Comfort Me~ Regisa

Rei stumbled as he entered the hotel room. Cursing slightly at his uncharacteristic lack of grace, he tried to quietly shuffle over to his bed. As he stripped down to his boxers, he thought back to the conversation he'd just had with Rin. Although they had only spoken for a few minutes, Rei was so distressed and worried about the race tomorrow that he'd stayed out for more than an hour. He tried jogging around the field where the meeting had taken place, but rather than help him collect his thoughts, the run had only served to jumble them further. Rin's parting words had bounced around in his head constantly. "Do your best with Haru and your other teammates, but that also means that…"

"You can't embarrass your team."

The worst part of that statement was that it wasn't spoken with any derision or scorn, but with a hint of pity. As if Rin already knew the outcome of tomorrow's relay.

With a muffled groan, Rei threw himself into his bed and curled up under the blankets, pressing his palms against his eyes. Rin-san is right, of course, he thought desperately, I am the weakest link in our team. Even after all the effort Haurka-sempai put into teaching me, if my poor swimming were to cost us the race I—

Rei put more pressure on his eyes, trying to stop the tears that were leaking out slowly.

No! Rei commanded himself, You must not cry! Nagisa-kun is trying to sleep and if he were to hear you—

"Rei-chan are you crying?" came a soft voice directly behind him.

Rei whirled around, getting tangled up in the sheets and nearly rolling on top of a certain golden haired boy who was currently lying in Rei's bed. "N-Nagisa-kun?!"

"Rei-chan are you okay?" Nagisa whispered, looking up at Rei with big, concerned eyes.

"Wh-what are you doing in my b-bed!" the taller boy stuttered out while adjusting his glasses –until he remembered that he'd taken his glasses off while getting undressed. Rei let his hand fall to the bed, embarrassed, but quickly jerked it back to his side when it accidentally brushed against Nagisa's warm skin. The fact that Rei could even see Nagisa without his glasses just proved that the small teen was definitely invading his personal space. Trying to school his expression and voice into one of firm disapproval, Rei announced, "That is, you should be asleep! Experts say that in order to perform at one's absolute best, a minimum of eight hours sleep is necessary to—"

"But Rei-chan! When I woke up a while ago you were gone, so I went looking for you." Nagisa had been looking for him? Alone? In the middle of the night? "I ran into Haru-chan, but I couldn't find you anywhere!" Nagisa pouted, "You even left your cell phone here!" Had he? The typically alert teen must have been more agitated than he thought.

Nagisa's voice dragged Rei back out of his thoughts. "So then I thought, what if I were to lie in wait for Rei-chan to come back and scare the crud out of him as punishment for running off by himself!" the boy said with an amused and slightly mischievous glint in his eye.

Then suddenly, the glint was gone and Nagisa scooted closer to Rei as he spoke, "But— I wasn't expecting you to be crying. What's wrong Rei-chan?"

"N-nothing is wrong, N-Nagisa-kun," Rei said nervously. It just so happened that Nagisa was now close enough for Rei to feel his body heat and the soft brush of the smaller boy's breath against his face.

"Are you sure?" Nagisa whispered, placing a small hand on Rei's bare chest.

Rei felt his heart splutter into overdrive. It was pounding in his chest so hard, Rei was sure Nagisa must have felt the frantic heartbeat through his fingertips. Hoping the room was dark enough to obscure the blush spreading across his face, Rei managed to reply with a strangled, "Yes."

"Oh." Much to Rei's surprise, Nagisa didn't pull away after hearing his response. Rather, the smaller boy surged forward, knocking Rei onto his back. He wrapped his arms around Rei's neck and buried his face in Rei's chest. "Then will you please hold me?"

Stunned, and at a complete loss for words, Rei stared down at the golden head resting just below his chin. Somehow, Rei's arms moved of their own accord and wrapped themselves around Nagisa's slim torso. He had no idea why Nagisa was acting so affectionate all of a sudden (though he would admit that he usually had difficulty following the small swimmers' bubbly train of thought) but he had to admit that he was rather enjoying the feeling of Nagisa in his arms.

Rei didn't know how long they stayed like that, embracing each other, listening to the soothing sounds of each other breathing, but as the seconds ticked by, Rei felt a tension he didn't know he possessed leave him. It was so easy to relax like this. This feels so right, Rei thought as he absently began to stroke Nagisa's hair. Nagisa-kun is always so warm, like a miniature sun. It's like he's banished all the dark thoughts I was having with just his presence. Rei found himself sighing in contentment.

Eventually, Rei asked, "Are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

"Hehe, just like Rei-chan, always bringing me back to Earth," Nagisa grumbled while looking up. When he caught sight of a slightly hurt look on Rei's face he quickly added, "In a good way, of course!"

Rei's expression smoothed out. "Well?" he inquired again.

Nagisa sighed, then started up in his usual cheery voice, though Rei could tell it was a bit forced, "I was just nervous about the relay tomorrow is all! Haha! Guess even I get worried about these things—"

"What?!" Rei interjected, flabbergasted, "You're nervous too? Um, I mean—"

"Ahhh! So Rei-chan is nervous too!" Nagisa took his turn at interrupting.

Fighting the urge to once again adjust his non-existent glasses, Rei passionately retorted, "Nagisa-kun, the fact of the matter is that you have absolutely no reason to be nervous! I've read all the handbooks on both butterfly and breaststroke swimming style and your form is perfect! I've even done the calculations while taking you're smaller stature into consideration and you far outrank the average breaststroke swimmer! I'm the real problem here! The random variable, if you will. Since I only recently began swimming I have a 75% chance of messing up during a competitive—mmnngghh!"

Rei's diatribe was abruptly cut off by something warm and soft pressing against his lips. For a moment Rei's mind flew off the handle trying to figure out what that something was. N-no! It c-couldn't be!

And it wasn't, it was just Nagisa's fingers.

Feeling like his face was on fire, Rei glared down at the madly grinning Nagisa resting on his chest. "Y'know Rei-chan, you talk a lot about things that aren't really important. And usually it's the things you don't say that have the most meaning."

Rei swallowed hard as Nagisa shifted forward, bringing their faces closer together. "Like how you say you're more likely to cave under the pressure when you can actually keep your cool almost as well as Haru-chan. Or when you try to act all strict when really you just wanna have a good time."

Nagisa's face was mere centimeters away from Rei's now, and coming closer. His dark purple eyes were fixed on Nagisa's light maroon ones –he was unable to look away. Rei begun breathing heavily.

"Or how you pretend to be indifferent when I get close to you like this."

Softly, gently, like the mere flutter of a butterfly's wings, Nagisa brushed his lips over Rei's mouth. Rei was frozen in shock, eyes open wide, but… he had to admit, the feeling was pleasant. Very pleasant, he thought with a blush, and sweet too. Ever so slowly, Rei began to kiss Nagisa back. When they pulled apart several moments later, Rei felt like he was floating. He was just that relaxed. Nagisa's lips were warm and soft and so was his body, still carefully enclosed in Rei's arms. Leaning forward, Rei affectionately rubbed his nose against Nagisa's.

"Nagisa-kun?"

"Hmm?"

"Let's stay like this for a while."

Nagisa just giggled and kissed Rei once again.