A Year In The Life, 1/4
Title: A Year In The Life
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Ninomiya Kazunari/Kanjiya Shihori (with Aiba, Jun, Sho/Kitagawa Keiko, and Ohno)
Summary: It's been ages since Nino has felt this comfortable, this relaxed, and he realizes for the first time how glad he is for having moved here. Scenes from a year in Nino's life as he moves into the four-bedroom apartment over the dental office and makes some new friends.
Notes/Warnings: I apologize so much for the delay, but I finally finished something for the jpnforph fundraiser! This is to fulfill toinkydoink's request for a story featuring Nino, Kanjiya Shihori, and Jun. A roommates/new apartment neighbors AU! This is mostly a slice-of-life story about nothing. Raine, I hope you'll enjoy!
Mauve Pink
Commuting from Setagaya to Funabashi has maybe taken three years from his life, Nino thinks. So it almost seems like a miracle when Subaru comes home from his late shift one day and says he's moving out when the lease is up the next month. Nino can't afford the place on his own, so he decides that he and Subaru will part company and part with the apartment at the same time.
A month is rather short notice, especially in winter, so Nino turns to his limited circle of trustworthy friends and acquaintances, firing out a desperate request for lodgings in a certain monthly price range and closer to the warehouse than a Setagaya commute. It's his high school senpai Ohno who finally replies, only after Nino sees him at one of Subaru's gigs. "I changed my phone number," Ohno says without apology, eyes heavy-lidded from a beer too many. "I know someone though."
Ohno's a soft-spoken person and no noisy rock band on stage fifty feet away is going to change that. Nino, exasperated, finally gets his friend to write down the details on a cocktail napkin. It's not far from Ohno's job in Edogawa, and Nino would be sharing a place with Ohno's co-worker from the ENEOS station. It isn't until the next day when he calls the number that he learns that Ohno's co-worker from the ENEOS station is female.
"It's a four-bedroom set-up," the woman, Kanjiya-san, informs him in a voice that reveals nothing about what she might look like. "There's only two of us right now, we lost our third a few weeks ago. So with you, we split rent three ways. Can you come by tomorrow to meet both of us?"
Nino clocks out at 8:00 PM, and instead of an hour and a half it only takes 35 minutes to get to Kasai Station in Edogawa. From there it's not even a ten minute walk with his tired feet to the place, an older building just off a main road. "Look for the vending machines," Kanjiya-san had said, one of the more idiotic directions a person in Tokyo could give. But she's right - when he turns the corner, he discovers the building is next to a bank of at least ten brightly-lit vending machines. It's a narrow brown structure, aging stone. The ground floor is a dental office, and the apartment apparently takes up the entire second floor.
There's a door next to the dental office's main door leading to an entryway with a tiny checkerboard tile floor. Behind another door with a glass middle, an orange-carpeted staircase leads up to the apartment. There are mailboxes for four in the little entryway - only two names are currently filled in, handwritten. "Aiba" reads the one on the far left and "Kanjiya" beside it. He presses the buzzer keeping the inside door locked and is granted entry in seconds.
The carpet does a good job muffling his footsteps, and there's a heavy-looking wooden door at the top. It opens just as he raises his hand to knock.
"Don't let the cat out!" comes a female voice from somewhere inside.
The man at the door rolls his eyes, holding the door wide. "You must be Ninomiya-san."
He slips out of his shoes and heavy coat and follows the man down the short hall to the large living room where a massive flat-screen TV is currently set on mute. Despite the narrow stairway, they've managed to cram a decently sized, if hideous lime green sofa into the room. The chocolate brown throw pillows don't help either. The place gives off a college dormitory feel - no artwork on the walls, but a selection of posters (X Japan on one wall, L'Arc-en-Ciel on another). IKEA bookshelves, IKEA TV stand, IKEA lamps. Nino, however, doesn't much mind. He lives similarly. The important thing is that the place is very clean, save for a tuft or two of white cat hair in a few spots on the couch and rug.
The man from the door encourages Nino to have a seat in an unmatching, overstuffed black leather armchair. He's Aiba Masaki, he explains, and he's thirty-one. "Don't let the cat out!" emerges from a kitchen just beyond the couch. Even in the dark he can see the windows above the sink and countertops are the ones that look out onto the street. She's got a tray with three mugs on it. Once again, nothing matches. The entire place is a jumble of furniture and items acquired with no seeming forethought.
He pictured someone a little older on the phone, but Kanjiya Shihori is of an age with him and Aiba-san, maybe a little younger. She doesn't volunteer her age, only handing over a mug of black tea, the label and string flapping as she gives it to him. The mug advertises Meiji University in dark purple characters.
She sets the empty tray down on the coffee table and curls up on the couch with her legs under her. The occupants of the Edogawa apartment have gone to no trouble to look nice for him. Aiba-san is in a t-shirt and sweatpants, Kanjiya-san in a hooded sweatshirt and plaid pajama pants. They both have friendlier expressions than Nino is used to in a roommate since Subaru is perpetually sulky if it's any time the sun is still up, rock star that he wishes to be. Aiba-san has an odd, scratchy kind of voice, short brown hair, and a relaxed, cheerful smile. Kanjiya-san has blunt black fringe that reaches her eyebrows and a round face. She's short and a little curvy where Aiba is skinny and all limbs. There's a shrewdness in her face that Aiba-san seems to lack. Nino knows who's in charge here.
"Ninomiya-san, do you have any references?" Aiba asks, dipping the tea packet up and down inside his mug.
"Idiot," Kanjiya chides him, sighing what sounds like a long-suffering sigh. "Oh-chan sent him here."
Aiba ignores her rebuke, his eyes nearly sparkling in the IKEA-lamp glow that warms up the room. "Are you a serial killer? I can't share living space with a serial killer. Any psychotic tendencies?"
"No," Nino says uncomfortably, and this earns Aiba a good smack in the arm from Kanjiya. He nearly spills his tea.
"Ow," Aiba protests. "I think it's a valid question."
Kanjiya takes charge of the interview from there. She gives a concise rundown of the current situation. At one time they were four - Aiba and Kanjiya as well as a Keiko-san and a guy called "Yoko." Yoko has been gone for six months, having moved back home to Osaka for a new job. He took all of his belongings except the cat, Kenji, a stray he'd found near the river. Keiko-san has only been gone for two weeks, but no matter how many residents the apartment has, the rent is the same.
"The more bodies in the building, the less we pay," Aiba supplies helpfully.
Kanjiya moves on efficiently, trying to suss out their compatibility. It emerges that the jokey, cheerful Aiba is a flight attendant for Japan Airlines. He's based out of Narita and is usually scheduled to Los Angeles or San Francisco. He works a three days on, three days off schedule, and half of the month he's not even in the apartment. It seems to explain a lot about the impermanent feeling of the furniture. As Nino already knows, Kanjiya works at the ENEOS gas station with Ohno, daytime shift. When she seems to pause for Nino to weigh in on her choice of job, he says nothing, offers no judgment. This seems to please her because he can see her shoulders visibly relax.
