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"...te..."
A buzz nipped at Date's unconscious mind. He pushed it away, willing himself to sink back into a dark, comfortable fog.
"...up...te..."
That grating voice... Aiba. She could screw off. Sleep had called him and it was his duty to serve.
"Date..."
Didn't she know it was a Sunday? He didn't have work. She needed to give up on these dreams of becoming an alarm clock; it wasn't good for him, her or their working relationship.
"Date, wake up!"
The final cry was punctuated by a pin-sharp pain against his cheek. Not even the haze of sleep could smother that. Date's chest rocketed up from its sleeping position at the shock, sending the jellybean-like body standing on his shoulder flying to the end of his bed.
Date stared in drowsy confusion at the offender. Had Aiba just... slapped him? What did she think she was, a cartoon character? He rubbed the sore spot and glanced around his room, trying to gather his bearings. The clock at his bedside told him it was 3 am—far too early to be up on a weekday, let alone a day off. But despite the hour, his room was flooded with yellow light. Aiba must have switched on the lamp beside him as part of her quest to wake him up.
Wait, wake him up...?
The storm of anger and confusion beginning to brew in his mouth about the rude awakening was silenced in an instant by a single, telepathic line.
"Mizuki is awake."
"What?" Date asked. He was immediately hit with a wave of emotion that he could only describe as "be quiet" from the gelatinous being laying stomach-up at his feet. He shook his head in apology before responding with his mind instead.
"What?" Even though nobody else could hear their shared thoughts, he mentally whispered the question to make up for his outburst. He simultaneously checked around him for the teenager and her bed, but all he found were walls and blinds. Right. She was in her own room. He was still getting used to that.
Date was a sensible enough man (despite what many of his friends would say) to recognise that teenagers needed space. More space than the pitiful amount of room his studio apartment offered. That was why the pair of them—trio, technically, but Aiba could fit in a shoebox and didn't count when it came to roominess—had recently moved into a larger apartment. This one had enough bedrooms and wall thickness to give Mizuki and himself at least some semblance of privacy. He'd originally thought doing as much would be far too expensive, but Boss had helped him find a good deal. Too good, to be honest. He was grateful he'd learnt long ago that some things were better left unquestioned when it came to that woman.
With no Mizuki to be found, Date looked back to Aiba. She had flipped up onto her tiny bear-like legs and was waddling across his crumpled sheets with impressive speed for a creature without joints.
"Is she okay?" he clarified of his earlier question, telling himself to calm down. If Mizuki were in serious trouble, Aiba would be acting with more urgency.
"I was monitoring her. It appears as though she has been woken by a bad nightmare."
"A nightmare?" Date grabbed his blanket, prepared to swing his legs out of bed, but stopped. If Mizuki figured out that Aiba had been watching her sleep—and more to the point, that she'd told Date about it—the girl would get mad, call it an invasion of privacy, then blame Date for being complicit in any fashion. Hardly a great start to helping her. Aiba, it seemed, had predicted this same outcome.
"You're getting better at considering her feelings." While Date had been hesitating over his actions, she'd managed to reach his chest. He held out his hand so she could step onto his palm.
"If you're roommates with a bomb, you better learn how to defuse it."
"Date! Mizuki is not an object!"
"Don't I know. Objects can't hurt your feelings."
Aiba shook her eye from left to right in an expression of discontent (the closest motion to a head shake she could manage) before glancing over her shoulder. Through their shared sight, Date knew Aiba was using her x-ray vision to check on the other room.
"It looks like Mizuki is coming here of her own accord."
"She is?" Date could see it as well as she could, but the behaviour was too out of character for him to believe. Aiba clearly hadn't been exaggerating when she called the nightmare "bad". A stress-borne shot of adrenaline kicked into his bloodstream. So many years of caring for Mizuki and still every moment felt like a new challenge. "What should I do?"
