Apple Fries

Kenma was live streaming, watching the chat talk debate his boyfriend once again. He always let them go, only answering maybe three questions in total. He was strip mining trying to set up a new world he had started the week before. It was interesting. There were lots of mods he's never tried before, one of his friends even made him a new skin. He thought it was cute and fit the theme well. He liked to let the audience pick a theme for a world that he was interested in and when they chose steampunk, he was pretty excited to make a mod pack and walk about the woods looking like a crazy inventor. 

He heard the gentle ring of his phone and groaned. "Who the fuck would be calling me right now?" He paused the game, before answering. 

"Hey Kenma" Yamaguchi's voice rang into his ears. The blonde quickly softened and his frown disappeared to be replaced with a smile. Everyone knew who it was. "I just got off work and am sitting in the car right now. You will not believe what just-" He cut himself off with a gasp. "Oh wait, you're still streaming right now huh? oh im sorry, I forgot." 

Kenma sighed. Yamaguchi tried so hard to know the exact times of his streams but he often forgot them when he got too excited or angry from work. He didn't mind, frankly it was cute. "It's fine and yeah I am. You can keep talking though." 

Kenma could practically hear his smile through the phone. "Really? It's a long story though so I'll tell you it later." He sighed, he could guess his boyfriend's smile had slipped. He was nervous? "Can I ask something?"

"you already did?" Kenma smirked 

"No, like seriously I have a question." 

"Fine what is it?" Kenma felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand. He was serious? He wasn't serious that often unless it was about work or Kenma's habits. He always tried to make sure he and Kenma took all their medicine and ate. He said that it wasn't for Kenma alone, he often forgot in highschool if it wasn't for his mom. 

"So this lady's house is really far out here." Kenme relaxed. It was about work. "I mean really far out here, your house is in-between mine and hers." 

That surprised Kenma. Yamaguchi worked as an electrician and mainly at the Miyagi location but sometimes he worked out in the Tokyo location. It took about half an hour by train for him to get there, but with his job he had to drive a van full of all his electrical stuff. It had to take hours to get out there. 

"And I have to come back out here tomorrow before I can properly start my shift to make sure everything is running well." Kenma made a small hum of acknowledgment. "I was wondering if I could stay at your house for the night?"

"yeah sure. I don't mind." He had slept over here plenty of times, while Kenma had barely slept over at Yamaguchi's apartment. At first, Yamaguchi was worried he didn't want to stay over because he just didn't like the place. When Kenma explained that it was only his anxiety making it hard for him due to the neighbors, his boyfriend had visibly relaxed and agreed that it wasn't the best. Yamaguchi started sleeping at Kenma's house every time he was at the Tokyo location, which was at least once a week, since he was going to get transferred soon. He would go there on his days off and if he wasn't there when both of them had free time, he would be playing games with him, or studying while watching Kenma stream. 

"Cool, I'll be there soon, love you baby." He hung up before Kenma responded, as usual. He glanced at his chat as he placed his phone down. Quickly one question came pouring in. 

Do you not tell him, I love you? 

Kenma shrugged, going back to mining while mulling over the answer. "I do, sometimes. He knows it's hard for me to say it so he doesn't expect it that much. I tell him it other ways anyway." 

His chat seemed to accept that answer. bombarding him instead with how he does, which he never answered. After about half an hour of mining, he heard a faint ding, ding, dong. He paused the game again, looking directly into the camera. "My boyfriend's here, be good." Then he left. 

The door opened to reveal his boyfriend. smiling at him like he put the stars in the sky and hung the moon. "Hey" was all Kenma said as a small smile spread on his face. He stepped to the side letting Yamaguchi into his house. "Can I get a kiss?" 

Yamaguchi complied immediately, cupping his cheek and giving him a soft kiss. "Is it really fine for me to be here while you're streaming?"

"yeah, since next week is the reveal, they've been really excited to see you." Kenma took his hand, walking with him back to the room. Yamaguchi let go of him to sit on the couch just out of frame. He laid down on it, relaxing into the plush pillows while Kenma sat back in his chair. 

"Oh!" Yamaguchi sat up quickly. Kenma began to mine again as his boyfriend prepared his story. "So listen okay at work, I had to fix this old lady's internet. Her internet went down, she had no idea what happened, it was a whole thing."

Kenma laughed, Yamaguchi sounded excited about whatever happened, but his words had the sharp edge of bitterness, like he wasn't actually happy about this. 

"So will I was checking the wires to see if any blew, she started ranting to me about the internet. Okay? As I am fixing her internet she rants to me about how bad the internet is for her precious 'grandbabies'." Oh he was incredibly upset. "And how her precious grandkids were turning gay because of it."

Kenma glanced at him, an almost amused smile on his face. 

