Unbeknownst to Samson Colt, his friend Chibi Sailor Hypnos was worlds away from Earth. He had no idea that she was far away on her own private asteroid, while he snoozed lazily in a pile of leaves.

The boy had settled in for a lazy Sunday, taking it easy after raking together the leaves in his small patch of a backyard. It started with crunching the dried leaves beneath his feet. It was such a satisfactory feeling, that he had left himself fall back into his carefully built pile. His morning’s work was a little damp, but the affect of the crunch still pleased him. Sam smiled to himself as he squinted up towards the sun and the clouds. He was content, reveling in taking a moment of childish pleasures; since he was now ‘a man’, at least in his own eyes, Sam felt he should enjoy things when he could.

It was weeks ago when he, under the mask of his alter ego Ixion, had the courage to go from being a boy, to taking a step towards adulthood. The dark haired youth stole his first real kiss from Hypnos. It was an impulse that drove him to do it. Dealing with the side effects was an after thought. He remembered how she seemed frozen after, tears running down her face, but claimed to be happy. Girls were confusing. He was new to figuring out the next step, which he had no idea what that was. What Sam knew was that as a whole, the experience was , minus the tears, a nice one. He didn’t dwell on it much further than that. Yet he still did not know how to approach the girl again, or what her expectations about him would be now.

He actually didn’t know how to approach any of the young ladies in his life. So while he planned and plotted the moves he could make, to smooth over any of the uncomfortable feelings, he avoided them both. Ainsley and Hypnos. At least until he knew what to say to either of them.

So Sam was focused purely on enjoying his day. The pile of leaves was cozy, the sun was bright; it was nice. The clouds in the sky drifted by like slowly crashing white waves. There was something about clouds lately, he didn’t know what exactly, but he found them relaxing. Watching the shapes slowly change, Sam fell into a light cat nap in the pile. Middle of the day, he was the embodiment of lazy Sundays.

There was a buzzing. The sound nudged him out of his nap. He checked his phone, pulling it out of his pocket. Nope. It was the other one. He wasn’t really sure whether it was magic of science that made it work (one day he would try to find out); but what he did know was that no matter the distance, it helped keep senshi tethered together. Sam felt around in the leaves, then pulled his phone out to look at the screen.

There was a text. From Hypnos. Asking if he was there. Of course he was there. Sam just stared at the screen. He was tempted to write back yes right away. But this was the first interaction between them since the kiss. He had to think of his reply very, very carefully. Was she going to tell him off? Ask for a date? He needed to be prepared for any outcome. As he looked at the screen, more words appeared, and then more. Then “I had a dream with you in it.” Sam’s brown eyes widened as he read the text. He was in her dreams. Of everything he could expect this to be about, what he had not counted on was having a big enough impact on the senshi of sleep that he invaded her dreams. He wondered what it was about, what was he doing in her dream? All the boy could do was stare at the phone. What did this mean?

He had no idea what to write back. So, like a true man, he wrote back absolutely nothing right away. The thought mulled around in his mind for a few minutes, trying to find the right words to convey his feelings and questions about it. There weren’t any. He had lunch, went about the rest of his day and promptly forgot about the whole thing as he became distracted by mundane takes. It wasn’t until the next day, when he was waking up from his own dream. He dreamt of bright blue skies and soft fluffy white clouds. His dream had no figures, no people; there were only clouds, and the feeling of gently breaking through them and felt like he was floating. Upon waking, he remembered the message from his Hypnos on his phone. Feeling guilty for not replying, he texted quickly.

“Cool. Hope it was good. ; ) “

He hit send, read the words again on the screen and them immediately regretted the winkie face. Too late now.