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Sunlight filtered through Hisoka's apartment, the quiet stillness of the morning intact. Hisoka fixed himself a cup of coffee, adding five or so packets of sugar to the already extremely sweet mixture. He hummed softly, staring through the window at the large cityscape, ignoring the strange feeling in his stomach. Something was missing.
"I wish you would stop doing that." A voice came from the hallway. Illumi's head popped out from behind the doorway, sleepiness lingering in his eyes. Hisoka grinned and made a cup of coffee for the other. He pushed the mug into Illumi's hands, who took it gladly.
"Doing what?" Hisoka exaggerated the swaying of his hips as he made his way over to the couch, plopping down with a sigh. Illumi properly took a seat next to him.
"Wearing nothing." Illumi used one hand to gesture towards Hisoka's figure and used the other to bring his mug to his lips, ignoring the hot liquid searing his throat.
"Lumi~" Hisoka shifted so he was facing his partner. "You know I can't stand the summer heat. It makes my hair frizzy and makes me drowsy."
Illumi furrowed his eyebrows, remembering last year's summer dance intensive where Hisoka had wore sweatpants the entire time. And never broke a sweat. It was an obvious lie, but Illumi didn't feel like questioning it.
"The least you can do is wear pants."
"I am!"
"Those are not pants. Those are boxers. And mine at that."
Hisoka glanced down at Illumi's black boxers, which he was wearing. They had no exotic pattern, so they definitely weren't his. "Why does it matter? You never care about me." Hisoka took a sip of his sugary coffee, frowned, and stood up to fetch more sugar packets.
"I don't care about you." Hisoka smirked, knowing that Illumi was half-lying. "I'm concerned about our neighbors across the street. They don't need a private show of your naked body every morning in the summer. The least you can do is put on pants."
Hisoka glanced out the large apartment window, and sure enough, he could see the silhouettes of their neighbors across the streets. "But Lumi, don't you get a private show? Why not share a bit?" Hisoka finally added his finally sugar packet to his coffee and joined his partner back on the sofa.
"I worked for that show. They did not."
"You sound jealous."
"I'm not jealous."
"Yes you are, Lumi~"
"Hisoka. I am not jealous. I am simply concerned for the well being of our neighbors. Seeing you naked is certainly going to give them trauma for the rest of their lives."
Hisoka feigned offense, storming through the apartment to their shared bedroom. He remembered last summer, where Illumi had first (unofficially) moved in with him and not wearing pants had resulted in a rather delightful event. He wasn't sure why Illumi was so touchy about it this time. "I'll put on pants."
"Amazing! Thank you."
--
"I thought you hated romcoms." Hisoka sipped from his cheap plastic cup full of soda.
"I do. They are unrealistic and makes people believe in things that will never happen." Illumi ate a kernel of popcorn, made a face of disgust, and set the bag aside. He had let Hisoka order the popcorn, and of course he picked chocolate and caramel. Far too sweet for Illumi's taste.
"Then why did you pay for our tickets?" Hisoka asked, taking the bag of popcorn.
"Correction. I paid for your ticket. I didn't buy one for myself."
"Lumi, I believe in illegal things. You know I do. But not paying for a movie ticket? That's borderline the most scandalous crime ever."
Illumi shrugged. "I'm low on money."
Only a few minutes into the movie, Illumi slipped away from the movie theater. He made a phone call outside, then watched people enter and exit the theater, quickly slipping behind a conveniently placed pillar when he noticed some students from his master class exiting from the theater.
Hisoka noticed his absence halfway through the movie, far too enamored with the awful soundtrack and subpar acting of the romcom. There was something intriguing about how fake everything seemed, yet also perfect at the same time. Also, the only movies most of the students would talk were romcoms, and Hisoka loved to relate to them. Especially because it creeped them out. That was the best part.
Once the movie was over and the theater lights turned back on, Hisoka found Illumi back in his seat in the exact same perfect-posture-no-facial-expression position.
"How was the movie?" Illumi asked, carrying Hisoka's empty popcorn bag and empty soda cup and throwing them in the trash, a rather surprising gesture from him that made Hisoka question his partner.
"It was the exact same as all the other movies. Very cliché and awful acting. I loved it." Hisoka grinned and pranced out the theater door, illumi following close behind.
Quietly, so Hisoka close barely hear him, Illumi mumbled, "I'm glad."
Hisoka was sure he was forgetting something now, but Illumi sparking another question about the romcom allowed him to push the thought away.
--
"Don't worry about cooking tonight." Illumi was fixing his green no-sleeved cropped jacket vest. "We're going out to eat at that fancy restaurant you wanted to go to."
Hisoka popped his head through the doorway, stopping for a few seconds to admire Illumi's figure in the dark green tuxedo. "The Mexican food, the bar, the other strip club, or the actual sit-down rooftop restaurant?"
Illumi handed a tuxedo to Hisoka. "The last one. The others don't count as restaurants. And they aren't fancy."
"But I really want to go to them."
"Tuxedos are not the best attire for strip clubs, and you especially would know."
"Yes, but they work for that place with the Mexican food."
"Tuxedos are not the correct attire for Chipotle, Hisoka."
