This fic. Doesn't want to end. This chapter was supposed to be short and nice wrap-up, but no. Things just can't be that simple. Well, at least it's done now.

I wonder when I'll learn that my fics have a tendency to become much longer than I imagine. There was that one fic, once, I said was supposed to be a one-shot but would have two chapters… well, it ended up having five chapters, I think. And in every chapter I claimed that the next one will be the last.

But anyway, here you are. The final chapter of this fic which is like more than twice as long as I thought it'd be. I hope you enjoy it! ^^

chapter 5: waking time

The nightmare is gone. The toddler is still there on the floor, crying. Gakuhou looks down at him. Then he looks around. "Gakushuu?"

The child looks up. "Papa?" he asks with a teary voice.

"Not you," Gakuhou says. What happened to the real Gakushuu? Did he slip away into another dream? Surely he didn't just wake up.

"Actually, that is him," Gilbert says softly, coming to stand by his side. "Cannot you see it?"

The portly man gives a sigh when Gakuhou keeps on staring at the toddler, brows furrowed. The child looks up at them, still frightened, large tears rolling down his cheeks.

Suddenly the man is gone and Gakuhou is standing on a green meadow. The child is sitting right by water's edge, and that sight makes him strangely nervous. Large, colorful fish swim right under the surface, and Gakushuu is staring at them, eyes wide, fear forgotten.

Have you never had a dream where you were a child again?

"Thankfully I've been spared," Gakuhou says dryly. "If I did, it would probably be a nightmare." And he has had his fill of nightmares for the rest of his life. "…Gakushuu, be careful you don't drop in," he says automatically when the toddler bends down to peek closer at the fish.

Even if he did, I can assure you he would not be in any danger.

Gakuhou says nothing.

…why do you fear water?

He remains quiet. But even so, he already thought of…

"This place is beautiful!" a voice exclaims behind his back. "You were right, big brother, this is the perfect place for a picnic!"

Kyuko and Ikeda walk by him and sit down next to Gakushuu. She is already taking her shoes off. "Oh, the water is warm!"

"Look at those fish!" Ikeda exclaims. He's kneeling by the water, staring into it. "Sensei, what are they?"

Gakuhou remains quiet.

"I destroyed one nightmare just to enter another?" he says then, annoyed.

The wind chuckles. Never before have I been called a nightmare. And, Gakuhou… I don't want to disappoint you, but you did not destroy the Corinthian. You don't possess the power to do that. You merely drove him out of your dream.

"By taking control of it," Gakuhou says sharply.

There is another laugh. If that is how you wish to think about it. But this… what makes this a nightmare? This is a good memory, isn't it?

"Memory only partially. Ikeda and Gakushuu don't belong into it, they weren't even born when we had this picnic… by the same river into which my sister drowned just a few months later."

I see. There is a moment of silence. Gakuhou, the winds sighs then. I know you think this is only a dream, that they are nothing but fragments of your imagination, and as such without real significance. And you are not wrong. But still, this can be so much more. If you use them to pry into your own soul, you can learn much about yourself. Just try talking with them, why don't you?

"No. I have nothing to say to them." He shakes his head in annoyance. "Isn't death cruel enough? Why can't dreams leave old wounds be?"

Death, cruel? No… no, my dear boy. Death is never cruel, that is an attribute of life. I would say that Death is the kindest of the Endless. Perhaps that, at least, can give you comfort… that at the moment when they died, they weren't alone, but… met by an old friend. As for dreams… isn't that simply one of their functions?

Gakuhou shakes his head again and walks to the three who dangle their feet in the water. "Gakushuu. It is time for you to wake up."

The child looks up at him. "Do you mean time to go to bed, papa?"

"No. You are sleeping. This is a dream. You have to wake up."

The boy stands up, frowning and still a child. "…how?"

Gakuhou pauses to think. True… the boy did say something about a false awakening, didn't he? They should be careful not to repeat that.

"Gilbert," he says aloud, "how can I wake him?"

