An Alignment of Prayers

(Akane's PoV)

—

The darkness of his bedroom was thick, cool, and entirely separate from the rest of the world.

The only illumination filtered through the narrow vertical glass pane of the window, where the distant, pale amber glow of a streetlamp cast a long, geometric sliver of light across the hardwood floorboards, terminating just at the foot of the mattress.

Shin moved through the shadows with that steady, weightless cadence that belonged only to him.

During the long but short walk, his arms remained a solid, unyielding shelf beneath my spine and the curve of my bare thighs, holding my frame firmly against his bare chest until he came to a stop directly beside the bed.

I could stay in his arms forever. 

Then, he leaned his torso forward, lowering his weight, and placed my body down upon the sheets.

I didn't even realize that we had arrived.

The bed sheet fabric was cool against the skin of my lower legs, but it was the profound, almost terrifying gentleness of his hands that made my breath catch in the back of my throat.

Shin lowered me with a slow, meticulous calculation, supporting the back of my head with his palm until my skull met the soft core of the pillow, clearly treating me like a porcelain doll.

For some reason, I felt like... I've been craving this.

Then, without speaking any other word, I stared up at him through the dark, with my fingers lingering on the fabric of his shorts before they slowly slid away.

The stark contrast between the violent, crushing legacy of my family name and the absolute tenderness of the boy hovering in the gloom was a constant, dizzying friction behind my ribs.

My father had used his weight to break and dominate; Shin used his strength to preserve and protect.

Then, Shin shifted his posture, pulling his legs onto the mattress, with his knees sinking into the fabric on either side of my hips as he prepared to align his body completely over mine.

His presence was enough to make my whole soul soften

Then, I automatically reached my arms upward into the dark, my open palms reaching for the broad line of his shoulders, inviting him to get on top of me

"Come here," I whispered, my voice a low, gravelly rasp that vibrated with a raw, unvarnished urgency. "And do not dare to leave my side for a single microsecond tonight, Shin."

But Shin didn't reply with words.

Instead, he leaned down, his eyes locking onto my golden stars with an absolute, unyielding devotion that made my heart skip a beat.

He reached out his hands, his fingers catching the low hem of my oversized gray sweatshirt, and began to slide the thick wool fabric upward over my stomach.

His movements were slow, entirely deliberate, and completely stripped of any frantic lust. I could feel it.

He gently pulled the gray knit over my shoulders, freeing my arms, and then moved down to remove the thin lace of my underwear, exposing my pale, bare form entirely to the quiet shadows of the room.

I expected him to immediately close the distance, to press the heat of his skin against mine and lose himself in the connection we had been building all evening.

But right before our lips could meet, Shin completely stopped.

He leaned forward just enough to press a soft, lingering kiss directly into the center of my forehead, his breath warm against my skin.

"Give me just one moment, Akane," he murmured softly against my temple.

My lips immediately pulled into a sharp, stubborn pout, my fingers tightening into a fist against the sheets. "Tch. Where the hell are you going now, ghost boy? I've already told you not to leave me!"

After my little protest, Shin let out a low, quiet chuckle that rumbled wonderfully in the dark, with his fingers lightly pinching my chin before he slid his knees off the mattress and disappeared back through the bedroom doorway.

I lay alone in the cool dark for less than one minute, but the skin of my bare stomach rose and fell with my shallow, impatient breathing.

'Just return already, Dumbhead...'

A minute later, I heard the quiet thud of his footsteps, and then, Shin finally stepped back into the room, carrying two small objects in his left hand: A familiar white laminate tube and a neat roll of clean, sterile medical gauze.

Then, he pulled his knees back onto the mattress, settling his weight beside my left hip, and looked down at my face with a calm, serious expression.

"Give me your arm, Akane," he said, his voice a low, soothing anchor in the gloom. "I'll make it quick."

I didn't argue. I couldn't. So, I just let out a soft, silent breath and extended my left arm toward his chest.

Then, Shin took hold of my wrist with an incredible, soft precision before he unsealed the white tube, squeezing a generous dollop of cool, transparent aloe vera (maybe?) ointment directly onto his fingertips, and began to apply the soothing cream across the raw, inflamed tracks lining my skin.

