This is not Mongolia. - Anego, G
title: This is not Mongolia.
author: nihongofrancais
genre: Anego (spoilers through the special after the drama series)
pairing: Kurosawa Akihiko/Noda Naoko
summary: Things Kurosawa Akihiko longs for: miso soup, mackerel, and Anego.
author's note: this is pre-beta, so feel free to offer corrections! :)
The distinctively familiar smell of mackerel hit his nostrils first and he could almost taste the soft, white meat of the fish on his tongue in his half-asleep stupor. "Mmm, Japan…" he moaned, nuzzling into his pillow happily. "I want to eat mackerel…"
Mere moments later, the scent of deliciously homemade miso blended with Akihiko's beloved mackerel, overwhelming his senses. Miso and mackerel? This was too good to be true. "Nice dream…"
However, when the aroma of his favorite homemade breakfast foods failed to dissipate and only got stronger, the young man slowly began to realize maybe it was more than just a wistful dream. He blinked his bleary eyes and found that the nightstand next to his bed was missing. "Huh?"
Somewhat awake now, Akihiko sat up in the bed and looked around himself. A window with white curtains to the right allowed the weak, yet warm winter sunlight to pour onto the bed. The bed itself was bigger than his own (he could only afford a twin on his meager salary) and the comforter was much fluffier than his woolen one that had been a gift from his horse-herder friends. A cluttered computer desk was off to the left, a pile of well-worn Mongolian language books in prominent view.
This was not his bedroom.
This was not Mongolia.
He heard the shuffling of slippers against the bare floor and soon enough, she was standing next to his bed, clad in an apron and wielding a long pair of cooking chopsticks. "It's about time you woke up!" she berated with a light frown. "Hurry up and brush your teeth!" She then grabbed his arm and unceremoniously tossed him out of bed.
He stared at her as she quickly shuffled across the apartment and back into the kitchen, where her miso was finishing on the stove and her mackerel sitting in the oven. Long hair pulled back simply in a low ponytail, she bustled over the food, nursing them to perfection
Anego.
As he brushed his teeth (the spare toothbrushes were still in the same place in the cupboard above the washing machine), the happenings of the past few days came back to Akihiko as his mind cleared. How he had been caught in a sudden snowstorm in Mongolia as he tried to get to the power station so that he could send his daily email out to Anego. Then, how he got picked up and on a near whim caught a plane back to Tokyo because he wanted to see her. Except that she had not been exactly happy to see him as everyone in Japan seemed to think he had gone missing in the blizzard and were in a panic.
She had been worried about him.
He supposed that was not something totally new as Anego worried about everyone. After all, that was why she was called Anego, right? The fact that she had been worried about him enough to fly to Mongolia in the middle of the night was probably the new part. Or the part she always was so reluctant to admit to him.
That she cared about him.
Akihiko spit out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth out twice over with water. He was not bold enough to assume that she loved him though he was pretty sure he loved her. His proposal a year and half ago had not been just about him being scared and wanting someone to hold his hand as he was thrown into the big bad unknown. Granted, a good deal of his motivation had been that fear. There also had been a part of him that did not want to be without her though. Seeing her face everyday in the office, sitting across from her as she furiously typed away at her computer, overhearing her in the kitchen while she counseled other women in the office. He had wanted her.
As he stepped out into the living room, he spotted his luggage sitting next to the door. He also noticed that the living room had been converted to another bedroom of sorts. "You have a roommate now?" he voiced, slightly surprised.
Naoko, who had been setting the small round dining table for breakfast, nodded. "I thought I told you. My salary isn't as good as it was at Touzai, so I figured it'd be better to economize." She turned to look at him, but when she realized he was changing, she quickly turned her head away. Her thirty-four year old body still managed to betray her at the sight of the twenty-three year old man. "She's gone for the holidays though; a vacation to Korea with some of the other girls in the office."
Pulling on a navy blue t-shirt from his alma mater, Sophia University, over the grey thermal shirt he was already wearing, Akihiko rolled his eyes. "You barely told me anything that was going on with you in our emails! 'Oh, work is good. I'm doing my best.' 'They call me aneki here instead of anego.' That's pretty much all I know."
"Oh really?" She feigned innocence as she sat down on one side of the set table, and he sat on the other.
"Really," he returned forcefully, grabbing his bowl of rice and chopsticks with a bit of anger. "itadakimasu."
"There's no reason to be mad about it," Naoko retorted, also picking up her chopsticks and voicing a lower, "itadakimasu."
"I'm not mad about it," Akihiko insisted around a mouthful of rice. "Just irritated. I came all the way here for you, you know."
