Aster awoke with a groan.

Somehow, he was still exhausted. His arms and legs remained heavy even as he lay in his bed. He stayed there for a while, just feeling himself come back to his senses. It had been a while since he felt quite this tired. He might even have dozed off a couple of times in between without realizing, it was far from impossible. No bad thing, he felt rather inclined to be lazy. Although his mind wasn't quite fully functioning yet, he was inclined to assume that he could afford to take things easy right now as there were no alarms going off and no assistants or managers frantically dialling his phone to let him know that he was in danger of running late. No, this must have been one of those blessed days where nobody required anything from him and he could do what he wanted. Right now, he was inclined to concentrate his efforts on getting some more rest.

He was curious to see what time it was though. It was one of those odd things, tired though he was something was still niggling at the back of his mind. Hopefully it wasn't an appointment which he'd missed. He managed to pull himself together enough to creak open his eyelids. It was bright inside, he must have forgotten to close his blinds. Shifting round, he searched for his clock.

It was then that in the corner of a room he spotted a dark figure. It startled him, causing him to sit bolt upright. Instinctively, he tried to get to his feet. His feet became tangled in his sheets, causing him to tumble out of his bed unceremoniously, crashing into his bedside table as he went. The pain and fight proved themselves to be enough to wake him up fully. Despite the decidedly inelegant start, Aster was quick to jump up, ready to face whatever was lurking inside the cabin with him.

Fear was quickly replaced with irritation, made only worse by some embarrassment.

"What's the big idea?!"
"The big idea? You're the one who decided to take beauty sleep to an all new level!"

Aster frowned, not quite sure just what it was that the spirit was getting at. He couldn't even remember falling asleep. It felt as if he'd just plain old collapsed. He searched around the room for some sort of clue as to just what it was that Zane was getting at. He found himself to be dirty. He'd allowed his suit to just fall onto the floor. Whilst he certainly had a good number to spare, he wasn't that careless with them for all that. Worse, he hadn't even bothered to take off his shoes. Who went to bed in their shoes?

With some effort, he managed to cast his mind back to the events that had brought him back to his yacht.

He remembered the baking heat as he's struggled along his strength leached in its entirety. He'd scarcely even been capable of walking straight. Every step that he'd taken, it had felt as if he was about to collapse. Somewhere along the way, he'd emptied his stomach. Still, he'd forced himself to continue on. Aware that the alternative was waiting it out somewhere in the middle of the island. He could remember falling a few times. That was probably what had dirtied his suit. Zane had been there accompanying him in silence for much of the way. Perhaps he'd been delirious, he could almost recall hearing him offer a couple of encouraging words as he'd fought the last couple of yards and fallen for a last time. He had made it back, just in time to collapse onto his bed.

He peered over towards his clock, keen to see just what time it was so as to attempt to work out just how long he'd been out. It felt like a while and Zane's words only seemed to confirm that much.

"It's twenty past four four."
"Four? Feels like longer."
"It is. Today's Tuesday..."

He closed his eyes and groaned. He wasn't even going to begin to think about what he'd missed or the implications for such a lengthy sleep. He wasn't entirely sure that he'd ever indulged in such a lengthy slumber previously. Oh well… That was 26 hours of his life he wasn't getting back. As his memory returned, he found himself to still be a little shaky on his legs. His stomach however was beginning to rumble, reminding him that he needed food if he wanted to have even the faintest chance of recovering.

"Have you been there all night?" He asked, a mixture of genuinely curious and trying to distract himself from the lingering feeling of unwellness.
"Yes."
"Why?!"
"Because you practically passed out and I wasn't sure if you'd wake up."
"So what? You were worried about me?" He didn't get a response. "Aw… How sweet!"

Teasing Zane and the cold glare it earned him made him feel only moderately better. He suspected this state of weakness was something which was going to be bothering him for at least the rest of the day. He drifted through into the kitchen area of his yacht, working almost on autopilot and not particularly caring if he was followed or not.

He needed food and didn't particularly care just what it was that he got his teeth into. Actually, he would have quite liked a steak but that required some cooking or placing an order for it to be prepared for him and he honestly couldn't face that right now. Rummaging through the cupboards, he was able to find a packet of rice. Somewhat mindlessly and carelessly, he emptied a portion of the packet into a pot. Filling it with water before putting it on the stove and turning the gas up to full reasoning that it would boil faster as a result.

"Humour me and put some salt in that, would you? You're making my stomach turn and I don't have to eat the stuff."
"Oh what are you a chef now?"

Zane just rolled his eyes but didn't add anything, as if to say "You want it to be inedible. Your loss." With a certain amount of reluctance, the younger of the two duellists reminded himself which of the two of them was objectively the better cook and decided that he had better take his advice. It took him another couple of minutes to find the salt. He hesitated a few seconds, pride preventing him from asking his companion just how much it was that he was supposed to add. After a moment, he was able to recall and put it in without further ceremony.

