Hi guys! Thanks so much for your lovely reviews of Part I! I had a feeling that a lot of you would be able to relate to Chris on this one. This is a totally sucky problem to have, haha. Here is Part II =)
Having You Near – Part II
"You remember my sister, right?"
Darren smiled fondly at the memory of meeting her for the first time. Anyone who met her could see that that girl had nothing but love inside her. "Yeah… yeah, of course. Hannah."
Chris smiled too, breathing deeply. "Yeah, she's… I kind of live for her, you know?"
Darren nodded. Suddenly, Chris's smile began to fade. Darren looked at him questioningly.
"I worry about her. Her ability to cope and, and really live with the problem she has is… astounding, don't get me wrong," he slipped a few fingers beneath the collar of his sleep shirt, subconsciously massaging his collarbone has he often does, "But there's still a lot of dangers, you know?"
"Sure, sure." Darren nodded again.
Chris let out a long, unsteady sigh and continued. "In my dream, um…"
Darren squeezed Chris's hand a little tighter. He could tell, even from the first few words, that this was going to be difficult for him.
"I was back home, in my old house," he said, trying hard to keep his voice steady, "And I was running to the bathroom to get her pills from the medicine cabinet… she needed them, badly… but I couldn't get there. It was like, I kept running up the stairs, and then, all of a sudden, I'd be at the bottom again, or, or the hallway would change, or the cabinet would move away from my hand… it was… it w-w-was so… so…"
"Frustrating," Darren offered quietly, "Probably… terrifying…"
The look in Chris's eyes saddened Darren, but at the same time, relieved him. He could see that Chris could tell he was listening, was grateful that he understood.
"Yeah… yeah, it… it was. But then, um, I got to that point where I like, realized that I was dreaming, you know? So I thought, 'Okay, if I can just wake myself up, everything will go back to normal. Hannah will be safe and sound, everything'll be fine.' So I started just, I don't know, trying, praying that I would wake up, and it actually started working, but then I got… I got…"
"Stuck. You could see, hear, feel, but couldn't move…"
Chris pulled his hands from Darren's to wipe his eyes again, but Darren felt a surge of contentment when Chris moved away from the headboard and a little closer to Darren, as if closeness alone was a source of comfort for him.
"I was still a little bit dazed, confused, you know, before I had fully woken up. And part of me kind of… reverted back, I guess, to thinking that I needed to help her. So I kept thinking, 'I have to get up, I have to get up,' but I couldn't, and I was hearing things in the dark that weren't really there, and feeling things, and still worried that I wouldn't be able to help her and… and… oh God I hate this…"
More than anything, Darren just wanted to get Chris's mind off of what had happened in his nightmare, help him calm down again, but part of him knew that before that could happen, he needed to be there for Chris when he simply let it all out. Wordlessly, Darren moved so that they were sitting side-by-side and pulled Chris into him, wrapping him up in his arms, letting him rest his head against Darren's heart.
Suddenly, almost without thinking, Darren found himself asking Chris, "How is she?"
Chris shifted a little in Darren's arms, allowing himself more room to move and hear properly. "Sorry?" he said, sniffling a little, and letting himself melt comfortably into Darren's side.
"Hannah. How is she?"
Looking down, Darren saw – with a surge of hope – that a small smile was playing on Chris's lips. "She's… really good. Great, actually."
"Have you guys talked recently?"
"Yesterday, yeah. On Skype. She…" a chuckle escaped Chris's lips, and Darren felt the effect of the laughter on Chris's entire body in his arms. He continued, "She was so excited yesterday to show me – she learned how to jump rope through a loop. She…" he laughed again, smiling as he recalled, "She literally carried the laptop outside, set it on the driveway, and did it probably… I don't even know, ten times?"
There it is. The smile. That's what Darren had been waiting for. "She's quite the little firecracker," Darren agreed. He gently ran his fingers through Chris's hair, brushing a few pieces behind his ear… something that Darren's mother had always done to calm him when he was upset.
"She really is," Chris sighed, still smiling. Then, longingly, "I miss her."
"You should call her again tomorrow night," Darren suggested. Chris adjusted himself so that he was looking up at Darren. "It's probably rare that you have time to call her twice within a few days, so, that'd probably surprise her, make her really happy."
Slowly, Chris nodded, smiling again. "Yeah… yeah it, it would. I will."
They were quiet for a while. Every few minutes, Darren would glance downwards to see if Chris had fallen asleep, but he hadn't. His eyes were still wide open, glancing – though drowsily – around the room, as if still slightly on edge. Darren also picked up just the slightest hint of glassiness left in them, but he was glad to see that the tears had stopped falling. He kept stroking his hair, as it seemed to be having the same calming effect on Chris that it had on Darren.
