Chapter Text

His apartment was only on the third floor but he took the elevator because his feet were tired. Calves, too. His lower back achier than it needed to be for someone under the age of twenty-five. His cousin had warned him that service gigs in Vegas were no joke, but he hadn’t really understood until he’d come off a double shift in 100-degree heat, nine hours of smiling through the dehydration, dried sweat and the stiffness in his hips so that he could bring drinks to people who really, honestly, probably didn’t need another, but were going to get one anyway because what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas, along with their money in the hotel’s coffers. It took less than sixty seconds to go from the lobby to his floor, but Riku leaned against the elevator wall and closed his eyes anyway, enjoying the silence after a day of DJ Johnny B’s beats and the constant hum of an increasingly drunk crowd of revelers. He thought about pressing the button for the rooftop just to be quiet for a little while longer. Just a few more seconds of silence and solitude. 

Riku knew what was waiting for him when he got home. Not silence. Not solitude. 

He was tempted. His finger itched to press the button. But he was also hungry and there wasn’t anything to eat on the top floor and even though Sion always seemed to be around and Sion liked to ask about his day and Sion liked to sit on RIku’s couch in shorts that rode up his thighs, Sion also made him snacks. Snacks that Sion ate half of, more often than not, but snacks were snacks and snacks were even better when Riku didn’t have to do any of the work. He appreciated someone who didn’t make him serve himself after he’d spent all day serving others. It was even better when the someone who served looked the way Sion did, exactly the way Riku thought a man should look. 

He’d thought more than once since Sion moved into the spare room that Sion would make a killing at Moorea. Or anywhere, really, with that face and that body, with Sion’s propensity to laugh at every joke, to flirt with everyone. It was a wonder that he hadn’t made good in Vegas yet, that some casting director hadn’t taken one look at him and decided to put Sion on the marquis. 

The elevator stopped. The doors opened. Riku sighed and got off.  It was time to go home. 

~~

Sion was wearing the short-shorts. Riku wanted to ask if Sion owned a different pair but he didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he’d been paying attention. In what was possibly a concession to the later hour or the fact that it was October, Sion was wearing a shirt for once. Riku wasn’t sure if he was disappointed by the lack of abdomen on display but he knew he was disappointed when Sion told him that he’d eaten the last of the ice cream, lower lip out and eyelashes fluttering when he protested that he’d been really hot and sweaty after his workout and he’d been rejected from his latest audition. That had happened a lot. Rejections, even though Riku couldn’t understand it. Sion was great at dancing. Sion was also really fucking hot. That was usually enough to do the trick in a city like this. 

Maybe Sion kept laughing at the wrong time. He had a tendency to do that when he was nervous. Or maybe he kept hitting on the wrong person. He had a tendency to do that all the time, chasing the wrong rabbits down the wrong holes, ending up in Vegas, living in Daeyoung’s bedroom because he’d believed promises made by the wrong pretty face.  

“It’s fine,” Riku told him, even though it wasn’t really. He’d wanted some of that ice cream. This was the problem with having a roommate who was around. Who had the same sweet tooth, the same cravings as Riku. Daeyoung knew better than to eat the ice cream. He sat down on the opposite end of the couch that belonged to him in the apartment that didn’t, and turned to Daeyoung’s old friend from college whose need for an emergency place to crash in Vegas just so happened to coincide with Daeyoung fucking off for yet another nursing contract. Riku hoped that someone was making Daeyoung’s life difficult out in San Diego and smiled at the problem Daeyoung had left behind. “You had a rough day.” 

“You’re really nice,” Sion said, smiling like Riku had just paid his rent instead of forgiving him for cashing out the last of the Talenti. 

