It's about the third time Gouenji wakes up tonight, but he still doesn't know what it is that makes him feel so restless. Everything seems quiet; it's a warm summer night, crickets' chirping can be heard through the window they left open, and if he pays enough attention, he thinks he can even hear the low buzzing of the refrigerator from the kitchen. He lets out a low sigh, trying to lull himself back to sleep by listening to the steady breathing of his two partners, laying on each side of him.
That's when he finally realizes what's out of the ordinary. On one side, Aphrodi is sound asleep; he's curled into a half-fetal position, one knee lightly brushing up against Gouenji's thigh, his mass of blond hair scattered everywhere, over his face, his shoulder, some of it is even touching the shell of Gouenji's ear - but that's not what has woken him. He turns his head slightly to look at Endou; the brunette is laying sprawled out on his back, taking up almost half of the bed just by himself, but there is a pillow over his face, showing only the very bottom of his chin, and the rise and fall of his chest is nowhere near steady; it's erratic, leaving a pained feeling in Gouenji's lower stomach.
He rolls on his side properly, sliding a little closer to him, away from Aphrodi. The blond doesn't move; he usually has a hard time falling asleep, but once he does, few things can rouse him. Gouenji props himself up on an elbow, and drags the tip of a finger down the edge of Endou's chin. The goalkeeper gives a jolt of surprise, and as the pillow slides off his face, Gouenji's hunch stands correct; he's been awake. His brown eyes are full of surprise and questioning, but there is also that hint of lingering pain that the striker had anticipated.
Gouenji's hunches are usually right, after all.
"Can't sleep?" Endou asks, not even bothering to keep his voice down. "What-..." It takes Gouenji's palm to cover his mouth to shut him up, though a moment later the brunette also seems to come to the realization. "Sorry," he whispers - how he manages to sound sheepish even then is beyond Gouenji, but he does -, giving him a slight grin as soon as the hand moves away. "What's wrong?"
"That's what I was about to ask," Gouenji replies coolly, his voice also hushed, although there is a definite hint of worry in his eyes. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
Endou gives a light shrug, but it ends in a wince. "Don't mind, don't mind. I just have a headache. Just go back to sleep, Gouenji, I'll be fine."
But Gouenji is wide awake now, and there is something about Endou's pained expression that feels like a needle stabbed into his heart. He doesn't think the other is lying - why would he? -, but Endou, the heart and soul of the team, the one that always stands up... being in this much distress? It's just disturbing, and even more so with how much Gouenji cares about him. "Why haven't you taken some pain medicine?"
"I have," comes the mumbled answer, and Endou glances away. "It didn't really do anything."
There is no more light in the room than the scattered moonlight that's seeping through the window curtains, but Gouenji would still swear there is a light blush on the other's face. Now he's definitely not telling the entire truth. Another time, perhaps he would begin nagging him, but it's way past midnight, he doesn't want to wake Aphrodi, and... well, if it's something serious, he trusts Endou enough to eventually tell him anyways. So, for now, he simply settles for attempting to do his best to make the other feel better. He pulls a little closer to him, the arm he isn't using to hold himself up with quickly going to drape itself around the brunette's stomach, and his lips press against Endou's temple, nose pushing away the hair that's getting in the way now that Endou has taken off his headband for the night. "Is this where it hurts?" he mumbles, and Endou can't hold back a slight chuckle as Gouenji's breath tickles his ear. His own hand goes to cover the back of Gouenji's palm, and the striker begins to get the feeling that he has chosen the right option.
"Everywhere, actually..." comes the soft answer a moment later, and Gouenji's nose disappears in between the brown locks of hair as he folds his fingers together with Endou's above his stomach, and takes in his scent. Endou smells like freshly cut grass, and hazelnuts - an odd combination, but Gouenji has always liked it. "That's too bad..." he mumbles, and this time, Endou only lets out a sigh, somewhere between content and pained. Well, it's a start.
