Chapter 1: Dream come true
Shiori took one look at her mother's face and decided to hightail it out of there.
That gleeful expression along with the dreaded l-had-a-lightbulb-moment spelt nothing but disaster for the involved party. Involved party except her mother, who drew her energy from the chaos that her plans produced.
A true sadist, that one. And she had wondered where her sister got it from.
Her father sent her a pleading look from behind the newspaper which was promptly ignored, despite her reputation of being a bleeding heart. To each their own, she thought. Her help ended with a sympathetic nod and she was already down the stairs, crossed the drawing room halfway, just a little bit more and then the shoe rack and freedom-
"Shi-chan~"
Damn it.
She moved towards the source of her dread, her back slouched and arms hanging at the side. Suppressing a groan of frustration, she gave her father a stink eye for his all too smug expression before calling out, "Yes, mom?"
Her mother giggled (she shivered, that lady had an uncanny ability of making impending doom sound more, well, doom-y), as she set down a plate of omelet in front of the man hiding behind the newspaper, "Now, no need to make that face, you were not planning on leaving without breakfast, where you?" No, she wasn't exactly planning on it, it was more of a spur of the moment thing. The woman put down two more plates and ordered her, "Come sit."
Did she imagine the evil glint in her eyes? Probably.
Father and daughter stared at the excited woman blankly.
"It's a great idea!" She said, emphasis on 'great'.
"No", Shiori deadpanned.
"Absolutely not." Her father agreed.
"But, Toshi!" Her mother whined. "Akane's room has been empty since her marriage." Somehow, she summoned a doom and gloom aura around her, sniffling slightly. The man looked uncomfortable. "The house is not so lively anymore, what with you always swamped with your work and Shiori being Shiori." "What is that supposed to mean?" She even added a dreary sigh at the end. "It is too quiet."
"Shizuka, you have a job as well." Toshi, that is Nakamura Toshiro tried. "The house remains empty as it is."
"Yeah", Shiori supported. "Besides, you cannot just rent it! Who knows what kind of thugs might want to stay. And then rob us blind. And kill us."
"You are going a bit overboard, there Shi. I'll take only students." Shizuka was too dignified to roll her eyes, but the sentiment was there. "It isn't as if people don't rent their apartments for home-stay. And I'll do a video-call before I let them stay, I'm not an idiot."
Not everything can be said from just face, mom!
"Students can be delinquents too!" She was grasping at straws but it was true, her father already looked sold at the idea!
"It might not be that bad", mused Toshi, as she looked on with growing horror, "you'll get a new friend?"
"Exactly!", came the enthusiastic reply.
She sighed, concentrating on food.
"I might let you keep the earnings," the brown haired woman said with a cheeky smile.
She received a glare from her daughter in return.
A week has passed and there was no further discussion on the topic, at least in front of her. Studies took up a lot of time and her home being a bit too far away from school, she had to take a train everyday. Not that she would admit, since she was one to choose the school, but the journey was wearing her down. She almost fell asleep on dinner table everday, so most likely, all conversation flew above her head.
On Friday, she came home to see the one of the ground floor rooms that her sister used to stay in had been cleared off and the bare necessities were already in position.
"You were serious," she felt faint.
Her mother absolutely beamed. "Of course!" Shooing her to her own room she added, "And clean your pigsty! We don't want him to get a bad impression."
"Him." She deadpanned.
Her mother nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, kid looked pretty desperate. Guess the low cost drew him in."
"When is he arriving?"
"His flight lands tomorrow evening." Humming happily, the infuriating woman was already deciding on what to cook.
"Flight." And here she thought she couldn't be more surprised.
"Hm. He's from Italy. And such a polite kid too."
"I'll judge that." She muttered as she went upstairs to flop down on her messy bed. "Hopefully he is not a serial killer or something."
Next day evening, she opened the door to come face to face with a tall, platinum blonde- almost silver-haired boy with sharp teal eyes. He executed a perfect bow, before straightening and introducing himself.
"Hello, I'm Gokudera Hayato. Thank you for taking me in."
Well, at least her dream of having a cute neighbour came true.
Author's note: welp, new fanfic. Will be updated irregularly since I'm stress writing. Gokudera/ OC for now.
Unbeta-ed: 18/12/2017.