Indigo Sunrise

Sheets ruffle. The lights are out. Moonlight streaks through the room between the drawn curtains.

Mademoiselle sits on a tiny rocking chair, on top of a table near the window, nestled between Rei and Shu’s hats from their respective units. She’s resting comfortably wearing Natsume’s gifts from earlier in the day: a miniature pair of earmuffs and a miniature eye mask. Behind her is Kanata’s gift: wrapped homemade fish crackers (that Wataru helped supervise the making of).

It's getting late, and frankly the both of them are quite tired. Shu has just barely reacclimated to Japan’s time zone, and his body will have to forget it again when he leaves for France in the morning. Meanwhile, Rei has been in his home country this entire time, but his circadian rhythm still acts as if he were in another time zone.

Though for the past few days or so, Rei hasn’t been able to nap as much during the day from increased idol activities. Photo shoots, handshake events, radio appearances, meetings with Kaoru, and meetings with the entirety of Undead… It has been quite hectic for an old soul such as himself. To think he has a live tomorrow morning as well. Maybe that’s why, for once, he feels compelled to rest when it is dark. So… why is it that he isn’t sleeping right now in their hotel room? 

A soft exhale escapes from Shu’s lips.

Ah, that’s right.

“Rei,” Shu scolds in a gasp.

He lifts his head from Shu’s collarbone, watching his purple eyes flutter open and those cute creases of eyelid form. There’s a slight furrow of the brows, but Rei knows Shu wants to look more displeased than he is. Chuckling, he looks down at the man’s neck and reassures him. “I know.”

Of course, there are no indentations made from teeth. The thought of drawing blood nauseates Rei, but hickies were another story. The spots on Shu’s neck are certainly darker than the skin surrounding it—budding in pink—but nothing that won’t fade by tomorrow.

“That’s not what I mean,” Shu says, making no effort to pry Rei off of him again. “Ah-"

“What is it that you mean then,” Rei murmurs in between suckles, “Shuu~?”

“We should be resting!” Arms wrap around Rei’s lower back, lightly grasping his sleep shirt. “You know both of us are going to be busy tomorrow.”

“We are resting though,” Rei whispers close to Shu’s ear. “Are we not in bed?” Leaning back, he watches as Shu pouts and part his lips to speak. Before he gets a chance to utter something though, Rei kisses him.

“Mm-” Shu blinks.

Rei withdraws from Shu, lamenting the contact already. He sighs, frowning. It’s all he can do as he stares down at his lover, pink in hair and face. Oh, how is it that such a beautiful being is allowed to exist?

The man underneath him raises a brow. “Rei?”

“I missed you.”

Shu makes a sound not unlike a soft, unvoiced grunt. His features gradually soften until what is left is a mix of pity and shared longing within his eyes. Somehow, one of his hands makes its way up to Rei’s face, with strands of hair sifting through his fingers.

Rei leans into the touch like a cat, batting his eyelashes only once. “Just a little longer?”

For the briefest of eternities, they stare at one another until Shu’s focus drifts off to the side. A cycle of breath passes. A languid blink. Another breath. Shu returns his gaze to Rei.

“Just a little,” Shu closes his eyes as Rei already leans in, “long…” 

Rei smiles into the kiss, feeling Shu’s arms wrap around him and bring him closer. The warmth enveloping him is immediate, and he’s welcomed again with the same mild soap Shu and he used from their earlier showers. A lingering mintiness is shared between their mouths—this time more direct than in tiny tubes. 

It continues for a while; wet, sticky smacks and soft moans fill the air alongside the occasional ruffling of sheets, and, if one were to strain, the distant sound of nightlife traffic.

Rei shifts, moving to kiss the side of his lover’s jawline, but not before whispering sweet nothings into Shu’s ear—compliments for only him and Shu, in this moment of time, to acknowledge.

Shu’s hips lift off and away in an attempt to turn from the embarrassing attention, dragging against Rei’s front. And, oh, it tests Rei’s will to not grind down harder against Shu.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rei mumbles against the more unblemished side of Shu’s neck.

Shu squirms underneath him again, gasping. “N-Nowhere. You just, keep- Nngh…” His hips brush up against Rei’s again, as if he were baiting him further into a longer dance of the night.

