Support

Last Time on

A Dream?... More Like A Nightmare

'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."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

John cradled the two girls in his lap as softly as he could, he smelled of sweat and monster blood but last he had moved to get up and rinse off, Sera had just about broken down again. He had needed to practically mold her and Elaine to his body to calm her back down, mostly because both refused to let go of their respective captives; Sera had him and Elaine had Sera.

His eyes, which the others noted had faded into glowing pupils of liquid gold instead of twin pools of golden aura, scanned across the blackened room he'd filled with hsi aura to meet the concerned eyes of Seraphina's sister Delilah, Sera's mirror image if given a few years. She wore a pair of sweatpants that pooled to the ground around her feet as she leaned back against the chest of her boyfriend Darren, the school nurse turned doctor, both resting on the floor in front of the door he'd broken on his way in… that could work…

"I'm not paying for that, just so you know.", came the king's voice, startling everyone and making the heads of those in the room snap towards him from where they'd tried to give the three a bit of privacy and observe the black box of aura John had placed them all in.

They seemed to be dazed for a handful of seconds until Arlo's groan resounded throughout the room as he covered his face with his pillow drawing their attention to him as he grit out a handful of words before throwing his blanket on top himself, "Can't you take anything seriously?!"

And with that, any kind of tension was broken as Isen and Blyke both let out twin snorts and stared in disbelief at Wellston's strongest, who seemed mighty pleased with himself if the smug smirk he directed at Arlo was anything to go by. Remi was the first to begin breaking, shakes racked her slender frame as she tried to use her pink hair to hold in her laughter at the horrible joke, not that Elaine wasn't far behind with her wet little laughs as she tightened her hold on Sera. The only adults in the room seemed torn between amusement, Delilah, and mouth frothing rage, Darren. Claire seemed to melt back into her bed as she let out a large sigh of relief and grinned up at the ceiling.

" If you've got jokes, then things can't be all bad right Joker?", she shot back as she closed her eyes with a small grin pulling at the edges of her lips, missing the baffled glare of Cecile as the tendril user snapped her head left and right in confusion.

"Hey! What the hell was that about?!", the former newspaper president hissed out as she snapped her head back to stare into the glowing eyes of her partner in crime before everything had gone to hell.

"John…", came the rumbling growl from the doctor as he leaned forward as if to pounce as John turned his smug smirk to full blast under the bloodshot eyes full of malice the doctor had thrown his way, however before the situation could escalate any further, a small wet giggle resounded throughout the room. Eyes went wide and voices went silent as John's smirk turned into a real smile, gentle and warm as the glow in his eyes, smile turned soft as he tilted his head down and brushed magenta hair away from wet eyes. Eyes that were still screwed shut as she tried to hold it in, and losing if the shaking shoulders were any indication.

"Mornin', sweetheart.", came a low drawl from the king as his queen finally settled and placed her chin on his chest to stare up into luminescent gold eyes.

"Mornin'.", was all she could bring herself to say as she made herself comfortable on his chest, slowly taking in the aura saturated room around her as well as the wide eyed people staring at her, but before she could, her attention was taken by the other person in bed with her and John.

"Sera!!!!", the healer cried out as she grabbed hold of her best friend's shoulders and tore her off of John's chest much to her dismay, only to begin shaking her back and forth as she yelled at her. "What the hell was that?!?!?! You weren't talking back, you didn't look at me, you barely reacted when I slapped you! What happened?!?!?!?", she said as she threw herself into Sera's stomach to hug her tight once more, throwing them both back into John where he had placed his hands behind his head to watch with half lidded eyes.

Sera closed her eyes as she felt both impacts, and only opened them once her breathing had settled back to something resembling normal only to once more meet the honey champagne orbs of Her John. She ignored the flutter in her stomach as she forced her mind to start working as she whispered in a hoarse voice to the king while reaching past Elaine's form curled next to her on John's scarred chest for a full glass of water that had been placed by their bed, "What time is it?"

