Sexual situations continue from previous chapter. If you don't want to read that, but want to stick to the story, scroll down two gray lines.
POV Midorima
I can barely see past the tip of my nose and, if I have to go by visual cues alone, I'd think I am alone, but I can feel Takao's weight against my legs. For once, it isn't glib jokes on his tongue, but carefully crafted words of devotion and comfort. The bottle of lotion clicks open and he groans as his hand slicks his penis. I've have never regretted any action as much as tossing my glasses aside. I must make do with the sounds and my imagination.
"If it hurts, if you need me to stop –"
"Yes, yes," I sound impatient, and he laughs so hard he has to rest his head on my abdomen while he catches his breath. It is infectious and soon I can feel his head bouncing with the laughter racking my body.
When we are both calm again, my mind catches up with me.
"Is this wrong?" I ask. "Should I be having this much fun while my sister is in the hospital?"
"Don't," he says, his voice is so sure it makes me stop instantly. "Don't think, don't hesitate. Moments like this don't come every day, not for people like us."
I want to ask what he means by that, but his fingers are teasing me, relaxing me, massaging me so that I sink back and let my constantly whurring thoughts take a back seat to the pressure between my legs. He begins to push gently against me.
"Try to um, I don't know, relax as much as you can, Shin-chan."
"No," I bark.
"I don't want to hurt you, not like this."
"That's obvious, baka," I snap. "I meant don't call me Shin-chan. It's too 'cute' to be this intimate." I automatically reach up to adjust my glasses to hide my embarrassment, but of course they aren't there.
"What should I… oh," he says, his voice shuddering as he pushes through those excruciatingly tight muscles.
"Slowly," I hiss, as he continues deeper.
"Shintarō," he says my name as if testing it out. "Shintarō," he says again, "Should I wait here for a moment?"
"Yes," I pant, as the little I can see washes out white with the intensity. "Hips hurt," I grunt and he eases off the bruising force with which he grips me. He reaches down and strokes my spread wide flesh, but to do so he cants back at a new angle and it's not as painful as it was a second ago.
"That angle," I moan, "that's better." He sinks forward a little more until I can feel his hip bones grind against me. His hand moves from where we are joined to stroke my penis, but he does not move inside me. All the stimulation is too much for me and at the same time it's not enough.
I scoot back just a fraction and the friction is agony at first, but each time I move it is a little less painful. Takao's arm is quivering with the effort of holding himself upright and still. I lift my knees to give him some support and the angle changes again. He is even deeper and though it still hurts, I feel calm. His restraint is so gentle that it speaks louder than any words could.
"Move," I urge, and he does in an uneven pace.
"Give me your hand," I pull it away from my penis and he changes position to comply. Everything goes white again and in that movement I finally understand pleasure. I put his hand over my heart. I know it is a long reach from where he is, but I need him to feel my pace again.
"Ah," he says, and leaves his hand heavy on my chest until the rhythm of his hips matches that of my pulse.
It is a good thing we are alone in the house because when he comes, he is excessively noisy shouting my name, but he never breaks our pace. Even though he is dripping sweat onto my stomach, he stays inside of me and finishes me by hand. I hadn't even realized I could come again so soon, but this time is different, less urgent, more warm and comforting.
"I think I can sleep now," I yawn, and tug him into my arms.
POV Takao
When the phone rang at 4:12 pm, Shin-chan was still snuggled under my chin, his long limbs wrapped around me. The jarring ring tone didn't wake him, so I answered the call.
"Takao speaking," I said.
"Takao-kun," Shin-chan's father's voice comes from the other end, "Kaori is awake."
"I want Shintarō," Kaori whimpers in the background.
"She would very much like to see her brother and she insists that he bring her today's lucky item."
"Ok, we'll take care of it. Tell her I will get him there soon."
"Thank you Takao-kun, for taking such good care of our boy."
I almost said it was my pleasure, but I couldn't do that to the father or the son.
"You're welcome."
I closed the phone and poked Shin-chan in the shoulder until he opened one bright green eye.
"The brat demands her lucky item," I told him.
"She's awake?"
"Yes."
Shin-chan let out a shaky breath and rubbed his eyes. I handed him his glasses and he stumbled to his feet. He walked naked out of the room and down the hall. I was confused, but I took those moments alone to find my clothing scattered among his. I had my underwear and pants on when he returned with a printout.
"A blue stuffed bear is the Lucky Item for Libra today. I have one somewhere."
"Where?" I asked, gesturing to the sparse room. Other than a futon and a kotatsu, the only other piece of furniture was a long, low bookshelf crammed tight with all thirty-one volumes of the Slam Dunk manga and basketball magazines. Kise's face peeked out at us from one. Along the top sat a set of framed photos of each team Shin-chan had played on. My face smiled out at me from the centered frame. A series of three-inch resin dolls were interspersed among them.
