Start Notes
Yeahhhh remember when I said this chapter wouldn't be as long as the last? I lied. Oops.
I might just keep this story going on forever, like once they get together, mark it complete but then just add new chapters- most likely before they start dating- indefinitely. Or I could just create a collection. You know. Like a normal person. These guys are just sooooo easy to write about. I've been editing my Julie and the Phantoms fic for like a week now and keep on abandoning it to work on this one instead
Oh, and also, Mika wears contacts now, because I say so.
Chapter 4: Of Days Off and Praises
When Mika woke up the next morning, the first thing she processed was how sore her neck was when she tried to move it, and the next was how dim her room was.
Mika blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the low light. Her room was never normally this dark, considering it was on the eastern end of the house, and her curtains were nothing impressive. Maybe it was still nighttime?
Mika reached out blindly, for what should have been her bedside table, only to come up empty and for something beneath her to groan at the movement. She froze, eyes popping open, suddenly wide awake.
"Hello?" She half-whispered into the darkness, starting to piece together a figure in front of her. But that wasn't possible. Someone couldn't be in front of her while she was lying down unless…
"Morning," a familiar voice rasped in a low voice.
Mika's jaw dropped as her morning brain slowly started to comprehend the situation. "Bose?" She whispered into the darkness, already knowing it was him. She shifted to push herself up a bit, her hands resting on something warm. Which was moving.
"Sorry," the boy beneath her yawned, "I guess I fell asleep too."
A door creaked somewhere behind them, and a voice called into the darkness.
"Are you two awake in here?"
Celia.
"Yeah," Bose called out before Mika could stop him, and suddenly the lights were on, and the two teens flinched at the quick adjustment, both closing their eyes again.
Mika heard footsteps approaching them. "Oh!" Celia made a noise of surprise. "Now, as your mother, I really don't think I should be condoning this."
She slowly opened her eyes, willing them to adjust faster. Only after a minute was she really able to see, and realise exactly the position that she was in.
Mika was lying on top of Bose, her legs between his and her hands on his chest, their faces only several inches apart. Her mouth dropped open as she met his dark eyes, which were still blinking quickly.
She watched him process the situation, her brain still moving too slowly, as his eyes flickered down and then back up to hers. Pink flooded his cheeks and ears almost instantly, but he didn't move either.
"Uh," he wet his lips, and moved to speak but nothing came out.
Mika could feel her own face heating up and silently thanked the stars for the complexion that hid it. Bose wasn't as lucky, his entire face was red now, but still, neither teen moved.
Until Celia cleared her throat pointedly, and the two scampered to separate, resulting in Mika falling onto the floor with a squeak, as Bose tried to sit up at the same time she did.
"Oh shit-"
"Bose!" His mother scolded his language.
"Sorry, Mika! Here let me help you up!" He accidentally ignored his mum, too focused on ensuring his friend was okay.
"It's fine," Mika's face was still flaming from her place on the floor, not noticing the pain of the fall past her embarrassment, her eyes looking anywhere but at her friend or his mother.
Oh god, his mother had walked in on them. Like that. Sleeping like that. Mika was sure her face was literally on fire. How humiliating.
"I'll give you two a moment to," Celia paused, eyes darting between the two, "collect yourselves," she finished eventually. "Join us for breakfast whenever you're ready."
"Wait, no, Mum!" Bose complained, silently willing the woman to not leave the two alone after this, but it was no use. "Oh my god."
Mika put her hands over her face, willing the heat to leave but it was no use. "Can we just pretend that never happened and never talk about it again?" She bemoaned, closing her eyes.
"Okay," she ignored the crack in her friend's voice. "Breakfast?"
"Breakfast," Mika agreed, shooting up from the floor before he could offer to help her again.
She turned away, never looking at him, as she searched for her discarded phone, pocketing it as soon as she saw it. No use checking, she already knew the device would be dead. She headed out of the room, not once looking back at her friend, until she found herself alone in the hallway, with no clue which way to go.
"Uh?" She jerked her head side-to-side, trying to remember which direction they'd come from the night before. It had been the left, right? She possibly, maybe, distinctly remembered that photo of the goat on the wall.
