Side By Side

2

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

I screamed as I woke up. I had no idea how loudly I screamed but I knew I was making sounds. My body was completely covered in sweat and I was breathing quickly as I lifted myself up in my bed, tears in my eyes.

During the war, I didn't feel any emotions, but now I was at home again... I started realising how traumatic the war had been to me. I had a nightmare about getting shot again and I saw George's face in front of me, then he got shot by the German guy.

I tried to calm down until I saw my door opening slowly. My father walked in and I looked at him with terrified eyes. What if he was here to shoot me?

He slowly walked to my bed and climbed up into it to lay down with me. I was really anxious, but when he wrapped his arms around me, I realised he wasn't a bad person.

He pulled me closer to him while I had tears streaming down my face. I wanted to talk to him, but it was dark in my room so I couldn't see his mouth.

My dad pulled me on top of his chest again so he could hold me tightly and I closed my eyes as he wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing the top of my hair. I breathed out and relaxed my body as I started to fall asleep again.

~~~

My father stayed with me during the rest of the night and calmed me down from three more nightmares. When it was early in the morning, I asked him if he could bring me downstairs. He lifted me up and put me down on the couch as I grabbed my phone to start learning more sign language now I was deaf.

I was learning sign language for about an hour as someone suddenly sat down in front of me. I looked up and saw Sapnap sat down, scooting closer to look at my phone.

He took a deep breath and then frowned softly as he was trying to do something.

'I'm learning sign language,' he signed to me. Then he started talking so I looked at his lips again. 'But I'm not very far yet.'

I smiled since I understood what he signed and then lifted my hand, thinking about what I was going to sign. 'Did you sleep well?'

He understood what I meant and smiled. 'A little bit,' he signed back. 'And you?'

I shook my head and sighed softly. The world was boring without hearing anything, I couldn't even communicate easily.

Sapnap looked with me while I was learning sign language. We already learnt a tiny bit in the army, but that was so little that we couldn't use that in a conversation. We just learnt how to say "hello", which army we were from and "bye, have a nice day".

I sighed softly after a long time of looking and imitating all the signs. I put it away and tried to sit up as I realised I couldn't. I scoffed angrily and rolled to my side instead as Sapnap picked me up and put me down on his lap. I smiled shortly because I could sit while he held me.

He turned me to the side so I could look at me while speaking. 'Do you have pain?'

'Just the usual pain, not more,' I answered slowly and hopefully well enough for him to understand.

He nodded and smiled at me while holding me on his lap. If I sat alone, I would fall down but he was holding me so I couldn't.

I looked at him again. 'Do you have pain in your arm?' I asked. He focused on me talking for a while and he shrugged.

'I do, but less than a week ago,' he answered. 'It's healing slowly but surely.'

I nodded and rested my head against his chest, closing my eyes to enjoy sitting down with him.

~~~

After a while, Sapnap laid me back down on the couch and stood up to get us some breakfast. He was struggling a lot because he only had one arm and eventually got frustrated, throwing the package with cereals away out of anger. He stood in silence and I saw his sad face.

I wished I could stand up to go to him, but I couldn't walk so I started making sounds for him to hear me. He turned around to me and I opened my arms to show him I wanted to give him a hug.

He walked back to me and a tear rolled down his face as he laid down with me, putting me down on his lap again.

'It's okay,' I mumbled. 'You're going to learn it.'

I immediately looked at his lips again and he sighed softly. 'It just makes me very upset right now. I'm trying so hard.'

'Can you put me down on the counter and hold me so I don't fall?' I asked. 'I can prepare breakfast.'

He nodded slowly and lifted me up since I weighed nothing anymore without my legs. He carefully put me down onto the counter and let me lean against his body to keep my balance. I filled two bowls with cereal and milk and Sapnap lifted me up as I held the bowls.

He held me in front of the table and I put the bowls down before he put me back on the couch. He grabbed a lot of pillows from the couch and stuffed them in the corner, picking me up to put me down next to the pillows and to him so I wouldn't fall down.

'Thank you,' I smiled as I started eating the breakfast. Sapnap started eating too, it looked a bit clumsy, but he did pretty well while having one arm only.

We finished our breakfast a while later. Sapnap put the bowls away and then grabbed his phone. I looked with him since I was sitting very closely next to him anyway and he started learning more sign language so I'd understand him.

I immediately learnt too and imitated the signs as I realised I was learning this pretty fast. Sapnap had a bit more trouble, but he was doing really good too. I was just happy to have such a great friend.

1066 words