Since he was born, Elias had not known who his mother actually was. His father never had portraits of her, and rarely spoke of her out of what was considered to be sorrow, wanting to remember what supposedly happened to her during his birth. An effort to run away and forget it all, the only thing to remind him being Elias, the child that she had given birth to all those years ago. But now Elias has learned the truth of his mother's identity, and his mind is riddled with questions. In a deep and restless slumber, he imagines how things could have been if only things were to have unfolded differently than they did.

In this dream, he can imagine himself as a little child playing in the bath, having the time of his life, as much as any child could. The bath, which is quite rustic yet fancy simultaneously, is full of lukewarm water, which Elias can imagine in full. Amelia walks in through the door after a bit of playing, and she kneels down beside the bath. "Okay, it's time to get out." She says with a kind smile. Though there is a difference, what she is wearing. Rather than the typical servant attire that she would normally adorn, she is dressed in a nice yet informal dress, akin to how a noblewoman would dress.

She helps him out of the bath and dries him all over before dressing him in his clothes, clothes he remembers all too well from when he was younger. She then takes him out of the room and into the greater manner, walking past some servants, one of which, a male servant, speaking. "Good day Mrs. Homings." The man says as the two pass, and Amelia waves at him with a close-eyed smile. Shortly after, a female servant who is doing some cleaning sees them approach and walks over, kneeling in front of Elias and pinching one of his cheeks. "Aw, no need to be shy." She remarks as Elias' face turns red.

The two women speak for a moment before Amelia, leading Elias by the hand, continues through the manner. In the list of growing differences, her last name being Homings is currently at the top of that list. Though that won't long continue, as they reach a new room, his father's study. Inside, he sees his father, wearing a nice suit with well-kept slicked back hair and a fine and neatly trimmed beard, very different than the scraggly look that he had in the real world. "Xavier, Elias is done bathing." Amelia says as they approach the desk, where he is writing inside of a business ledger. "How long will you be working tonight?" She asks him.

As he is asked this, he looks up from the ledger and places the pen down beside of it. His demeanor is serious, though not as easily agitated as Elias has known him to be in the real world. "I'm afraid that this will be yet another all-nighter. The company is demanding my all, these days." He tells Amelia, looking at Elias, who looks up at him from beside of her. "Hello, Elias. If you will be good, then I will get you that toy you want from the shop. Okay?" He asks with a shocking amount of warmth in his tone and wearing a rather uncharacteristic smile. Elias cannot remember the last time that he had seen his father smile, or if he ever did for that matter.

Elias is taken to his bedroom after this, where he is picked up and helped into it. He is pretty small, so as a child it was rather difficult to get up places like that. Amelia stands in to the side of the bed as he gets under the covers. "Honey, I'll just be in another room if you need me. I love you." She kisses him on the forehead and stands, putting out the dim light coming from the table by his bed. Leaving the room, Amelia heads to her and his father's room to get ready for bed and Elias steadily goes to sleep.

The child Elias has a nightmare and wakes up with a jolt in the middle of the night. Sounds of crying and screaming can be heard coming from his room, but Amelia has gone to sleep and the servants are off duty, most being asleep themselves. Only one person is close-by and awake, his father. He said he had a lot of work to do, and thus was going to pull an all-nighter, but as he hears his son terrified in his bedroom, which isn't too far away, he stands and puts work off for just a moment.

Rushing to the room hastily, Xavier opens the door and steps inside. Walking to the bed, he twists a switch on the table light by the bed, illuminating the room dimly, and he sees Elias trembling under the cover. He grabs the cover and kneels down, pulling the cover off of him. Elias has tears running down both sides of his face and looks at his father. "Elias, are you okay?" He asks with a warm smile, a loving smile and sign of affection he has rarely exhibited. "It's okay, I'm here." Putting his head against his son's, he hugs him closely.

As this visual lingers in the dream for a moment; something that Elias always wanted as a child, he buries his head in his father's chest. And this is not even where the dream ends as it cuts to the future, where Elias, now around ten years old, awakens in his bed. "Mmh..." He sits up and rubs his tired eyes, adjusting to the sunlight that shines into his bedroom. He stands up from his bed and stretches his back, which is pretty stiff feeling.

Wearing his pajamas and walking to his wardrobe, he gets dressed in clothing that is pretty nice, like what most male children of a noble family would wear. After he is well dressed, he exits his bedroom and looks down the hall to where the stairs are. Walking to the stairs and looking at the door to his father's office at the top, he knows his father is likely inside, though does not open it and opts to walk downstairs instead, portraits of his family, himself alongside his mother and father, at the side on the way down.

It's all really surreal to him, as it feels right yet off at the very same time. The home layout is correct, and even Elias' own appearance is how he remembers looking at this age, but the portraits are incorrect, as well as other smaller details. At the bottom, Elias turns to see his mother, Amelia, sitting in the lounge to the left. She sits on the sofa looking into a mirror, putting on what seems like makeup. For what? He couldn't really say. "Mother?" Elias says as he walks inside and up to the sofa, which faces the fireplace at the far end of the room.

