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The boxes were all piled up in their respective rooms, waiting to be open. The fridge had been the first thing they had plugged, and the mattress had been put on the floor with a bedspread on it. Charles fell on his back, bouncing because of the springs in the mattress. God, we have to find a better one, this just won’t do, he thought.
He stretched as much as he could, feeling the tired muscles of his arms and legs relieved after the long day of going up and down stairs, carrying heavy boxes filled with Erik’s insane quantity of tools. How could Erik even complain that Charles brought too many books?! Books were learning. Had he seen the quantity of metal he was obstinate about bringing with them?! Hard headed prat. Charles smiled despite himself.
Erik and him, their first apartment. The beginning of a new chapter.
The man rolled in the covers, thinking about if he had the time to take a quick nap when he heard the door open.
“I have dinner,” his boyfriend called from the other room, and from the sound of it, fumbling with bags. Charles felt his smile growing.
“Can we eat on the mattress? I’m knackered.” He could hear Erik getting closer, his voice louder as he walked toward the room.
“Well, honestly Charles, it’s not like we have much of a choice. The only other thing we could eat on is the floor.”
“We definitely ought to go buy a new table tomorrow,” the other man answered, voice half muffled by the pillow. He felt the mattress dip enormously when Erik sat on its side, putting the bag of food on the floor and starting unlacing his shoes. Yes, they really had to get a new mattress. “What sort of food did you get?”
“The only place that I could find open at this hour was either McDonalds or chinese.”
“Oh God, tell me you got chinese.” Charles sounded wary.
“I did.”
“Oooh this is why I love you,” he groaned with a tired voice and his eyes closed. He felt Erik bend over him and drop a kiss on his cheek.
“Sit up sleepyhead, or I’ll eat all the general tao.”
There was a pause for a second. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Just you watch me,” Erik said, and started opening the various boxes of food. Charles turned on his back, squint-eyed.
“Do you really want to start off our first night in our new apartment by making me angry?”
Erik pulled his tongue at his boyfriend and shut him up by putting a piece of chicken in his mouth.
“Mmmmm,” Charles moaned instantly, closing his eyelids to savour the bite.
“That was entirely too sexual for a piece of general tao.”
“Want me to make more of those sounds tonight?”
“God, yes.”
“Then give me more chicken.”
Erik laughed and shook his head and put another piece in Charles’ mouth. Eventually the man sat up and Erik went to look for forks in one of their many boxes. Together they shared dinner, passing the different food back and forth. Erik only got one piece of the general tao, but Charles almost got none of the almond chicken so he guessed it was fair. By the time they were finished they had piled up the boxes next to the bed (a lot of boxes, Erik remarked, they clearly did not had had the time to get lunch).
Charles, a hand stroking up and down Erik’s thigh, watched his boyfriend bend over to reach in the plastic chinese food bag. When he returned he was holding two little packages.
“Fortune cookies!” Charles said with an excited tone, quickly grabbing one from Erik’s hand. “My favorite dessert!”
“I thought your favorite dessert was cheesecake.”
“There is no discrimination between desserts.”
Erik laughed softly, turning his boyfriend around to sit him between his legs.
“How can this be your favorite dessert anyway? It’s dry and cheap and sugary.”
“It’s the messages! Don’t you know the game that goes with it?”
Erik frowned. “No?” Food with games?
Charles smirked, and Erik knew that smirk. He quite liked it, actually. He always knew he was about to hear something good. “I love that game. At the end of each message, you add ‘in bed.’ As if the sentence you just just read is about your situation in bed.”
Erik smirked in return and arched an eyebrow, amused. “Really, Charles? Sex jokes, you, the mighty university professor?” he asked, looking down at his boyfriend. Charles slapped his shoulder lightly.
“Oh please. You wouldn’t love me as much without my twisted mind.”
Erik nudged him, a small smile on his face. “Let’s see what yours says, then.”
He watched as Charles’ fingers delicately opened the plastic emballage, then broke the cookie in two, retrieving the tiny piece of paper. There was a second of silence before the man started to read.
“‘Finish your work on hand don't be greedy.’ In bed.” His face fell and Erik started laughing behind him, unable to control it. Charles fake gasped at him, slapping his shoulder again. He was amused too, though. “Don’t laugh at me, yours could be much worse.”
Erik tried to control his mirth and opened his own cookie under Charles’ curious stare.
“'You possess a magnetic charm',” he read. And completed, “In bed.” He grinned at Charles, all teeth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the latter said.
“No, not even.” The German started laughing again. Charles made a “pff” sound and turned around to push Erik on his back. He lowered his head until his mouth was millimeters away from his boyfriend’s ear and whispered playfully, “So, will I have to finish my work by hand tonight, or are you going to help me?”
He felt more than saw Erik’s grin widen and the man took a handful of his arse. “Only if you promise not to be too greedy.”
“Oh, but we both know that wouldn’t be as fun, don’t we?” Charles said, and pressed his lips to the other man’s, feeling him smile against his mouth.
“Yes,” he thought, “living with Erik is going to be quite an amazing adventure.”