The warmth envelopes him, feeling almost smothering. Shintaro turns over, the blanket tangling around him, and he groggily opens his eyes. The room is dim and when he checks the time from his phone, it’s only a bit before nine. Good.
Shintaro turns on his back and kicks the blanket off, gratefully welcoming the cool air on his skin. Juri’s blankets are clearly too thick for him, even if he slept only in underwear.
He glances over at Juri, who’s soundly sleeping next to him, snuggly under the covers and mouth slightly parted. They both have work only in the afternoon that day, so it means Juri will most likely still sleep for hours, if not disturbed. Emphasis on word if. Shintaro’s wondering if he will want to disturb Juri at some point. They’d nicely have time before work…
For now, Shintaro lets Juri sleep and gets up himself. He needs to pee. He quietly pads to the bedroom door and opens it, heading down the hall towards the bathroom.
After only a couple of steps he freezes, suddenly catching noises somewhere. Standing still, he pricks up his ears. Clinking of dishes, opening and closing of cupboards, a faint rattle of chopsticks… It’s coming from the kitchen, Shintaro realizes, and that just adds to his confusion. Who the hell would be in Juri’s kitchen so early in the morning? He can’t come up with an answer, but concludes that no robber would just break in and start cooking, so after some hesitation, he carefully tiptoes closer.
Shintaro cautiously peeks around the corner towards the joint living room and kitchen area and sure enough, there is someone in the kitchen clearly cooking something. Shintaro can’t see the person from where he’s standing so he takes a few more hesitant steps until the kitchen and the person there are properly visible.
“Oh,” Shintaro blurts out, surprised.
Mrs. Tanaka raises her eyes from a pot on the stove and a delighted smile spreads on her face.
“Oh, Shintaro! Good morning, dear! I didn’t know that Juri’s having a guest. How nice! I’m just making breakfast for him, but there’s plenty of food for you, too. I’ll add extra bowls and chopsticks to the table.”
For a moment that feels like forever, Shintaro just stands there, still dumbfounded by the situation. Then he feels the imminent need to cover himself somehow. Standing in front of Juri’s mother with only his underwear feels wrong. Mrs. Tanaka doesn’t seem to care in the slightest though, she’s just smiling fondly at Shintaro and asking him to go wake Juri up as the food is almost ready.
“Y-yeah, okay. I’ll just… go quickly…” Shintaro waves vaguely towards the bathroom and slips away.
After he’s done, Shintaro zooms back to the bedroom, where Juri’s still snoring away happily. Shintaro jumps on the bed and shakes Juri’s shoulder.
“Juri. Juri, wake up! Your mom’s here!”
Juri grunts and stirs slowly, squinting his eyes at Shintaro. “What?”
“Your mom is here,” Shintaro hisses hastily. “She’s in the kitchen, making breakfast.”
Juri moans and runs a hand across his face. “Oh no, not again…”
“Again? Does she often just appear here randomly?”
“Sometimes,” Juri sighs and pushes himself up on one elbow.
“Well, what do we do?” Shintaro asks. “She already saw me, and she told you to get up…”
Before Juri has time to answer, they hear Mrs. Tanaka calling from the kitchen. “BOOOYS, the breakfast is ready! Come and eat while it’s still hot!”
Shintaro and Juri look at each other. Juri shrugs. “I guess we’ll go and eat, then. She definitely won’t leave before we do.”
“But… won’t it be weird?” Shintaro wonders. “Like, me just being here like this?”
“Oh believe me, she doesn’t care,” Juri assures. “Nothing will faze her.”
“Hmm, if you say so–”
“Boooys!”
“We’ll be right there, mom!”
—
Shintaro has been in many peculiar situations over the years, but the current one is still pretty high up there. They’ve quickly thrown on some clothes and are now sitting by Juri’s dining table, delicious looking Japanese breakfast in front of them. Mrs. Tanaka fusses around them, ladling them miso soup and serving coffee.
