Thunder & Lightning ; John Murphy x Reader ; AU
Title | Thunder & Lightning
Pairing | John Murphy x Reader
Requested By | knightofthefandom
Prompt | #5 A thunderstorm is rolling through town and Person A is afraid of lightening/thunder so Person B offers some comfort. (Domestic!AU Prompts)
A/N | This turned out more fluff-like than I intended, but I’ll just roll with it. Thanks to the amazing knightofthefandom, whose blog I love, for making the request. I hope you like it! (And the title definitely sounds like some corny rock band but I’m not creative enough for something better.)
You were asleep when the thunder and lightning hit, a loud rumble forcing you to sit upright in your bed and release a shriek. It had startled you to the point where you felt as if you were on the verge of a heart attack. Another clap of thunder follows the previous, this time accompanied by a flash of lightning. You spur into action without thinking. You feel yourself stumble off the bed and rush to the corner of your room, tremors running through your body at the burst of fear that overtakes you. Breathing heavily, you sit down on the floor and pull your knees to your chest. If there was one thing very few people knew about you, it was definitely your fear of thunderstorms.
A third rumble shakes the floor beneath you, and while in reality it only lasts a second, it feels a lot longer than that to you. Without thinking to conceal it, you release a loud yelp and pressed the palms of your hands to your ears, squeezing your eyes shut as if willing to storm to stop.
Truth be told, you don’t know where the phobia originated. It simply manifested into its own being, appearing at an age most children were already over it. Thunderstorms didn’t occur too often where you lived, but on the occasions they did, you were typically alone. Now, however, you suddenly grow aware at the rapping on your door, muffled by your palms. Wiping your nose with your sleeve, you attempt to stand up before you see a white flash through your window. This time you whimper, biting your lower lip in order to keep yourself from crying out.
Murphy, your roommate, doesn’t wait another minute for you to answer the door. Instead, it swings open and he rushes in, wide-eyed. He takes a relieving breath, placing a hand on his chest. “God, I thought you were getting murdered in here the way you were-- Hey... are you alright?”
It wasn’t like him to be concerned at all. Typically, he was sarcastic and snippy, often caught in a bad mood. Tonight he just happened to be shocked at your condition, seeing you curled up on the floor with tear stains on your cheeks. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming pressure in your chest and the continuous pounding of your heart, you might’ve been embarrassed for him to see you like this. But when another rumble and flash made itself known, you were burying you face into your knees and whimpering.
“Hey, hey,” Murphy says, kneeling before you and gently placing his hands on your shoulders, “it’s okay. It’s just a little thunder and lightning.”
You shy away from his touch, backing into the wall as far as you can before there isn’t anymore room to maneuver. Ashamed, you wipe your eyes once more with your sleeve. “S-sorry,” you sniffled. “I’m just…”
“Hey,” he says more casually, “everyone’s afraid of something, right?”
You give a meager laugh in response, sniffling.
Murphy looks away for a moment, biting his lower lip, before looking back over to you. You don’t meet his eyes.
“C’mon, Y/N, just go back to bed. It’ll be over soon.”
You feverishly shake your head, “I can’t.”
“Y/N,” Murphy chides, “you have work tomorrow. You can’t just stay up all night.”
Before you open your mouth to respond, it thunders again. This time you don’t cry. You simply bite down on your lower lip and squeeze your eyes shut while releasing shaky breaths.
Instead of waiting for you to move or respond, when he knew you wouldn’t, Murphy grabs you by the shoulders and gently pulls you up towards him. You comply, unable to keep steady with the shakiness of you body, and feel yourself being ushered out of your room and into his, a windowless room. At least you wouldn’t be able to see the flashes anymore.
“John, what are--” you begin in a hoarse voice.
His hand nudges you towards his messy bed, “Just lay down.”
Normally, you would resist. Stubbornness was one of your key traits, but you were already feeling so vulnerable and weak that you didn’t have it in you to argue. Instead, you slowly lowered yourself onto his bed and take a series of deep breaths. The added weight of Murphy makes the bed shift underneath you, and you feel his hand grab the side of your leg and pull both them onto the bed. Without saying another word to each other, you lay on your side and feel his nose gently brush against your back, his arm snaking around your shoulders. His other hand gently rubs your side, never going too low or too high. Never making you uncomfortable.
When the next bout of thunder and lightning hits, you still cringe but feel a great deal calmer with Murphy’s relaxed breaths gently fanning your neck. As the storm continues to rage on for another hour or two, you feel your body gradually calm and grow rather exhausted. It’s only when the rain pelting down on the house slows into a steady sprinkle do you deem it safe to close your eyes, turning around and resting your head on the now sleeping Murphy’s chest. Even in his sleep, he adjusts and wraps one of his arms around you while the other is over his head, releasing soft snores. It doesn’t take another minute before you fall asleep and forget completely about the storm.
