Title: Cirque
Author: xphosphorous
Genre: AU, angsting (later)
Pairing: Kyo/Toshiya
Word Count: 1,381
Rating: PG(-13?)
Warnings: Kyo's mouth.
Summary: Kyo encounters an (un)familiar face at work.
Disclaimer: I own them like Kyo owns a Hello Kitty nightlight. :I
A/N: TA DA. Here's the midget boy. :D
_{-promptly and viciously mauled-}


Kyo woke up to a stiff neck and rice crumbs all over his couch. Dammit. He’d fallen asleep without cleaning up his dinner again. The small man deposited his plate on the coffee table and stood up slowly, grimacing as his joints ached in protest. He really needed to start getting to bed sooner if this was going to keep happening.

Thankfully, none of the rice had been flattened into the couch, so it was easy to clean up. Kyo dropped the grains onto his plate and turned around, suddenly remembering that the TV was on. He immediately recognized what was playing, and hesitated in picking up the remote to turn it off. Cirque du Soleil would be what he fell asleep to, Kyo thought amusedly. Oh, but he’d woken just in time. The contortionists’ part had started. It was, admittedly, Kyo’s favorite part. He envied the way they could twist their bodies into such unnaturally beautiful positions.

The addition of a young man in the past year had completely surprised Kyo. He’d been a fan of the Cirque for a long time, but he couldn’t remember ever seeing a male contortionist in the show before. Truthfully, Kyo knew gender had nothing to do with contortion abilities, but it still amazed him that a man had joined the Cirque as a contortionist.

Being male, he was therefore more readily distinguished from the other contortionists, even in their outfits, and this had helped contribute to the growth of a visible fanbase. Even Kyo had found himself paying more attention to the newcomer than any performer previous. He’d even bothered to look up the man’s name but found himself unable to remember. He’d have to check again later.

Suddenly, a harsh ringing cut through Kyo’s not-so-subtle examination of the contortionist’s legs. Shit. That was Nora’s ringtone. Kyo sighed, pausing the DVD and picking up his cellphone.

“What the hell, Nora? I’m not working today.”

“You are now. And don’t try and tell me you’re busy. You only spent the past week telling me how you had nothing to do. Tora had a last-minute family emergency – he can’t come in.”

“Goddammit.”

“I better see your ass in here by 7:30.” It was 6:43.

“Fine, fine.” With that, Kyo hung up, his morning thoroughly ruined. He stabbed moodily at the TV’s power button and turned away to scrounge up a quick breakfast.

After a good deal of coffee and a piece of toast, Kyo began the walk down to his job. The music store he worked at wasn’t anything impressive, especially not by Shibuya’s flashy standards, but it was well known in the underground/indie scene, and that was fine with Kyo. Most of the popular music today was (in his opinion) complete shit, and one of his personal rules was to never get involved with it in any way.

The walk was short; Kyo had chosen his apartment for that reason in particular. Shibuya wasn’t his favorite district, but it beat having to ride the trains into and out of work every day. He ignored the bustle of the crossing behind him as he unlocked the store and prepared for the morning shift. At least it was the morning shift. There were usually fewer customers during the first half of the day, so it wasn’t as if he’d be terribly busy.

Sure enough, by the time noon rolled around, there had been only two customers (plus Nora) in the shop. Kyo had been amusing himself mainly with the music available and by counting the number of people wearing yellow who walked past. He hated yellow.

Then, as Kyo was contemplating leaving for his lunch break, a young man walked in. There wasn’t anything spectacularly notable about him except for maybe the knee brace on his left leg; his hair was its natural black, he wore no make up, and his clothes had simple, clean lines. He smiled at Kyo briefly in greeting, and in that split second, Kyo swore he knew the man.

It was the strangest case of déjà vu Kyo had ever had. He wracked his memory viciously, trying to remember if he really did know the other man. It couldn’t be high school – he remembered everyone from his class because he hated them. Besides, he was sure he wouldn’t forget someone that tall; this guy had to be at least 45 cm taller than him. Kyo didn’t know anyone that tall, did he?

Stomping on his attempts to recognize the other man (because the moment you stopped thinking about something you remembered it, right?), Kyo went back to watching him shuffle around the store, staring at the merchandise but rarely touching any. He was new to the store, obviously, but Kyo could tell he loved music. “Can I help you?” Kyo called, after a beat. The man’s head swung around, startled, but he blinked pleasantly and pushed a lock of hair behind his ear.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” Kyo asked, leaving his seat behind the counter and joining the other man by the ‘new releases’ stand.

“Mm, that’s the thing. Indie isn’t my usual scene. I’m looking to branch out my musical tastes and thus need recommendations.” He stopped scanning the CDs and looked down at Kyo almost proudly. “Also, my vinyl and CD collections are sorely lacking.” The mention of vinyl piqued Kyo’s interest; few people (besides the ones who shopped here) even owned record players anymore.

“Well,” Kyo said, already flipping through the larger collection, “what d’you usually listen to?”

“It varies. Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Linkin Park, NIN…”

“Ah.” Then Kyo was quiet, sifting through rows of CDs. Occasionally he would pull one out, and it would be added to the pile in his arms or examined but replaced. The taller man followed, watching with interest over Kyo’s shoulder as he worked. Once finished, Kyo placed the mass of CDs on the checkout counter and gave a brief description of each band. “Pick whichever ones you want. I’ll even hold the other ones if you want to check those out later. If it turns out you like them, most of these are available in vinyl, too.” The other man took a minute, examining each one, then removed three and stacked them neatly in front of Kyo.

“Just those, please. And that’d be cool, if you could hold onto the others.” There was a broad smile on his face.

“Sure,” said Kyo, taking the CDs. He rang them up quickly, deactivating the anti-theft material and depositing them in a paper bag. “Alright, with newbie discount—“

“What?”

“First-time customers get 15% off.”

“How can you tell if I’m new? What if I decide to be sneaky and come back when there’s a different person here?”

“There are only three of us working here, and we let each other know about new customers.”

“That’s… only a little creepy,” he said teasingly. Kyo laughed.

“D’you want the discount or not?” The man stuck out his tongue, but retrieved his credit card from his wallet and paid. “We have a mailing list, too, if you’re interested,” Kyo added, now resting his chin in the palm of his hand.

“Mm, nah. I would like your email, though.” He’d already pulled his phone out. “I wanna be able to ask you ask you stuff without having to come in here every time I have a little question. I’d have to take the train in and out; it’d be inconvenient.” Kyo thought vaguely that he wouldn’t mind seeing him in the store during his shift.

“Sure.” Kyo took the other man’s phone and deftly entered his address.

“My name’s Toshiya, by the way.”

“Kyo.” Toshiya retrieved his phone and sent Kyo an email so that his address would register in the shorter man’s phone. Finished, he smiled brightly down at Kyo and took his CDs.

“Cool. I’ll talk to you later, then.” Kyo nodded and watched Toshiya exit, humming thoughtfully.

It took Kyo another good fifteen minutes to remember that Toshiya was the name of the Cirque’s new contortionist, and he stared incredulously at the name in his address book until his stomach growled at him and he decided that he really should go get lunch.

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