#madahime

Madara opened the door to Niki's apartment, an unofficial meeting place for Double Face if a mission went wrong, and the two of them stumbled inside. While they had managed to make it out without losing an organ, there were still some scrapes that needed to be patched up and Crazy:B had stopped asking questions a while ago. Well, the apartment had started as a drop off point for Kohaku, but at some point Madara started tagging along too.

The rest of Crazy:B had very mixed opinions on Double Face's actions, but ultimately supported their youngest member in living his life, Niki going so far as to offer his parents' home to them if they ever needed a place to stay (the spare key was kept beneath a fake potted plant in the hall). Niki was also the one who fussed over Kohaku the most, followed by Rinne, which often left Madara alone with the hardest person to crack, HiMERU.

Madara had been able to figure out some of HiMERU's past, though the specific details of what happened after the incident continued to evade him (if Jun was anything to go by, the boy had completely changed after being discharged from the hospital.

So when Madara started finding himself stuck with HiMERU tending to his hard to reach wounds, the two began talking. Talking is a strong word for Madara's one sided jokes and comments, asking about the weather and how idol work was going. HiMERU's hands were always strangely cold while he worked, as cold as his personality.

Slowly but surely over the course of several months, HiMERU began to open up and the mask was cracking. Madara could see from the corner of his eye the way HiMERU stared at him, could feel the way his fingers lingered just a little too long after cleaning a cut. HiMERU rolled his eyes and made a comment about how he was "just as insufferable as Amagi and twice the trouble to clean up after." Madara took this as a challenge to be even more insufferable during their quiet meetings.

Which led to his current situation, where Madara was teasing HiMERU and trying not to wince at the antiseptic wipe running over his hands. "HiMERU-san, you sure are gentle with your hands~ I thought you hated cleaning up after me~" Madara teased, fingers lightly stinging.

"Would you rather HiMERU was rougher with you? That can be arranged." Immediately, Madara's hand started stinging real bad and he had to blink tears from his eyes.

"How rude HiMERU-san! If Mama says he's sorry will you forgive him?"

"You will have to try much harder than that, Mikejima."

"If I ask nicely, will you kiss them better?" Madara grinned, teasing the other man. What he didn't expect was for HiMERU to bring Madara's hand to his lips and press a gentle kiss to the palm of his hand. Stinging forgotten, Madara's face felt like it was on fire.

"If it'll shut you up, HiMERU has no problems obliging you."

"You'll have to try harder than that, HiMERU-san~" Madara did his best to keep his voice steady despite how flustered he felt. HiMERU yanked his hand forward (notably, not letting go) and pulled Madara into a kiss. HiMERU's lips felt purposeful, practiced, as if he'd done this before (this was not the boy who went to Reimei, Madara decided then), but Madara gave in, just for a moment.

"Will that shut you up?" HiMERU's thumb ran over Madara's knuckles, his hand still cold despite holding onto Madara's hand for several minutes now.

"I don't know, why don't you try it again?"