Chapter 1: My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
It's not that late and she decides to do the laundry because it's better than doing nothing than staring at the clock hanging in his living room, waiting for him to show up from the studio executives meeting which definitely seems to have gone on for an extra hour or two. This could mean one of two things. Either his ideas and the changes to the script which he made over the last few months were finally accepted or those idiots in the high end table who knew nothing about scriptwriting or how a movie gets made apart from doling out the cash to produce the flick were still up to their evil schemes and plotting to interfere with the creative process.
At times like these she prefers being herself, the no name, small time actress who gets more work as a set photographer than actual lines in a live action television series.
But who is she kidding, no one actually. Rumi would like to make it big one day and she has made it no secret what her ambitions are and Hachiman seems to be onboard with the idea. He plays the part of the encouraging, mature, older boyfriend a little too well and she loves him all the more for it because clearly her own parents were not as supportive of her life choices.
But she doesn't care for their opinion. Finishing college, she might do that because she is not an idiot and has a level head above her shoulders and though she didn't want to think about it, she knew what happened to actors and actresses who didn't quite make it. No, no way in hell. She was definitely going to have a Plan B, just in case.
But she's nineteen about to be twenty in a few days time and she thinks she is young and she will make it because as far as she is concerned she belongs in this world, she belongs in a film set and she is a part of the crew, part of the acting fraternity and if fate tries to screw her over and she can't make it as an actress, well then she might as well stick to her other well paying and more sought out job as a set photographer. Because right now she knows this much, she is not the type of woman to hold onto a nine to five job at some cushy firm, then settle down after dating some co-worker her own age and then get married, have a bunch of kids and become some suburban housewife who thinks about cooking and cleaning and doing the laundry.
No, that's not her, even if she is doing laundry at the moment. The point she is trying to make still stands and was that the doorbell she just heard. Huh, well would you look at the time. Rumi smiles to herself as she heads to door and opens it to find the tired visage of her boyfriend staring back with a lackluster smile. However his expression quickly takes a note of mild surprise as he takes a good look at what she is wearing or rather what she is not wearing at the moment. She can't help but feel a bit satisfied with his reaction even though she presumes it would have gone a lot better if he had come home a bit early and a bit less tired from work.
But there is nothing that can be done about it and she would rather not think about what might have happened or taken place if he was in a more livelier mood. But then again, this is Hachiman Hikigaya she is talking about and he maybe her boyfriend and he maybe twenty-five years old, which despite what he says isn't really that old and even though he is in the presence of his hot, young, nubile girlfriend who is wearing one of his old, worn tee-shirts and as far as he can see nothing else, he still keeps his composure and controls his baser instincts and talks to her in a conversational tone.
"I see you made good use of the spare key I gave ya last week."
"Give me some credit. I didn't use it until today."
"Thank heavens for that."
He brushes past her without a second glance. Keen ears must have picked up the whirling of the washing machine somehow. Even to this day his sharp senses creep her the fuck out sometimes, but she has to admit now that she looks at it, they are really not that creepy. More often than not, they turn out to be downright helpful. But the same cannot be said about his intrapersonal skills. How he became a somewhat successful light novel author who is now slowly transitioning into the film scene as a screenplay writer is a mystery for the ages which she doesn't really know about or want to know about for that matter. All she cares about is that he is back and they are together, though it would really give her ego a boost if he said something about what she is wearing because really, changing into one of his old tee-shirts and leaving her legs completely bare took more than a bit of guts.
"What do you mean?"
"No, it's nothing. I thought I made things awkward. We are not moving too fast are we?"
Moving too fast, it doesn't seem like it but maybe it's because she had liked him for years since way back when she realized what this feeling she had, this constant hurt in her chest was. But she had never dared to act on her feelings because as far as she was concerned, she was a dumb high school kid nursing a celebrity crush and, he was the break out hit, light novel author completing his final year of university. It would have never worked out back then. But the same can't be said about them for now.
"You tell me. I'm in your place, wearing your clothes, doing your laundry."
"You are doing what?"
"Your laundry. Wait, you didn't hear the washing machine beep from the door? Isn't that why you moved inside real quick?"
He is trying to make sense of the situation and failing miserably in the process and she realizes it because she is doing a rather poor job at explaining the situation. But maybe it's because she doesn't understand what they are doing in the first place. They should have just kissed by the door and made their way stumbling towards the sofa for a quick and messy make out session, but he had not pounced on her while seeing her half naked and she had not thrown herself into his arms, fearing he would reject her and now the two of them stand awkwardly in the living room, the washing machine still beeping from the hallway letting them know the laundry is done for the night. But he doesn't care about his clothes at the moment and neither does she it seems.
