Chapter Text
The week started off just like any other. Eiji’s new normal was living out his day-to-day life in this ridiculously expensive high-rise apartment in the middle of New York City. All of their neighbors believed in his and Ash’s “fake” engagement, but he wasn’t sure what to call his relationship with the blond anymore. Spending months dancing around their feelings to have it all culminate in a passionate confession— in public no less— felt like something out of a movie.
They had yet to give a name to what was going on between them, but Eiji believed they had their whole lifetimes to figure it out. No matter how dire the circumstances, he knew they would get through it. Ash was someone who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and someone who he couldn’t imagine his life without.
Like every Tuesday afternoon, he had run downstairs to pick up groceries for the week. Sometimes the store would be rearranged for special displays, and today seemed to be one of those days. Right in the center of the small supermarket was a giant bin filled to the brim with bags of brightly colored pieces of plastic. It was surrounded by shelves filled with candies and chocolates.
The colorful display had Eiji drawn in from the moment he set foot in the shop. Some of the candies he recognized— he tended to buy Bones a bag every once in a while— but others were completely foreign. Not to mention, he had no idea what these plastic things sitting in the bin were.
Picking up a bag and turning it in his hands, it seemed like the plastic items were shaped like eggs. Upon closer inspection, it looked like they could be pulled apart in the center.
“Mr. Eiji,” a small voice called out to him.
Eiji smiled as he spotted Emily, Mrs. Ownes' young daughter, pulling her mother along by the arm and waving frantically.
“Hello, Mrs. Owens,” he greeted their downstairs neighbor before leaning down to say hello to the little girl. "and Emi-chan!”
The girl giggled at the nickname, which earned a small laugh from Mrs. Owens. “Emily is off from school today, so I figured I would get her out of the apartment for a bit—”
“Are you having an Easter egg hunt, Mr. Eiji?” Emily interrupted, staring wide-eyed at the bag in his hand.
An Easter… what?
“I am sorry, I do not understand what you mean,” he scratched the back of his neck.
“You don’t have Easter egg hunts in Japan,” the young girl asked incredulously. “But you are holding them in your hand!”
He glanced down to the bag of plastic eggs in his hand, still a little confused.
“Every Easter morning, we fill up those for the kids with candy or cookies, then hide them around the house,” Mrs. Owens explained.
“I am very good at finding them,” Emily grinned.
He tilted his head to the side as he scanned over the display once more. The idea was still a little odd to him, he could have sworn Easter was celebrated as a religious holiday here in America.
“How about coloring eggs.. are ya gonna do that, Mr. Eiji?”
Once again, the young girl was asking about something that he had never heard of. “Coloring eggs… with, uh— markers?”
“No, silly,” she laughed while running off towards the display. Emily stood on her tip-toes, pulling a box off the shelves in order to hold it up at him. “With this!”
Taking the box from her outstretched hands, he noticed pictures of colorful, smiling eggs were printed all over the packaging.
“How about Peeps? Those are my favorite!”
“Honey,” Mrs. Owens sighed at her daughter, “I’m sure Mr. Eiji is very busy right now, let’s say goodbye.”
“Oh,” Emily's bright smile fell, a sadness overtaking her eyes. Eiji felt his chest constrict at her quick change of emotion.
“Bye, Emi-chan,” he tried to say as cheerfully as possible while leaning down to her level. What he didn’t expect was for two small arms to wrap around his neck and pull him in for a hug.
“Can I come over again soon?” She whispered.
“Of course,” the brunet chuckled while returning the hug. “We can even watch the movie with the princess in the ice castle.”
“Really?” Emily exclaimed.
“Yes, really,” he nodded.
The young girl cried of joy as she bounced over to her mother. “Bye, Mr. Eiji! Say hi to your husband for me!”
“He is not my—“ Eiji let out a huff before conceding. “Fine, okay, I will.”
Mother and daughter were soon out of his sight as they wandered into the aisles. He was now left alone with the giant display, pondering on what he should and shouldn’t buy. It was a good thing he had a card with a virtually unlimited balance.
