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Nonexistent.
Chapter Seven
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He brought back a fist and punched the dark Yuki across the face.

Yuki stumbled back several steps, but did not fall. He stood, slowly, and brought a hand to his already bruising cheek and wiped away the drop of blood that had escaped from his cut lip.

He regained his smirk. "Did that help you, Hashiba? Really, did it? Now, be a good boy and watch your boyfriend drown."

Sora spun back around to the glass, finding the water just starting to raise above Sunao's mouth. The short boy stood on the tips of his toes to get one last deep breath before the water completely submerged him.

His long hair floated around his body, the cheeks on his face large from holding in his breath. His eyes were shut tight, a look of horror clearly written across his face.

"NO!" Sora screamed, rushing towards the glass and beating on it more, although that did no good. Looking back at the dark Yuki, he shook his head, shaking. "Let him go!"

"Beg." Yuki said simply.

Sora, not wanting to waste any of the precious seconds that were flying by, dropped to his knees in front of the dark-minded boy. "Please, please, please! Let him go before he drowns!"

The Yuki in white watched on from just outside of the door, staring in complete amazement. Maybe it was because he had never been in love before, or maybe because he had never had someone love him in any way, but what was unfolding before his blue eyes seemed like something out of a fairytale.

He had thought Sora's love for Sunao a strong thing before, back when Sora's eyes had shined with such hope that it had led Yuki to tears. But now, the love for Sunao that was radiating from Sora temporary forced the fear away from Yuki's mind. At the same moment Yuki's fear fled, Sunao lost hold on his breath and he choked, the air escaping from his mouth his large bubbles.

"STOP IT!"

Both Sora and the dark Yuki turned, finding the timid Yuki inside of the room he swore never to walk into. The glass holding Sunao disappeared, as Yuki willed it nonexistent in this dream world. The water crashed to the ground and slightly flooded the room as it spilled onto the floor and through the open door.

Sora caught Sunao before he hit the ground, wrapping his arms tightly around the wet boy. As Sora brushed the pink locks that were sticking to his forehead away, he found those pink eyes staring widely at him, warm tears rolling down his already wet cheeks.

"Sora-kun..." Sunao cried, shaking from both cold and fear. He didn't understand what was going on at all. First he'd been woken up by Sora, in a strange place he had never seen before. Then there were two identical boys. And then, like magic, this glass box had appeared, filling with water like rain. Sora had told him that this was a nightmare, and he was right. Because during the entire time Sora had searched for Sunao, the pink haired boy had been left to 'sleep' in that room, until he could later serve a purpose.

"No...no...!"

Sora and Sunao turned to see the white-wearing Yuki pushing his back against a corner near the door, his face completely white. While his fear had disappeared for seconds long enough to free Sunao, he was no match against his stronger counterpoint. He had explained to Sora that when his mind broke, he had split into two parts, each holding different emotions. It was now clear to Sora exactly which emotions each of the Yuki's held.

The Yuki in black held his darker, somewhat more dominant emotions. Anger. Hatred.

The Yuki wearing white held fear, sadness, but also feelings of hope, trust.

While the Yuki in white sat in the corner, hands covering his face, his black Yuki did little but smirk at him. "It's your own fought for coming in this room, you idiot."

Sora and Sunao stared at the boy, who was looking much smaller than he really was, seem to have a mental break down from doing little more than walking into the small room. The dark Yuki noticed their confused looks and explained, if only hoping to further Sora's guilt by some mean, any means.

"While this room is only an illusion created by my mind, it is based off of a real place. This is the last place I saw in the real world, in my real body, before I lost conscience." Yuki said, although this made little sense. But it soon did. "The two of you are only asleep because of my will. I, however, am in a coma."

A...coma.

The first thought that went through Sora's mind was 'why the heck do kids in coma's always have to come after me?', the second was 'but...why me?'.

The dark Yuki looked ready to end everything, but wanted to rant, as was part of the nature in the emotions this half of his mind held.

"I was walking home one day after school, in the middle of the daylight in a crowded street. I was then kidnaped and locked in this room in the real world." Yuki said angerly, his blue eyes boring into Sora's blue ones. "I was locked in here, in this dark, cold place, for ages, I don't even know how long. And what they did to me, they--"

"No!...Shut UP!" The Yuki in the corner said loudly, his eyes shut as tightly as possible and his hands cupped over his ears. "Don't say it...don't say!"

Sora and Sunao stared at the boy, both wanted to rush over and embrace him tightly in their arms, if only to make his hurting stop. What could have happened, something so bad that it broke his mind in two and put him into a coma?

The dark Yuki continued. "Maybe I'll do as my other half says, just this once."

