"Why am I awake?"
Virgil pondered the question as he stared at the ceiling, conscious without his consent. It was still dark and rolling over to check the clock told him it was still another five hours until his usual alarm.
Then he remembered the muffled thump from the other side of the wall his room shared with Scott's room.
"Oh. That's why."
Though the house was soundproofed, the impact of an elbow or knee still carried through a bedroom wall if there was enough force behind it.
Virgil rolled out of bed and padded out, quieter on his bare feet than most people gave him credit for. Having Kayo as a sister and Gordon as a brother meant he'd had to learn out of self preservation but for two very different reasons. He cracked Scott's door open and peeked inside, just in case it was a false alarm.
It wasn't.
Even from the door Virgil could hear the ragged, rapid breathing as his brother tossed and turned, the blankets all bunched up and askew as he fought the grip of a wicked nightmare. The whimpered 'No!' carried clearly as Virgil slipped inside and shut the door behind him.
He crossed the floor and crouched beside the bed. "Scott?" Virgil reached out and firmly tapped the closest foot twice. "Scott, it's me, Virgil." He tapped Scott's knee twice, then his arm. "Scott, wake up." He tapped Scott's shoulder.
Kyrano had taught them all this after that one time a well meaning brother got punched. It was a safe way to gently wake up someone with combat training and nightmares.
Blue eyes flew open and Scott bolted upright, clutching at the hidden weal of a scar that marred the left side of his chest. Virgil knew that scar well, he'd helped Grandma change the dressings when it had been one of several relatively fresh wounds and Scott was home on recuperative leave from the Air Force.
"Are you with me, Scott?" He asked, keeping just out of arm's reach until he was sure Scott was here and not there.
His eldest brother nodded, not trusting himself to speak just yet. In the weak moonlight Virgil could see Scott's other hand clenching and unclenching on the soft blankets in time with his breathing, using it to ground himself back in the present.
Finally his breathing slowed and Scott scrubbed both hands over his face, dashing away the gathering tears that Virgil saw but didn't comment on. "Sorry I woke you." He finally said in a voice that still wobbled slightly.
"It's okay, now shove over." Virgil nudged him and dragged the spare blankets for cooler nights out from under the bed.
"Wait, Virg!" Scott protested but shuffled over anyway as Virgil joined him in bed and spread the blankets over both of them.
"No arguments. You've had back to back missions for two days, we both know you won't go back to sleep on your own after that nightmare and sleep is what you need right now." Virgil insisted, gently prodding until Scott was arranged comfortably between him and the wall. Virgil lay on his side and draped an arm over Scott's chest, placing himself as a wall to shield and shelter his elder brother, then closed his eyes and relaxed, letting the tension out of his body. He wasn't going to actually go to sleep until he knew Scott was, but he could fake it pretty well and he knew Scott wouldn't sleep if he was tense. The arm he put on Scott wasn't for decorative purposes either- the slightest hint of a classic Scott escape attempt and he'd know.
Under the dead weight of that arm, Scott rolled his eyes and grumbled wordlessly to show he was doing this only under protest (for habit's sake more than anything else), stretched and yawned. Virgil waited as Scott resettled himself, listening as his breathing evened out, slowed and finally he was asleep.
If he woke up in the morning with Scott curled into his chest and his head tucked under Virgil's chin, well, it wasn't the first time. And probably wouldn't be the last.