Dedication: Black Maya, of whom I dedicated Of Fabricated Dreams and Dying Stars to. I'm sorry this is so late.

The Dream Catcher

Sequel to Of Fabricated Dreams and Dying Stars

by Autumn Win-Dow

(AoGA House Cup. Words: 1514)

Yura Otonashi could feel the tense, thick atmosphere of the room which was supposed to comfort her patients.

She stared at the couple in front of her – the woman appeared haughty at first, but from the way her lips twitched and her fingers tapped against the sleeve of her blazer, Yura could easily tell that she was extremely nervous and had been tense about this part of the day, especially. The male appeared downtrodden and guilty, as he leaned back on the couch both he and his wife sat on. Yura's sharp eyes also detected the large space which separated the pair – they were sitting at different sides of the loveseat, as if they were each other's virus.

"So," The marriage counsellor sighed and tried to start the session progressively, "what seems to be the problem?"

"Look," The woman sighed, as she directed her attention to Yura, "I'm only here because they wouldn't accept the divorce settlement. Besides, our marriage is a train wreck. I doubt something like this would be able to fix it."

Koko glanced briefly at his annoyed 'wife', before looking down at his hands.

Yura wasn't fazed by the wife's explosive reaction and the husband's depressed mood. As a marriage counsellor, she was well adapted to dysfunctional couples such as those two, and had in fact seen even more out of control couples. She felt confident in her skills as a marriage counsellor, as she knew that she could revive Sumire Shouda and Kokoro Yome's relationship back to its old state.

Yura Otonashi was often nicknamed 'The Dream Catcher', because of her success in setting aflame the romances of married couples – back to how they once were.

Instead of replying to Sumire's outburst, she repeated her question – this time facing Koko. "What seems to be the problem?"

The brunette male looked up when he was being talked to, and then glanced back at Sumire. Neither were particularly confident in meeting each other's eyes, and they both started to fidget in their seat.

"Well, Shouda already said it before," He started, and Yura noticed that he had referred to his wife by her surname, "Our relationship is dead. Lifeless. And you can't exactly bring dead things back to life."

"The word 'dead' is used for describe once living animals, Yome." Yura emphasised, as she crossed her legs and set down her pen, "Your marriage isn't an animal, nor a living creature. It's a bond – a man-made one. A marriage isn't part of a food chain, and it doesn't have a predator nor a prey either. It's simply a connection between two people, and only two people."

The grey haired woman stood up from her seat and located a box from underneath her office desk – it was her ultimate tactic when it came to enlightening 'dead' relationships. She had bought hundreds of these from a friend overseas, who specialised in making them.

She pulled open the lid and revealed a box full of dream catchers.

Yura made her way back to where the tense couple were seated, as immediately presented the dream catcher to them.

"Take this home. And when I mean home, I mean the home that you two share."

At the sight of the spiritual object, Sumire immediately flinched back in fright and Koko made a face of disgust.

"What the hell is that?!" The wife screeched as she drew back as far as she could into the soft, cushion padded seat. "I thought you were supposed to revive our marriage, not curse it!"

"What happened to asking us about 'what happened' and 'how are you feeling'? Because honestly, I'd prefer that over that creepy hypnotic device." Koko wasn't as loud when he commented on the dream catcher, but he was also displeased by the look of it.

This reaction was already a predictable precedent for Yura.

"I'm not going to ask you about what happened, because I have a pretty good sense on what's going on between you too. I can tell just by looking at you. Your marriage 'died' because of the fact that you weren't spending enough time with each other. You two had your own problems, but you didn't speak to each other about them. A marriage can't last without communication. Neither of you were actually putting effort in this relationship, in my opinion."

Sumire opened her mouth to argue. "Are you saying that we're both at fault?"

Yura only smiled in the professional manner which she usually showed to her clients. "You may interpret that the way you want to."

Yura's instructions in regards to the strange dream catcher was to hang it from the ceiling, above their bed, as they slept.

Sumire had refused to when they arrived home – in separate cars – but since they had spent the money for the marriage counselling sessions, they decided to follow Yura's instructions.

However, Sumire had her own ways in trying to find gaps in those very instructions, and had slept on the couch during their first night back in the dark house. It wasn't just the fact that there was a creepy ornament hanging over the bed, but she was still uncomfortable when it came to sleeping in the same bed as her husband.

She was embarrassed, because she had left so dramatically out of his life – with the letter and the wedding ring in his possession – but in the end, she was forced to return, since they were in fact still married.

Sumire was glad that Koko had managed to find a job again, with the help of Natsume. But a part of her still wondered if he had sold the wedding rings, or if he actually kept them in his possession despite what she told him to do.

She had no idea how to feel about the matter.

Meanwhile, Koko lay on the bed alone, as he stared at the shaky dream catcher for the whole night. The ornament, however, was none of his concern as he pended upon the counselling session he had attended with his estranged wife. After the session, he had expected that she wasn't going to listen to Otonashi, and that she was going to spend her nights someplace else, but when he asked her about where she was staying, she had referred to their house.

Home, she called it.

It was then when he realised that for once, he wanted to be selfish.

Koko was determined to revive their marriage, once and for all, and to keep it that way.

He finally placed his full attention on the dream catcher hanging above his head, and he cringed at the eeriness of the bones and feathers which hung from it.

I can't live without her. And I can't live with this. The first thing I'm going to do if Sumire and I somehow revive our marriage is to get rid of that thing.

He turned his head to the bedside table, where a pair of wedding rings were placed, unmoving as of yet.

"Do you want any help?"

Sumire couldn't help but feel bewildered when Koko asked that question, when he entered the kitchen first thing in the morning while she was making breakfast.

"Seriously? You're actually going to help me cook?" She asked him in disbelief, as she raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Well, if you don't want my help, then I'll just go…" He trailed in his speech, realising that what he said wasn't going to help in helping their marriage – he had said those very words before the separation too often.

He needed to take initiative.

"Actually," He corrected himself as he pulled out an apron from the kitchen drawer and donned it, "Hand me that frying pan. You can take out the toaster."

Sumire immediately let go of the frying pan as Koko took it away and grabbed the spatula, continuing the frying process of the eggs. While his back was turned from her, she couldn't help but smile.

Neither had expected their progression to be so easy. They had expected it to include many awkward silences and denials – not that there weren't any, but somehow, they both managed to survive with each other.

Sumire ended up sleeping in the same bed as Koko after a week. She too was displeased by the dream catcher in the room, and their nightly conversations mainly revolved on the disgust they felt in regards to the ornament. They would talk for hours, and only when it was early in the morning did they realise that they had talked.

Doctor Otonashi knew that no one could not be creeped out by it – not even herself.

But she bore with it, knowing that it was the perfect way to revive weddings.

Not only was the quest for a revived love a reason for a husband and a wife to repair their relationship. Both of them also longed to get rid of the ugly dream catcher haunting their dreams every night.

A/N: ...I don't think this quite did it for me. I'm sorry that it turned out so anti-climatic, but this is what I could do for some sort of happy ending.