Riff woke up, gasping for breath and holding his chest. He looked next to him to find the bed empty. For a moment he sat in stunned silence, paranoid and frightened that there was no one else in the bed with him. He felt around and almost screamed aloud with terror when something inside him snapped. He wasn't in a dream state anymore. He blinked a few times and realized that he had always been alone. He hadn't shared his bed tonight. His master had retired early so instead of risking waking him up Riff had crawled into his own bed for the night.
He quickly jumped off of the bed, nearly falling due to the being tangled in his sheets. He roughly threw them away and opened the door to the hallway, bounding down the long hall, only stopping when he reached Cain's door. He didn't bother to knock but instead just cracked the door open and peaked inside. He dared to walk in and with shaky hands shut the door behind him. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could see the lean form of his master on the bed. He took a deep breath and gave a sigh relief.
"If that's not you, Riff, then you better give me a good reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now."
Riff jumped at the sound of his master's voice. He tried to calm down, but he was already jittery from his dream so Cain startling didn't make him feel any better.
"It is me, sir."
He dared to walk closer to the bed and got down on his knees so Cain wouldn't have to sit up to see him. They were close enough that they could see each other in the darkness and Riff could see a smile form on Cain's face.
"What are you doing here? If you decide to visit me late at night you usually give me a bit of warning first."
"I had a nightmare." Riff said quickly.
Cain stared at the butler for a minute before telling him to join him in the bed. Riff nodded and was going to make his way around to the other side of the bed when Cain started tugging on his pajama shirt.
"Off. All of it," Cain said.
Riff held in a chuckle as he took all of his clothes off on his way to the other side of the bed. He crawled in, completely naked just as his master was, and curled up in the large quilt. Cain wrapped his arms around his chest and hid his face in his neck, placing small kisses there. Riff responded by gently stroking Cain's hair and holding one his master's small hands against his chest.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Riff swallowed hard. He absolutely didn't want to talk about it, though he felt that he needed to talk about it. If he didn't he feared he would accidently ruin the peace in the house that Cain, Cassian, Jizabel, Mary Weather, and himself all worked so hard to create.
"I…" Riff wasn't exactly sure how to start off his horrible dream. He closed his eyes and waited a few moments to get himself under control. He focused on the small kisses Cain was giving him and the way his body felt so warm against his own. He inhaled his master's scent and finally pulled Cain on top of him and gently kissed his lips. He kissed them repeatedly before giving him one long and passionate kiss. As much as it upset him to pull away he had to if he was ever going to get this dream out of his head.
"I dreamed you were hurt. I tried to scream, I tried to cry, I tried to save you but I couldn't. I let…I let him hurt you."
"Who hurt me?" Cain asked quietly in Riff's ear.
A long sigh came from Riff before he gave his answer. "It was Jizabel."
Riff could feel Cain's body tense when he said that. He immediately held Cain as tightly as he could and kissed his cheek. "I don't know why I dreamed that. I don't know why. I'm so sorry, Cain."
"What did he do to me?" Cain asked.
Riff didn't want to answer. He almost started regretting coming to Cain in the first place. He should never have bothered him with his stupid dream. However, now he was curious and there was no way Riff could leave and keep him wondering. "He cut out your eyes."
Riff waited for Cain to say something but nothing came out of the young man's mouth. Instead, when Cain did open his mouth he bit Riff on the shoulder. Riff gave a cry, more out of shock than any pain or pleasure. He was even more shocked when Cain flipped them so the butler was now on top of his master.
"He won't ever do that to me, Riff. I don't want you to be nervous around him just because of this dream."
"I understand. I don't want to ruin everything we've created here. Suddenly my confidence in Jizabel has gone down and-"
"It shouldn't," Cain said. "Jizabel will never hurt me. He doesn't want to. He has no desire to anymore. You see, now he has something to live for."
Cain waited for Riff to say what that thing was, but when he heard nothing he sighed and answered for him.
"He has Cassian. And just like how you keep me grounded, Cassian keeps Jizabel grounded. If there was ever a time where Jizabel questioned himself around me or Mary or thought he was going to hurt me Cassian would be there to show him that he's a different person."
Once again Riff said nothing. He just thought about what Cain had told him. Cassian would indeed be the one to keep Jizabel under control. And with everything that had happened between all of them Jizabel had changed. He had shown them that they could trust him. He was still hurting and he would still need time, but he was part of their family now.
Cain felt Riff finally relax and he knew he was better. The dream was a frightening one. He could only imagine if it had been him to dream of Riff in that way. He would be near tears. However, the last thing they needed was for him to have bad taste left in his mouth because of a nightmare. Jizabel was trustworthy and Cain would always believe that.
"Go to sleep," he said to Riff. He kissed him gently on his cheek and then knocked him off of him, turning on his side and pulling the blanket around him. He felt Riff wrap his arms around his waist and kiss his shoulders. When morning hit Cain wondering if Riff was still nervous about his dream, but from the way he acted around Jizabel he figured he had completely forgotten it. The horrid nightmare never left the bedroom of the Master and it was never spoken of again.