I don't know. Normally dreamers wake up quite easily, especially after they realize they are dreaming.

"But this isn't normally," Gakuhou muses and tries to remember something. "What did that nightmare say? Something about your lord being gone?"

Yes, the wind sighs. Lord Morpheus disappeared a while ago, and since then, nothing has been quite right.

"What do you think happened? Could he have died?"

Even if this personification did, there would be another to take his place. Something like this has never happened before. And I mean never.

So if he were found… Gakuhou thinks.

You do realize he could be anywhere in the universe. He could be in Heaven, he could be in Hell, he could be in some other dimension. The only thing that is certain is that he is not in the Dreaming.

While they were talking Gakushuu grew up. Gakuhou isn't sure when that happened, he just suddenly realizes the boy isn't a little child anymore, but back to his correct age. Well, any progress is welcome.

Gakushuu is frowning. "Who are you talking with, father? What is this… I…" His frown deepens. "There was… someone? Why can't I remember… I think I fell… from the Eiffel tower? No, you fell. Wait, that can't be right." He shoots a confused look at Ikeda and Kyuko who are still sitting by the river. "They fell, too, didn't they? Who are they? Why did you jump after them?"

"I told you, you're dreaming," Gakuhou says a little irritably. "It was nothing but a dream."

"Oh." Somehow Gakushuu doesn't look quite convinced. Maybe he too can feel it in the air, a gentle rebuke.

Gakuhou…

"It doesn't matter," he says sharply. "What matters is waking you up. You've been sleeping for over two weeks."

That got Gakushuu's attention. "Two weeks?! Why didn't you say that right away! Damn it!" He starts pacing back and forth. "That means I've missed two weeks of school, and all the student council meetings, and… who's taking care of the council president's duties?"

"Sakakibara, at the moment."

Gakushuu swore again. "He's got too much in his hands, I'll have so much to do when I… how do I wake?"

For a moment they stare at each other. Then Gakushuu closes his eyes. "Wake up, wake up, wake up…" Gakuhou can hear him muttering, a frown of deep concentration on his forehead.

Like father like son, the wind sighs.

"I don't think you can force yourself awake," Gakuhou says. "Sit down. I'll teach you how…"

"Oh! What are you teaching, big brother? May I join the class?"

"Me too!"

Gakushuu has sat down, and both Kyuko and Ikeda plop down next to him. The boy gives them a confused look.

"No," Gakuhou snaps. "You two get the—!" He takes a deep breath. Calm down. This is your own dream – if you get mad at them, you're simply getting mad at yourself.

A moment he just breathes, thinking of the scene in front of him. He removes first Kyuko from the picture, then Ikeda. Then, just to be sure, the river as well. Only Gakushuu remains, sitting in front of him, waiting for the lesson to begin.

He opens his eyes. Kyuko and Ikeda are gone. So is the river. In fact, the entire meadow where they were has disappeared. Instead they are in 3-E's classroom. Gakushuu is sitting at a desk in the front row, he is standing by the blackboard.

Gakuhou sighs. This is beginning to get tiresome. But never mind that, the location doesn't ultimately matter.

Gakushuu is looking around, confused. "Father, why are we here?"

"That doesn't matter. Listen carefully now, we're going to do some exercises to increase your ability to keep a track of all that is going on here."

Gakushuu is a good student. He has always known that, and it is proved once again. The boy might in fact learn even faster than Gakuhou did. Thinking of that he feels at the same time pride and strange annoyance, but he ignores those feelings. The faster his son learns, the faster they get out of here.

The point of the last exercise is to help the boy remember all that has happened in his dreams. That takes quite long – but on the other hand, Gakushuu has been sleeping considerably longer than him.

