A/N: Ajkahgdgadkj...it's been a moooooonth.
...woops. Sorry guuuuuuys. But June was a loooooooooong month; there was swimming, being grounded for a MONTH from computer, meaning I had to be veeeery sneaky; swimming; finals; swimming; end of school; swimming; my sister's graduation; swimming; my sister and mother's cruise to Europe, leaving me practically stranded at my house; swimming; a swim meet, involving me staying at Abu-tan's place for an entire weekend; MORE swimming; and there you go. Maybe swimming affected it...
B-but yeah guys, sorry for the delay. And also, writer's block had a huge part in it...meaning that that ramble was mostly usesless. HURR HURR...woops.
But yus! Longest chapter yet! -proud- AND. ANOTHER HAPPY THING. ISH. I figured it ouuuuut, while flipping through MY NEW AIR GEARS. -got 4-6 Kazu calls his sister "Nee-chan". Ooooooh...woops. Buttt...I don't plan on fixing it in all my older stories, but I'll be using that and Ayaka for her names now, okay?
...I'll shut up now guys, here's your update. Oh and...again, I didn't edit. -fail- Same deal; I'll fix anything if it makes no sense, just PM me.
Lotsa love,
-Masiiii
Kazu inhaled deeply then sighed; even with the throbbing pain throughout his entire body, he was somehow still extremely comfortable. He blinked his eyes open and found himself staring at a familiar shade of…skin? Kazu blinked again, crystal blue eyes focusing, and he jolted slightly when he realized his position; he was sprawled out on his bed and on top of Ikki, face buried into the other boy's chest. He swallowed as he remembered the previous night's events; the pain, the rush, the sounds, the blood, the feeling of running for his life, seeing Ikki in so much pain.
The Jet lifted his head to peer up at and check on the Crow, only to drop it back lightly on top of Ikki because even just that small movement was exhausting; his entire body felt like dead-weight. Instead, Kazu relaxed into Ikki's loose hold, the Crow's strong arms still loosely wrapped around the blonde. He kept his eyes open, because even though it was the morning, Kazu still saw those images on the back of his eyelids every time he blinked; Ikki tied up and Kazu unable to do anything about it, blood running down his chest, the dark shadows, the burst of flame…
Kazu shifted slightly, body wriggling closer to Ikki's, taking comfort in the warmth of his best friend; it's not like it meant anything…it just felt so damn comfortable. And the steady breathing of the boy underneath him also just felt like it made everything better, proved that they could live through anything, as lame as that sounded inside the blonde's own head. The Jet was actually shocked with himself when he let himself tuck his head into the crook of Ikki's neck; again, it didn't mean anything, it just felt…right. He sighed, eyes drooping lazily, arms bent in to rest under Ikki's shoulders. Kazu blinked slowly, before finally wondering why Ikki was holding him like this, and then realizing that he didn't actually care.
Kazu flushed before flinching slightly at the sound of Ikki mumbling. He inhaled again, about to roll off of Ikki before his friend found him lying awake and content right on top of him, before he paused. Without thinking, he slowly rest his head on Ikki's chest again, mouth pressed softly against the dip between his prominent collar bones. He hesitated there, before blinking quickly and rolling off of the older boy.
What did I just…? Ikki mumbled again next to Kazu, and the smaller boy quickly realized Ikki still had his arms around him. He shifted uncomfortably before closing his eyes, trying to force the reoccurring images out of his head; how awkward would that be, Ikki waking up to find Kazu awake, just laying in his arms…? The blonde blushed at the thought and shut his eyes a little tighter; I'll be fine if I don't think about it…just think about now.
Kazu waited patiently for Ikki to wake up, breathing slowly and trying his hardest to appear asleep. When the Crow finally mumbled irritably about the sun and shifted to get up, he paused before sighing and pulling his arms away from Kazu, who, to his own surprise, had actually begun falling back asleep. The sudden movement jolted him a little, and after a moment's pause he found it an appropriate time to open his eyes, slowly and hesitantly.
By the time Kazu's eyes had focused, Ikki was halfway across the room, fiddling with his messy bandages. Kazu shifted to sit up and Ikki's head turned back to look at him, ears perking at the sound.
