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It’s been a few weeks since Flower and Fukase moved in together, and only months since they met. For some reason that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, Flower still hadn’t been able to process the fact that she’d made friends with a fan. Not in a million years would she think her work life would cross over with her personal one, despite barely being able to tell the difference anymore. The two had very little in common, and very seldom would she care so much about someone who didn’t know her for anything but her songs. She’d considered even quitting being an idol for this very reason for a long time. Since debuting, no longer did she have much privacy, time, or people who perceived her as anything but money. But she could tell this kid was different. He seemed sincere. He talked far too much, he was very funny, and hell, he needed a place to live.
Soon did she realize that this, in fact, was a mistake. “I should’ve left this kid to rot on the streets,” she thought. He would leave all the dishes and chores for her and leave all the lights on, too. But at least he was paying rent, right? She had enough patience for the both of them. She reminded him, got things done, and moved on. She was good at reading people but awful at confrontation, or even risking being rude. She gave him the benefit of the doubt for a while, genuinely believing that it wasn’t on purpose. The boy did things frantically, on a whim, and commonly forgetting whatever it was no matter the situation. That, or it was the opposite end of the spectrum. Running around doing whatever he could, nothing productive, or laying in his bed until 4 PM.
The two were opposites in a way. Flower was strategic and took care of business. She was also a very light sleeper. One night, it was raining lightly. The ambience calmed her mind and helped her sleep. The two had a bunk bed, despite their apartment being a two bedroom, the other was barely big enough to occupy a small child (foreshadowing). She took the top bunk, obviously, because she was cool and superior to Fukase. The rain grew heavier as the night progressed, eventually turning into a storm. A few minutes, call it thirty, passed with the girl tossing and turning with her eyes closed, merely trying to convince herself she was asleep, until she gave up and sat up criss-cross. She sat there for a while, head completely empty, half asleep. She was exhausted and probably only got about an hour of actual rest. Flower rested her head in the palm of her hand and listened to the thunder. In between the bangs, she heard, very quietly, what sounded like small sniffles. She looked down from the railing of her bed to see nothing but a pile of blankets.
“…Fukase?”
She didn’t want to make any assumptions, and she’d never heard the boy cry before, but was concerned nonetheless. She stayed peeking over until she had decided what to do. Flower was slightly irritated. She was cranky and rudely woken up by mother nature. If what she heard was in fact Fukase, she was sure that’d just make him feel worse, if she’d let her irritation show, that is.
After a while (she waited like a minute tops) of not seeing any movement from the lump of blankets, she climbed down from her bed, and sat against the headboard of Fukase’s with her knees against her chest.
“Fukase?” She whispered, taking note that it was around 4 AM at this point. Getting a response of only more sniffles, she hesitantly stuck a hand out and poked the blanket lump.
“AHHHHHH”
“JESUS CHRIST.” Flower retracted her hand back faster than she knew she was capable of.
The boy sat up from under his blanket, rubbing his eyes and sniffling lots more. Flower just stared for a bit, not having planned what to say once she got his attention. When Fukase was done rubbing his eyes, he stared back. And they stayed like that for a while, observing each other's expressions. The boy struggled to identify the look on Flower’s face. It was confusion mixed with concern mixed with annoyance mixed with exhaustion, and he couldn’t really tell what those things all together suggested. All Flower noticed was that Fukase’s nose was red, and his face was a little puffy. It was hard to tell, though, since it was so dark. Once she realized this, she looked away as quickly as possible before looking right back at him.
“Dude…. Are you, like, good?”
Her voice was a little raspy, and she didn’t say what she wanted to. She’d figured she’d already ruined the chance to comfort her friend by now, and she must’ve come off as rude asking that way, so she turned her head to the other side and rested it in her arms, embarrassed.
“Hehe…”
She glanced over towards the boy, even more confused now.
“Hehe, hehehe! Hahaha!”
Now she was staring at him. She wasn’t afraid of her irritation showing now, she was straight on glaring. “Why is he laughing?” She thought. “I swear he was just crying? And he’s laughing at my concern! What an ass!”
Fukase sniffled some more and moved to sit against the wall next to Flower.
“Hehe, sorry. My bad, truly. Uh, I get allergies when it's rainy.”
Flower didn’t say anything. She believed him, sure, he was just sniffling after all. However, she did think this was a good opportunity to talk to him about his behavior. She’d been busy and he’d been sleeping, so there wasn’t really any other time before this that it could’ve been discussed. She pondered for a moment about how to address it.
“…Okay. If you say so. But, Fukase, seriously, why are you spending every day in bed? You’ve barely done anything yesterday, and now I find you in a ball wrapped in blankets, just like you were earlier.”
His eyes widened for a while, his small smile fading. But before Flower knew it, he was grinning again.
“Oh. Just been sleepy lately, is all. I’m like a bat. I can never sleep when i’m supposed to, so that’s just occupied for the day instead. S’not like I'm meant to be doing anything important anyways… like chores.” He giggled.
Flower didn’t laugh, though. She would push and ask more questions, striving to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering him, as this had been going on since the second week he moved in. Despite what he was saying, this wasn’t a “lately” situation, she felt. She didn’t want to joke around during a serious conversation like this, but didn’t want to make him uncomfortable either.
“Okay, so I’ll stay with you until you can fall asleep. What should we talk about?”
“Oh!” The boy’s face became noticeably less tense. He wasn’t grinning anymore, rather, the corners of his lips were curled up just enough to form a tiny smile.
“…Twenty questions?” He tilted his head to the side and looked at Flower with bright eyes. He began laying on his side again, despite having sat up only a minute ago.
Flower looked down at him, smiling back. “Sure. Uhh… If- If a fruit bowl was in a horror movie, what fruit do you think would die first?”
“Dude- What the hell?” Fukase chuckled and then paused, genuinely looking as if he’d been thinking critically through the question. The two, at once, realized his seriousness and started giggling. Flower only let out a soft chuckle
“Hahahaha!” Fukase slammed his head down into the pillow his arm was resting on, laughing into it.
Flower raised an eyebrow.
“Bro… it wasn’t even that funny…” She murmured.
Suddenly, The loud, slightly muffled laughter came to a stop. The boy didn’t lift his head back up, and it took Flower a little to realize what was happening.
“Pfft, the kid asked to play twenty questions and didn’t even get to answering the first one.”
She quietly and gently grabbed the blankets from behind him, tucking him in. Rather, softly and lazily throwing them on top of him. By the time he’d fallen asleep, the storm had calmed back down to just a small shower. Feeling reassured, she climbed back up to her own bed and lay down as the drizzle brought them both deep into sleep.