Work Text:
Jay feels eyes burning into the side of his head.
……
He’s in his room, supported by the headboard of the bed. A guitar is in his lap, employing his fingers to tune it. Jay keeps turning the knobs, listening intently, making sure the pitch is faultless.
The handle of the door turns without warning, knocking seemingly a foreign concept in this house. Jay quickly straightens his back, not letting them make fun of his awful posture.
The person ends up being Riki.
Jay almost starts sweating, knowing something brutal will come out of the younger’s mouth. But nothing happens, the hybrid simply closes the door behind himself after throwing over a quick “Hi”.
Jay breathes out, slumping back into his previous spot, this time more aware of his spine’s positioning. Riki walks towards him, suddenly speeding up. Jay doesn’t have time to react as the other does a running start before diving into the same bed he’s in.
The puma lands halfway across Jay’s legs, making the other grunt at the pain shooting up his knee. Riki laughs at his misery, clearly not regretting bothering his hyung. He knows it’s all been blown out of proportion anyway, the other always being dramatic.
Jay groans for a while longer as he rubs the bone. In the end he only rolls his eyes, forgoing the scolding session, knowing it will end up falling on deaf ears. It also might be because he’s just a tiny bit fond of the other.
Riki moves off him, settling in. Mimicking Jay’s position, he leans against the headboard, pressing their shoulders flush together. His tail slithers out from behind him, swaying in the air gently. He pulls his phone out, unlocks it and begins his endless scrolling.
Jay, already used to their quiet hangouts, resumes his work.
Riki only comes to him when he needs some down time. They never end up falling into deep conversation or doing anything that goes beyond becoming one with the mattress underneath. Jay doesn’t hate it, not at all. He loves the tranquil moments spent together, not one for engaging in activities that would make his heart rate spike. He knows Riki is the polar opposite though, always itching to move. So when Jay is visited by him, he can’t help but be elated.
He turns his head away, making hair fall on his face and hide the delight visible there.
Once he’s finally done tightening the strings, he brushes his fingertips against them all, checking out the sound. He’s satisfied.
He reaches out to the nightstand, needing material to play. He grapples at the surface for a second before laying his eyes on his computer. It’s on the table.
Jay would have to take even two whole steps to reach it, but that would mean getting up. And that is not happening, not when he’d be separating himself from Riki.
Even more so now, when the puma has laid his head on his shoulder.
Jay’s heart soars, knowing Riki is comfortable enough around him to not bother with personal space. The hybrid is so warm against him, heat piercing multiple layers of clothing, yet managing to keep its intensity. Jay feels his whole side toasting.
He subconsciously lifts one hand, petting Riki’s head once. It earns him a fleeting purr in return.
Jay smiles at the sound, and at the other for not moving away from him. Hence, he won’t be changing that, deciding to just refine old pieces, he can learn a new riff later.
When the hybrid isn’t twisting his head into his neck that is.
Jay casts his gaze at him, seeing a blurry image of Riki’s hair flying all over the place. He’s pushing at him, rubbing his ears against Jay’s chin, phone forgotten.
Already used to such attempts at making him annoyed, he shows no signs of playing into the game. He lets Riki smush his cheek into him and put half of his weight on him while he himself waits patiently.
Shortly, the former gives up, not receiving a desired outcome. He frowns, sitting up straight. He stays like that, clearly put off by the lack of reaction.
Jay is puzzled, accustomed to Riki’s passiveness even when failing in his harassment. Maybe he really wanted to succeed this time, but oh well, Jay won’t be the one backing down.
Thus, he plucks the cords in a familiar way, muscle memory kicking in. He goes steady for a while before slowing the pace, racking his brain for the upcoming part.
He’s bent over the guitar, not noticing Riki’s line of sight having moved down too, peering at it in concentration. He’s focused on Jay’s fingers gliding over the strings, manifesting a melody out of thin air.
When the latter eventually remembers how it goes next, he spots the puma, who doesn’t even rip his eyes away as Jay chuckles, endeared by the other taking a liking to his playing. He guesses Riki wants to learn this piece. It’s easy enough, it would be a breeze to teach.
His playing gets interrupted as his leg is nudged, Riki prodding him with his knee. Jay finally surrenders, giving the other attention.
“Did you want to learn this?”
Riki glances at him, sighing. His ears flatten to his head.
“That’s not-. Ugh, no.”
Jay is taken aback by the frankly rude response, the other not usually being so snappy. He’s even more perplexed knowing the hybrid had previously asked to be taught a piece he had liked.
Jay watches him, waiting for at least an explanation. Riki, still clearly displeased, does not utter a word, keeping his lips sealed as he waits for Jay to continue playing.
The latter, feeling some apprehension, waits a few beats before plucking a string. When he does so, he sees Riki relax a bit, but the frown does not melt off his face.
In addition, his gaze is now fixed on the side of Jay’s head.
