Once they walked out of the alley, which in Hibiki's case was more of a wave from left to right occasionally corrected by Tristan, they were met by the sight of a black, business class Audi and a similar BMW. It was rather unmistakable as their ride, since another Japanese man leant against the side of the Audi, scrolling through something on his phone. He wasn't wearing a suit jacket, but he didn't seem to mind the chill that much.
Tristan was in slight awe, but quickly put himself over it and composed himself in the knowledge that he was an extra in this scene. The Japanese man looked up as they approached, the two bodyguards now right behind them. Immediately at attention, the man who Tristan assumed to be the driver, bowed quick but deeply to Hibiki, and similarly quick but slightly less deep to Tristan.
“I er… I'm sorry but he had a bit too much? So I decided to stick around and see him home.” Tristan quickly explained himself, trying to sound confident despite hardly feeling like that at all. At the mention of being drunk, Hibiki just let out a loud huff and shook his head, as if he could pretend he wasn't despite swaying.
“Thank you for returning Yukimura-sama.” The Japanese man smiled at him, then went to open the door for Hibiki. The latter just made a few gestures with his hands, that Tristan couldn't follow, but the man nodded and asked a question back in Japanese. Hibiki gestured again, which included a point at him, and once more the man nodded before smiling at him as well.
“Yukimura-sama says you live close by sir?” The extreme politeness combined with being called sir made Tristan feel somewhat uncomfortable, as he wasn't usually on the receiving side of those formalities. Still he nodded, figuring he may as well run with it now he was here.
“Yes, if you turn right onto the next big roundabout and then follow the road for half a mile there'll be a large apartment block on the left.” While he pointed in the direction of where to go, Hibiki got in the car, perhaps with more effort than it should usually take. Once the driver had repeated the directions to be sure, he gestured for Tristan to join with a polite smile.

Still feeling slightly awkward, Tristan sat down on the leather back seat and strapped himself in. In the meanwhile the man closed the door and walked around to the driver's seat. Tristan still wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten himself into this situation, but he was well aware that there were worse places to be – like walking home alone on the side of the road.
“Was it a good night out?” The driver asked in English, making eye contact with both Tristan and Hibiki through the rear view mirror. The latter nodded enthusiastically, then leant back in the leather seat with a happy grin.
“We had fun.” Tristan said with a far more restrained, polite smile as the driver started up the car. With a soft purr of the engine, the vehicle sprung to life. He noticed that the headlights of the other car also turned on in tandem, and realised that was where Hideki and Kazuya had gone.
The driver said something in Japanese to Hibiki, which he apparently did not agree with as he puffed up his cheeks and gestured quickly. The driver gave a firm answer back, undeterred by Hibiki.
A second later a phone dropped into Tristan's lap.

'Don't mind Kazuo’

Tristan quietly handed the phone back to Hibiki and smiled, not sure what to do with that information other than retain it.

‘I’ll try to join debate.’

“Brilliant, I think you’ll find it interesting. We have some good speakers this term.” He reassured Hibiki with a proud smile, while simultaneously trying not to sound like he was bragging. Hibiki just gave a glassy grin back, and he wasn’t sure if it meant he was interested in the speakers, or just joining in general – perhaps he was too drunk to really know himself.

