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Ron let the side of his head fall against the car’s passenger side window. Groaning, he complained for the fifth time that night, “We’ve been driving for hours, can’t we stop somewhere?”
Bryan sighed, his hands clenching and unclenching around the steering wheel. He said, “I’m the one driving. So if anyone should be complaining, it should be me. Why don’t you just take a nap and I’ll wake you when we get there?”
Ron whined, not dissimilar to a child, “I can’t sleep in moving vehicles. And my head is pounding from when I fell on the job.”
Bryan glanced over at him, “I thought you said it was fine.”
Ron mumbled, “Well, now it hurts.”
Bryan fought the urge to roll his eyes. He stayed silent as he focused on the dark, empty road. There was shuffling to the side of him as Ron tried to get comfortable against the window. Bryan looked at Ron’s slumped, tired figure and felt a little bad for him.
Not even an hour had passed by the time Bryan’s eyelids felt heavy. He cursed himself for not getting a refill of coffee when they left. In the distance, there was a glowing sign that read ‘MOTEL.’
A half-asleep Ron stirred as Bryan drove into the parking lot. He parked the car and patted Ron on the shoulder, “Get up, unless you wanna sleep in the car.”
Ron rubbed his eyes and grumbled, “You’re cranky when you’re tired…” But Bryan had already stepped out of the car.
The two of them went inside and walked up to the young woman at the desk. She had bright yellow hair in a high ponytail and was reading from a magazine.
Ron suddenly felt more awake. He leaned onto the desk on his elbows, smirked at her, and said, “Are all motel employees this pretty or is it just you?”
She looked up at him with a straight face, “Are all customers this annoying or is it just you?”
The smirk from his face fell. Bryan shook his head, “Sorry about my colleague, he doesn’t think before he talks sometimes.” He glared at him for a second. “We’d like a room for the night.”
She didn't look up from her magazine as she spoke, “We’ve only got one room available at the moment.”
Bryan smiled, “Great, we’ll take it.”
“I don’t think it’s got two beds.”
“Oh. Well I mean…that’s fine, right? As long as it’s big enough for two?” Bryan said hesitantly and looked at Ron.
Ron shrugged, his expression unreadable, “Whatever.”
The woman told them the price and Bryan paid in cash. She slid a key across the desk and said emotionless, “Enjoy your stay.”
The room was small and Bryan suspected the yellow tint of the walls was not the original paint color. “At least it was cheap.” He muttered to himself.
Ron didn’t comment on the room. Instead he started walking to the bed–kicking off his boots, tossing his hat aside, and unzipping his flight suit as he went. Now in his black undershirt and gray boxers, he flopped onto the bed, limbs spread.
Bryan would’ve laughed at the sight if he wasn’t hit with how exhausted his body felt. After turning on a lamp and turning off the overhead light, he undressed to his white undershirt and boxers.
“Scoot over, Ron.”
Ron pretended not to hear him. Bryan pushed his shoulder, “I know you’re not asleep yet, Alexander, move over.”
With a groan, Ron rolled over and mumbled, “Geez…used the last name and everything.” Bryan ignored him, got into bed, and turned off the lamp. The two men laid on their sides back-to-back and fell asleep almost immediately.
Ron was awakened by small movements and mumbling beside him. He was now laying on his back, his open eyes facing the dark ceiling. A streetlight from outside just barely shined through the window blinds.
He felt more movement beside him and turned his head to look. Bryan’s sleeping body was trembling, his limbs jerking occasionally. He seemed to be mumbling something that Ron couldn’t make out.
Ron turned onto his side to face him and whispered, “Rookie?”
A choked cry sounded from Bryan’s throat and his face winced as if in pain.
Ron grabbed his shoulder and shook him, saying louder, “Rookie, wake up.” He shook him harder, “Bryan! Hey, wake-“
Bryan’s eyes shot open as he gasped and sat up.
Ron sat up too, but stayed silent. Bryan was shaking, his breathing rapid and harsh.
“You alright?” Ron asked quietly. He felt like it was a stupid question, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. He expected that Bryan would insist everything was fine and go back to bed, but surprisingly Bryan hunched over, placed his head in his hands, and slightly shook his head.
Ron’s stomach hurt at the sight of him. What the hell was he supposed to do?
Tentatively, he placed a hand on Bryan’s back and rubbed slow circles across his shoulders. Bryan had tensed at the contact, but now he started to relax and lean towards Ron.
