more importantly how would riko fit into camping setting this man never touched grass
LMAO Shoulda known this would be the follow-up ask from you my dear.
I know we talked about Riko and stars but I'm gonna write a lil bit about it. So more under the cut.
There was a time where the car that is taking Riko from place to place, media event to media event breaks down in the middle of the road. There's no cell service and it's just him and a driver. The driver heads off, swearing to be back with a tow truck or whatever assistance they need.
Riko sits in that backseat arms crossed and PISSED about what's going on. He's going to miss his media engagement, it's going to be a whole damn thing. Who knows how Master will react. He can't do anything because he needs his suit to be perfect for when he shows up fashionably late to the engagement and the interview.
Then an hour passes, maybe two, maybe three, and it's dark. He can no longer entertain himself by counting the stitches in the fine Italian leather seats like he'd been doing when he ran out of Exy strategies to think about and funny excuses to give to people who might not even know he's not there.
He climbs out of the car figuring he can count a few stars, make exy plays out of their formations if nothing else. It'll get boring just like the few times he and Kevin snuck up to the top of the stadium and looked at the muted stars. Staring up at the stars won't ruin his suit.
He looks up and the universe is greeting him.
He gets back in the car suddenly feeling overwhelmed by what he had just seen. Sits and tries to count the stitches (finite, with an end) just by touch but he keeps getting different numbers since his fingers aren't that sensitive anymore.
He takes a breath and climbs out of the car again and looks up. The universe greets him again and it's endless. He can't possibly count what is up there, it's bigger than him. He looks at his suit and knows that he's not going to be going to make it and he can think up a good story about why he's dirty.
He settles on the hood of the car staring up into the sky and he feels small. A car passes him and he doesn't even try to stop it too transfixed by the heavens above him.
A few more hours pass like this and he wonders if his driver just legged it fearing the repercussions of improper maintenance of a Moriyama vehicle. He wonders if he lives here now.
The car is kind of uncomfortable he looks to the side and thinks about laying on the grass and thinks about insects and worms and things beneath him. Small things that can be destroyed by him so easily right under his polished shoes. He's above them, high above them.
He looks up at the stars again and finds himself laying with the bugs in the grass.
It's nice.
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Eighteenth Day of Gift-Giving: Aches
Prompt: "Just focus on me and try to relax."
This is the prompt I asked a little help with, and here's the result! I wanted to bring back the airport saga one more time, the previous part of which can be found here (although I'm afraid you still won't get to learn how Niko and Tommi are doing at the bar, sorry). This piece was sort of inspired by several prompts on the list, but this was the only one I included as it is. Enjoy 🖤
~
Joel’s head hurt. His eyes hurt. His back hurt from lying on the floor. His jaw hurt from gritting his teeth. His palms hurt from his nails digging into them in an attempt to mute all the other pain into something more harmless and bearable, but it only made him more frustrated. The only part of him that wasn’t hurting was a small patch of his skin near his collarbone where Joonas’ thumb worked in a circular motion. It wasn’t much, but definitely more than what Joel deserved after having complained the entire day, as if everyone else wasn’t as tired and irked about the situation; he was just the one being a huge bitch about it.
And then there was Joonas. Joonas, who always knew better than to bother Tommi when he sat still with his eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. Joonas, who would let Niko borrow his powerbank charger even though he was running on 8% himself, just so he could call Minna to wish her good night before he'd climb to his bunk. Joonas, who had made everyone promise they wouldn’t comment on whatever Olli and Aleksi had going on between them, because apparently they were yet to figure it out themselves and that they should be left to do that in peace, on their own terms.
Yeah, there was no way in hell Joel was worthy of Joonas’ solicitude. Not even a little bit, Joel decided and turned to his side on the new-ish hardwood flooring of the airport lounge, even though it made him feel even more uncomfortable and pained.
Only then he noticed that the only other part of his body that wasn’t hurting, apart from the little piece of skin Joonas had been caressing, had been the back of his head.
Because Joonas’ arm had been there this whole time, keeping his head from dropping to the cold, hard floor.
The arm was now protecting his temple and showing no signs of moving from under him. It must have gone numb by now, although Joel wasn’t sure how long they had been lying there. It might have been only five minutes, but with Joel’s sense of time being manipulated by his agony, it could've also been five hours for all he knew.
“Do you want me to go?”
Joel sighed. He was surprised by the smallness of his own voice when he heard himself speak.
“I bet the sofa would be more comfortable.”
“For sure, but do you want me to go?”
It’s not that Joel hadn’t known his answer the first time Joonas asked him. He just didn’t know how to ask Joonas to stay without feeling like he was asking too much.
