Haruka opened the door to his house, stepped inside and took off his shoes, before walking further inside the house. He didn't say a word to the others. The only sign he left that showed that he had allowed them to enter, was the fact that he had left the door open.
Yuuri was first to step inside and take off his shoes and Viktor followed right behind him. Yuri and Otabek were next and Phichit and JJ went in last.
"Nanase-kun!" Yuuri called. He couldn't see Haruka anywhere. "Where may we put our luggage?" he asked.
Haruka came out of the kitchen and looked at them. "Just there," he said, gesturing towards the wall furthest away from himself.
"Great," Yuuri said, before placing his stuff there. The others followed his example and put their luggage there as well. Then they all walked down the hallway to stand by the kitchen door. Haruka was already in there, looking through the fridge.
"What's he doing?" Yuri muttered, sounding slightly irritated.
Haruka looked up and shut the fridge. He made eye contact with Yuuri before he spoke. "The bathroom's upstairs. I'll go shopping," he said while grabbing a shopping-bag and walking through another door to the living room. He then walked into the hallway. This was to avoid having to push past all the people he couldn't communicate with anyway.
"Shouldn't one of us go with you?" Yuuri asked.
"No need," Haruka said while putting his shoes back on. He stood up and pushed the door open.
"Take care," Yuuri exclaimed, slightly reflexively. It felt weird to say under these circumstances, but he would've felt even weirder, not saying it.
Haruka stopped, caught off guard from Yuuri's outburst. "I'll be back," he said then as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him, leaving the figure skaters to themselves in his house.
"What was that about?" JJ asked.
"He told me that the bathroom's upstairs and that he's going out for shopping," Yuuri replied.
"I don't know about you, but I think that us being here, might be pushing him out of his comfort zone," Viktor said with a slightly thoughtful expression on his face.
"What do you mean?" Phichit asked.
"I'm not sure," Viktor said. "But he doesn't seem like a person who socializes much and as far as I understand, he has trouble communicating with us, isn't that right, Yuuri?" he asked, looking at Yuuri.
"Tachibana-kun did say that Nanase-kun doesn't speak English at all. I think that's part reason why he isn't talking much," Yuuri said.
"Then why did the blonde guy suggest this place?" Yuri asked. "There isn't even that much space."
"And if he is still living with his parents, then there'll be even less. We'd have to squeeze together," JJ said.
"Maybe that's why," Otabek said.
"What do you mean?" Yuri asked, looking to Otabek.
"Maybe his parents aren't here, so compared to the others, he has the more room, and he don't need permission to have us over as long as we leave before they return," Otabek explained.
"Then, if he is by himself, we should help him all we can," Viktor said, smiling.
"I think it's a bad idea," Yuuri said. "I just asked him if one of us should help him go shopping, but he declined."
"He shouldn't do it by himself," Viktor said. "I'll go after him then," he was about to head towards the door when Yuuri stepped up in front of him and blocked his way.
"Viktor, I think it's best if you're first in the bath. You stink of chlorine," he said.
"But I wasn't in the water, and I washed myself afterwards," Viktor argued.
"I insist you go first," Yuuri said.
With a slightly irritated expression, Viktor collected his soap, towel and a change of clothes from his luggage before he headed upstairs, not sparing a glance at anyone, especially not Yuuri.
Yuuri sighed. "Seems he's angry with me," he said.
"Of course, you went against him," Yuri said.
"I just think that, regardless of Nanase-kun's situation, we shouldn't try to help him out until we know more. That is, unless he asks. We're only guests," Yuuri said.
No one said a thing against it. They could kinda see the conflict from both Yuuri's and Viktor's point of view, some more than others. None of them wanted to take a side in the conflict though, knowing that it would drag them directly into it.
There was an eerie silence until Phichit decided to look into the living room and suggested that they went to sit there until Viktor finished in the bath or Haruka came back, whichever came first.
It was the former that happened first. After having sat in the living room for about fifteen minutes, Viktor came in. He looked down at all of them and they looked back up at him for an awkward minute before he sat down.
"The bathroom's free," he said. This was followed by an awkward silence. No one spoke before Yuuri looked up to meet Phichit's eyes and realized that the other was silently telling him to go to the bathroom next.
"Then… if no one mind, I'll go take a bath," he said.
No one objected, and Yuuri went to gather the things he'd need before he went upstairs.
It wasn't long after Yuuri had gone to take a bath when Haruka came back from shopping. He just opened the door with a small mutter the others barely heard and certainly didn't understand. Then he went to the kitchen to put the groceries back in place.
"Ah, Welcome back, Haruka," Viktor said. "Is there anything we can do for you?" he asked.
"No," Haruka said in a dismissive tone.
"Did I say something wrong?" Viktor wondered.
"Probably," Yuri said.
"You offered your help," JJ said.
"We're not supposed to get involved with that," Phichit whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I don't think it's that," Viktor dismissed JJ's suggestion without commenting further on it. He wasn't interested in dragging anyone into his little discussion with Yuuri. It was a problem between the two of them. No one else needed to get involved.
Out in the kitchen, Haruka was still unpacking the groceries while listening to the foreigners discussing in the next room. He still didn't understand a word of what they were saying, and if he had to be honest, hearing them talk was very exhausting.
It wasn't like he didn't see the reason why Nagisa had suggested that they could stay at his place. His parents were still out traveling and his house was big for just one person to live in. And this was closer than any hotel. But still, he wished they could've stayed somewhere else as he wouldn't have to deal with a communication-problem of this level. He could only communicate with one, two or three if he was lucky, exactly like Makoto had said.
But he had had to recognize the fact that this really was the best option for everyone except him, and so he accepted the strangers into his house without a single complaint. It should be possible to play hotel for a month without too many problems. The biggest issue he could come up with at the moment was where they would all sleep. He wished Nagisa had told him this sooner as he could've prepared.
I don't mean to get greedy or anything, but I wish someone would leave a review every now and then. Then again, I haven't exactly got an awful lot of reviews on this site lately.
At any rate. I was talking about something worth celebrating yesterday. Today, May 17th 2017, marks the 5th anniversary of my first profile on a fanfic website This means that I'm basically beginning my fifth year of officially writing fanfics. At least, that's something I'd like to mark as memorable.
That's all for me today. Thank you to those of you who keep on reading this weird story. I hope it's still enjoyable.
Jackie