— — —
Juggling the three cartons of eggs was difficult enough on its own, but he also had to carry numerous other bags up to the apartment. Needless to say, once he got in the front door, he breathed a sigh of relief. Before unpacking everything, he decided to make a cup of tea and take a quick break by the window.
The first thing that came to mind was that he had no idea what to fill these tiny plastic eggs with. Being surrounded by the colorful shelves and candies clearly made him lose his judgment, as he had ended up buying three bags full of these eggs.
Since Ash didn’t like candy— or almost anything sweet for that matter— that eliminated most of the potential options.
He sighed while bringing his cup of tea to his lips. The more of these American holiday traditions he learned of, the stranger they became. Did hiding candy and coloring eggs actually have something to do with religion, after all?
Glancing out the window at the typical hustle and bustle of the city, he noticed something seemed... different. He would know— he is photographing out these windows 80% of the day. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a hot dog cart had set up shop across the street.
Hot dogs... he could do something with that!
“That’s it,” Eiji exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. He grabbed the keys before rushing out the door then running down the stairs, two at a time. He had to be quick, Ash would kill him if he knew that he had left the apartment.
Since he used the back stairway, he was able to sneak around and cross the street without the doorman noticing. Thankfully, there was no line yet at the hot dog stand.
“Hello,” he grinned at the teenage worker, who was sporting quite an interestingly striped apron.
“What can I get ya?”
“Can I have the small mustards?”
The worker looked at him as if he had grown another head. “We only sell hot dogs here, buddy.”
“I know that.. but I just need the small mustards,” Eiji glanced at the plastic container, which was filled about halfway with the packets. “I can pay you!”
“How much are we talkin’.”
“Uh, how much money do you want for—um, all of them?”
The teenager scratched at his non-existent beard. “Well, you’d be puttin’ me out of stock for the day, so somewhere around seventy bucks or so.”
“Okay,” Eiji beamed as he pulled out the one hundred dollar bill he had stolen from Ash’s wallet a few days ago. He knew it would come in handy for something.
Placing the money in the tip jar, he then grabbed mustard packets and shoved them into the pockets of his cardigan. “Thank you!” He graciously called out while heading back towards the street, leaving the young employee standing with his mouth agape.
— — —
Once he got back up to the apartment, Eiji placed all the packets onto the table. After taking the time to count them all out, it seemed like he was a few short. He only had twenty mustard packs to fill thirty or so eggs.
He would figure it out later. Right now, there were groceries to unpack.
For now, the mustard packets and egg coloring kits could be hidden behind his stack of natto. It was almost certain that Ash would never check back there.
Settling back down at the table, he figured that he should search online to see if there were any more Easter traditions that he wasn’t aware of. Luckily the tablet was nearby, so he wouldn’t have to search the apartment for it like he typically did— since Ash did seem to understand the concept of putting things back in their place. As he switched on the device and loaded up the search engine, he frowned when he noticed a news website already pulled up.
Triple homicide in Brooklyn warehouse linked to gang activity.
Just that first headline alone made Eiji’s stomach churn. He had encountered many of these harrowing stories. So much so, that he had begun to pick up the meanings behind complicated terms at first glance. The more he could understand, the harder the headlines became to ignore.
Every fiber of his being told him to click away from the article, but he just couldn’t help himself.
Grasping the basic idea was simple enough with the assistance of translation apps. All the victims were killed with a single bullet, and the bodies had yet to be identified. Eiji wasn’t stupid— he knew this had to somehow be linked to Ash’s gang.
“Calm down, Eiji,” he mumbled to himself while closing the webpage. Putting the tablet down on the table, the brunet stood up and headed into the kitchen. A cup of tea always calms his nerves.
While reaching for the teabags in the pantry, a brightly colored box caught his eye. The vibrant packaging was filled with multiple yellow… things, which seemed to be shaped like rabbits. The word “Peeps” was printed across the bottom.
So, this is what Emi-chan was excited over, before?
