Chapter Text
In his first month of university Keiji found that he liked the new lifestyle it brought. All his years of careful routine from high school had been broken apart. He didn’t need to wake up early in the morning, he didn’t need to fight his way to a spot on the train at six in the morning, he didn’t need to convince himself to stay awake in morning classes. He had picked all of his classes to be in the afternoon and the evenings here, and it had resulted in Keiji staying up long past the sun going down. Falling asleep as the day broke, and waking up in the early afternoon ready to start his day.
This was a schedule he could never have dreamed of having in high school, and he loved it.
He only saw a few people in the nights that usually belonged to him. Generally right before he went to bed, he would bathe and nod a greeting to those on sports scholarships who had to be up early. Who still had to live on someone else’s schedule. Keiji was happy to have left that behind.
Until now
Three in the morning and he had been hit with a sudden burst of energy. That built in need to expend energy, he had been ignoring it lately. Intent on settling in, getting used to university, and his classes, and the change in how he studied. The urge to just do something had been quelled under nerves, trying to make friends in his classes that he could go to for help if he was ever sick, picking through introduction speeches from his lecturers, seeing if some of them seemed friendly enough to go to if he ever needed help.
Now it had come back though, full force. He had energy thrumming in his veins and he just needed to move. Forcing himself to exercise had never been a problem before. Keiji had simply gone to and from practice, before and after school, and then relished in the time he had to sit down, to do nothing. Lately, that had been all that he had been doing. Now he needed to get himself out, fresh air, expend that energy. Keiji needed to tire himself out before it kept him up. He didn’t want it to get to ten, eleven, twelve, his alarm going off and still having had no sleep.
That would not be the ideal way to attend his afternoon classes.
Keiji changed quietly into clothes that he could move in. During the day the world was slowly warming up as summer approaches, but here in the middle of the night it was still cold. He slips out of the room and toes into his sneakers at the entrance to the dorm.
It’s quiet outside, it’s the middle of the week. Closer to the weekend it was more likely for Keiji to have to share this time of day, but here, now. The world was his. There was a light breeze while he walked down the path to campus. It was the only direction he felt comfortable walking, he still didn’t know much else that was around except for campus. One day he would have to make time to figure out more of the area he lived. Now he just needed movement. To no longer walk, but to run.
His panting breath was soon all he could hear. A few cars were out on the roads, but Keiji saw no people. Just him alone in the world.
He ran around the campus, taking multiple laps. Running down pathways that he didn’t take during the day when he was on a mission. A courtyard found outside the music department, the greenhouses of the botany department, a giant canister of something near the main science building. Buildings that looked like houses, and apartments but were actually offices.
Keiji stopped outside one of the buildings that he had lectures in. Breathing hard against the wall, and wishing that he had thought to bring a drink of some kind with him.
He stretched his arms above his head, and circled the building, taking long strides to stretch out his muscles. He felt better now, the energy that had consumed him had been settled. He felt more rested, relaxed.
Keiji stopped pacing the building when he noticed the fire escape leading to the rooftop. It was three floors up; a rickety ladder. It must have been something about being the only one on campus in the middle of the night, but he was taken over with the desire to climb up.
It creaked and wobbled one floor up, but he was committed.
Two floors up and Keiji realised that the building opposite belonged to the campus police, hopefully none of them would see him. He was too far up to give in now.
Three floors up, and Keiji swung himself over the ledge.
There were large pipes coming through the rooftop, and a cage that held what looked to be a large fan of some kind. The heating system for the building maybe?
Keiji sat down on the ledge that ran around the rooftop space, on the opposite side of the building to where he had climbed up. There were lots of buildings and departments that reached higher than he was sitting, but it was still nice to be sat up high, swinging his legs over three floors of nothing before the earth where he had been earlier.
It was freeing.
The air was cool on his skin, doubly so given the sweat drying and sticking to his clothes. Keiji felt refreshed though. He had been so focused on the change of environment, on making sure he knew how and what to study, on ensuring that he wasn’t left behind at the beginning of the semester, that it had been a while since he had just done nothing.
It was nice to just sit and watch the world. Some of the windows he could see had lights in them. It made Keiji wonder if there were people behind them, working, or if they had just been left on. Scattered around the campus he could see the blinking blue lights of the emergency phones, and beyond that he could see the lights of the city. There was nothing to see by looking up, the moon shone through the blanket of clouds covering the sky, but on a clear night Keiji wondered how visible the stars would be from here.
Keiji didn’t even know how long he had been there when he heard creaking. He recognised the sound, someone was climbing up the ladder.
Keiji hadn’t even noticed anyone around, too lost in his own thoughts. What if it was the campus security? How much trouble would he be in for being up on the roof? There hadn’t been a sign or anything, but it just seemed like one of those unwritten rules. Don’t climb up the fire escape to chill on the roof - especially in the middle of the night.
“Oh.” He ended up saying instead. The guy who had appeared across the roof from Keiji didn’t look to have anything to do with security. He felt himself breathe a sigh of relief too. Keiji had the feeling that if they were both caught up here, the mysterious stranger would be sure to direct all attention away from him.
“Huh?” The stranger seemed to have noticed that Keiji was sitting on the roof too, and had caught himself halfway between jumping over the ledge.
Keiji could only admire the view it gave him. Mysterious stranger had neglected wearing clothes as far as Keiji could see. The muscles in his arms and chest pulled taut as he held himself halfway up the ledge. It was only a moment before the guy swung himself the rest of the way over and Keiji couldn’t tell if the breath he let out was in relief or disappointment at seeing that he was wearing gym shorts.