Sion had told him that at least once a week in the seven weeks they’d lived together. Riku didn’t know if he was particularly nice or if Sion’s old roommates in San Francisco had been particularly otherwise. He hadn’t asked. He tried to know as little about Sion as possible, which was difficult because Sion loved to lore drop about his life at any given time. Riku hadn’t wanted to know that Sion came from farm country, that Sion lost his virginity the summer between high school and college to a woman who could buy him beer and pop his cherry. He hadn’t needed to be told over breakfast cereal that slowly turned soggy about the first time Sion kissed a guy, that he’d had his dick sucked in the bathroom of some club in SF but that he’d never really dated a guy.  He was sort of still inexperienced, when it came to guys, he said, giving Riku the same cow-eyed expression that somehow failed to work on casting directors. 

It worked on Riku. Like a charm. Or a hex.  

Riku’s shift had been a disaster after that, drink orders forgotten because he couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to put it in Sion’s mouth, to feel that constant laughter around him when he was down that throat. He earned a bruise bigger than his biggest tip of the day running into the sharp edge of a lounge chair imagining the kind of boyfriend Sion would be if Sion did more with guys than just spill loads. Riku didn’t need to know more. He knew enough. Sion cost him daydreams. Sion cost him money. Sion cost him sleep and the last of the ice cream. 

“How was your day?” Sion asked, like he always asked because he was always around when Riku got off shift, wasting a chunk of the three months he’d given himself to find a job in Vegas sitting on Daeyoung’s couch instead of going out and getting drunk or getting laid, or doing any of the things that people usually did in Vegas. 

Riku thought about it. He still wasn’t used to answering these kinds of questions after eight hours on his feet. He was used to traveling nurses taking over Daeyoung’s sublet. Those temporary roomies worked the night shift. Or understood the blessedness of silence after catering to the needs of others. Sion had no such understanding. Or if he did, he chose not to exercise it. He always wanted to know how Riku’s day was, like he really cared. 

“Pretty good, actually,” Riku said, folding his legs on the couch and curling his hand around one tired arch. “I made absolute bank off a cabana full of bachelorettes —“

“All those women. I bet they loved you,” Sion murmured, sounding a little wistful. 

“You would know.” Riku dug his thumb into his foot, trying to work out a knot. “You’re the expert on women in this room.” 

Sion’s lashes fluttered. Riku wondered if he was thinking about her. With Sion, it was hard to tell what he took seriously, if he’d taken it to heart when his Vegas siren had lured him in and left him high and dry, or if he just considered it the cost of doing business in the fuckboy economy. Sion had never said. Riku hadn’t asked if it hurt him. If he missed her. Riku didn’t want to know.  He already knew more than he needed to about someone who wouldn’t be around in a few months, who knew how to flirt with guys, but not how to date one. Sion probably wouldn’t have followed a man to Vegas, even if he’d been promised an audition with Cirque. Men were for fucking, not for following.   

Riku shook his head. Sion’s romantic life was not going to  be his business. He’d promised himself that he was only going to deal with drama that made him money and not go looking to make his life more difficult for free. He made too many costly mistakes already and Sion seemed expensive. 

“But I made out even better with another cabana.” He cracked his ankle and sighed with pleasure as some of the tension came loose. Sion patted his thigh and gestured at Riku’s other foot, like maybe he was offering to rub it. Riku kept his feet to himself, even though Sion was probably good at it, good at hitting the right spots. “I got $250 a pop in tips after flirting with both halves of some kind of messy situationship.” 

“You were flirting?” 

“Obviously.” Riku rolled his eyes at Sion’s dumb dog expression. “How else do you make money in the service industry? I mean, I would have hit on them anyway because they were both super hot, but netting $500 out of it is even better than the potentially wild sex.” Riku smiled, thinking about what he could do with that kind of cash, the kind of shiny things he could buy in the long underground shopping malls that connected casino to casino. He’d have so much cash if he could make good on the best offer he got out of that cabana. “And then it got even more interesting —“

“How? They invited you to join them?” 

Sion sounded vaguely disgusted by the idea. Whatever. Maybe his barely there bisexuality didn’t extend to the concept of gay group sex.

