Title: SoundAdvice
Universe: Love Mode
Theme/Topic: Izumi taking the initiative
Rating: PG-15
Character/Pairing/s: TakamiyaxIzumi, mentioned IzumixTakamiya, AoexNaoya
Warnings/Spoilers: No major ones I can imagine, I suppose. Just the usual crack and OOC warnings. XD
Word Count: 1,582
Time: 2.34 hrs
Summary: Good friends give good advice.
Dedication: Lorena- last prize fic I owe (for now)! Hope you like this!
A/N: This is incredibly silly. XD
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish constantly.
Distribution: Just lemme know.

Naoya quietly offered his friend a cup of coffee as they cracked their books for the upcoming exams week-- their first since they'd started college.

Izumi looked dead tired and bitter.

Naoya didn't push, mostly because he didn't think the other boy really wanted to talk about it and…

"Takamiya is a no good pedophile statutory rapist pervert!" Izumi exclaimed after a moment, and downed half the cup of coffee in one gulp.

Naoya stared.

"He already knows I have to study for exams! But I told him anyway, just to make sure! And even still, the minute the big pervert walks through the door and sees me studying for my exams like I said I'd be doing all week he jumps me anyway and…argh!"

Naoya made a sympathetic noise in the back of his throat.

"He doesn't listen to me," Izumi sighed, and put the coffee cup on the table with a dull clunk. "Bastard."

Silence.

"Er, sorry," Izumi offered after a bit, and looked sheepish. "You're the only one who'll listen to me about these things."

Naoya offered the other boy a pat on the shoulder. Paused. "Well… I mean, if you think about it… after all this time, it can't be entirely Takamiya-san's fault, right?" he proposed, timidly.

Izumi stared.

"I'm sorry, I think I'm still tired…what did you say, Naoya?"

Naoya swallowed. "Er, I said that… it um, it might not be Takamiya-san's fault…entirely?"

Izumi blinked.

A beat.

Then, "So it's my fault!"

Naoya winced a bit at the volume, glad Aoe was at work for the time being. "Well, I mean… the way you say it… it's like…" he blushed, a bit, "you never tell him you want to do it, but then you end up doing it anyway… and so he might think… um, that that's how it's supposed to be with you?"

Izumi blinked some more. "Buh?"

"What I'm saying is," Naoya pushed, intrepidly, "is that maybe Takamiya-san is so um…used to the way you react to his advances that he just you know… thinks it all means yes even when it… doesn't."

Izumi scowled. "That's how all rapists think, genius."

"Well, I mean… you do…enjoy it, right?"

Silence.

Izumi blushed. Sighed again. "Goddammit."

Naoya nodded. "So…"

"So you're saying the big idiot is conditioned to wanna pounce on me when I tell him not to?"

Naoya nodded again.

Izumi rubbed his temples. "What a moron."

Naoya, by level of the insults he was throwing out now, supposed his friend's anger meter was only at about a five at the moment, as opposed to the nine it had been when he'd stormed into the apartment looking like death warmed over. The blond breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"So…what do I do?" Izumi asked, after a moment of thoughtful silence between them.

Naoya blinked. "Er…well…" He furrowed his brow contemplatively. "Maybe you could um… give him a sign?"

Izumi imagined a giant "NO PERVERTS ALLOWED" sign tacked to his bedroom door—the kind with Takamiya's picture in the middle of a big red circle with a slash through it. "A sign?"

"Yeah… a sign. You know… like… show him that…when you want to do it, you'll tell him? And that when you don't, you don't. No means no, or something."

Izumi looked at him skeptically.

"Er… or," Naoya added, quickly, "at the very least, it might surprise him so much he'll maybe pull back for a few days and try to reassess the sudden change in the situation. He's um, he's not dumb or anything… he'll have to think something's going on if you're suddenly receptive to his… advances. I mean, then you could at least study for finals, right?"

Izumi thought about that for a bit. "So you're saying…I surprise him by jumping him first?"

Naoya nodded.

"And he'll be shocked and rethink this whole raping me thing?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it like…" On Izumi's telling look, Naoya just sighed. "Yeah, basically. I mean, he'll at least know you want to do it sometimes. And that sometimes you don't, too."

It made sense, in a sort of desperate kind of way. Izumi, dark circles under his eyes and soreness twinging every part of his body, supposed anything was worth a try at this point.

He was still six chapters behind on his Japanese History class as it was.