Finally the boy blinks and opens his eyes. "Are you sure I've only slept two weeks? I've dreamed so much it could fill two months…" He's staring into emptiness, distant look on his face. "Ren was there… and Akabane and Shiota and my elementary school teacher… and president Obama gave me a pellet gun to save the world, and some astronaut, I think it was Neil Armstrong, was walking his dog – which supposedly was Laika though it was a St Bernard with a barrel – in the school yard and I told him that's not allowed… and then we were playing basketball, but the balls were pumpkins and they kept on falling apart. And then…"

"I think that's enough," Gakuhou cuts him off. "Now you should…"

"I wrote a poem," Gakushuu goes on, not listening. "In a poetry competition against Yuzuru Hanyu. It was probably awful, but I was really proud of it. It was about…" he frowns, "snails? Or stars? No, about stars that are snails. Doesn't matter. The point is that all the time…" he looks at his father, eyes sharp, "all the time I was looking for you. I forgot about it at times, or then I couldn't even remember why I needed to find you, but I kept on trying to. And then I did. On that bridge. And those two who were at the river, they were there too. And they jumped. And you followed them." He pauses and looks his father in the eye. "Who are they?"

"Why do you think I would know the people of your dreams?" Gakuhou says. "It's all irrelevant anyway. You—"

"No." Gakushuu shakes his head. "They weren't a part of my dream. They were yours. It was you there on that bridge, wasn't it?"

Gakuhou gives him a long look. The boy meets his gaze directly. "As I said, it's irrelevant. Next you should…"

"I don't think it's irrelevant," Gakushuu says softly, talking over him. "Anything but. That was your dream. Your nightmare. I want to know the truth. Whose suicide were you dreaming about?"

Gakuhou says nothing. His son smirks a little.

"Plagued by nightmares? Is that why you sleep so ridiculously little? Kind of pathetic, don't you think?"

"You insolent—!" Gakuhou takes a step toward the boy, his hand raising. Gakushuu flinches, very slightly, it is barely more than a blink of eyes, but even so… Gakuhou suddenly sees himself hitting the boy across the room. He pauses. Lowers his hand. "My dreams," he says slowly, "are private. We do not discuss them."

"Oh? Then we have nothing to talk about, I guess." Gakushuu stands up and starts walking to the door.

"…what?" Gakuhou grasps hurriedly his shoulder. "What the hell is wrong with you? Did you forget already? You've been sleeping for two weeks! We need to figure out a way to wake you up!"

"Oh?" Gakushuu turns to look at him. "Why are you so invested in this anyway? If I'm foolish enough to get lost in my own dreams, shouldn't that be my problem?"

"You…" Gakuhou doesn't even know what to say to that. "Sit down. We need to conduct experiments to find out how you can return to reality."

Gakushuu wrenches himself free. "Perhaps I don't want to return," he says, walking out of the door.

"What…" Gakuhou hurries after him. Better not to lose the sight of him, or they might get separated again. They walk down a white-walled corridor that is not a part of the mountain top building. Gakuhou ignores it. Where they are doesn't matter. What does matter is that his son is clearly losing his mind. "Stop talking nonsense! Why wouldn't you?"

"Maybe for the very fact you want me to!" Gakushuu opens the door at the end of the corridor. They enter a greenhouse with never-ending rows of bushes full of strawberries.

"So you're just doing the opposite to spite me? Are you out of your damn mind!"

Gakushuu has paused. He picks a large red strawberry and examines it carefully.

"I prefer cherries," he says then and takes a bite. He smiles. "Excellent. Try one, why don't you?"

Gakuhou glares at him. Then, just to check things out, he takes one strawberry and eats it. It's the juiciest cherry he has ever had.

"Thanks for the lesson," the boy says. "I'm sure I enjoy my dreams a lot more now that I know how to handle everything."

"You cannot mean you would prefer dreams over reality. That you would rather stay here playing make-believe and let your body in the real world just waste away." He walks after the boy who started again wandering around among the strawberries. Which do not grow in large bushes like this, but again, that is irrelevant. "Asano-kun! Are you listening to me!"

"Yes, dad," the boy says lightly, not looking at him. "At the moment I still am. Though I can't understand why."

"What of all your plans? Your ambitions? Do you imagine that dreams," he all but snarls the word, "are enough to fulfil them?"

