Dream A Dream
Chapter 1
The stream is quiet, and the couple sits there, simply admiring the stars without distractions. She leans against his side, and sees he has closed his eyes. "What are you doing, Gonou?"
"Making a wish…" He smiles, opening his eyes, looking at the shooting star streaking across the night sky. "Kanan? What are you doing?"
"I'm making a wish, too…"
"What did you wish for?"
"Oh, silly…don't you know a wish doesn't come true if you tell someone?" She smiles, a giggle in her voice. He laughs as well.
"Then I'd best not tell you what I wished for, then…hm?"
"Right." Lips brush and meet in a kiss that only stays soft. "Gonou…Gonou…Gonou-oniisan. Gonou-oniisan, wake up!"
His head meets the floor, and he wakes immediately. He sighs; he is no longer in that peaceful forest by the calm stream…he is back in the mud colored orphanage building in his ragged clothes, a cold stone floor beneath him and a twisted iron cot beside him, the threadbare blanket lying next to him. "Ohayo, Gonou-oniisan." Greets the girl standing over him, her braided hair hanging over her face. He smiles and stands on shaky knees.
"Kana, Gonou, you brats, hurry up!" shouts the Matron. Kana smiles, hoping to give her brother some strength to take on the day. Gonou smiles back, glad to have one so kind helping him. Kana hands him his books and picks up her own, then joins him in walking towards the school house.
"It's awful, isn't it? I don't know why she hates you…it's…it's…what's that word, Gonou?" He moves his mouth, though no words come out. She understands, though. "Right, bias. She's biased against you! I don't see why, though…just cause ya can't talk doesn't mean you don't have feelings!"
Gonou nods, smiling. He was probably laughing, too…but there was no sound, of course. Kana stares at him for a little bit, looking at his brilliant green eyes. They're wonderful…such a beautiful shade of green she's never seen before in someone's eyes. Not even her eyes are that green…hers are more of a blue-green color…she wishes her eyes were as beautiful as Gonou's.
"Gonou…someday…anyday, someone's going to come visit, and they'll like us! Then we'll have a family!" Kana says. Gonou stares at her, amazed, and mouths the word 'really?' Kana nods. "Imagine it, Gonou…we'll be able to finally get away from this place, from the horrible Matron, from the rotten school teacher…we'll have a family, Gonou! People who truly love us! People who really take care of us!"
"You're late!" snorts the school teacher from the doorway. She's a horrible woman by the name of Ms. Toadly. It matches her, too! She's bloated and has warts all over. She dresses in ugly tweed every day, and if you're one minute late to her class she makes you stay after class until supper. Then, when you miss supper, you only have yourself to blame, she says.
"But the bell hasn't even rung yet, Ms. Toadly!" Kana reasons. The bell rings, and Ms. Toadly grins.
"Now it has. Get to class, brats…I'm looking forward to seeing you after class."
This is the world for Gonou and Kana…a cruel orphanage, a horrible school teacher, late nights working on scrubbing the floors, early mornings running to get to school on time, small rations of food which isn't always so good…they're the luckiest kids in the world…they just don't know it yet.
There is a pop quiz for the words…worse still, they have to use it in a sentence, define it, and spell it. Gonou and Kana stumble through the words. How the hell is a seven year old supposed to know what aestheticism means? Kana wonders faintly which section of the dictionary Ms. Toadly will make them try to memorize for their horrible grades on the quiz…last time they failed the vocabulary test, she made them write down every word from the dictionary, letters a through c.
Of course, when the tests were collected, the tests she pointed out mistakes on were theirs. No surprise for them, though…she always used their tests to point out mistakes. "No, Gonou, notorious means to be famous in a bad way…I suppose it matches you just right, eh?" Ms. Toadly laughs, and both Kana and Gonou drop their heads onto their desks. Ms. Toadly's laugh sounds like a cross between a toad croaking and a dounkey's bray. All in all, it's not a pleasant sound. "And Kana, there is no k in the word extracurricular."
The day ends, but Kana and Gonou are still in class, writing down the words in the dictionary from letter d to letter j. The sky is dark by the time they finish, and even Toadly has left long ago. Kana frowns as they gather their books. "Great, I bet we've missed dinner again, because of this." She growls…it won't be the first time they've missed out on their meager share of food for dinner.
They make their way to the orphanage to find that dinner is long over. The Matron scowls at them. "You're late. You missed dinner entirely." She scolds. "I have no scraps for brats such as yourselves. As punishment for your tardiness…you will clean the cafeteria." She gestures to the cafeteria, which is quite large. "You know where the cleaning equipment is, I hope."
"Yes, Matron…" Kana sighs. The Matron leaves and they retrieve the mops and scrubs from the closet, and begin to clean the large cafeteria. Gonou taps Kana on the shoulder, and although he cannot say a word, as his lips move, Kana can almost hear him.
'A dream, Kana…I had a dream last night.' He tries to say. 'We were in a beautiful forest, far away from the orphanage! It was just the two of us, underneath a beautiful starlit night sky…no one else. Just us.' He smiles at the thought.
"I wish dreams were real, Gonou…because I'd love to live in a place like that!" Kana smiles, as she crouches down on the ground, the scrubber in her hand. And as Gonou sadly pushes the mop along the floor, she can almost hear him agree.
A/N: This is kinda au right now, but I'll try to join it together with our favorite foursome soon!
