Somewhere on Autumn Woods Drive
By Rikku Minouke (Me)
Disclaimer: I own the cup of coffee in my hand, not YYH
Chapter six
From the moment I found out, I felt like everything I did from that moment on was for you. I stopped thinking about myself and tried to focus on you and what could I do to make you the happiest person. In the end I'm sure I made a few mistakes, but I will never stop trying to make them up to you.
Bending to roll up the black mats at Grounds, I took in a huge breath to fill up my lungs. After yesterday, I felt very drained. Who am I kidding; I've felt out of it for the last week. Standing back up, I grabbed the black plastic and carried it to the back room. George was sitting on the office chair looking at his phone. Throwing the mat into the mop corner, I placed one hand on my hip and looked at him without saying a word.
A minute passed before he looked up at me. "You look really tired Botan."
"Thanks George," I said lowly. "Would you be willing to help me out for a minute?"
Setting his phone down on the desk he stood. "Oh yeah, I can do that." We both walked out to the lobby to see a tall dark man standing at the register.
"If you would finish rolling the mats up, I'll get this." He nodded at my words before I approached the man. "Good evening sir, what can I get for you?" As he ordered, I started to feel car sick. I took several breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth. "Your large green ice tea is 2.50." Swallowing the awkward lump in my throat, I could feel the car sick feeling get worse. Out of the corner of my eye, George returned from throwing the mats in back. "Can you make this George?" He quickly got on the task as I handed the man his change. "Alright sir, that will be up right away."
I rolled my shoulders with my eyes closed, inhaling deeply through my nose. The bell rang on the door and I looked over to see Kurama smile at me as he walked over. "How are you doing today?" His voice actually made feel a lot of mixed emotions. For one, it made my anxiety spike slightly because I knew I had to talk to him about his apartment. Second, I was very relieved to see him and I wasn't sure why my heart felt lighter.
"I'm getting by," I shrugged and looked up at him from across the register. He had a small graceful smile on his face. I was happy to see that he'd left his hair down today so it framed his structured features.
"That doesn't sound very good," his eyes were lined with concern as he probably took in the stress lines in my brow. "I missed you yesterday. George was very nice but I have this doubt that he wouldn't look as nice wearing your usual black sweater."
I gave a short snort. "I don't wear this every day."
"No, just 3 out of 4 days," he laughed as I actually thought about his statement. George walked out of the back at that moment with several sleeves of cups of various sizes.
"George," I turned to him with a blush slowly creeping up on my face. "Do I wear this sweater every day?"
He stopped walking and fumbled slightly with the cups without dropping one. "Ummm…. I just assumed you had several of the same sweater."
Kurama chuckled and I turned to level him then with narrowed eyes. "Fine, I'll just change things up from now on."
"Oh no, no, don't do that," Kurama shook his head, the green mirth in his eyes twinkled. "I love your sweater." I huffed and looked down at the register. Punching his order in on the touch screen, I didn't even have to ask what he wanted anymore. "Were you sick yesterday? George said you called in."
"Yeah," I nodded and had to force myself to breathe and push yesterday from my mind. "It was a really bad experience. However I did want to talk to you about your roommate situation."
"Oh, excellent," Kurama perked up while digging out his wallet. "Talk away."
"Let me make your drink and we can sit down and talk about it," I told him as I took his card and swiped it.
"Oh this must be a serious conversation," Kurama smirked and put his card away.
"Go sit," I laughed lightly and shooed him away. Turning around, George was already on Kurama's beverage. Luckily the nausea feeling had gone down slightly. Just in case, however, I made myself a small iced ginger tea. "George, are you ok if I take a fiver?"
Shaking his head and shrugging at the same time, he said, "Nope, go for it. I'll just sweep and mop behind the counters. I might even start doing the bakery stuff for tomorrow then."
"Sounds good," I nodded and grabbed my drink before heading over to Kurama. "Oh good, you picked the comfy chairs." I seated myself on the black leather love seat next to Kurama. It was odd; we'd never done anything like this before. It was usually me behind the counter type of interaction.
"Do you have good news?" Kurama sipped his peppermint mocha and looked at me over the beige plastic top of his cup. His right elbow was resting on the arm of the love seat.
"Yes," I nodded and sipped slowly on the straw. Normally, ginger wasn't my favorite flavor but I did know that it was great to have when feeling yucky. He looked over at me expectantly. Taking a calming breath through my nose, I met his gaze with a look as serious as I could muster when I felt the way I did. "I can move in this weekend."
