He was falling despite being firm against the mattress. The fitted sheets were cool against his hands and neck, fresh, clean and perfectly neat.
Hibari opened his eyes painfully at the sound of a soft thump. Yamamoto struggled to clean the spilt water around the glass he had set down. He paused feeling the penetrating stare on him. Yamamoto smiled.
"Sorry. Did I wake you?" he whispered with a tone of genuine concern.
Hibari blinked silently in reply. Yamamoto covered Hibari's stare with a hand to his forehead.
"Your fever seems to have dropped." Yamamoto squatted down by the bedside table while Hibari watched with a dull disorientated gaze. "Try to take your medicine, ok?" Yamamoto placed two capsules beside the glass of water.
Hibari turned onto his side before his exhausted body and gravity pulled him onto his stomach. His head sunk deep into the clean linen. Yamamoto sighed. The soft expression of exhaustion only met the wall of Hibari's indifference.
"Just try?" Yamamoto whispered but they were also lost to the bedridden older boy. Hibari inhaled the crisp scent of the sheets. His body was floating, drifting, just inches above the quickly heating sheets. He was a loose balloon…no, a cloud…floating away.
Yamamoto's firm hand on his kept him from drifting away.
"How does your back feel?" Yamamoto asked as his warm fingers tested the dark blossoms across Hibari's pale back.
"Fine," Hibari muttered, his head hanging heavily, exposing the sharp protrusions of his neck bones just below bruised skin. Yamamoto's gaze clung to each curve of that small neck.
"You know you should have an actual doctor look at these. I can only do so—"
"This is fine."
Yamamoto nodded but the gesture was lost to Hibari's injured back. He knew his way around injuries. Between baseball and Tsuna's activities, Yamamoto had seen his fair share. But these demanded attention beyond Yamamoto's training.
His fingers touched gently but carefully avoided a caress.
"Stop that." Not carefully enough. Yamamoto chuckled and removed his hand.
"Does anything feel broken?"
"No, so stop being so gentle." Yamamoto pressed his thumb on a darkening bruise between his spine and his shoulder blade. He felt Hibari inhale deeply but no sound escaped expressing the obvious pain that the pressure brought. Yamamoto grinned enigmatically, letting his fingers fall.
"Just see Ryohei. You'll be fine." Yamamoto stood.
"This is fine." Yamamoto looked at the pale skin marred with dark bruises before sighing and returning to massaging the dark skin. Hibari kept his gaze down, never meeting Yamamoto's during the whole ordeal.
"Heeeeey, why do I have to sit in the back?" Yamamoto whined. He peered between the driver and passenger seats.
"Cause you're annoying. Shut up and buckle up," Gokudera stated matter of factly and backed the car out.
"Then why can't Hibari sit back here with me?" Yamamoto continued as he buckled up and sat back.
"Because I'm not your damn chauffeur."
Yamamoto watched both Gokudera and Hibari ignore each other and him. He sat quietly for what felt like an eternity but what was in reality only seconds.
"Heeeeeey, I'm bored."
"What are you, five!?" Gokudera snapped. "Shut up!"
Yamamoto sat back and this time he stayed quiet. They continued their drive slowly but silently through the back roads. Gokudera drove in a steady pace as if he knew every turn and bump by heart. The rhythmic drive began to work its way on the perpetually tired front passenger. Hibari heavy eyelids fluttered shut to the softly rocking car. In the back seat, Yamamoto's soft humming lulled him further into his dreams of birds and flight, blood and destruction, caresses and seduction.
Hibari's eyes snapped open. He looked down to see Yamamoto's hand playing under the soft fabric of his dress shirt. His skin was barely exposed to the cold air and Yamamoto's warm fingers.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yamamoto laughed loudly. Hibari twisted the other boy's fingers back without a flinch or obvious movement. Gokudera jerked toward Yamamoto.
"What are you laughing about?" he snapped. Hibari released Yamamoto's wander digits.
"Haha, nothing. Just thought I would laugh," Yamamoto played it off. Gokudera stared at the road ahead trying to understand what just happened.
Hibari closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Hibari's lungs desperately burned for another breath. His fingers ripped and clawed at the strong hands on his shoulders. His body struggled under the legs straddling him. Water splashed on either side of the tub as he flailed frantically.
The heavy grip relaxed for a split second and Hibari escaped. His own hands held down his attacker while air seared his oxygen-deprived lungs. Even his vision swam after the long submersion. Underneath him, Yamamoto lay still. His eyes were wide open watching the other boy. Hibari's grip tightened in frustration. A few bubbles escaped but nothing more. Hibari released and shoved Yamamoto out from under him. The usually loud boy broke the water's surface and gasped.
The two young men sat on opposite sides of the tub, their lungs burning for oxygen.
"You were supposed to fight back," Hibari whispered. Yamamoto pushed his wet bangs out of his face then leaned back against the porcelain tub.
"You just looked so passionate," Yamamoto replied with a smile. Hibari growled before standing. Water poured out of his suit and back into the tub and onto the bathroom tile.
"Clean up this mess." With that demand, Hibari left alone.
Yamamoto sighed. He wondered how much dry cleaning was going to be this week now that Gokudera had finally cut them off from non-work related dry cleaning. He took a deep breath before sliding back under the water. His soft eyes stared up toward the ceiling as he tried to relive the sensation of Hibari's full attention.
Hibari awoke to the soft rumbling of his cell phone. The sleepy teen reached over and looked at the caller ID. The light momentarily blinded him before the spots formed pixels of a familiar name. He sighed before flipping it open.
"What?"
"Did I wake you?" Hibari turned onto his side, cradling the phone against his ear.
"What do you want?" he demanded. There was a slow sigh on the other side.
"I just got in."
"Why do I care about this information?" Yamamoto chuckled.
"I suppose you're right." Hibari's eyelids started feeling heavy. "I just wanted to see you before I headed out again."
"You're…annoying."
"I missed you." There was no reply. "And I wanted to see you tomorrow." Silence. "Today was too long. Tsuna had me go out into Yokohama with Ryohei." Yamamoto paused again; listening for Hibari's soft breaths then continued his story.
Hibari continued to sleep peacefully with his ear pressed against his phone but hearing nothing.
Yamamoto padded through the bathroom yawning. His hair dripped from the shower and spotted the cool tile with water. He toweled his hair dry before pulling on underwear and returning to the bedroom.
The bed sank under his weight and Yamamoto sighed.
"You smell," Hibari muttered. Yamamoto wiggled under the comforter to press against the older boy.
"I took a shower," Yamamoto insisted, his arm wrapping around Hibari's waist.
"You're wet," Hibari growled. Yamamoto rested his head beside Hibari's.
"I dried off." Hibari elbowed him in the stomach. Yamamoto took the hint and gave the older boy room. "Good night, Hibari." There was no reply. Yamamoto smiled and ruffled his hair. "You look sexy like this…"
Yamamoto gasped at the sharp elbow to his stomach and coughed.
It didn't take long for Hibari to return to sleep. Yamamoto grinned sleepily and moved to close the gap between him and Hibari again. He threaded his fingers with Hibari's and closed his eyes.
"Goodnight," he whispered again. He thought he felt a slight squeeze from their intertwined fingers and smiled at the notion.