"Which caused the entire company to worry that you'd gone missing in a blizzard!"
"That wasn't a…" His voice fell away as he took his first taste of the mackerel. He turned his head away and closed his eyes.
Naoko furrowed her brows at him from across the table, placing her bowl of miso soup down. "Kurosawa-kun? Are you okay?"
Taking a moment, he eventually reopened his eyes and nodded his head, taking in another bite of the fish. "Anego, umai."
It was her turn to roll her eyes at him as he continued to inhale the food before him. "You're making a big deal over that? It's just miso and mackerel-"
"It's not just miso and mackerel." He put down his near empty bowl of rice and met her gaze. "It's yours. Nothing is better than Naoko-san's home cooking."
Naoko was appropriately flattered. She had heard such compliments from other people-boyfriends as well-but hearing it from Kurosawa always managed to reduce her into girlish tendencies. "I'm sure there are other better things…" she coquettishly returned, hiding her face behind her own bowl of rice.
The two of them continued their breakfast as such, every bite Akihiko took punctuated by a variation on umai. It was only until Naoko rose to begin cleaning the dishes that she broke the silence.
"When you do have to go back?"
Akihiko glanced up from his second bowl of rice. "I guess Sunday, but I have to go into the office this afternoon to clear up everything from yesterday."
"You scared everyone yesterday. And I was about to go off to Mongolia-"
"When did you start studying Mongolian?"
"About a year ago," she answered without a second thought, and then winced as she realized what she had blurted out. "Because I had time, you know. And I thought it would be useful. Definitely not because you were over there or anything like that."
"Of course not," Akihiko lightly agreed, as he stood up from his seat and headed into the kitchen with his empty dishes. "The last thing you would want to do is to visit me in Mongolia."
"That's right," Naoko affirmed, as she stood over the sink, scrubbing at the pot she had used to cook the miso soup.
"Naoko-san?" She was startled by his sudden closeness as he placed his dishes into the sink and then began to liberally soap them up beside her.
"Hmm?" Though she was trying to be casual, her tone was a little too high and a little too eager and Akihiko did not fail to notice.
He smiled to himself, turning on the faucet to wash his dishes after she had finished with her pot, which she had set out to dry. "Come visit me in Mongolia some time?"
Her answer was a hundred times better than the last one he had received almost two years ago when he had asked.
"I will. Soon."
the end.
author: nihongofrancais
genre: Anego (spoilers through the special after the drama series)
pairing: Kurosawa Akihiko/Noda Naoko
summary: Things Kurosawa Akihiko longs for: miso soup, mackerel, and Anego.
author's note: this is pre-beta, so feel free to offer corrections! :)
The distinctively familiar smell of mackerel hit his nostrils first and he could almost taste the soft, white meat of the fish on his tongue in his half-asleep stupor. "Mmm, Japan…" he moaned, nuzzling into his pillow happily. "I want to eat mackerel…"
Mere moments later, the scent of deliciously homemade miso blended with Akihiko's beloved mackerel, overwhelming his senses. Miso and mackerel? This was too good to be true. "Nice dream…"
However, when the aroma of his favorite homemade breakfast foods failed to dissipate and only got stronger, the young man slowly began to realize maybe it was more than just a wistful dream. He blinked his bleary eyes and found that the nightstand next to his bed was missing. "Huh?"
Somewhat awake now, Akihiko sat up in the bed and looked around himself. A window with white curtains to the right allowed the weak, yet warm winter sunlight to pour onto the bed. The bed itself was bigger than his own (he could only afford a twin on his meager salary) and the comforter was much fluffier than his woolen one that had been a gift from his horse-herder friends. A cluttered computer desk was off to the left, a pile of well-worn Mongolian language books in prominent view.
This was not his bedroom.
This was not Mongolia.
He heard the shuffling of slippers against the bare floor and soon enough, she was standing next to his bed, clad in an apron and wielding a long pair of cooking chopsticks. "It's about time you woke up!" she berated with a light frown. "Hurry up and brush your teeth!" She then grabbed his arm and unceremoniously tossed him out of bed.
He stared at her as she quickly shuffled across the apartment and back into the kitchen, where her miso was finishing on the stove and her mackerel sitting in the oven. Long hair pulled back simply in a low ponytail, she bustled over the food, nursing them to perfection
Anego.
As he brushed his teeth (the spare toothbrushes were still in the same place in the cupboard above the washing machine), the happenings of the past few days came back to Akihiko as his mind cleared. How he had been caught in a sudden snowstorm in Mongolia as he tried to get to the power station so that he could send his daily email out to Anego. Then, how he got picked up and on a near whim caught a plane back to Tokyo because he wanted to see her. Except that she had not been exactly happy to see him as everyone in Japan seemed to think he had gone missing in the blizzard and were in a panic.
