Midnight Cowboy ~ I just read the book, and this is a little comfort-y type thing I wrote just to lift my spirits a bit. :( I expect no one else to read it and that's perfectly fine. And obviously these aren't my characters, they're James Leo Herlihy's.
***************************
It used to be, his breathing would be better at night; like his body was better at it when it could concentrate on that exclusively, and not have to worry about the labor of thought or movement.
Lately, though, it was bad -- a constant whine, a rough wheeze that Joe was surprised didn't keep waking the runt up. As it was, Joe had a tendency to lie awake listening to it; not out of annoyance or an inability to sleep, but because the sound had an element of comfort to it.
As long as that pained noise still echoed in their empty room, he wasn't alone. If nothing else, he wasn't alone.
He had begun shivering now, worse than usual, and though somewhere in his mind Joe knew damn well it wasn't because of the cold, he told himself that it was.
He thought again about doing the thing that he had been compelled to do a thousand times -- the thing he hadn't done, not because of a fear of rejection, but because of a fear of acceptance. He really couldn't tell which would be worse anymore.
But the "cold" was just too perfect an excuse, and he reached over before he could talk himself out of it.
He worked an arm carefully under Ratso's body; even at his healthiest and most belligerent, he had the air of a porcelain doll that had been glued together too many times, ready to shatter for good if handled incorrectly.
He snorted awake when Joe pulled him closer, and Joe could feel the terror of confusion as Ratso was momentarily unsure where he was, who he was with, why someone was touching him -- but he could also feel the dawn of realization as Ratso -- Rico -- almost immediately knew all of those things at once, and allowed himself to be held close.
He buried his face in Joe's side and gripped at Joe's shirt with a shaky hand, and Joe absorbed the gratitude that radiated off his body like water to a dying man.