Behind closed doors
(@chikawaweek Day 4: Jealousy) | ao3
It’s not that Chika is jealous. Really.
Call it…curiosity. Call it protective instinct. Call it… (Okay, maybe, just maybe, a tiny bit of jealousy. A wee bit.)
But earlier that day, he’d happened to see Satowa and that scruffy-looking criminal psychology professor walking together after class. Satowa looked red in the face, a bit like she was crying. Said scruffy unshaven professor looked, well, scruffy and unshaven, and also a bit protective. And what the fuck, was all that was in Chika’s mind from that moment on.
And earlier that week, Hiro-senpai had been talking about this scruffy Takinami, too. Said he’s really smart, but really perverted. (Okay, weird was what she said, not perverted, but weird has a few interpretations, and perverted is one of them.)
And thus began Chika’s voyage into the 9th floor of the Social Sciences office building. He storms into the Psychology section. Storms into the Criminal Psychology subsection. Storms into the corridor along which #09-28 lies.
How dare he do something with her in a room together. Not even Chika has been in a room together with her, except for the lecture theatre, and except for the library where they’d first met (where Chika had successfully managed to persuade her to skip out on studying for the exam and secretly watch Bleach and eat snacks with her in the library, of all places).
And, try as he might, Chika can’t help but admit that he may have developed more than a slight crush on her. (Not just a wee bit.)
So he’s been devising ways to pluck up his courage to confess to her. But this scruffy unshaven criminal fucker (how ironic that he specialises in Criminal Psychology, ha), dares lay a hand on his to-be girlfriend before he can even turn this strawberry-sweet dream into reality.
Thus, gone is prudence; following closely behind is rationality, both flying up and away, escaping far into the wind. He throws caution to the wind, too, throwing the door wide open -
“What the actual fuck are you doing to my girlfriend!?” Chika just about screams, slamming the door wide open.
A pin-drop silence blooms in the room, which Chika surveys - Takinami Suzuka is seated right beside the window, with Houzuki Satowa opposite him. In between them on the worktable is a small laptop.
”What am I doing?” is Takinami’s slightly strangled-sounding response, voice squeaking a little at the end.
”Your girlfriend?” is Satowa’s equally flabbergasted-sounding response, sounding a little like some head of some yakuza clan responding to some death threat.
Pin-drop silence grows in size.
”…oops,” is all Chika manages after a while, face red as a strawberry.
(That day, Chika learns two things:
Never to recklessly open a door without thinking
Never to recklessly open his mouth without thinking.)
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“Well, now that you’ve already burst into the room, I hate to burst your bubble, but nothing like what you’ve expected has taken place,” is Takinami’s slightly awkward and very amused explanation. “And we might as well burst open the can of worms for him too, if Satowa doesn’t mind?” Takinami glances at Satowa all-respectfully, seeking approval.
“Fine with me,” she shrugs, slightly reddened at the chain of sudden events.
Chika’s face is nothing but a question mark at this point, so Takinami starts explaining.
“Your girlfriend-”
(“It’s not like that ye-”)
“-is now homeless.”
“What?” is Chika’s eloquent response.
“She has been driven out of her home.”
“WHAT?!” is Chika’s angry and eloquent response.
“Her family appears to have disowned her.”
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” is Chika’s very angry and very eloquent response.
“I happened to notice that she was staying in the college infirmary after hours a bit too often, and also happened to know about the Houzuki household’s affairs…long story.” Takinami coughs. “Anyway, we’re here to check out accommodation options for students near the home, because I have acquaintances working in the real estate sector offering discounted house rental price quotations.” Takinami explains.
Oh. So that’s what they were doing.
“Oh,” Chika scratches his head a bit.
“Yep. And that’s what I was doing to your girlfriend. Making her rent my friends’ affordable apartments. Sorry about that,” Takinami smirks.
“Please stop it,” Satowa buries her face in both palms.
“Thanks for helping me take care of her,” is all Chika says unblinkingly, still processing all the information, too speechless to say further, not remembering or trying or intending to deny anything in that chain of utterances, not at all.
(a huge thank you to all the moderators and contributors behind Chikawa Week!!!)
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