Kung Jin read about that. (houseofkung) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-07-26 02:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kung jin, yue katou |
Who: Katou and Jin
What: Going for dinner
When: July 11
Where: Some Korean BBQ joint
Rating: PG-13 for swearing.
Status: Complete!
Katou had been a little surprised when Jin had mentioned getting dinner with him to celebrate his acceptance into Library school and his job working in a library. Really, being a librarian really seemed far too boring for Katou, but he was happy that Jin seemed happy at least. Took all sortsa people and whatnot. He even even gone clothes shopping not long ago, and so was actually able to wear clothes that hadn't shown up in his dreams. Today he was wearing black cargo shorts with a grey t-shirt, hair tied back into a ponytail.
Katou had been a little surprised going into the restaurant, with it's high ceilings, indoor waterfall and koi pond, and tasteful wall decorations, but a glance at the prices on the menu let him know that he hadn't accidentally picked some ritzy expensive restaurant, and he let out a sigh of relief. "This place looks a whole lot nicer than I thought it was," he said, almost apologetically.
Jin wore the same sort of clothes most of the time - jeans or dark slacks with varying white t-shirts or button downs - but he’d worn all of his nicest clothes. His own dark hair was tied back as well, and he grinned at Katou. “It’s okay, it’s really nice. Hopefully the food will be good too.” Jin lived on takeout, so it’d be nice to sit down and eat the food he ordered.
He’d been glad that Katou had said yes after he’d asked him out on a date, but wondered belatedly if Katou considered it a date. How did you bring that up?
“It’d better be. Seems like bad business to spend all your money on interior decorating instead of like, cooks and shit.” Katou had never worked in a restaurant (or really, anywhere legitimate), but it seemed like common sense.
When the waitress came by for their drink orders, Katou ordered a beer, fake ID at the ready. He was also kind of wondering how much of this dinner was a date, though he wasn’t about to ask because damn that’d be embarrassing if it wasn’t. “How’s it feel, knowing the end of getting sugary girly drinks is nigh?”
“Maybe they just order everything in,” Jin chuckled. He ordered a beer as well, then leaned back. “I suppose I can get sugary girly drinks whenever I want. I actually kind of like cosmopolitans now.” Instead of asking, he leaned forward and let his hand rest on top of Katou’s.
Katou snorted. "That'd just be my luck too, picking a restaurant that orders in." When Jin's hand fell on top of his, Katou stiffened, then very briefly glanced out into the restaurant to see if there was anyone he knew, and then he immediately felt like kind of an asshole, and not in the fun asshole way he usually felt. He cleared his throat and offered a bit of an uncertain smile. "I won't lie, drinking outside in the sun with some vodka and juice can be nice. I ain't never tried a cosmo before though." At least he hadn't pulled his hand away.
Jin got a lot of information from that moment, and he chuckled. “They’re kind of like juice with some vodka thrown in, so you wouldn’t hate it. I don’t get why it’s gotta be in a martini glass, though.”
Well, Jin hadn't seemed too offended by Katou's reaction, which Katou was oddly relieved by. He took a deep breath, and by the time he exhaled, he seemed completely at ease again, shoulders relaxed and an easy smile. He still felt rather nervous, especially once he turned his hand so that his palm was resting against Jin's, but if Katou was good at anything it was at least pretending that nothing bothered him. "Well, obviously so people can feel like they're hot shit when they're drinking it. Very James Bond or whatever." He frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I should just start drinking everything out of a martini glass."
“Mountain Dew? Martini glass. Milk? Definitely martini glass.” Jin chuckled to himself. “I just drink everything out of the two glasses I own.” He wasn’t really the sort of person to care much about possessions; he had a studio apartment with a bed on the floor, a few bookshelves, and more books than anything else. Two plates, two forks, two glasses. A houseplant. He was a single guy who lived by himself, why clutter it up?
The fact that Katou seemed more relaxed made Jin smile, and he moved his hand again to scan the menu. Even though he knew he was gonna get bibimbap, he figured he should at least look.
