Author's Notes: Every now and then,Everyone gets those really bad nightmares that terrify you so badly, that they drive you to tears. If anyone ever has any of those, I hope you'll find someone to talk to about them.
Iori's Chapter
Night Terrors
The sound of the minute hand ticking in Iori's room echoed ominously as he tackled this one difficult question in his homework for the night. He was one of the other smarter ones in the family, so he was already taking on university level work despite being in high school himself. The silver haired teen glanced up at his clock whilst rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. How did it get so late? It was probably time for him to hit the hay anyways. After finishing up this one last question, he clicked off the lamp on his desk and plopped himself down onto his bed. The temptation of sleep was too overpowering for him and he started to drift off to sleep. This only seemed to work until he woke up 3 hours later.
"Crap, I'm thirsty" he thought at he sleepily trudged towards the door.
Carefully he made his way down the darkened hallways of the Asahina Complex, his footsteps echoing with each step he made. It wasn't too hard for him to find his way around. but even so, he still had to be careful. One wrong step somewhere, and he'd either fall on his face or go stumbling down the stairs. His only source of light came from the moon shining through the windows. Every odd noise that he heard only seemed to make him jump, until he had to remind himself that it was either the wind or maybe his own footsteps.
He made it down to the kitchen without any problems. Well, mostly no problems, with the exception of stubbing his foot on something. He cursed silently under his breath as he hopped over to the kitchen lights to flick them on and pour himself a glass of water. The water felt good against his parched throat as he downed it in one go. He was about to head back to his room when he heard a sound.
"What on earth is that noise?" he wondered as he cautiously climbed up the stairs.
It was the sound of whimpering and crying. But just where was it coming from? Iori had never been one to believe in ghosts. Ghosts were something that of stories right? The crying seemed to be coming from 4th floor, near the middle of the hallway. Was that... Wataru? Panic and fear filled his chest as he walked cautiously to the room of his baby brother. He knocked on the door lightly. No answer. He turned the door slightly and walked quietly into the darkened apartment. Using the little light that was in his room, Iori could make out the outline of Wataru tossing around in the dark. The poor boy really looked like he was in pain. A thin layer of sweat coated his forehead and he thrashed around at an invisible enemy. Iori knew what he had to do. He reached out and began to lightly shake the younger boy, being careful not to get accidentally hit in the face.
"Wataru, hey! wake up!" he whispered harshly
"Wake up! it's just a dream! it's not real!"
Wataru at this point bolted upright in bed, almost hitting Iori in the face with his head. Beads of sweat rolled off his face as he huffed and gasped for breath.
"Are you alright?"
Iori flicked the lights on for Wataru's room, wincing slightly as it it bathed his room in bright lights. Iori ran back over to where Wataru was and crouched down to his level. Wataru was still trying to catch his breath while wiping the beads of sweat that had started forming on his brow. Iori noticed tears welling up in the younger's golden eyes. He started to sniffle and hiccup, his cheeks flushing a brilliant shade of red. He tried so hard to wipe the tears from his face but, it was no use. No matter how fast he tried to wipe them away, more just kept coming. Eventually, those sniffles and hiccups turned into broken sobs and wails. Iori moved in and took Wataru's head into his chest, not even minding that his pajama shirt was getting soaked with tears. He held the smaller boy close to him, stroking his soft pink hair while whispering soothing things to him. After a while, the sobs started to subside.
Wataru told him all about the nightmare he was having. He dreamed of horrifying monsters and aliens attacking them. But that wasn't even the most horrific thing yet. He told them about how one by one, he was forced to watch each and everyone one of his brothers die in front on him, and there was nothing he could do about it. Iori listened to him patiently, digesting the information before him. He pulled the younger boy into his arms again when a new wave of tears took hold of him.
"Shh... it's alright. It's just a bad dream. We're still here aren't we?"
Wataru felt sleepy and dizzy after crying his eyes out. Iori laid him down on the bed and went back over to turn the lights off. He hopped onto the bed and laid down beside him.
"It's getting late." The silver haired teen said as he turned on his side to face Wataru.
"I'll sleep with you just for tonight. But only tonight okay?."
He could make out Wataru nodding in the dark and shuffling closer to him. Iori wrapped one arm around the younger boy's waist while another threaded fingers through a mop of soft pink hair. Wataru felt the faintest of kisses land on his temple. The last thing he remembered before drifting off to sleep was him burying his face into the soft scratchy fabric of Iori's pajamas. They smelled faintly of lilacs and laundry detergent.
The next morning, Ukyo sent Tsubaki up to Wataru's room to fetch him for breakfast. What he found was those two still curled up against each other. Looks like he was going to have some new material to tease Iori over for a while.
