Chapter Thirty-Two: Out With The Old, In With The New

With everything boxed up and ready to go, moving day was finally upon them. Really, it wasn't too terribly much. For the most part, they were buying all new furniture and leaving their old things behind. That way, they wouldn't be leaving two empty rooms that Aki would then have to furnish herself. Eiji was taking everything that had been on his bookshelves and desk, but the furniture itself would stay behind. Ash's car wasn't big enough to haul furniture, plus with all the money he had, there was no reason not to buy all new things. Most of the new furniture was scheduled to be delivered today. Assembling it all was going to be an adventure, to say the least.

Ash drove a carload of boxes in his car, and Eiji did the same in Aki's. She'd only had a few lessons with Ash and was nowhere near proficient enough to have her own license yet, so it was mostly Eiji who drove the car, but occasionally, Miyuki would take it out as well.

Aki and Miyuki crammed precariously in the back of Aki's car and, miraculously, everyone and everything fit, so they only had to make one trip. The girls were coming along to help mainly with furniture assembly since there wasn't much else to do.

They were both aware of where the boys were moving, but they hadn't actually seen the home until now. It was the first time they'd seen their old house in years. Both teared up slightly as Eiji pulled into the driveway.

Ash unlocked the door and inhaled deeply as he walked inside. A smile crept onto his face. As a young boy, he assumed he'd spend his whole life in Cape Cod, just like his father had. Once he was swept away to New York, caught in the clutches of Dino Golzine, he imagined his life was over before it began. He'd be stuck with the freak until he grew too old for Dino's liking and then he'd be abandoned like an old, broken toy. And when he lived as part of a gang, he believed that must be the end of the road. It was a dangerous life to live and he couldn't imagine living until his twentieth birthday; a milestone that was just around the corner.

All things considered, this moment was a lot to take in. Standing at the threshold of a house he bought in cash, in a land that was far from home, with a man he loved with all his soul. And a man who loved him back, enough so he'd agreed to spend the rest of his life with him. Ash blinked back tears. How was this his life? The boy he'd been back in Cape Cod, and even New York, would have laughed at this fairytale ending. No. It wasn't an ending, it was only the beginning.

"You alright?" Eiji asked gently, stepping up beside Ash in the doorway.

Ash smiled softly. "Yeah...I just...wow...call me a sap, but it's a dream come true."

"I know," Eiji replied softly, "I feel the same way."

Miyuki and Aki joined them in the doorway, peering inside curiously. The last time either of them had seen the house, it was equally empty, but they were on their way out. That was one of the hardest days of Miyuki's life. It solidified the very real split that had occurred between her parents. But today was not sad, today was happy. Now, it was nice to know Ash and Eiji would be filling it with their own things, making it theirs.

It was still, however, a bittersweet moment for both Aki and Miyuki. Aki's firstborn was leaving the nest, she was happy for him, but she'd miss him as well. Good thing he wasn't going far. Likewise, Miyuki was sad to see her brother and Ash, who might as well have been her second brother, leave her. She'd certainly miss them both, but she was no longer afraid of losing them like she had her father. Over the past few weeks, Ash had made it clear just how much their family meant to him. Yesterday morning as she woke up on the living room floor, in the presence of Ash and Eiji, she laughed to herself. They were both so good to her. She couldn't believe she'd ever assumed they'd forget her once they moved out.

The house looked bigger now since it was no longer staged with furniture. They all made multiple trips to and from the car, bringing all the boxes up to the master bedroom upstairs. They couldn't actually start unpacking until the furniture was arrived and assembled, so for now, it just collected in the bedroom taking up far less space than it did in their old rooms.

Slowly, the furniture began arriving. They ordered furniture from multiple companies, so it didn't all come at once. As it arrived, they began piling the boxes in the rooms in which the assembled pieces would likely reside.

Aki unboxed all the kitchenware, dishes, and countertop appliances, and began filling the spacious cabinets and drawers. The last owners had remodeled the kitchen and it was now a spacious, modern, design with white marble countertops, pale grey cabinets, and stainless steel appliances.

In the living room, Miyuki began assembling an end table that would eventually house a lamp and drink coasters. She was, as it turned out, a master at this type of thing. She quickly finished her table and moved onto the dining room chairs. Ash and Eiji worked on the dining room table, which should have been simple enough, but Ash accidentally skipped a page in the instructions, which threw a wrench of confusion into their progress. They had to backtrack after finally realizing their mistake.

