Oh My God, They Were Roommates

[ 7 ] Boys Just Want To Have Fun

A gentle, light chord reverberated through the wooden body of Melvin 2.0. Gon gave the strings another experimental strum before his fingers fell along each string and began to pluck a sequence of notes to his heart's content. He closed his eyes and smiled up at the sun now that the morning fog was gone.

"This is the dream," Zushi hummed beside Gon, reclined back against his hands, his feet spread out in front of him in the park grass. "Sing a song for me, O Great One."

Gon struck a chord, and Zushi clapped a little. He followed up with a saucy little rift, one that Zushi deemed "crispy." Gon rose an eyebrow at him and winked.

"'As the semester begins... I... go out on a limb,'" Gon said, which Zushi replied to with, "Doesn't rhyme, but alright."

"'It doesn't have to rhyme, dear friend of mi-hi-hine,'" Gon sang, bitching his voice higher, and Zushi whistled with a satisfied shake of his head.

"This is it. My favorite bop," Zushi said.

"'—and I deci-hi-hide—! That this ass deserves better'—or rather this back deserves better—'than to lie... day by day... on a floor that has less pad-ding than a Christmas sweater—!'"

He concluded with a fantastical assortment of notes and at last ended with some dramatic, obnoxious strumming. He clapped his hand onto Melvin 2.0's hollow body and sighed, looking out at the park.

"I need a mattress," Gon sighed. He drummed his fingers on the wood and glanced over at Zushi, who studied him for a long, silent moment, mouth ajar.

Zushi gave a little shake of his head before slapping a hand over his short, buzzed hair and saying, "Wait—you don't have a bed, bro?"

Gon rolled his eyes. "No, I don't have a bed, 'bro'. My car's too small to fit a whole-ass bed!"

"Dude, then what've you been sleeping on?"

"A sleeping bag?"

"You know you can, like, buy mattresses online, right?" Zushi said, and when Gon stared at him, Zushi straightened and leant towards him. And here, Gon thought he'd have to go to a mattress store and lie where everyone else lied on. And then, he'd either have to pay extra to have them transport it, or Gon would have to strap it to the roof of his car. "They come in a small box and then they sort of inflate."

"You're kidding," Gon said.

"Or," Zushi went on, gesturing vaguely with his hand, "we go on an adventure to a mattress store and I help hold the fort down—or, rather, mattress down—on the drive to your place."

Gon opened his mouth, holding back a smile because shit, that sounded like fun to him. One of his favorite endeavors in high school involved spontaneous, ridiculous, impulsive trips, and buying a mattress seemed like one of them.

But then, he remembered Killua's rule. No boys allowed. Zushi would have to help him lug the mattress up.

Gon clamped his mouth shut and pouted his lips, turning away. He tapped a finger to his chin and hummed for a moment, eyes squinting as he narrowed his focus in on mattress shopping with Zushi. Beside him, Zushi leant over to see Gon's face.

Amidst the rules he and Killua set up, that morning Gon had asked that Killua let him know what days he'd be coming home late. It didn't help that Killua said, "Every night," and left. He had to assume that Killua wasn't exaggerating.

"I, um... I think it'd be a lot of fun. To go mattress shopping with you," Gon confessed, and while it wasn't a set plan, he was still convincing himself that there was no way in Hell Killua would march into the apartment while Zushi helped him drag a mattress into the apartment.