Title: Ai ni Yotte Influenza Desu
Meaning: Love by Influenza (roughly)
Pairing: KyoxShinya; KaoruxShinya
Type: Fluff-ish drama; romance
Rating: PG
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“All right – let’s break for lunch.”
Shinya closed his eyes tightly as if to ward off the pain, though he knew it wouldn’t work. His head rang and throbbed and his body protested loudly against the abuse he’d put it through since that morning’s practice had begun. His mouth and throat were dry and his tongue felt like some kind of alien bug. He knew he’d feel like shit if he played, yet pound away he did. Shinya cracked open one eye to make sure that the others hadn’t noticed him in the corner. Sometimes, like now, there were advantages to being the silent one – especially when he didn’t feel like answering hundreds of questions. But Die chatted animatedly with Toshiya nearby as they put away their instruments, Kyo was huddled on his beloved couch with his precious notebook open and scribbling madly in it, and Kaoru was putting away his own guitar, sitting on the floor somewhere opposite Kyo. No reason to be worried about anyone paying attention to him. Shinya took a deep breath and winced; he needed the damn aspirin. And there, on the floor next to Die’s feet, glistening angelically at him was the most lovely, delightful, gorgeous, miraculous sight Shinya thought he’d ever see – a nearly full water bottle.
“Die-kun, who’s is that?” he asked slowly, trying to remember how to make his tongue work in his mouth. He told himself firmly that the room was not spinning.
Die looked over, surprised for a second, then down at the bottle by his feet. He looked back up at Shinya. “Mine. There’s a table of ‘em outside and down the hall in the lounge-y place, didn’t you see?”
Shinya winced slightly – there was no way in hell he could stand without falling, he was sure of it. And standing up to fall would only bring on the questions he really didn’t want to answer. Even if he could stand normally, Shinya wasn’t exactly sure that he’d be able to make it all the way to the waiting room without falling anyway. He gave a heavy sigh and resigned himself to the fate of having to ask.
“No. Can I have some?” he asked in a low voice.
The red headed guitarist arched an eyebrow. In amusement or mockingly Shinya couldn’t tell. “Shin-chan, I’m sure even you could walk the thirty feet or so.”
Mocking, then. And you wonder why I hate you sometimes, do you, Die? Shinya gritted his teeth against another wave of pain. “Please, can I have the water?”
“Shinya, just get your own. It’s not that far away, and it’s free.”
Must ... not ... kill ...
“Die, give him the water,” Toshiya said, like a parent talking to a misbehaving child, “It’s not so special, is it?”
“It’s the principle of the thing, Totchi. Shinya is old enough to get his own water.”
“Please, Die-kun?” Shinya asked again, trying not to hit himself over the pleading note his voice had taken on.
“Shinya ... ”
”Die! For fuck’s sake, this is ridiculous! Just give him the God forsaken water!” Kaoru burst out sharply.
Everyone turned to stare in amazement – even Shinya – but Kaoru set his jaw and only stared back at Die. Since no one was looking at him, the drummer took the opportunity to very discreetly open the bottle of aspirin hidden in his pocket and empty the last pills into his palm. He tossed them into his mouth and held them between his teeth just as Die gave up on his staring contest with Kaoru (which he’d never really had a hope of winning) and picked up the bottle, tossing it at Shinya. The young drummer ducked just in time – the water-turned-missile barely missed his head and bounced off the wall, rolling on the floor until it was stopped by his toms. Shinya groaned inwardly, not looking forward to having to bend over to get it.
“Fuck you very much, Die-kun. You’ve been ever so kind,” he muttered.[1]
He retrieved the bottle with the minimum amount of movement possible and promptly downed half the contents in one, long gulp. He ignored the sound of protest that Die made with a certain sense of satisfaction. The aspirin taken and feeling none better, Shinya replaced the cap on the bottle and tossed it weakly back at the guitarist. He missed the worried looks this earned him from Kaoru and Kyo, as he was busy mentally preparing himself to get up from his drum stool and make the walk from his drum set to his coat. Not that he planned on going out, he could barely see straight, but it was getting cold in the studio.
“All right, Shinya’s had his water and Die’s learned the value of sharing. Who wants to go to lunch with me?” Toshiya asked a moment later.
“You treating?” Die grinned, ignoring the teasing and happy to turn his attention to something more pleasurable than being teased.
“Of course not,” Toshiya said haughtily as he placed his bass in its carrier, “Do you think I have that much money? I’m only going to the ramen shop on the corner.”
“Gonna treat us to ramen?” Kyo asked impishly, but his voice was slightly distracted and slightly muffled from where his head was berried in his notebook. He would not be going to lunch yet and Toshiya knew it – Kyo was in his “lyric-making-place”, and wouldn’t come out until whatever he was working on was finished.
