Psync by Zile Elliven

Chapter Twenty-Six

Eli

Eli had a Problem.

Scratch that. He had multiple problems, and he needed to start tackling them. And the best way to deal with them was to start at the bottom of the list and work his way up.

Because if he started at the top, he was pretty sure he’d end up screaming into the abyss.

First up, was that he couldn’t go anywhere alone. Initially, it had been comforting having his friends go with him when he needed to be out of his—their—room, but it had been two weeks since the attack, and Eli was getting twitchy. The only alone time he got was in the bathroom, and even then, he had an escort.

Like now. Currently he was taking a shower, but he knew without even needing to look that Haruka was parked in the changing area, playing on his phone. Which made it difficult to take care of certain, ahem, things he tended to do on his own. And it was becoming more pressing as the days went on.

Eli halted his train of thought. He was edging too close to priority one on the top of Eli’s Big List of Problems, and he wasn’t ready to go there yet. He needed to ease his way into it.

Next up was a tricky one—acting normal around other people. You’d think Eli would have mastered that a long time ago, given his endless opportunities to practice, but he’d only ever been able to manage a weak facsimile in the first place. Now he had a weird mental bond with Haruka to throw into the mix.

He was trying to maintain some semblance of personal space between the two of them, but any time he stopped paying attention he found himself acting like Haruka’s own personal human scarf.

At least he didn’t have to worry about not answering unspoken thoughts like Haruka did—not that he seemed to have any problem with it—because after the first couple of days, Eli stopped picking up anything more than the odd snippet of thought or pulse of emotion from time to time.

Eli scrubbed his head in frustration. Wait, had he already shampooed his hair? He’d better do it again, just to be on the safe side.

And they hadn’t even really talked about their connection. Both of them had acted like being stuck together was a done deal. It had seemed so obvious to Eli. He hadn’t given it a second thought. The hollow space inside of him had filled. Now he had Haruka there, and that was all he needed to know.

But he was having second, third, and fourth thoughts now. They should be talking about it, shouldn’t they? But any time Eli brought it up, Haruka’s face got all shifty. He’d either change the subject, or tease Eli until he forgot what they’d been talking about.

He couldn’t let that keep happening.

And then there was Haruka’s fan club.

They were everywhere. Students of all ages camped outside their building in the morning, staking out Haruka’s classes, following him as he walked through the campus—usually at a discreet distance. Usually.

According to Alice, the reason for Haruka’s sudden popularity was a post made by an anonymous person on a college singles forum. The poster claimed to be close friends with Haruka and said that he was lonely, but shy. They posted a picture of him and asked everyone who saw him to introduce themselves.

Alice made another post on the same forum claiming it was a prank, that Haruka was definitely not looking for new friends, and anyone approaching him was doing it at their own risk, but the damage was already done. He now had a loyal following dogging his every step.

Fortunately, at this point, Haruka was well known for having a short temper with anyone who got up in his business, but there was always a brave soul willing to get close and take a chance to shoot their shot. And it was . . . irritating.

Maybe it was because of their connection, but Eli wasn’t a fan of people getting touchy-feely with Haruka. And all of the brave ones were like that. It didn’t feel wrong the way it did when someone touched Eli, but it didn’t feel right either.

Eli was just glad Haruka didn’t seem to like it any more than Eli did. Everyone who came to him was brutally shot down and dismissed. It had become a normal part of their day.

And their days were normal. It was crazy, the idea of Eli having a semblance of normality in his life. But after the first few days, they’d just clicked and everything became smooth—aside from Eli’s list of problems, that is.

Being together was the easiest thing Eli had ever done. Talking with Haruka was as simple as breathing, and not talking was easy too. They could spend hours quietly immersed in their own projects, being alone together.

It was only when going outside that they came across issues.

Haruka defended Eli’s personal space far more vigilantly than Eli did, even to the point of rudeness. Eli was used to allowing small breaches of his defenses as a normal part of daily life. When Haruka was around, it simply didn’t happen.

Like yesterday when one of Eli’s classmates had tried to throw their arms around him from behind, Haruka had straight-up body checked her, knocking the girl to the ground when she bounced off of him.

After dealing with the dirty looks of onlookers and consoling a tearstained girl with scraped palms, Eli wasn’t sure if maybe it would have just been better to have let her glomp him in the first place.

He sighed and scrubbed his arms until they were bright pink.

