Blue Sunglasses and Long Cups of Coffee Chapter 2:

Walking Through Busy Streets Not Alone

Ranma practically ran back to his apartment. Back to Ryouga, although he firmly told himself that he wouldn’t allow that part to become known to the subject.

He opened the door. It wasn’t locked.

The little room that he called home – sort of – was empty. Ranma felt his heart sink. Ryouga had left. Whether it had been deliberate or just an accidental wandering off, he would never know, because who knew how long it would be until he saw the boy again…

Ranma almost gasped at the pain that accompanied the thought of not seeing Ryouga again. He had been on a cloud for the entire day, almost giddy, yet hadn’t been quite aware of how happy he was over the prospect of seeing Ryouga again. And now he was gone… Do I really…

The door to the closet-sized bathroom creaked open, interrupting his thoughts. Ranma almost fell over.

Ryouga flung open the door angrily, muttering a little under his breath. Then he noticed Ranma. “Oh, hello,” he greeted, a little sheepish at his display of temper at the unwitting bathroom.

“Hi,” Ranma returned. “Er… I hope you weren’t too bored all day.”

Ryouga shrugged. “It’s not too bad. I slept longer than I usually do and explored. I’ve got this place down pretty good, now.”

Ranma glanced quickly around the apartment. Only Ryouga could occupy and entire day exploring it.

“Hey,” he said, suddenly struck by a new idea. “Want to go out and grab a bit to eat? It’s on me…”

Ryouga’s stomach growled. Ranma laughed. “Can’t say no now…”

***

It was Italian, or so the sign proclaimed; Ranma had determined the first time he ate at the restaurant that if this was what Italian people ate that he had no idea why they’d want to eat large amounts of it. But it was cheap and close, and those were the biggest qualifying factors.

The chatted. Ranma felt that if he dared to disbelieve what was happening he would woke up.

Ryouga couldn’t quite understand why Ranma had chosen to become a waiter.

“It must not pay very good, I mean look where you live,” he reasoned. “And why are you waiting and not witnessing? Isn’t that what you used to do?” Ryouga twisted his spaghetti around on his plate.

“I don’t know… I guess I just got tired of taking advantage of my female side. Yes, I’ve got it, yes, I’m stuck with it, but it’s not me… I don’t want to live off my curse, although I don’t mind it so much anymore…” Ranma shook his head to clear the contemplative mood. “But that’s nothing. I wanted to ask you: what are you planning on doing now?”

Ryouga shook his head, softly, still staring at his plate. “I don’t know. I never thought about changing the way I live… never thought I could… but I think I want to…”

“Change is hard, isn’t it.”

Ryouga nodded, then finally looked up. His eyes were full of strange uncertainty. “I wish I could live on my own…”

“You could always live with me.” Ranma almost clapped a hand to his mouth, instantly regretting having said that. “I mean… well… not if you don’t want to…”

Ryouga’s eyes had gone wide in surprise. It was Ranma’s turn to lower his head dejectedly to the table.

“No, I think that’s a good idea.”

Ranma looked up.

“On one condition.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask anything uncomfortable.”

Ranma smiled. “Sure thing.”

They shook hands to close the deal, and finished eating.

***

“And then this guy jumps up, right, screaming as if he’d learned how to fight from some ancient kung-fu movie, and tries to kick me. The only reason I can think of for not moving out of the way was that I was too shocked that he actually thought that that would work… but it doesn’t matter, ‘cause he’s obviously had no formal training. He just bounces off my shoulder and falls flat on his back. It was that pathetic. His buddies backed off as if I was some sort of alien, and ran away. I tried to chase them, but they were pretty good runners if nothing else.” Ryouga shrugged. “Anyway, I found their hideout again a couple days later, and by that time the cops had showed up, and let out all the kids that the guys had held trapped in this little hut. The cops thanked me once they figured out who I was and I got a few teary-eyed thanks from some women hanging about, I guess they were the kids’ mothers but I’m not sure, everyone was sobbing so much… eventually I left, and I haven’t seen them since. That was about a month ago…”

Ranma shook his head. “I think I saw that in the newspaper. Geez, Ryouga, is this what you do when you’re traveling? Play hero?”

