Unto the Dawn [Remix]
Title: Unto the Dawn
Rating: R
Group/Pairing: Ryo/Shige
Warnings: Drug use
Notes: natsudive~~ It was so much fun reading through your fics and deciding which one to remix! I tried to keep with Ryo/Shige as an odd couple and what seems to be Shige's frustrations about Ryo's lifestyle choices. ♥
Link to Original Story: All Night Long
Link to Original Writer: natsudive
College is a joke for Ryo before he even gets accepted. His uncle's business has an expansion plan, and in four years (four and a half, tops) there will be a cushy management position open with his nephew's name written all over it. The only reason Ryo is bothering with his B.A. shit is to kill time. He just needs to pass classes and not get kicked out of school. An easy four years of college leading up to a low-effort job that he can't get fired from. It's perfect.
The first thing he does at orientation is find the upperclassmen, and that starts not quite a downward spiral, but enough of one that Ryo that quickly get the reputation of being in that sort of crowd. Where classes are attended wearing sunglasses to hide dilated, bloodshot eyes and thermoses of what should be tea are filled with cocktails instead.
Considering how they are absolutely nothing alike, it makes no sense for Ryo and Shige to be friends. It's a connection born out of random circumstance, honestly.
Jin and Ryo roll with the same drinking, smoking crowd. Jin and Pi are childhood friends who have recently reconnected. Pi is on the dance team with Kusano, who lives off campus with the grade-obsessed, happy-with-no-social-life Shige.
He and Ryo have no similar hobbies, are utterly different people and don't view the purpose of college even somewhat alike. But, once Pi introduces them in the middle of spring semester, it's like they can't escape each other.
The next autumn, Ryo takes a philosophy class with Shige, solely because Ryo needs it for his Gen Eds, and he figures taking a class with someone you sort of know is better than taking it alone. Shige doesn't find out Ryo is in the course until the third class when Ryo decides to show up for the first time with an add/drop form. They're assigned to make a presentation together, and Ryo is almost bummed that Shige tries to get out of it by pleading with the professor.
"I have to get a good grade in this class to keep up my GPA, and Nishikido-kun is... well..."
"It's only 20% of your final grade, Katou-kun. Don't worry," the professor says, and leaves before Shige can make any more objections.
"Hey, partner," Ryo slurs at him after class, and takes a big sip from his thermos.
Shige frowns. "If you fuck this up for me, I will maim you."
Ryo isn't entirely sure what "maim" means, but he's pretty sure it has something to do with physical harm.
It is no surprise that Shige does all the work. They set up times to work together in the library, but Ryo always shows up late and disoriented and contributes nothing. Shige pours through books while Ryo plays on his phone and stretches out across three chairs, uncaring to how much his shirt is riding up. Shige snaps at him a lot and tries not to stare, but Ryo knows he's hot and doesn't really mind. On the day of the presentation, Shige has a well-organized powerpoint set up and gives Ryo a few index cards, with cues and his talking points written out clearly with furigana written above the more complicated kanji.
They get an A on the presentation, and Shige pointedly ignores Ryo for the rest of the semester.
After winter break, though, Shige finds it increasingly hard to avoid Ryo, who seems to take an inordinate amount of pleasure from hunting him down on campus and when he's on duty at the library.
It's early in their third year, before the semester's work gets heavy that Ryo starts to make keeping Shige company at his work-study job part of his routine.
"You don't need to be here," Shige always says, and Ryo will just smile and jump over the counter to the side where Shige is.
"I never thanked you," Ryo murmurs one night, half-asleep while Shige tries to study.
"For what?"
"The philosophy class. You did everything."
"Yes, I did."
"I got a C+. The best grade I've ever gotten."
Shige frowns. "You're a trust-fund baby, aren't you? You're just here to kill time before daddy hires you as a consultant and you spend the rest of your life making a huge paycheck without doing anything for it, huh?"
"No," Ryo mutters. He sits up, and then digs through his bag for his flask. "You have all the details wrong. It's my uncle, and I'll be a manager."
Ryo takes a swig, and Shige looks about ready to hit him.
"This is a library," he hisses, and takes the flask. "No eating or drinking."
