I hate traffic. It forces me to come up with stupid prompts like this one here. Urgh. Anywho. If this website doesn't ban me from indecent exposure (huh?), then I beg your indulgence and spend some time to read this sorry piece of … err… this one-shot I wrote because of an annoying muse that wouldn't leave me alone since seven o' clock this evening (it's officially past midnight here already).
Dedicated to the lovely and overly-hyper periperichan (who I had to copy the story format from because, well, I just wanted to) and the BR writer goddess Jenizaki (bleh, stop saying otherwise).
Again, unbeta-ed, and I don't care.
Ménage à trois
a.
Wikipedia defined it as "the French term describing a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household." Takako Chigusa called it "a set-up that doubled her probability of ending up pregnant before her 25th birthday."
b.
She couldn't even remember exactly when it all started. She moved in with them when Shuuya Nanahara left the condominium to finally live in with his fiancée Yukie Utsumi, three months after they graduated from college. At first, she thought the set-up was awkward; she had just gotten used to conversing with Shinji in a more civil manner (civil meaning that Takako didn't curse him every fifteen seconds in their conversation), and the idea of living in the same unit with him sent annoying fuzzy bunnies in her chest. But it had been Hiroki's idea: she could take over Shuuya's share of the rent, and it would be more convenient for them than meeting up every weekend for some best bud bonding. Shinji was more than amiable with the idea – he said they could use a woman in the house anyway (Takako hissed a string of curses at him then, making his' and Hiroki's ears bleed to kingdom come).
A week later she moved in with them, occupying the room Shuuya once slept in. A month later, the unit started looking like decent people actually lived in it. Takako wasn't the domestic type, but she did her part as the lady in the house – prepared the food (if there was food in the refrigerator or the cupboards, and if not, bullied either Hiroki or Shinji, but usually Hiroki, to accompany her to the grocery), made sure the boys bring their dirty clothes to the laundry mat at least once a week, and hired help to clean the place every Saturday.
Roughly three months later (Takako didn't know exactly when), she lost her virginity to the former Shiroiwa Junior High School ace basketball player.
c.
Hiroki was out of town for a martial arts competition (Takako even gave him a long, sloppy kiss on the lips for luck; Hiroki blushed beet red, Shinji's smirk literally reached his right ear) and she and Shinji were running out of things to talk about. It wasn't too much of a problem during the daytime – Takako had her job in one of the local publications companies in the district; Shinji had review classes for his licensure exam – but it was during the night that the tension in the small unit became unbearable. The first few nights, Takako had managed to hide away from his flat mate by hibernating in her room, but eventually she had gotten so bored that she finally succumbed to the temptation of seeking out Shinji in an attempt to strike up a decent conversation.
"Wattup."
Takako almost retreated back to her room when she saw Shinji sprawled on the living room floor, one hand holding a coke-in-can, the other holding the remote control in midair. But she was bored to death, damn it.
"I'm bored," she answered as nonchalantly as she could, kicking Shinji's legs out of the way and plopping down their sofa. "What's on cable?"
Shinji shrugged. "Porn."
Takako rolled her eyes in disgust. "Typical." She watched as her flat mate's face lit up. "What?" she asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow for emphasis. When Shinji's face lit up like that, it usually meant trouble for Hiroki (and Shuuya, before he left the unit, or even during their junior high school days), and since Hiroki wouldn't be home until the next day, Takako feared that she was going to be a poor substitute.
Shinji smirked. "Wanna have sex?"
Takako's jaw dropped. "The fuck?!"
Shinji nodded as he sat up slowly. "Exactly. Let's fuck."
Takako inched away. "You move closer and I kill you. Literally."
Shinji advanced anyway, and merely dodged the pillow that Takako threw at him.
"I swear Mimura, if you as much as try to…" Takako started but Shinji had already invaded her private space and had her pinned down the sofa. "Get off asshole!"
"Come on," Shinji smirked, that adorable, stupid smirk that made other girls swoon (Takako was thankfully immune to it), "I promise not to tell Sugi if you don't want me to."
"I said get the fuck off!"
