[series] Dreamcatcher: chapter fourteen
Title: Dreamcatcher 14/??
Pairings: Ohmiya, Jun/Aiba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2512
Summary: AU. Ohno meets Nino within dreams, but Nino will always wake up again to reality, and Ohno will always be forgotten. Nino isn’t supposed to remember.
Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5
Chapter 6 // Chapter 7 // Chapter 8 // Chapter 9 // Chapter 10
Chapter 11 // Chapter 12 // Chapter 13
.chapter fourteen.
Ever since the beginning, Jun has been thankful to have Sho there. With all of the insanity these past couple of months, it’s been nice to have another person who is sensible. Ohno and Nino are lost in their own little world half the time, and while Aiba is wonderful, Jun also wants someone who’s sound and will help him make progress. Ohno has acted strangely for quite some time, refusing to enter Nino’s dreams - or the other’s - despite his enthusiasm before. It didn’t seem like they’d gotten into a fight or anything, though. Ohno’s behavior has just been one more mystery to add to the pile.
Things are only getting worse on both ends. Nino has become an empty shell waiting for Ohno. Ohno has closed himself off, timid and unsure. Aiba is breaking Jun’s heart with the way he tries so hard to help everyone, but can’t bring anything to resolution. And Sho has discovered something - Jun knows it, he just can’t figure out what. For some reason, Sho is digging deep and won’t tell anyone about it, not even Aiba and Nino. Jun has gone to Sho’s dreams a few times during the lull of time between whatever happened between Ohno and Nino up till now, but can’t even find a hint as to what it is. And he’s become cautious, not speaking about it out loud and always covering papers up, knowing that Jun or Ohno might be watching.
When Ohno let it slip that he would finally be seeing Nino again that night, Jun knew that it was time to get some answers out of Sho. Sho is looking out for Nino in the same way Jun’s watching over Ohno - surely the man would understand and be willing to share something with a little coercion.
Jun enters to find Sho clutching a glass pillar to the side with his eyes squeezed shut and teeth clattering. It doesn’t do much for his confidence. “What are you doing over there?”
“It’s high,” Sho wails. Jun glances down - the floor is made from glass as well, giving a clear view of what’s below. The glass they’re standing on is apparently some kind of platform, with a distance away from ground floor that even makes Jun dizzy.
Jun steps over to Sho, shivering at the way the patting of his bare feet against the glass sounds and echoes, as if every sound is amplified. “So would now be a bad time for an interrogation, then?” Jun asks casually.
Sho shoots him a glare, but Jun continues, “I’ve been trying to figure out everything that’s been going on for months, and it feels like I’ve been going in circles. I don’t need all of the answers; I just want to finally take a step in the right direction. And so far, the only person who seems to have done that is you. What have you found, Sakurai?”
Jun allows his words to resonate, then waits. He doesn’t actually expect for Sho to cooperate or give him any substantial information, but even dropping a small hint would be enough. Jun is shocked when Sho manages to chuckle through his acrophobia and mutter, “Why am I so relieved to hear someone finally ask me about it straightforwardly? Maybe that’s a sign that it’s finally time to talk about it. I don’t think I can go any further with what I have, anyway. I’ve been hesitant to share what I’ve found, but I need your help if I’m going to do anything more.”
“So,” Jun says awkwardly after a minute of deliberation. “What is it that you’ve found, exactly? I’ve seen you sneaking around with that Nagase guy and at work, and you were being so cautious of everything…”
“Honestly, I didn’t know if I could trust you guys, especially after what I found.” Jun quirks an eyebrow, silently demanding an explanation, while Sho clears his throat. “I don’t want to get into all of the complications of the real world’s legal system, so I’ll try to keep it simple. Basically, there has been a long strain of unusual cases regarding one person in particular. I’m not sure how far back it goes or when the allegations stopped, but the evidence I found has to do with the cases from around ten years ago, within around a five year timeline. Are you with me so far?”
“You haven’t really gone anywhere so far,” Jun sighs, “but I think I understand what you’re saying, yes.”
Sho shifts a little to better face Jun, still clinging to the glass pillar, and takes a deep breath. “The cases are all almost exactly the same. A man comes into direct contact with certain families, particularly families going through some sort of hardship. No one could give a clear reason as to what they believed his intentions were, but within a short amount of time, a child from the family goes missing, and the man cuts off all ties with the family. Obviously, the family accuses the man of taking their child. They demand that he is investigated as a pervert, a kidnapper, a slave trader… anything that could possibly offer an explanation. However, right before an investigation can commence, the charges are completely dropped. The family claims that they never even met the man before, and that they never even had the child that supposedly went missing. After so many cases like this, of course the police investigate the man anyway. He’s quite wealthy, and a total enigma. What sort of conclusion would you have drawn?”