Sora shook his head. "Fine, fine, so you're some kid who was kidnaped and put in a coma. Then you used your will to control our dreams. But why? Why us!"

"I already told you, Hashiba, you're a horrible person and you cause pain and suffering." The dark Yuki said, repeating what he had said ages ago. He waved one hand idly through the air. "It was indirectly because of you that I was kidnaped in the first place."

"And how in the hell was that?" Sora snapped, taking a step towards him, but not letting go of Sunao, who was too confused to speak.

Yuki sent the most hate-filled glare at him. "Because you knocked me down and then went to play with him!"
He pointed towards Sunao.

Sora blinked, exchanging glances with Sunao. "I...what? Look, I've never seen you before this stupid dream!"

"Really? You lie." Yuki growled.

The white Yuki had let go of the hold on his ears, but still had his eyes painfully shut. When he spoke, he was quoting something he had read to Sora a while before. "Adoption was private and that those files are not computerized!"

Being so concerned with what was happening before him, Sora had no clue what he was talking about for several seconds. When it finally hit him, it confused him even further. Yuki had said that when they had been searching the computer for signs of Sunao, when he had ran over the fact that he had a brother. But what did that matter now?

"...so?"

The white Yuki snapped his eyes open, his blue eyes brighter than normal from crying. "It doesn't matter if they aren't computerized, I know what's in my own damn file!"

Sora choked on his breath, his eyes growing wider as he now completely understood what the Yuki in white had been babbling about.

Takashi Yuki was Sora's younger brother.

"But...but I never knew..." Sora studdered out, hardly able to breath because of the recent change in events. Sunao tightened his grip on Sora's arm, if only in an attempt to calm him.

The Yuki in white covered his eyes and started to cry some more as the dark Yuki moved in front of him, the same icy glare sent towards Sora.

"I was five. You were seven." The dark Yuki said with anger. "The couple that had originally adopted me divorced and neither wanted me and I was sent back to the orphanage. I met you, just once. I tried to tell you, because I knew you were my older brother. I knew what my true family name was. But you were too busy. You didn't care. You wanted to go play with your friend and you knocked me down and ran off."

"But I--"

Of all people to interrupt, it was Sunao, who spoke softly. "And then what happened to you?"

"A couple came that afternoon and was interesting in adopting me. I had a choice." Yuki said, remembering. "I remember being asked if I wanted to stay with my brother. But my brother didn't want me, he had knocked me away. And I was adopted. And because of that, I ended up being kidnaped years later."

Sora was shaking his head. "I don't remember that at all!"

"I do." He snapped his head towards the pink haired boy in his arms. "I remember seeing you do it. I was rushing you, though I don't remember where we were going. The only reason I remember is because when I yelled at you for being mean, you teased me and some other children laughed at me and it's always stuck with me. But..."

Sunao turned to face the dark Yuki. "But I don't think Sora-kun knew that boy was related in any way."
The logic of it kept the Yuki in black silent for several seconds. The Yuki in white looked up, face tear stained.

"It doesn't matter." The Yuki in black said softly, shaking his head. "Nothing matter anymore. Nothing except punishing him."

Both Sora and Sunao froze, knowing that the angry Yuki was ready to will something horrible, something that may have ended up in them never waking up from this horrible nightmare.

"It's over." The white Yuki was up on his feet, both arms wrapped around the dark Yuki from behind. "This is over! There is nothing to punish Sora for! It's time that they wake up!"

Yuki was then pushed away, knocking painfully into the wall by his darker half.

Sora realized that these two parts of the same mind would never be able to fully defeat each other. Because that is how the mind worked, every emotion worked together in ways to help you live, to learn...right? After one, one with a whole mind didn't have their emotions fighting each other constantly, not like this. If Yuki's mind was healed...would Sora and Sunao be able to wake up?

"Yuki, you need to heal your mind back together, I know you can do it! You cannot survive like this, it isn't natural to fight one's own self! You don't need to listen to him!"

The dark Yuki spun around. "Keep your mouth shut!"

Even if he was very confused, Sunao did understand what the dark Yuki was doing. "You've been hiding that from the other you, haven't you?"

"I said to shut up!"

The Yuki in white looked between the three with wide eyes. He could...do what? The entire time since his mind had spilt into two, this half that was full of fear had let the other control him. To give him orders. And he took them willfully, not even thinking to ever disobey.

But he did disobey, didn't he? When he started to help Sora. Not the pretend help he had been giving, playing on the computer, but when he started to really help, freeing him from the hospital. He had done that on his own, without orders. And while he held the emotion of fear and the other didn't, that didn't mean that he wasn't capable of deciding things on his own.

"I guess...there is no emotion stronger than any other, is there?" Yuki spoke, his eyebrows knitted in thought.

