[One-Shot] Strawberry Laundry Forever
Prompt by almighty_trice :Jun and Mao are doing laundry at a laundromat
Rating: G
Word Count: 3039 words
Genre: AU, some humor
STRAWBERRY LAUNDRY FOREVER
Let me take you down
‘Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
- John Lennon, Paul McCartney
It was certainly not a big surprise to find a strawberry-patterned brassiere within his blue-red polka dotted and movies-themed set of underwear just freshly laundered with a hint of his Molto scented softener. It was bound to happen if you did your laundry in a public laundromat where just about anyone shared some washing machines with you and your clothes with the requirement of some spare coins. In the past, he had found socks, stockings, gloves in many kinds and patterns, left and right, left or right. Never the whole pair and certainly never strawberry-patterned, or brassieres in general. People tended to be more careful with it, most probably. Oh, there was a cutesy strawberry-patterned half of a pair of socks before mixed with his laundry, too small to even put three of his fingers inside. But it wasn't such a long time ago it was impossible that the little girl who owned that strawberry half-socks could have grown up so quickly into a woman fitting these, uhm, strawberries. And he certainly was almost sure no woman would be so much in love with strawberries to match her brassieres with her pair of socks.
"34B," he whispered in awe as he studied the strawberries in his hands.
Matsumoto Jun never really got to understood how bras' sizing worked, and he never wondered about that. Not that he never saw one before, although the last time he did was so long ago and mostly he would be more interested in what was covering it instead of the thing itself. So he never paid attention. He thought bras' sizing should have been more simple to understand, you know, like S-size, M-size, L-size, XL-size. The way everything was sized.
The more he thought about it he came to concluded that some women wouldn't found it nice if in fact their breasts belonged to the XS-size group. Or XXS. Or XXL. No. Women would certainly not to be fond of those X-es. Although, men's underwear used that system and it was believed that men's egos were more sensitive than women, especially regarding private parts. But men wouldn't mind the X-es so much as long as there were no S-es. Right?
He snapped out of his uncoordinated wonder about breasts and private parts in general and decided to put more thought in the particular breasts that these strawberries were used for cover. Jun then decided to do what possibly no man has ever done before with these particular strawberries. He has secretly wondered in his boyhood about this but never dared to try it. Not that he never had the chance before, but when he was living under his parents' roof and under the prying eyes of his always-ready-to-tease-him older sister.
With the strawberries in hand, Jun slid himself inside the small toilet nearby his apartment's entrance. He also slid himself out of his sweatshirt and put the strawberries on. It was a too-tight fit, of course, but he managed to hooked it together with a little of holding his breath and relaxing some muscles. As he looked at himself in the small mirror above the sink, he bursted out laughing at the silly reflection looking back at him. He couldn't help but took a picture with his iPhone. Just to delete it again because he better thought that this memory should not ever be preserved. Shit happened. So instead he took a picture of the strawberries all by itself posing on the toilet seat. It would looked better that way. Looked as if he has scored. Even though he hasn't for the longest time.
As he went back to his own garments in the laundry basket, strawberries back in his hand instead of his chest, he couldn't shake off the thought that he has gone way off first base with the woman who owned those strawberries, a woman he probably has met or hasn't met before in the laundromat he went to every weekend. He wondered again which base was this. He had had sex before with other women, but he hadn't put any of their bras on. So this was new. This was.. different.
He shook his head and chuckled at himself. He wondered too much. Next thing he knew he put the strawberries on a hanger and hanged it on one of his wardrobe knob. He took a seat on his bed and stared at those strawberries for long hours, then days, to come.
---
It wasn't laundry time for his clothes yet but if the strawberries were going to spend more nights in his room, Jun was sure that he would be losing his mind. That was an exaggeration, he thought, well, more like losing his concentration to do his freelance-writing. Work. Or losing sleep. A lot of sleep. The logic escaped his mind how a pair of strawberries could give him so much fantasies, and not necessarily sexy fantasies, even though he must admit he did have them. Nonetheless, the strawberries instead also made him wonder more, too much even, about the mysterious woman who has bought it, chosen those patterns out of all and decided to wore it, washed it and left it alone just to be adjoined with his own clothes and found a home in his room and dreams.
So Jun decided to launder some of his clothes again that Saturday night. Since it hasn't been a while since the last time he did it, he didn't have to bring much inside his dark blue duffel bag. He put the strawberries inside one of its hidden compartment and he was so certain that it made his bag felt heavy. He took a glance to that part of the bag, as if afraid it would accidentally slipped out, or even worse, burnt a hole and let itself out.
Jun chuckled at himself for the silly thought. Ever since the arrival of the strawberries in his hand, he did this time and time again.
