[RP Log] Bunta & Taki
Date : Late on the 15th over to very early the 16th July
Rating : G
Summary : Taki spends a few hours with Bunta before he has to leave for North Korea and a few things are said.
Taki lay on his stomach sprawled across Bunta’s sofa, his head resting in the crook of his elbow with his other arm dangled over the side loosely holding onto a glass of white wine. The evening had been really nice and more importantly for the sniper, relaxing. Something he hadn’t been for near on two weeks and with a stomach full of the wonderful meal Bunta had cooked he could feel himself dozing a little. Sleep was something else he hadn’t had much of lately. Still, he didn’t want to think about any of that until he had to leave for the airfield later. But even the brief thought left him with a frown and a sick feeling in his stomach, suddenly he wished he hadn’t ate so much.
He really didn’t know what he was more worried about, being in North Korea or being stuck around Kite for possibly seven days with no reprieve. Bringing the glass to his lips, he took a sip. Still his first glass of the evening too. As tempting as it was to just drink the bottle to himself it wasn’t really a good idea at this time. With a soft sigh, Taki buried his head in the fabric of the sofa. No doubt Bunta had noticed he was a lot more subdued tonight he just hoped the redhead was putting it down to the mission rather than anything else. Speaking of which, why wasn’t Bunta in here yet?
Bunta had slipped away to his bedroom to put on a pair of pajama pants and a loose t-shirt - Taki had seen him a lot less dressed, so he was hardly worried about appearances, anymore, and far more concerned with comfort. If he could, he did intend to sleep after Taki left. Sliding his feet once more into comfortable sheep-skin slippers, he padded back out to the living room to find the sniper sprawled out over the couch, one arm negligently holding a glass of wine over the edge - unless he had gone for more, as far as Bunta knew, that was the first glass. Improvement, perhaps?
Wordlessly, Bunta folded himself down on the floor beside the couch, his fingers pulling at Taki's shirt to expose a patch of Taki's lower back where he laid a gentle kiss over the spine. "You look tired - why not get some sleep before you have to leave? I'll wake you when it's time to go." The
younger man was almost... sedated. Though Bunta was certain it was only half of the problem, it was understandable that Taki was hardly social before a mission. Still... there was that nagging thought playing through his mind that something had been off for a while - and that he did not know the whole story.
"Maybe a back rub to help you relax a bit more," he offered secondarily, fingers scratching gently over Taki's shirt before he rubbed his palm flat over the shirt in soothing circles.
The soft press of warm lips on the small of his back snapped him out of the little place his mind had been taking a walk in causing him to start a little and lift his head. Bunta’s words seemed to take a long time to reach and register within him. “Um, no. I’m okay… if I sleep now I’ll just be really groggy when I wake. I’ll sleep on the plane.” Taki offered as a compromise even though he knew the actual likelihood of that was minimal at best. But, as soon as he said the words he could feel the calming touches to his back and simply Bunta’s presence lull him. Maybe he could sleep right here for a week….
It was the buzz of his cell phone that stated the sniper from that surreal boarder between being not quite awake, but not quite asleep either. Placing the wine glass on the floor he rolled onto his side so he could fish it out of his pocket, Taki glared at the display as he flipped it open to read the SMS. Kite. Flipping it closed he dropped it carelessly to the floor with an aggravated sigh. “I changed my will today, updated it. Hope you don’t mind me naming you as one of my benefactors.”
Light eyes flickered a moment to the cell phone, left forgotten on the floor, before Bunta attempted to process the words. That was... surprising. Then again, he had no concept of just what Taki had to leave behind, or just what it meant to be on that document. "I'm honored," he said, finally, as it was the closest thing to the truth. Shocked was probably the absolute truth,
but under it was a more dignified response. "But I hope I don't outlive you." His own will was a bit like a legal contract promising that he would, in fact, one day die and give all of his money and interest in the company owned by his father back to someone with the last name Marui who was involved in the company. Personal investments and income outside of the company were, of course, his own to manage as he liked... but it was weird to have a document that should have felt like it was written in the case of his untimely death, but felt a bit more like a binding contract that he would kick the bucket and leave behind some serious cash.
