bunnyfic 43
SnowQueenofHoth: so ne. the last bit of bunny fic was up aug 5th.
SnowQueenofHoth: and it was written by ME :P
...PROFUSE APOLOGIES. |D; Have a pointless chapter of 2000. *eases back into the swing*
again, hovering over most of the japanese text gives you a translation!
21-K, 53-N.
( 43: all the small things )
Nikaido couldn't sleep.
After a little while (okay, so he'd slept through the first few rounds), every time the stupid compresses Senga had put on him went cold around his knees (about every ten minutes) after being not-cold (for about ten minutes), he just woke up. And he couldn't get the stupid compresses off either because they were rock hard (and he'd tried hitting them and tugging, to no avail), and waking Senga up about it wasn't an option because Senga was making all these cute snuffly, moany noises in his sleep.
And so Nikaido lay there in the dark on his side with one arm pillowing his head, the sunglobe dim, the House quiet, and barely a handspan between him and Senga. And for a long time Nikaido did nothing more than watch and listen to Senga breathe (and snuffle). And he thought.
Occasionally a set of footsteps could be heard along the hall, if Nikaido listened hard enough, along with other House noises, and Nikaido thought about those for a bit, too. It had been novel for him for a while, the way he could just listen to things at night and have his pulse remain steady. The way he didn't have to wonder if footsteps meant a rare Chaser underground or some other feral rat going to steal his skates or turn him in in exchange for a chance at Government immunity.
This whole… comfort thing, really. Had been novel.
In a way, it still was, though Nikaido was getting used to it. Comfort, and sleeping in the same place every night, and saying hi to the same people every morning. Hell, even just saying hi to people every morning. Waking up with Senga right there (those times Senga wasn't already up anyway, because he liked school a lot more than Nikaido did)...
He was getting used to it.
But that didn't mean he liked it any less.
Reaching out, Nikaido pressed his palm to Senga's chest just lightly, enough to feel the slow rise and fall of it, and Senga's heartbeat under his fingers.
He wasn't the type to put his gratefulness on show or anything, but he still appreciated it under everything, when he stopped to think. Times like these.
He wondered briefly if Tamamori was awake from being FD'd yet, and if he was awake, if he'd be thinking the same things as Nikaido now that he was here at Tackey's for real, him and Miyata. Maybe he'd be realising the same appreciations and appreciating them.
…nah.
Probably, Nikaido figured, the Hawk Princess was going to still be sleeping, and if he was awake and Miyata was awake, then they'd probably be trying to eat each other's faces or something. Nikaido was pretty sharp with observing other people, it was a hobby of his after all, and he'd called Tamamori sweet on Miyata since the first time he'd seen the two interact-more than sweet, even. In Nikaido's para-professional opinion, the two of them were way past that stage and into Special with the capital S.
The thought was kind of gross.
Nikaido refocused his eyes on Senga's face, and said aloud: "I hope you're having dreams good enough to counter the fact I'm lonely right now."
Not that Senga was listening. Nikaido spoke more just to hear a voice than anything, a die-hard habit from his days underground. (He didn't talk to inanimate objects like some people, and it wasn't like people didn't zone out when he talked to them awake even, so what was the difference?)
Presently Senga gave a little moan, and Nikaido rolled his eyes. "Great. Nice to know. Really." But his gaze returned to Senga's sleeping face soon enough.
It was something he couldn't really get enough of, strangely enough, Senga with his eyes closed and mouth just slightly parted, his hair pillow-mussed...
But then again, maybe it wasn't so weird if Nikaido thought about it.
Senga made a pretty picture, which didn't hurt, but it was also the fact that sleeping was... trusting.
The list of bad things that could happen to people who let their guard down in front of other people was pretty long, not that Nikaido was going to do any of them to Senga-he wasn't. Mostly because he wasn't that type of person, and a little because Senga could just wake up and bash his head in if he really wanted. But also... Nikaido wouldn't simply because Senga trusted him not to, and really, that was enough.
Observing, watching, Nikaido slid his hand up Senga's chest. He brushed his fingers gently from the hollow of Senga's throat, tracing up under his jaw, to just below his ear.
Murmuring in his sleep, Senga slapped limply at Nikaido's hand and turned his head, curling closer so the loose waves of his hair tickled the smile on Nikaido's face.
"Well, I guess this is okay," Nikaido said, because it was just Senga and no one else was around, and pressed a kiss to the top of Senga's head. He made a face. "Gross, you even sweat heaps when you're passed out. What the hell."
Unrepentant, Senga slept on.
"Tcht," Nikaido said, and held him close anyway. "Whatever. Pay me back in the morning."
Three beats of silence, and Nikaido closed his eyes as the coldpacts around his knees let up on the cold again. (He still vaguely hoped that after enough cycles they'd just stop. Hopefully.)
*
"...mn," Senga mumbled, slowly getting his tongue in working order connected to his brain. "Pay what?"
Nikaido started in surprise. "What? You were listening?"
Senga blearily rubbed his face in Nikaido's chest, then rubbed at his eyes as well before speaking: "But you were talking t' me, though? Y' totally... woke me up..."
"...oh." Nikaido apparently felt a little silly by the look on his face (but not quite like apologising). "Well, I couldn't sleep. How do I get these stupid things off my knees?"
"Mn?" Senga blinked slowly and Nikaido grinned, resisting the urge to snigger at the vapid expression.
Instead, he kneed Senga in the shin. "These. I'm sick of them."
"Mrrnm you're s'posed t' keep them on," Senga mumbled, turning to bury his face in his pillow. Sleepy.
