Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters get in.

Touch of Sweetness

Robert slowly awoke to a feeling that he loved quite a lot but was usually fairly rare in his life these days. Someone was holding him. A smile curving his lips at the thought Robert didn't bother to open his eyes, content to enjoy the feeling as he nuzzled his cheek against the warm cotton beneath him as he made a happy sound. The fact that the scents he was drawing into his lungs were ones he associated with Hikaru were slow to register in him sleepy brain, and even when they did he wasn't awake enough to get why that should be cause for alarm. He loved the way his best friend smelled after all, exotic but familiar too. Staying right where he was, wrapped in those scents and the warmth coming from underneath him sounded like absolute heaven to Robert's dreamy consciousness.

But unfortunately he wasn't used to lying around in the morning, even the weekends were reserved for getting ahead of his peers when it came to whatever area his father thought he needed to work on to become less spineless and useless to him. And the thought that he needed to get up before his father came in and yanked him out of bed had Robert unable to drift back to sleep and slowly woke him up enough for him to get a more accurate picture of just what he was doing.

Namely, the fact that he was lying atop of Hikaru.

Eyes flashing open and going as wide as was humanly possible, Robert's whole body seized up as it finally dawned on him what sort of predicament he was in. The last thing he remembered was being really sleepy while they watched 'Zombieland', he must have fallen asleep shortly after they killed Bill Murray because that was one of the last things he remembered.

But how the hell had he ended up on top of Hikaru? And more importantly…they both had morning wood and that fact had never embarrassed him more which was saying something. It also made him freeze that much more since he was afraid that if he tried to move Hikaru would wake up and completely misinterpret the situation.

"So out of curiosity, do you have any idea how this happened?"

Jerking upright at the sound of Hikaru's voice Robert found himself straddling his friend and then yelping like a complete girl as his ass registered what was now brushing up against him which had him hastily sitting up on his knees with his face a very bright red.

Hiding his amusement well Hikaru simply looked up at him with his hands casually linked behind his head. In all honesty he knew exactly how they'd ended up in their previous position, he'd just been curious as to whether Robert had been playing at being asleep the whole time. Pity that that seemed to be the case.

"I'll take that as a no. No big, we probably just tipped over while asleep and ended up moving that way so that we wouldn't fall off the couch." Which was partly the truth, Hikaru thought to himself, though he'd woken up when Robert, who had fallen asleep with his head on his shoulder, had shifted in said sleep with his body weight pushing them downward. He'd been awake enough to allow it to happen, and had arranged them this way because it was the most comfortable…and appealing to him in a half awake state. So sue him, he was only human.

"Oh." His cheeks still flushed with color Robert rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, apologizing for apparently knocking him over in his sleep since if it had been Hikaru's fault his friend would have ended up on top of him.

And that thought had the blushing returning with a vengeance.

Trying and failing to supress a small smile Hikaru patted Robert's knee in a small gesture of sympathy. "No worries. You aren't that heavy, you know. I'd have squished you."

"You aren't that much taller than me." Robert huffed out, latching onto the change in topic with both hands. "I could still kick your butt."

Hikaru's smirk widened, deliberately messing with Robert now for his own amusement. That and a deep and abiding love for the way his best friend's blue eyes fired up when he was passionate about something. The blushing was cuter, yes, but they were both more inclined to be comfortable just teasing.

And on that note… "I'm also bulkier, in better shape, and I know your weaknesses."

"You're not the only one." That was all the warning Robert gave before he pounced, fingers going straight to the spot on either side of Hikaru's ribs where he knew the other man was ticklish as hell, laughing in delight when his actions caused a very girlie yelp to pass Hikaru's lips. Then it was on as they both took complete advantage of each other's weaknesses, tussling on the couch before falling off it with shared oofs.

Thankfully they landed on their sides and quickly continued their game, rolling around on the carpeted floor with plenty of laughing and foul language thrown in as they acted like boys less than half their current ages. It was the sound of a throat being very loudly cleared that got their attention finally, the look on Maurice Fischer's face making it clear that that had not been the first time he'd tried to get their attention when they looked in his direction in surprise.

Both teenagers quickly getting to their feet they stood side by side, Robert's face full of trepidation while Hikaru's body language was one of cool defiance.

"Sir." "Mr. Fischer."

Nodding his head in acknowledgement Robert's father hardly looked at Hikaru as he suggested that the boy head on upstairs to shower and change into fresh clothes. He needed to speak with his son alone for a few minutes.

Hikaru wanted to say hell no, he could see plainly that the older Fischer intended to rip into his friend as soon as he was out of the way, but he also knew that he'd just be making it harder for Robert in the long run. He would just be delaying the explosion, giving it more time to build up and be that much more destructive. And if Robert were banned from hanging out with him then he wouldn't be able to be there for him when his friend needed him. Dammit.

