“Until then, you stay. Deal?”

She weighed this. How long would he be dreaming? Would she regret this? She wasn’t used to tying herself down. Though, to be fair, she also wasn’t used to talking to real people. She wasn’t even sure she liked him. Sure, he seemed to have a sense of humor, of some sort, and he seemed willing to listen and have a good time, but would he really? He was clearly upset about something, though goodness only knows what.

Her biggest fear was that so long as she was in his dream she was dependent on him. If the dream suddenly went sour, and she promised not to leave, she would be stuck. She didn’t need to live through any more nightmares, she’d seen quite enough.

But… he needed her. For some reason that one thought broke down the rest of her reasoning. It even managed to break through her need to constantly seek fun. Something about this man-child wanting her presence, needing it, made her want to stay, despite everything else. She wasn’t sure she liked that, but she found she had very little power to resist it.

“If you keep up your end of the bargain.” She agreed in a light tone. Her smile felt a little shaky, but she firmed it up right away. “So long as you don’t blow up at me again, and any time you feel moody you step aside and deal with it, sure, I’ll stay until you wake up.”

He smiled widely, happily. She blinked. It was such a beautiful smile. Too wide, too happy. All for a such a small thing, just her continued presence. She dropped his hand and turned away.

“That’s great!” He cried. “Thank you! Of course! No more depressing nonsense. What do you want to do first? The beach? Arcade? A movie? How about an amusement park? You like those? What’s your favorite ride?” He motored off at a mile a minute. She cocked a brow in surprise, either he was overcompensating, or he was quite a talker with a shyness of strangers. She voted for overcompensating. No one went from depressed to deliriously happy in seconds like that, unless they were bi-polar. She sure hoped he wasn’t bi-polar. She wasn’t sure she could handle that.

“Sure, amusement parks are great.” She agreed cautiously, scared to set him off again. He was literally bouncing on his toes, for heaven’s sake!

“Awesome!” He grabbed her hand and dragged her back towards the house.

“Where are we going?” She queried.

“My car, there’s a park maybe an hour away.” He tossed over his shoulder.

She dug her heals into the grass. “This is a dream! There amusement park is wherever you dream it!” she cried in exasperation. Why couldn’t he get that?

He stopped cold. Turning to her, he smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Right, well, it’s right behind you then?”

She turned, and sure enough, there was an amusement park. There was the Ferris wheel, there was a roller coaster, and she definitely heard the plinky plunky music. She felt a shiver of excitement run up her spine.

She turned to him, excited. “Is it a good park?” She demanded.

He grinned back. “The best.”