Archive of Our Own

Like every morning for the past few years, Kadoc woke up to the lingering scent of cigarettes and a musty blanket. Likewise, the man next to him in the same bed was still half-asleep, despite ostensibly being the very centre of the small clinic they and Mash Kyrielight ran together in Hong Kong. Kadoc checked the clock next to himself on the nightstand. It was 5:30 AM, only half an hour before opening time. He sat up, yawned, stretched his arms for a bit, and then shuffled out of bed to find himself a change of clothes. After putting on a black shirt and grey trousers, he went to shake his friend awake.

"Hey, Ritsuka, it's opening time soon. Wake up."

"Mmmmph, make me coffee first," Ritsuka Fujimaru muttered in a creaky voice, his face still half-buried in the pillow.

"Yeah, yeah. Do you want a Japanese or European breakfast with your coffee?" Kadoc asked as he went into the hallway to knock on the door to Mash's room to check if she was awake.

"Oh right, it's your turn to make meals today," Ritsuka murmured to himself as he finally emerged from the blanket, long hair spilling over his shoulders. He picked up new underwear and his doctor's getup as he headed to the shower. "Then let's have a western breakfast since it's ramen for dinner."

"All right, sure," Kadoc quickly acquiesed to the request. He was extremely predictable at this point.

"I'm up, you can stop knocking," said Mash behind the thin wooden door. Kadoc could hear her puttering about with her cat.

"Did you hear what Ritsuka said? I'm making something with toast, eggs, and sausages for breakfast today. How do you want your eggs done?"

"I'll have scrambled. And some milk tea would be nice too."

Milk tea… Kadoc was pretty sure the milk was on the verge of expiring tomorrow. He'd make scrambled eggs for everyone then, just to make sure he used up the entire carton. "Got it," he said and went over to the kitchenette of their small flat that all three of them shared above the clinic. He could hear Ritsuka's singing in the background as he turned on the coffee machine. The sizzling of food in the frying pan soon joined the early morning cacophony.

Several minutes later, quiet settled back in the flat and the three sat down at the table. Kadoc offered to help Ritsuka do up his ponytail, but the Japanese man rejected him today. He casually clumped his hair together, adjusted it to the middle of his head, and then placed the hair tie. He adjusted his black polo t-shirt and white coat before he pulled out a familiar purple box with a silver star emblazoned on it. A cigarette slid out of it, which Ritsuka stuck in his mouth.

"You're going to kill your lungs like that, you know," Kadoc half-heartedly complained when Ritsuka took out his lighter. "And I want to drink my tea in peace without inhaling secondhand nicotine from you this early in the morning."

Mash nodded in agreement, fussing over the white cat in her lap, which blended well with her white blouse and skirt. "No smoking at the table, we agreed, remember?"

"Fine, I'll just have a quick smoke before we open." Ritsuka put the cigarette back into the box and pocketed his lighter. He looked closer at the purple cardboard box in his left hand and frowned. "Crap, there's only two left. I'm gonna have to hit up the markets again to see if anyone still has these in stock."

"You say that, but you're just going to pick up a different brand when you can't find it, smoke one from the box, and then put the rest of the pack away because it's not the French ones you like until you give up like a few hours later to fish something out of the drawer because you can't get over your addiction," Kadoc said with an iron-clad certainty. The numerous half-used boxes lying around within drawers in both their room and Ritsuka's office was a testament to the vice his friend just couldn't shake off.

"You'd get it if you smoked. Nothing tastes the same like Étoile," Ritsuka countered as he cut a piece of sausage for himself. "And besides I don't drink unlike you two. I think that balances things out."

"You make it sound like we're alcoholics. Mash and I only drink every few nights, unlike you who can't get by without three cigs a day."

Mash said, "Well, I suppose we could cut back our drinking to be a little bit more moderate." They both got pretty tipsy after two or three cans of beer, so that was understandable. But Kadoc still had to defend their honor at least a little.

"Okay, sure, but we at least mix it up. Wine, beer, there's a culture and shit to drinking either of them and sampling new mixes. What do you get out of smoking the same crap and making your lungs shittier every day?"

"It's like he said, exhale tobacco instead of sighing and moping."

To that, Kadoc could only sigh. It all went back to that man for Ritsuka. In the same way the Japanese man was currently tipping milk into his coffee and stirring it while ignoring the sugar. To talk about it any further would kill the nice morning mood before work and it'd be hypocritical of Kadoc to reprimand the other man for such an obsession, so he decided to focus on his breakfast as he spread strawberry jam on his toast. Mash quietly fed her cat bits of sausage. Ritsuka gulped down his food and then coffee in quick succession.

"Ahh, feeling much better now," he said as he picked up his plates and quickly scrubbed them. With the wet dishes left in the rack, Ritsuka went to the little balcony that looked over the street. "Just a quick minute smoke, okay?"

"Fine, but make sure your breath doesn't stink for anyone bringing in kids," said Kadoc.

"Yeah, yeah," Ritsuka mumbled as he got out his purple lighter. Kadoc got up, shut the balcony door to keep the smell of nicotine from wafting into their kitchen, and then went to wash his own dishes. He could see a thin stream of cigarette smoke out of the corner of his eye.

Kadoc and Mash went down to the first floor where they turned on the lights, set the furniture in place, made sure nothing had been disturbed overnight, made sure the ticket number counter was reset, and then sat down in their respective spots. Ritsuka was the only one with medical training, so he had the clinic solely to himself, Mash picked up some medical knowledge from her foster father, placing herself as Ritsuka's assistant slash nurse. And Kadoc was deeply unqualified for either position, so he sat at the front desk and did reception.

A nice perk of the job was he got to set the music everyone had to listen to all day. It was too early in the morning to play something loud and heart-pumping, so he started off with a neat classical guitar cover of a song he discovered a few days ago while browsing his social media.

Where are you going? To Scarborough Fair? The female vocals echoed through the clinic on tinny speakers. With that part of Kadoc's routine out of the way, he felt truly ready to tackle the day. Ritsuka, twirling an unlit cigarette in his gloved hands, rushed past Kadoc to head into the clinic. Time for business.

Their clinic and flat was shadowed by an expressway, placed in one of many buildings squashed together, surrounded by bamboo scaffolding on any given day and accompanied by the sound of air conditioning units chugging along. Ritsuka treated migrant workers, undocumented people, the homeless, foreigners who sought out someone fluent in Japanese or English, triad flunkies in all but name, people even shadier and seedier, and the occasional international student who got it into their head they ought to come here for some coverage on local businesses or whatever. In short, people like them. Those who left home and somehow ended up here.

Neither Kadoc nor Ritsuka could speak much Cantonese or even Mandarin (although Kadoc did appreciate the profanity like "diu" and "syu ah" he picked up over time), but Mash, blessed Mash and the way she absorbed knowledge like a sponge, could speak proficiently enough to make up for the times when English or Japanese failed them. Honestly if it wasn't for Mash's desire to meet her old tutor, Kadoc would believe her talents were being wasted here. Maybe they were. Or maybe he was being a presumptuous shit again.

Even so, there were times when Kadoc glimpsed Ritsuka get frustrated enough to start scribbling sentences purely in kanji and start jabbing at each word individually to see if someone could glimpse the connection between them and the corresponding Chinese character. It was cute the way he always forgot translation apps were a thing when talking.

Today featured more clients than usual coming in this early in the morning. It was usually only one or two in the morning before the city had truly come to life, but their capacity of seven was filled before half an hour had even passed. Ritsuka called out for Mash to bring in the first patient, a little girl with the name of Mei Wong but looked an awful lot like the American man accompanying her. Followed by them was the bar dancer Mr Cheung and his son David, who both routinely saw Ritsuka early in the morning for biyearly checkups, and then a stream of people who became a blur in Kadoc's mind as the morning went on.

Around noon, Mash noted it would soon be time for their lunch break. Kadoc dutifully turned all the signage to closed to ward off any would-be people who insisted on overstepping the boundaries of their opening times.

"Let's eat at that Thai place in the market a few blocks down," Kadoc suggested.

"The one on the ground floor or the third floor?" asked Mash as she neatly filed away papers in a metal drawer.

"Third floor, probably. I'll need five minutes upstairs before we go out though."

"Understood, I'll tell Ritsuka while you clean up. We can handle the last few patients by ourselves."

Kadoc got out a broom and cleaned up what little litter he could find. The floor would only get a proper scrub by actual closing hours. He made sure their petty cash box was locked up tight, put everything else in order, and then went upstairs to adjust his outfit to be breezier and less formal. Their flat and clinic thankfully had air conditioning, and max power fans when they needed to save on power bills, but the haze of pollution and humidity always made him feel like a clam boiling in a pot whenever he stepped outside. He changed into a comfy black t-shirt and decided to leave his trousers be. Kadoc quickly fed Fou his cat food before making a text to Mash to tell her that her pet was fed. He went down the narrow stairway that led to the ground floor where he'd wait outside in the shade for his friends.

After ten minutes, Ritsuka emerged from the same stairway, no longer wearing his medical coat. Mash came down with him. She hadn't bothered changing clothes. Kadoc came over to them.

"Should we go?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, you said the Thai place, right?"

A short walk later, they went to the nearby market building, in which spotty lighting and neglected puddles often meant they had to watch their step. They made their orders (green chicken curry for Ritsuka, a plate of shrimp fried rice for Mash, and rice vercimilli with pork for Kadoc) and sat down, casually chatting about the need for more groceries, medical supplies, and pet stuff for Mash's cat.

Before Kadoc knew it, their plates arrived. They didn't stop talking, however, and the conversation took a bent towards the recent news.

"If it's really going to be the start of another pandemic, we're foreigners, so we can always leave. Do you wanna go to Tokyo and crash at my family house for a bit?" Ritsuka suggested, in-between bites of chicken and onion.

"Let's not," said Kadoc, knowing full well there was something in it for him and nothing for Ritsuka. "Besides, your bleeding heart means you'd never be able to leave here without knowing everyone was okay."

Ritsuka sighed in a tone of both relief and resignation. "True. It's never ending work as a doctor…" He sighed. "I really should give up my smoking habit, shouldn't I?"

"At least you're not sneaking off to eat cake in someone's room without permission. Remember how you first met him?" Oh, that was rare. Mash usually never opened up about her foster father on most days. Kadoc wasn't as close to Roman as his literal adopted daughter and the student who came under his tutelage as an academic advisor, so he let Mash and Ritsuka reminisce about their university days. He idly stared at the passerby going about their lives on this Hong Kong street below their little table.

