HIM – EVERY DAY A JOURNEY

Aya and Tyson sat down panting, both covered in sweat, as they sighed in relief. Surrounding them were piles of empty cardboard boxes, making it impossible to see a wall from a wall, or a corner from a corner. Nonetheless, both had faint smiles on their faces; it had been nearly three weeks since they decided to move in together, and after some back and forth, today they officially became roommates.

“I can’t believe we actually did it.” Aya said, chuckling lightly. “We moved in together!”

“Hell yeah we did!” Tyson exclaimed. “That was barely audible, sorry. My lungs are literally begging to explode.”

“Yeah, you lifted some pretty heavy stuff,” Aya said. “I still can’t believe you managed to actually move my cat stone statue all by yourself.”

“… I’ve been meaning to ask…”

“Don’t…”

“Why the fuck do you own a stone cat statue?!!” Tyson exclaimed somewhat angrily. “It’s ugly, it’s gigantic, it’s fucking heavy – I’m telling you, I’m pretty sure I broke like twelve bones moving it – and, you know, it’s ugly!”

“… yeah, I expected you to be angry about the cat.” Aya said, smiling coyly.

“Of course I’m angry about the cat!”

“You know, I just… I just wanted our place to ooze some culture, you know?”

“Then… I don’t know… buy some fancy fucking books that can easily be moved, not a literal spawn of Egyptian lore!” Tyson said.

“I’m surprised you actually knew to reference Egypt here.” Aya said.

“You were expecting Catwoman, didn’t you?”

“Yup.”

“Heh, take that.” Tyson said, smirking.

“… I did. Last night. And the night before. And the yesterday morning.” Aya said as Tyson sighed.

“… I told you we should have asked Jared and Emma to help us,” Tyson said. “Those two are workout freaks. They would have cleaned this place up faster than you clean your ass.”

“Hey! What’s wrong with having a clean ass?!” Aya exclaimed.

“… you’re only using it to shit, meaning you clean it to shit it up again.” Tyson said.

“Oh, well, sorry. From now on, every time you bend me over, I’ll let you have a clear-cut look on a shitty asshole.”

“… yeah, let’s, uh, let’s not do that.” Tyson said.

“God, we just moved in, and we’re already fighting.” Aya said, sighing.

“At least we can build a proper fort.” Tyson said, smiling wryly.

“… you want to build a fort?”

“You don’t?”

“Hell yeah I do.” Aya said. God I love this girl… “What are we gonna name it?”

“You used to name your forts?”

“You didn’t?”

“Hell yeah I did!” Tyson exclaimed, smiling.

“What else did you used to do as a kind?” Aya asked as the two lied down onto the floor sideways, facing each other.

“Uh, let’s see… we used to go to this really high cliff and dare each other to jump,” Tyson said. “It was like thirty meters tall, but the water down below was really deep, so if you knew how to jump, there really wasn’t any danger. But, one day, this local kid we all kind of used to bully goes up and says if he makes the jump, we’re never to bully him again.”

“He died didn’t he?” Aya interrupted.

“… uh, no? Where’d you get that idea?” Tyson said.

“That’s the only way this story would be any interesting.”

“Oh, pardon me, Mrs. I always stayed in my bedroom and read boring books and watched cringey anime and read even cringier manga. Please, do tell your interesting stories.” Tyson said.

“… everything we’ve watched to you was cringey!” Aya exclaimed. “What the hell is even your standard?”

“Well stop showing me a bunch of teenagers trying to save the world!!” Tyson exclaimed. “That’s cringe in and of itself!”

“But that’s what anime is all about!”

“… I highly doubt it.”

“If I showed you any one of its other sides, you’d never watch it again.” Aya said.

“Ah come on, of course I would!” Tyson said. “Every time we watch it together, you get so immersed your reactions literally blow my dick off! They’re more adorable a cat befriending a mouse and letting it ride her!”

“…”

“That was good, no?” Tyson said, smirking, as he spotted Aya’s cheeks flushing slightly red.

“You’re way more adorable, though,” Aya said as she recovered. “Every time we play something together, you keep inventing new ways to apologize for sucking ass. Even though I hate you because we never win, I love you even more because of the ‘Oh, o-m-g, so sorry, it’s like I got a broom stuck up my ass and know only once direction – up, UP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD UP!!’” as Aya burst out in laughter, Tyson lowered his head, half due to embarrassment and half due to shame.

“… you don’t have to remind me. I’m well aware of my suckage.”

“Is suckage even a word?” Aya asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“It should be.”

“There are so many ‘words’ that ought to be words, but they aren’t,” Tyson said. “Like beyondness. Back in elementary school, I always used that word in written assignments, and my teacher was always like ‘That’s not even a word!’. I wanted it to be a word so bad.”

“… what would you even describe with ‘beyondness’ though?” Aya asked as her brows creased.

“… no clue. Just sounds so deep and mysterious, right?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aya said. “Almost as deep as your excuses for your suckage at games.”

“… your insults are like a mass graves,” Tyson said, sighing. “They just keep growing, and growing, and growing…”

“…” Aya’s cheeks puffed slightly as she stiffened her laughter.

“You know, nobody’s gonna call you a terrible person for laughing at it.” Tyson said, smirking.

“… I’m pretty sure they would.”