There are a few moments of silence as Gouenji continues his exploration of Endou's hair, then, as his nose presses against a spot particularly hard - a little harder than he originally intended, actually -, he hears a sharp intake of breath, and he retreats immediately with a quickly whispered apology. Surprisingly enough, Endou shakes his head, smiling at him, even if a moment later he's grasping the sides of his head with both hands, teeth gritted in pain. Gouenji now feels even more guilty, although he can't quite tell if Endou is in so much pain because of what he did, or the headshake he's inflicted upon himself. However, somehow, miraculously, through it all, Endou is still grinning at him, that unbelievable, goofy grin that most of the time seems to have this mysterious power to take all of the gloom from Gouenji's (and everyone else's, really) life away, and that makes the white-haired boy feel he can breathe a little easier.
"That was really good!" Endou exclaims once he can speak again (and of course, he gets a palm slapped onto his mouth again. Aphrodi still doesn't stir). There's a momentary silence after Gouenji lets go again, and now he's definitely blushing. "It felt good," Endou repeats, this time whispering. Unsurprisingly, Gouenji feels his own face redden a little, too, but since the window and the moon is right behind his back, Endou can't see it. "Would you mind... since you're already awake... ahaha..." The brunette trails away with a sheepish laugh, and Gouenji furrows his eyebrows.
"What is it, Endou? Just tell me."
"Ah, could you... umm..." What is so difficult about such a simple request? "Give me a massage?"
Gouenji blinks. "You mean, on your head?"
"Yup!" That, again, comes out a little louder than Endou anticipated, but Gouenji doesn't even get a chance to roll his eyes at him this time, because the goalkeeper is rolling on his side, with his back to Gouenji, and begins to fumble around in one of the bedside drawers. "Ah, here it is!"
"Endou, shut up," Gouenji hisses this time, and the blush deepens visibly again, but Endou is now sitting up, holding up the object he's found with a victorious grin. Gouenji has to blink again. "What... is that?" The thing the other is holding looks like... well, for lack of a better comparison, an egg beater. However, unlike the kitchen appliance, this one is only connected at the handle; the other end is loose, each of the metal wires ending in a tiny black blob.
"A head massager," Endou replies matter-of-factly, as if Gouenji asked about if the Sun rises in the East. "Here, I'll show you-..."
Gouenji has no time to prepare himself for the feeling. The odd object is put around his head like a crown, and as Endou slides it down his head, the blobs simultaneously pressing into his scalp, he feels goosebumps ripple up his arms and back from the feel. By the time it begins on its way back up, he's shivering with the weirdness of it all, and he can't even bring himself to tell Endou to stay quiet when he pushes the thing into his hand, exclaiming, "Your turn!"
Apparently, despite seeming such an expert at this, Endou is no better at handling his head being massaged than Gouenji was. On the first slide down, there is a tiny giggle escaping his lips, then as it goes back up, it develops into a low, strained chuckle. "G-Gouenji, that's ticklish-!" "You asked me to," is the only answer he gets as the massager is pushed down again, making its way through tangled brown locks, digging into the shorter one's scalp. This time, surprisingly, the giggle develops into a sigh, then a moan, and the third time becomes increasingly difficult to execute, as meanwhile Endou has burrowed his face into Gouenji's shirt. "Feels good..." the captain mumbles, and Gouenji doesn't hesitate to wrap his free arm around him.
They last about three more rounds, down, and up again, throughout which Gouenji's palm has begun rubbing circles onto Endou's back, and Endou's moans of pleasure has been becoming louder and louder. He tilts his head back a little for easier access, and Gouenji is on the verge of leaning down to capture his lips in a kiss... when he suddenly receives a firm kick right into the small of his back. Endou lets out a surprised yelp as the massager falls off sideways, poking him painfully in the process, and the two of them fall off the bed in a mess, to end up on the ground in a heap of tangled limbs. "Could you two be a bit less of a nuisance?" comes Aphrodi's annoyed voice from the other side of the bed - they can't actually see him from where they are laying right now. "I'm trying to get some sleep here, but you're giving me a headache!"
Endou's exploding laughter is, thankfully, muffled by Gouenji's shirt once again.