“What else is there for drinking milk? If it’s good enough for Holly Golightly, it’s good enough for me.” He frowned a little when he realized that he let it slip that he had actually sat through Breakfast at Tiffany’s at one point, and then kind of hoped that Jin wouldn’t catch the reference. When he had been homeless, he had never actually owned any permanent dishware, though now he had all of Wendy’s awkwardly cutesy dishware to use as his own (though, he had to admit that he didn’t mind the mason jar cups so much). Katou picked up his own menu. “Stew or the bibimbap, whatdya think?” Katou asked.
“That’s a cute movie,” Jin chuckled. Looking over the menu, he grinned. “I always get bibimbap first to judge it against my mom’s. Probably unfair and wrong, but that’s what I’ve always done, so I’m going to stick with it. Oh, and the soy milk. If that’s not fresh, they’re just lazy.”
Katou attempted not to colour when Jin got his accidental reference, and instead stared intently at the menu. "I do the same with nikujaga," he admitted. He hadn't had his mom's cooking in five years, and yet it was still the bar that he held most Japanese food to. "If you're getting the bibimbap though, maybe I'll go for the beef stew. I'll just eat some of yours." He had a habit of stealing food off other people's plates, even if they were eating the same thing. Katou considered it courtesy that he gave Jin warning at all.
“Obviously,” Jin grinned. “Sharing is just polite. I’m an only child, but I have about five thousand cousins.” He’d always been raised with his cousins, and had been eternally competitive. The fact that his cousin Lao was already in law school was something his parents wouldn’t let him forget.
Katou snorted. “Five thousand, eh? I’m sure I’ve got some out there someplace in Japan, but I ain’t never met them. My folks moved out here before I was born, so I ain’t never met any of the extended family. You close to ‘em? I remember you saying you dreamed of one of ‘em.” Jin had seemed a little jealous Katou had thought, but it didn’t mean that they couldn’t be close.
“Yeah, my Mom’s from here and she met my dad when she was teaching English in Seoul. He moved out here with her and got some of his family to follow. It’s weird, I dream about my cousin Lao, but in the dreams I don’t know him at all.” Jin sounded a bit grumbly. “Still a cocky jerk in my dreams, so maybe they’re the same. I’m as close to my cousins as I am to my parents, so they know me a little bit?” Jin laughed. “Sorry, that’s kind of non-specific. I’m not out to anyone in my family. Hell, they don’t even know why I left seminary.”
“That’s a little weird,” Katou admitted. “I mean, I guess I got people in my dreams who I don’t know here, so I guess it makes sense that it’d work in the reverse.” His eyes widened a little at the seminary comment. “Seminary like, religious shit?” Katou asked, frowning a little. He had never really cared about religion before, but now that he dreamed of possibly the most fucked up version of Heaven that he’d ever heard about, it put a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. “I guess you got out because of the whole gay thing, eh? Still practicing?”
“My cousin doesn’t have the dreams, so I don’t mention them to him. He’d think I was more crazy than he already does. He’s the perfect one, no need to bring him down with me being weird.” Jin rolled his eyes and leaned back, pleased when a water came to interrupt what could’ve been a somewhat bitter rant.
But talking about religion seemed pretty heavy for a maybe date, so Jin just nodded. “I got out because I entered because I was in denial about being gay. I figured that lying was a really bad reason to want to do anything, so I left. I’m still as religious as I was before, which is I guess fairly? But religion’s meant to make people better, not make them judgey or ranty. So don’t worry. I’m not going to suddenly yell at you for being a heathen or something.”
"Weird people are better anyway," Katou said. "Perfection can be pretty fucking grating. Not to mention boring A.F."
"Yeah, holier than thou rants are kinda a deal-breaker," Katou said playfully. "My dreams kinda put me off the whole thing in general, but whatever floats your boat. Live and let live or whatever." He frowned a little to himself and then took a sip of his water. "Though I guess I should pro'ly mention that I'm planning on killing God in my dreams. You can do with that bit of information what you want." Hopefully it didn't involve yelling heathen and storming out or something.
“What would be the point of life if everyone was the same? I’d get bored.” Jin was always trying to learn things, and people were constant sources of fascination or education for him.
Talking about killing God made Jin raise an eyebrow. “Either you can go to Heaven or God lives on Earth. I kind of hope it’s the latter, I kind of like the idea of him just being an old guy in like, New Jersey.”
