AN: It's another short chapter, I'm sorry, but in summer my RL is just too hectic (and I'm trying to at least update often... well, I'm trying, right?). And the mystery is not yet unclosed here, nor is the lemony stuff... uh... commensed. Otherwise - please, enjoy.
Beta-ed by the wonderful YenGirl. Thank you, my dear, from the very depth of my heart *bows*
For Disclaimer see chapter 1. Nothing has changed since then :)
He returns within barely fifteen minutes, still rubbing his hair into a little drier disorder, and he has been thinking about Kaname rather much, while he showered, mostly concentrating on two equally delightful options he has – should he just turn Kaname onto his back roughly and smother him with a deep penetrating kiss, just as the pureblood gasps in surprised awakening, while tugging his pants off in one motion and inserting the first finger inside his opening before he even properly wakes? Or should he climb in stealthily and try his best with gentle touches and soft caresses (rubbing Kaname's nipples ever so tenderly through the black silk, and putting the line of feather-light kisses along the nape of his neck, and slowly and carefully sliding a hand onto his stomach and down, and down to run the very tip of his finger along the sleepily soft length), so that by the time he wakes, the pureblood is already quivering with intense arousal… Ah!.. Zero missed him so much and in so many ways…
As he stands once again by the bed though, looking down on the black clad form, that must've squirmed in sleep, while he was bathing (since the blanket is even more messed up then before, lying mostly down by the pureblood's legs), but is now almost in the exact pose Zero has originally found him in, completely immobile, Zero feels a pang of uncertainty about whether he should wake the pureblood at all, for he knows Kaname is tired and needs this sleep…
And it almost freaks Zero out – just how many small things he has learned about Kaname in the (comparatively) short time that they had lived together… a necessity really, since apart from overboard sulks, the latter can still be pretty tight lipped, especially when something bothers, worries or concerns him, or when he's tired, or hungry, or thirsty for Zero's blood, and Zero has to notice it himself and fairly bug the pureblood to admit it… And still it freaks Zero out, just how extensive his knowledge of Kaname's quirks is… Crap!..
Like there are for instance several distinct ways to how Kaname sleeps… (No, really…) While not an especially squirmy sleeper usually, when tired - the pureblood lies so unnaturally, queerly immobile, that Zero has to slide closer and put his arm around his ribs, to be reassured that there still is movement, the soft rise and fall of breathing and the heartbeat below his hand. And when he is beyond tired (like at that time that the pureblood didn't sleep for two nights and days in a row preparing a business plan for a new extension company, and lying to Zero, who was in between of assignments and home then, about how he 'had taken a nap and woke already' and all while Zero himself slept), yes, when he's completely exhausted – then there will be this squirming, these bouts of nervous twitching passing through Kaname's body from time to time, as if even in his sleep he is growing impatient with himself, willing himself to relax and getting angry when the attempt fails.
'So… bugger it…' Zero decides. He will still kiss Kaname as he previously wanted, and if Kaname wakes, then… and if he doesn't wake, then… After all he is pretty tired himself, and there is always an evening (and generally a few days - after the long assignment they owe him that much) to look forward to.
He climbs onto the bed (the mattress shifting under the added weight, which should've been enough in fact to wake up the black-clad figure, and if he hasn't woken then…) and plants a firm, smacking, entirely cheating kiss on top of the mass of dark-brown curls…
… and freezes… because the pureblood reacts in a way he hasn't expected at all… uh, actually he doesn't know what he expected, but certainly not a pitiful whimper… and it wasn't a whimper of frustrated desire either (Zero knows exactly the way they sound), but one caused by fright or pain…
Zero waits, but nothing more comes from the pureblood… Nightmare, huh?.. So that's what makes his shoulders look so tense, even in sleep… No wonder that Kaname hasn't woken earlier, either… some dreams are stronger than the others…
He knows that they both have enough monsters to haunt their dreams. Enough that he knows or at least can suspect about, and he fears to think about what other horrors await Kaname in the span of his other life, the one that happened before his current existence, the one that Zero has not a single inkling about.
It is wrong to wake the person, who has a nightmare. Zero knows it from experience. If one wakes, then a nightmare stays right there, firmly imprinted on one's mind in all its terrifying glory… And Zero would hate this to happen to Kaname, would hate the shadows to haunt these beautiful brown eyes for hours on end… So he slides softly closer, pressing himself to Kaname's back as a warm reassuring presence (the movement causing another stifled whimper to escape from the pureblood lips), stroking his shoulder soothingly, whispering sappy nonsense, things that he would never be heard speaking, were both of them awake now ("Shh… It's o'key… I'm here… Everything is alright…"), and hopes that Kaname feels it without wakening and just slips into a happier dream, that will obliterate the nightmare entirely from the pureblood's memory…
'But it's no such luck this day, no?' he thinks, as Kaname kicks at the blanket that his feet are entangled in rather violently and sits up with his back to Zero in one abrupt motion.
"Ah… Zero… you're home… go to sleep then, do… I… just remembered I have a few letters to write yet… so don't mind me, I'll come back and join you later…"
"Kaname…" he tries to catch the pureblood, but it's a futile attempt – and Zero feels ridiculous, frozen with his arm outstretched like this, while the study doors already closes behind Kaname with a soft thud.