The initial touch was a sharp, stinging shock of cold that made my shoulders flinch against the pillow, but as his thumb began to move in a slow, rhythmic pattern, smoothing the ointment over the raised, red welts, the burning fire beneath my skin finally began to loosen.

He was so... incredibly careful.

His fingers mapped every single scratch with the touch of someone handling a miracle, ensuring his nails never snagged the broken edges of the skin.

Once the aloe was evenly distributed, he picked up the roll of gauze and wrapped the clean white fabric around my forearm in three neat, symmetrical layers, securing the end with a small piece of medical tape.

When he finished, he didn't let my wrist drop.

He lifted the freshly bandaged arm toward his face, closed his eyes, and pressed a soft, lingering kiss directly against the white gauze, right over the center of the damage.

I stared up at him, my throat suddenly tightening until it felt like a knot of iron.

A wild, chaotic storm of a thousand distinct emotions violently detonated behind my eyes, a fierce, stinging heat rushing straight to my lids as I fought the urge to cry with everything that I had.

My jaw locked tight, my breath coming in jagged, shallow hitches.

'No... not again...'

I have spent my entire, miserable life standing in the cold, the thought whispered with an unyielding, beautiful clarity behind my forehead, the realization tearing a small hole through my chest.

All these years believing that a human being had to remain an isolated, self-sufficient machine just to survive the wreckage of a household.

I never once believed that someone would look at my thorns, look at the rot inside my blood, and choose to sit in the dark just to clean my wounds.

I have waited my entire life for someone to take care of my soul like this, without asking anything in return.

After a few moments, Shin slowly lowered my arm, placing it gently against the sheets, and shifted his weight until his eyes were locked dead onto my trembling soul. 

Then, he stared down into the wet blur of my gaze, his expression so deep and present.

"You know, Akane..." He started, kissing my forehead once again, "I have spent my entire life dreaming of someone who could love me to the point of shedding tears..." he whispered, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly vibration that shook the center of my chest. "And I have always wanted someone who would actually talk to me... someone who would show me the truth behind their face."

A soft, breathless gasp escaped my lips, the sheer perfection of his timing completely shattering the final lock on my heart.

Shin was surprising me every second, and all my thoughts were a complete mess.

Then, I reached up, my hand tracing the sharp, warm line of his jawbone, my thumb brushing against his lower lip.

"In these specific cases, Ishikawa..." I murmured, my voice breaking into a rough, beautiful whisper that carried the absolute weight of my soul, "I believe that God actually exists somewhere. Otherwise, I can't find any proper explanation for how we are here, right now, in this exact moment, talking about these things."

Shin didn't let my words hang in the air.

He leaned his torso down, with his mouth crashing onto my lips with a sudden, passionate intensity that was entirely flooded with an unvarnished, deep love.

He had really read my mind.

During that beautiful kiss, it looked like we were two broken instruments finally finding a synchronized chord in the dark.

A long, unhurried minute later, Shin pulled his face back just a few inches, his forearms propped firmly against the mattress on either side of my head as he looked down at my flushed face, his breathing heavy and uneven in the gloom.

I looked up into his dark eyes, my fingers sliding down his neck to lock securely around his right hand, my knuckles tightening until our palms were pressed flat together against the sheets.

"Go ahead..." I whispered, my voice dropping into its lowest, most beautifully raspy purr, though a small, raw thread of vulnerability remained visible beneath the syllable. "But please... keep holding my hand while we do it, Shin. Just for tonight... I really need to feel the connection."

After my words, Shin gave a single, slow nod, his grip tightening around my hand until our fingers were completely intertwined.

"I was already planning to do that anyway, boss," he murmured, his smile small and infinitely soft in the moonlight.

And then, the room vanished entirely.

Shin moved inside of me with a gentleness that seemed unreal, and as soon as we were one, I let out a very loud moan, different from the others.

It felt like this one was more like a... cry of liberation, maybe...? It's... pretty hard to explain.

But everything could be summed up in a single phrase: 'I am happy'.