Frowning, Jun sits beside Sho. “From the way your world works, I would say the guy paid the families to keep quiet and drop charges.”
“That’s what you would think, right? And according to the report, that’s what the police figured, too. But this is where it gets weird: it would be one thing for there to be no evident connection between the man and the families, but… there wasn’t a single record that proved that the children ever existed. The only evidence they had were the names that the families gave them before. There were no birth certificates, no school records, nothing.”
“Then… they were telling the truth about the whole thing being a lie? The kids never actually existed?”
“That was the assumption. Maybe it was a freak publicity stunt, maybe the families were trying to cheat the guy out of his money… who knows. Whatever the reason, the cases were all dropped. It’s strange, but if the children were never even real, it’s not something to be alarmed over, right? I didn’t think anything of this case at first, until I realized the man’s name, and checked the names of some of the cases recorded.”
Sho stops there, as if he’s treading ground he shouldn’t, but Jun still can’t see how any of this relates to their situation. “So? What was his name?”
“Johnny Kitagawa.”
The effect is instantaneous: the blood drains from Jun’s head, his fingers begin trembling, and his mouth grows dry. The room spins with the impossibility. “That can’t be.”
“I couldn’t believe it at first, either, but I had Nagase-kun run a background check on him. We couldn’t get much information except that he seems like a typical businessman, but I had Nino get a description from Ohno, and it matches. I’ve checked in every way possible, and I’m positive that this Johnny is your Johnny.”
“You seem to be forgetting something,” Jun growls. It’s not that he’s angry at Sho, or even at Johnny; there’s just a dread rising up within him that he’s trying to scare off. “Johnny is from our world, not yours. Are you suggesting he can travel between them both? That he’s doing so to kidnap non-existent children?”
Sho chews on his lip. “I don’t know why, exactly, or how. Maybe it’s the mirror-image of your Johnny or something. I have no idea. But, as for the children… don’t freak out on me when I tell you this, but Jun, both yours and Ohno’s names were included in the list.”
It takes longer than it should have for Jun to understand what Sho is telling him. “Our names were on the list of children Johnny allegedly kidnapped,” Jun says, not sure if he’s asking a question or just echoing the unbelievable.
“From what I understand, you guys don’t remember anything about living outside of your world, but didn’t you both actually arrive there, meaning you came there from somewhere else?” Sho leans forward more with each word until glimpsing down at the long way down beneath the glass. He shivers and braces himself again before continuing, “I really have no clue what this means, but I think that somehow, Johnny is kidnapping children and taking them to your world. You had families and lives in reality, but… I don’t know. That’s where I need your help - I can only figure out so much here. I’m almost positive that if you dig into this in the Border world, you’ll be able to find-”
“Shut up,” Jun snaps, clenching his fists as he stands. “You know nothing of our world, and you have no idea exactly what this would mean. Answer this, then: what the hell would Johnny want with a bunch of kids? Why would he bother snatching kids from the real world like that? He’s never done anything to hurt any of us before. Where would he benefit from all of this?”
Slowly, Sho inches his way up, using the glass pillar as support, still holding it when he’s standing upright. “I told you already - I don’t really know. But your job is to ‘harvest’ dreams, right? To collect them? Maybe the reason he’s doing it is because of that… I can’t find out unless you help me. I thought we had time to work this out until I got Nino to tell me why Ohno was refusing to see him, and now I think it’s best if we-”
“What do you mean, the reason Ohno stopped seeing Nino?”
“Stop interrupting me! You know - the bad dream that happened a while ago. The one with the black stuff and Ohno acting as if he didn’t know what was going on anymore, not acting like himself.”
Sho’s earlier words had bestowed anger, confusion, and doubt. His words now only brought fear. “No,” Jun whispers, his breathing unsteady. “Ohno said he just… no. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen.”
Sho places a hand on Jun’s shoulder, forgetting about his obvious phobia of heights and giving his concern to Jun. Cautiously, he inches around the pillar, gently tugging Jun along. Behind the pillar, there is a cockpit-like concave, also made of glass. Within the concave, there’s a small ledge with an object sitting on top of it, flashing in red and purple. When he’s close enough to see what it is, Jun isn’t even sure how to react anymore.
