silence is golden

As soon as they finally turned up to their journey’s end, Kou hooked his thumb into the belt loop of his pants and leaned his shoulder on the door frame— a spiritless demeanor discernible on his dainty lineaments as he watched his companion store the first aid kit back to its assigned place. It was at this moment did the blond get the picture of how much he had trashed the room.

Was he really the one who made this?

He nearly cringed at the thought. You were raised better than this, he could already pick up on Ruki’s admonishing tone in his mind. He knows that he has a problem in regards to simmering his antagonism down but if he had to be honest, he thought that he had managed to shape himself up. The monstrosity displayed before him was proof plain as day that he hardly changed a bit. As soon as Mitobe started picking up each and every large broken glass from the floor, Kou pouted in bewilderment and slightly tilted his head to the side.

The guy wasn’t cooking anything. He was just doing something a janitor is paid to do. Why would he take him here if he had no motives on cooking anything at all? Unless, Mitobe’s one of those guys and that would make sense considering the place was secluded as of the moment.

Dealing with Kou's outburst after trying to help with his hunger situation, as well as the first-aid session required afterwards had already taken a huge chunk of time out of his day. So much for being able to fit in some studying at the school library. That had completely gone out the window. It wasn't all that long until the taller male would need to make his way home in order to cook dinner for the rest of his family -- who luckily behaved much better than a certain idol, despite mostly consisting of children years younger than him.

Mitobe snorted softly, shaking his head, but his companion's next words was enough to drag him from his thoughts with flushed red cheeks, dark eyes widening ever so slightly in surprise as he turned to face the blond.

Make-out session? What gave him that idea? All Mitobe wanted to do was clean this place up before a member of staff appeared and they both got in trouble for using -- no, wasting ingredients and destroying school property. 

Maybe he really did need to spell it out for him.

Reaching for the phone that had previously been left on the counter, thick brows furrowed as he used his sleeve to wipe off the sprinkling of curry powder that had coated the screen before using it to type out one last message.

help me tidy up

But, his annoyed expression melted just a bit as the other seemingly gave up on trying to be the victor here. That was what the hand wave was about, right? Him giving up?  Menma won. Menma liked winning. Honestly, it was a good way to get him to calm himself right on down.

Crossing his arms and smirking, he let out a chuckle of his very own. The noise deep and monotone as it flowed from opened lips.

For the first few moments it seemed as though the other male was going to accept his victory and then leave him be.

Wrong.

Apparently the wordless answer Mitobe had given wasn't quite enough to warrant such peace, but at least he didn't seem so annoyed now he had that win under his belt. A definite improvement.

Now, how would he explain himself without speaking up. Gosh, this would be a lot easier if he had someone else there to talk in his place, a task mostly left to relatives or friends who knew him well enough to convey his thoughts for him.

Hands raising up again, Mitobe shrugged a little and shook his head, apparently just as clueless as the other was about his staring-contest skills. But the sudden curious expression that followed seemed to ask a question of it's own.

As the taller crossed his arms and shot him a look that clearly stated that Menma was more strange than he could ever even hope to be, Menma crossed his arms as well. Lips pulled downward into a frown of sorts, pearly teeth flashing some as they did so.

Mitobe's expression loosened slightly at the reaction given. What was with that sudden exclamation? It was almost as if the shorter male was able to read his thoughts or something. 

Stoic expression quickly crumbling away, Mitobe felt his shoulders quake slightly with silent laughter as a hand lifted up to cover his mouth, the corners of his lips twitching up into a small smile of amusement.

She was delighted to see the smile appearing on his face and even more so to see the thumbs up that he gave her, a gesture she could not help but return. It was almost like a little celebration of their accomplishment in successfully obtaining all the items they needed from two sections of the store, similar to clearing two levels in a game.

"I’m all finished with the dairy products as well~"

The young heiress then skipped over to his side and peered up at him inquisitively, her shining silver eyes brimming over with excitement. He still had the shopping list that she had given to him when they had split up with their separate tasks and now that she thought about it, it was probably best that he held onto it considering she didn’t know where to find anything.

"So where to next? What’s next on the list?"

This adventure was turning out to be a lot more fun than she had expected it to be and she wondered if this was why so many people spent their time shopping, other than the fact that they needed what they were buying. Kajika suddenly remembered that her comrade in arms also had his own shopping that needed to be done when she caught sight of the basket slung over his other arm, feeling concerned that he might have forgotten himself by getting so involved in her own mission. Giving him a light nudge in the side, she pointed to the basket containing his collection of bread and shot him an inquiring look.

Looking down at the shopping cart between them, the taller male gave the shopping list in his hand a quick glance over to make sure nothing had been forgotten during either of their missions with their designated items. Luckily everything seemed to be accounted for, stacked neatly in the cart for optimum space saved in order for more things to be piled on top -- though at this point, with the vegetables and dairy products alone it was starting to fill up rather quickly.

Brows furrowing slightly into an expression full of playful seriousness -- completely giving in to the more adventurous side of their grocery buying task -- Mitobe gave a firm nod of approval.

That was, before his companion nudged at his side gently and brought attention to his practically empty shopping basket, carrying only the sparse selection of small cakes and bread he had collected beforehand.

Oh.

♛ Pausing in thought momentarily, his internal gears turning, and mind working to come up with the correct way to approach the subject he was going to try to bring up. Then, he spoke in a smaller tone than usual.♛

♛ “I already got in trouble with the tenant for “accidentally” blowing up my vacuum.” Shaking his head there after, before the other could even question as to how one blew up their vacuum, he elaborated a bit on it. “Long story short, you can’t vacuum up too many screws or the thing freaks. Makes a hell of a mess, too.” Of course, the Strider treated that as if it was simply just another daily occurrence. ♛ 

Then again, the younger male shouldn't have been so surprised. If Dirk couldn't even manage to properly feed himself, or failed to have even a speck of knowledge about playing any sport at all, it wasn't so odd to find out that his attempts at cleaning up would only result in some kind of explosion.

With the thought of regular visits to the blonde's apartment to make sure his diet consisted of more than family-sized bags of doritos and that he didn't almost kill himself whenever attempting to do any chores now firmly planted in his mind, Mitobe covered his face with a hand as he let out a small sigh, followed by yet another huff of amused laughter.