Ch.4

Dreams

*AERIS' POV*

I was on the ground, my book off to the side of me. "What the hell! Snake, you big JERK!" I shouted. He looked down at me. I couldn't see his eyes because of the shadow created by the bandana he was wearing, but just from the way his head was tilted, I could tell what he was doing. "On the battlefield, you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times; attack can come from any-" His boring speech was rudely (but thankfully) interrupted by an ashy gray tomcat, who shouted, "ALARM" at the top of his lungs. I saw Snake's face grow serious and panicky. He whirled around, opened a locker, and jumped inside, as if he had been splashed by cold water. The gray cat put a lock on the locker to prevent Snake from escaping. He turned to me, and gave me a warm smile whilst reaching his hand down to help me back on my feet. "Gets him every time," he said. "If you ever need Snake off your back, just shout ALARM. It causes him to go for cover every time." I didn't say anything, but just stared at him in awe. He looked down off to the side, seeing my book. "Here, you dropped this." He reached down and picked it up, holding it out to me. I slowly reached for it and grabbed it. "See ya!" he said happily. He started to go in the opposite direction. I wanted to call out for him, to see what his name was, but I just couldn't, for some reason. Looking down at my book in my hands, I could feel a blush burn furiously all over my face. I started walking in the opposite direction, my fluffy hair covering my wide eyes.

"Aw, FUCK! This game sucks!" I shouted angrily as the Nemesis threw Jill across an alleyway. Leo was sitting next to me on my bed, watching me play the game I had gotten from Krug. "I warned you that RE3 would blow. If you didn't like the second one, why do you think you would like the third?" he asked. As the chilling game over screen came on the TV AGAIN just before I shut off the PS2, I sighed and answered, "Sequels officially suck ass. Remember how the first one was good in a hilariously bad way? I'm hoping that they'll be able to capture a fraction of the magic from that game." Leo shrugged. "I guess, but I say that once you officially screw a series up-" I gave him a sour look and interrupted. "You don't have to sugar-coat it, stupid. Go ahead and swear if you like. You're 15-years-old for Chrissake." Leo had never been much of a guy to swear and I just thought that that was weird. I was swearing like a drunken asshole at a baseball game before be even began muttering slightly bad remarks. "Fine," he said. "I guess when you officially fuck a series up, it stays that way, no matter how many more sequels there are. You even said how you hated the second game." This time it was my turn to shrug. "It's just the game that Krug had gotten me RE3." "You asked him to get it for you," "Psssh! whatever." I sat back down beside him on my bed. He was the only one out of his bizarre group of friends who stuck by at my house to hang out with me on my 15th birthday today. He was always there for me, anytime. Everyone else just delivered some half-assed excuse as to why they had to leave. Pantsman had crime patrol, Ternaldo was busy in the middle of a Yu-gi-Oh marathon…asses. Their presents weren't that bad though. Of course, Krug had gotten me RE3, but Ternaldo got me Shadow of the Colossus and a pack of Magic the Gathering cards. Pantsman got me a pair of slacks. He was really weird like that; I planned to burn them later on. A few kids from school whom I didn't know me too well got me other things. Leo was the only person whose present I had not yet received.

"Well, I bet you're now wondering where my present is…" Leo seemed to read my mind as he said kind of sheepishly. "Yeah, actually I am," I said. He got up from my bed, and then knelt down on one knee directly in front of me. I gave him an expression that said, "What are you doing?" He chuckled under his breath. Reaching in the left pocket of his baggy jeans, he pulled out a velvet box. "Leo…What are you…?" I squeaked. He chuckled once again, this time with a goofy smile on his face. He held the box in front of him, and opened it before my eager and worried eyes. I was too scared as to what the object was, so I jumped back onto my bed like I had a stroke. He started laughingly crazily, like I had just slipped on a banana peel. "I knew that would happen." He choked out through his tears. When he regained his composure, he said, "Don't worry; it's not what you think. Just take a look." I slowly got out of bed, still worried about the box's contents. It was not a ring, thank freaking Lord. What it ended up being was a pendant, only different: instead of the typical locket, it was a triangle composed of three triangle pieces with an empty space in between. It was brightly shining a golden color. "It's a Triforce…" I said out of pure amazement. Leo beamed, knowing that he got me something special. He picked it out of the box and held it out to me. "I thought you might like it. I made it myself. Handcrafted." Grabbing it, I rubbed my fingers over it, before blurting out. "YOU made this?" Leo had never been the very artsy kind of person. He also had zero soldering experience, as far as I know. He just did not have the patience, or even the still hands, especially since he barely had enough playing video games like Street Fighter. My plan was to slap him and say that he led me to believe that he was proposing to me, but I was too distracted. Just the fact that he could handcraft something this sleek in design… "Yes I did. So you like it?" I looked up into his emerald green eyes and said, "Of course." I truthfully did too. You can actually stand to be around Leo when he does something right. He continued to look overjoyed. "Can I put it on you?" he said shyly. I smiled and said of course he could. I gave it back to him. He spread the chain out, and placed it over my head. I looked down over my chest to admire it. It was so beautiful…

