Hey you! I know, I know, it's been a while again, hasn't it? OmO;; (Almost another 4 months actually... *cringe*) I knew this was gonna take a while, but not THIS LONG! TT n TT But I'm back at it again~ with a more solid-ish plan this time.

And thanks so much for your support! I wasn't able to respond to you guys last time because the message system was wonky or something, but thanks so much! (and sorry, but I can't have Bella hit by a bus. I have plans, much plans ahead, so I'll keep that in mind~ xDDD

Have some Dennor as your treat~!

Mind Over Matter, PVRIS

You were spoiled rotten and turned stale like all your plans

My tongue's acquired tolerance for tastes I couldn't stand

You've been stuck in a rut and a wasteland

Drowned in swamps below your feet...

Matthias

I don't remember falling asleep last night, only to find myself in that weird white room again. It looked exactly the same as I remembered from last time, only without the cloudiness.

"Hello?" I called out, wondering if this was going to be one of those repeating dreams that I would have every single night, forever haunted by a guy that I felt like I knew but had never seen in my life, sobbing 'save me' and I would end up going crazy until I finally told a trusted person, who would be Berwald, and he would tell me that I was crazy, but then I'd argue that I wasn't—

"Hello."

I might have screamed and jumped a little. That voice scared me from behind though, so I turned around right away. There he was, the boy of my dreams. But not in the way you're thinking. See, he's a guy, right? And he's in my dream, get it? . . . No? . . . Forget it then.

Anyways, this time he wasn't crying. Actually, he looked kinda bored. Lounging on a chair, from who knows where because the room was still empty, I wouldn't think that he was even capable of feeling if I hadn't seen him so emotional before. Those dark empty blue-purple eyes stared. And stared at me. And stared some more. Was he expecting something?

"Um," I tried staring back, "Who are you?"

He blinked slowly and probably raised an eyebrow. "What, you don't recognize me?"

" . . . Not really?" I admitted, squinting my eyes and taking a few steps forward. His eyes I could see clearly in detail, but some of the rest of him like his face or clothes were slightly out of focus. Which was weird because I knew there was nothing wrong with my eyes.

"I mean, I do remember you from my dream last time—" I let out an awkward chuckle because what if he really had been in that dream, "—but it's kinda hard to see you because, for some reason, you're kinda blurry."

"I can see you clearly enough though..." His low, monotone voice trailed off slowly as he rested his chin on a reclining fist. It was tinged with something like . . . confusion? Anger? Sadness?

No, it was disappointment. My gut told me as much, clenching slightly as he continued to watch me, deep in thought. But why? I didn't know him, didn't owe him anything.

So why did those relentless eyes made me feel like I've failed him somehow?

This is not a place in my head...

Suddenly, he blinked and sat up, straightening his posture. Maybe he'd finally figured out something! With a determined look in his eyes, he confidently announced:

"Your soul knows me, but your mind does not."

. . . Nope, lost me again. "What the hell are you talking about?" It was my turn to stare him down, which was easy enough with him in his chair. "Do I know you?"

He sighed dryly at that. "I know you, but you don't know me. Oh, the irony."

That still told me nothing. He could tell, because then he sighed again, saying, "Do I have to tell you everything? I'm—"

I could kinda see his mouth forming the last few words, but I couldn't hear them. "Sorry, what did you say just now?"

He glared daggers at me. "I said, I'm..."

Again, I only heard the first part before his voice disappeared, his lips moving in silence. He watched me impassively, waiting for my reaction like he'd told me something really important. I looked back at him sideways. He wasn't messing around with me, was he?

"All I heard was 'I said, I'm...'"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope." I shrugged. I wasn't the best at lip-reading, and I wasn't gonna start trying now.

He looked less confident now. "Looks like there are barriers. I can't tell you anything that you're not aware of. Damn these rules!" He cursed suddenly. "What's the whole point of this if you can't even hear me?"

"Um, but I heard everything you said just now," I told him sheepishly.

Shooting me an unamused look, he continued, "Alright, let's test the limits." He began with his questions and I nodded or shook my head depending on when I stopped hearing his voice.

"My name is—no?

My sign is—no . . .

My number is . . . no wait, there's no need for me to share that," he muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"What?" he echoed half-mockingly, smoothly covering his slip-up. "Did you think that I was just a figment of your imagination?"

I wasn't about to admit it. After all, wasn't this all just a dream? It was getting so weird...

He took my silence as his answer. "Fortunately, or unfortunately for you, I'm very much real. I have a life in the real world, not just in this dream we're in."

