In which they moved in together

8 3 23
                                    

A/N: A bit too overly cute, might be a bit cringe. Written at 11 am, long ago. But who cares, fluff is fluff for a reason <3.

Note: The spin offs will keep jumping between the timeline of Artem's and Rico's relationship, arbitrarily.

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"Is that the last box?" Artem asked. He was kneeling on the floor, going through one of the boxes.

I set the box down, took a look outside the apartment door and closed it. "Yep! These are all."

"This," he got up, "Is going to be a bit of work."

The apartment was furnished on a surface-level. The essentials and the bigger furniture had been moved in a couple of days back and was in place. But the 50 something boxes scattered around didn't fool us of all the work that still had to be done.

"I bet it's your stuff," he said coolly. "About 30 boxes of it."

"Excuse me?" My lips twitched. "I remember packing 15."

"That's quite the stretch."

"We can do counting while unpacking, if you want," I suggested. "And bet on it. If I have a single box more than 15, I will do whatever you ask me to. Otherwise, you will do whatever I ask of you."

He gave me a big ass look. "That isn't done. I will ask something alright of you, but you? You will just-"

"So," I smiled. "Scared already, are we?"

"Oh, have it your way then."

And so, the unpacking began. After half an hour, I hit the gold which I never expected to come across. The marking on it simply read 'Books'. For a box named that, it was one of the heavier ones. I tore the tape on it away and started looking through it. The topmost book was 'Art of Conveyancing and Pleading'. I frowned and opened the first page. In very neat writing, the name 'Artem Wing' was scribbled on it. I picked up the second one, 'Criminology, Penology and Victimology'. I realized it was his law school books.

A corner of a photograph was sticking out from the 'General Principles of Criminal Law.' I pulled the photo out and took a look at it. The man who was looking at the camera was quite young. His hair was neatly combed, gelled down and he wore a white shirt, half unbuttoned. His body was relaxed and his blue eyes were brimming with curiosity and determination. A wide smile played on his lips as he showed a victory sign in the camera with one hand, and clutched a book in the other.

I whistled suggestively in Artem's direction, eyes still fixed on the photograph.

"Hm?" He set aside the plates in his hand. "What's that in your hand?"

I grinned and waved the photograph in the air.

"Wha- Oh. Oh no," his eyes widened ever so slightly. "Rico, you hand that picture back to me."

"I am not really sure if I wanna do that~" I gave a slow shrug.

"Please?"

"No~"

"Give," he tried to rush up to me and snatch it. "it here. We can go back to counting boxes–"

I side-stepped and took 5 steps away from him. "Not really tempting, buddy."

He was about to try to come up to me again, when his foot got stuck in the law school books box and he fell face-first on the ground.

"Holy cow!" I exclaimed and pulled out my phone.

"Don't," he said in a controlled tone. "dare to take a picture of thi–"

"Rico Wayland, reporting live with camerawoman Rico Wayland." I brought Artem into the frame. "As you can see, live from the new apartment—"

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