I Missed you

Dinner

Shanks and Buggy look at each other, down their drinks, leave their table in silence, pay at the counter, and in no time they're outside the restaurant and into the chill of the night. Good thing Shanks lives close by. Buggy chuckles at the thought.

"What's so funny ?"

"You taking me back to your place. Imagine that twelve years ago."

"Yeah, I know, I'm pretty slow. But the irony ! We literally lived together for four years !"

Buggy rolls his eyes. "I think I remember that, thank you."

"Any complaints ?"

He shrugs, "Nah, just remembering how much of an exhibitionist you were, I wonder how I did not simply leave you alone back there, you were driving me nuts spending most of your time half naked."

Shanks starts walking down the street, frowning. "It's not like I was showing off, I'm just more comfortable that way."

"Sure you were !" Buggy lets out a startled laugh, almost choking on it, "But damn you, 'cause you don't know what it's like to live with someone that hot right under your nose and not being able to..." He trails off, looking to the side at the redhead intently listening to him. "Well, you know... get closer to you", he blushes.

Shanks lifts his head up to gaze at the stars and lets a smirk grow on his face before he declares, "Oh, I know what it's like alright."

"Yeah, about that", Buggy squints.

Shanks turns to him, "Hmm ?"

"How come you had a crush on me and I never knew ?", Buggy plainly asks.

"I don't know if I'd call it a crush, until now. The thing is... we rocked as roommates and I really liked you as a friend, but there was that weird thing with finding you... hot. I never felt that for a man before..."

The blue-haired sales manager beams at that, "You mean I was the first man you found attractive ? Flashy !"

Shanks scratches the back of his head – Buggy vaguely wonders why he's so cute when he does that – and admits, "Well... yeah. It was weird because I've seen other men naked before, we've both been playing sports so you know what I'm talking about, but... I don't know, you're the first I've wanted to... touch." The redhead looks shyly to his friend and adds, "What about you ? You never told me anything either."

Buggy hums, the other is drunk enough to talk about his feelings from back then but not too much that he loses track of the conversation – which is a good thing, because he's planning to have sex with him quite soon and he doesn't want to abuse someone whose mind isn't clear enough to give explicit consent – so he decides to open himself up a little for the occasion. "Fair enough", he sighs. "While you have been in the closet for so long you've lost track of time-"

Shanks interrupts, "You still were, nobody knew about it."

Buggy grunts. "Alright, alright. Still, I knew I was into men since high school. So yeah, when I meet my designated roommate on the campus and he happens to be both super cool and hot, I wonder which deity I upset."

"Oh, come on, you could have told me."

"Right. To the guy with a million girlfriends. You know I started dating girls too because of you ?"

Shanks starts at that, "Wait, what ?"

"You were always showing off, taking girls out and bringing them home... you know I never forgot the time you stole my bed. I literally burned the sheets", Buggy spits.