The morning silence was broken by a loud sneeze that reverberated through Hachin’s skull. God, he was so cold, and he’d rather be sleeping than be outside right now. But he’d gotten out of bed out of necessity, not for fun. Sometimes a guy had to get a part time job to get by. Not everyone could be as loaded as Sojun.

He rubbed his reddened hands together, blowing air at them in an attempt to heat them up before stuffing them in his armpits. His winter jacket was getting worn out and not as effective, even with his regular jacket layered with a sweater underneath. It was like when the band ended up at that curling tournament in Aryaska and he froze his ass off, except he was prepared for the cold this time and was still suffering.

Especially when his job was outdoors. At least he would be moving around a lot, doing all manners of errands since he was the lowest on the food chain, so it was better than if he’d had to stand still in the cold. And it was only six hours, he could do this.

By the time he got off work it was six in the morning, and he was pretty sure he would sleep for a year once he got back home. He was in the middle of pulling the bright yellow vest over his head when he heard someone call out to him from behind. Not by name, but ‘hey, bee kid’ sure sounded like it was about him. Turning around while he was trying to warm up his hands and rubbing his cold nose, he stared up at a man about Sojun’s height, with tan skin, water combed hair and glasses. He was attractive, but the hairstyle definitely didn’t suit him. There was something familiar about the man, but he wasn’t sure what.

“I thought it was you,” the man said, looking Hachin up and down, making the boy take a defensive stance. He didn’t think he’d been in a fight with any suits recently, but he’d fought enough people for them to blur together at this point. “Don’t think I can’t kick your ass just because I’m tired as fuck,” he growled, though he wanted to do anything but get into a fight right now. Normally he’d be all for it, but he just needed to get some sleep before school started in a few hours.

The man raised an eyebrow at him, keeping his body relaxed. “Calm down brat, I’m not here to fight you, it’s too early for that shit.” Hachin bristled at the name calling, but didn’t get the chance to talk back before the man spoke again. “I’m Rom, I’m in ShinganCrimsonz, from the curling thing, remember?”

Hachin squinted at him, putting up a hand to hide the man’s hair from view. If you ignored the glasses… “Ah!” Jumping backwards he pointed an accusatory finger at the man. “I remember you! Why’re you looking so ugly?!”

Rom pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve got a day job. Just like you seem to have a night job. Aren’t you still in school? You should be sleeping right now.”

Lower lip jutting out, full on pout of defiance on his face and nose in the air, Hachin crossed his arms. “I’m 16, I’m allowed to have a part time job.”

It made Rom roll his eyes, adjusting the scarf around his neck. “Yeah, yeah. I just remember how much sleep teenagers need, s’all.” Hachin was just about to respond when his stomach did it for him by growling so loudly he wished he was a mole rather than a bee so he could hide in the ground. Or that he’d had wings at least. He felt his stomach cramp, and he pressed a hand to it with an embarrassed noise. “Ngah, I gotta go-” a hand grabbed him by the hood of his jacket, making him let out an undignified squak and flailing dramatically.

“Let’s get you some breakfast, brat.”

Having someone buy you food was weird. Yasu had brought the band food twice, and they’d had some food at his mum’s shop once after they finished helping out making all the bentos for the festival they’d performed at the day after, but they hadn’t gone out for food yet or anything. So having this guy treat him to breakfast was… odd but nice. Was this what having an older brother was like? Or was this guy old enough to be his dad? He wasn’t sure, but having neither in his life, he could only imagine this was maybe a little bit what it was like.

He stared down at his sandwich as he chewed, for a minute not moving at all until Rom spoke. “Hey, you doing okay?” Snapping out of it, Hachin grinned a toothy smile. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

The man looked at him for a moment, but seemed to finally decide not to pry, which was a relief. Hachin didn’t know how to explain what he was thinking without sounding crazy or having to explain himself further, and he didn’t want to be looked down on or pitied. If that happened he’d throw fists regardless of how tired he was. “I saw your performance at the festival. You’re really good.”

Hachin’s grin grew at the praise. “Right? It was really fun and we didn’t even end up fighting after.”

Rom raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you usually do that?”

The bee teen nodded between bites. “I mean, yeah, we never planned on starting a band, it was forced on us. ‘Make a band or get expelled’ kinda stuff. We didn’t get along at all . But I enjoy it more than I thought I would.”

“Is that legal?”

“Dunno.” With a shrug, Hachin finished his food, licking his fingers clean of any stray crumbs and butter. “It still got me interested in something other than fighting, so it’s okay.”

The leopard was still sceptical, but there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment, so he let it be to be taken up at a later date. “But you’re friends now?”

Hachin pursed his lips. “I think so. They don’t ditch me as soon as I try to high five them or ask if they wanna go eat together anymore, at least. So I hope we are.” He felt vulnerable admitting it, but he’d wanted to become their friend for a while now. He’d tried, but they’d shunned him with disinterest. But now… things were looking better. It made him smile, flustered. “That was so embarrassing!”

The corner of Rom’s lips twitched upward. “It’s not embarrassing to admit you care about someone. My bandmates are dumbasses, but I love them.”

Hachin pulled his legs onto the seat, making Rom tell him to not make the seat dirty (yeah, older brother or dad, that feels like something he’d imagine either would say, if he ventured a guess). “Fua! That’s so cringe! How can you just… admit that?!”

“In your case, probably by insulting them first, too,” Rom said with a smirk that made Hachin crack up at the same time as he hid his face in his knees at the thought of admitting that he cared. “Just so you know, you don’t have to say you love them or anything, if that’s too much. But if you at least care about them, you gotta let them know. It’s better in the long run.” There was something about the look in the man’s eyes that told him he had some sort of first hand experience.

“Guuuh… They’d laugh at me so hard, especially Sojun.” He propped his chin up on his knees and looked at the man sitting in front of him. “...I’ll think about it.” Yasu had dared speak out loud about how he wanted to take the band seriously after all, so maybe he could be honest about how he really, really wanted to be friends. He got out of his seat, finished with his breakfast. “I gotta go. Thanks for the food.”

With all their trash neatly collected on their tray, Rom stood up as well, reaching out a hand to ruffle the teenager’s hair, gold and purple standing up in every direction before falling back mostly into place. “Make sure you get some sleep before school, kid.” Startled by the gesture, Hachin let out an embarrassed squak, cheeks red as he straightened out his hair. God, this man acted so much like he imagined family would, and he didn’t know how to handle it.

He hid his face by pulling the fluffy hood of his jacket up over his head. Embarrassed, he murmured a ‘sure’ and hurried off after a quick ‘goodbye’, hearing Rom chuckle as the door shut behind him.

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