Work Text:
Ingo opens his eyes to a familiar landscape. Familiar, but strange. Everything here is in a constant state of change, shifting out of focus should he try to look at it too closely. He's been here before, even if he can never seem to remember it until he returns once again.
This is the world of dreams.
Ingo knows that if he’s walking in his dreams, it can only mean one thing. There’s only one reason he ever finds himself here.
"Ingo!"
Emmet.
Ingo turns on the spot, just in time to catch his brother in his arms. The force with which Emmet crashes into him nearly knocks him over, but he manages to only just keep his footing. "Emmet! I've got you."
"Ingo, you're alive." Emmet clings to him as if his life depends on it. He hides his face against Ingo's shoulder and starts to cry.
It takes a moment for Ingo to realize that he's crying too. Here in his dreams he can reach all of his memories, but back in the waking world — how could he have forgotten Emmet? Emmet, who has been by his side since the day they were born, who has grown and learned with him, who he makes the perfect two-car train with.
It feels like something inside of him breaks when he remembers he'll forget all over again once he wakes up.
But there's something worse than that, Ingo realizes. Because Emmet will forget, too. Emmet will forget they've reunited in their dreams. Emmet will go back to not knowing if Ingo is even still alive.
Ingo can't stand the thought of hurting him like that.
Even still, he knows he must assess the damage already sustained.
“How long have I been gone?”
“Three months.” So not terribly long, at least not yet. But… “Ingo, where are you?”
“I believe it’s Sinnoh.” Ingo feels Emmet shift in his arms, can practically sense the hope streaking through his heart. He doesn’t want to continue his explanation, dishearten his brother again, but he also knows it would be too cruel to leave him with this false hope. “However, I also seem to have ended up in the distant past. Everything is quite different from the world we know.”
“The past.” There’s a catch in Emmet’s voice, unusual and frightening. “How will I find you there?”
“I don’t know, Emmet. I’m sorry.” Ingo rests a hand on the back of his twin’s head, hoping to offer at least some comfort. “But even if you aren’t able to find a track leading to me, and I remain derailed like this, at least we can both find each other at this station.”
Their ability to walk together in their dreams was one they’d first discovered as children, when bad dreams were the only frightening things they had to face, when even in their sleep they had each instinctively reached out to the other in search of comfort. How hard had their hearts cried out for each other, that they had managed to reach so far across time and space to make this connection?
Emmet pulls back suddenly. There are still tears in his eyes, but his smile, although small, is a genuine one. “You’re right. I can see you here. I won’t remember when I wake up, but it will be enough. I will know you are still alive, somewhere in my heart. That will be enough, until we meet here the next time.”
Ingo catches his brother’s face in his hands. He tries to commit every inch of it to memory, even though he shares the same face, even though he will simply forget. If he tries hard enough, perhaps he too will still know of Emmet in the waking world, somewhere in his heart.
“I’m sorry I’ve forgotten you. I’m sorry I’m so far away.”
“And I am sorry that I haven’t found you yet. But I will keep trying! I cannot give up on you.”
“Then I’ll keep trying every day to remember you. Maybe, if I can, I’ll be able to come back home. And I’ll never give up on you, either.”
“Good.” Emmet smiles a bit brighter. “Then I’ll see you again, big brother. Even if, for now, it can only be in a dream.”