Gakushuu has stopped. He is standing with his back to his father, and Gakuhou can't see his face. "Perhaps," he says very quietly, "dreams are the only thing that is enough." He starts walking again, slowly, head a little bowed.

A moment Gakuhou just stares after him. "I'm not leaving you here," he says then, and with a few brisk steps reaches the boy, grasping his shoulder again and forcing him to stop. "If I have to drag you out of these dreams kicking and screaming, I'll bloody well do that!"

"Why?" Gakushuu shouts suddenly, spinning around. "Since when do you care about what happens to me?"

"Of course I care!" Gakuhou is shouting too, though he really shouldn't let the boy provoke him so. "You're my son, remember?"

"I wish I could forget!" Gakushuu all but screams. "Maybe I'll use the dreams for that! Actively forget you ever existed!"

"Asano-kun," Gakuhou begins, slightly stunned. A part of him is enraged at the audacity of his son, but the boy's sudden vehemence overrides his anger.

"I've got a name! Why did you give me a name, such a stupid-ass name too, if you never use it?!"

There is a strange, sickeningly sweet smell in the air. Gakuhou realizes the strawberries are rotting all around them. Gakushuu seems to notice it too. The boy shoots a scowling look around and stalks by his father, heading out of the greenhouse.

Gakuhou follows him. The boy walks through empty rooms one after another, slamming the doors open in front of him. Room by room, his anger seems to be relenting; his steps slow, the doors slam a little less forcefully. Finally he stops in the middle of yet another empty, white-walled room.

"You know why I was trying to find you in my dreams?" he says. Gakuhou remains quiet. "I needed to prove to you I'm good enough. I knew it'd be impossible, but I had to try. Even in dreams… I never can live up to your expectations. Actually, if I ever dream of you, it's a nightmare."

They are both quiet for a long while. Gakuhou can't help thinking of the scene he walked into in his own living room: himself choking Gakushuu.

"…if I ever dream of my parents," he says quietly, "it's a nightmare, too."

Now he walks by his son and pushes open the next door. Behind it is the 3-E classroom. He walks in. "Come." Gakushuu remains standing in the doorway, and he gestures with his hand. "If you want to know about them, come in and sit down. I won't speak of these things in reality. But perhaps in a dream I can try."

Gakushuu walks in and sits at the same desk where he had been sitting in before. Gakuhou walks to the teacher's desk. He isn't surprised to see a roll book on it. He wouldn't need it to read the three names he knows it holds, but he picks it still up and opens it.

"Asano Gakushuu," he says. His son raises an eyebrow at him, but answers still.

"Present."

"Asano Kyuko," he says next.

"Present!" a voice replies brightly. Gakushuu gives a start and turns to look at the girl sitting next to him. She smiles at him brightly.

"Asano…?"

"Ikeda Rikuto," Gakuhou goes on.

"Present!" a familiar voice replies.

Gakushuu looks behind. Ikeda is sitting in the second to last row.

"Seeing as this is the first class, why don't we start with introductions," Gakuhou says. "Kyuko, would you go first?"

"Of course!" She bounces to her feet and comes to the front. "Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Asano Kyuko. I'm 17, I love animals, especially cats and dogs, and I like children too! My dream is to go back to Japan and be an elementary school teacher!"

"Go back…?" Gakushuu says. "Where are you from?"

"Japan! Or so I like to think. But we moved to US when I was six and I don't really remember much of my childhood in Japan… I've always wanted to visit, but we've never made any vacation trips there." She laughs a little. "…well, my parents are all about studying and we never make any vacation trips anywhere. But there was this one time a couple of years ago, when mother's cousin turned 50, and mother took me with her there. I think big brother was pretty jealous," she adds with a smile at Gakuhou. "He wanted to come too but couldn't cause he was busy with his studies."

Gakushuu is gawking. "Bi-big brother? Wait what? You, are you…" His eyes are darting desperately between his father and the girl, registering the resemblance. "You mean I've got an aunt?!"

"Well, not really," Kyuko says happily. "I'm dead."

