"Ack!" I coughed as I was slammed into a wall behind me while he continued to hit me. "Yuji, stop!" I cried out in pain. "That hurts!" I wailed as he continued to hit me. It hurt so bad. The slaps, the punches, the kicks. It all hurt. What did I do to deserve this? Why had he suddenly changed?

"You bitch!" He snarled as he looked toward me and hit me one more time across the face.

"Y-Yuji..." Tears streamed down my face. I was hurt immensely. Not just physically, but emotionally. Why did Yuji suddenly change? He was always so sweet and so caring and so thoughtful. But then, randomly as if someone had flipped a switch, he suddenly became mean, aggressive and abusive. "Why...? Why have you changed!? Why are you doing this!? You've never acted like this!"

"You really don't know? You're totally clueless." He spat with a snarl. "My life has been a living hell ever since you stepped into it."

My heart exploded into a thousand pieces when he spoke those words. He was never happy with me...? "B-But..."

"But nothing!" He yelled into my face, kicking me in the stomach. "You and that pest of a girl..."

'Pest of a girl', he couldn't possibly mean...

"Mommy?" The voice of a tired little girl spoke from the other side of the room next to the stairs. I looked into the blue spheres of my daughter. She was rubbing her eyes with her hand. "It's loud. Why is Daddy yelling? Is he mad?"

"It's okay, Mana," I produced a false smile, in hopes that it ease her. "Daddy is just annoyed about something at work. That's all."

"Is that true?" She looked on curiosity.

Yuji scoffed at me as he strode toward the 7 year old with a menacing glare. My eyes widened in horror as he rose his hand to strike her.

"Yuji!" He called his name and reached out. "Yuji! YUJI DON'T!"

And then he swiftly-


"SHANA, WAKE UP!"

My eyes shot open and I quickly sat up in my bed, panting hard and drenched in sweat. I'm pretty sure I was crying to.

"Shana," My eyes widened at the voice next to me. He looked to my side and saw the worried expression on my husband's face. But...was this the real Yuji? "Shana, are you okay? It looked like you were having a pretty bad nightmare."

He tried to bring his arms around my body to embrace me, but for some reason and for the first time in my life ever since I met him, I jumped away and backed away from the bed. For the first time since we had gotten together, I looked at Yuji, the man I loved in fear.

"Shana..." He stood up out of the bed with a confused expression as he approached me. "What's wrong?" He tried to reach his hand out to grab mine, but I stumbled back into the desk behind me, knocking off a few papers and writing utensils in the process.

"Shana..." That's when I saw the hurt expression that was written across my lover's face. "It almost seems like...you're scared of me." He looked into my eyes. "Shana, what happened in that nightmare?"

I looked at Yuji for a few moments before looking away. Tears fell from my eyes as I recalled what happened in that dream. "In that dream you..." I sobbed into my hand. "You weren't you..."

"I wasn't me?" He was confused. "What do you mean?"

"You're always so kind, sweet, thoughtful, loving and caring." I sobbed. "But in my dream, you were..." The sobbing continued. "Mean, aggressive, abusive-"

That word caught his attention. "What do you abusive?"

"All throughout that dream you kept..." I grit my teeth and shook my head. Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders causing me to look up. I tensed up as I realized he was holding onto my shoulders.

"Shana," He spoke with concern. "What do you mean I was abusive? Was I...hitting you in that dream? Was I hitting you and Mana?"

I looked down and slowly nodded. "Yes,"

Then, I felt Yuji tightly wrap his arms around my body and bring into a tight embrace. I tensed up a bit when did so, but eventually relaxed into his hold. I knew this was Yuji. The real one. The one that's always so loving, sweet and caring. The one I didn't need to be scared of.

"Shana," He released me from the hug and looked me straight in the eyes with a serious expression. "You have no reason to fear me. You know I would never put my hands on you or Mana like that. I would never try to hurt either you or her like that."

I smiled. "I know you wouldn't."

He smiled and hugged me again. "I would be a fool to try and hurt the both of you intentionally. You two are my entire world. I would never hurt the two of you on purpose." He lightly kissed the side of my head and cheek. "You two matter to me more than anything else in the entire world. There's no way I would hit or do anything else to harm either of you."

"I know you wouldn't," I lifted my head. "I'm sorry I was so scared of you just now. I was just a bit shaken up."

"It's okay," He kissed my forehead several times. "Come on, let's get back to bed."

I curled back up into the bed next my sweet and loving husband, curling further and further into his side as he ran his hand through the thick, raven locks on my head and repeatedly kissed my forehead. I was still a bit tense by his touch, but soon eased up. I didn't need to be afraid of Yuji, he never hurt either Mana or myself. I wasn't going to let some persona of Yuji interfere with my judgement of the real Yuji.

I believed him when he said that Mana and I were his entire world. He would never harm us on purpose.