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He couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't feel one inch of his entire body as he laid there, eyes wide open staring into the darkness of the night. It was like a big rock was crushing him. Breathing was hard, yet manageable, but it was so thick and raspy that with every breath he took, he thought this would possibly be the last one.
Was he dying? What was going on?
His eyes darted from one place to the other, the silence and the darkness of the room creeping up on him until he saw it, right there on the edge of his vision. His heart jolted into his throat and his breathing became panicked and hurtful.
He wasn't dying. He actually recognized this, Scout was having another episode of sleep paralysis. Fuck.
It'd been so long since the last time he experienced this, why was this happening now? Well, it didn't matter, because the figure that had been haunting him from as long as he could remember was inching into the room and coming closer and Scout was getting so scared. His heart pounded a tattoo in his chest as he watched the immensely tall figure, all dressed in black stare at him despite having no eyes. Its head was slightly tilted sideways and besides the fact that it lacked eyes, a blood red smile was spread across its face and blood was pouring out of its mouth.
It stopped moving when it was only a few feet away from the bed and by that point, Scout's breathing became sob like. A traumatizing experience as such had been so long, he hardly remembered what to do and even if he did, he was too panicked to think straight anyway. You couldn't blame him, surely not with a right demon standing next to his bed with the most inhuman smile splitting its unnatural face.
But, that was far from the worst thing to happen.
Moments passed and if felt like the room grew more silent with every beat of his heart. Scout's breath hitched in his throat a few times as he tried to control it, but when suddenly the figure lunched towards him, a muffled shout, a string of panicked whimpering left his sealed lips. He tried to crawl away, tried to move his arms to defend himself, but nothing was working and soon the figure was looming over him and Scout's panicked noises only became louder and more desperate. Wanting to scream for help, but being painfully unable to do so. Maybe he was going to die.
"Scout?" He heard a tired voice speak next to him, only now remembering that he wasn't alone here. "Scout, you okay?" It took all the strength in the world for Scout to avert his eyes from the figure to look at Sniper who sat up next to him, who needed a moment before realisation downed upon him. "Oh, bloody hell. It's been a whoile since you've had one of these." The marksman spoke softly as he ran a hand through Scout's hair to sooth him. "Try to breathe, remember wot Medic told ya, love. Relax your body."
Scout swallowed thickly, keeping eye contact with Sniper who'd started breathing with him, holding his hand and riding this horrible experience out together with Scout. "That's it, you're doin' amazin'." The feeling was finally returning to his body, his lips, his throat and as slowly every inch of himself was waking up, the figure disappeared into nothingness only to scare him another night.
"Try squeezin' my hand." Scout's first attempt was futile, barely being able to create any pressure on Sniper's hand and it made him panic again. His breathing picked back up, scared the episode might not be over yet after all. "That's okay, Scout. Try again, don't panic, don't panic." Sniper was being so gentle with him, repeatedly running his hand through the runner's hair and managing to stay calm himself because he exactly knew what to do. A whole while back, when Scout had finally decided to go to Medic with this, Scout had asked Sniper to come with and ever since the marksman had never forgotten what had been said that day, just in case it'd come back. You never know.
The fifth time around Scout finally managed to squeeze Sniper's hand, relieve pooling into his chest as he finally let himself believe that this would indeed come to an end. "Amazin', you're doin' absolutely amazin'." Suddenly breathing was less of an objective as it was before and he even managed to move an arm behind himself. A few of his fingers and his left foot still felt numb, but furthermore he was finally awake. Pushing himself into a sitting position, Scout eventually managed to open his mouth, only to completely lose it at that point.
Desperate for this horrible feeling to go away, Scout launched himself at Sniper and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face into the marksman's chest. "I-I'm sorry.." Sniper was quick to return the hug, gathering Scout into his arms and pressing him closer.
"C'mon love, ya should know by now that this ain't somethin' ya need to apologize for."
"I k-know..." Scout was gripping Sniper's shirt, needing so much reassurance before actually believing he was safe in the marksman's arms. "Thank you, Snipes... I'm so glad you're - you're here.." Sniper simply hummed as a response, rubbing soothing circles on the runner's back and coaxing him to relax his rigid body.
They sat there for a while, Scout saw the minutes melt away on Sniper's alarm clock, yet it was far from morning. He knew at some point they needed to go back to sleep and as allured as he was to ask Sniper to stay up with him for the rest of the night, he knew it was an unfair request. They had work in the morning and for their job they needed every minute of rest they could get. Asking Sniper to stay awake was unimaginable and he knew that.
"Ya think you'll be able to go back to sleep?" Despite knowing that question was bound to be asked, it still left for a dreaded feeling. "Y'know 'm always roight here, so there's no need to be scared. That's a promise." He smoothed Scout's hair one more time before planting a kiss on the crown of his head.
And Scout, he really wanted to believe Sniper's promises, didn't want to be scared that when he closes his eyes the same thing will happen just a few hours later. So he nodded his head and managed a weak smile as he looked up and pressed a kiss onto Sniper's lips. "O-okay..."
They shifted their positions until Scout was resting his head on Sniper's chest and the marksman had his arms wrapped around him, legs tangled together. He felt secure, feeling as though as long as he was safely within the arms of the person who drove away the monsters nothing could actually hurt him.
Right before dozing off, Scout pressed one last kiss to Sniper's jaw before nuzzling into him and finding it within himself to fall back asleep.
He might not believe it, might still feel the dread from the moment he closed his eyes and bathed in nothing but darkness, but he wanted to and that was already a good start.