Out of Bounds

It was pretty outside. Pleasent enough a day that Akira almost wished there was music to go along with it. Not that he would have taken his headphones with him while the three of them were walking together…despite that Shinji had pointedly grabbed his walkman and pronounced he wouldn’t need it. So he settled for looking up into the blue sky occasionally, hands in his pockets, glancing now and again at his boyfriends walking on his left hand side.

“Does anyone know where we’re walking?” he asked.

Shinji just stared at Akira. Yes, he knew where they were walking, but no he didn’t. As far as they knew they were just walking and Shinji was starting to think maybe that was all they should do.

He didn’t want to take them near the house, in case they didn’t like it, or made fun of it or even worse didnt even see it. Shinji hung his head a little and let his hair fall over his shoulders, reaching up to snatch at a few long strands and inspecting them for split ends, but there weren’t any. He’d had the ends cleaned up and it was all fine now. He almost missed the disorder of them. Sighing, Shinji settled for shrugging, not really feeling like disturbing the rather balanced quiet between them. Besides, Kippei wasn’t saying anything.

Kippei eyed the look Shinji was giving Akira, and wondered. He wondered still more when Shinji hung his head and hunched his shoulders, as if he were hiding. Yes, Shinji had something in mind…but he wasn’t sure about it. He was worried about something. “We’re just walking,” he said mildly at last. “Does it matter where we go?” He watched Shinji out of the corner of his eye. “Maybe we’ll see a stork.”

Akira groaned at that. “Not another stork…I think you guys are bs’ing me!” He sped up slightly so that he could turn and face them, walking backwards. “Are you?”

Startled, Shinji just stared and took a step back, then he pulled himself into check again and shrugged. If Akira wanted to think it was bullshit, that was fine. It had just been a lame excuse thing anyway. It was true…there was no damn stork.

Kippei shook his head, giving Akira a wry look and wrapping his arm around Shinji’s slender shoulders. Whatever it was that Shinji had seen, Kippei hoped he got over his hesitation about it soon. He wondered what Shinji was afraid of. It must be something important if he was that worried about their reaction.

Oh…that was a nice picture…Kippei’s arm around Shinji like that. Akira stared appreciably a little longer than he should have. He crashed into a telephone pole. “Owww…damn…” He rubbed the back of his head, wincing.

“Don’t you dare laugh” he warned them both.

Staring, Shinji wisely turned his head and hid his small smile behind his hair, leaning further into Kippei just to make sure that any mirth that might have escaped was muffled in him.

“Watch where you’re going Aki…”

Kippei hid his amusement with some effort. “Of course not,” he told Akira solemnly, but his eyes were dancing. His arm tightened briefly around Shinji as his boyfriend leaned closer, and he dropped a kiss on Shinjí’s hair before reaching a hand out to Akira.

Akira glared at them both, not fooled for a second. “Oh…just shut up” he grumped, taking Kippei’s hand anyways, still rubbing the back of his head.

Shinji smirked a little. Akira walked into a pole. It was funny, right? Right. He was allowed to think so. He reached around behind Kippei and pinched Akira on the arse before sliding his hand into Kippei’s back pocket. Hmm…it was warm in there. “…” Oh yeah, Aki said to shut up. Shinji frowned, because he wanted to keep Aki in a good mood. Huffing enouh to blow the loose strands of hair out of his face, Shinji just relaxed and walked.

Not into poles.

Kippei just smiled, not really caring where they went so long as it was together. He laced his fingers through Akira’s and held on, enjoying the fact that the three of them were just together and having fun, and it was good. Shinji’s hand felt nice in his back pocket, fitting there as securely as Akira’s fit into his own. They fit into his heart that way too, side by side. He was the luckiest person in the entire world to have them both.

Distracted from pinching Shinji back with Kippei curling his fingers around his, Akira felt his face warm and averted his face so that they wouldn’t see. It was nice, just like this, even if they were in public pretty much and all. It was a pretty quiet neighborhood though. Picturesque even. He watched the houses as they walked by, thinking that they should have brought some of those realty listings with them. Probably the best time to get down to finding a place together…

They were being sappy. Shinji could feel it spreading through both of them and decided he didn’t want to know what they were thinking. He reminded himself Akira had walked into a pole and felt amused again and that was much better. The house wasn’t far away and he still wasn’t sure he even wanted them to see it. What would happen? He thought maybe the best way was just to walk that way and see what happened, wether that be something or nothing. It was worth a try. “It’s nice today,” he noted absently, looking ahead to find out exactly when the house came into view even though he already knew.

