Ohtori frowned, glancing at the clock. Ryou had said he'd be home hours ago. Grabbing his cross, he rubbed his thumb over the middle of it repeatedly, praying desperate to whatever deity was listening that Shishido was all right.

It was cold out, and it had just rained. Ohtori had heard reports of black ice and accidents on the radio and seen some images when he'd watched the news. Possibly…?

No.

He wouldn't think like that. If he did, he'd panic and start calling all the hospitals. Just because Ryou wasn't answering his phone and was three hours late meant nothing. The subways could have been shut down, or maybe the buses were all jammed. Maybe he didn't have enough for a taxi and was walking home.

It didn't help that they had fought that morning and that things had been tense between them all night. Ohtori huddled in on himself on the couch and listened Tchaikovsky's Opus 13. It never failed to relax him, and it fit the season.

He must have drifted off to sleep because when he next opened his eyes, it was pitch black out, and there was a warm blanket wrapped around him. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and noticed a light coming from under the bedroom door.

Gathering the blanket up around him, he shuffled over to the door and opened it. Shishido was curled up on his side of the bed in one of the throws with a book and the bedside light on. He looked up as Ohtori closed the door behind him and crawled onto the bed.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Ohtori said, voice breaking. He sat about two feet away from Shishido, not certain whether or not he would be allowed to hug him to death.

"Do what?" Shishido asked bitterly, closing his book. "Fight with you?"

"No!" Ohtori cried. "Disappear like that on me! It's cold outside and there's black ice and there's been so many accidents…"

Shishido sighed and crooked his finger at Ohtori, pulling the other boy into a tight hug when he was close enough. "Idiot. I'm fine."

"You didn't have your phone on, I thought something terrible had happened," Ohtori sniffed, close to clinging to his lover. "I kept thinking that you might end up seriously hurt because of me and I couldn't stand that!"

Shishido sighed. "I holed up in some coffee shop until they kicked me out. Then I stopped by the book store to pick some things up and came home."

"When was that?" Ohtori asked, burying his face in the crook of Shishido's neck.

"About twenty minutes ago?" Shishido smiled. "I would have taken a picture of you sleeping on the couch if my phone didn't flash when I took pictures."

Ohtori grabbed on of Shishido's hands and smiled. "Cold hands, Ryou."

Shishido smiled wanly, "Not a cold heart?"

"Never!" Ohtori protested vehemently, the argument from that morning ringing through his mind. "You're not cold, Ryou!"

"Ah, shut up, will ya?" Shishido sighed. "I'm an idiot at times, we both know this. Every now and then I need to get smacked around to get the point across."

Ohtori blinked back tears and glared at his lover. "Stop saying that! I love you."

"I know," Shishido said, grinning lopsidedly. "Which is all I need to know." He kissed Ohtori's forehead and tapped his shoulder. "There's a bag on the kitchen table with something in it for you."

Ohtori frowned and wandered into the kitchen to root through the almost empty bag. He bit his lip to keep from grinning too widely or bursting into tears.

It was a book filled with large, detailed prints and photographs of many of Salvador Dali's paintings and statues. Ohtori had been trying to track it down for the past year, but there was a limited number printed before the publisher went out of business.

Ohtori turned to find Shishido standing in the doorway to the bedroom with a smile on his face. "My brother called me during lunch to tell me that it had come in," he said by way of explanation.

"Shishido Ryou," Ohtori said, putting the book down and turning to glare at his lover. "You are the most cunning, frustrating, dramatic, caring, and loving person I have ever know. You change, and I will do something drastic."

Shishido laughed. "Well then, you'll just have to stick around to make sure I stay this way. Now, c'mon. It's midnight, and if you don't get some sleep, Atobe'll have my ass."

"No he won't," Ohtori said with a pout, "because it's mine."

Shishido grinned and held the door open for Ohtori to walk through before closing it gently on the previous day.

...I think I need to resign my post as Queen of DDA. ><' All I'm writing is fluff. *needs something angsty!*

The End

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