Psync by Zile Elliven

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eli

Late again!

Holy flying shit, they’d slept in, and now both of them were going to be late for class.

“We didn’t set an alarm!” Eli shoved Haruka’s arm off of him as he tried to scramble off the bed.

He almost made it, too.

He got all the way to the edge of the bed before Haruka grabbed his arms and rolled Eli underneath him. Then he kissed Eli breathless, taking his time to remind Eli of everything they’d gotten up to last night.

“Good morning.” Haruka bit the edge of Eli’s jaw lightly before moving away. “Now you can get up.”

Eli blinked at the ceiling for a minute or two, struggling to process the past twelve hours. How was this his life?

A few minutes later, Haruka poked his head out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth. “You might want to get up now.”

Eli threw a pillow at him, and Haruka dodged back into the bathroom.

If Eli wanted coffee, he was going to have to skip most of his morning routine. His toothbrush made a brief appearance in his mouth, and he didn’t even bother to look in a mirror. Instead, he shoved on the first shirt he saw, grabbed a random pair of pants and shoved his sockless feet into his shoes.

He was halfway to the door when Haruka grabbed him by the back of the shirt and shoved a glass into one hand and his meds into the other.

“Thanks.” Eli swallowed them and tried for the door once more only to be stopped again and bundled into Haruka’s black hoodie.

“It’s going to be cold until this afternoon.” Haruka said as he zipped it up. His fingers brushed the hood like he was going to raise it, and a smile ghosted across his face before he dropped his hands, leaving it to lie on Eli’s shoulders. “Okay, let’s go.”

Eli danced impatiently while Haruka ordered them both coffees, growling when he slowed the whole process down by getting them each a cheese croissant.

Eli made gimme hands at the coffee when it came, but Haruka held it out of reach, handing him the croissant instead.

“Two bites and then you can have it.”

“Argh!!! How did you get even bossier?” Eli grumbled and tore into the croissant with his teeth. As soon as the second bite was in his mouth, he jumped for the coffee still being held just out of reach. He missed. “In our next life, I’m coming back as the tall one, and you’re never getting coffee.”

Haruka relented and lowered the coffee until Eli could reach it. “Our next life?”

“Yes, and you’re going to be very, very short. And less hot.” Eli shot a glare at the lone member of Haruka’s fan club hovering at a respectful distance.

Haruka slung an arm around Eli’s shoulders. “So, your type is short and ugly?”

“And annoying.”

“I promise you I can manage that last one.”

“Hush, I’m trying to get this coffee inside of me, and you’re slowing down the process.”

Haruka dropped Eli off at his class—almost on time. Outside the door, Haruka planted a hand on Eli’s chest, pushed him against the wall, and leaned in. Eli blocked his face with both arms. “Not here!”

Haruka let him go, but his low chuckle followed Eli as he hurried into the classroom.

He jerked up his hood to cover his burning face because, of course, everyone turned to see who had arrived late.

Jerk. He thought it as hard as he could, and a second later he got a brief impression of amusement.

✽✽✽

Nate and Alice met him at the door at the end of class.

“You know you don’t have to do this every day, right?” Eli said in lieu of a greeting. This had to be getting old for them. He knew he was certainly getting tired of being shepherded around everywhere he went.

“We don’t have to, but we want to,” Alice said.

“I know you do, but really, there’s no need. The police told me Ash is out on bail, but he’s gone home to Boston with a shiny new ankle bracelet until the trial.” Eli kept his voice down because he didn’t want everyone to know his business. His department was notoriously nosy. “At this point, it’s just Haruka being paranoid.”

“I don’t blame him,” Nate said. “You looked terrible the next day. Scared the shit out of me.”

“Everyone on the campus isn’t like Ash. I’m not a celebrity or a politician, guys.” Ew, as if. “I don’t need an escort everywhere I go.”

“Oh, Eli! We’ve been helicoptering you, haven’t we?” Alice’s eyes were suddenly big and wet. “I’m so sorry!”

Any second now Eli was going to have a crying girl on his hands. He needed to do something fast.

He took a deep breath and let it out. Then he put a hand on her shoulder. No alarms sounded, nobody jumped out from behind a potted plant and dragged him off to jail for doing something out of character, and it didn’t feel horribly wrong. It didn’t feel good, but it was a start.

“It’s okay, Alice, really.”

It had the opposite effect he intended. Tears streamed down Alice’s cheeks, and she began to sob. Horrified, Eli snatched his hand back.

Fuck. He was not up for hugging. Not now, maybe not ever. He looked at Nate anxiously. “I think I broke her.”

“You’re really okay, aren’t you?” Alice howled.

“It’s fine, Eli. Those are her happy tears.” Nate put an arm around Alice and squeezed her shoulder. “I promise you didn’t break her.”

