Backup Plan

The door being slammed loudly in the room across broke Kai from his reverie. He craned his neck slightly to the right to see the same person he was musing about, enter through the main door and hang her coat on the hook next to the door frame, before marching off to the opposite side of the residence and thus disappearing out of his view.

The twenty-four year old former blader snorted, still staring at the door where Hiromi had been a few seconds ago, before turning his attention back to the television which he was previously not showing any interest to. Focusing on the movie that was playing for ten seconds, he remembered why he stopped paying attention to the screen in the first place; the movie on cable sucked, and watching it alone, without the commentary of the annoying woman he once called his coach was just not the same.

The only reason he was still up and in front of the television was because he was waiting for her to come home. It wasn't that he was worried – she was perfectly capable of handling herself – nor was he interested in what she was up to; it just didn't feel right going to sleep without seeing her. He wanted to spend time with her, and so he was staying up waiting, spending his time not-watching a movie and musing about the maroon eyed girl, who was currently slamming more doors somewhere.

It had been quite some time that the former Bladebreakers had stopped interfering with Hiromi's dates slash short-term-boyfriends; she was far too proficient of not wanting to be involved with almost all of them due to some minor reason or the other, that there was no need for them to intercept for the sake of her safety. She was already broken up with whoever she got together with, before any of them – even he – could have ever felt the need to interfere.

A few minutes passed and Kai continued boring himself by watching the movie playing, rolling his eyes each time he heard a loud crash, or bang or slam from outside the room. He stifled a yawn and his head drooped a couple of times; he was sleepy and would have gone long to sleep if he hadn't been waiting for Hiromi to come back.

Eventually, the sound of padded steps on the wooden floor got louder and louder and made apparent the approaching of the brown-haired Japanese girl.

It was only when Hiromi made her way – stomping ungracefully into the room on one foot while trying to take off her heels – and plumped down on the couch next to Kai, hitting him with his elbow accidentally as she let both of her shoes fall to the floor with a clunk, did Kai acknowledge her presence. Crimson eyes swept over the girl, watchful and wary – confirming if she was alright – to see her glaring at the television screen in front, hands folded across her chest and feet crossed Indian style.

Taking a deep breath, Kai leaned back a little in his seat, laying his head on the back of it. If she wasn't in the mood to talk, he wouldn't press for answers, despite the fact that he was curious to know what had happened that had irked her so much.

He did not care; no sir, not at all. He just wanted to know if there was a need for him to break a neck or not, and if so, then who's neck would he be snapping and why.

After a while of a monotonous and awkward silence, Hiromi concluded that she couldn't stay silent anymore, holding back her anger was only making her far more furious.

Grabbing the cushion leaning against the arm rest, she stuffed her face in and yelled at the top of her lungs. Her screams – though muffled by the cushion –swere still quite shrill and ear-piercing and Kai found it impossible to keep his eye twitching from pain.

Just like that, the awkwardness melted away.

It wasn't till a few seconds that Hiromi pulled herself from the pillow and turned her whole body to face Kai, her face cherry, a pout on her lips her nose was scrunched up. "I'm upset," she confessed, leaning back against the back rest, the pillow clutched against her chest and arms still folded defiantly against it.

Kai shook his head wearily and turn to stare at her. "Really?" he asked, staring at her pouting face, sarcasm lacing his voice. These temper tantrums after coming home from dates were becoming more and more usual and Kai was actually beginning to think that Hiromi was the one who was at fault not the guys. Not that he'd voice that opinion of course.

Hiromi narrowed her eyes and hit him on the head with the pillow. "My night sucked more badly than imaginable," she groaned, a scowl on her lips. "This is getting stupid now. Either there is something wrong with all these guys or something terribly wrong with me."

Kai opened his mouth to protest against her words, but didn't speak; instead pursed his lips tightly, still unsure of what to say. He took her hand, the one that was closer to him, in his own and began rubbing circles against the top of her knuckles with his thumb as a comforting gesture. He wanted to say something to differ with her, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. "You're being ridiculous," he told her absently.

A few seconds later, she murmured in a small voice, "I'm even beginning to doubt my sexuality."

"You think you're lesbian?" Kai asked, smirking. "That's actually cool. Now your parents won't mind our living arrangements."

