Nap time [Open]

Kiku could go for a very long time without sleep, much longer than anyone he knew and without the excessive use of high blood pressure inducing caffeine. But, by god, if he crossed that threshold, to the very limits of his endurance, he simply could not function, at all, could barely think. He also had a problem with knowing when he was pushing said limits; he had always been too critical with himself, as if finishing his shift early would make him a pathetic failure when actually, he would perform better after a good night's sleep than he could while chronically sleep deprived.

On this particular occasion, he had been on a 48 hour shift, taken a two hour break and done some blocking for a few new panels of his series and then gone back on to work, taken another shift from a doctor whose wife was about to give birth in another hospital across town, taken another few hours break with which he had gone to talk to Arthur and then gone for a twelve hour shift, seriously exceeding the working hour limits. All in all, he hadn't had more than about two hours sleep collectively over the course of one week and it was beginning to show.

It started with his hands shaking. This was ignorable, he didn't do any procedures and only consulted. Then...his vision started to go and he began to get mild hallucinations, confusion setting in. Now he was nearly dead on his feet, and he shakily opened the door to one of the doctors areas, maybe his office, maybe the doctor's lounge or maybe someone else's, he didn't care any more. His head swimming, he collapsed on to the nearest flat object and fell dead asleep.

Francis was taking a break (slacking) in the staff lounge when the young asian stumbled in. Oblivious to seemingly all that was around him, he staggered to the coffee table - yes, the coffee table, which at the moment, fortunately, had no coffee on it - and kind of fell onto it. There was a audible 'thud' as his head hit the table, but he apparently didn't seem to care or notice.

Francis recovered from a moment of daze and gently settled his coffee in the empty space on the sofa, beside the bit he was sitting on. Still rather amazed, he leaned in and tapped the young - and fine-looking, just to mention - man on his back.

Not the tiniest bit of response. If not for the rhythmic movement of his body with each breath, one would be likely to think that he was dead part of the coffee table in this empty and forsaken corner of the staff lounge. By the looks of it, he is a doctor (since he had obviously been too tired to bother changing out of his coat) and the staff tag that came with the outfit read "Dr. K. Honda". Well, at least there is a name now for this odd, handsome stranger.

Now that the awe had settled down, a little bit of annoyance crept in - for the fact that this man had not noticed his amazing presence in the room. To this effect, Francis is now considering whether he should continue watching the guy sleep in slight amusement, or try moving him to the sofa - to a greater amusement, if he wakes up.

In any case, Francis preferred a more hands-on approach to things. Besides, he's bored. So he picked up his coffee and transferred it to the floor a few steps away, and turned back to intruder.

Guess someone's going to be carried like a princess today.

Kiku curled up in his sleep and started sucking his thumb. He was completely out of it, he hadn't even noticed the Frenchman poking at him and staring, though normally such contract would have him flying across the room in fear. (He really didn't like being touched)

He started mumbling in an odd mixture of Japanese and English, "Asa, put the Sailor Moon figurine down." He rolled over and his hand flopped off the coffee table, "And leave the sushi for Pochi-chan..." he made an odd noise in his sleep.

For about ten minutes Kiku slept peacefully with a few sporadic bouts of talking and shifting, until he rolled over and dropped on to the floor, "AH!" he jumped up, rubbing his nose, "Ehhh...itai..." He groaned. He hadn't noticed Francis yet, but that was rather understandable, considering he had just woken up and was still rather groggy.

Before Francis could get back to transferring the sleeping beauty onto the sofa, the said beauty had fallen to the floor. And seems to have woken up - a pretty un-glam way to have been awakened, mused Francis, who liked the original premise of a kiss from prince charming much more.

Even funnier is that he seems to have fallen face first, and as a result is nursing a very painful nose at the moment. Francis suppresses a little chuckle and covered it with a cough - announcing his presence in the room with this stranger, rather subtly. After all, Predator Lesson 101: never startle your prey. He picked his coffee back up and proceeded to take a sip.