He was quiet for a few moments, searching my expression. I'm sure he thought I was joking at first, but I kept my gaze stern, serious, unwavering. "When you asked the other day, you were referring to yourself?" I nodded. "And you want to move in with me?" I nodded again. "A man you barely know?"
I couldn't help the quirk of my lips. "Well I hope you're a man, but yes I do barely know you." It took a lot of self-control to move my lips back to a serious position and retract the humor from my pink eyes.
That little comment seemed to lighten the mood a little. "I am a man, just take my word for it."
"I will try my best. The long hair is slightly deceiving though," I joked and he shook his head with a little smile playing at the corners of his lips.
"You are distracting me," Kurama told me but I could hear the laughter in his voice. "Back to the point. This is actually not something I had thought about. And after talking to you the other day, I was almost ready for anything. Apparently not, however. I thought about the chances of your friend being a drug addict, a stripper, a jock, a man whore. I really tried to explore the options and see if I could handle anyone you brought to me. But you are another story."
"Why?" I asked tilting my head. "Am I really worse than the things you listed? Given the nicest thing you threw out there was jock and I've never played a sport in my life."
"I'm not saying you're worse," he shook his head and set his coffee down on the low table in front of us. "You aren't. You are just different. Have you thought about the two of us living together?"
"Yes I have. I spent the majority of last night actually thinking it over," I told him. "I know the people you hang out with and even though I haven't always followed my judgment; I am generally very good at reading people."
"Yeah and what do you see in me?" Kurama leveled his face and erased the emotions so that I couldn't read him as clearly. That was a bit unnerving actually.
"Are you serious right now?" I asked raising an eyebrow and his lack of response made it very clear. "Well, I know you are very intelligent which leads me to believe you aren't the type to do drugs-"
"Assumption."
"-And given you listed drug addict as someone you had to way out pros and cons for, I'm pretty set on the 'no drugs' thing." Hitched his chin up slightly at that so I knew I had won that one. "From seeing you every day, I get the impression that you are clean. You wear nicer clothes even though you work over nights. I have never seen your hair greasy and those pants look ironed. If you are willing to iron your pants for overnight, then I'm ready to assume that your apartment is well kept."
"What else?" Kurama asked.
"Honestly," I let my face hint at a playful smile. "All I really needed to know before completely being set in my decision was one thing." I paused for the effect. "If you ever do anything to me, Yusuke will kill you."
That cracked his guard and he gave a quick glimpse of a smile. "Fair enough."
"Do we have a deal?" I asked tilting my head slightly and raised my cup so I could innocently suck on the straw.
He was silent for a moment. Raising his hand to his face, I watched him drag it over his features. Time ticked on as I waited with what little patience I could come up with as I he made up his mind. Shaking his head in what appeared to be defeat, I bit my lip nervously.
"Don't do that," Kurama said and I let it pop free, shocked at his comment. I hadn't realized he'd been watching me out of the corner of his eye. I mumbled some incoherent apology under my breath. He turned to look fully at me then. "Alright." I could see the uncertainty in his eyes but he agreed and right now that's what truly mattered.
A bright smile spread across my face and I hastily set down my clear plastic cup so I could quickly launch myself the foot that separated us. Hugging Kurama, I had my arms around his neck and his hair tickled my nose but I refused to let go yet. "Thank you, Kurama, thank you so much." He awkwardly slid his arms around my waist to lightly hug me back. With gentle hands, he held me for a second before I slowly pushed off at him. My eyes I'm sure were gleaming with tears of joy.
"Botan?" He sat up a little straighter.
"I'm fine," I shook my head slightly. "I should actually get back to work. But really, thank you Kurama. Oh thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."
"This weekend?" Kurama asked and picked up his drink from the table. I nodded and did the same. "I work Saturday morning until six so when I get off work I might forgo sleep to start preparing for your move. Do you have someone to help you move?"
"I'll call Yusuke tomorrow," I smiled at him before standing up with the ginger tea. "Hey now you can get a ton of free coffee."
He chuckled. "Just what I need. Then I won't have to come here every day to get coffee."
"I didn't say that," I said and stepped around the table. "Oh, before you go let me get you my number." Making my way over to the register, I held the feed button on the receipt machine. I snatched a large furry purple pen from the shopaholic cup by the tip jar. Scribbiling away my number, the feathers jerked back and forth like a metal ball in a pinball machine. "Here you go. Text me sometime with any questions or what not. We'll have to arrange something for me to get keys."
"I'll talk to my landlord tomorrow when I wake up," he nodded and slipped the paper into his pocket.
"Alright," I chirped and awkwardly shifted to my other foot.
"Alright," he nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow for coffee. Good night Botan."
"Good night Kurama," I smiled as he turned and left.