Interruption

He couldn't help himself. The next Wednesday he'd walked into the entrance hall in the late afternoon and had heard a fairly sweet violin melody trailing out of Kiyo's apartment, and he couldn't help it. It wasn't nearly as loud as her music, but the opportunity to tease her was simply too good to pass up.

So once Chuuya reached his door, he knocked on hers just loud enough to grab her attention and halt the melody. "Are you gonna learn to be quiet one of these days?" He asked through the door with a smirk. "Always so damn loud." Chuuya stepped back towards his door and unlocked it slowly, waiting until he heard her door swing open dramatically.

"I do have sympathy for your exhaustion, Chuuya-san, but I do have to practice for my job, and if the piece says fortissimo, I do have to play very loudly. Can't practice mezzo-piano and expect the same results."

Chuuya smirked a little wider and turned around, leaning on his apartment door as he faced the woman standing across from him. "Sure you can't," he said smartly.

"That would be correct," Kiyo replied blankly.

Chuuya chuckled at that. "It sounds pretty good. What's it from?"

"It's the solo part of Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto."*

"Huh. I don't think I've heard of that one."

"It's a good piece, I'd recommend looking it up. Or you could just come to the show."

"When is it again?"

"There's a show tomorrow, Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

"I probably won't have time," Chuuya stated softly.

"Work?"

"Yeah."

"You just got back from work right?" Kiyo suddenly lit up with excitement, and Chuuya held up a hand warning her to stop.

"Ahem. Use your words," he stated frankly, causing her to shrink a little and pout.

"…Wanna come over for some tea?"

"Aren't you supposed to be practicing?"

"I've already clocked in five hours of practice today, not including rehearsal at the concert hall. Please? It's been a week and a half since you last came over."

"I didn't really get much of a choice last time, if memory serves."

"Th-That was…" Kiyo pouted again, and Chuuya couldn't help but laugh.

"Fine, just let me put away my coat," he murmured as he turned back to his door. Kiyo let out a soft squeal of delight behind him, and he glanced back just in time to stop her mid pounce. "Kiyo-chan, we talked about this."

She whined slightly before letting her arms flop to her sides. "Sorry…I hug by force of habit…"

"I will break you of your bad American habits yet," Chuuya responded dryly as he unlocked his door.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I got the touchy-feely thing from Italy. Americans are only cool with hugs from close friends most of the time. Wait, I was friends with most of the people in my class…"

"Bad foreign habits, then?" Chuuya offered as he opened his door and stepped into his apartment a smirk still playing on his face as he left Kiyo to contemplate where she'd formed her hugging habit.

oooOOOooo

"You know, when I think of concertmaster in an orchestra, I usually don't think of a person like you," Chuuya spoke up softly as he paced around Kiyo's living room, making the woman shrug from where she was seated on her dining room table, tuning her violin.

"Most people don't. It's rare to find a violinist that isn't an antisocial recluse or a music elitist, or some terrifying combination of both. That goes double for the talented ones. At least that's what my roommate in the States told me, but she was a drama major, so she might've had a skewed view of it."

"I see," Chuuya murmured as he looked around her living room once more. Nothing had really changed much—same squashy leather sofa, same flat screen tv pinned to the wall, same glass coffee table and wooden floor. The boxes by the front door were gone, and her dining room table looked a little cluttered, but otherwise the place hadn't changed much since his last visit. "So I suppose you and your 'aggressively friendliness' are the oddball out, huh?"

"Sorta. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with people, but I don't mind being alone for days on end."

"Really? You seem pretty adamant about spending time with me."

"Well, you aren't here very often, and we're also neighbors. I think my fascination with you is pretty justifiable."

"Or maybe you're just nosy," Chuuya teased.

"Yeah, a bit. So," Kiyo started as she finished tuning her violin and placed it back in the case next to her, "what do you do for a living, Chuuya-san?"

"That…is a secret. And I may be mistaken, but I believe that when you invite someone over for tea, you're supposed to actually serve tea."

