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Tonight is the last night for their group to get a good night’s sleep before they raid Abashiri tomorrow. Yet Sugimoto, a light sleeper by habit, is awake for seemingly no reason. He knows something is wrong, though. There’s never not a reason for him to wake up all of the sudden. He scans what little he can see of inside the cise in the dark. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and Sugimoto is about to just let it go when he hears a groan right beside him.
He looks down at Shiraishi lying next to him. Now that he’s paying attention to him, he notices how tense Shiraishi’s body is. Peering closer, Sugimoto can make out beads of sweat littering his exposed skin, and his face looks to be twisted into a pained expression. Shit.
“Oi, Shiraishi,” Sugimoto says softly, not loud enough to wake anybody else up.
Shiraishi doesn’t respond. He groans again and his head slowly turns from side to side. His breathing is uneven, but it still seems like he’s asleep. Is it a nightmare, then? Sugimoto wonders.
He isn’t sure what to do, but he does take his scarf off and use it to dab the sweat off of Shiraishi’s forehead and the rest of his face. It doesn’t do much. Sugimoto notices a change in Shiraishi’s facial expression, his eyebrows bunched together in a look of distress. The man whines.
Sugimoto decides he should wake him up. He tries gently at first, rubbing Shiraishi’s back to soothe him awake. When that doesn’t work, he resorts to lightly jostling him by the shoulder. That seems to do the trick. All of the sudden Shiraishi jolts awake, his eyes bulging open as he inhales sharply. He immediately sits upright and frantically looks around before his gaze lands on Sugimoto in front of him.
“Fuck,” Shiraishi says, breathlessly.
“Hey,” Sugimoto whispers. “You okay?”
He’s still frowning. “I...yeah. Uh, hang on a second.” Shiraishi stands up and quietly makes his way out of the cise.
Sugimoto considers following him, but soon he hears the sound of lake water splashing and knows that Shiraishi is just washing his face. He returns shortly and lies back down next to Sugimoto. Sugimoto follows suit. He still stares at Shiraishi as the man exhales heavily and thinks of what to do next.
“Nightmare?” Sugimoto asks softly.
Shiraishi meets his eyes and sighs. “Yeah,” he whispers.
They’re silent for a moment. Sugimoto doesn’t really know where to go from here. He’s comforted Asirpa after nightmares before, but he’s not sure if Shiraishi would be as accepting of the idea. It’s worth a shot either way.
“Do you...wanna talk about it?” Sugimoto asks hesitantly.
Shiraishi thinks for a second. He shrugs. “It was about tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
Shiraishi nods. “Yeah I uh, I fucked up, I guess. Totally butchered the break in. Inudou caught all of us and, fuck man, it was brutal, I’ll just say that.”
Sugimoto sees the way Shiraishi shivers as he recounts the nightmare and reaches over to rub his back again. Shiraishi doesn’t recoil from his touch.
“The worst part is, all of that is totally possible. Everyone is depending on me to pull off this raid. I’m so fucking useless, though, so it just feels really dangerous, y’know? I’m afraid of ruining it, letting everyone down.” He casts a distant gaze over Sugimoto’s shoulder.
Sugimoto feels his heart sink, but he understands. Feeling useless, that is. He can’t help feeling anxious about their upcoming raid, himself. The fact that Shiraishi is so overburdened by these worries, though, is upsetting to say the least.
“Hey, hey,” Sugimoto whispers. He brings his other hand up and attempts to ruffle what little hair is on Shiraishi’s head and immediately feels awkward. It doesn’t have the same effect as it does with Asirpa. He devolves into just petting his head to try to recover, feeling the coarse short hairs scratch against his palm, before moving his hand to Shiraishi’s shoulder. “You’re not useless, Shiraishi. And you’re not solely responsible for the success of this mission, either. We all have roles to fulfill in this, and we’re prepared for the worst scenarios. There’s no way you alone could do something that would cause this whole thing to fall apart, okay?”
Shiraishi frowns slightly as he looks at Sugimoto. It feels like he’s trying to stare into his soul. “Yeah?”
Sugimoto cracks a smile. “Of course. Even if things don’t work out, you won’t let us down. I promise.”
Shiraishi lets go of a breath he was probably holding for a while. Sugimoto’s glad to see him look genuinely relieved. “Okay. I guess I’ll take your word for it.” He flashes Sugimoto a slightly teasing smile.
Feeling emboldened, Sugimoto pulls Shiraishi closer into a loose embrace. “You better. Now c’mon, you gotta get some good rest before the big day.”
Shiraishi hums in agreement and nuzzles his head further into Sugimoto’s chest. Sugimoto lets out a pleased sigh at the gesture. He did something right, he thinks. And he has to admit it’s comforting to hold another warm body like this. The fact that it’s Shiraishi makes it even more so. Once he feels Shiraishi’s breathing slow against him he lets himself fully relax into their embrace and shuts his eyes. He needs to be well rested for tomorrow, too.