A Child's Reality (BBRae AU)

XV

XV
A Remarkable Return
~~~

Her body spasms when her phone rings directly next to her ear. She must have fallen asleep with it.

She sits up in the bed and holds her head while she tries to wake up.

Where am I?

Her vision is groggy and blurry like she needs glasses desperately. After rubbing her eyes and blinking, the full scale of the dark room becomes clear to her.

Oh, yeah...

With her vision, her memories from the night prior return to her as well. The more her brain rises from the muddy, sleepy, sea in her head, the more it begins to see clearer.

She looks over at the bed and Kai is in it snuggled up in his blanket. She checks her phone for the time and it's six in the morning. Makes sense considering the only light in the room is the sunlight from the sun peeking over the horizon.

Why the hell am I awake at six? What did I do to my body to deserve waking up like it's school on a weekend?

She groans. She knows she's not going to get back to sleep at this point, so she rolls off of the air mattress and stands up slowly.

She walks around the side of Kai's bed while she contemplates whether to wake him up, but on her way around the bed, her eyes find his lips and it doesn't take long for her to start feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. That is until she sees the rest of his face.

Pained and troubled and almost sickly, he's breathing heavily and sweating too. He turns over towards Raven and starts to mumble incoherently.

Is he having a nightmare? She looks closer and notices his fluttering eyelids. I guess he is. Not long from when she notices this, his eyes spring open, panicked.

"Raven!" He shouts. His breaths are as heavy as lead. Confusion adds itself to his expression once he sees her at the edge of his bed.

"I'm right, here. Relax. What's wrong?"

Kai doesn't answer her. He stares for a moment, then, out of absolute nowhere, he lurches up and embraces her tightly. His arms wrap around her and hold on like industrial clamps.

"Gah! Kai? What are you–"

"Don't leave..." He says.

"What? Kai, I'm not going to. Why would I?" Raven steps back from him and surprisingly, Kai's arms loosen and fall from around her. "Kai, what's wrong? What happened in your dream?"

"...You...I..." He can't seem to manage to say it as if something is lodged in his throat. He shakes his head and pushes the heel of his hands into his eyes, forcibly pushing tears out. "Tch, Raven you really f*cked me up last night." He says with a chuckle.

"I...what? Kai, you're not making any sense."

"Don't worry about it. It's just a nightmare."

"What was it that got you so upset?"

As he goes to speak, Raven's phone rings and Kai is taken completely off guard. His heart jumps, almost flying out of his chest, and he could swear that it skipped a beat. "Oh, God!" He exclaims with a heave of air exiting his lungs.