Rating: PG.
Warnings: None.
Spoilers: None.
Notes: Part five of the "Impatience" arc... the story that makes me take long breaks at work that get me yelled at. Enjoy! (And, yes, there's another omake.) (Find previous parts at a href"http/www.txq.nu/jumpyboys"Jumpy Boys/a)
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Hikaru stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He looked into the mirror, bleary-eyed, and turned on the faucet. He splashed some water on his face and left the faucet running while he took care of business. When he finished, he cleaned up a bit, left the bathroom, and forgot to close the door. The whole while, Akira stood in the shower, the water running, not even noticing the temperature change when Hikaru flushed.
After getting dressed, Hikaru wandered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. "Touya! Did we buy any eggs?"
Akira entered the room a moment later in his bathrobe while towelling his hair dry. "They're in the door, Shindou. What are you making?"
Hikaru smiled sleepily at the other man. "Rice omelets, unless you'd rather have-" he paused to look inside the the refrigerator again, "stir-friend broccoli and pineapple?" He looked at Akira momentarily. "Rice omelets it is, then." He grabbed the eggs and the leftover rice from the previous evening. "I'll go shopping before I go to work and get some stuff. We may be the only Japanese household without soy sauce!"
Akira took a step toward Hikaru and kissed his shoulder. "Thank you."
Looking up from beating the eggs with a fork, Hikaru asked, "What for?"
"For waking up early to make me breakfast when you don't work until this evening."
Hikaru yawned and kept beating the eggs. "It's no problem. If you could cook, you'd do the same thing for me. But, remember... in exchange?"
Akira rolled his eyes. "In exchange, I will never attempt to make microwave popcorn ever, ever again."
"Right." Hikaru gave Akira a peck on the cheek.
Akira's nose wrinkled a bit. "Just promise me you'll shower and brush your teeth before you go out somewhere."
"Yes, mommy." Hikaru laughed and turned on the stove and let the pan warm up with a pat of butter in it.
As Akira watched Hikaru assemble his breakfast, he smiled. "Is it going to take much longer?"
Hikaru looked at what he was doing. "You want toast?"
"Please."
"Five minutes."
Akira nodded and returned to the room, getting dressed quickly. As he draped his tie around his neck, Hikaru called out to him that his breakfast was ready. When Hikaru saw Akira walk in, tying his tie, he grinned widely. "I feel like I should have an apron on with you coming in like that." He gestured to the table. "Here. Breakfast. Don't spill anything on that tie. You don't have any others that match that shirt."
"I could wear one of yours," Akira retorted.
"You'd actually wear one of my ties?" Hikaru handed Akira a napkin and a fork.
Taking a bite of his omelet, Akira was almost surprised to enjoy it, despite the smoky smell of the kitchen (leftover from the Popcorn Incident) lingering in his nostrils. "Yes, I would wear one of your ties that does not have a cartoon character or the number five emblazoned on it."
"My five tie is perfect for go events!"
"For you, Shindou? Yes. For me? No, especially since that is distinctly your tie, so I shouldn't be the one to wear it. People might think something's up."
"Hey, yeah. We need to let people know we moved. We told our parents and some friends, but we both need to register a change of address with the Go Association or we won't get our game cards."
Akira paused in taking the final bite of his omelet. "This isn't against the rules, is it? For two people in the same household to play in the leagues?"
"Touya, that's a stupid question even for this early in the morning."
"How is it a stupid question?" Akira chewed angrily and reached for his toast.
Hikaru smiled and picked up Akira's empty plate. "Who's your father, Touya?"
Akira paused and daintily wiped a few toast crumbs from his lips. "You're right. It was a stupid question."
Yawning again as he put Akira's plate in the sink, Hikaru said, "It's getting late. Go do your hair. I'll clean up later when I get up again."
"You're going back to bed?" Akira paused mid-step.
Hikaru stretched his arms above his head and afforded Akira a view of his stomach. "If I stay awake, I'll be tired by the time I get to the end of my shidougo game tonight. But," he gave Akira a shy grin, "do you think you could call after your first game and make sure I'm up?"
Akira smiled and shook his head as he took off toward the bathroom again. He called out as he picked up his comb, "Yes, Shindou. I suppose I can be your alarm clock today, despite us having a perfectly good one in our bedroom."
"That's nice to say, isn't it?" Hikaru said from the doorway of the bathroom. "Our bedroom." He blew Akira a sleepy kiss. "Going to bed. Play well, sweetie. G'night." He wandered off and Akira was left to his own devices.
"Wait a second," Akira said to himself, "did he just call me sweetie?" After a moment, he could already hear Hikaru's soft snores coming from the bedroom. "Our bedroom," he whispered.
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Owari.
SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:
-----The Popcorn Incident----- a drabble
Hikaru and Akira were about to sit down and do the first non-go thing they'd ever mutually agreed upon: watching a movie. Akira's friend, Ashiwara, had been scouted and cast in a small role in a movie about Heian-era Japan. Akira had agreed to watch it for Ashiwara's sake. Hikaru had simply smiled about the content of the movie and agreed to watch. "But we should have popcorn!" Hikaru said.
Akira had thought himself perfectly capable of making microwave popcorn. He read over the instructions and placed the bag in the microwave for five minutes. He watched it in the microwave, always a bit fascinated at how fast it puffed up. The pops eventually got slower and Akira counted from one pop to the next, waiting for it to slow down to two seconds. When it still hadn't done so by the time the five minutes were up, Akira put it in for another two minutes and then promptly became distracted by the kifu that Hikaru had scribbled onto a napkin with a pencil.
There were still fifteen seconds left on the timer when the smoke alarm went off and Hikaru raced into the kitchen. "Touya!" He surveyed the scene. There was smoke pouring from the microwave and Touya was standing right next to it, looking at the kifu that Hikaru had scrawled down earlier in the day of what he remembered of his all-white game with Kurata. "Touya, why don't you go set up the DVD? I'll make the next batch."
When Touya walked off, smiling sheepishly, Hikaru opened the window and turned on the fan and went to disable the smoke alarm, making a note to enable it before going to bed.
The next batch of popcorn still tasted a bit smoky.