Chocolate Fic for jadeswallow, Part 2
To: jadeswallow
From: cupid_johnny
Title: Under the Same Sky
Pairing: Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko; past Ninomiya Kazunari/Nagasawa Masami; Yoshitaka Yuriko & Nagasawa Masami friendship; references to other pairings
Rating: NC-17
Summary: On the first day of weeks to herself, Yuriko discovers her traveling best friend has offered to let someone stay in their place during her trip.
A/N: I hope you enjoy this, jadeswallow! ♥ Thank you (and thank you and thank you) to my beta, and also to the poot for her patience and enthusiasm on demand. ♥
~
What with the ketchup surprise turning out to be the word "ketchup", the omurice being delicious, and Nino resting his hand on her forearm for most of the meal, complete with extremely distracting stroking when she got absorbed in the food, Yuriko couldn't bring herself to enforce the quarantine on time.
Instead, they sat on her sofa, beginning cautiously apart and scooting closer with every passing minute, and watched a movie. She couldn't have named the movie, and was pretty sure they'd started watching it halfway through when Nino found it while flipping through channels, but her awareness of Nino deepened as she focused less and less on the screen and more on him and all the ways they could touch without it even being dirty.
They'd started out sitting chastely, their hands at their sides, until Yuriko started it all by sliding her hand a few inches to the left until their pinkies touched.
That one lasted several minutes, mostly because she was still, at that point, trying to figure out what was going on in the movie. It had an idol she liked in it, which made her think that she could probably remember a plot summary from the internet if only she had thoughts available for anything but Nino, and she figured it was heading toward romance, but otherwise she was only catching fragments due to her focus on that tiny part of her that was touching him.
In between breaths, Nino's hand moved, and the next thing Yuriko knew his arm was along the back of the couch and his hand was resting on her shoulder. She smirked to herself, thinking, 'Smooth.' She leaned her head back to rest against his arm and moved her own hand just enough that her abandoned pinkie was resting lightly against his thigh.
His hand brushed her neck, and hers lingered on his knee. They got closer. He played idly with her hair, and she turned so that her knees were pressed up against his thigh instead. For a kicker, she brought her other hand up to rest gently on his chest. At that he inhaled audibly, but they both pretended to be absorbed in the movie. When he stroked his hand down to her upper arm, letting it play teasingly up and down her sensitive skin, she just snuggled closer and rested her head on his shoulder, her own hand falling to his waist.
They were cuddling. She felt drunk with how wonderful it was.
She mumbled, "I'm enabling you," but it came out more smug than regretful.
"No, no," Nino said soothingly, and she felt his mouth touch her hair briefly. "This is very inspiring."
It was several enjoyable minutes later when his hand slid down her arm and under to lie on her hip. Yuriko hesitated, wondering just how risky she wanted to go when she was resolved on not kissing him yet, then threw caution to the wind and slipped her hand carefully under his shirt to rest warmly against his stomach.
Nino sucked in, surprised, then laughed as he let it pooch back out to normal lounging posture. "Now that's just distracting, Yuri-chan. After all, I'm trying faithfully to watch Jun-kun's movie."
She sat up a bit to look at him, surprised. "Jun-kun?"
He nodded, eyes bright on the screen. "That pretty one with the eyebrows is one of my roommates. He really pulls up the whole average of the apartment, I'm telling you."
"Average what?" she wondered, resting her head back on his shoulder. "Wait, you're roommates with the idol Matsumoto Jun?!"
Nino gestured at the television with his free hand like it was obvious that Jun's looks were what he meant, but what he said was, "Kindness, generosity, that sort of thing. We used to go on group dates sometimes when we could fish Leader out of the ocean, but he always put me to shame with how considerate he is, so I never had much luck."
Yuriko didn't say anything, thinking of how he'd given her space during her four days of emotional construction, how he'd made her omurice, how she'd never seen him sit on the couch, until now, because she'd told him one time that she liked working there. She'd hibernated for days without using any of the living room furniture, and she knew for a fact that the chair he'd stubbornly used the whole time instead was weirdly uncomfortable.
He went on, "But then Leader, that old man, he snagged Chiaki-sama, so maybe it's just that I was always kind of hung up on, well..." He cut himself off awkwardly.
She sighed and finished for him, "Masami." She took a deep breath, thinking about her best friend, then said bravely, "That's weird! I... I acknowledge it."
Under her hand, Nino's tense muscles eased, and then he laughed. Feeling Nino laugh was something she wanted to do all the time, Yuriko decided. "You're right," he said, and he darted carefully around to lay a smooch on her forehead. "It's weird."
Before much longer the movie ended, and Yuriko regretfully disentangled herself from Nino and stood. "I'll be busy tomorrow, Kazu-chan, so write. When you've got three-quarters done... I'll take you out to dinner that night to celebrate, okay?"
"It'll be tomorrow," Nino promised, taking her hand.
She snickered. "You're going to write a quarter of a movie in less than a day."
"So little faith," he sighed. "Would you believe it? I'm going to finish my game, too."
He smirked at her, and it was all she could do not to kiss him. She got out the words, "Good luck," and bolted for her room before she broke.
Before she could sleep, she had to roll around joyfully on her bed, but her excessive emotion meant she got tangled up her in her comforter. She flailed, only managing to get her head caught too, and then fell to the floor with a loud thunk.
She was still laughing when she heard footsteps stop outside her room.
"Yuri, are you okay?" Nino called through the door, sounding worried.
"Yes!" she yelled back, voice muffled by the comforter wrapped around her, and beamed in her temporary hidey-hole.
She was better than okay. She was wonderful.
~
Yuriko got up early the next day, had breakfast on her own and left some for Nino, whenever he emerged from Yuu's room, and left the apartment. She did some shopping, then went to a cafe to proofread the budget. Afterward, she had lunch with Oshima Yuko and Takei Emi, two promising young interns from the company with whom she was becoming friends. She'd slept on Yuko's lap once at a company karaoke party, which seemed to have broken down much of the difference in hierarchy between them, and Emi seemed willing to follow Yuko's lead when it came to informality.
She was deliberately mysterious when Yuko asked about the budget, but otherwise they had a lively conversation over sandwiches. Instead of retreating into reserve or mockery when Yuriko was weird, Yuko and Emi were good at laughing instead, and Yuriko got to hear all the company news she'd missed while she was gone, both professional and interpersonal.
Their discussion also reminded her that she needed to call Toma.
That thought lingered like a bad taste in her mouth, but she went shopping for groceries with a mostly light heart. She and Nino had been to the store just the night before, but they'd had omurice blinders on, and the kitchen really needed restocking if she was going to be home another week.
Nino was in his chair when Yuriko got home, but he barely looked up, just paused a fraction of a second before scribbling frantically in his notebook again. She noticed his tongue was peeking out of his mouth and had to smile and stare a moment, but then she went to put the groceries away rather than distract him from his mission.
There was still a lot of time before dinner, so she cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, then attacked the bathroom. After neatening her room, she had little else to do, so she gave up putting it off any longer and called Toma.
He, of course, was understanding. It made Yuriko feel awful to hear him being so kind when she was backing out of their date, but it was better than lying to him by omission any longer, so she got through the conversation as best she could. Someday soon, she hoped, they could be friends.
She made that phone call on the balcony, and she stayed out there, thinking about various things, until the sun went down. She hadn't watched a sunset in a long time. Instead of the peace of watching the night sky, it made her think more passionately, which was rare for her. She was a person with deep feelings, but with a lot of surface calmness and cheerfulness (and weirdness, she guessed) on top of them, and feeling fiery things was an interesting change.
The door slid open behind her.
"I'm ready for my celebratory dinner, Yuri-chan," Nino's voice said, smug with a side of exhaustion.
Yuriko turned and looked at him. They could use the bags under his eyes as plates. "Take a nap first," she said huskily, and went back to watching the fire-streaked sky.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, but he gave her head a cheeky pat before leaving.
She came inside an hour later to find him passed out on the sofa with an arm over his eyes and his bare feet tucked between cushions. She felt the urge to let him sleep longer, but she was hungry, too, and besides, she really, really wanted to kiss him.
With those motivations in mind, she ambled over to the couch, turned her back to him, and sat down on his belly.
He yelped, arms flailing. She wriggled in place and enjoyed her moving seat.
"Yuri, I swear," he groaned, grabbing her hips. She stilled, caught off-guard by sudden arousal, and his mutters ceased abruptly.
"Let's go to dinner," she said, her voice a rasp, and he said, sounding strangled, "Let's."
~
She took him out for ramen, and they sat close together in a small booth and slurped noodles greedily. It was loud in the crowded restaurant, but they talked despite it, making each other laugh when their voices came out too strong in a sudden dip of room volume.
She told him about her job, though one of the things she liked about it was that it wasn't interesting, and he told her about his, though he refused to say there was any chance he wouldn't meet his deadline. She had to admit, if he could write a quarter of a movie in a day, he probably had it covered.
Yuriko talked to him about Yuu, and Yuu's boyfriend Okada, and how she missed Yuu since she'd basically moved out, but that it felt like going back to old times to live only with Masami again after a couple years of having to share her. Nino gave her updates on Aiba and Sho, and she learned about Ohno (Leader, it seemed), and the idol Matsumoto Jun, as well, both of whom Nino had met after his breakup with Masami. It seemed an interesting group of roommates to have, and she had to hide a smile several times because Nino was ranting on about something or other, either with praise or frustration, but his eyes would be shiningly fond no matter his tone.
"I'm telling you, Yuri-chan, Aiba-chan has found the world's weirdest girl." Nino paused a moment, assessing the person to whom he was speaking, and she saw him waver between her and Aiba-chan's girlfriend, but in the end he confirmed, "No, even weirder than you, I think. Her cheeks are pink all the time--"
"That's called blush," she said, pleased when he gave an offended sniff.
"I know that, but this is not normal, I swear... and she has poses."
"Poses?" This intrigued her. Having poses sounded like it could be fun.
He showed her the poses, and she laughed and repeated them back to him, and the rest of their conversation was punctuated by a cutely-poking-out tongue, or puffed cheeks, or an OK sign held up to one of their faces whenever they thought of it. She laughed so much her face started to hurt, and Nino was laughing, too.
The whole dinner, they were pressed up against each other, and it was all she could do not to steal a kiss. She could've done it easily and no one would have even noticed, she bet, but she was also enjoying waiting, and after their conversation in the grocery store, she was hoping for more romance.
It was just so hard to care about romance when she had Nino's body against her, his eyes sparkling as he told her a story about Aiba and Rola and their ridiculous, adorable love. His expressive lips telegraphed his every amusement, his underlying fondness, and also spoke something to her, deep down, something about how well his mouth moved and how soft it would be, how warm and responsive. That something manifested in her mind and body alike as a need to kiss him, and she thought he knew it, too. He kept swaying even more into her space as if to tempt her, those wicked eyes lit up from the inside.
Yuriko made sure to pout a lot just to torture him back, even at moments when pouting didn't make any sense, which was most of them.
They made it out of the ramen shop without kissing, just barely, and walked home down the dark, sparsely populated streets with Nino's arm around Yuriko's shoulders.
Dinner was over; they'd accomplished their first date. She wasn't sure if the date was over until they got home, though, or was it until they parted? The rules seemed blurry when they were already, if temporarily, cohabiting.
As they hit the lobby of her apartment building, she said impulsively, "If you walk me home, I'll give you a kiss at the door."
"I don't know," Nino hedged, but his arm tightened around her. "It's so far out of my way..."