But as she started to walk in that direction, Bose called out from behind her. "Other way."
Dangit.
"That's the dinner dining room," he was beside her in a second. "Breakfast is this way," he tilted his head to the right.
Mika looked up at him but didn't meet his eyes. "You have multiple dining rooms?" She questioned incredulously. Rich people.
"Yepp," he started walking, slow at first until he knew she was following. "Four of them, one for every meal of the day."
"Oh, honey, no." Mika hadn't realised what she'd called him until she saw his ears pink again before he pulled at his hair- which was messier than she'd ever seen- to cover them.
Which made her realise two things. One, she really needed to stop calling him that, this was the second time she'd done it right after an already awkward moment and made the situation even worse. And two, oh god, her hair!
She'd slept on a velvet couchlast night. No silk pillow or bonnet in sight; she was sure that her curls must have been all kinds of messed up right now.
Mika made sure Bose wasn't looking before quickly pulling her phone out. She tapped the screen, but it was in fact very dead, so the camera wasn't an option. She would have to settle for trying to angle the device to see herself in the dark reflection.
Oh god, her bangs were an absolute mess, and her curls were definitely a lot flatter on one side than the other. She ran her finger through her fringe a few times as they walked in silence, trying desperately for them to sit on her forehead with no luck. She couldn't even see what she was doing!
Bose glanced behind him periodically, watching her silent struggle. She was clearly getting more and more agitated.
"Hey, uh," he turned back towards her but kept walking, and she froze, staring up at him like a deer in headlights. "There's a bathroom just up here if you want to," he fluffed his hair, trailing off awkwardly.
Mika's face heated up again and she looked down but nodded. "That would be great. Thank you."
"No prob," he kept walking, leading her to a door at the top of a staircase, and stopping. "Just here. I'm gonna go, uh, somewhere else," he pointed back behind them. "Just wait here if I'm not back."
Mika nodded her head, moving quickly into the room, and closing the door behind her. She leant against it with a sigh. God, she hoped things stopped being so weird between them soon.
She looked up, taking in the large bathroom that was just as lavish as everything else in this house seemed to be. Fully tiled floors and walls, a two-meter-square spa bath, shower glass that was so clear Mika almost crashed into it, and a double mirror/faucet sink with so much storage above and below it that Mika could have fit in three of every hair product she and Miles owned combined and still had room.
Speaking of mirrors… She looked up and almost gasped. Oh god, it was worse than she thought. And both Bose and his mum had seen her like this. Could she jump off the Man's Nest cliff now? Please and thank you.
She would get to that later, the first thing she had to do was take out her contact lenses from the previous day. Luckily, she wore the non-reusable daily ones, so nothing bad would happen to her eyes for sleeping in them, aside from mild discomfort, but she would be practically blind until they went back to the theatre, where she could grab her glasses from her bag, which she'd left in the theatre in her hurry to get out of that godforsaken room.
She then moved on to her hair. Without any of her creams, brushes or tools, there wasn't much she could do in terms of styling her hair, so she'd have to settle for just fixing the shape. She turned on the faucet, the water instantly warm, because of course it was, damn these rich people and went about wetting her hands, shaking off the excess, and running her fingers through her curls.
Eventually, once she deemed it presentable, she turned off the faucet and began looking around for some kind of deodorant or perfume or really anything.
She felt bad about snooping, but the pristine state of the bathroom likely meant it was for guests anyway, a theory that was confirmed when she found assorted menstruation products, multiple packets of unopened toothbrushes- she'd have to ask to borrow one after breakfast- and five different scents of both spray and roll-on deodorants.
She picked up an apple spray-on and used it, figuring it would do until she had the chance to retrieve her own.
When she was done, she opened the door, peeking her head out.
Bose was standing there, leaning up against the wall, phone in hand as he read something.
She took the time before he noticed her to admire him, in a completely platonic way, of course. He had clearly taken the time to brush his own hair, and probably his teeth too, the lucky bastard. He was still wearing the same clothes from the night before though, so she supposed he probably hadn't gone to his room, just found another bathroom somewhere.