Wait, there was a woman going under the bridge… That straw hat… and that shade of hair…. Was that? He abruptly got up from his seat, trying to chart the quickest path to the ground floor. Ignoring the cries of "Wait, Kadoc?" and "Where are you going?", he promptly rushed down three flights of dimly lit stairs, too impatient to take the elevator.

He pushed aside passerby after passerby as he ran out into the bright sunshine. He didn't care about the stares as he flew by people on the sidewalk, just this once. Not if he could meet her again at the end. It would all be worth it just for a real, proper second hello and first goodbye. He caught sight of that summer hat with a blue ribbon and urged himself with one final burst to get to her.

Before he knew it, her name escaped his lips for the first time in a year.

"Anastasia?"

The woman turned around when Kadoc called out to her. No, now that he got a better look, this wasn't her. Her hair had appeared paler in the shadows cast by the afternoon sun above them, but it was a dark blonde. Her eyes were brown and her face too narrow. Every time Kadoc mentally rehearsed the script of what to say when he met her again, his lines waxing and waning in length as the years went by, it was always for naught.

"No, sorry." The woman spoke English in an accent that Kadoc hadn't heard in a long, long time since he left his homeland for uni. "My name is Arleta." She looked at Kadoc with wariness. "Do I know you?"

"No," Kadoc said in Polish. "Sorry, from the back, I thought you were someone I met a long time ago."

The woman's eyes lit up at her native language being spoken by a fellow countryman on this Asian island. She started to speak rapidly, questions about how to get around Hong Kong, venting about how her boyfriend didn't want to go beyond the two core areas so she ended up storming out of the hotel by herself in defiance, wondering if he knew where the best spots not covered by travel guides were, explaining that she suspected this trip was meant to end with a proposal but she was no longer certain she wanted it, and more. Despite his rustiness, Kadoc got the gist of roughly 98% of what she said.

He sympathized with her plight, telling her that she should go to Lantau to see the dolphins if she hadn't already and recommending his favorite spot for egg waffles. Arleta thanked him for that as well as the directions from her hotel in Central. Before they parted ways, she said she'd be in Hong Kong for a few days, but wondered how a Pole like him ended up a resident here.

"It was mostly by chance," Kadoc explained, "because two people I knew from university offered me a job and I took it. I needed a place to stay after stuff in Russia and Japan didn't work out."

What he didn't say was it was also originally meant to be a few days for him. Somehow days turned into weeks turned into months turned into years. The three of them lived on this one tiny island at the edge of a mainland far vaster than them, hoping for a British professor, a Russian ingenue, and a French detective to come back to them one day. Maybe they were just hoping for those three to drift here in the same way they had drifted here. If the three they were looking for had so completely rejected Europe and Japan as places to be, then they had to as well. Hong Kong made just as much sense as anywhere else in the globe.

"I see," Arleta said. She made a wan smile. "Thank you for the help, Kadoc. I'll try and find that clinic of yours, if I need any help again. Goodbye."

"You're welcome. And yeah, I'll do my best if you need it. Bye."

Arleta nodded at him before walking away with a new sense of purpose, most likely to check out one of the places Kadoc recommended to her. As he watched her grow smaller in the distance, he wished he could say the same about himself. It was only when the Polish woman completely vanished in the sea of people going about their business that Kadoc finally turned around to head back. He trudged far slower compared to his rush out of the market. Of course, it wasn't her. It was so stupid of him to think he could just have her waltz back into his life like nothing had changed since his final year in school. …But he still couldn't bring himself to truly kill that hope deep within his heart of it happening.

"Ah, you're back," Mash observed when Kadoc finally got up the stairs back to where his friends waited for him.

"Was… was it her?" Ritsuka didn't make eye contact with Kadoc when he asked. Kadoc shook his head and only then did Ritsuka lock onto Kadoc's face. "I see. Um, hopefully next time." His blue eyes expressed sadness, but was it simple empathy or was there a hint of guilt? Kadoc couldn't say and didn't want to ask.

This time, Kadoc couldn't make eye contact and merely nodded. He plopped down into his chair to finish up his vercimilli. It was lukewarm and greasy, a terrible combination for lunch.

When they finished their meal, they headed back to the clinic. Well, Kadoc and Mash did. Ritsuka pulled out a pack of cigarettes to cram in a smoke break at the very end of their lunch. This time, the box was emblazoned with angel wings and probably from Italy. Kadoc resisted the urge to say Called it out loud and merely said to not take too long.

Kadoc looked through his playlist when the two got back. He was kinda in the mood to play something grungy as the background music in the afternoon. He pulled up his rock playlist and hit shuffle.

You're out there… I feel you calling out from behind… piped up from the speakers. Kadoc frowned. He wasn't in the mood to hear this kind of song. He pressed shuffle again. He recognized this beat as the song started up. Yeah, this one'd be better for him, so Kadoc leaned back and let himself soak in the song before Ritsuka got back.

(When this began) I had nothin' to say, and I get lost in the nothingness inside of me—

"Kadoc, could you please turn down the volume?" Mash interrupted the commiseration from the other room. Oh, right, the last time he played a song from this band without thinking too hard, they got a bunch of noise complaints from both patients and neighbours. He quickly tried to adjust the loudness to hit that sweet balance of being ambient enough to not be distracting, but still audible enough for Kadoc to personally enjoy himself.

Ritsuka returned shortly afterwards. He still had a cigarette in his mouth, which Kadoc promptly pointed out. "Ahhaha, sorry about that," Ritsuka apologetically said with a half-smile. He stuck it in his trouser pocket before heading into his office. Kadoc went to unlock the clinic doors. Time to get the second half of the day over with. It was a lot less busy than the morning, but the severity of a client's injuries steadily got worse as the day slipped by and night crept in. Each session became longer with every succeeding patient. He mindlessly ate granola bars every few hours to keep the hunger away.

At 10:30 PM, half an hour before closing, Kadoc rubbed his eyes as he input the last patient's information. It was a frequent visitor who insisted on only being called Suzuki. He was heavily leaning on a seemingly uninjured friend and both of them had splashes of blood coating their face, legs, and chest. There were multiple gashes on Suzuki's left arm. The policy was to ask no questions not relevant to their current worry, give as much treatment as they could, and then send them on their way. Kadoc stuck to these rules, which helped them get through life here, but sometimes he wondered what the hell happened to these patients when they were living their lives outside this clinic.

"Dr Fujimaru will see you once he finishes up the session with his current patient. Uh, take a seat," Kadoc said on reflex before cringing when he remembered both of them were still coated in blood. He'd have to scrub like hell to get those stains out of the wooden bench the two now sat on the moment they went to see Ritsuka.

He promptly did so once the other final patient of the day (who had severe burns on her arm herself and was poorly trying to hide them) paid her fee and went off to somewhere that wasn't this cramped block of businesses and homes. After that, it was a slow crawl to the finish where he wound everything down to the bare minimum, impatiently waiting for the workday to be truly over. He scrolled through his phone, idly checking the loop of social media accounts that he did every day since the end of their graduating year in uni. Every single one of them was still frozen in time, the day before she vanished, with a picture of fancy dress she bought for the party.

When the two men saw themselves out, Kadoc promptly rushed upstairs to make dinner for the three of them while Mash and Ritsuka closed up the clinic. Once he was in their small kitchen with his apron on, he just fell back into his usual process. At this point, he could make this ramen dish blindfolded. He made the miso broth in one pot, boiled the ramen noodles in another, and then combined them in three large blue and white bowls. He added slices of pork, scallions, and bean sprouts for each one.

"Thanks, Kadoc," Ritsuka greeted him in a cheerful, but tired voice when he and Mash came up to finally wind down their day. The two were just in time as Kadoc had set down dinner on their small square table. His black ponytail swayed slightly in the air when he sat down. "Itadakimasu," he murmured and clapped his gloved hands.

"Ritsuka, you forgot to take off your gloves," Kadoc noted. The other man frowned, but took them off without protest. The three began eating with gusto, too hungry and tired to properly talk any further until they had actual food in their bellies for the first time in almost eleven hours.

"Your ramen's the best," Ritsuka complimented Kadoc after they were all roughly halfway into their bowls. "I think it's probably just as good as the real deal by now."

"You can't be serious. I'm not even professionally trained," Kadoc muttered.

"Mm-mmm." Ritsuka childishly shook his head, long hair swinging about. "Didn't you say you'd try to be a pro one day if your history degree didn't work out for you? Like way back in uni?"

I live for this single bowl of ramen, a white-haired girl once told him with a smile several years before he came here. Kadoc swore to himself that he'd immediately get a start on learning how to make ramen the next day. "That was a long time ago," he said out loud. "And I've got other things to work on. Besides, wouldn't you prefer having me around to provide you ramen every other night rather than me being elsewhere doing who knows what?"

"Hehe, well, if you put it like that…" Ritsuka said before he slurped up more thin noodles. Kadoc wondered if he truly meant it.

Mash was the one who prompted a change of topic as she fed her cat bits of chashu pork. "What do you think we should do tomorrow?"

"What do you mean?" Kadoc absentedmindly asked as he scooped up the last of his bean sprouts. "Isn't it going to be more work, same as usual?"

Ritsuka looked at him curiously. "Tomorrow's a Sunday. We're not going to have any work."

"Oh, right…" Damn, that encounter with Arleta must have really left Kadoc more out of it than he realized. He rubbed his head. He probably had something planned for tomorrow, but now it completely slipped his mind. Staying in was always the default option, simply because it was the only time they had time together all day. It became a rule when Kadoc moved in as he had a feeling Mash and Ritsuka would martyr themselves into death by overwork simply to help everyone in need and they apparently felt something similar about himself.

…It was kinda fucked up to think about how much they'd throw themselves into whatever goal they believed was their most important priority in life, so Kadoc said to distract himself, "I'll sleep in and then enjoy whatever Ritsuka cooks and bakes tomorrow."

Another quirk after Kadoc moved in was the Japanese man's insistence on making all their food on Sunday since Kadoc's presence let himself and Mash alternate between making actual meals for breakfast and dinner instead of just eating instant cup noodles and toast with a slice of cheese or maybe jam every day. Ritsuka didn't think it was fair of them to do all the work, because of course he did, in spite of the fact he was the one bearing all the weight of doing the medical work himself on an absurdly underpriced basis.

Luckily, it seemed Ritsuka and Mash didn't have any particular aspirations for tomorrow as the former beamed in appreciation at Kadoc's answer while Mash said, "That sounds nice."