"Oh…so is it something illegal? Also I put the kettle on the stove before I started tuning my violin."

"Doesn't matter whether it's legal or illegal, it's still a secret. And you remembered to turn the stove on?"

Kiyo stared at Chuuya for a moment while she slowly lowered the lid of her violin case, her expression so vacant that he swore if he'd asked her at that moment she wouldn't even remember her own name. "That…is a good question…" Kiyo hopped off the table and scuttled into her kitchen, disappearing entirely from Chuuya's view for a moment. "Nope!" A mere second later her head popped out into the doorway. "So illegal then."

"I never said that," Chuuya replied as she walked back out of the kitchen.

"Well why would you hide it if it's legal?"

"Because it's a secret."

Kiyo let out a short huff before hopping over the edge of her couch. "Fine then. Wanna watch some tv while the water boils?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"…Uhhh…" Kiyo squirmed a bit before speaking up again. "You're the guest, your choice first."

Chuuya perked an eyebrow at that. "I've got no preference."

"…You sure?"

"I'm sure. Besides, I'd like see what you're so nervous about."

"I-I'm not nervous!"

"Sure you aren't," he grinned as he joined her on the couch and picked up the remote, flicking on the tv and causing Kiyo to let out a soft whine. The flat screen flickered to life with a random drama, causing him to squint at the channel logo. "Is this a drama channel?"

"No!" Kiyo shouted at him, her face beet red.

Chuuya could only laugh. "You're a drama junky?"

"Nooo!"

"Why are you so embarrassed by it?"

"…Cause…well…I…Penny always said they were too cheesy and I felt bad about liking them…"

"Penny?"

"My best friend back in New York."

"Aha. Well if you ask me, it's perfectly reasonable for a Japanese person to like Japanese dramas. Especially a woman."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kiyo narrowed her eyes into a soft glare, making Chuuya grin impishly. "It means you have the makings of a fine housewife."

"How does being a drama junky make me a good housewife?!"

"Well…alone it doesn't…but then…you keep your house clean…"

"Only the parts that guests see!"

"You bake a lot…"

"You've only caught me baking five times!"

"You're weak to corner store sales."

"Everyone likes saving money!"

"And you constantly invite people over for tea."

"It's not…it's not that constant…"

"Kiyo-chan, we've run into each other six times in the past week and a half. Have you ever not invited me over for tea?"

"No…"

"Case in point."

"W-Well it doesn't matter anyway, 'cause I'm not gonna be a housewife."

"Well I did gather that," Chuuya smiled at her pouty expression just as a whistle went off in the kitchen, making Kiyo's head swerve towards that room.

"What's your tea preference again?"

"Hmm…I suppose I'll have what you're having?"

"So oolong is fine?"

"Sure."

"'Kay." Kiyo climbed over the back of the sofa and trotted towards the kitchen. Chuuya watched her briefly before turning his attention back to the tv, though he admittedly found more amusement in Kiyo's actions than in whatever absurd drama was on. It was some sort of high school romance, from what he could tell. Chuuya tuned out of it easily, instead craning his head back and listening to Kiyo clatter around in the kitchen. He could admit it, Kiyo was far more bearable than he'd initially thought she'd be. Despite seeming clingy and overbearing at first, she was more or less harmless, cheerful, and excessively friendly.

And she did correct herself fairly easily—he'd been rather crabby the third time they'd met in the hall and it hadn't taken much of her bubbly nature and difficulty understanding personal space to get him to snap. She'd been careful the next time, albeit just as friendly, and on some level he had to admit to being glad he hadn't scared her off. There were times when her cheerfulness did unfortunately remind her of that bastard Dazai, but where his demeanor was all spite and pretense, Kiyo was overwhelming in her sincerity. At the very least, she never seemed to have an ulterior motive.

"So which mug do you want? Sparkly fairies, or Santa?" Kiyo's face suddenly popped into Chuuya's line of vision, and he perked an eyebrow at the question.

