A/N: So last week my computer started to make this sound like "tick,tick,tick" and I was like "it's gonna BLOW" and hurriedly turned it over to my cousin who is a computer genius. Sometimes. As it turns out it was just something with the fan. But he wasn't kind enough to tell me this and instead held on to my computer for a week. More quick updates will come soon. Hopefully they will be better than this chapter, which I think is kind of lacking something. I just can't put my finger on what.

Also haven't gotten around to reading Ever After – I mean I did start it but there was no Ivy – so maybe I'll get to DreamScape next week? I'm a professional postponer (if there is such a thing) and it might be longer with all this reading I have to do for university. I did not know it was going to be this hard to do it full time. And this boring. Can't wait to pick my major -that'll hopefully make it more fun.

-Two-

And I will make sure to keep my distance

Say "I love you" when you're not listening

And how long can we keep this up, up, up?

Adrian liked to think he knew how spirit worked, but sometimes he reluctantly had to admit he was as clueless as everyone else. Which was why it wasn't that surprising when he found himself in a dark closet rather than the beach he had imagined.

Wondering if he was still too drunk to make spirit work for him he called for the person he had been trying to find. "Sage?" He began looking for a door. "Sage what am I doing in a god damned closet?"

"Adrian?" Sydney's voice said from his left, clearly on the other side of the closet's door. Adrian barely had time to throw up an arm to shield his eyes from the bright sun now flowing into the closet.

"Yes. Why is it so sunny in here?" he asked as he walked out of the closet. The bedroom he entered was brightly lit, making it all the more obvious how boring it was. It was like one of those model homes they used to show people how their house could look without all the things that made it a home- even the family picture on the desk looked somewhat fake. It took Adrian a moment to realize this was probably Sage's bedroom back home. How he had managed to end up in it he wasn't sure.

"What are you doing in here?" Sydney asked as she looked nervously at the door. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Really? Where am I supposed to be then?"Adrian muttered. Thankfully, just then dark clouds started to appear in the sky, turning the bright day outside into a frightful storm, casting the room in shadow. "That's better." At least he thought the darkness was better until he looked at Sydney. She had gone as white as a sheet.

"Adrian you have to go, hide," her voice was fanatic and not because she had figured out this was a spirit dream. Only Adrian wasn't so sure it was. Because this was not what he had imagined. Not where he had imagined taking her. If they were going to be in a bedroom it sure as heck would have had a bigger bed.

Sydney grabbed his arm, as if to drag him back to the closet. "If they find you here…" Her eyes flew towards the door and the sounds of footsteps coming towards it. They were partly drowned out by the rain smattering against the roof and windows and a wind howling unnaturally loud."…Adrian if they find you here I don't know what they'll-"

The door was thrown open.

There were three men and one woman, all with lily tattoos on their cheeks. They all wore a blank but still somehow angry expression that freaked Adrian out. He had seen Sydney try to put on the mask of emotionless Alchemist. She had never been all that successful. These people were.

"Father," Sydney managed to say, despite her clear distress, "it's not-"

"Take her," the man in the front, apparently Sydney's father, ordered. Sydney looked like she wanted to run, but there was nowhere to run. Sydney's father's eyes turn to Adrian but he was clearly talking to the men next to him."And deal with the creature."

Adrian just then realized where he was. He was in a nightmare. One of Sage's nightmares.

As one of the men got a gun out, Adrian decided he no longer wanted to stay in this place or this dream. Not in the least bit.

"Sage," he said grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Listen to me, relax and let me take you out of here."

Sydney looked like she was about as likely to relax as she was to let him drink her blood, but Adrian focused. Closed his eyes and focused hard on where he wanted to go, where he wanted spirit to take them in this dream.

And suddenly there was no longer the sound of the wind or rain but instead a car honked and the sound of wheels on asphalt rushed over him. Blinking he was thankful to see Sydney in the driver seat of his car. The one he had bought for her. They were on an open highway. They were safe, no Alchemists coming for her.

