Shuichi shifted on the couch and moaned. He reached over for his alarm, but after being able to find nothing, he gave up and let it ring. It was only then that he realized that there was actually no ringing at all, other than that in his ears, nor was there any alarm clock. He began to wonder if it was possible that he actually did not have to get up yet, and after about five minutes of thought, he decided that maybe he didn't. After all, it was dark out, and even though he wasn't sure if that was because the sun was down or because his eyes were still closed, Shindo Shuichi was never awake during the nighttime hours. Six in the evening to twelve in the afternoon was Shuichi's sleeping schedule. In fact, he had not even seen the moon since that one time that Hiro's bike broke down and they had to walk home all the way from NG, which was pretty far.
Shuichi's gaze settled on the other end of the couch where he saw the moonlight floating in to land on a few strands of golden hair. Shuichi sighed and sat up lazily.
"Are you still awake?" he whispered.
"Yes, I am," Tohma replied in a voice softer than normal but not quite a whisper. Shuichi could tell he was close to falling asleep.
"Don't you ever sleep?" Shuichi asked, and then bit his lip after realizing that that may have sounded a bit rude.
"I used to never go home," Tohma replied, though the humor had not left his voice. "I became quite used to running on little sleep."
"Why didn't you go home?"
Tohma chuckled lightly, though he did not respond. "And what are you doing up this late?"
"Can't sleep, I guess," Shuichi replied. He yawned and lay back down. "Na, what time is it?"
"I'd imagine it would be around one or two in the morning," Tohma replied. "Though you're still a teenager. I'm surprised you go to sleep so early."
"I am not a teenager!" Shuichi said, using all his self-discipline to keep from shouting. He didn't like to wake up Yuki in the middle of the night. That was not a smart thing to do. "I'm nineteen and eleven sixteenths! You have to round that up, so I'm twenty."
"Oh…"
There were a few seconds of silence, in which Shuichi thought that Tohma might be going to sleep, but since he didn't want to be lonely, he decided to keep talking so Tohma wouldn't be able to.
"Na, Tohma-san," Shuichi said, though he only realized afterwards that he had said 'Tohma-san' instead of 'Seguchi-san.' Tohma didn't seem to notice, though, luckily.
"Hmm?"
"Umm, well, thank you for giving me a ride," Shuichi said almost blushing. He smiled weakly, even though in the darkness Tohma would not be able to see it.
"You're welcome," Tohma mumbled. Shuichi looked at him closely, noting how the moon illuminated his pale face, and his long lashes over his closed eyes cast thin shadows across his cheeks. Shuichi shook his head and looked away.
"Na, Tohma-san," Shuichi whispered.
"Hmm?"
"Umm, well, I think you're really nice for giving me a ride."
"Thank you," Tohma said, his voice even more incoherent than before. Shuichi could tell that he was getting nearer and nearer to sleep.
"Na, Tohma-san…"
"Hmm?"
"Well…"
"Hmm…?"
"I don't know," Shuichi said. He sighed and took a long pause. "It's strange. I mean, I was perfectly happy with Yuki…but now… Now, it's like, with you here… Well, you're making me realize how…not fun…Yuki is, and I don't know what this means, but Yuki is really mean. I know you like him and all, 'cause I like him too, you know, but sometimes it's just really hard to live with him, and I had gotten used to his moods but now I'm realizing how much more pleasant it is to live with someone without those moods. I think I really like it, but I don't know what to do. What do you think, Tohma-san?"
Shuichi waited for about ten minutes, but after receiving no answer, he sat up and glared at Tohma.
"Na, Tohma! Aren't you listening?" Shuichi whined. Despite his complaining, though, the room remained still and silent. Shuichi sighed irritably and then turned to begin pouting, though he soon grew bored with that and let his body fall back down onto the couch again. He made his body as still as his hyperactivity would allow him and listened closely, just in case Tohma was really speaking, just too quietly for him to hear. However, Shuichi could only hear Tohma's scattered breaths.
