Chapter Text
ten
Driver kicks at the sand, sitting along the shore with his legs submerged in salty water.
He drank it when he first got there, trying to figure out what water from a dream would taste like. He kind of wants to go to the beach to compare it to real ocean water, but… He shudders, sticking his tongue out at the thought of drinking something that salty again.
Still, it’s odd that he’s even at a beach at all. He’s been lucid dreaming ever since he could dream, and usually, he’s in his dad’s workshop, or his school’s computer lab, or somewhere else where he can try out whatever ideas that his parents would scold him for if he were awake. There’s not much research to do or experiments he can try at a beach.
He closes his eyes, willing the dreamscape to change, but all he feels is sand sticking to his palms and the splash of waves over his toes. “Why is nothing happening?” he groans, frustrated, opening his eyes and waiting for them to refocus.
“Maybe because it’s my dream too!” A voice sounds from behind him. Driver turns around to see a girl running towards him, black hair cascading down her shoulders and a white sunhat bouncing on her head. She plops down in the water next to him and grins.
Driver frowns, confused. He’s never heard of two people in the same dream before, but the girl plows on. “Do you think we could be soulmates?”
He puts his hand on his chin as he thinks about it. That makes sense, he thinks, nodding. He’s ten — technically nine and a half but that's basically ten! — which is about the time his mom told him his soulmate sign would appear. And some people have mental soul links; why can’t dream sharing be one of them?
If their soulmate sign is appearing now, that must mean one of them turned ten today, and since it’s not him... “Happy birthday!” he exclaims, gasping as he realizes. “Oh no, I don’t have a gift for you!”
“It’s okay! We’re in a dream, so we can just make whatever we want!” she giggles, unbothered, and pushes on. “Nice to meet you! My name is Crow!”
“That’s a weird name.”
She sticks her tongue out at him. “Oh yeah? Then what’s your name?”
“Driver.”
“Wh- you can’t call my name weird! Your name is weirder than mine!!”
“Is not!”
“Is too!”
“Is not!”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” Crow hmphs, turning around and crossing her arms.
“Fine!” Driver turns the other way, mirroring her actions.
He lasts for five seconds before he bursts out laughing, turning around to meet Crow’s similarly joyful face.
Her face sparkles with mirth, and there’s a twinkle in her eyes that he didn’t notice before.
thirteen
Driver watches Crow kick her feet as she hangs from a swing. Despite this only being their fourth shared lucid dream, they’ve gotten along pretty well. Right now, they’re sitting in a playground, sitting side by side on the swing set.
Driver wants to meet her in person, outside of a dreamscape, but that’s hard to do when he doesn’t remember her when he’s conscious. There’s not much he can do but make the most of their limited time in shared dream spaces.
“Your turn to choose, Driver. Where are we going next?” Crow says suddenly, jumping off of the swing. His eyes follow her hand, skin smooth and unmarked, as she reaches out to catch her hat before it falls to the ground.
There’s only one place on his mind. His workshop.
Really, it isn’t much of a workshop. Just a corner his dad had carved out for him in his garage to work on some passion projects when he’s done with his homework, but. Well. It still means a lot to him. And he wants Crow to see it.
He pictures his workshop and watches it come to life around him. The surrounding trees melt away, replaced with gray walls, and natural sunlight gives away to bright fluorescents. His desk rises from the ground, covered in blueprints and crumpled-up paper balls of scrapped ideas. Against the wall appears his tool rack. Most of it is just screwdrivers, but there’s a power tool here and there too.
The rest of the garage is left empty and Driver looks around, a little wishful.
“This is my workshop! Sort of. Mostly just this corner here, with my desk, since the rest is technically the garage, but if I had the entire room, I’d get a 3D printer and put it here,” he gestures to another corner, “and have a bigger computer set up here! Wall-to-wall screens, and a rolling chair so I can watch multiple drone or camera footages at once.”
Driver gives the room a glance over. He could probably fit some couches somewhere too, so people would have somewhere comfortable to wait for him while staying out of the way, or maybe he could put a storage rack there instead. He doesn't have that much stuff yet, but he will eventually. Maybe he could ask someone to help him decorate, preferably someone artistic or design savvy, like-
Oh. Crow. Driver suddenly feels a little guilty, rambling about equipment and processes to someone who doesn’t even care, much less understand what he’s even talking about.
“Sorry about that, Crow!” Driver smiles sheepishly, finger scratching his cheek. “I didn’t mean to go off like that.” Most people find engineering boring. He’s used to receiving glazed-over looks and noncommittal hums.
Driver turns back over, making eye contact with her. To his surprise, she doesn’t seem bored or tired in the slightest, only tilting her head at him in a light gesture for him to continue.
“What are you apologizing for, Driver? I like listening to you talk.” Driver blinks, a little taken aback. He can feel his heart rate speeding up, but he ignores it and smiles teasingly at her.
