Ocean Mist (Azul Ashengrotto/Yuu)

26 ~ Dreaming

Azul awoke to a Magicam notification but ignored it, instead focusing on the girl in his arms. He'd gotten more used to her presence and had stopped startling every time he woke up.

Pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek so as to not wake her, he reached for his phone and put on his glasses, squinting at the sudden glowing light from his screen.

Usually his personal Magicam account was rather inactive, but it was buzzing with notifications due to Yuu's latest post that she'd tagged him in. She'd used all ten slides posting about their date last night.

He scrolled through every slide of her photo dump. There was a picture of Azul's face he didn't know she'd taken as he chose which face masks to buy, a small clip of her pushing him at the speed of light in a shopping cart, a mirror selfie of the two of them with an unusual amount of hair clips decorating their hair, a picture she'd taken as they were cuddling, a shot of the fettuccine, a video of them laughing as they ran inside for shelter from the rain, and many other cute moments she'd captured from the day before.

His eyes flitted down to the caption. 'isn't my octoboy so pretty 😚💙'

After a lot of deliberation, he decided to leave a comment on the post.

'You look charming as well, my love 💙'

Immediately, he was spammed with even more notifications responding to his comment, the first two being from Jade and Floyd, both of them reading 'SIMP'. The comments below those were from Idia, Cater, Ruggie, and Ace, all saying the same exact thing. His brows knit together and he let out a slight laugh, almost positive that twins had intentionally orchestrated this.

Her phone was lighting up like crazy and he watched the way she stirred, yet not quite waking up. How she slept so heavily, he didn't know, but decided to give into his impulses just this once and return to bed, removing his glasses and wrapping his arms around her once more.

Sure, he could be getting work out of the way, but why would he do that when his beloved was right here? Why wouldn't he go back to bed with her and enjoy their time together?

He gazed at her for a few moments, brushing a strand of hair that seemed to be tickling her out of her face before shutting his own eyes and drifting back to sleep.

Azul's eyes shot open suddenly and looked around. This was not his bedroom. In fact, this was not land at all. He was in the ocean.

And he was an octopus.

Music drifted through his ears and he began swimming towards it. "Home," he muttered quietly as he pushed the door open, entering and following where the music was coming from.

A smaller, chubbier octopus was sitting at his old piano, playing a simple tune he'd recently mastered. He swam closer and noticed the tears welling up in the corners of the young boy's eyes. 'Looks like I was having a bad day.'

Azul would often take his stress out on the piano after a long day of enduring harsh bullying-it was a coping mechanism that he'd buried when he'd arrived on land. It had been years since he last touched a piano.

The younger Azul seemed to take notice of his presence and turned to him. "It's your turn," he told him, moving aside and wiping at his eyes.

"O-Oh, no, I couldn't possibly-I don't play the piano anymore."

"Why not?" Small Azul pouted and Azul couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"I'm very busy. I don't have time for such frivolous activities."

"Do Jade and Floyd still play the bass and drums?"

Azul shook his head. "I suppose Floyd occasionally plays the drums, but for the most part, no. All of us are preoccupied. Life moves on, you know."

Small Azul looked at the piano sadly. "But... I really like the piano."

He bent down to the small boy and ruffled his hair. "Piano means something different to me now that it did back then. I don't need it anymore."

"But don't you want it?"

Azul's brows knit together. "It only brings up bad memories."

"You'd do it if she asked you to, wouldn't you?"

He froze. "What makes you-"

"-Hey, Azul!"

His eyes shot open (for real this time) to see Yuu above him, gently shaking his shoulder. "Are you alright? You were sleep talking. You don't usually do that."

"Ah-yes, I am." He brought the back of his hand to his forehead, blinking a few times. "I was just having a strange dream, that's all."

She placed his glasses on his face for him, her cute smile coming into focus. "What about?" she asked. "You were saying something about piano..."

"I suppose my brain was just trying to make sense of recent events." He combed through his hair with his fingers. "It's just a strange dream," he repeated.

A sudden thought popped into Yuu's head, one that Azul's dream had perhaps foreseen. "Say, why don't you play the piano? You seemed to be pretty fond of it from that one time we talked about it, but it doesn't seem like you've played it lately."

"I don't play piano anymore," he answered simply.

"But why?"

He hesitated before deciding that if anyone got to know the truth, it should be her. "I used it as a way to take out my anger and cope with getting bullied. It used to be fun, but now... it just reminds me of back then."

"That's... really sad," she responded, putting her chin on his shoulder as she hugged him. "You liked piano as much as I like acting, right?"

He thought about how passionate she was for acting and compared it with his former love for piano. As much as he described piano as simply a coping mechanism, when he truly thought about it, it meant so much more to him. He loved it.

Maybe he could pick it up again someday?

The thought would've never occurred to him even yesterday, yet here he was, being held by Yuu as he contemplated reclaiming one of his middle school hobbies.

He opened his mouth to thank her, once again, for helping him heal, but he realized a few things. She would yell at him if he thanked her for anything like this again, and she hadn't directly done much this time. It had been, for the most part, his own thoughts that had worked things out. Perhaps that in itself was proof of healing.

So, Azul thought of something better to say. Something that expressed how he felt for her more than a just simple 'thank you'.

"I love you, my dearest Seashell."