This was one of my 'drabbles from rehab' after I left the hospital last November, now edited.


Tugging a soft blanket up over them both, Kei hummed almost idly as Sho twitched in his sleep, voicing a low, muddled sound. He wasn't waking, however, and only snuggled a little closer in a formless shift.

He settled, falling quiet once more, under the light caresses of Kei's fingers running through his shaggy hair - kinked from the narrow braids he had recently begun to favour.

Kei smiled fondly as Sho snored, a little snuffling sound with his mouth pressed almost flat against Kei's shoulder. The boy grew, and grew fast, especially lately, but he was still Kei's little one.

For now.

Kei sighed, fingers curving around the back of Sho's head, then sliding down to the nape of his neck, his posture softening to cradle the child's smaller frame closer.

Sho was a trusting and content little warm sprawl weighing down his shoulder and along his side. "Good boy." Kei murmured absently, resuming the strokes through his hair. Sho snuffled again, breath warm on Kei's sensitive neck.

A part of Kei wished he could somehow keep his little one like this always - safe, content, small and sheltered in his arms. A whisper in the dark promised that he could, if only he chose, but Kei hissed faintly and refused that path. No.

He would watch over Sho and keep his peace with that as the boy continued to grow. Kei would love watching the boy grow into himself, too - though it would be something of a bittersweet pleasure.

Yet at least there was this - Kei was needed, in his own way, by this boy he had claimed, had allowed unthinkingly to claim him in return, and he could not see Sho releasing that, no matter how he grew.

Kei petted the nape of Sho's neck, feeling the thrum of his young heart and humming a lullaby he might - though half-heartedly, Kei suspected - protest if he were awake.