Ship-testing catchall

[oneblackcat]

To Try:

Omi:
Akaya
Kura
Nagi (not for the same set-up, but as long as futureverse catchall is there, maybe a test thread for what they'd be like?)

Kura:
Ken
Rasu
Hak
Soo-won
Jaeha

Mizuki:
Hak
Ran
Rasu
Yun (I know you don't want a bitchfest, but I still wanna try this one... lol)

Yukimi:
Ran
Rasu
Jaeha
Nami
Kimina

Yagyuu:
Fuji
Hak
Yukimura

Goku:
Ouka
Yona

Comments

[yukimi]

It was kind of cute, really. How Ran pretended to keep him on his toes. (He was pretending, right?) Yukimi likewise pretended to be relieved, letting out a sigh.

"Not unless you want me to buy you flowers or something at the corner shop on the way to the restaurant?" he said teasingly. Dating guys was definitely very different from dating girls. Though, Yukimi wasn't really the romancing type in either case.

[rookieoftheyear]

"Pass."

If Ran was amused by the tease, it didn't show. He'd had a brief stint as a florist in his teenage years to get a head start on saving money, and he'd be quite happy to never see another flower again in his life. He also officially hated Valentine's Day now.

[yukimi]

"Chocolates, then." Yukimi laughed and smacked Ran on his back as they made their way out of the alley and onto the main road. Ran was such a stiff sort of guy. Though he had a feeling that he was amused on the inside. It was hard to tell sometimes, since Ran had such a poker face.

Yukimi tended to be much more sober on the inside and goofier on the outside. A weird sort of combination they made.

[rookieoftheyear]

"Let's just go eat." No doubt the chocolates would end up going to one of his siblings anyway. It was just as well Yukimi didn't splurge often on such romancing gifts.

They perhaps worked surprisingly well for each other, all considered. Ran wasn't sure how they did. Maybe it was simply Yukimi's ability to deal with his bristly exterior.

[yukimi]

"You're the boss~" Yukimi said lightly. They fell into step side-by-side. They might be dating, but Yukimi wasn't really the hand-holdy type. (Ran probably wasn't either, but he never really bothered to check. And if he were, Yukimi probably wouldn't know what to do about that).

The advantage of being a reporter was that you often wrote about the latest and trendiest new hotspots for dining. And Yukimi was especially keen on the cheap but good eats, where local chefs started out with tiny hole-in-the-wall establishments that were eager to make their mark on the dining scene.

He directed them toward one such place, a ramen joint he discovered last month when he was writing about the intricacies of ramen broth.

"So how many assholes have you put away this week? Should I feel safer on the streets because of your heroic work?"

[rookieoftheyear]

Yukimi's style with public affection suits Ran just fine, as he finds it more comfortable to walk the street looking like a pair of friends. More intimate displays, he thinks, are best reserved for private moments, when the atmosphere matches the mood of the contact, rather than baring such a personal aspect of oneself for the world to see.

He turns at Yukimi's signal towards the ramen restaurant, aware already why this is Yukimi's choice. After all, he reads every article the man authors. The question earns him a snort.

"Most homicides, the victim knows the murderer. Unless you've gotten into serious trouble with a current or former relation, the streets probably aren't much different for you this week than last."

[yukimi]

"Hey, that was your cue to say something amazing about yourself, like... 'I hunted down a serial killer with my raw wits and tenacity' or 'I found out the identify of that letter bomb psycho who targeted journalists that write about ramen joints.'"

Yukimi pauses with exaggeration, waiting for Ran to chime in. He might be making light of it, but it's his way of telling him that he's allowed to dump on him about work. Nasty as it must be for homicide detectives, they surely need to unload sometimes.

[rookieoftheyear]

"That guy is still at large," Ran answers, dryly enough that one who didn't know better might miss he was joking back. "But I've heard the ones that associate with cops are most at risk."

He appreciates the sentiment of the gesture, he really does. Yukimi is trying to be affirming, and to give him an opening to talk about what he's done. Ran is reluctant to ever start down that road of talking about his work to anyone outside the context of work itself. For one, it's a grizzly business looking into murders, and he doesn't want to subject anyone to its horrors, even if they're volunteering. There are confidentiality concerns, too, especially with an ongoing investigation. That information shouldn't leak until everything is done and decided. And ultimately, even if Ran does sometimes feel like venting, he believes the fastest way to get over it is to not talk about it. He tries to put his mind to other things rather than nurse a grudge through ranting (how successful he is, of course, may be up for debate).

[yukimi]

"Are they? Hmm. Maybe we need to keep things a little more discreet," Yukimi says teasingly. How much more discreet can they be, really? Not that they hide it from people or anything, but anyone seeing them interacting would probably not really think anything of it, unless they knew them well enough.

He wonders whether it's a good thing that Ran doesn't talk about his work around him. Yukimi might write about ramen today, but it's not like he's always reporting on the fun cultural stuff around the city. He's done grittier journalism before, too. But in a way, maybe it's not about protecting Yukimi but Ran himself. To carve out a time where work doesn't follow him around. And that's fine, too.

[rookieoftheyear]

"You can don your secret identity as a caped superhero."

Ran pushed open the door to the restaurant. The aroma of savory broth wafted through the air, inviting diners closer. It was a small, quaint place that could have easily been missed amid the neon and holograms. Ran saw it, but he had sharper observation than most. It was part of what made him good at his job.