They turn to Nino next, inquisitive. "I'm a warehouse associate," he explains. "For Rakuten. There's a warehouse in Funabashi, I scan things, put them in a bin, and put the bins on a conveyor belt. I work four days a week, off three, 10-8."
"What's the weirdest thing you've seen someone order?"
Kanjiya moves to give Aiba another smack for derailing the interview, but Nino holds up his hand benevolently. People are fond of this question in regards to his boring, exhausting job. "The weirdest thing I've ever seen someone order, at least on the same order, was a double-sided dildo, mauve pink, along with a humidifier and organic dog treats."
"You handle dildos on the regular?" Aiba asks, curious and without shame. Nino decides, finally, that he likes Aiba Masaki and will probably get along with him.
Nino shrugs. "Everything's got a bar code. I just fill the order."
When he turns to Kanjiya, he expects to see a girlish blush or an eyebrow furrow of impatience. Instead she's grinning, reaching into the front pocket of her sweatshirt to pull out a slip of paper. She hands it to him, eyes brimming with hope. "With three people, this would be your contribution to the rent every month. If we can get a fourth person, your contribution will obviously drop."
He discovers that he'll only save about 4500 yen a month by rooming here, but the time saved on his commute will be worth it. "Can I have a tour before I answer?"
"Of course!" Aiba says, settling his mug on the coffee table. He watches out of the corner of his eye as Kanjiya snatches the mug up and settles it on her tray before it leaves a ring. He'll have to watch out for her when it comes to washing dishes and keeping the shared spaces tidy. He's grown rather slovenly with only another male for company the past two years.
The kitchen is first. There's a little bit of street noise, but he'd hardly heard it in the living room. The sink has only a cereal bowl and spoon waiting to be cleaned, a decent sign. There's also a wooden table and four matching chairs, one of the only instances of matching he's witnessed so far. Kanjiya's socked feet scuff along the linoleum behind him as Aiba leads the way.
They move from the kitchen back through the wide, large living room. Past the living room, a corridor with three doors on the left and three on the right take up the back half of the floor. The bedrooms are a little small, room for a single bed or futon, maybe a double bed if pushed against the wall, and a dresser. On the left, Aiba has the door in the middle, and the first is unoccupied. The door at the end leads to a small laundry room, a washing machine and drying area as well as a sliding door and covered balcony to hang things up outside. There's no view from the balcony, only the brick wall of the building behind them. The first two doors on the right are also bedrooms. Kanjiya's is first, the middle door unoccupied. A black and white cat with a small head but impressive tummy girth walks the corridor with the confidence of a long-term resident, heading to the open door at the end on the right.
It's a large bathroom, the shower and tub area home to four cubby holes bolted to the wall, two occupied that contain shampoo and soap pump bottles. There's a toilet room on the other side of the tub wall, and a windowsill inside it is stacked with what Nino discovers are out-of-date Japan Airlines in-flight magazines. He smiles at that, turning to see a fairly clean sink area with only a hair dryer resting out on the countertop. Under one of the counters, the wooden door has been taken off the hinges and the drawers removed. Nestled inside is a cat box with a top and a swinging plastic door for chubby little Kenji. The cat, not bothered by a stranger's presence, proceeds to go through the flap to do his business.
"On that note, the tour is concluded," Aiba announces, and they head back to the living room.
By 9:30 PM, Nino is handed a key and told to move in any time.
--
Kenji
He's taken the first room on the left, across from Kanjiya and next to Aiba. He feels this was the best option, not having to share a wall with a woman when there was a male available. He gets the feeling that this was Kanjiya's expectation for him anyhow.
Aiba is in San Francisco the week he moves in, so it's just the two of them and the cat as Nino adjusts to his new quarters and new roommate. Their schedules are easy to work with. Nino works Tuesday through Friday, and Kanjiya is on a Tuesday through Saturday schedule, 8 in the morning until 4. She showers or bathes in the evening, he does so when she leaves in the morning for work and he has the place to himself. On his first Sunday, their shared weekend, he catches her peering into his room from the doorway.
Her eyes seem impressed by the way he's got his systems arranged inside his gaming cabinet, Playstation 4 all the way back in time to the Famicom, an organized chaos of cords and controllers, his various discs and cartridges hidden away in a faux-leather zipped binder. He doesn't look up from Mario 3. "You want to play?"
"I was just thinking," she replies hesitantly, but not apologetically. He hears the door creak open a bit wider. "Aiba-san has that huge TV in the main room. You could always hook up in there, take advantage of it."
He's sitting cross-legged on the bed, laptop open and torrenting some movie beside him. "It's Aiba-san's TV."
"He likes to share," she says, fingernails tapping on the wood doorframe. "He'd probably be happy to know someone's using it when he's not."
Finally he presses pause and looks up. Her hair's piled up in some messy bun on top of her head, and she's holding a steaming mug advertising Alcatraz Island. "What about you? Don't you want to use the TV? You've been here longer, shouldn't you have privileges first?"
She grins. "Is that Super Mario 3?"
Within an hour, they've moved his entire gaming cabinet, cords and controllers and all, into the living room. Surprisingly it fits in well along the wall beside the enormous TV. The distance from the couch to the screen is actually perfect and much better on his back than sitting hunched over on his mattress. He's not a flexible kid anymore. This will also free up a lot of space in his bedroom, and maybe this is the reason she suggested it in the first place.
He rudely sits in the middle of the couch, but Kanjiya doesn't complain and relaxes in the leather armchair, sitting sideways with her legs flung over the arm of it so she can watch the TV. She chuckles noisily whenever Mario falls to his death, Nino still adjusting to the incredible screen size. Eventually he gets lost in it, advancing with fewer and fewer Mario deaths as the afternoon goes on. Kanjiya gets up a few times to get more coffee, another manga to page through while she's in the chair. Nino is surprised when she goes out of her way, behind the couch, so she doesn't cross in front of the screen while he's playing.
He eventually notices warmth at his side. Without really realizing it, the cat has taken up beside him, curled up in a fetal ball with its back against Nino's thigh. He scritches it behind the ear and goes back to his game. "Kenji usually takes the middle cushion by force," Kanjiya informs him. "But he seems to like you."
"He was the other guy's cat, right?" Nino grew up with dogs, is used to slobber and barks, not ninja-style approaches.
She nods.
"But he left it here."
She sighs. "Well, Keiko fell for him. She's a crazy cat lady. The type that when she's 65 she'll move off to an island by herself and just have a whole army of them. The type that creates a 'voice' for the cat and then has a full conversation with it about catnip. So we thought when she moved out that she'd take Kenji."
"But she didn't." Nino hasn't heard much about the previous tenant, but he's gathered so far that she and Kanjiya are close friends.
Kanjiya shakes her head. "Our cat expert decided it would be mean to uproot Kenji from his home when she moved, that it would give him psychological trauma. So he's still here. She already has a new cat at her new place."
Nino grins, bumping Mario's head against a large grouping of blocks. The cat beside him starts to snore. "Do you like cats, Kanjiya-san?"
She nods. "Kenji's okay with me. He doesn't howl or spray. He's fixed too, so he's not going to show up with a wife and kids someday. That would be a different story."