He bites. He rolls his hips against Shu’s, rubbing back and forth, and the pressure gradually increases with each grind. He can’t deny how he’s starting to fill out his underwear now, and he dares to suggest that for Shu as well.

Against Rei’s fingers, Shu feels warmth through the material of his shirt, and, when he sneaks under it, his bare skin too.

An exhale hits him when he returns to Shu’s face, but he misses his lips by centimeters, kissing part of his cheek, when Shu angles his face away again.

“Mm, R-Rei-"

Rei connects with Shu’s bottom lip when he attempts another peck, nipping him with teeth, separating again only to attack him once more. Their teeth make a fierce clack, followed by Rei wincing and panting a quick “Sorry” before resuming their kiss.

Within the haze, Rei vaguely feels Shu’s hands tremble against his back, running up and down his spine, grasping, tugging his shirt into bunches. He feels even hotter than before, but it’s not enough. He grinds, coaxing whines against his mouth. He needs more. More pressure, more warmth, more, more…

“Rei, stop!” Shu breaks away from their kiss, and for a second Rei thinks he might’ve pushed too far if it weren’t for that heated look in his eyes. “If we’re going any further, I refuse to soil my sleeping garments!”

Rei blinks once before the words fully process in his mind, then he smirks. “Oh? Then what are you waiting for?”

Shu scoffs while weaseling his hands between their bodies—Rei making more room for him to do so—to start unbuttoning his shirt. “I was waiting for you to give me a moment in edgewise, you barbarian.”

“Fufu.” Though Shu has plenty of room now to fiddle with his buttons all he likes, Rei puts more space between their top halves, instead growing closer again with their bottom halves. “You speak as if you weren’t enjoying those barbaric actions of mine. Mm… if you don’t hurry, this old man will go soft on you.”

Huffing, Shu continues to remove his pajama top buttons at the same deliberate pace. “You seem perfectly fine with what you’re doing. And as I’ve said many times, you’re only a year older than me.”

The moment Shu gets to the bottom of his row of buttons, Rei helps him shrug it off of his shoulders. Leaving the rest to him, he walks his fingers down to pull at the waistband of his pajama pants.

"Lift your hips?"

And so Shu does, as he gathers his shirt up in an attempt to fold.

Rei relishes in one last grind against a clothed Shu before he backs away and tugs both of his underwear and pants to his ankles in one go. The bottoms then get flung off into the void—the side of the bed—without another thought.

Shu gapes, offended. "Rei! Those are delicate!" He stops momentarily in the folding of his shirt.

"Were they now? My bad. Though, if I recall correctly, Wataru had a similar pair of underwear didn’t he?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Didn’t the prospect of matching bother you? I would’ve guessed you wanted to burn it alongside that one flowery top you have.”

Shu gently lobs his half-folded shirt onto the ground, reluctantly relinquishing the effort to deal with it to his morning self. “Shirts and undergarments are not the same.”

“Ah, but you still have that shirt after all, don’t y-"

Their teeth nearly clack again when Shu springs from the bed, hands at his neck and jaw.

The gentlest peck is created when Shu pulls away. He doesn’t make eye contact. “You talk too much.” Shu hits the pillow once more, resting his eyes. “Get on with it now.”

Rei smiles. He gets rid of his own clothing with the same amount of abandon as he had done for Shu’s. Once he is also bare, he resumes his position, hovering over Shu once more, taking him in his hand.

“Nngh,” Shu grunts.

It’s nice and warm, isn’t it? Rei watches as his lover’s face softly tenses. His grip is loose and his pace is slow, pumping in the shortest of strokes, encouraging Shu to grow fuller, firmer, in his hold. 

“Why such,” there’s an exhale, then a moan from Shu, “attention on me… What about yourself?”

Rei doesn’t answer, acutely focused on Shu’s micro-expressions, the rise and fall of his chest, and the way he sounds.

Shu cracks an eye open, looking between their bodies. Seeing Rei still very erect, he flushes, and he throbs against his hand. He opens his mouth to sigh, tongue swiping across his bottom lip, before he closes his eyes again.

When Rei feels Shu approach the size he’s so familiar with, he starts elongating his motions, alternating between a feather light touch and a tighter grasp.

