savetheearth | [closed] time for a drink

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[closed] time for a drink

Who: Shou and Keisuke
When: Saturday night or Sunday morning it's late and it's today
Where: Shady bar downtown somewhere
What: Shou knows that guy from echoes and is stubborn enough to force the issue while Keisuke just wants to drink.
Warnings: language probably. Will update as needed.

Saturday nights usually meant that he would either spend them in the night clubs trying to avoid dancing with people or in his apartment writing stuff down. Ever since that crazy song had happened, Shou found that his thoughts were heavily divided over what he knew and what he felt was going to happen next, and he wanted to make sure he didn't fall into the trap that was letting his other take over. But tonight was different.

Instead of sitting at home or being overly social, he was cruising bars and asking some questions. He had ditched his rich clothing, pulling a stocking hat over his head, and donning loose pants and an over-sized sweatshirt in an attempt to look less like what he was and to look more like just another college kid ditching his studies. It worked a little and he went from one place to another until he walked into this grimy bar and saw the person he was looking for.

Since he was completely reckless and had been thinking about someone like this guy for almost a year, Shou saw no reason to beat around the bush. Instead he just came up to him, made himself some space right next to him and called out to him.

"Kei."

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He likes the jacket--whatever he'd done while wearing it didn't transfer to this life. Or world, or.. .Whatever. Didn't help that it was cheap, too, and looked a little good on him.

So Keisuke keeps it--wears it a lot, actually, and that's one of the reasons he's easy to find. That, and he's always downtown somewhere. He's a regular fixture, though normally referred to as just 'that guy by the park'. Today, though, today he's splurged on some beer (good beer, thanks), and is enjoying relaxing.

He's tapping the lighter idly on the counter when he hears his name from someone beside him. Casually, he turns his head, and--

"No."

"Yes."

Shou frowned at him, not backing down from this. It was one thing to ignore the network and all that weird stuff going on, but quite another to deny that there was anything else to know. He knew this guy - and a part of him said that he was important - and he wasn't just going to forget it. He had once said that if he met one of those people from his memories here, he would leave them alone but that didn't count when they were on the network as well. He had too many questions to leave things alone.

"You cut off our conversation the other day."

"Apparently you didn't get the hint." It's dry and just as stubborn, but he relents simply because he's fairly certain that if the guy doesn't say his piece he'll leave.

So nearly scoffs, snatches the lighter from the counter, and tips the barstool back just slightly, so it's balancing on two legs. His guitar is in it's case next to him, of course, and he glances to make sure it's alright before exhaling sharply.

"Buy me a beer."

"I'm pretty stubborn that way."

People did not just ignore him or snub him. Shou had long ago worked out that if they did, they were trying to run away from something or they were trying to deny something, and being as stubborn as he could be, Shou always got into the person's face. It always seemed to work out in the end now matter the outcome. He was just going to treat this encounter like those in school - puch until he figured the person out.

Only problem was that this guy had been important in a past life and he just hasn't realized it yet.

Fishing out his wallet, Shou pulled out a twenty and tossed it down on the counter. "Make it two beers and tell me when we work our way through it." There was no reason to be cheap after all. "Why did you hang up?"

Kei finds himself tapping the lighter again. It's two quick taps, and then he strikes it on the third he bows his head, bangs in his face. Doesn't bother to answer until the beer is given and he takes the pint glass, clinking a ring on the surface, and tilts his head back up, sighing.

"I want to be left alone," He says after a while. "This network, talking unicorns..." For a brief moment, it looks like he's about to say something else before he shakes his head.

You look too familiar. I don't like it.

"How did you even find me?"

"It won't leave you alone," he replied, watching him tap his lighter. Shou could understand it, but sooner or later the stuff on the network bled into the rest of the world and it just couldn't be ignored.

Digging into his pockets, he unearthed a pack of smokes and his own lighter, giving himself a little time to think. While finding Kei had been important, trying to broach the issue about coming from the same world needed a little more tack. He didn't want to lose him again and have to go through the process of tracking him down. Shou was sure that wasn't why he got those contacts after all.

"I figured that if I crawled into enough bars, I'd get lucky."

"I have a stalker. " there it is. A brief glimpse of the sarcastic kid he really is. His lips curl up into some semblance of a smile, and he finally lights his own. He hadn't been paying attention as to the rules, but this guy?