Kippei was only kind of keeping an eye on the houses they passed–he knew there were a few over this way that he hadn’t seen yet, and he should probably take at least a casual look while they were here… but he’d been doing an awful lot of that lately, and it was discouraging to never find anything that seemed to fit.

He didn’t really want to do that today, not right now when he had Shinji and Akira on either side of him, could hold on to them both and relax between them, and just feel. How right it was. How perfect. He didn’t want to think about anything beyond the heat of Shinji pressed against his side, the warmth of Akira’s hand and the way their voices tended still to sound like a game of doubles, complementing and finishing each other’s sentences, back and forth over and around the quiet insertion of his own voice like the swishing sound of a shot that just brushed the net.

Not that any of them were talking all that much at the moment–they seemed to have settled into comfortable quiet as they walked, slowly, almost aimlessly up the street, and that was nice, too. Kippei knew, however, that their direction was far from aimless, and he was curious in a vague, wondering sort of way–but it didn’t matter. Shinji knew.

“It is,” he agreed contentedly, absently watching the way the sunlight hit Akira’s hair and made it glow, as if it would not only look but feel like fire when you touched it. Really too bad he wanted to cut it.

He was getting sap vibes to his right. Akira rubbed a thumb over his boyfriend’s fingers. Kippei must be thinking something sappy again.

It didn’t really bother him…he kind of liked it. As long as no one expected him to be sappy back.

He was also distracted, admiring the little houses they were passing. A little on the small side, but that wouldn’t matter too much as long as there were at least two rooms, right? He wondered silently at prices as each house went past, and whether or not they’d be able to budget…

Funny…he was thinking as though there was actually one of them for sale to consider.

“These houses are pretty nice” he commented casually, wondering what Shinji and Kippei thought of them.

Startled, Shinji jerked a little, then settled back into the ryhthm of Kippei’s footsteps, trying not to point and bellow at the house still a bit away and not really visible up its conveniently private side street and go ‘there, that one, that’s ours’, but…Aki liked these houses. Shinji really liked them and he wanted them to like them too and Aki said he did, that was a start. But what did Kippei think? Shinji stole a peek at him but he had his sappy mask on.

“Yeah,” Shinji agreed with Akira. “I like them.”

Kippei sighed inwardly and refocused his attention, so that it included more than just the two of them. He didn’t really care about anything else right now, but if they were talking about houses he would at least take a look. He wasn’t expecting to see anything special, he’d looked at scores of houses in the last few weeks and they were all the same–not home.

Still, Akira had said they were nice, and Shinji liked them. It would be good to have some idea of what they were wanting in a house. So he looked around, idly curious. Somewhat to his surprise…they were nice.

Small houses with a pleasant, comfortable look to them… they looked like homes. Not his home, but someone’s. He studied them a little more closely, noting their condition and location, details and general things.

“Hmm…they are, actually.” He sounded faintly bemused…it was a bit startling to find something he actually liked.

“I wonder what they look like inside. Do you think they have more than a couple of rooms?” Akira scanned the next house, mind already clambering with ideas and budget-shuffling before he caught himself.

“I don’t remember seeing anything listed around here anyways” he said a bit wistfully, oblivious to the reactions behind him.

Knuckling down on the little voice in the back of his head that screamed ‘bad idea bad idea bad idea’, Shinji turned Kippei up the side street and pushed Akira in that direction too. The For Sale sign had a ‘held’ sign on it, which was a bit odd, but the owners had said they would hold it for them before they put it up for lease, but they weren’t going to hold it forever. Shinji pulled the floorplan out of his pocket and flattened the corner out before holding it out, reaching back to tug his hair free of its braid, wanting to hide.

“This one,” he said softly. “It’s this one.” This is home.
Kippei let Shinji tug him down the street, absently, his mind going over the possibilities of the houses they passed, wondering if there really was something here after all.

He looked down when Shinji held out the floorplan, startled. “Hmm?” What was that? He looked sideways at Shinji’s worried face, watching his hair fall like a curtain and then looked back up, at… the house. For sale, it said, and… it was… the house. Their house. Shinji had found them a house.

“A stork, hmm?” he murmured. A slow grin spread across his face, and he moved forward, studying it. Yes. Yes. That was it. This was… perfect.

“Shinji…” he breathed, wanting to say, god, yes, you found it. But he stopped, glancing over at Akira. There was one more person who mattered here… this had to be it for all three of them. It had to be home.

