...
...it's no use. This just isn't enough...
Not anymore...
Late that night, after the clinic closes, Taku and Rei decide to go to the local diner so that Taku can make good on his promise of getting Rei a parfait. Not that they need the excuse—it's one of the few places still open at this time, so they come here often. Since Towa was downtown at the time, they invited him, too.
Taku orders the Salisbury steak special, Rei gets steak fried rice and his parfait, and Towa gets a coffee. That's pretty usual for him, since he doesn't like eating, and yet every time it happened, like clockwork, Rei would tell him how "it's not healthy" and "it's going to kill him one of these days". Towa figures that actually what's probably going to kill him is some hookup gone wrong and playing a bit too carelessly with a knife, but if that by some miracle never happens he supposes his unhealthy lifestyle is a good bet for what'll end him. Anticlimactic, but he's not about to change anything about his life to prevent that from happening.
Rei does in fact start to grumble something along those lines, but his face lights right up when his parfait arrives. "Oh my god these strawberry cream parfaits are so good," he squeals.
"This may not mean much coming from me, but trust me, there ain't nothing good about smoking."
Rei's Smoke instantly turns red, mixing with Towa's cigarette smoke. "I swear, everything's cigarettes and alcohol with you. You're such a great artist, but you're so boring!" He sighs exaggeratedly and puts his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand.
"All famous great artists are weirdos. Alcoholics, womanisers, crazy, all sorts. Maybe it's that weirdness that makes 'em good."
"That little bunny plushie you have in your room. You say you don't care about it, but you never throw it away! You like it, don't you?"
"...no." He just randomly spotted it at a store one time and felt like buying it, so he did. He hasn't thought about it or touched it since, though, and now it just sits collecting dust in the corner.