'It's alright' he reasons with himself. 'He is just shaken by whatever he was dreaming about, is all… So, lie down as he told you, and give him a bit of privacy to work it out… he will just sit there until he is composed enough, then will, probably, write some e-mail, if only to prove to himself that he hasn't just totally deceived yourself, then will come back…'
So Zero reclines on the pillow (his own, that smells now of Kaname as well, and there is something so very right in how both their scents mingle together) and thinks of everything and nothing in particular – of the pureblood, and nightmares, and the hunt that he has returned from, and – a little worriedly – what if his choice to continue with his dangerous (not always, sometimes it is just plain boring, but then sometimes it is dangerous) occupation gives Kaname more monsters to haunt his nights? Yet – somewhere deep down - he still can't completely believe that his existence could be so important for the pureblood as to have him dream about Zero… Of course, Zero himself does dream about Kaname… uh… quite often in fact… But well, that's different…
And all this time he listens attentively to what happens on the other side of the door, waiting patiently for the soft click-clack of the laptop keys, which would mean that Kaname has already progressed to the letter-writing and will be soon to return. All he hears though is the sound of the pureblood's pacing – back and forth in the study, from the window and to the dark wood bookshelves, and back again. It can be of course that he composes a letter in his head, while pacing, he does sometimes, but somehow Zero doubts it, maybe because the walking pattern doesn't cease, doesn't change – ever since the initial moment of silence when the pureblood first entered the room. It worries Zero a little… no, hell, it worries him a lot, for whatever could've unnerved Kaname to such an extent, should be something big… and he wishes Kaname would just tell him about it, just shared or unloaded or… whatever… but of course he never will… And Zero wants to smash something badly, because he knows it's not even the matter of trust, it's that the damn fool doesn't want to burden him unnecessarily… ah, crap! (And yet the small, ever so honest voice at the very back of his head tells him: 'Don't you do so yourself?')
And then his hunter senses go amok for a moment, as he feels the pureblood powers unleashed in the other room, and there is the sound of glass breaking… What? There is still glass in there? Not windows, those are of the most solid bullet-proof stuff. Zero himself had insisted on installing it (a rare occasion where it was he, who initiated the spending of quite an amount of Kaname's money), because the last time Kaname got mad on some his subordinate to the extent that even his exceptional control snapped both he and Zero ended up with their bare feet bleeding, and while the little wounds closed almost instantly when the shards were removed, the process of removing them was tedious and torturous… So, well, not windows. Something small – an empty glass or a teacup left by the laptop, most likely, and Zero contemplates if it is enough of a cue for him to go there and investigate for himself.
The contemplation is short lived though, as the flare of vampiric powers is closely followed by a loud crash, and it's not glass anymore, it's something solid thrown into the wall either by telekinesis or, well, the old fashioned way… And if that's not his cue, Zero doesn't know what else could be…
He's by the door even before the sound dies, and – crap! – he wishes he had his slippers on (there is broken glass there, remember?), but those are still somewhere by the front door and it cannot be helped…
So he enters anyway, and there is Kaname, safe and sound, standing by the bookshelf with his back to the door, and the glass he heard was a cup, just as he figured, and the thing that crashed… Zero's mouth opens in complete shock – 'His laptop?! Tell me I'm dreaming… Not his laptop…' He cannot imagine Kaname in a thousand years smashing his precious, oh so needed and all-important laptop into the wall, and then with such a force that he's pretty sure no data can be possibly recovered out of this broken mess.
For a moment or two he is just… well, robbed of words, that's it… and when his mouth finally stops just hanging open in a silly way, it is Kaname, who's speaking, and in completely calm and even tone also, and it is probably only Zero, who knows him all too well, who can detect these slight pauses (not quite hitching, but just as if he inhales through his nose a bit… eh… differently) before the beginning of each sentence, which belie the calm.
"Nothing to worry, Zero… I'm just… I guess I'm more tired than I thought I was… I will take a shower now, and then we can sleep…"
And he is moving already, passing nimbly beside Zero without once turning to face the hunter… while Zero wonders if the pureblood understands himself just how lame the explanation sounds after the mess he created just now, and – is it the new form of a sulk? But – blast it! – he doesn't care, the fact is that Zero's worried in earnest, and whatever it is – it's better to get to the surface of it right now, so he follows the pureblood almost immediately to the bathroom door, and turns the handle, and… Hell! It's… locked?!
It's not just this physical obstacle that makes him come to a sudden halt, no… It is the sounds… well, it is distinctly sounding like… like… like behind this closed door Kaname is… sobbing?.. sobbing?!
The handle just needs a little more pressure for the lock to break irrecoverably, and, well, good riddance, whoever needs a lock on their private bathroom door? They haven't even ever closed it, so far he can remember… Not until now, that is.
Kaname stands hunched, his hands leaning onto the bath stand heavily, and sure enough – he is crying… now that Zero is within the same space, the salty tang of the pureblood's tears is quite apparent in the air, and though he's only ever smelled them once before, there is no mistaking the scent.
In a single move Zero is behind of the pureblood, and his hands surely, yet tenderly clasp over the trembling shoulders.
"Zero… please… please… go away…" Kaname pleads between the pitiful gasps.
Like hell he is going anywhere.
"Please… Zero… it's nothing."
Like hell it's nothing.
He tries to turn Kaname around, to bring him to face himself, but the pureblood resists, and – maybe because the shoulders still shake, if soundlessly now, under his hands – Zero doesn't want to use the brute force to make him turn.
"No, Kaname," he says gently, but firmly, "whatever makes you cry now… and whatever made you smash your precious laptop, and whimper in your sleep… It is most definitely not nothing…"