“I thought he would have told you about it,” Sho says, voice softer than normal. “Apparently, he’s entered both Aiba’s dreams and my own afterwards and there wasn’t anything like that… except there was something similar to this around that time. Maybe it’ has something to do with it? You should talk to him.”
His words don’t really register; Jun is too busy staring at the flashing item. “That’s… that’s a dream stone. How… how could a dream stone be within a dream like this? And what’s with it lighting up… what the hell is this?”
Sho sighs, shaking his head. “I-”
“Where’s Ohno?”
“Stop interrupting me, I said!” Sho scowls. “Look, I don’t think that… wait, Ohno?”
Jun doesn’t wait for Sho to say anything more. Obviously, shouldn’t Ohno be with Nino? And Sho told him that nothing seemed wrong after that time, so surely Ohno is safe now. Jun repeats it to himself, hoping he can make himself believe it. “Screw it. Just wake up. I need to find Ohno right now.”
“Wake up?” Sho echoes confusedly, blinking. “Uh… how do I do that, exactly? Pinch myself?”
Jun rolls his eyes as Sho starts poking at his arm repetitively. “I don’t have time for this,” he mutters in a harsh breath, closing his eyes and focusing his energy. “I fucking don’t have time for this.”
It can be draining to force change into a dream, so Jun makes one small change that he’s sure will work: with no warning to the other man, Jun forces the glass beneath their feet to shatter. Sho screams as they both begin falling.
Within a minute, Sho is sitting up in bed, gasping in terror. When he regains himself, he yelps, “Damn it! Couldn’t you have found some better way to wake me up? Something other than making me fall to a horrifying death?”
He’s still shouting when Jun leaves, heading straight for Nino’s apartment.
Ohno isn’t there when he arrives. No one is in Nino’s dream. Aiba, Jun thinks, slightly relieved. Ohno must have changed his mind about entering Nino’s dream at the last minute. He’s probably in Aiba’s dream.
Only, as Jun discovers when he arrives, he isn’t.
And nothing that Jun tells himself can stop him from panicking now. Tremors wrack his body with possibilities of everything that could have gone wrong. The information Sho gave him was enough, but now, this is happening to Ohno?
Jun’s mind gives him the orders to return to the Border to see if Ohno returned for some reason, but as if by reflex, he kneels beside Aiba and slips into his dream.
Aiba knows that something is wrong the second he sees him. “What’s wrong, Jun-chan?”
“He didn’t tell me,” Jun chokes. He feels Aiba’s arms around his shoulders, but his senses aren’t functioning the way they should. Everything is in fast forward, moving to a place Jun is afraid to go, and Jun doesn’t know how to stop it. “Ohno didn’t tell me. He went into a dream and nearly lost himself, and he fucking didn’t tell me.”
“The one with Nino, a couple of months ago?” Aiba rubs Jun’s back soothingly with one hand, using the other to pet his hair. “I’m sure he had a reason not to. Maybe he was just scared because he didn’t know what it was?”
Jun shakes his head, laughing dryly. “No. He didn’t tell me because he was afraid, but he’s afraid because he knows. He knows exactly what that dream was. He didn’t tell me because I would have stopped him from ever coming back.”
Aiba tilts his head in confusion, but doesn’t say anything. His eyes are bright, and somehow they put some spell on Jun that makes him start thinking rationally again. What is it about Aiba, Jun wonders as he collects his thoughts, that causes him to bury his cynicism and gives him hope to replace it? Aiba is so bright, so pure, that Jun can’t find a single reason to doubt.
“Ohno knows what it was,” Jun whispers, “because it happened to me.”
---
A/N: And the plot thickens D:
I'm not too fond of this chapter, actually, but I hope you all liked it. A few things to note:
-Yes, Jun/Aiba is officially the other pairing!
-Yes, another cliffhanger. Sorry, I'm evil.
-No, you won't have to wait an eternity to find out about what Jun is talking about (hopefully). The next chapter will also be from Jun's chapter, but it will be a FLASHBACK! I'm really excited about this next part, but I can't say how long it will take. It depends on school first of all, but also, this chapter might end up being longer than the others, so I'm not sure how long it will take.
-To those I owe drabbles to: not finished yet, sorry!
-I'm working on a few other fics that I have deadlines, including a contest entry, so I'm putting those as a priority. Once I'm done with those, DC will be my priority again.
