A/N: Hey all! Finally, another chapter. I actually wrote this relatively quickly, but then I was unsure about some parts, and then I wanted it to get beta-d. Which it finally did and I had to go back and edit stuff. (Kurumi is harsh!) But I hope that you enjoy this chapter! And if you do, please do review!
Chapter 3
The slight dip of the mattress woke Lavi from his slumber. He let out a soft mumble before fully waking. He moved his head, intent on rubbing his eyes, only to find that his face hadn't been resting against his pillow but an open book, the pages crinkled and pressed against his cheek. He groaned and pushed himself up to a sitting position, glancing around at his bed and at the open book he had been using as a pillow. Then turned to see the cause of the dip in his bed.
Tyki sat on the edge of the mattress, an amused light in his honey colored eyes. "Fell asleep reading, I see," he said, the hint of a chuckle hidden in his rich voice.
"Shut it," Lavi said as he smoothed down the page he had had his face pressed against and closed the book carefully. He set it next to several (more than several) other books sitting on top of his covers. "I fell asleep early, but then woke up again near midnight and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided to read."
"Sounds so very much like my bunny boy," Tyki said. "Did you sleep well?"
Lavi scowled at the pet name, as always, and ran a hand through his hair. Only then did he realize that his eye patch had slipped while he was sleeping and he bowed his head just slightly to hide that part of his face with his hair as he straightened it. Lavi caught the way Tyki's eyes narrowed as he watched his boyfriend, but the man didn't ask. Good. Lavi didn't want to deal with that, especially this early in the morning.
"It's still early," Lavi said, focusing once again on the dark-skinned man. He glanced again at the clock. "I should still be asleep. Especially since it's a Saturday."
"Well, I was going to head home, and realized your car isn't here."
"Well I wasn't going to let you drive home with how drunk—"
"I know, I know. I was going to just leave you sleeping, but I thought I should probably give you a ride back to your car," Tyki said. Lavi rubbed the back of his head and tried to flatten the extreme bed-head that he was suffering from, at least somewhat. It didn't do much and knew his comb would just make his hair frizzy. Tyki had successfully hidden any messy hair by pulling it back up into his clip, tight against the back of his head.
He nodded slowly. Tyki did have a point. He didn't know if he needed his car or not, but he'd rather have it than not, in case something came up. Or if he had a sudden craving for a bushel of carrots or something (he'd had stranger cravings, that's for sure).
"Alright. Let me just change clothes," Lavi said. When Tyki didn't move from the bed, he glowered and pushed the man off. "Out."
Tyki's shoulders slumped it mock-disappointment but he left the room, closing the door behind him so Lavi was able to change without getting stared at. Or molested. And Lavi had just woken up, it would be harder to fend off his boyfriend, and he wasn't sure he would even want to.
The car ride was uneventful, but Lavi could see storm clouds forming a ways away. "Was there a storm warning?" he asked as he focused on the dark thunderhead. It would take a while to reach them, depending on wind speeds, but it looked huge. And dark.
Tyki looked up at the horizon for a moment. "I don't believe so," he said thoughtfully. He glanced at the redhead. "Nervous?"
Lavi snorted and gave a small grin. "Me? Of course not. It's just rain. That's nothing compared to where I'm from. We'd have snow by now if we were in my hometown. A lot of the damn stuff too." His grin slipped and he bit down on his tongue. What was that? Why did you just blurt that out?
Tyki gave him a curious glance, eyes intent on Lavi's face for the second he looked at him. "Where's your hometown, love? That's the first time I've heard you mention it, I think."
"Uhh," Lavi said and scratched the back of his still-bed-headed hair. "In Colorado."
He didn't look at Tyki, just continued gazing out of the window of the car as it glided down the street.
"It's beautiful there. Sheryll loves Colorado, although I'm not sure why. He doesn't ski," Tyki said in a thoughtful tone. "It's a break from New York though. Not quite so dreary in the winter."
