Chapter Text
Taichi was 24 years old. He was in his fourth year of studying political science at the University of Tokyo, and shared a two-bedroom apartment off campus with his friend of many years, Yamato. Yamato had finished university already, and worked odd jobs around the gigs he managed to get with his band, which had attained mild local success.
The other Chosen Children their age had finished university too, but Taichi had taken his time with getting started, so was finishing a little late. He felt awkward on campus, with most of his friends gone. He threw himself into the soccer team, where he’d been captain for three years.
Sometimes he met up with Hikari, and sometimes she brought Takeru; they were both in their second year, 21 years old. They took a bunch of the same classes and had started working together on hobby projects too, combining Hikari's photography passion with Takeru's increasing interest in creative writing.
Besides them, the only other Chosen Child left on campus was Koshiro, who had lunch with Taichi occasionally, but it was hard to do this often because Koshiro was so busy starting his Master's degree. As much as Taichi liked Koshiro, he found these lunches a bit depressing, a reminder that Koshiro was so far ahead despite being a year younger. It made Taichi feel too old to have so few accomplishments.
On this night, Taichi was feeling even older than usual, because he was at a party full of people who were several years younger than him. Taichi had been on a few dates with a second-year student named Saya, whom he’d met in a campus bar. She’d convinced him to come to a party that a friend of a friend of hers was hosting.
Taichi knew, the moment he entered the house, that this was not his crowd. It wasn’t just that they were too young; they also had a vaguely artsy, nerdy vibe that Taichi found attractive in Saya, but he didn’t know how to behave in a whole group of people like that. All his friends were either jocks or Chosen Children.
Taichi opened one of the beers he’d brought and put the others in the fridge – no need to worry about mixing it up with anyone else’s, as all the hipsters at this party had craft cider or some shit. He took out his phone to text Saya, and felt a hand on his shoulder. Taichi and looked up to see blue eyes regarding him with surprise. Of course that kid was here. Artsy, nerdy, and hipster – that wasn’t Taichi’s vibe, but it sure was Takeru’s.
“Taichi-Senpai! I didn’t expect the captain of the soccer team to grace a party like this. How are you?”
“Well I wouldn’t normally,” said Taichi, ignoring the sarcasm in the over-the-top praise. “I’m supposed to be on a date, but I can’t find her. I don’t suppose you know someone here named Saya?”
“Nope,” replied Takeru. “But good luck. I’ve never known you to fail at finding a date.”
“Right, well good to see you,” said Taichi. “I’ve got to go look for her, but we should catch up later.”
Taichi wandered through the crowd, increasingly confused at the lack of familiar faces; Saya had told him she’d be here by now, and she’d stopped answering her texts. He went through a beer and a half in fifteen minutes of searching, drinking faster than usual in the uncomfortable situation. He wandered into a hallway off from the main room to get some air. This house was big – whatever hipster kid was hosting clearly had rich parents who’d gone out of town.
Taichi was about to look around the hallway when someone tapped him from behind. He turned around to see Saya, looking furious. “You didn’t tell me!” she said. “You didn’t tell me you fucked nearly all the girls in drama club! Do you know how embarrassing it was to tell them about my date, and find out they’d all been there already?”
“I… honestly I didn’t think it was that big a deal,” said Taichi. He had a bit of a thing for artsy types, and had therefore, in the past couple of years, found his way to quite a few girls who were into theatre. But he’d not been with any of them more than once or twice, so he’d not put together that they were all in the same club. Or that Saya was in that club too.
“Of course it’s a big deal!” said Saya. “I’m not here to be another notch in some messed up game you’re playing, if you’re trying to complete the set.”
“I’m not – wait, I’m definitely not doing that! I’m not, like, trying to fuck every girl from one club. I didn’t even know you all knew each other.”
“Well that means you don’t even learn the most basic facts about the girls you sleep with, so either way, I’m out. I’m going home, and you can lose my number. You were so charming at the bar, but you just turn that on for anyone, do you?”