The cat has a bowl of dry food to munch on all day in the kitchen and gets a can of wet food at night when Kanjiya comes home from work. It pains him to ask these types of things, but with the cat curled up beside him, he feels it would be rude not to inquire. "Do you need me to chip in for his care?"
Kanjiya laughs. "Keiko orders cat food and litter online. Really fancy stuff too, no fillers. It's delivered here every month."
"For a cat that wasn't originally hers and even now that she's gone?"
"That cat eats better than a lot of people, you know."
Eventually the cat abandons him, toddling off down the hall to scratch around in his cat box. Kanjiya follows him a short time later. When she returns, she heads to do dishes. He hears her call from the kitchen.
"You don't have to pay for anything, but if you want to scoop the poop once in a while, you'll feel like part of the family."
He smiles at that, hopping over some lava. When he goes to bed that night, three hours after Kanjiya closes her own bedroom door, he hears a scratch scratch scratch. He opens the door and Kenji shoves his way inside. Nino sighs. He hasn't even had to scoop once and already the cat has adopted him. It curls up at his feet, and Nino sleeps easily.
--
Onion King
Kanjiya is dancing in the living room with a food bag when Nino returns from work, wanting to lie down on the floor and pass out. "What's the occasion?" he asks, settling for the chair.
She doesn't stop dancing, twirling around the room. She's got on a skirt that reaches her ankles and it swirls around, a flurry of floral-patterned color. "Onion King!" she announces in English.
The toilet flushes, and suddenly Nino remembers that Aiba is home, probably got in that afternoon. "Hey Nino!" he says, having already bypassed "Ninomiya-san" and "Ninomiya-kun." Nino doesn't mind.
"What's she dancing for?"
"Onion King!" Kanjiya repeats, shaking the bag again. "Onion King!"
"Has she lost her mind?"
Aiba settles on the couch, and they both watch her dance. She changes from twirling to some ballerina-style leaps, poorly executed. With the dental office closed downstairs, they can really stomp around all they want after hours. Finally Aiba reaches for the TV remote and changes from the music video Kanjiya was watching to some show with comedians. It doesn't deter the celebration.
"Onion King," Aiba explains. "They're potato chips, made in America. I always bring them back for her. She's addicted. It's gotten serious, I feel like a drug dealer."
"They're the best," she says, finally stopping her noisy leaps. The bag arcs through the air, lands on Nino's belly. There's a giant ONION KING label in bold, black English lettering. Beneath is an anthropomorphic onion with a crown on its head and a creepy smile.
"Can I have one?"
"One chip or one bag?" she asks suspiciously, fingers itching to take it back.
"Whatever you're offering."
She pushes past Aiba to perch at the edge of the couch, within chip-snatching distance of her bag and Nino's place in the chair. "Please try them," she says.
He adjusts in the chair to avoid spilling them all over himself. He's not eager to learn how she'd react if such a thing happened. The scent of fake onion dominates the room once he's got the bag open. These things are not messing around. Surely Japan has an equivalent of these this, he decides when he pulls one out. Is it really worth bringing across the ocean? It's oval, rippled, dotted with little green specks and powdery onion dust. It's about the worst thing he's ever put in his mouth, and he gently holds out the bag so she can have her nasty snacks back.
There's a look of triumph in her eyes as she takes it, curling up on the couch and settling in. She seems extremely pleased that neither of her roommates is an Onion King threat.
"How many of those does he bring you?" Nino asks, ready to fall asleep then and there. He'd retrieved and scanned 105% of his quota that day, walking twelve miles. Now his readiness for sleep is being agitated by the onion stink in his mouth.
She looks over at Aiba with love in her eyes. "How many, huh?"
Aiba shakes his head, chuckling. "They come in 300 gram bags like that. They were on sale, so I brought 10."
"Ten bags of potato chips?" Nino exclaims. "Is there a customs charge?"
Kanjiya crunches down on a clump of them. "Delicious!"
"No," Aiba says. "Flight crew can bring along almost anything, although they make fun of me like crazy. My usual captain even knows about it, calls me Onion Guy."
Kanjiya smiles, little green specks on her teeth already. "Aiba-san is the best ever!"
Aiba soaks in the appreciation, lacing his fingers behind his head, feet up on the coffee table. "It's that smile that makes it all worth it. Although the breath is like something died..."
Aiba gets a punch in the arm for that comment, and Nino rolls his eyes. He hopes Kanjiya's got some breath mints to chase the chips with. "And what do you do in return for Aiba-san and his generosity? He gets called names all for you."
Kanjiya narrows her eyes. "I don't do sexual favors for potato chips."
Nino gasps, not realizing his question could have been taken that way. But it only makes Aiba and Kanjiya laugh again, and he understands he's caused no offense. He's known from the first day they met that Aiba and Kanjiya don't have that kind of arrangement. But at least now he's got confirmation. Not that it would matter to him if they were sleeping together. Why would it? They've been in close quarters a long time. Secretly, though, Nino is pleased to hear it. Living together with the opposite sex can always lead to drama, and Nino leads a drama-free lifestyle.
"I need a bath," Kanjiya announces. "Last call."
"Let me brush my teeth," Nino grumbles, hauling himself up. Kenji headbutts him while he stands at the bathroom sink, looking desperately for any green spots. He's got his mouth wide, checking his molars for any other offensive remnants, when Kanjiya knocks on the bathroom door.
"Are you brushing or unhinging your jaw like a snake?"
He gestures at her with the toothbrush while Kenji perches himself on the edge of the tub, tail swishing. "Those chips are disgusting."
She shrugs. "I won't breathe on you, don't get so weird."
"I apologize for implying that you reward Aiba-san with your body for them."
She shoos the cat from the tub and takes her shampoo and bath bubbles from her cubby, arranging them to her satisfaction. "He's very attractive. I wouldn't need to be compensated, I mean to say. But he's too noisy. Don't you think so?" If anything has grown stronger over the past few weeks, it's her willingness to be frank around him. He's never really been around a woman like her before.
"I don't have those kind of opinions about Aiba-san yet."
She smiles. "You've got toothpaste on your shirt. Too bad you have to leave."
He shudders at the thought of onion powder dust on her fingers as she pulls his toothbrush away, puts it in the holder, and pushes him out of the bathroom.
--
Blue Hawaii
There's a bar around the corner from the apartment, unpopular on account of how many bars there are closer to Kasai Station. Nino likes the place for this reason, though. They have no trouble getting the large semi-circle booth in the rear of the place underneath a vintage Kirin poster. He's between Aiba and Shihori, who is now Shihori after three weeks in the apartment. "You've seen my underwear hanging up on the balcony," she had said. "I think we can be on a first-name basis if you wish."
Aiba's at the end so he can easily get out, ordering a pitcher and five glasses from the bar. They're waiting for two more, Nino's first official introduction to Kitagawa Keiko, former roommate, crazy cat lady. He'd gotten an unofficial introduction when the order of food and litter for Kenji arrived the other day and Nino signed for it.
