I'm really sorry this took so long, and I apologize for how bad the chapter is written... I promise the next chapter will be better.

Everything was bright, artificially bright, not like the sun, not like the moon, not like the stars. It was too bright, it was unnatural, and it was uncomfortable. There was nothing but light, and the consciousness of something pushing her down, something that was unseen. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, she couldn't think clearly. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Not a shout, not a shriek, not even the smallest whisper passed her lips. She felt a pain welling up inside her, gnawing at her insides as it slowly worked its way up her body. After a few moments she began choking, whatever it was that was crawling inside her was suffocating her… she felt like she was going to die, she was drowning in the light, and she was going to be asphyxiated by whatever was inside her. Just when she believed she was going to perish, the mysterious force freed itself from the confines of her throat and shot itself from her lips.

The unholy light was gone… the force had extinguished it like a candle, and now the only thing that was left was much more terror inducing… darkness… darkness was all that remained. She could only surmise that the force from her throat had been a demon, a demon of her own creation. The demon had a name, and it was called fear. She could breathe now, she realized as she gulped swallows of stale air. Although she could breathe, try as she might, she still could not move or speak. There was still an invisible force crushing down on her. To her it felt like two large shadow hands had their hold on her. One hand was holding her down, while the other covered her mouth to cause her to be mute. She wished for motion and sound, she wished for something, anything to take the darkness away. But it endured, and after what felt like an eternity, something finally changed.

She felt something drip onto her skin, it was cold and wet. She could barely believe what was happening as it began to rain. She began to hear the pitter patter of raindrops she couldn't see on a ground that she couldn't feel. Whatever bit of her had stayed optimistic, was now cynical… whatever was causing these odd sensations was preying on her anxieties and fears. Her theory was only more so confirmed when the light returned, but not in the consuming unholy way it had before, but now in the form of lightning. She hated storms, and feared lightning, she wished it all would just go away, but hope and pray as hard as she might, it did not end.

She begged for the end, but there would be no solace for her as in the distance she saw a Cheshire smile of dirty disgusting yellow teeth illuminated by lightning. As the teeth got closer, her anxiety reached its peak. She struggled against her invisible bonds, but they would not break. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as like in her previous nightmare, she fell. She strained and shook, and was finally able to let sound escape her mouth.

She screamed aloud, and she kept screaming until she needed to breathe. As she breathed, she felt her back hit something solid. She had broken out in a cold sweat and her heart was beating faster than she could count. She looked upwards and found herself again in darkness, but it was different now. The darkness was not all consuming, only calm, and there was no rain or teeth. She realized that she was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, and she tried to make sense of what was going on. She yelped in fear when she felt something beside her move.

"Hey…Hey… Shhh….. Everything's alright." He muttered groggily as he reached a hand over to touch her gently. He had been awakened by her sudden shaking and screaming, and despite his utter and total exhausted-ness, he had been worried about her.

She took a moment to catch her breath as everything came back to her. She was at Kurosaki's apartment, and she had wanted him to sleep next to her to make her feel safe. When her breathing and pulse returned to normal, she tried to relax, but she was still on edge. His words consoled her, and his presence calmed her, but she felt the need to move closer to him, if for no other reason than to make sure all of this wasn't just another part of her elaborate dream.

He naturally knew what she needed as she moved closer to him. He pulled her close and allowed her to tuck her head into his chest. He could feel her fear and worry, it was radiating from her like a tangible force. He tried to comfort her as he calmly stroked her back; he wanted to make the pain go away… When she had noticeably calmed down he pulled his face away from her slightly and moved his chin away from its previous post on top of her head. "What happened?" He asked softly, "…Nightmare?"

She nodded and turned to face him. "It was like the last one… but this one had… more in it…", she felt both ashamed and relieved at telling him about her nightmare. While it was a great feeling to get the fear to dissipate, it was still embarrassing that a young lady of her age would have such nightmares.

"More…" he muttered as he readjusted to become more comfortable after her switching of positions. "What do you mean by more?"

"Well… there was a bright light… it was blinding… it hurt my eyes. Then later, there was darkness… and rain, you know how I hate the rain." She spoke pensively trying to recover important details he would have wanted, but the dream was to her relief, already becoming forgotten. She was unsure why she was losing the nightmare-memory, but she theorized that the proximity of her and him caused her mind to blur. She didn't mind forgetting, and she also didn't mind his closeness.

He nodded at her description and smiled a little, "Teru… it started to rain part way through the night… I turned on the light and walked around quick to make sure all of my windows were closed. They were, and shut off the light and laid back down… the storm got worse, but then it passed. I guess it had to have been a good twenty or thirty minutes after it passed that you woke me up with your screaming…"

She blushed slightly, embarrassed that she had woken him out with her shouting. "I'm sorry for waking you up…" she said putting her head down so as not to meet his eyes.

"You don't have to be sorry…" he said softly as he touched her cheek, "I just worry about you sometimes…" What he said was true. He was extremely worried about her and her nightmares, he blamed this one partially on her sub-conscious mind perceiving the storm, but for the other, there could be no avoiding of blame. The other nightmare had come directly from her mind, and he couldn't save her from her own thoughts… but at the very least he could try.

He sat up and stretched, and she sat up after he did. They both rolled out of bed, him yawning, her quiet as death.

She followed him, still not speaking, out into the dining room. The silence was almost painful to her; it was so awkward and unnatural that she felt the need to speak. She had no idea of what she could say, and she defiantly didn't want to say the wrong thing. She almost sighed in relief when he spoke first.

"Hungry?" he asked her as he walked towards the kitchen. His single word broke the awkward silence, now he left it up to her to reply.

"Yeah… a little…" she said following him closely. "Are you?" she asked conversationally.