And then there was the very top of the list of Eli’s Problems. And it seemed to tie in with all of the others in some way or another.

There was a tension between them Eli couldn’t explain. He’d never felt anything like it before. Mornings were . . . intense. Every night, Eli did his best to create a barrier between them before they went to sleep and every single morning, he woke up draped over Haruka like a second skin. And they never talked about it.

Was this normal?

What a ridiculous question. There was no way of knowing what normal was in their situation because, as far as Eli knew, no one had ever dealt with something like this before.

All Eli knew was that there was this pull inside him, growing stronger every day, urging him to get him even closer to Haruka than he already was. Sometimes he thought Haruka felt it too.

There were moments where Haruka stared at him, and Eli was reminded of a small fish being circled by a shark. Instead of being scared, it made him think of the time Haruka had squeezed his wrists together in one hand. It made the shivery sensation in his stomach kick into to overdrive.

Eli’s hands ran down his body as he covered himself in soap. His skin tingled in the wake of his fingers.

Alice had teased him at the beginning of school, intimating that Haruka was into Eli. Wouldn’t he have done something by now if he were? Maybe he was waiting for Eli to do something first—which was not happening.

What if he shot Eli down with the same brutal efficiency he’d used on all the others? That would make their bond go from the best thing in Eli’s life to the worst in the blink of an eye.

No, Eli would continue to be like a quarter of the people on campus and enjoy the phenomenon of Haruka’s grace and beauty from afar.

But not as far as everyone else.

Eli got an up close and personal look every single morning, and the only reason Haruka didn’t know about Numero Uno on Eli’s list was all thanks to a discovery he’d made on the Saturday after the attack.

Eli and Haruka had been sitting back-to-back while working on homework, and Haruka pulled away.

“You’re giving me a headache.”

“Huh?”

“Whatever you’re doing is making my head hurt.”

“Sorry, I’m memorizing Vietnamese verbs, but it’s a little boring, so I’m comparing them to Thai verbs as I go to make it more interesting.”

Haruka had looked at Eli like he was insane. Maybe he was, but he now had a way to keep Haruka out of his head. Anytime Problem Number One showed up, Eli began translating random phrases from one language to another, and Haruka would give him a dirty look and pull away.

Unfortunately, Problem Number One was popping up more often as the days went by. This morning Haruka’s skin seemed to glow in the early morning light when Eli had opened his eyes. He’d been mesmerized as he traced the hard lines of Haruka’s chest with his eyes. The smooth curve of his bicep had been so tantalizing, Eli hadn’t been able to stop himself from reaching out and running his fingers over it.

Eli’s hands gripped the base of his cock, and he squeezed.

He couldn’t keep doing this.

But he also couldn’t seem to make himself stop.

He stroked himself as he imagined Haruka waking up to catch Eli touching him. Fantasy Haruka flipped him over, reversing their position and pressed Eli’s hands down against the bed.

His hand sped up as he imagined Haruka taking both of his hands in one of his, while thrusting against Eli and . . .

Eli came with a choked gasp. Fuck, it didn’t take much to get him there anymore. All he had to do was think about Haruka and he was done. If Haruka ever actually touched him like that he’d probably ruin his pants in a matter of seconds.

And to think he’d actually believed he had no interest in sex. Well, there was no doubt about his sexuality now. He was Haruka-sexual.

And he had no clue if the guy was even into dudes.

“Eli,” Haruka’s voice intruded on his thoughts, and Eli jumped, nearly killing himself on the slick tile as he struggled to stay upright. “Breakfast is going to be over in the caf soon. Hurry up.”

“I’ll be right out,” Eli squeaked, hurrying to clean up the mess he’d just made of himself.

When he finally emerged, he knew his whole body was bright pink with embarrassment but hoped Haruka would think it was because of the steam rather than guessing Eli had been jacking off furiously in the shower.

He was going to quit his bad habit.

Starting tomorrow.

He rubbed a towel through his hair and started for the door only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Get dressed first.”

“Whoops!” Eli laughed in embarrassment and rubbed his head harder.

He’d almost gone out in a towel and nothing else. Haruka’s room was only a few feet away from the shower room, but still, dashing mostly naked through the hall wasn’t his idea of a good time.

“Thanks.”

Eli grabbed his clothes and ducked behind a curtain to dress. “We don’t have to hit the cafeteria, you know. There are plenty of other places to eat.”

