A/N: Hello everyone! Artemis615 here.
Thank you for the lovely comments. Heart you all.

From this chapter onwards, I'll be changing the rating to M due to more mentions of death, gore and such.
Hope Inumaki and Maguro will fess up soon :)

Happy Reading~

To Inumaki, the lovely boy with gorgeous amethyst eyes.


20. Midnight

Inumaki woke up to darkness.

Reaching to his phone, he squinted against the bright screen when the phone's screen turns on. It was 12.02 a.m.

Midnight.

He felt thirsty all of a sudden and sat up on the futon. He could not ignore it and sleep. He had to get himself a drink. Getting himself to the small kitchen area, he downed a glass of water and padded across the room to his bedroom and check up on Maguro before going back to sleep himself.

Maguro's forehead appears to have a sheen of sweat to it. Her brows are furrowed, and she appeared to be panting as well. Worried that she is falling sick, Inumaki touched her forehead to brush off the hair that got stuck to her sweaty forehead.

And felt a flash pulling him into a dark void of dreams and memory.

A memory that was not his.

He stood in front of a majestic household entrance. The front entrance had a wooden tag that was carved with an elegant family name.

Tsukigami.

Closing his eyes, he tried to wake himself up. He knew where he is right now, and he knew this is not his place to intrude upon.

He opened his eyes again after a while and finds himself stuck in the same place, facing the entrance of the Tsukigami house. Next flash, the memory brings him to a lawn where there were dead bodies everywhere. Their faces show their last expression before they expired – of fear and anguish, of broken and twisted bodies and neck. The scene was gruesome and a nightmare to behold.

And he sees these all through the eyes of Maguro.

There was a scream, and a huge Curse looming over him. He did not know what happened next as it ended almost as soon as it started. Eyes wide opened, he looked around.

He is awake and back to his room.

He half wondered if what he saw was just a dream of sort, because the clock as he had last seen it did not seem to move at all.

As if he did not just see a flashback of Maguro's supposed memories.

He looked back at Maguro and saw her still with her furrowed brows and sweaty forehead.

It was then something snapped in him. A certain First Year college student's words when he first told them he acquired control over his Domain Expansion.

All jujutsu sorcerers get to dream some very vivid dreams occasionally in their lifetime. Some are a calling of their inner jutsu, while some are just curses plaguing their dreams.

Others – like Fushiguro Megumi once had – might just be a calling for a Domain Expansion, something akin to a living nightmare that they can and could learn to control in their waking world once mastered.

Maguro's nightmares might just be a nightmare. But in the end, there is no way to find out if the nightmare is indeed a calling for Domain Expansion, an inner Curse, or something else.

He watches as her brows furrowed further the longer she lays asleep in her nightmare. Her hands started to clench tightly, while her teeth are gnashing forcefully together by whatever fear that plagues her dreamworld.

Enough, Inumaki thought to himself. She needs to wake up now.

Shaking her shoulders, Inumaki patted her face to wake her up. She gave no response to physical stimuli, and that left him with no choice but to use his Cursed Speech on her.

"Wake up!" he commanded with two simple words. A godly ring sound out alongside his command and upon Maguro.

Her eyes snapped open at his command. Inumaki pulled her to sit up and held her shoulders, shaking her to elicit any sort of response to her.

"Maguro! Maguro! Wake up!" Inumaki called her in his thoughts loudly, hoping she could hear him and wake up.

She didn't move nor make a sound to his inner thoughts calling. She seems as if still trapped in her dream.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up," Maguro kept chanting, pouring out her Reverse Cursed Technique as her hands glowed its signature golden colour. There was nothing to heal, but she kept pouring cursed energy into her hands while continuing to chant, releasing her golden healing glow to nothing, "Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up."

"Maguro!" Inumaki called her by her name, his Cursed Speech finally managed to pull her from the dream world and back to reality. Abruptly, her nightmare stopped, and she gasped loudly when her vision warped back to reality.

To the hour of the dead.

To midnight.

To Inumaki's side.

"Takana?!" Inumaki probed frantically, worry plastered all over his face as he searched for any indication of hurt from her. She just stared at him, quiet after waking up with a gasp from that nightmare world she was stuck in. He wiped the sweat on her forehead with his hand, brushing her stubborn baby hair around her forehead back as he examined her. Patting her cheeks lightly, Inumaki asked again in a quiet voice, "Tuna? Tuna? Takana?"

