"Hey, Kiki?" Mitsuhide asked; they were grabbing lunch just a couple of weeks after Zen and Shirayuki's wedding.
"Yeah?" She stared down at her sandwich that looked a little less than apetizing to her all of a sudden; it had been an on the whim order, because it sounded good, but the reality looked bland compared to what these kinds were normally like.
"I don't have a roommate anymore, and we've known each other for years, and you're like my best friend..." Mitsuhide's off to rambling, a sign that he's been hit with a strong case of nerves.
"And?" She asked, turning her full attention to him.
"I was wondering if you'd want to be my roommate? Rent's going to be hard to pay for by myself, and Zen moved out when he married Shirayuki, you know?" Mitsuhide's nerves were slow to fade today.
"Sure." Kiki asnwered, "My roommate moved out too." She shrugged, and it sounded so teasing, that Mitsuhide nearly stumbled where he was.
"I know that." Given the fact that Shirayuki had been her roommate for years, Mitsuhide wasn't entirely oblivious to all of this. And he wondered if Kiki's apartment felt too quiet like his had for a while.
Having his female best friend move in sounded almost impossible to imagine; it wouldn't be too weird or awkward, right? With Zen, it had been natural, and they'd been so used to being around each other after all these years that it hadn't really been difficult.
When Zen was ready to move out from his family home, Mitsuhide offered to move with him just to make it a little easier and to keep his eye on his long time best friend, just to make sure that Zen didn't somehow stumble into any trouble.
"You do?" Kiki offered, and without even taking a bite of her sandwich, she looked regal in a sense, and Mitsuhide felt like crawling into a box to hide. Of course, Kiki liked to tease him, and that usually led to feelings like this.
Kiki was not Zen; the statement really was obvious, but it was especially more so with her in the same space as him. She'd help with the cooking, having known a few different recipes for a while, and even passing on recipes Shirayuki had taught her as well.
And Kiki was decidingly more feminine than Zen, though she didn't wear dresses, just pants or jeans and a t-shirt, but still. It was somehow obvious, but more so, one night within that first week of her moving in.
"Hey, Kiki?" Mitsuhide called, "I don't know if you went to bed yet, but do you want to watch a movie? I made too much popcorn, and I just thought, it would be fun!"
"Sounds good." And when Mitsuhide turns around at the sound of her voice, his face flames up red impossibly quickly.
Kiki's dressed in a light green nightgown that drops nearly down to her ankles, and nothing is showing; she's not scantily clad by a long shot, but seeing her in a nightgown stops Mitsuhide's train of thought. There's something particularly personal or maybe intimate, nearly vulnerable about seeing someone in their pajamas. Because they wear them to sleep in and not out in public. They are comfortable being just themselves near you.
Mitsuhide is absolutely positive he has no words for this, though it's the first real time, that he wonders if he made a mistake by inviting her to be his roommate. "Is action okay?" He gets out the words barely.
"Yeah, nothing better." Kiki answered, and Mitsuhide breathes a sigh of relief. Kiki's like him in this way, and with Zen, things had been a tossup between cheesy romcoms and action movies; it had been a rather interesting mix of movies that they saw together.
"I agree." It's not like Mitsuhide hadn't been to the movie theaters with Kiki before, but he'd certainly never really made it a point to go see a movie with just her. There was usually Shirayuki too or both Zen and Shirayuki, and Mitsuhide can't recall the last time, if ever, that he and Kiki watched a movie alone.
And the couch feels particularly small with her right next to him, though she's sitting with just one cushion between them, on the three seater couch, her legs are propped up on that spare cushion. And it's kind of weird how bare her legs are.
There's no jeans, and where the nightgown rides up from her position, he sees her ankles and a bit of her legs, and Kiki's always wearing something over them or so, he'd thought. Mitsuhide swallows what feels like a snake, and turns to the movie that he's already seen once before, and shares his popcorn with Kiki as if nothing's the matter.
Even though they sleep in separate rooms, it suddenly feels like playing house, and Mitsuhide hadn't considered what being married to Kiki might be like, but it actually might be kind of nice. And by the time, the movie's over, Mitsuhide's more than a little tired, and Kiki's getting up, and he remembers again how just different it is to suddenly live with her.