He dreamt he was happy. Shion rarely dreamt he was happy, but when he did, it was always about his deepest, purest desires. And when shion desired something, it was with his whole heart. No one knew this better than the man resting his head horizontally on his lap – the man whom he'd spent the last four years of his life with. Shion and nezumi had faced many hurdles in their lives, but now, ever since the wall had been destroyed, along with the correctional facility, there was only happiness and peace. They took some time away from things every once in a while, just to be alone with each other. Shion didn't have to think about the next new project, though the rebuilding committee was very important to him, and nezumi got InuKashi off his back about what he could and couldn't do around baby Shion, who actually wasn't so much of a baby anymore, as he was five years old now and more of a toddler.
The couple spent their precious moments together often doing the same things they did in west block, before the man hunt, before the destruction of the wall, and before the inevitable chaos that ensued. Though now, shion opted out of reading with nezumi, in favor of entertaining himself with nezumi's hair. Shion had a number of ways he was amused with the silky locks, which always seemed to be trapped somewhere between a dark, rich midnight blue, and a shadowy grey that could also turn black if you caught it right. Right now, he elected his and nezumi's favorite, since it had been allowed to escape its usual ponytail. shion took four fingers of his right hand and lightly scrape the very tips of the nails across nezumis scalp, halfway or so to the back of his head, where shion gathered the hair against his palm, and gently pulled outward, allowing for a little resistance so nezumi felt slight tugging at his roots, before the strands drifted back down to where the rest of his hair lay draped over shions right outer thigh.
He continued like that for a while. The sun eventually sank from its place directly overhead, casting longer shadows for the trees around them, including the one shion rested against. The shadows grew and grew, and the sun sank further beyond the horizon, until all the shadows blended in evenly with the dark of the night. Shion lifted his head from where it was leaning on the tree, and looked down on nezumis resting face. The book he'd been reading was closed around the finger of one hand, the surrounding digits holding on to the hard cover, and the top edge of the spine lay just under his slightly raised Adam's apple. Shion registered this relatively quickly, thankful that his observatory skills had been improving, following nezumis orders that he still needed to be able to defend and take care of himself. Shions hand stop its soothing motion and reached to cup the back of nezumis head, which had turned slightly in his sleep so now his face was almost flush with shions stomach. Shion watched him sleep for a moment before his head resumed its leaning pose in that almost undetectable dip in the smooth tree bark. Soon, though, nezumi stirred and opened his eyes to shions coat, then to the starry night sky above.
They locked eyes, and each held the others' gaze as nezumi rose from where he'd nestled himself on shions lap. They hadn't spoken much during their time in the park, and they kept this silence as nezumi leaned in with the natural grace he seemed exude, like a scent that clung to his body. It wasn't like shion could force out a sound if he wanted to – when he registered the smirk nezumi wore, the breath he took lodged itself in his throat. That devious smirk settled on Nezumi's lips was the same one he often put into place whenever the older man planned on tormenting the younger, albeit playfully, and Shion did enjoy this kind of teasing if he was being honest with himself. And as Nezumi leaned in that last bit, enough to be a hairs' width away from delivering Shion to his favorite place on Earth, almost instinctively, he allowed his eyes to drift shut, and . . . .
He woke up.