Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Nikaido Akira lay on his back, staring up the ceiling of his darkened bedroom. He couldn't sleep. His mind was too restless, jumping from thought to thought as if it were a teenager on a high caffeine diet. He closed his eyes, rolled over. The new position didn't help. He rolled again and snuck a peek at his alarm clock through half-lidded eyes. The display read 3:30 in unblinking neon green. He sighed. Every night was the same. After hours of tossing and turning Akira would fall into uneasy dreams. Dreams of flowing white hair and sapphire eyes. Dreams of battles, flirtatious smiles, a kiss…and then he would wake up with the name on his lips: Shirogane. He whispered it and it seemed to linger on in the air. It had been nearly a year since the battle against Homurabi when Japan almost fell into darkness and Shirogane had been forced to return to the Shadow Realm to heal. Nearly a year of normalcy, boredom, and a persistent ache deep in Akira's chest whenever he thought of the Shin—which was often. Shirogane. When are you coming back? Are you coming back? The same questions rolling around in his head for nearly a year. Not that it had been all bad. Since the battle there had been few Kokuchi attacks and few reasons for Akira or Kou to use their powers. It was peaceful. Akira and Kengo had slipped into the same routines of skipping class, getting into fights, and running from Aya. There were a few differences from before. Aya was a tiny bit nicer, Akira saw Kou a bit more often, and he still spent some afternoons in the Still Bar with Master. But everyone deeply felt Shirogane's absence. Including Akira. Especially Akira. The ache flared up again and Akira closed his eyes. He tried to steer his thoughts to something else, but failed miserably. The thing was, Akira missed the ridiculous, coquettish, annoying man. All the things that used to make Akira want to hit him with that stupid cane were now the things that he missed most. The coy smiles, the not so subtle touches, the weird things he said. "I like you, Akira -kun." Akira rolled onto his side, curling up into a ball the way he had when he was a child and squeezed his eyes shut. At some point the sounds of the nocturnal world turned into the sounds of his dreams.
Akira dreamed that he was staring into fathomless blue eyes. Shirogane was so close that he could feel the man's warm breath on his lips. A sharp sound from inside his room woke Akira and his eyes snapped open. He stared. The blue eyes, belonging to the white-haired Shin lying next to Akira on his bed, stared back. "Good morning, Akira-kun." Shirogane whispered, almost brushing Akira's lips with his own. Akira blinked, then three things happened nearly simultaneously. One: Akira screamed "Shirogane!" and sat up. Two: Akira lashed out angrily with a clenched fist. Three: Shirogane expertly ducked said fist and captured Akira in a tight hug. After a beat, Akira reluctantly wrapped his own arms around the Shin and soon buried his face in Shirogane's long hair. "Good morning, Shirogane." he murmured, "It's nice to have you back."