200 days of Couple prompts

BA(94-3)Nightmare

Bokuto woke up to screaming. No, someone screaming his name. And it wasn't just someone, it was Akaashi.  The man next to him is sitting upright in their bed, his hands over his face. Bokuto sat up groggily and put his arm around Akaashi. 

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asks quietly. 

"Koutarou..." Akaashi turns his face into Bokuto's chest. He sobs into the taller one's chest until Bokuto lifts Akaashi's head. He puts his hand on Akaashi's cheek, wiping away tears with his thumb. 

"Keiji, what's wrong? A nightmare?" Akaashi bites his lip and nods. "Hey, it's okay, it wasn't real. I'm here." Akaashi takes a shaky breath and nods again. "How about I get you some water? Yeah." Bokuto gets up and walks to the kitchen turning on the light on the lowest setting. He fills a glass with water and brings it back to his boyfriend, who drinks it graciously. 

"Thank you. I'm sorry for waking you up," he says after a few sips. 

"No, it's okay. I just want you to feel better, it doesn't matter if you wake me up," Bokuto says quietly. Recently Akaashi has been waking up with more and more nightmares. This had never happened before, and the first time Bokuto thought it was just a one-time thing. But then it happened again, and again. Akaashi never tells Bokuto what they're about, though. He still always asks. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" This time, Akaashi doesn't immediately shake his head. He looks down at the bed.

"Promise you'll never leave." 

"Oh, Keiji! I never will, I promise. Don't even think about it, I will never ever leave you," Bokuto hugs the other man. "What brought this on?" he asks cautiously. 

"I don't know, they just said you'd get tired of me, that you would leave me," Akaashi says, a sob threatening to escape his throat. Them, the voices. Akaashi had mentioned them before, but it hadn't been for a long time. Bokuto didn't know they'd come back. Hell, he didn't even know if they left. He should have known, though.

"Well, don't listen to them. I will never leave you, I will never get tired of you," Bokuto said. He rubbed Akaashi's back with his hand, trying to comfort the younger man.

"Do you want to go back to sleep?" Akaashi shakes his head. 

"I don't want the nightmares to come back," he says. Bokuto nods and pulls Akaashi close to him. Bokuto is worried about Akaashi. He's been losing a lot of sleep lately, and now that the voices are definitely back, it might get worse. It took Akaashi months to get out of the worst of his depression, and even then he wasn't completely fine. It was getting better, though. Maybe Bokuto can do something before Akaashi can slip into the state he was in last year. 

"Do you want me to read to you?" Bokuto asks gently. He sees Akaashi nod and pulls out one of his favorite books. Akaashi positions himself between Bokuto's legs and Bokuto drapes his arms around Akaashi's shoulders, holding the book so Akaashi could follow along while Bokuto quietly read it aloud.

He eventually felt Akaashi relax and his breaths evened out. Once he was certain Akaashi was asleep, Bokuto set the book down and hugged his boyfriend closer. If Akaashi had anymore nightmares that night, he would wake up in Bokuto's arms, in the arms of the person who loves him most. 

"I will always be here for you. I will never leave you. I will love you forever with all my heart. And don't you forget it." 

606 words