The bedsheets felt all the more softer that night. April pulled them up to her waist and sat up, a wide smile playing on her lips. Despite all the upbeat and disingenuous unpleasantness of the day's happenings, she felt warm and fuzzy on the inside.
"Today was really fun," she said out loud, moving her eyes around the room, caressing the sheets.
"Y'know, except for the part where I had to watch you guys getting kicked around like soccer balls and feeling those first and unexpected blows to my shoulder and gut, all of which were your fault, of course."
She chuckled, the person she was conversing with silent as the night that had crept in quickly. She laid back and yawned.
"Safatore's a very odd person. Although that was cool, did he really have to kick you that much?" She asked herself and shrugged.
"I mean, I don't have an actual sibling so I dunno." She concluded and sighed.
A moment of silence passed by with her listening and waiting for any sort of response.
[Sleep.] The command came. It sounded more like it was right next to her ear, rather than all the way on the other side of the castle.
"Sweet dreams." She whispered.
[Disgusting.] Saka telepathically declared. He liked it better when she passed out instead of waiting for her to fall asleep on her own.
But he didn't have to worry. April, despite not having done anything during the day, was tired. Her eyes fluttered shut, her smile softened, and her body relaxed, the last words from her lips being:
"Wolfie…"
She slipped further into slumber.
It was such a peaceful sleep. And a peaceful dream; seeing herself asleep. That was new. A few of the lucid dreams she had been having the past few days… all the dreams she had been having the past few days consisted of her standing in a room or floating in a black void. In this one she was just sleeping.
Until she heard a whisper in her ear and warm breath ghost her skin. Someone called her name.
"April, are you asleep?"
Not anymore. Her dream self shot right up from the bed, opening her eyes wide as the sheets slipped down to pool at her lap. She found a small blonde boy in a raggedy toga standing at her open door. He was standing still, his bare feet dirty and black against the golden floors of her room.
"You!" She rasped with immediate recognition, right before the boy with bright green eyes smiled and turned on his heels and ran off.
"Wait!" April threw the sheets aside and followed the boy, having full control of her actions in that lucid dream.
"Just wait!"
She ran faster, her twin tails and half-black half-blonde hair flying behind her like flags. But the boy seemed to disappear further and further down the hall the faster she ran. She eventually stopped and watched, her lips slightly parted to help her breath even out.
"Man, lucid dreams suck." She thought, shaking her head.
Outran by a little kid. That had to be the most outrageous thing to ever—no, she was engaged to a half-elf, half-wolf boy. She turned away.
There was a shout, someone crying out:
"No, stop! Don't hurt him!"
April whirled back around, her eyes wide with recognition.
"Saka?" She asked before calling out again. "Saka?!"
The voice continued to shout, demanding someone to be left alone.
"Leave him–don't hurt him!"
April blinked. The amount of desperation and plea in Saka's voice was overpowering; she couldn't just stand there. It felt like he needed her to be there, as silly as that sounded. Her legs led and her body followed as she ran through the hallway, following the screams.
"Don't hurt him! Leave him alone!"
"Saka!" April cried, turning a corner.
She immediately halted in her tracks as she came face to face with the pale elf. He stood there in the room made of grey walls and black, foot-high fog on the floor, towering over a blonde little boy who was crying his eyes out. Funny picture; he was scolding the kid.
"You're weak! Pathetic! Why are you like this? Stop being so soft and act right! You're a man!"
April blinked at the bizarre scenario. The little boy looked no older than six years old and he was thin and scrawny with no meat on his bones, his head big. He didn't need the disheveled hair and the raggedy clothes to look vagrant.
His wails were louder than Saka's barking, tears streaming white lines down his dirty cheeks.
April felt an unnatural urge to stand up for him. These urges were becoming a thing now.
She ran to the two.
"Hey! Back off!" She shoved the whitehead back. "Stop it."
Saka staggered back a few steps before turning his hardened expression to her.
"Get out of my way." He said, a warning finger pointing at her face.
"Pick on someone your own size, Snow pie. You're making the kid cry." April crossed her arms at him while the little boy continued to cry behind her.
"Nice rhymes." Saka responded flatly.
"What is this? You invade my dreams just to scold my characters? As if you don't already have teeth sunk into my soul. Stop colonizing my being!" April cried, stomping her foot in the black fog.
Saka stared blankly at her. A beat of silence passed by between them as the stare-down continued, green eyes glaring up at grey eyes. After a moment, Dream Saka tilted his head.
"You still don't know what this is, do you?" He more or less established the conclusion than sought after an answer.
April's eyes slightly narrowed with confusion.
"This is my dream, and you're making my characters cry!" She raised her voice. "You're probably the same person who's been making this little guy cry all those other times. God, it's you."
Dream Saka didn't blink at the accusation.
"If only you were lucky enough for this to be a dream." He crossed his arms.
April's eyes had widened when she felt the cold and hard bones of a hand settle on her shoulder. The fingerss clicked together as the hand gripped her clothed shoulder. She froze from head to toe, facing Saka who raised an eyebrow at her.
"Go ahead, dreamer. Look at it." Dream Saka smirked.
April heard a sound like deep, quiet and laboured breathing behind her, slow and creepy. She took in an unsteady breath before she let out a high-pitched shriek of terror.
This action pulled her out of the dream and she sat up, still screaming. What a scandalous dream! Something pushed her back by the shoulder, pinning her down into the pillows. She let out a dying scream, legs sliding up and down the silky covers.
"Shut up!" Saka barked firmly.