Kiku needed to take a moment to regain his pride and calm himself down, he was glad that nobody had seen him act so stupid, particularly because a lot of the doctors already looked down on him because of his age (or rather, lack of it). He had just managed to stop his eyes from watering when he heard a cough. Oh no... Someone had seen him.

He took a deep breath to try and compose himself before quietly turning around to smile at the other person, still mostly just tired, and he could already feel fatigue start to wash over him, after it had been ebbed away by the smack to his face.

It was a young blond man, he was sure he had met him around the hospital but he didn’t know what his name was. He was rather beautiful though oddly, it seemed, this hospital was full of beautiful people.

“Ahm... hello.” He said awkwardly, struggling with his English while so tired, “Sorry...I’ve not slept very much,” He chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah, not to worry my friend. Though I was just thinking you would have been a bit more comfortable on the sofa instead of the table. I can imagine that being a doctor is a very demanding job," Francis said sympathetically, taking another sip at his coffee.

It's pretty obvious that the young doctor is in a pretty bad shape, probably from the obvious lack of sleep. Francis, on his part couldn't really understand how people could go on without rest, and he doesn't think too highly of the caffein abuse most go through in order to achieve that means. Coffee, is meant to be enjoyed, but we digress.

"Well, I probably shouldn't disturb you and let you get some rest. And frankly speaking, that would be more beneficial for both yourself and for your patients. I don't mean to be rude, but I find it ironic how doctors can't seem to take care of themselves. If you'd like, though, I can come and wake you up in half an hours time or so."

"Ah... I suppose it is..." He said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "I-I didn't realise I'd fallen asleep on the coffee table. Sorry..." He apologised out of force of habit. He yawned sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

He sat demurely next to him trying to keep his head up but his head hurt so much and his neck felt so weak. "No no... I can go home soon. I just need to check up on two low danger patients and then I can go to sleep." He yawned, feeling himself drift off already.

It wasn't long before everything went blissfully black again and he was drooling on the frenchman's shoulder.

Francis really didn't know what to make of this young asian doctor. He kind of reminded him of a willful little kid who refuses to go to bed past his bed time, and similarly, dozing off while trying his hardest to prove that he can stay up. And as a parent, there isn't really anything to be done except to let nature take its course and send the child to dreamland when he finally falls asleep in his little pile to toys, then of course, it would mean having to carry him back to bed and tucking him in.

Francis is feeling like a parent at the moment, as he uses a piece of tissue to dab the corner of his mouth. The 'kid' looked like he was sleeping peacefully, for the time being. Francis had a sudden urge, and succumbed to it almost immediately - as he stroked the young man's head rather indulgently.

Kiku didn't really realise how childish he must look right now but even if he could he didn't really care. He just slept peacefully, using the Frenchman's arm as a pillow. It was actually quite soft in a... bony kind of way. Okay, Kiku was just really tired. At least he didn't snore, that would be very embarassing.

Kiku purred and nuzzled Francis's hand in his sleep. The only time he was at all affectionate was in his sleep unless he was very comfortable with somebody. He mumbled incoherently in his sleep, in that garbled mixture of English and Japanese that made no sense, doubly so considering it was sleep talking.

Eventually he woke up again from the fitful sleep, jerking up. "Nh..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes, "Oh! He looked down at Francis's shoulder and then up at his face, "I'm sorry." He said vehemently, shifting away. "I-I should probably go home..." He bit his lip.

But it wasn't safe for him to go home in this state. If he took his bicycle then he would probably get in to an accident by falling asleep and if he took the bus or the train then he would fall asleep and miss his stop. He couldn't sleep very well at the hospital, as he was seeing right now. He bit his lip worriedly, trying to work out what he could do...

The young doctor is obviously not in a suitable condition to do anything he had just suggested. Guess this is where Francis has to take over, "To fulfill my duty as a nurse, I shall need to assess if you are capable of doing that," he said in all-(mock)-seriousness.

