"Just a dream, just an ordinary dream.

As I wake in bed

And the boy, that ordinary boy,

Or was it all in my head?"

Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton

A Stranger's Nightmare

Chapter Three

"Arthur-san… Arthur-san?"

He slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head from the desk, one of his papers sticking to his cheek.

"Mnuh?" he said eloquently.

"Arthur-san… did you try to stay up all night studying? You should not fall asleep like that, you may catch a cold," Kiku chided.

Arthur's eyes slowly focused on his roommate's pale face. Kiku's dark brown eyes blinked curiously back at him as he stood beside the desk.

Arthur was having trouble gathering his thoughts. Half his mind was still asleep, and in his sleep had been… a dream? Just a dream? The revelation hit Arthur hard in the gut, and he wasn't quite certain why. He stared down at his desk again before he could formulate a sentence.

"What… what time is it?"

"Already 9 o'clock… your first class is at 10, correct? We could go for breakfast together first. But perhaps you should sleep, you overworked yourself yesterday."

Kiku put a hand over his mouth, a worried expression on his face. Arthur smiled. The Japanese boy had been so quiet in the first few weeks, but he became quite the mother hen once they got to know each other. He was lucky they'd become friends.

"It's fine, I'll join you for breakfast. Let me just get myself organized…"

Kiku smiled and moved off to his own side of the room. Arthur was actually more concerned about organizing his thoughts than his stuff though. As he mechanically went through his morning routine, his mind was focused only on his dream from the previous night.

Only a dream. It felt wrong, somehow, to think that way. It had felt more realistic than the floor beneath his feet or the papers in his hands. And oddly enough, he recalled every detail easily. Usually his dreams drained slowly from his mind from the moment he woke up, but he could still remember the vastness of the blue sky, and the feeling of the sand between his fingers, and the strong warm grip of Alfred's hand.

Alfred. Hah! That was the absolute truth that it must have been a dream. What an odd character he was! And a total pain in the arse, no doubt about it. Such a person could only possibly exist in the convoluted depths of the subconscious, although Arthur was a bit surprised and, to be honest, embarrassed, that his mind had dreamt him up at all. What exactly does it say about him that his brain is dreaming up overly-friendly, attractive blond Americans?

Arthur sighed, exasperated but faintly smiling.

"Arthur-san?" Kiku called him, sitting cross-legged on his bed, with a comic book, while he waited. "You seem a bit distracted… is something bothering you, perhaps?"

Arthur sat back down at his desk chair and began to spin the tale of his odd dream adventure to his friend. But when he reached the part about Alfred, he was suddenly less forthcoming. The idea of the bespectacled blond boy seemed too private, and perhaps a bit embarrassing… he quickly edited him out of the story.

After telling his tale to an interested Kiku, Arthur finished packing his bag and headed towards the door. He paused at the threshold and glanced back to his desk. His lantern's candle had extinguished itself.

Good, he thought. No fire hazard there then, I can light it when I want. His eyes lingered on the blue glass, the exact same sky blue he'd seen in that strange boy's eyes…

Arthur quickly looked away and departed for the cafeteria with Kiku.

※

Across the city campus, another student had a ruder awakening.

"ALFREEEED! Hey, hey, hey, wake up already!"

Im Yong Soo was already rocketing around the room at his usual pace, which was at least twice as much as a normal human being. Considering his height, it was quite dangerous to be in the same dorm.

'How does he have so much energy so earlyyyy,' Alfred thought, as he grimaced and smushed his pillow over his ears.

Yong Soo was having none of that shit.

"It is time to be AWAKE!" he said, punctuating each word with a tug on Alfred's pillow.

Alfred retaliated by letting go and burying himself in his blanket instead, sending his excitable roommate flying.

Yong Soo landed with a thud and scrabbled back to his feet, still grinning.

"You won't escape that easily!"

"Why won't you just let me sleep?! It's still early! My class isn't till later! Let me goooooo…"

Yong Soo ignored Alfred's pleas and returned to tugging at the blankets with all his strength.

"It's almost… eight o'clock… here in the US… which means… in Korea… it's nine o'clock… and time… to watch… my drama!"

Alfred sprang from the bed and grabbed Yong Soo by the collar, bringing their faces nose-to-nose. He spoke as if the world itself depended on the answer to his single question:

"Which. Drama."

Yong Soo's shocked expression morphed into a wide grin. Hook, line, and sinker. Yong Soo had put a lot of effort into getting Alfred addicted to Korean dramas, so he was damn pleased to see it being so effective. He grabbed onto Alfred's shoulders and with the utmost gravitas, replied:

"It is the season finale of Twelve Moon Promise. Only now will we finally discover the fate of the star-crossed lovers, and the identity of our heroine's true parents, and witness the reuniting of the long-lost siblings!"