Shintaro sits a bit stiffly, unable to relax completely. Despite Juri’s words and despite his mother really acting like Shintaro being there is totally normal, he can’t quite shake the awkward feeling. A different kind of walk of shame completely, he thinks while poking the rice with his chopsticks.
“Shintaro dear, do you want milk with your coffee?”
Suddenly Mrs. Tanaka is right beside him and he flinches a bit. “N-no thank you, I’m good.”
“Mom, stop fussing and let us eat,” Juri mutters across from him. He still looks quite sleepy, squinting his eyes despite the glasses and his hair a mess.
“Alright, alright,” Mrs. Tanaka says and retreats to the kitchen. “There’s more miso soup and side dishes here if you want.”
Shintaro is kind of hungry, so he scoops bites of omelette, pickles and tofu into his mouth and hums approvingly. He then grabs the rice bowl and starts devouring it with the other dishes. Everything is delicious, which shouldn’t be a big surprise; he has always liked Mrs. Tanaka’s cooking.
“It’s very good,” he says out loud between mouthfuls, and Mrs. Tanaka beams at him from the kitchen. Juri’s smiling too when he meets Shintaro’s eyes across the table. He’s also nibbling at his food, just much slower than Shintaro.
“Alright, you have the food, and I’ll put the leftovers in the fridge so you can eat them later,” Mrs. Tanaka recounts as she’s cleaning up the kitchen counters. “Shall I help you clean the table once you’re done? I have an appointment at noon so I unfortunately can’t stay too long…”
“No, we’re good,” Juri says instantly. “We can totally manage, so you’re free to go.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
It still takes some time before Mrs. Tanaka is ready to leave; she insists on packing up the leftover food and cleaning up the kitchen surfaces.
“Really mom, it’s okay,” Juri says for the umpteenth time. “I can do that myself.”
“Alright then,” Mrs. Tanaka agrees and finally grabs her purse. “Finish the breakfast.”
“We will. Thank you for that, really.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Tanaka!” Shintaro also calls out.
“Don’t mention it,” she smiles, looking pleased. “And so nice to see you after some time, Shintaro dear. I hope we’ll see each other again soon!”
“Uh yeah, me too,” Shintaro answers, not knowing what else to say. Juri throws him a meaningful glance before walking his mother to the foyer. Shintaro hears them talking a bit before the front door opens and closes.
When Juri walks back to the table, ruffling his already wild hair, Shintaro heaves a deep sigh.
“Well, we made it,” Juri chuckles as he sits back down.
“Did we?” Shintaro wants to know. “I’m still not completely sure.”
“Oh, she probably thinks nothing of this, trust me. And besides, she’s seen pretty much everything with me and my brothers, so.”
“That I do believe.”
Shintaro scoops the last bits of rice into his mouth before saying: ”Anyway, next time we’re at my place.”
Juri raises his eyebrows at that. ”Next time?”
”I mean… If you want.” Shintaro’s not quite sure where they stand with this arrangement. It was a casual one-time thing after the concert in Nagoya. After last night, it’s a casual two-times thing. Maybe there’s no need to count anymore.
“We’ll see,” Juri says with a shrug, but there’s this small grin on his face.
“Also,” Shintaro adds, now that they’re on the subject, “I still have like, an hour and a half before I have to leave. Just so you know.”
He stretches his arms above his head and wiggles his brows, watching Juri’s grin grow wider.
“Is that so?”
Juri fiddles with his coffee cup and then downs the rest of the drink at one go. He gets up and walks around the table to Shintaro, pulling him on his feet, too.
“Let’s go then!”
“You didn’t finish your breakfast,” Shintaro points out.
“Nah. But I was thinking of finishing something else,” Juri says with a mock flirty voice while wrapping his arms around Shintaro’s neck, then immediately grimacing. “Okay, that was awful, even jokingly.”
Shintaro snickers. “Yeah, it was.”
“Sorry. Anyway.”
They both lean in for a slow, lingering kiss that tastes a lot like coffee. After that, they head back to the bedroom, shedding their clothes on the way.
The almost-finished breakfast lays forgotten on the table for the rest of the day.