ahahahhahahahahahahahahhaha @the-princess-fangirl and @loife1m thanks for the one shot prompt
After the final battle, after discussions and reunions and funerals.
The nightmares, the trauma, a PTSD of sorts.
He wasn't sleeping anymore. At first, Aiden just wasn't tired. Nidra had him nice and rested for a good two weeks.
But then, Nidra kept him awake.
What he saw when he had escaped the land of the waking-
It was beyond anything he wanted to relive.
If Aiden went back to sleep, would he ever wake up?
It started to wear on him, the sleeplessness, the sweaty anxiety of even getting close to his bed, his brain screaming for an out.
It went on like this for a month before one day, he snapped at Aru.
"Gods, Shah, do you have to be so extra all the time?" He spat out.
Aru whipped her head at him, a 'how dare you' look crossing her face. "Aiden Acharya, I'm going to give you one chance to rethink that sentence before I walk out of here." Immediately, his heart rate spiked, seeing stars in his vision and his throat closing up. She's gonna leave you-
"No, please," he said hurriedly, sounding strangled. "Don't leave- I'm so sorry, I-" He took a giant shuddering breath. Here we go again, his brain sang, a mocking song to bolster his anxiety further.
Aru was by his side in seconds, dropping all anger and taking hold of his shoulders. "Wifey? What's going on? Hey, no-" she wiped his face- it was wet- he'd started crying- oh dear- and she searched his eyes, worry clear in her frown. "Can I hug you?" She asked. Aru was trying to make it very clear- in his state of distress, he was in control- nothing would happen without his consent. Aiden nodded in response, feeling Aru wrap her arms around his waist and letting his head bury into her shoulder.
They didn't talk for what felt forever, and the silence, the contact, it calmed him down. She was not leaving, he could feel the sentiment in every stubborn fiber of her being.
"Sorry." He said abruptly, pulling his head up. "For yelling at you. I didn't mean to- I'm just really tired."
Aru nodded solemnly. "Exhaustion makes us act badly. Thank you for apologizing. However, I'm more worried about the fact that you're so tired." And ready to have a mental breakdown at any moment, Aiden thought. She didn't say it, but it was there, in the air, unspoken.
"I haven't been sleeping since Nidra," he said numbly. "And not cause of the saved up sleep I had- that's gone now. I'm just." His hands shook and he shut his eyes tightly. "I never want to feel like I won't wake up again." He exhaled, reaching for hands and giving them a squeeze. "I'm scared, Shah."
Aru said nothing for a moment, then, "I didn't sleep for weeks after the Sleeper took me." Aiden looked at her quizzically. "My brain kept telling me, 'if you go to sleep, you leave yourself vulnerable.' And I believed that for a long time." Aru smiled sadly, thinking back to those tremulous times. "I mean, I got over it. Eventually. But it was so rough- and definitely not as bad as what you're going through right now. Because if that was bad, then this is definitely worse, because, Aiden, you died." She looked him directly in the eye, her own looking glassy. "Nidra took you."
"Yeah," he whispered. Sometimes, he couldn't believe it himself.
"I needed someone. And I promised myself in the unlikely event that something similar happened to me or someone else, that I would get help." She squeezed his hands now, comforting and warm. "I can help you, definitely, but maybe you should go see an Otherworld therapist?" When he hesitated to respond, she quickly added, "not that you have to decided right now- it's just an option."
"Ok," he said, curling into her. Aru placed the laptop and notebooks on the ground, making more room on the bed as he closed his eyes. "I'll think about it."
"Alright," she said, leaning into him.
Before he fell into the first of many more hard-fought peaceful sleeps, his brain pleaded,
To which a small, hopeful flame in him responded,