"So what are you doing here?" I burst out in frustration. It didn't make any sense. "I don't get it, why are we standing here"—I waved at the space between us—"talking?"

"Well," he hesitated, choosing his words carefully, "The reason why I'm here is that we've met each other in the real world, creating a bond, or a connection if you will."

"Okay . . . ?" I nodded slowly, though everything was still confusing. Bonds? Connections? I've never heard anything about something like this before, the closest being what I knew about soulmates, which was admittedly limited, to begin with.

Still, I did know who my soulmate is.

I can see the doubt in your eyes

You say there's no such thing as better things in life

Well, I must confess this is all too new for me

A whole new world, a whole new world to see...

"But I've never met you in the real world. Or maybe we did since I did change schools, but I think that I'd remember a dude like you."

". . .What?" His eyes flickered to mine with obvious confusion.

On a closer look, even though I didn't know him, I had to admit that his physical appearance was good-looking. Attractive even, in his own way of course. Besides his unusually dark eyes, which were probably his best feature, his light blond hair was swept across his face in longish bangs, giving him a mysterious sort of look.

We haven't stood head to head, but I was pretty sure that I was taller than him. Every inch of him screamed pretty boy, like those models in the magazines my mum reads. A true heartbreaker. He wasn't the type of person that I'd talk to easily unless I had someone like Berwald to back me up.

Still, there was just something about him that made me want to talk to him. It wasn't because we were the only people in this place, but I wasn't completely sure what it was. Maybe he was right and we did have some kind of connection . . . So I'll just wait and see how this goes for now.

Then I realized that I've just left him hanging, so the first thing on my mind popped out. "You know, with your looks you probably get all the girls."

Now he looked lost for words. Great. Don't tell he's one of those guys who either takes too much pride in or really oblivious to his appearance. I seriously doubt the latter because who doesn't care about how they look, but he was doing a damn good job of convincing me by acting like it.

"Um, sure," he eventually said, looking away into the distance. "Thanks, I guess..."

Welp, that wasn't awkward at all. Note to self: don't do that again. If I could remember that. So now that we had that out of the way, I should start asking him questions. "Anyways, if we're gonna meet up again, we should probably get to know each other."

"That's probably best idea you've ever come up with. But it looks like I can't tell you about my true self, so I'll need some sort of . . . nickname then," he grimaced, looking not too happy about his idea.

"Hmm." I stared at him, trying to find inspiring nickname material. What should I call this guy? He noticed and his scowl deepened. "And it looks like I can't trust you to pick one, so I'll decide."

I gasped in mock offense. "Hey! I know that I'm pretty good at coming up with nicknames."

"Oh, really?" Indigo eyes narrowed at me. "Who else names their dog, Lego?"

. . . Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best name I've come up with. I winced awkwardly. "It seemed like a good idea then..."

"If you say so." He shook his head, obviously not believing my words. I huffed and crossed my arms. What's his problem anyway? Lego is a great name, and I have no regrets at all—

But wait a second . . . "How did you know that?"

He smirked. "I've already told you. I. Know. You."

I turned away and started to pace a bit, determinedly not looking at him. He was really starting to creep me out. Besides my parents, Berwald, his father and Tina, there weren't that many people who know about my dog. "Alright. So what if you do? What does that make you, some kind of stalker?"

"Me, a stalker?" He snorted in disdain. "As if! The only reason why I'm stuck in here is because of you, our past, and the present situation. What's so good about you that I'd even think about this-ugh!" He winced, head dropping to his hands like he had a headache.

I took a step towards him, unsure what to do. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" A hand shot out suddenly, warning me from getting any closer. "I'm fine," he repeated more firmly, reassuring himself. Bringing his legs up, he rested his head on his knees and wrapped his arms around him. When he spoke again, his words were slightly muffled by his arms.

". . . But back then, you could say that we were . . . friends." He cleared his throat, slightly lifting his head. "Best friends, even."

"Oh, then–!"

"For now, just call me Lu—" He caught himself and shook his head, sighing in annoyance. "L. That's it."

"Great!" I grinned. I finally had a name to his face. It wasn't really a nickname, so I didn't see why he had a problem telling me it in the first place, but whatever. I was thinking about purple-blue eyes crybaby, or maybe Mr. Idon'tknowyourname, but that works too. "And you can call me–"

"I already know your name," he interrupted, "So I'll just call you Mat."

