Banana Fish AshxEiji

~part fourteen~

I brought everyone back to my apartment and helped Aimi settle into my bed, letting her sleep even though it's dinner time. She needs sleep more than food right now, a few hours away from reality could really help her. I walk back out to see my mom carefully looking through my fridge, to find the ingredients to make a delectable dinner no doubt. I hear her and Ash talking but I can't quite make out the words they're saying, I stand still giving them a moment to talk before I walk fully out of my room shutting the door lightly behind me.

I walk up to my mom and quietly apologize for leaving and for what happened to Aimi and her. She replies "Nonsense Eiji. I'm so happy you went to New York and met this lovely but quite informal boy," she smiles at me with only love and kindness. I wonder if this is how Ash feels around me, I smile at her and pull her into another hug.

My mother talks to Ash and I while she makes tofu sandwiches, Ash hides his feelings about the dish and just rolls his eyes when she turns around making me smile. I clean off my small table and we all eat together. Life feels good, it feels easy like it should. In the back of my mind I know it won't be like this for long but for right now all I can do is enjoy it. We talk with each other for a long time, avoiding talking about what actually happened in New York and who Ash actually is. She insists on cleaning up dinner but I force her to let us help her, She then leaves us to talk and says she'll sleep with Aimi tonight.

After Ash and I are alone we go and sit on the small couch together, I curl up into the cushions and intertwine my hand with his. I've learned that I don't need constant cuddles or being right next to each other, I just need to know he's there. To feel him with me, to make sure he's real. Ash tightens his hand around mine, resting his free hand behind his head and leaning into it.

"Now what?" he says, I look at him already knowing my answer but pondering how to say it. "We go back to New York," I say easily, he looks at me confused, "why?" he asks.

"There's something about the skyline," I say simply. He considers this for a moment and then gently tugs at my hand, trying to get me to lay with him. I move so I'm laying with my feet hanging over the armrest and my head in Ash's lap, he plays with my hair. Copying what I do when I lull him to sleep at night, trying to be affectionate. I beam up at him and he smiles back at me, we don't talk. We don't need to.

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We don't need big gestures. We don't need words. You and I have something I've never heard about before. No book or movie has shown me this.

This is real.

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