Making Things Right

Nowaki was back to the apartment before Hiroki was. In fact, he had what he estimated to be a couple hours before he'd be seeing Hiroki again, so he had time to contemplate just what he was going to say. He knew that Hiroki would probably freak out on him as soon as he got home. If he was lucky, he'd get things thrown at him and he'd be able to duck and move out of the way. If Hiroki decided he needed to hit Nowaki directly, he wasn't sure he'd get out of the way.

Hiroki had been clearly hurt when Nowaki just disappeared for a few days. Nowaki had left thinking it was the best thing, that because Hiroki didn't show up again Thursday night, he needed some time alone. It was clear that he didn't know Hiroki as well as he thought he did, though. He was glad he was able to make the progress when he went to the university, but he was also afraid that once Hiroki had the time to cool down his feelings and really think about the situation, he'd decide that he didn't actually want Nowaki in his life anymore. Who wanted a man who would just up and abandon you without telling you, after all?

The flowers did give him hope, though. For a while, Nowaki just sat on one of the couches, holding the bouquet of pink roses in his arms and looked down at them, like they were the solid evidence of Hiroki's feelings. They were, in a way, because Nowaki may not have known Hiroki as well as he thought he did, but he knew that he had a hard time expressing his feelings in words. Gestures like this were probably much easier for him.

Eventually, Nowaki stood up and started searching the cabinets for a vase he could put them in. He wanted to be able to keep these flowers for as long as possible, and he'd need to put them in water if they stood a chance of surviving. Just as he was putting them down on the piano, which he'd never seen Hiroki use in the time they'd, for all intents and purposes, lived together, he heard the front door open.

"I'm home," Hiroki muttered, sounding almost afraid that there wouldn't be anyone there to answer his greeting.

A grin broke over Nowaki's face, and he immediately went over to the genkan and watched as Hiroki slipped off his dress shoes. The man looked kind of haggard, and Nowaki wished he had thought to start dinner so Hiroki wouldn't have to wait too long for it once he got home. It was almost five o'clock. Though, to tell the truth, Nowaki had no idea what Hiroki still had in his cupboards. "Welcome back, Hiro-san."

There was a long moment of silence between them, in which their eyes locked and Hiroki's expression was unreadable, or perhaps had so much behind it that Nowaki really couldn't tell which one was going to win. Nowaki was ready to step away and leave Hiroki some time to decide what he was going to do. Then Hiroki grabbed his arm and pulled him forward into a kiss.

Nowaki's eyes went wide, and eventually he ended up sitting down, with Hiroki sitting on his lap as they kept kissing. Finally Hiroki pulled away, and he looked off to the side, looking huffy. "You actually came back."

"Of course, Hiro-san," Nowaki said with a smile, raising his hand up and running it through Hiroki's hair. "You told me to wait for you here, so I did…" He brought his head down again, capturing Hiroki's lips in a kiss, but it only lasted a few seconds before Hiroki pushed him away.

"What the hell are we doing, sitting here in the genkan?" Hiroki muttered, but he didn't move from Nowaki's lap. He was a little stiff, though, as if he didn't want to get too comfortable there. "Doesn't your contract run out soon? We need to get the rest of your things here before you don't legally have that apartment anymore…"

"Hiro-san…" Nowaki was feeling a little uncomfortable, but it wasn't because of what he'd said. It was because Hiroki was practically pressed against him, and he'd come to discover that when Hiroki was this close, he couldn't help but get a little… excited. He'd never really been with anyone before, so he wasn't sure if that's how it was supposed to work, but it's how it did when it came to his Hiro-san. He found himself stroking Hiroki's cheeks, not even thinking about it. He'd seen the man crying earlier, and as beautiful as he looked with those tears in his eyes, Nowaki just wanted to see a smile on his face.

"I love you, Hiro-san," he said, pulling Hiroki even closer and locking their lips in another kiss. Hiroki made a grunt of disapproval but didn't pull way, and Nowaki lowered his hands until they were wrapped around Hiroki's waist. "I'm sorry I left without telling you, Hiro-san. But I thought you wouldn't want to see me for a while…"

"Stupid, why wouldn't I want to?" Hiroki asked, but then he realized what he had just said and his face went red. He looked off to the side again, and Nowaki just nuzzled his face into Hiroki's neck, sighing contentedly. "I don't get you at all."

"I did miss you, Hiro-san," was Nowaki's answer.

Hiroki had a sour look on his face, but he still wasn't pulling away. In fact, he looked like he might let Nowaki do more, but just as he turned to face him again, his phone went off. The two stopped and stared at the thing where it lay on the floor, having fallen out of Hiroki's bag at some point between taking off his shoes and Nowaki pulling him to the floor.

Neither man looked particularly like they wanted to see who was calling, but Hiroki sighed and rolled off Nowaki's lap until he was sitting beside him, and he picked up the phone. The caller ID made him sigh. "It's my mother."

Nowaki was almost tempted to say something to the effect of 'Tell her I said hello!' but he knew that if he spoke up while Hiroki was on the phone, he'd never hear the end of it once that conversation was over. He just contented himself with running his fingers through Hiroki's hair, knowing that he probably wouldn't shout and throw a fit while he was on the phone with his mother.

"Good evening, Mother," Hiroki said, and his eye twitched as he felt Nowaki's fingers comb his scalp. As Nowaki had suspected, though, he didn't say a thing. Nowaki smiled as he heard a general murmur that he suspected was Hiroki's mother. "Yes, I'm home right now. Dinner? It's kind of late notice isn't it?" He scowled, and then without even thinking to cover his phone so his mother wouldn't hear, he said, "Nowaki, did you start dinner?"

