Fic: Clean Underwear
Title: Clean Underwear
Fandom: NEWS
Word Count: 1100+
Rating: G
Summary: Shige occasionally meets new people at the laundromat. In which Shige meets a laundry novice. [AU | ShigePi]
Notes: Can be read as friendship or more. I need to stop writing fic during my breaks at work.
It's nearing eight in the evening on a Saturday night when Shige gets to the laundromat a few blocks from his apartment building to do his weekly wash. He only sees one other person there when he arrives, but a few machines are in the midst of their cycles, and Shige assumes the owners of those loads will be back in a few hours when they realize that they mysteriously are missing a lot of clothes.
Shige drags his bag of dirty clothes to a free washer and quickly separates his lights and darks into two machines, glimpsing occasionally at the only other present occupant of the building; the man is attempting to shove all his clothes into one machine. Shige starts his washing machines and ambles to the waiting area of plastic chairs. He has a paper due in a few days and should probably start it at least.
But he has difficulties concentrating on his blank document file and Shige unconsciously finds his eyes pinned on the guy who seems to be fighting his clothes. He watches somewhat amusedly as the man continues to cram as many articles of clothing as he possibly could into the poor washing machine; a mix of blues, reds, blacks, and whites, all carelessly shoved into the mouth of the machine. As he continues to inspect other man over the glow of his laptop, Shige begins to wonder whether it was his first time doing laundry because the man cheers triumphantly when he somehow manages to put the last sock in the washer and then proceeds to struggle with closing the door of the thing.
He doesn't know whether he should inform the man that he's overloaded the machine, mixed clothes that will obviously bleed everything white into blushing pink, or just sit back and silently laugh at the man's obvious novice laundering skills.
But the man continues to struggle with the machine for another five minutes, and while hilarious at first, his futile attempts are beginning to make Shige slightly depressed. So, being the kind soul he is, Shige puts his laptop on his seat and makes his way over to the man.
"Excuse me." The man stops and stares at Shige, as if surprised someone else was at the laundromat. "Look, you seem a little new at this, so I'm going to give you a little advice. You're not going to get the door closed when you overload the machine like that. You might want to try splitting into two machines."
The man looks baffled, as he glances sideways at his machine, as if he hadn't considered that to be the problem. "Oh." And then he's flushing in embarrassment while he pulls things out and begins to load another machine.
"And you might want to consider washing your whites and colors in separate machines," Shige adds.
The man pauses, and then stares at Shige inquisitively. "Aren't they all getting cleaned anyway?"
"Yeah," Shige says slowly, "But if you don't, your new wardrobe's going to be filled with blues, blacks, reds, and pinks."
"Oh." And then the man is hastily taking all the clothes out of the machines and sorting again them by color.
Shige smiles at the man and returns to his seat to type his paper as he waits for his wash to finish. It isn't long before the other man joins him, sitting in the plastic seat across from Shige, picking up worn magazine from the table in front of them. Shige briefly watches him out of the corner of his eyes, the man idly flipping through pages of the magazine, and then returns his attention to his computer.
When Shige looks up five minutes later, the other man is staring at him almost intensively, very obviously not reading the opened magazine on his lap. The man seems to realize that Shige notices his gawking, and quickly returns his attention to magazine.
Shige thinks he's a little weird, but resumes typing on his laptop. It's less than a minute later when Shige feels like he's being watched. He glances up and the man is once again, staring at him. He quirks an eyebrow in inquiry, wondering what the other man wanted from him, but then the man grins, and Shige feels his heart skip a beat.
"Thanks for at first."
Shige blinks, the corners of his mouth twitching in a reflexive smile. "Don't mention it."
"I moved out of home recently," the man explains, gesturing outside the window and smiling in a way that made Shige think of excited children. "Because my mom and sister always did the laundry, I kind of didn't know what to do. And I was out of clean underwear."
Shige laughs, eyes crinkling with mirth. "That would be a problem."
"For some reason, I actually feel like an adult now that I have to do things like this," the man says, giving Shige a look of curiosity and something else that he doesn't know how to describe, but it makes him a little edgy. "What about you? You look like you're working, but you look too young to be a salary man."
"I'm a student," Shige explains, tapping the front cover of his laptop. "I'm doing a paper right now."
