Oh so Peachy [Reita]

[Ruki]

Hair now dyed a soft brown splayed across the white pillow case in chocolate ringlets and a hand with nails painted a deep black curled into the stiff fabric of the school uniform as a small body curled into itself. Who would have thought the innocent oatmeal he ate for breakfast would contain the one thing he was allergic to: peaches.

Ruki was allergic to of all things: peaches. One would think it was strawberries with the way he avoided the red berry with a passion that rivaled that of a teenage romance filled with hormones and lusty, false words of forever. It was peaches though and the only time he could usually eat them was if they were skinned and cooked but it was just his luck that the peaches he had eaten by mistake weren't cooked, were raw and still cool, not yet affected by the heat of the oatmeal.

It didn't bother him at first; he simply thought they were cooked and only cooling off, they weren't. When his third class came rolling by, he had such bad stomach cramps that he just up and left and headed to the nurse. He was just glad it was a bad stomach ache and nothing more; he never really had server reaction to peaches, just bad cramps and slight nausea (which he was glad to note wasn't present).

Curling more into himself, he groaned softly, clenching his eyes shut and wishing for the stomach ache to go away.

[reita]

Reita had only seen Ruki in passing for the last couple of weeks. They didn’t really have time to talk and the only class they really seemed to share was performance since Reita was a third year. When the other man got up to leave looking ill he had done something that was actually uncharacteristic of himself.

Waiting for a spare moment when nobody would notice him slip out, he left the performance class and headed down to the nurse.

The other man really had looked pretty bad. He was holding his stomach, so hopefully he wasn’t hurling chunks in the bathroom or something.

Lighting a cigarette on his way down the corridor, he walked into the nurses office, looking at the small form on the long couch-like bed that was in there.

The nurse, a substitute for their usual one, was a man in his late sixties. He looked kind enough, but seeing that Reita was smoking he attempted to hide his lighting his own cigarette. Probably figuring that if Reita was smoking he could get away with it with no questions asked and he wouldn’t get fired, or fail to get paid for the day.

Reita snorted and sat down in a chair adjacent to Ruki.

“You ok, man? You looked like shit when you left class....”

It wasn’t really true, Reita knew this much. Ruki could never really “look like shit,” he was a handsome young man. Good-looking even when he had looked in serious discomfort earlier, and now.

[Ruki]

As tough as he made himself out to be, Ruki was actually quiet the softy underneath it all and nothing made that more apparent then now. He wanted his mother, he wanted to be home, not his dorm but home, in his larger bed surrounded by the pack of tiny dogs his mother owned and his mother's comfort. He could even deal with his father, could even pretend to like the man so long as he had his mother making the nasty ache in his stomach go away.

He had learned a lesson though. He was never again eating at the cafeteria again. More specifically, he was never eating oatmeal again and he was never, ever going near anything with peach in it or labeling. Ruki almost wished he broke out into hives, that his lips swelled, anything but the pain in his stomach.

Sinking his teeth into his lower lip and bared it. This was nothing after all, compared to the emotional pain his father had put him through. That had hurt, had hurt so bad when his father had first uttered that he wasn't his son, that no son of his would ever follow a path in music. It was a hurt that he still carried with him, only shown on the fading silverly pink lines that lightly streaked across his thighs.

Cutting was only a phase, one he was over. It just wasn't worth it anymore. Nothing he did to himself would change how his father saw him and he knew when (not if, when) they made it big, it wouldn't change how his father felt about him.

Lost in his own little pain filled world, he missed the door opening, missed the soft thuds of booted feet against the floor. He didn't miss the familiar scant of a cigarette. Usually, he enjoyed the scent being a smoker himself but, with his stomach in painful knots and the nausea that was just making itself known, the cigarette wasn't very much welcomed.

"Do I look okay?" He questioned softly, trying to curl farther into himself. "Can you please get rid of that? It's not helping..."

[reita]

Reita had watched him moving around in discomfort for the past five minutes and now he grabbed the cigarette from the old man and his own and put them out under his boot on the floor. Ruki was one of the few people he ever listened to.

“Sorry...,” he shifted a little uncomfortably, feeling oddly shy.

He couldn’t explain why he felt so shy around Ruki, but he always did. The chains on his jeans moved and made a soft clanking noise.

“What’s wrong..?”

