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He’s crying. Sobbing, shaking, terrified . His breath is coming short, and he’s so unbelievably dizzy. He feels his heart thump in his chest and hammer his temples.
Oh dear fuck, I don’t want to be hurt again
He tugs at his chest and falls to his side, crying and gasping. He is terrified, in pain and alone. He tries to call out, but can't find his voice.
Was everything always this loud?
Eventually, he hears someone calling him, but he can't see anybody, can't bring himself to move. He simply lies there, shaking on his too big bed, tugging at his shirt, hoping that the uneasiness in his chest will go away.
It doesn't.
Oh dear lord, please let this be a dream.
Then a hand suddenly grabs him. A soft, gentle hand, cupping his face, thumbing around his eye. "Tommy, sweetheart,” A desperate voice says, "Are you with me, love?"
He sucked out a wheeze, flinching from the touch and backing away. "Pl-please..I don't-“ He sucked in a sharp gasp. “w-want this," He panted, barely managing to squeak out the words.
"Oh, darling, you’re safe. You’re safe. Nothing’s gonna hurt you here, sweetheart." The voice says, cradling his face with so much care. So much love.
"You’re safe here with me, Toms."
"N-no. It’s n-not safe..fuck, it’s never safe." He cries as the hand thumbs at his cheek. It's a warm, soft hand, certainly not the hand of a torturer. "Please, I...I don't want to g-go back th-there. Please." He begs.
Oh dear lord, please let this be a nightmare .
“Oh, baby. Sweetheart,” The voice coos.
“Honey, look at me.” The voice urges softly, a soft kiss being placed to his forehead.
With suffocating hesitance, his eyes open from when he squeezed them shut. He comes face to face with a gentle expression in contrast of his own, with even gentler hands, brows furrowed in worry, face groggy with sleep.
”There we go, sweet thing, there you are,” He cooed, finger rubbing the baby fat clinging to Tommy’s cheeks, thumbing away the tears still flowing from his eyes.
”Dad..?” He asked, the voice small and shaky. Wilbur offered a kind smile, a finger coming up to smooth out his furrowed brow. “Yeah, sunshine, it’s me. It’s me, I’m right here,” He whispered.
More tears welled back in his baby blue eyes, which Wilbur immediately thumbed away with a soft sigh.
He fell back in the bed with a soft 'oof' when Tommy all but lunged for him, letting out a loud, heart breaking sob, clutching onto him as if he’d disappear.
“Shh, sh sh sh,” Wilbur soothed, wrapping around his boy protectively, a hand around his waist and the other holding the back of the boy’s neck, squeezing light pressure there in hopes to ground.
“You’re okay, baby, you’re okay. Breath, sweetheart, you’ve gotta breath,” He coos, pressing light kisses to the crown of Tommy’s hair.
Tommy squeezes himself impossibly closer to Wilbur like a lifeline, tethering him to reality. He’s practically in the man’s lap, hands gripping aggressively into the brunette’s sweater, eyes shut tight, face burrowed into the crook of his dad’s neck.
”Common, doll, deep breaths for me. In for four, out for six, love, do it with me,” Wilbur began, rocking the two side to side, puffing out his chest in exaggeration, urging Tommy to follow along.
It was hard. And despite the fact that the first few breaths he tried to inhale turned into gasping coughs, which his dad immediately comforted, soon his breathing started to improve. Not nearly as close to where Wilbur needed him to be, but it was improvement.
“There we go, there we go, my love. Slower, darling, slower,” he encouraged, doing another round of breaths, Tommy following in suit.
They sat there for what felt like hours, but was in actuality, just a few minutes, Wilbur offering muttered praise every time Tommy took a new breath, and Tommy bit by bit relaxing his muscles, letting go of the back of the man’s sweater, bringing his hands to hug himself, curling up in the man’s arms.
Wilbur sighed fondly, holding his boy tightly, laying back on the cushiony pillows.
”Did I wake you?” Tommy asked, so impossibly quiet, and Wilbur furrowed his eyebrows, taking Tommy’s cheek in his palm, guiding it under his chin. “Don’t worry about that, sunshine. You know I’m always awake for you, always.”
It wasn’t really the answer the blond was looking for, but he took it nonetheless, uncurling himself, and moving to drape himself around his dad, cuddling impossibly close, needing the safety that came with being near the man.
Wilbur was quick to reciprocate, pressing a kiss to the boy’s hair, curling himself protectively around the blond.
”I’ve got you, sunshine, I’m right here. You’re safe, my love,” A smile grazed Tommy’s lips at the reassurances, and he nuzzled himself into where he was buried in the crook of his dad’s neck.
They lay there for a few moments longer, just listening to each others breathing, holding each other, keeping one another safe.
Tommy couldn’t ask for more.
Wilbur would’ve thought the boy was asleep, if not for the quiet whisper of “Dad..?” that tore through the silence built between them.
He hummed a short reply, hand coming up to the boy’s hair to scratch lightly at the blond’s scalp, smiling as the boy practically melted.
”I don’t wanna go back to sleep. I don’t wanna be scared anymore,” he breathed, curling into himself slightly more.
”I know, sweet boy, I know. But you’re safe here, my love. And I’ll never not be here if you wake up. You’re safe here, Toms. I’ve got you, sunshine,” A soft kiss was placed to his hair in promise.
Promise for love, for safety, for home.
Well, and who was Tommy to not take up that promise?