Ryouga glared at him. “I don’t look for these people…”

“‘Cause if you did you’d never find ‘em…” Ranma muttered, snickering.

Ryouga glared at him, but Ranma just grinned back.

“They find me. And it’s not all that many…”

“I’ve already lost count!”

“Yes, but it’s been two years! I only come across something like that every couple of months…”

“Every couple of months! And how long did it take you to find Tokyo again…”

“Hey, I’m in Tokyo all the time!” Ryouga protested. “It’s a big city, anyone could get lost in it!” “

“Right, right…” Ranma waved his hands, trying to remove the pressure from his side of the conversation.

Ryouga glared at him and pointedly looked in the other direction. There wasn’t much to look at, however; they were now in the elevator for Ranma’s apartment building. He found himself looking in a mirror that was directly reflecting the two of them. Ranma was looking at a corner of the floor, in an entirely different direction, so Ryouga didn’t avert his gaze from the mirror.

It was slightly convex, designed show the entirety of the little elevator car, and displayed the picture as if through a fish-eye. Ryouga found himself staring at Ranma, who was looking… rather sad now that he didn’t realize that Ryouga was looking at him. Ryouga was somewhat surprised at that.

Ranma’s lips were moving, slightly, although Ryouga couldn’t hear anything; but it was definitely recognizable as words.

Ryouga decided to try it. “What did you say?” he asked, just as the door slid open.

“Huh?” Ranma looked up, sharply, at the question, wide eyed and almost… frightened? That expression quickly vanished, however, and Ranma shook his head, smirking. “Now you’re hearing things… maybe I don’t want you as a roommate after all…”

Roommates… The word was said slightly hesitantly, and Ryouga didn’t have to think very hard to realize why. “So you were serious?” he questioned, as Ranma twisted his key in the lock for his apartment.

“Huh?” Ranma turned around to look at him. They were both in the apartment now. The door clicked shut behind him. The single room really was very small, Ryouga realized suddenly. “Oh, of course I was! I wasn’t sure if you were serious about staying with me…”

“Well… if you meant it I guess I did, too.”

“And your condition…?”

“Not gonna change it now.”

“Of course.”

“It’s settled then. Hmmm… I’m gonna have to figure out how to get you a job, first of all…”

“A job?” Ryouga questioned with some skepticism. His track record of keeping jobs was… well, nonexistent. The tendency to wander off during the interview wasn’t conducive to obtaining employment.

“Of course. I’m sure we could get something that you could keep. Ah ha!” he smacked his fist him his palm. “The boss has been staying something about wanting a new cook, I think our evening guy is threatening to leave or something.”

“A… cook?”

“Of course! You won’t have to leave the kitchen, and I’ll be there to keep you in line, it’s even during my shift. It’ll be easy.”

“But… I can’t cook!”

“Of course you can! Look, we’re a café. If anyone wants food it’s a sandwich or something, and the coffee mostly makes itself. And you can make tea, right?”

“Well…” Ryouga was still uncertain.

“I’m sure you can do it. Heck, I’ve done the cooking before, it’s not that hard. We’ll just be sure to leave all the important things out for you, and if something strange is ordered I’ll help you. We’re usually not that busy in the evenings anyway; we do most of our business in the morning.”

“Um…”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Now, help me lay out the futons, I’m tired.”

***

Ryouga stared at the ceiling. At least he assumed it was the ceiling; it was pitch black so he couldn’t actually see anything but since he was looking up he felt he could safely assume that there was ceiling up there somewhere. The only sound in the room was Ranma’s gentle, even breathing on the other side of the room, and the occasional traffic noises.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “Well, who knows, maybe everything will be alright after all…” he muttered under his breath, barely making any sound at all. He turned over, trying to get in a comfortable position to actually sleep, and close his eyes. “But… roommates?” He fell asleep then, drifting into somewhat uncomfortable sleep.

~Mordain

Previous

Back to The Nest

Tell me what you think of Experimental Project: Blue Sunglasses and Long Cups of Coffee!