"No, no, it gets better." Yamaguchi had the same look on his face, like he had let out all his anger in the car. “She started ranting to me about how one of her kids really likes this streamer named ‘Kanma’ is what she said.” His smile sparkled as he watched Kenma giggle at the mispronunciation. “She started complaining that i'm dating this influential person and that they have the balls to show that ‘disgusting behavior’ to the public, to my face! Of course she had no idea but I thought it was infuriating, then it became pretty funny.” Kenma was still laughing as Yamaguchi walked close to the screen, sticking only his hand in. “If you brag to your homophobic grandparents about us, you are my favorite.” 

He went and sat back down as Kenma regained his composure. “That’s fucking amazing.” 

The two did their seperate things, Kenma mining and talking about his plans, while Yamaguchi played on his animal crossing island. He answered questions asked every now and again, or talked to Kenma about a particular plan he was excited to see. Otherwise he stayed mostly quiet, enjoying his time.

The brunette looked over at him, a small smile on his face as he excitedly explained one of the mods, allowing for more steampunk forms of flight. 

“You’re really pretty, Kenma.” The words left him breathlessly. He still couldn’t believe, after almost a year, that the god on earth that was Kenma, found him attractive, found him lovable, found him. Yamaguchi had spent the first three months wondering if he wasn’t enough for Kenma, if it was some sort of pity. All of those thoughts disappeared when they agreed to tell everyone and Kenma called him a pet name for the first time. 

Kenma turned him slowly, blushing from his sudden statement. “It’s not like you’re not pretty too.” He huffed before turning back to his game. He played for only a few seconds before he spoke again, “Do you wanna sleep with me tonight?” 

Yamaguchi choked on his spit, coughing until he could talk without stuttering. “You’re asking on stream Kenma? Really?” 

“Not that kind of sleep!” 

“What in the world are you talking about then?”

“I want you to sleep in my bed with me, you always sleep on the couch in the living room so your alarm doesn’t wake me up, but I wouldn’t mind if it did so i could give you a kiss before you leave and cuddle and shit.” 

Now it was Yamaguchi’s turn to be red from something so soft. “Oh, i… I didn’t know you thought about that, uh, yeah we can do that, i’d gladly do that. I love cuddling you, you’re so nice to hold.”

The chat exploded. 

You’re the little spoon?

Did Kenma seriously just ask that?

Was I hallucinating or did that actually happen?

Are you guys going to bed soon? 

I can’t wait to see him?

Can we see him already? this is torture!

He’s so nice! 

God they are so cute!

Kenma glanced at the clock, it was close to eleven pm, and while normally his streams lasted longer than that, Yamaguchi had work in the morning around seven, meaning they had to go to sleep soon if he had any chance of not falling asleep late into work. “Yeah, the stream’s ending right after I take these supplies to storage.” 

Yamaguchi got up slowly, turning his switch off before putting it on charge. “If that’s the case, I'm gonna go change okay?” He had maybe ten changes of clothes at Kenma’s house overall. Two were his work uniform, probably about five were clothes he would wear to bed or around the house, and three were clothes he would wear to the movies or a store. 

Kenma emptied out his inventory into his chests, promising to make a sorter when he had his main base planned out in the next few episodes. For now, he just wanted to sleep, and he would deal with trying to find the one item he actually needed in this chest monster, another day. He ended the stream with his usual goodbye and a gente smile. He knew it would take a minute for him to get into bed with yamaguchi due to turning off his set up and putting everything to charge, but he didn’t mind. It was mundane and ritualistic, it was almost always a signal of sleep unless it was a rare early morning stream. 

________________________

Climbing into bed with Yamaguchi for the first time to properly sleep together was almost natural. It felt like a small puzzle piece Kenma didn’t even know was missing, had been found and slid into place. He felt so warm, so soft, so small and safe. It was amazing, why hadn’t they done this before. Yamaguchi had set his phone on the bedside table to the left while it charged. It would wake them up a few hours later but for now, everything felt perfect. He’s never fallen asleep so fast and easy. 

________________________

He woke up a few hours later, about 4 am the red light of his clock glared at him. He felt good, jostled, a bit alone. He wasn’t being held by Yamaguchi anymore. He turned to look at his boyfriend, only to see a picture he didn't like. 

Yamaguchi’s face was filled with pain. He kept tossing and turning, like he was trying to get away from something, but not succeeding. His fists were clenched tight, his nails digging into his palms, his breathing was fast and shallow. 

He was having a nightmare. A very bad one. 

Kenma sat up, shaking Yamaguchi lightly. When he didn’t wake, he almost felt lost. He needed to wake him up, he wasn’t going to let his boyfriend go through his horrible nightmare of whatever hell his brain decided to make. 

