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Reo was in his own room, in his own bed, staring at his own ceiling, and he didn’t dare move. If he so much as breathed the wrong way, this delicate balance would collapse in on itself. That was one thing that absolutely could not happen.
It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since he’d laid down, if he still had a grasp on time. He was flat on his back, hands folded like a corpse, trying simultaneously to savour every second and not lose his mind. A lot harder than it looked, with how he was sandwiched on one side by the wall and on the other with a wall of blankets.
His mattress, it turned out, was not big enough for two.
It didn’t have to be like this. There were plenty of spare futons in the house. Honestly, way too many- a relic of a bygone era. But Kenta was a stubborn little brat and had insisted on “sleeping on a fancy mattress for once in his life” and Reo was also a stubborn little brat who knew never to turn down such a golden opportunity, so…
Yep. Blanket burrito. That had been Kenta’s solution to the whole sleeping-right-next-to-each-other thing, and Reo had spent the past twenty minutes questioning his thought process there. He’d wrapped an entire second set of blankets around himself and flopped down facing away, without saying a word. That could not be more comfortable than a spare futon. No way in hell. It had to be boiling hot in there. So, why…?
It had been painfully awkward for the first few minutes, but it sounded like Kenta had finally fallen asleep and Reo was considering doing the same. As adorable as the blanket burrito was, it was the same whether you thought about it for two minutes or twenty.
He resigned himself to somehow falling asleep while his heart was pounding and his brain was going a mile a minute. Something shifted beside him, and suddenly there was an arm thrown across his shoulders.
Well.
Reo risked turning his head, just a little bit. Half the blankets had fallen onto the floor (it really must have been hot in there), he had not hallucinated the arm on his shoulders, and… well, Kenta never willingly touched him when he was awake. Not without some kind of barb.
He didn’t dare turn his head back.
Not because he wanted to stare, of course. He just knew that if he moved and woke him everything would get all loud and tsundere and the entire house would get no sleep. That was the selfless part. The selfish part simply didn’t want the moment to end (and maybe wanted to stare a little, too).
It was a beautiful sight, enough said. He already found Kenta devastatingly easy to love (as difficult as that might sound), but with all the firewalls dropped it felt like getting hit with cupid’s bazooka instead of a dinky little arrow. Like his heart was getting blasted into a fine slurry behind his ribs. Or maybe it was just how Kenta’s messy hair was all sprawled out across the pillow and his arms were thrown about with none of their usual care and there was a slice of moonlight gliding over his skin from the door left ajar and pretty, pretty, want, want-
He might have it worse than he’d thought.
That Shion guy had given him a pointed look when he’d made a show of leaving the door open a crack. Reo wondered if he was a psychic.
Personally, he certainly wasn’t, because he’d completely missed the body moving beside him in all that yearning. It wasn’t an inadvertent, wandering arm anymore. Kenta’s head was buried in the crook of his neck and his arms were wrapped tighter and their legs were starting to tangle together and Reo still didn’t dare move. But he had to know. He had to. As carefully as he could, he adjusted his hands so they were overlapping and gave the one lying below the strongest pinch he could manage. It hurt.
He wasn’t dreaming.
Wow.
He’d had some pretty wild dreams in his time (don’t ask) but none of them could compare to the surreal comfort of the real thing. The hand curled around the hem of his shirt. The soft, slow breath on his neck. It was real and it was wonderful and it was more than he’d ever hoped for. There would be no sleep tonight, he’d have to lie unmoving and drink it all in for as long as it lasted. Reo could feel his posture relax, moving away from corpse towards something more normal. He settled into the mattress for the long haul with an internal sigh of contentment.
The weight on top of him stirred. Shit. Maybe it hadn’t been so internal.
He decided to pretend to be asleep. Less drama.
A decision which quickly proved itself when Kenta, at least a little bit awake, pulled away a bit. Seemed to process where he was.
“The hell?” His voice was hushed, and sleepy, and the words slurred together a little. Reo applauded himself for not kissing him on the spot.
There was a beat of silence. Reo waited for the yelling.
Instead, he felt the weight on his chest again and almost had a heart attack. They were still all tangled together, even more so, actually. There was a hand in his hair now, slowly running through it. Another on his chest, Kenta’s thumb tracing circles over his collarbone. Worst of all, that head by his neck. That cheek that had nuzzled against his skin as it settled back down, all soft and sweet and content- he knew Kenta inside and out, he was a walking bag of denial. This wasn’t something he should be capable of.
Reo felt like the luckiest person on the planet, and his mind wandered in slowly settling confusion for the next six hours.
--
Kenta woke up tangled around another person, after what felt like a very long dream.
This wasn’t abnormal, he fell asleep sitting next to Ryoga all the time. It was easier, in such a crowded place, to stay behind someone larger than to sleep in those tiny rooms. It wasn’t uncommon for him to wake up hugging a bicep in his skinny twelve year old arms.
