Out of Convenience - Chapter 3.2
Title: Out of Convenience
Author: dictionarysays
Genre: AU, Romance, and Humour
Length: Multi-chaptered
Chapter: 3.2
Pairing(s): Ohmiya, Sakuraiba, and (mentioned) Matsumiya
Rating: PG-13 generally, sometimes R
Disclaimer: I don't own Arashi at this point in time, I merely fawn over them from afar. 10, 482.26 kilometres to be exact.
Summary: It's not every day that your stupid roommate (see: Aiba Masaki) forgets to pay the rent.
Previous Chapters: 1.1, 1.2, 2, 3.1
The next day, I ask to leave work early and because I never ask for favours, the boss lets me off early, giving me plenty of time to start seriously packing. Aiba on the other hand isn’t as lucky, and without much thought, I organize and put aside some of his things as well while he’s at work.
In a span of nearly four hours I have most of my belongings packed away in haphazardly made cardboard boxes. I was able to lug as many as possible collapsed boxes from work and even found a few around the house, most of them hurriedly attached by Aiba many months ago-he wanted to make a fort and I played along.
Thankfully, we don’t have that much cookware or even utensils, since it’s just the two of us anyway and we haven’t entertained that many people, either. With that said, it only takes me about an hour to have everything put into the boxes from the kitchen. It’s only then that it hits me how many of the things are actually Masaki’s; he likes to cook more than me. It probably helps that his family runs a Chinese restaurant.
Done for now, I grab the pillow from my futon and let myself get comfortable in the almost empty living room. I breathe out wearily, wiping the back of my hand across my forehead, grateful for the towel I had wrapped in my hair earlier; if it weren’t for that, I’d be sweating way more than I already am. I start humming unconsciously, it’s not that I have anything in particular stuck in my head, but I need something to pass the time with.
Ninomiya came in today, as well, not that that’s surprising, he usually comes in Saturday mornings, but it was just strange this time around. I mean, it was like, we both knew we were going to be living together very soon, and the light in his eyes was brighter than usual. We traded numbers this time around; he asked me how the packing was going and wondered how I was going to move all my stuff anyway. I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but as I was asking for early leave, I even oddly persuaded Nakai-san, my boss by the way, to come over Sunday morning and help me move out with his car, since I’m not working tomorrow anyway. I think he felt pressured to appear nicer than he usually is because Ninomiya was around, which is fine with me.
He’s not a bad boss or anything; I just know how to flare his temper a lot of the time, is all. I never mean to either, just seems to happen when Ishibashi-san and I are working a shift together.
My back pocket suddenly vibrates, surprising me, but of course it can only be one thing; my cell phone. I wrestle it out and check the e-mail I received. It’s Aiba. He asks me how things are going and if I was able to pack most of my things. I reply in earnest, even if it is incredibly slow-it’s not my fault cell phones are so hard to type with; Aiba always teases me about it.
I spend the rest of the day until Aiba returns flipping through the magazines I had intentionally left out. By the time I’m pretty much magazine’d out and thinking of taking a nap, Aiba calls out nasally from the front door, causing me to break out into a much needed smile. He brings Chinese take-out with him and I’m entirely relieved, because I was honestly dreading coming up with something for dinner.
We both gather around the table and in a matter of minutes, Aiba-chan and I have crudely split the fried rice, Kung Pao chicken, and sweet and sour pork between us. We’re both too hungry to really pay attention to the portioning though and dinner mainly consists of eating out of one another’s bowls.
“Did Nino come in today?”
“Mm.” I say nothing else because I’m enjoying the pork too much.
“I talked to Sho-chan during my break today, I think he’s gonna come over tomorrow after work and help me move my stuff. What about you? How are you getting out?” As Aiba asks this, he easily picks a piece of pork from my bowl, avoiding my own set of chopsticks as he does so.
I shrug some, murmuring, “Nakai-san’s coming in the morning with his car. Hopefully I can get it all with one trip.”
“Really? How’d you manage that? I’m surprised-doesn’t he always complain about you being rude to him?”
“Yeah, but Ninomiya was around, so I guess he couldn’t say no.” Aiba giggles at that, as we both share a knowing look before finishing up the rest of our food.
We quickly toss out the containers and Aiba reels me into setting up both of our futons into the emptier than usual living room and spending our last night together. I can’t refuse him, so we both change into our PJs and meet up in the living room with our futons.
My futon’s already prepared and I’m sitting up comfortably on it by the time Aiba-chan strolls in, tugging his futon along with him and a stuffed animal under his arm.
“My room’s like empty, how’d you do all that? You didn’t leave anything for me to pack.”
“It didn’t take much, that’s all I did for a few hours; wasn’t distracted is all. I didn’t mind, it kept me busy, ne. Better than sitting around and doing nothing.” Aiba flashes me a grateful smile as he sets up his futon directly beside mine, seeming to make sure there wasn’t a single inch of space left between us.
