Work Text:
It was only 3pm, but it had already been a long day.
Sighing, Guren leaned back in his chair, squeezing his eyes shut, and massaging his temples in an attempt to relieve his pounding headache. He had spent his day so far doing copious amounts of mind-numbing paperwork that Kureto had (not) politely informed him needed to be on his desk by tomorrow. Of course, the ever defiant Guren didn't plan to hand in all of the paperwork by tomorrow; he had only planned to hand in half. But there was just THAT much. Guren slowly opened his eyes again, and started leaning forward toward his desk, in order to attempt to blaze through the last part of today's dedicated paperwork. He needed to properly rest his head, and soon, or he thought he might explode.
But, of course, that's not what happened. Suddenly, the door to his office swung open without a single knock from the other side, and a familiar, irritating voice sang his name.
"Guuuuren!"
Guren looked up from his desk, with annoyance clearly written on his face, to meet the eyes of the silver-haired, beautiful man standing in his doorway. In response to the look, the man smiled and began to enter the room, closing the door behind him.
"Do you know how to knock, Shinya?" Guren asked, raising his hand to touch his head, which was still throbbing.
Ignoring his question, Shinya approached Guren's desk, plopping himself in one of the leather chairs placed in front of it. He smiled at Guren, before directing his gaze towards the multiple stacks of paper lining Guren's desk. Shinya then began talking.
"Oh, did my brother do this to you? Sorry. He's in a really bad mood today. Something about losing a bet... I wouldn't know. I don't like to listen when he talks" said Shinya, smiling again.
"I feel similarly when you talk. What the hell do you want anyway? I'm busy, my head hurts, and I don't feel like dealing with your problems. " Guren replied, refusing to smile back at Shinya. He would usually enjoy Shinya’s company, but this wasn’t the day for it.
"Ouch, that's cold. You know they make medication for headaches right? I think it's called p-"
"What the hell do you want!?" asked Guren again, slightly raising his voice this time. He was now glaring at Shinya. His head throbbed.
"Okay, okay, sorry. No need to be grouchy. Truth is, I'm here because I want to go get ice-cream. Everyone else is too busy caring about their work. I know you don't care, so I was sure you would say yes."
"..." Guren continued to glare at the man sitting across from him.
"Guren?" asked Shinya. He cocked his head slightly to the side in confusion.
"Are you a toddler? Ice-cream? You have work to do too, you know."
Shinya frowned in response. The truth was, he wanted to take some stress off of Guren - he had overheard Kureto earlier gloating to Aoi about how much paperwork he had allocated Guren for the day. Shinya knew Guren wouldn't finish it - realistic deadline or not - but he knew Guren would still stress. He wanted to help in some way, and this is the best he could come up with. And he knew after a bit of persuasion, Guren would go with him to get ice-cream just to shut him up. He leaned forward in the chair, buzzing with excitement. He enjoyed spending time with Guren. He really enjoyed it. He had been waiting for a good excuse to spend some time with him, anyway.
“Actually, I happened to finish my work early today, thank you very much. Anyway, there’s a new ice-cream parlor just down the road. I want to try it. Plus, getting out of here would probably help your headache. And it would really piss Kureto off that you’re leaving without handing anything in. You also get to spend time with me, which I know you’re dying to do. It’s written allllll over your face.” chimed Shinya. “I will also help you with the rest of the paperwork when we make it back.” he said, in an attempt to sweeten the deal.
Guren sighed. Shinya was right that getting away from all the paperwork would help his head. He was also right that it would piss Kureto off. And, he was even sort of right about spending time with him. He also didn’t mind the idea of pawning off some of the work to Shinya. Guren stared at the piles of paperwork on his desk again, his head throbbing in response. He sighed.
“Fine.” Guren agreed, standing up from his desk. He was eager to try to relieve this headache. And well, Shinya seemed pretty excited too.
“Good choice!” sung Shinya, joyously. “ It’s a date then. I’ll lead the way.”
Why did I say that? Shinya thought to himself. He probably thinks I’m joking. Ah. Fuck.
Guren stared at Shinya for a moment, caught off guard by the “date” comment. Shinya simply stood up and smiled at him. He didn’t appear to have a second thought about what he had just said.
“Come on, then.” gestured Shinya, as he walked toward the door.
Although questions plagued his mind, Guren said nothing, and followed.
____________________________________________________
When Shinya had said the ice-cream parlour was just “down the road”, he may have left out just how far down the road it was. It was, in fact, quite far. Guren didn’t mind though. Simply walking in the fresh air had relieved his throbbing head quite a bit. Though, he could not take his mind off of Shinya’s “it’s a date” comment. He wondered if Shinya was serious, or just joking around. His train of thought was suddenly interrupted.
“Here we are! What do you think, Guren?”
