(Lucky Love~ Michael Seyer)

(Fubuki)

We both came back into the living room, our guest immediately sat up and looked rather embarrassedly at the two of us. "Well, we've been talking and-"
"We think we know the perfect guy for you" Gouenji finished.
He perked up a little and a minuscule smile crept upon his lips. We sat down on either side of him "Do you know someone called Shimozuru Arata by any chance?" Gouenji asked and I searched my friend's face for a sign of knowing.

(Blonde angel)
Arata, the name sounded familiar...but I couldn't quite place it. Maybe I'd met them on a night out? But then that could be any number of people... Well if they're a guy at least that narrows it down a bit. I tried to picture their face but I couldn't seem to. Their eye colour, even their hair colour- nothing. Had I been with them before, had I maybe even dated them? I sighed, I didn't really date much nowadays, it was more just hookups.

And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with two consenting adults having a fun time together and never seeing each other ever again afterwards but...I suppose as I'm getting older, as all my friends are settling down, getting married, I just feel sort of left out? I never even realised how lonely I was until the party, going home to an empty house-that feeling kills.

And maybe I'm just following what society tells me to do; find someone special, get married, start a family- that whole spiel, and I don't want to do that, I've always prided myself on doing what I want with my life- not letting society dictate how I should live it. But, well maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just do stage 1, just find someone that makes me feel good, makes me feel special. I don't care who it is I just want someone.

It's funny, I suppose looking at me, people must think I was a natural to all this dating business, after all I've always carried myself with such confidence. But from the beginning it was just a front. I was terrified.
I knew who I was, and I'd accepted that; but it was convincing myself not to care about what people thought that was tough. Even tougher was trying to approach people, there was always that voice in the back of my mind saying that they wouldn't like me, or that they were too good for me.

I know that's crazy, I'm not being conceited by saying I'm good looking- it's what everyone says, it's unlikely that someone would be out of my league- unlikely, not impossible of course (like I said, I'm not being conceited). Yet, there's always been this self-doubt, like my personality won't match up to my looks, or that people will just judge me right off the bat. It doesn't help that I've dated plenty of assholes in my time- to be fair they're probably the reason I've been so worried about dating lately, I suppose I'm worried it will just end the same way...but if I don't start dating again I'm going to end up single forever- damn why does this have to be so difficult!
"-a picture." I looked up, realising I must have zoned out since Fubuki and Gouenji seemed to be having a conversation.

"What?" I asked, noticing that Shirou was laughing lightly, he had his phone in his hand. "Oh! I was just saying I have a picture of him."
He said, showing me a zoomed-in image of the guy with a group of people I didn't recognise. It looked like some kind of graduation party or something. The picture itself was pretty grainy. "It's not the best, he doesn't seem to have much of a social media presence, and his insta is private. Oh but I found some more." He continued, taking his phone back and swiping at the screen. Gouenji let out a small chuckle, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"He's the same age as us and he went to Mikage Sennou if that helps. He works for a tech company, oh and his birthday's the 20th of November which means as a Scorpio he's got interesting compatibility with a Taurus such as yourself- not that I believe in any of that crap I just think it's interesting to read about-"
"-How did you find out so much about him?" I interrupted. Fubuki grinned at me "I have my ways."
"Well, it's more like Shirou spent the last ten minutes stalking all of his friends." His husband said playfully.
"I didn't stalk I just...used some tricks to track him down on social media, no biggie." Shirou countered and I couldn't help but smile, Fubuki really had a knack for this kind of thing, he could find information on anyone.

"Anyway, here's a better pic. Recognise him at all?" Fubuki asked, handing me his phone. This picture was much clearer- dusty pink hair, slightly tanned skin, grey eyes.
Wait a minute...I did remember this guy...

