A/N

Short and sweet, just like Kyle. Thank you, LittleMissMuppet, for the suggestion. I hope I did you proud! Enjoy!

He had that dream again. That daunting, horrific, disorienting dream.

When he had first experienced it, he figured it was just a one-time thing. It wasn't. This had been the ninth time, if the young redhead had counted correctly. Sleeping terrified him these days. He knew that once he fell into a deep sleep, there would be no way out. He'd be stuck in this dark, eerie abyss until he woke up aggressively the next morning. It was a constant cycle that the Jewish boy just couldn't tear himself away from.

At first, it seemed like your average, everyday reverie. He saw himself sitting on a bench at the seaside, watching as the vanilla clouds glided across the crystal-blue sky. A variety of different birds were singing nearby, perched atop the lightly swaying trees, which soothed Kyle's stress levels immensely. The occasional splash of water caused by parched animals prancing along the bay, accompanied by the distant hum of vehicles off in the distance, didn't bother him in the slightest. In fact, these soft sounds added character to the usually reticent area. Indeed, it was a rather blissful place to abide. However, this pleasant moment was merely short lived.

All of a sudden, the clouds began to ashen before disappearing completely in a matter of seconds due to the ebony sky engulfing them. The birds and animals seemed to have been sucked into a black hole, no longer in sight. The ground around him dissipated, causing the teen to fall into the charcoal void of nothingness. He looked around himself, seeing nothing but darkness. He couldn't find any source of light. At some point, he realized that he couldn't even see his own body anymore. Was he ever even there to begin with? What if his entire existence was just a sham? What if this aphotic place was actually reality, and there was never even anything to begin with? The redhead was all alone, the only thing accompanying him being his thoughts. He didn't know where he was, what he was, who he was. And that terrified him.

Kyle's family and friends constantly told him that he struggled with something called an "existential crisis". This meant he was constantly questioning his purpose. The world's purpose. He had been having these thoughts since he was about eight or nine, not long after he had found out about the tooth fairy being a mere figment of his imagination. He was okay for a while after that, but perhaps these things never really go away. He had always been a man of logic, and the universe just didn't make sense to him. Nothing to do with life and existence made sense to him. He always knew about the issue that he had been dealing with, but blocked it out. His therapist told him that these nightmares were his body's way of recognizing the problem, but the short male strongly disagreed. He just assumed that he was tremendously fucked in the head.

Stan could sense that something was wrong. He was a very light sleeper, as opposed to his boyfriend who happened to be the heaviest sleeper he knew, and woke up due to the sound of the small redhead twitching and kicking. He could clearly see the pained expression forming on his boyfriend's face as a crack of light shone onto him through the adjacent window. He knew about the recent nightmares Kyle had been experiencing recently but hadn't witnessed it first-hand until now.

"Kyle? Babe, wake up," Stan whispered and shook him a little. "Please, Ky."

He opened his emerald eyes with struggle, immediately gazing into the azure optics of his worried boyfriend. He tried his best to speak, but it felt as though something was clawing at his throat. All the poor boy could do was take quick, shallow breaths and pray to God he didn't have a panic attack like the night before. "St… St-a…"

"Shh, it's okay," Stan's soothing voice promised him as he gently grazed his thumb along the terrified redhead's cheek. "I'm here, Ky. I'm not going anywhere."

It was at this point he realized that tears were streaming down his face. Kyle hated crying so damn much. It made him feel weak, powerless. That, somehow, people would think of him differently if they were to see him let out a single sob. Yet another one of his many ailments. However, there was only one person who he let see him in this fragile, helpless state, and that was Stan.

He tried to smile at him, but he just couldn't do it. He was so fucking tired of dealing with this every goddamn morning for over the past week. Kyle slowly brought his stiff hand up to Stan's chest and tugged at his t-shirt, gesturing for him to lay back down beside him. He complied, pulling the indigo blanket over the slender Jew and wrapping his muscular arms around his shivering body. The redhead snuggled into his torso and breathed in his aroma. It calmed him ever so slightly to know that he was safely secure in the arms of his affectionate swain.

Stan proceeded to graze his fingers up and down Kyle's trembling back, satisfied with the content sighs his boyfriend was emitting due to the sudden delightful feeling. He stopped moving his digits after a while in order to concentrate on a certain part of the redhead's back that needed some attention; just beneath his shoulder blades. He knew from experience that this particular area was where the young Jew adored being rubbed. He pressed his thumbs into the tense region and went in a circular motion, drawing more pleased noises from Kyle's slightly parted lips. Stan leaned down and captured these plump, rose coloured lips in a sweet, innocent kiss, savouring the unmistakable taste of mint toothpaste and strawberry lip balm.

"Stan?" Kyle breathed out once they had parted.

"Yeah, Ky?" was the gentle reply.

"You'll never leave me, right? …Y-You're always going to be here?"

Stan placed a lingering kiss on Kyle's temple. "Always."

A/N

Thanks for reading! It's much appreciated. For those of you wondering, I'm almost finished chapter eleven of Fearless, so it should be updated soon. I hope you enjoyed!