"I hate waking up."

Her amethyst eyes fluttered half-open, the orb adorning her head glowed with a faint pink light, and her once-hovering body lay numbly on the floor, the surface of which was damp with all the puddles layered on top of it.

Cresselia groaned. Not a groan of severe exasperation, but of small annoyance.

This routine of her waking up like that clung unto her for quite some time (if you were to call a millennia to happen for "quite some time"), and, she thought, life was somehow predictable if this would go on and on.

Nonetheless, she still summoned the strength to get up, ignoring the shaky hovering she adapted. "I really hate waking up," she murmured, the emotionlessness in her voice notable as she stared at the dense and snow-covered pine trees that surrounded her like a dome. She was used to all this closure, after all.

"Closure..." She trailed off, her thoughts too many to be thought of silently. She craned her neck to the shallow moon-shaped pond in front of her, revealing a frown and an indifferent look on the eyes of a crescent-adorned swan. "Hm."

Cresselia groaned. Not a groan of small annoyance, but of severe exasperation.

It exhausted her to the very brink that to travel six regions every night, dispelling the trail of nightmares her counterpart, Darkrai, left. Then there was also considering her uncontrollable power, which gave her headaches with what emotional trauma her imagery of dreams left her to deal with.

She still found herself drowning with this in the ocean of her thoughts, and still staring into the pond that held her still-gloomy reflection. She also found herself sighing with the realization, alongside the frown that only tightened more.

"Damn!" She bellowed, feeling something wet and salty appear at the corner of her eyes. "Damn!"

Instead of shrugging off the traumatic stress, she only deposited more of it, as if charging it for...whatever. All she cares though, are those thoughts incorporated together were —

"...absolutely hell!" She continued shakily, maintaining her harsh tone as she jerked her head away from the small body of water. A few seconds passed, then she panted heavily. "I-I'll never...represent the moon..." She sniffed, shifting her weight as her ring-shaped wings producing an unstable glow of pink.

"So what? At least you can represent yourself. Doesn't that matter?"

Cresselia stifled a second tear before searching for that familiar voice's owner. When she caught sight of a streak of billowing white hair, her eyes looked rather blank and emotionless; but her mouth conveyed small shock as it was laid agape. "Darkrai..."

The stoic electric blue eye, the red collar that hid any emotion, the scraggly arms that looked ridden from some recent battle with all the undulating rag-like illusions adorning it...the dream goddess shook her head as a pitying smile broke on her lips. "...hi."

Though that smile quickly returned to the ever-miserable frown, as he took no time to brush away a tear that was threatened to fall, a heavy feeling forced in Cresselia's beak, making her look flushed (which made her wonder lightly why he failed to notice the closeness of contact between them).

Oblivious to the swan's reaction, Darkrai gave his counterpart a stern look, with Cresselia on the verge of drowning into unconscious (not to mention disturbing) thoughts. "C'mon; you should pull yourself together here..."

With silence engulfing them both, she decided to fix her posture, floating an inch higher. At this action, she met the dark-type's concerned (and visible) eye. "S-sorry..." She unconsciously apologized, contemplating on his emotion silently, numbly shocked (as this emotion of his was new to her), yet sad altogether.

"Do you feel like representing the moon now?" Darkrai curiously asked, swaying his arms childishly.

Cresselia heard a voice summoning her out of her moments of sad mourning and musing. "What was that?" She shook her head to recall reality. "Oh, uh, um...sorry."

(What am I doing!? This isn't like me!)

"Are you okay, Cresselia? If this is a matter of rest, then I can take your shift for you..."

Cresselia stifled a laugh of disbelief. "In your dreams," she said, ironically. She hovered to the ground, until she reached the point of nuzzling the icy cold ground.

"And in my dreams..."