Thanks for all who reviewed!
Shoutouts:
MotherCHOWgoddess: thanks for all your kind words! Your theories are almost right, ('cept for the clone theory ;) ) I guess I gotta make the clues harder as to what happened to Ronan.
Dragonshadow: I'm sorry for confusing ya, but don't worry, things will get explained!
Coldoctober: There will be mokuba/setoness in latah chappies. Wait some more!
C-Chan: are you alive baka?
C-chan??
(seto is hastily shoving a large duffle bag into the car's trunk)
M: What are you doing?????
S:….nothing….
M: Where's Carolyn?
S:..um….worshiping Bakura, and trying to get him to do that cute evil psychotic laugh…
M:..so you haven't seen her?
(muffled screams from car trunk)
S: Nope. J
M: ….okies…(hops away to the 27th precinct to capture Dee and Ryo)
-----
Notes:
Italics mean dream sequences, or personal thoughts
/????/ omitted name…(kinda like in Kill Bill when ever the Bride said her name. )
-----
He was floating. Drifting aimlessly in the black void that he was accustomed to whenever he dreamt. It was peaceful. Quiet. As he moved suspended in nothingness, he eventually came to a door. Should he open the door?
"Nii-sama…"
The child's voice.
"Nii-sama, where are you?"
A chill ran down his spine. Should he go to the haunting voice that often called to him?
"Nii-sama? Nii-sama?? You said you wouldn't leave me."
He reached for the door, and it creaked slowly open. He entered a small, but stately room. There was a finely furnished desk, along with other expensive furniture.
"Who lives here?" He thought to himself.
"Nii-sama? There you are!"
He turned to see the raven-haired boy who haunted his dreams. He was still faceless, but for some reason, Ronan could sense that the child was smiling at him.
"Who are you?" Ronan asked.
The child laughed, "Nii-sama. Don't be silly. Its me, /????/."
The last part was distorted to his ears, "Pardon, who are you?"
"/????/" the boy replied.
"What?"
The boy shook his head, but was still happy. "Look Nii-sama!" The boy said as he showed Ronan a small present that had been holding behind his back, "I got you something, /????/. I know we can't see each other much because of step-father. So here is something for us to remember each other by. I got a matching one too!"
The boy thrust the package into Ronan's, hands. "Open it, /???/!"
Ronan looked at the boy, "What did you call me?"
The child tossed his head in a quizzical manner, "I called you by your name, nii-sama."
Ronan felt his heart begin to race. "My name?"
The boy nodded, "Yes your name is-"
"RONAN!! BREAKFAST!!"Ronan opened one of his blue eyes, My name is Ronan Breakfast? before groaning as it occurred to him that his dream had been interrupted. "Damn…I was so close, this time…" He rolled over and pulled his pillow over his head.
"RONAN!!"
"Five more minutes please…." he growled from under the fluffy pillow.
His bedroom door opened, "Come on lazy-bones. Up and at'em." Mako said cheerily.
The lump under the covers curled inward and growled. Mako went along the side of Ronan's bed, carefully maneuvering past a pile of books, and random gadgets that were strew along the floor.
"Ronan, its your favorite…pancakes….and coffee."
The lump uncurled a bit.
"Regular or Decaf?" came a muffled voice.
"Decaf."
The lump curled back up into a tight ball.
"I was kidding. Its regular."
Uncurl.
"Its amazing how, someone of your height can manage to curl that tight of a ball." Mako observed as he gripped the corner of the blanket and unceremoniously yanked it off Ronan's body.
Ronan shuddered as the cool morning air assaulted his body, "You interrupted what had to be the weirdest dream ever."
"Was that kid in it again?" Mako asked.
"Yeah," Ronan replied, as he sat up and stretched, "He told me his name this time, but I couldn't understand what he was calling himself."
Mako shrugged, "Wonder what it means?" He affectionately ruffled Ronan's sleep-mussed hair, "Who knows all the secrets that are locked up in there?"
Ronan smiled, "Who cares."
Mako cast a surprised look at his brother, "What do you mean? Don't you want to know what your past is?"
Ronan shook his head, "Nope. How great can they be? I mean, I don't want to know of a life with out you, nii-san. So if I don't get them back, I wouldn't care. I'm happy being here with you."
Mako leaned and hugged his brother, "Thank you, little brother. I sometimes don't want to remember back to a time when I didn't have you either."
Breaking the embrace, Ronan grinned at his brother sheepishly, "Heh, way to early to be so mushy, ne?"
"Yea, but it's a good kind of mushy. Now, get out of bed."
Ronan stuck his tongue out as his brother, "Bully. Give me five minutes. I want to write down what I saw."
Mako nodded and left the room. Reaching for a small leather bound journal and pen that were on his nightstand, Ronan began the record his dream with as much detail that he could remember. Even though, he did not care whether or not his memories came back, after the "dragon-dream" incident, Kaede had instructed him to log his dreams and feelings that came to him with out explanation.
He wrote down the manifest content of his dream. Each detail he could remember from when he was aware of the dream to when he woke up. After he was done writing, Ronan always sketched an aspect that he could recall the most detail. So far, the drawings had been of the Raven-haired child; as his image had been the only one that was re-occurring in his dreams.
