Controlled Bruises

I'm doing this for you

WARNINGS: swearing, domestic abuse, the tiniest mention referring to non-con.

-Pj's POV:

This 24 year old man was shaking as he laid next to me, hand gripping mine with all the strength he had left.

"Now, Dan, are you going to tell me what's going on?" I asked gently, my eyes pleading with him.

His grip tightened, eyes closed as his breathing seemed to quicken. I had no idea what to do. The state I'd found him in, something had obviously happened. I didn't want to make assumptions, but there was something that kept propping up in my mind. Phil's sleeping form, completely unaware of what's going on, it was helping that same thought. Drawing my attention back over to Phil, he stirred slightly, Dan's eyes shooting open at the movement on the bed.

"Listen, how about we go into my spare room for a bit? We can talk and won't need to worry about waking Phil up. Is that alright?" I questioned, trying to sound as gentle as possible.

Only met with a quick nod, I smiled and stood up from the edge of the bed. Dan started moving under the blanket, I'm guessing he was pulling his jeans up, before tightening the soft material around his shoulders. His breathing was calmer as he slowly made his way towards the door behind me. Careful not to wake Phil up, we left the room, heading straight across the landing and into the spare room. It was smaller than my room but still had enough space for a single bed, wardrobe, set of draws, and a simple desk.

Dan went straight to sitting on the bed, legs curled up and back resting against the wall. He kept the blanket wrapped around himself, avoiding all eye contact. As he started picking thread on the soft material, his face was flushed bright red.

"Dan, what happened in there? It's obvious that everything here isn't alright, so please can you just talk to me? I'm worried about you, I just want to help." I felt like I was begging, sat on the wheeled desk chair next to the bed.

"I- um, I just, overreacted. There's nothing to worry about, honestly, it was just something stupid." He mumbled, still not looking at me.

In all the time I'd known Dan, I'd never once seen him like this. Privacy was very important to him, he was an expert at keeping things to himself and only the few people he would let in to his world. Even when we were at our closest in our friendship, I'd still never been completely let in, sure I'd been trusted enough to be told about his and Phil's relationship, but never anything more. This was the first time I'd ever seen Dan look so vulnerable and weak.

Sighing slightly, I shuffled the chair closer to the bed, thinking of the best way to put this.

"Can you just look at me a sec?" I said it as softly as I could.

Trying to cover up the flinch my question made him have, he slowly lifted his head to look me in the eyes. They were glossy and wide, a mix of emotions swirling through them.

"There's no other way for me to put this than being a bit blunt, okay? I've never seen you look like this, Dan. Now you can't be telling me that everything's completely alright with the state I found you in. You're worrying me like hell, and I just want to help you. Please just talk to me..." I trailed off as I saw the single tear roll down his cheek.

"It's just, earlier I'd just woken up, I didn't feel like it, especially how we'd been the past week-I told him not to but he was drunk and I'm supposed to want it cause I love him but I-I." His rambling cut off as a sob escaped his lips, face going red again as he tried to calm down.

"Shh, it's alright, calm down. Everything's just fine now, it's only me in here with you, nobody can hurt you in here." I whispered, gently stroking his arm as his breathing became steady again.