Chapter Text
"Kaoru, you're welcome to stay as long as you need, but are you planning on ever going home? You can't avoid it forever, you know."
Kaoru looks at him impassively.
"Fiiiiine," he says. "I'll go over there for you. But you owe me."
Kaoru's face breaks into a large grin (it's quite unsettling to be honest).
"love you~" he says. Kojiro backs away slowly.
Kojiro arrives at Kaoru's house and heads straight to the workshop, where he is pretty sure Skateboard and Carla will be.
"Carla?"
"Kojiro. Why are you here? Where is Master? Is he alright?" she replies, panic evident in her voice.
oh. this is awkward. how is Kojiro going to explain this? this is absurd how-? He settles for saying, "umm, Kaoru's okay, but he probably won't be coming around for a while."
"why? what did you do to him??" Carla sounds angry.
"Nothing I-"
"I don't believe you. Stop lying to me!"
Kojiro understands Kaoru's fear now, and runs for the door. Why did Kaoru connect everything to Carla???? he curses Kaoru mentally.
He reaches the door too late. It's locked, and although he turns the deadbolt, it doesn't open. is there some sort of other smart lock? he wonders. He slams his fist on the door a couple times, but the door doesn't even shake.
"It's heavily reinforced," Carla says smugly.
There's a noise, and Kojiro turns to see Kaoru's skateboard rolling towards them.
"Hello, I am Skateboard, I use rad/rads pronouns," rad says smoothly.
Kojiro just stares, open-mouthed. It was one thing to hear Kaoru tell of the talking skateboard, to witness it in person was another thing entirely.
"Where is Master?" rad asks, and there's something like hope (anticipation?), something soft like adoration, in rads voice.
oh. It was funny at the time but Kojiro understands now. He will have to break both their hearts.
"Kojiro?" rad asks softly.
"He won't tell us," Carla interjects angrily.
"Why?" Skateboard asks, and rad sounds so . . . sad? disappointed? dejected? Kojiro can't put his finger on exactly what it is, but his heart twists.
"I-" he starts. "He's just . . . busy." The lie is hard to force out; his mouth is dry.
But it's worth it when Skateboard's voice audibly brightens when rad says, "Oh, okay! I'm sure he'll be back soon!"
And then Kojiro's heart breaks all over again when he realizes what's to come. He has to tell them. He opens his mouth, but Carla is talking.
"I don't believe him."
"But Kojiro seems nice." rad replies. "And master- Kaoru? can we call him that now?" Rad is so hesitant and so sweet.
"If you're not letting me out. I'm going to bed." His voice is strained when he says it, and he clears his throat to rid it of whatever's settled there.
"Not letting him-?" rad starts, but Carla interrupts.
"Don't worry about it," she says. "It's no big deal, right, Kojiro?" There's a hard edge to her voice, and Kojiro hears the protectiveness that is often mirrored in his own.
"Yeah," he says. "I'm just gonna be staying over for a bit."
He heads to the bedroom, silently cursing himself for agreeing to this.
The next morning, Kojiro is woken up by a blaring alarm. Plus a bunch of loud discordant noises accompanying it.
"WAKE UP!" Carla yells.
"ow what the hell Carla?" he replies, annoyed.
"wHat tHe heLL CArlA?" she mocks. "Get up."
"why?" he asks.
"If you're not gonna tell us where Kaoru is, you're gonna leave. I don't want you here any more. Go."
"um . . . okay?" he says, slightly confused at this change of heart. "Also, isn't Skateboard hearing this?"
"No. Rad is not your concern." she replies curtly. "This room is soundproofed anyway."
The cacophony is still going on in the background, and Kojiro attempts to plug his ears tighter for some reprieve.
"Hey could you turn that off?"
"Fine. Get your things and go."
Kojiro does as he's told, grabbing his bag and heading to the door.
"Um, Carla, the door is locked,"
"No. It's not."
"Yes it is. Look," he proceeds to attempt to open the door. He yanks at the knob but the door won't open.
"No. I unlocked it. Let me . . . " she trails off."It's stuck."
"What?"
"It's stuck. It won't open."
"Does that mean-?"
"Yes. You're stuck here until I can fix it."
Shit. This is not going to go well.
He sighs. "Is there any food?"
"Yes, Kaoru had a food delivery two days ago."
Kojiro goes to check the fridge. He is apprehensive, knowing that Kaoru's eating habits consist of mainly instant noodles. He is right to be concerned, the fridge is practically bare. There are
- two large eggs, not in a carton, just laying in the fridge
- a single tomato in the crisper drawer
- some wilted kale in the other crisper drawer
- some condiments and jars of things
- an OPEN jar of Nutella
- oddly enough, there is no bread or anything remotely bread-adjacent in the kitchen despite the abundance of jams and spreads (and Nutella. why does he have SO MUCH Nutella????) in the fridge
- there are multiple bulk packets of instant noodles in the cabinets
He decides to make an omelet. He isn't sure if the eggs are expired, but they look okay when he cracks them into a bowl, so he starts beating them and hopes for the best. He chops the tomato and kale and adds them in.
After he eats it, he realizes that he doesn't know how long he'll be stuck here and he just ate the last of his fresh? (that part is suspect) food. fuck. guess he'll be eating just instant ramen. He can feel his insides curling up at the thought of the sodium alone.
He'd taken the next few days off, so at least he didn't need to worry about Sia la Luce for now. Kaoru's house was pretty small; there wasn't really much to do there. He decides that he has to keep in shape (especially considering the food he's going to have to eat), and starts doing whatever exercises he can without equipment.