When he finally arrived at the almost deserted laundromat, his heart almost stopped and his head ceased to think of another silly thought.
And there she was, the only customer of the laundromat in the corner of his block as an exception of himself, fumbling with garments, putting them out of her, get this, strawberry-patterned duffel bag, into the washing machine just beside her. And just in time, she was holding a pair of strawberry-patterned socks! The exact same pattern as the one Jun has been staring at on that brassiere hidden in a small compartment of his very own duffel bag, which better be not pick the perfect timing to fell out accidentally, or even burnt a hole and let itself out! That was not all, when she was done she took a seat on a bench right in front of the now-washing washing machine, and yes, get this as well, she picked out a lunch box filled with strawberries and whipped cream on the side.
Jun couldn't hardly believed his eyes, he forgot to move from his stunned position at the entrance ten minutes ago that he suddenly caught her attention in the midst of the second and third strawberries going inside her mouth. Her lips. Almost as red as the strawberries that were occupying them inside.
She nodded at him, her ponytail danced along as she did so. She tried to pull a smile as much as her full mouth of strawberries allowed. It wasn't much of a smile at all, but her big chocolate eyes twinkled with sincerity.
Jun tried to pull himself together as much as the strawberries in the hidden compartment of his duffel bag could allow. He nodded and smiled back as much as the tight knot inside his stomach allowed. He decided against the washing machine besides the strawberry girl and chosen the one just opposite hers across the room. He started to dig out his own clothes, hoping the sound of the strawberry girl's munching strawberries and the strawberry girl's washing machine washing her strawberry socks could drown the sound of his overly exaggerated beating heart.
As he didn't have a lot of clothes to launder to begin with, Jun didn't take that much time to start up his own washing machine. Pretty certain that two washing machines tumbling sound could definitely distract any ear's attention from his beating heart, he took a seat just behind the strawberry girl. Their backs were almost touching Jun had to sit up so straight.
"Uhm, whun shum?" Jun thought he heard her speak. He turned around and she was offering her lunchbox of strawberries to him.
"S-sorry?" Jun stuttered.
The strawberry girl then swallow any strawberries occupying her mouth and let out a chuckle, "I said, you want some?"
Jun shook his head, "It's fine.."
"You don't like strawberries?"
"It is not a matter of like and dislike.." Actually, Jun disliked strawberries for as long as he remembered. On another thought, after staring at some for the past week, he probably had gotten over that.
The girl raised an eyebrow.
Jun finally took one strawberry into his mouth, "Thank you."
The strawberry girl grinned wide, "Good?", she asked as she watched him munched her strawberry.
Jun nodded a few times. Magically, he appreciated the taste he had never have appreciated before. He took another one.
"Good boy," the strawberry girl winked and Jun chuckled at her, finally not at himself again.
Each turned their eyes back to their shaking washing machine. Jun closed his eyes. If he could took a picture of this particular scene, he would. Sadly none of the stuff he wanted to preserved could ever be represented in a picture. He would wanted to preserve the taste of her strawberry in his mouth with the sound of tumbling washing machine in the background. He would wanted to smell the scent of strawberries coming out of her mouth, circling around the room. No, none of these could be preserved in a simple picture of one lonely man who did his laundry three times this week and one strange woman who matched her sock to her brassiere in strawberries sitting back to back inside an almost deserted laundromat. Even a moving picture could have not preserved the strawberry scented room, and probably couldn't preserve the heart of it.
"Ar-are you new in the neighborhood?" Jun couldn't believe that he stuttered again.
"Not really.. I've lived in this neighborhood for two to three years.."
"I've never seen you here before.."
"I used to have a washing machine in my apartment. One day, it said goodbye and never wanted to wash my clothes ever again, it said. Go to the Laundromat, it said before it finally died..." She dramatically told The Goodbye Story of the Strawberry Girl's Private Washing Machine.
Jun laughed at that story, "So this is your first time here?"
"Second."
Jun couldn't find a better timing than this, "Uhm, actually...", Jun reached out for his duffel bag.
"Yes?"
The strawberries were finally out. "I have a feeling that this might be, uhm, yours.."
Jun couldn't looked at her in the eyes but when he lowered his eyes, he found her mouth gaping and the color of the strawberries was almost can be seen traveling up from her neck to her now flushed cheeks.
As she snapped the strawberries from his hand, Jun shut his duffel bag up and turned his back at her again, "I am sorry if I couldn't find a less embarrassing way to do this.."
"You could have just put it as a lost item! Or threw it away!" She now snapped at him.
"I said I was sorry!"
"But we just met!"
"I truly realized your obsession with strawberries, though.."
