Some weeks ago, Nagihiko had believed Kukai's room to be one of the more tranquil places he'd visited.
Last night and now, though he's still mostly asleep, he's discovered it wasn't just a one time thing. Listening to the white noise of traffic, the noises in the apartment above and below, all oddly lend to a peaceful level of almost zen.
He stretches against the sleeping boy beside him, settling further on his chest, and idly drawing his nails against skin.
It's a nice, drowsy morning, and he figures he can bask in it for awhile, at least.
Kukai hadn't had much troubles about the sleepover. His brother Kaido was the only one awake as they came in, and he'd called ahead, so it wasn't much of a big deal. Kukai did however have to explain why he smelled like a girl's perfume, which had been explained away as a lucky flirt.
Kukai had insisted for the night that while Nagihiko could sleep under the covers he'd better sleep on top of them in shirt and shorts, for propriety's sake. This turned out to be a fair idea because as soon as they'd laid down Nagi had ended up on his chest, covering him with half the blankets anyway.
It was the best rest he'd gotten in weeks.
He wonders what it must have been like for Kukai when he'd left him for tea with Aunty while he packed and cleaned his face. Aunty was a smart woman, and though Nagi hadn't ever come out and said it, there was more than a good chance the older woman figured something about what's been going on with context clues alone.
It couldn't be helped, really. Nagihiko wasn't really in the mood for Kukai to see the...less than pristine condition his room was in. (Fortunately all electronics had been removed before they could be destroyed.)
One duffel later, and he was rescuing Kukai from whatever interrogating gaze Aunty was sending his way.
At Kukai's, Nagihiko 'helped' explain away the perfume. A pretty girl, she was. Almost as pretty as him, obligatory hair flip.
At first, he thought to protest the covers situation. But, propriety is what it is, and far be it for him to go against it now.
Besides. He made sure Kukai was warm enough.
Another sigh and another stretch, and he ends by propping himself up on an elbow. Is it creepy to watch someone sleep?
Maybe. But Kukai looks the fifteen he really is instead of the battle weary soldier he's been forced to be.
Kukai had spent most of the time at tea trying to avoid Aunty's searching eyes, actually. He had no proper explanation for why he smelled very much like Nadeshiko had, and so it had been a very tense several minutes until they went out the door again. He never mentioned it to Nagi, though.
What he had mentioned was the large, raw slash along his side he'd been protecting all night - the result of not dodging a giant sharpened crystal spear fast enough earlier that day. Now, at least, it had mostly healed due to sleep and magic, even though it was still pink and fresh looking.
He was still sound asleep at this point, though. Maybe Aunty had feed him some of her sleeping tea anyway...
As fun as watching a sleeping face is, and oddly enough that wasn't sarcastic, Nagihiko isn't one that can sit still for long, at least not when tea isn't being served.
So he takes the opportunity to take a closer look at the gash on Kukai's side. It looks better than it had, to be sure, but he still winces in sympathy at the sight of it.
He's glad that one of the things he brought is a salve. It wouldn't heal it, of course, only time and their nature would do that. But until then, at least some of the ache would be gone.
Now he was fully awake. Once fully awake, it's very hard to fall back asleep.
An awake Nagihiko with imminent boredom on the horizon is a dangerous thing.
He shifts and moves and, careful of the healing gash, has knees on either side of Kukai as he leans and hovers. Hair falls down around them both.
"You're sleeping. The sky is awake and you're sleeping. If you're still sleeping soon, I may run through your apartment all naked. Or something." He considers that. "Yeah, that was an empty threat."
There's something heavy on top of him. What the hell. And it's so bright. What's going on? Words. Words words. He knows that voice. "Run through your apartment naked."
Kukai's eyes snap open. For a moment he looks lost, surprised, but then refocuses, staring up at Nagihiko. "...What was an empty threat?"
All things considered, despite being groggy enough to still be in boot mode, it's not a bad way to wake up, what with the sun shining through purple hair and a smiling face looking down at you.
"Running through your apartment naked." Pleased that his target is awake, he settles in and props himself up on an elbow, cheek resting in his hand. "Also, I figured it would just be cruel, subjecting your brothers to such beauty so early in the morning."
He gives a sigh, and his tone is teasing just enough to make what he said not be narcissistic. Well, too much.
Hey, the boy knows he's pretty.
"I brought some salve if you want to use it. I could do it for you. I have gentle fingers."
Kukai sighs. "You'd give Kaido a headache, Unkai a laugh, Shusui a data point, and Rento a massive nosebleed." He grins. "I'm the only one properly capable of putting up with you this early."
