[Christmas Gift Fic] #4 - Falling is not a failure

[h_itoshi]

Title: Falling is not a failure
Prompt: #4 - Tucking their lover's hair behind their ear
Wordcount: 833
Notes: Set pre-debut

Nikaido feels the moment he's going to fall. It's the worst kind of feeling there is, because he can do absolutely nothing but wait for the crash that will certainly come.

He tumbles into the edge of the ramp with a loud bang, catching himself on his hands, but the hit resonates through him and he knows his wrists are going to hurt like crazy. He manages to lift his head enough not to hit the top edge of the ramp and burst an eyebrow or something, and then slides down a little, stilling at the center of the ramp.

He curses and takes his right wrist in his left hand, holding it to try and easen the throbbing. Yokoo comes to a halt just next to him and he's lucky Tamamori's gotten better at handling his skates or else he'd have run right into him.

”You okay?” Yokoo kneels before him, the worried-mother look in his eyes.

”Yeah.” Nikaido mutters, even though his whole body hurts and he only wants to go home and never think of that new skating trick again. “I'll just try again.”

“Or you could go change now and try again tomorrow.” Yokoo suggests, and it's more of an order than a suggestion, and Nikaido looks up at him to glare.

But it's not helping, and besides, Nikaido really just wants to go home.

He grumbles something he hopes doesn't sound too bad, and then unlaces his skates and heads for the dressing room, cursing having to be the roller skating group, even though he's normally pretty good at skating. Not like Kitayama or Yokoo, but good enough. It's just that jump...

“Nika!” He hears a voice behind him, and he turns around to see Senga hurrying towards him, skates in hand as well.

Nikaido sighs, because he's not in the mood to talk, but he knows he can't tell Senga off like that. “Yeah?”

Senga catches up with him before saying anything else, and when he does he's panting lightly from the running. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” Nikaido lies and continues walking, hoping Senga doesn't look too closely and sees the truth.

“Nika...” Senga says calmly, like Nikaido's being especially difficult right now, and that's all it takes for Nikaido to feel tears start to burn behind his eyelids and he blinks them away angrily.

He opens the dressing room door and tosses his rollerskates into a corner, grabbing his bag and starts rooting around for his street clothes among all the shit he brings with him, silently cursing everything from Yokoo to rollerskates to Johnny himself to the single sock who doesn't seem to have a mate.

He's so busy being angry he doesn't hear Senga close the door and set his own rollerskates down, and suddenly he feels arms around his shoulders from behind.

“Nika, there's no need to be angry. Everyone falls sometimes, we'd been doing that for hours and we're all tired. It was just a matter of time.” Senga says softly, and Nikaido slowly lets the sock fall back into the bag and drops the bag to the floor. He turns around in Senga's embrance and tries not to cry.

“I just...” He starts, but it's fucking impossible to keep those tears down when Senga's eyes are so gentle and caring.

“It's okay.” Senga says, a tiny smile on his lips as he strokes a strand of Nikaido's hair behind his ear, and Nikaido leans into the touch. “I know. It's frustrating.”

“What if we never even get to debut, then we've done all this for nothing!” Nikaido blurts out, his deepest fear that only comes through in weak moments, and Senga's smile falter.

“Then we've done our best, right?” He says, and Nikaido would be upset at the fact that Senga's so much more mature than he is even though he's younger. If it didn't feel really good to have someone say those things.

“... I guess.” Nikaido mumbles, looking away, not sure whether he's done being angry yet or not.

But then Senga leans in to place a tiny soft kiss on his lips, and yeah, he's probably done being angry.

“Wow. Sorry, don't mind me.” Miyata's voice comes from the door and Senga quickly let's go of Nikaido, an adorable blush spreading on his cheeks. “Figured you two were more than friends anyway.”

Senga tries to explain himself, but he just ends up babbling, and Miyata only laughs and ruffles his hair, and they can hear the rest of the group approach in the corridor.

“Relax Ken-chan, if you want it secret I'll keep it secret.” Miyata promises, and then saunters off to tend to Tamamori's bruises as soon as he's entered the room.

Senga smiles shyly at Nikaido, and Nikaido thinks that even though the skating isn't always going great, at least this group is the one he wants to try his best for.

Comments

[jtriskell.livejournal.com]

*hearts* so adorable. Love it.

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

Aww, getting walked in on. OOPS. But at least Miyacchi is the most likely to be nice about it.

It sucks when you can't do something you want to. Super frustrating. Poor Nika.

Also I had to laugh because I'm totally the same with the crying. I don't do it much, but when I get frustrated I might, and I'll be able to hold it back as long as no one is NICE to me. As soon as someone is like "it's okay," it's tears EVERYWHERE. Ugh hate. XD;;;;

[h-itoshi.livejournal.com]

Yes he's a nice guy after all :3 (And as if no-one suspects them)

I think a lot of people are like that haha me too </3 xD