a perfect kind of roommate
The guy whom Mayuzumi rooms with - Kuroko, was it? - is very quiet, which Mayuzumi greatly appreciates. His last roommate had been one of the overly rowdy types who wasn't very considerate of neighbours and humanity in general during ungodly hours of the morning.
Mayuzumi's in the midst of throwing away his earplugs with absolute glee when he hears a key being inserted into the lock. Kuroko must be back from class.
"Good afternoon, Mayuzumi-kun," Kuroko says from the doorway, shrugging off his backpack and jacket.
Moreover, he's polite. Or maybe Mayuzumi's just been associating with people lacking basic manners for far too long, but whatever, he's not intending to nitpick.
"Hey," he says back, and tosses the earplug into the trash, feeling a disproportionate amount of satisfaction rise in his chest. He feels light, like a helium balloon, and almost grins at Kuroko. It should be worrying regarding how friendly he's probably coming off as, but it's not, which in itself is worrying. Mayuzumi dismisses it, though, because finally being able to acquire a sufficient amount of sleep calls for a celebration of sorts. "You up for takeout tonight?"
Kuroko stares at him, as if he'd spoken some kind of alien language. Mayuzumi would probably find it irritating, on any other day, but right now he finds it effortless to brush off his annoyance.
"I'll pay," Mayuzumi clarifies. "You know, welcome party sort of thing?"
Kuroko tilts his head, studying Mayuzumi like he's a particularly interesting species from another planet.
"I'll pay my own share, if you don't mind," he finally says, after some more of that creepy eyeing of Mayuzumi's face.
Mayuzumi shrugs. Better for him, anyway; saves a bit of money. "Suit yourself."
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.
.
The Kuroko guy's turning out to be the most flawless roommate he's ever had: he does his share of the dishes and other chores, respects personal space, is financially competent, and has a friend in culinary school that occasionally bestows upon them the gift of a proper meal (it's not as if Mayuzumi can't cook - in fact, he most definitely cooks better than Kuroko, but it's too much of an effort most of the time), not to mention that it seems like he isn't even there half of the time, which is a plus. Mayuzumi's always wanted to live alone, in peace, and this is probably the closest he'll get to his wish with limited monetary resources. Maybe this is compensation for the suffering he'd had to endure because of his past roommates, but whatever it is, he's not questioning it.
He's been in such a good mood of late that he'd caught some friends in class staring at him weirdly the last couple of days, but the problem with being in a good mood 24/7 is that he can't bring himself to be mad enough to get them off his back.
"You finally got a girlfriend or something, Mayuzumi?" one asks.
Mayuzumi merely scoffs, "sure, yeah."
Another one scoots up to him, uncomfortably close. Mayuzumi scoots away. He comes scooting after him, belligerently, and drapes an arm across his shoulder.
"So?" He leans in, breath tickling Mayuzumi's cheek, and Mayuzumi has to swat him away. "Who's the girl?"
"You sure that he didn't just get a new figurine?" someone else chimes in, and for some absurd reason, everyone stops to consider this.
"What the hell you guys," Mayuzumi says under his breath, but knows that they can all very well hear, and then raises his voice to tell them, "what's wrong with figurines anyway?"
"So it is a figurine?" There are loud hoots of laughter, and Mayuzumi hopes that the professor will walk in right then to send them a dirty look for how boisterous they're being. At least there are a few other students doing that already, so he guesses that he can settle.
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.
.
Mayuzumi has noticed Kuroko to be more aloof than usual today, and observes from a distance as Kuroko stubs his toe against the couch without so much of a reaction. He's probably tired or something, because exam period is upon them, after all. Which reminds Mayuzumi that he should be studying instead of watching Kuroko injure himself against the furnitures.
He goes back to reviewing his notes, but then he hears a loud bump and wonders if Kuroko had just given himself a concussion. Sneaking a glance, it appears that Kuroko had managed to walk into the sharp corner of a wall while staring at the screen of his phone.
"You're going to end up walking into traffic like that," Mayuzumi says. "You probably want to stay alive for the time being."
Kuroko doesn't answer, apparently too absorbed in his phone. What's so good about phones anyway - people these days are so obsessed - and Mayuzumi thinks that Kuroko can probably be used as a prime example of what can happen when people text and talk at the same time in the near future if this keeps up.
