A Reverse Earthquake

"And so, we sent troops to America…" said Yamashiro-sensei as she told Kakeru's class the events of the Second World War, and how Japan was involved with the ordeal. Kakeru himself did not take much interest in the topic as he half-heartedly listened to his teacher speak. If his pen were alive, it would have vomited from being spun by his nimble fingers for the past twenty minutes now.

The ruby-eyed boy averted his gaze from his brunette teacher standing in front of the class to the boy sitting diagonally to his left, behind him. Subaru was busy jotting down notes in a small blue notebook, same colour as his eyes. Kakeru watched as the aforementioned teen's pen flew across the paper and he silently praised him for being able to focus on a subject as boring as history.

With Yamashiro so immersed in her story-telling session and about half the class asleep already, almost nobody noticed him staring so intently at another person.

Because he felt it safe to stare, he did. Suddenly, his head started to pound and he thought he was going mad. The classroom – no, the whole school building – started to shake. To him, who had lived in Japan all his life, this was not something abnormal.

Kakeru recognized it as an earthquake.

It was something that occurred frequently, so the teacher continued to conduct her lessons. After all, the school building was built to be able to withstand minor earthquakes. But as the shaking increased, the whole class realized that this was no ordinary earthquake, and the teacher stopped teaching. Then, the alarm blared.

"Okay, everyone line up outside the classroom!" Yamashiro instructed, and the whole class rose from their seats. However, escape was not something the ceiling allowed, and it came crumbling down on them.

Subaru looked up. He saw the cement above him crack and detach itself from the pieces around it. He fully expected himself to be crushed by it, but he fell with a thud to the ground, pushed by something. That something – or someone – fell on top of him, then the weight and the pressure increased as the cement slab fell on them. It wasn't as physically painful as he expected at first, what with having a cushion in between and all, but it sure was emotionally painful.

It was Kakeru who pushed him down and had gotten injured instead.

In the midst of all the chaos, nobody noticed Subaru and Kakeru squashed under the stone slab. Then, the classroom fell apart, the floor gave way, and the students that had failed to escape by then fell along with the rubble. This time, it was Subaru's back the suffered from the fall.

Broken shards of glass, wood and stone pierced his uniform and poked his back with their sharp edges. He winced and cursed internally, biting his bottom lip to suppress the pain. Panting heavily, he asked, "Kakeru, are you alright?"

Disorientated red orbs opened and searched for Subaru's sapphire ones. Silence drifted among the two while around them, screams and cries erupted from all directions. They were cut off from everyone else, trapped under slabs and rubble. Finally, Kakeru spoke, barely above a whisper.

"It's disgusting…"

Subaru's eyes widened softly at that. "What's disgusting?" he asked.

"Everything. Me. I'm disgusting. Subaru, you're the last person I should feel this about. But I still…"

Worry sank into the other boy from both the words that came spilling out of Kakeru's mouth and the warm feeling seeping through the fabric of his pants onto his legs. Kakeru was bleeding from the slab crushing his limbs – the shaking of the ground was only helping to quicken the process from the friction – and the blood lost was enough to penetrate two layers of cloth onto his legs.

"Just hang on a second please," Subaru said, trying to keep his voice as flat and not-worry-coated as possible. "I'll try to get us out of here."

"And how? I thought you were the more logical one between us," Kakeru retorted. Subaru took an imaginary step back at the former's sudden change in attitude, before releasing a sigh.

"Fine then. What is it you want me to hear? What is it that you feel about me that I don't already know?" And even though Kakeru was completely insistent that Subaru not divide his attention between his words and escaping just now, his answer didn't come immediately after Subaru popped the question.

Worry again surfaced in Subaru when Kakeru closed his eyes but didn't reopen them immediately. He considered shaking the boy. His hands reached for the other's shoulders, but then Kakeru lifted his eyelids.

"I hate your aloof personality," he said bluntly. "You don't say anything, yet you always get what you want. Naturally, everything goes your way, and no matter how hard I try, I…" He went silent for a while, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. Subaru didn't say anything – he knew it wasn't his cue to reply to the conversation yet. He understood that Kakeru was thinking of a suitable word(s) to use.

"I can't control myself. T-this is so wrong." He started to sob.

"Hey. Don't cry," Subaru said, trying to comfort him as he wiped the tears off Kakeru's face.

"Did… did you notice me stare at you?" Kakeru asked timidly after he calmed his rivers of tears.

"Yeah. I noticed," Subaru answered, somewhat nonchalantly.

"When?" Kakeru asked.

"I started to notice sometime in April. Besides, it was shameless, the way you stared at me just now before this mess happened. You weren't even trying to hide it."

