Hi fellow TerrafoFans! NOTE: English is not my mother tongue, so sorry for all the possible mistakes. Any polite correction would be greatly appreciated :3
Wow, this was a challenge. I know there are some mistakes and that I tend to constantly use the same formulas, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. A text of more than 1800 words in English, that's a new record for me and…I'm not gonna lie you, it feels great.
A friend requested me an Akari x Michelle short fic around the idea "Things you said when you were drunk". I must admit something. For some reason I don't manage to understand, I love writing hangovers, and with this concept I had the perfect pretext to made Akari suffer from one. With a little fear and a lot of shame I decided to share with you my first attempt of writing a whole fic in my second language. I really, really hope you like it! Thanks for reading!
Things you said when you were drunk
What in hell was that feeling? No, seriously. WHAT-THE-FUCK. Akari tried to get out of the bed when a piercing headache and an urge to puke made him lie down again with a groan.
"Akari, are you ok?" Alex voice made him raise his head enough to look at him, who was sitting on his own bed and approached him with concern on his face.
" No" he managed to say with a raspy voice "help…."
"It doesn't look like a fever" Alex corroborated putting a hand over Akari's forehead "How are you feeling?"
" Like shit" he covered his head with a pillow, the light hurt and every single noise, even the softest ones, were unbearable for him.
" I'm gonna fetch Michelle, she'll know what to do. Ok?"
Alex took Akari's grunt as a yes and left the room without adding anything more. Fortunately, it seemed that they were the only ones at the boys' rooms so he was left alone and in silence. He needed to drink, preferably water, tons of water, but coming out of bed was an impossible task for him at that moment. Not even the pressing need to pee was enough to make him get out of his mattress and blankets. The world was too cold, too bright and too noisy for him. And as if that wasn't enough, all around him was moving. He probably wouldn't be able to stand up if he dared to try. Fuck. He felt nauseated again.
While Akari was reconsidering his whole existence, Alex reached Michelle's room and knocked. He was worried about his friend. Akari was strong and he himself told the boys that he had never been sick. But he woke up at noon, and that was weird even keeping in mind that he slept like a log; pale, puffy-eyed and looking like he was going to puke in one moment or another. He really hoped it wasn't something contagious. If Akari's state was that bad the illness would probably be lethal for most of the crew.
"Alex? Did something happened?"
" Miche…sir! Akari is sick, very, very sick. He doesn't have a fever but he can't get out of bed and he's very pale and I don't know what to do and he needs help…" Michelle put a hand on his shoulder and he stopped his rushed monologue, looking anxiously at her waiting for an answer
"Alex, calm down" she made him take a deep breath and squeezed his arm "Now tell me. Akari's sick?"
" Yes. I don't know what it is, but he looks pretty bad and he says he feels like shit"
"And he doesn't have fever"
"No"
"I knew this was going to happen" Michelle sighed with exasperation and pinched her nose "Didn't you notice a weird odour in you room? Something like alcohol?"
" Well, yeah. But it's not unusual, I mean, we are always getting injured in training so the room always smell weird because of the medicines we use. And well, it smells like men, if you know wh..."
" Yeah, yeah, I don't need more explanations. I've already been there" she clicked her tongue and scratched her neck "Don't worry, he only has a hangover" Alex looked shocked, his mouth half open and round-eyed "I'll go take him a look"
They said goodbye and Michelle went to the men's dormitories, getting inside without even knocking, knowing beforehand only Akari was there. She found him lying on the bed, covered in blankets and moaning. Without any warning, she took off all of them leaving the poor boy exposed to the cold air from the room.
"Michelle?" he asked, his voice hoarse and confusion on his face. He felt so bad he even forgot the honorific he always used with her.
"Alcohol doesn't seem to be such a great idea today, right?" she sat on the bed at his side, handing him a bottle of water that he looked at puzzled "Take it, it'll make you feel way better"
"What is happening to me?" he unsuccessfully tried to open the bottle, so she had to open it and encourage him to drink. "Thanks. Why do I feel this bad?"
" Because you are tired and dehydrated, and have suffered an intoxication with a very dangerous drug" he looked so terrified she couldn't help but snort amused "It's a hangover, you idiot"
"This is horrible" Akari's voice sounded a lot better after having water "I'm not going to drink anymore in my life"
"At least not as much as yesterday" she fluffed up his pillows and helped him to re-accommodate in the bed, covering him with his blankets afterwards " You were and idiot, you know?"