It was a bitterly cold night, the kind of night best spent cuddled up with the one you love in a heap of blankets, not limping down a dark and badly-lit road in the pouring rain. But that's where Afuro had found himself that night. The rain lashed down relentlessly as he attempted to push the wet hair that whipped about his face out of his eyes. He eventually gave up. His ears pricked up to the sound of a car coming up behind him, he pushed himself as close to the side of the road as he could, stumbling in mud and puddles in the darkness, cursing to himself. The car zoomed past, honking at him. "I'm nowhere near you, asshole." He muttered, watching as it slipped away into the darkness.

"Yuki's getting married soon, she wants me to be a bridesmaid. What a joke." A woman said, head leaning against the passenger window, a disinterested look on her face. "I see." The man in the driver's side responded bluntly, clearly not wanting to start a conversation with the woman. He didn't care enough to ask who this Yuki was. His partner didn't even bat an eyelid, this was normal for the two of them.
"This weather sucks." She muttered, turning her head ever-so-slightly to face the other.
"She's awake." The other replied, ignoring the comment, eyes focused on the rear view mirror. The woman huffed in her seat, turning around to see for herself. She made a face but didn't say anything, turning back around.

The man took another glance at the backseat through the mirror, a small smile appearing on his lips before disappearing as something caught his eye up ahead. A figure, shambling along in the darkness. He began to slow down on instinct, his girlfriend glancing at him "There's someone out there." the man answered and the woman squinted her green eyes at the figure that was now becoming more visible. Their long hair a prominent feature. She huffed "Sucks to be her. Keep driving." she said harshly, folding her arms. Arata gave her a look of disapproval and shook his head. He wasn't about to just drive past this stranger, alone, in such awful weather on a night like this.

He started to slow down even more, flashing his lights as he neared the stranger, his girlfriend perking up "What the hell are you doing?"
"Let me at least see if they're okay first." he said calmly, the stranger seemed to be limping slightly. He took a glance at their five year old daughter in the back who was playing with her hair. The stranger turned around, noticing that there was a car stopping behind them. The man's eyes were drawn to the blonde whose hair was pulled back into a ponytail, locks framing their face, under the headlights the hair shone like gold. And those eyes, such deep, crimson eyes. Except, the driver soon realised that 'she' was actually not a girl, but he was the most beautiful man the other had ever seen as he rolled down the window to speak to him.

"Are you alright?" he asked as the other stooped low to reply. He was absolutely drenched and shivering, only making the other even more worried for him. Afuro spoke, his voice like honey despite the devastated tone it held. "Uh no. My car got stolen. Other than that everything's just peachy." he answered, giving the other an awkward fake smile.
The woman grabbed hold of her boyfriend's jacket, tugging him away from the window "She said she's fine, let's go already!" she whined in an annoying tone, giving the soaked man a evil glare. The blonde considered correcting her but decided there'd be no point, people were always mistaking his gender.

The driver shook out of her grip, looking back at the blonde, Afuro looked into the other's grey eyes, but gave a light smile "It's okay, but thanks anyway..." he said sadly, the rain started to get heavier, dropping like bullets on the bonnet and roof of the car. Icy winds blew chilling him to the bone, he quickly pulled his thin jacket tighter across his body.

"Seriously, it's freezing out, I can't let you stay out here by yourself. Besides you can't be walking on the road like this, it's dangerous." He turned to his girlfriend "There's always accidents round here." He reasoned but his girlfriend just rolled her eyes. He turned back to the blonde "And it looks like you're hurt."
Afuro looked down "I might have stumbled in a ditch a while back, yes." He said a little embarrassed.
"Where are you headed?" The other continued, the blonde looked back at him.
"I live in Shin-Okubo. I mean obviously I would drive but...I guess that's out of the question now. I was gonna try and call a friend to pick me up but my phone died and-"
"-That's not far from where we're going, we could drive you if you want." The man offered. "It's fine, really." Afuro replied, even though he was freezing cold and soaking wet; he'd never hitch-hiked before and he wasn't planning on starting now- besides the woman in the car kept giving him devil eyes 'I really don't want to be stuck in a confined space with 'that'.'