He turned on the fan in an effort to combat the heat which continued to radiate through his home. The memories of just what had occurred had come back to him now. He groaned, resting himself against the counter as he waited for the waters to boil:

"Are you okay?" Zane questioned after a few moments.
"What?"
"Don't tell me you're deaf."
"Struggling to believe my ears..." He replied with a slight shake of the head. "Zane, you didn't bother asking to make sure if I was alright in the Dark World when we were being chased by hordes of goblins and demons. What's changed now?"
"Forget that I said anything..."

Zane looked elsewhere, his stiff gruffness returning. He always found the other man to be difficult to read: so often he seemed to be angry at the world, a raging typhoon determined to dismantle anything that got in his way and then sometimes, just occasionally, he caught a brief glimpse of something else, something different. He might have called it sorrow. It was far from impossible, Aster reasoned. After all, he'd been dying throughout most of their time together in the Dark World, carefully guarding his suffering so that nobody else was aware. It must have been eating away at him the whole time. Now, he found himself trapped as a ghost, unable to touch, to be heard by almost anyone else around. That might be his fate forever… He had good reason to be glum.

The realization caused Aster to ease up a little. He wasn't entirely sure just what might have caused Zane to be… Considerate – for lack of a better word - but he had something of an idea.

"What about you?"
"Hm..."
"When I was looking for you and my body, I eavesdropped on a few of the others when they came back. Sounded like that world or whatever it was was pretty rough."

He'd heard talk of nightmares. Terrible events repeated again and again in an endless loop. It had been described as "hell" by some. All of them seemed to be different however, as if they were tailor made for each and everyone who was suffering from them. Some exchanged willingly the tales of what they had been forced to live through, presumably because it either helped or because they weren't as bothered by it whilst others remained more guarded.

Zane seemed to be of the latter category. He didn't add anything, no insight into what he might have been forced to live through. Instead, he looked down at his right hand, as if searching for something.

"Thank you." Aster spoke after a few moments.
"For what?"
"Taking my place… You saved me."
"Hardly. You've have been stuck without a body."
"True but Zane…" His voice trailed off, wondering if it would be entirely wise for him to continue. "I found the body of my murdered father when I was just a boy. I can imagine what I would have seen. So yeah, thank you."

He earned a grumble as a response.

The water had boiled, so he got his rice and served himself a bowl full. His manners, which usually he took the utmost care to keep up at all times, were abandoned as his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten in 26 hours. In fact, it had been empty for longer than that given that he'd left his previous meal at the base of a tree somewhere. As such, he wolfed it down as quickly as possible in an attempt to satiate his hunger. It didn't matter that the food was a little bland purely because of its nature. It was still food. Even Zane's somewhat surprised look didn't phase him.

"What happened to you?" The spirit asked after a short while.
"Well… I forgot about you as soon as you were taken. I forgot about everyone who was taken. So I was sort of this ghost thing wandering around but I couldn't even remember why! I found Jaden, he was duelling that Nightshroud thing. He defeated him. Then you guys came back and so did my memory. I found you. That's about it."

Zane didn't respond, appearing to be distracted once more. Aster didn't pry, instead focusing on eating the last of his rice. He might add something a little more substantial to the carbohydrate later on but for the time being, it had done him at least some good, allowing him to recover some of the strength which had been taken from him. He was in the middle of pondering what to do next. Curiously enough, whilst he'd only just awoken from a lengthy slumber, he felt quite confident that he would find some more sleep in a few hours. The rest of today would be reserved for being lazy, it was about the only thing that he could manage.

"What are they planning for the graduation week?"
"Don't really know…" Aster paused, attempting to recall the exact details. "A few duels, some parties… Why?"
"No reason..."

There would be a reason. He knew Zane well enough to know his words to be some form of code for "I don't really feel like sharing that with you". Whether it was because of a lack of trust or more likely the man himself wasn't entirely sure just what he intended, Aster couldn't have said. Once more, he let things lie too tired to try his luck. He couldn't even face the washing up. Instead, he got to his feet and made his way into the lounge, dragging his feet as he went. Once more, his ghostly companion followed.

Aster paid him little attention, collapsing into the couch and turning on a nearby television. Right now, he didn't care what Zane thought of him.

"I'm telling you. I'm done with all this madness! No more shadow duels or saving the world! From here on out, I'm sticking to normal stuff…"
"Ghosts aside?"
"Can they be quiet and watch some television?"
"Sometimes."
"Then they can stay."

For the faintest of moments, he even thought that Zane might have smiled.