Thanks for the reviews! We are still in the early stages - this one is a bit interesting. I judge myself for this one as some sort of turning point when I realized I needed to take a different approach. Promise it till get better, and that I will definitely update my other fics, Scout's Honor!

#69 - thunder

Oishi started having second thoughts exactly one week after Hiyoshi moved in. It wasn't anything personal, Hiyoshi was clean, polite and generally kept to himself. Both of them were busy and didn't see that much of each other. Sometimes it got awkward when both of them wanted to eat or maybe watch TV at the same time. They'd tried to eat together and it ended with Oishi practically stuffing all his food in his mouth and scurrying off to his room. It wasn't until he was safe and alone did he realize how rude he must seem. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to live with someone, but it worked.

There was supposed to be a chance of rain in the afternoon. What it turned out to be was a full blown thunderstorm around eight at night, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. Thus one startled, soaked and unhappy Oishi was not prepared for what greeted him when he opened the door to his apartment.

Hiyoshi was sitting facing the tv in the living room, a death grip on one of his huge white pillows, wearing a hat, eyes squeezed shut. The TV was blasting some sort of Disney movie, but Hiyoshi obviously wasn't paying attention to it.

"Hiyoshi-kun?" Oishi was tentative as he entered and put his soaked books on the floor and shrugged off his jacket. "Are you okay?"

He didn't answer, in fact it seemed as though he hadn't even heard Oishi. Oishi sighed, tired and not really looking forward to dealing with whatever the problem was. He moved toward the kitchen and huge boom of Thunder seemed to shake the apartment building. Oishi took in a sharp breath, startled and continued until he heard a strange whimpering sound.

"Man, -- fucked if --- --- freeze up."

Another crack, not as loud, but then whimpering sure got louder.

"Can't do that thing – that keeping still'

Oishi backtracked around to the the front of the couch, looking somewhat harassed and yet still worried. He turned and pushed the power button the tv, waiting for a second and then realizing that either Hiyoshi didn't care or couldn't hear it. Sitting on the couch he gently tried to tug the pillow away, only to be met with iron-like resistance.

Another boom and the pillow started to shake uncontrollably. Oishi didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was tired, wet and probably smelled really bad at this point. So he poked Hiyoshi in the back of the head.

Once, twice, thrice - this was ridiculous.

"Hiyoshi, give me that!" Oishi grabbed the pillow with both hands and pulled as hard as he could, he felt it jerk away from its confines and almost fell off the couch. "Now, what is the matter?"

Hiyoshi didn't answer, instead he glared at him like he wanted to mince him to pieces, but the fact that he was shaking, with his knees pulled up to his chest made it much less intimidating. He was holding an old CD player in his hands, and now Oishi knew why he couldn't hear him.

Pulling off the hat, Oishi reached to pull off the earphones as well. But Hiyoshi swatted his hand away, shaking his head furiously and reaching for his pillow.

"No." Oishi said, hiding the pillow behind his back. There was another crack, and Oishi swore he heard a tree - or something - fall outside the apartment. Hiyoshi barely had time to react as Hiyoshi lunged for the pillow behind his back. He yelped and fell off the couch, the pillow softening his fall. Hiyoshi leaned over him, still glaring, but shaking all the more.

This is a bit...close. Oishi didn't have much time to think of the the heat from Hiyoshi's body as he was suddenly pushed aside. He blinked, startled as Hiyoshi grabbed his pillow and began to walk away to his room.

Now Oishi knew it was childish, but he hadn't had normal human contact (customers and teachers didn't count) in forever. His better judgment was screaming that this was ridiculous, but tiredness was clouding reason at this point as he ran past Hiyoshi and blocked his door, folding his arms stubbornly.

"Not until you tell me what is wrong." Oishi used his concerned mother voice, not caring if his reason for doing so was stupid.

Hiyoshi growled stubbornly and Oishi thought that Hiyoshi might push him out of the way again. Only to be startled as Hiyoshi threw the pillow at him and stalked the other way. Oishi vaguely wondered at how nice the pillow smelled and how comfortable it was as he held it against his face. He lowered it slowly, to see that Hiyoshi was back on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees.

Oishi sighed and looked at the ceiling. Did Hiyoshi even realize that the thunder had stopped? Only the loud rain pounding on the windows was left of the storm. Oishi huffed, too tired to deal with this right now and walked over to Hiyoshi, pillow clutched in his hands.

"Here." He held the pillow out toward Hiyoshi, adding. "I'm sorry about that, don't know what came over me."

Hiyoshi just stared at him, then the pillow and then turned away, back facing Oishi. Stuck between pouting and rolling his eyes, Oishi simply put the pillow on top of Hiyoshi's arms and turned to walk to the bathroom. He really need to get sleep at this point, and it was obvious Hiyoshi valued his pillow's company more than Oishi's anyway.

He had barely taken three steps when he felt the pillow hit his back, then nothing as it fell to the floor. Oishi whipped around, looking entirely surprised, only to find that the younger man had turned around, but was still looking away. Oishi almost scowled, but then he bit his lip, wondering for a minute, then picked up the pillow and threw it back toward Hiyoshi so that it landed leaning against him. He stood there for a second, and just as he suspect Hiyoshi threw it back, barely looking at him.

Maybe the pillow was just an excuse. He thought rationally for a second, before he threw the pillow back, feeling slightly foolish, but more content than he had in a long time.

The game continued for the while until Oishi noticed that Hiyoshi was half asleep, and finally he didn't respond at all. Oishi looked at his watch blearily at his watch which read 12:03. Oishi looked over at the golden-haired man and yawned, suddenly jealous of Hiyoshi falling asleep so easily. Oishi shook his head and went to get a blanket for his sleeping - roommate. Realizing that waking him up now probably wouldn't do him too much good, and that he'd probably be embarrassed out of his mind.

As he draped the blanket over Hiyoshi he realized that the CD player long since turned itself off. Oishi blinked, wondering for a moment if maybe Hiyoshi had - . No, he was reading to much into things. It was late and he was thinking to much. Now was time to go to bed, and try and forget this by time morning came.

A/N; There is no explanation for Hiyoshi singing Spring Awakening. It was the first thing that popped into my head and I assure you at the time I wrote this I was too tired to care. Please don't let it kill you're brain.

Love ya for reading,

Tabis 3