“Enough about me, it’s your turn to spill. It’s pretty obvious that I want to be an engineer, but what do you want to do?”
Crow looks hesitant for a second, before answering. “A fashion designer.”
Driver thinks over it. Yeah, he can imagine Crow as a designer. Every time they enter a new environment, she has a new outfit, and even his workshop is no exception. He had noticed earlier, that Crow had changed into a lab coat, sleeves rolled up stylishly to her elbows.
“Can you design me something?” Driver asks, almost absentminded. The thought of wearing something handmade by Crow blooms a warm feeling in his chest, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up.
“Aww, I’d love to, but you’ll keep growing during the process,” she sighs, a twinge of disappointment under the light tone, “especially if I can only work in it when we're here!”
Easy solution for that. “Then make it for when I’m an adult!”
“How am I supposed to know your future measurements?!”
“Just go with your designer intuition or something! Please, Crow?”
Crow pouts at him, but at this point, Driver is good at differentiating her different expressions to know she's not actually upset. “Fine, but only if you build me something!” She counteroffers, pointing at him.
“We’ll do a little gift exchange, then!”
fifteen
This time, Crow’s here before him. She’s sitting at the edge of the water, fingers slowly carding through the sand. No matter how many different settings and backgrounds they conjure up, their dreams have always started at the beach.
Her presence here is reassuring. He’s always scared that he’d made her up when he starts remembering memories he didn’t have when he was awake.
“Crow!” He calls out, running over to her. Normally she would run over to him, eyes sparkling, with a greeting on the tip of her tongue.
Instead, she turns slightly, giving a small wave before letting her arm fall back down on the sand.
Something’s wrong. Driver picks up his pace, hurrying over to sit next to her. He slides across the sand into the spot next to her, sending droplets of water flying up. A few drops land on Crow’s head, shining like jewels in her hair.
“Something happen today?” he asks, leaning back on his arms.
She gives him a soft, but weak smile. “Just something someone said at school today. It’s really nothing.”
“Since when have you been the type of person to care about what other people say about you?” Driver nudges her shoulder lightly, but internally, he frowns. It's unusual for her to be so upset, and on her birthday, no less.
He’s always wished he could gift her something, but he can’t bring anything with him into a dream, and besides, he can’t prepare beforehand anyways. He never remembers her outside of their dreamscape, no matter how hard he tries.
Crow turns back to the water, pulling her arm up to hug her legs to her chest. “It’s just, I’ve always wanted a soulmate.”
“What do you mean? You have me,” he tilts his head, gesturing to himself confusedly.
“Not outside. We don’t remember. Aren’t you... aren’t you bothered?”
If he’s being honest with himself, not really. Driver’s never felt the need for a soulmate, only the empty feeling of someone who should be there but isn't.
It makes sense when he falls asleep and remembers her. It always made sense when he realized that the missing spot in his life is a Crow-shaped hole, not something as ambiguous as “soulmate.”
“What's the point of anything, if I don't have love?” She continues, and Driver gives her a confused look.
“You love designing right? And baking and birds and your family and friends and me; you'll always have love.” He pushes himself off the ground, then turns to give a hand to Crow. “In fact, let’s go bake something right now! Any recipes you wanted to try?”
“…there is this one cookie recipe I think you’ll like,” she muses as she takes his hand, looking up at him. Her smile is still wobbly, but her eyes are beginning to sparkle again, stars blinking across a breathtaking galaxy. That’s more like it; it’s almost how she usually looks when she looks at him.
Driver smiles back at her and pulls her up to stand next to him.
eighteen
“Driver, have you had your first kiss yet?” Driver peeks open one of his eyes from where his head is laid in Crow’s lap, her fingers combing through his hair.
“Where is this coming from?” he asks, letting his eye flutter back shut. College applications have been hard on both of them, so they agreed to just relax tonight, in the same workshop Driver conjured up back when he was twelve and she was thirteen. They’ve decorated it since then.
He’d like to redecorate one day, but only if they’re together in person.
“Ah... I was just thinking about it.” Crow’s fingers run down Driver’s scalp one last time before he starts to feel tugging at the ends of his hair.
“If you want to kiss someone, don’t let me hold you back.” Even if the thought of Crow kissing someone makes his heart sink.
Crow doesn’t say anything in response, but her hands have left his hair. Driver reaches backward and feels the telltale texture of a braid under his fingers. His arm goes further until he can grab Crow's hand, pulling it down back to his hair, and he can feel the vibration of her chest as she giggles at him.
“Just.. do it if it feels right,” Driver says quietly. The warmth of her hands moving back to his hair is only a brief reprise from his closing throat. He’s gotten a little too used to being the center of Crow’s attention. But no matter how he feels, he’s not gonna hold her back from living her life.
“Only if it feels right, then.”