“No,” Riku said. “Those two were not giving looking for a third vibes. Unfortunately.” He smirked at Sion. He wasn’t here to coddle Sion’s precious feelings about how many dicks in a bedroom were too many dicks in a bedroom. “I would have been down.” Sion looked away. Riku stood up on feet that were slightly less achy now and went to see what was left in the kitchen, wanting something sweet. “Actually, I met this other  guy -“

“And this one did ask you out?” 

“No.” Riku grabbed yogurt. It was a poor substitute for ice cream but it was late and he was out of options thanks to Sion. “But I would have said yes to him, too, in case you were wondering.” Sion was suddenly in the kitchen, opening the drawer with all the mismatched silverware the apartment had accumulated, sublet after sublet leaving a little something of themselves behind. “Give me that.” Riku pointed to the spoon with the deco handle. Kelly had left that one. He liked Kelly, she had been good to him after shit went sideways with one of his more costly mistakes. “Anyway,” Riku said, sticking the spoon into yogurt that was more sugar than substance, “I met the guy who manages like six of the clubs and restaurants for the Mandalay.” 

Sion held up a spoon. “Can I have a bite?” His hair was falling over his eyes. Riku nodded, it was better to let Sion have what he wanted than to give into the impulse to brush it off Sion’s forehead. “It’s really good.” 

“I know.” Riku had good taste in sweet things. “So this guy – Ten –”

“Like, he was a 10/10?” 

Sion tried to go for more. Riku moved his yogurt before it was all gone just like his ice cream. 

“I mean, yes, but also that’s his name,” Riku said, watching Sion lick a little of the strawberries and cream from the corner of his mouth. He had a nice tongue. Riku needed to get out of the kitchen. “We chatted for a bit after his two freaky friends disappeared to go fondle one another in the pool –” 

“How do you know that’s what they went off to do? Did you go watch?” 

Sion’s laughter was bright. It was always like that, bright and warm, softening his already handsome face into something almost as irresistible as the ice cream Sion hadn’t been able to stop eating. 

“Alas, I had to work,” Riku sighed, popping the spoon in his mouth and wiping it clean. “Earning a living really gets in the way of my voyeurism.” Sion laughed hard. Riku’s lips curled up. It was hard not to smile when Sion got the giggles. “But like I was saying,” Riku said, scraping the bottom of the yogurt for the last  little bit, “Ten manages a bunch of the best spots and he asked me to come in for an interview next week for a position at Eye Candy.” 

“Eye Candy? That’s the name of the place?” Sion’s laughter quieted, the tip of his spoon dragging down on his bottom lip. Riku nodded. It was the name of the place. Sion gave him one of the looks that Riku knew landed men and women on their knees. “You’re definitely made for that job.” 

“Please.” Riku threw the container in the trash. He really needed to go to bed. “Do you even know what Eye Candy is? You’ve never even been in the Mandalay.” 

“You’ve never invited me,” Sion said, clearly pouting, as if the Mandalay Bay wasn’t a place open to the public, as if he couldn’t have waltzed in at any time during the seven weeks he’d been not so busy getting rejected after auditioning for every dance gig on the Strip that wasn’t stripping and working part time from Riku’s couch as some sort of remote customer service agent for the awful cable company. Sion put his hand on Riku’s shoulder, trying to catch his gaze. “Eye Candy could be an upscale candy shop.”

Eye Candy could have been an upscale candy shop. There were a few of those in Vegas. Some of the people who used to be his friends ended up working in one or two, making magic with spun sugar and gummies to delight the tourists with deep pockets. The window displays were beautiful, the sweets as tempting as all the other pretty things he couldn’t really afford. He bought some anyway, every now and then. Riku had always preferred patisserie to sugar work, but he still liked the taste of something sweet melting on his tongue. 

