The first thing Sophie could recognize were the sounds of birds followed by muffled shouting at the TV from the living room. She was lying on her stomach and spread her arms, noting the bed seems cold and most of all - vacant.
A frown creased her forehead and she rolled on her back when a flowery fragrant hit her nose and she opened her eyes.
She sat up but as it was too fast, she fell back down and yawned, rolling again on the side and looking at her nightstand. Nothing there.
She rolled again and looked on the opposite side but still did not see the source of the smell.
Giving sitting up another try, she slowly lifted herself up just to find her Camellias peaking behind the foot of the bed.
A soft smile crossed her face, slowly realizing that Yuzuru must have moved all three of the pots there for her to wake up to that smell. And yet again she slept completely through it.
Sophie grabbed the nearest pillow and moved with it to the flowers, laying down on the other side of the bed and falling asleep once more, the soft jasmine scent beating the disturbing sounds.
The second time she woke up, a smile was still playing on her lips and after a reluctant stretch, she got up and moved to the drawers, going through each until she found the same shorts that she wore that Sunday back in Japan.
That one wonderful day before everything went to shit.
Now, she wanted to delete those almost six months of negativity, finally having everything she needed clarified.
She fished out also the same top she wore that morning and decided on a new start.
With a freshly made coffee in hand, she walked slowly to the sofa, trying to recreate the scene, and being still half-asleep, she didn't even have to fake her tired yawn.
The moment she made it in front of the sofa, Yuzuru's eyes widened and he went with his gaze slowly, gradually, over her exposed calves and thighs, the rim of the shorts, her waist, breasts, chin, before stopping at her gleeful face.
She opened her mouth in a fake surprise, pressing her palm to her cheek but opted not to drop the coffee this time.
He still didn't say anything and stared at her in disbelief as she plopped down next to him, noting that as last time Akira again didn't pay any attention to them and was just aggressively smashing buttons on his PlayStation controller.
"M-Morning sleepy head?" Yuzuru produced, his eyes glued to hers.
Sophie gave him a soft smile and looked down on her mug, "I don't know what I said on that, though."
"You, um," he swallowed on empty, "you told off Aki and---"
"What did I doooo?!!!" Akira whined and they both chuckled before Yuzuru patted his shoulder and reassured him that everything is fine.
Akira nodded with relief and went back to his game just as Yuzuru turned back to Sophie.
"So," he said with giddy sparkles in his eyes, "you will make the Sukiyaki for lunch again?"
"Just as I did that time," she confirmed and a quiet, wicked chuckle escaped her while she sipped on her coffee again, "and you will do aalllll the homework with Aki."
Yuzuru laughed, holding his chest and forced himself to quickly calm down.
He let out a long sigh of content and turned to her, brushing away her hair from her ear and quietly whispering, "thank you so much Sophie-chan."
His breath tickled her on her neck, making her giggle, and she continued sipping on her coffee, putting her feet on top of the table.
Akira kept shouting into his headset for his teammates to resurrect him before it's too late because apparently, he was carrying some special relic, making him the most valuable member of the team, and Yuzuru went quiet, staring absentmindedly on the TV with a gratified smile on his lips.
Halfway through her coffee, she was just about to turn to him when he put his arm behind her shoulders on the sofa and stretched his feet on the table as well.
"So," he said casually, dragging out each word, "if we are recreating that day...."
He didn't even have to finish the sentence and Sophie burst into laughter, putting her mug down not to spill it and held onto her stomach.
"What's so funny?" Akira asked, perplexed and the corners of his mouth were twitching watching Sophie laugh so hard.
"The audacity of the man sitting between us," Sophie answered and slowly exhaled few times to calm down.
"What did he do?"
"I made a joke," Yuzuru replied with a soft chuckle.
"About what?"
"Politics."
"Oh," Akira let out in disappointment and once more returned to his game.
"I doubt it was a joke," Sophie said, meeting his gaze, her eyes playing with sparkles of genuine amusement.
"I was just testing how far I can push my luck," said Yuzuru and shrugged his shoulders, his eyes going back to her bare thighs, hovering over the tattoos.
"I guess I should go and change," said Sophie and got up, "just as I did last time."
"Or," Yuzuru dragged out and got up as well.
He didn't finish the sentence and instead grabbed her hand, strutting towards her bedroom.
Once in the room, he led her to the bed, lifted the duvet, and made her sit down, putting the duvet over her, all the way up to her chin.
