[short] A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR SO LONG. I blame schoolwork along with all the other shitty things in my life. Therefore, my mind is now in withdrawal mode and I am temporarily abandoning my long test due tomorrow, midnight, to write this fic. Yey me. XD

In case some of you are thinking that this will somehow be AlicexOz, think again. I did label this under "OzxGilbert", so it should be obvious, but I am restating it, just in case. Alice and Oz will remain strictly platonic here, despite what may be implied in canon (I HONESTLY THINK OZ SHOULD END UP WITH GIL NO MATTER WHAT!

Happy reading! The plot thickens!

Chapter 6 Reset: Collapse of the Cycle

"Ollie! Hurry up so I can get some meat!" cried Anice as she ran through the hallways, eager to go to the school cafeteria. Today was "Meaty Monday" (as Anice called it), and the lunch lady at the cafeteria always prepared beef steak on Mondays. As her twin sister Aly had once said, her brain was so meat-wired that she actually kept track of the cafeteria menu better than she did with her homework. Not that Anice could have denied that, of course.

"Hahaha, okay Anice. The bell just rang, so the other students won't be able to line up right away," Ollie replied.

"Oh shush. Let your guard down even just a little and by the time you get to the line, the beef brisket is halfway through! I am getting my meat, understand?!"

Ollie just rolled his eyes and smiled to himself. There was no way you can argue with a rabid, meat-hungry girl.

As Ollie had predicted, there was hardly any line at the cafeteria. Most of the students were still slowly filing out of their classrooms, chatting about the usual teen things: what their assignments were for the day/week, when the prom was going to be, who they were going to ask out, who was going to ask them out, etc. etc.

Ollie was one of the few people who didn't think about those things, at least, not too much.

Okay, maybe he wanted to ask Shirley Railey, two years his junior, out to his first ever prom. She is very cute and lady-like after all, plus she is a really responsible batch representative, but for that Ollie was sure he had a lot of competition as well.

Then again, maybe being Anice's date for the prom would be cool too. She does have this cute tendency of feeling awkward when forced to dress like a lady. Ollie sure enjoyed teasing her for that.

Anyway, for now, his biggest concern was to make sure that Anice didn't accidentally pull his arm off due to meat-induced overexcitement.

As soon as Anice had cued up for the food, she cried, "Ms. Lunch Lady! Three orders of beef steak please!"

"Hahaha, aren't you going to get fat at this rate, Anice?" Olllie teased.

"Like I care. This is high quality meat, get it? It is more than worth it." Anice retorted.

The lunch lady laughed heartily and made sure that Anice received three, very big servings. Once she had served her best client, she turned to Ollie and asked, "And what would you like, young man?"

Oz smiled sheepishly and replied, "Oh, no thanks. I'm not hungry."

The friendly pair gave the lunch lady one last nod of thanks before turning to the nearest table.

"Ollie, are you sure you're not hungry?" Anice asked once they had settled down into their chairs.

"Yeah I'm sure. I'm just a little sleepy I guess, so I can't really think about food right now."

"Hmmm. Did something happen?"

Ollie, who was blankly staring at the other students in the cafeteria, snapped to attention and returned his gaze towards Anice. "What makes you say that?"

"You know, you're a pretty bad liar, Ollie. It's written all over your face," Anice said calmly.

"What's written all over my face?"

"Something is obviously —bohzhering shew—" Anice stated as she stuffed herself gleefully with the beef steak.

Ollie remained silent and continued staring at her thoughtfully. Anice didn't speak either, and contented herself with waiting for Ollie's reply as she ate the beef steak, all the while focusing her full attention towards him.

Eventually, Ollie gave her a small smile. "You're a lot sharper than you seem to be. But don't worry, I really am fine. I just couldn't sleep very well for some reason, is all. Really."

Anice finished chewing the last serving of her beef steak and nodded, ending the conversation.

Wait…

"What do you mean I'm a lot sharper than I seem to be?!"

For someone who hated lies, Ollie sure liked to do it often. He didn't want Anice or anyone else to worry, and for him this was the best way, to accept everything and just let things pass.

The truth was that Ollie couldn't sleep because he was having nightmares. Really bad ones. He couldn't remember the details most of the time, just the sheer terror he would feel upon waking up; every single time, maybe around twice or thrice a night. Some days he would get lucky and wake up in the morning, right after the sun had risen. But most of the time he would wake up at odd hours and become unable to sleep once more. Those really took a toll on his circadian rhythm.

Sometimes, when his nightmares were just downright horrifying, he would remember bits and fragments of them. Most of the time they were about death. He would see piles and piles of bodies strewn all over the floor, bloody and charred black amidst the fiery surroundings. It made him want to puke even in the dream. He actually puked for real once during a really bad night.

Other times, it was the complete opposite. There would be nothing but endless, abysmal darkness around him, and a mysterious voice would gently whisper into his ear, saying that he had no right to exist and that everything he had achieved was for naught.

Those were even scarier than all the death dreams combined. When Ollie would awaken from such dreams, he would find himself drenched in sweat and breathing raggedly. Once or twice, he screamed himself awake, shouting "Let me go!" to the unknown tormentor.

This was one of those nights.