Hiromi gave him an indignant look. "I am not gay, Kai. I'm just thinking that there must be something causing year's worth of failed relationships. Besides, my parents don't mind much anymore." She paused and then added with a shrug, "Moreover they're convinced that you're asexual."

"Great," he muttered, turning his face away from her. Honestly, did no one see the affection he felt for Hiromi? Sure, he wasn't purposely conspicuous about it, but he was certain his unconscious gestures were otherwise.

"What happened today specifically?"

From time to time, he wondered why he bothered with her disastrous attempts at dating. Then the thought of one of them actually going successful would pop in his head and give him an annoying something in his heart and he would banish the ridiculous idea of not wanting to listen to her.

Hiromi shifted and pulled her hand out of her old friend's. "The dude had a problem with me living with you. What had we been on, like, five dates?"She waved her hands frantically in the air to emphasize her outrage, "Did he think I was going to leave my home and move in with him? Seriously! We argued about that, he was being far too forceful –"

At this point Kai cut her off, "What did he do?"

Hiromi immediately clarified, "He was just being far too assertive for my liking." She shrugged and the Russian's annoyance appeared to pacify. "I got tired of arguing and explaining myself and left. No guy is worth more than my free will and my friend." Hiromi stopped talking and there was a pout present on her gloss-coated lips, and uncrossing her legs and letting them fall down. She shuffled to his side to lean against him and bury her head in the crook of his neck.

For an onlooker, it would have seemed like an intimate scene between the two, but both participants here knew that they were merely in a platonic relationship. Sure they wanted something contrary…well, they weren't sure of that, but it was clear that the exchange – though completely normal between them – was not normal for just-friends.

All of a sudden, Kai realized that it was his fault that Hiromi had not been able to have a successful relationship all these years. Though his face remained indifferent, internally his jaw dropped all the way to the floor. Their codependence was keeping her from developing a relationship. The two of them were really close. It never interfered with Kai's life, since only a few people were associated with him, all of whom – sans Hiromi herself – were not deeply involved with him. Nor did he wanted someone like that, say, a girlfriend – and they were thus unconcerned and unaffected by their codependency.

Hiromi, however, had relationships other than the one she had with him. Close ones at that. And those people were concerned by her life revolving around some Russian-teammate with whom her connection couldn't even be defined. And, sure, her parents might tolerate it but why would some random guy who didn't even love her?

Which raised an important question…why the hell was Hiromi willing to agree to spend the rest of her life with one of these assholes?

Kai was too dim to realize, however, that Hiromi would have definitely ditched each of those assholes in the blink of an eye if he reciprocated her feelings. But since he was too oblivious and so was she, and they were both trying to be subtle about their affection; things were bound to be complicated.

How many times had he wanted to stop her from going out with other guys? To tell her instead that it hurt to see him with someone other than him? But he didn't just because he wanted to be her friend. And, now, it turned out that by being the dear friend he was, they had gotten so reliant on each other that it was their attachment with each other that was keeping her from having any form of permanent relationship with anyone else.

They had crossed the border of friendship long, long ago; that much was clear. Though they hadn't made it completely to the other side, they were certainly not just friends. Their relationship, bordering on obsession from both their sides, yet indefinable as something important to either of them, was clearly unhealthy. They were merely friends at some point before, say, a few years past—and not even that, since Kai had some sort of a psychotic obsession about being in denial about having friends—but now they stood on that indescribable borderline that was too blurred around the edges.

This explained why no one who cared for them was happy with their mutually dependent relationship; it was clearly unhealthy for both of them.

Well, that also made it clear why he was unready to admit to Hiromi that he was fond of her.

Without warning, Hiromi removed her head from where it rested at the junction between Kai's shoulder and face, and turned to him fully, her legs back on the sofa.

"You know something?" she stated elatedly, her eyes lighting up mischievously, "If we're thirty-five and I'm still single, we should totally get married!" Mouth still parted, she paused for a second to think, ignoring how Kai was gaping at her. "Ahh, Kai!" she grinned, waving her hands excitedly in the air, "This is such a brilliant plan! I mean, we live together! We're practically more involved in each other's life than most couples. Why didn't I think of this before?! I've been worrying about dying a cat-lady for nothing!" Hiromi finished her rant, grinning maniacally at Kai, who was still dumbfounded by all that she had been blabbering about.

