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Once again, Laios found himself waiting for Kabru at the top of the stairs, listening to his footsteps as they echoed in the stairwell. Kabru’s gait was usually pretty graceful and measured; he would hold his head high, puff out his chest and watch his step carefully to make sure that he wouldn't lose his balance or trip over anything along the way. Whenever he came over to Laios’ house, though, there was a distinct sense of urgency in his walk as he skipped up the stairs, holding tightly on to the railing in case his foot slipped. It was pretty reassuring to know that he was just as excited as Laios, who could barely contain his enthusiasm as he watched him approach, walking around in circles, bouncing on his feet, and swinging his hips around, wagging his phantom tail. As Kabru took on the final few steps, Laios subconsciously spread his arms in anticipation of a hug, and was promptly rewarded with a bunch of kisses peppered all over his face as Kabru clung on to his neck, subtly pushing him back towards the open door to his apartment. Laios glanced over his shoulder to make sure that they wouldn't trip backwards over the doorstep, and, once they were safely inside, he closed the door behind them and made sure to lock it, too.
“I'm sorry to have kept you waiting,” Kabru said with an apologetic sigh, handing his bag over the Laios so that he could comfortably take off his shoes. Laios refrained from telling Kabru that he missed him, just in case it would make him feel bad for leaving in the first place, but evidently Kabru didn't need him to say anything in order to feel like he had to apologise. “You see,” Kabru went on, effortlessly slipping out of his canvas shoes, “I dropped by my apartment on the way back to grab some things, and I couldn't for the life of me remember when I put one of them, which postponed my exit by a few minutes, which in turn caused me to miss the bus. I believe that once you see what I picked up,” he added, sending Laios a wink as he tapped his lips with his index finger, “you will agree with me that it was worth the detour, though.”
“Oh, yeah, no problem!” Laios assured, giving a thumbs-up and a nod. “Actually, I just finished making lunch, so you're perfectly on time. Hang on, I'm gonna pick it up real quick,” he added, handing the bag back to Kabru, and rushed into the kitchen to pick up the freshly-made crepes, along with a selection of sweet dips and sauces that he prepared in advance, jam and honey and hazelnut spread, and a can of whipped cream for decoration. When he came out of the kitchen, Kabru immediately offered to take some of the condiments off his hands, with a hint of concern in his expression. After a moment of hesitation, Laios decided that it would be a good idea to let Kabru handle the honey and jam – it would suck if the jars slipped out of his grasp and fell to the floor, after all. The two of them settled down on his bedroom floor, sitting cross-legged across from each other, the plateful of crepes placed between them and the condiments laid out in a circle around it. They could have used his desk instead, or brought in a foldable table, but there was something especially enjoyable about eating on the floor, as if they were having an indoor picnic.
They each grabbed a crepe and had a toast of sorts, giggling as they touched tips. Laios dipped his crepe in honey and sprayed some whipped cream on it before stuffing it in his mouth, chewing thoroughly and letting out hums of delight, all the while watching Kabru from the corner of his mouth to make sure that he was actually eating, eagerly awaiting the moment he swallowed. Kabru was a very slow eater, taking small bites and chewing them for much longer than necessary, which, as Laios knew from experience, was a trick to make himself feel full even though he barely had anything to eat. It wasn't a good thing, obviously, but there was still an obvious improvement compared to how he used to eat just a few weeks ago, which was pretty reassuring. At this rate, if he kept eating regular meals, over time his stomach would get used to bigger portions, and eventually he wouldn't have to do this kind of thing anymore. The process couldn't really be rushed since it would be dangerous for him to eat more than he could handle, but they'd get there eventually.
Laios finally managed to swallow his crepe, pounding on his chest to make it go down easier. He put his hand over his mouth to muffle a burp and sent Kabru an apologetic glance prompting him to snort with amusement and point at his mouth to indicate that there was whipped cream on it. Laios stuck his tongue out to lick it off and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand for good measure, earning him a thumbs-up from Kabru. With a sigh of relief, Laios went to pick up another crepe. “You know,” he prompted, swirling hazelnut spread on his crepe, “now that you brought it up, I'm kind of curious what it is that you do when you go out on Sundays. Obviously you don't have to tell me if you don't want to,” he added quickly, “but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.”
