Title: Dreams Come True (…But Nightmares are Dreams Too)
Summary: it's 3 am in the morning when Aomine wakes up, breathing rapidly and sweating and feeling more terrified than he has ever been in his entire life. he remembers darkness and blood and dull green eyes that hold no familiar spark in them and he remembers screaming in despair that it feels like he's the one dying.
—
DAY 6: DREAMS
He's in a hospital.
He recognizes the logo at the front desk and the plastic chairs that make up the waiting room, but something feels different. The hallways are empty and quiet that he could hear the sound of his own breathing. The usual smell of disinfectant in the air is gone, replaced by a nauseating smell that makes his head spin. It smells like rusty metal or the smell of tarnished gold.
His feet moves on their own accord, following the smell of metal. He goes down a hallway and oddly enough, the lights are turned off. His only light source was the moon's glow passing through the large windows of the hospital. The smell grows stronger the further he goes down and a sick feeling builds up in his stomach. His limbs start trembling and he feels like he's going to puke.
There's light at the end of the hallway, coming from the crack underneath a couple door. He heads towards it and his ears start ringing like he is listening to static. He can hear other voices, hushed, frantic tones that, for some reason, makes his guts twist uncomfortably.
His hands reach for the door and pushes them open.
People dressed in blue scrubs are working around a body on the metal table. He sees sharp tools on one table and recognizes them as the ones used during surgeries. He shouldn't be here, but no one notices him in the doorway so he takes a step forward to look at their patient.
He feels himself grow cold.
There, unconscious on the metal table, surrounded by surgeons, is Midorima.
The metallic smell from earlier, suddenly makes sense. It's blood. Midorima's blood coming from his exposed stomach where the surgeons cut him open. He can see that some of them had blood splattered all over their scrubs and some had dripped to the floor.
He wants to ask them so many questions. 'What's going on? Is Midorima gonna be alright? Is it bad? Will he survive? Why is nobody answering him?!
Then, he hears it. That one long note from the heart monitor.
This isn't happening. It can't be happening. No, he refuses to accept it. Midorima can't….he can't just…he–
"It's too late," one of the surgeons say. The surgeon looks up at the clock. "Time of death. 2:57 am."
No…no….no….NO!
His ribcage is clenching painfully and he feels like he's been doused with cold water. He feels like he's suffocating, as if invisible hands are wrapped around his throat and squeezing the life out of him.
His closes his eyes and screams.
—
Midorima wakes up the the sound of someone's scream.
He immediately grabs his glasses, puts them on and turns on the lamp. When he turns over he sees Aomine sitting up on the bed, breaths coming in gasps and body trembling all over. Aomine opens his eyes, looks at him and Midorima is shocked at the absolute terror in those dark blue eyes. Aomine looks like he's seen a ghost and the next thing he knows he's being engulfed in a tight embrace.
Midorima couldn't speak, couldn't ask what disturbed Aomine so much. He just holds him in his arms running a hand through his hair and down his back. His shirt feels damp and that scares him. For as long as he'd known Aomine he's never seen him cry, not once. He tightens his hold around his shaking and forces himself to take deep breaths. He feels Aomine slowly relax in his arms, the trembling subsides, but the choked noises he is making doesn't stop. Once he finally stops shaking and he is breathing normally again, Midorima pulls away to get a good look at him.
Aomine's eyes are red and puffy and traces of moisture are still visible on his cheek. Midorima raises intending to wipe them away, but Aomine grabs his wrists, stopping him.
Aomine's other hand grasps his chin, his thumb stroking his cheek. His fingers traces over his lips, down his neck, his nape and comes to a rest on his chest just above his heart.
Lub dub. Lub dub. Lub dub.
Aomine closes his eyes and feels Midorima's steady heartbeat. When he opens them, he is greeted by a pair of green eyes. They're staring at him with concern and confusion and fear, but thank God, thank God, they're alive.
"Aomine," Midorima says carefully as if the sound of his voice might break the lull Aomine is in.
It does.
"You really are alive," Aomine says, voice breaking and then he's hugging Midorima again and he's crying and shaking and mumbling incoherent words and absolutely hysterical that it honestly scares Midorima to see him like this.
It's a while until Aomine calms down again and it's already 3am when Midorima glances at the clock. His shift starts at 7am, but he doesn't want to sleep, not when Aomine is obviously in distress. He just wants to do what he can to relieve Aomine.
Then, he remembers when his little sister used to come into his room late at night, crying about monsters under her bed. He remembers what he did to help her and he decides that maybe it will work for Aomine.
He grabs Aomine's hand and pulls him up and off the bed. Aomine gives him a confused look, but he allows himself to be pulled anyway.
They make their way through their darkened apartment. It is way too large to fit just two people and when his parents first showed it to him, he thought they were insane. But when he and Aomine finally moved in he finally understood his parent's insistence at the large space.
A grand piano took up one side of the living room. It is placed in front of the window so that at nights like this the moonlight would strike the piano seat. Midorima tugs Aomine towards it and they sit down on the small piano seat, pressed against each other. Aomine doesn't speak, doesn't need to ask, he just lays his head down on Midorima's shoulder as he places his hands over the keys. Midorima searches through his memory and tries to find a piece to play. He chooses Nocturne Pour Tamaki, which he got from his little sister's favorite anime and played for her birthday.
Soon, the apartment is filled with soft music from the piano. Aomine watches in fascination as Midorima's fingers glide over the keys elegantly without missing a note. The melody is soothing and reminds him of the rain, not the miserable, grey-clouded type of rain that makes everything more depressing than usual. It reminds him of drizzles, of raindrops falling on his face, of children splashing in puddles and of hiding under the blankets and listening to the rain splattering against the window pane.
And when the music stops, Aomine feels like he's been standing under the rain all this time. He feels refreshed, renewed and not as miserable as he was before.
"Thank you," he says to Midorima who is just happy and relieved to see him smiling again.
Later, when Aomine falls asleep and Midorima has to carry him to bed, he dreams of how the moon lit up Midorima's face in an ethereal glow, of the music that reminds of him the rain, and of the warm body next to his that reminded Aomine that they're still here together.
And that's the one thing that truly matters.