Behind the Glass

Dream Boy

"So, what happened last night?"

"Nothing!" Fuu said quickly, answering Jin. They were having breakfast together in a little tea shop while waiting for Mugen to wake up.

Jin, the sly one he is, caught her lie.

"Liar." He simply stated and sipped his tea.

Eyes unfocused, she smiled. What is this girl thinking? Jin thought.

"Ok, so I'm a liar. But I'm not worried about what you call me. I'm worried about what you called Mugen. He seemed really shook up last night. What did you guys talk about?"

You, Jin thought, but would never say out loud. He didn't hate the guy after all. The truth would only embarrass him and start more problems.

Jin shifted in his chair. Lies are bad too. Better to go with a loose version of the truth.

"We talked about our pasts. And where it's led us. If that shook him up, maybe you need to ask him about it yourself."

"You know, you're right. I think I'll go wake his lazy ass up and do that." Fuu sighed and got up from her chair. The look on her face clearly said "I'm on a mission, stay out of my way." And so Jin did, deciding that it could be worse than being stuck with her bill; he could be Mugen.

There it is again. Knife as sharp as diamonds. God, I hate that thing! Under the nails this time? No, through the door. Strange, that door is new. So is the chick. Wait, what the hell?

Mugen sat wide eyed in his blankets, watching Fuu storm towards him through the main door. She stomped her feet right up to him with a stern face. Then, sighing, she kneeled down.

"What's wrong?"

"With me? What's wrong with you? Don't you know how to knock!" Mugen got up and started straightening his blankets.

"I do know how, thanks for asking. But all three of us are sharing this room, baka. That means we don't have to knock." Fuu sat on the blankets that Mugen had been trying to fix. He rolled his eyes at her.

"Psh. What if I was getting dressed?"

"So what if you were?" She looked up at him and smiled. "Come on. What was going on? Were you having a nightmare?" She pat a space beside her.

"No." He didn't sit.

"You were. You're sweating all over. Come sit." And she pat the space once again. Mugen didn't budge. "Fine then, you brought this on yourself." And she pulled the back of his knees until they gave out and he fell right on the spot she had wanted him to go.

"Bitch."

"Baka."

She didn't ask him about his dreams again. He sat with his head on her knee, and she brushed his hair from his eyes with her fingers. He could have fallen back to sleep like that. He almost did, until he remembered how he usually slept, and he didn't like the idea of him waking with her, screaming in terror.

"I have these nightmares," he started, mainly to keep himself awake. "I've been having them for a while. Every night it's different, and every night it's the same." He met her eyes, and she looked just the way she had last night. She looked accepting. "I'm always being tortured."

"I thought so." She told him as she felt the prickles of his unshaved face. "I heard you talking in your sleep."

Mugen jumped up, angry at this. "What did I say?" To Fuu, he looked more scared than angry. She grabbed his hand and hoped it would calm him down.

"Don't worry, Jin didn't hear anything. You were just mumbling. Things like 'No, stop, get away.' Pretty basic things to say when you're being tortured, don't you think?"

Sitting back down he asked, "So that's why you're here? You heard me mumbling in my sleep and you think I need to talk about it?"

"No." And she started brushing his hair again. He closed his eyes, loving how it felt. "I came to get your ass up, get you in a bath, and then do something with the day. Women don't intentionally plan to catch you in the act just to talk about things. If you're me anyway."

"Oh," was all he said, feeling quite stupid of the accusation.

"Actually, that's a lie. I came to talk to you about your past. And you've been having nightmares, which was brought on by something in your past I'm guessing, so it all worked out well."

Mugen looked shocked at first, then shook his head. "Bitch," he muttered under his breath. Then he glared at her. "Do you ever tell the truth?"

"Most of the time, yeah. But it's no fun. Like your nightmares, I'm guessing."

He scoffed. "No, their jolly good. Nothing says fun like a good old stab in the chest or getting your fingerprints ripped off and glued to different fingers." He rolled his eyes while sitting up once again to look her in the eye. "Look, forget about it for now. It's not like the dreams are horrible memories of mine--"

"Yeah, but--"

He raised his hands to let her know he wasn't finished.

"Let's go out, alright? We'll go have breakfast."

"I just came from breakfast."

"Lunch?"

"It's too early."

"I can't win." Getting up to his feet, he held his left hand out to help Fuu up. She took it of course, but pulled most of her own weight up herself.

"Then how about just a walk then? This is our last day here. Might as well see the sights, as dingy as they are."

Smiling at the idea, Fuu agreed. Then she started coughing and waving her hands in front of her face.

"How about after a bath, Mugen?"

"Great idea! Hurry up and get naked while I fill up the water."

She hit him in the arm while laughing and said, "I'll be waiting outside, hentai."

To be continued...

I'm sorry! Really, I am. I took so long to update and this is all you get! I wanted there to be more in this chapter, but I need time to re-watch some of the episodes because I haven't seen it in so long and I'm writing how I drive--way off track. So it feels like, anyway. Better next time, I promise!