She had been worried about him.
He supposed that was not something totally new as Anego worried about everyone. After all, that was why she was called Anego, right? The fact that she had been worried about him enough to fly to Mongolia in the middle of the night was probably the new part. Or the part she always was so reluctant to admit to him.
That she cared about him.
Akihiko spit out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth out twice over with water. He was not bold enough to assume that she loved him though he was pretty sure he loved her. His proposal a year and half ago had not been just about him being scared and wanting someone to hold his hand as he was thrown into the big bad unknown. Granted, a good deal of his motivation had been that fear. There also had been a part of him that did not want to be without her though. Seeing her face everyday in the office, sitting across from her as she furiously typed away at her computer, overhearing her in the kitchen while she counseled other women in the office. He had wanted her.
As he stepped out into the living room, he spotted his luggage sitting next to the door. He also noticed that the living room had been converted to another bedroom of sorts. "You have a roommate now?" he voiced, slightly surprised.
Naoko, who had been setting the small round dining table for breakfast, nodded. "I thought I told you. My salary isn't as good as it was at Touzai, so I figured it'd be better to economize." She turned to look at him, but when she realized he was changing, she quickly turned her head away. Her thirty-four year old body still managed to betray her at the sight of the twenty-three year old man. "She's gone for the holidays though; a vacation to Korea with some of the other girls in the office."
Pulling on a navy blue t-shirt from his alma mater, Sophia University, over the grey thermal shirt he was already wearing, Akihiko rolled his eyes. "You barely told me anything that was going on with you in our emails! 'Oh, work is good. I'm doing my best.' 'They call me aneki here instead of anego.' That's pretty much all I know."
"Oh really?" She feigned innocence as she sat down on one side of the set table, and he sat on the other.
"Really," he returned forcefully, grabbing his bowl of rice and chopsticks with a bit of anger. "itadakimasu."
"There's no reason to be mad about it," Naoko retorted, also picking up her chopsticks and voicing a lower, "itadakimasu."
"I'm not mad about it," Akihiko insisted around a mouthful of rice. "Just irritated. I came all the way here for you, you know."
"Which caused the entire company to worry that you'd gone missing in a blizzard!"
"That wasn't a…" His voice fell away as he took his first taste of the mackerel. He turned his head away and closed his eyes.
Naoko furrowed her brows at him from across the table, placing her bowl of miso soup down. "Kurosawa-kun? Are you okay?"
Taking a moment, he eventually reopened his eyes and nodded his head, taking in another bite of the fish. "Anego, umai."
It was her turn to roll her eyes at him as he continued to inhale the food before him. "You're making a big deal over that? It's just miso and mackerel-"
"It's not just miso and mackerel." He put down his near empty bowl of rice and met her gaze. "It's yours. Nothing is better than Naoko-san's home cooking."
Naoko was appropriately flattered. She had heard such compliments from other people-boyfriends as well-but hearing it from Kurosawa always managed to reduce her into girlish tendencies. "I'm sure there are other better things…" she coquettishly returned, hiding her face behind her own bowl of rice.
The two of them continued their breakfast as such, every bite Akihiko took punctuated by a variation on umai. It was only until Naoko rose to begin cleaning the dishes that she broke the silence.
"When you do have to go back?"
Akihiko glanced up from his second bowl of rice. "I guess Sunday, but I have to go into the office this afternoon to clear up everything from yesterday."
"You scared everyone yesterday. And I was about to go off to Mongolia-"
"When did you start studying Mongolian?"
"About a year ago," she answered without a second thought, and then winced as she realized what she had blurted out. "Because I had time, you know. And I thought it would be useful. Definitely not because you were over there or anything like that."
"Of course not," Akihiko lightly agreed, as he stood up from his seat and headed into the kitchen with his empty dishes. "The last thing you would want to do is to visit me in Mongolia."
"That's right," Naoko affirmed, as she stood over the sink, scrubbing at the pot she had used to cook the miso soup.
"Naoko-san?" She was startled by his sudden closeness as he placed his dishes into the sink and then began to liberally soap them up beside her.
"Hmm?" Though she was trying to be casual, her tone was a little too high and a little too eager and Akihiko did not fail to notice.
He smiled to himself, turning on the faucet to wash his dishes after she had finished with her pot, which she had set out to dry. "Come visit me in Mongolia some time?"
Her answer was a hundred times better than the last one he had received almost two years ago when he had asked.
"I will. Soon."
the end.