GetBackers Fan Fiction ❯ Something So Right ❯ Chapter 1

Something So Right

By Megan

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Ban might have been asleep.

He was stretched out on his side in one of the café booths, head pillowed in the curve of his arm, and his eyes looked closed from Ginji's position by the front window. It wouldn't have been all that illogical for him to be asleep. Ginji knew he was tired. They'd been out of Tokyo for three days on a difficult retrieval, and Ban had refused sleep with a fiendish intensity that had almost disturbed Ginji. He'd seemed to take the obstacles thrown in their way as a sort of personal challenge directly from the cosmos to him, and had responded with a near obsessive drive to complete the job successfully and as quickly as possible.

With a successful retrieval, and a surprisingly generous payment, they technically could have found a room somewhere for the night and still been fairly financially sound for a few days. Once their client had left, however, all the energy Ban had displayed during the job had seemed to abandon him, and even the idea of going out to find food hadn't been able to pull him from the booth he'd settled in.

Paul had grumbled at them for taking up space in his store for a while, but when it came time to lock up, he'd told them to stay inside. It was cold enough out that he'd have to leave the heat on in the store overnight or it'd be like Siberia when he opened in the morning, so they may as well take advantage of it instead of sleeping in the car or spending money on a room.

It was cold out. Ginji didn't think he'd ever been so cold in Mugenjou, though Ban said he only felt that way because the way Mugenjou was built made it easy to find shelter from the weather if you needed it. It was different when you slept in a car on the street. Privately, Ginji thought that he mostly noticed it more because now he had a partner whose instinctive reaction to extreme cold was to fall asleep on him.

He should have been asleep now. Ginji only knew that he wasn't by the stillness. Ban wasn't a restless sleeper by any means, but he was only absolutely still when he was awake.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Ginji rose and wandered over to the booth. "Ban-chan?"

"Mm."

Confirmation that Ban was both awake and alive acquired, Ginji dropped to sit on the floor with his back to the partition between booths. He could just see the back of Ban's head this way, if he turned his head a little. "You're gonna get sick or something if you don't sleep."

There was a space of silence before Ban's voice rose, a little thicker than usual. "I know." He shifted position, rolling over to face Ginji. "Can't, though. 'M too tired to sleep, y'know?"

Ginji nodded, recalling more than one night in Mugenjou when sleep just would not come despite the fact that he was absolutely exhausted. Some nights he'd just given up all together and gone out to walk it off; others, he'd found Kazuki or Shido, both of whom passed their own share of sleepless nights, and had spent the time with them.

Ban had taken off his sunglasses at some point, and looking into those eyes, Ginji wasn't sure he'd ever really seen Ban like this. Tired, yes. Exhausted, even. But not simply sleepy and content with the situation. It was a privilege, he knew.

Slowly, so he wouldn't startle Ban, Ginji reached up to brush a few wayward strands of hair out of his partner's face. Even so, he could see Ban's eyebrows draw together slightly.

"Ginji, what--"

"Sssh." Ginji smiled slightly, trying to be reassuring when he hardly knew exactly what he was doing himself. "It's all right."

Still looking perplexed, Ban pushed himself up on his elbow slightly, slowly. He didn't look angry, though, which was the important thing. Just a little confused when Ginji's hand didn't drop right away, instead lightly running down his face to flatten against his cheek.

They sat there for a moment like that, just looking at each other. Then Ginji turned his shoulder slightly and leaned closer, gently pressing his lips against Ban's. For a moment, Ban was absolutely still, and a small voice in the back of Ginji's mind suggested that he might want to get out of the way of that two-hundred kilogram grip not a moment before he felt a hand close gently around his wrist. The fingers didn't tighten, though, and when he pulled away Ban simply looked at him thoughtfully.

Encouraged, Ginji pulled his hand free and reached out to thoroughly and vigorously mess up Ban's hair.

"O-oi! Ginji!"

He just ducked the swipe aimed at him, catching the encroaching fist easily. Ban glowered at him without much conviction, lowering himself back into a horizontal position on the bench. He made no attempts to reclaim his hand, and Ginji was content to keep it for the moment.

"Ginji . . . "

There was a subtle note of uncertainty in Ban's voice, where uncertainty had no right to be, and Ginji turned quickly with a quiet smile. "I wanted to, Ban-chan." He gave his partner's had a squeeze before releasing it, hoping the underlying message was understood.

I'll always want to.