His feet were tapping on the ground in rapid speed while his arms flayed to help him keep his balance. His breath was heavy, but he couldn't stop. He had to keep running. When he looked down, the earth passed by him in a blur. When he looked up, the rainbow colored sky sparkled beautifully as if nothing had ever happened. He grinned at that. But he never once stopped running. And when finally, the earth below him came to an end, he just ran even faster. Behind him, the maniacal laughter came closer, but he didn't stop. He was too close. And when he finally reached that end, he jumped. But he never reached the ground for in the middle of his fall, he had disappeared in a bubble of light.
Doremi shot up. For a moment, she just stared ahead, eyes wide, breath heavy and body tense. A few seconds later, her body relaxed, her breath slowed down and her eyes closed. She decided to take a deep breath before opening them again. Her heart was still beating hard, but at least her senses were coming back to her. And as they did, Doremi realized that her pajamas and hair clung to her body, mainly because she was soaking wet. And she felt freezing cold, even though the room itself was warm.
Other than that, everything else was normal. Her bed was still under the window, her desk was still next to her bed and her closet was still on the other side of the room. Everything was as it should be. Even her heart was beginning to calm down. And as her head was clearing up, she began realizing what just happened.
"A dream", Doremi whispered to herself.
Doremi had dreams every night. Most of the times, she didn't remember them and she never felt like she needed to know what they were about. If they were important, she would have remembered them. She knew that because every now and then, a dream would come by that she would remember. Then she knew that something was going to happen that day. Those dreams however, were usually forgotten by breakfast though. And then there were dreams like the one she had today. She would remember them clearly as if it was happening right in front of her eyes and it wouldn't leave her for hours, days, sometimes even weeks. And usually, those dreams meant something.
She didn't want to think about it. Dreams like these usually meant that something very bad was about to happen, so she pushed it back into a corner of her mind and looked at her clock instead. It was 5 am. Far too early for her taste. But there was no way she would be able to go back to sleep, so she decided to get up and take a shower, wanting to get rid of the cold sweat clinging to her body. Her light, slow-paced steps were a stark contrast to the rapid hard run of the boy in her dream. Her exhausted movements seemed pathetic compared to his tense swiftness. The house was dark, but familiar. It was so different from the environment the boy had been in, where the sky was beautiful, but everything screamed of danger. And when Doremi finally reached the shower and took off her clothes, she hoped for nothing more than for the warm water to wash away her nightmare.
It didn't. Though her body relaxed and warmed up, her mind kept portraying the pictures in her dreams, no matter how desperately she tried to push them aside. It frustrated her and she began thinking about banging her head against the wall just to get rid of the images. She knew it wouldn't help so she threw that idea aside. At least she wasn't so exhausted and cold anymore. Her head was still heavy but her body refreshed. It was a start.
Giving up on the shower, she stopped the run of the water and stepped out. Instantly, she was cold again and upon reaching for the towel, she spotted herself in the mirror. With a satisfied smile, she noticed that she was beginning to grow curves and that her legs didn't look that much like noodles anymore. It was about damn time.
But even now, her mind wandered back to the boy in her dream. She noticed that he seemed tall, about a head taller than her perhaps. His body had been built quite nicely as well. He had to be rather sporty, if judging a person's fitness by his dynamic running counted for anything. When she noticed that her mind was wandering in the wrong direction, she blushed frantically and shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. They had infiltrated her mind more and more often in the last half a year and she was more embarrassed about that than anything else.
And as she saw her face in the mirror with her own, red orbs looking back at her and her long, apple red hair gently falling down her back, she realized that she hadn't seen his face at all. Odd. She couldn't recall a dream in which she hadn't seen people's faces. She wondered about this even as she put a towel around her waist and began to comb through her hair. She hadn't seen any of his hair either. Too lazy and too lost in thoughts to bother putting her hair up in the two buns they usually were in, she put it in a simple ponytail instead.
Her steps were faster and more secure on her way back to her room. They seemed a little more like the steps of the boy in her dream. Annoyed at herself, she rolled her eyes. What would it take to forget about him – whoever he was? As she reached for the doorknob and compared her fingers to his, she slapped herself mentally. Apparently, it would take a lot.
Back in her room, she took another look at the clock. 6 am. Wow, she had actually managed to waste an entire hour in the bathroom. Granted, it always took ages to comb her long hair –perhaps she should cut it- but an hour without taking a bath is still rather impressive. Not knowing what else to do, the red-head pulled her school uniform out of her closet and got dressed. Doremi hated her school uniform. It was plain and brown and just simply ugly. But wearing it was duty, so she did it without complaining too much. One of the things she looked forward to most when thinking about high school was the change of uniforms. Was the boy in her dreams in high school yet?
This time she actually did slap herself. And boy was she glad that she was alone in her room and nobody saw. On the other hand, people kept telling her that she was a bit weird, so perhaps there wouldn't have been any harm in someone seeing her slapping herself. So she simply shrugged it off, put on her last sock and went downstairs.
Unlike most girls in her school, Doremi didn't wear any make-up. She was too lazy to put it on and off every day and it wasn't like it was of any use either way. Ever since Kotake confessed to her – damn him for going to that stupid soccer school and leaving her alone – she hadn't found any boy that had caught her eye. She hardly ever saw Kotake anymore either since he was always busy with practice and her new friends were on the natural side as well, so there really wasn't any reason for her to make herself look pretty.
Which was why she had enough time to cook breakfast for her family. They would be surprised. Doremi had a bad habit of sleeping in, so she didn't really cook breakfast all too often. But ever since the Mahou Dou had become a bakery, she had discovered a hidden talent for anything that had to do with food. After only a few cooking lessons with her mom (the first few had ended disastrous) she had become the family's favorite cook.
When she looked into the fridge and took out a package of fish, she finally began to calm down and the boy slowly drifted out of her head. For the first time ever since she woke up, a smile formed on her face. The fish fried in the pan, the rice cooker steamed and Doremi hummed happily, giggling softly to herself when she heard the sluggish footsteps of her mother.
"Doremi … whaddaya doin' wake?" Haruka Harukaze slurred.
"Papa's snoring woke me."
Doremi's father did snore, but only lightly. However, Haruka was not awake enough to laugh about her daughters joke. She simply went to the coffee machine and made herself an espresso. The small noise of the machine was an unpleasant contrast to the hissing of the frying pan. But once the coffee was made, Haruka set the table. A few minutes later, just when Doremi was done with cooking, Pop and Keisuke, a.k.a. the girls' father, came down and just the red-head had suspected, they were absolutely delighted that she had done the cooking that morning.
The last traces of the boy in her dreams left her mind during breakfast. The cheerful, daily chaos made the entire family laugh and smile. So when breakfast was over, the two girls hurried up the stairs to get their school stuff. Pop was a lot faster since she wasn't as clumsy as her sister, who tripped over every little thing in her haste. That's why, even though she had woken up so early, she was running late by the time she finally stepped out of the house.
However, she didn't even make two steps toward school before a bright light appeared out of nowhere, blinding the red-head completely for a few seconds. Doremi closed her eyes tightly and when she opened them again, she finally realized who the boy in her dream was. After all, he was standing right in front of her.
"Akatsuki-kun", she breathed.