Mist 15

"Uuughh.." Kio woke with a grueling headache, he wasn't even sure where he was. It felt like he was laying on a bed but the bed didn't feel like his own. He opened his eyes to the familiar paneling of his best friend's apartment. He scanned the room quickly and saw Soubi and Ritsuka quietly sitting at the table sipping tea.

"He-hey guys..?" Kio ventured.

Soubi and Ritsuka turned to look at him immediately. They said nothing so Kio went on.

"Why am I.. laying down- sleeping here?" Kio had no memory of falling asleep, he couldn't really recall why he was even at Soubi's apartment.

"You collapsed Kio, lack of sleep maybe? You've been staying up late doing projects lately, haven't you?" Soubi explained/lied.

Kio laughed sheepishly, "Yeah, guess I have.." He went to sit up but the pain in his head worsened, it shot through like an execution bullet. He laid back down immediately, his brain felt fried.

"Ow.. My head hurts Soubi.. Sure I don't have a hangover or something?"

Ritsuka scowled at both the men, he looked disapproving at Soubi but more sympathetic to Kio. 'Wait shouldn't that be the other way...?' Kio thought fleetingly.

"You hit your head when you fell, I believe." Soubi said, it was the truth. Kio's head had knocked into the bed frame when he succumbed to Soubi's spell.

"Do you need anything?" Soubi looked pained.

"Ahh.. No Sou-chan, I'm just fine. Hand me a lolly, would ya?"

"I'll get it." Ritsuka replied. He walked over to Kio's bag that was placed next to the door, assuming he kept a stash in there. As he was searching through the bag filled with books, canvas, and paint, Kio exclaimed,

"Ah!"

They looked at him.

"I remembered why I'm here!"

Soubi looked terrified. 'There's no way, he couldn't. Normal people shouldn't remember having a spell cast on them. Though Kio may, or rather would be likely to, eventually remember yelling at me.'

"I came to give you some assignments, thought we could work on 'em together. Rit-chan likes to watch you paint, doesn't he?" Kio explained.

Ritsuka blushed a little, 'I /do/ like to watch him..'

Soubi let out a breath of relief. But he sighed a little too hard and flinched in pain at his broken body.

"Wait.. Soubi you!" Kio shouted out at Soubi as he saw the pain hindering the man's movements. He looked at Soubi, stricken. He was just now noticing all the Band-Aids covering his friend's face, he saw some gauze wrapped around his arm, peeking out of his sleeve. "You're hurt Soubi!"

Soubi shrugged, "It's nothing Kio, just some scratches.

Ritsuka busied himself in getting the lollipop, hoping nothing bad was going to come of this.

Kio protested, "It isn't just that is it Soubi?" He started to slowly get up from the bed, ignoring the pain in his head.

"Really Kio, I'm feeling fine.. You should rest though."

Kio scoffed at him as he slowly walked closer. "You aren't fine Soubi!"

Ritsuka was getting scared, Kio's posture was rather intimidating. To his relief, Ritsuka knew Kio would never raise a fist at Soubi but he didn't want them to argue either. Kio looked so dominate, staring down at Soubi as Soubi sat in a kitchen chair. He looked angry about Soubi's lies. Ritsuka wanted to yell out for them to stop, that he was scared. Instead Ritsuka ran over to where Kio and Soubi were and pressed a lollipop in Kio's clenched hand.

"Kio." He whispered.

The man looked down at him, his gaze softened a little.

Soubi looked nervous, like he wanted to warn Ritsuka away.

"Soubi's okay, I promise." Ritsuka wasn't sure he believed himself, he wanted to. "Please don't fight. Actually.. I would like to watch you two work.."

Kio and Soubi couldn't help but smile a little.

"All right kid." He patted Ritsuka's head, "Hey, sorry I yelled."

Ritsuka nodded back, glad that things were okay.

Soubi just sat there marveling at how adorable Ritsuka was. So cute. He reprimanded himself, internally, for arguing around Ritsuka, again.

"Kay Sou-chan! Let's get workin!" Kio went over to get his bag and Soubi picked Ritsuka up.