Toshiya gave a theatrical, heaving sigh and rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. He stood and put his hands on his hips, glaring at Die. “The things I do for you,” he snorted delicately and sashayed over to his coat, “Come on, I’m hungry!”
Die was up and into his own coat before anyone could blink. Toshiya stared after the redhead for a few moments, working his jaw though no sound came out, but decided, with a shake of his head, that it wasn’t worth saying anything. He followed Die outside, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting up as he did. Shinya prayed he wouldn’t slam the door on his way out, and cursed the various deities that he could think of when a loud, reverberating slam caused his head to explode. On the bright side, the room had stopped spinning.
Why’s it so cold in here, anyway? I thought we had heating in this building, the young drummer grumbled internally, heaving himself off his drum stool and leaning casually against the wall. Apparently, not casually enough.
“Shinya? Are you all right?” Kaoru asked immediately.
Shinya turned as quickly as he dared and pushed away from the wall, “I’m fine, thanks. Why do you ask?”
“‘Cause you’re as white as my bed sheets and look like you haven’t slept in a year,” Kyo cut in, still in that distracted voice and still scribbling. Shinya damned the shorter man for being observant. “Then there was that whole little incident with Die and the water bottle. What was that you put into your mouth, Shinya?”
Shinya shifted a little, not wanting to tell the truth, but not good at lying, either. “Aspirin,” he finally said, “I woke up with a little headache and it was coming back, so I figured I’d head it off before it got bad. I’m fine, I have so slept this year, and I’m quite sure you’re exaggerating. Nothing could possibly be as white as those over-bleached excuses for bed sheets.”
“Usually,” Kyo agreed absently. He chewed thoughtfully on the pen for a second before his eyes lit up and the pen went racing down the paper, “‘Cept you, right now. Why you gettin’ your coat?”
“Well, I was planning on shoving you off the couch and using it as a pillow so I could get a little sleep before we start practicing again, since I haven’t slept in a year,” Shinya rolled his eyes, taking said coat off its hook.
“You do that ...”
Kaoru chuckled low in his throat and smiled at Shinya over the short vocalist’s head. It was a smile tinged with concern, and Shinya felt a fuzzy sensation in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with his headache. He assumed it was because of the attention he was getting, something he was relatively unused to – usually any attention paid to him was in the form of Die’s teasing, then one of the others getting annoyed by it themselves and telling him to shut up.
“I’m gonna go get food; either of you want me to get something?” Kaoru asked, coming to stand near Shinya as he retrieved his own coat. He brushed against Shinya’s hand with his own as he did so, and threaded their fingers loosely, as Toshiya might have done when play-flirting. Only this was Kaoru, and Kaoru didn’t play-flirt. As far as Shinya knew, he didn’t flirt at all, so he was probably just being friendly.
“N–no, thanks. I’m not really hungry,” the drummer said quietly. He made no move to untwine their fingers until Kaoru wanted to.
“Uwa! But Shinya-kun is so skinny!” the pink haired guitarist grinned and poked Shinya in the side. The drummer squirmed a bit, uncomfortably, but gave Kaoru a tiny smile in return. The older man released him and threw on his coat as he headed for the door. “I’m gonna get you something anyway, Shinya, and I’ll make you eat it!” he called over his shoulder, then was gone.
“He will, too,” Kyo said vaguely from his couch.
Shinya looked back and stuck his tongue out at the vocalist’s head. Kyo, still bent over his notebook and unable to see, did not respond. The drummer sighed and walked over to the couch, idly pondering the best way to position himself so he could sleep without getting too stiff. When he was close enough, Kyo’s hand shot out and snatched Shiyna’s coat from the younger man’s hands.
“O–oi!”
“Urusai,” Kyo said quickly, before Shinya could get any more protests out, and arranged the coat in his lap. He barely glanced up as he shifted position to use the arm of the couch to lean on, rather than his legs. “Now lie down and go to sleep.”
“Y–you mean on ... you?”
“That’s why the coat’s in my lap, baka. You’ll be more comfortable if you can fit all your body onto the couch, and I’m not moving. So lie down and sleep.”
“O ... okay,” Shinya blinked, partially from Kyo’s bluntness and partially from shock that he was being allowed to use Kyo for a pillow. Usually it was the other way around. Then there was the added fact that he was being allowed near Kyo’s precious notebook while Kyo was writing in it. Anyone else would likely have had their heads bitten off should they even have asked, which no one was stupid enough to do by now. Slowly, unsurely, Shinya sat next to Kyo and lowered his upper body until his head was resting on his coat and his legs were only slightly curled to fit on the couch. His right hand curled under his head, his left dangled over the side of the couch.
