Before I wake

Chapter 1

"No I can't just leave!" screamed Francis.

The woman smiled a small sweet smile, tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. Her short golden hair waved in the breeze as she kissed Francis softly on the cheek.

"You have many people who are worried about you mon amour. I will miss you terribly but it will not hurt as much as seeing you suffer as you watch your friends and family moving on with their lives and your memory eventually fading into history." The woman whispered. Her cheeks turned pink as she looked into Francis's eyes. Francis leaned down and gave her a lingering kiss, turned and walked into the white void.

~4 weeks before~

"I DID IT! THE AWESOME GILBERT WINS!" the albino man cheered as his friends, Antonio and Francis, shook their heads in defeat and laughed.

They had been at the bar for a few hours playing drinking games and had become very drunk. The bell over the bar door jingled as a man with glasses and a curl in his hair came in and immediately walked towards Gilbert, looking somewhat peeved to find him drunk .

"Hey birdie!" Gilbert yelled across the bar.

The Canadian turned red as everyone in the bar stared at him. He put his head down and quickly continued in the trio's direction.

"Gilbert you don't have to yell, you could have waited for me to come over..." Mathew started but was interrupted when Gilbert kissed him full out on the lips.

Mathew became even more flustered and red as he stuttered, "Gilbert! We are in broad daylight!"

"So you would rather us kiss in the dark? I didn't know you were that naughty Mattie!" Gilbert grinned playfully.

"No! That's not what I meant! I...I" Mathew tried to explain but was too flustered by Gilbert's comment and Francis and Antonio's barely contained laughter to complete a single sentence.

"I'm just kidding Mattie! Come on, lets you and the awesome me go see what brudder is doing." Gilbert suggested as he made his way to the door with his arm around Mathew.

Francis sighed contently and leaned back in his chair, watching Mathew lecture Gilbert about being too drunk and Gilbert laughing and nodding. "They sure do grow up fast don't they Toni?"

"Toni?" The Spaniard asked with a bemused smile.

"I'm trying to come up with a nickname for you; Antonio seems too formal for these occasions. But Toni doesn't seem to fit either...I'll think of something..." Francis trailed off already deep in thought.

Antonio chuckled, "I'll be waiting for it!"

"An? Ant?" Francis whispered to himself.

"What is he going on about?" Gilbert asked, giving Francis a weird look. "It sounds like he is looking for his lost aunt!"

"No, no nothing like that! He just thinks that my name is too formal so he is trying to think up a nickname for me," Explained Antonio.

The trio were walking to Francis's house after another day at the bar. The three men weren't as drunk as they usually were afterwards so they decided to have supper at Francis's place.

"Antonio Fer... something or other is kinda hard to remember..." Gilbert replied thoughtfully, "but what was the rest of your name... Antonio Fer...Fer..."

"Oh come on, it's not that hard to remember! It's Antonio Ferández Carriedo!" Antonio yelled as he glared at Gilbert.

"Well how was the awesome me supposed to know that?!" Gilbert whined, "And if Antonio Fernaday Caterpillar gets a nickname the awesome Gilbert should get one too!"

Francis gave Gilbert and impish grin, "I've already made one for you!"

"And what is the awesome nickname you have made for me?" Gilbert asked with anticipation.

Francis didn't answer right away as they stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the cars to go by.

"Well I thought long and hard about this one knowing that you wouldn't accept anything unless it was "awesome". So I finally came up with..." Francis trailed off as a young boy in a sailor suite pushed pass them chasing after a ball that had rolled into the oncoming traffic.

It all happened in slow motion. Francis bolted after the child as a car came closer, the driver's attention more on his phone then the road in front of him. Francis grabbed the child and threw him towards Gilbert and Antonio. The child grabbed onto Antonio and started sobbing but when unnoticed as the two friends stood shocked as the car crashed into Francis.

The force sent the man flying into the air and onto the asphalt. The world went quite as the vehicle sped up and disappeared. Antonio and Gilbert rushed towards Francis's crumpled body in the middle of the road. Antonio took one look at all the blood coming from Francis's wounds and hurriedly pulled out his phone and dialed 911 as Gilbert shook Francis's shoulder trying to wake him up.

"Come on Francis!" Gilbert screamed as tears streamed down his cheeks. "You're not allowed to die yet! Don't leave us alone! We dared Antonio to eat one of Iggy's scones remember! And you promised Birdie would make pancakes with him! We still have things to do; it's not time for you to die yet!"

When the ambulance arrived and Francis was put on the stretcher did Gilbert remember another promise that might have to go unfulfilled.

"You still have to give us our nicknames..."