"It wasn't like I didn't try at all," Kakeru defended himself. "I tried at first, but then keeping an eye out for people was tearing my attention from you. When I tried to talk to you, you'd always give me one-liners, or no reply at all. And then you'd respond to others in longer sentences. That hurt, you know," he continued on to complain.

"I had a reason," Subaru interjected his protest. "If I had talked to you so much, I wouldn't be able to stop." Like right now. "Couldn't I just maintain my cool personality in front of the guy I like?" Kakeru eyed him sternly.

"What?" Subaru asked with a bewildered expression. It was a smile, but a slightly crazed one. Bewildered.

"I… became aware… of my feelings… somewhere along the way. I tried to hold myself back from falling for a god, I really did, but that determination only made me fall harder because you were on my mind every other second of the day. S-subaru, I…" His voice trailed off. Then, he blushed. An angel fell out of heaven, Subaru thought.

Don't say it. Not here, not now. If you do say it, I might not…

"I love you, Subaru-kun," Kakeru said with the pure, innocent voice of an angel.

…be able to hold myself back.

And they kissed, Kakeru on top of Subaru. In that one blissful moment, their physical pain suddenly vanished. The kiss was purely lip, no tongue – they both came to an unspoken mutual understanding that it wasn't the time nor place for that. Besides, it was their first kiss with each other, and first kisses for both of them. They didn't want to ruin it.

They pulled away after no more than five seconds, and they were already panting and gasping for air. The cement slab's weight seemed to have increased tenfold compared to when it dropped.

"I… I think we really need to get out now," Subaru mentioned when his breathing was regulated. "Or we're not going to make it for a second time."

Kakeru blushed. "You're too bold, Subaru-kun. What second time?"

"If you're blushing, then you know exactly what I'm talking about." A smirk. Kakeru's blush deepened. But then it didn't.

Instead, the colour started to drain from his face. "H-hey! Kakeru, keep your eyes open! Stay with me!" Subaru pleaded, frantic.

The one above him struggled, mustering up all his strength just to force his eyelids open. His vision was hazy as his breathing started to slow. Subaru searched for his hand and gripped it.

It's… cold.

"Stay with me, Kakeru! I'll try to move the slab so keep your eyes open! Don't give in!" With his free hand and legs, he tried to push the slab off. But the slab rubbed against Kakeru's body, causing the boy to cry out in pain. His tears returned.

"It's… painful… Subaru-kun. I… I'm so tired. C-can I… sleep?"

"NO! I…" He'd balled his fists by then from the frustration of not being able to do anything other than cause pain. "You can't. I won't permit it," he said, this time with a calmer tone than his shout from before. But this was his serious tone, the tone he used when he didn't want to allow any more discussion. Anyone and everyone who he'd used this tone against succumbed to him without complaints.

"Then… hold me. Tightly, Subaru-kun," Kakeru requested.

"I thought you'd never ask." He gripped the joined hands tighter while snaking the other hand around Kakeru. As bad as the situation looked, Subaru noticed that the colour in his precious classmate's had stopped draining, and his breathing wasn't getting any slower. His body was gradually getting warmer from Subaru's body heat as they cuddled, though not in a very comfortable environment.

"I won't let go until we're rescued. So stay with me until then," declared the boy underneath.

"Hai," came a quiet response from the boy above. Shy, innocent Kakeru suddenly planted a kiss on Subaru's lips, but Subaru immediately kissed back.

"Keep me awake," Kakeru explained and requested at the same time when they released each other's lips.

"But only in intervals. We need to breathe. I know I do," Subaru replied.

After what seemed to be an eternity waiting (but none of them will ever say that they had enough kissing) for help, someone lifted one of the surrounding slabs off them. Sunlight pierced through and caught Subaru's attention in the middle of a kiss. He pulled apart and Kakeru was about to protest when he called out for attention.

"There's someone trapped down there!" they heard someone shout.

"Quickly, the crane!" another yelled. Subaru smiled. They were finally getting out of there. Saved.

Thus, one by one, all the rocks and slabs were lifted off the duo. Paramedics came and took Kakeru away in a stretcher, followed by Subaru. The latter only needed help getting on his feet, though. They were both taken to the general hospital a five-minute drive away.

Inside the ambulance, Subaru was sitting on his own while Kakeru had finally lost consciousness. One of the crew turned to him.

"How did you keep your friend over there conscious the whole time with injuries as bad as that?" the man questioned the boy sitting across from him. Subaru looked up – he was finally starting to get tired from his injuries – and yawned.

