Nightmares [Angelo, Sarah, and Forge]

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Early Sunday morning, Angelo is awoken by a nightmare. It seems the events in Smichov aren't just fading, but thankfully he has some friends nearby - who happen to have their first meeting under unusual circumstances.



He'd been expecting the fire dreams to start up again. Hoping they wouldn't, yes, but expecting them to. The part where they now included Nathan and the little boy from Smichov, in the flames while he stood helpless and burned along with them... that was new, unexpected and not at all welcome.

The upshot was the same as before, though, in that Angelo woke soaked in sweat and heart thumping, trying to get his breath back under control. At least he hadn't woken himself or anyone else screaming this time. He hoped.

Not quite. It's kind of hard to stay sleeping when the person next to you is having a nightmare. Sarah looked at him sleepily, sitting up beside him. "I know waking up in bed with me is fucking scary, but really... screaming?"

Angelo blinked the last of the dream away, then shot her a rueful grin. "Sorry. I was hopin' I hadn't woken you up."

A muffled noise came from the other side of the door, almost as if someone had been suddenly awoken and attempted to check on a screaming suitemate from across a darkened room that happened to have a table at precisely shin height. Accompanied by numerous muttered curses and the small bit of light from under the door that indicated he'd found the lamp, Forge's voice sounded through the door. "Hey, Angelo? You all right in there?"

"...an' I guess you weren't the only one", he muttered, before raising his voice so Forge could hear, as he started to get up. Since he was awake anyway... "Yeah, Forge, it's all good. Just a bad dream."

"Nothing to see here folks..." Sarah added dryly, still mentally willing Angelo to come back to bed. It was way too early in the morning to consider ever moving out from under the blankets. Finally, she gave up. "Smoke break?"

Forge paused, hearing an unexpected voice from Angelo's room. "Oh," he squeaked out. "You're, um... busy. Well then. Um... Should I head down to the lab and find something very important to do?"

"We were sleepin'", Angelo said dryly, finding enough clothes to be decent and making his way to the door - he needed a glass of water. "Until the dreams started gettin' in the way, anyway."

Sarah followed behind him, decent enough by her own standards in low-hanging sweats and a tank-top ripped at the shoulder. She leaned back against the wall, nodding to Forge. "Morning."

Forge just stood and blinked for a moment, then looked over at the clock. "Yes. Yes, it is technically morning. I suppose that..." He cocked his head, taking in the occasional protrusion of bone visible from under Sarah's sleepwear. "Wow. You'd, uh, you'd be Sarah then, right?"

He looked over to the small kitchenette where Angelo was getting a glass of water, then back to Sarah. "So you two, uh... well then." He glanced over at his room and chuckled. "Dang, this is either new or I'm a really sound sleeper..."

"First time we've come back here", Angelo said as he came back, disappearing into the room briefly and reappearing with a medicine bottle. "Usually we just stay at the brownstone."

For a moment, the Snow Valley Public Relations mode kicked in, and Sarah walked over to him, holding out a hand covered in bone at the knuckles. "And you're Forge? Pleased to meet you." She looked back at Angelo and grinned, adding "We're less likely to disturb people's beauty sleep over at my place."

"Dude, I used to room in a suite with Kyle and Jay. Some things you learn to tune out," Forge explained, giving Sarah a quick handshake while trying his best not to notice the way that tank top kept threatening to slip. "I mean, not that anything's disturbed, or disturbing, or ... so, nightmares?" He turned towards Angelo, absently picking up a half-full can of Red Bull and chugging it to hide the quick flush of embarassment.

Angelo seemed more amused than anything, shaking two pills out into his hand and downing them with the water. "Nightmares", he confirmed. "Old problem - I kind of have issues with fire, an', well, Smichov..."

"So here we are, up at the asscrack of dawn." Sarah moved so she was behind Angelo, resting her face on his shoulder. "And because we are such good friends, we cannot kick his ass for waking us up."

"I don't know," Forge said wryly, flexing his mechanical arm and watching the striated metal muscles contract in his bicep. "He's only got maybe ten pounds on me, I could probably take him." He laughed to illustrate the joke and half-rolled onto the small couch, letting his feet stick up in the air. "Besides, I've had my three hours for the day, so on the average, I'm fine. I seriously don't know how you people can sleep for eight hours at a time..."

"We don't, always", Angelo said equally wryly, setting down the glass and the medication bottle - using his powers, so as not to have to lean away from Sarah - and wrapping an arm around her waist. "'Specially with my schedule to keep up with."

"And when we do, that eight hours isn't necessarily all sleep." Sarah grinned, tracing lazy patterns on his back with her fingers. "That's just the price we pay," she sighed dramatically.

With a groan, Forge reached for one of the couch pillows, pretending to dramatically smother himself. "I obviously picked the wrong line of work," he muttered from under the pillow. "Security doesn't give nearly as many cool perks."

Angelo laughed, in what might be considered a remarkable display of non-jealousy for someone who didn't know he and Sarah weren't actually dating. "Oh, I dunno. I bet it could, in the right circumstances."

"Security can be hot. A good fight can make anybody look good." She nodded reassuringly from behind Angelo. "Well, at least for me. I'm just weird."

"So that's it," Forge contemplated. "I'd always just thought the rule was 'show up with an accent, have the women throw themselves at your feet'. But anyway, since no one seems to be sleeping, anyone up for a movie? Kyle tells me..." he shuffled through the stack of DVDs on the end table. "Fight Club's supposed to be good. Huh. Never heard of it."

Angelo twisted to look over his shoulder at Sarah, grinning. "Sounds like a good choice, I think, if you want. I never can get back to sleep after the dreams."

"Oh Fight Club. One of the best reasons for not still living in the sewers." Tugging on Angelo's hand, she headed towards the television. "I think we're in."

Comments

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Kyle says that if he'd known Forge had never heard of it, he'd have fixed that a long time ago. But at least now Forge will get all Kyle's jokes about wondering if Jim is really Tyler Durden, the way he sometimes acts totally like two different people.

[x-legion.livejournal.com]

As if. The dork only wishes one of him had abs that spectacular. Seriously, if you were gonna go to the trouble of formulating elaborate alternate personalities you might as well make one of them look like Brad Pitt.