For years, this file has been headed, 'God damn it, I will write something for this fandom one day'. One day is here...
Disclaimer- heh, I wish.
Unmitigated fluff, because that's how the DateSana pairing rolls.
Enjoi.
5
The first time it happens, Yukimura falls asleep almost immediately. He's face down on the pillow, snuffling every few minutes. Masamune finds this sort of adorable.
He's also unable to sleep himself. Yukimura has an arm around his waist and a leg pinned over his; Masamune cannot move without waking the kid, and with as little sleep as both of them have had recently, he hasn't the heart to do so.
So he lies awake the whole night on high alert, listening for any change in the other's breathing. Anything to belie the fact that Yukimura is awake and waiting for an opportune moment.
The night passes slowly and silently. Yukimura wakes with the dawn and is so cheerful that Masamune lies when asked and tells the kid he'd only been awake a few minutes himself.
Yukimura grins, steals a quick kiss and leaps up, grabbing clothing and getting ready to face a new day.
When he leaves, Masamune finally turns his head around so he can survey the right hand side of the room as he couldn't last night- seeing Yukimura's bedroll laid next to his which last night, sleeping on his back, he was blind to.
He finds some excuse to switch them before that evening, and thinks that is the end of it.
4
Masamune yawns and sits up, cracking his back to loosen up tense muscles. He glances to his right out of habit-
-and has a weapon in his hand before he recognises the person by his side; Yukimura. The sudden commotion wakes the younger man up, and he blinks groggily at the dagger in his face.
"Masamune-dono?" His voice is still shaking off the remnants of sleep.
(Masamune hopes Yukimura's voice is only shaking because of sleep.)
"Yukimura." Masamune sighs, and puts the dagger away. "When did you get in?"
"A couple of hours after sunset," Yukimura answers slowly. "Katakura-dono said it'd be fine to join you in here. Was he wrong?" His earnest eyes are worried, hoping he hasn't upset his on-and-off again lover.
Masamune scrubs at his eye. It's too early for this. "No, he was right; it's fine." He half-heartedly smiles at Yukimura. "You just surprised me, is all."
Yukimura isn't entirely reassured, but he drops it anyway.
3
He wakes, and is disorientated by his view of the room; the walls are tilted (and partially obscured, but his mind cannot explain by what) and the ceiling is gone. He cannot see the ceiling. This is not right.
In a sentence, he panics.
Masamune flails about until he is once again on his back, and wonders what possibly prompted him to move onto his side during the night. His left side at that, leaving him hideously vulnerable with his sight so compromised.
Then there are hands on his shoulders, turning him back to the left.
He may have panicked internally a little bit more.
"I think you just kicked me in the ribs!" Yukimura all but shouts. "What's wrong?"
"What?" Masamune manages. He's not at his best on a normal morning, and in no way does this one qualify as normal, besides.
"You woke up in a panic." Yukimura lowers his voice, and Masamune is thankful. "What's wrong? Is it bad dreams?"
Or not. He does not want to have this conversation. There is no problem to have a conversation about.
"No more than usual," Masamune snaps, instantly regretting it for the look of sympathy that isn't quashed soon enough on Yukimura's face. He backtracks to when he woke up, trying to make sense of things, and abruptly realises that they were cuddling. The One-Eyed Dragon and the Tiger Cub of Kai.
(and if that nickname had led to him calling Yukimura 'kitten' on more than one occasion, that was between himself, Yukimura and the black eye his teasing normally resulted in)
He also shivers, and thinks he's worked it out. "Cold, isn't it?" His changing of the subject is as smooth as a churning river.
Yukimura startles at his abruptness, but lets his lover get away with it and changes tracks immediately. "Hm. I was grateful for your warmth, last night." His smile is coy to Masamune's smirk.
"How grateful?"
So, Masamune thinks, maybe he should get used to this warmth-sharing thing, if it comes with the ensuing fringe benefits.
But only if he can sleep on his back, like normal.
2
Yukimura finally starts putting the pieces together. Although he's never again woken up to a dagger in his face, there's been a few mornings where Masamune's face has been the picture of panic for those few seconds before he's fully aware.
But only after the nights when Yukimura sleeps on the right hand side. Honestly, it's not difficult to work out.
