Hello all! Okay, so if you couldn't tell by my first story, I like to beat the crap out of Josh ^.^ I have this really bad habit of becoming a total sadist with my favorite characters which means Josh is in for the beating of his life in all of my stories! But hey, that's why you guys read right? It gets really fluffy and Aidan gets kinda OOC (I'm sorry! I couldn't help it!) toward the end but I hope you all like it! :D
I own nothing! Damn...
Aidan sometimes forgot exactly how strong Josh was. On the outside, he had this vulnerable, take-care-of-me look to him, not entirely helpless but definitely in need of someone to watch him and make sure he didn't get lost in a straight hallway or something like that. The nurse's called him Bambi and Doe-eyes and all sorts of other innocent yet slightly condescending names that Josh never commented on. Maybe he liked the nicknames and the attention, Aidan was never sure. He knew that Josh could take care of himself, was fully capable of making it on his own, but it didn't stop him from watching the younger man like a hawk when they were together. It was because of that, because he was always there to jump in in case anything went down, that Aidan forgot how strong Josh could be even when he wasn't trying.
He was reminded immediately of that mistake as a fist swung out suddenly and crashed into the side of his face. It hurt like hell and the force was strong enough to knock him backwards, not an easy feat if he were to be honest with himself. He landed awkwardly, half on the bed but mostly on the floor, one hand coming up to cradle the injured area. His lip was bleeding sluggishly and he was pretty sure his nose had been broken as well. There would probably be a bruise there tomorrow, he figured, I should probably come up with some kind of cover story. That was for later though. He was on his feet again, hovering over the thrashing figure in the bed and trying to wake him.
"Josh!" He whispered hoarsely, trying to keep his voice calm but struggling to keep it that way as another arm swung at him in the process. Aidan dodged this time and Josh's hand crashed into the bedside table, nearly knocking over the lamp. He grabbed the younger man's hand and pushed it back toward the bed, partially to prevent him from hurting himself and partially to prevent Sally from giving them both cold showers for a week for breaking things in the apartment.
Aidan was well aware of Josh's nightmares, they'd been friends long enough for him to have a first hand experience with some of them. He knew the younger man tried to hide it, tried to act like it didn't happen, but Aidan knew it happened. And Sally, now that they'd moved into her (sort of) apartment. Josh was really the only person in the apartment who actually slept so it made his night terrors that much more noticeable. Aidan had forgotten what it was like to sleep, actually sleep and not just lay there with his eyes closed, but he remembered nightmares. Hell, you didn't have to be asleep to have nightmares and he knew that for a fact. It didn't make watching Josh's any easier.
Aidan had seen everything from the whimpering, trembling nightmares to full-on wake up screaming nightmares. Josh would always sit there with a sheepish, embarrassed expression on his face when those happened and Aidan would calmly and quietly talk to him until the lingering terror had left his eyes and he could fall back asleep. But he'd never seen one like this. This was a fight, a desperate, life-or-death struggle in the throes of sleep and Josh wasn't waking up.
"Josh, come on man, wake up!" Aidan said, trying to keep one arm pinned to the bed without getting smacked again with the other one. Josh was hopelessly tangled in the bedsheets, his face pale and slicked with sweat from exertion. His eyes were squeezed shut tightly, wild, unruly hair sticking to his forehead, and he was in total fight-or-flight mode from the way he was struggling. One knee crashed into the wall next to the bed and Aidan heard plaster split and crack. Sally wasn't going to be happy about that but he'd focus on it later.
Josh let out a hoarse, gasping sound, the fingers of the hand Aidan had pinned digging into the mattress so hard his knuckles had turned white. Suddenly, the other arm came out of nowhere and grabbed a fistful of Aidan's shirt, twisting and knocking him temporarily off balance. As he fell, the other hand was released and Josh was on him, tackling him to the floor and landing on top of him.
Inhumanly strong hands wrapped around his throat and Aidan had a split second to realize that if Josh really wanted to, he could probably rip his head off right then and there. Josh's eyes were wide open but he wasn't seeing him, he was seeing a threat, an enemy, someone who needed to be destroyed. Using the floor as leverage, he managed to lift himself up and grab Josh, all at once rolling them both over and pinning the younger man to the floor. "Josh! Wake up!" He shouted loudly, adding a hard shove into the floor for emphasis.
There was a slow, uncoordinated blink, a shaky breath and a tremble that traveled all the the way through Josh's body. His breathing was fast and uneven, his heart pounding and his gaze unfocused. He still wasn't completely awake, still halfway between sleep and consciousness, but it was progress from where he had been. The tail ends of the dream were hanging on though, not quite ready to give up the fight. "No...get it off..." He breathed, his voice lost and far away, pushing again the vampire weakly. "Aidan..."
Aidan wasn't sure if he was dreaming about the night he was attacked or of something else but the helplessness in his voice cut deeper than a knife. He leaned down, cupping the younger man's face in his hands hand and resting his forehead against Josh's. "I'm right here..." He whispered, his thumbs brushing over the tear-streaked cheekbones. "You're okay...you're safe...I'm right here."
His reward for his actions was a sudden gasp as Josh woke up completely and an impossibly tight embrace as the younger man clinged to him like a lifeline. "OhGodohGodohGod..." Josh gasped, gripping Aidan's t-shirt and hanging on for everything he was worth.
Aidan didn't say anything, he just held him close and offered what comfort he could. He didn't know what the dream was about, nor did he know who Josh was fighting when he tried to strangle him jsut a few seconds earlier, but he wasn't about to ask unless Josh felt like volunteering the information first. Some things were too personal and he knew that when the time was right, Josh would open up about it. He sat up a bit, pulling Josh into his lap and leaning against the wall for support.
He knew Josh was stronger than anyone else gave him credit for and he knew that he'd been through more than he fair share of shit in the world. They had all be dealt a crappy hand in the game of life and being strong was sometimes the only thing you could do to keep from losing your sanity. But on nights like this, on nights when nothing felt okay and it seemed like the world was ending, Aidan didn't mind being the only strong one in the room. "I'm right here..."
Poor Josh =( I don't even know what the nightmare was about and I wrote the story lol! I just liked the reactions ^.^ Sorry for the OOC-ness at the end, hopefully it wasn't too bad! Sally's up next! :D