"S-Shin... Ah..." I gasped, feeling his thing twitching inside me, "This... Ah—this is so good..." I added, unconsciously moving my hips against him, to feel him more.

"Y-Yeah... Akane... I feel it too..." Shin whispered to my ear, his hand squeezing mine even harder, "It feels... so good inside you..." He said, before starting to move again.

"Ahhh, Shin...!" I moaned, arching my back against him, like I was trying to fuse our bodies together.

Shin immediately sealed my lips into a deep kiss, while moving inside of me.

The taste was... salty... for some reason.

And then, Shin and I kept going for a while, and the most important thing about our passionate love-making session was that everything was filled with... love. Not lust, but only love.

Every single touch of his bare skin against mine felt like a beautiful, heavy heat that melted the thick armor I had worn since childhood.

He moved with an unhurried, attentive rhythm, his weight a grounding, protective shield that kept my mind from spinning back into the dark loops of my jealousy.

Our joined hands remained locked against the pillow, his long fingers maintaining a constant, unyielding pressure that served as reassurance in the quiet of the room.

Every time the heavy sensation in my chest threatened to trigger an old, defensive reflex, I would tighten my grip on his palm, and Shin would instantly respond, shifting his weight to press his mouth against my neck, whispering my name into the skin until the static in my head went completely offline.

We lost track of the timeline entirely, the hours unrolling in a warm, breathless blur of sandalwood, soft sighs, and the continuous, synchronized thudding of our pulses against the mattress.

And when the final wave of heat eventually cleared the room, the deep, heavy midnight quiet settled permanently over his house.

The television in the living room had long since timed out, leaving the bedroom dark and entirely peaceful, and the cool winter wind rattled the windowpane outside, but beneath the thick, heavy duvet, the air was warm and smelled cleanly of our skin.

Shin shifted his long frame onto his side, propping his head up with his right hand as he looked down at my silhouette against the white pillow.

His chest rose and fell in a slow, deep cadence, his handsome features looking completely relaxed and unburdened by the ghosts of his past.

"Ah damn... I wonder if I'll get pregnant if we keep going like this..." I teased him, tracing patterns on his bare chest.

I felt Shin's body twitching for a bit. 

"W-Well... I guess we're too young. But... even if something like that happened, I would definitely take responsibility... and..." He pulled me closer. "You'd surely be a beautiful and loving mother." He said, sending a shiver down my spine.

"...And you'll surely be the greatest dad of all time," I replied, kissing his cheek.

And then, we stayed like this, lost in our embrace, for a long time, until we felt the urge to rest.

"I hope to meet you even in my dreams, Akane," he murmured lazily, his voice a deep, gravelly morning rumble that made my heart flip softly.

I turned my face toward his profile, a small, knowing grin slowly reclaiming the edges of my lips as my classic, arrogant pout made a playful return to the screen.

"In that specific case, Ishikawa," I purred dryly, my eyes flashing with a malicious, soft amusement in the dark, "I will make sure that your beautiful dream will turn into the worst nightmare you ever had."

Shin let out a soft, warm chuckle that rumbled beautifully against my shoulder, his arm pulling me tightly against his chest, tucking my head securely beneath his chin.

"I'll risk the nightmare, boss, as long as you'll be there," he whispered, his eyes closing as his breathing began to match the slow rhythm of the room.

Then, I buried my face into the familiar, warm curve of his neck, my fingers lightly touching the soft fabric of the duvet.

Down on my left forearm, the white gauze remained a secure, clean barrier over the red scratches, the skin still throbbing with a faint, residual sting.

The scars were still there, and the battle against my bloodline wasn't fully won.

But as the darkness of a deep, dreamless sleep finally began to pull my consciousness below the surface, I tightened my arm across his waist, locking myself into his shadow.

We were clear. The sanctuary was verified, and... tomorrow looked beautiful.

"Goodnight, My Beloved Handsome Boyfriend~" I whispered, kissing his lips.

"zzzz." That idiot was already sleeping.

"Tch—I'll forgive you, just for tonight, dumbhead," I whispered, before falling into a deep sleep with the love of my life.