It was late, and Rio couldn’t sleep.

He tossed and turned on his bed, twisting this way and that, but it was to no avail. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn’t get comfortable. He had gone to bed over an hour ago, and still, he wasn’t asleep. It wasn’t that he wasn’t tired (in fact, his eyes seemed to be weighted down with lead), but for some reason, his mind just wouldn’t quit. It kept whirring around in his head, thinking about everything from why his Ingrid was yellow to what the candidates did on break. Every attempt he had to get to sleep was futile.

Rio opened his eyes, annoyed at the idea of not getting any rest. His sight had long since become adjusted to the dark, and he could see with startling clarity the outlines of his dresser, desk, and bookstand - all of which were standard issue in the GOA dorm rooms. Clothes and other assorted items were strewn around the room as well, which was a result of his laziness the previous day. The pilots had been given a free period in which to clean their rooms, but Rio had spent the time eating an after-lunch snack with Garu and reading a comic book.

But that really didn’t matter. What mattered was that he couldn’t sleep.

“Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep...” Rio muttered under his breath, repeating the chant in hopes that it would somehow make sleep come to him. He closed his eyes, desperately praying, but it was proven as useless as everything else he had tried. He opened his eyes again, growling, “Why can’t I freakin’ sleep?”

His question went unanswered, and Rio gave an exasperated sigh, falling back onto his bed. It was so not fair for this to be happening to him. After all, he always worked extra hard in training just so that he wouldn’t have so much spare energy at the end of the day. It had been a problem when he was a candidate, so Rio had learned early on that he needed to exhaust himself if he hoped to get a decent amount of sleep. Apparently, though, it wasn’t working now.

“This sucks.” he murmured softly, and opened his eyes once again. Propping himself up on his elbows, Rio blearily looked around the room. After a few moments, his eyes focused on the faint outline of the door, and Rio grinned. “That’s it. I’ll take a walk.”

Cheerfully ignoring the small voice in his head that muttered a sarcastic remark about crazy people who talk to themselves, Rio jumped up and pulled on a pair of loose sweatpants. He was glad that he wasn’t required to wear his pilot uniform during the night (Victim attacks rarely came at night, and even then, it was rare that the attacks would be so fierce as to prevent the pilots from quickly changing.) He tied the pants up and grabbed a worn sweatshirt from the ground. It was often cold on GOA during the night, and Rio would be damned if he was going to freeze his butt off.

Opening the door, Rio winced slightly at the bright (though dimmer than usual, due to the nighttime) lights, and waited for a moment so that his eyes could adjust. He began to walk away from his room, aimlessly wandering. It was quiet in the hall, almost eerily so, and Rio found himself trying not to make any sudden noises - something that was nearly impossible for him to achieve. He was Rio - sudden noises was his “thing”, as Garu had so eloquently put it one day.

Rio smirked; a while back, Garu had decided to overanalyze every one of the pilots, from their stats to what their favorite color was. Rio knew that his information had probably been the easiest for Garu to acquire, because of his open natured personality. In comparison, it was still a contest between Yu and Teela for the hardest. Yu, because of his obvious, silent reasons, and Teela because she never, ever replied to a question with a direct answer. Personally, Rio was voting for Teela for the title of most difficult, because he knew that Garu could interview Teela all day and never get a straight response from the only female pilot. Yu, on the other hand, would eventually give Garu an answer, but only after Garu badgered and prodded him for ages - which was why Garu still didn’t have any information on Yu, either. The green-haired boy just didn’t have enough forbearance for that.

Though, it had been extremely funny to watch Garu try. With his short temper, Garu would only bother being nice to Yu for about five minutes before exploding and trying to beat the information out of him. In which case, Ernest would step in, calm Garu down and prevent Yu from retaliating against the green-haired boy. It usually ended up with Garu ranting to Ernest in a corner about Yu’s utter silence, while Yu walked away from wherever they were and... did something else for awhile. No one really knew where Yu went when he got irritated, just that he would disappear for a short period of time and then mysteriously reappear for lunch or training or whatnot.