Maguro stared up at Inumaki. Unmoving and silent.

Then…

Hot tears pooled in her eyes, splattering over her eyes to her chest in thick fat droplets.

Maguro cried loud and hard that night in Inumaki's arms. He held her patiently as she cried her eyes out in his arms, rhythmically brushing her head and rocking her sideways and back and forth. He didn't say any words of comfort, and he kept quiet about what he had seen in her dreams.

He wasn't meant to be there. That memory was private. Personal.

Undisclosed dark history of Maguro's last image – of what once belonged to her family.

Of the many unjustifiable deaths that happened in the Tsukigami clan.

Pulling her legs over his, he cradled her in his lap as he sat there on his bed cross legged. Resting his back against the wall, he held her close to him as she continues to cry into his neck. He felt her need for him tonight. Really, really, really needed him. Her small hands fisted in his shirt while the other gripped his shoulder tightly, as if afraid of letting go.

As if afraid he will leave.

He could not really speak out, nor could he get to her with his thoughts. Her sorrow over the nightmare was so fresh she practically drowned out all other noises from her surrounding, causing her to block out all outside noises, including Inumaki's words in his thoughts calling out to her.

She could not hear him over the turmoil she has in her mind right now.

So, he did the one thing he knew that would probably take her mind off the nightmare.

He hummed.

It was a song his mother used to hum to him when he was young, back when he was scared of the thunder as any other child would towards something so loud and unknown that comes crashing down from the skies in bright lights akin to cracks on the night skies. It calmed him, and at times, it made him forget about his fears.

It made him feel safe and sound, comforted and contented – even for just a while, it was a peaceful short reprieve compared to the fears of the outside world.

No more fears.

Maguro gradually calmed down, her sobbing subsided to mere hiccups in his arms. He felt that it was cute she had a hiccup and smiled against her hair. She lifted her head and rests her forehead against his neck, feeling the pulse there rippling against her skin with each beat of Inumaki's heart. "What was that song?" she said in a small voice rubbed raw by her weeping just now.

She felt Inumaki's head moved to sort of rub his cheek against her head. It was a nice feeling. She felt comforted by his presence here, and she loved how warm he is against the cold air from the air conditioner.

"My mother used to hum that to me," Inumaki replied, tightening his arms around her figure. "Some nurseries rhyme. It was a long time ago."

Maguro smiled. Nursery rhyme. She had that too when she was young. Her nanny used to sing it to her to cajole her to sleep. "It's a nice song. Thank you, Inumaki-kun."

He didn't respond. With her in his arms, he scooted over and lay her on the inner side of his bed. Maguro turned over to her side and looked up at him. He merely smiled at her and tapped her nose with his finger.

Pulling the coverings over her, he patted the other side near the wall down to make sure her back was well covered. Afterwards, he crawled into the bed and slides one arm underneath her head, pulling her into his embrace close to his neck.

"I'll be here, Maguro. Sleep," he said to her in thought, patting her small back over the coverings in a rhythmic pattern.

"B-But Inumaki-kun, I'm afraid…" she said in a quiet voice, her small hand fisting onto the front of his shirt. He smelled so nice, and it calmed her down that he is here with her, helping her get through this night. In fact, she is literally surrounded by his scent. His coverings, his pillow, his bed.

With him – the source of the lovely scent – here with her by her side, cocooning her in promised reassurance that she will never again have to suffer through that with him here.

But still, one day, the nightmare may return.

"I don't want to… I don't want to sleep, Inumaki-kun."

Inumaki untangled himself from her and looked down at her tear-stained cheeks. Tears still sliding down from the corner of her eyes. Looks like she still remembers her nightmares, Inumaki thought quietly to himself.

"Do you want me to try my Cursed Speech?" he asked for her permission, thumb swiping away the tears on her cheek. He could get her to sleep a dreamless night with the power of his words. After all, the Cursed Speech is also known as the Words of God.

No verdict of God can be defied.

He felt Maguro shake her head. Smiling, he raised his hand up from her back to pat her hair gently. Kissing her temple softly, Inumaki said to her in his thought quietly, "Then it's alright. Try to sleep if you can, Maguro. Don't worry. I'll be here. If you have nightmares again, I'll just call you back from it."