Psync by Zile Elliven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Eli

The first thing he noticed was how warm he was. The second was a rumbling sound that seemed to surround him. The third was—

“Squished.” Eli pushed against the firm body he was plastered against. “Haruka, you’re crushing me.”

He only noticed the hand in his hair because it stopped stroking him.

“Sorry.”

The pressure on him eased a little, and Eli opened his eyes. Wherever they were was dark and cozy. He buried his face in Haruka’s shirt and breathed in his warm, soothing scent.

“We should get ready to go, shouldn’t we?” He wasn’t sure what he was saying, but he had a nagging feeling they were supposed to be doing something.

Eli felt Haruka kiss the top of his head. “You can stay here as long as you want.”

“Oh good.” He sighed happily and was about to drift back to sleep until he heard a soft cough in the distance. He lifted his head and looked around. “Um . . . are we on an airplane?”

A pause. “Yes.”

“Haruka.”

“Yes?”

“Why are we on an airplane?”

Another, longer, pause. “What is the last thing you remember?”

The hand in his hair began to pet him once again, and Eli lost a minute or two enjoying the sensation. Wait, he was supposed to be remembering something.

Eli frowned and bit his lip. “I was at school . . . nearly killed myself on goose poop . . . You were such a jerk! How did you even know about it?”

Haruka’s arms tightened around him briefly, and he bestowed Eli’s head with another kiss. “You broadcast it so hard, I was able to see everything.” His voice was soft, and there was a touch of sadness to it.

Why was Haruka sad?

Eli sat up and searched his face, but all he saw was Haruka’s default expression—cool and composed.

“What happened?”

“You really don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” Something about the current situation tickled his memory. He’d felt this way before, hadn’t he? Only he hadn’t been as chill the last time.

“I . . . lost time, didn’t I?” Eli turned his face away as shame crept over him.

It had been a long time since he’d fugued out. Years, actually, otherwise his family would never have let him leave home for college.

A hand on his chin brought his attention back to Haruka, but Eli couldn’t bring himself to look at him.

“You don’t have to look at me, but I can’t let you believe I would ever think less of you over that—or anything.”

“Anything?” Eli tried to shove a note of levity into his voice. “What if I liked to hit people with my car for fun?”

Haruka buried his face in Eli’s hair and said, “I’d get you a better car.”

Eli laughed and finally allowed himself to look at Haruka. “You’re obsessed.” He brushed a strand of hair away from his boyfriend’s face.

Haruka shrugged as if he couldn’t be bothered to deny it.

“Do you know why I blanked out like that?”

Haruka nodded.

“Does it have something to do with why we’re on an airplane?”

Haruka nodded.

“You’re afraid if you tell me, I’m going to freak out again, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

Okay, that was fair. He didn’t like it, but it was a reasonable reaction to have. Especially since Eli hadn’t told him it was a possibility. It must have been scary as hell.

“Scary, yes.” Haruka nodded as he followed Eli’s train of thought.

“Is there a time when you’d be comfortable telling me? Because I really should know at some point.”

“I’d rather wait until we get to Japan.”

“We’re going to Japan?!”

Eli had thought maybe they were going somewhere close-ish, like Montreal, or Florida, but he hadn’t taken into account Haruka’s extra-ass personality. How stupid of him not to take that into consideration.

“You really should have.” Haruka agreed. “And you should keep your voice down if you don’t want people to think I’ve kidnapped you.”

“Feel free to kidnap me to Japan any time you want.” Eli shifted his weight because the side of the cubicle was digging into his left ass cheek. “This thing is a bit snug for two people, isn’t it?”

“Do you want your own?” Haruka asked carefully.

Eli considered. “How long do we have until we land?”

Haruka checked his phone. “Three hours until we change planes in London.”

The next cubicle was diagonal and seemed far away, but the newly forming bruise on Eli’s ass made him think it was still a solid option, even if for a little while. “Is that one mine?”

Haruka nodded, not looking particularly enthused about Eli crawling out of his lap, but he didn’t protest, until they parted and—

Wrongwrongwrong

They locked eyes at the same time, both with twin looks of surprise. Eli scrambled back into Haruka’s lap at the same time Haruka reached out to drag him back down. As soon as they touched, his internal alarm cut off. He was engulfed in the same warm, happy feeling he’d been enjoying when he’d woken up.

After a minute, Eli said tentatively, “So . . . that was new.”

“Hn.”

Haruka shifted Eli’s body until he was draped over him monkey style. It was a much more ass-friendly position, but he was going to get a neck cramp eventually.

But that was future-Eli’s problem. Now-Eli was content with the way things were. Besides, he could always go back to the other position if he needed to. After all, he had gotten a lot of practice with ass-bruises lately. Sometimes he even liked them.

Haruka’s hand cupped the offended cheek gently and gave it a little squeeze.

“Pervert.”

“Hn.”

✽✽✽

The always needing to touch Haruka thing hadn’t been as awkward as Eli expected when they switched planes. No one looked at them twice, not even their attendants—they had attendants!—as they ferried them from a private lounge to their next plane.

No, the problem had been when Eli needed to use the bathroom.