"I think you should sleep on it," he said with a giddy chuckle and pushed on her shoulders to lie down, making her laugh again.
"Never in a million years, Yuzu," she laughed and tried to pull the duvet off of her but he forced it back to her chin, pinning it down next to her shoulders and leaning above her to keep her in place.
"Never say never, Sophie-chan," he said with a mischievous grin, "clearly sleeping on things does wonders with you if you woke up this morning and did all this. For me."
"Yeah," she said, "because what you told me last night really cheered me up. It finally made me not regret that night anymore. Seeing that you are as good of a guy as I hoped you to be."
"Good," he said, his grin widening, "so now I am saying that we are both adults and there is nothing bad in ---"
"Yuzu!"
"Just sleep on it, okay?"
"You are forgetting one very important thing," she said and raised her eyebrow, "I am not attracted to you anymore. That is long gone."
"Meh," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "that will come back too. I will wait. You sleep now."
Sophie rolled her eyes and pursed her lips, hating that the corners of her mouth were still twitching.
"It will come back," Yuzuru repeated with a confident nod and stood up, turning around and walking away from the room with a happy bounce, hands in pockets.
Sophie glanced at his back, letting her gaze fall on his bottom, and quickly nodded.
Just as I thought.
Nothing.
I mean, it's a body of an athlete so of course, it looks good.
But that intense attraction is not there anymore.
Kind of.
Nope.
It's gone.
Absolutely.
She rubbed her face and sat up, going to her closet and looking for the loose black pants and white, button-up shirt she wore that Sunday.
****
After being done with the homeschooling part, she went to make herself another cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa, watching Yuzuru while he was going through the homework with Akira.
It was clear that her son was not having as much fun as they were but stuck through it without complaining, knowing that all this is allowing him to have more time on the ice during the week.
He was completely oblivious to the grins both adults were exchanging and as soon as all of his tasks were done, he let out a heavy exhale and moved back to his game.
"Well," Sophie said and stood up, tying her hair up into a ponytail, "I believe I then said something along the lines of repaying you by cooking your favorite dish?"
Yuzuru hurriedly nodded in response and she grinned back at him, "do you even realize how contagious that idiotic smile of yours is?"
"Very," he said, eyes sparkling, "I can see it on your face."
She rolled her eyes and put her hands against her hips, "So, Yuzu, what is your favorite dish?"
"Sukiyaki," he immediately replied, his eyes not leaving hers.
Sophie beamed him a smile and rubbed her palms together, "one Sukiyaki coming up!"
****
As expected, there was once more a fierce battle over the last piece of the wagyu meat and they both let Akira win to honor the tradition.
Yet unlike last time, her son just stuffed it into his mouth without splitting it into three pieces and only gave them a triumphant smile while he chewed on it, both of their faces in utter shock.
"What?" Akira let out, frowning back at them.
"You didn't split it?" Sophie asked, her face pouting.
"Nope," he swallowed and patted his full stomach, "I am tired of you two, constantly serving you up with everything. You better fight for it harder next time."
He flung his hair and stood up, walking into the living room, his chin high up.
Yuzuru snickered and Sophie scoffed, shook her head in disbelief before standing up as well and collecting the empty dishes.
She was bringing them back to the kitchen, Yuzuru assisting and following so closely behind her she could almost feel his breath on her back.
When all the dishes were at the sink, he made a step towards her and she spun around, raising her finger.
"Don't you dare," she growled, "try to lean against me as you did before, touch me in any inappropriate way, and I will make sure you never walk again."
Yuzuru raised his hands up in surrender, taking a step back, but judging by his face, the threat did nothing to his giddiness.
"I'll wait," he whispered and gave her a quick wink before pilling up the dishes into the sink and turning the faucet on.
Sophie facepalmed herself and moved next to him, one by one taking out the dishes from the sink again.
"Small change," she said, "they will go into the dishwasher. There is no way I let you splash that disgusting dishwater on me again."
"Aww," Yuzuru whined and approached her, "but that was the best part," he said, quickly adding, "one of the best parts."
He was piercing her with his eyes, making cautious steps towards her, and just as she glanced to see what his hands were doing, water splashed all over her stomach, soaking through her shirt.
A loud shriek escaped her, matched by Yuzuru's burst of laughter and she immediately pulled on her shirt to keep it away from her skin, only now seeing by the corner of her eye that he was putting down one of the bowls from the sink, his hands shaking under his fit.
"YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!" she yelled, her face contorting with disgust and Yuzuru slid down against the counter, holding his chest but unable to stop laughing.
"I DO HOPE THAT IS AN EXCRUCIATING PAIN!!"
"It's----it's," he produced, trying to catch his breath, "worth - it."
Sophie stomped with her foot and marched away, going straight into the shower while growling numerous insults in all three languages, spitting out the first ones that came to her mind.
As soon as the shower water landed on her skin, she began to roughly rub the soap onto her stomach, suppressing a gag reflex and recalling over and over again the cold, disgusting dishwater drops sliding down her skin.
I gonna fucking kill him!
Once all clean and in a change of clothes, she marched back into the living room, just to find both her son and Yuzuru on the sofa and smashing the controller buttons like a pair of madmen.
She snapped her fingers at Akira to scoot over, sitting next to him and having him as a shield between her and Yuzuru.
"Can I join?" she asked and both of them gaped at her for a moment before Akira shot up and ran for a third controller.
"I thought you didn't like it the last time you played with me!" he exclaimed and before she took the controller over he selected her character for her.
"Well," she said with a smile, "I wasn't that bad with the healer, right?"
"You were great!" he exclaimed again, making her frown as the last time they played she was constantly getting scolded by him.
A moment later, she heard him whispering to Yuzuru "see! So cool! She plays video games too!"
I am so done with both of them!
The new mission was loaded and Akira started to lecture her about their goal of getting to a special cave through an enchanted forest full of dangerous monsters.
"Just stay behind us, okay?!" he said loudly as if she wouldn't be sitting right next to him, "ME and Yuzu will take care of the fighting! Hit the green triangle anytime we are low or hold it down for resurrection, okay?!"
She only rolled her eyes in response and let her character casually walk behind, while they were both fighting off some mythical creatures, shooting arrows left and right.
"Pick up the arrows we shot, mum!" he exclaimed, "we can then take 'em back off of you!"
"Pfft," she quietly scoffed and started to collect the fallen arrows, "cleaning after your messes again...."
"HEAL!!"
She ran up to Akira's character and kept smashing the triangle until his health bar was full again and once done, he ran back into the fight without a thank you, making her mutter "fucking typical," under her breath.
"YUZU!!" Akira suddenly shouted and a smug smirk spread across her face, watching Yuzuru's character getting impaled by a spear from a centaur, "YUZU IS DOWN!"
Without any hurry, Sophie let her character walk up to Yuzuru's who was now lying on the ground, rolling in the forest's moss in pain.
"You have to hold down the triangle button, mum!" Akira yelled, pointing at the TV, "it's showing it to you right on the screen!! Hurry, before the timer runs out!!"
She smiled and leaned into the sofa, stretching her legs and crossing them at her ankles, "I know."
"Then resurrect him!"
"I can't. I'm busy," she said, turning her head to the real Yuzuru and staring him dead in the eye, "I guess he will have to sit this one out."
Yuzuru looked genuinely offended, his mouth open in silent disbelief and Akira leaned on her, trying to snatch the controller from her hand but she raised her arm up, pushing with her other hand against his head.
"Goddamit!" Akira shouted and turned to Yuzuru, snatching his controller from his hands instead, "we don't have time for this!"
Once he had Yuzuru's controller, he tossed him his own and turned back to Sophie, "now I play for Yuzu's character! Resurrect me!"
"Oh, you little---" Sophie growled but immediately hold down the button with the triangle, saving him just before the timer ran out, "you are such a smartass, you little---"
"First of," Akira stopped the game and turned to her, "I am not little. Not anymore! I am growing really fast now and soon will be taller than you, so just you wait! And second of," he paused to catch a breath and turned to Yuzuru, raising his finger at him, "You! You better improve your politics jokes, 'cause clearly, they are not good enough!"
Both adults started to laugh and he growled, standing up and turning to them with lightings in his eyes, "stop laughing! there is nothing funny about you two! I am going to my room, will rather play on my PC and---"
"No!" Sophie pleaded and pulled him back on the sofa, "I am sorry, Aki. I promise I will behave. I wanna spend some time with you, okay? Let's play together and I will be on my best behavior."
He narrowed his eyes at her, raising his chin higher and higher until he gave her a resolute nod, "you better!"
After he unpaused the game, Sophie kept her promise and they played throughout the afternoon, completing one mission after the other and she couldn't get enough of her son's happy face, listening also to his giddy blabbering throughout the dinner about what a great team the three of them make together.