Ronan sketched the boy's hair, which stood tall at the top of his head, but then fanned-out in layers as it cascaded down the small boy's back. He drew the featureless face, and then drew the outstretched hands offering him the gift, that he had been unable to open.
Wonder what my present was… Ronan mused, setting the book back down on the table.
He stretched his tired back and arms, and wandered, still sleepy, towards the scent of coffee and food.
-----
He was facing a long hallway in a very vast mansion. Looking out one of the windows, he could tell it was the dead of night.
"Hello?" He called out. "Little boy? Where are you? Its Nii-sama."
From down the corridor he could hear the rapid footfalls of someone running. Ronan waited expecting to see the raven-haired boy, but this time another boy, an older boy at that.
As the figure came closer, Ronan gasped to see the boy had the same hair color to his, but it was cut short. As it was usual in his dream, the boy was faceless, but from his ragged breathing and the way the figure continuously looked over its shoulder, Ronan could tell the boy was running for his life.
Looking up, the boy saw Ronan and flung himself at the taller boy, sending the pair to the floor. The boy clutched Ronan's shirt with a vice-like grip and burrowed his face into the material.
"Please." the boy begged, "Please help me." Ronan could feel the wet of tears leaking through his shirt.
"What's wrong, little one. Who are you running from?" Ronan asked, attempting to soothe the distraught child.
"A monster. Please, take my little brother and get out of here. He deserves better."
"What about you?"
The boy looked up a Ronan, "He shouldn't be here. Its my fault, /????/, shouldn't live in a house with a monster."
"Who shouldn't live here?"
"/???/, my little brother."
Ronan sighed frustrated that he could not hear the child's name.
"Where's the monster. Let me see it."
The boy burrowed further into the material, "Please. Don't look for him. He'll hurt me again."
Ronan sat up some, looking over the boy's shoulder. His stomach knotted when he saw the bare back that was covered with bloodied slashes.
"Who-"
"My step-father." The boy quickly replied. "Please take my brother an leave. Tell him I'm sorry that I couldn't provide a better life for him."
" /?????/!!!!" A thundering voice called out in the distance, "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU WRETCHED BRAT?"
The boy clung to Ronan, whimpering. From the shadows of the long hallway, a looming figure approached at a quick pace.
"Is that.."
The boy nodded against his chest. Ronan clutched at the boy, determined to take the boy and run, but he found that he could not get up off the floor. He struggled to maneuver himself and the child, but all he could do was remain on his back. The figure loomed ever closer.
Finally, Ronan could make out the form of a tall man, in a red suite with graying hair.
"/?????/!! What are you doing?!" The man roared at the boy, "Showing weakness again, you spineless little bastard?"
The boy was sobbing hysterically against Ronan's chest, and all Ronan could do was lay trapped by an invisible force on the floor.
The figure pulled out a long leather strap that was crusted in with dried blood. The man brought the whip harshly down upon the boy's exposed back, eliciting a muffled scream from the youth.
"Stop it!!" Ronan screamed, attempting to move in a way to shield the boy.
The strap struck again.,
"STOP!"
The boy cried out painfully as he was lashed a third time.
"STOP IT!"Ronan's blue eyes snapped open, looking around his room for the noise that had roused him, before realizing that it had been his own voice. He sat up, trying to calm himself. His stomach was knotted from the disturbing images he had seen. He grabbed his journal from the nightstand and began to write. As he wrote he could not help feeling the sickening sense of des ja vu that was washing over him.----
"You saw a child being beaten?" Mako asked in a disturbed tone.
Ronan nodded as he chased the cheerios in his bowl with his spoon.
"Was it the raven haired boy?"
"No. It was a new boy. I had never seen him before."
"Any clue who he is."
Ronan shook his head. "No." he replied simply. Not wanting to relate anymore of the terrible dream. He did not want to explain to Mako that he saw himself in the terrified boy.
----
"Nii-sama…"
The little one had returned to his dreams. Ronan looked up from where hey lay on an immense bed. The room was plain, decorated in blues and whites, and simply furnished.
"What do you want?" Ronan asked.
"I had a nightmare, /?????/. May I sleep with you tonight?"
The boy waited expectantly for Ronan to answer. How could he say "no" , to someone that was chasing him in his dreams?
"Alright. You can sleep here tonight."
The boy gave a relieved sigh, and clambered into the large bed, where he snuggled under the covers next to Ronan.
"Love you, /????/." the boy said as he kissed Ronan 'good-night' on the cheek.
Ronan involuntarily leaned over and returned the gesture of affection.
"I love you too, Mokuba."
For the third time that week Ronan was roused from his dreams. He quickly grabbed the journal and began to write everything that he had seen. However by the time he got to the end, he no longer remembered the name.
------
TBC
End notes:
Manifest Content - according to Psychology in the subject of psychoanalysis, the manifest content is what the dream appears to be about on the surface; how one remembers the dream, as opposed to the latent content, which is what the dream symbolically represents.
Logging one's dreams is one way to analyze them. However it must be done immediately when one wakes up, or else their perception of the dream might be altered. Also distractions and stress often make the subject forget images and concepts of the dream seconds after the patient has awoken. This is the theory I am going with as to why Ronan could not remember Mokuba's name at the end of the chapter.