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Title: Treasure
Series: Original
Genre: Humor/Romance/Drama/Mystery
Pairing(s): None for now
Rating/Warnings: T for language, violence, and theft.
Summary: So say you're a 20-year-old guy with a flirtatious roommate getting all domestic. Do you even know what's going on?
Notes: At my old writing journal I issued the warning that I wrote this in 2010 and would love concrit. That still stands. Please feel free to comment and tell me what you enjoyed and what you didn't about this chapter.

“AGNI!” The redhead jolted, almost dropping the shirt he was folding. It was a nice warm day, there wasn’t a reason in the world, he had decided, that he shouldn’t sit outside to fold the laundry when it dried. He’d already cleaned the entire interior of their home. Now it was time to do a little bit of work on the exterior. If Mneme’s thundering feet didn’t bust the floorboards first. “Where the HELL is my shirt?!”

“Which one?” Agni asked calmly, never looking away. He’d dealt with worse in his life, and Mneme had never hit him before, he doubted he’d start now. “You have several.”

“The blue one, with the pocket. I set it out for when I got out of the shower.”

“Oh, that one! It had a giant stain on it, so I took it to wash.” Agni said calmly. Of course, he’d had to improvise, since Mneme was in the bathroom and he got a little iffy if Agni went in there while he was showering, but the sink had worked just fine. “We’re almost out of baking soda.”

“…you mean THAT’S the mess in the kitchen sink?”

“Yes, dear,” Agni said, ever-patient. “That is the mess in the kitchen sink. Anything else?”

“…uhm… how much baking soda was in that?” Agni sighed, got to his feet, and scooted back in, refilling the sink and checking the shirt, Mneme hovering around him the whole time. “Looks gone.”

“Yes, but it’s good to be sure.” Agni muttered, scrubbing more of the powder into the stain. “Go fold shirts, dear.”

“…don’t call me dear.” Mneme sounded sullen. Agni could care less.

“Just do it, Mneme.” As he heard the retreating footsteps, the redhead sighed. “Like telling a child what to do.”

“I HEARD THAT.”

Mneme was talking to Ray, for the first time in a couple of days- the older man had been out of pocket trying to sell a couple of things, leaving Acqua in the shop by herself (she had refused to leave) and Mneme a worried mess, trying to figure out what he needed to start on next. “So I think, if I rewire the second floor, I can cut your bills at least a quarter…”

“Hey, Mneme!” Agni called from the stairs, waving. The blonde fought down a cringe- out in public dressed like a chick, what the hell, man? Wasn’t bad enough he had on a low-cut v-neck sweater, no, he had to have on a black leather skirt and a pair of black high heels too. And that damn flower hairpin he’d found in the basement, dear god… “I’m headed home first tonight, do you have a preference on dinner?”

“…no, but if you find any kind of meat cheap, get a pound, I’m starving.” He sighed, keeping his head down. He smelled Agni before anything else, that cinnamon spice and oriental musk he favored, and then he felt the lips pressed to his cheek.

“Can do, dear! See you at home! See you tomorrow, Ray, tell Acqua I said bye!” And like that, Agni was out the door. Ray was smirking like the cat that got the cream.

“You have a bit of pink,” he said, fighting laughter. “Right here.”

“I know.” Mneme growled, and got back to work, ignoring the sniggers from the other side of the counter.

“Hey, Mneme?” Agni popped his head out from the bathroom, a wave of chill air washing out of the room. The blond looked away from the paper he was reading, leaning against the wall behind the bed. “Uhm, how does one go about fixing a broken tile?”

“Cement, grout, a new tile. Why?” Mneme asked, before he smelled a familiar copper scent. “…is it in the shower?”

“No, it’s outside of it, I don’t know how it broke, it was intact earlier today. It’s not a bad cut, I can take care of it…” Agni said, even as Mneme came in with the first aid kit.

“No, you need your arm bandaged too, right? How’s it looking?”

“…leg’s healed,” Agni sighed, towel around his waist and bleeding foot up. “Arm’s almost there, shoulder and halfway down the bicep is still rough.” Mneme knelt in front of the bowed counter, making a silent note to reinforce that too, especially if Agni kept sitting on it. It wasn’t a large cut, not deep, just one in a spot that bled profusely. As Mneme bandaged the foot, he couldn’t help but notice something.

“…your foot is really tough.”

“Yeah?” Agni sounded sort of curious, in a bored sort of way. “I never noticed that.”

“Well, it’s odd. You walk around here in shoes, around Ray’s shop in shoes, you’d expect your feet would be a little softer than they are. But no.” The blond noted as he taped off the bandage, and started to wrap Agni’s leg where the scrapes were still severe. “Hell, I’d not even expect your shoes to rough your feet up like than this.”

“Maybe I’m just cool?” Agni offered. Mneme knew he wasn’t getting a decent answer, so he dropped the topic. After all, there was no sense in pushing if he didn’t want to talk about how this was possible. There was still bruising on Agni’s right shoulder, too, he noted as he bandaged that up too, but it was another thing he didn’t ask about, but this was for a different reason.

Agni had wrapped his legs around Mneme’s waist, his arms about his shoulders, and was smiling in a way that sent shivers up Mneme’s spine. “Well, look at this. What a compromising position, huh?”

“…I’m surprised you know that word, one. Two, let me go, you’re bandaged up and I’m tired.” With barely a thought, the blond shrugged his personal leech off, missing the look in his eyes- a sort of sad, lonesome look. He hopped off the counter after Mneme left the bathroom though, resolving to figure out this tile thing tomorrow, after some sleep and recovery time.