It looked as if Hiromi had finally taken complete leave of her senses. You couldn't blame her actually, living with Kai Hiwatari for almost half her life was bound to have some negative effects on anyone. And for what it was worth, she was rather sane as compared to what she could be.

It was a good idea. She knew Kai wasn't interested in anyone, and she was too hung up on him to let anyone get interested in her. They could tolerate each other's behavior. She didn't mind how he was a bipolar little girl half the time, and he enjoyed her neurotic and OCD-ish behavior. Ooh, her parents would stop hounding her too! That was definitely an added bonus.

There was no fear in her mind of denial at her proposal from Kai. If he wasn't consented with the idea, he would have already presented his refusal. Hiromi wasn't glad so much about that her crush, Kai, had agreed to be her back-up-life-partner more so than she was about how her friend, Kai, had agreed to be her back-up-life-partner. God knew how she was not ready to let him go just for some random guy.

Kai was still blinking incredulously at his neurotic, old coach, who was still grinning maniacally, reflecting over her just-concocted up plan. As much as the idea of being with Hiromi sounded appealing to him – after all, the reason he wasn't in a relationship wasn't the same as what Hiromi claimed hers to be; he didn't want to be with anyone other than his closest friend, who long ago, stopped looking at him in that sort of light. He tried to be subtle about conveying his emotions across, but Hiromi was quite oblivious in her own and had never picked up on his subtle hints.

It could be considered not Kai Hiwatari's place to say anything regarding the matter of obliviousness; he was pretty ignorant too when it came to noticing how his only-female teammate felt about him. For the love of Dranzer, she had voiced the desire of marrying him and he was too blind to be certain that – underneath the underneath – her reasons were not lack of potential boyfriends, but her own unresponsiveness towards them. Well, because she was still too hung up on a certain Russian housemate.

"Kai," she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "So, is that a yes? Will you please be my back up boyfriend? I promise I won't ask anything more of you than what we have right now."

Tch. Stupid, how could she not that he was ready to do anything for her... Well, if they were eventually going to be in a relationship, bearing in mind that Hiromi didn't find someone else –Kai resisted the urge to hiss at the thought – they better start preparing themselves.

Hiromi was still staring at him hopefully. And looking at the face that fascinated him each time he looked at it, even after so long, it was clear to him why he the two of them were alone and single and looked oddly at by the sane people…

He grabbed her by the back of the head, before she could react, pulled her in to kiss her. Screw her plan. Who wanted to wait till thirty? Hadn't they waited long enough already?

Hiromi felt her mind blank out for a second. It was only when Kai pulled away and smirked that she realized what had happened. Kai had actually agreed with her plan, and it seemed he didn't want to wait to see if she'd find someone else or not. She smiled at the thought, and at Kai, who was still smirking.

Today might have been the last time Hiromi came home outraged from a date and made him listen to her insane ramblings. At this, they both smirked and leaned into each other. Well, now they had a name for their unhealthily codependent relationship; and well, that was an explanation enough.

AN: I spent the entire day today seeing a live manifestation of what the future would be like: living in a house alone, with relatives visiting once a month when I'm just a mentally ill patient, and then when I'm physically unfit too, leaving me alone with a care taker in the house for days, never ever coming to see me. And then when I'm reduced to the point of being unable to walk, talk, move, all that'll happen to me is that I'll end up in a hospital for care, again alone, and then in a hospital bed at home, alone, unconscious, with just a 24 hour nurse! o.o
When will this happen to me? I'll end up like this too! I mean this is the ultimate future! *sucks thumb in fetal position* We're ALL gonna end up like this eventually! I mean I'm a healthy fine person now at the age of 16, but what when I'm 70? o.o

Ahem. I spent my whole day at a hospital and the last few hours at my grandma's house which is now the epitome of a hospital. -_- It should be clear that I'm scared. I AM scared. When I'm my grandma's age this will be my future - this is everyone's future.

Thanks to Dead-bY-n0w for beta-ing. :P

On a brighter note, first fic since December which is completely fluff. xDDD And here I thought I had forgotten to write fluff. lol I even turned my old fluff multi chappies, into angst. lol I guess I've still got what it takes to do non-angst! :)

Review. :]

04:10 a.m. 26th August, 2012.