Of bratty demons and mushroom heads

CHAPTER 29

Even with a double, the two of them had too much shit. The room was about a half size larger than a single. It had two twin size beds with chest of drawers underneath, two desks, two bookshelves, and two small closets on either side of the door. He could already tell, even with everything still in boxes, that between his books and all of Akaya’s video games, all of the bookshelves and most of the counter space would be used up. Now that all the boxes had been carried into the room, it was time for the hard part… getting Akaya to be as unhelpful as possible without letting him know.

Akaya ran around their new room like a puppy, checking every nook and cranny excitedly. "Wow! Did you see this, Wakashi?" he asked happily as he stuck his head out of the closet. "There's so much space in here!" He leaned back into it and the door closed behind him. A couple moments later there was a knock on the door and a muffled whine. "Waaakaaaaaashiiiiiiiiiiii lemmeeeee out!!!" he scratched at the door and it rattled.

Hiyoshi sweat dropped, and then chuckled as he walked towards the closet. “No. I think I’ll leave you in there for a while. Maybe then I’ll be able to get some work done,” he teased. His idiot boyfriend deserved it for locking himself in there in the first place. How could the brat think they were big? It wasn’t even half as large as his closet back home.

"WAKASHI!!!!" Akaya howled like a banshee and banged on the door, trying to be as annoying as possible, "LEMME OUT!!!" Maybe if he hollered loud enough the neighbors would hear him. Just then, a wonderful idea popped into his head. "WAKASHI~!!!!! If you don't let me out, I'm going to start yelling out sex stories so the neighbors will hear~!" He smirked deviously and waited.

Hiyoshi rolled his eyes, Akaya really needed to come up with a new threat. After having sex on a public court, he would have to be an idiot not to realize their relationship was probably fairly obvious to most of campus by now. Still, the screaming was annoying, so he opened the door and raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “Think you can scream any louder, brat? I don’t think they heard you in America.”

As soon as the door opened, Akaya fell out of the closet and onto his boyfriend. "I can. I have a big mouth," he said proudly and nuzzled up to Hiyoshi. "We can call Fukubuchou’s uncle and see if he heard me," he laughed and kissed Hiyoshi once before going over to grab one of the beds and tug it toward the other one.

“Wait.” Stopping him from moving the bed any more, Hiyoshi continued “First thing’s first. We have to decide where everything is going before we start re-organizing the furniture.” This was exactly why it would be better if Akaya didn’t help. “If you move the bed now, you’re going to block the entrance, idiot.”

"We gotta move the beds together though," Akaya pouted, "It was part of the deal!" He looked at Hiyoshi with pathetic puppy like eyes and sat on the edge of the bed.

“I know.” Hiyoshi leaned over to lightly kiss the pouting lips once before kicking him off the bed and looked around the room thinking. “Help me move the desks away from the window. We can rearrange them next to the closets and push the beds together by the window.”

"K," Akaya mumbled, and in a matter of minutes had moved the desks out of the way and started dragging the beds into place without help. If being a Kinesiology major did anything, it was make him a lot stronger than he used to be.

Glad Akaya was at least following instruction, trying to navigate between boxes, Hiyoshi next instructed Akaya to set up his TV at the end of the bed while he moved the bookcases and desks where he wanted them.

If there was one thing Akaya was good at doing, it was following instructions. He moved the TV stand to the indicated place and started setting it up, then started setting his various game systems up under it. It took about fifteen minutes to wire everything, but when he was done, it looked like a nerd heaven. He grinned at his masterpiece and looked to Hiyoshi. "What next?"

Hiyoshi had finished moving all the furniture where he thought it would be most convenient and had just started opening a few of the boxes when Akaya called. “Do you care which closet you use?” he asked as he started removing clothing and separating them into piles of his and Akaya’s. While packing, Akaya had apparently just thrown everything in together.

Akaya crawled over on all fours and looked between the closets. "Hmmm... That one!" he declared as he pointed to the one on his left. He didn't know why, but he liked that one. Maybe it was because he hadn't gotten locked in that one.