Keiko-san is bringing along her boyfriend, Sho, the reason for her moving out. It's a Saturday evening, and Shihori had spent the late afternoon in the apartment explaining to Nino all the reasons why Keiko left her and how such an act has been devastating beyond imagining.
"We were college roommates, and Keiko's not the type to need a guy. She was never, you know, militant about it, but it was always 'Shii-chan, we must rely on ourselves' and 'Shii-chan, it's all about what we want first,' and then what do you know, she moves out to live with a guy!" Shihori had grumbled, standing in front of the bathroom mirror putting on her mascara. Nino had been sitting on the tub, watching.
"Does she love him?"
"Well, yes of course," had been Shihori's response. "He's wonderful."
Nino had held in a laugh at that. Shihori is mostly sad to not have her best friend at her beck and call any longer. Keiko-san works in the marketing department for some big-name firm with offices near Shinjuku Station. Sakurai-san, the boyfriend, is an economics professor at Meiji, Keiko and Shihori's alma mater. They'd met through a mutual friend. They're both "huge nerds," Aiba has pointed out in anticipation of their meet-up that evening.
Shihori shimmies out the other end of the booth when the bar door opens and two obnoxiously attractive people enter. The type of people who'd have anime sparkles around them if they were, obviously, animated and not regular humans. Nerdy is not the impression Nino gets when a woman with wavy, dark hair and model-long legs approaches on the arm of a guy with a billion-yen smile and thick hair that makes Nino resent his receding hairline all the more. The only thing nerdy about Sakurai is his blazer with elbow patches, something that's such a professor stereotype Nino almost can't believe he's seeing it in real life.
"Hello, hello," Sakurai greets them, relinquishing hold of his girlfriend so she can more easily be dragged to the booth by Shihori. Sakurai lets the women settle in the middle and takes the end.
Keiko-san wiggles out of her coat, and Sakurai takes it to hang on the hook at the end of the booth without missing a beat. Disgustingly perfect. No wonder Shihori is envious. Aiba returns, more greetings all around the table, and starts to pour the beer. Shihori pats Nino on the shoulder.
"Kei-chan, our newest roommate. Ninomiya-san."
"Ninomiya Kazunari," Nino says, shaking Sho's outstretched hand, accepting a friendly wave from Keiko-san. "Nice to meet you."
Where Nino is initially embarrassed to be drinking with two extremely educated people, expecting them to smile and nod politely when they learn of his employment at the warehouse, he learns they're not snobby. Shihori is all too quick to relate the mauve pink dildo story, and Keiko ends up snorting into her beer in a very un-ladylike, rather Shihori-like fashion. It doesn't disturb her boyfriend at all, who merely hands her the handkerchief from his blazer pocket and finds Nino's job fascinating. For the next half-hour at least, Nino is the center of conversation, getting tag teamed by Sakurai and Aiba who want to learn more about the inner workings of Rakuten and the weird shit people on the Internet like to order.
Eventually chatter moves to Sakurai, who really is the nerd Aiba had promised and much more. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and PhD from Keio, bam bam bam, and had chosen to teach at Meiji only because he'd been in Keio's schools since kindergarten and wanted a change of pace. He's the advisor for the Meiji campus Quiz Bowl team when he's not lecturing, and apparently writes a foodie blog about ramen spots in Tokyo he has enjoyed. Sho blushes in embarrassment when Keiko pulls up one of these blog entries on her phone.
"I had to proofread this, you know," she says, a bracelet on her thin wrist jangling as she hands the phone over to Shihori. Nino scoots over, their thighs touching, so they can read it together. "It's 7200 words! About this hole in the wall place down by Gotanda."
"I like to be thorough in my assessments," Sakurai explains, sipping his beer and not liking the teasing one bit.
"'When visiting Blue Hawaii, one is instantly struck by the charming decor. A painting of Diamond Head on the wall greets you like a warm embrace'," Shihori reads, unable to hold in a chuckle. "A ramen shop called Blue Hawaii?"
"I'll have you know, Shihori-chan, that pineapple is an unexpectedly interesting topping for shoyu ramen," Sakurai continues in his own defense, but it only makes him look stranger and stranger.
Nino is usually wary of meeting new people, especially when he is the outsider and knows the least about an existing circle of friends. But with Keiko-san and Sho-san he is able to relate, to laugh, to get along instantly. The anime sparkles of their entrance lessen as the night carries on, and they're just people the same as Aiba and Shihori, the same as Nino himself.
The five of them are thoroughly drunk before even 10 PM, a sign that they're not so young any longer. Keiko at 27 is the youngest, but even she is quick to turn pink in the face, her earlier calm giving way to noisy Kansai-ben, especially when Aiba chooses topics of conversation to rile her up. Nino can imagine the three of them in the living room of the apartment, laughing. It's no wonder Shihori misses her so much. Maybe it's the beer talking, but in that moment, Nino feels terrible for Shihori having to be without her, Shihori having to instead live with two weird men like himself and Aiba.
"I wanna see Kenji," Keiko insists loudly. "I wanna see him."
"You're going to be terrible on the train," Sho is complaining. "You're like an old man. I'm dating an old man."
"Then we'll go in a taxi!" Keiko says back, poking him in the chin. "If I'm so embarrassing."
Shihori is half-asleep when they do finally leave the booth. When they head out into the night and the chilly air, Nino turns to put an arm around her, to help her walk back to the apartment, but Aiba's there first, easily hoisting her onto his back like it's something he's done before. For an instant Nino is jealous, knowing that with his smaller frame and general lack of strength that he's useless at carrying girls. He finds himself trailing a bit behind on the walk back, Aiba carrying Shihori and Sho with his arm around Keiko, for the only time that evening feeling like a fifth wheel.
"Kenji!" Keiko shouts as soon as they're up the stairs, hurrying through the apartment. "Kenji, baby!"
Sho collapses into the leather chair like he's done this a hundred times before. Perhaps he has. Nino isn't sure how long he and Keiko have been together, but at least long enough that he's got Keiko proofreading his precious blog. Aiba sets Shihori down and she heads for the bathroom, announcing to everyone her plan to "pee until there's nothing left!"
Nino stumbles his way to the kitchen, pulling together a sampling of the colorful mugs and filling them all with ice cold water from the filtered container in the fridge. In the time it takes to do this, Aiba has put on Nino's Nintendo 64 and is racing Sho in a game of Mario Kart. Keiko has retrieved the cat and is sitting beside Aiba on the couch with Kenji in her lap, looking the happiest she has all night. Nino can imagine her on that island Shihori had created, surrounded by a flock of devoted felines.
He sits on Aiba's other side, criticizing Sho's usage of banana peels on the Mario Kart racetrack. Sho grumbles back at him unintelligibly, not sounding very professorial. Shihori finally returns from the bathroom and sits down between Nino and Aiba, even though there's barely room. She's warm and soft, the feeling of her beside him, and he tries to scoot against the arm of the couch to give her room to be comfortable. She's in a happy daze, surrounded by friends, and she sips the water from her Alcatraz mug with a smile on her face.
It's been ages since Nino has felt this comfortable, this relaxed, and he realizes for the first time how glad he is for having moved here.