She knew he was joking, but she looked around for a nearer, somehow romantic kissing location, only to sigh mournfully when she spotted one.
"If only the pool were open at night," she said, pointing at the locked door in a secluded corner of the lobby. "I've always wanted to swim in it, but Maa-chan won't go with me in the morning, it's packed with kids when I get home from work, then closes at 8pm."
Nino looked at her, an assessing look on his face. Then he smiled. "Yuri-chan. I can pick locks."
She chuckled. "Walk me home?" She was itching to kiss him and could about do it right there in the boring, unromantic lobby if he didn't hurry up.
He sighed like now he had to prove something, but she reserved judgment until he walked them over to the alcove and produced lock picks from thin air.
She clapped and laughed, then laughed more quietly when he shushed her with a very serious expression.
"This is a clandestine operation, as clandestine as it is romantic. After this you'll have to do the walking me home thing, because I will have exhausted my supply of romance for the month."
Despite how often Nino complained about having to do things, Yuriko doubted it, but she kept that to herself. She was going to give him such a kiss if he opened that pool door for her.
~
As it turned out, Nino really could pick locks.
When he'd gotten the door open, she'd cheered so loudly his eyes had gone wide and she'd found herself dragged onto the tiled floor of the pool room with the door closed behind them before she could think twice. The pool wasn't that large, but with just the two of them there, and the room's lights off but for a few emergency lamps, it seemed a vast and echoing expanse even after she'd muffled her excitement.
Yuriko looked at Nino to find him looking at her. In silent accord, they looped their arms together and strolled around the pool as if they were a wealthy couple out on the town.
The moonlight streamed gently through the windows high up in the walls, which let the light in to grace the still water without offering anyone outside a view of the new couple. On their second turn around, Nino stopped so they were standing in the brightest patch of moonlight. He looked at her, his eyes soft, and started to bend his head to kiss her.
She smiled. "Kazu-chan, let's swim."
He sighed and rested his forehead on her shoulder. "Yuri-chan," he said against her. "My lips are going to fall off with all this wanting you."
She grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged, moving him out of the way with her motion. She pulled it up and over her head, dropped it on the tile next to her feet, and stood there in her jeans and bra.
"Keep them on a little longer," she said as she watched his changing priorities slide across his face in a glazed sort of way. It didn't seem like he'd be fit for conversation a while yet, so she started shimmying out of her jeans as well.
She knew and was glad that bending over to do this made his view of her shirtless self even more provocative. Nino's breath was audible and very fast. When she got her jeans around her ankles, she stepped out of them after pulling off her shoes and socks. She straightened to stand in the moonlight in her underwear with Nino's gaze on her as hot as a touch.
Yuriko eyed the pool. "Wanna race?"
Nino let out a long, yearning sort of sigh. "Whatever it is, you win."
"Loser has to initiate the kiss, how about," she said, thinking it through as she spoke. Considering it was a bet that ended in kissing either way, she felt extremely wise.
He met her eyes, sending a thrill through her all the way to her toes. "I am more interested in a mutual sort of kissing, Yuri-chan. No deal."
She huffed a laugh and stepped closer to him temptingly. The tiled floor was cool against her bare feet. "Me too. But for five seconds of our very first kiss, I'd like to bask in it, you know? And since I'm going to win, I'll take it as my prize."
He didn't move, just tilted his head down as she neared him so that he could keep his eyes on hers. "Who says you'll win? I'd enjoy being lazy for those five seconds, as long as I still get to kiss you."
Yuriko looked at him very seriously. "I'm not sure I can even hold out five seconds, with your mouth." She reached up with one hand and dragged one finger along his lower lip. He was so very kissable.
"Again, who says you'll win," Nino said with strange tenderness, and he pressed his mouth to her fingertip.
She gestured at her state of dishabille. "I'm already ahead--"
"I'll participate like this," he said briskly, looking away as he thoroughly disappointed her. She'd been looking forward to him getting undressed.
"Fine," she said, sulky, and pointed across to the far side of the rectangular pool. "Down and back? Get set, go!" As she dove in she heard him make a surprised noise, and then she hit the water.
She hoped her tactic had gained her some time because she wasn't actually that strong of a swimmer. Her strokes felt clumsy, but the water was cool and refreshing, and the promise of Nino chasing after her only made it more fun. For the time it took to swim the length of the pool and back, she lived entirely in the moment.
Then she finished at the wall, flipped her hair back off her face, and opened her eyes to see Nino standing at the edge of the pool, not a drop of water on him.
He smiled at her. "Like I said, you win."
Her mouth dropped open, but before she could yell at him, she laughed instead. "I should've known when you wouldn't take off your clothes!"
He looked entirely happy with himself as he leaned down to offer her a hand out of the pool. She considered trying to yank him in, but he'd be expecting that, and she also didn't want to ruin anything in his pockets, like his phone.
Instead, she pushed backwards off the wall and glided a ways off, well out of reach. "As the winner, I'm going to bask now, Kazu-chan."
He stood up slowly, eyes on her. "In the water?" he said, deliberation in every syllable.
She retreated to the very center of the pool, as far from any wall as she could get, and didn't bother to answer with words.
Nino said conversationally, "I hope you appreciate how much I want to kiss you. If it were anyone else in this pool right now, I'd leave them here and probably find a way to lock the door behind me."
Given that he was unbuttoning and removing his shirt while he said this, Yuriko didn't pay all that much attention to the words. The tone, however, with its calm surface and heat underneath, seemed to throw the wide room into even more atmospheric anticipation. She watched him shrug out of his t-shirt, then take off his his shoes, socks, and finally his pants.
He wore boxer-briefs that were a garish red even in the gentle light, and she could tell he was getting hard. She stared appreciatively, feeling a thrill that it was because of her. Still, part of her remembered that this was probably why most people didn't get almost all the way naked for a mere first kiss: it made it so difficult to keep it to that.
"Just a kiss?" she said, voice low and husky. It wasn't that she didn't want more, but they were already moving too fast with the temporary living together. This relationship was more important to her than acting on all of her physical urges at once.
He answered, "There'll be no just about it," and dove gracefully into the water.
She was mesmerized for a second, both at the sight of his body and the promise of his words, but she recovered enough to swim away toward the opposite wall just to be playful.
Nino swam under the water, moving toward her unerringly, and she didn't make any attempt to evade him once her back hit the cool tile of the ledge. She wanted this as much as he did, and in truth, she'd wanted it for far longer. When he broke the surface a few feet away, her heart seemed to stop.
He was pale and glistening in the unsteady moonlight. His wet black hair was plastered to his face, but he made no move to push it back, just advanced on her, dark gaze intent, until she could make out individual drops of water on his bare shoulders. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
When he got close enough that he could have touched her, he rested his hands on the wall to either side of her body and kept coming, still not speaking with anything but the clear, determined look in his eyes. With his chest inches from hers, he paused, but it wasn't hesitation. As soon as she looked up from the moon-skimmed shadows of his collarbones, he kissed her.
His mouth was cool and soft, tasting faintly of chlorine, and her eyes flew shut at the first knee-buckling impact of the kiss. It wasn't rough, but it felt important, like it changed something between them just because of the way their lips met and matched. She'd been right about his mouth, about how he'd kiss her, about how much she wanted him--and just then, just when she was about to lose herself in how good it all felt, she remembered that now she'd be able to kiss Nino all the time. Her lips parted as the ache of having him swept through her, and he pressed even closer with a satisfied sound of his own, like he couldn't imagine enjoying this more and wasn't planning to stop anytime soon.
She wasn't touching any part of him but his mouth, but it seemed like she could feel his whole body from his ankles (she could still remember how they'd felt under her hands) to the surprising breadth of his shoulders. It was so different kissing someone she loved, kissing Nino, because she loved every part of him already, even the ones she hadn't touched yet, because it was him. As they deepened the kiss together, all thoughts of basking forgotten, her years of unrequited love dropped away along with every weirdness. She felt his kiss reverberate through her and fill her up with wanting him instead.
They were wet, unclothed, and making out, which made it extremely difficult not to move things right along to sex. Some small, cautious part of her held her libido back, but with his mouth on hers, she could at least translate her every desire right into their kissing. The urge to drag her hands down his back became her tongue sliding into his mouth, and when that made him groan, she wanted to wrap her legs around his waist. It could be so easily accomplished in the water, but instead she pulled back to nip at his lower lip, dizzy at the fullness of it. He moved against her, silky and hot, and when he licked at her open mouth, she stifled some truly filthy mental imagery with an ungentle suck on his tongue.
At that he made a growling sort of noise and crowded so close to her that his body, finally, pressed right up against hers. The chill of the pool faded, replaced by the warmth of Nino, Nino kissing her like she was everything he wanted. His tongue was in her mouth, her hips cradled his obscenely, and if she just took off her bra she'd be able to feel--
She only realized her hands had found their way into his hair when he stopped kissing her. She let go guiltily, trying not to pant into the hushed room, but Nino didn't move away. He was still pressed up against her in that delightful, maddening way, and she opened her eyes to see him staring at her, eyes heavy-lidded and dark with wanting her. Gathering her courage, she reached up to slide a finger across his brow, taking the damp hair with it so that she could see his face as clearly as possible in the half-light.
"Do we need to stop?" she said, words a regretful muddle, and he shook his head. She couldn't tell if that'd been disagreement or him trying to clear his thoughts. Given how his hips were nudged against her, she felt pretty sure that if he was trying to calm down, he wasn't succeeding.
At last Nino sighed and stepped back in the water. "A swim is like a cold shower, right?" he said, mostly to himself, but the grin he gave was entirely for her.
Yuriko wanted more kissing, wanted everything Nino would give her, but she was also filled up to overflowing with happiness with her boyfriend, their first date, their first kiss.
"And our first swim," she mused aloud. "Our first time seeing each other mostly naked."
At that, his eyes dropped helplessly to her breasts, but he jerked them away and made off for the far wall. She waited until he got there and turned around to look at her across the water.
She said mischievously, "Our second kiss...?" and dove after him.
They took turns chasing each other around the pool, tallying their second, third, fourth kisses. They stopped counting long before they stopped kissing, but it'd turned playful, romantic, with far more splashing around than groping. They laughed and kissed and swam in the moonlight, everything and everyone else forgotten in the pleasure of each other's company.
~
Yuriko was prepared to skulk upstairs with Nino in whatever wet, disheveled, but somehow not pornographic manner they could put together, but Nino wouldn't hear of it. He left her in the pool and nipped upstairs in his t-shirt and pants, having used his button-down shirt as a makeshift towel, and brought her back two of the real things.
She looked at the big, fluffy towels, then at him, wondering why there were two and whether she was going to climb out of the water in her undies and give him a show. Before she could act on any of her impulses, he draped one of the towels around his shoulders and held the other one out, spread in the air, and ostentatiously closed his eyes.
He said solemnly, "Your towel, madam."
She felt like she should probably laugh, but she was caught in one of her moments of intense affection for him and could only manage to stare. He really did have his eyes closed, though, so she got through the moment as best she could while getting herself out of the pool and into that inviting towel.
Finally she said in a monotone, "Thank you," just as Nino wrapped the towel around her and turned her to face him. She looked at him, knowing her heart was in her eyes for him to see, but he was busily getting the other towel free to put over her head and begin drying her hair.
"You could be my manager," she mumbled, blinking back the excess emotion. "How are you with a hairdryer?"
"I think I'd be excellent," Nino said. She tried to hear what he left unsaid though it was very distracting to have him petting her hair with the towel so cozily.
"Ah." She remembered the thing he needed to do that was more important than blow-drying her hair. "Your script."
