Sometimes she hated dreaming. Normally, they did bother her; they were strange, yes, but not too vivid or drastic. Her nightmares held the same strange element, but had a tendency to have some kind of image she couldn’t quite shake.
She woke up at some point in the night, terrified for apparently no reason until she closed her eyes again and tried to go back to sleep. A few images came to mind—Aurik and some whispered promise that he would keep her ‘safe.’ Remembering it more, that last idea meant hurting others; she asked him to stop and he refused, repeating his defense from the trial.
“I’m doing it for you. That’s all I can say.”
She couldn’t immediately recall anyone else—Mark, Matteo, Rene—being in the dream. A haunting thought came after a few seconds that they may have been implied to have died, or else deemed some kind of detriment to Adelinde’s ultimate happiness and killed. Fortunately she couldn’t remember witnessing it, but the thought alone scared her.
Adelinde sat up, fearing falling back asleep to some extent. She glanced over at the clock on the wall, taking a second to read the time.
About midnight. She only really had two hours of sleep then; having worked with Rene on their song earlier, the two had a habit of losing track of time while trying to perfect each note. If she stayed up for the rest of the night, she likely wouldn’t have the energy to do anything in the morning.
She considered if she wanted to try to go back to sleep—greatly leaning towards ‘no,’ given the specific way the nightmare bothered her—and then tried to determine each option for trying to shake off the dream so she could sleep.
She got out of bed and walked over to the balcony, just to feel the cold air before she even opened the door. March still had enough of a chill that staying outside too long at night was ill-advised; ignoring the fact that getting dressed so she could go outside would take just enough effort for any tiredness to leave.
Adelinde stepped away from the balcony door, the only other option she could think of being relatively childish.
Then again, seeming childish was better than getting no sleep at all if the nightmare returned.
She quietly left her room, then walked to Rene’s. She lightly knocked on the door, albeit guiltily.
Despite her partial expectations, Rene still responded to the sound. At first just a little murmur, then something sleepily said loud enough for Adelinde to hear.
“Who is it?” The question didn’t even sound annoyed or bothered, just tired.
“Just me,” Adelinde said. “I’m…a bit afraid to fall back asleep.”
“You can come in.”
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Adelinde gently opened the door, greeted by Rene’s understanding look and smiling a bit as a result. Rene didn’t protest as Adelinde went to the other side of the bed and laid down, giving her a light kiss on the cheek as thanks.
“It’s the good thing about being an omyn,” Rene reasoned before Adelinde could say anything else, changing her position so she laid facing Adelinde. “I don’t mind.”
“Still,” Adelinde maintained, “Thank you.”
After a moment of silence, both accepted the end of the conversation and went back to sleep. Rene started lightly snoring after a few minutes, which encouraged Adelinde to really sleep as well.
…
They both woke up around the same time, fortunately meaning that Adelinde didn’t have go early and seem like she only really stayed for the extra comfort. Instead, Adelinde ended up sitting up on the bed, half-prepared to leave and half-watching Rene as she went about some kind of routine while they entertained conversation.
“I assume you had a nightmare,” Rene said, glancing back at her for a second as she walked to her dresser. “Was it bad?”
“It implied death, at least,” Adelinde replied, sighing. It still managed to bother her, although thanks to being near Rene she did have a dreamless sleep afterwards. “Aurik was there—you, Mark, and Matteo were not.”
“I can imagine those are…fun. Dreams have never really made sense to me, so I’m afraid I can’t say much.”
“Dreams don’t tend to make sense to the dreamers, either,” Adelinde admitted. “I’ve had dreams where I got lost in a version of my mother’s town school that seemed more akin to a park, another where I found a kitten and took it to my grandparents for whatever reason and gave it a weapon as a toy.”
Rene let out a little chuckle.
“Well, it certainly sounds strange.” She opened up the drawer and took out some clothes. “Is it an overall good experience, or no?”
Adelinde only partially looked away while Rene changed, although given Rene’s teasing grin reflected by the mirror she didn’t think it would be an issue. There wasn’t much left of each other to hide at this point.
“I’d consider it a blessing and a curse,” Adelinde decided after a moment. “On one hand, dreams can be inspiration—on the other, they can be horrifying. I tend to sway more into being disappointed neither I nor Mark actually became omyn like our mother.”
“Being an omyn in and of itself is its own kind of blessing and curse,” Rene mused. “It’s easy enough to hide, but once someone finds out how much power you have they can be hard to shake off.”
“Are you speaking from some kind of experience?”
“I…know a few people like that, at least. Omyn and human alike.”
She paused to finish getting dressed. She turned to Adelinde while she put her hair up into a ponytail, smiling a bit.
“Anyway, you should get ready for the day yourself. I’ll definitely see you at breakfast, but I’m not sure when I’ll get back after work—today’s a longer one for me.”
“That’s fine,” Adelinde assured her, standing up and walking over to give Rene a light kiss. “Just let me know whenever you have some time to keep working on the song, as usual. We have the first verse and the chorus decided, we just need the second and third verse.”
“I should have some time tomorrow. If nothing else I’ll let you know then.”
Rene offered one last parting kiss, then Adelinde went to her room to change and Rene made her way to the dining hall.
She had a certain melody in mind specifically for the third verse, but she didn’t know if it was a good enough time to play it. Even if some of it was selfish, Adelinde enjoyed the thought of staying with Rene every night—of never having another nightmare, so long as they were together.