"Leo!" I shouted as I ran all over my house. He had run away, the fickle little bastard. The mess of spilled Pepsi all over my brand new Xbox 360 was not about to go unpunished, not even for a second. I searched all over the downstairs rooms. Not in the kitchen, not in the dining room, not in the garage, FUCK! I finally rushed upstairs hoping to God that he had not run into my room. I searched all over my parents' room, the bathroom, and the guest room, but again to no avail. Finally, I had no choice but scour my room in search for him. As soon as I rushed in, I saw him. He was standing directly in the center of my room, facing the doorway where I was standing. He had his hands behind his head in an extremely casual fashion, as if nothing had happened downstairs. He was looking off to the left, right where my bed was. I noticed that there was no bell around his neck, just like there usually was. He didn't even have his blue collar on. Why? I don't know. I shouted at him to get his attention. "HEY!" Normally, whenever I shouted to him, he'd cower in fear like a puppy dog that had just been kicked in the face by their master. But this time, he continued to stand motionlessly, taking his time looking into my eyes. Despite their usual emerald glisten, right now his eyes looked ice-cold, almost blue, just like mine. His relaxed mouth suddenly drew into a crazy sneer that didn't suit him. He looked like he hated me. He answered my shout very coolly. "Oh, hello, Aeris. Say, what was all that shouting about downstairs? It was pretty annoying." What was up with him? He was making any sense. I had every reason to be shouting! He just blew MY couple of hundred dollars that I had used to buy MY Xbox.

Not wanting to let him catch me off guard, I said softly to him (like the calm before a storm), "You know what you did down there…" Leo lightly chuckled, not even trying to hide it from my volcanic face. "So? It was just a fucking Xbox." He knew that this would really get under my skin, but it also shocked me; Leo had never talked badly about a game system before, let alone one he had looked forward to one of us getting for over 15 months. I didn't let it show on my face, but I was kind of worried about Leo, because of his drastic behavior. Cracking my knuckles anyway, I said, "Any last words?" Leo narrowed his eyes. "Nope, not really." He said. I charged at him full force, about to make contact on the side of his head with my right fist. I never heard the pleasant sound of his skull crushing to pieces though. Instead, he had caught my hand! He held it with remarkable ease. I tried hitting him in the side with my left fist, but once again, he blocked it, this time with his other hand. He now had both my arms out of commission. Before I could kick him in the nuts with a fierce swing of a leg, he swung me down toward the ground, not particularly hard, though. "CQC, Aeris. Come on. You should know this from Big Boss." Leo mocked. Big Boss had run a business where he taught CQC techniques like the ones in MGS3 to people about 3 years ago. I had attended, mostly to get back at his son Snake, but I had never really practiced them outside of class, and in fact, I pretty much forgot them after the final class. Leo had not joined the class along with me, but here he was prancing around like Bruce fucking Lee.

I got back on my feet to try to remember how to use CQC. It took me a moment, but I got it. Leo and I began a duel, like Jackie Chan and some bad guy. It was pretty fun, actually. I didn't ever make contact, though. Leo was literally all defense, never once raising his hand against me. "My parents taught me the ways of chivalry." Leo said. He just read my mind. I grunted and swung my leg at him. He caught it, but instead of just pushing it back, like he had with every other one of my moves, he pulled my leg towards him. When I was close enough, pulling on my leg, he pushed his hand against my torso so forcefully I fell flat on my back. I was about to get back up and start fighting again, but Leo got on top of me, holding down my hands with each of his, while holding both of my legs with just one of his. He was very strong. I struggled, but could not get free. Edging his face closer to mine, he said, "I expected more from you Aeris." I could smell his breath; something like Pepsi and Cheetos, ugh. I looked away, both from the smell and the humiliation I would feel looking into his acidic eyes. He held me like that for a second, and then he suddenly removed one of his hands from holding mine and wrenched my face toward his, forcing me to stare into his eyes. I could feel a small urge of panic. He then did something that was both the ballsiest and most shocking move I think he could've possibly done. He slowly bent his face down further to kiss me.

