Chapter Text
A faint scream broke the silence in the night. It isn’t out of the ordinary at this point, Lloyd’s nightmares seemed to be getting worse and worse recently. Arin was already awake due to nightmares of his own.
In his dreams he saw the ninja, his new family, leaving him or getting lost. He thought it’d be easier to deal with the fear of losing more people but, even though he isn’t a therapist, he thinks his dreams say otherwise.
Arin hops off his bed and wearily exits his room in search for the source of the noise, maybe he can find comfort in comforting someone else. Lloyd has always helped him feel better and he hopes he can do the same.
Approaching Lloyd’s room, he can hear him pacing around frantically while trying to do breathing exercises. His door was slightly ajar and he can see the ninja through it, but it would be creepy to just go in.
“Lloyd?” Arin whispers, which absolutely feels way more creepy, he should have just knocked. He watches Lloyd freeze in fear as he clearly startled him. “Arin? What are you doing awake?” Lloyd whispers back to him, heading towards the door.
Arin retreats backwards as if he was just caught doing something bad. Maybe its the sleepiness, but the thought that Lloyd suddenly now hates him seems very possible. The feeling goes away however when Lloyd is standing directly in front of him looking concerned.
“I, uh, I just wanted to check if you were okay.” Arin takes a second to respond, his sluggishness is making his brain work overtime. But he can’t sleep, all he does is toss and turn and think.
“I’m alright, Arin,” Lloyd gives him a soft smile and comfort envelopes him like a soft blanket. “Are you alright? You don’t look so great.”
The younger boy lets out a sigh and Lloyd promptly signals to him to enter his room. Arin immediately takes a seat on his bed. Normally he would have asked, or just not done so, but he can’t really think straight right now. All he wants to do is sleep.
“Ha, this isn’t an invitation for a sleepover.” Arin immediately jolts into reality, the embarrassment going straight to his face. He hadn’t even realized he’d was falling asleep. “It’s okay, but, you know, you have your own bed.” Lloyd walks over to sit next to him and Arin feels acutely aware of his body right next to him. “You can tell me whats wrong.”
“I had a nightmare, and I haven’t been able to go back to sleep. All of you—you, Sora, Nya—you all left me. When I woke up I was scared it was real.” He felt the pain from the nightmare arise again.
“Hey,” Lloyd put his hand on Arin’s shoulder. “We’re all here, I’m here. I promise we wouldn’t just leave you like that. Especially Sora.” He continued. “Do you want a hug?”
Arin nodded, a hug sounded great. He gets and gives hugs all the time, it’s normal, but he can’t help but feel a bit childish in this particular moment. As Lloyd gets closer, the increasing warmth of his body sends a shiver down his spine and leaving a weird tingling sensation.
His chest pressed up against his idol’s, it’s almost suffocating. Why does this feel so different? Arin’s face becomes unbearably warm, his heart begins racing and feeling like its going to jump out of his chest and he thinks Lloyd can feel it too.
Arin stays frozen like a deer in headlights. As soon as he can feel his breathing become heavy, Lloyd immediately pulls away. “Are you okay?” He asks in alarm, as if he hurt him.
Arin didn’t feel like he hurt him. He didn’t know what he felt, but he didn’t like it. He had to get out of here fast. “Yes, thank you I gotta go-” He blurted out in response and quickly walked out of the room.
He felt his sweat cling uncomfortably on his skin and his lungs working hard for air as if he had ran a marathon. Why did it feel so strange? He made it to his room, quickly closing his door and dropping on his bed. He laid trying to catch his breath and cool down.
He probably scared Lloyd, he probably made him think he hurt him. The tingling sensation persisted and he felt almost… gross. He wasn’t hurt, he didn’t feel hurt. He doesn’t know what is happening. After catching his breath, an overwhelming feeling of shame washes over him.
He hopes he didn’t ruin everything, it felt like he did. Maybe he can explain it all in the morning. But wouldn’t it sound weird? Like, hey sorry for being weird last night when you hugged me it just felt like I was going to die. He hopes Lloyd doesn’t hate him now, he probably does.
Arin sighs and turns on his side. He is definitely not sleeping now.