Treat You Better

Chapter 1

It was closing time at Sia La Luce. Kojiro did a final check of the kitchen and wiped down the counters one last time before shutting off the lights and locking the door. He sighed, arching his back in order to relieve some of the tension that remained after a hard day of work. Immediately the heat of the summer night took him with an inhale. A small buzz and ding from his pocket compelled him to pull out his phone only for his face to be lit by the bright screen, illuminated with a notification from Carla.

"Can Master Cherry expect your presence at S tonight?"

A small smirk lifted the corner of his mouth while a soft breeze brushed his dark green hair against his cheek. At least Kojiro knew Kaoru was thinking of him enough to send Carla. And that was enough. After such a busy day at the restaurant, he was looking forward to crashing on his couch back in his apartment. But this new information overtook his exhaustion with the desire to see Karou.

A quick stop by his apartment and Joe was out the door in his signature skating gear. The too-big (even for his build) jacket that hung off his shoulders and low riding pants curved and folded around his body perfectly, and he knew it. In a flash, he took off down the street on his skateboard toward the old mining facility. The self-made wind that whipped around him was a blessing relief from the hot and humid night air, and he was thankful for the revealing nature of his outfit, exposing more of his rough, worked skin to the breeze.

As he approached the gates of S, he slowed his pace to a more casual roll down the main strip, cheekily waving to his infinite fan girls and admirers.

"OMG ITS JOE"

"God, he's like a dream!"

"Ugh! One hot cup of Joe please!!"

Joe was used to remarks like this, and far more provocative, too. But they all held no weight; they didn't really know him, and he didn't know any of them.

A bit behind him, he heard one of his fans cut off mid remark:

"I wanna marry your abs- AAAAAH LORD CHERRY HES HERE!!!"

Immediately a small flush rose in Joe's cheeks and at the tips of his ears. This is what he wanted. He came for Cherry, and now he was here. The calls from the bystanders should be plenty to feed his confidence and composure, but for some reason his pants felt like they were pulling in odd places, his shoes felt tight around his feet, and his jacket nearly fell off his toned and built arms.

Without thinking of how flustered he was, he fell back to slow down and wait for his childhood friend.

"Well, you're looking remarkably thirsty tonight," Cherry remarked, taking note of the jacket that was now leaving nothing to the imagination. "I'd imagine the calls from the crowd were enough for you, but obviously not."

"I- argh." Joe shook his jacket up to his shoulders, now hiding more than usual. "Well maybe you should take notes, you look like a ninja," he said gesturing to the mask hiding Cherry's face, and the thick fabric the covered nearly every facet of his body.

"Well I for one don't appreciate the kids and other fans showing up uninvited to my work." He scoffed, sticking his nose up. "And I'm no pig like you; I don't need the approval of hordes of women to establish my self esteem." He slowly opened one eye to peek at Joe's reaction, but all Joe could focus on was the soft bat of Cherry's long, thick lashes against his perfect skin. The small flush that never quite left intensified, and became far more noticeable against his tanned skin.

"So," Joe abruptly exclaimed, diverting the subject, afraid Cherry noticed the blush. "Who's racing tonight? You know, I wasn't originally gonna show tonight, but after I got your- ~Carla's~ message, I decided I couldn't let you get away with stealing all the attention." His confident smile returned to his face. This is good, he thought. I missed this. A particularly busy couple weeks at Sia La Luce had left him too exhausted to come to S too frequently, and by whatever tragic intervention, it always seemed to be on the nights Cherry was nowhere to be seen.

Cherry's eyes snapped open to give Joe a death glare after his remark about attention, desperately wanting to point out the hypocrisy in that statement, but he refrained in order to keep that small victory from him. "I believe Shadow is racing against some poor fool who wanted to beef with him. It should be an easy win, but I had nothing better to do, so I thought I might as well show."

Joe sighed a small relief. Cherry could finally be himself, he could finally truly enjoy skating again now that he has moved past Adam's toxic hold on him. He was glad to see his friend back. "That's good," he said with a heaved exhale. "Hopefully it'll be short so we can get out of this heat. Aren't you dying?"

"I'm fine," Cherry replied sternly.

Joe looked at him with a neutral look on his face, but worry in his eyes. He knows Cherry is stubborn, and hates admitting the collected image he displays on the outside is anything different from what he feels on the inside.

They reached the main stage of S, where dozens of eager fans waited for the night to begin. They looked around: Reki and Langa were nowhere to be seen, they're probably at Reki's working on their boards or watching skating videos. Miya was probably home tonight, it was a weeknight after all. He probably had school. And sure enough, there was Shadow making gross faces at a trembling skater, aka Shadow's next prey. Now static and amongst a crowd of people, the heat began to truly set in. Joe shrugged off his jacket and tied it around his waist, while out of the corner of his eye he saw Cherry guiltily and sneakily wipe his brow. Even more worry set in, and just as he was about to advise Cherry to shed a layer or two, the horn fired, signaling the race was about to begin.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeep!

Shadow took off down the track with immense speed, and his opponent already struggled to keep up. On the giant screen overhead, the pair saw Shadow pull out some Cherry bombs from his vest and chuck them back, covering the track causing the other skater to wobble on his board in order to avoid a sure loss. Shadow looked back, fleetingly impressed his opponent could dodge his attack. He let the two of them streak down the track for a short while, and suddenly the abandoned factory was in sight.

"Ok, no more playing around. Its time to end this!" Shadow shouted, pulling out a small laser pointer key-chain and aiming right for his opponents eyes, causing him to yelp and careen into a dirt patch off the side of the course.

Shadow coasted into the factory exclaiming victory. Joe looked down to his feet, giving a soft "tch," and looking to Cherry. Something was off. Cherry's eyes lacked focus, and his hairline glistened with sweat. He wobbled a bit on his feet. Joe stepped, taken aback seeing his controlled, calm friend so distraught. "Woah, woah, Cherry, are you ok? I think you should sit down, here," he placed his arm on Cherry's back, only for it to be weakly swatted away.

"Hands off, oaf," Cherry retorted weakly. "I'm perfectly fine..." the last bit of his sentence trailed off.

"Cherry, please let me-"

"I said I'm fine! Or have your muscles affected your hearing? I have no.... no need for yo-"

His eyes became heavily hooded, and he weakly stepped back, only for his leg to give out and he stumbled towards the floor.

Joe jumped into action, carefully but quickly catching Cherry with one arm around his neck and another reaching over his front to grab his hip. "CHERRY! Cherry, can you hear me?? Argh, I knew you... ugh! Cherry, please, look at me, Cherry!" But it was no use. Cherry's eyes slid shut, and he slipped out of consciousness.

"Cherry, c'mon, dude. Cherry! Karou...."