Suddenly a massive thunderclap ripped through the sky above them, followed shortly by an enormous streak of lightning that illuminated their faces. "Daddy! It scary!" The little girl in the back shrieked, her hands covering her little ears in terror. The man whipped around, trying to soothe her fear. Afuro crouched down on instinct covering his head.

"O-on second t-thoughts, a car ride home sounds r-really nice." he said hastily as the man turned back around. 'Fuck this I'm not walking back in a thunderstorm.'
"Mummy, mummy! Sit with me, I'm scared of the loud noises!" the five year old begged and the women tsked loudly, fixing the blonde one more glare before she huffed and got out of the car, getting into back, now slightly damp. 'Thanks little girl, I didn't want to have to ask, not with the demon staring me down.' There was something else too though, although he wouldn't admit it, he very much wanted to sit next to the man- there was just something interesting about him.

"The station will be fine, I can make my way from there, you don't want to be stuck in Tokyo traffic all night." Afuro stated, walking over to the passenger side and opening the door. As much as a drive home sounded nice in this weather he really didn't want to be an inconvenience. He looked down at himself, trying to shake the mud off his shoes as much as he could before getting in.

"Terrible weather we're having." The driver said, trying to break the ice. Afuro swept his hair back, finding the comment funny despite the awkward atmosphere in the small car. "Yeah, it's not great." He said with a smile.
The other man smiled awkwardly "I suppose that was a stupid thing to ask."
Afuro shook his head "No, well I mean...it was a valid statement."
The man just stared at him, for some reason he felt like he could talk about something as pointless as the weather for hours with the blonde.

Afuro was staring back and the driver quickly realised he should introduce himself. "Oh, sorry. I'm Arata by the way, what's your name?"
"Aphrodi." The blonde said, the name rolling so gracefully off his tongue. Arata was taken aback for a moment by the way he'd said it before quickly steadying himself, trying to appear normal. 'What a pretty name, like Aphrodite. Though...' He took another look at the passenger 'He fits the name well.'
Afuro was also thinking to himself, he noticed the subtle way the man had reacted to his name 'Fits pretty well right?'. It wasn't as though Afuro had a bad feeling towards this man, but it was just a habit to give a fake name. You could never be too careful.

"So you live in 'Korea Town' huh? I've heard that place is pretty popular now." Arata asked, starting the car. Afuro crossed one leg over the other "Yeah, it's alright. It's er, got good places to eat and stuff. It's not too busy either."
Arata nodded his head in understanding "Ah, yeah some places in Tokyo can be a bit overwhelming, at least that's what I think."
"Yeah, I lived in Roppongi when I came out of university, I could only stand it for a year before I had to leave." Afuro replied and heard Arata let out a short chuckle.
Afuro had rented a place with Nagumo and Suzuno to make ends meet, and whilst it was fun at first they all soon started to get tired of the constant nightlife. Nagumo and Suzuno moved out first, followed by Afuro. Somewhere like Shin-Okubo was perfect for Afuro, and it reminded him a little of home too.

Arata glanced at the other whilst making a turn "I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you Korean?"
"Yes." Afuro answered simply, a little shocked at how easily the two were able to keep up a conversation, after all they'd only just met. "How did you know?"
Arata shrugged his shoulders "Just a guess."
"Oh." Afuro furrowed his eyebrows, he often wondered how people saw him, as Japanese or South Korean. He'd stopped being so open about it after more than a few people started commenting on it. Only a few people had ever used it negatively, but even the ones that used it positively just made him feel...weird. His last girlfriend insisted on calling him Oppa which he really was not jazzed about.

"So...you work there?" Arata said, pulling Afuro out of his thoughts. The blonde had a certain issue with getting lost in his own thoughts sometimes. He gave a small smile "Yeah, at a modelling agency."
There was a scoff from the backseat "Oh? So you're a model then?" The woman said as Arata glanced at her in the rear view mirror. "You must not be that smart then, no wonder your car got stolen, you probably left the windows down and the key in the ignition."

