Work Text:
Ship: Valor/Kars/Esidisi (Esidisi is mainly only mentioned near the end but he's a part of the triad so he goes here too)
Prompt: shh, it’s okay. it was just a dream.
Perhaps he does not understand the dreams Valor has, Kars thinks, because he himself does not sleep every night, cannot dream the way he can. Yes, he can essentially put himself into a stasis of sorts, where there is no intelligent thought taking place and he would appear to the untrained eye to be asleep, but it is not the same.
It is especially not the same when Valor writhes and thrashes against him, whatever dream he's having pushing him just to the brink of waking up but not quite there, a pained scream tearing from his throat before Kars can reach out to wake him.
"Valor, Valor," he speaks, soft and low but with increasing urgency as he cups a hand around his husband's shoulder. He feels so small, and once upon a time Kars made the mistake of believing that Valor was weak because of how small and soft he is, but that is a mistake he only made once. Even so, seeing him like this now, his face twisted in terror even as his odd-eyes spring open, is almost more than he can take.
(He's grown soft, so soft, Kars thinks to himself, and his old self from thousands of years ago would've killed this Kars who lies in bed with a human he's become smitten with, but that was then and this is now.)
"It's alright," Kars continues, lowering his voice and tone again to soothe the frightened Valor, who clings to him and buries his face in the nape of his neck. He feels a pang of emotion in his chest when he realizes what's happening: Valor only does this when he fears losing him.
It's only natural. Everyone else in the Witch's life has died a horrible death, thanks to the Curse of the Old One that was placed upon him when he was just a baby. And even though he knows his new family cannot die like that, not so easily as all of the others, the trauma runs deep.
Unfortunately, Kars can understand trauma. Even if he has not and likely will never addressed his own. Even if the only reason he even vaguely understands is because he knows what he's inflicted on others, on those he calls his sons, on the one he also calls his husband who was there to witness his reign of terror.
So, for the moment, he lets Valor hold him, doesn't say a word against him as he places his palm flat against Valor's back. He can hold him for as long as he needs.
They only have forever.