Part Two
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Ninomiya Kazunari/Kanjiya Shihori (with Aiba, Jun, Sho/Kitagawa Keiko, and Ohno)
Summary: It's been ages since Nino has felt this comfortable, this relaxed, and he realizes for the first time how glad he is for having moved here. Scenes from a year in Nino's life as he moves into the four-bedroom apartment over the dental office and makes some new friends.
Notes/Warnings: I apologize so much for the delay, but I finally finished something for the jpnforph fundraiser! This is to fulfill toinkydoink's request for a story featuring Nino, Kanjiya Shihori, and Jun. A roommates/new apartment neighbors AU! This is mostly a slice-of-life story about nothing. Raine, I hope you'll enjoy!
Mauve Pink
Commuting from Setagaya to Funabashi has maybe taken three years from his life, Nino thinks. So it almost seems like a miracle when Subaru comes home from his late shift one day and says he's moving out when the lease is up the next month. Nino can't afford the place on his own, so he decides that he and Subaru will part company and part with the apartment at the same time.
A month is rather short notice, especially in winter, so Nino turns to his limited circle of trustworthy friends and acquaintances, firing out a desperate request for lodgings in a certain monthly price range and closer to the warehouse than a Setagaya commute. It's his high school senpai Ohno who finally replies, only after Nino sees him at one of Subaru's gigs. "I changed my phone number," Ohno says without apology, eyes heavy-lidded from a beer too many. "I know someone though."
Ohno's a soft-spoken person and no noisy rock band on stage fifty feet away is going to change that. Nino, exasperated, finally gets his friend to write down the details on a cocktail napkin. It's not far from Ohno's job in Edogawa, and Nino would be sharing a place with Ohno's co-worker from the ENEOS station. It isn't until the next day when he calls the number that he learns that Ohno's co-worker from the ENEOS station is female.
"It's a four-bedroom set-up," the woman, Kanjiya-san, informs him in a voice that reveals nothing about what she might look like. "There's only two of us right now, we lost our third a few weeks ago. So with you, we split rent three ways. Can you come by tomorrow to meet both of us?"
Nino clocks out at 8:00 PM, and instead of an hour and a half it only takes 35 minutes to get to Kasai Station in Edogawa. From there it's not even a ten minute walk with his tired feet to the place, an older building just off a main road. "Look for the vending machines," Kanjiya-san had said, one of the more idiotic directions a person in Tokyo could give. But she's right - when he turns the corner, he discovers the building is next to a bank of at least ten brightly-lit vending machines. It's a narrow brown structure, aging stone. The ground floor is a dental office, and the apartment apparently takes up the entire second floor.
There's a door next to the dental office's main door leading to an entryway with a tiny checkerboard tile floor. Behind another door with a glass middle, an orange-carpeted staircase leads up to the apartment. There are mailboxes for four in the little entryway - only two names are currently filled in, handwritten. "Aiba" reads the one on the far left and "Kanjiya" beside it. He presses the buzzer keeping the inside door locked and is granted entry in seconds.
The carpet does a good job muffling his footsteps, and there's a heavy-looking wooden door at the top. It opens just as he raises his hand to knock.
"Don't let the cat out!" comes a female voice from somewhere inside.
The man at the door rolls his eyes, holding the door wide. "You must be Ninomiya-san."
He slips out of his shoes and heavy coat and follows the man down the short hall to the large living room where a massive flat-screen TV is currently set on mute. Despite the narrow stairway, they've managed to cram a decently sized, if hideous lime green sofa into the room. The chocolate brown throw pillows don't help either. The place gives off a college dormitory feel - no artwork on the walls, but a selection of posters (X Japan on one wall, L'Arc-en-Ciel on another). IKEA bookshelves, IKEA TV stand, IKEA lamps. Nino, however, doesn't much mind. He lives similarly. The important thing is that the place is very clean, save for a tuft or two of white cat hair in a few spots on the couch and rug.
The man from the door encourages Nino to have a seat in an unmatching, overstuffed black leather armchair. He's Aiba Masaki, he explains, and he's thirty-one. "Don't let the cat out!" emerges from a kitchen just beyond the couch. Even in the dark he can see the windows above the sink and countertops are the ones that look out onto the street. She's got a tray with three mugs on it. Once again, nothing matches. The entire place is a jumble of furniture and items acquired with no seeming forethought.
He pictured someone a little older on the phone, but Kanjiya Shihori is of an age with him and Aiba-san, maybe a little younger. She doesn't volunteer her age, only handing over a mug of black tea, the label and string flapping as she gives it to him. The mug advertises Meiji University in dark purple characters.
She sets the empty tray down on the coffee table and curls up on the couch with her legs under her. The occupants of the Edogawa apartment have gone to no trouble to look nice for him. Aiba-san is in a t-shirt and sweatpants, Kanjiya-san in a hooded sweatshirt and plaid pajama pants. They both have friendlier expressions than Nino is used to in a roommate since Subaru is perpetually sulky if it's any time the sun is still up, rock star that he wishes to be. Aiba-san has an odd, scratchy kind of voice, short brown hair, and a relaxed, cheerful smile. Kanjiya-san has blunt black fringe that reaches her eyebrows and a round face. She's short and a little curvy where Aiba is skinny and all limbs. There's a shrewdness in her face that Aiba-san seems to lack. Nino knows who's in charge here.
"Ninomiya-san, do you have any references?" Aiba asks, dipping the tea packet up and down inside his mug.
"Idiot," Kanjiya chides him, sighing what sounds like a long-suffering sigh. "Oh-chan sent him here."
Aiba ignores her rebuke, his eyes nearly sparkling in the IKEA-lamp glow that warms up the room. "Are you a serial killer? I can't share living space with a serial killer. Any psychotic tendencies?"
"No," Nino says uncomfortably, and this earns Aiba a good smack in the arm from Kanjiya. He nearly spills his tea.
"Ow," Aiba protests. "I think it's a valid question."
Kanjiya takes charge of the interview from there. She gives a concise rundown of the current situation. At one time they were four - Aiba and Kanjiya as well as a Keiko-san and a guy called "Yoko." Yoko has been gone for six months, having moved back home to Osaka for a new job. He took all of his belongings except the cat, Kenji, a stray he'd found near the river. Keiko-san has only been gone for two weeks, but no matter how many residents the apartment has, the rent is the same.
"The more bodies in the building, the less we pay," Aiba supplies helpfully.
Kanjiya moves on efficiently, trying to suss out their compatibility. It emerges that the jokey, cheerful Aiba is a flight attendant for Japan Airlines. He's based out of Narita and is usually scheduled to Los Angeles or San Francisco. He works a three days on, three days off schedule, and half of the month he's not even in the apartment. It seems to explain a lot about the impermanent feeling of the furniture. As Nino already knows, Kanjiya works at the ENEOS gas station with Ohno, daytime shift. When she seems to pause for Nino to weigh in on her choice of job, he says nothing, offers no judgment. This seems to please her because he can see her shoulders visibly relax.