"Safia!" Arata exclaimed then shot the blonde an apologetic look but Afuro just shook his head, he wasn't fazed- or at least that's what he wanted to project. "Actually I don't model, I just photograph them." He said pointedly, noticing the woman's lips curl into a sort of snarl out of the corner of his eye.
'Is she jealous of me or something? Maybe she feels threatened.'
He wasn't surprised, he got this reaction often- "no I'm not trying to steal your girl or your man. I'm just trying to live my life."
He was really starting to get tired of judgy people.

"Did you file a report with the police?" Arata asked, bringing the conversation back round to Afuro. The blonde just shrugged his shoulder "It was a heap of junk anyway. Besides..." he turned to look out of the window, at the pitch black sky that was still awash with rain "...Reminded me of my ex anyway, he was the one who bought it." He said before tensing up 'Crap I shouldn't have said 'he'.' He slowly turned back around, the man was just sitting there expectantly "What happened?" He asked quietly and Afuro was a little taken back. He wasn't sure why though- this guy didn't have a nasty vibe to him, and after all Afuro shouldn't have to censor himself because of other people's intolerance- but like with most things, you could never be too careful.

Arata suddenly laughed awkwardly "Oh sorry, you don't have to tell me!" Afuro shook his head with a smile "Oh no it's-" he waved his hands frantically, not wanting the other to feel bad "-It's fine I don't mind-"
"-Well I mind." A voice came from the back again and Afuro felt the urge to roll his eyes. "Safia, stop it." Arata groaned, slowing down a bit as the group began to enter the bright lights (and the traffic) of Tokyo.
"Would you stop telling him my name, you shouldn't have given yours either..." she mumbled before trailing off, only Afuro seemed to hear her but he chose not to bring it up.

Safia, Afuro took a look at her through the rear view mirror, not wanting to turn around; she was a very beautiful woman there was no doubt about it. Striking green eyes, long luscious hair. She clearly wasn't Japanese, he couldn't quite place her ethnicity though, he thought she might possibly be of Middle Eastern descent. 'Safia, what a lovely name, for such a horrible woman' He stopped himself 'I'm not supposed to judge, I hate when people do it to me I shouldn't do it to her' he told himself before looking away when she caught his eye in the mirror.

"So, you were saying Aphrodi?" Arata asked, again pulling Afuro out of his deep thoughts. "About your boyfriend?"
"Oh right." Afuro straightened up in his seat, still a little in shock at how casually the guy had said it. "Well, we were on a date, and it was going fine and then he just stated out of the blue that he wanted to break up. And then he made me pay for the meal since it was my turn even though I barely ordered anything and he'd ordered a steak and two bottles of champagne for himself, and then he dumped me, not before he made me drive him home though because he didn't have money for a taxi, so after that mess I drove to this park because I was upset obviously and in hindsight I should've just gone home but I guess I thought walking around in nature would make me feel better, and when I got back someone had stolen my car so...yeah not a great day all round." Afuro said, a little breathless from the rambling. Usually he wouldn't say it all like that, and especially not to a stranger, but with his phone dead it's not like he'd been able to let his friends know just how frustrated he was.

He didn't...particularly want to tell Fubuki, he'd said he didn't like Afuro's boyfriend, said he was only going to hurt him 'Damn, why did he have to be right!'
'Why do you always have to keep dating assholes though? You should've learnt by now, especially after-'

"Aw, that sounds just horrible Aphrodi, I'm so sorry to hear that." Arata's soft voice spoke through the blonde's thoughts for the third time that evening. He smiled at him gently "Don't worry, it'll get better, I promise. Anyway, he must've been a complete idiot to want to dump you." he said softly. Afuro just stared at him, not sure what to say. He was usually very confident when speaking to people ,and he never really was at a loss for words, but there was just something about this man...For some reason he just couldn't seem to speak.

Arata went to change gears and accidentally brushed up against the blonde's thigh. It was only for a second, but it was enough to make Afuro's heart skip a beat. 'What the heck is going on?' He yelled at himself, trying to figure out why he was suddenly feeling this way. It was only then that he remembered he should probably reply. "T-thanks." Was all he was able to mumble.