Then the proposal: "Let's have a bet shall we? -- if you manage to get yourself to the entrance, I'll let you go back as you intended; if not, you'll have to be sent back home, by me."

Experience suggests, the harder one tries to stay awake, the easier it is to fall asleep (recall all the times in class). And given most stubborn people are likely to be baited with a challenge, Francis was hoping this might just work - :

"Now then, your keys and address please,"

"I'm perfectly capable of fulfilling my duties, thank you very much." He said stubbornly, his pride bruised. "I am trained to be a doctor no matter what the circumstances, I could be a doctor." He said, which was a little bit of an exaggeration, but so sleepy, he was finding it harder to be polite. Sleep deprivation lowered one's inhibitions, more than being drunk (though Kiku certainly had more experience in sleep deprivation than being drunk).

Kiku took a moment to think over the nurse's proposition, pulling on his sleeve thoughtfully. "Very well." He agreed, "I won't fail." He was sure he wouldn't; once he was up and talking he would wake up, he was sure.

He hesitated for a moment before nodding and handing over his keys and writing his address on a piece of paper from his note pad.

Operation success. Keys and address - get ;)

Francis smiled a little to himself as he pocketed the young doctor's keys and the piece of paper with his address on it - not before he took a look at it of course.

My my, people should take note how much a little stubbornness can do to them. "To hand over your keys and address to someone you've just met - doesn't it seem a bit dangerous?" He asked a little rhetorically, "Oh well, it's too late to go back on your word now though - so why don't we go through with it," he finished with a smile.

Francis took a step forward and held open the glass door, "I offer you a head-start, my dear Doctor," he gestured towards the open door: "After you,"

Kiku wrinkled his nose a little bit; he supposed it had been foolish to hand over his keys and address just like that, and completely unlike himself. "I know you work in the hospital as a nurse and what you look like. It wouldn't be hard to locate you." He defended, folding his arms. He could do this; aparently he was very stubborn when he was sleep deprived.

He stood up and walked over to the door, "Thank you," he said, walking through. Keep focussed, deep breaths, he could do this, he had to do this; his honour was at stake. He started his walk down the corridor, breath, step keep head up, don't close eyes.

Don't... close... eye....s.... nearly there... the front do...or was just... there... and he wobbled, dropping to the floor, dead to the world.

Just as Francis was cooking up an alternative plan to take the young doctor home, he succumbed to the seduction of sleep. Francis was still rather amazed at how someone can just fall asleep while walking but it has been tried and tested apparently, looking at how things went today. He managed to catch the doctor just before he hit the floor - what a close call, it would have been rather troublesome if he had hit head on something. One of the reasons why narcolepsy is pretty dangerous is because the patient can fall asleep in the middle of anything and it's the complications - like banging your head on something - that are troublesome. Talking about that, maybe this guy should be checked up by someone.

He stopped the guy beside him who was about to run off to get help and explained that the doctor was just extremely sleep deprived, and he was on his way of sending him back home. That earned him a rather incredulous look, but Mr-kind-passerby decided to drop the matter and let him handle it. If only it was a pretty Ms-passerby, he would have asked for some help (not that he really needed any).

Putting one hand under the doctors' knees and the other under his shoulders, Francis lifted the young doctor up easily. He wonder if the doctor would think of it as a compliment that he weighed less than some girls Francis had known. Probably not.

There was a taxi stand right outside the front door, and the good thing was, there wasn't a single person in line for a cab - it was only 4 in the afternoon after all, possibly the most non-peak hour of the working day. After barely managing the door of the cab, Francis got both of them on board. The cab driver gave him a long look before deciding he didn't really want to know what was going on - what a professional.

The young doctor was now settled comfortably on the seat, using Francis's thigh as his pillow, again. As the cab sailed towards the young doctor's home, Francis silently hoped that he won't need to climb any stairs with this guy in his arms.

