Chapter Text
Water. Soft, cool, like nothing bad existed in the world. There was no pain, no urge for air- why would there be? They were bodiless, genderless; just existing, a soul in this endless, sightless void of comfort and warmth.
It was peace unlike any other, good place without air or knowledge or thought. Only the warmth around them, the steady beat of the heart, a really strange heart but it didn't matter, it was nice.
On months of muscle memory and reflex, Avery snapped awake at 5.30AM. The dream was already fading- they could vaguely remember a sense of peace, but the details were slipping fast.
Running a hand through their hair, they quit thinking about dreams and sat up, eyes blinking in the predawn darkness. This sort of time was nice, when only the birds chattered outside and their sisters and parents still slept soundly.
Rolling onto the carpeted floor, Avery pushed themself to their knees and then their feet, still trying to shove away the lady few remnants of the dream. Dreams were useless anyway, and it wasn't like Avery didn't regularly go without sleep.
Sauntering into the kitchen, they flicked on the coffee machine and listened to its heating hum as they waited, mind already wandering. Trying to figure out what today was, and eventually coming up with Sunday the first, only weekend this month without work. Sweet. Maybe they could take Silverpelt, their Bengal cat, for a nice walk before coming home for brekkie.
After finally getting their coffee for the morning and sculling it hot before someone showed up to scold them for having it at six, they wandered back to their room. Offering a chin scratch to Silverpelt, still purring in the corner of the bed. They sat to watch the sunrise, plopping onto their carpet and staring out the window for an absurdly long amount of time.
This was... peaceful. Nice. Not as silent and comforting as that strange, fading dream, all of which that lingered was a sense of love deeper than Avery had ever known, but grounding. Waking up with the land itself, listening to the kookaburras laugh in the trees and the magpies caw indignantly at them.
The sky was pale, pale blue, melting into a lemony glow near the horizon as the sun creepy closer to rising. It was early spring, already hot as hades in the daytime but the sun still rose pretty late.
As that lemony yellow nice upwards, a brilliant orange taking place in the east of the horizon, birds began to get loud. The occasional lone bat or flying fox, late to get back to its roost, swooped into the thick tree in the corner of the park no one went near, squalling with its colony as they settled down to sleep for the day.
The frogmouth on the roof settled against an old branch in the gutter that Avery's Moyne needed to get out, camouflaging so well against it that Avery almost envied it. Lizards scuttled, birds twittered, a kurrajong whistling indignantly at the kookaburras in its tree, chasing them off with wide wingbeats and a flock of magpies following, hassling the other birds.
High over Avery's big backyard, and all the big backyards next to it, and so on until you couldn't see anymore, a sparrowhawk circled, watching for a quail or rat in the path. The earth was waking up, light spoiling over the land and filling it with noise and laughter and harmony.
When Avery got back up, the house was starting to bustle. It was nearly seven now, and their two sisters- one just two years younger, the other only eight- had risen, and were getting ready for the day. One of the two had a date of some sort, and Betsy wanted to come with.
With a massive yawn, Avery shut their door and their curtains and pulled off their old, wrinkled pajama shirt. Hunting around in their drawers for a minute, they eventually produced a binder, and got it on with minimal difficulty. Luck was on their side today.
They pulled on a pair of jogging shorts and a crop to before opening their door again, petting Silverpelt again on their way out. They crept into the living room in their tiptoes, but it was futile- their mother, who had fallen asleep there the night before, was already up.
Pah. Avery could easily handle life without their mother, it was just get up, go work, get home, eat, sleep, repeat. Avery would probably excel if they didn't have to live with three other people, at least in their own mind.
They took the opportunity to grab their shoes and speak. Tying an elaborate knot with the extra long laces as they pulled on the cheap sneakers.
"Hey, I'm just gonna take Silverpelt on a walk. Be back in like twenty."
It was almost rude, but hey! Needed to be done, and Avery wasn't gonna bend over backwards to make someone else's life easier.
Their mother nodded absently, already grabbing a glass of water from where it sat on the coffee table beside various empty shot glasses and photos of her friends. It should have been fine.
Or so Avery thought.
As they wrestled Silverpelt into the special Bengal cat harness, they couldn't help but feel a deep sense of unease from the same place where that weird, watery peace dream came from.
They didn't usually get deja v'u, but things would have turned out so much better if they had trusted it.