John's smile turned into a lopsided smirk as he repeated himself "Morning sweetheart."

While this riveting conversation was occurring, the rest of Wellston's royalty had finally booted back up, with Arlo once more seated up as he looked on at the… touching?... scene of two girls snuggled on top of his king's chest right after one had just gone through what seemed to be either a panic attack or a complete mental break… neither of which boded well for anyone at the school if their second strongest fighter wasn't in good condition. Wait,what time was it?!?!

"John!", the former king said as he threw the blanket off of himself and stood on unsteady footing to stare into the aura manipulator's eyes, "The refugees-", was all he could get out before his body gave out on him. He closed his eyes, expecting to fall flat on his face, only to feel himself be stopped. As he opened his eyes once more, he stared at the flickering tendrils that had burst from the floor to catch him.

"Are fine.", John finished as he guided Arlo back to his bed, "I took care of it." He gestured to a seemingly random black wall made from his aura until it lightened up enough for them too see out of it, Isen and Blyke being the only two people next to it were the first to see out of it and into the morning air.

"Uhhhh, guys?", Isen called out weakly unable to take his eyes off of whatever it was that the two had seen, Blyke had simply gone still as Isen turned shakily to the others and pointed out the window.

Slowly but surely, everyone made their way towards the only other source of light in the aura covered room besides John's eyes, and stopped in their tracks as they saw the people still standing before the school's front doors taking in the three and a half stories tall pile of half dissolved monster corpses.

Arlo had stood still for perhaps a minute before turning around under the amused haze of his sworn enemy, refusing to give him a reaction as he marched back towards his bed, only occasionally needing a tendril to burst from the floor to steady him. Under the amused eyes of Sera's sister and the doctor, he gently sat himself back into bed before staring into John's half lidded eyes. "You wanted to talk, so let's talk.", the former king said as he allowed himself to finally relax into the soft bed and sheets.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sera didn't know what was happening around her, one second she was alone, then she was drawing in a sea of painhurtlosswherewHeREWHERE, until John was next to her, holding her as he should have been when she woke up. She turned and rubbed her cheek against the top of her friend Elaine's blue hair as she snuggled deeper into the space between the three teenagers.

The others were all gathered around the bed next to theirs, by the now calm Arlo as John and he continued their little stare off. John was simply laying there under the two emotionally taxed girls not even twitching under the glares, cough Cecile cough, and pouts… cough Remi, eyes remaining in their half lidded state as he waited for questions. However, considering that they had all been like this for the last five minutes, Sera was beginning to feel impatient.

"What happened while we were out?", she said, leaving the words she wanted to say to the side, however from the way amber eyes snapped towards her and softened, she knew he'd gotten the message. She grimaced as a small flash of pain dimmed the glow of his eyes, and offered a weak groan only they and Elaine could hear in her usual way of apology when they talked early in the mornings. Those beautiful amber orbs brightened in response as he leaned down to press his lips to her forehead for a second, only pulling back when Sera buried her face back into his chest.

"I had a little talk with the headmaster, we came to an understanding. Then I decided to… Ugh.", he groaned out under their questioning gazes as he closed the window back up and brightened his eyes back into spotlights strong enough to illuminate their pitch black surroundings. "Follow Arlo's advice and get started on my duties as king." The deadpan eyes he got from everyone besides the frozen former king and giggle he'd gotten from Sera made it worth it, as he shuddered and drew the two girls closer as if to shield himself from harm. "Need to learn some things about being the king, and about how I need to start actin' around people with how the world's gone to shit and all. Need to keep em' calm and everything."

…

…

"Oh god, the world really did end, didn't it?", came Claire's deadpan as she briskly walked over to the bed and parked herself right next to the three and flopped down into the bed next to the three to stare into the surprised eyes of Her John. The fortune teller turned her body to lean into John's side and buried her nose into the space between his neck and shoulder before slowly relaxing and mumbling something only the other three on the bed as she fell back to sleep.