The flask is heavy, and Shige knows it's nearly all full. Ryo stares at him, with a goading expression and a smirk. Shige glances at the clock -- 11: 52pm, eight minutes until he can close the library. He tips back the flask, and drinks the whole thing.
It's nearly dawn when they stumble through the door of Ryo's dorm room. His roommate's bedroom door is closed, and they giggle quietly as they struggle to take their shoes off. Shige's never been so drunk, and it feels freeing. Ryo has been this drunk before, but he's never had so many hash oil-laced cigarettes in one night; it makes his head feel airy and light and like he's watching a movie of his life.
Shige trips on nothing, and Ryo pulls him up by his belt. They fall into Ryo's bed -- which is far too small for two grown men -- and Shige mumbles something about having class in a few hours. Ryo kicks off his pants and reaches for another hash cigarette.
"Those things smell bad," Shige whines.
Ryo lights it up. "I love my hash oil."
"You're so annoying. Why can't you just get high off normal things, like alcohol and tobacco?"
"Got bored with 'em."
Ryo takes a drag and holds it in his lungs for what seems like forever. When he lets it out, it rolls in the air above his bed, and Shige coughs.
"Put it out," Shige complains, and Ryo shakes his head and moves to take another drag.
"Don't knock it till you've tried it."
Shige frowns, like he's ready with more complaints, and Ryo just uses it as an excuse to shotgun his exhale into Shige's mouth.
He's knocked back into the wall nearly immediately as Shige starts coughing.
"Ryo," he grumbles through the coughs.
Giggling, Ryo keeps puffing the smoke towards Shige until the cigarette dies out.
"I hate you," Shige croaks.
"You love me."
Shige tenses and shoves Ryo again. He rolls on top of Shige and presses his face against the other's neck.
"You smell like it now, you know. Like wonderful, high-flying hash."
"I hate you," Shige says again.
Ryo just grins against Shige's skin and licks a fat stripe from the underside of his jaw to his ear. "You taste like smoke."
Shige twitches, and Ryo slides his hands under Shige's shirt.
"You're going to miss your class regardless, so we should stay up a little later."
"... Doing what? I don't want to drink anymore."
Ryo pulls his hands back and unceremoniously strips Shige of his pants. He licks his lips, and Shige's drunken mind supplies him with the thought that there are worse things to stay up late doing and miss class for.
Early the next afternoon, Shige wakes up, stiff, naked, hungover and pressed against the wall by an equally naked (but still asleep) Nishikido Ryo.
Everything comes back like a slap to the face, and Shige nearly starts hyperventilating.
With much care, and complaint from his body, he crawls over Ryo to the edge of the bed, dressing quickly and quietly. He thanks whatever deities might still be looking upon him favorably that Ryo's roommate is out, and he leaves.
Ryo doesn't wake up for several more hours. But, when he does, he's only minorly hungover and his awful cotton mouth tells him he smoke too much last night. He takes a look at his pack -- only four left -- and when he does the math, Ryo swears at himself for smoking eight in one night.
"Bullshit you had eight in one night," Jin says when they go out for pizza. "That's extreme even for you."
"I think maybe all the alcohol canceled some of them out."
Jin frowns. "That doesn't even make sense."
"Besides, I think I might have given one to Shige, which means I only had seven."
"Shige?!" Jin shrieks. "Shige?! That's fucking hilarious. Him smoking a hash cigarette. Jesus fucking Christ, that's a great image."
"Well, I think he did, anyways." Ryo picks a few mushrooms off a piece. "We were drinking, and I think he crashed at my place, and we -- It's fuzzy. I can't quite remember, but he'd already left when I woke up."
Days later, Ryo finally finds Shige, having stalked him through the library stacks all the way to the history section.
"I'm sorry," Ryo says.
"Go away."
"I shouldn't have let you drink so much and have a hash cigarette. I'm sorry."
Shige drops a book. "You -- that." Shige frowns and stares at the floor. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"... Bar closed at four. Went back to my place... Did we find a beer vending machine? I can't remember. We passed out crammed in bed. Oh, that reminds me -- I'm also sorry for stripping. Normally, I don't do that."
Shige bites his lip. "Go away."
"You're still mad?"