Strange. This person was small and slender, barely any muscle at all. And instead of feeling rough concrete and cold tile flooring, he was tangled up in bedsheets. How long had he been dreaming? It had felt like years. But these were nice sheets, far too nice to be…
He opened his eyes to discover his face was buried in the other person’s neck. They smelled vaguely like strawberries. Huh.
He turned his head, to see where he was, and bluescreened.
Why the everloving fuck was he dreaming about this, because it couldn’t be real-
Shit.
The last 24 hours rushed back into his head. He tried to settle back down, kick the problem down the road until the sun was further up in the sky. It had just barely risen.
“You awake?” An arm on his back shifted. Fuck.
“Unfortunately.”
Kenta realized that, even more embarrassingly, his own arms were wrapped tightly around Reo’s chest. His right arm was falling asleep- how long had they been like this? He managed to untangle himself a little, breaking free enough to see Reo’s face.
“How long have you been awake?” Kenta’s gaze locked onto the bags under his eyes. The bastard looked exhausted. “You look like shit.”
Reo looked away. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it?”
“Did you even fucking sleep?”
Silence.
“Hey. You piece of shit.” Kenta poked at Reo’s cheek. “Tell me you weren’t just lying awake that whole time.”
Again, no response. Only a growing flush of red across his face.
“Bastard.” Kenta dropped back down onto the mattress and tried not to think about his subconscious getting all clingy while this brat just watched it happen. He wrapped his arms around Reo’s neck and squeezed as tight as he could.
“Shibaken, what’re you doing?”
“Trying to knock you out, duh.” His approximation of a headlock must have broken the curse of silence. “If you’re not gonna sleep, I have to do it by force.”
“Well, it’s not working.”
“Fuck off, I’m trying my best.” He’d only ever seen people do this, okay? No one had ever taught him.
“I know. It’s sweet.” Reo buried himself deeper into Kenta’s arms, and his grip loosened on impulse.
“Who’re you calling sweet?” Such a statement could never apply to him.
There was only a little hum in response. He felt the hand on his back relax, the other on his chest curl around the fabric of his undershirt. Everything became very quiet and very still, and suddenly he could understand how someone could lie awake for hours like that.
It felt like he was suddenly in possession of the most precious thing in the world. He pulled his arms in again, no headlock, just- the word “embrace” popped into his head, and he shooed it away. It wasn’t like that, wasn’t anything. He just- so what if he wanted to hold something? Feel a heartbeat against his chest and run his hands through that hair and and and.
The slow rhythm of breathing carried on until the rest of him had fallen asleep, and all that remained was a sense of touch and the tiny grain of his mind that still knew it loved.
--
Shion eyed the barely-ajar door and considered his options. It was just past noon, and both Inukai and Suiseki were getting all antsy about “proper hospitality” and “overstaying welcome”. It was time to get the kid.
On the other hand, it was just past noon and they hadn’t seen the kid since midnight. Shion felt a kind of responsibility to let his little teammate do all the rebellious teenager things he wanted, to show him all the fun you could get out of life. And it seemed like he’d finally made some progress.
Do you know how hard that was, with someone like that?
It was just past noon, and the room was eerily silent (and had been silent for the past twelve hours, as far as he knew). Perhaps his little disciple needed a lecture in seizing all possible opportunities.
Steeling his body and soul, Shion slowly slid the door open. “Wakey wakey, Shibaken. It’s time to go~”
He spotted several items of interest. Firstly, a tumble of blankets strewn across the floor, with one still hanging off the bed. Hm. Second, the sheets actually on the bed were a knotted mess. Well. Third, and most importantly, a rare specimen- his teammate, actually cuddled up around someone. Aha! Progress!
Obviously, he would have to relay this information to the others- for maximum teasing, and also because it could look good on the kid’s records. “Improved interpersonal relationships” and all that.
Really, it was mostly for the teasing.
Feigning surprise, Shion raised his voice to speak again. “Oh my, am I interrupting something?”
The louder voice worked. Kenta shot straight up into a sitting position, eyes darting between Shion’s gleeful face and the arms slowly falling off his shoulders.
“Nope, nope, nothing happened, nothing fucking happened-” He brushed off the remains of the embrace and made for the door.
This couldn’t do. Shion caught him by the shoulders and turned on his Serious Face.
“Shibaken.” He maintained perfect eye contact. “There are certain courtesies a man must stand by in situations like these, when there is a certain level of commitment.”
“What the fuck are you on about?” Kenta completely ignored his sage wisdom and tried to push past.
“It’s not proper to love them and leave them.” Shion spun him around by the shoulders to face into the room. “Inform your lover of your departure.”
“EXCUSE ME?”
Perhaps his wording had been a little strong for the current situation. Ah, but who doesn’t love a little drama? Even if it results in a teenager threatening your life.
The sudden yelling resolved the issue.
“What time is it?” Reo sat up, still half asleep. He rubbed his eyes, and Shion took note of the bags that hadn’t been there the night before.
Interesting. He had much to pass on.