A couple of minutes pass, and things finally become quiet once again. The head massager has rolled away on the floor to finally stop under the desk, and nobody is willing to crawl enough to recover it. As Aphrodi can hear from Endou's whispered claim, his headache is mostly gone anyways, so it doesn't really matter. Well, now at least he understands why he has been laughed at in that manner. He expects the other two to climb back onto the bed - honestly, he didn't expect them to fully fall off in the first place, he'd just wanted to give them a warning -, but surprisingly so, that's not what happens. And, even though this means Aphrodi now has the entire bed and the entire blanket to himself, it still somehow leaves him with an empty feeling at the bottom of his stomach.
He can't fall back asleep now, no matter how he tries. He isn't following the time, but he's guessing at least half an hour must have passed, because both of the other two's breathing has evened out. After a while, he props himself up on an elbow, and squints at the clock on the wall; half past three in the morning.
The blond falls back onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. Why did those two dumbasses have to wake him up like that? But, more importantly, why didn't they climb back up? Slowly, he rolls on his side, and peers down at them. Endou is sleeping on his back, as always, arms spread out wide; Gouenji is pressed up against his side, an arm thrown over Endou's chest, and his face pressed into the crook of the brunette's neck. Aphrodi isn't sure why he feels his chest tighten at the sight. They look so happy like this. Content. And he loves them - he has admitted this long ago, not only to himself, but to them as well; that's what brought him to where he is now, sharing a bed with them, among other things. They love him, too, as strange as that sometimes seems to Aphrodi; they said so as well. So, why?
Aphrodi knows he's prone to overthinking things like this. He knows he should just go back to sleep. He knows he shouldn't feel left out only because the two of them are sleeping together without him - after all, it's his fault they ended up there to begin with.
But he can't help doing so anyways.
Although he wasn't able to fall back asleep, he certainly had to have spaced out somewhere along the way, because he suddenly comes to his senses and finds himself staring straight into Endou's eyes. The other is staring straight back at him, and there is something inexplicable in his eyes that makes Aphrodi's chest tighten further, makes him feel like there is a hot rock in his throat - makes him feel like he could maybe cry, although he really doesn't want to. Then again, he's never met anyone who even came remotely close to being as warm as Endou Mamoru is. It just radiates everywhere around him; it's literally impossible to feel unhappy when someone is around him, and with the addition of being on the receiving end of his wholehearted love...
Aphrodi doesn't even get a chance to finish his line of thought, before a hand is held out to him. "Come on," Endou says, smiling, and Aphrodi finds himself taking his hand without a second thought.
Obviously, as it often is with Endou's thoughtless ideas, this is a mistake. Though nobody would deny that Endou only had good intentions, Gouenji personally thinks he could have imagined a better way of being startled awake than having the full weight of Afuro Terumi fall down on top of him, not only scaring the wits out of him for a moment, but squeezing the air out of his lungs as well. The next two minutes are utter chaos, while they once again attempt to untangle all limbs, and reassure themselves that nobody sustained any injury that would need treatment. By the end of it all, Endou is of course laughing, showering Gouenji's cheek in kisses to stop him from huffing, and even Aphrodi finds a tiny smile on his own lips, although he makes it sure they don't see it, as he kneels up to pull the blankets down from the bed and cover all three of them.
At first, he's mildly surprised at having ended up in the middle; this is something that's never happened before. He's grateful for what he's received so far, and, having been the third addition to their group, he's never complained for being on the side, as long as there was a warm hand to hold on to, a shoulder to press his cheek against, or a few fingers playing with his hair as he drifted off to sleep. This is different, intensely so, and, for a few moments, he finds himself at a loss. "Why exactly are we here, again?" he tries, partly only to mask his awkward feeling, but also actually wondering why they didn't just go back onto the bed.
The next moment, breath seems to escape his lungs as Gouenji presses up against his back, wraps an arm around his waist, and buries his face in his hair. "Does it really matter?" Endou asks on his other side, facing him, his eyes still full of a million inexplicable things that make Aphrodi's stomach flutter and his heartbeat quicken, yet also leave him feeling content - moreso than anywhere else in the world.
He can't bring himself to reply out loud, but he doesn't think there is a need of it. From the way Endou tugs the blankets up to cover all three of them properly, then snuggles up to him and exhales, falling asleep no more than five seconds later, Aphrodi is sure he already knows the answer.
Anywhere is fine, like this.