Darker musings aside, Bunta leaned back on his hands, ignoring the cell phone only inches from one hand, and asked, "What prompted you to update it?" He might ask what had prompted him to have a will in the first place - he was young and without children that Bunta knew of - but he could understand the desire for a will in a dangerous line of work such as Taki's.
You might, easily.Taki shrugged sitting up and folding his legs under him. “Been meaning to sort it out since Keisuke left and I finally got around to it this week.” Given a helpful push by one of two things, he may be a killer but he hated morbid duties like that. “It’s not much of anything, just who gets what percentage of a cash payout should I die in the line of duty.” All agents and spies were supposed to have them, whether they did was another thing, the only person he’d ever really spoken to it about was Kamio. Again, he shrugged.
Letting a hand reach over the short distance between them, Taki threaded his fingers through Bunta’s hair. The bright crimson tresses looked like blood against his pale skin for the briefest of moments to his tired eyes and Taki shook his head to clear the unpleasant vision. “Dinner was nice, I really enjoyed it. Thank you.” He finally said managing to crack his lips into a small smile.
Tilting his head into the touch, Bunta gave the slightest of nods. "I enjoyed cooking for you." It was the truth - much how Taki liked to communicate to people that he cared about them, Bunta liked to cook for his loved ones - he felt that a dish prepared with all his heart in it would taste like a dish prepared with all his heart in it. Sometimes they were the ugly, screw up dishes, but were also usually the most delicious.
All this talk of wills... Bunta's mind wandered to the chance that there would not be another night for him to cook for Taki - that there was a chance Taki would not be back in a week's time because there would be no Taki to return in a week's time. As he had already promised An, Bunta had been moving slowly and cautiously through the relationship; any sudden progression was due, in part, to the fact that Bunta had not liked someone this much in a long time. So, it was along this train of thought, and from his own wandering mind, that his next words came.
"You know, I wouldn't sleep well if something happened to you and I never -- well, I wouldn't sleep well, anyway, if something happened to you, God forbid." He rested one hand on Taki's knee, his eyes drifting up to Taki's a bit shyly. "I want you to know I'm..." a pause to find the right words, "I'm falling for you."
That had enough impact to shock him out of the weird almost seated stupor he was in and Taki blinked down at Bunta a little wide eyed. He couldn’t recall exactly what day it had been, but the sniper still remembered vividly yelling at Kite and telling him to stop the things he was doing because he thought he was falling in love. For whatever reason, Taki had never even dared to think that those feeling would, or could, be reciprocated.
But there was something in Bunta’s light eyes that made him mentally berate himself for being so selfish and talking about these things right before he was due to go away. Idiot. Sliding a hand over the redheads, Taki pushed off the sofa and settled down on the floor next to his boyfriend. Gently cupping Bunta’s face between his hands he smiled softly letting his eyes hold the others. “Nothings gonna happen to me, I’ll be back and annoying the hell out of you before you even realise I’m gone.” Taki paused a moment as his heart quickened a little, those nervous, excited butterflies playing havoc with his stomach. “And you’re not the other one who’s falling.”
The word love - or the fledgling potential of the word - felt to hang thickly in the air between them; the analyst wondered if either of them might even use it before the night was up, though he was perfectly contented - if not pleasantly unsurprised - to discover Taki was experiencing the same feelings. A smile quirked on Bunta's lips and he leaned forward to kiss Taki, no more than a brush of the lips. "I'm holding you to your word," he challenged quietly, twirling a bit of Taki's hair around one finger. "Come back to me." A flutter of his heart, a nervous touch of his tongue to his lips... yes, he knew it was coming. It was a downplayed feeling of a wife seeing her husband off to war. "I want to keep falling in love with you." There, he said it - he said it and it was out there.
“I will, I promise you,” Taki replied his voice steady and firm in answer to the challenge issued. He really needed to stop wallowing in his own self-pity and realise that his words and actions had consequences to them. Talking and thinking like he was now was hurting the one person he never wanted to. It didn’t change the fact that the mission was dangerous, but his fate was in his own hands, not Kite’s.