At noon the two mattresses they'd ordered arrived. One, a Queen, would go in the guest bedroom, and the other, a California King, would go in the master suite. Aki laughed at the sheer size of the latter as the movers carried it up the stairs. And, to be fair, it was comically large.

[Why on Earth do you need a bed that big?!]

"No one really does, but the room is big, so why not fill it?" Ash replied.

They spent the remainder of the day assembling furniture and arranging it where it belonged. At six, Ash ordered food for everyone. Miyuki and Aki left an hour later. As the door closed, Ash and Eiji exhaled loudly in tandem. They glanced at each other and laughed at their obvious exhaustion.

"Damn, what a day," Ash sighed. Ash sank to the floor and leaned against the wall. None of their living room furniture, such as sofas and chairs, had arrived yet, unfortunately, so there really wasn't anywhere comfortable to sit.

Ash patted the floor beside him.

"No, Ash, if I sit I don't think I'll ever want to get back up."

"Well it's not like there's anywhere else to sit...unless you want to sit at the table," Ash reasoned. "Come on, sit," he said, patting the floor again.

Eiji shook his head, "I'm taking a bath in that giant tub."

Ash pouted as Eiji turned and began walking up the steps.

"Join me, if you'd like," Eiji called over his shoulder as he ascended the staircase.

Ash's chest burned and his stomach did a little nervous flip. He stood and followed after Eiji, once he reached the top of the stairs.

Eiji began filling the tub with hot water. It was quite large, resembling that of a quarter of a pie graph, nestled nicely into the corner of the bathroom, pressed up against large windows. The white bath with golden hardware was equipped with jets, technically making it a jacuzzi, rather than a bathtub. Across the room, stood a glass shower stall. This room, like the kitchen, had clearly been remodeled by the previous owner. This tub was definitely not here when the Okumuras lived here previously...Eiji would have remembered this tub.

Ash paused in the doorway, taking in the beauty of the bathroom. It was nice, but thankfully, not nice enough to remind him of Dino's luxurious bathroom which resembled more of a marble palace than an actual bathroom.

Eiji, who currently had a hand under the faucet to test the temperature, glanced at Ash from over his shoulder. Ash had a strange expression on his face that Eiji couldn't quite read.

"Hey…" Eiji began cautiously, "I realize maybe my words were...suggestive...but I'm not really in the mood to...you know."

Ash exhaled dramatically, "Oh thank GOD," he sighed. "Neither am I and I was dreading breaking it to you."

Eiji laughed, releasing all the awkwardness and nervousness he held inside him just moments ago. He undressed and Ash did the same. Once sitting, the tub was deep enough that the water reached their shoulders. The hot water began to unwind their stiff muscles. Eiji pressed a button that controlled the jets, causing streams of bubbles to blur the water's surface. He leaned back into them as they massaged his back. He rested his head over the lip of the tub and released a content sigh.

"This is nice," he said happily with closed eyes.

"Mmmm," Ash hummed in agreement.

"Ya know this is all new," Eiji said just loud enough to be heard over the jets. "When we used to live here there was just a regular old tub."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Mmm, and Miyuki and I used to take baths together. Which might sound weird but we were both kids."

Ash shook his head, "Not weird."

"No? I never thought so, but," he shrugged, "I thought maybe you'd find it strange...I didn't know if it was a cultural thing."

"Nah, people do that in America too."

"It just makes more sense. We hated taking baths alone because it was boring," Eiji chuckled. "Dad used to sit on the edge of the tub and dump in this huge bucket of toys. And we never fought over them because Dad had us take turns picking which ones we wanted that night. Our favorite was this mermaid Obachan bought us-"

"Awww," Ash interjected. "You played with mermaids?"

"Hold on, I wasn't finished!" Eiji blurted defensively. "It was a mermaid, but not your typical kids' toy. Above water, it looked normal, but it had this paint that changed colors in hot water. So once you put it in the hot bathwater, it turned into a siren. Its skin turned a dark blue with all these scales and its eyes turned red and its friendly smile was replaced with these sharp teeth."

"Ha! Damn! Some toy!"

"It was so cool. Mom was worried it would scare us but we loved it. And then we had this giant squid and this toy pirate ship and we'd make the siren team up with the squid and they would try to sink the ship." Eiji laughed. "I guess we were kinda strange kids."

"How old were you?" Ash asked curiously.

Eiji pursed his lips and thought about it. "Oh, I don't know...I was probably seven...maybe eight. And Miyuki would have been five or six. Then I graduated to showers when Dad put one in downstairs."