Of course, he didn’t know about the oatmeal. Didn’t actually know that Ruki was allergic to peaches either.

“You want me to take you back to the dorm...I’ll sneak you up to mine and I can get you some aspirin or some shit like that...”

He added the shit because he figured he was sounding like a pussy...and he hated that. Reita was overly defensive of his masculinity, and he didn’t want Ruki to think that he was trying to act like his mom or something.

But, he did want to make sure the other man felt better. And, he didn’t care about class as long as the other man was in pain.

[Ruki]

A hum, soft and low in his throat left him. It was really all he had the energy to mange at the moment. Ruki was grateful though, that the toxic scent of smoke was gone, slowly slithering away as the crushed sticks gave their last breath.

It was almost amusing how it was manly Reita to come to his aid, to be the one to attempt to mother him. If he was feeling any better, any bit like his regular self, he might have dropped a playful tease or two on how the bassist was becoming the new mother hen of the group. Then again, maybe he wouldn't. It really all depended on the mood.

"Peaches," He grunted out softly, cracking an eye (altered a bright yellow today) open to glance at Reita. "I'm allergic." And wasn't it just his luck that of all the fruits placed into oatmeal, it just had to be peaches. If it was strawberries, he could deal with it and he wouldn't be laying here in the nurse's office with a stomach ache from hell.

Uncurling from the tiny ball he attempted to get himself into, he licked his lips, raising a finger to show he had one condition. "Cuddle me too?"

It was a childish request, Ruki knew it but, he wanted to be cuddled. He always wanted to be cuddled when he wasn't feeling well. Allowing a faint blush to dust his paler then normal cheeks, he ducked his head, allowing brown curls to fall into his face.

"And carry me? I don't think I'd be able to walk that." It wasn't that he wanted to be carried through the hallways, he had enough of that to last a life time but, his stomach was killing him and just thinking about walking up stairs and any distance just wasn't pleasant.

[reita]

Reita took this bit of news with surprise. It had been breakfast in the cafeteria hadn’t it?...Yea...oatmeal with peaces...shit, next time he’d tell Ruki, he didn’t know anything about his allergy. He’d remember now though....

Actually, Ruki seemed to be the only member of the whole band that Reita actually cared to act motherly towards. But, it seemed that the other man hadn’t picked up on that.

“Cuddle?...” he said it a bit awkwardly. “The fuck you think I am...gay?”

Reita’s self awareness wasn’t that high up on the scale. All this time he had been becoming shy, taking an active notice in Ruki’s moods, and even been caught looking at the other man in something that wasn’t an instance of fanservice, he hadn’t quite figured out that he wasn’t exactly straight.

“Sure....I’ll carry you up there, but I don’t know about this cuddling shit...”

He dropped the whole ‘gay’ thing. It made him nervous. Reita had his reputation to worry about. The tough guy act was still firmly in place over everything he did, and he didn’t even want to think about such a thing.

Lifting Ruki off of the low bed he shot a look to the nurse and left, carrying Ruki up to his dorm and pulling the sheets aside on his unmade bed, tucking him in.

“I don’t know if I got anything that’ll make it better...”

[Ruki]

Reita was a perfectly sweet guy (at least to Ruki he was) and there were moments where his awkward concern was adorable. Then, there were moments where he had to open his mouth and ruin it. Usually it lead to a playful scoff to the back of the head or a half hearted slap to the chest. Ruki didn't have him it in him to do either and simply glared.

"Who cares. Just shut up and do it." Some part of him knew he was probably pushing Reita's comfort zone but he didn't care at the moment. All he wanted was the pain to go away and to curl up in someone's arms and Reita's were the closet.

Once he was swept up in the bassist's strong arms, he curled a hand in his shirt, resting his head against his chest and allowing his eyes to slip shut. He honestly didn't know what it was about being sick that brought out the cuddly person in him, he really didn't. He just liked knowing there was someone there, someone that cared.

If all else failed to explain it, he could blame it on his father. He found that blaming his father helped, a lot.

Sitting up in the bed, he popped up the bright yellow contacts and shifted slightly to get the case out of his pocket. Placing them in there, he slide them onto the nearby end table and laid back down, snuggling into the sheets that smelled strongly of Reita.