He takes a small knife to bed with him the next time he sleeps next to Masamune. He suspects that the One Eyed Dragon doesn't sleep at all that night- there are circles around his eye that morning- but with the cool poise Masamune pulls off, few people would be able to see anything wrong.
Yukimura is secretly proud that he can tell what's not right. He's less proud of the fact that he still has no plan to solve the problem, however.
1
After the seventh time of awakening to panic (and the third time of not sleeping at all) Masamune admits that he has a problem.
He isn't cold-hearted enough to believe that it's Yukimura who's the problem, however. It's one of his greatest failings to date.
He watches as Yukimura sets up his bedroll. There's a noticeable pause between kneeling next to Masamune's, and unrolling his own on the left hand side, necessitating Yukimura leaning over Masamune's already prepared bed.
"Are you deliberating making a point, or are you just tired and not thinking straight?" Masamune asks loftily.
"Are you deliberately trying to start an argument, with that tone?" Yukimura replies, his own voice even. Masamune likes that his hyper lover has it within himself to be calmed and measured (at times few and far between perhaps, but always when it's important) when it's just the two of them around.
Masamune just stares from his remaining eye until Yukimura breaks down and explains.
"I know it bothers you. I'm not trying to change you, I'm not arguing with you, I'm not blind enough," Masamune can't help but grin when Yukimura winces at his thoughtless wording, but bravely soldiers on, "to miss the reason why. So this is how it's going to be." He stares back at Masamune and perhaps there is something in his eyes that is begging for a challenge, to be proved wrong on this.
Masamune can't give Yukimura that (at the moment, but he's admitted he has a problem and is working on it. Honestly.) .
Yukimura perhaps senses that, and sighs as he strips down for bed. "I don't want to replace your Right Eye. I just might want that you don't feel blind, endangered, without him. I might want that you feel you aren't in danger when it's just the two of us."
"Might want?" Masamune queries the archaic wording.
Yukimura's stare now turns incredulous, like Masamune's being an idiot.
Suddenly he realises: he is being an idiot. "Ah," he says, for lack of anything else.
Yukimura snorts, but beckons him to bed regardless. Masamune's realisation goes unspoken, but is no less real for that.
He applies himself to his problem with even greater diligence thereafter; being loved is powerful motivation.
(+) 1
Yukimura wakes up, and he is warm. Considering the winter season is at its height, this is unexpected. Nonetheless, and despite what all logic is trying to tell him, he is lying on his stomach and there is warmth all down the right side of his body.
His pillow is also breathing.
Slowly, Yukimura puts the pieces together, and a warmth from within slowly overtakes the shared body heat.
Masamune wakes up. The ceiling is where it should be, nothing is blocking his vision and his right arm is screaming at him in agony because it has weight pressing on it from where no weight should be.
Masamune smiles, tells his arm to get used to it, and cuddles Yukimura a little closer before going back to sleep.
(+) 2
Something startles Masamune awake. He keeps his eye closed and focuses on his hearing.
It's coming from his right side.
Masamune breathes, because he knows his left side is to the wall and on his right side is Yukimura, (by the sound of it) turning in his sleep. The Tiger Cub's instincts are sharp; Masamune feels safe enough that if Yukimura isn't awake and shouting, there is no attack to fear.
He doesn't turn and check, only relaxes and falls back to sleep between one breath and the next.
Yukimura yawns as he sits up. He is, he notes bemusedly, in an entirely different position to the one he fell asleep in. Worriedly, he glances at Masamune, fearing that his lover has remained stiff and awake due to his restlessness. Masamune is such a light sleeper, especially with regards to his blind side.
Masamune is still sleeping.
Yukimura blinks, and checks again, but the One-Eyed Dragon continues to snore softly.
Yukimura recalls the look on Masamune's face when he worked out that Yukimura was in love with him. He imagines that his own face now sports a similar look.
Masamune has slept through a night with Yukimura at his right side.
Nothing could spoil Yukimura's mood this morning.
(That night, Masamune steals Yukimura's bedroll and sets it up himself. He lays it out to the right of his own, and sends Yukimura a look that dares the Cub to make an issue of it.
Yukimura grins, accepts the dare, and promptly tackles Masamune to the floor with glee.)