"Do you want to die?" A feminine voice questions, her tone soft with patience.

There is no color in this dream. No shape. Just empty white light and the distant echo of her words. A man lays in the middle of this white hall, his arms and legs completely sprawled out. But the ground starts to shift. Grey begins to consume the white. Silhouettes of buildings ascend around him. Cobblestone streets. All grey. Grey and dark. He scratches at his left eye.

Red oozes up through the cracks in the grey. Human-shaped shadows lie strewn about like corpses. Blood drips from his empty eye-socket, mirroring the scene. He pulls his hands away; they're stained. His vision is stained.

"Or do you just want to be saved?"
The white light appears again, highlighting the twisted visions around him. Soon they're washed out. Sun-bleached. The light re-devours the scene. It sharpens. Intensifies. This harsh, warm light seems to cradle him. But then it shatters, leaving him twice as blind.

Break startles awake. Yet his body remains still, refusing to betray his state of mind. His eyes open slowly, finding Sharon's blurry frame beside him. Kneeling on the floor, her chest is gently heaving in and out against the bed. She's asleep.
He reaches out to touch her hair, but stops short.

"You're awake," Reim places a sweater on Sharon's shoulders. "Lady Sharon has been like this for hours."
"Hmm?" Break stares at her for a moment, expressionless. He can hardly see her, but he feels her presence. The pulse against the bed. Her breath... He abruptly slams a pillow over his face. Reim, startled, pulls the pillow away.

Reim's complaints catch in his throat as he looks at the disheveled man beneath the pillow. The pillow slips from his hands.
Break's expression is torn. Conflicted. His body is frail, small. Much smaller than it should be. A shadow is cast over his eyes.
"It's suffocating," he murmurs. So quiet and quick, the phrase is almost lost. The words are guilty. And just as quickly, they are gone.

"Open a window, would you?!" Break suddenly interjects, throwing a second pillow into Reim's dumbfounded face. His usual smirk has returned as if it had never left. A twinge of disappointment tugs at Reim. Irritated, he launches the pillow right back. It connects. Or rather, it is let to connect.
Reim composes himself. He shifts his glasses further up onto the bridge of his nose.
"You're supposed to be resting!" He chides, as Break rearranges himself.

"Reim?" Sharon stirs. She rubs at her eyes before quickly grabbing for Break's hand.
"Oh my, oh my. To wake a lady sleeping so peacefully," Break snears.
"Break, you idiot! Why do you have to keep overexerting yourself?!" Sharon's small body shakes with rage.
Break watches her in silence, taking the hits as they come.
"Milday, it was, for all intensive purposes, just a bad case of anemia this time. I told you he should pull it together shortly."
"Still...," she looks down.

"Well, I've got to return to doing someone else's reports. I expect Lady Sharon will keep you from doing anything irresponsible."
Reim heads for the door. He stops in the frame, his back to the two of them.
"Oh and Xerxes, we'll talk about the dreams 'I've' been having later."
Break's eyes widen with momentary surprise. He smirks.
"Reim?" Sharon chimes in with concern, "Are you alright? What kind of dreams?"
"Oh, no," Break interrupts. "Mister Reim can't possibly speak of those kind of dreams in front of milady."

Reim hurriedly exits the room, accidentally slamming the door behind him. He stands with his back to the door, face heating up.
Sharon glares at Break, disbelieving him.
"And why would he need to share them with you?"
"Hmm... Professional advice? 3"

Break is hit with yet another pillow.

Reim stands, pushing his chair out from his desk. He takes his glasses off and pinches the top of his nose. Truthfully, he'd been just as concerned as Sharon. Each time, Break comes back a little more battered than the last. Like watching waves erode the shore. It's getting harder to watch his life ebbing away with the tide.

He exits the room to find Break waiting for him.

"So? Are you ready to tell me what's been bothering you?" Reim asks, positioning himself to walk away if otherwise.
Break turns toward him, a serious face painted on.
"I believe it's a sugar deficieny."
Reim fights the urge to bash his head against a wall. He sighs, knowing he shouldn't have expected much else.

