Of bratty demons and mushroom heads

CHAPTER 32

Akaya had been acting strange for the last couple of days. He’d been mopey and quiet, which for chibi demon brats was very, very wrong. To make matters worse, Hiyoshi hadn’t been able to confront him on it. Akaya was very good at avoiding things he didn’t want to talk about. Hiyoshi knew Akaya wasn’t sleeping well, if much at all. There had been a few times in the last couple of days he’d woken up in the middle of the night to an empty bed, it took Hiyoshi literally wrapping himself around the brat and verbally assuring him that he loved him for the brat to fall back asleep.

On the good side of things, Choutarou was back for a visit after leaving for studying abroad in Venice for the last four months. The last couple few days had given them time to catch up. It’d been nice to see his best friend again.

Atobe, being Atobe, had organized a dinner get together for a few people. A few being anyone who wanted to show up. Shishido came for the visit to see Choutarou, and even Sanada had showed up for some reason. Hiyoshi had never liked Shishido; they had never hit it off well. However, everything had been fine; he could even say he enjoyed himself, up until the after party at the bar.

Hiyoshi was now convinced he was cursed when it came to bars. He couldn’t remember anything after dinner except for a few blurry images that didn’t make any sense to his brain. Apparently, he’d taken Sanada’s alcoholic beverage by mistake which was much stronger than anything he’d ever drunk before. Akaya told him it hadn’t been that bad. They’d danced, and something about making snide remarks about the people singing, and that was it. Nevertheless, due to Akaya’s behavior, he was starting to get the feeling that something else had happened that Akaya wasn’t telling him. Choutarou had gotten a little mad at him for apparently yelling at Shishido while he’d been drunk, but he could live with that.

Ready to get to the bottom of this, Hiyoshi had specifically told Sanada he would not be at Kendo practice today so that he could be home when Akaya got there. Sanada had seemed irritated but must have realized it had something to do with Akaya since he didn’t say anything about it and just nodded his consent. Sitting down on the bed, he read his book while waiting for Akaya to get back from class, determined not to allow this to go on any longer.

Akaya was tired. Physically and emotionally he was drained and he hated it. He hadn't been able to sleep because every time he tried he was plagued with nightmares. It had gotten to the point where the only time he tried to sleep now was when Hiyoshi forced him. But after zoning out in class twice and falling asleep once, only to wake up yelling 'He's mine!' at the top of his lungs, he knew he had to try and get some rest. After he finished his punishment of having to clean the classroom by himself, he trudged back to his room to try and take a nap before tennis practice. He knew his boyfriend was supposed to be in practice with Sanada, so he had a small window to get some rest without worrying about running into the mushroom haired boy.

Opening the door to their room, Akaya dropped his bag before looking at the bed hopefully, only to find his boyfriend laying there. He was tempted to turn around and leave, but he knew the other man would follow him. Damn.

When Akaya walked in a little later than expected looking even more exhausted, Hiyoshi immediately frowned and put his book down. There was definitely no way he could let Akaya avoid him anymore on the subject. He knew he needed to be tactful about this though, or else Akaya might get upset. He cautiously got off the bed and walked over to his lover. “Hey, brat, you’re back a little later than usual aren’t you?”

"I got in trouble in class and had to clean up the classroom...” Akaya mumbled and kissed the other man on the forehead. "I'm gonna take a nap before practice," or at least he was going to try. He was seriously beginning to doubt he would be able to though.

Hiyoshi reached out to hold him in place, not letting Akaya brush him off like that. “Don’t give me that shit. We both know you haven’t been getting any sleep.” He winced at his own words. ‘Oh, great way to be tactful, Hiyoshi,’ he immediately criticize himself. “I think it’s about time you told me why that is exactly.”

Akaya looked away and immediately got defensive. "It's nothing, alright. Leave it alone." He winced mentally at his somewhat harsh tone. Ugh, this was why he didn't want his boyfriend to be there. He got grouchy when he was tired.

Shit. Okay. Time to try that again. Hiyoshi pulled Akaya against him and wrapped his arms around him. “Akaya, I’m worried about you. Please tell me what’s wrong?” Good. That came out a little better, if not a bit more desperate than he personally liked.

The curly haired boy stiffened in his boyfriends arms for a minute, then slowly relaxed and wrapped his arms around Hiyoshi in return before burying his face in the crook of his neck, "I just have stuff on my mind... It's nothing you gotta worry about Wakashi. I'll be alright soon..."

“Too bad. I’m already worried. And whatever you’re thinking about obviously isn’t going away.” Hiyoshi ran his hands up and down Akaya’s back in what he hoped was a soothingly manner, “So do us both a favor and stop being stubborn.” He pulled back and rested his forehead against Akaya’s. “I may not know much about these things, but aren’t you supposed to tell your boyfriend about shit that’s bothering you?”

Akaya turned his eyes away from Hiyoshi’s but didn't try to pull away from him, "Wakashi... I... Please don't. It's not important. I'm just being stupid alright? I'll get over it." He said quietly and finally stepped away. "I just need to lie down for a while..."

