The dreams start in summer. The air is hot and humid which makes sleeping miserable, but the dreams kick it up a notch.
They're in no way bad dreams, which is exactly what scares Red about them.
Mana is fun. These days, Red finds himself genuinely happy, though sometimes he still finds himself flinching away from Mana's touch half of the time, which the tactile clown has no issue with. But he likes to think that he's getting a little better with unexpected touches.
To be honest, Red thinks he's really lucky that he's found Mana. The past year and a half with had been the best of his life, even if the man could be awfully strange at times, with his golden eyes, strange sense of humor, and the way he zoned out like he wasn't even there sometimes. Red was even getting more and more used to being called Allen and – dare he say it – was starting to like it.
So, why the hell would he hate waking up from these dreams?
The dreams start off in either a desolate, snowy wasteland surrounded by a large lake, bare trees as white as the snow, and a large moon that reflects black in the lake or in a golden field of wheat with a tall tree and a soft breeze teasing his hair and tickling his nose. Red has never been anywhere even remotely similar to these places, but they feel so familiar that he almost wants to cry.
Red is never alone in these dreams, either. He never sees any other humans, but he can tell that he's not alone from the soft music that always seems to come from behind him, coaxing him to stay. No matter how fast he turns though, there is never anyone behind him. It's strange and Red always feels so unsettled once he wakes up and thinks about it, but in the dreams, he feels so relaxed or at peace. Mana never really relaxes and is always on the move – Red clearly remembers him saying that he was being hunted, though that still seemed like another one of the things that Mana believed just because he wanted to – he's always chattering and is like a one-man circus himself.
The dreams are the opposite of Mana.
Everything is so still and at ease in the dreams, except for the gentle wind. It's almost enough to make Red regret the fact that he has to wake up, which makes him feel extremely guilty because he genuinely cares for Mana.
At least they're better than his usual dream, where Cosimo, the ringmaster, other familiar faces from around the circus, and sometimes Mana – which always hurts the most - take turns beating and kicking him around, taunting that Mana could never possibly care for him like the loving fathers they pass on the streets. Why would he? After all, Red was just a no good demon brat who only had one working arm. That he could find a better child anywhere and Red is just a burden to him, nothing more than a dog. Those dreams are awful, while these dreams are more… unsettling.
He doesn't bother telling Mana about the dreams – he figures that they're his dreams and thusly his problem.
Mana sees that he's more on edge because of them though, because he tries to give Red comfort through simple touches and by ruffling his large hands through Red's dark red hair – which Mana insisted on recently giving a trim – and he also lets Red suggest more tricks for their acts.
Performing on the streets and in the odd circus is a lot more fun than Red could ever imagine, even though his outfit is kind of lame no matter what Mana says. Doing flips is like second nature to the boy by now and he's only growing more and more flexible by the day, though most tricks that require two hands are out of reach for now.
"You're going to surpass me soon, Allen!" Mana jokes, passing Red his dinner. "I think my bones are getting too old in his body. You'll be doing cartwheels around me before we know it."
"Nah, not soon." Red denies, though he does feel happiness and what is probably pride stirring in his chest. "Yer too obnoxious ta stop bein' a clown."
"Aw, Allen! I'm not that obnoxious!"
"That's what ye think." Red taunts, turning his nose up and drawing a laugh from Mana.
Red finds that he loves making Mana laugh. Mana is someone that makes a living off of making people laugh and if Red can make him laugh then well… he isn't doing anything wrong then, is he?
But even then, everything isn't perfect, because Red is not the only one dreaming; Mana's dreams only seem to get worse as time goes on. He doesn't say much in his sleep except for the apologies and other things that Red doesn't catch, but his reactions are getting so loud that they scare Red awake, not that he minds.
Red usually finds himself having to wake Mana up, but this time, the clown is wide awake and panting, his head in between his knees.
"Mana?" He cautiously asks, feeling nervous when Mana jumps in surprise. "'re ye okay?"
"Did I wake you, Allen? I didn't mean to, I'm sorry…" Mana sighs, his accent just peeking out. He reaches over and pets Red's hair back. "You should try to fall back asleep lad; we've got a busy day tomorrow."
Something deep inside of Red stirs – something that's half him and half that familiar feeling – and he wants to tell Mana forget moving on tomorrow, that it would be fine, that he would protect him. But… Red doesn't exactly know how he would do that or where that came from. Instead, he reaches over and takes Mana's hand, which makes the familiar feeling hum through his body in approval.
"Ye should sleep too, Mana."
Mana smiles down at Red and lays back down himself, the bed creaking underneath his weight. Mana's body is so tense that it's clear that he's not going to be getting anymore sleep tonight, which makes Red wonder just what Mana could have possibly dreamt. "Don't worry, Allen. I'll go right back to sleep, but growing boys need it even more."
Red sighs and curls up with no little hesitation, though he has to force himself to close his eyes. He pressing his forehead into Mana's back, hoping that he's good enough to at least offer a little comfort to the clown.
He's asleep before he knows it and finds himself in the wasteland with the dead trees and the lake. As always, snow falls from the cloudless sky, but it isn't freezing. In fact, Red never feels cold here, even though he can feel the snow falling on his skin.
Gentle singing starts up from behind him, the male voice soft and soothing, with an easy and gentle warmth so familiar that Red wants to curl up by one of the trees and sleep to the sound of the gentle lullaby.
Instead, he fights it and finds himself walking towards the lake. As usual, it reflects the land in a flurry of different colors, but this time there's something so startlingly different, that Red jumps in shock and falls on his bottom into the snow which suddenly feels so, so cold. After a moment, the young boy apprehensively forces himself to creep back to the lake, crawling forward on cold, shaking limbs.
This time, there's a black and white shadow where his reflection should be, with no features except for empty white eyes and a bright white grin that is impossible to miss.
Notes: Ooooo... spooky... what could it possibly be...
I want to give a biiig thank you to everyone that has left a review, a favorite, or an alert! I really like this story a lot and I'm super relieved that people seem to be liking it, so I really appreciate everything!
I also wanna clarify something about this line: 'Mana sighs, his accent peeking out.' Because Campbell is a name of Scottish origin, I figured that maybe the soup twins and Katerina might be Scottish? Of course, we won't know this for sure until word from Hoshino. I figured that they were given lessons on how to make their accents lighter, but Mana talks really fast so he slips pretty often.
Anyways, chapter 3 should be out next week! Later days, ya'll :^)