Zavier felt a wave of dread wash over him when Raguna announced that they ought to stop for the day, even though they had been walking for hours and hadn't stopped even to eat. Despite the fact that he was soaked in sweat and he was tired and his feet were bleeding as they rubbed uncomfortably against his boots and his side was killing him- he didn't want to stop. He couldn't bear the distant, awkward feeling between them.

He had rubbed and scratched at his neck all day, horribly aware of the dark purple bruise caused by Raguna's teeth. It tingled constantly against his skin so he couldn't forget about it, no matter how hard he tried. He wanted to wash it off, to tear it away. He didn't want it on his body, reminding him.

He heard Raguna sigh and the clunk of the small metal cooking pot as he dropped it down on the ground.

"We're out of rice," he said.

Zavier looked at him properly, a panicked frown on his face. "But... We've only been going for three days!" He spluttered incredulously. "We can't be out of food yet!"

Raguna held out the small sack that Sahra had given them. Once half full with rice, it was now limp with air. Raguna raised his eyebrows as if to say 'See?' He sighed.

"There's a little bit left. About half a bowlful, maybe less," he tossed the sack to Zavier, who only just managed to catch it before it hit the ground. "You have it."

Zavier stared at the sack in his hand, and the tiny amount of food left in it. Then he shook his head.

"No, thank you," he said plainly. He offered the sack back to Raguna. "You can have it."

"Zavier, you haven't eaten since yesterday," Raguna said sharply, looking away as Zavier flinched at the sound of his name. He pushed Zavier's hands away. He hated having to touch him, but for some reason his hands lingered on Zavier's for a little longer than they needed to.

"I'm not hungry." As if on cue, Zavier's stomach let out a low growl of protest. He quickly covered his belly with both hands, his head bowed.

"We won't get far if you're too hungry to walk, soldier," Raguna pointed out, and Zavier had to agree. But he had thrown his breakfast away of his own accord, and he had wasted the food that was so needed. He couldn't eat this, and let Raguna have nothing, after how he had acted. It wasn't right.

"I can't, Lieutenant. I... My behaviour this morning is the c-cause of this," he said slowly, carefully thinking out every word in advance.

Raguna sighed. "And what good is punishing yourself going to do anyone?" He asked.

Zavier paused, thinking for a moment. Then he rolled his eyes in defeat. "None," he admitted. He knelt down to pick up the cooking pot. "I will have this rice," he said. "It's mine, but I'm going to share it with you. You're going to have half, and I'm going to have half. Okay?"

Raguna looked at him for a moment, then smiled and shrugged, knowing he couldn't win. They ate together in silence. The food was bland and only enough to tease their appetite, not satisfy it, and the heat and exhaustion were beginning to take their tolls. But, every so often Raguna would catch Zavier's eye or vice versa, and one of them would smile. Then they would look away quickly, at the sky or the trees or the meagre meal before them. And that was okay. Because somehow it made everything less awkward, less suspicious. It was a slow process of forgiving each other- and forgiving themselves.

It was only when the food was gone, and the heat fading, that worry began to set in.

"How long till we reach the camp... Raguna?" Zavier dared to ask. It didn't feel so strange calling him by his name any more. It was almost like normal. Almost.

Raguna had a pained expression on his face. "Over a week," he murmured.

Zavier smiled tiredly. "Great. We don't have to wait until we die of heat exhaustion, because we're going to starve to death instead," he said. He exhaled deeply and leaned his head back.

"We're not going to starve to death," Raguna stated pointedly. He sighed. "Listen, there's got to be something we can eat growing around here. Back in Kardia, we learned to live off the land; we'll have to do the same here. We'll be okay. We will."

Zavier raised an eyebrow. "So we're going to poison ourselves too?"

"Zavier!" Raguna let out his name as a cry of frustration.

"It's okay! I was joking." Zavier held up his hands defensively. "What, you thought I was just going to give up and die? As if!" He stuck his chin in the air, a confident grin on his face, and Raguna chuckled.

Zavier pulled off his boots, gasping in relief just to get them off his feet. He set them down beside him, with his helmet. Then he stood up.

"I'm going to the river," he said, stumbling awkwardly over the ground, which was littered with leaves and sharp twigs. "I need to wash." Though Zavier hated baths, he had to admit after a day of walking nonstop in the blistering heat, it did feel good.