"What's with the dolls?" I asked when he ignored my first question.
"Kaori buys them for my birthday. They are message dolls and she places within each a wish for my year to come," he said as he stood before the open closet door and contemplated what to wear. No lucky items peered back at him, only a rack of uniforms and shelves with neatly folded clothing. Where was he hiding the stuff? He pulled out a sleeveless gray t-shirt and black cargo pants. He forwent underwear and didn't comment on the fact that I was half naked and wasting time watching his reversed striptease. My shirt was wet and stained with drool.
"Eww," I pouted.
Shin-chan glanced over his shoulder. He flung a Shūtoku High Athletic Department t-shirt my way.
"Thanks," I said. Once it was over my head, our size difference was humorously evident. "Um, maybe I could borrow something of your father's?"
"Switch with me," he countered, and even after only wearing it for thirty seconds I could smell him on the shirt and feel his warmth. "That's a nasty bruise on your shoulder. You get that at practice?"
"Yeah," I lied and covered the action by dressing.
Shin-chan checked the time on his phone and retrieved a pill organizer from atop the kotatsu. He took out a set of pills and placed them inside a small container attached to his key chain. He loaded his pockets and then led me outside to a small shed behind the house.
"No one has ever see the inside, not even my parents. This is completely confidential," he said, so I nodded my solemn compliance.
He unlocked the door and turned on the light just inside. Plastic bins were stacked from floor to ceiling, all of them labeled in Shin-chan's neat handwriting. He went straight to the back corner.
"Which do you think?" he said opening a box and showing me two bears. I picked the one on the left because it was cuter.
"How long have you been collecting?" I asked.
"Since the second year of middle school," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "After the first six months, my mother banned Lucky Items from the house."
"That's a long time. So there are almost four years of lucky items in here?"
"No, anything that is edible or perishable has to be discarded," he said and switched off the light before I could pry any more.
POV Midorima
With the larger of the two blue Kuma bears under my left arm and Takao's hand in my right, we are half-way to the hospital before he finally asks the question I've been dreading since the day we met.
"Shin-chan?" he hesitates over my name.
"Yes."
"Do you mind if I ask a very personal question?"
"You can ask; I can't promise I will answer," I say. I can't look at him, even though I know he is staring intently at me.
"Fair enough. I just want to know about the pills you take. Should I be worried if you miss a dose? Should I carry a spare one of those key chain thingys for you? You know, I wanna be a good boyfriend and support you."
"I'm not dying, or no more than anyone our age," I admit. His fingers squeeze mine. He knows I'm hedging, but he shared the shame of his father's alcoholism with me and it is a question I promised my psychiatrist I would answer when Takao asks me. "I will only tell you, if you promise not to over-react."
"If you don't tell me, my imagination will probably just make up stories that are far worse than reality," he smirks.
"It will come as no surprise," I sigh, "that I have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder my entire life. It is one form my depression takes. The most efficient treatment, at least in my case, has been a combination of anti-depressants and behavior modification therapy. Until I began playing basketball, my compulsions were much broader in scope, more debilitating. The other children were not understanding and at first I was nearly over-dosing on anti-depressants to simply get out of bed in the morning. Basketball became a form of therapy and with a greatly reduced dosage, I was able to function. That's my white pill."
Takao's grip on me did not diminish as I share the sordid details and his quiet attention, without interruption, made the telling easier.
"I have always been tall and awkward. Mostly I was ignored until I started playing basketball. When I became good, the bullying began in earnest. At the graduation ceremony right before middle school, my chief tormentor told me he'd also been accepted to Teiko and that he looked forward to telling everyone what a freak I was. I went home, greeted my mother, and went straight into the bathroom. I washed and slipped into the tub with my father's straight razor." I turn my right hand without letting go of Takao's so that he can see the inside of my wrist and the light scar that barely shows. "My mother found me. I spent all vacation in the hospital. My parents told Teiko what happened, and why, and my bully was expelled before the first day of school. The doctor's call it Social Anxiety Disorder. That's my blue pill."
The hospital main gate was a few meters up on the right.
"I wish I had known you back then," he says, bumping his shoulder against my arm.
"No, you don't," I say. He is the only person outside my immediate family who understands the nuances in my voice. He knows the conversation is closed and he doesn't push.
Takao is shy about entering Kaori's room, but when she calls out to both of our names and then cries, he is right behind me trying to comfort her. The bear quiets her down.
"You know that you don't need a Lucky Item," I tell her, just the same as Mom and Dad have told me every day for the last four years.
"I know," she smirks. It is not a habit she had before meeting Takao and his sister, but for now I will forgive her anything.