Love Stage: Hidden Love

Market

"... in the spare, I should get my guitar over here..."

"What?" Rei blinked at him.

"Oh, uh, you didn't want an office?" Shougo asked.

Rei shook his head to clear it. Shougo looked perplexed. "Sorry I zoned out for a moment. What office?" Rei asked.

"Oh, I thought we could put both desks in the other room. It could be our office slash study space." Shougo offered. Rei smiled nodding.

"I like the sound of that." He insisted.

"Great." Shougo was clearing away the garbage from their breakfast.

"You have a guitar?" Rei asked.

"Yeah, I left it at Chris's place since I wasn't sure if I was coming back here or not." Shougo added. He explained Chris was his bass player.

"Oh. Are you still looking for a drummer?" Rei asked.

"I guess we will have to. Brain can play, but that will dull our sound a bit. I mean I have a hard time playing lead guitar and singing." Shougo frowned.

Rei took his hand as they walked back into the apartment. He helped Shougo toss the garbage. Collecting his wallet and keys, he slipped his outside shoes on.

"I can play." Rei said as he closed the door, turning away, he locked it.

"Drums?" Shougo looked both excited and shocked. Rei laughed.

"You look like you don't believe me. But yes, drums. I used to make some spare cash playing at a local bar. I was sort of like the house drummer." He added as they headed on down the street.

"Really? How come you never told me you were this cool!" Shougo cried.

He gripped Rei's arm in both his hands. "You have to come to practice! Let the other guys see!" He cried out.

"I mean, Alfie will be there to judge if you're good enough..." Shougo spewed out all sorts of stuff as if he had lost the filter between his brain and his mouth.

"Alfie?" Rei asked.

"Oh, our old drummer, the one that got hurt. Um, do you play punk music?" he suddenly asked.

"I was a house drummer. I pretty much can paly anything you want." He winced as he said that.

"Anything but Kpop!" He cringed at the thought.

Shougo laughed. Rei glanced down. Shougo was waving his free hand around as he talked. They were walking toward a busy section of town. People bustled past them without looking at them at all. Shougo was still holding onto Rei's arm. Rei had subconsciously tucked his hands into his pants pockets in order to keep his arm still for the teen to latch on to. He smiled at this.

Glancing around at the crowd, Rei discovered not many people were paying much attention to them. He saw another set of men walking closely together. When they saw him looking, one smiled swinging their arms out. Rei noted they were holding hands. Rei gave a head bob back to them. Not far beyond them two girls had their arms around each other's waist. They were laughing about something.

Rei wondered if they were just friends or if they were dating. It was harder to tell with women since they tended to hug or touch each other more if they were friends. Yet, the more Rei looked at the people around him, the more he noticed how openly they showed their pride. He slipped his hand from his pocket.

There was a narrow space coming up. He wouldn't be able to fit through it next to Shougo. Dropping back, he slid his arm around Shougo's waist. When the blond turned to look at him, Rei nodded to the space. Shougo smiled moving through it. He captured Rei's hand against his stomach. Rei was pulled in closer to the man beside him.

They walked from stall to stall. Shougo happily carrying the bags they were getting from each vendor. They were about halfway down one side when someone walked up to Rei.

"You didn't bring your own bags?" the man asked.

Rei looked over at him. He was frowning at the amount of things Shougo was trying to carry.

"Sorry, we just moved here. We didn't get our reusable bags yet." Rei explained. The man smiled at this.

"Oh, ok, you really need to be more considerate of your partner." He produced two bags. Then pointed out the place where they could buy more.

Rei thanked him. Once he assisted Shougo with putting their purchases into the first two bags, he had him wait for him. Going across the street to one of the first stalls, Rei bought six more bags, just to be sure. He came back to find Shougo in a discussion about passion fruit with a girl who was wearing men's clothing. She didn't have a binder on. Rei didn't question this. Instead he stepped to Shougo's side, selecting a bin of Strawberries.

"I like these." He inserted into the conversation.

"Finally! Someone with some sense!" the woman cried out. Shougo giggled. She chuckled before paying for her oranges and walking away.

"You seem to be good at making friends." Rei smiled.

"I've always loved this part of town. It's one place I didn't feel weird for loving you." Shougo offered.

"What?" Rei blinked.

He saw Shougo's face redden, but the teen quickly changed the topic. He pointed out where the meat was.

Rei followed him, giving him the chance to avoid talking about what he had said. They spent the morning roaming leisurely through the stalls. What they couldn't get there, Rei ducked into a supermarket to purchase on their way home.

After they took care of the groceries, Rei glanced over to Shougo. The teen was babbling on about some poster he saw for the local theater's production of Peter Pan.

"Shougo?" Rei asked silencing the babble.

"Yeah?" Shougo asked.

"Do you want to he in a romantic relationship with me?" he asked.

"Only since I met you." Shougo blushed. Rei ducked his head.

"I'm not sure if I would be good at it. My past was... well not a good indication of how to find love." Rei muttered.

"Well, I have no past for that so, let's just take it one day at a time." Shougo beamed.

"Sounds like a plan." Rei nodded.

"I need to call the guys to let them know I will be bringing you to band tryouts!" Shougo waved to rush off to the bedroom. Rei smiled after him.