Fever Dream

Her soft, steady breathing created a rhythmic song; the only thing to be heard in the darkness. The window that rested just above the headboard of the bed gave an easy entrance for the moon's pale light to trickle into the room and illuminate the sleeping girl.

With her soft pink tresses splashed out on her pillow, and the occasional strand lying on her face, she looked angelic.

He wanted to know how he ended up with a girl like her. Even her sleeping state couldn't hide the fact that she was innocent, beautiful, loving, and most of all, accepting. She didn't judge him like everyone else in his life had. There was a phase he went through where he refused to open up to anyone. If possible, he didn't even talk. He had spent his classroom hours in silence at the back of the room. Everyone had grown accustom to him being the quiet one, and no longer attempted to involve him in anything. In a way, that's what he wanted, but it still hurt.

With everything going on at home, he often wandered the bustling, city streets with his head tucked low. During the day he'd find places to sleep since he never got any sleep at home with his step-dad around.

He wanted to die. At times it felt like he wasn't even there. Everything passed by his vision in a blur, words and voices became white noise, and he felt nothing. He was completely empty.

Suicide felt like the only option before she came into his life. He was roaming town again instead of attending class when he stumbled upon a construction site. No workers seemed to be around, so he ducked under the construction line that warned the public to stay out. There was a large, deep hole sitting just steps away from him and it all became clear what he had to do.

Without giving it a second thought, he jumped into the hole and waited for the rumbling of the machine to start up. Waited to be buried alive. He was waiting for so long he had fallen asleep.
It didn't come as a surprise that the dream he found himself in was just like every other night.

In it, he was walking through a garden that had absolutely no flowers or trees, just thorn bushes. The thorns could have passed as spikes used for torture. He continued walking, very familiar with his surroundings, as he had been there many times before. But he stopped suddenly at the sight of something different; something that had never been in this dream. A white rose was hidden among a batch of thorns. Even though it was surrounded by darkness and cruelty, it still managed to shine beautifully and provide any passer Byers with peace.

He would have reached into the thorns and grabbed it if he wasn't rudely awakened by something dropping onto his lower stomach. Had they begun to bury him already? Because of that dream, he didn't want to die yet. He wanted to find the rose - the good - hidden in the bad.

Letting his eyes slowly open, he pushed himself up on his elbows and froze in his spot as he found himself staring into a pair of honey-coloured eyes.

It was a girl that had fallen on him. Had she the same idea as he did? The more he looked at her, the more he was sure that her intentions were everything but suicide.

Now he lay in bed staring at that very girl. The girl who brought him back to life and gave him hope. The girl who made him feel comfortable enough to open up. She was the rose in the thorns; the light at the end of the tunnel.

How did he deserve a girl like her?

She stirred in her sleep, blinking slowly to adjust to the darkness.

"I-Ikuto?" Her voice was rough, but still sweet, "Why are you awake?"

He tried not to smile. She was already falling back to sleep, her words becoming a string of jumbled hums.

He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head, letting his heavy eyelids droop closed.

"Because you snore really loud."

She muttered unimpressed insults into his chest, making him smile.

This is what he lived for.

Author's note: Yeah… I'm sorry this is such a lame little one-shot, but it came to me while I was listening to Fever Dream by Iron and Wine (GO LISTEN! SO AMAZING)