Misfit Together

Chapter 17

(I AM LATE AGAIN UGH. This time I have a good excuse, I was at a con over the weekend and post-con crashes are tough. My throat's still super sore from shouting/screaming/singing/talking/laughing way too much... But I'm more awake tonight so time for writing. Tbh, I might as well shift my update schedule - instead of Saturday or Sunday, I'll make it Sunday or Monday. Ok? Ok. And btw, if any of my readers are also into musical theatre, I'm thinking of doing a one-shot/ficlet collection for 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee soon-ish. Now, let's get to the Urushihara/Suzuno bonding (and the aro/ace Suzuno I've been talking about))

(And I just want to add... God, this is such a personal chapter for me)

Give it time, man, it's gonna work out...

He had to keep reminding himself. Shizuka had told Urushihara that he was meeting up with Momoko today to talk, and he was waiting not-so-patiently at home to hear from him. It was hard not to fret over it and he struggled to distract himself. Ashiya was getting more and more agitated by the second. He'd already endured listening to the shut-in's strained mumbling while he was on his laptop and eventually he snapped at him.

"What is it with you today? This excessive whining is starting to get on my nerves, even more so than before."

Urushihara groaned again.

"I can't take this anymore...! I keep seeing things online that remind me of Momo or wanting to tell her something but she won't talk to me! I really hope Shizuka's making some progress..."

"Then get off of the computer," Ashiya immediately the glare Urushihara threw at him for that, "Don't you have other things to occupy yourself with? Try something that won't make you think of your problem."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes but Urushihara did as he was told and closed down the laptop. Turning away, he picked up his PASTA and leaned his elbows on the table in the middle of the room. It seemed like it was working at first but his bottled-up frustration began to rise to the surface after a short time and Ashiya was soon treated to some far less discreet angry ranting. In the end, he dropped the paper he had been reading and stood up, causing Urushihara to look up suddenly.

"Huh? Where ya going?"

"Anywhere but here," Ashiya said as he put on his shoes, "I'll leave you to work through your inner turmoil alone."

With that last sarcastic quip, he left. Urushihara returned to his game, only to growl in annoyance and switch it off, even going so far as to throw it against the wall. It was durable enough to just bounce and land on the floor without any real damage, but he wasn't paying any attention. Instead, he took a book from the shelf and tried to focus on the words and lose himself in the story, but to no avail. After a while, he dropped the book and it clattered to the floor. Urushihara groaned once more and pressed the palms of his hands to his face.

Of course, the apartment's paper-thin walls did nothing to keep the sound of his distress from travelling and soon there was a soft and polite knock at the door, following swiftly by the door creaking open. It was fairly normal for Suzuno to appear like this on occasion, which was the reason why she felt no need to wait to be let in. She knew Urushihara was the only one home, having heard Ashiya leave before and knowing that Maou was at MgRonald's. Because of this, Urushihara hardly reacted to her. He only glanced at her as he ran his hands down his face and sighed.

"I could hear you from next door," she said plainly, "What is going on? Did something happen?"

"Nah, not exactly," he rested his head in one hand, "Shizuka's out with Momoko right now and I still haven't heard a thing from him."