"Uh, I walked inside real quick because I didn't want to give my neighbours an accidental peek at my girlfriend who is not wearing any pants." he says with a smoldering look in his eyes as he walks closer to her and brushes his long fingers across the flesh of her thigh, inch by inch moving closer and closer until he lets out a small sigh which tells her he is so done with her. "And you are wearing shorts. You are such a tease, Rumi-chan."
Rumi lets out what she thinks is a sultry laugh. It's hot and smoky and has just the right hint of seduction mixed with everything else that she is trying to pull. "I don't think waiting for you butt naked on the sofa counts as sexy." she tells him playfully and even as she is speaking she reaches up on her tippy toes and plants a quick kiss on his mouth. He hums in pleasure, but a low growl emanates from deep within his throat when she breaks the lip lock and starts to lean away from his chest. There is a smirk on her lips and a quick retort on the tip of her tongue. "You ate chips last night didn't you? I found some stuck between the couch cushions. I didn't fancy them crushed beneath my ass, thank you very much."
"I don't see the problem. I would have loved to lick them off your bubbly butt." he says, and then probably thinks more carefully about what he had just said to her, because now there is fresh embarrassment cropping up on his features. But before he has a chance to apologize she helps him out of this awkward situation by saying one word.
"Kinky."
The two of them are adults and it stands to reason that the two of them would be able to handle adult conversations. Their relationship is new as they have only gotten together recently but they have known each other for a long time, an embarrassingly huge long period of time, dating back to when she was in elementary and she thought of him as a grown up, high school student, who happened to be a loner just like her. Those were the simpler times, when she didn't really know him all that well, when she didn't really have these feelings which can now be called love and affection.
It's probably a good thing she didn't develop feelings for him until she was in high school. He was almost out of university by then and living in Tokyo, though he would drop by the school from time to time to check up on his favourite teacher, Shizuka Hiratsuka. For a while everyone in school thought there was something going on between the two of them, the former student who had finally become an adult and the former teacher who was finally seeing him as an equal, a partner.
But those were just rumours and gossips which were whispered in hushed and excited voices throughout the corridors of high school for a while before they met its fated end and stopped altogether without any rhyme or reason in favour of the next juicer gossip. Rumi never learned the truth about what happened nor did she have the courage to ask him about it now.
Guess there are somethings in life better left the hell alone.
While she is lost in her own thoughts, he takes her hand and gives it a small, comforting squeeze. "I need to take a quick shower." he says, and for the first time in his voice she can hear the tiredness of what must have been a long, sufferable day. "And you have to take out the clothes from the dryer."
"The clothes can wait." she mumbles. "Read my mind."
Sometimes she wonders whether he really has that ability because within the ticks of a second he actually comes up with what is going through her mind right now. He has some help though, because she has been dropping the right kind of hints for a while now and rubbing her legs all over him rather tantalizingly while looking at a particular direction down the hallway. But it wouldn't be him unless he had something clever to say.
"I guess we can make it a long shower."
Two weeks ago this would have been a distant dream, something which she thought could never be possible to achieve, but now as the two of them kiss and let their hands roam over each other's naked bodies, exploring, learning, growing, it feels real and something too good to be chalked up to a delusional dream.
But even as they kiss and even as he makes her cry out his name there are a few things he wouldn't do or talk about when they are this intimate and despite herself it makes worries crop up in the back of her mind. For example, she doesn't want to sound too crass but there is no other way to talk about this.
He wouldn't fuck her in the showers.
The first time it happened she thought he was joking around. There was no way he got her this aroused, dripping wet in more ways than one while leaving himself completely hard and teetering on the edge of sanity and then make the completely insane sounding judgment to take their antics up to the bedroom. Needless to say he didn't get to have sex with her that night and she left his apartment while slamming his door so hard that she was amazed the door didn't fall off its hinges in a comical manner.
They later made up, so it wasn't much of a big deal, but it left her wondering a couple of things and when she asked him about it, he made a silly joke about having a weird phobia and that he didn't want to slip on the wet tiles and die of a broken neck and leave her to explain the situation later to the cops. She didn't believe him one bit, but she had to admit it was a clever excuse.
This brings her to the present situation at hand.
"Are we finally going to do it this time or do we have to take this to the bedroom?"
Hachiman laughs awkwardly and pauses mid kiss and that doesn't earn him any points in her book which he knows all too well. Out of old habit he still tries.
