Another Dream

After the meal, the team went back to the base for that night. 

Cyrus was helping Edith walk as her stomach was growling from eating too much.

"You didn't need to finish everything on the table," Cyrus said with a disappointed sign.

"It was all you can eat, I had to get my money's worth," she spoke with a faint smile that wavered.

"You didn't even pay," he complained.

"But it was worth it," she said now with a satisfied smile. It didn't last long before her body remained her why it was not.

"Cyrus, carry me to bed," she said.

"I will not do that, I will help you walk but you're reaching your room by yourself.

"You're always so like this, you should care for me more," she whined as as she placed her hand on her stomach.

"Stop acting like a drunk, you only drunk soda."

"I'm drunk on food! Have you never heard of it? or are you simply uninformed?" she yelled.

"Alright, I'm done," Cyrus said. He pushed Edith towards Vito and she fell on his chest.

"Take her, I'll go prepare our beds," he said.

"What? Why me!? You can't just expect me to take care of what you started," Vito replied somewhat annoyed. He didn't hate the situation but he definitely didn't enjoy being bossed around.

Especially by someone as cheeky as Cyrus.

"That's a lady in distress. Will you not help a lady in distress? Whatever happened to chivalry?" Cyrus asked mockingly as he posed his hand over his head in disdain.

Vito lifted her up a bit higher and then carried her off her legs.

"Fine, but I won't just do what you said because you say so. I'm doing this for Edith not you," Vito replied. His face got a little red and he taped his feet before leaving almost as if he was throwing a tantrum. Cyrus knew Vito didn't mind at all, he was only pretending to.

As Vito left the room he carried her away with haste but as gently as he could, she was exhausted and out of energy so she was already half unconscious. Vito had to go past his room, further down the hall to reach the girl's room that was on the opposite wall from theirs.

He reached for the door and stopped before he could open it, he just remembered that his never been in a girl's room before, except for that one girl who acted like his big sister, he had never really seen one.

He wanted to open the door directly but figured that would be a little rude so he tried convincing Edith to enter her room by herself.

"Edith, wake up. We reached your door. You can get in now," he whispered in a soft voice as he shook her body lightly.

"Mhmm, take me in," she moaned.

"Edith, it's a girl's room and I'm a guy, I can't just walk in, I'm sorry but no means no." He tried to explain as reasonably as he could but she just wouldn't listen.

"Please Vito, won't you put me to bed? I'll make it up to you if you do this for me," she asked with her puppy eyes.

This kind of behavior was unprecedented for Edith, but she had always grown up being heavily cared for by her father. So she was acting the way she normally acted as she would when trying to get him to spoil her or spend more time with her.

This was all due to the fact that she was tired. A similar condition to speaking to someone after you just woke up.

Vito tried to convince himself that by entering he would be doing so for his teammate and not for an ulterior motive. He opened the door and was amazed at what he saw.

Her room was a bit of a mess. Mainly because her clothes were disorganized and there were different brands of chocolate in there. 

"How could the room be this messy? She didn't even sleep here last night. Are all girl rooms the same as guys?" he asked himself.

This was the second girl's room he saw and he was mildly disappointed. It felt like the time he was dared to go into the girl's bathroom at one of his old schools only to find that it was almost completely the same as the boys.

"I guess the whole, girls are princesses' thing is a lie," he let out.

Edith was barely conscious but she took it as though it was an insult and hit his ribs.

"Ow! Only joking."

He lay her down on the bed, he wanted to get this over with and leave. Clean or not, it was still a girl's room and he wasn't going to stay here for more than needed.

As he tried to move his arms away from her he felt a pull on his hands. Edith was holding on to it. He tried to move it away with a bit of force but the grip never went loose.

"Am I being too gentle or is she strong?" he couldn't tell.

She pulled him closer to the bed and he couldn't help but blush as he got close to her. This was a new experience for him. He didn't know what to do in this situation, most guys would just take advantage of this moment and do something but he wasn't like that.

Even told he wanted to leave her grip wasn't letting loose!! "Let go, please," he cried.

She then moved in closer and looked him dead in the eye as she made her intentions very clear to him.

"Pillow."

"What?" he asked. 

Turning around there was a pillow on the floor. 

At that moment he felt silly. His heart was beating and he felt a few drops of sweat fall. He was visibly shaking from an excitement that was in his imagination. His shoulder was glowing a slight green and he didn't even notice it.

All in all, he was glad he didn't get the wrong idea.