“I love you, Eli!” Alice sniffed and searched her purse, pulling out a tissue.

“I love you too, Alice.” Eli looked at both of his friends. “So . . . does this mean you’ll stop treating me like someone is going to drop out of the sky and kill me at any moment?”

Nate and Alice exchanged glances.

“I think we can do that, but I’m not even going to begin to speak for Haruka,” Nate said.

Eli laughed nervously. “Maybe we don’t have to mention this to him?”

Nate threw up his hands and backed up. “Hey, I’m not lying to the guy. He’s fucking scary. I won’t bring it up, but if he asks, I will definitely rat you out.”

“Same. I’m staying on his good side.” Alice chimed in, looking more composed than she had a minute ago, though she still had a sheen in her eyes. “Actually, this works out for me. I forgot to put on my estrogen patch this morning and haven’t had a chance to go back for it.”

And that was how Eli found himself with an entire hour to himself for the first time in weeks.

It was glorious.

If no one had been around, he would have spun in circles all around the pond Maria Von Trapp-style. Instead, he sat by the pond and enjoyed drinking a coffee he didn’t have to worry about someone taking from him and replacing with a piece of fruit.

At first, he was able to ignore the stares. He’d gotten used to being around someone who was on the receiving end of tons of them, but after having to turn down three invitations to eat in a row, he started to get suspicious.

“No, really, I have to get to class.” Eli said as he gathered his things.

A bushy-haired English major, who’d introduced himself as Forrest, trailed after him. “I can walk you to class, if you want.”

Eli turned to look at him just as the wind kicked up and blew his hood back.

Forrest’s eyes zeroed in on Eli’s neck. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“Realize what?” Eli pulled his hood back up.

“That you’re not available. You’re seeing someone, right?”

“Kinda, yeah.” He was definitely doing something with someone, at the very least. They still hadn’t managed to actually talk about it yet.

Forrest gave him a sad smile. “Figures.” Then he turned and walked away—minus the spring in his step he’d had when he’d first approached Eli.

How had he known . . .?

Eli’s hand slapped over his neck.

Fucking hell.

He ran for the nearest bathroom and looked in the mirror.

Christ! He looked like he’d gotten attacked by a vacuum cleaner. The only reason his friends hadn’t seen it was because his morning class had the windows open, and he’d kept his hood up to keep from freezing to death.

He tightened his hoodie strings and walked to his next class hunched over his phone, searching for ways to get rid of hickeys.

Haruka picked him up at the end of class, and they went to meet his friends for a late lunch.

“Eli, I forgot to mention it, but you didn’t get all of the sequins off from yesterday. Did they give you trouble?” Alice used her sandwich to point at Eli’s face.

“No, I got distracted and fell asleep before getting them all.” He resisted the urge to shoot a dirty look at said distraction.

“Haruka, you’ve got one in your hair . . . Actually, you have several. Oh, and one on your neck.” Alice pressed her hands to her mouth. “Holy shit, did you two . . .?”

“Don’t say it, Alice, I’m begging you.” Eli rubbed his newly throbbing forehead. He touched a knee to Haruka’s and thought :I’m not ready for this yet!:

Haruka looked off to the side and whistled innocently.

:You are just the worst!:

Alice balled her hands up and made a little squeaking sound.

“Can we talk about this another time?” Next fall sounded great to Eli.

“Yes!” Alice punched a fist in the air. “I mean, yes. Yes, we can.”

Nate continued to eat calmly through the entire conversation like he wasn’t even surprised.

Eli wrinkled his forehead. How had he known?

✽✽✽

“Are you embarrassed by me?”

Eli and Haruka were on their way back to their building at the end of the day when Haruka finally asked the question Eli had been dreading.

“Only a blind moron would be embarrassed by you.”

“Are you afraid of people thinking you’re gay?”

“No more than I’m afraid of people knowing I’m short and bipolar. Whatever this is, whatever we are? This is all part and parcel of being me, and I’m done with being ashamed of being myself.”

“Then what is it?”

Eli sighed. “I don’t like the attention.” He tugged hard on his hoodie strings. “You’re fucking beautiful, Haruka. If everyone knows I’m dating you, I’m going to get dirty looks and hate mail and who knows what else. And everyone is going to be watching us. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ease into it instead of jumping in with a massive splash.”

“People were paying attention to you before you met me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I watched you.”

Eli nudged Haruka with his elbow. “Stalker.”

Haruka’s lips curved into a half smile. “Hn.”

“You’re lucky I seem to be into creepy guys.”

“Only this creepy guy.”

“One of you is more than enough.” Eli let his arm slip around Haruka’s waist and snuggled into his side. When Haruka dropped a kiss on top of his head, he didn’t protest—he was tired of fighting the desire to wrap himself around Haruka just because he was afraid someone would see.

It was dark. No one was watching. He could have this small moment.