A/N: Thanks so much to my good friend Tori (dreamwriters-haven on tumblr) because without her enthusiasm for the initial idea, I wouldn't have had the motivation to write this fic! I hope you enjoy!

"No… Please, don't—"

Rio felt her eyelids flutter open, her vision still a little bleary as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She hadn't been sound asleep just then, but the voice she'd heard had woken her abruptly. She brought her hand to her face and rubbed at her eyes right as she heard the voice again.

"I'm not… Wait, don't do it!"

It was coming from Alit's room. She knew in an instant that he was having a nightmare again. Her room was right next to his, so she could always hear him when he started talking in his sleep. She yawned and looked over at the clock on her dresser. Two in the morning. She groaned, knowing that she was definitely going to have circles under her eyes in the morning. Thank goodness that there was no school tomorrow.

Alit whimpered in his sleep and Rio instantly forgot all about what she might look like in the morning. It sounded like a particularly bad nightmare this time around. She kicked the blankets off of her and swung her legs over her bed. When her feel touched the floor though, she could hear somebody clicking the light on in Alit's room, followed by heavy footsteps. She felt her lips curving upwards at Gilag's deep voice coming through the walls. He had the other room next to Alit's, and was always the first one to reach him. She walked to her door, figuring that she'd be a close second this time.

Upon opening it, she immediately caught sight of Mizael walking down the hallway towards her, scowling. He was dragging a very sleepy looking (but definitely awake) Durbe with him, and Rio had to wonder how he'd managed to wake him up. Out of all of them, Durbe was the heaviest sleeper.

"Hey you two." She whispered, knowing that there was no need to, seeing as almost all of them were awake now, but doing it anyway. She closed her door behind her and followed them. "He wake you up too?"

Durbe nodded, stifling a yawn. "He did. Though Mizael was the one who got me out of bed."

Mizael clicked his tongue in annoyance, but his expression didn't exactly match his next words. "I'm losing out on much needed sleep because of him. I need to confront him."

Rio rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's the reason. Come on, let's see how he's doing."

The three of them walked into his room, the door left wide open. The first thing they saw was Alit sitting on his bed, his arms wrapped around his knees and his head resting on top of them. Gilag was sitting next to him on the bed, his hand resting on top of Alit's head. Gilag looked up when they entered, but Alit didn't move.

"Hey guys." Gilag said, quickly turning his head back to his best friend after his greeting.

"Is he okay?" Rio asked, making her way over to the other side of Alit's bed and sitting down next to him. "Alit?"

Alit nodded his head a little, but he still didn't look up. Mizael and Durbe sat down on the edge of the bed, their expressions becoming more concerned. Usually, Alit was quick to reassure them that he was fine, that they should all go back to sleep, and not worry about him. But not tonight. That was how they knew that it wasn't one of the usual nightmares he had.

Rio brought her hand up and started rubbing his back. It was a habit she'd picked up in the last few weeks that they had all been living together. Whenever someone had one of the really bad nightmares, the ones that they didn't like to think about, let alone talk about, she'd place her hand on their back and start rubbing soothing circles until she could feel the tension leaving their muscles.

Gilag started talking to Alit again, telling him that he was going to be alright, they were all here with him now. Durbe joined him, mentioning some random facts about dreams that he had learned the other day. He was still pretty tired, so half of his words came out jumbled or slurred. Mizael didn't say anything, but then, seeing as he had been planning on berating him for waking him from his beauty sleep, Rio knew that it was his way of being kind. And all the while Rio kept rubbing his back, feeling him slowly relax at the combination of that and his friend's voices.

She could hear somebody moving around outside of the room, and knew that it was probably Ryouga. It had taken him a while to wake up, which was a little strange. He had always been a light sleeper after all. She wondered why he wasn't coming in already.

"You don't have to worry about getting back to sleep while we're here." Gilag was saying, nodding his head as if agreeing with himself. "We won't let anything happen to you."

"Actually, nothing can actually happened to you in a dreams." Durbe mumbled, lifting his glasses to rub at his eyes. "Nothing in them can hurt you in real lies."

"You mean life." Alit murmured, a hint of amusement in his voice. He lifted his head a little, letting his chin rest on his knees. "Right?"

Rio's hand stilled for a second, and everybody looked at him with wide eyes before smiling. He was finally responding to them, which was a good sign.

Durbe nodded. "Yes, that's right."

Alit looked at the four of them one by one, his green eyes filled with appreciation. His lip twitched upwards, just a little bit, but it was genuine. "Hey, thanks for coming in here you guys. You didn't have to—"

"Don't even start with that." Mizael said, his expression quickly turning from relief to annoyance. Alit's eyes widened, but Mizael didn't end his sentence there. "We're here and we're not going anywhere until you feel better, so shut up and go back to sleep, okay?"

Alit let out a surprised laugh. "Aww, I had no idea you cared so much Mizael."

He rolled his eyes, but the edge was gone. "Whatever, I just want to salvage what little sleep I can. The faster you get back to sleep, the faster the rest of us can too."

"It's a good thing I'm here with these then." Came a voice from the door. They looked up to see Ryouga standing just outside the room, carrying a lot of pillows under one arm and a few blankets in the other. He gestured towards them. "Anybody mind helping me with these? I brought enough for everyone and they're surprisingly heavy."

