Can you believe I went into Kingdom Hearts hell for a whole week just so I could finish this stupid thing? I've had the idea since December, and I'm now marginally closer to getting the secret ending in BBS, so not all is lost. Right?

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Ephemer unintentionally flinched; had he been staring at her for too long? He hadn't meant to. To hide it, the boy put on a wide smile and asked, "Like what?"

His friend, the soft-spoken and generally reserved Anora scrunched her face into a look of confusion.

"I don't know." she admitted. "But it's starting to worry me."

"Sorry," came the sincerely apologetic answer as Ephemer sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Anora did not seem as convinced- she arched an eyebrow at him but didn't say much else about it. When she looked away again, Ephemer continued to stare at her.

He wasn't going to tell her about it anytime soon, but he did have a reason on why he couldn't look away. In what seemed like such a long time ago, Ephemer had made Anora a promise. It had became a promise he didn't keep, and it lay way to having to watch Anora die. To say he felt guilty the entire time would have been a stretch, but he was definitely trying to make up for lost time now.

If only he wasn't a Union leader and she didn't have to partake in daily missions.

"I need to get going." Anora decided as she started to get up. "My party is going to notice that I haven't collected any lux today."

"Don't go, not yet!" Ephemer told her, getting up with her and almost blocking her from leaving. "How about we get some ice cream?"

Anora recoiled at him. "I have to go." she asserted before gently pushing past him. But Ephemer couldn't let it end there; biting his lip, he quickly tried to think of something to get her to stay. Or, maybe, arrange a future meet up.

"Let's meet up again later!" he quickly tried to tell her. Anora did not stop walking away- instead, she turned around and started to carefully walk backwards. Ephemer couldn't hold back his laughter; always a surprise, that Anora.

"When?" she mused.

"Tonight, in our dreams!"

Anora smirked. "Right, and then we'll steal pixie dust and fly to the Never Never Land."

"It's a date!" Ephemer agreed with a wide grin.

Anora rolled her eyes as she let out a laugh of her own, turning around to walk properly before going into a light sprint. Ephemer only smiled as he watched his friend leave. If only his Chirithy was as amused.

"Why would you tell her that?!" it asked him as he was getting ready for bed.

"Dunno." he admitted. "But it can happen, right?"

"Rarely!" Chirithy pointed out. "The only time you meet someone in a dream is if you're destined to be with them- like a princess dreaming of her prince charming."

"Prince charming, huh?" Ephemer mused to himself as he got more comfortable. "Does being a Union leader technically make you royalty in some way? You definitely have that level of responsibility, huh?"

"Ephemer!" his Chirithy cried in astonishment. But the headstrong boy didn't reply, instead he laid his head down on his pillow and instantly fell asleep.

. . .

He knew he was dreaming because he never would have worn such a ridiculous suit in public. Also, no one had a face. His rational mind figured it was because this was all a dream anyway, or perhaps he was only seeing their hearts. His dreaming mind didn't even notice, it was hazily trying to remember why he was wearing a dress suit in the very crowded Fountain Square.

Slowly, Ephemer started to understand what was going on. This was a celebration for the Dandelions- a special group of Keyblade Wielders that have proven themselves the only light in pitch black darkness. It was all one big culmination to the real event; the change of Union leaders. Ephemer was going to be one of the new Union leaders. As he moved through the crowd, several Dandelions greeted him and shook hands. But none of them had faces. None of them really mattered.

Where was she?

Unknown to him, two people were sitting on top of one of Fountain Square's nearby buildings. They were both dressed for the occasion, but neither felt inclined to join the others. On the left was a girl with long carrot-red hair, but her face was missing like the others. On the right was another girl, this one with short strawberry-pink hair. Her emerald green eyes looked down at the crowd in worry.

"This is a nightmare..." she mumbled to her friend.

The carrot-red haired girl tilted her head. "I thought you didn't mind crowds?"

But her friend only nervously shook her head, a brief flash of the crowd changing to a different scene; there was still a crowd, but they were surrounding what looked to be Master Aced and the strawberry-pink haired girl. As soon as the vision came, it ended just as quickly.

"I want to forget that day, Zia," she admitted as she looked away from the crowd, "But I can't."

"Maybe it won't be so bad once you're down there?" Zia suggested, moving closer to her friend. If she had a face, it would have looked rather concerned. "You're the bravest person I know, Anora! You shouldn't be stuck up here with me because of something that happened in the past. Go down and have some fun. I think someone might be waiting for you..."

Anora turned to Zia as she carefully arched an eyebrow. As far as Anora knew, she had never met Zia in the waking world- assuming Zia was even real to begin with. There was an inherent kindness in Zia - and worry - that led Anora to believe that her friend was real, or had been at some point. It still felt like something important was missing though. What was it?

"I can't leave you alone here." Anora argued.

Zia gave a small sound that indicated a bittersweet chuckle. "I'm not afraid of being alone." she informed her friend. "You'll come back eventually, and then you can tell me how it went!"

But for a long time, Anora only continued to stare at her friend. She gave in after a few moments of thought and carefully started to get down from the building.

Anora was able to sneak into the crowd through a back alley. No one had particularly noticed as she made her way through them- not sure of where she was going, but knowing anything would have been better than just standing around. As Anora was able to reach the fountain, she accidentally bumped into someone.

"Sorry." she apologized almost immediately before looking to see who she had bumped into. When she did recognize them, Anora almost couldn't hold back the surprise when she said, "Ephemer?"

The boy seemed to take a moment to recognize her as well, and when he did, his smile was bright and happy.

"There you are!" he joyfully exclaimed in seeing her. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Anora raised a skeptic eyebrow. "You were?"

"Of course I was!" he agreed as he took her hand. "Come on, we can go somewhere a lot less busy."

"You can't leave." Anora immediately tried to argue. "You need to be here for… for..." Her voice trailed off as she came to realize she didn't know why anyone would have needed Ephemer so badly. Even more, she was beginning to realize that she didn't know why there was such a huge crowd in Fountain Square to begin with.

All the while, Ephemer only seemed to smile a bit wider. He held Anora's hand tighter as he told her, "I promised we'd meet again in our dreams."

That was when something in Anora jolted in realization. She looked up at Ephemer in confusion (and perhaps a slight annoyance) before trying to say something, but her friend pulled her away from the crowd. She didn't have much choice as Ephemer pulled her away from the crowd and into Waterfront Park. No one was there- so much more quiet than Fountain Square that it almost seemed eerie.

"This is much better." Ephemer decided, letting go of Anora's and gesturing to the empty park around them. "We can do whatever we want now with no one to stop us!"

But Anora was silent. It took Ephemer a good moment to realize how perplexed she looked. His smile started to fade a little.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

Anora looked up at him with a confused glimmer in her eyes. "How are you able to do this?" she finally questioned. "Is it something you learn when you're a Union leader?"

"Nope." Ephemer beamed. "I don't know why this is happening. Chirithy even said that we might not have been able to meet like this."

His friend still continued to give him a suspicious side glance.

"You've changed since you became a Union leader." she then informed him. "Don't think I haven't noticed that you're in charge of my Union now."

Ephemer gave a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head. "We're a bit more coalition than the previous leaders..." he carefully admitted. "But, yeah, I do try to keep track of the members in your Union."

"Like me."

Ephemer took a step back in shock, despite a part of him being impressed. Anora was still one of the most observant people he knew- even while dreaming. And so, with that observation out of the way, Ephemer extended his hand to her.

"May I have this dance?"

Anora blinked. "You're changing the subject." she noted in a toneless voice.

"Maybe I am." he casually admitted. "But we're dreaming, so we might as well argue somewhere else. Right?"

The response he got was another blink. Anora looked at him, to his hand, and then back at him again. She ended up giving in, and took his hand.

Unfortunately, it took a lot of trial and error before they stopped stepping on each other's toes. Once they found their sense of rhythm (and a mutual agreement on who was leading), the two started to take turns moving closer to each other. Ephemer's heart stopped for a moment in glee when Anora decided to rest her head against his shoulder. At that position, however, they were unable to do the 'pretty' things one would do when ballroom dancing, and instead they opted for smaller movements.

"Hey Ephemer," Anora eventually spoke, her voice quiet and content, "This is the nicest dream I've had in a long time. Thank you."

Ephemer didn't say anything, but the smile on his face said it all. He leaned his head against Anora's as the two continued to dance in place. This was a pretty good dream, wasn't it? It was a shame that, like all good dreams, it would have to end eventually.

"Hey Anora," Ephemer found himself saying, picking his head back up.

"Hmm…?" came the small answer as Anora looked up at him. For awhile, Ephemer did say anything- instead he smiled at her with a certain fondness in his eyes. He would absolutely deny doing it later, but he moved his head closer to hers and brought the two in for a kiss.

This was an absolute mistake because it was the very thing that woke them up.

Ephemer immediately shot up in his bed. It took him a good minute to collect his bearings on where he was, and when he did, he absently pressed his fingers against his lips. Did he really just do that? Did he really just kiss his friend in their dream?

"You looked like you were having such a nice dream." Chirithy's voice spoke up, snapping Ephemer out of his thoughts. "What happened?"

Ephemer looked at Chirithy for a moment of bewilderment before putting on a smile.

"Oh, nothing." he claimed. "It's still late, isn't it? I should just go back to bed."

Chirithy seemed to be taken aback by this, but didn't argue against it. "Of course." it agreed. "You have a busy day tomorrow."

Ephemer smiled at Chirithy before resting his head back down on his pillow. Maybe, just maybe, if he was lucky enough, he and Anora would share the same dream again.