He thought back to his second year of highschool, where he met him for the first time properly. Yamaguchi was a heavy sleeper and wasn't waking up from anything any of them did, whether it was, noise or shaking, he stayed asleep. Then Daichi made a comment about how Tsukishima had saved him breakfast, which was a complete lie, and he woke up immediately. Maybe he could- He heard the other groan, clearly even more scared or hurt than before. No, he had no time to think about how to wake him, he just had to. 

He climbed out his bed, running down to the kitchen. He threw the freezer open, he didn’t even look around to find what he needed, he always knew where the ice was, because he used it a lot. He put some pieces in a glass of tap water, as cold as he could get it. He ran back up, the ice started to melt, thankfully, not that much. 

He stood next to Yamaguchi in the bed, he looked like he had gotten worse. The tears in his eyes and the whimpers coming out his mouth scared him, his boyfriend was having a horrible dream and there was nothing he could do to help besides waking him up. 

He splashed the water on Yamaguchi's face. He smiled as Yamaguchi got shocked awake as intended. The other sat up quickly, looking down at the wet pillow and his savior. His face changed from the shock slowly into fear. 

Kenma's heart broke as he looked at his face. He was scared… of him. 

"I'm sorry Kenma" Yamaguchi whimpered, slowly reaching up to wipe the tears starting to fall from his eyes. "The first time I sleep in bed with you and I wake you up and force you to make the bed all soaked… and bother you with my nightmares." 

He let out a soft humph as his back hit the bed. Kenma had tackled him into a hug, hiding his face in his partner's chest. "You scared me, I was so worried, I've never seen anyone have that bad of a nightmare before. I wanted to help you, so don't worry about anything okay? I love you." The blonde normally wouldn't let his emotions out this much, but in his relief, they wouldn't stop coming out. 

"I love you too." Yamaguchi trailed off, wrapping his arms around his slightly smaller boyfriend. They laid there and relaxed until both of them had calmed down. "Sorry about the nightmare, it just happens sometimes due to my ptsd." 

Kenma looked up, one question written on his face, ptsd? His boyfriend had told him when they became friends that he had a mental illness but he always said that he didn't like to talk about it, but that it was nothing that would affect him. He wanted to know anything and everything about the one he loved. 

"Yeah… I sometimes have nightmares like that are either reliving what happened or… something bad happening to Tsuki, or my mom, now it's worse when it's you." Yamaguchi looked almost embarrassed of his own condition. 

Kenma gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "if you don't want to talk about it anymore we don't have to. We can go back to sleep and I'll be right here, safe in. your arms."

Yamaguchi only smiled at him, before readjusting with him so they could cuddle and sleep again. 

________________________

Kenma woke up first again, and to his delight, Yamaguchi laid at his side, a peaceful expression on his face. He wiggled out of bed, making sure to not wake him. He glanced at his alarm. Six am… 

Yamaguchi's alarm would go off in fifteen minutes, and he wasn't going to let that happen. 

He took his phone, unlocking it as he went down the stairs. He went to the fridge, wordlessly getting an ice cube. He held it in his hand, the burning coldness grounding him. Normally he wouldn’t do this, unless he was having a panic attack, or making a phone call.

“Hello?” A woman on the other side said, her voice sweet like honey.

“Hi, i’m Yamaguchi Tadashi’s…” He paused for only a split second. He couldn’t say boyfriend, what would they do? “Roommate, and I just wanted to call because Yamaguchi fell sick last night, and is currently asleep, so I just wanted to call off for him.”

The woman on the phone hummed in response before asking him to call them either later today or tomorrow to see how he was feeling and talk about another day he can work instead. Kenma only answered her with a “yeah, sure” before the call was done. He looked down at the icecube still tightly gripped in his hand, only about half of it was still there and not a puddle on the floor. He put it into the sink, not wanting  his hand to be cold and wet anymore. He quickly got a small towel off the rack to clean up the puddle. 

“Okay… plan number one done, now for two.”

He turned the alarm off before going upstairs, peeking into his bedroom before heading any further. Yamaguchi was still asleep, snuggling into a pillow like he usually did when he was without his beloved cuddle buddy. Kenma smiled and went into his studio, grabbing his secondary camera. It was only really used to film when he went out to play pokemon go last year, and he didn’t want to have to adjust his usual camera into the streaming position. 

He placed it down on the island, messing with it until it managed to properly see him, most of his kitchen, and importantly, the stove. He pressed record. 

“I know this video was supposed to come out next week and we already have a video recorded for it but… My boyfriend just had a really bad night and I want to make him feel special. So,” he sighed, “We’re making breakfast in bed.” He looked around, realizing quickly, he wasn’t exactly that good at cooking. “Okay… uh I didn’t think about what to make.” 

He walked to the fridge, taking a piece of paper off the small notepad there to make grocery lists, and the pan magenticified next to it. He put them on the counter, staring at it in confusion. What was he gonna make?

