Chapter Twenty: Dream?

Heart:
I wandered the familiar streets for a while before I realized I was home again. My heart leapt with joy as I then began running, turning the corner to find the house of my childhood. Inside I could hear Nosedive and Wildwing calling for me excitedly as though we were heading somewhere together, possibly to meet up with Canard.
However as I hurried up to the door and reached to open it the building itself faded away. It were as though the very structure had been made of smoke and mist. Soon the very streets I walked on followed after, vanishing with every step I made. Again I ran to try and keep up with what was left of the sidewalk.
"Please! I just want to go home!" I begged as I continued to run.
Behind me the sights I had taken in on Earth began to follow me. Soon enough Anaheim formed around me and closed me in.
"Stop! I just want my home! I want my family!" I cried as I held my head in my feathered hands desperately.
Then suddenly I found myself on the ice of the hockey rink from that moring. Only difference was I was in my own skates from back home. I was also in my stealth suit of burgundy and black. My gloved hands pulled away from my head slowly as I looked over them in confusion.
"Heart!" He called out to me as my heart leapt to my throat.
I looked out ahead of me, searching the darkly lit rink. Again I couldn't see him despite his voice ringing louder than before.
"Stop torturing me!" I shouted, "Stop calling to me if you aren't there!"
"Heart?" He asked as his voice caused my heart to begin to crack.
I tried to blink tears out of my eyes as I looked away.
"Where are we?" He then asked bewildered, "Where are you?"
I looked up confused to hear these questions. This time I saw his sillouette across the ice from me. With some shred of hope I skated up to him. Even if he were merely a dream at least I could see him for a brief moment I thought.
"Duke!" I cried as the shadows over him began to wash away with a soft light we didn't know the source of.
Perhaps the moonlight itself was granting us a gift as I looked to see him holding his hand out to me. No longer on the ice in skates I ran to him and reached out for his outstretched hand.
To my surprise he wrapped his fingers tightly around my hand, his grasp feeling as real as it ever had. Then he pulled me into his arms as he embraced me, "Heart! Thank the Great Mother you're okay!"
His lean frame felt so warm in my grip as I wrapped my arms around him.
"Duke? Is it you? Or are you a dream?" I heard myself ask in disbelief.
"No sweetheart, it's me," he told me.
"How do I know that? How do I know my heart isn't driving me mad like before?"
"Before?" He enquired.
"I thought I heard you a few times today, but you weren't there?"
"What did I say?" He asked gently.
His words echoed in the dreamscape of my mind in answer to him.
"I...I did say those things Heart...when I was in the temple we said our vows in..."
I had no way of knowing this without... I looked up at him with widened blue eyes, "Duke?!"

Duke:
"I told ya it wasn't me darlin'," I insisted as I tried to dry her tearful sapphire eyes with my fingers now.
Looking at her in my hands I knew that it was her. It were as though her very spirit had called out to me across worlds to give us a thread to hold onto.
Again she threw her arms around me, holding me as tightly as she could. I in turn did the same as though we were both afraid to let go of the other.
"Where are ya?" I asked, "What happened?"
"I don't know...I was right behind you and somehow I stepped through a doorway that opened and then closed before I could run back through. I don't know how to get home!" She told me as she clung to me.
"Heart, I'm goin' ta find ya! I swear I'll find a way to ya!" I promised as I looked into her eyes that I already missed so much.
"Duke..." she murmurred as she gazed up at me as though trying to memorize my face before she could wake up.
"How are we able to see each other?" She then wondered aloud.
"I'm not sure," I admitted, "Perhaps your magic? Or maybe somethin' connectin' us even though we're worlds apart?"

Heart:
Around us an odd light began to creep up, the dreamscape we stood in began to fade away.
"No! I don't want to let go!" I exclaimed as I looked up at him after noticing what was happening, "I want to be back with you! I want to go home!"
"Heart, look at me my love," Duke told me with a determined expression in his eye, "I will find ya! Ya have ta hang on okay? Stay safe for me an' don't give up on us okay?"
"Duke..."
"I will find ya, I swear ta ya Heart," he told me as he held me close to him, "Whatever it takes, I will steal ya back!"
Then he looked over me once more with a comforting smile, "At least we have a way ta see one another if only for a little while?"
I nodded my head as I fought back the tears trying to blur my vision.
The light grew harsher around us and it felt as though we were beginning to be pulled away from each other. Our hands grasped the others tightly as he pulled me close to him briefly again, this time stealing a kiss before saying to me with a charming smile, "I love ya sweetheart. Don't give up on us okay?"
"I won't...I love you my thief." I said with a strong smile of my own.
With that the harsh light pulled us apart from each other. Then I opened my eyes to find myself still in the apartment on Earth. Placing my hands over my face I tried desperately to wipe the tears that I had been crying even in my sleep.
"Duke..." I whispered without a voice as I choked back the sobs in my throat.
Beside me on the table was the music player that I reached over and turned on. Listening to the song I had discovered the day before I sat up slowly to try and calm myself down. Once I was sure I could stop shaking I began to draw some more as I made sure every detail was there. Seeing him, if only in our dreams, somehow connected even beyond dimensions and worlds, made it easier to make certain he was as I knew him to be.
"I won't give up Duke," I swore as I looked at his drawn face, "I will see you again."
With this promise over a completed drawing I closed the book in my hands. Then fatigue took over once more as I hugged it close to my chest and drifted off to a dreamless sleep for now. Though this time I felt it a lot easier to try at least.
"I won't give up," I promised him once more.