Fortunately, he was alone in the house. Well, he almost always is. His mother died when she gave birth to him, and his father rarely ever came home as he was working overseas as some sort of corporate biggie. Ollie didn't really know, and he didn't really care. He and his father were never close, and he knew his father hated him. In fact, when Ollie was around seven, his father slapped him and said that his existence was a mistake. Otto Versailles had always blamed Ollie for his wife's death.

Still, he couldn't complain too much. His Uncle Orman was tons better than his father. In fact, his uncle has been his official guardian/unofficial father figure for as long as he could remember. Orman had moved to the house next door not long after Ollie's birth, and since his child had died along with his wife on the day she was about to give birth, he had willingly welcomed Ollie into his life to fill that hole his long lost son and now-gone wife had unintentionally made.

Still, despite the closeness, Ollie was glad that he and his uncle did not live under the same roof. Otherwise, his uncle would have heard his screams and asked him what was going on. That was something he would much rather not explain. Not at all.

Once his breathing had slowed, Ollie gingerly lifted himself from bed and headed to the bathroom for a nice long shower.

Sleep would never give him peace anyway.

Obviously, he never told anyone about his nightmares.

Okay, maybe just to his best friend, Gordon Nelby. Just once, when he first had it on his fifteenth birthday a few months ago.

"Ollie, how are you feeling now?" Gordon had asked then.

"I'm fine," Ollie had reassured then.

Being the worrywart that he was, Gordon had gone into full mother hen mode in the succeeding days. He would visit Ollie every lunch break even though the college building was all the way on the other side of the campus and Gordon had only that one hour before he would have to leave for his four-hour fine arts classes again. Ollie had to admit that he did like the attention, but it did become a little overbearing after a while.

Finally, he told Gordon, "Look, I'm fine. I haven't been getting nightmares lately. Promise."

Fortunately that acquiesced Gordon, and that stopped his mother hen mode.

For the most part. He still kept texting Ollie, just to double check.

Despite every little, fucked up thing in his life, Ollie had to say that he was still the luckiest person on earth for having such an awesome friend like Gordon. Gordon was fiercely loyal, and by "fiercely", Ollie meant something more along the line of, say, "downright frightening". Sure they were childhood friends, but Gordon was a super duper loyal childhood friend that Ollie felt like they were blood brothers, or maybe something more.

Okay, stop. One does not have cheesy thoughts of being held in his "brother's" loving, loyal-to-the-death arms.

The sleep deprivation must be getting to him. And jeez, Ollie's currently reddish face and slightly rising temperature has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with blushing!

Moving on…

Ollie was on his way to the infirmary to get some medicine for his headache. The months of sleep deprivation were definitely taking a toll on him, and he had to thank his lucky stars that Gordon has been really busy with thesis and the seniors' retreat so that he wouldn't notice Ollie's deteriorating condition (or even be able to go to the high school building for that matter. Gordon's schoolwork had been piling up like hell. And since he was so guilty about being unable to visit Ollie lately, he would text "Sorry for being unable to see you. I'll make it up to you, promise!" everyday, and everyday Ollie would reply "It's fine. Now go work on that thesis!" with a smile). Anice noticed as well, but all Ollie had to do was brush her off and she would not pry any further. He liked her for that, in a platonic sort of way.

Ollie quietly slid the door of the infirmary open and entered, only to find the room empty.

"Um, excuse me, is anybody here?" he called out. Earning no response, he looked at the medicine cabinet to his right and tried to look for the headache medicine.

"And just what are you doing, little boy?" a voice whispered into his ear.

The sudden sensation of air on his ear startled Ollie so much that he could have snapped his neck with the way he quickly turned towards the voice.

"Oh, good morning Dr. Alex. I was just looking for some headache pills."

"Hohoho. This is the second time this week that you've asked for those. Mind telling me what is troubling you?" the doctor inquired.

Ollie calmly smiled and said "Nothing's troubling me, doctor. I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

"And may I know what is making you wake up on the wrong side of the bed lately?"

"Just schoolwork. Nothing special. Bye doctor!" Ollie chirped, eager to leave. That doctor was too nosy for his own good.

"My my, what a stubborn brat," the doctor murmured to himself, covering his right eye with his bangs.

Fairly long author's note that is [perhaps] necessary to clarify things:

I'm sure you all know what the hell I'm doing here. This is obviously set in the 21st century. Am I completely diverging from canon? Hell no. I hope I left sufficient but not overly-revealing hints for you guys to understand that. ^^

For the convenience's sake, "Gordon" (who will all know is not really just "Gordon") is only 21 years old, not 24, which explains why he is still a college senior.

Please note that I am Filipino, and the education system is a little different here (we have less school years), which explains why the usual age range for a college senior here is 20-22 years old.

Since I mentioned "Gordon", I'm sure you all know which names go with which character from canon. XD

Lastly, please forgive me if my depiction of school life kinda sucks. I don't watch that many school anime because I'm more into intense, fantasy anime like Pandora Hearts. I hope it wasn't too bad. :D

Anonymous Guests Review Reply

Paz: Why thank you! I didn't expect anyone to be touched by that part, really. I merely found it natural for Oz to say that at that moment because his mind was mostly a blank slate and stuff and I felt like that line would contribute to the feel. Oh gosh I didn't know that! I wonder if Jun-sama knew that! (I wouldn't be surprised if he did…XD) I will forever remember that now too.