Chapter Text
…Strange.
Idia groggily sat up in the bed, eyes blinking away the fog from his eyes as he took in his room, draped in almost complete darkness besides the few blinking lights from his monitor.
Idia could only guess he woke in the middle of the night, the dream still lingering for fleeting moments before it left to the depths of his subconscious. He could faintly recall the classroom where the board game club was held in, almost as if it was a memory. His fellow clubmate was there along with the prefect, the new addition of the club. Idia couldn’t quite remember what happened exactly, but the one thing he could remember was the prefect. The reason? He couldn’t tell. Was it because he had seen them in that day at the board game club as usual? Probably that.
Idia had already categorized the Prefect in the „avoid at all costs” category as they were prone to trouble, and followed by extroverts. While he did his best to avoid them in the rare occasions when he was actually outside of his room, he couldn’t quite avoid them in the board game club. And he had to admit; the times they played together wasn’t as bad as he had thought.
In short, Idia didn’t interact with the Ramshackle prefect outside club meetings, so he found it quite odd to dream of them. Minutes of contemplating and wondering, he laid back and let himself fall back to sleep.
Days later, when Idia decided to sleep early - or rather forced by Ortho - the same occurrence happened. A random dream that its details blurred in together after waking up, and once again the prefect seemed to be standing right in his eyes. Idia racked his brain to remember any bits of the dream, trying to figure out why the prefect was the only thing that stood out to him. Maybe they did something out of the ordinary in his dream that might’ve stuck with Idia, but as he recalled the dream bit by bit there was nothing. They were just... there in his mind. Idia didn’t remember their dream self to have spoken even a word to him, so why did his mind focus on them now??
With the question left unanswered and lingering in his thoughts, he went back to sleep.
When he woke up in the middle of the night for the third time, with the image of the prefect glancing at him burned in the back of his eyes, Idia knew there was no way this could have been a coincidence anymore. It was one thing to see someone you barely interacted with once randomly in your dreams- Idia not quite sure why the subconscious did that sometimes- but it was another thing to dream of the same person not once, not twice but three times. There had to be something going on, otherwise what could be the explanation?
As weeks passed and he dreamt more and more, he couldn’t help but notice the changes. The prefect who once just stood around his dreams, now began talking to him. Idia also noticed that often the things they said in passing, when they made conversation with Azul or other club members seemed to stuck in the back of his mind. Even something insignificant like a chocolate tart Trey had done for one of Heartslabyuls’s unbirthday parties had managed to appear in his dreams.
It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t like Idia liked them. He barely knew them! And he made the active effort to not get any closer to them than necessary. So then why was Idia plagued by these dreams, surrounded by them in every corner of his mind?
For weeks this has been going on, Idia racking his brains for any kind of answer in the meantime. And while he tried to find any answers, the dreams had taken the unexpected turn for him.
The first time the Prefect showed up, nothing worth remembering happened. They never spoke, didn’t even turn to look in Idia’s way at all at first. But with each dream, it almost seemed like they were only noticing him now, stealing fleeting glances that later turned into full-on staring. It creeped the Ignihyde housewarden out being perceived this intensely, even in his dreams. Then the looking turned into small interactions like a small wave from them or greeting until it all spiraled into actual romance.
It was absurd. Completely bonkers. Idia wished he knew how he got up to this point, but he had no real answer, just feeble speculations.
He was dreaming, surely. The sight of the Ramshackle prefect in his own room was too unbelievable, even his dream self could realize. Yuu sat right next to him on his bed while they played some unimportant game- close enough for Idia to rest his head against them if he tried.
…That’s strangely out of character even for himself. Why was he thinking of getting closer in the first place?
While the questions churned his brain, Yuu lowered their controller, leaving it forgotten on their lap and looked at Idia as if he were way more interesting than what was playing in the background. Idia almost jumped out of his seat when he saw them looking. Were they judging him?? Definitely they were judging him in their mind, just realizing what an awful mistake they did by hanging out with him.
But as Idia had begun to doubt, his eyes narrowed on them and took notice that their gaze didn’t look disgusted or disappointed, but rather soft, like the way he would look at the cats he encountered on his rare occasions when he stepped foot outside his room. As if he were pleasing to look at, which scared Idia even more then the possible judgement they could have on him.
Idia was not used to this. Gentle eyes and light smiles directed his way were out of the ordinary for him. He wasn’t used to another person to be looking at him like he was something worth looking at for more than a minute. It made his stomach tangle in itself oddly. This was certainly a first.
When he woke by the morning, he knew it was all a dream, a strange one at that. He couldn’t remember anything else besides the clear picture of Yuu admiring him that left an odd taste in his mouth and a feeling he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
If Idia thought this dream was the strangest one yet, he couldn’t be more wrong.
The seeming ‘normal’ scenarios in his dreams until now turned more unreal by each dream he had. One dream he had a shoujo moment with Yuu, another he was a knight in shining armor on his quest to find his beloved to this:
Dancing in a ballroom with the prefect and having their own romantic moment. Taking both synchronized steps, spinning on the marble floor with graceful steps. Just when Idia was about to make a comment about how unrealistic it was for him to actually know how to ballroom dance, he mis stepped, almost stepping on the prefect’s foot.
Even dreaming, he could feel the blood rising to his cheeks in embarrassment only to be met with Yuu’s amused expression as they quietly chuckled and shook their head silently, assuring Idia not to worry about it.
In that moment the rest of the ballroom had frozen and blurred, leaving the two of them dancing on the faint classical music. Idia didn’t know what it was, most probably his dream painting this rose-tinted picture in his mind to remember even after he would wake up, but Yuu’s carefree smile and soft gaze did something to him. The image burned into his mind and his heart skipped a beat, and even if he didn’t realize it in that exact moment, Idia was done for.
Idia’s heart beat erratically when he woke before the sun rose, and he clutched his shirt tightly as he tried to make sense of everything. The sight of the Prefect dressed fit for a ball and gazing at him came back to him, making his heart flutter at the sight. This was bad. Really bad.
He fell into this rabbit hole unwillingly and fell hard. Both figuratively and literally.
Who would’ve expected to harbor a crush on Yuu in a span of over a month only because of some stupid dreams? The same Yuu he avoided like the plague all this time- except for club meetings-, the same one he wished to have nothing to do with at all.
And now a tiny part of him wished he had something, anything, to do with the Ramshackle prefect outside of club activities. This wasn’t going to end well…