Title: Early
Word count: 817
Author's notes: I'm not to be responsible for writing this after reading a whole slew of Niou/Yagyuu fics! Seriously, this has to be one of the most emo pairs in PoT… Hopefully Red will beta this for me one day…
Early
Yagyuu is sleeping when his phone vibrates against his pillow, the mobile device near him not because he's expecting a call but because it doubles up as his alarm clock. He reaches for his glasses and sighs when his fumbling fingers knock them to the floor. Finally he flicks open the plastic cover of his phone and reads the message.
Hey, whassup? I can't sleep.
Yagyuu sighs and props himself up against his pillow before texting his reply.
Not all of us suffer from insomnia you know.
He makes himself comfortable as he waits for the reply and says goodbye to any hopes of getting much more sleep that night. A glance at his phone tells him it's three in the morning; oh well, at least he got a little more sleep this time.
Tough. p Wanna eat yakiniku after school tomorrow?
After tennis practice you mean. Alright. But you're not to cook ANYTHING.
Aww, you're no fun…
Niou Masaharu, after what happened the last time, I think it for the best you never be allowed to cook again.
So if I were a salary man, would you be my wife and do all my cooking for me? Wearing an apron? Only an apron?
Yagyuu paused for a moment to consider this mental image. If he blushed, it was too dark to see; not that anyone was watching anyway.
I think the lack of sleep is affecting your brain… can you come online? It'll be easier to talk.
What? Do I mean so little that you will not spare even a few measly text messages for me?
Yagyuu thinks of the last time Niou messaged him in the early hours of the morning and how his father had scolded him for the phone bill that month. Only his mother's intervention and his offer to pay the bill out of his allowance had stopped his father from canceling his plan. After that he had switched to a plan which gave more free text messages but less talk time; Niou never calls anyway.
Your parents are awake?
Yeah.
That one little word tells Yagyuu how bad it is because Niou doesn't try to avoid the question or even swap his answer with a barrage of other meaningless chatter. The LCD screen of his phone goes dark before Yagyuu moves again.
I'm coming over.
He's already half-changed when the phone vibrates again, buzzing oddly and too loudly against the wood of his desk where he had unthinkingly set it down. Yagyuu rushes to pick it up, afraid it'll wake someone up even though he knows nobody is awake to hear it through closed bedroom doors. But then, the silence of the early morning makes everything sound louder.
I'll meet you halfway. How about the park?
Yagyuu pauses for a moment as he considers this. He really wanted to go to Niou's house and take him away from there but telling Niou to stay there now with… with things the way they are would just be selfish.
See you there in twenty.
He remembers to grab an extra sweater and scarf before climbing out of his bedroom window. First watching Niou do it and then nights of practice of his own had made him deft and he barely had to look for the handholds as he shimmied down the drainpipe.
Niou's by the pond when Yagyuu finds him without even having sent another message to ask. He's only wearing a turtleneck and his tennis jersey- probably the warmest clothes in his room. He heavier winter jacket would have been near the front door- impossible to reach with his parents awake. Yagyuu hands him the sweater and scarf; Niou accepts them wordlessly. It's still, nothing moving over the water and just the two of them in the whole park. Even the vagrants aren't around, it's too cold for that. In summer though they dot the benches and then Niou chooses other places for them to meet.
Yagyuu doesn't know how long they sit there in silence but it's long enough that even with his heavy overcoat he begins to fill chilled and he knows Niou must be freezing. He inches closer and closer until they're sitting side-to-side, pressed up against one another and only then does Niou look up at him. Starts up at him more like, suddenly jerked from his thoughts. Yagyuu takes off his left glove and pull it onto Niou's left hand, the other boy watching all the while, a bemused smirk on his lips, his fingers held out straight and stiff in his only offer of assistance. Yagyuu gives the glove a final tug then takes Niou's right hand in his left and rests it on their laps, inching a little closer as their new position allows.
This way they're warm as they watch the sun begin to rise and know that they're going to be late for school.
End