Durbe and Gilag got off the bed and went over to him, each of them taking a few things so that they weren't overly burdened. Rio smiled at her twin brother and held her hand out for a pillow.

"Is this why you were so late to the party?" She asked, sticking her tongue out teasingly.

He shrugged, playing off this gesture as if it was no big deal. "I figured we'd want to be a little more comfortable than all the other times that this has happened."

Rio knew what he was referring to. Roughly every other night for the past three weeks, someone in the house had a nightmare, and because the walls were so thin, they usually ended up in that person's room, sprawled out on the floor. She usually woke up from those nights with a sore neck from sleeping at a weird angle.

Durbe handed her a blanket, and she smiled at him in thanks. Without having to speak, they found themselves spreading out on Alit's bedroom floor. Gilag took the spot next to Alit's bed, of course. Ryouga went over to the corner of the room, a bit separate from everyone else, but he kept his back to the wall and his face to them. Mizael chose the spot at the foot of Alit's bed, and brought Durbe down next to him. Rio decided that she wanted to be close to the exit and let her pillow fall right in front of the open door. She flicked the lights off before she sank down to the floor and covered herself with the blanket.

"Hey guys?" Alit asked as soon as everybody had settled in for the night.

"Yeah Alit?" Gilag answered for them.

"Thanks again for coming." He said, his voice softening to a whisper. He covered his head with his blanket and curled in on himself, though not in a frightened way this time. Almost like he was embarrassed. "I just wanted to say that I appreciate it. S-so good night."

"Good night!" Mizael said in a tone that suggested everybody else keep their mouth shut. Rio bit back a giggle and let her head fall back onto the pillow.

They'd done this so many times that they didn't even think about how weird it might seem to an outsider. Rio still remembered the first time this had happened. She was a little embarrassed that it had been for her sake back then. She'd had a bad dream, flashes from her past life. Nothing too bad as far as her nightmares went, not like the dream where she was drowning beneath the waves, but it had been enough to wake up her brother and Alit. And before she knew it, the rest of them were in her room, comforting her until she fell asleep. She had been surprised to see that they were still in there in the morning, but it had meant so much to her that they had given up a good night's sleep to reassure her. And a couple of days later it had been Durbe who needed to be comforted, and a few days after that it was Gilag.

She didn't like that they were all still having nightmares, but she did like that they could do things like this without thinking about it. It was a good habit.

Vector hadn't come over once since they'd started having these sort-of sleepovers though. He must be having these bad dreams too, if the rest of them were having them, but he never let any of them know about it. Rio had tried asking him about it once, but he'd just gotten pissy (well, pissier than usual at least) at her and left the house for a few hours.

Well, if he wasn't asking for help, she certainly wasn't going to waste her time giving it to him only to get the cold shoulder in response. Maybe he'd get over being such a baby someday, but until then, it wasn't her problem.

She yawned, realizing that she was really tired. She was about to close her eyes when a little figure walked past the door. There was only one person in the house who was that small. Rio sat up and, mindful of the others, whispered her name. "Iris, wait."

The little girl jumped a little at the sound of her name, but she did as she was told and turned back. She peeked her little face from behind the doorframe and whispered, "Yes, Merag-sama?"

Rio smiled at the honorific. No matter how many times she'd told her that it was okay not to, Iris still insisted on using it. She held her hand out and motioned for the girl to come closer. "Would you come in for a second, sweetie?"

Iris hesitated for a second, shifting her eyes from Rio to the direction she'd just come from, but nodded and walked inside. "What is it, Merag-sama?"

Rio patted the space next to her and smiled. "Would you like to sleep with us tonight?"

Iris's eyes widened and she reached up to place a piece of her hair into her mouth. It was a habit the little girl had taken to since she'd been living with them. "I'm not sure…"

Rio laughed, cutting it short when she heard Ryouga stirring. She lowered her voice when she spoke again. "Is it because you still shy around me, Iris? It's okay, you can tell me"

Iris blushed, the color barely visible in the darkness. "O-Only a little, Merag-sama."

Rio reached for her hand and Iris let herself be brought closer. "I'm sorry. You can go to your room if you want to, but I was thinking that it'd be nice if you joined our little sleepover."

Iris considered it for a minute, chewing away at the green hair in her mouth before nodding. "It does sound really nice. Okay, I'll stay if you want me to."

Rio smiled and nodded. "I sure do. Here, you can sleep right next to me."

"Really? You'd let me sleep next to you?" Iris asked, a little smile forming on her features. Rio was struck by how familiar the girl's smile was to her own at that age, even though it shouldn't have been a surprise. They did have the same face, after all.

Rio nodded in answer to Iris's question and the little girl immediately let herself sink to the floor. Rio grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around the two of them. Iris cuddled up next to her, taking up half the pillow. She looked into the older girl's eyes to see if that was alright, the shyness returning to her features. Rio smiled and put her arm over her in response. She might have been an ice queen, but she would always be warm to the people she cared about.

Iris closed her pretty blue eyes and sighed contently. "Good night, Merag-sama. And thank you."

"It's no problem. Good night, Iris." She murmured, feeling her tiredness catching up with her. She was more than ready to turn in for the night.

Before she fell asleep, she wondered why Iris had been out of her room so late at night, but she figured that it must have been because of all the noise they were making. She was too sleepy to question why Iris would have waited until after everybody was turning in to show up. Whatever the reason, it must have been a good one.