Stepping onto the sidewalk felt like a relief after work. A beautiful breeze blew by the dull air and onto my face, cooling the sweat trickling down my face. Even though my job is just a stocker for the bakery at the grocery store, they had me move a really big box of equipment for one of the new stoves and I didn't get much help. I'm fine now, though. Wind can be comforting.

I wonder if Spencer already started moving in. There would be no way he could get everything on a single dolly in one trip, so he might've started to move in hours ago. Hopefully Lisa isn't difficult to live with. She appeared to be soft-spoken but I never had a younger sister before. Maybe I should have some hope for it to be fine. After all, people seem to be warming up to me. Whether they feel bad for me or not diminishes after I'm allowed to be far from them for a lengthy time.

It was a short walk to my apartment but when I got there, I was immediately enamored. Right before my eyes was a shirtless Spencer still in his sleep state, panting softly as his furred hand gripped onto the handle of a red dolly. Small boxes were stacked on top of each other that were filled to the brim with unknown items. There was a small wet spot on the topmost box which drew my attention to the sweat dripping from his body, creating a small puddle on the cardboard. The backdoor was held open by Lisa, who was not in a sleep state. She was frail, short as her sleep state was, and had long hair that hung past her shoulders barely. Bangs fell over half of her forehead, drapes that attempted to conceal her face despite how small they were. Her eyes shot to me and back away, trembling slightly. Lisa's attire was a simple maroon t-shirt, a pair of baggy blue jeans, and sandals that matched her shirt. "Why does Spencer have to look like that?" She mumbled.

"I-I'm sorry, Lisa," Spencer chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "I just wanted to take a nap, is all."
"You should get used to sleep states!" I smiled. "Outside of school, they're pretty commonly seen."

"Why not in school?" Lisa questioned swiftly.
"Er, well..." I looked down. "For me, it's because drama's easily started up, if their sleep state is, uh... similar to someone they see in a picture with someone else. A lot of the teachers hate it too. The principal for our school has something against them for whatever reason."

"It's the same way in the middle school," Lisa stated. "There's a rule against it. I'm really glad it's there..."

"You can't hide yourself from a sleep state forever," I shook my head. "You should always have exposure to them! It's like looking into someone when you see one. You can tell a lot from sleep states!"
"You're like an advertisement for sleep states," Lisa remarked. "Sleep state propaganda."

"I..." I blinked. "Is that a compliment?"
Spencer shrugged, "Like I said, she's smart."
"I'm holding the door open still," Lisa shook her head.
"Ah, right," Spencer nodded, grabbing a box. "Uh, you can deal with the lighter stuff, if you wanna help!"
"Alright!" I chirped, grabbing one of the small boxes. It was as light as I anticipated it'd be, watching Spencer from behind as he walked inside. The door inside the apartment was open, the light within blocked by Spencer's back. Lisa's eyes shot to mine and I glanced at her. "Do you always stare at him while he's shirtless?" She commented.
"W-well," I could feel my face light up, "I‒"

"Do. You do," Lisa laughed softly. "He works out a lot. Fortunately for us, the gym's really cheap to go to here."
"Yeah," I chuckled awkwardly, waddling into the room with the box in hand.

When I stepped into my room, it was no longer, well, my room as I remembered it. There was a monitor set up on the desk that it once sat on in Spencer's room with a box accompanying it to keep it company. Instead of his bed being here, there was only another mattress much larger than the one I had resting there underneath it, the only difference being that there were even more blankets and pillows on the bed. A nightstand stood tall above the bed of mattresses with a powered off lamp sitting on top of it. His smartphone laid beside the lamp, plugged into the outlet that the light source shared. It was like my old room combined with Spencer's mansion room, fusing into our room.
My vision focused back on the box in my hands, turning it around to see if it had any sort of name indicating where it had to be. In black marker, the words, "LISA'S ART SUPPLIES" were written on its underside. With that, I quickly began heading for the door Spencer walked through.

Walking inside the living room further surprised me. What was once a room devoid of nothing but a carpeted floor, blank and feeble white walls, and a hallway into an equally empty kitchen had an entire bed, several boxes, a nightstand, and a white wooden desk in the corner. A door was beside the desk that resembled the door that linked Spencer's and my room together, a window to the left of the front door. Spencer was placing the box he had on top of a counter in the kitchen that had a tiny pond of boxes on the generic tiled floor which snatched my attention away from what I was once doing, causing me to peer into the kitchen.

The living room had a small opening the side of a doorway that led into the kitchen, a small room with a row of six cabinets at one wall and a cabinet surrounding each side of a quaint oven complete with an old stove top. A few wooden cabinets were connected to the wall above the wooden countertops positioned in each corner of the miniscule kitchen. Spencer had set the box down, panting softly as sweat continued to drip from his body. Not wanting to stare too much anymore, I quickly set the box I had down on top of Lisa's bed and scrambled over to him. "Is something wrong?" I asked, gently nudging some of the boxes on the ground out of the way as I rubbed his back with my left hand.

"I'm fine," Spencer shook his head. "Just... forgot how heavy stuff can be. Sweating a lot more than I expected."

If I was in my sleep state, I would've had a lot more hands to comfort him with and I'd probably be able to lift more boxes. That'd definitely help moving way more easily. "Maybe I could take a quick nap?" I asked.

"Why'd you want to do that?" Spencer blinked.

"I'd have more helping hands," I giggled.

He chuckled, "Oh right, ha. Do you need me to wake you up?"

I shrugged, "I guess so. Are the other boxes the last ones?"

Spencer nodded. "I'm sure you can get a lot of the light ones in one go," He smiled. "There's just one heavy box left that I can get."

"Then I'll rest real quickly!" I returned the smile, heading toward our bedroom.