He remembers it clearly. The one day he barged into Shu’s dorm, he expected him to be preoccupied with something innocuous like packing, reading, or sewing. What he saw instead was the man, staring terrified in the direction of the door he just opened, sitting on his bed playing with himself.

It was worth the objects flung to his head, the difficult task of getting the both of them to sit back down on the bed, and the time spent reassuring him. 

It was worth it to see his methods—his preferences. What appeared to be a remnant of childhood innocence in exploring his body, with a twinge of guilt and shame intermittently bleeding through, mixed with a blatant display of autoeroticism. To have seen Shu gradually melt in pleasure by his own volition, in what was supposed to be a quick self-maintenance of his, it was…

“A-Ah, ugh, I should’ve n-never,” Shu bucks into a loose hole of a hand, “let you watch!”

“Hmm? But ever since, I know how you really like it.” Rei emphasizes by adjusting his grip slightly.

The ensuing whine from his boyfriend is delectable. He slurps it up in a sloppy kiss, hand unstopping. While he’s around, he peppers another series of kisses near his forehead, his eyelids, his nose.

“Mm, mmm…!”

When Shu opens his eyes and sees Rei looking at him so full of lust, he bucks into his hand again, blushing harder. Ah, he’s really feeling it now…

Rei wants a taste of it. He can’t ignore the constant, quickening pulse running between his legs anymore. He brings himself up against Shu, almost wincing at the searing hot flesh. After he wraps more of his hand around himself, he thruuusts.

“Ungh…!” they both groan.

Rei squeezes his eyes shut when his forehead meets Shu’s. Their perspiration mingles like their fluids below as they pant the same air in a voiceless duet. Back and forth, back and forth, a peck on the top lip, a peck on the bottom, repeat.

At some point, Rei quits the alternating pressure, letting his hand grow sloppier, quicker, and tighter—something more his style. In response, Shu moans his name so brokenly that Rei’s heart aches.

He pecks once more, then opens his eyes to see his love. His eyebrows are scrunched in pleasure, his opening half-lidded eyes are full of him, complexion flushed, lips kissed pitifully sore-

“Fuck, I’m coming," Rei grits, squeezing his eyes shut again. His hand stills, and his rutting slows to a desperate thrust, two, three, until he spills over Shu’s cock and abdomen.

A shudder ripples all throughout his spine and he makes a last involuntary buck before he resumes breathing in pants. He remains hovering over Shu, an open palm resting against Shu’s hip. “Ugh…”

“Well.” Shu exhales, red and shakily. His dick pulses once as his hips slowly rest back against the mattress. “…Now that you’re finished, excuse me while I go to the bathroom to clean up.”

It takes a moment, but Rei comes back down to earth, and he quickly realizes that he was missing a passenger on his trip.

It’s adorable though. It’s adorable that Shu still tries to maintain that air of class while his cock is throbbing and his expression wasn’t begging for release just seconds prior.

Shu gets stopped before he could swing a leg off the mattress. “R-Rei! Wh-what are you- That’s dirty!”

So cute. Slurp. Rei’s hands firmly hold his love’s squirming hips in place, as he takes him fully inside of his mouth.

“Ah! Hah~” Shu makes an undignified noise crossed with a groan and a whine. His head hits the pillow again and hands flail weakly, finding themselves atop of Rei’s head—instead of finding the strength to push off, they rest, scrunching at the base of his hair.

“Ugh, Rei, no, you don’t… hah, mm, need-"

Rei swallows, bobbing his head and humming, and it isn’t long until the fingers in his hair squeeze tight.

“I-I’m close, I’m going to-"

His hand wraps around Shu once more, at the base, stroking upward towards his lips until he can taste it. He hears Shu groan from above. He closes his eyes. His Adam’s apple bounces and his hand slows to a stop. Making sure no drop is spilled, Rei lightly sucks as he ascends, coming off of Shu with a light pop.

Rising to a sitting position, Rei chuckles in between light coughs. That was certainly fun. He looks to Shu for another quip, but finds that the rise and fall of his chest has already transitioned from quick and erratic to slow, deep ones.

“Shu?” Rei blinks.

His eyelids remain closed, and his head remains unmoving, cheek planted against the pillow.

Ah. He really is out. Rei smiles.