Pairings: Ohmiya, Jun/Aiba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2512
Summary: AU. Ohno meets Nino within dreams, but Nino will always wake up again to reality, and Ohno will always be forgotten. Nino isn’t supposed to remember.
Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5
Chapter 6 // Chapter 7 // Chapter 8 // Chapter 9 // Chapter 10
Chapter 11 // Chapter 12 // Chapter 13
.chapter fourteen.
Ever since the beginning, Jun has been thankful to have Sho there. With all of the insanity these past couple of months, it’s been nice to have another person who is sensible. Ohno and Nino are lost in their own little world half the time, and while Aiba is wonderful, Jun also wants someone who’s sound and will help him make progress. Ohno has acted strangely for quite some time, refusing to enter Nino’s dreams - or the other’s - despite his enthusiasm before. It didn’t seem like they’d gotten into a fight or anything, though. Ohno’s behavior has just been one more mystery to add to the pile.
Things are only getting worse on both ends. Nino has become an empty shell waiting for Ohno. Ohno has closed himself off, timid and unsure. Aiba is breaking Jun’s heart with the way he tries so hard to help everyone, but can’t bring anything to resolution. And Sho has discovered something - Jun knows it, he just can’t figure out what. For some reason, Sho is digging deep and won’t tell anyone about it, not even Aiba and Nino. Jun has gone to Sho’s dreams a few times during the lull of time between whatever happened between Ohno and Nino up till now, but can’t even find a hint as to what it is. And he’s become cautious, not speaking about it out loud and always covering papers up, knowing that Jun or Ohno might be watching.
When Ohno let it slip that he would finally be seeing Nino again that night, Jun knew that it was time to get some answers out of Sho. Sho is looking out for Nino in the same way Jun’s watching over Ohno - surely the man would understand and be willing to share something with a little coercion.
Jun enters to find Sho clutching a glass pillar to the side with his eyes squeezed shut and teeth clattering. It doesn’t do much for his confidence. “What are you doing over there?”
“It’s high,” Sho wails. Jun glances down - the floor is made from glass as well, giving a clear view of what’s below. The glass they’re standing on is apparently some kind of platform, with a distance away from ground floor that even makes Jun dizzy.
Jun steps over to Sho, shivering at the way the patting of his bare feet against the glass sounds and echoes, as if every sound is amplified. “So would now be a bad time for an interrogation, then?” Jun asks casually.
Sho shoots him a glare, but Jun continues, “I’ve been trying to figure out everything that’s been going on for months, and it feels like I’ve been going in circles. I don’t need all of the answers; I just want to finally take a step in the right direction. And so far, the only person who seems to have done that is you. What have you found, Sakurai?”
Jun allows his words to resonate, then waits. He doesn’t actually expect for Sho to cooperate or give him any substantial information, but even dropping a small hint would be enough. Jun is shocked when Sho manages to chuckle through his acrophobia and mutter, “Why am I so relieved to hear someone finally ask me about it straightforwardly? Maybe that’s a sign that it’s finally time to talk about it. I don’t think I can go any further with what I have, anyway. I’ve been hesitant to share what I’ve found, but I need your help if I’m going to do anything more.”
“So,” Jun says awkwardly after a minute of deliberation. “What is it that you’ve found, exactly? I’ve seen you sneaking around with that Nagase guy and at work, and you were being so cautious of everything…”
“Honestly, I didn’t know if I could trust you guys, especially after what I found.” Jun quirks an eyebrow, silently demanding an explanation, while Sho clears his throat. “I don’t want to get into all of the complications of the real world’s legal system, so I’ll try to keep it simple. Basically, there has been a long strain of unusual cases regarding one person in particular. I’m not sure how far back it goes or when the allegations stopped, but the evidence I found has to do with the cases from around ten years ago, within around a five year timeline. Are you with me so far?”
“You haven’t really gone anywhere so far,” Jun sighs, “but I think I understand what you’re saying, yes.”
Sho shifts a little to better face Jun, still clinging to the glass pillar, and takes a deep breath. “The cases are all almost exactly the same. A man comes into direct contact with certain families, particularly families going through some sort of hardship. No one could give a clear reason as to what they believed his intentions were, but within a short amount of time, a child from the family goes missing, and the man cuts off all ties with the family. Obviously, the family accuses the man of taking their child. They demand that he is investigated as a pervert, a kidnapper, a slave trader… anything that could possibly offer an explanation. However, right before an investigation can commence, the charges are completely dropped. The family claims that they never even met the man before, and that they never even had the child that supposedly went missing. After so many cases like this, of course the police investigate the man anyway. He’s quite wealthy, and a total enigma. What sort of conclusion would you have drawn?”
