Super Duper Short Chapter time! ;P Thank you guys so much for reading; enjoy!

A Dream

Warm sun hit his bare chest as he lay, his eyes closed, on a beach towel. A gentle breeze made his hair tickle his forehead. There was a small, soft hand in his own, and he knew whose it was before he looked over and saw her pretty chocolate eyes. She was wearing a light pink bikini, so he knew it was a dream. TK was very aware that Kari had worn one piece or a tank top and shorts to the beach every day for the past three days. He decided not to think about it; it was too nice giving into his imagination. After all, he'd had enough bad dreams; he had to take advantage of the good ones.

Dream Kari smiled at him a little, her eyes bright in a way that was rare and precious. He wanted to kiss her, he thought suddenly, and it was only a dream, so he rolled onto his side, and he did. Her lips responded immediately, like she had been waiting for this, and she touched the side of his face as he wove his fingers with her hair.

Her body seemed to pull him almost magnetically closer. A delicate hand traced his bare stomach, and he shuddered. He didn't care that it wasn't real; it felt real; he wanted it to be real. He kissed her and held her and buried his lips in her neck and felt the warm sun on his back and the soft body below him.

And then something changed. Her lips didn't move against his anymore; the heat of her body dissipated; her flesh was cool and strange, and when he opened his eyes, hers were open too – open and vacant and staring. He should have seen this coming, but he hadn't; it hurt as badly as ever. The beach was gone; harsh fluorescents lit her pale face. Where the warm, shifting sand had been below them, there was a cold, hard ceramic tub, and where the salty ocean spray had been, there was blood, thick and heavy in his lungs.

"Hikari!"

TK woke as he crashed to the floor, tangled up in his comforter and soaked through with sweat. He took a shaky breath in his nose and out his mouth and let his head fall back into the dark oak hardwood below him, calming himself. It wasn't enough, though. Tear burned his eyes and his heart pounded anxiously, begging him to go check on her. "Idiot," he snapped, slamming his fist into the floor beside him angrily. She's fine. You're completely irrational. His pulse still raced; he couldn't catch his breath. "Damn it, Takeru; get ahold of yourself," he growled, but he couldn't.

In the end, he had to walk over to her room and watch her shoulders rise and fall a few times before he could go back to bed. Of course she's okay. Pull yourself together, Takaishi. You can't do all this again. Not in front of her.


Anybody else kind of excited for these story cover things? Except I'm going to spend a bunch of time playing around in photoshop and not writing ;P Actually, I wish I was one of those cool people who could draw anime characters, but I'm not, so I don't really know what I'll do.