There had been a time or two or twelve when Sun had found his eyes drinking in the sight of Blake's midriff since their time on the boat to Menagerie, but he had never before seen her quite like that.
Blake was sitting in the center of his bed, with one hand pressed down into the smooth sheets and another lightly placed in her lap. Her legs were curled to one side before her, and the jet-black silken kimono covering her form just barely reached to her upper thigh, affording Sun quite the view of her gorgeous legs. The pair of limbs seemed to almost glisten in the moonlight, and Sun could feel his shorts tightening a bit as his jaw dropped ever so slightly.
"Wow," Blake stated in a monotone voice, "nice to see you, too."
Sun shook his head to try to clear his thoughts, and closed the door behind himself. Ghira's words of warning popped into his mind, and he immediately opened the door again… before closing it. And opening it. And decisively closing it.
What if Ghira had followed him…?
"You can't be here!" Sun nearly shrieked. A mixture of the elder Belladonna's threats, his churning and warping stomach, the exertion of sprinting down the halls, and the sight of the beautiful girl waiting on his bed caused Sun to start sweating hard.
"Why not? It's my house, Sun." Blake made no effort to move from her position, though she tilted her head and raised a brow at the sight of her friend's condition. "Are you… okay? You look like you just ran a marathon."
Though he was physically frozen in place, Sun's mind was running a marathon. If he was caught with Blake in his room at that hour, especially after his conversation with Ghira, he was dead. More than dead, if such a thing was possible. He needed an excuse to get her out of there immediately, and it needed to be believable.
"Because… Blake, I need to take a wicked dump," he said in an exasperated tone. The mental image of a cannonball tearing through the side of ship crossed his mind as he said it, though he didn't know exactly why.
Blake's reaction was both predictable, and not- she pulled a face and leaned back slightly as she spoke, but her words didn't quite match what Sun expected her to say.
"Sun, that is disgusting. Just… go ahead, and I'll wait. Never tell me something like that again." Blake sighed, shaking her head to try to clear it of all imagery associated with Sun in the bathroom. The boy merely balked at her, trying desperately to figure out how he had failed to drive her off.
"Wait? Wait for what?" he turned the last word into something between a sigh and a desperate plea, praying to every deity he could think of for her to reconsider.
"Uh… you? I want to talk. Just, go and… take care of things." She lifted the hand from her lap and waved it toward a door on the far wall from the bed. Sun nodded and hobbled for the adjacent bathroom, still holding his stomach. He didn't close the door as he entered and flicked the light switch, and though he did indeed head for the toilet, he found that he had unfinished business with his other end.
Sun knelt low, lifted the seat, and gripped the sides of the bowl as he vomited into the waiting water. All of the tension, fear, and food he had eaten rocketed from his mouth and splattered all over the porcelain as he shook with effort. He closed his eyes and heaved several breaths, trying his best to compose himself and praying that Blake somehow hadn't heard him, despite having four ears.
"Sun? Sun!"
The worried cry came through the open door, accompanied by the sound of bare feet padding their way across the wooden floor, and then suddenly, bathroom tile. A sharp gasp came from the doorway, and then an unexpected, cold hand rested upon the small of his back.
Despite the sudden shock of freezing skin against his own, Sun found that her touch felt amazing.
"What happened? Are you alright? Should I get my mom?"
At that, Sun lifted his head, still breathing heavily and hoping that he hadn't gotten any of his vomit onto his chin or chest as he fixed her with tired eyes.
"No! Please, don't… I don't want to upset her. It's just… I don't know, it's just nerves, or maybe… reverse seasickness?"
"Reverse seasickness?" Blake inquired, as she began to rub his back in small, gentle circles. Sun hoped against hope that she would never stop.
"Yeah, like… we've been on a boat for so long, maybe being on land again just messed me up?" He coughed a bit, and lurched forward as he felt his stomach do another loop. Sun felt his entire core shiver and twitch, but at the sight of Blake's ears folding back as she cringed, he held back as best he could.
"I don't think that's a thing," she replied. All sass and annoyance had left her voice, and for once, Blake sounded truly worried about him. Sun couldn't decide if the notion was comforting, or something he never wanted to hear again.
"I don't know. I'll be fine, I think. I just need a little time." Sun listened to his words echo within the bowl, and lifted his head to prevent the sound. Everything seemed to be giving him a headache, that night.
Everything but her touch.
Blake patted Sun on the back, before she rose to stand over him. He looked up at her and watched as she tucked a swath of hanging ebony hair over her shoulder. He couldn't help but give her a weak smile as he watched, and Blake looked away and into the mirror over the sink in response.
"…stay here. I'll get something to make you feel better."
A tiny voice in Sun's head replied but all I need for that is you, before a thousand other tiny voices kicked the first down to the floor of his mind and curbstomped it into oblivion. Thankful for his ability to hold his tongue, Sun merely nodded and watched as she disappeared through the door with footfalls that slowly faded into silence.
