Chapter Text
It took Kaoru a moment to get himself back to reality. His forehead hurt like hell, and when he looked around, all his things were scattered across the floor.
"Are you okay?" a gentle, familiar voice asked and soon a hand appeared in front of him. He allowed himself to be helped back up, holding his head.
"Yeah, I think so", Kaoru replied.
Kaoru turned his head to see who he was talking to, and to his surprise it wasn't a complete stranger. It was Toshimasa Hara - who was nicknamed Toshiya - his childhood friend from his old neighborhood.
"Toshiya?"
"Kaoru? It's been like, what, at least ten years!"
Toshiya pulled Kaoru into a tight hug, and because Kaoru didn't want to seem rude he gave the same energy back, although he was the one who pulled away first.
As they just stood there after that embrace, Toshiya quickly collected Kaoru's books and papers and gave that messy bunch of belongings back to him.
"It's been way too long since we last saw each other… so if you're not busy, would you like to grab some coffee with me? I was already late to that final class anyway, so I'm completely free. I'll pay. I want to make this up to you."
Kaoru didn't hesitate. It had been nearly a decade since he had last seen Toshiya, and catching up with everything going on in Toshiya's life definitely interested him. Despite being younger, Toshiya had grown taller than Kaoru, and his entire presence radiated growth and maturity.
"Sure! Although now I'm going to have to attend my last class for today, Mr. Ueda still likes me and I don't want to mess that up", Kaoru said then and gave Toshiya a kind little smile before turning to walk down the stairs.
"I'll wait for you here. Great to see you again!" Toshiya raised his voice as Kaoru's figure disappeared from his sight.
The little French café down the street always had a bit of a pretentious feeling to it, but they always had the best cakes and pastries so the atmosphere didn't really matter. When walking inside, the two guys didn't pay much attention to it anyway.
"Do you know any French?" Toshiya asked as they had sat in silence for a while.
"Uh, just a few little things I've learned from songs and movies", Kaoru replied and scratched his neck, pretending to think about his language skills deeper than he cared to.
"Really? Can you say something in French?" Toshiya asked as the excitement on his face grew wider.
"Well, just something really basic. Such as je t'aime and je suis désolé and j'ai acheté une voiture. Quite useless phrases if I can't say anything else."
"And what did they mean again?"
"I love you, I'm sorry and I bought a car", Kaoru laughed.
"Useless? Say those to any French speaker and you've got yourself a date", Toshiya said – despite his words, he didn't seem impressed, but Kaoru didn't really even expect him to be. Somehow he still felt slightly disappointed when Toshiya's expressions were harder to read.
"I doubt that. Hasn't worked so far."
Toshiya giggled.
"You've actually tried that on someone? What did she say?"
Kaoru blushed and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it for a second out of hesitation. He knew Toshiya, but wasn't sure how he would react to finding out Kaoru didn't swing the way he might expect.
"Didn't get a date."
"Maybe one day you'll have luck with that", Toshiya said, his amusement continuing from his words to his grin, but he dropped it quickly after Kaoru didn't respond with anything.
"Sorry, I didn't mean that you couldn't get anyone, because you totally could, I worded that stupidly-"
"Ah, don't worry about it", Kaoru responded awkwardly.
After another round silence, Kaoru decided to break the ice again and he asked simple questions about how things had been lately with Toshiya, and the other guy was more than happy to tell him everything.
This new, adult Toshiya was so different than the younger version of him that Kaoru had known before, but so many things about him were so…. Toshiya.
He had started at the same university as Kaoru just a few weeks prior, but according to him 'a lot of things needed to be taken care of first', and he had barely paid any attention to other students at this point.
Parents were still together, little sister had turned 19 in June, little brother was about to turn 17 in two months. Toshiya had previously worked as a cleaner at the local hospital, after that as a receptionist at a vet clinic, then some smaller jobs everywhere.
Toshiya's dorm room was on the same floor as Kaoru's, just a few rooms to the left, and he planned to decorate its walls with posters of bands and movies as well as some "more mature things". What those were exactly, he wasn't sure yet.
They talked a lot; their favorite everythings, where they wanted to travel in the future, which animals they would choose if they had to drink a magic potion that turned them into those. Kaoru chose a swan, Toshiya wanted to become a dragon.
