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Aoba couldn't enjoy the balmy day. He was too busy hanging his wash on the line with all the panicked speed of a bat out of hell.
Heibon's roof was small, almost engulfed by the taller buildings around it, but whenever the sun peeked out from behind the fat, fluffy clouds of the day it illuminated the entire area with dappled light. Just enough for drying clothes and airing out his futon. He often came up to catch a quick break and enjoy good weather, too. His balcony sometimes felt a little too cramped even for a single person.
But relaxing wasn't on his agenda at the moment. Hadn't been for well over a week. His living quarters preyed on his mind, frayed at his nerves. They were fine for just him, but for another person? Too small, and he had let it get untidy during the years of his stay. Messy. Embarrassing. He needed to go through it top-to-bottom with a fine tooth comb. Clean it up, make it sparkle, stock it up. Ensure that it was comfortable for two --
"A-o-ba!"
Aoba flinched, dropping his (new, pristine white, carefully chosen after far too much time agonizing over the online store's selection) table cloth. Clothespins fell out of his hands along with it, scattering around his feet. "Wh-what?!"
Sei sighed. He had been sitting near the exit in a rounded lounge chair Aoba kept just for taking ease on the roof. There was a glass of lemonade in his hands and a book floating at his side, pages ruffling in the breeze. It hit Aoba then and there that he had asked Sei a question. Hell if he could remember what it was, though.
"You didn't hear me at all, did you?" he said, eyes dark and narrowed.
"Well...not really, no. Sorry." Aoba grimaced. “You have my full attention, I promise.”
Sei settled back in his seat, gaze softening. "I said I didn’t have any problems watching the store yesterday.”
“Oh! Right, glad to hear it,” said Aoba, breaking into a smile. He hadn’t quite been away from Heibon the day before, but he had been so busy with his campaign to reorganize his home above the shop he had had no choice but to enlist some help, and his brother had offered to take his place at the front desk for a nominal paycheck. “Thanks for that, brother. No trouble from customers?”
“Not at all, and I only needed to call Haga-san once for help. It was actually kind of fun! Your closing instructions were really easy to follow.”
“I try to run everything as simply as I can,” Aoba told him. “I already scramble around more than enough trying to get stuff done, you know?”
“I think you have a pretty good handle on things now.” Sei paused, eyeing him thoughtfully. “You should take a break.”
Aoba wanted to protest, his list of errands longer than he was tall scrolling through his head. He didn’t. Instead, leaned back on his heels, tilting his head up and taking a deep, fortifying breath of air. It was crisp and cool. Head-clearing.
“Feel better?”
Aoba hummed in reply, eyes to the sky. First he was in shade, then warm sunlight as the wind pushed clouds across the sky. Rationality won over at that second. His plans wouldn’t collapse around his ears if he slowed down for a moment and chilled out.
"Clear told me it was going to start raining soon. Before the end of the week, I think."
"Already? I feel like spring’s barely begun." Aoba squinted. There was a noticeable tint of grey to the cloud columns. Soon they would be flat and drab, a steely slab that would drizzle rain down on the entire island for days on end. "Ah, and I still have so much to dry."
Speaking the words out loud shot a fresh bolt of anxious energy through his system, shattering his calm into dust. He bent down and snapped his tablecloth back up with one hand and grabbed his clothespins with the other.
"I'm almost done with this load," he muttered, flipping the tablecloth over the wire in front of him and fastening a pin to one of the corners. In his haste, he almost dropped his pins again. "But then I have to get through all my clothes, next. Sei, I don't remember buying even half of the stuff in my closet. I should toss some out, huh? I don't wear a lot of what I have, and I need more room for -- "
"Little brother?"
"Yeah?" Aoba wanted to stuff his fist in his mouth for how snappy & startled he sounded. He looked back at Sei once more, who returned his gaze with sharp scrutiny there was no hiding from.
"How long have you and Noiz been together?"
"Um, three years? Give or take."
