[Hikaru doesn't need more than a minute of Touya caressing his hair before he decides it's better than any painkiller he's ever taken. The persistent, back-of-the-skull headache he's had all day is completely gone, replaced with a loose, seeping warmth. He has Touya to thank for curing him of his suffering. He thinks maybe he should ask Touya to play with his hair every time he's feeling like shit about studying or whatever tough match he has coming up. That would be the best way to calm down. Cheap and effective. His hair should feel good on Touya's fingers, too, now that he's taking care of it again. He's spent years using only the best products to enhance its volume, its texture, and all those special properties. If he hadn't agreed to come over tonight, he might never have known just how good it feels to have Touya do this...

But he's more preoccupied with the thing he remembered after forgetting it so many times.] No, no, [he says, giggling behind his hand,] I can't tell you what it is. There's no way I can tell you. [He can't even imagine what Touya's face would look like, if he heard what's so funny. So funny and so, so, so stupid. He tries to keep a straighter face, all grim and stubborn--oh, pfffttt, more like there's no way he can stop himself from spilling the beans.] Okay, okay, so... hey, remember when you... you had that match with Yoshida 9-dan, to get into the Kisei league, last summer, and you... you gave me the kifu for it, afterward, and you didn't wanna recreate it for me. But you gave me the kifu and you told me to study it at home, instead, and I was like... whatever, you weirdo, all right, fine.

So I go home, and I replay this game, and... right from the start, it's obvious you're gonna win. You're just kicking his ass up and down the board, all over the place. And Yoshida's been having that nasty streak of losses, you know, everyone knows about it, and... and you, didn't, give, a fuck. You didn't show him any mercy whatsoever. Just kept slicing apart his territory like it was made of butter. And it was... [He thinks he's going to start laughing again, but then his voice hits the melting point:] It was the hottest thing I've ever seen. God, Touya, I totally lost it by move seventy-five or so... I could just tell--this game--what you were doing to him--was meant for me. I could just tell. You were telling me you'd go straight through me, too, if you had to. You'd knock me down and humiliate me com-plete-ly, if I didn't keep up with you. [He closes his eyes and lets his sweaty hand fall away from his face. He's smiling hugely, his eyes roaming behind his eyelids like he's dreaming right now.] And I just... [Okay, he's back to giggling uncontrollably. It's just so funny, because he has the emotional maturity of a dumb kid in elementary school.]

I jerked off to it.

[More than once. Even now, there's a hot twinge in his stomach that could spill over into a burning oil slick if he wanted to entertain it.]

I jerked off all over your fuckin' kifu.

[He says it like it's nothing shameful, like there's nothing to bury in his subconscious, even though at the time he was insanely embarrassed. He doesn't know why he was so embarrassed back then. It is what it is. It's whatever.]

And then, then, I had to tell you to make me another copy, obviously, and you got mad at me for losing it somehow, like I said I did, [an honest mistake, Touya,] and you still gave me another one... another...

[His eyes open back up, glittering like jewels at the bottom of a pond.]

S'really funny.