Chapter 5: Tempting

The next Thursday, Hiroki's students could tell he was tired, but no one dared to say anything. He yawned throughout the lecture and forgot his obsessive reminders about the essay due the coming Monday. He didn't even fling chalk at the texters like he always did.

At the end, as students were leaving, Hiroki looked up from his notes to see Misaki had approached the podium. He narrowed his eyes, took off his glasses and said, "What do you want, Takahashi?"

Misaki flinched at the harsh tone and hunched his shoulders when he realized other students were looking at him strangely.

"If it's about class-"

"Usagi-san wants to know if you're okay!" Misaki burst out, surprising Hiroki and even himself a little. He had lost a lot of his fight when he continued with, "He keeps moping around and says you've been avoiding him. I don't like when he mopes."

Hiroki rolled his eyes. He'd spent a good part of his life watching Akihiko be mopey, so he couldn't say it upset him as much as it did Misaki. Still, he said, "Takahashi, I haven't slept in two days. I have better things to do than babysit spoiled authors."

"Two days?" Misaki asked, his eyebrows going up in surprise.

"None of your business. Just go home." He waved Misaki off and started out so he could go to his office. He still had work to do that would be easier to accomplish there instead of at home, as much as he dreaded the thought. His classes for the day were over, though, and it was barely one-thirty. He didn't want to make a habit of being home early.

Hiroki had stayed up the past two nights, reading and taking notes on the differences between his copy of Akihiko's first novel in its original Japanese and the copy he'd obtained while in America. The translation, he was finding, had been faithful if incredibly awkward in places. He wasn't even halfway through, though, so he had more all-nighters and cups of coffee ahead of him. If he was lucky, he'd find his English copies of Akihiko's other novels and be able to compare the earlier translations to the later ones.

He realized he was being rather obsessive, but Hiroki couldn't say he was the kind of man to drop something once it caught his interest. Speaking of catching interest, though, Hiroki hadn't seen Kusama Nowaki since Saturday, when he'd finally been able to convince the man that he was fine and that he didn't need him to take care of him all day. He'd woken up with worse hangovers. In his harder times, such as when he ended up staying up all night working on his doctoral thesis, he couldn't even get out of bed sometimes. The day after he'd had sex with Akihiko, he drank for two days straight, but in his haze, he couldn't actually remember having a hangover. Maybe the sheer force of alcohol had cancelled it out.

Finally, Hiroki decided that he couldn't put up with the place anymore and that he just needed to go home. He wasn't necessarily going to sleep, but he'd do something in his apartment that involved most of the lights off and no human contact for several hours. Whether that meant more translation comparison or just sitting there rocking back-and-forth was yet to be determined.

When Hiroki made it to the gate, he decided that the way to make Nowaki stay out of his life was to just not think about him, because he just had to think about him and, lo and behold, there he was. He did consider himself lucky that Nowaki didn't have a gigantic bouquet with him that time, at least. The sunflowers Nowaki had given him Friday night were still there in his apartment, placed in a vase he didn't even remember owning and placed on top of the upright piano his mother had given him when she heard he was moving into a larger apartment but that he never used. He'd taken piano lessons along with everything else growing up, but he hadn't played anything more complicated than "Chopsticks" in a while.

"…how the hell did you know I'd be leaving? I didn't even decide to leave until about three minutes ago," Hiroki said, sounding unamused but not fighting the fact that Nowaki decided to follow him.

Nowaki smiled. "I didn't have to watch the children after school got out today, so I decided to come see you. If you hadn't shown up I would've gone in, since I know where your office is."

Hiroki would have to "thank" his mother for telling Nowaki that particular detail. Instead of mentioning this, though, he decided to say, "So you were at your usual job today?"

"Yes," Nowaki said with a smile, but he kept his eye on Hiroki as they walked like he could tell just by looking at him that something was wrong. "Since it's only been a couple of weeks, many of the children are still getting used to being away from their parents, so it can be hard to get them to participate in activities."

"…I'm not that great with kids so I can't say I sympathize with your situation," Hiroki muttered, using the hand he wasn't carrying his bag in to rub at his tired, somewhat bloodshot eyes. The sunlight wasn't doing much to keep him awake. In fact, the closer they got to the subway, the sleepier he got. By the time they had bought their tickets and sat down, Hiroki fell asleep on the bench.

xxx

When Hiroki woke up again, an admittedly small amount of time had passed. Since he lived fairly close to the university, the subway route wasn't that long. He expected what had woken him up to be the announcement for his stop, but instead, he opened his eyes and looked around to see he was in his apartment. He wasn't sure how he got there, but when he got his wits about him, there seemed to be two people in his apartment, which was at least one more person than he expected to be with him then.

"It just seems bizarre to see him as a person instead of… um, we students kind of have a nickname for him," the person who wasn't Nowaki said as he stood in the kitchen.