Three years. The thought was rather overwhelming. He turned back to his line of drying laundry and secured the other end of the tablecloth before stuffing the extra pins in his apron pocket.
Three years that had gone by like his time as a shop owner. In a whirlwind, a blink of an eye. Always busy, often happier than not. Every lesson thrown at him kept him dancing on his toes, and Noiz was no small part of it. It was nothing he had expected when he first took up the mantle of Heibon’s proprietor, but so much of what he had needed in his life.
And he didn't want to ruin things with unpreparedness.
"I feel like the two of you have been more or less living with each other for the past year," said Sei. "It'll work out."
"Of course," said Aoba at once.
"But?"
His twin was far too shrewd. Or omniscient. Aoba always thought it flip-flopped depending on Sei's mood. He was far better at controlling his visions nowadays. "I...I'm just..."
"Over-thinking it? Worrying yourself sick?"
Aoba's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Let me take it out on my chores, alright?"
"The top floor isn't even that messy," Sei said. "But if it helps..."
"Either I scrub every inch of this place over or get myself a punching bag, and guess what I don't have room for?" Aoba turned to another clothesline set up near the edge of the roof, taken up by his futon. He ran a hand along it. It had served him well over the years, still in good condition because he utterly loathed the idea of letting it fall into disrepair after splurging on it, but once it was done airing out it was retiring to occasional guest bed work. There was a new futon laid out on the platform of his loft space now. Bigger, downier.
Made for two instead of one.
Sei laughed behind him. "What are you thinking about now? Your face looks like it could boil water."
"Nothing," Aoba declared, because if Sei wasn't going to peek at his thoughts he certainly wasn't going to say them out loud. His brother held his glass of lemonade to him, smile wider.
"Want to cool off?"
"Don't mind if I do!" Aoba marched up to him and swiped the drink, downing it in a few large gulps while he held it out of reach from Sei's reaching hands and his laughing protests.
Over-thinking it. Worrying himself sick. Sei's assessment of him was as apt as ever, but at the same time Aoba didn't think that quite covered it. Not completely.
Much to his gratitude, the weekend swirled by in a storm of chores that kept him too busy to dwell too much on all the what-ifs of the giant next step he wanted to take with Noiz. He went through his room top-to-bottom until, at least in his eyes, it looked showroom pretty. The bathroom, water closet, and the guest restroom downstairs were scrubbed until they sparkled even brighter than when he had first moved in and been on top of his cleaning. After that, he ended up devoting most of a drizzly Saturday afternoon to cleaning the break room, music bright and cheery to chase away the glum atmosphere that threatened to leak through the cracks of Heibon from the bad weather outside. With Ren lounging peacefully on top of the fridge, Aoba put his back into making it feel as kitchen-y as possible. Cozy, comforting, something reminiscent of the way Granny's kitchen felt whenever he stepped into it for a visit. He wasn't quite sure he accomplished such a lofty aspiration once he was done, bat at the very least it was nice and neat. That would have to do for now.
When he had to stop; just to catch a breath and stretch, to eat, and in the moments of waking up in the morning and settling under the covers at night, it wasn't just those what-ifs crowding inside him. There was a warm fizziness that bubbled up from his core whenever he thought about the simplest things: Noiz sharing his bed, cooking and eating with him, staying up until the wee hours of the morning on the weekends while they studied or finished up various work projects with no more deciding who was staying where the day after. There were downsides, potential issues of cohabitation with Noiz that nipped at him, but even while he tried to keep those in mind the idea sharing his space with someone he had come to love so deeply made him stop and grin into space, cleaning utensil in his hands forgotten until Ren snapped him back into reality with concerned prompting. It was a good thing no one else had been around to observe him, frazzled mess that he was.
"Living with Midori will be interesting," said Ren. He circled around in the curve of Aoba's body under the clean, warm sheets of his futon before snuggling close to his chest. "I look forward to it."
Aoba smiled and ran his fingers through Ren's soft fur. "Watch over the little bunnies, okay?"
