Pairing: Hatori Sohma/Ayame Sohma
Theme: # 8. Our own world /二人の世界
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket or its characters.
Rating: PG
Compromises
Hatori had given up, and given in.
He would look for a new house, just a special house for them, and them alone. Their own world, not to be disturbed by other cursed family members with their own part of angst. No novelists, cats, brothers, or rabbits allowed for an extended period of time. Ayame had had the dream of moving in with his best friends since he had been a young boy, and the dream had only increased when Akito had chosen to remove him from the family.
Then the novelist was cruelly scrapped from the list of desirable people to live with. Not because Ayame and Shigure were not best friends anymore, but because Hatori did not like to share Ayame's naked parades around the house with anyone, and certainly not with his persistently horny best friend.
Ayame had complained heavily at the doctor's 'cheap ways', but the real-estate agent was working her magic on the man, leaving Ayame blissfully guilt-free as Hatori was talked into spending much more on the house than he had originally planned to do. After having looked at three houses, they had still not made up their mind. Two of the houses had had Ayame's preference, because they were as close to Shigure and Yuki as he could desire from a house far away from neighbouring houses and busy street life, which Hatori had insisted upon.
Mixing their desires into one house had seemed more of a challenge than either of them had anticipated. Of course they had realised that their personalities were nothing alike – which was one of the things that they found so likeable in the other – but in finding the right house, this turned into somewhat of a challenge.
Hatori, for instance, preferred silence. Ayame was fine with this, as it made for perfect conversation space, but Hatori disagreed with conversation being silent enough, and had insisted on wall padding inbetween the rooms. This had caused quite a few complaints from Ayame, as the Hebi had liked eavesdropping on the conversations the doctor had over the phone. Hatori chose for wall padding because he could not help but eavesdrop when Ayame's enthusiastic voice carried throughout the house.
The doctor had wanted a room that was low on windows for his work, whereas Ayame had preferred it if his sketching room had as much windows as possible. This leaded to the necessity of a nice view, which stacked up the price quite a bit.
After a lot of begging and promises on Ayame's part, Hatori had agreed that, indeed, a nice view would not be so bad.
Ayame had been forced to take back some of his enthusiasm in his blossoming hobby as an interior decorator when Hatori had insisted on a monochromatic colour scheme. After even more promises, including one that involved maid costumes being put to proper use for a month instead of trying to seduce the Ryuu with it, Ayame had convinced Hatori of the healing qualities of warm colours in the bedroom. Hatori had absolutely refused on pink, much to Ayame's disappointment.
Surreptitiously, Ayame had decided to sneak pink soaps in the bathroom without telling the doctor, but they were in the shape of seahorses, so compromises were made.
After having visited a house Ayame had doted upon and Hatori had face palmed upon at seeing the price (but Ayame convinced Hatori by telling him that he had first doted on the house as well before witnessing the price), Hatori had one last question to the real-estate agent.
"How much would a floor heating system cost?"
When Ayame heard those magical words that would ensure the delightful comfort of warm feet in winter, he was all too willing to make many more promises to his favourite doctor. But not before the promise was sealed with a kiss.