He heard Raguna clear his throat nervously behind him. Had this been another time, he would have probably have gone with Zavier, and they would have bathed together, like they had done the previous night. But this wasn't another time.

"Tell me when you're finished, all right?" He said.

Zavier sighed. Things weren't quite normal after all.

--

Raguna had lingered in the river for longer than he should have, reluctant to return to the tiny clearing where he and Zavier had pitched the tent. He didn't want to see Zavier.

Yes, he did.

No, he didn't. Everything about Zavier was confusing. Or maybe it was Raguna who was making it that way. Zavier was always so easy to understand; his expressions, no matter how hard he tried to mask them, always conveying his emotions so honestly. What was confusing was his effect on Raguna. Nobody, not even Mist, had made him lose control like that before.

Sighing in defeat, Raguna quickly pulled his clothes over his still-wet body and trudged back up the riverbank.

The clearing where they had set up camp was smaller than the one before, and the tent was squashed up against a large tree that protruded from the centre of the circular clearing. He wished there was more space. The sheer denseness of the forest was suffocating.

He sat down on the ground and looked up at the blanket of leaves that covered them. Through it he could see the sky reddening as the sun began to set. It couldn't have been that late, only about six or seven, but already Zavier was yawning, and Raguna himself was beginning to feel the weight of exhaustion pressing down on him. They had been walking for so long with little food to sustain them, and neither had gotten a good sleep the previous night.

"You're tired, aren't you?" Raguna asked. "I am too. You want to turn in for the day?"

"No," Zavier answered immediately. Then, "Yes." And, not even bothering to stand up and brush himself off, he crawled across the ground and practically fell into the tent.

Raguna couldn't help but laugh a little at Zavier's feet sticking out of the entrance to the tent. He almost moved to follow him, but then stopped himself. He still couldn't trust himself. So, he lay down on the ground. The sharp twigs poked into his back, but he didn't care. He shuffled across the ground slightly so that his head rested on a tree root that had broken free of the soil.

"Hey," he heard Zavier's sleepy, muffled voice murmur. "What're you doing?"

"I... I think I'll sleep out here tonight," Raguna said quietly, looking up through the trees.

"Idiot. You'll freeze," Zavier grumbled, and for a moment Raguna wondered if he was going to forcefully drag him inside the tent, but seconds later he heard Zavier shuffling under the sleeping bag and beginning to snore lightly.

Raguna smiled humourlessly to himself, then shifted onto his side and settle down to sleep.

--

When Raguna woke up the light was already dancing across the floor in playful beams from the window. He could feel the warmth of Mist's sleeping body pressed against his back; and though he couldn't see her, he could hear Poppy singing a breathy 'The Kingfisher' as she slept.

Raguna closed his eyes in pain and buried his head into his pillow. He had lived this morning so many times before.

"Mmm..." He felt a tug at the bedcovers and a slight dip in the mattress as Mist turned over, waking up. "Raguna... It's your day off today, isn't it?" She asked sleepily.

Raguna wanted to say no. To say he had work to do, and sorry, they couldn't go out today. But, of course, he didn't. He said the same thing he had said one thousand times before.

"Yeah."

"I was thinking... we could take Poppy out for a picnic," Mist murmured, yawning. She turned back over to face Raguna's back and wrapped an arm around him. "Hm?" She added questioningly.

Raguna touched her arm and raised and turned his head to look at her. But he wasn't met with the bright blue eyes he longed to remember. Instead, Mist's face was sickly and pallid, her eyes bloodshot and sunken into her thin face, a trickle of blood tracing from her thin, white lips.

Raguna turned around properly to face her. "Yeah, good idea," he whispered. "We could go down that bridleway just by Misty Bloom Cave." Tears of frustration filled his eyes. If only, if only, he could say somewhere else.

Mist smiled, and more of the scarlet liquid oozed between her teeth and dripped from her lips. She leaned forward and kissed Raguna lovingly, forcing him to taste her blood. The blood he'd caused to spill.

Mist sighed and sat up, swinging her legs around and jumping out of bed, hopping around to keep warm. It was only early autumn, but the mornings were always cold. The hopping caused the red patches on her nightgown to spread, and droplets of blood fell to the floor in a crimson downpour.

"Poppy! Wake up, silly sausage!" She sang, and Raguna could hear her skipping over to Poppy's bedroom and opening the door. "We're going for a picnic!"

