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It was a cold winter night as Madara lay outside, taking deep breaths while he stared up into the sky. His jaw hurt like a bitch and his right arm felt like it was on fire, blood slowly seeping into the snow beneath it.
This certainly wasn't how he had planned to spend his night. In fact, he had come back home late after spending the day running various errands and was ready to just crash for the night, though his mother seemed to have had other plans. It was as if she had been waiting for Madara to get home just so that she could pick a fight with him over what was probably nothing, he couldn't really recall if he was being honest. Now, getting into arguments wasn't really new to Madara, specifically in recent times, but most of the time he managed to deescalate the situation before anything happened.
Tonight was not one of those times.
One thing led to another and, before he knew it, he was quite literally dragged and thrown out of the house, which resulted in him laying outside of his house processing the entire situation.
He wasn't even wearing a jacket or really anything warm, thrown out with nothing but himself. How miserable. This kind of thing also happened sometimes, where he was told to leave or decided to do so on his own accord whenever the atmosphere got too tense, but this was still quite uncalled for, so he didn't have much of a solution to his current misery.
Well, he definitely couldn't stay out in the cold all night, so he forced himself to sit upright before slowly rising to his feet. His head was starting to throb and his arm was still bleeding from various cuts caused by shielding his face from a glass thrown directly at it, though these things weren't the top priority of things he needed to worry about in that moment. He had been through significantly worse before given his secret occupation, so he could deal with this later.
First, he needed to find shelter somewhere else before freezing to death, and his own home was no option until his mother calmed down. Luckily enough, if that's even what you could call it given his predicament, he knew exactly where he could go. A place he was always welcome at, even more so than at his own.
The annoying part was, that it was a 20-minute walk away and he couldn't ride his beloved baby-chan over since he didn't have his keys, but it was still better than staying outside, so he started making his way over to the Sakumas' house.
He went there quite often, usually when he and Rei had any overseas business to discuss, sometimes just because he felt like it and other times...because he had nowhere else to go. He was grateful for that, if it wasn't for Rei, who knew what kind of things Madara would get himself into.
Besides the fact that he was freezing, the walk over went smooth enough, he took a few of the lesser-known paths partly to save time and partly to avoid being seeing by anyone, until, eventually, the huge building came into his view. While Madara himself lived in quite a fancy place, the literal manor that belonged to the Sakumas never failed to amaze him. It was old, too, which fueled Madara's interest in antique things.
Well, he wasn't here to admire the architecture, though, so he rounded the building until he was below the window of Rei's room. Usually, he'd just let himself in with a spare key he had been given but, once again, he didn't have a thing on him, so instead he found the nearest pebble and threw it with his uninjured arm. Bull's eye.
It only took a few seconds until the window creaked open and a familiar mop of black hair peaked out. In times like these, it was certainly useful that the Sakumas were creatures of the night.
"Ah, Mikejima-kun...wait at the door, I will come let you in," ordered Rei as if he had already been expecting Madara. The younger merely nodded, doing as he was told.
When the door flew open, Madara put up one of his trademark smiles, greeting the other male in his usual, loud fashion, much to the vampire's dismay. Madara himself wasn't sure why he did it. In that moment, it was all fake, even though he didn't have to hide his true state. Not around Rei, anyway.
Said man eyed him over with a raised eyebrow, clearly concerned seeing as Madara wasn't in a particularly great state, before moving to the side.
"Do come in," he offered, to which Madara nodded again. Inside it was darker than at his own home, yet somehow it felt warmer still. The moment he stepped in, it was as if he could finally release a breath he'd been holding since he was kicked out.
They moved to Rei's room quietly, and Madara knew Rei wanted to ask what was going on, yet he didn't, which was appreciated. Madara didn't really feel like explaining, but Rei knew enough about him to piece a picture together himself.
"Sit down here, I shall retrieve a few things before I tend to you," Rei's voice was firm yet soft, making Madara feel at ease quickly. When he looked at the eerie presence that hid so much warmth and love beneath, he always felt at ease. In a way, Rei felt like a shadow of Madara. Or the other way around.
Madara was always energetic and quick to latch onto anyone, offering a helping hand left and right under the pretense of being a mama. The truth was darker, however, for no matter how hard he tried, he could never scrub the blood off his hands, plunged into by the part of himself that he kept hidden in fear to hurt anyone he cared about.
Rei presented himself as evil, befitting to the title of the demon king, feeding into the image he had given himself and his unit with no problem, though in truth Rei was full of love for humans, sacrificing himself for the sake of others, never being able to turn down anyone in need.
Madara sighed, scanning the familiar room for no reason in particular. Much like the rest of the building, Rei's room felt more like a chamber, entirely too big for a single person to occupy. Closets and bookshelves stretched along the walls, several musical instruments sitting in a particular corner by the windowfront, on the other side of the room the ever so unused bed and, of course, the coffin that Rei had made his home more than anything else in the room.