Two hours later, a naked Shinji and a half-naked Takako lay intertwined on the floor, heaving deep breaths and perspiring like knocked-out boxing champions.
"Am I good, or am I good?" Shinji asked when he finally got his voice back.
"Shut up," Takako managed to hiss back. "You tell Sugi about this, I swear you'll be a dead man before the day ends."
d.
Takako all but lunged on Hiroki when he entered their unit the following afternoon. Hiroki caught her in mid-air, duffel bags still on his shoulder, and they tumbled down the floor in a heap of sweaty flesh and creaky bones.
"Someone missed me," Hiroki chuckled as he tried to help Takako stand up after. "You okay?"
Takako, who usually didn't show affection to anyone, even her best friend, clung tightly onto Hiroki's neck, her pretty face buried in his broad chest.
"Taka?" Takako heard the concern in Hiroki's voice, but she didn't budge. She knew Shinji was probably watching them from behind; they were eating snacks in the dining room when they heard Hiroki announced that he has arrived. But she didn't care. She wanted to hold Hiroki until she fell asleep, as if hugging him close would erase the fact that she had fucked his friend while he was out of town.
"I'm fine," she answered, her lips muffed against Hiroki's shirt. "Just missed your sorry ass, that's all." A pause. "You had better brought me home some gold medals, or else I'll kick you right out of the house."
That night (a little past midnight, actually), she knocked on Hiroki's bedroom door, clad only in her pajamas. Hiroki opened the door, took one good look at her, and decided that something was indeed wrong. He allowed her to enter his room and even helped her settle in his bed. Next thing she knew, she was kissing Hiroki with a fervor that shocked even herself. A couple of hours later, she woke up in the embrace of her best friend, with a realization that she had slept with two guys in two nights, and that her life, their lives, will never be the same again.
e.
She felt like a fucking whore. For the first few weeks, that is.
f.
They somehow settled into a non-verbal arrangement, a kind of schedule on who gets to sleep with her on which day. She usually spent Monday and Tuesday nights with Shinji, and slept in Hiroki's bedroom every Thursday and Friday. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays were usually spent in her own room, with the exception of one or two occasions.
She didn't always necessarily sleep with/fucked/made love with either on their assigned days. Usually she just spent the night there, nestled in the strong arms of either Hiroki or Shinji until both of them fall asleep. When morning came, there will be the usual pleasantries between whoever she slept with the night before, and she was usually the one who left the bedroom first.
g.
They only attempted a threesome once. It had been awkward afterwards, and Takako didn't sleep with either guy for a month.
h.
It took a stupid fight between her and Shinji to break the temporary vow of chastity (boy, now she not only felt like a goddamn whore, she also sounded like a fucking hypocrite as well).
It was a Tuesday, and Hiroki called in to say that he will be going home late because of a last-minute meeting. Takako and Shinji sat in silence at the dinner table, eating bentos of ebi tempura and kamimeshi.
The argument had started from a very minor issue, actually. Shinji stole a tempura from Takako's plate when he thought she wasn't looking. Takako had been in a bad mood that day – her editor had ordered her to rewrite a five-page long feature article about a newly-opened nuclear plant in the Kanagawa prefecture. Shinji acting like a stupid adolescent was the last straw.
"Give that back you fucking man-whore."
Shinji laughed. "You want it? Come and get it."
Takako wasted no time socking Shinji's left eye. The tempura landed ungracefully on the floor as a result.
"Fuck it!" she hissed as poor Shinji nursed his eye. "That was the last piece!"
Shinji-the-prick decided to annoy her further. "What are you worrying about that stupid tempura for?" he whined, standing up and pretending to be blind in one eye, "I'm injured. Take me to the hospital."
Takako kicked him in the groin for good measure. Shinji folded forward in pain.
"Fucker."
She stomped away from the scene of crime, unsuspecting. Oh how wrong she was for being so trusting. Three seconds later, she was pinned on the nearest wall, face flat on the hard wood.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" she screeched when she felt Shinji's body pressed against hers.
"What do you think?" she heard Shinji hiss back in her ear, and she shivered in unwanted delight.
"Let me go," she groaned back, but didn't protest when Shinji started hitching her skirt up her small waist.