Taki could feel his eyes sting a little as he let them fall shut and his hands moved to trail down Bunta’s back and pull him close. Lips just brushing the others he said, voice barely above a whisper; “You make me so happy.” Then he was kissing him, slow almost languid, soft and sweet.
Bunta could not help but fall into the kiss, meeting the sleepy pace with his own slow passion. It was not the sort of kiss that started anything - it was the sort of kiss he assosiated with Sunday mornings when it was especially hard to get out of bed because it would be so much nicer to
cuddle close to a lover. His hand found Taki's collar, resting there for a moment before sliding back so his arm was just loosely flopped over Taki's shoulder. Fleeting, perhaps, as Taki was leaving far too soon, but there was one moment - one long moment - when Bunta felt as though everything in the world was right - up was up and down was down and nothing was twisted, sideways, or doing a headstand.
Eventually, Bunta found the will to pull away, lips dragging lazily from Taki's -- there was a soft wet sound when he was finally free of the kiss. "It must be something like the happiness you give me," responded Bunta, giving Taki eskimo kisses to emphasize the words.
Letting go with a grin Taki flopped down to rest his head on Bunta’s lap and look up at him, he suddenly wasn’t feeling tired anymore. Kind of more like when he had been at college hanging out in a friend’s dorm for late night gaming and messing about, they were his happiest memories. Until now. “I really wish you had a piano here, my fingers are getting itchy.” And there wasn’t a rifle trigger in sight. “I went for a little refresher lesson earlier in the week, think I pissed the teacher off.” Taki grinned with a little laugh. “She thought I was taking her for a fool wanting a lesson and then playing like I did, surprised myself actually. But it felt good, you know, to play again. Can’t believe I ever stopped.”
A piano. Actually, it was a thought. Bunta also played, though he was a bit out of practice, and it would be a good thing to have for cocktail parties, considering how talented some of his friends were. Surely there would be someone who would want to sit down at the piano to spice things up. Then again, even if Taki's fingers were the only thing to ever touch the keys... Bunta's hand slid over Taki's stomach, resting on his hipbone. "Troublemaker," accused Bunta teasingly, lips fixed in a serene smile. "I can't wait to hear you play." He loved the way Taki's eyes lit up when it came to playing the piano - it was something he was good at that did not inspire guilt.
The light touch tickled and Taki squirmed a little before resting his own hand over Bunta’s and threading their fingers together. “I’m not a trouble maker!” He whined with a slightly amused pout playing on his lips. “When I get back maybe we could find one of those jazz bars that don’t mind random customers having a go on the upright.” He paused a moment weighing up his next words. “Or you could come up to my parents in Saitama where they have a proper grand piano and I can make it a private performance.” It was a shame his own place wasn’t big enough to accommodate it.
There was no helping the surprise that graced Bunta's features for the word "parents" coming up. Surely, Taki meant nothing by it - it was just a place to play the piano - and he quickly shoved the emotion down. "Mn, a private show?" Bunta lifted their joined hands, lips brushing Taki's knuckles, and murmured, "I think I'd like that very much." He let the hands return to where they had been before, tilting his head a bit. "Though I like the idea of a jazz club, too - we'll have to keep that in mind for when you return."
Which reminded him... "Are we still on for the company anniversary party... thing?"
Taki was even suddenly thinking of asking said parents if they would mind leaving them alone for a night, it wasn’t like he could kick them out of the whole weekend or whatever, he wasn’t that selfish. “It’s a pretty big compound, even got its own shrine. But, they do have a thing about traditional dress rather than business suites.” Still, that was something they could deal with when he returned in hopefully under the week that was set aside for this little job. Though the thought of returning made him think about going and his sharp eyes sort out the clock in the room, it had been late enough when he’d managed to get here.
“Sure we are,” Taki said with a nod and a smile as light finger tips ran up and down the arm resting across him he looked up at Bunta with a mischievous glint in his light brown eyes. “Besides, tuxes seem to have a wonderful effect on you.”