Despite what his breath smelled like, his lips tasted nothing like that, for some mysterious reason. His eyes were closed, but mine were wide and frightened. Slowly, though, my heartbeat began to calm down. All my angered ebbed away as well. The Xbox seemed like small potatoes compared to this. I closed my eyes to enjoy the kiss. It wasn't my first; I had run into my fair share of guys in the past, some friendly, some creepy. It was never anything serious, so I never bothered telling Leo about them; besides, he wouldn't understand anyway; I think he's the jealous type. I never managed to settle on one boyfriend, because I was too different from most other people, except for one person…

Leo removed his hand from where he had wrenched my head, and glided it over my cheek. He was enjoying this, probably more than me. I could tell because of how loudly he was purring. I decided to start purring back at him, to let him know that I was enjoying the kiss as well. We just sat there, relishing in each other's arms. After what seemed like an eternity, he broke the contact of the kiss with me. I opened my eyes. He was staring down at me, with his face looking like normal again. His eyes were more emerald green than ever, and his sneer was replaced by his typical goofy smile. The only thing still missing from his perfect image was his collar and bell. He looked just like he did that day we first met, only older, to fit with his modern age of 17 years. "You're so red, Aeris, like a tomato…" It was a VERY lame line, not worthy of his previous brave act of kissing me, but I knew it was true. My face was so hot it felt like it was about to boil off of my skull. I'm sure between my pink and white fur and red face, I looked like a good mascot for Valentine's Day. Leo slowly slid off of me and stood up. He held his hand out to me, to help me get up as well. As soon as I felt the warmth of his paw, everything faded to black before my very eyes. I think I fainted.

I slowly woke up from my deep and wonderful sleep. I yawned extremely proudly; it would've put Leo's lion roar of a yawn to shame. Looking around my blurry room, I rubbed my eyes to let them refocus. Nothing was different around my room; it looked the same as when I had fallen asleep. All of a sudden, memories of the dreams I had had all came flooding back into my thoughts. I sat on my bed, holding my knees very close to my chest.

The first two dreams were direct flashbacks to days of my past, when we had first met and when Leo had given me the Triforce pendant for my 15th birthday. Those were two of the happiest times of my life, but of course I never admitted that to Leo. The only thing jarring about my dreams was the final one. It was not particularly based on any real life experience. When I had initially got my Xbox, I told Leo in a very dark and ominous voice to not harm it in any way. He had gotten the message pretty quickly. He has broken many a glass and plate before, because he's so clumsy, but he always guarded video games with his life, his or otherwise. Knowing this, I still scared the shit out of Leo by telling him not to mess with my Xbox, mostly just for the enjoyment of seeing his frightened eyes. Sadistic? Maybe. So in the dream, Leo was being very malevolent, which did not suit his nature at all. He was also way overpowering, which he usually never was. It honestly scares me to think of him that way. But then, there was that kiss.

The kiss, I realize, was fake. Imaginary. So why had it seemed so real? I mean, we have honestly never shared anything romantic, not even slightly. So why was my dream making me see him in that way? Does that mean that I honestly like him? Yes, the inner voice in my head whispered. This time, I actually did not argue with it. I needed to see Leo again for myself, just to see how I felt about him. Rolling over on my bed toward the nightstand, I picked up my pendant and placed it back over my neck. Looking at the digital clock also there, I saw that it was now 4:37.

"SHIT!" I yelled. I had overslept and not called Leo. "Aeris, honey? Are you okay?" My mom was literally right outside the door, wondering what my outburst was about. I guess that they had long since come home. "Yeah, mom. I'm fine." "Alright…" I heard her footsteps slowly get quieter as she walked away from my door. While dialing the numbers on my cellphone to call Leo, I wondered why he hadn't called me. I guess he didn't want to disrupt my slumber. There was one text message from Pantsman, but I didn't really care about that. After the phone rang several times, I got Leo's voicemail. That was weird. Usually, Leo always answers his phone. I hung up and decided to call his house number, to see if his parents had seen him. The phone rang a couple of times and gave me another voicemail. I swore under my breath, but remained online to see if there was a message saying if anything was going on. "Hi, you've reached the Leonardo residents." I recognized Leo's dad's thick British voice, but he sounded very quiet and depressed, not suiting his ordinary nature. "My wife and I just heard that our beloved son Leo was hit by a car and is now in the local hospital, Shady Oaks. We will be able to call you back as soon as we can. God bless." He finished as the phone fell out of my shaking hand and landed on my bed. The excitement of the previous moment seized up and went away.