Chapter Six – Sleep well

When Allen and Kanda returned to their dorm room, it was easily past nine o'clock. They had only just managed to make it before the gates shut for curfew. In fact, had Lenalee not pleaded with the teacher on patrol with crocodile tears in her eyes they may have very well been locked out.

Allen gathered up his pajamas almost as soon as they returned, ducking into the bathroom to change with a jaw cracking yawn.

Kanda watched as the door slammed shut behind him before huffing in disapproval. It was still far to early to go to bed as far as he was concerned. Grimacing, he grabbed his Mugen from where it was leaning on the wall and slid his coat off before tossing it on to his bed.

The weather was cool but he planned to work up a light sheen of sweat with his training. Without a backwards glance he slipped out of the dorm room, taking no care to shut the door quietly and descended the stairs heading to where the unused building lay slowly decaying on the school grounds, the key to it in his pocket.

It hadn't taken much persuading on his part to convince Komui to give him the key for training purposes. The headmaster was smart enough to understand that if Kanda didn't have someplace empty to practice the rest of campus would likely fall victim to his Katana.

The door was sturdy compared to the rest of the dreary walls and it was padlocked as well as the reliable lock in the handle.

Many tests of courage had been held here until an accident left a student dead had forced Komui to put a stop to it. Since then the lock had deterred plenty of disappointed groups of trouble makers.

Kanda walked easily into the depths. The entire bottom floor was one wide room; the walls having being knocked down long ago.

With a smirk Kanda deftly swung his Mugen through the air, enjoying the light breeze it left in its wake.

This was going to be a relaxing session.

OoO_OoO_OoO

There was blood. So much blood. Everywhere. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the cot in the corner… Everything was drenched in a never ending sea of red.

Slowly, Allen climbed to his feat and looked cautiously around the room. It was empty save for himself and the light drip of blood falling from the roof bet out a steady rhythm as it pooled in the centre of the floor.

After a moment of staring Allen realized something was sticking out of the puddle in middle of the room. After a brief hesitation Allen approached, his footsteps echoing in time with the steady dripping.

The light gleam of sharp metal caught him off guard as he hunched over.

It was sharp, that much was apparent from the tip sticking out. Carefully, Allen nudged it with a gloved hand until it rolled out of the blood and into view.

It was a syringe filled with pale green liquid and Allen felt his blood run cold at the sight of it.

"Kuhh." He staggered backwards, clamping a hand over his mouth to contain the wave of nausea that arrived with the memory.

There was a light tap on his shoulder and he spun around, eyes widening as he stared at the shorter figure cast in darkness, the only thing visible the flash of teeth and the scarring marring the persons forehead.

Allen went to step back but his foot was instantly soaked and a sharp pain ran up his foot.

Glancing down he realized he'd stepped into the puddle of blood, the syringe sticking out from his foot from where he'd stepped on it.

He buried his head in his hands and began to scream as –

Allen gasped as his eyes shot open and he found himself staring dumbly up at the ceiling. Slowly, he sat up, his clothes sticking to his sweaty body.

He was in his room. No blood on the ceiling, no blood on the floor. The room was exactly as he remembered it before crawling into bed and falling to sleep.

Sighing he flopped back down on the bed and covered his head with his folded arms. His head was pounding and he could still feel his heart trying to steady itself.

The nightmares were coming with increasing regularity lately. Everything was coming with increasing regularity. The dreams, the pain, the memories. Allen let out a groan and dragged himself up right before slipping out of his bed and padding over to his desk.

After a brief hesitation he opened the drawer and stared down at the many yellow tinted pill bottles.

He looked sourly at them. They seemed to be mocking him. Slowly, he pulled out three of four containers and began to shake the pills into his hands. He only noticed his hands were trembling when the pills slipped past his fingers and fell onto his desk beside his clock which was proudly displaying one thirty in the morning.

Cursing, Allen threw the pill bottles back into the drawer and swept the spilt tablets off his desk so they clattered harmlessly into the drawer, slamming it violently shut.

"Che. Any louder and you'll wake the whole dorm up."