"I don't know. You have to admit the bedroom is more comfortable. Think about the thread count on those sheets. Plus, I was thinking about reducing my water bill this month. It's gone a bit up, lately."
Rumi fixes him with a stare and works on a wonder with her palm. He knows what she is about to do and he anticipates the move but yet is rendered helpless as she coaxes out a heavy, heated grunt from his throat.
"The bills not the only thing that's up, mister."
"Walked right into that one, huh." he says, but he is affected and there is an ache behind his eyes but she knows that he is closing up and right now is not the moment to talk about this type of things. But when else will they talk about it. Not in a shower definitely, where they are naked, soaking wet, dripping in sexual tension with no chance of release much to her displeasure.
Does the problem lie with her, she can't help but wonder and he does it again and by now she really thinks he can read minds. "I want you, god I want you. But not here, not like this, please."
Rumi is curious and she thinks this is the time he should come clean but before she can act on her impulse he reaches down and kisses her mouth, prying her lips open with his tongue and she submits to this small distraction for the time being. But in the back of the mind, she has doubts and she has worries and she tries to erase them by reaching out to him, but it seems there are somethings still there which he has trouble letting her know about. Perhaps there are secrets he hasn't told anyone.
But a petulant voice argues back that she is not anyone, she is special and doesn't he know that about her already. Rumi lets the voice ring out and echo in her mind as she cannot do anything to shut it up. The best she can do is look for a distraction and she decides to settle for shampooing her hair and that's when she notices the hair products.
"Since when do you keep female hair products in your shower." she asks, and from behind she can hear him let out a small chuckle as if she had just asked a stupid question which she definitely has not as far as she is concerned. This is a very legitimate question, because. "Some of these are of the same brand I use. Don't tell me you have some weird ass powers and can figure out hair products just by sniffing my hair because that would be creepy as hell. I mean it, Hachiman."
Okay this time the look which says she is talking stupid is warranted, but he doesn't have to be a jerk about it. But no, he has to show off and act proud and tell her how much of a great boyfriend he actually is and she has to stand here and listen. Well, it's okay, she doesn't particularly mind, kind of likes this side of him too if she's being honest. But being naked and under the shower head ruins some of the effect that he was no doubt going for. That doesn't make him stop though. "The only super power I have is listening to my girlfriend when she talks. Besides I asked about it a couple of times, remember? What do you use to get that silky, smooth hair of yours and you went all advertisement mode on me. It was kinda scary if I am being honest."
Rumi didn't need to know the last part, but never knowing when to shut up when he gets on to a tangent has been a problem of his since his high school days and there are somethings in life that can't be fixed. But who would have thought Hachiman Hikigaya would be capable of such a kind and sweet gesture. "Thanks, this really means a lot." she rises on her tiptoes and gives him a small peck on the cheek and he lets his hand rest on the rise of her hips.
Now what you have here is a really tender moment and at times like these she berates herself for not having enough sexual experience, because really this could lead to a number of other more pleasant and spectacular situations. But the nineteen year old who is in her first ever relationship with a man, who even in the politest and modest terms can only be describes as complex as hell and dealing with his own personal issues, which he remains secretive about, doesn't think anything over prolonging the inevitable and that just gets on her nerves. Being passive aggressive is the only choice which seems probable and she hates herself for acting like this in front of him because it makes her feel so young and helpless and then the age difference between them kicks in and she just blurts out her fears in the open. "Is this normal boyfriend behaviour? Did you do this stuff with…"
Rumi can't bring herself to finish the question because even in her ears it sounds childish and if there's one thing she's not, it's a child. She is nineteen about to be twenty in a few days and if there is anyone who is capable of being in a relationship with this man, it's her and she is proud of that achievement. But sometimes she can't help question herself as to why she is in a relationship with this man other than the fact that she loves him really much and her feelings are dutifully returned as far as she is concerned. But even now he won't tell her what's on his mind. He would always find a way to tip toe across the subject and still give her a satisfactory answer.
"I was just planning ahead." he says awkwardly, turning the overhead shower off so she can get a good look at his face and know what he is telling her is the truth. And he is telling the truth, there is no doubt about that particular aspect in their relationship so far. "We are in a relationship. You sometimes spend the night here at my place. I was thinking about making you feel more at home. Nothing else, I promise. It's the same thing with the spare keys as well as you doing my laundry."
"It's so not the same thing."
"Is it not?"
He has such a smug and punchable looking face right now and she can't really be held accountable if she gets some shampoo in his eyes. He was standing too close. They are together in the shower. He did that thing again where he didn't tell her shit but he gets off scot free because his explanation makes sense.