He’d had to bodily shove Haruka out of the small, but fancy bathroom and lock the door. He could use the bathroom alone, thank you very much, even if he was shaking all over by the time he’d finished.

Haruka’s face was dark when Eli came out, and he snatched Eli right off the floor and carried him back to their seats. “Don’t do that again.”

“Oh, I’m doing it again.” Eli scooted off his lap but stayed curled against Haruka’s side. Laps were not a good battleground.

Haruka glared at him, and Eli glared back.

Haruka rubbed his forehead—still managing to scowl at Eli. “That was awful.”

“And it’ll be even more awful when I stop being able to have sex with you because you hugged me while I was trying to pee, so deal with it.”

Haruka pulled Eli back onto his lap and made a grumpy, grumbly noise.

It was good they had the room to themselves, otherwise any onlookers would have been baffled watching them fight and cuddle at the same time.

They’d stopped talking after that.

Their next plane was from a Japanese airline, and if Eli had been surprised by the way they’d been treated before, it was nothing compared to now.

They had an honest-to-god room with a bed. It was tiny, but much better than what they’d had before, and the service was insane. He’d been told by their personal attendant three separate times that if they needed anything to just push the button by the bed and someone would come right away.

Currently, they were sitting facing opposite sides of the bed, each with a hand stretched behind them so they could still touch.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to know.

Eli turned around. “Okay, seriously who the hell are you? Yakuza royalty?”

Haruka turned to look at him and gave a shrug with a glint of amusement in his eyes. “You’re better off not knowing.”

“Are you kidding me?” Eli tugged on Haruka’s hand, encouraging him to come to the center of the bed.

Haruka moved to where he was led and sprawled out on his back like a big cat. “Yes.”

“Assbutt.” Eli heaved himself on top of Haruka and was rewarded with a grunt. “I am going to find out eventually, right?”

“Eventually.” Haruka flipped their positions—now Eli was the one getting squished. “But I wish you didn’t have to. It’s an annoying situation.”

“So, it’s not that you don’t want me to know?”

Eli had realized early on Haruka had money, but not this much. His dorm room was sparsely furnished, but spacious. The few possessions Haruka had were all expensive, and every item of clothing he owned was designer.

“No. Or rather, I don’t want you to have to know, but I’m not going to hide it from you.”

“That’s not terribly reassuring, you know.”

Haruka hummed in agreement. Then he yawned so hard his jaw popped.

Haruka let all his weight settle on Eli, and he buried his face in Eli’s neck. “Tired.”

“Don’t fall asleep on me!”

“Haven’t slept since yesterday,” Haruka said into Eli’s neck.

It was like getting hit with a bucket of ice water.

All the warm, tingly feelings his body had been wallowing in now that he and Haruka were speaking again jettisoned from the plane without a chute. Haruka couldn’t endlessly give to Eli. He needed to be taken care of too.

Eli retrieved an arm from where it had been pinned and stroked Haruka’s soft, silky hair. “Sleep then. But not on me.”

“You’ll run away.”

“Silly. Where am I going to run off to? We’re on an airplane.”

“Stay anyway.”

“Why don’t I sleep with you? I’m tired too.”

Haruka rolled over just enough that he was no longer crushing Eli, but he kept an arm and a leg over him.

Eli wiggled until he was comfortable and allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by the sound of the plane’s engines.

***

“What are you doing?” Haruka’s sleepy voice pulled Eli’s attention from the computer screen.

“Studying.” He pointed at screen covered in kanji. “I realized when I woke up that I haven’t prepared at all for a trip to Japan. So, I’m brushing up on common phrases and—hey!”

Eli reached for the laptop Haruka had just stolen and was stopped by a hand to the face.

“You’re a language major. All you do is study.”

Eli tried to get around the giant hand blocking his view and failed. “But I might forget something.”

“You won’t.”

“But I haven’t been studying Japanese as much as other languages lately. I might be rusty.”

“You aren’t rusty.”

“How do you know?”

“Because we’ve been speaking Japanese since we got on the plane, dork.” Haruka finally let go of Eli, but only because he was too busy laughing at the poleaxed expression on his face.

“Oh.” Eli’s face went hot, and he covered his cheeks.

Haruka closed the laptop and put it behind his back. “You are just too cute.”

“Arghhhhh.” Eli tipped over on his side and buried his face in the blanket. When he did, the contact he had been maintaining with Haruka’s leg broke.

Nothing happened.

“Hey!” Eli waved his hand wildly and pointed to the inch of space between them. “I can use the bathroom alone!” Just like every other human past the age of five.

Haruka’s eyes were blank for a moment, but then he smiled. “That’s one less thing to fight over, at least.”

“I’m sure we’ll find something else soon enough.”

Eli missed the way Haruka went still because he was busy stealing his laptop back.

“I have a list of all the places I want to go. You’re taking me to every single one of them.” He brought up a document he started four years ago. It was over ten pages long now.

“Hn.”

Eli stopped mid scroll. “I’m not serious. We don’t have time to go to all of them. But I want to see Osaka Castle. Oooo! And can we go to Nara? I want to feed the deer.”

“They aren’t as cute as you think—they’re all a bunch of ass-biters.”

“Then you better get a picture.”

Haruka ruffled Eli’s hair. “Deal.”