For the most part, Laios felt that those of Kabru's activities that didn't directly involve him weren't really any of his business, and he hadn't really given them much thought because of it. Kabru was a busy guy with a bunch of different obligations, studying and working, and hanging out with all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons, and it would be way too much work to keep track of all of that. He only familiarised himself with Kabru's academic schedule because university was where he spent most of his time, and the campus was close enough to Laios' apartment that he could visit him there during the day. Otherwise, he only had a vague idea of what Kabru may have been doing based on what he told him over the phone, and even that he was likely to forget as soon as the call ended. Some people would argue that, as his partner, he should have been more involved in Kabru's personal life. That his lack of interest made him a bad boyfriend, even. His argument against that would be that it was simply never something Kabru expected from him, nor did he seem to particularly mind it – on the contrary, he expressed appreciation for Laios' respect for his boundaries. Besides, it wasn't as if Laios wasn't paying attention to what Kabru told him, either. He just didn't want to stick his nose in somebody else's business unprompted. Perhaps he would be called naïve for this approach, but he really had no reason to suspect Kabru of doing anything shady behind his back. The only reason he felt compelled to ask about Kabru's Sunday outings was the realisation that until now, he had subconsciously pictured him simply wandering through the streets until it was time to come back for lunch, which couldn't possibly be right. Even assuming that he only left so that Shuro wouldn't catch on to the fact that he spent the night at their house, he must have found something to do with himself during that time.
Kabru’s eyes grew wide with genuine surprise. “...Eh? What? I thought you knew! Didn't I tell you…?” Laios offered a shrug, reluctantly shaking his head. Kabru anxiously picked at his bottom lip. “Really? I could have sworn that I did…” he murmured, crinkling his eyebrows, and finally shook his head. “Well, never mind that. It's not as if the information has been of any importance until now, so I suppose I can't blame either of us for neglecting to establish it. In any case,” he went on, tearing a piece of the crepe off as he spoke, “I might as well tell you right now. It's quite simple, really. There is someone I've been tutoring this year, and this is the only time slot that suits them.”
Laios slapped his own forehead. “Ohh, right! Your tutoring thing! I remember now,” he said, nodding to himself, relieved. Kabru had told him that he'd been tutoring some kids that were about to take their final exams – in fact, he offered to tutor Laios over the summer so that he could finally take the exam himself, which he never got to do since he ran away from school before he got a chance to take a stab at it (not that he was likely to pass, anyhow, so it wasn't much of a loss) – but for some reason it never occurred to him that his Sunday outings could be related to that at all. Probably because there was no school on Sundays, so his mind naturally skipped over that possibility. It made sense that someone who was busy with school during the week would need to schedule a tutor for the weekend, he supposed, but it would also suck for them not to have a single day off. Then again, if they liked studying this much, they probably wouldn't mind that. There were some people like that out there, for sure. He'd never had a tutor, so he didn't really know what it was like, anyway. “Yeah, wow, that makes way more sense. For some reason, I thought that you were doing that just because you didn't want to run into Shuro,” he admitted, biting into his crepe.
“Um. Well...” Kabru admitted, crinkling his eyebrows, “that is a part of it, actually. The first time I slept over at your house, I was quite anxious over the possibility of alerting him to the nature of our relationship by accidentally making my presence in the house known. It's simply a lucky coincidence that I already had a prior engagement and didn't have to invent one for the sake of having an excuse to leave for a couple of hours. Now that I say all of this out loud,” he added after a pause, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I fully realise how ridiculous it sounds, but I really was quite concerned about such things at the time. Now, of course, I realise that it wouldn't matter either way. If I were to run into him in the morning, I could simply say that we had a sleepover and you allowed me to use the other bunk of your bed, and he likely wouldn't think anything of it. Frankly, I can't help but find it a little disappointing how easily things get past him. At this point,” he went on, taking another bite of his crepe, “I'm somewhat tempted to become deliberately provocative.”
