-emkay

Here's the second oneshot! It was supposed to be funny but rest assured it turned a little bit angsty hahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHA- 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :)

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"Aayan, I'm home." (*me writing this: self, you gotta force yourself to not use the nicknames because they don't call each other that all the time-)

Misci slipped off his shoes-he knew this house well enough to not need them, although he kept his gloves and glasses on-and hung up his jacket, curiously tilting his slightly. He could hear the bathroom water running (it was a single-floor house), so that meant Aayan must've been taking a shower. 

Sighing, he walked down the hall and was about to flop down on his bed when he heard a hauntingly melodic voice singing through the sound of the shower.

"... If I lived in a house with no mirrors... Where the walls didn't talk back at me... Maybe I'd dream a bit bigger, if there was nothin' to see... If I lived in a house with no mirrors, where the walls didn't pick me apart... Maybe my skin would be thicker, if I lived in a housе with no mirrors..."

There was only one person that voice could belong to, but the voice coming out of the bathroom was so foreign to Misci that he paused-his brain picked it up quicker than his body. Of course, he had caught Aayan humming a few times, but that was few and far between. He'd never actually heard the blue-haired man sing full out (even though he knew that General Galizia had encouraged him to several times).

Misci listened. It was beautiful, but something about the way it was sung made it sound as if it weren't just another song to be sang in the bathroom...  

Aayan was still humming as he stepped out of the bathroom, thankfully dressed in his pajamas and drying off his hair with a towel. He froze, however, when he spotted Msciwoj standing in front of him. "Mi-Misci?" To his credit, it was very difficult to tell the split second of panic in his expression, although Misci's sharp ears caught it in his voice. "You're back early..." 

"So are you," Msciwoj replied. 

The silence that followed after his simple reply was awkward at best. 

Eventually Aayan shifted minutely onto one foot. "General Galizia excused me. He said I didn't have any more jobs to take on, so he forced me to leave... You should wash up. You have some soot on your face, as usual."

"I figured," Misci touched his face, a little irked that he hadn't gotten all of it. "You have a beautiful voice, by the way," He casually mentioned as he slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. 

He let a small smile slip through when he listened, and heard a small indignantly flummoxed sound escape from Aayan.

~

Ten minutes later Misci emerged from the bathroom, feeling refreshed. He fiddled with his glasses; they were nice, and decidedly more comfortable than the contacts, yet he couldn't help but feel they acted a barrier of sorts as well-and not just because he had to take them on and off when showering.

Seeing a light still on, he walked down the hall and peeked into the living room to see Aayan curled up in his special reading chair (they both had one; Mimi had made each tailor-made to their most comfortable preferences), apparently reading a book on medieval-century torture.

A quick glimpse to the clock told Misci that it was almost 10 o'clock-still pretty early by their standards, as it wasn't uncommon for one or the other to either not come home or come home at rather ungodly hours.

Home, Misci reflected back with a slight sense of wonder. His Workshop was his home. Arcadia was his home, albeit a bit by default. But was this... A home? This small place, inhabited solely by him and Aayan? He let his eyes rest on the blue-haired man. Yes. It has become a home. Even if Aayan didn't believe so himself, Misci felt quite certain that this peculiar arrangement had ended up giving him a new home. 

"You're staring, Mimi," And Aayan's nickname snapped Misci out of his thoughts. Aayan glanced up at him, with a small, teasing smile resting easily on his lips. "What? Have something to say?"

Usually Msciwoj would be a little thrown off by the nickname-it made something funny arise in his chest, a feeling he did not know how to or particularly care to name-but tonight, despite the fact Aayan looked fine and his lips were slightly upturned, his eyes were wary and guarded. Quickly, Misci scanned over Aayan and was relieved to find that there were no signs of him attempting anything too... bodily dangerous... recently.

"No, not really," Misci sighed, walking over to sit down on a couch next to him. "I was just wondering..." Uncharacteristically, he trailed off as he tried to decide what to say next. Aayan waited patiently, although his eyes were back on his book. "... Is this... Our home?"

Aayan raised his head to look at Misci, brows furrowed ever-so-slightly. "I don't quite get what you mean, but I don't personally think that this is our home. It's more like a lodge. Or a dorm."