"'Kay." I shrugged, thinking he wasn't any better at nicknames than I was. I watched him, wondering what we were supposed to do now, when noticing the chair he was sitting here reminded me the question I was going to ask before.

"So, um, where'd you get the chair?"

"This?" He glanced down at his seat before meeting my eyes with a slight quirk to his mouth and answered, "Magic."

I took a step back. "Whaaat? Really?!"

"Well, something like that. More like the power of imagination." He lounged back, looking a lot like a lazy cat. "It's just a chair, but do you want to try?"

"Hell Yeah!" I bounced on my heels excitedly. This was exciting! I was gonna do some magic!

"Alright then, close your eyes first."

As I did so, he continued, "Now picture a chair in your mind. Think about the appearance, size, shape, texture. If it has wood, visualize the grains and lines. For metal, recall the cool, reflective material under your fingers. The comforting feelings and memories with certain fabrics. But it's easier to pick a chair that you're already familiar with."

"Now what?" I grinned as I thought about exactly what I felt like sitting on.

His monotonic voice wafted into my ears, slightly echoing through the empty room. "Keeping your eyes closed, assume that your chair is right in front of you. Now reach for it."

Reach out your hands

Tell me just what you feel

I did as he said, waving my arms in front of me and tried to find my seat. But there was nothing there. My eyes cracked open to see him watching me. He had a pretty good poker-face on, but I could tell by his glinting blue eyes that he thought this was funny.

Whatever. I turned away, shutting my eyelids and tried again. And again. And again. And again.

Each time, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, nothing happened. I don't know how long I kept at it, whether it was my pride or stubbornness that pushed me through, but I did. Failure after failure.

Sometimes L would offer me some random advice, things like 'focus' and 'make sure to keep the image in your mind' and, weirdly enough, 'relax'.

Keep an open mind,

It brings open hearts and open eyes

You walk around with your hands out

And I've never seen anyone so blind...

Eventually, I had enough. "That's it," I groaned, taking a seat on the ground. "I'm done."

"Really? I thought you almost had it this time." He noted. I leaned on my elbows to give him an 'are-you-kidding-me' look.

"Really?" I mimicked him.

"Really."

"Really?"

"Really." There was only a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"REALLY?"

"Really." His eyes confidently glared back, daring me to argue.

So just trust me, you'll be just fine

I need your trust just for tonight...

"Fine, but this is the last time I'm doing this," I grumbled, closing my eyes once more. This time, I hesitated for a second. Was this really supposed to be easy? Or was he just playing a trick on me so that I'd look stupid?

"What, don't you trust me?" It was almost like he could read my mind.

"I don't know," I said with my eyes still closed. I wanted to open them, to see if he was lying or not, but I couldn't. I wanted to know. I wanted to believe. I wanted something to sit on.

"Should I trust you?"

"I think you should." Was his immediate reply. "But it's all up to you to decide."

Surprisingly, there was no sarcasm this time. None. Either my hearing was really good or just seriously bad in this place, but he sounded pretty genuine to me, like he wanted what was best for me, whatever I was thinking.

Taking a deep breath, I envisioned once more, keeping the image firmly in my mind, reaching out blindly and expecting nothingness—when my hand touched something this time. My eyes flew open in surprise and there it was!

My beanbag!

It was just like the one I had in my room. Plopping down right away, I sighed contently. Now, this was better!

I braced myself for L's criticism, but there was nothing other than a small noise from the back of his throat. "What?" I looked up at him half-challengingly.

"Should've known that you'd pick something like that," he commented.

"Well, what can I say?" I stretched out comfortably, drifting off a bit from all those attempts. "I'm a beanbag sort of guy."

"Clearly." L replied, amused. "Clearly."

His low chuckles were the last thing I remembered before I opened my eyes, this time to the sunlight shining through my window. My alarm wasn't blaring loud music this time; instead, it was some kind of soft, haunting sort of tune. I was actually surprised that it managed to wake me up somehow.

" This is not a place in my head

Reach out your hands and tell me just what you feel, oh

This is not just all in your head

Mind over matter makes these things feel so real, oh...

I reached over to shut it off. Still needed to find some other station to get me up in the mornings.

Leaning back into my pillows, I took the time to consider the dream. So his name is L, huh. What a strange guy. One night he was crying his weird eyes out, the next he was an uptight know-it-all. Still, he didn't seem that bad.

Maybe I'll see him again.

Oh, this is not a place in my head

Reach out your hands and tell me just what you feel

This is not just all in your head

Mind over matter makes these things feel so real

So real, so real, woah...

Thanks again for reading~! :3