Now he felt thirsty for an entirely different reason, his own fault for shutting himself away to study for the first month of uni rather than attending any of the orientation party’s that he knew had been on.
“Wow! I am so glad I didn’t scare you too much, if you had fallen I would have gone to jail! Wow!”
Keiji’s peaceful morning was now assaulted with the loudness of mysterious stranger. He winced, either at the sound or the fact that the campus security office was right there they could be caught he wasn’t sure. Keiji looked beneath his feet at the statement, it would be a long way to fall.
“It is good that I didn’t die then.”
“Sorry about that, there’s usually nobody up here.”
“Usually?” Did that make mysterious stranger a regular visitor then?
“I come up every morning to see the sunrise.”
Oh boy, was it that time of the day already? Keiji did feel somewhat sleepy, but he hadn’t thought that he had been out long enough to see the sun come up. It meant that he should probably head back to his room in order to get some sleep for the day.
“It’s nice to be awake when the world wakes up!” Keiji preferred being awake when the world was asleep, but he appreciated the guys point of view. “It’s calming!” His loud voice at this time of the night was the opposite of calming to Keiji. “It helps me prepare for the day and put me in a good mood!”
Keiji thought the guy was in a good enough mood without seeing the sunrise seeing as he seemed perfectly comfortable talking to Keiji, a stranger, while only half dressed.
“Mmm.” Thinking about what time it was had suddenly made him feel much sleepier. He should definitely head back before he ended up dropping over the edge for having fallen asleep on the roof. So Keiji swings his legs back around, he also needs to successfully climb back down the ladder.
“Ah, ah, no! Don’t leave because of me!”
Keiji sat, back to the world, facing this guy who was now sat at the top of the ladder. It was baffling to think that he came up here to watch the sunrise without clothes. Keiji assumed that once the sun was up there would be more people around, or did he just like having people ogle his body?
It was definitely one worth ogling.
When he talked his muscles pulled and Keiji kept finding his eyes drifting down to the tight muscles at his stomach, to the lines running down –
–and next time there was a party on Keiji really needed to go. Like really, really needed to go.
“I’d feel really bad if you left because of me.”
“I was just reminded of the time and thought I should head back in.”
“Don’t go yet, you should wait for the sunrise, trust me.” The guy smiled in a way that made Keiji think the sun was rising from his face. How was that possible? Did he come here everyday? If Keiji came again another day would he be greeted with this sight again? That body and that smile again?
Keiji would trust him with his life, what right did this guy have to go around smiling at people like that when it was almost their bedtime? Keiji already knew that that smile was bound to show up in his dreams later. It was too mesmerising to not have any place there, even if it was simply reattached back to it’s home on the sun.
Keiji spun himself back around. Out of sight, out of mind chanting religiously in his head. Except that he had spun too hard in order to get that body out of his head, and it had only resulted in bringing it closer. Rough hands grasping at Keiji’s upper arms and steadying him on the ledge.
“You good?” Keiji couldn’t speak, but his non action seemed to speak for itself. “Sweet, it’s only a few minutes now.”
Mysterious stranger who would definitely be appearing in his dream now because of those arms was sitting next to him now. His legs were kicking out against the wall they were sitting on and he was humming to himself as he gazed at the horizon. Keiji forced himself to also focus on the horizon and not the fact that the guys bare body kept brushing up against Keiji’s arm from the movement of his legs.
It really was only a few minutes before light started making it’s way up the sky. Pale blues and yellows painting across the darkness, replacing it. The world came to life. Instead of silence Keiji could make out birds calling in the distance, and even the distant rumble of cars and trains in the city made itself known. It was strange to see all this happening, at a time where Keiji was usually doing the opposite. Shutting himself off to the world and shutting down for a few hours.
It was nice.
It was brief.
It was over.
The guy jumped back from the ledge, and Keiji flailed. When had he started leaning into him? He was caught and dragged back to the flat surface of the roof, away from danger.
“See!” The guy cheered, loud. Keiji was once again wary of the security office just across from where they would need to climb down. “Aren’t you glad that you stayed to watch?”
Keiji simply moved across to the ladder. Getting down sooner rather than later would be his best bet for not getting caught.
As he turned to throw himself over the ledge, he noticed that mysterious stranger was still standing where he had been earlier. He looked to be waiting for Keiji’s answer, fidgeting with the band of his shorts as he did so. Keiji pulled his face away at the flash of red, looking to the ladder.
“It was nice.”
That seemed to be all that was necessary, the guy skipped over to where Keiji was hanging onto the ladder, and started climbing down after him.
Keiji almost fumbled and fell, his foot missing the next rung as he became aware of bare legs and loose shorts above his head. His gaze kept upwards and his body suddenly lost the ability to judge the gap between steps. What a bother.
Keiji was happy to make it to the bottom with no further mishap other than an increased awareness of his heartbeat and the blood pulsing through his body. Mysterious stranger offered him a wave and a blinding smile when he reached the bottom. “I’ve never seen it with someone before that was great! See you again maybe!” He had far too much energy for this time of the day, made even more obvious when he jogged off.
Keiji walked himself slowly back to his dorm. His pulse was still thrumming in a way that running back would not fix. He needed to wash, and then get into bed, and then think about what his body was doing and maybe if his roommate would be out.
He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of hard muscles and a face like the sun after a few minutes on a rooftop.
Keiji needed sleep, and he needed to follow his roommate out to one of his parties the next time one was on.