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A small stream of white steam rose from the equally white mug, slowly spreading the pleasant smell of the herbal tea in the porcelain. Inupi pulled the warm blanket a little tighter around his shoulders and looked at the tidy coffee table in front of him. He sighed softly, sipping the lukewarm drink, lost in thought. Like almost every night, he was plagued by horrible nightmares; his pale skin was still covered in a cold layer of sweat. A cool wind came through the open window into the living room and briefly caressed the shivering delinquent. The cold was a pleasant contrast to the impressions of his blazing nightmare that night.
The warm liquid gradually calmed his mind. The anxiety faded, was replaced with the old feeling of guilt and emptiness. What remained from his dream were his sister's desperate cries for help, the smell of burning flesh and an oppressive heaviness on his chest. The delinquent slowly drew his legs up, resting his forearms on his shaky knees. He finally leaned his head carefully against the back of the couch and tried to ignore Akane's increasingly quiet screams in the silence surrounding him. In the end, it was just one night of many. One nightmare of many.
A merciless war was already raging in his troubled mind again. Logic and feeling fought for control, stirring up everything that the young man tried so desperately to keep inside a forbidden chest on the bottom of his tortured soul. Of course, the outcome of the unfair fight was already clear. His heart would lose and have to bow to his archenemy called rationality, still covered in seething wounds that had remained untreated since the terrible fire. The unmistakable smell of sulphur pricked his nose again without a warning. "Calm down. It’s only your imagination," the young man muttered quietly to himself, trying to ignore the triggering impressions in his nostrils.
The fact that his burn scar started to hurt again at that moment didn't particularly help his efforts to brush the painful thoughts away from him. Inupi lifted his head, took another sip of the tea and tried to take a deep breath. It was all just his wild imagination. He looked out into the night for a while, only vaguely noticing something moving in the trees. Probably a raven or a small rodent. Noting to worry about. The delinquent warmed his hands on the white mug and blinked tiredly, slowly leaning his head gently on his bent knees. Did anyone from Black Dragon even begin to suspect the paralyzing fear one of their highest officers actually lived with daily?
To bring his thoughts back under control, the young man began to hum softly into the night. He let his eyes half close and continued to stare out the window as if in a trance, while the way too familiar melody gently clanged from his dry throat. He had already heard this song in the hospital shortly after the house fire. It was one of the few pleasant memories of his healing period and the traumatic months that followed. He stopped for a moment, blinked slowly – humming again after some seconds. This melody had not come from his own mind. Hopefully the headstrong composer lay still peacefully asleep in bed and dreamed the best dreams that angels, demons and beings of the darkness had to offer him.
Koko had become an important constant in his life. Immediately after his sister's death, the younger man self-sacrificingly took care of the traumatized sibling and worked with him to find solutions to make the pain more bearable for him. The fact that this particular melody was one of the most effective remedies for the serious anxiety disorder was almost an irony of fate. The younger man had uttered it for the first time in the hospital room to help the white-haired man to fall asleep. A kind gesture that Koko repeated almost every day in the following weeks. The delinquent drank the rest of his tea and placed the mug on the sofa table in front of him. Absentmindedly, Inupi continued to hum quietly to himself, calming his troubled soul. His eyes slowly closed and finally closed completely. What remained was the melody, the cool wind on his face and the warm blanket around his shivering shoulders.
He was so absorbed in his dark mind that he didn't even notice the sliding door to the living room slowly swinging aside. Inupi was about to fall into a dreamless sleep when he suddenly heard the familiar voice humming softly from somewhere in the room. The delinquent didn't look up, just suddenly became silent and listened to his friend in a relaxed manner. Hearing Koko's voice humming still had a soothing effect on his battered soul. As the melody gradually got closer, the older one prepared mentally for physical contact with the other man. Not that he would mind being touched by his partner anymore at this point.
As if to confirm, Koko slowly sat down next to him and gently put an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to his warm chest. The lovely song still nestled tenderly in his right ear. The traumatized delinquent leaned slowly against the black-haired man's body of his own accord and finally breathed evenly again in the intimate embrace. Inupi didn't want to admit it, but the fact that the younger man was here ended his panic attack almost immediately. Koko was like a powerful sedative for his brain - and the white-haired man had no doubt that he had been addicted to his calming aura for a long time.
The younger man's fingers slowly ran through his partner's white hair, giving him the gentle touch that his soul so desperately needed at that difficult moment. Inupi sighed heavily and finally wrapped his arms around his friend's slim waist. He missed the black eyes that lay vigilantly on him, watching him intently while he was becoming more and more tired. He soon fell into a peaceful sleep, accompanied by the gentle melody of his lover. Koko continued humming undeterred, not daring to stop his quiet song.
Inupi's calm, even breathing kept lightly brushing against his bare arm, causing goose bumps on his warm skin. The delinquent's relaxed facial features finally calmed the younger man enough to allow the melody to gradually fade away from his throat. Now it was Koko who sat in the silence of the room, struggling with a flood of thoughts and an uneasy feeling in his lungs. He took a deep breath and very carefully separated himself from Inupi. The black-haired man stood up and gently placed his arms under his friend's knees and shoulders, gently lifting him up. The older one cuddled immediately to his chest, searching for protection in his slumber. A barely visible smile formed on Koko's thin lips as he slowly walked with his lover through the dark hallway back to the bedroom.
As he closed the door to the bedroom, the night swallowed the fear and panic that lived in their souls, hiding from the world's eyes their personal battle under the soft light of the silver moon above them.