After dinner, they all brushed teeth, and then Kadoc and Ritsuka both bade Mash good night. She retreated to her room with her beloved pet while the two men likewise went to their bedroom. Technically, it had been Ritsuka's bedroom at the start, which he graciously let Kadoc sleep in the same bed because the couch wasn't big enough to accommodate a person lying down nor did Ritsuka and Mash think they'd need a spare room for long-term guests after opening the clinic. At some point, it became Ritsuka and Kadoc's room, one side cluttered with medical textbooks, cigarettes, French literature and art books, and unopened robot model boxes, the other side comparatively more organized with two guitars, a music player, a box of hard drives, a few cookbooks, and an empty suitcase standing lonesome in the corner. Kadoc helped Ritsuka untie his ponytail. Then in the dim light peeking through the blinds, they laid together on the bed, face-to-face. The blades of the ceiling fan above them circled for a few revolutions before Kadoc reached out a hand to the face of the man lying beside him to cradle it. And when Ritsuka didn't push him away, blue eyes merely gazing at him with an emotion that couldn't be identified, Kadoc moved in for the kiss.

The first time they kissed in uni, they were both drunk. The second time, he at least was sleepy and too jet-lagged out of his mind to really process what happened. They were both fully aware of the third, the fourth, the fifth time, Kadoc had lost count after that. It was pretty undeniable at this point, even to himself, that they craved intimacy from each other in ways that they couldn't find elsewhere.

He lost himself in Ritsuka's mouth for god knows how long, the quiet sucking of tongue in his mouth as he felt the other man's hands stroke his head and neck. Kadoc himself was running his hands through the Japanese man's long dark hair. Ritsuka's murmurs had a husky sweetness to them like his stupidly appealing smile, yet his mouth tasted bitter like the coffee and cigarettes he was chronically addicted to.

Their hands began to move down from their heads. First, it was the upper back, then the lower, and then finally hips and crotch. Kadoc felt his urges turn into cravings when he felt Ritsuka's hand quietly rub up and down his cock. He slowly began to tug at the tight black shirt, the only thin barrier between himself and Ritsuka's bare flesh. As before, Ritsuka silently acquiesed and began to tug off Kadoc's clothes in response. Before long, they were both naked. Even in the dark, Ritsuka's body heavily obscured by shadow, Kadoc felt his slow erection continue its way to full length at the glimpses of soft skin and muscle he could make out.

"Wait, condoms and lube first," Ritsuka quietly said before either of them could even make their next move, ever the responsible one who fretted over everyone else's health but his own. "Where did we put them last time?"

"It's in the drawer on your side. Hurry up," Kadoc said, more impatience creeping into his voice than usual. The hot summer air stuck to his bare skin, amplifying the need to let out this heat inside him.

"Give me a minute." Ritsuka shuffled on his knees to the edge of the bed to take a look at his nightstand. Kadoc heard him open the wrong drawer.

"It's not the one with all your cigarettes. It's the one below that."

"Okay…" Ritsuka opened the drawer below. Various objects clattered as he rifled through it. "Think I found them." A plastic package was tossed at Kadoc. He quickly tore it open and slid the condom over his hardening cock. Ritsuka had done the same and was now slathering a generous helping of lube all over it. He handed the jar over to Kadoc, who dipped his fingers into the soft, squelchy gel and slid them all over his cock.

Ritsuka looked at him expectantly, sitting there with bent knees and a slightly hunched back. "Who should go first?"

"Well," Kadoc started before he looked at the jar of lube in his hand. "I've already got the lube here, so how about I start on top and lube you up?"

"Ah. Fair enough," Ritsuka merely said. He turned around to have his back face Kadoc, the bedsheet's fabric furrowing as he did so.

Finally. Kadoc bent down, took his lube-coated fingers, and slowly slid them into Ritsuka's hole. He gently massaged every single inch as his fingers went in bit-by-bit and listened to the sweet melody of Ritsuka's escalating whimpers as the prostate became increasingly stimulated. When they reached a point where they could go no higher in pitch, Kadoc finally deigned to ask, "How are you feeling? Are you ready for more?"

Ritsuka frantically nodded, his long loose hair bobbed up and down across his back. "Yes, it feels so good. Please, I need all of you in me now, please, please, please," he quietly pleaded, his voice slowly slurring.

That was exactly what Kadoc wanted, no, needed to hear every time. He turned Ritsuka around to face him, pushed his head onto the pillow, gripped him by the shoulders with sweaty hands, and slowly slid his cock into the other man's welcoming anus, his legs already spread wide open in anticipation. His cock was fully hard with pre-cum glistening at its tip.

With Kadoc wedged tightly inside an expectant Ritsuka, he started. Slowly at first, to get himself into the groove, but he went faster and faster out of impatience. Ritsuka gripped onto his forearms, which was initially painful, but Kadoc soon forgot they were even there as he lost himself in the anal pleasure of fucking Ritsuka.

As Kadoc thrust into him, he couldn't help but look at the other man's face. His blue eyes were half-lidded, overwhelmed by the sensation of Kadoc inside him. His mouth had a trail of drool in delirious bliss. But what did Ritsuka see when having sex with a man with silver hair and gold eyes? Was it Kadoc Zemlupus or was it the French detective Ritsuka showed him in pictures and vividly described so many times? The thought made Kadoc pound the other man harder in frustration, for the possibility of being a similar-looking rebound, for what happened earlier today at lunch, for the fact he was angry about them and how he hated himself for being so angry, and countless other thoughts that plauged him; each and every emotion fuelled his thrusts into Ritsuka. The other man likewise met every move with well-timed movements of his hips, forcing Kadoc to go in deeper and deeper.

Ritsuka's hands gripped Kadoc's pale arms so tightly that he could feel the fingernails gouging into his skin. "Fuck, you're always so good, fuck, fuck…!" He exhaled in shaky breaths, his cock clearly reaching its limit. Kadoc was too enrapt in the sensation of reaching his climax to respond. He was nearly at the threshold in just a few more….

And he felt the drop of sweet release as he cummed inside his partner. His cock surged as he felt the other man clench even harder. Kadoc and Ritsuka's breaths were nearly in sync from the pleasure of climax. He slowly extracted himself from Ritsuka when it was done, his cock twitching from losing the snug hole it just fit into so naturally.

Ritsuka still had a pained look on his face. Kadoc only had to glance down to figure out why. Ritsuka's cock, all veiny and bulging, was still fully erect.

"You didn't cum?" Kadoc asked.

"No… I want to…"

Kadoc nodded. "You want your turn to do anal."

"Yeah… It... just…"

"…just feels better in me," Kadoc finished Ritsuka's sentence. It was the same thing he heard countless times. Well, if Ritsuka preferred fucking him in the arse, then honestly Kadoc really couldn't begrudge him for that. But when Ritsuka seemed hesitant, he frowned and asked, "Is something wrong, Ritsuka? Is there something wrong with your dick—"

"No, no, no! Nothing like that." Ritsuka's eyes darted around. "It's just… Never mind. I'll start with the lube." He reached for the discarded jar and Kadoc arched himself upward in expectation. Ritsuka slathered a generous helping onto Kadoc's anus, the cool, smooth liquid only a minor relief to the heat surging within himself.

Then he let Ritsuka fuss over him to figure out what position he wanted, eventually settling on Kadoc being pulled directly into his lap. With Kadoc's legs curved around Ritsuka's torso, the black-haired man made contact. Kadoc involuntarily shuddered from the initial penetration, but the feeling of shock faded as quickly as it began, his body used to Ritsuka entering him over a hundred times. In its place was eagerness as his insides began to heat up from expectation. Kadoc thrusted his hips the moment Ritsuka began his push.

"Are you…. feeling good…" Ritsuka barely managed to say. Kadoc frantically nodded with a long wordless moan, unable to say anything coherent. His brain was now a complete mush of more more Ritsuka fuck need Ritsuka fuck fuck fuck too good Ritsuka fuck need more fuck Ritsuka on loop, only held together by the fact his limbs were coiled around his partner's warm body and Ritsuka's steady hands firmly pressed against his hips both kept him in place. Then it went into overdrive when Ritsuka pulled him even closer, their chests squishing together. His nicotine-infused breath was hot and heavy on Kadoc's cheeks. Their lips met again.

The two began another kiss, messy and lustful. Kadoc couldn't remember at what point he just accepted this was his life now, how his futile search ended with him in the arms of a completely different person every night for solace. There was a shameful joy in how good it felt to have Ritsuka's body all to and in himself. He wondered if Ritsuka felt the same. He wondered if his presence was a nuisance to Mash or anyone else in Ritsuka's orbit. He wondered if she'd—

—And then none of it mattered because he felt Ritsuka shudder inside him. It was Kadoc who accomplished this with him. It was Ritsuka who wanted him. If they both had to wait and hope, then it was surely better to do it together.

"It's… almost…" Ritsuka breathlessly murmured.

"Do it," Kadoc urged in a low groan. And that was all that was needed for climax. He felt Ritsuka's swollen cock surge inside him. Its stupefying pleasure never changed, it felt as good as it did last time and it'd surely feel good the next time they fucked. Their kiss began to slow down, Ritsuka sighing in pleasure and Kadoc loosened his hold on him.

Kadoc felt cum dribble out, wet and sticky, onto his thighs. Kadoc was pushed slightly out of Ritsuka's lap to let him pull out. They then finally let go of each other, breath equally ragged. All he could do was teeter in the air for a few seconds before he laid down on the bed. Whumphf. Even as sweaty as it was from two men fucking on it prior, the cloth felt relieving to Kadoc's skin and he turned around so his chest could feel it as well. He then felt his back press down with a warm body. The mattress creaked with Kadoc sandwiched firmly between it and Ritsuka. Kadoc could feel Ritsuka's mouth peppering his neck with soft, quiet kisses. His right hand slowly wedged itself to make space between the mattress and Kadoc's body. The fingers that treated countless patients in delicate operations found its target in Kadoc's chest, fondling and pressing both pecs in equal measure. Ritsuka's other hand was making its rounds from Kadoc's shoulders all the way to his hips.

It may not have been Kadoc's initial idea of heaven, but times like these were when he knew that his heart truly had space for another. There was no way he could ever give up Ritsuka Fujimaru at this point. The other half of his heart for her would just have to accept that. Kadoc wordlessly groaned in pleasure as Ritsuka continued his intimate massage as the bonus after every time they fucked.

