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Kojiro’s restaurant gets all kinds of customers. Foreign travelers from far away places, locals who want to try Italian for the first time, big name politicians looking for somewhere to host a dinner meeting, the whole lot.Among this revolving door of customers are his regulars, who offer just as much of a variety as his new comers. He can confidently say that he is on friendly terms with all of them. He helped old man Yoshihiro fix his telephone so he could call his grandson, he babysat 2 of Otake Mi’s kids, though he doesn’t think he will offer to do that again, and he had even been invited out to other restaurants on the premise of a leisurely friendly outing.So when a group of new regulars he was starting to grown fond of asked him to attend a dinner party he was throwing, Kojiro couldn’t turn them down.“Great! Azuma here will send you the information,” one of the men said patting another on the back. “If you’re married bring the missus, and if you’re not bring a date.”“Yeah, you don’t wanna show up alone to one of the Torio families parties solo. His wife goes all out,” another man, 2 seats down added.“Kojiro will have no problem with that, he’s a chick magnet,” another piped in. Kojiro smiled and thanked them for their invitation before turning his attention back to work.Well shit.The men were right, Kojiro was a ‘chick magnet,’ but an event like this was far more formal than something he would bring one of his many prospects too. It was too… relationshippy.——Right before close, Kojiro’s “least” favorite regular, and high school best friend, Kaoru Sakurayashiki entered the restaurant. The two had a bitter rivalry that Kojiro wasn’t certain was a bit or not, but still he participated in it, because he knew Kaoru needed a friend, no matter the capacity.And also it irritated him beyond belief that after all this time Kaoru was still trying to push him away.Kojiro approached his table with a lighthearted mood.“I thoughy you said you hated Italian?”Kaoru looked up at the familiar voice with a bored look.“You know after the 10th time saying that, it gets old.”“That,” he paused, “Is a matter of opinion.”Kaoru turned his attention back to the menu as if contemplating what he wanted, but both of them knew he was going to get his usual.And he did.“I’m not your waiter,” Kojiro replied after the man tried to place his order with him.“Okay,” Kaoru said, knowing it affected nothing and that Kojiro would simply go to the kitchen and return with an extra helping of kaoru’s favorite pasta and a class of his finest white wine.Kojiro scowled and turned away from Kaoru to return to his work.As expected, he returned shortly with food.By calling Kaoru a regular, it meant he came in at the same time, one the same day, every month. Kojiro had begun to expect his visits and would usually close down the restaurant for the evening as Kaoru took his time eating.They usually bickered about nothing or chatted about the old times, with Kaoru leaving promptly after finishing and paying his bill despite Kojiro’s incessant assurance that he didn’t have to.Tonight was different.Kaoru had ordered a bottle of wine for his table instead of just a glass, in order to “treat himself” as he said. Kojiro simply nodded and returned with the bottle. By the time Kojiro had closed up, Kaoru had had a few glasses and was effectively tipsy.Kojiro didn’t mind him in this state, as he was much kinder and soft around the edges. Only barely. He was still Kaoru after all. His walls could rival that of China's.Somehow they had ended up challenging one another to a beef, loser has to do/give the other whatever they wanted. They shook on it with the typical attitude their bets had and headed off for Crazy Rock. A crowd had gathered for the nightly shenanigans that took place but upon the arrival of two of the three founders, activities slowed to a halt. They didn’t have to say what they were there for, as beefs like this were common. Instead they lined up at the start and the usual crew set up to kick start their race. Within 10 minutes of arriving the men were off.They hurtled down the path weaving between rocks and turning sharp corners. Both of them were tremendously skilled so it was toe to toe for the entire race with Joe pulling ahead seconds before crossing the finish line. Still tipsy from the wine, Cherry lost his balance while stopping his board and gracefully fell to the ground.Joe walked over to where he was laying on his back, huffing out at the sudden fall.He reached out a hand to him. Cherry’s face contorted to a scowl as he denied the hand offered to him, and pulled himself off the ground.Cherry straightened out his clothes as he gruffed, “I guess you won,” he looked at Joe, “what do you want.”Joe started to speak before Cherry interrupted, “And please don’t make it embarrassing. Unlike you, I have a reputation I need to uphold.”“First of all, so do I, second of all, I want you accompany me to dinner.”Cherry looked at him as if he just spoke a language that didn’t exist, before looking annoyed.“Ha, ha. Seriously, a deal is a deal, so what do you want?”“I’m serious.”Cherry’s annoyed look fell.“I was invited to dinner with some regulars at the restaurant and was directed to not go alone.”“Why don’t you take one of your many arm ornaments, I’m sure they would fight over it.”