I have a fic for you. Enjoy (it's sweeeet!).
Note"Aiyah" is a very colloquial and common Chinese exclamation or phrase which is somewhat equivalent to: "oh no!", "oh shit", "oh geez", "eeck", "yikes", "oops". I googled it. Decided I liked it and based my fic around it.
Also, 'aiyah' is a very cute word.
Sighing faintly, brow furrowed, Rei shook his head. For a week…well, maybe a month would be more accurate, Rei had folded the same shirt and placed it in a new room. So far, it had been chucked out with a puzzled frown and a soft exclamation of: 'it's not mine'. Well, it wasn't Rei's either. Takao's grandfather would never get it on, and-
"Ah."
But Hitoshi probably would. Pursing his lips, Rei shook his head and gathered the rest of the folded clothes that were Hitoshi's and set off at a rather slow pace through the dojo. He wasn't exactly in a hurry, after all.
Hitoshi was rolling his eyes, chuckling dryly as he leant forwards and placed a soft kiss on his friend's, equally male, upturned lips.
Rei dropped the clothes. "Aiyah!" Rei felt his ears grow hot, then the sides of his face and he hastily bowed. Then he remembered that he was in Japan, and that Hitoshi was not very likely to lash out at him for walking in and disrupting a private moment (his temperamental boss in China had). Shuffling awkwardly, not looking up, Rei bent down further and hurriedly started to collect the clothes he had dropped. "Sorry," he muttered.
"…Rei?" Hitoshi cleared his throat, and the husky quality his voice had briefly taken disappeared. "Don't you ever…knock?"
"Of course I do," Rei nodded, taking his time with a very stubborn pair of trousers that just wouldn't fold like Rei wanted them too. "I'm used to being the only one here during the days, Hitoshi-san. I'm sorry."
Rei frowned as the other male garbled something. The only words Rei managed to understand were 'ich' and 'du', some vague verb forms he suspected to mean either have or be. Hitoshi had been in Germany?
"This is Karl, Rei." Hitoshi gesticulated between them, then glared down at Rei. Rei coughed, slowly continuing with his self-appointed task of folding Hitoshi's clothes. "Rei?"
"You didn't think I lived here for free, did you? Just because Kinomiya jii-san thinks I should use my money for 'pleasantries' and not-" Startling as Hitoshi was suddenly face to face with him and hand holding on hard to his shoulders, Rei narrowed his eyes. "What?" Hitoshi quietly levelled another dark, inquisitive glare upon him before smirking.
"Nothing." Letting go, Hitoshi quickly gathered his clothes and carelessly dropped them on the bed, then, moving over to Karl who had watched the interaction with guarded eyes, Hitoshi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "How do you tell someone/your family you're gay?" Hitoshi raised an eyebrow, and it took Rei a few seconds to understand a word of what he was saying. Expecting Japanese and getting English…the difference was immense. But it was most likely because Hitoshi's- Karl, Rei corrected himself, didn't understand Japanese.
Rei shrugged, leaning against the wall. "I…don't know. You don't."
"You are gay then."
Rei froze, paling slightly before shrugging again and facing away. He didn't like the matter of fact wayHitoshi said it in, as if was written on Rei's forehead and available for all to see. "You been wondering? You could've just asked, you know, I wouldn't have-"
"Kai?"
Shrugging seemed to be all Rei could do, and he shot Hitoshi an annoyed glare. "What does he have anything to do with this? Blah!" Rei's glare hardened, but it was mostly aimed at himself, and he promised himself, yet again, that he would find a way to learn English properly.
"You stare at him." And they were back to Japanese. Rei smiled gratefully.
"He'sattractive," Rei spread his hands, willing Hitoshi to deny it with inquisitive, honest eyes. Hitoshi smirked a little and nodded. "What?
"What's wrong with you?"
Rei startled, and he whirled around to find Kai leaning against the door frame, arms crossed and face tilted to the side. "Kai?"
"You've been…jumping at little things all week. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Kai." Rei reached for his hairbrush and set down to the long task of sorting his hair out. Kai scoffed, glaring. "I…it's not that anything's wrong…" The bed creaked as Kai sat down, leaning against the wall. "It's not exactly anything I've spent time thinking about, and mostly…it's just something that I'm…uncomfortably," 'uncomfortably' was probably not the right word, "aware of when people comment on my lack of girlfriends or when Takao makes a fool of himself trying to woo Hiromi. But then, the other day when Hitoshi-" here, Kai tensed, but Rei was too preoccupied by his turbulent thoughts to notice, "…I…would you mind terribly if I were gay?"
The quiet lasted for just a second longer than necessary, and Rei was uncomfortably aware of exactly how much could, and probably would, change and that very little of it had positive outcomes.
"No." Nodding, Rei bit his lip, slowly dragging the brush through his hair again. "Hitoshi?" Kai asked quietly.
Rei rolled his eyes. "You didn't really think that German guy kept following him around solely because he doesn't understand Japanese?" Kai smirked, chuckling quietly and Rei grinned. "It's a secret!"
Kai rolled his eyes. "So everyone but the Kinomiyas know?" Rei shrugged.
Throwing the brush in the general direction of the desk, Rei reached for a hair tie, and began plaiting his hair at a rather fast pace that spoke of a lifetime's worth of experience. "I don't know. It's not exactly obvious, is it?"
After Kai's muttered, 'I suppose', they both fell quiet. Finishing his long plait and fastening it with the tie, Rei stretched out on the bed, using Kai's legs as a pillow. It was probably because of actions like that that had made Hitoshi believe there was something between them. In actuality, it was just Rei's inability to push away some of his…urges. It was something he had always done, and only to Kai. All because of an infuriating crush that just wouldn't go away.
He had never told anyone he was gay, or even implicated that he might be. He had never said anything or even felt the need to say anything. But…he had nurtured a crush on Kai for a very long time, and…he had never done much in the way of hiding it or explaining it away. If Takao leered at him, and goofily demanded to know why he always took Kai's side, then Rei would answer something along the lines of: 'but how could I not? He's…Kai.' If Max winked at him, and quietly wondered why Rei was so affectionate with Kai, when neither Kai nor Rei ever sought out much in the way of hugs or other forms of friendly, innocent physical affection, then…Rei smiled slightly. Well, he normally winked back. Made some off-hand comment about Kai's body. And Max…Max would just laugh.
"Tatsuha's opening tonight."
Rei's eyes flew open, and he frowned, confused. "What?"
"It's a new restaurant. A cousin of mine's." Rei nodded, and Kai moved the leg Rei was resting on, casually nudging him. "You want to go?"
The tips of his ears were suddenly very hot, and Rei felt stupid. Perhaps he was unnecessarily paranoid, but how had he expected Kai, Kai who was intelligent, smart, handsome and overly aware of everything going on around him, not to realise how Rei felt? "Together?" Kai hummed. "…I'd like that."
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