His motions didn't falter, but he made a noise of assent. "I keep trying to round up, since three-quarters is really pretty much done already, but no one else seems convinced."
"Thank you for going to get the towels," she said, stepping back a bit so she could look him in the eye without immediately needing to kiss him again.
"I thought it best I didn't see you go upstairs in a wet shirt. I'm trying to exercise restraint, you know." He grinned at her.
She tilted her head back at him. "Why?" She knew her reasons for feeling like sex needed to wait until they'd been together a little longer, but she wasn't at all sure of his.
Giving a thinking sort of sound, he rubbed his chin. His hair was still wet, and the moonlight was a muted glow on his pretty skin, and for a second Yuriko flashed back to that moment in the pool when he'd come toward her to kiss her for the first time. She shivered.
Nino wrapped an arm around her towel-clad shoulders and tugged her into his side. "Hm, I guess it's that I don't want to be thinking of anything but you when we get there." The implication that he felt they still had some sort of progress to make before they slept together, even if the progress was only the length of time they were dating, was reassuring to her in that it meshed with her own reasons, but it also made her impatient.
But he wasn't done. He said in the same matter-of-fact tone, "And I think it'll take a couple days the first time, honestly, with you. Not to give you weird ideas about my endurance in any area, and a lot of it would just be lying around in bed if I had my way, but I think..."
She nodded seriously. "Basking, in that context, is better done post-coital."
"So I have to write this script, I guess," he concluded, sounding put-out. "Normally I'd wait a few more days before the big push, but other bits of me might start falling off through wanting you--"
Again, she nodded, repeatedly. Maybe too many times. "I am very fond of all your bits. Let's go so you can get to work."
Back in her apartment, they separated a while to dry off and get changed into pajamas, then found each other again in the living room.
Looking at Nino leaning in the doorway toward the kitchen, Yuriko sat deliberately on the sofa. Nino, even more deliberately, came over to sit in the uncomfortable chair.
"Ahh, are we talking, then," she said, not exactly disappointed. She might never get enough of touching Nino, but she knew she'd never get enough of talking with him either.
"I don't want sleeping together to be a reward for me finishing my script," he said bluntly.
She nodded, having had that thought herself. "How about we wait until we're not living together?" she suggested. "I'd really like to bring you home with me... to a place where you don't also sleep, but just for--just to have you."
He folded himself deeper into the chair, thinking. She took the opportunity to admire the way he tucked his legs under himself, as well as the drying fluffiness of his hair.
He said, "I'm here another six days. Or, well, that's when my deadline is up, and I don't think I can wrangle any more time." He cut himself off, looking alarmed, and interjected, "Ah! I mean, I could, of course, because of my charm! Which is boundless. But this time, I don't want to. For obvious reasons?"
She chuckled. "Yes, Kazu. Obvious reasons."
"I'll move out when I've finished my script, then, and we can figure it out from there, but... for those six days, what are the new rules?"
"Kissing," Yuriko said immediately, then remembered the whole deadline thing. "But only between the hours of eight and nine pm, um, if you've written enough that day to feel like you can take a break."
"How will that be judged?" Nino said, eyes sparkling. "I'll be very motivated for the answer to be yes."
She kept her face deadpan. "We'll use the honor system."
"Damn," he whispered loudly, as if to himself. "It's still early enough in our relationship that I have to try to have honor."
Her heart fluttered in a distinctly unruly fashion. Relationship.
"Any rules about the kissing itself?" Nino asked. After a moment of her not catching his drift, still dazed by the casual mention that they were in a relationship, he waggled his hands at her in a meaningful manner. "Anything off limits?"
"Whatever feels good," she answered instinctively. "As long as we keep our clothes on. Which sounds like a rule I already hate."
"I don't want to suggest it," he said, and he was indeed frowning like the words were being pulled out of him. "But we could go swimming again."
She grinned at him. "Too much of a hassle for you, Kazu-chan?"
"It's cold, and you have to take off all your clothes, and then you're just unendingly wet."
"Next time we'll bring towels," she said, ignoring his complaints. "And swimsuits... maybe."
He grumbled, "And it's not even between eight and nine pm right now, and I'll have to do so much writing to even earn my measly hour of kissing, and now you're going to drag me swimming again and in swimsuits--"
"Want a goodnight kiss to seal our deal?" she offered, all innocence, and he immediately changed his tone.
"Yes, let's; it's a good deal, after all, and in need of sealing," and with that he was over to the couch and bending his head to kiss her.
She cupped his face, enjoying the feel of him, and kissed him sweetly.
"Goodnight, Kazu-chan."
He straightened, pushing up his sleeves in a determined fashion. "Sleep well. I'll be writing hard for you."
"I'm sure the people paying you would be glad to hear it," she said blandly, but she had to steal just one more kiss before she could let him go.
She had a feeling she'd be breaking her own rules a lot in the days to come.
~
Yuriko woke up early the next morning with an unsettling realization.
She wanted to go back to work.
It wasn't that she missed her job, exactly, or even her coworkers, though she would be pleased to see some of them after a while without. It was that she missed all of it: breakfast with Masami, going to work, the boring thrill of numbers, eating lunch in the cafeteria with Yuko and Emi, slacking off in the afternoons once she'd gotten enough done, then home again, where it'd preferably be Masami's turn to cook dinner.
She missed her routine. And she missed Masami.
Still, she decided to give herself another day to be sure. After all, it wasn't like going back to work would bring Masami to her any earlier, and she had more than a week until her deadline was up.
Plus, she wasn't yet tired of seeing Nino constantly. After a solitary breakfast, she came out of the kitchen to find that he'd made it down the hall and into the uncomfortable chair before falling back asleep with his notebook in his lap and one hand still clutching his pencil.
Telling herself she was a selfless person to wake Nino up like this so that he could work, Yuriko tugged the notebook away to lay it on the coffee table and carefully climbed into Nino's vacated lap.
He didn't wake up. She'd been expecting him to stir at once, or that she'd find he hadn't really been asleep at all, but instead his breathing stayed deep and even despite the way she was shifting to try to find a comfortable position on top of him.
She ended up sitting sideways across his thighs with her legs hooked over the side of the chair, her shoulder leaning against Nino's chest. She rested her head against the back of the chair right next to his before letting it tip slowly, slowly forward to press her forehead against his soft hair.
She didn't know when he woke up, but it was long enough that she was starting to feel drowsy herself before his arms came up to settle around her waist. She heard the pencil drop to the floor. They sat like that without talking until she started feeling guilty for keeping him from his writing, even if he would've been asleep without her, but as she tensed to get up, Nino spoke.
"Please don't leave."
Just the sleepy tone would've been enough to melt Yuriko, especially when it was Nino using that sincere voice, but the words made her want to wrap her arms around his neck and never let go.
He sighed, settling more comfortably against her, which did nothing to prepare her for what he said next. "After Masami and I broke up, I dated a lot of people."
Yuriko tensed again, but all she said was a drawled, "Really."
"Every few months we'd go on one of those group dates, and more often than not I'd find someone there and latch onto them for five or six weeks and tell myself it was forever."
He was speaking quietly, a hint of sleep still in the rasp of his words, and Yuriko took a deep breath and tried to find the calmness inside of her, the calmness where she never lied to herself.
She said, "It's a little painful to hear that."
"I was young and desperate," Nino said, and it wasn't an apology. "I thought if I didn't find someone I loved more than Masami, everything might as well be over."
She tucked her nose into his neck and spoke against his skin. "I like getting to know you..."
He huffed a little laugh. "But?"
"Is there a reason you're bringing this up now?"
He was silent for a moment. She could feel his heartbeat thumping in his throat. At last he said, "I stopped after a few years. Whenever a relationship ended, I thought it meant I'd never be happy with anyone again, and for a while I'd give up... then find someone new and start over. I guess I'm bringing it up because I'm thinking about it in a new light now that I'm with you."
She pressed her lips against his pulse, trying not to rush him even though her own heart was racing in a way that wasn't entirely pleasant.
"Because with you, it's all good," Nino said, then laughed at himself. "No, maybe not all good, but it all seems worthwhile. I'm looking back and realizing that after Masami, nothing ever seemed worthwhile unless it lasted forever, and then nothing ever did."
"So you're saying we're not forever," Yuriko said, trying not to chuckle. She didn't know why she found that reassuring instead of crushing.
"I'm saying that I want to be with you even if it's not," he answered, and he ducked and twisted awkwardly just to drop a kiss on her lips. "And that because I'm not desperate to avoid it ending, I'm ... I'm really with you, you know? Even with weirdness and deadlines and trying to keep our hands off each other--"
She gave his chest a bit of a grope to punctuate his words.
He laughed happily, seemed to wake up completely as he did. "This is good, right? It's just been a long time for me, that's all, since it's been this good."
Yuriko, flush with her own happiness, looked straight into herself with the knowledge that he meant since he'd been with Masami, but she didn't find the sting. He liked being with her. She thought it was good, too.
She nodded in answer, feeling him let out his breath contentedly at the motion. She smirked. "Kazu, is waking up your time for talking about feelings?"
He leaned his head against hers sweetly. "I don't know what you're talking about, Yuri."
She asked abruptly, "Do you think you could carry me to the couch?"
He paused, either with surprise or considering the question, she didn't know, but she waited without worrying. He knew she was odd and liked being with her anyway.
"I'd be willing to try," Nino said slowly.
"But?"
"Ugh, maybe waking up really is a time to talk about feelings. I actually have some back problems; it's not too big a deal, but there it is."
He was very still under her now, all stiff muscles and sharp angles, and she wondered just how he thought she was going to react.
"Ah well," she said mildly. "Nobody's perfect."
He squeezed her so suddenly that she actually squeaked. "I'll trade you a piece of information for a kiss."
"Wait a second," she said, realizing. "You already had one and you haven't written anything yet today!"
"It's something you'll want to know, but I'd only say it now, since we're talking about such deep and meaningful things."
Nino's voice was regaining its sharpness, making her, conversely, want to kiss him even more.
"All right, go," she said suspiciously.
He whispered in her ear, "That dratted swimming actually made my back feel a lot better."
Despite how he was treating it lightly, she could feel that he'd tensed up some again. He must have really hated talking about his health problems, so she didn't say anything with words, just turned her head and kissed him.
He sighed into her before kissing her back, and it wasn't a sleepy sort of kiss, but rather intently affectionate. She could feel his body easing under her as he forgot any discomfort, physical or otherwise, in the pleasure of her touch. Thinking about him willingly showing his vulnerability in front of her made her kiss him even more deeply.
After a while, she pulled back to say, a little too loudly into the quiet room, "You need to write that stupid movie so that you can move out and we can have sex."
He didn't laugh, just kissed her again swiftly before saying, "It's going to be a groundbreaking film, Yuri-chan, but it does stand between us getting naked so you're right, it's the worst."
"Write it," Yuriko said firmly. She extricated herself from his lap and stood over him menacingly. "Write it!"
"You're right, you're right," Nino said amiably, but she could see he was still looking at her with bedroom eyes.
She crossed her arms over her chest, irritated at the inevitability of it all. "I'm going out, and tomorrow I'm going back to work. No more kissing until our rules are satisfied, either!"
"You're pretty bossy," he said, but the way he said it made it sound like an entirely appreciative compliment. She narrowed her eyes at him. Maybe even a pickup line, considering the smug tilt of his lips.
Then he laughed, waving his hands in front of his face as if to erase his last words. "Just kidding, Yuri-chan! I'll write it, I swear, so work or not at your ease, and leave my writing--and my honor system--to me."