"Relax." Aiba popped back into her eyeball form, signalling she wanted to return to Date's head. "Pretend you were awake already, otherwise Mizuki will feel guilty for disturbing you." He carefully inserted her back into his eye socket—the gooey sensation of her body entering the empty space would never feel normal, but its strangeness no longer bothered him. "Now, look busy!"
Hurrying to obey, Date snatched the magazine laying atop his bedside table and shoved its contents in front of his face. Although his eyes were staring at colourful images, his full attention was on the door.
As Aiba had predicted, a knock came seconds later. It was soft, hesitant and very un-Mizuki.
"Hey, are you awake?" Her voice was muffled through the wood.
Date opened his mouth and closed it again. He'd been about to say "come in", but something about that suddenly sounded very much like a principal instructing a student to enter their office. She'd easily know that he was faking his ignorance, then she'd refuse to trust him for at least a week, then that would inevitably spiral into a rebellious and uncooperative adolescence marred by miscommunication and a lack of common ground...
"Date, would you please just let her in."
"Don't pretend you're sleeping," Mizuki piped up, her tone now annoyed. "I can see the light under your door, doofus."
Date relaxed. It was the perfect opening. "Sorry, you caught me. Come on in."
Mizuki pushed the door open, revealing her sleepy form. She was wearing the cloud-covered pyjamas she'd recently bought for herself. By Date's standards, the clothes were absolutely adorable. She was of the age where a simple wardrobe change could make her look anywhere between twelve and sixteen, and this particular outfit shot her straight to the twelve-year-old end of the scale. Not that he'd ever let her know. Anyway, he had bigger problems right now—the second she'd seen him, Mizuki's eyes had jumped straight to the magazine in Date's hands.
"What're you doing?"
His eyes shot down in a panic—had he grabbed a porn mag by mistake? He tried to keep them out of sight, but he might have left one out without realising. Thankfully what he found on the page, while certainly erotic, was nothing to be concerned about. It was just the smoking hot body of an old-fashioned chevy.
"It's a car magazine. Don't tell me you've got something against cars?"
"I meant why're you reading it again. Didn't you finish it yesterday?"
"Damn this girl and her perception."
"You should support her talents."
"I do, just not when they're used against me."
"Nothing wrong with re-reading a magazine, is there?" He settled on using his tried-and-tested "fake it til you make it" approach to deal with her query. "What's the point of buying one and reading it once? I could do that in a waiting room."
Mizuki looked annoyed at his response, but she swayed in the doorway instead of complaining about it.
"Hey, why're you up?" she asked after a few seconds.
Date shrugged. "Couldn't sleep."
"Is Aiba awake too?"
"Geez, what's with the interrogation?" He played off the question lightly, trying to sound natural, but hoped it didn't come off like he was telling her not to ask questions. Then again, Mizuki's curiosity was strong enough to overcome any of his screw-ups. "Aiba's... trying out that new 'sleep mode' of hers. Said she's trying to figure out how to dream."
"That is untrue."
"I know, I know. I panicked. I don't want her to feel like she can't talk to me alone. Give her a sec, I'm sure she'll ask for you."
Mizuki learning about Aiba had been both good and bad. Good in almost every way, really. Just bad in that she seemed to prefer spending time with Aiba more than himself. But despite this fact, Mizuki did not ask for Aiba. She didn't say anything else at all. She simply stood in the doorway.
Date cleared his throat. "So, how about you? What're you doing out of bed?"
Mizuki glanced at the floor. "I heard a noise. It woke me up."
"She's getting a little better at lying, huh? Still pretty bad though."
"As she becomes an older teenager, I'm sure she'll develop her skills spectacularly."
"Please don't encourage her, Aiba."
"Well, I didn't hear anything." He tapped the magazine. "Though I did drop this a few minutes ago. Could've been me you heard."
"See? That's how you lie like a pro."
Aiba didn't offer a response.
"What?"
"If I can't encourage Mizuki, why should I encourage you?"
Mizuki, oblivious to the inner exchange, nodded slowly. "Right. Yeah. That could've been it."
