Disclaimer: I do not own Natsume Yuujincho.

Rating: F for Fluffiness

Dreamscape

"It's really raining hard now…" Natsume said as he stared out into the dark night. The clouds had been dark all day, and it looked like they had finally gotten tired of holding it all in. Torrents of rain were plunging down from the horribly dark sky. Thunder rumbled somewhere over the mountains, and Natsume was glad that they hadn't gotten any lightning in the area yet.

Tanuma came up beside him and stared out from the open front door as well, "Hmm – and it doesn't look like it'll let up anytime soon."

Natsume frowned to himself. The Fujiwara's didn't have a car either…if he was going to make it home, there was no other option than to run as fast as he could in the rain. He was wondering if Tanuma had an umbrella he could borrow when Tanuma spoke up with a better idea, "Well, it's not a problem if you stay the night here. I'm sure Touko-san won't mind since it's not a school night or anything."

"Are you sure?" Natsume asked, "I've been here since lunch getting help with my math homework – I don't want to bother you…"

Tanuma gave a small laugh, "You're not a bother – and besides, I wouldn't mind the company. My father won't be back until tomorrow morning, and I don't like having the house all to myself."

Natsume nodded, slightly relieved that he wouldn't have to run home in such bad weather, "Alright – I'll cal Touko-san then."

Tanuma showed him to his father's office where the phone was and left him to make his call while he went to set up an extra futon in his room.

The blonde finally got a hold of Touko-san, who understood the situation and sounded quite relived that Natsume wouldn't be attempting to get home in such bad weather. She told him to thank Kaname-kun for her, and they both hung up.

As both boys had been tiring out their brains on math homework all day, they'd decided to just head straight to bed after throwing together some leftovers for dinner. With the lulling sounds of rain pattering down on the roof as they lay in their adjacent futons, and the soft cries of the wind causing the trees to shake and rustle, they were asleep within minutes of lying down.

Natsume was dreaming. But this is strange, he thought. All of Natsume's dreams were either nightmares of his past, or memories from any nearby Ayakashi that happened to be feeling some sort of extreme emotion. He'd never had another type of dream…at least, until now, he figured.

He was dreaming about school, except, he wasn't in his own classroom – rather, he was in Tanuma's.

Why am I here?

Natsume tried to look around, but strangely everything was pitch black. The only thing visible in all of the darkness was a spotlight where Tanuma sat almost boredly at his desk, and another spotlight focused on the opened classroom door. Natsume felt an odd focusing on Tanuma and suddenly got a very bad feeling.

The bad feeling seemed to be proven right when a new figure appeared in the open doorway.

It was himself – a second Natsume was standing in the doorway with his back facing the room.

Was this…Tanuma's dream?

Was that even possible? Natsume had only ever shared dreams with Ayakashi, and those hadn't really been dream but rather memories that had seeped into Natsume's mind while he slept near an Ayakashi – he didn't think it was even possible to slip into other people's dreams…

What in the world was going on? The real Natsume wondered.

"Natsume?" Tanuma's slightly faded voice spoke out.

Natsume turned to look at his seated friend, but realized that he wasn't the Natsume that was being addressed. Tanuma was calling out to the figure in the doorway – the Dream-Natsume.

As if in response to the boy's voice, the Dream-Natsume suddenly started running away. Tanuma quickly got out of his seat and ran towards the door, the spotlight staying stuck on him as he traveled through the darkness after Dream-Natsume, with more of the classroom appearing around him as he ran.

This is bad, the real Natsume thought to himself, it's wrong on so many levels to see someone else's dreams…I really shouldn't be seeing this. Natsume tried to force himself awake, but found that instead, his body was automatically moving to keep pace with Tanuma as he ran after the fleeing Dream-Natsume. No matter how hard he tried, Natsume could neither deviate from Tanuma's side nor wake himself up. He realized that since this was Tanuma's dream, he had no choice but to tag along.

Tanuma called for Dream-Natsume to wait, but the blonde just kept running. Suddenly, Dream-Natsume disappeared, and Tanuma stopped. Tanuma spun around in time to see a tall and gangly shadow creature emerge from the darkness and descend upon the Dream-Natsume who had somehow magically appeared a few yards away from Tanuma.

