Friends With Benefits | Chishiya x Reader

Chapter Ten

☆ In which you drink what seems to be death in a cup, only boiled with added sugar. ☆

When you wake, a single tear slips down your cheek.

You raise a hand to your face in surprise, and touch the trail it left under your eye. The rings on your fingers glimmer in the morning light. 

"You're awake, honey!" Kuina grins from next to your bed, one leg swung over the other as she perches in one of your chairs. She doesn't seem to have noticed the tear, somehow. Her smile is radiant and you find yourself smiling back, reaching for her hands. "I would've gotten you something to drink, but the instant coffee they serve here is absolutely horrendous," she confesses. "I would give my left arm for some of that biscotti they serve in those foreign cafes." 

"Good morning to you too, Kuina," you laugh. "I'm glad you made it back safely yesterday." 

"Of course! It was another Clubs game," she made a face, "and I met the most awful guy at the phone table. Said his name was Yuta, and he kept waving his watch in my face. Apparently it was a vintage item from an American store and he bought it for six thousand dollars. It was the ugliest watch I'd ever seen!" Kuina admonishes and you snort. You're grateful for Kuina's endless conversation and how she never asks once about the rings on your fingers, even as she grasps your hand tightly. 

"His face wasn't much of a marvel either, now that I think about it," she comments. "I'm surprised I made it through the game without strangling him. Do you know what he kept calling me? He called me babes. Someone's throat has never looked more enticing. Anyway, honey, how about breakfast?" She ends her rant with a huff and replaces it with one of her specialty dazzling grins. "I do believe I deserve something to eat, after sitting here and watching you sleep for hours on end." 

"Alright, babes," you say wryly. Kuina opens her mouth in indignation and you laugh. "I'm hungry too. Give me a second to wash up." 

You and Kuina sip the instant coffee provided by the Beach, and you marvel at how terrible it is. You try to recall, with amazement, when the last time was that you drank something so awful. 

"I did tell you," Kuina says, grimacing at her own steaming cup. She strews an endless amount of empty sugar packets into the bin as you walk, the sugar having done nothing to improve the taste of the coffee whatsoever. 

"And yet here we are, with you drinking it too," you retort. She gives you a light-hearted push and you yelp. "Watch the coffee!" you giggle. She laughs back, and then her attention is captured by something in the distance. You follow her gaze; a white hood. Her face lights up with the unmistakable expression of someone who is about to thoroughly harass another. 

In three quick strides, she has caught up to her target. 

"Look who it is!" Kuina booms. She jams a hand on Chishiya's shoulder and he gives the two of you a look of mild irritation. "Care to try our coffee?" 

The blonde looks at the cup in her hand with obvious distaste, his reflection wobbling in the murky liquid. "I'd rather live to see another day, thanks." 

"My dear friend," you add in with a grin, "you have not yet lived a day properly without having drank this abomination of instant coffee."

"You would do well to not force coffee on the person who treated your arm," he replies, the smirk dancing across his lips like always. 

"Wipe that smirk off your face," you tell him. "And drink this accursed liquid. Friends share everything, you know. One's misery is all's misery."

"That is exactly correct," Kuina says, and Chishiya makes his swift exit when the two of you begin to jostle your cups near his face.