulders and helped them through the door. Then Davide's mom closed the door on them with one last hush and a wink before she disappeared.

And five pairs of eyes turned to Bane.

"What's going on?" Icchan asked, in a whisper he couldn't get quiet with the humming of his nose.

"Davide's FRENCH?" Saeki cut in, still gaping at Bane. Bane shushed him, and Saeki repeated, "Davide's FRENCH?" in the soundless shaping of his lips.

"Davide's mom always looks really pretty," Kentaroh said, with a volume that wasn't anywhere close to a whisper. Saeki turned to him, mouth still hanging open.

"And she's FRENCH?"

Above them came the thudding of Davide's heavy tread on the stairs, and Bane waved his hand to get them to simmer down. And Bane heard Davide arrive safely downstairs, and then a short exchange in French. He heard his name being mentioned, and then he heard suspicion in Davide's voice. Then the door handle began to turn, so slow that it seemed kind of reluctant. But then the latch clicked, and Davide entered the room.

"Happy birthday!!" Bane cheered, and Davide stared at him, a little wide-eyed.

"Happy birthday, Davide!!" The group rushed forward to greet Davide, but he looked stuck, hand still gripping the door handle, elbow still sharp and parallel to the wood. He blinked at them all.

"Davi?" Bane said, missing off the 'Earth to'. Davide's puzzled eyes looked back at him. Then he caught himself.

"Ah," he stammered, "Uh. Hello." Then Davide frowned down at his own hand, tight on the door handle, as if he wondered why it was still there. He removed it in the kind of self-conscious way that made it look like he didn't want anyone to think he was self-conscious, and was rather hoping nobody would say anything about it.

"Are you shocked!" Kentaroh said, clenching his fists with glee, "You look shocked! This is sooo great!" Davide stared at him. "Um, it's great, right, guys?"

"It's nice to get to hang out with you on your birthday!" Icchan said, with a puff of his nose, "We never do this, so that's pretty great!"

"Your house is so nice!" Shudoh said. He had his hands in his pockets and was craning his neck to take in the height of the ceiling, "How have I never been over before?"

"Actually, neither have I!" Kentaroh said, plopping his fist into his open palm, "I never even thought about it."

Saeki stepped forward from the group towards Davide. "Davide… your mother is French?"

Davide narrowed his eyes and said, with a cautious voice, "I… I know?"

"All this time??" Saeki demanded. Probably nobody noticed, but Davide jumped and glanced aside. Bane stepped up and clapped Saeki's shoulder.

"Nah, man, she's a Martian on weekends. We know she's French! Drop it now, alright?" Saeki looked up at him with big, round eyes, a kind of face that didn't suit his chick-flick love interest get up.

"But nobody told me," he said in a shallow whisper. Bane pursed his lips and nodded, and moved Saeki aside.

Bane stood just in front of Davide, and waited. Davide sighed to himself, watching his strawberry-patterned slippers shift on the floor. "Davi?" Bane tried again, and Davide looked up at him, and the feeling that came to Bane's mind when he saw the look in Davide's eyes, was that he looked 'betrayed'. "Yer mom, she thought-- since she's never even met anyone -- oh, 'cept Kentaroh -- she thought it would be a nice…" Davide's shoulders dropped and he looked down at the floor again, the droop of his frame taking a few locks of his hair out of place, and over his face. "…surprise," Bane said.

He had to go. It was dark already, and nearly dinner time at his place, and somehow now that everyone knew it was more weird for them to spend a whole night together. But he sat on Davide's bed, body turned inwards towards Davide's so their legs crossed over and under one another. He had his arms scooped around Davide's back and his waist, and Davide's hand stroked him, down from his shoulder, towards his chest. There were whole long stretches of seconds when they didn't move, and the room was silent in them, and in them there was somehow something more sexy than when their tongues or lips had to move and make that wet sort-of-squeak noise. It was like they held onto each other even more in those moments so that even this or that movement, this taste, that breath, had to be dragged out as long as possible. Then they'd be together still, as long as possible. And it was weird how everything was a hurry before they told their folks, but Bane felt like he took it for granted. Time didn't pass so quickly back then, or something, and fast was good, but now there wasn't enough time, and now he tried to pull back, reluctant, but needing to, and Davide's arms held him tighter, and so he couldn't, not until they'd finished kissing. But they stopped, somehow, and looked at each other with regret, and he said, I have to go…, and Davide said, No…, but they knew it.

They knew really, they were kissing like on a doorstep to say goodbye, because they couldn't do that on a doorstep. When he WAS on the doorstep, and still flashing an expression to Davide that was both pitying and pitiable, Davide's mom was the one to step outside with him. And she said, I don't want to make you late for dinner, in the way that she spoke that was always not as perfect as Bane's memory filling in for her, and in a way that scolded, you should have left a long time ago! But she said, wouldn't it be nice if, for Hikaru's birthday, and don't you think he would love it, and it worries me that I never see his friends! Bane frowned at her, polite as he could, because he could feel the way his relationship to Davide's mother had changed since she knew about them. "I am just thinking, spending Hikaru's birthday with EVERYONE he cares about, isn't that most wonderful?" Bane remembered the exact way she'd said Everyone, and the exact way he felt it meant, Not Just You. But he laughed and he smiled and he said it was a great idea. "Won't you? Invite them all for me, Haru-chan? Oh. But it's secret. Secret for Hikaru."

"You do… want us here, don't you, Davide?" Icchan said, taking a step towards him to get his attention.

"Sorry," Davide said, looking up from the floor again and tucking his hair behind his ear, "I-I mean, yes! S-sorry that I… was…" His words stopped and he scowled, Bane thought, at himself.

"You weren't expecting it," Ryoh said, with a kind laugh.

"Well, then the surprise was a success, right?" Saeki said, putting his hands on his hips. Kentaroh bounced up to Davide and held up a little bag.

"And, don't forget, we brought you presents!!" Davide managed a little twitch at the side of his mouth, and he showed Kentaroh where he could put the bag of presents, and invited everyone to sit down. As soon as they chattered amongst themselves, Davide tugged at Bane's shirt.

"I need to talk to you," he said, in a low voice, with his brows knitted close. His fingers fidgeted, and Bane tilted his head and watched him. "Y-y'know, later," Davide added.

"Sure, okay," Bane said, sliding his arm around Davide's shoulder and holding him there. Davide nodded to himself, strengthened, it seemed. And then Davide's mom bustled in behind them.

"Excusez-moi!" She said, bumping her little shoulder into their backs so they had to separate, and she passed between them, calling out a sharp, "Merci!" Davide sighed. His eyes met Bane's, and there was longing in them, but he turned his face away and stepped after his mom. She was arranging a tea tray of snacks and drinks on the table, and passing cups and mugs out to the boys and asking in her singsong way what they'd like to eat or drink.

"Amane-san, you're very good at Japanese!" Saeki lied. Bane shot Davide a look, and Davide raised his eyebrows in reply. Davide's mom stood up straight, to her full height which was much taller than Saeki even when he wasn't seated. She gasped in her dramatic way, and put a hand over her heart.

"Non, non, you musn't, silly boy!" The room fell silent except for the sound of Saeki swallowing. Davide's mom flicked her hand out towards him, "I am Cherie, please. Amane-san is my husband! I cannot be used to it, no. Cherie is my name." She looked around at all of them and they nodded without certainty. "Okay?" She got scattered okays in reply, and so she turned to Davide for help.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to Mama?" He said, and his mom clapped her hands together.

"Introduce yourself," she repeated, copying his tone and rhythm in a mechanical way, "yes, please," she said.

Saeki's hand shot out towards her, "Saeki Kojiroh! It's a pleasure!" Davide's mom stared at his hand for a moment, and then when she shook it, that looked quite mechanical too.

She nodded vaguely at him, until Bane subbed in, "Hikaru probably mentioned him to you as Sae-san." She looked over her shoulder at Bane and said, Ahh, gotcha, and there afterwards counted on Bane to tell her, by giving their nicknames, who she was talking to.

"So nice to meet all of you," Davide's mom said, picking up her tea tray and folding it against her chest as she spoke. "Now, Hikaru?" She whirled around to him, and he smoothed back a piece of his hair to show he was listening, "I will get cake for… friends," She pointed to them with a jab of her thumb over her shoulder, "Your sister will be here, an hour--" Davide asked her something in French and she replied in French, and then, in Japanese again, "In an hour, maybe, Hikaru's sister will come, okay?" She turned her head, making sure the group knew she was talking to them. "Haru-chan already knows," and then she turned and looked sadly at Bane, "you will not fight?"

Bane opened his mouth but Davide cut in, "Maman!"

"I'll be on my best behaviour," Bane said. Davide's mom hummed through pursed lips, but she nodded at him.

"Maybe you do not want to make her upset," she said. She had her hand on her hip and she raised an eyebrow at him. Bane frowned.

