[No. 6] Ficcage: Cradle
Title: Cradle
Rating: T
Word count: 500
Summary: In the dark of the night, Shion is haunted by an inferno. Post-series, Shion/Nezumi.
Cradle
Shion touched his forehead and pulled the sheets higher over his head. He must've woken Nezumi up.
"...Goddamnit," Nezumi grumbled low and deep in his throat before asking, "...You 'kay?"
"Yes," Shion said, but his voice was like a tragedy. So he corrected himself and said, "No."
Shion gathered his hands on either side of his head and hid his sour eyes into his pillow.
"What's it this time?"
"There was a sunset and a forest. But you were on fire. You were burning into the horizon."
Shion listened to the sheets shift and a mouthful of saliva plunge down Nezumi's throat. Nezumi's nipples were soon against Shion's shoulder-blades and his long, sleek hair stuck to Shion's neck. Without looking at him Shion was sure that Nezumi's eyes had caught the silver of the moon in them.
"Shion," Nezumi said. Shion did not lift his face off his pillow and Nezumi did not try to flip him over. "I'm here."
Nezumi placed his thumb over Shion's throat, fingers around his neck, began to make slow motions so that his warm and familiar hands soothed Shion back into the land of dreams.
"And I'm tired and I don't want you to keep me up with these shitty dreams you're having. Sleep, Shion," Nezumi said. Although his words seemed hard and callous, he had lowered his voice now, to make it sound pleasant and soft. "Sleep."
Shion nodded, the last of his tears easing. He released his pillow from his grip, and allowed himself to turn and lock an arm around Nezumi's ribcage. Shion kept his head tucked tightly into Nezumi's arms, and thanked him silently that he wasn't complaining about his cold nose or his wet cheeks or his chapped lips.
"I'm here," Nezumi said, taking his arms around Shion's head and kissing the top of his head. And softer than Shion had ever heard him whisper, Nezumi said again, "I'm here."
Shion cracked a smile. "I know."
Then Nezumi chuckled, probably because Shion's lips were tickling the sensitive hollow above his collarbone, before he said, "I'm sorry."
And it was the first time Shion had ever heard him apologise. For leaving for all those years. For not keeping in touch. For being the catalyst for Shion's troubling dreams. Perhaps this was all he had needed to hear.
So Shion sighed and let felicity fill his heart and the horror of his nightmare ebb away from him, its lingering fragments washed out by the scent of a naked Nezumi.
"I know," Shion said again.
And, finally relieved of the inferno in his head, Shion gave Nezumi a squeeze and a kiss, and fell into a sweeter dream dipped with the hush hums of a forest lullaby.
fin.