“Eye Candy is a club.” Riku opened up the pantry. He was still hungry. “Ten said they were looking for cocktail servers to work the late-late shifts on weeknights. It’s not like ideal hours, but I need something now that Moorea is closed for the season and I can work my way up, you know?” Riku grabbed a cookie. It was nowhere near as good as what he could have if he still did that kind of thing, but it would do the trick. He could settle for store bought even if he craved the warm gooeyness of homemade. He smiled around the bite of almost good enough. “If I can make a good impression on Ten, maybe he’ll take me on at one of the restaurants or –”

“So, you’ll be gone like…all night?” 

Sion was leaning against the counter now, arms crossed over his chest, the sleeves of his shirt cutting into his biceps. Riku wondered if that’s what he did with his copious free time, working out all day so that he could stand around in Riku’s kitchen and look hot in a t-shirt that said farmers do it better across the pecs.

“Probably,” Riku said, shrugging as he tried to focus on the taste of chocolate chips instead of the stretch of Sion’s stupid shirt, the way it made him wonder if it was true, if farmers could do it better. “Eye Candy is open until 3am and then there’s always shit to do at closing.” It would be weird, getting home at the time he used to get up to go into the bakery kitchens. It didn’t matter. Baking, serving, whatever. He’d still be bleary eyed and exhausted and he was damn sure that he’d make more flirting with the hard partiers than he would rolling out cold hard dough. “But don’t worry.” Riku walked back to the living room and stretched out on the couch. “I’ll be quiet. I won’t wake you up when I get home.” 

“It’s not that.” Sion’s hands were gentle around his ankles, lifting Riku’s legs and settling them across his lap like that was a thing they did, like that was something that Sion knew how to do, even though Riku was a guy, his legs covered in unmistakable dark hair. Sion rubbed his thumb over Riku’s ankle bone and sighed. “I just guess you won’t be around much. At least not when I’m awake.” 

“I guess not.” Riku stared at the ceiling. He didn’t want Sion to see the color that was high on his cheeks. Sion paid him too much attention, made him want things he wasn’t going to want, not from someone like Sion. “But you’re only here for like another month or two anyway so you’ll barely even notice I’m gone.” 

“Don’t bet against me.” Sion squeezed Riku’s calf, his hand working its way up. Riku wondered how far Sion was planning to go. “If I can find a real job then I can totally stay for longer.  Daeyoung said he would extend the sublet if I can keep paying the rent.”

Riku’s muscles stiffened. Sion’s fingers stilled. “You talked to Daeyoung?” 

Riku hadn’t heard from Daeyoung in days. Daeyoung was in California, making serious money filling in the gaps at one of the university hospitals and then playing around in paradise when he wasn’t on shift. He was usually too busy or too busy to talk. But he was supposed to be back before December, his contract up just before the holidays. He hadn’t said a word to Riku about extending sublets and saddling him with more Sion. Sion was supposed to leave before Riku did what he always did and went into emotional debt after buying some hot guy’s bullshit. Riku closed his eyes. It could be fine. Sion had to get a real job first before he could stick around and keep testing Riku’s self-control. And soon enough, if he played his cards right, Riku would be on the late-late shift and he and Sion would be nothing more to one another than ships in the night. Or better yet, the day. Riku thought that Sion would be easier to deal with at 3pm. It was hard not to relax into the hand that was still on his knee when he was tired, when his defenses were down and he remembered how nice it was to have someone to touch him. 

“We should celebrate,” Sion said, fingers going back to tapping out a happy rhythm on the inside of Riku’s leg, blissfully unaware of Riku's inner turmoil. 

“Celebrate what?” Riku knew he should move, that he should get up and go to bed. He was so tired, it would be so easy to sleep right there, with his legs in Sion’s lap.  “You and Daeyoung scheming about the lease behind my back so you can keep eating my ice cream and taking up space on my couch?” 

