The driver dropped the two of them off in front of Nathan's apartment building.

Nathan and Peter rode the elevator up to the top floor in silence. The entire day had been filled, from early in the morning till late in the evening, with campaigning for Nathan's candidacy for the Senate.
Since Heidi was away visiting family, Nathan had asked Peter to join him today and to his great surprise his brother had actually said yes.

When the elevator stopped and the doors slid open, both of them stepped out into Nathan's living room. Peter quickly collected his belongings he had left there for the day and made to walk back to the elevator. A few feet in front of the doors he halted and turned back toward his brother.
"I had a good time today, I really did" Peter said, that crooked smile of his passing over his face.
"I know you did" Nathan said, returning the smile. Peter simply nodded his head, not knowing what else to say. He never had been very good with this kind of situations.
"Goodnight Nathan" he finally said and turned to press the button for the elevator.

"Peter, wait" Nathan suddenly called after him, "stay here for the night. You're exhausted, your legs can barely carry your weight. You're in no state to still be going home".
Peter did not respond immediately, but then dropped his shoulder bag onto the floor with a relieved sigh.
"Thank you" he muttered. He had not been looking forward to crossing half the city to get home and finally he allowed his body language to show how tired he actually was. His shoulders slumped and he did not stand up as straight as he usually did.

Nathan felt relieved. Peter rarely accepted help from his family and always wanted to do everything on his own. More than once that had led to problems that could have been prevented if he had accepted help. So this was an exceptional thing for him.
"I'll ready the spare bedroom" Nathan announced and walked out of the living room.

Once alone, Peter shook off his jacket and sank down on the sofa. He had not lied to his brother, he truly had had a good time today. But all the activities had worn him out and he felt more tired than ever before. He looked longingly to his left, to the soft pillows on the sofa.
'Just hold on for a few more minutes' he told himself, then Nathan would be ready and he could finally sleep.

Nathan worked as fast as he could. He had noticed the way Peter swayed slightly as he stood and the occasional stumble as he walked. His little brother was close to collapsing from exhaustion, he was quite sure of that.
He quickly stuffed a pillow into a pillowcase and threw it onto the bed. He looked down at his work. It wasn't as neat as when Heidi would have done it, but he was sure Peter would not mind.

Nathan called out to his brother from the hallway.
"Pete? Come on, time to sleep".
As he rounded the corner into the living room, he stopped and silently took in the scene before his eyes.
Peter was on the sofa, already vast asleep. He lay on his left side, feet still on the floor, like had just fallen to the side from a sitting position. He had taken the time to take off his tie and suit jacket, but was otherwise still fully dressed.

Nathan took the last few paces that still separated them.
"Oh, Peter" he whispered as he slowly lifted Peter's legs up onto to sofa. Careful not to wake his little brother, Nathan removed Peter's shoes and picked up the blanket that hung over the back of the sofa. He covered Peter with it and made sure he was warmly tugged in.
As Nathan pulled the blanket up to Peter's shoulders and tugged it in around his back and chest, he could feel his slow, deep breathing . He rested a hand on his little brother's ribs, their slow rise and fall as Peter breathed made Nathan feel extremely calm.

Nathan sat like that for about half a minute, before leaning forward and planting a gentle kiss on Peter's temple.
"I love you, Pete" he whispered.

Finally, Nathan stood up, switched off the lights and retreated to his own bedroom. He too was terribly tired.

Nathan awoke with a shudder. He did not really know why, but he felt uneasy.
The illuminated digits of his alarm clock indicated 3.22 am. Perfect, still plenty of time to sleep. And tomorrow he had a day off, so he could do whatever he felt like. He rolled over onto his other side, ready to drift off to sleep again.
It was at that moment that he heard it…

"No, no, don't do this to me. Leave me alone. Don't hurt me".

Nathan shot upright in his bed. That was Peter's voice, he recognized it out of thousands. He suppressed the urge to call out to his little brother. What if there were burglars in the house? Or kidnappers, assassins?