"Look up when you walk or something, you're going to break something," Mayuzumi says, louder, but Kuroko still makes no indication of hearing him.
Mayuzumi huffs. Whatever, it's not like Mayuzumi will be the one to pay his hospital bills if he ends up in the emergency room after falling down a flight of stairs or something. The stairs that they are required to descend in order to reach the nearest train station are freakish in nature, and if Kuroko's going to fall down those, then well.
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When Mayuzumi gets back to the apartment after his afternoon classes, Kuroko's still kind of out of it.
"What's up with you?" Mayuzumi says as he drops his textbooks on the coffee table, but Kuroko blinks like he's really contemplating it deeply, like it's a prompt that belongs to a political philosophy lecture.
"There's a test coming up, so I've been stressed."
Mayuzumi tries to refrain from rolling his eyes, but fails. Spectacularly. "Okay? But no, seriously, what is up with you?"
"There's a test coming up, Mayuzumi-kun, and I know you have an assignment due tomorrow that you haven't started, so please - "
"No, shut up, I heard you the first time. I'm asking you what else is wrong. You know, you've been staring at your phone a lot instead of studying, for a person who's stressing about an upcoming test," Mayuzumi says, and adds, "I've been done that assignment for about four days now, by the way, just so you got the facts straight."
Kuroko's gaze falls to the floor. Mayuzumi wonders if he'd said something wrong, but it's not like Kuroko's the type to be torn apart by words uttered in a harsh tone.
"My grandmother's in the hospital," he says after a moment of staring at the faded rug left by the tenant before Mayuzumi, during which Mayuzumi had tried to prepare himself for news akin to I'm moving out.
Mayuzumi has to bite his tongue, just in case he accidentally retorts something detracting and offensive, because a part of him is glad. It's not like he would have cared even if he did, but Kuroko's a nice guy, it's not like he's done anything to deserve Mayuzumi's spite, and anyway, grandmothers in hospitals is no small matter.
Also, he might be feeling just a tad bad about his earlier thoughts about Kuroko ending up in the hospital. He hopes that this wasn't his fault.
"Oh," is all he manages to say. It's strained, and Kuroko will most definitely pick up on that, but why should Mayuzumi even care.
(He doesn't want to know the answer to that, to be honest.)
"I'm going to visit her later," Kuroko says. Mayuzumi didn't really ask, but stays silent as Kuroko continues, "she's just had a fall, but she's not hurt too badly."
"Then," Mayuzumi says. He struggles a bit with things like this. "Hope she gets better. Soon."
Kuroko's expression is completely blank as he says, "thank you, Mayuzumi-kun."
Mayuzumi has to wonder if whether or not he's okay. It's because he doesn't want to deal with a sad person too often - he's really not good at it, is what he tells himself, and he really doesn't want Kuroko's perfect-roommate feature to be tainted.
Encounters with people like Kuroko comes only once in a lifetime, probably.
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That night, Mayuzumi's initial reaction upon seeing Murasakibara was immense happiness, because food, but when he sees another bunch of people, all the happiness inside of him collapses.
"Mayuzumi-kun," Kuroko says. "These are my friends."
No, duh, Mayuzumi thinks as one guy puts Kuroko into a headlock. "I'm glad you have friends."
Kuroko is unfazed by both the arm around his neck and Mayuzumi's sarcasm. "We're going out to play basketball. If I recall correctly, you used to play in high school, right?"
Mayuzumi can tell where this is headed.
"Come play with us, man," one of the taller guys says to him, weird eyebrows oddly intimidating.
Mayuzumi really didn't ask for this, and starts to say so, but the rest of them starts chanting his name and pressuring him, and he hates them all. They probably came here to play basketball to cheer Kuroko up a little, or something, and Mayuzumi can respect that - but why do they feel like they have to involve themselves with Mayuzumi, what the hell. Even Murasakibara is chewing his chips with a look full of expectations, and Mayuzumi decides that he hates him the most, for betraying him like that.
On another note, it should be Kuroko that he's angry at, because he's the one who mentioned that Mayuzumi used to play ball and is the reason why his Friday night has officially been ruined by these basketball blockheads. But he only finds mild annoyance where there should be more ire, for some reason he can't be bothered to discern, though he does come to this conclusion: he has changed his mind about Kuroko.
He's the worst roommate ever.
A/N: you know what is scary jarofclay is scary in fact she is terrifying she's an all-powerful being pls beware