“It’s your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you…”
 
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
 
“But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.
 
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
 
“Then it has done you no good at all!”
 
✖ 
Uruha smiles once Aoi leaves – with a bang, no less, as the older man slams the door in his exit. The frames that hung on the wall tremble a little.
 
Once upon a time Uruha had told himself not to let anybody in because it was the easiest way to self-destruction. Looking back at it now, he figured he should’ve listened to himself. The thing was, he never really listened, not even to himself.
 
He wanted to live as a man without regrets. He supposed it wasn’t his greatest idea that he clung to the first person who seemed keen to break down all his walls, without letting the rational side of his brain assess the situation first. To his defense, he was already getting tired of putting up barriers.
 
What Uruha didn’t expect was to fall so hard, though. Suddenly the world didn’t revolve in only himself and he was fine with that.
 
And so he gave even his world. He had always been someone who gave a hundred percent on whatever he did, after all, and never held back.
 
It was already too late when he realized it wasn’t really applicable in this situation.
 
Uruha crawls into his bed and lays there for a few hours. There are no lights inside the room and only the silence keeps him company. It’s so easy to think of things in such a setting, but the room still smelled of Aoi’s perfume.
 
The smile never really left his face.
 
He pulls himself up and slips on some fuzzy slippers, making his way to the balcony. The air is much more different; chilling, and it penetrates through the flimsy material of his shirt and shorts. His hands automatically rub on his arms.
 
Only high rise buildings can be seen from the horizon. Leaving a world with no stars but only lights – he figures it was fine. Anyway, it didn’t belong to him any longer.
 
Uruha hops on the ledge and finds that his feet barely fit. It’s a struggle to stand up but he does, with his hands raised sideways, trying to balance himself. But the cold wind blows, making him slip and the first thing to fall was one of his slippers.
 
And he jumps.
 
Clumsy until the end, he laughs, but that’s what he wanted all along anyway. His eyes close as the force of gravity pulls him and the cold autumn breeze pricks his skin like little pins.
 
He imagines the mess he’d make once he reaches the ground. The blood, the splattered bones. The missing slipper. It’s almost a reason to be sorry. But he isn’t.
 
He can’t. Not anymore.

Rain poured heavily on the windshield that it was hard to see anything through it anymore. The streetlamps looked nothing but blurred lights in the onslaught of rain and the wiper was barely any help keeping the water pounding and blocking sight. Aoi thought that perhaps it hadn’t been a wise choice to drive away and simply stayed home…

…and the thought had him scowling. He is on his way home.

Nobody in their right mind would drive through such a harsh rain like this, of course, but sometimes Aoi’s mind didn’t like staying put, especially whenever Uruha was concerned. It was supposed to be a night of relaxation in each other’s arms, relishing in the coldness the rain brought them. One wrong word and Uruha was out spouting some stupid nonsense – Aoi refused to admit that he was the reason why they had yet another verbal spat. Come to think of it, he didn’t remember why they argued in the first place; what Aoi remembered was the flaring anger in his chest when Uruha looked at him with disdain. He knew it was a wise choice to get out of there before he started breaking any of Uruha’s things.

It was only a drizzle when he started driving out of Uruha’s block and to his way home when the weather decided to kick a man down further by obscuring his vision. At least the cold and waiting in traffic helped in calming Aoi down, but the silence agitated him all the more. He hated the exact moment when his anger subsided and reason came back to him because that was usually the time when he realized it probably was his fault.

Aoi flipped the radio on and narrowed his eyes just a little bit when he recognized the song being played. It was a calming ballad, just perfect for the rainy occasion, which also happened to be one of Uruha’s favorite songs. Of course Uruha didn’t admit to this, but the way his face relaxes whenever it played somewhere was a good enough indication that he did. People always have a certain image or a certain stereotype assigned to Uruha, but Aoi has watched him for quite some time to know that 99% of the time, they just misunderstood.

Sighing, Aoi gripped the wheel and sped up as he looked for the nearest U-turn.


Uruha opened his door to a wet and obviously shivering Aoi, but he just stood there, staring the older man down, tucking his conscience to the farthest corner in his brain.

