Technical Difficulties (Brother's Conflict)

Chapter 18!

My friend got a new kitten it's like 9 weeks old and I rushed over her house to meet it I'm still crying it's so fucking cute.

She talked to the doorman, ascertaining that his name was Tanra. She'd put on her best act for him, she was all smiles and that sort of excitable bubbly teenager you'd expect if you hadn't known this specific girl for too long. All it took was about five minutes of flattering the older man with kind comments and harmless gestures for him to accept her 'innocent' request of going to deliver her manuscript to Mr. Fujiwara with a promise that she'd be quick, even if she had to slip the thing into his mailbox to make things go faster.

Mei made it to his apartment, one of the few on the floor due to the sheer size they must have been on the inside. She politely knocked, although she didn't try to keep the volume down as she did. She had done so previously when trying to come into his office and now knew the man could sleep like a rock from the few naps she'd interrupted. She finally got a response after constant knocking and doorbell buzzing for a straight five minutes, with the door practically flying open as the shirtless man in front of her swung it open in a fit of annoyance.

He leveled an icy glare at her and for a second his light eyes had reminded her of those commanding blue ones from so long ago, the ones that she still saw in her drowning nightmares. But her body showed no outward signs of how his glare had affected her, quite the opposite. Instead her apathetic eyes looked even more dull than usual, as though yet another one of her emotions had died. She wordlessly held out her manuscript, her dull gaze not flinching back from his glare surprising even him.

He slightly roughly grabbed the thick manilla envelope from her hands, grumbling out a, "Why're you here?"

"You didn't answer my emails and I had a couple of questions on the last two pages for corrections. I couldn't finish until you answered so I got your address from one of your coworkers so I could ask in person." She said everything simply as he slightly moved out of the way so that she could enter his apartment and they could stop talking in his doorway.

"How'd you even get past my doorman?" He entered his apartment casually, placing the manuscript on the edge of the counter that lined his open styled kitchen, almost bumping it into a couple of empty take out containers from some of the various places nearby that delivered.

Mei's gaze was completely focused on the containers as she spoke to him, part of her oddly worried if the man knew how to eat properly. "It's easy to convince people of things when you know how to use your features to your advantage. I'm skinny, short, and my features are mostly cute, so I'm just a few bubbly comments away from getting into anywhere I want just because they can't convince themselves to perceive me as a threat. It's easy manipulation really."

He was a little shocked at her blatant admittance to using her charms to get what she wanted. Even more so that she knew not to even try for a sexual appeal when she saw a much more compatible route in being the 'innocent weak high school girl' and had no shame of taking advantage of those options. He silently let her voice her problems with his corrections on the last two pages, giving her his rare full attention.

---

Over the next months, it became a bit more common for such mishaps to happen, now that she knew where he lived he clearly put less effort into being as punctual for their meeting times. It was one of those times that she'd finally had enough of constantly looking at fast food containers being the only type of clutter in his otherwise spotless apartment.

"Don't you ever eat anything else?"

"Huh?" She had just cut him off mid sentence with an unwarranted slightly annoyed tone. He followed her glare-like gaze to his current collection of tai food containers, he'd been in the mood for it the past week. "It's not like I'm any good at cooking to just suddenly stop ordering out. I'm a busy man-"

"Cut the crap, you're just lazy." His eyes widened as he stared at her, some part of him even recognized the fact that his jaw was slightly slackened from the shock. She turned to him then, looking slightly surprised herself to see his expression. "What?"

He went to reply only to start genuinely laughing instead of being able to speak, shocking her even moreso, "Sorry, sorry. Its just- I've never heard you get upset or call anyone out before, but you just got so serious over fast food you were willing to cut me off."

Something about his laugh was infectious back then, no something even more about him was infectious and attractive to Mei, that was why she'd gotten so easily close to him. That last part of her that wasn't numb fluttered at the sound of his laugh and she found a small genuine smile on her face for the first time in years. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty ridiculous, but at least I'm not a grown man who doesn't know how to cook."

He didn't even skip a beat, his manner of speech turning towards the slightly more flirtatious tone he'd usually use on women who seemed to trip over themselves to get close to him. Yet, he was still smiling, nothing like those disgusting words he whispered in women's ears to use them with that tired straight voice. "Who said I need a meal when there's a whole snack sitting right next to me."

He was leaning closer to her as he spoke, to the point where their faces were only inches apart. His grin deepened as he watched her freeze as she took in his words. He couldn't help himself after that and she had been right about her cute features. He reached out to cup her cheek with his hand when suddenly she came to her senses, slapping his hand away with more force than he thought she'd had in her. Only a hint of a blush was on her face and it soon disappeared to be replaced with that blank look, but his stomach sank as he saw something in her eyes for only a second--a deeply pained look. "Don't bother. Whatever you're offering I either don't want it or-"

She suddenly cut herself off and shook her head a bit, standing from her chair and walking over to his kitchen. Though clean she could see the metaphorical dust all over the appliances that had probably never been used. She opened his fridge without asking, taking in the clear lack of ingredients aside from half eaten take out boxes, a hand full of eggs, and a few other odds and ends. Wordlessly, she continued in her search finding a couple of dry goods like pasta and a few pots and pans that looked brand new before setting to work. He watched her with interest, but his thoughts kept returning to that unfinished sentence. More than anything, it made something in him stir that he knew he could guess what she was going to say.

After all, he's thought the same of himself as long as he can remember.