fandomhighdorms | Fifth Floor Common Room | Late Morning | Thursday

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Fifth Floor Common Room | Late Morning | Thursday | July 15

Bod had spent last night dreaming. To have one night of dreams was unusual so having several nights worth had him completely confused. Still, getting to see his parents in his dreams every night like he'd never left wasn't something he'd question. It made the ache of missing them all the more apparent in the mornings but he managed to keep those feelings hidden.

After waking up from another dream, Bod had padded sleepily down to the common room and decided to spend some time there, eating crackers and trying to piece through the various variations of the dream. The television was playing some sort of cartoon but Bod wasn't really paying attention.

Instead, his thoughts, stuck on those dreams as they were, eventually wandered into daydreaming territory and he was back to seeing his parents, feeling them holding him and hearing their voices in his ear. It felt like he was there and not on the island. It was so...strange.

[CR's an open place and I wish I was still sleeping]

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Kate went a little tense, lowering the cup from her mouth, eyes fixed on him now, trying not to look quite as worried as she suddenly felt.

Previous bad experience with people and dreaming. She couldn't help it. Especially not when she knew they were coming up on a full year since that... incident.

"What kind of dreams?"

"About my parents," he told her, shaking his head and laughing a little. "It's ridiculous, I know, but I've been dreaming about my parents and only them for nearly three days. They always feel so real."

He glanced over at her and, seeing that look on her face, frowned. "They're not nightmares, I promise. They leave me feeling loved. They're good dreams. I just don't know where they're coming from. I don't tend to dream."

She'd been bad at hiding her worry; she was even worse at hiding her relief. A hint of that worry remained, of course, because something weird seemed to still be going on, but...

At least it didn't sound like an evil alternate reality.

"Oh. Are they-- Do you think it's Fandom?"

"I don't really know," he admitted grudgingly. "I wish I did because they're good dreams. Considering I didn't expect to see my parents until I was --"

Here, remembering their last rather heated conversation (to start, at least), he paused.

" -- older, it's been somewhat of a nice surprise. I miss them. I didn't realize how much until these dreams started."

He was kind of lucky that she was more focused on what he was actually saying, because otherwise she might have had a few things to say about that less than smooth choice of words, there.

But no. She set the spoon and the cup down on the nearby table, and reached for one of his hands.

"Well, I'm happy that they're good dreams, at least."

"So am I," he said and smiled softly at her and then down at the ground. "The last one, last night's, it wasn't exactly a happy dream but it wasn't something I'd want to forget either, if that makes sense."

Saying goodbye to people you loved was hardly ever good. Saying goodbye for so long, even less so.

"It makes sense." Okay, she wasn't sure it did, not knowing the details, but contrary to popular belief, she didn't always argue about everything.

She laced her fingers with his, gave his hand a squeeze. "And at least it's not nightmares."

"It's definitely not nightmares," he assured her. "I didn't mean to worry you. They've made me a little out of sorts and I can't seem to sharpen my focus."

"It's okay," she assured him in turn. "I totally understand. I was just worried that... you were going to maybe take a comanap. But it doesn't sound like it."

"No, it's nothing that I can't wake up easily from once I'm done dreaming," he told her, giving her hand a squeeze. "It's a good thing. These are all good memories, I promise."

He leaned a little closer to her and kissed her cheek. "You won't have to watch me and wait."

Just the mere thought of that made her feel a little sick for a second or two, and her hand gripped his a little tighter.

Somehow, doing that bit of clinging, it was easier to make her tone stay light. "Good. That would suck."

"I think it would as well," he said, not missing that tightening hand tightening around his. "Are you all right, Kate? Now that you know I'm nothing more than a little tired?"

"I'm fine," Kate said quickly. A little too quickly, actually. She even realized that herself, and let out a quiet, almost nervous laugh, looking down. "Okay, I'll be fine. I just don't want... bad stuff happening to you."

"I'm not going to be silly enough and say nothing will ever happen to me," he said, pulling her hand closer and flattening it against his heart, "but I don't want bad things happening to me either and I'll do my best to prevent anything from happening."

Kate just looked at him for a moment, thoughts bouncing around in her mind.

The worst thing about the coma incident had been that no one could prevent it. And even when it was going on, for the longest time no one had been able to do anything about it. But she didn't want to point that out.

And thinking about it now, the worst thing was knowing that if it happened again, it would be much, much worse because she'd have so much more to lose.

And she wasn't going to say that either.

So she simply said, "I know."

"You're not very conversational today," he said, lowering his voice and showing some concern of his own now. "Can I do anything?"

She shrugged a shoulder, awkwardly. "No? I don't know."

Well, he could try hugging her and holding her, but she had trouble asking for things like that. Especially with the way she just felt stupid for getting all worried for nothing.

Lucky for her, he'd gotten used to her dislike of asking for things like that. Bod reached to rub one of her shoulders briefly before giving her arm a light tug. It was more a warning that he was going to slide an arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to him.

At the same time, he was going to lay back, stretch out on the couch and try and get her situated half on top and half beside him. It'd allow for more contact and a more comfortable position, Bod reasoned.

Kate didn't resist or object in any way, just followed his lead, stretching out and plastering herself against him. Getting comfortable and close, and throwing in some slight clinging for good measure.

As she breathed in his familiar scent and felt the warmth of his body against hers, she thought idly that she probably smelled like the sun and the ocean again.

"I'm not going anywhere," he murmured to her, moving to start a slow, soothing motion of running his fingers through her hair. "Can you tell me what's going through your mind right now?"

"I smell like the ocean." Well, that was the most prominent thought she was having, at the moment. "You smell like sleep. And your bed. And crackers."

But there were other things too, and her voice got a little quieter. "I hate Fandom for making me so paranoid."

He couldn't help the small smile at her listing what he smelled like and made a note to ask how he smelled like sleep. Later. There was something else he wanted to focus on first.

"What are you paranoid about?" he asked, still moving his fingers slowly through her hair.

"Everything," she said, sounding a little whiny now. It was probably a good thing, actually. "Losing people. And I worry too easily, like something majorly bad is going to happen."

Really, it was only a handful of people who she got that worried for.

"Kate, you've had a lot of things happen to you in a short amount of time," he said, trying to be soothing. "It's only natural that you're a little more guarded and a little more wary of certain things. I don't think that makes you paranoid. I think that makes you human."

"Why is it that that whole 'quality X makes you human' line only ever comes up with bad stuff?" she wondered, though not sounding particularly argumentative about it. "It doesn't make the concept all that appealing."

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