As soon as Ikki's eyes met Kazu's, Kazu was stuck. All he could do was stare helplessly into Ikki's piercing gaze, those dark eyes boring into his. It looked like Ikki was skeptical, his eyes searching, eyebrows slightly furrowed.
After a long moment of observation, Ikki exhaled and looked back to his bandages. Kazu finally blinked before shuffling to the edge of his bed, left leg held out awkwardly to the side; Kazu had to try his hardest to keep the burning pain from coming back to the deep wound. Ikki noticed this on a side glance, and he turned back and sat heavily down next to Kazu. The blonde flinched slightly when Ikki grabbed hold of his thin leg, putting Kazu off balance before he pulled it tenderly onto his lap. As the crows calloused hands gently pulled off the bandages on his leg, Kazu had to look away; seeing the god damned thing only made it throb worse. After another pause from Ikki, Kazu suddenly felt something cool being rubbed into the gash, and the immediate relief was amazing.
Kazu looked back up at Ikki when he began to feel the pressure of bandages on his leg, still keeping his eyes off of Ikki's workspace. There was a trace of something like pain in Ikki's eyes, and Kazu swallowed when he noticed that Ikki's bandages were falling off and bloodstained. "I-Ikki?" Kazu swallowed when he heard himself stutter.
Ikki looked startled by Kazu's sudden words. "Hm?"
"Are you sure you don't want to well…clean yourself up first?" Kazu looked away after eyeing Ikki's stomach again; it looked so god damned painful, it almost hurt the blonde himself. "I mean…I'm fine."
"Kazu?"
Kazu blinked at Ikki's bored look. "What?"
"Shut up." Ikki let out a small exhale of amusement and finished wrapping up Kazu leg before moving to sit behind Kazu and check his back. Kazu's mouth twisted to the side before he gave up and let Ikki clean up his back as well.
"So…"
Ikki chuckled. "That's not shutting up."
Kazu scowled, even though Ikki wasn't able to see. "So what happened…last night? After..." Kazu trailed off and swallowed, fingers absentmindedly balled into fists and kneading the bed nervously beneath him. Why the hell am I trying to mess up the fact that things were almost normal?
"Hm. Well, after you got your ass blown up, the team went back home; Onigiri texted me."
"Ah…so everyone's fine?" That's not really what I mean, but it's still good to hear…
"Yup. Now shut the hell up." Kazu obliged again, rolling his shoulders as Ikki put the same cool ointment onto the cross-shaped mark on his back as well. When Ikki had finished, he somersaulted off the bed, feet landing flatly on the ground. Straightening up, Ikki went back to work on his own bandages, Kazu waiting patiently.
"…Kazu?" Ikki kept his broad back turned.
"I thought I was supposed to shut up."
"After you answer…what happened to your back, man?"
Kazu shifted uncomfortably at the thought. "Uh…the fence kinda…scratched it."
Ikki turned to look at him in disbelief. "The fence did that?"
Kazu blinked. "Well, a huge rock bent it first, I think…I don't really think I was registering it much…"
Ikki shook his head and rubbed his forehead with his palm. "Then…when was your last tetanus shot?"
"Uh…three months ago. It lasts for a while though, so I'm fine…"
Ikki grimaced. "Fine." With that, Ikki stuck a piece of tape to the end of the last bandage, pressed it down with a gulp, then tugged on a shirt and his jacket. "C'mon Kazu."
Kazu blinked. "What? Where're we going?"
"School."
--
Ikki pulled Kazu's arm farther around his shoulders and skated forward, Kazu shakily standing by his side, trying to keep all his weight onto his right leg; with the muscles in his left leg torn, that leg was both painful and completely useless. "Since when do you want to go to class, Ikki?"
Ikki smirked slightly. "I didn't say we're going to class, just school. We're having a team meeting."
Kazu blinked. "Oh." He clenched his teeth as he and Ikki rolled off the sidewalk and onto the road; the less smooth surface caused Kazu's leg to jolt around like crazy, which, to say it frankly, hurt like hell.
Ikki seemed to notice that something was wrong and pulled Kazu up higher onto his shoulders, warm hand gripped tightly around the blonde's wrist. The Jet gave up trying to stand up properly and lifted all the weight off of his left leg, relying completely on Ikki to keep him balanced. He sighed, realizing how fucking weak he must look. The older boy next to him looked over and raised an eyebrow at the sound.
