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“You don’t have to do that.” Freppa rushed over to Määnin to push him away from the finished dishwasher. “I’ll handle that.”
“But—”
“No, that would be rude”, Freppa interrupted. “You are the guest here after all.”
Freppa began emptying the dishwasher himself. He didn’t look at Määnin, just worked.
“What?”
And Freppa stopped. He looked up into Määnin’s face. A face that was so familiar he could see it in great detail when closing his eyes before falling asleep.
Not just his face was familiar, the way he moved and talked, the way he looked standing in this environment, in Freppa’s apartment. He knew where the plate in Freppa’s hand belonged and those three glasses that were still inside, Määnin had gotten from Freppa’s special cupboard himself yesterday.
Määnin wasn’t a guest. He spent here day and night. Left the house to get groceries when Freppa didn’t have the time. Had a claimed spot on the couch and his own mug. There was a kind of cheese in the fridge that Freppa didn’t like, that was only there because Määnin liked it for breakfast and Freppa bought it regardless of Määnin being there that particular day or not.
“Fredrik”, Määnin said. It should be enough of a signal that he was offering to do the chore. That he didn’t mind. That he wanted to work here just as well as Freppa did. When had Määnin last be in his apartment?
Their awkward eye contact got interrupted by the sound of keys and quickly following a Tommy Tall with the proudest expression. “I got the limited edition trip juice, Frep!” He let his own bundle of keys, which had Freppa’s, Määnin’s, as well his own, on it, and put a packed set of trip juice cartons right next to it. “Twelve trip. Fyrbanna, those people were fighting over those juice packages, I almost punched a guy in the nose.”
Freppa’s eyes went back to Määnin. Then to Tommy. “Thank you.”
“Is everything alright?”, Tommy asked. He settled on a stool at the kitchen table. Eyes jumping between the plate, Määnin’s held up hand and Freppa’s horrified face expression. He had difficulty picking up on details in people’s emotion but he’d never fail it with them. His expression was easy, Tommy’s own kind of smile.
His presence eased the situation in the room, his presence was always doing good to the room he was in.
“More than that”, Freppa said. He and Määnin began emptying the dishwasher together while Tommy put their groceries away, chatting happily (and a little too exaggerated) about his trip.
Freppa couldn’t help but smile because this felt so right and so normal.
“Okay. What’s for dinner?”