Waking Dreams
For as long as Lios could remember, his dreams had always been violent and deadly, full of battles and magic. But he never spoke of them to Duzie, and Duzie never asked why Lios sometimes woke up crying - or screaming.
Duzie had strange dreams too, Lios knew. Duzie sometimes talked in his sleep, about La Gamme and Vampires, about love and killing, about cats and magic. From these small spoken scraps, Lios pieced together that Duzie's dreams were probably about hunting and being hunted, fighting and spying and running away. His dreams were certainly much more varied than Lios's. But most interesting was what happened when Duzie woke.
If Lios went to wake Duzie, Duzie would look up at Lios with a puzzled frown, eyes always blank of recognition, as if he had trouble placing Lios's face. Sometimes, before his eyes cleared into full wakefulness, Duzie would ask muggily, "Phelios? Is that you?" And Duzie never called Lios by his formal name, rarely anyone did. Once, Duzie had looked up at Lios and said harshly, "Yujinn? What are you playing at?" before blinking into full life.
If it was Mother who woke Duzie, it was even more confusing. Duzie always knew who he was looking at, who he was talking to, never calling her any strange names. But Duzie always called her "Ishtar" before he was fully awake, and Duzie never called her anything but "Mother" at any other time. And Duzie, usually cheerfully respectful to Mother, was always strangely rude and insolent when he was half-asleep. Duzie had once hissed at her to "Leave me in peace! When did you become so dutiful about waking up on time and going to lessons!" Even stranger was Mother's reaction - she took all of it in stride, did not take Duzie to task for insolence the way she would have if Lios had done this. Instead, she merely smiled wistfully, laid a hand on Duzie's shoulder and said, "It's Mother, now. Come on, wake up, my son." And Duzie would sit up, blink into wakefulness, and become the respectful prince again.
Father rarely went to wake Duzie, usually sending Lios or Mother to do so. But every once in a while, Father would go himself, and Duzie's reaction to Father was as just as strange as his reaction to Mother. Duzie always called him "Father" when he was fully awake, but if Duzie spoke before he truly opened his eyes, Duzie would sometimes name Father as "Rishas," and then Father would blush heavily, step away, and call at Duzie from a safer distance, "No, son, it's Father, time to wake up." Sometimes Duzie would look at Father with a strange wariness in his still-sleepy eyes, and call him "Darres" instead of "Father." In those cases, Duzie would be strangely standoffish, and demand to know "Why are you here, Darres?" or ask after "Ishtar." There was even one time where Duzie sat bolt upright and asked frantically, "Darres? Is Ishtar alright?" and was halfway dressed before Father could calm him and bring him back to normal.
Lios saw all this, wondered about it, tried to piece it together with Duzie's sleep-talking.
But since Duzie never asked Lios about dreams he did not want to speak of, Lios did not ask Duzie about things Duzie pretended did not happen, words Duzie did not admit to saying.
Both Duzie and Lios knew that they did not really want to know.