“No!” Sion burst into laughter, his palm splayed on Riku’s knee, his touch soft and almost proprietary, like he felt as entitled to it as he did to Riku’s ice cream, couch, and extending subleases without asking.  “Your new job.” 

“I don’t have a new job. Just an interview.” 

“Like I said before, you’re made for Eye Candy.” Sion’s hand squeezed. Sion’s voice pouted. “Come on, let’s think positive. Let’s go out.” 

Riku thought about it. Going out with Sion. He’d gone out with his other temporary roomies, used what little connections he had to get hardworking nurses behind Vegas’ velvet ropes. Sion had never asked. Outside of the story about the bathroom blowjob and some of the shit that Daeyoung told him that they used to get up to at Davis, Riku didn’t even know if Sion was into going out, into getting drunk and maybe taking someone home, some pretty older woman who would pay Sion’s tab and suck him and fuck him and probably make him breakfast before kicking him out. That’s probably how it would go, if they went out. He thought about what it would be like to find out what kind of guy Sion would take to the bathroom and put on his knees. Whether or not they would look anything like Riku, or if Sion had a different kind of type, when Sion was so picture perfectly his. 

Riku’s thoughts drifted, sleep softening them around the edges, repressed daydreams ready to become night fantasies. In dreams, where everything was easy, Riku had $500 in his account. He could pay Sion’s tab. He could suck and fuck Sion and show him how good it could be with someone who really knew their way around a man. In the morning, he could make Sion breakfast from scratch and then finally know how good Sion looked with a cock in his mouth. In his dreams, he could do it. In reality,  he couldn’t kick Sion out when it was all over, couldn’t escape from what he was sure would be a mistake if he made it. 

Riku opened his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to get laid. By someone who was nothing like his roommate. Maybe he did need to go out. He definitely needed to go to bed before Sion’s hand went any further and Riku gave into the goosebumps that followed Sion’s fingers. 

“I’m going to sleep,” Riku said, yawning and taking back his legs, standing up on feet that still hurt, on calves that were still tight. He didn’t look down as he stood up from the couch. He’d had enough of Sion’s thighs and Sion’s eyes for one night. 

“Hey. Wait.” Sion grabbed Riku’s shirt and tugged him back towards the couch. “You didn’t give me an answer. About going out. With me.” 

Riku tugged back, pulling his shirt right out of Sion’s fingers. The right answer was no. But there was no good reason to say no. Sion was just the overly friendly guy taking up space in Riku’s life for a few months. They could go out. They could go out and Riku could watch Sion flirt with everything with a pulse and remember all the reasons why the right answer when it came to Sion was no. 

“Alright,” Riku said, smoothing his hand down his wrinkled shirt and looking ahead because looking at Sion was dangerous, a constant temptation to try for a yes. “I’ll go, but I’m picking the place,” Riku said, taking a first step towards bed, towards the only place in his home that he could be safe from Sion. “You still don’t know the first thing about Vegas.” 

~

“Do you come here often?” 

“What kind of line is that?” Riku tried to give Sion a look, but Sion was too busy looking everywhere but at Riku, gazing at the mirrored walls and disco-ball glittered ceiling like he’d never been to a club before when Riku knew that he’d been to plenty – clubs where he met older women who promised him imaginary jobs, bars where once, some twink got on their knees and swallowed Sion’s load. “I’ve never been here before,” Riku said, handing over his card to the bartender and telling her to open a tab, ignoring the way she bit her lip when Sion turned around and smiled, asking her to make her favorite drink, so long as she made it sweet. “It just seemed like a place you would like.” 

“You picked it for me?” Sion played with the opened collar of his denim shirt. He was dressed better than Riku had seen in weeks, somehow managing to pull off the denim on denim look. Sion smiled and put his arm around RIku’s shoulders. He smelled like he’d borrowed Riku’s cologne. “I do like it,” Sion said, the whites of his teeth turned purple by the quick flash of light from the tiny little dance floor. “You must really know me.” 