"You don't have to tell me. As long as you can convince me that you'll be alright," he pauses, "for milady's sake."
"My dreams, of all things, are no concern she should be bothered with... She's growing up. She'll be fine."
"Then why hide it? You're still protecting her. Deny it if you want, but that's all you ever do. And yet you couldn't even bring yourself to touch her this morning."
"I couldn't? I guess that part was a dream too?" Break outwardly ponders the possibility.
"Xerxes!"
Break chuckles, waving his sleeve to hush him.
Reim drags Break inside the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Why couldn't you?" Reim asks, arms crossed.
Break looks away, partially covering his face. He glances down at his hands. It wasn't the blood that got to him. Nor the memories. It was his longing for that white space. The solemn emptiness. He found himself feeling fond of it. "How inexcusable," the thought lingers in his mind. He couldn't touch her after realizing that. Not her. Not any of them. They deserve better. Break laughs aloud and smiles pitifully to himself.
Reim's expression softens.

"You know, you watch out for those kids. Beyond Lady Sharon, you care. You protect them... even as you torment them with your games."
"I do? And all this time I thought I was just having fun!"
Reim continues his rant, ignoring Break's attempts at deflecting.
"I can't even get you to do paperwork, but you're perfectly willing to take on the burden of so many lives. Even you must know you can't bear the weight of that alone."
Break returns his gaze to Reim.
"Oh? What're you saying, Mister Reim?"
Reim slams his hand against the wall beside Break's face. The two stand in silence. Reim's arm quivers against Break's shoulder.
"You know-You know you're alive, right?"
Break's eye falls shut. He pulls Reim's hand off the wall.
"Am I?" Break pats down his own body and slaps both his hands against his cheeks. Reim, much to his dismay, can't stop himself from lightening up. The titter is shortly replaced by a fist hitting the top of Break's head.

"You can live for yourself, you know. I feel like no one's ever told you that. You're always protecting someone. Always serving someone else's interests," Reim looks directly at Break, moving closer to him in an attempt to make himself more visible. His face flushes.
"I wish you'd just let me protect you."
A brief pause shakes Reim's nerves as a blind, red eye burrows into him.
Break stifles back a giggle. "A weak man like you?" He scoffs. "How could you possibly protect me?" Break shrugs, playfully impudent.
"I'm j-just saying you can lean on me more. Put some of the pressure on me. I know you don't have a problem with taking advantage of me... considering that," Reim gestures toward the build-up of papers on the desk.
"I wonder. Do you really know what that would mean?" Break steps towards Reim, his expression surprisingly stern. Taken back, Reim back-peddles and falls into his chair.
"Lend me your shoulder..." Break pauses, amused by Reim's reaction, "and it'll get sopping wet with all my big, sloppy tears~" His over-sized sleeve covers his grin.
Reim drops his head in frustration. Break leans forward, placing his hands on the arms of the chair.
"Or it might be crushed by the weight," Break states, blunt and in monotone.
Reim keeps his eyes downcast.
"My shoulders are stronger than they look, you know."
"Oh?" Break smirks and rests his head against Reim's shoulder. "Then let me rest my head for a while."
"Xerx-...?" Break stiffens. Subtly, but enough.
Reim gives in and tilts his head towards the mess of white hair beside his chin.

"He must still be exhausted," Reim mutters as he drags Break's dead weight into the bedroom.
"When I said my shoulders could take it, I didn't mean literally."

Reim drops Break onto the bed. He kneels down and pulls off Break's boots. Socks. Coat. He folds the outer-clothes and places them neatly on the nightstand.
Break fidgets on the bed, distressed by something in his dreams.
Reim lifts Break's legs up off the floor and pulls him further onto the bed. He leans over Break's chest to untie his cravat, but his hands linger on the fabric longer than intended. He stares at this man, lost in his nightmares, and finds himself tugging lightly on the necktie. Reim shifts his weight onto the bed as he pulls himself to meet Break's face. Their mouths, an inch apart. Break exhales, the warmth of his breath brushes against Reim's lips.

Reim freezes, suddenly hypersensitive to his surroundings. A lifetime's worth of embarrassment comes boiling to the surface. His glasses slip down his nose. He frantically pushes them back up, unintentionally rocking the bed. Break stirs and turns onto his side. His worry lines darken, his face twists something hollow and foreign to Reim. It unsettles him.
Reim leans back and lays down beside Break, watching his eyelids flicker. Watching him breath. Slowly. Steady. His chest rising and falling. Even when he's suffering, there's an air about him - almost beguiling. Reim lightly touches his forehead to Break's.