“S’cold,” Aoi mumbled, his teeth chattering and all of a sudden, Uruha’s defenses promptly crumbled down. Aoi offered an awkward smile and tried to ignore his already freezing bits.

Uruha sniffed and opened the door wider to let the other in. “Come on in, rain damages bleached hair, you know.”

It didn’t make sense to Aoi at all but he accepted the explanation anyway, just happy to have Uruha’s hands back on him.

This little bundle of fluff was written to - egad! - a ballad sung by one of the members of MBLAQ (or something). You have granitemouth to blame for this.

For avenue.
Inspiration.

It didn’t matter who it was that made Uruha smile, as long as he did. There was always something so childlike and innocent in the way that his lips curved and his small teeth gleamed. Though it might not have been smile meant for him, it still didn’t fail to make Reita smile too.

Their eyes met and Uruha’s smile widened until it wasn’t a smile anymore. It was already a grin. Reita knew that look.

Almost immediately, his own smile faded and his nose wrinkled, expression one of exasperation, if not sourness. Granted, Reita wasn’t exactly gifted with a spectacular smile like Uruha. His smile looks a little bit… well, a hell lot awkward. Especially without make-up. Make-up just makes him look less of a creeperface. Sometimes he forgot that Uruha can be one shallow, appearance-basing son of a bitch.

He would’ve flipped the other off, but instead he just waved for him to come closer. “Just lemme hear your heart beat already.” Uruha, still with that teasing grin on his mouth, obliged anyway.

“You’re so adorable, I can’t help it.” A gentle laugh followed.

The heartbeat test turned into something more as Reita felt arms circling his waist and hands on lower back. His own hand took the same spot on Uruha’s back while the other remained over his heart. Eyes closing, Reita pbserved how Uruha’s heart was beating. Steady, but in strong pounds. It was beating for the fans. At that very moment, it was beating for him.

Reita felt the brush of hair on his skin and a discreet press of the lips on his cheek. “Hey, we have to go back to work now.” Uruha withdrew from the hug he initiated. Anyway, there was plenty of time for that in the privacy of their own home. On the other hand, Reita wouldn’t budge.

“What do you want now?” And yet Uruha didn’t completely step away. The other just shot him a look.

“Thirty more seconds. Don’t you know how these tests work?”

“Yeah, that would work better if you did it on my pulse,” he countered – more like teased – with added effect of his eyebrow raising. Reita looked as if he was truly just nanoseconds from flipping him off. “Alright. Dork.”

With that sweet, genuine smile Uruha topped the prolonged hug off, Reita didn’t care if it was actually at the expense of his dignity.

For my dearest Princess.

It was still very early when he left home.

Aki only watched his feet as he continued walking through the near-empty hallway. Hands clutched on the strap of his bag loosely. Thinking about nothing in particular, just watching as the bluish shadows turn orange to yellow with every step he made.

He stopped at seeing a pair of boots just at the end of his line of sight, and lifted his face.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” he heard Hitsugi shot back at him and he smiled. Hitsugi’s face full of piercings lightened up with a smile too.

Aki dropped his bag by Hitsugi’s boot and leaned on the wall like Hitsugi did, shoving his hands into his pockets. He looked down and then towards the other. “It’s brilliant you know.”

Hitsugi seemed a bit startled with the way Aki looked at him straight in the eye and in turn averted his look and grinned sheepishly. “I know. Why didn’t we think of this earlier?”

Aki watched as Hitsugi stared at his own boots, contemplating on how he must’ve looked like that too while he was walking along the hallway earlier. Maybe a lot less adorable though, since Hitsugi was pursing in that certain way that that washed away all traces of his bad-assery at its sight.

Hitsugi stopped pouting unconsciously and started pouting consciously, shoving Aki by the shoulder. “What are you laughing at me for?”

Aki chucked out a small laugh. “Am not!”

“Aki-san! Hitsugi-san! Sorry to keep you waiting!” The both of them pushed themselves off the wall, Aki pulling his bag from the ground and Hitsugi dusting on his clothes, and then stretched their necks out look at their coordinator from a distance. They softened their stance at the same time and turned at each other. Their eyes met, Hitsugi averted his gaze again and Aki just laughed.

