Bad Dreams and Brotherhood
Lately you'd been having strange nightmares of men in black robes and red masks, sickle horned dragons and poisoned drinks. They didn't make much sense to your four year old mind and always had you up in the wee hours of the morning in a cold sweat and screaming. The worst ones were when you and a grown- up that looked like Ardbert had to fight. You were starting to hate the words 'hear, feel, think', which was a shame because Mama always used those words to help you feel better when the monsters came.
You'd had another one of the Fight Ardbert nightmares again. You were tired- it seemed to have been getting worse over the last few months since your almost-twin's birthday. You really wanted to sleep so you thought to go find Mama and maybe get some warm milk with honey.
You didn't expect your brother to be wandering in the halls too, but there he was, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and dragging his four winged dragon plushie (Seto, you recall) behind him.
"Can't sleep?" Ardbert asked when he saw you. You shook your head.
"Bad dream," you replied, too tired to be self-conscious. "What about you?"
He scratched his chin and glanced sideways. Now that you looked, he seemed a bit tired too. "Just coming back from the bathroom." He looked at you again. "You wanna talk about it? Branden said that helps sometimes."
"A friend from The First. He left before you came."
"Oh." You felt a bit bad, though you weren't sure why. "Sorry."
"Nah. We'll see each other again. He promised."
You go downstairs and try to make the drinks yourself (because you're a big kid now). You manage to pour the milk into two cups before Mama came down and helped you. You told her and Ardbert about the bad dreams.
Ardbert had been having them too, apparently. You weren't sure whether to be terrified or not. You decided it wasn't important. Having the same dreams was cool, but not when it was like this. You both swore never to try to kill each other, and very solemnly sealed it with a pinky promise.
You meant to go back to your room, but Ardbert casually mentioned something about how being with friends kept bad dreams away. You spent the rest of the night in his room, swapping funny stories with each other. You eventually fell asleep together.
When Mother found you the next morning she was almost beside herself with worry since you were missing from your room. But when she found you, she couldn't help snapping a picture on her phone. You and Ardbert were nestled into his bed, holding hands and snoring softly, getting the first decent sleep you'd both had in weeks.
