Work Text:
There’s a secret to claw machines. That’s what Jeff always used to tell him at least, moments before something round and silly tumbled out of the machine and got deposited directly onto Callum’s head. Kyle can picture the exact squint Callum would give Jeff at that, like an old dog tolerating a puppy. Frankie would be trying not to laugh in the background, O’Khan grumbling that nobody is giving him tribute, and Will-.
He can’t picture Will laughing like that. Not after what he’s planning on doing tonight.
“What are you worrying about?” Takeshita asks, breaking Kyle out of his thoughts. Kyle sighs, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
C’mon, Kyle, the Don in his mind chides. You’ve got to break free of him. Otherwise, people will look at you and see two blonde, acrobatic, former New Japan talents. And which one of you is going to look like the original?
He hadn’t thought his hair, bleach-fried as it is, looks that much like Will’s. But Don’s brought it up a few times now, so it must be true. He’d said it too casually for him to have an agenda behind it, and now Kyle can’t get it out of his head.
“It’s nothing,” Kyle mumbles, tearing his eyes away from the cheery Hello Kitty claw machine that sparked his thoughts. “Just nostalgic.”
“Regretful?” Takeshita asks, and something in his dark eyes is softer than usual. Like he’s taken off that shiny red demon mask he wears to reveal something sanded down and human beneath.
“No! Not at all,” Kyle insists, the dinging and whirring of arcade cabinets all around them louder than the voice in his head saying the lie’s obvious. Takeshita nods.
“Alright then. Do you want a prize?”
“Huh?”
“From that. If we’re standing here, I might as well win one for you.”
Kyle means to turn down the offer. He doesn’t need more things to jam into his suitcase, and it’s not like the kind of stuff they’re doling out at an arcade in someplace like Puyallup is anything to write home about. He doesn’t need it. He doesn’t want it.
“Alright,” he finds himself mumbling instead. Just because it’ll be a good bonding activity to let Takeshita show off like this. That’s what tonight is for, after all: team bonding, with a side serving of celebration that after tomorrow he’ll be free of Will. Just because Don disappeared ten minutes ago to go make business calls doesn’t mean that’s changed. So he says yes, because it’s what a good member of the family would do.
He doesn’t say yes because of the way Takeshita’s eyes twinkled a little when he asked. He’s not sentimental like that anymore. Still, five minutes later he’s got his arms full of enough plushies to drown a small child.
“So, is there some kinda trick to those things?” He asks, neatly piling up the stuffed animals in an empty chair in the attached pizzeria. Takeshita lounges back in his seat, arm thrown over the back with a coolness inaccessible to most of humanity. He shrugs, reaching his other arm out to poke a stuffed bear on its nose.
“Sort of. You’ve just got to… feel? The machines.”
“What?”
Takeshita shrugged.
“A- “ He pauses, biting his lip as he contemplates the right word. “Friend taught me,” he says. The word friend sounds like he’s giving up on a better descriptor. “It is hard to explain. I could show you later.”
“You sure that’s a good idea? I feel like we’ve got plenty.” Kyle gestures at his pile. Takeshita pouts, the stone-cold badass look melting away into something way cuter than it has a right to be. Who told him he could be that good at everything?
“But you haven’t won me anything yet. That’s not very fair.”
And so, two beers later, they find themselves back at the cabinets. A couple of kids pass by every so often, looking jealously at their hoard leaned against the side of the claw machine like a cheer squad. Takeshita is hovering behind him, looking over his shoulder in a way few people have. Aside from Davis, but he’s not thinking about Davis until he knows where those chips are going to fall for sure.
“So do I just… go for it?”
Takeshita hums, thoughtfully.
“Sort of. Give it a try and I’ll see what you need to change.”
Kyle slaps his token card against the reader and takes a deep breath. Then feels stupid, because it’s not like this is a wrestling match or anything that actually matters. It’s stupid to feel more anxious about impressing a coworker at an arcade game than about betraying one of his best friends, but here he is. He leans forward and grabs the controls, inching them toward something that’s pink and bright like the gear he knows Takeshita used to wear. He’d like that, right?
The claw hovers inches from the cheerful fabric, then snaps short so close he can see the plushie move. Kyle takes another breath, and hopes the sharpness of it doesn’t make him look bothered. The idea that he might come off as overinvested - and thus, probably, kind of lame - in front of Konosuke Takeshita is unconscionable.