"I don't want to make her upset…?" He said. There was a pause dragging out between the two of them, in which the rest of the boys on the couch had thought it'd be a good idea to pretend not to be there by starting new conversations of their own. Bane's eyes flicked towards Davide for assistance. Davide's mom spoke to Davide in French, without taking her eyes off Bane, and for all that Bane couldn't understand Davide's reply in words, he understood it in tone.

Davide's chest heaved and he crossed his arms over it and shook his head, but it was subdued, and Bane saw Davide's knuckles flashing white as he clenched his half-hidden fists. It looked like he was holding his anger close inside him, with his stiff, tucked in elbows, and the lips that puckered because he was grinding his teeth. Bane turned away from Davide's mom altogether. He started to put a hand out, to reach for Davide, but Davide's face scrunched up for just a brief moment, like he winced at the thought, and so Bane clenched his own fist and brought it back to his side. The French conversation drew to a close, ending with Davide's words being cut off with short words from his mother, and Davide heaved a long sigh and gripped at his own crossed arms.

Davide's mom turned back to Bane, "Haru-chan, please. Be good?" She said, and then she turned away and left them all to it.

Bane turned to Davide, half reaching for him again by instinct, and stopping again by self-will. Davide's eyes were soft in how sad they looked, and his face dropped the severity it normally had, until the hush that had fallen over the couch reached Davide, too, and he said, "Oh!" in a defeated way, and scowled. There were little streaks of light shining in his eyes, that made them look watery.

Bane threw a look over his shoulder at the couch. It was, please, you guys? In all but words, but they still sat in silence, with wide eyes and mouths, listening. Bane rolled his eyes. He turned to Davide and said, "Hey Davi, can I ask you something?" in a tone that made it an announcement, and then he guided Davide, with a hand on his shoulder, out into the hall. Bane pulled the door closed, and when he turned back, he saw that Davide stood with his body half-turned towards the kitchen, chewing on his fingernail. "What was that about?" Bane said, careful to whisper, because he knew Davide's mom had good hearing, and he knew that their friends were piled up against the door on the other side.

Davide's hand shot out and grabbed Bane's wrist, "come with me to my room right now." He tried to say this without unclenching his teeth.

"Dude, we can’t do that!" Bane's voice hissed but he felt himself smiling, and Davide's eyebrows lifted when he saw it. "Everyone's here, we can't ditch!"

Davide cast his eyes down to the floor, and his eyelashes caught the dim grey light coming in through the glass panes in the door, and they seemed to glow with it. "I know," Davide said, after a long moment of near-silence. Near, because the living room was suspiciously muffled. Bane opened his mouth to ask-- but then the shuffling behind the door made him think twice, and he drew his face closer to Davide's. The way Davide flinched -- not on purpose, totally like a reflex he couldn't stop if he tried -- made Bane think Davide was expecting to be kissed. And then Davide turned his head quickly to check the kitchen doorway for signs of his parents.

"What did your mom say?" Bane whispered, trying to turn his lips away, as if it could make the conversation less intimate.

"She said," and Davide tapped Bane's shoulder, motioning for him to turn his face. Davide cupped his hands around Bane's ear and whispered through them, "she said she didn't want us to… be… lo…" he struggled over this word, and started over, "she said not to. Be flirting? L-like a, like being really close…" Davide's breathy words were hot against Bane's ear, and Bane felt guilty for taking the most innocent way they could share a personal conversation, and feel in some distant tickle of good sensations that he could get off on it.

Bane turned so they could look at each other. He narrowed his eyes, cocked one eyebrow and mouthed, flirting? And then whispered, "Really. Like as in what." He shot Davide a look, like, we both know damn well, but Davide sighed, and tapped his shoulder again for him to turn.

"She thinks if we're…" Davide left a long enough space to show he wasn't going to even try to say it, "and big sis sees us, big sis will be upset. So we shouldn't…… do anything." He added, at length. He pulled away and they stood, frowning at each other.

"I'm not gonna, like--" Bane said, making a gesture with both his hands but not really finding anything he wanted to express with it. "Like, like what?" Davide shook his head and shrugged. "So I'm not allowed to--" Bane sighed. "Am I even allowed to look at you or what!"

Davide chuckled without making a sound. He tapped Bane's shoulder. "Depends… what you imagine. When you look." Bane's grin broke out all of its own and he gave a kind of shrill giggle through it.

"Shit, get me a blindfold then," he said, and having forgotten to whisper, there was sensation behind the living room door. Bane frowned and pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the door and shrugged. Davide's lips were pursed like he was trying to stop himself from smiling. "It'll be okay," Bane said, using his normal volume, and then, picking his words for the wider audience, "I'm gonna make sure you have a fun birthday. We'll all have a good time, then none of that'll matter!" He put his hands on Davide's shoulders, and Davide sighed and looked up at him. Then he shrugged to knock Bane's hand out of place and Bane suppressed a swear word. He mouthed, seriously?? Even that?? But Davide just shook his head in a sad way, with his pretty curls of hair moving over his face and away again. Bane let himself have a loud sigh, for the sake of his sanity. "It will be okay," he said, stressing the will, and fixing Davide with a hard look.

"I believe you," Davide said. Bane watched Davide's face, and Davide watched him. This would've been the part where Bane kissed him, and Davide probably got that, too, because he just puffed out his cheeks and glanced about awkwardly. Then Davide shrugged it off and reached past Bane for the door handle. He turned it in a slow, warning movement, and pushed the door with care, and Bane expected to see a pile of their friends toppling onto the ground before them. But, the door's path was clear, and when Bane and Davide stepped back into the living room, they could see their friends crouched down by the couch and muttering over something.

"Hey, what's up guys?" Bane said, and Saeki raised his face and smiled at them.

"Done whispering your sweet nothings to each other?" He said, and Bane scowled because that was exactly what they couldn't do.

"Yeeees," he said, like he was answering a teacher. "What's going on over there?" But Davide said, oh!, and crouched down.

He extended his hand, rubbing his finger and thumb together. "Tamatama!" he said, and there was an answering vibration. A faint jingling started up from the centre of the group, and then an orange tail sprouted up into the air, and Davide's cat paced towards him to sniff Davide's fingers. It gave little rumbling meows like it was thinking before answering a question, ummmeow, and it pushed its face against Davide's hand, first one cheek, then the other. It looked up at him. Ummmeow. Then, it leaned its little head back, and aimed its paws at Davide's knee. "Psst, psst, Tamatama!" Davide said, and it scrambled up onto his shoulders and purred so loudly Bane could almost see it shaking.

"Wow, look at him, not tryna kill ya!" Bane said with a laugh, putting his fingers out for Tama to sniff. He stroked Tama's head between his ears, trying hard not to stroke Davide's face in the process. Bane looked at the others on the couch, "He hates Davi's guts," he explained, while Tama padded his paws against Davide's shoulder and rumbled with affection.

"He must like me more than strangers," Davide said, scratching Tama's chin as much as he could without being able to see where it was. Davide stretched his arms out and slowly tried to raise himself back to his full height, without disturbing the cat. He began well, but suffered a violent wobble as he straightened his knees, and Bane put his hands out and said, woah!, in sympathy, and Davide said it back and clutched for Bane's wrist at the final stretch. Tama's tail whipped out over Davide's shoulder and he made a noise to show he wasn't impressed. "I know, I'm sorry," Davide said, as if the cat would understand him. He reached his hand beside his face to scratch Tama's nose with his fingertip, but it was greeted instead with teeth. "Oww…" he said, but he didn't stop trying to pet the thing.

The others winced and Bane shrugged, "see, hates his guts!"

"Davide, you're sooo different at home!" Kentaroh said. He said this in the middle of Davide, trying hard to turn his head to see a cat that was beyond his field of vision, humming and making kissy noises at it, and interrupting himself every so often to yelp in pain. Davide's eye slid to where Kentaroh was sitting, to show he was listening, but he didn't comment. "Isn't he, guys? He's like a different person at club!"

Bane folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head back, staring down at Kentaroh through narrowed eyes, "Well, what's THAT supposed to mean?" Icchan made a face, and Saeki held his palm out flat and pointed it at Davide, but Bane said, "He's the same!"

"I don't think I've heard him tell a single pun since we got here," Kentaroh said, and Davide spluttered.

"Ah, um," Davide said, and Bane sighed.

"He's in his house! It's his birthday! He don't gotta say squat!" Bane tensed his arms, so that they shifted higher on his puffed-out chest in their fold, and Ryoh and Icchan joined together in a sarcastic, oooh!

"You're right, Kentaroh. I would tell a pun, but," Davide pointed a finger so it hovered over Tama's head, "the cat's got my tongue!" Then he poked his tongue out.