“I don’t.” Riku leaned away. It was strange to smell his favorite scent on Sion’s neck. “I watched TikTok’s and then asked around at work.” He’d stayed up until 1am trying to find the right place, somewhere maybe both of them could find what they wanted. Two drinks appeared, both a dark shade of pink, sugar on the rim. Sion tipped the bartender with another smile, the slowburn one that started from his chin and pushed up until it crinkled around his eyes. Riku took a sip. It was sweet, it was good. He wondered if Sion would get her number before Riku had to pay for round two. “But I’m glad you like it.” 

“Do you like it?” 

Sion had sugar on his lips. Riku handed him a cocktail napkin. He wasn’t nearly drunk enough to think about the taste of it on Sion’s tongue. He missed Kelly. He missed Shannon and even Daeyoung. He missed roommates who didn’t help themselves to Riku, who didn’t gaze at him earnestly and give him a different kind of smile, friendly and full of mirth, all laughter and no burn. 

“It’s a bar,” Riku said, “and I don’t have to serve the drinks, so it’s fine.” 

It was fine. If Sion didn’t know the first thing about Vegas, Riku didn’t really know the second or the third. He’d only been in town for two years. Once, when the bright lights of the Strip still felt shiny and new, Riku found his usual haunts. He hadn’t been out in months. Too long, but not long enough for the awkwardness of seeing people who knew him before he crashed out, before he traded humid kitchens for slinging drinks in the dry heat. 

“Where do you usually go, when you go out?”

Sion was too close. Riku turned and leaned against the bar, thinking Sion’s arm would fall off but it only slid down, around his waist, as if that was somewhere Sion’s hand could be. 

“To gay bars,” Riku said, imagining what his old not quite friends would have said if he’d taken Sion there, paraded him around in his blue jeans and his wide-open shirt. They would have laughed and put their hands on Sion’s knee while he told them his sob story of how he’d ended up in Vegas, trusting a woman he’d fucked for all of two weeks to hook him up with Cirque du Soleil. “Cruisey spots,” Riku went on, even though he had never picked anyone up because back then he had someone to take him home. “Somewhere to find a very special someone. At least for a night.” 

“You aren’t looking for that here?” 

Sion took a swig of his cocktail, staring at Riku over the rim while he swallowed, muscles moving from jaw to collarbone as the liquor went down. His lips were sticky. Riku wondered if Sion laughed when he kissed. Riku sucked in his cheeks and thought maybe he should have gone to the places where people used to know him so that someone could take him aside and tease him for his predictable taste, to “lovingly” remind him what happened the last time he fell head over heels for the flirt with the handsome face and the aww shucks sweetness that papered over the fuckboy lurking beneath the surface. 

“No.” Riku shook his head and finished his drink, even though it was too strong to go down so fast. “Not here.” Sion smiled, like he was glad, like he was glad that Riku was going to spend the night alone. Riku should have gone where he belonged instead of trying to make Sion happy. “I need to pee,” Riku said, crass under pressure, pushing away from the bar and away from Sion’s lack of boundaries. “I’ll be back.” 

Sion moved like he wanted to follow. Riku gave him his best customer service, tip grind smile and told him to stay, to get that second round. Riku walked away to the sound of Sion asking the woman who wanted to take him home – to Riku’s home – if she could hook it up with another, one for the guy he came with, his cute roommate. 

Riku sat on the toilet and thought about calling Daeyoung and demanding that Daeyoung take back whatever he’d promised Sion. Daeyoung should have talked to him. Riku should have never agreed to Sion in the first place. Daeyoung knew. Daeyoung knew how Riku was, quick to fall, quick to break, and he should have known better than to let someone who looked like Sion, who smiled and laughed like Sion, within a hundred miles of Riku and his weak heart. 

