Chapter 8: Ready, Set, Go!

A KuroFai Story

"We're here, now get out." Kurogane grunted, killing the car and the music along with it. I pouted, that song had been one of my favorites, but I unbuckled and climbed out of the car. He had parked in front of a nice looking apartment complex. I made my way over to the trunk, where the boxes were. We had gone to the back of a strip mall and collected some cardboard boxes from the cardboard only bin.

I watched as Kurogane got out of the car. I was surprised that he owned a car like this and not a truck. A truck would have suited his tall stature much better.

"Hurry up, Kuro-rin, I don't have all day!" I called over to him, giving him one of Fai's smiles. He glared at me, irritated, but walked over to me none-the-less. He unlocked the trunk and grabbed the small stack of boxes. He had only grabbed about four or five from the dumpster, and told me not to bother grabbing anymore.

He walked away from the car, and I followed after him, which I seemed to be doing a lot of today…. We walked up a staircase, before we reached a red door, with the numbers 813(1) on it. He pulled out his keys again and unlocked the door. He opened the door and stepped in. I hung back at the door taking in the scenery of Kuroganes living room. There wasn't much in there, besides a leather couch and an entertainment center, but it had a homey feeling to it.

"Hey Sorata, I'm back!" Kurogane called out, setting the boxes beside the couch, and took off his jacket. I stepped into the living room, still glancing around. I heard footsteps coming from the hallway and soon a man stood in the doorway.

"Hey, Kurogane thanks for bringing the boxes, I- Who's this?" The man asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. I grinned at him, and was about to introduce myself, as Fai of course, when Kurogane interrupted.

"He's the hired help," He grunted, throwing his jacket onto the couch.

I tilted my head. "I'm getting paid for this?" I asked. I hadn't been aware of that fact, and this would be the first time I would ever get paid for honest labor. I had never counted prostitution as honest, seeing as most of my clients are married … and also since it's illegal…

"No." He replied bluntly, about to walk off into the hallway.

"Then I'm not the hired help now am I?" I pointed out with a slight chuckle. Kurogane apparently was more brawn than he was brains hmm? I turned back to the man, who must be this Sorata. "Hello, I'm Fai, nice to meet you! And while I'm not the 'hired' help, I am the help!" I explained, with a bright smile. I liked the look of him, he looked like someone that Fai would become fast friends with.

"Alright then, it's always nice to have an extra helping hand." He grinned back at me. "I'm Sorata nice to meet you!"

I looked back at Kurogane, who was ignoring the both of us by looking at his phone. "Hey Kuro-chu, where's the bathroom?" I asked, leaning around Sorata to look at him all the way. I didn't have to go, and neither did I have to throw up, but it was always a good thing for me to know where the bathroom is, just incase I need it. I suddenly realized that the cereal from this morning hadn't come back up… Whoot!

"Straight down the hallway." He grunted, not even looking at me, but up at Sorata.

I moved past him and went straight to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. It was small, but a good enough size for two people living in the same house. I turned on the water, to drown out the noises that I was supposed to be making.

I sat on the toilet, and waited a few seconds before I flushed the toilet, and ran my hands through the running water. Wiping them off on my jeans, as I didn't know where the towels were, I walked back out of the room.

Sorata and Kurogane were where I had left them. "Well are you guys ready?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips, feeling slightly like an impatient mother.

Kurogane nodded, and stood up. "Might as well get this over with," He mumbled, and opened the door to what must be Soratas' room. There were a ton of boxes stacked in there. I blinked, this might take us a while....

I walked into the room and over to one of the lower stacks. "So, where exactly are we putting all this stuff?" I asked, trying to see if the box on top was heavy. I wasn't sure if it would be a good thing for me to carry anything that was heavy. While my limp was almost gone, it still hurt sometimes to walk. I really shouldn't have offered to do this....

It was Sorata who answered my question. Picking up a box, he handed it over to me, and said. "We're taking it to my truck. It should all fit back there...." He must have a really big truck then.... "It shouldn't take us too long, now that there are three of us." Kurogane picked up a rather large box, and walked out of the room with surprising speed. That box had looked like it had weighed a ton....

I followed after Kurogane with my box, it was small and hardly weighed anything for which I was glad. I maneuvered down the stairs with ease, all the while admiring Kurogane, who was balancing the box on one hip now, trying to pull down the tail of the truck. He was fumbling with the keys though; it didn't seem like he could quite get the right key that unlocked it.

I came to a stop beside him. "Need help?" I asked, with a light smile.

"Hold the box while I unlock this." He told me.

My eyes drifted down towards the box. "S-sure...." I said, hurriedly placing my much smaller box into the bed of the truck. I grabbed the underside of the box and braced myself as he let go of it. My eyes widened, I hadn't expected the stupid box to be thatflipping heavy. What the hell was in here anyway?! my mind screamed, and the question of 'How the hell did Kurogane manage to carry this? And with one arm too' appeared. (….Okay, sure, the box wasn't that heavy but it had caught me off guard.)

Kurogane finally opened the tail gate, and glanced over at me. I was struggling, trying to keep the box from slipping out of my grasp, and that wasn't working out so well.

I heard him growl, before he grabbed the other end of the box. I blinked up at him surprised, before I grinned at him. "Thanks Kuro-burro!"

"You could have just told me that you were struggling with it." He grunted, taking the box from me and placing it on the bed of the trunk next to my box. I vaguely took notice of how the sizes of the boxes were very different. Kurogane climbed into the bed of the truck and dragged the boxes over to the back.

"But you were busy." I pointed out, leaning against the side of the truck. "And I just had a bad grip on it. We all can't be as strong as you, Kuro-manly!" I really have no idea where some of these nicknames are coming from. Sure Fai used nicknames on just about ever body. But he used honorifics more than anything, like for Ashura, Fai tended to call him: Asha-sama.

So where is Kuro-manly and Kuro-chu coming from then? I really have no idea…. But I have to admit, his reactions to some of them are fun!

"Damn it, stop with all those annoying nicknames already!" he growled, jumping off the side of the car, and landing in front of me. "You offered to help, and that's the only reason that you're here."

I blinked, noticing for the first time how much taller than me he was. He was glaring at me, his garnet eyes hard. But I just smiled at him, still not affected by the harshness of the glare. It was a good thing that he found me annoying. After all, if I got him to hate me, he would leave me alone, and I wouldn't have to worry about him getting to close.

He growled at me again, turned around and walked back up the stairs. I had made my decision. I would annoy him so much that he would try to avoid me, and if I get it just right he might even avoid Fai as well. With this plan there was less of a chance of him finding out about my little secret.

But my plan all relied on what would happen today, so I couldn't afford to mess it up.

Operation: Annoyance is now in effect.

(1)Sorry I just had to, its reference from Kingdom Hearts. It's Axel and Roxas's numbers from the organization. I used to be a BIG akuroku fan, but I have now switched to kurofai! Though I still read akuroku sometimes… okay there's only like 1 story that I still read of it.

…..Ugh…. do I really need to say that I didn't like this chapter? I murdered it… but its slightly important for the rest of the story, so I couldn't not but it in. I'm mad at Fan Fiction at the moment because it wouldn't let me on for the past couple of days. –sigh- oh well….

Hope you liked it! Please comment and tell me if you liked the chapter. If enough of you don't I'll redo it or something. Hehe Kuro-manly!