"We did nothing in particular," he said. "He was naturally strong."

"Even so," the man shot back, but Subaru held up his hand.

"Hospital first. The glass is breaking my back," he dismissed.

"You don't need to tell me," Subaru told Kumi-sensei (the doctor bandaging his wounds after she had disinfected them). She had just told him the do's and don'ts of taking care of his back as it was healing, though the boy seemed to have lost interest in her words.

"But you need to know what you can and can't–"

"It's common sense for me not to sleep on my back with these injuries," he interjected. "Sensei, I know you mean well, but I know what I can and can't for myself. Especially these little things."

"You sure are hostile…" Kumi muttered to herself under her breath.

"What was that?" Subaru asked. The doctor's golden eyes widened.

And alert, too, she thought, not sounding her thoughts this time.

After she finished, the wounded boy stood up from his chair, holding onto the doctor's medical cart – the type with wheels – for support. She noticed, and grabbed onto his hand.

"You tell me you have common sense, but you push yourself up using this cart! It has wheels!" she exclaimed.

"That are locked into place," Subaru argued back. Her eyes flew to the cart's wheels, only to find them secured, just as Subaru had said. Her face turned red in embarrassment, and he sighed.

"Well I'm sorry for being worried about you!" the airheaded woman bit back.

"That was a lame retort," Subaru teased the flushed doctor, making her face even redder than she already was. I'm actually enjoying this. Maybe I can tease Kakeru as well? I'll try once we get a little closer.

"You're in perfect condition and dismissed! Good day!" she yelled at him and tried to shove him out the door. He dodged her attack to his back with a swift swerve and caught her as she tripped over her own toes.

"That's quite unprofessional of you, doctor. You know my back is injured. And besides, you're not supposed to be attempting at hurling your patients out of your office with brute force," he reprimanded her before he strode over to the door. "One more thing, doctor. The boy brought along with me in the same ambulance; where is he now?" he asked.

"Huh? That boy? He was… he was…" Her voice trailed off as she scratched her head trying to think.

"He was brought to the emergency ward! Yeah, that's where!" she exclaimed suddenly after twenty seconds or so of musing, surprising Subaru gently when she blurted out the answer.

"Thank you doctor. Now, if you'd allow it, I'm leaving. See you some–"

"Wait!" she screamed. Subaru turned around and his blue eyes met her gold ones.

"What now?"

"You… you need to come back in a week or so. I need to check you up again and see how the wounds have healed," she told him.

"So I'm stuck with you?" Subaru asked, clearly out for a tease again.

"I'm not that bad of a doctor, okay? I know I'm a little airheaded–"

"Don't you mean very airheaded?" the patient chirped.

"Ugh, I hate dealing with you! Good day!" she shouted in frustration.

"Hmm, bye," replied the boy as he left the room. The door shut with a click.

Kakeru, hang in there, thought Subaru as he ran down the hallway towards the elevator – his back hurting all the way.

I'm coming.

Okay, I regret running.

The blue-eyed boy was practically hugging the walls as he trudged along the corridors of the hospital. It was his fifth minute. He realized that as much of a fool his doctor was, he was an even bigger fool.

I didn't even ask her where the emergency ward was… Ah damn.

He stopped to rest a while. Currently, he was on the second floor. He racked his mind, thinking of where this hospital could have hid the emergency ward. Obviously not somewhere nobody could find.

Then it hit him. I'm such an idiot. It only makes sense that the emergency ward would be on the ground floor. The patients that need to be in that place of life and death couldn't waste time going up a floor or two.

Therefore, he made his way down to the ground floor. He started to speculate that his irrationality and impatience at making decisions was stemming from being overly concerned about Kakeru.

"I'm sorry; could you wait at the waiting room?"

A supposed 'angel-clad-in-white' told Subaru that he couldn't see Kakeru just yet. As a teenager, he couldn't quite understand yet what the pesky medical talk meant. All he knew was that Kakeru was not done being in there – the place where everyone is fighting desperately, where chances can be lopsided with a simple incision, where a simple mistake could cost a life.

A life. Subaru shuddered but forced the thought out of his mind.

No, nothing's going to happen to him. I just need to have faith.

He left without giving the nurse even a wisp of a reply. He headed to the cafeteria, where he deemed it more relaxing than the waiting room where worried family members and lovers all had their fingers crossed, praying that their beloved would survive. Subaru wasn't like that. He just knew that nothing bad would happen to Kakeru.

