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"Oh!" Hiromi exclaims, although his voice remains hushed, like he's sharing a secret. "I used to play this one in elementary school. I'm surprised there's a copy here." He pulls the board game box from the shelf, placing it down on the table in the center of the rec room. Cate sits up straighter from his spot on the floor, peeking at the cartoonish lettering, his gaze automatically flitting to Hiromi when Hiromi sits on the couch across from him. "Why don't we play this one next?"
Cate nods, scooting closer to the table, picking up the game booklet after Hiromi lifts the lid of the box. It's glossy, reflecting the light of the lamps they've left on in the rec room, circles of white-yellow glaring from the pages as Cate skims through them, barely reading it. "I've never seen a copy of this game that wasn't old and worn out already," Hiromi continues, idly setting out the board and shuffling the cards. "Do you want to pick your figurine first?"
Around them, half-put away game boxes litter the table and the floor. Wood and plastic pieces radiate from where they sit like a war zone. Not all of it is their mess — the others had been playing, too, for the hour or so after dinner — but only Cate and Hiromi remain, now, adding to the ever-growing piles of boxes that have become a block game of their own. Cate's not sure how late it is, only that it's late enough for them to talk in whispers, late enough that choosing a game piece and deciding who goes first feels like deja vu. They take turns drawing cards and moving their figurines, the gentle whoosh of the cards and faint click of their pieces as they count spaces on the board echoing loudly in the otherwise empty air.
Hiromi's an adult now, and Cate is nearly there, but sitting on the floor of the messy rec room makes him feel much younger, like a schoolboy on a field trip out to the countryside. Or at least, how Cate imagines one would be — he had never participated, electing to stay home, sitting with Chipi-chan while he kept his hands busy mending secondhand plushies and clothes.
Hiromi stifles a yawn. "Hiromi, are you getting sleepy?" Cate asks, already staring mournfully at the mess they've left around the room.
Blinking rapidly, Hiromi shakes his head, drawing a card from the stack at the middle of the board. "This is nothing," Hiromi tells him, silently counting as he moves his game piece. His shadow pools over the board as he leans forward. "We're only about halfway across the board. Let's finish playing, at least. You still look wide awake, and it's not like I'm unused to pulling late nights. Perks of being a working adult."
Cate hums. "Is that really a perk?"
Hiromi laughs, his head tilting sideways as he crosses his arms in front of his chest. "As boring of a schedule as it was, it prepared me surprisingly well for idol training."
Cate hums again, taking in the set of Hiromi's shoulders, the way his bangs fall across his forehead. His hair is still neat, even this late in the night, but his back is forever hunched. an unimposing slump that makes Cate worry about the state of his spine. He wonders if it's a habit built from office work, or if it's just how Hiromi has always held himself, closed and trimly displayed, like a book on a shelf. "Hiromi has a lot of life experience," he points out instead of asking, drawing his own card from the progressively messier pile.
Hiromi waves him off, awkward and expected, his cheeks turning pink as he grips his own arms tighter. "I went straight from high school to entry-level office work. I haven't seen very much of the world." He leans back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling. "I have managed to pick up some skills during that time, at least."
"Like what?" Cate prompts.
Hiromi considers this quietly, stalling by drawing another card, and pinching the top of his game piece with a deliberateness that leaves Cate staring much too hard at Hiromi's hands. "Well, I type much quicker now," he starts with. "And one of my senpai taught me some spreadsheet formulas. I learned to cook simple meals, and probably tried every laundromat within a 20 kilometer radius around my old apartment…" Hiromi huffs, the corners of his mouth quirking unevenly, his game piece rattling the cards and Cate's own figurine as he places it down harder than intended. "Never did get better at holding my alcohol, but I got better at pretending I was drinking all of it. And at taking cold showers when I was a little past tipsy." Hiromi seems to remember himself, his expression softening. "Not that you need to hear about all of that."
Cate finds himself grinning back. "Hiromi is very skilled."
