Chapter 11: Caring

Monday afternoon, Nowaki was heading home from the kindergarten when he spotted someone he knew in the subway station. It was a boy from the Kusama orphanage, fourteen years old if Nowaki remembered correctly. He was staring intently at the route map, and he had a backpack in addition to the denim messenger back many of the orphanage children took to school.

Nowaki recognized the look on his face. This boy was almost twice how old Nowaki was when he tried to run away from Kusama Orphanage, but it was still the same type of determination. The sadness that no one wants to adopt you as you get older, combined with the frustration of being one of the older children and therefore expected to be responsible and self-sacrificing.

"Eiji-kun," Nowaki said, remembering the boy's name. The boy turned around, looking surprised. "Are you visiting a friend?"

Eiji ducked his head and moved out of the ticket line. Nowaki sat down on a bench and patted the space beside him. "Mother said you ran away once too, so you know why I'd want to!" Eiji was suddenly on the defensive, but Nowaki didn't even flinch. He'd had to put up with worse temper tantrums just that day.

He did, however, sigh and put a hand on top of Eiji's head. "I do, Eiji-kun," he said. He sounded tired, but he still had a smile on his face. "When you live with so many other children, you want attention sometimes. To be spoiled, right?"

Eiji frowned and nodded, his shaggy, brown hair falling in his eyes.

Nowaki sighed again. "Running away isn't the answer, though. Did Mother ever tell you the story?" Eiji shook his head. "I made it to a playground before my bike tires went flat. And then I met an older boy on the swing set. He gave me a piece of candy and said I should face obstacles with all I have, even though I was just a kid." Nowaki gazed forward, enjoying the memory. "And then a patrol officer showed up and he ratted me out."

"That boy sounds like a brat," Eiji said.

"It was for the best in the end, though," Nowaki pointed out. Then he had a thought. "Would you like to stay with me tonight? I'm sure Mother won't mind." Hiroki might, Nowaki had as a side thought, but he was the one who kept pointing out the apartment would be his too in a couple weeks. Surely he couldn't protest Nowaki helping out one of the children at the orphanage.

Nowaki called the orphanage and let Mother know, and with her permission, Eiji got to stay with Nowaki for one night. As they headed down the street, Eiji looked around, confused. "Wacchan, I thought you lived the other way," he said, remembering a time when he'd gone to the flower shop and Nowaki had told him where he lived.

Nowaki smiled. "I moved recently. Or rather, I will be moving and most of my things are there already, so I live there for all intents and purposes."

"Why are you moving?"

"My apartment contract runs out soon so…" Nowaki trailed off as they reached the apartment complex. "Ah, here we are."

Eiji frowned as they walked in and reached the elevator. "Are you sure it's okay? I don't want you sleeping on the couch or anything."

"Well there are two rooms but…" The ding of the elevator reaching their floor interrupted Nowaki again. "It will be fine, Eiji-kun."

Eiji didn't look like he believed Nowaki, but he kept his mouth closed as they walked down the hall and to the apartment. One of the neighbors waved to Nowaki. "Kamijou-san isn't home, is he?" she asked as she locked the door behind her.

"I believe Hiro-san is still at the university, yes," Nowaki answered. "Did you need to speak with him?"

The woman went rigid at that, as if just the idea of talking with Nowaki's roommate sent shivers down her spine. "Oh no!" she said, her voice about half an octave higher. She shoved her keys in her purse and put it over her shoulder. "Have a good day, Kusama-san!"

Eiji had a feeling that he should ask about "Hiro-san" before the man got home and he had to experience it himself, but on the other hand, if Nowaki was willing to live with someone, they certainly couldn't be all bad. The woman was probably just exaggerating.

xxx

Hiroki hadn't thought to check his phone before he left the university at almost six o'clock in the evening. If he had, he would've seen the missed call from Nowaki, and then the text from Nowaki that would have warned him about the fourteen-year-old boy he saw sitting in his kitchen when he got in. As it was, Hiroki didn't see Eiji at first, instead focusing on his shoes. Nowaki approached with a smile and a quick kiss, just long enough to touch but short enough so that Hiroki didn't have time to smack him away.

Then Hiroki saw Eiji, and after blinking a few times to make sure his eyes weren't lying to him, he said, "What cabbage patch did you get that thing from?"

"Hiro-san," Nowaki admonished. "And I told you Eiji-kun would be spending the night. Didn't you check your phone?"

"…no," Hiroki muttered. "Professor Miyagi kept trying to get me to stay there with him because the dean's brat was lurking around. As if I care." Nowaki was still standing there in front of him, so he pushed him out of the way and dropped his bag on the coffee table. Then he turned to Eiji, who'd just been sitting there at the dining room table with his homework out in front of him. "What compelled you to let him stay with us?"

"He's from the orphanage," Nowaki said, watching as Hiroki walked down the hall. "He just… needs some time away is all. I'm sure you understand, Hiro-san."

"I was an only child and any stress I had I brought on myself," Hiroki said. When Nowaki just kept looking at him, he rolled his eyes and added, "Whatever. Just keep him out of the way, would you?"

Hiroki was about to head for his bedroom, but Nowaki stopped him. "Ah, Hiro-san, I thought we'd all go to Pandasan tonight, actually."

There was a long silence in which Hiroki just stared at Nowaki. Pandasan was the restaurant they had gone to on their first 'date' and, of course, the one Hiroki had gotten so drunk at that he had forgotten the rest of that particular night. They had gone back since, though, and the service was rather good. It may, of course, been the fact that the waitresses were too busy hovering around the table to not notice when one of them needed a drink refill or when they were ready for their check.

