The Spaces In-Between

Dreams Are Better With Friends

Y/N was scared as she pulled the blanket over her head.  The shadows were stretching long across the room and in the other room, she could hear yelling and fighting.  All they ever did was fight and yell.  She hated it because it always made her so scared.  Especially when the really bad stuff happened.  She was only four years old and had already seen a lot of scary things.  Especially when Daddy started drinking or sniffing that white stuff up his nose.  Those were the nights that were the scariest.

Y/N jumped as something large thumped hard into her wall that connected to her parents room.  It got very quiet then and she felt fear riding her hard.  Would Daddy come and hit her next like he did sometimes?  She wrapped her blanket tight around herself and crawled out of the bed.  She went to her closet and went as far back as she could.  She then pulled the blanket over her head and tried to keep her breathing as shallow as possible.

She could feel tears on her cheeks and she was angry that she was crying.  Only babies cried and she wasn't a baby.  She could hear other noises but she didn't hear her Mama again that night.  At some point, she must have fallen asleep because she was suddenly in a dream.

Y/N always loved going to the park and the way that the sun would warm her skin.  She was standing in a wide open field with several different kinds of flowers growing here and there.  In the distance she could see tall mountains with a whole forest at the base of that mountain.  She smiled and ran across the open field.  She was free!

Y/N laughed as she ran with her arms spread wide out.  She even did a few cartwheels before landing with a thud, she never was very good at them, and laughing as she lay there.

"Who are you?"

Y/N sat up, bits of grass sticking out of her H/C hair.  She frowned as she saw it was a BOY! Ugh, she didn't like boys.  They were always doing stupid stuff or pulling her hair.  He looked like he was her age but he had silver, white hair that was sticking up in all directions.  What kind of kid had that color of hair?  His head was tilted to the side and she could only see his almond shaped gray eyes as he was wearing a mask over the bottom half of his face.  He was dressed in what looked like a Ninja navy colored outfit and even had a small sword strapped to his back.

"I'm Y/N," she finally answered, having been taught to always be polite even when she didn't really want to be.  "Who are you?"

"I'm Kakashi Hatake," he responded.  "Why are you out here?"

"What's it to you?"

"This is my dream, so why are you here?"

Y/N rolled her eyes.  "Says who, it's my dream and I'm having fun."

"Huh," he responded in what sounded like a bored voice.

A long stretch of silence followed before he said, "Want to go play in the river?"

Y/N thought about it for a moment. She really didn't like boys but he wasn't acting like the boys she knew.  He seemed older in his mannerisms.  She finally smiled as she nodded her head.  "Okay, which way is it?"

Kakashi pointed his small hand and she looked.  She now saw a river snaking through the field leading back to the big mountains.  She got to her feet and gave him a little shove.  "Last one there is a rotten egg."

She thought she heard laughter following behind her as she ran as fast as she could.  He was quick because he caught up to her a lot sooner than she expected.  She lowered her head and pushed with every bit of strength in her little legs.  It was a tie as they reached the water's edge and she bent over breathing hard before she looked up to grin at him.

"That was close," she finally said.

"I could have beat you," he responded with a challenging look in his eyes.

"Ha, well you didn't so..." she stuck her tongue out at him.

"You're a brat," he decided.

"Snob," she retorted.

Kakashi laughed and clapped her on the shoulder.  "I don't know why you're in my dream but I like you.  Do you know how to swim?"

Now Y/N did know how to swim but not very well.  She bit her lower lip as she looked at him, "A little bit."

"I'm a great swimmer," he declared, puffing out his chest.  "I can teach you."

Y/N smiled, "Okay!"

They swam and played in the river for what seemed like hours before they both got out, tired from all the energy they had expounded in the water.  Y/N lay with her head next to his as they lazily watched clouds go by overhead, the sun and warm breeze drying them off.

"I like you, Kakashi," Y/N said after a long time.  "You're not mean like other boys."

"I like you too, Y/N," he responded.  "You aren't stupid like other girls.  I hope we can meet up again.  I can show you other places here."

Y/N woke from the dream with a start.  Her legs and body were aching a little from being curled into such a tight ball throughout the night.  She hesitantly peeked out of the blankets, seeing rays of sunshine coming through her window.  She wished she could go back to the dream.  It had been nice there and she had a new friend.

At four years of age, she did not think anything was weird about having a friend from a dream.  As she left her room and walked down the long hallway, she could hear her mother cooking breakfast.  The smell of cooked bacon was wafting to her long before she crawled up onto the barstool of the kitchen island.

Her mother gave her a sad smile with her busted lip.  Her right eye was almost completely swollen closed and she had thick purple bruises around her neck.  Y/N did not even think about the injuries, they were so common.  She knew when her Mama looked like that she was to remain very quiet the rest of the day.

"Did you sleep good sweetie?" her mother asked in almost a whisper.

Y/N nodded her head before answering just as softly, "I made a new friend, Mama.  His name is Kakashi and we had so much fun playing and swimming."

Her mothers E/C that were the same shade as her own looked moist as she smiled at that.  "I'm glad you had a good dream."  She then placed a plate with a pancake in front of her and two slices of bacon.  She had already buttered it and covered it in syrup.  "When you finish up, you should play outside a while until Daddy gets up."

Y/N nodded her head before digging into the pancakes.  She was so hungry, she almost felt like she really had been swimming and playing all night long.