“Then either help me separate all this or start hanging it up.” Hiyoshi was very amused. Akaya had been in a good mood all day and now even seemed excited about cleaning. Maybe he wouldn’t kick him out after all. He went back to his work, mumbling out loud and counting off the things that needed to be done. “…new night stand, maybe more drawers… hmm…we’re going to have to buy different bedding since what we have wont fit with the beds pushed together…”

"You're like a walking post it note," Akaya mumbled and started putting his stuff away in his closet. His boyfriend really was too organized for his own good.

“Shut up, unless you’d like me to forget the new bedding and we can sleep separately.” Hiyoshi answered back easily and began hanging things up in his own closet.

"Alright, alright..." Akaya mumbled and started opening another box when he was done hanging his clothes up.

Done with the closet, Hiyoshi went over to see what Akaya was doing. He took one look down at the pile of porn and sex toys and flinched, raising a questioning eyebrow at his boyfriend. The question was obvious.

Akaya looked between his box of toys and Hiyoshi and raised an eyebrow at the question in the other man’s eyes. "You wanna borrow some?" He held up the 'College Boys: Caught on Tape' DVD and looked at Hiyoshi completely straight faced. "You can use any of the toys you want too. I sterilize them all so you don’t gotta worry bout anything."

Hiyoshi face palmed. That had not been anywhere near the question or answer he’d been looking for. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to control his irritation before he straight out punched his boyfriend for assuming he would want to have anything to do with… that. “Did you have to bring all of that with you?” He evened out his breathing. “I thought we agreed to get rid of everything that was unnecessary to save space.”

"I did. This is all the necessary stuff!" Akaya pouted and put the DVD back in the box before pulling out a magazine of tennis players posing nude and using rackets for something very different from their intended purpose. "See! Some of these are collector’s things! And this--" he pulled out a floppy yellow and black dildo, "This was my first sex toy!" He pouted up at Hiyoshi, giving him a look that said 'How could you make me get rid of these?!'

‘Very easily,’ Hiyoshi answered Akaya’s silent question to himself. And that magazine was… he gulped… he was scared to look at it any closer. In a state of near mental panic, he reached in and grabbed some offending object and waved it back and forth in front of Akaya a bit crazily. “I can’t even tell what the fuck this is! What the hell do you need it for?” He froze and turned red. Shit. He was touching it. He was going to start hyperventilating any second now.

Akaya’s lip quirked as he tried to repress a laugh, "W-wakashi… that--heh heh… That's a corn shaped glass dildo," he explained and finally couldn't hold it back anymore. He started laughing hard to the point where he was rolling on the floor and tears were rolling down his cheeks. He'd never seen anything quite as ridiculous as his boyfriend waving a glass sex toy in his face before.

A what? Hiyoshi’s eyes crossed. That was the most ludicrous thing he had ever heard, and now Akaya was laughing at him. He threw the offending object back in the box like it was a scorpion and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring bloody murder at Akaya’s form. Without a word, he walked over to one of his own boxes and began unpacking it.

Once Akaya finally got his laughter under control, he sat up and wiped at his eyes. "Oh ow, my abs hurt, heh heh, oh your face." He laughed again and crawled over to Hiyoshi to hug onto him, "Wakashi~ Don't pout," he giggled again, "You're just too cute..."

“I am not cute.” Hiyoshi bit out the word with disgust, his head turned down slightly, feeling his pride both insulted and bruised. He picked up the nearest available object in the box, which happened to be his kama (a smaller version of a glaive with a chain attached), and with practiced grace and ease, held it up to Akaya’s throat with gleaming threatening eyes. “Back off.”

A noise so pathetic and girly had never come out of Akaya’s manly frame before as the weapon was held to his throat. He shot back from Hiyoshi like he was on fire and looked at his boyfriend, completely and utterly terrified. He shivered and backed up against the far wall, not daring to look away from the shiny metal, even to look for an escape route.

The martial artist with wounded pride felt a little better now. Taking his eyes off of Akaya, he put the kama down and started taking out his other weapons carefully and reverently. His sai, tonfa, nanchaku, tekko, a few shurinkan… A small malevolent smile came to his face as he gazed at them lovingly. His surujin and bo were both locked up at the club house, but he would need to find a place for them since he didn’t like his precious weapons to be so far away. Technically, he wasn’t allowed to have weapons in the dorms at all.

