It Takes Two

Haru was greeted with a freshly-prepared breakfast covered in plastic wrap at the dining table. Judging by the coolness of the bowls, his parents had stopped home and left an hour before he awoke.

“Always on the run. The life of professionals…”

Haru didn’t know how they could stand it, the little amount of sleep they got each day. It would make him even more of a grouch than he normally was. But then, he eyed a slip of paper, casually tucked under a pair of chopsticks and holder. He opened it to find a comical drawing of his mother with a note below it.

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Make sure you turn on the TV at 7 am. And praise us for our hard work! *kisses and hugs*

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Haru tried not to make a face as he turned to see 6:49am on the clock before grabbing the remote. As he unwrapped his meal of miso soup, fish, rice and pickles, a news segment popped up. The chime usually given for ‘breaking news’ caught his attention.

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“IBN Research has announced a joint venture with Bocculus Meds in a study that looks to re-envision the boundaries of the mind. It is an attempt to record sleep time memories, inner creativity generated by the brain but soon forgotten in passing. Using AI technology from IBN and medical device data from Bocculus, a brand-new frontier for thought preservation is expected of this collaboration.

“The department chair of IBN Research, Higashi Joutarou…”

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Haru sighed as a close-up of his parents came up on screen at a press conference. He drank his soup while idly listening to their fancy lingo of gimmicks that made such findings so appealing to mass media.

He scoffed at such ideals, bare of any complexities that hid the truth. The public was only given the ‘need to know’. A fancy way to embellish ‘hopes and dreams.’

If only they could make dreams into actual reality…

With that thought, Haru turned off the TV and put his dishes away before heading off to school.

A normal day of school. Boring like any other.

Haru grinned lightly as he spotted an umbrella carried by the wind, with a girl frantically chasing after her lost article. He quickly dismissed her.

During class, he started dozing off. The math formulas were all too familiar to him, so he didn’t need to look twice. He was a master of the snooze-to-learn.

Yet, a knowing hand grabbed his and pulled up, causing him to shiver awake. With his heart pounding, a moment of surprise was wiped clean as a boy with perfectly-combed hair and a face ready for the spotlight stared at him. It was only Koichi.

“Hey man, didn’t get enough sleep last night, even after committing to bed so early?” Koichi whispered.

Haru gingerly pulled back his hand, no longer feeling like he was floating.

“Nah, just so freaking bored.”

“Overachiever.”

“As if.”

Haru’s disappointment of being in the classroom lifted as soon as it came.

At lunchtime, Haru bit into his meat buns and noted how fluffy they seemed. He squished one in his hand, wondering if that was how stepping on a cloud would be. An arm wrapped around his neck in a chokehold – a horseplay that pushed thoughts to instincts.

Haru immediately ducked and spun around, delivering a sweeping kick at a boy that was poised to receive it. The impact made a satisfying thud into the bookbag braced against his arm.

“Nice try, Daichi. The pizza bun on your breath gave you away.”

Haru saw the telltale shift of someone ready to pounce forward. A sharp swing of the leg swished by him as he backpedaled on tiptoes, taking a bite of his bun to rub salt in the missed attempt.

“You should really put those instincts to work on my team, Harucchi. A spot’s open for you whenever.”

“I’ll-”

“-sleep on it. Yeah, yeah.”

After school was a time to hang with Koichi and Daichi – hitting up the arcade and chilling with yakitori sticks while idly spouting evening plans. Koichi had band practice, and Daichi had wooed yet another girl, this time in 2-C.

Mentions of double dates were brought up, but like normal, Haru would allow no business to keep him from a good sleep. He snaked away with a bare skewer in defense before tossing it in the trash after a safe distance. The setting sun was the signal for friends becoming wolves by night.

He dropped his bag off at home and savored a salty convenience store bento alone. Any idle thoughts didn’t bother him if he turned on the TV.

And as Haru got ready for bed, he laughed off any attempt to think about it.

After all, dreams rarely happened twice in a row.

#####

A finger poked him on the forehead.

“Helloooooo!”

The voice beckoned for him to stir. Haru groaned as he recognized it.

Pink locks of hair dangled before his eyes. The soft, innocent expression of the previous night had visited once again. It deserved an appropriate response.

“Why the hell are you here again?”

He licked his lips in expectation.

“It’s like you don’t want me here,” Grace puffed her cheeks cutely. Haru immediately felt guilty but forced an excuse to be annoyed. He was good at that.

“Well, who was it that decided to drop me from the sky? What’s with kicking me out of my own dream?”

“You were being a meanie.”

