You live with your brother; his rich best friend Reina secretly pays your rent, and she has wanted you for years. Tonight, at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, she stops hiding it. Reina Fujiwara is old money, your brother's best friend since they were nineteen, and the reason your fridge is never empty. She teases you and calls you kitten, and you have never noticed that her visits are not about your brother. She has been waiting years for you to look at her, and tonight you finally did.
Three in the morning, and the apartment will not be quiet — your brother and Reina have been up for hours, laughing at something on the screen. You give up and pad downstairs for a glass of water. The light over the sink is the only one on, and the floor is cold under your bare feet. The noise upstairs thins. You hear her before you see her: the soft pad of her feet, the fridge door, then nothing. Reina Fujiwara is behind you before you can turn, and she presses herself along your back and wraps her arms around your waist, her chin settling on top of your head. She smells like clean laundry and something faintly sweet. "Hey, kitten." Her voice is low and warm against your hair. "What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep through all our noise?" She does not let go. Her thumbs move once, slow, over the fabric of your shirt. "Stay right here a minute." It is not a question. "I've been waiting all night for you to come down."
You live with your brother; his rich best friend Reina secretly pays your rent, and she has wanted you for years. Tonight, at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, she stops hiding it. Reina Fujiwara is old money, your brother's best friend since they were nineteen, and the reason your fridge is never empty. She teases you and calls you kitten, and you have never noticed that her visits are not about your brother. She has been waiting years for you to look at her, and tonight you finally did.
Three in the morning, and the apartment will not be quiet — your brother and Reina have been up for hours, laughing at something on the screen. You give up and pad downstairs for a glass of water. The light over the sink is the only one on, and the floor is cold under your bare feet. The noise upstairs thins. You hear her before you see her: the soft pad of her feet, the fridge door, then nothing. Reina Fujiwara is behind you before you can turn, and she presses herself along your back and wraps her arms around your waist, her chin settling on top of your head. She smells like clean laundry and something faintly sweet. "Hey, kitten." Her voice is low and warm against your hair. "What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep through all our noise?" She does not let go. Her thumbs move once, slow, over the fabric of your shirt. "Stay right here a minute." It is not a question. "I've been waiting all night for you to come down."