"Seven," Ash reflected softly.

"We never wanted to get out either," Eiji added. "The water would go cold and our lips would become slightly blue and our teeth would chatter." He laughed. "And our fingers and toes would get all…" he rubbed his fingertips together as he searched for the right word. "Oh, I don't know what you call it in English."

"Pruney," Ash said.

Eiji's face crinkled in confusion. "Pruney?"

"Yeah, like the fruit. Dried prunes are all wrinkly, ya know?"

Eiji's face lit up with understanding. "Ahh, yeah, I get it." He smiled and looked at his fingers which still looked normal. "Pruney," he repeated to himself. "Anyway, Dad would practically have to drag us out of the tub."

Ash sighed, at seven Eiji was playing mermaids vs pirates in bubble baths with his sister. At seven Ash was crying himself to sleep with a bruised body and stolen innocence. His father didn't sit on the edge of his tub, passing him toys and dragging him out once the water went cold. His father spent most nights working the bar, leaving Ash to fend for himself. His mother didn't worry that toy sirens would scare him. In fact, he doubted she ever worried about him at all. Ash envied Eiji's childhood, but he didn't say any of this. There was no need to say it. They both knew how much Ash had suffered. Reminding Eiji would only make him feel guilty for speaking about his own normal, wholesome life. Ash loved hearing about his life, the last thing he'd want is for Eiji to stop telling his stories just because Ash wasn't as fortunate.

So instead, he sighed and said, "That sounds nice."

And he dug. He dug for a happy memory with Griffin to recount for Eiji. "Griff and I- back in Cape Cod -used to go to the beach...before he left for Afghanistan. He'd buy me ice cream and we'd play in the sand. The water was pretty cold for swimming most of the time, but I still swam anyway," Ash smiled fondly at the memory. "And I always burned, no matter how much sunscreen I wore."

He remembered when he stopped enjoying swimming because it meant he had to be shirtless around throngs of people. He remembered the way his heart pounded when Griffin would walk off to the bathroom and a stranger would walk Ash's way. No one ever messed with him there, but as they approached his blanket on the sand, he always held his breath as they passed, scared to death they'd snatch him up while his brother was away. He didn't recall any of this aloud. Instead, he said, "We always had a good time just being there in the sun and sand."

And Eiji smiled. Ash could tell the smile was different from his usual one. This one said he understood Ash had told him one of his few happy memories.

Then, Eiji's expression changed to reflect a mixture of amusement and horror.

"What?" Ash asked with an edge of anxious amusement to his voice.

"I just realized we have no bath towels," Eiji told him humorously.

Ash threw his head back and laughed. "Oh my God, how did we overlook that!?"

Eiji laughed, "We'll have to go buy some tomorrow."

"Yeah, but that's not gonna help us now."

Eiji's eyes searched the ceiling for an answer to their predicament. "There are hand towels in the kitchen," he realized. "Not ideal...but it's better than drip-drying."

Ash chuckled and hopped out of the tub. "I'll grab 'em."

Eiji laughed hysterically as Ash ran naked from the room. And he laughed even harder when Ash returned, comically wearing a red-and-white-checkered hand towel modestly around his hips. Ash tossed one to Eiji and, tragically, Eiji did not catch it. The towel landed in the bath, soaking instantly. Ash died laughing. He fell to the floor while silent, breathless laughs escaped him.

"AHHHH!" Eiji let out a frustrated scream that rode upon the back of a laugh, "I'm the WORST!"

It took Ash several minutes of gut-busting laughter before he was able to compose himself and stand again. Wordlessly, he went back downstairs to fetch another hand towel. This time he did not toss it to Eiji. He walked it across the room and placed it directly in his hands.

[Thanks,] he replied, still slightly breathless from his own laughter.

In the early morning, bright light blinded them as it shone through their bare windows. Ash groaned and buried himself under the comforter. He mumbled something, which could not be deciphered, to Eiji. Eiji laughed sleepily and joined Ash under the comforter. Ash's blond hair was a mess of tangles, smashed between the mattress and the comforter. His eyes were still shut tightly, not quite willing to get up just yet.

"What did you say?" Eiji asked.

"Have to add," he yawned, "curtains."

"Add them to what," he asked with palpable amusement.

"Shopping list," Ash responded as if it were obvious.

"Ah, ok," he smiled.