All Bunta could do from grinning wolfishly in return was to bring Taki's hand to his lips, again - of course, it showed in his eyes. So he had a weakness for a man who wore a tuxedo well? It was not as though the younger man could complain. He kissed the inside of Taki's wrist before settling the arm back where it was - the slight tickle of the sniper's fingers on his skin had felt quite good.
Bunta had seen Taki's eyes flicker up - he knew that his mind was on the time. After the younger man had arrived later than expected, dinner was pushed back. Then dessert and wine. Now loafing. It had probably been over two hours since he had arrived, in total. A glance at the clock showed Bunta that he was right - and he had a far easier time spotting it than Taki would from his perspective. "It's quarter after one," said Bunta lightly, wishing it to be hours earlier - or possibly days later. "When do you have to leave here?"
That late already? Taki sighed his grip on Bunta’s hand tightening just a little. “Kite said he’d be outside at two, but knowing him it’s gonna be more like ten to.” Taki had never found himself so ready to curse the passage of time, as a sniper you learnt to make it irrelevant the waiting for a target took as long as it took. It left him feeling more antsy than normal before a mission and before he knew it he had sat up.
“Don’t you just wish everything could stop just for a little while,” Taki said in a low almost wistful voice as he moved to sit on Bunta’s lap, wrapping his arms around him and burying his head in the crook of the doctor’s neck.
"At times like this," replied Bunta, wrapping his arms around Taki in return and settling his cheek against warm, long hair. "Or speed it up so you would already be home." He knew that the pain would be immediate - the moment Taki was gone, it was going to hurt, and it was not going to be better until he came back. It was a bit like being told that the sooner he went to sleep, the sooner Santa Claus would come, but having to tell himself that for a week. "I guess I'll have to just get used to it." It was one thing if the sniper had been leaving on a week-long pleasure trip; Bunta would miss him, of course, but it would not feel like a small eternity before they saw one
another again. This was the nature of Taki's work... Bunta really had no choice.
“Mmm, just think of all the fun stuff we can do once I get back. I’ll even pick you up a souvenir.” Taki grinned into his neck making light of it all as much for his own sake as Bunta’s. “As soon as I’m back on Japanese soil I’ll drop you an SMS. And I don’t want you to worry either; me and Kite have pulled stuff like this before, just another day at the office.” Only the office was in North Korea and the job was blowing up missile silos in the middle of nowhere. Taki fell into a comfortable silence after that, just enjoying Bunta’s closeness and stealing the odd kiss from those wonderful lips. He would keep this memory fresh in his mind while he was away and hope he wouldn’t feel so alone.
Similarly, Bunta fell into silence - that was the end of the discussion. A gentle kiss closed the deal; no more talking about it. Another day at the office. Maybe one of these days Bunta would bring up the fears he had, but that time was not now.
Taki had fallen into a doze again when his cell went off for the second time that night. Eyes opening slightly he didn’t need to pick the message up to know it was Kite letting him know he was waiting. With an almost suckly moan Taki moved his head from Bunta’s shoulder to glance at the clock, ten minutes early. Untangling himself he pulled back to look into his boyfriends light eyes and noted there was more than tiredness there. “I’ll be back soon, promise.” A soft kiss and an apprehensive flicker in his pulse. “I love you.” Placing a kiss on Bunta’s forehead he gave as best a smile he could before getting to his feet.
It was an odd feeling as he picked up his cell. It was like loosing something suddenly leaving Taki with an unfamiliar pain in him. He looked back at Bunta, but didn’t really know what else to say, he wouldn’t say goodbye. So he offered a soft smile and a small nod before mechanically making his way to the door and the car waiting outside.
Too stunned to speak or to argue, Bunta watched Taki go... love me? Love. He was able to get his feet under him as Taki slipped out the door. He went to the porch, watching his lover walk down the drive, trying to remember that he was not saying goodbye... "Haginosuke," he called out, gleaning the sniper's attention. For a moment, his heart ached so badly he wondered if it might explode, but it would hurt worse if he did not say this now. "I love you."
A faint smile, and a small wave - so what if anyone else might see him dressed down like this? His reputation could take it - and he watched Taki get in the car without another word between them. No goodbyes. Goodbyes felt too final.
