Arknights: Living the Dream

Chapter 6: Sora

"If you say so." I say, turning up the music.

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The car slows as Sora pulls into a parking lot. She steps out as I check to make sure I don't forget anything in the car.

As I finish my check, the door opens courtesy of Sora.

She steps aside with a smile as I step out and close the door.

"Here we are, you might not remember this place, but it's-"

"The studio where we first placed each other music." I say, recalling the dream from my vault of memories.

Her eyes widen a bit, and her face turns a light shade of red as she turns away from me.

"Y-you remembered" She manages to stutter out slowly, "I-I thought you would have forgotten something so small by now." She continues, turning back to me with a shy yet grateful smile.

I lightly smile back, "It's an important place to me too."

She turns away before letting me see her reaction, walking towards the studio door instead.

I follow her in as she opens the door and heads to a little lounge area decorated with guitars, soundproofing foam, and records. A small laid-back place where I could see myself spending a lot of time during off-days.

Sora is found looking through all the guitars held up on the shelf, pacing across each and every one.

I walk up and just take the one furthest to the right.

"Mmm, decisions, decisions." Sora mumbles looking through all her options, "What will make me sound the best?" She asks herself.

Observing how obsessed she seems to be with giving me a good performance, I just sigh and sit on the couch present next to me. It feels good to have someone look up to you, even if it borders on obsessiveness. That's probably why I made Sora act like this in the dream, given how much I really needed someone to comfort me back then.

I yawn and start tuning as Sora finally picks a guitar and takes a seat next to me on the couch.

I lean onto her, not bothering to look over at her reaction.

...I close my eyes for a bit, still tuning.

I allow myself a moment of peace as I remember the worst of those nights. It's an odd, yet, enjoyable reflection knowing that I can put those behind me with the help of Sora and company.

...

I finally choose a song to play, one that reminds me of those nights.

"Do you have something to play?" I ask Sora, finishing my tuning.

"No, I can think of one while you play yours though" Sora says as I get up off her shoulder, to her subtle dismay.

As I prepare the lyrics in my head, Sora continues looking at me from the other side of the couch. She really acts as I imagined in the dream, it's surprisingly comforting.

I play the first few notes of the song and Sora seems to begin shaking subtly, to which I stop the song.

"A-are you gonna play?" She stutters.

"Yes, but you were just shaking so I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"O-Oh, w-was I?" She awkwardly laughs tilting her head down, "It's just b-been so l-long, I-"

Tears show themselves as she falls into my arms.

"I was always worried that I would never see you again. She continues on, "I always dreamed of us sitting here again, playing each other songs... for it to happen s-so suddenly is just." She stops, her tears seemingly forcing her to.

I hug her back.

...

I want to smile knowing that people actually care about me here, but for the sake of Sora I keep a straight face as I try to comfort her.

"I'm sorry" I manage to get out, "I never really valued myself that high in other people's eyes... I didn't think I meant so much to you."

"You are all I ever cared about." She says through her tears, "You saved my life multiple times, you taught me how to get better at music, yo-you improved my life s-so m-much."

I let her tears play their course as I remember how vital I made myself to Sora. The first time I dreamed with her as Azrael, saving her from a hostage situation, fixing her wounds, letting her wail on my shoulder out in despair about everything that just happened to her, comforting her to the best of my abilities.

...

I remember the first time I ever dreamed of us playing music to each other. Coming up with the perfect location, where I find myself now. Having myself impress Sora before helping her with her own song, allowing her to grow artistically. The happiness on her face as she showed me how she could finally play that one song she could never fully figure out.

...

I remember the first time Sora put herself into combat with the rest of the Penguin Logistic gang. How she was isolated from the group and attacked by 7 or 8 people at once, how I saved, healed, and comforted her. How she again cried onto my shoulder so much that she ended up passing out on me. I remember how I dreamed of when-

...I need to stop thinking of these as dreams.

I've become Azrael, these no longer are dreams, but memories. I helped Sora recover from a near-death experience, and then I made myself her music mentor. I saved her life when she was new to combat, and made myself extremely important to her.

Sora no longer is a fictional character that comforts me through my dreams, she is my close friend who relies on me more than anyone else, and I have to treat her as such.

I take a mental breather and hug her just that little bit tighter.

...

"Thank you" I say lightly.

She stops crying.

"I've gone through alot of shit too. Most of my nights are spent looking up at my room's ceiling, listening to music, and wishing for someone to cuddle me, just to have the comfort of knowing that someone cares about me enough to do so." I continue.

Sora hugs me tighter.

"I always wanted to be comforted without telling anyone I ever need to be." I admit, "But, I want that to stop now." I take a deep breath, "You've shown me your struggles, and I'm here to help you with them, I will always be. Now I've shown you my struggles... Will you help me with them?"

...

It's a selfish thing to do. Asking Sora to help me with my own problems as she's crying into my shoulder, but given Sora's feelings towards me, she should...

"Yes!" She says backing up from the hug, her face stained red but filled with happiness, "I will help you to the day I die! I mean I would already be dead if it weren't for you..."

Sora is jubilant, and I am too, though, less pronounced. I was able to comfort Sora as well as finally being able to get out my problems out to someone. I'm still being a selfish bastard, but hey, it worked.

...

"So... Are you gonna play!" She lightly yells.

I chuckle at the sight of her shining excitement, "I will, though I have to ask you, are you ready?"

She takes a deep breath, and still maintaining the smile on her face, she replies with a confident, "Yes!"

(Firstly, I apologize for the extra week taken and the short chapter. I had a very busy past couple of weeks alongside extremely low motivation. I could barely pull myself to re-read the chapter to make sure everything is in its right place, but I was able to do so. I will get out chapter 7 on time, though I cant assure the length being over 1500+ words. But besides that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and Thanks For Reading :)

Uploaded on April 17, 2022. 1282 Words.