Kiku slept blissfully in Francis's arms, totally unaware of his surrounding or the fact that he had very nearly given himself a severe concussion.Lying in the Frenchman's arms he slept fairly peacefully, thumb meeting mouth and as they both seemed to like this arrangement, they stayed like this, and Kiku lightly sucked on his thumb, having regressed in to something of a baby like state.

He no longer had the capacity to care about the fact that his manga books had finally won the territory of his sofa from the anatomy text books, or that there were cuddly toys of various anime characters strewn around the floor. He didn't care that this blond nurse would get to see how small his fourth floor apartment was, or how little food he actually kept there, due to a detox he had recently rampaged though, going back to his anorexia.

He slept through the whole of the cab journey, and all the way up the stairs to his apartment, only waking up when he was moved so Francis could get his keys. "Hm? Damn..." He muttered as he realized what had happened, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. He couldn't believe that he had fallen asleep and lost the bet!

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Francis chimed a little breathlessly - did he have to live on the fourth floor of a building without a lift?

Seeing how the doctor had just realized his situation, Francis commented teasingly: "What, have you gotten so comfortable in my arms that you have regretted waking up?"

He laughed, and before any rebuttals can be uttered, successfully opened the door and let himself (and the doctor, since he was still carrying the guy) in. "Wha-" he stopped short after two steps just before what seemed to be a large soft toy on the floor. Adjusting to the lighting of the room, Francis began to realized the other things lying around the place- for instance (yet more) soft toys on the floor and on the coach, and what seemed to be a lot of manga on the coach as well. Interesting.

Francis was not a big fan of the manga industry, but he has at least seen some of the more popular titles that have been translated and sold in France when he was a kid to know what they are. So - "You're Japanese, doctor - ? Oh right, I guess we haven't introduced. You can call me Francis -"

"And before you can chase me away with a not-so heartfelt thank-you, I should mention that my services are not for free…" He added with a hint of evil glee.

(( I have four yaoi mangas that I bought while in France; it's surprisingly easy to find, and they had a whole group of shelves dedicated to Yaoi. It's also quite cheap. *just finds this amusing* ))

Kiku blushed profusely, he hadn't asked to be carried all this way, he didn't want to be teased after he got here as well; wasn't it embarassing enough that he had fallen asleep. However, he had been raised to be polite, "Good morning." He replied, a little less sinscerely than was polite, really, but it was better than nothing. Then he got even pinker, wriggling slightly in his arms to be let down, but not too much, not wanting to be dropped either. "I-I..." He stuttered, not really having a rebuttal for that.

*Hai... I am Japanese. I thought the accent gave that away." He admitted; he had never been able to get rid of his Engrish accent. "I'm Honda Kiku... Uh... Kiku Honda." He corrected, too sleepy to be at his most fluent in English, "Pleasant to be meeting you... or... what you say." He blinked rapidly. He was so tired, he barely had the energy to be embarassed about all the toys and manga everywhere.

Kiku froze. "Wh-What do you mean?" He asked nervously. He didn't like the sound of that, not one bit, and honestly, he was a little afraid. "But I didn't even ask for your services," he whined, his imagination in overdrive. And since he wrote doujinshis, he had a good imagination to begin with.

((ah..late reply is late - i'm sorry >< ahaha~i didn't know that, maybe francis should have known a bit more in the area...*blush*))

It was fun to see the doctor blush - it was almost worth the effort of climbing all those stairs. Almost. It would seem to be a pity not to tease him a little more.

"It's not the accent, monsieur. On the contrary I would be quite disappointed if you had a perfect American accent (or British for that matter), for it would be ever so...dull."

It was getting rather difficult to hold the squirming doctor. Francis let him down on the cluttered sofa after pushing a few (quite a few) things out of the way, and plonked onto the seat beside him. Not before he grabbed the book from the seat that it, "Well, this was what gave you away, if you must know." He waved the manga in front of the doctor, not really noticing what was on the cover. He then casually dropped the book on the coffee table on top of a stack of other similar books.

