Disclaimer: If only. If only, if only, if only. But if I owned it, it probably wouldn't be as brilliant, so maybe it's a good thing all round…

Rating: PG-13? Low R?

Warnings: Yaoi, fluffy/angsty fluff (it makes sense if I want it to -.-), bit of language, Akaya being a pouty li'l boyfriend.

Summary: Akaya birthday fic! Akaya's not happy with his and Marui's relationship. Fluff -.-;

Author's notes: Argh. –Cringes- It's fluff. I don't think I've written a fluff fic in my entire life. Literally. But… It's Akaya's birthday tomorrow! And the plot bunnies made me.

It goes:

Times of Stress

Passing the Time

How to ask out Marui Bunta

Four Days Later

Because I Love You

Can stand alone, but I'd recommend reading the others first to sort out the background. Or something. 0.o;;

Otanjoubi omedetou, Kirihara Akaya!

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The small room was filled with a tranquil peace. It was early in the morning; the very first sunlight of the day was filtering through the curtains.

Kirihara Akaya lay awake. For once he was thinking seriously – instead of the usual impish smirk was a solemn frown. It made him look younger than he was, although he generally did anyway.

There was a sleepy sigh, and an arm tightened its previously loose hold on Akaya's waist.

"Mm… You awake?"

Akaya nodded silently. There was another sleepy sigh and the head of pink-tinted hair nuzzled deeper into Akaya's.

There was a few moments silence, during which both occupants of the bed seemed to fall back into sleep. But then Akaya slowly opened his eyes again, and blinked them a couple of times.

"Ne, Bunta?"

"Hmm?" Bunta was too sleepy to tell Akaya to call him 'san' like he usually did.

"Are we dating?"

Bunta blinked owlishly down at his kouhai. "Well if we weren't, then I'd ask you what the hell you were doing in my bed."

"Yeah. But… We don't really go out anywhere, do we?"

"Sure we do."

"Like where?"

Bunta yawned heartily as he tried to force himself to think. "Wh'time's it?" he asked drowsily as he tried to make his brain work.

Akaya shrugged unhelpfully, then said, "Almost seven."

"Huh." There was another yawn, then Bunta said, "We went to the Nationals together."

Akaya snorted. "Yeah, but we went with the rest of the team. It wasn't a date."

"Howsabout… oh, we went to see that film last week."

"What film?"

Bunta rolled his eyes, even though Akaya couldn't see it. "Waddaya mean, what film? The one where Mura nearly died laughing cos fukubuchou… Oh."

"Exactly," Akaya muttered sulkily. "We never go on real dates. At least some of the team always comes with us. I never get you to myself."

"Aww, poor Aka-chan."

Akaya scowled and sat up. "I mean it! It's not fair. And don't call me a baby, I'm not one!"

Bunta tugged Akaya back down again. "It's an endearment. Like koibito."

"'Cept I'm not," Akaya scowled.

Accepting resignedly that he wasn't going to be getting back to sleep until he'd sorted out the tangle in his boyfriend's mind, Marui pushed himself up the bed a little and turned Akaya on his side so that he could see his face. "What do you mean?"

"Well, 'm not, am I? We haven't done it yet. In fact, apart from kissing and stuff, we don't really do anything like that."

Bunta snorted and ruffled a hand through Akaya's hair. "Well, you only just turned fourteen! I don't wanna corrupt you just yet."

"You're only a year older than me!"

"One and a half, actually. And that's a big difference at our age," Bunta pointed out. "I'm sixteen in April. You'll still be fourteen."

"So?" Akaya demanded. He glared at Bunta. "So what? It's not like I'm ten or something. You lost your virginity when you were fourteen!"

Bunta gaped. "Who the hell told you that!"

"Niou-senpai. He said you had a huge crush on some third year and you let him fuck you even though you knew he didn't really like you back."

"That's not true!"

Akaya looked momentarily uncertain. "… It's not?"

"No! I really did think he liked me back!"

The scowl came back in triple force.

Exhaling loudly, Bunta tangled his fingers through curly black hair and tugged gently as he tried to make his point come across. He'd never been good with words like Mura and people were.

"Look, Akaya. We haven't done anything heavy yet 'cos I don't wanna rush you. Corny as it sounds," he added, "I don't want you regretting it."

Bunta was extremely alarmed to see the beginnings of tears start to gather in Akaya's eyes, to be blinked away furiously. "You mean you don't want to," Akaya accused.

"No! I do! Bloody hell, d'you have any idea how hard it is for me to hold back!"

"Then why hold back at all? You wanna, I wanna, so what's the big deal?" The tears were starting to gather a little faster, and they didn't go away this time when Akaya blinked rapidly.

Distressed at the sight of a genuinely upset Akaya, Bunta stroked a soothing hand up and down the back of his boyfriend's neck. "Oh, look, don't cry-"

"'M not crying!" Akaya sniffed.

"Liar." Quietly, Bunta pulled Akaya close, ignoring the cross protests and pushes for him to let go, waiting for him to stop struggling. When he finally did, Bunta said quietly, "You wanna know why I'm holding back?"

A shrug.

"I really regretted fuckin' that third year. I really did. I don't want… I dunno, I don't want you regretting it too. You're fourteen. Sure, you're really smart, but you're fourteen."

"You already said those things! I told-"

Akaya's eyes opened wide as Bunta kissed him to shut him up. He stubbornly refused to return the kiss, and Bunta broke it off with a sigh and an odd sort of lopsided grin.

"Because I love you. Idiot."

Now it was Akaya's turn to gape. "Well, I know that!"

"Oh, really? How? I've never said it."

"Cos… Well, we're dating. Kinda. So… you don't date people if you don't love them, right?" Akaya wrinkled his nose.

Bunta huffed in fond amusement. "You see? You don't even really know what falling in love means. It's way, way more than that. It's complicated, I guess, but I'm waiting until you start to love me back. Even if it takes a while."

"I do love you back!" Akaya protested.

"No you don't. Not really. But you will," Bunta grinned. He hugged Akaya as he let him think about what he'd said.

"M'kay."

"Hmm?" Bunta opened his eyes; he'd almost dropped off to sleep again.

"I said ok. You gone deaf or something?" The customary flippant, defiant tone was back in Akaya's voice, and Bunta smiled in relief.

"Nah, not yet."

"What about Christmas?"

"…? What about Christmas?"

"Maybe… for a Christmas present? Please?" Akaya looked hopeful.

Bunta burst out laughing. He squeezed the breath out of Akaya as he laughed. "God, you're such a brat," he chuckled, kissing him briefly.

"Huh. You don't seem to mind," Akaya pointed out.

Bunta grinned and kissed him again. "Yeah. No idea why."

"I know why."

"Oh? Why? Pray do enlighten this poor impoverished soul with your wisdom."

"Because you love me."

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Sandy: -Comes out of hiding- Gah. I'm sorry! I'm not good at writing fluff. I tried.

Koibito lover

Hayleigh: Yes, well done, Aka-chan does indeed mean 'baby'. xDD Damn, I guess I can't get away with my private joke any more. Probably wasn't that private anyway… -.-; LOL

Review? Please? –Hopeful smile- After this, I'm gonna start up my angsty AU plot. So no fluff there. 0.0

Until next time! –Kisses-