vivarium | An Unsuitable Job for a Detective [closed to Snake]

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An Unsuitable Job for a Detective [closed to Snake]

Meet me in the garden.

That was what the small slip of paper he'd left folded in Snake's hands had said. He'd written it carefully in braille, so that it would be immediately obvious who had written it once Snake woke up. Without Simon, he doubted there were many people who could decipher it tooling around the warehouse.

Heiji, true to his word, was waiting next to the small pond. He had his hat off and in his hands, fiddling with the brim as he waited for Snake to arrive. When he heard footsteps, he quickly folded it and slipped it away into the folds of his robe.

"I'm over here."

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"...For a smart guy, you sure can be dumb." Despite the harsh words, there was no malice in Heiji's voice. Instead, there was something entirely different in his tone. Relief? Exasperation? Those were there, but also something else, new and tentatively open.

He took another step forward, until his soft, dark bangs were brushing up against Snake's forehead. "What kind of idiot would play along with a contest like that unless they wanted to? I didn't even complain when Calhoun told me to climb on your lap, I just did it!"

Heiji's cheeks were bright red as he continued to talk. "And there's no way I woulda done all that extra stuff just to check off some dare. I even... licked..." Ugh, what was wrong with him? Why hadn't he figured it out?

*Snake leaned his forehead against Heiji's. The bit of bangs he could feel on his skin did feel soft. He couldn't help but smile.* Yes. Yes actually you did.

I suppose...I suppose I was concentrating so hard on not letting anything show that I wasn't paying attention to what you were doing. And maybe you might have been doing the same.

So feeling as I was, I thought I could just bury it and never talk about it again. It's what I was planning on doing. Except you sounded so hurt later on that...I couldn't shut you out. You're a remarkably persistent man, Heiji.

And then...the sleepover. *One last bit of embarrassment but he could do this! He had to.*

"Of course I did! You came in talkin' about how awful it was and how you wanted to forget all about it! I was tryin' to bring up how I... felt..." Against his better judgment, honestly, but again, he'd figured that Snake should know about it.

"But after that, I just figured you thought it was disgusting." And that still stung, honestly, even if he knew that he'd been wrong about why Snake had been so bothered.

"...What about the sleepover?"

So I hurt you anyway, despite my best intentions. *A sigh.* Sometimes we fail no matter what we do.

Well. Consider how I was feeling and then you told me how old you were. That made me feel a thousand times worse. I don't know what the law is in your country but where I suspect I'm from, it's pretty damn strict about relationships with people who aren't legal adults. Namely, you don't or you're viewed as a criminal and sexual predator.

I understand that it's because of the stupid game we're in we had to share that experience but it set off a whole lot of paranoid thought in my head. Was I really into the underaged? Did I have some evil tendencies that I didn't remember? At that point, the only thing that made sense was to get as drunk as possible.

Of course, my good sense came to me while I was hungover and I knew I wasn't any of those things. But then I knew I'd have to figure out what to do. My plan was to regain iron control over everything and be your friend but...just keep you at a distance at the same time.

Except you told me that you liked me. And now here we are. *With that, he'd finally told everything. He gave a really long sigh and rested his head against Heiji's shoulder. He felt weak with relief and the heavy weight he'd been carrying started to vanish.*

"Where I'm from, it's not that strict. I mean, yeah, you can't married until you're 18. But there are definitely girls who're sweet on an older guy. They just wait 'til they're a little older before they get serious." At least, that was Heiji's feeling on it.

"Well... I guess I understand." After a moment, he rested his cheek against Snake's. "But you better not do it again. ...Keep me at a distance, I mean. If you do, I'm not going easy on you!"

Oh really? I might actually enjoy that. *His tone? The most teasing ever.*

So those are all the sordid details of what I've been doing. You know, in hindsight, each of us should have realized what was going on. *Now that he felt remarkably better, Snake went back to holding Heiji. This time, he nuzzled against Heiji's dark hair.*

Speaking of hindsight, a thought occurs to me. Heiji, in that first bingo game, where you kissed me, why did you want to continue?

"Wh... what?" What was this all of a sudden? "I was just -- "

Fine. You know what, fine. He was going to come clean. "I didn't expect to like it that much. That's why I wanted to try it again, to figure out why. But you wouldn't take the bait."

There. Were you happy, Snake? He turned his face away just a little bit as he leaned back against Snake. "...Deduction requires objectivity and a cool head. So how could anyone accurately deduce the feelings of someone they like?"

Because liking someone isn't about having a cool head at all. It's very much irrational. For example, if I told you I wanted to hold you for about a thousand years, that doesn't make sense at all, does it? Yet, it's what I feel.

So...I guess this is my birthday present to you, Heiji. I like you and I think we should start dating. *He thought about it and added.* As much as one can in this place. What do you think?

The instant Snake stopped talking, Heiji leaned forward and kissed him. There was nothing tentative about his approach this time, no reason to try and pretend there was some other reason he was doing it except that he wanted to and so he was.

When he pulled away, it was only the bare inch or two required to speak. His breath came quicker than before; probably he'd forgotten to breathe while he was at it. "Does that answer your question?"

*Oh. Well. That was surprising. Snake couldn't always predict what Heiji would do. He didn't always have the answers. The thought left him weak in the knees. He spoke again, his voice a low purr.*

I believe it does. Now. I think we should find a nice park bench to sit at. Then, you get on my lap and this time, we'll try kissing each other without anything holding us back, all right?

"You really like that, don't you?" Not that Heiji had any objections. He kind of liked how Snake could be a little bossy sometimes. Just a little.

He took Snake's hand and pulled him over to the park bench, which was luckily close by. "Sit down, then. It's too early for anyone else to be up, so we can take our time."