"What?" Shinji whispered, slowly stroking the inside of her left thigh. "I can't hear you. You must have made my ear impaired for life too."
"Ugh," Takako managed to croak, her eyes fluttering close and enjoy the sensation more. It had been more than a month since Shinji last touched her like that, and she didn't realize that she had missed it badly.
"What did you say?" Shinji continued asking, planting soft kisses from the base of her nape all the way to her right shoulder. "I can't hear you."
"Fuck you."
Takako heard Shinji chuckle. "Ah, you want me to fuck you?"
Takako merely whimpered. Shinji took that as a yes, and he quickly turned her around so that she stood facing him. Takako saw a mischievous glint in his eye, and she mentally smacked herself on the head. Now there was no way that she could resist him, not when he was smiling at her like that.
"Hurry up," she hissed, fumbling for Shinji's pants. "Hiroki will be back any minute."
Takako saw an irate expression glaze over Shinji's eyes for a split-second, but before she could react to it, Shinji already closed the gap between their lips. The last thing her fuzzy brain could register before it completely shut down from lust and unlawful desire was Shinji's hiss in her lips:
"Just wait, I'll make you forget Hiroki's name in a minute or so."
i.
The first crack appeared in their second year of living together. It was a Wednesday, Takako remembered, because she had spent the previous night making out with Shinji until two o'clock in the morning. Her body was still aching all over, and there were inglorious kiss marks everywhere – her neck, her breasts, her stomach, even her fucking thighs! She had to wear a black turtleneck long sleeves to work (and it was the middle of the summer season!) just to hide the bruises.
Come evening, Takako came home, exhausted and irritated, to a table filled with all of her favorite food. Hiroki, dressed up as a waiter, stood grinning nearby.
Takako raised an eyebrow. "The real Hiroki got abducted by aliens or something?"
Hiroki tapped his nose in response. "Well, uh, I thought it would be nice if I prepared dinner for you once in a while, uhh, since you usually do this for me and Mim even when you're already exhausted when you get home from the office, so I…"
Takako chuckled, closed the gap between her and Hiroki, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "You're rambling," she teased, planting a small kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She looked around. "Where's Mim?"
Hiroki smiled. "In his bedroom. Sleeping." he answered. "Hold on, let me call him so we can have dinner together."
Takako shook her head and dragged Hiroki to the nearest chair. "Let him come out when he's hungry," she replied. "I want to enjoy this dinner with you."
An hour later, Takako found herself nestled in Hiroki's strong, sturdy arms as they watched an old movie in the living room. Hiroki was unconsciously making lazy circles on her right arm, and instead of giving the calming effect that would lull her to slumber, Takako felt more awake as every second passed.
Finally, she lifted her lips close enough to Hiroki's ear for him to hear: "I want you. Tonight."
Hiroki stared at her with questioning eyes, silently asking if she was sure, really sure. It was a Wednesday, a free-for-all, but Takako guessed that Hiroki was worried that Shinji might take it against them for breaking the routine.
Takako answered Hiroki's silent question by pushing him slowly down the sofa, gently sucking on his neck, as a vampire would a mortal victim. She felt Hiroki tense for a second, and then relax under her hold. Takako smiled at him as she pulled his shirt loose, and chuckled when Hiroki whimpered when she started kissing his broad chest.
"You're such a dork," she laughed in between kisses. "It's not like it's your first time or anything."
Hiroki managed a nervous chuckle as he allowed Takako to continually ravage his body. Not that he was complaining anyway.
What Takako couldn't explain later was why neither Hiroki nor she felt Shinji's cold glare from behind the counter.
j.
Surprisingly, it was Shinji who finally voiced out the unspoken concern the three of them had for months and counting. They were in the living room; Shinji sitting on the sofa, Takako lying on her side, head resting on Shinji's lap, with Hiroki seated on the floor, hair being mused over by the long nails of Takako's right hand. They were watching cartoons, for some weird reason, when Shinji suddenly said out of the blue:
"You need to choose."
