Chapter Text
Lighting. Thunder. Ka-boom! That was all the residents of New Holland could hear each night in their quaint little town. Some say it's due to the curse on the town for being built on a cemetery, but legends are legends and no one could be certain.
Though, in New Holland, thunderstorms became a blessing. For all the right and wrong reasons...
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where the hell is-a that popcorn!?" Toshiaki squawked, his thick Japanese accent carrying out all the way into the kitchen where Nassor stared blankly into the microwave.
His black pupils followed the circling bag, listening deeply to the popping of the kernels and becoming mesmerized by their soothing sounds-
Nassor flinched as soon as that annoying voice reached his ear canal and he looked over toward the doorway that led right into the living room where his pest sat. His normally lowered eyelids looked back to the microwave and they bore back into it, not planning on giving the other male a reply.
He was always told not to stare into these things but he seemed fine so he didn't have a reason to stop.
As soon as the microwave began to make sonorous beeping sounds, the Egyptian quickly used his scrawny index finger to punch the stop button. He could hear Toshi in the living room grunt a "finally!" Before he removed the heated bag from the cooking device. The buttery, warm smell of movie theater popcorn completely engulfed the atmosphere, making Nassor's lips curl and almost pucker with anticipation.
The tall boy shook the contents in the bag around, pinching at the top of the bag before he tore it open, letting the steam pour out like a broken kettle. Toshiaki listened closely to Nassor fixing the snack up, making sure he heard him shake the contents out into a large sharing bowl. The last time he let Nassor take charge of their snacks, he found the asshole upstairs hogging it all, having never intended to share in the first place. Toshiaki's prized pitching fist sure packed a wallop on him that day.
"What is-a taking so long, Nassor!? am I gonna have to come in there to make-a sure you aren't eating it all, again!?" The Asian boy shouted, his screechy voice once again making Nassor's protruding ear twitch with grief.
There was a good, long pause before Nassor finally spoke up. Toshi was sitting on the sofa as the Frankenstein monster-looking male sauntered into the living room with his shoulders shrugged up and his face as grim as ever. He was carrying a big bowl of popcorn to Toshi's delight.
"You don't even deserve thisth tasty sssssnack," Nassor hissed with his dark, Egyptian accent that gave him a sort of lisp. "Why do you think I hid it from you lasth time...? After what your fiendish Gamera turtle did to my Colossus-,"
Toshiaki slammed his foot down and glared up at Nassor who stood directly in front of him with his eyes slit even more, gritting his teeth.
"Oh, can't it, would you!? Forget about-a your dumb hamster! it is-a time to move on, just like I have started to do with-a Shelley!" Toshiaki continued to Rant on about Nassor's fixation on his dead hamster. "Go get a new hamster or something, I couldn't control-a what Shelley did! You don't think I miss my pet too!?"
He panted, his chest heaving as he stared at Nassor's deadpan expression that made him want to slap it off and give him another face to wear for once.
If he had felt like it, Nassor would have smiled at how worked up Toshiaki got just now. He knew the little egomaniac more than anyone and he also knew that this wasn't just about getting mad at Nassor's love for his dead hamster. Although Nassor's special skill was to sense and inflict fear on others, He could recognize the jealousy in that seething tongue of the Japanese boy.
Without another word, Nassor plopped down next to Toshiaki and offered him the bowl for first dibs. Toshi hated it when he didn't respond back to him but with that good-smelling popcorn right in front of him, he could care less about the argument.
He took the bowl from the other boy's long fingers happily and relaxed against the back of the sofa. Toshiaki took a nice clump of corn in his palm and shoveled it into his mouth, crunching noisily and shamelessly. After doing that for the third time, he gave it back to Nassor to hold and got up to check out what movies they were going to watch on this dark and stormy night.
As Toshiaki examined the movies, Nassor loomed over him and gently picked up the 1932 version of The Mummy, popping the VHS into the player before Toshi had time to react.
"Hey, what the hell!? I thought I was choosing what we watched!" The Asian annoyance snarled, standing on his feet to square up to the male who was about a foot taller than he was.
Nassor stared dumbly down at Toshiaki like he didn't understand English before sitting himself back onto the sofa, ignoring him. He gripped the remote like Toshi would snatch it from him at any given moment.