She pushed the door open further, making her presence known, and stepped into the hallway.
"Oh, hey," he jumped, pocketing his phone at lightning speed when she approached him. She saw his eyes clearly dart up to her hair, before meeting hers. "Your hair looks nice."
"Nicer than an absolute mess, you mean?" She joked, shaking her head. "It's okay, you can say it."
"Okay, maybe a little bit of a mess," her friend teased, standing up straight, "a cute one though."
To Mika's surprise, Bose didn't backtrack this time; though his face burned pink again and he quickly turned away to walk, he didn't retract the comment.
Mika ducked her head and quickly followed him so that she wouldn't get lost.
"Oh, hey," she jumped when Bose spoke again after a few minutes of walking in silence, "I almost forgot, I bought you a portable charger," he turned around and held out a small silver device and a cord. "I figured your phone would be dead and you'd want to text your mum. I also told Miles to tell her you were sleeping here last night before I fell asleep, so hopefully she's not too pissed at you."
Mika blinked, processing the new information. He- did those things? For her? Wow, that was really sweet and thoughtful of him.
She accepted the charger, a spark going up her arm when their hands touched. "Thank you," she smiled up at him. "That was really sweet of you. I really appreciate it."
He blinked at her for a moment before turning away with a shrug. "It was nothing, really."
Mika plugged her phone in as they continued to walk to wherever this mystery second dining room was and waited for it to boot up. But before the phone could even turn on, Bose announced that they were there and stopped in front of her, with Mika only just barely not colliding into his back.
She looked up and couldn't believe her eyes. It was… exactly the same as the dining room from the previous night. Like an exact carbon copy. Like exact. Even more exact than the new Man's Nest was, to the one that Ray had blown up this one time there was a wolf-spider on one of the walls.
"Are you sure this isn't the same room?" She questioned, as the pair entered the room.
She quickly spotted Celia sitting alone at the dining table in the centre of the room; still a ten-top, and still set up with the nicest plates and cutlery she'd ever seen.
"Definitely different. I think. I dunno," her friend shrugged, walking over to the table and sitting exactly where he had the previous night at this possibly, maybe different table. She shrugged and followed.
"Good morning again, dears," Celia greeted, putting her phone down to look at them.
"Morning, Mum."
"Good morning, Mrs O'Brien."
"Now, Mika," Celia pointed an empty fork at her. "What have I told you about calling me Celia?"
"Oh, right," Mika flushed as Bose laughed at her, "sorry, Celia."
"Much better," the blonde smiled, putting away her weapon. "I would expect nothing less of one of Bose's friend's," she winked at Mika.
The girl's mouth dropped open, and she quickly glanced at Bose for help, only to find him typing furiously on his phone. He definitely didn't catch the way his mum had said friend…
"Right," Mika laughed awkwardly.
Just her luck. Another mum who likely thought she and Bose were dating. What was it with parents always thinking that? Was it a boy-girl thing? Or something else entirely?
Once breakfast was over, Mika attempted to excuse herself from the house, explaining that she should really go home and make sure her parents weren't worried about her, only for Celia to insist she stay.
"Bose hasn't even gotten to give you a proper tour yet," the woman stood from the table. "I'll call Angela myself and explain everything. Tell her that you stayed in one of our guest rooms because you weren't feeling well," she winked again.
"What?" Bose questioned, tilting his head to the side. "But she didn't-"
"She stayed,"Celia narrowed her eyes, "in one of our guest rooms, and you slept in your own room," she said pointedly. "Am I clear, young man?"
Bose swallowed but nodded. "Okay, sure."
"Right!" Celia was back to her cheery ways again. "Have a good tour. Bosey, don't forget to show her the koi pond out front. Girls love pretty fountains with fish." And with that, she left them alone to explore.
"You have a koi fish pond?" Mika asked immediately, rising from her seat. "Can I see them?"
"Yeah, of course," Bose grinned, standing and stretching. Mika's eyes definitely didn't follow him as he did so. "It's a little chilly outside, do you want to borrow a jacket or something?" He gestured at her skirt and short sleeve.