“No, Saya, I do like you. We’ve only hung out a couple of times, I didn’t think it was anything serious, but I have fun with you –” Saya reached up and slapped Taichi in the face with an open palm. It didn’t hurt, but its suddenness shocked Taichi into silence as Saya stormed out of the house.
Taichi turned around and saw a couple of chairs in the hallway. Sitting in one of them was a boy with messy blond hair poking out under a worn-out hat – shit, Takeru was looking at him a hint of a smirk on his lips. Taichi hadn’t noticed him before, but he’d clearly witnessed the whole thing.
Taichi sighed, and sat down in the second chair. “Well fuck,” he said. “I guess you’ve seen me fail to get a date now. At least I don’t have to stay here all night anymore.”
Takeru giggled. “What, you won’t stay for a few drinks? It’ll be fun. Besides, you’re kind of a slut, Taichi. You can’t be all shocked if it occasionally catches up with you.”
Taichi hit him in the arm. “I am not.”
“Hey, I’m not saying I blame you,” said Takeru, leaning back in the chair and casually clasping his hands behind his head, while looking Taichi up and down. “You’re outgoing, you’re a soccer star, you’re hot, you can apparently turn on the charm in bars… of course everyone wants you. Can’t expect you to say no to them all.”
“You’re one to talk,” muttered Taichi, taking a swig from his beer.
“I’m sorry?”
“Come on, Takeru, you think that just because we hang out with different crowds, your reputation doesn’t get back to me? Hikari tells me stories. Does your Onii-chan know that when you said you like boys and girls, you meant at the same time?” Takeru had, in fact, come out as bisexual about four years earlier, and had openly been with boys and girls since then. He’d been less open with his Chosen Children friends about his frequent casual sex, and his occasional forays into threesomes.
Takeru clearly hadn’t known that this gossip had reached Taichi, and faltered a bit as he said, “He doesn’t know unless you’ve told him! Shit, you haven’t, have you?”
“Of course I haven’t,” said Taichi. “Mainly because I don’t want the cops knocking on our door to follow up, after Yamato reports all your previous partners for pedophilia. Which I'm pretty sure he’d do, because he’s under the impression that you’re still about ten years old. Ironic, to think that about someone who’s” – Taichi put his hands up to form air quotes, and used a higher-pitched voice to quote his sister – “been a fuckboy since he hit puberty.”
“You don’t need to believe everything Hikari says,” sighed Takeru bitterly. “Everyone's a fuckboy compared to her standards, because she’s an innocent angel of light who turns down everyone who tries to get with her.”
“Yeah, I hear you speak from experience on that,” replied Taichi. “At least someone in my family maintains some dignity.” He rubbed the red spot on his cheek where it had been slapped earlier.
“I told you,” said Takeru. “I don’t blame you for it, but you can’t go around cheating on people and then complaining when you get slapped.”
“I didn’t cheat on anyone!” said Taichi. “She got mad about stuff I did before I even knew her! Besides, I couldn’t have cheated on her because we were never in a relationship. We were just having fun. I keep the moral high ground here.”
Takeru snorted. “It’s a dubious claim to the moral high ground, that you don’t cheat because you never show interest in committing to anyone. Well, not since Sora rejected you.” This bit of gossip was common knowledge among the Chosen Children – Taichi had asked Sora out in middle school, and she’d gone for Yamato instead. When they broke up a few years later, Taichi waited a respectful amount of time and then asked her out again. She said no, Taichi took it hard, and since then, he avoided putting more than a token level of emotional investment into any romantic interests.
“Like you didn’t react exactly the same way when my sister turned you down in high school,” said Taichi, which briefly wiped the smirk off Takeru’s face. Taichi finished his drink, and went to the kitchen to get another.
When he returned to his chair, he had a renewed focus. “Okay, it’s game time. I need to decide if I’m going to down this beer and go somewhere better for the night, or stay here and try to find something worth doing at this weird hipster party.”
“You mean someone worth doing, don’t you?” asked Takeru. “Who’s the fuckboy now?”
