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Sanemi didn't feel when the sensation began. He felt so peaceful lying comfortably on their couch cushion. A liquid warmth spread through him and filled his every vein. He simply could melt away from the sheer blissfulness alone. It felt like he was floating on soft fluffy clouds, on a sweet summer morning. The air smelled intensely of green tea and sweetness.
He felt something... or someone behind him. He tilted his head back to see his husband smile sweetly at him. Giyuu kissed his temple and adjusted Sanemi's head. He felt fingers scratch soothingly on his scalp, and he closed his eyes in pure tranquillity as Giyuu gently massaged and kneaded the knots in his muscles.
"Sanemi"
His husband's silky smooth voice reached his ears and he gave a lazy hum in response. Then Giyuu started working on his foot, applying just the right pressure. His long and dainty fingers glided like a river along his calf and relieved months of tension on his legs from carrying his heavy body. Sanemi felt like he could just let go.
"Sanemi"
The soft and low voice blessed his ears again. He opened his eyes to peer at his, oh so sweet husband. He wondered what he had done in his past life to deserve such a gem of a person as Giyuu. What else could Sanemi ask for in life when a deity packs his lunchbox and cleans his laundry everyday.
Honestly, Sanemi could just die. Death by his husband's beautiful face. How poetic. Giyuu's beautiful face which was frowning at him. Then, Giyuu's fingers reached his face, pinched his nose and his air flow was blocked and he couldn't breathe.
He couldn't breathe!
Sanemi jolted awake. Giyuu flinched and removed his fingers from Sanemi's nose.
"What the fuck Giyuu!?", he asked bewildered.
"You were snoring"
"So!?"
"I couldn't hear the TV"
Indeed, Sanemi realised with sleepy focus as he took in the scene before him, their TV was on. Playing the show they usually use for background noise. And Giyuu clearly wasn't sleeping. He was sitting upright, his back leaning against some pillows for support. His fingers were lazily scratching Kanzaburo's head as the cat looked disapprovingly at Sanemi for disturbing its sleep.
What the Fuck!?
He took a breath. His voice low and constrained.
"You could simply turn the volume up, Giyuu"
"Then you will wake up from the noise and yell at me"
"Well I'm awake anyway", Sanemi rubbed his face. He took another breath. A deep one. It didn't help. He sprang into a sitting position.
"But really? Instead of doing what a normal person would do, you'd try to kill your husband by choking him!?"
Sanemi didn't care that he was yelling. He didn't care if the neighbours were going to complain the next morning. He didn't care that Kanzaburo was now fully awake and hissing at him, seconds away from scratching his face. He just couldn't stand the absurdity of his husband's logic. Not at the dead of night.
"I wasn't choking you! And I did call you. You wouldn't wake up! I was only trying to tone down your snores"
"Why are you awake anyway? Watching TV at ass o'clock?"
"I couldn't sleep"
"....."
"I had a nightmare"
"Oh"
He looked at Giyuu's gloomy expression. Really looked at his face for the first time since the moment he was rudely dragged out of his dreamland. He silently mourned the dream. He wanted to go back to sleep and continue the dream. He pushed the thought aside. Giyuu's eyes were haunted and red-rimmed. He really seemed disturbed by whatever nightmare had scared him away from his sleep. Sanemi thought of an idea. Teasing Giyuu always brought him back whenever he tried to shut Sanemi down and let his own thoughts consume him. And Sanemi didn't think before asking, his brain-to-mouth filter vanished at the time of need. He only meant it jokingly.
"Who died?"
"I died"
"You died?"
"Yes"
"And?"
"You died", he choked up.
"I died?"
"Yes"
"Wait. Who died again?"
Giyuu's features twisted in a mixture of sadness and frustration as he let out a sob.
"Why are you so insensitive Shinazugawa!?", tears flowed freely on Giyuu's face now.
Sanemi panicked. Gone was his sleepiness. He was fully awake and tried to grab Giyuu's face. Kanzaburo hissed violently at him. A warning to stay away. The black cat was ever so loyal to his master. Sanemi wondered if he should have sought the cat's approval instead of Tsutako's for Giyuu's hand in marriage by how it's acting towards him. He let his arms down in surrender.
"Baby, I was just joking"
"I just witnessed my husband's death right in front of my eyes and you're joking!?", he looked at Sanemi like he was a third person and not said husband who apparently died in his dreams.
Sanemi mentally kicked his own ass. Contrary to popular belief, he was not an asshole. At least towards his loved ones. How could he be such a stupid? No wonder his students were always laughing at him behind his back. Including Genya! And his unruly friends. His mood soured at the thought of those ungrateful brats. He hated all of them with a passion. Especially the Kamado boy! He was so close to his husband for some reason Sanemi would never understand, always pestering him around like a lost chicken and calling him 'Giyuu-san' with that grating voice of his. Hell, all those brats were close to Giyuu. He was going to give them extra homework for a week and a surprise test for ruining his thoughts. He dismissed them from his mind and turned towards the issue at hand. His husband.
