The Human Heart [COMPLETED]

A Waste of Time

His second cup of tea is steaming in front of him when Chishiya hears the sound of ruffling sheets, indicating that his stubborn finally woke up. Not that he has too many plans for today, but there's still no sense in sleeping through half of it.

The slide door opens with a scrape and Chishiya looks up from Kafka's Metamorphosis while his eyes set on a woman barely dressed since she kicked away her pajama pants during the night, with ruffled hair and the sleep still visible in her eyes. "You made coffee?"

"Tea", he answers plainly.

She paddles to the kitchen unit and takes a look into the pot that Chishiya used to make tea. It is empty, of course. "Couldn't you have made enough for both of us?"

He could have, yes. But the water would have taken much longer to boil, and she was asleep anyway. So why waste the time for that?

"I assumed you'd want coffee."

As he continues to read, cups and cans are being pushed aside in search for coffee or something similar, but not without muttered complaints. "Sure, but you could have left me some water."

Next she will grumble that he didn't do last night's dishes and ask him to make the bed. This is exactly why Chishiya would have preferred something bigger with more space and room for himself to be alone, especially in the mornings. There's just a certain time of day where he really doesn't want to talk. And she didn't sleep quite long enough for that time to pass.

"It would have been cold by now."

She eventually accepts that he's not in the mood for conversation yet and remains silent, even when she obviously has problems to turn on the stove. This once, she's too proud to ask for help, and Chishiya watches with a smirk how she tries all possible options until finally a flame burns to heat up her coffee water. When she disappears into the bathroom, Chishiya can hear her hum a melody foreign to him, and he wonders what music she actually listens to. It is a weird question and definitely something he usually isn't interested in, and it leaves him wondering how it came into his mind after all.

The next thing he notices is the scent of coffee filling the caravan and the sound of cereals being poured into a bowl. Chishiya doesn't drink coffee, but nothing's wrong with the smell of it. His stubborn places her breakfast on the table and sits down next to him, of course searching for physical affection again.

"I brushed my teeth. Can I have a morning kiss?"

Do you even know how silly that sounds?

She does kiss him, and Chishiya would be lying if he said that he didn't like it. This one lasts longer than the one back in the car, and with her hand resting on his face, the interesting and mildly upsetting warmth returns.

He turns back to his book but her hand remains where it is, moving a strand of his hair back where it belongs before she leans against him and eats her breakfast. Those few minutes of quietness are exactly what Chishiya needs, and he doesn't even mind the extra weight clinging to his side as long as he can focus on his own thoughts.

Not that the silence would have lasted longer than a couple of minutes anyway, but it's all right. The scent of instant coffee fills his nose with her cup so close to him, and she leans over to take a look into his book while she sips the last bits of her dark brew.

"What is so gripping about a man being turned into a bug?"

That's not even the main aspect of the story. "It's a cockroach."

"Why does it have to be an insect anyway?" Her index finger trails a line on the page currently open, "couldn't he turn into something more beautiful, like... a butterfly?"