"I will do my best. Are you excited for tomorrow, Aoba?"
"Yeah." He closed his eyes, listening to the patter of rain hitting the roof and window. "Definitely."
Aoba woke up on Sunday to a swarm of butterflies knocking around in his stomach. He took extra time getting ready, fussing over his hair and struggling with outfit choice even though he knew it didn't matter. They were going to spend the day lounging around, not going out for a night on the town. Greeting Noiz at the door in his pajamas made more sense in the long run.
Still, today was important. That was a good enough reason to dress well, wasn't it?
He almost skipped breakfast, but Ren was so against the notion he went so far as to nudge Aoba into the kitchen with his wet snout pressed into Aoba's calf. Aoba found that so adorable he let his familiar have his way, and quickly gulped down buttered toast with a glass of water before heading out one last time before Noiz arrived.
The rain hadn't let up overnight. Everything outside was slathered in a soggy, gray aura at odds with Aoba's inner jitters. A quick incantation repelled the rain from his body, and he was able to jog to the nearest discount supermarket in relative comfort. He returned almost an hour later, hair mussed from a sudden blast of wind and a trail of grocery bags levitating behind him. A quick, simple trip, just enough focus his energy on food he needed to stock up on and recipes for a nice dinner.
"Is udon too simple, Ren?" asked Aoba as he put away his groceries. "It's just lunch, but maybe I should have tried something fancier. Splurged on shrimp to fry instead of this chicken…"
"Noiz never seemed like a very picky eater."
Aoba shook his head, unearthing a package of chicken breasts from the grocery bag. "I texted him about what he wanted and he said he'd be fine with just cup noodles! Which, no. No way am I putting that in front of him. That's something you eat at two in the morning in the middle of an all-nighter, not to celebrate moving in togeth -- what's with that look, huh?"
"I apologize if I offended you," said Ren, ears lowered as his eyes darted away. "But you sounded very much like Tae, just now."
"Well, I -- " Aoba turned scarlet and immediately began hauling the rest of his groceries out at top speed. Granny getting fussy over the food someone ate was one of her top displays of affection. "I-I'm not wrong, am I!?"
"I do not know much about human nutrition, but I believe your concern is valid." Ren paused. "It is not a bad thing to sound like Tae."
Aoba stuck his head a little deeper into the grocery back than necessary. "I know that! Geez..."
Udon wasn't the most complex dish Aoba had ever attempted, but he still went slowly about it, second guessing the amount of ingredients he was tossing in, wondering how Granny made hers perfect every time, and how Noiz would react once they dug in. He wasn't sure why he was curious about the last part, however. Noiz had proven time and again he didn't mind being Aoba's culinary guinea pig, never balking even at Aoba's more questionable, magic-fueled experiments.
"'If you make it for me, I'll eat it,'" he muttered over the pot of boiling fish broth in his best imitation of Noiz's low voice. "Pretty sure he told me that the day he puked out my Hayashi rice."
"I don't think your color changing spell for the rice meshed well with its temperature," said Ren. "But I do recall Noiz telling you that it still tasted good."
"It doesn't count if my food shoots back out of his mouth faster than how it went down!"
So, in order to avoid any gastronomical mishaps, Aoba took special care cooking the udon and left spells entirely out of the picture. Twenty minutes later he had completely competent chicken udon boiling away on his stove.
"Perfect for this crappy weather, don't you think?" Aoba was almost singing, he was so pleased with himself.
Ren leaned over and looked into the pot, carefully keeping his face far enough away to avoid stray fur falling into it. "Excellent work, Aoba. I'm sure it'll be an enjoyable meal for the both of you."
"Okay!" Aoba clapped his hands together. "I'll let it warm up for now. All that's left is to set the table. We’ll eat when Noiz gets here, unpacking his things can wait until -- "
His Coil buzzed against his wrist, message screen popping up. It took but a single glance at it for Aoba's heart rocket up his throat.
noiz: im outside
Aoba's mouth opened, shut, and opened again. "Ah...he's early!"
