It was winter and the storm outside was making it nearly impossible to sleep. Ophelia though could sleep, though at the moment all she wanted to do was wake up and she just couldn’t her body wouldn’t allow it, she might as well be in a comma. She had the same nightmare practically every night, you think one would be used to it by now.

She would see her sister running and then she stopped and when she turned around the whole front side of her body was mutilated. She shot straight up breathing heavily, sweat beads dripped from her forehead.

“Amery.” She whispered her sister’s name softly, she had never been the same after her sister died.

She glanced out the wind, the rain poured from the sky angrily and lightning cracked lighting up the room for a second before it went dark again. She hoped she hadn’t waken her roommate Evelyn, but she honestly didn’t know how she was asleep with the weather the way it was. She decided to head down stairs, it was a hot chocolate kind of night, she thought.

To whom it may concern: I'm born at last!
I'm in my world, my tranquility...
and the smell of my flesh annoys me
and the scabs on my scales tend to itch
and my eyes are sometimes filled with liquid
so at times it's hard to see...

Her feverish writing came to a stop as another crack of lightning echoed. At the end of the final dot was a small smudge where the tip of the pencil had broken, and in a fit of rage over the now useless tool she lobbed it across the room, and it clattered too quietly against the wall before falling to the ground. Her agitation failed to be alleviated.

She had woken up about two minutes ago. And Izzie didn't sleep much, which meant she tended to be antsy as it was whenever she awoke from whatever unexpected spell of slumber had come upon her in a moment of a weakness. Waking up in the midst of a thunderstorm, on the other hand, only aggravated the fact. Those terrifying clashes of crashing thunder and lightning that split the sky with its forked tongues--she'd never encountered them in her life. Heard of them, yes, read of them, sure, but nothing she'd heard or read could have prepared her for this titanic clash.

And so it was that as soon as she'd awoken to the barrage of thunder, the towering woman had all but thrown herself from the chair in which she had inadvertently sunk into the unwelcome realms of sleep, eyes swinging wildly from one side of the room to the other as she attempted to discern the source of the fearsome blast. It was not until her eyes fell upon the window, unobscured by the curtains shoved off to the side, not until she saw the tongues of electric fury bolting across the black sky and illuminating her own room that Izzie realised she was in the midst of the fabled thunderstorm. And she wanted it over. Preferably, right fucking now. It was making her very, very anxious.

She looked back to the scribbled words on the paper, the words she had only just now been writing....except... Wait...I wasn't writing that just now...was I? Her brow furrowed with confusion. No, she had woken up with the writing already there, and the pencil already lying uselessly on the ground across the room...at least, she thought it had been. "Fuck, what does it matter?!" she howled angrily, slamming a fist down on the desk where the scrap of paper lay, causing the variety of pencils and other materiels that had lain upon its surface to fall clattering to the ground. She hated this. Hated the thunderstorm raging outside; it was making her lose control again. She needed something to dispel the violent anxiety, and continuing to scribble fervently on that scrap of paper was out of the question now that the pencil was broken (she failed entirely to notice the large collection of writing utensils that now lay at her boots). Her only recourse, then, was music--why was it not already playing? She'd always had a practice of leaving the damn thing on pretty much all goddamn day. She reached over, violently grabbed the thing from where it had been sitting on the desk, and turned it up as far as the volume would go before pressing play. And mid-song, the music began to play--thundering just as loud, it seemed, as the lighting crashing without, despite the small size of the CD player itself.

And with the calming fury of the music came a semblance of peace for Izzie--if only for the briefest moment.

Mika tossed and turned in his bed as he slept; the storm causing nightmares of what happened to him before he ran away to occur. He had tossed so much that he was tangled up in his blankets and was currently right on the edge of the bed. He turned to the right and fell off of his bed in a mess of blankets, hitting his head on his nightstand in the process. He let out a loud yelp as he hit the ground, waking up, and pushed himself into a sitting position and rubbed his head lightly. He spared a glance over to his room mate and quickly untangled himself from his blankets, placing them back onto his bed.

He adjusted his baggy grey long-sleeved shirt and black pajama pants before grabbing his hoodie and slipping it on as he exited his room. He wandered through the dark hallways, his hair matted to his forehead and cheeks by his sweat, and hugged his hoodie closer to his skinny frame. He stopped next to a window and watched the rain fall against the windowpane and the lightning flash across the sky. His hands found their way into his hair as they tangled into it and he sank to the ground, leaning against the window. His eyes were closed as he pulled at his hair and curled into a smaller ball as if it would protect him from the voices that were screaming at him in his mind.

