"What did I tell you? Just relax."

"Like hell I can!"

For what felt like the hundredth time, Yokozawa had again fallen limp. The passion between him and his simulated lover hovering above was nothing more than a tease, for he could never permit himself to fully indulge in the pleasure he craved under these conditions.

Kirishima made a face that was scarcely visible within the darkness, but it didn't need to be clearly scene. That expression he wore could be sensed.

It wasn't disappointment, or pity generating his features. It was something else – and Yokozawa didn't like the sight of it. Cornering his eyes aimlessly away, he escaped Kirishima's stare.

"I can't tonight."

"Well I sure the hell can. So what shall we do?" Kirishima curved lips glazed over his tone and lured Yokozawa's eyes back to him.

As much as that grin pissed him off, it was also very hard to say no to it at times like this. And in all honesty, he didn't want to say no.

There wasn't anything more he wanted than to have sex – he was a man after all. Even more so now since he's been neglected of any release for the past month. To be denied of such desires had the wild bear more ravaged than usual in his daily life.

It was a dilemma indeed. Their recent situation had put quite the barricade on their sex lives. No matter the difficulty, Kirishima knew how to patch up any mess he found himself in. Never did he have to worry how to flee from a difficult position. That's why the recent changes in the relationship had no effect on him whatsoever.

Yokozawa on the other hand was an overstrung, uptight wreak. Fulfilling his lovers request of 'relaxing' was no where near his jurisdiction.

Looking back on it now, it was a horrible idea to move out of his apartment.

Some time ago, when Kirishima declared his apartment of being used as a love-nest for the two of them to resort to, Yokozawa hated the idea of it.

Thinking back to it now, never once did he suffer any sort of anxiety when he slept with Kirishima there. Since they've moved in together, however, there hasn't been any sparks set off, because the moment they ignite, the flame would be drowned by a single thought.

"You know, Hiyo is my daughter, and you're damn paranoia is actually starting to make me feel guilty about being okay with shacking up with her next door."

Yokozawa gaped from his blunt words. "That's it!" He huffed as he pushed him off and out of him. "Now we're defiantly going to call it a night."

Kirishima's head fell loosely onto the pillow. "You said the same thing last night."

"And I'll probably say it again tomorrow."

He breathily exhaled" You know, there's only so long I can last."

"You think you're the only one suffering?" Yokozawa's face flushed, but luckily due to the darkness, the red hue coloring his cheeks was hidden from Kirishima's teasing remarks.

"Then why are you allowing yourself to suffer?" Kirishima asked, knowing damn well what the answer would be.

Yokozawa brushed off his words without a reply and stood from the mattress, fully intending to break away from this brabbling before it worsened. "I'm getting a drink of water." He pulled his pant sleeve up his leg, then stretched his shirt over him.

As he neared the bedroom door, the blanket fussily rustled and Kirishima's body bluntly rolled over. The editor-in-chief wasn't the type to get angry, but Yokozawa sensed he was a little peeved.

That was exactly what Yokozawa feared would happen.

Attempting to wash away the anxiety building up in his throat, he took a steady gulp of water. What he really wanted was a beer to loosen up his tension, but given that it was already one-am and a work day, now wasn't the time for that. Instead, he pushed that craving away down into the pit of him the same way he's been pushing all his other cravings away this past month.

After setting down his glass, he stared absently into the sink. Returning to that bedroom was a dreadful thought. It's just a tease for the two of them to be so close yet be so far on sexual terms. The last thing he wanted to do was not share a bed with the guy at the very least. If he slept in the spare room for the night, then the lingering fear of Kirishima beginning to blame himself would only enhance.

Oh hell I'm getting too old for these teenager thoughts.

As he turned himself away from the sink, an audible click followed by a squeaky door was introduced to the quiet space. He moved himself over to where the sounds were coming from.

Accompanied with a stuffed bunny idly stood Hiyo, quivering like an autumn leaf. The nightlight that dimly lit up the hall reflected off of her glossy eyes, which were spurting out a steady flow of tears.

Pale and disoriented she looked – like she had just woken up and couldn't tell which way was up or down. Yokozawa assumed she hadn't noticed him standing near her, so he made sure to approach her cautiously.

