A Stumble

Last Time on

A Dream?... More Like A Nightmare

As he passed, hands gently reached out to brush against the silent king in gratitude and reverence. Children gazed up at him through awe struck lashes and the adults whispered their thanks and prayers. Once he'd cleared the crowd and begun to make his way back to Vaughn, the people began to follow a few paces behind until they'd reached the cafeteria that served as their new temporary home and watched the young man disappear into the headmaster's office before the door closed behind him.

In a room that housed the resting bodies of Wellston's strongest, a man with glasses and beige hair could be seen peering out of the closed window as a dirty teenager with black hair moved past a crowd and into the school . His mouth was frozen in a sheepish smile as he stared into the towering mass of dissolving monster mass as relief allowed his shoulders to finally loosen from their tense posture that had been held for the entirety of his silent vigil over the sleeping teenagers. "What a scary kid…", he muttered as he slumped against the window frame for only a second before pulling himself away to look at the peaceful faces of those he came to watch over for the raven haired boy. "Get some rest, kids… He needs you all, maybe more than ever before.", he finished as he quietly made his way out of the sound proofed room and made sure to close the door behind him, bathing those within in light shadows as they slept on.

Sera was warm. She was safe. She was wrapped in softness, and laid into something that smelled like home. She was resting. Surely the world could wait a bit longer for her to wake up, right? 'Yes .' she decided. It had better wait on her if it knew what was good for it. She turned to snuggle deeper into the warm spot beside her and took a deeper sniff of the nice smell that was wrapped around her, blindly reaching for her Joh-...

…

…

Blue eyes snapped open wildly to take in the dark room she had fallen asleep in next to the feral ravenette and saw everyone as they'd been when she had gone to sleep with the exception of the school nurse and her sister sitting next to the open window quietly conversing in the slight breeze. Her breathing sped up and turned ragged as her eyes dated left and right, desperately searching for her missing best friend, her other half was missi-

"Breathe, Sera. Breathe.", came a rough and quiet voice to her left. Sera's eyes snapped to meet the concerned and tired green eyes of her other best friend, Elaine. Most likely awoken when Sera had thrown herself upwards to look around. The healer's tired voice was small but it had done the job of waking the others up and gaining the attention of the adults in the room as Sera slipped further and further away from reality under the panic of not finding John. 'He'sgonegonegonegoneGOn -',

SMACK!

Her head snapped to the side under the impact of Elaine's palm as she slapped her. Her eyes were wide as she slowly turned back to meet the concerned eyes of her other best friend, her breath finally slowly returning to normal under the concerned and confused eyes of the others in the room. She was falling apart, she realized, as she began to fall back into the depths of the ocean of emotions that had stilled inside of her as Elaine's voice muffled beyond recognition for her.

"John…", came the dead whisper, aura wafting from her hands in search of her boy as she fell back into the numbness that had been her entire life until he had gotten through to her. Until he had broken through to her heart and stayed there. She wasn't there anymore, she was lost in old scars and old loneliness that made up her entire life before meeting him, she was drowning once more...

…

She couldn't breathe she realized, as more muffled voices called for her, none able to pierce the veil surrounding her…

…

'He's not here…'

…

SLAM!

The door to the room was slammed open hard enough to splinter the wall behind it as he stood there. John heaved heavy breaths as he scanned the room with his midnight aura practically pooling from his shoulders, and champagne colored orbs burned through the dark room in search of enemies that weren't there. Chest heaving from racing to her, she realized as the numbness stopped its spread from her heart that skipped a beat when golden spotlights met her blue sky, and suddenly he was there beside her, wrapping around her as his hands pulled her gently to his chest while he murmured words that she couldn't comprehend into her ears. Tears pooled in her eyes as she desperately clung to her only rock in a world that continued to change around her. Only a keening sound left her throat as she buried her face into his chest and took in his scent once more. Warmth slowly returned to her body as she finally began to calm down. Her breathing was unsteady and hiccups were interrupting every inhale as John pulled her back from the brink of her despair. She slumped into his body as she allowed herself to tune back into the real world from the world of gray she had been born and raised in.

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John was angry. He was tired. But he was mostly confused as he held onto his best friend, whispering words of comfort and reassurances as she broke apart against him. He had barely made it ten steps past the people who had been watching his battle and into the building from his battle against the monster hoard when he'd felt her aura fluctuate, his new ability to sense emotions nearly drowning him in her despair. He didn't notice himself running, practically flying through the school and up the stairs to the second floor, his feet only making contact with the floor every ten feet. Once he made his way to the door, he didn't pause as he kicked it open, ignoring the cracks he heard as he peered into the dim room to meet the eyes of the other panicking royals. He scanned the room to meet the panicking eyes of Elaine as she begged their best friend to calm down and breathe.

John was suddenly there gently pushing the healer back as Sera came back to reality enough to fall into his arms as a quiet keening noise built up in the back of her throat. He cradled her to his chest as he wrapped them in his aura, blocking the sight of everyone in the room to give them a real private moment together, trying to coax her into bringing hers to the surface so he could offer her everything she needed or wanted to come back to him, because she wasn't here with him. Not really; she was somewhere cold enough to sap her strength and dark enough to leave her beautiful blue eyes dead, and wasn't that enough reason to kill right there? That something had reduced her to this state and he couldn't help her without her giving him the chance. He whispered words into her ears, not caring what they were, only that they got through to her enough to let him in , let me help please!