They stared into each others eyes for a moment of silence before simultaneously rocketing off to opposite sides of the room, grabbing their laptops, and frantically searching for livestreams of the episode.

It wasn't until the credits were rolling that Alfred finally had time to focus on the drama in his own mind, rather than on his laptop screen.

That angry little British guy. Meeting someone so grumpy and snappy was kind of a big change, since a ton of people he hung out put him on a pedestal. But that guy had no idea who he was and had treated him accordingly. It was kind of weirdly refreshing to meet somebody so straightforward. Besides that, he was cute when he got angry… which had been most of the time come to think of it. But he was cute when he smiled too, just that one time.

And what an awesome adventure too! A desert island, a secret tunnel… Alfred turned his head to Yong Soo to tell him about it, but was interrupted by his roommate's loud wailing.

Oh right. The drama made him cry. Well, it was a pretty emotional finale.

Alfred managed to hold back on the talk of his dream, instead opting to stabilize his roommate's feelings, and convince him to go out for food instead. He shoved his gear into a backpack for class later and headed on out with Yong Soo, trying to focus more on the present reality than that compelling dream. 'Reality has enough drama,' Alfred thought, 'I can do without the extra.'

※

The nasal quality of his English professor's voice had a particularly unfortunate habit of gently lulling the weaker minds in class to sleep. Arthur, however, put in the extra effort to focus his attention and keep his eyes wide open.

Not that he really needed to focus right now. The class was going over the finicky details of English grammar, which had always come quite easily to Arthur. He had a natural talent in the subject, so if he wanted to he could easily get by with glossing over the finer points. But out of pure diligence and respect for the professor, he persevered through the long class.

The same could not be said for his fellow classmates. The large lecture hall was occupied by at least fifty students, the majority of whom were nodding off to sleep, or texting behind their notebooks. A small bunch directly behind Arthur had chosen this as a good time to make plans for the afternoon. Being quite close to the front of the classroom didn't faze them, nor did Arthur's silent rage at their chattering.

Arthur focused on the professor's shiny bald spot, trying to tune out the mindless chitchat and concentrate despite his irritation. He just needed to pay attention for the last ten minutes of class to the teacher droning on about gerunds and then he would be free for the rest of the afternoon. But his eyes slid off to the side once again, following the crisp sound of crumpled paper.

Two students to the side of him were chortling and passing notes. Doodling on each other's notebooks. Doodling on the textbooks. Arthur sucked in a breath through his teeth and tried counting to ten. Defacement of pure literary goodness was something he was unable to tolerate. But not a rant, not now, not in class. He clenched his teeth and glared daggers at the vandals, eventually dragging his eyes back to the professor's bald patch.

Arthur had nobody in class to pass notes to, even if he wanted to. 'But obviously I don't, what a waste of my classtime,' Arthur thought. Still, he couldn't help but think of Kiku, off doing a different major, having finished all the core requirement classes and with no chance of being in Arthur's classes again. Or the other members of his club, all doing different things and running in different social circles. Except for Arthur.

Not that anybody ever went out of their way to talk to him at all. His prickly demeanor and constantly being the professors' favourite hardly made him more approachable.

Arthur sighed and shifted his gaze back to the front. But his attention was still elsewhere.

Alfred had gone out of his way to talk to him though. He had bothered to chat with some random guy floating around in the ocean. And Alfred had stuck with him throughout their brief adventure.

'Not that there was anybody else to speak to. I mean, of course he spoke to me since I was the only one around. If I hadn't been present, that idiot probably would've chattered with the passing fish. He's no different from everybody else here.'

Arthur once again attempted to rein in his thoughts. Thinking about Alfred made his stomach feel a bit fluttery, and he wasn't comfortable with that. Besides, the boy was merely fictional, made of nothing but subconscious thoughts and external influences.

'Even if he were real,' Arthur thought, 'he'd be no different from all the other idiots here. Neglecting lessons, getting wasted at parties, ignoring his presence… All the same.'

The bell rang, finally saving Arthur from his own rambling thoughts and aching head. He packed up his notes and immediately sought respite in the library, to cool his head. His emotions were being kind of weird at him, and he wished they would kindly desist.

※

Alfred, meanwhile, was also in class.

He had been thinking of skipping it, since he really just wasn't feeling the whole academic thing today… But he went anyways. Didn't want the professor to get all pissy and drop his grade.

But even though his body was present, his mind wasn't all there. He was very busy doodling in the margins of his notebook. He had become quite the expert at stick figure drawings due to these classes.

