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“You're not real.”
Two Time spoke voice low, shivering even almost swallowed by that air,they turned to there side and there he was—Azure —His best friend,his partner,the one he killed,who looked at them shoulders relaxed and his head tilted in thought.He was watching them silently and he sighed as if he was expecting Two Time to notice.
After all it was a dream.
The world around them shimmered in that strange, golden haze dreams often carried, where edges softened and colors seemed richer than reality.Everything felt so surreal so perfect that it felt fake—It was to flawless,two smooth as though someone painted the scene from memory and yet it was exactly as before t was how it was back then when Two Time and Azure would sneak off and sit in the garden after prayers and sit by the beautiful meadows of flowers and talk for hour and hours as the stars shimmered in the dark night sky.
Azure turned to them his gaze gentle as his tone of his voice “Does it matter if I'm not real,Two Time?”Azure asked his partner with a small smile, tilting his head so innocently.
Two Time opened their mouth to answer, but the words faltered. Their mind spun with all the reasons it should matter, with the weight of the truth that Azure was gone, that this was nothing but a construct of their sleeping mind. But then…
“No.”They said at last,that single word slipping out like a confession.
His smile deepened “Then it doesn't matter if I'm real or not....”Azure reached to take Two Time's hand holding there hand close to his face.Two Time could feel the warmth in there hand—too real for a dream—as Azure lifted their joined hands, holding them close to his face as though he wanted to remember the feel of them forever.
“What matters now...”Azure said before continuing.”...Is that we're here.Together.We can be together again.Just you and me.”
Two Time chest tightened.Azure's words so sweet and tempting and they swallowed hard “Even after what happened?..What I di—..?”
Azure hushed them pressing a finger on Two Time's lips with a tenderness that made Two Time's breathe shudder and his stomach twist In knots and smiled “Let's not think about that,let's just think of us.”
The moment felt so intoxicating after so long Two Time felt at peace.No guilt—No Shame—No Judgement.It was just them in the garden again.
Two Time smiled with him.
“Oh Azure...”
“Two Time...”
The distance between them was close and in slow deliberate inches.Azure pulled Two Time close,his breathe warm against Two Time's cold skin as they leaned closer.There faces grew close to eachother as Azure pulled them into a soft kiss—
.
Two Time woke up.
The garden was gone.The smell of fresh nightshades were fine.The warmth.Azure was gone.
What was replaced by the feeling of the cold bed they were lying on,the dark cabin,the coldness in the air.
Two Time felt there chest ache as they stared at ceiling with tears starting to form in his eyes.The shadows filling the darkness clinging the corners of the cabin reminding them of the guilt the pain and that Azure was gone.
The dagger they always held,they clutched it close to there chest, mockingly reminding them of that night.They still felt his blood on them.
But in the dream, it hadn’t mattered. In the dream, Azure had taken their hand. In the dream, he had smiled.
Two Time closed their eyes again, wishing—desperately—that the dream would pull them back under.