Part I: Blueprints for the Black Market

He was asleep. The clock's display did show, after all, that it was well past two in the morning already. And yet, he didn't think he was asleep…or maybe he only thought so in his head. What were those called? Dreams?

Oh, that's right. Dreams. Yeah, that's it. His mind could hardly register any logical coherence at the moment. But that was it. He was dreaming…

"…your arm in mine near midnight and it feels so right…"

Someone was running away with him.

"We've already done it! Let's get out of here!"

"…-oss isn't going…police…run!"

The sound of whistles…police whistles? He couldn't tell—didn't have the time to tell. After all, he was running for his life…with everyone else. Right?

"—lright?"

What?

"—you alright?"

Yes, I think so…why wouldn't I be?

"Can you wait for me a little, a little longer?"

A warning. Then, a gunshot. It missed him, but he knew they couldn't keep running in the open. That would be suicide.

"In here!"

Both of them dodged left into an alley with a broken fence. Summoning strength that he never knew he had, he managed to haul her and himself over in less than a minute. And then they were taking off again.

"What about everyone else?"

"They can handle it." He gasped out, barely able to catch his breath. She didn't say anything after that. She knew, or rather, they both knew, the real truth…

…

…

…

"…--out! Move!"

"Agh!" She cried out in pain.

"No! Come on, don't die on me!" He was running with her on his back now…then…

"—han, wh—…--p ?"

What? How did they get from—

"—said…get up?"

Wait, dream? Get up? I'm dreaming…no, not anymore I'm not…

"This is your last chance, mister."

I'm coooming…just…waaiit…

SPLASH. Antaria, having become fed-up with her boyfriend's inability to wake up, poured a bucketful of ice cold water on him, effectively jolting him back into reality. Bewildered, and dripping water from his hair, Johan Andersen literally jumped out of bed.

"C-cold! Antaria, what the hell?" Johan sputtered as he feebly threw the covers off and staggered into the bathroom to clean up.

"The alarm started ringing ten minutes ago and it hasn't stopped since. I let you get some extra sleep since I figured you needed it, but my god, I didn't except you to be such a heavy sleeper! I thought that title belonged to Judai." She retorted as she began to strip the sheets off along with the blankets (since they were wet, she reasoned that she might as well wash them) and shoved them onto the living room floor.

"Well, I'm so-rry." he shot back sarcastically. "I did hear you telling me to wake up, but I thought I was dreaming."

"Really? What were you dreaming about? Must've been quite a dream if even the radio on full blast couldn't wake you." Finished with the sheets, Antaria simply sat on the bed and waited for Johan to get dressed so they could go eat breakfast.

"Ung…I only remember parts of it now…" Johan pulled his wet shirt off, and began to do the same to his pants when he realized she was still there. "Uh, you know, could I have some…privacy, maybe?" he gesticulated, trying to get his point across.

"What's the big deal? It's not like we haven't seen each other naked before." She made no attempts to move.

Johan sighed and continued changing; he knew long ago it was pointless to argue in situations such as these, but hey, at least he tried. It was amazing how two peoples' logic could differ so much. By now, Antaria had settled herself with her back against the pillows, apparently enjoying his obvious discomfort.

"Enjoying the show, are we?" he teased. "You know, keep this up and it might not get special anymore…"

"I doubt that. I think it'd take a long time before we get tired of se—"

"Oookay, that's great, I get the point." Antaria giggled and followed a now fully dressed Johan into the kitchen. It was amusing how he could be such a prude at times, yet be nearly the complete opposite when they were doing…it. Well, not always. But that just made him cuter.

"So, what did you dream about? You never did answer that." Antaria asked as she stirred her coffee. Yes, caffeine. God knows how she could live without it.

"Mmm…it's strange. I mean, it was like watching a movie…but all the pieces were mixed up. And it wasn't exactly a happy dream. It was pretty dark. And I remember a feeling of terror and dread and…" his mind flashed to one scene, the one he remembered the most…

She had been shot, he slowly repeated in his head while his body moved like some robot to pick her up on his back. And all while he was running away, he prayed only that he could save her…even though he could feel her bleeding onto him…

"Dark? So, it was a nightmare?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Of course, the initial terror is gone now, but, man, I remember having a sinking feeling in my gut, you know, like when you know it's hopeless, but you try anyway." He stopped stirring his drink and stared, concentrating on what little he could remember.