Akaya looked at the door and wondered if he could make it there before Hiyoshi could throw one of the shuriken at him, but reasoned that it was best to stay put. At least he'd leave a cool blood stain on the wall, right? It was weird to see the almost loving look in his boyfriend’s eyes. No one should have that look when gazing upon sharp pointy things. It was just creepy.

Without looking up from his work of organizing his weapons and safely stowing them in the bottom drawer of his closet, Hiyoshi growled at Akaya, still not having completely forgiven him for earlier. “If you’re going to stay then at least make yourself useful.”

Akaya wanted to ask what the hell his boyfriend’s problem was, but for once his brain kicked in and warned him that asking that while Hiyoshi was surrounded with very deadly weapons that he knew how to use was a very bad idea. Instead, he just nodded and started unpacking his boxes.

Hiyoshi grinned, satisfied, as Akaya didn’t question and just did as he was told. Maybe he should bring out the shurinkan more often.

Once everything was stored away properly, Hiyoshi began to drag one of the heavier boxes towards his book shelf. Inside were his books and the few musical selections he had. Akaya’s silence was starting to bother him, so he took out the small CD player and plugged it in. He inserted one of the classical musical tracts Choutarou had given him years ago to help him unwind. It was actually a nice selection of relaxing music by classical artists such as Debussy, Handel, and Tchaikovsky.

Akaya wrinkled up his nose at the music but didn't argue because, once again, the man with the weapons won. He moved to start putting away his sex toys and paused half way through the box to open one of the magazines with a big childish excited grin. "I haven't read this in forever!" he said happily and opened up the magazine to flip through pictures of well muscled martial artists in rather compromising positions.

Hiyoshi looked out of curiosity to see what Akaya was talking about but then quickly turned back around, face flushed red. Why did Akaya keep doing this to him? He cranked up the music and continued to unpack his rather large collection of very old books, mostly hard back versions of old Japanese classics.

Akaya flipped through the magazine, occasionally giggling at the ridiculous poses the men were put into. "I'm pretty sure that's not the proper use for a shinai," he laughed again and finally put the book aside. "Fukubuchou would have a fit if he saw that." He pulled out the next book and flipped it open to look through the pictures as well.

Hiyoshi was getting angry. It felt like Akaya was doing this on purpose. Not only was he blatantly looking at something that Hiyoshi wasn’t sure if he should be offended at or not, but he was basically shoving it into his face. They were also supposed to be setting up the room and unpacking, which Akaya seemed to be intent on not doing. He balled his fist and stood there silently, trying to control his temper.

Akaya flipped through the book happily, oblivious to Hiyoshi’s anger, and then put it away on a shelf in his closet that he had decided to make his "happy shelf". It now housed all of his books and magazines to keep for a rainy Hiyoshi-less day. Then, he opened up another box to reveal all of his pants. He pondered on them for a minute, wondering where to put them, before folding them up and putting them on a shelf above the "happy shelf".

At least Akaya was back to being somewhat productive, but Hiyoshi needed some space before he said something he would regret. “I’ll be right back,” he said coldly and walked out the door. Damn it. It hadn’t even been an hour since they moved in and he already felt like killing the brat… Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Akaya watched his boyfriend walk out with a little frown. He didn't know what was wrong, but he knew he would be back, so he didn't worry. This was his room too after all. He finished his last two boxes and flopped down on the bed to watch a movie and wait.

Hiyoshi walked outside and slammed his fist into the side of the building where no one was around. There was a nice little dent after in the wall and his fist hurt like hell, but he mentally felt a little better. He needed to look at this reasonably. Akaya had done nothing out of the ordinary, so why was he feeling this way?

He was nervous. He hated to admit it, but that had to be it. Maybe it was because Hiyoshi wasn’t used to sharing his space. It was fine before because he knew he had somewhere to go if he needed to be alone, but now… He should have realized earlier that this would be impossible. They had nothing in common, they had completely different lifestyles, didn’t even like each other’s music. How were they supposed to live together?