"The latter would be fucking cool," Katou said. "I'd be stoked if it was like, Morgan Freeman or something. But naw, I'm actually dreaming of being in Heaven right now. Not for the God killing part just yet, just to bust the leader of the angelic rebellion outta prison. It's actually kinda a super depressing place. We gots us a home base type place in the first layer of Hell, called Gehenna, and we gotta fly into Heaven on the back of a dragon. It was pretty cool."
“You mean Morgan Freeman isn’t God?” Jin spoke as deadpan as he could, then grinned. “Gehenna’s actually another word for apocalypse. It’s Greek. But there’s actually a place called Gehinnom outside of Israel where all of the evil gods were supposed to be buried. That is kind of cool that you’re taking it for your own. And dragons, but that goes without saying.”
“He’ll always be God to me,” Katou said somberly, before also cracking a grin. At least, Katou would continue to picture him as God until Katou met the real deal. “Is it? That’s cool. I had no idea. I mean, I guess Gehenna in my dreams kinda looks like the apocalypse hit it.” It was almost a wasteland, and many of the evils who had lived there had been wiped out. It seemed like most of the evil’s blamed humans and their pollution for that, and angels for the second Heaven and Hell war. He wondered how the kingdom would fare during the third one which was brewing. “It ain’t really our own though. Setsu became friends with the princess of Gehenna. Who also happens to be the Princess of Dragons, so that sure worked out in our favour. I’m glad you ain’t like, pissed or nothing.”
“I’m only pissed that you get to play around with dragons in your dreams and I don’t,” Jin chuckled. He was definitely more on the side of god being a parable to inspire people to better things camp of religion, and didn’t think that it was up to him to tell anyone how to do anything with their lives.
"If it makes you feel better, there ain't a whole lot of them. That's only the second one that I gotta ride, and I'm pretty sure the first one wasn't a real dragon or nothing." It was pretty cool though. He wished that dragons existed here. The waitress came back with their drinks, and Katou ordered his beef stew.
Jin took a sip of his soy milk and sighed contentedly. There was something comforting and cosy about fresh soy milk that he knew was probably weird for other people who didn’t grow up with it. “I wish dragons existed here. I know in my dreams there’s this guy that can turn into one for a second or two, but he’s dead. Well. Undead. And being controlled by an evil wizard.”
“That is extraordinarily cool,” Katou said. “I mean the whole getting controlled by someone is pretty shitty, but I wish I could turn into a dragon.” Katou could shapeshift, but he couldn’t really become anything that wasn’t shaped like a human. He could change his face and his body-type, but he couldn’t turn into something like a tree or a goddamn dragon.
“He mostly just does it to bite people’s heads off. You know, in a literal way.” Jin chuckled and shrugged. “I usually just kick them off, but apparently even in my dreams I’m less of a showoff than Liu Kang.”
"You can kick people's heads off?" Katou exclaimed, keeping his voice quiet so as to not draw attention. "That's way cooler than biting people's heads off. Anyone with a big mouth and pointy teeth can do that. I didn't even know kicking heads off was a thing."
“Well, yeah. In the dreams, at least. Then I shoot arrows through their eyes so when their head lands, it impales on the arrows? My dreams are really violent. I hope it doesn’t say something about me.” Jin chuckled, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. It was one of his few tells.
"Alright, I ain't gonna lie. I kinda think bows are lame, but that? Definitely knocks them up a couple pegs in my books." He took a sip of his beer. "Mine are pretty violent too. Not like, impaling heads violent or nothing, but I've got a cross rod made of astral energy that I use like a sword to cut people down in mine. I don't think it says much 'bout you though. I've picked a few fights in my day but it ain't like I'd actually kill someone, you know?"
“I use it as a staff too, and I can do some magic bow things.” Jin shrugged. He used a staff in martial arts anyway, so it wasn’t a logical leap for him to make. “Oh, I don’t think I could kill anyone while I’m awake. I don’t think I really want to do it in my dreams, either.” Jin took another swig of his milk. “My bow’s here, it’s weird. I’ve been too scared to use it, though.”
In his dreams, Katou didn't particularly care if he had to kill people. His entire afterlife was dedicated to Setsuna and acting as Setsuna's guardian and champion. If he had to kill some people to protect Setsuna, or to realize Setsuna's ideals, then it was no skin off his back. "No point in being scared or nothing. If you want you and I can go a round, your magic bow staff thingy against my cross rod."