Enough was enough. This was getting ridiculous. Akaya was being stupid. Fine. Hiyoshi could do that, too. The minute Akaya was out of his arms, he walked over to Akaya’s ‘happy shelf.’ Grimacing slightly, he grabbed the stupid glass dildo off the shelf and held it above his head. With a completely serious expression he threatened, “Tell me what the fuck is wrong or say goodbye to the glass penis.”

Akaya blinked a couple times, and then his tired eyes, bloodshot in a whole different way than normal, went wide. "O-oi! Put that down! What did it ever do to you?!"

Hiyoshi smirked. “Exist.” Good, he had Akaya’s attention, “And it’s not going anywhere but the floor in many little pieces unless you tell me what’s wrong.”

Fucking blackmail. "You're a dick," he grumbled. Consequently, so was what he was trying to save. Ah, irony. "Fine. You wanna know what's wrong? What's wrong is that the other night, even when you had me sitting on your lap, all you could think about was that stupid tall silver haired guy!" he snapped and looked away. "Not only that, but when we got home and were fooling around, you just stopped in the middle and asked where he was. It made me mad! And it hurt..." He turned his eyes back to Hiyoshi with a glare in them. "Now put it down." He was going to have to get a lock for his closet or something.

Hiyoshi’s eyes widened and he put the glass dildo back on the shelf. He couldn’t believe what Akaya was telling him and didn’t know how to respond. This is what had been bothering him for the last week? It had been his fault… again? He sunk down onto his desk chair and looked down at nothing. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t know why he would do that. It didn’t make sense to him at all, but he didn’t doubt Akaya was telling him the truth.

Akaya sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “It's nothing you have to apologize for, alright? You were drunk… It's not a big deal. I just... Do you like him or something? I don't get it..." He laced his fingers and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

Suddenly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, Hiyoshi didn’t know what to say. Akaya probably deserved the truth. He wasn’t sure how to tell him without perhaps hurting him more, but he wasn’t going to lie to him either. “I liked Ohtori for five years, through high school and part of middle school.” As an afterthought, he added, “It was completely one-sided.”

Oh... That made sense. What did Hiyoshi see in that cutesy naive boy? He frowned a bit. "Did anything ever happen with him?" He couldn't really fault Hiyoshi for loving someone, especially since he'd loved Sanada for just about as long. But when he got drunk, he didn't start talking about him, especially not in the middle of fooling around.

Hiyoshi looked sideways over at Akaya to see how he was taking this, not really wanting to talk about it at all, but supposed he probably should. “Not really,” he sighed and leaned back in the chair, “Only kissed a few times.” It was strange talking to Akaya about this of all people. He’d never talked to anyone about it before.

"Oh..." Akaya suddenly had the urge to rinse his mouth out with mouth wash, but he resisted because he knew he was being stupid. He'd kissed a lot of people before and it didn't seem to bother Wakashi. How could he get mad at his boyfriend for having kissed a guy he cared about? But now was the moment of truth. "Do you still love him?"

The martial artist tensed as he heard the question. Did he still love Choutarou? Not too long before Choutarou had left for Venice, he’d promised him that he would get over him. Had he? He honestly hadn’t even thought about it. He’d been too busy being distracted and getting to know a certain demon brat. It took less than a second for him to reach his conclusion. Getting off the chair, Hiyoshi sat down on the edge of the bed and gave him a lopsided smirk. “I still care about him a lot as a friend, but I got over him a long time ago.” He leaned forward and kissed Akaya’s forehead. “Isn’t it obvious by now who I like?”

Akaya closed his eyes and let out a little sigh. "Yeah… It is." He smiled a little and kissed Hiyoshi lightly. "I'm sorry I worried you," he said gently and laced his fingers with Hiyoshi’s.

Hiyoshi returned the small smile and started to comb his free hand through Akaya’s hair. “Remember the second time you barged into my room after I got home from my parents place? You tried to molest me in my sleep if I remember correctly.”

Closing his eyes, Akaya leaned into that hand in his hair and thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, you look so cute and vulnerable when you're asleep," he laughed a bit and opened his eyes again to look at Hiyoshi properly.

Rolling his eyes, Hiyoshi continued. “I was tired from the weekend with my parents, but I was also upset because I had just finished a long talk with Choutarou. I promised him I would get over him.” He decided to conveniently leave out telling him that was also when they had kissed. “Honestly, it was much easier than I thought it would be to get over him.” He squeezed Akaya’s hand. “I was too busy getting to know a stupid brat who wouldn’t leave me alone to even think about it.”

Akaya smiled and wrapped his arms around Hiyoshi’s neck to hug him tightly. "I love you, Wakashi," he said quietly and took a deep breath. In a matter of seconds his breathing evened out and he went to dead weight as he fell asleep on the other man. The exhaustion had finally caught up to him.

“I love you too, stupid brat.” Hiyoshi answered him softly and continued to run his hand through his boyfriend’s hair. “Next time, just tell me.” He kissed the side of Akaya’s head and tried to get up, but Akaya’s arms were tightly and securely wrapped around him, keeping him in place. He knew nothing, save one of his demon-sempai’s barging into the room and yelling, could wake him up and get him off him. He didn’t want to wake him up anyway. He resigned himself to a late afternoon in bed with a sleeping demon on top of him. Situating the two of them into a more comfortable position, he reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his book, conveniently placed there for times such as these.