Francis smiled when the doctor became flustered and stuttered at his suggestion, "Doctor Honda, what I mean is," he moved closer to the blushing doctor.

"....."

He chuckled and moved away, before saying in all mock seriousness, " I need to borrow your showers."

"Oh, and a spare towel would be nice too~"

(( It's okay! It's likely that he wouldn't have really noticed - most people don't anyway. I just thought it was an interesting thing ono;; ))

"I quite like English accents," He admitted, "I spent a year studying at Cambridge, I thought it was very cute." He muttered, "Asa-san has a British accent as well; he's one of my patients..." He garbled, the tiredness making him a little more loose-lipped so he just said everything that came in to his head, no matter how silly it was. He was still wriggling, even while he was being random and sleepy, the burning desire to be put down remained.

He was relieved when he was released from the other's perfumed grip, settling down on the sofa, not noticing the mangas around him ( not even the hentai on the coffee table - he wasn't used to having visitors, so he didn't bother to hide them ) His heart started to fill with dread as Francis began to speak and he squirmed, wriggling in to the sofa cushions as if they could swallow him up, "I-I don't..." He stuttered, pushing back, away from him, he was too close.

He breathed a sigh of relief, "Yes, of course you can..." He said, there are ample towels in the bathroom, go ahead.

"I.." Francis paused a little and cleared his throat, before continuing in a perfect British accent, "on the other hand, think of it as rather obnoxious." He laughed a little and said in his usual tone, "But I guess that's understandable since I'm french, no?" he added jokingly, "And I met a pretty obnoxious british patient in my first week at the hospital," Of course, it didn't occur to Francis that they could be talking about the very same Brit.

In response to Dr Honda's permission to use his bathroom, Francis replied, "I thank you for you hospitality, dear doctor." He smiled, "But really, it's your fault for living in a building without a lift - I'm soaked with sweat from carrying you up," he said casually as he started to unbutton his shirt.

"Is it alright if I leave my shirt out to air while I go shower?...Well, actually you should be in bed - I can see myself out when I'm done so don't worry,"

(( Ffff, sorry, I know I suck for not getting here sooner. ))

It was odd hearing the French doctor with a relatively heavy accent (much as he had) speak with a perfect accent. Kiku could only suppose that he had been their when he was a child for long periods of time and picked up the accent. Kiku had picked up some mannerisms and expressions the year he was there alone. "I suppose we have to agree to disagree then." He mumbled.

Kiku politely looked away as the other man took off his shirt, though mostly it hid the blush. He wasn't used to men getting undressed in his appartment, or at all, unless they were a patient, which was entirely different to the current situation. "You did not have to carry me all the way up here, I could have climbed myself," He insisted.

"Uh... please leave your shirt out, it doesn't matter," He mumbled politely, "Though I would prefer that you undressed in the bathroom rather than here." He was starting to feel somewhat tired again. Thinking about it in his tired state, he wondered if he really want Francis to leave. Surely he did, the Frenchman was completely incompatible with him. However... he didn't like the fact that he would leave while Kiku was asleep. It seemed.. impersonal. Didn't Francis want to be around him? Probably not, he was getting fat again and didn't look as pretty as he should. It was a wonder everyone didn't turn away when he was around them.

The thoughts, usually repressed nowadays, flowed unbidden without any common sense to drive him. He whispered quietly about them as he fell asleep, completely in English, strangely enough.

((no worries, i do that pretty often too><))

Francis was actually having a really good time. It's always fun to have a new toy person to play with. He guess the young doctor sort of fell into the category of being stubbornly cute. And it was especially interesting now since he was half muttering what he truly thinks while falling asleep on the couch.

Francis suppressed the urge to poke the doctor awake - who knows, he might get into a bad mood that way - and started to carry him into the bedroom instead. He was, obviously, not doing it out of pure good will. Depending on when the doctor wakes up, Francis was planning on having some interesting events in store for him. After all, how could he just leave when he's just heard such a intriguing invitation to stay?

In any case, that shower has to come first...