Amelia turns as she hears him walk inside, seeing him standing behind the sofa curiously. She is surprised he looks so shocked, almost like he's never seen her in makeup before, though he most certainly has. "Elias, you act like you're looking at an oddity." She says with a laugh as she stands. The subtle eye shadow and red lipstick fits her fancy strapless dress that is red in tone perfectly. Walking around the sofa to him, she rubs her hand through his hair and looks down at him with a smile. "How are you, Elias? Did you just wake up?" She asks him.

Her hand moving from his hair and rubbing his cheek, he blushes and looks away bashfully. "M-Mother..." Like many kids his age, his mother or father being a bit overbearing with affection would be embarrassing, like it is here. Most of his classmates at the private school he attends are all about inheriting their parent's this and that, from business to their manors or estates. So, it embarrasses Elias to be treated this way in light of that. How his peers would view it.

Despite being a dream, these sensations, such as being embarrassed, all feel so very real. Amelia seems to find the bashfulness adorable through, as she removes her hand from his cheek and smiles with closed eyes. "My, it's okay dear. I won't embarrass you more than I already have." She tells him with a giggle afterwards, finding it very cute that he would get embarrassed over such things. Very much like a child, especially a young boy, would.

Rubbing the back of his neck and looking away, still embarrassed, he tries to rid himself of the embarrassment and calm down, as that also is very 'un-nobleman-like' in his and other kids' opinion. Clearing his throat and looking at his mother, he speaks while his face is still a tad red. "M-Mother, why... Why are you so fancily dressed?" He asks her, curious as to why she would be getting ready in such a way, as it is as if she is getting ready to go out somewhere.

"Why?" Amelia asks, smiling after she does. Glancing off for a brief moment and smirking, her red currently on her lips molding to the shape, she looks back at him. "It's been quite a while since last this happened, as your father has been so busy for the past few months." From this, he immediately knows what this entails, a date. That type of concept is so foreign to a child, but he knows it involves dinner, and maybe a few kisses. Even if the idea of seeing two people kiss grosses him out a lot, as it does a lot of children, boys and girls alike, but more commonly boys in his experience. "So, I want to look nice for him." She says as she twiddles with a bit of her hair.

Never before had he known them to be this close, as their relationship was mostly work related, or so he thought. As Elias looks up at her, a knock is heard on the hard wooden doorframe, and he turns to see his father standing in the doorway. "Father..." Elias says, his father's appearance looking very refined and foreign to him. From his slicked back hair to his clean-shaven face and nice suit, it all is very different from the Xavier Homings that he remembers, who was very raggedy looking, and fit in with the eccentric nobles from the novels that he has read in a way.

He looks at Amelia and briefly looks down at Elias, walking inside of the lounge rather than sticking to the doorway. He also looks as if he has gotten ready for Amelia, just as she did for him. "Well, would you look at this. My two favorite people in the whole entire world." He says with a laugh as he approaches, ruffling Elias' hair with his hand before kissing Amelia. After a moment of holding his lips against hers, he removes them and smiles at her. "I love the way that you look." Unbeknownst to him, her lipstick has yet to dry fully, so he has a red mark of her lips on his own.

This is funny, and Amelia cannot help but laugh some, as it's just so silly looking. "Dear, my lipstick hadn't dried, so-" She tries to explain what happened, but is unable to as when she thinks of it some more, she laughs yet again. Even though she failed to get the point across fully due to being unable to not laugh, Xavier can understand what she was trying to say completely. He wipes his mouth and sees lipstick on one of his fingers and starts to laugh as well.

This is also unfamiliar, as the father he knew would have been very upset about this. He cared a lot about his public image, even if his actions destroyed that same image, and would have been furious about something like this. Yet here, he is laughing alongside Amelia. Amelia's kind and friendly nature rubbed off on Elias, but in this dream, it seems that it also rubbed off on his father. "Well, now we both look beautiful." He says with a laugh, taking it with a lack of care for it having happened, even cracking a joke about it, which is very different from how he actually was.

The two parents laugh together as Elias looks up at them both. This is a sight that he never got to see in the real world, one that he wishes he had gotten the pleasure to witness. That's all that this dream is, deep down, things that he wishes could have happened. From knowing who his mother was since young, even to how his father behaves, taking each thing that he might not have done or might be angered by in the real world in a different, kind and fun-loving stride. Those are the things he wishes could have been, yet it was never meant to be, and there is nothing he can do to change that. His father is dead, and it took him upwards of eighteen years to learn who is mother was, that she isn't dead, but instead has always been by his side.

Waking up from this pleasant dream that has felt oh so long, he gets out from underneath the covers in the barracks and sits with his feet off of the side of his bottom bunk. Leaning forward as he sits; he takes in what happened inside of this dream and tears begin to flow as he covers his face with his hands. It's still dark out, and as light sobs escape his lips and tears flow down his face, he thinks on all he wishes could have happened, the things from the dream. He has been burying these feelings, as he has been trying to be strong. Yet now he cannot hold them any longer. He allows the sorrow to escape in a manner that might be considered shameful by some, but it is much needed, and will help him in the long run. He knows he will have to train once daylight comes but is okay with that. He will take it with stride, even whilst tired if need be.

To Be Continued...