This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of gore, violence, PTSD

Although they came less frequently now that he had secured himself a stable home, the nightmares that plagued him still haunted most of his nights. It was becoming more and more difficult to separate them from reality -- what was a genuine memory and what was simply his mind playing awful tricks? There were certain things he remembered too clearly for them to be anything but the honest truth. He recalled how slippery the blood had been, how it had felt as it coagulated between his toes. Nero remembered how he had never noticed his rosy spots before and how desperately he had tried to wash them off, forever seeing them as permanent stains. They were reminders of what he had done, of who he had lost because of his own idiocy and selfishness. He still hated seeing his reflection because of the pink freckles that lined his cheeks. Nero knew deep down that they had always been there, but he also knew he had slipped and fallen face first into his dying father and pulled back a face covered in blood. It all lined up if you asked him, like he wore the ashes and blood of his parents at all times. It was the memory of the jagged smile split across his father's throat, the way his mother had been sprawled out on her side as though she was sleeping. It was those things that recurred night after night -- slipping, the stickiness, screaming with no sound. Helplessness. Numbness.

Nero was trapped in a nightmare. His paws twitched and his lips pulled back every so often, claws extended as he occasionally swiped at the attacker who had taken his family. There were whines and whimpers and snarls, hackles raised along his spine. If he could have broken free, he certainly would have; unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to realize when a dream was nothing but a dream.

@Asteria

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Asteria, for the most part, slept well. It was nice to not be alone every night, though she still had more than a few conflicted feelings about everything.The young cub had focused a lot on controlling those feelings and not reacting to every little thing.

This evening she had been stirred awake by the twitching of the pale teenager beside her. A small frown furrowed her brow as she reached to gently nudge him and hopefully pull him from his nightmare. Asteria did not consider that it may not end well -- all she knew was that she wanted whatever was bothering him to stop.

"Nero," her voice was hushed, not wanting to disrupt anybody else who might be slumbering, "hey c'mon, wake up."

@Nero

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He twitched, but in his dream, he was sprinting. Running, running, running -- or trying to, rather. Instead he simply slipped and fell, flailed and felt like be was running through mud. Always stuck, always trying to run. His lips twitched as he tried to flee, but it was no use. His father lay beside him, dying, and he could only hear his name: Nero. But it wasn't his voice, was it? No. It was someone else.

He turned around to see a shadow, and then..

Nero shot up with a gasp, panting as he dug his claws into the ground. "Dad?!" he mumbled, disoriented until he realized it was @Asteria waking him from a nightmare -- the nightmare. The one that haunted him nightly for the better half of his life.

"S-sorry, did I wake you up?" Of course he had, but he didn't know what else to say or do in that moment besides try to slow his heart rate.

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The way he lunged awake made her feel, briefly, a touch of guilt. It was the word that caught her off guard and made her heart twist painfully — she wished she could take that loss away from him. Much as she had lost her parents, too, she knew it was not as terrible as his experience had been. Even if she did not know every detail.

“Sorry,” her ears pressed against her head and her gaze darted aside, feeling badly that she could not be the one he needed most.

Asteria shook her head, rejecting his own apology. “it’s not your fault. I don’t mind.” She truly didn’t, even if she was feeling tired. If she could help in any way being a little tired did not matter at all.

@Nero

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Sorry.

Nero blinked in sleepy confusion, uncertain as to why she would be apologizing for pulling him out of a nightmare. He was appreciative, honestly, and showed as much but trying to gently tap the top of her paw with his own. "I'd rather be awake than be in a nightmare, don't worry about it." He shrugged. It wasn't like she had disappointed him by pulling him out of it.

The teenager yawned as she admitted she was okay, but Nero was wide awake now. "You should try to get some sleep," he suggested, though his follow-up was a bit more selfish in nature. "Or we can go look at the stars. S'a clear night." The albino pushed himself up and moved to the den entrance, glancing up at the twinkling abyss. He glanced at her over his shoulder, waiting for a decision with a thin smile.

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"I wish I could make them go away for you." Her ears still pressed against her head, hating the idea of him being plagued by bad dreams. Asteria had hoped that settling in to the Lagoon would have helped, and she hoped that eventually it would.

He mentioned sleep and she shook her head, instead latching on to the idea of checking out the stars. "Maybe we will see a shooting one!" A glimpse in to the child-like heart that still lingered in the growing girl, as a bright grin cracked her face and she rose to head outside.

@Nero

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Although he appreciated the thought behind her wanting to get rid of them, there was a certain nostalgia to the nightmares. Not necessarily in a good way, of course, but in a way that made his parents still feel alive -- if only for a few fleeting moments. His dreams always started out happy enough, and those were times he treasured. "S'okay, it helps me remember what they look like." Because at a month old, his memory was sure to have betrayed him by now. There were details he wasn't sure about -- the scar above his mother's brow, the way his father's mane seemed to curl at the ends. He couldn't tell if those had been real or his imagination, but it didn't matter much now. He would never know. "That probably sounds weird, I know, but I'm weird so it works out." Nero offered a sleepy grin.

The teenager happily stepped outside as @Asteria joined, her enthusiasm infectious. "That would be cool, I've never seen one before. Have you?" Nero was genuinely curious! For all his time spent under the night sky, he had never managed to spot one for himself.

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That was heartbreaking, though she could understand a bit how he felt. Asteria wished she could dream of her parents more often, if only to remember how they looked. She had been older than @Nero (nearly 3 months) but she already found that her memories were beginning to blur at the edges.

Instead of diving in to their shared loss she focused on the present moment, and brightened at his question. "Only once." She wasn't going to tell him how hard she had wished on that star for a mother, for hermother, and how Saga had appeared in her life shortly after.

The sky opened up as they left the den and she led them a bit further towards the beach. Here they really had an endless view of the stars and it was here that she sat and curled her tail around her paws.

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"You're supposed to wish on them or something, right?" Nero didn't know all the in's and out's of shooting stars, but he did know there were supposedly pictures up in the night sky. No matter how often he attempted it, he could never seem to trace out the patterns -- even when they had been pointed out, the teenager had only ever seen a tangled web of sparkles.

He watched as Asteria settled down and followed suit, brave enough to rest within a few inches. Nero had undergone a serious metamorphosis in the most recent weeks, but that didn't mean he wasn't still terribly afraid she would pull away. Hypocritical, yes, but after striking the first blow, Nero would have understood. He was understanding a lot of things now as he neared his first birthday, and the ghostly boy was worried and excited about what the next year would bring.

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Despite all that had happened she felt... comfortable by his side. They had been through a lot together, and even if they had had a falling out it would seem that things were mending between the two of them.

Asteria nodded at his question. "Yes, but you can't tell anybody what you wish for. At least, that was what my mama told me." A pang touched her heart at that memory, distant though it was. That particular night she had not been so lucky to see a shooting star - it was not until she was alone in Amaryllis that she had seen one.

Her gaze lifted to rest on the stars, finding herself unsure what else to say and hoping that he might have some ideas.

@Nero

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