They turn to Nino next, inquisitive. "I'm a warehouse associate," he explains. "For Rakuten. There's a warehouse in Funabashi, I scan things, put them in a bin, and put the bins on a conveyor belt. I work four days a week, off three, 10-8."
"What's the weirdest thing you've seen someone order?"
Kanjiya moves to give Aiba another smack for derailing the interview, but Nino holds up his hand benevolently. People are fond of this question in regards to his boring, exhausting job. "The weirdest thing I've ever seen someone order, at least on the same order, was a double-sided dildo, mauve pink, along with a humidifier and organic dog treats."
"You handle dildos on the regular?" Aiba asks, curious and without shame. Nino decides, finally, that he likes Aiba Masaki and will probably get along with him.
Nino shrugs. "Everything's got a bar code. I just fill the order."
When he turns to Kanjiya, he expects to see a girlish blush or an eyebrow furrow of impatience. Instead she's grinning, reaching into the front pocket of her sweatshirt to pull out a slip of paper. She hands it to him, eyes brimming with hope. "With three people, this would be your contribution to the rent every month. If we can get a fourth person, your contribution will obviously drop."
He discovers that he'll only save about 4500 yen a month by rooming here, but the time saved on his commute will be worth it. "Can I have a tour before I answer?"
"Of course!" Aiba says, settling his mug on the coffee table. He watches out of the corner of his eye as Kanjiya snatches the mug up and settles it on her tray before it leaves a ring. He'll have to watch out for her when it comes to washing dishes and keeping the shared spaces tidy. He's grown rather slovenly with only another male for company the past two years.
The kitchen is first. There's a little bit of street noise, but he'd hardly heard it in the living room. The sink has only a cereal bowl and spoon waiting to be cleaned, a decent sign. There's also a wooden table and four matching chairs, one of the only instances of matching he's witnessed so far. Kanjiya's socked feet scuff along the linoleum behind him as Aiba leads the way.
They move from the kitchen back through the wide, large living room. Past the living room, a corridor with three doors on the left and three on the right take up the back half of the floor. The bedrooms are a little small, room for a single bed or futon, maybe a double bed if pushed against the wall, and a dresser. On the left, Aiba has the door in the middle, and the first is unoccupied. The door at the end leads to a small laundry room, a washing machine and drying area as well as a sliding door and covered balcony to hang things up outside. There's no view from the balcony, only the brick wall of the building behind them. The first two doors on the right are also bedrooms. Kanjiya's is first, the middle door unoccupied. A black and white cat with a small head but impressive tummy girth walks the corridor with the confidence of a long-term resident, heading to the open door at the end on the right.
It's a large bathroom, the shower and tub area home to four cubby holes bolted to the wall, two occupied that contain shampoo and soap pump bottles. There's a toilet room on the other side of the tub wall, and a windowsill inside it is stacked with what Nino discovers are out-of-date Japan Airlines in-flight magazines. He smiles at that, turning to see a fairly clean sink area with only a hair dryer resting out on the countertop. Under one of the counters, the wooden door has been taken off the hinges and the drawers removed. Nestled inside is a cat box with a top and a swinging plastic door for chubby little Kenji. The cat, not bothered by a stranger's presence, proceeds to go through the flap to do his business.
"On that note, the tour is concluded," Aiba announces, and they head back to the living room.
By 9:30 PM, Nino is handed a key and told to move in any time.
--
Kenji
He's taken the first room on the left, across from Kanjiya and next to Aiba. He feels this was the best option, not having to share a wall with a woman when there was a male available. He gets the feeling that this was Kanjiya's expectation for him anyhow.
Aiba is in San Francisco the week he moves in, so it's just the two of them and the cat as Nino adjusts to his new quarters and new roommate. Their schedules are easy to work with. Nino works Tuesday through Friday, and Kanjiya is on a Tuesday through Saturday schedule, 8 in the morning until 4. She showers or bathes in the evening, he does so when she leaves in the morning for work and he has the place to himself. On his first Sunday, their shared weekend, he catches her peering into his room from the doorway.
Her eyes seem impressed by the way he's got his systems arranged inside his gaming cabinet, Playstation 4 all the way back in time to the Famicom, an organized chaos of cords and controllers, his various discs and cartridges hidden away in a faux-leather zipped binder. He doesn't look up from Mario 3. "You want to play?"
"I was just thinking," she replies hesitantly, but not apologetically. He hears the door creak open a bit wider. "Aiba-san has that huge TV in the main room. You could always hook up in there, take advantage of it."
He's sitting cross-legged on the bed, laptop open and torrenting some movie beside him. "It's Aiba-san's TV."
"He likes to share," she says, fingernails tapping on the wood doorframe. "He'd probably be happy to know someone's using it when he's not."
Finally he presses pause and looks up. Her hair's piled up in some messy bun on top of her head, and she's holding a steaming mug advertising Alcatraz Island. "What about you? Don't you want to use the TV? You've been here longer, shouldn't you have privileges first?"
She grins. "Is that Super Mario 3?"
Within an hour, they've moved his entire gaming cabinet, cords and controllers and all, into the living room. Surprisingly it fits in well along the wall beside the enormous TV. The distance from the couch to the screen is actually perfect and much better on his back than sitting hunched over on his mattress. He's not a flexible kid anymore. This will also free up a lot of space in his bedroom, and maybe this is the reason she suggested it in the first place.
He rudely sits in the middle of the couch, but Kanjiya doesn't complain and relaxes in the leather armchair, sitting sideways with her legs flung over the arm of it so she can watch the TV. She chuckles noisily whenever Mario falls to his death, Nino still adjusting to the incredible screen size. Eventually he gets lost in it, advancing with fewer and fewer Mario deaths as the afternoon goes on. Kanjiya gets up a few times to get more coffee, another manga to page through while she's in the chair. Nino is surprised when she goes out of her way, behind the couch, so she doesn't cross in front of the screen while he's playing.
He eventually notices warmth at his side. Without really realizing it, the cat has taken up beside him, curled up in a fetal ball with its back against Nino's thigh. He scritches it behind the ear and goes back to his game. "Kenji usually takes the middle cushion by force," Kanjiya informs him. "But he seems to like you."
"He was the other guy's cat, right?" Nino grew up with dogs, is used to slobber and barks, not ninja-style approaches.
She nods.
"But he left it here."
She sighs. "Well, Keiko fell for him. She's a crazy cat lady. The type that when she's 65 she'll move off to an island by herself and just have a whole army of them. The type that creates a 'voice' for the cat and then has a full conversation with it about catnip. So we thought when she moved out that she'd take Kenji."
"But she didn't." Nino hasn't heard much about the previous tenant, but he's gathered so far that she and Kanjiya are close friends.
Kanjiya shakes her head. "Our cat expert decided it would be mean to uproot Kenji from his home when she moved, that it would give him psychological trauma. So he's still here. She already has a new cat at her new place."
Nino grins, bumping Mario's head against a large grouping of blocks. The cat beside him starts to snore. "Do you like cats, Kanjiya-san?"
She nods. "Kenji's okay with me. He doesn't howl or spray. He's fixed too, so he's not going to show up with a wife and kids someday. That would be a different story."
