A Table For One~Kagehina

And He Smiled

The next time Tobio saw Shouyou was at work.

The boy seemed rather deflated, especially considering on the well note the two had left off on earlier that week.

The boys attitude both worried and confused Tobio, causing him to start a rather awkward conversation between the two.

"Hello?"

"Hi- er, Tobio."

"Hey." Tobio's eyebrows scrunched in concentration, attempting to read the face of the ginger before him.

"Are you alright?" Shouyou asked, unaware of Tobio's intentions.

"I should be the one asking you that." Tobio spoke as he straightened himself from looking down at Shouyou, "what can I get for you today?"

"The usual, I guess," Shouyou replied, taking a seat at his usual table after placing exact change on the counter.

"Right." Tobio spoke more to himself as the began brewing the bot some coffee.

Shouyou seemed more conservable these days. Even though he rarely ever initiated conversation, he would do relatively well at maintaining it.

Tobio didn't say it, but he was proud at how far he and Shouyou had come.

Once the coffee was finished, Tobio grabbed a blueberry muffin and placed both of the items in front of Shouyou as he took a seat of his own on the other side of the table.

"How are you doing?" Tobio started.

"Shouldn't you be working?" Shouyou lightly mocked.

"At one am? Sure." Tobio rolled his eyes before continuing, "how's your mom?"

"I dunno," Shouyou shrugged as he took off a small bit of his muffin and placed it in his mouth.

"Do you mind if I?" Tobio pointed to the muffin.

"Sure. You've made it on the house plenty of times before, i suppose it's the least I can do."

"It really is," Tobio proudly spoke as he took a small piece of Shouyou's muffin and plopped it into his mouth, "Oh, wait! Check this out!" Tobio spoke as he took another peice and threw it into his mouth.

"Hah, that's easy," Shouyou rolled his eyes and took a sip of his coffee.

"Really? You do it then."

"Alright," Shouyou took a price of muffin and threw it into the air, aiming to catch it before it landed on the floor beside his chair, "Dammit."

"Hah! That's 1-0, Tobio," Tobio bragged.

"Your loss. You're the one who has to clean this all up, remember."

Tobio deadpanned as the two continued talking, as if they were old friends catching up.

Shouyou would tense up at the mention of his dad or the situation they had discussed days prior, so Tobio started clear of the subject. But he still tried to pry a bit every now and then, bringing it up every so slightly for Shouyou to pick up if he caught on.

After about an hour, Shouyou lowered his head, as if in defeat, and looked back up into Tobio's eyes with a much more somber expression than he had initially walked into the café with.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Tobio, I know I seriously owe you an explanation," Shouyou started, pausing halfway through the sentences to carefully pick his words.

"Oi, it's fine if you don't wanna say anything. I just worry about you, y'know? You're an interesting lil guy," Tobio ruffled Shouyou's hair from across the table.

"Hah," Shouyou laugh barely reached his lips as he began constructing his next sentence.

"You know how I said my dad didn't exactly uh, approve of who I was dating?"

"I do remember that, yes," Tobio urged Shouyou to continue.

"Well I was kind of. I don't really know how to phase this. Um, I was dating this-" Shouyou cut himself off, as if ashamed of what he was going to say.

Tobio already knew Shouyou was dating a boy. It was obvious based on his fathers reaction. It was the same reaction Tobio feared from his parents when he came out to them. But he was lucky enough to have kind and loving parents who weren't all that hung up on their sons sexuality.

The real reason Tobio wanted Shouyou to say it out loud, was because he doubted Shouyou had ever really admitted it to someone. And he knew Shouyou needed that in his life. Just being able to admit your sexuality is someone Tobio knew was honestly life changing.

"-whatever, I'm sure you know."

"I really don't," Tobio lied, cocking his head to the side and looking over at Shouyou with wide, innocent eyes.

Shouyou grumbled to himself before continuing, "Well, gender doesn't really matter all that much to me, so I kind of... Experiment every now and again."

Shouyou took a long pause as Tobio frowned at the boys aversion to the subject.

"Anyways, my dad isn't really all that big on 'experimentation'," Shouyou air quoted, "So we got into a small itty bitty fight and he basically told me I was no longer his son and as such, no longer lived in his house."

Shouyou jumbled through the last of his words, speedily making his way through the sentence in an attempt to not get overly emotional.

"You know, it's fine to... Experiment," Tobio lightly mocked, "what matters is that you're able to acknowledge it and make it your own."

Shouyou nodded.

"Your weirdly good at comforting people, did you know that?" Shouyou swiftly changed the subject, taking the heat off himself and placing it on Tobio.

"Ah, well, thank you. I never really thought I was," Tobio felt his face flush as he stumbled over his words, clearly flustered, "but hey, this isn't about me."

"It's not?"

Tobio ever so slightly glared at Shouyou. "Are you and the 'person' still together after all this?" Tobio asked.

"Oh, no, he broke up with me long before all this happened," in a flash, Shouyou covered his mouth with his hands, like he had just let out a government secret.

Tobio saw the boys reluctance to admit his sexuality, so he raised him his own.

"I remember the first boy I dated."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Yup, he was quite the character. Very into musical theatre."

Shouyou relaxed himself in his chair, seemingly happy to have found common ground between the two.

"What was he like?"

"I'm pretty sure musical theatre explains it all. It was all he really every thought about, anyways. We lasted one week. All the kids said we were the picture perfect couple and everything too."

"Yeesh," Shouyou chuckled, but something in his eyes dimmed, like some kind of longing.

"What about you?"

"Oh, um..." Shouyou trailed off.

"Actually, tell me some other time. It's late," Tobio checked the clock, three am, "do you have a ride home?"

"I'm only a few blocks away so I can walk. What about you?"

"I work here. Of course I have a way back home," Tobio flashed a bus pass at Shouyou as he began tidying up the shop.

"It was good talking to you, Tobio."

"Always a pleasure, Shouyou."

Tobio took the coffee and muffin wrapper both boys had finished together and he smiled.