Deeply relaxed, I exhale and enjoy the feel of the soft fabric of the blanket against my skin. A familiar sound enters my ears and as the metal pipes in the walls reveal that running water is running through them, I sigh into my pillow, rested. Still half asleep, I turn my head toward the bathroom with my eyes closed and snuggle further into the lightly mint-scented bedcovers. I doze lightly until I hear the shower water being turned off and a mischievous smile steals onto my lips.
He should be coming out of the bathroom any moment now, and just the thought of it sends a pleasant tingle through my stomach. Not a second later, the bathroom door opens and I open my eyes for the first time to look at Chishiya. Unfortunately, he is not wearing a towel around his waist as I expected, but his everyday clothes. The only difference from his normal appearance in the hotel is that water is dripping down sporadically from some of the strands of his hair at the back and he has only half-heartedly zipped up his vest, causing the metal handle to jingle repeatedly at the level of his midriff.
With my right foot, with an admittedly provocative ulterior motive, I pull the white bed sheet around my body further down until it reaches my tailbone and exposes my bare skin. I have to bite my lower lip slightly to keep from laughing at myself and try to acknowledge it with a smirk.
I don't have to wait patiently for long before I catch his attention and his gaze drifts to me. Suppressing a cheeky grin, I close my eyes, but can feel his gaze gliding over my body. A furtive smile stalks my lips and though he seems distracted right now, eyeing my bare back, I try to hide it and press my face sleepily into the pillow. I hear a puffing grin, yet his elevation tells me he's got something planned, so he's already dressed.
"Really, already?", I just mumble and instantly relax as the mattress to my right presses in a bit. Without opening my eyes again, I know he's joined me at the edge of the bed and I'm already expecting a dismissive comment. But when I suddenly feel his warm breath on my skin, I sigh out with pleasure and enjoy how the air that leaves his lungs brushes my shoulder. A pleasant shiver spreads through me and when he pushes the hair on the back of my neck slightly to the side, a pleasant sound escapes me.
I lay my head in his direction and when he lightly brushes his index finger silently across my chin area, I turn to him and gently pull him to me.
"Sure you have to go already?", I whisper, not avoiding a slightly disappointed undertone. Instinctively, my gaze wanders back and forth between his eyes as a strand of his front hair lightly tickles my cheek. Carefully, I trace his cheekbone with the tip of my index finger and wander downward and backward to his neck with a dreamy look at this touch. When I look back into his eyes, our gazes meet and I realize how he's been watching my features with fascination the entire time.
"I've been meaning to look at the new guy, Arisu. Kuina and I were going to have a talk with him sometime," he replies. I furrow my eyebrows slightly, Chishiya doesn't exactly talk to people in the Beach willingly unless he has some sort of plan. Oh man, should I stay out of this? If anyone knows what they're doing, it's Chishiya. Automatically, the corner of my mouth twitches upward, and even if it's only for a millisecond, the man next to me seems to notice. I don't think I've ever really realized how relieving it is to know that pretty much no game could beat him. Take Yuudai and Izumi, for example. I don't want to imagine what it's like to leave for a match and while trying to survive, have to worry about the other person.
"Sure you can't postpone it?", I ask with an honest smile at the thought, elegantly grazing the side of his leg with my foot. I notice him draw in a heavier breath than necessary, but the look on his face tells me he can't rearrange his plans.
"Yes," he says, his eyebrows drawing together imperceptibly before he pulls away from me slightly again and leans back against the back of the bed. Despite his statement, a winning smile creeps onto my lips and my cheeks begin to glow as he obviously has at least a little trouble with it.
Playfully I lick with my tongue over my lower lip and while I pull the white sheet over my upper body again I turn to him. Without a word from me I stroke lightly with my hand over the hem of his white vest and exhale relaxed in the direction of his ear. Although he doesn't seem to like the fact that I notice a slight goose bump forming on him, I grin triumphantly and run my hand under the fabric of his vest to his chest.
"Can I come with you?", I ask already without much hope. Spending all day in bed worrying about my game is literally going to drive me crazy. I didn't tell him about my dream or my lapse in conversation with Ann. It would be unnecessary to waste the time with him for that, I mean what would he say? That I shouldn't waste my thoughts on something so trivial, but rather concentrate and keep my focus.
Since I didn't sleep much this night, the images of the nightmare burn themselves more and more clearly into my brain, the more I lie quietly in the white sheets. It is as if the bad premonitions become more and more clear the closer the game gets. I notice that while I was thinking, I subconsciously put more pressure on his chest with my fingers, so I shake my head briefly and carefully run my fingernails over his skin again. How can a dream affect me like that?
"Nothing really speaks against it"
"Huh?", puzzled I look at him and try to analyze his facial features carefully. Has he noticed that I'm way too preoccupied with my thoughts? Wait, I get to go with you? He thinks, but doesn't seem to regret his answer.
"Really?", I ask again, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. Until now, I've always stayed out of his plans regarding the beach, and now he wants to involve me?
"You and Arisu seem to get along, he likes you. That could be an advantage," he says thoughtfully and a slight smile stalks my lips, "Hurry up though, I think I know where he might be at this hour."
Still surprised but still determined I stand up and put on my clothes from yesterday. My game clothes, I think subconsciously I wanted to prepare for the next game the previous day. I seem to have reacted more hectically than expected so that he doesn't have the chance to change his mind, because I hear him snort in amusement. I'm glad he doesn't lecture me on what I need to watch out for so we don't look too familiar. That means either he trusts me to have this minimum amount of sense, or he knows I'll follow the unspoken rules anyway.
Silently I follow him out of the room and inconspicuously rub the sleep out of my eyes. Getting up so quickly is not my style, especially without getting a coffee in the cafeteria. We pick up Kuina on the second floor near the gallery, and while I trot after Chishiya's white wese at a thoughtful distance, my friend with the dreadlocks winks at me and strolls comfortably beside me.
"You here?"
"Yes," I say briefly bounding up, but her trusting face and the gentle expression in it makes me continue after a brief pause, "I just want to distract myself before tonight and he didn't mind"
"I thought between you it was always unspoken whether you really meant it then to go along when everything was going down the drain here" she turns her straw in her mouth but her gaze twitches uneasily to me for a moment. "Well, he avoided working out or discussing a plan in front of you".
"I may not have always told him everything, but I never lied to him. If you want to leave, I'll come with you" I still hesitate with daring digressions "I have a feeling at the Beach everything is slowly imploding, as if he had foreseen it"
Nodding, I unobtrusively point at the man in front of us and Kuina seems to understand. Only now do I recognize the corridor and the unlit sign on the iron door four meters away tells me that we are heading for the roof. Chishiya certainly takes a direction and Kuina follows him into the blazing sun without being asked, but I remain standing in the shadow of the small staircase cottage and watch them at a safe distance.
