Disclaimer: Harry Lockhart and Perry Van Shrike are not mine.
Author's Notes: Written in response to the following prompt on the kingbangmeme: "Since hanging/falling from the bridge in the end of the movie, Harry is really afraid of heights. Perry accidentally finds out. Make it serious or hilarious...or both!"
Edit: 3/21/2010~Agoraphobia should have been acrophobia. It's fixed now.
Perry was walking past his guest room late one night when he heard it--the sound of someone whimpering. He quietly stuck his head into the guest room and frowned at the sight that greeted his eyes.
Harry Lockhart was entangled in his bedsheets, whimpering pathetically.
Figuring that Harry was having another nightmare about killing people, Perry came into the room with the intention of waking the ex-thief up, but when he started mumbling in his sleep, the PI froze in reflexive curiosity.
"Oh, fuck, man, that's a long way down!"
There was something about the way Harry said that that made Perry suspect that he was afraid of heights.
"Don't shoot him, please," Harry pleaded. "Don't shoot Perry, please!"
Perry Van Shrike could be heartless at times, but even he had his limits.
"Harry, wake up," he ordered, shaking the smaller man's aggravated sleeping form.
"Wha--Perry?!" squeaked Harry, waking up with a start. "Oh my God, Perry, what are you fucking doing in here? You weren't fucking me in my sleep, were you?"
"What, no, fuckhead," growled Perry. "I heard what I thought sounding like someone having bad sex with you, so I came in to investigate."
"What if I was having bad sex?" Harry immediately asking, leaping for the chance to avoid having to tell his boss about his nightmare.
"I'd be doing a favor to whomever you were doing," Perry coolly retorted before getting straight to the point. "When were you going to tell me that you were afraid of heights, Harry?"
The deer in the headlights look Harry gave Perry in response was absolutely adorable (as usual, Perry had to admit).
"Never," Harry softly admitted.
Perry sighed.
"Harry, I'm not going to think any less of you for having acrophobia after what happened last year," he pointed out.
"I'm afraid of heights, not angora rabbits," grumbled Harry.
"Acrophobia is the fear of heights, idiot," snapped Perry. "Who taught you Greek?"
"I didn't take Greek in high school," Harry observed. "Or Latin, for that matter. What are you going to do about my problem with heights, Perry? Throw me off a cliff?"
"As tempting as that sounds, your whining afterwards would be too much for my sanity," Perry retorted. "And since it's almost one am, I say we deal with your latest issue once I've had some sleep."
Harry frowned, not looking forward to going back to sleep in his own bed, alone. He could feel the nightmares lurking on the fringes of his consciousness, taunting him.
"Can I come sleep with you?" he begged.
Perry grinned.
"As long as you don't fuck me in my sleep, you may spend the night in my bed with me, Harry," he said. "But only tonight. After that, you'll have to earn the right to share my bed with me."