"Oh!" Ikeda exclaims from the back. "Guess what, I'm too!"

Gakushuu sits back in his seat, looking a little pale. Gakuhou isn't feeling too good himself either, facing Ikeda's grin. He thought it would be easier for him to let Kyuko and Ikeda do the talking, and just cut them off if they start blabbering nonsense, but… this might not have been such a great idea in the end. Feeling a little weak, he sits down on the teacher's chair.

"How did you die?" Gakushuu asks, voice quiet. Kyuko's smile dies away.

"Don't you know?" she says.

"Suicide," he says, if possible even more quietly. "Jumped off a bridge? But why?"

"I was supposed to enter Harvard too, just like big brother had. And you don't go to Harvard to be become a schoolteacher, father said. Business, law, or medicine… those were the options, and in that order. I guess I would have picked medicine. But the thing is…"

Her voice trails off for a moment, and she stares into emptiness, expressionless. Gakuhou notices a puddle is beginning to form under her, and he tries to ignore it – that might make it go away – but he fails.

"The thing is," she goes on, "that I wasn't good enough, no matter how I tried. I wasn't a bad student, mind you, of course not, but I didn't get straight A's. Especially math was so hard. Big brother tutored me the best he could when he was home, but after he started his studies… we didn't see that often, only during vacations. I did try my best, I really did… I thought I would make it happen. I was an Asano, after all! But then, it was the last year of high school, and I realized I'd never make it into Harvard… I'd never be anything but a disappointment… I'd never…"

She falls silent. She is completely wet now, hair and dress clinging to her body, her skin again turning into an unhealthy shade of green.

"Does she have to look like that?" Gakushuu asks, distraught.

"I'm sorry," Gakuhou says, himself avoiding looking at her. "I can't change it."

"So… she killed herself? Because of her poor grades? Is that it?"

"Her grades weren't poor," Gakuhou says. "Just… not good enough. I… I never realized how much she struggled. She was always full of smiles when I saw her, when we spoke on phone she never complained about anything, just chatted happily about her life… and I didn't realize. I just… didn't realize." He closes his eyes and is quiet for a long moment. His voice is very quiet when he continues talking. "I don't know all that happened, just that one evening she jumped of a bridge and drowned."

"I called you," Kyuko says suddenly. "I called you, big brother. But you didn't answer."

"I know," Gakuhou sighs. "I was at the library, studying. I'm sorry. If I just had known, I… I would have, I'd have… done something. Stopped you. I…"

"I called you too," Ikeda says. "You didn't stop me, sensei."

Gakuhou stares. Gakushuu turns to look as well. Ikeda's desk is in the middle of a large pool, and his appearance is not that different from Kyuko's.

Gakushuu swears softly. "He too?"

"Yes," Ikeda says. "I was bullied. Couldn't take it anymore. And so I too jumped off from a bridge."

"You called my father 'sensei'… you were his student?"

Ikeda nods. "One of his first," he says, as water starts pouring out of his mouth. How he keeps on talking Gakuhou doesn't know. "He taught me everything, or so I thought. Everything… except the most important thing. How to survive in the world. How to be strong."

"Okay, dad." Gakushuu looks at him, looking vexed. "That's totally you talking through him."

"How else?" Gakuhou says. "They are my dream, after all."

"So what exactly happened? After your sister died? You came to Japan to be a teacher?"

Gakuhou takes a shaky breath. "Basically. I had a horrible fight with father. Absolutely horrible, it was damn near one of us didn't kill the other. And as soon as I graduated, I moved to Japan. Started my little cram school. My parents were furious. That was the point. That school on the mountain top, this school… it wasn't an elementary school, but I knew Kyuko would have loved this place. And to my surprise, I enjoyed teaching. Or maybe it wasn't so surprising. Teaching her had always been fun.

"It's not like I hadn't put my business skills into use, too," he adds after a short moment. "After a while I managed to deal a few blows to my father's enterprises."

He falls quiet. The two of them sit there long in silence.

