Shadow

08

Ever since he started to live with Fluke Ohm had improved his quality of life. He was finally eating properly, spending less hours at work just to come home earlier and enjoy time with the man of his dreams and even looked more happy. Boun called him "too whipped", but he was feeling fine for the first time in a long time. Even if his nightmares were still a problem, Fluke was there just beside him to welcome him in a warm hug and murmur sweet nothings until he could find sleep again.

However, what the detective didn't share with his life partner was that these nightmares were becoming more and more realistic, to the point he barely could separate what was reality and what belonged to the dreamland until he woke up drenched in sweat.

He started to feel the same weight as Kao when it came to the pressure to solve the Shadow case, but the lack of evidence and the fact that more victims were popping up across the city left him totally bewildered, something that imprinted itself on his subconscious.

The nightmares were both very similar and totally different: in all of them, Ohm had a night of incredible sex with a man whose face he couldn't quite identify. After the sexual act, the other always ran away from him. When he tried to run after him, the man would turn to attack him with a knife or a gun and the detective would fall dead in a pool of his own blood. He was scary to say the least, but the message was clear: not knowing the Shadow's identity was eating away at his sanity.

"Shh… I'm here. You're safe, Ohm. Everything is okay now…", Fluke's sweet voice was trying to calm him down. He probably woke him up with his screams again.

"F-Fluke…"

"Shh… No need to say anything, my love. I'm here, okay?", Fluke said pressing his plump lips on his temple, making Ohm feel warm inside.

A quite long time later, when the detective had finally regained his senses, he turned to bump his forehead with Fluke's. "I don't know what I could do without you!", he smiled and pecked the tempting lips.

Fluke savored his bottom lip after the kiss, like trying to suck Ohm's imprint there. E then raised his big eyes at him and asked softly "Do you wanna fuck?".

Ohm furrowed his brow and hugged the smaller male, cuddling him on the bed. "Fluke, I love you. I love you with every and each cell of my body, but that doesn't mean that we have to fuck all the time."

The sight of the trembling lip made Ohm realize that wasn't the most wise choice of words. "Hey… Flukie…", he sighed heavily, "I'm trying to say that you don't have to offer me your body to show anything. Do you get this?", he tried to look for confirmation inside the sparkly eyes which were about to dissolve into tears.

"Oh, my love! Please don't cry, huh?", Ohm said, peppering kisses from one shoulder to the other, the smooth skin shivering in response.

"These are happy tears, you silly!", Fluke said welcoming the other inside his arms and both cuddled like that until sleep again.

********

Members of the special crimes unit were gathered in the small, stuffy room trying to think of a way to capture Shadow.

"I don't know, man, we never got a real witness. The only one who could help with anything, Loom's maid, refused to speak to the interpreter and said she'd rather go to jail than reveal any information about the 'demon', as she calls Shadow.", Boun said impatiently. "By the way, stopping to think about it, we don't even know if Shadow ia a woman or a man, as we've been assuming all this time.", he concluded.

The investigation didn't go any further and the superiors demanded results from Kao who ordered the meeting to try to elaborate a new strategy.

"Well, at least now we know that one element has changed...", it was the Chief of Police who was speaking. "Now the bodies don't show up with signs of recent sexual activity anymore. Whatever happened, he's losing the desire for the thing…", he gave a bitter smile to his team.