Eve awoke to her roommate, Orphelia having a night mare in the bed opposite hers. She felt bad for the redhead but there was nothing she could do for the girl. Ophelia had these nightmares so often it had become pretty much a regular occurrence. Softly closing her eyes Eve let herself drift into that place where your not quite asleep but it definitely can't be counted as being awake. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard her roomie get up and she heard the door close gently. After a few more moment that felt like hours Eve rolled herself out of her warm, comfy bed. Looking out the window she caught a few glimpses of lightning as it lit up the sky. It seemed like forever away from where she was.

Eve stood and watched the rain a lighting a little longer. That was just one of the things she had never experienced for herself before she came here, rain. Her parents were much too afraid of her getting sick to let her go and play in the rain. She still remembered the first time she experienced rain, everyone at Club Zero had looked at her like a complete nutter. Laughing lightly Eve found a baggy jumper of hers on the ground and putting it on she left her room in search of Orphelia. It wasn't like she was going to be able to get back to sleep with the weather the way it was.

While she was looking for Orphelia though she saw Mika. He was crumpled on the floor next to a window. He just look like such a mess, Eve just wanted to ran up to him and hug him. Though she knew that would only make thing worse, she knew him well enough to know he hated any kind of physical contact. So slowly walking up to him she tried to make walk loud enough for him to hear her so ho wouldn't be surprised by her presence. Smiling sweetly, though albeit, kind of awkwardly she sat herself down next to Mika. She didn't say anything though, she didn't know what to say anyway. She just hoped her presence was comforting enough without the actual words part. Seeing the boy like this broke her heart in two and the worst part was she didn't know how to fix it.

Mika tried to take slow deep breaths to calm himself down and to ignore the voices that seemed to be getting louder with each passing second. He glanced up as he heard someone approaching and squinted his eyes to make out who the approaching figure was, muscles tense and on guard. He relaxed and shook his head to get rid of the offending voices when he recognized the form as that of Evelyn. His hands slowly detached from his hair and dropped to his side as her simple presence helped to get rid of the voices that were telling him that he was useless and worthless. That he should have never been born and was a mistake. That no body cared about him and no one ever would.

Mika finally calmed down and closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall, a small serene smile surfacing on his lips as his breathing evened out and his head fell to the side lightly in his sleep. A couple of minutes later, Mika slipped from his perch against the wall and his head landed on Evelyn's shoulder. Mika didn't wake up at the contact as he would have normally, but continued to sleep as his panic attack/voices had worn him out.

Evelyn saw from the corner of her eye that Mika uncurled himself and seemed to calm down; judging from the way his breathing evened out. She released her breathe that she was unaware of holding. Eve hated when people were sad or upset, and she hated it even more when there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't say anything to Mika though; still not knowing what to say and knowing that if he wanted to talk, he would say something. After a few more minutes his breathing evened out and when she looked over at him his eyes and fallen closed and he looked to be sleeping. Smiling softly to herself Evelyn leaned back against the wall, closing her own eyes gently. Another few minutes went past though and her eyes flung open by the slight weight on her shoulder.

Looking over at Mika, Eve was surprised by how peaceful he looked in his sleep. Without thinking she reached out a hand to move a few stray locks out of his face. She stopped herself though when her hand was almost touching him though, remembering how it was. She had already made that mistake before, besides she couldn't bare to be the one who woke him. Bringing her down back to her side she sifted a little and watched how the light from the window behind her reflected on the wall.

Evelyn sat with him for a good couple of minutes but she began to wonder what she should do. She couldn't lift him or move him by herself and if she left he would definitely wake up. Looking over at how peaceful he looked sleeping, she knew she could wake him, not compared with how panicked he had looked before. So Eve decided she had no choice but to join him in sleep. Leaning down further to make herself more comfortable she closed her eyes and let a deep sleep tale her away. Though she was regretting the fact that she would have a terrible aches tomorrow, that was in the future.

It wasn't his roommate's startled yelp that woke Kira, rather, it was his absence in the silence of the storm outside, and the rain hitting the windows that shook him from sleep. He was a light sleeper to begin with, and he was used to hearing Mika moving in his sleep, or having nightmares. It was kinda weird without the other boy. Kaio didn't get out of bed just yet, but instead pulled the sheets tighter around himself. If Mika was out, he probably didn't want anyone near him at the moment, he'd done it several times before. But if he didn't come back in ten minutes (provided Kira was still awake in ten minutes) then he'd get up and start the day early. Waay early. He didn't really care, sleep was more or less not a priority. Besides, it was rare to find people he liked, and he didn't want anyone to just up and die on him. Or something.

