メロウレイン / Futtara Doshaburi Mellow Rain

Rainy Days and Sundays

 

From outside came the soft sounds of rain, like half-hearted applause.

 

Sei opened his eyes and gently peeled Hagiwara’s arm away from where it was wrapped around his waist. It was a rainy morning, filled with that grey sort of brightness that was somehow dark at the same time. Or perhaps it was a darkness that was somehow bright.

 

For a moment, something felt strange about the direction the dull light was coming from. Then he remembered.

 

Oh, right. I’m at Hagiwara’s place.

 

Lying on his stomach, Sei pushed himself up from the pillow and hooked a finger into the blinds fitted over the bay window, intending to see how heavily it was raining.

 

Hagiwara, who had seemed completely limp with sleep, suddenly pulled him firmly back against him.

 

“Whoa.”

 

“…Where are you going?”

 

“I’m not going anywhere.”

 

Hagiwara’s voice was still soft and blurred around the edges, as though he were only half awake. The thought that he was still drifting in and out of sleep, responding only because he had sensed Sei moving and instinctively wanted to keep him close, made this fully grown man, though they were the same age, seem ridiculously endearing.

 

It was troublesome.

 

Sei rolled onto his side and searched for the most comfortable position. He rested his head on Hagiwara’s other arm, which stretched across the sheets, and settled his back against Hagiwara’s chest.

 

What do they call this again? Spooning?

 

“It’s raining.”

 

“Mm.”

 

“Were you planning to go out today?”

 

“Mm-mm.”

 

“Then I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

 

“Mm.”

 

The weather had become considerably cooler lately, so much that their thin duvet felt a little chilly. But when you were sleeping beside someone else, it was just right.

 

A rainy Sunday spent tucked away indoors.

 

“Hagiwara…”

 

“Mmm?”

 

“There’s something that surprised me a bit.”

 

“What?”

 

Hagiwara sounded distinctly reluctant to wake up. Sei found it amusing. It was rather like bothering a large cat while it sat there half asleep, eyes barely open.

 

“Why a double?”

 

“What?”

 

“The bed.”

 

When Hagiwara had moved, Sei had assumed he would bring the single bed he had been using before. Then again, perhaps he had wanted more room to sleep.

 

“…Is that a problem?”

 

“No. It just surprised me. I thought, if you bought it because you reckoned there was a chance of you and me ending up like this, you must’ve been pretty confident.”

 

Sei’s own bed was a small double, but only because there happened to be one left in stock when he bought it, and it was cheaper than the single.

 

“You’ve got to be joking.”

 

Hagiwara tightened his arms around him, sounding slightly sulky.

 

“I wasn’t confident at all. But if, by some one-in-a-million stroke of luck, it actually happened, I couldn’t exactly say, ‘Sorry, the bed’s too small. Hang on while I nip to Don Quijote and buy a new one,’ could I?”

 

“Well… no.”

 

“So… it was sort of like making a wish.”

 

“A wish that I’d come here?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

That time, this time for sure, they would be able to spend the night together without anything getting in the way.

 

Without pulling apart. Without saying goodbye.

 

“…Did it come true?”

 

“Very much.”

 

It came true very much was a strange way to phrase it, but Sei understood perfectly what Hagiwara meant.

 

“…Mm.”

 

During their conversation, Hagiwara seemed to have gradually woken up. He rubbed the tip of his nose insistently against the sensitive spot behind Sei’s ear.

 

“That tickles.”

 

“Nakarai-san, you’re the one who woke me up.”

 

“You could’ve just carried on talking in your sleep.”

 

It was cute.

 

“As if I could.”

 

“Anyway…”

 

“Mm?”

 

“That’s been pressing against me for a while now.”

 

Of course, it wasn’t arousal. It was nothing more than an ordinary physical reaction.

 

At least, not yet.

 

“…It’s morning.”

 

“True.”

 

It was raining. They had nowhere to be. They were already in bed, naked and pressed together. Just the two of them.

 

The arm that had merely been holding their bodies together began to move, and Hagiwara’s fingers started wandering over Sei’s bare skin.

 

“Ah…”

 

Sei’s breath was still quieter than the sound of the rain. But probably not for much longer. After all, when it comes to an adults-only sports day, rainy weather could actually be rather convenient.