Lavi looked at Tyki so quickly it ended up hurting his neck. He had been fighting to get information out of the man for a while now, and all of a sudden he felt like sharing? Was it because he had shared something in turn? Questions bubbled up his throat and he just couldn't contain himself. "You've been to Colorado? Who's Sheryll. New York?" He stared at Tyki, wanting the man to say something. Wanting an answer to at least one question, but preferably all three and more.
Tyki's eyebrow rose as he pulled into the mostly deserted school parking lot and stopped his car right beside Lavi's. Next to Tyki's, Lavi's car looked like a donkey standing next to a thoroughbred. But Tyki had never made fun. "Sheryll's my brother. Annoying man. So annoying. And so very clingy," he said. "I believe we've reached our destination."
So you have a brother at the very least. Finally you tell me something.
Lavi scowled (he was doing that a lot this morning wasn't he?) but accepted that that was probably the only answer he was going to get from his boyfriend at this time. "Fine, be enigmatic," he muttered.
"It's all part of the game, my love," Tyki said, leaning back in his seat. "If I told you everything right off the bat, then I would be boring, now wouldn't I? And you'd have no reason to hang around me. I know that you're constantly craving knowledge. What's to say that once you've had your fill you'll decide to go find something new elsewhere and leave me here, all alone? No, I'd rather have you coming back for more. And hopefully, soon, I won't be talking about knowledge."
Tyki was smirking, but his smile didn't seem to be completely true. It didn't quite reach his eyes. Was there a hint of fear there? Hidden somewhere behind the man's smooth exterior? Lavi eyed him for a long moment, trying to pick up on something, but Tyki's mask of sexual thoughts and suave words didn't waver. And then the man leaned forward and kissed him and that just broke Lavi's ability to try and decipher anything else.
His lips were strong against Lavi's and the redhead couldn't help but let out a soft groan. Tyki was an amazing kisser (a lot better than most of the girls he had ever dated or slept with, that's for sure). It didn't take long for the man to press his tongue against Lavi's lips, demanding entrance. But Lavi didn't want to get too swallowed up by this kiss. They were in plain view of any passersby, and he wasn't completely sure he wanted just any regular old Joe to see them. But when he felt Tyki's teeth gently press against his lower lip and he couldn't help but part them.
Tyki took his sweet time exploring his mouth. He brushed the roof of Lavi's mouth, sending strong shudders through the younger's body and causing Lavi to moan again. God this felt nice. He pressed his tongue against Tyki's, and the man pulled it back teasingly, drawing him into his mouth.
He tasted of cinnamon and tobacco and something else that Lavi couldn't name but it didn't matter because it was amazing. His head spun and he was just thinking that he should probably pull back to catch his breath when he felt Tyki's hand come in contact with his upper thigh. Tyki slowly slid his hand up, and Lavi was sure of its desired destination.
Lavi broke the kiss and grabbed Tyki's hand. "No," he said. It would have been a lot more impressive if he wasn't breathless or if his face wasn't tinted red (he thought Tyki's might have been too, but it was so much harder to tell because his skin was darker), or if there wasn't an aching desire deep inside him to just let Tyki continue, consequences be damned.
Tyki sighed. "As you wish," he said. He leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss onto Lavi's lips. This was much lighter and only lasted a few seconds before the man was pulling away. "Drive home safely."
Lavi felt like he had been dismissed. He glowered to himself and got out of the car, digging his keys out from his pocket. He gave a small wave to Tyki and the man drove away, heading out of the parking lot. He watched the car glide out and turn right onto the main road and then drove out of sight.
He got into his car and put the key into the ignition but didn't start it. He couldn't. Instead, he groaned and rested his head on the steering wheel with a small thud. "Man up," he grunted. "You want it, you bastard. Not just it. Him."
He hit his head against the steering wheel again. That aching desire hadn't diminished in the slightest and Lavi decided he would go back home and take a nice, long, cold shower.
