[Social] Futures

[Mendokuse]

Sometimes...Sometimes I feel as if I don't deserve such happiness. I've either done exactly what I was told, or failed my heart's dreams...I'm no coward, but I don't take chances. I'm a hardworking upstanding citizen but I'm not exactly a good person. And I'm in love...but I'm terrified. Maybe I'm just...trying to sabotage my own happiness...out of guilt. I made a...No. I didn't make a mistake. I made a decision. And that decision gave me the conviction to save one of my loved ones. I shouldn't punish myself just because I failed to save them both. I know that...So why can't I sleep?

In the cool darkness of a plain Iwagakure home - the home of Kouseki Akito and his fiancee Kamina - a young man with unruly white hair sat at the edge of his large bed, his back slouching in an uncharacteristic departure of posture. His face buried in the soft warmth of his hands, the man breathed slowly, in through his nose and out through his mouth.

The dreams had been infrequent at first. Her face. Her voice. Her essence - what instinctively awoke within him when his unconscious heart called out for hers. And then, the details that made her who she was...who she had been - blurred, vague - her favorite color, the smell of her sweat after a long day of training, the jokes she told her Twin - equally as important, if not more so, than her body and her voice, but fading now like whispers in the dark as the dreams because more visceral and urgent. Now, he saw not her face. He heard not her voice. He felt no impression of her quirks or qualities - Instead, just the pure burning force of her existence. Her. Just...Her. It was inexplicable to him...A sign? A fever? Some illness or malady that had descended upon the Kouseki home...

No. Of course, this was a solitary dilemma. Kamina slept like an angel, and as Akito peeked out between his sweat-slick fingers, his heart caught in his throat and palpitated like it had the first time their eyes had met...And through a haze of nightmares, regret, and doubt, her familiarity grounded him and gave him solace from the labyrinth of his heart.

The sun was hours away from rising, and though Akito longed for her warm embrace and the fragrant moisture of her kiss, he could never wake her up with complaints of bogeymen and premonitions. He wasn't that kind of man. He would suffer and die alone before he would confide and burden someone he held so dear.

And as he looked upon her, he could year Yoko's voice, and the two Kouseki women jockeyed for position in the turbulence of his attention - though they'd never been at war, the illusion of their feud baffled Akito.

A hallucination...yes, certainly a fever. Such inane bickering could only be conjured by the feverish mind of the timid Akito. The product of years of self-control; annoyance and opinions pressurized to the point of no return.

As night drew on slowly as a razor along a jawline, Akito tossed and turned in silent torment. His clammy hand sought Kamina's in the drab dusk of their humble apartment. Though he didn't intend to wake her and burden her, the loving squeeze must have transmitted some of his desperation into her dreaming mind, for she awoke to her prince, curled up like a child against her, shaking like a thread that must journey through the needle's eye.

[Deleted User]

Kamina's first thought to the cold, clammy hand slipping between her fingers was a violent reaction. Her dream had easily and quickly turned to a nightmare.
It had begun, as most of her dreams did, with characters in her latest book: chatting, or fighting; whatever they happened to be doing in the most current chapter. Simple enough, she thought, as she observed from behind a glass wall. The fourth wall perhaps, but why made of glass, something so easily broken? She saw no reason to question it too deeply, it was none of her concern. The characters went on with their lives, and as soon as it got to the unfinished script in her book, she watched carefully, only to see...water?
She choked and pounded a fist on the glass wall, now one of the six walls trapping her inside a cube rapidly filling with water, only to feel the glass shatter beneath her fist. She slowly got to here feet and rubbed her eyes; she stood, sopping wet, in the middle of a long, dark tunnel. It was not unlike the series of tunnels beneath the village walls, and she reached for the torch conveniently perched on the wall beside her.
It was an odd torch, made of red crystal...
She couldn't place a finger on it, but the torch seemed almost oddly comforting to hold, as if it protected her from the dark, unfamiliar path she walked. On and on she traveled, not once questioning the torch's constant burning of a small, cheery, fuel-less flame, nor the fact that the fire burned warm, not hot; as if it knew not to hurt her.
An arrow swiftly passed right over her shoulder, narrowly missing her neck, and embedded itself in the dirt wall beside her. Not turning to face her attacker, Kamina chose to run, her footfalls echoing through the tunnel.
The tunnel path abruptly ended as she found herself falling, falling into a dark, dusty pit. From there, it was a rather exaggerated nightmare, she thought, as she tried to keep her head about her.
Dodging terror after terror, she felt a tugging at the torch in her hand, and tried desperately to hold onto it.
Her valiant efforts were for naught; the torch, held firmly between the fangs of a giant black snake, was lost to her as the serpent hissed victoriously before slithering away.
She struggled as more horrors fell into the pit around her; she could only take so much, especially without her giuding light. This intense feeling of fear, the stifling darkness, the giant, flesh eating insects, endless dark labyrinth tunnels, and worst of all...evil, persistant, bloodthirsty, rottting-
"No...no, no,no...ZOMBIES!!!" she screeched, nearly leaping out of bed. The half heart pendant belonging to Akito pulsed uncomfortably, and she clung to her own pendant around her neck desperately in her fervent, mid-sleeping state, flinging the hand that had grabbed hers aside in favor of clinging to her companion, whimpering pitifully.
Even in sleep, her thin, frail frame shook and shivered like a leaf in a storm as she gently kicked and fussed, still trying to escape the fictitious undead haunting her mind.

____________________
(OOC:Couldn't think of a damn thing. Sorry for the short post.)

[Mendokuse]

Akito awoke from his delerium as Kamina released his hand. It wasn't abrupt or unpleasant as if being forced awake or suddenly submerging with breathless lungs...but the transition wasn't pleasant, either. It just was. And when he was awake, his previous torment evaporated as his instincts took over and he made to comfort his darling. "Kamina, love, you're okay. Your Akito is here, and the bad dreams are gone..." Speaking to her gently so as not to startle her, he reached out for her, wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her into an embrace to deliver relief. He stoked her hair with one hand while the other held her close, and let her tremble against him until the horror passed.

(OOC: Short? Give yourself some credit <.<)

[Deleted User]

Kamina awoke with a start, her eyes snapping open. Their bright green irises glowed dimly in the dark of their room as Kamina pulled her head back to stare at Akito.
"You had a bad dream, Akito," she accused in a soft, worried tone.
"My good dreams never go bad unless you're having a bad dream. It's our souls connecting, beyond the-oh, forget it."
She was tired, admittedly; but it was more of her concern for him that stopped her flowery fairytale nonsense.
A thin, pale hand snaked from under the covers to gently stroke the side of Akito's face as she watched him silently for a moment, before toying with his hair gently.
It was a gesture that he did for her often that relaxed her; perhaps it would do the same for him...?
"What's on your mind?"