Bad Dream Hangover

Working along with Hero isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. We stayed silent, enjoying the moment like we both never done anything like it. He acted like he never even stood inside a kitchen before, so bad at cooking as if he never saw food. “Are all men like that, or just this one?”

The most self aware of his ignorance, he followed every single one of my instructions without questioning. I don’t know why, but every time he cooperated blindly, my brain melted.

The food was ready in no time, and I don’t know if it tasted better because of him, or because we did it together. I start to recount every recipe that I love, already picturing the next time I’ll make him cook with me.

The hard work was worth it, but now, we were so tired we both agree we could pass out. I don't want to go to work tomorrow, but we have to sleep. I take of my prothetics before heading to bed. I don't know why, but I feel so suddenly happy with my life, why haven't I appreciated all of this before?

“I still can’t believe it turned out better than yesterday’s” He says chuckling, staring at the ceiling as I giggle next to him on our bed.

“Are you kidding? So much better. We should only cook together now.” I laugh.

“Agreed. We used to do that every single day… I had no idea I missed it so much.”

"You know…" I keep laughing. "I had this really awful dream last night…" I say smiling.

"...Yeah?" He looks at me with an upside down smile.

"Yeah… So weird… We were in a fantasy world, completely different from the one we're in, and we weren't married. I hated you and you hated me and we never had a chance to just talk." I keep chuckling until I look at his face, he's really serious listening to my words.

"...That's not a dream."

"What do you--" I get worried.

"It's a nightmare. Dreams are usually good, I think." He smiles a bit. "Don't worry. No use thinking about it. It isn't real neither is it going to be." He caresses my head as we stare into each other's eyes.

His words feel uncertain. I don’t know how, but I feel like there’s something wrong, something I can’t put my finger at.

"...Remember that garden we met at? That we used to go all the time?" I say smiling, trying to brighten up the mood.

"Of course! I think about it every single day." He says smiling so much he looks about to cry.

“Good. Let’s visit it when we can, okay?” I try to reassure him.

“...Yes. Please… You have no idea how much I miss it.”

I can’t grasp why he suddenly seems so sad, but I pull him closer. He holds me tighter than I’ve ever been hugged before, then kisses my forehead like he’s about to lose me.

“Let’s sleep, you seem really tired.” I kiss his wet face, and then I turn around so we can cuddle.

I feel his entire body shivering behind me as it takes him a while before he gets the courage to spoon me. I giggle, he presses my body as hard as he can in his arms, like he doesn’t want to let go but will have to very soon.

“Good night my love… Sleep well.” I say closing my eyes in comfort.

“Good night my dearest… See you tomorrow, okay?” He whispered.

I chuckle, not knowing what I did to deserve this.

I gently open my eyes, feeling so relaxed and enjoying the comfort of the bed the most I can. I turn to the side to look at Hero as the first thing in the morning, and as I notice it was all a dream I grab my pillow and rip it in half.

A maid knocks on the door and enters without asking.

“Hiro? Hiro, you're finally awake. We’ve been worried sick, you passed out yesterday when fighting the dragon and nothing would wake you up--” She says very quickly and then suddenly pauses like she's scared of something.

I sigh and stand up. My face indicates she does have reasons to be scared.

“...You’ve got 5 meetings today, two of which you already missed because you were aslee--”

I throw myself in my bed before she could continue.

“Cancel it all! I will not do shit today!” I shout.

“But H-Hiro there’s the--”

I point at the door with my head still shoved into half a torn pillow. I don’t hear her steps, so I turn my face at her.

“Oh, I’m sorry… Did I stutter?”

If the maid left any later, I'd make her into a firework in the beginning of the day.

Not long after, I'm already on the testing grounds, mixing potions and chemicals trying to better my bombs... Who am I kidding? I'm here fuming and raging while I explode stuff up non-stop, blowing my frustrations away. After quite the time of acting like a pyromaniac, the bombs start making me laugh. My fun is cut short by the same maid as before, I'm about to throw another one...

“The council will hold a meeting!” She screams rushing towards me.

The bomb drops on my foot and explodes on contact. I don’t flinch, but my face worsens.

“WHY CAN'T I HAVE A MINUTE OF PEACE?!…”

I then proceed to throw all the bombs I had at once in the same spot, sending a shock wave breaking the windows around the area.

I sigh, as if it helped me calm down a little bit. Doesn’t take much time for me to be ready and attend the council reunion. Everyone who took a glimpse at me noticed my lack of a good mood.

Miori doesn’t look good either, not even opening her book. She stares down at the two of us only.

