Rating: PG.
Warnings: None.
Spoilers: None.
Notes: And, here's part four of the "Impatience" arc which I fully intended to not become an arc, but oh well. (There's another little omake drabble at the end. ) Dedicated to Aja whose comment to part 2 helped shape part 3 which, therefore, led to part 4.
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"Touya, let's face it. No matter what we do, the only way to fit two futons in this room is to put them side by side."
"But..." Akira blushed slightly and sighed, then began to set out his futon. It was already late, and he had a shidougo session to give at nine the next morning. "Fine. We'll do this your way for tonight. But, tomorrow? I'm rearranging this room again."
"But you've already rearranged it seven times! No matter what we do, you're going to have to sleep close to me." Hikaru looked at Akira with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. "What? Do you think I'm going to jump you in the middle of the night? This is new for me too! I am equally uncomfortable with the idea of saying I'm sleeping with you already!"
Akira smoothed out his pillow and began working on putting Hikaru's right next to his. "It's not that, and you know it. It's just..." He smiled and looked at Hikaru. "You snore. Not a lot, but enough that it'll probably wake me up."
Hikaru slapped his face with one hand and let it slide back down to rest at his side. He turned around and walked out of the room. Akira stayed put, even as he heard the outer door opening and closing. He clenched his teeth and continued putting the futons to rights, then standing up and straightening the books on the shelves and smoothing the wrinkles out of the curtains. But it wasn't enough to stop himself from thinking. He left the room.
A few minutes later, Akira was back with his bucket of cleaning supplies. He wiped down the walls and cleaned the floors and did the windows. He dusted the ceiling fan and vacuumed up the dust where it fell. Then, he started on the dishes.
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Akira's head shot up to look at it as his hands scrubbed at a burnt patch on the bottom of a pan. He set it down and, with his hands still soapy and dripping, walked over to the door. He opened it and felt his breath catch in his throat to see Hikaru's smiling face. "Sorry. I forgot my key."
Akira took deep breaths and felt himself shaking slightly. "You... I thought you left."
Hikaru heard the hurt in Akira's voice and turned to look at him, his eyes wide in shock. "Touya... you didn't think I-" He reached toward Akira and pulled him close. "Oh, god. No. Don't think that. No. Never."
Still taking shaky breaths, Akira raised his hands to clutch at the back of Hikaru's shirt. "I didn't know what to think. You just stormed off and didn't say anything. How was I supposed to know?"
"I'm sorry." Hikaru pulled back and raised his hands to rest on Akira's shoulders. "I should have explained. But I was trying to do something nice."
"Nice?" Akira lay his head down on Hikaru's shoulder. "Where did you go?"
Hikaru laughed and rubbed his thumb along Akira's jaw. "I went to the combini down the street. And the one further down. And then the one across the street. And, about three others. You see, I was looking for something." He pulled away for a moment and opened up a bag he'd brought with him. He took out the box inside and showed it to Akira. "See? Nose strips. They'll, uh, stop the snoring."
Akira wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying as he buried his face in Hikaru's neck and trembled. "This is just like you to be so busy going off on this half-cocked idea that you don't even think about telling me. Shindou, I hate you sometimes."
"Do you really?" Akira looked up to see raw emotion painting Hikaru's face, his eyes bright with honesty. "Because I..." He swallowed quickly. "I can leave if you want me to."
"Do you want to leave?" Akira rubbed his temples and was very tempted to kick the other boy for giving him cause for a headache.
"Of course not!" Hikaru grabbed Akira's hand gently. "I want to stay here with you. Why else would I have asked you?"
"I don't know! Why would you fall in... something... with someone like me?"
"You mean love?"
"Well... I sort of assumed..."
"Yeah." Hikaru smiled and reached up to brush a strand of Akira's hair away from his eyes. "Yeah. I think I love you."
"You can't mean that?"
"Why not?"
Akira looked at the floor. He wanted to say they were too young, or it was too soon, or maybe not soon enough, or that he definitely couldn't share a bedroom with a guy who could already say he loved him, but knew that he didn't really agree with any of them. "You can't mean it... because I can't say it yet."
"But how do you feel?" Hikaru always had a retort.
"Honestly, Shindou? I feel like my head is going to explode. I feel like my fingers are going to burn tomorrow when I play. I feel like I won't get to sleep tonight even if you don't snore because I'll be too busy trying to figure out what I feel to shut off my brain and do what I need to do."
"Do you want some ibuprofen? And some juice?" Hikaru touched his cheek softly.
Akira sank into the warm contact and nodded. "Yes, please."
"It's okay, you know." He looked at Akira, smiling, before heading to the kitchen with him in tow. "You don't have to say anything. The fact that you got so worried says a lot. I'm sorry again for not saying anything. You know I usually act before I think. Forgive me?" He handed Akira two ibuprofen and a small glass of orange juice.
Akira took the medicine and juice gratefully and downed them both. "This time? Yes. Next time? No."
"I guess I'll have to be careful, then." Hikaru took the glass and rinsed it in the sink. "I don't want to lose you, you know. I lose to you often enough, and that's quite enough loss for me."
Akira tried to change the subject. "Sai?"
Hikaru laughed, but Akira heard the hint of sadness behind it. "That's right. I was going to tell you tonight. Do you mind it if waits? It's a long story, and something that means a lot to me..."
"Okay." Akira smiled softly. "You can tell me after you beat me in a tournament game."
"But we won't even have one for another three months!"
Akira's smile grew. "I know. But you don't sound ready to tell it yet. So, I want to give you more time."
"Touya Akira... have I told you yet that you're the world's best boyfriend?"
"Maybe... but I can stand to hear it again." Touya laughed.
Hikaru picked up Akira and spun him around. "Let's go to bed. We've got a big day tomorrow."
"What are we doing tomorrow? I thought we had everything unpacked. Don't we?" Akira looked around the apartment slowly.
"Well, we have to rearrange the bedroom, don't we? And then we're going to my parents' house for a late lunch, and then Isumi is having a party... oh, but you've got shidougo in the morning, so all of that can wait a bit, and I can go give Waya that game he's been asking for, and-"
Akira cut him off with a kiss. "Shindou, you talk too much. Let's just go to bed. And, maybe the bedroom is fine like it is afterall."
"You're not going to divide the room with tape, are you?"
Akira paused, but shook his head at the idea. "No. But you will continue to learn how to cook in exchange for me cleaning."
"That," Hikaru said as he started to head back to the bedroom, "is a deal."
Akira found that he slept quite soundly with Hikaru by his side.
-
Owari.
SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:
-----How Akira Knows About the Bad Places Go Stones Go----- a drabble
Akira tugged at his mother's skirt. "Mommy?"
She looked down at him, startled by the strange quality to his voice. "Akira? Is something wrong, sweetie?" She looked at him more closely. "Why are you holding your nose?"
"Ashiwara threw a go stone and it broke and part of it got me." Touya continued to keep his hand over his nose.
"Did it hurt a lot? Oh, let me see." She pulled the boy's hand away and gasped loudly to see half of a black go stone stuck in her son's nostril with a thin trail of blood coming from it. "Akira? Mommy's going to get her coat and we're going to go see Dr. Ishida, okay?"
"Okay, mommy."
Akira's mother briefly wondered if there were many children at all who got in so many go-related accidents, or if her son was the only one.