“Hn.” Haruka always got monosyllabic when he wanted something, which meant he probably really wanted to eat in the caf today.

“Fine, I’ll hurry.” Eli shoved his head through the neck hole of his T-shirt and opened the curtain, stuffing his arms through the holes as he came out. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“You forgot your hoodie.”

“I left it in the room. Don’t worry, I can live without it until we finish eating.”

“Hn.” Haruka walked out and Eli followed him, but instead of heading toward the elevator, he went back to the room and grabbed a hoodie—the black one he’d given Eli—and handed it to him.

“Thanks.” Eli put it on as fast as he could and made for the door, only to be stopped by Haruka who pushed him gently against the wall in the narrow entry.

Haruka crowded into Eli’s space and began to zip up his hoodie.

Eli began to translate the steps of making instant ramen into Hindi.

Haruka’s eye twitched, but he still zipped the hoodie all the way to Eli’s neck. When he moved to pull up the hood, Eli touched his hand to stop him.

“I’m good, really.”

It was thoughtful for Haruka to remember, but Eli found he didn’t need it as much as he used to.

Haruka stepped back. “Okay.”

Once at the cafeteria, Eli waited at a table while Haruka got food. He’d given up choosing things for himself because no matter what he got, he always ended up eating food from Haruka’s plate. Also, it was nice not to get jostled and pushed around in the sea of people swarming the place.

“Can I sit here?”

Eli lifted his head from him phone to see Bryan, Haruka’s friend, standing next to him. “Go for it. What’s up?”

Bryan put his tray down and sat next to Eli. “Just looking for Haruka. I haven’t seen him around much lately, and when I saw you, I knew he’d be nearby.”

On cue, Haruka materialized behind Bryan and kicked the leg of his chair. “Move.”

“Like I said.” Bryan winked at Eli and moved to the other side of the table.

“What do you want?” Haruka asked as he slid a plate in front of Eli.

“I saw Aaron, and he asked me to find out why you haven’t been coming to practice.”

“I’ve been busy.”

Eli looked up from his plate in surprise. He’d assumed Haruka had been going to his club activities while Eli was in class. Apparently not.

“The captain said he didn’t want to kick you off the team, but you haven’t been returning his texts for the past two weeks. He’ll have no choice if you don’t show up today.”

Haruka nodded and continued to eat.

“Well, anyway, I’ve discharged my responsibility. It’s all on you now.” Bryan turned his attention to Eli. “As for you, what’s up with you stealing my best friend?” His voice was playful, and he nudged his water bottle against Eli’s plate.

“I’m not stopping you from hanging out,” Eli said, frowning. “He’s free to do whatever he wants.”

“Claws in, kitty. I’m just teasing you.” Bryan leaned forward on his elbows, then yelped and gave Haruka a dirty look.

Haruka didn’t look up from his plate.

“It must be nice having your own personal bodyguard.” Bryan reached down and rubbed his shin.

It was nice, actually. Very nice. And he wasn’t planning on giving him up anytime soon, so Bryan needed to shut up about it before Eli gave him a kick too. He tried to convey this via glare.

“I see why you stick close to him, he’s so cute I could eat him.” Bryan braced his hands on the table and shoved his chair back. “Missed me that time.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“Why are you friends with him?”

“He’s convenient.”

“You’re lucky to have me, and you know it.” Bryan affected a wounded posture.

They finished breakfast while Bryan filled them in on all the department gossip. Haruka and Eli were at the top of the list, but Bryan seemed to tire of getting kicked so he moved on to the next best thing and regaled them with everything he knew about the department head secretly hooking up with the professor of Korean Literature.

Eli was never going to look at either of them the same way again.

Once Bryan left, Eli jumped on Haruka. “You can’t skip archery practice.” If Haruka got kicked off the team, Eli wouldn’t get a chance to see him in hakama again and that would be a crime.

“Why not?”

“Because . . . extracurricular activities look good on a transcript. And quitting them for no reason doesn’t.”

Haruka shrugged then stared down a boy in a football jersey carrying a tray toward their table until he changed direction. “Your friends have class during practice.”

“I’m not going to get murdered if I’m alone for two hours.”

Haruka gave him the stink eye.

“Whatever. I’m going to the archery field to draw this afternoon. You can do whatever you want.”

Haruka grunted, but Eli got the feeling he was pleased.