The Tells of a Different Childhood

80. A.U: Younger - Coffee

The sound of something hitting the hardwood floor made him jerk awake, his body already on high alert as he sat up straight in bed. Still blinking away sleep, Kang looked around the dark room, trying to find the source of the sound. He needed to see if it should be something to be concerned about.

Yet, he didn't see anything that explained the sound that woke him up. Though now that he thought about it, he didn't see the blankets either or the pillows the kid usually used on his side of the bed. Or Squirt.

Considering the fact that it was almost three in the morning, along with the fact that his kid wouldn't have done something like this, Kang had a good idea of what caused the noise.

Finally connecting the dots, Kang crawled to the other side of the bed, residual body heat under his palms and knees. "You okay?" his voice was rough with sleep. Peaking over the edge of the bed, he could see the rough outline of the kid on the floor.

The room was too dark for him to make out details, but Kang could hear that the kid was still panting for breath, his breath slightly shaky. "I'm fine. "Yet, somehow he still had the audacity to say that, as if it was normal for someone to tumble out of their bed because of a nightmare. Even his attempt to sound unfazed failed, which only emphasized how the teenager was feeling.

Kang almost huffed to himself. One of these days, he was finally going to get through the kid's thick head that admitting one's feelings was not a sign of weakness. If anything, it was a sign of strength, because emotions was something that was truly hard to express and Kang did not want his kid to follow the trend of men holding in their emotions. (Though it is something he needs to work on if he wants to lead by example but that was something for another time)

But, he knew the kid well enough to know that any persistence would just make Squirt dig in his heels. So, as much as Kang wanted to ask him if he was fine and try to comfort him, he was going to have to settle for extending a hand toward him. "Come on." His voice was gentle, "Let's try and get some more sleep." It was still early enough for them to get a few more hours of sleep before they had to wake up for the day.

Squirt took his hand, the teenager's hand being clammy and cold, and pulled himself up back into the bed. "Sorry." The kid still sounded exhausted and considering the fact that he had a nightmare severe enough to make him tumble out of bed, Kang didn't blame him.

The soldier hummed, helping fix the blanket. "It's okay." And it really was. Kang would rather the kid wake him up than struggle with his nightmares by himself. That was the whole point of them sleeping in the same room.

The silence that followed showed that the kid didn't believe him, but it was way too late to try and convince the kid. Kang was going to have to prove it through his actions and they were going to have far more weight than simple words.

But again, it was far too late for him to be thinking of such things, so with a simple exchange of goodnights, they were ready to go back to sleep.

Well, at least Kang was.

Based on the tossing and turning, it was obvious that Squirt was not going to go to sleep anytime soon, not after the nightmare he had. After about the third time in two minutes his kid tried to get comfortable, Kang sighed. How was either one of them supposed to get sleep when he kept on moving like that?

"Squirt?"

He stopped moving. "Yes?"

Well, he didn't want to verge into this territory. It was too early, and the last thing he wanted to do was to make the kid too uncomfortable to sleep. But he just had to ask.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Somehow, that single question was enough to make the air tense. Because it was so quiet in the room, Kang could hear the moment when the kid sucked in a breath and held it, as if he needed to prepare himself for something.