DISCLAIMER: of course, I don't own anything...

Sleepless Night

A slight touch on the skin, just like a stroke of a feather, barely touching the sensitive surface but still intensive enough to cause goose bumps. It felt so good, but in the same time... it was unbearable. Yuki jumped up in his bed after having one of these strange dreams again. They were haunting him night after night, the unexplainable feelings gathering up inside of him. He would wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, vexed from the blurry images his mind has just produced. It seemed as if he was remembering some past events, for it felt so real. But before he could form the complete image in his head, he would always end up waking up, distraught as now. He knew for sure that there was another person present in that dream, but he just couldn't remember who it was. Still, everything felt so familiar. Even the touch of this stranger.

"Water. I definitely need some water…", Yuki thought as he got out of his bed and headed towards the kitchen.

It was so quiet at the mansion for everybody was already fast asleep. No wonder, since it was around three in the morning. His slippers produced strange noise as he stepped onto the kitchen floor. Slugging his feet slowly, heading to the kitchen cabinet through the dark, not bothering to turn the light on, he didn't notice the chair that was right on his way and walked right into it.

"Oooow!", the contact between his knee and the wooden chair was quite painful. For Yuki at least, the chair didn't even move from its place.

"It hurts so much I could cry…", Yuki thought as he tried to suppress his voice. It was definitely one of those moments to cry out and curse everything around you, but the timing was just bad. Waking the whole house up would be really inconvenient, so he just bit his lip and hoped the pain will eventually go away. He sat on the floor, his hands clenching the chair that caused him this trouble.

Just when he thought he should try getting up and limp back to his room somehow, a familiar voice surprised him, followed with the sudden outburst of light, coming from the reflectors on the ceiling.

"You'll catch a cold sitting on those cold tiles like that…"

"Luca! What are you doing here?", Yuki was confused when he realized he wasn't the only one wandering through the mansion in these god forsaken hour.

Completely ignoring his question, Luca walked to where Yuki was sitting and crouched next to him.

"Are you hurt?", he asked him in a worried voice.

"No… I just…", Yuki looked at the chair and then his knee that was still throbbing in pain.

"Let me take a look…", Luca rolled up Yuki's pajamas and looked at his boney joint. "We should put some ice on it, before it bruises.", he said as he gently laid his fingertips on his knee.

"No!", Yuki flinched and moved his leg away from Luca, rolling the pajama back. "It doesn't matter if it bruises later. It's just my knee, no one will see it.", he said as he tried to get up.

Luca offered his shoulder for Yuki to lean on, seeing as he was not able to keep his balance just yet. Yuki felt relieved as he could shift some of his weight onto Luca, as his right leg was not yet ready to function normally.

"Come on, let's take you to your room. Can you walk?", Luca turned his head to Yuki, looking him straight into eyes. Their faces were only few inches away and Yuki started feeling really uncomfortable so he looked away, focusing his eyes onto the tile pattern on the floor.

"I can…Ow!", Yuki tried to move but it seemed as if his leg was completely disobedient. "Give me just a minute, and I'll be able to walk just fine."

"You'll catch a cold if you stay here any longer, come on…", Luca suddenly grabbed Yuki into his arms and walked towards the hall, carrying him princess style.

"Hey, don't carry me like a girl…", Yuki said, embarrassed.

Luca was determinant they would make it back to Yuki's room and didn't pay any attention to his protests. He just continued walking with Yuki in his arms.

"I said, I'm not a girl…", Yuki whispered when they reached the stairs.

"I know…", Luca sighed. "Yuki is a boy. I know that.", he gazed right into Yuki's eyes once again. He didn't need any reminder of who Yuki was for he knew it just too well.

"Jeez… just hurry, ok?", Yuki murmured. "I just hope no one sees this. So embarrassing…", he thought to himself.

When they reached the room, Yuki was relieved they didn't run into anyone somewhere along the way.

"You can put me down now, Luca."

"Just go to sleep now, ok?", Luca said and rustled his hair a bit. "It's really late."

