Mess.

[Luke]

Luke snuck out the front doors and into the garden. At almost six in the morning, and it still being mid-January, it was dark out, and freezing. Luke went over to the fountain, thinking he may have seen a light eminating from its depths. He cleared his throat and spoke into the night. "Dream? Dream, are you out here?"

[Dream]

Dream's head surfaced. Even though she had been underwater, it was oubvious she had been crying. Professor X was kind enough to make sure the fountain stayed thawed for her during the winter months, so, though it was cold, she wasn't trapped in a giant block of ice.

"I'm here" she said.

[Luke]

Luke jumped, then smiled. "Dream, we need to talk." He sat cross-legged on the wall of the fountain, facing her and the strange light. "Dream, I'm sorry about earier. And about what's been happening all this time. I didn't know how either of you felt about me." He sighed. "And I'm sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring your feelings on purpose." He thought for a second and told her outright, "Dream. You're treading on very thin ice. I know a broken heart can destroy you. And you letting yourself feel like this is dangerous. Please don't get too involved in those feelings. Please. I don't know if I can take being responsible for another death."

[Dream]

Dream looked up and smiled. "Oh, it's ok. Don't worry, I never thought you were ignoring my feelings. I was doing everything I could to keep it a secret. I don't think I did a very good job" she laughed. "I've...I've never cared about someone before. Except my parents, but that was different. I'll never understand why I didn't die when I lost them..." there was a sad look in Dream's eyes. "And I've done everything I could to not get too close to anyone, especially here. But with you...I couldn't help how I started feeling, no matter what I did. And I don't know what to do. I'm scared Luke. I'm so scared. But...it's a lovely feeling. It's such a lovely feeling. I didn't know... I'd only ever dreamed...

I know you would never do anything to hurt me. I don't even know how you think of me. It's silly to even think you could care for me this way, especially with Pearl. She's perfect. I'm...well, I've just, there's been so much...it's silly. But, no matter what happened, it would never be your fault if something happened to me. I know you would never intentionally hurt me. At least...I hope not. See... there was someone, there have been several others who tried to make me love them, just so they could destroy me. It's made me wary. But even with all that, I still care about you. I can't explain it. I just do."

[Luke]

Luke listened to her with a mixture of sadness and elation. On one hand, this girl was giving up her life to feel love. And on the other, no one had ever loved Luke like this. He felt a lump in his throat. "Dream..." He didn't know what to say.

Instead, he reached down and held her face in his hands. He tried to say something, but what could he say? He leaned down and kissed her, slipping into the fountain and ignoring the fact that he was instantly soaked in ice-cold water. He just held her, lips pressed against hers, oblivious to what he'd just done.

(OOC: I can edit this if anything is going too far.)

[Dream]

Dream gasped. It was an involuntary intake of breath, somewhere between shock and elation. The water suddenly felt ice cold around them, she, and Luke felt warm. She looked into his eyes, watching water drip off his face. She slowly brought her hand up, and lightly touched his face, hair, lips, exploring it, almost trying to memorize him. He was so strong, but gentle with her.

"I'm scared" she said. "I'm so scared" all the while longing to kiss him again. She lightly brought her lips to his.

[Pearl]

Pearl knew she should leave the two of them to their own purposes as Luke left to talk to Dream, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't risk it. She had to know what was really going on between them. He'd said he wasn't sure he had feelings for either of them. He'd said he wasn't sure about anything, that he was just going to talk to her, but she'd been skeptical, but hopeful. Now, as she stood off to the side, bewildered at what she'd just seen: hurt, crushed, she knew. He'd chosen...and it wasn't her. It wasn't something she was used to. She got what she wanted most of the time, and the twang in her heart was so many things: jealousy, anger, sadness. She'd had genuine feelings for Luke, or at least...she had started to develop some. And before she'd even had a chance...he was gone. And if she tried to take him back...she could be responsible for a death. It felt so unfair. She wanted to scream, but instead she just stood in the shadows, unable to pry her eyes away as tears rolled down her face.

[Luke]

Luke stared at Dream. He was scared too, though there was no way he could say it. He felt uneasy all of a sudden and glanced toward the garden entrance. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed Pearl, half hiding behind the shrubbery. He jumped to his feet and accidentally tripped, falling backwards out of the fountain and onto his back on the flagstone of the courtyard. He yelped as pain shot through his body, out from his spine, but immediately jumped up again. "Pearl!" He finally spoke up. It was almost a cry. He suddenly realized how cold it was. "Pearl- I... I didn't mean... you shouldn't have seen... oh my God..." Luke covered his face with his hands, confused and in pain. He could see Pearl's tears from across the garden, and it tore him up inside. But there was no way he could break away from Dream's heart now. It would kill her. So he did the only thing he could do-

He made a break for it.

He dashed away, jumped the low garden wall in one move, and kept going. He couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't care about where he was going or what he was thinking. He ran straight for the outer gate and deftly climbed a bowed tree nearby it. In the top he leapt from the branches, narrowly missing the top of the fence, and landed on the road on his feet. He glanced one more time toward the light in the garden, then ran down the road like the Hounds of Hell were on his heels.

OOC: I'm continuing this in the general outside world subboard. Don't come after him yourselves.

[Dream]

Dream started shaking. Did he not mean it? Why...why would he kiss her if he didn't mean it? She sank back down to the bottom of the fountain, trembling.

[Pearl]

Pearl stared in shock for a moment, then ran back inside. She had to get Professor X. He was the only one who would know what to do with all this and get Luke back.

[Pearl]

Pearl returned with Prof X still attatched to her wrist. "Here. I mean...there!" she pointed in the fountain. "That's where it[/i[ hid." She wasn't dignifying the little b!tch with a gender. She wasn't human. She wasn't real, just an illusion.

[Professor X]

Professor X glared at Pearl in a way he never had before. "Be very careful Pearl. The dark side is an easy place to go to. I would hate to think you would dehumanize, even kill an innocent girl just because you thought some boy was cute. A boy, I might add, that you could wake up tomorrow and decide you don't want. I never thought you had it in you Pearl. This cruelty. Keep in mind, Luke may be in love with you. Did you ever think of that possibility? Would you do to him what you were afraid he might do to you?"

[Pearl]

"I would never hurt him!" she retaliated. "He probably is. He probably does love me, but he feels bad. He feels like he has to be with her, because she's so delicate. He wouldn't want to break her heart. Well nobody cared about breaking mine! Just because i'm halfway normal. It's not fair! if everyone's so worried about breaking her heart...and if she is...why did she go after him in the first place? Huh?"

[Professor X]

"Dream never went after him! She's been trying to hide it! She's been coming to me, asking me to help her, help her figure out how not to feel this way. And I am quite sure that Luke would never choose her just because he felt sorry for her. If he was going to, he would have done it already. Not run away. WOULD your heart be broken Pearl? Why, just a few days ago all I could sense from you is how big a crush you had on Door" he whispered the last part so no one else could hear. "Who will it be tomorrow? Did you ever think about breaking HIS heart before you went after him?"

[Pearl]

"I'm not going to! I moved on from Door because she was clearly not interested in other women," she hissed back. "When I saw Luke he stirred something very different in me, something I've never really had before. It was different than just that attraction I get to so many...it felt different. He's beautiful, yes, but I think he could be so much more to me." She glared at the man. "And if Dream had wanted to hide it so badly, why did she expose both mine and her feelings to him? I was just fine with biding my time and waiting for things to develiope...flirting a bit...but she's the one who blabbed everything!"