It pull another laugh from Hiromi's mouth, abrupt but still hushed, the bashful pink on his cheeks burning brighter. "I'm really just average. These are all things that you can pick up when you get older." Hiromi slouches further, dropping his cheek into his palm. "Cate-kun has a unique charm that I could never learn myself."
Cate fiddles with his own game piece. Unlike Cate, Hiromi's eyes don't stray from Cate's face, dark eyes trained forward in idle attention. "Hiromi seems like he would've been popular when he was younger."
"Not particularly," Hiromi denies. "I made passing grades. I got along with my classmates, although we were never particularly close. I joined the literature club. I guess I was class rep, for a bit, but that didn't exactly mean much."
"No girlfriend?" Cate blurts, quickly moving his figurine before he can think harder on it.
"I had a few," Hiromi admits, scratching his cheek. "Nothing that lasted more than a month or two." Hiromi picks up another card, moving as if he didn't just drop a bomb in the rec room. "What about Cate-kun?"
"Um." Cate finds himself blushing, looking down at his lap, his fingers wringing nervously together in a way they haven't in years. "Cate… Cate has never been able to speak well, so…" Cate trails off, frowning. "Cate was always alone in school. So to Cate, Hiromi's school life sounds like lots of fun." Cate takes a slow breath, untangling his fingers. By the time he looks back up at Hiromi, Cate is grinning again. "Even when he lies about being popular."
Hiromi huffs, crossing his arms once more. "I'm telling you, I wasn't all that popular."
"Mhmm~ If Hiromi says so."
"I do," Hiromi asserts, then lets his head tip back once again, his eyes fluttering briefly closed. "… We've both made quite a few friends at this audition though, haven't we?"
"… Mm." Cate rocks forward, leaning his elbows on the table, awkwardly spread to keep from jostling the game board. "Cate gets to do lots of things Cate hasn't tried before. Like working on assignments together, and telling ghost stories together, and staying up late playing games together."
Hiromi smiles, his eyes still closed. "It's fun, isn't it?"
"But there are lots and lots of things Cate still wants to do!" Cate continues, dramatically slumping until his cheek squishes against the wood of the table. "I want to appear on 'Mama, Papa, Let's Play Together!' I want to take a cold shower after drinking all night! I want to have a girlfriend and, and — and have my first kiss!"
Hiromi's smile widens, his lips stretching into a toothy grin, and when his eyes slit open Cate's breath catches, although it's easy to hide with the way his face is still squished to the table, level with the game board's plastic. "Cate-kun has plenty of time to experience all those things," Hiromi says. His head tilts, his one ear sinking into the plush fabric of the couch. "Although I guess becoming an idol might conflict with some of them."
Cate quietly grumbles to himself, Hiromi laughing at his reaction. "… Has Hiromi had his first kiss?" he wonders.
"I have," Hiromi admits.
Cate flies upright. "Hiromi has?!"
Still laughing, Hiromi levers himself upright as well, picking up one of the abandoned cards. "It wasn't that exciting," he explains, moving his figurine with the hand not holding the card. "It was pretty awkward, actually."
"Still!" Cate exclaims. "Hiromi really has experienced lots of things."
"I'm sure Cate-kun will too, in the next few years."
Cate whines, holding a hand to his chest. "Cate doesn't want to wait a few years. Can't Hiromi just show me?"
"Wouldn't you rather experience these things on your own?"
"Hiromi can show Cate at least one," Cate argues. "Hiromi can at least kiss Cate, can't he?"
Hiromi's eyebrows scrunch, his mouth parting in surprise, and Cate nearly goes dizzy with how fast his face flushes in response. His voice seems to click in his throat like one of Akashi's half-finished projects, his mouth opening and closing around his own silence, until he finally settles on pressing his lips together, swallowing tightly.
Hiromi — mature, perceptive Hiromi — sets down his game pieces with more care than strictly necessary, gathering his expression into a modest smile just for Cate. "I'm not exactly first kiss material," he replies, laughing lightly again. "Cate-kun should wait for someone special."