Giving Robert a look he hoped was reassuring the two shared some more knowing looks and then Hikaru headed up the stairs, determined to shower and change as quickly as he could without making it obvious as to why he'd rushed in the first place.

He took less than ten minutes, hurrying back down to the basement where he'd left his friend as soon as he could. The fact that he didn't hear the master of the house lecturing or yelling was reassuring when he opened the door and went down the stairs, but his heart dropped when he entered the entertainment room to see Robert sitting on the floor with pieces of broken Blu-ray disks in his hand.

Obviously sensing his presence Robert smiled sadly as he looked up to meet Hikaru's gaze. "Mindless trash that does nothing but waste time and corrode brain cells apparently."

Dropping the disks back onto the carpet Robert got to his feet and stated that they might as well head up to his room. He needed to shower and change too, plus they had homework they were supposed to be doing apparently.

Knowing sympathy wasn't wanted and would only put Robert's back up Hikaru nodded and followed the other teenager out of the room, glancing back once to look at what had been broken before looking ahead with a very determined gleam in his dark eyes.

)

Arthur stared down at the man curled up like a baby on his bed with a mixture of affection, exasperation, and just a touch of smugness since if he were a petty man this would be the moment when he reminded Eames that he'd told him last night that it was not a good idea for him to eat so much of the leftover Halloween candy. Especially since the man had eaten plenty of treats at the school after the play, on top of the fact that they'd ordered pizza instead of having something healthy for dinner.

"Just shoot me now and get it over with."

"Ever the drama teacher." Arthur shot back with a roll of his eyes. "Now quit whining and drink this. It should help settle your stomach."

Opening one eye Eames studied Arthur with a mixture of hope and suspicion. "What is it?"

"Good for you. Now drink it."

Knowing that tone of voice Eames very reluctantly sat up and took the glass from Arthur, studying the contents dubiously before forcing himself to chug it all back since he figured it was likely to taste as bad as it looked. He got a sense of ginger, it wasn't actually all that bad, but was nonetheless glad to get the drinking over with so that he could curl back into a ball and continue to curse the fact that American treats were so good at hiding how diabolically evil they were. He was never touching one ever again.

"Can I have that in writing?"

"Sod off, you bloody evil Yank. Your family probably made some of your money piles peddling your evil, sugar packed wares."

Opening his mouth to comment on that Arthur had to close it again since he couldn't argue that his family owned buildings or businesses that sold junk food to the always eager to eat masses. And while he could point out that no one had forced Eames to eat so much candy all at once he had brought it into the house in the first place. He'd intended for them to eat what was left over time, but he probably should have foreseen this when he was buying the stuff. He should have hid the candy last night. But at the end of the day, or morning in this case, Eames had brought this on himself and Arthur decided to leave the man to his moaning and complaining and go get some work done. Eames could text him if he needed something.

"You're just going to leave me?"

Arthur just barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the man's wounded tone of voice. "I'll be just down the hall, you know. And there's not a lot I can do for you in this situation that I haven't already done." And knowing who he was dealing with Arthur tacked on the fact that Eames's stomach would hurt for a whole other reason if he even suggested that they needed to play doctor.

"Well that would take my mind off things…"

"Please. The way you're acting I could wait on you hand and foot in the leather pants and you wouldn't be up to doing anything but drool."

It was Eames's turn to open his mouth to protest, only to have to close it again as he realized that wasn't an argument he could win. Which was utterly pathetic and annoying as hell, but he couldn't argue that seeing Arthur in leather would be more of a torture than a pleasure at the moment.

Pretty sure he knew what Eames was thinking Arthur moved in and leaning down delighted the other man by giving him a quick kiss on the forehead before straightening up and heading towards the door.

"At least it's Sunday. You can lie around in bed all day so you're up to going to work tomorrow." Seeing the face Eames made Arthur made it clear that he would make Eames go to work the next day if necessary. But to soften that blow, especially since he was being looked at like he was an ogre, Arthur offered up some additional reassurance. "I'll hide whatever candy you didn't eat so this doesn't happen again."

"I wouldn't touch it even if you kept it in plain sight." Was Eames's bitter opinion on the matter.

"You say that now…"

"Bugger off, Arthur."

Not taking offense in the slightest Arthur just smiled and left the room, heading downstairs to find what was left of the candy and was more than a little taken aback when he saw how little was left. In fact, when he studied the evidence, Arthur was willing to bet that Eames would have eaten even more if not for the fact that he'd discovered a few things he didn't like and therefore had left them in the bowl. Really. Boys sometimes.

Helping himself to a mini chocolate bar, he'd earned it, Arthur ate it and then picked up the bowl, deciding to hide it in his office for the time being. Eames would have no reason to go through his things in there and if he did then he'd be completely justified in ripping the Brit a new one for trespassing into his office.