"Don't leave again, please."

"I'm not going anywhere.", John said as he leaned back to stare at the ceiling as everyone settled back into nearby beds.

Waiting for everyone to settle was like razors against her skin, too much noise, her head hurt, and why was everyone going so slow? Only when John buried his hand into her scalp to massage her neck did she allow herself to melt completely into him and let her body truly relax again as John called out once more.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This'll be all of our alone time for the foreseeable future guys so if you've got something to say, now's the time. Can't afford to get distracted when we leave.", the king said as he turned serious once more, more than one startled under the sudden command. Nervous eyes met each other until finally one pair of pink eyes narrowed in determination before the petite girl stood herself back up to make her way towards the king's bed under the blue eyes of the time manipulator herself as she snapped to attention, startling the poor lightning bug for a moment as she prepared her own question.

"What happened outside?", she said as she gingerly took a seat next to the now four people laying on the king's bed. She hesitated for a moment, gnawing gently on her full lips, as she plowed forward, gesturing around her to the void of black the king had placed them in, "And how are you doing this, I know your body is okay but your aura was wrecked! What even is this!?!?!? And what happened outside last night."

John hummed lowly as he decided on how to answer sending subtle vibrations down the bodies of the girls on the bed, "Well, my aura seemed to calm Sera down last night," chokes sounded throughout the room as John went on, nobody noticing how Seraphina's cheeks burned at the memory under the stunned gazes of the others in the room, and the thoughtful eyes of one tendril user as she watched the room flicker around them."so I figured if I cover the room in it she'd calm down. Couldn't connect mine to hers for long 'cause she didn't have much left. And I'm not really fine as far as my aura goes either.", he said as eight pairs of eyes narrowed in confusion once more to take a gander at the sheer amount of aura needed to cover an entire room and block out any kind of light. John noticed and rolled his eyes before going on, "That's all baby shit. Just a bit of aura construction and condensing. I pushed my ability a bit too far when I was fighting that lion monster.". He said as he held up his hand and allowed his aura to cover his knuckles for a moment; gray, white, and black fighting for dominance until he let it fade away as his hands fell back to Seraphina's back.

"All I got right now is the basics of my ability, no more copying half a dozen abilities, teach me to go fight a fuckin' lion minster after waking up from a coma, huh?", he mused under the unimpressed gaze of his doctor, who pulled his girlfriend closer to his chest.

"Then how the hell did you kill all those monsters?", Blyke called out as he finally brought himself back to the present still standing where the window had been.

John snorted as aura gathered at his shoulder blade and snake its way down towards the ground after wrapping itself around his arm and once more forming the scorpion whip that had been his weapon of choice from his latest fight. "This is called a scorpion whip; basically a whip made of like a thousand serrated knives. I used like six of these things last night… or was it this morning? Things are starting to blur together…", he trailed off under the concerned and wary eyes. "But yeah, it'll take two weeks tops to fix whatever is wrong with my aura and then I'll be back better than ever." he yawned as the room started to waver around them, slowly returning to normal as John allowed his adrenaline fueled body to begin shutting down. "Arlo,", he called out as he closed his eyes and the aura that saturated the room finally faded away. "Sera, you, and I have a meeting to schedule with the headmaster about what we need to do three hours before sunset."

"I'll be ready.", came the instant response from the former king as he kept his eyes on the fading weapon that still looked strong and sharp enough to slice through steel and his shields if necessary.

"Good.", came the kings tired voice as he finally closed his eyes. "And, guys?" he said as his consciousness faded to black.

"Yeah, John." Remi's soft voice said as she placed her hand on his forehead.

"For whatever it's worth… I am sorry.", was the last thing he could say as he went to visit the land of Morpheus once more.

NOTES: YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I am back at it again. YAY. I wanted to get something out there to yall before sunday to apologize for the four week absence so let me know what you think.