Frowning, Jun sits beside Sho. “From the way your world works, I would say the guy paid the families to keep quiet and drop charges.”
“That’s what you would think, right? And according to the report, that’s what the police figured, too. But this is where it gets weird: it would be one thing for there to be no evident connection between the man and the families, but… there wasn’t a single record that proved that the children ever existed. The only evidence they had were the names that the families gave them before. There were no birth certificates, no school records, nothing.”
“Then… they were telling the truth about the whole thing being a lie? The kids never actually existed?”
“That was the assumption. Maybe it was a freak publicity stunt, maybe the families were trying to cheat the guy out of his money… who knows. Whatever the reason, the cases were all dropped. It’s strange, but if the children were never even real, it’s not something to be alarmed over, right? I didn’t think anything of this case at first, until I realized the man’s name, and checked the names of some of the cases recorded.”
Sho stops there, as if he’s treading ground he shouldn’t, but Jun still can’t see how any of this relates to their situation. “So? What was his name?”
“Johnny Kitagawa.”
The effect is instantaneous: the blood drains from Jun’s head, his fingers begin trembling, and his mouth grows dry. The room spins with the impossibility. “That can’t be.”
“I couldn’t believe it at first, either, but I had Nagase-kun run a background check on him. We couldn’t get much information except that he seems like a typical businessman, but I had Nino get a description from Ohno, and it matches. I’ve checked in every way possible, and I’m positive that this Johnny is your Johnny.”
“You seem to be forgetting something,” Jun growls. It’s not that he’s angry at Sho, or even at Johnny; there’s just a dread rising up within him that he’s trying to scare off. “Johnny is from our world, not yours. Are you suggesting he can travel between them both? That he’s doing so to kidnap non-existent children?”
Sho chews on his lip. “I don’t know why, exactly, or how. Maybe it’s the mirror-image of your Johnny or something. I have no idea. But, as for the children… don’t freak out on me when I tell you this, but Jun, both yours and Ohno’s names were included in the list.”
It takes longer than it should have for Jun to understand what Sho is telling him. “Our names were on the list of children Johnny allegedly kidnapped,” Jun says, not sure if he’s asking a question or just echoing the unbelievable.
“From what I understand, you guys don’t remember anything about living outside of your world, but didn’t you both actually arrive there, meaning you came there from somewhere else?” Sho leans forward more with each word until glimpsing down at the long way down beneath the glass. He shivers and braces himself again before continuing, “I really have no clue what this means, but I think that somehow, Johnny is kidnapping children and taking them to your world. You had families and lives in reality, but… I don’t know. That’s where I need your help - I can only figure out so much here. I’m almost positive that if you dig into this in the Border world, you’ll be able to find-”
“Shut up,” Jun snaps, clenching his fists as he stands. “You know nothing of our world, and you have no idea exactly what this would mean. Answer this, then: what the hell would Johnny want with a bunch of kids? Why would he bother snatching kids from the real world like that? He’s never done anything to hurt any of us before. Where would he benefit from all of this?”
Slowly, Sho inches his way up, using the glass pillar as support, still holding it when he’s standing upright. “I told you already - I don’t really know. But your job is to ‘harvest’ dreams, right? To collect them? Maybe the reason he’s doing it is because of that… I can’t find out unless you help me. I thought we had time to work this out until I got Nino to tell me why Ohno was refusing to see him, and now I think it’s best if we-”
“What do you mean, the reason Ohno stopped seeing Nino?”
“Stop interrupting me! You know - the bad dream that happened a while ago. The one with the black stuff and Ohno acting as if he didn’t know what was going on anymore, not acting like himself.”
Sho’s earlier words had bestowed anger, confusion, and doubt. His words now only brought fear. “No,” Jun whispers, his breathing unsteady. “Ohno said he just… no. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen.”
Sho places a hand on Jun’s shoulder, forgetting about his obvious phobia of heights and giving his concern to Jun. Cautiously, he inches around the pillar, gently tugging Jun along. Behind the pillar, there is a cockpit-like concave, also made of glass. Within the concave, there’s a small ledge with an object sitting on top of it, flashing in red and purple. When he’s close enough to see what it is, Jun isn’t even sure how to react anymore.
