Scrabble

Summary: From a prompt off the No.6 Kink Meme:

Pairing: Nezumi(Mouse)/Shion
Theme:[Cuddle-touching-Sleep and bedding themes]
Key Words: Hot breath

It's winter and obviously it's cold. Despite his bad habits while sleeping, Mouse it's being quite calm and is cuddling against Shion, in the other hand Shion can't sleep, the small space and the invasive movements don't allow him conciliate the sleep, neither the fingers that are having their way under his clothes...

Disclaimer: Yeah, right. Not a chance.

AN: SO YEAH THIS FANDOM NEEDS MORE FIC. I am more than happy to oblige.

It was really freaking cold.

Normally, this wasn't such an issue because Shion fancied that he could sleep through just about anything, but really, there was a limit. That limit stopped at clinging, heat-seeking, ridiculously cold-footed and now apparently handsy bedmates.

Nezumi had never once made it secret that he gravitated towards warmth, but somehow, Shion hadn't expected this and he probably should have because contrary to what Nezumi said, he did indeed possess a brain that worked.

Logic ought to have made the jump but it didn't, and now he was here.

Oh, Nezumi was happy at least so that was a plus, because the dark-haired boy tended to be set to either 'perfunctory disgruntlement' or 'full-on angry rage'.

Shion, on the other hand, didn't see himself sleeping all that much.

He wasn't even hogging the bed or taking up all the blankets (like usual), in fact, Nezumi was being quite polite in his sleeping habits tonight, cuddled up with his chest to Shion's back and his face dropped in to rest in the crook of Shion's neck. This might have been okay if cold feet hadn't insistently tangled up with his.

Oh, and the hands that Shion kept batting away from the hem of his shirt and occasionally the waistband of his pants.

"Stop that," Shion muttered quietly, once again feeling the telltale motions of fingers slipping up his shirt and brushing the skin of his sides. "You are distracting." If Shion hadn't known better, he'd have sworn that Nezumi wasn't sleeping but was instead trying out a new tactic to mercilessly frustrate him while laughing under his breath at the same time.

The only response he got to his demand was the feeling of Nezumi's eyebrows furrowing against his neck and a low, protesting grumble.

"Come on, can't you just let go? Take the blankets if you have to, I want to sleep."

Shion never thought he'd prefer being squashed up against the wall or waking up to arms and legs splayed over him every which way, but there it was.

There were the hands again and Shion rolled his eyes. He didn't even have to look anymore or worry about waking the other boy when he took his hands because this was far from the first time he'd done it already.

Shion didn't turn around to see, but he was positive that Nezumi would be something close to adorable and the thought only made him scowl because no one had the right to be so cute and so annoying at the same time. It just wasn't fair.

Shion was surprised this time when Nezumi didn't tug his hands out of his grip and he feared briefly that the other boy was going to wake up and either laugh at him or get embarrassed and yell (because that was just what he did). Instead, the hands he held relaxed and longer fingers laced into the spaces between his own, squeezing firmly as if that had been his sleep-laden plan all along.

Nezumi didn't move and neither did Shion, who chose instead to ponder this little phenomenon.

For a while, there was only the warmth of a broad chest pressed up against him, the warmth of breath against the skin of his neck, and the stark realization that he wasn't alone. And for the first time, Shion could kind of understand why in sleep Nezumi sought what he wouldn't (or couldn't) ask for in waking.

"You know, if you're going to do this, you ought to at least ask first," Shion murmured, part-amused and part-resigned. The small bit that was neither was split between anxiety and anticipation. "I don't think I could tell you no." With a quiet sigh, he let the hands go and turned over, doing his best not to jostle his bedmate, so that they were chest to chest.

Nezumi the cold-footed heating pad turned into Nezumi the cold-footed snuggling octopus, his arms winding instantly around Shion's shoulders and about his waist to bring him close.

"Yes, yes," Shion reassured lowly, relaxing into the hold. Oh, it was still distracting and Nezumi was still so close and now he was breathing into the front of his throat instead of the nape and there really wasn't a lot of room to be had because the bed was only made for one person, but somehow it felt different.

"Please don't leave," for the first time all night, legitimate words could be made out from the occasional nuzzling and snuffling, and Shion froze, suddenly tight in the chest and feeling like something had just dropped out of him.

Something clenched and broke with a snap.

Previously, he'd allowed Nezumi to touch, accepting and permitting it. He'd even been sort of amused and rather comforted by it. But he hadn't touched back.

He was unable to help himself now, letting out a shuddering breath and wrapping his own arms around the other boy. Holding and held.

Shion stroked Nezumi's back, feeling the muscles tight and strong but relaxed under his hands, hesitantly at first before becoming more courageous when it was clear that Nezumi wasn't going to wake up and breathe fire at him. Shion had never once been genuinely frightened of Nezumi but that didn't mean that he wanted to be yelled at, and yelling never made anyone very happy, not even the person doing the hollering.

"Easy, easy, I've got you," he said, dipping his face forward to nuzzle the soft, dark hair that was so close. "I'm here. I won't go. It's okay."

Shion didn't know if, somewhere inside him, Nezumi heard the words. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

Maybe he heard them but wouldn't know where they came from. Maybe he wouldn't know they'd been said at all.

It was clear that he needed them, though. Needed the words, needed the touch, needed the presence. Sleeping Nezumi was much more honest with what he needed and that honesty now broke Shion's heart.

The previous tension had washed out of Shion like a wave pulling away sand and now all he could feel was an odd lethargy, as if pulling his arms away (now or forever from now or maybe never) would just be too much work. It'd be too much work to pull his feet away, too much work to shift back over. Maybe it'd even be too much work to get up ever again, sentenced instead to a lifetime of snuggling and feeling the warmth of another human being wrapped around him.

The last thought he had before sliding headlong into sleep was that maybe the prospect wasn't a terrible one at all.

AN2: AND ANGSTY FLUFF STRIKES AGAIN. Please leave a review if you enjoyed this, or even if you want to clobber me with a stick. Either kind of feedback is a-okay.