"The hell kinda delayed reaction is that!" Bane said, aiming a chop to the top of Davide's head, but Davide laughed, and his shoulders shook and offended Tama. Then Tama lunged for Davide's pointer finger and brought his own violent tsukkomi.

"Maybe the kitty loves Davide," Icchan said, smiling his widest, "maybe it just likes to show its love through violence!"

Bane rounded on Davide -- well, on the cat on Davide's shoulder -- and he squared his shoulders and rolled his neck, and he said, "Hey, you gonna fight me for 'im, Tama? Huh? Wanna go?" He shoved a defiant finger out in front of Tama's nose, and Tama sniffed it and purred at him. Ummmeow? Bane turned back to the couch, laughing and smiling, shaking his head, "Nah," he said, and Davide, glancing away said,

"Bane-san would lose, anyway!" And Bane-san wheeled round, shoulders dropped, to show him an over the top expression of mock-betrayal.

"I… dunno what to say to that!" He said, pretending to sulk.

"Now the cat's got Bane's tongue," Ryoh said.

"And his man," Shudoh said, snorting into his drink.

When the noise from their laughter had died down a bit, Davide said, uncertainly, "U-um, guys? How did… Tama get in here? Where did he--" He let them guess what he meant by moving his head enough to glance at the doors and windows, but not enough to upset the cat.

"Through there?" Saeki said, pointing to the door, just to the side of the wall that the couch was pushed up against. It was open just a little way, maybe just big enough for a cat to slip though, and Davide and Bane made the same kind of, aaah, with the same kind of muted, oh shit!, expression on their faces. And they knew now, and she knew that they knew, and so, as if she'd been called into the room by request, Davide's mom burst through the door carrying a birthday cake.

"Here is cake!" She said, cheerily, as if it hadn't taken her 20 minutes to find the birthday cake she'd baked herself the night before, on the counter where'd she'd put it, in the place where her cake stand had always been for as long as Bane could remember. "We must do candles!" She had laid some out at the side of the cake and was about to start pushing them into the cake.

"Maman…" Davide said, frowning and crossing his arm over himself to scratch at his shoulder -- Tama took this as an insult and lashed at him.

"No, wait!" Davide's mom said, setting the candles down again, "First we need Papa. Yes. Hold on." She turned in a flourish of her skirt and left through the door she came, and shouted, "Chocolate, don't let kitty have it!"

This time, the door swung closed behind her. Davide sighed so heavily that Tama gave up on him and jumped down, choosing (after a great deal of suspicion and sniffing) Icchan's lap instead. Bane bit his lip, and sighed with his mouth closed so his cheeks inflated. They looked wearily at each other, and Bane felt like he was asking Davide what they should do, and that Davide was asking him the same question.

"That was weird," Saeki said, prompting them to explain their troubled atmosphere, "Davide's mother left from the other door, right?" Saeki pointed to the door he meant, and then turned in his seat to point to the door just to his left, and shrugged at them.

"That door is ki-- that's. The kitchen." Davide cleared his throat and tried again. "There are two doors to it."

"She must've let the cat in when it came in from the yard," Bane said, scratching his neck and watching Davide. He tried to make his body language seem casual, but he stared with a look he knew Davide understood.

"Are you guys gonna tell us why you're in trouble, or are you gonna let this stay awkward?" Ryoh said, interrupted here and there by Icchan answering Tama's meows with a happy meow of his own.

"It's not awkward!" Bane said, at the same time as Davide insisted,

"We're not in trouble!" And then they looked at each other accusingly for letting,

"Letting the cat out of the bag," they muttered at each other, Bane finishing with a scowl and a shake of his head, and Davide with a small burst of laughter.

"You guys are such a drag," Kentaroh said, without looking at them. He was trying to reach his hand over to pet Tama without having him take offense, swooping his hand in, then pulling it away again in a sharp movement, dodging the furious flashes of orange paw. "You're always talking just to each other! I thought we were all hanging out today!" He had the kind of resigned disappointment in his shoulders and voice that somehow made Bane think of his little brother asking why they can't go to the park or the beach together, the three of them, Davide too. Bane groaned, and with a face that said, you hearin' this?, he frowned helplessly at Davide, and then went to sit himself down on the floor by the couch.

He looked up at Kentaroh from the floor, "We are, we are all hanging out, I'm sorry!" Tama raised his head, sniffed, then stretched his way from Icchan's knee to Bane's shoulder, legs lengthening before every silent step. He nudged his face against Bane's ear and the purring felt like a phone vibrating on Bane's cheek.

"You stole the cat!" Kentaroh said, as if Tama was part of Davide and Bane's secret clique as well.

"He doesn't hate MY guts," Bane said, trying to lean his head back to talk, but winding up with a mouthful of orange fuzz. Although.

The days just started to try and get a bit shorter, and vacation ended, and blazers were back in the classroom. Bane's classroom, but his blazer was not back on… well, on his back. The sun was out, on his way back home along the beach, and he loosened his shirt collar buttons and stuffed his tie in his bag. He rolled his shirt cuffs back and put his hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked out over the sea, and somehow that made his mind up for him. The new third-years that passed him at Rokkaku's gate waved and chatted, and, Davide, when he saw Bane waiting for him, did neither. Bane grinned when Davide quickened his pace, and at the way he shuffled on the spot, and he said, I have homework, how does coming back to my Home Work for you? Bane yelled that it was a lazy joke, but back in Davide's room he found they both had the energy for other things. Davide's mom and sister made their everyday noises, and it made Davide anxious, so Bane whispered, Oh, live a bit!, and Davide went for him like he never had before, their fingers got stuck on the sweat of each other's bodies, and their breaths raised the temperature in the room by a few degrees. And Davide pulled his window up but left the blind down, and at some point he'd climbed up there and was waiting. He waited, waited right for the really good bit. Ummmeow. Davide changed gear so fast, Bane didn't know whether he was coming or going. Well, he did; Bane was one, Davide was the other. And Tama got inside the room, and rubbed himself with a kind of fury over Davide's ankles and hands, and stared Bane down through little dangerous slits, and that was the first time he and Tama had ever had any kind of disagreement.

And Davide crossed from where he was standing to the couch. He lowered himself onto the floor beside Bane, and when he looked up, it was like they caught each other. Bane's chest ached like the air getting knocked suddenly out of his lungs, and he leaned forward -- and Davide leaned forward, too, in the same instinct -- and they kissed each other. And then they remembered, when their friends made disgusted noises behind them, and then they turned away and hid their faces, when Davide's mom cleared her throat from the doorway. Davide's whole face sank into the arms he'd folded over his knees, and Davide's dad stepped into the room and changed it, the way he was capable of changing every room. He seemed to look down on them all, glaring through mean slits of eyes, behind the glasses that caught the room's light and rejected it, making his face hard to read.

It wasn't that the room was silent, but more that all the friendly conversation had stopped, leaving little pockets of uncomfortable laughter in its place. Bane felt the back of his neck prickling, like the guys on the couch were watching him, trying to get him to give them a lead to follow, but he had nothing. Davide's dad stared down, all the way from the full height of his tall figure, down to the floor where Davide and Bane were sitting together, but Bane felt like he was even lower than that. He bit his lip and glanced down at the floor. There was a sound, like a soft tapping, skin to skin, and Davide's mom jabbed and prodded at her husband's cheek.

"You must talk!" She said, chuckling at him. Then, with a beaming smile, she said, "This is Hikaru's papa. Say welcome!" She said, shaking his large shoulder with both of her delicate hands, folded over it, one on top of the other.

"Nice to meet you," Davide's dad said, without looking at anyone in particular. And then, he did look at someone in particular: Bane. His eyes were cold, and the angle of his eyebrows were sharp, and his voice was curt when he said, "Haru-chan." He seemed to nod his head by the tiniest movement, but the angle of the lighting and the way the shadows brought out the lines on his face made his scowl seem better defined, and Bane swallowed hard.

"Sorry," he said, and then his hand rushed up to his mouth like it had betrayed him. Davide's dad just blinked at him, but Davide raised his face -- completely red, and yet, recovering itself as he calmed down -- and he shot Bane a questioning eyebrow. Bane read it, and shook his head, trying to figure… oh. Davide's mom was giggling to herself. "Oh!" Bane said, managing a sheepish grin somehow, "Yeah, um. Hey. How, how are you?"

Davide's dad blinked again, and opened his mouth slightly, but he was silent, and the creases on his forehead multiplied. "Uh. Yes," he said, sounding for all the world like the question was something he had no possible way of answering, but being in the uncomfortable position of having to try anyway, "I am well. Yes." A silence stretched out after that, and Bane saw the lips of Davide's dad flapping without any sound, but at long last he just exhaled and clamped his jaw shut.

