No, you're not seeing things, I actually did update. But send all thanks towards Kitty and Rena, who inspired me with their own little challenge. But of course, being Snowy, I couldn't make it happy and fluffy could I? So here's J for you all. Enjoy!

I apologize for the OOC-ness, it's been a while.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko.

Sleeping had always been his strong point, but now his nightmares plagued him, pulling peaceful slumber viciously from his grasp, ripping his near-perfect seams so that he now feared the pastime he used to enjoy so much.

(They taunted and teased him, whispering to him how easily danger could loom up and there would be nothing he could do about it. Reminding him that now there was nothing to bind his friends to him, no reason for them to stay.)

The alarm clock blared, scaring off the demons momentarily. As the noise filled the room he would groan and pull his pillow over his head, just to pretend like nothing was different, nothing had changed.

(Lies, but they made him feel better, and that's what mattered in the end wasn't it?)

He heard his friend's bed creak as the brunet sat up to silence the alarm. There was a tired sigh, just like every other morning, and light footsteps made their way towards him.

"Odd," Came Ulrich's voice, heavy with sleep but comfortingly the same as every day before. "You have to get up or you'll be late to breakfast."

Light shone into his eyes as the pillow was pulled from its place above his head.

"Mrrph." Odd grunted.

(One of the few things that didn't feel forced.)

The only response that Ulrich ever expected from his blond friend in the morning. Odd wondered how much longer he could keep up the act. He should be happy, everyone else was, so why wasn't he? Xana was gone, the world was safe, and he could go back to a normal life.

(That had been fine before the whole Xana mess, so why wasn't it fine now?)

"Odd," Ulrich's hand was warm on his shoulder, his voice soft with concern. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine, just hungry." A response that would be seen as normal, but fear gnawed at the back of his thoughts and he could almost see the monsters of his nightmares grinning, rubbing their mangled black hands together as they waited for food to distract him so that they could slip into his conscious mind and take hold.

"I understand." Ulrich reassured the blond, "Come to me when you're ready." With that he patted Odd's shoulder once and left the room.

Odd stared after him, his eyes watering slightly. He had tried so hard to hide his tumultuous emotions from the brunet.

(He knew deep down that he couldn't hide anything from Ulrich, but that had never stopped him from trying.)

He didn't want to feel this way; he thought that if he just acted like nothing was wrong then he'd wake up one morning and he would be fine. Sleep could cure anything, right?

xXx

Time kept ticking by, a constant, monotonous, forward flow.

(He always reminded himself that it didn't go backwards very much in the end, but it was the lack of the possibility for it to go backwards that hurt.)

Days passed, turning slowly into weeks. Ulrich's words burning in his mind all the time. Come to me when you're ready.

(Would he ever be ready?)

"Odd?" Ulrich's voice pulled the blond from his swirling thoughts. Looking around he realized that he had wandered into the clearing of the forest where the sewer cap lay, grown over now with plant life.

(Had it really been that long already?)

"I don't know Ulrich." Odd said, staring down at the overgrown sewer cap, his brunet friend standing behind him and to his left.

"Something's wrong with me, and I don't know what." Words tumbled from the blond's mouth, almost on their own accord.

(He'd kept it to himself for too long, hoping that his mind would cure itself and instead allowing it to slip further and further away.)

"I don't know what to do." He confessed, turning to face his friend. "I don't know if there's anything I can do, but I don't want to be alone. I don't want you to leave me."

"Our friendship isn't going to disappear, you will never be alone." Ulrich said. "I miss my happy troublesome friend. I'll help in any way I can to get him back."

"You promise?" Odd asked, hope glimmering in his deep azure eyes.

"I promise." Ulrich nodded, holding out a hand. Odd took it, clinging to it tightly, as though if he let go it would disappear, and he would be left to his monsters to unravel him until he became nothing.

"I'll help you fix those frayed and jagged edges."