Shuichi stood up and donned the largest frown he could muster. He stomped angrily to Tohma's side of the couch and hovered over him. Lifting his finger carefully, he brought it forward in a well-placed poke on Tohma's cheek. Tohma groaned and shifted, but his eyes did not open, nor did he answer Shuichi's question. Shuichi wondered why Tohma was avoiding such a simple question. It wasn't that hard to answer…
"Na, Tohma!" Shuichi cried, just loudly enough so that he wouldn't wake Yuki up. "Tohma, did you fall asleep?"
Tohma still did not answer, and Shuichi knew that Tohma could at least answer that question, so he decided that he had indeed fallen asleep. It was either that or he died, but Shuichi doubted that because he didn't think that people still breathed after they died.
Shuichi decided that that was a rather rude thing to do, falling asleep while he was talking, and besides, he didn't want to be lonely, so he decided to wake Tohma up. He leaned over Tohma and placed his hands on his shoulders, readying himself to wake the man with a severe case of whiplash, when Tohma muttered something. Shuichi, thinking that Tohma had finally decided to answer his question, leaned in closer so he could hear, only to be pulled into Tohma's chest when the latter's arms wrapped around him in a firm sleep hug.
Of course, now Shuichi was in a very uncomfortable position—in both a mental and physical sense. His legs were hanging off the edge of the couch and pulling them both closer and closer to the floor, but Tohma would not release his death grip. Shuichi found himself indulging his instinct—the one that told him that falling was a bad thing because pain awaited at the bottom—and swung his leg up onto the couch, stopping the two from crashing onto the floor, though he found himself in a new uncomfortable position, though this one was merely in a mental sense. Now he had one leg on each side of Tohma's waist, reminding him of certain stances he and Yuki had taken one of those times when he had been allowed into the bedroom, not to mention his arms had somehow gotten beneath Tohma's neck, and his lips were resting on his cheek. Shuichi whimpered and turned his head to the side, so now his jaw was being crushed into Tohma's cheek, and struggled to break free, though Tohma's sleep hug would not relent.
"To-Tohma!" Shuichi cried, pushing his elbow against the cushion and therefore giving him a few centimeters of space from Tohma's face, though his weak arms were quickly tiring from fighting against Tohma's grip.
Tohma muttered incoherently, and Shuichi had to listen closely to hear what he had said, though after he had figured out the meaning of the words, he gasped and allowed himself collapse against him again.
"Shu-chan, you're so cute."
Shuichi sighed and buried his face into Tohma. This wasn't helping his Yuki problem much, but Shuichi rather liked this. Tohma smelled nice. Or, at least Shuichi thought he did, but he couldn't be sure if anyone else would; after all, he had gotten close to no one but Yuki for the past year or so, and Shuichi could only decided that Tohma smelled better than Yuki. That is, Tohma didn't smell like cigarettes.
Not only that, but Tohma was warm. Shuichi wasn't cold; he didn't need the extra body heat, since it was still summer, and technically anyone who was alive was warm, but Shuichi didn't mean it literally. Tohma was warm in that whole mushy way that people in movies always refer to. Not like Yuki who was as cold as ice. Yuki had body heat, sure, but he was still cold. Not like Tohma.
Shuichi sighed contently and leaned into Tohma even further as he drifted off to sleep.
========
Yuki shifted in his bed and glanced that the digital clock, the only thing visible in the darkness of the early morning. 4:33 AM to be exact, according to the clock.
It was a highly unusual thing for Yuki to wake up earlier than ten o'clock. That probably had something to do with the fact that his occupation happened to be that of a novelist, and therefore he had no daily hours like Shuichi did. He rarely woke up before Shuichi left, unless, of course, Shuichi happened to awake him with his loud clumsiness, though by now, Shuichi was well trained enough so that that rarely happened anymore. Even so, it was still well before even Tohma, much less Shuichi, would wake up, so his sudden return to consciousness could not be blamed on either of them.