"The bad thing. It involved me, didn't it?" Johan looked up with a start to meet the deep cobalt eyes of his girlfriend.

"What makes you say that?"

She shrugged, then propped her chin up with her hands. "Well, there aren't really many things that could give you a scare like that, and so I figured it must've been something or someone you really care about. Plus, I could see it in your face. It's the face you make when you're worried about me."

Despite the solemn mood he was feeling, Johan couldn't help but let a small smile grace his lips. "Heh. Am I that easy to read, or is it just you?"

She returned his smile. "I think it's a little of both." She cleared the dishes and cups off the table and plopped down on the couch, but then scooted onto Johan's lap when he gave her an invitation to. "So," she settled back into his chest and felt his arms wrap around her, "care to tell me what it was about? Or is it too much?" She tilted her head up and gave him a look of curious innocence.

He laughed, and she could feel the vibrations against her back. "No, it's fine. I can only summarize at this point, though. Mostly, from what I can remember—and I'm just going to take some creative license on what I don't—we were part of some…gang, or something, and we had to…well, this is where it gets weird, we had to…set the city on fire? Something like that."

"You mean we were like terrorists?"

He couldn't help but laugh. The remarks that Antaria made sometimes were so nonsensical it was adorable. That, and the fact that she seemed to have mastered the art of being able to deadpan just about anything made it hard to take her seriously sometimes. "Weell, I guess you could think of it like that. But the feeling I got was more like…I dunno, a group of rebels. And then the cops catch onto us, of course, and, while we're running away, you…get shot…and then I'm carrying you, all the while praying you weren't gonna die…seriously, in the dream, during that moment, I never felt more scared in my life. I was really afraid that, I was going to lose you…" unconsciously his grip around her tightened, and he buried his face in her hair. Antaria, feeling his anxiety, sank deeper into his embrace.

"Well, it's just a dream. 'Sides, I can't see anything happening here in Sweden." She reassured him, running her fingers in his aqua hair.

"Yeah. I know. It's just…I care—no, I love you, Antaria. Even if it's just a dream, losing you…isn't something I want to go through." His voice was still muffled, his face pressed in the crook of her neck. Antaria felt her insides squirm. Teasing Johan was something she had practically mastered, but comforting him when he was like this…it was usually the other way around, with her crying in his arms and him patting her back, muttering soothing words in her ear…

"Please, don't think things like that Johan. I-I…it makes me feel helpless when you're like this…like I can't do anything for you…" she trailed off, forcing her voice to remain calm and her lips still.

Johan breathed deeply, inhaling her scent (pine needles with a hint of cream) and sighed, lifting his head to face her. She had her solemn face on, or, as he liked to think, the face she put on to indicate that any more depressing stuff and she was liable to start the waterworks.

"... You're right, dreams don't mean anything, and we shouldn't be getting depressed on a nice day like this." Johan walked over to the window and opened one, letting in a nice breeze. "What do you think of going downtown and then catching a movie later? Tales from Earthsea just started playing last week, and I know you like Miyazaki films. How about it?" He grabbed his jacket and tossed her a coat, which she put on automatically.

"You know, I love it when you know what I'm thinking." She flashed him a rare, genuinely bright smile, which he returned with one of his own.

"Of course."

A/N: Hah, I never thought I'd start writing fics again, but after seeing how people liked Cadence, I thought, 'what the hell, I've always wanted to get these ideas out', so here they are. This fic is basically going to be a collection of songfics, loosely related in terms of timeline and the characters' relations to each other, however, there will be complete AUs for some of the chapters. Basically, every story is a songfic based of an Anberlin song, and since I'm a big fan, I've decided to start from the top, with the first album, "Blueprints for the Black Market". Therefore, this chapter is sort of like an introduction for what lies ahead for the album of songfics, I guess. If you didn't understand all that don't sweat it, it's not important. What's important is that you enjoyed it. Couplings will mostly be Johan/Antaria (my OC), Judai/Asuka, with some other ones thrown in on occasion, depending on the content of the song. Also, note that I might switch back and forth between English/Japanese names from story to story, depending which ones I feel will work best for the song.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated, I'm always striving to write better. And lastly, if you couldn't quite make sense of the dream sequence, well, it's a dream right? 