“It was just a dream, Rook.” Ron’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle, “Everything’s fine.”
Bryan nodded, still covering his eyes and sniffling occasionally.
Ron shifted close to him and stopped rubbing his back so he could fully wrap an arm around him. He gently squeezed Bryan’s shoulder and repeated, “Everything’s fine.” And quieter he added, “I’m right here.”
If it were any other time, Bryan would’ve scoffed at that. But right now he felt himself leaning his head on Ron’s shoulder. Bryan removed his hands from his puffy eyes and sighed tiredly.
They sat there silent, until Bryan mumbled a rough “Thank you.”
Ron nodded, then hesitantly said, “Do you want to…talk about it? I think that helps people sometimes.”
Bryan mumbled into Ron’s shoulder, “It was just a memory gone wrong, I guess.”
“A memory of what?”
“It was from years ago, when I was a trainee.”
Ron’s eyebrows raised slightly, “Oh, back in New York?”
“Yeah. The memory though was,” Bryan’s voice wavered, “Not there.”
“So what, like, a different city?”
Bryan let out a small, bitter laugh, “No, different dimension, I think.”
“Oh,” Ron sighed, “Yeah, that’s scary.”
Bryan smiled a bit, “It wasn’t even that bad, I was just young and scared. Things could’ve gone wrong so easily, I’m surprised they didn’t.”
Ron leaned his head onto Bryan’s. The warmth and closeness was unusual for them, but Ron didn’t feel opposed to it. In fact, a part of him enjoyed it. He wasn’t sure what to make of that. He mumbled into Bryan’s hair, “...But things went wrong in the dream, right?”
“Yeah, multiple times. They just kept replaying one after another, it-” He inhaled shakily, “Either I died or I was just stuck .” His voice cracked, “Like there was one where they just left me there and…”
Ron instinctively held Bryan tighter against him. Bryan continued, although his voice became more wobbly, “Every time it felt so real. And I would remember the previous ones so I was scared because I knew it wasn’t going to end well-“ He was cut off as he breathed in shakily, his tears starting again. Ron’s stomach hurt again, and he moved to wrap both arms around the other. Bryan wrapped his arms around Ron’s middle and buried his head into the nape of his neck, openly crying.
They sat there in each other’s arms for a few minutes. Ron gently lowered them so that they were laying down, still holding each other. It was only a couple of hours ago that they were bickering and now they were practically holding onto each other like it was life or death. It was a strange progression, yet both men welcomed the change with their wrapped arms.
Soon, Bryan’s breathing relaxed and tears stopped flowing. He still didn’t move away from Ron’s arms.
Ron had his chin resting on the top of Bryan’s head. “Feelin’ better?” Ron asked.
“Yeah,” Bryan sighed against his chest, suddenly feeling embarrassed, “Sorry for all this.”
“It’s fine.” And Ron meant it.
Bryan smiled a little to himself, “I’m surprised you haven’t made fun of me yet.”
“I’ll get to it at some point.” He replied, “Just not tonight.” Bryan could hear the smirk in his voice.
Bryan sighed, “Isn’t this a bit weird for you? I know it’s unusual for you to…”
“Be nice?” Ron offered.
“Well- No, I wasn’t gonna say that.“
“It’s okay, Rookie, you don’t have to sugarcoat it. I know I’m a jerk.” He didn’t sound offended and he wasn’t. Bryan still felt a little bad for implying it though, especially after everything tonight.
Bryan chewed on the inside of his cheek then said, “Jerk or not, I really appreciate you waking me up…And all the other stuff.”
“Of course. I…” He hesitated, but then continued in a quieter tone, “It happens to me too sometimes. Nightmares, they’re shit. And sometimes I wish I had someone to just kind of…be there when they happen so, yeah.”
Bryan pulled away to look at Ron. The absence of his hat, that usually shadowed his eyes, made him look vulnerable and Bryan realized Ron looked nervous . Bryan smiled softly at him, “I could be there if you want. We could be there for each other.”
Ron looked back at him, his expression almost awestruck. He blinked hard then said, “Sure, yeah that sounds fine.”
Bryan technically didn’t need Ron’s physical comfort anymore; the effects of the nightmare had dissipated and Bryan felt drowsy. Wordlessly though, Bryan settled against Ron and closed his eyes, holding his breath. Ron’s tense figure relaxed and held Bryan closer to him, and only then did Bryan release his breath and drift off to sleep.