The Lonely Egotist (MewGulf AU)

🌞Chapter 27🌻

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Mew waved for me to come closer. I sat between his legs and he wrapped his arms around me. It wasn't like being hugged---it was like leaning against a giant stuffed animal. I felt completely accepted.

"This is the first time I've told anyone this story. I don't know if I can make it all the way through," he said from behind me, warning me that it wouldn't be pretty. Then he slowly began his story.

"My mom sold herself to men to make a living. Ever since I can remember, that's what she did."

My body stiffened unconsciously. I knew Mew would be able to feel the change, but he just kept speaking.

"We lived in a slum apartment. At night she would leave me with the old lady next door, but when the old lady became crippled, my mom took me out with her. I think about it sometimes and I wonder if it was better to take her two or three year-old kid to the hotels with her or to leave me alone in the apartment. It's such a horrible choice to have to make."

"She took you with her? Into the rooms?"

A terrible thought occurred to me. Did she have her child in the room with her while she did stuff like that?

"Of course not. She left me with the women at the front desk. She almost always used the same hotek, so they knew each other. I sat the desk without knowing what was going on, or slept in the break room, or went into the empty rooms to sleep."

He rested his chin on my shoulder as he spoke.

Wow.

First had told me Mew was a mild insomniac who couldn't sleep if he couldn't hear people nearby. His childood must have made him that way.

"I always ate very late and my room usually couldn't give me sweets. But the woman at the front desk saved cream candies for me and would press them into my hand. That was the only reason I looked forward to going to the hotel. That's why, even at this age, I still like that candy."

So that was why Mew nearly always had candy in his pockets. I remembered when I'd told him about bringing candy back for my brothers and sisters, he'd said it was a nice memory. I felt a lump in my throat.

"When I was four or five, I started to help out with little things around the hotel. That was when I realized that the people who used the hotel weren't all like my mom, who did it because she had to. Some of them liked it. When I inherited a building from my grandfather and had to decide what to do with it, I decided to make a hotel, since I knew better than anything else. I think the reason I decided to make mine so bright and avoid being sleazy was because of the power of that memory."

"You have a grandfather? But you said First was your only relative."

If Mew had a grandfather why did his mother need to sell her body to live?

I turned slightly to look back at Mew, but as I started to turn, he caught my head in his hands and turned me back around.

"I only found out about my grandparents after my mother died. I was around seven. We didn't have enough money to go to the hospital, and she died giving birth to First in our apartment."

"Oh my god..." It struck me as such a heroic story. I was speechless. I felt a weight press against my back.

"We didn't have a phone, so I ran out to the public phone to call an ambulance, but I was too late. The police checked around and we found out that our grandparents were still alive. They took me and First in when he was still a baby. When I was in high school my grandmother died, and then three years later my grandfather followed her. I remodeled the building my grandfather had owned and started my hotel while I was in college."

My body was trembling. I felt bad for being so affected just by hearing the story when Mew was telling it calmly.

"I owe them a lot for helping me go to college. I still don't know why they stopped speaking to my mother."

My gaze fell to the floor and Mew ruffled ny hair. I heard a harsh chuckle.

"Don't get so depressed about ancient history, Gulf. The first time I looked at your design, it reminded me of that old apartment I used to live in with my mom. Of course, your version was a lot nicer. But there was something about it that I liked. So it's easy to see how I would be charmed by the person who created such a sensitive place. I've slept with more people, men and women alike, than I can count. But I've never been able to fall asleep with anyone but First and you. I sleep like a baby next to you," he sighed.

I touched Mew's hands, which rested on my chest. They were warm. His body felt strangely warm, too.

"Are you sleepy, Mew?"

I thought that maybe his body temperature went up when he was tired, like a child. I turned slightly to look back at him and this time he didn't stop me.

"Hm? I guess. I haven't been sleeping well lately, not even with First. I just can't sleep without you, Gulf."

He squeezed me hard against him and I remembered what First said. 'He's just lonely and spoiled, like a child.'

I had thought he knew so much about Mew---but it was because they were brothers.

"If you want to go to sleep, we should get in bed."

Mew was, little by little, getting heavier against my back. If he fell asleep while he was holding onto me, I wouldn't be able to move an inch. This thought motivated me and I pointed toward my bedroom.

"Okay. But you have to come, too."

"Ah! Hey!"

Mew picked me up and carried me out of the living room. I was going to tell him he didn't have to carry me like that, but when I saw how happy he looked, I couldn't say anything.

I was too nice to him.

"You should move out of here, Gulf."

"Huh? Why?"

He set me down on the bed, then lay down beside me completely natiwrally, his arms around me. It was impossible to try and fit two adult men in a tiny single bed. We would fall out if we move so much as turned over.

"The walls are too thin. And you can't even fit a double bed in this room."

It sounded like Mew wanted to move in. When had he decided that?

I smacked Mew's arms and muttered. "Now just a second! Are you thinking about coming to live with me, Mew? Don't you think that's a little sudden?"

"But I can't sleep without you, Gulf. Are you telling me you din't care if I die from lack of sleep? Or are you going to come to the hotel every night?"

I tried to imagine myself going to a love hotel every night and blanched. How would I get to work in the mornings? It was ridiculous. I shook my head peevishly and Mew smiled at me triumphantly.

"Then you have to move somewhere you can have a bogger bed. I'll pay the rent. And I'll move out of my room in the hotel."

Mew was pushing things forward quickly. He cuddled closer to me, looking content. Would I have to spend the rest of my life sleeping next to this over-sized kid? I felt uneasy about where this was going. I suspected I would be the one with insomnia now. Now was the moment to back out, but when I looked up at Mew, I saw he was already asleep, a peaceful look on his face, and all my doubts disappeared.

His rhythmic breaths ruffled my hair.

Well, I was used to being a big brother, I guess. I couldn't just push him away when he needed help. I let out a little sigh of defeat and wrapped my arms around Mew.

TBC