Kei finally does turn around, though. Exhales smoke, taps ash in the empty beer glass he's owned previously, and takes a swig. When he sets the pint down he lifts his brows, face facing The strangers.

"Keisuke. If it's easier, Kei. You?"

"Better than having a crazy ex-girlfriend who details your sex life in a book." He shrugged. He got the sarcasm, but he figured he might as well get some backtalk in. One never knew what will happen within the next half hour.

"Either one works for me, but I remember you as Kei," Shou said and then paused a moment to light up and inhale. He had been quitting this habit, but the more he remembered, the more he smoke. Was that another trait of his other?

"Shou."

Remember? The word causes Kei to snort dismissively, as if he's fairly certain Shou is insane. He's actually pretty sure he is, but he's bought him a beer, so he can't complain.

"Sure, oka--" He cuts himself off. Frowns heavily, and winds up raking his eyes over the other.

"Shou. " he repeats the word, almost like he's cautious it'll give the other some sort of power. "Are you sure you just haven't seen me in the park?"

Sure he was insane. He'd been thinking about the mysterious second voice for as long as he had that song stuck in his head, been seeing this guy pop up every where, and had this strong feeling that 'Kei' - whoever he was then - had been the most important person in his other's life. More important than Son. More important than Yi-Che or Toshi.

'Kei' was too important to let go.

"I'm sure about it. The last one I had, it was midnight and there was a beach and you kept on stealing my smokes."

"I don't smo--"

Yeah, he does. It's right in his hand and he stares at it, forlornly. A part of him wants to actually call his nicotine habit a traitor out loud, but he manages to keep his mouth shut. Sort of.

He does, however, sigh.

"So you're saying we took long romantic walks on the beach once upon a time."

"There were a bunch of people," Shou replied and then frowned. The first piece of a memory, he was sure it was just them sitting in a car watching the sunrise. He knew that the only other voice that knew that song was this guy, but he had no idea to convince him.

Wait. The photograph. Shou was prone to carry it around these days. Did he have it on him?

He checked his pockets and then his wallet, finding the battered photo. The edges were a little charred, but it was still clear enough - five people on a dark beach, smiling and so young looking.

"See?"

Kei's eyes widen.

He gets it.

Something washes over him and he's perfectly still, cigarette ashing, beer untouched, face normal. Inside his mind? A different story. He can't quite focus on one thing, it's all a blur.

//A beach. Friends, laughing, smiling. Playing. Kei in the distance, watching them from afar. A twinge of envy, but he covers it up with a smile directed at the pretty girl once she looks over, worried.

And Sho.//

Kei inhales. ]

....I remember.

He was going to continue to protest because he was certain that Kei would deny the picture, deny the whole thing as being just something photoshopped or something. But then he said that and Shou inhaled, the words caught in his head and he frowned a little. To cover that moment of reshuffled thoughts, he took a sip of his drink, looking down at the picture of the five people on that beach and sighed.

Why does it make him feel so old?

"Yi-Che. Toshi. Son. Sho. Kei."

As he named each one, he touched their image, remembering the happiness during that night. Even Kei seemed more alive than in the other pieces that have been returned.

"I've never had blonde hair." It's supposed to break the uneasy feeling in his heart, supposed to quell the odd feeling of loneliness he suddenly has, and he glances at Sho before glancing down at the picture again.

"...You and Son were wrestling. And Toshi stepped in--Geeze, you're so reckless."

"You might get it sooner or later. I mean I got these braids when I had was sporting a very blond and curly look."

He reached behind him to pull at his braids, the tiny beads clicking as they hit each other. Shou let go of them to look at Keisuke's face, trying to figure out what he was thinking but that next bit of information had him laughing.

"Like always. I haven't grown outta it."

Kei manages a brief, barking laugh at that, the sound echoing off of the wall for a split second, and he shakes his head.

"Of course not. You're the center of attention, right?" He decides not to tell Shou how silly the beads look--for now. He'll wait until they're closer, assuming Kei doesn't just up and leave.

"I am a brat." Nope, no shame at all as he finishes off his beer and gets a refill.

The hairstyle is a bit silly, but It felt weird even thinking about getting it changed to something normal. Maybe it was something that he got from his other or maybe he just has grown use to it. He does style it differently, but getting it cut seemed like a waste of time.

"You're some kind of musician?"

"Huh?" Kei had been in his own world a bit--staring at the hair, absorbing his memory and playing and replaying it in his mind--so when Shou speaks he has to blink and shake it off a little, glancing down at his guitar.