"I've had them on though!" Nikaido told him. "And I can't sleep with the way they keep going cold."
"Mn, ice f' ten, off f' ten," Senga hummed. "Basics."
"Nooo~" Nikaido prodded Senga's shoulder, making a pest of himself the way the older ones said he was good at. "Stay here! You still need to pay me back."
"...what was 't even for...?" Senga asked, scrunching his nose a little as he tried to figure out if figuring it out was worth it.
"For leaving me awake all by myself. I was lonely," Nikaido informed him.
"Why? I'm here. 'n I was listening even," Senga yawned. So that was all it was. "Go to sleep, then you can be unlonely."
"But I can't sleep with these cold things on my knees," Nikaido articulated. "See a problem?"
"...oh." Senga blinked, and suddenly a fog lifted in his mind as he latched onto the real issue at hand: "But how don't you know how to get them off yourself? It's basics."
Nikaido tried to glare at him, but from close range he only ended up crossing his eyes. He kneed Senga again instead. "I've never used them before! Do you seriously think you can get these underground?"
Senga blinked a bit more. Couldn't you though? The way Kitayama talked about the black markets had Senga thinking they were everywhere... "Hiromii says you can?"
"Hiromii says," Nikaido scowled.
Senga grinned. "Yeah, but then you know, Hiromii's smart. And stuff."
He ducked Nikaido's fist of retribution, but saved himself from further violence by sitting up and kicking down their blanket so he could get at Nikaido's legs.
"You suck," Nikaido grumped.
"Mm~hm? You weren't complaining before," Senga snickered, but then held up his hands when it looked like Nikaido was going to take another swing. "Look-! No! Watch, Nika. Look... you just... like this."
It wasn't hard, dealing with coldpacts. To put them on, you just smoothed them down and they went hard. To take them off, you just...
Senga put a hand each at the cast's top and bottom edges, and twisted lightly as if wringing out a stiff towel. Abruptly the cold sleeves fell away, once again limp as cloth.
Nikaido stared. "Is that all?" Trying his own hand, he removed the cast from his other knee. "What the hell..."
"The fabric's pressure-sensitive, so-" Senga started laughing at the look of distaste on Nikaido's face as he picked up the floppy coldpacts and threw them across the room. "And Yokoo-kun calls me a fail First Aider!"
"You are, for not telling your patient how your treatments worked!" Nikaido told him. "And your bedside manner really sucks-"
"Hm? More suck jokes?" Senga grinned, thoroughly amused. "Are you inferencing something?"
"I am NOT," Nikaido said immediately. He crossed his arms. "If I wanted sex I'd ask for it instead of just making lame inferences."
Senga just grinned and for a long moment simply looked at Nikaido, not particularly challenging but definitely not doing anything either. And Nikaido looked back at him.
"...I'm not asking!" Nikaido said finally.
"Oh, well okay..." The stupid grin still plastered on his face, Senga shrugged and pulled the blankets back up to his chin, snuggling under them. "In that case, goodnight?"
"OI!" Nikaido said, and yanked himself some space under Senga's covers. "Don't leave me out in the cold!"
Senga laughed, rolling with Nikaido's tackle. Cold was a relative term in the Capital anyway, he knew, now that he'd been underground a few times. "I'm not a slave avatar you can expect to command, you know!"
"I know," Nikaido told him, "but you are my..."
Senga tilted his head as Nikaido trailed off, his face dissolving into kind of confused expression. "Your...?"
"...I don't know," Nikaido confessed, sitting back. Curious, Senga sat up, too. "I mean, you're not my boyfriend or anything, not really."
Senga grinned at Nikaido's unhappy look. He knew Nikaido got jealous kind of a lot, but sharing was caring in the Takizawa House. "No," he agreed, "not really."
"But we're more than friends!" Nikaido insisted, brows knotting. "In more than one way, too."
"Mm~hm," Senga agreed again, happily, and it wasn't just because they slept together either. They got along more than well, covering each others' backs when Yokoo was on a rampage, or Kitayama got really angry. Hell, they'd even saved each others' lives-literally.
"You aren't helping," Nikaido pointed out.
"Does it matter?" Senga chuckled. But then stopped and looked at Nikaido, who looked back at him blankly. Then again, maybe it did matter? Boss Tackey had said something like it before, during lessons. 'Societies have words for what's important to them. Knowing the language is an integral part of knowing the culture.' "ね," he said, carefully, "オールド・ローカルで-"
"If that's Old, stop it," Nikaido frowned. "You know I don't understand it."
Senga laughed, refraining from saying anything about Nikaido's attention span for Yokoo's lessons being relative to the amount he understood. "Well, okay. Anyway, there's a word you should know..."
Nikaido crossed his arms, apparently preparing to be unimpressed.
"仲間," Senga told him. "Remember it. It's important, so you should definitely remember it. Here, it goes like this-"
"Nakama?" Nikaido repeated, and raised an eyebrow as Senga took Nikaido's hand and drew the character in his palm.
"Yeah, like that. It means like... comrades. Friends, but more. With the same goal and stuff... together, you know? I think that's us. Something like that..." When he looked up, he was relieved to see that Nikaido's expression had thawed into something softer.
"...仲間 huh," Nikaido said again, softer though this time, and Senga smiled.
"Yeah. Us~"
1- The Nakama Talk. :D i feel like my fic has now fulfilled a genre-specific requirement. ♥
2- next chapter coming soon, i swear to god. (or at least, not like five months from now again. SORRY.) *cackles*
3- time is ticking 'til new nano. WAH, ALREADY. why. ;;