Ben didn't want to overanalyze why he slept better when Ender was in the room: it was just a fact he'd accepted along with his roommate's weird aversion to owning socks. Ben was currently sprawled out in his own bed for once, breathing steadily and untroubled--at least at the moment--by nightmares from his trip home ( Read more... )

Tony had returned to Fandom a few days ago, and it was soon going to be time to catch a transport to Coruscant to face the Council. Ben had tried to repress the stress of that upcoming conversation, which meant that his nightmares had gotten steadily worse over the last few nights ( Read more... )

Rampaging hormones were adding a disturbing dimension to Ben's usual nightmares, and he was all too grateful to sit straight up, gasping, and realize that he was in his bed and not stuck back in Kaeleer with thousands of Jhinkas with Jacen's face attacking him.

He glanced over at Ender, hoping he hadn't woken up his roommate.

It turns out that Skywalker stupidity stubbornness can only hold out so long against the forces of nature, and healing trances and meditation are not the same thing as sixteen solid hours of sleep.

( Unfortunately for Ben, the sleep meant that his brain was trying to process all of the trauma he'd been repressing... )

Given the past few weeks, it was really more surprising that Ben's nightmares hadn't started sooner:

( Dream sequence, ho! )

With the amount of stress he was under, a part of Ben was surprised that the nightmares hadn't started sooner.

( Cut for gratuitous flashbacking (and torture) )