He huhs, then rubs his side. "... It'll be ok in a few days, if you don't wanna use it. But I wouldn't say no." He lies back and smiles, then blinks as he properly aligns Nagihiko in space, relative to himself. He may be redder than usual, especially this early in the morning.
Nagihiko laughs, though its quiet in case anyone's still asleep. Years of waking up early for dance practice has made it almost impossible to sleep past eight in the morning, even when no school is going on. (This doesn't stop the naps, though!) "Well, I wouldn't want to cause such chaos. Not yet, anyway. I'm pretty sure Kaido actually smiled at me. That or it was gas. Either way, progress."
For once, Nagihiko isn't red. He's found a comfortable perch to sun on, and Kukai's just lucky he's resisting the urge to roll around.
Kukai Souma is used to waking up for school and then sleeping late on the weekends. This seems to be extending to spring break. "Like this place isn't chaotic enough." He laughs, sort of hard, at that 'gas' comment, and then ows, grinning and wincing again. "Aaah. Don't do that..."
He eyes Nagihiko for a moment, then smiles. "y'know, I never really noticed, but you never spent much time in the sun, did you?" Kukai, of course, is fairly well tanned - you run around like a madman all day outside and you trend towards brown.
"Oops. Sorry." His grin isn't very apologetic!
He hums and shrugs. "A sunburned dancer isn't exactly appealing to many people, and I learned early on I don't tan well. Plus, pale is beautiful." He rolls his eyes a little at this. He's like to roll around in the sun and have someone slather aloe on him after, thankyouverymuch. "The make-up I use usually has an SPF, and when I go out like this I use something like...SPF one-thousand? SPF a billion? Something like that." As he speaks, he draws his pale-ass fingers down Kukai's much darker cheek.
Then he rolls off Kukai and the bed, still careful not to jostle healing booboos and such. He roots around his duffel bag before finding what he's looking for. "Ah, victory!"
He places a good amount in his palm before cupping his fingers closed around it, warming it up.
Nagihiko sits on the edge of the bed. "Okay, shirt up." He takes a delicate sniff of the salve. "It doesn't really stink. Aunty puts in herbs and such to try and temper the medicinal smell. But it works nice on cuts and even muscles. I've given Mother more than one shoulder rub with this stuff."
Kukai sighs. "See what I have to put up with?" He smiles, then nods. "Beautiful is beautiful. But yeah, I guess it has a lot to do with what people expect of you. And hey, everybody's on about skin cancer - I don't think that's something we gotta worry about, but you never know." He blushes at those fingers, still not sure this isn't all a great dream in some ways.
Kukai peers over, looking into that duffel bag out of curiousity - he is not nosy, nope - before leaning back, sitting up against the headboard. "Hey, if it smells bad, that's how you know it's medicine, right? At least that's what Unkai always said."
He watches the salve in Nagi's hand cautiously, pulling his shirt up enough to expose the still-healing slash. "I wish we'd caught the guy who did this the other night. He ran off, but Joy gave me the card or whatever the monster came out of." He wrinkles his nose. "I wrapped it in a pair of socks and threw it in the closet when we got home. I think it had dark magic residue on it but I'm pretty sure it's outta fuel. As long as there aren't any more giant rock youma girls for him to throw around."
Nagihiko shrugs, and it's a bit coy, a bit demure, and a lot brat. "So doomed."
The duffel bag isn't too exciting on the inside. Clothes, perhaps a better quality than they ought to be, but he has far fewer clothes in his Nagihiko closet than he does in his Nadeshiko wardrobe. A few essentials, travel shampoo and such. An assortment of other things.
Comfortable on the bed, his only response to the medicinal smell is a grin.
Once he's satisfied the salve is warm, he carefully begins to apply it along the cut. His brows furrow together as he clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "You'd think enemies would need breaks, too. Why can't we just have an unofficial week off, everyone? Then both sides can get healed up and rested and ready to kick each other's asses again. Does this hurt?"
Kukai Souma is desperately curious about the other things in the bag but knows it's not good manners to go picking through other people's things. He sits back up and then grins back at Nagihiko, then leans back, keeping his shirt pulled up.
He makes a small noise as it's rubbed over, then sighs. "That's the thing. They've been on break for a long time. Nobody attacks or goes hunting or whatever when they don't need to. They're all at the peak of their readiness and looking for a meal or whatever. It's been their week or month or year off. There's just enough of them to where they keep showing up without giving us time to rest and argue and cuddle and have parties."