"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Ikki asked, voice slightly humorous.
"Nothing, and I don't wear panties, Bastard."
"What, you're going commando?" Ikki started laughing at his own joke and Kazu snorted.
"Shut up." Leave it to that bird-brained idiot to get Kazu's mind off of anything that was bothering him; Ikki had always had that little talent, ever since Kazu could remember…well, after Ikki was by his side, instead of the one bullying him. No matter what was wrong, Ikki somehow always made it better; whether the Crow was a loud distraction, a soft hand, warm smile, he could always fix anything. Shit, the boy could do anything.
Kazu scoffed at himself when he realized he was blushing again. Why the hell…? I'm acting so fucking retarded today. Kazu swore to himself and Ikki laughed again and knocked Kazu in the forehead.
"It was just a joke, man." He grinned, and Kazu elbowed him in the side, even though the resulting jolt made him lose his balance and almost fall.
"I know, I know."
--
When Ikki sat down on top of one the desks in the middle of the room, a feeling of déjà vu swept over the team; they'd been in the exact same room, exact same desks. However, the feeling this time was different; there was no confusion, no fear, just that solemn realization of what happened, and who got hurt, the feeling of relief that the battle's over and done with.
However, Kazu still couldn't get the thought that the team was actually gone into his head; he was convinced that something was wrong, that it wasn't over. But when Ikki spoke, Kazu's ears pricked and the ominous feeling was forgotten; all of his attention was on the team leader.
"So, which of you guys got busted up?" Ikki asked, his eyes scanning the room.
Buccha and Onigiri both mumbled something about their wrists just being a little raw from the ropes, and Akito held up both his hands, overlong sleeves covering up his tiny wrists.
"Ikki-kun, my wrists got rope-burnt too," he mewled. "Will you kiss them better?"
Ikki ignored the tiny Shark, and he looked skeptically at Emiri. "Oi, Adachi, did you hear what I said?" The girl jolted slightly, and her head turned quickly to look at Ikki with wide eyes.
"I-uh, yeah, I'm fine. My leg's just a little sore, but the fence never broke through my skin in most places." The words tumbled out of her mouth, and Kazu flushed, looking away; the reason she hadn't responded to Ikki question was because she'd been staring at Kazu's left leg. Kazu had rolled the bottom of his left pant leg up to stop the fabric from rubbing on the bandages, but because of that the already crimson-tinged white material was fully visible. The expression on Emiri's face…Kazu blushed again, remembering what Ikki had said earlier, about her liking him, and now it seemed painfully obvious.
Well that made Kazu feel stupid.
Ikki nodded at Emiri's words, and looked over the whole team again. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Akito piped up in his little voice before Ikki could get a word out.
"Ikki-kun, where were you last night? I wanted to cuddle." Ikki looked annoyed, but not taken aback; he was too used to the smaller boy at this point.
"I stayed over at Kazu's," Ikki said, before his mouth was suddenly stretched into a jaw-cracking yawn. Kazu blinked at the irony; or at least, it was ironic for him. Not that anyone else knew that Ikki had practically spent the entire night awake in Kazu's bed…Kazu shook his head. God, that sounds so gay.
"Oh." Akito seemed fine with the answer. "Well make sure you're home tonight, I get lonely…"
Ikki looked at him dully before exchanging a glance with Kazu, with a clear make-him-leave-me-alone-look in his dark eyes. Kazu let out an exhale of amusement and Akito whipped his head around to glare at him.
"You don't need to be jealous, just 'cause I get to sleep with Ikki all the time."
Kazu was taken aback. "I didn't say I wanted to sleep in the same bed as Ikki."
Akito just looked at him, the smaller boy's left eye smug. "You didn't say you didn't."
Kazu looked at Akito, opening his mouth to retort, when suddenly a pig-tailed head poked through the door. "Nakayama," Kazu said blatantly.
"Good job pointing out the obvious," Yayoi replied. "But Ton-chan wanted me to tell you guys, and Emiri, that there's a field trip this weekend, in two days."
"Why didn't she tell us herself?" Emiri asked.
Yayoi looked dully at the whole team. "She said she was scared," she said, glaring at Onigiri and Ikki inturn. "Here, get these signed, she needs them by tomorrow, all the classes in our grade are going."
