"...Okay, tell me again."

"Wha- Seriously?!" I already told you the whole thing twice!"

Kotori glared.

"Yuma, the first time you told me was weeks ago, and you didn't explain clearly this time. Do you want me to take this seriously?"

"Uhh..." Yuma pondered it for a moment. "I don't care that much, really..."

"Sure..." She huffed. "You really are an idiot..."

"W-what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Just tell me the dream already!"

He screamed at the sudden increase in volume, shielding his ears. "Okay, okay! I'll explain it again!"

"Good..." Kotori folded her arms. "Explain it clearly, this time..."

"Whatever..."

Maybe Yuma should've followed the advice she'd given him previously about keeping a dream journal... But that sounded kind of stupid, and he usually forgot his dreams, anyway. Even when he didn't, they were often hard to describe, and he had better things to do. In fact, he wouldn't have even bothered mentioning this to his best friend if it wasn't for the fact that these dreams seemed so surreal, and yet so real. Eerily repetitive, and yet oddly comforting.

He'd sent her a rushed message the week before while it was still fresh in his mind, determined to remember this one, for it to seem just as real as it did when he was asleep. She'd taken it surprisingly seriously, and now she wouldn't stop pestering him about it, always asking if he'd had more dreams and what happened in them.

That was how they'd come to be here - at Kotori's place, sat on her bed as she demanded every detail.

"Well... I think I was flying, or something. It looked pretty stupid. Everything was really bright and blue, no idea where I was meant to be-"

"More details!"

"Fine, fine!" He huffed. "Something felt kinda off. I don't know why exactly, it's just..."

"Go on."

"...I think something was missing?"

"Explain."

Yuma was starting to feel slightly annoyed. Sure, it was nice that she was taking him seriously and trying to see what was going on, giving him someone to vent to about all of this, but he really wished she'd just accept that it was hard to piece together.

"I'm not sure! Like something was meant to be there, but it wasn't. It's really hard to explain, but... It didn't feel right."

"Okay.." She nodded. "Then you saw something, right?"

He gave a nod, relieved that she was finally helping him along with this.

"Yeah, I did. Something started to get closer... I don't know what it was. It was sorta human-shaped, but it wasn't a human. It was blue, kinda shiny, I think? It looked like it had some kind of markings, but I'm not too sure..."

"Some kind of monster?" She prompted, leaning in out of curiosity. "A yokai? An alien?"

"Maybe an alien... Hell if I know. It looked weird, but..."

"Oh?"

"It didn't seem scary, or anything. I actually started feeling a little better after that."

Yuma thought back to the creature that kept showing up in his dreams, and how it just seemed to stare at him, never speaking, but looking as if the words it wanted to say were right there, on the tip of its tongue. Maybe it couldn't speak Japanese? Maybe it couldn't speak at all?

"I feel like it knew me, somehow. But not quite. Like when you haven't seen a friend in years and you have no idea what they're like any more."

"Oh..." Her brows furrowed. "That's... Interesting. Anything else?"

"It reached out... Then I woke up."

"You have some weird dreams..." She muttered. "That doesn't sound much different from last week's dream, though. You explained it better this time!"

"Please don't make me explain it again..."

She burst out laughing.

"I won't, don't worry! I'll try to look up dream meanings online later and see if I find anything, okay? I'll call if I do!"

"Thanks!" Taking that as his cue to leave, he rose to his feet, and she grabbed his arm.

"You don't have to go yet, y'know... Lunch is almost ready."

The thought of food left his stomach growling, but he shook his head. Actually, leaving would probably be best right now - talking about his dreams always made him feel weird, and he'd much rather take some time to himself right now and try to organise his deck.

The dreams just felt too real, whenever they happened, and though the creature didn't scare him, he always awoke feeling hurt, saddened. Because, for reasons unknown, even if for a brief amount of time, he'd desperately wanted the dreams to be real, to keep going, to never end.

This was too deep for him to keep thinking about right now.

"Nah, it's okay, I think I'll get going. Cya later!"

She squeaked in surprise as he exited the room, heading out.

'This, again?'

He was surprised to find himself once again back in the blue space as he fell asleep that night. That was unusually quick.

It played out the same as usual as he flew through the air, once again feeling empty, and lonelier than he should.

Then, as usual, the creature appeared. It looked ready to speak. It's arm reached out.

The dream would end, now. It always did.

"Wait!" He shouted, without thinking, and it paused, looking at him with wide eyes. He stared right back, just as surprised at his own action. "Who are you?!"

A pause. To his surprise, he finally got an answer.

"...My name is Astral."

Once again, he was pulled away from his dreams, left to wake up feeling lost.

Not too sure where I was going with this one... I like it, though. An au setting, I guess... It's been a while since I wrote it tbh. Still, I hope it was enjoyable and reviews are appreciated as always!