Yo! I have returned! My multi-chapter Cc story has commenced! YAY! This is not so much a sequel to "Comrades" as it is an…extension I guess. Definitely more yaoi-ish though. I am very excited, and have nothing else to say.

On with the fic!

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

This is not working.

This was a mistake, a flub, a fluke, an overall bad idea. Why am I doing this again? Ah yes, because I choose to listen to my head.

I'm never going to get to sleep with all that noise...

My eyes fluttered open to the dark, lifeless room which was the men's cabin aboard the Elsa. I was lying face up on one of the bunks and starring blankly up toward ceiling. I was rather... bored, as strange as that seems to me. I'm never bored, why am I bored? Why do I care?

You're the one who wanted to try out the human way of sleeping, remember?

I am a Realian, and Realians don't technically need to sleep. In fact, I think that this is the first time I've been in a bed. Usually what I, and what most Realians do, is just lay on some sort of maintenace machine, shut down as the system went to work repairing the wear and tear of the day, and you processed the information you had recorded. You could probably call it "dreaming," although it was much less glamorous then what humans did while they slept. Ours took less time and the "dreams" where much less imaginative, but it was the next best thing, I suppose.

Tonight, however, just for the heck of it, I decided to try it their way.

I figured if I allowed my conscience to just "drift," not let it shut down completely of course, then maybe I could humbly reproduce the act of actually sleeping, actually dreaming. There were a few technical things to it of course, like making sure my data didn't back up or something, but theoretically it was possible. In my planning, it was probable.

What I didn't plan on was that I would be unable to fall asleep, due to... conditions, out of my control.

The culprits were the chorus of snores currently resonating throughout the cabin. They were loud and relentless, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't concentrate on anything, let alone something as precise as falling asleep. Cursed nasal blockage...

I listed to the sounds of my fellow crew members, and was slightly amused to find how each related so well to their personalities. For example, Captain Mathews sounded like a engine badly needing some repair. Hammer and Tony both sounded like animals that were being strangled. Jin talked in his sleep, and Allen made these whinny noises in between breaths. What I didn't understand was how anyone could even stay asleep with all this racket. I'm surprised the girls in the room across haven't complained yet, but maybe they just ignore it. Or wear earplugs.

But, in the midst of all this... noise, I couldn't help but notice, with some amount of satisfaction, that there was one person who slept as graceful and silent as the dead.

This person was chaos, and he was fast asleep in the bed right across from mine.

Very similar to his state of being awake, he had this calm, relaxed look about him. Very peaceful and adorned with a slight smile. He slept without blankets or pillows, preferring the sharp cold around him. He lay on his back, with one arm over his chest, and his head was tilted slightly towards me. Like I said, all grace.

To top it all off, he slept shirtless. This didn't help me out too much...

I sighed up toward the ceiling, puffing that bit of hair from my eye. It's been strange for me for a while, I had been feeling, something, ever since our conversation on the Durandal. This... weird knot in my stomach that won't go away, it's actually quite relentless and annoying. What is it actually? Is there something wrong with my digestive track?

Doubtful.

It's just there. It's there. It won't go away, it's like me, it's stubborn. But… the weird part was? I don't think I want it too. You know, go away.

I remember when I said I wasn't "in love" with chaos. But, I guess, I don't really understand what "love" is. It's a weird phenomena, and it's concept was confusing. There have been wars about it, countless songs and stories about it, some people kill the ones they love, and others are just left heart-broken and demolished. Why? All that pain for another person? At first it seemed like another strange and ridiculous concept made up by the equally strange and ridiculous human mind, but then...

Then I put myself in the shoes of all those poets and killers and devastated souls. I imagined a world waking up to realize that he was... gone. It didn't bode well, I couldn't look at myself, or food for that matter, for a week. But is that really love?

Maybe I am in love with him. Maybe I'm not. Can I even be in love? Either way, though, what am I supposed to do about it? I have my duties, and he has is. There are responsibilities we have, and people we must obey, laws to follow, things to do, places to see... you know, those sorts of things.

Besides, there's always... her... to consider…

Well, all I can do now is sit and hope for the best. Or, in this case, sleep and hope for the best. Or is it to sleep on it? Whatever.

I was suddenly amazed that my eyes were growing heavy, my consciousness slowly slipping away. Maybe this sleep thing has some hope after all. I drifted off with many questions, and seldom few answers...

But I think I dreamed something like this.

chaos… I will do anything for you, or for one whom you loved. That is all I can give you now, just this solemn oath, this truth of truths that I will not let anything happen to you that caused you pain.

And now, I will wait.

Believe it or not, those last few lines are actually based off of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I had to dissect it in English class. It's actually not a bad book, and I got that lovely quote from it. And the thing at the beginning? From Hamlet. (sighs at own nerdiness)

Cheers! ATA