"I didn't, Hiro-san," Nowaki said, fully aware that he was being loud enough for the woman on the other end of the line to hear.

Hiroki just nodded. "Dinner's already cooking, Mother. Not tonight."

"Kamijou Hiroki, don't lie to me!" Hiroki's mother's voice was suddenly loud enough for it to be heard even by Nowaki, and Nowaki quirked his eyebrows up, looking almost amused. At least he knew where Hiroki got his temper and volume from. It was nice to know. "I heard… whoever that was, telling you that he hadn't made dinner! And just who was that, anyway? I thought you lived on your own."

"That was Nowaki, Mother," Hiroki said, looking annoyed but unwilling to come up with some kind of bluff that would require further lying later. His mother's voice went quieter, so Nowaki couldn't hear what she was saying, but Hiroki's face was going a deep red so it was obviously not something he liked. "No he's not just some random guy I brought home to sleep with! I haven't done that since…" He stopped at that, either unwilling to continue that conversation with his own mother or unwilling to think about the last time he brought a man home to sleep with. "We live together, Mother…" Another pause at the murmuring and he said, "No, you can't meet him!"

"But I'd like to see your mother again, Hiro-san," Nowaki said, putting his mouth near Hiroki's ear where the man had his cell phone held. Hiroki looked indignant and pushed Nowaki away, but the damage had been done: it was clear that his mother had heard.

"Again?" she asked, her voice louder once more, and Hiroki winced and held his phone away from his ear. "Have I met this young man before?"

"…he delivered the flowers I sent you for your birthday, Mother," Hiroki said, but he didn't look too happy about it. "Look, he's still moving over his things, so we were going to go to his old apartment and bring the rest of it over. I'll have dinner with you some other night, all right?" He said a quick goodbye and hung up before his mother could protest, and Nowaki had to wonder if Hiroki had done that before. He thought it was rather rude, but then again, it probably wasn't the worst thing Hiroki had ever done to someone he supposedly loved.

Nowaki frowned. He really didn't want to be having those kinds of thoughts. So, since Hiroki wasn't on his lap anymore, he got up, dusting off his pants. "Did you… really want to go to my old apartment and get the last of my things?"

"Yeah," Hiroki muttered, not looking Nowaki directly in the eye. There was what could only be described as an awkward silence at that, and he took a deep breath and said, "It was really stupid of you to just up and leave, you know."

"I know, Hiro-san," Nowaki said, and he resisted the urge to wrap his arms around Hiroki again. It was probably better to just see how things went from here.

"But obviously I'm forgiving you," Hiroki added, sounding like he was doing it for Nowaki's benefit and that he didn't get a single thing out of it. "And you want to know why?"

"Why, Hiro-san?" Nowaki asked, willing to play along with it for now.

"Because I barely ate this weekend," Hiroki whispered. He had a look in his eye that said it was because he was stressed out from missing Nowaki, but when Nowaki seemed to catch it, his eyes hardened and he said, "You've gotten me too used to home cooked food, you big oaf. I can't eat from fast food or convenience store meals anymore." He ducked his head, letting his shaggy bangs fall into his eyes in what he hoped was an attempt to hide them so Nowaki couldn't see the emotion there. "So don't do that again, you got it?"

Nowaki couldn't resist pulling Hiroki to him again, and he hugged him tightly, a happy smile on his face. "I won't, Hiro-san," he said, placing a kiss on his forehead. "I promise."

Half an hour later found them standing outside Nowaki's previous apartment, holding a few boxes between them but nothing big. Nowaki didn't have much, and he'd already moved most of what he did have to Hiroki's apartment. It was mostly odds and ends, but he did need to go to the landlord and give him the key for his apartment as his last official act of giving it up. At first Hiroki hadn't wanted to go, but he also didn't want to just stand around outside the apartment complex in case one of Nowaki's neighbors saw him and decided to strike up a conversation.

Meeting strangers with Nowaki by his side was, he supposed, the lesser of two evils.

"Aw, I'll miss you, Kusama-kun," the man said as he stood behind the desk and took the key from Nowaki. He eyed Hiroki, who was just standing there in the doorway of the office, clutching the box to his chest. Of course the landlord didn't know the whole story behind it, but he did know that Nowaki had been spending less and less time at his actual apartment. He briefly wondered if this man had anything to do with it, but instead of addressing it specifically, he said, "So you found a new apartment?"

"Yes," Nowaki said with a warm smile. "Hiro-san and I will be living together now. I will miss you, Ishida-san."

Ishida smiled himself, and he glanced over at Hiroki. "You take care of him! If you make him cry, there are plenty of people around here who would hunt you down, I'm sure."

"That won't be necessary," Hiroki muttered, not even bothering to deny the implications. He wasn't willing to say the word "boyfriend" or "partner" but he knew that he was accepting Nowaki as such. Despite that it was still day, he'd allowed Nowaki to hold his hand on the train, even laying his head on his shoulder as he took a brief rest while they sped towards their destination. It had felt a lot more comfortable and natural than the contact he'd had with Shinoda, not that he'd really admit such a thing to himself.

Ishida didn't look like he had anything to add to the conversation, so Hiroki turned back to Nowaki, who said, "Ready to go home, Hiro-san?"

"…yeah."