hansuke and reo are so goddamn stupid

          “I couldn’t believe it either,” Hansuke tittered, smoke spilling from his open mouth, “if he was so mad about losing $5k to me, I can’t imagine why he thought it was a good idea to try again with $10k more. Like, what do you expect?”
The two of them both broke out into raucous laughter, Reo smacking Hansuke on the back as he took the pipe back from him. 
          “Jesus, dude, it’s so goddamn funny to know you like this,” he wheezed, sighing to calm himself back down. Hansuke, still smiling, quirked a brow and followed it with, “What do you mean?”
           “Like, y’know-,” he interrupted himself, taking a hit, “you’ll be taking thousands from someone, but still acting like the sweetest little pussy on earth.. Even the commentators notice. But really, I know in your head you’re just calling them all fucking idiots, hoping they put more money in your creepy little fingers.”
           Hansuke laughed hard at this, the sound still gentle compared to Reo’s cackling. “Oh, come on! I’m not that mean, I still try to be nice,” he began, before shrugging lightly and speaking quieter, “...But, sometimes people are just too braindead to be nice about.”
          This made Reo lose his mind, smacking Hansuke on the back once again and then resting his hand on his forehead. Sure what he said was pretty funny, but the effect was amplified considering who it was coming from, and how gently he said it.
 Just kicking it with one another was their favourite thing to do. No matter how well Reo got to know him, Hansuke could still surprise him with just how sharp he could really be. They could go back and forth for hours, never getting bored or hitting a lull in conversation. Even despite all their differences, Hansuke felt no one had ever treated him as well as Reo did. They really were the perfect pair.
           However,  no lack of things to say didn’t mean there could never be interruptions. It was halfway into the second bowl when Hansuke looked away, head tilting casually to the side as his eyes drifted to the pile of boxes along the wall of their garage, and a millisecond after that when he let out a sudden yipe, eyes bulging out of his head as he leapt from his seat, Reo not even having time to react before the other was colliding with his chest, slamming him out of his chair and onto the ground behind their trash can, the two of them hitting the floor in a pile with a solid, meaty ‘thump.’

         “Wh-,”
          “Something just fucking moved over there!” Hansuke interjected, his voice harsh, yet hushed and trembling. Reo hadn’t even seen it himself, and despite knowing it wasn’t weird for the other to get all freaked out over nothing, his heart had already begun to pound nonetheless. Reo had seen that look in Hansuke’s eyes over things that didn’t matter too, but the urgency that the other had knocked him out of the way with gave him the feeling that this was more than just a bad mental image.

         “Are you sure!?” Reo countered, getting a quick, hard nod in response, Hansuke gripping his shirt tightly as he continued to lean over Reo on the ground, not breaking his stare from the left corner of the room.
          “Over there!” Hansuke furthered, gesturing to where he was looking with a tilt of his head, before quickly turning away and staring into Reo’s chest instead, too scared to look any longer.
Reo sat up slowly, cautiously,  trying to keep his motion from being detected. He stared hard at the corner, into the pile of boxes and unused home decor. He decided to move forward further for a better angle, straining his eyes for just a glimpse, and-
          “Oh- Oh my God!” Reo exclaimed, jerking back towards the wall as he caught sight of a black, ragged form in a small space between the boxes, which darted away just as soon as he did, likely startled by the sudden movement. He wasn’t as big of a mess as Hansuke yet, but his blood grew cold with adrenaline as he realized the other had been right. “I saw it!” 

          “It was black, right?” Hansuke inquired, making sure they were talking about the same thing, to which Reo responded with a nod. “I only saw it for a second but definitely, black and furry.”
As nerve wracking as this all was, Reo was starting to come to his senses. That meant it was probably just an animal, right? Looking down to his cowering friend, his brows knitted together, and he realized he should probably try to settle him down.
 Setting a hand on his back, he began.
         “It could’ve just been a rat--,” “No!” Hansuke interjected, “or a bat!” Reo furthered, only earning another harsh, “No!” As the other clamped his eyes shut, shaking his head hard. “Reo, it-- it--,” he was scared to accept what he was saying, “it-- Well, I think it.. Had a human face.”

         Reo shot up a brow at this, his lips parting in bewilderment. Regardless of the disbelief setting in for him, Hansuke’s face remained dead serious, making him consider the possibility no matter how unlikely it was.
         “A human face? So what the fuck was it,  a monkey!? How the hell are we supposed to deal with a fucking monkey!?” Reo spat, the blasphemy of something like that being in their house cutting through his fear.
         “I don’t know! I don’t know, oh God, Reo, what are we going to do!? You know those things can bite off whole fingers, one ate a woman’s face once! They drag kids around! We’re no match for a wild animal! But one’s in here now and we’re sc-!” Hansuke was cut off physically, one arm wrapping around his upper back as a hand was clapped over his mouth. 

       “Well we can’t just do nothing.” Reo decided, furrowing his brow and doing his best to look confident.  “And I know just what to do.”
        Hansuke shot out a shocked, “What!?” as Reo slid out from under him, grabbing a nearby broom as he came to his feet.
        “I’m gonna hit it with a stick!” He declared, not waiting for feedback before he started towards the corner, inflating his chest with bravery for the other’s sake, jaw clenched.
As he approached the pile of odds and ends, he swallowed the nerves creeping up his throat, and located the only crack where something could be hiding. He glanced back to Hansuke, who was curled up, red eyes peeking through his fingers as he covered his face, trembling.

“If this is the last time I ever see you, sexy,” Reo started.
“I love you too!” Hansuke interrupted, frantically.
 “Well, I was gonna say my pin number is 8008, but that too.”

          After this, he turned back, he took aim, steeling himself for a moment before- BAM BAM BAM! Solid, thunderous bangs echoed through the room, Reo kicking the box out of the way and continuing to absolutely pummel the entire area, the broomstick finally snapping into splintered halves with the clatter of breaking glass. At this, Reo came to a stop, panting as he stared into the shattered pile at his feet, at first just trying to catch his breath, but then beginning to focus on his reflection.
He ran a  hand through his black, shaggy hair, his mind drifting away from what had just happened for a moment to the way he looked in the broken pieces.. It was then that something clicked.

        “Hey, Hansuke,” Reo called, dropping the broom, straightening his back out and standing straight, not yet bringing his eyes to meet the other.
         Hansuke gasped and whined nervously as he took note of Reo’s change in disposition. He’d gone from aggressive and frantic, to.. Completely emotionless in the span of a second, as if something had broken inside of him.
        “What!? What happened? Did you get it!?”
        “Well, I figured out what we saw…” He answered, vaguely, his voice dull, and monotone. Finally, he turned to look at his friend, his eyelids lowered, brows furrowed, lips pressed into an unimpressed frown.
Reo didn’t seem afraid, but he didn’t seem too happy either. This was even worse than him reacting over the top, as usual.
        “Was it a monkey!? Something worse…? ...Is it dead!?”

        Reo was hesitant to respond, staring back in stunned silence, shutting his eyes and clapping his hand to his forehead as he opened his mouth to speak. 

       “It was our reflections in this mirror.”