The cat has a bowl of dry food to munch on all day in the kitchen and gets a can of wet food at night when Kanjiya comes home from work. It pains him to ask these types of things, but with the cat curled up beside him, he feels it would be rude not to inquire. "Do you need me to chip in for his care?"
Kanjiya laughs. "Keiko orders cat food and litter online. Really fancy stuff too, no fillers. It's delivered here every month."
"For a cat that wasn't originally hers and even now that she's gone?"
"That cat eats better than a lot of people, you know."
Eventually the cat abandons him, toddling off down the hall to scratch around in his cat box. Kanjiya follows him a short time later. When she returns, she heads to do dishes. He hears her call from the kitchen.
"You don't have to pay for anything, but if you want to scoop the poop once in a while, you'll feel like part of the family."
He smiles at that, hopping over some lava. When he goes to bed that night, three hours after Kanjiya closes her own bedroom door, he hears a scratch scratch scratch. He opens the door and Kenji shoves his way inside. Nino sighs. He hasn't even had to scoop once and already the cat has adopted him. It curls up at his feet, and Nino sleeps easily.
--
Onion King
Kanjiya is dancing in the living room with a food bag when Nino returns from work, wanting to lie down on the floor and pass out. "What's the occasion?" he asks, settling for the chair.
She doesn't stop dancing, twirling around the room. She's got on a skirt that reaches her ankles and it swirls around, a flurry of floral-patterned color. "Onion King!" she announces in English.
The toilet flushes, and suddenly Nino remembers that Aiba is home, probably got in that afternoon. "Hey Nino!" he says, having already bypassed "Ninomiya-san" and "Ninomiya-kun." Nino doesn't mind.
"What's she dancing for?"
"Onion King!" Kanjiya repeats, shaking the bag again. "Onion King!"
"Has she lost her mind?"
Aiba settles on the couch, and they both watch her dance. She changes from twirling to some ballerina-style leaps, poorly executed. With the dental office closed downstairs, they can really stomp around all they want after hours. Finally Aiba reaches for the TV remote and changes from the music video Kanjiya was watching to some show with comedians. It doesn't deter the celebration.
"Onion King," Aiba explains. "They're potato chips, made in America. I always bring them back for her. She's addicted. It's gotten serious, I feel like a drug dealer."
"They're the best," she says, finally stopping her noisy leaps. The bag arcs through the air, lands on Nino's belly. There's a giant ONION KING label in bold, black English lettering. Beneath is an anthropomorphic onion with a crown on its head and a creepy smile.
"Can I have one?"
"One chip or one bag?" she asks suspiciously, fingers itching to take it back.
"Whatever you're offering."
She pushes past Aiba to perch at the edge of the couch, within chip-snatching distance of her bag and Nino's place in the chair. "Please try them," she says.
He adjusts in the chair to avoid spilling them all over himself. He's not eager to learn how she'd react if such a thing happened. The scent of fake onion dominates the room once he's got the bag open. These things are not messing around. Surely Japan has an equivalent of these this, he decides when he pulls one out. Is it really worth bringing across the ocean? It's oval, rippled, dotted with little green specks and powdery onion dust. It's about the worst thing he's ever put in his mouth, and he gently holds out the bag so she can have her nasty snacks back.
There's a look of triumph in her eyes as she takes it, curling up on the couch and settling in. She seems extremely pleased that neither of her roommates is an Onion King threat.
"How many of those does he bring you?" Nino asks, ready to fall asleep then and there. He'd retrieved and scanned 105% of his quota that day, walking twelve miles. Now his readiness for sleep is being agitated by the onion stink in his mouth.
She looks over at Aiba with love in her eyes. "How many, huh?"
Aiba shakes his head, chuckling. "They come in 300 gram bags like that. They were on sale, so I brought 10."
"Ten bags of potato chips?" Nino exclaims. "Is there a customs charge?"
Kanjiya crunches down on a clump of them. "Delicious!"
"No," Aiba says. "Flight crew can bring along almost anything, although they make fun of me like crazy. My usual captain even knows about it, calls me Onion Guy."
Kanjiya smiles, little green specks on her teeth already. "Aiba-san is the best ever!"
Aiba soaks in the appreciation, lacing his fingers behind his head, feet up on the coffee table. "It's that smile that makes it all worth it. Although the breath is like something died..."
Aiba gets a punch in the arm for that comment, and Nino rolls his eyes. He hopes Kanjiya's got some breath mints to chase the chips with. "And what do you do in return for Aiba-san and his generosity? He gets called names all for you."
Kanjiya narrows her eyes. "I don't do sexual favors for potato chips."
Nino gasps, not realizing his question could have been taken that way. But it only makes Aiba and Kanjiya laugh again, and he understands he's caused no offense. He's known from the first day they met that Aiba and Kanjiya don't have that kind of arrangement. But at least now he's got confirmation. Not that it would matter to him if they were sleeping together. Why would it? They've been in close quarters a long time. Secretly, though, Nino is pleased to hear it. Living together with the opposite sex can always lead to drama, and Nino leads a drama-free lifestyle.
"I need a bath," Kanjiya announces. "Last call."
"Let me brush my teeth," Nino grumbles, hauling himself up. Kenji headbutts him while he stands at the bathroom sink, looking desperately for any green spots. He's got his mouth wide, checking his molars for any other offensive remnants, when Kanjiya knocks on the bathroom door.
"Are you brushing or unhinging your jaw like a snake?"
He gestures at her with the toothbrush while Kenji perches himself on the edge of the tub, tail swishing. "Those chips are disgusting."
She shrugs. "I won't breathe on you, don't get so weird."
"I apologize for implying that you reward Aiba-san with your body for them."
She shoos the cat from the tub and takes her shampoo and bath bubbles from her cubby, arranging them to her satisfaction. "He's very attractive. I wouldn't need to be compensated, I mean to say. But he's too noisy. Don't you think so?" If anything has grown stronger over the past few weeks, it's her willingness to be frank around him. He's never really been around a woman like her before.
"I don't have those kind of opinions about Aiba-san yet."
She smiles. "You've got toothpaste on your shirt. Too bad you have to leave."
He shudders at the thought of onion powder dust on her fingers as she pulls his toothbrush away, puts it in the holder, and pushes him out of the bathroom.
--
Blue Hawaii
There's a bar around the corner from the apartment, unpopular on account of how many bars there are closer to Kasai Station. Nino likes the place for this reason, though. They have no trouble getting the large semi-circle booth in the rear of the place underneath a vintage Kirin poster. He's between Aiba and Shihori, who is now Shihori after three weeks in the apartment. "You've seen my underwear hanging up on the balcony," she had said. "I think we can be on a first-name basis if you wish."
Aiba's at the end so he can easily get out, ordering a pitcher and five glasses from the bar. They're waiting for two more, Nino's first official introduction to Kitagawa Keiko, former roommate, crazy cat lady. He'd gotten an unofficial introduction when the order of food and litter for Kenji arrived the other day and Nino signed for it.
