Disclaimer: I am in no way under the impression that I am the owner of the persons I subject to living and enacting in my fanfictions. These rights belong to the rightful owner, whom I adore and whose wrath I fear. The same goes for any song/poem/(short) story I might use to give more life to one of my own creations.

Shared Dreams

63 - Typing away for his next project, looking up some information he thought handy, he forgot all about his environment. Engrossed in his work he didn't even take notice of change in atmosphere, the silence as Aoi and Akane finally fell silent after their busy, and frankly obnoxious, behavior, and his babysitter stopped reading for them. He failed to notice her return to the table he was working on.

"Seiji-san.."

Seiji Matsunaga looked up from his laptop, confusion in his eyes although hidden behind the reflection on his glasses from the girl in front of him. He placed his coffee mug down on the table and waited for his nerves to settle down. 'She just called me by my first name, didn't she? And..was it just my imagination, or did she sound breathless?' Scraping his throat he answered, hoarsely, "Y-yes, Nakamura-san? What is it you need?"

Slowly advancing, she crawled around the low table and stopped right next to him. Shiharu Nakamura looked him in the eyes, then, placing her hands on his shoulders, leaned in closer to his face, her breath a soft caress against his cheek. She smelled sweetly of her homemade jam.

"Ah.. Eh, Nakamura-san? Wh-what is it?" He stole a glance of the twins, sleeping soundly on a pillow in the room next to his living room, undisturbed by his dire situation. 'Please, stay asleep, please, stay asleep..'

His eyelids slowly drooped as another whisper danced from her lips and teased his ears, "Seiji-san.." Her whisper, low and sensual, tickled a nerve down in his stomach. One that hadn't been stirred in quite some years, and he sighed wistfully.

Then, putting himself together, mentally stabbing his guts with a knife and twisting it, he found it in himself to, gently, push Shiharu away. 'What am I doing! She's seventeen, and I'm an adult. I can't let this happen..' But his body told another story, his heart was hammering and a blush adorned his face. Trying stern, his voice loud, he told the babysitter to retreat to her spot. 'Or else I won't know what I'm going to do.. What I'm capaable of..'

On a pout Shiharu sat back on her hunches, her arms hugging her body, giving Seiji a nice view from his own position. Snapping his gaze away, keeping his eyes on his laptop screen he picked up his abandoned mug and swallowed a bitter gulp of coffee away to still his brewing emotions. It didn't quite work, as Shiharu's eyes continued to stay on his form and he could feel her intense stare roaming over his body.

"Seiji-san.." A shudder convulsed his body. "..hey, do you, eh.. do you not like me? I mean, well, what do you.. do you think I'm doing a good job with the twins?" She had crawled closer to him again and the warmth of her body wasn't doing anything good to his morals.

'Endure..'

Keeping his eyes firmly on his screen, he thought about his work. Yes, that was sure to put a damper on things. Yes, work was not something he liked to think about while working, it always put a lot of stress on his shoulders. Yes, his shoulders… they felt sooo good. Closing his eyes again, he enjoyed the sensation running through his body, the relief almost too much for him to take. He rolled his head back on a groan, and snapped it back up real quick as the crown of his head touched something rather soft.

'Endure..Oh God..'

Seiji frowned, frustration at himself made him stand up rather abruptly, sending Shiharu falling back on her behind. "Ow.. ow ow ow.. Was it something I did? Did I do something wrong? You looked so stressed, that I thought to maybe..give you a massage to loosen you up.. Seiji-san." Keeping her gaze down, she looked the perfect picture of innocence. How could he ever, ever try and place his hands, his attention, where it didn't belong? He shook his head, when she went home, he was going to take a long, cold shower.

It was typically her to automatically assume she did something wrong, when it was obvious to everyone except her, that in his eyes it was nearly impossible for her to do anything bad.

"Nakamura-san.. Without you, I wouldn't know how to be able to run this household while maintaining my lifestyle, my work. You've become an essential part of the family, you've become irreplaceable in the twins' life, and frankly.. I need you around." Immediately catching his mistake, he rephrased himself, "I need you around to take care of the twins, is what I mean to say.. You, eh, yes, you are really good at handling them and helping around in the house." He stopped, and looked at her, staring into her eyes.

