Captured in a Dream [COMPLETED]

Missed Chances (rewritten)

You shouldn't have been surprised to find out that the Beach has a Spa area in the basement. It had been a wellness hotel after all, and with a pool, there usually comes a sauna too, right?

Though you don't like to go there during the day because it's too crowded. But at night, during the games or shortly after, the area is usually shut down and completely empty.

You still have a few days left on your visa before you have to enter a game again, and you need to relax a bit from everything that happens around the beach. The games themselves, seeing people die again and again, and the militants keeping the Beach busy...

The elevator hums slowly as it takes you down to the basement, and you activate the one sauna you like the most – the one with 90°C, since it has ambient lights and the best choice of herbs – and take a long shower while the sauna takes its time to heat up.

But you don't wait until it has reached the full temperature; you take your towel and make yourself comfortable in the dim cabin. One corner usually is your favourite, because it hides you best from curious looks and is especially comfortable. So you lean against the warm wood and close your eyes while the ambient lights lull you in and the heat increases slowly.

The sound of footsteps and a closing door cause you to startle up from your thoughts. You catch a shadow in front of the glass door but nothing more since the cabin is already covered in steam, and you can't help but wonder who else has found their way here at this time of night.

Your heart almost stops beating when you recognize the figure entering the sauna. The blonde-dyed hair is something you'd always recognize together with those cold and calculating eyes, even though his hair is wet from the shower and glints in the constantly changing lights.

Dark brown orbs examine you, and he raises his brows just a tiny bit. "Huh. I thought someone forgot to turn it off." Chishiya murmurs as he closes the glass door behind him and takes a seat on the wooden bank, in the opposite corner.

Somehow, you're not able to take off your eyes, and you try to smile at him so it won't seem more awkward than it already is. While he usually wears a hoodie even inside the Beach, you can't deny that you enjoy looking at him like this.

"Yeah, well... I like to come here at night because there's no one else." You finally manage to say. Chishiya doesn't seem to care that your eyes still rest on him, as he has placed his arms on his knees and has lowered the head to enjoy the heat.

"Mhmm." Is the only answer you get, and that's it for a while. Sweat drops running into your eye eventually cause you to lean back again and focus on the heat as well, and once in a while, Chishiya will exhale a soft sigh. After a few minutes, he gets up to pour a bit of water onto the hot stones to create more steam, and you won't be able to stay much longer inside the cabin if he continues to increase the temperature like this.

Yet somehow you don't want to leave at all. Now that the first moment of awkwardness is over, you don't mind his presence at all. Sure, you have wanted to be alone, but it doesn't feel much different with Chishiya sitting across from you. He doesn't make disgusting noises like others, he doesn't even look at you. Even though he is there, it feels like you're alone.

A tiny part of you wishes that it wouldn't be like that. That Chishiya would look at you, exchange a couple of words with you, but then again, this is a sauna you're in – not a bar or anything.

"Chishiya?" your voice hesitantly asks you immediately wrap your towel closer around you since you didn't want to speak up at all. His eyes open a bit more and he lifts his head a little to look at you, blonde hair hanging around his face now in thin strands. One brow raises questioningly, and he gives you a look that makes you feel completely foolish. Again. Luckily for you, the lights inside the cabin hide your reddened skin and the slight trembling of your lips, but you're sure he notices anyway.

He doesn't have to say anything; his eyes tell you more than enough. Really? You want to talk now? And this is all it takes for the last bit of self-confidence left inside of you to collapse in an instant. You pull your knees up to your chest and stare at the wooden wall, making sure that nothing can be seen under the towel and afraid that you might have annoyed Chishiya instead of befriending him. Why is it so hard to approach this man? How can he remain so calm and uncaring no matter the circumstance?

You murmur a quiet "never mind," only to find out that Chishiya has already returned to his former position, as if you'd never attempted to talk to him in the first place.

And as the heat is finally getting too much for you, you decide to leave the sauna since you don't want to collapse inside the cabin, most of all not in front of Chishiya. You grab the end of your towel so it won't get lose and exit without a word. What you can't resist though is to take a last look as you pass by.

Chishiya seems to be in a completely different world, with his eyes almost closed and the lips just so slightly parted, the wet strands of hair around his face and the water and sweat pearling down his skin.

The cold air is like a punch into the face and there you feel it again: the pain inside your heart. You've felt it so many times during these last days, and it's getting stronger with each day.

While you take a hot shower, you wonder how long Chishiya will stay in there. And weirdly enough, you even wonder if he will shut it down once he is done. You wouldn't have minded him to exit the cabin while you were still in the basement, but the shape behind the glass door won't move and you don't want to spend an eternity under this shower.

As you finally leave for your room, you throw one last look to the cabin that is now covered in steam, as if Chishiya has just fused some more of the herb-mixed water. The image of his face won't leave your mind for the rest of the night and you wonder if he will even bother to think about you for a single second, and you fall asleep with a smile on your face.