Raguna got out of bed, not bothering to tidy the sheets. They could always do that when they got back. He looked up to see Poppy emerging from her bedroom, clutching her teddy bear in her arms and rubbing her tired eyes, her hair sticking out around her head like a brown, curly mane. Her throat was hacked open. Blood drenched her pyjamas.

"Morning, Daddy," she muttered tiredly.

"Get dressed; chop, chop!" Mist urged, clapping her hands. She was already dressed. Raguna shook his head in amazement. Mist always went at her own pace- and often that pace could be dangerously fast. She began rooting through the fridge and pantry.

"Not tomato seeds again, okay Mist?" Raguna said jokingly, and Mist playfully threw a packet of said seeds at his head, sending a spray of blood spattering across the floor and bed.

Raguna quickly pulled him own clothes on and helped Poppy fasten the clips of her dungarees as Mist attacked her head with a hairbrush. Poppy wailed in protest, her head lolling alarmingly as the huge tear in her neck split even further.

Mist swung open the door of their house "I hope it's not too cold."

The doorway opened out into oblivion. Endless, endless darkness spreading out as far as the eye could see. There was no breeze, no heat, no cold emitting from the darkness. Just nothing. Nothing.

"Oh good; it's a lovely day!" Mist exclaimed happily. She stepped out into the blackness, twirling round and round and raising her arms into the air in a stretch. She inhaled deeply, the morning air waking her up.

Poppy smiled up at Raguna. If only he could grab her and pull her back. But his arms felt as heavy as lead and he couldn't stop her running outside after her mother, into oblivion.

"Ohh, it's cold!" She said, jumping up and down and rubbing her arms exaggeratedly. "Come on Daddy! Come and feel- its freezing!" She beckoned Raguna with a wave of her arm.

"No it isn't!" Mist insisted. "Tell her, Raguna!" She also waved a hand at him.

Raguna wanted to go with them. He wanted so much just to step into the darkness with his family and never look back. But he couldn't. His feet were rooted to the spot. He couldn't move, and Mist and Poppy were slowly moving further and further away, fading into the distance. He held out his hands to them desperately as if trying to hold onto them, but he could feel them slipping from his grasp as the blackness clouded their features.

They were leaving. And Raguna knew they were never coming back. He couldn't bear it. He wanted them so much. He started whispering their names, repeating them over and over. The whispers grew louder and higher, until he was shouting, crying, screaming for them. And then just screaming. Screaming and screaming...

And then he felt strong hands grasped his shoulders, sharp fingers digging into his skin and shaking him roughly, and he heard a voice yelling.

"Wake up! Wake up, Raguna!"

Raguna's eyes snapped open and he awoke with a gasp. The cold night air was biting his flesh and branches were piercing his back where he lay and through the darkness he could see Zavier's face, wild and afraid.

He was still screaming. He couldn't stop, not for Zavier, not for anyone. Eventually the hands that tightly gripped his shoulders loosened, and arms wrapped around him, pulling him close, protecting him.

Raguna cried into Zavier's chest, raising his arms to cling to him desperately, his body shaking with each racking sob. He let Zavier comfort him awkwardly, stroking his hair that was sticking to his forehead with sweat out of his eyes and whispering panicked reassurances.

"It's okay. It was just a dream. It's okay."

But it wasn't okay. It wasn't just a dream. It was real. Raguna started shrieking again, his tears soaking Zavier's shirt. He felt Zavier hide his face in his hair. Against the top of his head and in his arms, Raguna could feel him beginning to tremble.

"Please... Raguna, please stop," he begged.

And slowly, Raguna felt his voice leaving him and he was unable to scream any more. He felt his body relaxing, and he leaned against Zavier, still sobbing softly. Zavier's hand rubbed his back, calming him. He closed his eyes, trying to focus only on Zavier and forget everything else. And after a while his mind began to drift, and his body began to numb and eventually he slipped away.

--

I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I haven't updated in so long! I had major writer's block on what to write for Raguna's dream, and this chapter had been sitting in my computer for about a month before I worked it out.

I suppose his dream might not make much sense at the moment, but more will be revealed as the story progresses. I tried not to make it too mysterious though, so perhaps you can figure it out!

Reviews are greatly appreciated, and are all replied to, of course! Thank you for reading, and hopefully I'll get to update soon. Don't get your hopes up too high, though, as we're entering exam season right now! But I'll do my best.