As the person responsible for the mess, figuratively and literally, he leans to grab a few complementary tissues near the nightstand, tossing them after they’ve done their job. He plants one last kiss against Shu’s hair before he, finally, plops himself lazily next to Shu, draping the covers back onto them.

He knows. Tomorrow morning, they’ll head off in differing directions—one of them to the airport, and the other to a venue nearby. But for the rest of the night, as he drifts off to slumber, he can lay next to one of his beloved people for just a while longer.

Oh, and if he sounds a bit more rough around the edges than usual tomorrow? He’s sure the fans won’t mind at all. They might even prefer it.

 

 

———

 

 

An alarm is blaring and he’s not sure which phone it’s coming from. He feels it in his bones, his heavy eyelids. It’s much too early to be waking up. Another few hours at the very least, he begs to no one in particular.

Winning the battle to open his eyes, Rei clumsily grabs for his phone to shut off the alarm, and has a heart attack when he sees the notifications. Missed calls and texts from everyone in Undead. Belatedly, he realizes the only other celluar phone in the room is also going off.

He turns and sees Shu, not having moved from his position from last night. 

“Shu!” Rei jostles his shoulder. “Shu, wake up!”

The man stirs and it’s good enough for him. He glances back at his phone for the time; it was definitely later than he wanted to wake up at. The others would have to practice and warm up without him—actually they probably already have and are using the last of their free time viewing the venue. Still, if he hurried he could definitely make it. 

He leaves Shu to wake up in a similar manner as he did, alarm blaring and all, while rushing through his morning routine.

“IT’S ALREADY THIS LATE?”

Hopping and tugging his pants through a leg, he apologizes. “I know, I know!”

He grabs one of the hats next to Mademoiselle, chucks it onto his head and rushes for the door. “Check out for us? I’ll make it up to you another day!”

“Wait, Rei, that’s-!”

“I promise!”

Stumbling outside of the hotel, he shoots a quick text to Kaoru to tell him he’s on his way before silencing his phone. He’ll have to settle for vocal warm ups in the cab he’s taking. 

 

 

At the venue, he only has to look around for a few moments before he spots Undead in one of the more conspicuous areas to lounge around.

“Sorry I’m late,” he pants in a bow.

“Oh, Sakuma-senpai.”

“Damn, took you long enough! Was it a wardrobe malfunction or some…”

“Oi, isn’t that a Valkyrie hat?”

Kaoru’s observation makes Rei’s blood run cold and the rest of Undead silent, staring.

He straightens up from his bow, not breaking eye contact with Kaoru. And he almost doesn’t want to, but his hand feels the top of his head for the hat. His hands are gloved, so he cannot tell much of the texture. But the shape. The shape, while similar, is definitely not…

Footsteps behind him come to a stop at the same time he takes the hat from his head.

“ Rei. ”

A breeze of cold air hits him. Turning behind him like a jerky wind-up doll, Rei looks from low-heeled boots to an Undead cap in hand, a cellphone in the other, a hastily and not-fully buttoned shirt, then finally to a displeased and flushed man’s face.

The hickies… have most definitely not faded.

“I believe you have something of mine.” Shu says, holding a hand out after pocketing his phone.

Shu’s piercing gaze is enough to make Rei start fearing he’d forcibly remove the "Un" from Undead. “Ahaha…”

He swaps the caps with his boyfriend, his merciful and lovely angel of a boyfriend who loves him, with a nervous smile. “Um, so will you still be able to make your flight?”

Shu stares at him for a few long seconds. “No, I’ve decided I’m postponing.”

Rei rubs the back of his head. “Then, if you’re willing to stay for the performances, there’s a bakery nearby.”

Shu’s face softens, but not by much.

“I could buy a few croissants for you?”

Another few seconds pass before Shu sighs. “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline staying at the venue, as someone has left me the duty to check out properly before bolting off.”

Rei winces.

“But… I will take you up on your offer to treat me to some pastries.” Shu turns, starting to walk away. “After I settle my flights, check out, and return in a more presentable manner.”

Shu gives him a backward wave and he feels a sigh of his own rip through him. 

Turning back to his unit, he’s met with expressions ranging from embarrassed to downright judgmental.

“Yes?”

 

 

Their live goes well.