-o-o-o-
The school was big, bigger than his old University, and much greener. But what did he expect? Before, he had been at a university in Colorado, butting up against the Rocky Mountains. But now he was in the state of Washington where they got twice as much rain and had three times the amount of trees and everything was green.
But he liked it.
He wandered the campus the day before classes, spending the entire day going to every different building, looking into classrooms and finding where he should go. He spend several hours in the school library, wandering the shelves, wandering each floor, finding books and magazines and relishing in all of the different things he could read. He ate in the food court and ambled through the school bookstore, getting his textbooks.
Lavi wanted to have some friends before classes started, but he figured he would have to wait. He was excited for his classes though, however, he was guessing he'd be dropping at least one of them. Depending on how hard all his major-related classes were, he'd drop his architecture lecture. It was an elective after all, chosen purely because he thought it would be fun. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep that night, too excited for his new life, so stayed up reading and copying things down in his planner (which he would never use again).
He wasn't the least bit tired in the morning, too excited for this college, for the challenges it was going to offer, and the people he would be meeting. Because of this, he arrived at his first class of the new semester (the architecture elective) half an hour early. Surprisingly, there were already people there. He chose to sit in the second row, settling down in the seat and leaned back. He watched as people dribbled in, wondering who the teacher was. He remembered looking at his schedule, and there had been a name there, a Dr. something-or-other. Doctor of Architecture? But big lecture classes were frequently taught by TA's, so maybe that's what would happen.
A tall man with dark hair pulled into a knot at the back of his head, held there by a clip that Lavi had only seen women with long hair use, walked into the classroom and set his bag onto the table at the front. Lavi could only stare. The man was made of long limbs and dark skin and 100% sex appeal, and when he turned to survey the growing number of students in the lecture hall, Lavi got lost in his honey colored eyes. And for a moment, the professor (he was so young, maybe he was a graduate student), met Lavi's green one-eyed gaze and they just stared at each other.
And then Lavi dragged his eye away, a little unnerved at the intensity that filled the man's gaze, and focused on his phone and the notebook settled on the desk in front of him. The honey-eyed man waited until the clock struck 9:30 and then started class. His name was Tyki. Tyki Mikk. He was from Portugal originally, but that was the extent he went into his own background. And he wasn't the professor, but the TA. He went on to explain that the schedule was incorrect – the professor, the head of the department, would not be teaching the class. Tyki would be teaching them.
Lavi decided this class was not for him. He would be spending the entire time entranced by the way Tyki's lips moved as he spoke, how his eyes traveled around the class and how he stood relaxed and overwhelmingly sexual as he taught.
Time to withdraw from Architecture.
-o-o-o-
When it started to rain the next day, it really rained. Lavi watched the weather on his TV, sprawled out on his couch, and cringed. They were actually issuing a storm warning, cautioning people to be careful while driving and going about their days. There were reports of flooding in certain neighborhoods and streets; several main roads into town were closed due to the water level being too high, planes were grounded – and it was only getting worse.
Lavi looked out of the window and drummed his fingers against the couch cushion, shifting up to a sitting position. He picked up his phone and sent a text to Allen. – Do you see this rain? This is crazy.
– I don't know if I'll be able to get to class on Monday if this keeps up.
The redhead hummed softly, fingers tapping once more on the couch before returning to his phone. He figured it was because of where Allen's Monday morning class was. It was situated at the lowest section of campus, and if the rain kept up, it would be flooded. – Is this a common storm?
Allen replied quickly and he wondered what the younger man was up to. He wondered what Kanda was up to. He wondered what his boyfriend was up to. He wanted to hang out; to see someone. But there was no way in hell he would be driving in this bad of weather.