As the professor spoke, tiny sketches formed next to Alfred's old notes. Palm trees, fish, an island, a volcano, the ocean, and a little stick figure boy.

He stopped to survey his work, while the professor was writing out calculus equations on the board. Alfred could already manage those pretty well though, no need for it to disrupt his doodling time.

So instead his mind went into rewind. He thought about the cute girl he chatted with on the walk to class, and of the cliffhanger at the end of the morning Korean drama, and finally of the boy in his dream from the night before. Arthur.

The guy had just looked completely worn out. He half mistook him for a dead body when he first saw him floating there. But the second his eyes opened it was like a switch flipped and suddenly he was spitting fire, the exact opposite of his polite and tired appearance. And the surprise had interested Alfred enough to pursue a conversation. Then again, it didn't take much for Alfred to talk. But it took a lot more for him to listen.

And listen he did. Arthur's frankness shocked him, but it didn't bother him. Instead he found it almost refreshing. These days most people were pretty content to just go along with whatever he said, always agreeing and letting him do what he wanted. The only person who bothered to set him straight was Mattie, and Alfred appreciated being taken seriously. Although that certain type of person could probably learn to be less of a killjoy…

He shut his eyes and tried to bring up a solid memory of Arthur's appearance. His hair, for starters, looked like it had never been introduced to a comb, or possibly just had a messy breakup with it. He remembered that he had looked cute when he smiled, even though it took a long time to get to that point. But he also looked cute when he was angry, and that took way less effort. Alfred picked up his pen again and tries to sketch out a likeness from his memories.

After a few minutes he gave up. He couldn't get the smile right, it had been better than that. He tried scribbling a giant frown over it instead and snorted with laughter. Closer, but still not exactly right. So he scribbled the whole thing out, deciding that it's probably dumb to keep thinking about anyways. It was only a dream.

The bell rang and everyone started shuffling out, but the bell unfortunately couldn't drown out the professor's announcement of a test tomorrow.

Crap. Alfred was good, but not that good. And doodling his way through the whole class hadn't exactly helped his case. Now he would have to put in effort. Ah well, his own fault and all.

Alfred decided to hit up the library, and gravitated towards a vaguely familiar group of classmates to see who would join him. Of course, being Alfred F. Jones had its advantages, and he quickly had a pretty sizable group of classmates following his lead to hit the books. Hopefully one of them took actual notes…

※

Another noisy crowd walked into the library and Arthur slowly raised his eyes from his book, unblinking. He stared straight ahead and puffed out a sigh. Talking loudly in class was one thing, but the library was practically a sanctuary. Breaking the silence was not an excusable offence, in his private opinion. Though the librarians tended to lean away from corporal punishment these days.

He tried to focus again on his novel. It was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson,just a bit of light reading. He just wanted to take his mind off things for a bit. Unfortunately the book had rather the opposite effect, as it reminded him again of his own private island. Well, not private, since he had shared it with Alfred. But they had both held treasure.

Arthur sighed and shut the book, returning it to the nearby shelf and cringing at the loud, inane chatter that came from the tables on the other side of the shelves. He tried to tune it out as he selected another book from the shelf. Beowulf. The excitement from the action in it and the difficulty of the old language usually helped him take his mind off of things.

He returned to his table and flipped straight to the Third Battle, with the dragon fight. It had always been his favourite part. Fantastic creatures and mythical beasts had always fascinated him, so he liked to read about Beowulf and Wiglaf slaying the dragon together. That was true friendship; helping each other to slay dragons… difficult to test the mettle of those friendships without any dragons about though.

More raucous laughter carried over from across the bookshelves. Arthur put the book down and shut his eyes, resting his head in his hands for a moment. If everyone else was just there to chat, he would have to take his business of relaxing elsewhere. He picked up his bag and checked out the book, leaving through the main doors without a glance back.

※

Alfred sat in the library, his back facing a row of shelves. Math books were strewn across the desk, but everyone was too busy talking to even glance at them. No studying was getting done. Alfred thought talking is okay and cool and all, but he really needed to do well in that class.

He had asked one guy in his class to join him, then he asked a friend, then some girls wanted to join them, then more people… He hadn't expected such a crowd. But hey, if people wanted to talk to him, Alfred wasn't going to refuse. He liked to talk with people.

He heard stomping feet, and glanced toward the door, just in time to see it closing. Hunh. Somebody sounded pissed. Eh, doesn't matter. He turned his attention back to the group.

※

That afternoon, Arthur tentatively pushed open a classroom door. Classes had long since ended, and the only other thing that occupied his time was this, the college newspaper club. And unfortunately, the club itself tended to have more drama than the news itself.

