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He had a dream.
Waking suddenly, he rubbed his arms, feeling the chill crawling through the open window, and even with the body of a sixteen-year-old dead for years, it made him shiver.
The wind called to him like the voice of a loved one from outside his window, moving his curtains, as well as himself to tears.
Run, it sang, just take him and run.
I can't, he replied, he's finally happy...
Minutes passed and he lay back down, but he simply couldn't fall asleep again. The darkness refused to take him in, refused to give him a way to forget.
A way to forget everything.
Footsteps sounded outside his door but his exhausted mind didn't react in time and before he could wipe the tears from his face and pretend to be fine, okay, happy, the door opened.
Two pairs of eyes met in the grey light of dawn, and silently, the green pair asked a question.
Are you okay?
The other pair, red from more than just crying, looked back. They said nothing, but the green irises understood.
The boy with black hair and green eyes tiptoed over to the other's bed and climbed in, sliding between the sheets.
He wrapped his arm around the other boy's waist, his head on his shoulder, his dark hair mixing with the blond's.
The crying boy lifted his head to look at the other. "Yu-"
A hand clamped over his mouth, bringing silence back to the room. "Sleep."
A small smile appeared underneath the hand, and together in the stillness of the first light of day, they slept.
-
The blond woke late the next day to sunlight streaming in through the blinds and a heavy weight on his chest.
He cracked one eye open and his vision was immediately assaulted by a mess of black hair. Irritated, he was about to shove the other boy off of him when he realized that he was still sleeping.
He looked so much more peaceful in his sleep.
If only he'd be this quiet while awake, he smiled.
There was only one downside to him sleeping, and it happened to be a major one- his eyes were hidden from the world.
The brilliant green irises filled with colour, with life. His own red eyes were dull in comparison.
His entire being was dull in comparison.
The other boy, he was like the sun; he was always full of fire, always moving, breathing, fighting. And all the while he was fiercely loving his family, protecting them even at the cost of his own life.
Even as a child he'd been overprotective of the ones he got close to, his black hair flying and green eyes blazing, always looking for a fight.
His eyes...
The boy's mind wandered as he imagined how vivid and alive the other's eyes would look in this golden light.
He snapped back into focus at the sound of a voice.
"Mika?"
Mika realised he didn't have to imagine how the raven-haired boy's eyes would look anymore, because they were open. Also, they were staring right at him, inches away.
What little blood Mika had in his body went straight to his face.
"Oh, Y-Yuu-chan! You're awake!"
The boy called Yuu-chan narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, and thank god, because if I wasn't you'd still be watching me sleep!"
At this point Mika was 100% sure of the fact that vampires could blush. "I-I wasn't-"
"Yeah, right! You were literally staring at me," Yuu paused thoughtfully, rubbing his eyes before looking up again. "Actually, you looked kinda spaced out. Are you okay?"
Mika glanced away, wanting nothing more than to be out of this position, but then again, when else would he get the chance to be this close to Yuu without seeming creepy? "...Yes. I'm fine."
Yuu rolled his eyes. "I know you well enough to tell when you're lying, y'know," his gaze focused on Mika again. "You can tell me anything."
Mika nodded. "I know, Yuu-chan, I just..."
"You just...?"
Mika exhaled frustratedly. "I'm fine, alright? I was just thinking."
"Oh boy, that never turns out good," if Yuu had picked upon Mika's reluctance to speak, he wasn't planning on acknowledging it.
Mika stayed silent, turning his gaze away as best he could in his current position.
"Aw, c'mon," Yuu complained, crawling closer to Mika's face to get back into his line of sight. "Please?"
Mika squeezed his eyes shut, his words short and out of breath. "Yuu-chan."
Yuu leaned forward even more in anticipation. "Yes?"
"Could you get off of me?"
Yuu's face was flushed bright red as he scrambled off of Mika. "Uh, r-right!"
Mika sat up, rubbing his chest. He eyed Yuu teasingly. "You're pretty heavy, Yuu-chan. That kind of hurt, actually."
"Shut up," Yuu yelled back indignantly. "Don't change the subject! Tell me what's wrong."
Mika groaned and tried to stand up, but Yuu grabbed his arm, holding him down.
"Mika, last night when I came into your room, you were crying. I didn't ask about it then because I wanted you to get some sleep, and I was tired as hell, but I'm asking now."
Mika hesitated, opening his mouth and closing it again.
"Please? We're family, remember?"
Family.
The word struck a chord in Mika, and his eyes welled up.