"A swan? Really?"
"They're beautiful and what I've learned, they can fight pretty well."
"Interesting. But not very smart."
"Why, what would you choose then?"
"I'd obviously be a dragon. If I had to fight you, you'd become a nice birthday dinner in under five seconds."
"See? Beautiful and useful. What more could anybody want to be?"
"As a dragon, I would rule the entire world."
Despite the fact that his head was still aching a little bit, Kaoru knew he had spent his time wisely as he felt relaxed after a hectic week at school, and it was all thanks to his old friend reappearing in his life. He didn't remember the last time he had had this much fun just by having conversations for hours.
A staff member approached their table ready to pick up their empty coffee mugs and plates full of croissant crumbs.
"Sorry, we're closing for today."
"This early?
"We always close at eight."
"Oh. Yeah, sorry, we'll leave right away."
Toshiya walked like a kid going to an amusement park. His tall legs looked like they had a will of their own, like he was adding dance steps to his movements, and he hummed happily with every step he took. Kaoru tried to follow that style too, it looked fun.
"We sure spent quite a long time at Clair de Lune", Toshiya said while turning to look at the sky. The shades of red and pink were slowly stepping aside from the way of the blue darkness.
"Surprisingly so. I'm not very good at talking to people nowadays", Kaoru said, his words mumbling a bit.
"How did you get to know your current friends here? I think you have to talk to others to develop friendships", Toshiya responded and stopped walking.
"You're not wrong, but I've known that group since I started at university. And that's only because we had to do those silly little song games so we could all "get to know our schoolmates better and loosen up" and all that shit. I'd understand if we were kids, but we were already adults by then."
Toshiya nodded and moved his gaze back to the sky, which was getting bluer and bluer every ten minutes or so.
"The sky is so pretty."
"It sure is."
"You know, Kaoru… if you were a swan and I was a dragon, I don't think I'd want to fight you", Toshiya said and turned to look at Kaoru.
"What made you change your mind?" Kaoru asked curiously.
"I still consider you my friend, so I'd be a very lonely dragon if I fought you. I don't really know anybody else here."
"I see. Thanks for not defeating me in this imaginary battle."
"You're welcome. Because you're so polite, I might let you rule the world with me."
"Oh, that's very generous of you, Your Universal Highness."
Toshiya laughed in a very home-like way that made Kaoru feel warm.
"All the other swans would be my enemies though."
They were slowly getting closer to the residence hall of the university.
"What if my family were the other swans?"
"You really think that the wizard who forces us to drink the magic potion would make everyone else drink it too? He'd run out of ingredients. Besides, then he'd have a whole zoo and it would take a long time to train me, you and your huge swan family so he could rule the universe."
Kaoru shook his head and chuckled.
"I thought you wanted the universe for yourself."
"I do, and you'd obviously help me. We would kill the wizard", Toshiya explained.
Kaoru held the front door open so Toshiya could enter before him, and Toshiya curtsied, giggling softly.
"Thank you. Such a gentleman. Wait… a gentleswan!"
Kaoru rolled his eyes at Toshiya's words, but he did find that pun amusing enough to flash a short-lasting grin at him.
The hallways were empty and quiet except for a few other students walking here and there. Kaoru often wished it would be like that all the time.
"216 is my room. What was yours? 219?"
"Yeah. When do you have your next class?"
"Monday afternoon. What about you?"
"Monday too, but in the morning.", Kaoru said and put the keys back in his pocket as he opened the door to his room.
"Sounds like both of us have the weekend completely to ourselves. Wanna do something fun? I've got plenty of ideas and even more time."
"Well, you know where to find me… but now I need to go or I'll pass out right here in the hallway. Goodnight, dragon king… or whatever your title is."
"I accept that. Goodnight, swan princess!"
"Wait, why am I a princess?"
"You walk like one, like the ground beneath your feet was made of clouds, and the way your hips move is a little bit feminine."
"I don't! And that's an interesting way to admit you've been looking at my ass."
"You've always walked that way."
"I'll pretend you didn't say anything."
"Fine. Sleep well", Toshiya said with a smirk appearing on his lips, and finally him disappearing into his room.
"You too", Kaoru said gently as he entered his own and closed the door behind him.