Too much, as in more than what he was worthy of.
Joonas, however, took his silence as an affirmative answer and tried to slide his arm from under Joel’s head. Instinctively – or not knowing what else to do to have his way; to selfishly keep Joonas by his side – Joel grabbed Joonas’ hand to keep it in place. Joonas stopped in his tracks that very second, and two more later, intertwined their fingers, and in doing so, stopped the entire world around Joel.
For a fleeting second, there was no half-empty airport lounge, no fog outside the enormous windows keeping them as its prisoners. There was just Joonas' hand in his, and it shattered his world.
Joel wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy. He simply wouldn't let it happen, not with Joonas, not with anyone. Fleeing before anyone got too close to him never made him too proud of himself, but he didn't know anything else.
He couldn’t really explain why. It scared him, he supposed. Even now, his entire body shivered and his chest felt tight with something Joel did not know how to put into words.
He was thankful that at least with Joonas, he never had to; Joel sometimes felt as if the guy could read his thoughts, which was a comfort as much as it was a nuisance.
“Shhhhhhhhhhh.” Joonas ran his hand up and down Joel’s arm. “Breathe, Joel. Just breathe.”
It was incredible how Joonas knew he was suffocating even before Joel realised it himself.
Joel squeezed his eyes closed and tried to imagine himself some place else, just anywhere that wasn’t a room half filled with strangers, many of them probably gawking at them and wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
I’m what’s wrong with me, Joel wanted to tell them. I’m so wrong and broken that I’m on the verge of a panic attack by having lowered my walls enough for my best friend to fucking comfort me when I need him the most, nothing else to see here, thank you and have a nice day.
“Joel.”
He could barely hear Joonas’ voice. He couldn’t tell if it was because it was so quiet or because his heartbeat was so loud in his ears.
“Joel. Please turn around. I want to help you. Please.”
Maybe it was the calming tone of Joonas’ voice. Maybe it was the movement of Joonas’ hand on his arm, or the fact his other hand was still clasping Joel’s, tight as if to keep him from falling off a cliff. Whatever it was, something made Joel do as Joonas asked, and he turned slowly, first to lie on his back for a moment, then to face Joonas.
He kept his eyes shut, for he found some kind of strange comfort in the darkness. Sometimes it terrified him to death, but with Joonas’ soft voice speaking to him, Joel suddenly felt as if nothing would.
It took him a minute, maybe two, for Joel to find his normal breathing rhythm again. Somehow it matched perfectly with the pattern of Joonas’, which made it easier, Joel guessed. He didn’t even try to understand it; one moment he’s a trembling mess, a prey animal who had digged inside a leaf pile trying to hide its own heartbeat, and in the next he’s boneless and warm under Joonas’ touch, his blood finally flowing to his limbs again.
“Just… focus on me and try to relax. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“It’s okay.”
“Okay.”
“I’m here, Joel. You’re safe.”
I know.
~*~
"Joel. Hey, Joel, we're going."
The headache wasn't gone, but Joel supposed he had managed to fall asleep for a short while, since keeping his eyes open wasn't such a strenuous task any more. There was a slight pain in his neck, but he felt warm, even when Joonas lifted the leather jacket he had put on him at some point.
Maybe, against all odds, he'd make it back home alive.
"They're boarding us soon."
Joel could only nod at the information. His entire body felt heavy, possibly too heavy for the plane to take off with him inside it, if Joel was to count on his luck.
Only at the boarding queue he had the strength to lift his head and take in his surroundings. He saw members of the crew, yawning tapping on their phone cases. There was Tommi and under his arm almost sleeping Niko, perhaps a little tipsy if the shade of his gaze was anything to go by. Behind them, Olli and Aleksi's eyes kept wandering back to each other time after time, quick smiles visiting their lips each time they caught the other staring. They way their hands kept fumbling with each other, almost teasingly before shying away again, implied they would've holded hands if they had been some place else that wasn't an international airport.
Joel could relate: his hand was no good for anything without Joonas holding it.
~*~
The time on Joel's phone was nearing four in the morning when they finally stepped out of the taxi. It wasn't unsual to him to be awake at that hour, more often than not against his will, however.
His tired eyes blurred when he stared at the front door of his apartment building. Joonas' would be a few blocks down the street; close enough for Joel to stomp to whenever he ran out of oat milk.
(The nearest grocery store with an entire shelf full of Joel's favourite brand was about as close in the opposite direction, but Joonas wouldn't be there.)
"D'you wanna stay at mine?"
(And they wouldn't read Joel's mind at the grocery store the way Joonas always did.)
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