"We must have cake!" Davide's mom said, at last, clapping her hands together and making her way back to the table. Her fast approach startled Tama, and he jumped from Bane's shoulder to stand in front of Davide's dad and meow at him. Davide's dad leaned down so he could scratch Tama's chin and whisper at him.

Saeki rose from his seat to help Davide's mom put the candles on the cake, and once she was finished, he rushed to the light switch on the wall, and hovered his finger over it. "Is it this one?" He said, pressing the contact once the candles had been lit.

"Hikaru, here!" Davide's mom waved for him to come over, and he did, but with a slow, resigned walk and a sigh that he released just as he passed Bane. "Ready? One, two!" And Davide's mom led them all in song, her lovely voice insisting, "Dear Hikaru," shining through the chorus of Dear Davide from everyone else. From the first note of the first Happy Birthday, Bane racked his brain to decide which he should say -- he said Hikaru, always, in front of parents -- but his heart wanted Davide. Wanted to sing Davide. Well, both, and when he got to the point of singing a name it felt weird and defiant not to use his real name, but Bane's heart was surging in a way. It surged with, this is who he is when he's with me.

Only two figures in that room were silent and cheerless, and they matched each other in the droop of their shoulders, and the way they tried not to look at anyone. Well, Davide hates fuss like this, being the centre of attention, with everyone looking at him, and Bane smiled when he saw that troubled face lit up by candlelight, as Davide moved in to blow out the candles. But now, Bane realised for the first time where he must have gotten that from. The deep and imposing voice of Davide's dad hadn't joined them in song, hadn't been there to make "Hikaru" a little less unpopular. Davide's dad was holding the cat in his arms, petting its head with one hand, and looking down at it in an expression that wasn't exactly fond, but probably was meant to be. All the light disappeared from the room -- and the November dark had caught up to them already, through the windows -- so they all clapped and cheered, and Saeki flipped the light switch again so they could see each other.

Davide's face was tinged pink just under his eyes, and he said, "Thank you," in a tiny voice, so Bane lunged over to pat his back and nudge him. It surprised Davide, and he looked around at Bane with a little sheepish smile on his face, and Kentaroh yelped and said,

"Oh my gosh, Davide's smiling!! I don't think I've ever seen him smile!" But this just made Davide's mouth twist more at the corners, smiling harder and unable to stop it.

Davide's mom was laughing with her fingers pressed up to her lips, "Non, sweet boy smiles all the time," she said and Davide gave a distraught, Maman!!, and she gasped, "whoops! Hikaru, he smiles always," and though Bane remembered hearing each one of his friends' cutesy-woo nicknames each one of their moms gave them, the others nudged each other and pretended to jeer at Davide, but Davide's mom went on anyway, "Always happy little smiles at Haru-chan!" She had her hand on her chest, and her face scrunched like she was watching a puppy video, but instead she looked at Davide and Bane, standing next to each other.

But there was a knock at the door, and her face changed at the sound.

"Oh, coming!" She called, and hurried towards the hall. "Cut the cake and eat-- be careful!" She said, as she moved. Icchan took up the knife, and they all clapped in appreciation of him. Davide's mom had reached the doorway, and she dipped into the hall, leaning so her little slippered foot hung in the air for balance. She turned back to the room. "It's Hikaru's big sister! Haru-chan," she said, pointing at him with both sets of fingertips, "remember. Be good?"

Bane clicked his tongue and let his shoulders drop in resignation, "Yeaaah, I know…" he said with the kind of surliness he might use on his own mom. Davide's mom nodded and slipped out of the room. After a few awkward seconds, Davide's father opted to follow her, carrying Tama away with him.

"Seriously, what did you do to piss of Davide's sister so much?" Shudoh said, accepting a plate of cake from Icchan. He laughed as he shovelled crumbs into his mouth and nearly choked as a consequence.

"It's not Bane-san's fault," Davide said darkly. His face was so serious, it contrasted with the huge slab of cake, with its pretty icing and strawberries, he was holding just in front of him. Bane patted his shoulder.

Bane looked at the others, eyebrows raised and cheek pulled back so his mouth was a thin, slanting line, and he answered Shudoh's question. "I kissed her little brother," he said, with understanding in his voice. Saeki frowned, and Icchan said, ahhh, and Kentaroh and Shudoh gave their little exclamations. But Davide sighed and bit his teeth, and stared with murderous eyes at his birthday cake. "See… like, if someone kissed my little brother I think I'd probably be upset, too…" Bane said, turning his head like he was asking his friends if they got it.

Ryoh did, and he was nodding with fury. Icchan said, "Well, maybe I'd worry about my little sister…"

"Whaaat," Kentaroh said, disappointed in them, "That sucks! If my brothers tried to get in the way of me kissing a girl, I'd totally cry!" And Saeki nodded and hummed at him.

"I don't think there's anything they'd need to get in the way of, Kentaroh," Bane said, grinning at him, and Kentaroh groaned. "Look, I'm not saying I wanted her to get mad, or whatever, but…"

"If she has to be mad, she should be mad at me!" Davide said, his voice a fearsome whisper. Then he undid his wrath-of-God image by angrily stuffing a strawberry into his mouth. He swallowed and said, "It's the last straw! Berry!!" He tried, he tried, biting down on his cheeks to keep his mouth closed, but his laugh forced its way out and blew cake crumbs off his plate. "Ah!" and he put his plate down on the table and scurried away through the kitchen door. The other guests ate their cakes with their plates close to their chests after that, to catch the crumbs.

And the chatter from the hall got louder as the door was bashed open by Tama's nose. The arc of the door showed Davide's parents talking to Davide's sister, with lively hand gestures and expressions. Well, Davide's mom and sister seemed lively anyway. Davide's dad nodded every now and then, and his eyes flicked silently from one to the other with each exchange. Tama rumbled as he made a beeline to the crumbs on the floor, and Bane gasped and scooped him up with the urgency of a dog owner. Tama's meow sounded like a complaint, and that was when Bane remembered cats have better sense than dogs. He held Tama up in front of his face, Lion King-style, and probably the long, soft stretch of orange, and the vague little flick of a moving tail-tip, held up to head-height, attracted the attention of both Amane siblings at once.

First, the sister. Making a little horrified noise, she barrelled past her parents and put her hands out for Tama's middle, taking him out of Bane's hands and holding him against her, like she was protecting him. "Oh no, no, what's he doing to you, baby? I won't let him hurt you!" The soothing baby-talk voice was new but the bent of her accusation was familiar, and Bane tried not to sigh.

Then, the brother. He'd found the dustpan and brush from the kitchen, and, spotting his sister, charged over with a similar kind of stormy energy, and slammed the pan on the table harder than he probably meant to. He looked with a pointed glare at her, but, when she looked up and saw him, and smiled her charming smile and wished him happy birthday, he had nothing to say to her. Well, nothing more than, "Thanks, sis," though his forehead crinkled up like he was hoping to say something stronger. He stood in her way, just a pace in front of Bane, between them, and when Davide turned his head, glancing over his shoulder and back at Bane, Bane had the feeling he was being protected, too, just like Tama was.

"Hi, sis," Bane said, waving with the tiniest shake of his hand. Davide's sister turned her head, sharp enough that her jaw clicked, and Bane read the same warning in her eyes as Davide was showing to her. "Uhhh, Akari-san," Bane corrected himself, "How are ya," he asked, without feeling.

"Me?" She said, like he'd accused her of something, "Me? Oh, I'm just swell, Kurobane! I am over the moon, I," She closed her eyes for emphasis, "could NOT be happier!" But Bane thought maybe her tone could've been happier. And more sincere. Just a suggestion. Behind her, Bane could see Davide's parents watching, so he backed down, moving his eyes to the floor.

"Great, good for you," he said, and, hint taken, he sloped off to the couch and sat half-off the armrest, next to Saeki. Akari's steel-blue stare followed him there, like she was making sure he knew where his place was, and that he knew she was going to put him in it. When her attention was off him, Bane turned a, you see this?, face to the rest of his friends, but only Icchan caught it and leaned over to pat his arm in sympathy. Something else had fallen over the others, and they watched with trembling lips and gaping mouths -- except for Ryoh who was too absorbed in checking his phone to notice either sight.

"Hikaru?" Davide's mom leaned on the door frame, her hand on her neck, "Did you tell them, she is big sister?" Akari turned to her.

"Introduce," Akari said, "Maman, it's, 'introduce her'." Davide's mom clicked her tongue and muttered something in French, then she said, introduce, yeah, in a voice that said plainer than anything else that she'd rather be speaking French. Davide sighed and put his hand out to gesture to his sister.

"This is my sister." He said. Breathtaking. But there was a ripple of enthusiastic greetings from the couch, and one slightly nodded head and a, hey, from Ryoh, before he went back to his phone. "These are my friends from school." There was a pause, and Bane was about to start giving their names on his behalf, when Davide followed up with, "Oh. Kentaroh is still in middle school, though."

