I published this on Archive of our own under the name Drowsies, and figured I'd put it up here too.

Thanks for reading!

I'd always wanted a fairytale life. That was just the kind of person I was, always waiting for something, someone, to bring something interesting into my life, make it different from everyone else's. I was a daydreamer. There wasn't anything wrong with my life, I had friends and family who cared for me, good grades at school, and a part-time job. But something was missing, y'know? I had all the basics, but there was a missing piece. Something to give it a little excitement, a little magic.

Yeah, magic. That was a word I used pretty often.

I watched all the Disney movies as a kid and that's the kind of life I wanted. It's what I dreamed of, but I knew deep down that my life would just be normal. I would graduate, go to college, get a full-time job, get married, have kids and then retire, only to have my kids go through the same process, and so on. Kids always have these big hopes for the future, like 'I'm gonna be a princess' or 'I'm gonna be an astronaut' but really, what are the chances that that's going to happen? I'm going to have a boring life, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Or so I thought.

My name is Marco. Marco Bodt. This is the story of the time I met a mysterious man one night, during what seemed like an insignificant late-night shift at a local convenience store. Little did I know that that man would change my life forever.

School had to be the worst invention possible. I hate it, my friends hate it, I don't know anyone who thinks anything good of it. It's all so… plastic.

We enter freshman year with all these big hopes for the next four years, picturing scenes from all the movies where there are tons of parties and people fall in love and everyone's happy. Sure, there were parties and some people did fall in love. But everyone was the same, really. We all went through the same routines for four years with the same goals. Everyone just wanted to get into a good university, get a good job. It was all incredibly boring. Everyone goes in as a bunch of hopeful kids, and then everyone comes out as a bunch of plastic dolls. Lifeless zombies.

I'm in my senior year, and I see it in everyone I know. Sure, they might look happy, but they're all a bunch of robots. They're all too realistic. They've lost their magic. It makes me sad, really. To see all the people I'd known since I was a kid grow up so fast.

I wasn't like a rebel or anything. I got good marks like all of my friends did, but I didn't let myself get brainwashed.

I like my friends, I really do. But they're not really the same people anymore. As I walked down the hall, I was surrounded by people I knew, people that changed throughout the years. It wasn't just my friends who had changed, it was pretty much everyone except for me.

"Dude, you going to Eren's tonight?" An arm was suddenly slung around my shoulders as my friend Connie's voice rung through my ears.

"Why, what's going on at Eren's?" I questioned, and Connie, overdramatic as ever, groaned loudly and slumped his shoulders.

"Were you not fucking listening again? His parents are out for the weekend, remember? The biggest fucking party of the year? Tell me you're coming. Please tell me you're coming."

"Can't. I work on Fridays, remember? Late shift tonight." I smirked, knowing what reaction was about to follow. Connie was just so predictable.

He stared at me for a bit, before taking his arm off my shoulder and letting out a wail that sounded kind of like how I would imagine a dying whale would sound like, earning strange glances from the people passing us in the hall. Ha, whale, wail. See what I did there? I'm pretty good with puns.

"How could you!? How. Could. You!? Everyone's going! By everyone, I mean everyone including you! You really don't want to miss this Marco! It's going to be fucking crazy!"

"Sorry man. I've told you how strict my boss is. He hates it when people switch shifts." This was only partially true, my boss did hate it when people switched shifts, but he never really did anything about it. I could've gotten away with it if I wanted to, but I'm not really a party person. Being surrounded by drunk people isn't in my list of preferable ways to spend Friday nights. Working wasn't really either, but it was better than being at a party filled with drunk, sweaty people who play music way too loud.

"You're going to regret this. I'm going to make you regret this. I'm going to take a shit ton of photos tonight and I'm going to make you look at every. Single. One of them and you're going to regret not coming to the biggest party of the year." We got to our lockers and I put my bag down.

"I'm sure I will, Connie." I smiled lightly as Connie pouted and turned away to open his locker. We both grabbed our lunches and left to meet up with our other friends outside, while Connie rambled on about the party and I tuned him out, drifting into mindless daydreams.

"Hey guys." I greeted the group as I set myself down on the grass.

"Hey Marco, you coming to my place tonight? It's gonna be a fucking blast." Eren grinned.

"Sorry, I've got w-"

"He has to work. Can you fucking believe it? He's missing out on the biggest night of the year because he's got to sit behind a counter and pretty much do nothing all night." Connie chimed in, cutting me off. Eren frowned slightly, but otherwise didn't have much of a reaction.

"Sucks bro. Well, have fun."

"I'll try my best." The next moment between the group was silent, until Mikasa, Eren's sister, spoke up.

"Are you sure this party's a good idea?"

"Come on, Mikasa. It's a great idea! It's not like we have that much more time until we graduate."

Graduation. Right. I'd forgotten about that.

"You're still taking a gap year, right Marco?" Too busy thinking, I didn't reply.

