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Of all the people Sho was expecting to be on the other side of his apartment door, Aiba Masaki wasn’t one of them.
He stood there wide-eyed for a second, staring at the younger man on his doormat like he wasn’t sure it was actually him.
“A—Aiba-kun?” he stuttered, not sure that he wasn’t actually hallucinating because of his high fever.
The vision in front of him responded with a smile. “Are you gonna let me in or what?” At least it sounded real to Sho’s ears. “I brought food and medicines,” vision-Aiba said, showing him a plastic and a paper bag.
Still shook, Sho moved aside, letting the man in. It couldn’t be really him, he reasoned. It was just wishful thinking. In the whole six months he’d known him and they had been friends with benefits, he had never once told Aiba where he lived. They would usually meet up at Aiba’s place, or go to a love hotel. So this couldn’t be really happening.
Vision-Aiba hummed as he got inside, looking right and left for the kitchen. When he found the right door, he got in with no hesitation, leaving Sho to rush after him.
Aiba was taking out a container from the plastic bag and putting it on the table.
“Plate?” he asked, looking at him quickly.
“Top shelf, over there,” Sho said, and Aiba nodded readily. “What—”
“You haven’t replied to any of my texts for the past two days,” the other said, as he took a plate from the shelf.
“Oh,” he said.
“I was worried.”
Sho felt suddenly warm when he heard that. “Is that so?” he said, in a small voice.
“Of course,” Aiba said, frowning.
“I’m sorry.”
Aiba smiled at him. “But now I’m here, so...” he grabbed his arm and made him sit down at the table. “Just sit down and let me take care of you,” he said, with a tone that admitted no reply.
Sho was too tired to even pretend to complain. That touch had felt very real, which meant, however impossible it seemed, that the man in front of him wasn’t a figment of his imagination, but Aiba in the flesh. It surprisingly didn’t take much convincing to let himself accept his attentions, he considered, as he took the spoon that was thrust in his hand with a small smile.
He shivered in his sweatshirt for a second as he observed the hot soup being poured in his plate.
It smelled good, and Sho, who had lived off the leftovers his friends had brought over for the past two days, felt his mouth water. Without hesitation, he dipped his spoon in the soup and carefully brought it to his lips, taking care not to burn himself.
“How is it?” Aiba asked, when he ate it.
Sho’s tastebuds definitely agreed with it. “So good,” he said, licking his lips.
“I’m glad,” Aiba said, looking relieved and finally sitting down next to him.
They stayed in silence for a bit, and Sho couldn’t help but think that this situation was kind of absurd. He never thought he’d be sitting in his own kitchen, sick, drinking soup that his friend with benefits whom he might or might not have a huge crush on had made for him.
“How did you know where I live?” Sho said in between spoonfuls of soup, in part because he was curious, in part because he wanted to make conversation.
Aiba smirked and put his index finger on his lips. “It’s a secret.”
Sho lifted his eyebrows and stared at him behind his thick framed glasses.
“Alright,” the other man conceded, giggling. “Since you went AWOL on me, I just wanted to check you were okay. So I went to your office, and I ran into your friend Ninomiya-kun. He’s the one who told me you were sick and that you were ‘all sad and alone in your empty house.’”
Sho made a mental note to yell at Nino for painting such a grim picture. “Did he now?”
Aiba giggled. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me here—you’ve always gone out of your way not to let me know where you live after all—but Ninomiya-kun convinced me to come. He said you’d feel better just seeing me.”
Sho felt the embarrassment color his ears, but he didn’t deny it. Aiba didn’t seem to notice though, because he was still talking.
“I hope that’s okay. That I came.” He looked at him with a worried expression on his face. “Maybe I should have called.”
“It’s great!” Sho exclaimed, unable to hold back. Aiba looked surprised at that outburst, and that made him feel too self-conscious all of a sudden. “I mean—It was very nice of you.”
Aiba made a squatting motion with his hand. “I couldn’t leave it well alone, knowing you were sick and nobody was taking care of you.”
Sho’s heart skipped a beat at those words. ‘It’s not what you think,’ he told himself, ‘Aiba is nice to everyone.’ He looked up at him to study his face. Aiba smiled again, a bit bashfully this time, as if he had just realized what he had said.
“You didn’t have to.”
“Really, I wanted to.”
“Thank you.”
Aiba nodded, accepting his gratefulness. While Sho was finishing the last of his soup, he stood up to grab the paper bag with the medicine inside. Since he didn’t really know what Sho had, it seemed like he had just grabbed a bit of anything, from cold syrup, to vitamins, to—embarrassingly enough, when Sho realized—gastrointestinal medicine.
Sho reached out to get the paracetamol from where the other man had put it on the table, and drank it down with some water, while Aiba took his plate and put it in the sink.
“And now,” Aiba said when he came back. “Movie time!”
Sho opened his mouth to say something, but the other man just grabbed him and pushed him on the couch in front of the TV that Sho had in his kitchen. He sat down too, grabbing the remote, but instead of turning the TV on, he turned around to look at Sho.
“You know, Ninomiya-kun let something else slip,” he said.
“What is it?”
Aiba smiled gently. “It’s your birthday tomorrow, isn’t it?”
Sho nodded. “Yeah.”
“Were you planning on doing anything special?” he asked. “Bake a cake?”
Sho scoffed. “I can’t bake anything. And I’m sick anyway, so.”
“Then,” Aiba said, looking shy all of a sudden. “I’ll bring you cake.”
Sho almost choked on his saliva. “There’s no need.”
“Come on,” the man said, grabbing his arm cheerfully. “You need cake for your birthday. To make a wish.”
Aiba’s enthusiasm was contagious, and Sho started getting excited too. “I guess that would be nice.”
Aiba beamed at him when he heard that. “Do you have one already?”
“A wish?”
He nodded.
Sho glanced at him for a second and cleared his voice. “Well, yeah.”
Aiba clapped his hands. “What is it?”
“You’re not supposed to say your wish out loud,” Sho said, seriously. “Or it won’t come true.”
Aiba pushed him down on the couch jokingly. “Do you really believe that?”
Sho chuckled, and he sat back up while fixing his crooked glasses. “It’s not whether I believe it or not, but I won’t take my chances just in case.”
Aiba shook his head, but he was smiling. “Alright Sho-chan,” he said. “I hope your wish comes true.”
Sho looked at Aiba’s smile, and felt his stomach do a somersault despite himself. He didn’t know how he knew, but Nino was right. Just seeing him, he was already feeling better.
“Me too, Aiba-kun,” he said, smiling back at him. “Me too.”