[TW : MDNI] -- your ex haunts your dreams, and Satoru makes sure he doesn’t leave.

Satoru. 

His voice is like a warm, gooey coo as he goes, “You know I would never hurt you, right, angel?” and you can’t help but nod your head. After all, he protects you, doesn’t he? Your head was pounding, you were dazed and dizzy, and it was all too easy to pass back out after seeing that comforting yet odd smile. Too bad.  You don’t have much choice but to trust him. The first few seconds of sleep are peaceful, just the sound of your breathing and Satoru’s heartbeat. 

Peace is so, so deliciously close, and you bask in the comfort until the inevitable nightmare comes on.

The peaceful feeling doesn’t disappear. It warps into something far less innocent. The Nightmare slips in quietly, like it's learned, improved from the last time. No sudden panic or choking dread – just the sense of being watched. The type that makes your hair stand on end long before your head understands. You’re standing somewhere you recognize. But it's wrong, like it's blurred around the edges. A memory that has been processed to the point that it's unrecognizable. 

You know who it's about before you see them, don’t you?

Your ex is just out of reach, his figure only half-formed, his smile too calm yet sharp. His presence feels like it's drowning you, not loudly or violently, but insistent. Manipulative. The way he always was. Your heart stutters, you try to run, and yet.. Even the ground resists, dragging you towards him, the silence filling your head saying the things he never did. 

You’re drowning. Literally?.. Not quite. 

Something shifts. 

The pressure is still there, but it eases a bit. It's redirected to a different weight, one behind you. Solid, warm. It feels intrusive, the way Satoru is suddenly in your dream. A loud ringing noise fills the air, like the dream itself is reacting to his presence. Your ex’s figure doesn’t falter; it smiles. Straight at him. It's familiar, like an exchange between two friends. Satoru rests his chin on your shoulder.

“Still thinking about him,” He murmurs idly, like this wasn’t strange and uncomfortable. Your throat tightens, holding back the screams that you would let out, screams about how you didn’t still think about your ex. That you didn’t choose this. But the dream isn’t letting you breathe. Neither is he, holding your throat, your pulse jumping.  “He doesn’t look very impressive, does he? Funny how such a small thing causes so many issues with you.” Satoru adds as he looks toward your ex, diminishing the fact that you had hidden from that man for months. 

The figure disappears, like his words were its command. “You keep dragging him into our relationship,” He mused, his thumb pressing deep into your pulse. “Even when you’re with me, you think of him. It’s sickening, angel.”

Again, you try to protest, but you can’t. The nightmare won't let you, and Satoru pushes his thumb deeper. “It's alright.. Habits are hard to break.” He hummed thoughtfully, but not warmly. “Wake up.” 

And just like that, the nightmare collapses into itself, and you wake up with a jolt, sitting up, panting, sweat running down the hollow of your throat. Relief should follow… but it doesn’t. Not fully. Because Satoru is staring at you, one arm on your thigh like a restraint disguised as an embrace. You sit there for a moment, breathing, thinking about how he just... commanded the nightmare. You glance back to those bright, unsettling cerulean eyes shining in the dark. Two unblinking sour lights illuminate the otherwise dark, inky abyss of the room. You look over to those eyes, once, twice, before a quiet, unsettling thought arises in your head:

How was he in my nightmare?  

And, as if he could hear your thoughts, Satoru smiles. “Go back to sleep, angel.” He croons, and just like that, you fall back onto the bed. 

WC: 641.

©» Suugaru ; est. 2025: please do not copy, steal, claim this work or adjust it with AI.

credit: @anitalerina, @omi-resources for dividers .

It had been a while since Yugi had last left his own dreamworld and ventured across the void, speckled with tiny stars of light. Fingers ran gently along the thin threads that wove the web of subconsciousness as he walked lightly, his bare feet not making a sound. Sure he was a little rusty but he found it odd to not feel that tug, there were no vibrations in the strings tonight, no one reaching out for help from their troubling nightmares.

Though he supposed that was a good thing, not being needed. It meant most in the closest vicinity to him were sleeping easy, peacefully. So instead, he just walked in the endlessness, feeling the warmth of the good dreams around him, echos of laughter, songs...

Until he paused and tilted his head, fingertips holding a thread and it shivered in his touch. Following it, he hummed, trying to get a feel for what the dream might be but he could not yell tell the warning signs of what might lie inside. Taking a breath he closed his eyes, the gold filigree on his skin practically glowing in the dark before he stepped from his emptiness...

And onto grass. The world opened up around him and he pulled a hood up before tucking his hands in the hoodies pockets. Purple and gold flecked eyes took in the surroundings, absorbing what information he could as quickly as possible. Edge of a city? Seemed like it, a dense forest to the right, field to the left, it was night, it was...Empty. How odd. Usually the subconscious filled in spaces with what the brain already knew, faces one had seen even in passing for just a moment. Dreams weren't normally devoid of everyone, even the dreamer.

