Work Text:
Abed awoke, immediately springing upright, a shrill noise already coming from his mouth. Images of his dream flashed through his mind as he yanked on his hair and rocked back and forth in the lower bunk of his and Troy’s bed. It barely even registered that Troy was now in front of him on the bed, looking at Abed with worried eyes. He could vaguely hear Troy calling his name and the sound of his own voice, but it felt distant, almost like it was coming from a TV with the volume turned down low. His ears rang and his eyes stung, unable to get any actual tears out.
He sat like this, breathing heavily, mind racing, for maybe four or five more minutes. Usually his “freak outs” didn’t last that long, but he understood why it was going on for longer than usual. The dream felt so real– too real. As reality slowly started to seep its way back in, he saw Troy still sitting in front of him along with Annie, both of them looked scared but partially relieved to see Abed lift his head up slowly and look at them. His eyes were fuzzy, like he’d just woken up. The noise he was previously making died down quickly, devolving into quiet occasional whimpers. His ears still rang but less so than before. He could hear Troy and Annie now, he could even hear his own breathing. Annie quietly told him to take deep breaths while Troy was mostly silent, occasionally saying that he’d be fine, that everything’d be ok. He looked at Abed with a strange smile, like he was happy to see Abed coming back to reality but still a bit worried for him. Abed slowly let his legs unfold as Troy and Annie cautiously got closer.
Troy eventually ended up snuggling into Abed’s side as he rubbed small soothing circles onto his chest and stopped a few times to feel Abed’s heartbeat. Annie sat on the other side of him, she held his hand tight and just looked at his face, probably for any signs of discomfort or distress.
After what was probably more than twenty minutes of this, Abed was nearly back to his normal self and Annie politely excused herself after saying goodnight and checking to make sure he was going to be fine if she left. Troy didn’t leave his side.
Troy softly spoke after another minute or two, “Do you want me to go?” Troy looked up at Abed, clearly there was no wrong answer to his question. Abed took another breath before he finally muttered out “Stay. Please.”. His voice was raspy and quieter than he expected it to be. He felt Troy nod against his shoulder and heard him gently say an “Okay.”
Troy interlocked their fingers and squeezed tightly. “Do you need anything?” Troy asked with another gentle squeeze.
“The weighted blanket would be good.” Abed stated, glad to hear his own voice a little bit less upset than before. Troy slowly moved away from Abed, leaving him missing the warmth of Troy’s body already. Troy quickly came back with a folded blanket in hand.
“Lie down.” Troy said, asking him rather than telling him to. Abed slowly moved his body back, resting against the familiar softness of his pillows. He felt stiff, almost like what he imagined a GI Joe figure would feel like if it came to life. His mind was a lot more at ease, even with a lot of jumbled thoughts being tangled in with his normal ones.
Troy covered Abed in the blanket gently before joining Abed under it, cuddling up to Abed the second he got under the covers. Abed was just focusing on his breathing and the comforting feeling of Troy being next to him, trying his best to fall back asleep, even if the idea of doing so scared the hell out of him right now. Then he heard Troy quietly speak,
“Hey Abed?” he sounded more than half asleep already.
“Yeah?” Abed replied.
“I love you.” Troy fell silent after that, probably just not having anything else to say, or he’d already fallen back asleep.
Abed thought for a moment, he could do a Star Wars reference right now, and Troy would probably like it, but somehow it just didn’t feel like the right thing to say. “I love you too.” He could feel Troy smile against his shoulder, which in turn made him smile too. He felt all his muscles start to relax and he took a deep breath in and out, suddenly realizing just how tired he was. It was probably past 3AM by now, so it made sense.
He let his eyelids drift close as he listened to the rhythmic sound of Troy’s breathing and lulled off into a peaceful, happy sleep.
-
The End.