Ayumu
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Post by Ayumu on Mar 1, 2009 15:57:27 GMT 9
Shou smirked as he could hear Hikaru and Morioka-chan talking softly, as he sauntered up the street. He mentally patted himself on the back at his quick thinking. He'd seen the looks that Hikaru had given Morioka, and not all of it was romantic interest. Hikaru had what Shou called a 'mommy-o-meter'. If there was a wounded little bird somewhere in his vicinity, Hikaru did everything and anything that he could in order to help it and mother it.
With that thought in mind, he'd gently and carefully maneuvered Morioka-chan (rather like a train maneuvering a car off of the tracks, he admitted only mentally, and in a quiet inner voice that didn't alert the larger part of his brain) into coming over for dinner. Plus, he admitted to himself, it was refreshing to find a specimen of snark so young and fresh. He'd have to cultivate that, and have verbal sparring matches as often as possible.
After all, he could only snark so much, and only so effectively with the Great Wall of Mommy-o-meter (also known as Hikaru). His younger brother always had a great depth to him, a calmness that belied the actual thoughts and emotions underneath. Despite the blushes and stammering, he was actually quite the unruffled type. He could be angry, downright furious and you'd never be the wiser. He only groused with Shou because Shou was needy, in Hikaru's opinion.
And hadn't that[/i] been brought up and thrown in his face from time to time.
"Come on you two. I'm wasting away while you two hold the rest of my dinner hostage," Shou called back over his shoulder as he walked up the path that led to the front door.
As always, when he passed by the small and tasteful garden of daffodils, he paused, and bowed to them without a second thought. He knew that Hikaru would do the same, visitor or not. It was their way of saying that they were home, to the small special place where they honored their parents without a shrine. Neither of their parents would have wanted one, nor would they have wanted their sons to have one for them, although Shou and Hikaru's uncle on their father's side had demanded one anyways.
Not that they actively used it. They kept it neat and tidy for whenever their ojisan decided to 'pop in' for an unannounced visit. Which was fairly often, recently.
"I haven't got all night you know. With the way everything's panning out, Eiki-san will be sending another assistant over, despite being ahead of schedule. He's due to annoy the hell out of me, at this rate."
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mouse
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Post by mouse on Mar 1, 2009 16:14:25 GMT 9
Rei glanced up as the man in front of them started bitching again. It was surprising how adaptable he really was to this situation--or perhaps it was simply the fact that Shou made it so very easy to be snarky. Either way, he snorted and rolled his eyes as he shifted his burden before him. It was then that he noticed the elder of the Aoki's bow before... daffodils.
About to open his mouth and question that, he and the younger Aoki reached the same spot and he was treated to the sight of Hikaru doing the same thing. Rei's mouth shut with a snap and he frowned in confusion. Why on earth...? It wasn't his buisiness, however, and he gave a mental shrug as they trudged towards the doorway. "I'm sure you won't waste away while we make dinner, Shou."
Rei took a second to glance the elder Aoki over, then and smirked, "Then again, maybe you will. Of course, I'd blame the cigarettes before I blamed any slowness of others. Those things can kill you, you know." He stopped behind Shou as they waited on Shou to unlock the door and let them in. Turning, Rei regarded Hikaru with a softer smile and said, as a continuation of the conversation they'd been having, "Would you mind my watching over your shoulder as you cook? I'm really not sure what I'm doing at home. It's been mostly experimenting."
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Ayumu
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...Whadder we talkin' 'bout??
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Post by Ayumu on Mar 3, 2009 9:40:59 GMT 9
"Well, if they annoy you that much, I'll just have to keep that in mind," Shou snarked as he toed off his shoes.
With a smirk, Shou strutted into the house with Hikaru and Morioka-chan behind him. He heard Morioka-chan ask Hikaru about watching over his shoulder as he cooked, and heard Hikaru happily comply. If there was one room sacred to Hikaru, it was the kitchens, and he loved to cook. Turning to spout off another snarky comment about Morioka-chan's experimenting, he damn near screamed like a girl when his office door was flung open and someone was standing in the doorway.
