Kai's POV

Unconsciousness was becoming a familiar feeling to me. I recognized the floaty feeling straight away and went out in search of Tao, because I knew he was one of the first to get hit with Lay's power.

Finding him wasn't hard.

He was lost in his own memories again, but thankfully it hadn't gotten to the part where his scars were made yet. For now, he sat shivering behind a long couch as the man threw things in his general direction. Already, his image was bruised and terrified, glancing at a phone on the far side of the room anxiously.

You can save him.

I turned towards the wolf at my side, about to ask how when it simply vanished. Well, thanks a lot for the help, you useless mutt.

Instead of panicking and trying to drag Tao out of there like I wanted to, I sent my image out to sit next to him behind that couch, making sure he wasn't alone while I thought out the plan that would heal him of this memory for good.

Almost immediately after, Lay appeared, having believed that Tao should be woken first because of his nightmares. I sent him away, telling him that I would take care of this. Somehow, the wolf's words rang true to me. I could save Zitao. I would make sure that these nightmares would never come back to haunt him ever again.

Because he was my destiny. There was already no doubt in my mind that he was my soulmate.

“Kai,” Tao called, clasping my hand hard in his own.

“Relax.” I told him calmly. “I'm not going anywhere. We'll make it through this.” Hugging him close after something made of glass shattered against the wall in front of us and startled us both, I spoke in his ear, “I'll protect you, don't worry.”

But to tell the truth, I was scared too.

And Tao knew it.

I spent a long time trying to figure out what could save him. Too many minutes were being wasted and I could feel the memory beginning to progress further. Tao was breathing quicker, staring at that phone over my shoulder without pause. Underneath my arms, his body twitched to reach for it.

"Nothing will happen if you just stay here." I said. "The memory will simply play on a loop. That man never reached you while you were hiding behind this couch, right?" He nodded, so I continued, "So then keep imagining yourself here and he will never get to you."

"Are you so sure?" came a voice dripping in uncontained malice.

Looking up, I found the man to be standing right in front of us, fists clenched and face red with irrational anger. "You think you can escape me?" he said with a nasty laugh. "Think again." One of those fists opened and snapped forwards to close around my throat, pinning me to the back of the couch harshly.

So this was not going to be easy. I didn't really expect it to be anyways.

***

Kris' POV

Come on, Kris. You need to wake up.

But I didn't want to wake up, and I made it very clear to Yixing, who invaded my nice dreams, that I had no plans in doing so.

I like this dream too, but you still need to wake up.

No way. I wanted to relive this moment again and again.

We were in the gym, meeting our new friends for the first time. And I noticed something I hadn't before; Zitao was staring at me a lot. Had he really stared at me this much or was my dream just trying to cheer me up?

“No, this really happened, Kris.” came Yixing's voice again, this time from the past him that sat next to me. “I really shouldn't say this...” he trailed off, looking conflicted.

“What is it, Lay?”

He looked at me with eyes that begged not to make him say it, but I needed to know, didn't I? With a sigh that I wasn't relenting, he began, “Tao wasn't staring at you for no reason. I don't know how he didn't see it for himself, but...” Yixing trailed off again.

“This is my power.” said Dream Luhan, filling the awkward silence between them with the echo of a memory. A bread roll made it's way to his hands without being touched.

It was my turn to talk in the memory. Just for the hell of it, I did.

“Sehun, what is yours?” I asked the pale boy and was sent a blast of wind to the face that felt like a giant, invisible textbook.

And here was the reason I liked this memory so much. Zitao's whole face changed to accommodate the bright laughter he emitted, as if nothing could possibly be more entertaining. This memory was embarrassing, but I really liked seeing him happy, because his smile always caused a chain reaction in the rest of us.

I sat up with crossed legs, smiling quietly to myself and glancing up now and then at the frozen memory of his wide grin. “What was his reason for staring?” I asked Lay. “Did I have something on my face?” That was probably it. I always ended up embarrassing myself somehow.

Again, he looked at me with reluctance showing clear in the way he chewed his lip.

“Come on, don't look at me like that-” I stopped, realizing what I just said. Lay... Lay was looking at me, and it wasn't like his usual look where the focus of his eyes was just slightly off. “Lay,” Excited, I scooted closer to his image to study him properly. “You can see me?” I asked in disbelief.

“None of this is actually here, Kris.” he reminded me, turning his eyes away. “My mind is here with you, not my body. I can see only in our imaginations.”

“So when you see me, you only see your memory of me?”

“Yes.”

“Is your memory of me weird?” I asked nervously. “How's my skin? The last image you saw of me didn't have any pimples, right?”

He laughed at me, and it felt really nice to keep eye contact with him as he did. Seeing Lay laugh and smile while looking directly at me made the moment far more special. It was the thought that he wanted to share his happiness with me that caused this, I was sure. It brought back old memories too, back when we only had each other to rely on, back when we were desperate for joy and understanding.

Back then, I thought Lay and I would always be together. It never even occurred to me that we would find people who could accept and even like us, people who could potentially come between us, but not in a bad way.

I didn't really know what I was thinking, crushing on Tao. Some part of me must have believed that I should quickly look for someone to keep close before Lay did, so I wouldn't be left alone, because I just knew that Lay would find someone in less than a heartbeat.