“I thought he would have told you about it,” Sho says, voice softer than normal. “Apparently, he’s entered both Aiba’s dreams and my own afterwards and there wasn’t anything like that… except there was something similar to this around that time. Maybe it’ has something to do with it? You should talk to him.”
His words don’t really register; Jun is too busy staring at the flashing item. “That’s… that’s a dream stone. How… how could a dream stone be within a dream like this? And what’s with it lighting up… what the hell is this?”
Sho sighs, shaking his head. “I-”
“Where’s Ohno?”
“Stop interrupting me, I said!” Sho scowls. “Look, I don’t think that… wait, Ohno?”
Jun doesn’t wait for Sho to say anything more. Obviously, shouldn’t Ohno be with Nino? And Sho told him that nothing seemed wrong after that time, so surely Ohno is safe now. Jun repeats it to himself, hoping he can make himself believe it. “Screw it. Just wake up. I need to find Ohno right now.”
“Wake up?” Sho echoes confusedly, blinking. “Uh… how do I do that, exactly? Pinch myself?”
Jun rolls his eyes as Sho starts poking at his arm repetitively. “I don’t have time for this,” he mutters in a harsh breath, closing his eyes and focusing his energy. “I fucking don’t have time for this.”
It can be draining to force change into a dream, so Jun makes one small change that he’s sure will work: with no warning to the other man, Jun forces the glass beneath their feet to shatter. Sho screams as they both begin falling.
Within a minute, Sho is sitting up in bed, gasping in terror. When he regains himself, he yelps, “Damn it! Couldn’t you have found some better way to wake me up? Something other than making me fall to a horrifying death?”
He’s still shouting when Jun leaves, heading straight for Nino’s apartment.
Ohno isn’t there when he arrives. No one is in Nino’s dream. Aiba, Jun thinks, slightly relieved. Ohno must have changed his mind about entering Nino’s dream at the last minute. He’s probably in Aiba’s dream.
Only, as Jun discovers when he arrives, he isn’t.
And nothing that Jun tells himself can stop him from panicking now. Tremors wrack his body with possibilities of everything that could have gone wrong. The information Sho gave him was enough, but now, this is happening to Ohno?
Jun’s mind gives him the orders to return to the Border to see if Ohno returned for some reason, but as if by reflex, he kneels beside Aiba and slips into his dream.
Aiba knows that something is wrong the second he sees him. “What’s wrong, Jun-chan?”
“He didn’t tell me,” Jun chokes. He feels Aiba’s arms around his shoulders, but his senses aren’t functioning the way they should. Everything is in fast forward, moving to a place Jun is afraid to go, and Jun doesn’t know how to stop it. “Ohno didn’t tell me. He went into a dream and nearly lost himself, and he fucking didn’t tell me.”
“The one with Nino, a couple of months ago?” Aiba rubs Jun’s back soothingly with one hand, using the other to pet his hair. “I’m sure he had a reason not to. Maybe he was just scared because he didn’t know what it was?”
Jun shakes his head, laughing dryly. “No. He didn’t tell me because he was afraid, but he’s afraid because he knows. He knows exactly what that dream was. He didn’t tell me because I would have stopped him from ever coming back.”
Aiba tilts his head in confusion, but doesn’t say anything. His eyes are bright, and somehow they put some spell on Jun that makes him start thinking rationally again. What is it about Aiba, Jun wonders as he collects his thoughts, that causes him to bury his cynicism and gives him hope to replace it? Aiba is so bright, so pure, that Jun can’t find a single reason to doubt.
“Ohno knows what it was,” Jun whispers, “because it happened to me.”
---
A/N: And the plot thickens D:
I'm not too fond of this chapter, actually, but I hope you all liked it. A few things to note:
-Yes, Jun/Aiba is officially the other pairing!
-Yes, another cliffhanger. Sorry, I'm evil.
-No, you won't have to wait an eternity to find out about what Jun is talking about (hopefully). The next chapter will also be from Jun's chapter, but it will be a FLASHBACK! I'm really excited about this next part, but I can't say how long it will take. It depends on school first of all, but also, this chapter might end up being longer than the others, so I'm not sure how long it will take.
-To those I owe drabbles to: not finished yet, sorry!
-I'm working on a few other fics that I have deadlines, including a contest entry, so I'm putting those as a priority. Once I'm done with those, DC will be my priority again.