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Riki sits at the kitchen counter, completely exhausted, and takes a sip from the glass of milk he has just taken out of the microwave. It's almost boiling, but the heat that runs down his throat, spreading throughout his body, is what the boy needs to feel better. The shower he took just a few minutes earlier, when he arrived at the shared apartment, hasn't quite warmed him up after spending more than half an hour outside in the cold, snowy weather. Now that he's home, with the heater on full blast and starting to warm up, Riki is feeling better, but he's been so cold on the way from the college library that he's not going to stay out late studying outside, especially during the winter, anymore. He should have listened to Harua when he told him to go home together before the buses finished their schedule, but he had been so focused on finishing the subjects he had set himself to study that day because the exams are breathing down his neck, that he had simply told him he would leave later, regardless of the weather forecast and that he had a very long way home without public transport. He's home now, though, and now all he can do is finish warming up and get into bed to try to get at least four or five hours of sleep before he has to get up again to study.
Before he can finish his glass of milk, however, Riki hears footsteps in the silence of the night, coming from the hallway where the rooms of the apartment are located and turns around to discover Harua there, walking towards the kitchen, rubbing his eyes with his hands and walking as if he were a zombie, at a slow and staggering pace. It’s too late for Harua to be awake and Riki doubts that he has made enough noise to wake him up, so something must have disturbed his sleep on that cold and sonwy night.
“Harua” he calls him, in a soft voice, trying not to startle him, but anyway, the boy is startled to hear his voice and removes his hands from his face, opening his eyes really big. “Don't be scared, it's just me,” he said to the boy, in barely a whisper, trying to calm him down. Harua stares at him for a few moments and Riki realizes at that moment how red his eyes and nose are from what he must have been crying, so he opens his arms for him and invites him to come to him. “Come here, Harua,” he asks him.
The boy before him doesn't really seem to believe that Riki is there or that he’s really asking him to come to his arms, but the younger one opens his arms even more to indicate him in that way that he can do it and Harua barely takes a few seconds to cross the distance that separates them and get into the gap that Riki has left between his arms and his legs, holding tightly to his waist with his little hands clinging to the t-shirt that Riki has put on to sleep that night and pressing his face against his chest. Riki wraps his arms around Harua's small and fragile body tightly enough for Harua to notice that he’s there and that he’s hugging him, but trying to control his strenght so as not to hurt him at all because he knows perfectly well that Harua is not strong enough to withstand Riki hugging him with all his strength. He doesn't know what could have caused Harua to wake up in the middle of the night, crying, but at least he’s there to hug him and comfort him as long as he needs it. Riki's embrace seems to be what causes Harua to feel safe enough to let all his feelings out and start crying again, his tears slowly soaking his t-shirt and his thin body trembling in his arms. Riki then moves his right hand to start stroking his head first and then his back, slowly, trying in that way to calm the boy down a little, making him see that he's there and that he's not going to let go as long as he still needs him.
Time passes slowly while both of them are in that way, Riki leaning his back on the kitchen counter while holding Harua's whole body over him, but little by little, the boy in his arms calms down, stopping shaking and crying a little later. Only when he notices how Harua starts to pull away from him, putting only a few centimeters of distance between them, he fumbles with his hand on the counter until he finds the box of tissues and takes out a few to hold out to the boy, who quickly accepts them to wipe his tears and blow his nose. Riki waits patiently for Harua to finish and when he does he picks up the tissues from his hands and tosses them into the trash can at the end of the counter, just a few steps away from them before turning to the boy, giving him a smile.
“Better?” he asks. Harua looks at him with his clear brown eyes for a few seconds before nodding, visibly embarrassed by the scene he just made, although he doesn't really have to feel that way. Riki lovingly fixes his bangs a bit while asking him another question “What happened?”
Harua doesn't even wait until he's finished fixing his hair when he sticks against his body completely again and all Riki can see are his ears, which turn a deep red color. He doesn't seem willing to talk, at least not for the moment, so, Riki puts his arms around him again and waits patiently and without pressuring him to tell him anything because he knows that when Harua feels ready he will end up talking. And no more than a couple of minutes must have passed in that way when the boy's voice begins to be heard in the silence of the night, muffled and almost inaudible because he still has his face pressed against his chest.
“I had... a bad dream... an horrible dream...” is what he murmurs. Riki hugs him a little tighter, just a little, to show him that he's still there and that he's listening and supporting him. “I couldn't... go back to sleep... after it...”
“It's ok, it's ok” Riki answers him in just a whisper, caressing his head again. “It was just a bad dream and now you're here with me, I'll protect you from everything.”