Rio yawned, breaking away from his reminiscing. Looking around, he was surprised to see that his feet had inadvertently brought him to the dock of the Ingrids. In fact, the first thing he saw when he looked up was the familiar form of Agui-Keameia. He smiled, and murmured softly, “Agui-Keameia. Why have you brought me here?”

There was no answer, and Rio shrugged. Talking to his Ingrid was something that soothed him, mainly, and he knew for a fact that he wasn’t the only one who did so. Garu did, he knew, and so did Ernest. Yu probably didn’t do it outloud, and Rio didn’t know what to think about Teela. In any case, it wasn’t considered all that strange for a pilot to be caught talking to his or her Ingrid. And especially now, since he was alone and it was late, Rio felt safe in speaking to her.

Her. Agui-Keameia. His Ingrid.

Rio smiled.

Suddenly, Rio felt something on his mind. A nagging feeling, like he was being watched, but not so blatant... Rio frowned, tearing his gaze away from his Ingrid and looking around, not liking the creeping suspicion that he wasn’t alone on the docks. His eyes darting around cautiously, Rio caught sight of a dark shape in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall...

It was Yu.

Almost immediately, the eerie premonition of fear subsided, and Rio breathed an almost audible sigh of relief. Yu hadn’t even been looking at him, really - or at least he wasn’t now. The dark-haired pilot was standing in front of his own Ingrid, Tellia-Kallisto, but he was looking at the ground. In any case, Rio was glad that it was Yu, after all. If it had been any of the other pilots, Rio was sure that they would have hassled him about being out of bed or something. Even Teela, he was sure of it. But one thing about Yu Hikura was this: he kept to himself. Unless someone else approached him, Yu wasn’t about to involve himself in another’s life - unless he had to, in which he would do a little as he deemed necessary.

Strangely enough, Rio found himself moving towards Yu. He was curious as to why the smaller boy was up so late, and truthfully, he would feel stupid just standing there, looking at his Ingrid and not talking to Yu at all. Even if Yu didn’t really care all that much, Rio wasn’t the type of person to ignore others.

“Hey, Yu,” Rio greeted as he came closer to the brown-haired boy, a smile on his face. “What’s up?”

Yu looked over at his fellow pilot, raising an eyebrow in greeting, but saying nothing. Rio rolled his eyes.

“Okay, c’mon, I’m the only one here. D’ya suppose that you could talk to me audibly? Just this once?” Rio asked, yawning. “I mean, I’m tired. I can’t sleep, but I’m still tired and considering that I can’t decipher your little face-things when I’m wide awake, it’s going to be really hard for me to do it now. Actually speaking to me would work so much better.”

Yu’s expression was hard to read, but Rio detected a faint hint of amusement from his eyes. The younger pilot uncrossed his arms and turned to face Rio uncharacteristically, causing Rio to shift nervously. The fact that he didn’t know what Yu was thinking bothered him.

“Fine.”

Rio’s eyes widened considerably. Not only had Yu actually shown a little bit of facial expression, he was actually speaking to him. And it was Yu, who had barely said a total of ten words to Rio during the entire time they had been pilots together. Needless to say, the fact that Yu had just agreed to proceed in an actual, speaking conversation with him was slightly amazing. As in, the eighth wonder of the new world amazing. In fact, it was so astonishing that Rio couldn’t help but try and clarify that it was true.

“Are you serious?” Rio asked, eyes growing wide and leaning forward to scan Yu’s face for hints of mockery.

Yu raised an eyebrow, his face blank. “Yes.”

Rio tilted his head to the side and scrutinized Yu for a moment before erupting in a large grin. “Cool! That means that I’ll finally be able to see if you really are human!”

Yu’s eyes narrowed, looking a bit disgruntled at the blunt comment, but he said nothing in reply. A small smile appeared on his face, faint but apparent, and he responded, “Yes, Rioroute-san, I am human.”

