The Human Heart [COMPLETED]

Calm Before the Storm

Within the silence of the caravan, the sudden scream echoing through the vehicle is ear-piercing. The washcloth slumps into the basin and Chishiya only realizes what he's doing after the door of the bathroom slams against the wall and his hand quickly shoves open the slide door to the sleeping area.

He knows that no one has entered since he woke up, so his stubborn should have no reason to scream like that. Maybe she has seen a rat or was having a bad dream, but that scream... Something in it has caused Chishiya to drop everything and immediately look after what has happened.

How foolish of him.

His stubborn sits in between the blankets, eyes wide open in fear and breathing heavily as if she has just run a marathon. Never before has Chishiya seen such a fear written across her face, and she's blinking and frantically turning around as if she still can't decide what's real and what is not. Tears have covered her cheeks and she's clawing her fingers into her chest, as if that'd help to calm down.

Chishiya calls her name, and the desired effect shows immediately: as soon as she notices his presence, she manages to take a deep shaking breath. He kneels onto the mattress, reaching for her hands so she won't hurt herself any longer. "It was a dream."

Still shaken by whatever she has seen, she wraps her arms around his chest, pulling him even closer to her. "The sniper... The King of Spades..." her words are interrupted by hiccups and sobs, which makes it hard to understand, but Chishiya still gets the point. "He found us, and he killed you... I..."

So that's what happened.

A nightmare of the King of Spades, although she wasn't afraid of her own life. She has been afraid of his.

The Queen of Diamonds returns to his mind, most of all the hallucinations caused by the poison. Their biggest fear. Even now it is ridiculous to assume that he'd fear his stubborn's death. He doesn't want to see her dead, but thinking about it doesn't cause him nightmares. Nothing does.

Chishiya wouldn't have been surprised to find out that she has been dreaming about Hibiki and their previous game. But dreaming about his death even though nothing has happened to fuel that fear...

He reaches for her hand and moves it to where his heart is, beating steadily under his skin. She's not the one to be calmed by words, and maybe this helps more for her to realize that he is in fact not dead. That her dream has been nothing but a creation of her over-anxious brain. "See? Still alive."

Kneeling like that quickly becomes uncomfortable, causing Chishiya to sit down next to his stubborn. He immediately finds himself in another hug, and his arms automatically move to her shoulders. She seems to have stopped crying, and like every time she gets so emotional, only the hiccups and sporadic sobs remain.

"But it felt so real..." her voice is nothing more than a whisper, and the shock is still clearly noticeable. However she isn't hyperventilating anymore, which means that Chishiya can return to the bathroom soon.

"It's not." It has been nothing but a dream, and it's useless to worry too much about it. Even if the King of Spades came to kill him, she wouldn't survive and mourn his death. They would both die, end of story.

She nods, probably noticing that Chishiya wants to get up again, and he does so while his stubborn cuddles deeper into the blankets. Maybe she will try to get some more sleep, this time without nightmares.

His hand already resting on the doorknob, Chishiya suddenly notices something else. Something has changed, only that he can't tell exactly what it is. As if someone's running along the street, feet stomping onto the concrete, heavy puffs and pants...