“Warm ... ” he breathed when he was settled, and closed his eyes, headache already fading to that dull pounding that could easily be forgotten. Kyo’s breathing, slow and rhythmic against Shinya’s back, was soothing, and steady heartbeats quickly lulled the drummer to sleep despite the initial discomfort and uncertainty. His breathing evened out and his body went limp against Kyo’s.
“Shinya?” the vocalist whispered. No movement, no sound, “Shin-chan?” Nothing. Kyo smiled. Good. He put away his notebook, having finished what he was writing moments before Shinya had laid down in his lap, and studied the profile of the sleeping drummer. Shinya’s eyes were closed, long lashes creating perfect dark arcs against his pale skin. His face was relaxed, free of the slightly pained expression he’d been wearing all morning. “Just a headache, huh?” Kyo asked the sleeping man, “Liar.” His hand slid into Shinya’s hair, winding the fine strands around his fingers, reveling in the softness of it. The blonde leaned his elbow on the couch arm and rested his head on it, the other still playing gently with Shinya’s hair, and dozed off.
“I’m ba – ” Kaoru barged into the studio and stopped abruptly. He blinked, doing a very good impression of an owl, then stopped and smiled gently, having assured himself that he wasn’t seeing things. “Of all the times for me not to have a camera,” he muttered as he walked over to the coffee table and placed the lunch bags down. After all, it wasn’t every day that one caught not Kyo, but Shinya sleeping during a lunch break. And it was even rarer (and Kaoru was certain that this was the first and last time he’d ever see such a thing) that Shinya was caught sleeping in the lap of Kyo. A stab of jealousy seared through him, but he quickly beat it down.
Baka! There’s nothing to be jealous of!
Even so, the guitarist tossed his coat onto its hook and made his way to Kyo, intent on waking the blonde. He poked Kyo’s forehead twice, none too gently, and was immediately rewarded by a faint scrunching of the shorter man’s eyebrows. Brown eyes opened and focused blearily on Kaoru.
“Ka–kaoru?” Kyo yawned, bringing up a hand to cover it quickly, “Back already?”
Kaoru nodded affirmative and jerked his head at the table. “Got lunch. Hungry?” he murmured.
For a fleeting second, Kyo looked slightly confused – why would Kaoru be murmuring as if he had a hangover? Then the weight of Shinya as the drummer shifted slightly in his sleep brought memory back – the vocalist looked down and saw that his fingers were still entwined in Shinya’s hair. He looked back up at Kaoru with a little half-smile, “Yeah, sure. What you got?” and gently extracted the offending digits, which Kaoru appeared to be studying intently, from the soft hair.
“The usual.”
Kyo groaned even as Kaoru began snickering. “Again? Kaoru, you’ve forced that down my throat twice this month – I refuse to eat it again!”
“And I’m sure Shinya would be very proud of you, too. Eat or starve, Kyo. Your choice.”
“I could always get my own food.”
“And leave your precious burden?” Kaoru batted his eyelashes mockingly at the vocalist.
Kyo smirked and returned his fingers to Shinya’s soft hair, “You’re just jealous.”
“Of whom? You or Shinya?” the guitarist asked haughtily, tossing his head and returning to the table to get the bags of food, “I hardly think so.”
“You hardly think, period,” Kyo snickered.
“That was unnecessary, Kyo-chan,” Kaoru said sweetly, happily ignoring Kyo’s growl, “I may let you starve anyway for that.”
“Better starvation than that McDonald’s.”
“If you say so.”
“Shinya would agree with me.”
“‘Bout wha’?” yawned the formerly sleeping drummer.
Kyo and Kaoru looked at each other, a slight guilt in their eyes at forgetting to keep their voices down. Forgetting that Shinya was asleep. Kyo frowned inwardly, they all seemed to do an awful lot of forgetting when it came to the youngest member – and it didn’t help that he was so quiet about it. Shinya never complained, it wasn’t in his nature, he never got angry at them for it, and he never demanded that they change. Hell, Shinya didn’t even complain about Die’s teasing most of the time, even when it got particularly hurtful.
“Ne? Kaoru-kun? Kyo-kun? What would I agree with?” Shinya asked again, more awake this time. He made no move to get up from Kyo’s lap. The vocalist wasn’t sure if he should take it as a sign or leave it at Shinya being very tired. He shook himself mentally, realizing that the drummer was staring at him, waiting for an answer.
“That McDonald’s is worse than starvation,” Kaoru said lightly, unwrapping a cheese-burger and waving it at the other two.
Shinya immediately wrinkled his nose and brought his coat to cover all of his face except his eyes. Kyo and Kaoru laughed, and the vocalist grinned triumphantly, “Told you.”
NOTES
[1] This line was shamelessly stolen from Harrison Ford's character from that movie he and Josh Hartnett were in.