#(whisper) it might even surpass pendulumshipping and lustershipping

[darkfromday]

break time (12)

Prompt: Day 4 - Sleep

Pairing: Orchestrashipping (Yuuya/Reiji/Yuzu)

Holy shit, y’all. I’ve waited my entire life to post this. No one can see it but the cameras but I’m squealing and bubbling. It’s not the best orchestrashipping tribute, but at least I finally got to the fourth prompt and one of the first scenes I ever imagined for rare pair week?

*shrug* Onward!

(1) missed message from tomato_clown: hey no offense or anything babe but where the hell are u

Reiji sees this text the minute his quarterly profits meeting ends. The buzz has worried him for a good while, and now that he actually sees the text behind it he is... no less confused. Has something happened and Yuuya is in the middle of it? Or has he forgotten to do something important, meaning Yuuya actually is upset with him?

Just as he's typing out his response, another message buzzes in, this time from mellowdiva: Reiji, if you got any dumbass panicky-sounding messages from Yuuya, ignore them. Told him you were in a long meeting today but he heard none of it.

Relaxing some, he chuckles, leaving the office and lingering in the elevator without pressing anything. He mentally flips a coin, then texts his girlfriend back before their boyfriend. 'Thank you Yuzu, your text came just in time. Does Yuuya need anything?'

mellowdiva: Just you, like I do. Hurry home.

Reiji smirks, and hits "1F". As he descends, he shrugs off his suit coat, revealing the standard gray hoodie he still wears underneath, and folds the coat over the arm not holding his phone.

He texts Yuuya next: 'Heading home now. Don't worry.'

The Entertainment duelist doesn't respond until he's made it to his car and driver and settled in for the ride to his apartment. Since Reiji's officially off and away from work, Yuuya's bouncy message tone chirps from his pocket.

tomato_clown: sorry, just worried me when u were late. u work too hard.

Reiji knows he does. Consistent overtime, late night call-ins, weekend Skype meetings and reams on reams of paperwork... Akaba Leo's return was meant to alleviate his burdens, but so far it had done no such thing.

Still, he tries to be soothing in the way he's been trained to be by all his time dating a dork and a diva. That means sending memes that are gradually funnier the whole way across town.

Yuuya takes three showers, but he still feels like he's drenched with sweat instead of freshwater.

"Stop wasting our water," Yuzu scolds. "If you've had a bad day, stop anxious-texting your entire contacts list and talk about it."

"It's not that--" He flops down on the couch, talking to the ceiling instead of her. Today he won both challenge duels and preserved his place in the Pro League, bringing himself one step closer to eventually matching Reiji's record. It's not that he'd had a bad day today so much as he had one weeks ago that won't let him go.

Yuzu finishes drying the plates and puts popcorn in the microwave. Only then does she make it into the living room to join him on the sectional, sitting close enough to stroke his shoulder and change TV channels simultaneously. Her touch is one of two that helps him relax these days, and this time is no different.

"Dad and I... still haven't talked, since I moved in here. Since our fight."

Her pink eyebrows lift at the words, then beetle. "Uncle Yuushou's still upset with you for moving out?"

The fact that he'd been upset at all still grinds Yuuya's gears. His father left him and his mother for almost four years without any kind of warning beforehand, though he'd been given the chance to so warn. When he finally returned, smug as anyone who hadn't actually defeated his ideological enemy could be, he seemed to think that no apology was needed for upending the lives of his wife and son in the first place.

After all, Yuuya had learned to be courageous, right? And Yoko was always independent enough to manage, right?

It was the dumbest conclusion ever, because it all was so much more complicated than that. In those first few months of his father's return, Yuuya saw his mother jump at shadows, and keep her dissatisfaction with the lack of air-clearing to herself. But he couldn't so easily forget the years of being bullied and tormented, ridiculed by people of all ages.

Yuuya had started staying over at Yuzu's more, and then at Reiji's as the older boy opened up and welcomed him. Inevitably Yuzu started wondering where the hell he went and tailed him to LDS. By the time Yuushou and Shuzou thought to tail her, the three of them had grown very, very comfortable with one another.