"Yeah, I guess--It's been paying my way, this guitar." A small, tiny smile. "I feel really calm when I play."

"I'm sorta one too." He didn't want to come out and say that he grew up with a piano and then took up other instruments over the years. It just sounded like bragging even though it was the truth.

"Music can be relaxing after a hard day of doing nothing."

"Doing nothing for you, maybe. I work my ass off with this thing." A nod to the guitar. "It's relaxing but hard work, naa?"

Surprisingly, though, he's not as annoyed as he feels he should be. There's something calming about the other--calming, but frenetic, like the first drag of a cigarette after a few days going without.

"Listen--I don't really know what's going on still. I know the other me is connected to you, somehow, but this?" An offhand gesture. "...I don't know."

"Some parts are, I guess," Shou replied, frowning a little as he draws a circle in the condensation on his beer glass. "Some parts come easy, though."

It was weird but he felt a little relaxed around the other, a lot more than when he's around most people. He always had to hold himself a certain way and act a certain way in public, but it felt nice to meet someone that just clicked right in his head.

"You just got connected to everything. It's gonna be a little weird and upsetting, but You'll figure things out. Not everything; none of us know all that's going on, but you'll get enough to fake the tune just like me.

"You can't tell me that this doesn't feel right."

"It does," Kei conceeds, leaning back on his chair once more. It's hard to think, to move out of his hazy,fuzzy thoughts and try to muddle through someone else's, but...

"I know I trust you." A beat. "I don't trust anybody."

"Trust is hard." He shrugged, thinking about it as well. He trusted a little easier, but he still kept people away with the silly costumes and the weird hobbies.

"Ask me anything."

His shoulders move up into a shrug, but Kei's not so sure he's as certain about everything despite his demeanor.

"I really want to know why the other you and the other me were so close."

"I don't know for sure."

He had bits and pieces of memories, pictures of times that do not make sense to the rest of the world. He didn't think that the city or place in those memories existed. He wasn't sure how a place like that could even survive.

"I remember... riots. Of seeing two adults get crushed and of running with other couple kids away from the fighting. I remember the beach. I remember a empty building overrun by tropical plants and a gunfight with a former friend. I remember nothing more than that except the song."

"More than me." He tries not to sound too disappointed about it. He shouldn't, not really. He's fine like this. It's something he'll tell himself, over and over again, and will continue to.

But still--he trusts this guy. This complete stranger. It's enough to unnerve him.

"Can I have some time to mull this over?"

"I guess so..." Shou doesn't like that idea. Maybe because a piece of him thinks that if he gave Keisuke room, he'll vanish. He didn't want to lose him, not so soon after finding him.

"But I don't know how the pulses will work for you. They can be a little weird."

"Eugh." Kei throws Shou a look as he trails off at the first one. Forget the pulses.

"It's not like you won't see me on the network, and you know where I regularly drink. Stop looking like a kicked dog, it doesn't suit you."

"I just..." And Shou makes a face, his lower lip sticking out just a little. "I've been hearing this voice in my head for months, I've known your face thanks to this picture and finally you're here and you're networked in. I just don't wanna lose it right now."

Kei's response is uncharacteristic. He takes his thumb and index finger, and winds up flicking Shou on the forehead, as if to say, 'you idiot.'

"I don't do well if I don't have time to myself to process stuff. I'm more likely to bolt if you keep hounding me."

"Ow!"

Shou rubbed the spot, pouting a little more because dang it, that smarts! But giving the words to sink in a moment - and to remember just how apart Kei had been even when he was having fun in the midnight beach party - he could understand it. Given a choice and if he was in Keisuke's shoes, he too might find someone pestering him about something to make him want to run. He already had seeing how he left Japan because of the whole 'college and marriage' talks his parents insisted on.

"I know... Sorry."

"So, we're settled." A pause.

"...But maybe you could not stalk me next time, got it?"

"Fine, fine, I'll leave you alone," he replied, still pouting just a little.

"But you can't just disappear and pretend nothing happened, okay?"

Kei's sigh is not without a note of begrudging acceptance.

"Fine, fine. Deal."

"Deal."

So long as Keisuke wasn't going to disappear, Shou could stay away from stalking. He just didn't think that he could handle it if that happened. Something - probably his other - wouldn't be right without Kei around.

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[closed] time for a drink

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Pls don't mind the phone tag.

/phone tags a lot from work >.>

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