Humming he continued, body at ease, following a walking path...When a scream nearly made him jump out of his skin as it shattered the silence. Instantly he was running deeper into the woods, jumping roots and dodging branches. The woman ahead of him ran in a blind panic, looking around wildly as she entered a clearing and Yugi paused, trying to assess what her mind was trying to work through.

But the twisted figures would be unsettling to anyone, tall, too thin, limbs like sticks with gnarled claws and crooked teeth, large hollow eyes...Why did he stop practicing, he shouldn't have to hesitate. The woman backed up against a tree, face pale as the monsters circled, their hisses and whispers filling the air.

"Up here!" Suddenly Yugi was reaching down to her, helping her climb the tree. "Come on, you got it. You're not drowning I promise," he encouraged, he urged her further up. "You have to keep going, once you get to the top you'll see."

"See what?!"

"Just trust me." She just had to see the way out, her mind would do the rest. "Ke--" Yugi yelped, sharp fingers digging into his leg and yanking him back, slamming him into the ground and rattling his own brain, sitting up he tried to clear his vision. Just in time to bring his arm up and block a vicious bite that made him cry out, teeth sinking into his flesh.

---

Her scream was instantly cut off as Yugi woke up with his own pained hissing. Rolling out of bed, he stumbled to the bathroom and fumbled with the light, smearing blood along the wall. Getting the water on he stuck his forearm into the cold stream as he tried to catch his breath and slow his racing heart.

"God damn it..." He growled, looking at the bite mark that was revealed under the blood, spanning most of his skin from wrist to elbow. "I've gotten sloppy," he mumbled to himself as he disinfected it and started to bandage it up.

As for the nightmare itself, it was about mum. It was late at night and I was sleeping and this woman walks in, strangles me for a moment then throws me onto the ground and begins to beat the shit out of me and even tries to suffocate me. I was groaning in my sleep and mum tapped my shoulder to wake me up and went back to sleep. I could not sleep well after that.

different ways to say ‘i love you’. || accepting

Jesse hadn’t been able to catch his hand in time; hadn’t been able to avoid the bullet that shot right through his heart. If he’d been just a bit quicker, just a bit earlier, he could have saved the man from getting shot. From spitting out blood. From falling. From looking up at McCree as his body was sucked into the black hole, blood surrounding him that seemed to float as if they had been in space.“Why didn’t you save me?!”, was the question that echoed in the Cowboy’s ears. He wanted to shout, but he couldn’t. Something had glued his lips together, as something prevented him from reaching out.

It hurt, right in his chest. But Jesse wasn’t the one dying. A hand ripped out his heart, squeezed it, as oh-so-beautiful, chocolate-colored but dead eyes looked at him. The words were whispered, but so loud that it felt as if they made his eardrums burst into tiny pieces.“Why didn’t you save me?! It hurts, jesse. Why don’t you do anything?! I am suffering! I am dead!”

God, how much the gunslinger wanted to tell that he was sorry, that he could fix this. He felt hot tears run down his cheeks and he still couldn’t speak, something wrapped around his throat and squeezed. He wanted to pull the other close, save him, bring him back from the death.“You can’t, Jesse. You killed me.”

“You killed me. YOU.”

“It is your fault. Your fault alone.”

Jesse felt as if he was going to exlode from all the inner pressure he felt against his chest, the sadness and intense guilt that seemed to be the hand that was still pulling out pieces of his black, burnt heart. It was losing blood, but McCree knew it wasn’t his own blood, and yet he saw his own hands slicing open and leak, all over his arms, dripping on the floor...

Something shook him then. It felt like an eathquake, and McCree was choking, trying to breathe, but he couldn’t. He inhaled, tried, again and again...

Until, finally, he was able to take a breath and gulped it in, eyes opening wide within a fraction of a second, the image in front of them entirely different from what he’d seen before. It wasn’t dark, a soft orange light was showing him the rough texture of the ceiling, and there was a face coming into view just a few seconds later. Surrounded by black, silky hair and beautiful, chocolate colored eyes.

She was always running and it was always in pitch black darkness.  Surprisingly Nibenhu was never short of breath, though she didn’t know if she was actually getting anywhere.  Sometimes if she put a hand out to steady herself, on either side, she would feel a wall, so she guessed she was always running down a corrider.  Her assailant, if whoever it was, was one, was always behind her, at a distance where she could hear footsteps and rugged breathing.  

There would come a point where she would stumble and scream, cursing herself, but before she could right herself, Nibenhu would feel someone or something grab her and pull her down, always in the dark, never being able to see. It felt  like whatever it was would grab her from below, about to drag her through the floor, but then the floor would turn to water and she was being dragged down into inky darkness with light above her, and she would sometimes struggle to get free but couldn’t, most of the time she would just reach out a hand towards the surface.