Because they’re coworkers. Of course.
“Close,” Takeshita says, right next to Kyle’s ear. Kyle also doesn’t react to that, because Takeshita seeing the way his body wants to would probably be even more embarrassing than just looking kind of lame. “Here.”
Kyle has to steel himself further, then, as Takeshita reaches around his body and places a hand over Kyle’s on the joystick. He uses his other hand to scan his card for more credits.
“You sure you don’t just want me to stop to the side, mate?” Kyle asks.
“No,” Takeshita says. “Like I said, you’ve got to feel it. Go for that one in the back, it’s sticking up more so it will be easier.”
He closes his eyes. This is less effective at making him focus than it is at making him hyper aware of Takeshita at his back. He opens his eyes. Another breath. He doesn’t have to say
ready,
he and Takeshita have tagged together enough that the man can tell, so instead he lets his hand be guided forward. A few small pushes of Takeshita’s palm against his skin, and the plushie drops out of the slot. Kyle crouches down and retrieves it, presenting it to Takeshita like an offering. Takeshita shakes his head, tutting.
“That doesn’t count,” he says. “I did all of the work. You’re not going to make your teammate do all the work, are you?”
Kyle huffs.
“Of course not,” he says, and only realizes it’s bait four attempts on the claw machine later.
“You’re doing better,” Takeshita says, still standing too close. He’s the sort of man who runs warm, and his body heat in the crowded arcade is making Kyle’s face feel hot.
“Can’t you just tell me how to do it?” Kyle complains. Takeshita leans in close to scan the card again, letting out a thoughtful hum that would have been cuter if Kyle weren’t frustrated.
“No,” Takeshita says. “I’m having a good time. Aren’t you?”
Once again, Kyle should say no. Instead he sighs and taps his card against the reader again. He can’t see Takeshita’s face, but he can imagine a pleased expression on it.
He imagines Takeshita’s hand against his again. The way he’d coaxed the joystick to the side slowly so as not to overshoot.
“You said a friend taught you this?” He asks, as the claw lifts the plushie’s leg. It’s a tenuous grip, and the jostling of the claw coming up causes the bear to slip free.
“We were,” Takeshita says. “It’s hard to say what we are now. I had to let them all go to get here.”
He reaches out and taps his card against the reader.
“We’re gonna run out of tokens,” Kyle says, but grabs the joystick again anyway. “Are you sure there’s not something else you’d rather be doing?”
“Than joining the family?” Takeshita asks. “Do you not want me on your team?”
“I meant instead of watching me fail at this.”
“You’re not failing,” Takeshita says. “One more time.”
He reaches forward, hand ghosting between Kyle’s shoulder blades. Kyle has to shut his eyes again.
“You’re distracting me, Take,” Kyle says, and his voice sounds more affected than he’d planned it to.
“Come on, Kyle,” Takeshita says into his ear, and Kyle’s starting to think Takeshita maybe was planning on affecting him. “You want to be the best in the world. The best don’t get distracted.”
“I’m supposed to be the bratty one in the family,” Kyle grumbles.
“Just take a deep breath and feel it.”
Kyle rolls his eyes, but obeys even though it only halfway makes sense. He tries to picture it like a match, like the push and pull of two bodies. Except in this case, one is a rigged claw machine. Takeshita’s long, slender finger traces along his back in the same direction as the joystick moves. Kyle focuses on that instead of the chirping of the claw machine, and by the time he can breathe again a stuffed dog is falling through the chute at the bottom.
“Good boy,” Takeshita says, and it takes a moment for Kyle to realize the man isn’t talking to him.
“Can we go do the dance machines, now? I’m better at those.”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
Once they’ve spent too much money on the machines and exchanged their tickets for a handful of candy, it’s time to go. As they reach the exit, Takeshita stops.
“What’s up, Take?” Kyle asks, muffled from his armful of plushies. Over the top of a frog shaped one, he can see Takeshita pointing at a sign. Ah. Figures.
“It has been a while,” Takeshita says, wistfully. Kyle can’t imagine that, with Don - who is very fairly focused on them all maintaining their physiques - as his usual translator, Takeshita gets the chance to duck into Cinnabon all that often.
