Fic written for the Pointless but Original Talking Forum Holiday Fic Exchange.
Request Number: 06
Pairing/Groups: Platinum, Sweet, Pretty, KiriAn, Thrill is also okay
Squicks/Turn Offs in Fic: Nothing really
What You'd Like to See in Fic: Whatever the writer can come up with is fine by me =)
Gen/Het/Slash/Smut/None/All-of-the-above?: 8D The more the merrier~
Request:Doesn't need to be AU or anything, but I'd like to read about (insert characters here) and a food store of some sort. It could be a restaurant or a bakery or a convenience store or whatever, but I'd like to have some sort of location like that included.

Notes: Shounen-ai, mood-swings, strangeness

Beta: doroniasobi, SakuraIroKaze

Messenger to Receiver: I don't know if this is what you wanted, so please don't be too disappointed? XD This came out differently in my head, really.

Disclaimer: Let's be reasonable now, shall we?

I don't usually notice things as much as a regular person does, partially because I'm always so tired. I'm always so sleepy, really, so so sleepy.

These days I'm sleeping everywhere, from Kabaji's arms to Atobe's helicopter on the way to school. These days I only get up for exams and tennis. And sometimes not even to Atobe, unless he yells loud enough.

I'm so tired.

My mom's worried, saying that it's not healthy for me to be like this. But I can't find it in myself to care, since I'm already half asleep while she's talking. And if I'm asleep when she finishes, she's going to cry, but that doesn't hurt as much as it did before because I can't see the tears.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm always so tired, but that just distracts me from the little time I spend awake, so I push the thoughts out of my head.

Lately, mom has been baking a lot. I think she heard that sugar often makes kids hyper and happy.

My mom can't bake.

So I guess I really shouldn't be surprised when I come home from school to see a bag of apple crisps on the table. They smell good, and the packaging tells me that she didn't make them, so that means they can't possibly poison me.

They're good, and after I finish the first one, I'm reaching for the second one, sharing be damned.

And then I hear the door open and close, and suddenly she's in the doorway, her purse on the floor and tears in her eyes.

"Welcome home." I smile a little, biting into the pastry.

If the huge bear-hug she's giving me is any indication, I think she likes me better when I'm awake.

Apples keep me awake, I find out. There's something about that sweet taste that makes me wake up and want to eat it. Atobe's now fully using this to his advantage, and mom's ordering the best apple-pastries from around the world to be stocked in our pantry.

I'm sleeping more at night now, but I still can't but feel so tired sometimes. So, so tired.

Now that Nationals are over and exams are coming up, nothing excites me anymore.

But one day, I'm walking home from school and a waft of apple fills my nose, and I look towards a small bakery I never noticed before, one with fresh homemade apple pie.

So it doesn't really surprise my half-awake mind as I trudge my way through the streets to step into the small bakery and smile.

And that's when I see you.

"Oh my god!" I shout, pointing at my biggest idol in the whole universe. "It's Marui Bunta! Marui-kun! Hi!"

You snap your gum and raise your eyebrows at me. Then as you back away from the counter slightly, I think you remember that incident where I tried to kidnap you that once a few months ago.

But that doesn't really bother me because the next thing I'm doing is I'm up in your face and babbling.

"I never thought I'd see you again, Marui-kun! This is so exciting! Do you still play tennis? Do you want to? With me, maybe? Not now, of course, since I didn't know you'd be here, I really didn't!"

Your bubble pops. "Really?" Your voice is thick with sarcasm.

"Really!" I nod, grinning. "Or else I would've come way earlier!" I stretch out my arms to emphasize how much earlier I would've come to this shop.

You let out a grin, and it's really just so handsome, and you blow another bubble.

"So do you just come into random bakeries and bounce around or do you want to order something?" You chuckle. "Not like I'm busy or anything, this part-time job isn't really that important. I just need money." At the last part you sound a bit wistful, and I almost comment on it but then I see the pastries.

Pressing my face against the glass, I eye them all, almost drooling. "I… I want that one!" I point at an apple-crusted round pastry I've never seen before and I clap my hands in glee as you take it out for me. Dropping the money in your hand, I sit down in one of the two small tables in the bakery.

Just as I'm about to bite into it, you make a somewhat strangled sound. "Aren't you going to wash your hands?" You make a face.

And that's how I learned that you, my idol, are a germ freak.

I laugh at you and take the sanitizing lotion offered to me and suddenly I realize I'm not so tired anymore.

I come to the bakery often now, and my mom's just happy that I'm making some friends. You seem a bit suspicious though, since I'm supposed to be sleepy all the time, so when I go in there today, after I make excited small-talk and eat a pastry, I put my head on the table and close my eyes.

It's funny how the only time I can't sleep I'm pretending to be. You think I'm asleep, but I'm not, I'm fully awake and this is the time I learn the most about you.

Like today, when two people come in and I open my eyes a tiny bit just so that I can see them. For once, they're not old people and one is in the Rikkai uniform. You greet them with lots and lots of laughter.

I realize that the boy is Kirihara Akaya and I stiffen. I don't like him, he hurt Fuji-kun who's also my idol, but of course he's second to you. Beside him is a girl I don't know, and with a start I realize they're holding hands.

After teasing them, you finally take their orders and a blushing and stuttering 'demon' leaves the bakery immediately, dragging the girl after him.

"Bye, Akaya, An-chan!" You laugh, and I get a little jealous, because you only started calling me Jirou-kun long after we first met.