"I just don't get it," Gakushuu says finally. "After all that, how did you end up just like your parents?"

"What?!" Gakuhou stares at him, eyes wide. "I am not like my parents!"

Gakushuu laughs out loud, long and bitterly. "Oh? And how exactly you imagine you're different?"

Gakuhou keeps on staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "For one thing, I'm not demanding from you more than you can handle. I might have set the bar high, but not higher than I know you can reach!"

"Is that so," Gakushuu muses. "These days, that bar seems to be set on perfection."

"Are you saying you can't reach it, then?"

Gakushuu straightens instinctively his back. "You know damn right I can," he says and grimaces then, realizing he fell for it. Gakuhou smirks a little.

"I hate you," Gakushuu mutters, leaning back again.

Gakuhou is quiet. "I understood it, after Ikeda's death," he says then. "Both Ikeda and my sister… they died because they weren't strong. They were both bullied, Ikeda by his classmates, Kyuko by our parents. They couldn't stand for themselves. They allowed themselves to be controlled by others, and when they lost control they lost also their lives."

"By that logic," Gakushuu says slowly, "I should at this point stand for myself. I should tell you that you're full of bullshit, that I'm done with your bullying and I'm not bending to your demands anymore, I'll do what I want, and I don't give a shit about being the best anymore."

They stare at each other in silence.

"Akabane must be happy to hear that," Gakuhou says then.

"What?" Gakushuu blinks.

"That you give up and don't care about being the best."

Gakushuu all but hisses at him. "Well, fine then! Maybe I do. But the other points stand."

"…I haven't bullied…"

"Think again, father, and think carefully," Gakushuu snaps. "And it's not only about me! You've been so focused on proving the superiority of your so-called 'rational education' that you've lost all rationality that you might have ever had…" He falls quiet for a moment. "Beating up Kevin and others too… You've got issues. Everything you've done during the past year alone proves that."

"Yes," Kyuko says, and Gakuhou gives a start. He had almost forgotten those two were still with them. "You even tried to kill yourself when your plans failed."

Gakuhou freezes for a blink of an eye. "Shut up!" he yells then and jumps to his feet, his hand raises, speeds through the air, hits her cheek.

Kyuko doesn't fall, doesn't even flinch; his hand goes straight through her body as it simply breaks apart, turns into water and rains down on the floor.

"You…" Gakushuu breathes. He has sprung to his feet and is staring at Gakuhou with wide eyes, leaning against his desk. "You tried to kill yourself?! Just what the hell, father! When?!"

"After he hit you," Ikeda says. "He came here, challenged Korosensei, and lost. He would have died if—"

"Shut up!" Gakuhou shrieks, and not only because the boy is blabbing about state secrets. "Shut up now!" He grasps the first thing he can reach, the roll book, and throws it at Ikeda. When it hits the boy, he as well turns into water.

Gakuhou stares at the puddle on the floor, panting.

"You tried to kill yourself," Gakushuu repeats softly, tone incredulous.

"It wasn't… that's not quite, it's… it's more complicated than that." Gakuhou falls back to his chair.

Is it, though? he thinks he hears a voice saying. Or perhaps he thought that himself?

He leans back, stares at the ceiling – except there is no ceiling. The room they are in is roofless, and the sky above them is bloodred and burning. Are we in hell, Gakuhou thinks shortly, staring at it.

Gakushuu sits down again as well. "I didn't even realize how right I was when I said you've got issues," the boy mutters. "Father, you, you… how dare you?!" The boy is angry, glaring at him with eyes that again reflect the sky's fire… or maybe it is the other way round? "After everything you've said and done, everything you've put me through, you think you have the right to go and off yourself! Just fuck you!"

Gakuhou says nothing, for he can't find anything to say. The wind picks up outside the classroom, and he hears flames licking the walls of the building. The world outside the window is on fire.

Gakuhou stands up. He tries to quell the fire, but the more he thinks of it, the brighter the flames are. As he looks out of the window, the wall falls. He can feel the heath of the fire, and a hot breath of air carries sparks into the room.