Madara moved to the music corner, sitting down at the piano, which seemingly hadn't been used in a while with how it was collecting dust. He opened the fallboard, revealing flawless keys reflecting the moonlight coming in from the window just at the right angle.
On a whim, he placed his hands above the keys and started playing. Gracefully, his fingers flew across the keyboard, the storm inside of his heart slipping through his fingertips to create a melody filling the room, spreading across the house until they disappeared into thin air.
He almost didn't notice the blood that had again begun to flow from irritated wounds, down his arm and hand, spilling onto white notes as it had on white snow.
He continued to play, tainting the innocence of the keys red with blood like he knew nothing but to ruin things with his own hands while they were so capable of creating such heartfelt tunes with the softest of motions at the same time. It smeared, made a mess, so that even the gentleness of his fingertips was lost with the ugly prints they left behind, his heart bleeding into the melody ever so slowly.
It didn't take long for Rei to return, though Madara kept his focus on the music as the other man set down a few things on the nearby table before making his way over to where Madara was sat at the piano. He moved further to the side of his seat, an invitation for Rei to sit down next to him, which the vampire took wordlessly.
For another while they simply sat like that, the only sound echoing through the room being the melody produced by Madara, until, eventually, his hands slowed and came to a stop entirely.
"And, how was it?" Madara asked excitedly, turning his head to look at Rei as he gave him another bright smile.
Rei looked back at him with an unreadable expression. "Beautiful as ever," he replied softly, much to Madara's enthusiasm.
"Ahaha! Good, good! Ahhh, it's been aaaaages since I had the chance to play. I was worried I'd be getting rusty but it seems I've pleased my audience! Very good~!" the younger laughed, a spark of light filling the room as the sound traveled through, though it was a mere illusion that left no impression on the creature of the night.
"However," Rei started, moving his left hand until it met Madara's right still resting on the keyboard. "You may hide your feelings behind a smile, but music does not lie. A heavy heart unravels easily to those who listen."
Of course, Rei would see right through him. Madara wasn't surprised and he hadn't necessarily been trying to hide anything from the other, but he had gotten so used to his mask that it was hard to lay down. Though, when their eyes met and their hands touched, it felt easier.
Despite this, Madara was about to reply something superficial when Rei squeezed his hand and then placed his hands onto the keys himself, entirely unbothered by the spilled blood as he began forming a melody of his own. It was slow, yet soft and it had a comforting feeling to it.
Rei, too, laid out his heart through music and, in that moment, it was dedicated to Madara only, he knew. "Allow yourself to share your burdens, for you are not destined to carry this weight all by yourself," spoke Rei solely through the keys moved by his hands, further emphasizing his intentions by looking at Madara from the corner of his eyes with that vibrant, captivating color.
Madara smiled. However, it was genuine this time, ever so moved by how Rei was willing to care for someone like him, who was ostracized and unloved even by his own flesh and blood.
With that, he resumed playing next to Rei, their hands crossing but never colliding, perfectly in sync as though they shared the same brain. It was a duet as much as it was a battle between their hearts, Madara further trying to hide in his shell as Rei fiercely tried to break in, all without a single word exchanged between them.
Madara knew it was a losing game, Rei held that kind of power over anyone that dared to approach him and, in a way, it was exactly what he needed. If he never let his guard down, he would break under the pressure eventually, no matter how strong he prided himself to be. Rei, who was so much like him, knew this, had experienced it himself and wished to prevent Madara from shattering into pieces as well. And so, he let Rei win over him, gave into the heartfelt melody, allowed himself to breathe.
"You look exhausted," Rei stated after he, too, had ceased playing, now reaching for the first-aid kit he had brought.
"Aw, come on, that's no fair! Anyone would look exhausted next to your level of energy this late in the night."
"You are well aware of what I truly mean. There is no need to pretend," the vampire said, taking Madara's injured arm to assess the damage. Usually, Rei was cold to the touch, but this time his hand felt warm. Madara chalked it up to the fact that his own hands were still cold from how he had been freezing outside.
"There is no hiding anything from you, after all. Alright, alright, you're not wrong. It has been...a long day," Madara admitted, voice much calmer now than when he would put up his front.
Rei hummed in response, dapping alcoholic liquid onto a pad before cleaning the blood off Madara, carefully moving around the cuts. Once done, Rei wrapped the arm up in gauze, movement as soft as when he would play the piano, easily patching up the wounds. Times like these it was probably quite fortunate that Rei wasn't fond of blood like the rest of his family.
"Are you injured elsewhere?" the raven-haired asked, causing Madara to shake his head in response.
"Very well. If you wish to rest, you are welcome to stay for as long as you need to, of course. At the very least I will never drive you away."
"Thank you, Rei-san. I really mean that," Madara said quietly, voice merely above a whisper as if only Rei was allowed to hear him.
Rei smiled at him.
Madara may not be welcome at the place he called his home due to the fact that he grew up there, but he was starting to think that might just be okay.
In the end, Rei was the one that truly felt like home to him.