After one final heave that ended up producing no more liquid, Sun leaned back and transitioned from his knees to his backside with a groan. He leaned back and closed his eyes, letting his back and head rest against the cool, pale blue tiles of the bathroom wall. The frigid surface immediately reminded him of Blake's hand, and he couldn't help but smile to himself. What he wouldn't give to be able to feel that every day, and have the opportunity to warm her with his own embrace.
As he sat there alone with his thoughts, he opened his eyes and began to take in the decoration of the bathroom. The tiles were light blue and crept a few feet up from the floor, where the walls gave way to a darker blue, painted wood. Strands of aquatic fauna were painted among the scene, along with several tuna. It was no great mystery who had made that decision, and Sun couldn't help but chuckle to himself as the footfalls of the culprit once again became audible.
Blake made her way back into the bathroom, and set a toothbrush down onto the countertop before dropping to balance in a squat next to Sun. The cat faunus offered a small paper cup of water and two red pills in her other hand, both of which he gratefully accepted.
"Take these. They should help your… issues."
Sun popped the pills and drained the water, before tossing the tiny cup into a small wicker trashcan next to the toilet and shooting Blake a cheesy grin. "What're they gonna do, kill me?"
"Gods willing," she replied with a roll of her eyes. There was the deadpan tone that he had grown to love. She stood and offered him a hand, and he clasped it before pulling himself up to stand over her. For a brief moment, all that either of them did was stare into each other's eyes. Sun was the first to break contact, both in eyesight, and hands.
"Thanks, Blake. I'll… finish in here, and meet you back in the main room. Do you still want to talk?"
"I do, yes," Blake replied as she slipped past him, brushing her chest lightly against his pecs. Sun's breath hitched as he watched her move deeper into the bathroom, only to daintily lift one leg and use her foot to push down the flush handle of the toilet and drain away his sickness.
"…what was that?" he asked with a chuckle as he picked up the toothbrush. The handle had a deep purple rubber grip, and the bristles looked used.
Blake set her foot firmly back down onto the tile, and turned to face with him a look of indignation as she folded her arms beneath her modest chest. "What was what, Sun? Toilet handles are gross."
"And feet aren't?" he retorted as he reached for the tube of toothpaste.
"What does that matter? Gross touching gross is fine, and now I don't have to wash my hands. Get over it." Blake moved to pass him again, this time lightly brushing her back against his own as she made for the doorway.
"Hey, uh… is this your toothbrush?" Sun asked, before she had a chance to disappear back into the bedroom.
Blake froze, and remained facing away from him as she stared out at the bed.
"…I don't know where my parents keep spares, and we have to go shopping tomorrow, anyway. We'll get new ones then. Why, is my mouth too gross for you, too?"
"No, I just… didn't expect you to offer your own. Thanks, Blake. I'll make this up to you, somehow." Sun squeezed some toothpaste out onto the bristles, and got to work cleaning the vile taste from his mouth. In a technical sense, it was almost like a kiss. A kiss with toothpaste.
Blake turned her head to look over her shoulder, and he saw one of her eyes fixated on his own in the mirror. "You can make it up to me by taking it seriously, when we talk."
Sun spit out a mouthful of minty froth into the sink, before giving her a nod through the glass. Blake looked back into the other room and sighed as she walked out, following her line of sight. His own line of sight followed the back of her head as she walked, and he found himself more preoccupied with worrying about what was on her mind than the view of her body.
As Blake disappeared from view, Sun trained his eyes on his own reflection. He looked like hell, with a bit of rugged stubble beginning to form on his chin and cheeks. Fortunately, no traces of sickness had made it onto his face or chest after all, but even so, he seemed as though he'd had a stressful day. His hair was partially matted with sweat, and something in his eyes looked a bit shaken, or even broken to him. He didn't like what he saw at all, and he couldn't help but wonder if she had seen it, too.
With a final shiver, Sun looked down and made another pass over his teeth with the borrowed brush before tossing it into the wicker basket and flicking the light off. He cracked his neck, and made his way out into the bedroom, hoping he was prepared for 'the talk'.
Author's Note: I'll do my best to keep the updates coming relatively quickly, though I can't promise daily or even every other day. I will, however, most likely keep chapters around this length in order to keep the updates coming at a decent pace. More one-shots may pop up every so often, but I am not planning on doing any other multi-chapter stories before this one hits a certain tipping point in the story. Echo Chamber may also update sometime this week, but I am somewhat undecided on if I want to continue that anytime soon for various reasons. One of those reasons is that I have an idea for an Emerald chapter, but I don't want to pull the trigger on that until Volume 6 is over, given how her arc is going. We'll see what happens.
-RD