The Summoning Pact

Chapter Nine - Creeping Nightmares

Tsuna woke up feeling stifled and trapped. He was suddenly and acutely aware of a heavy weight against his thighs. Squinting against the darkness and wondering why his room was so dim in the first place, he made an attempt to sit up, peering down at his body.

The startling shock of fear was sickening, as Byakuran, straddling his legs, smiled down at him with dark delight. The white haired demon reached forward to trail clawed fingertips against Tsuna's jaw.

When Tsuna desperately tried to reach out, to stop him, he found that his arms were flattened against the mattress, rope around his wrists tied to one of the wooden panels of the bed frame under the bed. He couldn't even tug.

"Oh, Tsuna," Byakuran crooned, letting his other hand almost tiptoe up Tsuna's chest with his index and middle finger, his little limbs catching in the gap between buttons, "How lovely it is to see you again."

Tsuna couldn't hold in the shudder that wracked his body. Fright and disgust all in one filled his heart as Byakuran tore the front of his shirt off, a movement that was coupled with the sensation of a soft yet almost slimy tail curling around his ankle.

"Don't be afraid to use your voice, if you can, Tsuna." Byakuran simpered as one hand wrapped around Tsuna's throat, thumb lovingly caressing the frantically beating pulse hidden under the brunet's thin skin. Byakuran's other hand moved to settle on Reborn's contract against his ribcage. "After all, I'm going to have to punish you for having contracts when you so obviously should belong to me."

Tsuna couldn't get the scream past his squashed windpipe as Byakuran swiped his hand down against his chest, claws extended to tear the skin open, blood bubbling up, stark red, blinding and–

Tsuna scrambled awake with a strangled sob, shooting straight up in bed to a seated position. He tried to stop himself from shaking, hands hovering over his chest to check for blood, patting desperately to feel for the stickiness that thankfully wasn't there.

The glimpse of something suddenly appearing out of the darkness next to him made him violently flinch until his vision focused on Colonello, who was silently standing, staring at him, eyes wide and alert. The blond's hair was mussed from wherever he had been sleeping, if he had been sleeping.

They both looked at each other in silence before Colonello suddenly pulled back the bed covers and climbed in next to Tsuna, shuffling over and pushing him until Tsuna's back was to the wall. Then, Colonello reached out an arm to worm it under Tsuna's head to be used as a pillow, his other arm wrapping around Tsuna to pull him as close as possible. Colonello tucked his knees up in such a way to prompt the brunet to do the same. Soon, the small brunet was almost cocooned, protected by Colonello's body. It wasn't difficult for Colonello to surround the brunet with himself, considering Tsuna was five foot five and Colonello was almost an entire foot taller.

Whereas Tsuna would normally have felt awkward about this, or uncomfortable, there was something calming in having Colonello close by. Tsuna wriggled to rest his head on Colonello's shoulder, one hand holding his shirt and the other curled up by his chest as he started to drift back into sleep. He was lulled to sleep by the distant sounds of Colonello's heartbeat and a soft, gentle humming.

What he didn't see, with his head tucked as it was, was that Colonello wasn't sleeping, and instead he was staring at the wall, eyes glowing blue to highlight his anger, pupils having narrowed to silently convey his fury. After all, it wasn't hard to tell when someone was using their Aether to tamper with another's dream. Whoever was tainting his Tsuna's dreams was going to die.

The third time Tsuna was roused from sleep; he was actually awake because no nightmare could accurately mimic the god awful sound of his alarm shrieking at five twenty in the morning.