August 27/Baby Steps/PG-13/Daiki

[true]

Characters: Daiki
Time: after school
Location: for sale apartments and the inside of Chiaki's car

The road just didn't feel like listening to him today - or at least that's what Chiaki told himself when he accidentally drifted into the wrong lane and/or lost his concentration at a puppy walking by itself on the sidewalk. How he'd managed to get his license in the first place, he'd never totally understood; he hardly drove anywhere, but it seemed silly to walk all the way downtown to look at apartments when he had a perfectly functional car to do it for them.

Today was the day that he and Daisuke had set aside to look for an apartment - their roommates were never there and the beds at Aozora weren't tall enough for the purple-haired one. Living alone was shitty, but living with your beloved significant other who you already spent almost all of your free time with? It sounded almost a thousand times better.

The first time Chiaki tried to park his car, it went over the curb; upon backing up and trying again, he finally got it. They were right outside the apartment complex that they had been looking at - it was affordable, clean - so sayeth the website, anyway - and each unit came with a king-size bed as well as a couch that flipped out into a mattress. Chiaki could sleep on the couch, or bring in his own bed, and Daisuke could sleep in the big bed; it all worked out perfectly.

"C'mon, Dai!~" Chiaki sang, hopping out of the car and locking the door behind him. "Let's go see if they're as nice as they looked online!" It was hard not to bounce up and down - this whole idea was so exciting that he could barely even contain it.

[karina]

Daisuke's life must have flashed before his eyes about a dozen times on the drive over to the apartments. How the hell did Chiaki get a licence? Who thought it was a good idea to put Chiaki behind a wheel of a car? Every two seconds, he focused on a new thing. From a stray animal, to pretty lights in the back ground, to Daisuke being next to him... the dark haired boy was distracted by everything. As much as Dai loved him, and he thought this was an adorable quality of Chi's, he did not want to die.

When they arrived at the apartment complex Dai nearly ripped the door off of the handles, thinking he might just puke all over the grass. Hopping out of the car, Daisuke placed his feet on the ground with a sigh of relief, "Solid unmovable ground." He whispered to himself, silently thinking whatever omnipotent being that had allowed him to live.

Dai and Chi had decided to move in together. Both of their roommates went AWOL and the purple-haired giant was too tall for their tiny bunk beds, so they came to the conclusion that they would live together. Given that Dai had realized he had most definitely fallen for Chiaki... he was ecstatic, pushing the idea. He go to live with his boyfriend. See him when he fell asleep and when he woke up... bliss.

"C'mon, Dai!~ Let's go see if they're as nice as they looked online!" The boy sang, practically skipping toward the apartments.

"Okay okay! But first..." The tall boy laughed, snatching the keys from Chi's hand, "I take these so I can drive home. I need us to be alive." He hoped that his boyfriend understood he was joking. Taking Chi's hand in his, he followed the bouncing boy into the complex.

[true]

Chiaki made it all of two skips toward the apartments before Daisuke joined him, still a little shaken from his terrible driving. But I’m not that bad, am I? The general expression of terror that had been on his boyfriend’s face – because, of course, Chi never watched the road – said yes, you are that bad of a driver.

"Okay okay! But first..." Daisuke laughed, snatching the keys out of his hands. "I take these so I can drive home. I need us to be alive."

“Aww! I like driving,” Chi said, fake-pouting as their hands interlaced. “But.. okay. I like living, too.” For the thousandth time, he thought about how warm and soft Dai always was as he scurried up the stairs, dragging his boyfriend behind him.

The first two rooms on the second floor balcony were taken, as far as he knew. Hm, the open one was... 102, right? When they’d passed the first two, he made a face at the numbers on the front that matched the ones in his mind – “This is it, right, Dai?” His excitement wouldn’t allow him patience to wait for an answer, though; his hand was around the doorknob and he was pushing it open before he could even think about what he was doing.

It was without a doubt a westernized model – it was all open spaces and huge windows, modern appliances and nice, plush carpet. Chi’s smile was huge as he took a step inside, neatly placing his shoes by the door. “Wow, this is really nice! ~” Still beaming, he turned around to see Daisuke’s reaction.

[karina]

As always, Chiaki was leading the way. He had the brilliant idea of moving in and Daisuke was just tagging along, not that he minded. He loved following Chi, he would follow him anywhere. Anywhere. Right now, anywhere was up the stairs to a possible new apartment. Even with his long legs, he had to practically run to keep up with his energetic boyfriend.

Sky blue eyes scanned the numbers on the plates in beside each door, looking for a 102. He spotted and opened his mouth to tell Chi that this was the one -- as he was sure that the boy forgot -- but the dark haired boy spoke first. “This is it, right, Dai?”.

The tall boy laughed lightly, "Yes Ch--" his impatient boyfriend didn't give him the chance to finish, pulling him into the apartment.

Dai's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as they ogled the apartment. It was gorgeous. More than anything Daisuke was used to. He was expecting some dingy apartment with the bare necessities to get by -- the normal high schooler apartment. But no... this place was amazing. Big windows, big... everything... Dai was actually starting to feel small. “Wow, this is really nice! ~”

He blinked, "Yeah! I've never seen such a beautiful apartment." It was the truth... Daisuke wasn't ever wealthy... not that he was poor but he had never seen luxuries like this.

Suddenly Daisuke was very aware of the fact that Chiaki's father was paying for this, and a guilt settled in his stomach. "U-Uh, Chi are you sure that this isn't too much money?" He was a scholarship student... he didn't have any money... he was a dead weight. He hated being a moocher, so... he was going to get a job. Yeah... a job sounded good.

[true]

"Yeah! I've never seen such a beautiful apartment." Daisuke looked a little daunted by the apartment they’d set foot in, dwarfed, even. Chi understood – his boyfriend wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t rich, either. But there was no shame in getting a scholarship, particularly so when you were as obscenely smart as Dai was; Chi often wished that he’d been given a brain as nice as his boyfriend’s, one that was good for more than memorizing lyrics and pouring over inane, mind candy BL novels. "U-Uh, Chi are you sure that this isn't too much money?"

Chiaki shook his head, fished his fattened wallet out of his left pocket. It was so crammed full of yen that it was hard to close – it would more than suffice for the rent, given that it was just a fraction of what he usually got. “Nah, it’s fine. Dad gives us so much money that I never know what to do with it,” he said, smiling a little. “I usually just give it away, but I can spend some of it on us!”

He didn’t want to say the next part – Misaki was blackmailing the hell out of their father, waiving transcripts proving that he’d abused his medical license to feed his addiction as a threat. Somewhere inside, Chi knew that it was the wrong thing to do, but the money was better spent in the hands of the people he gave it to – making Daisuke or any of his friends happy – than on morphine, vicodin, whatever.

Nope. Chiaki would tell the truth if asked directly, but killing the happy mood was something to be avoided at all costs. He wanted his time with Daisuke to be all smiles and sunshine; and avoiding the parents that he hardly even knew was a part of preserving that.