That makes Harua laugh and his body shakes against his, but this time because of the laughter and Riki feels that it is worth it even though he’s actually laughing at him and what he has said. Nevertheless, he has been totally sincere about it. In the last few years, his body has been changing and growing to almost double the size of the boy in his arms, when at one point in the past Harua was even taller than him; so, he knows he can protect him from anything that threatens him in reality and in his dreams he can hold him in his arms as he’s doing in those moments to comfort him and make him stop thinking about anything that worries him. Riki is fully capable of protecting Harua and would do so whenever Harua needed it.
“Don't be silly...” Harua murmurs, giving him a little smack on his chest, with so little force that it's really nothing more than a caress for him and Riki can't help a smile to appear on his face. “Let's go to sleep, it's too late.”
Harua tries to pull away from his body, but the attempt remains just that, an attempt, because Riki doesn’t allow him to leave his arms and instead does something else. The younger one positions his arms better around Harua and gets up from his seat, lifting Harua with him as if the boy weighs no more than a feather —something that more or less comes close to reality because he’s very thin— and makes him wrap his legs around his waist so he can carry him even more easily. On Harua's face he can see the surprise that action has caused him, his eyes widening to the max, and the boy takes quite a while to react. When he finally does, he gives a couple of smacks on Riki's shoulders to make him let go, but the only thing he does is laugh.
“Don't laugh and let me go,” he asks, giving him another smack, trying to make it stronger, but Riki hardly notices it, like the previous ones. “Seriously, let me go.”
“No,” Riki says and shakes his head, “I'll protect you all the way to your room and leave you tucked up in bed, making sure you're all right before I go to sleep.”
Harua presses his lips in a thin line and squints his eyes, frowning, wanting to show him that way that he was angry; but that expression seemed so adorable to Riki that the only thing he can do is to leave a short kiss on his lips, surprising Harua by the action and causing the anger to leave his face, being replaced almost instantly by a small smile. Riki starts walking towards the hallway, turning off the kitchen light with his elbow, and then heading towards Harua's room, which is the farthest room of all, trying to make his steps make as little noise as possible so as not to wake the rest of the occupants of the apartment, who should be sleeping peacefully at that time of the morning. When he reaches the room, he encircles the boy's body with only one of his arms and, with the other, he opens the door carefully so that it doesn’t squeak and then enters the place still carrying Harua.
Riki then goes to the boy's bed, where he sinks one of his knees on the mattress to lean forward, laying Harua with infinite care on the bed until his body finally finishes sliding on its own on the surface. He gives the boy a smile before moving away from him, sitting up and then taking the blankets from Harua's bed to tuck him in as he had promised a few moments before, making a little burrito out of the boy.
“Perfect,” he murmurs. “Good night, Harua.”
After fulfilling his little self-imposed mission, Riki turns to leave Harua's room and go to his own, feeling all the tiredness accumulated in his body after all the hours he has been awake; but before he can get out of there, before he can even take a step, he notices how one of Harua's small hands grabs his wrist, even though his fingers are unable to embrace it completely and Riki is stuck in place.
“Don't go,” he hears the boy say. “Sleep with me tonight if you really want to protect me.”
The last thing he says in just a whisper, as if he is terribly embarrassed to ask him that, and Riki can't help the huge smile that appears on his lips when he turns back to the bed and sees how Harua's whole face is becoming deep red. He feels like teasing him about it, to tease him by asking him to repeat it, but he knows that if the boy gets a little angry over that, he’ll end up not being able to share a bed with him in the end, and the truth is that he likes too much to be able to sleep with Harua in his arms. For that reason, he simply nods to his request.
“I’ll close the door so as not to give Jo a heart attack in the morning and get into bed with you,” he says.
Harua nods and releases his wrist so that Riki can go close the door to his room, something he does quickly and gets back into bed in just a couple of strides, climbing onto the mattress immediately after and getting under the covers along with the boy, unable to wipe away the wide grin that has settled on his face. Harua turns to him and Riki opens his arms so that he can cling to his body, which he does in just a few seconds, repositioning both of them on the bed and in each other's arms until they find a comfortable position so they can sleep for the rest of the night. When they are finally completely at ease, Riki takes advantage of his slightly higher position to give Harua a kiss on his forehead and, in response, Harua gives him one on his neck, causing a shiver to run through his whole body.
"Good night, Riki,” the boy murmurs.
“Good night, Harua,” he replies.
Riki closes his eyes and lets the sound of the quick beating of his heart accompany Harua's, listening how outside the snow doesn't stop falling incessantly, painting the city of a white color that the next morning he’s sure will give it a beautiful view, almost as beautiful as the delicate boy he has in his arms.