"What school?"
"Aoyama."
"That's a pretty well known private school isn't it?" The man says, more to himself than to Shige. "I go to Meiji."
"I've been there before. Friend went there, but he graduated not too long ago, so I haven't been to any of the Meiji campuses in a while," Shige says. "What're you studying?"
"Marketing; you?"
"I'm doing law. Originally, I applied for it because it sounded most impressive, but I actually really like it. It's challenging, and I like the debates."
"So you're planning on becoming a lawyer?" The man asks.
Shige starts at the question. He thinks about it and after a moment, he shrugs and says, "I honestly don't know. I might. But right now, I have no clue. I just want to do something I enjoy. I don't like restricting myself to certain professions just because my background is in it you know what I mean? But I think I'd have fun being a lawyer."
"I understand. Happiness first, right?" the man sighs, stretching his limbs. "I'd be so happy if I had some food right now. I'm so hungry."
Shige glances at his watch, the second hand ticking quietly while the hour hand points at eight and the minute hand points at one. "Well, it's just past eight, so probably dinner time."
"Yeah; I didn't know what time they closed here so I came without eating first," The man says sheepishly, rubbing his arm and Shige thinks that he looks rather endearing. It doesn't last long because the man's eyes light up a moment later. "Say; you want to grab something to eat?"
Shige's blinks in surprise at the sudden invitation and instinctively thinks to decline politely. His eyes flicker to the humming washing machines and he says somewhat reluctantly, "Well, I kind of have to finish my laundry."
"Come on, we'll just go down to the convenience store and get a few lunchboxes, and eat it here."
Shige can't help the amused grin on his face, "They don't allow food here."
The man tosses the magazine on the table and winks conspiratorially at Shige. "We'll be sneaky."
Shige laughs and considers it. While he usually eats home alone, it'd be nice to have dinner with company for a change. Besides that, he hasn't eaten either. So, saving his document file and turning off his notebook he slips it into his messenger bag and stands. "Okay. Let's go."
"I forgot to ask, but what's your name?"
"Kato. Kato Shigeaki. What's your's?"
"Yamashita."
Fandom: NEWS
Word Count: 1100+
Rating: G
Summary: Shige occasionally meets new people at the laundromat. In which Shige meets a laundry novice. [AU | ShigePi]
Notes: Can be read as friendship or more. I need to stop writing fic during my breaks at work.
It's nearing eight in the evening on a Saturday night when Shige gets to the laundromat a few blocks from his apartment building to do his weekly wash. He only sees one other person there when he arrives, but a few machines are in the midst of their cycles, and Shige assumes the owners of those loads will be back in a few hours when they realize that they mysteriously are missing a lot of clothes.
Shige drags his bag of dirty clothes to a free washer and quickly separates his lights and darks into two machines, glimpsing occasionally at the only other present occupant of the building; the man is attempting to shove all his clothes into one machine. Shige starts his washing machines and ambles to the waiting area of plastic chairs. He has a paper due in a few days and should probably start it at least.
But he has difficulties concentrating on his blank document file and Shige unconsciously finds his eyes pinned on the guy who seems to be fighting his clothes. He watches somewhat amusedly as the man continues to cram as many articles of clothing as he possibly could into the poor washing machine; a mix of blues, reds, blacks, and whites, all carelessly shoved into the mouth of the machine. As he continues to inspect other man over the glow of his laptop, Shige begins to wonder whether it was his first time doing laundry because the man cheers triumphantly when he somehow manages to put the last sock in the washer and then proceeds to struggle with closing the door of the thing.
He doesn't know whether he should inform the man that he's overloaded the machine, mixed clothes that will obviously bleed everything white into blushing pink, or just sit back and silently laugh at the man's obvious novice laundering skills.
But the man continues to struggle with the machine for another five minutes, and while hilarious at first, his futile attempts are beginning to make Shige slightly depressed. So, being the kind soul he is, Shige puts his laptop on his seat and makes his way over to the man.
"Excuse me." The man stops and stares at Shige, as if surprised someone else was at the laundromat. "Look, you seem a little new at this, so I'm going to give you a little advice. You're not going to get the door closed when you overload the machine like that. You might want to try splitting into two machines."