Again, Mika was struck by how thoughtful of him that was.
She nodded, "that would be awesome if you don't mind."
"Of course not," he shook his head. "Come on, I'll show you my room while we're up there."
Mika had to admit, she was very curious as to what his room would look like. In the three years that they'd been friends, she'd never actually seen his room before, aside from a small square of it during video chats.
"Oh, wait!" Mika paused. "Do you mind if we stop off at the theatre? I left my bag in there and need to grab my glasses."
"Yeah, sure! Wait, you wear glasses?" Bose tilted his head to the side, as they changed directions down the hall.
Mika sighed knowing what was coming next, she nodded. "Yepp, practically blind without them. Normally I just wear contacts though."
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
There it was.
"Four, Bose. You're standing right in front of me. I struggle with long distances."
"Right, got it."
Before she could say anything else, Bose took off down the hall. "How about now?" He called.
Mika squinted but to no avail. She could only just make out his blotchy figure in the distance. She was lucky that he hadn't run any further, or turned any corners, but she had to admit, it was a funny gag. He definitely put a new spin on a question she was so sick of hearing.
"No clue!" She called after him, speed walking to meet him, just in case he tried walking from there. She didn't want to lose him, after all.
"Wow, so you really are blind. You're a blind superhero! How has no one made a movie about your life yet?"
Mika laughed genuinely. "I have no idea. It's difficult being me."
The walk to the theatre was much quicker than it had been away from, probably because the pair- specifically Bose- had run halfway there, and also, they weren't stuck in an awkward silence.
Mika retrieved her bag, pulling out her glasses case immediately. "You can't laugh at me," she warned him, as she grabbed the glasses.
"I promise I won't," Bose crossed his head earnestly.
Mika put the glasses on, only a little bit self-conscious. She didn't think she looked bad in them, perse, just that they didn't suit the usual vibe she was going for.
"They look nice. They suit you," Bose smiled at her, and Mika smiled back, tucking a curl behind her ear.
The two looked at each other for a moment, before Bose blinked and spun around. "Okay~, jacket and fish time. Let's go," he led her back out, down the stairs again.
Internally, Mika wondered why they were going back downstairs. Weren't bedrooms normally on the upper levels of the house? She didn't question it though, and just let him lead her.
That is, until he led her right up to an elevator on the bottom floor, directly to the right of the staircase.
"Wait, there's been an elevator this whole time?" Mika asked incredulously, as they approached a bedazzled wall piece. "Why have we been walking up and down three flights of stairs?"
"Oh, this elevator only goes to our rooms," Bose explained, pressing the button. "First three floors have stairs, top three just have the one elevator, no staircase."
"Is that safe?" Mika questioned, stepping into the lift that dinged immediately. "What if there's a fire or something?"
Bose shrugged. "Never been one yet. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."
"You mean cross that bridge… Right?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure."
Mika suddenly feared for her safety in this elevator and was beyond elated when it dinged again, and the doors slid open.
Only for her to not be met with a hallway at all, but rather a bedroom. A gigantic bedroom, that very clearly took up the entire third floor of this mansion. What the heck, rich people!
"Bose, this is," she couldn't even finish her sentence, stuck trying to take in the huge expanse of space.
"Yeah, it's weird," he said sheepishly, looking embarrassed. "I like your room way better."
Mika's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding? Bose, you could fit an entire library in here! This is insane!"
The two walked for a solid two minutes before Mika spotted a corner of the room that had definitely been set up to resemble a more average bedroom.
The blue walls of only that section were decorated with posters and printed-out photos- almost all of which, she noticed, were of her, Bose, Miles and Chapa. He had individual photos, selfies, group photos, the works. It was so cute. His bed was simple, a double bed with only two pillows- boys- and a plain quilt cover. His bedside table was even more cluttered than hers, and he had shoes tossed haphazardly on the ground, but aside from that the area was still quite clean.
"Oh my gosh, what is that!" Mika freaked out as a four-legged skinny creature charged toward her.
"Oh, that's just Jonesy," Bose sat on his bed and whistled. Mika's mouth dropped open as she watched the miniature goat's ears perk up before it turned away from her and bolted over to the boy, sniffing and licking his outstretched hand. "She's friendly if you wanna say hi. You don't have to, though."