But he didn't quite reach the pitch of a girl - it was just that close to it. And of course he didn't jump fifteen feet in the air in surprise as an unfamiliar voice yelled at the top of its lungs.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
"GAAH!!" Shou cried, rushing over to the other side of the hallway in his shock - not fear, never fear because of course Shou would never be afraid of some strange man in his house uninvited.
Especially one with a chain going from his lip to his ear and bleach blonde hair in a style reminiscent of some video game reluctant rebellious hero. What the hell was a punked out Cloud Strife doing in his office?!
Wait...what the hell was anyone[/b] doing in his office? That only meant one...evil...diabolical thing...
"A new assistant..." Shou said, disdain dripping from his voice like thick molasses.
"Uhoh, niisan...you're in trouble now..." Hikaru murmured, trying (and unsuccessfully) to muffle a slightly hysterically relieved giggle.
Inching past the two men about to duel in his hallway, Hikaru gently smiled at Morioka-sempai, trying not to giggle again. He could feel the electricity prickling in the air between his brother and the newest in a long, long line of assistants. In an effort to save their dinner, he took the bags that were hanging forgotten in his brother's hands and smiled hesitantly at the blonde man. He rather liked the piercings in his lower lip, Hikaru thought. Evil, diabolical delight flashed in his eyes as he turned around to face the stranger.
Oh this was going to be interesting...
"If you are the new assistant, please feel free to stay for dinner."
"HIKARU!!" Shou bellowed angrily, and Hikaru smothered his happy laugh behind a cough.
"Gomen, niisan..." Hikaru said, backing up and not looking the least bit sorry at all. "I meant," Hikaru began, turning his head to face the blonde again once Hikaru was even with the doorway to the kitchens. "We invite you to stay for dinner..."
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mouse
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Post by mouse on Mar 3, 2009 10:01:45 GMT 9
He'd been waiting for hours. Ok, so it hadn't been plural but it damned well felt like it. Yonai Ko sat cross legged upon the floor of Aoki Shou's office and waded through the paperwork he'd found within--the entire place was a mess and he was being "forced" to reorganize the lot of it. Damned lazy, hippy, pot-smoking, perverted.... he mentally conjured a list of things to call Shou when he met him, heedless of whether or not any of them were actually true. It was always good to be prepared, of course.
The key rattling in the door and then the sound of voices drifted to him. In an instant, Ko was on his feet and had managed to slam open the shoji (a well honed talent, that) as he pointed a finger at the rather tall (to his standards) man entering the main room. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
"GAAAH!!" The reaction he got was fairly satisfiying, but Ko wasn't about to allow Shou to see that. Oh no.
He waited as the younger brother--Hikaru? his boss had muttered something about him--stepped past them and took the grocery bags. The smaller boy was followed by another kid in a school uniform who looked just a little on the side of "freaked out" but wasn't opening his mouth for anything.
Rei had decided that hanging with these two was like living in an anime. First they'd completely turned him upside down with a single strange meeting in a grocery store and now they had oddly dressed, cartoon-haired freaks popping up in their own home. He really wasn't sure whether to laugh or to make excuses to get the hell out of there--but where else would he go. Rather than loiter on the fence about it, he made up his mind to at least see where this was going (but if overly busty, green haired women with death dealing yo-yos started dropping out of flying saucers he was gone) and stepped into the house. After shutting the door behind him and kicking off his shoes, he followed Hikaru carefully around the stand off in the hallway and to the kitchen.
"Does this happen often?" he couldn't help but whisper into Hikaru's ear as he edged past the boy into the kitchen space to set the bags down upon the table.
Meanwhile, Ko blinked at the younger Aoki and dropped his fighting stance for a split second. A sudden, cute little smile lit upon his lips and he gave a respectful bow to the brother, "Thank you very much, I'm honored."