Rating : G
Summary : Taki spends a few hours with Bunta before he has to leave for North Korea and a few things are said.
Taki lay on his stomach sprawled across Bunta’s sofa, his head resting in the crook of his elbow with his other arm dangled over the side loosely holding onto a glass of white wine. The evening had been really nice and more importantly for the sniper, relaxing. Something he hadn’t been for near on two weeks and with a stomach full of the wonderful meal Bunta had cooked he could feel himself dozing a little. Sleep was something else he hadn’t had much of lately. Still, he didn’t want to think about any of that until he had to leave for the airfield later. But even the brief thought left him with a frown and a sick feeling in his stomach, suddenly he wished he hadn’t ate so much.
He really didn’t know what he was more worried about, being in North Korea or being stuck around Kite for possibly seven days with no reprieve. Bringing the glass to his lips, he took a sip. Still his first glass of the evening too. As tempting as it was to just drink the bottle to himself it wasn’t really a good idea at this time. With a soft sigh, Taki buried his head in the fabric of the sofa. No doubt Bunta had noticed he was a lot more subdued tonight he just hoped the redhead was putting it down to the mission rather than anything else. Speaking of which, why wasn’t Bunta in here yet?
Bunta had slipped away to his bedroom to put on a pair of pajama pants and a loose t-shirt - Taki had seen him a lot less dressed, so he was hardly worried about appearances, anymore, and far more concerned with comfort. If he could, he did intend to sleep after Taki left. Sliding his feet once more into comfortable sheep-skin slippers, he padded back out to the living room to find the sniper sprawled out over the couch, one arm negligently holding a glass of wine over the edge - unless he had gone for more, as far as Bunta knew, that was the first glass. Improvement, perhaps?
Wordlessly, Bunta folded himself down on the floor beside the couch, his fingers pulling at Taki's shirt to expose a patch of Taki's lower back where he laid a gentle kiss over the spine. "You look tired - why not get some sleep before you have to leave? I'll wake you when it's time to go." The
younger man was almost... sedated. Though Bunta was certain it was only half of the problem, it was understandable that Taki was hardly social before a mission. Still... there was that nagging thought playing through his mind that something had been off for a while - and that he did not know the whole story.
"Maybe a back rub to help you relax a bit more," he offered secondarily, fingers scratching gently over Taki's shirt before he rubbed his palm flat over the shirt in soothing circles.
The soft press of warm lips on the small of his back snapped him out of the little place his mind had been taking a walk in causing him to start a little and lift his head. Bunta’s words seemed to take a long time to reach and register within him. “Um, no. I’m okay… if I sleep now I’ll just be really groggy when I wake. I’ll sleep on the plane.” Taki offered as a compromise even though he knew the actual likelihood of that was minimal at best. But, as soon as he said the words he could feel the calming touches to his back and simply Bunta’s presence lull him. Maybe he could sleep right here for a week….
It was the buzz of his cell phone that stated the sniper from that surreal boarder between being not quite awake, but not quite asleep either. Placing the wine glass on the floor he rolled onto his side so he could fish it out of his pocket, Taki glared at the display as he flipped it open to read the SMS. Kite. Flipping it closed he dropped it carelessly to the floor with an aggravated sigh. “I changed my will today, updated it. Hope you don’t mind me naming you as one of my benefactors.”
Light eyes flickered a moment to the cell phone, left forgotten on the floor, before Bunta attempted to process the words. That was... surprising. Then again, he had no concept of just what Taki had to leave behind, or just what it meant to be on that document. "I'm honored," he said, finally, as it was the closest thing to the truth. Shocked was probably the absolute truth,
but under it was a more dignified response. "But I hope I don't outlive you." His own will was a bit like a legal contract promising that he would, in fact, one day die and give all of his money and interest in the company owned by his father back to someone with the last name Marui who was involved in the company. Personal investments and income outside of the company were, of course, his own to manage as he liked... but it was weird to have a document that should have felt like it was written in the case of his untimely death, but felt a bit more like a binding contract that he would kick the bucket and leave behind some serious cash.
