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His eyes were dry and coarse somehow, as if some kind of dust had snuck underneath his eyelids somehow, and Lee had to blink in order to make it go away. Or try to, anyways, as nothing seemed to help.
Upon opening his eyes once more, he found himself in a familiar area of dark walls and a crowd nearby watching his every move– a battlefield, with a rival right in front of him, red clothes just like his hair and a murderous yet stern expression on his ghostly pale face. The horrid smell of an enraged, murderous alpha intimidated him, no matter that he shared the same secondary gender with him.
Something was crawling through his legs, through his arms, holding him still without any chance of escaping. Looking down, the boy could see it was mere sand, but he knew better than to underestimate it; Gaara was controlling it, and his lips had curved into a malicious smile while his skin cracked, as if something had shattered inside of him– he kept getting closer and closer to him, a sleepless bloodshot gaze fixing on him as if he was mere prey to chase. Something to kill.
And everyone was just observing on their spots, shouting and complaining but making no move to stop it. Gai was the most worried of them all, yet the other teachers tried to convince him not to react in a way or another.
It was his fight, and nobody else's. Even if his enemy played with him as if his limbs were toys to break, pulling and pulling and laughing whenever the sound of broken bones was clear in the odd silence of the battlefield. For Gaara it was only a game, a game that twisted every joint in Lee's body without any kind of mercy, making him scream in pain– going as far as making tears fall from his eyes, no matter how twisted it was.
And nobody intervened. The Suna ninja threw him around with his sand, breaking him, destroying his life–
All he could do was scream to deaf ears, for a mercy that would never arrive. For absent help, even if his friends called for everything to stop, nobody heard them.
He was alone with a certain death, and nothing could be done as a bloodthirsty beast threw him around, tearing apart his body limb by limb. It was as if some kind of pressure had appeared on his chest, pushing his heart further into his ribs somehow, breaking his bones even more–
“Lee– it's alright, I'm here, Lotus.”
A familiar voice reached him through his despair, through his screams and cries, even if nobody was around apart from himself and his enemy. Sand was filling every crevice on his body, invading his soul and making him choke, spitting blood with every cough. Lee knew his end was near without any kind of doubt, and closed his eyes to wait for death to arrive.
… somehow, he could feel a gentle hand caressing his unkempt hair, and the hold of strong arms keeping him in place. A familiar lavender scent replaced the sand in his lungs, taking away his breath but now in a good way, replacing Gaara's disgusting stench with a comforting aroma in mere seconds.
“I'm here, love. You're safe,” someone whispered in his ear, and Lee only realized he had been shaking when his body became still, drowning in his omega's ever-soothing smell. It wasn't hard to calm down when Neji played with his hair so gently, letting him cry without mocking him at all about his dreams. “Better?”
He still couldn't say a word, instead letting out a soft sob while nodding with his head, hugging his partner back as he kept holding him close to his chest. Hearing his heartbeats helped him relax further, more as Neji intentionally covered him with his lavender scent, knowing well it would soothe him as nothing else could.
No matter how many years had passed, or the therapy sessions Tsunade forced him to assist against his will, Lee still had nightmares about his first Chunin exam. About Gaara almost killing him for fun, going as far as pretty much make the alpha fear that his ninja career was over early on– it was either dreams about that day, or about any other of his ‘traumatic events'(encounters close to death) that he had gone through as a taijutsu master for almost two decades and counting. It did get better with time, albeit there were always nightmares every now and then, unexpected and debilitating as they all were.
Neji remained in silence as he dried his tears with a wipe, in such a gentle caress that Lee felt like his whole soul would melt on the spot; his husband, his everything, was always there beside him to give him support no matter the hour, simply by just caressing him and pampering him in silence as needed, always patient.
He felt bad for making him go through… that, no matter how much the brunet reassured him that it wasn’t a burden for him at all. Not after Lee had done the same for him after the war, after his injuries had almost given him a certain death.
Perhaps that’s why he was so patient with him…
“I… I had a nightmare,” the alpha managed to mumble after a while, not moving when Neji began to place gentle kisses on his cheeks, on his forehead. “I was fighting Gaara again, it– it hurt, Neji. It hurt so much, and– I was dying. It felt… so real.”
He could feel tears forming on his eyes once more, but he didn’t want to cry. So Lee just buried his face on the crook of his partner’s neck, drowning in his comforting scent as the brunet didn’t push him away– instead, Neji continued caressing his hair, humming softly only for his alpha to hear. It was almost like… a purr? That wasn’t common from his husband, but it was welcomed without a question.
It relaxed him. And against his own expectations, Lee managed to fall asleep once more, knowing well that nothing wrong could happen under the care of his omega.