She stifled the irritated desire to say one more kiss and turned on her heel to go get dressed for the day instead.
~
Yuriko ended up going to a goat petting zoo cafe. She got handed a flyer for it on her way to the subway, which she'd been intending to take to go to her and Masami's old neighborhood where she could linger in her old favorite cafe. She'd whiled many an hour away in that cafe thinking about Nino and trying to get rid of her feelings for him back when he'd been dating her best friend.
She thought it'd been a healthy impulse, actually, to revisit past pain in order to move on more cleanly, but she didn't hesitate to switch her plans after looking down at the flyer in her hand.
Instead of thinking about serious things, she spent her morning petting goats and drinking watery coffee. All of the metal tables had bite marks on them. She thought it might be her new favorite place.
When she went home, she wanted to ask Nino if he thought she could keep a goat in her apartment, but she wrote it on a post-it note and stuck it on the inside of her door to remember to bring up between eight and nine at night instead.
She lazed and watched television until it got dark out. She watched most of a drama starring Matsumoto Jun and had to write notes to herself and add them to the door frequently because she had so many questions she wanted to ask Nino, like what kind of expressions the idol Matsumoto Jun made when he woke up in the morning.
Before emerging for dinner, she emailed Masami, letting herself ramble on in all directions without much editing, and smiled to herself at the thought that Masami's trip was half over. When she made her way to the kitchen, however, she took one look at Nino (writing angrily at the table, tapping out a rhythm with one foot, biting his lip, and running a hand through his hair all at the same time) and kept walking. She went out for dinner and decided not to come home until 7:59pm. She had gyoza again, three different kinds, which helped her to stop thinking about time passing so slowly.
In the entryway when she got home, Nino was waiting. They were kissing before she even stepped out of her shoes.
Yuriko mumbled into Nino's mouth, "Let's kiss everywhere."
He grabbed her hips, making a winded sort of noise, and moved to stare at her. "But I thought we were waiting until--"
She laughed, "Oh, I meant... in the apartment." Then she inadvertently pictured kissing Nino everywhere and went hot, so her next words came out toneless from the restraint of not yanking off all of his clothes at once. "Since you'll be moving out, and then Maa-chan'll be back, and I want memories of us kissing everywhere. In the apartment."
"Memories," he said, looking both flushed and wary. "You know that stuff I said this morning, I didn't mean I wanted this to end any time soon, right?"
She flopped a hand out dismissively. "It's for when you're not here. So no matter what I'm doing, it's somewhere I can remember us kissing."
"I wish your apartment were bigger, then," he said, and he used his hands on her hips to maneuver them up against the wall. "Let's start here. I don't think we've quite gotten it yet." As he trailed off, he leaned in, and then his mouth was back on hers.
She kissed him, then mumbled, "Here," kissed him, then mumbled, "and the balcony," then kept alternating kisses and words into his mouth until she'd listed everywhere she could think of, from the kitchen table to "the bath, but not until we've had sex, don't you think". Nino was making frustrated noises by the time she finished, but he was persistent: he kept his attention on kissing her through the whole list.
It was only when she paused and tried to think of another place that he paused, too. "Yuri-chan. You do know you have neither a hot tub nor a fireplace?"
"Eh, we already did the pool," she said, and she kissed him briefly because it was addictive. She imagined away some of his clothes and kissed him again, then stipulated, "But the fireplace is a must. And Maa-chan's room..."
"... is a no," Nino finished firmly.
"Maybe," she said, grinning at him.
That night they made out on the balcony for nearly an hour before Yuriko remembered they'd planned to move around and hit more places on her list, but she couldn't bring herself to have any regrets about it at all. With ten minutes left before Nino was supposed to return to writing, she suggested a quick dip in the pool, but no amount of pouting would convince Nino.
"I don't write well while wet," he said.
When she tried telling him that she would dry every inch of him personally, it only led to more kissing, and then their time was up.
~
Yuriko went back to work the next day. It was, comfortingly, entirely the same, though it was strange to leave home without Masami there and come home to find her still in Istanbul after all. She worked the rest of the week, and it took until Friday for her coworkers to lessen in their voluble surprise over her early finish on the budget. It didn't end entirely, and she thought it might be a long time before it did, but it eased up enough that she wasn't as hard-pressed to avoid the urge to shove someone into a wall.
She and Toma exchanged smiles and nods as they passed each other, but she didn't force the issue by talking to him yet. His smiles seemed genuine, though, so she thought it wouldn't be long.
Nino didn't join her for breakfast any day before work, but Yuriko always woke up with enough time to dress, eat, and go find Nino and cuddle him gently awake so he could kiss her goodbye. She found him on his bed, on his chair, on the couch, and one day, after an increasingly bewildered search, on the balcony.
Coming home, she left him alone until the designated time, and a couple nights she made that easier on both of them by going out to eat with friends, including once with Yuu. She immediately decided to see her friend more often, Yuu's medical internship, boyfriend, and basically moved out status notwithstanding.
As it turned to eight o'clock, Nino would find her. By Friday, they'd crossed off every location on her mental checklist, even the fireplace. Nino had been a little embarrassed when he turned his laptop around to show her the full-screen video of a roaring fire, but it had been one of Yuriko's favorite Nino-kisses yet. She didn't manage to coax him into the swimming pool again at all that week, but he offered every night to break her in so she could swim if she wanted. She saved that idea for another time, preferring to keep her memories of the pool as a place with Nino in it.
Also by Friday, though it gave him an irritable twitch in his shoulders and intense dark circles under his eyes, Nino finished his script.
She came home from dinner at 8:01, had her mouth on his by 8:02, but didn't hear about him meeting his deadline until 8:40. They'd only made it as far as the living room floor and had been entwined there more than half an hour with cushions to ease Nino's back and Yuriko straddling his hips as she kissed him because that's where she wanted to be.
His hands were on her breasts when she had and acted on the impulse to ask about his script.
"Oh, I sent it in an hour ago," Nino said, flashing her the briefest smile before looking back at his hands, which were doing wonderful things to Yuriko even through her shirt and bra. She bit down on a gasp and pushed back with her hips, gratified to hear his stifled moan, then processed his words.
"You're... done?" she said, feeling like her brain was malfunctioning.
"I'm moving out at 9:01," he said, raising up momentarily to steal a quick, wet kiss. When he rolled back onto his cushions, making her wobble on top of him, he looked winded but incredibly pleased.
"Careful," she said, thinking through all this new information as she spoke. "Too many kisses like that and your one-pack will turn into six. Your stuff?"
"My bag's by the door." He was still watching his hands on her body, with said hands being more talented than she could even think about, especially considering pretty soon they'd be on her without any barrier at all. He traced his hands around, following the lines of her bra, until one deft hand was resting over the clasp. "Is it all right, Yuri-chan, if the shirt stays on?"
"No," she said, preoccupied, then changed her mind. "I mean, yes, but then no hands, because you need to move out promptly... if you're out by nine tonight, then at nine tomorrow night, after going out to dinner? I could bring you home and you'd have been moved out for a whole day, so..." She trailed off, looking down at his face. "Are you taking my bra off or what?"
"No hands? Do you mean I can only look, but with the shirt, and also can we get hamburgers tomorrow? It's what I usually get after finishing a script since the first time, when Aiba-chan treated me."
She felt him unclasp her bra in one easy movement despite neither being able to see it or put his hand on it directly. It was impressive enough that she had to clap and laugh, which made him grin at her. She spoke with her laugh lingering in her voice.
"Hamburgers, fine, everything else, whatever, we only have ten minutes left before you move out so let's prioritize. I'll show you," she said. She took her bra all the way off without moving her shirt enough to show a single inch of extra skin, which made him applaud in turn. Then she leaned down, making sure to resettle herself over his hips to have him groan helplessly with want, and pressed herself against his chest.
She watched his face as he felt not only her hips snug against his, but her breasts against his chest, and chuckled at the look of intense abstraction that formed there.
"Ten minutes," he got out, sounding strangled, and she nodded, pleased, and kissed him.
Ten minutes until he moved out, and a day and ten minutes until they were officially living apart. She couldn't wait for the time to be up. At the same time, she wanted those ten minutes to last forever.
~
They were at the door, his bag in his hand, and kissing each other goodbye at nine sharp when Yuriko had a thought.
She squeezed Nino's wrist until he complied and dropped the bag, then pulled him by that same wrist from the entryway, through the living room, and onto the balcony. It was a move complicated by the fact that he'd already put on his shoes, but after he'd fallen to his knees by the door it was pretty easy for him to reach back and pull them back off.
It was also easy for him to complain and ask questions, but she said merely, "Let's make it 9:05pm tomorrow," and kept to her plan.
Once she had him on the balcony, she maneuvered them so they had their backs to empty space, took out her phone, and prepared to take a picture.
"I see," Nino said, suddenly all agreeable, and by the time she could see them on her screen to aim, he was smiling adorably complete with his arm around her shoulder and peace signs.
She smiled naturally and took the picture. After examining it critically and wishing she'd thought to take it at sunset instead, she said, "I'm sending this to Maa-chan and telling her our honored guest is ending his stay with us today."
"Your inn has been very good to me," he said and gave a tiny bow.
He still hadn't removed his arm from around her, and for a few minutes which Yuriko knew she might want back the next night but certainly couldn't bring herself to give up right then, they stood there leaning against each other in the cool night air, the sky behind them like a backdrop just for them.
A picture reply arrived from Masami.
As soon as she saw it, Yuriko laughed, then looked at Nino. His smile at the picture turned to confusion at her expectant look.
"Kazu, don't you see? She's giving a peace sign and a thumbs-up. That's two hands, you know--"
"Yes, I can count," he interrupted.
"--which means she must have set a timer on the camera, just so she could send both to us!" she finished triumphantly. "Oh Maa-chan, my darling."
"Or," Nino started, speaking slowly like he wanted her to understand something. "It seems possible that she had someone else take the picture."
Yuriko frowned. "Buzzkill," she muttered, peering at the picture, then shouted, "Ha! Look, behind Maa-chan, there's a mirror, and look, right here, that smudge of black, that is the camera, and look, or fail to see, a person holding it. Ha!"
He said calmly, "I heard your ha the first time," but when she peered up at him, he was grinning at her. "I'm glad you were right, Yuri-chan."
She smiled smugly. "One more kiss."
It was more like four, and they'd have to wait until 9:20 the next night if they wanted him moved out for a full 24 hours, but by half-past nine Yuriko was alone in the apartment, just as she'd thought, when waking up that first day, she would be the entire time.
It felt strange now, but it wasn't without its perks. For the couple hours before she went to bed, she planned to bathe unhurriedly, watch the rest of her drama on the couch while wearing only a towel, and eat copious snacks, the wrappers of which she would leave strewn about to be picked up the next day.
As she undressed, she got a message from Nino that said simply, Kissing withdrawal. She texted back fondly, Buck up.
When she finally got out of the bath, into her towel, and onto the couch, she received another message, this one with the words, Aiba-chan's crying because I'm back. She responded at once: What about the idol Matsumoto Jun? Has he heard about our exclusive inn because he would certainly be a VIP guest.
To: Yuriko
From: Kazunari
Jun-kun's allergic to inns. Hamburgers tomorrow, pick me up at seven?
Yuriko sent back agreement, smiling as she ignored Nino's ridiculous lie. It did make it seem fitting that she was distracting herself from their waiting period by looking at said Jun-kun's beautiful face, though, and she watched her drama and ate her snacks with what might have been off-putting gusto if anyone had been there to witness it.
But at long last, she was alone, and she had nearly 20 more hours to enjoy it.
