Chapter Text
His jaw was clenched tightly and his forehead was drenched in sweat; the last image that crossed Pike's mind was of her lifeless body laying limp in his arms.
His eyes shot open and he jolted up from his bedroll. Tears stung his eyes as he internally fought with himself, trying his hardest not to cry out.
He couldn't breathe; everything was too much and he couldn't breathe.
".. Pike?"
Her voice sounded so distant and he wasn't sure if he was finally going insane, or if Meklavar was really there by some unexplainable miracle.
He rolled onto his side, closing in on himself and shut the world around him out.
It was a coping mechanism; it had been since he was a child.
But unlike then, he wasn't hiding from his mother's wrath when she had discovered he got into the cream again. No, this time, he was trying to hide from his own mind.
Everything had gone horribly wrong.
One minute they were all together, fighting in a way they had never fought before.
And then the next, they were being thrown around as if they were nothing but pebbles.
He heard all of their screams. He heard them scream and then sob out in pain.
His party was dying and he couldn't do anything.
"Pike!"
Meklavar's voice struck through him like an arrow. He instinctively lifted his head to meet her gaze. Her face was slightly illuminated by the embers of a fire that they had built earlier in the night.She tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear before making her way over to him and sat herself down on the edge of his bedroll.
"Another nightmare?" she turned to him, giving him a sympathetic smile.
If only you knew,
he thought.
More than anything, he wanted to tell her about the dreams; to tell her about a life they once had centuries ago.
But he didn't. Wouldn't. Couldn't.
Meklavar didn't remember, and maybe that was for the best. She didn't deserve to re-live that kind of pain again. If he could minimize it by carrying the weight of their past lives by himself, then so be it.
He would always do it for her.
“Y..yeah. Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” He apologized and sat up to properly look at her.
She wasn’t a dwarf anymore. She was human and it felt wrong. But in this lifetime it made sense. It had to, because the dwarves had long since perished.
“Sooo want to talk about it?” she prompted.
He wanted to, more than anything. But there was a too high of risk of scaring her off if he told her about the dreams. That was a risk he wasn’t willing to take; not when he had spent so long searching for her.
So he compromised.
He gave her a small shrug before speaking, “Honestly Mek? I can’t remember. It’s like...as soon as I wake up the memory of it is gone? I dunno.”
Her honey eyes were focused on him, and she wasn’t looking away. She could either see through his bullshit, or she was waiting for a better answer. Either way, he felt himself fidget under her stare.
“I understand.”
That took him by surprise.
“It haunts you and you don’t even know the full reason why.” Her voice was quiet as she continued.
He tilted his head in her direction again, and properly looked at her this time.
“It's like a never ending fever dream that won't fade.” she mumbled.
Pike nodded “Yeah. That's one way to describe it.”
He wasn't sure when or how it had started but after that, for the first time since meeting, they were properly talking; properly bonding.
Somehow, he had a gut feeling that everything was going to work themselves out.
And who was he to mess with fate?