“Ah come on, I’m the only one here. And, next to me, you can’t possibly be called a terrible person.”

“Good point,” Aya said, coughing. “Still not laughing at it though.”

“Didn’t your mom tell you to call her once we finish setting up?” Tyson asked.

“Yeah, but it can wait,” Aya said. “It’s been a while since, you know, we talked and it wasn’t about where I’ll put my stuff once I move in.”

“Had I known you had so much stuff, I’d take a loan, sell my kidney, enter child slavery ring and earn some quick buck, and buy us a bigger place.” Tyson said.

“You know, until the last one, it was kind of romantic,” Aya said. “Then, you just fucked it right up.”

“Dude! How can you say something so terrible about kids?” Tyson said. “You’re really… just… awful.”

“… that’s stretching it more than shoujo manga stretch their stories.” Aya said.

“Ah come on. It wasn’t that bad. I mean, did you read Last Game? It’s like five chapters of content going on for nearly a hundred.”

“You read the whole thing?!” Aya exclaimed.

“Good god no,” Tyson shuddered for a moment as he spoke. “I just read first ten and last five chapters. Pretty sure I didn’t miss anything important.”

“… well, you know—“

“Pretty sure I didn’t miss anything important!”

“You didn’t miss anything important.”

“I love it when we agree on something.” Tyson said, smiling.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Aya said. Not as beautiful as you are—“I know you’re thinking it, don’t say it.”

“Say what?”

“You know what.”

“How would I know what?” Tyson feigned ignorance, holding back laughter.

“Because you always know what.”

“I can’t always know what,” Tyson said. “As what in and of itself has no meaning.”

“Oh fuck you.” Aya exclaimed, laughing lightly.

“Oh. That what.”

“… you ever felt like traveling the world?” Aya asked, changing the subject. “You know, to spread your wisdom to all corners of the world.”

“Who hasn’t?” Tyson said. “But, you know, then I looked up the cost, and my dreams died. Much like I do in games. You?”

“Yeah,” Aya said. “I always wanted to visit Palawan. All pictures basically say ‘fuck you, that’s right, this is Paradise’ to the rest of the world.”

“I always wanted to go to Santorini,” Tyson said, chuckling. “I mean, weird architecture, vast sea, beautiful…”

“Maybe you should get into that child slavery business after all.” the two burst out in short laughter as they lied onto their backs. “It’s weird, isn’t it? How big the world is, yet how little we see of it. I know more about the space than our actual home.”

“Everybody does, I think,” Tyson beckoned back. “You know, we grow up surrounded with what we know, and we take rest for granted. ‘It’s all the same’, something like that. And, even if we travel or look up pictures or something, it’s always just a few places.”

“If I was an immortal,” Aya said. “The very first thing I would do is just… just travel. No destination. No purpose. Just aimlessly wander and see where my feet take me.”

“And planes. Can’t cross the oceans on foot.”

“Ha ha, yeah, and planes.”

“I don’t know,” Tyson said, sighing. “Sometimes, I just want to go out and see everything. Other times… I just want to stay home, in peace and quiet.”

“It is weird, isn’t it?” Aya exclaimed softly as she turned back toward him. “I mean, I bet your ass you can’t play games or watch movies in some backwater, beautiful mountain village, right?”

“You can say that again.” Tyson said, smiling lightly. “But, you know, in the end it’s as they say: different strokes for different folks.”

“… where the hell did you pull that one out of?”

“Ah, come on, everybody knows that one!”

“Well, maybe every man,” Aya said. “You guys do ‘stroke’ a lot.”

“… oh, fuck you. You’d ‘stroke’ it too if you had it.”

“Luckily I don’t.”

“At least mine doesn’t turn into epicenter of pain combustion once a month.” Tyson said.

“… yeah, make fun of a girl about her period. Real classy Ty.” Aya said.

“I can literally see on your face that you don’t care.”

“So? Doesn’t mean no other girl does!”

“… oh, yeah, I mean, look at all these girls around us. My harem is really something, isn’t it? I should probably slow down or I might die from blood loss.” Tyson said.

“Do you even want to have a harem?” Aya asked, arching her brows.

“Hell no,” Tyson said. “That’s just a Caesar waiting to happen.”

“Well, let’s just say, for the sake of it, that all girls are completely devoted to you and they don’t care that there’s like a thousand of them,” Aya said. “What about then?”

“… are you one of the thousand?” Tyson asked.

“… uh, sure?”

“Then the rest can wreathe in jealousy as I bang you ten times a day in front of them all.”

“Oh for the love of…” Aya sighed as a smile creeped up on her face, which she tried to hide by covering it with her hands.

“Ai, ai, don’t hide it,” Tyson said, chuckling, extending his own hands and pulling hers away. … yeah, I could die staring at that smile… okay, morbid thoughts begone! I’m still young! “You’re really beautiful, you know that?”

“Oh, I am?” Aya said.

“Yeah. Forget the Pala-whatever and Sato-what-is-that,” Tyson said. “Every day with you is much more beautiful, wherever we are.”

“Even in this tiny-ass place with an ugly cat statue in the corner?”

“… yeah, but that cat statue has to go. Seriously. It just has to go.”

“Yeah, she can do,” Aya said. “But, I’m afraid I’m staying. That’s much, much worse.”

“Eh, I think I can manage.”

“Good.”