“Still you,” said Taichi. “What about you – what are you doing here tonight, anyway? Single and looking, or did you come here with some girl? Or some boy? Or both, is this one of your threesome nights?”
“Do I look taken?” asked Takeru, gesturing to the empty hallway around them. “Don’t worry, the next time I have a threesome lined up, I’ll let you know, in case you want to check it out for pointers on how to score one. Or how to satisfy both partners at once.”
“Okay,” said Taichi, “I don’t tell Yamato about your sex life, but I might have to reconsider that, if it's the only way to stop you from making me hear my best friend's kid brother brag about having threesomes. Cut that out or I'll sic our neighbourhood’s fourth-greatest rockstar on everyone who’s ever touched you.”
Takeru laughed again, his blue eyes sparkling as they settled into banter that felt more playful and less bitter. “Come on, Taichi, you don’t want my advice? Big soccer star like you, I’m sure you’ll find yourself in a threesome situation someday.”
“No thanks,” said Taichi. “One woman at a time is enough to deal with; I’m not interested in trying for two.”
“A threesome doesn’t have to have two women,” said Takeru. “The best ones only have one.”
“I know that’s what you’re into,” said Taichi. “Good for you, do your thing. But I don’t want another guy around while I’m getting off.”
“Never?” asked Takeru, raising his eyebrows. “You’ve never been with a guy?”
“Nope,” said Taichi. “Not my thing.”
“All those years, you and Onii-chan – not even a drunken kiss that you pretend you don’t remember? I figured it must have happened at least once.”
“No!” repeated Taichi defensively. “No, and if that’s a rumour going around, you can shut that down.”
“Okay, okay, I believe you haven’t done it. Would you, though? If you had the chance?”
Taichi froze, felt his mouth go dry. “Would I, what? With Yamato?”
Takeru chuckled. “With any guy. I’m not asking you to untangle your feelings about Onii-chan, we’d be here all night. I’m asking if you’ve ever thought about being with a guy at all. It could be anyone – you know, maybe some fuckboy.” Takeru casually draped an arm across the back of Taichi’s chair, and Taichi, through his slightly tipsy haze, finally clued in that the sparkle in Takeru’s eye contact indicated flirting.
“Jesus, are you trying to get us both killed? No, I haven't thought about doing that, because there are no locked doors between where I sleep and where Yamato sleeps, and I don’t want to wake up to find myself getting strangled.”
Takeru smiled wider, inching closer to Taichi and lowering his voice a bit. “Some people like that, you know. I’m pretty good at it. You want to find out how good?”
“Fucking hell, Takeru,” said Taichi, moving away. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I don't know, probably childhood trauma.” Takeru learned closer and brought his hand up from behind Taichi's chair, running it through his spiky hair. “You know I’m not actually a kid anymore, right? Haven't been for many years, and it doesn’t matter what age someone thinks I am…”
Taichi clumsily knocked the hand out of his hair, and stood up. “Takeru. You’re like those girls who work out their daddy issues by sleeping with whatever guys would piss off their father the most. You need to go work out your Onii-chan issues on someone else.”
Taichi walked back to the main room, disappearing into the crowd. He finished his drink pretty quickly, but instead of leaving, found himself grabbing a new one. This was as good a place as any to spend his frustrating night; he could throw himself into the alcohol, the music, the strangers. Besides, Taichi didn’t want to get home early enough to find Yamato still awake. He was a terrible liar, so would prefer not to field questions about how the party had gone.
A couple of hours later, Taichi was quite a few more drinks in. He found it easier to get lost in the party, partly because he was drunk; and partly because the lights in the main room had dimmed, the music had turned up, and it had become a dance floor.
Taichi was dancing by himself, hardly aware of his surroundings, when he felt a hand on his back, another in his hair. Even in the dimmed light, he could see blond hair under a hat. He smelled craft cider on the kid’s breath – Takeru had clearly gotten drunker too. “Hi Senpai,” he muttered into Taichi’s ear, pressing their bodies together. “You enjoying the hipster party?”