"You chose lasth time...," Nassor replied in a rather soft voice, nestling back on the couch comfortably. A dark aura surrounded him per usual and it made Toshiaki want to rip all that masculinity Nassor thought he had off.
"So what!? I am-a your guest! You should let-a me choose just for that!" The smaller boy crossed his arms after joining Nassor on the sofa, making sure there was credible distance between them.
Nassor noticed but didn't pay no mind to it. He pressed play on the remote before setting it down on the armrest and grabbing the bowl of popcorn off of the coffee table. Unlike Toshi, he popped one to two pieces of the buttery, salted snack into his mouth, crunching gently as to try and not make a noise but that was, of course, impossible. Even for Nassor, the most enigmatic citizen of New Holland.
The dull Egyptian took a mental note at Toshi eyeing the remote next to him. If he even tried to take the remote off of the armrest, he would give the hot-headed Asian boy the sickest wedgie of his life. Guaranteed.
"Hey," Nassor said just above a whisper, making Toshiaki's eyes flicker from the remote to Nassor's dinner plate-sized peepers.
As soon as their eyes met one another, Nassor placed a large hand around Toshi's waist and pulled him in with ease into himself. As their sides touched, the Japanese lad blushed. Nassor was so unpredictable and these surprise romantic gestures - especially after their arguments - always sent him into an internal spiral.
Nassor was plain unreadable... it was difficult to figure out how to act around him most of the time.
"Wh-what do-a you want...?" Toshiaki replied after hesitating, continuing to gaze into his boyfriend's sunken, round eyes.
"For you to shut up and watch the film," Nassor hissed as he leaned into Toshiaki, brushing his cold, dead lips across the other's chubby cheek.
Chill bumps rose in every spot Nassor's lips touched, making Toshi bite his lip and tense his shoulders up. He didn't think he'd ever get used to being touched or shown any kind of affection. He enjoyed it immensely and such hypnotic gestures of Nassor made the star pitcher move his eyes to look at the television in front of them, focusing on the black and white horror movie.
Nassor knew as soon as he made Toshiaki feel like the most important person on earth he would come to listen to him. The issue was, he didn't like inflating his already bursting ego.
The more Toshi watched the movie, the more uneasy he became and he nestled closer to Nassor, his slender fingers digging into the tall male's sweater sleeve. The Asian was not normally spooked by such films but it was maybe the fact that Nassor's house kind of reminded him of an ancient Egyptian tomb.
And Nassor...
Toshi looked up at the emotionless face of his partner.
By some strange irony, he looked like Imhotep himself.
Nassor pulled Toshiaki in closer to himself before muttering, "why are you looking at me? I thought I told you to watch the movie."
Although he seemed demanding, the dark-haired boy with the blue pinstripes in his hair had a silky tone to his voice that Toshiaki had never heard before. It was calming and for an instant, he didn't feel all afraid of the film playing.
"I feel like I already am," Toshiaki replied, his small lips forming a sinister smile.
The Egyptian just kept a fixated gaze on Toshi before finally pulling the Japanese boy into his lap and settling his chin cozily into his hair.
Nassor doing this made Toshiaki grunt in confusion before his cheeks pinked at such an action. "H-hey-,"
Nassor gently squeezed Toshiaki's hip.
"Shhhhh...I know you're afraid. I know thisth movie sthcares you....it is so evident in your behavior," Nassor continued. "You are looking to me for comfort...and comfort is what I will give you if you'll just shut your yap and watch it."
Toshiaki was completely red now and his heart hammered in his chest at the gloomy male's words. It wasn't fair! Nassor could read him like a freaking book but he was impossible to read back!
"I am-a not scared...," The shorter boy said in just above a whispering voice.
Nassor squeezed his hip even tighter, silently telling him to stop talking.
With that, Toshi finally relaxed against the warmth and softness of Nassor's chest and lap, squinting his already slitted eyes at the movie he didn't quite care for.
Nassor draped his long arms around the other boy, one of his strong hands resting against the small of the Asian's back. It was always a hassle to get some peace and tranquillity with Toshiaki but when Nassor finally got it,
it was worth it.