the sun will set for you

Incubus Touma said, "Okay, let's ta—AHH!"

I hurled a chair at him, which he dodged, yet he couldn't evade the second one. As he collapsed against the bookshelf, I said and threatened and pleaded, "Y-you won't win."

"Kid, kid, liste—calm down!" I'd lifted a third one. "Put that down. Calm down. It's all good. We're all friends here."

"You have. T-thirty. Thirty seconds. I'm not your friend."

Somebody pounded at the door, but neither of us cared for that right now. "All right," he said. "Just—put that thing down. Please."

I did. I shouldn't have, but I did.

Incubus Touma visibly relaxed. He didn't take the second chair off him. He should have, but he didn't, just like he shouldn't have laughed, yet he did. "Did Youji talk that poorly about me?" He asked. "Sheesh."

"Were you. Were you the guy he stabbed?"

"Nope."

"What do you want?"

"To talk. That's it."

"Why?"

He laughed again, but it came out shaky. It'd been the same before. I only realized that now. "I ruined his life, didn't I?"

Weird.

Things spun. They always had, always would. Every now and then, something almost came into focus, but then I'd stumble, and the fog would cover it again. Thinking was impossible sometimes. If life was a painting, mine was a splash I'd see at a money laundering scheme museum. I hyperventilated if I failed to open a jar. How and what had possessed me to attack this guy? Fear? 

Touma pushed the chair off him, but he stayed on the floor. He sat up, his back against the bookshelf. "I just want to talk to him again," he said. "That's it."

I would've replied, but I couldn't breathe. 

"Is he doing better now?"

No.

"Are you guys okay?"

No.

"Why not?"

I didn't realize I'd been shaking my head. It was too late to stop, and it didn't matter anyway. Though I gripped the third chair, I chose to sit next to it, on the floor, in front of Touma. I swallowed. The lump was still there. 

"Touma, open the door!" That was Jun-chan. "What the fuck are you up to?"

Touma grinned at me. If it'd had a sound, it would've been shaky, too. 

"Open the door, dumbass! Are you out of your mind?!"

I guessed he had a lump of his own. Some people smiled, some people panicked because the speed of light was the speed of light. Either way, it was a fog. I missed Youji. I wanted to see him. I wanted to tell him that it'd be okay someday. "What are you planning?" I asked. It was a matter of time before I stopped responding, one body part at the time, before Mr. Clarence showed up, before I had to return to the world. Both of us. All of us. 

Touma eyed the door, then looked back at me. I gripped my hands together so I'd hold his gaze. "The reason why I came here," he said, "was because Miyo told me Youji had begun to see someone." He was an incubus. "Hey, calm down. He's yours. Let me explain, although... before anything else, how much has he talked to you about me?"

I cleared my throat. "H... he..." I swallowed. No. Not now. "...hasn't."

"Really? Then how do you know about the stabbing thing?"

"He mentioned he." Throat.exe responded because I forced it to. I wish that was how life worked. "He said he. Almost killed someone. I thought that. Fuck, sorry. That it was you."

Touma raised his eyebrows again, though it held nothing of the mirth I'd seen before. It was him to break the gaze. "No, that... wasn't me. That... are you for real? Has he never mentioned a 'Touma' before?"

"No."

"...oh, wow."

"Um. Sorry."

"Wow." He shrugged. I believed he tried to smile. "I can't blame him, I suppose. I was the reason why he got into that mess. All these years, I've been trying to... ugh. I'm sorry. It's kind of hard to say it out loud."

"I get it," I mumbled.

"Thank you. I'm just here to... apologize? Help? I don't know. I still live in Kanto, so I don't have much time. What happened between you two?"

Why did he thank me? So Youji came from Kanto after all... well... Tokyo was there. Close enough. "Um... in short, I think he hates me, too."

"...huh. Weird. I guess we'll see about that soon."

I hadn't meant to add the 'too'. Context clues were a thing, though, even for me. There was only one possible conclusion for this, and since I chose to believe he hadn't gotten stabbed, I asked: "Are you the one who said he was with Youji because he couldn't cheat?"

A beat, two.

This time, when Touma laughed, it was actually genuine. "Wait, what? Who even..." There he went. "...that's..." Yet I'd seen his face fall less than a minute ago. I hated how much he reminded me of Youji. I didn't hate him anymore, though.

Again, the door. It was cannibal Miyo this time. "Touma? Isao-chan? What's going on?"

"Touma's laughing, so nothing good," said Jun-chan.

"Toumaaa! What are you doing?"

Upon taking a deep breath to steady himself, he asked, facing the door: "Hey, guys, has Youji replied?"

"No? Didn't you say you had a plan? Where is that—oh, boy, Jun-chan, somebody walked in. Don't let Teddy take her order this time. Please. Go go go!"

As though someone had hurled a chair at me, I scrambled up. "Shit," I choked, "They're. Shit. The shop. I forgot."

"Eh, don't worry," said Touma. "They'll know what to do. Help me up." He held out a hand. I contemplated taking it just to drop him at the last second, but he was the one from an evil syndicate, not me. As I did (help him up, not attack him), his phone rang, over and over and over again. He smiled at me. Ten minutes ago, I would've called that a smirk. "You hear that? Can you guess who it is?"

Yes. "No." It almost froze me in place, but I had a coffee shop to... but Youji... 

Touma picked up the call. He shoved the phone in my face with one hand, jabbed at my stomach with another which, obviously, made me scream. It didn't hurt—just startled the fuck out of me. Upon taking the phone back to himself, he said, "You have ten minutes," and then he hung up. It rang, over and over and over, until he turned it off. 

There it was, that weird expression again. I believed Touma tried to smile. 

I told him and myself, "I'm still at work."

"Yes you are. Just pretend you got kidnapped."

"No."

"Don't you want Youji to—"

"No. I'm. I'm supposed to be at work, okay? So I'll go, and I'll finish my shift, and, um, and while I do it, you two will talk. Once I finish, then... I-I don't know, I'll—"

"Console him." He succeeded—the smile reached his eyes. He was bright, too, like the moon. 

Still, I shook my head. 

Realistically speaking, I'd have to console all of us.