The room spun erratically, flashing strobe lights bled into a hazy rainbow of flickering colours as the deep throbbing beat of the room electrified the air. Sweat and alcohol soaked the thickening stale nightclub air with a toxic mix of sweet and bitter scents that drugged the mind and turned the stomach.

Caught between the writhing and fitting bodies around him as they lost themselves in the ecstasy-laced rhythm of club music, a disorientated blonde figure flailed helplessly. Grasping desperately at stranger’s shoulders, he tried to fight a losing battle against the motion of the crowd. He had to get home. He had—

~’~’~

With an agonised groan a blonde woke stiff and in pain. His head felt heavy, his thoughts sluggish and dull as he rolled onto his side. He could feel his stomach turn with a languid twist as he moved. Hugging his midriff childishly he whimpered pathetically at the sickening burn in his abdomen.

What did he drink last night?

Acid maybe, it sure felt like the lining of his stomach had been melted away by the lethal mix of cocktails and spirits he’d downed the night before.

Pulling himself from his bed he gripped the head board as he waited for the room to stop spinning. When the world slowed down he made a break for the adjoining bathroom. He could feel the bile bubble up the back of his throat as he stumbled blindly across the room.

Tripping over his feet the blonde propped himself over the bowl as his stomach tumbled out his throat.

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead he could feel the back of his hand tremble as it weakly slipped from his face. The ashy after burn of staccato beats hardened in his muscles, making them ache as he braced himself against the vanity.

‘What the hell did you do to me?’

‘What do you mean?’ a teasing lilt s its way into the other’s coy inflection as they spoke.

The blonde looked up into the mirror that hung over the sink, opening his eyes properly he tried his best to focus on the shape of the second blonde in the reflection. The other smiled knowingly as he looked back at his accuser; a dangerous expression from one such as him. It was a look that said contrary to his words, he knew full well what the shaking blonde was asking.

‘You know—’ the blonde paused, trying to ignore the violent throws of his insides as he spoke. ‘what I mean.’

‘I just did you a favour that’s al—’

‘Reita.’ The blonde bit out the name sharply, cutting the other off. He was not in the mood for the manipulative blonde’s games. He needed answers now.

‘You’re no fun you know that.’ Reita shifted his shoulders and adjusted the angle of his head indignantly. He didn’t like being cut off. ‘You should be thanking me for what I did.’

‘Thanking yo—‘

The smirk returned to Reita’s face at the flash of panic in the blonde’s eyes. Watching the other for a moment he revelled in the nervousness and fear that creased the blonde’s features before he stepped away from the door away with his mischievous smile tugging at the corner of his lips, revealing a figure lying in the hung-over blonde’s bed.

It took a moment for the blonde to notice the figure, but when he did his blood ran cold as he realised what had happened; what Reita had made him do.

‘you didn’t’ he murmured disbelievingly. This had to be a dream, no a horrible nightmare. He wouldn’t; couldn’t have.

‘didn’t what?’ Reita asked coyly, stepping back as he watched the emotions play across the other blonde’s face.

The figure sighed softly shifting restlessly on their side, rolling onto their back before settling again. The blonde could feel all the blood retreat from his limbs and pool in the soles of his feet. Even with their back turned there had been no denying who it was asleep in his bed. If the distinctive birth mark that rested just beneath the other’s right shoulder blade visible through a mess of long black hair hadn’t been proof enough then the sleeping face he was watching right now was the nail in the coffin.

Stepping forward gingerly in disbelief the blonde reached out, gently brushing the hair from the other’s face, stirring up the faint sweetness of ylang ylang shampoo. It was soft to the touch just like the blonde had imagined it would be and a part of him wanted to touch more of it. To reach out and take it all in his hands and card it through his fingers. But that couldn’t happen, shouldn’t happen because the raven wasn’t like that. He was meant to be unattainable, made to be admired from the safe distance that friendship had awarded them.

For that reason the blonde wished that the other had just vanished when he touched him, and that the man in his bed was nothing more than a delusion. But that hope died when the raven haired man opened his eye’s sleepily. The knots in the base of the blonde’s stomach told him that whatever Reita had done it had changed things.

‘Yu—’ the word caught in the blonde’s throat as the raven drew his eyebrows together in confusion. An uneasy tension tightened Yuu’s jaw as he looked up at the blonde. He made to speak but paused as he noticed his surroundings. Stiffening awkwardly when he realised, the confused crease between his eyebrows disappeared, replaced with a distinct look of disbelief and disgust as he glared back at the blonde.

‘Akira, what happened last night?’             

Somewhere in the background Reita laughed.