Page 70 of Psync
Haruka watched as Eli visibly steeled himself to climb into bed. Halfway there, he stooped to pick up a long throw pillow from the floor, crawled under the covers, and wedged the pillow between them, glaring at Haruka as if daring him to say anything.
Haruka put his hands up and bit back a smile. The he turned out the light and settled back, preparing himself for a long, sleepless night of lying next to someone he craved but couldn’t have.
Ten minutes later, the pillow shifted and rolled onto Haruka’s stomach and a small, warm bundle of sleeping Eli pressed against his side. The boy’s arm went over his chest and knocked the pillow onto the floor. Haruka pressed his nose into wavy black hair and breathed in Eli’s scent.
This.
If he could have nothing more, this would be enough.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eli
Eli had a Problem.
Scratch that. He had multiple problems, and he needed to start tackling them. And the best way to deal with them was to start at the bottom of the list and work his way up.
Because if he started at the top, he was pretty sure he’d end up screaming into the abyss.
First up, was that he couldn’t go anywhere alone. Initially, it had been comforting having his friends go with him when he needed to be out of his—their—room, but it had been two weeks since the attack, and Eli was getting twitchy. The only alone time he got was in the bathroom, and even then, he had an escort.
Like now. Currently he was taking a shower, but he knew without even needing to look that Haruka was parked in the changing area, playing on his phone. Which made it difficult to take care of certain, ahem, things he tended to do on his own. And it was becoming more pressing as the days went on.
Eli halted his train of thought. He was edging too close to priority one on the top of Eli’s Big List of Problems, and he wasn’t ready to go there yet. He needed to ease his way into it.
Next up was a tricky one—acting normal around other people. You’d think Eli would have mastered that a long time ago, given his endless opportunities to practice, but he’d only ever been able to manage a weak facsimile in the first place. Now he had a weird mental bond with Haruka to throw into the mix.
He was trying to maintain some semblance of personal space between the two of them, but any time he stopped paying attention he found himself acting like Haruka’s own personal human scarf.
At least he didn’t have to worry about not answering unspoken thoughts like Haruka did—not that he seemed to have any problem with it—because after the first couple of days, Eli stopped picking up anything more than the odd snippet of thought or pulse of emotion from time to time.
Eli scrubbed his head in frustration. Wait, had he already shampooed his hair? He’d better do it again, just to be on the safe side.
And they hadn’t even really talked about their connection. Both of them had acted like being stuck together was a done deal. It had seemed so obvious to Eli. He hadn’t given it a second thought. The hollow space inside of him had filled. Now he had Haruka there, and that was all he needed to know.
But he was having second, third, and fourth thoughts now. They should be talking about it, shouldn’t they? But any time Eli brought it up, Haruka’s face got all shifty. He’d either change the subject, or tease Eli until he forgot what they’d been talking about.
He couldn’t let that keep happening.
And then there was Haruka’s fan club.
They were everywhere. Students of all ages camped outside their building in the morning, staking out Haruka’s classes, following him as he walked through the campus—usually at a discreet distance. Usually.
According to Alice, the reason for Haruka’s sudden popularity was a post made by an anonymous person on a college singles forum. The poster claimed to be close friends with Haruka and said that he was lonely, but shy. They posted a picture of him and asked everyone who saw him to introduce themselves.
Alice made another post on the same forum claiming it was a prank, that Haruka was definitely not looking for new friends, and anyone approaching him was doing it at their own risk, but the damage was already done. He now had a loyal following dogging his every step.
Fortunately, at this point, Haruka was well known for having a short temper with anyone who got up in his business, but there was always a brave soul willing to get close and take a chance to shoot their shot. And it was . . . irritating.
Maybe it was because of their connection, but Eli wasn’t a fan of people getting touchy-feely with Haruka. And all of the brave ones were like that. It didn’t feel wrong the way it did when someone touched Eli, but it didn’t feel right either.
Eli was just glad Haruka didn’t seem to like it any more than Eli did. Everyone who came to him was brutally shot down and dismissed. It had become a normal part of their day.
And their dayswerenormal. It was crazy, the idea of Eli having a semblance of normality in his life. But after the first few days, they’d just clicked and everything became smooth—aside from Eli’s list of problems, that is.
Being together was the easiest thing Eli had ever done. Talking with Haruka was as simple as breathing, and not talking was easy too. They could spend hours quietly immersed in their own projects, being alone together.
It was only when going outside that they came across issues.
