Shadow


by Tenshi


The house had been silent for hours. Mia had meant to fold up her stuff, shut down the computer and go to bed as soon as Rowen was done watching his movie with Kento, but she'd happened on a string of fascinating mythological coincidences and tracking it all down had taken her longer than she'd realized, or noticed. The den clock chiming once made her look up and blink. One am? Geesh.

She yawned her way up the stairs, twisting her shoulders to work out the computer kinks, without much success.. she would wake up sore in the morning, she knew. A soft sound made her freeze on the landing, listening for it again. It almost sounded like something in pain, an animal or something. Perhaps White Blaze had caught a mouse.. he liked them for snacks.

Mia paused by Ryou's door, it was open a fraction, and tried unobtrusively to see if Blaze was in there with him. The white tiger was, and sprawled in his usual place on the floor, sound asleep. Mia shrugged. Either the stairs squeaked or she was imagining things, either way could wait till morning. She turned away from Ryou's room, heading for her own, when the sound came again, a little harsher this time, and recognizable. Ryou shuddered in his sleep, and rolled over, his face towards her. His features were contorted slightly in whatever nether-horror he was experiencing, and the whimper that escaped his clenched jaw was part pain, part defiance.

Mia hesitated. The others' nightmares had faded, and even so they never suffered from them as Ryou always had. All the same, they never spoke of it... the best thing Mia could do was leave.. he wouldn't even remember the dream by morning and there was nothing she could do, not years after the events he was reliving had been. She turned once more to her own room, and then was paralyzed by one sound, so soft that above her suddenly pounding heart she wasn't even sure she had heard it.

Ryou said her name.

She stared at him intently, waiting for some sign to disprove what she could not believe, but all she saw in the dim light of the room was his uneasily slumbering form, his cheeks wet with tears.

Mia was not aware of pushing the door open, or crossing the room, she only knew that she was holding Ryo, that his arms were locked around her waist. He was shaking despite the strength coiled in his frame, making soft anguished noises as he wept in his sleep. Ryou sounded like some creature that had been hurt... the vulnerability of it made Mia's heart ache. She stroked the ebony waves of hair that flowed over the tanned shoulders. Mia couldn't remember how often she'd wanted to touch his hair, to smooth the unruly silk locks around her fingers. But now it felt like something she had always done, that she had never been afraid to touch him.

Ryou quieted. His arms still held her, but his breathing was soft and even. Mia moved reluctantly to get up; if she let herself stay any longer then she wouldn't be able to leave him.

"Don't leave me."

Startled, Mia looked down when she heard the soft but clear request. Ryou's eyes, blue like the center of

flame and quite awake, looked back at her. "Please."

Ryou? Her lips formed his name, but her voice was too taken aback to follow. It felt like a dream. this

couldn't be real, Ryou's hands moving up to take her shoulders, then his arms holding her tightly against him, his throat warm against her cheek.

But it was real... she knew it... and suddenly she was the one who wanted to cry.

"You make it all go away, Mia. stay with me."

Good lord , Mia wondered, shouldn't he know by now that he doesn't even have to ask? she shivered as his lips tentatively touched her jaw. She'd played this out in her mind a thousand times... more, in fact, but she never expected this to happen like this- out of the blue, on a Wednesday.

She never expected it to happen at all.

He kissed her then, and she forgot all else but him. There was only his hair under her hands, his scent, his warmth. And the fierce, certain knowledge at last that he wanted to be with her.

He whispered her name once more as he drifted back to sleep in her arms, the cool silk of her blouse under his cheek. She murmured his name softly back, and held him close.

Morning came and they had not moved, sleeping dreamlessly together.

Ryou never had another nightmare.


~o~





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