– We haven't had a storm like this in a while. But we're getting into the wet season, said Allen. Lavi set his phone down and turned back to his book. He couldn't leave (more like wouldn't) his apartment, so he might as well do homework, of which he had very little. Because all of his classes had handed out big tests and papers the week before, the professors seemed to have decided that their students needed a short break. All Lavi had to do was reading and he was nearly done with that. He had finished most of it yesterday, after his cold shower.
– How is my love holding up? Not washed away yet? This time it was Tyki.
– Still alive. Bored. Want to go out. Lavi sighed as he finished up the last page of reading and closed the book, setting it on his coffee table.
– We can go out if you like. I'd love a break from grading these miserable tests. Lavi chuckled. He had heard his boyfriend complain about the students in the class he was TAing for many times. About a third of the class actually did the readings, paid attention in class, and did their work in general. The rest of the students either didn't care or shouldn't have been allowed to be in college, by the sound of Tyki's tirades.
One time Lavi had seen one of the quizzes while Tyki was grading. When he had caught a glance at some of the (red marked) papers and saw the answers people had given, he wondered if they could really be that dense. One student had answered the question What is the Louvre and where is it located? with "A church; Germany". Another student had answered a similar question, regarding the Sistine Chapel, with similar stupidity. If Lavi remembered correctly, the answer they had given was Paris, France.
So Lavi wanted to help Tyki take a break from his mundane and albeit lower-than-average-IQ class. But…The redhead looked out of the window again at the rain and watched the tree branches violently.
– I can come pick you up.
Tyki seemed to know that Lavi was nervous. How did he do that? The man wasn't that observant. Or maybe it was the pause, and Lavi not responding right away. Or maybe Tyki just wanted to get out of his condo and away from grading papers. Upon giving it some thought, it was probably the last option.
– Ok, Lavi replied and got up off his couch. If he was actually going to be social, he might as well take a quick shower and put clean clothes on. The shirt and sweatpants he was currently wearing were rumpled from sleep and lazing around the house.
Lavi's shower was supposed to be quick and refreshing. Supposed to be.
Even through the steady stream of hot water, he could hear the pounding of the rain on the roof above. He closed his eye and ran a hand across his face, rubbing it. After a moment he found himself leaning against the cool plastic of the shower wall and rested his head back against the smooth surface with a small sigh.
He should really get out of the shower. Tyki would be there soon. But as hard as he tried, he couldn't bring himself to moving from the comforting warmth the shower provided. He pressed his palm against where his right eye should have been and screwed his face up. It ached. He slid slowly down to the floor of the shower with a small groan and rested his head on his knee, pressing harder. After several minutes, the pain slowly started to recede and he was able to sit straight again. It hadn't hurt in a long time. Maybe it was the rain. The air pressure was different. When Lavi got headaches, it always started behind and above his right eye. It was probably because of the storm. He hoped he wasn't getting a migraine. He sat in the tub for a long minute, letting the water stream down his form before dragging himself up and turning the shower off.
He dried himself off, listening to the rain and the uneven plunk of water dripping from the showerhead. Only then did he hear the knock on his door and jumped into motion, out of the bathroom. How long had the person (most likely Tyki) been waiting and knocking? Wrapping the towel around his waist, Lavi went to the door and looked through the peephole.
Tyki stood in view, hands in his pockets. He looked damp. Lavi would have been suspicious if he didn't. He unlocked the door and opened it, stepping back to let Tyki in. Honey eyes traveled up and down the redhead's form, taking in his still wet, bare-chested body. "What a lovely sight to walk in on," he purred.
"Give me a minute," Lavi said and left Tyki in the living room to get dressed. He brushed his hair back, fit his eye patch back into place and came back out with his headband around his neck. Tyki was leaning against the back of the couch, heavy black jacket shedding water slowly onto the carpet. "So, where are we going?"
Tyki watched as Lavi tugged on his boots. "Either Devil's Play or Noah's. Either sound good to you?" Lavi straightened.