"Nothing really will. It's a stomach ache." Cause by an allergic reaction but, it was a bad stomach ache over all and there was really nothing to be done but to wait it out. "Just..." he trailed off, patting the side of the bed. "Sit with me if you're to macho to cuddle your poor, sick friend."

The guilt trip was playing dirty again: Ruki didn't really care. He just simply wanted to be held.

[reita]

Reita had carried him up without incident, not really saying anything. A couple of the guys met him in the hall, but they didn’t seem to think much of it. And, Reita chalked Ruki’s clutching at his shirt and snuggling closer into him up to being in severe pain. Which was really pretty short-sighted of him, but that’s how he approached everything. It kept him away from the truth he didn’t want to know about.

Now the other man was getting his contacts out and telling him that, of course, there was no medication he could take. Why did he ask about that anyway?...Why did he even bring Ruki here...?

Ruki was talking about cuddling again and he just grunted in annoyance and sat down on the opposite side of the bed, leaning against the wall.

“Why you want to cuddle anyway? Makes no fucking sense...,” he was avoiding cuddling. But, he could perhaps be convinced if Ruki kept talking like that. It did make him feel a little bit guilty not to give into the other man. Ruki had a special hold on him for some reason.

While he was trying to puzzle this all out, his leg and quite accidentally slipped under the covers on the bed, and his shirt that was stretched out by Ruki gripping it, had slipped to reveal a nipple without his really noticing it. The t-shirt showed off his well muscled arms.

[Ruki]

Huffing softly, he lazily took in the bit of skin exposed by the drooping neck of Reita's shirt. A person didn't have to be gay to appreciate that Reita was good looking. The define muscles of his chest and arms had always caught Ruki's eye and when ever they hugged, he always marveled at how arms so strong were so gently when wrapped around him.

"Because I like to cuddle when I'm not feeling well." Back home, he always had a stuff animal or one of his mother's dogs curled against his side or chest and it was simply comforting to know that there was something there and that he wasn't suffering alone.

Faintly rolling his eyes, he snuggled into the pillow he lay against and gazed up at the bassist with sleepy eyes. It seemed just being in a bed not in the nurse's office was doing wonder already because he could feel sleep pulling him in. He didn't know if it was because of the bed or because it was Reita's bed and he didn't care to find out at the moment.

"Seriously," He almost slurred, eyes slipping closed and snuggling deeper into the pillow. "It's not that big of a deal. 's not like I'm asking for you to like...." he furrowed his brows, lazily cracking open an eye, a natural blue-gray in color to glance up at the other. "Well, I can't think of anything at the moment so just suck up your heterosexual manliness and hold me."

[reita]

Reita just watched the other man snuggle up to his pillow. He felt weird about that, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on the emotion. It just made his heart kind of twisted feeling, and his stomach tied all up in knots.

Well...it was only fair. Ruki was right after all, he could hold him and have there be no real meaning to it. How many times had they fallen asleep while going to lives and he’d woken up to realize that there was a bulge in his face, his head having landed perfectly on someone’s crotch.

Shrugging slightly, he laid down, scooting up behind Ruki and hugging him in the most platonic, non-sexual way that he could manage like this.

It felt nice, though.

Of course, the feeling he was getting earlier was pure jealousy. Ruki was hugging the pillow, he was jealous of a pillow the whole time, wanted to be the thing that Ruki was paying attention to. And, now that he was near him he was trying to be platonic.

Reita just took his heterosexuality far too seriously. So seriously, when it wasn’t really even real. But, he knew nothing of that at present. Just held onto Ruki trying not to look gay with every fiber of his being including his noseband..

[Ruki]

Ruki was well on his way into the land of dream before Reita had even moved. It had been tiring, dealing with the pain in his stomach (which seemed to be going away now) and not being able to fall asleep on the uncomfortable bed in the nurse's office. He only fell farther asleep when Reita's arms wrapped around him.

They were strong, warm and he felt safe and content within them. Once again, if Ruki had been more awake, more mentally there, he would ponder why that was. He would also tease Reita about the way he was holding him. It was amusing to note that he was held in the most platonic, non gay way there was. Ruki wasn't awake though and he simply pressed back into those arms and the warm body behind him and feel deeper into a much needed sleep.

~8~

How ever long he slept, Ruki didn't know. It must have been a good while because the last dying rays of sunlight filtered in through the thing curtains and onto his face. Wrinkling his nose in protest, he buried his face within the warm, strong pillow he found himself pressed flushed against.

