Kam feels himself slip into the dream like falling  off the edge of a chair. Suddenly, he opens his eyes and literally falls off a tree branch. Despite the tree’s height and enormity, his heart steadies. It is his dream. It can’t hurt him. He lands on his shoulders, picks himself off the ground, cracks his neck back into place, and lets the dream pull him forward for a short while. 

The dream can be like a compulsion. If Kam sits back and lets the dream go, it will take him through the world in his mind until he reaches his dream core where he’ll be able to wake-up. But Kam knows now that he can force himself away from the pre-ordained path the dream set for him. He starts with wiggling his nose. It twitches. A sense of control pierces through his skull like the snap of a whip. It’s a domino effect. Kam slows his breathing, then forces his body to a stop. It’s slow to respond at first, but eventually, his feet listen to him and not the dream. Elation fills his gut. 

“Fuck you, Asa, I don’t need you to move me anymore,” Kam shouts into the jungle before him, but the density of the trees and underbrush muffle his voice. The last few weeks, Asa needed to break him from the dream’s control, but now he can manage it on his own.  

It takes Kam another hour to realize that perhaps being controlled by the dream is a blessing. Asa and the nightmares materialize somewhere in Kam’s dream, and according to Asa, the dreams can be life sized. He could be anywhere. 

But Asa will find him. He always does. 

In the meantime, Kam decides exploring the jungle will be the best way to find Asa. The trees, however, are near impossible to climb. Wet moss covers the rough bark and few if any branches are low to the ground. Kam tries cutting through the underbrush, but it’s thick and all of the bugs and insects distract him. Even with his newfound freedom, Kam gives up, sits down, waits, and thinks about the kiss.

Kam puts a hand to his lips, remembering how roughly Asa kissed him. “Do my dreams mean anything if I can’t remember them,” he says aloud. He feels his arousal coming. Asa kissing him like that is a check-mark on his life goals sheet. He re-imagines Asa’s hand crawling up his back before Kam picks Asa up off the ground using the wall to support him. In his mind, Asa wraps his legs around him as Kam deepens the kiss, holding onto Asa with all his strength and-

“Hey there. It took forever to find you,” Asa says. He swings down from a high tree branch using a thick cord of webbing. Apparently he can produce spider webs too. Kam should have expected that. 

“Took you long enough,” Kam replies, trying to hide the bulge in his pants. 

Asa reaches out his hand. “I blame you. We’ve got quite a ways to go. Honestly, did you dream this up knowing we had to get to the highest point?”

Kam rolls his eyes. “Not my fault. And what do you mean? You have nor problem with these trees.”

“Dude.” Asa pulls Kam into his arms. The feeling of Asa’s spider legs rupturing through Asa’s skin  is less unusual to Kam now, but still creepy. The legs pierce through the skin and out of his back. His clothes meld and transform with the shift as if they are mere camouflage for his Dream Eater form. Kam’s not sure he’ll ever be completely used to it, but he has no time to think as Asa launches them both up into the trees. The leaves and branches scratch at them, but Asa’s strength propels them upwards with ease. “That’s where we’re going.” 

Kam’s dream is split into two distinct biomes. The jungle they are in meets up with a snowy mountain peak. The border between the biomes is unnaturally straight and orderly. The trees don’t even have snow capped canopies. 

Asa carries Kam through the jungle with his near superhuman strength.  He explains it like a strategy game.

“Dream Eaters are territorial, and we’re stronger in our territories. Your dreams are my territory, so I’m the alpha. In your head, no one can beat me. ”

When they enter the mountain biome, the air fills with a sudden chill. It’s cold, but not unbearable. It’s warm enough that snow shouldn’t fall, but in Kam’s dream, anything can be reality. 

They continue until they are close to the peak. Kam stops Asa and forces them to walk the clear path to the top as he remembers to be upset at Asa. Before Kam can even get a word out, Asa retracts his legs and hops far ahead of him.

“Get back here, you asshole. I didn’t forget you left me to hang back in my room.”

Asa turned. “We’re still in your room.”

“You know what I fucking mean. You’ve kissed me before? What else have we done?”

Asa lets Kam catch up. His eyes shift side to side, taking in everything except Kam’s gaze. “They’re your dreams. When I manifest in them, I take a form that-” He thinks for a while before continuing. They begin walking side by side to the top. “I take a form that blends. If the dream is about me, then I’m just that. Me.”

Shit. Kam thinks. “S-so what? How does that end up in us making out?

“You really haven’t figured that out?” Asa half laughs, but a gust of wind amplifies it throughout the mountain. “You’re a growing young man with a libido.”

Kam panics. “Oh god, no, no, no.” He’s day-dreamed about Asa since who knows how long. His mind has to go somewhere during algebra. But those were just that: day-dreams. If his brain can make an environment full of humidity, bugs, snow and mountains straight from a climbing catalog, how much could his dreams about Asa do?

Asa answered for him. “We’ve kissed, gone on dates, cuddled, had sex, stared into each other’s eyes after laying under the stars. You know, the stuff romance is made of.”

“No-no-no-no-no, I don’t….You’re telling me that we’ve fucked?”

“Only in your dreams.”

Kam stops. “Like that matters. We’ve had sex!”

“You’re a top by the way. Spoiler alert.” 

Ok, Kam did not imagine that. “Did…Did I…”

Asa grabs Kam’s shoulder and stares into his eyes. The panic setting in fades from Kam’s consciousness. “You initiated, but I said ‘yes.’ I was curious. I’ve known you liked me cause of the dates and stuff, so I thought you would be OK with it.” He squeezes Kam’s shoulder and Kam wants to melt into the mountainside. “So don’t worry about it. You were always a gentleman. Everything we’ve ever done I agreed to. I never minded. And If I didn’t feel like it, I just ate you.”

Relief floods through Kam’s body, but it’s quickly replaced by a different feeling. “So you’ve known this whole time? Why haven’t you ever mentioned it?”

Asa’s arm falls to Kam’s hand. They hold hands as they take the final steps to the top. “And tell you I know all of your secrets, and that I’m a dream eater and have been eating your dreams since we were kids and, oh! We also have sex there, and I’m also a monster with eight legs and eyes.” He smirks next to him. “Why didn’t you tell me you’ve been crushing on me since middle school?

Kam doesn’t have an answer for him.

“That’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Anyway, it’s not like I mind. I’m ok with you liking me like that.”

It is but Kam can’t say it. He’s feared Asa’s rejection for so long. A worry forms. Maybe Asa didn’t mean it like that, but the words are there, floating in Kam’s mind and banging against the walls. He can’t ignore them. ‘It’s not like I mind.’ ‘I’m ok with you liking me like that.’ Is apathy worse than rejection? Kam changes the subject.

“So how do we meet other Dream Eaters?”