"I'm always in the mood for food…" he said with a laugh as he opened his fridge. It was as usual very empty, but luckily he had eggs, cheese, and a few other breakfast ingredients.

Their short conversational snippets had done wonders for the mood of the setting, and now they were feeling far more comfortable.

As he pulled the ingredients from the fridge, he was shocked to hear the words she spoke.

"Let me cook!" She said with a smile as she grabbed on to the carton of eggs he was holding. She wanted to do something for him, and if she could do anything, it was cook. She'd done it for him before, and she knew where he kept his very few cooking utensils.

He looked at her for a moment in shock, but then regained thought process. "No, you're my guest..."

She cut him off, "It's the least I can do." She smiled, feeling good to do something for him instead of the usual him doing everything for her.

"Well I suppose it is what your job is… my pretty little slave girl… So, what are you feeding me?" He laughed silently and internally, glad that if even just for the moment things felt like normal.

"Really?" she asked with a chuckle. She was still unsure why exactly she was his slave. She wasn't complaining, she actually liked it, but she would never admit that to him. "Go bald Kurosaki."

He smiled, "If I ever go bald, it will be your fault!" He couldn't help but be a little worried about the possibility of losing his hair. Although he had good genetics, and knew that the men of his family never really lost all of their hair, he felt as though if she hoped and wished enough for his baldness, it would happen.

"Maybe you'd look good bald." She said teasing him as started cracking eggs into a bowl. She was thoroughly enjoying tormenting him. She cracked a few more eggs into the bowl and broke their yolks with a fork. She stirred them together and went over to the stove to heat up a frying pan.

He tried to act normally and pretend he hadn't heard what she had said. He sat down at the table and picked up the paper and a pen that had been lying there. He skimmed the paper, read the comics, and attempted a Sudoku puzzle. He was about half way done with his puzzle when she walked out of the kitchen. She was smiling, she was proud of her cooking, and it showed when she set it down in front of him.

"Omelets?" He asked with a smile, unable to remember the last time he had eaten a breakfast that had been actually cooked, not one that had just been reheated or prepackaged.

"Yes, omelets." She replied with a chuckle. She wished he could have seen the amazed look on his face, it was simply priceless. She looked down at the Sudoku puzzle that he had been working on, and immediately saw at least three blank boxes that she knew the numbers for. She smiled wondering whether or not to show off. Deciding to show off, but only a little, she pointed to a box in the bottom left corner. "Five." She said as she walked into the kitchen to grab drinks.

"Five?" He shouted inquisitively after her. He wasn't exactly sure of what had just happened, but he was pretty sure she had just given him the answer to one of the numbers in his puzzle.

She returned with a glass of water for herself and a cup of coffee for him. "Five." Was her only response as she sat down across from him and started to eat her breakfast.

"Where?" he asked completely and totally confused. Unsure of how she could have found the location of a number so quickly.

"There…" she said pointing to the same box she had before. Pointing to another she said, "Three." Then pointing to one more she said, "Nine."

He watched in awe as she pointed to boxes, but was quick to point out the mistake on her final number prediction. "That's not possible…" he said as he pointed to the box next to the one that she had pointed to, "This one is nine."

She smiled and laughed at the same time, "Oh trust me… it's possible." She waited for the confused look to return again to his face, then traced along two columns with her fingers. "It's possible because you were wrong."

"There's no way…" he muttered as he picked up the paper to see what she was talking about. He was amazed when he saw that what she had said was in fact true… he had put the nine in the wrong box. "Well…" he said as he quickly tried to make up an excuse, "I umm… wasn't wearing my glasses…"

She laughed at his "reason" and proceeded to say, "Go bald, Kurosaki." Though she said it, she secretly hoped for his and her sake that he would never go bald. On his part, he would be inconsolable, and if he did, he might seek revenge upon her for cursing him.

He tried to stifle a laugh that was threatening to escape and retorted, "If I end up bald, it will be your fault…" He tried to look menacing, but it wasn't working.

She giggled and in a sing-song voice she sang, "Go bald, go bald, go bald Kurosaki!"

"That's it…" he said as he stood up and pushed his chai back, "You're going to pay for this…" He smiled playfully as he said it.

"Eeek!" she shouted as she pushed he own chair back and jumped off running. She laughed as she ran away from him; she was having fun "playing games", and the adrenaline was giving her a high of euphoria that was much needed.

He ran after her and chased her all the way into his room. He had her cornered, her only chance of escape was to try to sneak past him, which she tried, and failed.

She tried to jump out and away from him, but just ended up being caught by him on his bed. She laughed as he held her. She tried to wriggle out of his grip, but it was to no avail, eventually she stopped trying to free herself, and he let go.

He smiled down at her, "I caught you!" he said with a bit of a laugh, feeling like a child again, but when he looked down at her again, he no longer felt like a child. He realized exactly how… interesting… his position over her was. He was on top of her, and as he watched her catch her breath, very adult thoughts came over him. He tried to snap himself out of it, but couldn't distract himself from the way she was breathing, and the pale blush on her cheeks. She was always beautiful in his eyes, but at the moment, she was not just beautiful, but was beautiful and sexy.

She noticed the pensive, thoughtful look in his eyes and raised an eyebrow. She wondered what he was thinking about, but thought it better not to ask. Instead she brought up the one thing she knew could catch the attention of any man, food. "Are we going to finish breakfast?" She asked hoping he would snap out of it.

"Huh?" he said waking up from his trance-like state. He had seen her lips move, but had been too lost in his own thoughts to have heard what she said.

"I said, 'Are we going to finish breakfast?'" she repeated and raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what exactly had spaced him out so badly.

"Yeah…" he said pushing off from the bed and helping her up also. He smiled at her, sometimes she was just a little bit too perfect.

Again, really sorry for the shitty chapter XD