Despite knowing Kai only for a few dreams, though Kai says it's been months now, Sehun felt as if he's known Kai for his whole life. He feels very comfortable around Kai, more so than any other dream character he's met. Sehun might even go so far as to say that Kai is one of his best friends.

Best friends. With Kai. To anyone else that would seem quite odd and peculiar; to be best friends with someone who doesn't exist, not even as an imaginary friend, in actuality. Kai was just a dream character. But Sehun felt that calling Kai one of his best friends was right. It just seemed like the most natural thing, to call Kai his best friend. So he did.

"What did you want to do today?" Kai asked, lounging on a cloud. "And don't say flying. We always go flying. It's becoming boring."

"For you maybe, but for me it's new every time," Sehun pouted. "I like flying."

"I know," Kai sighed. "But it's boring! Let's do something new."

"Like what?"

Sehun almost wished he didn't ask. Kai's "something new" was to go explore Mars. Sure Sehun has been to the moon and wandered around space for a bit, but that's only because he knew about the moon and space, well a basic understanding of them. Mars was completely foreign. Sure, there was that one little robot recorder thing that landed on Mars and took some amazing photos of the red planet, but it was uncharted territory. Sehun was honestly afraid of following Kai to Mars.

In dreams, whether they be lucid or not, allow the dreamer to be much more in tune with their feelings than in the waking life. Without the distractions of everyday occurrences, mundane things, one is able feel more. But since Sehun was lucid dreaming, his feelings were felt as if they were actually happening in his waking life. It actually felt like he was getting ready to take off for Mars. The fear, the excitement, the anticipation, the uncertainty: they're just as real, if not more so, while dreaming.

Sehun was scared less. And Kai thought it was hilarious.

"Kai, are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" Sehun asked, sitting beside the pilot's chair in the space shuttle.

"Sure. I'm an ex-astronaut. Didn't I tell you?"

"Um, no," Sehun said uncertainly. "But an ex? Why are you an ex-astronaut?"                 

Kai smirked a bit. "Well let's just say that no one really liked it when I piloted the ship."

Sehun was fairly sure that being as terrified as he was, would be considered unhealthy.

"And!" Kai paused. "Lift off!"

Sehun has never once screamed so loud in his life before. The rocket it was fairly small, since it was only meant for the two of them, so Sehun could hear the roar of the engines as if he were next to them. The entirety of the lift off was too real for it to be a dream. Kai would definitely say that this wasn't a dream.

"Do you want to go straight to Mars or do you want to take the scenic route?" Kai questioned, pushing what seemed to be random buttons.

"I want to go home," Sehun whispered. He was staring out the window. Even though this wasn't his first time into space, it felt completely different. It felt even more real than what he's seen in documentaries.

"But you are home," Kai said bemusedly. He figured he'd confuse Sehun just a teeny bit.

Sehun couldn't believe what Kai was saying. How could he be home when he was light years away, in the vast everything that was space? Kai is stupid and a retard, Sehun thought.

"Hey, Sehunnie," Kai called. "Let's go look for asteroids before we go to Mars. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

No, Sehun thought, it doesn't sound like fun at all. If Sehun had spoken his thoughts, it wouldn't have mattered much. Kai would've still done what he wanted. Kai gets what Kai wants.

"I'll take your silence as a yes then."

Sehun has never feared for his life in such a short amount of time before.

It didn't take long before Kai found a cluster of asteroids. He seemed to be having the time of his life, going around the asteroids and even going through them if it were possible. Sehun thought different, of course. His knuckles were white because of how hard he was gripping the arms of his seat.

"Let's play a game! Let's see who can destroy as many asteroids in five minutes as possible!"

After Kai finished speaking, the whole control panel of the ship changed. It looked like the control panel to Darth Vader's Death Star spaceship. This actually seemed a bit fun. Only a bit though.

Sehun has watched all six of the Star Wars movies countless times to know how to use the controls. He's played all the games to know how everything works. Despite what Kai said about being an ex-astronaut, he had no clue how to use the differing technology from the movies. Needless to say, Sehun beat Kai by a lot.

"That was a lot of fun, Kai," Sehun smiled contently. "We should do this again soon."

"No. It wasn't fun at all," Kai grumbled. "We're just going to go to Mars now."