Abandoning the tea idea, Eiji grabbed the box of Peeps and moved it to the counter. Carefully peeling apart the plastic, he picked up one of the treats between two fingers. It was strangely squishy and covered in what Eiji could only assume was sugar. The unnatural yellow color was very off-putting, but nevertheless, he took a deep breath before shoving the treat into his mouth.
Eiji’s first instinct was to spit the thing out. It tasted extremely artificial, not to mention the texture was extremely unpleasant as he continued to chew on it. He had to suppress a gag when he finally swallowed. Immediately, he was hit with the aftertaste— which was almost as bad as eating another.
What is with Americans and their love of horrendous processed foods? Eiji thought despairingly.
— — —
No matter how hard he tried to avoid the horrible reports plaguing the news, they seemed to follow him everywhere. From constant pop-up notifications from the New York Times to breaking news stories interrupting variety shows on television, reports about shootouts seemed inescapable.
Avoiding the urge to toss the television remote across the room, Eiji figured he would just steer clear of technology. It had been a while since he had sat down to read a book, and Ash had a massive pile on the desk in their room. Hopefully, there would be one that wasn’t about some complicated topic.
Rummaging through the stack— the first few books had him feeling discouraged. A compilation of science journals with words so small that it looked like fifty lines could fit on one page, and a publication filled with dull, black and white drawings of plants was not a very promising start.
Right as he felt like giving up, Eiji noticed a small book at the very bottom of the pile. Glancing over the familiar characters, he couldn’t help but smile at the warm feeling blooming in his chest.
げんき - An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese
Opening up the book resulted in a few loose pieces of notebook paper slipping out from between the pages and unceremoniously falling to the floor. While scrambling to pick up the scattered pieces, he spotted Ash’s messy handwriting scrawled all over the pages. The characters he was trying to emulate were sloppy, but he seemed to be getting the idea.
“Oh, Ash,” he let out a fond sigh. “Why would you not let me teach you?”
Trying to fit all the pieces of notebook paper back into the language book wasn’t an easy task. Somehow it seemed there were more sheets of paper on the floor than pages in the actual book. It took almost fifteen minutes to make the book look sort of similar to how it was before being touched.
Once he was satisfied, Eiji wiped his brow and placed the language book back at the bottom of the pile. Clearly, the blond didn’t want him knowing about it, as he had kept it hidden. Ash was purposeful with everything he did, so there was definitely a reason behind keeping this from him— not that it made it hurt any less.
Now he was back to square one with no book to read. Maybe he should have agreed to let Ash buy him some manga. Anything would be better than those dry academic-style books. Do Americans just not read novels?
Retreating back to the couch, he decided to just go back to using the tablet. He needed something to take his mind off of the fact that it was already getting quite late, and he had heard nothing from Ash, Bones, Kong, or anyone else for that matter.
Negative thoughts began swirling around his mind. Before long, the anxiety started to take its toll on his body. Subconsciously twisting the ring on his finger, he was finding that breathing was becoming more difficult as horrible scenarios filled his thoughts. Ash might have been involved in one of those incidents on the news. His corpse could be sitting in some ditch, all alone. He would never be able to see his smile or those green eyes ever again—
The sound of the front door opening yanked him out of his spiral of thoughts. He whipped his head around to see Ash, who was struggling to get into the apartment with all the things he was carrying.
Almost dropping the chair onto the floor in his haste, Eiji rushed over to the doorway to wrap his arms around the blond’s neck— pulling him into a tight embrace.
Ash let out a surprised noise, which sounded like something between a squeak and a grunt. “Sorry for taking so long.. the line at the Indian place was crazy.”
As awkward as their position was— a large brown bag of takeout along with a few other items squished between them— Eiji didn’t want to let go. His breathing was still labored, so it wouldn’t be easy to respond.. but he was able to whisper. “I am so glad you are safe, Ash.”
Even though the blond shook his head and gave an exasperated sigh, there was an obvious warmth in his eyes. “Can I at least put this stuff down?”