~
Part Three
From: cupid_johnny
Title: Under the Same Sky
Pairing: Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko; past Ninomiya Kazunari/Nagasawa Masami; Yoshitaka Yuriko & Nagasawa Masami friendship; references to other pairings
Rating: NC-17
Summary: On the first day of weeks to herself, Yuriko discovers her traveling best friend has offered to let someone stay in their place during her trip.
A/N: I hope you enjoy this, jadeswallow! ♥ Thank you (and thank you and thank you) to my beta, and also to the poot for her patience and enthusiasm on demand. ♥
~
What with the ketchup surprise turning out to be the word "ketchup", the omurice being delicious, and Nino resting his hand on her forearm for most of the meal, complete with extremely distracting stroking when she got absorbed in the food, Yuriko couldn't bring herself to enforce the quarantine on time.
Instead, they sat on her sofa, beginning cautiously apart and scooting closer with every passing minute, and watched a movie. She couldn't have named the movie, and was pretty sure they'd started watching it halfway through when Nino found it while flipping through channels, but her awareness of Nino deepened as she focused less and less on the screen and more on him and all the ways they could touch without it even being dirty.
They'd started out sitting chastely, their hands at their sides, until Yuriko started it all by sliding her hand a few inches to the left until their pinkies touched.
That one lasted several minutes, mostly because she was still, at that point, trying to figure out what was going on in the movie. It had an idol she liked in it, which made her think that she could probably remember a plot summary from the internet if only she had thoughts available for anything but Nino, and she figured it was heading toward romance, but otherwise she was only catching fragments due to her focus on that tiny part of her that was touching him.
In between breaths, Nino's hand moved, and the next thing Yuriko knew his arm was along the back of the couch and his hand was resting on her shoulder. She smirked to herself, thinking, 'Smooth.' She leaned her head back to rest against his arm and moved her own hand just enough that her abandoned pinkie was resting lightly against his thigh.
His hand brushed her neck, and hers lingered on his knee. They got closer. He played idly with her hair, and she turned so that her knees were pressed up against his thigh instead. For a kicker, she brought her other hand up to rest gently on his chest. At that he inhaled audibly, but they both pretended to be absorbed in the movie. When he stroked his hand down to her upper arm, letting it play teasingly up and down her sensitive skin, she just snuggled closer and rested her head on his shoulder, her own hand falling to his waist.
They were cuddling. She felt drunk with how wonderful it was.
She mumbled, "I'm enabling you," but it came out more smug than regretful.
"No, no," Nino said soothingly, and she felt his mouth touch her hair briefly. "This is very inspiring."
It was several enjoyable minutes later when his hand slid down her arm and under to lie on her hip. Yuriko hesitated, wondering just how risky she wanted to go when she was resolved on not kissing him yet, then threw caution to the wind and slipped her hand carefully under his shirt to rest warmly against his stomach.
Nino sucked in, surprised, then laughed as he let it pooch back out to normal lounging posture. "Now that's just distracting, Yuri-chan. After all, I'm trying faithfully to watch Jun-kun's movie."
She sat up a bit to look at him, surprised. "Jun-kun?"
He nodded, eyes bright on the screen. "That pretty one with the eyebrows is one of my roommates. He really pulls up the whole average of the apartment, I'm telling you."
"Average what?" she wondered, resting her head back on his shoulder. "Wait, you're roommates with the idol Matsumoto Jun?!"
Nino gestured at the television with his free hand like it was obvious that Jun's looks were what he meant, but what he said was, "Kindness, generosity, that sort of thing. We used to go on group dates sometimes when we could fish Leader out of the ocean, but he always put me to shame with how considerate he is, so I never had much luck."
Yuriko didn't say anything, thinking of how he'd given her space during her four days of emotional construction, how he'd made her omurice, how she'd never seen him sit on the couch, until now, because she'd told him one time that she liked working there. She'd hibernated for days without using any of the living room furniture, and she knew for a fact that the chair he'd stubbornly used the whole time instead was weirdly uncomfortable.
He went on, "But then Leader, that old man, he snagged Chiaki-sama, so maybe it's just that I was always kind of hung up on, well..." He cut himself off awkwardly.
She sighed and finished for him, "Masami." She took a deep breath, thinking about her best friend, then said bravely, "That's weird! I... I acknowledge it."
Under her hand, Nino's tense muscles eased, and then he laughed. Feeling Nino laugh was something she wanted to do all the time, Yuriko decided. "You're right," he said, and he darted carefully around to lay a smooch on her forehead. "It's weird."
Before much longer the movie ended, and Yuriko regretfully disentangled herself from Nino and stood. "I'll be busy tomorrow, Kazu-chan, so write. When you've got three-quarters done... I'll take you out to dinner that night to celebrate, okay?"
"It'll be tomorrow," Nino promised, taking her hand.
She snickered. "You're going to write a quarter of a movie in less than a day."
"So little faith," he sighed. "Would you believe it? I'm going to finish my game, too."
He smirked at her, and it was all she could do not to kiss him. She got out the words, "Good luck," and bolted for her room before she broke.
Before she could sleep, she had to roll around joyfully on her bed, but her excessive emotion meant she got tangled up her in her comforter. She flailed, only managing to get her head caught too, and then fell to the floor with a loud thunk.
She was still laughing when she heard footsteps stop outside her room.
"Yuri, are you okay?" Nino called through the door, sounding worried.
"Yes!" she yelled back, voice muffled by the comforter wrapped around her, and beamed in her temporary hidey-hole.
She was better than okay. She was wonderful.
~
Yuriko got up early the next day, had breakfast on her own and left some for Nino, whenever he emerged from Yuu's room, and left the apartment. She did some shopping, then went to a cafe to proofread the budget. Afterward, she had lunch with Oshima Yuko and Takei Emi, two promising young interns from the company with whom she was becoming friends. She'd slept on Yuko's lap once at a company karaoke party, which seemed to have broken down much of the difference in hierarchy between them, and Emi seemed willing to follow Yuko's lead when it came to informality.
She was deliberately mysterious when Yuko asked about the budget, but otherwise they had a lively conversation over sandwiches. Instead of retreating into reserve or mockery when Yuriko was weird, Yuko and Emi were good at laughing instead, and Yuriko got to hear all the company news she'd missed while she was gone, both professional and interpersonal.
Their discussion also reminded her that she needed to call Toma.
That thought lingered like a bad taste in her mouth, but she went shopping for groceries with a mostly light heart. She and Nino had been to the store just the night before, but they'd had omurice blinders on, and the kitchen really needed restocking if she was going to be home another week.
Nino was in his chair when Yuriko got home, but he barely looked up, just paused a fraction of a second before scribbling frantically in his notebook again. She noticed his tongue was peeking out of his mouth and had to smile and stare a moment, but then she went to put the groceries away rather than distract him from his mission.
There was still a lot of time before dinner, so she cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, then attacked the bathroom. After neatening her room, she had little else to do, so she gave up putting it off any longer and called Toma.
He, of course, was understanding. It made Yuriko feel awful to hear him being so kind when she was backing out of their date, but it was better than lying to him by omission any longer, so she got through the conversation as best she could. Someday soon, she hoped, they could be friends.
She made that phone call on the balcony, and she stayed out there, thinking about various things, until the sun went down. She hadn't watched a sunset in a long time. Instead of the peace of watching the night sky, it made her think more passionately, which was rare for her. She was a person with deep feelings, but with a lot of surface calmness and cheerfulness (and weirdness, she guessed) on top of them, and feeling fiery things was an interesting change.
The door slid open behind her.
"I'm ready for my celebratory dinner, Yuri-chan," Nino's voice said, smug with a side of exhaustion.
Yuriko turned and looked at him. They could use the bags under his eyes as plates. "Take a nap first," she said huskily, and went back to watching the fire-streaked sky.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, but he gave her head a cheeky pat before leaving.
She came inside an hour later to find him passed out on the sofa with an arm over his eyes and his bare feet tucked between cushions. She felt the urge to let him sleep longer, but she was hungry, too, and besides, she really, really wanted to kiss him.
With those motivations in mind, she ambled over to the couch, turned her back to him, and sat down on his belly.
He yelped, arms flailing. She wriggled in place and enjoyed her moving seat.
"Yuri, I swear," he groaned, grabbing her hips. She stilled, caught off-guard by sudden arousal, and his mutters ceased abruptly.
"Let's go to dinner," she said, her voice a rasp, and he said, sounding strangled, "Let's."
~
She took him out for ramen, and they sat close together in a small booth and slurped noodles greedily. It was loud in the crowded restaurant, but they talked despite it, making each other laugh when their voices came out too strong in a sudden dip of room volume.
She told him about her job, though one of the things she liked about it was that it wasn't interesting, and he told her about his, though he refused to say there was any chance he wouldn't meet his deadline. She had to admit, if he could write a quarter of a movie in a day, he probably had it covered.
Yuriko talked to him about Yuu, and Yuu's boyfriend Okada, and how she missed Yuu since she'd basically moved out, but that it felt like going back to old times to live only with Masami again after a couple years of having to share her. Nino gave her updates on Aiba and Sho, and she learned about Ohno (Leader, it seemed), and the idol Matsumoto Jun, as well, both of whom Nino had met after his breakup with Masami. It seemed an interesting group of roommates to have, and she had to hide a smile several times because Nino was ranting on about something or other, either with praise or frustration, but his eyes would be shiningly fond no matter his tone.
"I'm telling you, Yuri-chan, Aiba-chan has found the world's weirdest girl." Nino paused a moment, assessing the person to whom he was speaking, and she saw him waver between her and Aiba-chan's girlfriend, but in the end he confirmed, "No, even weirder than you, I think. Her cheeks are pink all the time--"
"That's called blush," she said, pleased when he gave an offended sniff.
"I know that, but this is not normal, I swear... and she has poses."
"Poses?" This intrigued her. Having poses sounded like it could be fun.
He showed her the poses, and she laughed and repeated them back to him, and the rest of their conversation was punctuated by a cutely-poking-out tongue, or puffed cheeks, or an OK sign held up to one of their faces whenever they thought of it. She laughed so much her face started to hurt, and Nino was laughing, too.
The whole dinner, they were pressed up against each other, and it was all she could do not to steal a kiss. She could've done it easily and no one would have even noticed, she bet, but she was also enjoying waiting, and after their conversation in the grocery store, she was hoping for more romance.
It was just so hard to care about romance when she had Nino's body against her, his eyes sparkling as he told her a story about Aiba and Rola and their ridiculous, adorable love. His expressive lips telegraphed his every amusement, his underlying fondness, and also spoke something to her, deep down, something about how well his mouth moved and how soft it would be, how warm and responsive. That something manifested in her mind and body alike as a need to kiss him, and she thought he knew it, too. He kept swaying even more into her space as if to tempt her, those wicked eyes lit up from the inside.
Yuriko made sure to pout a lot just to torture him back, even at moments when pouting didn't make any sense, which was most of them.
They made it out of the ramen shop without kissing, just barely, and walked home down the dark, sparsely populated streets with Nino's arm around Yuriko's shoulders.
Dinner was over; they'd accomplished their first date. She wasn't sure if the date was over until they got home, though, or was it until they parted? The rules seemed blurry when they were already, if temporarily, cohabiting.
As they hit the lobby of her apartment building, she said impulsively, "If you walk me home, I'll give you a kiss at the door."
"I don't know," Nino hedged, but his arm tightened around her. "It's so far out of my way..."
She knew he was joking, but she looked around for a nearer, somehow romantic kissing location, only to sigh mournfully when she spotted one.