Immediately, Natsume realized that this was Tanuma's mental image of a Youkai…This must be how he imagines them, since he's not seen them before. Natsume thought for a minute and realized that Tanuma actually had seen one once – back when he'd been possessed by an Ayakashi who had lost its special mirror. That Ayakashi had let Tanuma see a different one that was also seeking the shattered mirror. Natsume realized that this dream-Ayakashi closely resembled the other one – though this one was much larger and more frightening.

The shadow Ayakashi suddenly materialized a large mouth with a full set of very sharp and devilish-looking teeth. The shadowy Ayakashi was about to attack Dream-Natsume, but Tanuma leapt in front of the fallen blonde. For some reason, the attacking Youkai disappeared and Tanuma turned towards his fallen dream friend. He offered a hand to help Dream-Natsume back to his feet, and they both took off running again, with their hands still clasped.

The real Natsume was starting to feel more uneasiness settle in his mind. He knew he really shouldn't be seeing Tanuma's dream, but could find no way to escape. His body was being dragged along after the running duo as they sprinted down stairs and towards the school's exit.

When the two plus the third wheel, who was being dragged along against his will, made it outside, they were immediately transported to the nearby children's playground instead of the school's main entrance. Tanuma and Dream-Natsume were now stopped and catching their breath. Tanuma straightened up from his hunched, panting position and turned to Dream-Natsume.

The real Natsume could only hear the vague syllables of speech, but he figured they were going through the usual Are you okay?'s and such. The two were strangely still holding hands. Tanuma looked down and noticed it, but just stared for a moment with a very serious look settled onto his face, as if he were pondering something very deeply.

Dream-Natsume didn't seem to have any reaction to the fact that they were still holding hands – in fact, Dream-Natsume almost seemed to be encouraging it. He pulled on Tanuma's arm, dragging him closer so that they were almost uncomfortably close.

The real Natsume watched from a distance, lost in confusion.

What was his dream-self doing?

The look on Tanuma's face suggested that he was a little shocked at something, but Natsume had no idea what. Dream-Natsume seemed to be leaning in closer, and pulling Tanuma by the hand so that he did the same.

Is my dream-self telling him a secret? The real Natsume wondered vaguely.

And then the distance between Tanuma's and Dream-Natsume's faces closed.

The real Natsume's jaw dropped in shock.

They were kissing. Tanuma and the dream version of Natsume were kissing.

And neither party seemed to be all that uneasy about it. Dream-Natsume finally let go of Tanuma's hand and wrapped his arms around Tanuma's neck. Tanuma reacted by placing one hand on Dream-Natsume's cheek and the other reaching around to Natsume's lower back. Their lips never parted, and their kiss went on for a good few minutes.

In the meantime, the real Natsume could do nothing but stare on in both shock and confusion. But before he could really register what he was feeling at the exact moment, a bright light flashed and everything disappeared.

Natsume's eyes snapped open, finally waking from the dream, but he wasn't the only one. He heard Tanuma gasp lightly as he woke up, but as Natsume had been sleeping on his side and turned away from the black-haired boy, he couldn't see him.

Natsume was glad he was turned away from his friend, because he was pretty sure that his cheeks were blushing bright enough to even be seen in the dark. He had no idea how in the world he was mentally supposed to react to seeing himself kiss Tanuma in a dream, but his body sure wasn't sharing that problem. His heart was beating faster than was normal, his cheeks were warm with what he was sure was a violent blush, and his breathing was uneven. The blonde closed his eyes, attempted to calm himself down, and pretended that he was still sleeping. He listened very closely to Tanuma's movements, in some sort of attempt at figuring out what Tanuma's reaction to the dream would be.

The boy, who was lying down just a foot or two away from Natsume, was breathing almost in pants. Natsume heard his friend moving around a bit, and it sounded like he sat up.

The blonde wasn't sure what he was listening for. An explanation, maybe? A reason for why Tanuma had been kissing him in his dream…

Natsume listened carefully. Maybe the black-haired boy would say something like "What a weird nightmare". The blonde felt an odd pang in his stomach at that thought, but realized that the dream couldn't have been a nightmare. Natsume knew all about nightmares, and that didn't feel like one. The overall feeling of the dream had been a good one despite the frantic running from the Ayakashi in the beginning. Even with the scary Youkai making an appearance and trying to attack the Dream-Natsume, the dream hadn't had a nightmareish feel to it.