"I... Look, Yuu-chan, I'm sorry," Mika finally said. "I know I'm disgusting, so you don't have to keep pretending to care," he took a deep breath. "I had a nightmare, that's all."
Yuu's grip on his arm had tightened considerably while the other boy spoke, and by the time Mika was silent, it was almost painful.
"You think I'm pretending to care about you?"
This Mika looked at him. "Aren't you? I'm different from when we were kids."
Yuu narrowed his eyes. "Okay, stupid, listen closely," he leaned forward. "I don't give a crap about you being a vampire. You haven't changed all that much; you still call me 'Yuu-chan', you've got the same hair, and you're still a big dork that cares about others more than himself.
"I still hate vampires, of course," he paused. "How could I not, after what those bastards did to you? But you're not the same as them. You're Mika, and you're my family."
The room seemed particularly silent when Yuu finished his rant.
After a moment, Mika's small voice broke the hush. "...That's just it. You keep calling me your family, and I guess in a way I am; we live under the same roof and we both care about each other," the volume of his voice rose as he continued speaking. "But... The first time you called me family, I was dying. It made me so happy, you have no idea. But now, you're just throwing the word around, and it's like everyone you meet is your family.
"When you first used that word, in that empty room with the bodies of our friends lying around us, it made me feel so special and at peace," Mika sighed. "I know this is extremely selfish of me to be telling you all this, because it's up to you to decide who your family is. I just... If you use it to describe everyone, does it really mean that much?"
Mika hadn't realized how long he'd been speaking for.
When Yuu didn't reply at first, panic set in. "I mean, um, I apologize, Yuu-chan! I didn't mean-"
His words were cut off as Yuu enveloped him in a fierce hug.
So fierce, in fact, that they fell off the bed, landing in a similar position as to when they were in bed.
"Okay, you're an idiot," Yuu began. "But that makes me an even bigger one, I guess. The thing is, I know what the word family means to us, and unfortunately I also know just how absolutely shitty it feels to say something too late. It's not that the word means any less to me now, I just make sure to say it more often, before I can't anymore," he rolled his eyes again, his face heating up. "A-And you're obviously still special to me! I'm really sorry I made you think you weren't. Also, I... I hope you don't mind me expanding our family like that."
Our family. The words stuck in Mika's head, and he suddenly felt a strong urge to say them out loud, confirm them. Our?
Instead, Mika lowered his gaze. "No, of course I don't mind, Yuu-chan," he ended the sentence on an uncertain note.
Yuu stared at him. "...And?"
Mika looked up, confused. "And...?"
"You were going to say something else, but you stopped talking."
"No, I was just breathing."
"Mika."
"Yuu-chan."
"Oh, goddammit, Mika! We're saying how we feel now, might as well let it all out, right?"
Mika sighed. "Yuu-chan... Okay, fine, you asked for it. I really like you, so... I was just wondering... if there was a possibility of us ever becoming more than family?"
Yuu's entire face turned crimson and he sat up violently. "Wh-what the hell? Don't ask things like that while we're in this position, stupid!"
"You're the reason we're in this position, plus you told me to say what I was thinking, so..."
"I didn't know it'd be something like that!" he groaned. "Why do I like you, of all people? You say the weirdest things..."
Mika stared at him, his face dusted red. "H-hey, I don't always say w-... Wait... What?"
Yuu looked away, his eyes narrowing. "Yes, okay? Let's be... more than family. Or whatever."
Mika's eyes lit up. "Really?" his gaze turned uncertain almost immediately afterwards. "I mean, you're joking, right?"
He was interrupted as Yuu leaned over him again, pressing a brief kiss to his mouth, then pulled back slightly to stare at him.
Mika opened his mouth to say something, but his mind drew a blank.
Yuu-chan kissed him.
Yuuichirou Hyakuya kissed him.
The Yuuichirou whose eyes he'd spent hours imagining, whose presence he'd been yearning for for the past five years.
The Yuuichirou that was the reason for him staying alive.
The Yuuichirou that he'd loved since he first set his eyes on him at the orphanage.
The Yuuichirou that had just kissed him.
Yuu waited for Mika to say something, his face on fire.
Is this what Mika meant by 'more than family'? Did he mean something else?
When Mika made eye contact with him again, he had tears in his eyes, the red irises watery.
Ah.
"Crap, Mika, I'm sorry, I thought you meant you, y'know, like-liked me, and-"
"Yuu-chan," the word sounded short, like he was slightly out of breath.
"...Y-yes?"
"Could you please get off of me?"