Nathan felt under the bed for the baseball bat he kept there.
Armed with this weapon, he quietly got out of his bed and tiptoed into the hallway.

"No, let me go… why are you doing this?!" Peter's voice sounded from the living room. He sounded utterly terrified. But, if there was anyone threatening Peter, they were doing it silently, for Nathan had not heard anyone else yet.
Again his brother's terrified voice filled the hallway. "No, I don't want to die…"

Nathan had gotten extremely close to the door to the living room. It was opened a crack and he carefully peered into the living room to evaluate the situation in there. He was a bit taken aback when he still did not hear any other persons and the room appeared to be empty. At least, for as far as he could see….

"Leave me alone. Help!"

With a swift push, Nathan swung the door open completely. Baseball bat ready to strike out at anyone attacking him or his brother.
Nathan was flabbergasted to find the room completely empty, apart from Peter still lying on the sofa.
"Pete?" Nathan said confused. With a closer look at his little brother, he now realized what he had been hearing.

Peter was still sleeping on the sofa, but it was no peaceful sleep. He lay tossing and turning, drenched in sweat and muttering in that terrified tone.
Peter was having a nightmare and it broke Nathan's heart to see his little brother like this.

Nathan let the baseball bat slide out of his hand onto the floor and hurried to Peter's side.
"Pete?" he said, "Peter, wake up, it's just a bad dream". Peter did not respond to the words and was still trapped in his world of fear.
"Peter" Nathan tried a little louder this time. He grabbed his little brother's shoulders and shook him gently.
"Peter, wake up". He shook a little harder now.
"Peter!" And with one last, not so friendly shake he managed to wake his younger sibling up.

Peter awoke with a terrified yelp and immediately shot upright, nearly head-butting Nathan. He was still dazed from experiencing so much fear and did not immediately acknowledge his brother sitting beside him.
"It's okay, Pete, you're safe" Nathan said soothingly and placed a comforting hand on Peter's back.
"Nathan?" Peter looked up at him with a bewildered look in his eyes. He was breathing heavily and had started to tremble.
"I'm here" Nathan replied softly.

It took half a minute before Peter was able to say anything else.
"They killed you" he finally said in a small voice, "they killed you in… in f-front of my eyes. They shot you in the head a-and they… said they were going to kill me too. I was so scared, I-I couldn't get away, I….". Peter was rapidly drifting off to his state of panic again.
"Hey…" Nathan said, shifting his hand to the back of Peter's head and looked him straight in the eye, "calm down. I am not dead, I am right here. And no-one is going to kill you either. Just relax, take deep breaths".

Peter looked up at Nathan again. He was doing his best to calm himself down, but was not quite succeeding yet. Suddenly he threw himself forward, flung his arms around his older brother's waist and buried his face in his chest. Nathan was caught completely unaware by this and for a few seconds he did not know what to make of this.
"Oh, Pete" he finally whispered sadly and wrapped his arms around Peter's trembling shoulders.

The two brothers said nothing for a long while. Peter still had his face buried in Nathan's chest and Nathan affectionately patted Peter's back in an attempt to calm him down and offer him some sort of comfort.
The trembling of Peter's shoulders slowly lessened and his strong embrace around Nathans waist loosened a little. His breathing was down to normal again and the cold sweat had dried up by now.
"Pete?" Nathan asked softly, but no reaction came. He carefully released his embrace on the young man and pushed him slightly off himself. To his astonishment Peter had fallen right back to sleep in his arms.

Nathan smiled to himself and laid Peter back down on the sofa.
He observed his little brother, who now slept a peaceful sleep, for a few more minutes until he had made sure the nightmare was not coming back.

Nathan was finally satisfied that Peter would not drift down to that dark place again. He adjusted the blanket that was covering his little brother and trailed his fingers through Peter's hair once.
"I love you, man" Nathan whispered, "and you'll always be safe with me".

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it.
This was a story that just popped into my mind last night and I wrote it within an hour...
Please make a writer happy and leave a review :-)