Keiko-san is bringing along her boyfriend, Sho, the reason for her moving out. It's a Saturday evening, and Shihori had spent the late afternoon in the apartment explaining to Nino all the reasons why Keiko left her and how such an act has been devastating beyond imagining.
"We were college roommates, and Keiko's not the type to need a guy. She was never, you know, militant about it, but it was always 'Shii-chan, we must rely on ourselves' and 'Shii-chan, it's all about what we want first,' and then what do you know, she moves out to live with a guy!" Shihori had grumbled, standing in front of the bathroom mirror putting on her mascara. Nino had been sitting on the tub, watching.
"Does she love him?"
"Well, yes of course," had been Shihori's response. "He's wonderful."
Nino had held in a laugh at that. Shihori is mostly sad to not have her best friend at her beck and call any longer. Keiko-san works in the marketing department for some big-name firm with offices near Shinjuku Station. Sakurai-san, the boyfriend, is an economics professor at Meiji, Keiko and Shihori's alma mater. They'd met through a mutual friend. They're both "huge nerds," Aiba has pointed out in anticipation of their meet-up that evening.
Shihori shimmies out the other end of the booth when the bar door opens and two obnoxiously attractive people enter. The type of people who'd have anime sparkles around them if they were, obviously, animated and not regular humans. Nerdy is not the impression Nino gets when a woman with wavy, dark hair and model-long legs approaches on the arm of a guy with a billion-yen smile and thick hair that makes Nino resent his receding hairline all the more. The only thing nerdy about Sakurai is his blazer with elbow patches, something that's such a professor stereotype Nino almost can't believe he's seeing it in real life.
"Hello, hello," Sakurai greets them, relinquishing hold of his girlfriend so she can more easily be dragged to the booth by Shihori. Sakurai lets the women settle in the middle and takes the end.
Keiko-san wiggles out of her coat, and Sakurai takes it to hang on the hook at the end of the booth without missing a beat. Disgustingly perfect. No wonder Shihori is envious. Aiba returns, more greetings all around the table, and starts to pour the beer. Shihori pats Nino on the shoulder.
"Kei-chan, our newest roommate. Ninomiya-san."
"Ninomiya Kazunari," Nino says, shaking Sho's outstretched hand, accepting a friendly wave from Keiko-san. "Nice to meet you."
Where Nino is initially embarrassed to be drinking with two extremely educated people, expecting them to smile and nod politely when they learn of his employment at the warehouse, he learns they're not snobby. Shihori is all too quick to relate the mauve pink dildo story, and Keiko ends up snorting into her beer in a very un-ladylike, rather Shihori-like fashion. It doesn't disturb her boyfriend at all, who merely hands her the handkerchief from his blazer pocket and finds Nino's job fascinating. For the next half-hour at least, Nino is the center of conversation, getting tag teamed by Sakurai and Aiba who want to learn more about the inner workings of Rakuten and the weird shit people on the Internet like to order.
Eventually chatter moves to Sakurai, who really is the nerd Aiba had promised and much more. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and PhD from Keio, bam bam bam, and had chosen to teach at Meiji only because he'd been in Keio's schools since kindergarten and wanted a change of pace. He's the advisor for the Meiji campus Quiz Bowl team when he's not lecturing, and apparently writes a foodie blog about ramen spots in Tokyo he has enjoyed. Sho blushes in embarrassment when Keiko pulls up one of these blog entries on her phone.
"I had to proofread this, you know," she says, a bracelet on her thin wrist jangling as she hands the phone over to Shihori. Nino scoots over, their thighs touching, so they can read it together. "It's 7200 words! About this hole in the wall place down by Gotanda."
"I like to be thorough in my assessments," Sakurai explains, sipping his beer and not liking the teasing one bit.
"'When visiting Blue Hawaii, one is instantly struck by the charming decor. A painting of Diamond Head on the wall greets you like a warm embrace'," Shihori reads, unable to hold in a chuckle. "A ramen shop called Blue Hawaii?"
"I'll have you know, Shihori-chan, that pineapple is an unexpectedly interesting topping for shoyu ramen," Sakurai continues in his own defense, but it only makes him look stranger and stranger.
Nino is usually wary of meeting new people, especially when he is the outsider and knows the least about an existing circle of friends. But with Keiko-san and Sho-san he is able to relate, to laugh, to get along instantly. The anime sparkles of their entrance lessen as the night carries on, and they're just people the same as Aiba and Shihori, the same as Nino himself.
The five of them are thoroughly drunk before even 10 PM, a sign that they're not so young any longer. Keiko at 27 is the youngest, but even she is quick to turn pink in the face, her earlier calm giving way to noisy Kansai-ben, especially when Aiba chooses topics of conversation to rile her up. Nino can imagine the three of them in the living room of the apartment, laughing. It's no wonder Shihori misses her so much. Maybe it's the beer talking, but in that moment, Nino feels terrible for Shihori having to be without her, Shihori having to instead live with two weird men like himself and Aiba.
"I wanna see Kenji," Keiko insists loudly. "I wanna see him."
"You're going to be terrible on the train," Sho is complaining. "You're like an old man. I'm dating an old man."
"Then we'll go in a taxi!" Keiko says back, poking him in the chin. "If I'm so embarrassing."
Shihori is half-asleep when they do finally leave the booth. When they head out into the night and the chilly air, Nino turns to put an arm around her, to help her walk back to the apartment, but Aiba's there first, easily hoisting her onto his back like it's something he's done before. For an instant Nino is jealous, knowing that with his smaller frame and general lack of strength that he's useless at carrying girls. He finds himself trailing a bit behind on the walk back, Aiba carrying Shihori and Sho with his arm around Keiko, for the only time that evening feeling like a fifth wheel.
"Kenji!" Keiko shouts as soon as they're up the stairs, hurrying through the apartment. "Kenji, baby!"
Sho collapses into the leather chair like he's done this a hundred times before. Perhaps he has. Nino isn't sure how long he and Keiko have been together, but at least long enough that he's got Keiko proofreading his precious blog. Aiba sets Shihori down and she heads for the bathroom, announcing to everyone her plan to "pee until there's nothing left!"
Nino stumbles his way to the kitchen, pulling together a sampling of the colorful mugs and filling them all with ice cold water from the filtered container in the fridge. In the time it takes to do this, Aiba has put on Nino's Nintendo 64 and is racing Sho in a game of Mario Kart. Keiko has retrieved the cat and is sitting beside Aiba on the couch with Kenji in her lap, looking the happiest she has all night. Nino can imagine her on that island Shihori had created, surrounded by a flock of devoted felines.
He sits on Aiba's other side, criticizing Sho's usage of banana peels on the Mario Kart racetrack. Sho grumbles back at him unintelligibly, not sounding very professorial. Shihori finally returns from the bathroom and sits down between Nino and Aiba, even though there's barely room. She's warm and soft, the feeling of her beside him, and he tries to scoot against the arm of the couch to give her room to be comfortable. She's in a happy daze, surrounded by friends, and she sips the water from her Alcatraz mug with a smile on her face.
It's been ages since Nino has felt this comfortable, this relaxed, and he realizes for the first time how glad he is for having moved here.
Part Two