The second installment to 'The Sleep that Brings No Solace'.. what else?
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"Subaru-chaan!" A mirror image of himself at age sixteen, only in a Victorian-style dress, the hem of the elaborate costume trailing behind her as she ran towards a green-eyed, slim young man. A tall, handsome, golden-eyed man followed her, looking as if he'd just gotten out from work in some veteranarian's office.
"Okaeri, Subaru-kun." The man's voice softly echoed in the 25-year-old's mind. Subaru's whole frame tensed, as if the golden-eyed man could see him there. Subaru's hand went out, as if he could touch that fleeting figure of his dreams.
'Dreams." Subaru realized. "That's all he is now.. just dreams."
"Haven't you realized that already?" A quiet voice asked him. He whirled around, and saw the yumemi of the Dragons of Heaven, Hinoto.
"This is all you can have of him now. He's gone, Sumeragi-san." Hinoto tried, but Subaru's eye never left her's, as if he could pry the truth from her.
Subaru refused to answer, because if he did, that would make it seem real. He could just ignore that fact, and keep on dreaming, as if he could just make the reality a dream, and the dream a reality.
"Please.. You've got to help us.. We can't win against-" Hinoto pleaded, only to be inturrupted by Subaru.
"Against what? The Dragons of Earth? Your sister?" Hinoto flinched at the mention of Kanoe. "You know that I can't make a kekkai anymore, so what's the point of trying to recruit me? There's nothing in this world I want to protect anymore.. I just want to DIE! Do you understand me? I just want to tear my heart out here, and now!"
The uncharacteristic outburst from the Sumeragi Head startled the pale Dreamseer. A white hand laid on his heaving shoulder, as Subaru quietly began to weep, wishing that his dreams could just give him the peace he wanted.