Darker musings aside, Bunta leaned back on his hands, ignoring the cell phone only inches from one hand, and asked, "What prompted you to update it?" He might ask what had prompted him to have a will in the first place - he was young and without children that Bunta knew of - but he could understand the desire for a will in a dangerous line of work such as Taki's.
You might, easily.Taki shrugged sitting up and folding his legs under him. “Been meaning to sort it out since Keisuke left and I finally got around to it this week.” Given a helpful push by one of two things, he may be a killer but he hated morbid duties like that. “It’s not much of anything, just who gets what percentage of a cash payout should I die in the line of duty.” All agents and spies were supposed to have them, whether they did was another thing, the only person he’d ever really spoken to it about was Kamio. Again, he shrugged.
Letting a hand reach over the short distance between them, Taki threaded his fingers through Bunta’s hair. The bright crimson tresses looked like blood against his pale skin for the briefest of moments to his tired eyes and Taki shook his head to clear the unpleasant vision. “Dinner was nice, I really enjoyed it. Thank you.” He finally said managing to crack his lips into a small smile.
Tilting his head into the touch, Bunta gave the slightest of nods. "I enjoyed cooking for you." It was the truth - much how Taki liked to communicate to people that he cared about them, Bunta liked to cook for his loved ones - he felt that a dish prepared with all his heart in it would taste like a dish prepared with all his heart in it. Sometimes they were the ugly, screw up dishes, but were also usually the most delicious.
All this talk of wills... Bunta's mind wandered to the chance that there would not be another night for him to cook for Taki - that there was a chance Taki would not be back in a week's time because there would be no Taki to return in a week's time. As he had already promised An, Bunta had been moving slowly and cautiously through the relationship; any sudden progression was due, in part, to the fact that Bunta had not liked someone this much in a long time. So, it was along this train of thought, and from his own wandering mind, that his next words came.
"You know, I wouldn't sleep well if something happened to you and I never -- well, I wouldn't sleep well, anyway, if something happened to you, God forbid." He rested one hand on Taki's knee, his eyes drifting up to Taki's a bit shyly. "I want you to know I'm..." a pause to find the right words, "I'm falling for you."
That had enough impact to shock him out of the weird almost seated stupor he was in and Taki blinked down at Bunta a little wide eyed. He couldn’t recall exactly what day it had been, but the sniper still remembered vividly yelling at Kite and telling him to stop the things he was doing because he thought he was falling in love. For whatever reason, Taki had never even dared to think that those feeling would, or could, be reciprocated.
But there was something in Bunta’s light eyes that made him mentally berate himself for being so selfish and talking about these things right before he was due to go away. Idiot. Sliding a hand over the redheads, Taki pushed off the sofa and settled down on the floor next to his boyfriend. Gently cupping Bunta’s face between his hands he smiled softly letting his eyes hold the others. “Nothings gonna happen to me, I’ll be back and annoying the hell out of you before you even realise I’m gone.” Taki paused a moment as his heart quickened a little, those nervous, excited butterflies playing havoc with his stomach. “And you’re not the other one who’s falling.”
The word love - or the fledgling potential of the word - felt to hang thickly in the air between them; the analyst wondered if either of them might even use it before the night was up, though he was perfectly contented - if not pleasantly unsurprised - to discover Taki was experiencing the same feelings. A smile quirked on Bunta's lips and he leaned forward to kiss Taki, no more than a brush of the lips. "I'm holding you to your word," he challenged quietly, twirling a bit of Taki's hair around one finger. "Come back to me." A flutter of his heart, a nervous touch of his tongue to his lips... yes, he knew it was coming. It was a downplayed feeling of a wife seeing her husband off to war. "I want to keep falling in love with you." There, he said it - he said it and it was out there.
“I will, I promise you,” Taki replied his voice steady and firm in answer to the challenge issued. He really needed to stop wallowing in his own self-pity and realise that his words and actions had consequences to them. Talking and thinking like he was now was hurting the one person he never wanted to. It didn’t change the fact that the mission was dangerous, but his fate was in his own hands, not Kite’s.