Akira just stared at the house. He stared so long that he heard feet shuffling uncertainly behind him. Finally glancing over, he snatched the floorplan and poured over it, jaw setting and lips tightning.

“Shinji…” He looked up from the paper, waited until those dark eyes peered back at him from behind the hair.

Then he reached out and smacked the tensai on the head with the floorplan.

“Idiot! Stork my ass…you had this the whole time and didn’t say anything?” Irritated, Akira stomped towards the front door.

Shinji was such a moron. The perfect place right here, and he spent the week nattering about bullshit storks.

Akira was quiet. Akira didn’t like the house. He was just staring at it as if there was something wrong with it and Shinji slunk a little further behind Kippei because he had wanted, so bad, for Aki to like it. But then Akira said his name and he looked up and Akira…hit him. On the head. With the floor plan. And used a swear word; ass in fact. Shinji blinked then felt a blush slowly creeping over his face, snatching up Kippei’s hand with both of his and snuggling a little against his shoulder. At least Kippei understood.

“I wanted you to both like it…” Which they did. It suddenly occurred to Shinji that they all liked the house and he felt a smile turning the corners of his lips and that pressure and uncertainty fading. “You like the house.”

“We like the house,” Kippei agreed, smiling in faint amusement at Akira’s indictment. Shinji was an idiot sometimes, but Kippei liked him that way, he was adorable and he’d found a house. Stork or no stork, Shinji had done it. It was perfect.

“It’s our house,” he declared contentedly as they followed Akira to the door. “It’s home.”

Akira was polite enough, but he was impatient, damned impatient. They were led through the house and everything in him clawed for him to ask how much, how much, what the hell did they want for it cause he’d find a way to pay it.

Besides, Shinji had already wasted…what? A week? Carrying on about stupid storks…he’d smack him again later.

By the time they were led to the backyard, his patience snapped and he almost demanded to know the price. He hear snickering behind him.

“I told you there was a stork, right there in your garden,” Shinji noted softly, pointing to the old one-legged thing in the corner. “Humpalot will like it I think, they can talk to eaach other…” Shinji smirked, knowing just how much Akira would like that, and he held up a little piece of paper with the price on it while the person showing them around wasn’t looking. Perfect house, perfect price, free stork. It didn’t get any better.

Kippei felt something inside of him relaxing as they walked through the house, something that had been tense for weeks and getting worse. He didn’t have to look anymore…didn’t have to worry. They’d found it. Shinji had found it. This was the house. It didn’t matter how much it was, he didn’t care. They would pay it, if it took them twenty years.

This was home. You couldn’t put a price on that. And there was a stork, in the garden. He smiled to himself. Just perfect.

Akira was bowing to their host politely, asking for a few minutes alone to talk amongst themselves. When the man disappeared back into the house, he launched himself at Shinji, throwing his arms around him and kissing him soundly on the lips. They fell over that way, and Akira laughed before kissing him again.

“And you’ll wanna name the stupid stork too, and we’ll have two freak-things in the garden” he mumbled against Shinji’s mouth, before sitting up to slap his boyfriend lightly on the arm. “Idiot” he laughed.

One minute he was just standing there next to Kippei, the next he was flat on his back with an Akira in his lap and a kiss on his lips. Shinji figured the day was going well, really. He smiled and just nodded, because he did want to name the stork, but he wanted to ask Sada for suggestions first. Still…Akira shifting in his lap like that was a bit distracting and Shinji looked up at Kippei pleadingly.

“Can we christen the garden now, please?”
Kippei laughed out loud. Trust Shinji. But the owners weren’t going to give them that many minutes, and it would be nice to take their time.

“No,” he answered flatly, amused. “Not today. First thing after we move, if you want.”

Akira leapt up, throwing his arms around Kippei for a long, loud kiss as well, before he released him and grinned at both his boyfriends.

“I’m going in to negotiate. We’ll have to fix up a bit, maybe some paint here and there…we can drag Ishida and Sakurai out of their hole to help us pack up…” He was still planning, talking mostly to himself, even as he left the two and went back inside, a happy little lopsided smile on his face.

Shinji got up more slowly and tangled his arms around Kippei’s waist, still incredibly relieved that they liked it, he had wanted for them to so badly that he almost didn’t know what to do now that they did. They were going to buy it. Their house; their own, the right one just for them.

“Hmm…we’re home, Buchou.”
Kippei kissed top of Shinji’s head, and then tilted his chin up to kiss his mouth. He felt absolutely, completely content for the first time in months.

“We are,” he murmured, smiling against Shinji’s lips. “We are home.”

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