“Let’s go then,” he says, because apparently whatever Don’s phone negotiations led to also led to him abandoning them at the mall. They might as well take advantage of the time.
He doesn’t order anything for himself, because even if Don’s not here Kyle can still see him, but Takeshita gets enough he might as well have been ordering for two of them. He tears into his pile of goods with the focus and reverence of a pilgrim in prayer, and it’s only when it’s nearly done that he speaks again.
“ You know, ” he says, in Japanese. “ This is why I did all of that. ”
“What?” Kyle asks.
“ Coming to America. This is part of why. Do you understand?”
“Not really?”
Kyle figured it was just to wrestle in front of more people, to make more people see how good he was. That’s why Kyle came to America. (Well. He came because Tony Khan was willing to pay to get Davis a good doctor. But he can’t be sentimental anymore, so he tucks that reason away.)
“ I saw something that I wanted, and I realized that the place I was wouldn’t get me that thing. So I came here, instead. Not just Cinnabon, but so many things. So many more people I hadn’t beaten. And then, once I was here I realized… there’s no point holding onto things that won’t get me what I want. People who won’t get me what I want. Even if they were people who I loved. Even if they are people who I still love. Do you understand, now?”
Kyle nods.
“Yeah.”
“ You’re making a good choice. Ospreay won’t get you what you want right now. He’s not a man that knows how to share glory. Him and Kenny are so alike.” His smile is wistful for a moment, before it turns sharp. “They say they are lifting you up, but you can never be anything more than their shadow. And then they are so surprised when you want to take their place.”
Another nod, because that’s exactly it. Ospreay was always so bright, but that just meant the shadow below him was darker. Colder.
“I don’t know if I’m going to explain why I did it,” Kyle admits. “I don’t think he’ll get it.”
“ Of course not. People like them will do anything to get out of others’ shadows, but once they’re in the light… they just can’t understand why the people below them want the same.” Takeshita pops another bite of cinnamon roll into his mouth. “ But you and I, we are men with good memories. You won’t forget how the shadow feels, and neither will I. It’s why I like you.”
“Seems like that would make it dangerous for us to be around each other,” Kyle says. It’s thrilling, though. Like sitting across from a live electrical wire, hearing the buzz of it down in his bones.
“ It is.” Takeshita turns his full focus to Kyle, the force of his dark eyes magnetic. “ You and I. We will lift one another up. We will share that glory as we climb up the mountain. And then you and I will both know what comes next.”
“I’m going to try to push you off,” Kyle admits. Takeshita looks pleased.
“And I, you,” he says. “ Doesn’t that seem like an exciting challenge? I think we could get even higher that way.”
It’s a relief, a loss of a tension Kyle didn’t know he had. How much easier this friendship is, to have someone who knows what he’ll do to get to the end.
“Challenge accepted,” he says. Takeshita nods.
“Now,” Takeshita says. “I am going to order more food.”
“Is it really that good?” Kyle asks. He hasn’t had one in a long time, but he seems to remember the sweetness making his teeth hurt.
“You want to try?” Takeshita asks.
“Sure,” he says, assuming Takeshita’ll hand him a piece. Instead, Takeshita swirls his finger in the frosting cup and then holds it out.
“Open up,” Takeshita insists, with a look in his eye that says he once again knows exactly what he’s doing. Maybe friendship is the wrong word for what this is, he thinks. Then he leans forward, licking the frosting off Takeshita’s pointer finger and feeling Takeshita’s eyes on him all the way.
“On second thought,” Takeshita says. “Maybe I will come back here later. I think we should be getting back to the hotel.”
“Yeah,” Kyle agrees, as Takeshita’s finger leaves his mouth.
Some time later, Kyle will turn his phone back on to a group chat message from Don asking where they went. We wanted to go workout, Takeshita replies. Kyle snorts, and is rewarded with a catlike grin from the man lying in bed beside him.
“It’s true,” Takeshita says. “We worked out. Very hard. See how sweaty we are?”
“Yeah,” Kyle sighs. “I guess we should probably clean off.”
His phone buzzes with a message from Don, applauding them for working so hard. He barely gets a chance to read it before Takeshita takes his hand and tugs him toward the shower.