That was a mistake.

Tears formed in her eyes and dripped down her cheeks, as she sobbed quietly, Seiji found himself at a loss. This wasn't what he was going for, he had wanted to reassure her and to send her back feeling happy, but it seemed he'd aaccomplished to do just the opposite. "Ah, Nakamura-san, don't cry.. I didn't mean it that way.. You –"

"No, it isn't that. I'm just so happy by what you said. I've never had a real family.. I love everybody at the orphanage very much and they are like little brothers and sisters to me, but being here just makes me feel..complete. I really, really love Aoi-kun and Akane-chan, and.." here she stealthy snuck a glance back at him, "..it feels really homey here."

Dropping down on his knees to comfort her, he put his chin atop of her head as he let her get it all out of her system. "There, there.. Ah, how about I bring you back later on when you've calmed down?"

"Yes, that would be alright.. Thank you." Normally she would have downright refused, only to end up doing exactly what he'd suggested, but right now she couldn't find the energy for it. Right now, she just enjoyed being comforted by him, he thought.

He stared around the room, ever since she'd come to work for him there had been no more sightings of scattered toys anywhere where they didn't belong. No more pillows just lying about, no more clothes thrown wherever they liked. Books were neatly stacked in the low shelves he'd bought specially for their usage. He sighed again, he would be lost without Shiharu.

"Seiji-san.. Could you, I mean, can I just.. do one thing?" She mumbled in his shirt, the vibrations sent chills down his back and heat bubbled in his stomach, the soft gust of wind coming with her words ruffled the border of his neckline and tickled his chest, and his endurance-meter nearly hit zero.

'Matsunaga.. now you listen to yourself dammit! Don't turn into that person Oikawa! You are a responsible adult, you are nine years her elder and you will not try and do anything funny!'

Away flew his aspirations as two soft, warm lips made contact with his collarbone. He wrapped his arms tighter around the girl's warm body and kept her close to him, just enjoying the sensation of actually having someone to hold. Resting his cheek on top of her head, he inhaled her scent and a smile tugged at his lips. 'Well, I suppose it's fine if it's just a supportive, comforting hug, right? That kiss..it was just an unfortunate brush of the lips, she didn't do it on purpose…yeah…' But, he desperately had wanted it to be.

"Ah..um, Seiji-san? Could you just..?" Shiharu sounded like one would when having difficulties talking while being squeezed harder than was comfortable.

He abruptly let his arms fall back to his sides, embarrassed by his behavior, mad about his lack of control. "Yes, sorry, Nakamura-san. Are you all right now?" He held her at arm's length and observed her quietly.

Her cheeks were rosy-pink colored and her eyes were downcast. Seiji saw how she worried her lower lip and silently cursed himself, "Listen, what I just did, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, I just wanted to comfort you, stop you from crying, because it doesn't suit you."

She lifted her gaze, slowly, almost calculated. She took her time to roam her eyes over his body, his feet first, over his legs to his chest, they lingered there longer than on the rest of his body before continuing forward to his shoulders, his chin. His lips. As she looked at his lips, she sensually licked her own, and Seiji, again, mentally had to chastise himself not to do anything sudden, anything against his morals, the world's morals and her feelings. 'But she's making it so difficult for me!'

Her eyes moved upwards again, this time stopping to look at his' and he found himself immobilized. She looked so innocent on the outside, but he could see bashfulness and deviousness swirling in the depth of her stare. He inwardly groaned, his shoulders sagged and he felt his good intentions slip once again. "Nakamura-san.." Trying for what felt like his last time, with his last piece of strength, to reason with her, with himself, he failed as she inched closer and his voice faltered.

Scooting away several inches she had advanced on him, he turned his eyes back to the room where the twins were sleeping, a bumping or a thudding sound interrupted his self-pitying and he turned back to Shiharu, but nothing indicated that she'd heard the same thing while normally she was the first to notice when something was wrong with the twins, and so it soon faded away to the back of his head. He had more important matters to deal with now.