"Santa? Isn't that a little out of season?"

"Enormous tea mugs are never out of season," she replied blankly as he lifted his head up and glanced behind him at the mugs she had in her hand—which were far bigger than they needed to be. "Any preference?"

"The Santa mug seems like the lesser of two evils."

"What does that mean?" Kiyo asked as she passed him the mug and walked around the edge of the couch.

"It means that I don't want fairies on my mug."

"Oh. Soooo…" Kiyo flopped down on the couch and crossed her legs, "what do you do for fun?"

"Hm?"

"You have hobbies, right?"

Chuuya glanced briefly at the girl before returning his gaze to the tv and taking a sip of his tea. "Not really. I'm usually working."

"So you just work, sleep and eat?"

"Well I hit the bars on occasion."

"Hmmmnnnn…that's so boring…"

He laughed at that. "I think my job is interesting enough to make up for that."

"Well you won't tell me what your job is."

"Because it's a secret."

Kiyo puffed out her cheeks childishly. "How am I supposed to get to know you if you won't answer my questions?"

"What makes you think I want you to get to know me?"

"Because you came over for tea."

"Like you would have stopped asking when I said no."

"I would have!"

"Until the next time we ran into each other."

"That's…! That's besides the point!"

"Mhm, keep telling yourself that, Kiyo-chan."

"You're so unfair, Chuuya-san," she mumbled into her tea.

"Oh?"

"You have me at a disadvantage. You know a lot about me already, but I don't know much about you."

"It's hardly my fault that you're an open book."

"I like being an open book."

"Well I prefer to have my secrets."

"Will you tell me eventually?"

"Perhaps," Chuuya shrugged, "but you're nowhere near being close enough for me to consider it."

"Okay. I'll just have to become close enough then," Kiyo said simply, drawing Chuuya's surprised gaze back to her. He stared at her for a while; his mind wandered briefly along the concept that it may be better to distance himself from her right now. But…to be honest, it probably wasn't necessary, nor was it likely to work without an absurd amount of effort on his part. No matter how trustworthy Kiyo was, right now it was fairly apparent. He and Kiyo were from very different worlds. No matter how much he could trust her, it would probably take a miracle to bridge that gap.

Chuuya's gaze returned to the tv, his expression flicking into a sly mask to disguise how much her reply had thrown him off guard. "Good luck with that."

oooOOOooo

asterisks:

*Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto is a very real violin concerto composed by two Chinese composers (He Zhanhao and Chen Gang) in 1959. It is one of the most famous modern pieces in Chinese music and I would recommend looking it up, because it is really beautiful (fair warning though, the full concerto is about 30 minutes long)

oooOOOooo

Alright nerds, disclaimers:

1. I do not own Bungou Stray Dogs or any of its characters or world, I only own my OCs

2. Given that I am not Japanese, not a musician, and not multilingual, most of what I will be writing (especially in the case of Kiyo) will be researched, but that does not mean that I will get everything right. Feel free to politely point out anything that I messed up—I stress pointing it out politely.

3. The canon plot to Bungou Stray Dogs will most likely not be touched on in this, whether or not this is pre-canon, canon-divergent, post-canon, or in between canon is something that will likely be left to interpretation. If all else fails though, just imagine that it's Yokohama City whenever things have not gone to shit.

4. Is this a ship fic? Quite possibly. Am I going to 100% definitely make it a romantic ship? Dunno.

5. This fic may or may not end up coming hand in hand with a comic, I'm still trying to decide. If it does it'll most likely be snippets from the chapters and small scenes that happen outside the chapters, as opposed to a comic book version of this.

So fave follow and review if you liked it, and I'll make an update as soon as I can!

p.s.- About Chuuya teasing Kiyo for having the "makings of a fine housewife", contrary to how it might sound, he's not being sexist, he's just teasing Kiyo about the number of housewife stereotypes she shamelessly complies with.