In a low voice, he tried his best not to startle the already seemingly shook up girl. "Hiyo?"

The girl quaked, but her stress almost completely dissolved after realizing it was Yokozawa addressing her name.

"Oniichan!" Frantic her tone was, but had a mixture of relief. Knelling down to her on his knee, Yokozawa cupped her trembling shoulders.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Now it was his voice that started to get a little jittery. Not often did Hiyo wake up in the middle of the night. Come to think of it, he never seen her like this before now. The sight had him beyond worried.

Using the long bunny ear as a tissue for her tears, she began to explain, "I had a really horrible nightmare! I – I…!" She paused her stuttering to sniffle her runny nose. "I don't even want to say it out loud. It was so bad Oniichan!"

Noticing the little girl getting even more upset, he comforted her between his arms. "Easy there. It's alright now. It was only a dream; remember, it wasn't real."

"I know that – but…but!"

Yokozawa could feel a puddle of her tears soak onto his shoulders sleeve. It must have been one hell of a nightmare to upset someone as strong-minded as her. Yokozawa wondered what it was about, but didn't dare ask.

Patting her head to calm her, he pulled away a little to speak to her blubbering face. "I know it's hard to come back to reality after having such a scary dream, but just try your very hardest not to think of it. If you'd like, I can help you get your mind off it somehow?"

"Really?" Her teary eyes beamed. "How?"

"Hmm…" Maybe he spoke too soon, because he had no idea what to do to cheer her up. And with it being past one in the morning, resources were even more limited.

"Oh I know!" Like a light she completely switched on to her usual, energetic state as she yanked at his sleeve. Fumbling forward, he quickly tried to recover his balance from his knelled position as he was being tugged into the girls bedroom.

"I know it's around here somewhere…"

Yokozawa trailed the girls darting movements over all corners of her room as she shuffled around. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, he waited for Hiyo to find whatever it was she was searching for.

Sorata was fast asleep near the pillow; clearly the lazy cat was unaffected by the late-night activity.

"Ah here it is!" With a colorful book in hand, she climbed up onto her bed and cozily sank herself under her blanket.

"Read this to me?" She asked in a voice that automatically guaranteed a yes.

With a soft smile, Yokozawa took the book from her small hands and examined the cover.

The Terrific Tales of Tinkle: The Pixie Bunny

The star of the picture book matched the white rabbit cuddled close to Hiyo. The cute character must be popular with children of her age. He remembered seeing the character advertised often in Marimo Books.

With her eager face lighting up more, Yokozawa wasted no more time and opened up to the first page.

"Tinkle the Pixie was on a journey today,

to find out why her colorful world had turned gray.

The black and white world made the residence frown,

but her magic alone couldn't restore the color in her town.

"What will we do?" she asks her friend.

"Why don't we ask the rainbow for help?" he recommends.

With the help of her companion, a short-haired pup,

they scaled a hill all the way up.

They met the rainbow, who looked like it was crying.

Tinkle noticed its colors were drying.

"Oh no we came too late!"

They'll never get any color back at this rate!

"There's still some color left! Use your magic to take what's there!"

The pup declared.

"Maybe it will be enough, I can try!"

She swiftly rose her wand to the sky.

With a chant of her spell,

colorful sparkles fell.

The kingdom cheered Tinkles name,

for all the color had been reclaimed."

Upon closing the book, he couldn't help but release a smile when he noticed his audience had fallen into a peaceful asleep before reaching the climax of the story.

Settling down the book on the end table, he leaned in to tuck Hiyo and the hero Tinkle in as he wished her sweet dreams. With a light pat on Sorata's head, he switched off the light.

"Was that Hiyo I heard before?" The worried father dozily pealed himself up off the mattress; he obviously must've drifted off. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah but I handled it. She just had a nightmare. I got her back to sleep though."

Feeling relieved, Kirishima fell back and sounded an oh. "She doesn't get those too often. But when she does, it's quite the scene. It used to take me hours to get her back to sleep when she was younger. I'm surprised you were able to handle it," he chuckled, "then again, you are an amazing mama~" Even in a groggy voice, his teasing was still detectable.