My eyes wander around and stop at Hero, he's not taking his eyes out of her, sweating nervously as much as I am. I hate it that I'm this nervous because of that stupid dream, and not because of the mercy we will have to beg Miori for.

"Starting with the good news for once… The dragon has been found, and neutralized. Cheers."

My eyes open wide as I look at Miori in disbelief.

"What?!” I say loudly  “…The dragon… The dragon that was supposed to be immortal?" I‘m stunned, defeated.

"...Bunny killed the dragon???" Hero says floorless.

"Precisely! I told her she only needed to bring it here, and she just killed off the last known legendary stone dragon, older than the planet itself… She's great!" She says smiling. "Hired on the spot."

"You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me. You're going to throw us away for some immature, rookie, clown, with anger management issues and terrible self control, to take care of the people?" Hero slams the table.

"He's right. She is reckless and unpredictable. Comparing her to us? A ticking bomb without any experience and raw power? She's an insane unreliable salty rookie, we're nothing alike."

"...You're right… You two aren't rookies, that's the difference." Miori giggles. "So you two really can agree on something after all, huh? I can't believe it." She breaks in chuckles, mocking us.

"She still does a better job than you two, so… I'm sorry? I'm kidding, it was about time you two got fired from the guard. Enjoy it while you're still on the council, though. That can't last much either." Miori smile grows.

I close my fists so tightly while holding my tears of frustration. All these years of effort to grow in the council for it to end up like this, being replaced...

Hero notices my expression, completely red. I look at him in response, he turns away embarrassed.

We spend the remainder of the meeting completely silent, waiting for it to be over already. It was boring before, but now it's completely insufferable.

My mind and soul are filled to the brim with stress. I am overwhelmed once again, and as so, I decide to take some steam off by visiting that old place to watch the night sky… The garden that I remember so vividly… And that Hero probably doesn’t.

I don’t blame him, I wish I had already forgotten about that peaceful fire pit we always used to play around… I take my time with the walk, trying my best to enjoy every step I take. It’s not difficult to see why I succeed so much in it. No sound besides the nearby river, the oceanic winds… She clear star filled sky… Such great views, surrounded by such beautiful flora… And pure memories of peace, even if…

"What are you doing here?" I hear in the distance, facing the river, catching me off guard.

"...I thought we agreed it didn't belong to any of us... We're free to go anywhere." I answer, knowing exactly who it was just by the voice.

"And why did you think it was a good idea to come here today?" Hero’s voice gets lower and angrier as I hear his fists tightening up.

"...You know you're here too, right?"

He turns around, we look into each other’s eyes with striking gazes. He looked like he was about to cry, but red as the flowers he stepped on.

"I think this is the part where you say you're sorry for letting our job escape." He says approaching me in slow, but deadly steps.

"Really? Going to blame me again? For what I remember, we were both there under the same pile of rocks." I cross my arms.

Hero takes a deep breath.

"I didn't even draw my sword. My mere presence is enough to ruin your day."

"Then you really only come around to torture me, don't you?" I say shaking in frustration.

"You can put it like that." He says smiling, but clearly about to tear up as well.

"Oh, so that's how you two got fired?" We hear a loud, screeching high pitch voice and slowly turn our heads to the side. A pink haired girl slightly shorter than us with bunny ears and wrist wraps, smiling like it was adorable. How does she expect anyone to take her seriously in a ruffled suit?

"Bunny." Hero says in disdain, putting his sword down.

"Hero." She says smiling at him. "Hiro." The smile aims now at me.

"...What are you doing here?" I hold tighter onto the pots behind my back.

"Wow, the excitement in you two is contagious! Calm down, you don't need to cry so much that I'm here, I missed you too my darlings." She says smiling, happily, but with a dead face of who wasn't going to take bullshit home today. Quite different from the Bani I used to know.

"So you really do know her, huh?" Hero says, looking at me waiting for an answer.

"I think I replied to something she said to me, once."

Bunny's eyes twitch.

"Love you too." She rolls her eyes. "I'm right here, you know. No wonder why you got kicked out of the council. Are you two this nice to everyone?"

"We didn't get kicked out of the council… We got kicked out of the royal guard." I say taking my eyes off her and looking away embarrassed.

"Totally different." Hero continues.

"Pst. Whatever." For one second, her voice breaks out the high pitched torture it constantly is. "Soon enough you'll end up actually out of both if you don't start showing your superior here a little respect. And by that I mean you really should want to kiss my a--"

"Put yourself in your place. We'd beat the living hell out of you in a minute." Hero says staring down at her eyes in disdain. "You couldn't take me down back then, I doubt you can handle me and Hiro at once." He chuckles with a smirk.