Jin just smirked. “There are so many ways I could take that, Katou.”
Katou ran his hand down his face in an effort to keep the blood from rushing to his cheeks, although it didn't really help much. He cleared his throat and said "I kinda walked right into that one, didn't I?" Then, he took another sip of his beer, and leaned back, almost managing casual. "I guess it's open to interpretation," he said, giving an easy, only slightly awkward, one-shouldered shrug.
“You left the door wide open. We could schedule time for both, if you want. Or either. Really, playing things by ear is good, right?” Even Jin could feel his cheeks coloring; thank god for waiters bearing food.
Oh, thank God for food. His face was rather warm, a splash of red running from cheek to cheek across his nose. This whole blushing thing was humiliating. He was normally a lot better at this whole thing, but then he'd never really flirted with someone he was actually attracted to before. He crammed a bit of food into his mouth once his plate was in front of him, glad for the distraction, and then washed it down with yet more beer. "Cool," he said. "Yeah, playing it by ear sounds good or whatever. But yeah, we should plan something for sometime. You got any place that's good for some sparring?" Izzy had a gym that they went to when they wanted to get some sparring done, but Katou was pretty sure Wendy would be pissed if he tried it in her house, and he had heard some pretty scary stories of her with a rolling pin. "I got this old abandoned warehouse I know about, but it ain't nothing fancy."
“I know a few gyms,” Jin smiled. He added a bit more gochujang (he always liked his food spicer than it was served) and proceeded to mix the food with his chopsticks. “I know these two guys who spar with me a lot, Jace and Alec? I use their space sometimes.”
The names sounded a little familiar, and Katou frowned thoughtfully to himself for a minute. “Lightwood?” He asked after a moment. “Related to Izzy? I ain’t never met them, but I spar with her sometimes. She’s teaching me to use her whip.” He added a wink to that statement, completely with a tongue click, for good measure. He was pretty sure he’d never actually use that whip on someone he liked, but everyone knew that whips were generally considered a pretty sexy weapon.
Jin nodded. “They’re cool.” But then he giggled when Katou clicked his tongue. “Oh dear. You might be too much for me,” he teased. Truth be told, he wondered how much of Katou’s flirting was bravado; the kid seemed kind of scared, and Jin was 99.99% sure that he wasn’t out to many people.
Katou was almost entirely made of bravado. One didn’t survive being a thirteen year old pill-pusher on the streets by showing when they were uncomfortable, and he had it down to an art. It was less about survival now, but it was a hard habit to break, even if he had wanted to. Not that he particularly wanted to - no one liked hanging out with someone who was upset, and he’d been giving a second (or a fourth) chance at life and he didn’t intend to waste it by getting caught up in his own head. Besides, he did like Jin. The guy seemed reserved in a way Katou wasn’t, and definitely a breath of fresh air from the degenerates Katou had spent most of his life around. And he was so good looking it should be criminal. “I get that a lot,” he said, pleased that he had made Jin giggle. He reached across and grabbing a bit of Jin’s bibimbap with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth. “Keeping up’s half the fun.”
“Or trying to, at least.” Jin smiled and offered Katou a bit of his bibimbap, mostly meat, on chopsticks. “Here.”
There was another instinctual look toward the restaurant. Of course he had to do that about all his talk of Jin keeping up. Sheepishly, he ate the food off of Jin’s chopsticks and offered him what would probably be considered a shy smile (though Katou’d punch anyone who suggested such a thing was possible for him). “You should try some of this stew,” Katou offered. “It’s pretty good too.”
Nodding, Jin smiled. “I’d be glad to.” The bibimbap had passed muster, and Jin was well pleased with the whole thing. “As far as first dates go, this is really nice. Thanks, by the way.”
Katou cleared his throat, and scooped some of the stew on his spoon and holding it out for Jin. Because fuck it, living life with no regrets meant not being too chickenshit to do things just because of what a bunch of strangers thought. Besides, he had never really fed anyone who wasn’t his nephew before. “Yeah, it’s been real good,” he said. “Hanging out with you’s pretty fun. Anyway, you asked me, you don’t gotta thank me.”