"Yes," Shige snaps. "I'm still mad. Now, go away."
Ryo leaves, guiltily looking over his shoulder before he turns the corner of the shelves. He feels badly, but can't quite place why. Something other than the over-drinking and smoking and naked bed-mate has Shige pissed off, and Ryo wracks his brain for what else he might have done, but there's nothing.
Ultimately, he decides it was a good thing he didn't mention the dream the about a smokey-tasting Shige and slick skin and throaty moans that has been plaguing his thoughts since the morning he woke up alone and naked.
"Is Shige still mad at me?" Ryo asks Pi a few weeks later.
"Yeah. He gets this constipated look on his face when I mention you."
Ryo frowns, and Jin clicks his tongue. "It doesn't make sense for him to be so mad, for so long, just because you let him drink too much."
"Well, he is," Pi says, and Ryo decides to go back to the library that night.
He watches from behind a section of computers as Shige checks book out and waits until the rush dies down to approach the counter.
"You're still mad?"
Shige scans the barcode of a book and sighs. "I think I've moved onto being hurt."
"Wha- But. Shige, I'm sorry."
"You don't even know what you're apologizing for."
Ryo rubs his thumb across a scratch in the counter.
"Just... Promise you won't smoke those hash cigarettes around me. And also not before you meet me somewhere. They make you weird."
Ryo's eyes light up. "Really? And, you'll forgive me?"
Shige sighs. "Yeah. Either you're a great actor, or you really are sincere."
"I'm sincere," Ryo says. "I won't smoke them around you at all."
"Then, we're good."
"Let's hug it out." Ryo jumps over the counter and reaches for Shige.
"We don't need to hug it out," Shige says, recoiling and backing away from Ryo almost defensively.
"Come on, come here."
Ryo catches Shige around the wrist and pulls him close.
Shige frowns. "You smell like those damn cigarettes."
"The last time, I promise," Ryo laughs.
"It had better be," Shige grumbles.
But, it isn't, as Shige finds out a week and a half later when Ryo, in an attempt at selflessness, offers to pick him up and is two hours late. His breath and scent are heavy and earthy with the smell of marijuana hash; Shige frowns at the reminder.
Rating: R
Group/Pairing: Ryo/Shige
Warnings: Drug use
Notes: natsudive~~ It was so much fun reading through your fics and deciding which one to remix! I tried to keep with Ryo/Shige as an odd couple and what seems to be Shige's frustrations about Ryo's lifestyle choices. ♥
Link to Original Story: All Night Long
Link to Original Writer: natsudive
College is a joke for Ryo before he even gets accepted. His uncle's business has an expansion plan, and in four years (four and a half, tops) there will be a cushy management position open with his nephew's name written all over it. The only reason Ryo is bothering with his B.A. shit is to kill time. He just needs to pass classes and not get kicked out of school. An easy four years of college leading up to a low-effort job that he can't get fired from. It's perfect.
The first thing he does at orientation is find the upperclassmen, and that starts not quite a downward spiral, but enough of one that Ryo that quickly get the reputation of being in that sort of crowd. Where classes are attended wearing sunglasses to hide dilated, bloodshot eyes and thermoses of what should be tea are filled with cocktails instead.
Considering how they are absolutely nothing alike, it makes no sense for Ryo and Shige to be friends. It's a connection born out of random circumstance, honestly.
Jin and Ryo roll with the same drinking, smoking crowd. Jin and Pi are childhood friends who have recently reconnected. Pi is on the dance team with Kusano, who lives off campus with the grade-obsessed, happy-with-no-social-life Shige.
He and Ryo have no similar hobbies, are utterly different people and don't view the purpose of college even somewhat alike. But, once Pi introduces them in the middle of spring semester, it's like they can't escape each other.
The next autumn, Ryo takes a philosophy class with Shige, solely because Ryo needs it for his Gen Eds, and he figures taking a class with someone you sort of know is better than taking it alone. Shige doesn't find out Ryo is in the course until the third class when Ryo decides to show up for the first time with an add/drop form. They're assigned to make a presentation together, and Ryo is almost bummed that Shige tries to get out of it by pleading with the professor.
"I have to get a good grade in this class to keep up my GPA, and Nishikido-kun is... well..."
