Beep. Beep. Beep. I hate that noise. Hospital heart monitors always remind me of my childhood. What a joke. I must be dreaming again. I don't think any of the hospitals are in operation anymore. Okay, so this is just another dream. So why does it hurt? IV cords. Thin blankets. Sleepy medicine. It's all too real. The blue and white color scheme just makes it worse, although it's apparently supposed to calm down patients.

I look around some more. No one. No nurses, no doctors, and of course no visitors. That's fine. I don't want this. I hate hospitals way too much. They are a painful reminder of all the misfortune in my life. My heart is tightening at it all. It hurts. I know this is a dream, but god it hurts. The more I try to ignore it, the worse it gets. Tightening more until my chest feels like it'll pop. I press the nurse button. Again and again. Nothing. One more time? Still nothing. Finally, it happens.

I cough up some blood. The taste is even worse than expected. Even after coughing, the tension in my chest won't leave. Help. Someone help me. The heart monitor is flatline. The pain is still here. Although I know it's pointless, I keep pressing the nurse button. Everything hurts. What's wrong with me? Make it stop. Please, wake up.

I wake up to the same plain hotel room I've been staying in for I'm not even sure how long. No monitors or anything, just my body in anxiety. Ugh. Another nightmare. It wasn't even a new one, so why does it get to me? Why did I even have it? It's not like anything brought up those memories. Whatever. I'll just try to clear my head. I could go on another walk, maybe. Nighttime isn't any more or less dangerous than any other time.

Quietly, I go down to the lobby. An unsettlingly abandoned looking lobby, usually. Not tonight. Instead, the long haired hope himself was there. Unexpected. "Can't sleep?" I ask while walking up to him. "Did you hear the gun shots? That woke me up, but luckily or not the shooter got silenced." Hm. Gunshots? They were probably shooting at the monokumas. Doubt that would do anything. "I didn't even notice. I just happened to wake up and couldn't go back to sleep." Bringing up the dream wouldn't do any good, so I left it out.

"Ah." Izuru didn't offer to cuddle earlier, expectedly. I wonder if that would've stopped the nightmare. "I am glad something woke me, I had a dream about her." He speaks in the same, flat tone. A dream about Junko Enoshima? Maybe that wouldve been better than what I had. "What happened in it? If you want to talk about it, I know it's not your forte." I sit close to him, but not as close as I want. "She was asking if despair won, then would continue to jokingly flirt with me when I would not answer." Junko... Just thinking of that bitch flirting with him makes me want to look at her corpse again to make sure she's really dead.

Now is not the time to get jealous. Am I dumb? "I'm sorry. That definitely sounds like her. Don't worry, I know despair won't win. Hope always overcomes even the worst tragedies the world has to offer. Seeing as far as things have gotten here, only means the good to be born from this will be relentlessly amazing!" Of course, I can manage to guide the conversation off her. I can't think about her too much. "Unlike you, Komaeda, I have no favorite side. Only the side that gives me something interesting." Hearing him say my name always gets me a bit off guard, even if he only started saying it. I already clued in on his unbias, but it's still unfortunate.

Seeing his hair a bit messy from sleep makes me want to brush it again while talking about why hope is better, although I don't think he wants that right now.

"I see. Well, I knew you joined despair all because you were convinced it'd be interesting, right? A-"

"Not because I wanted to. I would have stayed alone and unbiased if it were not for her. If she would have only left me alone, none of this would be so bad. I wish I could j-"

After cutting himself off with a deep breath, Izuru looks at the floor. Woah, was he actually mad? I couldn't really tell. His voice barely changed. Hm. "Sorry. I got carried away. My point is that I would never have chose this on my own." I keep looking at him. He's just so pretty. Regardless of what he's doing, I could watch forever. Stop! Now is not the time for that. "It's okay! You didn't do anything wrong." I want to hug him so he knows I'm being genuine, but I don't want to make him uncomfortable. "You have told me many times before that you only joined the side of despair to prive your point of hope. Seeing someone so passionate about something as vague as that, is truly bizarre at times."

Bizarre? I guess that's one way to put it. "It's happened to you at least a couple times now just opposite sides." I smile at Izuru. My heart is finally healed from the anxiety of my dream. He's definitely good at calming me without realizing it. "Admittedly, I am unsure if that is good or bad." He finally looks at me again. With a second of consideration, he asks: "Can I hug you?" Wow. That's something I would ask. Instead of giving a verbal answer, I just hug him probably way too tightly. He takes a moment to hug back. This is the good luck to spring from that awful dream! Worth every dreadful second.

"Your hands are cold." Izuru says that after a bit and stops the hug. Huh? "You could tell through your shirt?" I knew my body was cold, but really? "Yes. I assume it comes from bad circulation." He looks at my face like I'm someone that matters. Is he really that lonely? "Yeah. Right on the money." Slowly but surely, Izuru takes one of my hands in his own. The warmth of them took me off guard. I can feel my face making a really dumb expression, but this feeling is too good for me to care. Ah, I should really say something. "A-Are you really warm or is that just how most people feel?"

Unfortunately, my lovely lets go of my hand after that. "I believe I have slightly higher temperature." Now that I'm not mentally melting over his touch, I realize my face is warm. Great. Before I could embarrass myself any more, I yawn. What time is it anyway? "You should go back to sleep." Izuru nonchalantly comments. He pauses for a second, thinking about something. "If you would like, you could come with me." His flat tone and expression still stay the same. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was embarrassed. "You don't mind cuddling up to someone like me?"

With no response, he walked over towards his room. I follow, being overly happy for an opportunity like this. "Why are you letting me?" I ask as soon as I'm right beside him. He doesn't answer while he unlocks the door. "Why are you letting me doing this, especially twice in a row?" I ask again when we're inside his unmade and fancy room. "I want to get used to touch." He says like it was nothing. I only nod. I suppose anything would be good enough as long as I can cuddle up to him again. The safety of it was heaven in this nightmare world. With both of us already in our night clothes, we lay on that fluffy bed.

After a moment of shuffling, we end up in a similar place like before. Soothing. Even now, my body is so easily comforted by the littlest of affection. I feel like I'm melting. No! I don't wanna cry again. It'll make him creeped out. "I had a safe dream with you here. Another dream of her and I know it will only get worse." Izuru speaks, interrupting my overthinking. "Safe? Like what?" I ask without much analysis. My mind is comforted enough to sleep right away, although not even an hour ago was my reoccurring nightmare.

Izuru pet me for a second, without any warning. Hm. "Everything was..." He yawns before finishing his sentence. "... peaceful." Before I could ask anything, I realize that he's already half asleep. I'm not complaining. Even in sleep, he's really pretty. The safe feeling from last night is lulling me already.