In a secluded parking lot of an unpopular recreation park, far away from the crowd of the city, there were man and his machine. The shiny black motorcycle looked sleek in its perfection, the sun's rays glistening over it, showing the vehicle to be brand new devoid of any scratches and rust. The richness of the texture of the leather felt good in his palms as Mitsui slipped the gloves over his hands and as he put on his black boxer helmet over his head, he felt as powerful as the sound of his new motorcycle's engine under him. Everything looked good and felt good. Now all he had to do was to ride it.

Tried to, actually, for he only managed five feet before he toppled over, new motorbike and all. Another try gave him scuff marks on his jeans. Another try gave him bruises and a near broken leg. But he refused to give up.

Just as he was trying to heft the heavy motorcycle back to a standing position after a fifth fall, he heard the roaring sounds of other motorcycles and before he realised what was happening a group of bikies has surrounded him with their bikes, the engines loud and intimidating. Looking at their youth, arrogance and practiced riding skills, Mitsui suddenly felt old and tired. The frustration welling inside him bubbled up to the surface.

When the group stopped their rotation, Mitsui growled high enough to be heard over the sound of the motorcycles.
"What the hell do you want?"

"Just to say hi," said one rider who was to the left of him.

"That way you gun the engine..." gritted Mitsui, "...is the way to say hi? Have you considered how others may feel?"

"Do you know you could frighten people?" he continued in a bitter tone, looking at the group in general, "What's so cool about a full-faring? All you guys are good at is to pick up girls! Heck, even boys if you swing that way! They'd say, 'Oh! He's great! He's got these awesome bikes and he's really fun! He's one helluva boyfriend!'. Great then! You guys get your kicks and your fanclubs! What more do you want?!"

After wordlessly listening to Mitsui's tirade, one of the bikers said in puzzlement, "Uh, sorry man. See ya."

And they left, leaving the scarred-face man to glare at them with clearly projected hate as they disappeared over a corner.

After a few kilometres of riding, the leader of the gang stopped and his passenger jumped down and began running back to where they have left Mitsui. Suddenly remembering the silver boxer helmet on his head, the person ran back, took the helmet off and gave it back to the surprised redhead.

"When will I see you again?" Sakuragi cried out.

"Iie! Never again!" Koshino yelled back, "Gomen nasai!"

From behind Kogure, Yohei looked at his step-brother and questioned him with curious eyes. Sakuragi merely sighed and shook his head.

