The thump was audible, even from Lyra’s room, as was the quiet cursing that followed. Raising her head, she quickly moved off her bed and snuck towards the door, opening it silently with her magic. Glancing downstairs toward the door, she quickly confirmed that it was not somepony breaking into her house, before sneaking to the guest bedroom and opening it quietly, peeking in the tiny crack she had created.
Blue rubbed his forehead and sat up, having fallen off his bed and onto the hard wooden floor. Pulling himself back onto the bed, he sighed and glanced to the window, his frown deepening at some hidden thought.
“Are you ok?” Lyra’s voice visibly startled Blue, and he nearly fell off the bed again. After a moment he realised it was her and relaxed, giving a nod and scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
“Yeahs’fine, go back to bed.” Blue was nearly 100% sure Lyra was not going to do as he asked. Blue was, of course, correct.
“Come on, did you have another nightmare?” Lyra jumped onto Blue’s bed and sat beside him, concern on her face. Blue looked to her, and then sighed, lowering his head as he looked toward the window.
“Yeah, they didn’t exactly stop after we returned to catch Giovanni for the second time.” Blue noticed the sky was beginning to lighten, and wondered if he might witness the sunrise. Would it remind him of home, or would it to be different in some way?
“Do you want to talk about it?” Lyra put a hoof on Blue shoulder and looked out the window as well, realising this was the first time in a long while she would witness the sunrise too. Lyra thought back, wondering if she had seen one in the Pokemon world. Discarding the distracting thoughts, she turned around to hear Blue's answer.
“Not really, but you’re not going to give me a choice are you.” Blue pulled off his bag and began to rummage around in it, searching for something. Lyra sighed and removed her hoof.
“Blue, you telling me your problems shows me how much you trust me to care for you despite that. That’s how girls show affection, sharing feelings.” Lyra decided to exclude the fact not all women were like that, and if someone pointed her out on it they could easily see the flaws in her argument. Blue didn’t need to know that.
“Yeah well, I’m not exactly comfortable sharing my ‘thoughts and feelings’ okay?” Blue pulled out what appeared to be a notepad and put his bag down again, flicking through the pages. With each page, his frown deepened. After a moment, he pulled out a pen, and began to write on a blank page. Lyra couldn’t see what he was writing.
“What, you’ve always been ‘alone’ or something?” Lyra’s ears flopped down in irritation. Maybe things would have been easier if she had gone and proclaimed her love to Bon Bon instead of Blue, even with how things were. Lyra felt a smile fall on her face as she envisioned that scenario, before she shook it off and noticed Blue was looking at her. Blue glanced away, and then sighed and made a small motion with his hoof.
“Lyra, the one person who saw through my ‘act’ was Red. And he’s mute, and also doesn’t talk about his problems. You don’t just walk up to your rival and begin to cry in his arms about ‘problems’, and ‘feelings’, in our world.” Blue closed the book and put the pen away, and held it out to Lyra, who took it curiously.
“What’s this?” Lyra opened it to the first page, and took one look at it before closing it, nearly vomiting in horror. What was on that first page was some of the most horrendous self-deprecation she had ever seen. If Lyra hadn’t noticed Blue’s face slightly lower in response to her reaction, she might have tried to light a fire, and burn the book, probably along with her house, down.
“Those are...my nightmares.” Blue glanced away and breathed out, scratching the back of his head again. Lyra could see the trapped look in his eyes, and forced herself to calm down. Opening the page once more, she forced herself to look at it.
“There’s only words.” Lyra slowly went through the pages, and began to notice a trend. It was hard to tell at first, but it often revolved around Red, and in later pages, her.
“Yeah, that’s all my nightmares are. No images thankfully…” Blue waited for Lyra to finish looking at the book as she flicked toward the final pages, and read one of the last entries.
“Oh Blue,” she sighed, voice heavy with the weight of what Blue had just shown her. Holding out the book, Blue took it and once more put it in his bag. This time, Lyra noticed he was actually putting it into a hidden compartment, similar to Red’s except inside the bag instead of outside.
“How long have you done this?” Lyra turned her head as the pricking of light hit the window. Both paused to take a moment to enjoy the sunrise. Blue was surprised, there seemed to be much more...for lack of a better word, tenderness to the movement as it ascended the sky.
“A long time, before I even got pokemon. After something happened between me and Red, I had to move away for some time to live with Gram-Professor Oak. After I started waking up screaming or something, he told me to start writing them down. He thought it might help.” Blue shrugged nonchalantly, and looked to his hooves, wishing he had hands so he could have something to do.
“And did it?” Lyra leaned in, shuffling forward so she was sitting right next to Blue. He seemed to give a slight shiver, but soon relaxed despite her close proximity.
“Then? Yeah, they stopped happening so frequently. Sometimes I would even forget they might occur. Now? No, in fact it seems to be getting worse. This is the third time I’ve been up tonight. Well, morning.” Blue looked to Lyra and bit his lip, tilting his head as he shrugged. Lyra’s ears tilted down and she glanced away, before leaning on Blue and sighing.
“That’s...quite a problem.” Lyra didn’t entirely understand why Blue was suffering from such strange, and very precise nightmares, but she knew he wasn’t going to break down like the time with Giovanni quite as easily, at least as long as she was around.
“It’ll be fine, I deal with it all the time.” Blue’s words didn’t inspire any confidence in Lyra. A sudden thought occurred to her, and she raised her head slightly.
“Come to think of it, why did you start doing that act?” Lyra sat up and saw Blue awkwardly laugh and looked away, once more scratching the back of his head. Lyra could tell it was something he didn’t want to talk about, but he continued anyway.
“It was easier than the truth.”