"Hey! P-put me down!" Ritsuka protested.

Soubi held him close and hugged him against his chest. "Thank you, Ritsuka." He whispered in the boy's ear.

Ritsuka shivered and relaxed in his arms a bit.

"Soubi! Put him down!" Kio exclaimed as he headed over to set up some canvases.

"Yes, of course." Soubi placed a discrete kiss on Ritsuka's face before placing him on the ground.

"Let's see.. I have three projects to work on and you've got four." Kio said casually.

Ritsuka gaped. They were really behind.. 'Wait but why Kio too..?'

"Kio why do you have so much to do as well? You did say you've been working late at night, didn't you?" Soubi asked as he grabbed some large canvases from a closet.

Kio laughed a little in response. "I'm always trailing behind a bit. That damn professor. I swear he gives me more work than anyone else.!"

Ritsuka shook his head, "Well if you could be a little more responsible about it in the first place.."

Kio didn't bother with an answer and Ritsuka sighed at him like an old man.

"Well.. what've I got to do first?" Soubi asked.

"You have, a landscape with pointillism, one that expresses freedom, a human subject, and a free-to-do-whatever one."

Soubi nodded and began to squeeze out some acrylic paints.

Ritsuka settled himself against the wall near where Soubi's easel was and set a book he was reading in his lap. He wasn't really reading, just didn't want it to look like what he was really doing. Watching Soubi.

Soubi rolled up his sleeves in preparation, revealing more Band-Aids. Kio frowned at the bandages, concerned.

Ritsuka played with the end of one of his stitches through his shirt. Soubi said he had to keep them in a while longer but he barely felt any pain now. The bruises, aside from the one Soubi gave him on his neck, had healed. Ritsuka reached up and touched the tender skin on his neck as he remembered the bruise. Then remembered how he got it. 'Yuck..' He thought closing his eyes for a moment. 'My body feels so tingly when I think about him..' He curled his legs closer to his body, fidgeting and hoping to rid himself of strange feelings. Soubi's hands were in front of him, gracefully painting out shapes on canvas, but his hands were also on him. Ghost feelings lingered over his neck, his face, ears, every part of his body Soubi had recently touched. And then he realized something, as the phantom touches finally began to fade, when Soubi bathed him.. Soubi had touched, had seen, almost every inch of his body. 'Every bit.' Ritsuka thought with a chill. 'Except, he hasn't touched me in every way, he hasn't kissed me everywhere, and I haven't even seen all of him..' Ritsuka thought, 'Wait no!' He hurriedly corrected. 'Why.. Why am I thinking like this..?'

Ritsuka tried to push his thoughts away and Soubi caught sight of his blushing face.

"Ritsuka." Soubi called a he looked away from his painting.

Ritsuka loved hearing his voice.

"Would you like to paint too?" Soubi asked.

Ritsuka looked down. He felt so hot. He mumbled something Soubi couldn't hear and it probably wasn't words anyway.

Soubi reached for him anyways, he picked Ritsuka up and sat down in front of an empty canvas on the floor, Ritsuka landed in his lap. His book tumbled to the ground somewhere. Soubi's body hunched around him, reaching for paints and brushes. Ritsuka was sunken into Soubi's, long, cross-legged lap. Surrounded by Soubi completely. He felt himself go even hotter.

"S-Soubi.." He tried to protest.

"It's fine Ritsuka you can paint too, it isn't hard." Soubi responded as he pressed a brush into Ritsuka's hand, and continued speaking.

"What color?"

Ritsuka looked down at the colors laid out. Comparing them. Red, like the blood that spewed from the cuts across his torso when Desolate first attacked them. Red, like his cheeks from the constant teasing and the fevers. The soup Soubi served when they found out about the attacks. Red, like the horrifying blood that had poured from Soubi. Not a color he wanted to use now. Then there was brown, a nice color that reminded him of the wooden room surrounding him. Too bland to paint with, though. 'Yellow', Ritsuka thought, spotting it in between the assortment of other colors. I want to use yellow, like Soubi's blond hair splayed out on the pillows. Every morning, when I first stayed and we woke in a tangle of bodies, when I had to beg Soubi to bed and finally he draped his arms around me and slept, when Youji and Natsuo woke us the next morning, when I clung to Soubi after Kio stayed over. All those nights falling asleep under his gaze and waking up to his golden hair draping the pillows.