"None of your business!"
"I also have read that it is not recommended for women to machine wash their brassiere as it may ruin its supporting wires and, uhm, shape.."
"And where on earth did you read that?"
"Wikipedia.."
She rolled her eyes, "You can't quote from a wiki article and expect people to take you seriously. And it is none of your business how I should wash my, my.. undergarments!"
She has stood up now and circled the room to face Jun right in front of him. If Jun had previously thought that her strawberry colored cheeks were the proofs of her embarrassment, he was wrong then. She was flushed with anger, for sure.
"I am sorry," Jun said it again in a small voice.
"Pervert!"
"I said I was sorry.." He most probably was being a pervert so he said this again and again in a smaller voice.
"We didn't even know each other's name! And you, you," She pointed at his hand, "You had held my bra! You must have had it for days!"
Five. And I have even tried it on once, Jun added to himself mentally. But instead he said his name, "Matsumoto Jun.."
"Well, what the hell, Inoue Mao!" She was still shaking with anger and her chest were moving up and down trying to control it, "I wish my laundry is done so I can leave!"
Jun didn't know what came over him. He finally looked up into her eyes and met them for the very first time. Perhaps it was her act of telling him her name or the moment that he was finally being properly introduced to the girl who has haunted his nights only with the help of a presence of her strawberry patterns, even though the situation was far from proper with him handing her a brassiere resulted in her yelling at him. Or probably it could be for a simple reason of hearing the sound of her name for the first time. Jun took a big step forward, swept her off her feet and tasted the leftover taste of strawberries on her lips.
She held her breath now, obviously surprised by his sudden action, but more surprisingly, she didn't push him away. Jun didn't throw away the chance to savor the taste, desperately wishing that his tongue could preserved this taste as this taste could be better than anything he ever tasted before. It even was better than what he was imagining for the past week. She tasted like.. well, obviously, like strawberries. He kissed her in many ways of how a girl could be kissed. Soft, passionate, burning, deeply, world-stopping, time-stopping, tongue-dueling, just pick up any description from any Harlequin-novel kisses and there you have it, you have it all in this particular kiss.
And the world did stop. At least, for Jun and Mao. And one of the two washing machines washing their clothes. The spinning-clothes soundtrack that was serenading them all this time finally stopped and so was their Harlequin-novel kiss. There came the sound of water running from Jun's laundry but Mao's was done with its final spin.
Jun was out of breath but he managed to let out a perfect example of a husky whisper into her left ear, "Inoue-san.. I.."
Hearing her parents' name, Mao snapped out of his heavy-lidded gaze and finally pushed him away that Jun fell back into his seat on the bench. Mao was still out of breath and her chest was moving up and down like her state just before the Harlequin kiss, now for obviously a different cause.
Jun opened his mouth, about to say that he was sorry but then he closed it again, decided that he was not.
Mao turned around and circled the room, back to her finished laundry and packed as fast as she could. Jun stared at her back, still couldn't shake off the daze he was really into a few minutes ago.
When Mao was finally about to exit the laundromat, she realized she has left her lunchbox half-filled with strawberries. She stormed back to the bench where Jun was and hastily picked it up. She hurriedly turned away again, but as she reached the door she turned her head to catch a glimpse of him, of Jun still gazing at her, still fitting any description heavily used in any Harlequin novels. Heavy-lidded? Check. Dazed and confused? Check. Admiration? Check. Passion? Check. Love? Maybe yes, maybe no. It looked a damn lot like a yes, though.
Jun needed another ten seconds after the strawberry girl finally left the laundromat to realize that she has left her strawberry patterned underpants underneath the bench, the exact match of the brassiere Jun had just returned. Jun couldn't help to not let out a chuckle as he picked it up. It could have slipped out when she hurriedly packed her wet clothes, desperate for a big exit. It could have been his karma for disliking strawberries for almost thirty years now that these strawberries kept coming back to him.
Or it could have been fate.
Jun then wondered whether he would be able to see her again. So he put the new strawberries inside the familiar hidden compartment of his duffel bag, where the old strawberries had been. Just when he did, he caught a glimpse of her again outside the window of glass of the laundromat. The strawberry girl, or to be exact, Inoue Mao, has reappeared with a duffel bag full of supposedly wet clothes in her hands. She has returned just to meet his eyes again and made a final dramatic exit.
Her eyes were twinkling but her mouth pouted, seemingly was about to throw another tantrum. She then instead kicked the sidewalk she was standing on as if showing him her disapproval of what had happened and hurriedly disappeared from where she came from.
Watching her leave again for the second time, Jun had a smile or two.
He would definitely see her again.
And taste her strawberries, again and again.