Trigger warning: mention of rape.

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Alex

Alex woke up from something moving close to him. He opened his eyes and realized that Jack’s arms were around him, the younger boy was spooning him. He froze; he had absolutely no experience with things like this. But why was Jack moving?

Alex noticed that Jack’s fingers were gripping his shirt tightly. Jack’s breathing was shallow but quick and his legs were moving as if he was running. A little “no” escaped Jack’s lips and he feverishly tossed, murmuring more no’s. And suddenly he was saying something else.

“Help! Help me! Please!” It was louder than what Jack had said previously and Alex reacted immediately. He turned on the lights, disentangled Jack’s long fingers from his clothing and turned around to face him. He cupped Jack’s face in his hands.

“Jack. Hey. Wake up.” Jack didn’t react. Alex shook him slightly and it still didn’t work. Jack held onto Alex’s arm for dear life and whimpered. Alex lightly pinched his arm because he was so desperate to wake Jack up. A little pinch surely wouldn’t be as bad as his dreams.

Jack stopped tossing, loosened his steel-grip on Alex’s arm and slowly opened his eyes. He began to cry almost immediately. Alex didn’t know what to do so he just wiped away Jack’s tears and made little shushing noises.

But Jack didn’t calm down, in fact, he got even worse. His damaged chest kicked in and he panicked and the more he panicked, the less he could breathe properly. It was a vicious circle. Alex realized what was wrong.

“Jack. Listen to me. Breathe with me. In – and out.” Jack tried to do as he said but it was hard for him. Sobs kept messing his breathing up and Alex did his best to dry off his face but it was hard.

“Shh, Jack. It’s okay. You are safe now. I’m here,” Alex whispered softly. Jack started to try to breathe with Alex again; slow, long breaths. This time, it worked better than before and he began to calm down. The sobs got less and the panic due to his lack of air subsided too.

Alex pulled him in for a hug. He held the fragile boy safely in his arms and he could feel Jack relaxing, the tenseness slowly leaving.

“Alex, I’m sorry,” Jack said after a while, voice hoarse.

“What for? You have nothing to be sorry for,” Alex replied.

“For this little… incident,” Jack said.

“No, shh, it’s okay. Don’t worry. But if you don’t mind me asking, what was it about?” Alex asked softly. Jack remained silent for a bit.

“Just a bad dream,” he finally answered.

“What about?” Alex inquired quietly.

“Dumb things,” Jack said quickly.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it but maybe it would help.”

“I’m… Yeah maybe you are right.” Another pause. “It was about Matt. He… he did some really awful things to me in my dream,” Jack whispered, tears filling his eyes again.

“What things?” Alex wanted to know. He tried his best to sound calming and reassuring.

“I… He… He raped… me,” Jack pressed out, starting to cry again. He was panicking too now in memory of the awful dream.

“It’s over now, Jack. It was a dream. You are safe,” Alex said.

“But…”

“But?” Alex asked.

“He… he tried to do that in real life too,” Jack sobbed.

Alex felt a surge of rage inside him that anyone would ever hurt Jack. He tried not to sound like he wanted to rip Matt’s still beating heart out when he answered.

“I’m so sorry, Jack. But he isn’t here now, you are safe here. I’m not going to do anything, the second you tell me to leave you alone, I’m not going to touch you anymore until you give me permission to.”

“No, please don’t leave!”

“I won’t if you don’t want me to,” Alex replied.

“Thanks so much. But… I’ll have to come back to him at some point,” Jack mumbled. He started to panic again, breathing getting harder again.

“I could go with you,” Alex interrupted.

“You would do that for me?”

“Always.”

“You are great, Alex.”

“You too, Jack.”

Jack hugged Alex back and the older boy noticed how Jack was a lot more relaxed now. Alex turned off the lights and listened to Jack’s breaths and heard how they got more regular. He felt himself drift off to sleep and didn’t do anything to stop it.

Notes

Alex, you're such a cutie! c:

Glad I'm able to update today since I had some troubles with my wifi.

-Laura