Seth frowned at the cut on his hand. He applied pressure to the pad of his finger with his thumb and watched the blood well up at the small slice. Anri leaned across the bar, grabbing his hand with unexpected speed. Anri brought his hand to his lips, sucking it into his mouth in one quick motion. Stunned, he struggled to comprehend what exactly what was happening. He felt Anri suck gently on his finger, his raspy tongue quickly licking the small cut, his mouth like velvet around his finger. Anri’s eyes were half closed, and he moaned just a little.
In any other situation, he would have pulled his hand back immediately, reflexively. But…for some reason, this felt…nice. Instead of pulling back, he relaxed just a little in Anri’s grasp. In the back of his mind all sorts of bells and whistles were going off at the weirdness of the situation but…he didn’t want Anri to stop. He held as still as possible, worried even a breath could spook Anri. Anri sucked at his finger, gently licking the cut. It was strange how nice it felt, but he wasn’t going to complain as long as it continued to feel good.
Just as quickly as he had grabbed Seth’s finger, Anri released it, pushing it away and jumping back wide-eyed with panic. He looked at Seth, and then at Seth’s finger, and then back to Seth again. He swore that Anri’s eyes had flushed to a deep, dark red. Maybe it was just the lighting but they almost looked crimson.
“Anri….what…” he started.
Abruptly, Anri grabbed at the black tray with a jerk and nearly ran to the other end of the bar and the cash register. Stunned, he slowly finished putting his stuff in his backpack, staring at Anri in disbelief. Anri was flustered. Seth could see his face was flushed from across the bar.
He looked down at his finger. His finger seemed…healed? He stared at the cut with mild curiosity. Maybe it hadn’t been as deep as he thought. Looking closely, there was no sign of the cut. It also didn’t hurt anymore. He brought it up closer to his face, carefully examining for the incision he knew should be there. He pressed his thumb and finger together, trying to get it to open again, but it was as if he hadn’t cut himself at all, the skin completely unbroken. He looked up at Anri again.
Anri walked back to him with his eyes cast to the floor, setting the tray down woodenly in front of him. He turned quickly away, muttering something about having a nice evening. He boiled with a million questions. He could tell by looking at Anri, though, that Anri wasn’t really up for talking again tonight.
He resigned himself, knowing no answers would be found tonight. Sighing heavily, he signed the small copy paper. He picked up his card and placed it back in his wallet, hiking his backpack up as he stood up. He looked behind the bar again, but Anri was washing dishes, his back turned to him. He was obviously avoiding eye contact.
Once more, Seth looked at his finger, running his thumb over where the cut had been. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but it felt like it tingled pleasantly, just a little. He looked over at Anri one last time, who was intently focused on cleaning glassware. Sighing again, then turned to the door and let himself out into the cold night air.
His phone buzzed once in his pocket and as he crawled into his car he wrangled it out before buckling up. A text message from Lance. Yo dude! Sup?
Seth turned the car on and the heat up, shivering in the cold. Headed home from studying. You?
Where have you been studying, Seth? You’ve been really unavailable lately.
He frowned. He was not going tell Lance about Kintsugi, no way. It was his.
Around. What’s going on? he replied, hoping to change the subject.
Lance’s text bounced in almost immediately. Hey, I gotta go home tomorrow. Gonna be gone for at least a week, prob 2. Can u give my final next week? I’ll be in your debt.
Seth snorted and returned the text. You’re already in my debt from the failed blind date. You’ll owe me 2x now. Everything OK?
He waited another minute but he didn’t get a return text. A small trace of worry began in his stomach that something was wrong at home for Lance. They were so close growing up that it had seemed they both had shared two sets of parents, his and Lance’s.
The drive home drove him crazy, the twenty two minute drive consumed with thoughts about Lance and Anri, his thoughts spinning back and forth between the two topics dizzyingly.
When he turned his car off he checked his phone again. Lance had texted back. All good. Just family stuff. Fill you in when I get back. Ur teh bestest. Love ya in a totally normal, platonic kinda way.
Seth smiled, a little relieved that nothing bad had happened back home. Lance’s family always had some type of drama going on in the background, but him going home to help was something unusual.
He stared at the phone, mildly wondering what was going on. Lance would tell him when he was ready. You better. Keep me updated. And email me your final exam and schedule. You owe me big time for realz.
Lance responded quickly this time. I always pay my debts.
Dreadfully Erotic 