Work Text:
Jamie woke in a cold sweat. The nightmares kept coming back, no matter how hard he tried to keep them away. His life has gotten so much better in the past few months. He had stopped stealing and blowing things up (big things, anyway).
The nightmares tend to come and go and vary in severity. This one happened to be about the loss of his arm, possibly the most traumatic experience of his life.
He tried not to think of the details.
He woke screaming, clutching his right arm stump. The pain was searing, like he was losing it all over again.
His screaming woke Lúcio, who was sleeping next to him. He rolled over to his other side, facing his boyfriend.
Lúcio reached out a hand, still too asleep to really say anything. He always tried to help comfort Jamie whenever this happened.
Jamie pushed the hand away and sat up.
“Nah, love, don’t worry ‘bout it. It’s nothin’.”
Lúcio yawned and spoke: “Mmm, it’s somethin’, I know it.”
Jamie didn’t respond. Understandable.
“Nightmares? Phantom pains?”
Jamie nodded vigorously. He started hyperventilating, heading into a panic.
Lúcio sat up quickly and held his arms out. Jamie fell against him immediately and begun to cry. Lúcio gently wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.
The crying increased in volume, and Lúcio knew this was gonna be a tough one to help him through.
“Hey, lay down. I’ll be back in a sec.”
Jamie did as directed, unable to do much of anything else. Lúcio scooted over to the bedside table for his music player and headphones. He took them and instructed Jamie to lift his head, and placed the headphones on his ears.
He turned on Rejuvenescência and turned it up to drown out all other sounds in the room.
Lúcio held Jamie until they both fell asleep.
Whenever Lúcio heard bombs, it took him back. Not in a good way, though. The day he lost his legs always came back to him. He’s gotten better with it, since joining Overwatch and being with Jamie, but some days were worse than others.
This was one of those days. Just a normal day in training.
He fell to the ground, practically watching and feeling the building collapse around him again. It was at a protest against Vishkar, one of the first he lead.
Protesters chanting so many different things that he couldn’t make out one single thing. It all happened so fast, right as he entered a building to give a speech.
He lost himself in the flashback and cried on the ground.
“Lú, ya alright?” Jamie said, but it didn’t register.
“Lúcio!” Jamie realized what was going on and ran to his boyfriend.
Lúcio kneeled shaking in the grass, tears streaming down his face.
Jamie had to find a way to pull him out. God, he wasn’t good at this. It was always Lúcio helping him, not the other way around.
Jamie sat on the ground in front of Lúcio and held his chin lightly in his flesh hand.
“Lúcio, love, look a’ me.”
Lúcio’s eyes met Jamie’s, glazed over. He obviously wasn’t mentally there.
“It’s not real, Lú. Yer ‘ere, with me. On the training grounds at the Watchpoint. Yer okay. Yer safe.”
Lúcio’s shaking slowed and he sniffed.
“Yeah, that’s it, love. Come back ta me.”
Lúcio stopped crying, and the tears began to dry on his face.
“Now just breath, Lú. Ya got this.”
Jamie walked him through slow, steady breaths. Lúcio came out of the flashback and blinked at Jamie.
“Th-thank you, J-jamie.”
“You don’t ‘ave ta thank me, love. Lemme take care of ya. Can ya walk?”
“I-i think so? M-maybe.”
Lúcio stood with Jamie’s help, but fell against his chest.
“I’ll carry ya, then.”
“N-no! Don’t do that.”
“Alright then, that’s okay. I’ll go get yer skates.”
“Y-ya don’t gotta do th-that. Just help m-me.”
“Alright, love. Where do ya need me?”
Lúcio steadied himself and took a step towards Jamie. “I-i think I’m okay, actually.”
“‘Right, love. Let’s go lay down.”
“Sounds like a plan, Jamie.”