Giyuu pulled his knees up and cuddled Kanzaburo to his face for comfort. He watched the scene unfold in slow motion as Kanzaburo tensed and froze as soon as Giyuu's tear-stained face touched his back. The cat shrivelled up and jumped out of Giyuu's arms, hissed at Giyuu in disgust for dirtying his body and ran away from their room to hide. He resisted the urge to laugh at Giyuu's... heartbroken expression.
As loyal as Kanzaburo was, his instinct clearly won.
Sanemi thanked the cat mentally and swooped in to save his husband from the apparent abandonment. He leaned against the headboard, turned the TV off and pulled the duvet above them. Then he pulled Giyuu close and held him against his side.
"I'm sorry. Forgive me?"
"No"
"Okay. Don't forgive me"
"No"
"Then you'll forgive me?"
"No"
Sanemi hummed.
"How about you tell me what this nightmare was about?"
Giyuu leaned closer and put his head on Sanemi's chest. In Sanemi's book, the action meant Sanemi was doing the right thing. He patted himself on the back.
"We... we were both killers. Slayers! I guess. We used to kill demons by breathing. With a sword! Yes. My sword was broken. Then these... marks? Tattoos? It looked like a tattoo. Appears on our face and we get so strong and we killed all the demons. Then we lived together in our home and I died. Because of the tattoo! Then I was a ghost and you were sad. And Tanjiro came one day to give you a spoon. You both drank tea, and you cried, and then you died! Then we went to our garden"
Tears welled up in Giyuu's eyes at the last two sentences. Sanemi leaned down to kiss Giyuu on the forehead and looked up at the ceiling. He slowly processed whatever Giyuu had just spouted. Giyuu was once again sobbing and shaking against him in tears. Had it been any other person and not his husband at the moment, he would have screamed, 'You are the demon in my life!', right at their face, and then gone straight back to sleep. But it was Giyuu, his lovely husband, so he sucked it up and gently rubbed his back to calm him down. When he was sure that Giyuu had calmed down enough to take deep full breaths, Sanemi put some space between them to look at his husband's face.
Giyuu blinked at him, confused at Sanemi's blank face.
"Giyuu"
"Hmm?"
"I love you and I consider your feelings"
"Okay"
"And I mean it in the kindest way possible when I ask you this..."
"Ask me what?"
"What the actual fuck!?"
Sanemi was not a patient man. Being a teacher required a lot of patience after all. And he was trying. He was understanding to a certain level. After Giyuu came to his life, he tried to the best of his abilities to be patient and understanding and to be there for his husband whenever he seemed to struggle with words. But he too had his limits.
"Huh!?", Giyuu's perplexed face did not shut Sanemi's mouth.
"I told you to stop watching those stupid historical shows!"
"Excuse me!?"
"See what they did to your brain!"
"My brain is perfectly fine. You should do a medical checkup for your heart"
"Why? I'm fine"
"Ugh. I meant you're heartless Shinazugawa!"
"Oh"
Sanemi swallowed his frustration. Exhaustion clawed at him.
"How long have you been awake?"
"Hmm. I was into the third episode of Digimon Adventure when you woke up", he yawned.
Sanemi looked at the small digital clock on their bedside table. It read 3:32 AM. Which meant Giyuu must have been awakened around 2:30. He silently dealt with his nightmare, however absurd it sounded, while Sanemi blissfully dreamed the night away.
"And you were crying because of it?", he prodded again.
"I was crying because you died in it"
Sanemi's face softened. He pulled Giyuu impossibly closer, given how close they already were. Sanemi took his words back, he really was an asshole. He felt guilty for yelling at his husband.
"I'm alive Giyuu. And I'm not going anywhere"
"I know", he replied sleepily, "I was just scared".
Sanemi ran his fingers through Giyuu's tousled tresses, lulling him to sleep. His heart felt full. Giyuu twisted and leaned forward to kiss his lips.
"G'night Sanemi"
"Good night, love"
Or it was Morning?
Silence surrounded them. Sanemi almost let himself fall into the arms of sweet slumber when he blinked his eyes open. The name kept nagging at some corner of his mind since the moment he had heard it. Giyuu's breaths were even and deep, indicating he was asleep. Of all the people his husband was close with, why that brat?
"Giyuu?", he called anyway.
"Hmm?"
"What was the Kamado kid doing in your dream?"
"Having tea with you"
"..."
"..."
"I'm going to give him a detention tomorrow... Or today"
Giyuu laughed, a breezy little sound that drowned in the darkness around them.
"No"