As he grabbed the pillow and picked it up, there was a picture lying under it.

It was a picture of a cute little girl on a boat being carried by a rough-looking man with scruffy hair and a scar on his face.

"Taking a look at this, it should be her father and her. Was this the boat they were on when that incident happened? And yet she keeps it with her all the time. A memory to remind her that she was almost lost that day and yet she seems to cherish it."

"A memory of someone you loved, huh? I should go home one of these days and look up mine," he spoke with a melancholy feel in the air. His heartbeat was steady again and he calmed down. He was now as well collected as he once was when he first walked into that bar.

Looking a bit further back he noticed another bed in the room but it was empty. "Perhaps a spare," he said.

He gave Edith the pillow and she smiled happily as she hugged it tightly instead of laying on it. It was basically a body pillow.

Vito walked out and shut off the lights before he left.

As he was walking out he asked himself, "Where have I seen that man before? The one from the picture. His face seems vaguely familiar. Do I know that man?" 

But right when he was thinking of this thought he remembered how cute seeing Edith was when she was defenseless, how close she brought her lips when she asked for the pillow, and how her clothes were everywhere.

It was a complete mess but her room was indeed unkept.

In the end, Vito couldn't focus hard enough to remember the man's face without getting distracted by something else.

He blamed himself for having such a mind.

As Vito got back to his room, Terra was already fast asleep. He was the second most drained out of the group. The only one who could compete with his physical exhaustion was the mental John who was still mentally exhausted when Edith asked for a second all-you-can-eat buffet.

He too had gone to sleep.

Cyrus saw the way Vito walked in, he was nervous and fidgeting, he couldn't help but portray a smile every 2 seconds no matter what he did and he smelled of perfume. But there were no kiss marks to indicate that something happened, no lipstick, love bites, or anything. He didn't expect much but more than this.

Still more he was going to tease Vito.

"How was it?" he asked.

"S-shut up! You know nothing happened, I just put her to sleep," he said walking past Cyrus.

"You sure took your time, how long does it take to put someone on a bed? Unless of course, something happened?" he asked mischievously.

"It's been a long day, can you torture me another day you devil?" he asked as he threw his pillow at him.

"No! I like torturing you, I can't postpone that, it will mess with my schedule," Cyrus said as he caught the pillow and started poking around on it.

Vito was about to say something else when he noticed that 2 beds were empty right now.

"Where is Dawn?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, he left without saying a word," Cyrus said.

****

Dawn was in the Aquarium, something didn't feel right. There was something strange down there.

He remembered feeling something that shouldn't exist but it did and that got him curious.

He wanted to know what it was.

He had reached the end of the hall and peeled open the secret door. Climbing down the stairs he saw the door again, only this time he didn't go as far.

His shoulder was glowing green with each step he took and he figured it was trying to warn him about whatever was down there.

He looked at the door and when he saw the large chains around it, he figured he couldn't break them even if he wanted to. But something was alluring about the darkness.

The darkness didn't feel this good, it was almost attractive enough to call it pleasure. But yet he could tell that death came with it.

There was only one problem.

The energy that was down there reminded him of two things. 

The first was the blue energy that surrounded portals they would use when traveling, it almost felt similar to that kind of power yet different.

And the second one is Alex himself.

It reminded him or Alex strangely enough.

He decided he had seen enough for today, he would head back to bed and ask Alex about this when next he sees him. He deserved to know, didn't he?

As Dawn was returning to the room, he heard some arguing going on.

"Those guys still have this much energy, what a pain," he thought.

"Hey Vito, when are you going to apologize to me?" Cyrus asked.

"What do you mean? What could I have done to have to apologize to you?" Vito asked.

"If it wasn't for your shenanigans, I could have made acquaintances with multiple other representatives at the time, it would have been beneficial to me to have ties," Cyrus said.

"How about you apologize for always messing with me? You always have something to say," Vito complained.

"How about you both apologize for being born? I can hear you from outside. It's late and we have a mission tomorrow. Now give me peace and quiet," Dawn yelled as he entered the room. He kicked the door open but then held it from slamming when he realized that Terra was in bed.

"Unlike you guys, I prefer to give people sleep." he crawled into bed and covered himself with a blanket.

He enjoys his sleep heavily.

Vito and Cyrus stopped arguing and decided to call it a night, it was getting late anyway.

Everyone went to sleep that night and nothing happened.

At least nothing was supposed to happen until Vito woke up in that dream he had when he first came to the base.

"Not this again."