Mika hesitated for a moment, before deciding what the heck. She slowly approached, flinching when the goat turned and baa'd at her, but Bose whistled, and it quickly went back to ignoring her.
She sat on the bed beside her friend and held out a hand. "Here, goat," she said nervously. The goat turned and sniffed her hand. Mika yelped, flinching and leaning into Bose, but didn't pull her hand away.
"It's okay," Bose encouraged her, taking her hand in his to flip it over and uncurl her fist, so the goat could smell her palm.
It cooed a quiet baa before licking her, making Mika shiver and lean into her friend again.
"That feels so weird," she shook her head. When the goat was done going to town on her hand, she slowly lifted it and patted it on the head. "Okay, I'm done now."
Bose laughed, patting the goat himself before standing up. "Go to bed, Jonesy," he pointed to a brown blanket curled up next to his bed, and sure enough, the goat trotted off and laid down. "Good girl!"
Mika's phone buzzed with a phone call, and when she flipped over the screen, she saw the title 'Mum' (she'd used to have heart emojis alongside the name… but had since removed them) and cringed. She let the call ring out and checked her messages. She had eleven missed calls from her mum, one from her dad, and two from Miles.
She glanced up at her friend, as he moved aside goat toys to get to a small door.
She silenced her phone and put it and the charger back in her pocket. She was having fun, right now. She'd deal with everything else later.
"Why did you name a girl Jonesy?" She questioned, watching her friend open the door that likely led to a walk-in closet the size of her bedroom.
"Yeah, about that," he stepped into the room and waved for her to join him. "We didn't know she was a girl for the first… while. And by then, she wouldn't answer to anything else."
Mika laughed as she stood. That definitely checked out.
"Will this do?" Bose held up a dark blue hoodie, the same colour as his Brainstorm uniform. "I can find something else, if not."
"No," Mika shook her head, accepting the hoodie, "this is perfect. Thank you."
She quickly put on the hoodie and pulled it down over herself. As she did, she found herself very glad that she hadn't been wearing a miniskirt yesterday. As it was, her knee-length only just showed from beneath the seams of the hoodie.
"Okay, let's fish!" She cheered, finally ready to see the giant creatures.
The koi fish absolutely did not disappoint. Bose had led Mika out the front of the house, to the fountain that she'd passed when entering the previous day. The water was now running, surrounding a statue of a nymph girl with dancing lights and puffs of synchronised water, while she counted at least half a dozen koi fish that swam in its base.
"Woah," she marvelled, dropping to her knees to get closer to the fish. Bose joined her. "They're so big, this is crazy!" She dipped a finger into the water and giggled when a large red and white koi came and nibbled on it, before darting away.
Bose watched her interact with the fish, unable to take his eyes off of her. He wasn't sure if it was the loose curls, or the glasses, or his hoodie, or the lights reflecting from the fountain, or maybe just her serene expression as she watched the fish go about their lives.
"Beautiful."
"Right? They're so pretty!" She agreed, still gazing down into the water.
He turned his attention back to the fish.
Word Count: 4,015
End Notes
Has anyone seen the "Late Night Pickup" short film from Dana's Instagram? Probably not, ANYWAYS, look it up, that's the hair I'm imagining Mika has in these scenes (the styled version, anyway), most likely her natural curls, just with two years of growth from the last time we saw them in season 1 (even though irl it's been more than 2 years, and that growth is probably more like 4, but shhhh).
Also, I would like to add that I have the pin straightest of pin straight hair, like some 1A shit, and while my girlfriend does have 3C and I am very slowly learning about the care process through her, I am still very new to it, so please go easy on my if I got something waaaay off.
Normally I am very anti "girl puts on boy's clothes and is swimming in them because she's so small and he's so big uwu" but have you guys seen these two standing next to each other? She is like almost a full foot shorter than him, there is no way any top of his wouldn't go down to her knees. Trust me, I did the science (squinted at my screen and pinched my fingers on his hoodie, and then moved them over to her).