The Cat and the Crow

I Wish You Could Stay... Forever

Tetsuro woke up to the smell of something good cooking. He rolled over onto his back and stretched. Judging by the way the sun was coming in the window, they'd both slept until rather late in the morning. He checked the time on his phone. Only 10am, which wasn't as late as he was thinking. Resting his hand on his chest, he smiled. If he hadn't already figured out that Kei was his match in every way, then he certainly knew it now.

"I was going to wake you up, but I guess that idea is out," he heard Kei say from the doorway.

"Oh yeah?" he replied, rolling onto his side and propping his head up on his hand. He grinned wolfishly when he saw Kei wearing his black tank-top and red shorts, and smiling that brilliant smile. "Pretend I'm still asleep. How were you going to wake me up?"

"You're wide awake and staring at me. Kinda takes all the fun out of waking you up, yeah? Also, even if I did pretend, breakfast would get cold."

"Fair point," Tetsuro conceded. "But don't for a minute think I'm going to let you off so easily. We have all day..." his voice trailed off. "Damn."

Kei's smile had dimmed. "I made a rice omelet, soup, and some veggies. I'll meet you in the kitchen."

"Right," Tetsuro said quietly.

He hadn't meant to, but he'd effectively reminded them both that time wasn't on their side today. In fact, Kei's train back to Sendai left at 7pm. It didn't really matter that he'd be returning for the Shinzen camp in a week, though Tetsuro would be happy to see him again. The fact was that he'd have to get used to being alone again, and that was what sucked the most. Once Kei had set foot in his home, it felt like he had always been there.

Determined to make the best of their day, he got out of bed and grabbed some clothes, heading for the shower. Ten minutes later, he showed up in the kitchen, wearing Kei's white t-shirt and black shorts. He found Kei sitting at the table, writing something down on a note card. There were several more note cards, already written on, nearby. Curious, he picked one up, bent to kiss Kei on the head, and then sat down at the place set for him. Before he started eating, he noticed Kei hadn't eaten much of his own breakfast.

"Aren't you going to eat, too?" he asked quietly. Picking up his chopsticks, he took a bite of the rice omelet. Tetsuro had to admit, the second thing he was going to miss most was Kei's cooking.

"I had a few bites. I needed to do this first," Kei answered absentmindedly. He stopped writing for a moment, tapped the pen against his lips, and then started up again.

Tetsuro picked up the card he'd filched and started reading. It was the recipe for pork dumplings. "Oh, Kei..."

"Don't say anything," he heard the quiet plea. "Just let me do this."

Tetsuro waited until Kei was done writing, and quickly moved to steal the pen from him before he could start another. Kei tried to snatch it back, but failed. Standing up, Tetsuro went to Kei's side of the table, pulled him up out of the chair, and kissed him.

"Let's not make what's left of our time together be one massive downer," he said, caressing Kei's face, and running his fingers through his hair. "I know we weren't supposed to go anywhere today, but would you be willing to go out with me?"

"What, now?"

"I mean, after we get a little more dressed than we are now, but yeah."

Kei snorted. "Alright. But where are we going?"

"There's a little park down the way. It's quiet there, barely any foot traffic, and I kinda made it my place to go when I needed some downtime."

"Okay. Let's clean up first."