Wake Up AU
...
Wherein our girl wakes up...to find it was all a dream?!
….
I woke up slowly.
My foggy mind had the vaguest understanding of reality as I yawned and stretched in my bed, duvet twisted between my legs and sunlight peeking from around my closed curtains.
It was lazy and warm and I never, ever, ever wanted to get up. Ever.
It was then, of course, that my phone alarm went off.
It only took my brain a few seconds to realise why that was wrong.
Phone? In konoha?! And my alarm was the Lion King so-
Was...was it a dream?
Dread, cold and heavy, stank in my stomach, as if my insides had turned to lead.
D-dad and Hitoshi and Shisui and….please...please-
In a flurry of motion, I kicked back the covers and staggered upright, barely even taking in my over-sized U2 shirt and panties pajama combo. Fumbling fingers ripped open the curtains.
I was back at Uni.
A car, a student's battered Ford, chugged past and a litter-man was sweeping up the broken bottles from last night's partying.
Wandering hands found a long, smooth ponytail and my sore eyes confirmed the need for glasses.
Shit, this was real. Shit, I was back. Or, had I never really left. Was this like A Christmas Carol, except instead of a renewal, the only souvenir I kept was a broken heart?
I'd loved people there, built a life for myself and...it had never even existed?
My eyes were dry but I felt pale, shaky, and I knew it hadn't sunken in yet. I'd always been a bit too good with grief, compartmentalising the shit out of my emotions.
Snatching up my phone, it was scarily easy to remember my lock screen password. As if I hadn't spent over a decade in another life. But my contacts were all still there, a new message from my flatmate asking if I wanted anything from the shops, a few emails.
It was all here.
Like...I'd never left.
It was then, in my crappy student flat, that I sank to my knees and sobbed out a broken heart.
Two hours later, my room trashed from a brief tantrum, I Google-d Naruto.
And promptly discovered that the series didn't exist.
What the fuck.
I had memories, not just from Kiharu, but from before of watching the show as a kid and then writing fanfiction! Tumblr and fanart and communities and my Discord- they. Didn't. Exist.
The next breakdown lasted half an hour.
Suddenly, I...I needed to get out, to breathe, to see the sky and tell myself that it was fine, I'd lost it all before (or..at least, I'd thought I had..) and I could deal with it again.
I pulled on some yoga pants, clipped my bra and slipped a hoodie over my Tee. I looked like shit but, then again, I felt that way too.
I yanked on my old Converse, ignoring the ripped up laces, and shoved my phone, keys and wallet (all snatched from my bedside table) into the front pouch.
I tried not to look too much at the flat. It...didn't feel like home anymore.
My phone buzzed in my hand and I almost dropped it in shock, squashing the reflex to leap to the side like-like Tou-san had taught me. My mum's face smiled up at me from the screen, her old wedding photo as an icon under incoming call.
My fingers moved on their own.
"Hello? Darlin'? Uch, you wouldn't believe what your father's just done!" an achingly familiar voice, like a half-forgotten memory, sounded in my ear.
"Mum?"
"Yes? Well, aren't you half paying attention, hmm!"
I was frozen on the sidewalk, torn between begging for her to come and get me and throwing the phone away from my ear.
It had been a long time since I'd heard a mother's voice.
So, mum prattled on, gossiping about her colleagues and the canoe my dad had spontaneously come home with, despite the fact the man hated water.
Like a robot, and half hypnotised by her voice, I found myself slowly walking again, my feet guiding me off campus and to my favourite coffee shop.
And mum kept on talking. The more she spoke, the more Kiharu felt like a dream, as if nothing was wrong and I'd had the most insane imagination ever.
I almost believed I could trick myself into coping that way too.
"Oi!" A voice called behind me and my mum, obviously overhearing, immediately rushed to hang up so that I could "chat with my friends". When the call ended, I almost burst into tears. Shit, that had made it worse.
"Hey!" someone called again and I closed my eyes in resignation. Dammit, I didn't want human interaction. Not now.
A hand fell on my shoulder and I twisted around, jerking myself free - I hated when randomers just touched you, you know? - only to freeze at the boy stood behind me.
Tall and muscular with dark skin and a closely shaved head, the boy towered over my not-inconsiderable height. Felix, my mind supplied, Olympic level Judo. Since when did we know each other?
"I called out for you, idiot, why didn't you stop?"
Gritting my jaw, I turned to leave. I was not in the mood for any of this bullshit.
"Oi, is that the thanks I get for pulling that asshole away from you last night? Tch."
Two meters away, I froze.
"Last night?"
Coming round my shoulder, the older boy smirked down at me with a vastly superior expression in his yellow-green eyes.
….like a Lord over his servants….
"Pretty smashed, weren't you? Don't remember a damned thing." If anything, my apparent amnesia only seemed to make him even more smug. "Well, you're welcome, I suppose, but Silas would kill me if anything happened to you, so don't go thinking it was out of the goodness of my heart."
Silas?
A large hand came up to run over his shaved scalp and I froze, only just noticing the black tattoos wrapping around both of his arms, parallel to each other.
...panthers?
"Of course, those idiot boys would be a pain in the neck too. Ethan was the one to get you home. For an engineering kid, guy sure is annoying. Your stupid best friend was too drunk, idiot, to take you home. The two of you are as bad as each other, no-one should let you even near alcohol-"
I stopped dead in my tracks.
"'Toshi?"
Head twisting round to sneer at me, Hito-Felix rolled his eyes in aggravation. "Dammit, I told you to stop calling me that-"
This time, as I threw myself forwards and gripped my friend in a rib-cracking hug, I was crying from relief.
