"Artemis, Come Home"

Chapter 1: The Dreams

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-*

Artemis woke to the now-familiar sound of his alarm. He opened his eyes to his bedroom in the dorms. 

Looking over to his new cell phone, courtesy of Shino's savings, he quickly grabs it and turns off the alarm. He rubs his eyes to wake himself up a little more and reaches for his glasses. As his eyes adjust, he looks around the room to test his vision.

It had taken him a while to get used to the location, due to him usually staying in a big room with a bunch of other orphans; but over time, he's been able to make it more comfortable for himself. His dormmates, Shino and Rikku, took him out shopping so that he could get more things for the room, including a desk for his sewing machine and a wardrobe to keep his new creations with. He ended up using his boxes as storage bins for whatever fabrics he could find. needless to say, he had quite the collection.

After his vision became clear, he gets up from his bed and begins getting dressed in his uniform. As he puts it on, he makes sure that there are no wrinkles and it looks the best that it can. Afterward, he heads downstairs to the kitchen.

Shino is already up and making himself breakfast when he gets down. The other boy had his uniform on as well but did not have the signature vest on. Rather, the vest was resting on one of their dining room chairs so it wouldn't get stained from the food; or that's what Artemis could guess at least.

Shino looked up from his preparations and smiled at the other tall boy. Artemis smiled back.

"Good morning, Shino. You sleep well?"

"Good morning, Artemis. I slept alright, what about you?"

Shino looked back down to watch what he was doing. Not that what he was doing needed too much concentration in some people's opinion. Shino had chosen to eat a plain bowl of cereal for his breakfast. after pouring some milk, he looks back to Artemis.

"I slept alright I guess... I had that dream again."

"You mean the one with the two strange men?"

Artemis simply nodded. He's had the same dream for a long time now; for as long as he can remember practically. The dream would always start off with two strange men. One man had wings, much like his teacher, Avian. Only, this man's wings practically shined. The man also seemed to have a crown jewel on his head of some kind. 

The other man had what seemed to be a pair of pointed dog ears and not one, but two fluffy, long tails. This man wore glasses much like his own and seemed to have a dark aura around him; not to say that the aura felt evil or anything like that. More so, it felt like whenever he used his own quirk, shadow. Artemis didn't know why, but for whatever reason, he felt... safe with these two men. 

"Y-yeah... that one..."

Shino sets his bowl down on the table, leaving the box of cereal and milk on the counter for Artemis to make his own bowl. "I'm telling you, man. It might be your subconscious trying to tell you something."

"I know, but like I've said before: it's not like I can go see somebody about this. I don't have the money for it."

Shino ponders for a moment. "Well... I mean, you're still planning on selling your designs, right? That should give you some cash in your wallet. And, I can even help you look for anything that's close by that's cheap to help you with your dream problem."

"No, I couldn't," Artemis shakes his head as he finishes making his own bowl. "You and Rikku did so much for me. I still don't like that you guys won't let me pay you back."

Before Shino could respond, the third dormmate came rushing in from downstairs, looking like he was in a hurry. Both the boys in the dining room look over, noticing the smaller one's rush. 

Shino spoke first. "Morning, Rikku. Forget you're alarm again?"

Rikku looked up at the two, panic evident in his eyes. Rikku, for whatever reason, always seem to forget to turn his alarm on, leaving the boy only minutes before the three of them can head out the door.

"Morning! Forgot my alarm again! Getting ready now!" 

the smaller boy rushes to the toaster and pops a slice of bread in as he tries to fix his uniform and witch hat.

Shino and Artemis can't help but chuckle a little, watching their smaller dormmate struggle to get ready for their classes. After the two finish their bowls of cereal, they both get up to help Rikku with whatever else he needed to get done. 

As the three of them head out for school, Artemis's thoughts lingered back to the dream, wondering what on Earth it could mean. Just who are those two men and why did they seem... familiar?

One thing was for sure to Artemis: whoever those two are, they seemed important to him...