He nods a little but then grins. "Well... kinda. The touching aches, but the salve seems to be helping numb the pain. Thank you." He reaches over with his free hand, resting it on Nagihiko's shoulder, squeezing it gently. It's about now he looks over at his phone for a moment to see a notification blinking on it - someone's sent him a text. "Oh. Oh, hey, Nagi, can you reach my phone for me?"
He sighs. "So they were all waiting for that whole mess with the Dark Kingdom to be resolved?" He hums in thought. "I wonder if it's like when a lion is away from its usual territory, the smaller predators come out." He shrugs. "Either way, I think I should really be trying to help out more. Especially now that I can."
His grin is impish as he looks at Kukai through thick lashes. "Well, the good thing about cuddles is you can always make time for it. Even if its in small doses, you can still stay at the recommended Cuddle Level."
He winces a bit in apology as his fingers grow lighter against Kukai's side, even more gentle than they had been. "Gotta get it worked it, otherwise it won't be as effective."
Then there's a shoulder squeeze, and before he can get too fuzzy over it, he's arching a brow at the request.
"Sure."
He stands up and stretches, more to make Kukai wait than anything. He picks up the phone and hands it over.
Kukai nods, then grins. "Why yes I'd love to drop Yamato Maihime into combat from off my board, and thank you for asking. Air mail naginatas. I'm with it."
He grins back at Nagihiko and nods. "Cuddling is best done as often as possible, yeah." There's a slow, drawn in breath as Kukai steels himself against the ache of the rubbing, which slowly fades away as the salve is worked into the skin. "Whoof..."
Kukai isn't watching Nagihiko stretch or anything, nope. Not lost time at all, and he'd argue with anyone who said it was. He takes the phone in one hand, the other moving in to curl around Nagi and work on his daily recommended cuddles, flipping through to the texts... and then with a bit of vulgarity tosses it aside onto the bed. "Mass mailing scam artists! I didn't even think they could -get- a Virtue number!"
He leans back against the headboard, closing his eyes. "C'mon, Tadase, wake up, for Heaven's sake." He grumps and then looks at Nagihiko, shrugging. "Perogative of the King, I guess. He gets to stay in bed as long as he wants while the rest of us wait on him." That brings a thought to mind, which he can't help grinning over and looking at Nagihiko with a cheerful, trolly grin on his face. "So what's the Queen's Perogative?"
And he's curled against Kukai, more sitting up than anything else, legs curled almost beneath him. He watches Kukai's reactions with amusement. "A long lost relative in Siberia died and they need you to give your information for an inheritance?"
"We should be considerate of the King. He's a horrible morning person. I'm not sure he's actually awake by lunch time." Trolly is definitely something Nagihiko can return. His grin is certainly sly and devious as his fingers sift through Kukai's hair. "Oh, you know. Adoration. Attention. If I'm not properly adored at least once a day, I go from Benevolent Queen to 'off with his head!'"
Kukai snorts. "More like 'you are the twentieth winner of an iDroid, tap on this obviously infected picture to recieve it!'" He pushes the phone further away with a snort.
He shakes his head and grins. "Oh, I know what Tadase is like in the morning. 'Growl, snorf, raugh, tea, food, outta my way.'" He mimics Tadase's voice and grins. "I mean, I'm not much better when I'm sleepy and resting good."
And then there's a sly grin in front of him and fingers in his hair, leading him to a smile. "Oh. Attention and adoration, huh?" He reaches out, wrapping his arms around Nagihiko's middle. "Well, I suppose I can sacrifice myself to protect the innocent people of your realm." Then he's a little busy to talk.
Nagihiko snorts. "I wonder if that's a new Evil Genius Ploy/ Infect all our phones to Rick Roll us until finally we throw them all in the harbor."
He clicks his tongue. "You forgot 'Amu cuddles wait what.' Though understandable, that seems to be a recent addition."
He bites back a grin. "You will be known throughout history as the greatest martyr of all time."
Some moments later, with his fingers still curled around Kukai's jaw, he leans his forhead against the other boy's, a soft sigh as his eyes slide closed. "I've missed you."
It's as quiet as the last time he'd said it, some weeks ago, but this time he doesn't try to kiss them away.
Kukai laughs. "Well kinda recent yeah but I'm glad for it. It's good for him." He tries to grin more, but then he's somewhat distracted, and rather busy.
He leans in and hums, feeling that spark, bright and warm, kindled between them. "I missed you too Na-kun."