Kadoc didn't deserve someone as thoughtful and caring as Ritsuka was the only thing he could think of when the other man finished his massage and slid off. All he could do in return was a clumsier imitation of this treatment as he got up to awkwardly knead Ritsuka's back, which surely paled in comparison to this doctor who deftly treated patients and regularly baked sweets for those he cherished.

"Thanks, Kadoc," Ritsuka politely said as if that was somehow the only thing that needed to be said. His skin was slick with sweat, his chest heaved with exhaustion, and he clearly was unable to move much out of exhaustion. But his blue eyes shined in the dark. Kadoc laid down, not breaking eye contact the whole time, and embraced Ritsuka one more time with his arms wrapped the other man's back. Their bodies pressed together in a comfortable warmth, Kadoc stroked Ritsuka's long rough black hair and rested his chin at just below the collarbone so he could make soft nips at Ritsuka's neck.

In response, Ritsuka planted earnest kisses on Kadoc's forehead, cheek, anywhere he could get his mouth and tongue, licking and kissing every inch. He then felt Ritsuka's hand on his neck piercings, stroking them and pinching them before going down to do the same to his nipples as if they were no different, causing Kadoc to slightly shudder. He offered so much of himself to Ritsuka in a way that he never tried to with anyone else, but he could never bring himself to ask either of them the singular vital question in this kind of relationship. He wouldn't ask it tonight. Not when they both knew they merely wanted one thing out of each other right now.

At some point, they both just came to a natural stop, their lusts fully sated. Kadoc then muttered, "We should take a shower now. We're a bit of a mess."

"Hmm, alright." Ritsuka peeled himself off Kadoc to make a few stretches. His upper body was red all over from how much Kadoc marked him tonight. Kadoc noted his similar markings as he got off the bed. They both took their condoms off and threw them in the bin. They went to the smaller bathroom immediately adjoining their own room, a great convenience considering Ritsuka once tripped over Fou while trying to find something in the dining room late at night, which turned into a whole thing.

Their bathroom was a relatively small tiled room with the toilet, the sink, a shelf with men's toiletries, and the shower stall all within arm's reach from wherever one stood. They went into the shower, Kadoc slid the door shut and Ritsuka turned on the nozzle. The cold water surged on them, even more of a relief than usual in this oppressive summer heat. They quietly scrubbed each other's backs, washed their hair, and just let themselves soak in the water to cool down.

Throughly rinsed to a fine sheen, the two dried their bodies, though Kadoc felt like he didn't do enough in this humid air. Ritsuka had to take his sweet time, yawning all the while, to dry and comb his hair. That was the price you had to pay when paying tribute to your dead medical mentor, Kadoc supposed.

After that, both of them too exhausted to put on anything more than a pair of briefs, Kadoc and Ritsuka collapsed in bed, the two a messy tangle of arms and legs. They were both still slightly damp, but that didn't matter when the connection with Ritsuka's warm body was bearable even in the sweltering heat. Kadoc'd take that every day of summer as long as they lived together. He took a deep breath and buried his face in Ritsuka's hair. The back of his neck didn't smell like cigarettes, which Kadoc took comfort in as he nuzzled it with his cheek, still basking in the afterglow of routine sex.

The next morning, Kadoc woke up to find Ritsuka sitting on the edge of their bed. He didn't bother to put on any clothes or style his hair, but he was already smoking. Kadoc quietly groaned that the other man thought he could get away with it while his roommate was asleep, which got Ritsuka's attention. His eyes slightly widened and he promptly extinguished his cigarette in a white ashtray. "Didn't think you'd be awake already."

"Well, I am now," Kadoc yawned. He reached for his piercings to put them back on. "Is Mash awake?"

Ritsuka shook his head. "I don't know. I just got up myself."

"Well, you better get on with breakfast before Fou gets on the table and starts yowling for food."

"Alright." As he tied up a clump of his hair, Ritsuka turned his head around to ask, "What'd you like to eat today?"

The sight of Ritsuka without his shirt, arms raised to expose his well-defined chest and armpits, and hair done in a ponytail almost made Kadoc spit out "you", but that was far too crass and embarrassing. He instead said, "Pancakes would be nice."

"Pancakes…? Yeah, that'd be good." Ritsuka nodded to himself. He threw on an orange hemmed short-sleeved white hoodie and black shorts before he left their room.

After some brief contemplation, Kadoc picked out a well-worn t-shirt with wolves emblazoned on it and black shorts out of the drawers allotted to his clothes to wear today. He went to the bathroom to go over his appearance. Only after his hair was styled exactly how he wanted it to his satisfaction did Kadoc deem to enter the main area of their flat. Surprisingly, Fou was already gorging on dry food and Mash, who usually doted on him in the morning, was nowhere to be seen. Ritsuka was going through the fridge to collect ingredients for breakfast.

Kadoc asked, "Where's Mash?"

Ritsuka briefly looked up to answer, "She said she'd get the milk for us," before returning his attention to the counter. Kadoc nodded in response and cleaned up the table, neglected last night in their tiredness. With nothing to do after he wiped the table, he sat down and checked his social media. Her pages didn't change, of course.

Mash soon came back while Ritsuka scooped out egg yolks out of a large bowl to place in a separate bowl with a soft plap. She was wearing a sleeveless blouse, thin jacket, and a grey plaid skirt. Mash set the milk on the counter, which Ritsuka immediately opened to pour in a bowl. She then held up a large sky-blue envelope. "We have mail from Kirschtaria and Ophelia!"

That got both of their attention as Ritsuka put the milk in the fridge and Kadoc put away his phone. They arranged their chairs around the dining table to be on the same side so they'd all be able to take a look. Mash slid the letter opener through the envelope in one neat stroke. There were three pieces of paper that fell out.

The first was a letter covered in Kirschtaria's looping cursive handwriting, the margins filled with the typical gold trim one would expect from the Wodime family.

The second was a thin wooden postcard featuring dancing white creatures with round snouts. They were only vaguely familiar to Kadoc, but Mash and Ritsuka both went, "Ooh, Moomins!"

"What are Moomins?" Kadoc asked.

"it's a really cute and old cartoon. My little sister loves them," Ritsuka said. That explained nothing, but thankfully Mash had a more in-depth answer.

"They're from a series of children's fantasy books and cartoons illustrated and written by the Finn Tove Jannson, which became famous for their universal charm and the depth of writing in her later books. Moominvalley Midwinter and Moominvalley in November in particular express a kind of melancholy from Jannson linked with the setting as the family of Moomins became increasingly separated from both the valley and storytelling during their long hibernations in winter."

"Huh… I wouldn't take either Kirschtaria or Ophelia to be the kind of people who'd like those," Kadoc said.

"I didn't expect that either." Mash had a thoughtful look. "Though it was their wedding anniversary recently and there's a Moomin theme park in Finland. Perhaps they went there to celebrate?" They set the postcard to look at the last item.

It was a printed photograph of a smiling Kirschtaria and Ophelia apparently in front of the blue Moomin house as already implied by their postcard, vindicating Mash's theory. They looked at the crisp picture of the loving couple. Ophelia was dressed elegantly for the summer in a fetching yellow and white dress, with a flaxen hat obscuring her auburn hair. Kirschtaria wore a bizarre mix and match of psychedelic tye-dye t-shirt, a brown fishing vest, tacky star-shaped golden-tinted sunglasses, and a white pair of shorts with paint splattered on them (At the sight of them, Kadoc recalled his frantic apologies for missing the vest during a paintball game their university club held as an icebreaker and how Kirschtaria promptly brushed them off. It was several years later that Kadoc found out the man who was now an MP and hobnobbed with elites of all kinds often told others the stains were a memento of a dear time with friends.) His thin, scarred arms and legs were clear as day under the bright sunshine, but his joy was equally clear with one hand resting around his wife's waist and the other making a heart.

Mash's eyes widened. She jabbed at Ophelia's belly and exclaimed, "Look, she might be pregnant!" Kadoc leaned for a closer look. Huh, Mash was probably onto something again. Ophelia's stomach did seem rounder and her hand seemed to be resting on it for comfort. "Let's see if she wrote anything," Mash said. She took up the postcard and flipped it around to take a look

Ophelia's message was written directly on the postcard. It read in cramped, yet still prim handwriting on the provided lines:

Hello, Mash and friends,

I'm writing from Finland. I'm sure my husband told you in his letter, but I'm expecting a baby. I hope you can come for the party. It'd be so good to see you again. I'll send you more details when our anniversary holiday is over.

If you're unable to make it, I'll fly over to Hong Kong so you may meet my child. And regardless of whatever happens, I hope you're doing well at the clinic.

Sincerely,

Ophelia

"I can't believe it, Ophelia's really going to have a baby! Oh, she and Kirschtaria must be doing so well," Mash gushed. "We should definitely go. It's been a while since we've all gone out together on a trip, hasn't it?"

"Ah, probably not since… we went to the funeral for Kadoc's aunt…," Ritsuka said, awkwardly scratching his matted hair.

Kadoc sighed. "It'd be nice to see Kirschtaria and Ophelia again, yes. It'll probably be a club reunion since he probably invited Daybit, Pepe, and Hinako." Ritsuka still looked awkward at the topic of Kadoc's family, a thing Kadoc himself hadn't dwelled on in years. The mourning was done and dusted compared to the open hole in his heart. But to give Ritsuka something else to think about, Kadoc coughed and said, "Let's see what Kirschtaria has to say, shall we?" He picked up the letter, written on what surely must be the highest quality stationary available for order to start reading. The texture certainly felt like it.

Dear Kadoc, Mash, and Ritsuka,

Greetings from Finland and apologies for our discourteous lack of messages these past two weeks. Our 5th anniversary holiday became so much more special when we learned Ophelia was in her fourth week of pregnancy before we boarded our flight. My wife plans to name it Sigurd if it is a boy and Brünhild if it is a girl.

I know you're busy with your shared clinic, but I do so hope you all can come back to England for both baby shower and christening. Ophelia is determined to have Mash as the godmother of our child by hook or by crook, and I cannot deny the appeal of this scenario. Kadoc and Ritsuka are fully invited to take part in the festivities, so please don't feel excluded. You're welcome to stay as long as you like. There's so much to catch up on, in which letter nor text nor phone call could ever convey for myself.