"Fine, don't make a huge deal about it. I get the message." she says and he starts the shower back again while she takes a quick inventory of the female hair care products stacked on top of the plastic shelf. For the time being, because the both of them are in a hurry to jump into bed and have sex, she makes do with the shampoo and conditioner. However, she is not heartless enough to leave him to his devices before doling out some wise and loving advice. "Don't use my shampoo by mistake. I don't think you have the charisma and pizzazz to pull it off."
"I will take your word for it. I also don't want to smell like," he borrows the shampoo bottle she just used and takes a look at the label at the back which lists the incorporated ingredients needed for her silky, smooth hair. "jasmine, bergamot and sandalwood. What the hell is bergamot?"
Rumi hums to herself and doesn't feel like saying she has no idea, but instead she decides to be cheeky about it. Or that's what she feels like she is doing. "It's a form of aphrodisiac. I have been using it to make you fall in love with me for the past couple of weeks. It's also why we have been having lots and lots of sex."
"Huh, I thought it was because I was good in bed."
"Well, I don't know much about that. I mean I was a virgin until a week ago and you are the only guy I slept with, so it looks like I have to take your word for it, huh." she says jokingly and she feels him going hard at the mere mention of the memory.
The night it happened, because yes, despite not fucking in the showers right now, the two of them have indeed had sex before, a couple of days ago in fact. And before that. And before that. And before that was the night she lost her virginity to him and really, thinking about that night, how perfect it was, how he had introduced her to this new world and awakened something in her, made her aware of the intimacy that can only be found in skin to skin contact and really, she can't stop thinking about it and maybe that's why the two of them had been more sexually active in their second week as a couple.
Rumi has questions but he doesn't give her the answers she needs and now that they have been together for a short while, she doesn't know whether she can take this closed off attitude of his, this sense of secrecy which surround him at all times, even when he is naked in the shower and so open and so vulnerable and yet as shut off and away from her to a certain extent which is really starting to bother her and she always thinks about forcing him to open up to her about it, but something in her tells her to bide her time and wait and let him come to her.
But all he is doing is walk away even now, walking past her to reach for the towel and wrapping it around his waist before turning to her with a kind and empty face and to her ears sometimes his voice sounds too practiced, too perfect. "You take your time. Have a soak in the bathtub if you want. I will be in the bedroom."
"Don't worry. You don't have to wait too long."
He shuts the door and leaves with a parting smile and she starts to lather up her hair with the shampoo he has bought while thinking about stuff she already knows, things she tells herself not to worry about because they are all left behind in the past. He is six years older than her and even if in a handful of days that number will drop down to a five, she will only be kidding herself if she didn't acknowledge the not so insignificant age difference between them. It is one of the reasons why the two of them have yet to mention the recent change in their relationship to their friends and colleagues, tell them that they went from being, shall we say, two people who liked each other in a platonic sense to two people who loved each other dearly and expressed it through a myriad of sexual encounters.
That is not to say she is ashamed or worried about how they would react. No, no, no, definitely not. But also yes, maybe she is worried a teensy bit. Now that he is really considering branching out into the world of cinema and thinking about writing screenplay for movies, in a sense it makes the two of them work colleagues, people who are in the same line of work, the same profession. In a weird and twisted way this almost sounds like the plot of a romcom, a new take on the whole office romance gone wrong. Now all she has to do is land a nice, meaty role in a blockbuster movie and the next thing they know, they will be the new power couple in the world of cinema.
But that is not happening any time soon. While he is making a breakthrough career wise, she is still stuck right down at the bottom, going to audition after audition, keep getting rejections after rejections, still stuck making a living as a set photographer and working part time at a maid café. As far as she can see into the future, she is not going anywhere. Maybe that's why she is putting in the extra effort on the relationship front, because even though she doesn't really want to jinx it, what she has with him is the only thing that's looks like somewhat of an achievement in her less than mediocre life as an aspiring actress.
Draining her depressing thoughts down the drain, she comes out of the shower after drying herself to a certain extent, while leaving her beautiful dark hair a little bit messy and a little bit wet and before she can take up his offer to move things to the bedroom, she remembers she has yet to take out the laundry. For a second she wonders whether he would care, then she thinks whether he would think about his clothes still being kept in the washing machine while they are in the middle of having sex and really, it's not much of a bother to take them out and leave them out in the balcony to dry for the night.