"Yellow." Ritsuka whispered after finally deciding. "But Soubi, this is.." He squirmed around in Soubi's lap at bit. Not sure if he really wanted to leave or not.

Soubi overlooked his words and put the paintbrush in Ritsuka's hand and his hand over top of Ritsuka's. Ritsuka felt a shiver go down his body. He could feel his heart beating in every part of his body, his arms, legs, and bright cheeks.

Ritsuka decided no amount of protesting would get him to sit somewhere else. And Kio was clearly too absorbed in his own painting to protest for him. So he settled into Soubi's lap. Soubi made him feel safe, he helped him, and like now taught him new things.

Soubi guided Ritsuka's hand around the canvas. Teaching him the movements and the colors.

All the repulsive thoughts of Ritsu had left Soubi. They lurked in the back if his mind, threatening to jump out. But Ritsuka was all he could think now. He was, somewhat, at ease. At least from Ritsu.

After a while when 'Ritsuka's' painting was just about finished Soubi's phone rang, from a nearby table and he rose, lifting Ritsuka up with him to retrieve it. Ritsuka groaned at him as he was lifted then carefully set down on the floor. The paint coated brush was still in his hand. He played around with swirling colors in his mind and didn't really listen to what Kio was chatting about.

"Ritsuka." Soubi said as he finished with the phone call and had slipped the cell into his pocket. "Youji and Natsuo will be back."

'He always says as little as possible. Doesn't he?' Nevertheless Ritsuka was glad to hear his friends would be coming home, he wondered what Nagisa had wanted them for. "When?" He asked Soubi.

"Tomorrow." Soubi replied. "You all should be returning to school Monday." His face fell. Suddenly he looked grim. Soubi knew there was something that needed to be done once Ritsuka returned to school, the boy would realize it soon.

Ritsuka sighed. School. "A lot of time has passed, hasn't it?" He paused. "Well.. more like a lot has happened in a week."

Soubi nodded. Seemingly agreeing.

Kio caught sight of the boy's long face and poked a dot of blue paint on his cheek. "Cheer up kid."

Ritsuka wiped the paint off his cheek and stared at his blue smeared hand.

It had taken a lot of effort for Kio to say the simple words. He couldn't not wonder, 'Cheer up from what? What happened this week?'

He then perked up. "Soubi! You're coming back to school then too? On Monday!"

Soubi sighed deeply and returned to Ritsuka's side.

'Is he more.. emotional lately?' Kio wondered.

Ritsuka caught a lock of the man's hair and twirled it between his fingers. Soubi pushed Kio's question away and thought about the small fingers that he could just barely feel tugging at him.

"Soubi?" Kio was concerned. "Don't ignore me so blatantly."

Soubi bobbed his head gracefully. "Neither of us is in any condition to go to school Monday. I don't think you could walk around this room twice, if you wanted to." Upon receiving a puzzled look from Kio, he added. "With that bump on your head."

"What about you Soubi?" Kio was almost whispering.

"I need some sleep." Soubi responded. 'I need to heal some.' Is what he meant.

Kio sighed and his mind caught up to his emotions. "Ha-aa! Sou-chan! So lazy. Go get some sleep now, why don't you?"

"Later." He responded. Later. 'Why?' He wasn't sure. 'Guilt?' Maybe.

Ritsuka settled his body against Soubi's. Even though they so often shared touches he loved even the just barely touching of his shoulder against Soubi's.

And his mind began to wander.

'School.'

'I'll see Yuiko again, Yayoi too and Shinonome-sensei.'

He realized he forgot to visit his therapist last Wednesday.

'I hope Katsuko-sensei isn't too worried about me. I really hope she didn't call home.'

The words echoed in his head.

'Call home. Home. Home. Mother.'

"Mother! Soubi, my Mother!"