Work Text:
Bran rolled over, the coolness of the mattress pulling him from sleep. He felt blindly around for the usual warmth but found nothing. He opened his eyes and searched through the dark room for his boyfriend. Bran found Jojen sitting at his computer, watching something. His eyes flicked over to the alarm clock on the bed side table… quarter after three in the morning. Bran sighed and pulled himself closer to the end of the bed.
“Jojen.” He called as quietly as he could, knowing that Meera’s joined room next door let almost all sounds through- she’d complained about it more than once. Jojen’s headphones were in and he didn’t seem to hear his boyfriend speaking to him at all. “Jojen!” He called as loudly as he dared, not wanting to earn any of Meera’s rath. No reaction.
Bran grabbed the pillow from behind him and tossed it at Jojen. It hit Jojen in the back of the end, Jojen pulling out his headphones and turning around with a bemused expression on his face in the dim laptop screen lighting. “What was that for?”
“Come back to bed, Jojen. It’s late.” Bran knew he was pouting just from the smile that crossed Jojen’s face. Jojen paused the video he was watching and crawled back into the bed, taking Bran into his arms. Bran cuddled close to Jojen, realising in the warmth his boyfriend brought. “What were you doing?”
“Trying to catch up on RWBY.” Jojen whispered to him, rubbing Bran’s back the way he knew he loved. “The new episode came out for sponsors today and it means the volume is over.”
“And you had to do this at three in the morning because?” Bran looked up at Jojen from his place within his arms, and saw emotions there that made Bran’s stomach curch. “Is it because of the nightmares?”
Jojen started, looking down at Bran with wide eyes. Bran smiled and nuzzled up to him once more. “You can’t fool me Jojen. I hear you every night, tossing and turning. Whimpering. I didn’t want to intrude, but staying awake all the time isn’t the answer. And it can’t be healthy.”
“If I don’t sleep, I don’t dream. It sort of is the answer.” Jojen replied, sounding sad and scared at the same time. Bran didn’t know what to do, had never really felt so helpless.
“If you don’t sleep, you die.” Bran shook his head and pulled Jojen closer to him. “You can’t stay awake forever. What’s scaring you so much, Jojen?”
“I’m sorry, Bran, I love you… but there’s somethings I just need to keep to myself, you know?” Jojen smiled and kissed Bran softly on the head.
“I wanna help you.” Bran said quietly, clutching at Jojen. It hurt Bran to see Jojen suffering like this, scared and helpless. He would do anything he possibly could to take that pain away and make everything better.
“You do help.” Jojen laughed softly, and leaned down to kiss Bran quickly. “You help by doing exactly this. By being here, going all boyfriend on me, making sure I go to bed and don’t stay up until I die. So you help. A lot.”
Bran smiled and kissed Jojen hard, loving. He curled up into Jojen’s arms and let the sleep take him back but when Bran woke up, Jojen was staring up at the ceiling as though he hadn’t slept at all.