I swiftly rested my back against one of the many pillows, closing my eyes. Spencer's footsteps sounded through the floor as I tried to doze off, one of the actions that should be pretty easy for me to execute. He nudged me, which made me part an eyelid. "Yes?" I hummed.

"Thank you," Spencer's smile grew, "...for everything. You kinda saved me."

"You're welcome," I nodded, shutting my eyelid as I attempted to rest for at least a minute. Just as I suspected, my mind finally began to rest as I fell asleep.

An image stood before me, staring at me through the darkness. A torch rested in my hands, lit by a fire. I began a trek that I couldn't deter as I headed toward the figure disguised by the dark. Without hesitation, I drew the torch's light to the figure.

Staring at me was an angel with my mother's visage, her eyes piercing into mine. Dust filled the room as the slam of cracking stone fell behind me, jerking my body to see what had fallen. An elongated wall of stone bricks stood tall over me, a statue of another angel with the visage of my father staring right at my entirety much like my mother, despite the tail of a devil protruding from him. I frantically looked at my mother, who had the same tail.

Someone hugged me from behind, six arms. They were jet black and fluffy, holding me against a muscular chest that felt incredibly uncomfortable to be forced against. I looked up, seeing the visage of Knox staring down at my eyes. My eyes darted down as a pink lily growing in the center of my chest as my top disintegrated into balls of pink glowing light. The light formed into a reflection of me, staring at me back with a dumbfounded expression.

The clone grimaced at me, disgust filling each and every muscle in its body. With a snap of its fingers, I fell into the void.

I fell, watching the scene above me disintegrate into a black hole. Stars began forming around me, then planets, and then the earth. My body collided with earth. I didn't expect it to hurt. It hurt beyond recognition. Each of my eyes were left alone yet they still functioned, forcing me to watch my limbs split and break apart. A glowing pink orb rested in the center of my corpse with a small, pink-furred, spider-like baby resting below it. The baby was screaming from its bared fanged teeth, crying out of each of its eight eyes, tumbling around the grassy field, and smashing the ground with its six fists yet when it saw the orb, it immediately froze. With awe in its eyes, the baby reached up and touched the orb.

The orb erupted with light and in a flash, it was over.

The dream was over.

When I awoke, I gasped. Spencer and Lisa were both shaking me, fear fixed on their expressions. "Thomas! Thank goodness!" Spencer embraced me, hugging me to his chest.

"Wh-what happened?" I stammered, clinging to him with six arms.

"You were out like a light for an hour!" Spencer trembled, looking at me directly yet genuinely. "You stopped br-breathing at the end... a-and you were talking to yourself in this really weird gibberish and‒"

"Spencer," I looked at him, not noticing the tears streaming out of all eight of my eyes, "please calm down. I-I'm fine‒"

"You were dying!" Spencer exclaimed.

"I'm fine, see?" I tumbled around in his arms. "I'm not dying. I just... had a nightmare."

"B-but... but..." Spencer was crying just as much as I was, though mine were calming down. "I was scared. I... didn't know what was happening. I..."

"It's okay," I placed my lower hands against the bed, sighing as I wiped the tears that were forcibly running from my eyes. I tried to give him a smile as I looked into his vibrating eyes. "It's even more okay with you here," I giggled, planting a kiss on his cheek. "I'll always be okay with you."

"That's... stupidly corny," Spencer laughed softly, looking away. He sighed, hugging my body with incredible strength. I squeaked, glancing at the back of his head. "I'm sorry for worrying you," I chuckled.

"...I guess we both worry," Spencer chuckled back.

"And I chuckle too," I winked.

"Yeah..." Spencer sniffled, lifting one of his arms to wipe the tears from his eyes.

I glanced at Lisa, who was fiddling with her fingers. Her eyes were no longer filled with fear. She sniffed, "Thomas, there was a flower."

"Huh?" I blinked.

"A flower grew from your chest," She stated.

"There was?" I let go of Spencer. With a confused blink, Spencer lessened the strength of his hug, letting me look at my chest.

A pink lily was poking out from under my shirt, glowing a hot pink hue. It remained there for a few moments before crawling back into my chest and leaving behind a familiar pink orb that quickly flew away from me. Elegantly, it danced above Spencer's head and split into two. One orb was significantly larger than the other orb, being as small as a blueberry. The tiny pink orb floated in front of Spencer, floating in front of his chest. He held out his cupped hands, letting the small orb float on top of the palms of his hands. Gently, the orb flowed into his palms and formed a pink heart on his fur. Perplexed, I stared at the heart and back up at the large pink orb as it graciously flew away, heading toward the open backdoor. It remained in the doorway for a few moments before it flew off toward the setting sun. For some reason, it felt as if it were looking directly at my soul, piercing into me much more passionately than I have ever felt in my entire life in every conceivable plane of existence, an oddly nostalgic stare that comforted me enough to erase my confusion in one fell swoop.

Spencer parted his hands and looked up at me with a befuddled face fighting freaking out. "Thomas, do you know what's going on...?" He whimpered, his eyes quivering.

"No..." I shook my head, "...no, I don't. Even if I don't know, I feel like things are going to be fine anyways!"

"Even if you... almost die and a... fl-flower grows from out of your chest... a-and..." Spencer stammered.

"Spencer, please calm down," I sighed. "Let's just... live, okay? We've both been through a lot in a short amount of time. Both of us cried and both of us got hurt just to be together and when we eventually get out of here, I hope we can stay together forever, no matter what happens."

"Do you promise...?"

"Promise what?"

"That we'll always be together," Spencer sniffled. "A-and that everything will be okay, no matter what other weird thing life throws at us."

"No matter how bizarre life can get," I smiled, "I'll always stand by your side."

With one final embrace that connected everything together, we became anything.

His kiss confirmed that.