"Yeah yeah." Yokozawa felt too tired to start getting all worked up over a mocking comment. However, he did want to use this opportunity to address something.

"Do you see now why I'm so worried?"

Kirishima followed Yokozawa's silhouette to the other side of the bed before he replied, "Whatcha' mean?"

"When a little girl has a nightmare, it's only natural for the first place they look for comfort is in a parent's bedroom. I just happened to be out there, but if I wasn't – and we were still trying to…" Yokozawa couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"…" Kirishima searched for a reply. "…Well, I did lock the door."

"That's not the point." Yokozawa wasn't just worried about her walking in on them, because he made damn sure to take all the necessary precautions to make certain that never happened. What did have him thinking is what would've happened if Hiyo had knocked on this door a while ago.

Picturing such a scene made him flinch: The two of them fumbling around in the dark in search for their clothes, then deciding whether or not one of them should hide – or worse, answer the door together with guilty expressions as they try to explain themselves awkwardly.

Even though Hiyo is only freshly eleven, she was smart and would surely find that scene suspicious and start catching on to something. And she was just too young to be involved in their relationship at this time.

Taking a seat on the edge of the mattress, he sighed. "I guess I just don't feel comfortable being… intimate when she's around."

"No shit – you don't have to tell me, but the way both of our schedules are set up, it's hard to go around that."

"Like I don't know that."

When Hiyo's finally out of the house and in school, the two of them are in work. And when they're off, so is she. It was so easy when they had Yokozawa's apartment available. Whenever he felt too much pressure of Hiyo being around, they would just stop by over there. But with that option out of the equation now, the pressure only had become heavier.

They were able to mess around a little if she happened to visit her friend Yuki after school, but with being unsure of when she could return, Yokozawa couldn't bring himself to go all the way.

"We can always get a hotel."

"That's just ridiculous." Yokozawa hissed as he pulled the blanket over him.

"Then what do you suggest we do? Not have sex until Hiyo moves out? I don't know about you, but I can't wait that long to get off."

As if this overprotective father would even let her move out to begin with.

If Hiyo was just a little older, it would be easier to explain things to her. But despite how mature she is, she was in fact a very young child. Doing adult activities with a child in the next room was a very difficult task for even the capable Yokozawa to achieve.

Before he actually moved in, he only thought of these worries moderately, but now that he's here living here full time and gotten so close to Hiyo that he sees her as his own daughter, the worries only gotten more intense.

Yokozawa sighed and rolled over – intended to turn away from the problems for now and forget Kirishima was even beside him.

As stillness swept over the room, Yokozawa sealed his heavy lids and steadied his breath; preparing to enter a dream at any moment.

"…Yeah. We're defiantly getting a hotel room after work tomorrow."

"Would you be quiet already?!"

Kirishima propped his elbow on his pillow and rested his head in his hand; bodily gesturing he had more to say.

"You know, we only just moved in together, and I already feel like we're an old married couple; no sex before bed? What are we, retired?"

Yokozawa only felt more guilt pile on him. "Just – go to sleep."

"How do you expect me to sleep? Maybe you weren't in the mood, but I was. You can't just trip a man down when he's only a short sprint away from the finish line."

"Well you're a big boy. Go take care of it yourself."

Reclining his head back down, Kirishima groaned. "…Nah. It would be no fun without you."

Yokozawa's grumpy features radiated with a visual heat. "We-We'll figure something out – alright? But for right now, try to get some sleep."

"Fine." The bed sunk from Kirishima shifting over his weight. Propping his arm on the side of Yokozawa for balance, he leaned in to plant a tingling peck on his cheek, and spoke lowly into his ear.

"Goodnight~"

Settling back to his original spot in the bed, Kirishima double checked his alarm clock and cuddled snugly underneath the blanket.

Yokozawa irritatedly tossed around a few times. Why did he have to go and do something like that? Was he trying to tease him even more? Feeling hot, he tossed the covers off himself; allowing his portion of the blanket to fold over Kirishima, who seemed to already be in a deep slumber.

...

Damnit, now I'm the one who can't sleep!