Reluctantly, he released his hold on the other boy.
Ash dropped the pile of things he was carrying on the counter before making his way towards the kitchen. Grabbing a spoon out of the drawer, he served the food onto a few plates. “I got you biryani. You like that one right?”
He did like biryani.. but as he sat down at the table, his appetite from earlier seemed to disappear. Staring down at the rice, trying to stop his thoughts from overtaking him once more. So lost in his head, he didn’t even hear Ash sit across from him.
“Hey.” The blond gently nudged his foot under the table. “Is everything okay?”
“You will think it is dumb,” Eiji mumbled under his breath.
“I might,” Ash let out a laugh before continuing, "but I still want to hear it.”
A heavy silence took hold of the room. The only sound coming from his fork pushing the food around the ceramic plate. “I saw this news story today.. about a gang shooting,” he admitted slowly, his chest tightening with every word. “I think to myself, what if that was you, Ash? You would be dead, and I would not even know it!”
It wasn’t until he was finished with his rant that he realized he had been yelling. His throat felt raw as he sucked in a few deep breaths in a pitiful attempt to calm himself down.
Suddenly, the blond reached out and grabbed his hand, holding it tight in his own. “But it wasn’t me. I’m right here.”
Eiji opened his mouth to retort, to say that it easily could have been him—but the words just didn’t want to come out. So, he just opted to stay silent.
Pulling his hand away, Ash leaned back in his chair. “I have an idea.”
“I am not sure if I like your ideas,” he groaned, looking across the table at the other boy for the first time since they sat down. “They usually involve danger.”
“Don’t worry, this is a good one— completely safe.”
“Oh? I am listening.”
“Why don’t we pretend that I have a normal job or a part-time gig that I go to after my long day of normal college classes.”
Taken back by the unexpected proposition, Eiji blinked owlishly at the blond. It seemed like Ash was completely serious. “B-But the news…”
“Don’t watch it,” he responded simply. “I’ll turn off all the notifications for the news apps on the tablet.”
It certainly was a strange idea, but not one he was opposed to. “Okay, I want to try it,” Eiji grinned, the tight feeling in his chest had all but faded. A familiar warmth was quickly taking its place as Ash smiled back at him.
— — —
“Eiji.”
The brunet was currently repackaging his Indian takeout. It would most likely get eaten within a few hours, but it was never good to leave food out. He blamed that horrendous sugary yellow treat from earlier for ruining his appetite. “Hm, what is it?”
“These are for you,” Ash said simply.
Turning around, Eiji audibly gasped at the giant bouquet of ruby-red tulips. The evening light streaming through the windows gave the flowers a golden tinge. “They are so beautiful.. thank you, Ash.” He couldn’t stop the wide smile from spreading across his face while he graciously accepted the arrangement.
“This too.” The blond placed a small, white envelope in his free hand. Flipping it open revealed a card with four characters on it. Eiji wasn’t expecting Japanese writing, and the characters were a little messy— but he got the basic idea.
愛してる
Eiji kept rereading the message over and over again. His heart was swelling in his chest, he had never received these characters from anyone before. He had rarely heard his parents speak these words to each other, except for when his father was on his death bed.
“Did I write it correctly,” Ash asked, a tinge of nervousness in his voice.
“Well, the strokes on the kanji for ai are a little sloppy.”
“My bad,” the blond shrugged, but Eiji could tell that he was disappointed in himself.
“Oh, Ash,” he let out a fond sigh, dropping the bouquet along with the envelope onto the counter before leaning up to wrap his arms around the other boy’s neck, holding him close. “You know we do not say this often in Japan.. only on wedding day or other special occasions.”
“Really? Shit, I didn’t know—”
“It is okay,” Eiji interrupted, resting his head in the crook of Ash’s neck. After a few seconds, he could feel the blond returning the embrace. He would be fine with staying like this forever— in a wildly expensive kitchen in the arms of the American boy that he loves so much. “Aishiteru, Ash,” he said softly as he leaned up to press a gentle kiss to Ash's cheek.