Mika shifted in his sleep and opened his eyes slowly twenty minutes later. His eyes wandered around the hall, landing on Evelyn who was slumped against him. Mika slowly and carefully moved away from her, shifting her so she was laying on the ground. Mika knew that he had probably slumped against her in his sleep first and was particularly surprised that he hadn't jolted awake from the action. He sat against the wall, a couple feet from Evelyn, shaking as he fought against another panic attack. This was was smaller but still there. He looked around the hallway, wanting to leave but not because he didn't want to leave Evelyn there in the hallway alone.

Kira sighed. He'd slept over 10 minutes, but who cares, his roommate might be a little off but he wouldn't be able to hurt himself in just twenty minutes. He shuffled out of bed, oversized maroon pajamas dragging slightly on the floor. As usual, he carried with him a battered wolf plushie missing an eye- his one memento from before Club Zero. He checked various hallways and places first, and eventually found Mika with a sleeping girl, he was pretty sure was Eve. It was hard to mistake her blue-dyed hair, an even crazier color than his own reddish chestnut.

"Hey, don't you know it's kinda early to be up and about?" Kira looked over to the other boy. His wording might sound off, but that's just how he was. And there was more or less, care in the question. It was getting kind of cold again, Kira didn't like to be out of bed even if he wasn't sleeping. He flicked his hair out of his face, the usual braid gone at this time in the morning.

Mika looked up at the sound of Kira's voice and gave a small smile. "I had a nightmare about home and came out for a walk," he said quietly. "Eve stayed with me through my panic attack until I calmed down and then we fell asleep. I couldn't leave her here alone and I couldn't take her back to her room, unless I wanted another panic attack," he said with a small pout. "Why are you up? You were still asleep when I left," he asked, yawning slightly.

"Ehh. It's kinda like I've gotten used to the sound of you thrashing around at night, so silence is...weird. And frankly, I get kinda worried." Kira replied, also yawning. He didn't care how others interpreted his speaking, he just...spoke. It seemed that the "yawns are contagious" thing was true- especially at this time of the morning...night...whenever. He looked over to the blue-haired girl. She was solidly asleep, it seemed, and moving her back would be hard. If the decision was his, then he'd say leave her there, but Mika wouldn't like that. Probably.

"Oh. Should we wake her up? She'll probably get a cold out here." Kira looked back to Mika, leaving the decision to the other boy.

Mika blushed lightly and looked down. "Do I really make that much noise when I sleep?" he asked, suddenly self-conscious about that fact. "I don't mean to worry you at all," he added. He brought a hand up to his lips as he thought, not wanting Evelyn to get a cold, but also not wanting to wake her up. He debated for a few more minutes before he gave a small nod. "I don't want her to get sick. Could you wake her up please?" he asked as his head tilted to the side slightly - his bangs falling into his face. Knowing that if he tried to wake her up, it may result in a panic attack.

Kira gave a slight nod, rubbing his eyes with one hand, then brushing away the long red hair that fell into his face. It took a long time to braid, usually, but it was worth not having it fall into his eyes every other second. He didn't want to cut it, though, because...well, he didn't really know. Just...because. "Ah, sometimes. Some nights more than others. And sure, yeah..." Mika sure was interesting, worrying about everyone like that. Kinda cute, in a way. Walking over to Evelyn, Kira nudged her with his foot. "Hey...hey, wake up."

Eve groaned as she blinked rapidly, unsuccessfully getting over the shock of the sudden light. She smiled weakly at the red head standing over her. "Good Morning I believe," She groaned out to Kira before she slowly and painfully. She rolled onto her side and eventually pulled herself up to a standing postion. She realized the extent of her muscle soreness as she stretched out her arms giving a large yawn.

"Sorry Mika, I think I kind of fell asleep, my bad." Eve said sheepishly as she gave him a small apologetic, if not cheeky, smile. She did feel bad though, she probably put him in an awkward spot when he woke up. "And you Kira, you need a serious hair cut." She continued turning towards the redhead and playfully giving a lock of his hair a sharp tug.

"Good morning, Evelyn," he said quietly. Mika smiled softly and shook his head lightly. "Its fine really. I just didn't want you to be left alone in the hallway, so I stayed with you. I guess I worried Kira a bit though," he said softly. He stood up quietly and frowned lightly when she told Kira that he needed a haircut. "I don't think he does. I think he looks good with his long hair," he said, a light blush appearing on his cheeks. He would never admit it out loud, but he had a small crush on Kira. He bit his lip and looked out the window, hoping that with the darkness covering the hallway, minus the light from the moon, they wouldn't be able to tell that he was blushing.