Shinya had stopped in front of a small store. The exterior was painted a soft blue, and the large window out the front was lined with flower boxes. Through the window, a glass topped counter was visible, and the walls inside seemed to perfectly match the colour of the exterior. There were a few tables for people to sit at.
“It just looks like a normal ice-cream shop.” stated Guren, who then looked at Shinya with a slightly confused expression.
Shinya frowned again.
“What did you expect exactly? I said it was new, not unusual.” said Shinya, as he turned away from Guren to open the door. Holding the door open, he gestured for Guren to enter.
Guren stared at Shinya for a minute, his mind racing back to the date comment, before entering through the open door. Shinya filed through behind him. A cashier smiled at them as they entered, and Shinya shot one straight back, before walking toward the counter to browse the selection of ice-cream.
“What flavour do you like, Guren?” asked Shinya, studying the selection carefully. His expression made him look like he was making the world’s most difficult decision ever.
“Coffee.” replied Guren, who wasn’t even looking at the ice-cream counter.
“Huh?”
“Coffee flavoured ice-cream. I like coffee flavoured ice-cream.” clarified Guren, who claimed them a table by the window.
“Oh. Well they don’t have coffee flavour. They have hazelnut. That’s close enough. I’ll get you hazelnut.” Shinya didn’t even wait for Guren to answer. He signaled the cashier and ordered Guren two scoops of hazelnut ice-cream in a waffle cone, and proceeded to order the same for himself, but strawberry flavour instead. Meanwhile, Guren glared at him in annoyance, but only for a moment. Man, this guy was fucking annoying sometimes… but it was nice to spend some time with him outside of work. It was nice to maybe, potentially, be on a date with him.
His head throbbed again, so he tried to ignore his thoughts. He focused back on the hazelnut ice-cream. How the hell was that “close enough” to coffee flavour?
“Normal chocolate would’ve been fine.” he muttered under his breath.
“Did you say something?” cheerfully asked Shinya, handing Guren his hazelnut cone.
“Nope.”
“Liar.” Shinya sat down across from Guren and began eating. “How’s your head, anyway?” he asked. He was staring at Guren. He was wondering if Guren thought his comment about the date was serious or just a joke. That’s what he actually wanted to ask.
Guren sat there for a minute, realising his headache had dissolved from an angry throbbing pain into a soft, faint one. His mood had improved significantly, too. Even if this wasn’t a date, Shinya wasn’t a bad person to hang out with. But, fuck, he wished it was a date.
“...Better. Thank you. Even though I think it was a childish excuse to get me to stop working, I appreciate it.”
Shinya sat back in shock for a moment, slightly stunned that Guren had seen through his lie of just randomly wanting ice-cream. His shock dissolved into a laugh, and a smile.
“Awwh, no fair. You saw through me?”
This time, Guren smiled, and leaned forward towards Shinya.
“You are a terrible liar, Shinya. I just wanted to play along.”
“Okay well, I do admit. I might’ve lied about that part. But hey, you’re having fun right? I’m sure you’re flattered to be on a date with a handsome guy like me, righttt?” Shinya jokingly said. Though he wasn’t joking. But if Guren wasn’t interested, it was better to play it off as a joke, right? Right.
I can’t tell if he's serious right now or what, thought Guren. Although he desperately wanted to know, he didn’t want to ask. So instead, he took action. In response, he placed his hand atop one of Shinya’s that had been resting on the table.
“Right. Very lucky.” His eyes met Shinya’s with a serious look. He was hoping that was enough to clue Shinya in if he was also interested, but not enough if he wasn’t.
Shinya had no idea what to do, or say. Guren’s reply didn’t seem sarcastic. It seemed serious. His face was serious. And his hand was seriously on top of Shinya’s. Instead of replying with words, he linked his fingers in with Guren’s, and met his gaze. The two stared at each other for a while, silently. Breathing in deeply, full of nerves, Guren began talking in an attempt to break the silence.
“I’m not joking, you know. About being lucky. I want to spend more time with you. Like this. Maybe not getting ice-cream…. But still.” Guren dropped his gaze some.
Shinya hadn’t anticipated Guren’s confession. He could tell Guren was nervous. He was nervous, too. So, to break the tension, he spoke casually.
“...Next time Kureto is in a bad mood, I’ll rescue you again. Or maybe, even when he’s not in a bad mood.”
“I like the sound of that.” Guren smiled, relaxing his shoulders, relieved Shinya seemed to reciprocate his feelings. He began to look at Shinya again, who had never looked away from him.
The pair just sat in silence for a moment, smiling at the other. Both their faces were painted with relief, and joy.
“...Well we better finish these, then. We have a lot of paperwork to do tonight. I don’t want Kureto to kill you tomorrow. Not after I just confessed my love to you.” sighed Shinya, jokingly.
“...Right. We don’t want that.” said Guren, laughing.