"Heyyy, don't say that like it's a bad thing!" Kentaroh said, his face flushing. Davide's sister and mom giggled and looked at each other, and Kentaroh's face went a shade brighter.

"So you're Kentaroh? Hello," Akari said, in a voice that oozed charm. Or maybe it was the same kind of babying voice she'd used speak to Tama? Either way, the glint in Kentaroh's eye showed he liked it. "And you are?"

Saeki sat forward with a jolt, placing a hand over his breast, "I'm Saeki Kojiroh! Enchanté!" Davide's sister gave a little, oh!, and the two women shared glances again. Davide closed his eyes with an incredible slowness. He raised his face to the ceiling, and there, opened his eyes again, and his eyelids twitched ever so slightly as they moved.

Introductions seen to, Davide's mom addressed her kids in French, and they responded back to her, each with their own sorts of energy. Bane couldn't take anything from it, except for once, in a brief moment, where he thought Akari was pointing at him. But the conversation ended with Davide's mom looking at each of them in turn, a serious look on her face, and asking them each a one-word question. They answered, "Oui…" in unison, and, satisfied with that, Davide's mom left the hall. Akari turned to Davide, and Davide frowned at her. It was a concentration frown, a frown that was like he was determined to make a pun out of something seemingly un-punnable. But, in the end, Akari made the first move.

"Oh, squirt, lemme look at you!" Akari said, hitching Tama up onto her shoulder so she could stretch her hands out towards Davide, and Tama made an immediate bid for freedom, scuttling out into the hall with his ears down. Akari pinched Davide's face, and scrunched up her own face as if she felt the pinching as well, "Can't believe you're -- how old now? 16? -- that's crazy! Since when did you get all cool and grown up, huh?" She dropped her hands to his shoulders and squished him against her, hugging him and swaying them both in a happy movement.

"Thanks," Davide said, his voice a little muffled by his sister, "I had a great role model to look up to." Shit. There was a little plunge in Bane's stomach and he was thrilled even as he was desperate to stop Davide. His sister laughed and tapped his shoulder and said, awww, and then Davide looked her dead in the face, "I try to be like Bane-san every day," he said.

Bane winced and pushed his fingers into his hair, and he watched them with his hands over his face. A flicker of something passed over Akari, but Davide didn't even flinch. He was holding his head up with a kind of defiance that looked elegant as well, he looked just about made for the kind of cold fire he was bringing. His shoulders were strong, and they showed through his jumper in the way he held himself. The angle of his spine, curving his back, and his chest showing his pride in the little swells of his breath -- every part of his frame was dedicated to displaying the passion of his heart. And, to be honest, Bane felt a little tingle of something he definitely wasn't allowed to feel, Not While Akari Is Here. Davide's face didn't move. It was passive, but it was, don't even test me. Don't even try.

And Akari's face crumpled up, her smooth lipstick puckering until the deep red of her lips formed a shaky curve on her face, and she spluttered with laughter. She laughed loudly, musically, doubling over and crossing her arms over her stomach and shaking all over with it. Bane heard little giggles beside him as well, and he shot Saeki and Kentaroh a look that they didn't catch. "Ohh my gosh, you idiot…" She paused to breathe and wipe a tear away from her eyeliner, "I really hope that's not true… God talk about the blind leading the blind!" Well, Davide's face did move this time, but it was just a blaze of something in his eyes that he covered quickly. "Little teenage boys are something else! They take themselves so seriously!"

"I'd say Davide and Bane don't take much seriously though, to be honest," Shudoh said. The rest of them turned to look at him. He poured a can of juice into a cup, and then dipped various snacks into the drink before eating them. He stopped, mid-chew, to check if Akari was watching him, and he met her eye like he wouldn't fear God Himself. Akari's sharp face softened into a kind of puzzled smile, but one that was no less dismissive. She laughed and turned back to her brother.

"So you all say that 'Davide' thing? THAT's a relief," She rolled her eyes and said to no one in particular, "glad to hear it's not some… boyfriend thing." Her nose wrinkled as if she'd wanted to describe Davide and Bane with anything other than the word 'boyfriend', but found herself with no choice. And Davide's eyes met Bane's across the room, and Bane moved his fingers over his lips to cover his smile, and Davide glanced away, putting his hand to his mouth, too, and sharing it. Here was a thing that nobody knew but them, and even as Akari scoffed to look at them, knowing they were communicating something, they knew she didn't know what it was.

"Akari-san -- can I call you that? -- Akari-san, would you like some cake?" Saeki sat forward, extending a plate with cake on it towards her, snapping her out of the hard stare she was aiming at Bane. She made a little noise of surprise and then took the plate from him.

"Thanks… Oh, I missed singing happy birthday? That's no good! Hikaru, let me sing to you now!" She turned towards him, singing and waving her cake fork in the air like she was conducting for herself, and she smiled and giggled self-consciously as she sang. She held her notes in ridiculous ways so she sounded silly, and she replaced some of the words to sing a line that Bane thought was somehow familiar, but Davide knew it right away, and he laughed before he could stop himself. "See? Ohh, I miss being at home. We used to have so much fun, right, squirt?" His guard was down enough that she could get close and squeeze her arm around his shoulders; her other arm held the plate of cake safely out of the way. The slight way Davide's mouth was pulled at the sides, the little subtle dimples, showed he was smiling, and Bane smiled from across the room, and thought, I'm thrilled for ya.

"Akari-san," Saeki was already at the edge of his seat, but he sort of folded his body over again at the hip, as if he intended to scoot forward, but didn't, "You have a lovely singing voice!" He lied. "Tell me, do you, um. Do you like chansons?" It sounded like Saeki made a go of pronouncing it in French, and somehow Bane thought he'd overestimated his ability.

"Chansons?" Akari said, laughing in a way that you might think was polite and interested… if it wasn't coming from Akari. She shot a look to Davide, and his shoulders shrugged beneath her arm and he rolled his eyes. She turned back to Saeki to answer him, lifting her arm off Davide's shoulder and taking a step towards him to fully take it in, "Yes….?" she said, and her eyeliner made her face look dark and dramatic when she narrowed her eyes at what she was hearing. "You know that… that just means a song, right?"

He answered her, yeah, Bane heard that, he just heard up to Saeki's, Well, actually--, when his attention was refocused to Davide. Like the human equivalent of Tama of a few minutes ago, once he was released from Akari's grip he was like an orange blur getting the hell outta dodge. Davide walked up to the couch arm that Bane was leaning against, and with the tiniest, sad crinkle in his forehead, he looked down at Bane and reached out for him. And Bane tried to signal with his eyes, But Dude What About What Your Mom Said?, and it either didn't go through or Davide ignored it, because he slid his hand over Bane's back and angled his body closer. He held his face more or less at the same height as Bane's, but his eyes looked past him, to the couch, to where the others were having a lively conversation with Akari. And then those blue, searching eyes flickered over Bane's face, and Bane knew then that Davide just ignored the warnings, because he put both his arms around Bane's middle and pulled him close. Davide put his head over Bane's shoulder, and he groaned in the smallest vibration that Bane could feel rumbling through his chest.

"I still really wanna say that thing to you," Davide said, whispering by the smallest possible movement of his lips as close to Bane's ear as he could. "Duck out?"

Bane didn't even get the chance to say that they'd never get away with it. Because they were caught. The door that led directly from the kitchen into the living room opened, right in front of where Davide was standing. Everyone looked around, of course, to see who had opened it, and in the path of their view was Davide, pressing himself up against Bane and squeezing him tight. Davide didn't move, but Bane felt the fabric of his t-shirt cinching in where Davide gripped it even tighter. And Bane looked up, nodding a self-conscious greeting to Davide's dad, who had just opened the door, and threw a glance to Akari on the other side (which he had less stomach for), and he patted Davide's back and waited. Davide breathed out a long, loud sigh. And then he pulled back from Bane. Davide's face looked tight and red, but he looked around at his sister and his father with his best impression of a casual, unbothered look, as he possibly could.

"Your mother, um. Mama said, dinner is ready. If your friends are hungry." Davide's dad said this, glancing down at his feet, and looking away, and basically looking everywhere but at Davide. But everyone else was looking at Davide. Bane looked around, trying to read the situation, and Akari caught his look and she grunted and clicked her tongue. In a smooth movement, Davide turned his head so he glared at her over his shoulder.

"Okay," Davide said, to his dad, but while looking at his sister. "We'll eat." Akari didn't miss her chance, though, and she wrapped her arms around one of Davide's.