That shut Sehun up real quick.

Sehun was honestly surprised at the smooth landing. Kai really mustn't have been joking when he said he was an ex-astronaut. He knew what he was doing, at least that what it seemed to be. Sehun was now questioning whether or not Kai actually knew what he was doing, or if everything he was doing was out of sheer luck. Sehun hoped that it was the former over the latter.

After landing, Sehun went to go get suited up for exploring Mars. He didn't know what kind of atmosphere the planet had, so he figured it would be better to be safe than sorry. He thought he was smart for doing this.

Kai thought otherwise. "You look stupid. You don't actually need any of that."

"I don't?"

"No. This is your dream, remember?"

Then as if hit with a metaphorical brick to the head, Sehun realized, for the second time since falling asleep, that he was, in fact, lucid dreaming. Everything had just seemed too real for it to be a dream. Well not the part where their spaceship turned into the Death Star. But every other part was as real as real gets.

As if Kai could read Sehun's thoughts, he said, "And that my dear friend, is the beauty of lucid dreaming."

Kai forced Sehun to not wear the space suite. He was even more so uncomfortable now. Even if this was all just a dream, Sehun would be able to feel the air being out of his lungs, if the planet didn't have a similar atmosphere to Earth's. But Sehun was in for a pleasant surprise when he realized that he could actually breathe Martian air. He wasn't sure if he was just manipulating his dream, or if this was how the planet was in actuality. But either way, Sehun was grateful. He didn't want to wake up wheezing and trying to catch his breath. That wouldn't be all too fun. Well, Kai would find it funny.

"Wow," Sehun said, taking in the beauty that was Mars' landscape.

"Isn't amazing?"

"Yeah," Sehun said in awe, his eyes wider than a kid on Christmas day.

As many know, Mars is the Red Planet. But actually being on the planet in person is completely different than from the photos from the rover Curiosity. It was dusty. Extraordinarily dusty. Sehun had to cover his eyes and nose to keep the dust out. It was just as dry as it was dusty. Mars was also really rocky. No matter where Sehun and Kai stepped, they would, without fail, step on a rock, whether it was small or large. Mars wasn't all too red though; Sehun would describe Mars' coloring as rust rather than red. And the sky was something Sehun would never forget. It wasn't blue, though it was daytime. It was almost white. Maybe gray was a better color to describe Mars' sky. Despite how cheesy, this experience was truly out of this world.

Because Sehun just had to ask, and now he isn't sure if he regrets it or not, why Mars' sky wasn't blue like Earth's sky, Kai went off on a tangent. He first explained the reasoning behind Earth's blue sky during the daytime. You know, how the sun's rays refract in the water droplets in the troposphere and how blue is the only color hit by these rays out of the color spectrum. Yeah Kai went off on a fifteen minute lecture about that. Then he explained why Mars didn't have this blue sky Sehun was so familiar with. Mars lacks water in the atmosphere. There's evidence that there was once water on Mars; there's many rivulets, or what would have been rivulets had there been water. Because there isn't any moisture in the air, there isn't anything the sun's rays can refract its light off of. That and because the planet is super dusty, it wouldn't really have mattered much if there was moisture in the air or not.

Sehun thought that was the most brilliant thing Kai has ever said in the short long months time since they've met.

"Sehunnie, don't doubt my intelligence," Kai said softly.

Sehun didn't.

"Did you want to check out Mount Sharp?" Kai asked, pointing the direction of Mount Sharp.

"Yes!"

And Sehun took off, running towards the mountain.

What a kid, Kai thought, running after Sehun.

But Sehun didn't get the chance to climb Mount Sharp. His alarm woke him up.

A/N: Here's to another update! I updated (and made this a teeny bit longer) since I got my Sehun photo card in the mail! And I was also fairly inspired to write after looking at the rover Curiosity's photos of Mars. See them here. They're really magnificent photos. Also, please don't quote me on anything science related. I probably explained the whole color of the sky thing wrong. (and hopefully that link will work. i had trouble making it since i can't actually edit the html code on here. which is sorta stupid if you ask me. it's much easier than doing what i did to make it. that sounds a bit awkward. oh well) I hope you enjoyed the chapter!