"You should sleep, Chris," Darren said, finally, breaking the silence, "It's late. Or, or early, I guess," he laughed, glancing at the clock. It was almost quarter to three.
Curling into Darren a little more, Chris sighed. "I'm… scared to," he said in a small voice.
Darren sighed. He really didn't know what to say to that. Had he been in the same situation Chris was in, he had to admit to himself that he more than likely would feel the same way. He tightened his embrace for a moment and laid his head on top of Chris's.
"It'll be okay." It was all he could think of. Disappointing, surely, but all he could think of.
"I just… really, really… don't want it to happen again…"
"I know... I know… Hey," he said, voice a little brighter, "Let's play a game."
Darren could feel the laughter emanating from Chris as he asked, somewhat bewildered, "Um… okay… what game did you have in mind, Mr. Criss?"
"If I were a vegetable, what would I be?"
"W-What?"
Darren smiled to himself. This is definitely a good plan, he thought proudly. "It's really not that hard of a question, Colfer. If I were a vegetable, what would I be?"
"If you, Darren Criss, were a vegetable?" Again, Darren could feel the laughter Chris was holding back, still wrapped up in his arms.
"Yup."
"Um…" Chris looked up at him, eyes glinting wickedly as he said, "Broccoli."
A response was quickly lost on Darren as he looked down at Chris, clearly less than amused, causing Chris to burst into laughter. All Darren could manage after that was a flat, "I hate you."
With possibly the cheekiest smirk Darren had ever seen, Chris said back, "You love me."
"You keep telling yourself that."
"So what about me? What's my spirit vegetable?"
"Asparagus," Darren said, basically blurting out the first thing that came to mind, but priding himself on his quick reasoning.
"And… where exactly is the logic in that?" Chris asked, eyeing Darren skeptically, mostly suspicious, Darren reasoned, of some sort of vengeance for the broccoli comment.
Darren stated simply, "You're tall," with a grin.
"Asparagus isn't tall!"
"Well not compared to humans, dummy, compared to other vegetables-"
"Next question."
And so it went. If Darren were a kitchen appliance, he'd be a toaster. If Chris were an item of clothing, he'd be a scarf. If Darren were a movie character, he'd be Lloyd Dobler. If Chris were a music instrument, he'd be a flute. Sooner or later, all logic and reasoning was lost on their conclusions of each others' inanimate incarnations, and they were simply coming with the most absurd objects, just to make each other laugh. If Darren were an alcoholic beverage, he'd be a Long Island Iced Tea. If Chris were likewise, he'd be a Sex on the Beach (bringing excessive redness to his face and causing him to give Darren a look of sheer horror, to which Darren responded with laughter so boisterous, it was surely heard by their friends next door).
Darren couldn't pinpoint precisely when it happened, but at some point in the conversation, Chris had started to quiet down, become more mellow. Darren could still feel his laughter and see his smile if he looked down at him where he was still curled up in Darren's arms, but he could tell by the growing quiet scratchiness of his voice and the drooping of his eyelids that he was well on his way to falling back asleep.
"Household object," Darren said, growing rather tired himself as he rested his head atop Chris's.
"Mmlike, anything?" Chris asked, sleepily.
"Mmhm."
Chris adjusted himself in Darren's embrace just as he spoke, his words lost as his mouth was momentarily pressed into Darren's shirt.
"What was that?" Darren asked, amused.
"A pillow," he repeated. Darren looked down, and sure enough, Chris's eyes had finally closed, the creases in his forehead gone, his mouth a smooth, emotionless line.
"Looks like I will be tonight," he laughed quietly.
In a sleepy murmuring of words, barely audible, Darren just made out, "Stay… till'm asleep?"
"I'll stay here all night, Chris," he answered. "All night."
The last sound Darren heard from Chris was a murmur, a kind of hum of contentment. Darren smiled down at him, then reached over to the bedside table, and switched off the light. Slowly, so as not to wake the sleeping boy in his arms, he shifted downwards so that his head rested on one of the soft white pillows instead of against the wooden headboard.
Before shutting his own eyes, Darren tightened his embrace and whispered, comfortingly, "Whenever it may be… I'll be here when you wake."
His eyes closed, and he exhaled deeply.
"I promise."
Thanks for reading, guys! I may or may not be writing a short third part, which most likely be the morning when they wake. I say "may or may not," but, being real here, I probably will haha. Comments are always appreciated! =)