Taki could feel his eyes sting a little as he let them fall shut and his hands moved to trail down Bunta’s back and pull him close. Lips just brushing the others he said, voice barely above a whisper; “You make me so happy.” Then he was kissing him, slow almost languid, soft and sweet.
Bunta could not help but fall into the kiss, meeting the sleepy pace with his own slow passion. It was not the sort of kiss that started anything - it was the sort of kiss he assosiated with Sunday mornings when it was especially hard to get out of bed because it would be so much nicer to
cuddle close to a lover. His hand found Taki's collar, resting there for a moment before sliding back so his arm was just loosely flopped over Taki's shoulder. Fleeting, perhaps, as Taki was leaving far too soon, but there was one moment - one long moment - when Bunta felt as though everything in the world was right - up was up and down was down and nothing was twisted, sideways, or doing a headstand.
Eventually, Bunta found the will to pull away, lips dragging lazily from Taki's -- there was a soft wet sound when he was finally free of the kiss. "It must be something like the happiness you give me," responded Bunta, giving Taki eskimo kisses to emphasize the words.
Letting go with a grin Taki flopped down to rest his head on Bunta’s lap and look up at him, he suddenly wasn’t feeling tired anymore. Kind of more like when he had been at college hanging out in a friend’s dorm for late night gaming and messing about, they were his happiest memories. Until now. “I really wish you had a piano here, my fingers are getting itchy.” And there wasn’t a rifle trigger in sight. “I went for a little refresher lesson earlier in the week, think I pissed the teacher off.” Taki grinned with a little laugh. “She thought I was taking her for a fool wanting a lesson and then playing like I did, surprised myself actually. But it felt good, you know, to play again. Can’t believe I ever stopped.”
A piano. Actually, it was a thought. Bunta also played, though he was a bit out of practice, and it would be a good thing to have for cocktail parties, considering how talented some of his friends were. Surely there would be someone who would want to sit down at the piano to spice things up. Then again, even if Taki's fingers were the only thing to ever touch the keys... Bunta's hand slid over Taki's stomach, resting on his hipbone. "Troublemaker," accused Bunta teasingly, lips fixed in a serene smile. "I can't wait to hear you play." He loved the way Taki's eyes lit up when it came to playing the piano - it was something he was good at that did not inspire guilt.
The light touch tickled and Taki squirmed a little before resting his own hand over Bunta’s and threading their fingers together. “I’m not a trouble maker!” He whined with a slightly amused pout playing on his lips. “When I get back maybe we could find one of those jazz bars that don’t mind random customers having a go on the upright.” He paused a moment weighing up his next words. “Or you could come up to my parents in Saitama where they have a proper grand piano and I can make it a private performance.” It was a shame his own place wasn’t big enough to accommodate it.
There was no helping the surprise that graced Bunta's features for the word "parents" coming up. Surely, Taki meant nothing by it - it was just a place to play the piano - and he quickly shoved the emotion down. "Mn, a private show?" Bunta lifted their joined hands, lips brushing Taki's knuckles, and murmured, "I think I'd like that very much." He let the hands return to where they had been before, tilting his head a bit. "Though I like the idea of a jazz club, too - we'll have to keep that in mind for when you return."
Which reminded him... "Are we still on for the company anniversary party... thing?"
Taki was even suddenly thinking of asking said parents if they would mind leaving them alone for a night, it wasn’t like he could kick them out of the whole weekend or whatever, he wasn’t that selfish. “It’s a pretty big compound, even got its own shrine. But, they do have a thing about traditional dress rather than business suites.” Still, that was something they could deal with when he returned in hopefully under the week that was set aside for this little job. Though the thought of returning made him think about going and his sharp eyes sort out the clock in the room, it had been late enough when he’d managed to get here.
“Sure we are,” Taki said with a nod and a smile as light finger tips ran up and down the arm resting across him he looked up at Bunta with a mischievous glint in his light brown eyes. “Besides, tuxes seem to have a wonderful effect on you.”