Takamiya called Aoe the next day, and was so full of good cheer and sunshine Reiji thought now would be one of the moments where it would be nice if he could push a button and satellite lasers would fry his friend to a happy sunshine-filled crisp.

"Reiji, Izumi and I had sex last night!"

Aoe blindly dug around in his nightstand drawer for the aspirin bottle. And the vodka. "Great. Wonderful. Hanging up now."

"No, no, no… you obviously misunderstood me—I'm sorry, I'm just so happy right now—but you know what? He had sex with me and while he's not particularly good at it yet, this is clearly still a momentous occasion."

"Katsura. It is five am and I will—so help me god—put a hit out on you if you don't shut the hell up."

By his side, Naoya made an inquisitive sound as he stirred from sleep. "Mmm… who's…"

Aoe waved him off. "Go back to sleep," he murmured, while Takamiya prattled on about how all his dreams were now beginning to come true after years of patience and understanding and tying-Izumi-to-the-headboard.

Which—not that he cared or anything-- didn't make sense, mostly because Takamiya only ever seemed to call him about these things when there was a problem.

"Katsura, get to the point, please."

Takamiya paused. "Whatever do you mean, Reiji?"

"What's wrong?" Aoe growled, and glared at the Katsura he visualized in his head, fretting like some idiotic schoolgirl and wasting the club owner's precious down time.

"Well, not wrong… exactly. I'm just… a bit confused, I suppose. Not even confused…thoughtful. I'm thoughtful! He… once. And you know, before… I always thought it was him just saying those silly little things like "no" and "don't touch me" and "stop it, pervert" because he's so shy—and cute and shy and adorable—but after last night… I mean, he didn't want to again when I woke up and usually I just…but, well. Now that I know he does want to sometimes, does that mean I shouldn't when he says he doesn't?"

Aoe felt a headache coming on. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why do you even come to me about these things?"

"Because you're my dearest closest friend," Takamiya responded without missing a beat, still cheerful as birdsong and painfully unaffected by Reiji's grumpiness.

Aoe wanted to crush the happy idiot's face right about now. "So—and this is a wild guess of course-- you just want me to tell you to do the same thing you always do, right?"

"Yup!"

"Then just ignore the whining brat and do it, Katsura. And never call me before seven ever again or I really will hire Jinnai to kill you and you know he'd do it with a smile on his face, you bastard."

"My dearest closest friend!" Takamiya chirruped.

Reiji hung up.

"Mm," Naoya murmured, blinking sleepily and stifling a yawn as came awake by degrees. "Who was that? Takamiya-san?"

"A dumbass. So yes, Takamiya," Reiji said, voice turning gentle on instinct. "Go back to sleep, stupid."

Naoya smiled and snuggled closer. "But 'm awake now."

"Why is it that Katsura's the only idiot who will listen to me, hmm?" Aoe muttered to himself darkly, though the edge to his words was significantly dulled when he wrapped an arm around Naoya's waist accommodatingly.

"What did Takamiya-san want?" the blond inquired, and stretched luxuriously in his lover's embrace.

"Advice."

Naoya laughed at that, modestly surprised. "He asks you for advice?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing… I just... nothing." He smiled, eyes twinkling amusement.

"Tch. Brat."

"So…what'd he ask you about?"

"Something he wanted to do but wasn't sure if he should."

"What'd you tell him?"

"To just go ahead and do it if he wanted it that bad."

Naoya smiled, sweetly. "That's nice," he whispered, and craned his neck up to press a soft kiss along the underside of Reiji's jaw. "You're a good friend."

"Go back to sleep," Aoe grumped—mildly embarrassed at the praise-- and Naoya couldn't help but laugh again.

"Okay," he whispered, feeling generous as he lied back down and let his eyes fall shut.

His last thought as he drifted back to sleep was that he was glad he and Reiji were both the types of people who their friends could always turn to when they needed advice.

No matter the time or place—reliable, sensible, honest.

It really made Naoya feel good to be able to help people, especially the ones he cared about most.

Izumi, in the meantime, fought off an inhumanly cheerful Takamiya—it was five in the morning for god's sake! He had class at eight!-- and vowed to never listen to Naoya ever again. The kid was sweet, but clearly too goddamned naïve about these things to be of any help.

"No-means-no my ass," Izumi grumbled miserably to himself, and kicked an insistent Takamiya in the face.

"Your ass is lovely!" Katsura assured him, expertly dodging feet.

And as he fell on an—eventually— resigned Izumi, Takamiya thought that he was never gladder for Reiji's sound advice.

END