From the sound of it, this meeting would be no different.

"For the last time, you are a no-talent hack, and we have no place for you on our pages! Back me up here Roderich!"

"Well he's certainly never produced anything worthwhile in the past, I don't see why now would be any different. We can't afford to waste paper on rubbish."

"HEY! I'm a freaking AWESOME writer, you should be begging me to add to your un-awesome little news rag! I mean, do you even KNOW how many Twitter followers I have? How many pageviews are on my blog? Well it's pretty damn impressive!"

Arthur briefly considered backing out the door again, but as co-editor, he couldn't shirk his duties in good conscience. Gilbert Beilschmidt wasn't technically on the team, but he spent enough time in the clubroom bothering people that he might as well have been, much to Roderich and Elizaveta's chagrin. Contributing to the newspaper could give you credit for certain classes, which on one hand ensured enough participation to keep it going, and on the other hand gave them certain immoral people looking for an 'easy' GPA boost every semester. People like Gilbert.

"Arthur! It's about time you showed up! Help me kick this narcissistic lunatic out of here," Elizaveta said.

Gilbert spluttered. "Narci-wha? C'mon, you've gotta appreciate my awesomeness more than that!"

"No, no, no, I'm not picking sides here. If you're going to argue, just take it outside. I already feel a headache coming on…" said Arthur, rubbing his temples with one hand and setting his bag down on an empty desk.

Elizaveta and Gilbert glared at each other once more and sat down in their own chairs. Roderich, the other co-editor was rifling through some papers already. Kiku walked in right on time and sat down next to Elizaveta.

"Alright, let's get this started then. Everyone report, what have you got to contribute?" said Arthur.

Elizaveta's hand shot up immediately. "I've already written at least four columns on this latest scandal, you've got to hear it." She launched into a detailed explanation of the current college social scene: who's dating whom, student government blackmail, two-timing jocks, cheating academics. Elizaveta ran a sporadic gossip column, which was pretty popular, although nobody knew where she dug up all that dirt from. Arthur suspected that she had sources everywhere… just a hunch.

Roderich wrote up reviews of theatrical and musical performances on campus, and sometimes even movies if he deigned them artful enough to pay to see. Kiku was their resident photographer, and sometimes helped Elizaveta rustle up some 'evidence' for her gossip.

And Arthur's job was trying to pull it all together and keep everything neat and tidy, all the while keeping up a running column about campus life.

Arthur turned his attention back to Elizaveta and realized that she and Gilbert were arguing and making a racket again. They were even pulling on each other's hair, for goodness sake. Roderich was pointedly ignoring them and primly examining his nails, and Kiku flipped through the photos on his camera. It was clear who was meant to deal with these situations.

Arthur sighed and stood up to intervene again. It was going to be a long meeting.

※

Alfred finally got back to his dorm late that evening, collapsing on his bed and flicking on the television.

He had struggled to get away from the so-called 'study group.' Everybody kept on chatting with him until the day had dwindled away, and he ended up going out for pizza with the same group he had 'studied' with.

The history channel was showing some documentary about castle town ruins in Scandinavia. He channel surfed for a while between weird game shows and movies before deciding to hit the hay. It was late anyway, and nothing was worth watching.

Alfred lit his little green lantern to fend off the demons and settled down to sleep.

※

Breathing in the comforting scent of wood smoke, Arthur slowly opened his eyes. The timber cabin was warm, almost uncomfortably so. A cozy, flickering orange glow dimly lit the room, but there was no fireplace to be seen. The light was pouring through the room's only window. Perhaps it was sunset?

A terrible roar smashed through the silence and shattered Arthur's initial sense of calm. He ran to the window, looking for some sign of the source, some idea of what course of action to take.

There was no missing it. Angry flames engulfed all the wooden houses in view, and licked up the black scales of an enormous beast. Giant fangs, deadly claws, demonic leathery wings, spitting fire and glowing with rage.

A dragon was tearing up the town, and Arthur was sitting right in its path.

※

I cannot apologize enough for the delay for this chapter. That was ridiculous. My unsatisfying excuses are being in Japan and now University are experiences that have hit me like a sixteen-wheeler on the freeway. But fear not, as I promised, I won't be giving up on this story. I know how it ends, after all, I need to let you know too!

I can't promise regular updates. But hopefully there won't be any more delays that long. I will try and write more regularly.

This chapter in particular was a pain though. I like writing about their dreams way more than their waking lives, but I wanted to at least give some background on who they are and what they do normally. Glad to get it over with.

Till next time, then. Thank you for reading! And please do review, it helps keep me motivated!