He held his stuffed animal tightly against his chest, ghosting slowly down the hall, and attempting to stay his tears. He winced at the pervading light from whatever candles and lamps in the hallway remained lit—so accustomed to darkness in the past few hours, both in mind and in ambiance. Shoving his face into the stuffed bear he held closely to him, shallow breaths took him to the room where his parents slept soundly.
"M-mother…" he whimpered, barely loud enough that even he could hear it, and she remained asleep. His father rolled over slightly. "Mother…" he said again, louder this time, and she let out a breath, lifting her head from her pillow for a moment before glancing over at him.
"Laurent, dear…" she muttered, stretching slightly. "To what end would you be up walking around at this hour…?"
He attempted to speak, but his throat tightened and it only came out as a small squeak.
His father stirred slightly, sitting up on his elbows. "Wh… what is it…?"
Miriel took a breath, eyes still trained on Laurent, before glancing behind her at her husband, who slowly ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know," she murmured, training her gaze back onto her young son. "What ails you, dear…?"
His shivers ran through him harshly, racking his small frame with tremors as he clutched his bear closer to him. All he could manage to choke out through the tightness throughout his body was a quiet, "n-nightmare…"
Miriel furrowed her brow, letting out a sympathetic sigh along with a slight smile of relief upon the realization that that was all it was. Holding out a hand, she beckoned her son over to her with a comforting "Come here." And he slowly stumbled over to her, falling into her arms and burying his head in her shoulder without a word beyond a slight hiccup, the aftereffects of his cries. She held him tightly, lifting him onto her lap as he held onto her with all the energy he could muster. Miriel glanced over at her husband with a furrowed brow, both her arms wrapped tightly around her shivering son. "Vaike…" she muttered, concerned, and her husband's expression reciprocated her anxiety.
Vaike ruffled Laurent's hair, speaking to him in his most reassuring voice. "Hey, buddy… when I was a kid and I had nightmares, it always helped to talk about 'em. What did you dream about…?"
The boy could only choke out a few words, and the horror they instilled in both Miriel and Vaike was palpable in the room.
"G-Grima… a-and Robin…"
The two of them stared at each other, wide-eyed in shock, neither of them knowing what to say. Laurent should know of none of that. He'd never even met his future self, let alone heard stories about the fell dragon. So then, how…
No. That didn't matter. For now, all that Miriel felt she needed to do was comfort her little boy, whatever that meant saying or doing. She held him tightly, gently shushing him, reassuring him that it was nothing more than an apparition derived from his somatic state and that he was perfectly safe with his parents there. Even then Laurent refused to let go of her, his eyes wide in terror, failing to lock on to anything but space. She kept casting glances over at Vaike, half out of a need to gauge his reaction, and half out of hope that he would have any idea how to comfort their son through the worst night terror that Miriel had ever seen him have. Vaike was equally clueless, but eventually caught his son's attention. "Would it make ya feel a little better if you spent the night with us, junior?"
Laurent reached out to his father in response, and Miriel passed the boy over to him, clearing a spot between the two of them for Laurent to sleep—it was only after a few more minutes that he was able to let go of Vaike as well, nuzzling himself into the space between his parents, and another few minutes before he finally managed to doze off.
Once he did, Vaike was the first to speak. "Of all the things to dream about, right…?" He murmured, running his fingers through the sleeping Laurent's hair. Miriel's eyes never averted away from her son.
"There should be no conceivable way that he could have known about it… dreams are indeed strange phenomena, Vaike. Apparitions of that nature are generally kept in the subconscious, but even then, he would have had to have known about Grima somehow to actually subconsciously create the vision," she whispered, furrowing her brow and removing Laurent's glasses from his face, placing them neatly next to hers on the table beside them. "The question remains, then… how in the world did he discover what Robin was…?"
"She couldn't have told him, could she? I mean, she wouldn't…" Vaike murmured, laying back down and crossing his arms over his forehead. "We told her not to." Miriel bit her lip and drew out a long "hmm…" before Vaike glanced over in her direction. "Your gears are turnin', Miri. What'cha got goin' on in that head 'a yours?"
"This is scientifically improbable, but then again, so is time travel and a colossal dragon destroying the world as we know it, so…"
"So…?"
"I postulate that somehow, both Laurents being in this frame of existence at one time, considering they have the exact same genetic makeup and came from generally the same place," she motioned to herself. "Perhaps… what if they somehow manage to share memories?"
"That's… crazy…? They never met."Vaike raised an incredulous eyebrow.
"You're serious? Good heavens, I had absolutely no idea! And does The Almighty Omniscient Vaike have a better explanation?" She spat, inhaling sharply once the words escaped her. After a moment of silence, of Vaike staring at her in wonder as to whether she meant what she said, she let out a sigh. "M-my apologies. I… shouldn't have snapped like that."
"Hey, babe, listen," Vaike rolled over, reaching over to take her hand. "The Vaike knows you love our son. Maybe this is something you can't… you can't change, y'know?"
Miriel blinked, wiping a stray tear or two away with her fingers. "Perhaps not, but… perchance it's this blasted maternal instinct, but I just… I want to protect him. And if I can't, then…"
"You ain't ever been one to concentrate on the what-if. Right now, our kid's sittin' right here, sleepin' like a baby," Vaike sighed, lightly shutting his eyes. "You always said what's goin' on right now is the part what's scientifically significant or whatever, and that's what's goin' on right now. So relax. He'll be okay."
Miriel took a deep breath, exhaling through her nose and finally laying down close to Laurent. "I suppose…" she began, shutting her eyes slightly and curling an arm around her son. "I suppose you have a reasonable point, then."
"As long as he's got his mom and pop he'll be fine, right? The Vaike at least ain't lettin' anything happen to his son," he leaned in slightly and touched her cheek with his hand, placing a soft kiss on Miriel's forehead. "Or his wife."
A slight smile spread across her face as she sighed one more time, covering his hand with her own light touch. "I wholeheartedly appreciate it, Vaike… and, for what it's worth, I as well will strive to protect this family."
Vaike, too, finally shut his eyes, drawing his hand away from her face and draping an arm across his wife's waist, "I know you will, babe," being the last thing he managed to mumble before drifting back off to sleep.