Cracking The Commander (DJ x Commander)

CHAPTER 10

As peaceful as some nights were, DJ quickly came to the realization that the leader had frequent nightmares. Throughout the night, DJ would be startled by panicked whimpering or wobbly whining coming from an unconscious Commander. To some extent, the musician was used to it despite how much it hurt him to witness.

However, Commander's nightmares were getting worse. On normal nights, he would wake up with a slight gasp, eyes wide and panicked for just a second. Typically, he'd calm down immediately afterward, waving the concerned DJ off and rolling over in bed.

But there were times when he'd wake up screaming. DJ didn't like those times. It wrenched his heart to see Commander so utterly terrified. He'd be yelling phrases like 'back off' and such, followed by a familiar sounding scream that DJ wished he could forget. The most DJ could do in these situations was to wake him up and gently reassure him he was okay. But even that seemed like it didn't work. He'd still wake up with a cry, shaking and tearful, completely unlike himself.

This was a nearly nightly occurrence. There was hardly anything that would allow DJ to properly comfort Commander. All he wanted was Commander to get one solid night of sleep (and, if possible, more). He was at a loss of what to do until one night.

DJ was leaned over against Commander's bed as usual, resting his eyes but not exactly asleep. It was quiet (as quiet as you can get with Commander) until, yet again, Commander broke out in loud wails. DJ's eyes immediately opened, flitting upward to Commander frantically.

"Comm?" DJ sat up. His brows furrowed and his visor, which was dimly lit, ever so slightly flickered. He nervously stuck out a hand, preparing to wake Commander up. This was routine for him at this point — it was saddening.

"Please— no! Get away from me!" He continued to cry. He thrashed around some, fighting an unknown enemy, breaking DJ's heart even further. Distressed noise spilled from his mouth the more he twisted and turned.

"Commander..." His voice was soft, as was his touch. Wincing through the screams, he gently placed a hand on his stiff shoulder, promptly shaking Commander out of his nightmare. In any other situation, the leader would have responded more angrily to being woken up, but in this case, his eyes shot open and his jaw tightened. He looked terrified for a moment before returning to a shocked, almost exhausted expression. "Are you okay?"

There was no reply, only the sound of panicked breathing and choked gasps. Commander was trying to recollect himself before answering. The man's labored breathing calmed into a stuttering gasp of air, continued with a string of wet sniffles. He was crying, teary eyes illuminated by his visor's light. DJ watched as he dragged a hand over his face and shivered.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to wake you up with that again," he eventually murmured. DJ didn't miss the wobble in his voice.

"Don't stress about that. Are you okay?" A hand placed itself on Commander's knee. "Here, let me turn the light on, I can barely see you."

"No...! No, don't." His pitch rose. "You don't need to see me! I don't want that." The urgency in his tone made DJ raise an eyebrow. Did he not want to see him crying? This wasn't the first time he'd seen it (and, really, he's seen Commander in an arguably worse state than this).

Throwing Commander's stubbornness back at him, DJ ignored him. He leaned over to the side and flicked on a light, a warm orange hue filling the room. Commander growled and turned away, audibly frustrated at his disobedience. His hands smothered his face as he kept his gaze low. "I told you, don't turn on that damn light," DJ heard him groan behind his hands.

"I need to see if you're fine," he answered.

"I'm fine."

"You've been waking up to these nightmares for weeks now, Comm. You're clearly not fine."