“Okay, so, eggs? Cinnamon rolls?” he wrote them down as he spoke. “I know i have a premade thing of those in the fridge and he likes them so.. Yeah, definity that. Bacon? No, I don't think I could make that without burning it. No wait didn’t Tadashi say he likes them burnt? Well it's either that or sausage and I know for a fact i cannot cook that… slightly burnt bacon it is, oh and i know i can definity make toast.” He stared down at his list with a smile, he could do this, hopefully. 

He got a bowl and prepared to get the eggs out when he stopped and went for the bacon instead. “This has a longer cooking time right?” He left them on the table to get a baking sheet and pepper. Yamaguchi had made bacon for him before, and always said he liked the peppery parts. He sprinkled it overtop, probably putting too much in certain spots, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He put in the oven, praying to himself he didn't forget about it. 

He looked over at the bowl, the egg had to probably be second right before the toast if they were gonna be hot. “The cinnamon rolls then I guess.” He went back to the fridge to get the roll, looking them over, he hated this part. He had a cutting board on the table to put the cinnamon rolls but first he had to pop this open. He began to unpeel the outside, until he was left with just the cardboard. He smacked it against the table once, wincing at the noise, but nothing happened. It did it again and let out a gasp as it popped loudly. He began to put them on the cutting board, prepared to put them on a baking sheet as well, then he realized the bacon was in there. How could he cook these at the same time. 

He looked back and forth between the oven and cutting board for a minute, confused on what to do. He couldn’t cook them at the same time, they had to be on the same rack. Finally a look of realization graced his face and he left the cutting board to go into a cabinet. He looked around in it for a while, moving different misalous cooking devices left and right until he found it. In the right hand corner sat a small pink box, which he had only opened once. He pulled it out, opening it to smile at the small, pastel pink waffle maker. He had impulse bought it at the store during Valentines day over a year ago. It made heart shaped waffles. 

He read over the instructions, stopping mid read to let it warm up while he read. He had seen people do this recently and he figured Yamaguchi might like it more. If it put the cinnamon rolls in the waffle maker, they would be little hearts, and would fit fine… he thought anyway. He finished reading while it was still heating so he decided to try and make the eggs, until it was time. 

Mixing the eggs was easy enough, he thought. He greased a pan, carefully pouring the egg mixture in. He knew he wasn’t supposed to scramble them until he left theem cook a little, so he waited out the time by getting a spatula and putting a cinnamon roll in the waffle maker. When he got back to them in about a minute, he began to mix the egg around to get them properly scrambled. There was a small pop of the butter causing him to jump back. “That’s supposed to happen right?” After that the eggs gave him no problem and he put them on the plate he had prepared.

He bent down to check the bacon, only to them being… mostly done? Yamaguchi normally cooked them to a darker color than this so maybe, just a bit longer. He began to put the toast in, where he heard a noise. 

“Kenma!” Yamaguchi shouted, rushing down the stairs. He rushed into the kitchen, taking off his shirt as he went. “Why didn’t you wake me up, it's almost seven, I'm gonna be late!” He threw his shirt into the basket in the laundry room, fully planning on taking care of it after work. He stopped, looking at his boyfriend, still in his shorts and oversized sleep shirt, making… breakfast?

“I didn’t wake you up because I called off for you.” Kenma rolled his eyes, pulling down the tab to start the toast. 

“And now, you're making breakfast?” Yamaguchi chucked, wrapping his arms around Kenma’s waist and nuzzled into his neck with a silly grin. “What made you so soft today kitten?” 

Kenma scoffed at the teasing but answered anyway, “You had a bad night, I wanted to make you feel better.” 

Yamaguchi got as red as his boyfriend quickly. They both stood there in a hug, as he processed what was happening. Finally his brain caught on what his heart was screaming. “I would have felt better if you woke me up so i could do this with you.” Yamaguchi let go of him, a soft smile and blush gracing his face. “So, what do you say? You want to finish cooking with me or are you determined to do this alone?” 

Kenma only nodded, turning to the oven to explain. “There's bacon in the oven, but i don't know how you want it and..” He hesitated before walking with a plate to the small waffle maker, opening it slowly to reveal the small heart cinnamon roll waffle instead. The video he watched said to take it out when it had lifted the top. “Theres… these too.” 

Yamaguchi blushed a little bit more but he couldn’t help but kiss the other’s cheek. “THey look delicious, I’ll handle the others okay? You have 12 cinnamon roll waffles to make.”

The rest of the cooking, and in hand the video, went on in peace. Kenma sometimes peered over at Yamaguchi cooking to see how he did it, since he didn’t do it often (his habit of forgetting to eat the main source of the problem). Both of them had one thought on their mind. 

I wish I lived with him.