Disclaimer: All characters and specifics of "Hikaru no Go" are copyrighted Hotta Yumi, Obata Takeshi, Shueisha and Studio Pierrot. All rights reserved. This fanfiction is property of Shikami Yamino and is not intended for any monetary purpose nor an infringement of copyright laws. No one is to post/host/use any aspect of this fanfic without explicit permission from the author.

Notes: *L* This part contains the actual scene that spawned the entire fic ^^;; And yes, if anyone is wondering, the fic is growing... -_-;; It was originally meant to be a three to four part short story and has, at this point, already become a fifty page fluff-epic. This just goes to prove that I can't write short fics to save my life. And that Hikaru and Akira are too cute for their own good ^^;; My thanks go to all the readers and reviewers who have stuck with this fic and I hope you continue to enjoy it ^_^

Hikaru no Go: "Blind Descent"
 by Shikami Yamino

Part 9 - Morning Banter

Slanting rays of morning sunshine shining onto his face woke Akira from a deep and untroubled rest. Struggling to remain in Morpheus's embrace, he wrinkled his nose at the light and rolled onto his side away from the window in a futile attempt to escape. Nevertheless, the sunlight was persistent; somehow finding a way to reach him even as he tried to bury himself in his blankets.

Eventually conceding defeat, Akira blearily opened his eyes and rubbed them gently with his fingers. When they refocused, he strained his neck upwards to catch sight of his alarm clock. It was in the process of determining the time as ten past ten that the events of the day before slowly came back to Akira, prompting a sigh of relief that yesterday's pounding headache had been reduced to a mild throb. Then he became aware of the sound of another's slow breathing pattern in the otherwise silent room.

Turning to the sound, the dark-haired go pro was mildly surprised to find his rival fast asleep leaning against his bed. Long blonde bangs feathered gently around Hikaru's relaxed face, the book of Shuusaku's kifu still resting on his chest. Akira frowned, puzzled. Hadn't Shindou said he was going to go home last night? Not that he wasn't grateful that he had stayed of course.

Hikaru shifted restlessly in his sleep, drawing his legs up to his chest while a frown appeared to mar the peaceful expression on his slumbering face. Akira held his breath, not wanting to wake his friend. As Hikaru settled down again with a faint mumble, Akira belatedly realised that his rival had fallen asleep with no blanket to guard against the cold.

'And he calls me stupid,' Akira thought, gingerly easing himself out of bed. Grabbing one of the blankets Shindou had piled on top of him yesterday, the dark haired go pro knelt to drape it gently around his rival's shoulders. Mindful of the goban behind him, Akira was so intent on his task that he almost fell back when he looked up to see a pair of sleepy green eyes centered on him.

Hikaru stifled a yawn as he drowsily regarded Akira's wide blue eyes. "Wha're you doin' outta bed?"

"Some idiot fell asleep last night without a blanket," Akira replied, frowning in disapproval. "Are you trying to make yourself sick?"

Head clearing at the word 'sick', Hikaru scowled lightly before it was interrupted by another stifled yawn. "If that was the case, I obviously didn't try as hard as you did."

Opening his mouth to continue the verbal war, Akira blinked when a warm hand laid itself on his forehead. A glance over to his rival showed that Hikaru had his other hand on his own forehead as a gauge.

"At least the fever's gone."

The hand slid lightly away, and for the briefest of moments, Akira lamented the loss of that comforting warmth.

"How's the headache?"

"Better," Akira answered, shaking himself back to reality.

"And the throat?"

Akira nodded. "Better as well."

A wide grin spread over Hikaru's face. "Ha! Shindou-sensei to the rescue! See? You should listen to me more often!"

Attempting to hide the answering smile on his face, Akira rolled his eyes. "Shindou, if I listened to you any more than I do, we'd be living in a ramen stand."

"Hey! Is that any way to treat the person that nursed you back to health?" Hikaru feigned an angry scowl. "You should show more respect!"

Akira smirked, the tone of his voice leaving no doubts about his sarcasm. "Yes, Shindou-sensei. My *eternal* gratitude."

Hikaru narrowed his eyes. "You're still an ungrateful jerk. Now get back in bed and I'll go get us some breakfast." Levering himself onto his hands to push himself up off the floor, the bleached-blonde go pro had failed to take into account how close he and his rival had been sitting. As a consequence, the minor collision of noses had both boys rocking backwards with a hand held firmly over the abused appendage.

