Pain in Your Eyes

When Your Nightmares Disappear

Prapai gave Payu the job of finishing off Gun while he called a car from his father's company to pick himself and Sky up to take them home.

Home to Sky's modest dorm room, where nothing was vulgar and lavish, just simple and pure.

He couldn't care less about his motorcycle, he left it completely up to Payu. He couldn't very well take Sky home on that.

P'Joy wasn't at her desk, thankfully, and Prapai carried Sky up the stairs.

He had a spare hoodie in the car and had given Sky his shoes. He placed Sky down at the top, but still half carried him to his room.

"We're home, Sky," Prapai whispered, unlocking the door for him. Sky walked in slowly, leaning against the wall next to his door as he peeled off Prapai's shoes.

Prapai closed and made sure he locked the door behind him. He pushed off his own shoes and Sky leaned into his chest again.

"Take a shower, I'm going to make you something to eat," he mumured, "Is that okay?"

Sky nodded, walking mindlessly into the bathroom. Prapai slowly lowered himself to the ground, his heart beating loudly in his ears.

Guilt weighed heavily on his heart, on his mind, and he couldn't bring himself to believe that his Sky had a black eye. That the Sky that always had a word to say was completely silent.

That the shadow from his past had touched him again.

Prapai felt sick at the thought.

But as he heard the water in the bathroom turn on, and saw the small amount of steam come from out under the door, he pulled himself together.

"He's safe," he whispered, wiping his face with both hands. He had to get focused. He stood up, opening the fridge and pulling out whatever he could find while repeating the same words under his breath over and over again.

--------------------------------

Sky felt sick when Gun touched him, and for a brief moment, back in that hellhole, he could feel the same nausia when Prapai enveloped him in a hug that he desperately needed.

It took him only a moment to convince himself that the person who was holding him wasn't here to hurt him.

Prapai couldn't hurt a hair on his head, he would never do the things that Gun made him do.

Prapai was everything he had left here, otherwise he would have booked a flight home while he was in the car on the way back here. Well...not that he didn't think about doing it, but he didn't have his phone on him.

His brusies hurt and ached where the water touched them, where he had to brush over them with soap.

His shower was longer than normal, his skin pruney and wrinkled at his fingertips by the time he emerged. Even his cloud-soft towels weren't enough for him to not cringe as he dried his skin as carefully as he could.

Prapai was working on his laptop, food sitting on the table, and Sky felt like everything had just gone completely back to normal, or hadn't changed at all.

He pulled on the lightest, biggest clothes he could find and wandered out of his room.

For a moment, it felt like he had just had another nightmare, and was crawling to Prapai to make him realize it wasn't real.

But the pain on his face, on his ribs and chest, made it real. Made it sickeningly real.

"Hey," Prapai smiled weakly, "How do you feel?"

Sky blinked the tears from his eyes. "It hurts."

"Okay," he replied, closing his laptop and moved to the side. He picked up a white bottle that stood on the table and motioned for Sky to come sit down.