Chapter Text
Fuck, Majima hated drinking more than he could handle when he well intended to do just as much. Paired with his relentless nightmares, nothing could save him from whatever his brain forced him to endure every night. Nishida tried to help every now and again, but he seceded eventually in favor of his life as opposed to Majima lashing out both belligerently and lethally.
Nobody could translate, nobody cared to in the first place, and his angry tears only made him froth more ferociously at the mouth. On nights like the one in question he practically locked himself in his chambers. Nothing could calm him down, and nothing could raise him up. He’d simply accepted it at some point in his life. One year ago? Ten years ago? He couldn’t remember, but it didn’t particularly matter. Pain damaged him all the same regardless of how much time it stole from his life.
Someone entered his apartment. He didn’t care enough to look, but whoever it was gave enough of a shit to stop him before he took another shot from a depressingly empty bottle.
“Nishida, I told you to fuck off.” he grunted, snatching the bottle away with much more force than intended or necessary. “Go do somethin’ useful.”
“I’m not Nishida.”
Majima froze up completely. In his drunken stupor, he’d forgotten that Kiryu had been released from prison quite some time ago. Well, it hadn’t been such a long time, but he recalled that he had reacted several times to the news already.
“Well, that’s embarassin’. What brings you to my humble little abode, eh, Kiryu-chan?” he crooned hopefully. “You stalkin’ me now? Color me surprised!”
Despite how seamlessly he tried to play his stupor off, Kiryu fell for approximately none of it. He was grateful underneath it all, but on the surface Majima boiled.
“Are you alright, Majima-no-niisan? You seem incredibly troubled.”
“Oh, I see.” Majima gritted through his teeth. “You and Nishida in cahoots? I’ll tell both of ya to fuck off, in that case. I’m fine, ya hear? So leave me the hell alone.”
A thousand lifetimes from then, Majima would drown Kiryu in affections for refusing to let down.
“... I...” Kiryu hesitated, but audibly strengthened his resolve. “I can’t leave you in a time of need, Majima-san.”
There were plenty of arguments that could have sprung from that denial. Many of them Majima could recite word for word, but...
Tears welled in his lone eye, and that was all he could muster.
It hurt just to have anyone in the same room as him while he felt anything besides manic energy. Nobody ought to see him in any state besides rabid, he’d concluded within the first few months of his sanity leaving him, and that way it had stayed. Now he was broken. In his own home, at least, and anyone invading upon his most private of sanctums ought to have been slaughtered. Not Nishida, though... Definitely not Kiryu, either. Nishida’s life was retained out of pity and unspoken gratitude, but...
Kiryu didn’t ever need to see him reduced to tears. It only made his eye well up more in anger, hot liquid spilling down his cheek in a restless fury.
“Just piss off.” Majima growled, stomping into his bedroom before slamming the door behind him.
Kiryu didn’t dare to follow him inside, but Majima could hear him futzing about the living space like the ridiculous, stupid block of a man that he was. He could hear Kiryu make a pot of coffee, pour himself a cup, then sit down on the creaky leather couch that Majima usually called home. It comforted him almost, until he remembered that no place was truly home after he’d betrayed Saejima and gotten him locked behind bars for the rest of both of their natural lives. He heaved violently into his pillows until he passed out, thoughts of Saejima and the hole howling at him like angry spirits, just quietly enough for Kiryu to barely hear until they had both exhausted themselves to sleep.
It was the latest hours of the night when they’d both awoken suddenly, the two of them scared shitless by equally frightening nightmares. Saejima rotting in a cell alone, Nishikiyama choking on his own blood mixed with sobs of regret... The two of them, interchanged, dying just outside of one another’s reach with fear of the unknown blowing their pupils wide...
Majima fumbled out of bed and stumbled outside of his bedroom as silently as he could manage, flopping onto the couch and onto Kiryu in one fluently half-intoxicated motion. The larger man startled noticeably, but Majima couldn’t find it within himself to give a shit. He clung to Kiryu with meticulously groomed nails scratching the surface of whatever he felt, sniveling like a... a grown man. Many may have considered it pathetic but Kiryu, half-asleep and ignoring his own tears. He refused to acknowledge the dampness pressed between his shoulders, adamantly so because Majima hadn’t acknowledged the so-called Dragon of Dojima’s twitching, silent snivels either.
They both desired wordless, physical comfort. Easy to receive, and even easier to reciprocate. It was therapeutic on almost pleasurable levels to them both, Kiryu eventually tumbling around to pull Majima’s puffy red face into the safety of his warm chest. He would consider it a mama bird instinct later in his life, but in the moment it was just to soak up the sorrows of a man that cared far too deeply about him. Haruka was carelessly asleep with someone he trusted with his own life for the night, so his more reasonable fears were left for the morning to come.
They cried on each other in near silence for hours, the only sounds interrupting being them snorting snot back into their heads somewhat. When dawn broke they began to hesitate with how freely they exhibited raw emotion, giving in to the beast of sleep that clawed at their collective eyes. By the sun’s light they had passed out in a tangle of limbs befitting the two kings of their respective prides.
Determined but meek, Nishida pressed his ear to Majima’s door at a reasonable morning hour, only sighing with relief when he heard two men snoring soundly. In his heart he knew that Kiryu was the only one who could break through to his boss in the darkest of times... Though the man in question wasn’t always around during said times, Nishida would gladly welcome any punishment he’d receive for intervening so long as Majima wound up better off in the end with Kiryu’s presence. Kiryu would make it worth his while in the form of joining him for brunch and some karaoke (Nishida just liked to listen to Kiryu yell along to the songs, honestly) after him and the boss had exchanged awkward yet wistful partings around 10 or 11, but that wasn’t what truly mattered.
In the end, Nishida simply believed that two people who loved each other through thick and thin ought to sleep together. Even though he’d thought it himself since he was young, Majima had grumbled it to him one forgettable night a few years ago, but... Well, he still remembered it like it had happened the day before last.
Perhaps he would find someone like that some day too. The thought made his worried frown twitch into a hesitant smile, although he hoped his circumstances wouldn’t be as heart-wrenching...
For sleeping together, anyway.