"Oww..." Hikaru mumbled. "Touya!!"

Akira, on the other hand, was looking at the grumbling Hikaru with wide, startled eyes. Shaking himself, he quickly rose to his feet, resolutely suppressing a most irrational blush that was attempting to stain his cheeks. It was only when he was on his feet that the feeling of blood rushing to his head checked him, yesterday's headache prancing back to bid him a sadistically cheerful good-morning.

Eyes widening to see his rival swaying on his feet, Hikaru shot to his own and reached out to steady the dark haired go pro with a hand on each of Akira's arms. "Oi. Touya! You okay?" Gently, he turned them both around and sat Akira down on the edge of his bed.

"Shindou! I'm not an invalid!" Akira attempted protesting loudly and was forced to clench his jaw as the headache throbbed painfully again.

Hikaru lifted an eyebrow into his blonde bangs. "You're also still sick, so just get back in already! Jeeze... Ya know, you have problems with people telling you what to do."

"And you don't?" Akira replied caustically, despite obediently climbing back into the nest of blankets under Hikaru's watchful eyes.

"Yeah well... At least I have a better developed sense of self-preservation," Hikaru pointed out with a grin. "Now what do you want for breakfast?"

Akira shot him a coolly amused glance. "Do I trust you in my kitchen with anything more complicated than toast?"

Face falling, Hikaru stuck out his tongue. "You're cruel, ya know that?" he accused the other boy jokingly and then turned to exit the bedroom. "Toast it is!"

Leaning back into his pillows, headache subsiding, Akira listened to the almost alarmingly domestic sounds drifting through the open bedroom door; kitchen drawers being pulled out, the kettle whistling, the fridge door opening and shutting, and utensils tinkling as they made contact with ceramic plates. Then as the sound of the toaster spitting out golden-brown slices of bread reached his ears, a faint hiss and mild curse from Shindou brought a knowing smile to his face. Breakfast had obviously not gone off without a hitch.

When Shindou returned to the room with a tray of tea, toast and spreads, there were still signs of a disgusted look on his face. Akira valiantly curbed his amused grin but was unable to keep the silent laughter of out his eyes or his voice. "Burnt your fingers on the toast?"

Hikaru threw him a dirty look. "Not funny!"

Although still smiling, Akira didn't take the opportunity to retaliate and both settled down to a quiet breakfast.

Halfway through, Hikaru paused in the middle of bites of his toast. "Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you. That Nakamura girl called yesterday while you were asleep."

"Oh? What did she say?"

Hikaru blinked as Akira's voice turned just slightly cooler and the warm blue gaze that had been amused only a second ago became glassy. "Umm... not much. Just that she was sorry for leaving dinner early and stuff." He watched that tiniest hint of winter slowly drain off his rival's face and felt the tension that he hadn't even been aware of, seep out of his shoulders.

Akira made a muted noise of acknowledgement but otherwise declined to comment.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Hikaru asked, "So how was dinner anyway?"

"Uneventful," Akira shrugged. "There wasn't a lot to talk about."

Hikaru studied his friend's face closely. "In other words, she talked while you smiled and nodded automatically."

At Akira's surprised look, the bleached-blonde go pro laughed. "Touya, I've seen you talk with people you don't want to. Every time you do, you get this scary look in your eyes, like this..." He attempted to school his features into a replica of what he was describing. Needless to say, he failed miserably and succeeded only in making a comical face that had himself laughing breathlessly.

Akira spluttered, a hint of red coming to his cheeks. "I do not!"

"Yes you do!" Hikaru crowed. "I've seen you! It's like you're smiling and listening, but behind that, you're just furiously thinking how to crush them in a game." He continued laughing. "I dunno how they don't notice it, but they just keep jabbering on and it's hilarious!"

"I'm glad you find it funny," Akira huffed, taking a big bite of his toast to wait out his rival's laughing fit.

Finally getting a hold on himself, Hikaru returned to breakfast. However, the grin never left his face and even the slightest glimpse of Akira's mildly put out expression set him off on a fresh round of chuckles.

Finishing his toast, Akira took up his tea in both hands and regarded his rival over the rim. The corner of his lips twitched up slightly, unbidden, at the sight of Shindou making a fool of himself just by laughing. Lowering the tea cup, Akira said, "I'm sorry you didn't get to the go salons yesterday..."

"Hm?" Shindou turned to him with questioning eyes, a slice of toast still clenched between his teeth as he chewed.

