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It took Stelle a very long time to get Dan Heng to sleep in the same room as her, let alone in the same bed.
Firstly, Dan Heng barely ever slept. He was always working on sorting the archives and adding new data in. Stelle couldn’t even fit the amount of times she’s fallen asleep while he’s busy pulling an all-nighter on her fingers.
Secondly, and finally; Dan Heng adamantly refused to sleep in Stelle’s room. She had brought up the idea because she’d thought that maybe the state of his bed was what was keeping him from sleeping with her. But as it turns out, that was not the issue at all.
Stelle could only thank the Aeons that she had finally managed to coax Dan Heng to bed with her. He’d been completely exhausted and overworked (out of his own volition) when she had woken up in the middle of the night and checked up on him. She was so thankful when he didn’t protest or complain when she got into the other side of his bed. Dan Heng had managed to fall asleep without putting up a fight, and seeing the peaceful expression on his sleeping face made Stelle so very happy.
It was all going very well, until it wasn’t. When Stelle had been rudely awoken from her boyfriend’s head colliding with hers. She whined in pain and blinked the sleepiness out of her eyes, getting ready to ask him what the hell that was for.
She quickly realised the problem though. His peaceful expression that made her heart throb before she’d gone to sleep was now replaced with a distressed one, as beads of sweat rolled down his scrunched up face. His body tossed and turned continuously as his breath got heavy.
Stelle put together the pieces, realising exactly the reason why Dan Heng refused to sleep in the same room as her; He didn’t want to bother her with his nightmares.
It wasn’t like Stelle didn’t know about them. The two of them had discussed their nightmares before, so she wasn’t exactly sure why he’d want to avoid her from seeing him experience one in action.
Stelle runs her hand through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp at times, as well as wiping off the sweat on his forehead. She does all this cautiously so she doesn’t wake him up. But she hopes her touch can bring him a little bit of comfort, even if he is asleep.
She does this for a few more minutes, until his eyes snap open and he jolts up. Dan Heng pants heavily, becoming less disoriented from his nightmare with each breath. Stelle rubs his back until he finally calms down.
When he does finally calm down, he turns his head to look at her with a guilty expression on his face.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you…”
Dan Heng says quietly, refusing to meet her eyes. Stelle smiles softly and wraps her arms around his shoulders, pressing her forehead against his.
“You don’t have to apologise for anything. I’m not bothered.” Stelle replies, placing a brief kiss onto his nose before dragging him backwards to lay back in bed.
He clings to her, burying his face into her chest while she starts playing with his hair again. They stay like that in a comfortable silence for a while. Until Stelle finally breaks the silence with a question.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She asks, her voice soft and quiet. She knows what his nightmares are usually like, the ones containing Blade that scare him shitless.
Dan Heng doesn’t reply for a moment, almost making Stelle think that he’d fallen asleep on her.
“No, I’d rather not if that’s okay.” He finally answers.
Stelle smiles and presses a kiss onto his head, squeezing him lightly in her embrace.
“Alright then. Sleep well.”
And that’s exactly what Dan Heng does.