Until finally her broken sky blue orbs met his and she was there in front of him, slowly raising her head from his chest as she whispered out a lost, "John…?". A flicker of aura burst from her slightly livelier eyes, and it was enough for his own dark cloak that surrounded them to meet her soul and intertwine in a beautiful contrast of black and blue that swirled around their own little space, hidden away from the concerned eyes of the rest of those in the room.

…

'You were gone…'

'Never…'

'Don't leave…'

'I won't…'

…

…

'Promise…?'

'I swear.'

It was enough. Enough to bring her back to reality. To bring her to him as she collapsed and wailed her heartache for only their ears to hear. She cried for the lives lost in the world's collapse. She cried for the pain she had felt as she was separated from the most important person in the world to her. She poured years of loneliness and numb aching in her heart out and into John he met her with his own heart. He gave her his love for her empathy. How much being away from her hurt him and left him breathless. He poured into her his affection for every single one of her quirks. The way she argued against him and pouted when she was proven wrong, how she loved to snuggle no matter the time, how she laughed at the stupid memes they found on the internet. He smothered her in the adoration that flooded from the cracks in his shattered heart every time they met, and how much he wished he never had to part from her. She gave him a thousand bargains to stay with her and he in turn gave a million promises to never leave.

It wasn't pretty. The tears and wails pouring from Sera never once stopped during their endless moment of solitude and John only ever tightened his embrace on her, almost squeezing whatever air she could draw in past her hiccuping and sobs. For a time that was all they were, pain and reassurance a thousand times over until their auras finally disconnected from each other, Sera's exhausted soul losing the strength she'd recuperated in the night, leaving both more tired than they remembered as the shroud John covered them with lightened enough for the terrified faces of everyone else in the room to see the utterly tired tear covered face of Sera before she pushed herself back into John's chest with a worn out groan. John spared everyone else a questioning glance to see if they needed his help as well. Elaine's teary green eyes met his for a moment as she steeled herself against the terror he could see was pushing her to panic. She moved forward to sit still just before entering the shroud of John's aura, now flickering like black flames around the tired King and Queen. She closed her eyes to dive forward into the flames and hug her best friend against John's chest to quietly beg Sera to come back and that everything was okay. John observed for a time until he turned to meet the narrowed blue eyes of Wellston's Jack, Arlo.

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Arlo was tired and confused. He'd gone to sleep thinking that everything that could go wrong had already gone wrong. Only to wake up to Elaine of all people slapping Sera and trying to get her to calm down from what looked to be a panic attack that was breaking her the longer it went on. The utter heart break he'd heard in her voice as she called for Wellston's King had almost sent him reeling as he looked around for the raven haired god tier only to find him missing and Doctor Darren as well as Seraphina's sister Delilah standing near an open window. He was once more helpless when others needed help as Elaine shook the queen back and forth while calling for her in an attempt to help her. Just as the doctor and Seraphina's sister snapped out of whatever stupor they'd been lost in, the door had slammed open allowing their king to enter looking like one of the gods of old. Scars covered his compactly built body along with dried sweat and what looked like monster blood that even now was dissolving, giving him an idea of where John had been as Arlo spotted the morning sun through the open window. What froze him in place was the golden orbs of aura that was all that remained of John's eyes as he took in the room along with the fog of black aura that draped from his body like a cloak as he locked eyes onto his queen before moving too fast to see to cradle the girl who broke down sobbing the moment she had lain eyes on him to his chest and cover the two inside a wall of black.

He allowed a tense breath to fall shakily from his lips as he locked eyes with the crying healer who sat beside the shroud of black aura, hoping to find some kind of explanation, only to be met with confusion and helplessness shining like a lighthouse. Nearly half an hour passed in tense silence as everyone kept an eye on the blob of black that was slowly flickering until eventually lightening enough to see and hear inside once more. John had Seraphina cradled into his chest as he stared into her eyes, aura flickering as if it were made from fire around the two as he continued to offer comfort to the still quietly hiccuping girl. Arlo watched in confusion and apprehension as Elaine blinked her tears away and dove forward into the flame like aura, Arlo lurched forward with a hand up ready to summon a barrier around the healer to keep her safe, only to watch in disbelief as she passed through without harm to bury her face into the magenta haired girls back. He stared for a moment before allowing his eyes to trail up and meet the dark angel that cradled his charge to his chest to see a silent question that Arlo had no answer to.

John sagged for a moment before reaching over to hold both girls closer to him as his aura began to expand to slowly cover the room entirely. The doctor took that as his signal to quietly close the door and watch as the black flames spread without burning anything or anyone, slowly covering all of the rooms occupants in a warm weight that slowly allowed their tense muscles to relax, before he felt something at the same time as everyone else if their own matching flinches were anything to go by. It wasn't words, at least not entirely, and it wasn't thought, but it was a question that needed to be answered.

'Is everyone okay?' , was what the mix of emotions and thoughts being projected through the aura that surrounded them, though thankfully it didn't reach out for his own to connect with. Arlo finally allowed himself to fall back into his pillows as he breathed out a tired sigh of relief.

"Yes.", came his slightly hoarse voice as everyone turned to see the former king had covered his eyes with a shaking hand as he laid back in his bed. "We're fine.", he shakily breathed out as his heart rate finally calmed down. Silence stretched throughout the room as the aura remained covering them until finally John sent another message through it to avoid disturbing the mess of a girl in his arms.

'After this, we need to have a talk.' , was what the king sent to them all in a mess of emotions, half forged images, and thoughts that somehow translated itself for them.

Arlo allowed one last shaky breath to leave his lips before his eyes snapped open and he sat himself back up to meet the orbs of pure aura that his king's eyes had become. "Yes.", he whispered aloud, "Yes, we do."