But Daeyoung asked for a favor and Daeyoung never asked for anything and he’d taken such good care of Riku when he gave up on pastry school, when his ex gave up on him. So Riku said yes, sure, Daeyoung’s old friend could crash for a few months, because how bad could it be when the old friend was coming to Vegas because of some woman?  Daeyoung hadn’t warned him about Sion’s gaze, about Sion waiting up and asking about Riku’s day, about Sion spooning Lucky Charms into his mouth and telling Riku that he’d really liked it when he sucked a dick for the first time. 

Daeyoung couldn’t have known. Riku shouldn’t have known. But he did. He knew that Sion was hot, but also kind, interested in Riku in a way that people weren’t always interested, good for a laugh and good at laughing, a steady presence somehow, despite the fact that he’d run after some woman all the way to Vegas without a second thought. Daeyoung had really set Riku up for failure, saddling him with a guy who was almost everything Riku liked in a man. 

He didn’t call Daeyoung. He told himself to get it the hell together and shoved his phone back in his pocket.  Instead of bitching out sweet, gentle Daeyoung, Riku listened to two guys take a piss and joke about the women they’d brought out with them, just ugly enough to be sure to put out. Riku hoped they ended up too drunk for even a sad bro job and flushed even though he hadn’t done anything but sit there and try not to care that Sion had smiled at someone else. He thought about these women who deserved better. Maybe he’d send Sion to them. They wouldn’t stand a chance, not against Sion and the empty calories of his sweetness. 

Riku washed his hands and did what he could, looking down until the men looked up. He pursed his lips and shook his head before blowing a kiss on the way out the door. It was a risky move but he’d dealt with enough assholes to know when to roll the dice and bust some balls. The thrill of it buoyed him across the dance floor, all the way up until the moment he was within earshot, close enough to hear Sion plying his trade. 

“I’ve got some sort of good luck,” Sion was saying, leaning on the bar and into the spread of the pretty bartender’s arms. 

There were two drinks where Riku had been. Sion had been busy. 

“When it comes to romance?” The bartender laughed. She had a nice face despite the beginnings of crows feet at the corner of her eyes. Sion clearly had a type. “I’ll bet you do.”

“When it comes to roommates,” Sion said, grinning as Riku took the drink Sion had paid for with his smile, with his unbuttoned shirt and his charm. “I’m blessed to get paired up with—“

“Hotties,” Riku broke in, because he’d heard this before, two nights after Sion moved in, blushing when Sion said Riku was no exception and then regretting the rush of blood when Sion showed him photo after photo of the model he’d lived with in San Francisco. “He thinks he has good roommate karma,” Riku said, bending over and taking a sip, letting the sugar and alcohol coat his tongue, the inside of his lips. “Even though I don’t know how, he eats the last of the ice cream and steals my cologne.” 

“I can’t help it,” Sion said, pathetically enough that maybe he believed that really couldn’t help it. “You smell good.” Sion smiled and winked at the bartender. “I told you, right, he’s cute, isn’t he?” 

“Cute?” Riku gave Sion a look. He didn’t want to be part of the stories Sion told, the lines he ran to make someone laugh and want to leave with him at curtain call. “The first time I heard this good luck shit he said I was beautiful,” Riku said to Sion’s latest benefactor, who was still smiling at Sion even though there were other people who wanted a drink. “I’ve been downgraded.” He fluttered his lashes at her and sighed because Sion wasn’t the only one who knew how to play the game. “Isn’t he cruel?”

“Hey,” Sion said, his hand on Riku’s shoulder. Riku shrugged him off, amping up the pout because it was fun to watch Sion fumble to the ball.  “Come on, you know I think –” 

“I see how it is.” She laughed and pushed away from the bar, finally setting Sion free. “That’s just awful.” The bartender gave her smile to Riku, a little knowing around the edges. “Should I charge him for those drinks?” 

Sion spluttered, his protests falling on deliberately deaf ears. Riku shook his head and puffed out his cheeks before blowing out another long, low sigh.  