It is shameful to think about, but neither I nor Ophelia have had parents you might consider exemplary in the same way Roman was. We hope I believe It would be good of you to pick up the slack in case we fail our child the same way they did us. I think you would make a wonderful godparent, so please don't worry about us entrusting you with our child's future in the worst case scenario. And frankly from our time together, you would certainly be a great deal better than mine own godfather. Frankly, some of what he did would appal everyone I know. In fact, I should probably elaborate on what he did in 1987 on his manor grounds, of which I only learned through being called into court for my family's testimony—

(What followed was a long, uncomfortably vivid account of a lurid affair that left Kadoc bewildered after reading the first sentence. This was far too much for him in the morning before he even ate breakfast. He made an glance at Ritsuka and Mash, who both had similar looks of bewilderment. Kadoc folded the paper, so the offending paragraphs were out of sight. They moved on, trying to find the next passage that didn't involve so much information about Kirschtaria's godfather.)

I digress. Regarding the inquiry you requested me to look into the last time we talked, Ms Norwich informs me that nobody has disturbed Professor Lainur's residence since his death or Roman's house since you moved out, but the regular influx of financial transanctions for the upkeep of both locations are far too suspect. The most likely suspect is indeed the person going under the name of "Dr Archaman", whom you traced to India and China several years back before the trail went cold. He's using a series of shell accounts to move money around for unknown reasons, one of which we suspect is in Hong Kong. You may need to look into that yourselves. Attached to the following paper is a photograph of what we suspect he looks like.

Your ever-faithful friend,

Kirschtaria Wodime

PS. Pepe and Daybit both send their regards. But I haven't heard from Hinako in an awfully long time. Have you?

After they finished reading, Kadoc and Mash then both looked at Ritsuka who tilted his head in confusion. "Why are you both looking at me?"

"Well, Akuta ended up being the closest to you somehow…" was all Kadoc could say.

Mash nodded. "She did see you as a confidant about her boyfriend in ways nobody else achieved. Kirschtaria and Pepe were the only other people besides you who were closest to her, I think."

Ritsuka rubbed the back of his head. "Look, just because I was the one who managed to resolve his amnesiac issues when I was a student doctor doesn't mean we were that close. Besides, we all live in the same place, you'd have probably gotten wind of her wanting to talk to me by now, right?"

"Hmm…" Kadoc didn't exactly buy that since he never saw the contents of Ritsuka's phone or emails because he wasn't a nosy dipshit nor did he ever stick around much during Ritsuka's smoke breaks, so there were probably windows in which the other man could do what he liked without Kadoc or Mash to observe. "…I think she'll be found one way or another eventually, it's not like before when she was an utter recluse when we first met her," he eventually concluded. "Let's take a look at the other photo they sent us."

Kadoc flipped the page around and frowned at the sight. Even with its subject's face turned away from the camera, semi-obscured by other passerby, his hair done in a low ponytail in contrast to how Ritsuka did his ponytail to copy him, the somber brown jacket worn instead of a bright white and teal coat, and his eyes a cold orange instead of warm green, the man was a dead ringer for Dr Roman. He and Ritsuka then both looked at Mash who was utterly silent.

"…Do you think he got plastic surgery?" Kadoc eventually whispered to Ritsuka.

"I… I can't think of what else could explain him looking like that. Mash and I… we both saw his body at the morg—"

"Roman's body was buried. I oversaw the burial myself. It, it can't be him," Mash said in a shaky voice. "But I thought he was just using his name for self-convenience, why did he take on his appearance too? Is this how Lev wants to pay respect?"

Neither Kadoc nor Ritsuka had an answer for the unhappy Mash who picked up her cat and stroked his fur for relief. She broke the silence again. "Do you think he's really in Hong Kong? I spent so much time looking for him, I don't know if…" She paused and then mumbled to herself, "Ophelia did say she'd fly here if we can't make it, maybe she'd understand…."

"I think maybe this is too early in the morning to think about," Kadoc carefully said. "We should probably eat breakfast first and then talk more about it."

"You're probaby right, Kadoc," Mash said, as she adjusted her glasses.

"Well, at least Kirschtaria and Ophelia are happy and doing well," Ritsuka said in an attempt to break up the awkward atmosphere as he went to place the picture and postcard among other gifts and snapshots offered to them by friends like Oberon and Artoria, Patxi, the M&D Law Firm, Aesc, Oruta, and more.

And you're implying we're not? The thought died on Kadoc's tongue before he said it out loud. To suggest otherwise would imply they found the people they were yearning for. To settle for anything less would be….

The loud whir of Ritsuka's electric whisk broke Kadoc out of his reverie. His roommate had gone back to making pancakes, this time whisking together a batch of pancake batter in a glass bowl. His other roommate was now fussing over her cat's claws. Fou's yowling as Mash gently clipped away was surely loud enough to pierce the ceiling. Suddenly, Kadoc felt like the noise was too much for him to tolerate and retreated to the bedroom. He plugged in his electric guitar and strummed out a basic arpeggio to get himself back into the groove. It had been a while since he played this guitar.

His impromptu session continued until there was a knock on the door. Kadoc unplugged his guitar and said, "Come in."

The door swung open to reveal Ritsuka, his apron stained with tiny dark spots. There were crumbs and a tiny dollop of cream on his mouth. "The pancakes are done," he announced. He then saw the guitar in his lap. His lips slightly curved and with them, the cream on his face went just a little higher. "Oh, you really were playing guitar. You should've told me, it'd be nice to sit down and listen."

"It wasn't really anything fancy, just going over a bunch of basic melodies. I'm pretty rusty," Kadoc deflected. "But maybe after we eat, I'll put on a little show for you and Mash."

"Yeah, that'd be great."

Before Ritsuka could turn to leave, Kadoc called out to him. "Hang on, you have something on your face." Kadoc came over to Ritsuka in the doorway and then softly brushed Ritsuka's lips with his thumb. Kadoc licked the cream. It tasted sweet, with a soft creamy texture. It reminded him of Ritsuka. "Pretty good," he declared. "Making whipped cream again?"

"A-ah, yeah," a flustered Ritsuka answered. "I'll use whatever's left over for something like cookies and store them in the fridge for late night snacks." He turned his head away. "Thanks for the compliment." Kadoc then quietly followed him to eat breakfast.

The pancakes were excellent, all fluffy, warm, and just sweet enough without tipping over into excess with the strawberry and cream being the figurative cherry on top. When Kadoc tired of sweetness, he could help himself to a serving with savoury butter. And there was a refreshing pot of black tea as a nice countermeasure to the other strong flavours. All in all, it was a good late breakfast.

When they finished and washed dishes, Ritsuka declared he'd have a smoke on the balcony. Mash scooped her cat off the ground, taking him away to avoid the offending smoke. After a brief moment of contemplation, Kadoc went to join Ritsuka outside. The balcony was cramped, with a small round table, two squat chairs, the cushions on top of them, a rack for drying clothes, and Fou's cat carrier whenever they needed to take him to the vet. There wasn't much space left for people to manoeuvre around after that. He still managed to shuffle his way into the empty chair. Ritsuka extinguished his cigarette on the railing before Kadoc sat down, which he appreciated.

"Do you think I should cut my hair?" Ritsuka suddenly asked before Kadoc had time to fully settle in, a thin stream of smoke leaving his mouth as he spoke.

"Huh? What brought this on?" Kadoc asked back as he reclined in the metal chair.

Ritsuka tugged his ponytail with a few fingers. "Well… it's just the way she looked at that photo and how the professor clearly has a few screws loose to decide on using Roman as his new face. And she still looked upset even after breakfast. She has to be mad at me for styling my hair like his."

"Okay, I don't think a ponytail is enough to set her off like that. She'd probably have said so before then. It's been a really long time since you started wearing it like that and she's never complained about it, has she?"

"Well, no…"

"Yeah, see? You're just overthinking it." The late morning sun shone on the various windows across the street as Kadoc spoke. "If anything, it's the whole package. The hair color, the outfit, the hairstyle, the name. Just don't go off the deep end and start calling yourself Dr Roman too. That should do the trick."

"I'll try not to," Ritsuka laughed lightly. He then tilted his head. "Then…do you think he'd recognize me even with the change in how I wear my hair?"

"Who?" Kadoc asked, but with how Ritsuka's voice took on a particular melancholic and nostalgic bent, there was really one answer to that question.

"The detective I met in high school, Monsieur Dantès," Ritsuka said. Yep, there it was.

"If… if you were really as close as you said," Kadoc answered, "then I don't think a mere change in hairstyle would be enough to completely change you. And you can always introduce yourself again. I'm sure he'd remember that case if you jog his memory a little."

"Yeah, I suppose that's right…" Ritsuka took out his lighter and a new pack of cigarettes. This one was red with a Japanese logo and flame-themed branding. After a few clicks, he had the cigarette lit and switched the lighter off. But instead of sticking it in his mouth, he just held it between his fingers in contemplation. "The first thing I'll tell him after that is my mom and sister are doing good. That's probably what he feels most guilty about. He needs to know we've all moved on from my dad dying in his case."

It was the same thing Kadoc had heard over a dozen times. All he could do was nod in sympathy and simply let Ritsuka ride his feelings out. The first time Kadoc heard the story when they met in uni, he almost laughed. What kind of person would be named by their parent or, worse, actually call himself Edmond Dantès whether it be his actual name or an alias in this day and age? That was like naming yourself Arsène Lupin and actually expecting to get away without any expectations of thievery or disguises. It was mean of Kadoc to think this then and now, but that practically begged the detective to get caught up in a fraught case of vengeance and justice with a tragic ending. Only when Ritsuka showed him both a carefully preserved obituary clipping and reports on the Mainichi news site did Kadoc accede that the case of the Fujimaru family wrapped up in a murderous conman disguised as Ritsuka's vice principal was likely true.

One thing led to another and Ritsuka ended up in Europe to find the detective who vanished the day the case was resolved. After that…. Well, that just led to even more complicated events. Kadoc didn't want to dwell on them too much.

When Ritsuka finished his spiel, Kadoc decided he showed enough support. Every time he heard him talk about this detective, he felt an ugly swell of envy that his roommate could talk so optimistically about meeting somewhere outside their homelands to get closure, despite being ghosted for more than a decade and counting. What did he do to earn that much puppy-like devotion from you? Would I ever be good enough for you to wait this long for me? He could scream. But as always, it'd be throwing throwing stones in a glass house. At least Ritsuka had an actual reason to believe the one he was looking for didn't despise him for who he was.

 "I'm going out to do more grocery shopping," Kadoc declared. "Mash might've gotten us milk, but I think we need some more food for this week."

"Then let's go out together," Ritsuka replied. "How long do you need?"

Wait, Kadoc didn't expect this. "Fifteen minutes, I guess?" He said as a sop to Ritsuka's cigarette, its thin smoke trail still streaming in the air.