"Yes! Let's go! I want to sit next to my cute little brother!" She marched him through the kitchen door after their dad, and one by one as they passed Bane, all the other guests shot him a, what in the world!, sort of look and he shrugged back at each of them. But he was starting to get it. He hefted himself off the couch arm and followed the train of people into the kitchen with sluggish steps. Akari still had her arm looped around Davide's, but sitting at their seats gave Davide some distance, so she was sort of holding his bent elbow close to her, like tense elastic that might spring back as soon as it was released. She had insisted that Kentaroh sit beside her on the other side, and he was sat, hands gripping the middle of his seat and legs dangling merrily, grinning away like he'd found true happiness on this earth. And Bane walked in to her, negotiating with Saeki, trying to get him to sit beside Davide.

The seat next to Davide was vacant, but there was an air about it as well, like there was an invisible placeholder there with Bane's name on it. Saeki laughed in an awkward way and shook his head, and said, "I-it's okay, I should sit over here?" and he gestured to another seat across the table. Bane just looked down into Davide's eyes, begging him to take the seat before Akari could insist. And Davide's mom cleared her throat, so Bane shook his head and moved around to the other side of the table.

"May I sit here?" Davide's dad said, unable to get his son to look at him. Davide's eyes, full of hurt, just followed Bane to his seat, and watched him steadily.

The food was served, and Akari accepted with some reluctance that she had to release Davide in order to let him eat. He used his other hand to massage his offended elbow and shot her one of the shittiest looks he could make. Davide's mom tried to encourage conversation by asking what the guests thought of the food, and do they all still play tennis? And, don't tell me Ken-chan doesn't have a girlfriend? Why not, when he's so cute? Bane laughed and smiled along with the other guests, but every time he did, he felt the black cloud over Davide's end of the table broadening. The way he moved the food from his plate to his lips in a sharp movement, the way he moved his head, upwards and pulled back, like he was too good for them all, the way he interjected certain comments with a sharp and dismissive, humph!, soured the mood about the table. And Bane took a long drink of water to hold back his urge to sigh, because this was all his fault.

The table was quiet, so Davide's mom, sitting on Bane's left, turned to him. "Haru-chan?" she said, and when he looked up from staring at the food he was pushing around his dish, she was bent forward just enough to try and catch his eye, "Haru-chan, are you wanting to stay tonight?" Akari, who had been in the middle of taking a sip of water, spat it violently back into her glass, making Kentaroh jump.

"HELL no," she said, slamming her fist on the table, and the rest of the guests avoided her eyes, and ate as if they weren't really there. Davide's head snapped around to stare her down, his face was all twisted up with his anger, and his nostrils flared when he spoke to her in the most vicious French Bane had ever heard him speaking. Not that he knew exactly what he was saying to her. She had her own retort, likewise in French, as if just because the rest of the guys at the table didn't know the specifics, they might somehow think they weren't arguing. Kentaroh was hunched in his seat, squashed as far away from Akari as he could get. Icchan's hand was clenched around his utensils. Shudoh's drink went down the wrong way, and Saeki thumped his back to try and revive him. Ryoh… it really seemed like Ryoh was taking sneaky photos of the whole thing. Davide's dad went on eating, a weird monument to calm in the middle of the shit-storm Bane now felt 100% responsible for.

"Actually," Bane said, just loud enough to be heard over the furious French conversation, "I'm thinking I might head home after this…" It sounded like Davide stopped talking mid-word, but Bane had no idea where words started and ended in French. Davide now turned that face on Bane.

"Why?" His voice was quieter, but much colder than it had been when he was speaking to his sister. Bane frowned and scratched at his hair, and looked at the ceiling.

"I just, I got a lotta homework, I guess, so I should really…" Bane chanced it, and threw a quick glance to check Davide's reaction. He wasn't staring at Bane any more. His head was bowed, and his shoulders hunched, and he looked at the food in front of him with a sort of calm, puzzled look.

"Oh." He said. The whole room was quiet for a stretch of a few, everlasting seconds. Then, Davide said, "I thought you said… we'd have fun. Today." His forehead creased a little bit and he muttered, "I believed you."

If there hadn't been a whole table of food just below him, Bane might've smashed his head against the wood. Wrong again, fucking wrong choice again! And Bane had no good reply to that, so he let his shoulders fall, too, and he could see from the corner of his eye the way all the others at the table were frantically looking from Bane to Davide and back again, and wondering what was to be done about the situation. But there was nothing. And Davide raised his head, took in a deep breath, and, bracing his hands against the table, he stood.

"Excuse me," he said, in a voice that was so detached and professional, it could've been used in a job interview. He took the time to push his chair under the table, and exited out into the hall. Bane didn't watch him leave.

Once Davide's footsteps had died down, Akari leant over the table to point her finger in Bane's face, "Look what you've done now!" she spat, and she literally spat, in the force of how she spoke, and it missed landing on Bane only by sheer luck. In a silent movement, Davide's dad reached out for Akari's shoulder, and something in the overall steadiness of his character seemed to calm her, and she sat back in her chair, arms crossed, but saying nothing.

Davide's mom had her hand up to her mouth, and her eyes were shining so much they looked watery. "Haru-chan, is that right? Do you go?" Looking at her worried face was like getting hit in the stomach with a tennis ball.

"I just, I don't wanna be in everyone's way!" Bane could hear how different his fraught voice was to Davide's cool, sharp, Excuse me, and he scrunched his eyes shut and tried again, "You all wanna spend time with 'im and I get that, but I'm distracting him… Making it all weird."

"You have to stay," Davide's mom said. She reached out to squeeze Bane's hand on top of the table, "you have to fix that I got wrong. I made sweet boy upset," she said this last part mostly to herself, and Bane was on the verge of correcting her and claiming all the guilt for himself, when she roused herself. "Boys, I bet you will never want to come play again, I am sorry!" The rest of the gang assured her, with little grins and compliments, that they were having fun despite everything. She rose from her seat, and flounced her way to the little radio, and set to work dispelling the atmosphere with music and suggestions for things to entertain her guests with. And Bane felt something kick against his leg. He looked up, and Akari was staring at him.

"Well? Are you gonna go after him, or what?" He blinked at her, and she shrugged a hand out towards him, "Go on! Fix it!" And Bane made a loud, ah!, and Akari scoffed and said, "Are you serious??" but once again, the magic cooling of her dad's hand fell onto her shoulder, and she left it at that. Bane got himself away from the table so fast he nearly tripped over his chair.

He couldn't hear Davide moving inside his room. Bane stood outside the door, with his hand hovering over the wood, ready to knock, but then, the rest of him wasn't quite ready. At least he wasn't hearing crying or… anything being smashed up in a rampage. He took a deep breath and knocked. Nothing. "Davide?" He gave lots of room for any kind of reply, but there was nothing, "It's me…" he said, and then thought about how Davide had figured that out already. "Can I come in? I, um." But he stopped there because he didn't know what he um. The distant sound of music from downstairs flowed up to his ears and filled the space between that and what he thought of to say next. "Oh yeah! What about that thing you wanted to tell me?" Still, not a peep, "I really wanna hear what it was… Let me in, yeah?"

A sort of sickly sensation came to Bane then, like Davide wasn't in the room at all, and he was talking to thin air. It defeated him to the point that he couldn't resist the gravity of the whole day, weighing on him, so he slipped down onto the floor and leaned his back against the door. "You know, I'm sorta takin' heat from all sides here… Kinda wish I was in there too…" But Davide seemed in no hurry to rescue him. And why not, after that. Bane tilted his head back so it hit against the door, and just for a second he thought he heard Davide gasp… but maybe he didn't, and he heard similar, repeating noises from the kitchen downstairs. He decided that Davide wasn't there. That Davide couldn't hear him. "I'm sorry… it's awkward. I just, iunno what to do about this… You know I get messed up with stuff like this!" He laughed at himself, without any humour. "Sis hates me so much, I just… didn't want your folks to start hatin' me, too. Oh! But like, I get how makin' you hate me instead isn't…"

He cut himself off, because just a tiny whisper, a tiny, quiet voice inside the room, one that was doing everything it could not to be heard said, "Oh, Tama?" and a voice that didn't care at all said, ummmeow?

Bane sat forward, and glanced over his shoulder as if that'd help him to hear better, or to think. The window! If Tama got in there, the fucking window must be open! Bane heaved himself off the carpet and ran off down the stairs. He stuffed his feet into his shoes at the stoop and flung the front door open. It crashed shut behind him, and so did the side gate. He marched up to the tree that stood just outside Davide's window, and, wiping the sweat of his hands, took the lowest handholds and braced his feet against the trunk. He remembered where to reach, which branches were sturdiest, where he had to alternate moving his feet with moving his hands, and where he had to rest because the blood tensed up his hands or his calves, and made their grip unreliable. But he did it. He pulled himself up, head, chest, arms and shoulders, over the branch that sat level with Davide's window, and saw that it was pulled up and he could see inside--

Davide was sitting on his bed, with Tama busy cleaning his fur on Davide's lap, and next to them both was Davide's dad. Bane heard their voices and dropped down to the branch below, moving as quiet as he could. Bane's pounding heart sounded loud in his head, and he tried to catch his breath from the strain of the climb, all the while trying to hear what they were saying.