"Better hurry," prompted Ren. "It's still raining."
"R-right!"
Aoba didn't bother to take off his apron. He paused just long enough to turn the stove down as low as it could go before rushing out the break room, down the hall, and into the charm shop proper. The rain seemed to beat down louder than ever over the shop. Noiz's silhouette stood just outside the covered glass door. Aoba grabbed the handle and yanked as soon as he was within reach of it.
And was promptly reminded that he had locked it behind him when he had come back from the grocery story.
"Oh, yeah..." Face heating up once again and elbow more than a little pained, he flipped the knob and pulled on the handle much more sedately. Noiz stepped in alongside a strong gust of wind and rain. Behind him were several suitcases, the last of what he needed moved out of his old apartment and into Aoba's room.
Their room, now.
"It's pouring out there." Noiz muttered. He took off his hat and shook his messy hair out. He wasn't all that wet, nor were his bags. Aoba was glad he remembered to repel the rain off him for once. Noiz often braved bad weather without anything but his clothes keeping him dry. "Didn't think it'd get so bad so quickly."
"I…" Aoba blinked at him blankly while the suitcases rolled inside without any prompting from Noiz. This was it. Months of planning and discussion have gone into this move. It called for a significant welcome, something confident to usher in the start of a new, wonderful beginning.
"I bought a new futon," Aoba blurted out
Noiz just stared at him for a second. "Okay."
"For us," he added hastily. "You know, because my old one's kind of a tight fit for two and I saw a really nice one on sale Thursday, so -- "
"I didn't mind," said Noiz, and there was a bit of smile on his face, now. "It was...cozy."
"You would say that," Aoba muttered, but he couldn't exactly disagree with him. "But this one is way more comfortable! And, well, uh..."
He was floundering under Noiz's quizzical gaze, everything over the last week rushing over him in a great wave. And with no more chores to keep him preoccupied all he could think to do was talk all the excess nerves out of him, hands balled deep in his apron pockets. Had he forgotten to complete something before Noiz arrived? Oh, he bet he had, and he'll remember it in the middle of the night when it was too late to get to it with work bright and early in the morning.
"There's more space," he continued, stowing those despicable encroaching thoughts into the furthest corner of his mind. "Lots more space, so you can move over if I start kicking at you in my sleep again. You can have the spot next to the wall, of course. I wouldn't want you rolling off the loft. But even with the bigger futon it’s not cramped up there at all. The whole room looks a lot bigger, actually! I threw out so much old crap while I cleaned out the upstairs -- "
Noiz's brows knit together. "You were cleaning?"
"Y-yeah, I was. Over the weekend. Is something wrong?"
"Didn't you want to go through everything next weekend?" Noiz asked. "I told you I would help."
"Oh." And all of Aoba's chatter died in the realization. Suddenly, he remembered that conversation, that Wednesday before Noiz left to tie up some business with his coven. He could now even pinpoint when it flew out of his head the very next day, after his sixth attempt at a charm blew up in his face from anxiety laced with about two hours of sleep. "I'm sorry, I...I totally forgot. But on the bright side, you don’t have to do that anymore. Everything’s done!"
“Everything?”
“Yes, everything. All clean. The only thing left is for you to unpack your stuff. Then you can just sit back and relax.”
“Relax, hm?”
Noiz stepped closer. Aoba, well accustomed to Noiz’s sudden entries into his personal space, didn’t move away. Instead, he parted his lips when Noiz leaned down to meet them with his own. Their kiss was slow and gentle, couple with the comforting touch of Noiz’s hands sliding down Aoba’s arms and easing his fists out of his apron pockets.
“You look like you need way more relaxation than I do,” said Noiz when the parted, face close and voice quiet.
“I’ve…been calmer, I guess.” Aoba tried to laugh, the ghost of Noiz’s mouth moving softly against his skin lingering. Denial had been on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down. “Got a little overwhelmed about this whole thing after you left for Ruff Rabbit. Had to keep busy, you know?”