Hisoka slipped into the black tux and fixed his bright pink tie. He had always complained that he wanted to go to Yorknew's Top, despite the bad reviews for the place. But for Illumi to get a reservation for the fancy rooftop restaurant seemed highly suspicious. The feeling of emptiness and forgetfulness returned, but Hisoka ignored it in favor to ogle at Illumi a bit longer.
At the Yorknew's Top, Illumi heavily judged the food, and for once, so did Hisoka.
"This was not worth the price. Perhaps tuxedos are okay for Chipotle just this once." Illumi poked the heavily overcooked steak with his fork.
"I ordered sweet tea, not soda." Hisoka smiled at the waiter, which caused her to blush and stutter out an apology. "The main reason I wanted to come here was because of the name. It sounds like the counterpart of my... side job."
"It's equally awful in decoration, taste, and workers." Illumi waved his hand for the bill and paid no tip.
"Lumi~, you know that's not true. The decoration and taste may be horrible, but the workers are far worse than the ones at the strip club."
"That's unfair because you are biased."
"Technically, you are too." Hisoka and Illumi walked out of the building and headed to the Chipotle across the street.
--
"I thought you were low on money. Why are you paying?" Hisoka watched Illumi hand his credit card to the cashier. Illumi shrugged and took the strawberry ice cream cone from the worker, handing it to Hisoka.
"You want some?" Hisoka offered, after licking most of the dripping ice cream and savoring the sweetness in his mouth. Illumi shook his head, and the two headed out of the sweets store.
As the pair wandered down the street, Illumi pointed out something in a store window.
"Pink, blue, or black?" he asked. Without thinking about the context of the question, Hisoka immediately answered.
"Pink."
Illumi slipped into the store and returned a few seconds later.
"What was that about?" Hisoka asked, noticing that Illumi was carrying a small object in his hand that he was not carrying earlier.
"Nothing of importance. Let's go back to your apartment." Illumi started a brisk walk towards Hisoka's apartment, and Hisoka followed him.
"Lumi~, didn't I tell you to stop saying my apartment? It's ours. We live there together, since a visitor that stays for almost an year and has all of their belongings in the apartment isn't really a visitor anymore."
Illumi gave one of his rare genuine smiles, which shocked Hisoka. The last time Illumi had smiled, it was when Hisoka injured himself during one of his pole dancing sessions at the strip club when he was being too risky. And the time before that, it was when Hisoka twisted his ankle during a hip hop masterclass by, again, being too risky.
Now something was definitely off. Illumi had treated him to a movie, dinner, and dessert. Just one was unlikely enough, but all three surely meant something. Hisoka was positive something was off. The feeling that kept returning came back in full force.
Hisoka's mind wandered to the several stupid ideas in his head. Illumi has the power to see when he was going to die, so he was acting nice because the time was getting close. Illumi is hallucinating. Illumi has short-term memory loss. Illumi was going to kill him, so treating Hisoka was similar to the last meal for criminals facing capital punishment.
All of those were far fetched except the last one, which didn't make Hisoka feel any better. But Illumi seemed at peace, humming a low, monotone note.
--
Hisoka and Illumi were sipping tea, one sweet and the other not, and staring out of the large window.
"I love how the most obvious feature about yo-our apartment is the unnaturally large window." Illumi noted.
"So are we just going to ignore all the beautiful hanging plants? I take a lot of care making sure they stay healthy."
"Yes. But we will take notice of the lack of wall decorations around the window. Also the plants are fake."
Hisoka snorted, and shifted so he was in a more comfortable position. The two watched the sunset behind Yorknew.
"Oh, I have something for you." Illumi placed his mug on the kitchen counter and fetched something from their bedroom, returning with an item in his hand.
"Here." Illumi handed a bright pink deck of cards to Hisoka.
"Thanks, but what's this for?" Hisoka opened the deck, but not before noticing the price tag of 1040 jenny. He shuffled through the cards, enjoying their texture and flexibility.
"You didn't remember?" Illumi asked, tilting his head in concern.
"No...? What is it? Some holiday? Lumi~, it's not our anniversary yet." The strange feeling returned again.
"Hisoka..." Illumi shifted closer to the other. "It's your birthday."
"Oh."
"You didn't forget, did you?" Illumi asked.
"Well, my birthday isn't really something I remember. Or want to remember. There's no need to celebrate the day I regret most."
"'Soka," Illumi mumbled, feeling bad.
"Is that why you did all that stuff today?"
Illumi nodded. "Yes."
"What about the money situation? You said you were low."
"I am. Mother is still disgusted by the idea of us living together, so the only money I own is from teaching classes at the academy."
"But you still paid for everything?"
Illumi shrugged. "Did you want to pay for your birthday? I still have receipts. Other than the deck of cards, you owe me 3940 jenny."
"Oh no, that's fine. I still really appreciate it though! I loved everything you did for me today. Thank you so much Illumi." Hisoka smiled and looked at Illumi, who immediately turned his head back to the window.
"Stop looking at me like that."
The quiet stillness of the evening was intact.
Hisoka grinned even more. "But Lumi~"
The light of the setting sun filtered through the window.
"I will kill you."
"I would love that."