Chapter Text
He couldn't believe it. There was just no way. How many times had he wished for this to happen? Secretly, just by himself? Besides, he couldn't remember how he got into this absurd situation. Well, he could but … it had been a normal working day for him. In the middle of the week. It wasn't even Friday or Saturday. Days on which such situations usually occur more frequently. Or at least with a higher probability. It was during the week. And tomorrow morning he would probably get up again at 5:30, exercise, and get on the subway with the rest of the working world. Do his crazy job, return home and meet this man in the lobby? How on earth would he be able to do that? Look him in the eye without remembering him naked, drunk and … in a more than PG-13 kind of way?
Nanami always had his fixed routine, which he stuck to and didn't deviate from if possible. But he just couldn't turn down the offer. There was just no way. If he had smiled sheepishly at the offer, waved him off and thanked the handsome man for his advances, he would have lain awake and been hopping mad until the next morning. Just the way he had looked at him was all it needed. His small dark eyes turned up to Nanami, accentuating their difference in height. His angular face with unsettlingly dark eyes ... sitting next to him, leaning casually on the bar. The words that Kento had imagined to hear so often, when he was all by himself, rolled so easily off the other's lips. He smiled confidently, his signature nose wrinkling a little…
It send shivers down his spine just thinking about it.
Nanami had lived in his apartment for four years now. He had been looking for the right room layout for a long time: an open kitchen, balcony, spacious bedroom and a modern bathroom were very difficult to find in his price range. It had taken forever, was exhausting and inefficient. Most of the time he was glad enough to be able to attend the showing, with his job being just crazy. He didn’t even bother to explain to the landlord what he did for a living. He just put ‘consultant’ in the application. That was why he hadn't even asked about the neighbors during the search. Although this had often been an indicator when he was looking for an apartment, when he saw the apartment he suddenly didn't care. He signed the contract as quickly as possible and moved in immediately. Only to find out later that he should have asked about the neighbors after all.
Because as it turned out, having a crush was very annoying.
Whenever Nanami saw his neighbor down the hall or in the elevator, he knew it would be an unproductive evening. He would prepare dinner and think about his neighbour. He would open a bottle of wine and wonder which wine his crush would prefer. Or which alcohol he generally liked? Then Nanami would open a book, read a few pages without remembering a word and imagine and his thoughts would create scenarios of what it would be like to enjoy the wine together. Or whatever alcohol. Frustrated, he would close the book, put the wine aside, and take an extensive, rather steamy, shower.
It was that kind of crush. And there was no way he could tell anyone. And the one that would never lead to anything since his brain stopped working whenever he laid eyes on Higuruma.
He had finally gained a good reputation among his friends and colleagues. He was considered reliable and efficient. 'A pragmatic man with clear goals in mind.' That's how Mei Mei once described him. 'And with a frustrating sex life.' She once added but he decided to erase the last part from his memories. His sex life was none of her business. At all. But still she was right. He hated that she was.
Nanami took his job very seriously and always performed his duties with superior diligence. He hated nothing more than working overtime and had discovered early in life that if you completed any task immediately with great accuracy, you didn't have to work overtime. He always finished work at the same time. At six o'clock sharp he held his ID card up to the timer and simultaneously pressed the elevator button with his other hand. Just to not have to be at work a second longer than was necessary.
So it bothered him all the more when he was denied free use of his already limited free time. Because of a man at that.
For a long time, Nanami had thought about simply asking his neighbor out on a date. But also for a long time, he didn't even know his name. It wasn't until a few weeks after seeing him for the first, that he noticed him getting his mail out of the mailbox in the evening. From then on he not only knew the name of his crush, but also where it lived.
Higuruma Hiromi. Seventh floor, east side.
Nanami himself lived on the east side, three floors above Higuruma. It was a wonderful sight. Waking up most mornings to a sun-flooded room. The thunderstorms also mostly approached from that side of the city. From the fifth floor, the apartments had floor-to-ceiling windows, which offered a magnificent view. From inside ... and outside.
Nanami shook his head. Now he probably had no more excuses for the ridiculously horny thoughts he'd been having.
"He must be tired after work."
"He looks so grumpy, I'm sure he'll turn me down."
"He's in a relationship."
"He's not gay."
"I'm probably too young for him.”
All those hypothetical excuses became merely hypotheses. Now that he knew where Higuruma Hiromi lived, all he had to do was knock on the door and ask him out. That would give him all the information he needed.
***
Never in his life did Kento expect Higuruma to leapfrog him. Never in his life did he dream that his neighbor would reciprocate his feelings.
And yet, here they were. In Higuruma's apartment. Which, by the way, resembled his own in layout as expected. Kento's mind never failed to amaze him, since he thought about the layout of the apartment while Higuruma was standing in front of him, slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt.
However, Nanami felt a little guilty. The kind of guilt that creeps up quietly and comes to light at the wrong moment.
Kento wasn't a bad man. Honor and principles had always been important to him. And he wasn't stupid either. It quickly became clear to him, while still being at the bar near their apartment building, that Higuruma hardly even knew his name. It didn’t need astonishing intelligence to figure that one out.
His advances were tinged with a light alcohol scent and his cheeks were visibly flushed. By coincidence they had both visited the bar in the neighborhood that evening and apparently it also wasn't more than coincidence that Higuruma had chosen Kento as his fling toujours .
Coincidences. Nothing else.
But Kento had thrown his principles overboard fairly quickly, deciding that it was okay to put your own interests ahead of others from time to time. Especially since the interests in this case led to the same result.
Maybe this night would bring him the closure he needed to finally break free from his embarrassingly pubertal crush.
They didn't say a word on the way back to their apartment building. Silently and with hasty steps, they hurried into the elevator and up to the seventh floor. Already in the elevator, Higuruma had started to undo Nanami's tie. The mutual excitement filled the cabin and whoever had boarded that ride going up would not have lasted a second with them in it. Nanami had no idea what happened today that made his neighbor so sexually charged, but he didn't complain. Quite the contrary.
But when they entered the apartment and Higuruma pulled him towards the bedroom, Nanami suddenly started to have doubts. Guilt was a cunning emotion.
Not only was Higuruma significantly more drunk than himself. He also had no idea about Nanami's feelings for him, the wine, and the showers.
He felt like he was taking advantage of his neighbor.
But all those thoughts disappeared when Higuruma started to undress. Everything about him seemed to be the way he had imagined. From his slim frame to the color of his underwear. Black. He probably bought them in a value pack. Which was a weird thought to have in this situation but it lowkey turned Kento on. Not even knowing if it was true it would speak volumes about the other’s efficiency.
Nanami stripped away all his worries along with his jacket and decided to shy away from his principles just for once.
After this endeavor, he would take the elevator, go up three floors, and put this phase of his life behind him. Cured from this devilish handsome man.
Higuruma wouldn't remember anything with his blood alcohol level anyway.