Al stirred at some point during the night. Maybe it was just his imagination screwing with him because of the horror movie, but he kept getting a weird feeling like there was something else in his room. Quietly he turned onto his side, trying to get into a more comfortable position and push away the images of creepy ghosts lurking by his bedside. Still a bit nervous, he stayed completely still for a while, holding his breath and straining his ears for any other sound in his room. Very faintly, he could hear something breathing nearby. Suppressing a shudder, Al sat up, quickly reasoning with himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him and that maybe getting a drink or watching some TV would make him feel better. With that in mind he got up and headed for his door, but he hadn't even taken three steps when his foot collided with something soft, tripping him up and sending him face first into the floor with a thud. Groaning and cursing quietly, he sat up rubbing his nose and looked around irritably for what he had fallen over, guessing it had been a random pile of clothes he'd left lying about. To his surprise though, he found Arthur who was slowly uncurling himself and looking around himself, looking a bit dazed and confused. Worried, Al quickly crawled closer to him, taking his shoulders in his hands.
"Artie! Hey man, are you okay? What were you doing on the floor?" he asked concerned, giving him a quick glace over. He seemed to be fine though, he wasn't hurt or distressed or anything and Alfred relaxed again, a smile tugging at his lips after seeing Arthur's state. Arthur was looking back at him, mouth open slightly and with bleary, half-lidded eyes, his foggy brain still trying to process what was going on and what Al had just said to him. He rubbed his eyes a bit and yawned before answering, his voice still thick with sleep.
"…. m'sorry.. Al… didn't mean'ta wake you up…" he yawned widely again, his sharp fangs flashing and gave Al a sleepy smile in apology. Al couldn't help it as his smile broke into a grin, resisting a strong urge to squeeze him.
"Nah, it's fine, you didn't wake me… did you come here cause the movie scared you?" Arthur didn't answer, but he continued to smile at him, so Al guessed he was right. "…You know, you could of just woken me up, I don't mind. Or you could of just gotten in the bed rather than the floor… cause, you know, its cold and you'll get sick again if you sleep on the floor and stuff." he finished quickly. Arthur nodded but Al wasn't quite sure if he'd even understood him. He seemed to be half-asleep, his head nearly dropping a few times. With a short laugh, Al made up his mind and carefully pulled Arthur up by his shoulders and led him over to the bed, gently pushing him down onto the mattress. Arthur looked groggily up at him, a bit confused, but he kept quiet. Al grinned back and pulled the covers over him before walking around to the other side of the bed and crawling in himself. After laying down, he yawned loudly and taking a glance at Arthur it appeared that he'd already fallen asleep, shifting around until he was comfortable again he whispered a quiet 'goodnight' to Arthur before he closed his eyes. He heard a mumbled sound response in return but he couldn't make out the words, smiling he took it as a 'goodnight' anyway and fell asleep quickly. The room was peaceful ands still for a while, silver moonlight creeping in through the window, deepening the shadows and highlighting both its occupants who lay contentedly side by side and breathing evenly together. After a while though, the peace for one of them began to slip away as another, more recent, memory began to surface.
Sleep didn't last for long for Al, as in just over an hour later he was woken again by a weird and persistent sound near his ear. Sighing and rubbing his face, he tried to gather himself together and rolled onto his side, facing towards Arthur which was where the sound was coming from. He frowned tiredly. Arthur was whimpering, the sound muffled slightly with his face half pressed into his pillow and looking closer Al could just make out that his eyes were still closed though, so he must of been dreaming. Al stayed still, unsure of what to do… should leave him be or wake him up? Or try and comfort him or something? He didn't want to disturb him, but still wanted to help… But the longer Al watched the worse he seemed to get, his expression looked like he was in pain, his eyebrows furrowed together and ears pinned back. After a minute, his whimpering was getting louder and more frantic and he'd started twitching now. Al chewed his lip and moved closer to him, propping himself up on his elbow. Arthur's breathing sounded scattered and messed up and listening closely Al could make out him mumbling lots of random, half-spoken words that some sounded almost like 'let go', 'stop' and 'please'… it made Al feel uneasy, a bad feeling growing inside of him.
Al's frown deepened as he shifted closer, about to rest his hand on his shoulder when he noticed something else. Arthur's paw was clawing desperately near the inside of his arm, it looked a lot like he was trying to pull something off of it that wasn't there anymore, but instead his sharp pointed claws were catching his skin lightly, easily ripping through the bandage that was there and slicing open his skin, reopening some of the older cuts from where it seemed this had happened before. Shocked Al quickly grabbed onto the paws wrist, stopping the scratching. Some of the drops of blood began seeping into the sheets, staining them a deep red. At the contact, Arthur made a panicked, choking sound and weakly tried to tug his arm out of Al's grip, thrashing around a bit and mumbling more, louder words in distress. But Al didn't let up. Instead he determinedly put his arms around him and gently pulled him close, into a strong protective hug. Ignoring Arthur's weak struggles of protest and broken sobs, he began running his hand gently and repeatedly through his soft, messy hair and quietly shushed him, carefully rocking him back and forth and murmuring soft words of comfort into his ear in an attempt to calm him down. After a few minutes of this, he felt Arthur begin to relax, his struggling slowly ceased and after a last few defeated sounds and hitches in breath, he fell quiet again.
Al continued his actions for a while longer even after he'd settled down, just in case and because somewhere in the back of his mind he enjoyed it. Looking down at him, Al could see he was completely calm and normal again, oblivious to what was happening, though tear tracks glistened dimly in the moonlight, messing up his face. Letting out a tired sigh of relief, Al carefully loosened his grip around him and brought his hand up to wipe away some of the tears as best he could. He stayed like that for a while, watching the other in silence, almost scared to move in case he somehow broke the tranquil atmosphere now surrounding them.
Chiding himself, he pulled away very slightly, about to let him go when, to his surprise, Arthur suddenly gripped tightly onto him and pulled him close again in distress. Al froze. Shifting, Arthur gently mumbled his name in his sleep and wrapped his arms securely around Al's neck, holding onto him possessively. Alfred relaxed and let him hold onto his neck, he laughed quietly, for some reason happy that he'd said his name and unconsciously put his own arm around Arthur's shoulders and continued to stroke his hair. In the silence of the room, he could feel the quiet beat of Arthur's steady heartbeat and his regular breathing tickling his neck against gently, that along the warmth of his body pressed against him was forcing his eyes to slowly droop closed. He smiled as he fell asleep and with content, the last thing he felt before exhaustion finally took over him was Arthur nuzzling affectionately into his shoulder.
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- end of chap. Thankyou so much for reading! ^^ …(sorry this update took longer than the others, but I got caught up in some stuff….. Also srry its a short chapter and not much happens. at all. /and also for any bad mistakes/spelling/grammar etc and the OCCness) …