I get the feeling. It still hasn’t hit me that this is our last night together... I don’t know if I ever want it to.
“Thank you, though! That’s still a lot of work to do by yourself, ne. I owe you one.” He plops down directly in front of me now, crossing his legs easily and staring expectantly. I merely look back patiently, smiling gently, silently. Anybody else and this might be awkward, but I’m extremely comfortable with Aiba-chan, I've known him long enough to not worry about the silence that begins to stretch between us. “I’m sorry.” Aiba-chan breaks the silence with those murmured words, looking down some.
I tilt my head curiously, confused, “For what?”
“For this. For everything. If I had just paid the rent, or, or at least told you! We probably wouldn’t be in this situation right now. It’s all my fault. You shouldn’t forgive me.”
“Eeh? It happens, Aiba-chan, sometimes you can’t control the way things work out-”
“But in this case I could’ve! This was completely controllable but I didn’t do a single thing but make it worse.” His gaze is entirely gone from my own, his hands already tucked into his lap and twisting the fabric of his blanket anxiously. I suppress a small frown; I don’t want him being like this. It’s really not a big deal. I've forgiven him, the way I reacted yesterday didn’t just surprise him. “... and all because of a guy who’ll never like me, anyway.” I reach out, prodding his knee, hoping to get his attention.
“Think of it this way: You’re moving in with the guy you like. Who knows, this could be fate, maybe this is how things are supposed to turn out.” Amazingly, Masaki looks up at this, his gaze is firm and the brown of his eyes are clear-they look wet. I try to smile soothingly, but all it does is worsen things; his look turns hard.
“I’d rather live with you, no matter what-even if it meant never talking to Sho again.” That catches me off guard and my eyes widen briefly, before my mouth falls into a really soft smile. Oh, Aiba. “I was too scared to tell you, I thought... I thought you’d hate me and never talk to me again. I mean, I-I know that was a dumb thought and you’d never, but... I didn’t want to risk it; I thought maybe I could... I c-could solve it on my o-own... ” He trails off into subdued sniffles, rubbing his face against the inside of his arm. I bite my lip, breathing in quietly, wishing I could ignore the thin trail of tears falling down my face.
I’m bad at things like this. I always cry, and if someone I care about is crying? Then forget about it. I’m done for. Apparently I’m too empathetic, that’s two letters more than pathetic. With the heel of my palm, I wipe at my eyes, attempting to stem the flow; I still can’t get a good look at Aiba-chan’s face. Maybe it’s for the best.
Coughing quietly, I scratchily clear my throat, managing to murmur through the silence pregnant with too many unspoken emotions, “It s’okay... I know, Aiba-chan. Heh, you surprised me... ” I try to laugh it off at the end, but there’s no doubt in my mind we both know it’s a feeble attempt.
Without any warning, Aiba moves in, his arms winding hastily around my frame as he pulls me close, hugging me tight. Holding back a sudden onslaught of tears, I wrap my arms around him too, letting him burrow his face into the space between my jaw and my neck.
“I’m so so-sorry... I really... am... ” his breath is warm against my neck; I merely squeeze his waist gently, trying to reassure him, because I’m too choked up to speak.
I forgive you, Aiba-chan. Of all the people I know, if I were to ever really get mad, you’re the last one I would be able to stay mad at. Hopefully he’s become a mind reader in this short span of time so he knows how I feel. I’m sure he already knows, he’s just a worrywart, is all-I’m sure all of this is happening for a reason, what that may be, I have no idea just yet.
Ten minutes pass like this and by the end of it all, we’ve fallen asleep in one another’s arms, the blankets tangled at our feet.
At this very moment, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be but curled up around Aiba-chan, exhausted from our tears, lying on my half-made futon on our empty living room floor-knowing that in less than twenty-four hours, I can’t call it ours ever again.
A/N: I ended up being really busy this time around, thus, making this chapter come out later than I wanted it to. On the upside, it's my longest chapter yet, clocking in at around 4,000 words. Okay, okay, I admit that much may have not happened, but transitioning chapters are very important, and there were some things I needed to set up with this, so... I hope I didn't bore you out of your mind! I liked writing this though, it was fun and not chock-full of dialogue (which is my favourite part of writing), hahah. At least from here on out things will actually be happening, like, plot development, character development, hell, maybe even some groping scenes. ;) But yup. Nino's birthday is coming up! Suhweet~ I thought about writing a one-shot in commemoration, I have a half-hearted idea thought out, but I may just stick with my Nino-centric icon batch instead, I have a lot of Nino icons done for it already, hahah. P.S. Memo to self: Listening to Gravel Lines on repeat and writing a sad scene between Oh-chan and Aiba-kun is not a smart idea. You end up tearing up yourself. P.S.S. Feedback is ridiculously appreciated. :)