(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Part 50

"Kiryuuu! It's so good to see you after so long!," a younger woman appeared from down the hall and threw her arms around Kiryu's neck. It was an extremely extravagant greeting, a stark contrast to the reactions of nearly every other person they saw on the way into town. She yapped away as she showed the boys to their rooms, leaving it up to them to figure out how to split themselves between the rooms. The usual crew for class one took one of the rooms, with the addition of Anzai and Tsugeura joining them. The others headed out, with an upperclassman as chaperone while they all went for food or other shopping. Aoi stayed behind, curled into himself against the wall of the room.

"Not going out?," Suo sat next to him, making sure not to set the boy off all over again. He had been pretty good at doing that recently.

"Tired," was all Aoi said in response. Suo worried that he somehow had pressed a button somewhere, but let that worry out with a long exhale as Aoi leaned into his side. Suo felt relieved that he was initiating contact without any big reaction, but was now drowning in his own whirling emotions about it.

Their relationship had been a mess from the start, blurring lines and boundaries all over the place. But now, with them both being on the same page at least, things were suddenly very awkward. A constant back and forth between being completely open with their feelings, and battling impulses that made them clam up hard to overcompensate. Suo lost one of those little battles just now, reaching up and brushing Aoi's bangs behind his ear. Fingering the string of his mask, wanting to remove it but not trusting in his own willpower if he did so. Not here, while they were all alone in an unfamiliar place. Just out of sight, out of earshot, of anyone who might interrupt their quiet little moment.

"Sorry. I really am tired," Aoi startled him out of his thoughts, taking the mask off himself and letting it fall into his lap. Suo pulled his hand back, placing the other over Aoi's beside him instead.

"Been working a lot?," he knew the answer, but asked anyway for the sake of conversation. Aoi turned his hand so his palm was facing upward, lacing his fingers between Suo's.

"Mhm," Aoi nodded, adjusting his position a little bit. He was torn between wanting to lay down, and wanting to enjoy this little moment while he could. He felt like his answer was a little too short, so he took a deep breath and continued.

"A few of Kanji's guys are filling in while we're all out. They had to adjust their schedules, so I've been covering a few more shifts at Ougi," Aoi yawned, the last part of what he said a little hard to make out through that.

"Tsubaki said they found out your secret," Suo stated more than he was asking about it. Aoi groaned at that, still unsure what to make of it. Kanji was initially pretty weird, but quickly slipped back to normal. No one else seemed too bothered, if they figured it out at all. Suzuri, already aware of it to some extent, still fumbled a little bit here and there but was really trying.

"Now that I think about it, you work pretty much all the time. Saving up for something?," Suo was genuinely curious about that. As far as he or anyone else knew, Aoi wasn't really paying for living expenses. Not fully, at the very least. Aoi murmured something he couldn't make out, then shifted again. Struggling to get fully comfortable there, the obvious internal conflict was somewhat cute to Suo.

"Do you want to lay down?," he asked, getting only a furrowed brow as answer. Suo smiled to himself, pulling himself away and searching the closet. The inn wasn't the type with beds, so they must have had futons tucked away somewhere for guests to roll out when they wanted to sleep. Sure enough, he found some on the shelves there and pulled one out. He rolled it out, toward the opposite corner of the room under the window. Then he made his way back over to Aoi, who had dozed off there against the wall.

"Mrrph?"

Aoi made a funny sound as he was pulled to his feet and guided, stumbling, over to the laid out futon mattress and eased onto it. Suo tried to pull the blanket over him and do his own thing, but a small tanned hand clung to his shirt and held him there. He broke out of the weak grip easily enough, but Aoi refused to lay back down after that. It was time for another one of Aoi's clingy moments, something that Suo found both endearing and a little bit frustrating at times. He sighed, deciding to run with it for now if it meant his partner finally got some proper rest. He removed his eyepatch and adjusted his hair so that the one eye was covered by that, and removed his earrings before sliding under the blanket with Aoi. Pulling him in close, curled up into Suo's side.

"Sleeping on a couch is...terrible..for the back," Aoi mumbled out. An extremely delayed answer to Suo's question about his finances. Then his breathing finally steadied, and he was out like a light. Suo shifted a little bit, running his fingers through Aoi's hair until he too drifted off.

The others returned just a little bit later, with mixed reactions at the sight that greeted them. Suo was asleep like a log, neat and tidy on one side of the only rolled out futon. Aoi was sprawled wildly next to him, mostly on the floor with arms and legs thrown wide. One leg draped over Suo's, the other sticking out from under the blanket with his shorts still clinging on there by his ankle. His shirt was all over the place, twisted and rolled up from whatever tumultuous movements had caused him to end up like that. His hair was in no better state, half-strangling the two of them where it had broken free from the thin hair tie that was nowhere to be found. He was snoring softly, and looked peaceful for the first time that day, so the others just left him be and tried to set up their own futons to give him a wide berth. None wanting to get caught in his slumbering skirmish.