"If only the pool were open at night," she said, pointing at the locked door in a secluded corner of the lobby. "I've always wanted to swim in it, but Maa-chan won't go with me in the morning, it's packed with kids when I get home from work, then closes at 8pm."
Nino looked at her, an assessing look on his face. Then he smiled. "Yuri-chan. I can pick locks."
She chuckled. "Walk me home?" She was itching to kiss him and could about do it right there in the boring, unromantic lobby if he didn't hurry up.
He sighed like now he had to prove something, but she reserved judgment until he walked them over to the alcove and produced lock picks from thin air.
She clapped and laughed, then laughed more quietly when he shushed her with a very serious expression.
"This is a clandestine operation, as clandestine as it is romantic. After this you'll have to do the walking me home thing, because I will have exhausted my supply of romance for the month."
Despite how often Nino complained about having to do things, Yuriko doubted it, but she kept that to herself. She was going to give him such a kiss if he opened that pool door for her.
~
As it turned out, Nino really could pick locks.
When he'd gotten the door open, she'd cheered so loudly his eyes had gone wide and she'd found herself dragged onto the tiled floor of the pool room with the door closed behind them before she could think twice. The pool wasn't that large, but with just the two of them there, and the room's lights off but for a few emergency lamps, it seemed a vast and echoing expanse even after she'd muffled her excitement.
Yuriko looked at Nino to find him looking at her. In silent accord, they looped their arms together and strolled around the pool as if they were a wealthy couple out on the town.
The moonlight streamed gently through the windows high up in the walls, which let the light in to grace the still water without offering anyone outside a view of the new couple. On their second turn around, Nino stopped so they were standing in the brightest patch of moonlight. He looked at her, his eyes soft, and started to bend his head to kiss her.
She smiled. "Kazu-chan, let's swim."
He sighed and rested his forehead on her shoulder. "Yuri-chan," he said against her. "My lips are going to fall off with all this wanting you."
She grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged, moving him out of the way with her motion. She pulled it up and over her head, dropped it on the tile next to her feet, and stood there in her jeans and bra.
"Keep them on a little longer," she said as she watched his changing priorities slide across his face in a glazed sort of way. It didn't seem like he'd be fit for conversation a while yet, so she started shimmying out of her jeans as well.
She knew and was glad that bending over to do this made his view of her shirtless self even more provocative. Nino's breath was audible and very fast. When she got her jeans around her ankles, she stepped out of them after pulling off her shoes and socks. She straightened to stand in the moonlight in her underwear with Nino's gaze on her as hot as a touch.
Yuriko eyed the pool. "Wanna race?"
Nino let out a long, yearning sort of sigh. "Whatever it is, you win."
"Loser has to initiate the kiss, how about," she said, thinking it through as she spoke. Considering it was a bet that ended in kissing either way, she felt extremely wise.
He met her eyes, sending a thrill through her all the way to her toes. "I am more interested in a mutual sort of kissing, Yuri-chan. No deal."
She huffed a laugh and stepped closer to him temptingly. The tiled floor was cool against her bare feet. "Me too. But for five seconds of our very first kiss, I'd like to bask in it, you know? And since I'm going to win, I'll take it as my prize."
He didn't move, just tilted his head down as she neared him so that he could keep his eyes on hers. "Who says you'll win? I'd enjoy being lazy for those five seconds, as long as I still get to kiss you."
Yuriko looked at him very seriously. "I'm not sure I can even hold out five seconds, with your mouth." She reached up with one hand and dragged one finger along his lower lip. He was so very kissable.
"Again, who says you'll win," Nino said with strange tenderness, and he pressed his mouth to her fingertip.
She gestured at her state of dishabille. "I'm already ahead--"
"I'll participate like this," he said briskly, looking away as he thoroughly disappointed her. She'd been looking forward to him getting undressed.
"Fine," she said, sulky, and pointed across to the far side of the rectangular pool. "Down and back? Get set, go!" As she dove in she heard him make a surprised noise, and then she hit the water.
She hoped her tactic had gained her some time because she wasn't actually that strong of a swimmer. Her strokes felt clumsy, but the water was cool and refreshing, and the promise of Nino chasing after her only made it more fun. For the time it took to swim the length of the pool and back, she lived entirely in the moment.
Then she finished at the wall, flipped her hair back off her face, and opened her eyes to see Nino standing at the edge of the pool, not a drop of water on him.
He smiled at her. "Like I said, you win."
Her mouth dropped open, but before she could yell at him, she laughed instead. "I should've known when you wouldn't take off your clothes!"
He looked entirely happy with himself as he leaned down to offer her a hand out of the pool. She considered trying to yank him in, but he'd be expecting that, and she also didn't want to ruin anything in his pockets, like his phone.
Instead, she pushed backwards off the wall and glided a ways off, well out of reach. "As the winner, I'm going to bask now, Kazu-chan."
He stood up slowly, eyes on her. "In the water?" he said, deliberation in every syllable.
She retreated to the very center of the pool, as far from any wall as she could get, and didn't bother to answer with words.
Nino said conversationally, "I hope you appreciate how much I want to kiss you. If it were anyone else in this pool right now, I'd leave them here and probably find a way to lock the door behind me."
Given that he was unbuttoning and removing his shirt while he said this, Yuriko didn't pay all that much attention to the words. The tone, however, with its calm surface and heat underneath, seemed to throw the wide room into even more atmospheric anticipation. She watched him shrug out of his t-shirt, then take off his his shoes, socks, and finally his pants.
He wore boxer-briefs that were a garish red even in the gentle light, and she could tell he was getting hard. She stared appreciatively, feeling a thrill that it was because of her. Still, part of her remembered that this was probably why most people didn't get almost all the way naked for a mere first kiss: it made it so difficult to keep it to that.
"Just a kiss?" she said, voice low and husky. It wasn't that she didn't want more, but they were already moving too fast with the temporary living together. This relationship was more important to her than acting on all of her physical urges at once.
He answered, "There'll be no just about it," and dove gracefully into the water.
She was mesmerized for a second, both at the sight of his body and the promise of his words, but she recovered enough to swim away toward the opposite wall just to be playful.
Nino swam under the water, moving toward her unerringly, and she didn't make any attempt to evade him once her back hit the cool tile of the ledge. She wanted this as much as he did, and in truth, she'd wanted it for far longer. When he broke the surface a few feet away, her heart seemed to stop.
He was pale and glistening in the unsteady moonlight. His wet black hair was plastered to his face, but he made no move to push it back, just advanced on her, dark gaze intent, until she could make out individual drops of water on his bare shoulders. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
When he got close enough that he could have touched her, he rested his hands on the wall to either side of her body and kept coming, still not speaking with anything but the clear, determined look in his eyes. With his chest inches from hers, he paused, but it wasn't hesitation. As soon as she looked up from the moon-skimmed shadows of his collarbones, he kissed her.
His mouth was cool and soft, tasting faintly of chlorine, and her eyes flew shut at the first knee-buckling impact of the kiss. It wasn't rough, but it felt important, like it changed something between them just because of the way their lips met and matched. She'd been right about his mouth, about how he'd kiss her, about how much she wanted him--and just then, just when she was about to lose herself in how good it all felt, she remembered that now she'd be able to kiss Nino all the time. Her lips parted as the ache of having him swept through her, and he pressed even closer with a satisfied sound of his own, like he couldn't imagine enjoying this more and wasn't planning to stop anytime soon.
She wasn't touching any part of him but his mouth, but it seemed like she could feel his whole body from his ankles (she could still remember how they'd felt under her hands) to the surprising breadth of his shoulders. It was so different kissing someone she loved, kissing Nino, because she loved every part of him already, even the ones she hadn't touched yet, because it was him. As they deepened the kiss together, all thoughts of basking forgotten, her years of unrequited love dropped away along with every weirdness. She felt his kiss reverberate through her and fill her up with wanting him instead.
They were wet, unclothed, and making out, which made it extremely difficult not to move things right along to sex. Some small, cautious part of her held her libido back, but with his mouth on hers, she could at least translate her every desire right into their kissing. The urge to drag her hands down his back became her tongue sliding into his mouth, and when that made him groan, she wanted to wrap her legs around his waist. It could be so easily accomplished in the water, but instead she pulled back to nip at his lower lip, dizzy at the fullness of it. He moved against her, silky and hot, and when he licked at her open mouth, she stifled some truly filthy mental imagery with an ungentle suck on his tongue.
At that he made a growling sort of noise and crowded so close to her that his body, finally, pressed right up against hers. The chill of the pool faded, replaced by the warmth of Nino, Nino kissing her like she was everything he wanted. His tongue was in her mouth, her hips cradled his obscenely, and if she just took off her bra she'd be able to feel--
She only realized her hands had found their way into his hair when he stopped kissing her. She let go guiltily, trying not to pant into the hushed room, but Nino didn't move away. He was still pressed up against her in that delightful, maddening way, and she opened her eyes to see him staring at her, eyes heavy-lidded and dark with wanting her. Gathering her courage, she reached up to slide a finger across his brow, taking the damp hair with it so that she could see his face as clearly as possible in the half-light.
"Do we need to stop?" she said, words a regretful muddle, and he shook his head. She couldn't tell if that'd been disagreement or him trying to clear his thoughts. Given how his hips were nudged against her, she felt pretty sure that if he was trying to calm down, he wasn't succeeding.
At last Nino sighed and stepped back in the water. "A swim is like a cold shower, right?" he said, mostly to himself, but the grin he gave was entirely for her.
Yuriko wanted more kissing, wanted everything Nino would give her, but she was also filled up to overflowing with happiness with her boyfriend, their first date, their first kiss.
"And our first swim," she mused aloud. "Our first time seeing each other mostly naked."
At that, his eyes dropped helplessly to her breasts, but he jerked them away and made off for the far wall. She waited until he got there and turned around to look at her across the water.
She said mischievously, "Our second kiss...?" and dove after him.
They took turns chasing each other around the pool, tallying their second, third, fourth kisses. They stopped counting long before they stopped kissing, but it'd turned playful, romantic, with far more splashing around than groping. They laughed and kissed and swam in the moonlight, everything and everyone else forgotten in the pleasure of each other's company.
~
Yuriko was prepared to skulk upstairs with Nino in whatever wet, disheveled, but somehow not pornographic manner they could put together, but Nino wouldn't hear of it. He left her in the pool and nipped upstairs in his t-shirt and pants, having used his button-down shirt as a makeshift towel, and brought her back two of the real things.
She looked at the big, fluffy towels, then at him, wondering why there were two and whether she was going to climb out of the water in her undies and give him a show. Before she could act on any of her impulses, he draped one of the towels around his shoulders and held the other one out, spread in the air, and ostentatiously closed his eyes.
He said solemnly, "Your towel, madam."
She felt like she should probably laugh, but she was caught in one of her moments of intense affection for him and could only manage to stare. He really did have his eyes closed, though, so she got through the moment as best she could while getting herself out of the pool and into that inviting towel.
Finally she said in a monotone, "Thank you," just as Nino wrapped the towel around her and turned her to face him. She looked at him, knowing her heart was in her eyes for him to see, but he was busily getting the other towel free to put over her head and begin drying her hair.
"You could be my manager," she mumbled, blinking back the excess emotion. "How are you with a hairdryer?"
"I think I'd be excellent," Nino said. She tried to hear what he left unsaid though it was very distracting to have him petting her hair with the towel so cozily.
"Ah." She remembered the thing he needed to do that was more important than blow-drying her hair. "Your script."