But what was I supposed to do when I was the only one looking for a soulmate? Lay didn't seem to be interested in anyone at all.

“Lay, why don't you want to tell me what was going on with Tao that day?” I asked, scooping up his long legs and placing them across my lap for no real reason. I had done this many times when we were kids, and it felt strange to know that it had been so long since the last time we did anything like it. It was like we had reached an age where we thought leaning on each other playfully was too childish.

Quietly, Lay took his legs back and scooted away. “Because it will make you hate me.” he said.

“I could never hate you.”

“You never know. I could be a totally ruthless dream-destroyer behind your back.”

“A dream-destroyer?” I laughed. “Come on, I've known you long enough to know you wouldn't do something like that on purpose. It was an accident, whatever it is.”

“No.” Lay disagreed, his voice very small. "It wasn't an accident." After taking a deep breath, he began to explain, “Remember when I checked your heartbeat with Tao's? The variation I found between you, Sehun, and Jongin?”

“Yes?”

“Well, the variation, the person who made Tao's heart beat the hardest... That was you, Kris.”

Me? That didn't sound right.

“Tao had a crush on you from the moment he first saw you, and I knew it all along. It would've been love at first sight, but I ruined it.”

My head was trying so hard to make sense of what he told me, but it was just not possible. Tao couldn't have had a crush on me. Yixing couldn't have ruined it on purpose, because that meant that he wanted Tao to never develop his feelings for me. But why would he want that? He already made it clear that he wasn't interested in Tao. None of this made sense.

“He liked you back then, and I knew you liked him back. I never told anyone, especially not you two, and I felt guilty so I tried to get him to think about who he chose further after he picked Sehun, but it backfired and now Tao likes Jongin, because his heart changed. I'm sorry. You two could have been really great together; you match each other perfectly-”

“Lay,” I called out to get him to stop rambling. His hands were shaking.

“It's all my fault, Kris. I never let you leave my side, and because of that, you never got to spend any time with your crush, and Tao is really perceptive, so he knew right away about-” Abruptly, Lay cut himself off, as if he had been about to share a secret by accident.

But Yixing never holds back when it comes to secrets.

“Tao knew right away about what?” I asked, hoping I'd gotten that last part right. He had spoken so fast that I couldn't be sure.

“Nothing. The point is that this is all my fault and you should never forgive me, ever. I ruined your chances with Tao.”

“I don't care about that.” And really, I didn't. It was a shock for me too, but I didn't care that Tao used to like me and that his mind had changed. Lay never, ever kept secrets. Something was wrong, and I was getting really worried. “What's going on?”

Dream me placed a hand at the boy's jaw directing him to look at me properly, more because it felt better to have his eyes on me than to try to force the answer out of him.

Carefully, Lay answered, “Tao... sensed something that made him feel like you weren't available.”

“What did he sense?”

He smiled much too bright and said, “It's not important.”

“You at lying.” I deadpanned. “If you don't tell me, I'm going to spend an eternity here reviewing my memories.”

“You can't do that. Eventually your body is going to wake up naturally.”

“And when it does, I'll refuse to open my eyes and move. I'll be a lifeless lump that won't eat or do anything productive ever again, all because you decided out of nowhere to start keeping secrets.”

Lay chuckled and seemed to deem it safe to speak, as he, without any hesitation, said, “I like you Kris. And Tao just kind of knew that... Kris?” he called, because I forgot to keep thinking.

Everything just went blank. The memory surrounding us faded until it was just us two sitting in a world of black.

“Kris?” he asked again, sounding a little scared. “I'm sorry. I'm a dream-destroyer, and it's worse because I actually have the guts to ask you to not only forgive me, but turn your heart around to face me instead.” Dream Lay stood and took several steps back. “Just forget everything. I won't burden you with my feelings anymore.”

But I just- I couldn't process this. Yixing didn't look like he was interested in finding love. The reason couldn't be that he'd already found it. He couldn't like me, no. This seemed even more impossible than having Tao like me.

“Lay,” I stopped him. “I like Tao. I- I like Suho. I like rhinos, and cake, and unicorns-”

“Unicorns?”

“They remind me of you.” I admitted sheepishly. And they did. Somehow. “I like a lot of things, Lay, but you need to know that not a single thing on Earth could ever compare to you. You were my only friend for so long that I stopped seeing you as a friend, but as family that I can't live without. There is absolutely no way that your feelings are a burden to me. Your happiness means everything to me.”

His eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What does that mean? I don't get it. It sounds like you want to be with me just so I'll be happy.”

“That's not it. I want to be with you because your happiness is the only thing that makes me truly happy.” Dream me took the hands of Dream Lay, wishing they were real so I could feel their warmth. “Tao made you happy, and I thought that since you weren't trying to find love, that I should keep him close instead. That way you would always be happy when you are with me.”

“But... you liked him a lot... I could feel your heartbeat increase...” Lay looked even more confused.

“Because he made you smile, Lay, and that's the side of you that I love the most.”

Slowly, a smile began to form on his lips that broke into embarrassed laughter. It would have been perfect, if a low, growling voice hadn't interrupted.

Follow me, said the wolf I had grown used to seeing in my dreams. We must gather the others and speak as one, now while we have the chance. We have much to talk about.

***

Author Note:

Usually the chapters I write get longer and longer, but I really felt that this one should end right here, just like this.