The last time he played Grand Theft Auto with his group, he had a pretty good time. He always liked that game and they played in a server that let them basically do whatever they wanted. The thought never occurred to him before recently, but this time he started to wish he could hang out with people in real life.
Going to bars. Having a drink with friends and talking. Driving around town. Going on fun errands or adventures together. It was fun in the game, but he wondered what it would be like to do these things in person instead.
Not like that's even an option. Iguchi sighed in frustration; lying on his back on the floor in front of his television with a console game in his hands. If they knew what I looked like, they'd stop talking to me. They don't even know my real name.
He heard a high-pitched female voice and glanced over at the television. At some point, the anime that he had playing in the background had transitioned into some sort of teen drama. Right now, there was a girl calling out to a boy as she ran down a hallway after him. Grabbing him in a hug from behind and beaming when he looked back at her.
Warmth spread across Iguchi's face when he saw this and for a brief second, he imagined this scenario with someone else. Kemuri Akane; the delivery girl. Which meant he was soon imagining what it would be like if she hugged him.
His gaze slid back to his game as he absently reached over to mute the television. She kept popping into his head enough without the help of some teen drama giving him weird ideas. It was basically an impossibility for him to experience the stuff these characters were able to experience.
They were "normal". No scales or claws. Attractive actors playing out a scenario he could never hope to find himself in. That was probably the appeal, but he still felt a little bitter about it. His own high school days had been nothing short of torment.
The glares from boys. The disgusted frowns from girls. The whispers. The cruel names. The vandalism on his desk and the way his shoe locker got emptied out by bullies. Iguchi rested his head back on his pillow and sighed. The idea of a social life was just a fantasy. A distracting daydream for when he got bored.
His stomach started to growl and he checked the time. It was kind of late so he knew that his new favorite restaurant would be closing soon. Even if he did order from there, he knew there was a chance Kemuri might not be working this shift. Since learning her name, he had requested her a few times. The last time, she was off for the day so they sent someone else.
Contemplating his options now, Iguchi frowned and pushed himself to sit up. Running a hand through his tangled purple hair and knowing how few his options actually were. Most places that delivered would be closing soon. Which meant he had to order soon or he would just be out of luck and have to exist off whatever snacks he still had in the apartment. Going to the convenience store was out of the question.
His stomach growled again and he decided to just give in. He put in an order for his usual meal, but did not bother with the special request for Kemuri. It's late. Even if she's working tonight, I don't want her walking around by herself. As soon as he thought this, his eyes widened a bit and he tilted his head.
Iguchi could feel heat spreading across his face and he rubbed the back of his neck. When did I start caring so much? It's not like we're friends or anything. She just brings my food. I shouldn't get attached to her. She'll think I'm a creep.
He changed the channel to something else so he could stop thinking about how it would be to socialize and settled in with a single player console game. I'm probably not even her type. I'm no one's type. Who would be into scales? Why am I even thinking about this when I already know how it would end up?
Still, he found himself imagining hanging out with her. Going for a walk, getting snacks in the convenience store, seeing a movie, visiting an arcade to play games together. All things he had never actually done with someone before, but he wanted to know what it would be like. Movies, television, games, anime; any time they portrayed any of those scenarios, it looked so nice.
If he could change his appearance, it would make a world of difference. He was sure of it. He had even dreamed about it before. Waking up with what he thought was a "normal" body and being able to ask a girl out. Not that his dream could actually give him a feel for what it would really be like. Iguchi would almost prefer to be quirk-less if it meant being able to interact with people, but he knew he had to just live with himself the way he was.
A knock at his door shook him out of his daydream and he frowned. Pushing himself to stand, he tugged his hood up and expected to find his landlord or a neighbor on the other side of his door. Instead, Iguchi's eyes were met with Kemuri awkwardly standing outside with a bag of takeout.
He had only ever seen her in her work uniform; a button-up white shirt with the restaurant's logo and black pants. So seeing her in something casual threw him off. She was wearing a light purple sweater that hung off one shoulder and a pair of black shorts. When Kemuri saw his eyes widen, she tilted her head a little and raised a dark red eyebrow.
"Hm? Um…Iguchi-san? Something wrong?"
Shaking his head, he tried to recover his composure and accidentally sent his hood slipping back. "N-nothing. Just…you're dressed different."
"Oh." She glanced down at her clothes and frowned, fidgeting with the handle of the bag. "Well my shift was ending and…the manager called for someone to deliver to you so I just thought…" The girl pushed her bangs away from her eyes and looked away. "I…messed up, didn't I?"
"No! No way! You look cute! I mean-!" He put a clawed hand over his face to try to hide his blush, his heart beating erratically as he looked down at her between his fingers. "I'm not used to seeing you like this," Iguchi continued, hoping that he had not offended her somehow. Praying in his head that she would not see him as a creep for blurting exactly what was on his mind.
To his surprise, Kemuri's face took on its own reddish tinge and she smiled. It looked menacing when paired with her naturally narrowed eyes, but he could tell that her smile was genuine. "Th-thank you. Ah! Right. Your order. You're probably hungry. Here you go." She stepped closer to him and held out the bag.
He reached out to take it and his fingers brushed against hers. They were soft, warm. Like the smile that she was still giving him. Warmer and sweeter than any way that anyone had ever looked at him before. This is exactly what he needed to push himself to ask the question, even though it made his stomach twist in knots at the thought of rejection. "If your shift's over, do you wanna eat with me?"