His motions didn't falter, but he made a noise of assent. "I keep trying to round up, since three-quarters is really pretty much done already, but no one else seems convinced."
"Thank you for going to get the towels," she said, stepping back a bit so she could look him in the eye without immediately needing to kiss him again.
"I thought it best I didn't see you go upstairs in a wet shirt. I'm trying to exercise restraint, you know." He grinned at her.
She tilted her head back at him. "Why?" She knew her reasons for feeling like sex needed to wait until they'd been together a little longer, but she wasn't at all sure of his.
Giving a thinking sort of sound, he rubbed his chin. His hair was still wet, and the moonlight was a muted glow on his pretty skin, and for a second Yuriko flashed back to that moment in the pool when he'd come toward her to kiss her for the first time. She shivered.
Nino wrapped an arm around her towel-clad shoulders and tugged her into his side. "Hm, I guess it's that I don't want to be thinking of anything but you when we get there." The implication that he felt they still had some sort of progress to make before they slept together, even if the progress was only the length of time they were dating, was reassuring to her in that it meshed with her own reasons, but it also made her impatient.
But he wasn't done. He said in the same matter-of-fact tone, "And I think it'll take a couple days the first time, honestly, with you. Not to give you weird ideas about my endurance in any area, and a lot of it would just be lying around in bed if I had my way, but I think..."
She nodded seriously. "Basking, in that context, is better done post-coital."
"So I have to write this script, I guess," he concluded, sounding put-out. "Normally I'd wait a few more days before the big push, but other bits of me might start falling off through wanting you--"
Again, she nodded, repeatedly. Maybe too many times. "I am very fond of all your bits. Let's go so you can get to work."
Back in her apartment, they separated a while to dry off and get changed into pajamas, then found each other again in the living room.
Looking at Nino leaning in the doorway toward the kitchen, Yuriko sat deliberately on the sofa. Nino, even more deliberately, came over to sit in the uncomfortable chair.
"Ahh, are we talking, then," she said, not exactly disappointed. She might never get enough of touching Nino, but she knew she'd never get enough of talking with him either.
"I don't want sleeping together to be a reward for me finishing my script," he said bluntly.
She nodded, having had that thought herself. "How about we wait until we're not living together?" she suggested. "I'd really like to bring you home with me... to a place where you don't also sleep, but just for--just to have you."
He folded himself deeper into the chair, thinking. She took the opportunity to admire the way he tucked his legs under himself, as well as the drying fluffiness of his hair.
He said, "I'm here another six days. Or, well, that's when my deadline is up, and I don't think I can wrangle any more time." He cut himself off, looking alarmed, and interjected, "Ah! I mean, I could, of course, because of my charm! Which is boundless. But this time, I don't want to. For obvious reasons?"
She chuckled. "Yes, Kazu. Obvious reasons."
"I'll move out when I've finished my script, then, and we can figure it out from there, but... for those six days, what are the new rules?"
"Kissing," Yuriko said immediately, then remembered the whole deadline thing. "But only between the hours of eight and nine pm, um, if you've written enough that day to feel like you can take a break."
"How will that be judged?" Nino said, eyes sparkling. "I'll be very motivated for the answer to be yes."
She kept her face deadpan. "We'll use the honor system."
"Damn," he whispered loudly, as if to himself. "It's still early enough in our relationship that I have to try to have honor."
Her heart fluttered in a distinctly unruly fashion. Relationship.
"Any rules about the kissing itself?" Nino asked. After a moment of her not catching his drift, still dazed by the casual mention that they were in a relationship, he waggled his hands at her in a meaningful manner. "Anything off limits?"
"Whatever feels good," she answered instinctively. "As long as we keep our clothes on. Which sounds like a rule I already hate."
"I don't want to suggest it," he said, and he was indeed frowning like the words were being pulled out of him. "But we could go swimming again."
She grinned at him. "Too much of a hassle for you, Kazu-chan?"
"It's cold, and you have to take off all your clothes, and then you're just unendingly wet."
"Next time we'll bring towels," she said, ignoring his complaints. "And swimsuits... maybe."
He grumbled, "And it's not even between eight and nine pm right now, and I'll have to do so much writing to even earn my measly hour of kissing, and now you're going to drag me swimming again and in swimsuits--"
"Want a goodnight kiss to seal our deal?" she offered, all innocence, and he immediately changed his tone.
"Yes, let's; it's a good deal, after all, and in need of sealing," and with that he was over to the couch and bending his head to kiss her.
She cupped his face, enjoying the feel of him, and kissed him sweetly.
"Goodnight, Kazu-chan."
He straightened, pushing up his sleeves in a determined fashion. "Sleep well. I'll be writing hard for you."
"I'm sure the people paying you would be glad to hear it," she said blandly, but she had to steal just one more kiss before she could let him go.
She had a feeling she'd be breaking her own rules a lot in the days to come.
~
Yuriko woke up early the next morning with an unsettling realization.
She wanted to go back to work.
It wasn't that she missed her job, exactly, or even her coworkers, though she would be pleased to see some of them after a while without. It was that she missed all of it: breakfast with Masami, going to work, the boring thrill of numbers, eating lunch in the cafeteria with Yuko and Emi, slacking off in the afternoons once she'd gotten enough done, then home again, where it'd preferably be Masami's turn to cook dinner.
She missed her routine. And she missed Masami.
Still, she decided to give herself another day to be sure. After all, it wasn't like going back to work would bring Masami to her any earlier, and she had more than a week until her deadline was up.
Plus, she wasn't yet tired of seeing Nino constantly. After a solitary breakfast, she came out of the kitchen to find that he'd made it down the hall and into the uncomfortable chair before falling back asleep with his notebook in his lap and one hand still clutching his pencil.
Telling herself she was a selfless person to wake Nino up like this so that he could work, Yuriko tugged the notebook away to lay it on the coffee table and carefully climbed into Nino's vacated lap.
He didn't wake up. She'd been expecting him to stir at once, or that she'd find he hadn't really been asleep at all, but instead his breathing stayed deep and even despite the way she was shifting to try to find a comfortable position on top of him.
She ended up sitting sideways across his thighs with her legs hooked over the side of the chair, her shoulder leaning against Nino's chest. She rested her head against the back of the chair right next to his before letting it tip slowly, slowly forward to press her forehead against his soft hair.
She didn't know when he woke up, but it was long enough that she was starting to feel drowsy herself before his arms came up to settle around her waist. She heard the pencil drop to the floor. They sat like that without talking until she started feeling guilty for keeping him from his writing, even if he would've been asleep without her, but as she tensed to get up, Nino spoke.
"Please don't leave."
Just the sleepy tone would've been enough to melt Yuriko, especially when it was Nino using that sincere voice, but the words made her want to wrap her arms around his neck and never let go.
He sighed, settling more comfortably against her, which did nothing to prepare her for what he said next. "After Masami and I broke up, I dated a lot of people."
Yuriko tensed again, but all she said was a drawled, "Really."
"Every few months we'd go on one of those group dates, and more often than not I'd find someone there and latch onto them for five or six weeks and tell myself it was forever."
He was speaking quietly, a hint of sleep still in the rasp of his words, and Yuriko took a deep breath and tried to find the calmness inside of her, the calmness where she never lied to herself.
She said, "It's a little painful to hear that."
"I was young and desperate," Nino said, and it wasn't an apology. "I thought if I didn't find someone I loved more than Masami, everything might as well be over."
She tucked her nose into his neck and spoke against his skin. "I like getting to know you..."
He huffed a little laugh. "But?"
"Is there a reason you're bringing this up now?"
He was silent for a moment. She could feel his heartbeat thumping in his throat. At last he said, "I stopped after a few years. Whenever a relationship ended, I thought it meant I'd never be happy with anyone again, and for a while I'd give up... then find someone new and start over. I guess I'm bringing it up because I'm thinking about it in a new light now that I'm with you."
She pressed her lips against his pulse, trying not to rush him even though her own heart was racing in a way that wasn't entirely pleasant.
"Because with you, it's all good," Nino said, then laughed at himself. "No, maybe not all good, but it all seems worthwhile. I'm looking back and realizing that after Masami, nothing ever seemed worthwhile unless it lasted forever, and then nothing ever did."
"So you're saying we're not forever," Yuriko said, trying not to chuckle. She didn't know why she found that reassuring instead of crushing.
"I'm saying that I want to be with you even if it's not," he answered, and he ducked and twisted awkwardly just to drop a kiss on her lips. "And that because I'm not desperate to avoid it ending, I'm ... I'm really with you, you know? Even with weirdness and deadlines and trying to keep our hands off each other--"
She gave his chest a bit of a grope to punctuate his words.
He laughed happily, seemed to wake up completely as he did. "This is good, right? It's just been a long time for me, that's all, since it's been this good."
Yuriko, flush with her own happiness, looked straight into herself with the knowledge that he meant since he'd been with Masami, but she didn't find the sting. He liked being with her. She thought it was good, too.
She nodded in answer, feeling him let out his breath contentedly at the motion. She smirked. "Kazu, is waking up your time for talking about feelings?"
He leaned his head against hers sweetly. "I don't know what you're talking about, Yuri."
She asked abruptly, "Do you think you could carry me to the couch?"
He paused, either with surprise or considering the question, she didn't know, but she waited without worrying. He knew she was odd and liked being with her anyway.
"I'd be willing to try," Nino said slowly.
"But?"
"Ugh, maybe waking up really is a time to talk about feelings. I actually have some back problems; it's not too big a deal, but there it is."
He was very still under her now, all stiff muscles and sharp angles, and she wondered just how he thought she was going to react.
"Ah well," she said mildly. "Nobody's perfect."
He squeezed her so suddenly that she actually squeaked. "I'll trade you a piece of information for a kiss."
"Wait a second," she said, realizing. "You already had one and you haven't written anything yet today!"
"It's something you'll want to know, but I'd only say it now, since we're talking about such deep and meaningful things."
Nino's voice was regaining its sharpness, making her, conversely, want to kiss him even more.
"All right, go," she said suspiciously.
He whispered in her ear, "That dratted swimming actually made my back feel a lot better."
Despite how he was treating it lightly, she could feel that he'd tensed up some again. He must have really hated talking about his health problems, so she didn't say anything with words, just turned her head and kissed him.
He sighed into her before kissing her back, and it wasn't a sleepy sort of kiss, but rather intently affectionate. She could feel his body easing under her as he forgot any discomfort, physical or otherwise, in the pleasure of her touch. Thinking about him willingly showing his vulnerability in front of her made her kiss him even more deeply.
After a while, she pulled back to say, a little too loudly into the quiet room, "You need to write that stupid movie so that you can move out and we can have sex."
He didn't laugh, just kissed her again swiftly before saying, "It's going to be a groundbreaking film, Yuri-chan, but it does stand between us getting naked so you're right, it's the worst."
"Write it," Yuriko said firmly. She extricated herself from his lap and stood over him menacingly. "Write it!"
"You're right, you're right," Nino said amiably, but she could see he was still looking at her with bedroom eyes.
She crossed her arms over her chest, irritated at the inevitability of it all. "I'm going out, and tomorrow I'm going back to work. No more kissing until our rules are satisfied, either!"
"You're pretty bossy," he said, but the way he said it made it sound like an entirely appreciative compliment. She narrowed her eyes at him. Maybe even a pickup line, considering the smug tilt of his lips.
Then he laughed, waving his hands in front of his face as if to erase his last words. "Just kidding, Yuri-chan! I'll write it, I swear, so work or not at your ease, and leave my writing--and my honor system--to me."
She stifled the irritated desire to say one more kiss and turned on her heel to go get dressed for the day instead.