"If I could…", Yuki said in a half loud voice.

"Insomnia?"

"I don't know. I have been having these strange dreams lately. I wake up in the middle of the night, like this… and I can't fall asleep after."

"You've been having nightmares?", Luca asked, as he sat down on the corner of his bed, ready to hear him out.

"These dreams… I don't know if they're good or bad.", Yuki shrugged his shoulders.

"What do you mean?", Luca was confused.

"It's as if I'm reliving something that already happened, you know, like a déjà-vu, only I'm certain it never happened. Could it be that those are memories from my previous life?"

Luca's, up until now, expressionless face seemed kind of disturbed by Yuki's words. "What do you see?", he finally asked him.

"It's not really what I see, but more what I feel…", Yuki started, as he clenched his fingers into his pajama shirt, trying to explain the feelings he was experiencing. "…it's so familiar, but so far away and distant at the same time. I'm both happy and sad… and there's this person, there's someone that I want to let go of, but if I do so, I feel as if I am going to die…", as he spoke, his eyes slowly filled with tears.

Luca moved closer to Yuki, without a word, so now he was only an arm length away from him. He raised his arm and gently caressed the boy's cheek with his hand.

"Luca…", Yuki stared, trying to suppress his tears, wrapping his own hand around Luca's wrist. "Who am I to you?"

After a long silence, Luca finally spoke. "You're Yuki."

"And who was I? Who was I to you?", this time, he was just a word away from sobbing.

"Yuki. You're always Yuki. It's always you...", Luca said and pulled Yuki's head to his chest, holding him tightly and wrapping both of his arms around his back.

Yuki couldn't hold back his tears anymore, so he just cried, head still buried into the black shirt. He could feel hands gently caressing his back and moving up, fingers ruffling his hair slowly as he was trying not to completely break down. Everything seemed so familiar… the scent of this person next to him, his touch, his breathing… it was the same sensation that he felt in those dreams of his that kept on repeating themselves. The person that he couldn't identify, but whose presence he strongly felt was finally here beside him, holding him in his arms. He was no longer just a distant, fading memory.

"It shouldn't be like this…", Yuki murmured into Luca's shirt.

"I'm sorry, Yuki… I'm sorry you have to suffer like this.", Luca sighed. "I won't blame you if you hate me."

"I could never hate you. Not you. Even if I wanted to… I couldn't hate you, I couldn't forget you…", Yuki put his hands around Luca's waist, holding onto him tightly.

"Yuki…", Luca lowered his head a bit and gently kissed Yuki's hair. Yuki suddenly broke away from the embrace and looked at the man in front of him, confused.

"I'm not who I used to be… Right?", he sighed.

"You're still you."

"I'm different! I'm completely different…I'm sorry!"

"Yuki…", Luca sighed as he once again lightly touched Yuki's cheek, trying to wipe the tears off. "I am looking at you. Only at you, all the time…", he gasped as his hand slowly found its way down, caressing the soft skin on Yuki's neck. When Yuki felt he was about to go even further down, he brushed Luca's hand away in panic.

"I'm sorry!", Luca bit his lower lip and looked down into the floor. He felt this awkward atmosphere around them, and the only sound he could hear was Yuki's loud panting.

"This is just too much for me right now…", the boy tossed himself into the sheets and covered himself with the blanket, almost over his head.

"I understand…", Luca said peacefully and moved away from the bed.

As Yuki felt the sudden disappearance of Luca's body weight on his mattress, he gasped once, not sure what to say. The words just followed. "Don't go, please…"

"Are you sure you want me to stay?", Luca hesitantly asked.

"Yeah… I feel safer with you by my side…", Yuki murmured, just loud enough for Luca to understand.

"I see…", he said as he placed himself on the corner of Yuki's bed once again. "I'll stay here, so you don't have to worry."

"Thank you, Luca."

"Go to sleep now, you have school tomorrow…", Luca said patronizingly before leaning his back onto the bedside. "Just being this close to him is enough…", he thought as he watched the boy fall asleep.

...

THE END