It had become a little late by now. It was around midnight and both Rei and Nagisa had gone to bed long ago, yet Rei couldn't seem to fall asleep. He was lying awake and thinking about everything he had done wrong in this case.
He clearly recalled the phone call he had had with Haruka. He remembered what the other had said, almost word by word. Nagisa had taken a job, fallen behind in math and now a matter with history had come across. He would have to ask Nagisa exactly what had happened with those subjects at school, but the whole thing didn't seem to be going well in general.
But Rei had to admit that he had been in the wrong too. It was as Rin said that he was at fault at this too. Thinking back, he couldn't remember the last time he had actually payed full attention to Nagisa. He couldn't remember the last time the two of them had been together and had that sensation of a strong friendship between them. It was disturbing, even more than he would let on.
It didn't help much that they had had a fight less than one week ago. In contrast to Rin and Haruka, who fought on a regular basis, Nagisa and Rei had never had a serious argument like that one this Sunday. Rei had been angry because he had come to feel a slight hint of the worry he almost never felt anymore. This had caused him to act out as soon as Nagisa came home, and when he learned Nagisa had been spying on him and talked back to him, he got anger to add to all his emotions. It had done nothing but worsen the situation.
He wished he had had the courage and opportunity to speak to Nagisa about this before they went to bed, but Nagisa had been tired, and Rei had been too busy getting him to bed to think about talking about it, and besides, he didn't have the courage.
It was three hours ago since Rei had found Nagisa out on the street with the police, and after giving them the quick, unsatisfying explanation he had taken Nagisa right to this hotel. He was glad that Sera-senpai was kinda rich and had booked a room with two beds just for Rei. Sera-senpai also had a room with two beds, things had to be even.
After forcing Nagisa in a quick shower, he gave off a scent of not having washed for days, Rei had forced the younger to bed, and then laid down himself. That was two and half an hour ago. Now, Nagisa was asleep and Rei couldn't seem to do the same.
He sighed, and turned in his bed as he was facing Nagisa's sleeping form.
"You awake, Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked. He turned to look at Rei. The blanket pulled all the way up to his chin, only making the smile in his eyes a little more obvious.
"Yeah," Rei said. "I can't seem to sleep,"
"I could," Nagisa said. "But only until about half an hour ago,"
Rei decided that now was just as good a time as any other and he decided to talk about everything that had gone wrong between them, to maybe get things cleared.
"You're forgiving way too easily," he said.
"Huh?" Nagisa asked, slightly confused. "What do you mean, Rei-chan?"
Rei sighed. "You seem to have already forgotten what caused all this to happen. I just caught myself wondering, if I had acted differently, noticed the signs that something was off, would things have ended differently?"
"Oh…" Nagisa let the sound escape, proving that he had now understood. "You shouldn't blame yourself about this, Rei-chan. It is not entirely your fault that it ended up like this. It is mine too. If you had acted differently, some things could have been prevented, but I would probably still end up here in Osaka one way or another,"
"I should've been there with that history project," Rei said.
Nagisa shrugged. "It's almost covered," he said. "Besides, Gou-chan helped me a lot,"
"It's not right though," Rei said. "Also with math, I should have been there,"
"It's fine though," Nagisa said.
"Haruka said you were kicked out of math class," Rei said.
"And forbidden to come back before I had learned to behave," Nagisa chuckled at the thought. "I think both Sensei and I misunderstood each other. It's not your fault either,"
"Well, it won't have happened if I had helped you out," Rei said, slightly annoyed.
Nagisa couldn't comment on that. The truth was that Rei was right. There was no reason in denying that fact. He decided that the subject needed to be changed. "Besides, I should have told you that I had gotten myself a job, and I shouldn't have spied on you and your senpai," he said.
Rei smiled at this too. "That's true as well. But I highly doubt I would have listened if you had told about your job. But why didn't you tell Makoto or one of the others?" he asked.
"The day when I got the job, Rin-chan spend all dinner talking about a new technique or something and he was in such a good mood I won't interrupt. I like when Rin-chan and Haru-chan are happy," Nagisa explained.
"So you didn't tell anyone until you told me?" Rei asked.
"Actually… I spoke to Haru-chan about everything on the night before he and Rin-chan left," Nagisa answered. "He is really good at listening,"
Rei smiled. "I can imagine that," he said. Then he remembered what Rin had said over the phone, about Haruka and what had happened to him. He would have to tell Nagisa about this too, at some point, but not now. He decided to change the subject again.
"How did it go with digging up on your family?" he asked. "I can imagine that's what you've been up to,"
Nagisa nodded, though Rei had trouble seeing that in the darkness, and because his glasses were off. "Gou-chan and I went to our orphanage and found out that my family had been involved in an accident. From a hospital we got the information that they were all dead and if we wanted more information we had to go to Osaka, so we went and visited a woman here and she explained the accident, by the way, did you know your biological mother was in the car that crashed into my parents' car?" Nagisa asked.
Rei shook his head. "I heard from Sera-senpai that my family was from Osaka, I have had no time to dig up anything about them yet,"
"I know what's worth knowing, you don't have to," Nagisa said with a bright smile.
"So?" Rei asked, kinda curious. "What's worth knowing?"
"Your father was abusive and killed your older brother, devastated by this, your mother left the next day and crashed into my family's car in Tottori-shi. They think she was drunk while driving and that's what caused the accident to happen. Your father went to jail and you were brought to Iwatobi,"
"And then we met," Rei smiled at that. "That is a little odd, one would call it fate,"
Nagisa shrugged. "Just like it was fate that I was put in the same class as Rin-chan's and Haru-chan's sister. I hope Gou-chan is okay, do you think she is?"
Rei nodded. "She should be home by now," he said. "But I'm not sure how she is mentally at the moment,"
"What do you mean?" Nagisa asked.
Rei sat up. "I got a call from Rin a few hours before I found you. He said… He said that Haruka has been kidnapped,"
Nagisa sat up too. "Haru-chan has been… kidnapped?" he asked in surprise. Rei needed neither light, nor glasses, to know that there were tears in the younger's eyes.
"Yes, I know nothing else, but we are going right back home tomorrow to help out all we can, and if we have nothing to do, we will at least put Makoto at ease," Rei said.
Nagisa nodded. "Mako-chan's gotta be worried," he mumbled while pulling the blanket closer to his chest. "But Rei-chan, I have no money on me,"
Rei nodded. "I know that. I have enough to cover for the both of us, just for the trip from here to Tokyo," he said.
"Rei-chan is… the best!" Nagisa said, interrupted by a yawn.
"Go back to sleep, Nagisa," Rei said kindly.
Nagisa hesitated. "I'm not sure I can," he said.
Rei could've slapped himself. He knew he should've waited until tomorrow before telling Nagisa about Haruka. But now it couldn't be helped. "What do you think will help?" he asked.
Nagisa gave the matter some thought. "Could we do as when we were little and I had a bad dream? Cuddle up and that?" he asked.
Rei hesitated. He was 20 and Nagisa was almost 17. It wasn't very appropriate for two, almost grown men, to sleep together like that. Despite those reasons, he had a lot of trouble denying the request and finally gave up.
"Fine," he said and moved a bit to make room for Nagisa. "Come over,"
Nagisa smiled and hurried over to Rei's bed, before the other had the chance to change his mind. He lied down and Rei lied down beside him. Before either of them knew it, they had both fallen asleep, all cuddled up, just like when they were little.