"--ru-chan might be hurt by that, too. Do you see?"

Davide made a dissatisfied groan, that only just barely reached Bane's ears. "She deserves it!" He said, but very small and through his teeth, like he wanted to keep the feeling of the words with him even as he released them into the room.

"Hikaru." There was a kind of finality about how Davide's dad spoke. Davide groaned again. "Mama wanted there to be no fighting, for you. For your birthday."

"Sis wanted to fight, though!" The way he insisted, with distress in his voice, reminded Bane of when they were little kids and they tried to wheedle their way out of getting grounded. That one time they took Akari's favourite ornament and took turns trying to smash it with rocks in the park. Yeah, Bane tilted his head til it bumped against the tree trunk, that was because she'd kicked down the fort they'd built in Davide's yard and "accidentally" broken Davide's best action figure in the process, but even back then, She Started It! didn't cut it with Davide's mom and dad. "If she didn't, she should, she made Ba--, she wanted Haru-chan to feel bad!"

Davide's dad didn't reply for a long time. It was like he wanted Davide's words to echo through the space so Davide could hear himself. "So you protect Haru-chan, and fight your sister. Which is more important?" There was a pause, but Davide's Dad didn't seem to need an answer, because after a while he went on, "I think you wanted to fight with her." Bane couldn't hear anything that gave Davide away, but Davide's dad said, "Hikaru." in that insistent way, and Davide said, defensively,

"I dunno! Maybe!" And lost his argument in an instant.

"Is that what a man does?" Davide's dad said this, and even Bane felt it like a punch to his gut. That flavour of disapproval from Davide's dad, a sort of feeling like the two of them -- Bane included himself in this of his own choice -- had failed in some basic way, because they were hurt, and they got angry. "I will tell you this. Mama, she thinks you are still a child. Are you a child? Are you a man?" Bane bit down on his teeth and clenched his fist around a branch of the tree, and adrenaline told him to climb up to the window and save Davide. Save him from the conversation, because he, because Bane didn't like it, and Bane didn't even know why.

"I think you are becoming a fine young man, Hikaru. I am proud of you."

Bane eased his grip on the branch. He listened. Davide seemed to make a shaky, um, uh-huh, noise. The room got very quiet after that, and Bane suddenly felt like he was hearing something important, important and nothing to do with him. He held his breath and steadied himself, trying to climb down without making any noise.

"Mama and I spoke to your sister, she--" but Bane's head dropped down low enough that he couldn't make out any more of the quiet and steady voice Davide's dad always spoke in. He was nearly back on the ground when he heard Davide's voice, yelling,

"What?!" and it startled Bane enough that he missed his footing and slipped his way back into the pile of soggy brown leaves at the foot of the tree. Bane scrunched up his face, gritting his teeth to stop himself from giving out a yelp of pain. He let the blood rush back to his limbs, and he turned his wet, gritty palms towards himself. The skin was blotching red from the strain of the climb, and there were grazes under his thumb and on his wrist, but he was otherwise fine. He braced against the tree -- the cold wetness off his hands and the scratchy bark making an unpleasant mix -- and pushed himself onto his stiff legs. His knees creaked when he stood to his full height, and there were leaves sticking to his trousers, but he was more-or-less unharmed. He brushed the leaves and twigs off his clothes, drying his hands on himself at the same time, and grunted with a kind of self-pity, but he shook himself and set off to find Davide.

Well, he took one step towards the gate. Davide stood just inside the yard, with his hand still on the side gate, watching Bane. Bane glanced down at himself, "I fell out of the tree," he blurted, before he'd really decided if he should try to act like he hadn't. A plume of steam went up from Davide's mouth as he gasped, and he jogged over to Bane.

"Are you okay?" he said. He put his hands, so gentle, on Bane's face -- on his cheek, and on his forehead -- and he seemed to check Bane's condition by looking into his eyes. Oh, but Davide's eyes were the ones that looked sad, not like, crying sad, but maybe they could've been. The kind of sad you get when you regret an accident like you made it happen, even if you didn't. Well, in the case of the tree thing, he kinda did-- Bane reached out for Davide's face as well, but stopped short, remembering his grubby hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just," Bane grinned to show his awkwardness.

"I thought you'd gone home!" This time Davide was the one blurting out stuff he didn't need to admit, or, the tone of his voice made it sound like a confession. He pulled Bane in and kissed him. Bane tried to wrap his arms around Davide and squeeze him without letting his hands touch Davide's clothes. The air had cooled Bane's face enough that Davide's nose against his face shocked him, and even when Davide moved their lips apart by just enough that they could speak, the blasts of warmth from his breath surged on Bane's cheek and made it itch. "I'm sorry I ignored you… I was just moody…"

"It's okay," Bane said, but the stinging grazes on his hands and the bump on his ego sort of wanted to scold Davide instead. "You were--"

"I was being a child." Davide said this without looking at Bane, and, with the sky dimming all around them, he really sounded like his dad.

"Makes two of us," Bane said, and Davide searched his face for an explanation, "climbing trees? FALLING outta trees? Hah," Davide pursed his lips and stroked Bane's face again, but he looked like he was close to laughing at Bane's expense. But did he get that it meant Bane heard it, did he get that Bane was eavesdropping on him? Bane sighed and opened his mouth to tell him.

"I don't… need to say that thing. Anymore," Davide glanced away, "It was-- um. I was being…" He shook his head. "What Papa said…" here, Davide moved to catch Bane's look, nodding slightly to check he knew what had been said, and Bane nodded back, relieved, "I realised… I was wrong, what I was gonna say. It was wrong."

"Was it about your dad?" Bane said, and Davide hummed.

"Mama and Papa, I thought," but he shook his head, and left what he thought in the past. "They care about… us." Us, as in Us. Bane grinned for him.

"Well, duh, 'course they do!" He was ruffling Davide's hair before he remembered that his hands were dirty, and then he stopped and drew his hand as far away from Davide as he could bring it. Davide hummed again, like there was more to it than Bane knew, but he didn't bother to explain.

"Hey," he said, the tone of his voice suggesting a nervousness that Bane found infectious, "so, um. Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?" He laughed at himself with his mouth closed, and Bane scowled because he totally found it cute.

"What," he said, and then, "It was a tree!" The cold was flushing up Davide's face now, and when he giggled to himself, the little puffs of his breath on the air steamed about him, "Can't believe you even said that! Did it hurt when I kicked you in the face?!" Bane shoved Davide's shoulder, and he laughed through his frown with a kind of cough-like sound.

"Hey, Bane-san… what did the tree say in spring after the long winter?" Davide didn't wait for his answer, "That's a re-leaf!" Bane gaped at him in disgust.

"I didn't mean for you to start tellin' shitty tree puns!"

"Oh, are you saying I should… branch out onto a different subject?" Davide looked at him with big, wide eyes, and Bane reached out to grapple at Davide's shoulders or neck, but remembered his muddy hands again and stopped, hands clenching at thin air in frustration. "Don't worry, I can't tell too many tree puns before I get… stumped! Pfft!"

"Yeah, I'll stump you, alright!" Bane beat his clenched fist in the air above Davide's head, and Davide chuckled at him. Davide took hold of Bane's fist and smoothed it out so he could entwine their fingers, and Bane frowned and nodded towards their hands, "wait, you're not bothered?"

"Hmm?" Davide wasn't so much as smiling, but Bane felt like he was somehow open. Enjoying himself. "No, I'm not bothered. Bane-san's BARK is worse than his bite!" And Bane yelled, because he somehow thought he'd changed the subject, but then again, he was talking to Davide, and what did he expect. Somehow that made it all the more yell-worthy. Davide's laughter died down, and with a quiet voice, he said, "Bane-san? You climbed the tree, you did that to, to come get me, right?" He seemed to be looking down at the leaves on the ground, harder to see now the sun had all but set.

"Yer damn right! Like hell I was gonna leave things like that!" Davide stooped down as he listened, still holding Bane's hand. With his free hand he fished up one of the big, orange leaves from the grass and held it up to Bane, twirling the stem between his finger and thumb. Leave things, he mouthed, and Bane clenched and twisted Davide's wrist so he yelped and dropped the leaf. "Listen, Davi… I, um." Davide caught the hesitation in Bane's voice, and stood up straight to listen properly. "I'm sorry. I didn't stand with you, y'know? In front of everyone?"