"We need to go," he says, as the fire spreads to the desks nearest to the fallen wall. The boy doesn't move. Behind him, the back wall falls as well, and the flames swallow the last row of desks. "Asano-kun!" Gakuhou rushes to the boy, grasps his arm. "Come now, we can't stay here."

The boy looks at him. His eyes have gone dark, unreadable. "We aren't done talking yet," he says.

"We can talk elsewhere!" The fire has crept through the corridor and enters the classroom through the door. That wall crumbles down, too. "I cannot stop this fire. Listen, if I burn, I'll wake up. But I don't know what happens to you! Do you want to find out?"

"You can't stop the fire," Gakushuu says softly, "because I'm not letting you." The boy smiles a little. "Looks like I beat you in this, father."

"This isn't a competition! You're…"

"Isn't everything a competition with you? The smallest thing, every interaction… because you can never know when a failure might take your life, huh? And then in the end just because you failed, you tried to kill yourself! What was that about? Some kind of a final lesson? That failure really does equate with death?!"

Gakuhou can feel the heath behind his back, and he knows that wall is gone as well.

"Asa…" he starts again, but pauses. The boy stares him straight into the eye, no expression on his face, eyes still so dark, too dark, without a single speck of life in them, not even a reflection of the fire that spreads around them. "Gakushuu," he says quietly, and the boy blinks. "I… am sorry. You're right. I shouldn't have… done what I did then. Please. Come with me now. Let's leave this place."

The boy watches him in silence a long while.

"I'll come," he says then. "If you promise me you'll get help."

"I…" Gakuhou pauses. He wants to claim he doesn't need any help, but… he glances at the wet spot on the floor that the fire doesn't touch. Looks at the deep darkness in his son's eyes. What, he wonders briefly, his own might look like at the moment? "…I will. Promise. The first thing I do once I wake up is to contact a therapist. And book a meeting for you too."

Gakushuu flinches. "I—!"

"Both of us, or neither," Gakuhou says calmly. He is beginning to get uncomfortably hot, and he notices his left trouser leg has caught fire. "Deal?" he asks, offering his hand to Gakushuu.

The boy hesitates a moment. Then lowers his eyes and nods. "Deal."

Gakushuu takes his hand, and for a moment the flames around them flare blindingly bright. Then the world turns white.

Farewell, Gakuhou, a voice whispers. Maybe we will meet again one day.

Goodbye, Gilbert, Gakuhou thinks. And thank you for your help.

He blinks.

He is sitting in his armchair in his living room. The early morning sunlight draws patterns on the floor. Hazama is sleeping on the couch. Korosensei is nowhere to be seen.

Gakuhou stands up and walks to the phone. Then he breaks his promise; therapist is only the second place he calls. The first is the hospital, where his son has just woken up.

A/N: The end! Finally! ^^ So, how did Gakushuu wake up? I don't really know. But I have a feeling that some of the stuff he said, "perhaps I don't want to return" and "dreams are the only thing that is enough" were more true than I realized when I wrote them. Especially that first, I thought Shuu's just messing with his dad. But perhaps, subconsciously, he didn't want to return to reality, and that was what kept him from waking. Or something like that? Seriously, I think that that's a better explanation than my original 'things just happen'... xD

Also, I'm not touching the question of what happened to Dream and how everything was solved in this fic. (That's basically what the first Sandman comic is about.)

Some silliness to end this all: when I was struggling with the previous chapter, in one version I wrote, Gakuhou dreamed up Korosensei to aid them to fight the Corinthian. It went something like this:

Gakuhou: *dreams up Korosensei* destroy that nightmare!
Koro: I'm a teacher! Not some kind of a monster-on-call to fight for you!
Gakuhou: I'll give a you a raise
Koro: *goes into full attack mode*
Gakushuu: …you dreamed that up? Should I be worried about your mental health?

After waking up:
Koro: sir, I believe you promised me a raise
Gakuhou: …you must have been dreaming.
Koro:

Thank you for reading!