Let's Spend The Night Together

"...eh? Why that face? Was I interrupting something?"

"I wasn't—we weren't—" Shigure cleared his throat. "I was just trying to... cheer her up. Not that way. Just like."

"It's all good, man."

"But..."

At first, Stella had wrongly assumed Shigure was flustered due to her outfit, but he moreso acted as though he'd been caught smoking next to a lunar police station. Isla being Isla didn't notice or care, so he just invited himself into the house. "No biggie. I'll just crash at another friend's place. By crash I mean 'stay', by the way." As he headed to the room he'd been invading, he continued to speak, raising his volume. "I seriously didn't think that trauma dumping would end up so poorly. Between the three of us, that's how you win TV singing competitions. Nobody cares about talent." As he returned, his volume dropped. "I keep thinking in Jupiter terms. That's the problem. My colony, to be specific. Everyone there's like... tu casa es mi casa. That's French for 'your house is my house'."

Isla was now taking his (imported Jovian) beers out of the fridge. "That's Spanish," Stella told Shigure to avoid misinformation.

Bizarrely, his response was, "Tell him we weren't doing anything."

"Isla? We weren't doing anything!"

Speaking of which, he was now taking his (imported Jovian) beers out of the fridge. Isla guffawed. No other verb described his laughter better. "Sure. I'll see you guys tomorrow. There's lots of stuff to do now. LOTS."

"Seriously," Shigure said, but it was out loud this time. "I just gave her a hug to calm her down. She was—"

"BWAHAHA! ALL OF THIS OVER A HUG?!"

Rude. Shigure either agreed or just found another non-reason to get annoyed. While Isla bwahaha'd, he said, "You know what? If you guys don't care, neither do I."

"I care," Stella clarified.

"Then fucking tell him you're not two-timing."

"Isla? I'm not two-timing!"

But he had lost it. Isla and Shigure were very strange. The small one spoke loudly; the big one mumbled his words. He laughed so much that he collapsed and fell to the floor the moment he tried to stand again. Unlike Shigure, Stella had grown used to this during the time that Isla had 'crashed' at her 'place', so she wasn't startled. "H-he..." More guffaws. "He thinksssppfff..."

How satisfying it was to see Shigure's you're-a-dog-peeing-on-my-carpet stare directed at somebody else! "I fail to see what's funny."

"Y-y... hhh..." Isla cleared his throat. He stayed there, on the floor, long after he'd finally regained his composure. "Hey, Fuyukawa."

"Yes?"

"Stella and I aren't together."

Like when they'd first met, Shigure stared off into the distance—at the coffee table, to be specific. He said and did nothing. He was nothing. He was a self-aware cluster of atoms about to reach entropy.

"....ahh, that was amazing." Isla sat up. "What even made you think that?"

Shigure ran a hand down his face, slowly.

"Oh, I know! It's because of the matching pajamas, isn't it? They were originally for you, but I told her that was too creepy. It was a lapse in judgment, though. Like the tea party thing. I mean, to be fair, they also wouldn't have fit, but it wasn't like I told her that so she'd give them to me. She just kinda bought them anyway and then said I could have the other pair. Is that it? Or am I being culturally insensitive again? Eh. I'm sorry, though. Just tell me next time because I really can't tell when I do something bad in this place and you two really don't help by being cryptic all the time. Especially you, Fuyukawa. Ah, that reminds me! I only just found out that you're paying your expenses out of pocket. Why would you do that? That's insane."

"Yeah," Shigure mumbled.

Isla had begun stacking his beers into one row on his hand. "And some guy was like 'he asked for it' but that guy clearly isn't doing his job. Did he forget who we work for? Why we work? I'm trying to get coverage for your stuff approved again, but it's hard. You'd almost think they're sabotaging rather than helping."

"Yeah."

"Try to keep a tab on everything, just in case. Or you can stay here. I left some beer and tacos on the fridge, though I saw Stella brought you something. See you guys tomorrow. Remember to rest. It'll be very busy from now on."

"I don't get it," Stella said. "Are you leaving? Why?"

Isla stopped by the door, tower of beers in one hand, suitcase in the other. He winked. And he had the gall to call them cryptic. Honestly, if not for that, Stella might've told him to stay. The more, the merrier. Him sleeping two hours a day also meant that she had company most of the time.

It was only after Isla had crossed the street (and dropped the beers) that Shigure said, "You could've told me that before." He raised his pitch. "What do you mean?" He lowered his pitch. "I almost had a heart attack when he walked in on us like that." He raised his pitch. "Why?" He lowered his pitch. "Because I thought you two were dating." He raised his pitch. "Why?" He lowered his pitch. "Because I found him half naked sleeping on your couch at six in the morning while wore that and I'm such a dumbass that I forgot common sense doesn't exist in this place. Anything else?"

Stella replied, "Urgent psychiatric help."

"Thanks. Anything else?"

"What's wrong with my pajamas?"

"Its owner."

Stella didn't huff only because that's what Shigure was expecting. The fact he'd correctly guessed her would've-been-questions to his increasingly unhinged statements would forever haunt her. Still, she couldn't hold back the pout, not because she had been programmed to do so, but because she was Stella.

"Sorry," Shigure said, out of nowhere. "Too harsh?"

"No. I don't mind. I'm used to you being rude. Will you stay?"

"I told y... oh, you mean tonight. Uhhh..." Shigure rested his head against the back of the touch. He stared at the ceiling. "I guess I'll ask the people at the hotel to send my luggage."

"Yay!"

Smiling, he glanced at her from the corners of his eyes.

It was strange.

Isla had stayed plenty of times before, but she'd never gotten this jittery. While Shigure argued with hotel employees through the phone, Stella scrubbed the bathroom so it'd be extra clean. She stuffed her pile of dirty clothes under the sink. Isla had been helping with the cleaning, and he was shockingly good at it (he only broke two mops), but Stella gave the guest room an extra sweep anyway. Just in case.

"They'll deliver my clothes in an hour or so," Shigure told Stella as she headed back to the living room. "In the meantime, I'll be working."

The stash of papers had been sprawled over the coffee table. "Silly," Stella said. "I can't believe you still use paper."

"For some things." Shigure didn't object to her sitting next to him again. "If I arrange these as a book, will you be scared?"

"No, but I would think you've very evil."

"I am very evil."

"You're not." Shigure didn't object to her leaning against him. For a while, she watched him scribble. It was in English. It had to do with her—their—coffee shop. At some point, he reached into his pockets, then blinked.

"I have your balls," she reminded.

"Right." He reached out for the holo-screen, which she returned. He didn't even miss a beat this time. No fun. The very first thing he did upon opening it was to search Shigure's naughty searches, after which a picture of a library showed up.

Stella leaped so much she flew off the couch. "You ARE evil! Stop laughing! You sound like Isla!"

But did that stop him? Of course not. She should've known. He'd set up a trap in case she used his balls for indecent purposes. For a while after that, whenever he'd glance at her, he'd burst out giggling again. It was intolerable—at first. Then he kept trying, and failing, to calm down, and Stella couldn't be mad anymore. There was something esoteric about an adult reacting that way to what was essentially startling a cat. Or a woman-shaped toaster.

Sometime later, he explained, "I honestly didn't think it through. I was just gonna look something up, but when you called the holo-screen 'balls', I remembered I left a small surprise for you in case you looked up anything weird. I didn't think you'd react... like that."

And then, later, "My luggage is sure taking long."

And then, even later, "...don't tell me they tried drone delivery. Nooo..."

And that was the story of how Shigure's clothes were stolen.