12 years ago...


The two boys were playing around, making a mess , while Taisuke's mother kept an eye on them while trying to clean the house.
"Taisuke, Kazuki, it's time to go to bed. Pick up your things and go upstairs." she said. But the boys didn't bother listening to her, busy chasing each other around the house.
"Give it back!" Taisuke pouted, chasing after his best friend.
"Don't wanna! Don't wanna!" Kazuki laughed and waved with the doll he took from Taisuke. Taisuke was about to say something when he was suddenly stopped by his shoulders. He looked up to see his mother, who grabbed his shoulders to make him stop in his place. Kazuki stopped too and hurried to stand next to his best friend and push the doll back into his hands, before Taisuke's mother will get angry at him too.
"Up!" she ordered the two scolded little boys.
"Okay..." they mumbled in unison and strolled toward the stairs and went up.
But when they were upstairs, brushing their teeth, they couldn't keep the gloomy face and started laughing again while Kazuki made funny faces with his mouth full with tooth paste. They would have kept fooling around if not for Taisuke's mother who came to shoo them from the washroom and into Taisuke's bedroom.
When they both were in their beds Taisuke's mother covered them with their blankets and left the room, greeting them with a quiet "good night". They stayed in their beds with opened eyes and kept silent, listening to the sound of Taisuke's mother's steps going away from the room. When they made sure they couldn't hear it anymore they exchanged mischievous glances. Taisuke tapped on his bed next to him and Kazuki smirked and jumped to join him in his bed. They talked in whispers and giggled quietly, not wanting Taisuke's parents to hear them.
"Ne, Kazu-chan… why won't you move here and live with us? You come over a lot anyways." Taisuke asked suddenly out of the blue and looked at Kazuki.
Kazuki laughed. "My mom says the same thing about Tai-chan, because you come over a lot too."
Taisuke giggled.
The two of them kept chatting and whispering until they both fell asleep next to each other in Taisuke's bed.

...................................

Taisuke rubbed his sleepy eyes tiredly and opened them, looking at the darkness around his room. His throat was dry and he was thirsty for a drink. He yawned and pushed Kazuki's arms and legs away from his body gently, leaving his bedroom quietly not to wake Kazuki up or anybody else in the house. He went downstairs in the dark, still half-asleep, and turned toward the kitchen. To his luck, he saw a glass of water on the counter and without thinking lifted his hand towards the glass, even though it was a few feet away from him. It took him a few seconds to realize that the glass suddenly started to move on its own and was now floating in the air above the counter. He looked at the glass with wide eyes and an open mouth, frozen. The glass floated down to the level of his face and started to fly toward him slowly. Aghast and dazed, he dropped his hand quickly and the glass crashed to the floor, smashing into fragments. Taisuke stared at the broken glass, still frozen in his place. He heard some rustling from the second floor and the next moment his mother rushed downstairs. She stopped in her tracks when she got to the last stair, looking at the scene in front of her with wide eyes.
"What happened here?" she asked her son suspiciously.
Taisuke flinched under his mother's piercing gaze and started stutterng, frightened.
"I-I-I… I d-don't kn-know. I-I-I w-wa-wanted to take a g-glass a-and it s-s-started f-flying!" he stuttered.
His mother looked at him with horror and, for some reason, anger.
"Go back to your bed." she said, trying to calm herself down.
"B-b-but-"
"It’s just a dream."
"Eh?" he looked at his mother, surprised.
"You are still sleeping, this is a dream. Now go back to bed," she said.
Taisuke looked around, confused.
"A dream?" he asked.
His mother nodded and moved to let him use the stairs and he did as he was told, still confused. His mother's gaze followed him sharply as he climbed the stairs.
He entered his bed quickly, crawling under Kazuki's arm again, and closed his eyes tightly.
"But I'm thirsty…" he mumbled before drifting back to sleep, without knowing that he won't remember a thing about that night's happening when he'll wake up the next morning.