Kazu swallowed. "Uh…I'm home alone for a little while." At this, Emiri stood up quickly, grabbed one of the forms from Yayoi, and scribbled something hastily onto it
"Here," she said, holding the paper out to Kazu, face bright red. Kazu took the pale yellow sheet from her hands and looked at it curiously; Mikura Ayaka was scribbled on the parents or guardian spot. The blonde blinked.
"A-Adachi, that's almost exactly what her hand writing looks like." He looked back up at her, "thanks."
Emiri made a strange face, something between being embarrassed and blissfully happy, before she shook her head. "No problem."
Ikki cleared his throat, the Crow's dark brown eyes looking dull; tired and bored, most likely. "So're we all good?" Without waiting for a response, Ikki jumped back to his feet and stretched. "Good, 'cause I'm bushed. I'm going home guys, 'later."
Ikki was halfway out the door when he paused and skated back to Kazu, the others taking his spot and leaving. "You ready to go?" Ikki asked, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah." Kazu grinned. "Good thing you came back too, or I would have had to kick your ass."
"You can't kick anything like that Kazu, now move your ass, I'm tired." He tugged Kazu off the desk and pulled his arm around his shoulders for the second time that day. "And it's your fault too," he hissed quietly, voice harsh and teasing. "Stop getting your ass hurt."
--
Kazu fell back onto his bed with a sigh; they'd only been at the school for about an hour, but the time it took to get there and back was doubled by Kazu's leg, and it felt like it'd been forever since he'd been able to rest.
"Hey…Ikki?" Kazu murmured, blue eyes gazing at the ceiling.
"Mm?" Ikki was moving around the blonde's room, cleaning up all the dirty bandages and empty wrappers, and probably all the dishes that had been dirtied between the two of them; that was weird, Ikki must have realized living in that mess would be torture to Kazu, because God knew Ikki only very rarely cleaned up his own messes.
Kazu blinked up at a formation on his ceiling that looked oddly similar to Kuu. "…thanks. And sorry."
Ikki scoffed. "Yeah, yeah…" he mumbled before leaving Kazu's room, not looking at the Jet and quickly skating out the door once he'd reached the exit. Kazu watched him curiously as the Crow skated off, headed in the direction of the Noyamanos' house.
Well that was weird…Kazu sighed and stood up shakily, arm using the wall as support and putting all of his weight onto his right leg. Of all the times to want something to eat…
But as soon as Kazu finished his struggle of even making it to the kitchen, he noticed something that made him forget what he even came down there for; a yellow sticky-note, one of his sister's, stuck to the refrigerator. But the handwriting wasn't familiar, it wasn't Ikki's; the characters were neat and tidy, in a fine red ink.
After taking another glance at it, Kazu swallowed, looked around the room and snatched the note off of the fridge before limping over to the door to pull on his AT's. He rolled out the door, biting his lip and trying to stay off of his left leg as much as he could with out falling; this however, proved to be very hard.
Somehow though, after who knew how long, he found himself panting with his entire body slumped against the Noyamano household. His head dropped onto the door with a thud and just as he raised his hand in a fist to knock, the door opened, and Kazu tumbled inside with a loud curse. God dammit, that was my head, not a knock.
"Kazu? What the hell're you doing over here?"
Kazu cringed as he rolled over onto his back, only to find himself blinking straight up at Ikki, who was looking at him with a strange mix of emotions; something involving amusement, probably at Kazu's expression, confusion at the blonde's sudden appearance at his house and on his floor, and that expression from earlier, that trace of pain.
"Uh…" Kazu gripped the piece of paper tighter in his hand. "I, well…can I stay over here tonight?"
Ikki blinked. "What? Why?"
Kazu just reached his hand up to give Ikki the tiny sticky-note. Ikki read it, read it again, then looked back at Kazu, eyes widened. "You don't know who this is from, do you?"
Kazu shook his head. "No clue."
Ikki rubbed the back of his neck and hesitated before saying somewhat firmly, "Yeah, stay here until the field trip."
--
This is the house of the Kogarasumaru member Mikura "Kazu" Kazuma…
Correct?
A/N: T-That's the note...if you didn't realize...AND I DON'T THINK YOU'RE ALL AS DULL AS MEEEE, I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP, PROMISE. -spaz-