For a moment she looked so lovely in the sun light, sun light that didn't bother him in the least, her skin so smooth and perfect, golden eyes and blonde hair shining in the sun.

It wasn't just that she was so nice looking though; no it was Sydney Sage, the person that made Adrian want things he shouldn't, couldn't ever have. It was the way she believed in him and somehow made him want to be better for himself not for her that made him whish.

Whish for a house she had designed, one with a beautiful backyard with a pool just like the one they had visited that afternoon not so long ago. Whish for them to live there, to be happy there. To be a family, to have a beautiful child, one with Sydney's golden eyes and maybe a dog. A white picket fence. No vampire stuff. No Alchemist stuff. Yeah. He wanted that more than he had ever wanted anything.

"Adrian." Her voice was a little shaky. "This is a spirit dream, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, suddenly really wishing for a cigarette. "Sorry and all. But it appears I've saved you from a rather nasty nightmare."

Her eyes turn from the road."Adrian I don't like this, I mean I love this car but not enough-"

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "Vampire magic; scary." But at least she wasn't freaking out as bad as she had that first time he'd tried. She actually seemed fairly calm. "I came here because I wanted to talk to you."

"Adrian." Her voice was a warning and her eyes turned back to the road.

"Come on Sage, I know you don't pick me, but I know you-"

"Adrian please leave me alone. I don't want you. Okay? I can't do this." The last part was clearly more to herself than him. The car's speed increased enough to make Adrian's stomach do a flip. He knew it was a dream and even if the car crashed they'd both be fine. At least he hoped so, ending up in Sage's nightmare had not been part of the plan.

"You can be a right bitch sometimes, you know that?" he asked much more cheerful than he felt.

She ignored him and pressed her foot on the gas pedal. Adrian decided the car was a distraction and decided they needed to go someplace else. And a second later they weren't in the car anymore.

It took him a moment to realize where they were. It was the backyard they had visited, view and waterfall included. Only he had attached the backyard to the house he had imagined in that fleeting fantasy Sydney would design for them.

"Adrian I don't want to talk, I think I made my point," she said, before looking around. She frowned, losing a bit of her irritation. "I don't remember the house looking like this."

Adrian felt himself go cold as a golden retriever came running from the other side of the house. It barked, then stopped in front of them, laying down a Frisbee at their feet.

"Really? A dog Adrian?" Sydney said as she sat down on her haunches to pet the drooling beast. But Adrian's attention wasn't on the dog.

It was on the little blonde girl rounding the corner the dog had come from. A child he had imagined even so briefly in the car a few moments ago. A child with Sydney's eyes and his mouth.

Sydney seemly confused for a moment followed his gaze, he heard more than saw when she realized who the child was. A little sigh, a deep breath caught. He could almost imagine her putting her hand over her mouth to stop herself from making any more noise.

Earlier Adrian might have rescued Sydney from her nightmare but now he felt like he had just fallen into one of his own. A dream to impossible to be true. Yet. He was in it. Like a starving child without one cent trapped in a candy store. So close to it yet impossibly far. It was the strangest most horrible feeling he had ever felt.

The child stopped and smiled up at them. Sydney stood; the dog forgotten. It was suddenly clear to him this dream had been a big mistake. It was not a spirit dream. He was not able to properly control it. If he had been, this child, this beautiful little girl, wouldn't have been in it. Maybe it was him still being drunk. Maybe it was Sage. Maybe it was the magic she didn't want to have but clearly possessed, messing things up?

"Ma," the child said. "I found a pretty flower." In a little fist the girl held out a large golden lily. Sydney didn't take it.

He had no idea what she was feeling; he barely had room for his own feelings.

"No," was all she said. "No. Adrian. No."

The dream shattered and gasping for air Adrian woke up, feeling more lost than ever before.

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