Chapter 7: Pancakes And Coffee [Aarav]
The sound of weeping was annoying the sh-t out of Aarav. He did not know whether to scream at Ru or stuff his mouth with his cock. The second option was not viable. After their drunken romp several nights ago, they made a deal they would never see each other naked again. Of course, they fucked twice immediately after, but since then, they made a final 'final' deal - no more fornicating.
And Aarav never screamed at those he fucked. So, the only option left for him was to send Ru a compassionate and gentle whatsapp message.
[U ok?] He typed and hit send.
It wasn't even a millisecond before the soft whimpers stopped and Aarav's red iPhone pinged. It was an emoji-laden message, that could mean anything. There was a house, and a crying emoji, and cash emoji and puke emoji and few more.
Aarav sighed. "What is it?" He just asked, not moving one inch from his desk. He was sure Ru would hear every word through that closed wooden door of his office.
There was a knock a few seconds later, and Aarav gave the permission to come in. Ru's eyes were looking well-cried, and he was looking quite disheveled for a guy who didn't have one stray brow hair. If it wasn't for his red eyes, he would have looked perfectly debauched, with his tear-streaked flushed cheeks, messy hair, and shiny lips parted slightly from the breathlessness and shudders. His pink jacket was so small and tight; who knew how he got inside it but complimented his skinny black jeans pretty well.
Ru plopped himself on the holstered guest chair and knelt his head down on the desk buried in his arms. He heaved a sigh that sounded like his world was crashing around him.
"Keep your snotty nose water away from my desk," Aarav tried to sound silly to make the mood lighter, but no success.
Ru glanced up over the lengths of his skinny forearms. "Too late."
Aarav gave a half-smile and acted busy with the document in front of him, when in truth, he was waiting for Ru to spill his gut, and spill he did.
"I will be homeless in a week because I am that stupid."
Aarav raised a brow.
Ru sat up straight this time, looking down at his lap. "Well, you know how I was looking for a job to pay my rent, and I was so happy when I got the job because now I can pay the rent. Well, seems I can't since I am too stupid to read and I read my salary wrong." His voice cracked. "I thought it would be 1 lac rupees monthly. Turns out, my stupid eyes added an extra zero, and it is really ten thousand rupees, and now I am bankrupt and starving, and I am going to be homeless too!" Ru said all that in one breath, and when he finished, he gave a shuddered sob and broke into tears once again.
Aarav had little experience on how to comfort a whimpering pet. So, all he could do was offer a box of Kleenex and watch the guy cry and snivel all over his desk.
"You can stay at my place," Aarav surprised himself with the sound of his own voice, but there it was, out in the open, his offer to help Ru.
Ru snapped his head up, looking at Aarav with shock and disbelief. "What is that?"
It was not easy to repeat, and Aarav already wanted to kick himself in the foot for making the suggestion in the first place. But there was no going back now. "You can be my roommate. I have a spare room I use for storage. But I guess you can move there. And we can split the rent."
"Really?" A smile of thousand watts lit up Ru's face, and Aarav almost wanted to look away, but he did not. He would not admit it to anyone, but he did miss seeing that smile.
"Sure, you know, you can move in whenever." Aarav played it cool, but why the heck his heart was suddenly beatboxing.
"Can I move in tomorrow?"
"Sure."
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That night, Aarav cleaned out his storage room, and the following day, Ru knocked at his door first thing. There he was, standing in his grey sweatpants, pink hoodie with rabbit ears, a starbucks coffee in his left hand, and his crossbody bag on his right shoulder. Behind him were two large suitcases, one medium suitcase, a large orange-black rucksack about to burst from how stuffed it was, and a rack with all of his luxury jackets hanging from it.
"Heyyy," Ru smiled as if it was the happiest day in the world for him.
"It is 5 AM. What are you doing here?" Aarav was groggy and peeved, but Ru took no notice, busily passing by Aarav and bringing in his suitcases one by one into the apartment. "I thought I was going help you with the moving." Ru lived in the Borivali before, which was a good half an hour drive from Andheri, where Aarav lived.
"No matter," Ru said, carrying the last piece of luggage inside the apartment. "I couldn't stay in that shithole anymore. I would rather be in this nice, fancy apartment."
Aarav showed him around the rest of the apartment, including his bedroom which was on the right side of Aarav's master bedroom. Across that was the shower. Adjacent to it was the actual storage room and washer and dryer. The small hallway opened into a huge living area and on the other side of that was the open island kitchen.
Aarav went back to bed to sleep off the alcohol from his date the night before. The next time he woke was to the cracking smell of something sweet. It was nine, still too early but he could not go back to sleep. So, he dragged himself out of bed, freshened up, and padded over to the kitchen.
"Good morning!" Ru welcomed him to the kitchen, "Pancakes?" Somehow, Aarav found himself getting used to Ru's high, squeaky voice over the weeks.
A tall column of very delicious looking pancakes was waiting on the kitchen counter, and Ru was expertly cooking two more on the stove.
"Sure," Aarav said, "Coffee?"
"Sure!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone