Everything Is Alright
By: Ceriadara
All he was looking for was a relatively nice apartment with some nice, normal roomates. Was that too much to ask? Apparently, seeing as he had gotten stuck with these three. KaiRei, BorisYuriy. AU
"...And you're sure that there are no catches?"
The blonde man shook his head vehemently. "Nope, no catches whatsoever. Takao - y'know, my roomie? - yeah, he knows one of the guys, and he says he's fine, so the other two are sure to be nice too. Trust me, Rei, the place is nice, near your job, and the people are nice and friendly and normal. What more could you ask for?"
The raven-haired man beside the blonde sighed. "I guess...if you're sure, I'll do it. But believe me, if this turns out horribly and I end up dying a horrible, painful death in some dark, dank alleyway on the wrong side of town, I'll come back andmake sure you don't have a moment's peace for the rest of your miserable life."
"What is it with you and giving me creepy threats like that?"
The raven-haired man grinned, showing off unnaturally sharp canines. "Comes with my job, Maxie-boy. Comes with my job."
"Lovely," said the blonde - Maxie - as he rolled his eyes. "I should have known better than to befriend a freelance writer."
"Damn straight," agreed the other man. "Now are you going to help me bring my crap up or what?"
"Alright, alright," sighed Max. "Y'know, I'm starting to think that you only brought me here to make me do all the work."
"Now," said the raven-haired man, grinning maliciously as he shoved three titanic boxes into his friends arms, "whatever would give you that idea?" Ignoring the glare Max sent him around the boxes, he propped open the door and motioned Max through, crying, "On, my little pack mule!"
"Hello?" Rei asked, unlocking the door to the apartment and sticking his head in. "Huh...nobody's home, I guess..." He pushed it all the way open with his back, his arms full of two boxes - he wasn't so cruel as to really make his slender blonde friend carry all of his stuff.
He held the door open with his foot until Max passed through, when he allowed it to slam shut. He followed Max down the narrow, dark hall.
Max emerged into the sunny living room first, and he let out a whoosh of air. "Well damn, Kon. You got yourself a better apartment then me and Taka's."
Rei came out of the passageway and let amber eyes take in the room. It was spacious, that was certain, with large windows that allowed in huge buckets of sunlight that splashed over two rather large leather sofas (black), a loveseat (blue), and a large glass table that sat close to the ground. The flooring was a good choice of dark mahogany panels, the walls a sky-blue color. Against the wall to Rei's left sat a large plasma-screen TV.
"...They're loaded," Rei sighed. "I hope to god they're not stuck up b -"
"Come check out this kitchen!" Max cried from aforementioned room, having dropped his huge box of Rei's stuff while his friend was examining his living room. Rei allowed asmall smile to curve up the corners of his mouth as he, too, set down his boxes and went to join Max in the kitchen.
On the wall which also bore the door he had entered from, there was a...well, not an island...more like a bar/peninsula. The countertop was granite, a warm tan with flecks of white marble, black marble, and other varying shades of brown. Three chairs, the frames black metal and the cushions a gentle light brown, sat facing the living room. The stove was flat, the burners controlled by dials on the right of the smooth black top, the refrigerator silver. A skylight and two long windows gave bright light to the area. Rei smiled widely - god, what he couldn't cook in a kitchen like this.
Max, however, growing bored with how long it took his friend to analyze the space, had moved on long ago, traveling into the hallway out of the kitchen. It was much wider than the entrance passageway, and four doors lined it. The first was a deep red, the second black-and-lavender-striped, and the third had an ice-blue base with darker shades of blue splayed across it. The last door was plain and white, and a very long sticky note - comprised of several sticky notes stuck together, Max noted - hung from it. He picked it off and read:
"New roommate -
Don't be so formal, Kai. He's our age.
Shut up, Yuriy.
But I'm not talkin- OW!
Ha. Anyway, new roommate -
Don't'cha even know the guy's name?
No, and I don't really care.
Aw, now his feelings are gonna be hurt. Scratch that out.
No.
...Why are we writing?
Kai was writing a note to the new guy and I was reading over his shoulder because I was bored and had nothing better to do and I thought he was being too stiff and formal and crap, andwhen Kai writes he doesn't listen to a word that I say, so I went and I got another pen so that I could correct him but he was being stoopid and not listening - er...reading a word I was writing so we really weren't getting anywhere and then you came in and asked why we werewriting and then I started explaining and now I'm done and...stuff.
...O.o
BORIS USED AIM TALK, KAIII!
...Okay, please, roommate, when you're reading this, ignore the two idiots. It's for your own sanity, I assure you. Your room has a bedframe and a mattress (no sheets, unfortunately), a dresser with a mirror, and a bedside table. The door on the wall in front of the bed is the bathroom, while the door to the right (from the bed) is the closet. Oh, and be careful when opening the windows - the guy in the apartment above us is an inventor and he's something of a peeping Tom. Get dressed in the bathroom or get metal curtains. Your choice.
Sincerely, Hiwtari Kai
"Sincerely, Hiwatari Kai". Goddamn stiff idiot. Ignore him, person-who-is-to-live-with-us-for-ever-and-ever. He's...a pompous windbag with absolutely no fashion sense...or sense of humor for that matter. Or sense of fun. Damn, Kai, you don't have a lot of senses...does that qualify you as handicap?