"Ne, Marui-kun," I say one day, grinning up at you. "Why do you work here? It doesn't look like you like it." Of course, you might not like it, but I like it a lot, especially since I get to see you every day.

"No, I don't." You frown, popping a new strand of gum into your mouth. "I need the money, that's all." And as my eyes go wide, you hurry to correct yourself. "It's for a present. Don't worry, I'm not in any sort of financial crisis, I'm not being bullied, and my parents aren't kidnapped and I don't have to pay ransom."

I sigh in relief. "A present? For who?"

"Someone." And just that look in your eyes makes me upset. He's your boyfriend, isn't he? And I just know that when you talk about me to your friends (if you even talk about me at all), you'd never get that look.

"Your boyfriend, ne?" I smile, but it's fake, and you wouldn't be able to tell since you're too busy re-applying hand sanitizer.

You just cough and say, "It's going to be our first anniversary."

If my mom notices that I come home earlier that day, she doesn't say anything.

I'm supposed to be sleeping again, but this time I'm in the process of fake-yawning when two new people come in again. I almost wonder aloud why there are so many couples around when I catch sight of just who it is.

"Oh my god!" I interrupt their conversation and your call of surprise, my eyes opening wide. "It's Fuji-kun! My two idols are here! Do you come here often, Fuji-kun? Marui-kun works here and they have the most delicious pastries! Oh, and hi Echizen-kun! Are you guys on a date? That's so cool!"

You burst into laughter as Fuji-kun chuckles and Echizen's frozen into shock.

It's during times like this, when Fuji-kun's sweetly explaining how Echizen confessed, Echizen's cowering under his hat, and you're laughing that adorable laugh of yours that make me happy that I'm no longer sleepy anymore.

Atobe's really happy these days. Even though he's about to graduate, he says that he wants to have one last Hyoutei memory, and it would be lovely if I could keep up my happy-streak for that long of a time.

My mom's giving me a lot of hugs lately. There's not much that I can do wrong, especially since I'm actually awake most of the time. She says she's happy that "that phase" is over.

I'm equally as happy as they are, if not more so, because I'm spending so much time with you. It's impossible for me to go a day without seeing your face nowadays. You always greet me happily now, giving me a pastry before I even ask, and you talk with me for a while, before I settle down and try to sleep.

In actual fact, though, I'm too excited to sleep, because I know that these days are precious, and I could never sleep around you, really. One day, you were chewing apple flavoured gum and I almost kissed you right there, but that wouldn't of been right, since you have a boyfriend.

It doesn't matter to me, though, since even though I love you, you'll never think of me of more than a friend or a fanboy. Besides, when you count up the money in the cashier and flip open your cell phone to answer a text, I see your little smiles that you show when you think no one's looking.

So while you carefully smile at whomever you love so much, I'm pretending to sleep, and valuing these last days because in my heart, I know that you won't think twice about quitting this job after you get enough money to buy that gift for him.

But I can't do anything about it. I can't not frown while thinking about him, and I can't stop myself from coming here every day to take you closer to him with every pastry that I eat. I can't stop you from thinking about him.

So all I do is be a good little fanboy and slump over this table, trying to sleep when really, there's too many things keeping me awake.

I'm sleeping, or at least, I should be, when two more Rikkai people come in, and this time there's no cheerful hellos or teasing jokes. There is, however, a lot of silence.

I crack open a sliver of an eye and see a familiar sight. Two boys, dressed in the Rikkai uniform, are holding hands and they're standing quite close. With mixed emotions, I notice that they're the infamous Doubles 1 pair, the pair that can switch around and fool even their own team mates.

Your face is hardened, and it's twisted, and your mouth is open but no words are coming out. The rat-tailed one, Niou, I think, stares at you just as intensely and doesn't let go of the other's hand. Yagyuu, the other half, is just staring off into space, and my stomach knots up.

Shutting my eyes as you begin screaming and he begins shouting, I try desperately to fall asleep because for once, I don't want to be awake.

It doesn't work, though. As your voice starts to sound like it's cracking and he's swearing and Yagyuu is still silent, I almost feel like crying because you're crying, and I don't need to open my eyes to see it. I know that the sound's not going to go away even when I sleep tonight.

When they leave, I don't open my eyes or comfort you or do anything, because I can hear your sobs and your swearing and your heart breaking and I just don't know what to do.

So I just keep my head on the table and pretend to sleep, because that way maybe you wouldn't yell at me either.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when I come today and it's a different boy working the cashier. I suppose I shouldn't frown when he says that he's the new worker here, and please take your order sir.

I suppose I shouldn't be upset when I find that the pastries don't taste the same, not when I'm sitting on that table alone and silent.

I suppose I shouldn't be that disappointed as I walk out of the bakery, because of course you don't need the money or the job anymore, and of course you never needed me in the first place.

It's just that all of a sudden, I'm so very tired.

I'm tired. I don't want to wake up, so please stop shaking me, Arm-san.

No, really. I'm sleeping, so stop shaking me. I don't want to talk. I don't want to get up. I just want to sleep.

Besides, I just know that you, Arm-san, aren't the one I want to wake up to.

That doesn't work, anymore, you know. That apple-scented perfume is a joke, and I'm not getting up. I don't care if it's school. I don't care if it's my graduation ceremony. I'm going to sleep, and nothing's going to change that.

There's no point in waking up if I'm just going to go back to sleep. Nothing's going to wake me up, nothing anymore.

I don't have a reason for waking up, so stop shaking me. It's not going to work.

I'm going to be a good little fanboy and sleep.

I'm really so, so tired.