#kyotopia

“Tobe? You’ve been staring for a while now.” Monster chuckled, softly stirring the straw in his drink.

The chef was immediately broken out of his reverie. He blinked slowly, realizing that he had, in fact, been staring at his boyfriend for a while now.

Despite still feeling a bit lofty, Aikotoba quickly quipped, “I mean, what do you want from me? Someone as handsome as yourself is deserving of a bit of a stare.”

It wasn’t hard to miss Monster’s deep green blush, and the man turned down to stare at his drink. “Ah, yeah, well…”

Aikotoba hummed a bit before looking back down at his small cup of Robot Juice, which immediately filled him with joy again at finally finding a café that served his favorite beverage, and then quickly stole another glance to the other man.

Though the blush had faded, Monster still stared down at his coffee- Laced with some energy drink Tobe didn’t remember the name of- with a pensive look on his face.

It was then that Tobe remembered the reason why he took his boyfriend out for a date.

“Monster, it’ll be fine.” That certainly caught said mans attention. His shocked face let Aikotoba know that he had hit the nail on its head.

"Why are you still worrying about it? Everything will be fine, you aren't our leader for nothing." Aikotoba reached for Monsters hand before gently squeezing it, hopefully portraying his trust in full.

"I know, I know, it's just... What if the predictions aren't correct? You know that Plane Theory’s predictions haven't been the same after..." Monster trailed off, but it wasn’t hard to guess what he had meant to say.

"Does it still hurt..? I thought you didn't mind saying their name. They don't have the power to hurt us anymore." Aikotoba mumbled, watching his words carefully to make sure that he didn't say Yin's name by accident.

Tobe was the luckier one out of the entire M.G.G., being spared from the more unbearable punishments for simply being Monsters ally. Despite that, though, it still wasn't the most pleasant of memories- Being trapped in that dark and empty void, among other things.

"It doesn't. I can say their name now, at least. At this point, I'm convinced it's just muscle memory." With a dry chuckle that sounded more like a grimace, Monster took a sip of the energy-drink-laden coffee. Whether he was trying to avoid speaking further or something else, it was fairly clear that this specific topic had reached its conclusion.

The two sat in a slightly comforting silence, Tobe gently holding Monsters free hand while the latter occasionally took sips of his drink, doing his best to avoid another heavy conversation.

Luckily for him, Aikotoba became a master at changing the topic.

“I heard that RHAC and DHK might be moving in together.” Aikotoba casually dropped, and gleefully took a sip as Monster nearly spat out his own.

“Really?! It feels like yesterday that the two started tolerating each other, and now they’re roommates?” While Monster mostly sounded surprised, the sliver of joy present wasn’t easily ignored.

Though he did his best to see himself as a someone who didn’t have time to be caught up in with emotions, his love for his friends always seemed to demand to be front and centre.

Tobe hummed again in an attempt to stall for time. It’d been a bit since he last heard the news from the two, and he needed a moment to remember most of the details. “Before you get too happy, though, RHAC was also attempting to convince Theory to join them. I doubt that weirdo will actually accept it, seeing as he can’t bear to be without his lab for more than a day.”

Monster snickered. “I wonder how he even survived in Karkaton without any of his experiment tools. Surely he must’ve thrown a fit of some kind?”

The two shared another mischievous snicker, though Aikotoba held back more. He could tell his boyfriend about what truly happened in that horrible place some other time: For now, he just needed to distract the leader from the monsters slated to arrive tomorrow.

It was the least he could do, seeing how useless Aikotoba had become as of late. Even if it meant that he could ease his mind only for a moment…