" Yeah but Joseph challenged me and…"
"And you should have passed "Michelle reprimanded him making Akari pout and look down "Joe is a trouble-maker. I get why you did accepted his challenge, a competition is a competition. But it was only you the one to blame for not stopping when you still could"
"Sorry Michelle-san…" he huddled up and faced her, apologizing with a little bow with his head "To be honest, I don't even remember half of the night"
"You spent most of it with me"
"Really?" he showed an attempt of a smile, but he was too tired to keep it "That's a relief"
" I don't know if I'll be that relieved" she laughed softly, almost blushing and with fondness reflected on her face " I doubt you'll be if you remembered the things you said when you were drunk…" she left it like that, not adding more information, and Akari felt a knot in the pit of his stomach " How's your head?"
The urge to puke stroke back and his head was hurting like mad, not knowing what he had told was not helping at all. He massaged his temples and run a hand through his hair, messing it up even more than it already was. He was feeling so bad both physically and psychologically he didn't know what to do. He should be more positive, whatever he had told she was here with him, sitting in his bed and worried about his state. It couldn't have been that bad, right?
"It hurts, a lot"
"I'm going to get you some pain killers." she stood up and Akari felt the heat abandoning him, the air was so cold now that she wasn't by his side…"I'll be back in a while, don't make anything stupid"
She left and he felt uncomfortably alone, but by leaving she let him to reflect on past night to remember what in hell he had said. He couldn't recall a thing, and that made him be very, very afraid. There was lot of things, especially Michelle-related, that he didn't want anybody to know, and much less her of all people. She came back a while later, offering him a pill and a new bottle of fresh water. He wasn't able to take his eyes off Michelle, and followed all of her movements with his eyes since the moment she entered the room till she sat again by his side on the mattress.
"I wonder if it's true that drunk people always say the truth" she said suddenly, looking at him questioningly "What do you think?"
" I don't know" he admitted, shrugging "Why do you want to know?"
" Yesterday you said some interesting things, and I would like to know if they are true or not"
"Are they too embarrassing?"
" Maybe…although I found them cute. Wanna know?" Michelle nudged him "It's a win win situation, you'll get to know what you said and I would prove if that hypothesis is valid. What do you say?"
"Yeah, I guess."
To his surprise, Michelle took off her slippers and sneaked in the bed with him, covering herself with the blankets and leaning her back in the wall behind them. He did not complained.
"You started by saying you find me very pretty" she blushed a little and Akari couldn't help but gasp covering his mouth. Well, OF COURSE that was true but he didn't felt brave enough to admit it, and even less in front of her. She was looking directly at him and Akari cleared his throat. Michelle was waiting for an answer and he already knew what should it be, but that didn't made it less frightening
" Emmm…" He looked away and muttered in a voice so low that Michelle was only able to hear because of her great hearing skills "You're beautiful, that's blatantly obvious"
"Oh" she covered her blushed cheeks with her hands for a moment. Akari being that straightforward with an issue like that was something she wasn't expecting at all "Then you said that you think I'm awesome and that you admire me a lot"
"You're the person I respect the most from all the crew, Michelle-san" from his voice and the way he was looking at her Michelle knew he was being honest, and she wasn't very sure of how to feel about that
"Really?"
"Absolutely. I'm very glad to be working under the command of someone as diligent and kind as you"
She could feel her face burning and had to take a long gulp of fresh water before going on with her kind of interrogation. Michelle took a deep breath and started talking again.
"And finally, you said you like me" Akari started coughing and she felt too embarrassed to keep looking at him "You didn't specified in what way"
" I-i-in a friendly way of course!" he said in a tone of voice a lot more high-pitched and loud than his usual one " F-friends like each other as friends, if not they won't be friends, and you're one of my best friends here so I like you as a friend…a lot…as a friend" he coughed "Friends are great"
" I-I see….well there's nothing more so let's change topic. Do you agree?"
" GLADLY"
However and even if Michelle was successful enough to hide it from Akari, there was still another thing he had said the previous night. She didn't dared to ask, and seeing his reaction to the last question she preferred not doing the things even more awkward between them. They had a mission to focus into, and the possibilities of not coming back alive or not coming back at all were too high to worry about other issues. But she made a promise to herself and to him, even if he didn't knew. If both of them came back alive she would ask him regarding that question she didn't felt brave enough to wonder about at that moment.
Because of all the things he said when he was drunk, the one that shocked her the most was..."I love you".