"I can work with that. Make sure you tell Mash, then we can all go out together."

 Twenty minutes later, they were in the underground Wellcome grocery store. Ritsuka pushed the red-handled metal shopping cart as they meandered around narrow aisles of stocked goods, stopping whenever Kadoc or Mash pointed out something they wanted to buy. Honestly, the store's air-conditioning was probably set way too low as everything felt far too uncomfortably cold to the touch. He felt goosebumps rise on his arms and legs.

…But she'd have probably liked it, she who always said England's summers were too damn hot. Or did she say winter was too damn cold? He couldn't remember clearly at this point. She did complain a lot about weather, no matter the season. It was one of countless things that somehow charmed Kadoc.

Their shopping jaunt was interrupted by a mother and her son loudly shouting in a dialect that wasn't Cantonese or Mandarin at the end of the cooking oil and wines section. They were blatantly arguing about… something (at most, Kadoc could make out lines he was fairly sure was about money and maybe a pet dog) and blocked the way to the self-checkout section, oblivious to the holdup they created. The son cursed(?) in Chinese before he stomped past the three of them, his face incredibly surly. It was like looking at a mirror to how Kadoc was in uni. Not for the first time, Kadoc felt uncomfortably reminded of how he was kinda terrible to a lot of people in his deep-seated anxiety that everyone was out to get him. Maybe she had enough at some point in his final year of uni.

Purchases made, they went back to their flat. Ritsuka promptly busied himself with getting to work on lunch. Kadoc helped by peeling potatoes and carrots, all of which went into a bubbling pot of brown. They'd be having Japanese curry, then.

However, both curry and rice needed time to properly cook, so Ritsuka plopped onto their small boxy couch, looking for something to do while the pots simmered. It was then that Kadoc remembered he promised to Ritsuka this morning to play guitar for him. He went to his room and brought out his electric guitar. Mash looked delighted to see him bring out the guitar.

"Oh, are you going to play for us? It's been so long since I've heard your guitar."

"Uh, yeah, I thought it'd be nice to get some practise in. It's been a while, after all." Kadoc turned around one of the dining chairs to face Ritsuka and Mash. After he plugged his guitar, he sat down and started strumming away. It slowly morphed into a song he heard a few times while losing himself in his extensive cadre of playlists. He hummed along, the lyrics he kept to himself as he played. And when the streets are emptied out, we lose our way walking into the dark, the cross is all we've got….

Mash and Ritsuka clapped for him when he was finished. It made Kadoc feel slightly embarrassed they put so much stock in his playing when he was just an amateur hobbyist.

"What song was that?" Ritsuka asked. "I don't recognize it."

"It's called "Lost"," Kadoc said. "It's by an Australian indie rock band who went on hiatus. I think I've got a CD or something I can show you later."

"Can you play more from them? I liked it." Ritsuka's wish was Kadoc's command, so he picked another song from the same album. Eventually this jam session reached a point where Ritsuka went into his room and came out with his own wooden guitar. God, that must have been unplayed even longer than Kadoc's own guitars. "I want to try it. Can you show me please?"

Unsurprisingly, Kadoc spent more time next to Ritsuka on their couch trying to refresh him on how guitars worked than actually teaching him. Slightly more surprising was Ritsuka could still play "Hotel California" flawlessly from memory. It seemed he still had a sore spot over Kadoc teasing him for only being able to play the intro when they first learned they both could play guitar. Mash was an attentive audience, all the while. Fou trotted off after ten minutes, likely bored by the fact this wasn't about him.

Their playtime came to an end when Ritsuka sniffed the air. "What's that smell… Ah, my curry!" He promptly went over to the stove to see how his pot of curry was doing. His quiet groans indicated it was burned or overcooked. Oops. Kadoc needed to figure out how to apologize to him later for distracting him like this.

They ate lunch. Ritsuka looked like a moroseful puppy the way he hovered over whether or not the other two enjoyed it, but Kadoc assured him the curry was quite good. Mostly because Ritsuka managed to salvage it before the pot fully burned, so about five percent of it had actually coalesced into sticky black patches at the bottom of the pot. It was otherwise the standard kind of Japanese curry Kadoc was very familiar with by now.

After lunch, Kadoc felt quite sleepy. He didn't even make it to his bed before he fell asleep sitting upright on the boxy little couch where Ritsuka was watching TV.

When he woke up half an hour later, Kadoc realized Ritsuka fell asleep too and right next to him at that. His scruffy black ponytail tickled Kadoc's neck and drool dribbled out the corner of his mouth. Kadoc would've tried to wipe it, but he realized his arms were pinned by Ritsuka embracing him in his sleep. He tried to wriggle them out, but that just made Ritsuka grip him tighter with a sleepy "ehehe" as his face lolled even harder onto Kadoc's neck. He was glad Ritsuka got some rest and was dreaming of something pleasant, but couldn't he let Kadoc do something else?! There were times and places for displays of affection and post-afternoon nap wasn't one of them!

Kadoc furtively glanced around to see where Mash was. Not in this room where the TV had been left on some kind of report on French artists touring in Hong Kong or the kitchen and dining area. He called out her name in a half-hearted tone.

"I'm in the bathroom," Mash said behind a closed door. "Do you need something?"

"Uh, it's not an emergency…" Kadoc weakly said. "Just come out when you're done."

Mash emerged after five unbearably long minutes. Kadoc tried to ignore his neck pain the entire time. She turned around to see the two men. "Ah," she said in understanding. Mash went behind the sofa and gently pried open Ritsuka's arms. Kadoc sprung up the moment he was free, slightly afraid he might be ensnared again.

"Th-thanks," Kadoc said, his face slightly burning from having to be bailed out of a very dumb situation.

"No problem," Mash said with a smile. "It's cute how Ritsuka adores you so much."

"Y-yeah, I, I know," Kadoc said. His face burned harder. Not that his relationship with Ritsuka was any secret in this flat, but honestly it was somewhat mortifying when Kadoc realized years ago he was sleeping with the person who paid his salary and ostensibly his boss. He felt like that should've stopped him, but it didn't. He wanted to change the topic immediately, so he said, "Let's move Ritsuka to his bed. We don't want him to have a sore back or neck when he wakes up."

"Oh, yes, that's a good call."

Just as Mash and Ritsuka were about to lift up their snoozing roommate, the telephone on one of the shelves emitted a harsh, shrill sound. That was the landline phone in their residence that Ritsuka prepared just in case someone needed something and they were off hours. As such, it was a phone number stressed as solely for emergencies and only given out to regular visitors. That got Ritsuka's attention as his head jerked up from the sofa. Still blinking away the fatigue, the doctor unsteadily tottered over to the shelf. Ritsuka picked up the phone. "Hello, this is Dr Fujimaru… Oh, David! Nice to hear—" Huh, that was slightly concerning. Mr Cheung and his son never made housecalls until now.

"Calm down, David. Take a deep breath, in, out," Ritsuka urged the caller on the other end. He solemnly listened to what the boy said. "Okay. I'll be there as fast as I can. Do you know my smartphone number? No? Okay, here it is. Could you repeat what I said, please? Yes, that's exactly it. I knew you could do it. Okay, call that number to update me when you can. You can do it, I believe in you." Ritsuka was scrawling something down on the back of a receipt now. "Go through the alley from that street, third door on the left for the backdoor. Got it." He slammed the phone back on its receiver.

"Mash, can you go downstairs and get my bag? Kadoc, please call a taxi," Ritsuka requested them before he strode off into his room without waiting for a response. "I need to change."

The two promptly did as asked. Kadoc made sure to also book a ridesharing driver just in case the taxi didn't come soon enough. Mash came back to their flat with a large grey briefcase for Ritsuka. Said doctor emerged a few minutes later in more formal clothing, straightening his white physician's coat and adjusting his gloves.

"Thanks, Mash," he said in a harried voice as he picked up the bag without a second glance and put on his shoes. Ritsuka unlocked the door and the two followed after him, their rapid footsteps echoing in the stairway.

"Ritsuka, can you at least explain what's going on?" Kadoc asked as the three waited on the curb for the taxi.

"There was a hitman or something going through the floor of the building where David and his dad live. He wasn't very clear. It likely was some kind of illegal thing going on there. David's spiralling in the car park he hid in. I need to make sure he and his dad are fine."

"…Even if it's something illegal, surely someone called an emergency number? And paramedics would help any survivors, right? Are you sure you won't get caught up in some kind of criminal stuff or police investigation?"

Ritsuka looked at Kadoc with tired but determined blue eyes. "I don't know. But someone asked me for help. I can't ignore them. That's what I have to do as a doctor. …It's the same thing Roman would've done."

Kadoc didn't have any rebuttal to that. He could only sigh in understanding. Ritsuka turned away from Kadoc back to the street to look for the taxi. A red car eventually came to their curve, so Kadoc silently cancelled the other booking he made on his phone. Ritsuka opened the car door and then called out to them.

"If I don't come back after six, just eat dinner without me, okay? I'll see you later!" He ducked into the car and slammed the door. The taxi sped off into the stream of traffic that went by at the end of the street.

There was nothing left to do but go back inside and wait. Kadoc tried to preoccupy himself with more guitar playing, but everything just sounded offkey no matter what he played. He tried to read a book, but the words kept blurring together. Finally, he resorted to dragging out a dark exercise mat from under the bed and went to the sitting room to do some sets. Mash sat on the sofa, watching her beloved Granada tv shows. She looked up when she saw Kadoc set the mat besides the coffee table.

"Should I lower the volume, Kadoc?"

He shook his head. "I think some background noise might help distract from the…" He shook his head again as if that would somehow banish the thoughts plaguing him. "Ugh, it's been a while since Ritsuka got called in for an emergency like this." Kadoc laid down on it and started doing situps.

Mash looked at him, her purple eyes pensive. "I trust him. He's gotten through worse things."

"I do too," Kadoc said in-between situps. "It's just… should we've gone with him?" He asked as he looked up at the white ceiling, sunshine streaking across its unlit lights.

"What happens happens. He'll figure something out, I'm sure. David and his father will be fine."

Kadoc couldn't say out loud the ugly thought he was more concerned for Ritsuka's safety than two people he barely knew, especially in front of someone who cared just as much about people as Ritsuka did. So he silently resumed his situps. Mash could read what she liked into that choice.

It was past 4 PM when they heard the doorknob turn. Kadoc sat on the sofa, taking a break after a gruelling amount of exercise to mindlessly watch the tv with Mash. Both of them turned their heads to look at the doorway in anticipation. The door swung to reveal Ritsuka, his white clothes somewhat stained and his face more haggard than when he had left. Not a single inch from his black shoes to his ponytail had been injured. Kadoc would take that. His roommate was safe. Both of them sprung up from their seat to greet him.

