***
After school, it was the same routine as always. Over the years, Eiichi had become a creature of habit, and he preferred this. It meant he wouldn’t have to do too much out of the ordinary, ordinary being what he strived for. He could also ignore the troubles of others. Helping them wouldn’t solve anything, there would just be another, and another, and more after that...The problems of others were astronomical. Everybody had problems, and it should be their decision to do something about it. The phrase ‘life sucks, and then you die’ was ever-prevalent, in his opinion.
It was about a ten minute train ride home. Eiichi’s home was a small one. Located in the lower middle class section of the city, it was a two story structure with a garage extension, back porch and two small balconies for the bedrooms on the second floor. It wasn’t run down, but modest, and it was home.
As he unlocked the front door, a large flash of black and white fur nearly barreled into him as Connor, his Siberian Husky, was eagerly there to greet him with a few barks and a violently wagging tail. Eiichi’s mother, who lived in Okinawa with his dad, had been the one who named him.
As Eiichi set his bag down and stood, Connor jumped up, placing his paws on Eiichi’s shoulders and licking his face vigorously.
Eiichi chuckled, leaning back, and scrubbed at the back of Connor’s ear, “Hey boy, miss me?”
On some days, Eiichi was just as excited to see Connor. Being able to pick up brain waves meant Eiichi could pick up the senses and processes of animals as well, which were delightfully basic. They were much like children, only their thoughts were consistent. When he was still in elementary school, his parents had brought Connor home when he was still a pup, knowing that he would be a helpful addition in maintaining Eiichi’s mood. With the regular joy and occasional calm atmosphere of his favorite four legged companion, Eiichi had to agree. They had quickly become close companions and Connor was probably the only reliable friend Eiichi had in his entire life. Sometimes he wondered if Connor knew exactly when he was in a bad mood, because he always seemed to come to his aid when the negative emotions were beginning to be a little cumbersome.
He kicked off his shoes at the genkan and dropped his bag by the staircase.
Eiichi would often grab whatever was in the fridge, sometimes it was just a beer, and he’d pour a little for Connor in his water dish. He’d watch TV while laid out on the couch, and took the occasional smoke break on the back porch.
Sometimes he would get up and take Connor for a walk through the neighborhood, and sometimes he took the train downtown. In doing this, he risked being around more people, but he felt it was good that he still remind himself of the world outside home, and having Connor with him was a plus.
His older brother arrived home from work around six. That was Torio, the taller, more classy and flirtatious ladies’ man of the pair, and he and Eiichi had a typical kind of relationship that could be expected of any pair of siblings.
“Wow, you are exactly where I thought you would be when I got home,” Torio remarked with a smirk at Eiichi, who was laid out on the couch with Connor at his feet.
Eiichi didn’t even look away from the LCD screen. “And I’m surprised you came home at all. Couldn’t get anyone to invite you back to their place, huh...”
“Nonsense, but who would feed you?”
Torio proceeded to place his car keys on the kitchen overlook counter and hung his blazer on the back of one of the overlook chairs.
He greeted Connor with a hearty pet between the ears. “Hey boy, if you keep giving him all the attention, he’ll never have a life.”
Connor responded with attempting a few laps at Torio’s somewhat long hair. Then Torio was off to the kitchen.
Torio was also a skilled cook. Being that it was just him and Eiichi living together, someone had to take care of kitchen duty. Eiichi helped out with cleaning, and on occasion, ran errands for Torio whenever there was a grocery list on the fridge door, but he left all the culinary chemistry to Torio, whom Eiichi could tell would be bothered having more than one chef in the kitchen. It wasn’t a very big kitchen anyways.
Torio getting home meant it was almost time for Eiichi to change into his gym shorts and step into the garage. He usually waited till about seven for this.
The garage was small as well. With Torio’s car parked in one half of the space, there was just enough room for Eiichi to make use of the punching pad he had hanging against the wall and the jump rope hanging on that.
Usually, by the time he was finished, dinner was ready.
“Looks great, you’ll make a good stay at home dad one day,” Eiichi poked.
“Uh-huh, and why don’t you take a shower so I don’t have to smell you while I’m trying to eat.”
Dinner would commence afterwards with more cracks between the two about work and school, there would be more television, and then Eiichi was off to bed.
On some nights he would lie awake before drifting off. The things he had felt and seen during the day would replay themselves in his mind. He wasn’t indifferent about them, or he didn’t intend to be. He was just something else. He couldn’t afford to get too close to anyone. And even when he considered it, some people just simply didn’t want to be helped.
Eiichi P.I., Vol. 1 Page 5