When Koshino arrived to where Mitsui have been practicing his new bike, he only found an abandoned motorcycle and a black boxer helmet.


~~~~

When the door opened, Koshino looked up and gave the man in front of him a grin.
"Hey," he greeted, breathless after running up the stairs, "Were you making fun of me?"

Mitsui blinked in puzzlement at the question, "Nani?"

"You know. The 'Oh! He's great! He's got these awesome bikes and he's really fun! He's one helluva boyfriend!' part."

Mitsui's eyes went wide before he began blushing furiously, "A-Ano..."

"Nevermind," Koshino said, hitting Mitsui lightly on the arm as he brushed himself past the man to get into the unit, "Let's get back to work."



****

They were engrossed in their work, the two young men sitting across from each other with a pile of invoices and order forms between them on the table, when Koshino found the magazine under an order form.

"Hey, that's Sakuragi."

"Huh?"

Koshino picked the Newsweek magazine up from the top of the pieces of papers and showed the cover to Mitsui.

The taller man stared at the vandalised magazine cover where Sakuragi's face was covered by squiggles, and there were the standard moustache, eyepatch, scar and missing tooth drawn courtesy by Mitsui himself.

"You can recognise him through that?" the scarred-face man asked incredulously.

"Of course," said Koshino distractedly as he flipped the magazine open, "Why'd he do this? Fake magazine covers are so lame. 'Shows that he's still a kid."

"Uh... yeah..."

"Hmmmh...," Koshino made a surprised sound before he commented, "This is a pretty good knock-off though. It's even got contents. Hey, what's this?"

Mitsui looked at the word Koshino was pointing at and answered, "Nasdaq. That's the National Association of Security Dealer Automatic Quoting System."

"Ah..... One billion. How many zeros is that?" scoffed Koshino.

"Nine," Mitsui replied, pretending indifference. Inside, a part of him was shrieking in panic.

Koshino chuckled in amusement as he put the magazine down, "That's a lot of zeros."

"Uh-huh..." Mitsui said, trying to discreetly take the magazine away when suddenly Koshino stopped him and the two began a short but persistent tug-of-war before Mitsui relented and let Koshino look at it again.

The young man peered at the cover for a while before putting it down again with a disgusted "This is ridiculous," and then stood up and walked away to get another set of order forms. Quickly, Mitsui covered the magazine with pieces of invoices hoping that Koshino would not decide to check it out again.

That attempt was futile, however, because as soon as the young man returned to his seat, Koshino pushed the invoices away and picked up the magazine for the third time, scrunching his eyebrows in scrutiny.
"Where did you get this?" Koshino asked.

Unable to lie to the person who was looking at him with such trust, Mitsui attempted to answer as calmly as possible, "I bought it."

Koshino's eyes bugged out in disbelief. "This is real?" he choked out.

Mitsui shrugged carelessly.

"K'so!" Koshino cursed getting up from his chair, "I just told him I'll never see him again!"

Mitsui watched helplessly as Koshino ran out of the room and out of the apartment, and then seeing the young man's figure disappear into the corner of the street as he watched from his living-room window.

The man standing numb in the middle of his living room littered with old order forms and invoices felt lost and alone. He felt totally devoid of all hope, faith and will. He felt... like he wanted to clean something.



****

A few minutes later, at the mansion where Sakuragi Hanamichi lived, three young men were sitting in a luxuriously furnished living room, listening to Koshino talk.

"...That's the story," Koshino finished, "So can you help Mitsui?"

Sakuragi lifted his hand from his chin and asked, "How can we help?"

Koshino faltered, "I-I don't know..."

The redhead leaned forward and looked at the older man closely, "You and Mitsui... do you two have a .. sort of a friend-relationship or... something else?"

Koshino felt his cheeks burn and turned to Yohei and Kogure. The two looked equally surprised.

"Uh... I think... it's something else..." Koshino answered hesitantly.

"Well..uh... has this 'something else' been going on for long?"

"Iie," Koshino shrugged, "I just realised it myself. It's nothing definite... I think..."

"Ah," Sakuragi murmured. Suddenly, he stood up and motioned for his companions to join him for a private discussion, leaving Koshino to sit wondering what was going on in that computer-whiz, billion dollar brain of Sakuragi Hanamichi.

"I wanna marry him."

Kogure and Yohei looked at Sakuragi in shock.

"E-Excuse me?" Kogure finally managed to ask.

"You heard me," Sakuragi grinned, "I wanna marry Koshino Hiroaki."

Yohei stared at Sakuragi as if his brother has grown another head.
"Are we missing something here?" he asked.

"You heard what he said," said the redhead, "He and Mitsui's relationship is not definite yet. I still have a chance!"

"Ok, but... HOW ABOUT MITSUI'S PROBLEM?!" Yohei pointed out, "Focus here!"

"Oh, that," said Sakuragi boredly, "I'll handle that. It's easy. All I need to do is think of how to get Koshino to the airport."

Yohei blinked, "What for?"

"I want us to marry at Holland," Sakuragi explained, "They've already legalised same sex couples there."

Shaking himself out of his continuous shock, Kogure pulled Yohei away and whispered in the younger man's ear, "I think we need to call him."

"But he's at States playing for the try-outs. Will he come?" Yohei asked.

Kogure took a look at the redhead still rambling on about what a wonderful life-partner Koshino would be and nodded, "Where Sakuragi is concerned, I'm sure that he will."