And besides…wouldn't kissing someone – even if it was only in a dream – mean that you liked them in a way that suggested you wanted to kiss them in real life? Natsume hadn't ever had a dream like that – Natsume didn't put much thought into having a romantic relationship due to his involvement with the Ayakashi and the fact that he'd have to lie to whoever he was dating – but he was pretty sure that you would have to like a person at least somewhat romantically in order to dream about kissing them…

Suddenly Tanuma let out a strange sound that resembled both a sigh and a small laugh. Natsume heard him rustling around in his blankets and suddenly felt Tanuma's eyes on him. The back of his neck prickled as Tanuma broke the silence of the room with a faint asking whisper, "Natsume?"

What was he doing? Natsume thought frantically. Did he somehow know that I'd seen his dream?

No, no – Natsume thought to quell his panic – it sounds more like he's checking to see how deeply asleep I am.

Natsume decided that this was what Tanuma was doing, so he decided that he'd keep quiet and pretend to be asleep.

"Natsume?" Tanuma asked a little louder, but still in a hushed tone, "Are you awake?"

The blonde kept quiet and forced his face to relax into what he thought was a natural sleeping-face. He didn't quite understand what he was trying to accomplish by not answering when he was so widely awake, but Natsume felt it was necessary to keep quiet.

Tanuma didn't ask again, presumably satisfied that the blonde to his side was deeply asleep.

Natsume heard Tanuma rustling around in his blankets again, and at first thought he was lying back down to go back to sleep. But then he heard a muffled thud as something hit the bare wooden floor. The blonde could somehow feel Tanuma's presence getting closer, and he knew that he needed to keep up his sleeping façade.

He didn't dare open his eyes, but Natsume could feel Tanuma's presence as he knelt down at the edge of Natsume's borrowed futon – the thud had probably been Tanuma's knee hitting the small strip of floor that separated the two makeshift beds from each other.

The blonde kept perfectly still except for the rhythmic rising and falling of his chest with calm and quiet breaths, and fought off the temptation to open his eyes to see what Tanuma was doing and why he was coming over here.

A small chill ran down his spine as Natsume thought of something…

What if Tanuma was going to kiss me?

Would he do that? Just because it happened in his dream, it didn't mean he would try it in real life, right?

But what if he does? What should I do? Should I just stay still? Should I – but Natsume's thought got cut off.

Something warm touched his cheek. Fingertips grazed the side of his face and slid up his temple and into his hair. Natsume felt Tanuma's hand gently take a lock of his blonde hair between his fingers and twist it carefully around one of his digits. Tanuma let the lock of hair fall back into place with the rest of Natsume's blonde head of sleep-messy hair.

Natsume could feel Tanuma's hand hovering over his own, as he had it resting on his side and hanging slightly over his stomach while pretending to sleep. Thunder roared outside, causing Tanuma to instinctively pull his hand away. Natsume suppressed a flinch at the sudden sound that broke him away from panicked thoughts about what Tanuma was doing to the blonde while he was supposedly asleep.

Tanuma was quiet for a few moments. Natsume could feel the black-haired boy's eyes just staring at his back in thought, causing the back of Natsume's neck to tingle again at the feeling of being watched so intently.

"What am I doing?..." Tanuma quietly whispered to himself.

Natsume could picture Tanuma shaking his head, and listened as the black-haired boy headed back to his own futon and pulled his blankets back on.

The blonde lay there quietly, finally daring to open his eyes now that Tanuma wouldn't be able to see his face. He felt odd…his stomach was twisted into knots and his heart felt strangely let down, as if it had been excited for some reason…

Natsume's face paled as he realized the cause for that strange discontent…it was like he was disappointed that Tanuma hadn't actually kissed him.

What the heck?! Natsume silently scolded himself, Why…why would I want Tanuma to kiss me of all things? What was wrong with me? He's just my friend – I…I don't think of him like that.

But HE might, a small voice in Natsume's head whispered to his consciousness, If the dream meant anything, then Tanuma probably thinks of you as more than a simple friend…and he didn't just caress your face so tenderly for no reason.

Natsume shook the small voice away. He didn't know what to think, but he really didn't want to dwell on Tanuma's dream, or why he even saw it. For one, it was a terrible invasion of Tanuma's privacy, and secondly, when Natsume thought back to it, his stomach felt fluttery and twisted.