“Please don’t. I’m the one with the open tab, I’ll be the one who ends up paying for his sins.” 

“No worries, sweetie,” the bartender said, patting Riku’s wrist and pushing her admittedly very good cocktail towards his lips. “I got you.” She gave Sion one last look, just enough heat in it that Riku knew if Sion circled back around later, he could still take his shot and score. “He’s buying your drinks, so be good.” 

“I’m always good,” Sion complained as she left to go to finally take someone else’s order. “Right? I’m a good guy?” Sion pleaded his case, turning his beggar’s eyes on Riku. “You know me.” 

“I don’t really,” Riku said, taking his cocktail and wandering away from the scene of their crimes towards an empty banquette. He didn’t wait for Sion to follow. He knew enough to know that Sion would follow, if the Sion of the club were anything like the Sion of the apartment, trailing after Riku wherever he went. 

“You keep saying that.” Sion sat down, close enough that their knees would have knocked together if Riku hadn’t crossed his legs. “That you don’t know me.” 

Riku sipped his cocktail and looked at the crowd starting to gather on the dance floor. He didn’t know if Sion liked to dance for fun or if it felt like working off the clock to push into the sea of bodies and try to find the groove. Sion would tell him if he asked. Sion sometimes looked at him like he wanted Riku to ask. 

“I’m not trying to be a jerk. We’ve only known one another for two months,” Riku said, winking when one of the shitheels from the bathroom glared at from the bar. He didn’t say that they would only know one another for a few months more, so what was the point of getting closer when Sion already felt too near. “How can I know you that well?”

“So get to know me.” 

The tone of Sion’s voice had Riku taking another sip. It was dangerous to imagine that it was what Sion sounded like in bed, telling someone to take it. He poured half the cocktail down his throat and propped his chin in his hands, liquor warming his stomach, making him think it was a good idea to lean away from Sion and blow a kiss to his bathroom buddies. 

“Do you know that guy?” Sion’s bedroom voice was all gone, replaced by something whinier and more familiar. “He’s staring at you.” 

“Would you back me up in a fight?” Riku asked, watching that guy grab his friend and point at Riku.

“What? Why?” 

“Because I made fun of their dicks.” Riku held out his half-empty glass in a toast to his nemesis and then spread his legs on the bench, crashing right into Sion’s clenched thigh. “I promise they deserved it.” 

He could feel Sion’s amusement, the ripple of his laughter as strong as the bass reverberating through the floor, the DJ picking up the pace. Sion put his mouth near Riku’s ear and said that he believed him, that he trusted Riku’s judgement when it came to men. What a joke. A good joke. Riku laughed and shivered and turned into Sion and told him what had happened in the bathroom, leaving out the existential crisis so that he could enjoy the feeling of Sion laughing harder and harder.

“Don’t look over there,” Sion said, while looking over there, his face split by a grin that made Riku want to  do the same, to smile until his cheeks hurt. “They think we’re talking shit.” 

“Sweetie, we are talking shit,” Riku murmured, half-heartedly struggling to reel it in. He licked his lips and tried not to notice the way Sion followed suit. “We should get out of here. Before the discount frat boys decide to make a scene.” 

“Or we could stay. We should dance.”  

Sion put his hand on Riku’s knee. Riku looked down. Sion had nice hands. If they danced, he could put his hands on Riku’s waist again. Riku put his hand on Sion’s. So he could move it off, so he could try and convince himself that he was going to say no, to say that he was going to call it a night and go home. Sion could stay, but Riku needed to go. 

“That’s not a good – ”

“Come on, princess.” Sion smiled and stood up, pulling Riku up with a grip that was stronger than it had any right to be for someone who barely worked, a reminder of who Sion really was – a dancer, someone who could lift and hold, who was good enough to get a second callback for Cirque. Riku had never held Sion’s hand before. He hadn’t known. Sion took the first step towards the dance floor and said, “There’s nothing to be afraid of, I’ll always have your back.”