Page 35 of Psync
“Are you okay?” Haruka’s voice was husky, as though he too had just woken up.
No, he really wasn’t, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “Well enough for someone awoken from a dead sleep.”
Something Eli was extremely grateful for. He really didn’t like it when his nightmares progressed past that point. He would have been skittish all day if it had. Still might be if he didn’t do something to get his mind off of it.
“Actually, I’m glad you called.”
A pause. “Really?”
“I fell asleep before I could finish my reading assignment for today.” Eli glanced at the clock. It was five o’clock. Three hours before he needed to get ready for class. “Now I have time to finish it.”
“Hn.” There was a rustling sound. “What’s your assignment?”
“Tale of Genji.”
More rustling. “Want me to read it to you?”
“Um . . .”
Yes.
Right now, all Eli wanted was to sit in bed and have someone read to him to keep the shadows away, but he didn’t have it in him to verbalize it. So, he did what he usually did when he was nervous. He got bitchy. “You have a copy? Seems a bit cliché.”
Haruka snorted. “No, but I have access to the internet. It’s not like it would be hard to find.”
Eli heard the clicking sound of fingers on a keyboard.
“English or Japanese?”
Eli sucked in a breath and his stomach got all tingly. Why did the idea of Haruka reading to him in Japanese make him feel so dizzy? “Ah, my Japanese isn’t good enough for me to follow along, especially since it’s for a class,” Eli lied. He didn’t speak it well, but years of watching anime made him very good at understanding the language. But the tingly feeling inside was too much to process right now.
“English then.” There were a few more clicks on Haruka’s end, then, “Where did you leave off?”
“I just started section two.”
Eli listened to Haruka’s voice as he narrated the marriage of Onna San no Miya to a commoner. It was deep and rich and sent slow, lazy swirls of sensation through Eli. It washed away the terror he’d been steeped in when he’d first awoken.
After a while, Eli’s eyes started to drift closed, but he forced them open—he didn’t want to miss anything. “You should be a voice actor.”
“What?”
Shit, had he said that out loud?
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything.” Eli buried his face under the blankets and silently screamed into the mattress. Stupid mouth saying stupid things without stupid permission. “Keep reading.”
“How far do you need to read for class?”
“Part four chapter 8.” Which they had passed some time ago. “Sorry, I spaced out.”
“No, it’s okay, it’s just . . . it’s getting late. You should eat breakfast before class. Do you want to go get something?”
Yes. He very much did, but Eli was also a massive chicken. “No, it’s okay. I’m not much of a breakfast person.”
“You should become a breakfast person.” There was an edge to Haruka’s voice. What was up with him and food?
“I should take a shower though.” Eli deflected. With the way his stomach felt right now, there was no way he’d be able to bring himself to eat anything.
“What room are you in? I’ll bring you something.”