That still didn't mean that he wanted to go out to a restaurant with the man who was essentially his live-in boyfriend and a kid he didn't even know. If Akihiko found out about that debacle he'd never hear the end of it, and that constant reminder would probably be in the form of a Junai novel if what Misaki had said the other day was correct.

Nowaki seemed to notice the conflicted look on Hiroki's face, because before saying anything else, he leaned down and caught Hiroki's lips in a kiss. Hiroki tried to pull away, but he paused when Nowaki took both of his hands, lacing their fingers together.

"I don't do well with new people," Hiroki muttered as Nowaki pressed their foreheads together. Neither of them seemed to even be aware that Eiji was still there at the dining room table, watching them.

"It's just one night, Hiro-san," Nowaki said. "It's not as if we're adopting him."

Hiroki's eyes narrowed, and he pulled out of Nowaki's grasp. "As if there's a 'we'," he muttered, but he was still blushing bright red. He went into his bedroom, not even caring that Nowaki followed him in. "So if the kid's spending the night, what exactly did you have in mind for sleeping arrangements?"

"I thought Eiji-kun would take my bed and I'd just sleep on the couch," Nowaki said, sitting down on Hiroki's bed. He pulled his legs up and folded them Indian style, watching Hiroki as he changed. If the older man was aware of the eyes staring intently at him, he didn't let on.

Of course, Nowaki had no idea what Hiroki's reaction would be to him sleeping on the couch; he'd only done it once, that time Hiroki got drunk and Nowaki ended up staying the night to make sure he didn't hurt himself. Since Hiroki had agreed to let Nowaki take the extra room, he'd moved his futon over and had mostly been using his old apartment as a way to store his things while he was moving them.

Once the bed came the previous day, though, Hiroki had made Nowaki toss out the old futon. Hiroki also didn't have any extra beds.

Hiroki finally pulled on a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt, and Nowaki couldn't help but think that when he wasn't dressed for work, Hiroki looked younger than his twenty-eight years. His musings were cut off, though, when Hiroki said, "Would you really be comfortable sleeping on the couch?"

"…well I suppose Eiji-kun wouldn't mind sharing, but my bed is just a twin so there isn't really room for both of us…" Nowaki avoided looking at Hiroki mostly so the man wouldn't notice the hopeful glint in his eye.

"Ha, you probably couldn't fit on the couch, anyway," Hiroki said with a huff. He actually sat down beside Nowaki, ignoring the fact that Nowaki leaned over and placed his head on Hiroki's shoulder. "How tall are you, anyway?"

"About one-hundred-ninety centimeters I guess," Nowaki told Hiroki's shoulder. "Mother and Father always told me to stop growing when I was younger because they felt guilty about putting me in clothes that were too small for me. Although I suppose that they could also give the ones I outgrew to the other children."

"Why the hell are you so tall?" Hiroki asked, looking alarmed. He leaned away from Nowaki, and Nowaki frowned. Seeing an actual look of distress on Nowaki's face seemed to cool Hiroki's temper, because he leaned back into Nowaki and said, "I guess this thing is big enough for both of us."

"Really, Hiro-san?" Nowaki asked, sounding cautiously delighted.

"But just for tonight!" Hiroki said, sounding indignant.

"I know, Hiro-san," Nowaki said with a smile.

"And that doesn't give you permission to be all… touchy," Hiroki said, turning his head to hide his embarrassment. He was blushing an interesting shade of red by then. He also knew that Nowaki was completely aware that when Hiroki said 'touchy' he actually meant sex.

Nowaki wasn't willing to push that point, so he said, "I'd never intentionally make you uncomfortable, Hiro-san."

"Says the man who delivered a bouquet of sunflowers to my workplace himself," Hiroki muttered. "You barely knew me. Why the hell did you go to such lengths?"

Nowaki smiled, and without even really thinking, he started running his fingers through Hiroki's shaggy, brown hair. "There was just something about you, right from when we met in the flower shop," Nowaki murmured. "You seemed kind of… lonely, I suppose. And then your mother told me so much about you when I delivered her flowers and I thought, 'I don't think anyone should have to feel like that.'"

"What the hell did my mother tell you?" Hiroki asked. He sounded indignant, and he pushed Nowaki away.

Nowaki averted his eyes. "I don't think she really knows what's going on, Hiro-san. But she did say you've always been rather grouchy and that she used to hear you ranting in your room about someone you had a crush on in high school."

Hiroki's face went completely red. He was hoping that his mother didn't know the full truth, because if she did, then she'd know that he'd been in love with Akihiko almost since they met. When he was younger, he'd rant and rave in his room when something happened involving Akihiko, either when he tried to show his feelings and it didn't work or later when Takahashi Takahiro entered their life and any chance of Akihiko understanding the full extent of his feelings reached zero.

He only ever did that when he thought his parents weren't home, though. So much for secrecy.

That line of thought, however, made him realize something. "…I still haven't told my mother about you," he said. To his credit, he did sound a bit ashamed that he had put it off.

Nowaki just smiled. "I don't mind, Hiro-san. You can when you're ready." He patted Hiroki on the head and stood. "Anyway, Eiji-kun won't admit but he's hungry so if you're ready…"

"Yeah, yeah," Hiroki said, sounding put out as he followed Nowaki out into the kitchen. They weren't holding hands or anything, but Eiji still looked at them with interest. Hiroki wandered off to the genkan to put on his shoes.

"Wacchan?" Eiji asked as he put his things away.

"Yes?"

"…if you're both guys, how do you have sex?"

Hiroki sounded like he was being strangled over there in the genkan. "We don't."