I have claimed our favorite boys at 30(underscore)kisses, an LJ community that takes thirty different prompts to make different fanworks from them (fiction, art, fanvids, icons, etc) but it has to feature at least one kiss in it. I'm almost halfway done.
Thrill Pair
Theme #20: the road home
Ryoma now seemed breakable lying on the hospital bed, IVs hooked into his arm and the machines that kept him alive beeping noisily in the background. Each drop of the IV fluid matched to the ticking of the clock. It felt endless but at the same time like an inevitable countdown.
Syusuke tenderly traced the curve of Ryoma's cheek, letting his finger graze against the boy's long lashes. The heartbeat in his own chest matched the one the machine was counting, emitting in dull beeps.
Ryoma was barely alive, hasn't been for more than a month now. A bigoted man, a baseball bat and one powerful swing to head put Ryoma in this room, in this hospital. The black-haired boy's lips were pale around the nasogastric tube and if Syusuke gently pried apart Ryoma's eyelashes, the golden irises would be swallowed up by his unresponsive pupils.
The doctors had given up hope. There was too much damage to the brain for recovery to be possible. It was devastating news, one that they didn't want to hear. Hope was the only thing they had left, all of them, Ryoma's parents, his friends, his rivals, Syusuke…especially Syusuke. Now there was nothing but the comatose body of the boy who had been so brilliant in life.
Syusuke's blue eyes were filled with sorrow as his fingers intertwined with those of Ryoma's still ones.
Behind him, Nanjiro and Rinko stood side by side, immobile and cold-faced, except for the tears slipping down Rinko's cheeks. Momoshiro was trembling and even Kaidoh looked greatly troubled. For once, Inui's notebook was nowhere to be seen. Eiji was trying hard not to cry as Oishi held him. Tezuka had an arm around a trembling Sakuno, who was reminded vividly of her own grandmother's death, though as different as Ryuzaki's had been.
The doctor and nurse stood on the other side of the bed. Nanjiro caught the doctor's gaze and stiffly nodded and in turn, the doctor signaled to the nurse.
Syusuke's smile lifted to his face but it was hollow. "I love you, Ryoma."
The nurse switched off the mechanical ventilation. Syusuke leaned forward to kiss Ryoma on the cheek, softly, adoringly.
Ryoma's chest stopped moving just as the ECG intoned a loud, continuous beeping that ended everything.
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END
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Another sad ending, this one with Ryoma dead. Oh. Please tell me what you think of it.