"Ritsuka, are David and his father fine?" Mash asked.

"Y-yeah, they're both alive," Ritsuka answered as he took off his shoes.

"Well, that's great," Kadoc exclaimed, but Ritsuka held up a gloved hand.

"I didn't finish. Cheung's legs were pretty damaged. I did what I could, but… I'm not sure if he'll be able to dance again." Ritsuka bit his lip in frustration. "They insisted on not going to the hospital because they can't pay for it, even when I told them I didn't have the proper equipment to do more work and letting it go untreated could make it worse. Maybe I should've stayed longer. I should've told them I don't need to be repaid because of the loan sharks. I should've told them to come with me to the clinic. I should've—"

Kadoc interrupted Ritsuka. "Wait, sorry, what was that about loan sharks?"

"David was sheltered from it all, so he had no idea what was going on. But his dad told me. They're in pretty steep debt because of a loan he took out for his son's education. It's a month overdue by now and they sent in men to beat people up as a message. Mr. Cheung wasn't doing great when I found him," Ritsuka grimaced. He discarded his stained gloves into the rubbish bin and wrung his hands. "He was stabbed multiple times when he didn't cough up the money. I did surgery and then they told me to go because they could figure it out from there. I can't stop thinking about them. Why did I just accept them telling me to leave, ugh, why…. There's no way that was the best possible option for them."

"But he's alive," Mash emphatically said. "You saved his life. We'll help them out with their debt if they need it, but right now everything worked out for both of them. David still has his father.

"I…" Before Ritsuka could say anything further in this weary voice, Mash pulled him into a hug. After some brief thinking, Kadoc joined them. Sandwiched in-between an unlicensed medical assistant and the receptionist who learned his trade on the fly was the one actual trained doctor. His ponytail was scratching Kadoc's neck, but that minor physical discomfort didn't matter if it made his partner feel better.

"Feeling okay?" Mash asked when they finally stepped away from him.

"I think I'm a little better," Ritsuka answered. "Thanks, Mash and Kadoc. I, I need a second to clean myself and my equipment up, okay?"

"Alright." "I understand." The two moved out of the way so Ritsuka could make a beeline to his room.

After twenty minutes, Kadoc decided to check on how Ritsuka was doing, hoping that was long enough to give him proper space to process what happened earlier this afternoon. He gently knocked on the door to their shared bedroom. "Come in," a wavery voice said.

Kadoc opened the door to find Ritsuka sitting on the mattress, the white afternoon light illuminating his lower half while his upper half remained in shadow. As Kadoc came closer, he saw Ritsuka's blue eyes were watering and there were crumpled tissues besides him. In the doctor's hands was a familiar purple box with a silver star. Its lid was open, showing only two cigarettes left.

Kadoc sat down next to him. "Are… are you feeling better?"

Ritsuka cracked a wry smile. "Take a guess."

"Yeah, I thought so." Kadoc sidled closer to him so their hands would touch, running his thumb over the knuckles of Ritsuka's hand.

Ritsuka continued to gaze distantly at something only known to him when he said, "It's just… I still think I should've done better to find a way that'd make everyone happy. Not just a rushed job on the fly, but an actual solution."

"If they think they could make the most of a bad situation, then I think we should believe them." After all, the same had to be true of Kadoc. Otherwise….

"Roman would've done it," Ritsuka quietly said. "He would've figured out a way to resolve their money issues and fix their leg good as new like it never happened in the first place."

"Ritsuka," Kadoc was treading on thin ice as he spoke. He knew he couldn't desecrate the dead and yet. "You're a doctor, not a financier or superhero. The same was true of Dr. Roman. You're both human. He had his limitations just as much as you do. I… I wasn't as familiar with him as you were, but I think you did as much as he could in this situation."

"Ah…" Ritsuka turned to look at Kadoc and cocked his head. "Do you really believe that?"

"Yes."

"David does still have a father," Ritsuka murmured to himself. He took out one of the two remaining cigarettes, lit it, and inhaled deep.

For once, Kadoc didn't complain about the smoke. Ritsuka blew smoke into their room and then took the cigarette out of his mouth. He looked at Kadoc with watery pleading eyes, which Kadoc knew for a fact that cigarette smoke wasn't strong enough to cause. Still, he had no reason to brush off the plea and kissed the bitter mouth of Ritsuka Fujimaru. It might damage Kadoc's lungs, but oh well.

Ritsuka squeezed Kadoc's hand when they stopped. "Thank you," he whispered. "I know I'm not good as—"

"Don't say that," Kadoc cut him off. Ritsuka sighed and stuck the cigarette back in his mouth. Kadoc got up from the bed and opened the window to its widest to let fresh air circulate as much as possible. Then he went to the door with one final look at Ritsuka, still sitting on the bed, fiddling with the purple box. He quietly shut the door.

Ritsuka emerged from his room a while later, his face still addled with exhaustion. His blue eyes appeared vacant and he swayed slightly as he stood looking for whatever it was he wanted.

"Are you feeling better, Ritsuka?" Mash asked.

"Y-yeah," Ritsuka mumbled. "I need to make dinner now. You guys probably want something nice, right? I'll make katsudon, I think…" He slowly began to walk towards the kitchen.

It was pretty clear that Ritsuka was still out of it. Kadoc was sure whatever Ritsuka made would turn out merely passable, but he didn't think his roommate should force himself to carry though with an obligation when he was in this much of a mental funk. Not to mention he was uncertain if he'd be cheered up by eating or not. So before Ritsuka could open the fridge, Kadoc approached him with a suggestion. "Actually, Ritsuka, let's go out for dinner. You deserve a treat every once in a while."

Mash smiled in agreement. "Yes, I think that'd be good. Perhaps we could even take the tram to Wan Chai or Admiralty to find somewhere nice?"

Ritsuka blinked, his fugue state over his supposed failure broken by Kadoc's suggestion. "H-huh? Are you sure? You're not going to say it's a waste of money, Kadoc?" He asked.

"Well…" Kadoc then just said what was on his mind, so Ritsuka wouldn't take his initial pause as hesitation, or worse, a recantment. "I feel bad for making your curry burn when I distracted you with my guitar playing. It's gonna be my treat."

Ritsuka looked like he was going to say something, closed his mouth, and then said, "Okay, can I pick the restaurant?"

"Sure? Does it really matter?" Kadoc asked in mild confusion. "I promise you can pick whatever you like."

A slight grin appeared on Ritsuka's mouth. Kadoc was relieved to see him smiling again. "No takebacks, then. We'll eat wherever I pick. I'm going to put on something before we head out."

Kadoc understood why Ritsuka grinned and emphasized they would have to commit after they rode the tram, crammed with people on their way to one of many urban centres like them, and found themselves in front of a large Mexican restaurant and bar with full glassy walls. It was filled with tourists, expatriates, or middle-class local families hankering for food an entire continent away, attracted by the glossy presentation and decor. He groaned as Ritsuka triumphantly walked up to its entrance, beaming in the thin white jacket Mash gave him as a birthday present many years ago. "I should've known you'd pick the place I said no to dining at so many times."

"Yeah, you always said it'd be quote, overpriced tourist-y food that might not even be that good, end quote. But since you promised no takebacks on what I pick, let's eat here."

Kadoc sighed. He'd just look for whatever would let him take leftovers so he could get multiple days' worth out of this and went with Ritsuka and Mash into the restaurant. Apparently they arrived pretty early, so despite the lack of reservation and coming here on a whim, they got seats rather painlessly. They were seated in a plesantly comfortable booth with Ritsuka and Kadoc seated on one side and Mash the other. The air conditioning was pleasant after the stuffy tram ride. Electronic music blared in the background. Kadoc didn't immediately recognise it by ear, but figured it might be someone new or interesting to look into later. Or it was a nightcore thing. The waiter handed them menus before going over to deal with some other customer at a different table.

"I'll have the pulled pork burrito bowl," Kadoc decided after skimming through the menu.

"Then I'll have diced chicken quesadillas," Mash said.

"And I'll get the guapo nachos. Let's share those!" Ritsuka chimed in.

"Should we get any drinks?" Mash wondered.

"Nothing alcoholic for me, please," Ritsuka promptly said.

"That's fine, we can get mocktails," she replied. "I think the peach soda one would be nice."

"Hmm, I guess the peach lemonade wouldn't be bad, then. Since Kadoc's treating us and all that." Ritsuka grinned.

"I'll have a classic virgin margarita, I guess," Kadoc said, giving the man sitting next to him the sideeye. He didn't plan on drinking, less so because of a principled stand like Ritsuka, but more because he didn't want to spend the money. However, he didn't want to feel left out either.

Kadoc hailed a waiter and the three made their orders. After the waiter walked away from their table, Mash leaned forward with a serious expression on her face. "I think we need to figure out what our plan is for the next few weeks," she said. "What should we say to Kirschtaria's invitation?"

"We're doing that now? Here?" Kadoc asked with some surprise.

She nodded. "I think the change in setting will help us focus. We can either focus on preparing to wind down the clinic for an uncertain amount of time so we can visit Kirschtaria and Ophelia in England or we can look further into what Lev is doing in Asia. If we do the former, we probably need to start packing and making arrangements with our patients, they won't be happy with us disappearing without any notice. If we do the latter, we need to tell our friends so they won't be disappointed that we don't attend the baby shower and christening."

"I think we should go to England," Ritsuka said. "We haven't been there in a really long time, have we? I think it'd be great to see Kirschtaria, Ophelia, and everyone else to catch up. They're expecting us, we can't let them down. And it doesn't just have to be about a uni reunion. We could go see the Sherlock Holmes spots we haven't been to, Mash, and see if anyone you like's on tour and go to their concert, Kadoc. Maybe even go for a little continental sightseeing if we still have time?"

Okay, Kadoc definitely felt suspicious in the middle of Ritsuka's spiel but the final bit cemented it. There really was only one thing that could get Dr Fujimaru to abandon his principled stand to help everyone. As such, he said, "I think we should stay in Hong Kong. Lev's really important to Mash. I think Ophelia would understand if you stayed behind to find closure." At least this way, they'd both have unlikely odds of finding the person they wanted to see instead of it all being tilted in favour of just Ritsuka.

Ritsuka sighed. "Well then. It's a draw, as you can see. It's up to you now, Mash."