The dark Yuki didn't like this sudden twist in events, but found himself suddenly unable to move. Although the Yuki in white held fear, he also held hope, and his blue eyes shined in the same way as Sora's had, his hope clear.

Sora and Sunao watched in awe as the white Yuki slowly disappeared into a white light. That same white light encased the Yuki in black, who didn't at all want to merge back with his weaker half.

"No! I can do so much without you!" The dark Yuki cried, trying to break away from the light.

As the darker Yuki slowly disappeared into a grey-shaded light, the two lights mixed and mingled, until it wasn't certain which had been which only seconds ago.

"Even if you're stronger without those other emotions..." Sora said slowly, Sunao glancing away from the light to look up at him. "I don't think you can't live without all of them."

The mix of light was now gaining form and again, turned into the boy with dark blue hair and eyes the same shade of blue as Sora's. But this Yuki now looked different than the other two versions. While not completely see-through, Sora and Sunao could just barely see the wall through him. And while the other two Yuki's, the split forms of his mind, had likened themselves to wear whatever clothes they wanted, this Yuki, the true Yuki, wore nothing more than a white hospital gown with blue trims.

"I think...that you're right, Sora." Yuki said, but his voice now had a slight echo to it. The emotion on his face was neither like the Yuki in white, who had shown mostly fear, or the Yuki in black, who had shown mostly anger. His face was calm, perhaps slightly happy. With his mind now back whole, the two sides of his mind were not fighting each other anymore, giving him a sense of peace after a long, hard war.

"What's going to happen now?" Sunao questioned.

Sora found himself watching Yuki bow to him, for now the third time. But this was the first time the true Yuki introduced himself.

"First, I must introduce myself. My name is Takashi Yuki. However, my true family name is Hashiba." He lifted his head. "And second, I must apologize. Throughout my entire life, whenever I felt like I needed to blame someone for something horrible in my life, I blamed you, Sora. And even you, Sunao, for taking him away from me. But I hid those dark feelings deep within my mind and I would never dream of acting on them.

"But after I was kidnaped, after I was locked in this room in the real world, those dark feelings became stronger..." He glanced down at his feet for a moment before looked back up at Sora. "Although it wasn't because of those feelings that my mind broke in two, but when it did broke, those feelings had a host of it's own, without any other emotions to hide it. And so...all of this happened."

Neither Sora or Sunao could exactly forgive him, not just yet, for the events that had taken place, but both did feel sorry for him.

Yuki smiled warmly at the two. "And now...I'm going to break my will's hold on your dreams. And you will both wake up. Don't worry though, this dream hasn't taken nearly as long as you may think it has, because, you see, time in this world was controlled by me as well. You'll find the two of you may just have slept in a little bit."

"Now...this nightmare is over?" Sora questioned, sure something bad was going to happen soon that would delay their waking.

Yuki nodded. "I'm glad to have met you, brother. And I'm truly sorry. And now..."

Although Sora and Sunao were both holding hands tightly, the two of them suddenly lost all feeling and sight. While it felt as if they were both floating through a pool of warm air, they felt themselves touch down softly.

"This dream is ended." They both heard Yuki's voice for one last time before the will's hold on their minds completely vanished.

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Sora smacked at his alarm clock, but the entire thing just fell to the floor and bounced across the room.
And it was still ringing.

"Dammit...Fujimori...grab that?"

The alarm continued to ring as Sora forced himself out of bed. There were times that he would swear that Sunao would be able to sleep through anything. As he picked up the alarm and shut it off, he sat it back onto the stand where it belonged. As he did so, he caught the time. Nearly eleven thirty am.

Sora's blue eyes nearly bulged. He spun around, seeing a bit of pink poking out of the cocoon of blankets that Sunao had wrapped around himself. Sora used both hands to shake his roommate, who moaned loudly.

"Wake up! We've missed most of our morning classes--it's nearly lunch time!" Sora exclaimed loudly.
His loud voice and shaking did it. Sunao's eyes fluttered open and he stared up at Sora for several seconds with his pink eyes, slightly confused.

"...class?"

Sora nodded as he stopped shaking him. There was something, though, on the back of his mind...
Sunao sat up in bed, glancing around the room like he hadn't seen it in ages. "So...the dream is over?"

Dream?

And then it came rushing back to him. Everything. Sunao missing from bed that morning, from no one knowing him. Yuki, his brother, with his broken mind. And now...

Now Sunao existed.

Everything existed.

Sora laced his fingers with Sunao's as he sat beside him on the bed. "Yeah, the dream's over."

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And there you have it. Sunao's back safe and sound and the nightmare is over.
Will post the next chapter within two days.

In the epilogue: the aftermath in Sora's pov.