When Shishido came home sometime in the early morning, Ohtori was already awake and watching the news. He didn't look up when Shishido came in the door, nor did he pretend to notice when Shishido kissed the top of his head.

"Choutarou?" Shishido asked, frowning and dropping onto the couch.

"You didn't come home last night," Ohtori replied tersely. He wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"I told you, we were going to his place to get drunk and mock the TV," Shishido replied, sighing. "Is it so bad that I want to spend time with friends sometimes?"

"Atobe-san isn't a friend," Ohtori muttered.

Shishido winced.

Ohtori eyed him, "What happened? Normally you'd be defending him right about now."

"Normally," Shishido agreed, getting up and going into the bedroom to change into track shorts and a loose black t-shirt with the words "Can't Sleep, Clowns'll Eat Me" going in a spiral. "But defending him is just going to make things worse when they're already not going to turn out good."

"How so?" Ohtori asked, eyes narrowed.

Shishido sat down on the couch next to Ohtori and ran a hand through his hair. "First things first, you promise me the same thing he did – no snarking at each other. If I see you doing it, it will not be pretty."

"Why did you make him promise that?" Ohtori asked, the bottom of his stomach dropping out from under him. He had a very, very bad feeling about this. "Why do you want me to promise the same thing."

Pulling his hair over his shoulder, Shishido started to braid it automatically, braiding and unbraiding quickly. "Second thing I want you to promise – hear me out all the way and save your anger for later."

Ohtori knew right then what Shishido was going to say.

"You slept with him," he croaked out.

"No, I didn't," Shishido said carefully. "Now, promise me. No snarking, and hear me out. That's all I ask. After you hear me out, then you can do whatever you want."

"Including killing him?" Ohtori growled.

Shishido abandoned his hair to rub the bridge of his nose. "Choutarou, please. I don't want… Fuck, why can't this just be easy?"

"Fine, I promise to hear you out," Ohtori said, his stomach a churning mass of acid. "What happened?"

"He picked me up yesterday and took me over to a museum where they were having exhibits from Di Vinci and Francis Bacon. We had coffee and went to dinner, and then to his place. I called to leave a message, because you said you were spending the night with you family to celebrate your sister's engagement."

"She—"

"Later. Let me get this out and then you can tell me about last night."

Ohtori nodded, not really wanting to know, but having to. The words coming out of Ryou's mouth were like a car crash – so absolutely awful, but something about it just made you have to watch it in morbid horror.

"We went back to his place and started drinking. We mocked what was left of some beauty pageant and started flipping channels, but put a movie on instead. Somewhere in all that, we kept drinking and he started asking me about us. A lot of his questions made me think, and truthfully, I'd like to know the answers to them as well."

"Like what questions?" Ohtori asked. If Atobe had managed to somehow warp things so that Ryou thought…

"Why are we still together when it seems like all we do is fight? Why we haven't taken a break from each other and seen if there's something more out there, or if we'll just value what we have more? Questions that really do make a lot more sense then they ought to."

"We don't always fight," Ohtori protested weakly.

"We fought two nights ago, on the phone last night. Every other day, if not every one, we've fought. Over tiny things that make no sense whatsoever, but we've still fought over it," Shishido said flatly. "We both have tempers, mine's worse than yours in all aspects, but still. We don't even talk about the major fights, where we hurt each other. It might make me sound like a girl to say it, but it needs to be said. If we keep making the same mistakes, things are just going to fall apart even faster."

"So, what else happened besides him questioning our relationship?" Ohtori asked, a note of steel in his voice.

"We kissed and got each other off," Shishido said flatly, staring straight into Ohtori's eyes.

"That's it? Nothing else?"

"Nope. After that we pretty much both grabbed bottles of vodka and passed out."

"Why couldn't you have just come home?" Ohtori asked, pained.

"I didn't expect—"

"Atobe's been after you for the past three years, Ryou!" Ohtori snapped. "Why do you think I deliberately don't leave you two alone for a long time!"

Shishido said nothing.

"Ryou, why?" Ohtori asked, shaking Shishido a little by the shoulders. "Why would you…? I can't understand…"

"Neither of us have had relationships with anyone else. I was curious. Yes, I know it wasn't the brightest thing to do, and I know it's going to affect us. I can't justify it to you, and I can't explain why more than I already have. I can say it won't happen again, though."

"Damn straight it won't!" Ohtori snapped, glaring. "Because I am not letting you two near each other if I can help it!"

Shishido nodded, "I expected as much."

Ohtori ran his hands through his hair and stood up, looking out the window instead of at Shishido. "I'm not letting him win," he said after a few minutes. "We're not breaking up. I can't…I don't think…"

Shishido stood up and wrapped his arms tightly around Ohtori. "I love you," he said softly. "He's my friend, and that's it. I care for him, but only as a friend. I swear to you, it will not happen again. I won't hurt like this again."

Ohtori let his head fall forward a bit to rest against the glass. "As much as I hate to admit it, he does have some points."

Shishido rested his head between Ohtori's shoulder blades. "If you want me to leave for a little bit so you can yell and shout, or if you just want me out so you don't have to look at me, it's okay."

"No," Ohtori said roughly. "We are fixing this now. I'm not giving him another chance to take you away from me. You're mine, and I refuse to let someone else touch you!"

Shishido bit his lip, knowing better than to say anything else. He'd done enough damage for one night. He just hoped that now they could work things out, and get back to how they used to be. He loved Choutarou, he truly did, but this possessive behavior annoyed and scared him sometimes. Maybe by doing this it would ultimately fix everything in the end.

As much as he hoped for that, he knew right as he thought it that it was never going to happen.

The End

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