"Devil's Play," the redhead said. Mainly because he knew they had drinks he enjoyed, but also because of the one time he had been to Noah's previously. It was before he and Tyki started dating and Tyki had kind of been stalking him. And by the look on Tyki's face, the taller man remembered that as well. "This time, don't drink so much. I don't want to drive your car again."
"You didn't like driving my baby?" Tyki asked as Lavi tugged on his jacket. He looked mildly offended.
"It's not that," said Lavi. He glanced out the window at the pouring rain then shrugged. Tyki watched him curiously then left the apartment first. He waited for Lavi to lock the door then headed down the hallway with him.
"It's unlocked," Tyki said as they stood in the foyer of Lavi's apartment building, watching the rain and the lake-of-a-parking-lot. Lavi nodded and opened the door. The smell of rain accosted him, stronger than he was used to, and the sound was overwhelming for a few seconds. Then he flipped up the collar of his jacket and ran for Tyki's car.
His hand slipped on the handle the first try, but he got the door open and fell onto the plush seat, shutting the door swiftly so as not to let too much water into the leather interior. Tyki was only a step behind, but his jacket was in better shape. While Lavi's had already turned darker from wetness, causing him to feel a little waterlogged, the water droplets sat on the thick surface of Tyki's pea coat.
"Is your jacket waterproof?" Lavi asked, more than a little bit jealous as he shook out his jacket a little. It had been plastered to his arms and made bending his body awkward and uncomfortable.
"Of course," Tyki said. "Why would I wear a jacket that wasn't, in weather like this?" He turned the key in the ignition and the car roared into life before settling into its normal purr. Lavi reached forward and turned the heat on, moving his feet so they were directly under the vent.
Lavi shrugged in response and tapped his fingers on his leg as Tyki backed out of the parking spot and turned the wheel with one hand, resting the other on the stick-shift. Lavi shifted and tried to ignore how much rain had gathered on the streets as they pulled onto the main road and headed to Devil's Play. There weren't many cars on the road; they only passed two on their way onto main street.
When Tyki accelerated into the turn after being stopped at the light perpendicular to main street, the back of the car fishtailed. Lavi sucked in his breath as the car – he would swear he could feel that the car wasn't touching the ground – hydroplaned and gripped the handle on the door, a surge of panic rushing through him. "Oops," was all Tyki said as he turned his car into the drift, and after another excruciatingly long moment of drifting, the tires gripped the road once more and they were able to drive straight. The man hadn't even flinched, hadn't panicked, hadn't even blinked. He had stayed completely calm the entire time, straightening his car easily, allowing the treads of the tires to grip the water-slicked street once again.
Lavi's heart was pounding. This was why he hadn't wanted to go out. This was why he wasn't going to drive. He dragged in a deep breath and rested his head back onto the head rest, running his hand over his face. He pushed damp hair from his eyes and put it up with his headband.
"You're white," Tyki said. Concern filled his voice as he spoke to his boyfriend and Lavi opened his eye and turned to look at the man. "Nothing happened. Tires slipped was all. We're fine."
"I know. It's nothing," Lavi said and cleared his throat. He grinned and let out a small, albeit weak, laugh. As if what he said next was a joke. As if it were actually funny. "Just freaked me out. I mean, we could've crashed." But of course that wasn't funny, and Tyki knew. And Lavi knew Tyki knew, but he kept quiet and listened to the tires and the sounds they made as they drove through the water on the road. Lavi didn't say another word until they were in the bar, shaking rain from his jacket, as he asked Tyki where they should sit.
Devil's Play was dimly lit like many other bars, with a vague red backlighting. It was classy and nice inside, and had some very good drinks. They were high-end, and if Lavi were coming here alone, he'd only get one drink because they were strong and expensive. But Tyki seemed to have an endless supply of money and had told him the first time they had gone here that he could get whatever he wanted. And after that little hydroplaning incident on the roads and the large dose of adrenaline his body had given him, he felt the need for several of the bar's potent and signature drinks.
