Battle Wounds: Solangelo Soulmate AU

FIFTY-SIX

WILL POV:
If it wasn't for Mrs. O'leary I'm pretty sure Nico would have exploded from stress. There's only two months left of school and every teacher seems to have realised they are way behind on their lessons and are teaching a mile a minute. Not to mention the trial for the incident at his old school is next week.

He hasn't been sleeping well at all so I keep waking up to him on his phone or something in the middle of the night because he can't sleep.

"You okay love," I say waking up with a yawn and pulling my head onto his chest.

"Can't sleep," he says putting his arm around my shoulder and threading his fingers through my hair.

"Wanna talk about it?" I ask.

"No, just go back to sleep," Nico says rubbing my scalp hypnotically, almost causing me to fall back asleep instantly.

"Are you sure? Talking might help."

"I'm sure, go to bed."

"Okay," I say reluctantly, pulling myself closer to Nico to cuddle. He kisses the top of my head, which is something he doesn't do often but every time makes me melt.

I wake back up a few hours later because Nicos having a panic attack in his sleep. The feeling of his chest rising up and down in quick shallow breaths shook my head till I woke up but it takes me a second to figure out whats going on.

"Hey hey," I say quietly shaking Nico trying to wake him up. "It's just a dream, your okay."

Nicos eyes snap open and he flails trying to get out from under me. I scoot back to give him space to wake up completely. He buries his head in his hands and his body shakes from his sobs. Mrs. O'leary jumps up on the bed in front of him and noses her way between his hands so she can lick his face from the tears. He tries to get away from her but she doesn't stop until he starts to pet her head, then she lays her head in his lap. I can see he's still shaking but as he pets her he visibly calms down.

Now I know how he got through his panic attacks without someone to help him, he had Mrs. O'Leary.

"Neeks," I say quietly.

He looks up and meets my eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he says meekly, his voice sounding gruff and scratchy.

"Can I touch you?" I ask. He nods so I move back next to him and put my arm around his waist.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Just had a nightmare, I'm fine," he says, still scratching behind Mrs. O'leary's ear.

"What was the nightmare?" I ask leaning on his shoulder.

"Just what happened with those guys from my old school pretty much," Nico says chewing his lower lip so hard it starts bleeding. I cup his cheek and use my thumb to get him to stop. "Sorry."

"S'okay," I say kissing the underside of his jaw sleepily. He hums contently and lifts his head to the side so I can keep kissing him. He leans his head back against the headboard as I continue to kiss up and down his neck with sloppy open mouthed kisses.

I must have fallen asleep doing that because that morning when I wake up to my alarm I'm laying in Nicos lap. He leans over and picks up my phone to snooze the alarm for me.

"Morning sunshine," Nico says playing with my hair.

I sigh dramatically because I'm exhausted. "I don't want to get up," I complain.

He chuckles, "You sound like me. Sorry I kept you up."

"S'okay, not your fault," I say, "I'd do it every night for you if you needed me."