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Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://alltrees.org/archive/).

Published on 2004-04-19 14:21:05.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on May 16, 2012 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

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A reasonable extrapolation from the way Ryoma and Momoshiro tend to fall asleep on each other, with some mild character introspection thrown in. Fluff, I-1, anime continuity

Ryouma had decided some time ago that Momoshiro Takeshi must have a teddy-bear fixation.

He had yet to discover any teddy-bears in Momo's room, but there was still plenty of evidence. It happened about half the time their team traveled anywhere. Current case in point. Ryouma resettled his head on his rather make-shift pillow and wondered idly how quickly Inui-senpai would be able to calculate the actual frequency. Western-style beds sometimes prevented it, but not always. It depended on the circumstances.

Whenever the opportunity arose, at any rate, Ryouma would wake up to find Momo curled around him like he was some kind of oversized plushie.

Elbows in the ribs and kicks to the shins failed to dislodge Momo, or even wake him up. Eventually Ryouma had taken the philosophical approach, and decided that, if he was stuck as Momo's teddy-bear, Momo did make a passable blanket. He was even a decent replacement pillow. And Momo's presence at his back was familiar and comfortable. It wasn't an unpleasant way to wake up, and when you got right down to it that was all that concerned Ryouma.

Even though Kikumaru-senpai did insist on making aren't they cute faces at them if he happened to wake up first.

That thought made Ryouma rub his eyes and take a look around the room, as best he could at the moment. It looked like everyone else had woken up before them, today. He prodded Momo ungently.

"Momo-senpai. It's time to get up."

Momo mumbled something unintelligible and didn't move.

"It's time for breakfast. Get up."

Momo tightened his grasp, making grumpy don't want to noises into the curve of Ryouma's shoulder. Ryouma sighed and thought for a minute. "I heard there was ice cream this morning," he tried.

An inquisitive noise. That was a start.

"So you'd better hurry up, if you don't want Fuji-senpai to put wasabi on all of it."

That did it. There was a brief flail as Momo tried to sit up before he completely let go of Ryouma; he ended up propped on one elbow, blinking. Ryouma congratulated himself on the success of his tactic, and turned on his back so he could watch Momo run their conversation past his brain one more time. Eventually his friend looked back down at him with a rather rueful, one-sided smile.

"There isn't actually ice cream for breakfast, is there?" he asked, with a tinge of hope to his voice nevertheless. Ryouma raised a sardonic brow at his erstwhile blanket.

"Nope."

"Brat." Momo ruffled his fingers through Ryouma's hair, and Ryouma ducked.

"Cut it out," he said, without heat. When Momo chuckled, Ryouma gave him a half-hearted glare. He didn't actually mind that much, as long as Fuji-senpai wasn't around.

Ryouma swore that if he ever found out who had thought it would be a good idea to gift Fuji with a stockpile of small, highly portable, disposable cameras he would make that person regret it. Fuji-senpai had actually mailed one set of pictures, taken before either Ryouma or Momo were awake, to Ryouma's house. His dad had almost seen them! He would never have heard the end of the teasing.

Ryouma had never again doubted the rumors of Fuji Shuusuke's sadistic streak.

Momo unfolded himself to his feet and stretched before offering Ryouma a hand up, too. Ryouma accepted it as part of their accustomed give-and-take when they were around each other in the morning. He had to admit, it was nice to have someone there to remind him where he'd put his socks, and also to have something besides the sink to slump against while he brushed his teeth. Being Momo's alarm clock was a reasonable trade-off. He wondered, sometimes, exactly what would happen when high school ended and they all stepped off the Seishun Gakuen escalator. He thought he would miss not being around Momo like this.

Momo's arms wrapped around him, and for just a moment he leaned back against the solid support behind him.

"Ready to go?" Momo asked.

"Mm." Time to think about all that later.

The arms tightened and then let him go, and they set out to see what breakfast their teammates might have left them.

End