Once more a silence fell, and although Hibiki tried his best to type he seemed to struggle. He blew a loud, frustrated raspberry as he gave up again.
“Are you okay?” Tristan asked a little concerned, which made Hibiki sigh and gesture at the rear-view mirror. Kazuo caught up on it, his gaze darting between the mirror and the road ahead.
“He says that it is like he has type on two phones now.”
“I'm sorry, I really should have watched how much you had.”
Hibiki immediately held two hands up in Tristan's direction, telling him to stop, then pointed at himself. Although it didn't necessarily need a translation, Kazuo still gave it.
“It was his own responsibility.”
“But you didn't know what you were getting into.” Tristan said back, still in part feeling responsible. The only answer he got from Hibiki was a shrug and a cock of his head.
“Yukimura-sama knows well the ways of trouble.” Kazuo commented, and Tristan caught a glimpse of his smirk from the side, which the rear-view mirror didn't show. Hibiki responded by blowing a loud raspberry and flipping Kazuo off, heavily disagreeing with that assessment of character. It made Tristan chuckle for a short moment, before he caught himself in the act and tried to look serious again.
“Is that your home?” Kazuo stated, as a large, five floor building came in sight downhill. Although hard to see in the dark, it was clearly little more than a residential box with windows, like you would be able to find anywhere. Tristan smiled and nodded.
“Not all of it though. And it's fine if you drop me off somewhere about here.” Beside him he heard Hibiki let out a small giggle, but Kazuo didn't seem to catch on to his remark. The man instead nodded and focussed on parking the car safely on the side of the fairly busy thoroughfare.

It took a while to find a good spot, until finally Kazuo parked the car in a smaller side street parallel to the main road. The BMW stopped behind them a moment later. Tristan smiled widely at Kazuo and Hibiki.
“Thank you for the ride.”
“It is nothing. Do you have your keys, wallet and phone?” Kazuo dismissed his gratitude, then made sure he was set. Spurred by his question, Tristan did a quick pat over of his important items, and found them all. He smiled again and nodded.
“I'm good. So I'll see you at debate then?” He asked as he went to open the door, and Hibiki gave him a slightly dazed but enthusiastic nod.
He stepped out onto the street, then raised his hand at Hibiki, who waved back with a grin. “See you then.”
Not willing to let the goodbyes drag into awkwardness, he set to walking the short bit back to his apartment. Despite how unlikely the sequence of events felt that evening, he was still glad he had gone out. He wasn't sure if it was because it was late, and he was tired, or because he was unusually content, but his mind felt like clouds; as if he'd already drifted half away, and only the crisp cold kept him tethered to reality.

-

「Would you mind if I were to have a smoke?」Kazuo politely asked Hibiki, who was in the midst of trying to check his phone but in his drunken stupor couldn't really figure out exactly what he wanted to know from it. With a single, nonchalant wave from his hand, he told Kazuo to go ahead. The latter opened the driver side door, and took at a cigarette and lighter from his pocket.
A few heavy, grinding clicks announced the orange flame, and within a few seconds the smoke rose up into the misty air. Meanwhile Hibiki had decided he was bored with his phone, and much more interested in whatever Kazuo had to say – if anything. So he scooted over and crawled out of the car, using the door to hold himself up.
With one arm folded over the top edge of the door, he lifted the other hand up as if to greet Kazuo, smiling a little.
「Hey.」Kazuo gave a nod of his head to Hibiki between drags, not sure what he wanted but willing to talk. 「Nothing is broken and nobody is hurt. I’m proud of you.」
Hibiki grinned wider, clearly pretty proud of himself too.
「Your father says you are grounded for two weeks.」Kazuo said as he exhaled a long breath of smoke, watching it drift away in the chill air.
A soft, annoyed groan left Hibiki, before he huffed slightly defiantly.
「Was it worth it?」
Hibiki nodded immediately, smiling slightly as he already knew tonight would make for a happy memory.
「Did you make friends?」Kazuo looked over at Hibiki and smiled as well, glad to see something good had come from this.
Once more Hibiki nodded, and he held up four fingers. Kazuo nodded that he understood, then took another deep inhale of his cigarette, enjoying it as if he were sipping from a fine wine. His gaze drifted in the direction Tristan had walked off, and he couldn’t help but smirk slightly.
「I didn’t expect to have to bring anyone home. He seemed nice, but what did he invite you to?」
Hibiki tried to stand up straight a little, and attempted to draw the words he needed in thin air without swaying so much they became unintelligible. At multiple points he frowned deeply and had to try again.

‘He is a spe-speaker for the debate on-ion,- union. They come toge-together Friday.’