*Was it too early? Snake had kind of lost track of time with being hungover but it didn't matter. He sat down and waited for Heiji to sit on his lap. Only when Heiji had done that, did Snake reach for him and kiss him the way Snake had wanted to without the worries and the fears. One hand threaded through Heiji's hair at the back of his head and the other circled his waist to hold him in place.*

Never in a million years had Heiji ever thought he'd be doing this when he woke up this morning -- sitting on Snake's lap, arms draped around his shoulders, making out with him. And not because someone had twisted his arm to do it, either.

"I remember. You liked it when I did this, right...?" He used the tip of his index finger to trace slowly along the line of Snake's jaw. "...But you didn't like it when I messed with your tie."

*Snake sucked in a breath at the touch. It was like lighting a match along his skin.*

Well, I didn't like you messing with my tie because it felt like things were getting out of control. I think there will be a time and a place for that. *Probably not for a long time. Snake would need to be careful. Obviously he'd had relationships before but had Heiji? No idea.*

"A 'time and place'...? What, you already got an itinerary planned out or somethin'?" That would be just like Snake. Probably he had his retirement age planned out in advance, too.

"That's fine, I guess. I won't mess with it if you don't want me to. But someone here already got to second base." Was Heiji... sulking a little?

...yeah, he totally was.

Really? I can only speculate but...is it Jake and Emma? *Because honestly, he can't think of anyone else.*

As for an itinerary, no, but I think we might want to pace ourselves. We did just confess we liked each other and we've been dating for about...oh, twenty minutes. *He gave a low chuckle.* I guess it's true what they say about young men. All hormones.

"Ugh, no." Don't even make him picture that image, Snake.

Heiji leaned back a bit, though his arms were still firmly around Snake's shoulders. Thank god no one was around to catch him in such a compromising position. "Wow, listen to you. That make you the 'older man', then?"

But he wasn't rally that annoyed. If Snake wanted to take things slow, that was fine with him. Mostly. Heiji leaned forward and rested his chin on Snake's shoulder. "So you had an ex-boyfriend, huh? Guess he didn't treat ya right."

Edited 2014-12-07 00:29 (UTC)

Curious. Unless...*He wondered. Did other people have problems in the grey rooms?* It was some kind of grey room prank Calhoun liked pulling on everyone?

Well, I am older than you, so yes. And yes, apparently I did and it didn't end well. It's possible I might not have treated him right. I don't really know at this point. Which means I have to treat you better. *Just touching Heiji was wonderful, running a hand through his hair.*

I have a request from you. Do you...mind if I really touch your face? Just so I can picture what you look like in my head?

...!

Heiji tried and almost succeeded at suppressing a little shiver as Snake's fingertips brushed at the nape of his neck. He hadn't thought Snake would be so tactile -- it was a complete 180 from the aloofness he'd always adopted before. Everyone else in the warehouse was much less touchy than Heiji was, and he wasn't used to having it turned back on him like this.

"Y-yeah, guess it does. And sure. It's just like with my clothes, right? I don't mind."

*Snake placed his left hand on Heiji's shoulder. To really touch and feel, Snake needed his right hand. So very carefully he brushed his fingers on Heiji's forehead, down the bridge of his nose, the sweep of each cheekbone, the ridge of each eyebrow, along his jawline and finally, ghosting his fingertips over Heiji's lips. He let his hand drop.*

You're beautiful.

"Wha...?" Heiji was so taken aback with this comment that at first, he wasn't even sure what to say.

"Isn't that... something you say to women...?" He didn't sound displeased with it, though. Or rather, he was trying to sound displeased, but completely failed at it.

*Snake chuckled a little bit.* People can be beautiful, no matter who they are. Or...would you rather say that I think you're very handsome?

"I guess it's... fine either way," said Heiji, which was his sort of dishonest way of hoping Snake would say it again.

"You're really handsome yourself... But I guess you knew that already." He reached over, playing idly with the ends of Snake's hair. "I'm gonna have to keep an eye on the competition."

Competition? You think someone's going to steal me away from you? My beautiful young suitor? *The thought of Heiji getting jealous over someone potentially flirting with him tickled Snake to death.*

Heiji leaned in and kissed Snake once more. "Like I'm gonna let that happen." Not after he'd finally confessed. Apparently Heiji was a bit of a jealous type...? Who knew; that Mark guy had better watch out if they ever crossed paths.

Gosh, Snake sure said some embarrassing things sometimes. But he could get used to it...

"Um, there was one other thing I was gonna ask you."

*Another wonderful kiss. The day had just started and already things were beyond amazing.*

Hmm? What is it?

"Is it okay if I call you Light?" Heiji felt ridiculous being as flustered as he was about asking; after all, hadn't he called Snake that up until he'd come up with the nickname?

But still...

There was something odd in the tone of Heiji's question that suggested there was something more at play here than just an ordinary name preference.

You can if you want, Heiji. Is this...some kind of cultural thing? *That's about the only thing that made sense to what he heard in Heiji's tone.*

"Well... usually you start out with surnames and move to given names when you get to know someone. But I just like it better." Heiji sounded a little sheepish.

"Plus... I don't want to call you the same thing everyone else does. This way it's just between you and me!" Apparently, he was very pleased by the idea.

Something just for us? I like that. *He leaned forward and kissed Heiji on his lips.* I guess I should come up with a name for you that I only I use for you in exchange, hmm? I'll come up with something eventually.

This has been quite an eventful birthday for you already, Heiji.

"Yeah," said Heiji, "I guess it has."

He smiled warmly at Snake, holding him a little closer despite himself. "Is it okay... if we stay like this for a while?"

Yes. Yes it is. *Heiji sat in his lap and Snake held him there, occasionally nuzzling his cheek.*

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An Unsuitable Job for a Detective [closed to Snake]

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