This had sparked the real flame of Yuuya's rebellion. Living with his childhood friend and a rich billionaire was the perfect, if most bizarre, solution to the alienation he felt in his own home. Even Yoko's crying and Yuushou's piercing accusations hadn't stopped Yuuya from packing and fleeing.

Except now he can't stop thinking about how he'd heard nothing from either of his parents since.

Yuzu is quiet as he finishes updating her on all the nothing he's heard since he moved out. She's moved from playing with the remote to playing with his fingers.

"You know I'd try and help, Yuuya, but... well, since I left home too I don't know if Uncle Yuushou would listen to me."

"I just want him to understand," Yuuya says. "I can't stay there and pretend everything's like it was. I won't."

"I know."

"But mostly I want to stop thinking about it. Like, we're supposed to be spoiling Reiji today and all I can think about is fighting with my parents..."

He trails off, pensive. The popcorn starts popping urgently and Yuzu gets up to retrieve it.

Eventually she picks the conversation back up. "The day's not over yet. We still have time to have fun before the weekend. So relax, okay? Reiji and I are with you and we're not going anywhere."

Then she brings the popcorn over with herself, cuddling with him while still leaving room for one more. Yuuya basks in her close proximity and uses it to gradually adjust his mood, until he receives a new message from el_rei that makes him snort with laughter.

"What is it?"

"Our boyfriend is shitposting again."

"Ugh," Yuzu groans. "Yuuya, I've told you before to tell him to delete his account and stop texting us memes. Those things can't be called shitposts when they're actually shitty."

"Hey, I like his jokes!"

"You like everything he's ever done--"

"Nuh-uh, I didn't like him all that much when he was grumpy and wanted to fight and boss everyone around all the time."

"When he had the stick up his ass, you mean? You especially liked him then."

"No I--!"

Yuuya pauses. Actually thinks back. Blushes. "...okay, maybe I did..."

Yuzu always knows when Reiji has made it home, whether she's heard the purr of his driver's car or recognized his distinctive footsteps on the stairs to their landing. But she also knows that their CEO likes to feel in control of his own actions and how others perceive them, so she always allows him to 'surprise' them and knock.

She's still standing just inside when he knocks today, so she's fast enough to open the door and pull him in before he can even pull his knuckles back from the wood.

"Welcome to your night off."

Reiji smiles. His suit coat's already off, but he takes the time to hang it up by the door before taking one of her hands in his, holding it gently.

"How was your audition, Yuzu?"

Oh, that. She shrugs, having mostly put it out of her mind the minute she got here. "I did well, but Mikiyo was there auditioning as well, so..."

"So you'll get it," he replies encouragingly. Then he smirks. "I could call in a favor."

"You'll do no such thing."

Yuuya calls from the living room just then: "Yuzu! Did Reiji make it in?"

Reiji takes the liberty of responding himself, moving into the main part of their tiny space to greet their third. Yuzu, still holding his hand, feels a gentle tug and then follows him. Only when they arrive does she let go so they can wind around Yuuya, and so she can tease him.

"Yep. I was keeping him all to myself."

"You can't nap in the hallway, there's no room--"

Reiji kisses Yuuya, cutting his protests short. Yuzu nods approvingly, because yeah, I should've thought of that. Kissing is the best way to shut him up.

"You should sleep," their rich rent-payer says when he's done making Yuuya quit frowning and ruminating. "All your texts today made you sound drunk."

Yuzu snorts as Yuuya yelps indignantly and her two boys go for each other's throats harder than they have since last week's lie-in. It's playful though, so it's all good.

About a month ago she and Yuuya started dragging Reiji out of his leech-like CEO life and making him come home for naps and bad movies once a week, close to the weekend. Their most-stressed-by-far partner is still a bit stiff, but Yuzu thinks he's come a long way.

Like now--he's not afraid to touch them, kiss them or get close to them. As they turn on Jupiter Ascending, he even rests his head near their shoulders and then their laps, not bothering yet to bring the details of his long day into their space. There will be time enough for that later.

This life was not what Yuzu anticipated the day she watched Strong Ishijima try and bully her best friend to draw out his father, but she has learned to be grateful for the hand of fate. Though the war took a lot out of her (out of all of them), and she has to rest a lot more now, she enjoys taking life a day at a time with her bickering boys.

Plus, Yuzu's never slept so well in her whole life as she does with them now.