Labels shonen-ai; a bit of profanity; DEFINITE OOC; cotton-candy fluff; romance; drabble; oneshot; pg

[beforehand]

So fluffy it'll make you GAG. Bring a friend to keep you from choking to death.

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Morning After

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He's still sleepy when he feels an insistent tugging at his nightshirt so he starts to thwap whatever it is within one hand as he buries his head deeper into the pillow with the other. He thinks that he hears an annoyed hiss, but it could've been a fly or something relatively as nasty buzzing at his ear so he pays no attention. And when there's a hand planted on his shoulder and shaking his roughly, he groans out load and asks for five more minutes.

There's a noise - a fuzzy one that he can't really make out but it sounds like: "Damn it! Otogi, wake up!"

Now he decides that it's too damn noisy in the room so he opens his eyes, albeit blurrily to tell whoever it is to shut up and go back to sleep because it's too damn early in the morning to be yelling in his ear.

And then he realizes that it's Honda talking and he quickly shuts up himself before he says anything he might regret later. With a ruffled yawn, he rubs heavily at his eyes before sitting up and turning to look at his newfound bedmate. Hmm. "Honda?"

Honda's making this funny face that's halfway between annoyed and amused and Otogi has to concentrate to focus on what he's saying next because he's too busy staring at Honda's lips. "If I knew you were such a log in the morning, I would've gone and got myself a megaphone. You actually rival Jounouchi in sleeping the heaviest during a herd of stampeding elephants, you know that?"

He thinks that he's probably scrunching up his face in being compared to Jounouchi because Honda's smiling a little as he watches him. "I do not, and don't compare me to Jounouchi. After all, he snores and I don't," and he adds his first question before Honda can retort, "But you woke me up anyway so what is it?"

Honda looks like he's on the brink of asking what the hell snoring had to do with anything and how Otogi knows he snores because he's sleeping, but immediately shies away once he hears the question. Otogi knows that he's staring in disbelief because Honda was the one who woke him up in the first place and what the hell just happened?

There's a brief silence before Otogi rolls his eyes and announces that he's going back to bed.

…Only to be stopped when Honda latches onto his arm and causes Otogi to turn his head so fast to look at him that he's surprised he doesn't get whiplash.

"Okay! Okay! You'll probably think that this is a little…um…strange, but please answer seriously, because it's really important."

The words to me are hanging in the air and Otogi notes that Honda's pleading and looking rather mortified, so in all, he's rather surprised but nods all the same.

"Otogi, I want to know why you love me."

"Because you're good in bed."

Honda shots him a frustrated look and snaps that it wasn't funny and Otogi finally gets it that Honda really wants to know so he apologizes and stops to ponder.

It's never occurred to him that Honda would ever want to know, so Otogi has never thought about it, but when Otogi sits back for once and comprehends, he realizes that Honda isn't the type of guy to go around having one-night stands like himself (well, he calls them flings because it sounds a bit better) and that Honda has always thought of their sleeping together and living together and waking up in the morning together as a relationship. Not that Otogi hasn't thought of it, but he's never really labeled them with the classic "boyfriend-girlfriend-boyfriend" terms like everyone else. Honda has always just been there and so Otogi just came to accept the idea that Honda will always be waiting for him. It has never occurred to him that Honda might actually leave him for someone else (though he doesn't think that it would happen, because he's always known that Honda was a deep believer in loyalty), and now that he thinks about it, there's a deep pang that resounds in his chest when he thinks about that scenario.

Now he's just looking at Honda and memorizing every little detail of what he looks like in the morning and he can't help but sigh and know that he's smitten and that he's always been.

"Honda."

He's being regarded with a curious, an unsteady glance and he can't help but thinks it's adorable. So instead of responding, he leans over and winds his arms around Honda, pulling him down to the bed with unpredicted ease. It seems like Honda's tired as well, because he starts sinking into the sheets and leans his head against Otogi's shoulder, muttering that Otogi was avoiding the question.

Otogi wonders what he can say.

I love you because of everything you've done for me.

I love you for always being here.

I love you for staying with me.

I love you for your kisses.

I love you for your smiles.

I love you for loving me.

I love you, for being you.

There're a thousand things that he knows he's expected to say and that he knows he wants to say, but the sun's too bright in his eyes and there's a faint blush bridged on Honda's nose that's too irresistible. He leans closer and brushes his mouth against Honda's ear, feeling the other shudder softly in his grasp and he whispers.

"I love you."

There're a thousand different meanings in those three words that he knows Honda wants to interpret, and though everything will sound really clichéd in the afterward – and though everything will be confused and misunderstood in the afterward, they could sort things out later after they woke up again.

Because there were a hundred years ahead of them, and they had all the time they needed.

fin.

[afterward]

Finished June 24th, 2004.

Written and modified in 50 minutes.

989 words.

…--; This is unbelievably corny. Really.

The "I love you" bit is related and should be credited to Aja's "Love Under Will," where Malfoy thinks of reasons to thank Potter -sw-.

endlog[10:25 am]