Akihito rolled to his side in bed,

Akihito rolled to his side in bed, his eyes catching a glimpse of the alarm clock on top of the bedside table.

11:30 pm.

He unconsciously bit his lower lip, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that had plagued him for days now.

Outside of his bedroom's closed door, he could hear the sound of Asami's footsteps moving around the apartment. So the older man hadn't retired to his room for the night yet...

Akihito glanced again at the alarm clock's display screen, focusing on the date displayed on its upper right corner.

November 5th, Tuesday.

November 5th...That would make it how long now? Three whole weeks since they'd last been together?

He turned on his back, fixing his eyes on the ceiling as he pondered on the subject.

It didn't seem that huge amount of time if one were to consider it properly, but it was definitely the longest they had been without touching each other since moving in together, and considering one of the parties involved was Asami Ryuuichi, who was known to have the sexual drive of a hare in perpetual mating season, Akihito couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.

He suddenly felt the urge to laugh at himself. He was behaving like a teenage girl. No, worse. Like a housewife who felt emotionally and physically neglected by her husband.

He was sure that if Kou or Takato could see him now, he'd be the laughing-stock of his group of friends. He could only imagine the jokes they would come up with just to tease him about the situation...

So what if Asami didn't look for him? He should be happy for the break he was getting. His body was in desperate need of a vacation from Asami's advances after all.

With that in mind, Akihito grabbed a couple of small pillows and held them tightly against his ears, hoping that they would help muffle down the sounds that were reaching him from outside the bedroom.

To hell with Asami anyway! Akihito needed to get some sleep. He was pulling an allnighter the next day with Mitarai on an undercover operation to gather material on a foreign politician's cheating wife, and the last thing he needed was to fall asleep on the job.

Their boss would throw a tantrum at them if they didn't manage to take good photos.

Akihito didn't really know much about the case, but it seemed to have all the ingredients of an international scandal, and the news' room at the office had been in an uproar all week because of it.

Someone had gotten a tip that the woman had set-up a meeting with her on-again off-again lover for the following day, who apparently was none other than a yakuza underground lord and was planning to pass on to him secret government information that could end up disrupting the relations between Japan and her husband's country.

Akihito couldn't care less about the whole soap opera drama, but for once he was glad to have an excuse to spend the night away from Asami's apartment.

He ended up tossing and turning in bed some more for the next 30 minutes until sleep finally claimed him, and he was able to fully relax for the first time that evening.

About 10 minutes later there came a shallow knock at his door.

The lack of response ensued another knock, and a few seconds later of nothing but silence, saw the door handle being turned and the door opening a few inches wide.

Asami's eyes took awhile to adjust themselves to the darkness around the room. He didn't call out to Akihito, assuming by the younger man's silence that he was already asleep.

Instead, he stayed where he was, casually leaning against the door frame as he glanced at the bed where Akihito was sprawled out nonchalantly among a mess of scattered pillows and crumpled sheets.