When the two sisters originally came to live at Gallow's Manor, they held a hesitance towards Kid. Liz, of course, held the greater resistance towards accepting this as a new life; and she initially refused much cooperation, even persuading Patty to keep a distance between them and their new 'meister.'

A year passed before Patty would wake Kid during the night. Before that, a nightmare meant leaving her room, blanket trailing behind her, and silently creeping into Liz's room. She would slide into the empty side of the ginormous bed before shaking her sister, who would roll over and question who was there. Patty would always disregard the question, skipping straight to, "I had a nightmare."

The elder would roll over and open her blanket for her sister, despite the other blanket she carried. Holding her sister until she fell back into a peaceful sleep, Liz would listen to her breaths, so even and steady compared to the ragged ones she could only assume her sister had woken up to.

The routine- whenever such occurred- broke nearing a year into their establishment at Gallo's Manor. Liz woke up early one weekend morning to find Patty missing from her own bed. With a small lump of worry forming in her stomach, she checked Kid's bedroom next. What she found was unexpected, to say the least.

Kid appeared normal, although she had to admit his sleeping style was rather odd. Head tucked underneath a pillow to ward out the incoming sunlight and blanket only half way up his stomach- revealing a very wrinkly white shirt- he was still deep in sleep. Behind his back, however... Patty slept, curled in a ball and in towards Kid's back, as if seeking the same warmth that came from her visits to Liz.

"Liz?"

Apparently 'deep in sleep' had been too large of an assumption. The boy peeked from underneath the pillow and stared at her with a certain exhaustion that gave away the complete oblivion he remained in.

"What's wrong?"

A pause, in which Liz considered walking right out. "Can I ask what... happened?"

Confusion panned over Kid's face. "What do you mean?"

Liz remained silent and instead pointed behind him. She couldn't find the words to ask. She watched patiently as he removed the pillow and turned the upper half of his body around. Instantly his face lit up, beaming a deep red.

His head snapped back to Liz, and he stuttered his confusion, claiming he was just as lost as her.

The two would learn later once Patty awoke what had happened. A nightmare had woken her, particularly pertaining to Kid. Fearful for him, she turned to his room instead of Liz's, and she eventually fell asleep.

Once the same occurrence replayed itself on multiple accounts, however, both Kid and Liz found themselves less embarrassed and rather expectant of such. Liz found Patty's trust in Kid rather endearing once she, herself, had grown more accustomed to him; and she merely laughed upon finding the two asleep once more with Patty holding Kid in a death-grip hug.

Despite the tough facade Liz put up, she couldn't deny the nightmares she suffered from. Often enough they were minute, and she could forget about them with ease and return to the slumber they had woken her from. However, there were rare occasions, in which she would wake with a scream, and she could only pray that had been the only one to escape.

One night in particular she recalled waking up with hands on her shoulders, throat feeling slightly dry and hoarse. Her eyes snapped open, and she immediately found herself staring into sharp yellow ones.

A shaky breath left her throat, and she could feel tears threatening to pool down her face. While she could detect a hint of fear coming from the boy's wavelength, his eyes held steady, refusing to physically show what he mentally could not hide.

His lips were set in a thin line, but she was expecting him to say something. Instead, he pulled away, eyes growing farther from her own and hands releasing their hold on her shoulders.

He stood up straight from his position over her bed, but it was obvious he was still wary about what had exactly happened. Quite hesitantly, he left, and the door remained open. Her heart sunk, and embarrassment flooded her cheeks. However, she soon found curiosity buzzing around in her head as she heard water running from some unknown source in the house.

Moments later, Kid was silently sneaking back into her room. At the side of her bed, he extended a glass of water towards her.

"Here."

He spoke softly and flat, and she accepted the water silently. She took a sip, which turned into a gulp- but she had to stop herself there. A question began nagging her.

A hesitant pause passed, in which the glass came down from her lips. "Is Patty still asleep?"

She, too, remained soft spoken, and she was answered with nod.

"I didn't check in her room, but as far as I could tell, she's still asleep."

A sigh released. "Good." A break, in which she took a small drink of the water. Her words came out awkward and forced, alerting both that she didn't quite know how to word her request. "You can... go now."

"All right." With a quick glance, Kid made for the door, leaving it open just a smidgin as he left.

Nevertheless, Liz was greeted to the waking world with a scare. Apparently, she noted, Kid had brought in a chair from one of the neighboring rooms and planted it beside her bed, farthest from the side she preferred to lay on. Asleep, his head had lolled to the side to face the wall. She cautiously wriggled herself free from her blankets to get closer to Kid and tapped him on the arm.

His face cringed, and he muttered something, an unconscious display of his disapproval of whatever was attempting to wake him. She tried once more, and his eyes lazily opened.

"What are you doing in here?" she hissed through her teeth, still afraid of speaking beyond a whisper. A glance at a wall clock told her it was barely four in the morning; she still had plenty of time to sleep.

"Well, you were rather concerned about Patty having to worry about you; and I figured that if I sat in here, I would be able to wake you if anything else occurred."

With eyes closed once more, Kid adjusted himself in the stiff chair. Without warning, a harsh tug on his arm brought him jerking forward and face-first onto the bed.

"Good night, Kid." Tiredness laced her voice; and he couldn't exactly state his annoyance when he was far from feeling such an emotion. The bed felt too comfortable compared to the stiff chair, and the clean scent of the covers left him feeling relaxed.

As he got comfortable, keeping a safe distance between himself and Liz to avoid a rather awkward moment later on, a soft, "Thank you," was produced beside him.

While he acutely knew neither sister had witnessed him having a nightmare, it was quite obvious in the day that followed. He always woke up more tired than usual; and in spite of his desire for promptness, his alarm clock was never the one to wake him up. Liz would always find herself stepping into his room on multiple accounts to wake him, each time in which he would claim he was "getting up."

Of course, the trio would never arrive late to school; but Liz still found great annoyance in having to wake him up in such a manner- even if such 'drastic measures' only needed initiating once a month or so.

"Kid, get up." Her voice seemed to drip with anger, which was only bubbling up further and further.

"I told you, I'm getting up, Liz." The pillow was brought over his face, shielding him from the elder sister. His tone was of pure exhaustion, which was accompanied by a sigh; and while Liz noted both of these, she only grew frustrated by his ignoring of her.

"I should just let you sleep in and be late for school."

Another sigh from underneath the pillow. "Sorry."

The pillow was lifted, and Liz was met with a sorry-excuse for Kid. "I'm getting up," he repeated once more. He sat up and wrapped the blanket around his body. His eyes wearily opened and found their way up to Liz's face. "What time is it?" A hand came up to his hair, and he began patting it down; she couldn't help but notice it looked more out of place than usual.

"Almost six-thirty."

With some sort of mumbled affirmative, he left for the shower. It wasn't until he came out did Liz truly recognize him as Kid, now looking clean and new.

And it wasn't until later that afternoon, after school had let out and the trio returned home and once she had questioned him to the point of being outright infuriating... did she understand his dilemma.

A long string of questions, all met with meaningless answers, ended with Kid's admittance: "I had a nightmare. That's all."

He abruptly left, and Liz couldn't have even forced herself to be angry the next time Kid refused to wake up.

End