“I don’t want to take them. It’s not that kind of event.”“So why me?”“You’ll take it serious.”“Will I?”“Yes. Remember that reputation of yours?”The annoyed look returned, “What if I refuse.”“You wouldn’t.”Joe was right. A beef was a beef and he lost fair and square.“Fine,” Cherry picked up his board, “Tell me the details, I’ll go, but don’t expect some kind of performance.” He walked away.Joe caught himself smiling.That was easier than expected.---Kojiro was to pick Kaoru up at 7pm and they would arrive at the party together. Kojiro had intentionally left out the part where Kaoru was playing his date. He assumed their regular mature attitudes toward one another would be enough (and yes, that existed but only in the rarest of occasions.)When Kojiro pulled up to Kauro’s house, the other man appeared prompt, ready to go wearing classy dinner attire, dark toned to compliment his pale skin, and oddly enough, complimenting the light attire wore himself. They objectively looked good together.Kojiro got out and opened the door for Kaoru.“What are you doing,” Kaoru scowled.“Being a gentleman, you should try it.”“Ha. You? A gentleman,” he said as he shut his own door.Kojiro didn’t respond as he walked back around to his own door, getting in and pulling away.They rode in silence across town until they pulled up to a large house. There were multiple cars parked out front already. Kojiro parked behind one of them and didn’t bother opening Kaoru’s door for him this time. Instead he remained seated in the car.“Um, just a warning, if they say anything weird, just go with it, okay?”“What do you mean, ‘weird’?”“I’m just saying if. I don’t know these guys outside the restaurant, so they may assume things.”Kaoru didn’t need it explained. Kojiro meant they might assume the two of them were dating, or worse, married. He sighed quietly, wondering why he ever agreed to this before climbing out of the car and leading Kojiro up to the house.Before opening the door he turned around, “Do not expect a performance.”“Never,” Kojiro replied as Kaoru opened the door and the two stepped into the large foyer.“Kojiro, you made it,” One of the men smiled as he walked by, a few hors d'oeuvres on his plate and he gave him a slap on the shoulder. “Help yourself to some starters there in the dining room then join us in the den.”Kojiro set his gift bag down by the door and followed the man. All the men were sat around chatting, but they silenced when he walked in.Torio, the host, stood up to welcome him.“Kojiro, welcome! Help yourself to any food in the dining room . There’s champagne as well! The ladies are in the kitchen if the missus here would like to join-“ He paused as he finally turned his attention to Kaoru. “Oh, my bad sir.”Kaoru politely waved him off, indicating that this was not the first time he had been mistaken for a girl, despite the fact it was.“Torio, this is Kaoru,” Kojiro opened to allow Torio to properly see the other man. He didn’t finish the sentence allowing for ambiguity in their relationship.“Kaoru, this is Torio, a regular at the restaurant.” He then proceeded to introduce Kaoru to the rest of the men before the two took a seat next to one another on the couch. It was empty, leaving plenty of room between the two of them. After a a few minutes, Kojiro excused himself to get some champagne.“Would you like a drink,” he asked, turning to Kaoru.“I’m good. I don’t like champagne,” He said, despite Kojiro already knowing this.Kojiro nodded and walked off. He returned to his bag by the door and carried it to the kitchen where the gentlemen’s wives were chatting and assisting in finishing up meal prep.“Kojiro, hello!” Torio’s wife greeted. When she saw the gift bag, she smiled, “What’s this?”“Just a bottle of wine from the restaurant. As a gift.” He pulled one of the bottles out and handed it to her.“Our favorite. You’re always so kind, thank you.”“My pleasure.” He pulled the second bottle out and folded up the gift bag. “If you don’t mind, I would like to drink this one.”“Of course not! One moment.” She turned away from him and put the bottle of wine into the wine fridge before pulling out a wine glass and a bottle opener and handing them both to Kojiro.He opened the bottle, poured a glass, and then closed it once more, handing the opener back to Torio’s wife and thanking her. He walked with the glass into the dining room to help himself to a glass of champagne before returning to the den. He sat down and passed the glass of wine to Kaoru.“What’s this,” He asked quietly to not interrupt the conversation.“Smell it.”Kaoru gave the glass a swirl before bringing the glass to his nose and breathing in its aroma.“Oh,” was all he said as he then took a sip.“I snagged a bottle from the restaurant on my way out. Being the owner has its perks.”“I can’t drink this. You didn’t bring any for the host.”