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“Are you sure this is okay, Nino?”
His childhood friend Sho was standing at his doorstep with luggage and a duffel bag on his shoulder, looking uncertain. Nino shrugged as he gestured for him to come in. Sho reluctantly made his way inside the apartment, pulling his trolley with him as his friend closed the door behind him.
“I mean, have you talked to Aiba-san about it?”
Nino made a non-commital noise and walked to the living room.
“You didn’t, did you?” Sho asked, following him.
“This is my apartment as much as it is his,” Nino said. “I know you two don’t exactly get along, but you’ll be out on the street for at least a month. You and Aiba will have to learn to live together peacefully.”
“That’s what I’m worried about…” Sho whispered.
Nino lifted one eyebrow. “You can sleep here,” he said, pointing at the couch. “It’s not much, but it’s better than the old futon we own.”
Sho nodded. “Thank you.”
When Aiba came back home from work, he found Nino and Sho playing games in the living room.
It didn’t escape Nino’s attention that Aiba’s expression changed when he laid eyes on Sho. When the three of them got together, those two would always end up fighting for some reason. Maybe it was because Aiba would say or do something silly that would make Sho annoyed, or, more often, it was because Sho would be condescending with Aiba and make him mad. Nino hated that his two best friends didn’t get along, and he knew that they could only stand to be in the same room together for his sake.
“I’m back,” Aiba said, stiffly.
“Welcome back,” Nino said. Then, bluntly, he said: “Sho-chan is staying here for a month.”
Next to him, Sho moved on his seat uncomfortably.
“What!?” Aiba said, surprised. “What do you mean?”
“My bathroom is being renovated, so I had to move out,” Sho said.
Aiba’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know that.”
Sho opened his mouth, but Nino preceded him. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but he’ll stay on the couch and he’ll be sharing our expenses this month.”
Aiba sat down, looking at Sho weirdly. “I see.”
Nino didn’t know what there was to ‘see’, but as long as his roommate didn’t complain, it was good enough for him. He had already spent countless evenings trying to mediate between them when things got tense, so he already knew what to expect. ‘At this point,’ he thought, ‘what else could possibly go wrong?’
Nino woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom like every night.
Maybe it was because he was so used to being awake at night to game, but he never could sleep an entire night without waking up.
Yawning, he pushed the door of his bedroom open and went to the bathroom. He barely turned on the light, and relieved himself with his eyes still closed.
He was very sleepy still when he heard a noise come from the room next to the bathroom, which belonged to Aiba. Frowning a bit, he flushed and washed his hands. When he got out of the bathroom, he stopped to hear if there were more noises, but everything seemed still, and not even Sho’s snoring could be heard.
Shrugging, Nino walked back to his bedroom and fell into a deep sleep.
When Nino woke up the next morning, he found Sho sitting at the breakfast table reading a newspaper.
“Good morning,” he mumbled in his friend’s direction.
Sho lowered the newspaper and grunted back. He looked disheveled, with bloodshot eyes and eyebags, as if he hadn’t slept a wink.
“Rough night?” Nino asked, helping himself to some egg rolls from the fridge.
“What?” Sho looked at him nervously.
“You look terrible,” Nino said as his friend flinched and repositioned himself on the chair. “Is your back hurting? Is the couch that bad?”
Sho grimaced. “It’s alright. Look, maybe I should—”
Aiba walked in at that moment, fresh from the shower, wearing just a towel. Nino, who was used to that, didn’t really pay attention to it until he saw Sho’s eyes go wide and heard him clear his throat. He forgot how proper Sho was, and seeing Aiba being so disrespectful to his guest was probably making him annoyed. Nino could already see the tension rising in his friend.
Luckily though, Sho didn’t say anything, not even when Aiba sat in the chair in front of his and started eating. In fact, Sho didn’t say anything for the whole breakfast, which was out of character for him, but Nino was never someone who looked a gift horse in the mouth, so he thanked his gods and enjoyed his peaceful morning.
That night, when Nino woke up to go to the bathroom, he heard a thump coming from the living room.
Turning in that direction, he noticed that there was something on the ground. He got closer to it and realized it was Aiba’s t-shirt. What was it doing in the hall?
Walking to the living room, he saw a shadow moving inside. Was Sho awake? Did he fall from the couch?
He walked in the room, letting his eyes get used to the dark. He spotted Sho’s head of hair coming up from behind the back of the couch. He observed as what looked like his arms came around his head to support it, and he heard him sigh.
“Sho-chan?” he whispered.
The dark silhouette on the couch jumped. “N—Nino?”
“Are you okay? I heard a noise.”
“Y—Yes,” Sho said, breathless. “I went to the bathroom and I bumped my foot on the—on the coffee table. But I’m okay,” he added quickly. “I was going back to sleep.”
“Alright,” Nino said with a yawn. “Good night, Sho-chan.”
“Good night,” Sho said with an unnaturally high-pitched voice.
When he came out of the bathroom, Nino picked up Aiba’s shirt and hung it on his bedroom handle before going back to his room to sleep.