Shuo woke to a weight on him. It wasn't anything particularly heavy, just an arm draped lightly over his waist, irritating enough to set his teeth on edge.
He dragged his eyes open. Dawn hadn't quite broken, and the room was gray, as though veiled in mist.
Glancing down, he caught an eyeful of a silver-gray sleeve. The arm reached around from behind him and lay there limply. He didn't need to think to know it belonged to Sai.
Shuo lay still. Lightspeed Thinking had long since started running automatically, feeding all sorts of tiny details into his head-Sai was breathing eleven times a minute, a typical deep-sleep rhythm; his heart rate was fifty-eight, considerably slower than when he was awake; his temperature was also down half a degree. He really was sound asleep.
That arm had probably landed there unconsciously, too, without any ill intent.
He stared at the ceiling for five seconds, clicked his tongue, and carefully lifted the arm away, moving so gently that he didn't wake him.
As he sat up, he caught sight of Sai still curled beneath the covers, facing him, his hair a mess and his eyelashes trembling faintly, like a kitten that hadn't quite woken up.
Shuo watched for two seconds, then turned and got out of bed, keeping his footsteps light. Well, it wasn't like I was going out of my way for him. Waking him would just mean more pointless talking. What a hassle.
While washing up, he stared at himself in the mirror. There were still faint shadows beneath his eyes, making him look short on sleep, but on closer inspection, the corners of his mouth had actually risen three millimeters, as if they'd gone haywire.
He frowned, rinsed his mouth, wiped his face, and forcibly flattened that slight