Chapter Text
Archie jerked back to himself at the sudden noise. For a moment, he couldn't breathe; his lungs felt crushed inside him, his fingers raw, nails torn off and broken.
Then he drew in a breath, long and deep and wonderful and the world started filtering back in. Dark, yes, but the easy dark of a curtained room at night. Not- not-
"-not alone any more!" Kay was sitting up in bed, clutching the bedclothes and half shouting.
Archie sat up, still shivering from the dream-pain. "Kay?"
Kay stopped, and for a moment he didn't seem to know where he was. That made two of them. Then Kay looked at him, and all the tension sloughed off him, and he slumped back on the pillows. "Archie."
"I'm here." Archie lay back beside him, huddling up against Kay's body. He smiled as a big arm came up around him, pulling him in closer still.
"Shit. Was I shouting?"
"A bit." Archie listened, but the house was silent. "I don't think anyone heard."
"Yeah. If they did, we'll just say it was a- deer outside, or something."
They had the attic rooms to themselves, and the only other lodgers in the hotel that night were the guests two floors down. After a few more moments of no other sounds, they started to relax- then started again as an owl hooted in the distance. In the dim light through the curtains, Archie saw Kay smile, letting out a long breath.
"Are you all right?" Archie punched the pillows, fluffing them up, and settling himself more comfortably beside Kay.
"Just a dumb dream." Kay yawned, rubbed his face.
"It sounded bad."
"It was. Still dumb. Those dreams that are awful, then you wake up and it's like- what was all that about? It's not scary at all."
Archie hemmed, and Kay leaned over the side of the bed for the bottle of water they kept on the nightstand. "Want some?"
"Please."
"I was in a house." Kay said after he drank and passed the bottle to Archie. "A big place, like a stately home or something. I was on my own, and there was all this mist. I- it's stupid. That was it. I was alone, in a big house, with mist. And I felt so- awful and miserable. Like everyone hated me or just- never cared. Fuck, saying it out loud it sounds even more stupid."
"No it doesn't." Archie insisted. Then, "Well, perhaps a little."
"You see? Dumb. Sorry for waking you."
"Don't be, I was having a bad dream too."
"Also stupid?"
"Very. I was in a box, and I couldn't get out. I was looking for someone, but I couldn't find them, and I was scared I wouldn't be able to find my way out."
"Of a box?"
"I did say it was very stupid."
"What kind of box?" Kay was smiling, rubbing Archie's back.
"I don't know, I was inside it, I couldn't very well see what it looked like from outside."
"Just thinking of cats in boxes."
"Pff." Archie smiled, kissed Kay's cheek. Kay turned his head, and they shared a proper kiss, soft and warm.
They lay there in silence, for a long moment. Outside, there was another hoot, a few birds starting to chirp as dawn gradually approached. "I sometimes dream of a manor house." Archie said at last.
"Yeah?"
"I'm trying to find you, but I can't see properly. Also there's a giant spider in there somewhere."
"See, that's a proper scary dream. Not about boxes and mist."
Archie wondered if he should say he'd been having those dreams since before he met Kay, but decided against it. "I wonder if there are- memories in those dreams."
"I doubt it. Like I've ever stayed in a manor house."
"But-" Archie lifted his hands, looking at them in the dim light. Ran the pad of his thumb over the irregular, broken surface of his nails. "I wonder if I was locked in a box." he said at last, "Maybe I was trying to dig myself out."
"Maybe." Kay said flatly. "And if you ever recognise those who did it to you, tell me and I'll do another murder." He kissed Archie. "Don't think about it, okay? Anyway, we need to get some sleep. Remember we've got that school trip coming in the morning. St Luke's from the UK."
"Oh Lord." Archie remembered, he smiled. "It's going to be bedlam."
"Exactly. A house full of mist- even with a giant spider- is going to seem like a holiday after that."
Archie smiled, and shut his eyes, snuggling up against Kay.