But, then again, perhaps it could. After all, the first conscious thought Yuki had after waking at such an ungodly hour was of Shuichi. Not the usual annoyed, I'm-going-to-kill-that-idiot-for-being-so-blanking-loud thought, but more of the annoyed, that-idiot-hasn't-been-paying-enough-attention-to-me-lately thought. Despite that he constantly acted as though he could not stand for Shuichi to be around for more than an hour, Yuki still liked that hour in which he could stand Shuichi to be placed somewhere within his day. Yesterday, it had not happened, and now he was losing sleep over it. Therefore, it was, if one thought about it, Shuichi's fault that he had woken up before ten o'clock.
Yuki had never thought himself to be the jealous type. In fact, he prided himself on being one of the few that did not sink to such shallow levels of human scum. But he never realized before, when he had still retained that pride, that he had no one to be jealous of. After all, the only people who could possibly be even considered as competition consisted of an airhead guitarist who didn't seem that homosexual and had been happy enough to pluck Yuki's discarded girlfriend off the reject's lineup, and a certain thirty-year-old, schizophrenic, hyperactive, five-year-old pop star with multiple personality disorder and whose best friend was a stuffed pink bunny. Yuki had nothing to be worried about. However, lately—that being as of yesterday—a certain new figure had stepped into his life and was quickly taking over. Yuki had never even considered the possibility of Tohma; he never really even imagined that Shuichi would ever break that whole my-god-that's-THE-Big-Boss-Seguchi-Tohma attitude that he always seemed to have whenever Tohma was even mentioned, though lately—once again, that being as of yesterday—Shuichi had been becoming rather friendly with Yuki's former brother-in-law.
Yuki did not like this. He did not think that Tohma would sink so low as to try to steal his boyfriend to get whatever it was that Tohma wanted from Yuki. Of course, that was not what was bothering him the most. Even if it was Tohma, the genius of NG, Yuki had not expected Shuichi to fall so easily, as if he were never with Yuki in the first place. Yuki did not like this at all.
Even as he lay there, he felt his body tensing as pangs of jealousy overcame him. He would just have to show the Big Boss who was boss, he decided. In fact, he decided this with so much resolve that he stood up and marched out into the living room right then and there, with the intent to not only wake both of the traitors, but also to proclaim his thoughts to them and take control of the situation.
Of course, once he reached the said living room, he stopped, his shoulders sagging in defeat, and all resolve disappeared from his mind as he focused on the pair of bodies sleeping peacefully on the couch—in each other's arms. Shuichi, with his head nestled snugly under Tohma's chin, his legs wrapped around Tohma's body, his arms clutching Tohma's torso, was enough to make Yuki snap. He glanced around the room for anything sharp to impale Tohma with; luckily, for Tohma at least, it was so dark out that it took Yuki too long to find an object sharp enough so that he would not have to exert too much strength to ram it in between Tohma's ribs, since he was still weak from sleep…or lack thereof, and his anger had a chance to calm.
Instead of horribly mutilating Tohma, which Yuki still had a strong desire to do, though not strong enough to overcome his sleepiness, Yuki turned and lazily dragged his feet back to his bedroom. This was the second time in a row he had awoken in the middle of the night, and he was tired. This would have to wait until after ten o'clock.
TBC
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Notes: Yo! Been awhile since I posted a new chapter. Well, actually not that long, but long enough to get it off the first page… As for the reason… Writer's block? Well, school started, as painful as that is, and I've already got two essays to do, and I've only had three days of classes! Actually, it's Saturday today, and I managed to finish the necessary homework, i.e. the homework that's due Monday…
This fic takes a lot of thought to write…well, not a lot, but more than I have when school's zapping my brain. I'll try to keep writing more chapters, but I'm not gonna promise much. Just don't worry. I don't think I'll forget about this fic.
Na, before I promised Ryuichi, but not yet (obviously). I would say next chapter, but then again, this chapter turned out longer than I expected, and I'm actually a chapter off than what I had originally planned. And I've also begun to make this up as I go along again. I hope you people aren't losing interest or anything.
Dunno what I'm gonna do with Ryu-chan though… If he'll have a part, or if he'll just be randomly stuck in here for a few scenes… hmm…?
Until next time.
Cassi
