tastewithouttalent:

The
night goes better than Ukai could have dreamed it would.

It’s
a pleasure to spend time with his friends, of course. Shimada and
Takinoue are excellent company at even the worst of times, and a
half-dozen friends with something to celebrate and money to burn is
about as far from ‘the worst’ Ukai can imagine. It would be a
night worth savoring even just as it is, in its initial conception:
adding the heady buzz of happiness that Takeda’s presence brings to
Ukai’s life is just the crowning glory to a night Ukai can’t
fathom getting any better.

Takeda
gets along well with everyone. That had been Ukai’s only concern,
that being the only newcomer to the group might stifle some of
Takeda’s usual friendly energy and leave him adrift; but he comes
in smiling and bearing a pack of beer, and that endears him
immediately to everyone there. Ukai manages to say hello, and to
exchange a few words of introduction to attach names to the faces
Takeda hasn’t met yet; but then he gets pulled aside into a heated
conversation about Uchizawa’s moving plans, and by the time he
looks back around it’s in answer to the spill of that laugh like
sunlight filling the room around them. Takeda is sitting at the
corner of the table alongside Mori, beaming and nodding flushed
agreement to something the other is saying, and however much effect
the open beer in his hand may be having on his mood he’s clearly
more than enjoying himself. Ukai watches him for a moment, feeling
his heart ache with something a little closer to loss than he quite
wants to confront; and then Takeda looks up to see him as if Ukai had
called his name, and the brilliance of the smile he offers in answer
is enough to chase away all the shadows of unwarranted jealousy from
Ukai’s thoughts. Ukai smiles in answer, and lifts his own glass in
the outline of a toast, and downs the rest of it before going in
search of another.

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