“Hehe...” Laios grinned, stroking the side of his nose with his finger, unknowingly spreading whipped cream all over it. “I mean, you can always do that when you sleep over next week, right? Since you're gonna be here for four days and all. You're probably gonna bump into him sooner or later, anyway. I'm kind of curious about how that could go.” He popped the rest of the crepe in his mouth and silently chewed on it for a while, trying to imagine what Kabru acting provocatively would look like and feeling his face grow warm. Laios lightly shook his head and swallowed. “Anyway, tutoring, huh?” he prompted, rerouting back to the previous topic. “You know, it's really admirable that you can do that. I guess I'm not surprised, though. You're really good at explaining stuff.” When Laios visited Kabru between classes to bring him lunch, he would sometimes tell him what he learned in class that day, which was pretty cool. He would tell him about all kinds of other things, too, religion and philosophy and anthropology, human anatomy and psychology, stuff that Laios had basically no knowledge of or interest in prior to hearing Kabru talk about it. All of his explanations were really easy to understand, without feeling like they were dumbed down for his sake. He never mocked Laios for asking questions, no matter how strange, even if he had to think about them for a while, and his answers were always perfectly satisfactory. If Laios had a teacher like him back at school, he probably would have stuck around until graduation. Even Kabru's voice was perfect for a teacher, smooth and easy to listen to, never mumbling or stuttering, never raising to a shout, the kind of voice that one wanted to listen to forever and ever. “You wanna be a teacher, right?” Laios prompted excitedly. “You should totally do that! You'd be really good, I bet.”
Kabru's eyes twinkled, his lips curling into a gentle smile. “Thank you. I appreciate it,” he said, giving a slight nod, and began stroking his bottom lip. “You could say that, yes. It's certainly one of the options I've considered. At the very least, I'm going to continue working as a tutor until I graduate, and we shall see where things go from there. Once I get my master's degree, I would like to maintain a relationship with the university, whether as a professor or a researcher, like my friend Holm and Miss Marcille, or any other kind of academic, really. Who knows, perhaps I could try for a PhD? That sounds fun,” he said, a curious glint in his eyes. “I would have to come up with a really good topic for my dissertation first, though. But before I do that,” he added with a sigh, “I will have to settle on a topic for my master's. And write it, of course, but that part should be relatively easy... Actually, thanks to you, I've managed to significantly narrow down my options."
“Huh? Me?” Laios pointed at himself with the crepe. “What did I do? What do you mean?”
“You've introduced me to a plethora of new, fascinating ideas, for one,” Kabru said, lifting his index finger as if he were going to poke the tip of Laios' nose, but hesitated at the last second. “Your many tangents about furries, combined with my research into the animal symbolism present in the gay community, has inspired me to investigate a possible link between the two. Of course,” he added solemnly, “I am going to run my theories past you before I put them to paper, just to be safe.”
Laios gave a thumbs-up. “Yeah, sure! I wanna know what you come up with. Honestly, it's probably gonna be way smarter than anything I could write.” He began preparing another crepe, deep in thought. “You've really got it all figured out already, huh? With school and work and stuff, I mean,” he hummed, furrowing his brow. “I wish I could do that. I still don't really know what I'm gonna do with myself. I've never been able to keep a job for longer than a few months. Just never worked out that way, I guess. Whenever I thought I found something good, I would find out that it was a scam and I just couldn't tell until somebody told me. I don't mind walking dogs and stocking shelves, that stuff's fine, but I doubt that's gonna be enough in the long run. I'll probably have to figure out something better, but I have no idea what that could be.” He fell silent for a moment. “I guess I could keep making fursuits,” he offered reluctantly, stroking his chin. “I already got the hang of it, more or less, and I could ask Senshi to help me with getting the right materials. Honestly, though, I dunno if I'm good enough to pull it off in the long run. I've never made a fursuit for anybody other than myself, and even that was pretty hard to get right. It wouldn't be fair to do it for money until I can guarantee that it's gonna be worth it, you know? Besides, with the reputation I've got,” he added, grimacing, “there's no way anybody would ever want to buy anything from me...”
Kabru snapped his fingers, smiling smugly. “There's no need for you to worry your pretty little head about such things, my love.” Laios' heart throbbed in his chest at those words. Kabru went on, putting his hand over his heart. “I solemnly swear that for as long as you and I are together – that is to say, til death do us part – I'm going to provide for you and make sure that your needs are met so that you can pursue your life's passions without ever concerning yourself with finances. That's the plan, at least,” he added humbly. “My salary should cover all of our needs, but even if it does not, there is nothing to worry about. You see,” he explained, dipping his crepe in honey, “my mother is a very wealthy woman, and she has made me her sole heir. It's true. She set up a bank account for me so that I would be able to access it in case of an emergency, and has been adding funds to it the entire time I've been living independently. Thankfully, I have not needed to touch that money for my own purposes, but if it came to that, I would be happy to put it to good use.”