The man looks baffled, as he glances sideways at his machine, as if he hadn't considered that to be the problem. "Oh." And then he's flushing in embarrassment while he pulls things out and begins to load another machine.
"And you might want to consider washing your whites and colors in separate machines," Shige adds.
The man pauses, and then stares at Shige inquisitively. "Aren't they all getting cleaned anyway?"
"Yeah," Shige says slowly, "But if you don't, your new wardrobe's going to be filled with blues, blacks, reds, and pinks."
"Oh." And then the man is hastily taking all the clothes out of the machines and sorting again them by color.
Shige smiles at the man and returns to his seat to type his paper as he waits for his wash to finish. It isn't long before the other man joins him, sitting in the plastic seat across from Shige, picking up worn magazine from the table in front of them. Shige briefly watches him out of the corner of his eyes, the man idly flipping through pages of the magazine, and then returns his attention to his computer.
When Shige looks up five minutes later, the other man is staring at him almost intensively, very obviously not reading the opened magazine on his lap. The man seems to realize that Shige notices his gawking, and quickly returns his attention to magazine.
Shige thinks he's a little weird, but resumes typing on his laptop. It's less than a minute later when Shige feels like he's being watched. He glances up and the man is once again, staring at him. He quirks an eyebrow in inquiry, wondering what the other man wanted from him, but then the man grins, and Shige feels his heart skip a beat.
"Thanks for at first."
Shige blinks, the corners of his mouth twitching in a reflexive smile. "Don't mention it."
"I moved out of home recently," the man explains, gesturing outside the window and smiling in a way that made Shige think of excited children. "Because my mom and sister always did the laundry, I kind of didn't know what to do. And I was out of clean underwear."
Shige laughs, eyes crinkling with mirth. "That would be a problem."
"For some reason, I actually feel like an adult now that I have to do things like this," the man says, giving Shige a look of curiosity and something else that he doesn't know how to describe, but it makes him a little edgy. "What about you? You look like you're working, but you look too young to be a salary man."
"I'm a student," Shige explains, tapping the front cover of his laptop. "I'm doing a paper right now."
"What school?"
"Aoyama."
"That's a pretty well known private school isn't it?" The man says, more to himself than to Shige. "I go to Meiji."
"I've been there before. Friend went there, but he graduated not too long ago, so I haven't been to any of the Meiji campuses in a while," Shige says. "What're you studying?"
"Marketing; you?"
"I'm doing law. Originally, I applied for it because it sounded most impressive, but I actually really like it. It's challenging, and I like the debates."
"So you're planning on becoming a lawyer?" The man asks.
Shige starts at the question. He thinks about it and after a moment, he shrugs and says, "I honestly don't know. I might. But right now, I have no clue. I just want to do something I enjoy. I don't like restricting myself to certain professions just because my background is in it you know what I mean? But I think I'd have fun being a lawyer."
"I understand. Happiness first, right?" the man sighs, stretching his limbs. "I'd be so happy if I had some food right now. I'm so hungry."
Shige glances at his watch, the second hand ticking quietly while the hour hand points at eight and the minute hand points at one. "Well, it's just past eight, so probably dinner time."
"Yeah; I didn't know what time they closed here so I came without eating first," The man says sheepishly, rubbing his arm and Shige thinks that he looks rather endearing. It doesn't last long because the man's eyes light up a moment later. "Say; you want to grab something to eat?"
Shige's blinks in surprise at the sudden invitation and instinctively thinks to decline politely. His eyes flicker to the humming washing machines and he says somewhat reluctantly, "Well, I kind of have to finish my laundry."
"Come on, we'll just go down to the convenience store and get a few lunchboxes, and eat it here."
Shige can't help the amused grin on his face, "They don't allow food here."
The man tosses the magazine on the table and winks conspiratorially at Shige. "We'll be sneaky."
Shige laughs and considers it. While he usually eats home alone, it'd be nice to have dinner with company for a change. Besides that, he hasn't eaten either. So, saving his document file and turning off his notebook he slips it into his messenger bag and stands. "Okay. Let's go."
"I forgot to ask, but what's your name?"
"Kato. Kato Shigeaki. What's your's?"
"Yamashita."