Davide blinked like his eyes stung. "I-I know. You said." He frowned. "I was listening. Through the door." They weren't looking at each other. They each stared at a different spot on the lawn, but in the chill of the air, Bane felt the warmth of Davide squeezing his hand. They stood like that, and Bane felt like all his other senses were numbed but that feeling, that they were holding each other, gripping tight to one another, even if his mind was blank of words to speak to Davide with. And at some point Davide said, "Let's go inside?" and then they were inside, standing on the stoop with their hands still joined, and wondering, probably, if it was worth being able to go into the rest of the house, if they'd have to let go of each other in order to take their shoes off.

In the living room, the lights were out, and everyone was grouped there, chatting and yelling enthusiastically about some movie. Davide's parents and sister -- with Tama on the lap of Davide's dad -- were sat on the couch amongst Davide's school friends, looking for all the world like they'd all known each other longer than the three or four hours they'd actually spent together. Davide and Bane stood in the hall and looked in on them, their two joined hands fidgeting, until Davide's mom looked up and saw them. She raised herself off the couch, with a smile, and nodded for them to join her in the kitchen. When she got a good look at them both, in the light, she gasped and scolded them for their cold and muddy hands and faces. She got them to clean up, she got Bane to treat his grazes. She made them hot cocoa and brought out the plates of food they never got a chance to eat at dinner. She didn't ask about where they'd gone, how Bane's clothes had gotten dirty, how his hands had been cut. And, once she'd seen to them, she didn't stay to hear them talk; she left them with a little wink and slipped back through the door to the living room, back to watch the movie with everyone else.

And it was weird, because they were never left alone like this. Bane sat beside Davide at the table, half-turned in his chair so his body sort-of pointed towards Davide, and he put food in his mouth and chewed. They were totally alone, except for the laughs and exclamations that kept sneaking in under the door, but Bane kept stealing glances of Davide. Nobody would be there to complain, or yell, or get jealous, if they spent the whole meal gazing at each other, but Bane couldn't anyway, and he caught Davide looking at him, too. Stealing a glance here and there, too, and laughing awkwardly through his food, like there was something far too adult about sitting alone together to eat that was making them both get shy. And Bane dropped his left hand below the table, and he reached for a fold of Davide's shirt at his hip, and then Davide crossed his own left arm over his stomach so their fingers touched. When Davide chewed, his lips puckered like he was laughing at the state of the two of them, and Bane agreed with him, saying, "Yeah, I bet Sae never has these problems!"

They made it back into the living room for the climax of the movie. They sat on the floor beside each other, just about shoulder-to-shoulder, and when it finished, everyone had the good manners to act like they'd been there from the start. And so Davide's mom announced that it was finally time for presents, and Bane patted Davide's shoulder, and let him go to sit in the middle of the couch. Davide opened every gift, making appreciative puns about each one, and Bane held back while Akari pulled at her brother's ear or cheek as a retort. Then, when Icchan's brother arrived at the door to take him home, they started making arrangements for everyone to leave. Bane sat back on the couch, as it emptied, and watched them decide whether to walk, or split up into groups and be driven home, and Davide hovered about this discussion with the politeness of a host, agreeing with his dad and sister to see everyone home. Davide shot Bane a look from across the room, and Bane started to push himself off the couch to follow--

"Well, then, Haru-chan! I suppose you must be the help to clean!" Davide's mom said, standing in front of him before he could get up. "We need this crumbs tidied, if you are going to sleep here," she said, shooting Davide a look over her shoulder. He opened his mouth, but Akari got her hands on his shoulders and ushered him out with the leaving party before anything could be said. When they were gone, and the vacuum cleaner had done its rounds, Davide's mom said, "I am glad Haru-chan is staying, after all! No homework?" Her smile had mischief in it.

Bane waved it off, "Ahh, I'll catch up later," he said. Davide's mom sent Bane to the bath, and when he got back to the living room, Davide was helping her roll out the futon. The one Bane usually slept in, except, usually it was in Davide's room. Davide's mom shuffled her slippers on out of the room, with a,

"Don't be up watching TV so long! I hear well, okay? I will know!" and she closed the door for them.

They stood, across the room from one another, and waited. Bane scratched at his arm. He said, "So… you see everyone home alright?" and Davide nodded. "Sis gone back too?" Davide made a yes-noise. Then silence, while they waited for a cue. Davide chewed on his lip, and Bane cleared his throat, and then, with one movement, they went to each other, took each other's hands, and then-- well. They just looked at each other, each out of the corners of their eyes. They laughed, and Bane moved his arms so their hands started to swing a little. They sat down, perched on the edge of the couch together, trying to get used to looking at one another. Davide put his hand out, stroked the top of Bane's arm to let him know, and they moved in to hug each other, both just barely letting their breath escape their mouths.

"I wish you could come to my room…" Davide said, over Bane's shoulder, and Bane laughed.

"I think it's pretty decided I'm sleepin' here," he said. Davide pulled back from him and showed him a sad face.

"I need to take my bath," Davide said, and Bane nodded. Davide stood up way before he'd done holding Bane's hand, so that, even as he was leaving he looked like he really didn't want to, and Bane appreciated it. Then he let go. He stood in the doorway, looking over his shoulder.

"Goodnight," Bane said, "I hope ya had a good birthday, in the end!" He sort of raised his hand in a wave, and Davide smiled in his small way, but he just nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Bane stood from the couch, stretched his arms and back, and made his way over to the light switch on the wall. The light from the TV flickered blue over his futon, so he took the remote with him when he crawled under the blanket, and when he was settled, he pointed-and-clicked, and the room fell dark. The scent in this room was different to Davide's, not that it was gross or strange to him, but there was a little something that made Bane on edge as he lay there, and he spread himself onto his back and watched the fuzziness of the darkness spreading its patches over the ceiling. He sighed, and turned himself back onto his side, and thought about Davide gripping his hand.

Something bumped against the door, and it woke him, or, he figured he must've been sleeping, because, sitting up, he had the smallest sensation that he'd been somewhere else until he'd heard the noise. The door to the hall was open a tiny amount. Bane, propped up on one arm, squinted at the crack in the door and felt his heart hammering. Then, ummmeow? There was a soft little punt against the door, and this time it swung open by enough that Tama could bend his way through the gap, and he padded on over to Bane. "Oh, Tama, what the heck," he said, reaching a lazy hand over for Tama to rub himself against, "c'mere ya dumb thing, scared me half to death!" He said. He raised the blanket, and Tama rushed under it, purring and digging his paws onto the bedding, and eventually curling himself to suit the slight curve of Bane's chest, and laying down to sleep.

There was another noise at the door, and Bane's hand froze where it was, smack bang on top of Tama's head. "No fair, Tamatama! Sneaking in before me!" Davide peeked around the door, one hand on the edge of the door, the other wrapped around a pillow he held to himself. Bane shifted himself up again.

"Davi!" He said, in a whisper, "What time is it? Didn't you go to bed?" Davide closed himself into the room, and crossed it carefully, his un-set hair dropping right down over his face as he watched where he put his feet. Bane rolled the blanket back for him, and held a hand out for him to take to help lower him into the futon. Davide was sat beside Bane on the mattress, the blanket raised up to his shoulder, fingers entwined with Bane's.

"It's only…" Davide moved like he was going to look at his watch but then he realised he wasn't wearing one, "anyway, I never said goodnight." Bane frowned at him, but he wondered, with the way Davide was squinting at him, if Davide could even see it in the dark.

"Yeah we did!" Bane said, and Davide shook his head.

"YOU did, I didn't!" There was something really good about the sight of Davide, when he looked away and his hair tumbled over his face in the dark, there was something really unprepared about it that made Bane's stomach fizz. He reached up to brush Davide's hair aside, and when he did, he could see that Davide's lips were twitching with mischief.

"Yer gonna get us into trouble with yer folks," Bane said, and Davide puffed out his cheeks, acting the part of the little kid.

"She said you had to sleep here, she didn't say about where I had to sleep!" Bane tilted his head back and clicked his tongue. Unbeatable logic. What's a guy to do? He motioned with his head for Davide to get closer. Davide passed him the extra pillow, and he put it alongside the one he was using, but there was no way for Davide to use it without moving the cat.

"Okay, Tama--" Bane started, sliding his hands under those tucked-up furry limbs to the sound of a protest rumble, but Davide put his hand on Bane's arm.

"Don't move him! He's sleepy…"

Bane groaned, "Man, I'M sleepy!" He sighed and rubbed at his eyes, and then he said, "Alright, here," He lifted Davide's arms and placed them about his shoulders, and Davide got the hint and moved into him. Bane eased them down together until his head was on the pillow, and Davide hefted the blanket over the three of them, resting his head on Bane's chest. And yeah, Bane liked the feeling of Davide's body against his, but his head throbbed enough with tiredness that it was just a momentary tingle. Davide moved his head, just enough, that he could reach to kiss Bane. "G'night," Bane said, and Davide said,

"Goodnight, Bane-san," bringing a hand up to stroke Bane's cheek.

"Also," Bane said, in what was half a yawn, "Happy birthday. Again."