Instead, he chose a table tucked away in a cozy corner of the cafeteria. With a hot chocolate and 2 slices of buttered toast – somehow the cafeteria lady was kind enough to accept his crumpled, slightly blood stained currency –, he was comfortably watching as a gentle drizzle came fluttering down on the city. Slowly, unknowingly, he drifted off to sleep. As to how he could, he had no idea.

That was… a good sleep.

Subaru opened his eyes. The rain had stopped and the window was completely dry. Outside the sky was the same colour as his hair – midnight blue. He stole a glance at the clock hanging on the wall of the cafeteria opposite his corner. It read half past 10.

Night time, Subaru thought.

There was nobody else in the cafeteria, save for the cafeteria lady. When he looked at her, she simply looked back at him with a warm smile. He nodded and got up to leave.

He casually strolled over to the reception desk. He asked for Kakeru's room number, knowing that the doctors must be done with whatever treatment they were giving him.

"Room 405," said the receptionist. He bade and left.

"Kakeru?" Subaru called out. He had knocked on the bluenette's room twice and said his name, but there was no response. He knocked again.

"Kakeru?" No big deal. I'm sure he's asleep by now. He was about to leave when he heard a soft gurgle, then an almost timid voice.

"Is that you… Subaru-kun?" the boy inside asked.

"Yeah; may I come in?" he asked.

"Hai."

The boy opened the stiff beige door. The energy he used to get it open was so much his muscles ached a little. Well, either that or he was more badly injured than he initially thought. He pushed himself through the crease he created and staggered over to Kakeru's bed. Just as he had expected, Kakeru's legs were the most striking, what with being heavily bandaged and all. There were plenty bandages all over the rest of the body as well, but those simply paled in comparison.

"Subaru-kun, where were you hurt?" asked the teen on the hospital bed. Sapphire eyes could clearly see that Kakeru was checking every nook and cranny of him out.

"My arms, legs, back, the like," was his single-line reply.

Silence ensued. Nobody attempted at initiating conversation for a good five minutes. Then, Subaru decided that it was too awkward.

"Kakeru, look at me," he said.

"Huh? Something the matter?"

"No…" Subaru leaned in close to Kakeru. Their lips were at point-blank range with each other's.

"H-hey, isn't this a little–"

"Kiss me," he interjected, successfully cutting Kakeru off and shutting the bluenette up. While he maintained his composure, ruby eyes blinked rapidly and said teen's face was as red as a tomato.

"What?!"

"I said, kiss me. Learn to listen, would you?"

"Wh-where's that coming from all of a sudden?!" Kakeru stammered, flustered.

"If my memory serves, you promised a second time," Subaru told.

"Give me some time, Subaru-kun. This… this is bad for my heart," the blushing bluenette said. Subaru nodded and retreated to the plastic chair beside the bed.

"My mom?" Kakeru suddenly muttered. Subaru didn't know what to say. He doesn't feel worried for his father already knows of his condition even overseas, and has told Subaru to rest easy. The loner child knew that that was as caring as his father would let on. But Kakeru's mother should be a whole different story. From what little Subaru has seen of her, she seems to be a caring woman who would do most anything for her son.

"If she's tried to contact you, I wouldn't know," was all he could tell the bed-ridden, weak bluenette. Looks like the induced blood-loss was taking its toll.

"She's probably worried to death," Kakeru muttered before closing his eyes. He seemed to want to sleep already. Subaru stroked his hair over and over again, running his fingers through the blue, cleaned out locks.

"Hey, just so you know, I accept your feelings." Subaru knew he was teetering on the edge of complete embarrassment. Luckily, his friend seemed to be fast asleep. He rose from the chair to get a better view of Kakeru's sleeping face. So cute, he thought. He couldn't help it.

He planted a soft kiss on the dozing boy's forehead. "You don't need to hide it anymore, or be afraid of what would come of your confession. I'm not going to reject you. In fact, I wouldn't mind loving you." Just like that, he exited the room.

Unknowing to Subaru, as soon as the door clicked shut, Kakeru's eyes fluttered open. He wasn't asleep. No, far from it. Instead, he'd tried his hardest to make it look like he was sleeping when Subaru started stroking his hair. He felt the forehead kiss, heard every word of his lover's acceptance. He just sat there, unable to do anything. Slowly, his fingers found their way to his cerulean hair and touched it. His face was warm.

"Thank you… Subaru-kun… Now… I'm happy…"

He closed his eyes.

A/N: Hey guys. This is a simple fanfic, again revolving 'round our favourite bluenettes. I'm going to be writing happy and sad epilogues to this one-shot (I think). I'm clearly not a frequent updater, so don't expect my story to be continued soon. In fact, expect more one-shots rather than my story updates. Thank you for reading.

~PhoenixFireBlade~