"Right," Misci said with a note of careless airiness in his voice, sinking back into the couch. Something squeezed in his heart. Right. A home was a place like General Galizia's-warm, loving. A place where when he called out "I'm home", somebody would reply, "Welcome home".

Aayan never said "Welcome home" to him.

At times, Misci felt foolish-ashamed, even, trying to get something he had lacked as a child from Aayan, who had suffered even more than he had. And yet he couldn't stop himself from yearning for that experience-just a normal home experience, like General Galizia and his family had. 

Is it wrong to ask-to want-more from this man? He wondered as he gazed at Aayan. 

For one, brief, selfish moment, his mind answered, No. A part of him craved that familial experience, he admitted, and that same part thought that could somehow be found through the man sitting next to him reading a book on torture. 

And then, he recalled what he heard Aayan singing. It was a beautiful song. He had heard snippets of it before-it was beautiful, and it was heartwrenching. He wondered if Aayan meant the words he sung-but after thinking back about the sheer way he sung the song, so full of emotions that were too complex to decipher, all of a sudden, Misci heart-along with a strong pang strike his had an out-of-the-blue urge to do something he should not.

Every time Misci thought he knew Aayan, he was wrong. The man was like a ripple on a pond of water-he could observe what it did, and its actions, but the moment he tried to touch it, it would move away. It was both fascinating and frustrating. 

This was one of those moments; there was no way Aayan couldn't sense Misci's (unintentionally) intense stare. And so, maybe wrapped up in the lateness of the night and a bit befuddled by his own thoughts, Misci called out, "Aayan."

Aayan turned to look at him like he'd been waiting forever. "Yeah?" (Even his voice gave it away. Maybe it really was that late.)

Don't think, just go with the flow, and do. "Can you come here?" 

With a heavy sigh, and a slightly judgmental look, Aayan complied. "What crazy request do you have now." 

Misci allowed himself a small smile at the way it wasn't even phrased as a question-he may not have discovered all the facets of Aayan yet, but it certainly felt like the other knew him inside and out at times. "Close your eyes."

Now looking highly suspicious, Aayan did. "Is this some kind of ploy to get me back for something I don't remember doing? Because if so I swear I'll find a way to hack into the house and lock you out next time-" The rest of his sentence was cut off into a slightly strangled half-gasp half-sharp intake of air, as Misci surged forwards and wrapped his arms around the other man in a hug. 

I don't know what you're going through, He tried to convey with his actions. And I still don't know all of the pain you've experienced. But oh, don't you know, you can lean on me a little? If the walls pick you apart, if they talk back to you-I can stand in their way. I'm willing to do that-if you'd let me... 

"What's this all about, Misci?" Aayan's voice was just a bit strained, surprise and other emotions colouring his voice. 

"Just... felt like it," And Misci was surprised to find that it was true. More and more he was starting to wonder just what exactly were his feelings going as he spent more time both around and with Aayan. 

After a few more minutes, he let go-Aayan's face was for once, a tad slack with a rare display of shock and a few notes of confusion. His ears colored a bit too-a soft pinkish color that vanished as soon as it came, making Misci wonder if he'd just imagined it.

Misci smiled softly. "Don't stay up too late. I'll see you tomorrow." 

Finding nothing else to say, he turned away and walked to his room-feeling both content and somewhat jilted at the same time. 

Yet, if he had just lingered or looked back once, he might've caught a glimpse of Aayan staring after him with an expression he hadn't made in a long time-an expression that softened out his sharp features and tired face-as one hand unconsciously maked its way to touch his suddenly thumping heart.

Fin.

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Hilariously, I wrote the ending around 10 p.m. too, so I guess that's ironic!

And yeah uhhhh this was originally intended to be funny, and then I was like "nooo that'd be a bit too short..." and boom badabing, we have the angsty fluff thrown in! These two are so angsty, I swear, they have more tragic potential than-I don't know, but they're definitely more on the "tragic" side of the romance! Tragic, fluffy, heartbreaking. These two in a nutshell.

Yeah so that concludes this one shot! Thank you for reading, as always, sorry for any OOC-ness, hopefully it was enjoyable!

-A.A.C.