He knew how it sounded. He had lived through a similar scenario in high school when he asked a girl if she wanted to eat with him at lunch. She had shot him down, brutally, in front of their whole class. So Iguchi subconsciously held his breath as he grasped at the shred of hope she might be different.
Kemuri's smile turned sheepish and she reached up to nervously tap a fingernail against one of her horns. "I…guess you heard my stomach growling? That's embarrassing."
She was hungry?! His hopes started to grow and he grinned. "You just got off work so you were probably gonna have dinner, right? I always order a lot so I have leftovers for later," he assured her. He could see her tail swishing anxiously behind her as she considered his offer. The second that she nodded, he felt his heart leap into his throat. "Okay! Just give me a minute."
Iguchi never had company. Ever. So it took him longer than expected to clean up his apartment. Honestly, it was astounding how messy one room could get with just one person living in it. He tried to keep his hopes up as he stuffed a trash bag full of snack wrappers, but there was a seed of doubt in his mind that started to grow.
What if I open the door and she's gone? What if she left? What if she was just being polite? I probably freaked her out by asking her to eat with me. Anyone would be freaked out if a stranger asked them to do that, but look at me! I know how this looks! I know what her coworkers think about me!
His shoulders drooped as he opened his door a crack, now expecting that she would be gone. Instead, he found her nervously chewing on the end of her tail and blushing pink. "K-Kemuri?"
When she noticed him looking at her, she dropped her tail and held up her hands in front of her as her face went from pink to red. "I'm sorry! That was…gross. I'm really sorry! I do that when I'm nervous and I just…well…I've never been in a guy's apartment so, um…"
His own green-scaled cheeks started to flush red as it sank in. For one, she was really cute when she was nervous and just seeing her get flustered over him was making his heart race. For two, she had called him "a guy" so it confirmed that she saw him as a guy instead of some kind of freak. For three, Iguchi just started to realize that he had invited a girl into his apartment, which was way more forward than he had intended the offer to sound.
"It's fine! Really! Nothing to be nervous about!" Quickly realizing how suspicious that sounded, he shook his head. "That didn't come out right! I didn't mean-!"
"No, no! I understand! I'm sorry!" Kemuri bowed again and again, visibly shaking from her nervousness now.
I creeped her out and I called her "Kemuri" instead of "Kemuri-san"! That's too forward! I messed this up! Iguchi was about to apologize, but stopped when she took slow steps toward him with her head bowed. "Huh?"
"Um...thank you for inviting me. I forgot to say that before." She lifted her head a little, her lips curled into a smile.
She still wants to come in?! Not that he was going to turn her away now. This was one of those things he had never done before, but he was curious about. Eating dinner with someone in his apartment. Having a girl over. A visitor. Someone was actually grateful for the invitation to eat with him and she was more nervous about offending him than about him offending her.
He pushed his door open more to let her in and Kemuri muttered another "thank you". Since it was such a small apartment, he had almost nothing in the way of furniture. His futon in the corner, a mini fridge, a television on a stand, a game system hooked up to the television, and one seat. He had haphazardly stacked his games and manga next to the stand.
"You can have the seat, if you want," he started, moving over to his mini fridge. "I've only got water. Is that okay?"
"Ah. Yeah, that's fine," she assured him. Kemuri sat next to the seat instead of on it, curling her tail around to rest across her lap. She started to fidget with it in her nervousness; tapping her nails against the dark surface and slouching when she saw him notice.
Iguchi brought two bottles of water over and sat on the seat. As he started to open the boxes of takeout, his eyes shifted toward her tail again and they widened. He had thought she had hide on her tail before; like it was thick skin. Now that he was closer, Iguchi could see that her tail was actually covered in small obsidian scales that had a blue-green sheen under the fluorescent light.
Without thinking, he blurted out, "You've got scales?"
The girl's soft gaze lifted and she nodded once. "Yeah. Um…heh. They're a pain…right?" she spoke, trying to sound casual.
"Yeah! I hate getting stuff stuck between them!" he quickly agreed. That seemed to put her more at ease and she leaned over to watch him portion out their food onto some plastic plates. When he got to the dumplings, he frowned. There's an odd number. How am I gonna split these?
Kemuri gently reached over to take the disposable chopsticks from him and expertly used them to split one of the dumplings. When he looked over at her curiously, she glanced away and tucked a stray lock of dark red hair behind her ear. "I…got a little excited when I was packing the food," she confessed.
It had not occurred to him before that she might have been the one to pack his dinner. Of course, now he remembered she was usually working in the kitchen so it was entirely possible that she cooked his meals herself. Somehow, that gave him a little burst of happiness. It painted a cute picture in his head.
They ate in silence, watching the news. Enjoying each other's company without words. Iguchi had always seen this kind of thing on tv or in games, but he had never eaten with a girl before. Even if he was in an almost constant state of blushing, he decided he really liked this. He could feel the warmth in every smile she sent his way, every giggle when she heard a joke from a news anchor.
Sitting together like this, they were not a reptilian-looking young man and a sinister-looking young woman. They were just two friends sharing a meal. When they finished eating, she gathered up their trash without a word and hoisted the bag over her shoulder to take out to the bin. He started to feel loneliness creeping in again when she said she had to go, but it quickly disappeared.
She fidgeted with a lock of her hair as she stood near his door, a sheepish smile creeping onto her face. "I have tomorrow off. Would it be okay…if I came back tomorrow?"