Thanks to the reviewers! What a compliment it is for an author when readers cry. By the way, I added a link towards a picture on my profile, it's a book cover that made me laugh when I saw it today: it resembles what Nokoru must think about me piling trouble on Suoh's head.

Chapter 14 - Sleeping Beauty

- Akira, have you seen my stamp?" Nokoru asked one afternoon, fumbling through the stuff piled on his desk.

- No, Kaichô", Akira answered.

Nokoru waited for Suoh to suggest looking in his wastebasket or under the tallest pile of papers to be stamped, or maybe in his plush penguin, but there was silence.

"Of course," Nokoru thought, "Suoh doesn't bug me anymore. How boring."

He lifted up his head, looking towards Suoh's desk. And had the surprise of seeing him with his head on his arms, fast asleep.

"Oooh, Suoh must be so cute when he sleeps!" Nokoru reflected while tiptoeing towards him, a finger on his mouth to silence Akira who had just noticed the scene, too. "Not that I care, of course", he reprimanded himself. "We're not friends anymore."

Why did it hurt so much to think that? Anyway, he'd just take a peep at his face.

"Poor Suoh, he must be tired to fall asleep like that - no, no. He can take care of himself."

Nokoru sighed. Why did he keep arguing with himself? The heart has reasons that reason cannot know, or something?

But he forgot all about keeping his feelings in check when he did get to see Suoh's face, plainly gripped by a nightmare.

Suoh tried to get out of the room, but there were no doors or windows. The lilac hair on the floor turned into tentacles that bound him in place. Was that bloody teen his older brother? But why was he raising a stick, ready to hit him? No, the boy had blonde hair. And blue eyes. And he was small, and slender. And the blood on his white shirt was not his own. It was Suoh's.

-Suoh! Suoh!" Nokoru called while shaking the blue-haired teen's shoulder.

- What is wrong, Kaichô?" Akira was asking, getting up.

Suoh's eyes popped open. He shot a terrified glance at Nokoru and pushed him away with one hand.

And Nokoru, being the klutz that he was, fell and hit his head against the border of a terracotta plant pot.

- Ouch…" Nokoru was trying to gather his wits, his head feeling like a bell that's just been rung.

-Kaichô!" Akira cried, "Are you all right?"

Suoh stared in dumb silence, getting out of the nightmare and into reality.

- I'm all right…" Nokoru said uncertainly.

Suoh found his voice.

- I'm… I'm sorry, Kaichô", he said desperately.

Nokoru smiled at him, though his face remained scrunched with pain.

- It's all right, Suoh. It's just my usual clumsiness, not your fault at all. And you seemed to have such a terrible nightmare…"

Akira took Nokoru's hand.

- Kaichô, can you get up? You must go to the infirmary.

- It's nothing, Akira," Nokoru protested.

- Probably, but you may have a concussion so it is best to check. And you do not want a bump, do you, Kaichô? We should at least get an ice pack.

- Okay…

Nokoru got up on wobbly legs.

- Will you be all right, Suoh?" He asked before leaving the room.

- Yes, Kaichô, please go to the infirmary!

- I'll make you a dream catcher," Nokoru mumbled while getting through the door, a hand pressed against the tender spot on his head.

Suoh did not know whether he wanted to cry or smile.