Dreams are funny things.  They can make you scream and cry without any effort at all, and if anyone else had them, they would feel nothing.  No one has the same dream as someone else.  No one is affected in the same way by the same dream as anyone else.  The terrifying dreams make you feel safe and the normal ones make you want to throw up.

Yeah.

Fucking hilarious.

Katsu woke bolt upright, drenched in sweat and still hearing the echo of Kijou's voice in his head.  He couldn't move, couldn't think, could barely breathe …

Breathe.

Breathe.

In, out.  In, out.

Ichi, ni, san, yottsu.

Stop it, Katsu.  Stop hyperventilating like a nervous woman.

Stop it.

Calm down.  She's not here.  It's alright.

Calm.

Katsu took a few more deep breaths before he could say he was ready to actually calm down.  It wasn't so bad anymore, actually.  Waking had removed most of the memory of Kijou's voice, and the warmth around him was doing a good job at making him if not forget about, then not care about the few things left.

Warmth?

There was … warmth … on his back.

There was a hand on his back.

Katsu looked up, confused and a little worried, into a pair of jade green eyes.

Green?

Oh.

Katsu opened his mouth, and found that his vocal cords had suddenly refused to work.  He was incapable of producing anything beyond a raspy croak.  He swallowed, licked his dry, chapped lips, and tried again, still staring into those steady green eyes, though he felt like he might collapse at any time.

"Aoshi."

The tall ninja raised one ebony eyebrow, and said, in all seriousity and without a hint of mockery, "harmless."

Katsu would have flushed, but he was too weak to do so.  He lowered his head, and that tiny motion was enough to do him in.  He fell forward – or would have, but Aoshi's chest stopped him before he could get very far.

To Katsu's everlasting surprise, Aoshi did not push him away, but gathered him into a gentle embrace that felt very much like the one an older brother would give.  Well, probably it did.  Not having an older brother, Katsu couldn't really comment on how it felt.

He didn't really care, either.  Without Aoshi where he was right now, Katsu would have been flat on his face with a bruised something, and he knew it.

He gripped the taller man's yukatta tighter – to steady himself – and made no move to leave, either.

"Maybe …" it was less of a word and more of a sigh, dragged out of Katsu's unwilling lips where it was swallowed up and muffled against Aoshi's chest.  "Maybe … not so harmless, after all."

"Ah."  Again he could trace no hint of mockery in that cool voice, though the words alone left plenty of room for it.

Well, if that wasn't an opening to continue, nothing was, and thanks to that dream, Katsu knew damn well that if he didn't do something to get Kijou off his chest, and now, then he'd never be able to be free of her.  And Aoshi had already proven to be a good listener, hadn't he?

Another sigh, and Katsu closed his eyes in resignation – not that there was much difference in what he could and could not see.  Aoshi was waiting for a further tale, no question about it.  Not pressing for it, oh no, but willing to hear should Katsu be willing to speak.

"Her name is Tatamisu Kijou," he began, and felt the ninja shift their position into one that would be more comfortable to stay in for an extended period of time.  Normally, Katsu would at least offer a token protest at being treated like a fragile woman, but now he was just too weary to.  "and, as I said, she used to be my lover …"

***********************

Well, here's the next one.  And a hug.  Awww.  (Just as I wrote that, the song on the radio went: "nature is a whore".  No meaning – I just thought that was funny.)  Unless I got it wrong, the Japanese up there in the beginning is "one, two, three, four," and someone tell me if I spelled yukatta wrong.  Didn't come out exactly how I wanted it too (when does it ever?) – for one, the hug feels too abrupt, and not really believable.  Oh, well.  It'll be fine as it is once I post 51.