Aki’s infectious chuckle got to Hitsugi too and the hallway echoed with their soft laughter as they walked, puzzling the coordinator and drawing a small laugh out of her as well.

The hallway path was now lit up with the 7 AM sunlight and this time as he slung an arm over Hitsugi’s shoulder, Aki didn’t have his stare down on his shoes anymore.

Silently Aoi watched people as they go around and about, the corners of his eyes discreetly spying and everyday learning more about the ones they come across. From here he caught things – small things that seemed oh so trivial but quite the contrary, and it made him a little bit perceptive than most people (though not putting that in practice due to his natural reclusiveness). It was always a joy watching people in silence, seeing them in a completely different light from how they are seen when directly looked at on; similar to when you shut your eyes tight after staring off somewhere for a long time and splashes of colors dance before your eyes, but gone the next second.

Uruha’s has always been the most vibrant color, and Aoi couldn’t help but look longer, straining his eyes before the color is gone again.

But whenever their eyes meet (the color was strongest in Uruha’s eyes) Aoi would always look away, not because he was ashamed of getting caught, but because he was afraid that whatever he sees at that moment will be gone if he was caught.

Aoi’s gaze never stayed long enough to see that the sparkle never left Uruha’s eyes.

Especially when he knew that Aoi was looking.






“Stop looking at me.”

“I would if you start looking directly at me instead of just stealing glances.”

Uruha’s eyes pinned Aoi against the wall, but it’s not as if he’s complaining about being captive of Uruha’s gentle stare.

He doesn’t mind being captive of Uruha’s gentle lips, either.

Ruki stared at his new king-sized bed and smiled; to him, it always looked too big for two people but just enough for three (with a slight cramming together, but that didn’t really matter). It wasn’t very fancy; it just had a nice, clean-looking metallic headboard and a pale yellow scheme, complete with fluffy pillows and a fluffy comforter.

He walked over to the bed and sat down on it, his grin widening as he bounced slightly on the mattress. His skin tingled at the feeling of plush cotton under his fingers, and as his hand continued to glide over the soft surface, the more he heard the bed calling to him.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try it out first.

--

The comforter was warm but not if it’s not wrapped around your body – that was Ruki’s first thought as he stirred awake. He rolled on his stomach and grunted.

His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the light all that well but he immediately tried looking for the control of the air conditioning unit. Ruki stretched out a hand to retrieve the remote beside the clock. The time read 01:29.

With an unconscious pout, Ruki snatched the remote from the bedside table and raised the temperature, then spread out his arms and legs over the bed.

This baby’s gonna be just his tonight, then.

--

For the second time since he drifted to sleep, Ruki stirred awake again, this time because of the rising heat. He tried maneuvering his body but felt a heaviness over his waist. He grunted again.

“Oh.”

Full lips greeted Ruki’s eyes – those he was sure belonged to Aoi. It was probably Uruha’s breath warming his nape, then. Looking down, he saw two arms over his waist and one long leg over his thigh. Ruki sighed, then smiled.

He doesn’t really mind the warmth anyway.

Aoi’s black bed was littered with various score sheets and crumpled paper, and Ruki’s form occupied whatever space was left (which wasn’t much) with his face practically buried on his laptop’s screen. Aoi was the same, except he was sitting down on the floor and using the bed as a table for his machine. Despite Ruki’s obsessive-compulsiveness and Aoi’s strictness when it comes to his things, the two of them looked no more than like disorganized students cramming for their project. Except of course, this was for work.

(If you consider doodling on Photoshop and replying to fan mail work, that is.)

Not long enough, Aoi stirred to the sound of soft snoring and found Ruki starting to sport a waffle face. He snickered first before removing his laptop and setting it on the ground, then did the same for Ruki’s. Slowly but carefully, Aoi started discarding the paper off his bed.

When it was only Ruki left (thankfully still sound asleep), Aoi look behind, eyeing on the sea of disarray on his floor.

He shrugged anyway and plopped gently beside the younger, pulling him by the waist before whispering a hushed ‘good night.’