Ruki was one of those people who loved to snuggle beside his lover during sleep at night. It always made him fast asleep and somehow it made him feel…safe. Being embraced in his lover arms at night, in those quite hours, when they had a little world of their own, was the best feeling he had ever had. And the best part of it all was that said lover he adored the most was none other than his own band mate, the oh-so-manly bassist of the GazettE known as Reita. But he was so proud to be able to call him Akira, his childhood name, the true self behind that famous noseband which all fangirls were dying to see all of this time.

They were officially in a relationship for almost over a year now, and they currently shared an apartment in one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo. For Ruki, living together with Reita was like a dream come true. Had been hiding his feelings for so long, he almost had a heart attack when the bassist confessed his feelings to the vocalist on last year’s Valentine’s Day. And no, Reita never took his love for granted. He thanked God who had given him those opportunities to see his lover’s angelic face every morning when he opened his eyes, to see the strong shoulders moved rhythmically with every breath he took, to have those strong arms wrapped securely around his body as if protecting him from this cruel world. He cherished every moment he had been giving.

Oh how Ruki loved those moments…

But now, something was bothering him…

Yes, he was still asleep. Even though he was still in deep slumber, he realized that something’s just not quiet right. It was something that made him feel vulnerable and exposed to his surroundings. That something finally forced his beautiful eyelids open. A pair of eyes slowly met the real world. Ruki blinked once, twice, three times, before finally he was able to adjust his eyesight to the dim light of the room. And as soon as his consciousness came back to life, the source of his sudden insecurity was finally revealed.

Reita was not there…

The guardian who was supposed to be on his side was absent…

“Akira…?”

Like a lightning struck, the vocalist sat up abruptly. His eyes wide opened, exploring all over the room with subtle glances. A breath hitched in his chest when he didn’t find any sign of Reita inside the room.

“’Kira…?” called the younger man once again, but he had nothing in response.

The vocalist took a glance at the table clock and sighed when he saw that it was still 2 a.m in the morning. Ruki immediately get off of his comfortable blanket and absentmindedly threw it on the floor. He tried to stand up. The moment his skinny bare feet touched the cold tiles, he felt slight chill running down his spine. His steps brought him towards the place where he would most likely find his boyfriend : the balcony. Reita was probably smoking at the moment but that wasn’t the case.

His lover wasn’t there beside him in this early hour. That was the problem.

But…isn’t it too early to have a smoke in the balcony…? Besides, nothing was wrong when we came back from the meeting last night.

Slowly, Ruki grabbed the handle of the sliding door separating his room and the balcony. He opened the glass furniture rather impatiently and what he saw surprised him.

There was Reita, wearing only a pair of jeans that rode dangerously low on his hips. His bare back stretched perfectly, showing every trained muscle up to his strong shoulders. The strong and cold night wind playfully touched his soft blonde hair and it made the younger male hypnotized for a fraction second. But then, his gaze fell back to the one thing that made him surprised at the first place and Ruki felt like his heart was about to jump out of his ribcage.

There was his lover, sitting on the edge of the balcony with both legs hanging loosely on the outer side of it.

“Akira, what are you doing here…?”

Those barely whispered words flew softly from the vocalist plush lips and slowly reached Reita’s ear, making him turned half of his body around, and smiled when he saw the lithe figure standing in front of the sliding door only in his boxer and a linen white shirt.

“What do you mean what am I doing here? What are you doing here…?”

Ruki moved a couple of steps closer to the bassist, worry clearly shown in his beautiful orbs. “Aki, get inside, now! Sitting on the edge of the balcony like that, it’s dangerous!”

But the only reply he got was only a chuckle. “It’s not, Taka. Look at the city below us, it’s beautiful…”. And the Reita turned his body around once again, resuming his previous activity there.

“Akira, I me—“

“How long have we known each other, honey?”

The vocalist stopped on his track as he was taken aback by the sudden change of question. His brain worked surprisingly slow processing Reita’s last question and could only produce one syllable.

“Huh…?”

Reita didn’t make any response at his lover’s lack of answer. But even though the vocalist could only stare at the bassist’s back, somehow he knew that his lover was smiling at him.

“This is the best thing that ever happened to me…you know, to have you here by my side, through all of the ups and downs…”

The younger male could only nod, didn’t quite sure where this conversation would lead to. So he finally chose to listen to his lover and not to think about Reita’s weird behavior.

“I want to tell you a secret, Taka…”

Huh…? A secret…?

Ruki could feel his heart beat faster at the last statement the bassist just said to him. He didn’t like the thick atmosphere surrounding them at the moment. But even though the situation was more than just awkward to the younger, this time, Ruki calmly answered.

“What secret…?”

He saw his lover turned his head around and gave him a beautiful smile, a smile Ruki loved the most. But when suddenly Reita stood up abruptly on the edge of the balcony, stretching both arms beside his well built torso like a pair of wings, Ruki couldn’t help but freaked out at the scene. His eyes snapped open at the terrifying sight.

“Whoa whoa whoa!! Akira, what the hell you think you’re doing? Get down!! For God’s sake, get down, now!!”

Ruki moved closer to his lover and shouted frantically at him, telling him to get down.

“Akira, are you trying to give me a heart attack?!! Get down!! Now!!”

But much to his surprise, Ruki saw his lover smile at him, reaching out one of his hands to him.

“Come here, Taka…”

And those softly spoken words magically calmed the furious vocalist down. When those words slipped out of Reita’s lips, Ruki felt like the time had stopped. He could only stare at those deep brown eyes of his lover, the eyes that held so much mystery he himself wasn’t able to solve, then move his gaze to the outstretched hand in front of him.

