Aubergine and Momoko #2: Sleepyheads

 

Aubergine was an aspiring baker. The key word being ‘aspiring’, as he was currently working as a waiter at a pizza place downtown. That meant he constantly dealt with uppity assholes asking to speak to the manager, idiots who thought they owned the world because their truck was big, and children who did not care if you were carrying a mountain of food through their full-building playground.

At least he had home to look forward to.

An apartment so close he could walk from it with his childhood friend as a roommate. As he trudged through the dying sunlight in his stained white dress shirt, even the remains of toweled-off baby vomit didn’t make it through the haze of his homestead daydream. One where he entered the apartment into the awaiting arms of Momoko, who had already prepared a nice salad dinner and had Space Goats on the TV.

This wasn’t going to happen since Momoko couldn’t prepare food to save their life, hated salads anyway, and was more than likely arguing with people online about characters they shipped rather than doing anything useful like waiting for a job. Still, it was a pleasant thought.

He wished he didn’t have to work so much. If he had more free time, he could take online classes and get a culinary degree or at least spend more time perfecting the craft. As it stood, he was paying the rent, food, and utilities for two people all by himself. This weekend he’d have to tell Momoko off and push them to get a job like he did last month and the month before that.

For now, as he entered the apartment in his half-dead state, he was content with just throwing himself onto the couch.

“Ow!” Momoko cried as pain rang through both their and Aubergine. The two sat up next to the other, rubbing their foreheads. “I don’t like being woken up like that.”

“Sorry. I just needed to lie down as fast as possible.”

“Well, I already claimed the couch. Or, well, I kinda just passed out here.” Momoko gave a small, tired laugh.

“Stayed up all night again?”

“I don’t do that! Usually.” Momoko threw a playful punch before settling back into the couch. “It was a busy day. Grocery shopping, cleaning, fighting people on my post about why LynnBlot is a better ship name than Blynn, laundry. Ugh, I need dinner.”

Aubergine settled back into the comfort of the couch himself. “Let’s get takeout. Something cheap. Too tired. Can’t cook. Thanks.”

In his already fading mind, Aubergine didn’t register his head falling to the side and hitting something. Every strand of dwindling thought was used to think how glad he was he didn’t have to bother with all those little household chores after a long day’s work.

For the next few hours, he slept. Momoko slept too, his head leaning against Aubergine’s.

Later they would wake up, order Chinese, and watch Space Goats until they both passed out again.