All Bunta could do from grinning wolfishly in return was to bring Taki's hand to his lips, again - of course, it showed in his eyes. So he had a weakness for a man who wore a tuxedo well? It was not as though the younger man could complain. He kissed the inside of Taki's wrist before settling the arm back where it was - the slight tickle of the sniper's fingers on his skin had felt quite good.
Bunta had seen Taki's eyes flicker up - he knew that his mind was on the time. After the younger man had arrived later than expected, dinner was pushed back. Then dessert and wine. Now loafing. It had probably been over two hours since he had arrived, in total. A glance at the clock showed Bunta that he was right - and he had a far easier time spotting it than Taki would from his perspective. "It's quarter after one," said Bunta lightly, wishing it to be hours earlier - or possibly days later. "When do you have to leave here?"
That late already? Taki sighed his grip on Bunta’s hand tightening just a little. “Kite said he’d be outside at two, but knowing him it’s gonna be more like ten to.” Taki had never found himself so ready to curse the passage of time, as a sniper you learnt to make it irrelevant the waiting for a target took as long as it took. It left him feeling more antsy than normal before a mission and before he knew it he had sat up.
“Don’t you just wish everything could stop just for a little while,” Taki said in a low almost wistful voice as he moved to sit on Bunta’s lap, wrapping his arms around him and burying his head in the crook of the doctor’s neck.
"At times like this," replied Bunta, wrapping his arms around Taki in return and settling his cheek against warm, long hair. "Or speed it up so you would already be home." He knew that the pain would be immediate - the moment Taki was gone, it was going to hurt, and it was not going to be better until he came back. It was a bit like being told that the sooner he went to sleep, the sooner Santa Claus would come, but having to tell himself that for a week. "I guess I'll have to just get used to it." It was one thing if the sniper had been leaving on a week-long pleasure trip; Bunta would miss him, of course, but it would not feel like a small eternity before they saw one
another again. This was the nature of Taki's work... Bunta really had no choice.
“Mmm, just think of all the fun stuff we can do once I get back. I’ll even pick you up a souvenir.” Taki grinned into his neck making light of it all as much for his own sake as Bunta’s. “As soon as I’m back on Japanese soil I’ll drop you an SMS. And I don’t want you to worry either; me and Kite have pulled stuff like this before, just another day at the office.” Only the office was in North Korea and the job was blowing up missile silos in the middle of nowhere. Taki fell into a comfortable silence after that, just enjoying Bunta’s closeness and stealing the odd kiss from those wonderful lips. He would keep this memory fresh in his mind while he was away and hope he wouldn’t feel so alone.
Similarly, Bunta fell into silence - that was the end of the discussion. A gentle kiss closed the deal; no more talking about it. Another day at the office. Maybe one of these days Bunta would bring up the fears he had, but that time was not now.
Taki had fallen into a doze again when his cell went off for the second time that night. Eyes opening slightly he didn’t need to pick the message up to know it was Kite letting him know he was waiting. With an almost suckly moan Taki moved his head from Bunta’s shoulder to glance at the clock, ten minutes early. Untangling himself he pulled back to look into his boyfriends light eyes and noted there was more than tiredness there. “I’ll be back soon, promise.” A soft kiss and an apprehensive flicker in his pulse. “I love you.” Placing a kiss on Bunta’s forehead he gave as best a smile he could before getting to his feet.
It was an odd feeling as he picked up his cell. It was like loosing something suddenly leaving Taki with an unfamiliar pain in him. He looked back at Bunta, but didn’t really know what else to say, he wouldn’t say goodbye. So he offered a soft smile and a small nod before mechanically making his way to the door and the car waiting outside.
Too stunned to speak or to argue, Bunta watched Taki go... love me? Love. He was able to get his feet under him as Taki slipped out the door. He went to the porch, watching his lover walk down the drive, trying to remember that he was not saying goodbye... "Haginosuke," he called out, gleaning the sniper's attention. For a moment, his heart ached so badly he wondered if it might explode, but it would hurt worse if he did not say this now. "I love you."
A faint smile, and a small wave - so what if anyone else might see him dressed down like this? His reputation could take it - and he watched Taki get in the car without another word between them. No goodbyes. Goodbyes felt too final.