Haru cocked his head at her, holding a bit of disappointment. He half hoped that she would give him some shade of -dere. He was in the mood for some rough play. But for once, a forced anime trope wouldn’t oblige him with a cheap reaction. Grace waited patiently for a response instead.

“Not going to give me flak for my bad mouth? And here I was purposefully egging you on,” Haru spat bluntly. Haru was genuinely curious, but things weren’t going quite to plan. Sleep was supposed to lower his stress, hearty banter the medicine for it.

“Why would I bother? I don’t want to ruin the mood of this fun place.”

Haru looked around. To him, a conglomeration of weird hobbies and desires was typical of a normal teenager. His questionable choices wouldn’t be judged here. He basked in the comfort of being ‘Mr. Right.’

An anime tune floated in the air, one that he spent hours to strum. It sounded like peak to his ears.

Houses made of blocks shaped into a starship, a giraffe, and even, the district of Kabukicho, were instant tickets to a dreamland vacation.

And next to that, a graveyard was filled with weapons stabbed into the ground. It served as a memorial for all the ‘ultimate weapons’ in his video games.

If this was reality, it would be a flagrant waste of time and energy. But none of that mattered here. It was all in his head. Just like-

“Seeing this strange dreamscape tells me a lot about you.”

Haru scoffed, steeling himself for a roasting. He wondered if his own subconscious was going to tell him off now. But his eyes widened in surprise at Grace’s enamored smile.

“Hope lies within you. It is lovely,” Grace continued, a genuine sense of joy seeming to spill out.

“Huh… it’s been a while since someone said that. Buttering me up like a kindergarten teacher acting all proud, aren’t you?”

Haru was tripped up by her unbridled enthusiasm. It was infectious, so much so that he felt like masking up, maybe add on a hazmat suit. But then, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Do you not feel the same? It’s your dream world, is it not?” Grace looked at him with concern.

Haru shrugged her away. His mind loved its excuses.

Why the hell am I getting so worked up over her? She’s not even real!

He gritted his teeth and stepped forward, looking to fight back. He stared into those innocent eyes and laid his thoughts bare.

“Dreams end eventually.”

He believed in that truth. It was sad that it didn’t last. He was sad because he was forced to give them up eventually. He wouldn’t find the same joy anymore. He wasn’t afraid to burst any bubble that his mind conjured up.

Like this, maybe she would understand. Maybe she would even cry too. Cry instead of him, so that he could finally let go. But instead, she simply reached up and stroked his cheek.

“I know. Let’s have fun together then,” Grace said. “A dream fairy can’t have fun without the dreamer.”

Haru froze, not expecting that answer. His lips sputtered like a faulty engine as Grace pulled him up to the sky again. This time, he didn’t resist. He felt the clouds glide by him. The familiar scenery washed over his teary eyes. Until finally, he could talk.

“I want to have fun too, you know.”

Grace turned back and pulled him close, almost embracing him. He said it again.

“I want to have fun too. Can you grant me that wish, Dream Fairy?”

Grace took him in her arms and they both dove, headfirst. Haru was so lost in her gaze that he forgot his fear of heights. He held her the slightest bit tighter as they tilted upward into a glide.

The familiar scenery suddenly felt new. He had forgotten how expansive it was. Always in the thick of it, he was an ant moving trinkets amid an amusement park.

A moment later, they slowed to an apex. Grace flashed a smile before tilting backwards again, taking Haru with her. The world was now upside down, but the invertedness tugged at Haru’s wonder. A perspective known only to those that flew.

They fell, farther and farther, until a lake appeared in their vision. But just before the watery plunge, Grace spread her wings and did a spin, skirting the surface and creating waves.

He could finally see it – the spark that came from enjoying that which was once his.

And with that, Grace slowed to a halt at the nearby shore before letting him drop to his feet.

“Very well,” Grace finally said, “as long as you stop calling me ‘Dream Fairy’ and refer to me by name. And I should call you…”

“Haru, Higashi Haru is the name. Let’s enjoy the dream together, Grace.”

Grace was right. If his ridiculous dreams were to vanish upon adulthood, why not enjoy them when he could? His time was wasted on what he would lose, rather than making the most of it, but Grace had opened his eyes.

Her childlike wonder had knocked him back a few years. What a nerdy and childish way to beat some sense into him – by sending a waifu character for damage control.

Haru shook his head. He laughed at how stupid it was. Grace mistook it for glee.

Even if Grace wasn’t real, the time spent in his dreams with her would be. And for someone that loved to dream as much as he did, he would roll with it. He would even add to it himself.

Grace extended her hand and Haru accepted. He chose to dance alongside her.