“...Huh.” Laios stared at him in wide-eyed shock. “Wait, what? I didn't know any of that!” Somehow it had never occurred to him that Kabru could have that kind of money, or any money at all. For some reason, he'd assumed that they were more or less in the same boat.
*Well, now you do,” Kabru remarked in a playful tone, watching him curiously from the corner of his eye, a faint smile dancing on his lips. “I hope that doesn't radically change your opinion of me,” he added, with the slightest bit of anxiety in his voice.
Laios considered that for a moment. Did knowing that Kabru had money change anything? Well, it definitely changed their material situation, that was for sure, but it didn't really affect his feelings towards Kabru in any way. Whether he was wealthy or not, he was a really good person, and knowing that he worked as hard as he did despite having funds to fall back on only made him more admirable, if anything. “Not really,” he said finally, lightly shaking his head. “I just wasn't expecting it, is all. I'm kind of relieved that you're not gonna need to depend on me for money, though. I've never been good with that kind of stuff, like I said. I've got no business sense and no ambition, either. That's a problem. I'd hate to drag you down with me, the way I did Falin. So, knowing that I don't have to worry about that is pretty nice.” He took a bite out of the crepe before pointing it towards Kabru. “I still can't let you do all the work, though. It wouldn't be right. So, I'm still going to do my best to contribute in any way I can, even if it's not much,” he promised.
Kabru stifled a chuckle, hiding his smile behind his crepe. “Sure, if that's what you want, I'm not going to stop you. However,” he said emphatically, putting up his index finger again, “seeing as you've been feeding me really well, and allowed me to use your bed and other facilities in your house at no cost at all for the past few weeks, I would say that we are even. If anything, arguably I owe you for all the kindness you've shown me. But it would be silly to think of it in these terms, wouldn't it? Besides,” he added, sending Laios a wink, “it would make me quite happy if you allowed me to spoil you every now and then, for my sake if not yours. Gift-giving has always been one of my favourite pastimes, and the mere thought of showering you in gifts makes me tingle.”
“...Sure,” Laios mumbled, feeling his face grow warm. Was Kabru really getting off on the idea of giving him presents? Well, that didn't exactly feel out-of-character for him, so... “That reminds me,” he said, glancing towards Kabru's bag, “you said that you brought something cool, right?”
“Yes!” Kabru excitedly clapped his hands.”I was just about to bring it up myself, but you beat me to it. I promise I'm going to finish my meal, but let me show you what I've got first, while we're on the subject,” he murmured cheerfully as he unzipped the bag. “First, this Japanese textbook, along with my notes. I don't have a Japanese class this semester, so I have no use for it right now. I thought you might get something out of it, though. If you'd like, I could go through the contents with you,” he said, tapping the cover with his index finger as he spoke, before handing Laios the textbook. “Next!” he exclaimed, pulling out a decently-sized semi-transparent bag, and placed it in Laios' lap. Laios looked to him for permission to open the bag, and carefully unzipped it. The contents turned out to consist of three pairs of underwear adorned with various dog-related patterns, like paw-prints and bones. Laios inhaled sharply, his eyes twinkling with delight. “It's moist-wicking underwear,” Kabru explained. “I thought it would be more comfortable than the regular kind, and the patterns are quite charming. Judging from your reaction,” he added, chuckling, “it seems like you agree.”
“You bet I do!” Laios exclaimed, nodding eagerly. “That's really cool! Thanks! I'm totally gonna put them on to sleep tonight,” he added fondly, sniffing his new underwear.
Kabru's face lit up with a smile. “Ah, I'm very glad to hear that! If you can believe it,” he added, smirking slyly, “there is still one more item left, and of course I left the best for last. Now, where is it...” he murmured, rummaging through the contents of his bag. Suddenly his eyes twinkled. “Ah, here it is! Last, but certainly not least...!” Much to Laios' amazement, he pulled out a collar and a leash, and not the toy kind, but a real, honest-to-god dog collar, with studs and a buckle and some fluffy bits.Laios loudly sucked in air, subconsciously lowering his head, his gaze fixed on the collar. Kabru gave a triumphant smile. “That's right! Your very own collar and leash. I would love to put it on you right now,” he went on musing, swinging the leash back and forth “but that will have to wait until the time is right. I simply wanted to show you that I had it.”
Laios sighed sadly. “Yeah, I get it. You're saying that I'm gonna have to earn it, right?”
“Aha!” Kabru giggled, twirling the leash around his finger. “I suppose you could say that.”