"Can you imagine? She only has her fists, we have fists AND weapons." I laugh so hard, leaning on his pauldron. He laughs along.

"Take her by the hair and spin it around and throw it at the horizon, it would be really funny."

"Real mature you guys." She says in a low voice.

"You're literally almost 30." Hero says.

"You purposefully cut your hair to look like bunny ears." I answer under my laughter, we start laughing even more.

"There's a bunny tail, sewn to your suit."

"Imagine wanting to be terrified and calling yourself Bu-"

I look at her, she's staring at us with a blank empty face.

"Are you done?... I was just trying to take 5 minutes to ruin your day, but it seems like you like me so much you want me to stay here for the night... Where we having dinner?"

I sigh pissed off. This is about the thing we had, isn't it? We we're young, she probably never got over me... I knew it would come down to this, it's impossible not to break someone's heart when you're this hard to live without, I guess… I don't blame her, she must have been suffering for years thinking about my 'no'. Before I could open my mouth to do what I had to do, Hero starts talking.

"Is this about the thing we had? Cause if so, I'm still not interested."

"SHE HAD A THING FOR YOU TOO?" I bluster in red.

"...Too?" He's equally shocked.

We turn our heads to look at her, and she's completely pink.

"Hey now… Save it for later, will you?" She mumbles in shame, kicking the dirt beneath her leg warmers back and forth. "I don't even remember that… Don't make me angry…. I can kill a dragon. You two cannot."

Her giggle as she smirks at us makes Hero take one step back, behind me.

"How can I even believe that." Even though he sounds confident, we can see well he's shaking.

"Yeah, how did you kill the dragon?" I say right after, without blinking once as I freeze staring at her.

She laughs again.

"Seems like you're starting to understand, but still can't accept it, can you…?" Slowly, she gets too close for comfort. We can only stand and watch.

She stares into my face with the same smile that doesn't seem to go away, and takes a deep breath before talking, like she finally gave in.

"I kicked his head so hard it flew away."

"ROCK? You kicked rock??" Hero shouts desperately.

"That's so cool, you really just left the head out there? Probably destroyed a village." I say stepping into her. "Really impressive."

The grin on Bunny's face finally disappears as her eyes grow, her face glows and her lips quiver. Just as I planned.

"Y-you really think so?" She seems surprised. Hero is, somehow, way more. With his face burning red. "I didn't leave the corpse there, I killed it, and then they took the body and the head away to the underground of the council." She gulps and then giggles. "...It wasn't even that hard…"

I smile, she spat the information so easily it was pitiful.

"You don't remember it, huh? Seems like you haven't changed a thing." I giggle. "Still change sides very quickly if you get some attention."

A long silence sets as she stares infernally angry at my smirk. The awkwardness breaks with Hero dying of laughter like he took too long to comprehend.

"She really does that! How can you be nice to someone that treats you so bad?" He keeps laughing.

Bunny takes a deep breath.

"You're one to talk." She looks at Hero and then back at me, so certain it makes me gulp.

"What do you mea--" Hero nervously shakes so much we can barely hear what he says.

"Miori asked me not to kill you two.... Today." She cuts his words, walking past us without looking back.

I step closer to him when we quickly turn, listening to it closely in fear.

"...But she asked me to remind you both that you're banned from attending emergency calls to defeat monsters and creatures. That's my job now." She faces us. "And if you break the rule, I'll kill you… Not because she asked, but because I'll want to."

I swallow dry.

"You can try, but you can't beat the two of us. If you know anything nowadays it was because once you met us." Hero says... I reluctantly I nod.

"Yeah, geez, give me a break. I didn't even know you two were friends, let alone, dating." She says poker faced. Me and Hero take a step back away from each other at the same time.

"Take that back before I kick your head right off your body." he says almost jumping at her, filled with rage by a mere words.

"INCORRECT. You managed to get both wrong. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." I say loudly and quickly at the same time.

"Hah." She giggles chronically. "And don't worry, two isn't nearly enough to take me out."

I blink, hundreds of thousands of copies of Bunny surround us as far as the eye can see, blocking all of the garden. All smiling chillingly and with unsettling unblinking eyes.

Hero falls to the ground.

"Hope I don't see ya!" She says as all of them disappear, and only the original remains, walking forward without looking back.

I stare at Hero, he's staring back at me, but before I could say anything, he looks away in despair.

"I… am going to go." He says walking away all red. If he went a little faster he would be dashing.

I let out all the air in my lungs as a long frustrated and tired sigh…

She knows nothing. Hero and I can't be together, it’s impossible.

We hate each other so much, he’s so annoying and stubborn. We’re too far from each other…

But I do miss the times when things were not like this.