What was that feeling? Knowing that his best friend had just dreamed of kissing him…what would be a reasonable reaction to that? It might be normal to feel nervous or uncomfortable – especially seeing as they were both guys, neither of which had ever claimed to be gay – but Natsume didn't feel either of those. Strangely, he wasn't weirded out by it, or even that uncomfortable with it. He guessed that this might be the Ayakashi's lax view of gender rubbing off on him, and reasoned that his adopted view from the many Youkai who couldn't distinguish gender very well was why Tanuma's suggested feeling didn't bother him.

No – instead of those two normal reactions, Natsume found himself worrying. He realized he was worrying that he might see Tanuma differently now, knowing that the black-haired boy had a much more intimate view of him rather than a purely platonic one. Natsume worried that he'd start treating Tanuma differently, or keeping him at an arm's length. But most of all, Natsume worried that he would hurt Tanuma…

What if Tanuma decided to tell him, and Natsume couldn't answer? What if he hurt Tanuma's heart by not being able to reciprocate his feelings?

Natsume had never been keen on having a relationship – had never really cared about falling in love. He was too concerned with the problems he had now and the pessimistic thought that he'd probably never find someone who could understand all of the trouble and hurt he's experienced because of his ability to see the Ayakashi.

The small voice nagged at his consciousness, Tanuma does… and what he doesn't already understand about you, he wants to. Doesn't he keep telling you that it's okay to tell him anything?

The thought stilled his mind, worries and all. The small voice had been right…Tanuma did understand him – sometimes better than he did himself. While Natsume wasn't sure how he felt about Tanuma's dream or his strange reactions to the thought that Tanuma was going to kiss him for real, he did know that he was closer to Tanuma than anyone else. It may have been because Tanuma was the very first person that Natsume had ever told about his ability and the Ayakashi, but he and Tanuma shared a special closeness that the blonde couldn't define. It was much different from his friendships with Nishimura, Kitamoto, and even Taki, who also knew of his secret, but it was hard to describe how.

Natsume didn't understand it – just like he realized he didn't understand a lot of things concerning his black-haired friend – but he felt that it was good. It was something he'd never had until he came to this town. A closeness he'd never been able to find in his life of being shuffled around from relative to relative, and school to school.

Natsume suddenly rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, forgetting that he was supposed to be feigning sleep. He scolded himself for the careless move and decided to act like he had just woken up. Natsume rubbed at his eyes and let out a barely audible groan.

"Ah – Natsume," Tanuma said in a hushed voice, "You're awake…"

Natsume could hear what he was sure was a nervous waver in Tanuma's quiet voice, and turned to face the boy sleeping a mere few feet away from him. The dark-haired boy's eyes gave off a little shine in the small amount of light that managed to seep in from the window, despite it being a dark, rainy night. Natsume gave his nervous friend a smile – nervous presumably because he was worried that Natsume had woken up when he'd touched Natsume's cheek. "Must have been the storm," Natsume said lightly, matching the volume of his voice to Tanuma's hushed whisper.

Natsume wondered if he should tell Tanuma that he'd accidentally seen his dream – but decided against it for a few different reasons. The most obvious would be the fact that it was embarrassing for both parties. The other prominent reason was Natsume's feeling that Tanuma wasn't really ready to tell Natsume about how he felt. If the dream meant anything – and Natsume was having a hard time believing that it didn't – Tanuma needed to be the one to bring up the subject of his own heart. Springing the subject on him in the middle of the night probably wasn't the smartest move.

Natsume decided to leave it be. He would continue on like he hadn't seen what were probably Tanuma's most personal thoughts presented in dream-form, while attempting to figure out and understand his own strange feelings towards his friend.

He could always tell Tanuma about the dream later on, farther down the road.

"Yeah," Tanuma answered, sounding a little more relieved and relaxed, "That must have been it."

A/N: Hope you liked it, despite it probably being impossible for Natsume to share the dreams of another human (I thought it was a cute idea tho hehe). Anywho~ I really love them.

Please feel free to point out any mistakes I've made, or anything that seems like it was awkwardly worded. People tell me that i get too wordy sometimes, so if you notice it and think it's disruptive towards the story, don't hesitate to tell me so :) I even tolerate flames if you think they're necessary lol

Thanks for Reading!