Takako froze. She had dreaded this conversation, although she had felt that it was coming, and coming soon. She had seen it in the way Shinji would glare or frown when she would kiss Hiroki on the lips in the middle of the kitchen, in the way that Hiroki would always disappear when she started acting inappropriate with Shinji in the room. She just wished, hoped, that it would eventually go away, that, just like their other petty arguments and fights, this monster of jealousy would leave their little group alone.
But this wasn't so.
Takako squeezed her eyes shut in the vain attempt to make it all go away. Shinji's voice cut through her like a double-edged sword.
"You can't keep stalling, hun." There was the usual sarcastic humor in his voice, his voice which Takako loved so much, but it was mixed with a tone of resignation, and even a hint of irritation, on the side.
"Who's going to stop me?" she managed to answer, though her insides were starting to melt like ice cream, and not in a good way.
"Mim's right," she suddenly heard Hiroki speak. "We can't keep on doing this, Taka. It's not fair."
Takako bit her lip. Fair? What was fair? How could they expect her to be fair? She loved them both! It was crazy, downright stupid, but there was no helping it. She loved them equally, no one greater than the other. She loved Shinji's humor and intelligence, and the way his kisses would always melt her insides and his scent would make her brain turn to mush. She loved Hiroki's gentleness and strength, how he allows her to be herself and take control when she wants to, and vice versa. She loved them together and apart, she loved them to the point of wanting to eat them whole so that they could forever be a part of her being. Losing either guy would be like subjecting herself to torture, and Takako never liked unnecessary pain. Sure, she'd accept pain if it was towards a good end – like muscle cramps after a hundred-mile run, or a stomachache after eating her favorite dessert – but never if the pain would cause only more pain. She knew she was being selfish, but she didn't want to lose either Hiroki or Shinji. She wanted them both, loved them both, needed them both.
"No," she answered, eyes still closed. "And that's final."
k.
Exactly three weeks and five days later, Takako packed her bags and left the unit.
Shinji and Hiroki found a letter on the dining table, beneath a steaming plate filled with their favorite food. It read:
Hey,
I know you will both hate me for this, but I'm still doing this and no, you can't stop me.
You asked me to make a decision, to choose who I love more, who I want to be with on a more permanent setup. This is my choice.
I choose neither.
Understand that I'm doing this because I love you both. Choosing between you two is like choosing which eye or which arm or which leg I love more. I guess it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I can't choose which side of the body I liked better.
(Mim, stop cursing until you finished reading. And no, you can't track me down via GPRS using your phone. And Sugi, stop tapping your nose. I've told you a million times already that it's fucking annoying.)
I'm no idiot. I know that sooner or later you'd grow tired of our little setup, of having to share me between you two. I honestly wouldn't have minded if it had lasted a little longer, but I guess it's about time that I move on, that we all move on. Both of you would have obeyed me if I had said our setup would go on forever, and believe me, if I thought that it wouldn't destroy you, I'd keep you both for myself.
But I love you, Shinji Mimura and Hiroki Sugimura, and I want nothing more in the world than to see you both happy. I hope that with my leave, you'll both find the happiness that I stole from you for so many years.
Mim, stop watching those x-rated films, especially when there are girls around. No, it's not cool. And Sugi, there's nothing wrong with being a little aggressive when it comes to sex. Some girls actually like it.
Don't you dare try to look for me. I swear, if I see either of you in the next year or so, I'll personally schedule you an appointment with the undertaker.
We'll see each other again. Hopefully soon, but not that soon.
All my love,
Taka
l.
Takako opened the front door of her new unit. She looked around before stepping inside, dragging her things behind her. She heaved a heavy sigh.
"Damn it," she whispered to no one, "I'm already missing them."
Wiping a tear that threatened to fall from her left eye (thank goodness there was nobody with her to witness her tears), she forced a brave smile as she shut the door close.
"I'll be alright," she tried to convince herself, but the words choked her before she could even get them out, "I have to be alright."
END
Weeh. This is probably one of the longest one-shots I have ever written in all my years writing stories for this site. Yey for me. And yes, I know the ending is pretty depressing, but I think it's more realistic. And no, I simply cannot choose who I love more for Taka.
Reviews will be greatly appreciated, as always. I'll even share Hiroki and Shinji with the reviewers. As long as Takako is not looking, of course.