"Oh…" Mash sounded dejected. Then she tilted her head. "Why don't I fly to London by myself for the ceremony? You can stay behind to manage the clinic and look for him while I'm gone."

"Uh, that does sound good, but I'd like all of us to go together…" Ritsuka hemmed and hawwed, so it was up to Kadoc to be blunt.

"I can't guarantee he won't slip out of our hands, Mash. If we meet him again, we need to be exactly sure we can get all the info from him for you and not waste that chance. Besides, Kirschtaria invited all of us, didn't he?"

"I see… Now I'm not sure again."

"Yeah, you can—guh?!" Kadoc yelped in surprise. His toes throbbed in pain. He glared at Ritsuka who had the most demure look on his face. He leaned in and whispered, "You stepped on my foot, didn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ritsuka loudly said in the most innocent voice he was capable of conjuring.

"What are you talking about?" Mash asked with genuine innocence.

"Yeah, Kadoc, what are you talking about?" Ritsuka repeated in a smug voice.

"You know perfectly well what I mean, kurw—"

"Kadoc, please remember we're in a restaurant. There's a family right behind us," Mash interrupted him before he could make due on his curses.

"Fine. I'll talk about it when we get home, then." Kadoc then stepped on Ritsuka's foot out of spite.

"Ow, ow, ow, what'd you do that for!?" Ritsuka asked as if he hadn't been stomping on toes two minutes prior.

"Oh, you know sometimes things happen for mysterious karmic reasons," Kadoc said in a poncy sage voice, "perhaps you need to consider the consequences of your actions in life that led up to this point."

"Why, you—!" Ritsuka surely would have escalated the foot stomping war were it not for the drinks that arrived at their table. The two men sipped their drinks in silence, their feet pointedly as far as possible from each other. Kadoc's margarita mocktail still had a pleasant sharpness even without the tequila. While he savoured the taste, Ritsuka spoke up. "Maybe we should ask Kirschtaria for more details. He was still on holiday when he sent the letter. We can send him an email or a text and see if he responds, then plan around the info he gives us."

"Yes… That does sound like a reasonable course of action," Mash said. "What do you think, Kadoc?"

Kadoc set down his mocktail and said, "I don't really have any reason to say no to that."

"Alright," Mash said. "We'll figure out our plans after that then." With the matter of what to do for the next few months tabled for now, the three moved onto other topics to chat about. Neither Mash nor Kadoc brought up the clinic.

"…Speaking of my sister, we've gotta visit Fukui Prefecture, all of us," Ritsuka said as he reclined in his booth seat. The mocktail might not have been alcoholic, but it certainly did the trick of unwinding him compared to how he was a few hours ago. "Have you been there, Kadoc?"

Kadoc rapidly went through the list of places in Japan he hitchhiked through before coming to Hong Kong and shook his head. "Don't think so. What's notable about it compared to places like Kyoto or Sapporo?"

"Di~no~saurs~!" Ritsuka enthusiastically drew out the word. "My sister Rikka went there recently for her internship at the dinosaur museum. Did I not tell you?"

Kadoc had a sinking feeling he was told about recent ongoings with Ritsuka's family and then he forgot, so he quickly deflected. "That's nice for your sister. Are there any pictures we can look at?"

"Ooh, yeah, I haven't shown you, have I. They've got kinds of cute dinosaur themed trains and decorations because of that, here, have a look." Ritsuka scrolled through an astonishing amount of pictures shared by his sister, some of them selfies, but most of them just marvelling at the sheer amount of dinosaur-themed memorabilia and decorations. Kadoc didn't even know there were that many unique dinosaurs to Japan until now.

Ritsuka was showing Mash his sister's photos when the waiter arrived with their three dishes. They promptly started eating, sharing morsels with each other for sampling. The food was actually quite delicious and from how Ritsuka looked at him, Kadoc knew he was doing a pretty a bad job at hiding his enjoyment.

"So? What do you think of the food?" Ritsuka asked in a teasing voice, the answer already known to both of them.

"They're actually pretty good," Kadoc begrudgingly said as he dug up another spoonful of beans and pork from his bowl. "But I still think the prices are a bit much. So don't expect me to approve of us going here all the time!"

"Hmm, maybe I'll just go with Mash, then. You'll miss out on all the good food that we'll enjoy every other week," Ritsuka teased him. Kadoc merely rolled his eyes in response.

"I… I'm not sure about that actually," Mash said with an apologetic smile. "We do need to make sure we have a budget set aside for medication and new equipment at the clinic."

"New equipment…" Ritsuka said with an odd tinge. Before Kadoc could say anything, Ritsuka made a show of throwing up his hands in the air. "Fine, fine. You both made your point. Maybe we'll just go to that curry place next time we eat out."

When they finished eating and Kadoc paid the bill (with the account specifically using money paid for him by Ritsuka), the three were left in a street only slightly cooler at evening. The air was warm, with the orange glow of the setting sun and the indigo sky above them.

"What should we do now?" Mash asked.

"I need more cigarettes," answered Ritsuka, "especially in case someone has the Étoile kind in stock. This isn't usually where I buy them, so maybe I'll get lucky?"

"It might be nice to do some wandering around," Kadoc conceded. It wasn't too late to hit up the local markets or check out the bookstores for the latest CDs and history books.

"Evening shopping it is," Mash said. "Let's go take a look around!"

Alas, the only out-of-stock cigarettes that vendors had around were some Taiwanese brand. Ritsuka blew them all off, citing something about them being exceptionally crap even for a chronic smoker like him and decided he'd have to check online auction sites for his beloved French brand. Mash thought the new ribbon she bought would look exceptionally nice on Fou. A colorful orange-green bracelet caught Kadoc's eye from one of the alleyway stalls. He bought it, unsure if he'd wear it or give it to Ritsuka as a gift. By now, the sun had well and truly set as they joined the stream of people headed to the closest MTR station.

The three arrived back at the block of buildings next to the freeway. They trudged up the stairs to home and found Fou waiting for them, meowing up a storm. Kadoc could smell the cause the moment he opened the doorway. He groaned, "Oh no, did Fou vomit all over the floor again?"

Ritsuka sniffed the air. "Yup, probably. Looks we need to clean that asap." He flicked the light on. "Whoa, I almost stepped in a puddle!"

Kadoc quickly checked his shoes for any wet splotches and the floor around the shoe cubbies for suspiciously yellow splotches. His shoes were thankfully still dry, but there was a puddle of vomit right under the column reserved for his shoes. He groaned again. "Mash, you really need to do something about Fou. Like take him to the vet? This is the sixteenth time he's vomited this month. I don't think that's normal for cats."

"He's old, he can't help it," Mash defensively said as she came through the doorway. "And I don't think we need to take him to the vet just yet. I think it's an issue with hairballs. I'll make sure to groom him this week." She gracefully stepped over the puddles after she took off her shoes to pick up Fou. "Did you miss me, Fou?" The white cat squirmed in her arms and meowed. She looked at the two men. "Sorry, could you clean up the vomit while I go over Fou's mouth and feed him?"

"Of course, Mash," Ritsuka immediately said. Kadoc sighed, they hadn't even changed and this was how they were going to be spending part of their one night off? But still, even as he followed Ritsuka to the cupboard for cleaning supplies and knelt down with him to clean up one of six large puddles, Kadoc couldn't really bring himself to complain. This was one part of the life he chose by deciding to stay with Ritsuka and Mash after he couldn't find her.

The rest of the evening went by without incident. They puttered around after brushing teeth to make sure everything was in order, just in case there was something they missed with Fou, and then bid each other good night.

"Do you want to…?" Ritsuka looked at Kadoc hopefully when the two were alone in their bedroom, but he had to turn him down.

"No, we have work tomorrow," he said. "And I'm a little tired. Maybe in the morning, if we're quick."

Ritsuka looked a little dejected, but he nodded in acceptance. "At least let me do this then." He cradled Kadoc's cheeks and then moved in for a kiss. It was slow; the two both accepted this as the most intimate they would get for tonight. Kadoc thought they must've swept every single inch of each other's mouths with their tongues before they reluctantly parted, itself a slow labour that left strands of saliva to connect them before they inevitably broke apart. They stared at each other for a few moments.

"Are you sure you don't want to fuck?" Ritsuka asked again.

"Yes," Kadoc answered. He laid an apologetic wet kiss on Ritsuka's cheek before lying down on their bed. "Good night, Ritsuka."

"Fine…" Ritsuka undid his ponytail by himself. He got on the bed himself, grabbing Kadoc tightly around the abdomen and bringing him close into his embrace. "Good night, Kadoc."

As he sleepily laid in bed in the arms of a snoozing Ritsuka, Kadoc wondered what'd happen in a few weeks' time. They could ignore Kirschtaria and Ophelia's request to try and look for the man who apparently was now prancing around as Mash's foster father and Ritsuka's mentor for reasons only known to him. They only had a blurry photo and a name to go off, but it was far more than the other two had gotten in years. Mash deserved this bone.

Or they could put those ghosts aside for once. They could all fly to England, the first time for all of them in who knows how many years, catch up with friends in person, and then after that….

It'd still be a return to Ritsuka's little clinic in Hong Kong, making busy because they'd be too broke otherwise to ever try and venture back to France or Russia or Japan or somewhere else in the globe to find the people they missed. Day by day, week by week, month by month, where they helped everyone but themselves. Maybe they'd go to their graves without seeing them again. But the awful thing was Kadoc couldn't stop hoping. No wonder Morrel turned to Monte Cristo in despair and said hope was a madness, wishing for the unimaginable, the absurd, the miraculous in life. It was still the only thing he had to keep going, after her hometown, her restaurant wishlist, and everywhere else he could think of turned up nothing. He needed to hope all this time wasn't totally pointless and his efforts would pay off, any day now.

And sometimes Kadoc even hoped that Ritsuka's French detective would never show up again. As much as he hated to admit it, after all these ups and downs, Ritsuka Fujimaru was the glue holding them together in this fragile awkward peace they called life in Hong Kong. Without him, where else would Kadoc have a home on the cheap and a place to make busy after such a long and futile search? Without him, why would Mash ever want to stick around someone who wasn't that close to her foster father?

And there was an even deeper, rarer thought that only brought itself to the front when they slept together in the early hours of the morning. On dark, dreamless nights where the only thing Kadoc could see was the slowly whirring ceiling fan above him and Ritsuka's shadowed slumbering face, Kadoc wondered if Ritsuka secretly hoped she would never show up again in Kadoc's life. Their lives at this point.

And so they waited. And they hoped.