"The go salons. I'm sorry you didn't go because you had to spend yesterday taking care of me."

Swallowing, Hikaru waved a careless hand in Akira's direction. "Nah, don't worry about it! It's not as if it was *all* your fault anyway. You can make it up to me next time we go."

Akira smiled slightly and drained his tea. A brief glance at the clock revealed that it was almost eleven. "Don't you have a tutoring session today?"

"Yeah..." Hikaru mumbled, polishing off the last of his toast. "At twelve. Should probably go and get ready." Gathering up the dishes, he aimed a commanding look Akira's way. "You, stay in bed! I'll do the dishes when I get back."

Rolling his eyes, Akira let it go and watched Hikaru leave the room with the remains of their breakfast.

Moments later, Hikaru was back with another glass of water. "Here. Take your medicine."

Taking the water, Akira smirked faintly at his rival. "You should probably go get dressed. Knowing you, it'll take a while to get your tie on."

This time, it was Hikaru's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah yeah..." It wasn't that he couldn't do his tie, he could! It just took a while...

Turning to exit the bedroom, a thought struck Hikaru and his eyes widened. "Oh crap!"

Akira blinked at the expletive. "What?"

"I was meant to do the laundry when I got back yesterday! I totally forgot!"

Hard-pressed not to react to Shindou's panicked state, Akira's lips twitched. "I told you you were absent-minded."

"It's not funny Touya!!" Hikaru yelled. "It's all your fault anyway!"

Akira raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Now it's *all* my fault?"

"I would have remembered when I'd gotten home yesterday but you had to make me all worried by pulling your disappearing act!" Unaware that his rival was about to object, Hikaru rambled on. "What am I gonna do now? I don't have any clean shirts!"

"Borrow one of mine."

Hikaru froze and looked at Akira's calm but amused expression with a dumbfounded one of his own. "Huh?"

"I said, you can borrow one of mine," Akira repeated.

"Really?"

A hint of exasperation tinged Akira's bemused eyes. "Yes! I wouldn't have said so otherwise!" He pointed to one of the closet doors, inwardly batting away the niggling fingers of guilt at having been a nuisance, however disagreeably. "We're the same size, they should fit you."

Relief swept over Hikaru's face and he grinned at his rival before opening the closet door. "Thanks Touya! You're a life saver."

Akira sipped at his water, watching the other go pro over the rim of the glass. "Guess we're even then."

Hikaru tossed a wicked grin over his shoulder. "Not even close. This is your fault remember?"

Declining to retaliate, Akira reached for the pills on the nightstand and was just about to toss them back when he was interrupted by a mirthful Hikaru.

"Hey Touya! How come you don't wear this shirt anymore? The color suits you." Grinning impishly, Hikaru held up a perfectly pressed peach pink shirt that Akira had forgotten was stashed at the very back of his closet from his very early pro days.

He reddened. "Shindou!!"

Laughing and dodging the pillow that had been launched at him, Hikaru replaced the shirt and randomly selected another light blue one. Picking up the pillow at his feet, he tossed it over onto the bed and headed for the door. "Thanks for the shirt Touya!"

Just before walking through, he turned to aim another grin at his scowling but flushed rival. "And stay in bed! I'll pick up some more medicine on the way home and be back soon."

With a final wave, he was out the door, chuckling under his breath as he let himself out of the apartment.

End Part 9... to be continued.

Author's Notes: *grins* The peach pink shirt reference comes from one of the pictures in the Sai artbook when Akira's wearing it with a light purple suit ^^;; I have no idea why Obata-sensei put him in that color combo, but I'd like to think that Akira has more fashion sense now that he's older *L* And the "sensei" referred to in "Shindou-sensei" was meant to be interpreted as "doctor", not "teacher". Dunno why I chose to do it in Jap... It just felt weird calling him "Dr. Shindou" ^^;;

And the scene that spawned the fic? It was actually a fanart of an older Hikaru looking extremely cool wearing a black suit, black tie and purple shirt. I kept looking at the shirt and thinking that it looked more like an Akira shirt than a Hikaru shirt. Hence the Hikaru wearing Akira's shirt scenario *L*

Coming up: The appearance of Ogata-sensei! The return of the infamous umbrella! And bundling Akira off to Korea! ^_^ Yes, I'm separating the boys for a while... coz I'm evil *grins* and the plot demands it...