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I know it's a dream, it doesn't mean any more than that but in such dreams Atsuya is right there with me. Not in the way he usually is but the way it used to be. He is alive, right besides me instead of sharing a body. I know the two of them aren't exactly the same person but it's hard for me to make a difference. Atsuya means a lot to me, and perhaps, the Atsuya in my dreams is no more than another variant of the Atsuya I know, and I also know that that world isn't real as much as I would like it to be.
In my dream, it was the beginning of spring, school was over and we were walking home. The weather was uncharacteristically hotter than usual and there were bugs everywhere, it felt more as a scene of summer in the city than being back home but it was all still familiar, the paths were the usual ones and I couldn't help but feel at peace at how right everything felt.
"It is strange," Atsuya said, he kept his hands behind his head.
"What is it?" I said, tilting my head while pondering.
"Even in a different universe, the house is still down this path," he said with a serious tone. "I thought it could be in the opposite direction."
"Is that so?" I blinked in confusion. "Sorry, I didn't know what you were thinking about," the idea of a different universe was out of the question.
Thinking about it now, it made sense not knowing what Atsuya was thinking about. Not only because it didn't seem to fit with this dream world but because even if we share a brain, it's hard to know what's in his mind most of the time. If he doesn't speak properly and says so, all I can do is try to guess. But even when we were kids, it was hard to know. Atsuya has always been secretive of his thoughts and feelings; many times I have had to force him to speak after insisting for over an hour when something obviously bothered him, even so he'll always claim that it is nothing and he is fine. It's hard but that's the way it's always been.
We walked up to a lake, I felt finally free from all the bugs that were infesting the trees and jumping on me. Atsuya laughed when I complained about a bug trying to get inside my mouth. I laughed it off too adding a comment on how hot the weather was that day. Atsuya said he had a solution as he pushed me into the lake, jumping to join me afterwards. I grabbed Atsuya by placing my arm around his neck, I wanted to punish him for his behavior but... I couldn't. I laughed as I let him go, knowing that it was no more than a harmless prank.
We got out of the lake and run around as we used to do when we were kids, it was a dumb moment and we knew it but it felt nice to forget about any worries for the time begin and let ourselves be. I opened my arms and howled, the same way than whenever we used Wolf Legend. Atsuya followed almost in unison and for a moment, it felt that we could pull off an improved version of the technique. We agreed that we would practice to create it.
But dreams are dreams and they come to an end.
I woke up in bed and looked around in the darkness. It hit me suddenly that it all was only a dream, that the accident happened and my reality was far off from the one in the dream.
"Shirou," Atsuya's voice spoke to me.
"Yes?" I replied mentally, surprised that he was also awake.
"It was a nice dream..." he said and it made me realize that I wasn't the only one who probably wanted the situation to be different.
"Yeah, it was..." I said in return. "Atsuya..."
"Hm?" he replied.
"Thank you for being here by my side. And y'know? Maybe we should try creating a new version of Wolf Legend, I think we could pull it off."