But it looks like he has beaten her to it because the washing machine is empty and all the clothes are in the balcony. He has even put her clothes out to dry, the ones she had brought in her hand bag and then put in the washing machine because she knew she would be staying the night, having sex and then needing a change of clothes come next morning when she has to leave for university. The first time she went to university wearing the same clothes as she wore the day before, while smelling of men's perfume and bad breath and walking funny, it probably felt like she had a neon sign put on top of her head which said she had sex for the first time. Well, never again. It had been a steep learning curve but she had come prepared this time around and as she stepped into his bedroom draped in nothing but a small towel, which she noticed was another one of his latest purchases that was brand new and of the feminine variety, she felt confident in her sexual prowess, leaving her long hair a bit messy and wet, looking thoroughly ravished and yet deciding to take charge of the situation.
"I was going to wear a sexy little number and try seducing you, but then I thought less is more."
He is laying on top of the king sized bed, unmoving, looking at her with a smirk on his face and a gleam in his eyes which is downright animalistic, something which is chained and controlled and waiting to be unleashed and the first time she saw him look at her like that she had almost rolled out of his bed and fallen to the floor, because that is not a look a blushing virgin like her was used to. But now the same predatory stare makes her wet, make her squirm and she stumbles in the darkness to reach for the bed and this minute fumble makes the towel come loose from her torso. It falls to the ground and pools near her ankles and she hears a dark, velvety chuckle.
"Looking a bit hairy down there, don't you think?" he asks and for a second she wonders if he is making a crass comment about her pubic hair.
Rumi blushes horribly out of embarrassment and her voice shakes as she thinks of a reply which would make it seem like she is standing up for herself, telling him it's her body, her choice, while also somewhat letting him know that she would take his preference about this kind of things under advisement. "I thought you didn't mind. You never said anything about it before. I-I could always wax it off."
This is really spoiling the whole dripping sex appeal thing she was going for earlier and it makes her feel really self conscious about her own body, even as she blushes a dark shade of red while setting up an argument that he should be lucky that he is having sex with a woman who is old enough to have hair down there, because otherwise he would be labeled as a good for nothing lolicon. However, she knows better and had she said this stuff out loud it would have definitely killed the mood and ended with them not having sex tonight or worse breaking up over her little misunderstanding. Now that she thinks about it, it has to be some sort of misunderstanding, right.
He blinks and looks at her like she is making zero sense. "I don't think you can pull off the bald look quite yet, no offense."
"None taken." she forces a shrug, while internally screaming at herself for being this stupid at a time like this, just minutes away from having mind blowing sex. What the hell made her think he could be possibly taking about her pubes right now. It's not like she is naked or anything. Oh right, wait a second, she is completely naked, standing in his bedroom, mere inches away from his bed while he made this poorly worded out observation. Maybe that could have been one of the stupid reasons why she thought about it. But still, it's no excuse and clearly she should know better by now. "And I'm growing out my hair for an audition."
"I love women with long hair," he says and that's not what she wants to hear right now because it makes her feel like she is being compared to his previous lovers because yes, unlike her, he was no virgin and yes, he had more than a couple of women share his bed, share his love, share his life and she really shouldn't be thinking about it right now, but she doesn't, and she can't help but feel down. Maybe that's why her voice comes out as a bit uncertain.
"I didn't know you had a type."
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me."
And isn't that the truth. She knows he didn't mean anything by it except maybe for a nice line to make himself out as the older, experienced lover in their relationship, but it still rubs her the wrong way. But like the sexy beast of a man he is, that she has recently found it, he doesn't let her mind wander into those dark places to find out hidden meanings and latent subtexts in every word that he has said out loud. When she crawls on her hands and knees and reaches within arms length of him to hover deliciously over his abdomen he takes ahold of her, a hand coming up to palm the soft flesh of her bare breasts and her nipples pebble at his mere touch and by now she is sure he must think of her as some crazed nymphomaniac.
But his kisses her gentle and his bites are shallow and he doesn't leave a mark on her body as he rolls her underneath him and she is lost to the numerous sensation which dissuade her from thinking out loud. On her lips are the cries of his name and he coaxes out such naughty little sounds from her throat and when they are done, finished, spent for the night, he spoons her from behind and she can't help but think what she has with him is the best thing in this world.
There might be a day when it's not enough and when she will have no choice but to confront him about his secrets, ask him about what went wrong with his previous girlfriends and how she can stop the same thing from happening in their relationship, but as always she can't find the proper way or the right time to broach such a sensitive subject.
For now all she can think is their loss is her gain.
A/N:
Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.
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Won't betray your dreams.