That said, he let his gaze return to the taller of the pair and once more jabbed a finger towards him, smile dissipating, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I'VE BEEN WAITING ON YOUR LAZY ASS! YOU HAVE A DEADLINE TO MEET YOUNG MAN, NOW GET TO IT!" This probably would have been more effective if he wasn't covered in pink and white plaid and hello kitty paraphernalia, but goddamnit he would try.
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Ayumu
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...Whadder we talkin' 'bout??
Posts: 25
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Post by Ayumu on Mar 3, 2009 11:16:41 GMT 9
"Not quite like this," Hikaru said, shivering slightly at how close sempai's lips had been to his ear, with a wide smile as he heard both men yelling at full blast in the hallway.
Unpacking the bags, Hikaru snickered when he heard his older brother bellow about not needing some fashion-inept assistant butting into his life and work unannounced, and then turned to Morioka-sempai.
"Every so often, niisan's editor gets frustrated with him working at his own pace and not giving him any information on just how far along his work is. So he sends assistants to come and hover over his shoulder. During the second year he worked under this editor, an assistant that he'd sent tried to make off with a story idea that niisan had and got caught. Luckily. Since then, Shou-san scares, berates and bodily removes any and all assistants that his editor sends."
This explanation was given extremely quietly, as Hikaru didn't think Shou wanted the newest arrival to hear the story. However, with as much yelling that was going on, he doubted they'd hear a train come down the hallway. Hikaru efficiently put away any foodstuffs that they weren't going to use that evening and pulled out the required pans to make Namasu. It might be a little early in the season, but it was a tasty treat and he thought it was fitting considering the round of good luck he'd had today. First he'd seen Morioka-sempai in the supermarket, and he hadn't been scared away by Shou. Then he'd been able to walk home with Morioka-sempai, and now his brother was being harassed by a new assistant that looked like he was going to stick around for the time being.
He liked it when they did that. It was always fun not being the only one to make that vein throb on niisan's forehead.
"We'll be having namasu for dinner, along with some shrimp and salad for greens," Hikaru said in a low voice, just in case his brother's hearing might have gotten better in the last decade or so.
Anything remotely green was to be shrieked about.
"DEADLINE?! DEADLINE?! I'M AHEAD OF MY DEADLINE!!" Shou bellowed, waving his arms threateningly (though it wouldn't behoove anyone to admit to him that it was more comical than threatening) as he glared at the newest pockmark on his day and career.
He didn't trust them, and didn't care that anyone knew it. What he did care about was someone was going to be hovering over his shoulder like a damned stalker, trying to wheedle their way into his life and art like a tick. He knew that not every assistant was like that, in majority they weren't like that at all, but in his need to protect his art and his soul he saw every since one of them as the enemy.
At the noise, the two other residents of the house padded silently into the hall, watching each man yell as if watching a tennis match live on the court. Aoi, the four year old Russian Blue feline cat with vivid green eyes was the senior of the two, and was lazily cleaning a paw as he watched in boredom. Nao, the seven month old kitten that Hikaru had bought at a pet store was an Egyptian Mau, and well sought after in many households that wanted cats. Nao, however, wasn't the brightest cat in the universe. He was currently dancing back and forth between the two yelling men as if he were the words being thrown back and forth.
It'd have been humorous if he weren't so damned frustrated.
"AND I'M EATING FIRST BEFORE I DO ANYMORE-" Shou trailed off in horror as he glimpsed the room behind the newest bane of his existence.
His office...his sanctuary. It'd been...DEFILED! He felt all of the blood drain from his face as he gaped in horror. His mess had been cleaned!! Now there was no order in his world!
"How the hell am I supposed to work in there?! You've destroyed it!!!"
