Chapter Text
The door opens immediately after he rings. A cat is thrust into his face before he gets the chance to see anything else.
The little thing is black. One of its ears is flattened, and its back leg is shorter than the others. It immediately attempts to claw at Ash's face.
What was that about pets and owners being alike?
"Her name is Yami!" Eiji offers from behind the black ball of fury, smiling so hard his eyes seem to close.
Eiji is irresistible when he smiles, and Ash is sold. He couldn't say no if he wanted to. He'll be the cat's best friend if Eiji asks. He'll hold her and feed her and take her out on walks. Do cats need to be taken on walks?
"Hi, Yami," he offers. The greeting does nothing to appease her, and she only squirms harder in Eiji's arms.
Eiji lets go of her, she lands on all threes and hobbles away into the apartment.
The house is cozy, which is just a nice way of saying it's about a third of the size of Ash's condo back in New York. Eiji moved out of the college dorms the year before, and it seems he's decorated his new apartment.
The living room is spacious by rent-paying-college-student standards. There are two doors on the right and one on the left.
A clay vase full of a frankly ugly assortment of flowers is placed at the center of a four-person table. A little balcony opens out towards the city, and Ash can see three different flowering plants in boxes. The light from the setting sun makes all the flowers look the same shade of gold.
A painting hangs over the wall next to the table. It's an abstract, sort of amateurish, but it looks like it belongs. On the wall opposite is a photo-realistic mountain landscape.
Eiji notices Ash looking.
"They're both by different friends," he offers.
"Ah."
It's a real home. It's Eiji's home. It's clean, but looks lived in. Eiji's friends have been here, friends who don't know him, who don't know what it feels like to kill someone with your own hands, or being groomed by the Mafia, or nightclubs where--
Ash needs to take a shower.
"Do you—"
"Do you—"
They begin at the same time.
"You first," Ash concedes.
"Do you have any luggage we still need to bring in?"
Ash hefts his backpack on his shoulder.
All it has are Griffin's letters and poems, a picture of the two of them, another picture of Max, Jessica, and Michael, and three sets of clothes. And of course, Eiji's letter.
All the evidence he has of eighteen years spent in a city that will forget him by the time the sun rises is stuffed haphazardly into a half-empty backpack; Eiji wants to know if he has luggage.
Ash plasters a smirk onto his face, one that makes him look carefree, reckless, alluring. He knows, he's practiced it.
"No, big brother, this is it."
Eiji rolls his eyes.
"Can I use your shower?"
"Oh yes! You must be tired after flying so long," Eiji gushes, "I've emptied out the bedroom for you, so you can get settled in, take a shower, anything you like."
Ash smiles at Eiji again, and before he can help it, it slips something terribly fond, and Ash has no idea how he looks.
He finds he does not mind it.
They open the first door on the right.
True to Eiji's word, it is mostly empty. There's a bed, a desk and chair below a window, and a cupboard. Ash likes this room more than any other he's ever been in.
Eiji looks sheepish.
"It's a little small, but I've already ordered the bookshelf, it should come tomorrow—"
"You got me a bookshelf?" Ash interrupts.
"Yes," Eiji answers, questioning, "did you not want one? I thought it would—"
"Sure, but you didn't have to buy one for me!"
"Then, consider it your homecoming gift," Eiji says, smiling like he's come up with a solution to climate change. How could Ash ever say no to that smile, that face?
"You don't have to get me more gifts, Eiji, you've done enough," he mumbles, but of course, Eiji hears.
"I'll get you gifts because I want to, Ash. I like to see you happy," Eiji replies, uncharacteristically earnest.
Ash's face heats up and he refuses to look Eiji in the eyes.
"The shower?" he asks, and Eiji leads him to the washroom.
Ash throws his shirt over the mirror, turns the water on, and gets in. He has a room in Eiji's apartment. He has a place in Eiji's life, regardless of the number of times he's almost gotten Eiji killed.
Suddenly, the cold shower with barely-there pressure is the best he's had.