I don't think so, Yuriy. Besides, he's not reading anymore. He's going off to take a shower.
...Why the hell are we still writing then?
Bye.
Max was in tears trying to hold back the hysterical laughter that threatened to overwhelm him. This was brilliant! He was gonna have to start hanging out here more...
Rei watched from his window as his blonde friend climbed into his car and drove off. The sun was setting in the distance, outlining the skyline of the city. Rei sighed and glanced around his room. He had made a lot of progress with Max, and they had unpacked most of his stuff, but the room was still chaos.
Deciding abruptly that he needed to take a break, he fought his way out of the room, tripping on a schoolbag full of reference books near the door and flying out into the hallway, whereupon he slammed face-first into the wall. Cursing under his breath and rubbing his nose, he made his way into the kitchen.
He flipped on a few switchs to see what would happen and how well the room would be lit in face of the dying sunlight. To his happiness, it was well-lit, with overhead lights and fans everywhere. He smiled and bounced happily over to the cupboards, determined to cook a meal like he had been unable to do for months now.
Hiwatari Kai sighed, running a hand through two-toned slate-and-black hair. Crimson eyes, fatigued, rested on the silver elevator doors as the contraption made its near silent way to the fourteenth floor - the apartment he shared with his two best friends, and, as of today, he reminded himself, a friend of Takao's. He closed his eyes, wondering why on earth he had agreed to let the loser's friend stay in his home.
If he was anything like his old classmate, Kai mused, he would probably either kick the guy out or commit himself to an insane asylum by the third day.
The elevator "ding"-ed softly and the doors opened with a light hiss. He pushed himself off of the wall and out of the box and into the hallway, looking at the numbers on the doors, though he hardly needed to.
"329, 331...333," he muttered, stopping in front of three-three-three. He pulled out his key and inserted it into the lock, turning it gently. He expected to be greeeted with the normal low lighting of the dying sunset from the windows in the living room and the deep stillness of the apartment when no one was tehre.
What he had not expected was the warm, somewhat gentle blare of light from the kitchen. What he had not expected was the hiss of something in a frying pan, the bubbling of a sauce or a soup, and the barrage of exquisite smells that assaulted his senses. Shedding his black coat, he carelessly tossed it over the back of one of the sofas along with his slender black briefcase and looked over the bar/peninsula and into the kitchen.
The stove was on, with three pots. One, he saw, had some sort of sauce in it - thick, warm, and red with specks of black and green. The other two he couldn't quite see, but he would bet at least one held some kind of noodle. The oven was on as well, something baking inside - something very, very good by the smell of it. His mouth began to water - but who the hell was cooking all of this?
As if to answer his question, a slender, black-haired form glided into view, stirring the pots on the stove with an expert ease. He was humming lightly to himself, a tune that had a dstinctly Asian ring to it. Kai watched the man - he thought it was a man, anyway - move around his kitchen with the practiced nature of a true chef. He observed him, as he was wont to do with new acqaintences - or with anyone, for that matter. His hair was pulled back in a slender ponytail at the base of his neck. His skin was tanned, reminiscent of the people of Asia. His movements were...there was no other word for it...graceful. He was slender, and petite, shorter than Kai had been at seventeen...and if this was his new roommate, then they were both twenty-five, much older than seventeen.
After a few more minutes of watching, Kai cleared his throat loudly. He fought back a smirk as the other man started and whirled around, wooden, sauce-covered spoon in hand. It was then that the eyes caught his attention - and held it. Hiwatari Kai was a man fascinated by things which he had never seen before, and the man's eyes certainly fell under that catergory. An amber color, with slitted, somewhat oval pupils that had dialated to mere black slits for a brief moment before he had relaxed again.
"A bit startled?" he asked, finally smirking openly.
"A bit, yeah," agreed the man, a tad bit breathlessly. "You are...?"
"Hiwatari Kai," Kai said, moving towards the counter and holding up a pale hand for the man to shake. He did so, slipping his smaller hand into the other's.
"Kon Rei," he replied in turn. "Nice to meet you."
Kai opened his mouth to ask if he had cooked the food on his own when there was a sudden bang from the hallway and a blur of red whizzed past Kai, jumped, squealing, onto Rei, and then dashed down the hallway leading to the bedroom.
Rei let go of Kai's hand, looking a bit disoriented. "It was small, red, and it went that way," he said dazedly, glancing down the hallway. Kai chuckled.
"That was Ivanov Yuriy...he'd make his greeting longer, I'm sure, but he absolutely refuses to use any other bathroom then the ones here, so he kind of has some buisness to attend to first."
"In short, he's going to the bathroom because he's too much of an idiot to actually bother to go at work," a voice said. A tall man came out of the shadows, light lavender hair hanging into dark purple eyes. He, too, extended a hand towards the new arrival. "Kuznetsov Boris."
"Kon Rei," Rei repeated, still looking a bit dazed. Boris half-grinned.
This could actually be quite a bit of fun.
A/N I know, I'm so horrible, starting another fic with Ritual and all my other ones unfinished. But I've hit a serious roadblock with Ritual and I'm currently waiting for my muse to get off of her lazy ass and help me get some work done with it. In the meantime, you'll have to make due with this.
R-n-R!