Date stared at her evenly as he put the magazine back on his bedside table. "Remember, Aiba picks up everything on the security cams outside, even when she's in sleep mode. And she hasn't said anything." Okay, so maybe the actual reason for moving had been about 80% related to space, 20% related to better security. He never wanted to experience Mizuki getting kidnapped again. "But I can wake her up to double-check if you want."
"Nah." Mizuki shook her head. "Don't bother her, um, sleep mode or whatever." Despite her best attempt to sound dismissive, her face was still pale and her gaze jumpy. Date gently pointed towards his windows.
"Maybe you can take a look out there, just in case? I mean, I'd do it, but I'm all snug in bed."
"Whatever, you lazy bum." Insult or not, Mizuki trotted through Date's room and stood on her toes to peek through his blinds. The windows looked out onto an alley, so Date quietly hoped there was no actual unsavoury business going on down there tonight. That was the last thing she needed.
"Date, Mizuki is clearly hiding her fear from you. I have been reviewing psychological studies lately and it is highly recommended that humans, especially adolescents, do not withhold their emotions. You must help Mizuki to understand that she can talk about her problems. Every teenager will desire to keep some part of their lives private, but—"
"I know, Aiba. I know. I've been running the same goddamn thoughts through my head over and over. Are you sure those are coming from psychs, or are you just hearing me?"
Aiba was silent at Date's frustration. He kicked himself for snapping. She was only trying to help Mizuki.
"I'm sorry. Hey, listen. One thing that's definitely not going to help her trust is figuring out I lied about you being asleep. That was my call and I suck for making it, but could you please shut off for a little bit? For real?"
His head remained quiet.
"Please."
"Of course, Date. You only need ask. Good luck." And with that, the familiar presence of another mind within his own vanished.
Date hoped Aiba wasn't insulted. He knew she cared for Mizuki as much as he did.
Besides—he watched the girl and her the way her fingers were pressing down the metal blinds to let her stare through them—Aiba is right.
He needed Mizuki to know he was there for her, that she could tell him anything if she needed to. If she didn't feel comfortable telling him about something as innocent as a nightmare, what hope did he have for any problem in the future?
Guess I'm a pretty suck parent. You don't even feel relaxed around me. He exhaled through his nose. Safety in body and mind. That's all he wanted for her. If he could offer that, he'd be doing enough. But how?
At the very least, he was glad she was oblivious to his internal conflict over the whole issue. Her complete attention was given to staring out the window. Staring... No. Searching?
Date straightened up a little, his mind dredging up facts that previously had seemed unrelated. What Mizuki was doing right now, searching so intensely for a sound she'd made up... there was more to it, wasn't there? Because for everything he felt about her, surely Mizuki, who had lost so much more, felt it threefold.
"Mizuki," he called. She glanced over her shoulder, eyes bright and questioning. He had no plan for what he was about to say, but the words rolled out of his mouth regardless. "I lied, you know."
"Big surprise," she scoffed but then frowned. "Uh. About what exactly?"
"About not being able to sleep." Date took a deep breath. This could be a risky move, but it was worth the attempt to save her from being locked away forever. "The truth is... I had a nightmare. It woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep."
There it was. The exact expression of doubt he'd feared.
"Really?"
Even her voice was flat with disbelief. If either of them pushed this topic the wrong way, she'd put together that he knew about her nightmare. But he had to try. Besides, it wasn't a complete lie—he really had been woken up by a nightmare. Sure, that was a few days back, but... well, that didn't mean he wasn't going to absolutely milk the opportunity.
Mizuki's doubting eyes continued to bore into him, but he kept his facade innocent. Her fingers tapped several times against the window sill, her mind ticking away. "Alright, if that's what happened... why're you telling me now?"
"Because..." Cloud-covered pyjamas or not, Mizuki wasn't the little girl who moved in with him all those years ago. "Because you're getting older." The words filled him with surprising sorrow. "It means I should start treating you like an adult. And adults don't lie about how they feel to other adults they care about. Even when they feel afraid."