Hiyoshi walked around the building a few times and collected himself. The last thing he wanted to do was go back inside, lose his temper, and upset Akaya. With that in mind, he walked back into the building. When he entered the room and saw Akaya sitting on the bed watching TV, he didn’t say anything. Just went back to finishing putting his books away. They took up at least three levels of shelves, and focusing on putting them in alphabetical order helped him not to think.

Akaya looked over at the door as Hiyoshi came in and smiled, but when he was ignored, he rolled to his side. His back to Hiyoshi, he pulled a pillow under his head to hugged it. If his boyfriend wanted to be cranky, he could be cranky. Akaya would just lay there and watch TV and try not to piss him off more, because every time he opened his mouth he seemed to do that. He closed his eyes and just listened to the sound of Hiyoshi rustling around for a while, the TV only barely audible in the background before he fell asleep.

Hiyoshi was both glad and upset that Akaya didn’t say anything. On one hand he would have liked Akaya to at least seem like he cared that he obviously was upset, on the other hand, not saying anything meant not having to talk about it. He finished putting everything away, the process not taking very long since there were no distractions. Once he was done, he looked over at Akaya’s sleeping form on the bed.

With a sigh, Hiyoshi made his way over to the bed and silently lay down next to him, spooning him from behind and wrapped his arms around the other boy’s waist. Akaya was a light sleeper, so he knew the other boy had probably woken up when he got on the bed. “Sorry…” he mumbled into the back of Akaya’s neck. He didn’t apologize very often, it was embarrassing, but he knew he owed him one.

Akaya’s eyes fluttered open slowly when Hiyoshi lay down behind him, but smiled when he felt that cool body press against him and arms come around his waist. "Mm... I'm sorry too..." he said a little groggily and rolled over to wrap his arms around the other boy and kiss him lightly.

Hiyoshi doubted Akaya even knew what he was apologizing for, but he appreciated the words all the same and kissed him back. Being as casual as possible, not loosening his hold, he asked tentatively, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Akaya opened his green eyes to look at Hiyoshi and smile. "Yeah, I know it is. It will be hard to get used to," he yawned, "and we'll fight a lot, cause we always do, but it will be okay in the end, ‘cause I love you."

Akaya had a knack for pissing Hiyoshi off… but he also had the remarkable ability to say the right thing to make his worries evaporate. Good thing this time it had been the latter. The on edge martial artist physically and mentally relaxed into Akaya’s hold and closed his eyes. Akaya’s breathing and embrace helped him forget about his earlier issues and still slightly throbbing hand. He didn’t know how long they laid there for, but he knew they needed to get back up since it wasn’t even close to bed time. “Mm… We need to get up.”

"Don't wanna," Akaya mumbled and nuzzled against Hiyoshi’s hair, burying his face in the sweet smelling strands that had the faint hint of the outdoors in them. "Nothing we need to do," he murmured again and started to fall asleep in his boyfriend’s arms.

Hiyoshi smiled, tempted to bring his hand up and start running it through his boyfriends hair, but he knew if he did they would never get back up. “We need to buy new bedding and I need an alarm clock. I would continue with the list but I wouldn’t want to sound like a walking post it note.”

Akaya groaned and held on tighter to Hiyoshi. "I don't wanna go," he whined, but eventually caved and released his vice-like hold on his boyfriend to sit up and stretch. "Fine. Let’s get it over with so we can come back home."

Hiyoshi sat up after Akaya, a small grin still in place, and did the two things guaranteed to wake up his half asleep boyfriend. He grabbed a handful of Akaya’s wild curls and pulled him in for an open mouthed, possessive kiss that lasted only a moment before he let go and backed away. Then he mentioned carelessly as he picked up his wallet, “Let’s get some dinner while we’re out to bring home.”

As if the kiss wasn't enough to make his eyes shoot open, the mention of food was. Akaya leaped off the bed and ran over to slip on his shoes. "Let's go!" he said excitedly and grinned at Hiyoshi like a small child who’d just been told he could have whatever toy he wanted at the store.

Worked every time. Hiyoshi leisurely made his way towards the door, their door, and waited for Akaya to join him. His boyfriend was right. This had been the right choice. They could make it work.