Pairing: ShizukaxMai

Warning: Shoujo-ai, Mai angst.

Soothing

Yami no Malik had left his mark. A wound inside her head that only she could see. And something that no one, for all their kind words and gentle squeezes of her hand, could do anything about.

Some nights Mai would wake up sweating and crying after nightmare upon nightmare of being left alone, trapped in the dark with light and laughter inches away. Yet she was never able to reach it, no matter how hard she tried. Many times she would see the same thing. The backs of the people she had come to know and love, running together. They would be playing games that she wasn't allowed to join in with because she couldn't catch them. Many times Shizuka would toss her head and Mai would catch the briefest glimpse of a happy smile and sparkling eyes before she turned around again and the view was lost.

There had been many stories that she had read and movies she had seen where someone was having an awful nightmare relating to some sort of trauma in their life. More often than not they would always wake up screaming. Mai never did. When she awoke from those nightmares in the middle of the night she would find herself gasping in mouthfuls of the suddenly stuffy air. For a few terrible seconds the darkness felt like a physical being, wrapping its cold fingers all around her. Closing around her throat. Strangling her. Blocking any light forever.

Then her eyes would adjust to the dark and she would start to recognise things. The digital clock displaying an early hour. A stack of cards beside it with Harpy Lady always at the top.

She would slowly come to notice the arms that encircled her. Shizuka was always at her side during those times, holding their bodies close together. In her dreams Mai always saw her running and laughing out of her reach. Every time she woke up, Shizuka was always facing her. As though she somehow knew of what troubled Mai.

Perhaps Mai talked in her sleep, she didn't know. But her troubles during the night were not something that she felt comfortable sharing with anyone yet. But, when she reached that stage, Mai already knew that Shizuka would be the first. There was something so comforting just in her presence as she slept beside Mai that made her feel she was deserving.

One day. Or perhaps one night. Mai didn't know. Just that it wouldn't be right now.

Mai would turn around to face Shizuka, close her eyes and slowly fall asleep once more.

END