"It's only 20% of your final grade, Katou-kun. Don't worry," the professor says, and leaves before Shige can make any more objections.
"Hey, partner," Ryo slurs at him after class, and takes a big sip from his thermos.
Shige frowns. "If you fuck this up for me, I will maim you."
Ryo isn't entirely sure what "maim" means, but he's pretty sure it has something to do with physical harm.
It is no surprise that Shige does all the work. They set up times to work together in the library, but Ryo always shows up late and disoriented and contributes nothing. Shige pours through books while Ryo plays on his phone and stretches out across three chairs, uncaring to how much his shirt is riding up. Shige snaps at him a lot and tries not to stare, but Ryo knows he's hot and doesn't really mind. On the day of the presentation, Shige has a well-organized powerpoint set up and gives Ryo a few index cards, with cues and his talking points written out clearly with furigana written above the more complicated kanji.
They get an A on the presentation, and Shige pointedly ignores Ryo for the rest of the semester.
After winter break, though, Shige finds it increasingly hard to avoid Ryo, who seems to take an inordinate amount of pleasure from hunting him down on campus and when he's on duty at the library.
It's early in their third year, before the semester's work gets heavy that Ryo starts to make keeping Shige company at his work-study job part of his routine.
"You don't need to be here," Shige always says, and Ryo will just smile and jump over the counter to the side where Shige is.
"I never thanked you," Ryo murmurs one night, half-asleep while Shige tries to study.
"For what?"
"The philosophy class. You did everything."
"Yes, I did."
"I got a C+. The best grade I've ever gotten."
Shige frowns. "You're a trust-fund baby, aren't you? You're just here to kill time before daddy hires you as a consultant and you spend the rest of your life making a huge paycheck without doing anything for it, huh?"
"No," Ryo mutters. He sits up, and then digs through his bag for his flask. "You have all the details wrong. It's my uncle, and I'll be a manager."
Ryo takes a swig, and Shige looks about ready to hit him.
"This is a library," he hisses, and takes the flask. "No eating or drinking."
The flask is heavy, and Shige knows it's nearly all full. Ryo stares at him, with a goading expression and a smirk. Shige glances at the clock -- 11: 52pm, eight minutes until he can close the library. He tips back the flask, and drinks the whole thing.
It's nearly dawn when they stumble through the door of Ryo's dorm room. His roommate's bedroom door is closed, and they giggle quietly as they struggle to take their shoes off. Shige's never been so drunk, and it feels freeing. Ryo has been this drunk before, but he's never had so many hash oil-laced cigarettes in one night; it makes his head feel airy and light and like he's watching a movie of his life.
Shige trips on nothing, and Ryo pulls him up by his belt. They fall into Ryo's bed -- which is far too small for two grown men -- and Shige mumbles something about having class in a few hours. Ryo kicks off his pants and reaches for another hash cigarette.
"Those things smell bad," Shige whines.
Ryo lights it up. "I love my hash oil."
"You're so annoying. Why can't you just get high off normal things, like alcohol and tobacco?"
"Got bored with 'em."
Ryo takes a drag and holds it in his lungs for what seems like forever. When he lets it out, it rolls in the air above his bed, and Shige coughs.
"Put it out," Shige complains, and Ryo shakes his head and moves to take another drag.
"Don't knock it till you've tried it."
Shige frowns, like he's ready with more complaints, and Ryo just uses it as an excuse to shotgun his exhale into Shige's mouth.
He's knocked back into the wall nearly immediately as Shige starts coughing.
"Ryo," he grumbles through the coughs.
Giggling, Ryo keeps puffing the smoke towards Shige until the cigarette dies out.
"I hate you," Shige croaks.
"You love me."
Shige tenses and shoves Ryo again. He rolls on top of Shige and presses his face against the other's neck.
"You smell like it now, you know. Like wonderful, high-flying hash."
"I hate you," Shige says again.
Ryo just grins against Shige's skin and licks a fat stripe from the underside of his jaw to his ear. "You taste like smoke."
Shige twitches, and Ryo slides his hands under Shige's shirt.
"You're going to miss your class regardless, so we should stay up a little later."
"... Doing what? I don't want to drink anymore."