They'd help when he was marking bad homework too.

)

Even though it was way too early in the morning for a chocolate bar, even a mini one, Robert pulled one out of the bag Arthur had given him and started to nibble on it before closing his locker, leaning against it as he waited for Hikaru as per usual. To distract himself Robert focused on why he'd been given the Halloween candy in the first place, the idea of his drama teacher making himself sick on it amusing him even though he had some sympathy. Of course Arthur had probably given him the candy out of sympathy too, Robert acknowledged with a grimace, easily able to remember the look on his godbrother's face when he'd shown up at the man's house the night before with the majority of his movie collection. Since he would be going away to university soon enough Arthur wouldn't have to keep them for him long, but that wasn't the point. He hadn't even had to explain why he'd needed to put them into 'storage' in the first place.

No surprise there, since this was far from the first time he'd hidden things at Arthur's house for safe keeping, he acknowledged bitterly.

Shoving his hands into his pockets Robert was not looking forward to seeing Hikaru's face either, though the other boy was really good at hiding his thoughts unless he wanted them to be seen. But he knew what Hikaru thought of his father and yesterday had been plenty awkward at times, Hikaru leaving earlier than originally planned because his father had kept dropping in on them for some weird reason. The old man had seemed like he was trying to catch them at something.

But yeah, as much as he hated dealing with people after his father got done with him Robert wasn't about to compound the embarrassment by running away or avoiding Hikaru until he felt better about the whole thing. That was just pointless, not the least because his father would find something new to tear into him about soon enough and the cycle would repeat.

"You beat me here."

"Yup. Morning." Raising a hand in greeting Robert jerked his chin in the direction of the plastic shopping bag his friend was carrying as well as his usual book bag. "What's in the bag?"

By way of answering Hikaru held the bag out to him, Robert intrigued enough to take the bag and open it up, his eyes going wide as he realized what he was looking at.

"We'll keep them at my place until we can get our own place when we go to university."

Pulling the cases out Robert felt his throat close up as he saw that Hikaru had bought him new copies of all the disks his father had broken the day before. It was just-he hadn't expected-he couldn't believe that Hikaru had-

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop the other ones from being broken."

The quiet words sinking in Robert was shaking his head as he let the cases fall back into the bag, pulling his best friend into a one armed hug that conveyed everything he wanted to say but couldn't quite get out at the moment.

)

Both men stopping in their tracks at the sight in front of them Eames knowingly nudged Arthur in the side, knowing how worried his lover had been about Robert since the kid had dropped in on them just before dinner. He'd been a bit worried as well, not to mention plenty angry when he'd figured out just why the boy was leaving his disks with them out of the blue. "Looks like young Saito's got it covered, hmm?"

"It does." Arthur agreed with a small smile, pleased by the sight even as he couldn't shake the feeling that he should be paying more attention to some important clue he was missing. But not wanting the two teenagers to see them and get all embarrassed and puffed up about it Arthur put his arm through Eames's and drew tugged so that they continued on their way, leaving the two boys to their moment.

)

Life continued on without any major surprises until nearly the middle of November, Arthur coming into the bedroom to receive quite the shock when he got a look at Eames. He'd seen the Englishman stylishly dressed before, usually because he'd had a hand in what the man was wearing that day, but this was the first time he'd been caught completely off guard because it made no sense for the man to dress up when they were just going to school. And what he was wearing, you'd think the man was going to a funeral. The black suit, shirt and tie worked, oh man did it work, but it was so opposed to the man's love of color and bizarre combinations.

"All right, Darling?"

Nodding automatically, Arthur debated asking about the wardrobe change, it suddenly occurring to him that the clothing choices might indicate that this date marked the passing of someone who'd mattered to his lover. Eames hadn't mentioned having lost someone important to him ever, or seemed off in any way leading up to now, but perhaps it was-oh.

The pieces fell into place as he realized that while he was thinking Eames had added the finishing touch to the persona he was donning today. A red poppy.

Walking over Arthur fingered the shirt collar as he met Eames's gaze. "November eleventh has the same meaning in Britain?"

"Actually, it's usually the second Sunday when we honor those who died in war, with the two minutes of silence on the eleventh regardless of when it falls, but I decided to do it in reverse while I'm here." Reaching out Eames wrapped his arms around Arthur's waist. "My family has a history of serving, so we take it more seriously than some."

"That's far from a bad thing." Giving him a light kiss on the lips Arthur drew back and headed to his dresser where he'd left the poppy he'd intended to wear as well. Weaving it into place, the things were always hard to keep where you wanted them, Arthur came back over and asked Eames how it looked.

"You always look smashing." Stealing his on kiss Eames grinned and then suggested that they head down for breakfast so that they would have plenty of time to get to school. His darling hated when they weren't early.