Mizuki's snark bit back like a dog. "Date, I read the news. All adults do is lie."
"The standard of adults in the media is crappy. Do you want to end up like them or not?"
Mizuki huffed and brought her gaze to the windowsill. "...So. What was it about?"
”What?”
"Your nightmare, dummy. What was it about?"
"Oh. Let's see..." Date cast his mind back. His dreams tended to vanish quickly after waking, like an early morning fog, so he had to think quite hard to dredge up one from days ago. "I was in this apartment... and there were people trying to break in. They were slamming on the walls and doors. And... they all had weapons."
"How'd you know that?"
The question threw Date from his recollection. "Know what?"
"That they were holding weapons. What, were the walls invisible?"
"What? No! It's just like... in a dream, you know how you're sometimes omniscient? So you know about things you can't see?"
"I mean, I guess."
"Anyway, that's not important. The point is there all these bad guys banging and banging, coming to get me. The sound got louder and louder, and then..."
Mizuki leant in. "And then?"
He shrugged. "I woke up."
She drew back, treating him to a pouty face. "Sounds like a pretty lame nightmare."
"Hey, it was scary!"
"Hm." She suddenly glanced away again, now choosing to look at her feet. "So, um, what're you gonna do?"
"What am I going to do?" he repeated back, confused.
"Yeah. How will you... y'know, feel better? Is... is there even a good way to do that? I mean, it's not like you can go to your parents' room or anything. You're not five."
His heart clenched. Mizuki's tone had been tough but the words themselves revealed too much. "Well, first, talking to you just now definitely helped me feel better."
Her foot kicked at the ground. "But all I did was listen."
"Yeah, amazing, right? Even just sharing your problem like that can help. But also..." Date hadn't been lying about any of this. The nightmare, as simple as it had been, had woken him in a cold sweat at the time. "When I woke up, I remembered that you were just down the hall. And I knew there was no danger the two of us couldn't face together. Whether it was ten guys or a hundred, we'd figure a way out. And just reminding myself of that... it helped a lot."
Mizuki wrung her hands together, avoiding his eyes. "And Aiba. Aiba's with us, too."
Date smiled, recalling how Aiba had calmly talked to him after the nightmare left him in a daze. "Yeah. Aiba, too."
Mizuki, after this, stared very hard at nothing in particular. Date knew the gears in her head were turning, although over what in particular he couldn't say. Whatever it was, she soon sorted it out with a nod and then surprised him by leaping onto his double bed. She flopped forward so that she was laying stomach-first with her legs bent up in the air.
"Date, as your fellow adult in the making, I've decided I will sleep here tonight."
Date raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, you will? Why?"
"As pathetic as it is for a grown man to rely on a teenager for his safety, I can't possibly turn down someone so needy. You'll feel better about your nightmare if I'm here with you, right? So, y'know, I guess I can help out. Just for tonight." Her feet kicked back and forth as she waited with poorly disguised anxiety for his approval.
Date pretended to mull it over. "Yeah, I could go for that."
"Um. Also..." Mizuki rolled onto her back and continued talking upside down. "I want you to know... since I'm becoming an adult and all... I'll, um, start talking more about my feelings." She frowned. "Tomorrow. Tonight I'm definitely still a kid, and you can't tell me otherwise."
Date smiled and patted the spot beside him. Mizuki crawled up to the spare pillow like a caterpillar and snuck herself under the sheets. His hand reached for the lamp.
"Ah! Wait..."
He paused and glanced back at Mizuki. Her mouth and nose were hidden by a blanket but her eyes told him enough.
"You can... you can leave it on for a little while. So you can keep re-reading your stupid car magazine. I don't mind."
"My hero."
Date could have said a thousand more things to tease her at that point, but he decided to leave them all be. Instead, he drew back his hand and picked up his magazine again. It was a good thing he'd already read it—he couldn't pay a lick of attention to cars that night. His eyes and thoughts kept circling back to the tiny figure curled up at his side and the way her breath slowly entered the peaceful rhythm of dreamless sleep.