[ closed with @axekickcr ]
He was caught in another nightmare again. Jeremy was too deep into it to realize that maybe someone who was awake could hear him. Could hear him crying and muttering and thrashing about in his bed in the penthouse. It was a nightmare about his old crew, and god was it a bad one. He kept muttering "no no no" and "please don't. I'll stay I promise" in his sleep.
it was late. real late -- late to the point that the sky was greying with the first subtle reaches of dawn. to the point where all the lads were finally asleep, and ryan was just waking up. call him old, but the vagabond wasn’t much for putting up with their nonsense into the wee hours of the morning. bless them, they’d figured out the hard way not to wake him. a king needed his beauty sleep.
things were calm in the penthouse, a sight that ryan might have been the only one to witness in the past weeks. with the extended branches of their crew popping in at a moment’s notice, and with the entirety of the main crew cooped up to escape the summer heat, it wasn’t exactly the place to be. not that ryan had much of a choice, with the air conditioning out in his apartment. it was suffer here or suffer there, and he chose the former.
coffee in hand, the most feared man in los santos made his way toward the living room. perhaps the news had something to offer him -
❛ no no no ❜
a soft murmur catches his ear as he passes by the newest lad’s room. odd. nobody should be awake at this hour, let alone one of the rowdy squad.
❛ i’ll stay, i promise ❜
words that have the hairs on the back of his neck prickling -- words of double-crossers and liars, which most of the crew was, but disturbing nonetheless. it piqued ryan’s interest enough for him to open the door just a touch. enough to survey the situation, to see if there really was cause for worry.
the sight he was met with was more welcome than the image he’d dredged up in his mind.
monster truck, self-dubbed, was asleep. talking in his sleep, perhaps. the boy looked pained, and that was perhaps the only thing that kept ryan from turning around and leaving it at that. lips pressed into a thin line, he entered the room, setting his coffee down on some piece of furniture as he approached the sleeping lad.
❝ Jeremy. ❞
his voice was low, soft. something in him didn’t want to risk shaking the boy awake. that’d just be more trauma to what he already seemed to be experiencing.
❝ ..Hey. Wake up. ❞