Mneme snuck out of the door of the hotel room, files tucked into a jacket he’d gotten from Ray for this. The cover was supposed to be a guy meeting his lover for a late dinner at a hotel, and he thanked whoever was watching out for him that Agni had not only noticed the stain on the pants he had snagged from the rack, but had laundered them. The entire way to the lobby, he said silent prayers, both of thanks that Agni was a more passive role in this and therefore was less of a risk, and prayers that he wouldn’t get caught. As he entered the lobby, he looked around for the red hair that he’d gotten so used to and could practically pick out of a crowd at 200 feet by this point. The redhead in question was leaning against a marble pillar, looking way too effeminate for his own good.

Black dress a stark contrast to the soft gray marble veined in charcoal, pale blue sapphire jewelry at his throat, wrist, ears, Agni looked the very image of a high class consort, right down to how his eyes lit up when he saw Mneme. Heels clicked on the floor as he hurried over, arms slipping around Mneme’s shoulders in a hug fit for a lover- but meant to be a cover as he whispered into the blond’s ear.

“They’ve been staring at me since I got here. One even licked his lips at me. Looked dead at me and did it. Did you get the file?” Agni sounded freaked out, and Mneme put his arms around the man’s waist. Something about this knowledge sparked some sort of fury in him- though he couldn’t quite figure out why it was that he was so upset.

“Yeah, jacket. Ray’s footing dinner, right? Up for that barbeque place again?” Agni moved back away, and fell into step beside Mneme, smiling and nodding before starting up a stream of conversation about nothing much at all.

Mneme’s arm didn’t leave Agni’s waist until they were at the restaurant. Could never be too safe, it’d be just his luck for Agni to get lost or hurt or something.

Mneme was pretty sure he wasn’t meant to hear the conversation between Acqua and the two elderly ladies who had come into the store that afternoon. But what he was doing was mostly quiet work, and he could hear every word the three said.

“Whatever happened to that pretty little redheaded girl who worked here? I never see her anymore,” one woman asked of the other, a question that could have gone unanswered had Acqua not been around restocking racks.

“Big sis got herself a lover! She’s always been kinda domestic anyway, so she stays there a lot to help him clean and take care of things.” Mneme literally dropped his hammer, but the three didn’t seem to notice.

“Ah, such a task,” the other lady sighed, but she was smiling as she said it, and Acqua laughed happily.

“Oh, she totally loves him, so she’s beyond happy. She almost shot the moon when he said she could stay. I think he likes having her around too,” the girl said in a conspiratorial tone. “He smiles more here. I haven’t had to flip out on him in a long time. I like it.”

Mneme didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, he was too busy being numb. Did he really seem… happier? Well, when he considered it, his workload had been added onto with another person to help support, another person to worry about falling through the floor if they hit a half-rotten patch, another person to fret over getting hurt… but at the same time, his workload was also lighter, because he had Agni there to help him out. Agni was pretty good at small repairs, he’d found. Just simple things, like rigging up a temporary fix for the sink stopper when the little rubber stopper had gone missing for an afternoon, a way to block a door off when the hinge broke and the lock snapped. It certainly made trying to patch the place up a bit at a time easier. He was starting to entertain ideas of being able to eventually fix up the second floor and make it livable.

So did he really seem happier? True, Acqua hadn’t tried to kill him in a few weeks. And Agni was interesting, he could admit this. A decent cook, especially if it dealt with open flame. Quick with repairs and patches for clothing. But happier? That was kind of a stretch, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t until he got home that evening that he realized something. One, he did tend to break into smiles when he came in and Agni was there to say ‘welcome back’. Two, the place seemed less like the hovel it was and more of a home. Three, Agni was not a natural redhead. There was a faint trace of blond at the roots of his hair.

It would be gone by the next week, but Mneme knew what he’d seen. And oddly, he didn’t care. Anyone else, that artifice would have bothered him, but with Agni it just seemed… okay. Like it was what was supposed to happen.

“BIG SIS!” Agni and Mneme, busy folding clothing and fixing a shorted-out lamp on the second floor, perked immediately as they heard the shriek from the basement. All either of them could think was that there was trouble, something had fallen on Acqua, something had hurt the teenager. The footsteps thundering down the stairs stirred up dust in the first floor, but they could hardly have cared less. All that mattered was making sure Acqua was okay.

“Are you all—“ Agni stopped mid-sentence; Acqua had perched herself delicately on a small, wobbly stool, cushion torn and spilling foam and cotton all over the place, paint obscured by ages of dust, and was trying her best to untangle her hair from a knot where she’d tried to braid her hair. The age-spotted mirror, showing only a small clear spot where she’d obviously wiped it with her hand (the evidence was on her pants leg, a gray stain on the dark denim) obviously wasn’t helping her any in her efforts. Tiny hands slammed on the vanity desk, and she glared over at Agni, teary eyed.

“Big sis, I can’t do this damn braid.”

“Oh grief… here, Acqua. Let me.” Agni rushed over, and started in braiding, calming the teenager down and fixing the hairstyle. Mneme just stood in the doorway, watching the moment and feeling vaguely like he was intruding on something. Agni looked over and cut him a small grin, and Mneme, in a moment of shame, hurried back upstairs to finish his work. It was a family moment he had no reason to be in. When Agni returned upstairs though, a smile on his face and a hand gently brushing across Mneme’s back, he started to think maybe he could be included.