Ryo pulls his hands back and unceremoniously strips Shige of his pants. He licks his lips, and Shige's drunken mind supplies him with the thought that there are worse things to stay up late doing and miss class for.
Early the next afternoon, Shige wakes up, stiff, naked, hungover and pressed against the wall by an equally naked (but still asleep) Nishikido Ryo.
Everything comes back like a slap to the face, and Shige nearly starts hyperventilating.
With much care, and complaint from his body, he crawls over Ryo to the edge of the bed, dressing quickly and quietly. He thanks whatever deities might still be looking upon him favorably that Ryo's roommate is out, and he leaves.
Ryo doesn't wake up for several more hours. But, when he does, he's only minorly hungover and his awful cotton mouth tells him he smoke too much last night. He takes a look at his pack -- only four left -- and when he does the math, Ryo swears at himself for smoking eight in one night.
"Bullshit you had eight in one night," Jin says when they go out for pizza. "That's extreme even for you."
"I think maybe all the alcohol canceled some of them out."
Jin frowns. "That doesn't even make sense."
"Besides, I think I might have given one to Shige, which means I only had seven."
"Shige?!" Jin shrieks. "Shige?! That's fucking hilarious. Him smoking a hash cigarette. Jesus fucking Christ, that's a great image."
"Well, I think he did, anyways." Ryo picks a few mushrooms off a piece. "We were drinking, and I think he crashed at my place, and we -- It's fuzzy. I can't quite remember, but he'd already left when I woke up."
Days later, Ryo finally finds Shige, having stalked him through the library stacks all the way to the history section.
"I'm sorry," Ryo says.
"Go away."
"I shouldn't have let you drink so much and have a hash cigarette. I'm sorry."
Shige drops a book. "You -- that." Shige frowns and stares at the floor. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"... Bar closed at four. Went back to my place... Did we find a beer vending machine? I can't remember. We passed out crammed in bed. Oh, that reminds me -- I'm also sorry for stripping. Normally, I don't do that."
Shige bites his lip. "Go away."
"You're still mad?"
"Yes," Shige snaps. "I'm still mad. Now, go away."
Ryo leaves, guiltily looking over his shoulder before he turns the corner of the shelves. He feels badly, but can't quite place why. Something other than the over-drinking and smoking and naked bed-mate has Shige pissed off, and Ryo wracks his brain for what else he might have done, but there's nothing.
Ultimately, he decides it was a good thing he didn't mention the dream the about a smokey-tasting Shige and slick skin and throaty moans that has been plaguing his thoughts since the morning he woke up alone and naked.
"Is Shige still mad at me?" Ryo asks Pi a few weeks later.
"Yeah. He gets this constipated look on his face when I mention you."
Ryo frowns, and Jin clicks his tongue. "It doesn't make sense for him to be so mad, for so long, just because you let him drink too much."
"Well, he is," Pi says, and Ryo decides to go back to the library that night.
He watches from behind a section of computers as Shige checks book out and waits until the rush dies down to approach the counter.
"You're still mad?"
Shige scans the barcode of a book and sighs. "I think I've moved onto being hurt."
"Wha- But. Shige, I'm sorry."
"You don't even know what you're apologizing for."
Ryo rubs his thumb across a scratch in the counter.
"Just... Promise you won't smoke those hash cigarettes around me. And also not before you meet me somewhere. They make you weird."
Ryo's eyes light up. "Really? And, you'll forgive me?"
Shige sighs. "Yeah. Either you're a great actor, or you really are sincere."
"I'm sincere," Ryo says. "I won't smoke them around you at all."
"Then, we're good."
"Let's hug it out." Ryo jumps over the counter and reaches for Shige.
"We don't need to hug it out," Shige says, recoiling and backing away from Ryo almost defensively.
"Come on, come here."
Ryo catches Shige around the wrist and pulls him close.
Shige frowns. "You smell like those damn cigarettes."
"The last time, I promise," Ryo laughs.
"It had better be," Shige grumbles.
But, it isn't, as Shige finds out a week and a half later when Ryo, in an attempt at selflessness, offers to pick him up and is two hours late. His breath and scent are heavy and earthy with the smell of marijuana hash; Shige frowns at the reminder.