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mouse
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Post by mouse on Mar 3, 2009 11:30:08 GMT 9
Rei was making a valient attempt to ignore the screaming match being conducted in the hallway--as such he hadn't noticed the cats or else might have cooed over the both of them, especially the Mau. Instead his attention was for Hikaru and the concept of actually being instructed in the art of cooking. "Namasu is good," Rei said with something of a smile and proceeded to wash his hands in case there was anything on them. He rolled the sleeves of his shirt up for good measure, to keep everything out of the way of the food. "I haven't had it... well, since last year."
It certainly had been a long time since he'd held a real conversation and suddenly he felt like the worlds biggest dork. Brushing that off, the boy shrugged and looked helplessly at the selected ingredients. He added, in a whisper since Hikaru had whispered about this himself, "Maybe this one will be different? Though... he does seem to have broken into your house..."
"NOT ACCORDING TO YOUR EDITOR YOU'RE NOT," Ko retaliated, hands coming to a rest on his hips as he glared up at the man. His gaze never wavered from the artist's face--in a way, he was almost like a cat in the way he stared defiantly up at someone much bigger than himself without showing the slightest sense of hesitation. Or remorse, for that matter.
Though his tone lowered, his attitude did not, "I'm cleaning. Normal people do that, you know. It's called organization and neatness and it will improve your productivity tenfold!" Before any argument could be made, Ko shot one hand out again and pressed a finger to Shou's lips to silence him. "NYAH! DO NOT ARGUE WITH MY WISDOM, IT IS INFALLIBLE!"
With that, he turned on his heel (and it could be noted that he had been kind enough to remove his shoes while in the house) and marched back into Shou's office to continue his job of straightening the garbage dump of a room.
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Ayumu
New Member
...Whadder we talkin' 'bout??
Posts: 25
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Post by Ayumu on Mar 3, 2009 12:13:18 GMT 9
Shou blinked. He'd never had an assistant talk back to him like that - and he wasn't sure he detested it. Shaking that thought aside, he gaped in more horror as the blonde moved back into the office and went about organizing some more.
"OI! Don't organize my disorganized office! Nobody asked you too, dammit!" Shou yelled, stomping into the office and glaring down at the other man. "You break into my house, vandalize my office, and terrorize my pets" the last said with a defiant finger pointed at Nao who was now laying exhausted between the two men from trying to keep up his dancing back and forth with the verbal ammunition, "without my permission!! Who the hell do you think you are, anyways?!"
In the kitchen, Hikaru sighed deeply as he handed Morioka-sempai the salt to rub on the sliced cucumbers that he'd just finished washing and slicing. As the noise escalated, he finished cutting the octopus legs into slices and combined vinegar, soy sauce and sugar into a bowl, stirring while he sprinkled a dash of ajinomoto into the mix. He felt more than heard or saw Aoi come into the kitchen, sitting politely to the side as both boys prepared the food.
"I do believe he's having the time of his life in there..." Hikaru said with a smile. "He rarely gets to argue with them, they always take off after the first bellow."
He finished preparing the dish with Morioka-sempai to cook, and got out the fixings for salads and the fresh shrimp.
"I like him," Hikaru continued, smiling down at Aoi who weaved his way through his legs and then through Morioka-sempai's legs in an effort to get his favorite dish. Shrimp. "Jury's still out on Shou-san, though...even if he is having fun."
Hikaru turned and smiled warmly at Morioka-sempai. He glanced down at the small, but plaintive 'nya' from Aoi and smiled widely.
"That's Aoi..." Hikaru said as he fixed salads. "He's a Blue Russian...Nao's somewhere around here...probably where the action is. He's an Egyptian Mau, I found him in a pet store a little while ago. If he's in there with the fighting, he's just being a drama queen." The last was said with a laugh as he finished with that and turned to Morioka-sempai. "We'll have a little while to wait for dinner...did you want to watch a movie?"
Anything to delay any kind of battle showdown between the assistant and mangaka. Anything, Hikaru mentally stressed. Plus, and in actuality the real reason, he wanted to spend a little bit more time alone with Morioka-sempai.
"Do you live nearby, Morioka-sempai?"
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