Aiden came to Ashlyn's house (uninvited) regularly after the nightmares started. Sometimes, Ben would accompany him. Other times, he would show up alone. Usually, it was during the daytime. Sometimes, he didn't show up till it was dark out, and it would annoy the shit out of the ginger girl. And, sometimes she took some sort of comfort in his presence. Not because he was a particularly calming person to be around, but because it reminded her that he was real. That the friends she made at school were real and not just part of the night terrors.
On this particular occasion, he'd shown up so late that Ashlyn's parents were already asleep by the time he got there. He seemed to be fully aware of this too, since he didn't even try getting through the front door. No, he instead decided to damn near give the girl a heart attack by climbing up to her window and knocking on it. He had to stifle back a chuckle as he saw her get quick to her feet, ready for battle, only to then grow annoyed realizing it was just Aiden. She sighed and opened the window.
"What do you want?" she asked him flatly, visibly irritated at the situation. Aiden didn't answer, instead just smiling at her as he let himself into the room. "Okay, yeah" she mumbled to herself, shutting the window and sitting back down on her bed. "Just walk in. No problem. It's not like this is an invasion of privacy or anything"
"How have you been holding up with the nightmares?" the blonde suddenly asked her, though he didn't even look in her direction. No, he instead walked over to her bookshelf, grabbed a Rubix cube that was sitting on one of the levels, and began fidgeting with it. Ashlyn was taken aback by the question, mainly because she didn't realize he was capable of actually caring about someone's emotional state (unless it was Ben with his PTSD and anger issues). In fact, she was so taken aback that all she could respond with was a small, confused "What?"
"Well, everyone has been either really vocal about their problems with all of this, or at least you can kind of tell" he replied, still not looking at her. "Logan gets freaked out and cries a lot, the boy twin gets angry and yells a lot, the girl twin clings to you or her brother like her life depends on it- Because it probably does- And Ben sweats a lot when he gets stressed" he explained, and it was almost disturbing to the ginger, realizing how observant the boy was even though he seemed distracted most of the time. "I just like the thrill of it, but you- It's hard to pin down what exactly your deal with it is" he continued. "You get really focused and seem stressed, but you're also always like that so it's hard to tell"
"You come into my house in the middle of the night to psychoanalyze me?" Ashlyn asked him irritably, one eyebrow raised. Aiden turned to her with that almost psychotic smile that he always seemed to have on, cocking his head inquisitively as if to say he didn't understand. "Aiden, of course it's stressful" she told him flatly, seeing that he wasn't going to respond to her earlier point. "I seem so focused because you all sort of made me the leader- Or I guess I also wanted control over the situation... But, honestly, it's a miracle I haven't had a complete nervous breakdown at this point" she admitted, turning away from him as she ran a hand through her hair.
"Why haven't you?"
"Because I need to be strong for everyone else!" she shouted at him, wincing as she realized how loud she was. Thankfully, her parents either didn't notice because they were asleep, or didn't feel the need to check on her, which was a relief. She wasn't sure she could deal with Aiden and her parents at that moment. "I didn't mean to yell" she said, sounding a bit apologetic. Aiden didn't seem to mind either way- He just silently walked forward with that same, blank smile, stood in front of her for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around her.
"You don't need to be" he told her quietly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Not all of the time, at least. You can feel panicked over the situation, even if the others expect you to be stronger. Has no one ever told you that?"
"I..." Ashlyn trailed off, clinging to the blonde far more than she would ever admit. "No, no one has... Thank you, Aiden"
"Yes"