He maybe feeling better but that didn't mean he wanted to get up. His body had other plans and it was telling him to get up. Stretching, he yawned, opening his eyes and being greeted with the sight of a shirt barely clinging to a stout shoulder, the neck dipping low enough for him to see almost all of Reita's chest.

Grinning and feeling a tad playful, he allowed the tip of a finger to circle Reita's expose nipple and he shifted, leaning up to breath huskily into the bassist's ear, "Reichan~ time to raise and shine~"

[reita]

Reita opened his eyes slowly but he hadn’t felt the other man playing with his nipple. That was probably a good thing, since he’d been avoiding anything remotely gay the entire day quite tactfully. Then he was surprised to see the other man, who seemed to have woken him up.

“Ru...?” he murmured, then remembered everything.

Settling back down in the blankets he seemed to be having a hard time getting up.

“Does your stomach feel better?”

Reita sincerely hoped that it did. Not because he wanted to get rid of Ruki, but because he wanted the other man to feel better. Why he cared was beyond him...just to be safe he’d chalk it up to the brotherly love of being bandmates.

The setting sun was filtering into the blinds softly, illuminating a small clock up on Reita’s wall.

7:00p.m.

He’d slept through all of his classes, but as long as Ruki was ok...

Reita almost feel back asleep just laying there looking at it.

[Ruki]

It was almost disappointing to not get any reaction for his actions. Ruki could oh so vividly picture it too. Reita would jerk away, probably falling of the bed in the process and vehemently protesting the action, loudly proclaiming he was straight and liked boobs. All the while, Ruki could picture a pretty blushing staining cheeks usually almost hidden by the cloth Reita always wore across his nose.

Amused, he hummed softly, nodding his head and feeling the curls bounce with the moment. "Much better."

He honestly did as well. The pain was thankfully gone and the only thing that remained was a faint hunger from eating nothing but peach laced oatmeal. While Ruki could go for something to eat, he really had to go to the bathroom and yet, he couldn't move. He was still wrapped up in Reita's strong arms and if his body wasn't all but screaming at him to go potty, he would have just snuggled right back into them and slept the rest of the night away.

Laughing softly, he poked the bassist's cheek, giving up on his scare tactic. "Don't fall back to sleep, I need to get up." That was a hint, a rather big one Ruki felt, to let him go.

[reita]

Reita looked up, his hair all over the place and his noseband still slightly out of place from sleeping.

“Hrm....Oh...”

He blushed despite himself, because he had been holding onto Ruki the whole time without noticing.

“There....ano....you hungry? There’s a ramen shop just down about a block away...”

It was the most frequented shop by many of the students and teachers, because of it’s proximity. And it had a very good reputation for being absolutely delicious. Ruki might like to have something in his stomach, since all he had was oatmeal. Reita himself was feeling pretty peckish.

Actually crawling over Ruki now he looked in the mirror over his desk. This mirror was usually over the small wardrobe near the bed. But, Reita had moved it so that he could take pictures in the mirror to put on his blog occasionally.

Picking up a brush that was on the bed, he brushed his hair back into place and then adjusted the noseband. Then, without really thinking too hard about it, he started to change his clothes. Getting out a casual-looking graphic tee, and a pair of jeans and slipping these on in front of Ruki.

[Ruki]

Getting out of the rather comfortable bed with a soft laugh, Ruki stretched, delighting in the way there were no cramps, no unpleasant pain plaguing his poor, poor stomach. Yes, he was in a good mood now and practically skipping, he made his way into the bathroom.

Doing his business, he flushed, washing his hands and frowning at the rather frizzy state of his hair. There was nothing he could do about that now at least, here in Reita's dorm. Frowning softly, he attempted to smooth the mussed, frizzy locks. Giving up a few minutes latter, he exited the bathroom, being greeted with the sight of a changing bassist.

"Sorry honey~" He teased. "I don't have any dollar bills."

Chuckling, he smoothed out his rather wrinkled uniform and deciding he just didn't have it in him to really care about how he looked, gave up and glanced back up at the by now dressed bassist. "Any food sounds good about now so, I'm all for it."

So long as it wasn't peaches or strawberries, he was good, more then good really because now that he thought of food, the hunger was really starting to hit him. "When you're ready, lets go. I'm kinda starving here~"