“Taka…”

Hearing his name being called, the vocalist brought back his eyes to gaze at his lover’s. He couldn’t take his eyes off those brown orbs, mesmerized by them as if he was roughly pulled into a strong magnetic field with no chance to escape.

“Do you trust me…?”

And Ruki simply nodded. If there was one person whom he could trust with his life, then that person must be Reita.

Slowly, the vocalist took the hand in front of him. He then got on the edge of the balcony and finally stood up beside Reita.

Oh my God… This is weird… This is wrong… This is so wrong…

Ruki stole a glance at his left side and gasped. His feet suddenly became weak and he almost slumped down on his knees. Luckily a pair of strong arms successfully caught his body in time, or else his body would make an outstanding freefall stunt for his neighbor.

“I got you, love… I got you…” Those arms now wrapped securely around his waist, pulling him up onto his feet once again. “Don’t look down…”

The vocalist stood rigid in his lover’s embrace. His brain already had a list of possibilities about Reita’s odd behavior, and just thinking about it made his body shaking violently.

“Taka…look at me…”

The elder softly whispered. But Ruki stubbornly refused to follow the order. He shook his head slowly. “No…this is crazy…you’re crazy, ‘Kira…”

He could hear the bassist sighed and the next moment he felt a hand on his chin, softly urging him to look up. And he did… And once again, he was mesmerized by what he saw.

“You have to trust me…”

Strangely, Ruki found nothing but honesty, and strong determination inside those deep brown eyes. And when he saw that beautiful smile again, the insecurity that was holding him so tightly a moment ago was suddenly gone.

“I trust you, Akira…” and he felt the arms around his waist tightened.

Yes…I trust you, ‘Kira…with all I have… I don’t know what you will do to me, to us. But I know that whatever it is you’re planning at, you will never disappoint me, you will never make me sad. And yes, I will follow you, wherever you may go. To the hell and back, it doesn’t matter anyway. I will follow you… I trust you… Because I—

“I love you, Takanori…”

Ruki didn’t even have a chance to finish his thought because in the next half of a second, Reita already stepped off of the balcony and took him along. The vocalist could only hold on tightly to the body next to him, both falling down freely as if being pulled down by the gravity.

So this is it, Akira… Take me wherever you will go. I don’t care if I die now, as long as I have you here by my side…

The vocalist saw the ground below him getting bigger and bigger with every second passed. But strangely, he didn’t feel afraid…

The ground is getting closer and closer and closer and Ruki found himself closing his eyes, preparing for the impact.

……………

But it never came…

And Ruki realized it…

Out of curiosity, the vocalist slowly opened his eyes. It was either he was dead already or his eyes and brain were playing tricks on him, but he saw the ground that was only meters away from him moments ago now gradually became smaller and smaller. And then he heard that oh-so-familiar chuckle from the blonde bassist whose hands still wrapped tightly around him.

“Are you having a good time, baby…? Open your eyes and look around you…”

And look around him Ruki did. And once again, he thought that he was already dead, because right now he knew that he was obviously flying. Yeah… Flying…

“Beautiful isn’t it…?”

Slowly Ruki looked up at his lover’s face, didn’t even realize that what he was about to do would traumatize him for the rest of his life. As predicted before, he gasped loudly when he saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there. And this time he finally believed that he was surely dead.

No way…there’s no such thing… Akira…

“Is that…Is that…?”

But the vocalist couldn’t finish his sentence, because suddenly he felt the whole world spinning around him. His vision became blurry and he felt so dizzy. And through those blurry eyes, he could see his lover’s angelic face, smiling at him so softly, so beautifully. Reita said something to him and even though he couldn’t hear it, he could read it from Reita’s lips. Slowly, a shy smile curled up on his delicate face, because he knew that after this night…everything’s gonna be alright…

‘I love you, Takanori, my angel…so very much…’

And just before he fell into the dark, he could see those magnificent wings spread beautifully on his lover’s back slowly closed around his body…and finally…wrapped him in a gentle embrace, just like a silent vow from his lover to always protect him and love him…for the rest of his life…

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“I…have a pair of wings on my back…?” asked Reita disbelievingly.

Ruki only smiled and nodded, chewing his breakfast slowly.

“That’s crazy…” the bassist snorted.

“I know…” said Ruki nonchalantly.

But no matter how crazy it was, somehow Ruki knew that it could be true. Waking up this morning on his bed with his lover securely wrapped his arms around him made him feel confused for a moment. What happened last night, or perhaps…what happened in his dream last night…was too real. And he just told Reita about that…

Placing his unfinished breakfast on the plate, the vocalist sighed audibly. Disappointment was clear in his eyes.

So…it was really just a dream…

The bassist frowned at the action but said nothing, afraid he might say something stupid that would make his lover upset.

“I think I need a shower…”

Ruki stood up immediately and headed towards the bathroom without further words to say, leaving Reita speechless behind him.

But the vocalist didn’t know…that after he closed the bathroom door behind him, a playful smirk softly adorned his lover’s handsome feature. Reita just shook his head and hummed softly at the younger’s funny behavior. Slowly, he walked towards the balcony and smiled as the sun started to warm his skin. He looked up at the sky and laughed, because all he could see was just Ruki’s beautiful face smiling at him…

“Maybe…I need to try a little harder next time, Taka…”

Once again, a pair of magnificent white wings spread on Reita’s back, secretly showing all the creatures in the world that he would always protect Ruki with his power…

And inside the apartment, another presence smiled widely at what he just saw with his own eyes, because now he knew that it wasn’t just a dream, and he knew that he would always be safe…

As long as the owner of those angelic wings was there…

“I love you too, Akira…so very much…”