It was late in the evening when Takeru made his way to his friend’s house. Since Haruma was very busy nowadays the boy had no time left for cleaning. that was why Takeru, annoyed by the mess, had offered to help. He would organize all the stuff so that all Haruma had to do when he returned from set was to dust everything off. Luckily his friend´s place wasn´t that big so he would be done rather quick.
‘’ missed me J?’’ Takeru grinned as the small white pug happily climbed up his leg. The little strait dog had taken quite a liking in the two friends though whenever Haruma invited the dog into his apartment the animal would throw them a weird look and would bounce away. It was probably for the best, the landlady didn’t allow dogs and knowing his friend he would have kept the pug anyway.
Takeru scratched the pug behind his ear and the animal jumped satisfied up and down. They had called him J for that, somehow it sounded cooler than jump or jumper as Haruma wanted to call him.
‘’ I take it you still don’t want to come inside?’’ if pugs could roll their eyes then I swear this one just did Takeru thought. Petting the animal one last time the boy made his way to Haruma’s apartment.
‘’ Ojama shimasu.’’ He called as he threw his shoes out and made his way into the living room. He was not prepared for the sight that met him there. Clothes were sprawled all over the room diches piled up so high Takeru wondered if there were actually any left in the cabinets. Where once had been a couch now lay a pile of books and what looked like film scripts. As he wanted to walk over to the scripts to get a better look at them he accidentally stepped into something soft and squishy. Not being able to hide his shock the boy let out a small yelp. The thing he had just crushed had most likely once been a spoon full of pudding, now however it was all green and smelled like a death animal. To make a long story short, Takeru had a lot of work cut out for him that evening.
After an hour he had finally managed to clean most of the dishes, having to throw away some of the bowls and cups because of very persistent fungal. And another two hours of clothes collecting and figuring out how the washing machine works Takeru finally allowed himself some rest. If this was the state the living room was in he really had no desire of finding out the state the rest of the apartment was in.
‘’ can’t even call someone to fix the fridge.’’ He grumbled as he tried to pull open the door of said thing. After some pulling and some serious thoughts about how he should definitely work out more if this was all the strength he possessed he finally managed to open the thing. With the impact of it however the door handle slipped from his hands and the fridge door hit the old closet next to it. The closet shook and for a second that seemed to be all but before Takeru could sight from relieve a loud bang was heard.
‘’ oh no’’ he whispered as he cautiously tried to open the door and some books fell out. One of the shelves seemed to have come down, it was the lowest shelve however and the only thing underneed it were books. Nothing seemed to be damaged with exception of the shelve that is. The books looked old but at the same time never read. Curiously he pulled one of the books out, Grimm’s complete fairy tales the title said. It was a foreign book written in English. Completely absorbed by the book he didn’t notice the other boy standing in the doorway.
‘’ I see you found my old story book.’’ Takeru jumped up in shock dropping the thick story book in the progress.
‘’ ouch!’’ he yelped as the book hit his foot. Haruma was next to him in a second.
‘’ are you okay? I shouldn’t have scared you I’m sorry.’’
‘’ no, it’s fine really, I’ll live.’’ Takeru grinned at his overprotective friend. ‘’ I didn’t know you could read English this well.’’ He added chancing the topic.
‘’ I can’t, my mother can though. She used to read me these, first in Japanese and then in English so now I can more or less read them in English. ‘’
After that they spend another hour cleaning together, well Takeru did most of the cleaning while Haruma somehow only made it worse. He had taken it upon himself to fix the shelve Takeru had broken but first he had to empty the closet. Books were now piled everywhere and dust was flying all over the place.
‘’ I think you should sleep here tonight.’’ Haruma exclaimed once they had made the couch paper free. ‘’ it’s late and I also think the last train has already left.’’ Having lost all his sense of time Takeru looked up at the clock, 11:30 PM. He sighted.
‘’ I’m sorry I didn’t mean to stay so late I know how busy you are and all.’’
‘’ its fine.’’ Haruma smiled at him ‘’ I have tomorrow off anyway.’’ Takeru gratefully returned the smile and accepted his friend’s offer.
‘’ Haruma?’’
‘’ mmh’’
‘’ could you… ehm I mean.. Do you mind?’’ Takeru asked blushing madly as he pushed the old fairy tale book in his friend’s direction. As embarrassing as it may seem he was really curious about the book. Haruma grinned and took the book. How long he sat there Takeru had no idea all he knew was that he would never grow tired of hearing Haruma’s voice reading all the old tales. They started with red riding hood and ended with beauty and the beast the last one he only half heard as he felt his eyelids drop. That night they spend together sleeping on the couch, Takeru’s head resting on the taller boys shoulder.