~
Yuriko ended up going to a goat petting zoo cafe. She got handed a flyer for it on her way to the subway, which she'd been intending to take to go to her and Masami's old neighborhood where she could linger in her old favorite cafe. She'd whiled many an hour away in that cafe thinking about Nino and trying to get rid of her feelings for him back when he'd been dating her best friend.
She thought it'd been a healthy impulse, actually, to revisit past pain in order to move on more cleanly, but she didn't hesitate to switch her plans after looking down at the flyer in her hand.
Instead of thinking about serious things, she spent her morning petting goats and drinking watery coffee. All of the metal tables had bite marks on them. She thought it might be her new favorite place.
When she went home, she wanted to ask Nino if he thought she could keep a goat in her apartment, but she wrote it on a post-it note and stuck it on the inside of her door to remember to bring up between eight and nine at night instead.
She lazed and watched television until it got dark out. She watched most of a drama starring Matsumoto Jun and had to write notes to herself and add them to the door frequently because she had so many questions she wanted to ask Nino, like what kind of expressions the idol Matsumoto Jun made when he woke up in the morning.
Before emerging for dinner, she emailed Masami, letting herself ramble on in all directions without much editing, and smiled to herself at the thought that Masami's trip was half over. When she made her way to the kitchen, however, she took one look at Nino (writing angrily at the table, tapping out a rhythm with one foot, biting his lip, and running a hand through his hair all at the same time) and kept walking. She went out for dinner and decided not to come home until 7:59pm. She had gyoza again, three different kinds, which helped her to stop thinking about time passing so slowly.
In the entryway when she got home, Nino was waiting. They were kissing before she even stepped out of her shoes.
Yuriko mumbled into Nino's mouth, "Let's kiss everywhere."
He grabbed her hips, making a winded sort of noise, and moved to stare at her. "But I thought we were waiting until--"
She laughed, "Oh, I meant... in the apartment." Then she inadvertently pictured kissing Nino everywhere and went hot, so her next words came out toneless from the restraint of not yanking off all of his clothes at once. "Since you'll be moving out, and then Maa-chan'll be back, and I want memories of us kissing everywhere. In the apartment."
"Memories," he said, looking both flushed and wary. "You know that stuff I said this morning, I didn't mean I wanted this to end any time soon, right?"
She flopped a hand out dismissively. "It's for when you're not here. So no matter what I'm doing, it's somewhere I can remember us kissing."
"I wish your apartment were bigger, then," he said, and he used his hands on her hips to maneuver them up against the wall. "Let's start here. I don't think we've quite gotten it yet." As he trailed off, he leaned in, and then his mouth was back on hers.
She kissed him, then mumbled, "Here," kissed him, then mumbled, "and the balcony," then kept alternating kisses and words into his mouth until she'd listed everywhere she could think of, from the kitchen table to "the bath, but not until we've had sex, don't you think". Nino was making frustrated noises by the time she finished, but he was persistent: he kept his attention on kissing her through the whole list.
It was only when she paused and tried to think of another place that he paused, too. "Yuri-chan. You do know you have neither a hot tub nor a fireplace?"
"Eh, we already did the pool," she said, and she kissed him briefly because it was addictive. She imagined away some of his clothes and kissed him again, then stipulated, "But the fireplace is a must. And Maa-chan's room..."
"... is a no," Nino finished firmly.
"Maybe," she said, grinning at him.
That night they made out on the balcony for nearly an hour before Yuriko remembered they'd planned to move around and hit more places on her list, but she couldn't bring herself to have any regrets about it at all. With ten minutes left before Nino was supposed to return to writing, she suggested a quick dip in the pool, but no amount of pouting would convince Nino.
"I don't write well while wet," he said.
When she tried telling him that she would dry every inch of him personally, it only led to more kissing, and then their time was up.
~
Yuriko went back to work the next day. It was, comfortingly, entirely the same, though it was strange to leave home without Masami there and come home to find her still in Istanbul after all. She worked the rest of the week, and it took until Friday for her coworkers to lessen in their voluble surprise over her early finish on the budget. It didn't end entirely, and she thought it might be a long time before it did, but it eased up enough that she wasn't as hard-pressed to avoid the urge to shove someone into a wall.
She and Toma exchanged smiles and nods as they passed each other, but she didn't force the issue by talking to him yet. His smiles seemed genuine, though, so she thought it wouldn't be long.
Nino didn't join her for breakfast any day before work, but Yuriko always woke up with enough time to dress, eat, and go find Nino and cuddle him gently awake so he could kiss her goodbye. She found him on his bed, on his chair, on the couch, and one day, after an increasingly bewildered search, on the balcony.
Coming home, she left him alone until the designated time, and a couple nights she made that easier on both of them by going out to eat with friends, including once with Yuu. She immediately decided to see her friend more often, Yuu's medical internship, boyfriend, and basically moved out status notwithstanding.
As it turned to eight o'clock, Nino would find her. By Friday, they'd crossed off every location on her mental checklist, even the fireplace. Nino had been a little embarrassed when he turned his laptop around to show her the full-screen video of a roaring fire, but it had been one of Yuriko's favorite Nino-kisses yet. She didn't manage to coax him into the swimming pool again at all that week, but he offered every night to break her in so she could swim if she wanted. She saved that idea for another time, preferring to keep her memories of the pool as a place with Nino in it.
Also by Friday, though it gave him an irritable twitch in his shoulders and intense dark circles under his eyes, Nino finished his script.
She came home from dinner at 8:01, had her mouth on his by 8:02, but didn't hear about him meeting his deadline until 8:40. They'd only made it as far as the living room floor and had been entwined there more than half an hour with cushions to ease Nino's back and Yuriko straddling his hips as she kissed him because that's where she wanted to be.
His hands were on her breasts when she had and acted on the impulse to ask about his script.
"Oh, I sent it in an hour ago," Nino said, flashing her the briefest smile before looking back at his hands, which were doing wonderful things to Yuriko even through her shirt and bra. She bit down on a gasp and pushed back with her hips, gratified to hear his stifled moan, then processed his words.
"You're... done?" she said, feeling like her brain was malfunctioning.
"I'm moving out at 9:01," he said, raising up momentarily to steal a quick, wet kiss. When he rolled back onto his cushions, making her wobble on top of him, he looked winded but incredibly pleased.
"Careful," she said, thinking through all this new information as she spoke. "Too many kisses like that and your one-pack will turn into six. Your stuff?"
"My bag's by the door." He was still watching his hands on her body, with said hands being more talented than she could even think about, especially considering pretty soon they'd be on her without any barrier at all. He traced his hands around, following the lines of her bra, until one deft hand was resting over the clasp. "Is it all right, Yuri-chan, if the shirt stays on?"
"No," she said, preoccupied, then changed her mind. "I mean, yes, but then no hands, because you need to move out promptly... if you're out by nine tonight, then at nine tomorrow night, after going out to dinner? I could bring you home and you'd have been moved out for a whole day, so..." She trailed off, looking down at his face. "Are you taking my bra off or what?"
"No hands? Do you mean I can only look, but with the shirt, and also can we get hamburgers tomorrow? It's what I usually get after finishing a script since the first time, when Aiba-chan treated me."
She felt him unclasp her bra in one easy movement despite neither being able to see it or put his hand on it directly. It was impressive enough that she had to clap and laugh, which made him grin at her. She spoke with her laugh lingering in her voice.
"Hamburgers, fine, everything else, whatever, we only have ten minutes left before you move out so let's prioritize. I'll show you," she said. She took her bra all the way off without moving her shirt enough to show a single inch of extra skin, which made him applaud in turn. Then she leaned down, making sure to resettle herself over his hips to have him groan helplessly with want, and pressed herself against his chest.
She watched his face as he felt not only her hips snug against his, but her breasts against his chest, and chuckled at the look of intense abstraction that formed there.
"Ten minutes," he got out, sounding strangled, and she nodded, pleased, and kissed him.
Ten minutes until he moved out, and a day and ten minutes until they were officially living apart. She couldn't wait for the time to be up. At the same time, she wanted those ten minutes to last forever.
~
They were at the door, his bag in his hand, and kissing each other goodbye at nine sharp when Yuriko had a thought.
She squeezed Nino's wrist until he complied and dropped the bag, then pulled him by that same wrist from the entryway, through the living room, and onto the balcony. It was a move complicated by the fact that he'd already put on his shoes, but after he'd fallen to his knees by the door it was pretty easy for him to reach back and pull them back off.
It was also easy for him to complain and ask questions, but she said merely, "Let's make it 9:05pm tomorrow," and kept to her plan.
Once she had him on the balcony, she maneuvered them so they had their backs to empty space, took out her phone, and prepared to take a picture.
"I see," Nino said, suddenly all agreeable, and by the time she could see them on her screen to aim, he was smiling adorably complete with his arm around her shoulder and peace signs.
She smiled naturally and took the picture. After examining it critically and wishing she'd thought to take it at sunset instead, she said, "I'm sending this to Maa-chan and telling her our honored guest is ending his stay with us today."
"Your inn has been very good to me," he said and gave a tiny bow.
He still hadn't removed his arm from around her, and for a few minutes which Yuriko knew she might want back the next night but certainly couldn't bring herself to give up right then, they stood there leaning against each other in the cool night air, the sky behind them like a backdrop just for them.
A picture reply arrived from Masami.
As soon as she saw it, Yuriko laughed, then looked at Nino. His smile at the picture turned to confusion at her expectant look.
"Kazu, don't you see? She's giving a peace sign and a thumbs-up. That's two hands, you know--"
"Yes, I can count," he interrupted.
"--which means she must have set a timer on the camera, just so she could send both to us!" she finished triumphantly. "Oh Maa-chan, my darling."
"Or," Nino started, speaking slowly like he wanted her to understand something. "It seems possible that she had someone else take the picture."
Yuriko frowned. "Buzzkill," she muttered, peering at the picture, then shouted, "Ha! Look, behind Maa-chan, there's a mirror, and look, right here, that smudge of black, that is the camera, and look, or fail to see, a person holding it. Ha!"
He said calmly, "I heard your ha the first time," but when she peered up at him, he was grinning at her. "I'm glad you were right, Yuri-chan."
She smiled smugly. "One more kiss."
It was more like four, and they'd have to wait until 9:20 the next night if they wanted him moved out for a full 24 hours, but by half-past nine Yuriko was alone in the apartment, just as she'd thought, when waking up that first day, she would be the entire time.
It felt strange now, but it wasn't without its perks. For the couple hours before she went to bed, she planned to bathe unhurriedly, watch the rest of her drama on the couch while wearing only a towel, and eat copious snacks, the wrappers of which she would leave strewn about to be picked up the next day.
As she undressed, she got a message from Nino that said simply, Kissing withdrawal. She texted back fondly, Buck up.
When she finally got out of the bath, into her towel, and onto the couch, she received another message, this one with the words, Aiba-chan's crying because I'm back. She responded at once: What about the idol Matsumoto Jun? Has he heard about our exclusive inn because he would certainly be a VIP guest.
To: Yuriko
From: Kazunari
Jun-kun's allergic to inns. Hamburgers tomorrow, pick me up at seven?
Yuriko sent back agreement, smiling as she ignored Nino's ridiculous lie. It did make it seem fitting that she was distracting herself from their waiting period by looking at said Jun-kun's beautiful face, though, and she watched her drama and ate her snacks with what might have been off-putting gusto if anyone had been there to witness it.
But at long last, she was alone, and she had nearly 20 more hours to enjoy it.
~
Part Three