Ash was quiet for a moment. Their burrow under covers filled with their own breath, quickly becoming suffocatingly hot. Without warning, Ash mumbled, "hot," and tugged the blanket off both their heads. His lungs filled with cool and his arm defensively shielded his eyes from the sun's relentless onslaught.

"Towels, curtains, what else?" Eiji asked as he sat.

Ash peeked at him from under his panel arm. "I dunno, ask me later," he murmured sleepily. "The hell time is it anyway?"

"7ish."

Ash groaned. He flipped onto his stomach and slammed a pillow over his head. Into the mattress, he mumbled, "Too damn early."

Eiji smiled and rubbed his back lovingly. He leaned over and placed a kiss between his shoulder blades. "Love you," he said sweetly as he climbed out of bed. "I'll make coffee."

A muffled sound of approval came from the bed. Ash smiled into the mattress.

"This one is kinda nice," Ash said, rubbing a panel of white linen curtains between his fingers.

Eiji reached over and touched it. "Mmmm, I like white." As an afterthought, he added, "It won't do much to keep the sun out though."

He looked at the fabric disapprovingly. "Hmm, no. You're right, that's no good."

They examined more sample panels, feeling each one, considering how the patterns would look in their new room.

"Unless," Eiji began, causing Ash to stop his work and meet his eyes, "We do blinds and curtains. Then the white might be okay."

"Some of those fancy room-darkening blinds?"

"Yeah, they have blinds over there," Eiji replied, pointing in the direction of the blinds.

They made their way to the blind section, and after some consideration, picked out some dark, wooden blinds to pair with their white linen curtains.

Earlier that morning, Eiji compiled a list of missing essentials while Ash had battled the sun for more sleep. They spent the day shopping around at different stores, gathering the things on Eiji's list. There were probably more things they'd both forgotten, but they would stumble upon those things in time, just like they had with the towels.

Their sofas and chairs were still yet to arrive and, besides some dorayaki their neighbors had brought them as a welcoming gift, there was no food in the house. They could have ordered takeout or went out for dinner, but instead, they had dinner with Aki and Miyuki, who were both very happy to see them, despite only being apart for not even twenty-four hours.

Aki made a delicious meal for everyone and afterward, they played various card games until Ash and Eiji retired back to their own home. Aki and Miyuki hugged them as they left as if they were relatives who visited infrequently. Ash assured them they'd be back again soon.

"Unless we get to the grocery store tomorrow, we'll probably be back for dinner again tomorrow," Ash said as he and Eiji made their way out the front door. "That is if you're okay with it," he added with a nod to Aki.

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Oh, of course, I am okay with it. You come every day if you want, even after you have food."

Miyuki waved to them from the head of the driveway as they departed.

"I feel old," Eiji said, "like the cool uncle or something."

Ash exhaled a laugh through his nose but otherwise did not respond.

"Which reminds me…" Eiji began. He waited for Ash to glance at him before continuing. "We never talked about it...but that comment Miyuki made the other night...I could tell it really got to you," Eiji finished seriously.

"I had never even thought about it until she mentioned it," Ash said seriously. "And honestly, even if we could have kids, we're both way too young right now."

"But?" He asked, correctly assuming Ash had more to say.

Ash smirked sadly, "But damn, your kids would be so cute."

Eiji's face warmed. "Yours would be too."

Ash removed one hand from the wheel and extended it for Eiji to grab, which he did instantly.

"Surrogates are always an option," Eiji said after a pause.

Ash shook his head, "Those have always rubbed me the wrong way, to tell you the truth. The kid wouldn't ever know their mom. Just seems...strange."

Eiji nodded, "That's fair." Eiji mindlessly rubbed circles into the back of Ash's hand. "I feel the same way...but we're not left with many options then."

Ash shrugged. "It's not something I'd want for a while anyway...we'll think of something."

Eiji nodded and smiled.

"Another bath tonight?" Ash asked, cheerfully changing the subject.

"This time with real towels," Eiji decided with a grin.

"And this time, don't drop yours in the water," Ash smirked.

Eiji laughed, "I think that's the hardest I've ever seen you laugh, Ash."

"I think it was the hardest I've ever laughed," he admitted playfully.

Eiji's smile fell from his face and Ash worried he shouldn't have admitted that. But then he realized his smile fell for a different reason, when Eiji asked, "And maybe this time I could love you?"

A burning warmth surged through Ash's chest. "How, exactly, do you mean, Eiji?" Ash asked mischievously.

"However you want," Eiji replied, unblushing.

Ash pulled into the driveway. "Okay," he whispered with a small smile.