Oh, Aki....you should be a salesman.
She thought, reading clearly in between the lines of his words.
"Mmmm," Akira hummed when he was done and pushed his rice bowl away, "delicious. You are such a good cook, mum," he said and turned to Yuzuru, raising his eyebrow, "right, Yuzu?"
"Uhm," he quickly nodded and finished as well, "amazing cook."
Akira gave him a slow nod of approval and went to his room while Sophie rolled her eyes and moved onto the terrace.
She started to go through every single pot and flower she had there, making sure that those she kept outside through the winter are really handling it well, smiling in anticipation of Spring when she will finally be able to re-pot all and watch them grow into colorful blossoms.
Didn't take long and she heard the door opening, Yuzuru coming in with her winter jacket in one hand and a black folder in the other.
She gladly took the jacket from him and eyed the folder, nodding with her chin towards it.
"Well," he said raising the folder up, "in the theme of re-creating, you have shared something personal with me that day when we were on the balcony of your old flat."
"I still have that apartment by the way," she said and sat down on the sofa, Yuzuru following after her, "I still plan to go back here and there, so I want both me and Aki to stay in a familiar place."
"Oh," he said with a smile, "I wouldn't mind visiting it again."
"Honestly," she looked up to him briefly but her gaze fell back to the folder in his lap, "anytime I recall the flat now, I only see Tamiko there. Her hand sliding over the marble counter in the kitchen, her eyes going over every corner of the room. I can't believe I was that close to such a disturbed stalker. In my own home. Again. But no matter how hard I try, I still can't even begin to comprehend how it must have been for you."
He didn't say anything to it and only leaned back, handing her the folder and she cautiously glanced at him before carefully opening it up.
There were various documents, including Tamiko's hospital charts and the NDA, but most of all, printouts of photos with dates covering several years. Some were of her when she was still openly stalking him, white facemask letting only her eyes be visible, photos of her in a crowd of his fans circled with a red marker. The further she went the more nauseous she felt until she came across a set of images of Yuzuru sitting on the sofa in a dim-lit living room, watching TV. Completely alone.
She bit her lip, swiftly closed the folder shut, and looked up to him, forcing it back into his hand.
"I am so sorry, Yuzu," she said, her voice trembling, "but I can't do this."
"That's okay."
"I wish I could, I really do," she almost whispered, leaning over, her head in her hands, "I can be there for you. I can hold you, I can soothe you, but I....I can't be listening to any more of that story. I can't be looking at these images. It's freezing the blood in my veins with terror."
"Sophie," he said softly and pulled her back, putting her legs over his, arms wrapped around her waist, "I told you everything there is to the story. I don't have a need to elaborate any further on the details. I thought maybe you wanted to know. To maybe give you peace of mind that she is no danger to you or Aki, unlike your guy."
"I know that," she muttered, "you reassured me about it before. Men and women clearly operate in different ways. But I think yours is equally scary, if not more. Because psychological damage is----"
"She did leave behind a nasty scar," he said, running his hand through her hair, "but you are healing it. With your warmth towards me. I don't want your blood to be freezing."
"Then let's not talk about her anymore, okay?" she said, looking him straight in the eye, "new start?"
He smiled and his hand paused in her hair, matching her sincere gaze with his, "that's what this day is about anyway, no? A new start."
She gave him a compassionate smile followed by a weak nod and he pulled her up closer, his hand resuming stroking her hair and the other sliding down the zipper of her jacket until it fell open.
"What are you--" she tried to pull away but he put his hand on her back under the jacket, pressing her chest against his.
"Don't worry," he said with a chuckle, "I am just stealing your warmth, that's all."
Only now she noticed he was not wearing any winter coat, being only in his thin, black hoodie. She momentarily sat up before straddling him, opening the jacket wide and wrapping herself onto him, making sure she rests most of her weight on the left side of his ribcage not to hurt him.
A hum of content escaped him and she hid her face in the crook of his neck but before she could settle there, his hand left her back and turned her head to the side.
"Your nose is cold," he said seriously, "I don't want that."
"But your neck is warm!"
"Well then," he chuckled, returning his cold hand under her jacket, "you should have resurrected me if you want special treatment. Nose-warming is only for the most honorable warriors."
"Screw you," she growled.
"I wish."
"You are an idiot."
Another hum of content escaped him and she wondered if he actually likes when she calls him that.