“So why are you up this late, anyway?” Rio asked, switching immediately to another topic. He placed his arms in the air, intertwining his hands and resting his head against the rest that was created. “I mean, I couldn’t sleep ‘cause I didn’t do enough stuff today, but what about you?”

“Nothing,” Yu replied, and Rio frowned. Yu sighed, “Nightmares.”

“Huh? Nightmares?” Rio blinked, his face attaining a baffled expression. The thought of Yu suffering from nightmares was so inconceivable that for a moment, Rio was inclined to dismiss the reply as a joke. But considering the fact that it was Yu he was talking to, Rio knew that it was hardly such. Frowning slightly, Rio prodded, “What kind of nightmares?”

“Demons.”

The simple word was spoken with such calmness that it almost could have been any word. But Rio saw the haunted look in Yu’s eyes, though it was cleverly hidden, and he picked up on the underlying fear in the younger pilot’s voice. Perhaps if he had been Ernest, he would know what it meant, but all Rio could really sense was that Yu wasn’t joking around. The nightmares he was having were serious. Almost deathly so, if he had read the tone correctly.

Rio waited a moment before replying, debating over the most reasonable response to what Yu had just said. After a while, he inquired, “What kind of demons?”

“Dark ones,” Yu explained, his gray eyes fixed on the floor beneath him. “They’re coming for us.”

“They... they’re what?” Rio exclaimed, eyes wide in surprise. Briefly checking Yu’s face for any signs of making a joke, Rio touched the younger pilot’s shoulder cautiously. “You’re kidding, right? C’mon, Yu, it was just a nightmare...”

Yu recoiled from the touch, his eyes widening in an expression that Rio had never seen on him before. It was a mixture of fear and apprehension, and a touch of... menace? Rio pulled his hand back quickly, astonished at Yu’s startled reaction, and whispered, “Yu? Are you all right?”

“It was a warning,” the dark-haired boy murmured, more to himself than to Rio. “A warning. There won’t be one next time.”

“Yu...”

At that moment, Yu looked up at him, and their eyes connected. The fear that Rio had sensed earlier was gone, and instead, a subtle anger was apparent in Yu’s strange gray eyes. The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Rio broke away, nervous. He could have sworn that Yu was smirking...

“I’m going to bed.” Yu stated calmly, as if he were unaware of what had just occurred. “I’ll see you in the morning, Rioroute-san.”

“Uh... sure...” Rio replied apprehensively, his nerves high from the incident that had just occurred. Not only had Yu been acting extremely weird, Rio could swear that somehow, he had been threatened. And not just him - everyone he cared about as well. But Rio knew that Yu hadn’t said anything threatening towards him, just...

Rio frowned, opening his mouth to ask Yu about it, but before he could say a word, Yu was already walking away. The words he had wanted to speak dying on his lips, Rio watched as the younger pilot turned the corner and disappeared into the shadows. For a moment, Rio was left alone on the dock, frozen. There was a feeling in the air, a portent of coming peril...

Suddenly, a haze seemed to pass over him, and the feeling was gone. Rio yawned. “Man, I’m tired.” Stretching his arms out over his head, Rio abruptly turned away from where he was standing, going back the way he had come. As he passed by Agui-Keameia, Rio waved and shot her a grin, murmuring, “G’night, my friend. Hopefully I won’t be too tired tomorrow.”

With that, Rioroute Vilgyna walked away from the docks, the fearful memory of his meeting with Yu slowly fading away. In the corner of the docks, the shady figure of Yu Hikura stood, pensive. He waited until Rio’s footsteps died away before smiling surreptitiously. Closing his eyes, the dark-haired boy placed a hand on his chest and disappeared.

Far away from the docks, in the sleeping quarters meant for the pilots, the real Yu Hikura woke up with a start, visibly shaking in fear. Breathing harshly, the dark-haired boy could only remember one thing about his nightmare.

Demons.