Two of a Kind: A Revue Starlight Fanfiction

Not So Brave

It was late at night. Everyone was in bed by now. Most were peacefully sleeping. One person, however, was not.

Akira was having a nightmare. She was thrashing around in her bed. Occasionally she'd make a sound. Sometimes it was a cry, sometimes a few words. None were good things. Then again, what good things came from a nightmare?

"Gyah!"

Akira woke up with a jolt. She was breathing heavily and sweating, and tears were pricking at the edges of her eyes. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. She could feel everything that she had felt in the dream, as much as she knew it wasn't true. She was fine. She was in her bed. She wasn't drowning in the ocean. But the feelings remained for a while.

This was a reoccurring problem. She had been having varying nightmares almost every night for around a month. Nothing she had tried had gotten them to stop. And she wasn't going to tell anyone what was going on.

But, she was starting to suffer a lot more from it. She was barely getting sleep anymore. It was starting to affect her performance. That wasn't good.

Perhaps it was time to throw her pride away and ask for help? She really didn't know what else to do at this point. It was obvious that she needed something outside of herself to help. All the things she could do had failed.

Akira threw off her covers and got up. She quietly left her room. She glanced around. Thankfully it looked like no one else was up doing anything.

Akira went to the bathroom first. She splashed cold water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot. There were also dark bags starting to form underneath them. She looked awful. There was no denying it.

Akira exited the bathroom and slowly made her way to a different room. She wasn't one who sought out help like this. She was hesitant to disturb anyone who was sleeping. But, she had reached her breaking point. She couldn't do this by herself any longer.

Akira reached the door to the room she had decided to go to. She stood outside for a while, unsure what she would say to explain herself. Eventually she opened the door and entered.

"Hmm?"

It appeared that was enough to wake up the inhabitant of the room - that being Yachiyo. They rubbed their eyes and sat up. They stared at Akira for a while, unsure how to process this. This was a first. Normally they were the one entering her room at ungodly hours of the night.

"Um... what brings you here?" Yachiyo asked as they turned on a lamp to have some light.

Once they were able to see Akira better, their eyes widened. This was the first time they had ever seen her that way. It was a little scary.

"What happened? You look like you've been crying." Yachiyo stood up and wrapped her into a hug.

"I had a nightmare..." Akira mumbled, her voice hoarse and slightly cracking.

"A nightmare? Do you want to talk about it?" Yachiyo tugged her onto the bed. They laid down first and then drug her down.

They pressed a kiss to her cheek and started playing with her hair. Yachiyo wasn't sure what else to do to help. This wasn't something they had planned for. How did they offer her comfort?

"I was in water and... I was drowning..." Akira moved closer, but then hesitated and stopped.

"Come here." Yachiyo held out their arms.

Akira made no attempt to move. She wasn't used to being the one receiving this type of comfort. She had been the only one doing it whenever Yachiyo needed her. It was never the other way around.