Matchablossom: Lifegurad

Shattered glass

Kaoru paced around the outside of the office. He was supposed to be getting towels for the locker room, but Kojiro was hiding from him. He knocked on the door. This was the third time. He heard a groan. There was shuffling feet, before the door popped open. Kojiro glared out. He saw Kaoru, snorted, let out a sigh, before exciting the room. He closed the door.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" he asked as he turned to walk down the hall toward the pool.

The area was fixed up, the pool clean. They had opened that morning. Already the sounds of kids laughing, splashing around in the water filled the air. Kaoru flinched away from the bright light glistening from the water. He moved to walk on Kojiro's other side.

"Are you ok?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, just a few scrapes, nothing I can't deal with." Kojiro huffed.

"Ko?" Kaoru started. Kojiro looked down at him.

A red slash marred his handsome face once he realized that Kaoru had shortened his name. He huffed looking away. Raising his arm, he hid his face from the pink haired teen beside him. Kaoru reached a hand up to touched his arm. Kojiro halted looking out the window.

"What did you mean, about the latest Eve?" Kaoru pressed.

"Kaoru, look, you're smart, talented, and you're Adam's now. There is nothing you can do about it. Lets just keep this... friendship, work related, alright. I'm not going against Adam or Snake, for anyone." With that Kojiro pushed the door open to walk out by the pool.

Kaoru felt the tears come. He hurried down to grab the clean towels. Burying his face in the top one, he let the tears fall. Why? Why was he so upset? Was Ainosuke/ Adam what he wanted? Ainosuke was rich, powerful, he could do worse... but his heart felt empty when the other thought came.

Kojiro. Strong, loyal, determined. Kaoru punched the towel he had been crying into. He wasn't going to let that ape brained idiot go! He scowled filling himself up on the resolve to force the idiot to talk to him. He needed to know everything.

Kaoru tossed the towel into the laundry basket. He carried the others back to the locker room. Distributing them evenly, he glanced out the window. Kojiro was walking along the side of the pool. His keen red eyes flicked over the people in the water. As Kaoru watched, he saw something else. Ainosuke! The blue hair waved in the breeze. He was sitting under an umbrella while Tadashi watched from the side. Kaoru huffed. Kojiro was ignoring the rich heir.

Was this why Kojiro said what he did? Had he seen Ainosuke out there before answering the door? Kaoru ground his teeth together. It was a habit his mother had forced him out of long ago, yet when he got too emotional, it came back. Spinning around Kaoru marched out of the building.

"Go empty the towel bins outside." His immediate boss called. Kaoru waved to let her know he had heard her.

He marched out to the pool area dragging the cart behind him. He watched as Kojiro walked the opposite side of the pool. It was obvious he wasn't liking being near Ainosuke. Did Kojiro know Adam's true identity? Kaoru found this intriguing. How would an ape brain figure that out?

He moved along as he collected, emptied then replaced all four bins. He was near Ainosuke on the third one. He hadn't spoken to either of them. His mind was still fixated on what Kojiro, or he supposed, Joe had said that night. The latest Eve. This meant there had been others.

"Hey, are you going to ignore me all day?" a purring voice broke into his concentration. Kaoru blinked.

Ainosuke was standing behind him. He held out a towel.

"I was trying to give you this." He purred.

Kaoru looked up to the dancing pink eyes. The color was wrong. Too light to be held captivating. Kaoru began to turn away as he reached for the towel. He was about to say something along the lines that he couldn't talk to random people at work, but Ainosuke pulled the towel back.