A New Home - Ryo

She hung up in his ear.

Had she really said that he should move into her guest room? But why the panic? And Hiro’s girlfriend was still at work, shouldn’t she also be?

Work? Was that it? Something must’ve happened in the future. Something bad. Something that could be prevented by him moving in with her.

Had he been caught?

“That doesn’t look like it was fun news?” Hiro accepted his phone back. “What did she want?”

Ryo tried to shake the shock out of his head. “She wanted me to move into her guest room.”

“Isn’t that good news?” Hiro paused for a moment. “She’s a time traveler. Did they find you?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, but his mind was trying to imagine every bad scenario possible. Him being caught did seem like the most likely cause for her panic, but would happen if he did? And what was it that scared her so much?

“So? When are you moving?”

“I don’t know.” Ryo couldn’t help but chuckle. Despite the creeping fear spreading through him, there was something comical about how she hadn’t even said that.

“So, right away then?” Hiro looked at him. It was clear that he was both revealed and scared for him.

“I guess.”

With the help of Chiko and Masaichi, gathering up all of Ryo’s things hadn’t taken long. And now him and Hiro stood outside the door to her apartment. The same door he had stood outside yesterday.

“You got here sooner than I expected.” She opened the door for them. She wore the same tight pants and long sleeve he had seen her in so many times before. Her travel clothes, he assumed. “And I see you brought a friend. Let’s hope Kumi doesn’t show up unannounced.”

“I promise to leave if she shows up.” Hiro held his hands up in front of him before he picked up a box and followed her inside.

“So?” Ryo closed the door behind him. “Care to explain why I’m moving in?”

She looked between them, as if she was deciding weather or not to tell them. “You didn’t find a place to live, and the result of you being discovered kind of sucked.” She shrugged, but her eyes lingered at him longer than he had expected. “There’s chaos, my dad dies in a riot, kind of caused by you, and we’re both kind of miserable.” Her gaze drifted towards the floor.

“Oof!” Hiro kicked his shoes off. “Any idea what happened to Ku—Shiraki? Or me?”

She looked at Hiro and a small smile appeared on her lips. “I don’t know. Your friend over there didn’t tell me.”

“You met me?!” Ryo almost dropped the box he was holding. But as soon as he said it, he realized that it should have been obvious. After all, she had said that they were both miserable.

She looked away from him. And instead pointed towards the open door to the guest room. “Your room’s over there.”

Hiro was the first to inspect the room. And only a moment after he entered he exclaimed: “Ryo! You won’t believe it! The room is huge!”

He followed his friend inside. Hiro was right. It was bigger than even his old room back home, and he had thought of that as big.

“What do we owe you for letting him live here? We’ll get the money for you.” Hiro almost bowed to her, as she stood in the living room.

“Are you sure you’re okay with having me here?” Part of Ryo knew that she didn’t seemed to have a choice, but having him around might not be as pleasant for her as he expected it to be for himself.

“It’s not like I have a better idea.” She chuckled. “And don’t worry about money. Just keep the space clean and refill what you take from the fridge and I’m good.” She turned back towards the outside door. “I have some things I need to go and get, so make yourself at home and on the desk, behind you, there’s a key-tag to apartment. It’s yours. Don’t loose it.” She waived them off and as soon as he heard the door close, somehow, the whole apartment felt empty.

“Well, she’s cute.” Hiro had put his box down and now sat on the bed. “Don’t fuck this up.”

“Then, don’t fuck this up for me.” Ryo chuckled while he laid down on the bed. It was soft.

He was jolted awake by yet another nightmare. Where was he? Right. And how long had he slept? He had barely managed to sleep at all this past month, so he shouldn’t be surprised.

Ryo looked around the room. Hiro must’ve left when he fell asleep.

That’s when he heard some movement coming from the kitchen.

“You’re awake?” She held two mugs in her hands when he went to see what was going on. “Did the nightmares finally wake you?” How did she know about that?

“Yeah.” He nodded towards the two mugs. “What are those for?”

“Lavender milk. Though they’re made with almond milk, so I hope you’re not allergic.” She smiled as she handed him one of the mugs. “For the nightmares.”

“How do you know about them?” He followed her to the couch. “Did I tell you about them in the future?” He must have. The only other answer would be that Hiro had told her somehow. She had told him about hers but he had no memory of telling her about them.

“Not really. I mean they came up, but I already knew about them.” She took a sip from her mug.

He followed her example and tasted the warm liquid. Warm almond milk with lavender, it wasn’t bad. He would’ve preferred something sweeter, but it warmed his inside nicely.

“So, you’re not elaborating on that?”

“You haven’t slept properly in a while, have you?” She took another sip.

“What gave it away? Hiro, or the eye bags?” He put his fingers against his old travel spot.

“Neither.” She put her mug down and curled up against her own legs.

Seeing the cup on the table, he realized that her drink was lighter than his. Did she have coffee? In the middle of the night? “You’re trying to stay awake? Don’t you have work tomorrow?”

“I only work every other day. All time travelers does.” She let out a chuckle. “It’s to prevent bad thoughts and injuries, or something like that.”

“So you’ll stay awake all night and sleep during the day? Do you want to avoid me that much?” He hoped that wasn’t the case. Could it be her person’s nightmares? She had mentioned them the day before.

“Not you, per se.” She tightened the grip around her legs. Seeing her like this, he couldn’t help but want to hold her. To take her bad thoughts away. “But your nightmares.”

“My nightmares?” His nightmares? How did they an affect on her in the first place? Unless…

She had said her connected person was a one sided thing. Was he her person? No. He couldn’t be. He had been born long before that even became a thing.

“You get my dreams when we sleep at the same time?” In one way, he was relieved. The thought of someone else being connected to her made him a bit jealous. But he also felt bad. If he had been the cause of her nightmares.

He took her silence as a yes. But how was that even possible? “Since when?”

She shrugged lightly. “They were inconsistent at first, but I guess they became more regular around middle school.”

He took another sip from his mug. Trying his best to wrap his head around this new information. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say. Hell, he didn’t even know what to do with this information.

“It’s not your fault.” She looked up at him and gave him a beautiful smile. “But that’s how I recognized your smell.”

He couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “So that’s how I smell like nightmares.”

“And I really want you to get rid of those nightmares.” Her smile was softer now, but still genuine.

Living with her might be even harder than he had expected. Not because she would be a pain, but because he had already reached a point where he would describe these feelings for her as at least attraction, but possibly even more.