Title: Night Terrors
Pairing: Roy/Hughes
Warnings: Angst. Implied infidelity.
Disclaimer: I still own nothing but my twisted little soul. You want it? Take it. Please. I'll fit in better without it.
It is surprising to Hughes that, after all these years, Roy still trembles in the night.
There was once a time when he'd known the words that transformed the bleak battlefields of Roy's dreams back into the snug bedroom of his reality. Now there is such foreignness between them that he barely manages to speak at all.
"Go back to sleep, Roy," he says, "everything's alright. There's nothing here that can hurt you." He realizes, with not a little shock, that he's speaking to Roy as though the other man, the veteran soldier, were a child; those same words have banished not a few of Alicia's nighttime terrors. Except in Alicia's case, the words are not a lie.
Roy has always been sensitive to untruth. "You're here." Once an affirmation, now an accusation. My, how times change.
"Yes, I'm here. I'll always be here."
His second lie of the night is as successful as the first. Roy turns his face into the pillow, and his shaking is now accompanied by sobs.
In one night, Hughes loses all capacity for surprise.
-fin
A/N: 180 words, 9 of which are the worst ending ever. Suggestions for a better one are much appreciated.