He tries not to think much of it, already getting used to the borderline weird behaviour of the other. But Riki just keeps staring, drilling a hole into his temple.
“What is it, kitty?” – Jay is genuinely getting concerned, something being off about Riki today.
But clearly, he thinks otherwise, writing off his worries as:
“Nothing.”
Now Jay is no fool, something definitely is up. But an answer worth more than one singular word will not be granted to him. He wishes Riki’s tail could talk for him, as it is now wrapping itself around Jay’s wrist, tickling the sensitive skin there.
He’s so lost. He’s receiving mixed signals from the hybrid, not knowing how to discern what anything means. And if the latter doesn’t want to talk about his problems, then all Jay can do is go back to his guitar. Riki is too old to have Jay pulling teeth.
Riki scoffs at that, disbelief clear in his tone. He retracts his tail.
The serene music that had been floating around them gets abruptly cut off by Jay hitting the wrong note, his hands flying off the instrument as it is extracted from his grip.
He gapes as Riki holds it above his head. The shock quickly morphing into terror as he sees Riki’s arm flex, expecting his baby to be flung across the room. But his heart doesn’t give out, since the hybrid only carefully sets it down at the foot of the bed.
Jay takes a minute to calm his breathing before opening his eyes to the sight of Riki furiously blushing.
The puma is clearly embarrassed about something, eyebrows pinched together as he stares at his hyung.
Jay stares right back, utterly at a loss for what to say or do. Riki just groans, dragging his hands down his face before grumbling:
“Why can’t you just read my thoughts?”
Jay keeps on staring back, not finding the words to reply. He does try though, but the explanation would be too long and complex and he doesn’t think that’s what Riki meant.
“Huh?” – Is the only thing he manages.
He watches as Riki struggles. He keeps opening and closing his mouth, but in the end just turns away with his arms crossed over his chest.
“No. It’s embarrassing.” – Riki mumbles, Jay having to strain his ears to hear the response.
He wants to somehow comfort the puma, so he angles his body towards the other, sitting cross legged. Riki is still facing away, his shoulders drawn up high. Jay reaches a hand out and ghosts his fingers along the tail that is now lying in front of him.
He had hoped to get Riki’s attention, but instead, he gets Riki to relax his frame.
A smirk slowly materializes on Jay’s lips. He’s finally caught on.
But he doesn’t yield, wanting to tease the other more. He believes it’s high time for revenge.
“If you don’t tell me what you want, you’re not gonna get it.” – He sounds so smug, not even trying to hide it. He grins as Riki hunches over even more, inching his shoulder blades up, head ducking as he hides his burning ears.
“Or I can just start getting ready for bed if you don’t need anything.” – Jay breathes out theatrically, going to get off the bed.
Riki finally turns his head towards him. His eyes are so round and sad, looking utterly dejected. Jay had wanted to laugh at first, but he starts feeling bad, the other clearly having a hard time expressing himself.
He ends up giving the puma what was wished for. A hand lands on the latter’s head, fingers running through dark strands. This still doesn’t spur Riki on to quit being shy, but at least his shoulders drop.
Jay takes pity on him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling. Riki falls into his lap, temple knocking painfully against Jay’s collarbone.
The hybrid doesn’t get a chance to complain as arms wind around him. Instead he whines for a bit, wiggling around, but stills as his ear twitches.
Jay has it cupped in the palm of his hand, gently brushing his thumb against the soft fur.
Riki can’t help but purr. That loving embrace is cocooning him, making tension bleed out of his body. He can feel Jay’s heart beating under his other ear, the pace making thoughts slow down with it, no longer plaguing his mind with the task of asking for something mortifying.
He slumps into Jay, the other feeling a burn in his muscles to keep them sitting up. When he can no longer keep up, he steadily lowers both of them down until the puma is resting on his chest.
His tail manages to get out of the tangle of limbs and twine itself around Jay’s thigh. He gazes down at the scene, not believing this is real. How lucky he must be for Riki to not only not mind being touched, but seek it out too. He feels so giddy.
He decides to pet the puma to his heart’s content, not holding back, knowing the other wouldn’t want that either. He strokes the fluffy ears, increasing the vibrations coming from Riki, making them fill the room. Jay is sure that they surpass any melody played with his guitar.
He kneads the muscles of Riki’s nape, making the body under his hands turn into putty. He slides his fingers into the base of the hybrid’s hair, brushing the soft strands there. He feels the other shiver at the sensation, the puma simply lying on top of him, brain offline.
He comes back to his senses when the caresses taper off into nothing, his hyung’s arms resting motionless on his waist. Riki chuckles against Jay’s neck. He thought he’d be the one to fall asleep first, but their age difference proves him wrong.
He closes his eyes, listening to the quiet breathing of the other. He lifts his hand, patting Jay’s head once before shifting to get more comfortable.
He drifts off to sleep with a smile on his lips.