'Like a babysitter who's trying to hit on my poor, poor self. What about my calm state of mind?'

During his brief moment of unawareness, Shiharu had crept closer and now she was right in front of him. "Seiji-san.." He tried moving away again, but she leaned forward, her face close to his, her nose nearly touching his and placed her hands on his shoulders. The momentum of those actions, put together, erupted an unfortunate accident in which his owns hands slipped on the floor and he fell down on his back, taking the girl with him.

Staring wide-eyed up at the girl straddling him, he couldn't find it in him to move. His breathing quickened and his heart-rate picked up. The way she looked, flustered but confident, her hair falling in wild tresses around her face, framing it like Polaroid picture, had him enchanted. The softness of her body against his, numbed his body and as she slightly re-situated herself, the movement caused him to feel little lightning bolt shooting through his entire body, his entire being, his soul.

'Seiji Matsunaga, you are an adult. You have custody of the two little children of your brother, who disappeared on you. You can't act like a teenager in love. You have responsibilities. You have to maintain a considerable.. no, a normal distance between employer and employee, step it up, man!'

He tried to voice his thoughts, he really did. But the moment he opened his mouth, she lifted her gaze.

Shiharu stared right back at him, and the intensity in her shining orbs clouded over his mind, he couldn't think straight anymore. He couldn't do one little blasted thing anymore, but watch as she leaned in closer again, her mouth now nearly touching his. Her breath washed over his face, and it was like he'd died and gone to heaven. Or hell, because her actions were torturous, for he still tried to keep himself in check. But she didn't desist on her journey forward, her soft lips were now a hair away from his, and he was truly lost. He gave up.

'Ahh, hell..'

He wrapped his arms around her again, held her close to him, and closed his eyes slowly.

"Shiharu…"

- x -

A loud , sudden sound had them both snap their heads up from their position on the table, a trail of drool stuck to her face while a puddle of it lay before her. With eyes still heavy with sleep she looked around her, the scene still unfamiliar to her. She faced her employer and suddenly snapped into focus but before a blush could creep across her face, a second sound, a wail, had her turn her attention elsewhere.

From the bedroom two voices now demanded her care and she pulled herself together. Stumbling to the twins, she quickly asserted the situation. Seeing nothing amiss, she dropped down to her knees and cuddled both forms in her arms. "Ssssh, why are you both crying?"

"Shiharu-tan! Akane bwumped heads with Ao! Make pain go 'way.."

"Nooo! I'm innosent, 's not my fauld! He hit me!"

Smiling to herself Shiharu kissed both children atop of their heads, "There there, pain pain go away. Come back maybe another day." Remembering Akane's new habit of rolling around vigorously while she's sleeping, she hugged them closer to her body, their soft bodies squishing against her made her own dread disappear.

"Aoi-kun, Akane-chan, can you both apologize to each other? Aoi-kun, Akane-chan didn't do it on purpose, so you shouldn't have hit her. Akane-chan, can you say sorry, too, so Aoi-kun will be satisfied, too?" She watched them glare at each other, before softening up and exclaiming both their apologies.

"Sowwy for hitting, I reawwy am."

"…sowwy." Akane-chan was a little more reluctant to utter her own mitigation, because she felt it wasn't just that she too had to be forced to say it, she hadn't done anything wrong.

But, one thing surely lightened her moods, "Good girl, good girl. And you too, Aoi-kun, good boy."

They both beamed a bright smile up at her before yawns soon took over again, and sleep started to claim them. Shiharu tucked them both in again, this time making sure a blanket separated them so an accident like this wouldn't occur again, and kissed them both goodnight.

"Naaight, Shiharu-tan.." they chorused in synch, and fell asleep.

"Goodnight, little angels."

