*I don't own Jane and the Dragon or its characters

This was inspired by someone who I hope would let me care about them.

He stood there in the rain, unwilling to look back at Jane who had followed him this far. He was done listening, and she was dead to him since the day he lost himself. During the high fever that plagued him for a good amount of the winter, he had not been the same. He looked like an empty shell that pretended it was Gunther. Even when she grabbed his arm he did not flinch, he only looked ahead to the river seeking to refresh himself for good. He kept on walking while she held on to him, just dragging her along the mud with him. She yelled, but he said nothing. She held even tighter, hoping he could hear her over the rain. "The difference between you and me is so great and I wonder how I could ever reach you. But why do you make it so hard? I really do not want to give up on you but I will not die a pointless death if that is what you want."

The sound of the raging river was getting louder, and Jane was growing desperate. " You make it so hard and sometimes I want to give up on you but I cannot. We are a team remember? You told me so yourself "

Pulling her away from his legs, he looked coldly at her. "The hurt you have inflicted is an oozing wound, unable to heal from all the slashes of your tongue."

"It is not true, it was only a feverish dream. You know there was never another, so why do you insist in this? I know you are there, the man I used to remember, the one that held me when I thought I was going to die, the one who made me feel alive by looking me in the eyes and calling me a foolish girl. Where is that man from yesterday who talked a great deal of his dreams? Who told me that we are not held down by invisible chains? You said it once did you not? You told me that you rather not live long enough to know what true suffering was. What is it that inflicts you so greatly?"

"I feel nothing for anymore, so go home and tell everyone I drowned"

"Who says you are alone in this world? If you still care for me then get out of that state of mind and remind me of why you are better and stronger then I am. Tell me what to do and I will make it better, but do not just stand there and wait for your end because that is what will happen if you get too close "

"Exactly Jane, I got too close and now I am burned all over. You cannot make it better so leave me"

"I might not make it better but I could try"

"Did you really think just because you know a little about me that we were friends? Lovers? Ha, not even close"

"Stop it! You are not getting rid of me"

"It is so easy to be bad Jane, I do not think I will ever listen to you. You really thought that we got along? Hmph, you really were living in a dream"

"You have to wake up Gunther because I am not going to bury you"

"What?"

Slipping on the rocks near the river, she reached out to grab his hands, but he was too far from her reach. Jumping into the river, she held on a branch hoping to catch him before he went down the waterfall. Before he could grip her hand, she took it away and smiled a terrible smirk asking him to wake up. Her voice was drowned out by the water in his ears, but he jumped at her last call. "Wake up!"

Suddenly his bedsheets were soaked from the cold water she threw on him, he was still a bit agitated by the sudden realization that it was all a dream and how she stood there towering over him, waiting for him to get up. He had just awoken from another nightmare, the kind that he thought would consume him.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he seeked the comfort only she could provide.

His face said a great deal of things, but one of them being fear, which was always how he looked when he would not wake easily. He shivered terribly, afraid that that she would disappear.

He was pathetic in a way only she could accept, but it was daily struggle .Holding his face, she wiped away the tears that escaped his eyes and waited until he was ready to go on about his day, because she would never have him be laughed at by anyone but herself. Jane hoped that he someday soon find complete solace in her kindness and not fright in times of yesterday's dream.