the roommate contract - todomomo

thirty-nine \\ "rule number three"

The apartment door stood in front of Momo like a forty-foot wall someone was forcing her to climb. Her muscles ached and her chest hurt and her eyes felt tired. All of her just felt so...gone. There was no other way to describe it. It was as though the feeling of worthlessness sapped her energy faster than it could regenerate. 

So, she stood. She stood in front of the door in her soaking shirt and shorts and she stared at the door to her apartment. She didn't want to go in because she knew. She knew she would have to face Shouto and she didn't want to talk about Yosetsu right now. She wanted to forget he ever existed. She wanted to fall into her roommate's arms and just stay there until she fell asleep. But she knew she would end up in her room, alone, crying and waiting for the storm to pass. 

But she couldn't just stand outside forever. 

It felt like an eternity before she acutally gathered up the courage to push her way inside, but when she did, she was met with the image of her roommate, leaning against the side-table in the entryway, his hands in his pockets, the lights completely off as if he'd been expecting her. 

"Rule number three," His voice was so soft she could barely hear it, but she did. And her stomach dropped dangerously, a wave of fear and sadness washing over her. Fuck. That's why he was so freaked out when she came back to get her phone. It suddenly all made sense. All the dots connected to spell, "congrats, you're fucked" in red yarn. "You broke it." She almost started sobbing again. Why couldn't she do anything right? Why? She had a chance at a relationship with Yosetsu but she moved too slow for him. She had a chance at a relationship with Shouto, maybe not the kind she wanted, but she had it. And she managed to ruin that too. 

"Shouto please, I don't want to do this with you right now," She whispered so softly, as though this would make it go away, as if it might soothe the pain aching in her chest. Maybe, if she ignored it long enough, he would forget it ever happened and they could go back to being friends, just friends. And that wasn't what she really wanted, but it was the only thing she could really ask for in this situation. She just didn't want to lose him.

So, she made a move toward her room, dropping her bag so slowly she thought she might not be moving at all, but she did. But he didn't seem like he was going to be letting go of her any time soon as he grabbed her uninjured wrist. She flinched for a split second before she realized the difference. The calloused palm resting softly against her knuckles, the fingers wrapped so gently around her wrist, were such a contrast to the nails digging against her pulse, made only more harsh by the rain. Her brain told her to pull away, but her body stilled. She stopped, wanting his warmth to stay with her as he nearly whispered, 

"Momo stop. I'm dead serious. You broke rule number three." A moment of silence followed his statement in which she swallowed a lump in her throat, swallowed the tears pushing at her retinas, and relented to him, her body relaxing into his touch. 

"Yes, I did," She managed to choke out, her strangled voice just barely above a whisper as tears formed in her eyes. Her chest ached as she waited for him to say the words. She didn't know the exact words he would use but she knew what he was going to say. He was going to tell her that they couldn't. That they shouldn't. And then she was going to have to move out, get a fake ID, and move to Canada just to escape her humiliation. That's great. That's fucking great.

"Which means the whole contract is voided," She couldn't read his tone and it was scaring her, but never the less she nodded as she nearly silently whispered, 

"Yeah."

"Which means I can take a shower whenever I want and I can leave my clothes wherever I see fit. I can drink orange juice straight from the carton and make fun of you for crying at movies..." She wanted to cry. She didn't know why it hurt her that all he was thinking about was how he would get to break all the existing rules. She knew that it was stupid of her to expect some stupid rom-com ending where he fell in love with her. Why shouldn't he be excited? He'd get to live in his apartment the way he wanted.