"And what would that be?"

"…Kamijou the Devil," the boy muttered. "He has a really bad temper, and he'll throw chalk and books at us."

"Hiro-san can't be that bad," Nowaki said.

Hiroki sat up, rubbing his neck. He'd been deposited on one of the couches instead of in his bed and he was just a little stiff. As he got his wits about him again, he realized that the other person in the apartment was Takahashi Misaki, better known to Hiroki as Akihiko's boytoy. What he was doing in Hiroki's apartment was beyond him, and when it came down to it, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Nowaki was at the stove making tea, but when he looked beyond Misaki and saw that Hiroki was awake, a grin broke out on his face and he turned the burner down. "Hiro-san!" Nowaki said as he approached him. Misaki ducked his head like he thought that would hide him, though it may also have been that Nowaki sat down beside Hiroki, checking the man's temperature and pushing his hair out of his eyes. They were intimate gestures that made Hiroki blush brightly and Misaki feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"I'm fine, just tired," Hiroki muttered, pushing Nowaki's hand away. Then he turned to Misaki. "What the hell are you doing here, anyway?"

"Misaki-kun was on the same train as us, and when I couldn't wake you up, he helped me get you back home," Nowaki said, that smile still on his face. "He said you told him earlier that you haven't slept in two days. You need to take better care of yourself, Hiro-san."

"What the hell do you know?" Hiroki said vehemently, pushing Nowaki away and standing up. "I'm going to take a shower so just… go home. Neither of you are obligated to deal with me."

Nowaki tried to tell him that he didn't mind, but Hiroki just waved him off and headed to his bedroom to get some new clothes and a towel. Nowaki sighed and watched Hiroki go into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Um, you and Professor Kamijou are together, right?" Misaki asked, fiddling with the edge of his t-shirt. He still had his head ducked like he thought he might get chalk flung at him for saying the wrong thing. He was clearly well-trained.

Nowaki smiled. "Not technically, I suppose," he said. He sounded wistful as he added, "I really do like him, though, so I'd like to have a bigger part in his life."

"Bigger than going home with him and carrying him over from the subway?" Misaki asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"This is the first time I've seen Hiro-san in almost a week. He does a good job avoiding me." Nowaki still had a smile on his face as he said this, like being avoided was a good memory. "Then again, I supposed we're both busy." He suddenly remembered that he'd had water boiling before Hiroki woke up, so he went back over to the stove and turned the burner up.

Misaki, for his part, was avoiding going home, so instead of leaving like Hiroki had told him, he stayed. He figured he was at least safe as long as Nowaki was around, combined with the fact that Hiroki seemed more docile when he wasn't in class and had a near infinite supply of chalk to fling at others.

And besides that, it was kind of nice to be around someone who wasn't Akihiko. He had his friend Sumi at school, but he spent so much time at the apartment those days that it was hard to remember what being around other people for an extended amount of time was like.

By the time Hiroki was done with his shower and came back out, Nowaki had found some noodles and decided to make him something to eat. It was an odd time to eat, but Nowaki had a feeling that staying up all night wasn't the only way Hiroki had been abusing his health lately. Hiroki, having expected both Nowaki and Misaki to be gone, had on a pair of sweatpants and nothing else save for a towel around his shoulders.

"I told you that you could go home," Hiroki said when he noticed Nowaki there in the kitchen. He didn't seem to see Misaki over on one of the couches.

"I just wanted to make sure you ate something, Hiro-san," Nowaki said with a warm smile. He'd been paying attention to the noodles, but then he looked up and spotted Hiroki. The smile melted from his face, replaced with a different look that made Hiroki slightly uncomfortable.

"What?" he asked.

He was answered when Nowaki covered the distance between them and kissed him gently, putting his hand to Hiroki's cheek. Hiroki blinked, mostly confused. And then, when Nowaki didn't pull away, he hesitantly opened his mouth, deepening the kiss.

It had been quite a while since Hiroki had kissed another man. Kissing had never seemed all that important to him considering his lack of any stable relationship throughout his life. It wasn't entirely different with Nowaki, but Hiroki mused as their tongues mingled that it was nice to be kissed by a man who actually seemed to care about him.

Then again, Hiroki could just yell and protest as he started doing as soon as Misaki coughed in an uncomfortable way.

"Would you—not touch me?" Hiroki said, pushing Nowaki away. He wiped his lips as if the memory of the kiss would wipe away as well, and he avoided looking at Misaki. "I'm a grown man, I don't need someone taking care of me."

Nowaki didn't answer, simply going back to the stove so he could finish preparing the noodles. Misaki, however, decided that was as good a time to leave as any and was out the door without even tying his shoes. Hiroki just muttered darkly and went to his bedroom to put a shirt on in an effort to not tempt Nowaki again.