Big Book of Writing

Dancing in the Clouds (Kanaroha, SDRA2)

Prompt: https://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/174233416059/imagine-you-otp-meeting-every-night-in-their/amp

"Imagine you OTP meeting every night in their dreams, even before ever seeing each other in real life, but never being able to speak. Imagine one or both of that have a very colorful, creative imagination and their dreams always have extravagant scenery, beautiful sunsets, colorful skies, extraordinary castles etc. Now imagine person A visiting an art gallery in another country and finding an exhibit of paintings just like what they see in their dreams, only the artist is anonymous."

This was originally going to be for a friend's birthday, but I learned that she only ships Sanniuri out of the SDRA2 cast. I made this in late September for the end of November. Just Yomi Problems(tm)

Warning: death (of shadow creatures), nightmares, dissociation, implied incest, cutting a name on skin, spoilers for Void!

***

From the day she was born, Kanade had always been able to see another girl in her dreams. She couldn't talk to the girl, there was no sound in the dream, and there was nothing that would allow her to write her words, not even the dirt would allow her to. Even so, she enjoyed staying in the dreams of the other girl.

The other girl, who was only a little bit taller than herself, had brown hair and a turquoise dress, and it seemed like she was sad and depressed all the time. Kanade didn't know who she was or what kind of life she lived, but the small guitarist hated seeing the other girl sad.

The two of them spent their nights wandering in and exploring the dreams of the brown-haired girl. They were beautiful and colourful, the prettiest that Kanade had ever seen, and there were an array of settings that the girls liked to play in.

The two of them played in swimsuits upon a beach with a beautiful sunset's light glowing upon them, they flew kites and blew bubbles under a colourful sky, they explored detailed castles and played around in them, and when they were both really tired, they just sat together and held hands as constellations danced in the night sky above them.

But the other girl had nightmares quite often, mostly in the form of humanoid shadows that loomed over the girl in turquoise and made soundless noise to torment her. That was where Kanade had first learned to kill, the guitarist had taken a sharp rock and persistently bludgeoned the shadow until it was unmoving on the ground.

The girl had looked on in horror before hugging Kanade and sobbing into her chest. Kanade felt like a hero. She wanted to protect the girl at any costs. Both her and Hibiki, the guitarist would kill for both of them. She didn't much care for Hibiki's feelings, but she wanted to see the brunette smile for her.

As they got older, the other girl changed her clothes to look almost like a painter and her hair got longer, and she now seemed to grow flustered around Kanade's form, probably because she got more attractive as she grew up. The girl loved holding Kanade's hand, and would cling onto her if the shadow nightmares came back.

One day, when Kanade and Hibiki went on tour in another country, they stopped by an art gallery at their manager's request. Kanade planned to kill him soon, but she decided to go along with it since Hibiki seemed excited about it. Once they got inside, a painting caught her eye.

It was a lovely hill with two girls on it, one with pink hair and the other with brown hair. It looked like Kanade's dreams. The guitarist asked who the artist was, since they were unnamed, but the staff said it had been donated by someone anonymous. They did add that the Nijiue family was claiming that the painting was made by their runaway daughter, and the name 'Nijiue' had stuck in her mind ever since.

That night, Kanade had carved the name on her arm and fell asleep. Thankfully, the name was still there when she appeared in the dream. Once again, the brunette appeared with a chipper smile, ready to explore their world of dreams.

Before they could go anywhere, Kanade rolled up her sleeve and pointed to the name on her arm, then pointed to the other girl. The brunette went pale, and Kanade had a feeling that the girl she was meeting was the runaway daughter of that family. The guitarist gave her a smile to assure her that things were okay, and the girl seemed to calm down a little.

One night, Kanade entered the dream to find it more twisted than before. Emblems of suns, blood, knives, and bodies were everywhere, and the girl was crying in the middle of it all. Kanade ran to her side and enveloped her in a hug, letting the other girl bawl into her. She spotted the words 'Void', 'Divine Luck', and 'Killer', and assumed that the girl wasn't going through something good.

To try and comfort the brunette, Kanade turned their faces together and kissed the painter. The brunette was shocked, but weakly gave in and pressed into the kiss. The painter grabbed at the back of Kanade's clothes as if the guitarist was the only thing she had left. Kanade wanted to tell her that she was safe, but the only thing she could do was rub the smaller girl's back.

When Kanade and her sister had been kidnapped to the Isle of Nowhere, she saw the painter girl there and finally spoke to her. They recognized each other instantly, and Hibiki let them have their space to talk. The second thing they did after giving each other their names, finding out that the girl was named Iroha Nijiue, was share a small kiss with each other. It was a shame that the only time they met in person was in a killing game.

***

Art credit: G23sDni6dIpzc1A on twitter