Jin returned the favor, taking the stew off of the spoon. He nodded afterward. “That’s really good.” Hey, Katou hadn’t denied that this was a date. It made Jin smile to himself, and he leaned back to look at Katou. The guy was gorgeous, and Jin just liked being around him.
Katou really was having a better time than he had thought he would. There really wasn’t any denying that this was, in fact, a date, and Katou really wasn’t as bothered by that as he thought he might be. It sure as shit beat the hell out of all the dates he had gone on with girls that did nothing but annoy him. The rest of the meal passed with conversation that Katou was actually interested in, with a guy he was actually attracted to, and that was first time that had ever happened on a date for him.
“Well,” Katou said, as the two of them got ready to part ways. “This ain’t the worst date I’ve ever been on,” he said in a tone that suggested that it was probably far from the worst date he had ever been on. “We should do it again sometime. If, you know, you wanna.”
Jin nodded. “I’d like that a lot. That was actually the best date I’ve been on.” Jin had been on plenty of dates with girls where he simply didn’t engage, and probably came off as an asshole. Then once he’d committed to the idea of seminary, he’d simply stopped dating. It was good to know that he hadn’t fallen totally out of practice.
While Jin was quiet and could seem aloof, he didn’t think he was misreading the chemistry between them. So instead of second guessing himself to death (which he could do sometimes), he leaned forward and boldly pressed his lips to Katou’s. Maybe some dream chutzpah was rubbing off.
Katou couldn’t stop the small, soft smile that crossed his lips when Jin said it was the best date that he had ever been on. At least he hadn’t been alone in that. And then, before he knew it, Jin’s lips were on his own.
There was a moment of stunned hesitation, before his brain restarted with the thought of no regrets, and he returned the kiss with fervor, reaching up to rest one hand against Jin’s neck and twine the fingers of his other hand in his hair. If he was going to kiss someone, he was going to do it right. None of those meek, girly first kisses.
That suited Jin just fine. He wrapped his arms around Katou’s back, pulling him closer. This was the first time Jin had kissed someone in the context of a date; usually his kisses and partners were one night stands. The kisses had been rare, and mostly afterthoughts. But this was nice, something Jin wanted to enjoy. He hoped it would happen again, but who knew.
“So, that’s what all the fuss is about,” Katou said when he pulled away, grinning. He’d kissed a lot of chicks before, and had never really understood the hype of it all, but that… that was something.
Jin chuckled. “That did not suck,” he murmured. “We’ll have to do that again sometime. Maybe in private.”
That seemed to remind Katou that they were in the middle of the street, and he quickly looked down the street. Luckily, the street was nearly.empty, and he let out a sigh of relief, very briefly going to rest his forehead against Jin's chest, hands still on his shoulders. Then he brought his head up. "Definitely in private next time," he said.
“Don’t worry so much,” Jin smiled fondly. He let his hands run through Katou’s hair for a moment. “Nobody’s going to judge you. Well. Nobody that matters.” Granted, it was a pot calling the kettle black moment; Jin was terrified to tell his father that his son was never going to give him grandchildren. “You should call me.”
Katou half leaned his head toward the hand in his hair, enjoying the sensation. "Me? Worry?" Katou scoffed, though he knew there was zero chance of him getting away with that. "Yeah, maybe I do. I don't really care about what any of these losers I don't know think." That much was true enough. Just... if someone he happened to know saw something. His old friends would definitely care. Maybe his new friends wouldn't either, or maybe they would. "I'll call you though. And I don't mean that like every other time I say that." He actually intended to follow through. He removed his arms from Jin's shoulders.
Jin smiled at Katou, a rare genuine one. “I believe you. But really. The people that matter won’t care much. And if they do, that sucks. Fuck. I should take my own advice.” He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “But seriously. We’ll do this again. I’ll cook for you.”
"That sounds like it could be fun. You'd better be a damn good cook," Katou teased, reaching forward to grab Jin's shirt and to give him another, brief kiss.
He’d been about to respond, but Jin found himself suddenly occupied with kissing once more. When their lips parted, he just smirked. “You’ll have to find out, won’t you?” Giving Katou a little wave, he started to walk toward his apartment, feeling happier than he had in weeks.