Shuffling back into the living room and seeing her employer still sitting on his pillow at the table with the laptop and coffee mug before him, Shiharu tensed up again. 'Oh god, what have I done, what happened? How could I have… No, Matsunaga-san will surely fire me now, there is no excuse for what happened, I have to repent, yes, that's it.. I should just grovel now, get on my knees and ask for forgiveness and maybe we can all laugh this away and continue on like nothing ever happened.. Right..?' Falling down hard, on her knees, she bit back a wince and was already in the process of kneeling, of asking for his forgivenesss, when he spoke up.

"Eh.. Nakamura-san? What are you doing?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

Flustered she sat up and stared at him, before quickly looking at the table, then she took a wet tissue from the package in her pocket to wipe the surface clean of her drool. "I am so sorry, Matsunaga-san.. I don't know what came over me.. –"

"No, it's quite alright.. I think.." He fell silent and Shiharu took that moment to look at his brooding face, she felt drawn to him, she had feelings for him she'd never had before for anyone else, and now she found it difficult to watch away. But as she saw apprehension flicker in his eyes, she quickly turned to the task at hand. These feelings were all very unknown to her.

She heard him stand up and walk away, and felt her mood sink.

"That's it. We both did something rather irresponsible but it couldn't be helped."

Shiharu stiffened, and she felt the blood rush to her face. 'Oh my god! So it did happen! How could this be? I called him by his first name, how improper and what bad manners of me..-'

"Yes, due to our intensive day at the playground with the twins today and the incense we lighted up earlier this evening we fell asleep but woke up because the twins were having problems of their own." His pacing slowed down, but didn't cease. He had run both his hands through his hair and now it stood up to all places, looking pretty funny under normal circumstances, Shiharu found it hard to laugh at anything right now.

His words echoed in her blank mind. She saw nothing, heard nothing, except the sound of his words floating in and out of her ears, the letters of his words written boldly in the air, hanging in front of her eyes. "Fell asleep.. fell asleep.. fell asleep.."

'It was all just a dream?' The incredulity of his statement was too much, that it almost made sense.

But she had felt like a spectator during the dream, trapped in her body while it moved on its own accord, talked blatantly and freely with her voice, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Was that really how she thought and felt about Matsunaga-san? 'Thank god, it was just a dream, my dream, so he doesn't know about it. Oh no, I would just die if he knew what I'd dreamt! And, then I wouldn't be able to work here no more.., poor Aoi-kun, poor Akane-chan.. No, Matsunaga-san doesn't know about it, so I have nothing to worry about.. Right?'

But as she looked him in the eyes, she saw something there, something she'd also seen in her dream and now she couldn't help the blush from coming over her face. Placing both hands on her burning cheeks, she stayed demurely put on her place. 'Whaaa…wh-what do I do? I can't even look at him..'

"A-haha, well, look at the time, it's about time for me to go, don't you agree?" Avoiding another encounter of their eyes, she stood up and brushed invisible dust off her knees just to keep busy. "Yes, yes. Let me just get my coat and bag from the other room, and I'm off." Shiharu walked stiffly into the room where the twins were asleep, remembering that was where she had dropped her stuff after carrying Akane-chan inside for a new change of clothes, because she had dirtied the ones she was wearing at the playground by falling in a puddle of mud.

She heard the pacing in the living room stop, heard his footsteps fading away only to come back a little later on as she was putting on her coat. Exhaling, she turned around to leave the room, her bag pack in hand.

Seiji was waiting for her in the living room. He already had on his own coat and just watched her as she entered the room, his eyebrow furrowed in concentration, like he was thinking real hard about something but couldn't really grasp the concept.

"I'm really glad you're here, Nakamura-san. Thanks to you, I feel much better recently."

As Shiharu stiffened upon hearing those words, being reminded of her dream again, she saw how his eyes narrowed slightly and understanding lighted an bulb behind his eyes, growing brighter and brighter. "Ah..eh, you don't..eh, I can walk back alone, you know."

Her employer looked like he was deep in thought, still he replied. "Don't be ridiculous, a girl all alone at night? No, I will walk you and that's that. Aoi and Akane will stay asleep for a while, I believe." He absentmindedly rubbed his cheek, and Shiharu saw the barely visible lines on his face that suggested he, too, had fallen asleep at the table. But she still hadn't regained her calm.