"Marco?"

"Ah, yeah, sorry. What did you say?" Sasha, one of my friends and also Connie's best friend, raised her eyebrows a bit.

"You've got to stop zoning out like that. I know you like to think a lot and all that bullshit but it gets really fucking annoying sometimes." I faltered, and Eren was quick to jump to my defence.

"Oh shut the fuck up, potato girl. Maybe you don't think enough, did you forget your lunch again?" At this, Sasha's face suddenly got darker as she glared at Eren and Connie made frantic warning gestures behind her.

"Shut. Up. Shut up. All of you." She then got up and walked away, and Connie sighed.

"I don't know why you always have to do that, Eren. You know she gets grumpy when she doesn't eat. And don't call her potato girl, you know how much it pisses her off." Eren started to retaliate, but Mikasa put a hand on his shoulder, causing him to stop.

"I should go find her. Don't want her to murder anyone." Connie stood up and ran off, leaving the rest of us.

"So Marco, are you still taking a gap year?" Armin, who had been quiet all this time, glanced up from his textbook and brought back the conversation topic.

"Ah, yeah. Just to work, save up a bit for uni. Maybe I'll travel a bit too."

As the rest of them started chattering about their future, I slowly tuned them out again.

I hated talking about the future. No, I hated the future. I hate how it looms over us and throws so many important decisions in our faces. I know I'll be tempted to take another year off after my first gap year, and another year, and another year after that. But I can't do that. I'll have to go to university someday, if I want to get a decent job for a decent, but still boring, life.

I'll slowly lose touch with my friends. I know I'm already not as close to them as I used to be, but when I actually physically lose them, it'll be hard.

It's always been the 6 of us. Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Connie, Sasha, and me. Sometimes Ymir and Christa, or Bertholdt, Reiner and Annie. But mostly just the main 6, together since elementary. It's rare for friends to stick together this long, but it's worked out okay for us.

Plucking a fluffy dandelion from the ground, I gazed at the tiny seeds. When I was a kid, I'd always believed that if you made a wish and then blew off the seeds on a dandelion, your wish would come true. I now knew it didn't work, but I couldn't help but feel the urge to wish for something as I used to do all those years ago.

"Please, find my life's missing puzzle piece." The seeds scattered, as I blew them into the wind.

I spent the rest of lunch watching the spring clouds and listening to the conversation in the background.

I worked at a small convenience store a couple blocks away from my house. Usually night shifts, when customers were rare and I had time to pull out my sketchbook.

Ah, my sketchbook. The one place I could actually make my thoughts come alive.

I liked to sketch lots of things, but my favorite were fantasy creatures. Dragons, fairies, that sort of stuff. I've already told you, I was a fairytale kind of person. It intrigued me.

The store was completely silent except for my pencil against the paper, softly scratching grey lines onto the white. It was calming and distracting in the most perfect way possible.

I was always happiest during the night. I loved the dark, the quiet. I think it's because when it's dark out, you can't really see what a shitty world we live in.

The bell above the door suddenly rang, indicating a customer and surprising me. I was about to say something, but I noticed that there was something… off about this person. He was a teenager, no older than me, wearing a dark hoodie and jeans. Sounds pretty normal, except the fact that it was 11:00 p.m., he was alone, and his hands were shaking. It was April and it was warm enough outside to be in short sleeves, so I knew it couldn't have been from the cold. I watched him curiously as he attempted to calmly walk through the store. He glanced at me at one point, seeming to feel my eyes on him, so I looked away. After he turned around again, though, I looked back.

He seemed panicked, scared of something, but he was trying to hide it. His skin was pretty pale, and he had blonde hair with an undercut. Despite being around my age, I didn't recognize him from anywhere.

After walking around the store for a bit, he quickly grabbed a roll of bandages and some sort of ointment from our first aid and rushed to the counter.

"I-Is that all?" The other teen gave a shaky nod as I quickly scanned and bagged his things.

"Are you okay? Your hands are shaking and you're buying bandages and stuff… Are you hurt?" His face paled and he shook his head.

"No, no, I'm fine, just, I just ran out and figured, y'know, that it would be good to have some, y'know? Heh…" He seemed to stumble through his words, and I could tell he was hiding something. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously and he gulped, but I sighed and gave him his change.

"Have a good night." The teen seemed slightly shocked that I didn't question him more, but he nodded slightly and ran out of the shop. I figured it was none of my business what he was buying those for, but I had to admit, I was really curious.

Bandages and ointment? Not to mention he looked really spooked? He was definitely not just buying it because he ran out. Attacked? He would have told me to call the police or something, he wouldn't have tried to hide it…

I had no clue what he was up to. But I knew there was something about this guy that drew me to him. Something unreal, something that seemed like it was from a movie.

As the store became quiet again and I turned back to my sketchbook, I couldn't help but wish that the boy would come back.

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