Reim lays there in silence, unable to sleep. He watches over Break, finding some peace in the stillness of the night. It's short-lived. Break begins to squirm. Rolls around. Sprawls out, cat-like, nearly pushing Reim off the bed.
"Xerxes, you-" Reim begins, assuming Break has woken up. Break rolls right into Reim's chest, wrapped in a cocoon of all the sheets he gathered in his flailing. His hair brushes against Reim's nose.
"You greedy little...," Reim's whispers trail off as his shivers. He sighs and let's a smile settle back onto his face. On sleepy impulse, his lips touch the top of Break's head. Reim dozes off.

Streams of light peek in between Reim's eyelids. It's morning. Late morning. The lingering scent of Sharon's tea pervades the air. Warm cream and honey. Rich. Sweet.
Reim jolts up.

"What time is it? Wher-..."
Break is fully dressed and squatting on the bed in front of him, smiling. Not a pleasant smile. Chills creep under Reim's skin. He jitters. Reim tries to back away, but finds a dead-end at the headboard.
"What was this all about last night?" Break asks as he grabs Reim by the collar and pulls him closer to his face. Break teasingly blows on his lips. Reim's hands fly up over his mouth.

"You were awake?!"
"What was that?" Break pretends to clean out his ear with his little finger, "I can't quite hear you," he looks to the doll on his shoulder, "Shall I teach him a lesson, Emily~"
"You should, you should!"
Reim bursts across the room to the door. He twists the handle. No luck. He looks around for an exit, trying his best to ignore Break's impish grin. After weighing the pros and cons of jumping through a window, he crawls into a cabinet.
"I'm very sorry!" The words become muffled as he shuts the doors.
Break slowly approaches the cabinet, eyes sharp on his prey. He abruptly yanks the doors open, and pulls Reim out onto the floor. Reim struggles as Xerxes straddles him, pinning him hard to the ground. A motionless instant passes as Reim observes the position they're in.
"Tsk," a hardly audible sound escapes his mouth as his cheeks burn crimson. They match the taunting eye staring down into his soul. Break's grin widens.

"...Ah,"

Alice appears with Oz and Gil in tow, "The clown caught a rabbit."
"You're the only stupid rabbit here," Gil corrects.
Alice reassess the scene in front of her. Seconds tick by. Minutes.
"No, that is definitely a scared little rabbit. Can we eat it?"
Break stands, casually stretching his arms up.
Reim is in shock.
"W-What are you guys doing here?"
Gil's expression gradually contorts, disturbed. He glances back and forth from Reim to Alice.
"C-Cannibalism?" He murmurs to himself as he breaks out into a cold sweat. Oz pats his back, comforting him.
Reim's jaw nearly dislocates.
"I am not a rabbit!"
"How shall we prepare it?" Break asks, ignoring everyone but Alice.
"Meat's meat, right? Can't we just eat the legs and stuff?" She points to various spots on Reim's body, denoting which parts would be most tender. Break nods along in agreeance.
Break pulls his sleeve in front of his mouth, side-glancing towards Reim.
"Hm. But I think I prefer to let my meat stew."
"Xerxes!"

Reim gives up and sinks into the floor.

Reim lets out a huff. He's sitting on the floor of the balcony, leaning against the edge. His usual posture and etiquette are lacking a bit in the stuffy, afternoon air. He tilts his had back and looks up at the sky. It's covered in a layer of clouds so thin the sky seems blank. A blank white. Empty and oddly calming.

"It's dreary," he says as he notices Break looking up from the open doorway.
"Hmm?" Break questions.
"The sky, I mean."
Break steps out onto the balcony, twirling around a bit before leaning on the rail. He's quiet for a while.

"What are the others up to?" Reim asks, having escaped the racket as quickly as he could.
"Hm? I wonder...," Break seems lost in thought. He looks as though he's staring out over galaxies even while hardly being able to see a few feet in front of his face.
The two of them take their time sitting in silence with each other.

