Work Text:
Hagman jolted awake into the gloom of his bedroom. The curtains hung black in the darkness as he stared at them, willing the images of death and blood behind his eyes to fade back into the depths of his imagination. But the bare wall did not hold his attention and his mind kept fixating on the nightmare. His nightstand was no more interesting, only holding a clock, digital digits bright in the darkness, his phone and a pair of headphones, the cable tangled as usual.
He rolled over.
The night light glowing softly from the hallway through the cracked open door cast shadows across the bed covers, changing the fabric into a landscape of hills and valleys. By the same light he could see the slumbering face of his partner, relaxed in sleep and half buried into the rumpled pillow. A crease had been imprinted across the upturned cheek.
Harris seemed to sense the observation and he shifted, rubbing the side of his nose on the pillow and cracking open one eye.
“Dan?” he murmured, sounding mostly asleep. “You ok?”
“Yeah. Just a bad dream. Go back to sleep.” Harris unburied his face from the pillow to look at him better with both half lidded eyes.
“Need to talk?”
“No. Just seeing you laying there safe and well is all the therapy I need.” Harris relaxed, sinking back into the pillow that seemed to be swallowing half his head.
“Promise?” He sounded like a small child, not the half-asleep grown man he was. Dan smiled.
“Aye, lad. I promise.”
Harris extended one hand, searching between the sheets. Dan grabbed it with one of his own, intertwining their fingers.
Harris smiled, closing his eyes and sinking back into sleep. Dan watched him, feeling the weight of the other man’s fingers between his own, grounding him and soothing away the images that lingered in his mind’s eye.
Who knew that their moment of shared near-death could lead to this. Dan wasn’t sure that he could have imagined, back on the morning of that fateful day, that he could ever be this happy. Sure, they’d had more than their fair share of terror, anxiety and hopelessness, but they had also had joy, hope and moments of peace like this.
Shutting his eyes he remembered the good times and quickly rejoined his partner in slumber once more.