Touya crept cautiously loose of Yusuke's dreaming embrace. This time, he wouldn't wake Yusuke. He had some things he needed to sort out, and he wanted to make some breakfast for Yusuke since it was morning anyhow.
Touya chuckled softly to himself. How quickly had he learned to deem seven to eight o'clock as morning! Long gone were the days he rose with the dawn, and now, it would be hard to get him to do so again without complaint. At first, he'd complained to Yusuke about feeling as though he were sleeping away the day, but Yusuke's reassurance that nothing went on that early was proven true, and Touya had learned to 'sleep in'.
Touya tiptoed from the room, shutting the door with easy grace, still used to moving stealthily silent. That was a habit he refused to break.
He went into the kitchen, deciding to cook while he thought, something he was now skilled enough to do. ((-)) He began getting out the necessary ingredients, and pulled out the griddle he'd been shown to use for pancakes, and turned it on.
While he mixed, he wondered about what Yusuke had said last night, in a sleepy stupor. Was it only backwards dream logic? Or did Yusuke really feel that way? In hindsight, it probably didn't matter, but still, it made Touya wonder.
He shrugged, deciding it wasn't important, and went on, trying to remember what nightmare was waking him these nights. He remembered cold… and wind. It made him think of the nightmare he'd had about Jin, long ago, when he first came to live with Yusuke. That was it! He'd been having that nightmare, except… there was more to it, Touya realized. In a way, one could say it had been 'updated' to include recent events…
Touya was running on thin ice-literally. Each step left fine cracks which quickly shattered into tiny ice shards showing the dark water beneath the ice- a clearly traceable path. He was panting, moving as fast as he could, not only to avoid falling through the ice, but also because something –someone?- was chasing him. Touya wasn't sure what or who, but he did know he didn't want them to catch him. A strong wind blew over him, causing his path to waver, blowing snow into his eyes, causing him to close them and wince. A blizzard then. Touya kept running, unaware that he was slowly being turned back by the wind, unable to see his former path through the snow.
A laugh sounded, one Touya couldn't hear in the winds howling, but he could feel. It shook him, and he shivered, thinking Quite a thing, to make an ice master shiver He grew tired yet, but unwilling to surrender, when a creature overtook him, picking him up and carrying through the wind. Touya watched, helpless as the ground receded. The creature placed him on a high plateau, where Touya recognized the beast to be Jin. "Jin, Help me!" he said, and Jin smiled, and pushed him off the plateau. Touya's face reflected surprise and disbelief as he fell, pieces of him seeming to crack like the ice that was his element, the storm, stopping, no wind to slow his descent, no snow to soften his landing. The blizzard, shattered.
He fell, reaching out, desperately, hoping someone would hold him up. Yusuke was suddenly there, grabbing on and holding tight. Yusuke pulled him out of the fall, embracing him tightly. Kuwabara, Hiei, Yukina, Kurama, Keiko, Atsuko, Botan, Koenma… All of them stood there, his new family, keeping him warm and safe. But then, he, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara had to leave the others. And then he and Yusuke went off exploring, having noticed something – something dangerous – that they could not let get the others.
And something dangerous was Jin, back again, and while Jin, in and of himself, wasn't so bad, scared and desperate and alone, all the memories were unlocked and the emotions flooded to the surface once again. Touya fell, clutching his head and crying, as the blackness of his days before Yusuke found him came back, threatening to swallow him. It was then he would wake, shivering and nearly hysterical. The blizzard once again consumed him, Jin's frenetic winds wrapping him coldly, wrapping him and taking him, all over again. Dead, the blizzard returned, only to shatter before his eyes once again.
Touya turned off the griddle, flipped the last few pancakes off, and sat down. He put his head in his hands, and let tears slowly drop from his eyes, till they came faster, and shuddered through him, and struck him like a lightning bolt. Gods all take it, would he never really be free?!