ANOTHER LIFE || Banana Fish: Alternative Ending ||

~Banana 37~

From now on, expect an update every SUNDAY and THURSDAY ;)

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"You know what..." Ash starts off, placing Eiji's favorite cup of iced mocha-flavoured drink on the table. A ticking sound rings off when the glass hits the glass table. Eiji gently wraps his slender fingers around the cup, feeling it's soothing coolness as he stares at Ash anticipatingly.

"Not talking to you was an experience of hell. It was torture."

Eiji, who was taking a sip on his drink, chokes on it. He throws Ash a flabbergasted look and Ash looks at him as though nothing happened. But Ash's right. Nothing happened... Right?

Eiji averts his eyes and instead downs his drink, almost swallowing the ice cubes.

How can you say that so casually as if it was just a "Hi-Hello" greeting?

"Why do you look--"

"W-What? No. I don't look like that. I'm not feeling that feeling as well. I... just... I..." Eiji runs out of words  and now he's just shrinking in place, turning to his signature shy mushroom appearance.

Not another second had passed and  Ash is now smirking. "Oh? I haven't said anything though."

"What's gotten into you all of the sudden?"

"What? I just said what was on my mind."

"You don't normally do that."

"You're implying I'm being abnormal right now?"

Eiji strongly shakes his head in disagreement and focuses back on his drink, avoiding eye contact with Ash.

"Feel butterflies in your stomach?" Ash teases and that instant, Eiji's foot shoots up against his shin. Ash whines in pain but that also earned him a reward- Eiji's priceless smile.

**

Eiji takes off his shirt. After neatly folding it, he sets it aside in his laundry basket before proceeding to the bathroom.

Eiji tousles his hair and let it fall messily that some of them are now hiding his doe eyes. After pushing the door open, one loud shriek soon follows.

Eiji has to cover his ears to protect it from Ace's scream. Eiji takes in Ace's appearance, noticing how he's stuck to the wall like gum and how the towel barely hid anything of his lower half. Ace's lean muscles, his perfectly symmetrical body figure that seems to be sculpted by the gods themselves, those abs and those scars that only intensifies its beauty, all of these were something Eiji failed to recognize under those baggy clothes.

"What are you doing in my bathroom?" Eiji asks as calmly. He advances forward and Ace does the opposite.

"The water in my room won't turn hot so I used yours." Ace reasons out in all honesty as he properly drapes the towel around his waist. Eiji once again scrutinizes Ace's body, feeling like he had to do it. Eiji winces at every small scars he notices which he guesses are from Ace's painful past. But there are two things that caught his attention the most. First, the severe burn on Ace's leg and second, a scar that starts at his vline and seems to vine up on behind. Unconsciously, Eiji draws his body closer and now his fingers are gently tracing the grotesque reminders of Ace's past.