Chapter 7: Unawareness

The sun had rose to shine, announcing it's appearance by awakening many of the sleeping smashers. The sun was not able to fully pierce through the fabric hanging from Ness' window, offering an extra hour of blissful unawareness. Although, it was short lived when his roommate, Lucas, decided to let the room be filled the the sun's ray.

"Ugh, a few more minutes!" Ness complained, trying to block the sun with his covers. His blond friend sighed and simply prepared his bed, despite having a robot programmed to clean their room anyways.

"Alright, but you're making your bed. Not me." Lucas replied, as he walked over to his dresser and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes, and made his way to the bathroom. Ness groaned, and tried to sleep again.

After awhile, Ness woke up and looked around. Lucas was no where in sight, and he saw a note on his nightstand.

Off to breakfast with Toon Link. Pit is waiting for you, so don't make him wait too long.

Lucas

Ness jumped from his bed, and tried to make his bed quickly. He looked around and grabbed some scattered clothes, and hurriedly placed them on. Pit was going to be so upset with him! Ness smoothed his hair out with his hands, and he placed his cap on, and stuffed the key necklace under his shirt away from view. "Can't let anyone see this!" Ness thought, as he smiled to himself.

He grabbed his bright yellow book-bag and exited his room in a hurry. He locked the door and jogged quickly to Pit's room.

"Hm? I'm coming!" Pit stood up from his bed, as he made his way to the door. He opened, and saw Ness panting, as he managed to mutter a "Sorry I'm late."

Pit scoffed, "You've been asleep for 2 hours already!" Ness tilted his heads, "Two hours? It felt like 30 minutes to me..." Ness said, as he began to breathe more normally.

Pit shook his head, and left his room locking his door. "Alright, I guess we can still go to breakfast. You better hurry though, so you can be the first one to visit Marth." Pit said, as Ness nodded. Sounds like a plan.

They managed to get to the cafeteria, and order whatever remained. For Pit, there was enough eggs and orange juice, while Ness ordered pancakes but no syrup. No one else was in the lunch room except Ike, and Link.

"Hey guys! Do you mind if we join you?" Ness asked, as the two walked over to Ike and Link. They looked at them and nodded. Pit didn't wait, and began to chop the eggs in half and eat what he can fit in his mouth. Ness wasn't as hungry, but he still tried to eat some food. Neither of the four muttered a word, and the only sounds were the sounds of Pit slurping his orange juice, and his knife slicing the plate by accident.

"So why are you guys so quiet?" Pit asked he finally finished his eggs. Link nudged Ike to answer, and all he said was, "Don't want to talk about it." Link looked at Pit, expecting him to accept his answer. "Oh, alright. I'll just not ask you again." Pit answered, as he slurped the remaining orange juice.

After the eerily quiet breakfast with Link and Ike, Pit offered to walk Ness to the hospital ward to visit Marth. Ness agreed with a nod and the two started to walk side by side.

Pit shifted uncomfortably with having Ness this quiet. It wasn't long till they arrived, and Ness waved goodbye to Pit. The angel looked genuinely confused, but still managed to make a timid wave, "Um, alright...bye Ness."

He waited to see Mario unlock the door, and that raised a question in Ness.

He saw Marth reading his usual book, and glanced up giving Ness a heart warming smile. Ness returned the smile, and glanced over to see the door was closed.

"Marth, why is your door locked now?" Ness asked, as Marth sighed. "It's a long story, but to sum it up, Ike and I were caught in the gardens, mainly with me stuck in a bush, and Peach have gotten really upset. So, now, they lock the door, and Ike isn't allowed to visit anymore." Ness nodded, he wasn't really paying attention to Ike during lunch, but he still noticed when Pit asked what was wrong.

"Did anything happen regarding the...?" Ness pointed at his chest where the key was under his shirt. Marth slightly nodded.

"I had another dream of him." Marth whispered, as he unconsciously gave Ness a smile. Ness laughed, "Strange, I did too. We were playing around in the gardens, but this time you weren't there."

The two didn't speak, and thought what these dreams could mean, but still they shrugged it off.

"So, if your leg healing well?" Ness asked, Marth gave a heavy sigh. "Peach added another week thinking the me in the bush damaged my leg a bit." Ness shook his head trying not to laugh.

"Too bad, you probably miss the feeling of walking. Huh?" Ness asked, Marth nodded as he laughed at the incident that happened between Ike and him.

Mario opened the door announcing it was time for Ness to leave so Marth can eat his lunch. Ness nodded and waved goodbye to Marth.

He didn't really know what to do, he wasn't hungry and he bet all his friends were already at the lunch room. He looked around the halls and thought maybe he should try and go to the place. He shook his head, "Too risky..." he thought. Ness could easily be in trouble for sneaking in unknown areas.

Night time is the safest time to explore, but the maybe exploring for fun wasn't a bad idea. Ness noticed himself, that his attention span to the world around is severely lacking today, but he hoped that nobody noticed yet. If they did, that would mean Lucas or Pit questioning him.

He found his way to the garden's entrance and stepped onto he field of grassing, instantly being reminded of his hometown...

Ness walked around looking at all the flowers and trees grown here, and began to wonder how long they were here and when were they planted. Nobody was in the gardens, probably at the lunch room. Ness looked down to see a light glow in his chest.

"Huh?!" Ness grabbed the key from under his shirt and cupped his hands peeking in a small hole, the key was definitely glowing. Does that mean there's a key or letter around here? Ness looked around frantically. There has to be then! But where should he start? Ness began to use the key as a metal detector and followed it's glowing.

"Ness?"

A voice took him off guard and he noticed that a worried Lucas is watching him. Ness quickly hid the key and turned and quickly said, "Hi.."

They both stood, not talking. Ness was about to go somewhere else, as Lucas suddenly grabbed his wrist. "Um, Ness...are...are you okay? Is there something you want to talk about?" Lucas asked, holding on tight. Ness replied trying not to sound cold towards his best friend. "No, not at all. I don't feel like talking now. I'll see you later Lucas." He managed to escape Lucas' grasp and walked out the gardens quickly.

"Ness...I'm just really worried..." Lucas whispered, hoping that Ness would somehow hear. This wasn't the first time Ness ever acted so distant. And that day, was a rather cold day...

"Oh Ness...I wish I could help you when you feel trapped..." Lucas muttered, finally just sitting on the grassy ground, pulling his leg to his face, remembering the first time Ness was ever so distant.

Author's Note: Next chapter will be a flash back chapter.

I'm very happy that eventually this story will reach the tenth chapter mark! Let's make these next three chapters count! But don't worry, it won't end with just ten. And I wish to apologize to the loyal readers, who were very upset with lack of updates with this story. I had a horrible case of "Writer's block", and I just couldn't come up with what to do next. But I managed to pull through! I hope you enjoy, please review! Thank you for reading so far..