Red and White, Black and Blue

Chapter 27: I-Expo I-Interruption

Ryumi wakes to the familiar sight of a mess of red and white hair. It takes some time for her still sleep-muddled mind to piece together why he's so close.

A brief internal war wages between the comfort of his warmth and the embarrassment of knowing she was clinging to him - probably ever since she fell asleep the second time. The awkwardness wins out, of course, but she manages to temper it enough that she pulls away quietly, so as not to disturb him.

Maybe, if she's lucky, he won't have noticed. But she'll have to try and get the brand of red off her cheeks first.

After a few minutes, as the morning light filters in through the window, she can feel Shoto starting to stir behind her.

"Morning." He mumbles, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

"Uhm, good morning." She knows she's doing a terrible job of not making it obvious - her wings are still glued stiffly to her back, and her reply was far from smooth.

From the shift of the mattress, Shoto has propped himself up on one elbow, looking her way. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing..." Ryumi gently bites her lip, cursing her inability to hide it. Maybe he'll still drop the question, though. Sometimes it's hard for her to predict how he'll respond.

She hears him sigh, then feels the shift of him pushing himself fully up to sitting. "Ryumi... I um, I know. It's fine."

"Y-you..." She half chokes, and has to take a moment to find her voice and her breath again. Risking a brief glance at him, she then pulls her knees up to her chest and buries her face behind her wings. "I... Sorry. It wasn't..."

There's no immediate reply. He shuffles over closer to her, setting his left hand on her back. "Ryumi, it didn't bother me."

"...Are you sure?" She mumbles from behind her wings.

"Did it help you sleep?"

It's a simple question, but even so it takes a long time for her to meekly nod, an answer he can probably barely see with how she's curled up, but that doesn't occur to her. "...I still shouldn't have, it's just... You're so warm, and..."

Though she can't see it, the soft babbling excuses draw a slight smile on his face. He gently activates his power, hand still resting reassuringly between her wings. "It's fine, I promise it didn't bother me. Besides... I did say I wanted to help."

Slowly, she peeks her head out. It's a cautious movement, uncertain. Only as she sees the kindness in his eyes does she commit to coming out of hiding.

An awkward silence hangs over the both of them for several minutes.

"Shoto..." Ryumi takes a long-held breath, looks directly into his eyes, and pulls him into a brief hug. "...Thanks."

It seems that he also forgets to breathe in that moment, merely nodding as he turns to hide the color rising in his cheeks.

She pushes herself off the edge of the bed then, collecting a change of clothes from her suitcase. "I um, I'm going to go shower."

"Right." He responds, though there's a slight hesitation in it. "I'll... see what options we have for breakfast."

Ryumi offers him a smile as she disappears into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

It takes almost ten minutes for Shoto to recover enough to actually start on that, though.

It was only a second, maybe two, but the feeling of her wings folded around his back sticks with him.

It was... really nice. Safe.