"Matsunaga-san… Ah, eh.." At a loss for words, for something to say, she glanced around and her eyes fell on his coffee mug. "Wait, is it just my imagination, or did you have another mug a few minutes ago?" In her memory, a red mug was situated on the table not a blue one. She let her eyes roam the room, but in her memory of a few minutes ago, before the twins had interrupted her, there had also been no signs of any toys, and now the favorites of Aoi-kun and Akane-chan lay on the table. And if she thought back real hard, she also noticed that her employer had worn another sweater a moment ago. "No toys, another sweater.." she mumbled to herself. 'What the.. Oh, right.. the dream.'

"Nakamura-san.." Seiji had stepped forward, squinting his eyes. His closeness had startled Shiharu real good this time and she yipped, before quickly turning away. In her mind it had seemed like the best get-away she could manage without making a complete fool out of herself, but in reality she tripped over her own feet and she went down on her way to greet the floor. "Ah!"

A hand tugged at her arm and she felt the wind whip past her face, the floor that had been steadily rising, well actually she was going towards it, but whatever, now said goodbye to her, and she was met with another view. A grey vest neared her face and she closed her eyes, her fall now went the other way. She heard a loud crash but felt no pain. She held closely onto that what had saved her and looked up.

Seiji stared right back at her, and said nothing.

"Ma-matsunaga-san. Are you all right?"

"More importantly, are you okay?"

His concern was endearing, and she felt the blood rush to her head again, warming the tips of her ears and her nose again. His intense gaze was making her stomach do flip-flops. She felt herself drawn to him again, but this time in real life, not in a dream.

A soft voice drifted up to them, "Shiharu-tan, Sei-tan.. owie?"

Shiharu whipped her head around, staring at Aoi-kun who had jogged her memory. "Oh my god! Matsunaga-san, I'm so sorry.. I constantly called you by you first name without thinking about my place, it won't happen ever again, please, I mean it.. I'm sooo sorry!"

She had apparently momentarily forgotten that it had happened in her dream, but it had seemed so real. 'Oh, right..Well, this is –"

"That's quite all right, Nakamura-san. It's no big deal. I, myself, did something rather out of place, too. I called you by your first name too."

An awkward silence fell over the both of them as they realized that neither of the other was supposed to know about that fact. Shiharu remembered how she'd felt when he'd called her by her name, and the same sensation ran up and down her spine, her heartbeat accelerated and her breath sped up. Her entire body felt warm, her head was filled with happy thoughts and, also, with a thick cloud of confusion. 'How can that be..!'

But before either of them could ask or say anything more, Aoi-kun had crawled into Shiharu's lap, talking to her. "Shiharu-tan, blush. Shiharu-tan kissh Sei-tan?" He giggled aloud, his eyes sparkling and he made his own kissing sounds. "Shiharu-tan likes Sei-tan?"

Shiharu kissed Aoi-kun on his cheek, "I.." She hesitated, and then whispered softly, "I like Matsunaga-san, but I like Aoi-kun much, much more. And Akane-chan too!" Looking over his head at Seiji, she noticed the bemused expression on his face as he stood up and walked towards one of his cabinets and picked up something.

"No, Shiharu-tan is Ao's. Sei-tan can't have you." Aoi-kun wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek before slumping forward, already fast asleep. It would be their secret.

"Look, Nakamura-san."

In his hand he held the package of the incense. Setsuzoku. Connected, an appropriate name for what had just happened, apparently their dreams had been connected to one another.

"Well, that's an interesting, particular piece of incense, don't you agree?"

Shiharu, seeing his grin, felt compelled to smile back at him, "Yes, totally."

A/N: "Love so Life" reminded me of the manga "Aishuteruze Baby" which you really must read if you haven't! And that reminded me of a story I've read on this site, called "Daughters" by Sleep Walking Chicken, also a must-read.

Love y'all.