“I did. Now shut up and drink it.”Kaoru scowled at him before enjoying the drink in his hand and turning back into the conversation. Dinner was set to be a half hour from then, and they were waiting on a few more guests.Within a few minutes of Kojiro returning, two of them showed up. Torio welcomed them, directed them to the dining room and their wives to the kitchen before settling back into the group. When the two men joined them, they chose the couch to sit on, forcing the gap between Kaoru and Kojiro to close. Kojiro now sat with his thigh pressed against Kaoru’s and despite the 2 layers of clothing between the two of them, he felt as if the places where they were touching were on fire. He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the conversation instead.Dinner was deemed a more daunting affair when the women and men were joined at the table. Torio’s wife was intrigued by the man sitting next to him. She wanted to know every detail of how they met and what Kaoru was like. These questions were fine. Easy to answer with a simple truth. Until she wanted to know what their relationship was. Kojiro froze, not knowing how to answer. Even outside of the dinner party, he really didn’t know.Was kaoru his friend? Or just someone he had been friends with? He only agreed to the dinner because he lost. Would he have come if Kojiro had just asked?“Well you see that’s a complicated question,” Kaoru spoke up. Kojiro shifted his attention to the other man. Interested to hear was he had to say. “As you know now, we met in high school, but didn’t talk for most of our early 20s so we are still trying to figure that out.” He didn’t look at Kojiro as he took another sip of his wine.Kojiro didn’t know what to say. Kaoru hadn’t lied, but he had followed Kojiro’s lead of keeping their relationship ambiguous.Or maybe it just was.Kojiro felt his thoughts flying a mile a minute, running through every interaction they had had since rekindling their friendship a few years back. If you could even call it friendship.The next hour of the dinner party was a blur and before Kojiro knew it, he was waving goodbye to everyone and following Kaoru back to his car. When the doors were shut and they took off, Kojiro spoke.“So what are we?”“What do you mean?”“I mean, what are we? Are we friends or acquaintances? Why is our relationship complicated?”For once, Kaoru was silent.“I know we used to be friends, before everything with Adam, but what are we now, Kaoru?”“Why does it have to matter? Can’t we just be two adults?”This time Kojiro was silent.“We aren’t children, we don’t have to be ‘bffs.’ We can just be.”Kojiro nodded, “Yeah. My bad.”They sat in silence the rest of the car ride back.When Kojiro pulled back up to Kaoru’s house he climbed out of the car and walked around to open his door for him.Kaoru nodded thanks and walked up to his door while Kojiro circled back around to the driver seat.Kaoru made it half way up his steps before he stopped in his tracks and turned back.“Hey, I wanted to say I had fun ton-“As he turned around he saw that Kojiro was jogging up to him.“Joe?”“Sorry I-“ He paused and looked everywhere but Kaoru’s eyes. Here he was, Kojiro the “womanizer,” speechless because of his high school best friend, the man he has been in love with for years. He swallowed and began again, but his worlds still failed him.Kaoru wore a questioning but irritated face, as if Kojiro’s incapacity to just spit it out was cutting into some very important commitment he had, but he was trying to be polite.After forming and reforming sentences over and over in his head, Kojiro gave up and stuck to what he knew best.He reached out and wrapped his hand on the back of Kaoru’s hair, brushing the stray hairs from his bun, up. He stepped forward and gently pressed his lips against Kaoru’s. For a moment the other man didn’t react, and Kojiro felt the uncommon pang of rejection, but just as he went to pull away, Kaoru softened and kissed him back. After just a quick moment, Kojiro pulled back, searching Kaoru’s eyes for anything.“Kaoru, I don’t want to just be.” He dropped his hand from his neck and settled both of them onto Kaoru’s waist. “I don’t care what we call ourselves, I just want to be yours.”“Kojiro-““Let me finish?”Kaoru nodded.“I’ve loved you for years. And while I love the back and forth thing we have going on, I can’t pretend I stopped thinking about you. I haven’t. You don’t need to feel the same, I just need you to know that for me, the bickering, the fighting, it’s not real.”Kaoru swallowed.“I know that being vulnerable like this is hard for you after… after Adam, but Kaoru, I’m not him. I’ve shown for years that I’m here for more than just skating if you let me be. You don’t have to say anything right now, but I just needed to get that out.”Kojiro stepped back down the steps and turned to leave. As he did, Kaoru grabbed his hand and pulled him back, kissing him again, gently, but his grip on Kojiro was fierce, as if he thought Kojiro might disappear if he let go.“Stay,” was all Kaoru asked in response.“Of course.” Kojiro stepped back down the steps to shut off his running car before returning to Kaoru’s door step. The other man let him into the flat.Kojiro had only been here a few times, but with the weight off his shoulders finally gone, it felt like a whole new place.Kojiro followed Kaoru into the kitchen where he started a kettle of tea before going to search for some overnight clothes for Kojiro.After sipping their tea and chatting, Kaoru led Kojiro up to his room. Kojiro laid on the bed first beckoning for Kaoru to join him. Kaoru climbed on the bed and rested his head against Kojiro’s chest. He listened to his heart beat as he let sleep pull him under. Neither of them were sure what was next for them, but for the first time in a while, Kojiro could breathe and Kaoru could feel.