Heat it up, okay?
Ayase Eri x Toujou Nozomi
A/N: Inspired by Radio Garden#64. In Radio Garden there's a corner that's called "For those who live alone." A corner for Nanjolno and Nozomi who lives alone. Mailers send in their emails of things that they can do to spice up their home.
Read on. ;)
Note: This fanfic is not proof-read or beta read, yet. Please ignore bad word choices, lack of descriptive stuff, lost commas and all others. Let's just enjoy the gay as it is. Thank you.
Nozomi sat on her small table, an elbow on the table her head resting on her palm.
"A mail from Wall-san. If there are leftovers to a meal that I cooked at home, I would wrap it up and put a note on it. 'Heat it up before eating it, okay?' to make it seem like less lonely, and that as if I am living with somebody. It gives a sense of warmth."
The green-eyed female raised an eyebrow at the suggestion and thought it was odd.
"That's great, isn't it? Wouldn't be better if you put a name after it? 'Heat it up before eating it, okay? –Aina' or something of the sort."
The female's co-host in the radio immediately laughed at the suggestion, but they both thought that it would be nice.
"How 'bout you write the name of the person you like?"
"That's dangerous what are you talking about!?"
"You just have to be careful about it!"
Nozomi thought about the suggestion, long and hard. Her eyes drifted far onto a notepad near the kitchen counter then she gazed at the leftover borscht on her table. She quickly stood up and took the pen and the notepad, and wrapped up the food.
She put the note on top of it and closed the door of her fridge. "I guess that should do."
Then a little bit before one in the morning, she checked to make sure that the doors and windows are locked, turned off the lights then headed to bed.
She checked her phone and found a message from Eri, whom she has never confessed her love for, asking how she's doing.
Promptly, she replied that she's doing fine then put her phone on her bed side table. She looked at the ceiling and unnecessarily an image of her Eri popped out of her head. Her face heated up from embarrassment.
She turned to her side and closed her eyes.
"I need to remove that note tomorrow."
The loud door bell ringing woke Nozomi up. She looked at her clock and noticed that it was just seven in the morning, on a Sunday. The door bell rang again, and she sighed wondering who could it be?
Without even checking the peephole or how she looked like, she went for the door and opened it half way.
"Yes?"
"Ah, Nozomi—"
"E- Erichi!" She hid herself behind the door. "Wh- What are you doing here?"
"I- uh… I thought you were sleeping so I was just gonna leave…" Eri trailed off, but she continued speaking after seeing that trademark pout of anger. "As you can see…" In her glory of track shoes, jogging pants and a zip up jersey, "I was taking a jog around the neighbourhood and decided to drop by…"
"Oh. Do you want to come in for some hot chocolate?" Nozomi asked.
"I don't want to bother you since it seems like you just woke up—"
"I woke up because of you ringing the door bell, so you either humor me by taking my hospitality or you leave me grumpy after waking me up early on a Sunday." Nozomi smiled at her and opened the door.
Eri swallowed and scratched her head. "Well then, if you'll excuse me…"
"Take a seat, I'll just change clothes and make you some hot chocolate." Nozomi said and walked to her own room.
"Ah, thank you." Eri looked around the room, thinking about when was the last time she visited. She opened her small bag to check if she still had water for jogging back to her house was still a little further down the road. She walked towards the door to Nozomi's room and knocked. "Nozomi?"
"Yes?" Nozomi replied from her room.
Eri stared at the floor and replied. "Uh, can I have some water? I ran out from my bottle."
"Sure, the water's in the fridge."
"Thank you."
Eri opened the fridge, only for a note to greet her.
"Heat it up before eating it, okay? – Eri"
It said. She wondered for a while.
"Did I cook this for Nozomi? It is borscht." She swallowed and stared at the note. "But I don't recall ever…"
Footsteps came in quickly as Nozomi ran to her small kitchen, a comb in hand, one twin tail not yet tied.
"Um…" The green-eyed female spoke. "…Did you see…?"
Eri blushed and scratched her cheek. "If you mean the note… then…"
Nozomi covered a hand to her face and sighed. She started explaining about how she was listening to the radio and a corner for people living alone popped in.
"I wrote the note, according to what they suggested…" Nozomi blushed and looked away as she sat adjacent to Eri in her small square table. "…Then, they recommended putting the name of the person they love at the end of the note so…" She trailed off and covered her face.
Then it was pure silence.
Pure, awkward, silence.
Eri rubbed her temple and inhaled.
"But-!" Nozomi interjected.
"I'll do it then." Eri spoke at the same time.
"Eh?"
Eri blushed and looked away. "…It's not that I don't feel the same… I… I'll cook for you." She covered her face with a hand, sweat trickling down her cheek. "I'll cook for you, and leave you a note like that…"
Nozomi blushed and swallowed as she exhaled the air she didn't know she had been holding.
Eri started to cover her face with both of her hands. "Ugh, this is not how I imagined this to be like…" Her ears were red and so were Nozomi's…
"Well… this way… isn't it totally like us?" Nozomi smiled at her.
Eri removed the hands covering her face then she looked at Nozomi with a smile.
"That's true."
Then they laughed.
To be united by such an incident.
Maybe it truly is fated.
The most playful kind of fortune.
A fortune that is love.
(Heat It Up, Okay? /END)
A/N: The mail in the fanfic is the same exact mail sent in Radio Garden, except the note said "-Eri" instead of "-Aina." I just changed it for obvious reasons. Then while tweeting about it, I thought "What if it was a NozoEri fanfic?" Now it is. Dededeeeen~