A/N: It's really hard to find little pieces of a bigger fic to update with. But hopefully this isn't too confusing and as soon as I get the other parts beta-ed and all the chapter breaks worked out and all that fun stuff I'll switch this all around so it makes sense and all that fun stuff. And don't forget that this is still from Greg's POV.
The Obligatory Dream Sequence
There I was. In some sort of perverted labyrinth and half expecting a creature, half man and half bull, to pop out of the wall and eat me alive. Starting with my eyes, tearing the flesh off my bones and beating heart, sucking the cartilage out of my joints before finally sinking its teeth into my small intestine and slurping it up like spaghetti.
Except the walls were crying. They were crying silently and tearlessly.
And I started to walk, to find my way somehow out of this fucking thing, taking rights and lefts and jogging in circles. Walking turned to jogging and everything was quickly turning shades of green, as if my eyes had night vision goggles attached to the lenses. And the crying turned into screams of pure agony and loss.
A ceiling appeared where previously there was a starry night, slowly dropping as if some sort of almighty power set out that night just to pin me to the ground. Soon I had to crawl as fast as I could on my hands and knees, then slither like a snake until I could feel the stainless steel press against my back and crush the wind out of-
The beginning of the maze again. This time I set off running in the opposite direction as last time, panting. My heart felt too big for my chest and it seemed as if I inhaled barbed wire somewhere along the way.
This time the walls weren't crying. They were laughing a happy melody and as I looked up there was still the steel ceiling, but this time it played every moment I would ever put under the 'good' category with Samuel and I. The night when we first met on The Strip and he had lost his car keys and asked if I could break into his car for him. Of course I had no idea, but I pretended like I did until he grew impatient and called a locksmith. That time I watched him play black jack during his lunch break at the casino. The first time we made love, not just fucking but made actual love.
Happiness, glee, romance…
And then there he was, as I turned a corner and came to a dead end. Surrounded by pills and used condoms, an empty water bottle shoved through his throat, knee impressions sinking into his chest until I was sure I could see ribs and black lungs, with smoke still floating out of them.
I woke up. Screaming. Shaking. Crying.
"Greg! Are you okay?" Nick asked from across the bed. Great, I woke him up. I had practically insisted on sleeping in the bed with him and I woke him up.
The only thing I wanted to do was roll up into a and cry, but that would betray the rule I made for myself earlier. Only light emotions around Nick. So instead I blinked too much, forcing the tears back inside.
"Just a little nightmare, honest," I said with a weak smile when in all honesty it wasn't little in anyway at all. I had been crushed and saw my ex, who's still probably laying on Doc Robbins' slab with the 'Y' cut still fresh.
I was lost in thought, replaying scenes of my dream over and over again in my mind, until I was shaken out of it by Nick rubbing my arm. I don't know what I'd be doing if I weren't in his bed right then and there.
Suddenly I knew what I wanted. Maybe it was the fact that the man who I loved for six months just died. Maybe it was because I was already half asleep. Maybe it was the warm feeling flowing through my veins from the hot chocolate that Nick gave me before. But Nick was strong. Maybe he could make me strong too.
And he smelled good, even though a scent that just him was masked by a million shampoo chemicals and agents and the latex was gone.
Without asking or even thinking, I pulled his arm around me and snuggled against his chest. If he really had a problem with it he could bitch slap me in the morning, but right now all I wanted to sleep and be protected.
…Now here's when things get really weird. Weird in the sense that it was the last thing I ever thought that I'd do.
I woke up before him and you know how sometimes you wake up without opening your eyes? Well, that's what I did. Big mistake on my part, but I had a dreamless sleep so when my mind awoke and felt the feeling of arms around me and my nose buried in a neck I just assumed that everything that happened the day before was just a horrible dream. To me, reality was that Sam wasn't dead and he was here with me just…being.
Thinking I would wake him up in an unbelievably cute manner, I tilted my head and started to kiss the neck in front of me. Kisses turned to light bites, and from the way he shifted his body against mine I could tell that he was enjoying it. Everything was wonderful again.
Except that I couldn't remember Sam ever tasting this way. And I was almost sure that his arms where never this strong, neither was his chest.
At that I opened my eyes painfully. I wasn't in Samuel's bed, and I sure the hell wasn't with Samuel.
"Been paragliding lately, Nick?" I said with a goofy smile on my face, vainly attempting to change the subject.