「I see. Do you want me to plan it as an educational event that serves no purpose for leisure whatsoever?」Kazuo said with a smile. Immediately Hibiki’s face lit up, and he nodded as much as he could without getting nauseous.

‘Thank you Zuzu.’

「You need to do something for me in return.」Kazuo replied without skipping a beat.
Hibiki looked up a little surprised, giving a cautious nod.
「I want my jacket back. It’s cold.」He held out his hand, while taking the last big drag from his cigarette before pushing it out in a driver’s side ashtray. Begrudgingly Hibiki complied, unbuttoning the jacket and throwing it in Kazuo’s direction. Kazuo caught it, and put it on in a single, well practised motion.
「Are you ready to leave, Yukimura-sama?」He said with a sly smirk towards Hibiki, who just rolled his eyes and sat back down on the backseat. Meanwhile Kazuo gave a sign to their guard convoy, which caused their car to spring to life again. Soon after Kazuo drove off, while Hibiki decided that with Tristan gone he could lay down on the backseat and have it all to himself.

The moment Kazuo opened the front door to Hibiki's apartment, the sound of nails tapping on a wooden floor could be heard. In the greyish darkness of his moonlit home, the figure of a dog immediately came trotting up to them.
「Hey Maki」Kazuo said as he gave the pointed but fluffy ears of the large dog a good rub. With his other arm he kept a drunken Hibiki straight, preventing him from walking into a wall. At the sight of the dog, Hibiki grinned as well reaching out for it and grabbing it's ears with both hands giving it a nice, long scratch. Enjoying the attention, Maki let it's tongue lull from it's mouth and indulged in every pat and scratch. At least until Hibiki was pulled along further past the hallway by Kazuo.

The apartment was large and spacious, and clearly based on a remodeled factory hall: large, two storey windows spanned the entire left side of the apartment, offering an amazing sight over the hills which were dotted with orange lights like scattered stars. In the sky, soft clouds with silver halo drifted past the nearly full moon.
A large part of the apartment floor was taken up by the living room, with an open kitchen in the furthest left corner. In the right corner, with the ceiling only one storey high and cornered by glass on the right and backside, was a combined reading and office space. A row of bookcases separated a large desk with a new computer from the kitchen.
In the middle a glass stair curved up to the open faced second storey bedroom, that spanned about half the surface area of the living room. A door hid the only closed off room, which resembled more or less a box suspended from the right corner ceiling compared to the rest of the open space. Both the ground and top floors had windows spanning the right side; similar to, but not as imposing as the undivided wall of glass on the left.

Kazuo drug Hibiki all the way up the stairs, while Maki watched them from downstairs. Once there, Hibiki just let himself fall forward onto his king size bed. Yet even when he wasn't bouncing on the soft mattress anymore, the whole world still felt like it spun. Although he tried to close his eyes and reset his brain so it'd be still, it didn't work. Somewhat annoyed he let out a groan and moved both his feet over towards Kazuo. A moment later he felt his shoes get removed, and the fresh air on his feet pleased him somewhat.
In his drunken daze he grinned up at Kazuo, who held his shoes with three fingertips as if trying to touch them with as little contact as possible.
「I am your PA, not your nanny, you can take the rest off yourself.」
Hibiki groaned again, not disagreeing with that statement, but in general too dizzy and drowsy to want to do more than what was absolutely necessary. He lifted up an arm and made a demanding grunt. Kazuo was so kind to pull him upright again, but he dismissed him with a few drunken shoos.
「Will you be alright?」He asked, and Hibiki immediately gave him a nod in response.「I will see you tomorrow, Yukimura-sama.」
With a last, genuinely polite bow, Kazuo took his leave. He dropped the shoes off in the shoe rack besides the front door and gave Maki a last pat.

The moment he heard the door fall shut, Hibiki set to drunkenly undressing himself. He didn't get further than his dress shirt, which he threw somewhere in a corner of the room. Tired and drunk, he fell on his side, pants and socks still on, and hugged his blanket. It took him all of five seconds to fall asleep.