Their signature drink list was filled with combinations of classic mixed drinks and shots, named after religious references. To Lavi, this seemed blasphemous even though he wasn't at all religious, but everyone loved the drinks and he hadn't heard any complaints. As the two settled down on stools at the bar, Lavi relaxed into the low hum of the crowd and the dim light and the view of the bottles upon bottles of whiskey and tequila and vodka.
Tyki turned in his seat and rested his feet on either side of Lavi's stool so the redhead sat between his legs. Lavi looked at him and grinned. "Staking your claim?"
"Why of course," Tyki said. "And I promise not to drink too much, so feel free to drink as much as you like." Lavi nodded and turned to the bartender, a woman with a low-cut shirt and a lovely bosom decorated with tattoos of cherry blossoms and ordered a tall Hurricane. He listened as Tyki ordered a shot of Ginja.
"What the hell did you just order?" Lavi asked, eyebrows raising. He had read a lot of books, had seen a lot of movies, and had read numerous drink lists at restaurants and bars, but he had never heard of a Ginja.
"It's a Portuguese liqueur," Tyki explained, resting his elbow on the bar. "Never heard of it before? Would you like to try it?" When Lavi shook his head, Tyki grinned. "The full name is ginjinha, does that help?" Lavi shook his head once more. "It's alcohol infused with a Portuguese sour cherry. I'm surprised I know something you don't. Amazing, I'd even go so far as to say." He took the glass that the bartender set in front of him.
"It's not that amazing. I'm not all-knowing. Your drink does sounds good though. Looks good too. Is that fruit?" Lavi asked, looking at Tyki's shot glass. He thanked the bartender when she gave him his drink and pulled it closer to himself. Tyki made an affirmative 'hm' and watched the redhead. "There are a lot of things I don't know. I'm sure you know a lot more about Architecture than I do." The man just smiled and downed his shot. Lavi grinned a little and found himself watching the way Tyki's tongue moved along his lips, clearing them of the last drops of his shot. He would be lying if he said he had never daydreamed about that tongue and those lips. And, well, everything else.
Tyki's eyebrow cocked upward. "Something wrong?" he asked. His finger ran around the top of his shot glass before pushing it back to the bartender.
"Another one?" she asked.
"No, just a glass of Pinot noir is fine," he said and she nodded, getting it for him. He turned his attention back to Lavi. He seemed to have eyes for no one else but Lavi, which the redhead was surprised at, because there were quite a few beauties populating Devil's Play. "So, something wrong?"
"No, nothing. Just admiring your, hm, architecture," Lavi said with a wide grin. He took a swig of his drink before setting it down once more on the counter. "Because, let's be honest. Your architecture is mighty fine."
Tyki let out a laugh that he didn't seem to be able to control. "Oh, stop, lovely, you'll make me blush."
"Do you even have the ability to blush?" Lavi asked. Small sips from his drink had already depleted it by more than half. With a few more large gulps, he finished his hurricane and ordered another. Tyki watched with amusement and interest.
"You don't have to drink so quickly," Tyki said.
Lavi shrugged in response. "I know. But it was just good." Tyki gave a small nod, honey gaze never leaving the redhead, as he took another big drink from his new glass. "What? Am I really that interesting?"
"I'm offended that you have to even ask," Tyki said. "Of course you're really that interesting. I could spend all day watching you, learning all your different quirks and peeves. You're not the only one who wants to know more. I'm very curious about you." Lavi stared at him, single green eye wide and surprised. He shook his head minutely and went to nursing his drink more slowly, now that one was already down.
Devil's Play got busier and busier as it became later. Even with the steady downpour that was making it ever more dangerous to drive, people flooded the bar. Some looked like they had swum there, the rain was so bad. Lavi wouldn't have been that surprised if someone had swum there. Someone stood beside the door, making sure to close it as soon as they could after new customers came in, to limit the amount of water that was let into the nice place.
