A/N: Many parts of life - and chapters of a story - can be longer or shorter than expected. What's important is to take it as it is and roll with it. Hope you guys enjoy this (short) chapter!
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"Hey, hey Sohinki," Joven held up the big red bathtub for MouseTrap, pointing at the ball-sized hole in it. "The bathtub's broken."
Sohinki was silent as he continued setting up the game.
Joven put the bathtub down on the floor and starting turning the crank at the beginning of the setup. "Hey, hey Sohinki," he grinned, turning the crank over and over, watching it as the gears turned but nothing was set off. "This game is broken!"
Sohinki still wasn't paying attention. His face was blank and unenthusiastic. He was just fiddling with the chute piece he was holding in his hands.
"I'm going to get coffee," Sohinki said, standing up.
Joven craned his head up, mouth opening to say something, but Sohinki was already gone.
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"I have a yellow," Joven said, holding up a big yellow piece for Mousetrap. It wasn't the lamp post – which was already down – or the tub or one of the gears, but it was still a piece.
"Oh wow, yeah, good job Joven," Sohinki said, taking the piece from him and placing it on the board.
Then Joven found the bathtub piece.
He gasped excitedly. "Hey, hey Sohinki," he grinned and waved it in Sohinki's face. "The bathtub's broken."
Sohinki burst out into a short laugh, Joven's grin widening to go along with it. "It's got a hole, oh no!" Sohinki bemoaned in pretend sadness.
"How will we ever fix this hole?"'
"Have you got any tape?"
"No, but how about some wood? Some wood down for this hole?"
"What?" Sohinki cried in feigned outrage, though he was laughing too hard for it to be true anger. "Wood's not gonna fix that!"
Joven giggled. Once he'd calmed down, he said, "Well let's put this in anyway and try it and see?"
"Yeah."
*~*
"Alright," Sohinki was now leaning back into his seat, having placed the last Mousetrap piece. "You ready?"
"Yeah," Joven was so, so, so excited. It was 90s nostalgia all over again!
Then Sohinki launched into some sort of roleplay, and wasn't that fun to do. "Blue, blue – oh damn it Jovie," Sohinki playfully whacked Joven on the arm, "You landed on the space!"
"I win! I win!" Joven cheered, pumping both arms up high in the air.
"Oh no, you might get caught in the – " Sohinki grinned at Joven for emphasis.
And together they chanted, "Mouse trap!"
"Boom!" Joven added, making a big gesture with his hands.
Then Sohinki turned the crank. They both waited with heavy anticipation, watching as the elastic-activated lever snapped, which hit a swinging boot, which caused the bucket to be kicked, which sent the marble down the zig-zagging incline and through the chute. Then the marble actually managed to hit the vertical pole, the top of which pushed the other marble on top, which fell into a bathtub, which fell onto a seesaw, which actually kicked the diver up high enough to land in the tub hard enough...
And then the cage was falling!
"YEAH! YEAH!" Joven screamed in delight pumping his arms up enthusiastically enough to jostle them out of their sockets.
Sohinki was laughing and pointing at where the cage had fallen. He started clapping. "You lost, I think."
Joven didn't care in the slightest. "WE DID IT!"
*~*
After that, they'd packed up Mousetrap and called it a night, since it was nearly 12am already.
"Normally I stay up till like, 3am playing video games," Sohinki was telling Joven as the two of them walked back to Sohinki's place.
"Is that what you're gonna be doing now then?"
Sohinki gave Joven a small smile, hands in the pockets of his familiar mid-wash jeans. He didn't answer until they reached the front door to his apartment. "No, not tonight," he murmured.
Then he grabbed Joven's shirt and he captured his lips lovingly, their mouths moving together as one. Joven pressed back, eyes automatically falling closed as he suckled on Sohinki's bottom lip, warm from a night under fluorescent lighting in the midst of Los Angeles in spring.
Sohinki pulled away with a smack. Joven looked at down at him with hooded eyes.
But now, Sohinki looked a bit nervous. "Um..." Sohinki began slowly. "By the way, I'm not actually looking for anything...serious." A few moments pause, but Joven had already frozen. "Is that OK?"
"Yeah!" Joven burst out abruptly, not really thinking about it. "Yeah that's fine," he shrugged, even though it wasn't. "We'll keep it casual, then?"
Joven must have imagined it, but Sohinki narrowed his eyes at Joven for a moment, suspicious.
Joven shuffled around awkwardly, trying to project that yes, yes I'll do it however you want me to do it.
"And we'll build up to slow, yeah," Joven murmured to himself, although some part of him knew that Sohinki was able to hear him. They were standing so close, after all.
Sohinki stared at him for a long time, seeming to be looking for something in his face. For what, Joven didn't know (genuine feelings, perhaps?), but Sohinki must have found it. Because –
"Yeah," he breathed out, sounding relieved. "No attachments."
Then they stared at each other, the atmosphere magnetic and beautiful and illustrious and changing at the same time, and then Sohinki was opening his door and going in.
Yes, Joven thought as Sohinki gave him a last smile and shut the door behind him. Sohinki was like the wind.
And it was beautiful.
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A/N: And that's chapter 4. Apologies for the shorter chapter this time. But thank you for reading anyway. Comment below with your thoughts and leave votes too!