"Her voice is there," Break suddenly starts. "Speaking to me. Asking me if I want to die or if I just want to be saved."
Reim sits up, alarmed, but attentive.
"I lay in a white space. Nothing but white. Painful, comfortable white," He glances down at Reim, knowing full well how mad he sounds, "And then it's gone. Corpses... No, I should say shadows of corpses lay at my feet... mocking the dead. Mocking what I've done. The whole dream is a giant mockery of what I've become. Blind now. Blind then. Different forms of the same disease. Hah," He laughs, "It certainly is a joke."
"Why now? Why have these dreams now?"
Break turns to look at Reim. He puts his hand up to his face, covering his eyes, nose, mouth...
"My eyes. I've been thinking on why I've lost them."
"But that's-"
Break tips his head back, his smile sincere. Reim is silenced.
"Don't look so stiff." Break's tone lightens. He waves away the seriousness.
"I'm not trying to bury the corpses left in my wake. They're long since bones. But you misunderstand me, Reim. You seem to think I'm some kind of guardian, when really I'm only protecting myself. I'm selfish. I could just stay in that white, empty space in my dream. I'd drop the world and fade to nothing...," he pauses, addressing a ghost. "Shelly, maybe you were wrong. Maybe sometimes I wish I had been swallowed by the abyss. If milady knew...," Break sighs, "I'm a feeble old man."

"Come here," Reim gestures to come closer to him. Break feigns confusion.
"Just come here."
Break complies, crouching down beside Reim. Reim slips his glasses onto Break's face.
"What do you see?"
Break, even as deteriorated as his vision is, can see a shift in his depth perception. The already murky ground in front of him seems to sink down into a pit. He topples over onto Reim's lap.
"Are you teasing an invalid, Reim? How cruel~"
Break turns to face up, his head on Reim's leg. He's still looking at the sky.
"We all see the world through different lenses. An old man would know that. Whether it's dark or light, complicated or simple... the only thing that matters is that you're here now. You have a purpose. Selfish or not, you will fulfill it, and we'll be here for you... no matter your intentions or how stubborn you are." Reim slides his glasses off of Break's nose, just barely touching the side of his face to lift them over his ears. Break's skin feels feverish.
Reim pulls a cloth out and starts cleaning his glasses.

"But I have a selfish goal of my own."
Reim takes a moment and returns his glasses to his face, pushing them up onto the bridge of his nose. They somehow catch the only fragment of sunlight left in the sky. It glints off them.
"To keep you from fading into nothing. If nothing else, to keep you from doing it alone. I'm sorry, but I'll be standing in your way this time."
"Oh? Is that so? How scary~" Break jibes.
Break grabs Reim's wrist and pulls it away from his face.
"I always knew the weak you was good for something."
Break leans up, his hair covering his expression. He tightens his grip on Reim's wrist and gently kisses him. Break glances into Reim's eyes. He can recall their color, russet, highlighted in a gentle amber.
The colors quiver in surprise.

Reim is once again sifting through paperwork. A ceaseless endeavor. He's interrupted by a quick knock on the door. The rhythm is a tad off. Eccentric, even. Break.

Reim takes a moment to put himself together. It fails. Flashes from the balcony are on repeat in his mind. He stumbles over air, catching himself on the desk. A few inhales and exhales later, he opens the door.
No one.

He takes a step out, pausing when he hears a peculiar crinkling sound from underneath his foot.
"Ah!" He quickly steps back and gathers up a delicate bouquet of flowers. They're simple. Shades of coral and white. What am I, your princess? Reim wonders, half-expecting Break to answer him telepathically.

"Oh, how pretty!" Sharon hurries up to Reim. She takes in the sight of the flowers.
"Miss Sharon? Why-? What're you-"
She tips the bouquet towards her, inhaling deeply. Her eyes seem to sparkle with thoughts of fairy tale romance.
"Did you get these from someone? Or are you...?" She beams with curiosity.
"No, no. I just received them." His eyes search for a place to hide themselves. They choose the floor. It's very hard to be creative when flustered.
Sharon looks at them more closely, touching the petals gently with her fingertips. "They're... Ah." She stops, unsure of what to say.
"Milady?"
"They... no, I'm sure whoever gave them to you probably just thought they were charming," Sharon tries to wave it off. "They really are lovely flowers. I'm sure to be mistaken."
"Miss..."
"Ah, well...," she squirms. "I believe their meaning is... well, 'stupidity'..."
Reim holds back a quiet laugh and smiles.
"You're not upset?" Sharon can't help but smile along.

"No," he says, seeing a certain face peeking around the corner at the end of the hall.
"It suits us both just fine."

END.