With everyone drying off, and talking, and the warm din of the place, the windows soon fogged up, and Lavi wondered what it looked like from the outside. He was now quite drunk, and had scooted his chair a little closer to Tyki's. They were more stools than chairs, and several times already he had leaned back and nearly toppled off. His boyfriend was keeping an eye on him, one hand on Lavi's leg for safety. It was around nine o'clock when his headache started.
Lavi looked around, and it took his eyes a moment to catch up to the motion. And then a wave of painful dizziness washed over him and he closed his eye. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before rubbing the lower part of his forehead momentarily. The sudden pressure brought water to his eyes. "Love?" Lavi opened his eye and focused on his boyfriend. "I think you've had plenty to drink."
" 's not that," he said. "Headache…"
"Probably caused by the alcohol," Tyki said.
Lavi just shook his head and wished he hadn't. This was quickly building – probably fueled by said alcohol – and he had to screw up his face just a little bit. "Can we go?" Tyki looked worried but nodded and set the money on the bar, giving the bartender a generous tip. He stood up and took Lavi's arm as the redhead wobbled to his feet. He gritted his teeth in pain.
"Is it that bad?" Tyki asked as he led the younger through the crowded bar. Lavi was having trouble walking straight and as they neared the door, the puddles tracked in by people caused him to slip a number of times. Tyki steadied him. Lavi nodded in response, a subtle motion so as not to jostle his head too much. His vision was a bit blurred.
Before Tyki joined him in the car – the man had helped Lavi in and so had to walk around the hood of the car – Lavi let out a soft groan and bowed his head. He rested an elbow on his knee and pressed his palm against his right eye, as if adding outer pressure would relieve the inner pressure. He stayed like this even when Tyki got into the car, even when the man asked if he was okay – he replied with a 'no'. Tyki asked if he needed to take him to the doctors. He replied with another no. He just needed to get home, and to lie down and to take some pain killers and keep all the lights off. And then maybe his head would stop pounding so hard that he had trouble concentrating on Tyki's voice.
His boyfriend helped him back to his apartment, and even in the pained stupor Lavi was in, he could hear guilt in Tyki's voice as he spoke. Tyki thought it was his fault. "Not your fault," he mumbled out, squinting up at the taller before looking down and closing his eye for a long moment. The light had blinded him, sending a powerful, painful throb through his head. He just wanted to lie down. Tyki didn't seem convinced but said nothing else.
Lavi didn't want the lights on, so Tyki didn't turn them on. There was just enough light from the glow of the power strip on the ground against the wall and the sound system with its occasional orange flickers, telling everyone it was just sleeping, that he could take Lavi to his bedroom.
Lavi gave a pained smile. "Thanks," he murmured and sat down on his bed.
"If you don't change clothes you'll get sick," Tyki pointed out. He was right but Lavi didn't really care right now. His head hurt too much and so he shrugged. "At least take a quick shower." Lavi didn't get up, only tugging his shirt off. He let it fall to the ground with an unpleasant flopping noise and then he laid back onto the bed. He didn't care that usually when he had his shirt off, Tyki would make some sort of sexual remark. He didn't even think about it. "Do you need anything?"
Lavi shook his head. No. He didn't. He didn't need anyone or anything for this. He had never had anyone, and didn't need anyone. Not when dealing with his migraines, caused by the accident that cost him his eye. He'd suffered alone before and that's how it would be. That's what he did best, wasn't it? Lavi was solitary. Even in his old life. Even before he left Colorado. Even before the accident. So no, he didn't need help. He didn't need someone asking if he was alright.
He would be alright. He was always alright. Right?
Lavi kept his eye closed as he listened to Tyki's near-silent footsteps as the man left without another word. Lavi felt guilt accompany the oncoming wave of pain and he rolled onto his side. He had probably annoyed the Portuguese man.
The redhead groped blindly on his nightstand for some pain killers and took two dry before covering his head in a pillow and trying to sleep. It would be a long night.
