Title: Heat

Author: Hawk Clowd

Disclaimer: Per usual, I own nothing and I want nothing. This story was written for the sake of my own enjoyment and hopefully the pleasure of others.

Blood Type: Sweat.

Warnings: The usual four-letter words.

Author's Note: I have shared my bed with several people over the years and have had this problem with only two people. While I know I can't call myself an expert on the subject, I can safely say that I write from experience. This time, at least. This story, also, was given the D.C. seal of approval. If you absolutely hate it, I can give you his email and screen name and you can beat him over the head with a two-by-four, because I never really intended to post this. If you really love it, I can still give you his email and screen name and you can slather him with kisses. Be warned, however, that he's taken and has a Mitch to hang about and slay anyone who gets too close. Anyway. Enjoy the story.

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Yuki Eiri, formerly and sometimes still known as Uesugi Eiri, hated to share his bed. Well, no, that wasn't exactly it. He had shared his childhood bed with his younger brother on innumerable occasions, after all, and he had never truly minded when any of his now-old girlfriends spent the night (something he'd allowed only after sex anyway). Truthfully, there was only one person he hated to share his bed with: Shindou Shuichi.

The problem, Eiri decided as he peeled the t-shirt he had worn to bed off his body and tossed it to the floor, was that it was not a very large bed and both he and Shuichi liked to sprawl all over the damned thing. Eiri obviously had the advantage, so far as the sprawling went, as he was larger and a bit heavier, and so he often ended up taking up the most space. When Shuichi ran out of sprawling room, however, he squirmed close to Eiri and made an attempt at cuddling. When that happened, their combined body heat made the room temperature go up noticeably and Eiri would always wake up, hot and uncomfortable and faced with the problem of getting back to sleep.

In short, Shuichi was a human furnace and Eiri was constantly getting burned.

The best solution to this dilemma, Eiri knew, would be to push Shuichi away and then settle back into a comfortable slumber. There was a problem with that solution: if Eiri forced Shuichi to move, Shuichi would wake up, feel dejected, and give Eiri the sad puppy dog eyes the following day, and Eiri simply couldn't stand that. Shuichi looked absolutely disgusting with huge watery eyes.

Given the lack of an easy solution with no strings attached, Eiri tried to fix things with smaller, more complicated remedies: leaving the window open, for instance, or wearing as little to bed as he possible could. Those helped, but not enough to completely rectify the situation, and so Eiri continued to wake up hot, sweaty, and miserable in the middle of the night.

Eiri eased out of Shuichi's grip to get some water and cringed when the sheets stuck to his skin. He drank his water, went back to bed, and eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

Not long afterward, Shuichi woke up.

Shindou Shuichi hated to share a bed. Well, no, this wasn't exactly true -- he'd shared a bed with Hiro and some of his other friends lots of times. Nah. What he hated, really, was sharing a bed with Yuki Eiri -- and even that wasn't entirely true. He loved the idea of sharing the bed with Yuki and he sometimes liked the actual sleeping part of it, too, but there was a problem. A big problem.

While he was sleeping, Eiri often went on a heat-seeking mission and ended up tangled and wrapped around Shuichi. Since Eiri was normally not a cuddler, this should have made Shuichi absolutely ecstatic. And, normally, it would have... except Eiri's heat-seeking missions always ended up overheating Shuichi, too, and so he would wake up in the middle of the night sweaty and hot and unbelievably uncomfortable.

Shuichi groaned and pulled out of Eiri's grasp. How could people live like this? And it wasn't like he could wake Eiri up or push him over or anything, because Eiri had issues with insecurity and stuff and would get all mean if he knew he was a secret nighttime cuddler, and Shuichi just couldn't stand that! Shuichi yawned and stripped off his shirt. The sweat made it cling to his skin and that was gross. Ah well. It was just one of those sacrifices he had to make for Yuki's sake.

Shuichi made a face and lay back down, eventually settling back into a spasmodic sleep.

The heat was unbearable but, the next morning, neither Eiri nor Shuichi said a word about it.

---end---