"Cate doesn't want to wait," he repeats, painfully childish even to his own ears, his words rushing ahead before his brain. "Cate wants to have his first kiss with Hiromi."
He doesn't realize how true it is until he's said it, out loud in the artificial lamplight of the rec room, empty except for the two of them. Hiromi's mouth goes soft and startled once more, before his eyes crinkle as he carefully lowers himself to the floor, squeezing into the space between the couch and the table. Cate scooches forward until his ribs are crushed against the wood, and as Hiromi adjusts his legs his knees knock into Cate's, his socked feet brushing over Cate's shins. Cate swallows again.
"Has anyone ever told you you're hard to say no to?" Hiromi asks, his eyes still crinkled, their knees still touching.
"No," Cate answers honestly. "Not that Cate would really…"
Hiromi ignores the way he trails off, moving toward Cate over the game board. Their shadows meet as Cate leans closer. "I still think you should wait for someone special."
Cate's heart thumps in his ribcage. He shakes his head.
Hiromi sighs again. His breath brushes against Cate's lips. It's warm, and still smells faintly like their earlier dinner, like miso and spring salad. Cate closes his eyes.
He almost doesn't register the way Hiromi bridges the rest of the distance between them, his lips warm and dry, the pressure of them lighter than air. Then Cate tries to breathe, and their lips scrape, and Cate finds himself making a choked-off noise in the back of his throat instead as Hiromi fills in the empty space with his mouth, his upper lip slotting into the part of Cate's, interlocking just far enough for Cate to catch the bit of moisture at the front of Hiromi's teeth.
Then Hiromi pulls away, smiling his placid smile, and Cate is gasping, gaping. "See?" Hiromi says, his shoulders shrugging up toward his ears. "Not all that groundbreaking, was it? I'm sure it will be a little different when you kiss someone you really like. I'm still waiting to experience that myself."
Cate's hands tremble in his lap. Looking back down at their game, Hiromi finishes his turn, letting out a pleased hum when he lands where he wants on the game board. Cate presses his ribs harder into the table. "Looks like I won this time, Cate-kun," Hiromi announces, still looking placid and pleased. "That ties us up again. I wouldn't mind playing one more round to break the tie, but it is getting pretty late. And we still need to clean up this mess we made…"
Cate deliberately laces his fingers together and squeezes. "Hiromi, let's play again tomorrow!" he manages, wringing his fingers tighter. "That way we can just tell Riam and Mikera we weren't finished yet and planned to clean up later…"
"That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it? But…" Hiromi sweeps his eyes around the room, then lifts a finger to his lips. Lips that Cate has kissed. He just kissed Hiromi. "I don't mind pretending to be clueless, just this once."
Cate nods in agreement, tiptoeing behind Hiromi out of the rec room, and pretending his shaky legs are the result of sitting on the floor for too long. The walk is short, but by the time they've reached Cate's bedroom, the time of night has managed to catch up to him, his eyelids heavy with exhaustion even though his heart is still racing in his chest.
"Goodnight, Cate-kun," Hiromi whispers, continuing toward his own bedroom, his steps stuttering when Cate impulsively grabs onto his sleeve. "Cate-kun?"
"Hiromi — " Cate's voice cuts off, clipping like a bad recording. He stares up at Hiromi through his lashes, his shoulders uncharacteristically hunched, unsure exactly what he's asking for.
Hiromi's confused expression clears, like clouds pulling away from the sun. With the grace of a practiced idol, he presses another kiss to the corner of Cate's mouth, lingering long enough for Cate to feel the upward quirk of his lips against Cate's cheek.
"Goodnight, Cate-kun," he repeats, pulling out of Cate's slack grip and walking the last few steps to his own room.
Cate runs his fingertips over his mouth, then onto his cheek, then finally shields his eyes with his palm and fingers, embarrassed heat burning at the corners.
"Goodnight, Hiromi," Cate eventually mumbles, the hallway already empty.