The scream died in April's throat when she heard the voice, snapping her eyes open to look. And there he was. Saka was sitting by the bedside and she was in her room. She was awake. Maybe.
"You're so damn noisy." Saka growled through gritted teeth.
April, panting, narrowed her eyes at the pale young man. He was shirtless, the joint where his metallic left arm joined his shoulder visible. His hair was in a loose ponytail, a few strands loose, and his waxen abs were laid bare.
"You—" She wheezed out after that quick survey, jabbing her finger against his nose. "You were in my dream again."
"You were screaming in your sleep, you little rat! Some of us actually need to sleep!" Saka bit out.
"Don't gimme that!" April sneered. "Don't pretend because it was a dream there're no consequences for bullying!"
"I'll only warn you once; shut up and go to sleep." Saka batted her hand away from his nose.
"Don't change the subject!" April hissed.
"What subject?" Saka crowed.
In all the conversations they'd ever had together, this was one of the ones that was pointless.
"The little boy!" April screamed, flailing her arms.
Saka caught those willowy things and pushed her back against the bed, successfully pinning her wrists above her head and unassumingly hovering halfway over her. His grip was not painful but firm enough to curb any escape.
Wait, escape from what?
"What damn little boy?" He practically growled low, his grey eyes shining in the golden light of the three light balls by the nightstand, making them look like liquid silver gleaming by the fire box.
April's mind paused for a moment, her words, thoughts and breathing halting as she stared up at him, her wrists secured above her.
They remained in that compromising position for a little while, staring at each other, looking into each other's eyes like, oh, the idiot will move first. Nothing suspicious here. If April's mind was a radio, however, she'd be getting nothing but static. This was obviously uncharted territory.
…Where were they venturing off to?
When was the last time she had a strong, masculine figure pin her down onto the bed…?
Hopefully, never before.
Saka looked into each of her eyes, assessing the dumbfounded look on her face. He inched closer, his warm coconut-scented breath washing over her in controlled bursts, clogging the rest of her senses.
"What little boy?" He said low, his voice reverberating from his chest into hers as if on damn purpose.
That entire thing was so damn unnecessary!
A cold shiver ran down April's spine and split into two to race down to the tip of her tails. Her toes tingled. Whatever for? That was ridiculous. She finally managed to pull herself back to reality before she began imagining Saka as any more than the beautiful, murderous maniac she knew him to be and blinked, looking past the hot feeling on her cheeks and frowning. She squirmed in Saka's hold. Big warm hands were clasped around her small wrists like shackles.
"Let go!" She squawked.
Saka immediately freed her wrists and sat upright, watching her scramble to sit up, his expression blank as he gave her a little bit of space, sitting on the side of her bed. His lap was facing away from her but his bare torso was slightly twisted to face her.
"What boy?" He asked after a while of awkward silence.
"Nothing! Forget it!" April coughed. "It's silly. Just a dream."
There was no mistaking the quiver in her voice or the color on her freckled cheeks.
She threw her head back against the pillow, throwing her gaze anywhere and everywhere other than Saka, who was still staring pointedly at her as if trying to dig up all her secrets. She glanced at him and found him still staring.
"What?"
"And?" He said dryly.
"What?" April scoffed.
"You're always blabbering and I came all the way here to shut you up, so I might as well know what I lost sleep for and its worth."
Aww, he wanted to listen! April widened her eyes at him. No, he didn't care why she was screaming, he just wanted to know what made her do so. But was there a difference? She sighed, picking at the edge of the golden sheets.
"I… I had another lucid dream, similar to the one I told you about that day on the little island. D'you remember?" She started slowly, as if confessing her innermost deepest desires to… someone.
"And?" Saka drawled out a response.
"You were in it, and a little blonde boy in this raggedy toga and bright green eyes was in it as well. He's always crying… asking for hugs." She glanced aside, thoughtful. "This time— This time you were scolding him. Before the monster came."
Saka stared at her for a moment before he sighed. It seemed he would believe her, his thirst for answers quenched and would say something nice for once.
"Go to sleep." He threw the covers over her eyes and stood up from her bed.
Grunting at the sudden and rude action, April pulled down the sheets. She kept having these stupid assumptions that that boy right there, the one who killed her with a falling tree would be nice to her. She glanced over at Saka, noticing him pacing near a wall.
"You look like you're about to lay an egg." She scoffed.
"By the time I make it to my room, it'll be morning already." He said matter-of-factly, smoothly maneuveribg past the tease and flexed his arms.
April didn't miss the way the muscles coiled tightly under his skin before quickly loosening.
"Ayo."
[Stop ogling.]
"You're my fiancée, what's wrong?"
He tilted his head at her as if surprised by the audacity.
She reluctantly looked away before a bright and brief white light flashed. A whole body of fur replaced that pale figure, taking up almost a quarter of the floor. April glanced over to see Saka, in his wolf form, settle down on all fours, stark white fur covering his large frame. Five bushy tails softly landed on the floor as he settled, his grey eyes immediately closing.
April stared for a while but couldn't find a reasonable explanation for what she was witnessing. She couldn't help but notice the mercurial streaks of silvery patterns all across his fur. If you weren't looking for them, you wouldn't see them at all. April was only able to notice them because of the steady glow from the nightstand, and his soft movement as he finally settled.
She wasn't ogling; she was trying to weird him out as much as possible (because that was definitely the smartest thing to do in such a situation).
"I'm supposed to get rid of this?!" She thought, shaking her head.
Whose idea was that, again?
"Wait– how do I that, again?"