And when he waved goodbye to him as he headed into the train station his heart was still beating furiously.

"Oh..." I said after a long while.
"So you remember him then?" Gouenji asked me and a tiny smile graced my lips, but fell as I remembered the events of that night "Isn't he married though?" I asked, confused, after all they had a kid.
"No, he's single, it's been about eight months now." Fubuki said nonchalantly, typing something on his phone as he did so. I stopped to think a little bit, that didn't make sense "But eight months would make that...that's the same month I met him." I said. Wait a second, did I cause his marriage to break down or something? 'Oh God- wait, no...no they were already having problems, that was clear to see...it's not your fault they...' I shook my head, worried thoughts plaguing me.

"But he's not even...into guys is he? He was married, and he had a kid!" I exclaimed, feeling my chances slip away one-by-one. Fubuki's phone pinged, he studied the message before looking back at me, a smile on his face. "Actually he wasn't married." His phone pinged again "And apparently he's bi."
"Who are you talking to?" Gouenji asked but Shirou just grinned at him "Just a mutual acquaintance who knows a bit about him."
"That was fast." His husband acknowledged, a small laugh escaping his lips.
"Come on, that shouldn't surprise you by now Shuu~ya~." Fubuki countered, a mischievous grin on his face.

Shuuya shook his head, then pulled Shirou into his side, making the other chuckle. "What did you write? 'Hey my friend thinks your friend is cute'?"
Fubuki looked at his husband, an innocent look on his face "Oh no, I simply said that my friend was looking for some-" Gouenji covered his mouth before he could finish. "Shirou?!"
"I wasn't going to say something dirty! Geez Shuuya." Fubuki stated, moving his hand away.
I looked at them both incredulously "Um?!"

Fubuki looked back at me "Oh! Sorry, this is about you." I shook my head, staring at my lap; there were so many emotions, feelings whizzing about inside my head, I just didn't know what to do. I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was Fubuki. He gave me an apologetic look "Hey, there's no pressure really. I can set you two up on a date, but that's completely down to you."
"It's not like you have anything to lose. If it doesn't work out then we'll just try again, if it goes well...then it could be the start of something great." Gouenji reasoned, I shook my head, it wasn't as simple as that.

I didn't...I wasn't like interested in him, sure he was kind and seemed like a good guy but like, that doesn't mean I want to date him. 'But don't you remember how he made you feel in that moment? It was like Cupid's bow had struck you, you could barely speak!'
'No I was just...being silly...'
At the time I just chalked it down to my imagination since I'd just been dumped earlier in the evening, obviously I was just subconsciously projecting my desire to be loved by someone onto him and... yeah that had to be it.

"I'm...I'm not sure about this, I'm not like, attracted to him or anything?" I said honestly and Fubuki sighed "Yeah but you don't have to be. I mean you only briefly met the guy, there's no way you'd be able to form an opinion of him. That's what the date is for. And like Shuuya said, if it doesn't work out, then no harm done, at least you tried."

No harm done? I don't want to go through all the effort of dating someone, getting to know them, getting attached, just for them to inevitably get sick of me and break up with me like everyone else has done. What's the point? If I didn't feel the spark then surely I'm just prolonging the inevitable, just dragging the eventual pain out-
'-what if there was a spark though? What if you weren't just imagining it? What if, like Gouenji said, this could be the key to a new beginning for you? What if-'

I silenced the voices in my head, looking up at my two friends in front of me. "Oh what the heck, fine just do it." I muttered and saw Fubuki's face light up, quickly typing on his phone again.

'This can only end badly.'

((I'm so glad I finally got round to redoing this chapter, especially after redoing The Former Flame earlier I felt I needed to give this one a facelift too. I'm slowly but surely getting through these older chapters and building up the world a bit more like with Afuro living in Shin-Okubo; so that's really fun :)
Also a little mention to CityOfFragments I took inspiration from their university headcannons to have that Afuro (used to) work as a photographer for models rather than a model himself.
I hope to be able to update again))