Noiz’s hands smoothed down Aoba’s wrists, drifted over his clenched hands. Aoba unfolded them and let Noiz intertwine their fingers together. “Good or bad overwhelmed?”
“Both.” Aoba gave his hands a squeeze. They were rough as always, this time a little cold. “I mean, we talked and planned for this as much as we could, I know, but — ”
A shadow passed over Noiz’s expression, there and gone in the blink of an eye. “Second thoughts? We don’t have to do this, Aoba. It’s whatever you want. Even now, I can always — ”
“No,” said Aoba at once. He grabbed Noiz’s face, giving it a small but firm shake. “I want to do this! I really, absolutely want to do this with you! That’s why I’ve been so…like I’ve been. I don’t want anything to go wrong. And it is not just whatever I want, Noiz,” he added, keeping his hands on Noiz’s face but pushing him back a bit, the better to give him a stern glare. “You have just as much say in this as I do.”
“Okay.” Noiz closed his eyes and sighed, letting Aoba cradle his head without complaint. “A lot of things can still go wrong, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“But I really, absolutely, want to do this with you, too,” said Noiz, and Aoba thought he was going to continue, but Noiz’s eyes flicked upward when they opened, and he grimaced. Before Aoba could ask what was wrong, Noiz reached up and snatched something from atop Aoba’s head with quick fingers that made him flinch in surprise.
“Do you mind?” he asked the thing he had caught.
“Piii!” A small, white face peeked out from the circle of his fist, rabbit mochi magicked into life.
“Midori? What were you doing up there?” asked Aoba. He hadn’t even felt it on him.
“Hello! Midori wanted to say hello to Aoba,” it said. “Noiz! Did you take care of all your errands? Are we home now?”
“Yes, we are,” Noiz sighed. “Is that all? I’m going to send you back to the field.”
“No! Where is Ren? Midori wants to see Ren, now!”
“Noiz, don’t squeeze it so hard,” Aoba admonished. “Ren’s in the kitchen. He’ll be glad to see you, Midori.”
“Pi!”
Noiz let his familiar free. Squeaking in excitement, it bounced off the back of Noiz’s head and hopped away.
“That reminds me,” said Noiz, watching Midori disappear down the hallway. “I did want to say that…”
“Say what? Whoa!”
Noiz gathered Aoba around the waist without warning and hugged him tight, kissing his lips again, then his cheek.
“I’m home,” said Noiz, leaning his weight into Aoba’s body.
“Oh.” The words filled Aoba’s chest to overflowing with something sweet and warm. He threw his arms around Noiz’s shoulders. “Welcome home, Noiz.”
“I think we can do this, since we both want the same thing,” Noiz told him. “If the plans we have now don’t work, we can come up with new ones.”
Aoba took a deep breath, Noiz’s proximity going a long way in easing the buildup of tension inside him. Perfection was impossible, he reminded himself. There were bound to be bumps in the road while living together, but so long as they met in the middle and worked things out together, they’d be able to handle any problem that came their way. “Sounds good. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“It’s fine.”
“I made udon for lunch, and I think it came out pretty good. How’s your appetite?”
“Starving.”
Noiz bent down, looping an arm under Aoba’s knees and scooping him into his arms.
“I didn’t take care of everything this weekend, by the way,” said Aoba, tightening his grip around Noiz’s neck and making a face at him. He’ll let this slide, just this once. They were in privacy, after all.
“Oh?” Noiz’s grin grew, Aoba wiggled in his hold and averted his eyes.
“W-well, I was thinking that it’d be annoying to have to carry our food upstairs everyday, so how about we…go looking for a new table next Sunday? And better chairs. Only if you want to come with me, of course! If you don’t — ”
“Of course I do.”
And without further ado, Noiz carried him into the break room in his strong, secure arms. Aoba brushed his lips against Noiz’s temple and let him sweep him away without a single protest. Who knew the prospect of furniture hunting with someone would make him so happy?