Allen jumped and spun around to see Kanda leaning against the wall beside the door, Katana held loosely in his hand as he dryly observed Allen's frustrated expression.

"Where did you go?" The British boy asked rudely.

Kanda snorted as he swung the door shut and crossed the room to gently lean his Katana against his desk. "I was training."

"At one in the morning?"

"It sure beats slamming things and making a fucking racket."

"Urg." Allen glared at his roommate but Kanda paid him no head, quickly crossing the room to open his wardrobe, disappearing from sight behind the wooden doors. Allen could hear the rustle of clothing and concluded he must be changing.

Allen eased himself down in the desk chair and pulled out the biology homework he had yet to finish. The books he'd read at the library had helped and he found himself actually able to understand a vast majority of them now.

There was the sound of doors shutting as Kanda finished changing. He looked over at his roommate hunched over on his desk and snorted.

"You're kidding, right? It's one in the morning."

"I'll go to bed soon." Allen promised vaguely. Kanda gave another dismissive snort and shrugged, heading off to bed.

Allen struggled to focus on the work before him. Truth be told, he was exhausted, but the last thing he wanted to do was go to bed and suffer through nightmares again. Even homework was preferable to that.

oOo_OoO_OoO_oOo

After twenty minutes of insistent scribbling Kanda had grown incredibly irritated.

"I can't sleep with that fucking light on." He groaned from his bed. The scribbling didn't stop.

"Can't you just go to bed or something?"

Kanda sat up and glared over at his roommate. Allen met his gaze and heaved a sigh, tossing his pen down on to the desk he flipped off the light and the room was plunged into darkness.

After a few moments of silence Kanda heaved a sigh. "I can tell you're still sitting at the desk."

There was a subdued muttering and Kanda narrowly dodged a book thrown at him as Allen crossed the room to his bed.

Rolling his eyes Kanda pulled his pillow over his head and settled back into his bed.

Ten minutes or so passed by and the only sound in the room was the restless and frequent tossing from Allen's side of the room.

"Moyashi."

"What?"

"Shut the fuck up and go to sleep."

Kanda's answer was prevailing silence and for a moment he truly believed Allen would not answer.

"I… Can't."

"Che. Why not?" Kanda rolled over into his side and peered through the hazy shapes in the darkened room to try and better see Allen.

"I… Don't want to see it again."

Kanda's agile mind quickly picked out what Allen was trying to say. "Scared of a nightmare?" He taunted. He received no reply. Shit.

"It's just a dream, you know."

"What do you care BaKanda?" Allen's voice was laced with annoyance and he sounded both tired and exhausted.

"I can't sleep when you're making so much noise." Kanda grunted.

"I'll try to be quiet then." Allen muttered sarcastically and the room fell back into silence for a few minutes before Allen tossed over onto his side again.

"You have no plans of going to sleep, do you?"

Allen made a non committing mummer and Kanda felt his patience about ready to snap. "If you were to sleep with me, would that help?"

A startled silence followed Kanda's suggestion. "Are you serious?" Allen asked in disbelief.

"No Moyashi, I just made the offer to screw with your head. Now answer the damn question."

Allen hesitated and answered slowly. "… Maybe."

"Then get you're ass over here so I can sleep."

Allen paused for a moment before pushing himself out of bed and crossing the room to stand by Kanda's. There was the rustle of sheets as Kanda held them open for Allen.

Hesitantly Allen crawled in beside him and Kanda was quick to turn on his back to him.

It was strange sharing a bed with Kanda like this, but despite the fact there was a carefully kept space of a few centimeters between their backs the comfort of having somebody so close did not escape Allen and he found himself glad of Kanda's presence.

Slowly, he allowed his eyes to drift closed. He didn't think he'd be suffering any more nightmares tonight.

A/N: It's done! Yaaay! I actually finished this a couple of hours ago but was to distracted to proofread, heh heh.
It's a bit on the short side, I know, but my school holidays are literally just two days away and I plan to spend them updating and watching all the anime that pilled up.
See you guys soon! Leave me a review!